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"Hello," he said as I took another step back. Power seemed to bleed out of him, sending shocks of burning heat down my spine. An alarm thanks to the halfling side of me. "Aren't you interesting?" His voice was smooth like silk.
With him now standing before me I could better take him in. He towered over me. They were always so tall, so strong. Pure strength simmered beneath his skin, lethal. With a predatory stillness, his eyes watched mine as if searching for something. The only movement was the rainwater falling off of him. It moved through his wet hair, dripping off of his brow, running over the bridge of his nose, over his lips. He didn't seem bothered by any of it, certainly not the human standing before him.
Fear flooded through me, pressing against my ribs, making it difficult to draw a full breath. My jaw locked in place, teeth clenched.
He was a predator, confident in his strength and my lack of it. I hated him for it, for the comfort he lived in while we lived in a near-constant state of uncertainty.
Anger met with fear in a delicate balance. It was a tightrope within my mind. On one side was to fight, on the other to flee. Grounding my core, I stood on the edge of the mental rope. The decision to fight or to run would be my own. With the strength simmering within the Seraph, I angled myself towards a fight for no one could hope to easily escape something like him.
Why wasn't he trying to capture me, to drag me away? Was he waiting for his friends to join him? I didn't understand. Normally, they were quick and efficient in their capture of humans. It was perhaps the only mercy we had. There was never any teasing of potential freedom.
I had to get some distance from the Seraph. Even with the slightly heightened senses thanks to what I was, one of them was a lot for even me to handle. If more of them came, then my already slim chance of freedom would turn to none.
Without a response to the Seraph's words, I tossed my bow to the side. It was easier to move without it strung up across my back. Despite that logic, my heart sank just a little. I loved that bow.
Angry hatred burned in my gut as my knees bent, and I prepared to move.
Refusing to take my eyes off of him, I lunged. Grabbing the knife from my belt, I swung at him like a savage. He would have expected me to run- that was what most humans did when meeting a Seraph face to face- so I fought instead.
He moved quickly, fluidly grasping my wrist and stopping my arm in mid-air. Instantly I reacted by bringing up my free hand, hitting him square in the throat. For a moment, he actually seemed stunned that someone like me could lay even a finger on him. The window of surprise was likely not going to come again. I had to make the most of it. Raising my leg, I attempted to kick him, water dripping from every part of me.
The green-eyed Seraph too effortlessly blocked the kick. Grabbing my leg with ease and shoving me back. The only thing that hit him were the harmless water droplets flung from my foot at the abrupt motion.
I lost my balance, stumbling back a few steps. Despite the lost footing, I threw the blade still in my hand. The Seraph was remarkably fast. The blade grazed just a hair past him before sticking solidly into the tree behind him.
"Not bad," he said with a dreadful calm, almost matter-of-factly. His lip curved up into a smirk. Green eyes watched closely, no doubt collecting information about me. He easily noticed the way my gaze darted over his features and barely strayed toward the surrounding woods. The way I searched for an advantage, a way out of this while still unbound by the shackles he wished to place. He simply watched, as if waiting for something.
The Seraph made no move to end the struggle, though we both knew he could. He was a higher angel, a being deadly and strong. I was nothing to him, just a measly human.
My halfling status only helped me to sense his kind. That was mainly all it was good for. Maybe I was a little stronger than the average human girl, but that wouldn't help me now. My heart thundered against my ribs like a hummingbird's wings against a brutal wind. The tips of my fingers went numb with the adrenalin coursing through me.
The temperature outside was quickly dropping with the rain. If I was not so amped up, then I would have been shivering.
Each muscle in my body coiled, ready to spring, to act. Not once had I dared to look away from the enemy while my mind raced to find a way out of the situation I found myself in.
The Seraph stood still, almost as if giving me space to think while rain pelted his perfect body. His shirt was dark and thin, clinging to every curve of muscle on him. It was like he was chiseled from stone by gods and given emeralds for eyes. An old ancient strength moved through him, a sleeping beast waiting to be awoken. There was a blade hanging at the Seraph's side, intricately beautiful, matching the one who wielded it. An angel blade would have been a quick way to end our encounter, yet he made no move to draw the weapon. If he had, without a blade of my own, I would have had no moves left.
