by Livvy Aarons
“I take it that you and Aidan did not play truth or dare last night. I suppose there are things that a man would want to keep from an innocent such as you. The garment you are referring to was kicked under the bed by mistake. I am sure Aidan never knew considering how much clothing is already on his floor. Trust me pet I saw the whole thing.”
In disbelief I stared at Tristan. “You cannot possible know that; Aidan and I were alone. The bedroom door was locked so unless you can magically become invisible there was no way you were in that room.”
“Ah larisitá you have no idea at the things I can do and yes I can become invisible to humans—even special ones such as yourself with proper preparation. The special humans can still feel our presence better than normal humans; from what I understand the reaction can range from gooseflesh to static electricity. I have the video to prove my attendance if you still do not believe me. You see Aidan has a two-way mirror that I used while he and Tiffany were together. Your boyfriend even encouraged me to sell the videos and split the money with him. I have to say pet Aidan is a fool for turning away such a beautiful hellcat such as you.” Tristan continued with his ramblings—I stopped listening.
I wanted to scream. Better, I wanted to kill Tristan, find the DVD and burn it, then beat the shit out of Aidan for not telling me. How could Aidan do this to me? Nausea began to roll over me in waves at the mention of his betrayal. The car continued to get smaller and smaller than darker and darker, until the whole car was enclosed around me. One final reach to grab onto the last speck of light; then I was out…
The moment consciousness threw me back to earth, I could tell I was lying in wet grass; it tickled the backs of my legs. I tried to move hoping the fuzziness would wear off but I was being held down by something. “She’s coming around. We can lift her on to the gurney now.” The muffled voice was close. Suddenly I felt two very large, warm hands slide behind my neck and knees. My captor was definitely male; a seductively smelling male. My mind was becoming clearer with every minute then when the man spoke again I recognized him; it was Tristan. “Don’t worry love I got you; you’re going to be okay. I promise nothing will happen to you on my watch.” Hesitantly I let the warmth of his body overtake me and snuggled against his chest. Tristan almost seemed to purr. Once he situated me on the gurney I felt cold and alone. I cracked my eyes open to see Tristan step away from the ambulance leaving one EMT inside the rig’s cabin while the other one shut the doors. I felt dizzy again so I closed my eyes again. The last thing I heard was, “Now honey I need you to stay awake—“
The voice was gone and now a steady beep was invading the silence.
“Beep…Beep…Beep…”
Slowly I opened my eyes; I was in a hospital room and I wasn’t alone. The man was dressed in light green scrubs which set off his olive skin and dark brown hair. He was definitely a doctor; the man was too hot to be a male nurse.
“Glad to see you’re awake young lady. The people in the waiting room are driving me crazy.” The doctor gave me a smile—a gorgeous smile at that. “I am Gabriel your nurse but you can call me Gabe. How is your head feeling?” Gabe came over to the bed to check my IV.
Scratch the ugly male nurse comment. “Um, fine I guess. Can I ask what happen?”
“It seems you had a panic attack and the guy you were riding with swerved to miss a car that had broken down in the road. When your friend swerved he lost control of the car, flipped it a few times and of course the car is now scrap metal.” Gabe continued his inspection of my bandages, which were plentiful. “McKenna did Tristan do this on purpose?”
When our eyes met I jumped, they were an iridescent purple meaning only one thing. “Oh my God! You’re an angel!”
Gabe grabbed my arm gently to prevent me from falling off the bed. “Yes McKenna I am an angel. Now can you please answer my question?”
“I thought you guys only visited prophets and saints...or the dead. Holy shit! Please don’t say I’m dead. It would be awful to die without ever having se--” I spotted myself from saying anything else that would embarrass me further with the gorgeous angel, who was not amused by my theatrics. “No Gabe, I am pretty sure that Tristan did not do this on purpose; he loved that car. Besides he could kill me more efficiently than a car accident.” I glanced down at Gabe’s hands to see the identifying angelic marks. The inscription was written in Hebrew which read, “Holy, Holy, God is most High.”. Thank you grandma for insisting that I learn things that would be useless to most people such as: Greek, Latin and Hebrew. She also insisted that I learn taekwondo and kickboxing which has definitely helped get me into more trouble than necessary.
