Bound Angel Bound Demon

by Claire Spoors

  Alex opened the doors to look inside, there was an old glass ball on a stand sitting in the centre of a table covered with a fine silk tablecloth, it reminded her of the type of things gypsies used to read your future.

  She moved closer, it seemed like an empty glass ball, nothing special. She reached out to touch it, and she noticed a mist begin to form inside the sphere. Leaving her hand cupping the ball she lifted it to watch the mist clear, it started to show her images, it was like watching a film play inside the orb. She recognised the people from the painting on the living room wall downstairs, there was no sound at first, she saw her mother holding a child, a little girl whom Alex knew was herself. She carried on watching, her father was pacing and saying something, her mother shaking her head, then he leaned down and took Alex’s hand.

  Suddenly Alex heard their voices, “You need to go, they are coming, I’m worried they will harm you and Alex.”

  “No, I will not leave, this is our fight together.”

  “Please if not for me you need to leave for Alex, make her safe from these creatures, I need to protect the clan, and I need you to protect our daughter!”

  Alex watched as her mom began to cry. The picture faded and then another vision began to appear, this time she saw her father struggling with a dark creature, she watched in horror as her father fought for his life. The creature was nothing like the one who’d tried to take Ryan away at the cemetery. Its skin was red as if it had been burnt alive, it looked like a human, but was able to move itself into positions that were wrong, no human could move like this unholy thing. It changed its face to a grimace of such pure terror that Alex had to look away. Revealing several sets of misshapen teeth, it opened its mouth so wide it could have swallowed her dad whole.

  The battle was bloody, her dad threw everything he could at this monster, but just has it looked like her dad would overcome it, others like the creature appeared. They swarmed him, overwhelming her father with vicious, swift and brutal enmity, and Alex closed her eyes not wanting to see any more.

  After an unbearably long minute the sounds of screaming faded, when Alex looked again there was nothing, the ball was empty. Alex placed it back on its stand and closed the cabinet and began to cry.

  This must have woken her from her dream, and now it was morning. The sun was high in the sky shining in through the window; she sat up, still replaying her father’s death in her mind. Trembling, she got out of bed and dressed. Alex looked out the window, she could see Betty and her gardening crew working in the garden, they seemed to get things done really quickly. A day would go by and a large patch of garden would be restored to its former glory, she didn’t fully understand how they did it, but she was delighted with the progress.

  Alex went downstairs to find Ryan waiting in the living room for her. He was in the chair that Gary had sat in last night.

  “Morning Alex how did it go last night with Gary?”

  “It hurt but we managed to sort things out, in a way.”

  Alex sank into the chair opposite him and began to cry convulsively. Ryan got up and pulled Alex close to him and held her in his strong arms. He didn’t speak, just let her cry to get it all out of her system. Alex eventually stopped and looked up at him, she saw the tender gaze of his beautiful eyes of glowing amber, though they looked worried and sad.

  “I’m sorry, I had another dream last night, but it seemed so real,” said Alex and she recounted the dream.

  Ryan listened to her, wanting to take all the pain away from her. He wished he had found her last night and stayed the night with her. He could have been there to wake her when she was having this nightmare.

  “Ryan, will you come with me to the attic, I want to see if it’s real. I mean my dreams always seem to come true lately,” she smiled at him.

  He knew she meant seeing him in her dreams had brought them together. Ryan nodded. Alex took him by his manly, substantial hand and led him up the stairs.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you have nice hands?” she giving him a wink.

  Ryan laughed. “I’ve not been with a girl long enough to for any of them to comment on anything.”

  Alex smiled back at him, not sure what to say. When they reached the attic stairs she stood looking up the dusty passage, petrified. Ryan, still holding her hand, went in front and led her up the stairs.

  “I’ve not been up here before, do you know where the light switch is?”

  Alex stood on the top step and flicked the switch, and light filled the lofty space.

  “The first thing you want to do up here is put some windows in. So at least there’s some natural light,” said Ryan trying to take her mind off whatever she was feeling, usually he could read minds very well, but Alex somehow managed to lock him out.

  “It’s just like my dream, the man I didn’t see very well, but I feel it was my father, he wanted me to come here. I am not sure if he wanted me to see those things in the ball, but somehow it helped even if it did terrify me.”

  Ryan was standing by the cabinet in the corner of the room, “Is this what you saw in your dream?”

  Alex nodded but kept her distance, she didn’t want to go near it again for fear it would show her more of those dreadful creatures of the night.

  Ryan opened the cabinet, “It’s a pilae magicae, it can show you the past, the future, and the present, or whatever you need.”

  Alex approached tentatively.

  “Do you want me to close the cabinet?” asked Ryan.

  “No, I’ll touch it, but don’t go too far, I don’t want to see that creature in any other vision of the future or past again,” Alex went over and picked up the ball. The mist appeared straight away and she closed her eyes not wanting to see the vision, but she felt Ryan’s hand on her shoulder comforting her.

