Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (27 page)

     I shrugged. “Just some kids that
nearly ran me over.”  I looked for them in the crowd, but they had both
disappeared.

     “Samael.”

     “You rang, Great and Powerful
One?”  He popped up in front of me, holding an elephant ear in one hand,
and a drink in the other.  “Would you like some?  This fair food
isn’t bad.”  He spoke around a mouthful of food, even went so far as to
lick his fingers clean of the sticky stuff coating them.  Sometimes, I
thought he existed just to annoy me.

     I had to control myself.  I
could not afford to damage him; he was my one ally in this mess.  “You
would not care to explain yourself, would you?”

     He glanced at the elephant ear.
“It’s just fried dough with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on.  It’s
delicious.”  He tore off another piece, and stuffed it in his big mouth.

     “Not that, you idiot.  Just
what do you think you are doing, here?”

     He tried to look innocent, but it
was hopeless.  He was not now, nor had he ever been, an innocent.  “I
enjoy a good street fair as much as the next fellow, Asher.  Halloween is
my favorite holiday. Also, much like yourself, my social life is somewhat
lacking.  So I thought I’d come and hang out with you.”  He took a
long sip of his drink. “I thought you might like company while you stalked the
object of your questionable affections.”  He dumped what was left of his
drink and elephant ear into the trash can a few feet away, and brushed the
cinnamon sugar from his fingers.

     I glared at him. “Try again,
Grim.  Start with the truth, this time.”

     “I’m not really sure which thing
you’d like me to explain.  I’ve been really quite busy, lately. We could
be here a while.  Care to give me a hint?”  He leaned casually
against the tree across from me, and waited.  Cool autumn air ruffled his
hair, but I knew he did not feel the cold any more than I did.  We were
impervious to it.

     “Isabel,” I said, through gritted
teeth.  He was being purposely obtuse, probably just to irritate me, and
it was working.  I was irritated.

     “What about her?  Are you
missing her?  She’s missing you, I can tell. Of course, she is here on a
date, so maybe she’s coping better than you are.” Grim pushed away from the
tree and started towards me. “Do you need someone to talk to?  I’m here
for you, you know.”  He raised his arms, and I thought he started to hug
me.  He hesitated, and dropped his arms back down to his sides. “No? 
Ok.  Well, if you need a hug, you know I’m here for you.  Clearly,
you need some time to yourself.”  He started to walk away.

     “Get back here!”  Even though
I shouted it, the humans surrounding us ignored me. 

     Grim stared at me sullenly. 
“There’s no reason to get upset, Brother.  I only tried to hug you.”

     “No reason?  Did you not just
try to give Isabel her memories back?  That was you, playing dress up and
interfering where you should not. Or am I wrong about that?”

     “Oh, that, yes, well someone really
needs to.  The poor little thing looks positively miserable.” He scuffed a
booted toe against the ground as he tried to avoid my eyes.  “If it makes
you feel any better, I don’t think it worked, anyway.  Whatever compulsion
you put on the girl seems to have worked a little too well.  She still
didn’t seem to remember anything, even after I had my little talk with
her.  I think you might have fried her brains, just a little bit. 
I’m sure she can get by just fine, though.  They have those group homes,
nowadays.” His smile brightened after a moment.  “On the bright side, I made
twenty bucks for reading her fortune, so it wasn’t a total loss.” 

     Centuries spent with Grim told me
when he was lying.  He was keeping secrets from me.  I took a deep
breath.  I had to control my anger.  Whatever he had done, Grim had
meant well.  I just had to keep reminding myself of that. “Did it ever
occur to you that I might have wiped her memory for her protection?”

     Grim shrugged, clearly not even
slightly sorry for his interference.  “Did it ever occur to you, that you
might have created more problems for the girl by wiping her memory, than you
solved? Or that she may
want
those memories.  She still has your blood, Asher.  She has enormous
power and potential, and no real idea of how to control it.”

     “If she does not remember, she will
not try to use that power,” I insisted, stubbornly.  Deep down, I knew
that Grim was right, and I hated it. I hated it that he was right. I had done
what I had done to protect Isabel.  The elders wanted to observe her in
her own environment.  I had to prove that she was no threat to
anyone.  By taking her memories I had hoped to leave her as human as
possible.

