Angel's Kiss

by Melanie Tomlin

  “Danny, I’m sorry,” I whispered hoarsely.

  I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at him. He was positioned so that the sun was in my eyes and I couldn’t see his face properly. I moved my head so it was in shadow again. I needed to see if there was anger, or worse yet, violence in his face.

  The shock of seeing someone else’s face caused me to gasp, and in that sharp intake of breath I tasted something sickly-sweet in the air.

  He smiled at me. His teeth were dazzling white and perfectly straight — too perfect. He must have spent a lot of money to get them to look like that.

  “Hello,” he said, “what have we here?”

  “I’m lost,” I replied. What other explanation could I give for being out here?

  “So it would appear. Bad for you,” he grinned devilishly, “good for me.”

  I struggled to sit up and tried to shuffle backwards. There must be a sizable rock or piece of wood nearby that I could use as a weapon.

  “Not so fast,” he said, grabbing both my arms.

  He placed his cheek against mine and took in a deep breath through his nose. He moved his cheek down my jaw line to my neck, continuing to breathe in through his nose. I could feel his breath on my neck as he exhaled, and I had the distinct impression of déjà vu.

  “Exquisite,” he said, pulling back to look at me. “But what are you? No mortal ever smelled like this. Could you be an ally of the wolf we hunted? Were you sent to distract us?”

  He squeezed my arms and shook me roughly, then laughed.

  “No matter. You, my pretty, are too late. My companions are taking care of the problem as I speak. So, what to do with you? No, that’s not right, I know what to do with you,” he laughed. I didn’t like the way he said he knew what to do with me. “What I want, before I do it, is to find out what you are and exactly who sent you.”

  The feeling of déjà vu solidified into something more tangible — vampire.

  “I know what you are,” I said, “and I know what you’re going to do to me. Take your best shot,” I sneered in an attempt to sound unafraid, “you’re not the first.”

  “What do you mean, not the first?”

  That little snippet of information clearly intrigued him and I took advantage of his curiosity to buy myself some time.

  “I’ve been bitten before, and lived to tell the tale.” I felt a surge of hope and pushed on with the bravado, forcing a smile to my lips. “Do you think you’ll be so lucky?”

  “Hah! There’s no mark on you.”

  I lifted my left hand and looked to my fingertips. His eyes followed the action and his hand grasped my wrist to enable him to closely scrutinise my fingers. He lifted my hand to his nose and sniffed. A look of astonishment crossed his face. He stuck one finger in his mouth and rolled his tongue around it before pulling it out, a look of disgust on his face.

  “Quite unusual. I can smell and taste vampire, yet you’re alive. Did your pack friends save you? It won’t do you any good now,” he grinned, “there are none left.”

  “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t have any friends,” I snorted.

  He shook me violently. “Not mortal, no friend of the wolf… then what? Did a demon send you? Are you a messenger or a spy?”

  I struggled to release myself from his grip.

  “Look, I’m just a girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s the story of my life really.”

  “Bah! I think we’ll need to take you back with us.”

  He lifted me up off the ground in one fluid movement. I twisted and turned, trying to wriggle my way out of his grip, which tightened with each move I made.

  A bird of prey circled overhead, screeching loudly and drawing attention to itself. Apart from the fighting it was the only other animal sound I’d heard since entering the forest. The vampire cocked his head to one side as though listening to something beyond my range of hearing.

  “It appears we’re going to have to skip the interrogation. Someone is looking for you. My companions say we need to leave,” he smiled at me. “but a kiss before parting. I’m sure you’ll remember what this is like.”

  And then there was pain.

  The vampire’s lips locked onto my neck with leech-like efficiency. His hand released my wrist and fastened onto my upper arm, to stop me from struggling.

  I could feel the blood draining away from my body, my life force — my essence — ebbing. It was all I could do, in that moment of absolute fear and terror, to raise my left hand and grasp his wrist.

  The instant my fingers connected with his wrist he knew something had changed, that the balance of power was shifting. He could not pull away from me, the bloodlust having taken control, yet he could not stop what was happening to him.

  With each passing second I felt stronger, though the fiery agony grew with the additional point of contact. My hunger and thirst were abating, but my exhaustion was growing. I needed to hold out as long as possible — until it was finished.

  The intensity of the pain was such that my vision became clouded, the world taking on a red hue. The muscles in my back, arms and stomach tightened until they were afflicted by rapid spasms. The pain continued to grow as I heard two screams ringing in my ears — one clear and loud, the other muffled, then all was dark and it was only me with my pain.

  After what felt like an eternity I heard an anguished voice, barely a whisper, “What have I done? What have I done?”

  “Danny? My angel?” I called out weakly.

  “I’m here,” he murmured in my ear. “I’m sorry.”

  He lifted me gently and held me to his chest. I felt him shaking and thought I heard faint sobs.

  “Don’t cry,” I whispered.

  He didn’t reply, only held me closer to him, his head bent until it was touching mine. The darkness took me once again.

  6. Angel's Blood

  I woke in a large comfortable bed, to the sun shining through the window. The thin curtains had been drawn back to allow the warmth of the sun to heat the room.

