Immortal Fire - Book One

I closed my eyes as if to make my death more bearable, but it never came. The sound of whimpering and snarling pulled my eyes open. Damien was slashing at the dogs with his golden sword and his wings. His wings! He no longer had his usual tattoos covering his arms. His wings were a shimmering white and he spun in a manner that caused the edges of his wings to take down two of the hounds as it sliced through them like blades.

He barely had time to swing his sword in the other direction to cut down the third hound. I could not move. I was frozen in place by fear and awe. The last remaining two of the hounds circled Damien. The sound of something crashing down the hall caught my attention and distracted Damien. The hounds sprung at him.

One got its jaws locked on Damien’s bicep and he tried to pry it off. His flesh began to burn and bubble as the acidic saliva of the hound ate away at it. I saw that the other hound was about to attack him too and that pulled me from my frozen fear.

I did not even think and blasted the hound that was about to attack with angel fire. The hound disappeared with a whimper and left a pile of ash. Damien managed to get the remaining hound from him and plunged his sword through it. Locking eyes with me and breathing rapidly, he fell to the ground.

“Damien!” I scrambled over to him and bent over him, my hair now falling on my face.

He was so pale, and his arm was turning black. His veins were showing black through his skin, as ink ran within them, covering his body. He looked up at me in pain and I was crying.

“You’re an angel dammit! You can’t die from a dog bite!” I was rambling on, but I could not help it. He managed to smile slightly, clearly thinking that what I said was funny. Reaching his hand up, he stroked my face and held my cheek, now wet with tears.

“I don’t want you to die! You better get better right now, or I will march up to heaven myself and kick some Godly ass!” We stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever.

He dropped his hand and went still. His eyes closed and I froze. No! No. No. No! This was not fair! He was my one true friend and I cared too much to lose him now!

The sounds of fighting down the corridor pulled my attention away from Damien’s cold body. I still could get to Hayden and at least save someone I cared about. Looking hastily back at Damien, I bent over him and kissed his forehead. I did not say goodbye, it would be too difficult. I already did not want to leave him here, but I couldn’t leave Hayden either. Standing up, I walked numbly in the direction the crashing sounds of a fight were coming from, leaving bloody footprints in my wake.

Rounding a corner at the end of the corridor, I felt my heart sink and true, undeniable terror wash over me. Before I was in a large room with a beautiful, aviary. It was bigger than any I had ever seen before, but I had seen it – in a dream.

As in my dream, birds lay dead at the bottom of their enclosure. Turning, I saw that Hayden and Hunter were fighting, both bloody from the blows received. They looked like they were trying to kill each other, and if my dream were true, it would be Hayden.

“Hunter, stop!” I barely recognized my voice as Hunter got Hayden into a headlock and was strangling him. They both stopped struggling and looked at me, Hunter still holding Hayden around his neck.

“Well, now who knows her better brother? I told you she would come for you,” said Hunter cheerfully as he slapped hard, yet affectionately at Hayden’s cheek as if to make his point.

Hayden was staring at me as if by mere thought alone, he could force me to turn around and go. Hunter never loosened his hold on Hayden as he smiled evilly at me.

“Aria, I know you’re smoking hot, but the bloody feet and head look, combined with mascara and eyeliner running down your cheeks, I have to say it does you no justice…”

“Go fuck yourself, Hunter!” I shouted, but I had reached my tipping point. Hunter sneered at me, and Hayden started laughing, still being held in the chokehold.

“Well, brother, who knows her better now. I told you she would tell you to go fuck yourself; I just didn’t realize that she would use those exact words…”

“Enough!” Hunter looked like he was done with the jokes and back to being about to kill Hayden. I took a step forward but stopped when Hunter twisted Hayden’s neck slightly. Hayden and I locked eyes.

“Time to say goodbye love birds…” Hunter said.

“No!” I stepped forward again but was stopped again as Hunter pulled out a knife and held it against Hayden’s ribs. I froze. I could not lose Hayden now; not ever. I had already lost Damien and it had broken my heart.

“Aria, go!” Hayden was pleading with me, but I would not listen.

“Take me instead Hunter. It’s what you want, leave Hayden alone!” I said determinedly. All fear was gone for the moment.

“How sweet, but no,” Hunter shouted toward me. “But...” I started to say.

“I said no! There is a greater power at work here angel and it’s his plan… for now.” He said the last part as if more to himself than to me.

I could not change anything anymore and knew my aim was immaculate from practice. I called upon the fire within, and my hand started to faintly glow as I stood there, acting like nothing was going on. Hayden looked at me then my hand and back at me. He could always feel the fire build up in me when I used it. He looked at me for what felt like forever, and I knew what he would have said…

‘Do it.’

