by Skyla Madi
“What happened? Where am I?”
She sits next to me on the bed and tucks a lock of her platinum blonde hair behind her ear. Her pretty yellow sundress looks so bright against my white hospital gown. She takes my hands in hers.
“You died and Lucas found you.” She gestures to the man that’s leaning against my wall, arms crossed in front of his chest. I suddenly feel embarrassed as I recall my death. Lucas is handsome and tall. His black hair is short and messy. His brown eyes watch me curiously and I flush, not realizing that my eyes linger on him longer than I want them to.
“He brought you here to the Never Dark realm.” She inhales deeply. “You’re an angel now.”
I glance out the window. In the distance I can see the bright moon hanging effortlessly in the night sky. I narrow my eyes. “Never Dark realm? It seems pretty dark outside…”
She laughs and places a soft, manicured hand on my shoulder. “It’s not called the Never Dark realm because it’s never dark. It’s more of a statement… There are no demons here, no darkness.”
I ran my fingers along my eyebrows, clearing the thin line of sweat that had somehow formed. Demons. Darkness. Angels… there is so much for me to understand.
“I died and I’m no longer on Earth?” I mumble. She nods.
Surprisingly, I’m not upset. I feel empowered. I glance around the room, it looks like Earth. All the objects are the same. Slowly, I slide off the bed and land on my feet. I feel no pain. My death was brutal and yet I feel no pain. The woman takes hold of my elbow and assists me over to the window. I pull back the sheer curtains and squint as the lights from the city shine in on me. The city is exactly like Earth, there are tall skyscrapers and shops and people. There’s no luminous glow to anything. There’s no blinding whiteness to the world… Even though this is nothing like the heaven I imagined, I still believe her. Every muscle, bone, and blood vessel in my body is telling me she is telling the truth.
My eyebrows furrow. “I know I should be overwhelmed or sad, but I’m not…”
“When you make the transition, your mind leaves all the painful feelings behind. You still remember them, but they don’t mean anything anymore,” Lucas says, joining us at the window. Strangely, I become self-conscious now that he is so close and I wrap my arms around myself. I think back to my previous life. It seems to be some kind of distant memory that doesn’t affect me—just like he said. In a million years I’d have never thought I’d be recruited to join some kind of angel army in a different realm. In my human life, I was always the victim, always the one who ended up hurt. I was naïve, determined to see the good in everyone and that came back to bite me in the ass the night of my death. I agreed to let a man that I’d met in a club walk me home. When we got out of sight, things escalated and before I knew it, he had three other friends that wanted to ‘walk me home.’ Nervous, but convinced nothing bad was going to happen, I let them, and sadly, I never made it home. I was left abused and dying in an alley two blocks from my house.
“Why me?” I ask, my voice barely audible.
“Because,” Lucas said, his eyes displaying an intensity I’d never seen in anyone before. “You’re a fighter…”
***
Suddenly, I’m in the gym and Lucas is crouched down in front of me, ready to attack. I’m crouched, too, preparing to evade his attack. His lips twitch into a smile and a bead of sweat rolls down his gorgeous face.
“Remember what I taught you, V. Here’s your chance to make me proud.”
Like a rhino that puts its head down and rushes full force towards its threat, Lucas sprints toward me, his shoulder down and angled to knock me on my ass as hard as he possibly can. I have to get into the right frame of mind. During this training session, Lucas is no longer my mentor, he’s my enemy. A few more steps and he’ll knock me off my feet, so I jump. Lucas is tall—so tall—he clocks in at six foot two and there’s no way my five foot nine frame can jump him entirely. I’m in the air, and as Lucas connects with my feet, I fall forward. To prevent myself from face planting, I use my hands to spring off his shoulders and I land with a slight stumble, but on both feet behind him. Before he can turn around, I kick him behind his knee and his legs buckle. I grab his shoulders and use all my strength to push him to the floor, only he’s better than me—stronger than me. That’s why I’m the student and he’s the mentor. He follows his knees and drops to the floor. With one backwards leg sweep, I’m lying flat on my back and Lucas is pinning me to the mat. Our breath is quick and deep, our sweat thick and slippery on our skin. Lucas and I have never been in this kind of predicament before. When we train, he usually shouts orders from the sideline with the occasional demonstration, but today we fought one on one, and although I didn’t win, I can still see the incredible amount of pride reflected in his perfect brown eyes.
