Angel No More

I shook my head, standing from the bed to join him. Sliding my arm around his waist, I gazed up at him. “You are not the one I am speechless by. I knew then you were an animal. All Vampires are. Including me. We unleashed the primal animal within when we stopped our hearts. I don’t fear you Angel. I just don’t like not being in control.”

“You will learn more control in time. For what you have been through in the last few days, I am extremely impressed and damn proud, my love.”

As he smiled down at me, Angel suddenly recoiled, grabbing at his face as he let out a strangled “Dammit!”

I cupped his face, my brows knitted. “Baby! My night! Look at me! What is it?”

He looked up at me, confused pain in his face. “Is there something wrong with my left eye?” He asked. “It feels…. odd…”

Gazing at his face, I look his eyes over with scrutiny. As I did so, I noticed something utterly shocking. “Gods below!”

“What? What’s wrong?”

I widen my eyes, “Angel…your eye…it’s healing!”

Angel fell backwards with a thump, his face slipping from my grip as he let out a low whisper. “…..what?”

I took a step back then vanished, returning with a hand mirror. “Look!, Angel, Look for yourself!”

Angel stared at the mirror, a deep frown etched on his face, which became a look of completely shock. Perhaps sensing his distress, Eechee slinked up and nuzzled his jaw

I ran my fingers through his hair, pulling it out of his face so he could see better. “Look, my love.”

“I…” he muttered, as he gazed into the mirror again. “How…. there should be a scar…. where….” He fell silent 

“Angel…look at me.” he looked up at me. “I love you, all of you…Whether it’s scarred or not You are my night and my knight.” I ran my hand through his hair, continuing on around to hold his head. “Scars, past, whole, or broken. And our entire future…together.”

“Fen….” he asked, trailing his finger over his eye as he spoke in a voice so soft and low it made me worry. “Just so I am sure… that scar is gone….?”

I nodded, smiling at him. “It’s gone, my love, promise.”

Angel paused, then pulled me into the hungriest and most passionate kiss he had ever given me. When he leaned back, there was a strange look in his eyes.

“Aleister.” He said quietly, almost quietly enough that I didn’t catch it.

“Aleister? Who’s Aleister, love?”

“I… I am….” He gave me a weak smile. “My name is Aleister LaChance. Not Angel.”

Smiling softly as I cupped his face, “Aleister, my dark prince’s name is Aleister.” Leaning forward as I rested my head against his I kissed him softly. “Why did you change it?”

“I changed it because of my past. Not out of fear of those who look for me. But to make sure they cannot hurt the ones I love. I chose to call myself Angel because I wanted to move away from the demon I had become.”

“Well you are my angel, and always will be.”

A smile crossed his face. “Always… I like the sound of that.”

“Are you okay? You told me something that meant a great deal to you and I called you by your name.” I stroked his cheek as I gazed at him.

“I am…. surprisingly… say it again….”

Looking him in the eyes, I said it again, “Aleister.”

To my surprise, he didn’t  flinch. “My name….. is… Aleister….” he smiled. “My name is Aleister.” The smile grew and he began to pepper kisses all over my face. “Thank you, Fen.”

Giggling between kisses I managed to reply, “I love you Aleister”

“I love you too….” he laughed, before his smile dropped a little.

Cocking my head in concern, “What is it?”

“I… I feel different. Like for the first time…. I don’t feel afraid of who I am.”

I smiled at him, “and I feel truly loved for the first time.”

“You are loved, Fen. Now and always.” He pulled me into a tight hug.

I relaxed in our embrace, stroking his head as it rested on my shoulder. The bliss of our silence together filled the room with a peace we hadn’t known in the past few weeks.

Leaning back, he spoke. “I love you, Fenella. No matter what lies ahead and what lies behind, you are the light in my darkness, the blood that flows through my veins and the reason I now stand proud to call myself Angel no more…”

I gazed into his eyes, filled with a love I have never known. Stroking his face as I continued, “You changed my life…saved my life, then consistently show me love and compassion. “I never imagined I would ever witness, much less feel, daily. My love, my dark prince, my night.”

