“Father, please do not speak. Let’s just keep each other company.” I tried to relax him, not wanting to hurt him more than he was.
“No, you need to know.” He coughed and I dabbed his forehead again to cool down his temperature. He was burning up.
“Someone is coming. A friend. Trust in him.” His gasping between breaths were making my tears run harder. It was too much for me to handle. “Leave this home when I am gone. Listen to what I am telling you, angel. You have to swear you will do as I say.”
He began to cough uncontrollably. Blood was rolling down the corner of his mouth.
I moved the cloth to clean him up. He caught on to my wrist and stopped me. Our eyes locked. For the first time I saw something scary in them. Something unfamiliar. Not the man I called my father. Maybe what my mother saw. Something evil.
He repeated the last few words to me.
“Swear you will do as I say.”
No rasp or gasp, his voice was clear for the first time in days. I swore to him I would follow his instructions. He continued to cough and dry heave as his breathing became shallow. He released my wrist and slid his hand in mine. Pulling me closer he whispered his final words.
“I love you, Angela.”
With that last breath, his body relaxed and his grip loosened. I closed his eyes, and he was gone.
I was alone.
Present Day
8
My hands shook at the realization of what I’d done. I had almost burned down La Piccola Italia and I could have hurt Jones. I didn’t even want to think of possibly hurting Angela. We were riding around town so I could cool off; literally.
My skin was still sizzling from the fire and anyone would have thought I was running a fever. Angela was probably tired of saving me all the time. Still, she showed no emotion.
Just when I thought I understood everything, this happened. Now I was just as confused as before. How did I go up in flames without burning to death? This was impossible. I wasn’t the only one surprised because Jones didn’t see it coming.
“Um…can we hold off on telling my dad about what happened at the restaurant?”
She hit the brakes so hard I almost hit the windshield. Thank you, seatbelt.
“Excuse me? You think Jones is keeping this all a secret right now? He’s probably sitting on the porch with Xavier giving him the play by play. Anyways, he needs to know. You’re supposed to be human, not one of us.” She looked at me with disappointment and all I could do was slouch in the passenger seat. Of course they didn’t want me to be like them.
We pulled up to the driveway and sure enough, there was Jones and my dad waiting for us on the porch. I couldn’t catch a break today. I didn’t get out and neither did Angela. She reached over and awkwardly put her hand on mines. She didn’t look comfortable.
“Listen, I know this is crazy right now but just know I got your back, okay?” She must not be used to physical contact because she patted my hand like I was a dog with fleas. I nodded and got out of her Jeep. If there was one person I was afraid of, it would be my father. Nothing upset him, ever. Not when Jones and I took his car for a joy ride freshmen year and got pulled over, or when I got caught making out with Susie Little in her room in the middle of the night. But one day, I knew something was going to piss him off enough and I just hoped today was not that day. Without saying a word, he pointed inside the house and we all walked in. I went straight for the kitchen hoping my mother would be there. No such luck. I sat down at the kitchen table, praying for this to be quick.
“So you almost burnt down La Piccola.” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement so I didn’t bother to respond. “This is why I told you both to erase his memory. You should have done it!” I realized he wasn’t going to yell at me. He was angry at them.
The look on Jones face was priceless. His jaw slacked and eyes bulged out. I guess today wasn’t going to be so bad.
Oh how the tables had turned.
“No Xavier,” Angela said, “You should have told us about him! We thought he was human for Christ sake!” She was surging with anger, her eyes turning into that menacing green. She paced the kitchen with her hands balled into fists.
“I didn’t know! What we need to figure out now is why. Why after seventeen years of knowing nothing can he do this? It doesn’t make sense.” My dad was frazzled and losing control. If he didn’t understand what was going on, then that meant we were in serious trouble.
“Xavier, if you were still an Angel when you know, you uh…did it with Emily,” Jones said, sounding as uncomfortable with the subject as I was, “you should have figured he was going to be different. Why didn’t you say anything?” It was a legitimate question. I hadn’t even thought of that. My dad took a good look at me and I didn’t know if it was sadness or disappointment but he slumped into the seat next to me.
“I never saw you do anything extraordinary. When you were just a toddler I would test you to see if you had anything that needed to be hidden, but nothing. You were strong but nothing supernatural. When you got hurt, you bled like every human child. I just thought we were lucky and you came out normal.” He buried his face into his hands. I didn’t understand why he was so upset. Deep down inside, I was kind of excited. This was every kid’s dream—to wake up with superpowers.
“Dad?” I pulled his hands away from his face. “It’s all good. It’s not a big deal.” I tried to be nonchalant but I might have made it worse.
“Not a big deal? Are you kidding, Max? They’re consequences to these things. This is probably why that succubus came after you! Oh no.” He stood up quickly, almost knocking me off my seat. He left the kitchen like I had actually set him on fire.
I looked at Jones and Angela but they were just as confused as I was.
We followed him into his study and walked into Hurricane Xavier. His study was littered with loose papers and books all over the floor and desk. He was searching for something and it made him appear unhinged. He muttered something to himself and I was starting to think he was losing it.
