by Sarah Carter
“You know what,” Avery says, walking up. “I’m not going to object.”
“Me either,” Keifer laughs.
Turning to him, I say, “Why don’t you take a shower first, and then Katerina.”
He nods in agreement. “That sounds good.” Keifer heads into the bathroom and shuts the door.
“Come here for a moment,” Avery says, grabbing my hand, he starts to pull me to the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” I ask, looking at him oddly.
Katerina interjects. “The wards are still strong. I will be okay out here for a few minutes.” She winks.
Avery walks me into the bedroom and shuts the door. I turn to him. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he replies. “I just wanted to do this.” He grabs my face and kisses me.
The warmth instantly starts to filter through my body. My heart expands in light. We kiss each other for a while. Finally, I pull away. “What’s going on?”
“We are on the run from demons,” Avery teases.
I glare at him. “I meant with us.”
He looks down. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt this way before.”
“Me either,” I sigh.
“And what are you feeling?” Avery asks.
My eyes look into his. “The light. It grows when you touch me.”
Avery traces his fingers down my cheek. “Oh, I see, you’re using me to find the light,” he teases.
“Maybe,” I laugh, but my mind starts to wander to what could become of us if we aren’t successful in our endeavor. “I may still have to face Lucifer.”
“Remember what you feel in here,” Avery whispers, pointing to my heart.
I glance down at his hand. “What if you change your mind? What if you end up feeling less than I do? I will lose the light. I will lose what I’ve found.”
He takes a deep breath. “I get what you’re saying. I do. I built a fortress around my heart when my sister died and I didn’t think it would ever be penetrable.” My face and heart fall. “But,” he whispers. “I feel as though my heart is safe with you. I feel as if my soul is safe with you.”
“It is,” I reply softly, putting my hand on his chest. “You are safe with me, and not because you’re my charge.” We both laugh.
“Isn’t this all crazy though?” Avery asks.
“Beyond crazy,” I chuckle.
Avery shakes his head. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to wrap my brain around the fact that my mom and sister are safe together and my dad is rotting in hell.”
“He deserves that.”
“Oh, yes he does,” Avery agrees. He looks at me tenderly. “You have changed my world. You have changed the way I view everything. There are no words that can describe how that feels. I don’t want to lose that or you.”
A smile creeps across my face. “I’m not going anywhere. And in a few more days, we’ll be free of all this drama.”
“What about after that?” Avery asks. “There could still be a price for my head.”
“I don’t know what God’s plan is. We just need to get through now. We’ll deal with the rest later.”
Reaching down, Avery grabs my hands and brings them up behind his neck. I step closer to him and lean in. He smiles, so I smirk back. “So, what are we going to do for now?”
“I don’t know,” I reply, trying not to smile too much.
Avery bends over and kisses me. It’s slow, but I want more. I want to get lost in him. He moves his hands down my back and pulls me tight against him. We are flush against each other and my heart rate skyrockets. Avery’s hand goes up my shirt and his fingers trace down my spine. It’s like fire across my skin. I need him to touch me. I need to feel him all over me.
He starts to push me back towards the bed. I easily, and all too willingly, follow. We hit the bed and fall over. Avery moves from my lips to my neck. Gentle kisses send tingles everywhere. I can barely catch my breath. “Avery,” I exhale. I’m losing it. All self-control is going out the window. All I can concentrate is him and his body on mine.
“Raven,” he replies softly into my ear. “What do you want?”
“You,” I breathlessly reply.
Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door and it’s like the wind is knocked out of me. “Raven!” I hear Wyatt yell.
“What?” I gasp.
“What are we going to do about food?” He calls out.
“I don’t care!” I yell. Damn it, go away.
Wyatt says, “What?”
Avery and I look at each other. “Okay, now is not the time for this I guess,” I half laugh. Mostly out of disappointment. We both grudgingly get up. I walk over and whip the door open. “Really, Wyatt?”
