by Reid, Susan
“Yes.” I answered
I retrieved the rest of her belongings, which included a sweatshirt with the red and gray, ‘University of Bloomington’ logo on the front, a journal that she had started, which was titled, ‘Bucket List’, her driver’s license, and her student ID badge.
I returned to the bed and laid it all out for her to see. You would have thought I had shown her the Holy Grail itself, the way she looked over all of it incredulously. She picked up the license first and read it over.
“I did live in Indiana.” She whispered to herself.
“You knew that?” I asked her in surprise.
She looked up at me as I sat down across from her on the bed. “I’ve been getting random flashes of memories ever since I arrived here.”
That was odd. Yet another peculiar thing about Starling that separated her from the other divine warriors.
“You remember…everything?” I asked her carefully. I wondered if she remembered Drakael and her friend Joel, past the photos of him.
“Not everything I’m sure, at least not yet.” She shook her head.
I watched as she ran a hand over the sweatshirt, and then began flipping through the spiral, stopping to read a few pages.
It was silent for a while. I wondered if she were starting to remember her college life now.
“Why would you take and keep these?” She then asked me.
“Does any of it seem familiar?”
“Somewhat.” She frustratingly shook her head.
“No one else can tell you about these things but I can. I’m not bound to any rules, none of the dark ones are in the spirit realm. I had hope, because even with all of my hints you should have never been able to remember any of it, especially me. You remembering me…us, is like a gift…” I trailed off in my own thoughts.
The gift or reward that Elohim granted me. The one that the seraphim soldiers mentioned to me, when I carried out the request of releasing the two chosen for Elohim. The same one that the angel in the University parking lot was talking about too. She said that it hadn’t been given yet.
This had to be it.
Elohim knew that Starling was the only thing that I wanted, and the only thing that meant anything to me. He allowed her— to remember me. The one thing that should have remained blacked out of her memory for sure.
This was yet another coincidence, like everything else that Edanai had comprised at the dining table, regarding me and Starling.
“A gift? Is that strange? Me remembering?” She asked.
I snapped out of my thoughts, looking deeply into her eyes this time. The closest I have ever come to returning to Heaven, had been during all of my climaxes with her. It was even more prevalent now, looking into the striking, dark, deep blue of her eyes.
“A lot about you has been— unique, not strange. I’m still trying to figure some of it out but I guess that’s why I’m so drawn to, and in love with you.” I leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips.
She smiled.
I decided to go ahead and tell her everything that I knew of about her life. She needed to know and I wanted her to know.
“You have friends that still care a great deal about you in Indiana. You were a college student; a junior at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. Your biological parents are deceased. They both perished in hurricane Katrina, which was a major hurricane that destroyed much of Louisiana. You lived there up until then, but you came to the University from Florida, where you lived with your grandmother until she passed on too. I was posing as a police officer when we met at the hospice where you volunteered. Your friends met me on our first date. The auburn, short- haired girl is your best friend, China. You two were roommates. The story I gave her, was that you went to visit relatives in Jamaica, which is where you were born and originally from.”
I purposefully left Joel out, hoping she wouldn’t ask about him.
He was a chosen scout, she’d come to see him eventually anyway. He’d notice the changes in her and be able to see her brandings too. The same way that he had seen mine.
She gaped at me while I spoke. I don’t know if she was more in shock of how much I knew, or saddened by the fact that her biological family was deceased.
Maybe both, understandably.
“By saying that I was visiting relatives, you mean you left it open that I’d be back?” She surmised.
“Sort of. I know many of the more seasoned warriors make their homes in the human realm eventually. I wanted you to have the option of returning and having friends that cared about you like family, waiting for you there.”
It was silent.
She stared down at all of her things scattered across my bed in thought. I hoped that I hadn’t hurt her more by revealing all of this. I would never forgive myself.
“Thank you.” She paused, inhaling a breath as if thinking of her words.
“Not just for this but for making sure that I didn’t die alone.” She then whispered.
Her words surprised me. She didn’t have to thank me, it was a given. I caressed her face and kissed her again. “I would have gone to the ends of the earth to keep you alive if I could have. I can’t interfere with fate and destiny, just like the angels. As long as I exist, I will always be there with you…where I’m allowed.” I added with a smirk.
She smiled, knowing what I meant.
She sighed and pushed a curl behind her ear, glancing back down at her album, which sat next to her journal. She ran a hand over it in thought.
“Where do souls go? Would it be somewhere in this realm?” She wanted to know.
I stroked her arm softly and pulled her into my lap, where she rested her head against my chest.
“No. That’s an entirely different realm. The realm of souls lies in another dimension. There they wait to be either reincarnated or they may linger for all of eternity, but they’re safe from darkness and Morning Star.”
Though she accepted that explanation, I could tell that she was saddened by the thought. I didn’t like seeing her like this.
