The Angel of the Lighthouse (10 page)

She tried to push herself back to her feet, her arms quivering with tension, but a black boot kicked at her wrist, collapsing her to the ground. She looked up, straight into the smugly smiling face of Lewis.

His skin was darker, lined with shadows that seemed to write beneath the skin. His eyes were black, glowing eerily. He looked like the caricature of humanity that he was, the demon close beneath the skin.

“How nice of you to join us,” he drawled, before he looked at someone behind her. “Pick her up.”

Hands grabbed hold of her shoulders with bruising force, dragging her up off the ground. She turned her head and saw Jack looking back at her. This close, she could see his eyes were pure obsidian, and devoid of anything but her own reflection. Dark lines fanned out from his eyes like crow’s feet, and her stomach churned. Whatever this thing was, though it wore his face, it wasn’t Jack.

Lewis stepped in close to her and cupped her cheek, forcibly turning her head back towards him. His touch was slimy cold, and when she tried to jerk her head away, his nails bit into her flesh.

“Don’t be like that,” he said in an overly sweet voice. “We had something special, you and I. Such a shame to let that self-righteous angel come between us.”

Skye bit her tongue hard in order to stay quiet. Lewis patted her cheek.

“I was all ready to stand at your grave and weep, even had a eulogy prepared, but you couldn’t die when I wanted you to. And when I tried to do it myself, you had help. Unexpected help. Well, not this time.”

His smile was slow and wicked, stretching beyond the limits of the human mouth. “Tell me, sweet Skye, how much did it hurt when my meat puppet here stabbed your saviour? When you saw all that blood gushing from his perfect skin?”

Skye tasted blood in her mouth as she bit down on the rising scream of rage or pain, she wasn’t sure which. Something must have shone in her eyes, as Lewis chuckled lightly.

“It almost seems a sin to snuff out such passion,” he mused. “But then, what’s one more sin on my conscience, when they feel so good to commit?” He paused, seeming to think for a moment. “I know... Jack, go and fetch the corpse of the angel. Skye here needs to say a proper goodbye.”

By the look on the face of the demon, Skye dreaded to think what he was planning. A fire kindled within her brain and sank into her heart. Aries deserved better than this. Beneath the fear and terror, her skin felt warm and tight as if she was flushed with a fever. With her hands free now, she sank her hands into her pockets, clenching her fists in the fabric. Pleasant warmth sparked through her fingers, reminding her of the hanging on flame that had refused to die. The heat within grew stronger at the thought of the fire.

“Here’s the guest of honour now!” Lewis declared gleefully, spinning Skye around forcibly to see. Leaving a long and bloody trail through the grass, Jack dragged the body of her lover towards her and the fever within her chest spiked sharply. Her vision swam as if heat distortion was surrounding her. She felt something licking her fingers, and looked down to see pale gold flames rising from her pocket.

Jack dropped Aries unceremoniously beside her, face up. His golden skin was corpse pale now, and his eyes were closed. His chest didn’t move, and blood frothed on his pale lips, darkening as it congealed. The wound in his side was large and ragged, covered in dirt and grass from his transport.

Lewis shoved her to her knees, and Skye rested her free hands on Aries’ chest. The fire on her hand heated up as rage and grief ignited within her. Aries was dead, and Lewis was going to kill her. Time to go down fighting.

She felt the fire in her hand respond to her will, or as if it were a living being, an extension of her. She felt warmth pierce her skin and sink into her blood. She could trace the heat from the puncture point as it burned its way through her body, her own inner fire rousing to meet it. Her free hand, resting on Aries’ chest, burst into golden flames. She heard Lewis take a step back and rose to her feet, turning against the face the demon. He, while still looking slightly rattled by the sudden fire, smirked at her as if enjoying her last feeble attempts at defiance.

The look only filled her with more rage – the rage that Lewis thought her so helpless.

