Smoke & Ash (Wardens Series Book 2)

by Heather D Glidewell

  The last person I really needed to talk with about the world ending was Adam. He was innocent in all of this; he didn’t know that dark forces in the world were trying to take over.

  Adam: Only when I get texts from you at three in the morning.

  Me: No really Adam can you be serious?

  Of course, he couldn’t be serious. This wasn’t something that he ever thought about, damn it! All I wanted was to speak with him about what was happening, without ever really telling him the truth. Maybe it was wrong of me to want to confess, but I had nobody else that would listen.

  Adam: You woke me up for a serious conversation about the end of the world?

  Me: When you say it like that it makes me feel stupid.

  Yeah, I really needed to evaluate what I was saying here. I couldn’t have a conversation about something I wasn’t allowed to have a conversation about in the first place.

  Adam: D, I love you, but I also love sleep.

  Me: Fine, fine go back to bed. I will just sit here and ponder the meaning of life.

  Adam: The meaning of life is sleep, something you should get. Otherwise, you are going to be a bitch tomorrow, and I won’t want to be around you.

  Me: Well that was blunt.

  I narrowed my eyes at the phone and then broke into laughter. I would have been blunt too if he had just woken me up.

  Adam: Sorry I’m not into sugar coating when I’m woken up at three am.

  Me: Will you stop mentioning what time it is.

  Adam: What? The fact that it is now fifteen past three and we haven’t had a conversation yet except this one about the time?

  Me: I have no idea what you are talking about.

  Adam: Because it’s too early in the morning to think. Go to sleep D.

  Me: But I can’t sleep!

  Adam: Take a shot of whiskey with a sleeping pill!

  Me: You are no fun.

  Adam: I stop being fun at eleven on weeknights and midnight on weekends. Go to sleep!

  Me: Fine… See you tomorrow?

  Adam: I don’t know, depends on how much sleep you get.

  I put my phone back on the night-stand and rolled towards the wall. I was determined to get to sleep. Finally, after some convincing, I was able to lull myself to slumber. The nightmares welcomed me with open arms.

  Chapter 4

  The Dreaded Words

  I had started a journal after the school shooting. It was a log of everything natural and supernatural that went on in my twisted little world. It documented the time that I had had with Wesley, from the moment we met until the second that he was gone. I was trying to make sense of the events that I had seen and experienced over the past few months. I also documented cases that were odd and unusual, as well as things that I needed to dig further into; just so that I could understand them. The latest entry was about Helen and the story that Adam had shared with me the night before. I hadn’t talked to my mother yet about her, but I intended to discuss the angel child with her without delay.

  I put my pen down and looked at the window. I had nailed it shut after John had found his way into my room a few months earlier. I didn’t want to give him any more opportunities to take me by surprise. Krista had said she couldn’t hold him forever, meaning sooner or later the spell she had over him was going to wear off. When that happened, he was going to be coming back for me with even more force than he had before.

  I wasn’t sure if he would join up with Miranda before or after he had my soul, but I had a distinct feeling it would be before. I was sure he still needed Miranda, and Miranda still needed him. The idea of their union was frightening, two beings with great power working together in a menacing way toward a common goal, getting rid of me and my kind. I wasn’t sure what my kind was yet, but it must be something good if they were so fixed on wiping us out.

  I was amazed that Wesley had been able to hold out as long as he did before he ran off with Miranda. If she was as powerful as she seemed, then he had been fighting a will like no other when he tried to keep his distance from her. I supposed it was inevitable that she would subdue him eventually.

  I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. I could hear my mother in the kitchen. This was as good a time as any. I padded into the galley and took a seat at the table. Letting out a long sigh, I looked at my mother, who was standing at the stove.

  “Interesting night, don’t you think?” I began cautiously.

  She turned to look warily at me. “If you say so.”

  “I didn’t get a chance to tell you what Adam told me yesterday.” I started tapping on the table.

  “Must be something good if it makes you nervous,” my mother observed, clearly irritated by my fidgeting.

  “Very much so.” I frowned and lapsed into silence for a few moments before I spoke again. “He knows angels exist.”

  My mother paused from stirring what she was cooking, spatula in her hand. “Well, of course he does, honey. He goes to church every Sunday and is active in the youth groups and the choir.”

  For a woman that was known to follow her intuition, she seemed to be avoiding the conversation.

  “That’s not what I mean, Mom,” I said quietly. “I think you need to sit down for this.”

  My mother put the pan on another burner and came to join me at the table. She looked worried, eyebrows furrowed and chewing her bottom lip.

  “Okay...” she replied.

  “Just over two years ago a girl named Helen Price moved to Midvale with her mother. This was after Adam’s own mother had left his father and moved to the city with his little brother. Adam didn’t have much faith in either God or his own family just then. He felt like his life was on a downward spiral, that he was being punished. He lost his faith. Then this girl showed up from nowhere, changed his life, and restored him to the church.” I took a breath. “One day this girl told Adam she had a secret she needed to tell him. Then she stood up took off her shirt and allowed her wings to open.”