“Under normal circumstances prophets, saints and the dead are the only humans that can see us; you are just a rarity. I am only to here offer a guiding hand to help in your current predicament.”
I must have hit my head harder than I thought. “You’re telling me that you—Gabriel, the archangel, the messenger of God—is here to help me in saving Aidan’s soul?”
Gabe rolled his eyes, “You humans are all alike; doubtfully faithful. I don’t suppose your buddy Tristan told you about the loophole?”
“Not really, he just said that I could break the contract on Aidan’s soul with some flaming sword.”
“Leave it to a demon to only give half assed information.” Gabe mumbled then blew out an aggravated breath. “The sword he is referring to belongs to a brother of mine…Michael and yes before you even ask; the archangel Michael. This is a very powerful weapon, one that can kill an immortal if done properly. However it is impossible to find unless Michael tells you personally.”
Great—impossible to find and I have to ask the right hand angel to God if I can borrow his sword to save a man I hardly know. “So how do I find Michael?”
Gabe gave me a small smile, “Interesting, I can smell your fear yet you do not hesitate to confront them. Bravery is a virtue I can appreciate and love is a virtue I live by. There is no need to seek my brother out; I will tell you where the sword is. Besides my brother is not fond of lending out his weapons to mortals and it would be foolish to push his patience. It may take me a few days to acquire the location and I will try to suggest something close. When you receive my message don’t be surprised if I don’t send it by e-mail; as the Messenger of God I have some pretty unorthodox methods. I only ask one thing of you—do not tell anyone where you found it, especially Tristan. You may take your Aidan with you for protection but no one else.” Gabe stopped when there a knock at the door. “Well our chat is over; you have visitors.”
Gabe nodded to me before he opened the door; Aidan rushed in not bothering to even look at Gabe. The reaction Tristan had was much different and within seconds Tristan’s eyes were pitch black. I was not surprised when Gabe proudly stood his ground, fully extending his wings in a high arch behind him. The air was filled with electricity, sending shivers down my spine. Hoping to distract at least one of them, I ripped off my heart monitor. The machine instantly produced a loud continuous beep.
“What the hell McKenna!” Aidan shouted.
My distraction worked on Tristan and for the few seconds it granted, Gabe disappeared. I tried to play innocent “Oops, did I do that?” I flashed a knowing grin at Tristan then gave my attention back to Aidan. “Sorry, these things itch like crazy.”
“S’kay I guess. The nurse guy didn’t seem worried—where the hell did he go?”
Tristan was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his head was slumped forward; it was strange seeing him like this…almost like a guy who just was in a car accident. In a low voice I heard him mumble, “The nurse left.”
“Julie is in the waiting room.” The sound of Aidan’s voice snapped me out of my trance that had me staring at Tristan. “I can’t stay too much longer—you’ve been out for a while and I have to get back to work.”
“It’s fine, you should go back to work anyway. I would hate for you to be here when my dad gets here and I have to explain why I didn�
�t come home last night.”
Aidan struggled internally for a minute then sighed. “Okay but if you need anything please don’t be scared to call me and I will be here in seconds.” He gave me a light kiss on the forehead before he left.
I was sure that Tristan would have left when Aidan did instead he grabbed a chair and sat it beside my bed. “You can take off that smug look on your face and don’t expect me to thank you for not leaving me on the pavement to bleed out.”
“I am truly a monster in your eyes.” Tristan frowned then looked down at his feet. “Should I thank you for destroying my car?”
“Sure if it makes you feel better but Gabe told me that you swerved to miss a car so that’s your fault, not mine. Perhaps you’d like to work on those supernatural relaxes; seems you’re getting old and rusty. Now if you don’t mind, I need you to leave before my father shows up to chew my ass out for not coming home last night. I am already treading on thin ice with all the crap he has bailed me out of.” It was going to be bad enough telling him I spent the night with a guy I barely knew; having my father think that it was Tristan I spent the night with would be that much worse.
