Angel's Kiss (15 page)

I sighed. “Just plain bad luck.”

“You travelled a good distance. Did you run all the way?”

“Yes. I ran all day. How far was I from my starting point?”

I’d lost count of the number of times I went back and forth, hunting and killing.

“Four hundred kilometres, give or take. You had entered another angel’s territory. It’s a good thing you didn’t attract his attention.”

How was I to know that I’d crossed the border? It wasn’t like there was someone standing there asking to check my papers.

“Where exactly
are
your territorial boundaries?”

Danny produced a map and we sat on the floor to study it. The boundaries of his territory flared and I looked at the scale of the map to get an idea of the size of the region. I figured it was roughly five hundred thousand square kilometres. That was a pretty impressive area for one angel to patrol!

A third of his territory was covered in forests and national parks, and I noticed my old home town was one of the many cities he would’ve patrolled. That explained how he would have happened across me — across Chris — if he was patrolling his territory at the time.

“That’s a huge area to cover,” I said.

“It’s not that bad. I have eyes and ears that report to me, which helps.”

I tapped the map with my finger. “So where’s the cottage and where was I today?”

Danny pointed to the two locations. They were much further apart than I’d anticipated. Even at the speeds I’d been able to run it would take me a good three or four days of solid running to get back to the cottage from where I’d been.

“Does that mean the night you left me in the forest — the night I upset you — I was on the edge of your border?”

“Yes.” He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “I did not want to be responsible for having to destroy you, if it came to that, so I chose the easy way out — to let you become someone else’s problem. It would have been so easy to leave you there, and not look back.”

“Oh,” I replied. I could understand his reasoning, but it didn’t explain why he came back. “So what made you change your mind?”

“I realised that I’m better than that. I take care of my own problems.”

I gaped at him and he held his hand up to stop me from speaking.

“I’m not saying you’re a problem anymore, provided you can leave mortals alone and only focus on vampires and the like.”

“Nice to know you have such faith in me,” I mumbled, continuing to study the map.

We talked about what had happened during my day, the things I’d seen and found out about the vampires, about how both my hands were weapons that didn’t need the catalyst of a bite, how my fingers were assimilated into the vampires’ skin, and how I’d taken on three at once.

Danny was amazed at my resilience and cunning, and the tactics I’d employed to draw them in. Of course my faux fear wouldn’t work anymore, not now they knew about me. It had been my intention to gain full strength in one day, yet that was not to be. I’d need to employ different tactics to get what I needed — what I
wanted
.

I asked about the high their blood gave me. Danny had no answer for it. Blood should not do that, but being unique as I was, as far as Danny was aware, who knew? There would be lots of unanswered questions about me. I was new territory, to be studied and charted. At least that’s how it felt sometimes, when I caught Danny looking at me in a decidedly odd way. Sooner or later I’d be written into the angelic histories — I had no doubt about that — but what they’d say about me, and how accurate and unbiased they’d be, was an unknown.

“Did you happen to hear my new nickname at all?” I asked.

“What’s a nickname?”

“It’s kind of a name you give someone to describe them, when you don’t want to use their real name,” I explained.

“No, I didn’t hear anything while I was patrolling. Why, what is it?”

“
She who kills
. Pretty cool, hey?”

“They gave you that name?” he asked, surprised.

“Actually,” I began, a bit embarrassed. “I gave it to myself and left one vamp alive to spread the word.”

“You didn’t tell me you’d left one alive.”

“Oh, it was hard, believe me. When my lips were on his neck all I could think about was the taste of warm honey running down my throat. You know, it’s funny. They’re cold to touch yet their blood is warm going down. Go figure!”

“And you managed to let him go?” Danny asked, amazed.

“Yeah. I had to refocus all of my energy, but I did it.”

Danny was shaking his head. “Amazing, you are
truly
amazing!”

Gradually I drifted back to the map, studying it intently, the boundaries still shining brightly. After I’d memorised as much detail as possible about his territory I stood up and stretched.

“The bath’s ready,” Danny said.

How did he do that?
I wondered.
How does he know when I’m ready for a bath?

“Thanks,” I replied, and headed off to enjoy a soak.

Afterwards, I lounged around in the robe Danny had provided for me on the first day I’d arrived at the cottage. I’d never thought to ask if the plain white robe was his and he’d never mentioned anything about it. Would he? Perhaps not, too much the gentleman … for an angel.

“Danny, I’ve been
thinking
…”

“Yes, what’s on your mind,” he asked, still reading the book he’d picked up when I’d headed off for a bath.

“What would happen to me if I let go of your hand in the lights?”

His head snapped up from the book and he closed it with a thwack. I jumped. I wasn’t expecting him to do that.

“You must
never, ever
let go of my hand,” he said harshly. “If you do, you’ll be lost to me forever. I won’t be able to find you, even if you call my name.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know exactly what it would be like for one such as you. It’s bad enough for angels, so I’ve been told. Think of what happens in the lights as floating along a fast-flowing river. It takes you from one place to another and eventually you get off, or the current takes you to the bank. If you try to stay, when the time has come to leave, you drown — psychologically, not physically. Your body is ejected eventually, once your mind is lost. Some take longer than others, but it never fails to happen. The only way to save them is to kill them. I’ve never witnessed this — never had to take another angel’s life because of it — and I never want to.