Why didn't he draw his weapon?
It didn't matter.
If I was to have any hopes of getting away, I needed that blade. It alone could cut through their flesh and prevent them from healing too quickly.
I flung myself at him.
The Seraph stopped me with his body. Hard muscles refused to give to my movements.
Bringing my leg around his, I shoved.
He actually fell. Seraphs were always better with wings, but in forests they often had to fight on their feet, and they were not as stable on them. I grew accustomed to using that to my advantage. Usually, it worked half the time. However, I had limited experience with higher angels. This Seraph was quick to swing his leg around while on the ground, slamming it into my own with an incredible force, and I went down beside him.
We wrestled on the ground, in the puddles of water between the blades of grass. For a moment, I thought I saw a smile cross over his perfect face. His green eyes appeared to shine even brighter, if that were possible. Somehow, I managed to push myself away from him. With a bit of space between us, I got on my feet again.
He rose as well. His movements were smooth, fluid-like.
The space between us didn't last.
I lunged again. His eyes seemed to widen in surprise as if he expected me to run from him now that we were no longer interlocked on the ground. But I knew better. There was no way I would get far with him in pristine condition. I also knew the Seraphs were not here to kill us, just to collect us. So I didn't have to fear him killing me. At least he wasn't supposed to. The only thing I had to lose was my freedom, which was everything.
This time, I boldly reached for his blade. If only I could get it from him. An angel blade made a big difference in the fight, providing me with at least a sliver of a chance of truly harming him. It was a desperate attempt on my part. Just as my fingers found the hilt, his hand landed on mine. Before I had a chance at him, he shoved and had me pinned so hard against the tree that I struggled to breathe.
"What is your name?" He asked, his body unyielding as it trapped me between him and the redwood. The Seraph's grip was not painful, but it was powerful enough to be uncomfortable, allowing for no movement. His legs were flush against mine.
Fuck. I am so fucked.
My teeth clenched tightly. I wasn't planning on giving him any details about myself. Grunting, I struggled, thrashing underneath his hold. It was all useless.
His body remained firm. His muscles may as well have been made of marble. It didn't seem at all difficult for him to keep me pinned. I was a mouse trapped between the claws of a cat.
"I am Nathanial." The Seraph offered me his name in a soft voice. Deadly, he was deadly, and I would not make it back to meet with the others. I pushed that thought out of my mind, for it threatened to cripple me. I was not in shackles yet.
I struggled a bit more against him, furious at how easily he seemed to keep me pinned.
He just stood there, holding me, waiting for a response. This was all just a game for him.
"How human of you," I finally spoke. It came out in a growl. I did not know why he was even talking to me. He should have dragged me away the way his kind always did to humans. They didn't have small talk. Nothing about this was normal.
I felt the threat of him in the heat his presence gave off. My mind threatened to go down a treacherous rabbit hole of dread at what the feel of him possibly meant for me. The danger of him prickled my skin, sending a shiver down my spine, and I fought to keep from outright shaking in his hold. I refused to let him feel me tremble.
"It is of angelic origin," Nathanial said with what sounded to be a smile. He thought this was funny. Of course, poor little struggling human, so helpless in his grip. I hated him for taking pleasure in something like that.
So I stopped moving. Despite my urge to rip away from his grip, my body stilled completely. I wouldn't give him the pleasure of my struggle.
Nathanial's head tilted ever so slightly, clearly feeling the abrupt lack of struggle. Though the fight never truly left, and I was certain that he could see that in my eyes. A storm festered within me, unyielding. I would never give up, not until my last breath left my lungs. I was trained to fight until the very bloody end.
"What is the point of these pleasantries, Seraph?" I snapped, my voice surprisingly steady.
His brow crinkled. "I prefer Angel, but I suppose Seraph is the same thing."
"You prefer to be what we humans once called little fat babes in diapers with feathered wings? Okay, Angel." The words were boldly mocking. I needed to stop talking. Just because Seraphs in hunting parties weren't known to savagely kill every human they came across didn't mean they weren't capable of it.
