V A L E R I A
Angels live in constant fear and danger while simultaneously trying to save anybody they can.
Angels want to help. No matter how dangerous. I believe it to be both a blessing and a curse.
2 years ago, my family got killed by a demon that made its way to Heaven. Nobody knows how they got in. All we knew was that the place we called home was no longer safe, and Earth was to become our new home.
I walk down the hallway on my way to class. I look up, and in front of me, I see the same man from the library yesterday.
His large back muscles filled out his black shirt. His black shoes that hit the floor were designer and expensive. Angels, we are drawn to the darkness, so that we can convert them to the light. Vampires have the darkest aura. They are selfish, and they kill, however, not all of them are bad.
But the darkness from the man in front of me was unlike any vampire I had ever met.
I could see his face slightly. He looked tired. His eyes perhaps looked dead. I speak up to the rude stranger, "Rough night?"
He looks over his large shoulder. He seems annoyed that it's me again.
"Those wolves kept me up all night with their howling," he complains as I now walk beside him. "They will be lucky if they make it through the night."
"It's against academy rules to hurt another student in any way," I say while furrowing my eyebrows. I could see on his face that he already knew this, he just didn't care.
"Why are you following me again so early, little witch?" he asks. He looks down at me for a moment. His eyes are brown.
"I'm not following you," I reply. It's a bit of a lie. As an angel, I'm drawn to the dark aura around him, wanting to help him, save him from whatever it is making him that way.
He continues looking forward. I knew we would not be in the same classes, witches and vampires barely get along.
I find it easier to present myself as a witch than a fairy. Fairies have wings, small ones, of all colors. Mine are white, they are big, I would give myself away in a second. We can do certain spells that witches can do, good ones, pure ones.
"Could've fooled me," he almost mutters. He doesn't tell me to get lost. That surprises me a bit for a man I think may just be allergic to emotion.
"You still haven't told me your name," I say. He stops walking as he reaches the door to his classroom. I stand, I play with my bracelet, feeling slightly uneasy under his eyes that were as empty as a corpse.
"I don't need to," is all he says. It makes my eyebrows lower. "You'll find out soon enough."
He turns and enters the classroom, shutting the door behind him.
𓆩♡𓆪
I chew my lunch in the busy cafeteria. Cristella and Hazel argue about some spell, I know I'd never be able to do it so I barely listened as I ate the food served to us today.
"No! It would need to be done during the night -," Cristella had begun arguing back, but slowly, her voice trailed off. "No way."
I swallow the food and look up at them since they both sit across from me. I ask them, "What?"
They both looked shocked. It only made me more confused. Hazel nearly whispers, "He's back?"
I look over my shoulder to see who it is they are talking about. The vampire whose name I don't know walks through the cafeteria, still in all black, the same color as his tattoos, with the same empty look I had seen this morning.
"Adonis Priest is back," Hazel whispers again, sounding even more shocked this time.
I finally had a name to the face. Adonis Priest.
I had started to think that maybe they had known him and had a bad experience, but my mind started to shift as I saw nearly everybody looking at Adonis. Some looked shocked. Maybe scared. Some girls smiled widely and whispers started.
His strong jawline clenched as he kept walking forward. He knew all eyes were on him, but he ignored each and every one of them as he walked.
His eyes met mine for a moment. I held my breath. There was even less emotion than usual. I forced myself to look away and turn back around.
"What do you mean 'back?'" I ask them. "Who is he?"
When he was out of the cafeteria, conversations started to continue again. Hazel and Cristella exchange glances which only makes me raise my eyebrows and want to know even more.
"Adonis was a student here two years ago," she tells me. "He was the strongest vampire this school had ever seen. He had been fighting with this other student for many months, and then one day, they disappeared. Adonis was never seen again after that, either. Some people said that they knew he killed them and kicked him out, others said the guy was just on the run, some believed Adonis had nothing to do with it. But not many."
The darkness I had felt from him suddenly made more sense. It wasn't the darkness from a regular vampire, but from a corrupted vampire.
"So...did you guys know him personally?" I ask as I stab my fork into my food. "I mean, was he...nice?"
Cristella laughs. But then her face turns serious as he says, "Adonis Priest would use caffeine as melatonin and use the moon as the sun. The man is unreadable and unpredictable, people rarely get a conversation out of him. He refuses to call people by their names. Probably because he thinks nobody is worth his time."
I wondered if there was more to him. I wish I didn't, but I did, as an Angel I am cursed to see the good parts, even within monsters.
"I mean, I'll give it to him, he is really hot," Cristella shrugs before flicking her blonde hair and biting into her apple. "Lots of girls have had crushes on him, attracted to his mystery and whatnot. But it's never done any of them any good."
I remained quiet. I didn't know what to say. I just continued eating my food and dropping the conversation.
After lunch, I went to my room, and stayed in there until nightfall. After 10, we are not supposed to leave school property. But every so often, I do.
I exit the same way I always do, sneaking out the back doors and running until I reach the forest. Once I know I'm out of view, I let my wings home out, and fly to see my people. All angels that could not pass as students stay in a secluded house in the middle of a forest. There's a spell up, it's unable to be seen unless you know that it's there.
Once I'm close enough, the wind blowing my hair around as I fly, I blink my eyes and see the house once they open. I smile as I land and put my wings away.
I cheerfully run inside. I call out with a smile, "Hello?"
"An unexpected visit," he says from behind me. I turn around and my smile grows even more.
"Gabriel!" I say as I run up to him and hug him. Ever since my father got killed two years ago, he has become a father figure to me. He hugs me back tightly.
"How are you, Valeria?" he asks me with a smile as I pull away, but he keeps his hand on my shoulder. "And the other angels?"
"Good, and they're good," I answer him. The other angels and I do not speak. We stayed in different groups, in case one of us was found out, it wouldn't be obvious who all the rest were. "I wish I could get to visit here more often, though."
"I know, Val, I know," he says understandingly. "But it would be too dangerous if all of us were here."
I nod. I question, "Are we any closer? To finding out who it was?"
The disappointed look on his face answered my question before his words did. He tells me, "No. Demons are good at hiding, we haven't found any yet. You need to be careful, Valeria, don't ever let your guard down. No matter how much you think you can trust somebody, we never truly can, only each other."
"Only each other," I repeat. I try not to see the image of my parents dead as I say it. I blink harshly.
He smiles at me. He says, "You should go now, you don't want them catching their best student sneaking out at night."
I laugh. I don't want to leave, but I know that I have to. I say goodbye to him and walk back outside into the night, flying through the trees back to the school, unaware of what lurked there.
Word Count: 1514