“Hesitation doesn’t always mean bad,” he tried reassuring her but had no idea how to do so.
“Are they pretty? No, but that doesn’t mean they make you look ugly.”
Jenna glanced up at him from under her lashes, “But I’m disfigured now.”
He shrugged handing her the bowl of oatmeal. “They’ll get better.”
“Will?” Jenna asked hiding her new scars.
“Hmm?” he said as he looked around her room at the many painted pictures, probably made by Jenna herself. He paused by one of a man in shadows with black hair and black wings that eerily resembled himself. Will jerked with the realization that Jenna’s memory had been slipping through whatever protective shield she’d had placed many years ago before he’d even found her here.
“What happened last night?” Jenna’s voice drew him back.
“Eat your breakfast.”
“Tell me what happened, and I’ll eat,” Jenna offered.
Will sighed and crossed over to her bed sitting in the corner of her room and sat at the end, “Fine.”
Jenna smiled as she took a big bite burning her mouth but she ignored the pain. He wasn’t usually so agreeable.
“I heard you scream, and I came in and killed the demon who was trying to kill you.”
“That’s all you’re going to give me?” Jenna asked irritated.
“That’s pretty much all that happened,” he shrugged.
“Do you have wings?” she blurted out. Realizing her mistake she shoved oatmeal in her mouth and prayed he hadn’t understood her. She hadn’t meant to ask him, but it slipped before she fully comprehended exactly what she was asking. Glancing at her painting she had painted a couple years she knew now that it was Will in the picture.
Will looked at her with an odd expression, “What?”
“Never mind,” Jenna said around her mouthful of food.
“No, you asked if I had wings,” his eyes grew darker. “What did Richard tell you, and where did he go last night?”
She looked away from him as though avoiding his gaze would redirect his anger.
“Jenna,” he said sharply. “What did he tell you?”
“He said he was working when I came in and demanded a meeting with his boss,” Jenna began and told Will everything her dad had told her, “but how could it have been 1716? He says we’re immortal, but how can that be? And who I am? I don’t even know if I can believe any of it. This stuff happens in books, not in real life.”
Will’s frown deepened when she finished talking. He stood shaking his head, “Stupid, Richard!”
“What?” Jenna asked surprised. “You don’t need to be rude.”
“No, I can be,” he snapped. “He didn’t tell you a damn thing and then ran off to Chicago. For what? There’s nothing there!”
“What are you saying? He said his boss called.”
“Headquarters aren’t in Chicago. Dammit!” Will slammed his hand down on her desk making the legs crumple and the desk fall with a loud crash.
“Will!” Instinctively, Jenna tried to leap up, though, she would have collapsed if Will hadn’t caught her. “You need to calm down, Will.”
He just glared at her as he pushed her back into bed, “I can’t believe this.”
“What?” Jenna sighed heavily from the effort of trying to stop him. Every movement made her feel faint. Not only was her body weak from the attack but her mind was reeling with all the strange mysterious information that didn’t make sense.
“What was the name on the paper?”
“What?”
“The paper you said your dad gave you; you didn’t tell me the name on it.”
“I…” Jenna paused, glancing at her broken desk where she’d left the paper last night. Should she tell Will? Why did she feel like she shouldn’t?
“Angel,” Will said softly, “if I’m going to help you then I need to know everything you do.”
Jenna looked up at him; his eyes were no longer black but a dark grey. It was those eyes she’d dreamt of so many times. Those eyes she knew she could trust. “Mae Rothwell.” Jenna decided she couldn’t figure out what she needed on her own and who else could she ask other than the man sitting before her?.
“Are you serious?” Will threw his head back and laughed.
Jenna glared at him afraid she’d made a mistake, “If you know something then please share it with those who are less fortunate.”
“You know Mae! You and her go way back,” Will continued laughing.
“No, Will!” Jenna snapped, “I do not know Mae. I’ve never heard her name before last night.”
Will stopped laughing his face settling into a mask void of emotion, “Okay.”
“I take it by your reaction you know who she is?”
“I do,” he nodded, “little witch, still working both sides.”
“Sides?” Jenna inquired.
“Great,” he grumbled again.
“Please, Will, help me!” Jenna wrung her hands together, “I’m scared. Why did that demon attack me? How can I be immortal? Who am I? What am I?”
“You’re very important,” Will looked at her.
“Am I human?” she whispered still clasping her hands tightly together.
He shook his head, “No, Jenna.”
“Then what am I?”
“An angel.”
“Angel?” She said to herself still unsure if she were dreaming or not. How could she be something so majestic when in reality she was a loner? “Is that why you call me Angel?”
Will smiled, “It is.”
“What makes me so special? I mean I feel normal, human normal, how do you know you’ve got the right person?”
“You’re the right person and what makes you special is without you, we wouldn’t have a sun,” Will hated telling her any of this, but he needed her to want to find Mae in order to contact Mae himself. Without Jenna’s determination to discover her identity, he’d have nothing; he just didn’t want to be the one to tell her.
“What?” Jenna could feel her mouth sag open.