     Grim’s eyebrow arched,
incredulously.  “A teenaged girl, no matter how self-possessed she may be,
is still a teenaged girl.  There are hormones raging, Asher.”  His
smile was predatory.

     “Oh, do shut up, would you?” 
I did not want to hear about Isabel’s raging hormones.  I had followed her
for days, trying to protect her; watching for another attack.  I knew
Suriel’s word was worthless, and Clotho was insane.  It was only a matter
of time before something happened.  They wanted their pound of flesh. 
Mine, preferably.

     So far, though, everything had
remained quiet. There had been no sneak attacks, nothing of interest at all, in
fact.  Except, I was forced to watch Isabel from a distance.  She was
not sleeping well. Grim was right about that. She had dark circles forming
under her eyes. There was a loneliness to her, now.  She rarely smiled,
and there was no sparkle to her eyes. I could sense a feeling of loss through
the connection of the blood we shared.  And deep down, there was anger.

     I knew she suffered, and it was
hard, keeping myself from her side, but I had to do it.  Fate was like a
shark on a blood-trail, and she knew the girl meant something to me; she just
did not know how
much
she
meant to me.  And I had to keep it that way, for the girl’s safety.

     What I had not counted on, was
being forced to sit back and watch while that idiot boy tried to woo Isabel. It
was none of my business, I had to keep reminding myself of that. In a perfect
world, the boy would be a good match for her.  I kept telling myself that.
I kept
lying
to
myself. Every look, every
touch
that he gave her, enraged me. And there were so many little touches and
looks.  I would be glad to show him where he could place that ugly teddy
bear he had given her.

     Isabel was mine.  She had
looked on me, known my true nature, and still she had smiled and trembled in my
arms.  I glanced down at my aching hand and was unsurprised to find that
my fingers had distorted into claws and sliced my palm open. My hand squeezed
into a fist.  Hot blood ran between my fingers and spilt to the ground. 
It hurt, but I enjoyed the pain.  I felt remarkably violent.

     “Did you hear a word that I just
said?”  Grim watched me with shrewd, black eyes.  “You didn’t, did
you?”

     “What,” I snapped at him.  I
really was not paying attention to him, as I should have been, but I was not
about to admit to it. I started walking towards the crowd.
     

     “I said, you’re acting like a fool.
A jealous fool, to be exact, but that’s alright; it makes me like you
more.  You seem more human, this way.”  Grim walked along next to me,
keeping pace with his hands in his pockets.  He did not have to be
insulting.

     My attention was on the Ferris
wheel. Isabel walked that way, with the boy, in spite of the fact that she was
terrified of heights. “Do find something to occupy yourself, Grim.  And
please, stop trying to help me.”

     “Fine.  I can see that you
have everything under perfect control, as usual.  Try not to kill the boy,
if you can help it.  He isn’t ripe for harvesting, yet.” 

     “Your concern is touching, but I
have more self-control than that,” I said, through gritted teeth.

     “Do you?  I’m beginning to
wonder.” Grim chuckled to himself.  He was getting way too much pleasure
from my predicament.  “Alright, Brother, I can take a hint. I think I’ll
just go see what the blonde is up to,” he said, casually.  “Maybe I’ll
even read her fortune for her.  I’m sure she can use a babysitter. 
That mouth of hers usually lands her into trouble.”  Grim had no room to talk
about anyone else’s mouth getting them into trouble. 

     The blonde.  He had to be
talking about Isabel’s friend, Gwen.  He was being coy, but I knew he had
taken more than a passing interest in the girl. In spite of the fact that he
had always had a particular dislike of humans, in general.  From what I
could tell of the girl, she also had a particular dislike of humans.  They
should make a delightful couple.

     “Good idea, you do that.” I
probably should have put a stop to it; no good could come of his obsession with
a human girl.  If anyone knew that, it was I, but if it kept him occupied
and out of my way, then I was all for it.  Let him take up stalking for a
hobby.  I had my own problems. Grim clapped me on the shoulder and took
off in the opposite direction, whistling happily to himself, with a bounce in
his step.  Silently, I wished him happy hunting.