“Gabe would tell you that it was my fault—oh well; no sense in crying over spilled milk. No to fret innocent McKenna I have plenty of cars to spare and you should not worry about your father. I went by the plant after they brought you in and cleaned up his memory. He now thinks you were home all night and clumsy fell down the stairs this morning, so he wouldn’t ask about the bruises or the hospital bill.” Tristan could tell I was impressed and gave me an obnoxious wink. “Your welcome.”
Bastard. “Fine—thank you.” I hissed through my teeth. “Now give me that damned video so I can douse it with holy water and shove it up your ass!”
Tristan didn’t even flinch at my anger; instead he cocked his head to the side with eyes swimming with curiosity. “Not even a morsel of wraith for Aidan?” After squinting his eyes for a minute, the devilish grin reappeared. “Now little one that’s not nice. I would have never guessed you to be a bigot—even against vile creatures like myself. But don’t worry pet in time you will see that I am not the liar you so devoutly believe to be.”
“Tristan I suggest you get the hell out of here before I start chanting one of the hundred or so protection incantations I have memorized that ward of demons. They may or may not be powerful enough to hurt you but they will at least make you uncomfortable.” If he saw my traitorous body waver I was afraid he may be able to push past the mental block I was barely holding up. Tristan left without any pursuit—however his method of departure was a bit startling; there was no sound or flash of light. One minute he was lounging in the chair beside my hospital bed and the next…he was gone. I wasn’t sure if I should be fearful that he had that ability or fearful that all demons had that ability. Breaking me from my undercurrent of thoughts the door suddenly opened, causing me to jump violently.
“Lucy, you gotsa lot of explain’ to do!” Julie shouted trying ever so playfully to sound like an angry Cuban.
“Damn you Julie—I nearly had a heart attack!” I yelled while still clutching my chest, hoping the frantic heartbeats would slow.
“Whatever, at least you are in a hospital. Oh, I almost forgot.” She dug around in her in her oversized purse for a moment then pulled out two items; a roll of jolly ranchers and a brush. “Here, the jolly ranchers are for your breath and the brush is for that rat’s nest you call hair. Sorry homie but your nurse is hot.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah well if you knew who he is or what he is then you would rethink your assessment.” Silently I shared my knowledge of Gabe and the sword; there was no telling about who may be listening. Stunned Julie slapped my arm, “No freaking way!”
“Yeah, crazy that it was him but can you imagine—with the sword I have fighting chance.”
With a heavy sigh Julie hopped off the bed then headed for the door. “Your shoes are under the bed.” She said flatly. “So I see your seduction plans fell through…do you have a plan B?”
“My grandma use to always say that a good southern woman always had a plan B. I’ll fill you in on the ride home.”
Chapter 9:
That’s the way the cookie crumbles
The next two months passed by in a blur as I tried to spend every minute I could with Aidan. I tried to find out everything about him, his likes, dislikes, dreams and fears. He told me about how his family traveled--what little he remembered but his memories were happy. I wasn’t surprised when he told me that his favorite bands were Taproot and Disturbed or that his favorite color was blue. Aidan even told me that when he gets sad and needs time to think that he would take long drives on his motorcycle to nowhere in particular. It was easy learning all I could about him barely noticing the outside world. But with Aidan’s birthday only a couple of weeks away I was running out of time…
“Thank God it’s Friday.” Julie groaned as she plopped down on the cement bench beside me. “So McKenna are you just having black nail polish for lunch or are you going to eat that granola bar you’re sitting on?”
Wrapped up in my own thoughts I continued to chew on my nails, her words scarcely registering.
Julie let out a heavy sigh, “Great it’s one of those days. I hope you didn’t forget that you promised my uncle you could start work today. He isn’t going to let you put it off any further and I’m not bailing you out anymore. Oh yeah--Aileen wants to see you.”
