** So, I know it's been a while but here is the next chapter :) **
Chapter 4
I spent the next couple of days avoiding the forsaken park. I didn't see any of the gang again that week and was glad, I was not ashamed to say that I was scared of them. On the first Monday at my new, yet temporary home, I was sent to school. I hate school, with a vengeance. It was nothing but trouble and I hated that I was always the new girl who's fostered. The pitiful stares that I received were burning my face, I hated the attention. I have always been considered 'pretty' wherever I go, whatever I wear. It was always, 'Well, aren't you a pretty one.' followed by a forced smile and a chorus of 'It's such a shame about her mother.' People smile like that when thay can't think of anything else to say. I had dressed for school in black skinny jeans and a green hoodie over a white tank top. I had on a pair of my over-worn converse's and felt comfortable. I had tried to pull off the natural look with my make-up, but also had black eye shadow on and heavy eye-liner, okay I will admit that it may not have looked that natural after all. Oh well, whatcha gonna do. I had straightened my naturally dark hair and was ready to go. I grabbed my bag and Anna drove me and the twins to school. I was never nervous about starting at a new school. I had no reason to.
As I had predicted, I was stared at in every lesson, I just kept my head down and only spoke when I was spoken to by a teacher. I hadn't really been paying attention to the people that I had seen in my classes. No-one introduced themselves to me and I was grateful. No doubt I'll be moving again soon anyways, making friends can only end in the pain of separation. The bell rang, letting everyone know that it was lunch time; I stepped out and followed the flow of people into the cafeteria. I got some food that looked like in belonged in the bin, which is exactly where I put it. I went outside and sat on one of the benches. The benches were in an open plan circular space that was surrounded by trees. It wasn't a particularly warm day so I thought that I would be the only one crazy enough to sit outside; that was until I heard the voices from behind the veil of trees. They were low and hushed. I walked slowly and cautiously, moving towards the direction of the hushed tones. I shifted the leaves that were in the way and could see a circle of four people. They were all bent over, dressed in black robes and it now sounded like they were chanting. They suddenly stopped and stepped back. There was a person on the floor who stood slowly and lifted their arms up to the clouded sky.
I wanted to turn and run away. Never look back. Until the person in the centre of the circle snapped their head in my direction and a long finger pointed to my face. I gasped and started to run. I was almost to the doors of the cafeteria when one of the robed figures was suddenly standing in front of me, blocking my way. Their hand was raised and I dropped before I was able to scream.
I knew I was conscious but I was unable to move, I could hear the conversations that were occurring around me. I mentally jumped when a warm hand touched the side of my neck.
"She's awake." A familiar voice came from the direction of my feet. I willed myself to sit up, to move something. I was just thinking how hard and draining it was to try and move anything.
"It's no use trying to sit up by yourself. Until your body has started to Change you won't be able to move anything accept your eyelids, which you should be able to open in a couple of minutes." The same voice was closer to my head now. I knew the voice was right but I tried, unsuccessfully to move my fingers or toes. As promised, nothing moved.
"How do you know that she's even awake? She might just be dreaming or unconsciously thinking, you can't know. Anyway, if you had just thought of something to occupy her with we wouldn't even be in this mess. How could you? Why did you? You could have just said something insulting to her and made her leave or..."
"Or what? Next thing you'll be saying I should have kissed her or slapped her or something insane like that!"
"Well, no. That would have been ridiculous. You should have just knocked her out or chased her back into the clearing. Then we could have just Blanked her and we could all move on. You do realise that Raguel is probably going to show up and kick us all the way back to Alioth and we will all probably have to go back to school and be put with Saramons for our missions!"
"You seriously have lost your mind. She saw us, Taylor. She knows too much now, even if we had Blanked her, she would still know that something wasn't quite right with us. You know that." More voices. They were all deeper voices so I guessed that they were all boys. I had no idea where I was or how I got here.
"I have not lost my mind. I'm just not thinking straight at the moment."
"I'm still blaming you for dragging her into the situation in the first place."
"How is this my fault?"
"You shouldn't have invited her into you apartment. You're the one who told us that she notices more that the others. She noticed way too much the last time she was here."
There was an ear shattering smack and my eyes flew open and air flew hastily into my mouth in a ragged breath.
"I told you she was awake."
A face appeared in my line of view. I recognised the face but the closeness freaked me out. I tried to say something but nothing came.