“That doesn’t mean that you’ll never see your family again. I have no way of knowing that for sure but it’s something to hope for. If I had given up all hope for myself long ago, we would have never met. You may not have made it over to become a divine warrior and we certainly wouldn’t be here now.” I then added.
She smiled and turned her face to look up at me. “And what if I didn’t remember you?”
I raised a brow. “Then…I’d more than likely be dead right now.”
We both laughed.
“Actually, if by some small chance you weren’t hell bent on killing me, then I’d take a chance in hoping that you’d want to get to know me. Even if we had to start all over again. We still have a date to finish in the human realm.” I then said sincerely.
This time she tilted her head back, rose up and kissed me tenderly, lingering on my lips as if I were her last breath.
I stroked her soft cheek once she pulled away.
“There’s a lot I want to teach you.”
She smirked. “I’m sure there is.”
I chuckled, “Not sexual…well, not just sexual. I’m sure that you’ll receive somewhat adequate training with your blades at the hall but it will be nowhere near what you’ll need to know in order to fight against the fallen. I and those in my group can more effectively teach you how to slay demons and fallen. In my opinion, I think that all of the divine warriors would benefit from being trained by us.” I offered.
She appeared thoughtful, “That does make sense.”
“Of course it makes sense. Training doesn’t get any more exclusive.”
“Well, maybe I could…”
I knew what she was about to suggest.
“No. It won’t go over well. In fact, don’t even mention it to anyone there, even your friends, and don’t even give the inkling that you would agree to it. Believe me, it’s useless.”
She nodded with a perplexing expression.
I nodded with a smile. She was still the same Starling that I had fallen in love with. The one who had once said that, ‘It wasn’t fair, that if one couldn’t be forgiven, what was the point of ever trying to redeem themselves?’ That was a very good question but it didn’t apply to us, the fallen.
“I agree. But, in the meantime, since I am partial, I’m only offering one on one training for you.” I said, giving her a playful peck on the lips.
“How will we communicate and where would we train?”
I thought for a moment.
“If I could give you anything without it being detected, making you suspicious, or being destroyed outright, then I would. You wouldn’t be able to cross into the consecrated lands of the divine hall with it anyway.”
There was another silent pause, and then I thought of something.
“The sky.” I suddenly said.
“What about the sky?”
“Does seeing hearts in the sky ring a bell for you?” I asked her.
“I remember seeing something in the stars.”
“Check the sky at night to the north, which is the side that faces the front of the divine hall. When I want to see you, you’ll see the stars form two interlinking hearts. That will be my signal for you to meet me at the shores of the Eternal waters.”
“And what if I want to see you in the day?” she asked.
I bit my lip, “Good question. We’ll have to start meeting somewhere in the human world, eventually. To keep suspicion down here though, we’ll keep it to nightfall for now.”
Even Elohim wouldn’t disallow that. I thought.
XXIX. Starling:
I got a tour of Cam’s place, which was gorgeous and spaciously huge inside. It was creatively imaginative, and being privately hidden inside of an immense mountain was genius. It was nothing at all of how and where I imagined a fallen would live. It was spotless, and I mean absolutely clean and orderly. I found it adoringly funny; an obsessive compulsive fallen, who was a complete neat-freak.
He showed me around a small portion of the neutral lands. It was a mixture of both tan and black desert sand, dunes, caves, and thick, lush green forests; full of odd-looking trees, plant life, fruits and creatures.
Even though I had bathed at his place, Cam`ael reproduced the same clothes that I wore that night, even adding a few tears and dirt stains to make it more believable. Any scars cosmetically created by him, wouldn’t have been believable, let alone gone undetected, so there was no point.
“Any being can enter this area, remember that. To the east, there is the side of light. If you’re ever in any danger, head east and follow the scent of fresh water. Anything that smells of decay, rot or sulphur means that you’re heading in the wrong direction and you probably won’t last long. I usually keep watch from my domicile though. From there, I can see and hear everything coming from each direction.” He pointed.
He kept his weapon drawn just in case. He could see and sense a lot more than I could. Occasionally, there would be movement in a bush or up in a tree above, but they were nothing more than implings and the earth elementals, which were guardians of this area. Some were disguised as rocks, trees and bushes and they were defenders of the side of light. They too, would also help if any divine warriors needed them.
Most of the creatures here were familiar with Cam and they liked him. He and his friends were the few fallen that they did tolerate. I knew it was because of who he was and his light. They didn’t see a demon either; they saw a being who risked himself to try to do what was ultimately right in his eyes. I mean, he has been an angel before, so he would know what the right thing was even before I would. Regardless of having fallen, he remembered who he was and what he used to be. Nothing got in the way of that and that was one of the main reasons that I loved him.
“We can’t get too close. There are more eyes and ears out here than just scouts. Always be aware of your words out here.” He said.
Just then, something shifted in the bushes up ahead of us. We stopped abruptly, and he pulled me to him protectively.
I wielded my blades, which had become much easier for me to do now.