Funny how those five words snapped me out of it. “What did I do to piss her off now?” I threw Julie a questioning glance then shook my head in disbelief. There was simply no pleasing that woman. At first she was mad that I wasn’t involved enough and now she’s mad because I am too involved.
“No, you dumbass!” Julie shouted. “Aileen thinks that you are too involved with Tristan—not to mention the fantasy you’ve built for yourself.” Angry she grabbed her bag and stormed off towards the main building.
I was stunned by Julie’s bizarre behavior; she had been acting strange for the last week. At first I thought it was because Aidan was around all time except on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays when he would be at work but she was even worse when we were alone. I needed to mend our friendship so I ran after her. She did not stop until she entered the woman’s bathroom.
“What’s your problem?” I asked between pants.
Julie didn’t turn around. “Go lock the door…if you’re not too tired.”
“Ah, there’s my smartass friend.” It wasn’t until the lock clicked that Julie finally faced me. “It’s all locked—now spill.”
Julie folded her arms tight against her chest. “If I tell you something you have swear not to tell anyone.” A flood of guilt tugged at my heart as I stared at my friends eyes, they were bloodshot and puffy; this secret was taking a serious toll her. “You’re scaring me Julie.” I said sternly.
“Aileen is going to die. Before you even ask, I heard her thoughts on Monday during class. She was debating on whether or not she was going to tell her husband. Aileen’s visions have been getting more detailed and I have been doing really well about blocking them out but I was trying to concentrate on my test.”
“Perhaps Aileen’s wrong…maybe you heard wrong—“
Julie cut me off before I could finish. “I didn’t hear wrong dammit! Paul is going to kill her and it’s all your fault!”
Stunned I asked, “How the hell is it my fault?”
“God you really are that dumb sometimes.” Julie shook her head. “Aileen was going to tell you Tristan’s dirty little secret hoping you’ll see that the demon is true to nature. But seeing as how the cat’s out of the bag and you obviously can’t put two and two together I will let you in on the big secret. Tristan gave the former plant manager that convenient heart attack and helped your dad’s promotion get pushed through. I am sure he probably pulled a rabbit out of his ass to get you off of your probation early. So as soon as Aileen found out she decided that she is telling Aidan
everything tomorrow.”
“Wait—tomorrow?” I asked horrified.
Julie stared at me hollowed eyed. “Yes, I am sorry. I didn’t know about the Aidan thing until this morning.”
My chest began to sting, panic clouding my thought process. I needed to talk to Aileen.
“You promised! Aileen will be furious if she knew that I listened to her. She told me to never under any circumstances listen to her thoughts. Please don’t tell Aileen about this; it would be awful to have her mad at me before she…died.”
I nodded knowing that my friend needed some comfort. “Sure homie not a word to Aileen. Let’s go before someone thinks I am breaking up with you or something.”
We walked out of the bathroom towards our next classes. Julie may have been a year younger than me but she was smarter than I was and had even graduated with honors. She was taking a few psychology courses. I however didn’t even have a diploma, my GED was just enough to get into a community college. When I filled out my application, I undoubtedly checked “undecided”. It was hard sitting in my horrible “undecided” math class for the next hour and half. My mind simply replayed the bathroom scene over and over. It was done—Aileen’s death was certain. To make matters worse, I foolish failed to see that Tristan played a bigger part than I thought. My curiosity about the dark forces has blinded my gut instincts. The fates were cruel to toy with my doomed existence. There was nothing that could stop them—not faith, hope or love…definitely not love.
* * * * *
I was surprised to see Julie waiting for me in the parking lot, leaning casually against her car. I was hopeful considering I really didn’t have any other way home, my father had found out about my little brawl with Tiffany. Tristan made good on his YouTube threat and one of my dad’s coworkers had graciously showed him the video. Therefore, until I start paying back Pete for the damages and pay for my own gas, daddy dearest told me to walk. I was lucky Julie said that she would let me ride with her to school, Aidan tried to give me money but I refused; I really didn’t like handouts.