"Can you hear me, Suzi?" I willed myself to nod but the pain it caused me when I tried to, was unbearable. I was now able to move my body but it was agonising to even try.
"Just blink twice if you can." It wasn't too painful to blink and the beautiful face above me made it more bearable to keep my eyes open. "Do you recognise me?" His sweet voice made me remember him even more.
"She knows your face and your voice but she can't remember who you are. I've never known that to happen to a changing Seraph before, but I guess everyone's different."
I had no idea how the mystery voice from the direction of my feet knew that and it was starting to freak me out.
"Whatever you want to say just think it. I can hear what you are thinking."
Ok, I didn't really didn't get it but obviously he was telling the truth. But I decided I would test it.
"What are all of your names?"
"She wants to know what our names are. She's also trying to test if I'm telling the truth about being able to hear people's thoughts."
"I'm Ar- I mean, Taylor. You told me about your parents a couple of hours ago." The stunning face above me spoke and I suddenly forgot that someone was listening in on what I was thinking.
"Yes. I know he's got dreamy eyes but seriously can we stick to the subject."
I felt my cheeks heat up and I knew my face had gone beet red. If I could, I would have hidden my face but being unable to move made that kinda difficult. Taylor smiled down at me and my scarlet head felt lighter than air.
"What's your name?" I directed this question to the boy who could hear my thoughts.
"Alex and this is Gin and Spike." Three other familiar faces entered my line of view. I knew the names from somewhere and the faces seemed familiar. The more round face of Alex had one red cheek and I thought that that might have been what had sent my eyelids flying open.
"You got that right and it was Taylor by the way. He smacked me round the face but yet again can we please stick to subject. What do you want to know?"
"Why can't I move my body? What is a Seraph? And why am I changing into one?"
"Do you mind if I ask the others that? It's a bit of a hard one for me. Well, they all are."
"Nope, that's fine. I just want to know the answers." It was strange, having a conversation with someone without actually talking to them.
"Ok. She says: why can't I move my body? What is a Seraph? And why am I changing into one? I told you she was awake before. I thought those questions would be best for you, Taylor. You being the oldest and all."
Taylor's unfathomable eyes met mine and then looked at the others surrounding me. "You can't move your body because you are becoming like us. We are Seraphs, or Seraphims, and you are changing into one because my good buddy Alex over there decided that you were a Code 6 as well as a Code 3."
"More detail please. Also, what are Codes 3 and 6?"
Alex's face dropped so I mentally added, "What?"
"You're not making my job very easy you know."
"Why? What does she want to know?" Gins face looked worried, although I had a feeling that she wasn't worrying for me, but more about the question that she would possibly have to answer.
"She says that she wants more detail."
"That's not too bad."
"She also wants to know about Codes 3 and 6."
"Ah."
Their expressions made it clear that none of them wanted to answer these inquiries.
"If she's going to be one of us, she needs to know the truth. All of it." Alex had spoken the words just as I was thinking them.
"Is that from you or her?" Spike had spoken for the first time since I had opened my eyes.
"Both. She thought it, but I was thinking the same thing actually. I do think that we need to tell her. For her own sake more than anything." His words alarmed me.
"What do you mean my own sake?"
"When they tell you, you'll understand."
"So, who is gonna put her out of her misery?" Gin, clearly unwilling to do it herself, asked the group hovering above me. They all exchanged looks and then Gin, Spike, Alex and I looked to Taylor. He suddenly looked defeated.
"Fine! Well, a Seraph is a protector of mortals, they are handpicked by the Coven and Alex here may have just upset them. Big time. You can't move your body because you weren't supposed to be a Seraph. Well, not yet anyway. Every Seraph has the special Control to be able to create a Seraph, but it takes a lot of work, normally a message is send via Dumah - the angel of silence. He leads us to the person who has a worthy soul and we Change them. When a Change happens, your soul is sent to the Coven and is examined by Camael and Asteraoth. Camael is the chief angel of powers and his name means "He who sees God," He decides what your new name is depending on what power you have. There is only one single Seraph with that particular power that you are blessed with. It's because the universe cannot take too much magical power, or something like that, otherwise it will explode on itself. So if you are worthy, I'm not passing judgement, and you were destined to have the same power as one who already existed you would only have Alex over here to blame for it. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah Asteraoth. Asteraoth is the angel who thwarts power. If you have a power and you take advantage of it, it's taken away. There has only been three Seraphims in history to have their powers removed. Apparently it is excruciatingly painful to have your power taken away. Also when their powers were "removed" some wicked Gift chose them. We have no idea who or what it is,"
"Are you sure it's a good idea to tell her about the malice between their world and ours?"
