Outlaw Blues: Karaunophobia

“Brother, don’t be late for class again today, okay?”

Kenneth nodded his head with a smile as Kiaria ran out the apartment door with a wave. She was going in to school early to work on a project on which she and a couple of her classmates were working. As the door closed behind her, his smile faded from his face, and he turned to walk into the kitchen.

“So who is he?” he asked in a quiet growl as he sat down at the table across from Reuel.

The fallen angel sighed as the demon standing behind him laid an arm around his shoulders and slid his hand into the front of his kimono. With a frustrated groan, Reuel grabbed the hand and pulled it away.

“He’s a demon—“

“I gathered that,” Kenneth said shortly. “What is he doing here?”

With another heavy sigh, Reuel held up a hand. “Let me explain. He’s not here to hurt you or Ki.”

“Then—“

“My name’s Reven,” the demon interjected before Reuel could say another word. He held out a hand to the boy. “I’m here to make sure the fallen angel lives long enough to commit suicide.”

To give him credit, Kenneth didn’t look as startled as he could have, Reuel thought with a sigh. He watched the blue-green eyes closely trying to gauge the boy’s thoughts. His own had been running at about ninety miles an hour since the demon had first appeared the night before. To find out that he had been trailed back to the Maccrea’s home had scared him enough, but to learn that he was not going to be killed but played with as a toy was outright irritating.

Rubbing his forehead, the golden blonde youth finally asked, “What does that mean?”

Clearing his throat as the black haired demon began to nuzzle the back of his neck, Reuel shivered slightly and attempted to arrange his thoughts.

“There are three races: human, angel, and demon. Angels and demons are natural enemies,” he explained closing his gray-violet eyes. “Angels protect humans from demons. We fight back and forth quite often, and for the most part we match out evenly with strong and weak on each side. Usually, an angel doesn’t have much to worry about because it’s usually the weaker demons that are foolish enough to attempt seducing a human with a guardian angel. On the other hand, the stronger demons usually reserve their efforts in tormenting fallen angels”

“Like this lovely,” Reven interjected as he stroked the angel’s pale blond hair causing him to roll his eyes with a sigh.

“I will be leaving this afternoon,” Reuel added returning his attention to Kenneth. He offered the boy a weak grin. “I don’t want to involve you and Kiaria any more than you have been already.”

The blonde boy sat back in his chair thoughtfully as he studied Reven’s golden catlike eyes and sharply chiseled face. The way he clung to Reuel spoke more of a lover than someone who wished the angel to die, but he wasn’t about to judge the motives of the demon’s actions. He closed his eyes attempting to pick up any emotional feedback from them.

Vaguely from the angel, Kenneth detected a deep-rooted worry and fear for him and his sister and a deeper worry that he couldn’t place. The demon’s emotions were surprisingly simple in comparison. He felt smug and excited by the angel’s presence. There was a sense of elation in having tracked his prey and anticipation in the game he had laid out for himself.

Opening his eyes, he found Reuel grabbing the demon by the braid of hair over his left ear. The fallen angel growled furiously at the man, and Reven drew back his hands from Reuel’s thighs with a large, unapologetic grin.

“You don’t have to leave,” Kenneth said with a small sigh. Reuel’s head shot up and his eyes widened. With a half laugh, the demon stroked the light blond hair. The boy came to his feet and pushed the chair back under the table. “Look, I’ve got to go to class now. Ki and I will be back around two. You had better be here when we get back… just don’t tell her who he is or why he’s here. I’ll make up something and let you know, alright?”

Not giving either of them the chance to respond, he grabbed his backpack and left the apartment. Reuel stared after him in shock.

“Oh I like that one,” Reven said with a chuckle as he stood away from Reuel and moved to the other side of the table.

The fallen angel glared at him and straightened the front of his kimono before crossing his arms over his chest with an irate glare at the demon. “Don’t even think of hurting either of them. I have no qualms about killing you.”

“If you could have killed me, you would have done so by now, fallen,” Reven said with a cold glint in his golden eyes as he toyed with the white feather dangling from his braid. “In any case, I have no interest in him. You’re my prey for the moment, and I expect you will amuse me to no small extent.”

Glowering, Reuel let his eyes slide to the doorway so he wouldn’t have to look at the demon. There was a good deal of truth in his words. They were nearly equal in power, which was rare to the angel. He had been one of the most powerful in the heavens before he was cast out and finding an demon who equaled him in strength would have been fascinating if he wasn’t being hunted by him.

“If you’re worried about anyone hurting them, you shouldn’t be,” Reven said as he turned to pull a glass out of the cabinet and get some water. “They’re protected by something that even your angelic council fears. Nothing will harm them.”

“What do you mean?” Reuel asked as his eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“Nothing,” Reven said with an enigmatic smile. He turned away from the fallen angel and looked out the small window over the sink. “I like you. You’re amusing for me.”

Rolling his eyes, the blonde rose from the chair and walked out of the kitchen. “You don’t have to stay here—“

“Yes, I do,” the demon contradicted him almost before he had gotten the words out of his mouth.

“Look, demon. I’m not worth your time. I have no intention of trying to kill myself, so you may as well try to kill me or go on your merry little way. Suicide might have been an option before, but I don’t want to die now. There’s too much to do,” Reuel said rounding on the demon in the middle of the living room.

The couch still had his rumpled blanket at the foot. He hadn’t slept since the demon had come, opting instead to glare at him until the Maccreas had woken up to get ready for school. He had only had about twenty minutes of sleep last night because of this, and he was now unsteady on his feet with his exhaustion.

Collapsing to the low sofa, Reuel let his head fall backwards as he stared out the window at the pale hues of the morning sky. A bird flew by shedding a feather as it passed, and the angel frowned at the sight. Lifting his head, he narrowed his eyes at Reven who had claimed a chair across the room from him and was reading through a book he had picked up off the bookshelf.