  She opened her eyes and looked at the flickering images, there was no sound this time, perhaps because it was showing things to come. She saw herself reading on the bench in the vegetable garden, watching children scamper happily around, they ran over and hugged Alex. The image dissolved and Alex put the ball back in its place and turned to Ryan.

  “You ok?” asked Ryan.

  “Didn’t you see?” said Alex.

  “I can’t see the images unless I’m touching the ball, it's meant for you.”

  “It showed me the future, showed me happy living here with ...” Alex stopped in embarrassment; she had never told anyone she would love a family of her own someday.

  “What? You can tell me,” said Ryan.

  “It’s nothing, just I looked very happy,” she kissed him on the cheek; he wanted to take her and kiss her right back.

  She went over to the lectern. “I saw this in my dream,” said Alex.

  As she got to the stand she saw a book resting on it, bound in leather it looked ancient and beautiful. She ran her hand over the spine and cover of the venerable tome.

  “It’s your family book, it gets passed down through the generations who each add their own lore. It will contain spells, history, thing they want to pass on and preserve,” said Ryan.

  Alex opened the book to the first page which was inscribed in beautiful old fashioned copperplate text, “People really knew how to write back then, they took pride in it,” she said and closed the volume and held it to her chest, I’ll take this with me for some night time reading given as now I have a lot of time on my hands.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Ryan and Alex sat on the bottom steps of the main entrance. It was so dark there, it was going to need a lot of cleaning and brightening up.

  “Where’s Nick this morning?” asked Alex.

  “He was going to help Betty today, said he wanted to help and earn his keep, but got distracted by the men with the tarmac equipment. They are laying the path up to the house and around the fountain. Nick is always fascinated by machines,” answered Ryan.

  “So what are you going to do today?” he asked, hoping it would be something that meant he could spend more time with her.
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  “I was thinking about cleaning the inside of this place. The windows and front door need looking at, I want the house to look lovely,” said Alex.

  “Well, that should not take too long to do with some help from me if you like,” said Ryan smiling.

  “Not take long! This is a big house and there’s a lot of everything here to get through.”

  Ryan took the book from her and placed it gently down on the stairs, he then took hold of her hand and helped her up, “Come, watch this,” he said and led her outside. They stood facing the house. Alex was confused but was just happy to be doing something.

  Ryan muttered something unintelligible then closed his eyes and concentrated. Alex watched Ryan, then out of the corner of her eye she saw something and turned to look at the house. One by one the window shutters began to fix themselves back onto their hinges; the broken glass was repaired and looked sparkling clean. The doors were now clear of ivy and stripped of dust.

  Alex turned back to Ryan smiling, “Was that a spell, what do I have to do?”

  “Just start with the paintwork on the doors and window frames, all you have to do is focus on a colour and imagine it there.”

  “It’s just that easy!” said Alex laughing.

  “It will be for you, you’ve done some things these last few days without any training whatsoever, so I think paintwork will be a doddle.”

  Alex closed her eyes, at first picturing the windows and front door of the house, then began to think of a colour and forest green came to her mind. She opened her eyes and watched as the woodwork on all the windows and the front door and shutters turned the deep leafy green of a laurel. She turned and beamed at Ryan, and then she closed her eyes again, this time thinking of the brickwork and pictured a snowy white. The building turned ivory from the ground level up to the roof. Alex stood and admired how beautiful it looked.

  “What if someone saw us doing this?” said Alex suddenly.

  “I checked, no one is near enough to notice.”

  “How can you tell?” asked Alex.

  “I have very good hearing, I can tell where everyone is,” answered Ryan.

  “I can’t hear anything!” said Alex. “Is this one of your powers, will I develop it too? That would be a useful one to have.”

  “We all have different abilities Alex, yours will grow over time. It may not be hearing but you will have something I’m sure of it, shall we begin inside now?” said Ryan, Alex felt he was changing the subject, but she didn’t push him.

  They went into the entrance hall and closed the front door. “Shall we begin here?” asked Ryan.

  Alex was excited that she was getting to decorate and turn this house back into a home. “Yes, do I just do what I did outside?”

  “Yes just take it one section at a time,” said Ryan.

  She started on the walls keeping the pattern of the wallpaper the same but changing the colour to a buttercup yellow, so the sunlight coming through the windows would reflect and brighten it up in there. Then the old wooden staircase was renovated to a light beech hue with a cream carpet running down the centre of the staircase. Ryan focused on all the pictures and furnishings in the hallway, making them look brand new. He watched Alex light up as she decorated, she was loving her new found powers and enjoying using them to make this house her own.

  “I tell you what Alex, I will do upstairs while you carry on down here, that way we will be finished by lunchtime, and if you don’t like anything upstairs you can always change it afterwards,” said Ryan as he went up. Alex nodded and skipped into the living room.

