“Beat me once with the weapon you want and we'll go!” He proposed.
It was the only idea that came to his mind. A desperate resource to buy time while thinking what to do. He couldn’t let her go to her certain death. He would discover where Johnny Elliot was and bring him himself, even if it had nothing to do with his mission. Even if he didn’t win his wings for it, or even if he lost them.
Ali hurried down the stairs in the arms room and went straight to the swords table. She wanted to end that once and for all. She handed one to Kaliel and positioned herself. It was ridiculous but it was good to have Kaliel with her. He prepared and launched the first attack. One after another she returned them. She wasn’t sure if she had improved with practice or if it was the rage that choked her that guided her movements. The truth was that all her blows were accurate and it wasn’t difficult for her to avoid Kaliel. Or maybe he was letting her win because he didn’t want to leave her either... The idea of leaving without him was destroying her but she knew that she couldn’t stay. So she only had one option: to beat him so she could leave that very night, with him.
But then it happened that she missed the blow. It would have been nice if that had been a demon she wanted to end up with. An accurate hit at the wrong time. Kaliel fell on Ali and only the wall stopped them. Her hand trembled as she gripped the hilt and saw the blade coming out the other side of his body.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” She moaned. She dropped the sword and lifted the face he had buried in her neck with both hands. “Kaliel, for God's sake!”
Ali didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to leave him alone to go for Mikah. Before she could scream, Kaliel moved away just to look at her, completely surprised.
“I'm an immortal, remember?” He smiled and a strange brightness twinkled in the green of his eyes. Apparently, he didn’t even feel pain. “You got it”.
She took a few moments to assimilate and it seemed as if her heart resumed its march. However, she was still petrified by the shock and was unable to let him go. She felt the heart pumping in her chest to burn and her own breathing agitated trying in vain to regain the rhythm. But she couldn’t. His big eyes kept her nailed to the wall with hypnotic influence. She watched his perfect nose, covered in soft freckles and felt the warmth of his lips too close. He said nothing and, slowly, his smile faded, replaced by a kind of burning admiration. He was thinking… And suddenly he didn’t think about it anymore and kissed her. It wasn’t a fugitive kiss, not one of those you can’t taste enough before they retire. Kaliel caressed her lips with his, as if he still had doubts about how much she wanted him and then closed them, pressing gently. Ali felt like her breathing and the whole world with all its sounds, stopped for a moment. She kissed him more, also with doubts, caressing timidly the upper lip with hers and she remembered that if he didn’t go further it was because he had never dared to the forbidden. Kaliel barely leaned back and even with his eyes closed he rested his forehead against hers and let out the air, defeated. Surrendered to temptation. But she didn’t want to give him time to doubt and pulled him even closer to her and kissed him for real, with passion, as if this could be the last time or as if, being the first, she wanted to convince him that it shouldn’t be the last. He let himself go, running his hands around her waist and she tangled her fingers in his golden hair, abandoning herself to the exquisite sensation of feeling him so close and kissing him at last.
She couldn’t think of anything else. She just wanted to stay like this forever. How was it possible to feel that she had waited for that kiss for years when she had known him so little? How could she feel that way, as if they had known each other for a lifetime? Because something inside told her they belonged. Although her head told her that it was too early to fall in love, her heart told her that there was no room for anything else and that there had never been.
They were still kissing when Ali felt a sudden heat that slid liquid down her leg. Her hand instinctively went to that place but she didn’t want to move away from Kaliel's lips. It was he who pulled away barely making a face and then Ali looked at her hand: it was blood. Kaliel stepped back and they watched the blood spurting from his stabbed waist. Ali put her hands to her mouth, trembling and speechless, not understanding what was happening. Kaliel, paler than ever, gave her a look of utter confusion before falling unconscious to the ground.
“Kaliel!!”
Ali dropped to her knees next to him and then immediately stood up and ran for the door shouting. She wanted to go for help but she wouldn’t have forgiven herself if she left him alone on the cold stone. So she ran to the entrance of the Hall of Arms and called loudly to Mikah who came at once.
“Oh...” Mikah said as soon as he saw Kaliel surrounded by a huge pool of blood.
His expression was frightening.
Mikah crouched down next to Kaliel and let his hand float over his bloody body without touching it. He seemed astonished by something she couldn’t see. Then, he drew the sword carefully from Kaliel's body and held it for a moment in his hand as it gave off a solar brightness. Then he threw it like that at Ali’s feet.
“You provoked this” he snapped. “Go away…”
“Let me help, please...” Sobbed Ali.
“If you want to help, then get out!” Mikah reprimanded her. “Get away from him!”
Mikah turned his back on her. That golden glow of his hands became more intense until it flooded the room and then, somehow, it gathered everything over Kaliel's body. But Ali didn’t stay to watch him wake up. She ran out of there, with tears running down her cheeks and clouding her vision.
