Spark

by Angelina J. Steffort

  “I’d really love to stay, gentlemen,” Maureen announced her departure, “but I think I have more important things to take care of right now.” She tore her eyes off of Jaden and put them back on me, communicating something I couldn’t understand. Another warning? Another accusation? Her emotions were in turmoil, as if she was anxious to set things in motion. Was there something she actually wanted to tell me but couldn’t? Was I misjudging her? My own emotions were swirling out of control, going back and forth between curiosity and disgust.

  “Claire.” Maureen nodded at her, coldly and with a sense of finality, before she walked away, leaving questions behind rather than relief.

  Claire was still sitting frozen beside me.

  “I’m sorry about that.” I took her hand and read her face as well as her feelings.

  “Where is he?” She was referring to Jaden who had disappeared without a goodbye. I myself had been so busy figuring out Maureen’s performance that I had missed his exit.

  “Seems like he headed off.”

  “Without saying goodbye?”

  “Hm—”

  She was searching the room with restless eyes, disappointment heavy in her aura until she stopped at our table. Amber, Lydia, and Richard were playing, undisturbed by our short drama.

  “Shall we join them?” Claire suggested and surprised me with her composure.

  “Sure.” I watched her sip her soda, seemingly unshaken by Maureen. “How can you be so calm?” I wondered aloud. Was she just acting? I would see through that like I had before, wouldn’t I?

  “I’m not calm,” she admitted, but all I got from her was a quiet aura.

  “But I don’t sense any distress from you. How do you do it?” Was I losing my abilities? I checked with Amber. There was a huge rainbow of emotions arcing from her direction. So this couldn’t be it. Something was different with Claire.

  “I’m not doing anything,” she said truthfully.

  “I just sense you, without any special feelings radiating off you.” I closed my eyes and focused. “Strange.”

  “Maybe you were just too distracted by her,” she suggested, tone a bit off as she referred to Maureen. “Don’t worry.”

  “Yes, maybe you’re right,” I let it go, not wanting her to worry. “Let’s get back to normal then?” With a quick motion, I was on my feet, pulling her up with me.

  I led her toward the table, intending to make up for Maureen’s ambush and give her a night to remember. She would get everything. Adam, the boyfriend who socialized with her best friends, Adam the attentive boyfriend, reading her wishes from her eyes, and Adam the protector. Maybe even Adam the lover if that’s what she wanted. I was hers, mind and body and soul.

  “May we join you?” I asked Amber as I laid my arm around Claire, trying to cover all roles at once.

  Amber nodded and eyed us, and then suggested that I should team up with Richard and the girls should play on the other team. It was easy to joke with Richard. He was oblivious to our dark world and he was a smart guy. Lydia had chosen well and I could see why Claire had felt nostalgic and happy for them. It was the perfect human romance. They would be happy for the rest of their lives.

  “Careful, that’s not supposed to be used as a weapon!” Richard called in fake alarm when Amber accidentally pushed a ball over the edge of the table.

  Claire and Amber didn’t contribute much to the game. Lydia was the only one scoring. On our side, Richard was a good player and I had supernatural aim, so it was a lost cause for the girls.

  I enjoyed my role as a sociable boyfriend, giving Claire a memory of her own with this evening, and even let her talk me into playing Richard in a one-on-one match after we’d won.

  The girls settled at a small table and chatted and whenever I glanced over there, Claire was ogling me, her eyes sparkling with love and joy, making it easy to give her this one night. I even felt less paranoid, now that Maureen had left and I knew Jaden was somewhere out there, paying attention to Claire’s situation.

  Richard was playing a tough game. It took some effort—not much, given my superior senses—to keep him under control, and I considered letting him win. With a glance in Claire’s direction, I checked if everything was still alright. She gave me another one of her smiles, sipping away on a new glass of soda, and I missed the last stroke on purpose, just to see her watch Lydia and Richard celebrate his victory. When I turned my head again to see her face as the two of them kissed, Claire had disappeared. My heart started racing instantly.

