Hello parallel universe. Name's Ava, but you probably already know that. My life has, again, turned in so many off directions that I have no choice but to sit back and enjoy the ride. I really don't know where to start to try to understand what's happening. From breaking up with Damien and kicking his ass to the sporadic makeout sessions with Tristan. I'm at a loss for words. He's obviously attracted to me, but I can see he's yelling at himself to back the fuck off.
All of this doesn't seem real and it's happening so fast. The car ride over wasn't too bad, with the exception of Tristan being so hot and cold to me. I, too, am confused with what to do about our connection that we both seem to be fighting. I wonder why, though. I don't like the idea of jumping from one relationship to another and I'm not saying that that's what I want, but at the same time, yolo, right? What am I even thinking? I just met Tristan and I know nothing about him. I feel stupid for even thinking like this.
He wasn't kidding about being close to Navy Pier. This is such an odd location to be living in when you want to be hidden, but then again, the phrase, hidden in plain sight comes to mind. As we enter the lobby, my heart's still racing from our hot makeout session in the elevator. I can't believe that just happened. Never in my 21 years of life have I ever experienced the chemistry I have with Tristan. There's no awkwardness or tension, just passion. I guess not many people experience this, so I'm lucky to have it even if it may be short lived.
I look around the lobby area.
"Chicago Windy Security? You live at a Security Company?" I look at him confused. He's grinning at me with that sly smile that I'm beginning to appreciate as his trademark.
"It's our job. We have to make money somehow and the High Guard who serves the Royals is the one that proposed this hundreds of years ago and it took off. It allowed for us to blend in better with humans." He continues past the eye scanner and I hear the glass doors click.
"After you." He holds the door open for me. Such a gentleman. He leads me up the spiral staircase into another lobby, but this one is a bit more sophisticated and there's someone sitting at the desk with their head down.
"Evening boss." The guy waves without looking up. He's wearing a baseball cap that reads CWS on the front.
"Steve." As we finally approach the desk, Steve looks up and makes eye contact with me. He's a young guy, maybe in his 30s. I suddenly feel self conscious, because the guy's turned red and is staring at me. Do I have something on my face? He finally looks back over at Tristan.
"Steve, this is Ava. Please enter her in the system." He says curtly. I notice Tristan's posture has changed and he's moved a little closer to me. My mind immediately goes to him being jealous of Steve's attention on me, which has to be completely absurd to begin with. But, again, I'm going with my gut on this one and I feel somewhat too satisfied at the thought of Tristan going all caveman on some random person that seems to be nice and doing his job.
"Sure. Anything else?"
"Anything exciting tonight?" Steve looks back at me and I can see I'm making him uncomfortable.
"No, sir. Some noise complaints, but that's it."
"Good, keep up the good work." Steve turns an even brighter red and turns toward the computer. We start walking past the desk and through another door that somehow magically clicks upon Tristan reaching for the door handle.
I've noticed at least 15 cameras since we've entered this building. What are they guarding and monitoring?
"Hey, when you told Steve to enter me into the system, how is he going to do that with just my first name?" I ask Tristan as we continue down a hallway that has offices on both sides, but all of the doors are closed.
"We have very sophisticated scanners that have your photo from our cameras and search the internet to confirm your identity. From there, it pulls all of the public information into our database and it organizes it into a report. As we speak, all of your information will be pulled up by the time we get to the main living floor." We finally get to the end of the hallway, where there's another eye scanner that Tristan passes and, again, the door clicks open for him.
"How are you doing that?"
"What?"
"The doors. How are they opening for you without having to go through the scanner?"
"One of many talents - we can will things on and off, open and closed." We walk into another area with more elevators. Oh geeze, another elevator. I look down at my feet, feeling myself turn red while I feel myself get wet again. Tristan is 5 feet from me, also avoiding eye contact, which makes me feel a little better that I'm not the only one with a problem. The elevator dings and we step in again. We both go to opposite sides and lean against the rail, mimicking each others pose.
