Into Death's Arms (13 page)

  
I tasted blood in my mouth I
and I choked
on it.

  
I
felt
my eyeballs melting. I smelled burning flesh and tried not to retch. I was able
to answer the age-old question
is it
possible for your hair to hurt?
Yes
, it is!
I opened my mouth to scream and felt fire burn my tongue and teeth. I screamed anyway.
I actually felt the moment my organs liquefied.
I felt it shoot through my body
,
and then like a flash bulb goi
ng off my brain was scorched.
I saw my mom, my dad, Laurna, and Dayton Tameron, weird that
he was the last person I thought about before consciousness left me
.

     I came to, to th
e sound of Laurna crying. T
hat and the soft hum of a tattoo needle. Did I mention that we get tattooed when we ascended? Yeah, that didn’t hurt though. The thing that happened before
,
that had hurt.
Now I just ached everywhere. There was no room for
any more
pain. Someone could have put a pickaxe through my skull at that point
,
and I wouldn’t have felt it.
Deanna smiled that serene smile at me again. I was beginning to hate that smile.
I wondered if
she look
ed
like me when she had
ascended
or if
she smiled that peaceful fucking smile and kept going.
“Someone is conscious.”

     “Is it done,
” I croaked. Was that my voice?
I sounded awful, really awful. Like I’d drunk acid. I still smelled burning flesh and blood like my nose was full of it.

       My fathe
r leaned down close to my face so I could see him. My vision was all blurry.
“All except for the tattoo AoD.” H
is eyes glowed
with pride
. I felt tears start to run down m
y face. AoD, like my father,
I was an
An
gel of Death.
I had kind of known I wouldn’t be an AoLi
,
an Angel of Life.
I wasn’t nice enough to be a healer, but it would have been my luck to find my
self in a role I was unsuited for
.
Father
Mike
was tattooing the ancient symbo
l for the AoD into my stomach. With a
ngel wings and a sword all in sharp
angles, it was almost tribal looking
.
Human’s now days nev
er looked twice at the symbol, e
xcept maybe to exclaim
, “
Nice
tat.” B
eing tattooed was so
commonplace
now.

   
Laurna was still sobbing softly
.
I couldn’t see her
,
but I could hear her. She was such a softy. She’d make a hell of an AoLi if she had the blood.
“Tell Laurna it’s not so bad.” My voice rough like I’d swallowed an entire quarry of gravel.
Everything still hurt, and
as
I slid back into
unconsciousness,
I felt like I could fly. I was an AoD.

    
    I woke later in my own bed and only had one thought
:
ow, ow, ow, I hurt.  “You look
like shit
,
” I heard a soft voice nearby
and smelled Laurna’s honeysuckle perfume
. It was funny
.
I knew she was upse
t
. She was swearing at me,
again.

       “Yeah,” I said. “How about we throw you on the barbeque
grill and see how you look after?” I asked
,
but I was smiling.

        Laurna took my
hand
very
gently. S
he was afraid to
hurt me
.
She
really
didn’t need to worry everything hurt anyway.
  “Nah, my dad worries enough about the tanning service I use,” she said sarcastically. We both laughed. That hurt too. “I like the new ink by the way.” She
ran her hand over my abdomen.
I ground my teeth together and
mana
ged not to scream bloody murder, but it was a challenge.

      “That hurts,
” I growled at her.

      
She snatched her hand back but
laughed even harder. “You sounded like your dad.”  I still couldn’t see
,
but she quit touchi
ng me
,
so I was okay. “Father
Micheal
says you’ll be kind of grumpy for a couple days.
I told him that was normal.” She giggled at me.
It was normal
.
I was a grumpy person. “
Of
course,
if I got my insides fried
,
I’d feel grumpy for a couple of
days
,
so I forgive you in advance.
But,
I
’ve
got to go home.
” She looked at her watch.
“
It’s past ten
,
and I have class tomorrow. I’ll stop by your classes and pick up your stuff. I am all prepared to cry at your professors and tell them how you were in this terrible accident involving a
Mac
truck
,
and I don’
t know
I didn’t know when I would recover.
” I heard her move toward the door.
She was so great.

      I sighed, I hadn’t even th
ought about my classes. “Thanks.
I really apprec
iate it
,
and I really like my present.
” I meant it
,
I did.  She was the best.

      She
nodded and
left. I heard her phone ring before she left the house.  I heard her out front. Go super hearing! “No
. I’m on my way home. Yes, okay.
” The car door slammed. Well darn
. A
pparently, I couldn’t hear through car doors but hey no wonder my dad had always known what I was up to when I was little.
  

