‘I can’t think straight when I’m not around you, so no, I have no idea. Tell me.’
I closed my eyes for a brief second. When I opened them, he’d come closer. I saw the reflection of myself in his eyes and blinked. I looked again and saw what he saw. There was a thin girl, with shoulder length straggly brunette hair, dark eyes and pale skin. She was an ordinary looking girl, except for the light that now radiated around her. I could see a whole glowing bubble around me and as I carried on gazing, I felt a feeling grow inside me. I’d only felt it when I was young. I’d felt it when my mother had held me tight and sung me to sleep. Love. I didn’t look like an Avoidable to him. I looked like love.
‘I have to go,’ I gasped, pulling my hand free and turning.
‘Oi, oi, what do we have here then?’ A Perfect came down the alley towards us. His brilliantly even features were amused at the scene in front of him. Jason stepped in front of me and I had to bite my lip to stop myself smiling. Perfects were petrified of us. We were dangerous and powerful. That’s why they left us in Lower Side to fend for ourselves. Without thinking, I grabbed Jason. As soon as my arm circled around his chest, my new arm grew and my wings burst out from my back. I started to flap them. An instinct inside me knew how to fly so I took us up and away from the alley. I could see the guards below as the Perfect called for them. I didn’t think too much before heading towards home.
‘Hope, you can’t take me there.’
As his words echoed around us, I heard a shot below. They were shooting at us and there was no way I was going to get caught. I spread my wings wide and flapped harder. The glide was long enough to get us over the river. I headed for my building. As we neared, I suddenly noticed Jason was struggling in my grip. Oh dear. I’d brought a Perfect to the Lower Side. He would be killed instantly if he was seen. I landed on the roof and climbed down to my window. Punching my fist through it, I climbed in, dragging Jason with me. Purple burst through the door two seconds later with a gun in his hand.
‘What the…?’ His dark eyes fell on Jason, who was now collapsed on the floor where I’d dropped him. My wings folded away and I sat on the bed. Purple growled before taking a step towards me.
‘Don’t!’ Jason yelled, jumping up.
Purple stopped and raised his eyebrows.
‘I don’t need to ask. Have your fun, Hope, and then get rid of him.’ He spun and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. I couldn’t get rid of him. In our language, that meant killing him. Some Avoidables kidnapped Perfects to abuse. The ones that did were usually the people that had been slaves for the rulers of the Upper Side. They had been through some of the harshest things known to man, just for being different.
‘This has to change,’ I whispered.
‘What?’ Jason sat next to me and looked around my room. It was bare and dimly lit. Not a place you would proudly call home.
‘This disgusting divide between Avoidables and Perfects. Things have to change, or we’ll all end up killing each other.’ I felt my bottom lip start to wobble and jumped up. What was wrong with me? I’d never been the emotional type. I looked in the mirror and started. My eyes were white. A glow was emanating from them. I’d never seen that in myself before.
‘You’ve awoken your light,’ Jason said, smiling at me.
‘How do you know?’ It felt strange to talk to him.
‘I’ve been studying the Avoidables my whole life. I agree with you. This is no way for our world to be.’
The whole world was made up of cities. There were two sides to every city, one for the Avoidables and one for the Perfects. The wilderness between the cities was vast and mostly dead. No countryside or water was left out there. It was just barren wasteland.
‘You’ve been written about. Did you know that?’ He stood up and came to me.
I was still gazing at my face.
‘Does it look like we have many books over here?’ I laughed as he ducked his head. Reading about something really didn’t make it real.
Did he say that I had been written about? Why would anyone write about me?
‘You’re the only half angel in the world, Hope. You’re here to save the day,’ he laughed as he gestured with his hands.
‘That sounds ridiculous. I...’ My words stopped. A faint warmth was surrounding me.
Jason came and stood behind me, looking into the mirror. Our eyes met and I felt that strange feeling again.
‘I don’t like how you make me feel,’ I whispered.
He placed his hand over my shoulder stub.
‘Are you sure about that?’
A shiver went through me as love started to grow in my chest. How could I love this man? I didn’t even know him. A warm sensation started where his hand rested. Our gaze was still locked. My chest was rising fast as I tried to catch my breath.
‘Hope, we got trouble!’ Purple shouted from the hallway. I sprung away from Jason and reached under my bed. I took out my gun and gestured for him to get under there. He went to protest, but I raised my gun to his chest. His eyes went wide before he dived under the bed. Purple opened the door and then closed it extremely carefully behind him.
‘What’s going on?’ I whispered.
‘Sandor’s back.’
Purple didn’t need to elaborate. Sandor was our flatmate and she had a fetish for Perfects. It didn’t matter if they were male or female; she would use them as toys and then kill them. We had rescued her from the government’s palace a year ago. She’d been abused so badly that she’d almost died. Since then, we’d tried to get rid of her over and over again, but she just kept coming back. The problem with this situation was that Sandor’s ability was extremely heightened senses. She could smell a Perfect from a long way away.
‘I don’t know how to stop her, Hope.’ Purple ran his hand over his hair, a pained expression on his face. ‘I think it’s time.’
