Chapter 4

I was grateful for our date to finally arrive. I had been so excited last night that I couldn’t sleep, and I was extra tired this morning. Since the date with Austin was an actual date, I decided to wear something nicer than I did when I went to dinner with Jasper. I wore a nice pair of tan heeled boots, with denim skinny jeans, and a white shirt with a gray sweater over it. The sweater’s cleavage was a bit low, so I thought the white shirt would make up for it. I put on the necklace Dawn gave me, and held onto my cross for a bit. I curled my hair and put my makeup on. I was ready for this date tonight. I was a bit nervous though. My friends were right when they said it had been a while since I last went on a date. I met Austin down in the parking lot. Curfew was at nine and it was currently six. The movie was two hours long, and we weren’t sure how long dinner was. But we promised to be back before curfew. They were pretty uptight when it came to curfew. Austin was looking amazing tonight. I almost stopped dead in my tracks. I had never seen him look so nice before. Austin was dressed in a nice pair of jeans and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his sleeves. He wore a black tie and his hair was combed nicely. When he saw me, his face lit up. There was that charming smile of his. I couldn’t help but smile myself. He opened the passenger door of his car.

“You look beautiful tonight.” He said.

“You look handsome yourself.” I said as I got into the car. He got in after me and started driving to the restaurant. I told him that I wanted to go to Chez Pasta. I didn’t really know any other fancy restaurants in town.

We arrived at Chez Pasta and were seated immediately. Great service. The waiter started us off with drinks and I ordered a water again. Austin ordered a water as well, and the waiter walked away to get our drinks. I wasn’t sure what to say to Austin. I decided to ask the first question that came to mind.

“How did it go yesterday? With the moving.” I said.

“It went better than I expected. We got done pretty quickly.” He said. “I know I’ve mentioned this before, but you really do look beautiful tonight.” I was smiling again.

As Austin and I talked, we began learning more about each other. I was beginning to enjoy this date the longer it went on. Austin was starting to zone off into space as he was talking - as he usually did - and then he stopped mid-sentence. I looked up from my food. His face had gone from jolly, to unfocused, to serious all in a matter of minutes.

“Austin, what is it?” I asked.

He leaned in close and whispered, “There’s a Dark Angel here.” I almost gasped.

“Wait, how do you know that?” Usually it wasn’t easy to spot a Dark Angel. They looked like normal humans, except the more powerful ones had dark purple-looking eyes. They were very rare though, and usually they were leaders who stayed in hiding from the public.

“I have my ways.” Austin said. He stood up and patted his pockets. “Damn.” He looked at me. I know exactly what he needed. I reached into my purse and handed him a bottle of holy water. He told me to stay and walked away from the table.

It had already been ten minutes, and I was starting to get worried. How powerful could this Dark Angel have been? Was Austin okay? I got up from the table with my purse and walked around the restaurant looking for Austin. When I realized he wasn’t inside, I walked outside. I heard a girl scream and ran over as quickly as I could. Austin was fighting off a Dark Angel, and it looked as if they’ve been fighting this whole time. Austin’s face looked pretty beat up, and his shirt was ripped. I could see that he got a few good hits on the Dark Angel, and burned him a few times with the holy water. There was no way Austin could use his light spell though. Not in hand to hand combat. He was too distracted to summon up the ball of light. My light spells weren’t very powerful, but I knew what I had to do. I walked in front of the frightened girl and stood in front of her. Holding out my hand, I started chanting something as quietly as I could until a ball of light appeared in my hands. I shot it at the back of the Dark Angels heart. Unfortunately, I missed by a few inches, but he let out a scream of pain and arched his back. He let go of Austin and fell to his knees. I ran over and locked my arms between his and held him there in a firm grip. Austin summoned up his own ball of light and aimed it at the Dark Angel’s heart. With another loud cry of pain, he fell to the ground motionless and then burst into beams of light. Austin and I shielded our eyes a bit until the light faded out.

“Not bad, Donovan. We make a pretty good team.” He said. “If only you would listen to me.” He chuckled.

“I’m sorry Austin. I got worried about you...” I said. He smiled. It definitely made him happy to hear that. We walked over to the girl. She was human and terribly frightened. She had no idea what just happened. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes a problem we faced with humans. Not all of them knew about angels, so sometimes we resorted to erasing their memory. I took out a small vial from my purse and handed it to the girl. She didn’t ask questions - which I thought was odd - and shot down the drink.

