by Lola St. Vil
“That’s not the only thing that made me react the way I did. Yes, your mother killing you was hard to watch but the worst part was being inside the memory of how you felt.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” I lie again.
“Marcus, it’s not your fault.”
I shrug the whole thing off as if I don’t care.
“Marcus, really, it wasn’t your job to take care of your mother; it was her job to take care of you.”
I turn away from her. Then I cross my arms over my chest like that will somehow stop her from getting closer to my feelings; to me.
“So what’s in the sippy cup?” she asks.
I turned to her, confused. She reads my face and smiles.
“I saw a flash of your mom sick in bed with what I’m guessing was the flu. You were about four, you climbed into the bed and handed her a sippy cup. Then you said “Drink, Mommy, feel good juice.””
I smile at the memory. It was so many lifetimes ago, I didn’t even know I had it inside my head.
“Dish soap,” I reply.
“What?” She exclaims with a big smile.
“My dad said she got sick because of germs. I knew germs were dirty so…I tried to clean it.” We both burst out laughing.
“I haven’t thought about that in forever,” I admit, still laughing.
What the hell am I doing? I can’t laugh and talk with this girl. I can’t betray Emmy any morethan I already am.
I stop laughing. My face hardens. She notices instantly.
She leans into me; there is only a small gap between us. Suddenly, a little vial filled with liquid appears in the air. Although I had thought to bring Tam, I’m not ready to sleep with Bianca. I don’t think I can do this. Still, thank Omnis for Angel condoms.
“Bianca, I don’t think I can—”
“-Marcus, I’m not the bad guy,” she whispers softy in my ear.
“This is…wrong,” I whisper to her.
“If she didn’t exist, would this be right?”
“I don’t know…”
“Marcus, I would have married whoever could ensure my people a place in society. We’ve been oppressed and held down for far too long. But I feel like Omnis loves me because he made it so that the guy I have to be with is truly an Angel. Not just because of your wings but because of your actions. You’re selfless, kind and genuine.”
I avoid her eyes. She takes my face in her hand and gently lowers it so that we now have full on eye contact.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
I nod. She leans in even closer.
“I knew an Angel once; his name was Jackson. We were together for a year. I finally got the courage to tell him I loved him. He said our time together was fun but he didn’t love me because I’m Quo. And Quo don’t matter.”
“That must have been hard to hear. I’m sorry.”
“Marcus, I know I’m not Emmy. I know you belong to her. But if its okay with you, since we have to do this anyway, can I pretend like you care about me? Just for a few moments, can you pretend like I matter?”
“Bianca—”
“—I know you hate this. And I’m sorry if I’m supposed to hate it too. I just want to know what it feels like to matter to someone like she does to you. Show me Marcus, show me…” Dear Omnis, please, please, give Emmy the strength to forgive me…
I drink the Tam, lean in, part her lips and kiss her lightly. Her lips are tender and her tongue is warm inside my mouth. She moves it expertly around, darts it in and out giving me just enough to make me want more. But I don’t want more. I desperately want to stop.
I want to be holding Emmy. I miss the way her lips taste. I miss how her skin feels beneath my hands. I miss the way she inhales sharply when my lips brush a sensitive spot on her body she didn’t know she had. I crave the sound of her moans and long to feel her nails digging into my skin when the pleasure is too much for her to take.
It’s not just my mind that misses her; it’s my body. My fingers unbutton Bianca’s blouse in search of Emmy’s breasts. My tongue seeks out their familiar slopes, only to find Bianca’s.
While hers are perfect, they are not what my tongue craves.
She guides my lips down her perfect body and they lick, suck, and nibble every inch of her in hopes of finding some part of her that feels or tastes like the girl I love.
Emmy is not here. She’s not here…
The thought causes a sadness in me that renders me still. Bianca looks up at me in wonder. She’s naked now; we both are. She extends her hand to take me over to the bed. I try to remember what’s at stake. I try to remember all the lives at stake if this doesn’t happen.
I can’t move.
I’m going to fail this mission…
The thought paralyzes me even more.
Then, I see her.
She’s in front of me. She’s standing where Bianca once stood.
“Emmy, you’re here?”
She shakes her head ‘no.’
Then I understand it’s just my mind playing games. The person in front of me is Bianca and she’s waiting for me.
I can’t do this.
As soon as I think that thought, my mind’s eye changes from Bianca to Emmy once again. It’s okay to make love to her now because Bianca’s face has officially morphed into Emmy’s.
I take her hand and we go over to the bed. We kiss fervently. She moans and kisses my chest repeatedly. I inhale her lavender scent, and kiss every inch of her: From her impossibly purple eyes, to her belly button and down to her toes. Emmy sighs and moans in utter delight.
She returns the favor by whipping me into a frenzy with her fingers and lips. She makes patterns on my chest until I’m shaking in ecstasy. She grabs my hair roughly and guides me once again to my favorite path: the contours of her breasts. Once I reintroduce my lips to her nipples, she calls out my name.