  “She went to the bathroom,” Amber answered my unspoken question with a bit of concern in her eyes. “You okay?”

  I pulled my act together and nodded. “Sure.” She accepted my answer easily and I didn’t want to draw attention to how worried Claire’s absence actually made me. “Ready for another round?”

  The girls were eager to join in again and I let Lydia and Richard play together, just to give them the chance of a team victory. After every turn, I glanced around the room, expecting Claire’s face in the crowd, but was disappointed every time. And with every searching look, my stomach tightened more. My supernatural hearing didn’t do much good with the distance and the number of voices between us. The loud music didn’t help either. I just couldn’t locate her, and it was slowly driving me crazy. Where was she? Didn’t a visit to the bathroom take a couple of minutes maximum, even if there was a line?

  “It seems you’re not as good a pool player without your lucky charm,” Richard joked. And he was right, Amber’s lack of aim and my absent-mindedness made it easy for them to beat us. Before it was time to lay down the winner’s crown, Claire appeared between the tables, ashen-faced and horror following her like an invisible train. At the sight of her, my worst fears sprang to life. What had happened to her?

  She ran straight up to me and took my hand, putting on a halfhearted smile which didn’t fit her emotions at all. She was a mess. Pain and fear were there, floating alongside her.

  “We have to get away—quick,” she said, voice almost inaudible, shaken by something so dreadful it couldn’t be spoken here in this room.

  I confirmed with a small nod that I had heard her and instantly my inner clock started running. It was ticking aggressively, urging me to grab Claire and run, but my rational half gave me a better idea than to just dart from the room.

  With a quick motion, I pulled my phone from my pocket and pretended to type.

  “Sorry, my brother just sent me a text message,” I announced for everyone to hear. “They need me at home. I think I should get going immediately.”

  Claire flinched at my lie, but she was grateful I’d maneuvered us out without an ungraceful exit. Richard checked his watch, nodding at how late it had gotten. My inner clock sped up a tad, driving me to ignore every further word spoken after the moment I’d said goodnight to everyone. They were just a blur in the back of my head as I picked up our jackets, readying myself for whatever she had to tell me, waiting for her to tear away from the people she might see for the last time. The only voice piercing through was hers as she waved at them.

  “I love you guys,” she said, voice breaking at the end, and quickly turned around to face me.

  I held out her jacket, helping her slip in, and watched her face twitch with tension as she fought panic. We walked to the elevator in silence, avoiding crashing into people in our path, both doing our best to keep calm, but it was harder by the second, feeling how Claire was getting to her limits of what she could endure.

  She pushed the button.

  “Listen,” she started the second we were out of earshot, gaze piercing into mine. “One of the demons showed up in the bathroom.” I swallowed. It was worse than what I could have imagined. “He threatened to kill us all. Jaden knocked him out for a few minutes, but I don’t know how long it will be exactly.”

  I blessed Jaden for being on watch and bit back the urge to scream from desperation, not wanting to prevent her from speaking until everything was out. Information was crucial
so I could act on it.

  “The others will be safe here in the crowd, but we have to get away as quickly as possible—we have to hide.”

  Hide? Where? I considered for a second while she continued. The family woods? It would be a possibility.

  “Let’s take the elevator down and be off.” She hushed her voice, glancing over her shoulder as a bunch of people sailed past us. “We can teleport from there.”

  The elevator doors opened, too slowly to satisfy my haste, but at least we got away from people. I nodded, desperate to grab her and teleport out of there already.

  When we stepped in and I pushed the down-button, my inner clock was running so fast it felt as if my heart would give up from the strain. I ignored the feeling and waited impatiently for the metal doors to touch in the middle before I grabbed her hand and concentrated on the snowy plains. It was the best I could think of.

