White (The Wings Trilogy Book 1)

by Angelina J. Steffort

  I didn’t get his argument. If it was really that bad, I shouldn’t go anywhere. It would be best if I didn’t exist at all.

  “I’m really sorry.” Adam apologized again. He seemed back to normal. “I have no idea what made me so angry.” He looked helpless.

  “I was thinking about you in the crowd at the bar—how they could come at you from every angle and how I wouldn’t be able to stop them.” He squeezed my hands and kissed them softly. His expression was more dovelike than ever. “I can’t lose you now.”

  “So we won’t go tonight?” It wasn’t really a question.

  “I think it’s better we don’t,” he breathed into the palms of my hands. “But if you would like to go there so badly, I would be a demon myself keeping you from it.” His brows knit together. “You need some normality, some fun, some life—” He talked more to himself. “It’s unnatural, the way you live, always in fear and never lighthearted like a normal teenager…” his voice trailed off.

  “I guess I lost the lightheartedness a few years ago, it’s nothing new, carrying the heavy with me—since my parents died—”

  He flinched at my words, maybe because he sensed the stabbing pain I felt whenever I thought about them, the emptiness.

  “You, too, seem to brood too much, by the way.” I pushed aside the dark thoughts and climbed onto his lap, one knee on each side, so that I was facing him, and then wound my hands around his, twining our fingers. He leaned back on the couch and eyed me with bemused eyes.

  “What are you doing?”

  I grinned girlishly. “What every normal girl in my position would do.” I bent down to kiss him, my lips gluing to his until our mouths became an inseparable unit. His breath accelerated and he let his tongue glide over my lower lip. The way he reacted to me made my body scream. I wanted him. Forget about pool, forget about demons—all I wanted, all I needed was right here. I could by no means be angry with him for his show earlier. It had just been him being worried about how all this would turn out. Whatever darkness was chasing us, right now he was all that mattered. A wave of desire washed over me and by the way he shuddered he must have felt it in double intensity—once for himself and once from me.

  Without ungluing from my lips he managed to open the buttons of my shirt and peel me out of it, his hands always urging and gentle. My fingers were shaking as they searched for the bottom of his shirt, I couldn’t get hold of it. He pulled away and slipped it over his head. His lips were a perfect line, representing a half-smile on a mouth that had to be kissed.

  Catching my emotion easily he reached round my body with his arms, pulling me very tight and crushing his lips back on mine. My head swirled and my heart flew at top speed. I lost track of time and place. I felt no gravity. Adam was the only thing I felt, his body on mine…His body on mine? When did that happen? My eyes flew open. The view hadn’t changed. Adam’s face so close, I couldn’t make out anything around it, but I felt something beneath my back, something soft.

  Adam back-pedaled as he sensed my confusion and laughed at my surprised face. “Sorry,” he mouthed, cautiously retreating from my body. I looked around, light-headed. We were lying on his bed, my head resting on one of the soft pillows. He had teleported us there, without a question. Adam was kneeling beside me, breath unsteady and face sheepish. “I didn’t mean to.”

  I had to laugh out loud and he watched me with eager eyes.

  “I love to see you smile,” he said, his face back to fervent. “It makes me sad how serious and dangerous your world is. I would give anything to make it safe again. I want you to be happy.” His voice was desperate.

  “I’m happy with you.” I told him, and then reached up to pull his face back to mine.

  He humored me with a few kisses, but didn’t let the fire flare the way he had before. He was all in control and I knew it was all I would get for now.

  “I love you,” I breathed and he placed one last kiss on my lips, gently.

  “You need to go out, you were right. Nobody knows you’re going out tonight, except for your friends, and they’re definitely not demons.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t believe my ears. If this was all it would take to get my way, I would use his guilty conscience a lot more in the future.

  “I feel responsible for your situation and I want to give you back some of your life.” He looked serious. “Let’s have some fun. It worked out last time with Jenna’s concert too. You’re right. I’ll be on the look out for you. Nothing will happen.”

  “That’s what I’m saying. We can’t be on the run all the time, live in fear they’ll strike again.” I was determined to not let him have second thoughts. “I want to share as much normality as possible with you—starting tonight.” My arms flung around his neck and hugged him, enthusiastic with the change of the evening plans.

  “It’s almost time,” Adam commented. “You’d better get dressed.” He chuckled at my shirt which still lay on the floor next to the couch. He vanished from the bed, turned up beside the couch, bent down to pick up my shirt and headed back to me, clutching it in his hands.

  “I think I should put on something more fitting.” Before I had finished the sentence he had wrapped his arms around me and I felt cold sensation and the loss of gravity and orientation again for a moment until my feet hit the floor in my room.

  “Take your time.” He flung himself on my bed and picked up a book from the bedside table while I browsed through my wardrobe.

  “The course of true love never did run smooth,” he quoted Shakespeare from a random page. “Guess he’s right.”

  I silently agreed and stripped out of my shirt. Adam watched me from behind the book, his face carrying a bewildered expression. “Your soul’s so beautiful,” he muttered.

  “What?” Had I heard correct?

  “Your soul is beautiful,” he repeated like he was wondering about his own words.

