Chapter 47: The Past Lives of Alex...

"I believe I saw a vampire enter," observed a voice coming from over Rachel's shoulder.

The angel sat on a rooftop overlooking the party, her legs gathered up against her chest with her arms around them. "Yeah. Saw 'im."

"You are not concerned?" Hannah asked.

"Short bus kids of the supernatural," Rachel snorted. "If Alex can't handle one of them on his own, let alone Lorelei, then I've totally misjudged this whole situation and I'll spend the next hundred years apologizing to everyone."

The older angel smiled at Rachel fondly before taking a seat beside her. "You are not prone to making apologies."

"Nope." Rachel shrugged.

"Yet you've always been proactive. I'm surprised you don't go deal with him anyway."

"I want them to have this weekend together. You saw them in the backyard just now, didn't you?" Rachel's tone was wistful. "They're beautiful. I've been watching them constantly since last night. They're so beautiful together."

"Yet you sound sad. Are you bothered by this morning?"

"No," Rachel shook her head. "Michael wasn't really that mad. You're not mad. Everyone else can eat me."

"Then why the tone?"

At length, Rachel sighed. "I think I'm gonna get fired, Hannah."

Hannah was silent for a long moment, watching the house with Rachel as other guests arrived. "You are falling in love with him?"

"Sure seems like," Rachel nodded. "More and more every day. I don't want to just watch over him. I want to be with him." She fell quiet, and then added as a confession, "Them."

"That would be a massive scandal," Hannah mused dryly.

Rachel shrugged. "I hated her at first, but she's not what she was. Now I look at her and I see how much she's changed. I feel like I can honestly see why he loves her so much, and it's not just because he's young and dazzled. She may be a trashy demon slut," Rachel said with a wry grin, "but she's also becoming something really wonderful."

"You believe they would both accept you?"

"I know they would. And whatever the Hosts think or say about it..."

Hannah laughed ruefully. "You've never been one to care what others say, either. Now more than ever. But you are also not unaffected by the mortal magics that struck you at the start of all this, and that is known. Your situation is unique. I don't think that your censure would be as bad as the sort that has arisen before."

She reached out to put her arm around the other angel. Rachel allowed it, leaning in to let her head fall on her mentor's shoulder. "I hope you know that whatever you choose, I will be here for you should you need counsel, or just an open ear."

"I need to know what you know, Hannah," Rachel said in a soft voice. "Tell me what you meant in the church yesterday."

Hannah sighed. "That Alex has been here before? That's by no means unusual. So many souls come back again and again. He's no more or less special than others in that regard. It's just what he does with the lives that he has had is... well... it's rather painful."

"How do you know?"

The older angel's face darkened with a bit of sadness. "I served as his guardian once, a long time ago." Rachel's head came up, and she looked at Hannah with curiosity.

"You did? But you're not a guardian."

"Oh, maybe not as a full dedication of my time, but I've always kept my hand in it," Hannah shrugged. She didn't look back at Rachel, and instead looked up at the moon. It was awhile before she finally spoke again.

"He wasn't anyone terribly special. Just another young Greek farmer. There was a girl he loved, married to an older, much wealthier man who treated her terribly. These days, in this nation, her husband would be imprisoned. Alex... my Alex... he helped her from afar as best he could, but he had no claim on her. Not until the young woman's husband died of a... mysterious fall down a hillside. There was just enough of a stigma to her after all she'd been put through that no more competitive proposal than his was made to her father. They were very much in love," Hannah mused. She laughed a bit. "He foreswore the pleasures of all other women and men for her. It was a different place and time, and another life."

"What happened?"

"A scant few days later, he stood with men of his city on a hilltop at a place called Marathon. He argued, along with others, to attack the much, much larger invading Persian force before them right away, while it was still assembling on the beach, without waiting for Spartan reinforcements.

"He was persuasive. Not so eloquent as Miltiades and the other leaders, but his words held weight. They valued that in those days, you know. Public speaking. Men valued generosity and honor, self-control and respect for women and elders, but above all they cared about persuasiveness and skill in battle. By the grace of Heaven, he had it all."

Rachel just watched and listened in silence as Hannah stared at the moon. "The next morning," Hannah said, "the Athenians and their Plataean allies charged and routed the Persian army. I protected him as much as I could, but in battles, men die. He was brave and effective, and so very good with that spear, but... before it was all over, he had put himself in front of a mortal blow from a spear that was meant for the man at his side. History remembers that man by the name of Aeschylus.

"He and his new wife never had a chance to make love even once," Hannah added quietly. Rachel looked on in silence, and eventually, Hannah spoke again.

"I have since made some... inquiries. Things one is not supposed to ask about. Your influence at work, I'm sure." Hannah smiled a bit, but the smile soon faded. "He has gotten right back into the queue, as it were, every time. No time was ever spent in Heaven to rest or reflect. He just gets right back in line for his next chance to reincarnate. He hasn't had as many lives as many others, but... his lifetimes have never been long. And despite his virtues, he has somehow always been terribly unlucky in love. He has always touched other lives with his benevolence, with his courage. Always on the side of the angels, as they say. But he has always died young. Sometimes in war, sometimes not... but always by the sword."

"Not this time," Rachel said with an equally quiet but determined voice.

Hannah smiled sadly. "Perhaps not," she conceded. "Certainly he has protectors, and he isn't helpless. Lorelei's hold over him precludes so many possible deaths. Not to mention, she will keep him young and virile to a truly unfair age for a mortal. Your own influence may even be a multiplier to that. But, he has always died young," she said again, "and always by the sword."

She turned to look Rachel in the eye. "The Archangel Michael asked me today, while you were off bickering with Vincent again, why this situation should be allowed to continue. I told him that at this point, I feel we owe it to Alex. I only hope, for his sake -- and yours -- that he finally has the long life full of love that he has always deserved. But even I do not know how to break such a pattern as I have seen. Michael thought he should be destroyed before he could ruin the delicate balance between Heaven and the Pit."

Hannah extended her hand out to cover Rachel's. "I don't want to see you left with a broken heart because you have fallen in love with a mortal doomed to a tragically short life. I had hoped to protect you from such a vulnerability."

A tear had formed in Rachel's eye. "I think it's too late for that," she admitted.