He grins. “We’re hungry.”
“You’re always hungry, what do you want me to do about it?” I yell.
“How do you not have any food in this place?” He counters, thrusting out his hands.
Shrugging, I say, “I order in a lot.”
“Is there any place that delivers, other than Chinese?” He asks.
“Not breakfast,” I sigh. “We’ll have to go somewhere.”
Wyatt points behind him. “Katerina is taking a shower now.”
“We all need one,” I state. “We can figure out food afterwards.” Grabbing Avery’s hand, I pull him into the hallway.
Two hours later, we are all standing in the living room. “That was a very cold shower,” Julius says.
“What did you expect?” I retort. “I only have one water heater.”
“At least we’re clean,” Keifer says.
Avery says, “What popular restaurants are nearby?”
“Cracker Barrel?” I suggest.
“Dude, mass amounts of food,” Wyatt interjects, putting out his hands. “Lots of food.”
“Well, we can jump there,” I say. “We can do it at the back of the building. Hopefully no one sees us.”
Katerina claps her hands. “Let’s go!”
I grab Avery and we’re gone. When we get there, I spin around to see if there are any humans in view. “Good, no one saw us.”
“Let’s go inside before demons jump out from behind the dumpster,” Avery says, pulling me tightly against him. I grab his hand and we make it around to the front of the building. We walk in and there are a few families in the gift shop. They all look at us. One mom pulls her son towards her.
Israel snorts. “Room full of reapers,” he whispers.
“Let’s get a table,” I suggest. We walk over to the hostess stand and a woman is standing there. She gives us wide eyes. “We need a table for seven.”
She doesn’t say a word or move her eyes away from us. Grabbing menus, the hostess says, “Right this way.”
The darkness starts to creep through. I smile at her and she falters. “Raven,” Avery hisses. “Knock it off.”
Turning to him, I smirk. “I was just having a little fun.”
“Light,” he laughs. “Remember the light.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I draw out. He gives me a look as we get to the table. I turn to the hostess. “Thank you very much.”
She nods and says, “Your waitress will be right over.”
“Thanks,” I reply, forcing a smile. The hostess walks away and we all sit down.
“What is with you?” Avery asks.
I turn to him. “Just because I have found my light, doesn’t mean the darkness magically evaporated.”
“That’s a good point,” Katerina says, sitting across from me. “Just because she found her light, doesn’t mean the darkness goes away. She will need that darkness to reap. It’s good that she found her light, if only we all could. But she will still need the darkness, otherwise reaping will destroy her.”
Avery looks at me. “I guess you’ll go back to reaping after this, huh?”
“This isn’t us saving mankind. This is us saving the fallen,” I answer. “I’m still a reaper and souls will still need to go to hell.”
�
��It’s an intense job,” Wyatt whispers, looking at his menu. “Maybe that’s why reapers are half and half. So, that we can handle it. I don’t think full angels could do what we do.”
Never thought about it that way. “I guess the whole point is for us to find the equal ebb and flow,” I declare.
Suddenly, I feel energy sweep over me. Two guys are walked to a table near ours. They take their seats but when the hostess walks away, their eyes turn to us. “What’s up?” Avery asks.
“Fallen,” I breathe out. Closing my eyes, I try to stop time again. When I open them, everyone is frozen. The two fallen angels start to stand up, so we do too. I whip out my seraph blade and let the darkness take me over. Bring it on, punks.
“Wait!” One of the fallen angels says, putting up his hand.
“What do you mean, wait?” I snarl.
Both fallen raise their hands in the air. “We aren’t here to hurt you.”
I snort. “Like I believe you.”
“The fallen have hope,” the one on the right says. “We have come to tell you that. A demon let it slip and word spread like wildfire.”
I hesitate. This could be a trap and I say as much. “What have you heard? How do we know this isn’t a trap?”
