Pretty Faces and Dark Places (10 page)

“Why do you need me?” I whispered my question, afraid of making him mad at me again, or even angering him, but I needed to know. I just couldn’t help it, so I kept my tone quiet low.

“This is how it works for us,” he said, his voice not loud like before. It was much gentler; to be honest, he only sounded impatient, as if he expected me to know all of this or for it to be very easy to understand or something. “It’s very rare for my kind to produce a female. We go to the upper world to find our soulmates, and they help us conceive, because even female demons were never able to carry a pregnancy with a male demon. Our soulmates only exist in your past world.”

My head started to spin as I listened to him explaining to me why he needed me, and the thought of me being brought here not only to be the mate for a demon but also to bring more demons into the world was nauseating.

“This is all?” I wondered with a voice loud enough for him to hear me. “This is all you need me for? To please you and bring you children?”

In one second, Andrew was kneeling in front of where I was sitting on the elegant armchair. His eyes were bright green and colored with so much passion and care, and his beautiful features were begging me to believe all of the things his eyes wanted me to believe. When he touched my hands, I knew that I would believe anything that would come out of those lips, because his warm touch and firm-yet-gentle grip sent shivers down my spine and warmth to spread all over my heart.

“Angel, please don’t go there,” he started with a calm, pleading voice. “Why don’t you understand? You were brought here because my heart chose you. My eyes fell on you and I knew you were the love of my life. I knew you were the one I’d been waiting for all this time. You’re my soulmate; of course I’ll need you to be by my side forever. You’ll be my partner; of course I’ll wish with everything in me to have you carrying my child. But it’s because I love you, it’s only because I’m in love with you, Maya. My heart picked you before my mind even started to form a thought about you; you’re not just a random person I chose.”

“You love me?” I gasped softly, shocked at his words and shocked at how it was so easily believable for me.

“With everything in me, Angel,” he said sincerely, and before I could comprehend the thought, his lips touched mine as he kissed me.

His lips were warmer than I remembered them to be. They were pressed tightly to my lips and pouring so much passion that he wanted me to feel. If this was his way to make me believe how true and real his words were, I became a believer right then and there.

His tongue parted my lips and I gasped quietly at the taste of him, a taste that I remembered so well, remembered how much and how many times I’d yearned to feel it again. And feel it again, I did. His tongue caressed mine hotly, and when his lips pulled on my bottom one and sucked it into his mouth, I couldn’t help but moan, earning myself a groan from him, until suddenly and out of nowhere he pulled back.

I was panting hard as I looked at him through my hazy with lust eyes, only to see that the expression on his face matched exactly how I felt, if not more – confusing me as to why he’d pulled away from me if he wanted the same as I did, and shocking me with how I was accepting of it and actually
did
want more.

“We can’t have any sexual act until the converting is done, Beautiful Angel,” he replied to my unanswered question with a soft smile.

I nodded, though not understanding why. Because I was still shocked at why it felt so right with him and so easy to be with him, I had to ask, “Are you still controlling my mind?”

Andrew somehow seemed offended by my question, but still replied to it with the same honesty he’d used before to tell me that he loved me. “No, Maya, I’m not. My mind controlling powers are useless in the underworld, and they only work on humans – you’re not a human anymore.”

I offered a small smile to him, and before I could say anything, I felt a weird sensation in my back. I squeezed my eyes shut as I waited for the cramp-like feeling to go, but it didn’t. It became greater.

“Andrew?!” I choked out.

“What do you feel, Angel?”

“My back,” I groaned, “Something is happening in my back.”

I felt Andrew as he stood up, and a moment later I heard him, “Your wings are forming very nicely, Maya, they are coming out.” Happiness wrapped his voice.

“Andrew, it hurts!” I moaned.

“It’ll be over soon, and it’ll be slightly easier if you stand up,” he said. I found him pulling me by the hand into a standing position, but I felt very weak all of a sudden and didn’t think I could stay on my feet. However, I found Andrew pulling me to him so I was in his arms, hugging him as he held me tightly to his body, my head buried in his chest and my hands clutching his biceps for dear life.

“I – uh … I c-can’t bear it-t …” I said through clenched teeth. The pain was getting bigger with every second as I felt as if someone was pulling the bones out of my back; it was seriously painful.

“Shhh, it’s almost over,” Andrew soothed as he held me tightly with one hand while the other smoothed my hair kindly. “You’re doing a great job. Good girl.”

I moaned some more into his chest, and with minutes passing I felt as if the pain was getting smaller and smaller until I was only feeling the small cramps I’d felt when it first started.

“Good girl,” Andrew soothed again. He planted a kiss on the top of my head when I settled in his arms, feeling the pain completely gone but leaving heaviness on my back after it. “Let me see how beautiful those small wings are.” He smiled and moved the slightest bit to take a better look at my back. In one second, Andrew pushed me away from him with such force that I almost fell to the ground, but I was able to catch myself. In the blink of an eye he was standing as far away from me as possible, with his wings touching the wall behind him.

“Andrew?” I questioned with wide eyes.

His eyes were as wide as they could get when he replied with a shocked voice. “Your feathers … they are not black!” he said, sounding horrified. “They are white!”

“White?” I asked. “Why are they white? What does that mean? Will they darken later?” I wondered if the wings were like those babies who are born blonde but their hair darkens with years until it’s brownish or even darker.