  Nothing happened. The air didn’t change, the temperature remained the same, Claire’s breathing beside me was quick and flat.

  “What’s wrong, Adam?”

  “I can’t teleport.” My chest clenched as I felt both of our fear. How was this possible?

  I closed my eyes and tried one more time—nothing. The flickering light of the elevator was all I saw when I reopened my eyes.

  “They must have locked us in.” Claire was quicker to figure it out than me. “We are trapped.”

  Her conclusion triggered a new level of fear. If they’d locked us in, that meant we might not be running, we would be forced to fight. At least I would be.

  Her fingers frantically pushed the down-button, desperation accompanying the fearful expression in her eyes.

  “We are moving up. Why are we moving up?”

  She was right. We were going up instead of down. They hadn’t only locked us in, they had a path in mind for us. We needed to get out before the elevator arrived at the destination they had chosen for us. I pressed the button for the next floor in the hope of making an impact on the metal box. The elevator didn’t stop. I tried the bell instead. No emergency call was triggered. I looked at Claire, seeing my own horrified face in her eyes, and held on to her hand more tightly, hoping to provide some comfort

  The elevator skidded to a sudden halt. We both tensed, ready to run. She wouldn’t stand a chance outrunning a demon. I needed to figure out something, anything, to get her out of there. Where was Jaden?

  The door sprang open, bringing in the smell of waste and corroding metal. Claire tried the down-button again in a last hopeless attempt to set the elevator in motion. I waited for a short second, giving the machine time to react, but nothing happened.

  With a good glance in every direction and listening hard for noises, I set a foot out of the elevator. There was nothing suspicious ahead, so I snuck into the corridor, Claire safely within reach behind me. It was the top floor. Boxes of old paper were stacked along the wall on one side. On the other side, there was a sign pointing to the emergency exit.

  Before I could react, Claire started running toward the metal staircase at the other end. Her emotions were peaking in a panic attack. She didn’t hear me when I pleaded with her to stay put and give me a moment to figure out a way to escape. She was blinded by the prospect of the heavy red door at the top of the stairs, and that tiny sign promising a way out.

  “Claire!”

  She kept running, doing her best to get to the door before I could stop her. She was stumbling up the stairs and reaching for the handle when I caught her around the shoulders. Her body was tense, threatening to break under the pressure. She shook her shoulders, wriggling out of my embrace, not allowing me to comfort her. She had shut down, completely.

  “What is it, Claire?” I tried my gentlest tone as she basically crawled away from me, further up toward the door.

  “You were right.” She admitted and it took me a moment to catch up with her thoughts. “We shouldn’t be together.”

  It hurt to hear it from her lips, even though I knew it was the truth. I had brought nothing but danger and pain into her life.

  “It would be better for both of us,” I agreed before I disagreed with all my heart. “But I can’t keep myself from loving you. I hate myself for not being able to let go of you.”

  “I can’t either,” she fought hard to get herself under control, and as I held her gaze, ready to give her anything she needed, she began to become coherent again.

  “We shouldn’t be apart. I thought we agreed on that?”

  My hand found her face in the low light, my eyes not even checking where to send it. I felt her and saw her with all my senses, her features a map engraved in my memories. And with a twitch of her mouth, she returned to herself, fear locked to the back of her thoughts.

  “Yes, we did.” She kissed my palm. “Sorry for panicking.”

  “It’s okay.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the red door. “Let’s get out of here.” With a sudden surge of strength, she pushed it open.

  It was almost too late when I noticed the sound on the roof. An unfamiliar rustling that put me on edge. Rhythmic footsteps were slowly crunching over the gravel on the roof.

  “Don’t move,” I whispered as I slid past her, pushing her back into the stairwell. If this was what I feared it was, she had no business being on that roof. It would be her certain death.

  I didn’t look back when I heard her gasp in pain. The only thing on my mind was to make sure I would keep the attention of the three demons at the other end of the roof away from Claire.