“Because, we’re leaving,” the fallen on the left says. “We just wanted to tell you, there is hope amongst the fallen.”
“You are still under Lucifer’s command,” I state.
“We hope someday that his hold is broken,” the left fallen says. They step out from behind the table. I raise my blade. The other reapers pull out weapons. The fallen raise their hands again. “We’re leaving now.”
Nudging my head, I say, “Best start walking.”
“Save us, please,” he says.
“That’s the plan,” Avery replies.
They nod their heads and then disappear. The people start to move again. I slap my seraph blade across my back and we sit down. “The hell was that about,” Israel whispers. “If Lucifer finds out they were here and didn’t attack, he will torture them for the rest of eternity.”
“Not if we save them,” Avery says.
Israel looks at him. “Okay, big shot, what’s your big plan to do that? From where I sit, you’re the HUMAN casualty in this situation.”
“Trying to dissolve the tension that’s clearly building between Israel and Avery, Wyatt interjects, “Let’s concentrate on food for right now,” Wyatt says. “I’m starving.”
We all look down at the menus. I really wish we had more information. To have some clue of what is supposed to happen. How are we supposed to do any of this if we don’t know what this is? I don’t get what a human has to do with the plan to save the fallen. Why would a human even be involved? And what is my purpose in all of this?
We’re all able to finish our food without further interruption. Thank you, God. We needed a break. We laughed and for an hour, it felt like everything was normal. Avery looks at me. “How are we going to pay for this?”
I pull cash out of my pocket. “I grabbed my stash.”
“If you can’t materialize money, how do you get it?” He inquires slowly, looking at me suspiciously.
“Marks,” I reply. “They don’t need it after I finish reaping their souls.”
“Isn’t that stealing?” Avery laughs.
Looking at him, I say, “Listen, if Earth is where I’m supposed to work and reside, I’d rather not be completely homeless.”
“You could get a real paying job,” Avery states, looking serious. I give him a deadpan stare. He busts out laughing. “I’m kidding. Could you imagine a reaper flipping burgers?”
“No,” I say seriously.
He wiggles his eyebrows. I smirk and shake my head. We start to walk to the front of the restaurant to pay the bill. “You could nanny,” Avery quips.
I spin around and stare at him. “Are you kidding me? Kids run the other way!”
“If you were a nanny, they’d be too scared to do anything.”
“Avery,” I groan, heading to the cashier. I can hear him snickering behind me. After paying the bill, we head outside. As soon as the door closes, ten figures stand in front of us. Reapers. Fallen reapers. Shit.
Nikola, the one in front, sneers. “Hand him over, Raven.”
“Really?” I challenge. “Like I’m going to do that.”
A sly grin creeps across her face. “We will fight you.”
“In front of all these people,” I gasp.
“We want him dead, no matter what,” she states. “The reward is beyond anything you could imagine.”
“Nothing you can offer will ever tempt me to surrender Avery to you.”
She smirks and shifts her weight. “You haven’t faced Lucifer yet. You have no idea how sensual his energy is. What he has to offer. You will fall to him. It’s just a matter of time.”
“We are going to save the fallen,” I declare. “That may free you from Lucifer. Don’t do this. We could save you.”
There is a moment of hesitation and then she says, “You won’t win.”
“Let us at least try,” I plead.
Nikola mocks back. “Let me save you. So pathetic.”
Avery leans in behind me. “I think you need to let your darkness out.”
“What do you mean?” I snap. “No, you’ve been telling me to hold on to the light.”
“Yes,” he replies quietly. “But, you are still half dark. I think it’s time to let that part out. There are twice as many of them.”
Quickly, I take off the necklace and put it on him. “Hold this in your hand,” I instruct. He reaches up and grabs it.
The fallen reapers hiss. “Where did he go?” One of them asks.
