White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Early Spring. Happy Hour.
The sounds of laughter and good times surfed on the yellow light streaming from every window and crevice in the little bar called The Brauhaus. Spring was close enough to feel in Minnesota and the last dusting of snow was laying on the cars in the parking lot, on the ground, and the trees that stood sulking in the cold moonlight ready to burst into blooms and leaves.
The door creaked open and the jukebox sound washed out into the parking lot. Yellow light spilled onto the snow covering the ground and the hood of a black Humvee. A small woman stepped out, giggling as she walked through the snow. Her red hair tinged brown in the yellow light blackened in the silver moonlight from above the bar
Her feet crunched in the snow as she walked to the Humvee, opened the driver's door and grabbed a black iPod from inside.
When the black door clicked shut and she turned to go back inside, the broad smile on her face went slack and her blood ran cold.
"Hello Anna." A deep voice said.
His coal colored skin was silhouetted against the light, as was his black suit. But, the white shirt was electric in the moonlight.
"Uriel?" She asked, her voice catching in her throat. "How did you..."
Uriel took a step toward her, crunching the layer of snow beneath his feet.
Still grasping the iPod in one hand, she drew the other hand up to her chest and took a step back glancing around her.
The door to the bar creaked and the guitar riffs the jukebox blared spilled out on the lot again, drowning the creak of snow under his feet as he took another step toward her.
Anna swallowed hard. Her mouth was suddenly dry and sticky.
The door swung shut with a slam, trapping the music and light inside again.
The snow crunched behind Uriel.
The neutral expression he'd given Anna soured into a grimace when he turned to see the two men standing there.
One, a pale man in black pants and shirt and snow covered combat boots, and the other a dark skinned thin man with floor length braided dark hair in purple grease-stained mechanic's coveralls and a pair of very nice sunglasses.
The man in black folded his arms and stood looking at Uriel with a look of benign concern, but the darker man with the braids stood clenching his jaw, the muscle jumping under his mocha skin.
He took a sidestep to walk around the man in black.
"Easy, Sammy." He said, holding his right hand up in front of his companion.
Uriel's mouth opened as he mouthed confused words, and he took another step backward.
"Anna?" The man in black asked. "Will you take my iPod inside, please? I need to speak with Uriel."
"Sure, Thor." She said, nervous tension running through her voice.
Anna ran around Uriel, crunching in the snow back to the creaky door. She stood at the door looking back, arms crossed against the cold night.
His blue eyes never left Uriel's inky gaze, and Sammy's face had filled with a nearly psychotic contempt.
"Anna is under my protection now, Uriel." He began, unfolding his arms.
"You would interfere with God's will?" Uriel asked, glancing at Sammy again.
Thor laughed a short contemptuous laugh.
"You think you're a clever little messenger boy, don't you Uriel?" He snorted. "You think your actions here are hidden, somehow? I know what you've been up to lately."
Uriel's eyes widened.
"You lay a finger on her. You pop up in the same zip code again, and I'll turn Sammy the blind Krav Maga Master loose on you. He's been waiting a long time to get his mitts on one of you cherubs."
"You" Uriel began, the words caught in his throat "are making a big mistake."
"Well, by all means, Uriel." Thor sneered as he took a step to his left, "If you want to poke her with your little pigsticker, go ahead and try."
Anna's eyes widened as he said this and she backed up against the thumping door to the Brauhaus and pulled her arms in a little tighter to her chest.
A snowplow rumbled past, the blade noisily scraping the asphalt and pushing the shallow snowfall off the road, scattering salt behind it.
Uriel's right arm moved slightly and a shiny and meticulously engraved blade moved into his hand.
Uriel stood staring at Sammy. Sammy listened to the snow melting as the salt hit it, the snow plow receding down the road, and the vessel's heart pounding as the Angel inside began to doubt his chances.
In a lightning fast feint, he lunged at Sammy with the blade. The would be target clapped his hands together on the blade and stopped its forward momentum before it made contact with the skin of his chest.
Sammy grinned at Uriel from behind his sunglasses, but there was nothing friendly about it.
Uriel tried to pull the blade from between his hands, but the thin and bony man with the intricate braids stood still as if he were holding a yoga pose.
He opened his hands and Uriel stumbled backward a step. Sammy spoke in a very old tongue. There was no mistaking the tone of insult and indignation in his words, no matter the dead language.
Uriel laughed nervously at him. "You were simply an anomaly. You were an abomination that needed to be purged."
"Oh, that's not nice." Thor said, taking another step back to repose against his Humvee, and giving the two more room.
Sammy stepped toward Uriel in a flash, planting a hand flat on his chest before the angel could twitch. Uriel flew backward across the road, landing 100 meters into the back lot of the Exxon station across the street.
Sammy walked gingerly across the snow, but when he reached the cleared asphalt of the street that led to the gas station parking lot, he sprinted toward Uriel leaving upturned chunks of asphalt in his wake.
Uriel got to his feet hurriedly, taking a stance with his blade. Sammy bore down on him at a blinding speed, arms and legs pumping and braids swishing behind him, as Uriel cut downward with the blade.
Sammy pivoted on one foot to dodge the shiny blade as cold asphalt erupted around his boot. He grasped Uriel's wrist and jerked him downward and around, pulling him off balance and avoiding the sword entirely. Controlling the arm that held the blade, he pushed Uriel's arm upward with ease as Uriel groaned under his own efforts to resist. His other hand closed around Uriel's neck and pushed him into the asphalt with the slightest of effort, but left a deep indentation in the frosty asphalt.
A pale sinewy hand gently grabbed the hand that held Uriel's throat as Sammy's braids dangled in Uriel's face and the blind abomination muttered violently at Uriel in that same old language.
"Not now, Sam." Thor said very quietly to Sammy. "Let him go. Let his duplicity be discovered. Let his name be a curse among men and angels."
Sammy's grip on the vessel that held Uriel eased. Standing and taking a step back ward, still in the grip of a rage he could barely contain. He swore and then spat on Uriel's black suit as he continued to back away from him.
"Not bad for a blind guy, huh?" Thor said with a laugh, looking down at Uriel.
Uriel lie in his asphalt crater wide eyed and embarrased.
"Now, Uriel." Thor said matter of factly. "If you come after Anna again, you understand what will happen. You may now leave to make your mischief among angels and demons. But, I promise you, next time you're near her, you will die."
He made a quick motion across his throat with his finger.
Uriel stood. His blade slid back into his sleeve soundlessly.
"Do we understand each other?" Thor asked.
Sneering at the two who stood before him, he disappeared in a dark flutter.
Thor grinned at Anna who, by now, had walked over to them.
"You know, you should have stabbed him from behind when he turned his back on you." He said, still grinning at Anna.