Article - The Angels of the Her Angel Romance Series

When I set out to write the Her Angel romance series, I knew that I wanted to write about angels who were still working for a higher power, and that most of them would reside in Heaven, and some of them have turned and joined Hell. I didn’t want to write your typical fallen angel stories. I wanted that added complication of them being still in active service. I feel it adds to a story and gives it a unique twist that other angel romances lack, and also gives it a dash of the forbidden, which I love to write in a story.

Because my angels are still working for the man, I had to think a lot about how they would work and what Heaven would be like. I considered that there would be angels who did different duties and eventually formed several divisions of angel, and decided that each of those divisions would be identified by their appearance. All angels wear armour under normal circumstances. They have a short breastplate and back plate covering their upper torso, and vambraces that cover from their wrist to elbow, as well as greaves that protect their shins and also their boots. Around their hips they wear a loincloth and an armoured skirt type affair, a little like Roman soldiers. The armour of each division is a different colour, as are their wings.

In the Her Angel series, there are four main divisions of angel serving in Heaven. The angels of death all wear black armour with gold edging and detailing, and have beautiful black wings. The angels responsible for intervention and mediating, sort of like what we think of as a regular angel, all have white armour with gold detailing, and white wings, and often use white and gold spears as their weapons of choice. The hunter angels, those responsible for tracking demons and killing them, have tawny wings and brown armour with dull gold detailing, and prefer swords. And finally, the guardian angels have blue armour with silver detailing, and silver-blue wings, and often use spears to fight with too.

Each division has different responsibilities, although all of them are obvious from their division titles, with the exception of the guardians. They do more than just guard. The guardians are split into subdivisions of those who watch over mortals, those who guard Heaven against intruders and act as wardens in the containment facility where demons are kept for questioning, and those who escort mortal souls through Heaven or to Hell on death. Marcus in Her Guardian Angel was the sort of guardian who did many duties, including helping out the other divisions when they were short on staff, and shepherding souls, and then ended up watching over mortals when he lost his wings to a curse, which is how he ends up being Amelia’s guardian angel.

The angels all have different abilities too, although they all share certain common skills such as being able to cast a glamour on themselves to hide their wings and change their appearance to mortal eyes so we don’t see them as angels, and making themselves invisible to mortal eyes during flight, or materialising their weapons and armour from thin air, or making objects appear or disappear in the same fashion. They are all very powerful and otherworldly beings, although some are far more powerful than others, and that all depends on how old the angel in question is.

Age doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing to them as it does to us though. Age to an angel is about the time of their creation, not about when they were last reborn. There are the original angels, and those are the most powerful, and then the other leagues of angels who were created over the centuries after them. Angels can die but they’re reincarnated back into Heaven in their usual physical appearance, always looking the same age and same hair colour, eye colour, etc as before. The only thing that can change about them is their division. Sometimes angels are born into a different division, so they have different wing colour and a different role from before. This isn’t normally a problem because an angel forgets everything about their past life upon rebirth, and learns everything from scratch again, essentially living a whole new life. There are some exceptions though. Apollyon, from my story Her Dark Angel and who also appears and plays a major role in Her Fallen Angel and Her Guardian Angel too, is one of the oldest angels in existence and is forever reborn into the role of angel of death.

Of course, there are also fallen angels, and then there are fallen angels who have gone one step further and have pledged themselves to the Devil. The angels who serve the Devil have a dual appearance. While they often appear like their Heavenly counterparts, human in appearance with the exception of their scarlet wings, they have a more sinister demonic side too. When they change, they grow in stature and size, gaining almost three feet in height. Their skin turns as black as midnight, and their eyes glow red with the fires of Hell, and their teeth turn red and all sharpen into rows of fangs. The crimson drips from their wings like blood to reveal black feathers, which then fall away to reveal dark leathery dragon-like wings. The Devil's angels, or Hell's angels as they're often called, wear obsidian armour with scarlet edging, and often fight with twin curved blades or a double-ended spear. They retain the same powers they had as an angel of Heaven, but can also cast portals too, allowing them to travel from Hell to the mortal realm in the blink of an eye. Veiron in Her Demonic Angel is such an angel.

The angels in my Her Angel series are very complex and live in an equally complex world. They’re eternal, always reborn on death, and are extremely powerful, although each has a different fighting style and they can all have a special power on top of their normal ones, such as healing, and they live in a society split into divisions and are loyal to their duties and their master. But they’re also men, and are passionate about the women they fall in love with, fiercely protective and possessive, and will do anything to ensure the safety of their woman, even if it means turning their back on their duty forever.

I hope this post has given you a little insight into the angels of my Her Angel series and how they differ from other angel romances