by Anna Santos
She was close to my face, either trying to read my mind or simply testing me. Either way, she wasn’t going to convince me to give up on Aria and leave her to Philippe.
“Won’t she become the same thing once her angel takes over? I’ve heard rumors about the Red Angels. They’re ruthless forces of destruction. No wonder others want to get rid of her.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear. It’s a fairytale, a myth to make others fear them. Red Angels are just more powerful than normal angels.”
“If she’s a Red Angel, what does that makes you? You’re different from others, too.”
“I have a different power, but I’m as powerful as she is. She’s a part of me. Her power came from me. I don’t manipulate fire, but other elements can be as deadly as fire.”
“Are you going to start a war once you’re crowned regents?”
“No, Josephine, I don’t intend to start wars. I intend to keep the peace.”
“Then, remember that when you get Aria back,” she said, moving away and leaving the bedroom.
She was odd, and I was in no mood to be questioned about my future actions by a vampire. I was more worried about finding Aria. Margaret should have sent word by now. If anything had happened to the witch, I wouldn’t know of any other way to find Aria. At least, not in time. I had packs of werewolves looking for the rogues that had taken Aria. I had my angels scattered across the city, gathering information and looking for her in abandoned buildings and known places where vampires and wolves kept their prey.
An hour and a half of silence later, Margaret walked in.
“I know where they have her,” she said, breathless and happy.
I got up, and I saw Philippe behind the girl. He’d arrived home and looked as eager as I was to know what Margaret had to tell us.
“Where is she?” Philippe asked.
“I’ll have to show you,” Margaret said to me, ignoring Philippe. She came closer and hugged me. “Then you’ll be happy with me, won’t you? We can be together.”
“Yes, now tell me where Aria is,” I demanded, pulling the girl away from me. I had no intention of hugging her back or pretending that she meant anything to me. She didn’t.
“Is she okay?” Philippe asked.
“Is she?” I asked the girl, holding her by the arms and making her look at me. “Answer me, Margaret!”
“I don’t know. I only know where they’re keeping her,” she whispered in a sad voice, almost breaking into tears because I’d yelled at her.
“I’ve gathered my men. Call yours, and we’ll go there and bring Aria back,” Philippe said.
I nodded and stared into Margaret’s eyes. “Tell me where she is.”
Half an hour later, we were in a poor part of town with old and abandoned buildings that were falling apart amongst dirty, narrow streets. The sun wasn’t totally gone from the sky. But it was dark enough for the vampires to come out and be safe in the shadows.
I had ordered my angels to follow behind me while others scouted the premises and looked for enemies. In a few minutes, my gargoyles would wake up and join us.
Whoever had taken Aria was inside the building at the end of the road. It was the one with dark doors and barricaded windows.
“How do you want your humans, dead or alive?” Philippe said, his voice disturbing the silence.
“Do you think there are humans inside?” I asked him. I wasn’t counting on it.
“I don’t know. I wanted to know if we can kill or not,” he said, shrugging. “Mutts, humans, or warlocks, you have to decide now if you want them dead or alive.”
“We should keep prisoners to interrogate them,” I said.
“I already know who did this to Aria. But if you want prisoners, then prisoners I’ll give you.” Turning around, he spoke to his men, “No killing unless you don’t have any other option. And if you find specters,” he added, holding to his sword tighter, “use iron to make them disappear.”
“Philippe,” I called, holding on to his arm, “you better tell me who’s behind this. I’m going to come after him once I get Aria back.”
“I can tell you where you can find him,” he said with a serious face. “But for now, let’s concentrate on saving Aria and finding out who the creator of Clarity is.”
“Margaret said she was in the building in front of us.”
“I’m sure there are a lot more enemies in the surrounding buildings,” he retorted.
“My angels will have our backs while we raid the building to find Aria.”
“Your angels are worthless against specters.”
“I’m not,” I told him, letting my eyes glow as my wings unfolded behind my back. “Let’s stop chitchatting and save Aria.” I lifted off the ground.
I motioned my men to enter the buildings and find our enemies while I flew to the building where Aria was. Philippe was already in front of the door, looking for a way to go in without making too much noise. Silence was important so as not to scare the ones who had Aria. They might kill her if they knew they were surrounded. But the silence around us was disturbing. I hoped that Aria was there, and we weren’t in the wrong place.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ARIA
The pain was unbearable. I kept going in and out of consciousness. I had no idea how long I was there. My mind was being overrun with the screams of my angel, and my body was sore and aching. I sat in an uncomfortable chair with rope around my ankles, my knees, and my waist. My hands were behind my back being burned by the rope that I was trying to get free of. I had a rag in my mouth preventing me from screaming and breathing properly. I tried to get rid of the ropes and the rag. It was instinct. I wanted to get free no matter how much it hurt. I needed to remove that magical symbol from my chest and escape from that creepy, dark room, where the rotten smell was too much to endure. In the back of the destroyed and decrepit place, I could discern a form—a statue of some sort.
