Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (7 page)

     Alex couldn’t stop laughing. 
Sometimes I have less filter on my mouth than Gwen, and she has zero filter on
her mouth. Sometimes, the stuff that came out of my mouth was as much of a
surprise to me as it was to anybody else.  Some of it was just appalling.
Still, I didn’t want to get our asses kicked by the stripper/Vampire.

     I picked my way through the
tombstones; not an easy job considering all the fog pouring up out of the
ground.  There weren’t many stars in the sky, either. Visibility was crap,
not to mention, every few feet someone would either kick open a coffin or grab
at our ankles.  Eventually, that all kind of just disappeared, though.

     This section of the haunted house
appeared to take the longest.  It seemed to go on forever, in fact, and
the farther we went, the quieter everything got.  That was surprising
since for the last half hour, we’d been exposed to chainsaws, thumps, screams,
howls, giggles, and bad parlor music.  The quiet was almost more
unsettling than all of the noise.  Totally unnerving, in fact.  That
was the point to a good haunted house; to get under our skins, and it certainly
worked.  They did a five star job at creeping us out.

     Finally, I just stopped and looked
around as I tried to get some idea of where the exit was.  The funny thing
was, we were alone when I really looked.  No cheesy vampires, no weeping
ghouls, no actors, no thrill-seekers.  No people at all.  And the
fake tombstones were starting to look surprisingly authentic.  Some of
them were even pitted with age and exposure to the elements.  I put my
hand down on one and scraped it on real stone.

     “Um, Alex, does this seem right to
you?”

     “What?”  He’d been fiddling
with his cell phone, checking the time, probably. “Damn. Dead battery.”

     “Where is everybody?”  I
pointed around us.  Nothing but fog and darkness and emptiness.  I
could barely make out the tops of a few really tall tombstones.  The fog
was so heavy it almost felt like mist against my skin.

     He looked as confused as I
felt.  “What the hell?”

     A deep voice started laughing from
behind us.  “Not quite Hell, but it will do, for now.”  Demon clown
walked out of the fog and I saw Alex start to bristle.

     “What’s going on?”  Alex tried
to remain calm, but there was something terribly wrong with this
situation.  The tension in the air was thicker than the fog.  Things
were about to get out of control.

     Then, the strangest thing
happened.  The clown started to melt.  Literally.  He melted
like a freaking candle all the way to the ground.  My mouth hung
open.  I had seen some weird stuff in this haunted house, but this was
above and beyond strange.  I almost wondered if they’d put some kind of
air-borne drug in the fog machine juice; something to make us hallucinate.

     “Did you see that?”  My voice
came out in a whisper, so low I barely even heard it myself.

     “Yeah.  Time to go,
Izzy.  Now.  Run!”  Alex grabbed me by my arm and started to run
back the way we’d come.  The puddle of clown goo started bubbling before
we got past it.  What came up out of that mess was even worse than a
psycho clown.

     He was big and scary, for sure,
with dark hair and almost black eyes.  The teeth didn’t look quite as
sharp, but I was pretty sure he could, and would, take a bite out of someone,
given half a chance.  The truly horrifying thing, though, was the
wings.  He came up out of that goo stark naked, covered in blood, and from
his back rose enormous, black wings.  Not those cute little cherub wings
you see at Valentine’s Day on all of the Cupids.  No, these things were
huge; arching high above his head and stretching down almost to his bare
feet.  My mind went totally blank.  I think I was too scared to scream.

     Luckily, Alex didn’t
hesitate.  His fist doubled up and he hit whatever the hell that thing
was, right between its eyes.

     The angel or demon or whatever he
was, roared and went down when Alex hit him, but it bought us only a few
seconds.  I felt Alex’s hand between my shoulder blades, shoving me
forward, urging me to run, even before I heard him screaming at me to haul
ass.  My father didn’t raise an idiot, and I didn’t need an engraved
invitation.  Whatever that thing was didn’t look like it had been part of
the original haunted house.  I may have been in mild shock, but those
wings looked real.  Which made running an awesome idea.

     My leg muscles burned and my lungs
screamed as I ran.  If I lived through the night, I swore I’d join a gym
and get in better shape.  Still, I somehow managed to outrun Alex, even
though his legs were twice as long as mine.  I doubled back, grabbed his
hand, and dragged him along with me.  I couldn’t see the exit
anywhere.  All I could see was the damned fog and it was only getting
thicker.  So thick, in fact, I was almost afraid to keep running for fear
of taking a nosedive over one of the tombstones littering the cemetery.

     No sooner had I thought about
tripping, than I did it.  I kicked something in the fog with the toe of my
sneaker and went flying forward, my heart in my throat.  Crap, oh crap
this was bad.  I’d lost hold of Alex’s hand when I fell.  Calling out
to him seemed like a huge mistake with that thing coming after us.  I lay
stunned for a second on the wet grass, and tried to quiet my heavy
breathing.  My palms burned from where I landed against hard ground, and I
was probably bleeding in a couple of different places.