She arches her back and opens her legs. My fingers, overjoyed at having found Emmy again, eagerly play between her legs until she is so far gone, she can no longer control her breathing and her eyes roll to the back to her head. She begs me to enter her and since there is nowhere I’d rather be than inside Emmy, I sink into her gently but firmly.
“Oh shit,” she cries out.
Her body is rocked by waves of orgasms, or in the Angel world, the Inner Arc. The sheer pleasure of being inside her is all I need to achieve my Inner Arc a few short minutes later. My wings expand in the air and flap wildly. I glow and shake for several minutes.
The Outer Arc begins to form outside our bodies. The orb starts out the size of a tennis ball then expands to fill nearly half the room when Emmy gets on top and starts to ride me. She teases me by going so slow it feels like delicious torture. Then she speeds up until I’m dizzy with lust and wanting.
She embeds herself even deeper into me, then she slowly, skillfully, turns her body a full 360 degrees, never once losing contact. The elation of being making “wall to wall” contact inside her causes me to bolt upright.
“EMMY! YES! YES!” I groan helplessly.
Just then Emmy grows massive wings. I close my eyes and collapse back on to the bed. The Exchange is happing; we are taking on each other’s traits. Emmy tells me my skin color now matches hers. I’m too exhausted to open my eyes.
I just lie there as she places her head on my chest. I stroke Emmy’s hair for a few moments, and then finally open my eyes. I find Bianca looking back at me.
Damn…
The disappointment I feel is so profound it becomes a physical pain. It travels up and down my body. I feel like someone is carving a hole in me. It’s like I’ve been tossed out of the light and into a bitter reality. I knew Emmy was just in my head but at one point it just felt so real…
I get off the bed, causing Bianca’s head to slide off my chest. I hurriedly put on my clothes.
“We gotta get going. I need to prepare the army before the Sage gets inside the city,” I tell her.
“It didn’t happen until now…�
�� she says quietly.
I look over at her; she’s using the sheets to cover her bare breasts. I feel odd that she’s all but naked. I know it’s strange given what we just did, but still…
“What didn’t happen until now?” I ask.
“I never hated the thought of being with you because I knew it had to be done and because I knew you were a nice guy. But right now, I really hate this,” Bianca replies.
“I don’t know what you mean?”
“Marcus, I know this situation is tough but it didn’t have to be like this. We could have had sex as friends; you didn’t have to make me a whore.”
“What? How did I do that?”
“You yelled out her name.”
“Look, I—”
“—The worst part is when you open your eyes and realize you’re back with me; all of a sudden, you leap off the bed like you’re ashamed.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“The hell you didn’t.”
“Look, this wasn’t my choice; we had to do this,” I remind her.
“This is the only way to ensure a future for my people where they actually have a voice. So I didn’t have a choice either. But when it’s all over, I put my head on your chest because we shared an experience. And good or bad, it was just the two of us. We could have done this as friends.”
“Bianca I—”
“—I thought, ‘yeah, he’s thinking about her, but he knows I’m here. And when the exchange is over, he’ll hold me like a friend.’ I didn’t think you’d push me away like I get paid by the hour.”
“ARGH!!!” I scream as I hurl the lamp across the room. “What is it you want from me? I can’t stop loving her. I tried. I can’t. I won’t,” I vow.
“I’m not asking you to stop seeing Emmy. I’m asking you to start seeing me,” she says as tears fill her eyes.
She wraps the blanket around her. She looks lost. I run my hands through my hair and clench my jaw.
I hate Julian. I hate Julian. I hate Julian…
She remains seated on the bed across from me. I hear her crying softly. I can’t begin to think of the appropriate thing to say. I walk over to her and hope something will come to mind. I sit on the floor below her.
She looks down at me with fresh tears. I feel like crap. This is the second girl I’ve made cry in less than twenty four hours.
Some Angel you are, Marcus…
“I’m sorry. I should have been…” I can’t think of the word.
“You made me feel like trash,” she says.
Damn.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Maybe that’s what you think of me; maybe that’s what I am,” she says as her lips tremble.
Before I can reply, she’s sobbing again. I reach up and embrace her; her whole body trembles.
“It’s okay. This is weird and strange for both of us. But you’re right; I should’ve been a gentleman. It’s just that there’s a lot going on. And I don’t want to hurt Emmy at all.”
“I understand. But does ‘not hurting’ Emmy have to mean hurting me?” Ouch.
“No. I shouldn’t have pushed you away like that,” I admit.
“I know we have to go but can we just stay and you hold me for a few minutes?”
“Yeah, sure,” I reply.
She wraps herself in the blanket and sits on the floor beside me. She leans her head on my shoulder.
“Marcus?” She calls out softly.
“Yeah?”
“I think you and I are going to become really good friends…”
CHAPTER SIX:
ANYTHING I CAN GET
The battle ground is between two colossal mountain ranges on the outskirts of Syria. Between the two mountain ranges lies what was once the city of Cree. Its citizens have been evacuated from the city and taken to a base camp, deep in the mountains.
It looks like there is nothing to separate our mountain range from the Sage’s, but there is a shield that prevents both sides from entering. While each mountain range is filled with well armored Quo and Angels, no one has breached the shields yet.
