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Chapter 4
Wings of Light
For the first time since my arrival on this planet I didn't know where the sun lay in the sky. Ever since I was thrown from Haven, and until what seemed only moments ago, I had always felt the sun searching for my flesh. There had always been that subtle tug in the universe seeking to punish me, and now it was gone. As strange as it might seem, I mourned the loss. It was familiar, and one of the few constants in my reality that never wavered. Now it was gone.
I wanted to go to my brother, but knew the druids would return, and decided that venture could wait for another day. Besides... I wanted to marvel in the vibrant colors of the world with my own eyes just once, without the sting of my father's disapproving glance. If this one thing were possible... then my soul had a future.
"What time is it?" I asked sweet David, and watched the wonder in the depths of his emerald eyes unfold as he looked up at me. In a way, I suppose it showed a weakness, but I didn't mind this one.
"It's almost dawn." His timid voice comforted me, and I wanted more than anything to share this with him.
I offered him my wrist, and he stared back at me in fear.
"Drink." David hesitated and then moved in closer and cradled my arm as if it were a new born child.
After a moment I felt his teeth sink into my flesh, and I watched his eyes fill with the black of my blood as he drank. The feather-soft damp of his lips fluttered against my skin and I relished the subtle tug of his draughts. The sensation as he fed was shear rapture and I hoped it would never end.
Folding my wings around him, we moved upward into the dawn. I held David close as he fed, and we lifted high above the many buildings, birds, and goings-on of the world below. I felt his body convulse as I clutched him to my chest, and tears sprang from my eyes. This one... if I gave love a chance, would live forever, or until the veil failed and darker creatures filled the world.
We raced toward the sky and through the clouds. Beyond the mists of the clouds, pillars of light formed and I halted our assent. I could see a hazy image of Haven stretched along the horizon. It was a world I wanted to share with him, and so I let him drink even more. We couldn't enter now, but maybe one day. Time didn't possess the painful edge it once had. I suppose life delivers illusions of hope to all creatures with a soul.
We drifted down to the world and settled on a forgotten expanse of sandy shore. Small white crushed seashells that made the sands collected between my toes, and I spun around while David lay in the protective recess between my wings and chest. I held him safe and close, and lost myself in the absolute rapture as he fed yet again from my neck. To describe it as anything less than total bliss would have been an understatement.
The island was small, and the sultry air pressed against my skin as we lingered in our embrace. Moist, sweet scents of wildflowers and jungle drifted past my nose as I gazed at my first sunrise in centuries. The sun had already risen above the horizon and painted the sky with a depth of red and gold I had all but forgotten. The clouds were purple in comparison, and were edged in a crimson glow that made them appear on fire.
David resisted, as I pulled him from my chest, and clung tighter to my neck. He was lost in my blood and had no intention of relenting.
"You must stop now. I have something to show you." He didn't hear or totally ignored my words.
Pushing against him again, a bit more firmly, he still resisted. I didn't know if the sun would burn his flesh if I spread my wings, but I knew that I could heal almost any wound. A few moments passed, and I tipped my head back with my eyes closed, embracing the warmth of the sun on my skin. Stretching out my wings, I let my father's eye touch David's flesh.
His pale form bronzed almost instantly, but didn't burn, and I heard him gasp. Looking down, I found two black orbs staring back at me. He was drunk on my blood and the daylight had somewhat sobered him.
"Turn and see the sunrise, David." I whispered the words to him and waited for him to understand their meaning.
The deep green that made his eyes glow with life had been swallowed up by my blood, but I knew that they would shine back at me, with time. Even the whites had long since disappeared and the blackened fright that blazed back at me gave me pause. I took hold of his shoulders, as he loosened his grasp, and then spun him around to face the dawn.
"Look at it David. Look at what the Druids have given us." We stood and marveled as the sun painted the horizon.
It was no longer my father's eye that colored every corner of life as I looked out to the ocean. Now the sun was only a raging ball of gaseous fire that warmed this little rock as we race through space.
"Take me home, Asher." David spat the words with the same venom that seethed through him during our first encounter.
"Why do you speak to me this way, David?" I was so shocked by the sudden outburst that I couldn't hide the surprise in my voice.
"You've made this world my prison!" he yelled, and spun around so fast I was barely able to dodge his fist as he swung at me.
"Calm yourself. I've done nothing more than give you the daylight. Control yourself, or I will destroy you where you stand." I still couldn't understand the sudden change in mood, and I wasn't sure now if I wanted to.
