Fire

by Angelina J. Steffort

  Good question. One I hoped the answer to was no. If Maureen had returned to Volpert, blamed it all on me, then most certainly I wouldn’t have much time left. The story she would tell was that I bailed…she had no clue I had been abducted by our enemy.

  As I was thinking, something bothered me: why did I suddenly think of my clan as an enemy, too? Maureen was my friend, considering the limited capacity of positive emotions, she was everything I could have wished for in a loyal demon-friend. She wouldn’t sell me out to Volpert. Not after what she had risked to help me.

  “Well, it’s likely. But we can’t be certain. If Adam was by himself when they met, there is a good chance the demons have no clue, but we haven’t taken the time to ask Claire what exactly happened. Maybe we should wake her up—”

  “I’m awake,” the girl’s voice suddenly interjected. “I’ll tell you everything, but please don’t make me leave. I need to be here.”

  As she spoke, an image of the bright light of her soul seeped into my head, and laying still, pretending I was still knocked out, became incredibly difficult all of a sudden. Had I had a heartbeat, it would have given me away. I was craving the energy of all the beings in this room. The moment I opened my eyes, I knew, it would be unbearable to not just grab the closest one and suck their energy until they were drained.

  “You are awake,” the guardian angel repeated, almost as if scolding himself for not realizing earlier.

  “For a while,” the girl broke the news. “To answer your question, it was a trap. Maureen was there.”

  “Maureen? Adam’s ex?”

  My ex? She had mentioned we’d had a history, but…

  “Exactly.”

  “She is a demon?”

  “Not sure.”

  “She must have made Adam send the message. She seemed to control him somehow.”

  “What did she want?”

  “She seemed to have been on a revenge trip. She claimed I stole Adam from her—which I didn’t—”

  “That’s not entirely true.”

  “I didn’t even know Adam when they broke up.”

  My head was swimming. I could barely follow their conversation, let alone my own thoughts. It didn’t concern me in the slightest that they suspected Maureen to be a demon. She was. But they had said she was my ex. I had been in a relationship with my demon-friend. That meant there had been feelings between us? Real feelings? It would explain why she kept having those flashes of affection for me… But demons didn’t feel love. She had taught me that. I was confused. And hadn’t the guardian angel claimed I’d had feelings for the girl before? Impossible. Or was it?

  “…must be connected to the demons somehow. She has a silver pendant, just like Volpert.” Claire’s voice speaking Volpert’s name caught my attention again.

  “Can you draw it?”

  The woman jumped up from the bed and there was the rustling of paper nearby.

  “Thanks, Jenna,” the girl said and then a pencil scratched over the sheet.

  “I recognize this—” the guardian angel said as if he was trying to decipher something. “It’s a...”

  Had she drawn the pendant? The symbol of Volpert’s clan. The one I had burnt into my chest. Maybe now was a good time to wake up.

  It took little more than a low groan and the room went silent. Putting a bit more effort into it than necessary, I turned my head from one side to the other as if I was slowly returning from a deep sleep.

  “He is waking up.”

  Suddenly, four out of five hearts were uncomfortably close by. The girl was the only one who seemed to approach me in slow motion. Two weights had popped up to my right and my left. It was only when I lifted my eyelids that I looked into a pair of blue eyes. It was the man who had sent me to sleep earlier. Was he the one who thought he was my father?

  “Welcome home, Adam,” he said with a smile, tension obvious under his friendly features.

  Instead of speaking, I lifted my arms and held them up in front of my face, assessing how much effort it would be to simply break the ropes around my wrists. Not much. They were fragile for demonic strength. I glanced down at my legs. They were covered in a red sheet. Amused by my comfortable prison, I wanted to sit up but realized my legs were still tied together. For a moment, I considered breaking the ropes, but then, four angels and one dangerous human against one, hungry demon—it wasn’t a good idea.

  It was the woman who came to my aid. Only now, I noticed her warm brown eyes and the apologetic look on her face.

