Morningstar

Chapter 2

The golden flames were raging around Teresa. She had fought them out if fear, but then she realized that they meant her no harm. Now they were curling around her, soaking into her skin and melting into her blood. She was the heavenly fire.

Teresa jolted awake, tingling as if the heavenly fire was still raging through her. That was the strangest dream she had ever had, and that was saying something, since she had had some pretty strange dreams in her 16 years. For example, when she had dreamt that a baloney sandwich proposed marriage to her and gave her a ring made out of spaghetti noodles.

Teresa had recognized the flames as heavenly fire because her father had told her about when he had the golden flames running through his veins after being cleansed of evil by a holy sword.

She had been trained to wake up at the crack of dawn, so she didn't need to check her clock to make sure she had to get up. Teresa dragged herself out of bed and went to try and accomplish the feat of finding a tank top and shorts in the unconquerable mess that was her room. All her clothes, weapons, and other stuff were clean but she just didn't put anything away. The discipline that was required as a shadowhunter had been drilled into her since she was a toddler, but her neatening skills had never improved, no matter how much her parents grilled her about it.

Teresa found a pile if stuff in the corner that appeared to be mostly clothes and dug through it, scattering it around her.
After a few minutes, she located a some white jean shorts, but couldn't find a tank top so she settled on a peach crop top that she never wore very much, even though she knew that she was very curvaceous.

At least that was what the boys who had been bold enough told her.

She put on a beige bra and the shorts, but when she put on the crop top she realized that she had forgotten how tight it was. The idea to look for a regular t shirt occurred to her, but she didn't want to go through the hassle

Teresa located some comfortable gym shoes and put them on her stocking feet. Dressed, she padded into the bathroom to get her teeth and hair brushed. Done with that, she pulled her thick bright red hair into a high ponytail and put on a little black eyeliner.

Teresa walked downstairs for breakfast, her mind wandering a bit on the way. What was that dream all about and why would she be having it? It had absolutely nothing to do with her life. I guess I'll ask my dad, she decided. He had had a lot of experience with heavenly fire.

When she reached the kitchen, Teresa found a note from her parents stuck to the fridge. "We had to run a few errands. There is some fruit in the refrigerator. Love, Mom and Dad."

Her parents always made her eat healthy, nutritious meals, which was good and all, but it got a bit annoying after a while. As she reached for the fridge handle, her shoulder blades suddenly started tingling and heating up. It felt just like in her dream!

She reached around herself to rub them. Her crop top exposed them, so she felt something very soft in her bare skin. It felt like fuzz, so Teresa tried brush it off, but it stayed stuck to her so she tried tugging on it but it was so small she couldn't get a good grip on it.

She ran into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, turning around so she could see her shoulder blades. A gasp escaped her mouth. Growing from each of her shoulder blades were tiny, pure white feathers.