by S E Lunsford
Startled, I looked over at her, noting the warmth in her eyes.
“Dani, what’s yours?”
“Felicia,” she said, pulling her robe around her body more tightly as she looked outside.
“Do you know where they’re taking us?” I asked. Someone in the back snorted, but I ignored whoever it was.
“I’m not sure, but it’s definitely North, Pleudias, the angel who took me,” she trailed off, as something other than fear settled in her eyes. “Pleudias said we’re going North.”
“And you trust him?” Asked the woman in the back.
“I have no reason not to,” said Felicia. “He’s not like….”
“Shut up,” the other woman cut her off.
Felicia shrugged at me. “They’re all different, the angels.”
I just stared back at her not knowing how to respond, except that something in me knew that she was telling the truth. I looked back outside, and my blood seemed to freeze in my veins as I saw a man with dark hair tied up not only in ropes, but in chains too. He was being dragged by four men towards a waiting vehicle behind us. Leaning forward, I strained to the length of my own rope feeling it bite into my wrists as I tried to see if it was who I suspected it was. Chris.
Time slowed to almost a standstill as they dragged the man forward, when suddenly they stopped their forward progress as an angel walked up and began talking to one of the men who was pulling him forward. The angel and the man gestured towards one another as I stared at the man in chains willing him to look up at me so I could be sure it was Chris. Almost as if he could hear my thoughts, he lifted his face in my direction searching with his deep brown eyes. He didn’t seem to see me even as he glanced over repeatedly. My body reacted before my brain did, and I jumped up feeling the pull and bite of the rope as it tried to keep me seated. “Chris,” I yelled.
His eyes found mine and his expression softened as if he had found what he was looking for. I stared back, a smile playing on my lips as he nodded back. Silence descended as I felt rather than heard all the women slink back in their seats, and every other eye in and outside of the truck find me. A boulder formed in my throat as I looked over the silent group, taking note that the angel who had yanked Robert’s head back was just coming into my peripheral vision a snarl on his face.
I swallowed drily trying to force down the fear that threatened me when a hand slammed into my throat pushing me down and causing the world to darken in a swirl of flashing lights. I gasped for breath, my hands reaching up to try and dislodge the hand even as the rope twisted and dug into my flesh and blood began to run down my arms.
“I told you to stay quiet,” a familiar voice hissed. The realization hit that it was Bob’s hand around my neck as everything began to fade away. Pulling back and biting the inside of my cheek, I focused on the pain to bring everything back into some sort of focus. Bob released his grip on my neck, and I sat up my head still swimming. I struggled to stay upright trying to see past the angel who filled my vision, his eyes angrily staring at me as he carefully pulled his hand back.
Gritting my teeth together, I leaned over to see past him as he mouthed something I couldn’t hear. Chris was face down in the mud, as an angel angrily hit his back with golden rope. Bloody strips opened up through his shirt as he struggled to gain a hold of the pain and get up. Gun raised, a man quickly stepped in front of the angel as he pulled his arm back to whip Chris again. The angel snarled at the man who was yelling back at him, spittle flying from his mouth as the vein in his forehead pulsed and his face turned red.
Stepping back, the angel dropped his arm as whatever the man said had its desired effect.
“Dani,” Bob ground out through gritted teeth as he grabbed my chin pulling it towards him until he and I were eye to eye. I swayed, narrowing my eyes to try to get away from the way he looked at me. “I told you to…”
“Everything okay there, Bob?” Smirked the golden winged angel Bob had been talking with earlier as he walked up to the truck. He eyed me flatly. “You know what we all agreed on, you sure this Daughter of Eve is up to it?”
“I’m sure of it,” Bob ground out never taking his eyes off of me as he released his hold causing me to sit down hard on the bench.
“Good,” the golden winged angel said. “We don’t want any distractions.”