  What had happened? How did I get here and where was here? Here was the cottage, I realised, as I began to recognise my surroundings. I was a bit fuzzy on the other details… I remembered hearing Danny’s voice and being whisked away.

  It surprised me how good I felt, given how much pain I was in when Danny found me. The hunger and thirst had gone, replaced by an unexpected vitality coursing through my body. It was a new and exciting experience for me, like I was truly alive for the first time, my eyes finally opened to the wonders of the world.

  I got up and sorted through the pile of clothes in the armchair for something suitable to wear. It grated that I was still in the clothes I’d last worn in the cottage. Clothes that were dirty and grimy from my time in the forest. Had modesty prevented Danny from undressing me? The bed would need to be stripped and the linen washed, along with my clothes.

  I opened the door slightly to see if Danny was sitting beside the fire. He wasn’t there. I ventured out into the living area — clutching the clean clothes — and checked the kitchen before heading to the bathroom.

  The bath was full of steaming hot water. Was Danny going to take a bath? I backed out and knocked on the other bedroom door — no answer. I went back into the bathroom and it was then I noticed a note taped to the vanity mirror — Back soon, enjoy the bath. He must have heard me rousing and prepared the bath in advance.

  I was washed, dried and dressed in the shortest time possible. I went back into the bedroom and stripped the bed in order to put on a load of washing. The last thing I wanted to leave him with was more work because of me. I couldn’t figure out where Danny did the washing, as there was no laundry. I couldn’t even launder my own clothes!

  I settled for leaving a pile of dirty washing in one corner of the bedroom. Once Danny returned I’d quiz him about how he did the washing and take it from there. In the meantime I decided to browse the bookcase in the living area for something interesting
to read — no electricity meant no radio and no television. No washing machine, come to think of it, although I was sure Danny could do almost anything, if the need arose.

  The bookcase was lined with bibles, bibles and more bibles, all from different religions and faiths. Some were incredibly old — two from the fourteenth century — and others published in the new millennium. The bottom shelf was reserved for an odd assortment of books that weren’t bibles. Most were still related to areas touched on in the bible — demons, monsters and angels.

  There was nothing remotely of interest to me at all. Even the few fiction books — Dracula, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — seemed boring. More to the point, knowing that monsters were real took their unique appeal away.

  I settled in the armchair opposite the fire empty-handed — drumming my fingers on the arm of the chair — to wait for Danny’s return. I stopped to examine the tips of my fingers. The reddish colouring, that only yesterday was beginning to fade, was once again a deep dark colour. There was some significance to that, I was sure. I couldn’t smell the trapped blood, nor could I taste it. Was it really blood?

  A popping sound brought me out of my reverie. I turned to look in the direction of the noise to see Danny standing in the kitchen.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “It seems I owe you thanks again.”

  “No,” Danny replied, “you don’t need to thank me. If I hadn’t put you in that situation in the first place you wouldn’t have needed rescuing.”

  “And if I hadn’t offended you in the first place none of this would have happened. I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”

  Danny sat in the chair opposite me. “What exactly do you remember from yesterday?”

  I thought back to yesterday. “A hell of a lot of walking, trying to avoid a fight some animals were having, drinking polluted water and pain, lots of pain.”

  “Do you remember what caused the pain?”

  “Yes, the water. I was heaving my guts up.”

  “You don’t remember your encounter or the eagle circling overhead?”

  “Hang on,” something was stirring in the back of my mind, “I do vaguely remember hearing a screech. It was just before you came.”

  Danny nodded, “And before that?”

  “Actually, I thought you were there before the screeching. I remember your shadow blocking out the sun.”

  “That wasn’t me. Have you looked at your hand yet?” I nodded. “And why do you think the colour has darkened again?”

  “I don’t know…” I tried to remember what had happened and the memory of a sickly-sweet smell assailed my nostrils. “Ewww! I can’t get that smell out of my head. It was awful, he was awful.”

  I sighed. The smell triggered the rest of the memory, of which I would have been quite happy to be blissfully ignorant. Is there a big supernatural neon sign above my head that says free feed here? Why was I suddenly so attractive to all the wrong men? No, that wasn’t true. I’d always been attractive to, and attracted by, the wrong sort of men — these were monsters though. Men I could deal with. Monsters were an unknown.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” Danny was sitting on the edge of his seat now.

  I decided to give him the abridged version. No need to bore him with all the unimportant details.

  “I was throwing up,” I started counting off the sequence of events on my fingers, “he waited until I was finished then proceeded to smell me, asked me what I was, wanted to know why I smelled of vampire, asked if I was meant to distract them from the wolf, was going to —”

  Danny interrupted me. “What was that, about a wolf?”

  “Something about being an ally of the wolf that his companions were dealing with. About being sent to distract them. Did I have pack friends and all here — I think when he said all here he talking about pack friends — were gone. I don’t know if he meant they were dead or had run away. Anyway, that was the gist of it.”

