Rebirth - The Beautiful Fallen (29 page)

             
But before I could respond, another familiar voice cut in.  "Chris, stop that.  You know this isn't her fault.  And it's not really Zane's either.  We all know what happens with Astaroth from time to time, and it's not something she can exactly avoid.  Just be glad it didn't turn out badly and Zane was able to fight him off again.  Besides, don't you think that Saffron wouldn't allow anything to happen to her now?" Will said as he came down the stairs to join us.

             
“It doesn’t really matter about Saffron right now, does it?  He’s still trapped down there, and there’s not a lot he can do because of it.  So it falls on me every time she invites more trouble, which she’s doing a very good job of.” Chris complained.

             
His words made me mad though.  He was not blaming everything on me.  I didn’t care how mad he was.  “And whose fault is that?” I challenged.  “In case you’ve forgotten, you’re the one who brought me here.  You’re the one who came looking for me in the first place!”

             
For a moment, the two of us just stood there facing each other down.  I couldn’t help but wonder just what he was thinking now.  Chris was always good at never letting his thoughts on most of the time, but I’d never gone against him either.  Will and Zane just stood back, keeping quiet.  Obviously, they weren’t about to get into the middle of our argument now.  Finally, Chris spoke.  “Fine.  I get it.  But it is what it is.  You just need to stop taking so many chances.” He said, brushing past me to go back upstairs.

             
“Hey, hold on!  This isn’t over yet!” I said, following him.  No, he was not going to just walk away from this.  He’d picked the fight, and we were going to finish it.

             
Chris stopped in the hallway up there, turning to face me again.  “You really think there’s any more to say to this?  You seem to be forgetting that whenever you attract trouble, it all ends up falling on my shoulders to make sure it doesn’t get you killed.  I can’t keep protecting you from everything.  I’m strong, but I’m not that strong in the end.  And if any of those angels show up here, then it might all be over.  So start listening for once or just go with your father when he comes back!” he snapped back.

             
I found myself standing very still as he walked away from me again.  I was a little bit stunned now.  That was really the first time that he’d said something like that out loud.  But I also understood that a lot of it was the truth.  He was always the one jumping in to protect me most.  He very well could’ve ended up badly hurt because of me in any of the things that had happened to us.  I couldn’t help but look down and think of how foolish I'd been.  Maybe this wasn’t really a matter of love for Chris after all.  Maybe he’d confused love with his perception of duty.

             
“And there he goes.  Honestly, he’s so harsh at times.” Zane said as he walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

             
“Is it really just because he thinks he has to protect me?” I whispered.

             
“No, I wouldn’t say that.  But don’t worry so much about it.  He’ll get over himself.  For now though, why don’t we get you cleaned up?  It’s just better to give him time to get over things.” Will suggested, although he was looking down the hallway pretty sternly.  Almost like he was debating on whether or not to say something to Chris himself.

             
I didn’t bother saying anything more to it though.  There really was no point.  Besides, it felt far more inviting to just be with Zane and him for now.  I liked being around the two of them.  I wasn’t sure of exactly why I always felt so much more comfortable with them.  Perhaps it was just because of how open they were compared to Chris.  Perhaps it was something a little bit more.  All I really knew was that I needed the comfort of someone who could understand how I felt at that moment.  So I just agreed with Will, and decided to stay with the two of them for the rest of the evening.  Hopefully, by morning, all of this would blow over and things would go back to normal.

             
At least, that was my hope.

Eleven

             
“So you’d rather spend the time with me and Zane anymore huh?  That’s an interesting thing to hear.” Will said as the two of us walked down the path in the park near our home.

             
It was three days later, and things were quiet once again.  I had not seen another sign of Astaroth or Jade being around, but I counted that as a good thing.  Hopefully, they’d both just decided to leave us alone.  But the last three days themselves had been interesting for me in other ways as well.  I did end up spending the rest of that evening Zane and Will, but I didn’t really see much of Chris.  He wasn’t around when I'd gotten up the next morning either.  In fact, I hadn’t seen him anywhere.  And when I'd noticed that the motorcycle was gone later that afternoon, I began to suspect that he’d actually just left the house altogether.  I wasn’t foolish enough to think that he probably wasn’t still mad at me.  Maybe he was even having second thoughts on what he had been doing before.  I was actually kind of hoping that he’d come back when I thought about that.  I was starting to feel the heaviness in my heart over all of it.  And although Saffron didn’t seem too concerned about what he'd called “letting the boy blow off some steam”, I was really starting to have my doubts.

             
“You know, it’s not that I’m complaining about your company or anything, but it does surprise me that Chris just decided to take off like he did.  It seemed like the two of you were getting close before.  One little argument isn’t that much for him to sulk about.” Will continued.