“Demon.”

“I have a name.”

“I don’t care,” Reuel said caustically. He stood up and walked over to the demon. Grabbing the thin braid of black hair, he pulled it forward. “Where did you get this?”

“It grew out of my head, and I would prefer if you didn’t rip it out.” Reven grabbed the angel’s wrist as he snarled, bearing sharp fangs.

“No, not the braid. This!” Reuel lifted up the end of the hair to display the white feather in front of Reven’s narrowed golden eyes.

“It’s a feather. I found it,” the demon growled jerking his hair away from the angel’s grip.

Gray-violet eyes flashed with fury as the demon tried to rise to his feet and Reuel slammed him back in the chair. “You know damned well that it’s not just a feather, demon.”

“Fine,” Reuel said settling back with a smug smile. “You’re right. It’s one of yours. Happy? I’ve been hunting you since you fell.”

The affirmation sent a dizzying thrill though the angel. He stroked the feather as though it were the most precious silk in the world. To him it was incredibly precious, it was something he had lost, he thought, forever. Raising his eyes up to meet the demon’s, he swallowed hard.

“I want it back,” he said in a soft voice.

“No,” Reven replied coldly smiling at the angel. His bewilderment was a delight to him. “It’s mine now, just as you are.”

Reuel shook his head slowly. “What do you want for it?”

“Your death,” the demon said with a smug smirk. “When you die—when you commit suicide, then I will give you back your feather, and not an instant before you cease to breathe.”

The demon’s words snapped Reuel out of his trance, and he shook his head again before releasing the feather and returning to his couch. Sitting down, he stared across the room at the white feather dangling against the demon’s shoulder.

That one small feather—it would have come from the inside of his wing for it wasn’t a flight feather. Those had been nearly as long as his arm. A chill iced it way up his spine, and he closed his eyes fighting back the memories.

“How do you plead?”

“Guilty.”

“Do you understand the magnitude of your actions? You have killed a human, Reuel! I don’t understand how you could have done this. You were a brilliant guardian—one of the best if not the best! Not only did you show yourself to your human, but you also killed one! You killed a human!”

Reuel flinched but remained silent. The council member turned to the others then and addressed them.

“The girl will be killed immediately—“

“NO! You can’t kill Kaida! She had nothing to do with this!”

“Did you love her?”

The accused angel fell silent as he stared at the man.

“Yes,” he finally admitted in a whisper.

“Another sin against you.” The council member turned his back on Reuel his amethyst colored hair brushing his hips and his white wings rustling with agitation. “The girl will be killed, and Reuel will be stripped of his feathers and sent to Earth to live out his life with the humans he has chosen to break our sacred laws for.”

“Hythen, to strip him of his wings—“

Another council member started to speak, but the purple haired angel cut her off with a sharp wave of his hand.

“It must be done, Glistra. We cannot show favor. Even the highest angels must be punished for their sins.”

“But we had such hopes for him.”

“I know…”

The gold eyes were incredibly sad as they turned back on Reuel. As Hythen approached, the two heavily muscled angels holding his arms stepped away, and the pale blonde swallowed hard and cowered slightly before the high angel’s gaze.

“You have admitted your guilt, Reuel. The punishment for your sins is exile amongst the human. No angel will acknowledge your presence and no one will assist you if you call for help. You do not exist to us, and from this day forth, you are fallen.”

Hythen raised his hands and a ball of black energy formed between them, crackling with a cold heat. Beyond him, Reuel could see a number of the council member’s look away with pale faces. The angel Glistra had her face in her hands sobbing as another tried to comfort her. His attention was pulled back to the amethyst haired angel before him once again as he lowered his arms with the ball of sable lightning hovering before his outstretched hands.

“Angel Reuel, you are cast down!”

The energy leapt from his hands and Reuel raised his arms before his face to block the blow, but it flashed him attacking only his furled wings. Pain as he had never before experienced erupted though his body as the lightning penetrated flesh, feather, and bone. Reuel collapsed to his knees screaming in hysterical anguish and terror as his feathers were ripped away. The bones stretched and contorted forming an almost skeletal looking hand before his flesh was stretched over it.

Clutching at his shoulders, Reuel sank forward pressing his forehead to the cool surface of the marble floor as a strong wind kicked up lifting his feathers and driving them from the room. The icy air cut like knives into the flesh of his new bat-like wings as the lighting faded and disappeared. Ragged sobs wrenched from his throat as tears spilled hotly down his face to splash on the floor.

There was a movement above him, and Hythen once more raised his hands but he was in too much pain to even attempt to hide from any new attacks. This time a silver mist formed for the high angel and he stretched out his hands again towards Reuel.

“Fallen, you are banished.”

The mist slid from his arms to spin in a slow circle around the defenseless form still weeping on the floor. The marble seemed to turn to a mist itself, and Reuel plummeted through with a dismayed cry. His wings ached as they were caught in the whipping wind as he plunged towards the Earth below.

He had no real will to live, but in the last moments, despite the immense pain it caused, he spread his wings, landing in a disheveled heap just outside a small town. With a great effort, he retracted his wings leaving two raw, bloody gashes on his back, which healed swiftly until they were merely two pale scars as a reminder of his fate.

Reven had long since set aside the book he had been looking though, finding the fallen angel much more entertaining as he lay unconscious on the couch. Nearly thirty minutes had passed since his outburst over the feather, and he was finally quieting into a semblance of an actual slumber. A smile crossed the demon’s face as pleasure washed though him. He was going to enjoy tormenting this fallen.

***
End Chapter Karaunophobia
***

Last | Home | Next