Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (32 page)

     I made a point of taking a step
forward, away from Asher before he decided to pee on my shoes, or some other
sign of primitive male dominance.  “Hi, Alex.  I’m glad you made
it.” 

     Alex looked Death up and down,
sizing up the competition.  “Who’s your friend,” he asked, in a strained
voice.  His arms crossed over his chest, and his chin raised, ever so
slightly.  Oh, good, a pissing contest over little ol’ me.  How
flattering. This wasn’t exactly how I’d planned on spending my Halloween, but
it was all good, as long as everyone played nice.

    Gwen must have seen me caught between the
rock and the hard place, and decided to help.  Alex should have been
backing off, naturally avoiding Asher, but instead he stepped in closer, hoping
to intimidate him, and I got caught in the middle of it.

     Gwen thrust a tray of mummified
pigs in blankets at the boys, and handed me a glass of cider.  “Oh, hey,
Alex.  I see you’ve met Izzy’s cousin.”

     “Cousin?”  Alex’s tone was
ripe with disbelief.  “He seems like an awfully friendly cousin.” I
flinched. He was right; Asher did stand too close, touch me too often, for that
story to be believed.

      “Second cousin.  Once
removed on her mother’s side. And he’s French; from Canada, actually.” 
Gwen never missed a beat.  Just smiled and offered him the tray. 
“Weiner?”  

     He looked Asher up and down, his
eyes hard. His gaze flicked towards me, and I felt suddenly guilty, but I’d
done nothing wrong.  Not really. Alex and I had been on a couple of dates,
but they had led to nothing. “No thanks.” He waved Gwen and her tray of wieners
away. “Izzy, can I speak with you, alone?”

     “Um, sure.”  I had a bad
feeling about this.

    “Perhaps you should seek conversation
elsewhere, boy.”  Asher spoke quietly, but there was an unmistakable
threat in his tone.  His accent was much thicker when he was aggravated, I
noticed.  The primitive part of my brain kind of liked that he would be
jealous of Alex.  The rational side said that I better get a handle on
things quickly, before this got ugly.

     “Asher, stop. It’s ok.”  I put
a restraining hand on his arm, instinctively holding him back when he took a
step towards Alex.

     Gwen pulled him back from the other
side.  “Easy, big fella.”  She patted his shoulder. “Here, have a
wiener.”  She shoved the tray up under his nose, and the blank mask just
stared back at her.  The girl had no fear.  No sense, either.  I
had to admire that about her.

     “No, thank you.”

     “Come on, Izzy.”  Alex reached
for my hand, intent on taking me away, on having an uncomfortable conversation
about my ‘cousin,’ no doubt.  It never happened.  One second, he was
holding my hand, pulling me along, and the next, he was pinned to the wall,
with Asher’s hand wrapped firmly around his throat.

     “Holy shit!”  The tray of
wieners went flying, then crashed to the floor as Gwen jumped back to avoid being
run over. She had a real way with words, and that about summed up everything
that I was thinking, at the time.  Oh, no, this was not happening. 
The party ground to a quick halt as people turned and stared at the fight that
had just broken out.

     Alex turned a couple of shades of
purple that I had never seen before. He started out trying to take a few swings
at Asher, but he didn’t have the reach to do any damage.  Finally, he
resorted to trying to pry the hand away that was crushing his throat.  And
the strangest part was that the whole time, Asher seemed perfectly calm; his
costume remained unruffled, and the mask stayed firmly in place.  The hell
of it was, nobody tried to stop him, either.  Not one person.

     Asher wasn’t trying to kill
him.  That would have been simple enough to accomplish, if he’d wanted
to.  A little surge of Will, and there would be no more Alex to annoy him.
No, this was punishment.  An extremely ugly, and brutal punishment, but
he’d been greatly annoyed.  For quite some time, apparently, and this was
just the final straw.

     “Asher, stop.”  I said it
quietly, but the faceless mask he wore swung towards me, anyway.  It felt
creepy; like he could see right through me, but I couldn’t see his eyes. 
“You’re acting like a damned lunatic,” I bit out.

     “He tried to take you.”  His
tone was calm, mild even, and it scared the hell out of me.  He could do
anything he wanted to Alex, or anyone else, and there wasn’t anything I could
do about it. 