“Well done,” he pants.
I lick my lips to moisten them and nod my head slightly. “Thanks.”
He doesn’t move off me, instead, he runs the back of his index finger through my red hair. Lucas and I have been training together for eight months. We flirt a lot, mostly in practice, never outside of the gym. Lucas doesn’t want to be seen fraternizing with his student—it wasn’t illegal or forbidden—Lucas merely felt he had a reputation to uphold… and so did I, but my god he was alluring. He lowers his face until his lips graze mine. His warm breath hits my face and my heartbeat speeds up and my breathing deepens. I want him.
“Violet?” Lucas whispers.
“Yes?”
Lucas’s hands wrap around my throat and he squeezes—hard. “I hate you.”
I wriggle under his grasp, but can’t break free. His face begins to contort and change. Soon, I am no longer looking into the face of my mentor—I’m looking into the face of a hideous demon.
I was jerked out of my memories turned horrible nightmare by the sound of my phone ringing. I ran a hand over my face, attempting to wake myself up. Early morning sunlight filtered through the crack in my curtain. Normally, I’d answer my phone at this ungodly hour, but I knew the person on the other end would be my boss and he’d want to know why I didn’t hand in my report last night. The phone rang again. And again. And again. I reached an arm onto the bedside table and groped around. It wasn’t until I knocked my gun and my alarm clock onto the floor that I found my phone.
“Yes?” I answered with a wide yawn, leaving my eyes shut.
“Ashton. Why isn’t your report on my desk?” a gruff, baritone voice grumbled through my earpiece.
Uh-oh. My boss, Mr. Cole Nark, only used last names when he is really pissed off and I guess I made it worse by ignoring his calls. Cole was the chubby human put in charge of our Earth headquarters. God knows why, he was useless mostly. Our human workers are given a serum that prevents them from talking about our business to other humans. I thought it’d be easier to hire an angel, but the Council thinks it’s important to associate with those we protect. Whoever came up with that should’ve been shot on the spot.
“I got in late,” I replied, my voice slightly husky from lack of sleep.
“I don’t care if you got in five minutes ago. You know the protocol. Mission. Report. Rest. Not Mission, rest and report whenever you feel like it.”
In my mind I could see him doing the hand gestures that he does with every. Single. Word.
I rolled my eyes. “Sorry, sir.”
“If you aren’t up to this mission, maybe I should get into contact with your leaders in the Never Dark and have them put someone else on the job. Hmm?”
This got my attention. “No, sir. I will bring the report right away, sir.”
“Good.” He hung up.
I blew air out of my cheeks and fell back onto my pillow. I had planned to go to the headquarters and fill out the report last night, but I couldn’t clear my head. The last thing I wanted was for higher authorities to pull me off the case. This was my case. Only I could deal with Lucas. I needed that closure.
I wrote the report when I got
back to my apartment last night. I wanted to be alone when I wrote it—I wanted the right to throw things and punch things. I wanted to cry and yell at the top of my lungs. Writing reports at headquarters didn’t give me that freedom. So, when I got home, I did all those things. My colleagues saw me as a loner, a moody bitch that didn’t want to socialize with anyone, and after a while they stopped bothering with me. To them I didn’t have emotions. I just kicked ass and did my job. They understood that I was here to protect Earth, not make friends.
***
I parked my black Jeep Range Rover in the private parking around the back of the headquarters. On the surface, the headquarters building claimed to house a computer repairs store. That was a front—obviously. Below the surface was a huge underground office filled with state of the art office equipment. Everything was white and silver. Anything that wasn’t white and silver was a shiny metal. I checked my reflection in the side door of my SUV. I was still flustered from seeing Lucas up close and personal last night. I straightened my white tank top and adjusted the leather belt that held up my denim jeans. I hated wearing normal clothes, it made me feel vulnerable. I preferred my catsuit—it made me feel safe and prepared for anything.
