Angels Born of Hell and Fire

[Chapter Sixteen]

“They… died?”

My whispered words did very little to break the tension of the room. Really the tension was all on mine and Jasper’s side. The news that there were girls before us, who had been tossed into Adam’s view of the world and had failed… was unsettling to say the least.

Just then a knock sounded and a very pale looking Taylor walked in. The moment my eyes beheld her expression I became alarmed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked without even realizing.

Taylor’s smile wobbled as she shook her head.

“Nothing. Ya’ll finished eating? Great I’ll take your trays back to the kitchen.”

I noticed her hands were shaking as she reached passed me. I could feel the chilling feeling of fear off her, and the jitteriness of her anxiety. Obviously something was wrong.

“You’re a bad liar…” I muttered, frowning.

Taylor blinked at me in surprise and sighed, wrapping her arms around her stomach.

“It is nothing, I’m just bein silly. Marie told me that Adam came back today is all. That man… terrifies me.”

My own feeling of unease lay heavily in the pit of my stomach. If Adam was back… then I would have to face him. I wasn’t ready, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be.

“Good, I want to talk to him,” Jasper said standing.

“What?” I gasped, thinking she had lost her mind.

“I want to ask him about Jezebel and Marie,” she said frowning.

“You can ask Marie…”

“Marie only knows the legend, wouldn’t it be easier to just ask Adam directly?”

When I said nothing she turned to Peter, “Can you go tell Adam I wish to speak with him?”

Peter glanced at me, cowering in my chair, and back at Jasper with a clear question in his eyes. However when Jasper refused to acknowledge it he nodded, unable to disagree with an obvious order from his Empress.

“Yes,” he smiled at Taylor, trying to lighten the dark mood, “I’ll help you take all this to the kitchen then, its on the way.”

Taylor looked at me with the same worried expression as Peter had. I was sure everyone in the room was looking at me the same exact way. Except Jasper, who had begun hunting around the numerous bookshelves in search of something.

As Peter and Taylor left Savannah went and took up her post in front of the door, leaving Gabriel to sit in and watch us. I could feel the boys green eyes staring at the top of my head. I resisted the urge to cover my face with my hands.

I didn’t want to see Adam, even if it was to find out about those other girls. The last time I had seen him was after… that happened. The conversation from that night, seeming so fuzzy and confused now, came back to me. He had told me I was becoming exactly what I was supposed to be. Now, after knowing the story of his creation I guess that in a way it was true. He wanted someone to help him destroy humanity, meaning they would have to be as sick and deprived as he was.

“Are you cold?”

I looked up to see Gabriel peering down at me, concern in his eyes. I was wondering why he would ask that when I noticed I was shivering. I wasn’t really cold, though I was only wearing a black tank top and pants and the library was fairly chilly despite the fire crackling in the fireplace. The tremors in my limbs were caused by fear, but I couldn’t really say that. So I nodded, glad to have a decent excuse.

Gabriel shrugged out of his uniform jacket and handed it to me.

“Here,” he said softly, a faint blush covering his cheeks.

I couldn’t really help but to smile slightly, finding his actions sweet. I didn’t know Gabriel well, having spent all my time mostly with Savannah, but I got the distinct impression that he was kind. I was glad he was one of the people in charge of taking care of Jasper.

“Thanks,” I said taking the offered jacket. He hummed a response and took up the seat previously occupied by Savannah.

Neither of us being people of many words we fell into silence, the only noise being the occasional thud of a book sliding into place as Jasper continued to scan the selves. I wondered what she was looking for so urgently.

“I remember reading those names before,” Jasper called across the space in answer, “I’m trying to find the book that had them.”

Ah. So there were other records of the girls than just word of mouth. It had to have been quite a long time since they died, as Savannah had mentioned “generations” of maids following in their tradition.

“I’m thinking it was back in the 1700’s,” Jasper said, her voice muffled, “It was a pretty old book either way, if I could just remember where it was…”

“Who is she talking to?” Gabriel whispered, looking very confused.

“Oh, to me. Uhhh she was answering my thoughts,” I was well aware I sounded crazy. It was sad that I was getting used to such absurd things.

Gabriel’s mouth hung open a moment before he seemed to become aware of it.

“I-I didn’t know that was possible,” he stammered.

I nodded, “Yeah, ever since Adam did… whatever it was that he did to us, I can hear hers and Adam’s thoughts and know where they are, what they feel, stuff like that.”

“You have Adam in your head too?” Gabriel’s eyes were wide.

“Unfortunately,” I sighed. I was fine with Jasper running in and out of my thoughts whenever she wanted but I could have done without Adam having the privilege as well. Especially since he liked to leave his own thoughts behind for me to later find like little land minds of insanity.