     “And that pissed you off.  I
get it.  I’m pretty sure he won’t try to do it again,” I said,
harshly.   Alex made some kind of odd squeak that I took for
agreement.  “Just drop it.  And him.  Please.”  I was well
on my way to being greatly annoyed with
him
.

     He opened his hand and Alex
collapsed in a heap on the rug, gasping for breath and probably thanking God he
was alive.  Missy shoved her way through the staring crowd as Gwen rolled
him over to check his throat.  He would be wearing Asher’s fingerprints
for quite some time; the livid bruises had already started to form.

     “Just what in the hell is going on
here?”  Missy was dressed as a tiny version of Lily Munster.  Her
hands were balled into angry fists and thrust against her hips. She was so mad
I swear I could see steam rolling off the long, black wig she wore.  “You
two idiots can’t come into my house and start a fight.”  Her voice hit a
tone I’d never heard before.  Come to think of, I couldn’t remember ever
hearing her swear before, either.  It was turning out to be quite a night.

     “The fight’s over, Mom.  I
think Alex was just about ready to leave.”  Gwen helped him into a sitting
position.  There were little pin prick-sized bruises around his eyes where
blood vessels had burst under pressure.  He looked stunned, and faintly
sick, and he hadn’t deserved any of it.  

     I pulled Asher back as Missy turned
and pointed an angry finger at him.  “You should leave, too.  I don’t
know what happened, but you two idiots are not ruining our Halloween. 
This is a kids’ party, not a drunken rave.”

     “Mom, wait, it was just a
misunderstanding.”

     “A misunderstanding?  He
nearly took that kid’s head off!  Get both of them out of here,
Gwenevere.  I mean it. Right now!”

     Gwen looked at me,
helplessly.  Her mom hardly ever just lost her cool completely, but once
she did, there was no reasoning with her. “You heard the woman.  The show
is over.” She leaned down and started picking up trampled mummy dogs off the
carpet.  “Go back to the party, everybody.  Nothing to see, here.”

     Gwen’s dad, better late than never,
helped Alex towards the front door.  I really wanted to go check on him,
but felt that getting Asher out of there was the best thing that I could do,
given the circumstances.  I half pulled, half shoved him towards the back
door in the kitchen when I heard Missy yelling for me.  I glanced back
over my shoulder in dread.  And caught Alex looking at me from the
doorway.  He was propped up against the door, trying to catch his
breath.  The look on his face sent a chill through my gut.  He looked
like he wanted to kill me.

     “Not so fast, young lady.”  I
flinched at Missy’s tone. “Get yourself back here.  You and I are going to
have a talk.”  My heart dropped into my shoes.  Could this night get
any worse?  Suddenly, everybody wanted to have a talk with me.  I
just wanted to tell them all to form a line.

     Instead, I nodded at Missy and held
up a hand, hoping she would give me a minute alone with Asher.  But
really, what do you say to scold the incarnation of Death?   He’d
behaved horribly, but I doubted that he cared.

     “You should go.”  He nodded
towards Missy, who waited impatiently for me. “I have over-stayed my welcome,
it seems.”  Well, if that was his apology, it sucked.  The party was
pretty much ruined. Because of him.  He pulled the Grim Reaper costume
over his head, and handed it to me.  “I will find you, later.  We
need to talk.”  He avoided looking at me, I noticed.  I wondered if
he dreaded that conversation as much as I did.

     “Ok.”  I wadded the costume up
in my hands.  It smelled like him, but I refused to sniff it, no matter
how much I might have liked to.  He’d gone cave-man on me, and he was in
the dog house.  Poor Alex might have been really hurt, and for no better
reason than stupid jealousy.  Such a nasty,
human
emotion to have. 

     “Isabel!”  Damn.  Missy
never called me that.  I was in serious trouble.

     “I have to go,” I said,
miserably. 

     He looked at me then, and
smiled.  I would have to work on staying mad at him, if I weren’t careful.
 Alex.  Concentrate on Alex, and his bruised throat.  Alex was
the victim, here; surely I had imagined that look of evil hatred he’d shot at
me, earlier?

     “Go, before you get into more
trouble because of me.”  Asher looked like he wanted to say more, but
Missy was barreling towards us.  I felt a brief touch of his hand against
mine, and then he was gone.

     I met her half-way.  “In the
den, young lady.  Now.”  She jerked her thumb towards the hallway,
and I meekly followed where she led.

