Ablaze

by Dahlia Rose

  “Better than the sewers, I hope,” Penn said with humor in his voice.

  “Fucking A!” Sam ran over to the big-screen TV. “Do you have game systems on this thing?”

  “Yeah, all of them,” Penn replied. Hailey gave him a look, and he shrugged. “What I like games, sue me.”

  She smiled. “I think it’s good that you and Sam have found something in common.”

  Knowing that he liked that idea made Penn more than a bit uncomfortable. “You guys look around. I need to go see a guy for some information. We need to know who’s coming after us and how hard to try to get ahead of the curve.”

  She put her hand on his chest. “Please be careful, and come back to us.”

  The affection in her eyes floored him even more than the thought of having something in common with Sam. Yet it filled him with an emotion he couldn’t understand. Joy? A while back the thought of her feeling nothing for him made him want to rip the world apart. Now he wanted to find the highest peak and shout his joy.

  “I’ll be careful, my angel,” he whispered and kissed her. “My dove.”

  With that he dematerialized and went to a place where few ventured. The barren lands where an actual opening to hell filled the air with the smell of methane and sulfur, and it was completely unlivable. Once known as the island of Montserrat, the island was evacuated when the volcanoes erupted and covered the entire area with ash. It wasn’t just a massive eruption but a part of hell breaking through the earth’s crust. The primal-dwelling demons loved the area, being able to crawl over the rocks and enter the derelict houses that once held families. Those were the kinds of demons he needed to speak to, the ones who loved to barter for information. They barely spoke, and it was a guttural language of the old worlds. But there was one in particular that was fluent in English and chose to live in somewhat mediocre luxury for one of his kind. He liked to think of himself as the king of the primals, and that’s who he was looking for, a sniveling little demon called Rico.

  He looked up into the sky that was a perfect midnight blue. Stars were scattered throughout the dark expanse like the hand of Hailey’s maker had scattered diamonds carelessly about. Looking out at the landscape was a different story. If the trees weren’t dead, they were dying, and everything was covered in gray ash from the volcano. It was so heavy in some places that rooftops had collapsed and trees were almost bent to the ground. It was silent, so silent that it was eerie even to him, and the desolation of the condemned island was almost beautiful.

  Finding Rico again was easy enough. Penn quickly followed the lighted torches to the big stone house once used as the prime minister’s home. No electricity meant nothing to Rico. Torches lit the area and gave it a Gothic medieval ambiance. Leave it to this primal to think he’s got it good, Penn thought amused. Still he was impressed that as he walked up to the door other primals stepped out of the darkness with low hisses and sulfur venom dripping from their deformed mouthes. Obviously Rico had managed to train them as bodyguards or even pets to watch over him.

  Penn put a consolatory smile on his face. “Come on, boys, don’t make me hurt you; you know I’ll like it too much.”

  One spoke, and in their language they basically told him to fuck off. The others laughed like hyenas, loud and cackling, and the irritating sound filled the silence.

  “Fine then, let’s get this over with quickly,” Penn murmured and attacked.

  It made no sense waiting for them to make the first move. You didn’t give the primals time to play. One false move and they sank those poison teeth in your flesh. The pain was excruciating. Their venom could cause a demon to be ill for days while it worked through his system. To humans it was deadly. He cut them down quickly, taking the heads clean from their bodies, making sure to sever the spinal cord. Another little trick they had was to regenerate limbs and heal from some deathblow wounds. He kicked the heads away with disgust and wiped the black blood from his blade on a strip of velvet that hung on the front door.

  “Rico, don’t make me play hide and seek to find you. It will make me even more unhappy than I am now,” Penn roared as he went through the door.

  He looked around noting that the last resident took everything he could that was worth a damn. Just a few pieces of broken dusty furniture and whatever Rico had salvaged from other houses made up the furnishings.

