Angelfire (Dark Angel)

by Hanna Peach

  Alyx sighs. “Fine.”

  “Glad you’re finally accepting whose boss around here.”

  He winks at her as he lifts the helmet over her head. He stands close as he does it. Alyx notices how his shirt falls across his chest, notices the smooth golden triangle of skin peeking out from the V of his collar. She drops her eyes to the floor. Is he done already?

  Something clicks under her chin.

  “There,” he says. Alyx looks up. Israel is grinning at her, shaking his head. “Way, way too big for you. Just. Ridiculous.”

  Alyx rolls her eyes. She cries out in surprise as he places his hands around her waist and picks her off the ground. As if she weighs nothing. Before she can protest he has seated her gently on the back of the motorbike. He hops on in front of her.

  The machine rumbles to life and the seat under Alyx starts to hum.

  “You’re going to have to hang on to me,” he says.

  Alyx looks at his back stretching out under a dark t-shirt in front of her. Where is safe to touch? She pinches at the sides of his shirt.

  “No, I mean really hang onto me.” Israel grabs one of her hands and pulls it around his waist causing Alyx to fall against him.

  Her breath catches. His width surprises her. Or perhaps it’s because she has never allowed herself to feel how petite she actually is. With him seated in front of her, her arms and legs around him on the bike, she feels small. Delicate. This is a strange feeling.

  Israel maneuvers the bike out of the alley and onto busier streets. The wind flicks up around her face. She sees the blur of the gravel rush under them, feels the rush of gliding across ground. Israel is right. Riding on the motorbike is close to flying.

  As they speed through the streets of Saint Joseph Alyx allows her head to rest against Israel’s back. She has no idea where they are going. No idea.

  She usually doesn’t like giving up her control like this. But with Israel it feels somehow... free. She closes her eyes, a smile melting across her face. These are strange feelings indeed.

  They stop on the edge of the el Souq markets, the city’s permanent market place and a melting pot of the many mortal cultures that find themselves inexplicably drawn to Saint Joseph.

  After securing the bike, Israel leads her into the chaos. The air is cluttered with the smell of sausages stuffed with salt and spices and churros rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Foreign accents pepper the air. Stores display dusty rows of antiques guns and medals hanging from faded ribbons, thick Persian carpets stacked like newspapers, Egyptian shisha pipes, metalwork incense burners shaped like elephants and dragons.

  “Will you stop here for a while, pretty lady?” A shopkeeper advances towards Alyx, colored scarves draped over his arm.

  Before she can reply Israel pulls her away. “No thanks,” he calls over his shoulder.

  They stop at a stall selling kebabs, thick hunks of meat skewered on sticks and grilled. It smells delicious. Alyx’s stomach clenches.

  Israel pulls some coins from his pocket and worries at his lip with his teeth. “We’ll have to share.”

  He hands over all his coins and the male shop assistant hands him a small paper bag.

  If Alyx were the kind of girl who noticed these things, she would have noticed that the shop assistant doesn’t take his eyes off of her for one second, even as he is making his exchange with Israel.

  Israel frowns as they walk away. This Alyx notices.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  Israel turns his head back to the stall. Alyx looks back to see what he is looking at. She catches the shop assistant grinning at her.

  Alyx turns back to Israel. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”

  “You have no idea about the reactions you cause in the men around you, do you?”

  “What?” Alyx blinks at Israel. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing. Forget it.”

  The stalls change as they move through to a different part of the markets, sharing the kebab between them. Now they are surrounded by large towers of fruits, crates of vegetables, beans and seeds and grains in large hessian sacks deep enough to dive in. Alyx brushes her fingers over some dried corn. They rustle as they roll against each other.

  She turns to say something to Israel. He is leaning over a pile of apples at a neighboring stand, his eyes darting about him. Israel’s movement is so quick Alyx is almost convinced that she imagined it.

  She frowns. Did he just…? Israel catches her staring and he winks. Her frown deepens.