Cam`ael hefted his sword, pausing to listen and watch.
“You won’t need those. They’re not beings of darkness.” He then said to me.
I wrinkled my brows in confusion, turning to look up at him.
“Well now, what have we here?” A girls voice seemed to come out of nowhere.
Cam`ael grabbed me to him, quickly whirling around to face the voice. His wing was folded over me, like a shield. I peered around the downy soft feathers.
It was a petite girl…no, an angel girl; with short-cropped silver hair, mixed with glittering, hot pink highlights. I could tell by the radiant light illuminating from beneath her skin.
Dread dropped into the pit of my stomach just then.
I could only imagine what she was thinking, and what could possibly happen to Cam. What kind of divine warrior would I look like fighting against an angel in defense of a fallen?
“An unlikely pair. A divine warrior and a fallen.” A male voice sounded from above.
A young male angel, nearly identical in size and age; as if they could be twins, except for his shoulder length hair, sat on a large tree limb above us.
He was casually eating a large apple.
“An interesting pair, nonetheless.” The girl angel said, looking us over.
“Put that thing away before someone gets hurt, Cam`ael.” The male then said.
He finished his apple and lithely began floating down from the branch to land on his feet, which barely made a sound when he touched ground.
“We heard about what happened. We wanted to congratulate you personally on your expulsion of Baal.”
The girl said with a smirk and a bow.
“Nice work. One less evil beast in a sea of more than tens of thousands.” The male smirked.
“No thanks to you two.” Cam`ael then said.
I looked up at him. Did he know them? Was he in danger?
“We only did what we were required to do, in order to protect the humans. It was your decision to fight.” The male said with a tone of nonchalance.
“My decision was to protect her. They were all there for her, you guys know that.” Cam shot back.
“She was among her own and there were plenty who were trained to handle the situation, present.”
“What do you two want? To see if she’s been afflicted with darkness? To rescue her and slay me?” Cam`ael said in irritation.
“Stop, Cam!” I shouted mentally. They just might.
Cam shifted and looked down at me in shock. The expression on his face was as if he’d seen some creature he couldn’t explain for the first time.
“Did you just tell me to stop”?
I looked at him in peculiar alarm too. His mouth didn’t move at all but I distinctly heard his voice clearly…from the inside of my head!
The revelation stunned us both.
“Yeah.” I answered back telepathically.
“There’s no time to figure this one out right now. Keep it to yourself and don’t make it obvious.” He then relayed.
Though both surprised and excited that I had apparently established a mental connection with Cam somehow, I understood what he meant. I didn’t even nod the affirmation.
This was like a mental walkie-talkie, being able to talk to him anytime that I wanted to. It was all I could ever ask for and no one would ever know. I was beyond ecstatic.
The angel girl looked me over. Her eyes sparkled hypnotically, much like Spencer’s did, and then she smiled.
“Oh my. The bond here goes way deeper than the physical flesh, Aliks.” She placed a hand on her cocked hip.
My heart began to pound. Did they already know? They would be able to read right through me and see everything we did together. Would they tell the elders at the hall? I wouldn’t be able t
o go back there then.
Aliks clucked his tongue, “You’re right, Aon. This is most unusual and quite forbidden.”
“If you want to punish me, then punish and report me. Cam`ael isn’t to blame for anything. He saved me. He and those in his legion are the good guys.” I finally spoke up.
I felt Cam`ael’s grip on me tighten. A signal for me to shut up apparently.
“Don’t say too much.” His voice whispered in my head.
“Sorry.” I replied.
The girl chuckled and they both exchanged a brief glance.
For angels, they seemed awfully lax and juvenile, I thought.
“Report you? Calm down little one.” Aliks replied with a grin.
I was confused.
“You’re the one with the hallowed fire, aren’t you?” Aon asked.
I slowly nodded.
“Are you aware of that, Cam`ael?” She raised her pale blond brows at him.
“Of course I’m aware of it.” He replied.
“So you’re aware of how important she is to keep alive?”
“What are you two getting at?” Cam`ael replied. I could see his jaw working.
“Just checking.” Aon smirked.
Aliks and Aon began pacing in front of us.
“Apparently, neither one of you have thought this through. What would it look like, when Starling emerges on the grounds of the divine hall, unscathed?” Aliks began.
Cam`ael sighed. I assumed that he was agreeing with them.
“I have thought of that. The wounds I could conjure on her won’t pass the barriers. What other choice is there? At least she’s returning alive and unharmed.” Cam said.
Aliks smiled broadly, “Alive and unharmed but not untouched.” He said.
I blushed automatically.
I could feel Cam tense against me.
“How would they know that?” He asked.
Again, they laughed nearly in unison.
“Oh, come on. Even you know better than that. What, you mean with your essence and scent all over—and inside of her?”
I swallowed hard. My heart raced.
They both paused and studied us as if purposefully leaving us to wonder what the big finale would consist of, and what they really wanted, or what they were going to do.