  “I heard what you said—I want to know what you meant.”

  “I’d like to know that, too,” he looked bewildered.

  “How can you see my soul?” I let my shirt fall to the ground.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before—nobody’s soul.” His eyes were fixed on me, though it seemed more like he was looking through me. They had an edge of hunger shining in them.

  I turned away, putting on a reddish purple v-neck shirt. When I slid my head out of it, I jumped. Adam was standing right in front of me with an undefinable gaze in his eyes, still seeming to look right through me.

  “Adam.” He didn’t react. “Adam!”

  His eyelids fluttered, like he was returning to reality from some intriguing dream. “Sorry, what did you say?”

  It was weird. “How can you see my soul?”

  “Uhm—I have no idea.” He watched me, strained, like he was searching for something. “It’s gone.”

  “My soul?”

  “I can’t see it anymore. It was there one moment and the other it was gone.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s still there, or I would have dropped dead, wouldn’t I?” I mocked.

  “Not your soul.” He hrmpfed. “The ability to see it. Could it be you’re the key?” he asked himself aloud. “—that you are the catalyst to all my abilities.” Now he focused back on me. “You are the one who made my wings spread, you are my catalyst. Whatever’s sleeping deep inside me, you’ll bring it out someday,” he was in awe, like that was something special, something desirable.

  “You may wonder,” he commented on my feelings, “but again I’m surprised by how special you are. I’ve seen a part of you that’s so pure.” He gazed into the distance for a while. “I love you.” He pulled my face up to kiss me.

  “I love you, too.” I was a little uneasy. How could he suddenly see souls? Was it just a one occasion thing or would I have to prepare for such dropouts becoming regular in the future? …If there still was a future.

  He stepped back from me, holding my hands, and looked at my shirt. “Nice. Ready?”
r />   “For what?”

  “Going back to my place.”

  “Sure,” I nodded and pulled myself against him. Gravity vanished and my sense of orientation was fooled for a few seconds, then I felt solid ground under my feet—the wooden floor of his room. We were standing beside the couch.

  “I’ve never thanked you for all the things you do for me.”

  He just smiled and kissed my forehead. “It’s the least I can do, it’s nothing.”

  “It’s what keeps us alive.”

  He held me tight to his chest speaking into my hair. “And Jaden’s been helping a lot. Basically he’s always in the right place at the right time—when you need protection.” He sighed. “I wish I would be there in time at least once—”

  My mind showed me a scene of Adam opposing some dark creatures in the attempt to protect me. I cringed away from the picture and pulled free from his arms. “You can’t—”

  “I’m not that breakable, Claire,” he reminded me. “As you might have noticed I’m quite strong and I can fly, and teleport. I get away—always.”

  “Always? Does that mean you’ve been attacked?” Plain hysteria welled up my throat. Adam looked away, confirming my worst suspicions with the gesture. “Why didn’t you tell me.”

  “I didn’t want to scare you more than necessary,” he defended himself.

  “More than necessary?” I was out of words. “I mean, you can go wherever you like, dangerous as it may be?” I hurled the words at him. “But I—I have to be babysat all the time. It’s unfair.”

  “Don’t be upset,” he tried to calm me. “I’m an angel, remember, I’m supposed to be able to take down a demon if necessary. But you are human. You’re easy prey for them unless you have someone looking after you—which is what, apart from Jaden, I’m doing.”

  I was scared and he would know it. I wanted him to. He should know how much he meant to me and how very irreplaceable he was in my life. I wanted it to radiate from every inch of my skin. It should envelope him and sink into every fiber of his body.

  His eyes flashed green and continued to glow for a while during which he just watched me intensely. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about.” I gestured at him as to communicate that he was much more precious to me.

  “I can look after myself.” Seeing his broad shoulders and muscular arms I was sure no human being would hurt him easily, but I didn’t trust them to withstand the force of a demon. “Just don’t worry.”

  He shifted to his closet, pulled out a hoodie and put it on over his shirt. “Don’t want people to notice I’m indifferent to winter temperatures.” He winked at me and the heaviness was gone.

  * * *

  “There’s one more thing before we go there,” he looked at me seriously.

  “Whatever you want,” I countered.

  He hesitated for a moment.

  “Spit it out,” I encouraged him.

  “Do you promise not to be upset with me?” He looked insecure and self-conscious.

  “Spill,” I ordered. I wondered what made him hesitate.

  “What did you do to your friend Gregory?” He looked sheepish, which made me feel awkward instantly.

  “I don’t know what you mean?” I lied knowing that it was hopeless to hide something from him. I was sure he had a fairly good idea of what had been going on between Gregory and me, but he was too much gentleman and therefore had avoided confronting me until now.

  “He was obviously angry at you last time I saw him, at the charity concert.” “Yeah, I know. It’s nothing. We just had a—a little disagreement,” I tried to downplay the whole thing.

  He eyed me disbelievingly. “That didn’t seem like nothing. He would have murdered you with his gaze if that was possible.”

  I thought back to the conversation with Gregory. It really had been hard, but because of my misbehavior

  “I gave him a wrong impression.”

  “On what?” Adam insisted.