She wasn’t able to return to the tower, to Kaliel's room. And, on second thought, no one should have ever allowed her to stay there. But until then everyone had considered what was safest for her. Who would have imagined how dangerous it would be for him? Worried about saving her skin, who would worry about the chances of one or both of them ending up with a broken heart? As long as her heart kept beating it didn’t matter if each beat was like a dagger sinking into her flesh. That night she slept in Sabrina's room. Or pretended to do so while letting her stroke her hair and whisper words of comfort.
The following day, when she went to look for him to apologize, he wasn’t the same.
“What do you want?” He mumbled in the doorway of his room.
“I wanted to know how you are...”
He shrugged.
“Sorry, I didn’t know that...”
“Forget it” he cut her. “It was a minor mistake”.
Ali tried not to think about those words more than enough. Without importance.
“I won’t ever do something so stupid again...”
“Yes, it's stupid if it's not about Charlotte” she mumbled.
Alanis turned on her heels to leave.
“And now what does she have to do with this!?” Kaliel bothered. “Do you want to follow her steps? Forget about Charlotte!”
“It's you who can’t forget her!” Ali yelled. “Go and shout at her. After all, it was she who caused your downfall... Not me! It's her you should have kissed!”
“It's true” he said clenching his fists on the sides of his body “I shouldn’t have kissed you. Sorry. Forget everything that happened”.
Kaliel closed the door in her face.
Ali growled in rage and left, drying her tears brusquely. She couldn’t stop crying even if she wanted to. But she didn’t have time for that kind of childish nonsense. If Kaliel didn’t want to go with her, she would leave anyway. In fact, she would leave right now. She didn’t even go back to the room to look for anything. Ali walked toward the backyard, walking at a furious pace. Clearly she didn’t expect to leave without some Redentto trying to stop her. But she didn’t expect it to be Annabeth.
The ex-vampire crossed her path and she tried to surround her.
“Wait...” She said.
“Get out!” muttered Ali. “I'll get out of here even if I have to kill you...”
“I
don’t care if you leave. I just wanted to tell you something that might be of your interest” Annabeth said. “It's about Chase”.
Ali stopped.
“The boy we captured with you. You seemed to like him very much” Annabeth commented. There was no mockery in her eyes, only suspicion.
“He was my boyfriend” Ali said shortly. “Was he murdered?”
“No. We pretended to do it because it was part of the plan”.
Ali watched her confused. She couldn’t identify that feeling, an explosive mixture of rage and disbelief.
“He wasn’t your boyfriend. Chase was Samael's envoy...”
Fury burned her inside. Damned. She had cried so much for him. Idiot! He was alive after laughing in her face. She had just opened a list of future revenge for when she rescue her father and Chase would be the first target.
“So if you leave, remember not to trust anyone” Annabeth added before turning around.
“And why should I trust you?” Ali spat. “Why would you give me advice now? I killed your sister and you hate me. Remember?”
The vampire looked back over her shoulder.
“No, I don’t hate you. Mireya and I knew what we risked belonging to Darry's clan. We play with fire and we burn ourselves. Your time to burn will come...”
26
The eye of the witch
The cold of the afternoon burned her bones. She reached the library door shivering. It wasn’t easy to find that unknown wooden door at the end of the alley. It was the green eye painted on the glass that caught her attention. Alanis entered trying not to make noise and went straight to a shelf in the background avoiding eye contact with the woman at the counter. She wasn’t sure yet what she would say to Larsen when she saw him. She thought he worked there but he was nowhere to be found, so she pretended to read the back cover of a book while gathering the courage to ask for him to the woman who hadn’t taken her eyes off her since she had arrived. But when she looked up again, the woman was gone.
“Good choice” purred a voice behind his back.
Ali turned around suddenly and the book fell out of her hands in fright. She hadn’t even seen what book it was about. Larsen bent down to pick it up with black hair gliding over his forehead like a liquid night blanket. The smile he gave her when he returned it was enough to finish breaking her. Even to her surprise, she found herself wiping away tears that she couldn’t contain.
“I'm sorry” she apologized.
“Don’t apologize” said Larsen. His lips were a tight line. “He should apologize for taking you to this state of fragility...”
Alanis didn’t answer. She didn’t want to talk about it or how Larsen knew it. Neither of how everyone knew it, even before they did. She wiped her tears and feigned a smile. Larsen gave her back a more radiant and contagious one.
“I'm glad you're here” he had gotten the message. “I have a mint tea that you will love. Come with me”.
The boy, Alanis observed, had a relaxed but proud way of walking at the same time. It was evident how sure he felt about himself. He walked as if he wasn’t afraid of anything in the world while they were going down some stairs to a kind of basement. Quite the opposite of the constant insecurity felt among the Redentto. He turned on the light and Ali discovered a spacious and warm furnished room. Larsen invited her to sit in an armchair in front of the fire while he disappeared behind another door to return later with the promised teacups.
“It's true” he said, before he could choose the topic of conversation, “my father is in The Altar”.
Larsen nodded, as if he understood how terrible that was.
“A hunted deserter, Ali, is not the same as a demon. The punishment will depend on the seriousness of his betrayal but if he’s alive it’s because they don’t want to kill him...”
