Pretty Faces and Dark Places (14 page)

I took a quick shower and then got dressed in another pair of black jeans and a strapless black top. I loved that there was a door inside of the bathroom that led to the closet, because believe it or not, for some reason I was too shy to go out into the bedroom with only a towel around my body while I knew Andrew was there.

When I stepped out of the closet, I found Andrew standing in the middle of the room, waiting for me. His face broke into a wide grin when his eyes landed on me, and I couldn’t help but mirror it. He took the few steps that separated us and then held my hands when he stood right in front of me.

“You look so beautiful, Maya,” he said, before kissing the back of my hands – one gentle kiss on the back of each hand, tender kisses that sent warmth over my heart, and it had nothing to do with the heat that was coming from his body.

I smiled shyly. “Thank you,” I said, wondering how I could look so beautiful in his eyes when I just had my hair in a loose ponytail, not in a fancy style or anything. I still couldn’t help the feelings that filled my heart at the realization that I was beautiful in his eyes, no matter what I was dressed in or how my hair was styled. His words made me believe so.

Andrew then let go of my hands and walked over to the nightstand, where he picked up the glass of honey and the pills that Sophie had brought for me. When he was standing before me again he offered them to me. “You need to take these pills, Beautiful. It will help you with the pain,” he said.

“Um … but I feel fine,” I said. I didn’t know why, but the thought of drinking anything sounded unpleasant in my head.

“It’s good that you feel fine, but you will feel great pain when the new wings come out. These pills will help you with that, and the honey will help make them work faster,” Andrew explained.

“Uh … ” I still wasn’t sure about putting anything in my mouth, but I didn’t want to decline Andrew’s request, not when he was looking at me with those pleading eyes of his.

 I took the pills from his hand with a smile I managed to put there just for Andrew’s sake, but that smile disappeared and was replaced with a grimace once I put the pills in my mouth and tasted the awful flavor of them.

I quickly reached for the glass of honey and took it from Andrew’s hand, bringing it to my mouth, hoping that the sweet taste of the honey would help me remove the horrible taste of the pills. I was wrong.

The honey tasted as awful as the pills. I thought that maybe if I swallowed quickly I would end this and get over it faster, but I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t swallow. I started coughing crazily, spitting out the pills and the mouthful of honey that I’d sipped.

In a split second, Andrew managed to take the glass from my hand. The next minute he was helping me to sit down on the bed and then he moved a small wet towel over my mouth.

I took the towel from his hand with another, “Thank you,” and started wiping wherever there was honey on my hands.

“What’s wrong?” Andrew asked with concern appearing on his handsome features, kneeling in front of me on the floor.

“This honey doesn’t taste anything like the honey I know; it tastes awful,” I replied. Andrew looked surprised by my words.

“It’s the very same honey that you knew in your human life,” he said, to my surprise.

“I don’t know, Andrew. My throat closed anyway, I couldn’t swallow,” I told him.

Andrew’s eyes grew larger at the sound of my words. He looked as if he was completely shocked by them, his mouth slightly agape as he stared at me without saying anything.

“Are you okay?” I had to ask.

“Yes,” was all he said before standing up. He looked away at nothing for a few moments, seemingly sad more than anything. I couldn’t help but wonder why he had changed moods so abruptly, but I couldn’t find any answer for my wondering questions. When he sighed and shook his head, I decided to let it go – it wouldn’t be the first thing that I couldn’t understand, anyway.

“I need to go and get some sleep. I’m tired.” Andrew said, not looking my way.

“Go? Go where? I thought this was your room!” I said with a hint of terror and worry in my voice. I didn’t want him to go. I wanted him to stay; I didn’t want to be alone. And I didn’t just
think
that this was his room – I knew it. The photos on the wall, in which he was in many of them told me so. The jeans and shoes that were in the closet told me so – why did he have to go? I couldn’t get it.

“We don’t sleep in beds, Maya,” he said as a matter of fact.

“Oh!” was my reply.

Andrew sighed once more, and then he offered me his hand. “Come, I’ll show you.”

We left the room with our hands tangled, and then walked into a long lobby. Every time I saw someone walking by I couldn’t help but step even closer to Andrew if that was possible, using him as a kind of shield, because any and every one scared me for some reason. I just couldn’t feel any kind of comfort whenever I saw anyone else.

Eventually we left the lobby and stepped into a great foyer. We went through great iron gates to leave the place, and when I looked behind me, I saw that we’d been in a huge mansion that looked like the ones belonging to royal families or something. I understood that Andrew was truly some kind of royalty since he had told me that his mother was the ruler of their kind.

After leaving the mansion, Andrew turned in front of me so that his back was facing me and then he grabbed my hands and lead me to put them over his shoulders, causing my body to be flat to his back, right in the middle of his wings. “Hold on tight, Beautiful Maya,” he said, and then I found my feet leaving the ground as Andrew spread his wings and started to fly.

I squealed when I felt the air hitting my face, not really caring that it felt different from the air I was used to. This air wasn’t as light, it was actually thick, and the smell of dirt was evident enough to be noticed but not so much that it was uncomfortable. It felt just like when you open the window of your car while driving on a deserted road on a windy day.

