Dark Angel (Anak Trilogy) (3 page)

The animal screamed the most evil, hideous scream I could ever imagine and turned attacking again. The scream reverberated in my head until I realized that I was screaming too. The monster jumped for us again. This time my hero did not side-step the attack but took it head-on kneeling on one knee. I hung onto to his silver waistband like it was a lifeline kneeling behind him. He thrust both swords up to their hilts into the soft underbelly of the creature. The monster screeched hideously again and fell to the ground narrowly missing us. The creature twisted and tried to snatch the hilts of the swords with its massive mouth. My defender grabbed the hilts and jerked upward laying open the beast’s belly which spat intestines squirming as if alive on to the ground. The creature lay at his feet snarling and
growling sending streams of yellowed, bloody salvia pooling around its massive head.

My beautiful savior stood and pulled me up with him. He put his foot on the huge creature’s side, and once again grabbed the hilts of his swords. The creature’s head snapped around as its powerful jaws attempted to capture him between them. Deftly, he sidestepped its jaws. Then, he pulled his swords from the creature’s body. They gave a great sucking sound as they slid from enormous wounds.  Bloods spurted in deep, ruby fountains from them. He wiped the blood from his swords on the long fur of the creature and returned the two swords to their sheaths. Then, he reached behind him and pulled out the third sword. This sword was not metallic, and as he withdrew it, a flame flickered to life instead of a blade. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. It reminded m
e of a verse that my father read to me as a child. I’m sure he said that the Garden of Eden was guarded by a flaming sword. Being a PK, preacher’s kid, I had heard the story many times, but I never took it literally or seriously. I still didn’t. I had turned away from my faith after my mother’s death. My dad went in the extreme opposite direction leaving his research position at a mega pharmaceutical corporation for the ministry.  I think he wants to believe that he will see my mother again. That belief is what keeps him going and keeps him sane, but I know she is gone.

I was dazed. I was trying to wrap my mind around the events of the last few minutes. This could not be happening.  Animals did not
grow this big or strange. I have never seen an animal such as the one that lay before me now. It was the size of an elephant but looked to be a cross between a grizzly and a giant wolf with the deadly mouth of a shark. Killing an animal of this size with only a sword or two swords to be exact, I thought should be impossible. Even so, it had happened and happened before my very eyes. The light from the flame of his sword allowed me to get a better view of the monster. On closer inspection of the hideous creature, I gasped and shrank back behind my rescuer’s enormous body. That animal was the scariest thing that I had ever seen.

This young giant used the flaming sword to separate the creature’s head from the rest of its body. The monster’s great mouth moved in response trying one last time to cause considerable damage, and then its eyes fixed into a stony glare. The strange being held the gigantic head by the shaggy hair on its top, and with his free hand, he flipped the flaming sword end over end. He caught it by the hilt as it came down and thrust the blazing sword into the heart of the great beast. The flame spread quickly across the creature’s body cremating it where it lay.  I was in a nightmare. I was sure of it. The flaming sword, the monster, this giant being, which came to my defense out of nowhere—it was surreal. I just wished I would wake-up; however, like Kate, I was shallow enough to want a better look at
the creature left standing who had saved my life before I woke up. He was so incredibly hot, in a gargantuan sort of way, that I could only stare at him with my mouth hanging open. I must look like a lunatic to him. He turned and walked back to me carrying the head in one hand and returned the flaming sword to its sheath lying against his back with the other.

“Who are you?” I managed to get the words out even though I was hyperventilating.

“I am Zazel, son of The Watcher, Azâzêl. I am the last of the Anak.”

“The Watchers? Who are the Watchers?”

“They are the Fallen Ones.”

“Who are the Fallen Ones?
“

“
They are the hosts that were cast down from the presence of God.”

“And the Anak?”

“I am they. I am the last.”

“What was that?” I asked motioning toward the burning corpse.

“One of the Dark Ones.”

“What is a Dark One?” I yelled out my voice becoming a screech in the eerie darkness.

