Immortal Fire - Book One

“Damien? How the fuck did you get in here? And anyway, I thought I said that whoever it was must go away…” He rolled his eyes at me and smiled.

“I’m an Angel remember? Doors can’t hold my awesomeness,” he said.

“Is awesomeness even a word?” I asked, feeling more comfortable already, although I was not about to admit it.

“Yeah, it is, believe it or not.” I rolled back onto my back and stared at the ceiling.

“Why are you in here?” I groaned.

“I thought you might want to talk… you look pretty beat up over everything and that Hayden guy seems to be upsetting you too.” I thought about snapping at him to mind his own business, but he was just here to help, so I bit back my tongue. Pushing myself up against the headboard I eyed him.

“Okay, sit then,” I said, watching him.

Damien sat on the edge of the bed, and I could not help but wonder about the tattoos again.

“Why do you guys have tattoos? Isn’t that considered very non-angelic?” I asked.

“Na, it’s our wings in hiding; it wouldn’t exactly be a good idea to walk around humans with wings slapping them in the face. It could cause a few problems…” Damien said. The mental image I conjured up of people being slapped in the face by wings as they walked down the street was hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud.

Damien was laughing too, and I felt my mood brighten.

“So, tell me what control you have over your powers…” he asked.

Sighing, I thought about it, and it made me feel bleak. “Not much; I can use Angel Fire when I am in bad situations but that is more like instinct, I don’t know how I do it. Then there is the water element that I used only once, and I wouldn’t call that controlling it because I almost drowned Hayden and the whole warehouse; his car even took a bad beating…” Recalling the memory sent shivers down my spine. No one knew that Hunter had been the cause of my anger and that he was there. He knew our location… shit!

Damien was looking at the mark on my hand and it was making me feel weird.

“What brought on you bending water? You said that the angel fire was brought on by bad situations…” he asked looking at me. I looked away and my face flushed as I recalled the moment that it had happened. It seemed so long ago, yet it was not.

“I found something out that… hurt,” I whispered.

“It had to do with Hayden?”

“Yeah” I replied.

“What was it that you found out?” Damien asked gently. I bit my lip and fiddled with my fingers as Damien waited for me to answer. Could I tell him about everything; about Hunter...? He seemed like someone I could count as a friend during all this madness, but I had to know him a bit better…

“What’s it like being an angel?” I was changing the topic and he knew it but said nothing.

“It’s overrated…” he stated quite simply. I could not believe it.

“Why?” He laughed and lay down on the foot of the bed and looked up at the ceiling.

“All I ever do is, keep a bunch of ass-wipes from doing the wrong thing; but it’s like trivial things, not like back in the day when it was actually for a higher cause,” he said.

“Did you just say ass-wipes?” I exclaimed. I could not help but giggle. It was so strange to hear an angel speak like that. Damien laughed.

“Yeah, I did, spending too much time around said ass-wipes tends to do that to a person…” We were both laughing and eventually I asked him another question

“How old are you? Because you look like you’re twenty-five or so...?”

“Older than dirt; literally.” He answered casually. That was so difficult to comprehend that someone could be that old and still look so good and have such a youthful radiance about them in every sense of the word.

“So, I guess I better be calling you grandpa from now on then?” I chirped him.

“That would be a compliment. At least you do not have to be protected by someone in a wheelchair or a walking stick… That could get interesting, now that I think about it…” he said. I laughed again and it was the first time since all of this started that I could laugh. I loved it.

“Getting back to a more serious point, what did you find out that upset you?” he asked again. Biting my lip, I gave Damien a once over. This could go so badly if it turned out that I could not trust him.

“Do angels have to keep promises?” I asked.

“Yes...?”

“So, you can never, ever break your promise if I make you promise not to tell anyone what I’m about to say?” I asked, just to be extra sure…

“That’s right…” he answered looking at me strangely. Feeling a bit better, I sat up a bit straighter. “Then promise me that you will never tell anyone what I am about to tell you.”

“I promise.” He declared. He was all business now and I knew that I could trust him. Taking a steady breath, I looked at the door, fearing someone might hear us.

“I know where Hunter is…” I whispered.

“What! Then I need to go and get him and warn the others Aria!” he exclaimed.

“You promised me!” My panic rose as Damien stood up from the bed. He looked at me then away.

“Shit…” he said more to himself. He sat back on the bed and looked me in the eyes, and I could see that he was annoyed that he could not tell anyone.

“Why haven’t you told anyone that you know where he is?” he asked sternly.

“Hunter said that he could help me learn to control my powers; it was him that got me to use the water element. He even told me that I did well before he disappeared, and I fell into that coma…”

“How on earth did he get you to use the water element?” he asked. Now I started to feel my face warm. It was embarrassing.

“He told me that Hayden and Jesse used to be in love and that Hayden came back here for her…” The pain stung as I said it out loud and I could feel my eyes start to gather moisture.

“So that’s why you and Hayden have this weird relationship going on?” Damien asked.

“Yeah.” Damien seemed to feel my pain and wiped the tear away that escaped; betraying how I felt about it all.

“Where is he, Aria?” Damien asked, speaking of Hunter. Taking a steadying breath and pushing my hair over one shoulder, I started to fiddle with my fingers again.

“Aria...?” he prompted

“He’s in Central Park. He said that when I wanted to learn more that I should go there…” I replied.

“Aria, it is a bad idea. It could be a trap,” he said seriously.

“I know that, but then why save my life if he just wants to kill me or whatever else?” I asked.

“That is a good point, but don’t go there; it’s too dangerous. We still don’t know what he is up to and why.” Nodding, I really could not shake the feeling that I should still go to see Hunter and maybe get some answers, but I was not going to admit that now. Damien was clearly against it all.

“Okay, I won’t go,” I said softly.

“Great; well, you should get some rest now and I have stuff I need to go and do…” he said. Damien got up and stood before the bed.

“Aria...?”

“Yeah?” I said, looking up at him.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” And with that, he vanished in a flash of golden light.

“That is so fucking cool…” I whispered, still watching the spot he had been standing in a few seconds ago. A knock on the door pulled me out of my awed state. Groaning that I had to get off the bed, I pulled the door open, and Hayden was standing there.

“You should come downstairs, there’s something you need to see,” he said stiffly.

“Okay…” He did not even wait for me and was already headed downstairs. It seemed like nothing was going to change and it broke my heart just a little bit more. Closing the door behind me I went downstairs and found Hayden, Jesse, and Damien, who got side-tracked from what he was going to do, all standing around the TV. By the sounds of it, they were watching the news.

“What do I have to see?” I asked coming up to them. Hayden, standing with his hands in his pockets nodded toward the TV.

Pushing my way forward and standing between Hayden and Damien, my jaw fell. They were watching the news.