Salt burned my eyes from the tears that I cried once I’d woken up alone, aching, and cold. My body wasn’t healing from the accident, but the worst was that I had no idea if my family was dead or alive. I didn’t know what my kidnappers had done to them. I also didn’t know why they’d taken me and what they wanted from me. Is Cedric looking for me? He should be. I had to believe he was and that he was going to find me. They hadn’t killed me, so they wanted something.
Somehow they’d locked my angel away in me, making it impossible to use my powers. I wished I could burst into flames and get out of there. I couldn’t, and knowing that my angel was in pain because of the symbol on my chest made me feel even more powerless. And if no one finds me? If so, does that mean I’m going to die here? I’d been faced with the possibility of dying twice in the same month. What are the odds?
I had many regrets. I regretted not having experienced love—the physical kind. I should have been with Cedric on a romantic date right then. He had left to plan it while I was accompanying my parents to the airport. Cedric saving me was my last hope. Yet I couldn’t stop dreaming about Philippe every time I closed my eyes. I screamed at him in my dreams, upset at being rejected. It hurt still. Loneliness and emptiness slashed my soul as the yearning to see him again, to be with him, if only for a moment, tormented my thoughts. I was losing it. Cedric deserved my love, not Philippe. I shouldn’t have been thinking about him. He couldn’t care less about me. He was the King of the Vampires. Yet in my dreams, he wasn’t evil or heartless. He loved me, and I loved him.
I must have blacked out again as I woke up to the sound of something shattering. I heard doors slamming shut as the energy around the room seemed to change. I shivered, trying to see past the dark, while the cracking sound became louder and more consistent. It was as if rock was shattering and falling to the floor. Maybe the building was caving in and I would die under the wreckage.
My angel went still, and I intuitively knew that something cold and dark was coming. I tried to move my hands and cringed at the pain. I was out of tears and out o
f strength. I wanted to pass out again, but this time on the floor. I felt I would feel more comfortable lying down.
The cracking sound stopped. I heard movement and focused my sight on the darkness before me as a silhouette drew closer. As my brain tried to understand what was happening, I discerned the form of a beast whose wings and claws were moving in my direction. The floor vibrated under the weight and the sound of heavy breathing resonated. The only statues I’d known to come to life were gargoyles. My kidnappers were wolves. From what I’d heard, they’d kept me there until it was dark, when my real captor would wake up.
Suddenly, the door opened and a monk wearing a hooded cloak entered the room with a chandelier in his hand. I blinked several times to adjust to the light.
“They’re here. They found us somehow. You need to move fast,” the scary creature said to whom I now noticed to be a slender figure wrapped in several white sheets like an Arabian person in the desert. The figure’s face was covered, but I could see the person’s eyes. They were blue—crystal blue—and cold as ice when they stared at me and noticed that I had awakened.
“Stop them from reaching this room,” a hoarse female voice said, grasping the chandelier and moving towards me. “Take as much Clarity as you can. It’s our last batch. We need her to make more.”
I heard her orders and cringed in my seat, panicking and wanting to scream for help. Someone was coming for me. I could be saved. But that woman didn’t want me to be saved. I panicked even more when she grabbed a table from the side of the room and pulled it next to me. There were needles and surgical instruments on it.
Is she going to torture me or…worse?
I tried to move. I tried to scream. I wanted to call Cedric’s name. My angel was restless and afraid of the woman and the huge needle that she picked up from the table.
“Just relax. This isn’t going to take too long. I’m not going to kill you. I’m simply going to take something from you that I need,” she said in a soft voice.
I knew better. She wanted to hurt me, and I had no intention of staying calm and letting her do it.
I heard a loud smash. Screams and sounds of a fight carried up from the lower floors. Help was coming. I had to endure a bit longer.
More sounds of breaking windows and cracking objects echoed around the building.
“They aren’t going to get here on time. It’s a huge house, and I have a lot of guards to entertain the angels,” the mummified woman said, killing my hopes.
I glared at her, wanting to burst her into flames. She wouldn’t have been so relaxed if I had my powers.
She smirked, walked behind my back, and pulled my hair away. I felt the needle touch the back of my neck. It confused me as much as it scared me. I screamed for help, but the sound came out muffled by the rag in my mouth.
“Wait, I want him to hear this,” she whispered wickedly in my ear as if she was going to enjoy what she was about to do to me. She took the cloth out of my mouth. “Call for him,” she instructed me.
I didn’t move, wondering why’d she uncovered my mouth.
“Come on.” She pulled my hair. “Scream for the prince.”
I screamed out loud, “Cedric! Help!”
She laughed. “That scream is nothing compared to how you’re going to scream when I start the procedure. This is the worst thing we can do to an angel,” she informed me as the needle touched the nape of my neck. She seemed to take pleasure in what she was doing.
How can someone be that evil?
Tears rushed to my eyes and fell like a waterfall when the needle entered my flesh. The pain was excruciating, and I’d never screamed so loud before. It was like my body was on fire.
Suddenly, the pain stopped. I felt fast movements around me and someone crashed against the woman and pushed her away. Then the floor in front of my feet was torn apart by a flying and glowing angel coming through.