  “Penn, my good friend, welcome to my home,” a voice called, and he looked up the staircase to see Rico. He was wearing human clothes over his gray-green, sickly looking skin. The slacks were a few sizes too big for the skinny frame of the demon that descended the stairs. Everything was too big, down to the shoes on his feet, which made him walk like a waddling penguin. The sight was too much even for Penn who chuckled. Primals couldn’t live above ground because of their skin and their inability to change. Being on the island so close to the stars in the sky instead of being in the bowels of the earth seemed to have driven Rico insane. If he wanted to play dress up and pretend to be human, then so be it. Penn said nothing as Rico embraced him, and the smell of sulfur filled his nostrils.

  Rico stepped back and beamed a smile to Penn. “How are you, my dear, dear friend? I hope your new exile is treating you well.”

  “You heard about that, huh?” he said casually to Rico.

  “Trust me the great Pennemuel leaving everything behind and trailing after an angel, that kind of information gets to us on the fringes.” Rico laughed.

  “I wonder if you’ll try to sell me out for the bounty on my head,” Penn said musingly. “I’d have to consider killing you where you stand.”

  He watched Rico swallow nervously. “You won’t have to even draw your sword. You’ve always treated me squarely. You don’t talk down to us like some of the other demons do. As far as I’m concerned we have no beef, and you were never here.”

  “In that case I should apologize for killing your three buddies outside,” Penn said.

  Rico laughed. “I needed new staff anyway; they were getting lazy. Come let’s go sit in my office, and you can tell me what you need.”

  His office? Penn rolled his eyes and followed Rico to the now vacated room where the prime minster had made many a decision. Now he sat at the head of a long table that wobbled, in a high-backed chair. He extended his hand, indicating that Penn should sit. He didn’t want to get ash all over his black suit but still he nodded and sat like he was greeting royalty. He was willing to play the game for now as log as it got him what he needed. If not, Rico would be as dead as his so-called staff outside.

  “I need to find someone who can mark someone and make him undetectable to angels and demons,” Penn explained.

  Rico whistled. “That’s a big piece of information you need there; what kind of payment will you give me?”

  “My dwellings in the underworld and all the wealth you find inside,” Penn replied.

  Rico’s eyes boggled. “You’ve been around for longer than some down below; that’s a lot of wealth. Aren’t you going back? I thought maybe you would come to your senses and then head back down.”

  “It’s not your concern what I will and will not do,” Penn snapped, and he glared at Rico. “What you need to know is that this is my offer. Imagine you living in my dwelling, the food, the money, the wines, and the servants to do your every bidding. Plus you’d be shoving it into the faces of those who thought of you and your kind as lower beings.”

  “But if I take all of it, what do you have?” Rico licked his lips as if he could taste his new life, and Penn knew he had him hooked.

  “I’ll be fine, and I never put all of my eggs in one basket. Do we have a deal or not?”

  “Oh we have a deal in every sense of the word.” Rico grinned so wide that Penn could see the sharpened back molars in his mouth.

  “Then tell me what you know,” Penn demanded.

  “You need the shaman of the ageless, a windtalker. The voices of the past, the preset, and the future speak to him. It’s said that he has been alive since the days of t
heir lord’s son being on earth, and he is a human,” Rico explained. “He knows the old languages of both heaven and hell, and he would be the one who could hide you from the sights of those you do not want to see.”

  “It’s not for me,” Penn said simply. “Where do I find this ageless windtalker?”

  “If it is not for you then who…?” Rico shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t need to know. He’s in New Mexico, in the canyons is all I know. There is a tree there that flourishes with no water source. You find that and he’s close by. Call to him and he will come.”

  Penn stood. “My thanks, Rico.”

  “Hey, what about my payment?” Rico demanded. “Don’t make me call an army to rip you apart! No one messes with me and rescinds an offer.”

