Torn

by Ashley Stambaugh

  "Maybe. I don't know."

  "Then call to Walter and Phinneas," he said. "Have them go with you."

  Melina quickly shook her head. "It could be too late by the time they got here. It may even be too late now. I don't want anything to happen to him, so I need to get to him as soon as possible."

  "But I don't want anything to happen to you." He reached out and took a hold of her hand. "Why are you so determined to put yourself in harm's way?"

  "Because I care about him!" she said in a loud voice.

  Suddenly Melina's palm felt really warm, and then Lee cried out in pain as he jerked his hand away from hers. When he held it out in front of him, she saw a slight burn mark on the palm of his hand. Her breath caught in her throat as all of her anger disappeared and was replaced by fear. She had burned him with her touch. The demon powers were already starting to come through.

  She lifted her eyes to look at him. He was staring at his hand, his face full of shock.

  "Lee, I'm sorry," she started to say, but he quickly cut her off.

  "Go help Dean," he said as he turned his stunned gaze on her and began to back away. "Before it's too late."

  Her eyes started to water as she continued to look at him. She had hurt him, and all she wanted to do was apologize and try to help him. "Lee, please…" she begged, the anger inside of her subsiding.

  "Just go," he said with a little more force. "I don't need your help. Dean does." He pulled his injured hand into his body as he took another step back.

  It was obvious he didn't want to be near her right now. She lowered her head and turned away from him as the tears started to stream down her face. If he wanted her to go, then she would go.

  She closed her eyes and brought the image of the hotel up in her mind as she thought to herself, "I want to teleport to the sixth floor, room six twenty-two of the Archway Hotel."

  Within a couple of seconds, she was standing inside Dean's hotel room. As she wiped the tears away from her eyes, she noticed cold air coming in from an open window. Why is that open? she thought to herself, and then immediately heard a loud shriek come from the front part of the room.

  She rounded the corner and saw Dean down on the floor, straining to keep up his light shield, and the Noxin demon violently clawing at the shield. Dean didn't notice her, but the demon must've felt her presence. He whipped around in her direction, his dark red eyes burning with rage, and let out another loud screeching noise.

  "Leave him alone!" Melina yelled.

  The demon lunged at her, and she reflexively tried to pull up her own light shield, but a faint glimmer of white light was all she could produce. The light flickered out, and then a fiery sensation surged through her body. The intense burning caught her off guard, and the demon tackled her down to the floor before she could jump out of the way.

  He pinned both of her arms up beside her head, causing her to cry out in pain as his hands started to burn through the skin on her wrists. Then suddenly the fiery sensation inside of her turned into feelings of anger and violence.

  "Get off of me!" she screamed through clenched teeth, trying with all her strength to push him off of her. All she wanted to do was punch the demon in the face, but no matter how hard she kicked with her feet and pushed with her arms, she couldn't get him to budge.

  The demon gave her an evil grin, revealing two rows of sharp, jagged teeth. "Maura was right," he said in a low, rough voice. "You are a feisty one." He let out a short chuckle. "She told me not to kill you, but she didn't say anything about not hurting you. Especially since you interrupted me with your friend over there."

  Melina glanced over at Dean and saw that his light shield was down, and he was now on his feet and headed in their direction. What was he thinking? She had to tell him to teleport away, but the tension between the demon and her was so strong now that her arms were shaking, and her jaw was clenched shut. Her only other option was to think it in her mind and hope that he would hear her.

  Dean, stop. You need to teleport away from here. Teleport back to my apartment. Now.

  He looked at her as if he had heard her, but he continued his way toward them instead of teleporting away.

  No. Dean, you need to leave.

  But it was too late. As Dean stepped closer, the floor creaked, and the demon immediately turned to look behind him. He growled and then let go of Melina's arms as he launched himself at Dean again.

  "No!" she screamed as the demon grabbed a hold of Dean's neck.