“Found it!” Jasper suddenly explained. She emerged from the rows of books carrying a small leather bound folio.

Perching on the arm rest of my chair she held the pages open to show me.

“Right here, it says they were the daughters of some lord or another who was famous for his cruelty. They really were twins, whose mother died giving birth to them. Their father treated them like sons, teaching the ways of his estate and had full intentions to pass on his kingdom to Jezebel, the eldest daughter, but they both died in their 20s.”

“How’d they die?”

“They killed themselves,” I jumped at the voice belonging to neither Jasper nor Gabriel. The hair along the back of my neck stood on end, a shadow pressed against the edges of my conscious; Adam.

“What?” Jasper, less affected by Adam sudden appearance than I was, stood to her full height, the small book forgotten in her hand.

Adam’s lavender eyes appraised her sullenly, as if he wished she wouldn’t have asked.

“Jezebel and Marie killed themselves on their 25th birthday. They jumped out of a window.”

“Why?”

Adam sighed, gliding further into the room. I squished down farther in my chair, trying to make myself as small as possible.

“Because they decided to be human,” he hissed the word, “those silly girls fell in love with some worthless mongrels. Love of all things! Despite everything I had done for them they still went against me!”

He snatched the book from Jasper’s hand, glowering down at it.

“My own daughters betrayed me, so I killed the bastards who thought to take them away from me.”

Adam’s form loomed over me, dark and menacing. His words didn’t actually surprise me very much. It made sense that he wouldn’t have allowed his precious daughters to be taken away by other men. It would have gone against his goal, to have them harboring such emotions such as love.

“So they killed themselves just to get away from you,” Jasper laughed bitterly, “I bet that just ticked you off.”

I stared at Jasper in astonishment, not understanding where her anger at Adam was coming from. She was intentionally trying to make him angry with her, and was succeeding. I really wished she wouldn’t, I knew she wanted to know more about our predecessors, but was it necessary to go about it in such a way?

“Watch what you say Calamity,” Adam warned his voice low.

“Why? It’s true isn’t it? They wanted free of you and that was the only way they could! It’s almost as if you killed them yourself,” Jasper sneered. “It’s not like you really cared for them, you just wanted to use them for your own purposes, just like us.”

Adam grabbed her face, his fingers digging into the skin of her jaw so tightly it would leave bruises.

“I said, watch your tongue.”

“Are you going to kill me too? What a waste that would be,” Jasper said smugly.

Adam snapped his hand back, bringing it back to smack against Jasper suddenly triumphant face.
I’m not sure when I moved, I had no recollection of it, but that blow never landed on its intended target. The harsh sound of skin clapping against skin rang out through the still air. Pain irrupted against my cheek, hot and burning. Surprise hit me on all sides as I realized I had managed to push Jasper out of the way, and position myself directly where she had stood.

I glared up at Adam, fury so brilliant and blinding I could no longer think correctly taking hold of me.

“Do not, touch her,” I growled.

“Megan!” Jasper stared at me with wide eyes from the safety of Gabriel’s arms, who had caught her.

My body vibrated with tension. I didn’t understand myself, as to why in that moment before Adam’s hand had collided with Jasper’s cheek all I could think of was that Jasper couldn’t be harmed. No matter what, Jasper couldn’t be harmed.

I didn’t understand.

Just moments before I had been quaking in fear of Adam, there was no way I should have been able to move to prevent the blow, much less actually take it myself.

“What did you do to me?” I gasped.

The corners of Adam’s mouth twisted, a brilliance lightening his glowing eyes. Satisfaction rolled over to me from him.

“Why, whatever do you mean my dear?”

“You know what I mean!” I screeched, my hands shoving at his chest violently. Adam stumbled backwards, laughing.

“Consider it a type of insurance, just in case either of you get the same idea as the ones before you.”

At my look of horror he laughed again.

“Megan, what is he talking about?”

Jasper looked at me in concern. I knew she was trying to make sense of the hurricane that was my thoughts.

I had realized something.

Down, deep within the pit of my being, where words, scrawled out in a deep vermillion:

‘Protect Jasper from any and all bodily harm’

“I’m glad to see it actually works so well,” Adam mused, “Shall we test it out some more Chaos?”

Before I could answer he was holding a small dagger, the same one Savannah had used to prove her point earlier. With a quick flick he launched it towards Jasper.

Again I couldn’t think, my body was moving faster than thought could carry. There was a flash of Jasper’s wide horrified eyes, and then pain buried itself between my shoulder blades.

“MEGAN!!”

[End: Chapter Sixteen]