Dark Angel Chapter 2

Chapter 2



  The pain, unwilling to let me sleep through my suffering, awoke me from the darkness. I saw Daniel driving and did my best to not do anything to cause more pain. I looked at him again and saw his panicked expression. I realized how bad I was if I was making my new partner freak out.

  Somehow, I knew where we were. The constant turns told me were in a parking garage but somehow I knew we were very close to Michael. I braced myself as Daniel slammed on the brakes, probably to avoid hitting another car. His hand came back and rested on my shoulder, keeping me from falling to the floor. He did one final turn and stopped before cutting the engine.

  I felt numb and if there was thing I was ever sure of is that numbness is very, very bad. I could sense Michael coming closer and when Daniel came around and opened the door I told him, “Wait, he’s coming.”

  “Who’s coming, Natascha?”

  I looked past him and said, “Michael.” Daniel turned and saw the short man I claimed as my father storm down the drive looking very worried and very angry.

  “What have you done now, Natascha?” He asked. The anger rolled off him and Daniel moved a little so that he was in front of me. I could tell Michael wasn’t really angry with me. He just needed someone to yell at.

  “Can we talk about it later, Michael? She’s really bad.” Daniel said quietly. He seemed to calm down when he realized Daniel wasn’t lying. He nodded and put his hands on our shoulders before teleporting us to his office.

  I would have fallen if Daniel wasn’t prepared to catch me once we rematerialized. He carried me over to Michael’s desk and gently laid me on it. I could barely lift my head and I felt as if I was fading away. Everything felt like a dream and it took all my energy to turn my head and see a blurry Daniel beside me.

  I heard Michael ask me a question but I couldn’t quite understand what he had said. He asked again, slowly this time, “Was it Nicolai?” It took everything I had to nod. I listened to the men talk not understanding a thing before I saw the darkness closing in once again. I fought it as hard as I could before I couldn’t fight it anymore.

                                                                                       ...



“Natascha?” I called her name as I saw her eyes slowly close. I looked at Michael as he tried to heal the wound.

“I do not have enough energy to heal her. I will need to ‘borrow’ yours.” He said. I’d given energy for a healing before so I just placed my hand on her wound and waited to pass out like I usually did. He placed his hands above mine, not quite touching, and a glow emanated from them. The glow passed through my hand and it too began to glow. I felt myself grow weary as I felt her wound close up underneath my hand. When it was over, I felt as if I was going to collapse from exhaustion, but Michael was kind enough to leave me enough energy to get to one of the chairs before completely crashing.

My eyes opened slowly as I awoke from the deepest sleep I’ve had in ages. I looked around and realized that I had no idea as to where I was. I sat up in the bed and started to stand. Wait…bed? How did I end up in a bed? I left the room and was tackled by Natascha’s dog. “Whoa, Wolfe. Get down, boy.” I pushed him off me and I walked to Natascha’s room. I opened the door quietly and saw her asleep in her bed. Wolfe jumped up and laid next to her before I could even keep him out of the room. I couldn’t help but smile as she rolled over and draped her arm over the dog.

I shut the door quietly and walked out to the living room. I had just sat on the couch when out of the corner of my eye I saw someone walk by the window. For a moment, I thought it was just someone walking by, but then I realized that we were out in the country. There was no sidewalk to ‘walk by’ on. I slowly stood up and went to the door. I heard the lock jiggle and I thought I saw long brown hair. This idiot again? I knew it was Gabriel. He was the only Angel I knew who would sneak around like a thief. Or a stalker. I waited for him to get the door open and get inside. He took two steps and I stuck out my foot as he went to take his third. As he fell to the floor, he turned in time to watch me deliver a swift kick to his stomach. “What the hell are you doing here, Gabriel? I thought Natascha and I both made it clear you weren’t welcome?” I growled. He skittered away out of my reach before standing up.

“Natascha wasn’t serious, you idiot. She always plays hard to get like that.” His fake accent made me want to bust every single one of those pearly whites of his.

“I highly doubt she was playing hard to get, Gabriel. Now get out before I either cripple you or turn that face of yours to mush. And trust me; both are very tempting right now.” He only grinned his stupid grin and asked,

“How is Natascha’s shoulder?” I glared.

