by Kish Knight
****
Once they had passed the creature, Jalen’s room was only a few doors down.
The little boy lay in the bed, slumbering peacefully. Jalen. Her nephew. Brielle had never seen a child up close, never having had any younger siblings, adopted or otherwise.
The sunshine coming through the glass window made a small patch on her forearm. Neat beige drapes were pulled just enough to let the gentle sunlight into the hospital conference room. Everything was just so serene and peaceful, and standing with Charlize looking down at the little angel who was related to her, Brielle was awed.
Enchanted by his tiny stature and innocent presence, Brielle made up her mind. She would do it. Anything to help the little prince in the bed. Children shouldn’t have to worry staying alive. “I’ll do it,” she told Charlize.
A flash of elation crossed her sister’s face, before settling into simple gratefulness. “Thank you, Brielle. Thank you so much. Now, the thing will be for you to get tested to see if you are a match.”
“Right.” Brielle nodded as if in agreement, but really she wasn’t listening. She already knew that she would be a match; she had known this even before had she traveled to the small town.
All she had needed to get out of this trip was to decide whether Charlize and Jalen were people that she was willing to go under the knife for. Once she had gotten here, she had discovered that Jalen was an absolute sweetheart and Charlize seemed to be a good person as well.
So, she had made her decision.
Why not? Since the meeting had gone well, and she was satisfied that Charlize and her son weren’t bad people, she might as well agree to allow the waiting nurse to draw her blood for quick testing. Once the blood match was confirmed officially, then they could schedule surgery for the kidney transfer. There wasn’t any time to waste; Jalen was in desperate need of this transplant.
Right away, the nurse led her to a small office and motioned her to sit. Charlize sat next to her with an encouraging smile.
Efficiently, the nurse set up the needle and prepped Brielle’s arm, and then smiled lightly at her. “Just relax, ma’am. You’ll only feel a little pinch and then it will be all over.”
Brielle smiled tightly at the patronizing tone. She wasn’t afraid to be stuck by a needle. Once two vials of blood was drawn, the nurse excused herself and left to prepare both samples for the lab.
Of course, it was all just a formality; Brielle had been blood-typed before leaving home. She was a definite match for the rare blood type that her nephew carried. Obviously, she would have done it; there was no chance that she would have traveled all this way just to find out that there was no point because she wasn’t a match. It was why she’d had her detective investigate her sister. Not many people carried the rare blood type like her and her nephew. Brielle wasn’t interested in donating to a total stranger.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed and Brielle remembered that she had turned the ringer off before entering the hospital. Pulling it from her purse, she saw one missed call and a voicemail. It was all she could do not to roll her eyes as she saw the Caller ID.
Tarim. Her ex. ‘Ugh,’ she thought, ‘what now?’
With a polite smile to her sister, Brielle listened to the message. It was brief and was as shallow as the man himself. Tarim didn’t say anything about her nephew’s health. His message was simply, ‘Hey B. Miss your touch. I’m coming out there. See you at two.’
Now, Brielle regretted having told him anything about where she was going and what she was going to do. Annoyance filled her at the thought of Tarim visiting the small town where her new family resided.
The tumultuous relationship she’d had with Tarim Marks wasn’t anything she wanted to deal with at the moment. Over the past two years, they’d broken up and made up at least seven times. Most of those times were due to Tarim’s inability to focus on anyone’s happiness other than his own.
Unfortunately, the makeups were due to his irresistible charisma and charm. Besides, the public loved them as a couple and Tarim had the habit of playing up their connection for the tabloids.
Brielle’d had her own additional reason for coming all the way to the small town. Rushing to her family’s rescue kept her from having to make the decision to have another go-round with Tarim. She didn’t want to try anymore. Really, she was tired of him.
She wanted….a real connection with someone.
Unbidden, Isarin’s face rose in her mind, and without warning, a wave of heat rolled over her. The Angel was fine, whether he realized it or not, and he gave off a raw power that spoke to Brielle on a deeper level. Now that she thought about it, Isarin was the exact opposite of her ex.
Where Tarim was shallow and constantly concerned about keeping his hairline fresh, Isarin seemed to be wrapped in several layers of mystery. Nor did the Angel ever seem to worry about his appearance, evidenced by the multitude of obvious battle scars all over his body. The rugged nature of the Angel was the pure masculinity that drew Brielle to him.
As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she was intrigued by him. Then she wondered if her annoyance at Tarim visiting had anything to do with Isarin’s presence.
‘Damn girl,’ she thought. ‘You just met this guy, and he isn’t even human. Don’t throw away your whole life now….’
Stifling a sigh, she put the phone back into her purse. Across the table, her sister waited quietly, eyes politely averted.
“So,” Brielle started, forcing a friendly look to her face, “you work as a secretary?” She might as well try to have a conversation with her sister, otherwise just sitting there without talking would be awkward.