  Melina placed her hands down on each side of her, and as she pushed herself up from the floor, her right hand slipped on a broken piece of glass. She sucked in a sharp breath and looked down to see a long, deep gash on the palm of her hand. Bright red blood started to ooze its way out of the wound, but she ignored it for the time being.

  She looked back over at Dean and saw that the demon had him pinned to the floor with both hands around his neck. A small amount of smoke started to rise up from his skin as the demon's hands burned through his flesh. The demon lowered himself to where he was only an inch or two away from Dean's face and started to take in a long, deep breath. He was trying to suck out Dean's soul.

  "No!" she cried out again.

  What was she to do? Even if her powers were working, she didn't have any powers to attack the demon with. The only thing she could think of was to interrupt the demon and turn his attention back to her. She picked up a nearby flower vase and was about to smash it over the demon's head when suddenly the room filled with a bright yellow light.

  She ducked her head into her shoulder to shield her eyes, and when the light finally died down, she looked up and saw Henry standing in the middle of the room. Next to him was another tall, built male angel with short blond hair and blue eyes. Henry ran over to her side while the blond angel grabbed a hold of the demon and threw him back against the wall that was next to the open window. Dean fell to the floor, clutching his throat and gasping for air.

  The blond angel glared at the demon, who was now laying on the floor, and a bright yellow light started to shine from both of his hands. He was a guardian angel.

  The demon's red eyes deepened in color as he let out a loud hiss and then pushed himself up off the floor. The angel raised his right hand, but before he was able to throw the bolt of light, the demon lunged out of the way and flew out the window.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Melina's mouth gaped open as she stared out the window and into the empty night sky. Had she seen that correctly? Did the demon just fly? But they weren't supposed to be able to do that anymore. She blinked her eyes a couple of times and then turned her attention back to Dean as she rushed over to his side.

  The blond angel, assumedly Dean's guardian, was kneeling on the other side of him and had one hand hovering over his neck, the other over his chest. The burn marks on Dean's neck quickly faded away, and his body jolted up as he gasped for air. The angel placed his hand behind Dean's head and helped him sit up on the floor.

  He coughed and gasped for a few more seconds and then looked over at the angel. "Are you my guardian angel?" he asked in a rough voice.

  The blond man smiled and nodded his head. "Yes," he said in a comforting tone. "My name's Merrick."

  Dean took in a deep breath and nodded wearily. "Thank you, Merrick, for saving my life. And it's nice to finally meet you."

  "It's nice to meet you, too," said Merrick. "But I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances." He stood up from the floor and held his hand out to Dean. "Let's get you over to the couch so you can relax for a while."

  Dean took his hand and hoisted himself up from the floor. "I'll be fine standing," he said and then his gaze was drawn over to Melina. "What happened to your hand?"

  She looked down at her injured hand and saw that blood was now dripping down onto the floor. "Oh," she said as she raised it up and cupped her other hand underneath it. "I cut it on that broken glass when I pushed myself up from the floor and just forgot about it when the demon attacked you
again."

  "Sorry," said Dean. "That's the glass I dropped when I was on the phone with you and first saw the demon."

  Henry took a step closer to her. "That looks pretty bad. Here, let me heal it. You don't need a doctor asking you how you got it."

  "This injury isn't that suspicious," she said.

  Henry shrugged. "Yeah, but you're not a very good liar. And I'm here, so…"

  "All right," said Melina. "I just don't want you breaking any rules."

  Henry tilted his head to the side.

  "Okay, okay." She placed her left hand under her injured right one for support and then held it out to him.

  He hovered his right hand over her palm, but just then she noticed that the burn marks on her wrists were fading away. She took in a sharp breath and glanced up at Henry.

  "Are you doing that?" she asked.

  His brow creased as he pulled his hand back. "No, I'm not."

  Dean leaned forward to get a closer look. "Are you healing yourself?"

  Melina continued to stare at the disappearing burn marks and then lifted her gaze to her still bleeding palm.

