Nephilum

Chapter 14

The bright colors and loud noises of the city on Earth was the first thing I noticed as I literally stumbled from the dark place that James had taken us to. "Why does that always happen when we go somewhere?" I asked him. I cradled my arm

He didn't answer. He grabbed my good arm and started propelling me in a direction. "Where are we?" I asked him. Again, he didn't answer.

"Answer me." I demanded, wrenching my arm from his grasp. A few people threw weird glances in our direction, probably because of the small cuts on my arms.

He paused for a split second before he grabbed my arm again. "Don't make me carry you." He threatened. I quit talking after that. As I trudged behind him, I admired the sky high buildings around us. I enjoyed seeing color again.

We ducked past bustling people on the streets. I would have been taken out by a woman's airborne purse if it wasn't for James pulling me out of the way. I wondered for the umpteenth time where we were. I've never been here before. It looked like some kind of big city, but I'm not sure where. If it weren't for the people around us screaming in American accents, I would have considered the possibility of being in London.

James led me to a high rise building and held the door open as we walked through the doors. A man at a desk took one look at James and let us in the elevator. "James, where are we?" I asked again.

"I'll explain later." I rolled my eyes and that's when I realized what floor we were going to. "Why are we going to floor seventy-nine?"

He looked at me, a smirk growing evident of his face. "What? Is little Elizabeth afraid of heights?"

"No. I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of the falliing part." I didn't even look at him as I said it. My fingers played with the hem of my light jacket as if they had a mind of their own.

He shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. Not a smirk, but an actual smile. For some reason I couldn't help the small smile that I wore after he smiled. I shook my head to rid my smile and stood up straighter.

Ding.

I took a deep breath and followed James out of the elevator. I gasped at the sight in front of me. Whoever lives here has to be rich. And I mean extremely rich. There was an enormous flat screen T.V. in front of an equally large couch. There was a whole case showing what looked like hundreds of movies. They were a pretty cream color that comlemented the white couch.

"Whoah." I breathed.

"Yeah." James said. He walked to a small intercom near the elevator and pushed a button. "Hey Michael, we're here."

There was a pause for a minute before a very familiar voice replied back. "Ok, I'll be there in a minute."

Before I knew it, Michael appeared right in front of us. I barely contained my yelp, but as soon as I regained my bearings, my arms were around his neck. I cringed at the throbbing in my shoulder, but I didn't let go.

"Nice to see you too." Michael mumbled into my hair. I saw James scowl out of the corner of my eye and I briefly wondered what his problem was.

Michael put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me away from him slightly. His eyes raked over me and his brows creased with worry. "Are you ok? James said you were attacked."

"I'm fine. It's just a few scratches, but I think I may have disclocated my shoulder." He nodded and took my bad arm in his hand. He slowly turned it and looked at James. James came foward and grabbed my good shoulder and my waist.

"What are you-" I was cut off by my own muffled scream as Michael jerked on my arm extremely hard. I would have tried to jump away from him, but I guess that's what James was for.

A stream of curses flew out of my mouth and I narrowed my eyes at the two people around me. I held my wounded arm to my chest.

"What the hell was that for?" I asked him. As much as I hated to admit it, the throb in my arm was slowly diminishing.

"Your welcome." James said, walking over to the couch and throwing himself onto it. I scowled at him, but turned back to Michael.

"Where are we?" I asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

"We're at my condo in New York." My eyes widened in surprise.

"Your condo in New York?" I repeated, making sure I hadn't misheard him.

"That's what I said." He replied. "You want the tour?"

I nodded vigorously. He smiled and put his hand on the small of my back. He led me to the elevator and pushed a button. The elevator moved to the next floor and I held my breath almost the whole way. Michael glaced at me questionably. "You ok? you look a little green."

I nodded. "I'm fine."

Michael didn't say anything else on the matter and soon the doors opened. I was out of there faster than Usain Bolt in the Olympics.

Michael followed me out and once again I was left starining at the room around me in wonder. It looked to be some sort of training room. Everything looked to be up to date and sleek and smooth.

"Why didn't you ever tell me you have a condo?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "You never asked. You want to see the rest of the floors?"

"Sure."

We must have spent half an hour looking at all the floors. So far I've seen his theatre that had it's own popcorn machine, a swimming pool, his game room, and my bedroom. It was all extremely fancy. Especially my room.

My room's walls were painted a light turquoise and all my furniture was white. My bedsheets and comforter were a dark purple with silver lining on the seams. It was absolutely perfect. It made me wonder when he started to make it.

I took a seat next to James on the couch and put feet on his legs. He looked down at them in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"It's called relaxing, you should try it sometime." I looked back at the T.V. I saw James smile from the corner of my eye.

"And relaxing includes putting your feet on me?"

"Yep."

He looked up at the ceiling as if to say what am I going to do with her?  The throb in my arm was slowly diminishing and my mood was slowly improving. It may have even been the fact that James and I managed to not murder each other since I reclined on the couch.

"So," I said, shifting to where I was facing James. "How long are we living here for?"

"Same as the last safe house. As long as we can." His answer was immediate and his voice sounded distant, like he was here, but also somewhere else.

"James, why am I so important?" I looked down and started fiddling with my fingers as he looked at me.

"I thought you knew already. You're special Lizzie."

I took special notice of how he used my nickname. The corners of my mouth twitched. "Yeah, I'm a nephilum. Big deal." I retorted sarcastically.

He turned to me, grabbing my feet and shaking them slightly with every word he spoke. "You are special. You have the power to tilt the scales in whatever side you choose."

"Well obviously I'm going to choose good." I said in a tone that implied my answer was obvious.

His expression turned serious. "It's not necessarily good against evil. There are some things you don't know about-that I can't tell you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him. Why was he being so cryptic?

"It means to be careful."