Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (31 page)

     “Fine.  This will not take
long.  Oh, and Gwen,” she stopped picking through the contents of her
make-up case, for a moment.  She glanced up, eyebrows raised. 
“Isabel is right.  Grim is not someone you should trifle with.  He
can be dangerous.”  I watched in horror as her eyes lit up.  Asher
had just issued a challenge, and he didn’t even know that he’d done it.

     “I’m not trifling with anybody,
pretty boy.”  The unspoken ‘yet’ hung heavily in the air between them. She
closed the make-up case with a snap.  “And if anyone is trifling with
someone around here, it’s you, not me.”  She nodded towards me.  Was
she trying to get herself killed?  By me?

     “I am not trifling with
Isabel.”  His face never changed expression, but an angry Asher and a
happy Asher look pretty much the same way.  I needed to get him away from
Gwen before she managed to really piss him off.

     “Come on.”  I grabbed his hand
and headed for the door.  “I smell burnt cheese.”

***

     “Your friend is much too arrogant
for her own good.”

     “Noted.”  I grabbed a big,
stirring spoon out of the dishwasher and lifted the lid on the crock pot. 
The aroma of sausage and cheese dip drifted up lazily and made my mouth
water.  “
Your
friend is a psychotic ego-maniac, by the way.  He’s also way too
arrogant.”

     “The difference between them is
that he can back his arrogance with might.”

     “He’s still a jerk.”  I
stirred the queso dip and carefully avoided looking at him.  Until he came
up so close behind me that I could feel the heat radiating off of him.  He
placed his hands on the countertop to either side of me, effectively trapping
me between the counter and himself.  It wasn’t a bad place to be caught, but
it was dangerous for me.

     “Um, Asher, what are you
doing?”  The butterflies in my stomach were going crazy, doing little
dives and swoops.  I jumped a little as he leaned down and rested his chin
on my shoulder.  Oh my, but he smelled so good.  Even better than the
cheese dip, in fact.

     “I am watching you cook,” he
murmured, next to my ear.  I had serious trouble breathing.

     I wet my lips and counted to ten,
slowly.  “Do you have to watch me this closely?”

     “I do not have to, but I want to.”
 His nose brushed up against the shell of my ear and I nearly scalded
myself with cheese dip, when my hand jerked.  “I have given you
space.  I have given you time.  And still you insist on putting
distance between us.”

     Good lord, help me.  I didn’t
want to put distance between us, but there was no choice.  “This is a
little too cozy.  Back off.”  I stuck my elbow in his ribs and gave a
light shove.  Might as well be shoving against a brick wall, for all the
good it did me.  He backed off, but on his terms, and only enough so I
could turn around to face him.  The view was better, but the circumstances
weren’t.

     “If you do not like being so close
to me, then why does your heart speed up when I touch you?”  The grey of
his eyes was darkened, and fierce looking. 

     “Ever hear of the flight or fight
response?” I half-joked.

     “You are not afraid of me.” He
could see straight through me.

     “No,” I admitted, “I’m not afraid
of you, but if I had any sense, I would be.”  I was going to have to tell
him about Fate, and her plans for him.  For us.

What if I never saw him again?  I felt sick at the
thought.  “Asher, I—“

     The heavy beat of ‘The Monster
Mash’ started up in the living room, interrupting me mid-thought. 
“Crap.  You have to get out of here, before we get caught.”

     Asher stepped away from me, just as
the kitchen door swung open and Iron Man came strutting through.  “Get
caught doing what, Izzy?”  James had his helmet firmly in place, this
time, and he’d finally found the visor and flipped it up so he could see
out.  He stopped a few feet from us.  “Who is he?”

     “He’s, um, my friend.”  James
could
see
Asher?  I might have a full-fledged panic attack, soon.

     He nodded to Asher.  “Neat
costume.”  Hunh?  What costume?  Asher had on his usual black
t-shirt and jeans.  What did he see when he looked at Asher?

     “Thank you, little Avenger. 
Your costume is neat, also,” he said, with a small smile.  Asher had
stepped away from me, but he’d kept a hand on my elbow; probably to keep me
from sliding into the floor. 

