Smoke & Ash (Wardens Series Book 2)

by Heather D Glidewell

  I smiled in what I hoped was an encouraging way.

  “I found a comfort in her that I hadn’t found with anyone, and I told her everything. She did the same with me. She was my first kiss, my first date, my first everything really.”

  “Did you love her?”

  “In a way, I suppose I did. I don’t know though, as I have no idea what love is supposed to feel like.” He frowned.

  “I know the feeling.” I looked away for a second then focused back on him. “Continue.”

  He nodded and fumbled with his hands. “One evening we were sitting on the couch in the living room. Dad had gone out for the night with his brother, trying to find the right way to get over my mother, I assume. Our make-out session was getting pretty hot when she stopped me and told me she had to tell me a secret. So, I obliged her. I thought this secret was something petty, like all the others. However, I was wrong.”

  “Goodness. What was wrong with her?” I asked, fascinated.

  He gave me a funny look like he was perturbed by the interruption.

  “She stood up in front of me and pulled her shirt off.” He blushed. “Then she turned her back to me. It was nothing but smooth flesh for about ten seconds, then suddenly these huge wings burst from her shoulder-blades. I screamed like a little girl, to be honest. When she turned around to face me though, it was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen.”

  Oh God! There was another one!

  “Her eyes were this brilliant blue, and she looked so scared, standing there with her hands across her chest and these massive wings taking up most of the space in the room.”

  I let out a gasp.

  “She told me that her father was an angel, but that her mother was unknown. I had to believe her. I had seen the wings! Right there was proof enough that God existed. I took it as a sign, and I vowed to get back into the church. Just like that, she delivered me back to my faith. After that, I rarely saw her. She had finished what she was destined to do.”

  “But that’s so sad.” I felt a flutter of pain for Adam.

  “She moved two months before graduation. I assume because of something important; she never told me. She showed up at my door and said goodbye, and that was the last I ever saw of Helen. Some odd men dressed in black suits came into town asking questions about her and her mother a few weeks later. I didn’t have a forwarding address or any information to share with them, even if I chose to. In any case, she had told me a secret that I had promised to keep. I had no idea who these men were or what they would do to her.”

  He looked at me. There was something in his eyes that told me there was more to this story, more than he was willing to discuss. He had seen far more than I had thought he had. I was trying to protect him from the reality about myself, only to discover that he already had an idea about such possibilities.

  What was I supposed to say to his story? It meant that I now knew of two half-angels in the world. It meant more to me then he could possibly imagine. It meant that I was not alone, that there were more like me out there.

  Though this Helen had felt safe enough to tell him her secret. I wasn’t sure he was quite ready to handle mine. I mean, it’s one thing to say ‘Hey, I’m an angel,’ but it’s quite another to say ‘Hey, I’m a demon.’ How would he take it if I told him that I was both, that my blood was a mixture of what was light and what was dark? Would he be able to believe me? And I didn’t have the wings to convince him as she did. I did, however, have the flames…

  “Do you still hear from her?” I asked softly as he resumed his place on my stomach.

  “From time to time she sends me updates on where she is and what’s going on. Mostly from untraceable IP addresses. Everything is masked, and the email address is never the same. She said they were coming back to Midvale soon as something important is going on. She said others would be coming too, some good and some bad.” He sighed. “You know, you’re the first person I’ve told all this too. Now I’m not the only one protecting her secret.”

  “I will carry it to the grave,” I promised.

  I said it even though I knew I was going to be telling my mother at least part of his story when I got home. I was sincere in saying that I would protect her secret, however, if only because by doing so I also protected mine.

  Something pinged in the back of my mind. There was a familiarity to this final bit of information that Adam had just shared. Could she have been the person who had made that mysterious phone call? Thinking about it there and then turned my brain into mush; I would have to ponder it further later. If it had been her, then she was in trouble.

  “Thanks,” said Adam, closing his eyes.

  I waited a few minutes before speaking again, allowing him time to think about the mysterious girl with the wings. Then I shifted under him.

  “You ready for Halo?” I asked.

  “Hells yeah! It’s about time!” He jumped off me and rushed to the TV to set up the game.

  ****

  After three hours of nonstop Halo, my fingers had finally had enough of pressing buttons on the controller. Adam let out a huge yawn, which made me realize that it was probably time to leave. I checked the clock on my phone and grumbled. It was already past midnight.

  “You need to get to bed,” I said, putting the controller down.

  “Naw, I have a few more games in me yet.” He looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

  He was pushing himself. He didn’t do well when he pulled this. I had seen the outcome of a lack of sleep, and the Adam it produced was not the Adam I wanted to be around.

  “I think you really need to get some rest. You look about to fall over.” I laughed and gave him a playful poke.

  “All right, all right. I’ll go to bed, Mom,” he joked.

  Adam walked me to my car, gave me a warm hug, and sent me on my way. I was driving home with the radio turned down low when my phone suddenly went crazy in the cup-holder. I picked it up and nearly dropped it when I saw who the caller was.