    Speaking of the devil, he came in with a smoothie. Have I mentioned I love my dad? “Hey AoD,” he whispered
,
but I could hear the wealth of emotion behind those simple words. He handed over the smoothie.
Strawberry mmm, I love strawberries
,
and right now smoothies sounded fantastic.
“Hard food isn’t possible tonight
,
but tomorrow night you’ll be right as rain.” He sat in the chair Laurna had vacated.
It creaked under his weight. The smoothie slid down my throat
,
icing all those hot hurting places.

      We sa
t together for a bit in silence.
I was working on my nerve. I didn’t really know what he was thinking.
Finally,
curiosity won out…

     
“I have some questions,
” I said evenly. I was sounding
much
better and my throat didn’t feel like I’d eaten glass when I talked.
See smoothie good. 

    He nodded
, and
I kne
w he was expecting AoD type questions
. B
oy was he in for it. “What did Tameron mean when he said you were damned over a child?” I took another sip of my smoothie.  Dad blinked about six times.
He wasn’t expecting that at all.

    Then he shook his head.
“W
e’re not going there. What else?
”
H
is voice was hard
. H
e reall
y didn’t want to answer me
.

     I smiled, can’t hide from me damn it. “W
hat kind of punishment will Deanna and Father
Mike
get if they are caught disobeying the council
?” 

    “You got any questions I’m willing to answer?” he asked still using that even tone. I hate that even tone. I wanted him to get upset. I wanted answers
.
I felt like I deserved them. Apparently he didn’t.

     I thought
about
it for a minute. “When did Tameron almost kill you?” It seemed I had Tameron on
the brain these days.

    He sighed.
“
The second time?” H
e asked in return.

     “Sure the second time,” I said softly
. A
t least he was willing to answer that one.

        “I decided to hunt him about ten years before I met y
our mother. He handed me my ass
but didn’t kill me. I still don’t know why
.
I would have finished him had our positions been reversed.”
I knew there was a whole lot he wasn’t telling me about this situation
,
but he seemed honestly baffled
,
so I left it alone.

        “And the first time?
” I gasped out.

       He shook his head.
“
I’m
not discussing it with you baby,” h
e
said and
did something he hasn’t done in years. He kissed me on the forehead and left the room. He flipped the light switch as he went out the door
,
leaving me in the dark. 
I wanted to yell, carry on
,
something
,
but I was pretty sure my sore throat wasn’t going to have it so I didn’t. I
tried to get up and go after him
,
but my legs still weren’t cooperating. I did the only thing I had left to me
.
I went to sleep.

     I’ve always had pretty vivid dreams
,
but lately they’ve been downright realistic.  Sometimes I wish I didn’t dream at all.
This time
I saw
Bouncer
-
Vamp
. H
e op
ened the front door to his high-
rent apartment. He smiled a radiant smile. “I
was not sure you would come.” His deep voice
sounded unsure.

     Laurna stepped through the doorway. My heart hammered in my chest. “I told yo
u I had some things to do first,
” s
he said softly. 
He slid her coat from
her shoulders and hung it on
a coat rack near the door. Who had coat racks anymore? I thought irritably.
She eyed him and bit her
glossy
lower lip.
He was wearing faded blue jeans, and a
black dress shirt
,
unbuttoned to show a good expanse of his
well-muscled
chest. He looked like he could bench press cars.
Oh
God
,
Laurna was not ogling
Vamp
ires
.
I
was not ogling
Vamp
ires
. 

   
He was barefooted. They were staying in?  Shoeless meant staying
in, didn’t it? I fought to squelch the panic I
felt
.

     He stepped back again
. I
t almost looked like a nervous
gesture;
Vamp
s didn’t get nervous
,
did they? Thi
s was just too much.  “I cooked,
” h
e said softly and tilted his head toward the kitchen.

    Laurna smiled. “F
or me?”

    He laughed
,
showi
ng very white teeth. “I ate earlier
,
so it
is
not for
me.” He held out a hand toward her.
His hands were massive. They had to be the biggest set of hands I’d ever seen.

    She took his hand and looked up into his lime
-
colored eyes. Then she touched his cheek. “You don’t have
to put this on for me you know,” s
he whispered.

    He ran h
is free hand through his collar-
length brown hair
. I
t was wet as if he’d just stepped from the shower. “Are you sure? I know it
th
is not what you are used to.” He had that unsure look again.
I almost felt bad for him being so self-conscious. I could identify with that.  Wait
,
did I just say I could identify with a
Vamp
?
I was going nuts
. T
hat was it
. I was going
plain out crazy.