     I was amazed.  “Do not look so
surprised,” he leaned down and whispered in my ear.  “I may be old, but I
keep up on current events.”

     “Do you guys need any help?”

     I shook my head. There was a nervous
giggle building up in my throat, just waiting to escape. “Nope.  I think
we have this under control, buddy.”

     “Ok.  I’ll go see if Mom needs
anything, then.  See ya!”  He stole a cookie and took off towards the
living room.

     The door closed gently behind James
and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.  “How? 
How can he see you?  And
what
did he see?  He wasn’t afraid of you?”  I was talking to myself, more
than to Asher, I realized.  Seriously, though, how was it possible?

     Asher shrugged in that
non-committal way of his.  “Children his age sometimes see me.  It is
rare, but it happens.  He has not learned to fear the unknown, yet. 
To him, the shadows under his bed are more of a threat than I.  As to
what
he saw when he
looked at me, I cannot say.”

     “That reminds me, I need to ask you
about something.”

     “What do you wish to know?”

     “I need to know about the
Sorrows.  Is there anything that can be done to help them?”

     “The Sorrows?  Why do you
ask?”

     “There’s this little girl. Her name
is Madeleine.  I’ve seen her a couple of times, and I think she may be a
Sorrow.”  As I spoke, Asher’s expression turned from one of confusion to
one of utter disbelief.  “I think she may have died in an apartment fire,
sometime early in the last century,” I rushed on.

     “Isabel,” Asher quietly interrupted
me, “the Sorrows, they know nothing.  They remember nothing.  That is
why they wander, because they do not remember who they once were.  They
hold no hope for redemption; no hope to pass through each life and have the
opportunity to become one with the Divine.  Whatever you have seen, it is
not a Sorrow, I promise you.”

     I listened to him with
disbelief.  “No, Asher, you don’t understand.  She remembers
things.  She understands things.  She even recognized the Reaper who
came for her.  There was a little boy with her, but he’s gone now. 
She told me that something is hunting the ones like her.”

     “Isabel, the Sorrows are mindless
and nearly formless entities.  Whatever she is, be cautious of her, for
she is not what she claims to be.”  His eyes were troubled.  “Be very
careful.  You have a trusting, loyal nature.  It is one of the things
I value most about you, but with that trusting nature comes a certain
naiveté.  You want to believe the best in everyone, but not everyone is
what they seem to be.”  Trusting nature?  Me?  He hadn’t been paying attention,
if he believed that about me. 

     “She asked me to help her.  If
there was something wrong with her, something bad, would she be able to do
that?”

     “A demon would.  It would play
upon your sympathy until it gained your trust, and then it would use that to
its advantage, and attack.”

     “A demon?  You can’t be
serious.”  There had to be another explanation.  Madeleine was
something other-worldly, certainly, but I sensed no evil in her.  “It
makes no sense.  She had an opportunity, already; I’ve spent time with
her, alone.  If she
were
a demon, then why wouldn’t she just go ahead and attack me?”

     “Because you are very strong,
now.  Much stronger than you know, and more than I ever dared hope.” 
He took both of my hands and cupped them in his.  “Watch, and I will show
you.”

     I gasped as the power of his Will
flooded me.  It moved inside of me like liquid gold, calling to the blood,
and searching for the power that was its match.  Our hands began to glow
softly where they met and touched.  The radiance spread into our fingers,
coalescing into a sphere of light as perfectly formed as a soap bubble. 
Silver and gold played together on its surface, blending and separating in a
dizzying display.  It was the strangest and most beautiful thing that I
had ever seen.

     “What on Earth is this?”  My
voice came out as little more than a whisper.

     “Nothing of this Earth.  That,
my Isabel, is magic.  A meshing of Will.”

     “It’s beautiful.”  I couldn’t
take my eyes off of it.  It looked like it held a life of its own.

     “Yes, it is, and it is rare. 
I could not do this with anyone but you.”

     “Could not, or would not,” I asked,
distracted by the dazzling display.  It was fascinating; a physical
manifestation of Will.  It looked so fragile, but this was the power of
life and death, and I held it in the palm of my hand.   I hardly
dared breathe.