“There won’t be,” Bob looked at me a hint of desperation in his eyes before it was replaced with the same flat look of his comrade. “No, there won’t be any trouble at all.”
I watched the two of them walk away together as the women behind me began to shuffle just a little bit. Looking over to where Chris was, I saw no trace of him.
“They loaded him,” Felicia whispered.
I tried to nod in answer, but felt my head drop forward until all I saw was my rope chewed wrists and my blood splattered pink sweats. My stomach turned as I thought of all the creepers around and how they’d be drawn to the fresh blood. Forcing myself to look up, I realized that the area had cleared out. There were no more men being herded towards the waiting vehicles, and no more creepers either. Just the faraway sound of vehicle doors closing, and the rumble of engines starting up.
The driver of our truck came around the back, looking at all of us before disappearing only to reappear a moment later with a pile of blankets. He threw them at us one by one leaving me until last.
“You’re not going to cause trouble?” He asked pointedly looking at me.
I shook my head no as I unfolded the blanket pulling it around myself.
“I’ll make sure she doesn’t Hank,” Felicia said.
“Good,” Hank said, “The last thing we want is the wrath of the angels on us because one of the new girls can’t keep it together.”
“I know,” Felicia said. “She’ll be fine.”
“She better be,” he replied staring at me. “She’d better thank her lucky stars she’s with the angel she’s with, instead of one of the others.”
“I said she’ll be fine, Hank,” Felicia said pointedly, her voice pitched low.
“Okay, hang on girls we’re taking off soon.”
As Hank started the truck, the women began to settle in, wrapping themselves in their blankets as I looked out the back.
“You’ve got to forget it,” Felicia said. “You’ve got to forget whoever that was and just go forward, that’s the only way to survive this.” A deep sigh escaped her as she followed my gaze outside, the truck jerking forward taking us North.
Chapter 8
The gray daylight had turned to a muddy evening sky the further North we traveled. Pulling my sweatshirt around me and retucking my blanket, the cold became more invasive too. The women toward the truck cab had been able to stay a little warmer than those of us towards the edge. Even though I couldn’t feel my toes anymore, I preferred to be where I was looking outside at the road as it ribboned out behind us, disappearing under another set of tires from another military vehicle in our convoy.
Felicia sat across from me silently, her bruises fading, a faraway look in her eyes that told me that she was barely registering the trucks behind us. A smile played on her lips as she replayed something in her mind. She glanced over at me.
“Looks like a good thought,” I commented.
She nodded in reply. “You should know what’s going to happen when we get there,” she said, glancing to the back of the truck bed at the others. She carefully stood, making her way across the truck bed and settling on the bench next to me, her rope stretching as far as it could. With a quick flip of her arms it loosened, and I saw that she was able to slide it off with relative ease. Her gaze flicked to the others again, before she hid her hands underneath her blanket and leaned in next to me. The warmth radiating from her was a welcome comfort.
“We’re almost there,” she whispered.
“Where?” I asked craning my neck to see to the side of the road which only gave me a view of the verge.
“Where they stay,” was her only answer. “It’s
in Scott’s Valley, well in what used to be Scotts Valley. You’ve never heard of it?” She asked in response to the blank expression that I was sure was on my face. “Oh,” she said another faraway look sneaking into her eyes.
“I used to work in Silicon Valley,” she said, the look in her eyes translating into the tone of her voice. “Coding, I loved coding, which was odd for a girl I know, I mean I was just young when I started, like 8 or something, but I never stopped loving it. So, that’s what I did, and I got really good at it too, not that it makes any difference now.” Forgetting herself she stroked her hair with a hand running her fingers through the golden blond strands until they ended at her waist. Pulling the blanket up further in her lap, she looked at me a sad smile on her face. “We used to go to Scotts Valley, then to Felton and have picnics in the park where the covered bridge is, but that’s all gone now.”
I knew the wistful sadness in her eyes was reflected in my own. No matter how we tried to move forward and forget, memories of the time before all of this snuck in and caused more than a little havoc.