“You are the Sun Angel.”
“Who are you?”
The question startled Will, “Why?”
“Are you an angel too?”
“I am,” he answered slowly.
Jenna laughed, “So then when my memory is restored, we can still hang out in heaven!”
“We don’t live in heaven,” Will interrupted her fantasizing. “That’s where the North Angels live.”
“North Angels?”
“Heavenly Angels are North Angels,” Will explained. “The Fallen Angels, or demons, are the South Angels. The Sun Angels are the East Angels, and the Moon Angels are the West Angels.”
“Huh,” Jenna nodded going through it a few times, “so there is more than one Sun Angel?”
“Yes and no. You’re like the princess of the Sun Angels.”
“Princess?”
“Yes.”
“What are you? A Knight Angel?” Jenna giggled.
“How did you know that?” Will snapped standing up. “Who told you?”
Jenna stopped laughing, “I didn’t; no one told me anything. I was just making a joke. I didn’t know it was bad for me to know.”
“It’s not, I guess,” he said sinking back down.
“So who do you guard?” Jenna asked timidly. “Can I know that?”
Will now looked confused, “What? I don’t guard anything.”
“So then how can you be a knight angel if you don’t guard anything?”
“Oh!” Will grinned. “You mean knight with a ‘k’!”
“Yes, what did you- oh!” Jenna finally understood.
Will started laughing and Jenna joined in. It took a few minutes for the giggles to subside.
“Sorry,” Will said recovering.
“So you’re a West Angel?” Jenna asked.
Will nodded, “I am.”
“Yesterday when I asked if we were friends and you told me no, does t
hat have anything to do with the sun and moon?”
“It plays a big part in it.”
“Oh,” Jenna nodded as an uncomfortable silence fell between them. What kind of world did he live in if they couldn’t be friends based on where they were from? “Can I ask why?”
He shrugged, “It’s been so long, I’m not sure. I do know our kingdoms used to get along. We would have dances and parties all the time.”
“Were we friends then?” Jenna asked hopeful. Maybe it was possible for them to be friends.
Will laughed, “You could say that.”
“So what happened between us?” Jenna asked.
Will looked down at his hands, “Sorry, Jenna, I can’t tell you that.”
“Why not?” she asked softly.
“I don’t want to remember it,” he looked up at her. “It wasn’t pretty.”
Jenna smiled sadly, “Can we ever be friends again?”
“No,” he shook his head.
Jenna felt her heart lurch in pain but she ignored it pushing down the hurt that threatened to choke her. “Can you tell me why that demon attacked me?”
“He wants you dead,” Will’s voice hardened.
“Why?” Jenna’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open in surprise. Who’d want to kill her? She was only an eighteen year old girl just trying to get through high school.
Will sighed, “Jenna, you have an important memory that people want.”
“I wonder what it is,” Jenna said thoughtfully feeling a little funny she had a whole hidden life she couldn’t remember. “Wait, you made me promise you a memory.”
He looked at her, “And?”
“You’re after that memory too, huh?”
“You have to give it to me,” he frowned; he’d hope she wouldn’t have made the connection, but she was smarter than that and he knew it. “You made a promise and with you being an angel you can’t break that promise.”
“And you knew that when you asked me for it, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
Jenna was fuming, “How dare you!”
“I had to do what I needed to, to get it,” he shrugged.
“Get out of here!” Jenna yelled as tears fell down her cheeks. She hated how everything made her cry, but Will’s lie was far worse than anything she’d experienced. She trusted him; how could he deceive her like that?
“No,” he said moving away from her so she couldn’t hit him.
“I don’t want you here! You cheated me!” Jenna was now sobbing, her heart ached.
Will felt awful inside but remained impassive on the outside. He couldn’t let her know just how much she affected him. If she asked him to take the promise back now he would, just to make her feel better, but she couldn’t know she had that much control over him.
“Please leave, Will,” her crying slowed.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I have to protect you,” he answered folding his arms.
“I don’t need you,” she mumbled, “I don’t want you.”
She was trying to hurt him, just like he hurt her-- he knew that. He frowned at her, not liking the way she spoke to him. It was like hearing her rejection all over again. The words rang through his head, “Get out of here, Will. I don’t need you. I don’t even want you!”
He shook his head trying to get rid of the image of her walking away from him to follow the South Angels.
“I can’t leave you, Angel,” he said softly.
“And why not?” she glared at him.
“I told you, I have to protect you,” he said.
“Fine!” she grumped. “But do me a favor and don’t talk to me.”
Jenna rolled over and fell asleep, exhausted from her angry outburst and Will’s betrayal. She fell immediately into a nightmare.
“I did what I needed to do,” Will shouted at her.
He was dressed in his usual black and had his big elegant wings spread out. She looked in awe at him. How did he get more beautiful every time she saw him?
“You don’t know what you’ve done!” Someone screamed back.
Jenna turned away from Will to see who he was talking to. At first she had thought he was talking to her but realized he wasn’t. When she found who he was talking to she gasped in surprise.
It was another version of her but this Jenna had golden wings spread out behind her. This Jenna looked haughty and held herself taller.
