Angel Star (17 page)

“I’m awake, I’m awake, I’m awake,” I whispered to myself in the dark. I had become so used to the dreams that I was in shock that this was finally real.

“Garreth,”
I willed my thoughts to him,
“please hear me.”

The form first loomed and positioned itself above me, then shifted into shape as my room became hushed in a cold, ethereal silence.

He was remarkable.

I could be honest with myself. Garreth was still my most perfect dream in human form but, as Hadrian stepped out from the shadows, as if taking his place center stage, my inability to tear my eyes away from him hit me like a ton of bricks.

Dressed in dark clothing that accentuated every line of his perfect form, he stood inhumanly still as his black eyes pierced their way into mine; eyes so dark that even from a distance I could tell the pupil and iris blended into one insanely dark orb. But they were deep and cold, and although I shivered under his determined stare, I couldn’t look away. The magnetic pull I felt toward his enigmatic darkness couldn’t be described with words, and I was so taken by him that I would have done anything he asked, had he spoken, but he only stared at me.

He moved with a gentle fluidity that resembled music come to life. But I knew better. His dark strength was well hidden behind his austere and graceful facade. I had no doubt that he could snap me in two with one swift motion. To my surprise, I realized I had been holding my breath. As I sucked a large gulp of air into my lungs, I felt warmth wash through me, faint, as if a cloud had passed between me and the dark angel before me.

“Leave her alone,” Garreth warned.

I clung to his back as though it was shield the second he materialized in front of me. The thunderous noise that billowed out from Hadrian scared me until I recognized it as mocking laughter.

“Ah, Garreth, the white knight come to save his love. All of heaven has its eyes on you, I’m sure. You are, after all, the one who’s risked everything for the human girl he loves. How touching.”

The symbol in my hand stung with warning, and a surge of intense heat came over me as I realized Garreth was giving me more of his light. I felt Garreth’s spine tense and the dark beauty I had been enamored with just moments ago melted away to reveal the grotesque truth. With one sweep of his arm Hadrian struck Garreth, sending him hurtling across my room and into the wall.

“No!” I screamed.

I didn’t care if my mom came running in, wide-eyed and scared. I wanted her to! How could I have ever thought I could handle this on my own? Was I insane?

Garreth staggered to his feet. I swallowed the bitter taste of bile rising into my mouth as I saw dark red appear at his hairline and trickle in a steady stream down the side of his pale face. Even weakened, he tried to make his way over to me. Strangely, I knew I was witnessing the remarkable; Garreth still shielding me, still protecting me under these horrible circumstances. He was a fascinating mixture of teenage boy and ancient Guardian, fighting to the end for what he was sworn to protect. But his strength was gone. He had given the last of it to me.

An ebony shadow positioned itself above me, spreading its dark fingerlike wings across my ceiling and down the walls on either side of me.

“It’s a trick
…
”
I told myself.

Surely, Hadrian was using the shadows to make himself look larger to scare me out of my wits. I thought I had outsmarted him until his cunning face was a breath away from my own. His lips curled back bitterly, and duress blasted through to my bones. I would have sworn I was staring into the face of darkness itself, into the indescribable grin of his twin, Lucifer.

Hadrian’s wings flung back as if he was defiantly stowing them away. But, instead of following through, they rushed forward in one violent motion that sent a shock wave rolling across my room toward Garreth, sending my bed somersaulting into the air and splintering my bookcases. I turned to scream for Garreth but was too stunned and stood frozen.

In the wake of it all, Garreth looked at me, his blue eyes calm and gentle, and in an instant the chaos around us paused, melting into the night. With his eyes, he spoke to me without words. I heard him clearly in my head and I learned what I had meant to him all these years, all these incarnations. It would have been indescribable with words.

Although I watched, I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing: Garreth, so poised, so incredibly still, while all around us our world, or at least my tiny room within the world, came crashing down. And then, as if someone pressed a button, the whirlwind started up again. The part of my room where Garreth stood suddenly became dark. I could only watch as Hadrian’s wrath blasted full force into Garreth and a large chunk of my soul was ripped to shreds.