“Better now, no thanks to you. You were the one working on her shoulder. You should have realized it was infected.” He only shrugged and continued to grin. Suddenly, it dawned on me. “You knew it was infected!” I started forward and grabbed the front of his shirt. “You bastard! You knew it was infected and you didn’t treat it? She almost died! What the bloody hell were you thinking?!” He tried to wrench himself from my grasp before saying,

“I was going to come back and save her. I was going to take her to Michael and he would have fired you for failing to do your duty as a partner and especially since your partner is his daughter. He would have murdered you!” He began to laugh but it was quickly silenced by something behind me. I looked in the mirror on the wall and saw Natascha behind me, awake and very, very angry. I dropped Gabriel as I turned towards her.

“Are you okay?” I had been worried when she was sick and even though Michael had healed her, I wanted to see for myself whether or not she was truly okay. She nodded and stalked towards Gabriel.

“You bastard! How dare you put my life in jeopardy just so that you could get rid of my partner! I would never be your partner. I cannot stand you and Michael barely puts up with you. He would never assign you to be my partner even if you were the last one left. You’re a useless pile of trash and when he finds out that you knew I was infected with Bane you’ll be lucky if he doesn’t get permission to banish you…”

“Having a different Arch Angel for a boss wouldn’t stop me from trying, Natascha.”

“No, Gabriel. You don’t get it. I mean banish you. From Heaven. He will cast your stupid ass into Hell!”

“He would need permission from The Almighty, Tascha. That is something he doesn’t have.”

“Yet. But you underestimate God. He knows what you’ve been doing and he won’t hesitate to give Michael permission once he asks. Or, you better pray that Sakura doesn’t learn how to banish you.”

“That’s if he finds out, and he won’t be, seeing as I know your little secret and your precious Daniel does not.” He looked at me and sneered before returning his attention to Natascha. He stepped closer before whispering in her ear. She growled as she roughly pushed him away. “Stay the fuck away from me.” She stalked back to her room and slammed the door.

“What did you say to her?” I asked. What would he have on her? What is it that I don’t know? Besides everything, obviously. Gabriel only smiled and said in a singsong voice, “I know something you don’t know.”

“Well obviously, dumbass! What was it that you said?”

“Something for me to know and, in order for me to get my way, for you to never find out.” He grinned before turning and walking out the front door. What the hell is wrong with this guy?

Suddenly in the mood for asking questions, I walked to Natascha’s door before softly knocking. From within I heard, “Go away.” I didn’t want to upset her more than she already was so I told her to get some rest before returning to my own room. I dropped myself on the bed and I prayed for sleep.

...



How dare that bastard? How dare he threaten me! My blood nearly boiled with anger. I knew that he could get away with threatening me though. I could never tell Daniel or Michael what he’d said.

“I know your little secret and your precious Daniel does not.” He leaned to whisper in my ear, “What will he think, Natascha? He’ll think you’re disgusting, a mistake, he’ll resign as your partner and make sure everyone knows your dirty little secret. Who but I would want to have a filthy little Hybrid as a partner, hmm?”

I didn’t want to believe it, but what if that did happen? What if Daniel did reject me as a partner? Rejecting others was something I’d always known, being rejected was completely new to me, and I never wanted to experience it. I shook my head and got out of the bed. I peeked out the door and saw Daniel’s was closed. I prayed he was in there because it was my only guest room and I wasn’t in the mood for talking. I quietly walked toward the kitchen and filled Wolfe’s bowl before getting myself something to eat. I stood near the sliding glass door and looked out at the field as I munched on the cereal I’d prepared.

The ground was covered with drying ash and I sighed. It would be nice if life was peaceful instead of violent. Stupid Nico. I can’t understand why he wants to be father’s favorite. Father’s a jerk who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

We were friends when we were young. We’d found each other by chance and knew we were related the moment we saw one another. Our eyes were the most alike but we had similar facial structures and at the time we were the exact same height. Or maybe it wasn’t the similarities we saw but the connection as twins may have drawn us together. At first, neither of us told our fathers. Then one day, when I was 25, that all changed. Nicolai had told Dante by accident that he’d met me and all of a sudden, I was being kidnapped left and right by different bounty hunter Demons. Michael had always saved me but the damage was done. I told Michael that I’d met Nicolai, my twin brother, and Michael must have guessed that he’d told because all of a sudden, we moved and I never saw Nicolai again until just a few years ago. He had been sent to capture me and had succeeded since I had trusted him. I met my real father for the first time and I knew I never wanted to see him again. Dante had poisoned Nicolai’s mind over the centuries telling him that I needed to die because I had been raised by Michael, Dante’s brother and nemesis.