  “I am so sorry, Adam. This is a necessary precaution.” She fluffed up a pillow and helped me slide toward the headboard. Who was she?

  The air in the room was thick with worry. Once more, I considered running. If they all felt so bad about tying me up, maybe they wouldn’t hold me back if I tried…

  I glanced at the rope again, it was taunting me with its weak structure, but then the young angel, he was close to my own age from the look of it, sat down a bit too close to be comfortable and squared his shoulders. His steel-colored eyes watched me with suspicion. Beside him, the guardian angel with the eerie, golden eyes was throwing me a warning glare. He seemed to be the least enthusiastic about my presence.

  When I had studied all four angels’ faces, I looked around, checking the space for exits and cover. It was a plain room. Beige walls, inconspicuous furniture, the broad, iron bed I was laying on. A pile of books was sitting on one end of the couch in the other corner. The only thing seeming to have character was an old, carved desk in the far corner of the room. A bedroom. My bedroom—supposedly. I couldn’t remember ever having laid eyes on this place. There was a tall, two-winged door on one wall and a window on the other side of the room. Those two possible exits were available should teleporting be out of the question. Or I could try to punch a hole in the wall and run.

  Not at all satisfied with my options, I started looking for the fifth, missing face. She was hiding behind the woman, peeking at me from behind a curtain of sand-colored hair, and looked scared to death and excited at the same time. Her emotions were confirming what her eyes were already telling me.

  I couldn’t tell what was more stressful, feeling everyone’s tension, or dealing with my own fear of never leaving this fluffy prison ever again. Anyway, where was this place? Was I still in Aurora?

  “Where am I?” Unwilling to look at anyone specific as I asked, I let my eyelids drop and enjoyed the darkness for a second or two.

  “You are home,” the man who claimed to be my father repeated.

  “This is not my home.” I had to make myself clear from the beginning. No mind games. The angels weren’t going to try and turn me around. They were still the enemy, friendly as they may look at me. Maybe if I let them know that I had demonic support…

  “Where are the others?” I asked.

  “Who is he talking about?” the young one asked the woman.

  “My family.” I almost lost control and snapped the ropes as I spoke, upset by his ignorance. “Volpert, Maureen, Blackbird—”

  The young one turned ashen at the names. So did the other two. The guardian angel and the girl were the only ones who didn’t seem surprised.

  “Adam, we are your family,” the woman said after a while of processing. “Chris, your father.” She lifted her hand to the man beside me and then at the young one. “Ben, your brother. And myself.”

  Beloved son and brother. Those were the people I had been family to before my death? This was a joke. Angel-scum.

  “Can I go back to the others?” I asked my alleged father with a sneer.

  He didn’t flinch this time, but a sadness spread in his eyes, which he averted and looked at the woman instead.

  “You look hungry, Adam,” he finally stated, as if ignoring what I had just said. “Why don’t I get you something to eat?”

  What a splendid idea. “I actually am hungry.”

  The woman nodded.

  “You got this?” the man asked the guardian angel who positioned h
imself even closer to me and gave a thumbs up. The sly smile on his annoyingly flawless angel face told me he preferred it this way. Now I could basically feel his breath on my cheek. And naturally, I could see his blinding light breaking right through his features. They all were deliciously shining. Now, after the first instinct for survival had been satisfied by finding potential exit routes, my brain capacity was free to appreciate the density of angel energy in the room. Even after the one man disappeared to fetch me something to feed on, it was almost impossible to keep my hands down and not just flick my fingers and draw upon their lights, one after the other. It would be a feast—no, a last meal. They would end me the moment they realized what I was doing.

  So what were they going to bring me? Another human? I assumed they wouldn’t just let me feed on one of their own.

  Four pairs of eyes were staring at me, all of them holding different emotions, but it was clear that the girl was the one I most wanted to look at. She and her light, dull as it may be compared to the rest of them, it gave me something…hope, if a demon could feel hope… She herself didn’t seem to be able to look away. We were just gazing at each other, tension thick in the air. Beside me, the young one and the guardian angel were on edge, the woman sympathetic, until I couldn’t take it any longer and shut my eyes.

