Wingless ~Book Two of Winged~

The Memories

I couldn't go back to sleep after Dominic burned his sigil into my skin and the swelling from it finally goes down after three hours. I roll over and stare at Etheriel's peacefully sleeping face before slowly and carefully getting up. Slowly and blindly, I make my way toward the door.

"What are you doing?" I jump at Dominic's voice so close in front of me.

"I need some fresh air." I whisper so I don't wake up Etheriel.

"Alone? Last time you left alone you came back bleeding to death." He whispers back to me.

"It will be fine, it's not like I can die now." I respond and walk around where I think he is standing, continuing toward the door. He firmly grabs my arm.

"You still feel the pain of dying though and I don't want you feeling that pain." He responds.

"I need fresh air..." I whisper quietly and pull away from him, feeling the wall all the way toward the door. I hear the floor creak slightly as he follows me. I open the door and light from the hall blinds me momentarily. I walk into the hall and Dominic shuts the door behind us, slipping a piece of paper into the door's lock to keep it from locking. The whole time we are in the elevator and walking across the silent lobby, Dominic doesn't say a word. When we get outside, I take a deep breath of the fresh cold air. Something about the air seems off though, its unusually thick and I feel like there is an electric charge. Dominic is staring straight up at the sky with his eyes narrowed slightly.

"What's wrong?" I ask and he closes his eyes before reopening them and looking down at me.

"Can't you feel it?" He questions and his eyes flicker to a car driving past.

"The air?" I ask and his eyes return to me.

"Yes... It's filled with energy." He starts cracking his knuckles.

"Energy?" I question.

"From tons of angels coming to Earth... searching for you." He says and his eyes scan the sidewalk across the street.

"How many?" He looks back at me and his eyes scan my body.

"I can't tell, more than a hundred for sure though. There are battles all over right now between Demons who are looking for you so they can sacrifice you and angels who want to kill you to keep that from happening." He closes his eyes again and cracks his neck.

"How do you know?" I question.

"I can hear the chatter of the demons. The excitement." He opens his eyes again, looking back at me.

"You can hear them? All the way from there?" He smiles.

"Angels can hear each other too, although most of them block it out because it gets annoying after a while." I rub my arms slightly to help warm them up.

"Can you hear the angels to since technically you were one a long time ago?" He smiles sadly.

"No... No I can't because when I became a demon all the angelic parts of me were chained and locked up." He admits and looks down at his shoes. "There's no 'good' part of me left from back then." He uses hand quotes around good.

"You told Etheriel you didn't remember being an angel..." He leans against the brick.

"Of course I remember, but it's not something that I want to continue to remember over and over again. After being abandoned and locked out, it was the start of the lowest moments of my life. I slaughtered people; angels, demons, and humans. I lost my true self in all the blood and I was lost for centuries before I started to open my eyes to what I was doing. I started to put myself back on track, but then... after Irene... I reverted back to killing." He pause and I take that chance to ask a question.