Dark Rider

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get your arm off me,” she warned him in a blank tone, her voice was dry and unnoticeably quiet. “I’m wet, tired, pissed off and I need warmth and I haven’t got it, so unless you want a part of your anatomy to be found flowing down the sewer system, I’d get off me right now like I have cooties.”

Rider smiled softly as he slowly slid his arm from around her shoulders, he found her threats amusing and funny. But he said nothing as a long awaited cab flew up and stopped on a dime in front of them, sending gutter water spraying across each of their fronts and face. Rider opened his eyes after a moment and glanced down at Kassie who was shaking in anger, her hands at her sides in fist. He merely wiped her face with his fingerless gloves and then moved to open the door for her, like a gentleman. Once she stepped inside, he turned to A.J. and mouthed “Get your butt in or else we’re dead” before both of them hurried in after her. “So where are we going?” A.J. broke the fuming silence while he leaned against the right door, Kassie in the middle and Rider at her other side doing the same but instead of looking around inside the cab, he looked anywhere else he could.

“I have it under control,” Rider answered A.J. a few minutes after he asked his awkward question. “Big man set us up with a pad on the east side; each of us has a bedroom.”

“Sounds great,” A.J. murmured and leaned back in his seat, he glanced to Kassie and seen that her jaw was set in a way that only could break it, or so he thought. Her gaze went out forward and locked on the driver, the one that soaked her and A.J. flinched in pain for the man who, no doubt would be screamed at once they found their way home. And of course, the whole ride went silent until the cab stopped on a dime, whoever the driver was needed to take his drivers test again, A.J. thought. Rider climbed out his door while A.J. climbed out his side on the curb, where he helped Kassie out. Who stayed quietly standing on the curb until Rider had gotten all the baggage out, before Rider had taken the baggage up to the condo as it looked like, he handed fifty dollars in US currency to Kassie and nodded towards the cab. He knew she was going to fuss him out and he didn’t seem care the least bit about it either.

“Let me tell you something,” Kassie leaned against the open window as she stared at the Italian looking balding male in his forties with her finger pointing in his face. “You don’t deserve to be driving; you can’t stop a damn car which obviously hints that you need some lessons. You have no personality, I understand its New York but there is such a thing as acting like you give a shit, how about it, we all know you have it somewhere in your tubby ass to try it,” she paused to take a large breath to finish off. “And when you’re driving, when you see a damn puddle, I also see how it could be fun to splash water on people when you drive by but one day that person you piss off just might kick you ugly ass and you will wish you didn’t wet them. You’re lucky that I’m tired, or else I would be that person, so here is your damn money. Get the hell out of here before I change my mind.”

As she threw the money into his lap and stepped back to turn and walk away, she heard him cussing her back with a few words she hadn’t ever heard before. But she chose to ignore it as she walked up to A.J. who waited on the curb for her safe return, when A.J. smiled she did too because it felt good getting some of the anger off her chest, and seeing as it amused him it made it ten times better. “That was great, bet it felt good.”

“You found that funny did you?” she laughed as she and A.J. made their way up the steps into the front door, the condo was two stories and the walls were bright ivory white, everything in the house was silver or gold. It was beautiful and right then, the moment she looked around, she knew what heaven would look like at a glance. “Wow, he has good taste.”

“I do don’t I?” Rider bounced down the stairs in a change of clothes, black skin tight jeans, and a silver studded belt that glinted off the lights. His shirt was plaid blue with a spotted navy blue tie wrapped around his neck with polka dots all over it and a red thin jacket rolled up to the elbows over the top. He had changed in a flash.

“Talk about quick changing, did you use your illusion gift?” Kassie questioned as she walked up the stairs, he met her half way, stopped awkwardly and followed her up as she passed him to find her room so she to could quickly change, shower and sleep.

“No, pumpkin I can’t use my gift, but if you’d like I could show you how I changed,” he smirked as she grimaced in disgust and made a gagging noise in the back of her throat. “It’s amazing how little I have to say to make you flinch.”

“You just have that affect on me,” Kassie smirked as she walked down the hallway, pushing open the first room it was covered in red, A.J.’s favorite color. She knew it was his; she went down one more door and pushed it open, her favorite color, lavender covered everything from the bed to the wall color to the drapes and rugs that covered the hardwood flooring. She smiled and walked in but then frowned when she heard him follow her inside.

“Not quite, my affect on you is something between relaxing and tempting, when I am allowed to touch you that is, or else you get a bit hostile,” he scoffed and sat down at the end of her bed, picking at his index fingernail with his thumbnail.