"Yes. She needs to know! Ouriel, Azriel and Azreal have made themselves rivals against every Seraph in existence. They killed the Queen of the Angels - Regina Angelium. She was the second Queen and was the best. She was chosen by the Assemblage of Angels and they are searching this minute for the next Queen. The Three Tortured Ones and the Gift created another world. We don't know its size or how they can transport themselves between two worlds, but they do it somehow."
"So what happens if I'm not worthy?"
"She wants to know what will happen if she's not worthy." Alex's voice trembled and I knew the answer to this question was not going to be good.
"You got that right."
"What?" Mark now spoke and I instantly recognised the roughness to his voice.
"Nothing. Just tell her Ariel."
"Who's Ariel?"
"Oh! Um ... I meant Taylor." We were all staring at him in disbelief.
"Why did you have to pick now to call him Ariel?" Gin had many different layers of anger in her musical voice.
"Um, I forgot. She basically knows the outline of us now. She might as well know our real names."
"I suppose you think that we should tell her our purpose as well do you?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact. I do."
"Fine!" Gin, hovering above me, almost shouting, answered, "My name is Miniel. I am the Seraph invoked to induce love. It, unfortunately, only works on mortals. Who's next?" She disappeared and I heard her sit heavily on to a chair beside me.
"I'll go. Get it over with." Mark spoke more calmly than Gin had. "I'm Haziel. I am the Seraph whose name means "vision of God," I can see things that are going to happen but I did not see you. At all. My visions make me cranky, that's why I'm so angry all the time. I don't mean to be I just am." He rushed the last bit and then, he too, vanished from my line of sight.
"I'm Camiel. I preside over beauty, joy, happiness and contentment. I can help mortals bring out the qualities from within. But like Haziel, my power does not seem to work on you either." Spike, his hair starting to lose its spikiness, said solemnly. His words brought an agonizing thought:
"Maybe that's because I don't have any beauty, joy, happiness or contentment left in me. I haven't felt like I've belonged anywhere for years." I had completely forgotten that Alex was tapped into my thoughts. He took my hand and stroked it delicately.
"That's not true. I know it's not." My face was burning with the familiar redness.
"What? What did she say?" Taylor sounded genuinely concerned for me.
"Please don't tell them. I'm begging."
"I can't tell you. I'm sorry."
"What?! Sure you can tell us."
"No I can't you don't understand. She doesn't want me to tell you."
"Oh."
"Thank you"
"You guys need to tell her your names now."
"I'm Ariel, spelt like Ariel, pronounced Ar - eye - el. My name means "Lion of God" I'm the Angel of protection. I was supposed to protect the Queen but she was killed by The Three Tortured Ones before I changed. I have been put here until I am sent for, or when the Queen has been revealed." He, unlike the others, did not move from my sight. I had to fight myself to turn my attention to Alex to learn his real name. He was watching me. That's when I realised that I had, once again forgotten that he was listening to every single thought that passed through my sieve of a mind. I muttered (thought) my apologies and he waved them off.
"I'm Manakel. The Angel of Peace and thought. My gift of thought works on Seraphims, as well as mortals, as you have discovered. However, my power of peace does not work among my own kind; it only works on mortals, except you. This has led the others to think that their powers may be fading. I do not think that this is the case."
"Do you think that there's something wrong with me?"
"No, I just think that you may have the ability to, subconsciously, deflect Seraphim magic."
A sudden thought came to me; "Do I have to call you those names or not? It's kind of confusing that you guys have two names."
"No you can call us by our cover names if you want to, right guys." Alex lifted his head to the others who all nodded happily.