             
“I thought we were getting close too, but he just left without saying anything.  It kind of hurts, but I think I’ll be okay until he decides to come back again.  Besides, you and Zane have been really good friends to me too.  And Zane’s actually been teaching me how to play the flute now.” I said.

             
“I see.  I thought that maybe I'd heard a Loon or something last night." Will joked.

             
I made a face at him.  "Very funny." I said.

             
"Sorry." Will apologized, although he was laughing slightly to himself.  "Of course, Zane’s probably the best teacher for that kind of stuff too.  But it seems like lately you’ve been much closer to him then you were with Chris.  Did something else happen with him that we didn’t hear about?”

             
I shook my head.  “No.  I was closer to Chris, but he’s just not here now, so I’ve been spending more time with Zane.” I replied. 

             
Will didn’t seem too concerned though.  “You know, it’s funny, but this is something that Chris would do.  He’s always been good at sulking when it suits him.  And with not being there to protect you when Zane was, he’s probably feeling a little bit useless.  He always has put too much on himself, especially now that they’ve got a one up on us.” He said.

             
“What do you mean?” I asked, not quite following him.

             
“Well, I guess Zane hasn’t mentioned it to you yet.  And Chris isn’t exactly around to tell you.  Anyways, apparently Judiel’s learned that you do exist and is aware that you've changed as well.  He’s also learned that you’ve met up with us and that you’ve been staying with Chris.  The only thing none of them seem to know yet however is exactly where you’re staying.  It’s strange though.  I haven’t seen any spies around this area at all, and I only saw five on my way down from New York a few weeks ago before they suddenly let up.  I don’t get it myself.” Will explained.

             
I could get the gist of what he was implying now.  “You don’t think someone’s working for them here, do you?” I asked him.  The thought itself was rather frightening.  One of us may have been handing us to the wolves soon, and we were still blindly trusting them.

             
Will shook his head, still looking puzzled.  “I don’t know.  I can’t find any evidence of that.  I’ve told Chris about it too, but he keeps insisting that there’s got to be something to point to it if that’s the case.  No one could get past us that easily.  Not with how me and him work.  We know everything, whether we want to or not.” He replied.

             
I wasn’t stupid about any of these implications when it came down to it.  If there was someone who was spying on us and knew this much, they had to be someone very close to us.  They had to be someone we trusted.  But without any kind of proof against them, we couldn’t catch them.  “So what does Chris want to do about it?” I finally asked him.  Obviously, he must have still been talking to Will if he’d mentioned it to him.  I wished he’d just talk to me too.  Even if he just called me.  This wasn’t fair.  He’d said that he loved me.  Why abandon me if he loved me?

             
“I don’t know.  He’s been far too busy sulking lately to talk to me about any of it.  I’m telling you, I hate when he does this to me.  Although I will admit that I’ve never seen him be this bad before.  You must have really gotten to him.” Will admitted.

             
“Really?” I said absently.

             
“Honestly now, do you really think that Chris meant any of that?  You know he worries a lot about you.  And for him to have just taken off like this, he must be upset.” Will said.

             
I shrugged a little.  “How should I know?  I don’t think I’ve been able to understand Chris from the day we met.  I thought I was starting to, but then he just took off on me.  So I don’t know anymore.” I told him.

             
Will smiled slightly at my words.  He actually looked amused now.  “I suppose he is rather hard to understand at times.  I don’t think Christoff has even been that good with expressing himself.  You could call it a not so good upbringing, if you know what I mean.  But he’s also pretty direct too with whatever he thinks.  Although, it does seem like lately he’s been losing that, especially around you.” He said.

             
“What do you mean?” I asked, stopping for a moment to look back over at him.

             
“Just what I said.” Will replied, stopping as well to face me completely.  “Whether you believe such or not, Chris is a lot more taken with you then he cares to let on.  He has terrible pride though, and he doesn’t quite understand just how to express himself at times.  I can say that he’s become a lot more gentle though since you’ve come along.  And it seems very possible that he may have even been jealous over Zane saving you from Astaroth.  At least, it’s what I've been able to read from what I know of him.”

             
I just stood there, taking in his words.  Jealousy.  Being unable to really express himself from a bad upbringing.  Well, that did fit Chris pretty good when I put it all together, although he hadn’t been hesitant in kissing me before our fight.  After all, I would’ve imagined that although Jade brought him up to be strong and smart, he probably didn’t teach him a lot in the way of being social.  Well, truly social.  And if he was that stubborn and had that much pride, maybe that would explain why he’d just walk away from our fight and not talk to me instead of just apologizing.