Skye drew her hand from her pocket and flung a gout of fire into Lewis’ face. His mouth opened in a silent scream of pain and the flames dived inside. He began to smoke as his skin began to melt like wax, distorting and peeling away. With the fire raging through her, Skye felt numb and remote watching the grisly spectacle.

There seemed to be no end to the flames as they emerged from her fingertips, a sweetly caressing warmth that reminded her of Aries. But the angelic fire was utterly toxic to the demon and was charring him from the inside out.

With his throat burned away, Lewis could make no noise as he burned, his skin tattering and flaking away. His eyes were wide with pain and terror, and he looked so human in that moment that Skye felt her heart clench. This murderer had killed her soulmate, her lover. He had tried to kill her twice before. He was a demon wrapped in human skin and he deserved the mercy that Aries had shown him before.

None.

Instinctively, Skye knew that if she didn’t finish this now, she would never be rid of Lewis – he would always find a way to come back and torment her further.

The surge of fire immolated the pleading demon, leaving only a floating outline of ash, which in its turn was burned away to nothingness. White-hot light burned into Skye’s eyes, blinding her, but there was no pain. The world around her was filled with pure fire, and she couldn’t see anything buts its glow. It continued to pour out of her fingers in a steady steam that she could feel but not see. She could feel her own skin heating under the fire, but she felt no sensation of burning. She felt no fear. She felt nothing.

She felt consumed, allowing the fire to roar around her – until at last, a sound penetrated the wall of flames. A sound that had been missing from her life and it took a moment for her fire-crazed brain to realise what it was.

A heartbeat.

With every growing pulse of life energy, the fire flickered and danced as if delighted. It poured from Skye in an unrestrained flood, a fiery tornado that consumed her world.

“Oh, my soul,” a painfully familiar voice said, echoed with harmonics that coaxed the flames into ever more dizzying spirals.

Blind, Skye turned, trying to see through the whiteness, even as exhaustion swept through her. She raised her hands, reaching out but unable to see what she desperately wanted to see. Another gout of fire stole the air from her lungs, and she found that she couldn’t draw in another breath.

“Calmly now,” that voice said, achingly loving.

She felt something brushing against her fingertips, and a sensation thrummed through her, cutting through the fire. She felt something inside her jolt back into place. The fleeting touch returned again, and stayed, heat curling around her fingers. Fingers pressed against her own and pulled her in close. She smacked into a solid and broad chest, and felt two strong arms wrap around her shoulders.

It couldn’t be him, she knew that. His body lay on the ground, killed by Lewis, then reduced to ashes by the flames of her fury. And yet, it couldn’t be anyone else holding her tight.

Her blood began to cool, and the fire within began to calm. She heaved in a great gasp of air. From blue hot flames to white hot, to red hot, wrapped safely in the arms of Aries, she calmed. Her vision finally began to clear, or she thought it did. The world seemed filled with a different kind of fire, different from the rage-fuelled blasts that had scorched the earth at her direction. This fire was golden and flickering, burnished yellow and soothing orange. It formed a barrier around her, shielding her and curtaining off the flames from her own soul.

Skye looked up.

An angel of fire with the face and voice of Aries looked down at her. He smiled at her.

“Fire purifies the darkness,” he said. “Fire heals. I am still needed here.”

She watched his lips move in a kind of stunned daze, barely hearing his words. As the fire left her, a dark lethargy took its place, pulling her slowly under. She tightened her grip on the fiery wraith before her, but even he couldn’t stop the dark rushing waters of unconsciousness.

***

The scars were obvious, Skye thought. Where she had stood, wreathed in defiant flame, the ground was charred. Where Lewis had stood, there was a hollow where the dirt tainted by his presence had been evaporated by holy fire.

The rest of the grass was blackened and the nearby buildings bore scorch marks. The fire she had called had raged beyond her control and she counted herself lucky that she hadn’t immolated the whole island.

