52Heaven is a half pipe? Well, there ARE skate parks here, but I don't frequent them. Pureblood angels and Crossover demons tend to hang in those places, and my kind isn't accepted by most of either.
What I am is a Halfer. My mother is Sephinre, a demoness who switched her allegiance from Hell to Heaven during the Great War. My father was Aithenon. Was. Past tense. Angels are immortal in a sense, yes, but there are instances when they can be destroyed. Aithenon was a great warrior, but when he engaged the Lords of Chaos in battle, he was Negated.
So there you have it. Sephinre came to Heaven, met Aithenon, and created Me. Nerilnine. I live in the outskirts of Heaven with a few of the lesser- known Saints, a couple other Halfers, and a Crossover demon or two. Not exactly the slums, but certainly not high-class living.
My roommate is a Crossover demoness named Daeri. She's pretty cool, but has a tendency to steal my clothes. I'm going to tie her tail into a knot while she sleeps one of these days, see if I don't!
So there's my past in a nutshell. A walnut shell to be precise. I don't particularly like peanuts. Moving back to my story.
I really thought that being a Guardian Angel would be an awesome job. You work with the best equipment that the Techs can come up with and the dental is great. Sephinre encouraged me, saying that my talent for making things grow would be an amazing benefit, and that my connections to Valhalla would allow me to find a position almost instantly. She was right about that.
Nobody mentioned the constant wingwork involved! I must have amazing back and shoulder muscles by now, with all the flying I have to do. Because of my demonic ancestry, I have weird leathery skin and extremely powerful flight muscles underneath the greenish-white, black-tipped feathers. This made me into Messenger Girl between the department heads and Gabriel, the Almighty's Chief Executive.
It all paid off. The message the Almighty had sent me was written in the clipped, terse style of most memos in the Heavenly Bureaucracy, and basically told me that I needed to get my spinal extension to the briefing room for a meeting with a major VIP.
When I got there, there were only two people in the large room. One was Gabriel, wearing his traditional business attire, a black pinstriped suit with an insanely colorful tie. The other I didn't recognize at first. He was dressed more for the weather outside, jeans and a T-Shirt with a large yellow smiley-face that declared in bold black letters: "Have a nice day!" He had long brown hair, the kind that you just want to play with, and his beard was neatly trimmed.
Perhaps it was the clean hair and the unexpectedly casual clothing that caused me to not recognize Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty Father when I first saw him.
I'll spare you all the things I babbled to the Son next, all sorts of things about being honored and never thinking I'd get to see His face for real and true. He just laughed and shook my hand. The Bible never really tells you how friendly His smile is.
Gabriel, used to the appearance of Christ by now, interrupted my brief burst of hero-worship.
"Nerilnine, we have an important assignment for you." Gabe's striking blue eyes stared into mine, as if trying to detect any semblance of fear within me.
I made sure he found none. "I gathered that, sir. What is it?"
Jesus leaned forwards slightly. "It's a pretty big task, Nerilnine. I trust my Father's judgment when He picked you, but do you think you're up for it?"
"When I find out what it is, I'm sure I'll be able to determine that."
This answer seemed to satisfy both Gabe and the Son. Gabriel threw down a folder in front of me. "You've been tracking this one for a while, correct? A demon named Aeldrin."
I checked the pictures. "Yeah, this is him. One of the five Demon Lords who refused to fight for the Darkness or for the Almighty. He's been a bug in our system for a while, because we're not sure whether to list him as a Lost Soul or not." I frowned. "I was his designated Guardian for a while, but they took him off my list a few years back."
"We're putting him back on." Jesus rubbed His eyes. "There are certain things we don't want him to mess up, as he's aligned himself with Chaos."
"I can't control him without permission from the Weird Sisters, you of all people should know that. They won't bend to even a Divine Mandate."
"Not from here, you can't." A slightly sadistic grin appeared on Gabriel's face. He can smell fear, and I SWEAR he gets off on it. "We're going to send you to Earth. Aeldrin will be there in human form, masquerading as the avatar for Loki."
I stared at him, and for a moment forgot that the Son was in the room. "You son of a bitch, Gabe." I glanced towards Him, who really didn't seem surprised.
"Hey, you wanted a promotion."
"Not to Active Duty!"
"Too late. You leave tomorrow. Get packing, and don't take this out on Carlin, he's got enough to worry about."
"You know me too well." I bowed, extending my wings formally to honor the Son and the CEO of Heaven Inc. I then turned on my heel and stalked out of the room, my tail wrapped around one leg like a venomous snake.
Aeldrin.
Now that my mission was official, it was time to say the first REAL words:
"HOLY LIVING F*CK!"