Free Tartarus: Kingdom Wars II by Jack Cavanaugh

wore off quickly. He’s too exhausted to be excited.”
    Ahead of us dark clouds continued to build on the horizon. There was something about them that mesmerized me. I couldn’t stop looking at them.
    “Don’t you have thunderstorms in California?” Choni asked.

    The golden cupola of the Dome of the Rock glistened in the afternoon sun, catching my eye every time I looked up from unpacking. Abandoning the luggage, I finally gave in to the lure of the landscape. Pulling back the curtains, I slid open the door and stepped onto the balcony. The view of the old city was breathtaking. I couldn’t believe I was here in the ancient city where every street, every stone was saturated with history. If nothing else happened during the course of our stay, this moment, this view alone, was worth the trip.
    The air was warm and musky, heavy with the threat of rain. A massive thundercloud formed a backdrop to the scene with the lowering sun a singular stage light. The last time I’d seen clouds this dramatic—
    My next word caught in my throat. I swallowed hard.
    “San Diego,” I murmured. “The day the president was assassinated. Only they weren’t clouds then, but armies of angels.”
    Could it be? Was that the reason I was so captivated by these clouds? Was there something more to them? Something ordinary human beings couldn’t see?
    On the day of the assassination I had stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier Midway. Semyaza, Lucifer’s lieutenant, stood beside me. He lifted the blinders from my eyes and I saw angels. He also expressed surprise that I needed his aid to see them.
    Had the Nephilim of old been able to see angels in their natural state? It made sense that they could. What kind of sustained relationship can be had with invisible partners?
    Maybe they could do it, but could I? And if I could, how?
    Gripping the railing with both hands, I set my gaze on the clouds. Somehow I need to tap the angel within me. I lowered my head and concentrated hard on the clouds and…succeeded in giving myself a headache.
    Glancing away, I rubbed my eyes. I tried again. Same result. Eyestrain. Headache. No angels.
    But I could feel an attraction from the clouds. Call it psychic or whatever you wish, they were calling to me. No, it was stronger than that. There was force. They were pulling on me.
    That was something, wasn’t it? How many people are drawn to clouds by force? Maybe that was the extent of my angelic abilities.
    Then something came to mind. Maybe I was going about it all wrong. While I hadn’t thought of them in years, for some reason stereograms came to mind. They were a fad a few years ago. Optical illusions, they were three-dimensional objects embedded in two-dimensional prints that at first glance appeared to be nothing more than a splattering of random dots.
    People bought books with page after page of stereogram pictures. They stood in galleries staring at framed prints. Some people, no matter how hard they tried, couldn’t break past the surface dots to see the three-dimensional image within. They were encouraged to place their noses on the picture and slowly pull it away. All this to see airplanes and faces and teapots.
    Was that the key to seeing angels, too? Sticking my nose in the clouds wasn’t an option, but what if I stared past them with unfocused eyes?
    What did I have to lose?
    Turning to the clouds, I steadied myself against the railing and gazed at the eastern sky. I took a cleansing breath. Relaxed my muscles. And stood there. Not so much looking at the clouds, but through them, beyond them. I concentrated on not concentrating. I breathed deeply and tried simply to be.
    Nothing happened.
    The urge was to focus. I resisted it.
    I saw clouds. Highlights. Shadows. Movement. Billows. Cavernous depths. Angels.
    So startled was I when I saw them, they disappeared from view. Setting myself again, I forced myself to relax, fighting off my rising excitement.
    There were thousands of them and they were