Chapter One:
My phone was blasting it's horrible alarm and I winced, shaking my head as I opened my eyes. As the room came into focus I grabbed my phone and nearly smashed it into a million tiny pieces.
Fumbling around with it I shut off the alarm, putting it down afterwards I sighed in relief. However, it wasn't even 10 seconds before it started ringing, again. I grabbed it and hit the answer button.
"What!" I was seething and I could feel the other person on the line flinch.
"Uh...Ms.Rose you have a visitor." The caller, my bodyguard Drew, shoved out.
"Who?" I had calmed down, making my voice was steadier and it came out more like my classic I-don't-give-a-shit tone.
"Walter Erens, ma'am." I sighed, I have no clue who that is and I didn't plan to find out today.
"Call me Ava, Drew."
"Yes...Ava."
"I'll be down there in 10." I ended the call and hustled to the door of my bathroom.
5 minutes later I was dressed with makeup applied and my hair done. I practically ran through my house to get to the door early.
"Ava." I nodded to Drew in response to her greeting.
I stood next to Drew as we waited for a knock on the door. When it came I quickly opened the door and offered my warmest smile to whoever was behind the door, hopefully Erens.
The man who opened the door looked familiar though I didn't know why. Crisp brown hair with blonde ends and bright red eyes. Nothing special, nothing boring.
However the mark under his left eye caught my attention. It was the symbol of the Mystic Angels. Who were dead. Well, excluding me they were. I was the last one and I hid my mark with the Fire Angels mark, I turned my eyes the proper bright, blazing red and went on with my life.
The Fire Angels were practically considered royalty because they were a deadly combination of dangerous, stubborn and rich. After them was the Earth and Water Angels and finally the Tree Angels were last. The Mystic Angels had power over everyone and everything, so they were exterminated by the other Angels. Or at least most of them were.
The elegant tattoo-like mark on Walter's face was impossible to miss. It wasn't jagged like the Fire mark or swirly like the Air mark. The Water mark was flowy and free-looking while the Earth mark was crisp angles but it lacked the mathematical precision of the Fire mark, it looked more natural. They were easily recognized and that wasn't one of them.
I tore my eyes from his cheek bone and looked him in the eyes. "Hello, I'm Ava Rose. You must be Walter Erens."
"Yup." Was his only reply, he popped the 'p' and it was at that moment I decided we would get along fine. I reluctantly felt my lips twisting up into a grin.
"Wanna go get lunch at the diner while we talk about why you headed over here?" I made sure my tone was casual when I spoke the second time, grinning.
Now, I wasn't stupid, I knew it was because of the Killer.
They had been taking the lives of innocents for nearly a year now. At least one a week, maybe two or three on occasion. The population of the already small town in the country of Yura was dropping and everyone, even the children, knew why.
The murders were seemingly unrelated, except for a few key details.
The victims were always found with angel wings painted besides them, the 'paint' being their blood.
The first girl had been found with ornate geometric wings beside her. She was only eighteen at the time and her mark had been carved off her face as well as huge gashes cut from the top of her shoulders to the middle of her back where they met.
The killer had then used the blood to paint the wings and cleaned up the rest before leaving the girl, Rayne Meadow, laying there, eyes closed with beautiful wings spreading from beside her.
Gruesome, but spectacular at the same time.
Because of this the killer had earned themselves the title of "The Angel Winged Killer" or just "Bloody Wings"
Her parents said she looked more at peace then she ever had. An eerily consistent comment was always added to interviews and questioning about victims. They always mentioned something about their dead acquaintance looking at peace or more peaceful in death than in life.
I had been receiving call after call about what our town, Creekview, was to do. I always answered the same: "There is nothing we can do except catch them. Catch them and kill them."
You see, I was the head of the military for all of Yura and it was expected of me to solve this case like I did all the others. However, there was no evidence, no trails, no nothing. The only thing they left behind was the wings and a carved out mark.
It was infuriating.
"Sure, I'd love too." He looked so easygoing and laid back that I began to relax a bit myself.
*****
Looking around at the walls of the diner I wondered why I hadn't come here in so long. If I thought about it enough I probably would've found no reason, so I decided to come again next week.
"So, I'm here to work with you." Erens broke the silence and my focus snapped back to him.
"On what and why?" I decided that that would be the best answer even though I'm sure my mouth was hanging open.
"Case 201. Wings of an Angel." I nodded, knowing that part already, but I wanted to know why. "We're going to be sharing the position of military commander once this is over and they wanted me to have some experience working with you."
"Of course, Commander" I added in the second part in a teasing tone and saw his lips twist into a minuscule smirk. "Do you want to head out to the most recent crime scene? Alena Aspen?"
His response was a quick nod and when the waiter came back around we both tossed 50 dollars at her and told her to keep the change. The poor waiters face flushed and she stammered on about how she couldn't keep that. We were already out the door.
"Erens."
"Rose."
"Hide that Mystic Angel mark and make sure to keep your eyes red."
"How did you-"
I turned to him "Question nothing, and I mean nothing, I say."
He gulped "Yes ma'am."
"Call me Ava or Rose, not ma'am."
"Sure...Rosie" I rolled my eyes but left the smile that crawled onto my face there.
*****
The drive to the scene had been blanketed in silence but it was a comfortable silence that neither of us felt like breaking.
As we pulled up to the forest I thought I caught a glimpse of something in the sky but it disappeared before I could tell.
Grabbing a few supplies we began the trek into the mass of trees and soon the sky was no longer visible through the foliage. Every sound was muffled as we hiked over ridges and crossed streams. I could feel the presence of something, maybe the ghosts of Bloody Wings wrath, and it chilled me to the bone, even in today's pleasant weather. I heard voices ahead of us after 30 minutes had passed and trudged on towards them.
A small clearing came into view as we chopped through some bushes, authorities were crowded around something in the center of the dark, gloomy clearing and Erens and I walked forward.
"She should already be dead."
"This isn't right, we have to just be deprived of light."
"It can't be her, it's impossible!"
The words floated back to us and we exchanged a glance with equal amounts of confusion plastered on our faces.
Picking up our pace slightly we reached the circle of crime scene investigators and pushed through them.
"Oh my god." Was the the first thing that came out of my mouth.
Rayne Meadow lay in the center of the clearing, wings spread outwards in the same fabulous geometric pattern. Her mark was carved off and I could see the tops of the deep cuts that began on her shoulders.
What shocked me more was the way she had been arranged so it looked like she was simply sleeping, eyes closed, mouth shut and she looked so calm and peaceful it almost hurt just to look at her face. her auburn curls were gracefully spread around her head and there were no tears anywhere on her face and no evidence that there were any.
There were no worry lines or evidence of screaming on her face, it still held a bit of color though she herself was clearly long dead, I could tell from the stage of healing for the giant cuts that ran down her back. The girl was a high school student and there was probably no way she had ever looked that free in all the years she spent at Crenshaw High. This was probably the best and worst crime scene I had ever seen. It looked like a legitimate murder that had happened less than a week ago.
The only issue is, Rayne Meadow was found dead 10 miles away, a year ago.
A/N
HAHA the first chapter is a cliffhanger.
This will be the shortest chapter in this whole book, it is only 1596 words and all the other will be at least 2500 words, hopefully more then 3000 though.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the first chapter of WoaA.