Chapter 8

The two of us stood in silence for a few moments. He finally put out his cigarette; only to light another one. How many could one person have in one night? The smirk never left his face. This was amusing to him. A bunch of questions started to run through my head. Why was he here for me, and who sent him? It had to have been someone who knew my name. There was no way that this guy knew who I was. I had certainly never met him before. I had two options. I could either reach into my purse and grab the other bottle of holy water I always kept just in case, or I could stay put and find out what was going on. If I resorted to the other holy water, I had a decent head start to start running, but I wouldn’t get too far in the sand. Eventually he would catch up to me and I was no match for this guy. Even if he wasn’t a “mother” or a “father” - names Light Angels gave to the more powerful Dark Angels - he was still pretty powerful. I knew when I didn’t stand a chance. My light magic wasn’t advanced enough to kill him or wound him. I would be done. But if I stayed then I could get some answers. Both options raced through my mind at light speed. I realized that I didn’t have much of a choice. I crossed my arms and tried to look as tough as I could.

“Who are you?” I asked. “And how do you know my name?” He chuckled again. This was amusing to him.

“I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Roland Pierce.” He said. I feel like I had heard the last name “Pierce” somewhere before in terms of Dark Angels. I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was something I had to go to Eric about. “As to how I know your name, Miss Donovan, I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. You’ll have to come with me.” This time I laughed. Was he serious?

“Why on earth would I go with you?” His smirk faded slightly, but it was still there.

“I figured that wouldn’t work. My second option is to take you by force, and I have had a very long day trying to find you. I have been all over Los Angeles today, and just as I finally found out where you were hiding, you leave. So I started to track you again, only to find that you had left again. But lucky for me you came right back here, so it was a little easier towards the end. And well now here you are and here I am. Here we are.” said Roland. He sure liked to talk. “So I ask you to please not make this so difficult. I’m tired and I don’t wish to fight you. Although I’m sure it would be quite the interesting fight.”

I wanted to tell him that I doubted that last statement, but instead I just said, “I’m sorry that you’re tired, but I’m not going with you.” This time his smirk vanished completely. He was suddenly standing a lot closer to me than he had before. I had a chance to take off his sunglasses. I know that it wasn’t entirely important, but the sun wasn’t completely down yet. I had to know. I reached up for them as quickly as I could, but again he was faster. His hand was around my wrist again.

“We can make this easier for the both of us. Come with me.”

I tried to pull my wrist free. Whatever nails he must have had began digging into my skin. The more I pulled my wrist, the harder his grip got. Eventually I managed to gather up all of my power and break my wrist free. I looked at it. Three bleeding scratches. I tried to get a look at his nails. There were barely any. How could he have caused the scratches to be this deep? Now he was angry. No, he was pissed. If only I had paid more attention during my magic classes like Eric did. My light spell wouldn’t be so defective against this guy. I managed to get in a good, surprising punch to his face before I reached into my purse. I grabbed my other bottle of holy water. The punch barely affected him, but it caught him off guard enough for me to grab the bottle. I threw it in Roland’s face and started running. It was my only other option. I could hear him screaming in pain until out of nowhere... It stopped. I looked behind me. Roland was gone. I suddenly bumped into someone. They grabbed my shoulders tightly. I gasped when I saw who it was. It was Roland. How on earth did he do that? I had to get a look at his eyes. He snatched my purse and tossed it aside - probably assuming I had more holy water. It was at this moment that I wish I hadn’t accidentally left my cellphone at the beach house.

“This is your last chance to come with me willingly.” said Roland. Damn my stubbornness.

“No way!” I shouted. I contemplated kicking him to break myself free, but he was too quick. I was beginning to feel like there was nothing I could do.

“The Queen wishes to see you, and I’m not allowed to go back home unless you’re with me.” He said.

“Well that’s just so unfortunate for you then, isn’t it?” I kept trying to break myself free. Roland let go suddenly, screaming in pain again. He arched his back and fell to his knees. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Devitri was standing there with a squirt gun filled with holy water. A squirt gun, really? I guess I shouldn’t be questioning his use of weaponry. After all, he did just save me.

“Are you okay?” He asked. I nodded. His gaze shifted down to my wrist. I had totally forgotten about it. I had a decently high tolerance for pain and was able to block it out easily. Devitri walked over to me and took my hand. “Let’s go before he heals and gets up.” With no further protests, I grabbed my purse quickly and we started running.

“Why not just kill him?” I asked. No answer. That made me angry. I wanted to ask again, but realized there were more important things.

When we finally reached the beach house, Devitri opened the sliding glass doors. He stood out there for a few minutes before coming inside. The sun had finally gone down, and most of my friends had gone to bed already. Devitri walked over to a table and grabbed something off of it. He walked over to me. Devitri took my hand and put my cellphone into it. I looked at him.

“You need to be more careful with this. It’s practically your lifeline.” He said. It was true that these days cellphones were practically everyone’s lifeline, but Guardian Angels used it for everything. Healers didn’t even use cellphones as much as Guardian Angels did.

“I’m sorry. I thought it was in my pocket. I forgot that I set it down when we got back.” I said. “How did you know I was in trouble?”

He put his hands into his pockets. He seemed to have been fidgeting around with something in his pocket. He shrugged and said, “Call it a Guardian Angel’s instinct. Something told me I had to come to the beach house, and when your human friend got worried about you, I went looking for you on the beach.”

“Wyatt was worried about me?” I asked. Of course he was. I didn’t even have to ask. Devitri nodded.