I wanted to ask about the Code's, but my ears were suddenly blocked and I could no longer hear anyone talking. There was an unbearable pain crawling its way through my body, its claws dragging me under, inch by inch, not missing even a millimetre of my body. My skin was screaming like it had been abruptly ripped clear of the flesh underneath. Every muscle felt like it had been shredded and I felt inhumanely cold, my face was the opposite. Burning with a passion, everything in my vision was clouded with red. The tears of pain fell down my face, they appeared to be tears of blood but I knew I was hallucinating, or at least, I hoped I was. I fought against the searing pain to open my eyes. The five people stood above me had no idea what had just hit me. I opened my mouth, which I was now able to move, and my scream was so ear-splitting, it shocked me that I could even be in that much pain to produce such a horrific sound. My eyes rolled back into my head and I felt someone strong grasp my shoulders. There was a sharp light form the corner of the room, which burned my eyes. I managed to contort my body so that I was able to face the wall that seemed to be ripped open, a veil of white concealing a man dressed in a tight black combat suit.
I could hardly hear his low, croaky voice from across the room.
"What have you done? You know that you are not supposed to Mark someone who has not been specially selected by the Coven! I would report you to the Second Assemblage if they didn't already have their plates full. Why did you do this? Do you have any idea how much pain she is in? Because she wasn't touched by Dumah, her body isn't ready for the Change! Unless she is destined to be one of us she will not survive, except..."
"Except what?" Taylor asked the Seraph who had, literally, evolved out of thin air, his voice smothered with terror.
"Except if a Seraph shares her pain, she might survive."
"How? Tell me how I can save her!" Taylor's strong voice was strained.
"The pain she is currently experiencing is indescribable. It is said to be like no pain any mortal or Seraph has ever even dreamed of. This pain is worse than what The Three Tortured Ones went through. Do you now see that none of you can help her?"
"Just tell me how I share her pain and don't say anything more about it."
"Even if you do go through with this, I can't promise that she will survive. It's never been properly performed. It might not even work. We don't know if this will kill you as well as her."
"I told you not to say anything more about it."
"Ok, it's your loss. Just lie down beside her and interlock your hands. No not your hands! One of your hands with one of her hands! Good. Repeat after me: "Prendo il vostro dolore in moda da poterli liberare voi.""
"What does that mean?" A shaking Gin asked the mysterious stranger. "It means, "I take your pain so that you may be freed." You should know that Gin. It's Italian, have you been neglecting your text books again?" They sounded like they had no problem with what Taylor was about to do. Had I been able to, I would have told him not to. But the unbearable, screeching pain clouded my thoughts and my body was still paralysed. He lay down on my right side, grasped my hand and spoke the words with the most beautiful accent. I would have thought that it would have taken some of the pain away but instead it just made my shoulder feel like something heavy and hot was dropped on it. The fire scorched my shoulder and then it went suddenly cold. I screamed again and wished, with all my heart that Taylor had just left me to die rather than having to go through this pain. I listened to him gritting his teeth for about twenty seconds before the heart - breaking shrieking broke out of him. I felt the scorching pain draining from me, the stunning boy lying next to me was writhing with the pain that was being transferred through our interlaced hands. I felt the control over my body come back and as soon as I was able, I attempted to rip my hand from Taylor's. Unsuccessfully as his iron grip restrained me. I sat up, the appalling pain now only a fraction of what it was. He looked at me, his eyes not really seeing me. I knew he was straining. I tried to think of something, anything that I could do to help. I was starting to feel the weight of the unbearable pain and had to lie back down. I was now able to tear my hand free and almost instantaneously the pain stopped. Taylor sat up and I found myself gasping for air. I then sat up again and peered around the room. Taylor lay back down with a groan and then I found out why. The pain we had just endured had left me with the mother of all headaches and I really wanted to go to sleep, I tried to go to close my eyes but the voices sounded like they were being projected through an insanely large speaker. I saw Gin, Mark, Spike and Alex staring at Taylor and me. I also noticed the unfamiliar face.
"Who's that?" I didn't trust my voice so I thought the question for Alex.
"You can probably speak now you know. So you can ask yourself." Alex answered my silent question.
I sat up again, my headache was better, but was still there, thumping at the back of my head.
"Oh, right. I....Uh .... Um... who are you?" I asked the tall stranger in the corner. He looked questioningly at me, creating a small crease in the skin on his forehead. Looking at him, he had to be no older than nineteen. His hair cradled his flawless face perfectly, its deep brown complimented his russet skin and his eyes were a startling shade of green. They stood out magnificently. He laughed at my unintelligible way of asking his name. The glorious sound that flooded the room took my breath and I silently wondered how Gin was able to stand, untouched by his presence. He made the beauty of Taylor seem miniscule and young.
