I was WAY too excited to wait another day to post this one...lol.
Please vote & comment if you can! Also re-vote on the previous chapter if your vote didn't count, like 200 votes were removed randomly by Wattpad because of a glitch. I was all like, hey, you stop that, Meanie. But Wattpad was like shut up and SMD. ;((
Wattpad really didn't say that. :)
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"Have a seat, Miss Williams," David said, leading me into his dimly lit office. "You made the right choice, hearing me out. Had I reached one, and you didn't reply, I really would have made you beg. Bribery always works with me too. Especially if it's liquor, filthy romance novels, or candy. If you give me all three... I'll basically be your bitch."
The gorgeous man watched me carefully, lips twitching up in a smile. I didn't move an inch or even come close to laughing.
He sighed. "Are you going to sit, or just stand there and look fiercely at me?"
"I'm not going to sit down." I stood in the middle of the room, crossing my arms over my chest, my back to him, smiling at nothing in particular. Was I crazy? No. Just sleep deprived and a very dramatic. "Neither of us needs to stand for what I'm about to say, Mr. Star." I pivoted around to face David and he was off course, directly behind me."Geez I swear, everyone pops out of freaking nowhere these days! Could you give me some room?!"
Confused, David took a step back.
“A little bit further please."
He moved another step back.
"That's good. I have a theory," I began, swallowing a lump in my throat. "I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I think you're Death. And the only reason I agreed to come in here and hear you out, is to tell you that."
"Alrighty, so I am Death, hidden in the most obvious disguise known to mankind." David put his hands up mockingly. "Except for the fact that I have skin... and the last time I checked, I also don't walk around moaning like the walking dead, carrying a pitch fork."
"It's a scythe, he doesn't walk around moaning--well...never mind, and he does smell nice--" I stopped, shaking a finger at him. "Oh no, no, no. I see what you're doing here. Trying to trick me into complimenting you. That's what you love, don't you, Death? Deathy Boy? Skeleton Man? Getting compliments? You arrogant little--"
"I know that he has a scythe and skin, I was kidding. Why are you in such a nasty mood?"
"I could ask you the same thing," I countered. "Tell me, has anything up to this point been the truth?"
David opened his mouth to say something, then shut it.
We challenged each other in an angry staring contest.
He won.
"Yes, I have lied to you. I lied to protect you. I know that line has been used a lot, but in this instance, believe me, you were better off not knowing what I am. It's too late to go back now. I see it's going to be impossible to convince you I'm not Death, when you're already set on the fact that I am. So I know I have to prove it you." David ran a hand down his face. "You're intuition... it's dead wrong, sweetie."
I gave him a flat look. "Oh really, sweetie? Please, elaborate."
"Clearly we're both in a bad mood. You'll make this a lot easier for the both of us if you keep your sass down to a tolerable level."
"Why do I have to be the one to keep the sass down? I'm the one that went on a date with someone who was already dating someone. Someone who, might I add, is as friendly as an ill-mannered porcupine with rabies. And that date? Yeah, and the date was actually a psychotic serial killer, who lives a double life; one being an arrogant business man, and the other, a mythical creature who walks around carrying an outdated, ugly farming tool!"
"For the billionth time, I'm not Death!" David shouted back at me. "You know, I kind of wish I was Death, because then it would have been a lot easier to lie to you." He took a long, uneven breath. "Faith, I swear to you, I didn't go out with you until I knew Tiara and I were over. At the time, we were taking a break, and then you were ignoring me after the carnival...and I might have--"
I put my hand up. "Save the details. Please. The point is, neither of us trust each other, and you're a horny, psychotic, two-faced killer."
"You're being so infuriating!" David ran a hand roughly through his hair. "I should at least be allowed to oppose your opinion of me, right? That's how these things work? Accusations?" He started to reach towards me. "Faith, come on, you know me--"
“That's the thing, I don't! I know the magazine version of you! The Star version!” I burst out, darting away from him. I put a couch between us and my fists up. "Don't touch me or I'll sock you right in the face. I don't even know who you are right now."
I started to feel light headed, remembering the last encounter I had with Death. How when we were kissing, I saw into his memories. Would David have reached out to me, seeking my touch, if he was really Death?
He had reached for me.
David had reached for me.
Death wouldn't have reached for me.