But it wasn't in me to tremble before them like so many others. I would not drop to my knees and beg for my life or their mercy. They were not gods I would bow to. They were not as immortal as everyone assumed them to be; my mother was proof of that. They were a plague of brutality and death, nothing more.
"You are interesting, human." His eyes moved over me as if sizing me up. They pierced me and it was almost as if he could see through me, to my soul, to what I was. I endured his gaze with the stillness of a rock. "You can call me Nathan. And you are?"
I snorted.
So he went from Nathanial to Nathan. How flattering. "I have a feeling that's what friends call you, Angel. And we are not friends. Slaves are not friends with their imprisoners."
An electric warmth swiftly came over me, racing down my spine, and my head jerked up in the direction I had come from. The other Seraphs were approaching. As soon as I looked to the side, I knew that in that one action, I screwed up more than any of the words that flew out of my mouth moments ago. It was a tell to what I was.
Slowly, my gaze returned to Nathanial's piercing green eyes. He watched me. More than that, he was understanding. His grip on me tightened. The power radiating off of him skyrocketed, stealing my breath. Then his eyes began to glow, replacing their emerald green with an unnatural blue. Burning brightly as they bore into me.
I swallowed the terror coursing through me. If it weren't raining, then my body would have been drenched in a panicked sweat at that moment. I sucked in an unsteady breath. The threat of him was enough to knock the wind from me. This was not just a higher angel pinning me to a tree. He was royalty.
For the love of everything, he was a damn royal.
All Seraph royals had this ability. They could call forth raw power from any Seraph if their eyes beckoned it. They used it to inspire and enhance their soldiers at times of war, and it was a tool to help find halflings.
My jaw locked, pressing my teeth together while his glowing eyes bore into mine, tearing at me from within. I fought back. I built up the walls just as quickly as he seemed to slash them down, destroying the fortress within.
As a child, I was trained for this. My mother had seen to that, but it had been a very long time since I was tested. This skill of mine was rusty, if it could even have been called a skill.
I sensed the pull from within myself, the pull to bring my other half to the surface, to bring the speck of angel within me out. I yanked that dirty part of myself back, holding onto it for dear life while it yearned to be set free, desiring to surface before the royal Seraph who beckoned it forward, commanding for that part of me to shine.
I stupidly made him suspect me of being a Halfling, and now he was probing to get to the truth. He was destroying me from within.
Just my luck to have ended up pinned to a tree by a royal.
Suppressing the sound of grunting strength, I grounded my teeth as I bared down against his glowing eyes. It hardly lasted several seconds, but for me it felt like an eternity. I was engaged in an internal battle and there was no doubt that with just a little more time, I was going to lose. The silent tug of war within me could not be sustained for long. My control was crumbling. The angelic side within wanted to surface, wanted to follow the royal. I fought with everything I had, for I would not let it win. It was not who I was. Shoving it further within myself, I began shaking with effort.
After a painful moment, Nathanial pulled back, the unnatural blue of his eyes fading to something more normal. The slightest gasp escaped as I exhaled, before my lips pinched shut, locking it in. I hadn't even realized that I was holding my breath the entire time.
The Seraph cocked his head to the side while he examined my face. Then he did the unthinkable. He released me and stepped away.
"Run, quickly," he said with a nod in the direction opposite the one we came, opposite the one where I could feel the other Seraphs approaching from.
I couldn't move. My feet remained rooted to the ground. Confused, I watched him with weary eyes. Was this a trick? It must have been, there was no way that it wasn't.
Maybe he took pleasure in this trick, a continuation of the cat-and-mouse game. He enjoyed the chase, sadist.
"Now," he warned, going so far as to push me, a gentle shove away. In his eyes, there was no shred of the evil I expected to see, but that meant nothing. Seraphs could fool the best of us. The tingling warmth coming from my left intensified. Nathanial's friends were getting closer. The threat of their approach was real, jolting my body. Trick or not, this was my only chance to get away.
I grabbed my bow, slinging it over my shoulder, and took off running. My feet slapped the puddles on the forest floor, sending muddy water spraying up my legs as I ran. After a minute I could sense the warmth of the Seraph's presence subsiding behind me as I gained distance. They were not following. My mind reeled from it all.
He really caught me and set me free?
