Angel in Training (The Louisiangel Series, Book One) by C. L. Coffey Page B

“Touché,” she nodded,
raising her glass. “But for the record, the girls are supposed to
stick together.”
    “I thought I had,” I responded, batting my
eyelashes.
    “Creep!” Veronica exclaimed loudly with mock
disgust as Cupid high-fived me.
    “Joking aside,” Cupid quickly cut in. “There
are three tiers in the hierarchy. They’re called Choirs, and no,
before you ask, there’s no singing involved. Only the Third Choir,
the lowest tier, are allowed to walk the earth.”
    Veronica coughed loudly and pointed at
herself.
    Cupid rolled his eyes. “The exception is the
Cherubim, but I will get to them in a bit,” he informed me, giving
Veronica a pointed look.
    “Thank you,” she mouthed at him.
    “The Angels, as you rightly pointed out, are
the lowest ranking. Angels are the messengers and to be honest,
they can’t be trusted to do anything else, but at least they do
that well.”
    Veronica snorted. “Well is such a strong
term.”
    “Next up, you have the Archangels,” Cupid
continued, a little forcefully. “There are currently eight of us.
Me, obviously. Michael, obviously. And the others I would hope you
have heard of are Gabriel – he’s in Rome. Raphael is in Dublin, and
Uriel is in Seoul. Then there’s also Remiell in Baghdad, Raguel in
Sydney and Sariel in Buenos Aires.”
    “How come there are two archangels in New
Orleans?” I asked him. “How come you don’t have your own
House?”
    Cupid shrugged. “Aside from the fact I simply
don’t want to be one, I’m not a Principality.”
    “Neither is Sariel,” Veronica pointed out.
“But then again,” she added, seeing Cupid’s expression. “He wanted
his own House.”
    “Hang on a minute,” I frowned. “An Archangel
is also a Principality?” This was supposed to be helping me, but if
I’m honest, it was making my brain hurt.
    “In a sense, yes,” Cupid nodded. “The third
rank on earth, and the highest, excluding the Cherubim,” he added,
rolling his eyes at Veronica, who was clearly ready to say
something. “That spot goes to the Principalities. If Angels are the
messengers, Archangels are the guardians, well, the Principalities
are more like the management system.”
    “A management system,” I repeated, dryly.
“You’re telling me there’s a corporate system in Heaven?”
    Cupid shrugged. “Pretty much. To be honest,
it gets really confusing the higher up you go. Angels can only be
angels, but take someone like Michael – he’s also a Principality, a
Virtue and a Seraph.”
    I closed my eyes and rubbed at the bridge of
my nose. “What?” I asked, hopelessly.
    “Okay, in short,” Veronica cut in. “Think of
it like this. The First Choir is the highest ranking and is made up
of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. Seraphim are the only ones who
can talk directly to God. Think of them as his body guards.
Nobody’s getting through them. They talk to the Cherubim-”
    “Well, they did,” Cupid interrupted her.
    Veronica swiped at his arm. “You’re over
complicating things too soon,” she chided him. She turned back to
me. “Think of the Cherubim as the personal assistants. We run the
diary and we are the best minute takers you’re going to get. From
here, we communicate with the Thrones who are effectively human
resources.”
    I wrinkled my nose up, but nodded. In some
weird way, this was making sense.
    “So the first tier, they’re like the
upper-management. Next up, the second tier, the Second Choir,
they’re the middle-management. You have the Dominations, the
Virtues and the Powers,” Veronica frowned thoughtfully, playing
with her straw. “I guess the Dominations are general managers. They
make sure the orders from the first Choir are passed on to the
third Choir. In short, like all middle management, their job is to
delegate. Virtues are the PR people. They’re the ones who deal out
the miracles, even though most of the time it’s the Angels that get
the credit. Powers are the security. They make