Or maybe that's what Death wanted me to think. If "David" could touch me, then he wasn't Death, because Death didn't want me to access his memories again. Death wouldn't want to make any physical contact with me again, unsure if it would trigger whatever had happened between us...
Was Death really that clever?
I felt like I was little by little going utterly insane.
"Faith, please put your fists down. Look, I'm way over here. I can't hurt you over here." David leaned against the front of his desk. "I'm not Death. I'm not going to throw an axe at your head, or whatever that thing is called that he carries. Devin and I...we want to help you."
"Sure you do," I laughed out a bit crazily. "Let me guess. I have to sign a contract in my blood to get your help."
"Faith." David's expression was stern. "You've said your peace. You clearly think I'm Death. Now, because I've listened to you, you're going to have to listen to what I have to say about this."
I pressed my lips tightly together, hands on hips. "Fine, let's hear it. I want to hear everything that you've lied to me about. Then I'll make my judgment as to whether or not I can trust you again."
David's eyes never left mine as he spoke. "Your accident with Devin was not really an accident. It was planned."
He looked at me as if expecting some sort of crazy reaction, like me shooting some ninja throwing stars out of my bra or landing some Jitsu kicks to his nuts. When I didn't even flinch, he crossed his arms over his chest, stretching his dress shirt over his chest, mimicking my position, and continued.
"There are a few other people like Devin and I, here," Playboy Junior continued. I watched him carefully, seeing if he had any nervous ticks. I had watched enough Law & Order and other crime shows to have an idea when someone was lying, but I had never honed in on that ability until now. "Mostly, they're brainwashed employees. Devin is my boss, and my friend. I consider him my father because I have known him for so long. He's older than me, showed me the ropes when I was just starting at what I do."
He waited for a reaction from me again.
I was getting way too used to supernatural crap to freak out.
I knew he was telling the truth up to that point.
"We knew about your existence only a few weeks ago, tracked you down, and happened to intercept one of Death's meetings with you. That's what we do. Track down special people, with circumstances like yours, and protect them."
"What kind of circumstances?" I questioned.
"Someone who's Guardian Angel is murdered."
"So let me get this straight," I said, laughing again at the ludicrousness of my current situation. I had gone from hating David Star, to going on a date with him, to hearing some BS story he had clearly made up on the toilet. "You're telling me, that when someone's Guardian Angel is killed, Devin and you intervene. Are you back up Guardian Angels?"
"No, we're called The Carrions. The sixth phylum of angels." David spoke in such a composed fashion that it was hard to stay so restless around him. "We accompany dark entities when they die, and make sure their death is permanent. By dark entities, I mean demons, vampires, undead...everything that is pure evil but a lower class of evil. We protect our world and Heaven from being taken over entirely by darkness. The reason why my eyes have difficulty standing bright light, is because I've spent more lifetimes than you could imagine tracking down demons in the dark."
"What does that all have to do with me?"
"Because you've been under my radar for quite a while now. Longer than most. When your Guardian Angel died, we were notified that a dark entity immediately latched onto you. The entity that killed your Guardian. Devin went after you first to separate you from that being. He was available at the time." David's eyes darkened significantly. "But when he happened to see that your dark entity was The Angel of Death, a huge problem emerged for us. The Angel of Death is immortal, unlike all of the dark entities we deal with. He decided this was some sort of error, The Angel of Death has never latched onto a human before. Devin sent you to me for clarification, making sure that his conclusion was genuine and not some sort of mistake. All I had to do was touch you, and I would know--"
"And you realized it wasn't a mistake the moment you shook my hand," I guessed, recalling the way his thumb had lingered on my wrist the first time I met him when I shook his hand.. Maybe he wasn't lying after all, but I still had to be cautious. "But why...why would you conduct an interview with me? Why were you so...mean?"
"I just happened to be running interviews here," David explained easily. "I figured I would see if you were qualified. Devin really did think you would be a perfect assistant, regardless of your situation. We try to keep normalcy in our lives by running this advertising agency. One can go crazy, dealing with dark entities all day without something concrete in one's life." David rose an eyebrow. "The reason I was so cruel to you the day that we first met was because-- well, I already gave you an explanation for that at the carnival, but honestly, I'm just a bitch sometimes. I was having a bad day, and you putting me in my place was definitely a... surprise."