  Someone shifted beside me. The young one? Did it matter who it was? None of them seemed to have the urge to get rid of me, so I could let my guard down a little bit and sort my thoughts. What did I know so far? Maureen and I had supposedly been an item before my death, the girl had played a role in the breakup, I had a father and a brother—allegedly—and I seemed to be on my own for now. Maureen hadn’t come looking for me or she would have interfered a lot earlier. I was too weak to escape the force of four angels and I still wanted answers… Why couldn’t my memory kick in already? It would be so much easier if I knew whether to be scared to death or glad they had taken me captive.

  I didn’t open my eyes until the sound of the door caught my attention. It was the older one who returned, a dog right behind him, a four-legged, dim light. As it spotted me, it wagged its tail and rushed over, light brightening a bit. Not what I had been hoping for, but enough to replenish. When it was close enough to touch, I laid both my hands on its head, careful not to rip the ropes around my wrists, and with a glance at the lady, who gave me an encouraging smile, I gripped the strings on the dog’s light. One quick pull was enough and every last spark had transferred into me. The dog dropped to the floor, lifeless like the humans I normally devoured. When I noticed the room had gone very silent, I looked up and five shocked faces looked back at me.

  “Thank you,” I said, manners kicking in. “I do feel much better.”

  It was only when the guardian angel grasped my hands and yanked them to the side that I realized something was wrong. The woman had jumped out of my reach, the man was kneeling next to the dead animal, the young one was staring with revulsion, and the girl…

  An explosion of pain hit me in my chest with piercing force as she yelled, “you just killed your dog! Why on earth would you kill your dog?”

  What?

  All the individuals in the room were staring at her for a change, the atmosphere thick with shock, but she just glared at me, accusation heavy in her face. Had I done something wrong? They had offered the dog, hadn’t they?

  “He said he would get me something to eat. I thought the dog—” As I apologized—something Maureen had taught me a demon never did—I noticed a plate of sandwiches on the bedside table. “The sandwiches…not the dog—”

  When I looked back at the girl, her mouth was twitching as if she was going to burst out in laughter, but then recognition replaced her flash of amusement and all that was left, was horror.

  The rest of the scene blurred beside her disappointment. Had she had hope before? Hope for what? This time I intended to ask. Maybe they were inclined to help me understand… Even after I killed their dog—my dog, allegedly. But I didn’t get to speak. The guardian angel moved closer, expression very similar to Blackbird’s when he was about to interrogate someone.

  “Time for nice is over. We need to know what you know.”

  What I knew? Not much… I didn’t have a memory. But they had already figured that out.

  “Let’s start easy,” he leaned a little closer, eerie, golden eyes cold and unforgiving. “What’s your name?”

  “Everybody calls me Adam.” Hadn’t they called me that, too? They knew. Why the question?

  “Who are we?”

  “I have never met any of you in my life. Except for her.” Well, if I counted the brief encounter in the graveyard as meeting someone, then I had met him, too, but not really, not the way I had met the girl. Countless times in my dreams, my visions…

  “What do you know about her?” He nodded at the girl, as if reading my thoughts.

  How much could I tell them without giving away my real family, my clan?

  “She is the target. Volpert said she needs to die.” It slipped out before I could hold back the words, and the girl gave me a look I didn’t understand, as if she was trying to read my thoughts. And as if she had forgiven me…

  “And yet, you didn’t kill her,” the guardian angel continued, forcing my attention back to him. “You had the chance twice, and you didn’t follow through.”

  “That’s because I am weak.” What was I doing? This wasn’t how I had imagined things would go. Why was I telling him this? Just because he was staring at me with those intense eyes, like he was hypnotizing me? This was a different way of torture. My words seemed to come without my permission, making me spill the truth—the ugly truth.

  “That’s because deep down you know there is more to this girl than whatever Volpert has told you,” the young one joined the conversation, putting another thought on my tongue.