I inform the team that Bianca and I are ready to enter the mountain range. They arrange for a section of the shield to be lifted. There are meters every where to make sure the being going past the shield is an Angel, or at the very least, has a soul.
As we enter the make shift command center, I find the Foundations’ Army standing at attention, waiting for my orders. There are a few thousand of them. They’re dressed in hooded robes that are the same earth tones as the mountains range that surround us. “The Foundation is pleased to have you lead our army,” Dalce says with an official tone. He looks at his daughter beside me and they exchange a quick hug. My team appears by my side and report the latest news on the Sages’ Army.
“For one thing, we hear from our inside source, they are calling themselves the Believers,” Ameana informs me.
“What is it they believe in?” I ask.
“The Sage; they think he will make their lives better and that Angels are basically evil,” Rio replies.
“Great. Do we know how many Believers there are?” I ask my team.
“They roll’n real deep. The source says as far as Quo’s are concerned, they out number us two to one,” Jay says.
“That’s in terms of Quo. What about Demons?” I ask.
“For every Angel we have, they have three demons,” Miku says.
“Okay and I’m assuming they have Fire Swans,” I reply.
“Maybe two dozen or so, according to the source,” Ameana says.
“What about us, how many in our army?”
“Five thousand,” Dalce replies.
“Send a few hundred to look after the children, injured Angels and Quo that are without active powers,” I instruct.
“I don’t have an active power, but I can be useful in this,” Bianca reminds me.
“Looking into someone’s past doesn’t help during an attack. We only need Quo with abilities that can harm. Other wise, they’re just a liability,” I inform her.
“We can’t spare any soldiers. The ones who can’t fight we left back in base camp, they’ll be fine,” Dalce counters.
“I was under the impression this army was mine to do with what I wanted,” I reply.
“Yes, but I think—”
“—I don’t care what you think. The people of Cree can’t be left defenseless. If the Believers should get past us, they’ll head straight for base camp.”
“If that’s the way you want to do it,” he says, clearly unhappy with my decision.
“Is there anyone here who has the ability to quickly survey what powers someone has?” I ask.
A few soldiers raise their hands. I call them out and instruct them to survey the crowd for Quo soldiers with powers that can help during an evacuation. They step of the line and begin to pick out the best Quos for the job. Meanwhile the team and I take Dalce aside.
“What do I need to know about your army?” I ask Dalce.
“Every soldier has, at the very least, the ability to shoot power balls. That’s a minimum requirement. Some can tear into flesh without touching it. I have soldiers who can lift nearly ten times their weight and others can manipulate their surroundings,” Dalce replies.
“But the Believers are Quo and they too have similar, if not the same, powers,” I remind him.
“That is correct. But Quos have powers to different degrees. They may share the same ability; it doesn’t mean they have the same skill level,” Bianca answers.
“How well trained is your army, Dalce?” Ameana inquires.
“They’ve waited years for a battle like this. They are ready.” I survey that the group of ominous looking men and women in the hoods. Dalce informs me that their robes are made of special material that helps them fend off most minor power ball attacks.
In addition, a few of them have the power to disappear for a short time and reappear again. Dalce reminds me what a great power that is, but I’m b
etting that a few Believers share that same power.
“The source told us one last thing you should know, Marcus,” Ameana says in a tone that tells me whatever she is about to say, it won’t be to my liking.
“What is it?”
“They have Death Stalkers.”
“What are Death Stalkers?” Dalce asks.
“They're four legged beasts with poisonous fangs that can run at inhuman speeds. But they can only eat human flesh; they can’t process Soul. So they won’t be able to kill Angels. And since the Quo are half Angel, they may cause injury but they can’t kill your kind,” I reply.
“I would think that’s good, right?” Miku asks.
“Yeah, but why would the Sage use beasts that couldn’t kill Angels or Quo?” Dalce asks reading my mind.
Oh no...
“Emmy’s at base camp with the others right?” I ask fearing the answer.
The team avoids my eyes. Rage suppresses a smile, but wisely says nothing.
“Emmy’s at base camp, right? ” I challenge.
“No, she’s here,” Rio replies.
“WHY THE HELL IS SHE HERE?” I shout. My voice causes everyone to stop moving. I force myself to regain control and lower my voice.
“She refused to leave,” Miku replies.
“So, what; you guys just let her stay?” I ask, furious.
“Let her? Have you met this girl? Since when does she follow anyone’s orders?!” Ameana shouts, clearly ticked off.
“You guys should have made her go,” I snap.
“C’mon man, be real. Emmy would have just found away to escape and come back here.” Jay says.
He’s right, but it still pisses me off that they let her stay.
“Where is she?” I ask.
“Wolf is teaching her some basic moves so she can defend herself,” Miku says.
“Does she know I’m—I mean—we’re back?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Rio says.
He’s reading my disappointment. He knows I’m slightly hurt that Emmy was here the whole time and didn’t come to see me.
Maybe she didn’t miss me…
Really, Marcus, what did you expect? She can’t just come up and embrace you and your new wife. She’s probably just going along with the plan by giving me and Bianca space.