     “Missy, I’m so sorry.”  She
kicked the door shut with her heel, sharply cutting off my apology.  I
felt like I was about James’ age, and was in danger of a time-out. 

     She perched on the edge of the desk
and stared at me over crossed arms.  “Two things.”  She held her hand
up to stop me from apologizing again, even though I really wanted to. 
“First: I can’t have a teenaged boy getting strangled in my living room,
whether he deserves it, or not.”

     “Yes, ma’am,” I nodded quickly, and
prayed that this conversation would be over soon.

     “Second: there is no way that guy
you were with is your cousin. I don’t care what Gwen says.  I’ve known you
since you were a little girl, and I know who your cousins are.  Don’t you
ever lie to me again, got it?”  I swallowed hard and nodded again.  I
cringed inside; upsetting Gwen’s mom was the last thing that I ever wanted to
do.

     “I’m so—“

    “Save it.  That guy is too old for
you.  They don’t grow them that big in high school.  And he’s obviously
dangerous.” 
She had
no idea
.

     “He’s just a friend, Missy.” 
I looked down and found that I was actually wringing my hands, and had to force
myself to stop.  Guilty conscience?  Nah, of course not.

     “Unh, hunh, but it’s pretty clear
that he wants to be more than your friend, and that’s where it has to
end.  Older men only want one thing from young girls.” 
Their souls
?  Oh,
no, if I giggled at my own stupid thoughts, she would kill me.  I bit down
sharply on the inside of my cheek to stop myself from sniggering.  A
little too hard.  Blood came instantly, and a few tears, too.  That
had freaking
hurt
.

     “I understand.  I’m so sorry
if the party was ruined.”  The tears in my eyes were real enough, but not
caused by what she thought. 

     Missy sighed as she hopped down off
the edge of the desk.  She wrapped me in a warm hug and I relaxed into it
and hugged her back.  “It’s ok, honey.  I bet this is one Halloween
party that no one will ever forget.”  I certainly wouldn’t.

     A soft, hesitant knock at the door
broke up the hug.  Missy stepped back and wiped a tear from the corner of
my eye.  “Be careful, honey, or you’ll ruin your make-up.”  I
nodded.  “Come in!” She yelled towards the door.

     Gwen poked just her head through
the door, like a frightened turtle.  “Um, hey there.  I hate to
bother you, Mom, but—“

     “Spit it out, Gwen.  I’m over
it, now.  You’re not to blame, so you aren’t in any trouble.”

     “Oh, good, I mean, I’m glad you’re
feeling better about everything.”  She opened the door and came in.
 Her eyes darted back and forth between me and her mom. “There’s a phone
call for Izzy.”  She held her phone out to me.

     Warning bells began to go off
inside my head.  Why would anyone call Gwen’s cell phone for me?  I
took the phone.  “Hello?”

     “Izzy?”  It was Sylvia, the
hostess at my dad’s restaurant, and she had tears in her voice.

     “Yeah, it’s me.  What’s up?”

     “It’s your dad, hon.  He
collapsed at work.  He’s on his way to the hospital right now.”  I
didn’t need to ask which hospital.  Our town is so small, there is only
one.

Logically, I knew I should be going into hysterics, but
strangely, I just felt numb.  This seemed like it was inevitable.  I
wet my lips.  The room grew hotter by the minute, or maybe it was just
me.  I’m pretty sure my blood pressure had spiked. 

     “Do you know what happened to
him?”  Not that it really mattered.  I already knew what had
happened.  Fate had happened.  The crazy bitch was tired of waiting
for me to deliver her revenge, and this was my final warning.

     “Do you know if he’s going to be
ok?”  The phone felt slippery in my sweaty hand.

      “I don’t know.  I’m
sorry, but I don’t know if it was a heart attack, or what it was.  He just
went down.”  Then she just started crying harder and the phone went dead.

     Gwen took her phone back as I
turned to her, and her mom.  “Gwen, I need to borrow your car.  And
can someone please go get my cat?  I think I may be gone for a few days.”

     Gwen’s eyes narrowed
suspiciously.  “What’s going on, Iz?”

     I took a deep, steadying
breath.  “My dad’s in the hospital.  Sylvia said he just collapsed at
work, and she had no idea why.”  It was amazing how calm I sounded, when
inside I howled with rage and wanted to destroy something.

     Missy patted my back.  “We can
get your kitty.  That’s no problem, but what about you?  Surely you
shouldn’t go alone?”