"I can still die?" The look of shock on his face made me laugh.
"Of course you can. Did you really think my blood would make you indestructible? Did you not witness my defeat at the hands of two young boys?" I had to catch my breath and compose myself.
The hurt and confusion on David's face begged an explanation.
"The power the Druids wield is older than my own. It was given to them by my father, and through him, my mother. This body is just a thing. Once upon a time I yearned for death and let my father's gaze eat at my skin, but it wasn't enough. Now, the sun no longer stings our flesh. Simply because we can walk in the light of day does not mean we are eternal. I've learned that lesson quite well." The thought gave me pause, and it was one I would revisit in the near future.
"In essence... The druids, even though they are not Slegna, are as much if not more than we are, because of the gifts they have been given. There are some things even we Slegna cannot do. More specifically, we've not been given the 'Killing Touch'. The druids have this gift, or at least the one called Bry does. Can the Druids still die? Yes. They, like us, still have weaknesses. This, the sun, is simply no longer one of them." I stretched out my arm and felt the orange glow warm my skin.
"We should kill the Druids." David's voice was suddenly flat and without emotion.
"A moment ago you lamented your inability to die, and now you wish to destroy the one thing you needed so desperately? I do not understand you David." I watched as he lifted his head and I gazed into his lost eyes.
The whites were returning and the center of emerald green was peering through the darkness once more.
"You just said that your mother and father could destroy us. What if the Druids decide to hunt us down for being the monsters that we are?" he asked as his eyes pleaded with me.
"If you wait for my mother's or father's attention, you may wait forever. I gather now that you welcome death, but only on your own terms. You want it there for you at your own convenience. That isn't living, David. I've waited centuries on this planet for my father's forgiveness. It has never been given, and somehow I doubt it ever will." I answered him as best I could. In a way, I suppose I've had the same questions during my time here.
"I think living is knowing that death is coming. That knowledge is a reminder that we must experience each day to the fullest. Until last night, I did not fear death because I thought it was impossible. For my kind, living has always been becoming more than what we are; to advance ourselves and our understanding of the multiverse," I continued, and tried to explain, as much to myself as to him, why I now wanted to live instead of only exist.
Long ago I lived in a place that knows no boundary. My world is called Haven. I've watched stars born and fade into nothingness long before this world came to be. My father took a great interest in your world, as did we all. You, as a species, have such great potential, and will some day evolve beyond your physical bodies in ways you cannot yet comprehend. Or... you may destroy yourselves at a moment's notice. I suppose it is this paradox that draws our attention.
As I watched your minds and spirits grow, one of you in particular caught my attention, and I was punished for it. We were not to interact with, or impact on, your existence in any way. I fell in love with a human named Jacob. Humans took him from me, and I went deep into the earth to sleep. I existed in a kind of half life for centuries, watching the lives of others, like one might sit in front of one of your televisions, instead of experiencing my own.
This time pulled me from my sleep. Your people and this world are at a crossroads. The deep beat and emotion of music in this age drew me up, and to you, the other reason I wish to live instead of exist.
You see, David, it is easy to become lazy when you have eternity ahead of you. It's only the possibility that it may some day end that gives life true meaning. I think that this may be the reason my mother and father have forgotten us.
You, and this time, give my life meaning. I will not hold you to me. If you wish to leave and experience your own life without me, I will understand. By your reaction to my blood, I suspect your need for it has diminished. Also, I note that you are no longer burned by the sun.
What I've given you, David, is your life back. You can choose now to live it, and are no longer cursed to endure the half life that Slegna blood once forced on you.
David's voice pulled me from my tale, and I blinked away the hypnotic gaze of his eyes. "I'd like some time to think, and I'd like to go home."
"Then go. You can travel the world now as I do, by thought. I hope to see you again soon. The Druids return tonight, and I would like you by my side." I feared he might never return to me, but I couldn't receive his love if I trapped him by a curse.
I remember the pain my love had given Jacob as he lay smoldering in my arms while the fire ate at his body. I could never do that again. It is a part of me now, but not something I think I could endure a second time. Yet... here I was facing it again. The thought terrified me as I traveled to another part of the world. I needed to think as well about what life might bring, and if I was willing to live it.
The smell of cherry blossoms filled the air as I sat in the shade of swaying branches. Skeletal brown fingers clawed the sky as the petals edged them in a delicate pink and white. For as far as the eye could see the grove painted the land with color. The wind moved the branches as if rocking a child to sleep, and I sat in silence, listening to the hiss as it traveled along each bend and curve of life.