     My heart beat so hard that I swear
I could hear it.  If I could hear it, I wondered if the monster chasing us
could, as well.  I got onto my hands and knees as quietly as I could,
listening for any sign of Alex, or the thing coming for us.  I heard
quiet, careful steps coming up behind me and my heart stuttered with fear.
 Sweat prickled along my scalp, and I grew a little dizzy.  I let out
the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.  Better.

     “Come out, come out, wherever you
are!  Pretty little abomination that you are; I won’t hurt you.  Come
to me and this will be as painless as possible, I promise.”   His
voice made chills run down my spine.  He sounded almost happy, and crazy
as hell.

     I stayed low to the ground and
moved as quietly as I could, away from his voice.  I was surprised to be
as far away from him as I was. It didn’t seem possible.  Hell, the thing
following us wasn’t possible either; angel or demon, or a little of both. 
I stifled a nervous giggle.  “What big wings you have…”  Not a good
time to crack up.  I had to find Alex and get the hell out of Dodge.

     I moved slowly, feeling carefully
along the ground, as I went.  Ok, so think, Izzy.  No weapon, no sign
of Alex, no cell phone, nobody to hear you scream.  Ooh, not a good
thought, at all.  All I had going for me was the fog acting as cover. So
nothing much going in my favor.  If I found a good-sized rock I might be
able to bash him in the head, but it was a long shot.

     His steps came steadily towards
me.  He didn’t seem to be in any hurry.  It was almost like he herded
me towards something.  “Marco!”  Seriously?  The jackass wanted
to play Marco/Polo with me?  He almost sounded like he was bored.  I
really wished I had some way to kick his ass, if for nothing else than being a
jerk.  On the other hand, if he were still after me, then maybe Alex had a
chance to get away.  Unless he was lying helpless and unconscious. 
The thought made me sick, and I tamped it down quickly.  Thinking like
that wouldn’t help.

     I felt a change in the air around
me a split second before the large hand came down and covered my mouth.  I
started to fight, to bite, but then that scent hit me.  Leather and
spice.  I went utterly still, my hand still wrapped tightly around the
wrist holding me.  I was afraid to turn around, afraid to breathe.  I
was pulled up against a broad chest and just the barest whisper tickled my
ear.  “Do not be afraid.”

     Oh. My. God.  I knew that
voice.  I knew those words.  It took nothing and I was back at my
wreck, terrified and alone, and then that voice, comforting me.  It was
too much.  My heart literally stopped and the next beat it took felt like
someone punched me in the chest.  In that moment, it didn’t matter that I
was being chased by a monster, or that Alex was missing, and we were about to
be killed.  I wasn’t crazy.  I turned around slowly, half afraid that
he would disappear again.  I looked up and it was him.  Dark,
storm-grey eyes, tousled blonde hair. My stalker.  I’ve never been so
relieved in my life.

     I opened my mouth to say something,
but he pressed a finger to my lips to quiet me.  Oh, yeah, there was a
freaky big monster still running around wanting to kill me.  How silly of
me to forget.  His big hand swallowed mine as he started to tug me
along.  I planted my feet and dragged him back.  It surprised me that
it had any effect on him at all; he was huge.  “Alex.”  I mouthed the
word, trying to be as quiet as possible.

     He leaned down, his breath hot
against my ear.  “He is safe.  I got him out.”  And just like
that, I believed him.  Even though I had no real reason to.  He grabbed
my hand and took off at a steady run.  Somehow I managed to keep up with
him.  Lord knows how, because running has never been my thing, and he
moved
fast
.

     Warning bells went off in my
head.  Wasn’t it awfully convenient that he showed up right when we were
about to be murdered?  Sure he looked harmless…well not harmless at all,
really.  He looked kind of dangerous, in all honesty, but if he’d wanted
to hurt me himself, he’d had every opportunity in the past few weeks. 
Still, was mindlessly following him a good idea?  My heart beat a mile a
minute and I shook as the adrenaline burned out of my system.  My grandma
used to say, “Better the devil one knows, than the witch one doesn’t.”  I
was beginning to understand what that meant. 

     On one level, I must have trusted
him.  That spiced scent of leather was unmistakable and it had been with
me constantly, since my wreck.  He was definitely the guy I kept seeing so
it was good to know I wasn’t going crazy.  On the other hand, this whole
thing could have been an elaborate Halloween prank gone terribly wrong.  I
remembered the black wings on the monster following us.  They sure as hell
looked real, but then really expensive props always look better than cheap
ones.

     Speak of the devil.  I heard
him picking up speed behind us.  He wasn’t even trying to be sneaky or
quiet.  It would only be a matter of minutes before he found us.  My
would-be rescuer stopped suddenly; I nearly ran into his broad back in the
dark.  Why were we stopping?

      He leaned down to whisper;
his lips tickled my ear. God help me, but that smell he gave off was
distracting, even under those circumstances.  “I have to get you out of
here.” He had a strange accent, it seemed to be a mix of several different
languages.  It was light, but also clear that English wasn’t his first
language.  “Do you trust me?”

     Now that was the question, wasn’t
it?  Did I?  I had no doubt that he’d pulled me from my wreck. 
He’d saved me then.  He was trying to save me now. “Yes.”