  I sighed. “On what I feel for him. I went on a date with him after you turned me down because it was too dangerous for me to know things—” I made a face—as if that mattered now. “So, now it’s out. Come on—bawl me out.” I was waiting for him to storm down on me, but nothing happened.

  “You’re such a lovable thing.” He stroked my hair. “How stupid do you think I am?”

  “I don’t think you’re stupid,” I defended myself.

  “But you thought you could hide what was going on between the two of you.” He stated it as a fact and I had nothing to add to that. “I sensed how Gregory was into you the first time I saw him with you. I knew it was only a matter of time till he would try his luck when I sent you away. I have to admit I counted on that a little. I thought if you had a friend who would adore you as much as he did, you would think about it twice and give him a chance after some time.

  “I didn’t—in no way—expect that you would use him to punish me for leaving you, because that’s what you did.”

  I’d never thought about it this way, but being honest with myself—he was right. And I hope it hurt him as much as he hurt me, a voice inside my head added. I shook my head at it.

  “Seems like I was the catalyst here. I set you off and you set him off, and now you’re fighting with your best friend. I’m sorry you lost him because of my naivety.”

  Was he actually apologizing for my mistakes? “Shhh—” I told him. “It’s my fault—I was the one who let him think there was a way my feelings about you would change. But, to be honest, I only lied to myself. There’s nothing that could reverse what you touched in my heart.” His features melted into a dovelike smile. “And technically, I haven’t lost him. He has decided to not scream at me anymore, but tries to make it up somehow, I think.” I spared him the details of what had been going on and leaned into his arms instead.

  “I hope you two make up.” He sounded sincere. “In times like these you need all the friends you can get and he has been one of the good ones, hasn’t he?”

  I nodded into his shoulder, glad that he wasn’t angry with me.

  “Shall we go then?” He lifted me up in his arms and carried me downstairs, grabbed our jackets with one hand from the hook. Geoffrey opened the door for us with an amused smile playing on his lips and wished us a nice evening as Adam carried me past him and to his car. It was tempting to forget Damocles’s sword above our heads when he was all at ease and fun like this.

  A Flash of Silver

  The pool hall was on the fourth floor of a high building in the middle of the town. Most of the floors above and below were offices. Amber, Lydia and Richard were waiting for us at the front door. I hadn’t seen Richard in a while. His hair had grown making him look younger.

  “How’s Ian?” I asked him while we waited for the elevator.

  “Fine,” he told me. “He’s missing your big sister, though. You know, always going on about her. I think this time they could really stand a chance with each other.”

  I laughed. “I hope so.” The elevator made a noise when it arrived and the doors slid open. All five of us stepped in together, Adam never leaving my side even for a second.

  From the moment we left the car he had been tense and cautious. I didn’t complain about it. Right the opposite—I was glad to have him with me. Now that we weren’t at home anymore, I couldn’t imagine why I wouldn’t want to be babysat, considering demons were on the loose. I felt almost safe with Adam at my side and if I was lucky Jaden would be somewhere near, watching over me, the way he was supposed to do as my guardian angel.

  Amber watched Adam standing close to me. I couldn’t read her expression. It was something between pleased and disapproving. I made a mental note to ask her later. Lydia on the other hand was totally absorbed in playing with Richard’s leather bracelet while holding his hand.

  The sound came again and the doors opened. We stepped out of the elevator and made our way through the crowd. People were playing at poo
l tables all over the room, others were chatting in groups of two or three. Amber led us to a table at the back of the room, where the music was lower.

  Lydia and Richard offered to get us drinks and I ordered a soda.

  “So, how are things going, Amber,” Adam asked her.

  “Not bad,” she answered, flashing one of her radiant smiles. I instantly felt insignificant beside her beauty. How could a human being look so damn good? I had gotten used to Adam’s inhumanly perfect features, I marvelled at them regularly, but Amber was only human, for crying out loud.

  “Did you get some feedback from one of the drama schools?” I threw into the conversation.

  “Funny you should ask,” she answered, her face lighting up even more than it had while watching Adam. “I got my admission letter from New York.” She beamed.

  “Amber, that’s great.” I hugged her. “Congratulations.”

  “Yeah, that’s actually awesome,” Adam joined in.

  “Thanks,” Amber continued, beaming brighter than the lights which flashed across the room. Lydia and Richard returned that moment with the drinks.

  “What did we miss?” Lydia asked.

  “Amber’s going to New York,” I spilled.

  “Got my admission letter today,” Amber added.

  “Oh my gosh,” Lydia screamed and almost spilled the drinks as she hugged Amber “That’s so cool.”

  I was so glad that the lives of my friends turned out to be good. Lydia had Richard who was caring and seemed to really be serious about her, Amber was going to study acting and drama in New York. All I wanted now was for Gregory to find someone so he would forget what he felt for me. I wanted them all to be happy, and safe.

  I watched them cheering at each other, their faces full of laughter and easiness as they stood around the pool table. That was how it should be.

  I sat down on the couch beside the table and Adam sat down beside me, eying me from the side. His body tensed next to mine. I looked around for the source of his irritation but couldn’t find any. He was looking straight at me—maybe I was the source.