Heavenly Poison

Damien Gray

“Where are you going?” Emilia’s guard dog asked when I began making my way upstairs.

“None of your business,” I replied, very much aware that my tone was hostile.

“Emilia asked me to keep an eye one you.”

“Why would you have to keep an eye on me? Is something going on?” I asked him, daring him to answer.

“Uh…” He muttered, as he nervously ran his hand through his hair.

“She’ll tell you when she gets back.”

I narrowed my eyes at him before shaking my head and continuing on my way.

This time, he didn’t stop me.

“Damien?” Sebastian sounded surprised when he answered my call.

“Something happened,” I interrupted before he made any remarks.

“Are you okay?” Quickly, his voice shifted from one of amusement, to one full-in alert.

“I am. That’s not the problem. Rogues are attacking or attacked, I’m not sure which,” I hastily told him, as I looked out the window in Emilia’s room.

It hadn’t been too hard to find. Although her scent was all over the place, it was mainly concentrated in this room.

“How many Rogues, do you know? Where are you? Is Emilia with you?” He would’ve continued with his questioning if I hadn’t interrupted him.

“I’m not sure how many there are. I’m at Emilia’s house. She isn’t with me. She left some dog to watch over me,” I flatly stated.

I couldn’t contain the grinding of my teeth as I spoke. I was less than happy with Emilia’s arrangement.

“I’ll come and pick you up,” Sebastian said.

“I can come to you. I was just letting you know,” I told him, before disconnecting the call.

I had just ended the call when the phone began vibrating in my hands. It was Sebastian, and he would have continued calling me until I agreed to let him come get me.

Instead of picking up the call, I grabbed my phone and turned it off.

“Damien!” I heard my name being called downstairs.

It was a girl, but it wasn’t Emilia.

I frowned at the door, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs.

“There you are,” a girl said after entering the room.

I remembered her as one of Emilia’s friends from the diner and earlier during lunch.

“Here I am.”

“I’m Lexi, you remember me?”

I nodded, and turned my gaze back to the window. I had to admit Emilia had a nice view out.

“So, what’s up?” Lexi asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“That’s what I would like to know,” I replied.

I kept my voice low, and didn’t bother to look at her.

“Have you talked to Emilia?”

“Yes,” I replied, being vague.

“What did she tell you?” This time when I turned to face Lexi, she was frowning.

“Everything,” I stated.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and I wondered if she had talked to Emilia.

“She told you- everything?” The shock was clear in her voice.

I nodded, and waited for her next words.

“Wow… How did you take it?”

I shrugged, resting my back against the wall next to the window.

“I can’t say I’m surprised. Things make sense now,” I said.

“You look so calm.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” I continued to thread.

“Did she show you?”

“What?” I asked her.

“Did she show you her Wolf? Did she shift in front of you?”

It took a lot in me not to burst out laughing. I would think that if Emilia had sent her friend to keep an eye on me, at least she would warn her that I was just an ‘ignorant human’.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked instead.

Lexi scrunched together her eyebrows and looked in deep thought. Suddenly, her eyes grew wide and her hand moved to cover her mouth.

My best guess was that she was speaking through her mind with someone. Her terrified expression made me assume Emilia was on the other side of her connection.

“Uh…” She mumbled, her face turning a light shade of pink.

I cocked an eyebrow at Lexi and waited for her to finish that thought or give me an explanation.

“I was just joking about that you know,” Lexi nervously said, before awkwardly walking out of the room.

As soon as I heard her footsteps on the stairs, I turned back to the window.

When I looked down, I noticed that the fall was semi-high. A human could surely fall without getting hurt, if they were cautious enough. The shrubbery would ease the blow.

With that thought in mind, I shrugged off my shirt, and proceeded to open the window.

One look around and I could tell no one was outside. I could only hear the wind, and some birds and insects making noise.

Lexi and the other shifter were downstairs.

I swept my eyes through the area one last time. Once I was sure there was no one, I extracted my wings from my back.

A tingling sensation ran from my shoulder blades down to my lower back as my white wings came out.

I looked out again, not able to stop the small chuckle that escaped my lips.

