“I’m heading back to the house; I’ll see you after school for training?” Jones whispered to me.
“Heading back? You were home?”
“Yeah. We’re your Guardians, Max; we know when you’re in trouble even if it’s as minor as Big Boobs Betty.” He laughed and walked out the door.
I sat back down at the lunch table and could barely look at my sandwich. They knew when I was upset, they knew when I was hurt or in trouble. Regardless of everything, they’d always be there. The reality of it was there, but it was a hard pill to swallow. I felt undeserving and maybe a little paranoid with the extent of their abilities.
“Was that your mate there, Max?” Aiden asked as I stared at my lunch tray, deep in thought.
“That’s Jones, my best mate.”
24
Weeks had flown by and the dust had settled. No surprise succubus or angels had tried to kidnap me and even the number of demons hanging around town had dwindled. I barely saw Angela around and the only time I really did was during Thanksgiving dinner. She no longer trained me—that was Jones’ new job, not that he minded since our friendship had been restored. We didn’t hang much at school but afterwards it was like old times.
I had invited Melanie over for Thanksgiving but her parents came to spend it with her and her brother. I hadn’t seen her in a while either as she was trying to spend as much time with her folks as possible. It was hard to schedule time to see her outside of school, so it had been Aiden and I for a while since mostly everyone was MIA.
“Hey, I gotta go get a new cell phone, you want to tag along?” I asked him as we walked out to the student parking lot.
“Sure, brother,” he said and we walked toward my truck because there was no way I was riding behind him on his motorcycle.
“So lad, I haven’t seen your best mate around, is everything alright?” he asked as I drove onto Main Street.
“He’s good. He just has a lot of personal stuff going on so he’s been busy.”
“Ah and what about your gal? She hasn’t been at school since the holidays.”
“Yeah her parents are in town so she’s spending time with them before they leave again. Especially since they won’t be here for Christmas.”
“So she’s coming to your home for the holidays, mate?”
“Yeah, she is, you’re welcome to come also. What’s with all the questions?” All day he’d been asking me questions, I felt like I was being interviewed. I would have been suspicious if he hadn’t been cleared by Jones. He was just a new transfer from Ireland after losing his parents.
“I’m sorry, I was just curious. I hadn’t seen them around. I hope I didn’t offend you, mate.”
“Nah, no worries.” I parked on the street in front of the only electronics store in town that serviced all the phone networks.
“I just have to get a new phone since my last one was killed in a tragic-out-the-window accident.”
“Ouch.”
“Ouch is right my friend.”
After investing my hard earned savings on a new iPhone, I texted as many people as I could, telling them my phone was back in order. I didn’t realize how long I had spent without a phone—it had been over a month.
“Hey some friends of mine have texted me that they’ll be playing some futbol out at Prospect Park, you in brother?” I didn’t even know he had friends outside of school. Hm. Maybe I should be asking him some questions too.
“Yeah I’m down; I got some gym clothes in the truck.”
When we arrived at the park, I hadn’t expected this ‘football’ game to be soccer or that we’d be playing against all of Ireland. No wonder he knew them, they were probably family.
“Aiden, I thought we were playing American football,” I said as he barked out a laugh.
“No brother, I forgot you Americans call it soccer. If you don’t want to play that’s fine.”
“Nah, it’s cool, I’ll play.”
Once we got to the field, he introduced me to his friends. I couldn’t remember all their names but I couldn’t forget the really big ones who could swat me away like a fly. The carrot top (that was the biggest of the two) was named Connor and the one next to him with the shaved head was Patrick.
I had never played soccer before, at least not like them. So when I was tackled for the first time, I was in a daze.
And no foul was called.
Then again this was a friendly game in the park but it felt as if these guys had it in for me.
Aiden passed me the ball mid-field; I drove it a couple feet until I saw Thomas (one of the many carrot tops) was open and kicked the ball his way. I lingered for a while before going into the offense until my eyes met Connor. The other team had possession of the ball, but he came straight for me and soon Patrick was next to him. Almost in slow motion they slammed into my shoulders and sent me flying backwards. The wind was knocked out of me and Aiden was soon kneeling beside me.
“You okay there, lad?”
Trying to catch my breath, I shook my head so he knew I was done playing. These guys weren’t playing soccer and I didn’t know what their motives were. Maybe they were just aggressive, but with everything that had been going on, I’d become paranoid, and rightfully so.
Aiden called a time-out and helped me to my feet.
“The American pansy is quitting already?” They all laughed and I figured they were goading me but I couldn’t react—not here and not now—especially having found out that Jones could feel when I needed him. I had to calm down. So I laughed it off.
“What’s funny? You like getting tackled, lad?” I didn’t know who said it since they all had the same accent but I couldn’t stop laughing. I was hysterical by now.
“I’m sorry mates; I think I should get young Max home now,” Aiden said.
“No wait,” I choked out as he grabbed my arm and lifted me up.
“I just have to know, what’s your problem?” My laughs died down once the scowls appeared on their faces. Yeah, they looked pissed and it wasn’t just because they started cracking their knuckles. Oh boy.
“Uh, come on now, mate, let me get you home.” With some serious force, Aiden practically dragged me to my truck.