“Okay, I might need to go get my mom. He’s lost his mind.” I regarded Jones and he just shook his head.
“What are you looking for, Dad? Maybe I can help.” I reached for him but he just pushed me away, sending me stumbling over one of his chairs. At that, Angela came over to me, “you alright?” All I could do was nod because my dad had never laid a hand on me before.
I was seeing my father do a lot of stuff for the first time. His glasses were crooked and his shirt was untucked, drenched in sweat. This couldn’t be good.
“Xavier, I think the best thing for Max right now is to be able to harness whatever it is he has and learn to control it,” Angela said.
“No! He is in danger!” My dad yelled at her and was so close to her face she could probably smell his coffee breath. His face was tomato red and his eyes darted back and forth. Geez, the old man looked like he’d just done acid or something. His chest heaved up and down, Angela put a hand on his shoulder to relax him.
“That’s more of a reason to train him. If he is in danger, he needs to learn to protect himself. You know I won’t let anything happen to him.” She was making sense but I saw Jones’ interjection from a mile away.
“No, no way! He’ll only end up hurting one of us. He almost burnt me to toast today. Do you not remember?” That really pissed me off because it was an accident and if we really wanted to blame someone, then it was his fault.
“Well, if I learned then maybe next time I won’t miss.” He grilled me and stormed out of the study. I won this round but he would be coming back for another.
Angela ignored our tantrum and focused on my dad.
“He’ll be in greater danger if he loses control. I’ll train him myself Xavier. You know this is the only way.” She stared my father down and I knew it was over. He was convinced. He nodded his head frantically.
“Fine. Just keep him safe. Please.” The last word was a plea because if there was one th
ing I was absolutely certain about, was that my father was scared.
9
The only thing I couldn’t understand was why we had to start training on a Saturday. The sun was barely out and Angela was hovering over my bed like an ax murderer.
“Get up!” She yelled like a drill sergeant as she grabbed my sheets and pulled them off. The morning breeze hit me and I realized what I was wearing. The heat rushed to my face as I turned my back to her, grabbing my pillows to cover myself.
“If you don’t get out of my room, I swear I’m gonna set this whole house on fire!” I scrambled for the sheets, anything to hide my discomfort. This made her laugh as she walked to the door. While I loved the sound of her laugh, I definitely didn’t like it at my expense.
“Just be downstairs in five minutes.”
Having Angela around was great but there had to be some boundaries, like seeing me in my ninja turtle boxers was a no go.
I grabbed the pair of basketball shorts that had taken permanent refuge under my bed and pulled on whatever t-shirt I could find.
It always took long for the cold to make it down to Florida. There was always a small breeze blown in just before Thanksgiving—which was starting to look like a disaster.
Angela sat in the driver seat of her Jeep Wrangler with her black curls picked up in a ponytail. She looked like she was on her way to the gym. Hopefully that wasn’t the kind of training we were doing today. I got in and just like Jones, she drove off before I could even close the door. For being angels and especially guardians, they were quite the risk takers.
The car ride wasn’t long as she drove down the street until we hit Main and turned into town. This was what we considered “the city” as all our shops were located on this one road. And the coolest thing was that in the middle of Main Street was Prospect Park; literally in the middle of the road. It was empty besides the old people doing their 5am workout.
When she pulled up to the street parking I looked over at her because there was no way I was turning into flames at a park, none the less do Tai Chi with these folks.
“Um...Angela? What are we doing here?” I jogged behind her to catch up. Luckily she was walking away from the group.
“We’re training. This is the best place to go right now. No one is up this early and the park is pretty big. We need space, Fire Boy.” She winked at me and I almost got distracted. Almost.
“Well I’m going to burn down this park, this is stupid. Also, people can see me!” I didn’t mean to yell but this was all sorts of ridiculous. If I wanted to put on a show I would have done this at school.
“After all you’ve found out about us, you don’t think we’d have this covered?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know. You guys don’t tell me anything.”
She stopped at an oak tree and started to carve something on it with a knife. I didn’t even see her pull it out. Maybe I shouldn’t cross off ‘killer’ in her list of attributes just yet. I couldn’t see what she was doing very well but she answered my curiosity.
“I’m drawing a privacy rune. I’ll start explaining today.” She sat down under the shade and motioned for me to sit. “A rune is a marking that has different purposes. What we use is runic magic. Not many people know how to make them and the ones that do, only know a few. They are very tricky and if you don’t conjure them correctly, it could have disastrous results. The one I just drew is a privacy rune. We can see everyone around us but they can’t see us.” She smiled and it was the first time I’d ever seen her do it. She looked so young and alive, I just wanted to reach over and touch her face. Her lips.
“Why are you with him?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“Excuse me?” She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, still smiling.
“Why are you with Jones? He’s sort of a jerk when it comes to girls.” I didn’t mean to throw him under the bus like that, but after what happened at La Piccola, this was fair game.
She took a moment before responding to size me up, which made me nervous. Maybe I was being too bold, but her raised eyebrow relaxed me a bit.
