Page 7 of Kiss of Fire

She got up from the table, throwing her a smile as she went. Raya went to the sink to pour herself a glass of water. She heard a male voice in the hallway, a quiet chuckle, and thought perhaps a neighbour had come over.

She debated sneaking a spoonful of ice cream before the next round of cards but decided to wait. It was better when they ate it together. Ross would tell his ‘dad’ jokes, and Caroline and Raya would roll their eyes pretending not to find them funny.

The voice in the hallway stopped. There was a strange sound, a gasping, breaking sound. Puzzled, Raya looked towards the doorway. Footsteps came her way and she put her glass in the sink, expecting to see her adopted parents.

It wasn’t them.

A stranger came through the door. He looked like a man. An ordinary man, in an ordinary suit and tie. But he wasn’t. She took one look and knew whatever this was, it wasn’t human.

She had seen a documentary a few days ago, about snakes. One, the python, had large golden eyes split by a single black line down the centre. Their reptilian quality had made her shudder. The eyes on this man, however, made her want to scream. They were exactly like the snake’s eyes except instead of being golden, they were blood red.

“Who are you?” she stuttered. “Where are my parents?”

“You are not the one I seek.” His voice held a strange accent. He sniffed the air and his nostrils flared. “But you smell like her.”

“Like who?” Her lips were frozen but she had the insane thought that if she only kept him talking, Caroline and Ross would come in and everything would be okay.

“Where is she? The one I seek?”

He took a step towards her and she instinctively backed away until she was hard against the sink.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“No matter.”

Something closed around her body. A vice, invisible but unbreakable. Her arms were pinned to her sides and she was inexorably pulled towards the snake-eyed man.

Not a man, her mind screamed at her.

A demon.

Her feet slid across the floor until she was standing directly in front of him. Panicked, she opened her mouth to scream. He clenched his fist and she felt something constrict around her throat. A band, tightening, cutting off her air.

Terror welled in her chest. A single tear rolled down her cheek. There was a momentary sensation of the world tilting about her and she thought the demon might have said something.

Then suddenly there were flames everywhere. Licking up the walls. Rolling across the ceiling. Great orange flames devouring the house. Devouring everything.

The demon disappeared in the smoke and the invisible bonds around her body vanished. Able to move at last, she cried out for her parents and ran into the fiery hallway. The front door was wide open and for a moment her heart leapt, thinking they’d escaped.

That’s when she saw the blackened figures crumpled on the floor, their familiar features burned beyond recognition.

The damn dream again. Every night, over and over. She struggled to wake up, to claw her way out of unconsciousness. Her head was thumping and wind was streaming through her hair. She half-opened an eye, disorientated. She had an impression of travelling at great speed. How could that be, in the infirmary?

She tried to focus, bleary with pain and exhaustion.

That looked like a… a man’s chest?

There was a noise. A rhythmic beating in time to her heart.

She looked up. Shadows swirled and at first she couldn’t make anything out. Then for a moment, they cleared.

She saw a face with a burning blue stare. A face that belonged on a Michelangelo sculpture or a Raphael painting. Beautiful, yet stern. Skin the colour of copper. The scent of ash and burnt cinnamon. And high above, wings beating. Glorious wings of dark silver-grey feathers.

She reached up a shaky hand and the beautiful face turned to look down at her. The blue fire of his eyes seemed to penetrate her soul.

“You’re an angel.”

The words slid out from between her lips and she lay her head against his chest. Warmth enveloped her.

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