  They pass a pile of oranges. Another quick movement.

  Alyx grabs Israel by the lapels of his jacket and pulls him into a small gap between two semi-permanent stalls. His surprise turns to a smile when she pushes him against the thin stall wall and puts a hand inside his jacket.

  “Alyx, I―.”

  But Alyx is already hissing up at him, “You’re stealing.” She starts to pull out her hand now grasping the pilfered apple.

  Israel’s face hardens. He grabs her wrist and pulls her hand back into his jacket, spinning them both so that he is now pressing her against the wall. “Calm down or you’ll get us caught.”

  His body is solid and warm and it crowds her. Crowds her senses. Alyx shakes her head to snap herself out of it. “You shouldn’t be stealing.”

  “How else are you expecting to eat?” Israel says. “You have any money?”

  “No.”

  “Well, neither do I at the moment. I’m just taking what we need.”

  “That doesn’t make it right.”

  “It’s so easy to be self-righteous isn’t it?”

  “This isn’t about being self-righteous, this is about right and wrong.”

  “So it’s okay to kill but wrong to steal?”

  “The Darkened are evil.”

  “So that makes it right?”

  “Well... yes.”

  “And what about the human part of the Darkened, are they evil? Is it right to kill them?”

  “I―.”

  “Who says what is right and wrong? Who gets to choose?”

  Alyx finds herself growing flustered. “That’s completely beside the point.”

  “No. It’s exactly the point.” He isn’t letting up. “Who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong?”

  His words force her to stop. Where there was sure-ness before, now a question takes over. Who gets to choose what is right and what is wrong?

  Alyx and Israel stare at each other for the longest time. Neither of them moving.

  Finally she lets go of the apple and it falls back into his inner-pocket. She nods. Israel eases her empty hand out of his jacket. His fingers move from around her wrist and push their way between her fingers. He gives her hand a squeeze. Are we okay now?

  After a pause, she squeezes back.

  Israel keeps his fingers entwined with hers and pulls her back into the throng of stalls. Alyx follows wordlessly, her hand on fire where he is touching her.

  Chapter 38

  Alyx and Israel sit on a small blanket on the small flat space out on the roof of the theatre, the contents of his pockets between them. The roof overlooks the crumbing industrial area, named West End because of its position on a long jutting bend of the Saint Joseph River, like a finger pointing towards the setting sun.

  Alyx is speaking, “The Elders are the ones who existed Before. On the day it all changed, Between, the Elders were all summoned to earth. But they realized too late that it had been a trick. All of the celestial gates were locked behind them and they found themselves trapped on earth. Lucifer had conjured up some kind of black magic, a magic that the Elders had never seen before. His magic didn’t work as he planned though. He succeeded in locking the gates between this world and the Hell realm as well, so the demons were locked out. That was over two thousand years ago.”

  “So, you have been alive for over two thousand years?”

  Alyx shakes her head. “I was earthborn eighteen winters ago.�
��

  “How is that even possible?”

  “Well, we exist in physical bodies here. They work just like your bodies do so we’re able to...” At that moment Alyx and Israel reach for the same apple, their fingers brushing. Their eyes meet. “Sorry,” they both mumble.

  “You take it,” Israel says.

  “Only if you’re...”

  “No, you go.”

  “Sure. Thanks.” Alyx feels like her whole body is blushing, bold and loud like the apple she is holding.

  “So, why hasn’t God just opened the gates?” Israel asks. “Surely He has the power to?”

  It is a good question. And one that Alyx had herself asked Elder Bezebel years ago during a lecture on the Seraphim History of Before. The lecture hall had erupted with noise and Elder Bezebel, an AirWhisperer, had to use her magic to whirl everything into silence and bring the class back to order. “It is not our duty to question,” Elder Bezebel had said. “Remember ‘time’ is only a concept of physical worlds including this one. A thousand years may pass on this planet and it will mean nothing to Him on the Otherside. Besides, He has an infinite number of worlds to preside over.” Elder Bezebel had not allowed any more discussion on the matter.