Avoidables found it very hard to stick together, but when you accepted someone as part of the family, it was hard to get rid of them.
‘She has to be stopped, Purple, the Perfects are going to start noticing that their kind is going missing.’ I cursed. ‘I thought that we’d got rid of her with Hunter.’
We’d sent Sandor away with a roamer. He loved the thrill of trying to survive in the wilderness and had taken our flatmate with him for six months. It had only been four months since she’d gone.
‘She’s at the front door. You need to get Jason out of here now.’ Purple reached under the bed and pulled the human out. His pale face made my heart beat, so I took his hand in mine. I kept forgetting that he wasn’t used to our way of life.
‘I’ll take him to the safe spot,’ I said, shaking hands with Purple before wrapping my arm around Jason and allowing my wings to come free. My new arm also wrapped around his chest and together we jumped out of the window. In the distance of the city, there was a red mountain that towered above it. I flew us over the buildings and to a cave in the side of the huge rock. I went about lighting a fire, which was set up and ready to use, while Jason climbed under the thick covers on the floor. It was a lot colder up here so we always had it prepared for emergencies.
‘What will Purple do to Sandor?’ Jason asked as he watched me move around. I came over to him, wondering what to do. The fire was high, but it wasn’t warm enough on its own. Jason pulled the covers open and I sat down next to him. We leant against the wall of the cave. He took my hand in his and closed his eyes, waiting for me to speak.
‘He will take her to our enforcer. She’s had a warning already, but they won’t tolerate anymore.’
‘What will happen to her?’
His hand was warm. The physical contact felt strange to me. So much had changed in the last few days and I was starting to feel overwhelmed. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the rock. Jason’s hand came up and pulled my head to his shoulder.
‘This is weird,’ I said, feeling my hand start to sweat with contact.
‘It’s fate,’ Jason replied.
‘I don’t think it’s fair. That’s why I’ve been studying you all, especially you. Does it not feel like you know me?’ His hand wiped my tears away, but I kept my eyes tightly closed. I didn’t want to see pity on his handsome face. I nodded against his shoulder.
‘You’re going to save this city and everyone in it,’ he whispered, his words getting heavier. I could feel the rhythm of his breathing as his chest lulled me to comfort. We were both falling asleep, but I wanted to know more.
‘Don’t be crazy,’ I said, smiling to myself.
‘I’m not. You’re going to become a full angel and you’re going to save the planet.’
His breathing levelled out as he fell into a deep sleep. I was conscious enough to wonder if it could be real. I’d always felt like my life had purpose, but I could never find it.
Could I really be an angel?
Chapter Three
THE GENTLE KISS on my cheek woke me. The caress on my arms brought me from my sleep. Arms…? I opened my eyes and noticed that yes, I had both my arms. My wings were not out, but my new arm was there. I looked at it and noticed the smooth pale skin with a tiny smattering of freckles. It matched my other arm perfectly.
I looked at Jason in the flickering light of the dying fire. His eyes were burning just as bright as the flames. I couldn’t look away as he leaned towards me. I let him kiss me. His hands roamed all over me and I felt a burst of love flow from my heart and all over my body. I’d never felt good in this skin, but as my inner spark was ignited, I felt a feminine glow that grew intensely. I opened myself up, mind, body and soul. Jason did the same. We touched each other and allowed our souls to meet in the middle.
‘I’m not Perfect,’ he whispered a while later as I lay in his arms.
‘Yes, you are,’ I whispered back, kissing his knuckles.
‘I meant that I’m not a Perfect.’
He stilled my kisses as he looked at me.
‘What are you then?’
‘Can you not tell?’ His eyes didn’t reflect back at me this time. I looked at them, trying to work out what was so familiar.
‘I am you…’ he breathed across the small distance between us. I saw it then. My eyes were in his face.
‘I don’t understand.’
I stroked his cheek and felt the caress on my own skin.
‘Some angels decide to split in two so that they can come to earth to help the human race. We know that the angels left the planet years ago. But we…me and you…us…we decided to give it another try and we needed two of us because it was going to be a hard task.’ He kissed me again and I felt the truth of his words. I remembered hearing a Perfect call her partner her soul mate when I’d been hiding out in the Upper Side and wondered what it meant. Now I knew.
‘Come, we need to go to the government compound now. We have a mission to be getting on with.’
Jason stood and got dressed, leaving me to follow. I was overwhelmed with love. I was overwhelmed with purpose and passion. But most of all, how the bloody hell was I going to unite the Avoidables and Perfects?
~*~
Purple stood on guard. We rounded the corner and burst through the double doors. The Perfect rulers were sitting around a table.
‘Can we help you?’ The man at the head of the table watched as Jason and I came towards them. They were all looking towards the doors, expecting the guards to come in after us. Little did they know that we’d already sorted them out.
‘Yes, you can help us,’ I replied, holding the gun towards his chest as I walked around the table. I’d seen pictures of this man. My survival instinct kicked in and I felt heat travel up my arms.
‘Hope…’ Jason called and I stopped still. I looked at him and he grinned. I scowled and carried on walking towards my enemy.
‘I believe you were actually expecting us?’ Jason said from the other side of the table.
