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 in the past, 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 Jon?"
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 and 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 Jon love Casiel like a daughter?"
The angel looked at her gently 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, Jophiel comforts; Muriel is the arts, and Raphael 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 light was Jon'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. To them, it is a failed experiment that should be wiped out of existence together with all the demons and Lucifer. 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, but they have also written off us. Angels do not have the full free will that humanity enjoys. That is why figures like Michael, Uriel, and Sandalphon 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 Jon's father, but he looks at Jon differently, even though Jon is only thirty years old. Besides Mom and Dad, it was Jon 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. Ever since it became clear to us that he had absolutely no desire to become the literal Antichrist, we have come to see him as 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 Jon. The bond between them was like a lightning strike. Cas always wanted to be with Jon, in his arms. If that didn't happen fast enough, she would start screaming like a banshee until Jon 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 Jon's immense power. Her greatest interest on Earth, fluffy animals of all kinds. It doesn't matter which ones; she loves them all. Jon 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 Jon 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 for 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 Jon 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 in the lower circles of Hell, Lucifer always tries to make peace diplomatically first. Jon, 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. He only had to deal with an Angel who pissed him off once; they never forget, and his message was more than clear. They were hanging a few feet off the ground with his hand around their throats. 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, very slowly, just for the fun of it. This Elder that treated Cas so badly will not make the mistake of treating Cas that way ever again. Simply because he no longer exists. Cas disappeared from Heaven right into Jon's arms, crying badly. She was practically hysterical; that's how hard this Elder had been on her. She told Jon 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 is going to be bad. Later I heard what happened in Heaven. He appeared in the throne room, something no Angel can do. We cannot translocate directly into the throne room. Only three people can: Father, Mother, and Jon. 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. He was that pissed. After he took out that Elder 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 Jon, 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. Jon 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 Jon. 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 lies within Jonathan. He would do absolutely anything for those he loves."