“No. They don’t want him, they want me”.
Larsen sipped from his cup, trying to be imperturbable.
“Why do you say that?”
Alanis hesitated for a moment. What she was going to say had little or no meaning for the rest of the world. But Larsen didn’t belong to the world.
“I spoke to the man who had sent him the letter warning him to flee... He told me that he’s not my real father”.
Larsen did not seem surprised.
“I should have imagined it”.
“There is something wrong with me. It’s me who the Gladius Dei was looking for. What is it?”
A chill ran through her. She prayed that it wasn’t what she imagined.
“You're not completely human” said Larsen.
Something like a half smile appeared in the curve of his lips as he stared at nothing, absorbed in some kind of revelation.
“What do you mean?”
“You are hybrid. That's why you're different” he smiled. “That's why you can see the angels and destroy the Children of the Night. And that means that you can also master them” his smile widened.
“I'm immortal?”
“Not if your mother was human” said Larsen, returning from his reverie.
“This doesn’t make me happy” Ali teased, exasperated by Larsen's enthusiastic lightness. He mumbled an apology. “What am I then? Half vampire?”
“Dhampire?” Larsen left the cup on the table. “They are strong but they certainly can’t do what you do...”
“How about the daughter of a vampire prince? What if Darry were my father?”
Larsen shook his head with a catlike smile, unable to hide that inopportune enthusiasm. Then, he abruptly took one of her hands on the table and turned her palm upward.
“When I see you all I can see is fire... There is so much fire inside you that Darry himself should bow to you! - With one finger, Larsen pressed her palm and the fire appeared from her along with that sudden feeling of power. - That's the reason why Mikah has been trying to undermine you... If you manage to awaken that sleeping fire, all the Children of the Night would bow before you...”
Ali pushed her hand away, frightened by the frenzy of his words. However, deep down, he had lit something in her.
“You can do it too...” She insinuated.
“No, I'm not like you” he cut. “But I can teach you to use your skills as I learned...”
“That would help but what I want is to find The Altar...”
“You can’t go there alone” he smiled again. “And you won’t have to do it if you have an army...”
Suddenly, Ali found herself imitating that triumphant smile. She would have even burst out laughing because of what had just thought if there hadn’t been so much in risk.
“I'll steal the jade dagger and Darry and all his legion will obey me”.
“Well said!” Larsen purred.
Would that have been Chase's idea too? What reason would he have had for wanting to betray Samael?
“I know someone who managed to escape from The Altar” he added, taking his cup again with ceremonious tranquility.
Ali almost jumps from her seat but the words crowded into her open mouth and she couldn’t express the question that, however, shouted from her eyes.
“She lives in London” Larsen smiled before pushing the steaming cup to his lips.
He was sitting in the window, as usual. The bandaged body didn’t hurt or bleed. He still clutched Kalo's feather, the one she had dropped in the weapons room and had been trying all day to see through it to see if God had forgiven him. Finally, he succeeded. He was aware that he couldn’t continue playing even if his mercy was infinite. However, there were all her things, which Ali had asked Sabrina on a list, and her absence, like a shadow that extended from her corner, more and more with each hour that passed. He was also aware of how much it weighed on him. It had hurt him to have to tell her those things but he couldn’t get her out of his mind by his own will, already defeated hours ago.
The door of his room opened with a bang and his glare flew to that place to meet Sabrina. She was furious but the pain that was in her eyes stopped him.
Kaliel stood up to face her and crossed his arms.
“It's exactly the same as I wonder” he mumbled. “What did you told her!”
Sabrina stepped back confused.
“You told her I fell for Charlotte!” He accused her.
“I don’t know what you're talking about” Sabrina said. “I don’t know who Charlotte is…”
“A mortal I had under my protection when I was an angel”.
“I didn’t tell her that...”
“And who would do it if not? Darry? She only spoke with you! She left because she was sure that my love for Charlotte” he reproduced the words in a mocking tone “had been the cause of my fall...”
Sabrina raised her eyebrows, distressed. But she didn’t deny it and didn’t seem regretful. Kaliel's muscles suddenly loosened. She swallowed with difficulty.
“Sorry... I told her not to tell you” she murmured seeing the floor.
“What!?”
She turned to leave but Kaliel stepped forward and closed the door. A tense silence gripped the room. He had the feeling that one more word would cause the floor at his feet to give way.
“You know that your punishment was to forget...” she said cautiously and backed away.
“What do you mean...” he murmured without looking at her. It wasn’t a question nor a complete refusal. “What do you know!” shouted him. “I fell because of Baaltazhar”.
“I only know what I heard Gabriel say...”
Kaliel turned to her immediately. All its defenses destroyed to the foundations.
“Tell me” his voice became a trembling plea. “What did he say?”
“You're not supposed to know... Me neither”.
“Say it!!!” He yelled.
His face turned red and Sabrina flinched.
“You fell for a mortal” she released quickly. “You sinned against your own condition but your feelings were too noble to cause your ruin and He decided to give you a second chance. But you wouldn’t remember anything...”
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