She Speaks to Angels (20 page)

“
Gesh, Jen...it’s just a test.” I knew I sounded defensive.

“
Well, I arrived late as it is, and I thought you’d already be waiting on the sidewalk for me. I can’t believe you were late too...of all days!” Her head shook.

“
Sorry; I didn’t know,” I apologized.

“
Still, I can’t believe my ears!” Mol turned her head around to me, her cheek touching the side of her leather seat. “
It is just a test?
Since when did you, Ali, stop caring about tests?”

I paused. Frankly, all I could think about was this new world of angels and demons and how I would survive today. “I...just think there are more important things than tests, like...like friendship.”

“
Ok, Ali.” Mol rolled her eyes as if she didn’t believe me, but I meant it, and then she turned back around.

When we arrived at school, the three of us rushed through the front doors just as the first bell rang. We had several minutes to get to our lockers and to first period class. But I would just as soon skip first. I didn’t feel up to seeing Dameon today, to pretend that the very sight of him didn’t make my skin crawl.

“
See you later!” Jen rushed off in the opposite direction, and Mol skipped off to her art class as I rummaged through my open locker.

“
Later.” I stood alone, without my best friends. The halls grew more and more empty the closer the clock on the wall ticked to the late bell. I became very aware within seconds that the last five students I could see disappeared behind the corner.

Shutting the locker, I held my assignment folder in one hand and the Gucci bag I brought from home in the other. With my NOOK in the bag, I couldn’t leave home without it.
Where are you?
I worried to myself about Kian, and then the black jacket turned the corner.
Oh, God!
The tall figure strolled toward me. Light from the window on the wall blinded me. I could only make out his silhouette; I only had the image of the black jacket to go on, and I knew who wore black. Dameon.

Stepping backward, I kept my gaze ahead as I inched further and further away from my locker. “Don’t come any closer.” I held my hands out as the Gucci bag slid down my shoulder. “Stop! Stay where you are.” I tried to sound forceful, but the figure kept moving forward until his hand reached forward and his forefinger pointed.

“
Aren’t you supposed to be in class, young lady?” His raspy voice sounded familiar.

“
Assistant Principal Krougar?”

“
Yes, dear.” The light from the window was shaded by a passing cloud, and I made out his features and sighed. “Now, get to class before I mark you down.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Bustling down the hall, I rushed into my English class, bracing myself. If Dameon hadn’t been in the hall, he had to be in class. But when I opened the door, his seat set vacant. In class, I couldn’t keep my mind on anything the teacher said, worrying about where Kian was and why he wasn’t waiting at the English class door for me, or where Dameon was and why he wasn’t in class.

When the bell rang, I thought I might explode. Class went by so slowly! Jumping to the door, I was the first person to swing the door open. I heard a few comments like, ‘Damn, Ali, pushy much?’ and, ‘Leave her alone; Dameon broke her heart.’

I didn’t care much what the kids at Millennium High said about me; if I really thought about it, I never had a reputation
before
Dameon, and in a way, at least now students knew I existed. But honestly, none of that even mattered to me now. The only thing I cared about was seeing Kian’s face on the other side of the door.

Stepping out of the room, I looked around. When my eyes finally met his and I scurried up to him, he was resting against the lockers along the wall beside the English class. I slapped his shoulder, and he straightened.

“
What’s gotten into you?”

“
Where were you? We had a deal! You weren’t waiting for me before English! What if he...”

With a hand on my shoulder, he pulled me to his mouth. “Dameon is not here today.” His words breathed over my skin...and I just wanted to swallow him whole.

“
Where is he?” But I pulled away, angry.

“
With his gang.”

“
Gang? You mean the demon spawn?”

“
Precisely.”

Why?” Wrinkles formed on my forehead.

“
Not sure. That’s why I was late. I kept an eye on him for as long as I could, trying to figure out what he was up too.”

“
And?”

“
And Krysta is watching him now. I didn’t want to leave you alone for too long.”

“
Thanks.” I leaned into him, aching to kiss his lips before I remembered that for every act of intimacy, he lost feathers from his wings.

“
Not so fast.” His hand touched my waist as he bumped backward into the lockers. “Consequences.”

“
I know.” I shook my head. “I’m so sorry; I keep forgetting.”

“
It’s alright. Even I want to forget sometimes.” His mossy-brown eyes fell low and his disposition became somber.

I sensed there to be so much more to his feelings in that moment. Feelings about his past, his future...me? We only had a few minutes before the next bell, but as we walked to my P.E. class, I couldn’t stop thinking about how difficult his life must have been. Orphaned. On the New York streets alone, and not able to intimately touch anyone. I began to realize how much the Angelfire sacrificed just to keep the streets safe from demons, and I squeezed Kian’s hand tightly. It was the one small act I could do without causing him harm.

“
Afraid?” he asked, knowing he would have to leave me alone for fifty minutes.

“
No.” I shook my head, and something like pride for him washed over me, “just glad I found you.”

“
Me too.” He hooked his fingers into my back pant pocket with only the fabric of my pants keeping his skin from mine, keeping his passion from washing over into me. But I felt fortunate. I might never be able to kiss him, or hold him so close that I couldn’t breathe, but we shared something in that hallway, something I never felt before...something that made me tingle

-everywhere.

Until Eight

After
Jen dropped me off at my house, I said goodbye to both Mol and Jen with a quick wave before racing through the front door. As I closed the thick wooden oak door, I saw Kian descend with the white wings of an angel behind the glass window of the kitchen across the hall. Butterflies flitted in my stomach, and I felt like I’d fallen in love for the first time. In a way I guess I had. No other relationship I had ever had with a boyfriend came close to what I had with Kian. We had something pure, protected, destined. At least that is how our relationship felt to me.