I dropped to my knees, sweating and trembling. The emptiness inside me was excruciating. It was amazing how much of Garreth had been a part of me, so much I had taken for granted. Thinking it was how
I
felt. What
I
believed.

My room looked like a war zone and I stared silently at Hadrian, who was suddenly beautiful again. I looked at him, seeking an answer, hoping it would somehow become visible to me, hidden within his jet eyes, his pale skin, but I couldn’t remember how to speak.

As if surmising my sudden handicap, he turned his attention to me, and for the first time Hadrian addressed me. “He belongs to me now.”

“Belongs?” I was suddenly filled with rage. The heat in my hand burned intensely, sending a throbbing fire up my arm and into my chest.

Ignoring me, he turned to leave but I refused to let him. I found the strength to rise to my feet and lunge for his legs.

“What happened to my father? Tell me!” Choking on my words, I was desperately trying not to lose it. I still had a job ahead of me. A seemingly impossible job.

He glared down at me, offering nothing. I thought the glimmer that shot across his face like a meteor was one of intense compassion but he regained his composure quickly.

“I wonder, are you predictable like the others?”

“What do you mean ‘others’?”

“Let me ask you, Teagan. What do
you
choose? I can offer you what your father failed to take. I can give you power.”

He stepped a bit closer to me, hesitantly reaching his hand out to me. I felt so weak. He was so fascinating, so powerful… I knew taking his hand would be wrong, yet something in his eyes pulled at me.

“I know you better than you know yourself, Teagan. I’ve known you your whole life, your entire existence. You have so much potential. Heaven would be nothing more than a dream compared to world you and I could create.”

Hadrian’s cold hand brushed my cheek, triggering a memory deep within me. I had felt another hand on that cheek but it seemed like so long ago.

“I can help you, you know.”

“Help…me?”

“You don’t know all that you possess?” He took my hand and opened my palm, seductively tracing his finger along the scrolling I had been trying to hide. “Together we can unharness a power beyond description. You should consider yourself exceptional.”

I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach, but Hadrian continued, pleased with my reaction.

“I have been ready for a new challenge. I’ve grown so tired of your kind, so selfish and demanding. It’s beyond me why Guardians have so much compassion for such a disgusting race.” His voice was saturated with a nauseating hunger and he tapped a heavy boot against Garreth’s thigh. “But I have to admit, you’ve pleased me. I never expected to witness a human transform during an existing life-phase.”

I looked at the amount of blood pooling around Garreth’s limp body on my floor. It was too much blood.

“There can be others, you know. With your power you can have your pick, although you may just find me to your liking.” He caressed my flushed cheek with his cold fingers. Then he turned his back to me.

“You’re no angel, you’re a monster!”

He spun back around to face me, a look of reproach on his face, as if he was actually considering what I said to be true.

“I think of myself as an angel of mercy. After all, aren’t humans always searching for meaning to their meager little lives? Wouldn’t you agree that I’m giving them a purpose? Placing them on a new path?”

The playful tone in his voice was gone. It was clear to me he was no longer willing to nicely talk me into assisting him in his plan of havoc. Instead, he would put me there by force if he had to. As he stretched his blackened wings, I fell to my knees, waiting to take my place where I really belonged, by Garreth’s side.

The memory of Hadrian’s fury slamming Garreth against the far wall of my bedroom was all I could see as I slumped to the floor. It played over and over again, vivid and hovering inside my brain like a serpent striking over and over. I pressed my palms against my temples but the pressure of my sweaty hands couldn’t stop the pain. It had been so hard to stop looking at Garreth; but, more so, it was almost impossible
not
to look into the eyes of the one responsible. I was so blinded by the force of Hadrian’s eloquence that it briefly shadowed the black heart he hid so well.

Hadrian crouched down in front of me. “You find me intriguing, don’t you?”

I refused to answer, turning my head away, but he reached out and delicately ran his fingers through the disheveled strands of my hair.

“Yes, I am complex. You’re trying to understand me but you lack the capacity to do so just yet. Very frustrating, isn’t it?”

I still couldn’t meet his eye and I pulled away from his touch.

