Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) (24 page)

“Who betrayed you,” breathes Cara.

Victoria frowns and says, “His Heavenly name is Douma, Angel of The Silence and Stillness of Death. Damien. He is the one who betrayed me in Paradise, and he’s the one who put out the order to kill my family out of jealousy. He’d been the one to comfort me right after it happened and I was distraught and scared. I didn’t know that he was in love with me at the time, and he tricked me in to falling in love with him by pretending to care about the loss of my family. I never thought that he’d do something so wicked and cruel. In Heaven he was one of my greatest confidants, the one I told everything to. I didn’t know that he’d go Dark.”

“Including the fact that you were in love with a human…” I whisper.

She nods. “I found out years later. Of course I pretended that I didn’t know, and I still do. He thinks I’m not on the side of Light. It’ll be a good day when he realizes that I have fucked him over for all he’s done.”

“Well then,” says Cara. “Cael, get the girl some coffee because she’s just earned my respect.”

Twenty

When Tristan gets to Cael’s, he’s pretty confused as to why Cara is sitting on a couch next to somebody she can hardly stand on a good day, but when his eyes meet my own, I can see he’s remembering the other night and what Victoria said to him. Cael gets him set up with a coffee and everybody goes quiet, the only sound coming from the T.V, which is on pretty low.

“Clearly I’ve missed a lot,” he says to nobody in particular.

Smiling sheepishly, “You have no idea,” Cara says.

“Soo,” he says. “I guess you guys want to clue me in on something? Because that’s the reason I called Cara in the first place. I had something to tell her.”

Cara bites her lip and her blue eyes meet mine. I nod my head, smile, and even throw in an exaggerated wink to break the tension.

“Well, I guess I should start first,” says Tristan. “Try not to freak out, and just listen to what I have to say. I’m not…I’m not human. Well, I am, but I’m not exactly a full one. I’ve always known that I could do some pretty strange things, but I always figured it was just…I don’t really know.”  He clears his throat. “My father was a Fallen Angel, but I know next to nothing about him because he left my mother when I turned two. My mother is human.”

Cara smiles slightly, “That’s uh, not so bad. I mean, I just found out all of this stuff exists thanks to these two,” she points at Cael and Victoria, but it’s nice to have a little continuity I suppose.”

Tristan opens his mouth to say something, and Victoria cuts him off. “Yes, as you know, I am not human. And neither is he,” she nods in Cael’s direction. “We are of the Fallen, on the side of Light.”

“I liked it better when you talked like a regular teenager,” mutters Cara, throwing some serious shade at Victoria with her eyes.

Victoria smiles, “Yes, well, sometimes I need to work on not killing people who get on my nerves. Pretending to be a teenager gets hard sometimes. So watch it.”

“Stop being so violent!” Laughs Cael.

Victoria chuckles and Cara sticks her tongue out at her. I guess old habits die hard.

“Okay,” says Cara. “So now that you’ve put things on the table, I have to tell you something. And then maybe Khiara might want to also add in some…important information, since this has become a weird supernatural pow-wow.” She twirls a lock of red hair and takes a deep breath. “I’m
also
not fully human.”

The shock that shows on Tristan’s face is intense. I feel as though it’s a tangible thing, a cloak that’s wrapping itself around his being. He looks around the room and takes everybody in.

“Is there
anybody
here who is a normal human?” he whispers. Oddly, I can relate to how he seems to be feeling.

I raise my hand. “I’m human. But can you define normal?”

He shakes his head. “I guess not.” Then, to Cara, “I just…wanted somebody to balance out the non-human part of me. I’m not
natural
.”

Tristan stands up. “What
are
you?” he almost shouts at Cara, his voice frantic and like a slap directly to Cara’s soul, because he looks almost disgusted – which is ridiculous because he just admitted that he isn’t even fully human.

Cara’s eyes are wide and filled with tears but her jaw is set, and I can tell that she is very hurt, maybe angry. “I’m half Fire Nymph. My father was of the Faen people. My mother, like yours, is human. She cheated on him, and he killed himself.”

Tristan looks at me. “And what’s wrong with you? You’re human, but there’s obviously something off about you too. I could feel it when we met.”

I’m about to tell him the whole curse thing, when Cara stands up and grabs Tristan by the shoulders with both of her hands, and brings gets right in his face. “There’s nothing
wrong
with her, and there’s nothing wrong with me, or anybody in this room. We are just different, and so what? Why is that so bad? I’m not that much different than you are. I’m still a person; we all are. Race doesn’t make anybody less of a person.”

“Damn,” says Victoria, surprised.