Her sister nodded quickly. “I do, yes.”
“How is that?”
With a shy smile, Charlize turned the empty cup around in her fingers. “It’s quiet. My company is really small, which is good because it allows me to get off when I need to, in order to take care of my son.”
“Ah.” Brielle nodded as if she cared, and then studied the room again. It wasn’t the most cheerful place that she had ever been.
More silence stretched between them.
“I’m really grateful that you’re doing this for us.” Her sister’s voice broke the quiet.
“Yeah, no problem. Family, right?” The words sounded odd coming from her lips.
Relief flooded her as the nurse returned to the room. Finally, she could make herself useful again. Getting to her feet, she nodded to the nurse. “Are you ready to take me?”
The nurse wore a concerned expression. “You’re not a match. In fact, your blood is quite different than any other type we have ever seen.”
“What? I’m afraid that you have made a mistake.” Quickly glancing down at her sister, Brielle watched the other woman drop her face into her hands. “I am a match. Test it again.”
“I’m sorry.” The nurse held steadfast to her words. “I know that you were all hoping for a positive result, but you’re simply not a match for his blood type. Sometimes no family member is.”
Stunned, Brielle gazed at her sister again, taking in the obvious devastation in her sister’s pose. “Perhaps your laboratory made a mistake. You need to test again.”
“Ma’am, as I said, you are not-,”
Brielle cut her off. “And as I said, you made a mis-,”
And then she froze.
Because just then, she had remembered Isarin’s pitying words from the day before.
“You’re a supernatural creature. You can’t give a kidney, blood, or any other thing to mortals. It doesn’t work like that.”
Anger washed over her in a wave. It seemed that the smug Angel’s words had been true. Everything was screwed, because before she had taken this trip, she had been a sure match for that little boy. She fumed at the fact that her ill-fated encounter with the celestial creatures had ruined her nephew’s chance of survival.
‘Fuck it, I need to fix this ASAP, and I know just the bastard to help.’
Grabbing her pu
rse and slinging over her shoulder, she fixed the nurse with a glare. Placing a comforting pat on her sister’s shoulder felt like the right thing to do, so she did.
“I’ll be back. Don’t cancel anything. He is getting that transplant.” With that, she left, her mind consumed with demons.
CHAPTER 5
On the drive all the way back to her hotel, Brielle cursed her bad luck for having gotten herself mixed up in her current situation. She needed a way to get back her human body, with no demon or angel blood, so that she could save Jalen’s life. She was his only hope, even if he didn’t know it yet. Her need to save him had grown into hardened determination.
The hotel loomed ahead of her, and she knew that she had less of a plan that she would like to admit. Help, the magical kind, would be great at the moment. Rolling her eyes, she thought, ‘Well maybe I can make my own magic.’
“Demon!” she whispered. “Where are you?” It was a longshot, but as far as she was told, an angel and a demon had merged inside of her. So, they should be good to help her do something. She focused all of her energy deep inside her core, and was rewarded with a faint stirring.
One of them was awake.
“Talk to me,” she hissed, “and not in that funky demon babble, either. In English.”
A slight rumble went through her brain. ‘Arec,’ a dark voice intoned.
The demon. Mortimchka.
“Like I said, no funky babble. I know you speak English. What self-respecting demon doesn’t?”
‘What, human?’ The shock of hearing the demon’s words threw her off for a second, and the words dried up in her throat. Then she caught herself.
“I need to get rid of my powers,” she thought of levitation, clairvoyance, etc. and added, “….for a little while. How can I do it? I know you know.”
‘Use the grimoire in your possession,’ Mortimchka grumbled. ‘It is active. It is what keeps myself and the bitch Angel trapped in your consciousness.’
“How?” she frowned, finally pulling up to the front of her hotel. She watched as a valet ran over to take her keys. But she was barely paying attention to him, because the demon’s voice came through loud and clear.
‘A spell from the book.’ It was said on a sneer, and the demon’s attitude annoyed her no end. But she couldn’t press him any further, because the feeling of having an extra person there was gone. By now, she was striding across the lobby towards the elevators, and was not going to do anything as self-destructive as talking out loud to the demon.
She didn’t speak again until she was back in her room. Then she sat on the bed and tried again. “Demon! Demon!,” she hissed to no avail. Her demon donor was gone, back to sleeping or whatever it was he did.
“Next option,” she said aloud.
Isarin slid through her thoughts. ‘I should contact him and get him to take away his damned powers.’
Silly of her; she hadn’t gotten any contact info from the surly Angel after he’d rescued her. Thinking about his rock-hard physique, she mused that she wouldn’t mind seeing him again. Preferably after she had gotten herself made up properly. It was a shame that he had seen her dressed down to fit into the poor neighborhood….normally, she would have looked stunning….