Behind her stood three other angels; they had a dark eerie glow about them. Jenna edged away from them uncomprehending as to why this angel version of herself was with them.
“No, Jenna,” Will said, “you don’t know what you’re doing!”
“Stop being such a baby, Will,” Jenna mocked him. “You know he’s right and he will win. What side do you want to be on?”
Will shook his head and looked down, “Please don’t put me in this situation. Come home with me. We don’t have to choose either; it’s not our fight.”
“Just like the coward I always knew you were,” Angel Jenna laughed a harsh laugh.
Jenna could see the hurt all over Will’s face, which surprised her; usually Will kept his emotions hidden. Why was Angel Jenna being so cruel to him?
“Please, Jenna,” Will pleaded stepping forward, reaching for her. His hand brushed hers and he gasped, pulling it away quickly, “What’ve you done?”
“That’s right, Will,” Angel Jenna leered, “you can’t touch me now.”
She lifted her finger and dragged it down Will’s cheek, burning him as she went. He winced but otherwise held still.
Angel Jenna pouted her lips, “You know I love you, Will. So come with me…he can make it so where we can touch again.”
Will shook his head, “It’s not going to end well, Jenna. You know that.”
“Don’t!” She grabbed his face hard and hissed, “you don’t know a thing.”
Tears came to Will’s eyes as she held him; his skin began to sizzle making Jenna step forward to help. Her hand went right through Angel Jenna’s hand.
Angel Jenna laughed, “You craven.”
Throwing his head away from her in disgust, she turned and sauntered off with the other three angels who had remained silent through their exchange.
“I’d watch myself if I were you, William,” Angel Jenna smirked over her shoulder. “I’m going to kill you, I promise you that much.”
Jenna watched as Will’s face healed slowly from Angel Jenna’s touch. He held his chin glaring at her, breathing heavily.
“You don’t know what you’re getting into,” he called after her.
She just laughed in response before flying away.
Jenna snapped awake. What a strange dream; she shook her head trying to clear it away. She looked across her room and found Will still there, writing something at her desk, his back to her.
“You’re still here?” she asked, her irritation returning, though less intense.
“Of course, Angel,” he said keeping his back to her.
She slid out of bed and slowly tested her weight on her legs. She was weak but could stand. Taking her time, she made her way over to Will to see what he was doing.
“What are you writing?” She said grabbing the chair for support.
“Nothing,” Will slipped the paper into his pocket and turned to her.
Her vision started to blur, and she started seeing black, “I think I need to sit down,” she said flopping down as her legs gave way.
“Whoa!” cried Will as Jenna dropped onto his lap. He wasn’t expecting it and didn’t have time to react.
“Sorry,” Jenna mumbled and leaned back.
“Why don’t I get you to bed?” Will said trying to stand up.
“But I’m tired of my bed,” she complained.
“Fine,” he said pulling her up into his arms so he could stand. “Then I’ll put you on the couch.”
Jenna nodded snuggling her head into Will. She breathed deeply taking him in. He smelled like pepp
ermint and it helped clear her mind making her feel grounded.
“Are you smelling me?” he asked in disbelief.
“No,” Jenna said but continued to smell him.
“Uh, huh,” Will chuckled.
He set her down on the couch carefully. Jenna groaned as he moved away from her causing him to chuckle again.
No longer feeling faint, Jenna sat up a little, “I had a strange dream.”
“And?” Will asked not really caring as he settled himself into a chair next to the couch.
She rolled her eyes, “It really bothers me. It felt like I was watching a movie.”
“What was it about?” he asked absentmindedly as he looked out the window for any signs of danger.
“You were there and so was I, only…I was different.” Jenna paused, recalling the dream. “I had wings. And I was a jerk, a real big jerk.”
“What’s new?” Will muttered, not paying much attention as he watched one of his Grim’s pace the front yard.
“We were fighting about sides,” she continued. “I was saying something about someone being right and that you needed to choose a side. Then you touched my hand, and it burned you.”
“What?” Will asked finally absorbing what she was saying.
“My touch burned you,” Jenna repeated. “Plus there were three other angels there.”
“What did they look like?”
She shrugged, “I wasn’t watching them but I do remember one was a woman and one of the guys had black hair.”
Will pulled out his phone and dialed some numbers.
“What are you doing?” Jenna asked.
“Hey, I’ve got a question,” he said into the phone while holding up his finger to Jenna. “Can dreams be memories breaking through?”
Jenna’s mouth fell open in surprise. Could that have been a memory?
“Okay, thanks.” He closed his phone then turned to Jenna. “Well that dream you had wasn’t a dream after all. It was a memory.”
“What?” Jenna said to herself. “I was really like that?”
Will didn’t answer.
“Answer me, Will,” Jenna’s voice shook. “Was that how I used to be?”
“Yes,” he stared at her.
Jenna felt sick inside; she couldn’t breathe. She gasped for breath, “I…you... I can’t breathe.” She was panicking feeling hot and cold at the same time.
The Sun Angel Page 10