“Love, my dear Fen, is a promise. A promise to another that the darkness in their souls and the pain in their hearts is no longer a burden they share alone…”

“If I fell, I knew you would be there to catch me, and if you couldn’t catch me, you would fall with me. But I have already fallen once, and the reward was worth the pain.”

He smiled at me then kissed me softly. Returning the kiss, I smiled back. “What’s next on the agenda to find the asshole scumbags? What’s the plan?”

With a smile, he said “They tend to be places where they can do the most trade…. the club you now own, the club I found you in…anywhere there are youths impressionable enough to sell to.”

“But that’s the thing, Angel, I wasn’t there buying…you saw it…wrong. It wasn’t a fix I was quelching…it was an order I was carrying out.”

“I know… Why do you think I left you alive?”

“So we aren’t searching for innocents looking to buy…”

Aleister took my chin in his hand to make me look at him, “Ella, before we continue, let me make one thing clear….” gazing back at him I waited for him to continue.

“I left you alive all those years ago because I knew you were innocent, that you had nothing to do with what they were doing. I don’t kill innocents. And you… you were by far the most innocent person I have seen in years.”

“I get that, I just mean that we need to look in the places they find us at, not after they have us. Do you get that? I have to prevent this from happening to someone else…as many others as I can. I have to find their…” a deep, repulsed shudder passed through me as a primal growl bubbled up. “warehouse and free those girls.”

“And that we can do… just hear me out, will you? I understand your fury, I have my own. But just listen…” he took my hand and kissed the palm.

“I am..I just…I can’t just go wipe the assholes at the club out. I have to find their current warehouse first.” The word drips from my mouth with an unbridled growl with every word.

“Listen. We find one of those idiots again, just like the other night. He told me where they are going to be next, as they move in groups. We go, we separate them like last time, but this time, we keep one so I can have a little word with him. Through him, we find others, and one of them will tell us where to strike to end this. Trust me, when you can cause people more pain than they think possible, they get very talkative very quickly.”

“This time, this ring…you think these are the only ones?”

“No. But as I said, we will find out eventually where to go to put a stop to this for good.”

The thoughts of the pain I wanted to inflict on them flooded my veins like fire, and I knew my eyes were glowing. When I spoke, I couldn’t fight the savage snarl that came out. “Trust me, the mouth may be the only thing that works when I’m done…” I seethed.

Fighting to regain my control, I glared at Aleister. “You still don’t get it, Aleister. This never ends…”

“Yes it does, and we will make sure it does.”

I sighed and crossed my arms, “There are always more. All over the world. They didn’t just pop up in the last century.”

“You are forgetting one thing…. One very important thing.”

I rolled my eyes, “Is this the part where you remind me how old you are?”

“No. This is the part where I remind you that they cannot hide from us. We will find them, Fen. We will kill them, and we will end this entire nightmare And then, we will begin our lives the way it should be. Together, and finally free.”

arms still crossed I lean back against your chest with a huff I still don’t see how this will ever end, Angel, but I’m too tired to continue this conversation right now, my love.

“Then sleep, my beautiful Goddess….” he coaxed, holding me tight in his reassuring, safely strong grip. “Trust in me…. I will find them… and they will all die at your hands… but for now… sleep and dream of me….”

I smiled wryly, “Pretty sure after this conversation and this night of empowerment…I will be dreaming of a blood bath.”

“Then let it be so…. because we can both be happy knowing that you will never have those dreams again.”

My eyes began to droop and I laid my head on his shoulder with a small yawn. “Tomorrow…we take them out.”

Laying down on the couch on the balcony he pulls me tight against him. “Sleep….”

Mmmm, I hummed into him as I snuggled began to drift off. Aleister stroked my hair, making soft hushing noises, as I drifted.