“I told you she was upstairs and not downstairs,” Philippe said.
I wasn’t imagining things. It was his voice. He was behind me and in front of me was Cedric. His eyes were silver and scary. He didn’t say anything, he looked around, assessing the place, and fixating his faze on the figure who was getting up.
“Take the needle out of her neck,” Cedric ordered. “Wait,” he yelled after. “See if there’s something inside.”
The woman jumped in the air and pushed Philippe away from me.
“What the hell were you doing to her?” Philippe asked.
I couldn’t see what was happening behind my back. Cedric kneeled in front of me, ripping off the ropes.
“Don’t move until I remove the needle,” Cedric said.
“It hurts,” I mumbled.
“It will stop,” he promised, walking behind me.
Before I could understand what he was doing, he pulled the needle out, and I uttered a pained cry.
“I’m here, honey. You’re safe now.”
I still had my hands trapped, and Cedric had to unbind them.
“Philippe, stop fooling around and help me,” Cedric growled.
I looked back and saw Philippe fighting the woman. She looked deadly. He wasn’t fooling around. He was having a hard time overpowering her.
“He’s not as weak as he looks,” Philippe complained. He must have thought the figure was a man. He couldn’t be more wrong. As a gargoyle, she must be strong. I didn’t have time to explain to him what she was, though.
“Cedric,” I called out to him, motioning with my eyes to the door. Four scary monks entered the room with axes in their hands.
He acknowledged their arrival and flew to fight them.
“Philippe, I don’t care what you do to him. Kill him if you must, but take Aria out of here. More specters are coming, and I’m the only one who can kill them.” Lightning shot out from Cedric’s hands and obliterated the monks.
Philippe growled in reply. I didn’t know if it was from pain or annoyance. Either way, he threw the female against the closed window, causing the wood and glass to break and fall on the floor. He’d fallen back due to the amount of strength he’d used to shove her away, but he stood again on shaky legs.
Before he could attack her again, she jumped out of the window.
Philippe ran to it and must have realized that she was a gargoyle. He stood there with his mouth open and his eyes on the horizon. I guessed he was watching her fly away.
Meanwhile, Cedric was fighting the two remaining warrior monks. He was using some sort of shining icy blade. I’d never seen it before, but it shredded the ghosts away. However, many more were coming our way.
I stared at Philippe. I tried to get up but almost fell to the floor.
“Philippe,” I whispered, out of breath and strength. I was glad to see him. I was glad to see them both. “I’m exhausted.” I felt my eyes shutting and someone hugged me and prevented me from collapsing to the ground.
“I’m here, Aria. I won’t let anything harm you, sweetie,” he whispered next to my face. His arms held me up and sat me back on the chair. Brushing my hair away from my eyes, he asked, “What were they doing to you?”
“They were trying to steal her angel. Stop stalling and take her out of here. They are too many. Order your men out. I must use my powers to kill them. It will hurt your men, too,” Cedric warned in a serious voice.
I was too tired to think about the implication of his words. “I’m okay,” I said to Philippe, who was still studying me. He was concerned and he cared about me. That notion warmed my heart.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked in a trembling voice.
I shook my head and put my arms around his neck. “Let’s get out of here.”
My voice was hoarse and my body trembled. I couldn’t stand to stay there another minute. Philippe hugged me back. He put one hand on my back, the other under my legs, and lifted me up.
I felt my body surrender against his. “I’ve missed you,” I whispered, admitting something that I hadn’t wanted him to know.
�
�I’m Philippe, Aria. Cedric is fighting the specters.”
I could have slapped him. “I know. I’m tired, not blind.”
He chuckled and my bad mood disappeared. “I guess you’re okay since you’re able to argue with me,” he teased.
“When you’re done flirting with my girlfriend, can you please take her out of here?” Cedric said, exasperated.
Philippe hugged me closer, and we were out of there in a flash. We only stopped at the entrance of the building I was in. “Everybody out,” he said, urging his men to leave.
Jacob landed next to us. “Where’s Cedric?”
“Inside. He said that everybody should leave. He’s fighting the specters,” Philippe informed him.
“I’ll order the angels to get out of here, then,” he said, flying up into the sky.
I watched him, mesmerized. It must be nice to fly like that. Too bad I was afraid of heights. Sighing, I nestled my head on Philippe’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong, Aria?” he asked.
“I wish I wasn’t afraid of heights. Why have wings if I’m afraid of flying?”
He was going to say something, but someone interrupted us.
“Give her to me.”
Camille was beside us, and she was asking Philippe to release me.
“No,” I said to her. I had no intention of letting go of Philippe.
“But you’re hurt,” Camille argued.
“We need to get out of here,” Jacob said, landing next to us.
“My men are all out,” Philippe said.
“Take her to the car,” Camille said to Philippe, who nodded.
Moments after, we were in the car, and Philippe was placing me on the seat.
“No, no,” I begged him.
“You’re hurt,” he said, showing me my bleeding wrists.
I was going to start crying again like a child if I was left alone. “Please don’t leave.”