Scurrying across the hall and into the kitchen, I scanned the green and white tiled walls before settling on the glass window where wings vanished into a foggy mist. Like a rolling storm cloud, the mist slid under the window pane and into the house. When the vapor touched my skin, my body tingled. Perhaps this was the only time I would ever be able to feel him so overtly on me, and I wondered how the rules applied to him then. Where was that fine line between us drawn?

For several long coveted minutes he engulfed me and slid up my leg like silk beneath my pants. A sensation of sure pleasure such as I had never experienced shot through me, and I closed my eyes as he lingered over my belly button and up my chest to the hollow of my neck; I felt an ebb and flow like ocean waves. I wanted to keep him there forever, to keep the closeness and the ecstasy. But when his mist finally stretched out from beneath my clothes and settled over the hard kitchen floor, the Kian I recognized appeared, and I knew then and there I would give up his mist to see his face, his form, time and time again.

“
How are you? I mean since I left you alone seventh period?” Kian inched close to me, his voice as loud as a tolling bell. I don’t think he realized how loud he could be, and if Mom had been home, she would have surely heard him even through the closed door to her downstairs room. Heck, Samuel would have definitely heard him from upstairs, too.

“
Shh.” I held my forefinger over his mouth. Perhaps I wanted to remind him to keep his voice low just in case, or perhaps I just wanted to touch his skin. I didn’t use my lips, so I figured he’d be safe. “I was fine. Mrs. Tambourina gave us a quiz, and I think I did well. I didn’t see any sign of Dameon.”

“
You shouldn’t have. Krysta told me on my way over here that Dameon spent most of his day busy with his gang. They walked up and down the streets searching for different items.”

“
Items? What kind of items?” I worried. I frowned, and I felt my eyes narrow in concern.

“
Krysta said she would tell me when I get home tonight.”

“
Speaking of your home, am I ever going to get to see your lovely mansion on the lake again? It was quite spectacular, and I only got to see two of the rooms. There must be more, right?”

“
Well, yes there are more rooms, and yes, I will show you my home sometime soon, but no, you will not be able to see all the rooms.” He stepped toward me as I turned to walk into the living room. The sofa looked inviting, and I plopped down on the warm cushion as Kian sat in the rocking chair adjacent to me. Disappointed that he wanted to keep his distance, I pursed my lips, pouting unconsciously.

“
Why not?” Surprise hung between us.

“
Because, Ali,” Kian began, and I felt my lips tightened at his hard words, “Sammael would never allow it for one, and for two, there are just some things humans should
not
know.”

“
But?”

“
No buts. Please don’t ask me again. I hate to see that dejected expression on your face, hate to deny you anything. But I can’t do this.”

“
All right.” My head hung low, and I wanted to ask him more questions, like
what was in those forbidden rooms
, but I knew he wouldn’t be able to tell me, so I just sighed.

Then I felt his pinky finger brushing the dimple in my chin. He stood before me. “Don’t look so dreadful.”

I lifted my head and smiled. “I’m not.”

“
Yes you are. You’re a stickler for getting your own way, aren’t you?”

I shrugged.

“
Don’t let curiosity get the best of you. Remember what curiosity has brought you so far.” He spoke like he had read my mind, like he knew that I was toying with -the idea of breaking into those secret rooms someday.

My mind swirled with danger, death...and then rested on Kian’s brilliant hazel pupils and copper-blond hair. As my eyes caressed his arched nose and thin lips, broad shoulders and wide chest, I smiled. “Yes, look at what curiosity has brought me.”

Kian quickly wiped the smirk off my face with one word. “Don’t.”

“
Don’t what?” My lids widened with doe-eyed expression.

“
Don’t pretend that any of this is justified because you have me here, that the danger to your life is somehow worth it. Don’t pretend that things couldn't get worse if you don’t listen to me.”

Pouting inside, I flung myself against the back of the sofa. “I’m not.”

“
I see your mind ticking, figuring out ways to discover more about me, about my world.”

“
And is that such a bad thing?” I waved my hands. “To want to know more about the man in my life?”

“
It is, when answers will only bring more danger to you, drawing out more demons who want to murder you.”

“
Murder me?” My flesh grew cold.

“
Yes Ali. Dameon isn’t the only demon willing to kill you if need be. Angelfire keeps our secrets locked up for good reasons.

“
But Sammael said that I could read those books in the library, that the information wouldn’t cause the angels or demons to lose power. How are the secret rooms any different?”

“
Because they are, Ali.” Kian sighed. “Remember, Sammael told you that the only knowledge that weakens us is the knowledge that draws humans to the truth of our existence and our identities?”

“
Yes.”

“
Well, many rooms belong to other angels in the city, angels you shouldn’t know exist. If you did know, they too would lose power. Some rooms possess only photo books of identities with locals. It is important for Sammael to know what is going on in the world and who is on his side, but it is not important for you to know...or any other human. Knowing this will only weaken our cause.”

“
I understand.” I nodded and really felt satisfied with his answer. “I wouldn’t want to be the cause of angels weakening in power.”

“
I know you wouldn’t.” He plopped next to me and tucked his head between my left ear and the sofa pillow. Our heads rested side by side for a few seconds before temptation gripped me and I felt starved for him; my heart ached. Only being near him would never be enough, but it would have to be. As he pulled away, his arm brushed tenderly against my cheek, and I couldn’t resist him. I pulled his arm back, jerking his body toward me. He landed gently on my breasts.

He laughed and then I laughed, breaking the romance I spontaneously intended, and then he rolled over, propping himself up beside me, still giggling.