I let all of that sink in, falling into the soft cushion of the leather couch next to me, dazed. "What about the carnival? You were frozen. You weren't breathing or anything. Death froze time, and you were affected by his power. Why were you affected?"
"He's stronger than me, older than me. And I'll admit that he's got more experience than me." David didn't seem to thrilled admitting that last part. "Fallen are powerful. I'm hard to kill, but angels can't always interfere with Death's abilities. According to Angel Law, Death takes precedence over Light Angels. That's what I am, a Light Angel. I work for God."
I believed him alright, but I put on my best poker face and pretended my opinion of him remained the same. "Who the heck made that rule?"
"They're called the Elders. They're the first angels to ever exist. Most of the rules they've created are either outdated or unbreakable. That's how our system works for the most part. I've crossed paths with that clever bastard a few times, and as much as I disagree with his work, I've had to avoid ticking him off every single time." David was moving in on me, coming towards my spot on the couch. "Faith, you have to believe me. Know that I would never try and hurt you like he would. I'm telling the truth."
"If you wouldn't hurt me, explain to me why you completely ignored me in the lobby, then went all dominant caveman on me in the elevator."
"I'm going to sit next to you." David motioned to the spot where he was going to sit. "I won't touch you, I swear."
"Maybe that's not the problem. Maybe I just don't want you to sit next to me. Period. How about you go find Tiara and ask her to sit next to both of us? We should have just brought her on our date."
After giving me a hard look, David sat next to me anyways. "Listen, I know that you're mad at me. Let me just say this. All I wanted, was clarification that you were alright after I saw you at the hospital." David continued, running a hand through his thick brown hair. "Instead, you ignored me. You ignored my emails, and I know I only sent you three, but I wanted to send you a lot more. I've been thinking about you every day, and it sucks. And then I saw you with Leo, and I don't know, I got really jealous. It's not in my nature to get jealous, so that was new." David squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I saw you in the lobby, and you saw me, and yes, I ignored you. But can you blame me? Damn it Faith, as girly as it might sound, it really hurt that you didn't take the time to contact me and tell me you were feeling better. I thought..." David took a deep breath, lowering his voice, controlling his temper. "I thought you cared enough about me to at least tell me you were ok. But I see now that you didn't care for me enough, or you would have given me the relief of knowing you were safe. And it's no excuse to say that Tiara is not important to me, but it's true. She's not important to me. You are."
My throat started to close up. "We barely know each other..."
"That's why I want to get to know you," he replied without any hesitation. "And I want to know why Death wants you just as much as you want him." His voice was softer, and he had moved closer to me on the couch until our legs were almost touching. "That's why... I need you to tell me everything you know about him. Maybe you have an idea already of what he wants, besides your soul."
I still didn't know if I could trust the man in front of me. As I gazed at David-- really looked at him -- I saw how authentic and exposed he was.
"He brought me back to life when I was younger. Now there's something different about me and Death knows it. Something is wrong with me." I looked down at my hands, curling my fingers into my palm. "I...I don't know what it is, but feel like a there's something growing inside of me, building, maybe even peaking, and the scary part is, that I don't think it's something good. I keep trying to convince myself if I can avoid signing his stupid contract, he'll leave me alone. But deep down..." I let out a shaky breath. "I know he already has me."
"Faith, please don't say that. Don't say that." Cautiously, David moved closer to me on the couch, dipping the cushion beneath m with his significant weight. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. I'll find a way to protect you, even if he's stronger than me, I'll find a way."
I started to think about how unfair my life was at that moment. Why did everything had to be so complicated and fake? Was it a waste of my time to trust anyone? Did I even have enough time in general to trust in people?
My hour glass had once been inverted before the last grain of sand hit the bottom, granting me a second chance, but I didn't feel in control of the creature who could shatter the entire sandglass. I didn't feel in control of anything in my life.
"Give me your hand."
David gave me a puzzling look. "My hand?"