Hadrian stood then. “Don’t underestimate yourself, Teagan. Remember, I enjoy a good challenge. Won’t you reconsider my offer? You can leave all this behind and finally feel like you belong.” He held out his smooth, pale hand to me. “I may not offer again, so I suggest you choose wisely.”

I can’t say why, but I rose to my feet and faced Hadrian, now with strange new eyes. My beautiful angel lay crumpled at my feet but I allowed a vacant mist to spread through my body, numbing me happily. I stepped around the debris that was once my bedroom, picked my way around Garreth’s lifeless body and reached for Hadrian’s hand even as Garreth lay bleeding. I never knew an angel could bleed, never thought about it before, but he was much more human now than he had ever planned to be.

The dark eyes that sought mine promised so much that nothing else seemed relevant. It was no wonder the others had fallen. Whether human or Guardian, the spell Hadrian wove was fiercely mesmerizing.

It was at that moment I saw the glimmer of something small and yellow barely concealed by the night. As I tried to make out what it was, everything suddenly came into perspective. Could it really be that simple? My hand reached, not for the hand of the dark-winged angel before me but for the instrument that could possibly save us all.

The air shifted as Hadrian tensed, his eyes no longer bright and imploring me with invitation, but instead darkly sinister and hollow. A storm announced itself with thunder clapping like an enormous rip across the sky. Suddenly, the dark wings above me trembled and spread open before me as my arm slid beneath the disheveled mess of my overturned bed. I withdrew the dagger Garreth had entrusted to my care, awed by its simple beauty, but careful not to keep my back turned to Hadrian for too long. Hadrian quivered with rage, his wingspan full and splendid, nearly knocking out the walls as they filled my room. They overshadowed me like an ashen cloak, lifting him in ferocious beauty off my floor.

I was crouched as low as I possibly could be, fully prepared to feel his wrath, when his face contorted into a sly smile. Then, like a nearly forgotten trophy, Garreth was effortlessly scooped from the floor and Hadrian’s dark laughter echoed throughout my skull and then whispered itself away with the wind.

And I was left alone with the dagger.

I
expected morning to wake me from the nightmare but there was no light. There was no sun to warm my skin, only the dark of night that was exaggerated by the ever-building storm outside my window. Wading through the shock that quickly invaded my body, I began throwing clothing and blankets over the pieces of furniture that were destroyed. In doing so, I wondered if
I
too could ever be repaired.

I wrapped my quilt tightly around me, as if securing what I had left of myself, and curled up on the floor where Garreth had fallen, closing my eyes, picturing his warm white light, but all that was left was my cold, hard floor.

Silence tried to comfort me, closing in like a soothing whisper. I let it hold me and with it I was able to think about what had happened, but it all came rushing back too fast. The deeper I let myself sink, the more I became aware of a growing rage deep inside me.

Then it occurred to me, the rage I felt wasn’t malicious anger. It was strength. The tables had turned now. I had to go after Hadrian if Garreth was to survive. Thunder cracked loudly, making me jump and I pulled the quilt tighter as lightning illuminated the sky, splitting the dark with jagged streaks. Even though it was early morning, it was as dark as night and I needed to stop the darkness.

I needed to save my light.

I needed to save Garreth.

The mark on my hand burned gently with hope and I knew at last what had to be done. I held the small dagger in my hands, its weight confirming my decision. When Garreth had given it to me, he had meant for me to use it on Hadrian but that wasn’t possible just now. Hadrian was more powerful than either of us could ever have imagined, but I knew how to defeat him. I would give him his wish and become his challenge.

As I formed the plan in my head, I knew I had to act quickly. I knew what it would do to my mother when she walked in to say good-bye to me in the morning but I couldn’t take the chance of waiting any longer. And, if I took my time, I might chicken out and Garreth was much too important for me to risk that.

My thumb rubbed over the tiny raised octagram that stood out from all the other etchings on the golden handle. About the size of my thumbnail, the tiny sphere reminded me of a miniature sunburst and it glistened, as if revealing the magic it held deep inside. It was my angel calling to me, my sun, my light, and as it sparkled, I knew he was still alive, though he wouldn’t be for long. Hadrian had one reason for taking Garreth.