  Could it really be him?

  I was staring at the image saved in my phone of my dear, lost Wesley.

  I fumbled to answer before I missed the call.

  “Hello?” I breathed into the phone, half afraid it would be Miranda on the other end.

  “Dawn?” The voice was panicky but definitely Wesley’s.

  I fought to keep the tears from pouring down my face.

  “Wesley?” It came out as a choked whisper.

  “Dawn, I got away for a moment. She doesn’t know I have my phone.” There was a crackle on the line. “She knows what you are. She knows that she was wrong in her initial assumption. She’s hunting the others as we speak. She wants to burn Heaven and Hell.” He was rushing his words, and it was hard to understand what he was saying.

  “What do you mean, burn Heaven and Hell? How is that even possible? What does she think I am? Wesley, where are you?”

  “She’s going to kill all of your kind. That’s all I can say. I have to go, Dawn. Find the others before she does!”

  He was gone. The call had lasted barely thirty seconds, hardly enough to quench the fire in my heart. It hurt so much to remember how he had run away. Now he was warning me of danger. And it sounded serious. My heart sank. I put my phone down and completed the drive home, trying not to think of the boy with the blue eyes, and of his brilliant smile, and of the never-ending pain in my heart.

  Chapter 3

  The First Attack

  I tore through the front door, tossing my keys on the counter, and shoving my phone in my back pocket. Tears had streaked my eyeliner down my cheeks, and my eyes were red and puffy.

  “Mom!” I called, my voice still trembling.

  My mother came running from the living room and threw her arms around me, pulling me close. I just stood there and cried onto my mom’s white shirt, leaving streaks of black on the fabric.

  “What is it, honey?” she asked, running her hand down my back.

  “He called me, Mom,” I sobbed
. “He said she’s going to kill all those like me.”

  “Who called you?”

  I couldn’t understand why she had to ask; all she had to do was probe my mind for answers.

  “Wesley!” A loud sob erupted from my throat.

  “Seriously?” She pushed me back to look at my face, all blotchy as it was. I nodded at her, trying to ignore the tears pouring down my cheeks. “What did he say?”

  “She is going to burn Heaven and Hell. How do you burn Heaven and Hell?”

  My mother frowned but said nothing. It seemed to me she thought I was babbling.

  “He said that she knows what I am, and she’s hunting down the others to kill them! I didn’t even know there were any others, Mom!” I rubbed at my eyes frantically, streaking the black even more.

  She sighed. “That’s not good. Honey, there are a lot of things that I need to tell you, but right now isn’t the time.” She pinched her nose. “Dawn, go and sit in the living room while I make a phone call.”

  She pushed me toward the living room, pulled her phone from her pocket, and walked to her bedroom; closing the door behind her.

  I could have been sneaky and pressed my ear to the door, which is probably what I should have done. Except my mother is not the most normal of parents. If I misbehaved, there was no telling what she could do to me. So, I did as my mother suggested. I went into the living room, and I sat down.

  While I waited, I opened my call log to make sure that I hadn’t imagined the whole thing, and there it was: the sweetest vision I had seen in months. I hugged the phone to my chest, but then it vibrated, causing me to drop it on the floor. I reached down and picked it up quickly to read the message that was on my screen.

  Unknown: RUN!

  The message didn’t have a return number, and the messenger was unknown. Normally I would have paid no attention to it. However, with the way things had been going recently, I immediately jumped from my seat.

  At that very moment, the room seemed to explode around me. Fragments of wood and furniture stuffing flew through the air. I felt something grab me and throw me to one side. When my eyes focused, I found myself staring into the jet-black eyes of a horrifying creature the likes of which I had never seen before. Huge tusks protruded from its bottom jaw. Aside from this one affliction the create appeared more or less human.

  The beast grabbed me by the sleeves of my sweater and hauled me to my feet. Then threw me clean through the dining room wall and into my bedroom. Pain shot through me, but the injuries I sustained immediately began to heal. One thing I had always known was that I was resilient. I could fall from the top of a skyscraper and land unscathed on the ground below, not that I’d ever tried it. There had been a time when I had thought of myself as merely human, but gradually I had realized that I was wrong. I was glad of it now.

  “What do you want?” I screamed, locking eyes with the mysterious creature as it came after me.

  “Your blood!”

  I felt the fire erupt around me as anger seared through my body. I shot like a bullet from my room at my rival, moving faster than I had ever done in my life. Flames burst from my fingers. He was a hard target to hit, as he was dodging each bolt of fire with precision and speed. Thankfully, it took only one lucky shot with a white fireball to bring him down like a ton of bricks.

  “Who sent you?” I demanded as I bore down on the creature and held him in place as I had seen my mother do before.

  “The Queen,” he growled.

  “What Queen?” I felt the fire growing cold in my fingertips.

  “The Hybrid Queen!” His body twisted as he tried to break through my barrier of fire.

