Fire

by Angelina J. Steffort

  “I can’t kill you.” The words slipped out before I could rethink them.

  The girl didn’t speak. She simply waited for me to explain. As if my sudden inner turmoil was helping her gain trust. Was that what I wanted? For her to trust me? Would it be easier to kill her if she trusted me? There wouldn’t be a way back to my clan if I failed this time…

  “I must kill you,” I concluded, not exactly enjoying the thought.

  “What?” the girl asked, her voice climbing up an octave within that one little word.

  Bothered by how fear was returning to her face, I let myself fall to the ground and sat before her, staring into those eyes that were searching mine with their grayish-blue mysteries.

  “I must kill you,” I repeated, without finding within me the intention of doing it. It hadn’t been my revenge, but Volpert’s. He had made me a tool of revenge. Maureen had pushed me to finish what I’d started… “They said, I must.”

  “Who?” Again she asked a question instead of trying to run from my words. We were actually having a conversation.

  “The others.”

  “Adam, I don’t understand.” She eyed me without comprehension. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Volpert, Maureen, Blackbird—my family.” Wasn’t it obvious? She had seen us together in the graveyard.

  “Demons,” she gasped, realizing something, but quickly burying the emotion that came with it under a questioning gaze.

  “If that’s what they are…” I shrugged. If that’s what WE are. I was one of them, but I was pretty certain that was what she had figured out a second ago.

  Her eyes were suddenly full of compassion. “Adam, you have a different family. A father, a brother.”

  What was she talking about now? A different family? “If I do, I can’t remember.”

  That wasn’t entirely true. I remembered the gravestone. Beloved son and brother, it had said.

  “Do you remember who I am?” she asked, something else dawning on her. She was now understanding that I had no clue about my past.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I dismissed her question, not wanting to give myself false hope. “I don’t have a choice.” Volpert would hunt me down if I didn’t kill the girl and I wasn’t sure anymore if I could bring myself to kill her. It was a dilemma.

  The girl looked away, as if searching for an answer in the spines of the books beside us before she asked, “why?”

  When her eyes locked on mine, I got lost in time for a second and I yearned for the emotions she had felt before. I needed them to fuel me, I needed her light. I was a dark shell.

  “What happened to you?” Her hand twitched, as if she was going to reach out and touch my face, but maybe it was just me who wished for her to want to show that reaction.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, cutting me off before she opened her mouth to speak again. Deliberate this time, not the rushed questions from before.

  “It’s me, Claire... your Claire…” she said, cautiously as if not to set me off.

  Claire, her name. It still wasn’t familiar as anything other than the name of the girl whose life I had to end.

  14

  Captive

  It was clear that the moment we were sharing had an expiration date. I would have to move on, be realistic about my options. Was I still thinking about whether or not I could ever show my face down in the tunnels after not killing the girl? How foolish of me to let myself believe I had a choice.

  As I continued to stare into her eyes, waiting for the enlightenment, I was blinded by light. Not the type of enlightenment I had hoped for, but definitely a twist. The girl shielded her eyes, unable to see in the brightness while I could make out faces behind the blazing light. Three of them were not familiar in the slightest. The only thing I recognized was that they were angels. Even if it hadn’t been for those gargantuan wings, their glistening souls would have given them away. But the fourth one, I knew. It was the girl’s guardian angel, the one with the golden eyes—Jaden.

  My reflexes set in and I thought of teleporting out immediately, but when I looked at the girl for another second, I knew I couldn’t leave her behind. Not now. My urge to keep her close set in and, unthinking, I reached out a hand, intending to grab her and get us both out of there. But my fingers didn’t get a proper hold of her. The second I touched her, I was wrestled down by several iron arms at once. I couldn’t tell who got to me first, the woman, or the guardian angel. Both of them were restraining me, forcing me down by my arms and shoulders, and I growled, struggling, while the third one, another man, was making sure I couldn’t get back to my feet. I tried to teleport myself out of their grasps, but for some reason, that didn’t work the second their hands had touched me.

  The girl had disappeared from my view behind the fourth angel. There were no screams, or fight there, so I assumed all of them were on her side. Her army of angels.

  It only took a minute or so before I began to get exhausted. I had used up my extra energy fighting off the golden one earlier and I hadn't fed properly since. I gave up. It was clear I wouldn’t win against them. They were too many and too strong. I didn’t fight back when they tied up my hands and feet, incapacitating me in a different way—humiliating me. The woman watched me closely as the two men worked on the ropes, her expression changing back and forth between concern and alert. When the men were done, they grabbed my arms, as if they were going to lift me and carry me.

  I glanced up at the fourth one, trying to see around him. He stepped aside at just that second, clearing my view of the girl. She sat, petrified, where she had before, eyes locked on mine, panic in her face. I caught just a glimpse, and then a white wing blocked her from my view again.

  “Get her out of here,” the woman said to the fourth angel. Did her voice sound familiar? I wasn’t certain. There was something about the melody that reminded me of a cozy fireplace.

  As the angel bent down, he wrapped his arms around the girl, and they both vanished into thin air. Hysteria overcame me and I started to struggle.