  “Vampires and a werewolf in the very part of the forest I decided to leave you in, a part that was clear only hours before? What are the odds of that happening?” Danny rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “Perchance He has a plan for you.”

  “Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “Like God would pick me out of the billions of people on the planet to serve His purpose, whatever that may be.”

  “Stranger things have happened.”

  “I’m not a believer,” I replied. “Surely He would have picked someone who believed.”

  “Maybe that’s exactly why He chose you.”

  I sighed and massaged my temples with my fingers. “Let’s not get into an argument about this. I don’t want to end up at the bottom of the ocean because I’ve accidentally offended you.”

  Danny chuckled.

  “I do have a question for you, though,” I said.

  “Oh?” he asked, raising his eyebrows, curious now.

  “Where do you do your washing?” I threw my hands up in the air, exasperated. “I couldn’t find a washer anywhere.”

  Danny smiled. “You needn’t worry about that.”

  “Well, yeah. If I’m going to be staying around here, however long or short it may be, I want to pull my own weight.”

  I headed towards the bedroom, Danny in tow, to show him the huge pile of washing that needed to be done. He was chuckling as I opened the door.

  “What the hell happened here?” I asked in astonishment. Not only was all the washing done, it was dry and neatly folded and the bed remade.

  “I do wish you wouldn’t use that word,” Danny sighed.

  “What, hell?”

  “Yes, that word.”

  I shrugged. There was no way I was going to change my vocabulary just because some angel was overly sensitive.

  I walked to the bed and pressed a pillow into my face. The pillowcase smelled fresh and clean, and there was a crispness to it. I fluffed it up and put it back on the bed.

  I turned around and pointed my finger at Danny accusingly. “Don’t tell me you have house fairies that do all the work!”

  “Hardly,” he laughed. “Being an angel has some advantages. A click of the fingers, a twitch of the nose, a few wisely chosen words, a mere thought… anything will work.”

  “Humph!” I folded my arms across my chest. “Is there anything that you’re going to let me do?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I’m going to let you come back with me to the forest. We need to see if we can find that wolf you mentioned.”

  “Aren’t you meant to be on patrol?” I asked.

  “I’ve let my superior know that I’m going to investigate some unusual activity in the area. Over the last millennium, some of us have been given a reasonable amount of freedom to pursue monsters as well as demons. As long as it’s evil, and not mortal, they’re not too fussed.”

  “Does that mean I could be on another angel’s hit list?” I shivered at the thought.

  “Do you think you’re evil?” Danny asked, looking at me with a strange fascination.

  “I don’t feel evil, but if I’m a monster, aren’t I automatically classified as evil?”

  “Yes, that’s true, although I think it’s wrong. You are living proof that it’s wrong. I can’t sense any evil in you at all. I do have a theory, though. You haven’t fed on a mortal yet, which is why I believe you’re not truly evil.”

  “Yet?” I asked incredulously.

  “Apart from the mortal behind the counter at that burger place, you haven’t had any contact with mortals. There’s always the possibility you might decide to try it — feeding on a mortal.”

  I was shocked. What would have happened to that poor kid if I’d decided to make him my first meal? Was I really capable of that?

  Danny read the expression on my face. “I would have killed you before I let that happen.”

  It was nice to know that if I really was a monster Danny would dispatch me quicker than I could say dinner’s on. Although I doubted that if I chang
ed and became evil I’d simply let him kill me. Surely I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Danny held out his hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

  I slid my hand into his and tightened my grip. His hand was still warm and strong — not rough like a labourer’s, or cold like a vampire’s. I liked the feel of my hand in his.

  We walked side-by-side. This time I kept my eyes open to take in the entire experience. The world around me began to fade out and a kaleidoscope of dazzlingly bright colours — all the colours of the rainbow and more — faded in, surrounding us. It was like walking into a tunnel of shifting, living colour.

  The wow factor really hit me and I drew in a sharp breath. Danny squeezed the hand he was holding reassuringly, though I wasn’t disoriented or frightened. The colours, bright as they were, had a calming and peaceful affect on me. I was entranced, almost to the point of being hypnotised. We were in the tunnel for roughly ten seconds, at a guess, when the colours began to fade out. The clearing in the forest, where Danny had found me, started to fade in. I was sorry to see the colours go.

  “That was amazing,” I said excitedly, “but it took a long time for four steps.”

  “Time slows down when we’re travelling. In reality, less than a second has passed. In the beginning, some angels had difficulty travelling when their surroundings changed without some sort of transition, hence the beatific splendour or the lights as they’re commonly known.”

  I shuddered as I remembered what had happened here, in this clearing — another brush with death.

  “What happened to the body?” I asked. “Scavengers?”

  “No. Scavengers feed on fresh meat or carrion. Vampires don’t fall into either category. Even scavengers, crazy with hunger, have enough sense not to touch them.”

  “So where’s the body?”

  “His companions probably took him with them.” Danny knelt down and brushed his hand over the grass. “Yes, someone definitely took him. They’ve tried to cover their tracks. However, their scent has left a trail that we can easily follow.”

  Danny stood up and pointed in an easterly direction. “We head that way.”