Rebirth - The Beautiful Fallen

by K. D. Peters

  Zane seemed to catch onto my thoughts, although I couldn’t say it surprised me too much that he did. He was almost as good as Chris at telling when something wasn't right with me. “Don’t worry so much. Nothing’s going to happen to you here. Besides, I’m here too.” he assured me as he put an arm around me.

  “Thanks.” I replied. I couldn’t say that I felt completely comfortable with this gesture, but I was at least willing to take it. Zane had always been very friendly towards me. In fact, I couldn’t remember a time since we’d met that he hadn’t been. In a way, it made me a bit wary. But at the same time, I blamed that on my childhood. Mama had instilled the distrust of people in general deep within me. His actions didn’t necessarily mean anything more than his seeing me as a very good friend, or even like a little sister. Zane just struck me as the type of person to think that way, especially with how he was always offering to help me with things and teach me new things.

  But I let myself let go of all of this as we stood there. Looking up at the nearby street clock, I saw that it was nearly six thirty. The evening was beginning to move in, and the shadows were starting to get longer. “So, what do you want to do now?” I asked him. I was kind of hoping that he’d just want to head home. Needless to say, I had a lot of bad experiences at night, and I wasn’t looking to add another to the list if I could help it.

  But heading back apparently wasn’t on Zane’s mind then. Instead, he just smiled over at me. I felt a little bit taken back by that smile. Once again, I considered just how he may have looked at me. His smiles really weren’t that flirtatious anymore. Instead, they reminded me of what an older brother would have given his baby sister. “Why don’t we get some dinner while we’re out here? It is moving on in the afternoon now, and it would take longer at the house to make it.” he suggested.

  “I guess so. Although I still wish Chris would’ve come with us.” I admitted as we began walking.

  “Well, unfortunately Christoff isn’t the type who likes doing things like this. I keep telling him that he needs to expand his horizons more, but I don’t think he’ll ever listen to me. It’s been that way for a long time now. I practically have to wager him something to get him to do anything like this, even if it’s with you it seems.” Zane said.

  “You mean like when you bet him the Corvette just to pass a semester of college at Harvard?” I said, feeling the smile cross my face.

  “So he told you about that? Oh well. I lost that bet fair and square.” Zane lamented.

  “He said that you took three years to pay up too.” I added.

  Zane shrugged his shoulders slightly. “What can I say? I don’t like to lose to him with anything. It’s in my blood I suppose.” He said, turning his head away from me and clearing his throat slightly.

  By then, we had come to one of the nearby restaurants. Going inside, we took a seat at one of the open tables. The place was busy, but didn’t seem too terribly crowded. I felt a few of the people glance up at us, but that was nothing unusual anymore either. A lot of people around there looked at us. I blamed it on what we were. After all, it seemed like all of the Shadow Wings did tend to have beautiful looks, and there didn’t seem to be an exception to the rule from what Zane had told me before. It was something that many of us apparently used to our advantage.

  We sat down at a small table in one of the more secluded corners. Neither of us had ever liked our conversations being overheard. And, aside from that, sitting there made it easier to keep people from staring at us. Looking at the menu, I considered just having a nice salad. I wasn’t too terribly hungry.

  “Go ahead and order whatever you like. It’s my treat.” Zane told me.

  “Thanks.” I said, giving him a quick smile. But as I looked at the menu, I once again thought about his earlier comment. Going head to head with Chris was in his blood. “Hey Zane, can I ask you a question?” I finally said.

  “Go ahead.” Zane replied.

  Here went nothing. “Who is your father? Can you tell me now?” I asked him.

  For a moment, Zane was quiet. But I saw the surprise in his eyes. “Why do you ask?” he finally said, sounding a little unsure now. That was unusual for me to see with Zane. He'd always seemed very confident.

  “Well… I was just curious about it. I know about Chris's and you all know about mine. And it seems like Will never wants to talk about his. So I thought I’d try to ask you about yours.” I said.

  By that time, the waiter was coming over. He was a young guy, kind of on the skinny side with dark hair. I didn’t miss him taking an extra-long look at me as well. Once again, nothing unusual there… “What can I get you two today?” he asked us after a moment of apparently composing himself.

  “Um, I’ll just have a Caesar Salad and a Coke please.” I requested.

  “A Pomegranate Martini and a Chef Salad for me.” Zane told him.

  The waiter nodded, then hurried off. But I didn’t miss how nervous he still looked. He probably was thinking that I was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. Trust me, I don’t say it because of vanity. I really had heard that several times in the last month there. Seriously, what kind of a pickup line do they think that is?

  Across the table, Zane watched him walk away. Then, he looked back at me. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t really mind too much about talking with you about these things. But I have to say, I am surprised. I didn’t think that you would be that interested in my past.” He said.

  “Why not? You’re like me, right? So I don’t think it’s wrong for me to be interested.” I said. Again, I found that he’d effectively made us avoid the subject of Will by not bringing him up. But I decided to just drop it for now. After all, at least it looked like Zane may have been considering telling me a little bit more about himself.