“They are the Fallen Ones. They go by many names: Fallen Angels, Watchers, Grigori, demons, devils, and dark angels. Should I go on?”  This magnificent creature waited for an answer as he loomed before me casually holding the dripping, bloody head of the creature.

I shook uncontrollably, but I managed to grind out between chattering teeth, “And who are the Watchers? This Grigori?”

“My father Azâzêl was one. Lucifer was their leader.”

“I don’t understand. Monsters are not real. The Dark Ones are not real. Fallen Angels can’t be real,” I reasoned since I didn’t believe in them. “Leprechauns and little gray aliens are not real, and you are certainly cannot be real. Somebody wake me up!” I shouted into the black night. Even as I screeched this denial out, the evidence of the Dark One lay in a charred bloody mess at my feet.

I reached out to touch Zazel curious if he was really flesh and blood or another of my twisted dreams. As I touched him, he began to shrink slowly. I would guess he was over nine feet tall as he fought the monster. But now, slowly, but surely, he became a more normal size. He appeared more human, and he was easier to talk to now that he was more of a normal height. However, he must have still been six and a half feet or more.

“But I am very real, Annie.” With
that, Zazel took my trembling hand and placed in upon his chest. I could feel his heart pounding underneath my fingertips. Gently, I explored his massive chest with my fingers trying to determine if he was tangible—flesh and blood.

“You were scared too, huh?” I grunted nervously.

“No, not of the Dark One, He did not scare me for a second. You are the only creature that frightens me.”

“Me?” I asked incredulously
cocking my eyebrows to their fullest height.  “You just killed a demon from hell, but I frighten you?” I used one hand to point at the creature and the other to point to myself puzzled.

“Yes,” he answered solemnl
y and looked deep into my eyes. “I am accustomed to dealing with the Dark Ones. You, on the other hand, are something entirely different.” He shrugged his shoulders and ran his fingers through my hair slowly letting it slip strand by strand through his fingers. He watched it fall as if in a trance. He raised a lock of hair to his nostrils and inhaled. Then he pressed it to his lovely mouth where he gently kissed the lock of hair. A warm knot began to form in my belly.

I was speechless. For the first time, I could clearly see his face in the glow of the burning carcass. He was
absolutely stunning. His was the face of an angel. Every feature was perfect. His hair fell to his shoulders, but on either side of his face, the hair was braided in small braids. The braids were interspersed with a silver chain that had silver stars woven into the chain. Some of the stars were engraved in the same strange language that I saw etched on his sword sheaths.  His jaw line was square and smooth, and he had the most beautiful full lips. I had never seen lips like that on a man before. His seemingly chiseled nose was straight. There was something there in his eyes. Some strong emotion cried out from them, but I was helpless to know what it was. His beautiful eyes were framed by long dark lashes. There wasn’t really enough light for me to tell what color they were, but they were mesmerizing. They were burning a hole in my face and my soul.

“Who are you, and how do you know my name?” I whispered again.

“I am yours,” he answered quietly moving his incredible body and breathtakingly handsome face within centimeters of mine. Tenderly pushing a strand of hair back from my face, he continued, “and I have always known you Annie.”

“Would you stop that? I don’t know you. I have never even seen you before. You are definitely not mine, and how did you do that shrinking act just now,” I questioned him my voice rising in a panicked screech once again.

He put his arm around my waist and pulled me to his chest. My heart felt as though it stopped. He crushed me to him lifting me off my feet. He held me close with one arm for what seemed an eternity staring down into my eyes. I could feel his body shaking as if from fright or perhaps from longing. He lowered his head and gently, very softly pressed his lips to mine. Instantly, I began to shake and shake violently. He was like a human Taser.

“Shhh,” he whispered
against my hair bringing up his other arm and folding me in an embrace. He held me tenderly until the violent shaking stopped. Nevertheless, I was in an utter state of confusion. I could not put a sentence together. The shaking changed to trembling. I could not remember my name or his. What was the matter with me? My thoughts were jumbled, and each thought pulled me in such a different direction that I could not think. I was paralyzed. I could see and hear, but I could not talk or move. The tears started to flow.

