by Nicole Thorn
“Why would she do that?”
“Dunno. She’s evil.”
The Sage leaned forward and spoke to the man. “She tripped her in the parking lot of her school. Made her cut her leg open. Lots of blood.”
“Really?” the man looked annoyed. Then he stood up. “That’s not very nice at all. I don’t know you very well but I really don’t like the idea of someone picking on one of my little sisters.”
“For a decade, by the way,” The Sage added.
“A decade? Well that cinches it. Shiloh is taking her brother out for lunch, so I’ve got some time. How about we go have some fun?”
I smiled. “What do you have in mind?”
He shrugged. “Not sure yet.” He held his hand out, “Luc.”
“Aurora. Or Rory, if you like,” I took his hand and shook it.
“Alright then, Rory. Where to?”
I wrapped my energy around him and then we were standing in the girl’s bathroom. Thankfully it was empty.
“What now?” I asked as we started walking out.
“Well, I could make myself go unseen, but then where’s the fun in that? I need a pass to be in the school since I don’t exactly look like a teenager.”
“Not really. How old are you?”
“Just turned twenty-seven.”
“Ah. So you’re already done aging. I’ve got a few more years. My mom is over two hundred and she looks twenty-two.”
“Our sisters that I live with do too. I think girls just reach maturity faster.”
We walked towards the main office and chatted more. He was quite interesting. I bet he had some stories to tell. But we had things to do, so it would have to wait.
We walked into the office and I asked for a pass. “This is my cousin from Russia. Say hi, Demetri.”
Luc hid a laugh and looked to the secretary. “I am Demetri,” he said to her in a very convincing accent. It was almost impossible for me to not laugh. But I held it together.
The woman behind the counter was staring at Luc in almost a gross way. I could almost read her thoughts and I really didn’t like them. “Hi, sweetie. What brings you here?”
“I am Demetri,” he said again.
I patted him on the shoulder. “He’s here to talk to my history glass. Our great-great-great grandfather knew Nicholas II.”
“Ah,” the woman nodded, not knowing who the Hell I was talking about. She scrawled his name down and handed him the tag.
He put it on his chest and smiled. “I am Demetri.”
“Yeah you are,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Once we were in the clear, both of us broke down laughing. Once we recovered I said, “I think she would have bought anything you said. You deal with that a lot?”
“Yeah. Shiloh doesn’t like it. She gets a little jealous,” he smiled.
“What now? What do you wanna do to Kenna? You have any powers that might be useful?”
“Nothing. Just teleporting and the invisible thing.”
My forehead creased. “Nothing else? Not even aura reading?”
He shook his head. “Nope. You?”
I chuckled. “I got a little more than most get. I read auras and I can track corruption.”
“Oh, cool.”
“And I have wings.”
His eyes widened and he slightly cocked his head. “What was that?”
“Wings…I can fly.”
“Wings? Like Fallen wings?”
“Yeah. Any child of a Fallen can get them. It just doesn’t really happen. Ever. Mine are blue.”
He looked like he didn’t know what to say. He was clearly shocked that I had them. So I guess it was even more rare than I thought it was.
We started walking to the gym and when we got inside, the class was doing laps around the room. Hale took no time at all to hone in on us and break away from the group to greet us.
“Who’s this,” he said while looking Luc up and down.
“I am Demetri,” my brother smiled.
I giggled. “It’s okay, Luc. I know him.”
“Oh,” he went back to speaking normally. “I’m Luc Bishop. You?”
Hale narrowed his eyes at Luc. “Hale Wyatt. How do you know Rory?”
I held my hands up. “Calm down. It’s not what you think.”
“I’m her brother. And I’m married. So…”
Hale relaxed his stance. “Another brother? I take it on your father’s side?”
“Yeah,” I chewed on my lip. “I told you I had a lot of siblings.”
“I thought maybe six or seven, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was really 53.”
Luc turned to me, “Did he count? Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised he knows just how many.”
Hale’s face sank. “You say that like it wasn’t a joke.”
Luc and I exchanged a look and I said to Hale, “Need to know. Remember?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes. I remember that you’re trying to keep me in the dark about you.”
“For your own good.”
Luc gave me a sympathetic look. “God, I remember when I was you.” He leaned into my ear. “It doesn’t last. The worry, the pain. None of it. But sooner or later they always find out.”
He moved back and I stared at him. But he looked to Hale. “I take it you’re the boyfriend?”
“No,” I said in an annoyed voice. “Apparently it’s okay to make out all the time but a commitment is out of the question.”
Luc laughed again. “Wow, I really remember what it was like to be you. My wife pulled the same stuff before we were together. Silly little reasons to not just give in.”
“Well,” Hale said. “I think my reasons are justified. And, by the way, Rory you are the one who initiated two of the three times.”
“But you went with it.”
“How could I not!?”
“Hey,” Luc narrowed his eyes. “That’s my little sister. Watch it.”