  “Cool your jets; I don’t plan to rescind,” Penn said calmly. In a flash he was next to Rico’s chair and lifted him up by the loose collar of his shirt. He twisted it until Rico was choking. “Don’t make threats you know I can call you on. I may be sitting talking with you, but do not forget who I am.” Rico nodded and gurgled before Penn dropped him into his chair. He pulled a rolled up parchment out of his jacket pocket and opened it across the table. Then with a smaller knife he cut his hand letting the blood drip on the parchment. “I, Pennemuel, give all my underworld possessions to the demon called Rico, signed with my blood.” The paper sucked up his essence, and Penn rolled the parchment back up and threw it at Rico. “There. No one can dispute it now.”

  Rico clutched the paper to his chest and practically hugged it in joy. Penn walked to the door and threw a look back. “One last warning, Rico. You cross me and I’ll cut every piece of your sickly flesh from your bones while you’re alive. Am I understood?” Fear made the primal nod, and Penn gave a small smile. “See you around.”

  “One more thing, Penn. You and the boy have a price on your head,” Rico said. “They are offering millions upon millions to kill you and bring in the boy.”

  “Good to know how much I’m worth,” Penn said.

  He left the wasteland that was once Montserrat and went back to where Hailey and Sam waited for him. He’d been in existence for the longest of times and could never remember feeling at peace when he used his sanctuary until now. Knowing she was there made all the difference.

  * * * *

  “We need to go to New Mexico,” Penn announced.

  It was two days after the attack at the apartment over the Chinese restaurant. It proved that nowhere was safe until they found a permanent solution to their problem, and that was in Mew Mexico. There was a massive bounty on his and Sam’s head. The ageless shaman was the key.

  “What’s in New Mexico?” Hailey asked as she put eggs on the plate in front of both of them.

  Penn looked down and felt his stomach roll. How hard was it to make scrambled eggs? What she put in front of them barely resembled eggs and was some off-blue color. He looked at Sam who sat across from him, and the boy’s face looked sick.

  “Um, what’s in here, Hailey?” Penn asked nonchalantly.

  “Some spices in the cupboard and some blue liquid that said food coloring. I thought it would make the eggs colorful.” She smiled at them and went to the sink.

  “Save us!” Sam mouthed the words.

  Penn didn’t pull out the chair as he stood, which allowed his long legs to tilt the table. Sam helped the plates off the flat surface with a quick swipe of his hand. She looked around when the plates fell against the floor.

  Penn tried to look remorseful. “Oh shit, I’m sorry, and after all your hard work.”

  She bent to help clean up the floor, and so did Sam. “It’s okay. I can make more.”

  “You don’t have to, Hailey. I can have cereal,” Sam said quickly. “Plus Penn has to tell us about New Mexico.”

  “Okay, let’s get this cleaned up and talk,” Hailey agreed.

  “While you’re doing that, let’s have coffee. I’ll get it started,” Penn said.

  He stood while they cleaned off the floor. It was better he made the coffee because Hailey could make it taste like sludge. They sat back down, and Penn explained why they needed to go New Mexico.

  “So there’s someone that old in the world?” Sam said. “That’s a few thousand years.”

  “How old do you think I am, kid, or she is?” Penn asked with humor in his voice. “I’m almost fifteen hundred years old in human years.”

  “As a guardian angel I’m still young, but in human years I’m around eight hundred.” Hailey smiled. “Both our kind never age.”

  “Lucky you,” Sam murmured.

  Hailey covered his hand with hers. “You are a nephilim; your father is one of the highest archangels. You might age but very slowly. Your body will probably stop changing when you are around twenty-five or thirty.”

  Sam grinned, and his blue eyes twinkled. “I can live with that. So are we going do the disappearing trick to New Mexico and find this guy?” he asked.

  “No such luck. If we know, then both sides do, and they will be waiting. We need to go the human route. We’re going to fly there and make our way to him as much under the radar as possible.”