  “There is something familiar about her. Like I know her from a different life—”

  As I spoke about her, she came closer, a shy light between fiery torches, and sat down on the foot of the bed. Had she lost her fear of me? Something like excitement tingled in my chest. This time it hadn’t been me who had forced her, she had chosen to come closer.

  “But it’s not just him who wants you dead,” I told her, ignoring the guardian angel’s piercing gaze. “Maureen wants it, too.”

  “Why?” the angel insisted I kept talking to him.

  “I don’t know, exactly. They all keep talking about revenge—but I can’t remember... anything.” I didn’t take my eyes off of her, seeing nothing but her. She was the key…

  As I was still wondering what was happening, the older one of the angels suddenly popped up behind the girl. Hadn’t he been on the floor with the body? I glanced down and spotted a brown rug. He must have taken care of it during my interview. As I looked up at him again, he looked perfectly friendly, welcoming, no accusations in his eyes, no hardness in his face. As if I could do anything and he still wouldn’t give up on me…almost like a father would with a son… Could it be?

  “I am sorry about your dog.” Again I broke Maureen’s rule and apologized.

  He didn’t speak. Just nodded, understanding in his eyes.

  “What’s the first thing you can remember?” The guardian angel was incredibly focused, ignoring anything that could distract him or me. And again, as I looked into his eyes, I started talking, not intending to share any of it, but yet, I did.

  “It’s not far back. I woke up in the dark and I had to dig myself out of the soil. I was in a graveyard. It was raining.” How could I ever forget that day? “I ran—I ran until I realized I wouldn’t get tired. I hid in the woods. And then they found me.” It was a quick version of everything that had happened. Maybe they would explain to me what it meant or why it had happened that way to begin with. “I was alone and scared. I couldn’t remember who I was. They took me in. They showed me how to feed, they explained to me how my powers work—they saved me. They are the only family I have.” They were. And why again was
I speaking to these strangers? To the enemy… I was supposed to kill the girl and if I was too weak for that, at least to gather information about their weaknesses…not the other way around. A quiet sigh pulled me out of my thoughts.

  “If I had known, I would have stayed and waited for you to wake up,” Chris said, almost apologetic that he hadn’t been able to anticipate what had happened to me. “I would have protected you. You are my son. I would have done anything to bring you home safely.”

  Protected me? From what? Was it possible that he was my father? Just because I didn’t remember didn’t mean it couldn’t be true…

  “Did Volpert tell you who you are?” once again the guardian angel broke my train of thought.

  “I am a demon, that’s all I know.” Sadly it was true. I knew nothing about who I really was, other than a tool of death and destruction…not that I didn’t enjoy that… “I exist to punish those who hurt our cause.”

  All of them stared at me in surprise. They hadn’t expected my last words. Or they didn’t want them to be true.

  “You are more than that,” the one who claimed to be my father rejected my self-description. “You have angelic heritage. You died to protect Claire—”

  My eyes flickered over to the girl, trying to comprehend what he had just said. Angelic heritage? Hadn’t the guardian angel mentioned in the graveyard that I’d had white wings once? If that was true… NO. I wouldn’t let our enemy put ideas into my head. I was a demon. I was made to destroy.

  “Why would I protect her?” Why, if I was the weapon who would kill her…?eventually…maybe… NO. What were they trying to do? “Volpert warned me you would try to turn me. You would sweet-talk me, give me a reason to doubt that she deserves to die.”

  I reached my hands toward her, trying to touch her arm, to suck out her soul, to make sure she wasn’t just a bright vision like in my dreams, to console her as her eyes reflected the pain she was feeling as I spoke. Why were they doing this to me?

  “Enough,” the guardian angel warned me. “You won’t touch Claire.”

  Instinctively, I flinched back, threatened by the warning look he gave me. It was clear I wouldn’t survive another attempt of laying my hands on the girl. He wanted me to disappear. I could feel it streaming right from him. I was a danger to his fosterling and he couldn’t allow it. And yet he did let me live. It looked as if her happiness was more important to him than his duty. Had I just found the guardian angel’s weakness?