“They all were.” He said. He continued to fidget around with whatever was in his pocket. “They’ll be glad that you’re okay.” He walked to the sliding glass doors and walked outside, leaving them open.

“Yeah, I’m okay except for my wrist. And the fact that I inhaled so much of his cigarette smoke. Honestly, I have no idea how someone could pick up such a filthy habit.” I said as I crossed my arms.

“I agree. It is a filthy habit.” Devitri said as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. So that’s what he was playing around with in his pocket. He took out a cigarette and lit it.

“Oh, well... This guy was really bad. I think he was a chain smoker.” I said. What was I saying? I shouldn’t have been justifying any of this. “How can a Guardian Angel pick up such a habit?”

“I thought your father smoked.” I was silent. That completely caught me off guard. I kept forgetting that he was good friends with my father. I hated how he was right. I stood my ground and kept my arms crossed.

“Well as you can see, he quit.” I said. Quitting wasn’t easy for my father. After my mom disappeared, his smoking increased. I stood by him the whole time. Through his mood swings and all the rough patches. Eventually he was able to quit completely. Devitri didn’t say anything else about his smoking habits. Instead he changed the subject.

“You should go inside and check on your friends. I believe two of them are still awake and in the library.” He said. I wanted to protest and lecture him about not changing the subject, but I knew why he changed it. I walked away as he slid the door closed. I walked into the library to see Eric and Wyatt playing chess as usual. It was a small library, but you would have never been able to tell with all the books. They somehow made it look bigger than it really was. Eric looked up from the board. The worry in his eyes turned into relief. Wyatt turned around and got up to hug me. He practically tackled me to the floor.

“Thank God you’re okay!” He exclaimed. He took my wrist and looked at it. “Your wrist... It’s bleeding.” That’s when Eric shot up from his seat. He walked over and took my wrist from Wyatt gently.

“Who did this to you?” He asked. He didn’t wait for me to answer before he began healing the scratches.

“They remind me of demon marks.” Wyatt chimed in. “You know how in those paranormal shows it’s usually the demons that leave three scratch marks? Or some form of evil entity at least. Well, that’s what those look like.”

“The funny thing is that when I looked at his nails, there was nothing. At least, not enough to make scratches this deep.” I said. It was amazing watching them heal so quickly. Getting off most of the dry blood was going to be a pain.

“Who did this to you?” Eric repeated.

“A Dark Angel.”

“A Dark Angel did this to you?”

“Yeah, he said his name was Roland Pierce.” Eric and Wyatt’s eyes widened at the last name. “I was hoping you’d know that last name...”

“Know it? Skylar, it’s practically famous. Do you pay attention in any of our classes?” asked Eric.

“Yes!” I looked at Wyatt. “How do you know about it? You don’t take our classes.”

“I read it in a book somewhere.” He said. Eric let go of my wrist once he finished healing the marks. The three of us sat down. Eric and Wyatt went back to their chess match, sort of, and I sat on one of the reclining chairs.

“Would you two care to enlighten me on how the last name ‘Pierce’ is so famous?” I asked.

“Ezekiel Pierce.” said a voice. It didn’t come from Eric or Wyatt. Devitri walked over to the couch and plopped himself onto it. He was laying down with his arms under his head. “People call him the Angel of Death, but rumor has it that he’s actually a demon.” It would be stupid of us to say that demons don’t exist. In a world of angels, there had to be demons. The thing was that they were very rare, and it wasn’t often that we stumbled upon one. Dark Angels were more common than demons were. Since they were more common, we considered Dark Angels to be the “demons” of our world. Some say that demons were much more powerful than any Dark Angel.

“It hasn’t been proved that Zeke was a demon. He spends most of his time in hiding.” added Eric. “But it’s said that every time someone dies, an Angel of Death who looks a lot like Zeke appears to take their soul.”

“In the book they said that some demons work alongside Dark Angels, acting as if they’re one of them.” said Wyatt.

“You can distinguish a demon by their eyes usually, since most of them hide their true form. If their eyes are red, then you’re dealing with a demon.” Eric said as he moved his bishop. “Demons haven’t made themselves known for years. It’s surprising that one would suddenly show up now.”

“Did you get a good look at his eyes?” asked Devitri. I shook my head.

“I tried but he was wearing sunglasses. At first I assumed he was a mother of father, because he was quicker and stronger than most average Dark Angels, but then he began to do things that I never expected a Dark Angel to do. For instance, the scratches. Dark Angels can’t suddenly grow nails and then retract them.” I explained. “After that, I wasn’t sure what I was dealing with.”

“Here’s my theory,” started Eric. “If he in fact is related to Ezekiel Pierce at all, then he quite possibly might be a demon - assuming the rumors are true. That means you have to be absolutely careful. He’s insanely dangerous.”

“What did he want?” asked Wyatt.

“He wanted me to come with him. He knew my name and said he was sent to find me. He said that he couldn’t go back home to the Queen unless I was with him. Since when did the Dark Angels have a Queen?” I said. Eric made another move right after Wyatt’s move.

“I thought you said you paid attention in class.” He said. Devitri held back a laugh. He cleared his throat to stop himself. I gave Eric a look.

“Just like we have a Lord or Lady to keep control of the Light Angels, the Dark Angels have a King or Queen. They’re usually a mater or pater.” said Devitri, using the Latin words for “mother” and “father”. When he said it, it actually sounded as if it came from a Latin mouth. When I said it, well, let’s not get into that. I chose not to use those words. Another form we were allowed to use were “matron” and “patron”.

“The question is why she wants you...” said Eric.

That was a good question...