Cael lets out a low whistle.

Tristan shakes Cara off of him, and stumbles towards the door. “I just wanted somebody uncomplicated, normal,
and human
. I knew you were a bit of a lush when we met, but I liked you because you seemed interesting. I just…I need to think about all of this. I just need some time.”

“But –”

“I’ll text you later,” he says, and soon he’s out the door. Cara runs to the door and I follow after her, but it’s already too late. He’s gone. The only sound is the wind, which is cold and smells like the promise of snow. Winter is coming. Good bye Fall.

~*~

Cara and I are sitting on my bed. I put together some snacks, but I seem to be the only one interested in actually eating them, as Cara’s just taking out her frustration on one of the low fat blueberry muffins.

“
I don’t deserve this muffin!
Stupid
low fat muffin! I shouldn’t be eating this; it’s for skinny people. I’m
so
fat! I should be eating like a fatty!
Buy me some McDonald’s!”
It’s no use arguing with her when she’s like this, so I stay quiet as she screams herself hoarse.

“Are you done now?” I ask as Cara puts her head in her hands and begins to cry. I try not to let the sympathy show in my voice because I know she’d be annoyed if I did, but if it carries through and she doesn’t notice and nods, miserably.

I smile at her, and she smiles back at me and blinks her tear-thick lashes, “Sorry,” she says. I roll my eyes, “Don’t even worry about it. So you’re half Nymph and your boyfriend is half Angel. You guys should be on a show together. The premise would make a lot of people pretty interested.” I bop her on the shoulder, “He’ll come around. I think he’s just scared. I mean he just found out he’s not fully human a couple of days ago, and he thought you’d compensate for that for him. It’s stupid, but I get it. He’ll call you, Cara; he really likes you.”

She hiccups and then burps, prompting us to laugh like idiots and then she’s snorting, which is making me laugh harder. When she calms down enough to talk, she says, “Thank God you’re not one of those stereotypical heroines who keeps her best friend in the dark. I would hate you. Really, really hate you. And I wouldn’t have been able to tell you about what I am.”

“Heroine? Screw that, Cara. I’m probably going to die, for all we know. And stereotypical actually is a pretty good word to describe me. I’m just a regular, average looking teenager who’s had the fate of the entire world as we know it thrust upon her. Call me Merry-Sue.”

Cara nods her head, “Mary-Sue it is! I can be you’re right hand gal, Merry-Jane.”

I wipe an imaginary tear from my eye, “What would I ever do without you?”

She shrugs and pulls me into a big bear hug, “Don’t think about that, Merry-Sue. Merry-Jane’s got your back.” She pulls back, and holds me at arm’s length, “Seriously though,
don’t
think about it. Because I’m
not
going anywhere. I’m going to fight by your side.”

She holds out her hand, which is wet with tears and snot (and yes, I let her touch me with that hand) and a brilliant red flame appears in her palm. "I promise."

Twenty-One

As it turns out, Nymphs are bad with rejection, being such affectionate creatures. I knew Cara always took things a little too hard but I never realized that it was in her
blood
. I just thought she enjoyed being dramatic, because she’s always said so. But that was part of her cover-up. And I now know why she wants to go into nursing so badly; she has a small amount of healing knowledge passed on to her from her father’s adoptive mother, who she always referred to as Grandma Coal, because of her coal black eyes and hair native to the Sprit Nymphs (go figure, I didn’t know Spirit was an element). She lives close to Portland, and hasn’t visited Cara since her father died, though Cara has gone out there at least once a year to visit her in her forest home, and I’ve been on only a few of those trips. She was always very kind to me and insisted on my calling her Grandma Coal as well.

At Bren’s – Cara’s father – funeral, Grandma Coal took my hands in her own and thanked me for being there for Cara, and she’d told me I could visit with Cara anytime, but I never wanted to ruin their time together so I only visited every two years, instead of every year, to give them time to bond.

It takes two days for Tristan to finally realize how much of an idiot he was being. Two days of Cara clinging to me like a toddler that’s been refused candy clings to their parent in hopes of getting some. When he finally calls her, she almost jumps off of my bed in excitement.

“He’s calling! What do I say?” She flails her arms like madwomen until eventually pointing at the ringing phone.

“How should I know? Just answer and hear him out.”

“No.”

“Cara, it’s going to stop ringing soon. You should probably–”

She answers. “Hello?”

A minute passes then two, then four, then six and so on as he talks to her. Her face goes through a range of emotions until after fifteen solid minutes of silence on her part, she bursts into tears.

“Is everything okay?” I ask.

“He says he wants to know everything.”