“You can marvel in the lights, there’s no harm in that, but never wish to stay there. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Just like fire the lights are pretty, but dangerous.”

“As long as you remember that you have nothing to fear,” he smiled. “Besides, I would not
let
your hand slip from mine.”

“That’s nice to know,” I replied with a smile of my own.

Unexpectedly I felt kind of awkward and out of place, sitting here in my robe and nothing else, in the presence of an angel. There was far too much smiling going on. Far too much
something else
going on that I couldn’t put my finger on — too long being alone with one person, in the company of supernatural beings. I needed some alone time, just me and no one or nothing else.

“I think I’ll call it a night. There are still a hell of a lot of vampires out there and I’m not at my peak yet. That makes me vulnerable, and I’ve never liked being vulnerable. Some sleep and then some more hunting tomorrow, if that’s okay.”

Danny’s head was back in his book and he nodded absently.

“Good night,” I said.

“Night,” Danny replied, not looking up.

I walked to what I now considered my room and wondered why sometimes he paid me more attention than I deserved, and other times he almost ignored me. It was downright frustrating, in more ways than one.

I lay in bed thinking about what could have happened to me if Danny hadn’t come when I’d called his name.
What if he’s busy fighting a demon or something else? He wouldn’t be able to extract himself from that situation to rescue me, would he?
I needed to be more careful if I wanted to live at least a normal
mortal
lifespan, never mind time immemorial.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. I dreamt of drowning in the sweetness of vampire’s blood, of going mad with desire for the honey-flavoured ambrosia to touch my tongue and flow, warm and liquid, down my throat. Somewhere in my dream the shining light of an angel hovered above me, watching and waiting patiently, ready to release the blue flame if I touched
another
with my lips.

12.
Teratology 101

When I woke I felt refreshed and even stronger, if that were possible, without having had anything further to feast on since the day before. I climbed out of bed, dressed and headed down the small hall — a bounce in my step — to the living area.

Danny was still reading a book, though judging by the pile on the coffee table he’d read quite a few while I’d been sleeping.

“Wow! You must be a speed-reader. Is that a good book?” I asked.

“Hmm?” Danny looked up. “Sorry, I was engrossed in this book.”

I rolled my eyes. He closed the book and added it to the pile.

“That’s okay,” I said. “I haven’t read a good book in ages.”

“There are plenty there,” Danny said as he pointed to the bookcase. “Help yourself. Just be careful with the older ones. Unlike angels they don’t age very well.”

“I’m sorry, but they’re not my kind of books,” I replied dryly.

“Of course not,” Danny said. “Forgive me.”

“Danny, will there ever be a situation where you might not be able to come and get me when I need help?” I bit my lip, anticipating his answer.

“Yes
and
no,” he said.

Sometimes it was hard to get a straight answer out of him!

“Okay, that makes a
lot
of sense!”

“If I’m otherwise preoccupied, then yes, I wouldn’t be able to come straight away, but I
will not
leave you somewhere, in possible danger, if I know I may have other business.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Just checking.”

“I’ve been remiss in educating you about the
monsters
you’re fighting,” Danny said. “It’s time you learned what does and doesn’t work.”

Danny waved a hand for my benefit, so I knew something was going to happen. A vampire, werewolf, zombie and some sort of reptilian creature suddenly appeared before me. I automatically took up a defensive position.

“It’s okay,” he said, “they’re not real. They’re just here to help with the lessons.”

I walked up to the vampire and gave it a shove. It didn’t move an inch, eyes unblinking. I did something low, even for me, and kneed it in the crotch. No reaction whatsoever, though I sure as hell felt a twinge of pain in my knee. I may as well have kneed a tree.

Danny coughed into his hand to attract my attention.

“If you’re done having fun with the vampire perhaps we can start.”

I sat in a chair opposite the row of monsters and raised my hand in the air.

“What are you
doing?
” Danny asked.

“When I was in school we had to raise our hand if we had a question for the teacher,” I replied, smiling.

“You’re not in school now,” Danny laughed.

“Sure feels like it to me,” I mumbled.

“What did you want to know?”

“I don’t understand why those vampires we encountered choose to live underground when they could blend in so well in
any
city, where food is plentiful. It doesn’t make sense.”

“They normally do live in cities, or on the fringes. That was a hunting party. They have a base camp, albeit an underground one, in the forest. They were hunting wild werewolves.”

“Great,” I said. “Now you’re going to tell me there are two types of werewolves — the average garden variety of domesticated werewolf
and
wild ones.”

“Not quite. The wild werewolves are those who choose to live far away from cities and towns, no matter their size. In some ways they’re the most civilised of the werewolves — the most civilised of the monsters, trying to control the beast within. Unfortunately the world is shrinking, and hikers and backpackers make it hard for them. When they come across a mortal they’re more savage than their
domestic
cousins, as you’d call them, having denied their natural instincts for so long.”

“Oh.”

I almost felt sorry for the werewolves. Like me, they didn’t want the monster within to win. They wanted different lives to what fate had dealt them, to live in relative peace. Me, I was just getting used to my new life. I could never go back, could never be mortal, but at least I had nothing to fear from
men
ever again.