  “Don’t fight, Adam,” the woman asked in a tone more worried than commanding. “We really don’t want to hurt you.”

  Good. That meant I had a chance to surprise them and escape. With a quick motion, I broke out of one angel’s grasp and threw myself to the other side, ramming the second one’s side. They hadn’t expected I would try, Jaden dropped to the side, but his hands didn’t let go of me. He knew better than to let a demon escape. He stared at me with scolding, golden eyes, then grinned. The woman came around me to take Jaden's place. She put her hands on me, holding me securely in place.

  “Chris,” she called the man. “You’ll need to do it.”

  He was already back on his feet and came behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. Within an instant, warmth spread from the place his hands were touching me. It was like when you pour ink into clear water. At first, it was just in one spot, then it crept into my chest, my arms, my head, until it had spread in every last cell in my body, and I got drowsy.

  “We need to move him,” the woman said. “We can’t risk any second more than we must. Who knows if there are others already coming for him.”

  Her voice was like in a haze and I had difficulty remembering where I was. The floor under my legs had disappeared and my struggling seemed to become less and less effective. The sounds changed and I hit the floor again, just it wasn’t the same floor. It felt different. Wood, not stone. Where there had been the echoes of long aisles and the smell of paper and dust, now there was the squeak of wooden planks as the angels moved next to me, there was the smell of antique furniture, and there was her voice, calling a name—not mine.

  Gradually, a heaviness came with the warmth of the angel’s touch. It wasn’t long until I didn’t even have the thought of a fight in me, and gave in to the heaviness. Everything went black less than a second later.

  At first, low murmurs penetrated the silence, then they grew louder, more urgent, as my consciousness ret
urned.

  “I wish you would have trusted us enough to tell us.” It was the woman’s voice that I heard first.

  I didn’t move, still unable to open my eyes. What had they done to me?

  “I am sorry,” the girl’s voice—Claire’s voice—spoke next. She was there in the room, close by.

  “Can’t anyone see the positive side of this?” one of the males I hadn’t met before spoke. “Yes, we all were worried and had to put ourselves at unnecessary risk. But on the other hand—look what we came home with.”

  There was a short pause during which five hearts were working at top speed. They were all incredibly tense. I didn’t need to see their faces to know.

  One of them moved closer, feet almost inaudible on the wooden floor. It was one of the angels. The human would never move that quietly.

  “True,” he said, and I recognized it to be the guardian angel’s voice. “Who would have thought that we would capture him this fast.”

  I wasn’t exactly happy about where I was at the moment, but something in the back of my head told me that wherever it was, was better than being tortured by Volpert for my failure. Biting my tongue, I remained still and quiet, a silent observer. Maybe I could gather some intel before I’d eventually escape—if I escaped. That would please Volpert.

  “What next?” It was the one of the male angels who spoke. It sounded familiar somehow.

  Yes. What was coming next? What did angels do with their captives? Torture? Kill? Feed?

  “We get him to talk,” The guardian angel answered.

  “We will find out what he knows,” the female voice interjected. “But nobody will hurt him.”

  “Do we know what he is capable of?”

  “He has tried to kill Claire twice. Isn’t that enough?”

  “How can we make sure he doesn’t attack when he wakes up?”

  Each of the voices seemed to have their own idea of how things should go down. Fertile ground to plant a seed of disagreement once I revealed I was awake. The only one who hadn’t spoken was the man who had put me to sleep with the touch of his hands.

  “Enough,” he raised his voice, the sound of finality ringing in his tone. “This is my son we are talking about.”

  Son? Who were these angels? These people? Was he referring to me as his son the same way Volpert did? Or was he actually the father my gravestone had referred to? It couldn’t be. I didn’t have a family other than my clan. And still, despite my better judgment, there was the tiniest flame of hope flaring up inside of me.

  “How long will he be asleep?” the girl asked, breaking the tension.

  “A couple of hours maybe. At least that’s how long it lasts for humans. I have never actually sent a demon to sleep like this before.”

  Wrong guess, angel. How I craved to open my eyes and sneer at him, but for now I exercised self-control. Whatever I could learn about the other side was an advantage.

  “We need to be prepared for him to wake up earlier.”

  Bingo! But not just yet.

  “Can we put him on a bed?” the girl suggested, probably the only one concerned about my well-being.

  There was a moment of silence before she continued. “Or at least put a pillow under his head?” It almost sounded if she was justifying the thought.

  “We can put him in his room,” the woman supported the idea.

  Thank you, angel-lady. The floor was hard and my crooked position, now that I wasn’t unconscious any longer, was uncomfortable. But wait, what did she mean by my room?

  A pair of arms scooped me up and I almost opened my eyes, startled by the sudden touch. I forced myself to stay calm. They would have killed me by now had they wanted to. Four angels against one demon…

  “We left everything the way it was,” the voice of the one who had claimed to be my father appeared next to my ear, and again I almost reacted.

  He carried me somewhere. I desperately wanted to open my eyes and see where I was. There was a door cracking open ahead of us and a gasp behind us, and a couple of seconds later, the man placed me on something soft. It felt like my cot, just a lot more comfortable. A light weight appeared on my legs, and I wondered what it was. Hadn’t they already tied my feet?

