Angelic Danger - 2nd Draft

Chapter 3

Yet again, I had a horrible headache. This wasn't a hangover headache though, just a dull pounding on the back of my head. I could feel the weight of a blanket on top of me and a light beeping sounded off to my right, keeping pace with my heart beat. Had it all been a dream? I grabbed the blanket and pulled it closer to me, trying to roll onto my side. I always slept on my side, one leg bunched up, the other stretched out (and occasionally tangled up with Seth's).

As I turned, I felt a painful tugging in the creases of my elbows. Confused, I reached to my right, where I thought Seth would be in our bed, but there was nothing but the edge of the bed.

"Seth?" I tried to call out, but my voice caught in my throat, coming out like a weird squack.

"Ken..." I heard a familiar voice say, then someone grabbed my hand. "Ken, I'm here love. I'm right here."

I opened my eyes slowly. I could see quite clearly that we were not in our apartment. The room was white. The walls, the ceiling, the blankets over me. Everything was white. Bright fluorescent lights shined from the ceiling, making everything seem whiter. The bed I was in was twin sized, with hard plastic guard rails on either side, almost resembling a hospital bed with the generic blankets to match. To my right was a heart monitor (which explained the beeping) and an IV pole, both of which I was hooked up to.

Seth stood to my left, holding my hand, the most concerned expression on his face.

"It wasn't a nightmare, was it?" I asked slowly, reprocessing everything that had happened.

Seth set my hand back down on the bed and paced to the other end of the room. "No, it wasn't."

"It all actually happened," I whispered, wanting him to look me in the eye. "That guy. The-the...watcher? Grigori?"

Seth turned towards me, but wouldn't look at me. "Do you still have your ring?"

I did. Somehow it hadn't gotten lost in the chaos I had just gone through. "Of course, I-"

"I'm sorry," Seth interrupted me, rather stiffly. "I should have been straight with you sooner. Told you the truth."

"The truth?" I was getting really worried. Seth wasn't being himself and if there was one thing I needed right now, it was for Seth to be himself. "You mean...the guy said something about angels? You're a king or some shit?"

Seth chuckled, gripping the foot of my bed with both hands, holding on so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. "He told you everything, didn't he?"

At this point, Seth took off his leather jacket. I'd seen him without it before, but it was uncommon. The air behind him shimmered and white wings appeared behind him. There were identical to Mysterious Stranger's except they were a pure white.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, trying to look him in the eyes. He kept looking away.

"It's a complicated issue," Seth responded with an air of dignity he didn't have before. "This isn't something I can just tell you over the dinner table."

"Four years." I whispered, anger starting to take over. "Four whole years. And never once did you think to tell me that you had wings coming out of your back?"

Seth finally looked at me, sensing my change in tone. "It's not like that..."

I sat up straighter. "And what about the fact that we're getting married? It never occurred to you that your future spouse might want to know something like that? It seems like that would be a little important!"

Seth's brows furrowed. "Oh, because things definitely wouldn't be different if I had told you sooner?"

"Maybe not!" I responded hotly. "Maybe I would have been understanding! Maybe I would have liked to know this sooner!"