Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)

Dana opened her mouth.

“Shhhh. Just listen. Just be. Let me see what I can see and share what is open for me to share.” Corinda slowed and deepened her kneading motions. “My aura is blue. My gift is that of being a spiritual intuitive and clairvoyant. That’s why I can see all the way into you. I can see spikes of yellow shooting off you, Dana. They’re like solar flares. Yellow means that you are on the verge of a great spiritual awakening, and there is a circle of violet above your head, over your crown chakra. It tells me that your higher self has become very active. Your inner eye is struggling to open. Let it! Let your third eye see what your human eyes cannot. I’ll help you, Dana, because I already see. My third eye has been open since before I was born.”

Dana felt herself drifting to the edge of sleep. She tried to blink herself fully awake, but that warm, constant touch was so soothing.

“These visions aren’t new to you. You’ve had them before, but now they’re getting stronger—now they’re happening more often, and that’s scary. You saw something and you don’t know if it’s an angel or a devil. You don’t know why you’re having those visions, and you’re afraid of what it is you’re seeing. It’s okay, though. Let me be your guide. Nothing can hurt you while we’re together. I have my shields, my spirit guides and protectors all around me. This is a safe place.”

“Safe…,” murmured Dana.

“The being who has been visiting you in your dreams is an angel, Dana,” said Corinda. “He is a messenger who wants very badly to share important information with you. Nod if you understand that.”

Dana nodded. She believed that, too.

“Sometimes he is beautiful, the way you think an angel should look. Pure, whole, filled with glory.”

Another nod.

“But sometimes he appears as something else. Darker, stranger, frightening. A monster.”

“Yes,” said Dana very, very softly.

“Yes,” agreed Corinda. “I will tell you why, little sister. The being that is manifesting to you is an angelic being, but it is not an angel as you have been taught to think of one. They are not tall, blond white men with fluffy wings. They are not little babies. Angels are very powerful and very different from anything you can imagine. They are not human. They only appear human when we humans give them that form. They have no physical manifestations at all. They’re beings of pure cosmic energy. But when you look at them with your human eyes—even when dreaming—then your human, organic mind becomes confused and demands that you clothe them in a way that makes sense. That’s why angels have been depicted as beautiful and regal humans. It’s why painters have created images of God as a man with a white beard. They are clothing the cosmic All in the shape of a king, because that’s how they imagine kings to look.”

Dana kept nodding.

“You chose a form for the angel that looks beautiful and serene and safe,” continued Corinda. “It’s a father figure. I know you love and respect your father, but you’re also a little afraid of him. He’s strong and stern and distant, and so your angel appears to you with all those qualities. You give your angel a different face, though, because you want to love him in ways that you can’t love your own father, and that’s good—that’s safe and healthy. But it is you who are choosing that form.”

Corinda’s words soothed as much as her touch, and Dana felt herself drifting, as if rising above her body. She even imagined she could look down and see herself sitting across from the woman.

“Then the deaths started happening in town,” said Corinda. “Horrible deaths. Lives stolen away. Murders. That offends the harmony of your spiritual nature, Dana, and because you’re a sensitive, you have tapped into the negativity that is in the very air. But because you’re not yet aware of your gifts, not in full control of them, the negativity clouds your eye. It influences the way in which you perceive the celestial beings in your spirit-space. As the negativity covers you, you change the way in which you choose to view the angelic being. You see it as the devil, as Satan, because you cannot understand why harm can come to the innocent in the presence of cosmic power. For that to happen, it must be the angelic beings themselves that are doing the harm. But Dana … listen to me, this is not true. It isn’t the angelic entity that is causing all of this. That’s not what they do. The angelic beings are here as guides—they’re here to protect us and elevate us.”