  Alex didn’t want to change this room. It was lovely as it was, arranged like a stately home, it just needed a good clean, and she began magically removing the thick layers of dirt and dust from the walls and paintings. Then she started on the chairs and other furniture, by the time she’d finished, it looked fresh but with all the period charm preserved, she added flowers to the vases in the hallway and living room, and moved onto the dining room, again just giving it a clean. She did the entire downstairs, keeping them all close to the original feel.

  Finally she moved to the kitchen, she wanted to completely transform this space, updating everything to a contemporary style; it looked brilliant and modern when she’d done. Looking round the warm Provencal tiles and the granite counter tops, she noticed the door she had entered through from the tunnel the other night. Alex tried to open it, but found that it was locked from the inside, she knew if she wanted she could have used her magic to open it, but didn’t, she didn’t want whatever was down that tunnel to spoil this day for her. She put it out of her mind.

  Alex went to find Ryan, all the bedroom doors were now open into rooms which looked lovely and neat, the windows open letting the linen drapes billow in the fresh breeze, and sunshine flooding onto clean luxurious thick cream carpets. Well she’d need her magic to keep those clean. She didn’t want to change a thing, it was all wonderful. She came to the enormous master bedroom where she found Ryan, he was just finishing off, he turned and smiled.

  “So what do you think?”

  “Everything is lovely up here, this room is amazing,” she sat on the bed and looked around.

  “Come on, don’t mess it up now!” said Ryan laughing as he pulled her up off the bed, she laughed and touched his arms feeling their lean muscle. She looked up into his eyes trying to read his thoughts, the room crackling with tension.

  “What are you thinking?” asked Alex staring into his beautiful pellucid eyes.

  “I’m falling in love with you Alex, every day I’m round you and every second I’m not, but I will not do anything until you are ready. Even if you don’t have the same feelings as me, I will wait, for as long as it takes,” Ryan spoke so softly, Alex was melting in his arms, these were the words she’d always dreamed of hearing.

  “Ryan, I am beginning to feel the same about you. You’re the complete opposite of Gary. But there is more to this, are you keeping something from me? I can’t take any more deceit.”

  Ryan sat down on the bed again “How is it you can read me so well, but I can’t see what is going on in your mind?”

  Alex sat down next to him and placed her hand on his thigh. “Please Ryan, after all we’ve been through, just tell me the truth.”

  “You haven’t been telling me everything either, you haven’t said anything about the other night in the tunnel.”

  “You were following me?”

  “Not at first, I heard you approaching the tunnel, so I came back and followed you. I didn’t want to you to get hurt. I watched you enter the tunnel that leads up to the house, so followed you inside, you didn’t know how much danger you were in.”

  “There was no one in that tunnel except for me and that wolf in the cell and the one ...” Alex stopped and saw that Ryan looked scared and sad.

  “I wanted to tell you that night, but I was scared you would make me leave, be frightened of me, and there would be no chance of us being together.”

  “I don’t understand, are you telling me you were there?” said Alex.

  “I was worried. Nick is very dangerous at the moment when he is in that form, if he had broken free he could have killed you.”

  “Nick is a wolf! What a werewolf? And you, you were there too!”

  “I followed you into the house. I knew you were hiding under the table in the living room and you were scared, I didn’t want to face you and have to explain. You were so scared, I could smell your fear so I left, I couldn’t upset you anymore Alex, you had already been told so much I didn’t want to add to it.”

  “You’re a werewolf too?” said Alex, she didn’t move her hand from his leg, just looked into his eyes waiting for an answer.

  “Yes, we were attacked a few years ago by a pack of them. It wasn’t their fault, they were just protecting themselves the same as we were protecting our clan. We were both misled into thinking of each other as enemies.”

  “This was why you left, isn’t it?”

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sp; “We had to, neither of us knew how to control the change, and the wolf pack leader took us in and helped us, we have these medallions which mean we can usually choose when we transform.”

  Ryan showed her his. Alex reached out and gently cupped it in her hands. It was made of heavy old silver, with what looked like an Aztec design on it, and she traced her finger over the pattern and looked up at Ryan.

  “So if you can control it now why is Nick locked away?” she asked.

  “It’s the Alignment. He is finding it hard to control himself, so we agreed he should be locked up each night until it ends,” said Ryan

  “You can still control it?”

  “For some reason it has not affected me in the same way, I have actually felt a lot stronger.”

  “You only change at night then?”

  “No, I can change in the day, Nick can too, we just never do.”

  “Then what is stopping him attacking someone during the day?”

  “It’s just never happened, he can control it in the daytime.”

  Alex looked at him wondering what she should do next, she knew one thing, she was not repelled. It just made her love him more in fact, she could understand his fear, it was the same feeling she’d had when she thought she was dead and had wanted to tell Gary. It was being afraid of losing the person you loved.

  “Alex do you forgive me for not telling you the truth, can you ever trust me again?”

  “I will always trust you Ryan, how can I not trust you? But if you want us to have any kind of relationship we need to tell each other up front about everything from now on. Gary always kept things from me and look how that turned out, please Ryan I want you to be able to tell me anything.”