The fire in her blood had not vanished when she had passed out, and now it leapt within her in welcome as she regained consciousness. Now Aries couldn’t sneak up on her, she thought as she turned around. Her lover looked no different than he had the first time they had met, but Skye knew that beneath his clothes, the skin was still new and tender. She didn’t know how he had taken human form again from the fire angel he was, and he refused to tell her. When he was close enough she took his hand, and turned back to contemplate what she had done.

“Will the grass ever grow back?” she asked.

“It will, except for where you stood, he fell, and I lay. Concentrated angelic fire can be just as bad as demonic taint. It’s holy ground now, but no living thing will be found there.”

Skye shuddered, and Aries squeezed her hand. “Peace, my soul,” he said.

“I did this,” she mumbled.

“Out of your love for me,” he said fiercely. “You loved me enough, my soulmate, to channel my fire. You loved my enough to burn the demon, to kill him where I could not. You, my soul, saved us both.”

The fire within her hummed an agreement, echoing feelings of truth back at her.

“What now?” she asked. “Where do we go from here?”

“Wherever we go, we go together,” Aries said. “I will not be parted from you, my soul.”

His tone was possessive but protective, and Skye felt her heart leap in her chest in delight and joy.

“Do we stay here?”

“You should go,” a new voice said, and Skye flinched at the sound. Aries squeezed her hand, and watched as Jack slowly approached, his hands by his sides.

His face had aged, and grey hairs were visible now. To Skye’s eyes, there were still fading black lines on his face, marks of his possession.

“What do you mean, Jack?” Aries asked curiously.

“You can have a life with your soulmate now, Aries,” Jack said, staring down at the dark earth. “This place holds bad memories for you now. You died here.”

Skye heard the unspoken words.
I killed you.

“What about you?” Skye abruptly asked. She could see the logic in Jacks word’s, but she couldn’t help but be concerned for him. It had been obvious to her how much Jack and Aries cared for each other. They couldn’t leave him here alone, to deal with what he had done, even if it had been while possessed by a demon.

Jack shrugged. “I could, I suppose, leave all my memories behind, but... I’ve nowhere to go. Aries knows that my family see me as
persona non grata
. There’s nowhere for me to run to, and even if I did, free time would make me brood. At least here I could lose myself in work.”

Skye felt a twinge of guilt, and stepped forward to hug Jack. He flinched at her approach, but relaxed after a moment when Aries came forward and drew them both into his arms, holding them both tightly. .

“This was not your fault, my friend,” he said. “This is on the demon who used you. If blame is to be assigned, blame me for not dealing with him fully the night of the storm.”

Skye and Jack made equally disbelieving noises as Aries continued.

“In truth, I feel called to be with Skye now, and I know her heart doesn’t lie here. You will always be my friend, Jack, and always welcome, wherever we may go.”

Skye nudged him with her elbow.

“Too formal?” he asked.

“Too formal,” Skye agreed. “And I think you’re right, Jack. I couldn’t settle here, looking at this reminder of what happened every day. As it is, back home, I have to deal with reminders of the demon every time I turn a corner. But I will deal with it, and I will get past it. He is dead and gone and holds no hold over me anymore. He can’t hold you, either.”

Aries pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Well said.”

Skye felt a warm glow of pleasure run through her at the praise. They seemed to be in agreement. Yes, she would have an awful lot of explaining to do to her family, but with Aries beside her, she could deal with anything.

“This is what you deserve, Aries,” Jack said, quietly. “You have a chance for a new life together with your soulmate, the person who has been waiting all through the years for you. Don’t waste it now on worrying about me. You know me. I’ll find my feet again.”

Skye watched as Aries looked into Jack’s eyes. She felt the fire within her leap joyously as those blue eyes she loved flamed gold.

“You will, my friend. You will.”

There was a strange echo to those words, Skye thought, hidden in the formal tones. She considered reminding Aries again that formality wasn’t needed, when he chuckled and shook his head.