“Help me,” I pleaded with my eyes. His eyes
were locked on mine. He swept me off my feet never letting his gaze leave my face.

Gently, he placed me in the passenger side of my car and pried the key that I was still clutching from my fingers. Zazel walked around to the driver’s side tossing the head of the creature up on the luggage rack. He climbed gracefully inside the vehicle and put the keys in the ignition. My lips would not move to ask him the question that I was trying to form in my head, but he seemed to read my mind.

”Please don’t be frightened. The shaking and confusion when I kiss you is normal. You are human and I . . . I am not. Even so, Annie, you’re safe. I am with you. We are together now, and that is all that matters.”

Turning in the seat to face me, he leaned close his breath hot on my face. “I’m g
oing to say this to you even though you won’t remember it by daybreak. You are my heart, Annie. You are my one thought, my one desire, and my one need. All my heart has ever wanted for thousands of years is to be close to you. You are the knot in my heart that I have waited for millenniums to be untied. Yet, I fear we will forever remain like this. You, unaware of me, and I, hopelessly in love with you. Despite my feelings for you, I want you to forget what just happened to you. Forget me, Annie,” he whispered gently as if his heart were breaking.

“All that matters?” I wanted to scream. “You just told me that you are not human.” I wanted to rant and rave
at him, yet I was moved by his passionate words. I wanted to pummel his handsome chest with my fists, but my brain was like gelatin. I could not open my mouth, but a single tear escaped from the corner of my eye. Gently, he caught the tear between his index finger and thumb. He stared at the tear captured there for several seconds. Then, never taking his eyes from my face, he ran his fingers slowly and lightly over my chin, traced the outline of my lips, my eyebrows, and down my nose back to my lips. He took my face within his long, elegant fingers and lifted my face to his.

“I have waited an eternity to speak to you, to hold you, Annie, but I need to get you home before I have to fight off the entire Dacula Police Force. Your dad must be worried. He will surely call the police if I don’t get you home quickly.”  With that
, he jammed the keys in the ignition and started the car. I could not speak. I could not move. All I could do on the ride home was gaze at him. His lovely words caused even more confusion as I was beginning to forget them, and I didn’t want to. I wanted to hold them in my heart. He turned once and gave me a wide gleaming smile that caused my heart to flip flop within my chest. He acted as though he could hear the loud thumping of my heart and laughed softly. My head was clearing a little, though I still could not speak. If he could hear my thoughts, and what I would do to him if I was not paralyzed from his intoxicating kiss, he would not be smiling right now.

We turned into my drive, and he turned off the motor.

“Listen Annie, go straight in the house and upstairs to bed. You have had a most traumatic experience, and you need to rest.”

Yes, I have had a most traumatic experience. Set upon by a creature from the very pit of Hell,
and then saved by another inhuman creature that had the audacity to kiss me and whisper words of eternal love. Had he drugged me? No, the only thing he had done was very gently kiss me, but that is when all this confusion started when he first kissed me. Had he not said though that the effects of his kiss were because he was not human like me? Not human like me . . .  I leaned my head back and closed my eyes in an attempt to stop my head from swimming. He came around and opened the door for me. He gently lifted me from my vehicle, and when I landed, I was standing beside the front door, gym bag in hand, and keys in the door. He unlocked the door and placed my keys back in my hand softly rolling my fingers one by one over them. He lightly captured my chin within his fingers.

“Good night
my sweet.” His lips were within centimeters of mine, and I could feel his warm, sweet-smelling breath. I closed my eyes and leaned toward him, yet he did not kiss me again. He just turned and walked down the steps sweeping the creature’s head from the luggage rack as he strolled past my vehicle. He sauntered out into the night whistling a haunting melody and swinging the great beast’s head by its hair.