Andrew chuckled humorlessly, “No, they don’t!” He gripped his hair with both hands. “This is wrong! So wrong! They are like the wings of an ang–” he stopped mid-word, then shook his head. “I have to tell my mother about this, she knows best.” His voice was still as horrified as when he first examined the wings, if not even more. The next thing I knew, he was out of the room like a bat out of hell.

I let out a breath I didn’t even know that I was holding, but I didn’t feel any better after, because I still wasn’t breathing normally. My breaths were hitched and my heartbeats were racing against each other. I didn’t know what it meant that my wings had white feathers and not black ones, I didn’t know why Andrew was that horrified by it, I didn’t know why he went to his mom, I only knew one thing – I wasn’t very comfortable with her coming here again.

I’d never spoken to Andrew’s mom, and I’d barely seen her aside from that time just before the converting began, and that was it. I knew I shouldn’t judge, I really disliked judging without knowledge, but something about this woman – demon – just rubbed me the wrong way, and I had no idea what to make of it.

I paced the room back and forth, frustrated and worried about the fact that I had no idea what was to come or what would happen to me. I tried to twist my neck as far as I could in order to see my wings, but I couldn’t see them at all. Eventually, I went to the closet and stood in front of the dresser with my side facing it, trying to see their reflection in the mirror. And it worked.

I gasped as I saw it, – I really had wings attached to my back! I guess that even after all of the things that had happened, and after everything Andrew had said, and after all of the things I felt, I still had doubts. It was like I needed to see something with my own eyes in order to be convinced that all of this was real, and I guess seeing my wings was all it took for me to believe.

The wings were small – even smaller than the fake wings I’d worn the Halloween before last – and definitely nowhere near as big as Andrew’s wings. And true to his words, they had white feathers. Whiter than cotton, and when I awkwardly reached to touch them I found that they were softer than silk.

I sighed. I didn’t know how I felt about it, and after what felt like too long staring at them, I left the closet and walked over to the bed, sitting on it. I then lay down on my side because there was just no way that I could sleep on my back.

My thoughts were all over the place, my confusion was hitting the roof, and my feelings were fighting against each other inside me. I kept thinking about what Andrew had said. While I was no longer doubting the reality of all I was going through, and it wasn’t so easy to take. I didn’t know what was expected of me. I didn’t know what was to happen to me with the white feathers that had freaked Andrew out so much.

I also felt like I should’ve told him how I felt when he said he was in love with me. I guess I couldn’t just simply tell him that I had very strong feelings for him and that I’d hardly ever stopped thinking about him for the past year. I really needed more time to put my thoughts together; to define my feelings and put words to them.

It felt like too long since Andrew had left me when he finally came back, and I found it really strange to see misery on that handsome face of his. It made me frown and get up off the bed, thinking that his mother would follow him. I realized she hadn’t come with him once I saw him close the door and then rest his wings and back against it.

“Andrew?” I called, asking him silently why he looked so sad, wanting to know what he had to say. The look of him being very troubled made my heart ache; I didn’t like seeing him this way, not at all.

“I couldn’t tell her,” he said in a low voice, and I figured he was referring to his mom. “I don’t know how she’ll react to this. I’m afraid they’ll take you away from me, and that is not an option.” His voice became very stern with his last words.

My aching heart swelled at his words and I took the few steps that separated us. When I was only an inch away from him, I hugged his face with both of my hands and smiled softly as I looked deep into his beautiful green eyes. “Please don’t be so sad, it hurts me to see you this way,” I told him the truth.

Andrew’s arms hugged me to his body, pressing me tightly to him, his head moving the slightest as he buried his nose in my hair. He inhaled deeply, then kissed me behind my ear and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Beautiful Maya.”

Before I could question why he was apologizing, Andrew lifted me up and carried me to the bed. He turned me around in one second and the next thing I knew, he was putting my arms together in front of me and then pushing me face first to the mattress with my arms trapped underneath my stomach, one of his hands keeping me pinned to the bed as he pressed on the space between my shoulder blades.

“Andrew?” My call was confused and worried. I had no idea what he was doing and because it had happened so fast – and right after he’d apologized for what I didn’t know – told me that something bad was about to happen to me, though deep inside I knew that Andrew wouldn’t hurt me in any way. I knew that because he loved me, and that sweetness I saw in his eyes was too much to be ever thought of as fake.

“Stay still, Love,” he said, his voice telling silently of more apologizing that I didn’t want to hear. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

Andrew didn’t give me one second to wonder about what he meant or what was to be over soon. The next thing I knew, he was touching my wings and fumbling a little with them before he gripped the base that joined the wings together and was attaching them to my back. Once he’d found the right place to grip, he gripped tighter, though it wasn’t at all easy to handle. I even started to wince a bit at how tight his grip was. But before I could complain about that or even ask why he was doing it, Andrew started pulling on my wings as if he wanted to break them and remove them altogether.

“Andrew!” I gasped as I felt the pain growing greater. The hand that was pressing on the space between my shoulder blades pressed even harder. “Oh, no! Andrew! It hurts!” My voice was louder now and I let out a scream when I felt as if he was breaking my bones right where he was gripping.

Andrew didn’t reply at all, but I could hear his breaths as they hitched and tangled with his grip and pulling, growing even stronger. My screams only grew louder with the breaking of the bones in my wings.

If I’d thought converting was the most painful experience ever,
this
was the most agonizing thing that had ever happened to me. And the fact that it was Andrew who was doing this to me made it hurt even more, if that was possible.

I felt warm liquid seeping out of where Andrew was pulling, and I knew that I was bleeding. Given that I was bleeding and with all of the pulling Andrew was doing, I came to the realization that he was trying to remove my wings.