“What the heck dude? What was that about?”
“Nothing brother, let’s just get back to the school, eh?”
Was he serious?
“No way man, those steroid beasts had it out for me and I want to know why.” Sitting in the passenger seat he let out a deep breath and he deflated against the seat.
“Listen mate, haven’t you ever had a secret you just couldn’t tell? It’s nothing personal and has nothing to do with you, I just can’t share this with you yet, brother.” That waas all I needed to hear. Because I did have a secret and a big one that I couldn’t share so I had to respect that.
“Now let’s go for a bloody drink, I’m parched,” he said and I just laughed because the guy was an undercover alcoholic. The solution to all his problems was beer. Maybe I should be concerned.
25
Aiden and I waited in the school cafeteria for Melanie. She was staying after school with Mr. Delaney to catch up on the work she had missed when her parents were in town.
“Why don’t we just blow this joint mate, It’s bloody boring.” He lay on top of one of the lunch tables.
“We can’t, I have to give Mel a ride home.” We just had to endure two more hours. That was it, just two more.
“Come on lad, she can call you when she’s ready. There’s this fantastic bar not too far.” He shot up off the table and I resisted the urge to go. Ugh…two…more…hours…
“Okay, fine but we better make it back in time.” I tried.
We pulled up to some lounge called “The Devil’s Lair” and as soon as we walked in, I felt like I was in an episode of Cheers. They all knew Aiden and were patting him on the back and handing him a beer. Hadn’t he just moved here?
We sat in a booth by the pool hall. Two blondes came up to us and obvi
ously flirting by the sound of their giggles.
“Would you boys like to join us for a game of pool?” The short one closest to Aiden asked. I shook my head at him and his eyebrows scrunched in, almost upset that I refused.
“Not now, dolls,” he winked at them and they walked away. Not ever. Was he nuts? Those chicks looked at least 21. As I’d said before, I was not as advanced as people made me out to be. I blamed Jones for the false reputation I had.
“Dude, we’re not staying here for long.”
“I know, brother relax. There’s no harm in a game of pool.”
I raised my eyebrow at him.
“Don’t you hate the girls that are always after you?”
“At school, yes, because they’re girls; I like women.” Well that explained a lot. He had been ignoring every chick that came his way at school.
I caught Aiden staring at me and I cocked an eyebrow at him as the waitress brought me a beer I hadn’t ordered.
“I’m sorry miss, I didn’t order this, but I’ll take water.”
She jerked her thumb towards the bar. “Oh hun, that’s from the lady at the bar.” She walked away and I looked in the direction she pointed at. The blood drained from my face and a shiver shot down my spine.
At the bar, dressed in all black with that silky platinum hair was Azrael.
I excused myself from the booth and walked over to her. Not wanting Aiden to get involved in all the craziness. I sat in the stool next to her but didn’t look her way.
“Thank you for joining me, Maximillion.” Her voice made the hairs on my arms rise. “I was surprised to see you here. This isn’t really your scene. Then again I see the company you keep.” She turned to face me and I could feel the smirk on her face.
“Cut the crap, what do you want?” I turned to face her and the beauty that was the Angel of Death.
“Would you believe me if I told you I wanted to help you?” I gave her my ‘are you kidding me’ face and she got her answer. “I thought so, but it’s the truth, I just want to protect you. You are so very special; I don’t think you truly understand it yet. What you have Maximillion, is beyond any of the others. You are the deadly weapon and they want you. And to prove my loyalty to you, I’ll fill you in on a little secret.” She leaned in, placing her cold hand on my thigh and her lips to my ear. “Death is coming for someone very close to you, Maximillion. Don’t let your guard down.”
I closed my eyes as her words sunk in. Death?
What Jones said the other night played in my head.
Azrael is the Angel of Death and when she comes knocking, that is never a good thing.
When I opened my eyes, she was gone.
Her touch still lingered on my body and I couldn’t help the goosebumps that crawled on my skin. She had been here. Inches away and I did nothing. What really sent shivers through me was the fact that she said someone was going to die.
Angela. Her hand.
What had I done?
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jumped at the contact.
“Come on lad, you look like you need a distraction.” I didn’t even respond, I just let him lead the way to the pool hall where the two blondes from earlier were waiting.
After that, everything was a blur. We drank, played pool, and flirted. Not once until now, did I think of Melanie. Or Angela. I reached into my pocket for my phone and realized I had left it in the truck. I looked at the clock on the wall. Great. I was supposed to have picked Mel up over an hour ago. Stumbling toward the bathroom I saw Aiden at our booth talking to a man that gave me an odd feeling. He had a head of midnight hair that appeared all too familiar.
Then again, I was pissy drunk and it could have been my overactive imagination. I pushed into the men’s room and let out the barf that was threatening to come out. After a rinse in the sink and some splashes of water on my face, I felt better. More alert. I came out to find Aiden gone. I looked everywhere and even asked the girls we were with if they had seen him.
“He just walked out the door,” the bartender said as I passed by. I nodded in acknowledgment and not wanting to waste any more time, I asked for a bottle of water and headed toward my truck.
