Stuck With You

Part 27

Chapter 27

Aidirian waited for her to open her eyes before smiling.  She glanced around, a small smile on her face too. 

“Did you ever tell anyone where you met me?” she asked in a quiet whisper.

He shook his head at her while dropping the hand he had been holding.  “No, did you?”

“Nope,” she replied, “which means we should be safe here.”

“We should be,” he agreed while waving a hand in the air.  From the ground, a makeshift bed rose.  The blankets were large, and the pillows were thick enough that if Celeste lay her head down on the ground, she would not feel the cold hardness of the cave floor.  The blankets would also form a protection from not only the cave ground, but also the weather. 

She plopped down on the ground before smiling up at him.  “You thought of everything, didn’t you?”

“You’ll be hungry in a little while,” he mumbled just as her stomach growled at him.

She shrugged as if the fact that she was hungry did not mean a thing.  “I can eat later.  Right now, I want some answers, Aidirian.”

Letting out a sigh, he settled down onto the ground beside her.  “Have you wondered why you have to kill the Nephilim?  Why couldn’t you just warn them away, put them on some secluded island where they could only hurt themselves?  What is it about this species that makes your kind and other supernaturals wish to kill them?”

“They’re evil,” she answered. 

He shook his head at her.  Her answer was the same that everyone he had been asking told him.  They were evil.  Well, if they were killing things simply because they were not good, half of the supernatural race should be dead by now.  So, he had asked someone else, someone higher up on the food chain.  The only thing that resulted in was a bloody lip.

“I don’t think that is it,” he told her.  When she opened her mouth, he started nodding.  “I know that they are evil, but there has to be another reason.  Have you not asked yourself these questions?”

“Honestly?  No.  I never thought to question those that I trust.  You have to remember, Aidirian, I was raised to believe in every word that they say.  It’s hard to remember that they lie just like everyone else does.”

Seeing her saddened expression, he reached out and hugged her to his side.  “I know you’re not used to questioning those that you trust, but tell me this.  Why did Tanya warn me about this gift your uncle allowed me to have?”

She pulled away from him with a frown.  “What are you trying to say?”

“Your uncle is trying to get me killed, Celeste.”  The frown that was on her face deepened as he said the words.  “Listen to me.  He wants to be able to control you; with me in the way, he can’t do anything.”

Jumping to her feet, she glared down at him.  “Did you forget whose idea it was for you to see true forms?  It was mine, Aidirian.  So, if you want to throw distrust at someone, throw it at me.  My Uncle Luc couldn’t have planned this, not when I was the one who brought it up to begin with.  Tell me, do you even trust me?”

“You I trust,” he said, making a small smile spread across her face.  “It’s your uncle that I don’t trust.”

“Uncle Luc would never hurt me.”

He stood and stepped towards her.  “You’re right,” he whispered, reaching out to run a finger along the necklace around her neck.  “Your Uncle Luc would never hurt you; he loves you.  Me, he views me as a pawn that is getting a little too close to the queen.”

“I won’t let him hurt you,” she promised.

A large smile spread across his lips.  “I know, just like I won’t let anyone hurt you.  It doesn’t matter though, Celeste.  We need your uncle to help us find out what it is about the Nephilim that are so important.  He can ask questions when others can’t.”

“Others like you?” she asked as her hand rose.  She brushed it across his split lip.  Anger flashed in her eyes.  “Who did this to you?”

“An angel,” he answered, making the finger she was trailing across his lip fall.  “I asked too many questions to the wrong angel.”

“I’ll kill them.”

He shook his head at her with a smile.  “It’s over with.  What good would it do for you to kill them now?”

“It would make me feel better,” she replied with a small laugh.  Shaking her head, she dropped back onto the ground.  “Why are we here, Aidirian?”

Settling down beside her, he pulled her back to his side.  “Until I can learn to mask my newfound ability, I think it would be wise for me to stay hidden.  When I visited the angel, it didn’t take them long at all to figure out what I can do.  No one seems to realize you can do the same.  So, there has to be some way to mask the ability, to keep me out of mind as I used to be.”

“Don’t look at them for too long,” she joked.

He chuckled at her while shaking his head.  “Plus, would it be so bad to have a little bit of quiet time?”

She snuggled deeper into his side with a sigh.  “I guess not.”  Silence filled the cave as neither of them said a word.  Finally, she let out a sigh.  “Aidirian?”

“Yeah?”

“If I promise not to kill the angel, will you tell me who it was?”

He let out a laugh.  “Yeah, promise me first.”

“I promise,” she mumbled. 

Smiling at the pouty tone she used, he gave her a side hug.  “Her name was Gabriel.”

She growled under her breath, her fingers dug into his side, and he heard the sound of her wings popping from her back.  “My sister did that to you?”

“You promised you wouldn’t kill her.”

“Believe me,” she snarled.  “There are things you can do to a person that doesn’t require their death, but she will be begging for it by the time I through.”

Dropping his arm from around her, he turned in her direction.  He smoothed the frown between her eyebrows before letting out a sigh.  “You won’t do anything to her.  It’ll just let the angel know that were onto her.  Plus, she wasn’t sure that I could see her true form; she just assumed.”

“Fine, I’ll leave her alone.  The next time I see her though, Aidirian, I’m not going to hold back.”

“I don’t want you to,” he promised before leaning back onto the pillow behind him.  He tugged her down with him.  Her head fell onto his chest as her wings snapped into her back.  “How about you take a nap?”

She shook her head, making her ear brush against him.  “I’ve slept enough for one day.”

“Fine,” he said with a yawn.  “How about I sleep and you lay there?  In a couple of hours, I’ll take you somewhere I planned to take you when we first met.”

“Where?” she asked, excitement in her voice.

He let out a little laugh before sobering.  “You’ll fit right in now.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To a Fallen bar,” he answered as he closed his eyes.  “The funny thing is I’ll be the odd man out.”

“Haha,” she mumbled, while smacking him in the chest.  “Go to sleep, Aladdin, I’ll watch your back.”

“Aladdin,” he grumbled under his breath, but as exhaustion took over, he didn’t defend his race.  To be honest, he liked when she joked with him.  It showed him that even in times of worry, they could still prevail.