  “We’ll need identification,” Hailey said. “After the war and the towers fell in New York, it’s a requirement. I watched the news and comforted many after that disaster.”

  “I’ll cover that,” Penn replied. “I know people.”

  “I’ve never flown like that in a big metal bird. It should be exciting.” Hailey laughed. “I’m sure you must’ve done it before, Penn.”

  Penn couldn’t help but smile at her excitement. He knew no matter how many years went by, whether it was one or one thousand, she would never cease to charm him with her innocence and beauty. He loved her, and he wished her could form the words to tell her how much.

  He resisted taking her hand and pulling her into his arms for a searing kiss. That would probably make the boy uncomfortable. So he answered her question. “Yes, just for the heck of it. I was in first class, but alas for us to be under the radar we have to fly coach.”

  “That bites,” Sam grumbled and then shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I need to ask a question. When I’m safe and all, and this is over, will I…will I be alone again?”

  And here is the innocence beneath that cocky swagger, Penn thought.

  Sam looked insecure and fearful as he asked the question. This was a boy who always got the short end of the stick in his life. He looked at Hailey waiting for her to answer Sam.

  “Remember what I told you when I found you in that alley. I said I would never leave you alone again,” Hailey said gently. “Even when this is over, I’ll be with you. You will go back to school, and we’ll find somewhere to live.”

  “You’ll live here, and the boy can attend one of the schools around here,” Penn said. What the fuck are you doing? But he couldn’t stop the words from coming out of his mouth, knowing that wherever Hailey was he would follow. “I mean it’s already protected from here to hell and back, it’s furnished, and the kid likes the games thing. Why not stay here?”

  “A demon, an angel, and a human boy living together like a family.” Sam hooted with laughter. “If that isn’t the beginning to a bad joke, I don’t know what is.”

  Hailey cupped his cheek. “You would take us in, even though it makes you uncomfortable to do. It just proves there is more to you, Penn, more than anyone even recognized.”

  “It’s just a house.” Penn tried to look away from the melted chocolate brown of her eyes.

  A slow smile spread across her lips. “You know it’s more than that.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Penn grumbled. “Sam, you teach Hailey how to play some of those games; it will take me most of the day to get what we need. I’ll be back tonight.”

  He was gone before they could even say a word. He felt as if he needed to get away from all the wonderful feelings she was eliciting in him. Nothing like that ever happened to someone, something like him. It wouldn’t last. That terrifying thou
ght filled his core. Hailey would be taken away from him. They would find a way to kill her to break him. Or even worse, hurt the boy, and he would see the light die inside her. For all the evil he’d done in his life, it seemed apt that he lose the one bright spot in an existence of darkness. Penn longed to forget the betrayal and the death caused at his hands when he was human. It was so long ago, faces and people were like a dream in his mind. Loss drove him to inanity and then to revenge and then finally to the deal that took his life. He shook his head, trying to erase the memories and knowing that he would always be haunted. There was no salvation for him. He had no doubt that Hailey and Sam would be living in that house alone. He would be dead. He would enjoy her for the time he had, bathe in her love as if it was something palpable he could touch or feel. Then when they took his life, he would have a memory of being with an angel, the one that freed his heart and set him ablaze.

  Chapter Five

  It was very late by the time Penn came back. Hailey found the room that she automatically knew was his and lay in bed to wait for him She liked resting in his arms, though she never really slept. The dark, silky sheets felt cool and wonderful against her naked skin. She wanted to be loved by him again and found his touch intoxicating. This part of her new life was good; he filled her heart as well as her body. Hailey accepted her love for him. It was part of her nature to embrace those feelings. But she watched him struggle with what he felt everyday; she knew it was his battle to be fought, and she couldn’t help him in any way. She hoped that his acceptance came soon; time was of the essence. It came down to what he could become if he made the right choice.

  Penn materialized in the room and looked at her with stark desire on his face. “I knew you were in my bed like this, naked and waiting for me.”