  My mother gasped. I would have found it amusing if I hadn’t felt so perplexed by everything.

  “He has been carrying this secret with him for years,” I went on. “I’m the first person he has ever told, and I have a feeling he doesn’t think that I believe him. Helen and her mother left Midvale two months before she was due to graduate.”

  I was tapping my fingers on the table again, but it didn’t seem to bug my mother this time.

  “Well…” She paused for a moment. “Did Adam have anything else to say on the matter?”

  “He said some odd men arrived in town after they’d gone and started asking a lot of questions. But he didn’t tell them anything.”

  I saw my mother’s lips twitch, and I suspected at once that she knew who, or what, the men were. I was learning that she knew just about everything I thought she didn’t. I pretended I didn’t notice her reaction and continued.

  “I asked him if he still hears from her and he told me yes. Said she told him she would be back in Midvale soon, that something was brewing, things were coming here. He said some of these things were good and some of them were bad.”

  I waited for my mother’s response.

  “That… that is a fascinating story, Dawn,” my mother stammered. “We are not supposed to expose what we are to humans. There are a handful of such beings who carry mixed blood. If one of them exposes themselves to a human, the Equalizers usually step in to make sure that the memory is altered. Adam not saying anything to them about it meant that he ‘knew nothing’ in their eyes, so they let it go. I’m a little stumped though, about how they didn’t work out that he knew more than he let on.”

  “So, there are others here!” I exclaimed.

  “Of course, honey. We have earthbound angels. Some are Guardians; some are Watchers. The Equalizers are like a police force for the non-human race. I told you this last night,” she reminded me.

  I still had a feeling she wasn’t telling me everything. I had thought my parents would tell me every
thing that I needed to know. I was apparently wrong. They liked to wait until something was happening that I needed to know how to handle.

  “Do you think that is what Wesley meant last night? That she thinks I’m one of these Guardians or Watchers?” I pondered aloud. There had to be a reason he had said those words to me, that Miranda was wrong in what she thought I was.

  My mother had never told me there were others of us on Earth until our conversation the night before. I knew that there were earthbound demons just from simple observation. To think that there were earthbound angels as well made me feel giddy. The world wasn’t as one-sided as I had thought it was.

  “I suppose that may be the case,” she said quickly as she stood up. “Let me see what I can dig up, honey,” she suggested, stroking my tapping fingers.

  “Okay, Mom.” It felt like I had just been brushed off.

  “You did well, honey. It was good to tell me about this.” My mother smiled at me then went back to the stove. “Breakfast will be ready in about twenty minutes if you want to go and grab a shower first.”

  The change of subject was pretty much the closing deal on the conversation. She was done talking about it, at least until she had done her digging. I did wonder what she did to dig out information. It seemed to be done via phone in the privacy of her room in most cases. I never knew who she was calling, or if she was calling anyone at all. My mother had connections; that much I know for certain. Would these connections really be able to answer every single one of my questions?

  “Actually, a shower sounds pretty good right now,” I agreed.

  I got up and walked thoughtfully to my room. I wasn’t expecting to go anywhere that day, so I grabbed a pair of clean pajama bottoms and a thermal and headed for the bathroom.

  ****

  After a ten-minute shower and breakfast, I went back to my room to look over my journal again. I needed to add some additional notes about what I had learned from my mother. As I read through what I’d written, I just seemed to have even more questions that needed answering.

  I didn’t hear someone entering the room until my senses went crazy and my fingers began to tingle. I was ready to launch a blast of fireballs in the direction of the doorway, when I saw that it was Aaron who was standing there, staring at me with curiosity.

  “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said with a smile.

  He looked cute in blue jeans and a Godsmack hoodie. He was allowing his hair to grow longer, which honestly made him look even hotter as far as I was concerned. I definitely felt a physical attraction to Aaron. It was partly emotional too, but not to the extent that I felt with Wesley; I wasn’t in love with him.

  “I wasn’t expecting you,” I replied, relieved that I hadn’t just char-grilled him on the spot. “Usually you send me a message when you’re on your way.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. I wanted to surprise you.”

  He sat on the end of my bed. I closed the notebook and put it to one side.

  “That’s very sweet of you,” I said, smiling back at him. He smelled nice, like a mixture of honeydew and citrus.

  “I thought that you and I could go to the park and just hang out. Your mom said you’ve been pretty stressed out recently.” He touched my leg. Though it no longer felt wrong, it didn’t exactly feel right either. It was just another indication that he had yet to break the contract that existed between us.

  “That sounds like fun,” I said, nodding.

  It would be nice to get outside and enjoy the sun. Well, appreciate it for as long as it would let me before causing me to feel uncomfortable.

  “Great!” He jumped up from my bed and kissed me on the forehead. “I’ll let you get dressed.”

  “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I joked as I threw my arms out and gestured to my super rad ensemble.

  He laughed. “Nothing, if you’re happy to go out in public dressed in your sleepwear.”

