Human (6 page)

Just as I was about to pull down the shades, something I didn't really enjoy doing as I liked that little bit of light that was coming from the street, I heard a flutter of wings. I should have assumed supernatural creatures would find their way to get to me, even when I didn't want it. But when I looked up at the face observing me through the window, I thought I was dreaming. Amadeo knocked on the glass, flashing me one of his best, friendly smiles.

I took a deep breath and opened the window, shivering as the chilly night air touched my skin through my thin purple pajamas. Amadeo stepped inside, leaving mud and snow on my red carpet. At some point, his huge blue wings had disappeared behind his back. He closed the window and I sat down on my bed, too annoyed to do anything else.

"And what exactly are you?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"I'm an angel." He took a step towards me, and I raised my hand to stop him from coming any closer.

"Why is this whole supernatural thing raining down on me right now?" I looked into his brown eyes. "Why not before? I've been here for 17 years, you know."

"We need your help."

I snorted. Ah great, now everyone needed my help, and I didn't quite believe it. Amadeo looked around curiously, and I suddenly became aware of how messy my room was. My bed was rumpled, there were books and notebooks everywhere, my blue sweater was lying discarded on the floor,... Even I looked like a mess. Great, now there was no way Amadeo would ever like me.

"You talked to that demon." He licked his lips nervously and fixed his intent gaze on me. God, he was so gorgeous, and now I knew why. Both demons and angels seemed to possess otherworldly beauty.

"Whatever he told you is a lie," Amadeo said. "You have to stay away from him. He's dangerous."

"And you're not?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why would you think I was dangerous?" He almost smiled but thought better of it. I didn't see anything funny in my question.

"Where do I start? You were watching my house and came into my room in the middle of the night! Not to mention you almost scared me to death." I sighed. "I even considered calling the police."

"You can still call them." He chuckled.

"Yeah, like you wouldn't just jump out of my window and fly away."

"I'm sorry for coming to you like this," he said, his voice sincere. "I should have waited for a better moment. I can go if you don't want..."

"No," I said. "You can't just leave me wondering what was this all about, so take a seat and explain how I could possibly help you."

He hesitated for a moment, but then settled in the chair in the corner of the room, opposite to me. His black leather pants squeaked as he tried to get comfortable, and I got a bit distracted by the way his black sweater hugged his body. He must have been performing somewhere earlier tonight.

"What did the demon tell you?" There was an edge to his voice that he was trying to cover up, but it didn't really work. I wasn't surprised that he didn't like demons; he belonged to the other side after all. Just where did I belong in all of this?

"That's between me and him." If I agreed not to tell anyone, then I certainly wasn't going to go back on my promise. Amadeo's frown deepened, and he pressed his lips together in disapproval.

"He looks good, doesn't he?"

"So do you," I said before I could stop myself. Almost instantly, I felt heat coming into my cheeks and looked away.

"Thanks." He grinned at me. Well, I was glad I could improve his mood so easily, but I needed some answers. Possibly before the dawn.

"She's an angel, and that demon came for her," he said. "I felt your sister's powers last week for the first time. She must be nearing sixteen because that is when an angel's powers fully develop. I felt it when that demon showed up, but I couldn't tell where he was. Then you hinted that you had fainted because of that Devin guy and couldn't remember something about him, so I checked with Italia and realized her mind had been messed with. When I finally got to see your sister, I knew she was the one with the angel power in her."

Amadeo sat down on the bed next to me, his hand reaching for mine, but I didn't let him touch me. I'd seen Christina's eyes flash to violet, and she was very pretty and charming, so there was a big chance what Amadeo was telling me was really the truth.

"She's not my sister," I whispered more to myself than to him. It felt weird that I wasn't related to her and that she was some supernatural creature.

"She might be your half-sister," he said. "Judging by your reaction to that demon, you're not human either."

"So you think I might be part angel?" I looked up at him, bewildered. One tried to convince me I was a demon, the other suggested I was half-angel. Yeah, right.

"I'm not sure, though. I should be sensing your power somewhere in the back of my mind, but I'm not." His brown eyes turned violet, and I gasped.

"If you can see this, it means that you have angel blood in you," he said, smiling like he had just discovered my biggest secret. I didn't know what to believe anymore, except that I had this weird ability to see both demons' and angels' true nature.

"I have no idea. They are plotting something, as usual." His lip curled in disgust as he said that, clearly not happy that he didn't know what was going on.

"Does she know anything about all of this?" If Amadeo's idea of me helping was to be the one to tell her the truth, he was insane. I was never going to explain that one right and make her believe me.

"I don't think so. She didn't see my eyes change or at least didn't react to it," he said thoughtfully. "Even if she knew, some kind of a reaction would have shown on her. Her powers are still not strong enough."

"Can't you do something about the demon?" It was weird that Amadeo hadn't done anything about it yet. Besides, the angels' powers were seriously lame if they knew there was someone in town and couldn't pinpoint where that feeling came from.

"Not without raising Hell and Heaven to attention." He ran his hand through his brown hair. "We don't need another war. It would destroy us."

"You know that sounds like a bad movie, right?" I sighed.

"I wish." He smiled. "The last war was horrible, or at least that's what they claim. I wasn't around at that time. I'm only 20."