We both reached the man at the same time. I let my jaw drop as I looked at Jason. The older man laughed. It sent the whole table into hysterical laughter. I snapped. How dare these people laugh at us? How dare they sit here judging all the people that were not like them? How did they know what we’d been through? They thought their lives were perfect, but what about the pain and struggle that some of us had to face? Couldn’t these people just try to understand why we did what we did to survive? I lifted my gun, kicked the chair from under the man and landed on top of him as he hit the floor. The barrel was pressed against his chest and I wasn’t afraid to use it.
‘Everyone, I’d like to bring you Hope,’ he called. A round of applause echoed around the room and I felt the man moving as a pair of wings sprouted from his back. I jumped up and looked around. Those around the table suddenly had wings. Purple was in the doorway, staring at us all. My wings came out and I looked over at Jason to see that he was sporting a pair too.
‘Hope, we’re angels too. We’ve managed to become a part of the Perfect government,’ Jason said.
‘Thank you, Hope, you’ve been the most impressive Avoidable I’ve ever met. Don’t you think it’s about time we saved the planet?’ said the man I’d just threatened with a gun.
I watched as the angels stood and started to talk about plans going ahead. They spoke about acceptance of other species and the merging of the two sides of every city in the world. It would be tough at first, but Avoidables and Perfects would learn to accept each other. I blanked out the talking as Jason came over to me. He took my hands and squeezed them.
‘I was the dark and you were the light,’ I said, letting him kiss me. When he pulled away, he took my new arm and we watched as it started to glow.
‘No. You’ve always had the light in you, but you buried it deep inside.’
‘Do you think that Avoidables and Perfects both have light and dark?’ I looked at Purple who was deep in conversation with the head angel. He fit in perfectly with those around him.
‘Yes. It’s just a case of deciding which one you want to be more.’
‘You think we can choose?’ I asked, putting my arms around him.
Chapter Four
‘HOPE, WE'VE GOT to get out of here,’ Purple yelled.
‘It’s her, isn’t it?’ I shouted over my shoulder. ‘It’s Sandor. She’s in there!’
We were hiding behind a building on the Upper Side. Not long before, a bomb had exploded in the government compound right opposite us. Sirens were shrieking as emergency services tried to put out a fire that had taken hold.
‘It’s got to be,’ Purple said just as a police car pulled up in front of us. His bulk blocked my view of the man getting out of the car.
‘Jason’s in there! I’ve got to get in!’ I said, stepping around him and glaring at the approaching officer. He held a gun aimed right at us.
‘Hope…’ Purple started. I swore as the gun fired and hit me in the shoulder.
A pair of arms came around me and lifted me into the air. Purple flew us over the building, avoiding the shots from below. We were getting good at dodging bullets.
‘How bad is it?’ Purple shouted over the noise as we settled on the roof of another building, local to the government compound.
‘It’s just a graze.’ I winced as I pulled my shirt away from the wound.
‘Why don’t you go home and I’ll go get Jason?’ he said, looking at the blazing fire.
Jason had been given a job as an administrator in the government. He was our insider. I’d tried my hardest to persuade him not to join them, but he was absolutely adamant that he wanted to help the angels take over the Perfect governme
nt so that we could all live in harmony.
Progress was still slow. The angels had informed us that the Perfect government was still very much in control. A few of them had managed to infiltrate into their ranks, but there was a long way to go.
On top of this, my new arm was being temperamental. Whenever I was with Jason, it came out, but whenever I was away from him, it was gone. Only having the one arm was really irritating and I wanted to know why it kept happening.
‘What about Sandor?’
Our flatmate had been behind the latest attack on the Perfects. She’d been used and abused by them and had taken her revenge. The only problem was, she would now be executed.
‘She made her choice,’ Purple said, taking my good arm and shoving my sleeve up. He inspected my war wound and then grunted. ‘You’ll live.’
‘She didn’t choose to be abused,’ I replied, yanking my arm out of his grip and pushing him away.
‘What do you suggest, Hope? You know you have to be careful. If the Perfects find out about you…’
‘I know, but…’ I was silenced as another blast rocked the building. My mobile rang as I stared at the new blaze in front of us.
‘Jason? Where are you?’
‘Don’t worry, I’m with the officials. If you’re here, get back to the Lower Side. They’re going mad in here. They’ve just sent out an order to kill any Avoidable that’s seen on the Upper Side tonight.’ His whispered words rushed from him and then the phone went dead.
‘We gotta get out of here,’ I said, grabbing the arm that Purple held out to me. My hand grazed the ridges that jutted out of his smooth tanned skin. He jumped and suddenly we were flying. My wings decided that now would be a good time to pop out. Purple grunted as they slapped his face and then let me go. I flew ahead, leading the way. Everyone below us was so preoccupied with the blast we managed to get back to the Lower Side with no more flying bullets.
‘Hope, look…’ Purple called as we neared our home. Down below I could see guard’s cars outside. They must have known it was Sandor. I looked at my window and saw them going through my things. I growled and turned, but Purple grabbed my arm from behind. I flapped my wings as heat climbed up my arm.
Riot Girls: Seven Books With Girls Who Don't Need A Hero Page 29