  “I suppose you do have a point when you put it that way.” Zane said. He glanced back around, then sat back slightly in his chair. “Although I’m not too sure you’ll want to hear about it once I start telling you. It’s a rather morbid story when it comes right down to it.”

  “Trust me, I’ve heard and seen a lot alreay. And you know about what happened with Faith Kent when she had me. So I’m not that worried after getting to see that.” I said.

  Zane smiled at me. “Very well. I suppose I can’t argue with that one, so here goes. I’ll start first with my own bloodline. My father, as like yours and Chris’s, is indeed another Fallen angel, or demon, you could say. In fact, he’s a pretty powerful one. I will not say his name because that can invite him, and I have no desire for his trouble in my life right now. He’s always caused it for me unfortunately. I also will call myself a bloodline because I’ve had half siblings before me and after me as well. I am the only survivor of them all at this point in time.” He explained.

  “Really? Did they hunt them all down?” I asked. That actually was pretty sad to think. But then again, the whole thing about us being hunted bothered me deeply. It just wasn’t fair. Just why were they killing us when we didn’t even ask to be born? We hadn’t hurt anyone by simply being alive.

  But Zane’s reply to my question immediately pulled me away from any of these thoughts. “Not at all. He killed them himself.”

  “Wait a minute. Are you saying your own father killed your brothers and sisters?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Indeed. Because they weren’t strong enough. That’s how it is with the ones like myself. When we’re born from one like him, we’re expected to be strong, and that’s that. So when we reach a certain age and have had our wings for a while, he comes to us and tests us. Either we fight back and pass, or we die.” Zane told me.

  I just stared at him, hardly believing what I was hearing. Their own father hunted them down and killed them? “But that doesn’t make any sense. If you weren’t taught to fight or anything, how could you have begun to stand a chance?” I wondered out loud. I’ll admit now that this bothered me on a much deeper level then even the thought of those angels hunting us did. But then again, I
also knew what Chris had kept telling me too. It wasn’t only those angels and creatures that we had to keep watching out for. We also had to be careful of our fathers as well, considering that they could just turn on us.

  “Well, there are always ways to learn how to fight. My own was actually from my mother’s older brother. You see, I am just about as old as Christoff when it comes down to it. He has me beat by probably sixty or seventy years, but that’s close enough. And like his mother’s family, mine also figured out fairly quickly that I was not to be a normal baby. My mother herself was a young girl of maybe thirteen or fourteen years of age from what I came to know. From what my uncle told me when I awoke as a Shadow Wing, she began telling her mother that something was coming into her room at night and raping her in her bed. Her parents even tried to keep an eye on her during the night, and witnessed one of the attacks. And when she turned up pregnant with me about five months after that started, her mother and father figured out the awful truth to my origins rather quickly. But they also knew there was nothing they could do about it either, for there was no such thing as abortions back then.

  “Of course, when the girl died when right after I was born, her father was ready to kill me. But he was stopped by the Fallen who created me. Quite violently as a matter of fact. He ended up killing him and my grandmother, then issued his demands to my uncle about my becoming strong enough to face him, or he’d return and destroy the rest of the family as well. Needless to say, my uncle took heed of his words, and taught me how to fight in hopes of achieving revenge against the creature and saving what was left of the family. I can honestly say that he was the biggest reason that I survived that first initial fight with my father. I managed to stand up to my father and actually somewhat win, and my prize was being able to live for another day.” Zane explained.

  The story itself was a little more than horrifying to me. Not to mention the visions I was getting with it. Chris had taught me how to close that channel in my mind a few weeks before, but I’d reopened it to see just what Zane was talking about. And everything he’d said was very true from the past. In the visions was a young teenage girl in a house that looked like it may have been from the Victorian Era of England. She was very beautiful, with light green eyes and curly long hair that was a black as a raven’s wings. But she was also very troubled. Night after night, she was being visited by a very dark figure, who would appear at her bed and proceed to rape her. She couldn’t move, or even scream when this happened. All she could do was lay there and cry as he had his way with her. Even her parents were powerless to stop the attacks, although they began calling on their priest and church for help. But nothing they did could stop the dark predator from attacking her, and the pattern continued for several months like that.

  That was, until one dreary fall day. That was the day that the girl came to her mother and showed her that her belly was growing. She was pregnant. Within a few months, she would give birth, and die of hemorrhaging as soon as the baby came out. I saw her mother screaming as her father pushed her aside and held up a knife up above the newborn baby boy, but he was suddenly and violently stopped by the dark shadow, which had appeared out of nowhere. There was so much violence in that room after that. Blood covered the floors and walls as they were torn apart by the shadows themselves…

  It was right after this happened that I saw a young man of maybe sixteen or seventeen come rushing into the room. He stared in horror at the scene, then ran over and grabbed the crying baby from the bed to take him out. But as he did, the shadow appeared in front of him, and turned into a more human like form. The Fallen it became was very menacing. He was very tall and wore dark clothes, with piercing red eyes and long black hair that was tied back behind him. He told the boy to make sure he took care of his son now, and that he’d better make him strong, or else, he’d come back and kill them and the rest of the family that was left. And precisely twenty years later, that’s exactly what he did. He came back, and nearly killed Zane that first time they fought. And when Zane managed to win, he laughed in his face as he told him that he’d let him live. Apparently, he’d come back several times since to continue this pattern as well.

