Chapter 1

Utah County Road, 1896 December 15

I'm Angel Adams and I'm just a go-between guy in these parts minding my own business but these days it seems like everyone wants to spit on your lawn. Let me make this clear, I'm no hero and I'm not your friend.

I've got a big delivery to make and if I don't get there fast, I don't get paid. I drive across the highway with five milligrams of sugar in the truck.

Delivering stuff isn't the kind of job I dreamed of but as long as it puts food on the table I don't complain, I drive down the block and I see a couple scampering across the road.

I step on the break and these two knuckleheads start complaining about being reckless and preoccupied, the man goes into a rage and starts slamming the bumper of the truck. I jump down and walk around the truck to face him, the man comes at me like a torpedo and I duck out of the way hitting his girlfriend by accident.

The girl starts crying and I get beat up till the police arrive to suspend me for assault, I start complaining because I have to leave my vehicle behind_oh I'm sorry, the company's vehicle is behind. I ask the cop to spare me this bullshit but all I get is a jab to the face.

The next day I leave the slammer with a bruise on my nugget and what I see pushed my buttons, the truck is open and all the sugar is missing, there's a spray-on the front.

JACKASS, FUCKFACE

I wonder what a couple of idiots are going to do with 5 whole milligrams of sugar, smoke on them? Okay, I'm going to have to rethink this because it's unmistakable that I just lost my job and I'm going back to the penitentiary.

My boss Harold Stinson happens to be a short-fused bonehead and I get my ass handed to me and get tossed out of the building.

"Get out, I don't wanna see your ugly ass around here"

I drop the keys and swagger my way out of the institution, I got lucky but I still had a heap of parking tickets and a prison record, no job, and collateral for the last trucks that I destroyed.

I'm a pushover, I get beat up all the time for the way I dress, people call me names and talk trash about me but here's the thing, I get even.

I see the same couple again down the freeway, downtown, it was dark and shit, I'm angry and all and this guy pulls a middle finger on me to push my buttons, I even got a restraining order and I scream "Want a piece uh this homie?" I swagger and I back away to keep my distance, the man steps into the limelight and gets shot and the girl's screaming her head off.

I don't know where the bullets are coming from but they got the girl too and she's lying in her pool of blood.

If you know me, I ain't no daredevil, this guy comes into the light and I raise my hands bidding to live, what set me on edge was this douche had no face.

He chuckles at me and takes off his mask and I'm looking the devil in the eye.

"What's your name kid?"

"Angel"

I'm shaking and I'm sure I needed a new pair of pants, I'm kneeling when I hear the gun cock with his finger on the trigger.

"Well Angel, say your last prayers"

"Don't kill me, what'd you want from me, I'm just a guy struggling to survive, what'd you hope to accomplish, I got nothing on me!"

The gun goes off and I'm screaming as there's a bullet hole in my chest, I'm going blind but I see the face of the guy, I'm sure he was grinning.

I see a light which I'm 99 percent sure was the streetlight, this is it, I'm dying, I got nothing to lose, I'm going to take it, I'm afraid but I sure as hell love this because I don't have to see those grimy faces again.

I turn to the girl on this floor with blood dripping down her ears to her nostril and her eyes are open. Sick

My ears are ringing and I hear the dreidel song and jingle bells and tinsel sizzling I'm not sure this is what's supposed to happen when you die, it's supposed to be a void sucking you in.

I'm stiff as a cane and I'm screaming at the holding the environment has on me like something's pulling me from different sides, the Dreidel song gets more intense and for a time it stops.

I stand up, heart racing and breathing, I'm touching my chest, no blood, no nothing. The place is empty, no cars, no people, just a guy in white togs, I shield my face at his countenance.

"Whoa whoa"

Time stops and it's super quiet, the guy's light still blinding.

"What the fuck are you supposed to be?"

"Too much?"

The light stops exploding in my eye and I'm still touching the spot I got shot in

"I'm alive"

The specter shakes his head at me, his togs changing into a regular cotton blue shirt and jeans.

"No, Angel, you're not"

The specter got me laughing and all this crap about the afterlife was starting to get to me.

"How do you know my name?"

He puts out a paper to me with my full name written in cursive and shit, I look closer to the rubric that said.

Supernatural Agency of Patrons

"SAP? This a hoax or something? I'm supposed to be deceased alright? I got shot in the chest, right here"

I was losing it, I walk around and no one's there, and the jerkwad who shot me was still alive.

"What'd you want?"

"You've got a lot ahead of you, Angel" He smiles at me like I'm the real sap and I start to feel fuzzy and my leather jacket and vest were starting to get a little tight, something covers my eyes and my shirt rips off and I scream at the branches that come out of my back.

My muscles feel like jelly the first and the next they're taut, I feel electricity running through my veins to my fingers.

"I got wings?"