“It doesn’t matter,” I reply. Turning around, I let the darkness come forth. It creeps across my skin and swallows my soul. My eyes flash open and I grin. “What you need to worry about is us.” I swing my seraph blade in front of me. They all take a fighting stance. “Go!” I yell. We jet off towards them. I head straight to Nikola.
She spins and swipes for my legs. I jump up and kick her in the head. She rolls over. Nikola screams and draws out a sword and comes at me. The darkness pulls on my insides. Envelopes my heart. The more I feel it, the more I don’t like it, but I can’t let it distract me from the job I have to do, which is to protect Avery at no matter the cost.
I spin around and swipe my blade down. A fallen reaper’s head falls off his shoulders. I quickly step and thrust my blade behind me and feel it sink into my target. There is a cry of pain. I pull it back out and feel as the blade coats with fallen reaper blood. I smile. The darkness likes this.
I turn back around. Nikola falls to her knees. I sense her soul leaving her body. She’s going to hell and she is going to be stuck there. I drop to my knees and place my hand on her face. “Why wouldn’t you let me save you?”
“He…he has control over us,” she cries. “There’s nothing you can do. There’s no light. It’s just him and pain and sadness. Don’t lose yourself, Raven.”
Looking into her eyes, I say, “I’m going to try.” It’s then that I see the last of the light leave her eyes and she falls over. The battle is still raging. I run over and stab the fallen reaper that is wrestling with Keifer. My blade sinks in deep and comes out the other side. Keifer jumps back so the blade doesn’t pierce him. A gurgling sound comes from the reaper’s throat as he collapses to the ground. I pull my blade out. We turn to look at everyone else. The fallen reapers are in parts all over the ground. There are screams of pain everywhere.
My eyes finally turn to the restaurant. A lot of people are standing on the porch, staring at us. The look of horror is on every single person’s face. “We have a problem,” Katerina says, stepping up behind me. “What are we going to do?”
“You aren’t going to do anything,” A voice says. We all spin around. Raphael is standing there. “We will clean up this mess.”
“Sorry Raphael,” I say. “We had no choice.”
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sp; He nods his head. “We understand that, but the humans cannot remember any of this. We need to clean it up and make them forget.”
Suddenly, Avery appears next to me. “That had to be the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life,” he exhales. His face is white, and his eyes are wide.
Raphael looks at him. “I can’t make you forget. You need to remember this.”
“Don’t think I could ever forget it,” Avery gulps.
“What do we do?” I ask.
Turning his attention to me, Raphael says, “You need to go.”
“No words of wisdom, huh?” I probe, hoping for something.
“It’s good that you found your light,” Raphael states. He smiles. “Hold on to it. It will get you farther than you could possibly imagine.”
My eyes scan at the three bodies around me. “They are all lost. They are stuck in hell forever. I did this.”
“It’s a path they followed,” Raphael says.
“But, they didn’t want to fall to the darkness,” I snap. “None of them wanted this. Reapers don’t want to fall to the darkness! It’s a trial we don’t ask for!”
Raphael steps up to me and puts his hand on my shoulder. A sense of calm sweeps over me. “There is a reason for everything. We don’t always understand.”
I brush his hand away. The fury comes back. “What kind of plan is this?”
“God has a reason for everything,” Raphael replies.
Avery puts an arm around me. “If I figured out anything, it’s that we don’t know what our paths are. Maybe there was a purpose for their sacrifice.”
“Even if there is, they are stuck in hell,” I growl. The darkness is creeping farther into my soul.
“Maybe we will save them,” Avery replies, looking into my eyes.
“What?” I exhale.
He shrugs. “Maybe we will save them.”
“Take them out of hell?”
Nodding, Avery says, “It could happen.”
A smile sweeps across Raphael’s face. “Let us take care of this. You continue on with your plan.”
Once again, I look at my victims. “We should go,” I say, with a heavy heart. Usually I am not this affected by killing a fallen. The remorse settles in and I know it’s a product of the light coursing through my veins.