“First, I’m not a girl. I’m older than you think. Much older. Second, my relationship with Jones is none of your business.”
The look on her face when she said “much older” made me think.
“How old are you?” My mother would be grounding me for life if she ever heard me ask a woman her age.
“You really want to know?” I nodded my head like a kid about to get ice cream. My guess was she was like 19 or 20. Had to be because Jones looked like he was 25. I was suddenly feeling stupid for never questioning him on how much older he looked than the rest of us.
“I’m over 500 years old.” She was holding her breath waiting for my reaction, a reaction I was having trouble finding. There was no way. Then again, these weren’t normal circumstances.
“Come again?” I said as my eyes tried not to bulge out of their sockets. Thank goodness I was sitting, because I would have passed out. Again.
“You heard right, don’t make me repeat myself.” She got up and dusted off her yoga pants.
“Now enough with the chit chat. Let’s start training.” Her smile and carefree attitude disappeared and I knew this side of her was closed.
Giving me a hand, she pulled me up fast. I forgot how strong she was.
“Now as you’ve noticed, we have different strengths. Each angel has one physical and one mental ability. Jones has what you might call super strength, more than the average angel. He also has the mental ability to erase memories as you already know.
My physical ability, I’m able to freeze people and objects. As my mental ability, I have telepathy. I can speak to you in your mind. We don’t know what you are just yet, but for now you need to learn to control that fire in you, which I am assuming is your physical ability.”
Wow. They really are ninjas.
“Okay, now I need you to think about that day at the restaurant. What made you go up in flames?”
Really? How did I explain to a total stranger that I’d been crushing on her since the first day I saw her? That I’ve had these unexplainable feelings for her that didn’t make sense because I knew nothing about her? Nothing except that I liked her. A lot.
“Max, I need you to concentrate. What do you think made you do it?”
“You.”
I said it before I could chicken out. If I didn’t tell her now, I wasn’t going to tell her ever.
She raised her left eyebrow and I guessed this was her confused face, waiting for an explanation.
“Okay. I know this sounds sort of nuts but I’ve liked you since the first day you walked into Ms. Reeds English class in eighth grade.” I peered down at my feet and I felt like such an idiot. The heat was rushing to my face and I clamped my hands together to make sure I wasn’t on fire.
Her expression remained and I couldn’t stop the verbal diarrhea.
“Jones knew and seeing you two together just sort of set me off. I was so angry; I’ve never felt so frustrated before in my life. My blood was boiling. Literally.” I chuckled at my poorly made pun and finally peeked up to Angela who was staring straight at me with indifference. Nothing. Without blinking she sized me as she tapped her pointer finger on her chin, making me squirm under her scrutiny.
“So it wasn’t technically me but what Jones did. His betrayal set you off. You’re fueling on anger. That’s a very powerful emotion but I wouldn’t resort to using it. It can get really messy if you do.”
She walked up to me and got so close I could see the flecks of brown in her green eyes and she smelled like cranberries. The thought made me laugh, but when she grabbed my hands it got stuck in my throat and came out like a cough.
“Close your eyes and imagine the fire. Picture it starting from your toes and slowly spreading until it reaches your whole body. Don’t let go of the thought.”
I thought of the fire and how it started but nothing sparked. She said I shouldn’t fuel it
on anger so I have to think of something else. Squeezing my eyes shut, I concentrated so hard I thought I was going to bust a vein. Letting out the breath I was holding, I opened my eyes.
“It’s not working.” The defeat was in my voice and she could hear it.
She shook her head. “We’ve just started Max; Rome wasn’t built in a day. Try again.”
I tried for what felt like an eternity and I was starting to get a headache. Nothing was working. Maybe the other day at the restaurant was a fluke, a one-time thing. I didn’t think I’d be firing up anytime soon.
“Don’t worry, Max. It takes time.”
With my eyes still shut I could feel how close she was and her voice sounded like a whisper in my ear. Before I could stop myself I filled in the gap between us, slowly letting out a sigh, my lips were on hers. She relaxed and I let go of her hands and slid them up her arms until I was cupping her face. She tasted like fresh picked cherries and summer time, if that made any sense. She was warm and I could sense the connection between us. It was nothing I’d ever experienced before. Her hands came up to my elbows and she held on to me.
Moving with my lips, we fit perfectly. Hearing her let out a soft moan, my hand moved to the back of her head and I held on. Feeling the smoothness of her hair and bathing in the taste of her mouth.
All of sudden the sparks stopped and so did the kiss. My eyes still closed, I was holding my breath. Every part of my body was tingling and I couldn’t shake it off. Opening my eyes, I saw her as she backed away slowly and her face was contorted in complete horror. She reached up to touch her lips as she spoke.
“We should take a break.” I didn’t have time to react. She was already halfway to her Jeep.
I stayed under the oak tree. The kiss was replaying in my head and I couldn’t understand her reaction. For me it was like everything made sense, the stars aligned and I got all the answers to the universe. All that stuff girls say and more, it was perfect.
Sins of the Fallen Page 5