“When have I ever allowed you to touch me? Never because you aren’t relaxing or tempting, you’re like a disease. You make me have side affects like nausea, vomiting and the twitches, most commonly,” she smiled at the low blow towards the man, but he only glanced up with a lazy look in his eyes and shrugged.

“A couple days ago I rubbed your back until you fell asleep, you went to la-la land pretty quickly as I recall, I call that trusting me enough to relax in my hands,” he smiled suddenly and closed his eyes to accommodate the large area of his smile. “Don’t you think?”

“That was you?” her gasp of a question made Rider laugh, she shut him up quickly though by pushing him off the bed and out of the room, she shut the door and leaned against it if he were to try and push his way back in. She had thought the person rubbing her back was A.J. because he usually did things like that to be helpful, he knew how little she slept at night. It never dawned on her that the possibility of it being Rider was fifty percent as well as A.J.’s percentage. “Well, I only went to sleep because I couldn’t move. I had a headache and I was dizzy from fainting. I wasn’t in my right mind okay!”

“You never are so what’s the difference,” she could hear Rider snickering as he walked down the hallway to his room and slammed it shut once he was inside, pausing only once to laugh again loudly to mock her.

Though Kassie was annoyed with Rider, she couldn’t help but smile. But as soon as she felt herself smiling she frowned and shook her head of all thoughts, which consist of words of laughter. She started over to the bed while shedding her clothes; once she did she picked out a night gown and undergarments from her bag on the end of the bed to take with her in the bathroom while she took a quick shower. After a short ten minute shower, she walked from the bathroom with a towel lying across her shoulders. She leaned over and ran the towel over and over against her wet hair until it was partially dry enough for her to lie down on her pillow without it getting soaked. She knew though it was curly now, when she woke up it would be dry and straight, so it didn’t matter that she laid on it wet when she did. She covered herself quickly, feeling the draft from the fan circulating cool air over her semi-damp body that left little Goosebumps over her arms and legs in result. An hour after lying down in the silky sheets of violet colors, Kassie rolled around restlessly, still unable to fall asleep. Half because she just couldn’t relax, every muscle in her body was tense and knotted up tightly, causing a painful ache to pulse up and down her back. The other half of the reason was because of her thoughts, like every night she tried to fall asleep. Her problems in life seemed to come to reality moments before she was meant to lay her head down for a peaceful nights sleep. About ready to give up on sleep altogether, Kassie thought of the slight possibility of a back rub. She bit her lip as she stared at the white ceiling tiles, thinking over what she could say to keep her dignity in tack to Rider while letting her guard down so he could in fact become arrogant in victory. And there was also the fact that he could deny her after there little tiff that happened only an hour before, it looked unlikely that he would help her but she needed to try for at least a little bit of rest. So standing up with a grunt of defeat and a whine of protest, Kassie walked to the door and opened it quietly; she looked down each side of the hallway looking for signs of either man. When she found them both in there rooms instead of out and about, she walked out to the hallway and closed her door quietly. Walking all the way down to the last door, she frowned at the thought that A.J. could do it, but she couldn’t bring herself to waking him up after all that had been going on with worry, he needed his rest. So she started for Rider’s room again and stood in front of it hesitantly ready to knock on the door; she raised her hand and frowned as she placed her knuckles once against the thick cherry wood dooring. As if he were waiting, Rider opened the door almost instantly and stared at Kassie expectantly. “What?” she questioned, waiting for something to come out of his mouth, something like What Do You Want? but when that didn’t come out, she crossed her arms over her chest, feeling vulnerable at that very moment. To open, physically and mentally to Rider and it made her uneasy. “I didn’t want to wake up A.J. in the middle of the night—“

“All I want you to do is say it,” his voice was deeper than usual, like he had just woken up at that very instance.

Kassie bit the inside of her cheek as she shifted her weight to her other leg, she looked from his face to the ground. She gazed at her lime green painted toenails for a few moments before she looked back up at Rider, reluctantly. “Alright,” she murmured as she pushed past him into his room, which was by no surprise, black as night. “I can’t get to sleep. Would you give me another back rub because I can’t relax enough to close my eyes for more than a second.”

Rider nodded his head in agreement and shut his door quietly, he walked to his bed which was covered in a black comforter and navy blue sheets made of Egyptian cotton so it seemed, and he patted the space beside him and nodded towards it. “I don’t mind, lay down,” he murmured as she walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, then awkwardly folded herself into a laying position where she was on her stomach staring at the wall. “You know, when I was a human I was going to become a massage therapist or a physical therapist, hard to believe but it was after I realized I needed to get a real job and everyone I ever gave a backrub seemed to think I had healing hands.”