  There was the shuffling of steps around me and the mattress—I assumed—tilted a little as someone sat down beside me. For a brief moment, I hoped it was the girl, but then the woman’s voice sounded close to my face.

  “Welcome home,” she said and something brushed my forehead. Her lips?

  Who was she? And what did she mean by home? My home was the caves under Aurora, where Volpert would welcome me with the fire of his rage. I bit down on my tongue a bit hard, just to make sure I wouldn’t let one of those questions accidentally slip.

  “I’ll stay with him until he wakes up,” the fifth voice offered. It sounded conflicted somehow. Not like the others. Like he had something to say to me he didn’t want the others to hear. I didn’t like that.

  “Me too,” the girl intervened before anyone else could, and I was grateful. Her’s was the only face I looked forward to seeing. Despite heaving to eventually kill her, she had triggered something within me I didn’t want to lose. It was a feeling neither the thrill of killing, nor the pleasure of feeding had given me…it was…

  “I’m not going to leave his side,” the guy who claimed to be my father said.

  “I guess we are all staying,” the guardian angel concluded and there were sounds I couldn’t place. Fabrics, brushing against each other, a squeak of some sort of furniture, something like paper…

  “You need to rest,” the guardian angel whispered and the girl’s heartbeat became even at once.

  “Should I take her to the guest room?” the woman asked after a minute of silence.

  “No, Jenna, it’s fine,” the guardian angel replied, sounding as if he was smiling. “I don’t mind. Actually, I prefer to have her as close as possible right now. I can’t stand the thought that she might wander off alone again.”

  The others chuckled darkly.

  “We should let her sleep as long as she can,” the fifth voice suggested. “After he wakes up, who knows when she’ll be able to rest again.” Concern was more pronounced in his voice than it had been before.

  There was a long silence. If it hadn’t been for the five heartbeats and their even breaths, I would have risked opening my eyes to check if they were gone, but the human and the angels’ humanoid systems made it easy to keep track of them.

  “You can rest, too, love,” the one who claimed to be my father said as the woman shifted beside me.

  “I’m fine, Chris,” she whispered. “Honestly. You are the one I am worried about.”

  The man called Chris didn’t answer, but I could tell his heart rate was going up. He was nervous. They all were.

  “Maybe we should prepare something to eat. He might be hungry when he wakes up,” he suggested, sounding a little helpless as he tried to prepare for the moment I woke up.

  “We don’t know what he eats,” the guardian angel reminded him. “Human food, or souls.”

  The woman next to me flinched.

  They had no idea… neither what I knew, nor what I was. The only thing they seemed to know was who I used to be, and that was the reason I hadn’t opened my eyes. Their conversation was growing more and more intriguing. Gathering intel for Volpert to redeem myself? Sure. But finding out who I was…

  “Maybe,” the woman said as if hoping their worst fear wouldn’t be confirmed. “How about sandwiches? There should be everything you need in the fridge.”

  “Alright. I’ll get everything ready in the kitchen for when he wakes up.” The man’s heartbeat faded out of the room. Had he teleported?

  Again I was tempted to check, but not yet…

  “He is hoping to get back his son,” the woman explained, whether to herself or the others in the room, I couldn’t tell.

  “Do you think he’s still in there?” the fifth voice asked. He had been quiet fo
r a while, being a dormant threat in the background, but now that his words rang in the room, I was certain he didn’t believe it himself.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions, Ben,” the woman stopped him.

  “He tried to kill her,” he reasoned, “you saw it.”

  “I don’t know what I saw, Ben.” Her voice was surprisingly calm. “Why don’t we wait for Adam to wake up. Maybe he can tell us?”

  Maybe. But, quite honestly, no. I couldn’t even explain to myself why I had let the girl live twice. If the angels hadn’t shown up, would I have killed her? It was an answer I was grateful I didn’t need to answer.

  “What if our theory is correct? What if he really is a demon?” It was the guardian angel who threw the thought into the room.

  “Whatever he is, we’ll find a way to handle it.” The man, Chris, had returned.

  “If he is one, then the rest of the demons might come after her,” the fifth voice, Ben, added to the conversation. He was a bright one, wasn’t he? Volpert would be after the girl and after me.

  “When he wakes up, what if he attacks?” he asked.

  “Let’s assume he does. It’s not safe for her to be here,” the guardian angel agreed. The two of them seemed to be in agreement with their concern about the girl.

  “She’ll be target number one.”

  The girl’s breathing changed as the others were discussing.

  “Should we get her out of here?”

  “It would be the smartest option. But where? Who can we trust to protect her in case Volpert decides to go after her? And trust me, he will.” The guardian angel was right. If he wanted to protect the girl, he’d have to take her as far away from me as possible, but not necessarily because of me—I was still unclear whether or not she would die at my hand—but because of the master of torture who would most likely be sent after me. Blackbird wouldn’t even blink if the girl tried to talk him out of killing her, I was sure about that.

  “Do you think they have figured out yet that he is gone?”