My smile grew wider when Andrew flew higher, and I tightened my hands around him, smiling even wider when I was able to hear the soft chuckle that he let out when he heard me squealing again.

“Where are we going?” I asked, not able to help how loud my voice was. The rush of excitement inside of me was preventing me from keeping it quiet.

“You’ll see,” Andrew said, the soft smile easily heard in his voice.

The sky we were flying in was seriously strange; it was darker than anything I’d ever seen in my life. It was pitch black and colored with strong darkness. There was no hint of any stars in it, nothing that I’d ever seen before.  

The only thing that was stranger than anything, the only thing I couldn’t help but stare at with wonder, was the sun. It was different, much different – and not just because the sun wasn’t able to lighten the dark sky like it was supposed to – no, it was because of its colors and size.

I didn’t know if it was the fact that I was flying in the sky on Andrew’s back that was the reason I saw the sun as this large, or if it was actually larger than the sun I used to know. However, the colors were definitely different. It was dark and bright red, like blood and fire, not golden or orange. It was more like lava than anything, and the heat that was coming from it was enough to make it fit that description.

“Andrew!” I shouted, to which he immediately stopped heading higher, trying to look at me from over his shoulder.

“What is it?” he asked with concern.

“The heat, it’s too much!” I replied. My body was warming to the point it had grown to be really disturbing. I had no doubt that if Andrew got us any nearer to the sun, it would seriously harm me and burn my skin.

Andrew quickly flew us down until I could no longer feel the heat as great as it had been, and then he stopped again. Our feet were pointing toward the ground, which was far away from us, when Andrew reached with his hand and brought me around in front of him. For a moment I was scared that I would fall, especially with his wing in the way, but I knew right away that Andrew would never risk that. He wouldn’t turn me around unless he was very sure that I would be safe. In truth, it was like his wing was helping to get me there, just like his hand was, by spreading and unfolding in a way that made it easier to move me like that. It was an incredible thing to watch.

Now I was face to face with him, our chests flush to each other and our faces so close that our lips were almost touching. His eyes were so beautiful and held so many emotions in them as he stared into mine, while his arms tightened around my waist as he hugged me to him. The sadness I could see in his eyes was hurting my heart, and I wished I knew why he looked so sad, so I could do whatever I could to remove that look from his face. His eyes should only be happy and delighted, as my heart wanted for them to always be.

Andrew then moved to be on his back, not saying anything to answer my silent questions about the sad look in his eyes, taking me with him to lie on top of him. His wings spread out on both sides of us so that he was hovering on his back right in the middle of the sky, his hands still hugging me to him and his eyes still watching mine with warmth and compassion.

“This is how we sleep, Beautiful Maya,” he told me. All I did was nod my head to tell him of my understanding, though in my head I couldn’t help but be fascinated at the way we were, and wonder how much longer we would be like that.  I was already afraid for the moment we would have to go down and back to the mansion, because I liked it there so much, in his arms. I loved it even, not just liked it.

“Andrew,” I called softly to get his attention. We had been like that for a little while, my head resting on the middle of his chest where I could hear his heartbeat, wondering if that was where his heart was and not to the left side like in humans.

“Yes, Maya?” he replied just as softly.

“Why is the sun not lighting the sky?” I asked the question that kept roaming in my head as I searched for an answer and never found one.

I heard Andrew as he chuckled softly and I frowned, waiting for him to answer my question instead of laughing at it.

“Those are not a sun or sky, Beautiful Maya.”

“They’re not?”

“No,” he replied. “This is just an empty space, and then it’s the center of the Earth, where volcanoes are produced.”

“Oh!” I said as I tried to understand what he was saying. Of course it made sense now – it was the underground world, after all. It wasn’t a sky or a sun, even if it looked like it.

“We can’t see in the sun, Maya. This is why we surface to the upper world only at night,” Andrew explained.

“Do you do that often?” I asked.

“Just on certain nights until we find our mates – mostly on Halloween and when it’s the 13th of any month and a Friday. We surface in different areas and countries, through the graves made for us on Earth. One demon only gets to surface once a year through humans’ calculation of time.”

“Oh!” I said again, trying to take in everything that he was saying. “So, you won’t come out ever again?”

“Only on next Halloween. A new generation of us will need mates, and since there are so many this time, they will need more of us who’ve already found their mates, for guidance,” Andrew said, and then he sighed after a pause of silence, “Sleep now, My Maya.”

At the sound of Andrew’s words I felt an undeniable surge of fear, which consumed me and filled my insides. The first and bigger thought that formed in my head was something I couldn’t stop thinking about:

Humans were in great danger.

Sleep wouldn’t come. No matter how hard I tried, it just wouldn’t.

It was understandable. How could I sleep, how could my mind find any kind of rest, when my thoughts were just about to drive me crazy? How could I find any kind of comfort when my heartbeats were racing against each other, thumping hard against my ears, along with Andrew’s steady ones that I was able to hear clearly as I lay on top of him in the
sky
.

The thought of how humans were in danger was enough to keep me fully alert; not only that, no, I felt as if my blood was boiling inside of me. The need to run and just –
do something
was so great that I felt every inch of my body aching. Though I had no idea what to do or where to go, I just couldn’t help the need inside of me.