Then all of a sudden Dante wanted me for his own and so Nico saw me as his rival for father’s non-existent affection. I wished with all my heart that Nico had listened but I doubt he did. I’d let my anger get the better of me and instead of being the better person I stabbed him back. I pounded my head on the glass as I silently told myself how stupid I was. Suddenly, something prevented me from continuing my pounding and I turned to see Daniel. His face looked worried.

“Why are you beating yourself up?” I gave a small smile and said,

“Sorry, I was reprimanding myself but not enough to actually hurt.” He nodded returning the smile, making my heart skip, before removing his hand from the top of my head.

“Is that your specialty?” He asked pointing at my mixture of Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, and Fruity Pebbles. I grinned nodding.

“Yeah, want some?” He shook his head chuckling and said no before pouring Apple Jacks into a bowl.

“You don’t know what you’re missing.” He laughed and leaned against the counter to eat his cereal.

“So, what were you looking at?”

“Wet ash,” I grimaced, “which isn’t as pretty as the tall grass it’s weighing down.” He nodded.

“What do you do for fun around here?”

“I don’t really have a lot of time for fun between work and working for Michael.” Geez, what’s with the questions? Speaking of questions and work, what time is it? I looked at the clock and nearly spit out what cereal I had in my mouth.

“Crap, I’m going to be late for work!” I ran past a confused Daniel, putting my bowl down beside him and running into my room to get dressed. I put on a black t-shirt and jeans as I grabbed make-up and put it on whilst running out the door to my little black ‘95 Firebird. I threw myself into it and quickly pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. As I started to go, I saw a bewildered Daniel and I pulled up beside him.

“Sorry to leave in a hurry but I’ll be back before five o’clock. Um, if anyone calls just leave it to the answering machine, no should be calling me anyways. The whole house is yours so do whatever you want, um I’ll call Sakura and tell her to not come to walk Wolfe if you don’t mind doing it.”

“Uh, yeah I can walk Wolfe, no problem. What do you do anyways?” I glanced at the digital clock on my radio and said,

“Sorry, I’ll explain later when I get back or else I’ll be late, ‘k?”

“Sure, I’ll see you at five I guess.”

“Alright, bye.” I put up the window as I pulled away and didn’t really hit the gas until Daniel was out of tire-rock –throwing distance. I grabbed my black apron from behind me and set it in my lap I drove towards Port Huron. Dang it, Boss is going to kill me. I pulled into the parking lot and quickly ran into the building, putting on my apron as I went.

“Natascha! You’re late!” I winced when I heard Boss yell. I looked at the man who so closely resembled Santa Clause that little children wandered in when they saw him through the window. Poor guy almost was arrested for letting in minors before they saw that he was blind. It was my responsibility to serve and make the drinks while Boss sat in the corner and listened for people to come in. Somehow, he knew exactly who comes in the door and who’s doing his job. The bouncer Dave thinks he has eyes in the back of his head that work but I knew the truth. Boss was a psychic, pure and true. He ran a bar for the Divine and Damned. That was even the name of the place. The Demons would drink to their hearts content and the Angels would drink only a little but came in large groups. Perfect for business. Boss knew the moment he met me that I was perfect for the job. As a Hybrid, I appealed to both Angels and Demons. The Angels trusted me with their drinks and the Demons did the same. I had friendly eyes and sharp teeth; at least that’s what Boss says.

“Sorry, Boss. Michael assigned me a new partner and I was getting him settled.”

“No, you had a fight with Gabriel and then you made your crazy cereal concoction and forgot.”

“Well, yeah, but on my way here I stopped to tell him the rules of the house.” His knowing of everything used to give me the willies but now I find it comforting since most of the time I don’t have to retell about a bad day. He just knows.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You know, you don’t have to rush in here all the time. Even if you were late, I wouldn’t fire you. You’re unique and the customers love you.” I smiled.

“Admit it, you love me too.” I sat next to the man I’d adopted as a grandfather. Michael’s father was God and I couldn’t really “talk” with him. He hid a grin under his bushy white beard and said,

“Well, it’s not right for an employer to get attached to one of his employees. So technically, I don’t love you. But outside of work you are like a granddaughter so I’ll let that comment slide for now, missy.” I grinned and stood up before going behind the counter.