~*~

“You know,” I say to Tristan as he walks into my room, “I wanted to break your face.”

“I know,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I freaked out and fucked up.” I walk over to him and punch him in the arm.

“I deserved that,” he says.

“Yes, you did.” Cael says from his perch on my window seat, his eyes full of laughter. He got here about ten minutes before Tristan. Apparently Cara texted him to come on over, and he extended that invitation to Victoria, who is currently sitting on my bed like she owns it.

“Now that we’re all here,” she sighs, lazily stretching out like a cat across my still sleep-messy sheets (I didn’t expect to have anybody but Cara over or I would have at least made my bed). “I suppose we should get started.”

Cara rolls her eyes. “Get started on what? I updated him on everything over the phone.”

Victoria frowns, but nods her head anyway. “Good. Then that saves us time. We’re going on a field trip today.”

Cael hops off the window seat and walks toward me. “We figured since we’re all in one place, we may as well break out the big guns. If we’re going to get through the Battle intact, we’re going to have to build relationships with the people fighting on our side. And we also figured we’d start with a mutual friend of mine and Vicky’s –”

“I like it when you call me Vicky,” Victoria says. “It’s much better than
Victoria
.” I make a mental note to refer to her as Vicky from now on.

“Anyway, our friend is a good guy,” says Cael. “His name’s Liam and he’ll be instrumental in helping keep you alive during the Battle. He’s extremely strong and powerful.”

“Let’s get this show on the road!” Shouts Vicky as she pops up in a sudden burst of energy. “There’s going to be food there, and I’m hungry.”

Cara, Tristan and I exchange an awkward look with each other. “Okay then,” I say.

~*~

Vicky glances at me with a strange look on her face as we walk up the steps to a cozy looking bungalow twenty minutes away from town, tucked into the forest off of a dirt road. The property has everything it needs to keep warm out here for the harsh winter that’s on its way; there’s a huge stack of firewood next to the house that will last them quite some time if they burn it wisely.

It’s pretty cold today, so we all decided it was best to wear sweaters – of course not Vicky, who doesn’t seem to mind the cold.

“What?”

She sighs, “Don’t be nervous okay?”

I laugh, “What, does Liam thrive off of fear?”

“Kind of,” she says as she pulls me towards the door of the small house.

“Really?”

She chuckles and I realize that she was kidding. Tristan, Cara and Cael are not far behind us.

As we walk through the back door into the little kitchen/dining area, I’m struck by how cozy it is inside. The appliances in the kitchen, which is painted a cheery canary yellow are all new, but you can tell they’ve been used. The kitchen table is small and round, enough for about four people, but there’s an island where some chairs have been placed, I assume to accommodate more people. 

Liam is sitting at the table, reading a magazine. His bare arms are covered in tattoos, angelic symbols I think, and his hair stands straight up in a black mohawk. His skin is a nice brown, and I notice that his eyes are a deep green when he looks up at us. He looks as if he could be of Asian descent, maybe India. I make a mental note to ask where he Fell.

At first glance, he looks absolutely terrifying, but when I look through the kitchen to the living room, I realize that his appearance is just that; an appearance. There are toys and gaming consoles in the living room, an indication of children and the walls are painted a nice shade of orange. The two couches that occupy the space look as if you’d sink right into them if you were to sit in them.

“Hi,” I manage to say.

He looks up from his magazine again, nods at me, and says gruffly, “You’re the one?”

Awkwardly I run my fingers through my hair, a gesture I guess I must’ve picked up from Cael. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He smiles and beckons me over, “Come, sit. Do you want anything?”

I try to answer, but he just gets up and smiles warmly. “You like pizza?”

“Um, yeah, I do,” I answer a little bewildered.

“Is cheese okay? My daughter’s allergic to the spices they use in pepperoni, and V here hates anything with vegetables so I just ordered plain cheese.” He says.

I smile, encouraged a bit. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

Tristan, Cara, and Cael walk in and he asks Tristan and Cara the same question. They both tell him it’s perfectly fine.

Liam claps Cael on the back and they exchange one of those man-hugs, “Hey, Cam.”

“Nice to see you again Leliel.” Says Cael, using (I assume) Liam’s angelic name. A week |is too long to go without seeing you!” he says sarcastically.

“Cam?” asks Cara, looking at Liam expectantly.

Liam smirks, “Camael,
angel
of Divine Love and Justice. But of course that’s not what he’s going by these days.”

“Oh,” Cara takes a moment to think about it. “That would make sense, then. I’ll have to start calling you that,” she says, teasingly poking Cael in the ribs.

