Rae Rae flopped down in a chair and Jules sat on her mother's lap. The angel said softly:
" He has always been a bullhead. It has served him well, but it is time for him to stop doing that."
Elise looked at her and asked:
" Is Cas so important that you are willing to sacrifice yourselves for her? To get her to Alex?"
The Angel looked at the coffee table, where the ice bucket and the half-empty bottle of white wine stood. She smiled for a moment:
" Still the snob when it comes to clothes, food and drink, I see."
Elise laughed for a moment and spoke:
" His taste in wine is exceptional, yes. I could say he is a snob with his tailored suits if they did not look so damn good on him."
This made Angel laugh out loud:
" I know what you mean, girl. I told him once that those suits looked good on him. His reply was that he actually makes the suits look better when he wears them."
" As if I didn't know that since he came out of his room this morning."
And that was enough to take away the last bit of reluctance from the Angel. She made a new bottle of wine appear for Elise, some juice for Jules, and a bottle of ice-cold tequila for herself. After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Jules suddenly asked:
" Does Alex love Casiel like a daughter?"
The angel looked at her quietly and said:
" You have heard that Cas is the youngest, the baby of the family so to speak. You two are about the same age, I guess. Let me tell you a story about them and how special their bond is."
She poured herself a glass before she continued:
"When Mom and Dad created her, they were amazed. Cas was an Angel in everything, but she had no specialty. I am an angel of death, Jo comforts, Muri is the arts and Raffa is a healer. Cas came to life as a baby. All the angels created before the fall of Lucifer came into existence as adults. After the fall, 47 more angels were created; I am part of that group. We all came into existence as infants. One of these 47 is Casiel, and as mentioned, she was created as a baby. Strangely enough, there is only one other angel who came into existence as a baby, just like Cas. The first angel, Lucifer himself! If you know the Bible, well, the first few sentences are enough. And God said, let there be light; that was Alex's dad. Most of us younger angels are totally ignored in heaven. As if we were a mistake of Father and Mother who created us after the fall of Lucifer and gave us only those powers that can serve and help humanity. The archangels and elders avoid us like the plague because they have written off humanity long ago. The vast majority of our small group has nothing to contribute to the army that is ready to take on Hell. Not only have they written off humanity, they have written off us. Angels do not have the full free will that humanity enjoys. That is why figures like Michael, Uriel, and Metatron cannot understand why people would freely go against Father's commands or simply choose not to believe in His existence. Their view of humanity since they left Eden cannot be called particularly positive. They have never seen man as anything other than a mammal, at best mindless and incapable of anything. Or as vermin, as Michael and his zealots see man. For us angels, age does not matter because we are immortal, eternal. Family ties, or how we see and experience them, are therefore interchangeable. An Angel like Raphael is thousands of years old, created shortly after the fall of Alex's father, but he looks at Alex differently, even though Alex is only thirty years old. Besides Mom and Dad, it was Alex who was there for us. Without exception, one by one, our little group sees him as the older brother who has always been there for his younger siblings. The leader we so desperately need."
She refilled her glass and tipped it back before speaking again.
"Cas was just a few months old when Mom and I brought her to Earth for the first time to visit Alex. The bond between them was like a lightning strike. Cas always wanted to be with Alex in his arms. If that didn't happen fast enough, she would start screaming like a banshee until Alex picked her up. Mom and Dad couldn't be happier that the two had bonded like that and that Cas thinks of them more as Grandpa and Grandma. When she was about six, something happened that no one ever expected or thought possible. Another demonstration of Alex's immense power. Her greatest interest on Earth, fluffy animals of all kinds. It doesn't matter which ones; she loves them all. Alex gave her a specialty, something even Mom and Dad on their thrones, with the added power of the throne, couldn't do. He gave her the gift of communication, the only angel of her kind. She can communicate with all animals, not so much in words but in images and emotions, but also with certain groups of people who cannot communicate with anyone else in a normal way. Think of children with autism who cannot communicate in any way or people in a coma. I think she will be the most powerful in our group, which was created to help humanity. Because she got her gift from Alex instead of Mom and Dad. The older Cas got, the more their connection to each other was interchanged and the clearer the connection became for everyone. Only the blind, deaf, and dumb would remain ignorant of this fact. Cas is his daughter, point. Something he cannot put into words out of fear she will become a target in heaven. One of the Elders once treated her like something not worth existing. Man, was that a fucking mistake. Every angel and demon knows Alex and his temper. When he puts on his black battle gear with the red fire-breathing dragon and the balaclava with the skull, serious shit happens. He is the son of the devil, his father is the dragon, and he is ready to burn everything down until there is nothing left but scorched earth. In hell, all the demons know what will happen if someone pisses him off. When there is discontent, Lucifer always tries to make peace diplomatically first. Alex, not so much. He dresses up in black and goes hunting, setting an example not to be missed. There are several Angels in heaven who have been plastered to a wall. Only once did he have to deal with an angel who pissed him off, and the message was more than clear. They were hanging a few feet off the ground with his hand around their necks. The first time he did this, he asked the Angel if he knew why he preferred Coke bottles to cans. It's because unscrewing the cap reminds him of how much he'd like to unscrew their heads from their necks. Slowly, just for the fun of it. This Elder will not make the mistake of treating Cas that way again. Because he no longer exists. Cas disappeared from Heaven right into Alex's arms, crying badly. She was practically hysterical. That's how hard this Elder had been on her. She told Alex what had happened. He summoned me to appear immediately. Believe me, when the Prince is really pissed, it's not a good idea to hesitate for a second. I had to keep an eye on Cas until he returned. He made that snap of his fingers and suddenly had his battle gear on. If anyone hurt Cas or anyone he loved, it was going to be bad. Later I heard what happened in heaven. He appeared in the throne room, something no angel can do. Without hesitation or a second thought, he manifested Hellfire and erased that particular Angel from existence. He came very close that day, but he would have burned all of heaven to ashes. Then he went to find Michael because his order to leave Casiel alone had been violated. Michael is the highest-ranking Angel in Heaven and therefore, according to Alex, is responsible for everyone, absolutely every angel, leaving Cas alone. Angels are immortal and invulnerable except to supernatural weapons used in war. We cannot die. If we get wounded, during combat training, for example, we recover in a few hours at most. Alex proved this very, very wrong. When he gets his hands on an Angel, he doesn't need a weapon or Hellfire. He was on the verge of beating Michael to death with his bare hands if not for Mom's intervention. He really wanted to kill Michael and take his soul with him to the lowest level of hell. If he had not listened, to Mom, there was nothing and no one that could have stopped him, including Father. Michael hates him as much as he hates Lucifer. But after the beating of his existence; everything with him is focused on destroying Alex. Michael wants the apocalypse, no matter what. According to him, it's the only way to get both father and son out of the way. And that tells you all you need to know about the incredible power and infinite love that lie within Alexander. He would do absolutely anything for those he loves."