“What just happened?” She asked. It was a pretty fast-working concoction. I smiled.

“Oh nothing. Just some street thugs.” said Austin. "You're lucky that we were here to save you." The two of us led the girl back into the restaurant, and then took our seats.

The rest of the dinner went smoothly without any problems, as did the movie. I still wanted to know how Austin knew that here was a Dark Angel around, but when I asked him a second time he gave me the same reason. “I have my ways,” he said. I decided to give up on asking him, because there was obviously no way he was going to tell me no matter how much he liked me, and no matter how many times I asked. When the movie was over, we went for a walk in the park to kill off some time before we had to be back. The moon lit up all of his features, and his eyes glimmered. The more I looked at Austin’s eyes, the more gorgeous I thought they were. I had never paid this much attention to him. I was seeing a lot of things I never noticed before. Like how muscular he really was, and how he always made his hair look messy. It suited him. He brought me back to my dorm and we stood there in silence for a few moments. He started to lean in for a kiss, and I could feel my heart beating faster than it had been a few minutes ago. His lips looked soft, and I never expected to find myself thinking about what it would be like to kiss Austin. I know he’s had a few other girlfriends, and they all always talked about how amazing he was. And now I was about to experience it for myself. Emphasis on “about to”, because that’s when the door opened. Austin stood up straight quickly and ran a hand through his hair. Something I was hoping I would get to do sometime down the road. Dawn was standing in the doorway of our room.

“Oh, did I interrupt something? I’m sorry. Continue.” She said. She closed the door and Austin chuckled. He looked at his watch.

“You know, I should probably go before your room advisor chases me down the street or something.” He said. “I had a lot of fun tonight Skylar. Thank you.” He smiled, kissed my cheek and then ran his fingers against it gently. They felt nice and sent wonderful chills up my spine. Something I haven’t felt since I was with Jasper. With one last goodbye, Austin walked away. I walked into the room and knew I was smiling. Dawn looked up from her book.

“I ruined something, I know it.” She said. I plopped down onto the bed.

“Oh, it’s not big deal. He was only going to kiss me is all.” I said as I gave her a sideways glance. She looked flushed.

“I’m so sorry, Sky. I just didn’t want you two getting in trouble because of curfew is all. How was it?”

“The date was great. I’m glad I decided to give him a chance. I saw sides of him that I never knew he had, and something tells me that there’s still more.” Dawn smiled.

“Well maybe you guys can find more time in your busy schedules to go on another one.” She said as she yawned. She set her book aside. “I think I’m going to get some sleep.” She said good night as she turned out the light and went to sleep. I was thinking that sleep was a good idea. I turned out my light and decided to get some sleep as well.

The next morning Dawn and I parted ways, and I went to my Angelic History class. It was Eric’s favorite class, so I wasn’t surprised to see him as the first one in class. Our teacher was amazing too. I took my seat next to Eric, and Austin smiled at me as he walked in. i gave him a smile back and he sat down in his seat which was further towards the back. Eric’s nose was already stuffed into a history textbook. I didn’t see the need for him to read it. He already knew everything. At least I thought he did. We had new textbooks this year and today we were finally using them. We were told that they had information in them that our old textbooks didn’t. Maybe that’s why Eric’s nose was practically buried in one. The final bell rang. Class was starting. Our teacher walked in as glorious as ever.

Esme Greene looked like a model. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes, with a gorgeous figure that every girl in class wanted. When she walked it was as if she were walking on air. She strode so beautifully through the halls every time you saw her. Esme’s smile always brought a smile to your face. The word going around school was that she and Wyatt’s human art teacher were an “item”. I didn’t blame her for wanting to be with him. Dante Salvatore was a gorgeous man. For someone in his mid-forties anyway. Both Esme and Dante were around the same age, although Esme looked like she was in her mid-twenties and not forties. Dante was an Italian, art teacher with short black hair and hazel eyes. Girls loved his accent (could you blame them?). No one knew if the “rumors” were true, but a majority of the school - including myself - thought they were true. Esme was sporting a cute white skirt and a white blouse with a matching white jacket, and a pair of silver high heels. I always thought too much white was just that. Too much. But Esme always seemed to prove me wrong. She half-sat on the corner of his desk with a smile on her face.