             
My thoughts were interrupted though by a deathly silence suddenly falling over the area around us.  Will and I stood very still, looking around us for a moment.  Then, a strange sound suddenly began rising up from the trees.  It was a whistling sound, like a huge gust of wind coming at us.  Will and I looked up at the same time, seeing flashing lights coming through the trees in the distance.  “What the...  It can’t be.” Will said in disbelief.  He grabbed my hand quickly and began making us run back toward the house.

             
“What’s going on?  What is that?” I managed to ask as we ran.

             
“It’s a band of Judiel’s forces!  They’ve come here looking to kill us!” Will replied.

             
We made it back to the house as fast as we could.  But by then, the lights had gotten a lot closer.  We both ducked quickly as a flash of bright white lights whizzed past our heads.  Will quickly got himself back up, standing in front of me and sweeping his hand across him, bringing a large wall of dirt up like a tidal wave to block the incoming flashes.  As the lights hit the wall, the dirt exploded and rained down onto us.  We watched as three bright spheres of light with what looked like wings flapping on their sides floated down from the trees a few feet from us.  To my shock, they transformed into three beautiful luminous beings that were dressed in white robes, with glowing white wings coming from their backs.  It wasn’t too hard to figure out what they were.

             
Angels.

             
Will stood very still as we watched them, keeping his hand held up for another defensive move.  “So you found us after all.  Who snitched?” he demanded.

             
They refused to answer him.  Instead, they raised their golden bows in their hands, the flaming white arrows pointed directly at us.  But before they could even pull back their bow strings, a blast of black light suddenly came flying up from behind us.  It came very quickly, tearing the grass up from under it and growing larger as it flew towards the attacking angels.  They scattered, and the blast hit a nearby tree, splitting it in right down the middle.  As I stared in disbelief, Chris landed beside Will.  He had his sword raised, and his beautiful black wings shined slightly in the dim light of the evening.  “I thought I sensed angels coming.” He said.

             
“Took you long enough to get back here.” Will complained.

             
“Sorry.  I got held up.”  Chris said.  He looked back at me as I stood myself up completely.  “Stay back and keep your guard up.  We’ll handle this.  You’re not ready yet.” He ordered.

             
By then, the angels were regrouping.  They split up, two on either side of us, and one facing us.  The one raised his arm, and the ground under us trembled like a minor earthquake.  The three of us quickly brought our wings out, jumping back.  I considered seeing if I could get into the house, but at the same time, I couldn’t imagine that it would do me any good.  They would've simply followed and hunted me down.  And what about Will and Chris? I couldn’t just leave them….

             
The angels seemed a lot more focused on them than me.  As I watched, they aimed their arrows back at them.  But Chris and Will were fast, and had good defenses with both black flames and using the ground itself as a shield.  However, these angels were smart too.  One of them managed to distract Will, while another quickly flew up behind him and shot another arrow at him.  Will moved quickly, but it still grazed his left arm.  He held it tightly as Chris moved in front of him, blasting the angels back again with the black flames he’d created from his sword.

             
“This isn’t good.  We’re three to two on this one, and we can’t exactly fight them when we’re this worried about her.” Will told him.

             
“I know that.  But they’re not going to let us get away either.  Not now that they’ve found us.” Chris said.

             
Will glanced back over at me, then at him again.  “Get her out of here.  I’ll hold them off myself.  At least get her away until they have no choice but to retreat.” He ordered.

             
“You know you can’t do that.  You can’t even move that arm now!” Chris protested.

             
“Well, it’s a lot better than just letting all of us be killed here!” Will argued.

             
“I said I’m not—“ Chris started to respond back to him, but suddenly stopped.  Looking up, I saw that the angels had too.  The air had suddenly changed, and all of us sensed it.  A cold filled it, along with an incredible heaviness.  And all at once, a massive darkness suddenly split the ground in front of us wide open, flying up and spreading quickly all around us. The angels all screamed as they were swiftly disintegrated within it.  And as this darkness cleared, a figure emerged from the center of it.  I could barely believe my eyes as I heard myself speak.

             
“Saffron.” 

             
Chris and Will were looking in shock too.  “I don’t believe it.” Chris managed.

             
I couldn’t help but stare for a long moment myself.  Saffron had finally returned to our world.  He’d finally been set free.  For as terrifying as this should have been, I felt an instant sense of happiness begin rising in me.  My father had returned to me.  I finally had him back.

             
“Well, it seems that I timed that one just right.  I doubt that either of you were that up to taking on three angels at once this evening, especially with them catching you by surprise like that.  And considering that Jade himself is a little tied up at the moment, I thought I’d step in this time around.” Saffron told them.

             
“Tied up huh?  You mean you made sure that you’d get here first.” Chris said, making his sword disappear again.  He didn’t look happy at all to see him.  I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief though.  Now that it was all over, I finally had time to let everything sink in.  And I realized that Chris had indeed come back.  He’d still protected me.  There was still hope.