“Sorry,” Hale sighed. “It’s just rather difficult to do the right thing when what I want to do is so much easier. And Rory has issues too. Whatever she isn’t telling me about is also keeping her from wanting to be with me. We are at an impasse.”
“I see,” Luc said. “I wish you luck in your troubles—”
Kenna and the group circled the room. When she walked by she looked at me and laughed. “Jeez, Flynn. Try to put makeup on and miss? It won’t hide the ugly, ya know.”
Hale took a step forward but Luc put a hand to his chest to stop him. “Excuse me,” he smiled. “Do you have a name?”
“Kenna,” she smiled back, looking dopey as she stared at Luc like he was God. If only she knew…
The rest of the class slowed down to watch the show. Maybe they were hoping to see the fight that never happened.
“Kenna,” Luc said. “Rory is my little sister. And I don’t like when people hurt my sisters. So we’re gonna play a game that my friend taught me. She’s really good at reading people and I picked up on a few things.”
He crossed his arms and glanced her up and down. “So, let’s begin. It’s pretty clear by your unprovoked attacks that you hate yourself. Why else would you need to try and make other people hate themselves too? Because you think that it might make it better if there were people worse off than you. Now,” he put a hand on his chin, “to why you hate yourself. Judging by how you even managed to make gym clothes look slutty I’d say that you need male attention. So I’m guessing that your dad isn’t in the picture. He might have left when you were a baby but I think that you were a little older. It would explain why you need to feel like you’re wanted. Because he didn’t want you. You know that you weren’t enough to get him to stay that that is exactly why you hate yourself. You don’t think you’re good enough. And funny thing is, in your attempts to make yourself feel better, all you did was make people hate you. You became what you thought you were. And it’s almost a shame. Just because no one wants you doesn’t give you the right to hurt others. It won’t bring your father
back. And maybe, just maybe, he saw what you were and decided he didn’t want to be around for that. How funny would that be?”
There was pure silence for about two seconds before the class erupted into cheers and clapping. Kenna stared back at them, wide eyed and in shock that this was happening. She ran out of the room and not a single person went after her. Not even her friends.
I looked at Luc in awe and joy. “You are amazing.”
“I am Demetri,” he said in the accent again. He was skyrocketing to the top of my favorite people ever list.
The kids broke up and went back to their walk while Jenna came into the room. She looked me over and opened her mouth to comment. But then she saw Luc. “Who might you be?”
Damn it…
“Luc. I’m one of Rory’s brothers.”
“Yup,” she said in a small voice. “You look just like your dad.” She blinked a few times and dismissed the class. We only had five minutes ‘til the bell was going to ring.
“I’ll change and meet you outside of the locker rooms,” Hale said to me before leaving with the class. Luc and I were left alone.
“So,” Luc put his hands behind his back. “Not your boyfriend?”
“No,” I looked to the doors that Hale walked past. “But there are one too many things in the way. He’s human,” I looked back to Luc.
He had nothing but understanding on his face. “And you don’t want to watch him die one day.”
I nodded. “They’re so fragile. I just don’t think I can lose him.”
“Back when I first met Shiloh, she was a human. Faith too.”
I almost gasped. “What? How? How did you get to keep them? What did you do?”
His face was almost emotionless. “I asked our father to help me. I asked him to make Shiloh immortal. I didn’t know what Made demons were. That they even existed. Then he popped up one day and changed her. And Faith. But it wasn’t free. We paid for it. And the price was high. I almost lost my family along the way.”
“But wasn’t it worth it? You get to keep her forever.”
“Of course it was worth it. I would have given anything for her. I still would. But I didn’t ask Shiloh if she wanted this life. Thankfully, she’s happy. Everything comes with a cost. Especially something you ask our father for.”
I couldn’t do that to Hale. I couldn’t just drag him into this world. He deserved to get to stay human. Have a normal life like he should.
“I don’t know what to do. I love him. But I can’t watch him die. All I want is to keep him.”
“I understand how you feel. I remember what it was like to feel the ticking clock.”
The next question I had was a hard one to ask. “What would you do if you were me? Since, you kind of were. What would you do if she stayed human?”
He took a few moments to answer. “I’d stay with her for the rest of her life. And when it was over…” he didn’t say more.
“You’d watch her die? Have children that would follow?”
“What other choice is there? If you love them then you can’t avoid the pain. I’d want to have as much of her as I could get. Keeping a distance in your relationship wouldn’t make his death any easier. All it would do is make you regret not making different choices. I think if you love him, and if he loves you, then you should enjoy every second that you have because there aren’t many. Don’t give yourself regrets that you have to carry for eternity.”
“That’s not the only problem. Now he doesn’t want to be with me. He thinks he’s bad for me. It kills me to hear that because I know I’m so much worse.”
“Being what we are doesn’t make you a bad person. If he loves you then he won’t care what you are.”
“Did Shiloh?”