And then, I shot up to the sky.

I laughed after I reached enough height and became invisible. I pretty much had the few minutes it took to get from Mountain Peak territory to our apartment.

“Why aren’t you wearing your shirt?”

Sebastian was on me right after I entered the apartment.

I slipped my shirt on right after he asked. I had lowered myself to the ground fast- it was my attempt to avoid anyone from seeing me.

As soon as I landed on top of the apartment complex, I made my way downstairs and forgot to put my shirt back on.

Luke was standing right next to Sebastian, running his tongue over his lips. His muzzle looked wet, like if he’d been drinking water or eating something.

“I thought you were out,” I shrugged.

“You flew, didn’t you?” Sebastian asked as he nodded to my head.

I ran a hand through my hair to fix it up.

“I told you I’d go and get you,” Sebastian said.

He didn’t sound annoyed, which was a good thing.

“No you couldn’t.”

I walked away from him after that and headed upstairs. He didn’t question me anymore, and I was glad for that.

“We’re going out,” Sebastian told me after about an hour.

I had been lounging around in my room, listening to my iPod for a while.

“Where?”

“We’re going out flying,” Sebastian stated, giving me a wide grin.

Now that sounded like a great plan.

We went to fly at the Wildlife Preserve that Sebastian was supposed to buy soon.

“Is there a reason for this?” I asked.

We were walking deeper into the land. The sky had grown cloudy. It had nothing to do with my gift, although I didn’t mind a little rainfall while we flew.

“We can fly later on. I thought we could talk somewhere private. And I know you might be in a mood after this,” Sebastian said.

He was smiling.

I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he was up to. Smirking Sebastian was a regular. Grinning Sebastian I was used to. A smiling Sebastian- that one was rare.

“This has something to do with Emilia, right?”

“I just have one question and then we’ll get to flying,” Sebastian said, in what sounded like a reassuring tone.

“Alright, get on with it,” I said, as I looked up at the sky, trying to guess if it would get colder later in the night.

“Is this thing between you two serious?”

I slowly turned back to face him. He looked stern, guarded even.

“I’m not sure,” I replied honestly.

“But I really like her,” I admitted.

With that, I walked away from him.

My wings came out from my back on their own accord. As I extracted them, Sebastian came to stand behind me.

“You’ll almost be 17,” he reminded me.

“I know, and I can’t wait,” I grinned at him.

Thinking about my seventeenth birthday had me really excited. Ever since Sebastian got his element, I had been looking forward to receiving mine.

“If she’s the one- and I’m talking about the one that you make big tacky plans with- you can tell her about us. If worse comes to worse, we’ll just get rid of her,” Sebastian nonchalantly said.

I felt my eyes widen, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him anything. I was guessing he could see the disturbed expression in my face.

Without a warning, he burst out laughing.

“That was a joke,” he said, as he palmed my cheek.

I didn’t move from where I was standing, still feeling shocked with the joke he’d made.

“I’m not going to tell her anything. There’s no need for it,” I told Sebastian just as we arrived outside the apartment.

Emilia’s car was parked in front of the building.

I groaned without meaning to.

“Emilia’s here,” Sebastian said.

“I left her house without telling her dogs,” I said, as I rested my head on the back of the seat and closed my eyes.

“You can tell she’s the Alpha’s daughter,” Sebastian said, as he shook his head at me.

“I’ll drop you off so you can deal with her. I need to take care of some things,” Sebastian said.

He unlocked the door and waited for me to get out.

I took my time, not really looking forward to the next few minutes.

I spotted Emilia as soon as I reached our floor. She was slumped on the ground, with her head in her hands.

Her heart was beating erratically, and there was a slight shake in her body.

I closed the distance between us, and kneeled in front of her.

“Emilia?” I asked, moving the veil her hair had created out of the way.

I hadn’t been expecting her to look like she did.

Her eyes were rimmed in red, there was a bruise on her jaw that seemed to be dimming away, and her cheeks were blotchy.

“What happened?” I asked her, running the tips of my fingers over the bruise.

I expected her to flinch at my touch. Instead, she shivered and leaned her face against my hand.