  “I don’t know,” Alyx says to Israel. “The Elders can’t say.”

  “So, either He can and He doesn’t want to or He wants to but He can’t.”

  “Or He is just another lie.”

  Israel sits back and takes a deep breath. “I don’t know which scenario I think is worse.”

  Thinking of the Elders, Alyx is reminded of the danger that they are both in. “We have to leave Saint Joseph.”

  Israel shakes his head. “I’m not leaving yet.”

  “The Elders have put a price on my head. And this puts you in danger too. Saint Joseph is the closest mortal city to Michaelea. Even on a quiet night this place is crawling with warriors. If we stay here, it’s only a matter of time until they find us.”

  “I can’t leave yet.”

  “What is so damn important that you have to stay here?”

  “There’s a Darkened I’m looking for.”

  Suddenly, it makes sense. Of course. ‘Adere’ is a message for the Darkened he is looking for.

  “What does Adere mean?”

  Israel looks away.

  “Hey,” Alyx grasps his hands forcing him to look at her, “I can help you but you have to trust me.”

  He inhales. Nods. “Adere isn’t a message. Adere is the one I’m looking for.”

  “Adere is a Darkened?”

  “She was... a friend. At one point she was my only friend. Then we had this fight, this stupid fight and some demon took her body.” His features fracture. “It was my fault. I let it happen. I didn’t realize they were so close to getting her to turn. They were trying to get to me through her and now she’s a prisoner in her own body because of me. I have to make it right.”

  “And she’s still in Saint Joseph?”

  “She was born and raised here. She has never left the city in her whole life. She doesn’t know anywhere else.”

  “She may not have left, but that doesn’t mean the demon that now possesses her won’t.”

  Israel shakes his head. “I know her. She’d still be here.”

  Adere isn’t Adere anymore. Alyx keeps this thought to herself.

  “And when you find her?”

  “If I can’t change her back as you said then...” he pauses to swallow, “then I have to... set her free. It would be what she would want.”

  “I understand that you want to find her, but it’s not safe here in Saint Joseph at the moment. I can help you find her when it’s safer.”

  His laughs, brisk and without humor. “It’ll never be safer for me anywhere. I’m staying here until I find her. Then I’ll go wherever you want me to. It’s up to you whether you want to help me or run away.”

  “I’m not running away.”

  “Whatever.”

  Something about his reckless attitude frightens her. How can he be so flippant about his own life? Especially being mortal. So fragile, so hard to heal, so easy to kill. Even if he survives the Darkened he will still one day die.

  Is it easier to risk death when it is inevitable anyway?

  Israel is prepared to risk everything to save the soul of someone he cares about. She will have to risk everything for him.

  If he dies, I die.

  Chapter 39

  Stubborn thing. Alyx rubs her forehead with her fingertips. “I don’t think you quite understand what we’re up against.”

  “I killed a Darkened myself didn’t I?”

  “You got lucky. She was a newly turned Darkened. As they get used to moving in their new mortal body they become faster, stronger and better fighters.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “May I remind you that you were about to turned into angeldust before I saved your life?”

  “You caught me during a temporary slip of concentration. I would have killed that Darkened eventually if you hadn’t come along.”

  Alyx rolls her eyes. Then she has a sly thought. “Care to put your steel where your mouth is?”

  It is to be a friendly fight. A tap with the blunt of the blade is a hit. First to three wins. If Alyx wins then Israel will let her train him for as long as she sees fit before they attempt to find Adere. If Israel wins they will go after Adere tonight.

  It takes Alyx exactly 23 seconds to win.

  “Totally rigged,” Israel says flopping down onto the wooden stage that they just fought across.

  “Don’t be a sore loser.” Alyx lowers herself down next to him, legs hanging over the edge of the stage, barely a bead of sweat on her.

  “So, what now boss?”

