Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (13 page)

     I watched Asher carefully, from
under my lashes.  Even though I was the only one who could see him, it was
amazing how the crowd parted to avoid him.  It looked like a river rushing
around a huge rock; people just automatically side-stepped around him, even if
it meant running into another shopper, or clipping someone on the heel with
their cart.  Avoiding Death is a deep-rooted instinct in most
people.  Kind of made me wonder what might be wrong with me.  I
obviously didn’t have any sense of self-preservation.  Asher made me
nervous as hell, but I kind of liked him.

     I stopped to grab a bunch of
bananas when he leaned down and whispered to me.  “You should take your
friend and leave, now.”  What the Hell?  Why would he whisper when,
presumably, nobody else could see or hear him?  I couldn’t very well argue
with him, either, not without looking like an idiot.

     “Henry?  Is that you,
Henry?”  My head swiveled and the tiniest little old lady reached a hand
out to Asher as she started past him.  She had the brightest smile that
I’d ever seen on anyone’s face.  She was pushed along in a wheelchair by
what I imagined was probably her daughter; they had the same silvery, blue
eyes.

     “Look, Alice, it’s my old friend,
Henry,” she said, delighted.  Her caretaker looked confused, and slightly
annoyed at the interruption to their grocery shopping.  She sighed as she
tried to move past us, but the old lady wasn’t going to be deterred.  She
put the brake on her chair and stopped right in the middle of the aisle to
speak with Death.

     Asher knelt down beside her chair
and gently took her hand.  “Hello, Agnes.  How are you, dear? 
You look lovely.”  His voice was gentle and smooth as silk.  Agnes
simply glowed under his attention.  Whomever Henry had been to her, she
had really liked him a lot.

     Her daughter, or caretaker, or
whatever she was, stood staring at me bug-eyed.  She couldn’t see Asher,
so all she saw was little Agnes sitting in the middle of the aisle having a
whole conversation, all by herself.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of either
of them.  I wasn’t stupid; I knew what was about to happen.  He’d
warned me to take Gwen and to get out of there, but I couldn’t make myself look
away.  It was like a train wreck, just waiting to happen.

     The whole thing was surreal. 
On one level, there was this busy produce section, just full of people
shopping; all of them, blissfully unaware that Death was so close that they
could brush right by him. And on the other level, there was a life about to be
taken.

     Agnes’ caretaker tried to get her
attention by gently tugging on her shoulder, but she only had eyes for her
‘Henry’.  I felt Gwen nudge me, trying to make me move along, but this was
fascinating, and sort of beautiful, and I was the only witness to it.  I
didn’t want to leave.

     Little Agnes smiled so sweetly at
Asher, that my heart nearly broke for her.  How she must have loved her
Henry.  He took her hand and kissed it once, then lightly placed his hand
over her heart.  His eyes were kind, I thought, and maybe even a little
sad.  Agnes gave a faltering breath, sighed, and died right there, under
his hand

     There was only a split second of
peace before all Hell broke loose.  Her daughter shook her a little
harder, trying to get her to respond, but Agnes was already gone.  Then
she screamed for help, and people started pushing, rushing forward as they
tried to get a good view.  Someone yelled for 911 to be called.  A
few idiots even whipped out their cell phones to get pictures of the old lady
who’d just died.  Gwen yelled at me, and tried pull me backwards, out of
the way.  Through all of that, I watched Asher.

     He pulled a mist of silvery pink
out of that withered body.  It looked like a fine chain, at first, then
gradually formed a more rounded silhouette.  It danced and shimmered under
the fluorescent lights, then seemed to get its bearings, and disappeared. 
It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen and I wanted to cry, it was so
beautiful. Wow.  Just, wow. What an amazing thing to witness.

     I let Gwen pull me down several
aisles, away from the screaming and crying; away from Asher.  “Oh, my
Gawd, did you freaking see that?  That poor woman just died.  Right
there in the damned produce aisle!”  She was so upset she was shaking.

     “Hush… I know.  I saw. 
It’s ok, Gwen.”  She looked at me like I’d lost all my marbles.

     “It’s not ok, Iz.  There is a
dead
woman sitting
between the bananas and the freaking cherry tomatoes!”