Cael smiles good-naturedly, his blue eyes sparkling. “I like Cael just fine, thanks. It makes me feel…” he trails off in thought for a second. “It makes me feel more human.”

“Well you know, you’re not,” says Liam, very matter of fact. He pulls Cael close to him again and grinds his fist playfully onto the top of his head. “You’re my little brother of sorts, and I’m sure as hell not human, no offence to present company, half or whole.”

He chuckles, “My daughter is half human so I’d be a real hypocrite if I discriminated against humans. Which is
whyyy
, you have permission to call me Liam. I have to keep up appearances.”

The doorbell rings, and from somewhere in the house, “I’ve got it,” cries a female voice. I instantly recognize it; Lisa.

She comes scampering down the hall and into the small part of passage that divides the living room and kitchen. Lisa’s in an old pair of black sweat pants and a comfy looking green camisole, and there is a huge smile on her face. “I’m so happy you’re here!” she squeals, clapping her hands.

The doorbell rings again, two times in fast succession. She laughs and smacks her hand against her forehead. “Right, the pizza. Don’t want to leave the guy hanging.”

Dashing towards the front door at an inhuman speed, her blonde hair trailing behind her, she reaches the door just as the pizza guy is on his third ring. “Impatient much?” she says when she opens the door, handing him a twenty and telling him to keep the change.

“It’s going to snow soon, you know,” he replies dryly. “But thanks for the tip.”

In her excitement, Lisa slams the door in his face and runs with the two pizzas towards the kitchen.

“Okay, now everybody is here!” She says excitedly.

“Not everybody,” says Liam. “Wake Sam up, he should be here for this.”

She rolls her eyes but does so with a smile on her face. “Okay. He’ll be grumpy though, he hasn’t been sleeping much.”

“Lisa go wake up your brother.” He orders. She sighs and leaves the room momentarily only to come back out holding the hand of a small boy with the most beautiful head of blond, curly hair I have ever seen. His skin is a gorgeous colour – not quite white but not brown either. His shirt has a blue dinosaur on it.

“Hi,” he says rubbing eyes that are so green it should be a crime. The intelligence they hold for such a young child is unbelievable. “My name is Sam. I’m five.”

“Hi Sam,” I say, bending down to his height “My name is Khiara. I’m seventeen.”

He smiles at me, showing perfectly dimpled cheeks. “Your soul is pretty,” he declares. “But your face is pretty too. I’m glad.” Sam extends his little chubby hand. “Nice to finally meet you.”

I shake his hand. “Well it’s nice to meet you too.”

“Are you sick?” He asks, as we all gather around the counter while Liam hands out plates, and Lisa doles out the pizza.

“Well I have a cold.” Suddenly I’m feeling kind of self-conscious and nervous; how can such a small boy be so perceptive? “Why do you ask?”

Sam’s face falls a bit and he whispers, “I can feel it. It’s a heavy kind of sick, a strong one. Do you wanna lie down in my bed? It’s kind of small but you’d fit just enough.”
Oh…

“It’s okay,” I reply, my voice quivering a bit. “I’ll be alright.” His green eyes crinkle in concern.

“Sam, stop bothering our guest or she’ll never want to come back.” Liam scolds though not harshly, and Sam laughs then scampers over to him and raises his hands so Liam can pick him up.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I just noticed.”

“This kid,” Liam says. “This kid is a special one.”

Once we’re all seated on the couches with our cups full of juice or soda – we decided the living room would be a suitable place to fit all eight of us – and our plates full of delicious pizza from our town’s only pizza parlour (and really, it’s just a mom and pop deli that also sells overpriced but tasty pizza), there is much to discuss. Liam has already been brought up to date on who Tristan and Cara are, and about how much we all individually know; which apparently isn’t much in the grand scheme of things.

Liam clears his throat, and begins talking. “When Lucifer Fell and took at least one third of the angels that were in Heaven with him angels, willing and unwilling, and he vowed to do away with anything that belonged to…we’ll call him Yahweh, which is the Hebrew word for God. It translates,
roughly
to ‘life-breath’ which is kind of appropriate since he breathed life into the Angelic race.”

“Rumours started flying around that he was preparing anybody he could find, anybody who would listen, and corrupting them. As time went by, more and more were following him. The repentant Fallen who he brought with him were targeted and killed, unless they joined him. He forced angels to take advantage of innocent civilians, and the Nephilim race was born. He ordered the Nephilim killed if they were too weak and more like their human parents. This was before the rise of the people of ancient Mesopotamia. And this was before the angels in Heaven began to fall in love with humans, or enamoured with the idea of free will.”