“We need to talk,” Emilia told me, her blue eyes looking really big and worried.

“Let’s go inside,” I told her, pulling her up to stand next to me.

She intertwined our hands as I unlocked the door to the apartment.

We were both quiet as we walked to the kitchen.

“Sit,” I told her, pointing to one of the stools.

She quietly did as she was told and dumped her bag on the floor.

“I’ve been calling you for the past two hours. It’s really late,” she told me.

It had gotten late, but I’d hardly noticed it. So many things had happened today.

“My phone is off,” I told her.

I slipped it out of my pocket, and put it in the counter in front of her.

I didn’t want her to think I was lying. However, I did know that she would’ve been calling me. It was the reason I had kept it off.

“Lexi told me what she said to you,” Emilia quietly mumbled, as I took out a zip lock bag and put some ice in it.

“Your friend is mental. She should probably get checked out,” I casually said.

I walked towards her and softly pressed the ice pack against her jaw.

“You don’t believe her?”

I remained quiet, but kept my gaze steady on her.

“Should I?”

Before she could answer, barks distracted our attention to the ground.

“Luke!” I called out for the puppy that was coming this way.

He was running really fast, and almost tripped a few times on his own legs.

“I can’t believe Sebastian named him Luke,” Emilia said.

She jumped off the stool, and put the icepack on the counter.

I kneeled on the ground, and allowed Luke to put his front two legs over my thighs.

“Hey buddy,” I said, as I scratched the top of his head.

“He’s cute,” Emilia commented.

This time she was looking at him warmly.

“He sure is, right Luke?” I asked, looking down at the pup.

“How did you get out of the house? You were in the second floor and Lexi didn’t see you come down,” Emilia asked.

When I looked up, I noticed the confusion on her face.

“I jumped from the second floor, and walked for a bit until Sebastian picked me up,” I replied, as I continued to look at Luke.

“I can’t believe no one saw you leave,” she said.

“Maybe your friends are slow. And I want to tell you this now, before you start getting ideas. I don’t need your friends to babysit me. I’m not sure why you did it, and I don’t care. If you do it again, it’s over,” I told her.

From my peripheral vision, I noticed her flinch.

I was too much of a coward to look at her expression. As much as I hated it, seeing her hurt would make me give in.

“This is what I came to talk to you about,” she told me, putting her hand on my shoulder to get my attention.

“We’ll talk about it another day. I think I’ve had enough surprises for today.”

She didn’t look convinced, but she still nodded.

“We’re okay though, right?”

Her voice sounded unsure, for once. When it came to our strange relationship, she was always quick to make decisions or the first move. Right now it almost seemed like she was too scared to approach me.

“We’re good,” I nodded.

She smiled- a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Emilia didn’t stay long after that. She said her dad needed her back home. I found it strange that this was the first time she was leaving on her own. Something in her expression didn’t feel right.

“Hey, you okay?” Sebastian asked me the next morning.

I was still thinking over Emilia’s visit last night.

“I’m okay,” I replied, knowing if I told Sebastian anything about it, I’d never get him to shut up.

“Alright, let me just pour Lukey boy some milk and then we can leave,” Sebastian said.

He poured a cup full of milk on Luke’s bowl. I wasn’t sure if he should’ve been giving the pup milk. I definitely knew that it wasn’t right to be giving him fruit loops with it- which was what Seb was doing.

“Why are you…?” I let the question trail off, as I pointed at the bowl with the colorful loops floating around.

“I dropped one in the floor and Luke ate it. He likes them,” Sebastian explained, without giving it a second thought.

I shook my head, but still grinned at the pair.

Emilia wasn’t at school the next morning. Her group of friends was there, but she wasn’t. I didn’t waste my time hanging around them.

Even if I wanted to, it wasn’t like Sebastian would let me. As soon as he noticed Emilia wasn’t there, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

Tania was at his other side, telling him about some party one of the seniors was having tonight. They were celebrating that we had made it through the first week of school.

Everyone seemed more excited than usual. I assumed it was because it was finally Friday.

It had been a long week.