“Brielle, why do you even care?” she sighed aloud. It wasn’t like as if some sexy Angel from Heaven would be interested in a quick fling with her. For one thing, they lived too far apart. She didn’t live in this rattrap town, and clearly his home was wayyyy beyond her reach. If Angels were even allowed to have relationships….then, obviously a fine-ass being like him would have an equally beautiful angelic wife.
She sighed again, mentally forcing her thoughts to a grinding halt. “Stop.”
The only thing she needed to worry about right now, was getting her life back to normal. Which included finding a way to erase all of the current craziness from her life. She didn’t have a way to contact Isarin, anyway. But there was someone who she did.
Stopping in front of her closet, Brielle opened the door. There, on the ground, was the shirt she had worn the day before. She picked it up and found what she was looking for.
The sleek business card was still in the front pocket. Brielle wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not, but the card was hot to the touch. On the front of the card was a single name:
Katse
Turning it over, she found one line: an address. Apparently, that’s where she would be headed tonight.
But for now, there was something else to deal with: Tarim. There was no putting him off, since it had been almost two o’clock when she’d left the hospital. By now, her ex should have arrived in town. Any minute now, he would be calling her and she needed to be ready.
Quickly scanning her clothing, Brielle selected a pair of black leather shorts and a low-cut tank top. Sliding on a chunky necklace and matching bracelets, she hustled to freshen up her makeup. As she got ready, she couldn’t help but wonder about the weird world that she had found herself in. Especially in a small town such as this one.
‘The supernatural underworld,’ she thought sarcastically. ‘In everyday America.’ Truthfully, she wondered about the significance of the creatures’ inhabitation there. The town seemed to be a hub for them. Though she had told Isarin that she wanted nothing to do with his mission, she did want to investigate the town on her own. Maybe she could discover what was so special about the place. NOT that she had any intention of staying there. Once she got her nephew squared away, then she would be heading back to her normal life.
But….at the moment, she was curious.
She couldn’t satisfy that curiosity until after she’d met with Tarim. Thanks to his ill-timed visit, she had to wait.
Again, she found herself growing highly annoyed with her ex’s intrusion. Frustration pulsing in her brain made her scowl as she dropped her powder brush on the counter.
Makeup done, she decided to wear a pair of strappy heels for the occasion. Turning back to the closet, she scowled once more, thinking of Tarim and his selfishness.
The heels were in the closet. As she moved toward them, Brielle sucked her teeth at the thought of Tarim once more, and then gasped as there was a sudden POP in the air. The shoes hurtled out of the closet and slammed into her palm like a baseball.
Brielle winced, and then forgot about the pain as she realized that she had just made the heels levitate! And levitated them over to her, no less!
She swallowed slowly. This thing was real. Absolutely and completely real. She had abilities that a normal person didn’t.
‘Maybe it’s not all bad.’
Brielle put on her shoes, a faint smile playing at her lips. ‘These powers could be useful,’ she mused.
Just then, nausea rolled over her and she swayed on her feet. Catching herself before she fell, she gritted her teeth, forcing herself to stay upright.
“The hell?” she whispered. Suddenly, it was as if the room was spinning. She leaned against the back of the chair until the feeling passed.
‘Were those eggs this morning bad or something?’ she wondered.
A soft flutter in her brain. ‘You’re sick. Find the fores,’ a gentle voice said. Though her haze, Brielle recognized Enya’s voice.
There was that weird word again. Fores. “What do you mean, I’m sick?” she asked aloud sharply. Before the Angel could answer, if she’d even intended to, there came a pounding at the door.
“B! You in there?”
Tarim had arrived.
Scowling, Brielle realized that her conversation with Enya would have to wait. Another way that Tarim was holding her back. It wasn’t always that Enya was awake to talk, and it was highly possible that the dead Angel held the answers to get Brielle out of this mess. After all, she was the one who had gotten her into it.
Quickly, she crossed to the door and unlocked the deadbolt. On the other side, stood her ex, grinning broadly.
“Hi,” she said.
As always, Tarim looked great. Copper skin, close-crop
ped hair newly lined-up, jeans perfectly ripped and T-shirt fit tightly to enhance his muscular physique.
“Hey babe.” Without waiting, Tarim kissed her on the mouth, and then pushed his way into the room. “This where you stayin’? A’right. Ain’t great, but a’right.”
Brielle rolled her eyes. Of course, Tarim was probably booked in a very expensive hotel and was judging her accommodations. Her annoyance was returning.
“Yes, this is where I’m staying.”
He shrugged. “Get over here, girl.” With his phone out, Tarim pulled her into a one-armed hug and snapped a selfie of them. Then he turned away, fingers flying over the keypad, undoubtedly posting the picture of them online.