I ran for what felt like forever before doubling back towards where my people should have been. Making sure that I was indeed not being followed.
I moved slower, because of both exhaustion and hesitation. Even though I didn't feel the Seraphs any longer, I couldn't be too careful. My heart raced, pumping blood through my veins, carrying with it a sticky unease that seemed to have coated me from within. Twitching fingers forced me to close my hands into fists to keep them from trembling. I was physically and mentally drained.
After a while I slowed, straining to hear over the soft pitter-patter of the rain which receded. I came to the area where Kat and Alec should likely have been. Hopeful that they remained hidden until the chaos of the Seraphs cleared.
My feet stilled. Slowly, I turned in a full circle, trying to hear or see them. Nothing.
Taking a deep breath, my eyes slid shut, and I noticed the warmth that spread to my chest as I reached for any sign of a Seraph nearby. There was none.
"Sky!" Kat cried out as she emerged from the woods.
My eyes snapped open. Despite everything, a smile found its way to my lips, and I went to her.
As I moved past some trees, I caught sight of Alec standing off to the side, making no attempt to close the distance between us. The relief I felt as soon as I spotted the two of them safe was enough to make a person cry. But not me. I hadn't cried since my mother's death when I was eight. Tears were useless in this world.
Kat darted towards me and threw her arms around my shoulders in a warm embrace. "When the Seraph caught your arrow and then vanished, I thought he went after you..." She shuddered softly while holding on to me. The rain soaked her clothing, clinging to her body, making her seem so deathly thin. Her brown hair, which normally hung in curls, was weighed down by rainwater. Thankfully, the storm seemed to have subsided for the time being, leaving with the Seraphs.
"What happened?" She whispered, releasing me. Her hazel eyes remained tinged with a mixture of fear and relief at my return.
"He caught me." My voice sounded distant. I cleared my throat, trying to bring it back to normal.
Kat's eyes nearly doubled in size. "What?! Did you kill him?"
I shook my head. Not only was he a higher angel, but he was royalty. I was no match for him. Never would I have stood a chance against him. I simply answered, "he let me go."
"Let you go? How? Why?" Kat was baffled as the words flowed from her mouth. The feeling was mutual. Her brows scrunched together while she inspected me. Eyes flew over my body, making sure that I was indeed whole and unharmed, not believing my luck.
"No idea. They never let people go," I mumbled with a shrug. Luck was something that died a very long time ago, so this, whatever this was, it was something else entirely.
It troubled me.
Nathanial did not know what he released, or maybe he did. For a moment, he suspected me of being a halfling. Usually, suspicion alone was enough to warrant a death sentence, yet he still released me. Would he be in trouble for his actions, did any of the other Seraphs know what he had done? What kind of Seraph was he to feel something other than disdain for someone like me? The questions running through my mind caused my chest to tighten with unease. I needed to force myself to stop thinking of the green-eyed monster before I drove myself mad with wonder.
I looked over at Alec, who leaned casually against a tree, watching us without a word. He seemed so coolly calm as if he hadn't worried about a thing, as if he knew I would return unscathed. But I knew better than to trust his outward appearance. I spotted the slight sigh of relief and saw the gentle sag in his shoulders when his eyes caught sight of me approaching. As I looked at him, he stared back, his gray eyes appearing almost bored. His hand pushed back the wet red-brown hair that was stuck to his forehead.
"What happened to you all?" I asked him.
"We lost Mia and Bret. But we hurt one of them pretty good. It was good enough for the rest of us to have time to get away before he healed. We killed one of their human pets though, in the madness," Alec answered, his voice steady.
I nodded, looking at the soggy ground beneath my feet. Mia and Bret. I sighed. Another two human lives were wasted. They still probably lived, but they were with the Seraphs now. That was as good as dead.
It no longer broke my heart to lose people. Maybe that made me a monster, but there were no innocent people left in the free world anymore. We were all monsters in one form or another. I kept a distance from most of them, knowing that any connections formed were only temporary. The only two exceptions were Alec and Kat. If I cared for others, then I wouldn't have survived for so long. I was not in the business of being a hero. This world wasn't kind to heroes, we just tried to survive.