     “I know.  Calm down before you
scare some little kids.”  She seemed to come out of it, and looked around,
embarrassed.  Gwen hardly ever loses her cool, much less in public.  We
had stopped just outside the Halloween section.  Which just happened to be
right next to the Christmas section.  Go figure.

     “Ok, I’m calm.  I’m
good.”  She placed her hands on her hips as she paced.  Then,
stopping abruptly, she stabbed a finger towards the way we’d just come from.
“There is a freaking dead lady over there.”  She looked a little green
around the gills, like she might just throw up at any moment.  There was a
white ring forming around her compressed lips.

     “Why don’t you go to the restroom
and splash your face with cold water, before you yak?”  I walked along
next to her, tried to calm her before she scared the shit out of some of the
kids still wandering around looking at costumes and candy buckets.  How
was I staying so calm?  I had just witnessed something supernatural. I
really should be freaking out, myself.

     News spreads like wildfire,
apparently, because the Halloween section cleared out quickly.  I did see
one little boy watching me with a funny expression on his little face.  He
must have heard the commotion, but he didn’t look scared.  I smiled at
him, trying to make everything seem as normal as possible.  I didn’t see
an adult with him, though I doubt he was more than ten or eleven.  In all
the chaos he’d probably wandered away from his mommy.

     I didn’t have time to give the kid
much thought, however.  Gwen still looked like she was about to lose her
lunch.  “What about you, are you ok?”

     I nodded.  “I’m fine. 
You go ahead and wash up.  I’m just gonna wait out here with the
cart.”  She nodded and took off at a pretty fast clip.  I wondered if
she would make it all the way to the restroom without having a problem.  I
wished she could have seen Agnes’ death the way that I had. It had been
peaceful, and beautiful, and even kind of breathtaking.  I had never
expected that.  It was just too bad that it had to happen in the middle of
a busy shopping center.  There just wasn’t a lot of dignity to dying in
public.  On the other hand, I didn’t think Agnes really cared.  She
was off to bigger, and hopefully, better things.

     I felt a tug on my hand and looked
down to find the little boy I’d spotted earlier.  “Hey, there.  What
are you up to?” He shrugged, tilted his head as he watched me.  “Where’s
your mommy?”  I wasn’t used to strange little kids coming up to me for no
reason.  Didn’t anybody ever tell him about Stranger Danger?  Guess
not. He was a cute little kid, though.  He had shaggy, dark hair, skin the
color of copper, and really pretty brown eyes.  “What’s your name? 
I’m Izzy.”

     A couple of teeth were missing when
he grinned at me.  “I like you, Izzy.  You’re different.” 
Great, whatever that meant.  Strange little kid.

    “Um, thanks.  Do you want help
finding your mom?”  Or dad, or responsible adult?  Anybody.  He
shook his head and darted away with a giggle.  Okay, then.  All in
all, it had been one helluva trip for groceries.

***

     Asher was suspiciously absent for
the rest of the afternoon.  Gwen felt unwell again, so she went back home
after she helped me get my groceries in the house.  Small wonder, she had
just had a really bad shock, on top of the energy drain she’d been
experiencing.  A little rest would probably do her a world of good. 
Getting away from me might help, too.  I didn’t think that I stole her
energy, but I had no way of controlling it, yet.  So, better safe than
sorry.

     I found myself feeling antsy, like
I had way too much energy building up inside. Probably left-overs from what I’d
taken from Asher the night before. I put the groceries away, and picked up the
house.  When I finished, I went outside to rake some leaves.  My dad
usually waited for all of them to finish falling, then rolled over them with a
lawn mower a few times to mulch them.  I got to them before he did, this
year.

     Strange, but true, I really liked
raking leaves.  It not only gave me something to do with all that spare
energy, but I had every intention of jumping in the leaf pile when I
finished.  No matter how old a person is, I firmly believe that they’re
never too old for jumping in leaf piles.

     It was a nice day; kind of cool,
but sunny.  I had just started to break a sweat when I felt someone
watching me.  Asher was back.  I didn’t turn around, just kept slowly
raking my leaves into their colorful pile.  Hesitant steps crunched as he
came up behind me.  He touched my arm almost shyly, stopping me from
raking.  “Isabel, about this morning, I want to apologize.”