"A liar tends to lie again, until their previous lies become the ugly truth... But God help me, I'm going to forgive you if you do this for me. The last time I encountered Death, I touched him, and I saw into his memories. He wouldn't let me touch him again. I don't-- I don't even know if I can control what happened that night, but if you're telling me the truth-- if you're really not Death, then you'll give me your hand right now and you'll let me touch you. You'll take the risk." I felt my face burn under David's intense stare. "I need this clarification--"
David reached for my hand before I could finish, tightly entwining our fingers. His voice was coarse, and low. "I'll do anything to prove myself to you." He trailed the fingers of his other hand down my arm, fixated on the way goosebumps formed on my skin where his fingers traced. "Prove that I want to help you."
I shivered under the stroke of his finger, gradually gaining faith in him. "How could you possibly help me?"
"Devin and I requested a meeting with the Elders a few days ago. We want to know why we were assigned to you, if we can't physically remove someone as powerful as Death from you. The Elders might not respond to our request. But they could any day now. Even if they don't answer soon, I'm still not going to let him get to you. I know the new law that's been passed, I know you have to sign that contract..."
"You would do that--?"
"Yes, I would do that for you."
"What if you get hurt in the process of helping me?" I asked dimly, consumed by the practically searing heat of David's fingers, as he continued to drag them gently over my bare skin.
Instead of answering, David got sidetracked by something, staring a bit heatedly at the couch. The rain on my clothes had soaked his leather couch. "Geez, Faith..."
"Crap... I ruined the leather!" I sat up a bit frantically and wiped the area where my sweatshirt had drenched it.
David stopped me. "It's fine. Trust me, I can afford another couch."
I gave him a dry look. "I'd say you could soak it up with your ego, but it's already pretty big."
He gave me a sour look.
I smiled obnoxiously at him.
"That's it." With one skilled movement, David moved my legs onto the couch and shifted his large body over me. My heart was pounding incessantly loud in my ears. Mouth a breath away, eyes smoldering, his lips hovered treacherously over mine, eyes playful. "I may be an angel, but I can be mean."
"Prove it."
I said it before I could stop myself.
Without warning, David started to tickle me.
"What--" I snorted with laughter. "Are--!" He found my tickle spot and pinned me to the couch, wrestling me. He was too heavy to even budge with my hands, so I hopelessly grabbed at his hair and tried to pull him off of me, laughing like a hyena. My attempts only made it worse. " You doing!"
Playboy Junior stopped wrestling me, breathing hard, grinning over me. We started to pretend slap each other in-between him trying to keep me pinned, and me ugly-laughing (yes, it exists). I had yanked and tugged on his hair so much that it was up in all different directions and in his eyes. We both were breathing loudly and my legs were wrapped around his waist. Somehow, I had undid David's dress tie and ripped some of his buttons off, and I was only wearing my t-shirt and jeans.
My sweatshirt was on the opposite side of the room.
It would have looked really bad if someone walked in right then and there.
"I think I've proved to you by now that I can touch you," David finally answered, cheeks slightly flushed with exhilaration. "I can touch you without anything happening between us. No tricks. No Death. Just you and me." David braced his arms at the sides of my head. He chuckled at his destroyed dress shirt, the resonance smooth as silk. "And this was my favorite shirt, Virgin Girl..."
"Hey!" I punched him in the arm. "That's what you get for lying to me. Now get off of me."
"Not happening." David laughed down at me when I scowled, but his expression slowly grew serious and leaned closer to me. "It's a shame... I was hoping to get something for telling you the truth..."
Our lips were about to make contact, when David's office door flew open and hit the wall with an enormous crack.
A short skinny man around my age rushed into the room full-sprint.
Caught off guard by the intrusion, David and I bonked heads pretty hard. After finding David's desk empty, the man didn't seem to know what to do, aka, turn around and check behind him.
"Um...hello," I said, rubbing my forehead.
I must have startled the man because he lost his grip on his clipboard and it clattered loudly to the ground. He rushed to pick it up, smiling diffidently at me with a flush to his cheeks, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. But when his gaze fell on David next to me, that smile fell, and he paled like a ghost.
He clutched the clipboard to his chest like a shield.
David tapped his fingers on the couch behind my head. "Kyle," he said, and I could have sworn I heard the beautiful man next to me grind his teeth together, but his smile was pleasant enough. "I already sent those papers to Devin, go check in with him. And please knock next time."
Kyle nodded like bobble head, then rushed out the room.
I burst into laughter. "That was kind of weird..."
"I think he's a new intern." David shrugged. "He doesn't really say much."
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