Kat stepped away from me and leaned against a tree, watching me with a scowl. She didn't like this whole catch-and-release thing any more than I did. It was dangerous, and she knew it. Concern was written over her face.
My gaze shifted to the boy who remained quiet. I met Alec in the last human town Kat and I were a part of. He had a cool, carefree air about him I envied. I was always more hot-tempered, but we worked on that part of me. Thanks to him, I could now keep myself more steady, less explosive, but I was never as talented at hiding behind a calm veil as he was. Alec was a few years older and helped train Kat and me in self-defense whenever he was not pretending to be too cool for everyone. The three of us developed a bond of trust and loyalty. We became a family.
Even if Alec didn't show how much he cared. I knew he did. I had known since the time I became incredibly ill. In the world we lived, illness was as dangerous as Seraphs and Hellions. My sickness was horrible. It felt as if all life was pulled from me and as if death had knocked at my door. Most stayed away from me for fear of whatever I had being a contagion. I was delirious, feverish, and undoubtedly a gruesome sight.
While lying in my sickbed, I sensed death and its warm embrace. Even though I felt my life slipping, I was oddly at peace with it. For once, it was quiet in my mind. All I had to do was let go. To let go of this life and simply drift off into oblivion. The thought ran through my mind: what it would have been like to let go, to finally stop fighting. My eyes opened into weak slits and I saw him, Alec. He sat by me, sleeping in an upright position. His hand was resting on mine. Before that moment, I hadn't known if Alec cared for anything beyond himself. But he was there, risking his health, taking care of me. That was when I realized I had two people in my life who cared for me, and I cared for them. So I gripped on to life, not wanting to leave Kat and Alec on their own, and I pulled through. I have been with them ever since.
As darkness fell, we climbed the trees, strapping ourselves onto the branches. This was how we slept when in the woods, off the ground, and away from the hellions, which came out in the night. Some of them could still reach us in the trees, but it was better than nothing. Kat and Alec picked thick branches close to my own.
"I'm glad you are alright," Alec spoke once we nestled in.
I peered in his direction. Through the cover of darkness, I couldn't see the features on his face, just an outline of his body.
"You are going to make me think you were worried," I replied with a smile. We survived, the three of us. It could have been much worse. Even with the loss of a couple of humans, I considered the encounter a massive victory.
"You shouldn't run off like that. On your own," he said after a moment, proving that he had indeed been worried. People did not love Seraphs, though Alec's hatred of them rivaled even my own. For what they did to his brother.
"What do you want me to do next time? Just stick around, let them all drop in on us, several easy targets within reach?" I guess I should have been more understanding of his concerns, for they were the same ones I had. Yet I always acted as the bait when monsters drew near, and that was how it was going to stay.
"I am not useless," he hissed. Apparently, once the darkness surrounded us, some of his cool demeanor vanished.
I was not sure when it happened, when I became the one who took the risks in our relationship. It seemed like one day I woke up and Kat and Alec fell in line behind me and that was the way it stayed. Normally, it worked fine for us. Then there were times that Alec chose to be bothered by it.
"I never said you were." I made sure that my voice came out calm. This was not a fight that needed to be had.
Alec didn't respond.
I let a few moments of silence pass between us.
"Tomorrow, at dawn, we leave." My voice was low, so only Kat and Alec could hear. Some of the people we traveled with were taken. I didn't know if those captured knew what I was, but we had to be smart about things.
This was our pattern. When we traveled with others as soon as any were taken, it was time for us to leave. It was easier to avoid Seraphs when there were only three of us on the run, without the company of a larger group.
We left in case one of those who had been taken broke and told the Seraphs what I was, and they came looking for me, a halfling. In the wrong hands, halflings could be dangerous to Seraphs. Demons in particular had a great use for people like me. So the Seraphs followed orders to kill halflings on site if they did not go willingly.
"I'll be ready," Kat chimed from another branch.
"Yeah." Alec laid back, folding his arms behind his head as he turned his attention towards the branches above him. I mimicked him, laying back and staring at the dark branches above as they reached into the dark sky. Eventually, I fell asleep.
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What do you think of Nathanial and why he let Sky go?
★。／｜＼。★