I woke up lying beside the little pond, a handsome face staring down at me, worry in his eyes. Wait. Shouldn't I be taking care of him? He just fell from a cloud! "Who are you?" I managed to mumble.
"I'm Alexander," he replied.
"And what are you, exactly?" I asked.
"A demon," he said quickly.
"What!"
"A demon," Alexander said dejectedly. A demon? Alexander didn't seem like a demon. Demons didn't fall from clouds and hit people and then care for them, did they? I thought demons had horns and tails. I examined him. Alexander had dark hair, dark eyes, and pitch black feathery wings. I could see he had an eight pack under his black shirt. Wow. Alexander couln't be a demon. "Well, actually, I'm half angel. My mother was an angel, Anna Lise. She fell in love with my father, a demon named Dominic. I was born and was going to be raised as an angel. But my father took me away, thinking my black wings were a sign of darkness," he paused, looking disgusted with himself. "Can you see what's across the sea?" I nodded; I could just make out a faint red glow across the dancing water. "That's where I grew up. Not a very nice place."
I though for a moment, trying to take it all in. "Can't you go back to your mother and be an angel again?" I asked hopefully.
"I wish," Alexander said. "But I've already been initiated as a demon. That was the most painful experience of my life. But there are a few perks of being a demon, though. Like super strength. And a cool sword." Before my eyes, a sword materialized in his hands. It had a black leather handle, but no blade. Black and red flames flared from the handle, and the whole sword seemed alive. He swung it in an arc, and the air zinged with electricity. I stared into his eyes, hypnotized.
"Sorry to break up the party, but I don't think that's a good person for you to hang out with, Scarlett Rose." I whirled around, looking for the speaker. It was... Crystal? But Crystal wasn't a Pagasus anymore. She had transformed into a girl with wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, and pink-and-white wings. My horse was a person? That was weird. "I'm not your horse," she said. "I'm your guardian angel. My name is Anastasia, and it's my job to protect you from demons like him." She pointed her sword at Alexander. It was long and metallic pink.
"Alexander's not just a demon," I blurted out defensively.
"Um, yeah, I kind of am," said Alexander.
"I don't care if he's nice, but he could turn you to the dark side. Let's go." Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. But what if I could turn him to the good side? After all, he was half angel.
"What if we could make Alexander an angel again?" I proposed. Anastasia frowned. Alexander looked skeptical.
"Just how do you think you'll do that?" questioned Anastasia. I thought back to what the man at the gates had said. He told me that I needed to be cleansed before I entered the golden city, which I concluded was where the angels lived.
"Maybe we could cleanse him," I suggested.
"It would take some seriously holy water to cleanse him. Face it, Scarlett Rose, we need to leave this demon."
"We'll just have to find it," I said. Anastasia eyed me.
"So you're serious about this. You want to make a demon an angel. Don't you want to go to Caelum?"
"Yes," I said, "but I don't want to go alone." I looked at Alexander.
"You won't be alone. I live there, when I'm not following you around, and I have friends there..." seeing she wasn't convincing me, Anastasia changed tactics. "Fine. I'll take you to the Jordan Spring, that's his only chance of redemption. But it's far away, and will be dangerous. The other demons will fight hard. They won't want to lose Alexander."