  They were slowly drawing closer, their shadows almost touching the spot where I was standing. Fear froze me to the spot. The three men were intimidating, a dark, billowing aura of evil enveloping them so closely it was difficult to make out their features. One of them seemed to be their leader, a shorter, blond man with a ponytail. He looked familiar. Hadn’t I seen that face on the street long before I had transformed into an angel?

  I shied away from the destructive force they were radiating as they set one foot after the other, a synchronized dance of ferociousness with one eventual goal.

  “It was not easy to find you—and to catch you on your own,” the blond one spoke icily. “But your little toy-girl helped us without knowing—stupid thing. I wouldn’t have killed her earlier,” he said as if to ease my worries, but he wasn’t. His words were making my hair stand up on my neck. “I have something worse planned for her. That was just to make her panic and make her get you to leave—so we could lure you out. It’s so easy to fool humans. Too easy, almost.”

  They had used her? Scared her to death on purpose so she’d make me run? Were they aware she was right there, behind that door?

  I glanced around to assess the dimension of the disaster. If there were only the three of them, I might stand a chance. Apart from the blond guy and his two bodyguards, the roof was clear. If I managed to distract them, lure them away from there, Claire might escape.

  “What do you want?” I provoked and stepped closer, showing them I didn’t fear their darkness, not if it was to protect Claire.

  “What we all want,” the blond demon said and the false grin disappeared from his features. “Destiny fulfilled.” He stepped out from between his bodyguards, face a deadly, cold mask, and nodded at them. “You know what to do.”

  That moment, I knew. I wasn’t there to lure them away, I wouldn’t get the chance to reason or negotiate. They had pulled that stunt just to get me there, alone, so they could silence me forever. I was there to sacrifice myself in order to save her.

  As the two demons lifted their hands, palms pointing at my heart, my inner clock was racing toward my last seconds. Two rays of silver light flashed toward me. I saw them coming at me in slow motion. Bright and beautiful silver lines, twirling and dancing with fatal beauty.

  My chest threatened to burst from pain as the unavoidable impact came, and I tumbled, off-balance. My shoulders seared in pain and my wings blasted to both sides, sending electric shocks down my spine. Their weig
ht was pulling me backward and I didn’t have the strength to stand my ground. My feet slid over the edge of the roof, stepping into the cold night air, and I searched for the door, hoping to catch one last glance of her before my light would go out forever. And I found her face, lit up by the stars, frozen in shock, and still so beautiful it should be preserved for eternity.

  “I love you,” I tried to tell her, but my strength had faded.

  The night rushed past my ears, my eyes unable to see, and every breath was agony. My clock had run out and my heart did its last, weak beat. And my final thought was of Claire. Her love, her beauty, her soul…Worth dying for.

  Epilogue

  Maureen

  My heels made squishy sounds as they got stuck in the wet soil with every step I took. The crowd of mourners had been bigger than I’d expected as they stood with roses in their hands, looking down at his casket. One thing was exactly as I had expected it, though. Claire was there at his grave, staying behind when everybody else had long left. Sophie was right next to her, supporting her in her grief.

  I wasn’t sure if I should get upset, cry out in anger or pain, or grieve myself. Adam was in that grave. All chances of making it up to Volpert were over and done. I had failed like a kindergartner in college. Had I let my heart influence me too much? Demons weren’t supposed to feel emotions such as love. And then, Adam was worthy of anyone’s love. It had been right to keep the others in the dark. It had been right to protect him. If only I had triggered him before she catalyzed him. It would have changed everything. We would have been on the same side. United.

  Now it was too late, though. He was dead, with only the slightest chance of finding his way back. Part of his delicious soul was caught in her human, disposable body, and it would continue to call for him. She didn’t deserve to have him in life and she certainly didn’t deserve to have him in death. She would be next. I owed him.

  * * *

  Thank you for reading Spark!