Vindicated by Keary Taylor Page B

screamed as I dropped my things and fell to his side.   “Alex!”
    “Jessica,” he barely managed to breathe.   He took a gasping breath.   He squeezed my hand so tightly it actually hurt.  
    I stared horrified at his body.   It seemed to quiver, to shake and re-solidify.   “Alex, stay with me!”
    Reaching for a place inside of me, to a place that was dead and gone, a place that was more angel than human, I made a plea.   If you can hear me Cole, don’t you dare let them take him from me.
    “Don’t you dare,” I hissed aloud through clenched teeth.   Alex was too out of it to even realize I said anything.   Lifting my eyes, I said a little louder “Don’t you dare take him.   I will not let you take him from me again!”
    Shifting my body, I straddled Alex’s chest with my legs, careful not to put any pressure on his already struggling to breathe chest.   Placing my hands on the sides of his face, I forced his eyes to meet mine.
    “Alex,” I said clearly and calmly.   “You promised me that you wouldn’t let them take you before the wedding.   We’re only days away.   Don’t you dare break your promise to me.”
    “I’m…” he struggled as his eyes started to lose focus.   “I’m… trying.”
    “Try harder,” I said, hating how my words were sounding.   “I need you Alex.   You are all that I have.   I cannot lose you.   I am going to figure this out.   I will get you out of this.   I just need a little more time.”
    Alex met my eyes again, his own looking confused.   His breath caught in his throat and he suddenly made a choking sound.   Alex’s eyes rolled into the back of his head.
    “Alex!” I screamed.   “Don’t do this!   Don’t let them take you!”
    His body started to quake all the more.  
    It was then that I noticed how his skin looked just the tiniest bit tighter on his body.   His veins seemed to stand out just a fraction more.
    I swore under my breath.
    “Hang on just a few minutes longer, Alex,” I said in a panicked voice.   Gripping one of his hands tightly in mine, I lay next to him on the ground.
    It was the hardest thing I had ever had to do, to force my body to relax.   I concentrated on making my heart slow, on making my thoughts clear and relax.
    I closed my eyes and pictured the afterlife.   The stone cylinder, the council’s chairs, the stairway that surrounded.
    It didn’t take long for everything to blur and feel hazy.
    When I opened my eyes I was there.
    Not just in the Limbo blackness I had spoken to Cole in.
    This was the afterlife I had visited every night, the afterlife Jeremiah had accidently taken me back to.
    I was seated on the spiral staircase, alone.   Just slightly below me, across the cylinder, the council talked hurriedly, in angry voices.
    “We agreed to give more time,” a woman with blue eyes said defensively.   “A few months is not more time.”
    “A few months is plenty of time,” a black-eyed man hissed.   “It is more than he should have been granted.”
    “It was very generous,” a white-bearded, blue-eyed man said, his expression downfallen.
    I wanted to shout to Cole who sat with the rest of them, to somehow get his attention.   But what would happen if the full council knew I was here, an undead, non-proxy?
    Cole, I thought with everything I had.   Cole, I’m here.
    And as simple as that, Cole’s eyes shifted to the walls.   In just a fraction of a moment his eyes found mine.
    Please , I mouthed, shaking my head.   Not yet.
    Cole held my eyes for a moment longer, his expression looking as if he were debating how to resolve this.
    “Enough!” he bellowed, snapping his attention back to the council.   “More time was granted.   A week or two longer will not hurt anything.   We all know what his fate will be anyway.”
    Jeremiah glared at Cole.   “Soft,” he hissed quietly with a cold stare.
    Coiling his arm, Cole landed a hard blow to the side of the other angels head, knocking