  I could see I would get nothing more out of him, so I threw my head back and willed death on the creature. I felt my feet slowly lift from the ground, the air welcoming me like an old friend. I sensed the heat of the fire as it lapped at my skin and the icy prickle of the flame at my fingertips.

  I wanted him to burn for attacking me. I wanted his soul to be mine to dispose of. I needed his essence; I thirsted for it. Something dark in me erupted, and I felt my eyes change. It burned for a second then fizzled out to a numbing throb. The look on the creature’s face was one of terror as I glared down at it. I heard it screaming profanities and pleas, one second wishing for me to spare its life and the next begging me to make its death quick. After a few moments of him calling me names in ten different languages, there was a loud snap, and everything went quiet.

  I surveyed the living room area, or what remained of it. Oh, brilliant. Everyone was going to be asking why the wall had a huge hole in it.

  My mother’s door opened, and she came out, seemingly unperturbed by the devastation on all sides. I could still feel the fire surging in me and knew my eyes must have been a fright for her when she looked at me. She waited till my feet lowered to the floor before speaking.

  “Well done,” she said quietly as she then walked past me and stepped over the limp body of the creature that had confronted me.

  I stared in disbelief at her composure. Finally, I found my voice.

  “Mom!” I screeched, pointing at the dead creature on the floor. Its body was painfully contorted, and its neck was apparently broken.

  “I said ‘well done,’” she responded. “What else do you want me to say?” She turned back to our destroyed living room and sighed. “This is going to take some work.”

  She waved her hands, and her body began shimmering as it produced its peaceful white flame.

  Few are blessed to watch an angel at work. The few that have, remain sanctified for life. It has something to do with the way they move, the way they function, the feeling it gives when the final result is achieved. I knew that just watching her like this made me a better person.

  It was absolutely amazing how our living room was reconstructed, board by board. The wall reassembled itself, and the furniture pulled itself back into its original shape as if it had never been turned to splinters. By the time my mother’s flame subsided the room was just as it had been before. The creature’s corpse was gone, and there was no sign that the fight had even occurred. How could that be? Had anything happened at all? I knew I wasn’t dreaming, but this was all just far too surreal.

  My mother turned toward me. She looked tired after using up so much of her energy. I grabbed her before she hit the floor and helped her to our “newly” upholstered couch. Getting her a drink from the kitchen, I sat down next to her.

  “How did you do that?” I asked as she took my hand and patted it.

  “It’s just one of those things that we can do. We can fix things that are broken.” She sighed and patted my chest where my heart was. “Well, most things,” she corrected herself sadly.

  I knew that she would do anything to mend me. She wanted her daughter back, not the broken girl that I had become since Wesley left me.

  “You never cease to amaze me,” I told her, smiling as well as I could.

  “Did he say anything?” she asked me weakly, sipping from the cup I had brought her.

  “He said he was sent by the Hybrid Queen.”

  “The what?” She looked just as perplexed as I was.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of her.” I ran my fingers through my hair and looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearing two in the morning.

  “I suppose we’ll have to do some digging on this one. You killed that creature rather quickly; such a shame.” She took another drink.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked, feeling a pulse of anger grow inside me and then dissipate.

  “We could have questioned him.” She looked at me and grinned a tiny bit.

  “I don’t think he was much on talking. He was only willing to share the vaguest of answers,” I said dryly.

  “How would you know? You let the power control you.” She put the cup down. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m proud of you for what you accomplished. That took a lot of power, to do what you did. It’s just…” she paused, “…it’s just that
right now we could use all the help we can get.”

  “I understand that, Mom. I know that this is far bigger than we thought it was. But he wasn’t going to talk, no matter what tortures or promises we tried. Where did its body go?” I asked slowly, glancing back to where I had last seen the beast.

  “Some of the creatures you meet won’t leave a body behind once they have been properly defeated. Especially those that have angel or demon blood in their veins. Think of it as insurance; this way their bodies cannot be examined. There have been cases where the body remained, such as in the case of Krista. It is more common with Guardians and Watchers since people tend to become attached to them and call for time to mourn. Plus, they live their lives as mortals, even though their blood is not.” She took my hand. “Watch your back, Dawn. Someone is out to get rid of you. I don’t know who it is, but I think this Hybrid Queen has something to do with it.”

  “Do you think it’s Miranda?” I asked.

  “It very well could be, but I’m not going to jump to conclusions until I know for sure.”

  “So, until then we’re just going to have to keep our eyes open, I guess.”

  Krista had been right. Something was coming.

  ****

  I lay in bed that night with my eyes open, listening to the sound of the wind in the trees. I opened my senses to everything. Mom was in her room praying (no surprise there) and the neighbor’s dog was barking (also no surprise). I leaned over and picked up my phone. It was after three, but I needed someone to talk to, so I opened a text message and texted Adam.

  Me: You up?

  Five minutes passed before I got an answer.

  Adam: I am now.

  Me: Sorry can’t sleep.

  Another couple of minutes passed.

  Adam: I was sleeping just fine. What’s on your mind?

  Me: Do you ever feel like the world is ending?