I entered in through a back door, but not without scanning my handprint—the scanner was concealed behind a secret plank of wood. Once inside, I proceeded down a small hallway that led directly to an extremely narrow flight of stairs. I wondered how Cole managed to fit down here. I was naturally slim, so the slender spaces were easy for me.
Everything leading up to the door that opened into our lobby was concrete—the walls, floor, and ceiling. The dull greyness of the walls absorbed the incandescent light that attempted to illuminate my way. And when I entered the lobby, I found the place just as dreary and cold as the staircase that led me here.
“Hi!” The receptionist called in her annoyingly high pitched voice.
I stepped toward her, using all my strength not to roll my eyes. She was new. The receptionist we had yesterday was old, bordering on ancient. The new receptionist reminded me of Barbie, yet somehow more fake than the famous plastic icon. She had fake, platinum blonde hair, fake tan, and it seemed someone had shoved a cake in her face, or maybe it was her makeup… the difference between the two was hard to tell these days.
”Violet Ashton,” I said.
As I watched her, I tried to come up with a logical reason why she had been hired in the first place. She was irritatingly upbeat. She even managed to make typing my name into her computer an exciting event.
“Ah, Janet, you’re doing a wonderful job looking after all our angels here,” Cole Nark called as he strolled over and leaned on the counter. Well, that explains how she was hired. Cole was a perv, and luckily for me, he had a thing for blondes. Or Barbies. Or Oompa Loompas. To be honest, with him it could be any one of those three. Cole licked his hand and patted down a stray hair that’d popped out of his usual mess of brown hair. I cringed. What is wrong with this guy? Janet giggled and I almost dry retched. Perhaps Cole is the definition of a ‘panty dropper’ to Earth women… I shuddered at the thought.
“Report?” he asked, extending his licked hand to me. Somehow I managed to hide my disgust and gave him the report.
“Is the color of your hair natural?” Janet wondered aloud as Cole flicked eagerly through the folder.
“No. It isn’t.”
“That red is so beautiful, like a bright cherry. You know, you should wear it down. It’d look so much nicer if it framed your face. It’d make your crazy-pretty blue eyes pop, too.”
I didn’t respond. Mostly because no one in their right mind would take ‘beauty’ advice from this woman, and even if I wanted to respond, what would I say to that? Instead I nodded. When I think about it, I hadn’t worn my hair down in a while. Lucas loved it when I did. He always encouraged me to wear it down, even during practice. He said he liked the way my untamed hair curled around my face and shoulders when I fought. ‘Absolutely mesmerising’ were the words he used.
“Let’s go to my office,” Cole suggested. He stepped past me, but stopped and turned to Janet. “Janet, darling, I’ll be back to chat with you later.” He winked, she giggled, and I vomited in my mouth a little.
***
Cole slammed the report down onto his big, dark wood table and dropped into his seat. He put his swollen hands on his head and exhaled in frustration. I stood by the door, my hands held firmly behind my back and I watched as he made annoying clicking noises with his mouth. “Did Death leave Earth?”
“I issued him his warning. Whether he left or not, I don’t know.”
“You didn’t kill him?” The harsh tone in his voice confused me and my brows furrowed.
“No, sir. That wasn’t the mission.”
“Your mission is to protect Earth, is it not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then why isn’t he dead?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Because that wasn’t the mission and you know the repercussions of an unauthorized kill.”
He threw the report in the air and leaped from his chair. The pages went everywhere. I watched as a sheet of paper glided down gently and landed at my feet. I gritted my teeth, stopping the string of profanities from exploding out of my mouth.
“You angels and your fucking righteousness!” Cole yelled, his face turning bright red. Bring on the hand gestures. “Death is out there walking the streets, doing God knows what to humans, and you didn’t kill him when you had the chance?”
“I told you already,” I growled through clenched teeth. “That wasn’t the mission.”