Sitting on the curb of the school parking lot was Melanie with Mr. Delaney at her side. Jumping out of the truck without even shutting the engine off, I ran to her and pulled her in for a hug.
“I’m so sorry, so so sorry, Mel,” I whispered into her hair, feeling like the biggest jerk on the planet.
She sniffed and looked up at me. “Have you been drinking?”
I didn’t want to lie but it came out anyways, “No.”
I looked over at our history teacher who eyed me skeptically. He could probably tell I was lying, that old man.
“Let me get you home.” Grabbing her by the elbow and pulling her toward the truck, she squeaked out a ‘bye’ to our teacher who wanted to stop us but I was already on the move.
We pulled up to her driveway after a silent ride. We went inside her house where her nanny, Consuelo, was helping her little brother with his homework and we went straight for her bedroom at the end of the hall. She splayed textbooks on the ground to start studying and broke the silence.
“Max, I don’t like you hanging out with Aiden. I know that’s who you were with today.” She didn’t look at me when she spoke. “In the little time that we’ve known him, he’s sort of been around a lot. I just get a weird vibe from him.”
She was gazing down at her sneakers, playing with the laces. I knew this was taking every drop of courage for her to say. Even though she had loosened up around me, she was still shy with certain things. It made me want to protect her even more.
“I’m sorry, Mel. I didn’t know he was bothering you. I just thought since you were the one to invite him to hang with us, I don’t know. But I’ll distance myself from him if you want.” She looked up at me then and her sparkling brown eyes were glistening.
“No, I—I don’t want to tell you what to do or anything, just—just be careful.”
Her stuttering made me chuckle. I picked her up and sat her on my lap, with my arms around her waist. “Don’t worry, Mel. I appreciate you looking out for me. I would much rather spend time with my girlfriend than Aiden, anyways.”
That was it, I had said it.
Girlfriend.
Her body tensed but the smile that had crept over her face gave me the impression she’d been waiting for this. I kissed her softly on the corner of her mouth.
“Now let’s get crackin’ on these books. Finals are less than three weeks away.”
Blushing, she climbed off my lap and grabbed our notebooks. I hadn’t been able to formally ask her out but we’d been acting like a couple for a while now, so we might as well have made it official. I liked Mel. I really did. She was an enigma. She didn’t see how beautiful and smart she was, but I did. She might not have been a sex bomb but I thought that was what I liked the most. I hadn’t met a girl who was as down to earth as she was. It was refreshing.
After leaving Melanie’s, I came home to a house full of chaos. Just as I walked in the door, a knife skimmed by my ear, no less than an inch away and landed on the wall like a dart.
I turned around to a fuming Angela with my dad and Jones right behind her.
“Um...Hi?” I looked at the three sets of eyes with different expressions on them. Angela practically had the word “crazy,” stamped on her forehead, while my dad and best friend looked concerned. The nearness of the knife had my heart racing.
“Hi?” She looked at my father, Jones and back to me. “Hi? WHERE WERE YOU?!” She yelled and I took a step back, feeling the wrath of her anger.
“I was at Melanie’s studying. What’s your problem?” Was she on crack? She hadn’t spoken to me other than asking me to pass the gravy on Thanksgiving and she had the audacity to yell at me. I knew training was cancelled today so something else was crawling up her behind.
“My problem? My problem is that you almost killed me and now you�
��re at some—some girls house like some teenage boy!”
I laughed and Jones grabbed her arm trying to hold her back.
“Um...the last time I checked, I am a teenage boy and I didn’t almost kill you, you did that all on your own.” I took my jacket off and hung it on the coat rack. I was done feeling sorry for that. Nothing I said or did changed their minds, so screw it.
My dad stepped up to me trying to direct me to the kitchen but Angela wasn’t having it.
“No you’re not Max! You need to stop seeing that girl; she’s going to get you killed!” Her wide and menacing green eyes stared back at me.
“Well that’s why I have you two for; to keep me alive. So butt out and since we’re on the topic,” I looked over to my dad. “I wanted to invite my girlfriend, over for Christmas dinner, is that okay?” He looked at me with those black eyes that I saw in the mirror every morning and nodded. We hadn’t spoken since the night I had met Azrael and this was the most interaction we’d had yet. I could already imagine how awkward and silent the holidays were going to be.
“Tell him, Xavier! Tell him what I told you and let’s see if he feels like a teenage boy then.” Jones was standing in front of her trying to calm her down to no avail.
My dad took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. He was stressed.
“Son, you were spotted today. I don’t know how you came upon the Devils Lair but it’s a hangout for fallen angels and creatures alike. This isn’t good.” My face fell and I was starting to understand the situation.
“I’m sorry. Aiden invited me and I didn’t know, but this has nothing to do with Melanie.”
My dad nodded his head. “I know son. Now who is this Aiden?”
“He’s a new kid at school. I checked him out, he’s clean, but if he knows about the Lair, I might need to do some more digging,” Jones said.
“Yes Jones, find out as much as you can. That place has a rune drawn in to keep humans away. He shouldn’t have been able to bypass that if he’s human.” My dad rubbed his eyes some more and I felt bad at how much stress I was causing him.
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