"How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Raguel, I watch over the behaviour of all angels in the mortal world. I am a "Friend of God," and you are?"
"I am confused and have just experienced what it would be like to lie on the sun and then float through space, where, in case you didn't know, there is no Oxygen!" I have never spoken to anyone like that my entire life and I could feel the heat escaping back into my cheeks. I don't think I have ever blushed so much in one day.
"She's Suzi." Taylor said as he pulled himself of the ground.
"Yes, I know. I was merely being polite in asking. So you are a mortal who has discovered the truth about these Seraphims. What do we do with you now, is the question. Clearly you are destined for greatness among our kind or you would be dead right now."
"Oh, yeah, about that. Can I please talk to you in the hall for a second?" I turned to glare at Taylor. His look of exhaustion mirrored mine, I guessed. He looked as bad as I felt, although I was sure that he appeared more attractive with ruffled hair than I did.
"Sure." He helped me off the floor and I followed him through to the hall. "Why did you just do that? You hardly know me. Why didn't you just let me die?" I wanted to shout at him but I just whispered. I could hardly believe what he had just done for me.
"A simple thank you would have been fine."
"Well, what if I don't want to thank you."
"Then that would make you the most spiteful and ungrateful human, that is, because of me by the way: alive." His words slashed me like a knife.
"Fine, just tell me why you did it!" I couldn't meet his eyes and I so badly wanted to just turn around and walk away as fast as I could.
"You want the truth?" He grabbed my chin in a more fierce gesture than earlier. "I did it because, because I wanted to know more about you and I couldn't stand to watch you suffer like that when there was something I could do to prevent it. That's why." He let go of my chin but our eyes stayed locked.
"Thank you." The words were barely audible to my own ears. "Although, I think you are stupid to have done it, after Raguel said that it might have killed you as well as me. I'm sorry for you to have gone through that. I still think that you shouldn't have done it, but I'm glad you did." I quickly added the last bit before he could start arguing with me again. His face softened, just as Gin walked through the door and joined us in the small hallway. I noticed then just how close Taylor and I had been. We both stepped back at the same time, our backs hitting the opposite walls.
"Am I interrupting?" Her voice was sceptical as she crossed her arms firmly across her chest. Taylor cleared his throat.
"No, not all. Can we help you Gin?" He eyed Gin cautiously and she just looked at him.
"Can I speak to Taylor privately for a second please Suzi? This would be an ideal opportunity for you to get to know Raguel. I know he's eager to speak to you." Her eyes never left Taylor's face.
"Of course." I stepped through to the living room and the four pairs of eyes rested on me and I suddenly felt extremely self conscious. "What? Do I have something on face? Or would any of you wish to explain why you are all staring at me like I'm wearing a clown nose?" Which is precisely how they were looking at me.
"I can assure you we are looking at you for a good reason." Raguel's smooth voice answered. I looked towards him and as I did I saw something move behind him. He seemed to detect me notice something behind him and an amused look played across his impeccable features. Behind him two pale wings unfolded themselves and I felt my face light up. I heard, more than felt, myself gasp and covered my mouth with a shaking hand. I took a small step forwards and went to extend my arm - on impulse more than anything, when I thought to myself that it was probably rude to touch a Seraphim's wing's without being asked first. So instead I just stared and saw nothing but white. They were giving off a faint light and it started to make my headache a lot worse. I wanted to talk, to ask some of the many questions flying around my head, so I decided to continue with what had made me so annoyed.
"What reason might that be?" They were all still staring with blank expressions.
"Well, you can't honestly say that you can't see the mark. Because I know you can." His eyes were no longer on my face, but they were on my shoulder. I looked down and cursed at the gaping hole in the shoulder of my hoodie.
"This was my favourite hoodie as well! How did this happen?" Raguel started walking towards me and eyed my shoulder intently.
"I believe that when Ariel lay down beside you, you felt a burn in your right shoulder. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Well that burn was not just a burn, look at your skin on that shoulder. I have never seen anything this beautiful in my entire life." There was a pattern that was glowing and intricate blue on my shoulder. I was a combination of swirls, spirals and flames. There was a word in the middle of the intricate pattern but it was in a different language.
"What does it mean?" I asked no one in particular.
"It means that you have to come back with us to the Coven. The Assemblage will want to see this."
"It means that you have been Touched by the Queen." Alex answered.
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