Dark Angel (Anak Trilogy) (12 page)

“Is that the last time you saw him?”

“No, when I was fourteen he came back again. I had just had my vision of you a few weeks before his return. He taught me how to fashion swords and the secret of the flaming sword. According to my father, he was teaching me a trade, so that I could support myself. I decided then and there that I would become your protectorate. That I would turn the only thing my father ever gave me, the knowledge to fashion weapons from metal and make a business of it.  I vowed that I would perfect the swords and knives I made, and I would become the most skilled warrior the world had ever seen.  I decided to wait for you and defend you even until death itself.”

“
The Archangels became upset that Azâzêl, my father, was teaching humans to make weapons. Not just me, he taught many men how to make war, and they came to get him. They bound him up and took him away. I thought they were going to take me too. You have never seen anything quite as frightening to look upon as an Archangel.” He lowered his voice and looked me in the eyes.

“
Don’t get me wrong they are not monstrous looking like the Dark Ones. Quite the contrary, they are absolutely stunning, but fierce looking, like the gigantic, unbeatable warriors that they are. They all bent down to look at me as if deciding what my fate would be. I heard a voice I shall never forget. Just the sound of it made me want to weep. It was like if thunder could make words, all it said was ‘Leave the boy.’ The Archangels stood up then and left taking my father with them.” Zell finished the story and our dinner at about the same time. He laid our dinner on a low table in front of the fire.

“You say your race is called the Anak?”    

“We are also called Nephilim or Jedi. I read one piece of research that suggested the union between the celestial angels and the human women corrupted the DNA code, and that corruption explains why the Anak were bloodthirsty giants. Whether true or not, I don’t know, but it makes sense.”

“
Come,” he said simply taking my hand and leading me from the sofa to a pillow lying beside a low table in front of a crackling fire. He sat down on a cushion on the opposite side of the table. He bowed his head and raised his hands. I probably should have too, but I didn’t pray anymore which of course hurt my father. I couldn’t help it. God let my mother die. I wasn’t going to pray to him. Instead, I watched Zell with fascination.

“Ancient of D
ays, we honor you and ask your blessings to be bestowed upon us. Amen.”  Zell prayed simply.

He opened his eyes and looked at me. “You are my blessing,” Zell stated quietly looking deep into my eyes. He reached out where my left hand laid on top of the table and covered it with his own. My breath caught in my throat, and I could not tear my eyes away from his lovely gaze. For long minutes, we sat there ignoring our dinner absorbed in simply looking at one another.

Finally, Zell broke the spell and said, “Eat so you can spend the next few hours telling me what a terrific chef I am.”

After we finished what turned out to be an amazing dinner, Zell took my hand and lifted me to my feet. I have no television here, but remember I am the perfect mimic. I can sing to you. Who will it be?” he said laughing. “Elvis, Elton John, Barry Manilow,
50 Cent, who?”

“Barry Manilow
, 50 Cent? Really? Can you play an instrument?”

“Yes,” he answered simply.

“Well, which instrument?” I asked thinking he was playing with me.

“All of them,” Zell answered matter-of-fact.

“All of them?” I echoed.

“Eternity is quite a long time. I had to do something to occupy my time when I wasn’t killing the other
Anak who came for me or the Dark Ones. I learned to play instruments, one at a time, until I mastered them all.” He moved to a shelf on the wall opposite the fireplace and took down an instrument that resembled a guitar, but the back was rounded instead of flat. He sat down on the sofa next to me and began to play softly. It was the most beautiful melody that I had ever heard. Then he began a melody that sounded familiar. When he started to sing, I knew the song.

“Wise men say
only fools rush in,
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin?
If I can't help falling in love with you
Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes.
Some things are meant to be  .  .  .”

When he finished, I was almost speechless.

“That was my mom and dad’s song. My mother told me it was the song playing the first t
ime she and dad slow danced. It was the song they danced to at their wedding too. She actually had an album collection of Elvis Presley’s. Dad still has it. I’ll show it to you sometime,” I said my voice falling away with those last words.

“What’s the matter?” Zell asked.

“I feel rotten. Really, this isn’t fair to Jon. I’m with you on this beautiful island, and you just played the most romantic song ever. This is hard,” I whispered my voice breaking.

“Why Annie?”

“Because.”

“Because?” he whispered back taking my hand.

“Because it would be so easy to fall for you in a moment like this.”

“Then fall,” Zell whispered taking me in his arms. “This will be
our song too.”

He started to sing
the song again
a cappella pulling me up from the sofa and slow dancing with me in his arms.  I was falling for him. I knew it, but I would not be human if I was not swept up in the romantic moment. He is singing a love song that has a special meaning to me. He is handsome, attentive, a graceful dancer, and his voice is amazing. I didn’t want this moment to end, ever. When he finished the song, his hand traveled up my arm to my chin. Lifting it, he raised my face to meet his.

“I love you, Annie.”

“Don’t say that, please.”

“Why?”  He asked searching my face.

“I barely know you.”

“Ok sweetheart, I’ve waited what seems to have been an
eternity for you, but I can wait forever if that is what you desire.  Come, you may choose the next song,” he said guiding me back to the sofa.

He played for
hours. Each tune was more intoxicating than the one before. Before long, I began to sing with him. When we ran out of songs that I knew, we began to sing silly songs laughing so hard we could barely finish them.

Between
the music, my full stomach, the warmth of the fire, and listening to Zell play, my eyes began to grow heavy and my eyelids fluttered. Zell noticed immediately and stopped playing.