"So you're really 20? You age?" If angels weren't immortal, then being one totally sucked.

"Yes, but we stop aging at 30." His eyes were brown again, warm and inviting.

"Nice." So my sister was going to be forever 30. Great, I was jealous already. But what would happen to me? I wasn't exceptionally pretty, my eyes didn't change to any color other than hazel, and I definitely wasn't the person everyone wanted to be around. A thought suddenly occurred to me. What if I was neither an angel nor a demon? What if whoever put Christina into my family used some magic on me so I could protect her from this?

It actually made sense. Devin had told me demons hid their own children in our world by replacing the human ones, so why wouldn't angels be doing the same? It was totally immoral and wrong, but what did I know about the moral values of angels? And if the angels I'd seen in my vision were in fact Amadeo's parents, then I was probably right. The thing I didn't know was, was I supposed to protect my sister only from demons or from angels too.

"What are you thinking about?" Amadeo said, startling me.

"Nothing special." I shook my head. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Find out does your sister know anything and tell her the truth." The way he said it made it seem like it was the easiest thing in the whole world. "Then convince her she can trust me so I can protect her."

"Trust you?" I actually laughed, and he looked surprised. "
I
don't trust you yet, so there's no way I'm convincing my sister anything."

"I understand this is all weird for you, Ariel, but I'm your best friend's brother and an angel." He looked deep into my eyes, and I felt my pulse quicken. I blinked, and the magic of the moment was gone.

"You do realize that I don't really know you." Which was a shame, but there was nothing I could have done about that. He hadn't been going to school with the rest of us, and we hadn't been talking much during our rare encounters. Besides, he'd never really shown any interest in me. It bothered me that he'd noticed me now when he needed something from me. Other girls might have jumped the opportunity and tried to get him to like them. Maybe I would have too if I didn't look like the walking dead right now.

"Fine, then you decide what you are going to do," he said, offended. "But know that your sister is in danger, and if you need me, don't hesitate to call me."

He got up and started going towards the window. If I wasn't sure we'd wake up everyone in the house, I'd totally walk him to the door. I didn't like this jumping in and out of the window. What if his wings didn't open or something? Great, I was worrying about all the wrong things.

"Wait," I said just as he reached out to open the window. He glanced back at me expectantly.

"Don't you ever hang around my house without me knowing it." I gave him the most serious look I could muster. "I don't like stalkers."

"But I wasn't..." he started to say, but I lifted my finger to silence him.

"I don't care. In the future, I don't want to wake up and see you floating in front of my window." I smiled. "Thank you."

"Ok, relax. I'm not going to do anything you don't want," he said and opened the window, letting the freezing air and a few snowflakes inside. A pair of gorgeous light blue wings with golden stripes fluttered open behind his back as he lunged outside. I practically ran to the window, my heart in my throat, and looked down to see if he had fallen. Nope, nothing there; he was gone. I closed the window and found a single blue feather on my carpet, along with the muddy footprints of Amadeo's boots. How did he think I was supposed to clean that? He didn't, of course. Why would he worry about that?

I picked up the feather, which was incredibly soft and silky, and twirled it between my fingers. In such a short time, I'd discovered my sister and my crush were angels, and the new guy at school was a demon who wanted to take my sister to Hell. And I'd promised to help him. Did Devin know about my sister, or his compass was off too? That was definitely something I needed to find out.

I eyed the feather suspiciously, wondering was it some kind of an angel tracking device. Maybe Amadeo was hoping I'd keep it since he knew I liked him. One part of me wanted to treasure it forever, hide it somewhere under my pillow or tuck it safely into my drawer; the other part wanted to make sure I wasn't being watched or followed. I caressed the feather, chewing on my lip and wondering what I should do. Unfortunately, reason prevailed and I went to the bathroom. I wondered how he was planning to track me now that the feather was lost somewhere in the pipes.

Finally, I decided to try to get some more sleep before the morning came because I just couldn't keep my eyes open. Visions were now the last of my worries.

I kept yawning like an idiot through most of my classes because, of course, I hadn't gotten enough of sleep. Italia was giving me curious looks, but I just shook my head each time she tried to ask me something. I had to talk to Devin first and try to find out could he read her mind. In all the drama, I'd never asked Amadeo did Italia know about him.

I glanced in Devin's direction and was surprised to see a distressed look on his beautiful face. He was tapping his fingers nervously against the book, not even a bit interested in the class. And why would he be interested? I had no idea why he thought he actually had to be here. One more thing to add to the immense list of questions I already had for him.

"Oh, ok. See you later then," she said, clearly not convinced. Why did I even think I could fool my best friend? Unfortunately, I couldn't tell her anything yet, so I picked up my backpack and went for the door.

"Ok." I followed him down the hall all the way to an empty classroom. I really didn't want to know how he'd made sure no one was there.

"You know we're not supposed to stay here," I said, closing the door behind me.

"They won't know." Devin's eyes turned obsidian black for a second, and the door clicked. I licked my lips nervously, my throat suddenly feeling dry. I was locked in a room with a demon. That couldn't be good. Devin settled himself in the teacher's comfortable leather chair, and I placed my backpack on the floor.