  "The burns from the demon are healing," Henry said as he examined her wounds. "But the cut from the glass is not."

  Melina shook her head in disbelief as the last of the burn marks vanished from her wrists. "How did that happen? How did those go away on their own?" She looked up at Henry, her eyes wide with shock.

  "I'm not sure," he said. "Maybe since you have their powers, the effects from a Noxin demon attack are only temporary on you now?"

  "Maybe," she muttered as she stared down at her wrists.

  "Here," said Henry, reaching for her hand. "Let me heal the cut on your palm before it gets any worse."

  She slowly nodded, a stunned expression still on her face, and held her injured hand out to him again. He placed his hand a few inches above hers, and a few seconds later, she felt a light warming sensation spread over her palm. When Henry finally removed his hand, she saw that the cut was completely healed.

  "Thanks," she said as she flexed her hand open and closed a couple of times.

  Henry smiled at her, but she didn't smile back.

  His brow furrowed. "Are you going to be okay?"

  She shook her head. "I don't know. I thought that discovering I had absorbed Noxin demon powers was bad enough, but more and more strange things keep happening. I mean, how did my burns heal by themselves, and then how…" Her voice trailed off as she glanced up at the open window.

  "What is it?" asked Henry.

  She swallowed hard and then looked back at him and said, "The demon… It flew out of that window."

  Henry's brow remained creased. "You're acting like you've never seen a Noxin demon fly before."

  "They can fly?" Merrick asked.

  Melina nodded. "But they shouldn't be able to now. That is, if the theory Phinneas and the other elder guiding angels came up with is true."

  The two angels both gave her curious looks, so she explained to them how the elders thought the demons could fly.

  "Well," said Henry, rubbing his chin. "That certainly makes things interesting."

  "If their theory is true, then seeing one fly just now can only mean one of two things." Melina paused as she took in a deep breath and then continued. "Either another one of the elders is helping the demons now, or Adelia wasn't destroyed by my exploding light shield."

  "The other elders said they could feel that Adelia was gone," said Henry. "So how could she still be here?"

  Melina shook her head. "I don't know."

  Henry crossed his arms in front of him and let out a heavy breath. "Well neither one of those possibilities is good."

  "No," she said. "They're not." She lowered her head into her newly healed hand and crossed her other arm over her chest. Her hair fell down around her face as she shook her head again. Too many questions were swirling around in her mind, and it was making her head hurt.

  How did that demon find Dean? How did the burn marks on my wrists heal all by themselves? And how was that demon able to fly? If Adelia wasn't completely destroyed, then where has she been this whole time, and why can't the elders sense her? Or if she was destroyed, then which one of the elders is helping the demons now? Phinneas? Has he really not changed after all?

  "Melina," Dean suddenly piped up. "You really think Phinneas would be working with them again?"

  She raised her head up from her hand and looked over at him. "I'm not sure what to think right now."

  Everyone was silent when all of a sudden there was a knock at the door. "Mr. Porter," a male's voice rang out. "Mr. Porter, are you all right?"

  They all gave each other a nervous glance.

  "I'll handle this," Dean said in a soft voice. He walked slowly over to the door and opened it up to see a man with well-groomed black hair and a crisp gray suit on standing out in the hallway. The shiny gold nameplate on his left lapel said that he was one of the hotel's managers.

  "Mr. Porter," the man said. "We've had a couple of calls about some disturbance coming from your room. Are you okay? Has anything happened?" He peeked over Dean's shoulder and glanced at Melina. He couldn’t see Henry or Merrick, though. Guardian angels only showed themselves when they wanted to be seen.

  "Nothing has happened," said Dean. "We were watching a scary movie and must've had the volume up too loud. Oh, but I did accidentally knock my drink off of the table over there, so there's some broken glass on the floor. But I can clean it up."

  "Uh huh," the man said as he leaned in farther through the doorway to get a better look at the rest of the room. "Why is your window open in the middle of January?" He cocked an eyebrow at Dean.