  “We need supplies. Food, more weapons, a map of the city and local newspapers for the last two weeks. The Darkened need to feed on life. They leave tracks,” Alyx explains, “most noticeably in the form of dead bodies. Your coroners usually call them heart attacks. We need to get you on a training schedule: fighting with and without weapons, demon basics, general fitness, that kind of thing. And we need to see if we can replicate our communication bond again on purpose. It will come in handy if we are ever separated.”

  “You weren’t kidding when you said you had a plan.”

  “What were you going to do?” laughs Alyx. “Wander the streets at night killing demons and carving Adere’s name on their stomachs until you found the right one or the right one found you?” She stops laughing when she sees the sheepish look on Israel’s face. “Oh God. You were weren’t you?”

  He grins. “I would’ve gotten lucky eventually.”

  Alyx rolls her eyes.

  Ten minutes later Alyx had taken an old clothing dummy in the dressing room, stripped it of its monstrous sequined and feathered costume, faded with age and falling apart, and had set it up on the creaking stage of the main theatre hall.

  “Welcome to Demonology 101,” Alyx says with a flourish.

  Israel is sitting in the front row of the audience seats. “I hated school.”

  Alyx ignores this remark. “The Darkened are pack creatures. Although you’ll get the occasional Darkened that hunts alone, they will tend to group together because it is easier to hunt that way. Assuming Adere is still in Saint Joseph she will most likely be running with a den. Dens tend to be located in the more derelict parts of town as they are louder and rowdier meaning it is easier for them to blend in. The Darkened will usually feed on the homeless, streetwalkers or drunks, because they are easily missed. Dens tend to be places like brothels, old warehouses, churches―.”

  “Churches? Shouldn’t Demons be repelled by the Houses of God?”

  “A church is no different to a school or a house or a theatre. Only mortals prescribe any meaning to it.” Alyx turns to the dummy. “The Darkened have enhanced healing powers thanks to their demon inhabitants so you can’t muck around with them.” She points to it with her kris as she speaks, “The s
urest way to kill them is either to pierce their heart or cut off their heads.”

  “Heart, head, got it. When do we leave?”

  “It’s not that easy. First actually getting to their heart is difficult. The heart is only the size of a closed fist. And in the way is a bony cage designed to keep you from getting to it. Come over here and show me how you hold a dagger.”

  Israel jumps up to the stage, takes the kris from Alyx and stands in a ready position.

  She studies him. “Not bad but let me correct some things.”

  Alyx flits around Israel, repositioning parts of his body. She doesn’t notice but Israel is watching her move around him with the strangest look on his face.

  “There.” She looks up just as he composes himself.

  Alyx starts to work him through the basics. He is a decent fighter and his size and strength is an advantage, but he needs more training.

  Several hours later Israel collapses across the stage, panting and sweating. “Enough.”

  Alyx sits on the floor near him. “Yes, that’s enough for today. You’ve done well. For a mortal,” she adds with a smile.

  Alyx had dreamt that in her future that she would one day become a flock leader, the highest rank for someone like her. Who would have thought that her turn to teach would be like this?

  Suddenly Alyx has a new appreciation for Symon’s training; his patience, his insistence on basics rather than tricks, his insistence on technique. So much of what she knows she owes to him. Alyx misses Symon with an urgency that causes her eyes to water. A wave of sadness comes over her as she remembers the full weight of the old life she has lost.

  “What are you thinking about? It looks intense,” Israel asks.

  Alyx shakes herself off. She tucks away her feelings into a crowded corner of her soul. She looks over at Israel lying with his hands tucked under his head.

  “Do you ever question whether you’re doing the right thing?”

  “All the time. But,” Israel plays with his lip with his teeth, his beautifully imperfect face tilted, “I think it’s easier to let someone else tell you what’s right. That way you don’t have to be responsible for your life. That way you have someone else to blame when it doesn’t turn out the way you think it should. I think if you want to be courageous, truly courageous, you have to decide for yourself what you feel is right and then you fight for it.”