“Your skilled, I’ll agree,” she gave him that as she relaxed a bit from the way his hands moved over her tensed shoulders, it felt nice to have her back rubbed and the stress to float away with his hands. “Did you ever get your license or anything to do it professionally?”

“No,” he cleared his throat as his hands lowered to the middle of her back, applying pressure to the sides of her spine where a large tense knot had formed, as he let go of the pressure he pressed his fingertips in a fluent motion against the center and outer parts of the knot. “I died and became an angel, and then I fell from heaven and became a Fallen Angel Ubertas Venator.”

“What’s an Ubertas Venator?” Kassie questioned as she closed her eyes and let the blissful relaxation circulate through her very being, it felt like electric currents being places at her fingertips and when it shocked her it went through each vein and met in the middle of her body, her stomach felt like it was burning but somehow, it was a good thing.

“Bounty Hunter,” he simply explained in a dry tone as he moved on the mattress and shifted his weight to where he had straddled Kassie’s back, she felt his thighs on each side of her hips and her eyes flew open. But once she realized he was only making it easier for him to give her a better massage, she relaxed and closed her eyes again. “I’m not sure who it is that has this strange obsession with the Latin language but they use it for everything, I would love to just call myself a bounty hunter but no. I can’t, I signed some unwritten contract that every time I say it when I’m on the job, I get this ringing in my ear. Like, my name is Atrum Angelus Veho; you want to know what that means? Dark Angel Rider, who comes up with these names?”

Kassie couldn’t help but let out a giggle at his frustrations which seemed so comical when he spoke them out loud, she heard him laugh quietly and pause in his hand movements. She cleared her throat and he seemed to get the hint to continue, because as soon as she did he immediately began to rub her back up and down. “Atrum,” she called him in a teasing tone. “Rider, whatever. Can I ask a personal question?”

“As long as I’m allowed my follow up question on you,” he shot back without a moments hesitation, she smiled shyly and waited a minute to get her thoughts in order, which question she wanted to ask and how to ask it without it offending him greatly, she had found out over the years of her adulthood and teenage years that she tended to speak before thinking and it usually ended in issues, very angry issues.

“Twenty questionnaire game,” she called out a second before she swallowed and patted his leg and motioned for him to get off her so she could turn over, “Thanks for the back rub, I’m pretty mellow now,” she smiled as he laughed and jumped to his side of the bed, making it shake and bounce her up a couple times for good measure. “My first question is, would you mind telling me how you died and how you managed to get thrown out of heaven?”

Rider sneered for a moment before nodding his head; he waited to answer his question until he had situated himself on the bed. He lay down on his side, facing Kassie and leaned his head up against his palm that was propped up against a pillow. “First off, that’s two questions so I can ask two when my turn comes,” he smirked and winked once before he took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts he spoke slowly. “I was murdered by a street gang right here in New York; I was riding home from a party at a friend’s house when I was followed, I parked at the end of my driveway. I had just gotten off my bike when a couple of men that had been following me started walking up to me; I knew them from a rival gang of my own, yes I was in a gang but not those like the mob. I’m a biker, it was a biker gang. The men knew that by killing me that they would piss off the leader of my gang, which happened to be my brother. They beat me with ball bats, pipes and—basically anything they could find on the street while I laid there bleeding.”

“Oh—“Kassie sighed as she placed her hand on Rider’s, which was laid out on the bed, unconsciously drawing circles on the sheets. “I’m so sorry, Rider.”

“Its okay,” he shrugged his shoulders and looked up at Kassie with his deep honey colored eyes shining in the moonlight that poured in his bedroom window. “They beat me and ended up putting me out of my misery, they shot me in the head I think it was,” he shrugged his shoulders again with his bottom lip poking out in thought. “When I got to heaven, I went through all the tests that God puts angel’s in training through, I earned my name which was then Jaded Angelus, again with the Latin words,” he rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. “And one day, I being the idiot I am. Returned to earth posing as a human—I paid revenge on the men that had killed me. I broke a rule, Thou shall not kill. When I returned to heaven, thinking I was so sly that I wouldn’t get caught. I was brought to God and he told me simply, I had broken his heart by breaking his rule. That he would forgive me but for what I had done but I could no longer be called one of his angels. I fell then, landed on my ass here in hell on a place called earth.”