“Anyway,” she said matter of factly. “They chose to make the old Hilton their West Coast headquarters. So, they all have their own rooms, and based on where they rank the rooms are different. You and I will stay in a couple of the suites, while some of them,” she glanced at the others. “Will be in smaller rooms.”
“Why are we in the suites?” I whispered.
Very pointedly she looked at me, “Because our angels are some of the highest ranking.”
Staring at her, an uncomfortable thrill shot through me right alongside a sense of dread as I digested what she said. “Okay,” was my only response.
“Anyway, you’ve got to be really careful not to be surprised by anything, not to comment on anything and make sure you do what your angel says, not what any of the other angels say,” she said shaking her head in disbelief.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s so odd,” her voice became even more quiet as she leaned forward. “They value loyalty above all else, but they, well, they have little trouble with it themselves.”
I nodded as if I understood, but I had no idea what she was talking about. The truck began to lean to the right as I saw a city appearing in my view making me realize that we were actually on an onramp of some type.
“Almost there,” Felicia said getting up quickly and settling in across from me. “We just turned on the 1. It’ll be just about 5 minutes. Remember what I said,” her voice pinned me as I looked over at her. “Just remember what I said.”
Later, I was looking out the window of the suite where I had been taken after I’d been showered, primped and fussed over like I was some sort of beauty queen contestant. I tried to keep my hands relaxed instead of held in loose fists that betrayed my frustration. Hoping to see where they put the storage containers and others that they brought with them in our convoy. I had rushed to the window when I entered the room barely noticing anything else besides the plate glass window that looked out onto the hotel grounds.
Angels and military men mixed near the pool, but there was no sign of anyone else.
Felicia and I had parted ways on this floor, with her suite next to mine. She had hurriedly whispered that she may be able to get a message to me if need be and to make sure and remember the face of whichever servant brought it because it meant that person was a friend and could be trusted. There had been nothing since, no visitors, not even Bob, as I stood looking out the window.
I crossed my arms enjoying the feel of the soft gray cashmere sweats that I had been told to wear. As my fingers lingered over the fabric at my arms, I sighed thankful that I didn’t have to wear the barely there dresses that some of the others did. As we all dressed in the same large room that had served as a conference room at one time, some of the other women had looked over at me, openly eyeing my sweats with hostility and more than a little bit of jealousy. There were a few who didn’t, they just smiled softly at me and I couldn’t help but wonder if talking with them wouldn’t be helpful if we were ever in the same room at the same time again.
Only one other young woman seemed as unused to the arrival and cleaning procedure as I did. She was tiny with blond hair and big blue eyes, looking to be around my age. She had flinched when one member of what I could only think of as a beauty crew touched her. The older woman had leaned over whispering to gently reassure her before they took her away. They returned an hour or so later with her hair shining as it unfurled down her back. The same woman who led her away to get clean, told her to put on a blue shimmering floor-length dress before they left. Looking around furtively as she did what she was told, her eyes had met mine for a brief moment and she smiled. I smiled back.
Now I stood looking down at the angels, randomly wondering where she was in the hotel and whether or not her angel would be nice to her.
A croak came unbidden out of my mouth trying to be a laugh as I realized what I had just thought. The idea that her angel would think about being nice to her should have been the furthest thing from my mind. I had no idea what these angels were like beyond what I had already seen. The image of two of them in the street of my aunt's small town where Chris had showed up rose in my mind. From the looks of fear in some of the women’s eyes as they were taken to their rooms along with some of the healing bruises on others’ bodies, I could only imagine what the angels did, and it wasn’t anything nice.
The rattle of the doorknob jerked me out of my thoughts. Quickly I stepped to my right so I could see whoever was walking through the door, knowing that it would take a moment for them to see me. Scanning the room, I looked for something that I might use to defend myself, finding only a tall lamp to my right that could make a useful weapon if it came to that.
