Cast & Fall (44 page)

Wild
black hair, angelic face, and a cold, steely-gray stare that sent a
gripping fear in me, appeared in front of my vision. Her smooth
stance was feline. I stood motionless. Shock spiked in my veins.

“
Gab…riel…la!
What are you doing here?” My voice uneven. I tried to dismiss
the tremor behind my words, unwilling to give my vulnerability away.
Her expressionless face didn’t change. She slowly came toward
me with her hands tucked behind her back.

“
I
am here for a bigger purpose,” her voice was robotic, but I
could hear the determination behind them. Her face was glassy. She
came slowly toward me as her eyes subtly changed, becoming a
glistening gray. Her face became softer, radiating in the most
beautiful glow.

“
What
bigger purpose?” Her magnificence almost masked the fear that
crept in me. Her transformation was mesmerizing. The dim light only
added to its brilliance. Convinced that she’s here to kill me,
my mind quickly mapped out plans in my head. I knew speed or strength
wasn’t on my side. Time was my only ally. If I could divert her
long enough and if I could text Sam or Tristan.

As
she took both hands from behind her, I automatically caught the shiny
sharp object in her hand. She glided her finger into it’s sharp
blade as she continually inched her way toward my direction. I
stopped in my tracks, piecing and absorbing everything all at once.

“
I’m
a messenger and I carry out what the others want. Tristan’s
negotiations were in vain. The dephils are stronger.” Her eyes
were as determined as her voice. I battled a plan briefly. My
heartbeat a drum roll.

I
knew I was no match for an avenging angel and no amount of reasoning
was going to deter her from her purpose. I didn’t argue too
long with logic. I retrieved my gaze fast, uprooted my feet and
automatically sprinted out to get to the front door. But as quickly
as I ran, my lungs weighed heavy, constricting from my chest as my
feet hurried faster than I thought ever possible. And as my
unimaginable effort took me swiftly to the downstairs living room, it
was no match from someone who isn’t human—she was already
in front of the wooden exit that separated me from my escape.

I
quickly headed to the kitchen but it was useless. I stopped halfway
as the icy fear had frozen my feet on the ground. But my mind was
unwilling to accept the destiny that was waiting for me. “Please,
you’re an angel, how could you do this?” my voice felt
very weak in my throat. I knew the only thing I could do was try to
reason with her and plead for my life, even though I knew that meant
little or nothing to her.

“
Humans
are nothing but an inconvenience,” she stated.

“
Oh
and that little performance, I played into your weaknesses. It wasn‘t
very hard convincing both of you that I was hurt.” Suddenly, a
shadow traveled in lightning speed and she was next to me, holding
the blade in my throat from behind. She slowly slid the sharp edge
across. I felt the sharp knife against my skin as I held my breath.

She
slowly glided it lower to my shoulder all the way to my wrist. It
took a moment before I realized that the blade had produced an
elongated ruby red cut from my elbow all the way to my wrist. All of
a sudden, I felt a stinging pain. Hot liquid oozed freely from the
cut.

“
I
will tell you a secret…” She leaned to whisper in my
ear. I felt the wisp of air from behind. “The dephils don’t
have
feelings—feelings
produces
weakness.” Realizing that she felt
nothing
,
her words were like a death sentence. I could hear the ticking
seconds come to a close. I couldn’t contain my fear any longer.
The sound filled the room.

I
couldn’t come to the realization that this was the end. I felt
my mind go on pause, wanting, needing, some unknown force to break
this nightmare, even when I knew how real what was in front of me—her
wild eyes, the sharp knife that‘s now on my neck, the warm
blood that’s gushing rapidly from my wrist. I thought of my
dad, my mom…Tristan.

Then
without warning, a sudden hard, unknown force hit from behind,
knocking Gabriella down and slamming her and her attacker on the
massive granite counter top—it broke into large pieces. The
speed was a racing blur. I crouched automatically on the wall behind
me. Then as quickly as they slammed on the hard surface, two quick
shadows jumped and crashed into the dining table, breaking all its
legs.

Finally,
I saw her attacker.

“
Tristan.”

He
was so fast, I merely saw shadows moving quickly. Then the shadows
stopped. Tristan held Gabriella up without touching her, as if he was
gripping her neck with the mere movement of his hand. Her body lifted
from the floor looking like it was suspended by an imaginary force
coming from some unknown, invisible strength within him. I crouched
in horror. Seeing Tristan not only in beyond human strength but an
ability I have never seen before, terrified me.

Then
as quickly as her body lifted, Gabriella’s body flew across the
room in almost lightning speed—like a bullet from a gun, and
she crashed into the wall, crumbling it into a pile of rubble. She
slumped unconscious on the floor. My face was pale, my mind stunned
and numb.

Finally
his gaze traveled quickly to where I was. His eyes flashed In a flood
of regret. The anguish in his eyes lingered. The once spark that
emanated hopeful possibilities in his eyes vanished once again to the
dim glare that sent a panic in me once before. He came toward me and
held my arm very gently. He anchored his arms protectively around my
body and slowly led me to the living room.

“
Katheryna…I’m
so sorry. Are you okay?”

“
Y…es…
was the only broken word I could manage to say at the moment.”
Everything in me was shaking. A sudden feeling of security crept
through me and the strength that resonated from him, blanketed all of
me. I momentarily forgot the pain in my arm. Blood was still
dripping—faster now. He slowly lifted my arm as I
stared
at the red liquid, flowing. Picking me up, he brought me to the
living room sofa.