My thoughts wandered, and I lost myself in the exquisite joys of daylight. It had been a very long time, indeed. This place looks very different at night, though the darkness paints its own form of beauty. The moonlit petals, as they fall, are somehow muted in color and seem to glow as they flutter down to the earth. In the light of the sun, they looked almost like thousands of feathers drifting on air. The light of day gives an edge and definition to things that I had forgotten. I had the memories from before I was cast out, but they too seemed to blur with time.
"I see they decided to let you live, even though I advised otherwise." The sudden sound startled me but I recognized it instantly.
"Hello Galen; it's been some time." I didn't divert my eyes from the shining lights that peaked between the sway of branches. "What do you want?"
"Well, I see time has taken your manners as well." Doriana's tender, feminine voice seemed to mix with the wind.
"Hello to you too, young lady. Am I to suppose that all is forgiven, now that you travel together?" I asked the question more for spite than anything else. I didn't appreciate their intrusion.
"I have accepted what I cannot change. It seems to me that you're doing very much the same thing, but that is not why we are here." I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees while Doriana spoke.
There they stood, old friends, in a form of light that told me they had been taken from this world.
"Your brother's servant delivered us to the beyond, though I doubt he meant to save us. The problem remains, however. Our son still lives, and you must destroy him and his lover. We no longer have the ability to touch this plane." Galen's words were absolute, and he showed no remorse for the death sentence he dealt his own child.
"So you ask me to kill my own brother, and your son. You know I do not possess the ability, even if I was so inclined to do such a thing." The absurd notion made me chuckle. As if I hadn't enough to contemplate; these remnants of life now asked me to perform the impossible.
"The balance must be restored!" Galen's somber tone sliced the hiss of wind like a knife.
"What have you two ever known of balance? There has never been such a thing during your existence. My father saw to that when he took the darker half and sealed them away on this rock. Do not preach to me about balance, ghost. Now leave me!" Even in death these two maintained their penchant for pissing me off.
"Please Asher, you must help us correct this mistake. We cannot move on." Dorianna's eyes and voice pleaded to deaf ears... mine.
"Fix your own mistakes. Do not endeavor to make them mine. This discussion is over." The wind howled through the grove of cherry trees, and I knew they were gone.
I suppose it's selfish to think only of myself and those that hold my heart, but that is now my reality. If I didn't know that my father still lay trapped in his prison, I believe he'd be looking on now with a smile stretching his lips. He always did seem to revel in watching dilemmas unfold and come to fruition. I think the people of this time would have called him quite the 'Drama Queen'. The notion made me laugh in spite of all my worry.
With an almost forgotten practice, I folded my wings in upon themselves until they disappeared. I could still feel their weight pull at my shoulders, but they would no longer be visible. Standing, I traveled the distance between spaces and appeared in front of the entrance to the club. The outside of the building was painted black, without windows, and looked almost too small to house the considerable space I knew was hidden within. The curved, written sign above the non-descript opaque door read "Big Bang". Its strange graffiti like letters looked drab in comparison to the blue neon that wrote the words at night.
I walked to the shadowed alcove and then passed through the door into the foyer. A young, blond haired man sat behind the ticketing counter and jumped up from his seat. His hand shook as he aimed his gun at me, and I smiled back into his terror-filled hazel eyes.
"Dude! How the hell did you get in here?" The place stunk of sweat and fear.
His name was Kyle, and he had only started a few weeks prior. He was your typical surfer kid and I wondered how he managed a tan working in the darkness of the club five days a week.
I turned to see another guard emerge from the shadows on my left as a third stepped out on my right.
"Move and you're dead." The third man, called Doc, was much older and his once red-orange hair had become strawberry blond from the infusion of too much grey during the passage of time.
Ripping the guns from their hands, I held them aloft and aimed them back with my mind. "It's good to see you're doing your job. I'd hate to think I'm paying good money for nothing. I am Asher."
Releasing the guns, I let them fall at their feet and smiled.
The black haired man on my left stared in disbelief. "How can you... You're not supposed... It's day time. ...Then you truly are Slegna. Still, that doesn't explain how you are able to walk in the light." 'But where are your wings?' I pulled his name from his mind and found he was called Patrick.
I read his thoughts even though he tried to shield them from me. There was something deeper that he was hiding from me.
"My wings are not your concern Nephilliac witch! Now tell me your thoughts or I will rip them from you." My words filled his mind and I watched as he started to cast a circle of protection around himself.