The door pushed open and a young man in a kitchen uniform walked in with his head down, completely focused on carrying a tray with covered plates and a carafe of what I assumed was coffee. My mouth watered at the thought of having the dark hot drink. I swallowed silently as my mouth continued to water.
The young man looked up, his eyes darting all over the room and I froze. It was Edward. He spotted me just as I recognized him. His eyes widened just slightly before he nodded at me putting his finger up to his lips and making it look like he was just flipping open a cloth napkin and setting it down on the coffee table.
Carefully, I moved towards him trying not to glance around the room to look for some sort of security system, and silently cursing myself for not thinking of it earlier. A uneasy thought flittered through my mine, and I hoped my looking out the window wouldn’t be construed as some sort of act of defiance. I shook off the thought because they never told me where in the room I could, or could not go, they had just put me in here and said to wait.
“Hi,” I said coming up to the table as he poured a cup of coffee.
“Hi,” he answered, a little coldly. “What would you like in your coffee?”
“Milk please,” I replied as he poured a little into my coffee making soft whitish clouds there.
Taking it from him I inhaled deeply, enjoying the sweet tangy scent of it. I also tried to take in any other scent that I could, which was pretty much nothing more than the bleach smell from Edward’s white uniform. Edward looked remarkably calm, whereas nervous twitters were starting to work themselves up in my stomach.
He glanced down and I could see there was a note just peeking out from underneath one of the plates. I smiled and nodded as I took another sip, “This is so good,” I said. “I haven’t had coffee in forever.” I exaggerated the last words for the benefit of whoever was listening or watching.
As I put my coffee cup down to lift up the plate and retrieve the note, the door flew open and Bob walked in a scowl on his face. My heart suddenly leapt into my throat and froze there even as my hands continued to move of their own accord. Edward moved just slightly to block Bob’s view of me. Quickly I picked up the plate, note and all before forcing a smile at Bob.
“What are yo
u still doing in here?” Bob growled at Edward as he made his way past him into the bedroom. Looking at the wings on his back, I quickly pushed the note into my underwear, as Edward held back laughter at the sight. I mentally reminded myself to not forget that Edward laughed when he got nervous, a reality I was well acquainted with having burst out into laugher myself at the most inappropriate times.
Bob whipped around to glare at Edward, “That means you, get out now.”
Edward and I held a look before he began to move quickly out of the room, all traces of laughter gone. The door closed behind him leaving a heavy silence in his wake. I looked over at Bob who was staring intently at me. Nonchalantly, he moved over to me as I became hyper aware of the note in my underwear and the fact that one of its corners was digging into my skin.
Forcing myself to take a bite of toast, I began to chew as he watched me. The bread felt like sawdust in my mouth before I forced it down, my throat waiting for the coffee to wash it down.
“Are you okay?” He asked tilting his head as if he could hear more in my answer than what I said.
“As okay as I can be,” I answered.
He nodded as he began removing all of the covers from the plates revealing not only toast, but sweet rolls, scrambled eggs and hash browns. Looking over the food, he began to put a plate together to his satisfaction. He took a bite of scrambled eggs as a giggle escaped from me. I quickly put my hand up to my mouth horrified.
“What?” He asked a second forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth.
“I don’t know,” I replied, shaking my head and setting my own plate down.
“What?” He asked again.
“It’s just, well, I never thought about you guys actually eating. In fact, I never really thought about you guys at all beyond…” my words trailed off not wanting to tell him the only reason I ever thought about the angels was how to stay out of their way and not get caught by them or the creatures they made.
He grunted in reply as he sat down on the chair his wings draped over either side. I settled on the loveseat across from him reaching for my coffee and taking a sip as the note dug even more deeply into my skin. I stood up suddenly, the movement making him stop eating and stare at me. It felt like his amber eyes could see right through the cashmere fabric and the note it hid.