“Good morning class.” She said. I’ve heard a lot of people compliment her voice, saying that it was soothing. The class greeted her. If there was ever an expert on the history of angels, it was Esme Greene. I noticed that Eric had finally closed his book, and was paying attention. I would have thought he could keep his nose in that book for hours, and completely forget the rest of the world around him. “Did anyone have any questions on last night’s homework?”

A kid in the back raised his hand. I think his name was Andrew something. He always sat in the back and never really talked unless he had something important to say. Esme called on him, and he sat up straight in his seat.

“What’s the youngest you can be to become the Lord of Angels? And why do they call it the Lord instead of the King?” He asked.

“The youngest Lord ever documented was Lord Peter Larson at just twenty years old. No Lord has been known to be younger than twenty. By age twenty, most angels have improved their magical abilities, and know how the nobility system works.” She explained. Andrew was hanging onto every word. “To answer your second question, there’s a debate going on saying that they should change it to King, because all Light Angels answer to our own Lord.” She pointed upward and I held my cross, remembering who my real faith was to, even if I didn’t go to church every Sunday.

“I think they should change it to King.” said one girl in the middle of the classroom. Molly something I think.

“Well Ms. Harper, I’m sure you could send a letter to them stating your opinion.” said Esme. Harper. That was it. Esme smiled which confused me. I wasn’t sure if her statement was sincere or sarcastic. I knew she didn’t want to start a debate in her classroom though. Some of the debates usually got pretty out of hand. Eric raised his hand. Eric usually had questions, so it was to be expected, but the question he asked caught me off guard completely. Even Austin.

“Could a Guardian Angel become a Lord?” He asked. Esme seemed a little caught off guard herself, but quickly returned to her normal state.

“I suppose they could. But that would mean that they would have to give up their guardianship. Imagine a Lord running around killing Dark Angels and getting himself into danger.” She said with a giggle. A few other students laughed as well.

“Oh...” Eric seemed pretty disappointed at that.

“But...” Esme added. “If a man thinks he can be a Lord and a Guardian Angel both at the same time, then he’ll be a Lord and a Guardian Angel at the same time.” I saw a smile appear on Eric’s face. I raised my hand. “Yes, Skylar?” I was proud to be on a first name basis with most of my teachers.

“Can a girl become a Lady of Angels?”

“Yes, it’s highly possible. But most girls these days become healers, or in your case, Guardian Angels. Only one woman has ever been named a Lady of Angels, and she died long ago. I believe her name was Lady Desiree.” She said. “She’s one of the few people who started the Guardian Angels. She was one herself. Back then there were very few, but Lady Desiree decided to create a class for young angels such as yourselves. That way, they could grow their population, and more humans would be safe. She was a brilliant woman.”

Classes went by faster than I expected. Eric and I were walking to the cafeteria with Austin, when Wyatt and Dawn caught up with us. Wyatt couldn’t stop talking about how Dante had them free drawing today. Wyatt loved to draw. He could draw, paint and create anything he wanted. He loved drawing anime and Fantasy, but he always painted such beautiful landscapes. Art was his favorite class, and it’s what he wanted to go to college for. Sometimes I wish I could draw as well as he could. All I could draw were stick figures. They were pretty awesome stick figures though. He was telling us about how he started drawing a dragon that was perched on top of a castle, as if he were protecting it. According to Wyatt, that was exactly what it was doing. Austin chuckled as Wyatt continued to talk.

“Wyatt, buddy, slow down there. We get that art is fascinating, but do you know what else is fascinating? Air. Take a breath once in awhile.” He said. All of us laughed.

“Sorry guys, I just love art so much.” said Wyatt.

As we walked to the cafeteria, I stopped. If Eric’s question had caught me off guard earlier, the image in front of me caught me off guard and made me run into a wall. Metaphorically, of course. A man stood in the doorway of the school office, talking with some other recognizable Guardian Angels that I recognized. It wasn’t that guardians were visiting the school - especially in a group like this - because it was a normal thing. What caught me off guard was the guardian standing in the doorway. I wasn’t expecting to ever see him at school. My own father.

Reviews

[Shay]

o.o I need more so :D I gonna go read more.. this is awesome Scoobs

[Tanya Lynn Bendily]

Thanks hehe ^-^