In exasperation, Cole threw his hands up in the air. “Screw the mission! I want him dead and I want his head delivered directly to me!”
I leaped at him, my knees sliding across his table, knocking his nametag, papers, and the picture of his two children onto the floor. I collided with him, knocking him back into his seat. I landed on him, my knees digging deep into his stomach. He gasped for air and I grabbed his tie, pulling his face closer to mine.
“I will not kill anyone unless it’s absolutely necessary—demons, humans, or otherwise, and I certainly don’t give two fucks about what you want. Do you understand?”
Cole whimpered and nodded quickly. I took my knees out of his stomach and stood beside him. I straightened my top as he hunched forward, inhaling air greedily. He may be my boss when I’m on Earth, but he has no right to talk to me like that. I’m superior to him.
“If he doesn’t leave, I’ll kill him. If he does leave, then there’s no harm done. I did my part, what happens next is up to Death,” I added.
I stormed from his office, pushing past the curious people that loitered by the door and down the hallway. Cole shouted after me. “He better leave! It’ll be your head if he doesn’t.”
In amongst the whispers and gasps of my colleagues, I heard Lucas’s name a few times. Much to my dismay, everyone eventually found out about us. They didn’t find out at the beginning of our relationship or during. They found out we were involved at the end, when he was being taken from me and I was screaming after him.
I opened my eyes and rubbed my hand around the bed, searching for Lucas’s warm skin. He was sitting up, watching and waiting for something I couldn’t hear or see.
“Did you have the nightmare again?” I whispered, sitting up and planting soft kisses along his shoulder.
“No. I heard something.”
I paused and listened. I didn’t hear anything. “Relax, I can’t hear anything.”
I waited for a few more seconds before I grasped his shoulders and pulled him back down. I tucked myself into him and rested my head on his shapely chest. Lucas ran his fingers through my long red hair and kissed the top of my head.
My memory of the night I snuck into Lucas’s hotel room had taken me all the way to my car. I climbed in and pressed the back of my head against the head rest. Lucas had a recurring nightmare about three demons that would drag him to the Underworld. No demon
could get into the Never Dark—the only place they could breach was Earth, and whenever Lucas was on Earth, he was on edge. Over time, the nightmares became worse—more vivid. That night Lucas was more on edge than usual. It was my first assignment and he was worried I’d get hurt. My mission was to kill a tracker demon—a small, dog-like demon, which was easy enough. It was at the bottom of the food chain, really. We were staying in a hotel filled with newbie angels that were waiting for tomorrow night to do their assignments—like me.
Then I heard the noise. Both of us vaulted out of bed. Lucas grabbed his gun off the bedside table and pointed it toward the bedroom door. Luckily for us, we were clothed—to an extent. I wore a pink spaghetti strap top and matching underwear. Lucas had on his usual black cotton bed pants that hung loosely off his hips, exposing that delicious V shape. Lucas put his index finger to his lips, gesturing for me to be quiet. I rolled my eyes at him—of course I was going to be quiet. I wasn’t a complete amateur. From underneath the bed, I pulled out a fairly nice blade. It was a gift from Lucas for making it to Earth for my first assignment. At the base of the blade—above the handle, the letter ‘V’ was engraved beautifully into the metal, surrounded by vines and tiny, yet extremely detailed, flowers. ‘A beautiful blade for a beautiful angel’ is what he said when he presented it to me.
Lucas stepped toward the bedroom door and I followed closely behind him. The sound of glass being smashed echoed through the large hotel room. Whatever it was, it was in the kitchen. The lights flicked on before we saw the man sitting on the red love seat.
“Sorry, brother, did we wake you?”
My mind took a moment to process what he'd said. Then I remembered. Lucas once told me that he had three brothers, but they’d died mysteriously. Was this one of them?
“You have five seconds to leave my hotel room, Shade, or I’ll kill you.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out Shade was a demon. A human wouldn’t notice, but I did because I was trained to know the difference. Shade chuckled and his long blond hair bounced along his shoulders. “I no longer go by that name. War is my name now.”