He helped me up and showed me
into an expansive bedroom. He laid one of his large tee shirts on a monstrous bed. “I’ll build a fire in here, and then I will go outside while you change,” he said.  Quickly, he built the fire and strode from the room and the house in a few short strides grabbing the sheath of one of his swords as he passed it.

I undressed and put on his tee shirt whose hem almost touched my knees. The hem of the arms came below my elbows. I found a brush lying on the table next to the bed and brushed my h
air until it shone. I faced the huge bed, turned down the sheets and coverlet, and I actually had to climb up on it to get in bed. I propped up on the pillows watching the fire crackling across the room and pulled the covers up to my chin.

Zell walked back through the d
oor and smiled at me. His smile warmed me as much as the fire. He strode to the fire and put on several more logs. He crossed the room to where he had left his other swords and moved them to the table next to the opposite side of the bed still holding the one he had carried outside with him in his right hand. He laid that sword at the end of the bed.

“I’
m going to change,” Zell told me and left the room.

Panic hit me. I turned
facing the wall and worried. What was I doing here in this desolate place with a virtual stranger?  Suddenly, I longed for home and my bed. Whatever happened to me, I deserved it for not demanding that he take me home.

I heard Zell laugh. “You can turn around now, Annie.”

Slowly,
I did as he asked. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Zell was dressed. Although, he was dressed only in a pair of soft silver silk trousers with a drawstring waist, I felt relieved.

He
sat on top of the covers, and I was safely beneath them. I turned facing the wall again. Zell sat against pillows that were resting on a massive mahogany headboard. He bent to retrieve the sword left at the end of the bed and laid his left arm in which his hand held the sword protectively across me.

“
I have a confession to make, Annie,” Zell whispered sighing. This moment was incredible. The only light emanated from the crackling fire. The bed was so soft, warm, and comfortable, and Zell’s lovely voice was speaking to me. I was so sleepy, and yet I didn’t want this night to end.

“I knew it was your mother’s favorite song. The first time I heard her play
it, I knew I would sing it to you one day. Good night, love,” Zell’s voice was barely audible as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

I was in the car with my mother. She was driving and fighting off a monster at the same time. The monster looked human though his eye
s were the color of blood.  He bared his lips in a hiss exposing two large fangs on either side of his mouth. Mother screamed and stabbed him with a pen in one of his eyes while still driving and trying to maintain control of the car. Blood spurted all over my mother as the monster sank its razor-sharp fangs into her neck.

I cried out as our vehicle left the road. When we hit
the ground again, the safety belt which the creature had cut with his claws as he tried to reach me broke in two and threw me forward through an open window. I could see a massive tree coming at me fast. A millisecond before impact something stopped me. Then I heard the same hiss I had heard before behind me. Clutching the thing that cradled me, I turned seeing the monster that attacked my mother coming for me. I saw a blade extended before me etched in a familiar looking ancient manuscript. I followed the blade to the arm that held it, then upward to that exquisite face from my dreams and now my life. Zell was in this nightmare. One wing covered my eyes as he dealt a death blow to the chest of the creature. Just before the wing covered my eyes, I saw her, my mother, there in the distance, behind the monster in the wreck of her car. My mother’s lifeless body was slumped over the steering wheel covered in her blood. Her unseeing eyes looked toward me. I sobbed loudly.

“
Wake up Annie. Shhh, it’s only a dream.” Zell held me in his arms rocking me back and forth. I could see him in the glow of the firelight. I threw my arms about his neck grasping his hair with both hands and pulled his lips to mine. I kissed him as I had never kissed a boy before. With all the passion that I possessed, I kissed him deeply. I could feel rather than see the surprise in Zell, and he hesitated momentarily before returning my kiss. Then, he returned my kiss with a passion so deep that my head swam dizzily. He held me to him as if he were afraid I might disappear if he loosened his hold. I met his passion with my own, and we were both spiraling into a crevasse of desire.  The next moment, Zell tore himself from me and strode to the hearth of the fireplace. Resting his forearm on the mantel, he gazed into the fire.

“
Annie don’t. I’m only human, half-human that is, and the other part that is not human is evil. My father took my mother against her will. She was a good woman. He ruined her life. Back in the ancient days, a woman who conceived a child out of wedlock was stoned to death. My mother had to leave her village, her family, everything she knew until her time was passed. My aunt Miriam told everyone in the village that my mother had gone to the village of her betrothed to be married, but we lived in the wilderness in a tent.   When I was two, we moved back to my mother’s village. My Aunt Miriam covered for her once again telling the people of the village that my father was a solider and had gone off to war. Times have changed I know, but I won’t take you outside of marriage. I was conceived when my father forced himself on my mother. I won’t be my father’s son. I’m sorry; I can’t. You’re too young. I didn’t bring you here to seduce you. I can’t do that to you or betray your father’s trust in you.  I have sworn to protect you always. What kind of protector would I be if I took advantage of you?” Zell hung his head speaking into the fire, but I could see both his fists clenched at his side in a display of willpower.

Of course, his kiss had left me a quivering mess as before.
I wanted to tell him that I was sorry. I wanted to tell him the moment was all my fault. I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking. I reacted to his tenderness in a way that I never thought that I would. I could not orally respond or apologize, so I lay my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, the light of morning was filtering gently through the windows. Zell was
laying on top of the covers on his side asleep. His arms covered me protectively. His sword was still drawn and in his hand. Had I just dreamed the passionate scene from last night? I didn’t think so. It was too real. I blushed just thinking about it.