Having my first two periods without Emilia there was slightly strange. She usually turned in my homework, or got up to pick up my handouts. I never carried a pencil or paper, which meant I was left without supplies for the day.

During most of first period, Luke kept his eyes on me. I wasn’t sure if Emilia had asked him to watch me or if he was openly staring because the dude hated my guts. I was hoping for the latter.

Having Sebastian for second period was pretty cool today. We were both really into the project the Art teacher had assigned. It felt like we’d just walked in, when the teacher was telling us to clean up.

“Emilia didn’t show up today,” Sebastian commented, but he kept his curious eyes on me.

“I noticed,” I replied with a shrug.

I had been tempted to text her or call her to ask. In the end, I didn’t.

Maybe it was better that she was absent for the day. It gave me time to think. Too many things were happening too fast.

“Don’t try to pretend like it’s nothing,” Sebastian said just as the bell rang.

He didn’t wait for my reply. He just got up and left.

If he had waited for an answer, I wouldn’t have been able to tell him anything.

Since I didn’t have third period with Emilia, it was the only class that felt normal today so far.

Will, the human who I usually talked to in that class, was there when I got to my desk.

“Hey Damien,” he waved, before going back to the worksheet in his desk.

“You didn’t do your homework again?” I asked him with a chuckle.

“I forgot. Do you have it?” He asked me.

I took out the handout from my back pocket. It was folded into a little square. When Will saw it, he started laughing.

“Dude, what the hell?” He asked, as he unfolded the paper.

“At least it’s done,” I replied with a smirk.

That was enough to shut him up.

Half way through the class, the teacher stopped giving a lesson and gave us time to work on a packet due next Friday.

I was talking to Will, when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” the teacher said, loud enough for the person at the other side of the door to hear.

Most of the class went quiet and stared at the door, wondering who had interrupted class.

I was surprised to find Sebastian standing there, his face looking ghostly.

“Can I help you?” The teacher asked.

“Can I talk to Damien for a minute? He’s my cousin,” Sebastian said.

The teacher looked like she’d been ready to say ‘no’, until Seb added the last part.

“Sure, just don’t take long,”

I walked towards the door, feeling the frown tugging at my face.

“You look sick,” I told him right after he shut the door.

“Were you carrying anything?” Sebastian asked, as he grabbed my elbow and began dragging me away.

Instead of replying, I shook my head.

“What’s going on?” I asked him, bringing us to a halt.

“You don’t have Emilia for third period, right?” Sebastian asked.

“You know I don’t,” I flatly replied.

“I was just making sure. Then you don’t know she just arrived,” Sebastian said.

I raised an eyebrow at this. I wondered where she had been for the first two periods. At the moment though, I was wondering what was wrong with Sebastian.

“I got called to the office. The principal was wondering why both of us skipped our afternoon classes yesterday.”

“Okay?” I answered in a questioning tone, not knowing exactly where he was going with this.

“On the way back to class, I saw Emilia with one of her minions following along,” he continued.

I remained quiet, letting him finish. It was getting annoying that he kept pausing.

“I know she invited you to meet her dad. I just didn’t know how serious this situation of theirs was.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is really bad,” Sebastian muttered, running his hands over his face.

He walked the short steps to rest his back against the lockers in the wall, before sliding down.

I had never seen him so worried about anything, ever before. Not even when his parents kicked him out, or when mine kicked both of us out.

He hadn’t said anything yet, and I already didn’t want to know. I knew being around Wolves could only bring problems. I had told Sebastian that before we moved to a town flooded with shifters but he’d ignored me.

“What’s the problem Seb?” I asked, as I knelt in front of him.

His chuckle surprised me, especially because there was no humor behind it.

“Can you believe those idiots- wait, let me clear it up. Can you believe your idiot mate wants you to get her pregnant?”

Sebastian’s look turned dark and he was clenching his jaw. His knuckles were white from how tight he was making his fists.

I let myself fall to a sitting position on the ground, as I stared at Sebastian with a horrified expression.

What. The. Hell. That was the only thought that kept running through my head as I repeated Sebastian’s words in my mind.