Hunter had stopped rambling on about whatever he was saying and opened his eyes in alarm. How could he know! That was impossible!

“No!” he shouted as Hayden shouted “Now!”

I lifted my hand and let the angel fire leave me. It never hit its target though as Hunter and Hayden disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“No! Hayden!” I screamed as I ran toward the spot, they had been in. I felt myself snap from it all. I was in hysterics. I kept running around the room shouting and looking for them, but I never found them. I was crying and rambling to myself when I started toward the door to go search the rest of the building. He had to be here!

I ran into something warm and soft as I was about to exit the aviary and looked up in anguish with teary eyes. My mind must have shattered from all of it. I had gone utterly fucking crazy. That was the only explanation that I could think of.

Standing in the doorway was Damien.

“You’re dead!” I screamed as I backed away, a flood of new tears streaming down my face.

Damien looked at me sympathetically and stepped forward. I slipped from my bloody feet again and landed on the cold floor.

“You didn’t think that a dog could kill me? That’s insulting, to say the least.”

Studying him closely now, I saw that his tattoos were back, and he was bloody. If it was his blood or the hounds, I did not know. His arm that the hound had ripped apart had a golden “V” like symbol on it between the tattoos of his wings. Looking back up at him I studied his golden eyes.

“It’s you?” I whispered.

Nodding he came forward and knelt before me, a small tentative smile on his face.

“Heaven was too afraid that you would march in there and kick their Godly asses.” He reached forward and cupped my face like he did before he had died in the corridor. He helped me up then and started to lead me to the door when the panic of finding Hayden overcame me.

“We must find Hayden! Hunter took him!” I started racing toward the door when Damien caught me and held me back.

“What are you fucking doing?! We have to find them!” I exclaimed with my temper now flaring.

“I know, but they aren’t here Aria. We need to leave. The cops are almost here.” Damien said softly, trying to calm me down.

“I can’t just leave him!” What the hell was his problem? He should be helping me!

“I know that, but we need to go. We can’t do anything if we are in jail.” That sobered me. He did have a point. Something behind Damien caught my eye and Damien noticed. Turning so that we could see what it was, I froze.

“You…” I said aloud in disbelief.

Standing in the corner of the room was a man with long black hair. I suddenly remembered my dream where I stood stuck to the rock and screams filled the air along with the strong odor of sulfur. He was translucent and smiled at me before fading away like a mist.

There was something completely ominous about him and it sent a shiver down my back. Damien was already dragging me toward the door and down the corridor. The shock of everything had made me quiet as I fought with my thoughts. How was I going to find Hayden?

And why was Hunter taking him in the first place when he wanted me? We reached the exhibit room and shards of glass covered the floor and the smell of smoke was heavy in the air. Damien stopped and picked me up, carrying me across the room like I weighed nothing. When he saw my confused face, he smiled.

“You’ve cut your feet enough for one night,” he answered my questioning look.

I had already forgotten about my torn-up feet. The bleeding had stopped when Damien had touched my cheek in the aviary, and I am sure I had lost a lot of blood before then. I felt woozy. The auction hall door was open, and I quickly glanced away. No one had survived.

Sirens sounded in the air outside and a glance at the elevator informed us that people were on their way up. Damien did not seem fazed though as he opened the back door that Hayden and I had entered from and began to descend the stairs.

The Jaguar was waiting for us in the parking area, but I quickly realized a problem. We did not have keys.

“You know, you can put me down now?” I said quietly to Damien as he carried me towards the car.

“I know.” was all he said but he still did not put me down. Frowning at him, I was wondering why he was acting so weird. Finally, he set me down beside the car.

“We don’t have keys…” I started to say as Hayden had the keys in his suit pocket.

“We don’t need them.”

“What? Then how…” I said but was cut off when he smashed the driver’s side window out, climbed in as the alarm wailed, and disappeared beneath the steering wheel. The alarm shut off and the engine roared to life. I could not believe he just did that! Hayden had been devastated over his car when I had broken his windows outside the warehouse, and that was an accident. He had just had them replaced. This, however,…

“Hayden is going to freak out when he finds out what you did to his car…” I said nervously, hoping that he would be back to see the car at all. That car was his baby.

“Yeah, yeah…” Damien did not seem like he cared at all that Hayden thought, and it was kind of humorous, considering the situation. Hayden had been kidnapped, innocents killed, etcetera but here I was, worrying about his reaction when he finds out that his car has been smashed into and stolen by an Angel… it was priceless when you thought about it… or maybe I had just lost my mind tonight.

“Are you getting in or not? I doubt that prison orange is your color doll face.”