Each gesture told me more. He was many times removed, but still part Nephillim, and surprisingly powerful. Even Seth hadn't known of his presence.
Many have been born since my brother's and my arrival. The Grigori are beings that my father placed here to keep watch over us. Their job is 'damage control' for lack of a better description.
My brother kept them quite busy for centuries as I slept, but I never paid much attention. Eventually, even my brother tired of the game it seems, and disappeared. Throughout time, our keepers took human women as mates. From that union came the Nephillim, creatures birthed with the innate knowledge of an eternal, but in the fragile form of a human. They are the bastard children of time, and what you eventually labeled as witches.
Their offspring gave way to a line of tainted blood that frightened man, and the witch trials began. It was yet another dark time I was happy to have slept through. The more ridiculous fact was that you never killed a single one. Greed, jealousy, and avarice dealt biased sentences, and only the innocent perished.
Though he was many times removed from the blood, he was one of them. The tall dark haired youth centered himself in his circle and braced for battle.
'I am Gypsy.'
'Our power is great.'
'We do not fear the passing.'
'Neph guide me in my work.'
I laughed out loud and walked toward him. I felt the push of magick tingle along my skin as I entered his circle, like a dagger through flesh.
"So, Patrick," I trailed the backs of my fingers along the line of his square jaw as he trembled in front of me. "Are you going to tell me what I want to know, or will I have to tear it from your mind?"
'Two will come that walk the day,'
'One with wings and one without,'
'When darkness rules the light,'
'A soul will be given in his sight,'
'And all will be forgiven.'
'That is all I know. Please don't kill me.'
His thoughts were without deception, and I stepped back to study him. He knew I could read his mind, and kept what he had to say between us. His work companions would be none the wiser, but already I could feel their concern for his well-being. He was well liked and they confided in him regularly.
It wasn't a mystery as to why they shared their most intimate secrets with him. His deep brown eyes and benign features were cast in the black frame of his tell tale gypsy hair. Unlike many of his clan he kept his cut short and, though he tried desperately to keep it at bay, his facial hair had already shaded his features with a grey cast.
"Relax, Doc, he will live another day. You, however, may not if you continue to entertain thoughts of picking up that gun." The elder, orange haired man flinched at hearing my words, and I smiled at Patrick.
'They don't know what you are... do they?' I thought the question to Patrick and waited for his answer.
An explosion of pain burned through me as an elongated black iron lance tore through my shoulder. Gripping it with my hand I wrenched it loose and threw the smoldering remains to the floor. My blood was already making quick work of the molten metal and I moved into the center of the club.
"Protect them, Patrick!" The distraction of spoken words gave my vampire attackers enough time to launch another lance through my chest.
A third lance sailed toward my head and I caught it in flight as it strove to bury itself in my skull. I felt them circling in the darkness as I stood in the center of the dance floor. They were fast and powerful and only mist. They didn't have form except for their attacks and I was at the center of it.
Another lance launched from the darkness and I moved quickly to let it pass. It plunged into one of my vampiric assailants and his anguished scream filled the room. I spun around long enough to watch him flail and wither into a pile of ash.
Two more lances hissed through the air in my direction and I followed the path of one and tore my hand like a blade through the one standing at its origin. The vampire's head toppled to the floor like fruit falling from a tree and his body became a shower of grey death.
There was only one left and I felt him circling in the shadows.
"Come out and face me. I'll make your death quick and painless." I moved through the shadows and drifted along the many surfaces as I searched for him.
"Funny... I was thinking the same thing, Asher." The solemn tone of his voice drifted through the room, but I couldn't locate its origin.
"So be it..." I rose into the air and brought the amorphous tendrils of my body from the shadows and coalesced into my human form above the center of the dance floor.
Stretching out my wings I felt the light fill me and burst out in an explosion of power. My wings unfolded and from them came a light as bright as the sun. The blinding glow halted my attacker's movement and ripped across his fragile form as his body collapsed into a pile of silvery decay. The remnants of his form drifted away in the currents of air like slices of silent death.
I had won this battle, but knew it was just one of many to come.
Special thank you to all who have had the patience for the release of this chapter and the other stories I'm working on. Another special thanks to Dr. Grant for his fabulous editing. It's appreciated more than you know. Comments and criticisms are always appreciated and a life line that keeps me writing. Please don't hesitate to send them to gaywriter72@yahoo.com.
Of course... there are always thanks to Hal.... Who reads through every update, paragraph by paragraph, as I harangue him into giving me his opinion. Love ya!