  "Oh, that was from earlier. I wanted to see if I could hear the music from the club next door, but then we decided to watch a movie instead, and I just forgot about it." He put his hand up on the side of the door frame, obstructing the man's view of the room. "I actually need to check out tonight. Can I take care of that with you?"

  The man leaned back and looked up at Dean. "Sure, but you've already been charged for the night."

  "Doesn't matter," he said as he waved his free hand in the air. "I'll be out within the hour, and I'll leave the door key on the nightstand."

  "That will be fine," the man said with a nod. "I hope you've enjoyed your stay with us."

  "I have," said Dean. "Thank you." He shut the door and turned back around.

  "That's a wise decision to not stay here," said Merrick.

  Dean nodded. "I thought it would be best to go someplace where the demon couldn't find me again." He looked over at Melina. "Is there a hotel in some other part of the city? I have a feeling the demon might check all the other hotels in this area once he realizes I'm not here anymore."

  "You don't need to check in to another hotel," she said. "I have a guest room. You can come stay with me."

  "But…"

  She knew what he was about to say. Lee was not going to like it, but there was no other option. "No arguing," she said. "We'll have Henry and Merrick come back to my place with us, and then you need to get some rest. Trust me. I remember all too well how it feels to have a Noxin demon try to take your soul."

  Dean held her gaze for a couple of seconds and then gave her a small nod. "All right. To your place it is then."

  Melina nodded back, glad that he hadn't put up much of a fight. She and Henry then went to clean up the broken glass from the floor as Merrick helped Dean gather up his things.

  "You know," said Henry as he threw a large shard into the trash can, "you look like you need some rest, too."

  She instinctively rubbed one of her knuckles underneath her eyes.

  "After you get Dean settled, you should try to get some sleep."

  "I'll try," she said. The battle her body was in left her feeling constantly exhausted, so she knew she needed the rest, but she also knew she probably wasn't going to get much sleep that night. She had too many things to try and figure out, and too many things
to worry about.

  They finished picking up the last of the glass and then waited for the others. Once Dean had his suitcase all packed up, Melina and Henry teleported back to her apartment with Merrick and Dean following behind.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Melina was the first to appear back in her apartment, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Lee sitting at her kitchen table. He hopped up from his chair when he saw her, but he didn't move from there.

  "Lee," she said in a surprised tone. "I didn't think you'd still be here."

  "Well I…" he started to say but was cut short when a bright yellow light shone throughout the room. When the light diminished, Henry, Merrick, and Dean all stood together in her living room. Lee looked over at the three men and then back to Melina. "What are they all doing here?"

  "The Noxin demon in Dean's hotel room tried to take his soul, so he's sort of weak right now and needs to rest." Melina stepped over to help Merrick, who was easing Dean down onto the couch. She then looked back up at Lee and said with a bit of hesitation, "And, well, since we don't want him to be attacked again, he's going to stay here instead of at a hotel." Her eyes scanned Lee's face, waiting to see his reaction, but his expression didn't change.

  A few seconds of silence passed, and then finally he cleared his throat and said, "I see. You both probably need to rest, so I think I should go."

  He started to walk toward the door, but Melina ran after him.

  "Lee, wait, please!"

  He stopped and slowly turned around to face her.

  "Please," she said. "I know you're probably still angry at me and more than likely freaked out, too, but please… You've got to believe me when I say that I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

  He stared at her for a second and then raised his right hand up and spread out his palm in front of him. He glanced down at the burn marks and then back up at Melina.

  "Please," she said again. "Maybe Henry can heal it for you."

  She reached out for his injured hand, and when her palm met his, a soft glow started to emanate from it. Lee flinched at the sight, but he didn't pull his hand away. Melina released her grip little by little and then lifted her hand up about an inch above his. Both of their eyes widened in shock as they watched his burn marks gradually fade away.