I can't help but smile at him. He looks up and gives me the look of "what". I shake my head and look away, but continue to smile to myself. The elevator dings quickly and I look back at Tristan who I catch raking my body with his eyes. He clears his throat, realizing he just got caught and heads out of the elevator.
We walk into a huge entrance way with a beautiful large, round table with a huge bouquet of flowers in the center. Wow. I was not expecting this. We continue to walk and we reach a very large living room space with several couches, lazyboys, multiple TVs, a lot of game consoles....I've walked into a bachelor pad. A very clean bachelor pad, but yes, a bachelor pad.
"This level belongs to the rest of my team." I look back to him.
"How many of you are there here?"
"Including myself, 11."
"And you stay here?"
"No, Bran and I are on the top level. Bran's my 2nd in command." He's watching me, gauging my reaction.
"Bran?"
"Another half-breed, like you. C'mon. You'll meet Bran and Deklin. They're on desk duty tonight." He leads me over to another set of winding stairs. As we reach the top, the double doors are huge with a beautiful gold design of wings.
"Is this real gold?" I ask, touching the doors.
"Yes." I look back at him, shocked.
"Why?"
"Gold is the preferred metal of all true angels. It protects us. No demon can pass through it."
"A simple metal can protect you from demons? Then why not have gold suits or armor?"
"Because it can also kill us." He looks at me intently.
"What do you mean?"
"It's the only metal that can kill us. Bullets, swords, even wood can wound us, but we can heal. Gold will not allow us to heal."
"Wow. Ok, that's good to know." He opens the doors to another long hallway that is lined with portraits. They're of angels, both male and female, and they're in various poses. They are all absolutely beautiful.
"They're of the Royal family. Most are dead. The last 5 are what's left." As we reach the last 5 portraits, I can't help but notice all of the female angels are tall, very skinny, and very pale. And each one of their eyes are very bright. Blue, brown, green, and red, just like Tristan's.
We finally reach the end of the hallway that leads into a very large living room, connected to a state of the art kitchen. Off to the side, there's an office that's open. Two guys are in there focused intently on a screen. They immediately stop what they're doing and look up. They look shocked. I look to Tristan who seems to be completely calm.
The one that was sitting, gets up and walks around the desk to greet us. He's a little taller than me, but not by very much. He's built though. Just like Tristan is, but he doesn't have the height. He's got his brown hair slicked back and is wearing all black, just like Tristan. He's handsome, but not as hot as Tristan. The other guy that was standing, makes a leap over the desk and lands gracefully in front. There's no way a normal person could've done that. I watch as he calmly walks up to me and nods. Deklin is a little taller than Bran and not as built, but he's got this weird aura around him. Again, there's no evil in either of their eyes. It's weird not seeing evil for once. It's refreshing.
"Ava, this is Bran and Deklin. Bran, Deklin, this is Ava."
"Nice to meet you, Ava." The one named Bran says in a very heavy Scottish accent, smiles a kind smile, and gives me his hand to shake. I take it. Deklin nods, but doesn't do the same. Is he even breathing? He's just watching me very intently. His eyes are so blue and Bran's are a rich brown. There's something about all of their eyes that I can't figure out what. "Tris, we have to debrief you on what happened and on a possible lead. Ya gotta minute?" I LOVE listening to Bran talk. I've never heard a Scottish accent before and it's absolutely mesmerizing. Tristan turns back to me.
"Ava, please make yourself comfortable in the living room or kitchen. Please feel at home. I'll be about 30 minutes." I'm surprised by this, but I just go with it. It's not like I have much of a choice. The guys walk towards the office and close the doors. I walk towards the living room and look around. The entire room looks even more spacious with it's high ceiling. This living room does not look like a bachelor pad, rather just a gorgeous living room out of a magazine. There's a TV with couches, an electric fireplace, a beautiful coffee table. But the kitchen. It's the size of my parent's house. The dining table that's somewhat connected to the kitchen area is huge too, 12 seats. There's another staircase that leads to another level, but it's all open and from what I can see, there are a few more rooms. There's another hallway that's between the kitchen and living room. I decide to wander instead of sitting down.
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