“At first. But she was scared for another reason. A very bad man brought her to Hell when she was human. Kept her there for long enough for the agony to set in. She was scared that she would go back to Hell if she were with me. But it didn’t take long for her come around. She loved me and she realized that was all that mattered in the end.”
I stared at the floor. “What if that’s not enough?”
“It is enough. You both just need to realize that. Once you do, then everything else will work out.”
I wish that were true. Nothing felt like it would end with anything positive. Just death. There was too much out of my control and it was tearing me apart.
Luc’s phone rang and I told him to answer it.
“Everything alright, Little Thief?” he said into his phone.
“Yeah. Just wondering if you were doing okay. We were going to put on Harry Potter and we wanted to know if we should wait for you,” his wife said.
He smiled. “I’ll be home in a couple minutes. I love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.”
He put his phone away and said, “My family wants me home. It was nice meeting you, Rory.”
“You too. Thanks for Kenna. And everything else.”
“No problem. Just remember that you can’t get this time back. You can’t undo what you feel for him. The very best you can do is love him as much as you can with the time he has. Also, on occasion, things do work out. So don’t stop trying just because things get hard.”
He vanished into thin air and left me alone in the empty room. I stared at nothing as I tried to figure out what I wanted.
The door opened and Hale poked his head through. “Are you ready to go?”
I blinked a few times. “Yeah. Sorry.” I started walking over to him. We made our way down the empty halls.
“Where did your brother go?”
“Home. His family was waiting for him.”
“Ah. Well he seemed very nice. Helpful.”
I took Hale’s hand and he smiled down at me. “He was.”
Chapter Twenty-One: Death And Taxes
“Stop it,” I snapped at Hale as I finished up our project. We were sitting on my bed while I made the ship. He was spending his time alternating from poking me with a pen to kissing my shoulder.
“I can’t. Not when you keep letting me do it. I really wish you would stop me.” Despite his words, he pulled the shoulder strap on my dress down to give him more access to my skin.
“You’re pretty much an adult. Make your own choices. Don’t put it on me.”
He sighed and pressed his forehead to my back. “Sometimes I think that you’d just let me take you if I went for it.”
“Condoms are in the drawer,” I pointed with my paintbrush. “But you’re a chicken. So I’m not worried about it.”
“I am not a chicken. I just don’t want to ruin you.”
“Sex would ruin me?” my voice sounded uninterested. Because I was. I didn’t want to hear his self-deprecating comments.
“Yes. Because right now,” his hand moved slowly down my arm and his lips pressed against my back, “you’re innocent and pure. If I was the one to change that it would only further prove that I’m what I know I am.”
“I don’t think any of that is true. Your vision of yourself is off.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“The conversation is over, Hale. Let me work so you don’t fail this class.” I wasn’t even halfway done painting and I’d been at it for an hour. I still had to add the people and the other stuff. Odds are that I’d be at this all night.
“I can help you with that if you want.”
I moved on to painting the sides. “Not really. Only one person can do this at a time.”
“Then let me do it for you.”
“I’m fine doing it.”
“But you did everything alone.”
“Because I knew more about this than you. I didn’t mind.”
“Maybe I mind.”
I huffed and handed him the paint and the ship. “Knock yourself out then.”
He took what I gave him and started painting while I watched. It took about a minute for me to get bored. I could see why he decided to mess with me as opposed to just watching TV. But i
f I tried what he did, I think he would shut that down quickly.
I laid on my back and crossed my ankles, hoping that a ceiling view would keep me from doing something I’d regret.
I felt guilty. Luc opened up to me in hopes that it would help. I did, but it wasn’t enough to get me to look past that dark day that was to come. But what I was doing was wrong.
So I decided I’d stop.
I wouldn’t string Hale along. I’d let him live his life like he should. If that meant finding a mortal girl, then that was what I’d let happen. He shouldn’t miss out on living just because I was frozen.
The decision came with something that I was still trying to work my way up to. If I was going to keep him in my life then I needed to tell him what I was. Lucifer was right. I had maybe a decade before he notices when I stop aging. I just needed to find the right way to tell him. And the right time. It might be years from now, but I would do it.
Hale finished painting the ship and he set it down on the nightstand to dry. He laid on his stomach next to me and didn’t say a word. His hands were covered in paint.
I looked at him and I swear, it was like I was the only thing he was seeing. The feeling was overwhelming and intoxicating. “What do you want to do now?”
He rested his chin on his arms in front of him. “We can just lie here for a while. I wouldn’t mind that.”
I smiled at him. “Okay. We can do that.”
And we did. For who knows how long. Eventually my eyes got heavy and I fell asleep watching Hale watch me.
When my eyes opened it was dark in my room. I couldn’t see a thing. So I sat up and called out for Hale, thinking he fell asleep too. But he wasn’t in the room with me. I felt around on the bed and came up empty. He’d left me when I was sleeping.
I moved to get off of the bed and I heard something crinkle. I flipped my lights on and the brightness made me see spots. Once they faded I saw a piece of folded up paper on the bed. On top of it was a little velvet box. I picked up the note.