Page 21 of Crimson Promises
I turned to watch people roaming on the path Aurora had been running on earlier. While I didn’t have the option to walk away from her, I didn’t have to watch her flirt with some jock, either.Thatwasn’t part of my job description.
Later that night, Aurora took an unusual route home. Instead of going left towards the loft, she drove towards the isolated stretch on Pacific Drive—a shortcut to bypass the university town’s traffic. Forests surrounded one-half of the road. I flew a few feet behind her. But as she approached an ’s’ turn, the Nissan started to spin like a dreidel, and in an instant, shattered glass littered the road.
Lurking in the darkness was a black-muscled being covered in ligaments and had no skin. It launched towards Aurora’s car; its talons were so sharp they dug into the hood’s alloy.
I beat my wings as quickly as I could. Every inch I traveled felt heavy like I was climbing a sand dune. By the time I arrived, the ligamented creature had its arm extended through the windshield toward Aurora. I could hear the faint beating of her heart. Relief coursed through me. I don’t know what Michael would have done if he discovered she perished on my watch. An image of Jos flashed in my mind.Aurora isn’t Jos. This isn’t the same scenario. I was a honed weapon. After losing him, I ensured I would never find myself in that position again. Whatever the fuck this thing was stood no chance.
Swiftly, I picked up a piece of glass and threw it as if I was firing throwing stars at the back of its head. It nicked one of the more prominent tendons on the crown of its head. Vomit green puss seeped out. The thing didn’t even bleed. It let out a war cry, like a wolf howling towards the moon, then turned its back on Aurora and stared me down. Assessing the real threat.Good, keep looking over here, buddy.I stuck out my tongue at it. It mirrored my action; a black, slimy tongue unraveled from its mouth. The damn thing looked to be at least a foot long. Nasty.
I stood there waiting for it to make the first move.
With its tongue still poised midair, its drool dripped on the floor. The blacktop hissed as steam rose. There was now a dip in the road; its saliva was acid.Fan-fucking-tastic.
While the thing seemed dangerous, it didn’t seem bright. I remained still. It turned its head back towards the car.
Nuh-uh.
I picked up a larger chunk of glass, it arched better than Angelfucker’s spiral and dented what appeared to be its trapezius muscle. Its tongue snapped back into its mouth. Mincing its teeth together, it placed its knuckles on the car, bringing itself on all fours. And then the thing charged me with the ferocity of a silverback gorilla.
Fortunately, angels are agile. At the last instant, I stepped to the left. Realizing I was still whole and standing, it scraped its hind leg against the ground and hurtled towards me. This time, I selected a piece of metal that looked torn from the front bumper. I tried not to think about the fact that Aurora was most likely injured and unconscious in the car.
The metal piece was rough against my skin, not the ideal weapon to use in a fight, but it would have to do. At least it led to a sharpened tip.
The creature knocked it out of my hand. Quickly, I reached for the dagger I always kept tucked away in my foot for instances like this. Once I was in arm’s reach of the creature again, I slid to my knees and cut from its throat to its sternum.
The beast dropped and rolled away, clutching the two distinct pieces of its chest cavity, seemingly trying to put it back together. Its pus left a trail of green goo from where it had thought it would be having a tasty meal to where it retreated to lick its wounds. With one flap of my wings, I hovered over the creature.
I leaned down to grab it by the throat.
“Who the fuck sent you?” I growled.
The slits it had for eyes were locked onto mine. So, it knew I was talking to it.
“I won’t repeat it. What are you doing here? Who sent you? What do you want withher?” I tightened the grip I had on its throat. It thrashed in my hold. Swiping its claws, trying to tear me to shreds.
“Unfortunately for you, I have pent-up anger that I haven’t had the chance to unleash today.” A picture of the football player flashed in my mind. “If you don’t give me the answers I am looking for, there are other creative ways to extract what I need.”
The thing spat an acid loogie near my foot.Maybe not so dumb after all. “Wrong thing to do. You narrowly missed my Docs.” The ground sizzled. “And they are new. Haven’t even gotten the chance to scuff them up yet. Not looking to have a huge hole in them.”
I brought the blade of metal to its throat. “Have you changed your mind?” The creature glanced toward the tip I held against its throat. My hand held it in place. No response. “Wrong answer.”
The tip of my blade pressed into the side of its neck, meaning to carve a zig-zag pattern to let the blood out slowly. I still needed the thing alive to figure out what it wanted with Aurora and, more importantly, how it found her. Suddenly, the being slumped in my hands. A whoosh of green pus emptied itself on my shoes. I held my breath to avoid the stench of rotting. The creature seemed to close in on itself. Its ligaments and muscles seemed to melt towards the concrete like the Wicked Witch of the West in that mortal movieWizard of Oz.All that remained was a puddle of black and green puss.
Shit. Fuck. Shit.
How was I supposed to get answers now? Michael would carve me up like a roasted pig and feast on my entrails.
I tried to rub the goo onto my pants, but my hands still felt sticky and seemed to be stained green.
A groan pulled my attention back to the car.Aurora.I slid the piece of metal into my back pocket. The last thing I needed was to be caught off-guard again.
I approached the driver’s side door. She was in bad shape. A shard of glass was wedged in her ribs, and her wrist looked like someone had put it through a meat grinder. She had a cut just above her right eye, and blood dripped down her face.
She was slumped against the seat, eyes shut. Alive, but her breathing was shallow. She looked so fragile andtiny.I staggered back a step.Ben, get your shit together, now isnotthe time to lose it.I moved the hair that was matted to the blood on her face. The tip of my wing caressed the outline of her face.She didn’t deserve this. Aurora has been through enough. I gritted my teeth together.
I was about to pull her out of the car and fly her to the nearest hospital when the strangest thing happened. The glass shard began to retract from its position buried deep within her ribcage. It looked like time had reversed itself. My mouth hung open. Her body washealingitself on itsown. How was that even possible? She’s healed things before but never herself.
The blare of a siren caught my attention. Someone must have heard something and reported it. However it happened, this had to look like an ordinary car accident. We didn’t need anyone sticking their nose in her business, doing some weird tests. I blew out a breath.Think, think, think.