     One word from me, and he grabbed
me.  I started to protest, but the words caught in my throat as the black
t-shirt shredded. Enormous black wings burst forth and snapped open at his
back.  What the hell?  What
was
he?  What had I gotten myself into?

     My mind went stunningly
blank.  I couldn’t even protest when he pulled me closer. “Hang onto
me.”  I felt air beneath my feet.  Hang onto him?  I would have
crawled inside his skin, if I could have gotten away with it.  I was
terrified of heights.  “Isabel, don’t look down.”  Too late.  I
got a dizzying view of the cemetery from several stories up in the air.  I
buried my face in his throat and clung to him with everything I had, praying
the whole time that he wouldn’t drop me.  I was sure I was about to die of
a heart attack. Or crap myself.

     I followed them through the haunted
house, only slightly bored by all of the sound effects and cheap tricks. 
It was nothing like a truly haunted house, mind you, but it was not bad for an
evening’s entertainment.  I found myself on edge, possibly nervous. 
Would she accept me?  Would she run from me? It was strange torment, but
soon it would be over.  I could finally let myself be known to her. 
I hoped to be able to see and touch her without hiding myself in the shadows,
or making her believe I was a dream.  A smile played on my lips.  The
anticipation was sweet to me.

      I had tried to come up with
an easy plan to introduce myself to Isabel.  This sham rescue was Grim’s
idea, yet somehow he had managed to get himself attacked.  Served him
right.  I should have never listened to him, but I could think of no
better way. 

     Isabel was changing quickly. 
She needed to understand where her new-found abilities came from, and she
needed to learn to control them before something terrible happened.  Her
friend was not coming down with an illness, Isabel was literally draining the
life from her, through casual contact.  Actually showing her what I was
from the beginning seemed like the best course, although I saw it going better
than it had. 

     In the past few weeks I had grown
to know Isabel’s temperament a little.  Just coming out and telling her I
was Death would never work.  A skeptic to the bone, she had to see to
believe.  Even then, I felt sure that she would argue the impossibility of
it.  So I would give her proof from the start.  It seemed like the
best course of action.

     I watched, fascinated, as Grim got
knocked to the ground by the boy.  I knew he was surprised more than
hurt.  He roared in anger and indignation.  This was not turning out
to be his evening.  The nasty little trick he pulled with the spider
earlier was not his finest moment, either. He should know better than to go
around scaring young girls, just for fun.  I should have stepped in
sooner, but I felt he had it coming and I enjoyed the show.

    The proper thing, the sane thing, to do
when you are attacked by a creature straight out of nightmare is to
run
.  These two, however, apparently did
not know the sensible thing to do in this situation.  That stupid boy had
to go on playing the hero.  Something might have to be done with him,
eventually.  He spent most of his evening trying to touch Isabel; hold her
hand, rub her shoulder.  I wondered if he realized how indifferent she
really was.  She smiled at him, but her eyes did not light up as they
should have.

    “Time to go, Izzy.  Now. 
Run!”  Well, attacking Grim was not very bright, but you could not fault
his bravery.  Common sense must have won out, because they did run,
finally.  Isabel could run like the wind, as it turned out.  It
almost took my breath away, in fact; she was small, but graceful, with a
certain elegance to her movements. 

     I stopped long enough to make sure
Grim was alright.  His eyes were red from more than the hit he had
taken.  His pupils were lit from within.  He looked like he was about
to make a harvest.  I grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.  He
calmed down almost instantly.  He had just had his ass handed to him by a
teenaged boy.  That had to sting a little.  He grimaced; even he could
appreciate the humor in that.  Things had almost gotten out of
hand.   Samael was just supposed to scare them, then fly off with
Isabel so I could “rescue” her.  Only somehow things had gotten turned
completely around and Grim was almost the one in need of rescue.

     I sighed.  The evening was not
a total loss.  I could still salvage the situation.  “I think you
have had quite enough fun tonight, Grim.”

     “I was only getting warmed
up.”  He smiled that shark’s smile and I could see why he was such a
nightmare, for some.

     “I have to go rescue Isabel and the
boy before she kills them both by accident.  Your services are no longer
required, but thank you for the help.”

     Samael chuckled, all traces of his
anger gone now.  “Hang on.  We have to make this look good. 
Give me a few minutes to chase them.  Then you can rescue your girlfriend
and I can be on my merry way.  You owe me for this, by the way.”  He
fluffed his wings up and suddenly reminded me of a large rooster.  I felt
sure that he would not appreciate the comparison so I wisely kept my mouth
shut.  Inside, I smiled.  I was having more fun with this than I
should have.

     It took Grim very little time to
terrorize the girl. He was frightening; he should have been, after centuries of
practice.  All black wings and blood-red eyes; he looked like a demon
straight out of Hell.   I caught the frantic rhythm of Isabel’s heart
and followed it.  She had fallen in her head-long rush to escape. 

     It would have been more convenient
to knock Isabel out, as her friend had already managed to do to himself, but I
needed for her to see me as I really was.  Like it or not, she was
becoming something
other
,
and there was much explaining to do.