     “Both,” he answered.  “I could
not share this with another because no one else could withstand it.  You
are perfectly made to hold my power.”  I glanced up at his warm
tone.  Big mistake.  His eyes burned brightly as he watched me. 
“I would not share this with anyone else because you are my chosen
one.”   

    
“You hold Ashrael’s heart in your miserable, mortal hands.  I want it
crushed.”  
Fate’s words echoed inside my head.  Such
horrible feelings of guilt and anger flooded me that I jerked my hands away
from his, breaking the contact and the fragile magic that bound us.  The
bubble shattered and disappeared as I dropped my arms to my sides.

     Asher lowered his hands slowly,
startled by my violent withdrawal.  “What is it?”

     I crossed my arms over my chest and
took a step back from him.  “Nothing.  Everything’s fine.”

     “Everything is far from fine.”

     “Just drop it, Asher.”

     “You are keeping something from
me.  I feel it.”

     So this was it: the moment to spill
my guts and tell him everything… and I was at a loss for how to even
begin.  I bit my lip and cleared my throat.  I started to tell him, I
really did, but I was totally unprepared. 

     The whole story, in all its ugly
truth was just right there, on the tip of my tongue, waiting to spew out. 
And yet, my suddenly dry mouth remained stubbornly mute.  I had to tell
him, but telling him meant losing him.

     Gwen saved me from answering him. I
was beyond happy to see her.  She rushed into the kitchen carrying a wad
of black material slung carelessly over her arm.  “Here, throw this over
your head, and be quick about it.”  She tossed it at Asher and in the
confusion, he actually caught it.

     “What is it?”  He didn’t look
happy to be interrupted, but at least he wasn’t going to throw her out of her
own kitchen.

     “It’s a costume.  Now, put it
on before my parents come in here and see Izzy talking to herself.”  She
glanced back towards the living room, and danced from foot to foot on
impossibly tall wedges.  They put her at well over six feet tall. 
“Look, I’m sorry I was such a bitch, earlier.  You’re important to Izzy,
and I would like it if you stayed.”

     Asher unfurled the costume and held
it out at arm’s length, eyeing it skeptically.  One corner of his mouth
turned up and a short laugh escaped, almost against his will, it seemed.

     “Asher, what is it?”

     He turned it around for me to
inspect.  It was a long, hooded robe.  The hood had a face mask that
would be transparent to the wearer, but from the outside it was just a blank
mask.  “What else?  A Grim Reaper costume.”

***

     Asher stayed for the party. 
He’d said he had things to do, earlier, but I think he knew it was kind of a
big deal, getting an apology out of Gwen.  Lord knows, most people don’t
ever live to hear one.  Either that, or he was still waiting on some kind
of explanation from me.  That was probably it.

     The living room was standing room
only.  Half the neighborhood had turned out for this year’s Halloween
Party.   Missy had timed it right, the kids were back from trick or
treating, and the grown-ups were hungry for some fun and games, too. 

     We stayed in our little corner of
the room, nibbling on the occasional snack tray Missy trotted past, and watched
the children parade around in their costumes.  Not surprisingly, a lot of
people were naturally avoiding us.  Even if they had no idea Death really
had come for the party, the tall, imposing figure hovering close by my side was
enough to deter most people.

     It was going pretty well, all
things considered, until I felt a hand on my lower back, that didn’t belong to
Asher.  I jumped, startled, and came face to face with Alex dressed as a
sexy pirate.  Oh, no, I had forgotten to invite Alex, but Gwen had
obviously remembered.  Asher stiffened up next to me, and I realized that
inviting Alex might not be a good idea, after all.

     Alex made a really cool pirate,
though. With the silky white shirt and tight black pants, he looked at least
five years older than he really was.  Obviously hoping to impress, he’d
gone all-out and gotten the knee high boots and fake sword to go with his
outfit.  He looked good.  Really good.  His eye patch was
propped up on his forehead as he leaned in to quickly kiss my cheek. 
“Hey, Izzy.  Cool costume.  You look beautiful.”

     The Reaper at my side went on full
alert.  Alex’s eyes widened as Asher’s hand went around my waist and
pulled me against his side.  I couldn’t be certain, since I couldn’t see
his face, but I was willing to bet his eyes were probably glowing red, and I
know I felt him growl, where his chest pressed into my back.