     I found Isabel just as she was
strapped into the hard, plastic seat of the Ferris wheel. She bit her lower lip
and held onto the safety bar with a white-knuckled grip.  The boy smiled
and whispered to her as they left the ground.  Whatever nonsense he had
uttered fell on deaf ears.  The seat swayed as the wheel turned. Always
the color of ivory, Isabel’s face lost even more color, the higher she rose in
the air.  Even her lips, usually a shade of rosebud pink, lost their
color. How on earth he had talked her into such nonsense, was beyond me. 
Idiot boy.

     The ride was obviously old and
possibly dangerous.  There were spots of painted-over rust flaked off in
great strips.  Below the garish carnival music pumping over the speaker
system, I could hear the cough and wheeze of the motor, as the wheel rattled
along.  No wonder she was terrified. Theirs was the last car loaded, so at
least she did not have to suffer the constant stop and sway as others were
loaded onto the ride. 

     Music played, long and loud as the
wheel spun round and round.  Isabel went quickly from ghostly white to a
startling shade of green.  I watched, fascinated, and waited for that
magical moment when she would throw up on her date.  My evening was
looking up.  There might be some entertainment, after all.

     The ride slowed down as it ground
to a stop and each couple returned to earth.  As they were the last ones
on, Isabel and the boy were the last ones let off.  At the very top of the
wheel, the boy leaned across to steal a kiss.  It seemed to be happening
in slow motion.  His arm crept up behind Isabel’s shoulder and when she
turned towards him, he leaned in with purpose.

     I did not mean to do it.  I
certainly did not plan it.  Yet, somehow I found myself
replacing
the boy. 
There was a split second of shock, and anger, so profound that it swallowed
reason.  I had never felt anything like it before, and well, I simply
could not stop myself.  One moment I was on the ground, watching the boy
as he clumsily leaned in to steal a kiss at the top of the Ferris wheel, and in
a breath I had replaced him. 

     The wind clawed at me as I settled
into the hard, plastic seat next to the girl I wanted so badly. Isabel was only
a breath away from me.  Her eyelids had already fluttered closed. She
smelled softly of vanilla and coconut, and that halo of dark hair was loose in
the wind, tempting me beyond all measure. I could not stop myself.  I wanted
a taste of mortality. Come what may, and whatever devil there was to pay, I
wanted her. For one brief, and shining moment, I wanted to hold her close to
me, again.  No matter the cost.

     I gathered her into my arms, and
she came willingly, even letting go of the death-grip she had on the ride’s
safety bar.  I lowered my lips to hers softly, carefully: I was almost
afraid of hurting her. Her lips were soft against my own as she kissed me back.
Shyly at first, then with growing passion, she melted into me.  It was the
sweetest thing I had never imagined.  With a soft gasp, our kiss
deepened.  My heart raced, as my blood sang, and that bond that held us so
closely, fused us closer, still.  The monster inside of me smiled, then
demanded more.  And I was helpless to deny him, because I wanted more,
too, and in the end, the monster and I are the same.

     Isabel’s arms went around my neck
and pulled me closer, with surprising strength.  It was like she could not
get close enough to me.  She curled her delicate fingers into the hair at
my nape, and deepened the kiss, even playfully biting at my lower lip. She lay
half-way across my chest.  If not for the safety bar digging into her hip,
I would have dragged her onto my lap.  I thought my heart would
burst.  Everything about this girl was made for me.  She was
perfect.  She was
mine
.

     And she thought she was kissing the
boy.  Such a cold, horrible sensation filled me, at the thought; like
someone were digging my heart out with a dull knife. 
She thought she was kissing the boy.
 
I caught her hands, and stilled them.  This was wrong; it was all
wrong.  She sensed the moment I began to pull away from her.  Not
once had she opened her eyes.  She rested her forehead against mine,
breathed heavily, and groaned a little in frustration, or possibly,
disappointment.

     “What did you do with my date,
Asher?”  She said it so softly, and breathlessly, that I almost did not
hear her.   

     I went still.  “You knew it
was me?  The whole time?”

     She opened her eyes slowly, to look
at me, and they sparkled with emerald fire.  In the depths of the emerald,
glowing like banked coals, was the faintest glimmer of ruby red.  Her eyes
glowed like a Reaper’s.  It was shocking, and exciting to see the way she
reacted to me. “Of course, I knew it was you, the whole time.  I’m not
stupid.”