  Zane just smiled at me gently as I sat there. “So you can see it now. Well, that’s what it is for the ones like me. Unfortunately, there aren’t many choices but for us to be strong. Of course, it also gives me a bit of an edge against Christoff too. I never underestimate anything out of sheer force of habit. Although I do admit that when I train with him and Will, I do tend to be lazy anymore. It’s just a bad habit I’ve developed in the last fifty or so years.” He admitted.

  For a moment, I debated about what to say to that one. After all, I remembered Chris’s words very well. Even though he considered Will and Zane as friends, he also would never put it past them to turn on us for purposes of power. “But you wouldn’t turn on us, right?” I finally asked.

  “Not at all. I never would do anything to hurt those I consider friends, even if he doesn’t like it. Power plays are one thing, but finding allies is a complete other. And I happen to enjoy the position I’m in now in my life. It’s quite comfortable for me.” Zane replied.

  By then, the waiter was coming back with our drinks. But he looked a little bit odd this time. His eyes looked a little darker, and he certainly wasn’t acting half as nervous as he had when we’d first sat down. “I’m sorry, but it’ll be a few more minutes on the salads.” He told us in a deep, low voice.

  Zane looked at him for a moment, as if he was studying him. But then, he just smiled back at him as though nothing was wrong. “That’s okay. We don’t mind.” He said.

  The waiter nodded, then walked back. I looked back at Zane. “What was that?” I asked quietly.

  “Don’t worry. It’s nothing that could hurt us. And it’s not angelic either. I suppose even talking about him stirs things up anymore.” Zane said. I didn’t miss how his eyes narrowed slightly as he said it though. Obviously, he didn’t like what had just happened here at all. But he was going to downplay it on my behalf. I’d found that all three of them were good at doing that when it suited them. Again, it was that protective big brother complex in my mind.

  Thankfully, our dinner seemed to go by smooth enough. But I still felt uneasy. That waiter was watching us now. And he seemed to be doing it very closely. A few times, I noticed Zane glance over towards him and nod. It was almost like they were talking through telepathy. I wanted to ask him about it, but found that I just couldn’t bring myself to. A part of me just didn’t want to know what was going on yet. So instead, I tried to act like nothing was wrong and held onto my pendant. I felt it get warm a few times in my hand, a sign that Saffron was with me. He may have even been aware that something wasn't right there. I wondered if he’d speak to me in private when he had the chance.

  As the waiter brought us back the change from the bill though, Zane grabbed him by his wrist. “By the way, why hijack this one? Does he need to speak to me about something?” he asked him.

  The waiter looked at him for a moment, his darkened eyes almost smoldering. “Go out to the alleyway leading to Jefferson Street. He will speak with you there. And bring the girl.” He ordered.

  And with that, he pulled back his hand and walked away. I watched him for a moment, then looked back at Zane. “Will he be okay?” I had to ask.

  “He’ll be fine. In fact, I look for the one inside him to leave in the next few minutes, considering he was only being used to deliver a message. I apologize Ariana, but I’m going to need you to accompany me out of here now for this meeting. I don’t think that I need to tell you that not doing so could bring a lot more trouble.” Zane told me.

  I nodded, although I couldn’t deny how nervous I felt inside about this. Just what was calling us out? I had a bad feeling that it had something to do with Zane’s father. And with what I saw before, I had no doubt now that he was extremely dangerous. Possibly even more so then Jade. In a way, I was kind of cursing my luck now. Just why did al
l this dangerous stuff always seem to show up when all I wanted to do was to go out and enjoy my life a little? Why me?

  “Don’t worry darling. He won’t hurt you. And if this one lets him, I’ll personally rip his head from his shoulders once I get out of here.” I heard Saffron say. I could feel the pendant’s warmth as he spoke, but it didn’t glow this time. He was being incognito now.

  “I get it. And I’ll watch what happens with her. I know better than to not take your threats of harm seriously.” Zane said quietly.

  “You’d better.” Saffron said. And with that, he was gone again.

  Zane let out an exhausted breath, standing back up and helping me out of my seat. “Come on. Let’s get going. I don’t want this to run into total nightfall, and it’s already starting to get dark.” He said.

  The two of us walked out of that restaurant rather quickly. I followed Zane closely, trying to discreetly watch the faces around us. But everyone looked the same. Still, I couldn’t help but feel nervous about what was about to happen. Had Zane’s father really called on us? He seemed like the most likely candidate for this. After all, we had been talking about him before that happened. It only made sense.

  The place that the man had been talking about wasn’t that far from the restaurant, or even our home for that matter. The alleyway itself was pretty long, and lined by buildings with no visible windows on either side of it. Even the doors that opened into it weren’t really used anymore, considering that many of the businesses there had vacated decades before. Walking in there, there was only the occasional dim light and signs lighting the shadows. I could hear our footsteps echo in there as though we were walking right into a cave or something. Moving myself closer to Zane, I couldn’t help but shiver slightly. It felt colder there. And I didn’t think it was just from the darkness.