“
What…about…Gabriella?”
I asked, my voice was too weak.”

“
She
won’t be a problem for a while…don’t move,”
he commanded.

He
disappeared in lightning speed and when he came back, he was holding
a plastic box of first aid kit. Suddenly my eyes became hazy.
Everything blurred. My vision narrowed to a near dim. I chased the
silhouette in front of me, not wanting to pass out but it continued
to blur. I felt too disoriented to fight it. Then, warm, strong arms
held me. I couldn’t see, but his voice felt clear in my head.

“
Katheryna,
are you okay? Please say something.” Light slowly hovered in my
vision. My eyes went back into focus at his angelic face. He held out
the white box, took out a rolled white cloth and bandaged my arm very
delicately. I felt coherent enough to sit up. Despite Tristan’s
insistence, I decided I didn’t need to see a doctor and settled
on the couch watching his dizzying movement.

He
paced back and forth as he mumbled under his breath. My anxiety grew
stronger as I waited for his pacing to slow down and explain things
to me. I slumped back in my seat holding my bruised arm. Tristan came
toward me then. I jumped at the way his eyes met mine, as I watched
his perfect face turn from concerned to catastrophic. I boosted
myself up and prepared myself hesitantly.

“
What’s
going…on?” my voice was so unsteady, I barely made out
the words. He was silent, in deep thought. The anxiety grew steadily
as I saw the look of horror rip across his face. As if he had
understood something that he didn‘t know before.

Then
his face was hard as stone. His stare had become glassy as the sea.
He turned to look at me and shot me a look—intense and nerve
wracking.

“
We
need to leave.” I suddenly found myself light and floating
fast. Tristan had swooped me from the sofa and is now carrying me up
the steps in a dizzying speed.

“
What?
Why? Where…are we going?” My voice was stumbling out in
shreds and pieces.

“
Anywhere,
anywhere but here,” his voice was panicked.

Here
In
Your
Perfect
Eyes

“
I
will not let
anything happen to you. Call your father and let him know that you
will be staying at a close friends house for a couple of days…that
should give me enough time to take care of some things.” I was
stunned briefly, but recovered my cohesion, putting his plan in
place.

“
Do
I have time to pack up some clothes?” I blurted in a fast blur.

“
No…don’t
worry about that…I will take care of everything…It’s
only for the meantime until I sort everything out,” his voice
confident. He held my shoulders as I looked into his eyes. There was
a thick layer of reassurance behind them.

“
Right
now what’s important is that you will be under their radar.”
Under
their radar? Is that even possible?
A
plague of fear started spreading fast. I tried to squeeze out all my
emotions and tune them all out, but instead, everything collapses,
scattering in a pile of uncertainty.

“
You
have to come with me…and it has to be now!” He held my
face, cradling them warm—his eyes, comforting.
“
Katheryna,
I need you to trust me!”

“
I
do trust you,” I mumbled breathlessly.

“
Katheryna,
I’m so sorry…If anything has ever happened to you, I
could never—
ever
forgive
myself.”

“
Tristan,
it‘s not your fault…please don‘t b…”

“
I
do blame myself…don’t ever say I’m perfect because
I’m not—I’m the worst kind of all. If any of it was
the least bit of the truth, I wouldn’t be causing you…”
he looked down. “You’re very life is threatened by my
choices…my existence…If I could go back in time…”
Clenching his jaw, he closed his eyes rigid.

I
disguised the feeling of panic I felt at the thought that we both
knew he wanted to say. I knew enough that Tristan blamed himself for
everything that has ever happened to me and felt the responsibility
to change the course of my life if he could—the part where he
didn’t exist in it at all.

He
was on the phone for a short while. I tried not to listen in on his
conversations. I heard things like shopping and food, so I assumed,
we‘d be on the road for a while. When he got off the phone, he
stayed quiet, thinking and pacing and mumbled under his breath.

But
the sudden silence of secrecy made me uneasy to the point of ranting.
It was always better when he told me what he thought or how he felt.
The silence always meant he’d been contemplating on
something—something that always kept me in the dark.

I
stared at him and reminded myself not to over react. He’d done
the over reacting enough for the both of us. I needed to keep
calm…and focus my thoughts on other things. I started thinking
about all the things I needed to do for school. It was better,
calmer, thinking about the less trivial and boring things such as
term papers and presentations rather than death that I was now
facing.

The
sky was suddenly gloomy behind the gray clouds, threatening a good
downpour. When he had finished gathering a few items from the house,
Tristan came back upstairs to the bedroom. I wasn’t sure what
he had planned, but I knew whatever we had to do, I had to trust him.
I do trust him. Then something quickly snapped.

“
What
about my father? It’s possible they could go after him!”
A new sense of fear plagued me. It’s one thing to suffer and
fear what was coming for me, but to let Steve be a part of this…I
couldn’t fathom it.

“
I
will never let anything happen to your father… you have my
word. Even if I have to summon a
legion
of angels.
”
His
voice was certain, sealed with a promise. I believed him.

“
Come,”
he commanded. He lead us out of the balcony of his bedroom.

“
What
about the supplies you collected downstairs?…where’s the
car?”

“
Everything
will be taken care of…we don’t need a car,” he
informed.