      I leaned on my rake and
stared up at him as I brushed sweat off my forehead with my forearm.  The
sun was behind him, highlighting his blonde hair into a sort of halo.  It
was a strange little optical illusion, but it suited him.  Asher was an
angel, after all; if a deadly one.  I glanced away before he caught me
staring at him.

     “You really don’t have anything to
apologize for.”  I took another couple of swipes with my rake.

     Asher looked thoroughly confused.
“Wait…what?  Why not?  I expected to find you upset.”  Clearly
I’d caught him off guard.  That made me stupidly happy, for some
reason.  Just being near him made me stupidly happy. 

     I should probably worry about
that.  I barely knew him.  Really, I’d spent almost no time at all
with him, unless you count the time he’d spent stalking me. In the time that I
had
spent with him, I’d
witnessed him kill someone.  And still, it made me stupidly happy just to
be near him.  That was the reaction I was supposed to have to Alex, but I
realized that I hadn’t given him much of a second thought since I’d spoken to
him last night. I was a horrible person, and probably and idiot.

     Asher watched me closely.  I
shrugged, tried to look casual.  “I’m ok.  Really.  You were
just doing what you had to for that poor woman, and you made it as easy for her
as you could.  It’s just too bad she had to spend her last moments in the
middle of a crowded grocery store.  I guess that couldn’t have been
helped, though.”

     He ducked his head, nodded once,
and when he looked at me again, his storm-grey eyes glowed with something that
curled my toes.  “It could not be helped, no.  Once I am summoned,
the harvest has to be made. Your understanding is much more than I had hoped
for, however.  I thank you for it.”

     My cheeks were on fire.  Hopefully,
he thought it was from the exercise, and not because I was embarrassed.  “Oh,
hey, no big deal.  Gwen got a little upset, but she couldn’t see things
the way I could.”  I took a few more swipes at the leaves, then stopped
and looked up at him.  “I hate lying to her, you know?  I don’t much
care for lying to my dad, either.”    

     Asher shuffled from foot to foot.
Was he nervous, too? “Have you noticed anything unusual lately?  Any
strange new people lurking about?  Any new abilities, perhaps?” 

     I really thought about it for a
moment. “Nah.  You’re the only strange new people I’ve met. 
Otherwise, I haven’t noticed anything unusual.  I feel good. 
Everything seems to be all healed up.”

     Asher looked skeptical.  “Do
something for me?”

     “Like what?”  I’m not usually
the suspicious type.  Ah, who am I kidding?  I’m exactly the
suspicious type.  Always and forever, the suspicious type.

     Asher reached down to the ground
and picked up a tiny orange leaf.  It lifted in the palm of his hand and
swirled slowly up into the air for a few inches and came back down, as easy and
light, as a feather.  “I want you to move this leaf.”

     I snorted.  “Of course you do,
but I can’t do that; not the way that you just did.  It’s impossible.”

     “It is impossible, only if you
believe it to be so.  Just try.  For me.”  For a smile like
that, I was willing to try just about anything.

     I sighed as I dropped my rake, almost
disgusted with myself, and held out my hand.  “Fine.  What do I have
to do?”

     Carefully, Asher placed the leaf in
my hand.  “Everything begins with a motion of Will.  You have
enormous potential; I can feel it in you.  Once you master moving this
tiny leaf, you can move mountains.  Focus on the leaf.  Concentrate
the energy you feel building up inside of you.  Direct that energy into
the leaf.  Make it move to your Will.”  He held his hand a few inches
above my hand and made a tiny swirling motion.  I could feel it as clearly
as if he’d taken his finger and touched it directly to my skin. 
Goosebumps lifted all along my arm.  Thank goodness I still had on long
sleeves, or he might have seen.

      I tried to concentrate, I
really did, but Asher was standing so close to me. Too close, probably.  I
wanted to lean towards him and run away at the same time.  I took several
deep, steadying breaths and tried to ignore the racing of my heart.  He
watched me steadily. I tried to just block him out, but that spiced scent of
leather made me fuzzy-headed.  Why did he have to smell so good?  I
was acting like an idiot.  Gwen would laugh her ass off at me, if she
knew.