  I gave him a warm squeeze and watched him leave the room. I loved the sound of his laughter. As with each time we were together, the guilt returned. It always seemed to work that way when it came to Aaron. I felt terrible about what I was doing to him. However, there was nothing that I could do break the contract between us. He had to do that on his own, in his own way.

  I got up and wandered over to my closet. I searched through the rack and settled on a red long-sleeved sweater and a pair of black jeans, together with my Vans. I dressed quickly and decided to do without makeup. I didn’t feel like going through the entire process of adding the finishing touches. The events of the previous night had left me drained, and I lacked the motivation to impress Aaron that morning.

  When I walked into the living room, my mother and Aaron were deep in conversation. I didn’t know what they were talking about, and I didn’t care to ask. Aaron stood up and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me close. I could only assume my mother had told him a heavily abridged version of what had happened the previous night.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said in my ear as he rubbed his hands up and down my back.

  I glanced at my mother as she tried to hide a smile. She had probably done it on purpose just to watch me squirm. She didn’t do this with Wesley, of course, She knew I had been serious about him. In this case, I was bound to Aaron almost by accident, so she felt free to play silly little games with me. She was a tricky one, that angel mother of mine.

  ****

  “I realized something this morning,” Aaron said as he opened the passenger door and helped me out. We were in the parking lot of Midvale City Park, the site of our first date, on the night that Wesley had torn him and me apart.

  “What’s that?” I asked, straightening my shirt, and letting him take my hand.

  “Well, we have a very important event in two weeks. The prom. I admit I just assumed that we were going together, but I figured that I should probably ask, just in case.”

  He smiled at me and led me to a picnic table, where we sat down across from each other. I gave him a small smile as he reached across the wooden surface and took my hand in his once more. His flesh was soft, and I couldn’t help but reminisce about how amazing his arms felt wrapped around me. I shook the memory aside. This wasn’t the time or place.

  “Yeah, like someone else is going to ask me,” I said as soon as I had returned to Earth.

  “You saved my life, and the lives of all those students in your class, so of course someone else will be thinking of asking you.” He gave me a shy smile. “I never thanked you properly for that, by the way. I don’t know what you did to make that man disappear, but you saved my ass.”

  “I didn’t do anything, Aaron. I found you like that,” I lied. I didn’t want to think about his body crumpled on the gym floor. I had been so scared he had been taken away from me.

  He looked at me and cocked his head to the side as if to say “whatever.”

  “Either way I am grateful to have you in my life. You are an amazing woman, and you make me feel wonderful. Every morning I wake up, and I can’t wait to see your face.” His eyes shimmered, and he licked his lips.

  Oh God, I knew where this was going. I felt my heart quicken and got a sudden urge to bolt.

  “That’s super sweet of you, Aaron,” I said slowly, trying to swallow down the lump in my throat.

  “So, with that being said…” he gave a nervous laugh, “…will you, Dawn Weathers, be my date to this year’s Junior/Senior Prom?”

  It was so cheesy, but it was sweet.

  “Yes, I would be honored,” I said, squeezing his hand. I felt like I had just dodged a bullet. Thank God he hadn’t said what I thought he was going to say.

  “Great! I already talked to Adam, and the two of us are going to go halves on a limo. We wanted to make sure that you went out with a bang.” He smiled at me.

  “A limo? There’s really no need. I’m perfectly content riding in Adam’s SUV or in your truck.” I felt panicked at the thought of them making a big deal out of something tha
t meant relatively little to me. However, Nadine would flip if she found out I’d turned a limo down.

  “I love you, Dawn. I want to give you the best before we graduate.”

  And there it was. The dreaded three-word sentence that I had worked to avoid for the last two months. The bullet I thought I had dodged had managed to hit me straight in the head.

  All I could do was smile at him. There was no way I was going to lie to him about this. I wasn’t going to say it back to him just because he had said it first. I was astonished that he said it at all. I had been hoping that my father was wrong, that he wouldn’t fall for me. Now I just stared at him, unsure how best to respond.

  “I know you may not want to say it back right now,” he resumed, saving me from having to go through the torture of disappointing him. “I know your heart still longs for Wesley, but I can’t hide how I feel about you.” He glanced toward the trees. Was he expecting a repeat of what had happened on our first date? He turned back. “I mean it. There is no rush. I just hope that you will, one day, say it back.”

  I felt a lump in my throat again. He was such a sweet guy. Why couldn’t I have met him first, before Wesley came into my life? Why couldn’t he have been the one I ran face first into on my first day of school? Maybe then I would know what it felt like to have a love that signified something other than the end of the world.

  “Thank you, Aaron.” It was all I could say as I got up from my spot at the table, walked around to his side, and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, his voice failing him for a second.

  I think in a way he wanted me to prove him wrong. He wanted me to say it back, to tell him that I felt the exact same for him. But I couldn’t lie to him. It wouldn’t be right. To many people throw those three words around as if they didn’t mean anything. I knew better though. I knew what it felt like to be so in love that it hurt. Why would I give Aaron a false indication of anything along those lines?