Angels Born of Hell and Fire

[Chapter Four]

Marie’s capable hands turned out to be annoyingly clingy hands. After she got us food — which was gone in about two seconds — she then led us back up to our room. Apparently we weren’t allowed to roam around the mansion. Yet. Marie had said yet, so I clung to that little word. The thought of being confined to one room — no matter how large that room was — reminded me too much of cages. For it was still a cage wasn’t it? But instead of bars there are walls, instead of mud, there is lush furniture. Different appearances, different names, but still the same. Still very much the same. In a sense, this whole mansion was now our cage wasn’t it? A cage with barred windows and black clad guards at the exits.

So Jasper and I wasted time in our room, talking about random crap that held no meaning — now more than ever — and secretly wondering what in the world Adam had been talking about earlier. Well, not so secretly. We had lasted about an hour of useless stuff before our minds returned to what he had said.

"So what do you think?" I asked her, "Pedophile or lunatic?"

"I don’t know, I can’t seem to decide. Maybe a bit of both?"

"I don’t know. If so he’s not a very committed pedophile. I mean, he didn’t actually do anything did he? Well, besides the incident with the clothes..." I stalled, finding fault in my own words.

Jasper only looked at me.

"Megan, need I remind you, that the man bought us, from slave traders," she said very slowly pronouncing each word carefully.

I shrugged.

"So? I still can’t figure out why a man like him, who obviously has a lot of money, would need slave traders any way."

"Hello? Pedophile!"

I sighed, deciding to move on to the next topic of discussion.

"Okay, whatever. What about the whole ‘destroying the world’ or whatever?"

“Not that big a deal. People have been trying to take over the world for thousands of years. I highly doubt some rich 20 something year old is going to accomplish it."

"Hey look at Napoleon, he wasn’t that old."

"True, but he didn’t conquer the whole world did he?"

"He came pretty close to conquering all of Europe," I smiled here because I knew that when it came to Napoleon Jasper could go on for hours. She may not know who the current president of the United States was but she could tell you about at least 5 dictators who have tried to destroy it. She was just funny like that.

"And you gotta admit, Adam seems to have enough money to do it. And did you hear what that man, what was his name? ShadowWalker? Did you hear what he said? Something about a 5th squadron? Sounds like something military right?" Me, politics, and military stuff, did not get along, mainly because I don’t care. Despite using a supreme amount of violence and violent thoughts in the past day and a half, I’m not actually that violent of a person, call me a hippie.

"So what? You think he might have an army hidden up here in the mountains?" The way she said it made it sound stupid.

"It’s fully possible Jasper. From what I could tell by sneaking glances out the windows as we walked by, this valley is pretty dang huge, and looks as if it might curve and continue farther back, defiantly big enough to house a few thousand people. And did you see those men standing by the door? They looked like they could be soldiers of some sort."

“So what, he wants us to join or something? Seems to be a lot of effort for some girls who didn’t even know how to fight,” Jasper frowned. “I’ve never even held a gun in my life.”

I mumbled that neither had I and we fell into silence, thinking about that. What if Adam really was building an army to take over the world? And what if he expects us to join it? Could we do that? Could we actually kill people for a man we just met?

The answer was yes. We probably could, if only to stay alive, and stay together.

I groaned and flopped on my side.

"My head hurts, I’m tired, and I’m wishing feverishly that this is a really bad, really long dream and I’m going to wake up in my own bed any minute to mom yelling at me to wake up for school."

Jasper fell back on the bed next to me. We stared up at the ceiling in silence.

"You know that this isn’t a dream right?" she said finally and I sighed.

"Yes, that’s why I wish it was. Who ever heard of wishing an actual dream was a dream?"

She laughed a little and closed her eyes.

"You know if we stay like this much longer we’ll fall asleep right?" I said my own eyes closing.

"Nnngh," was all she said. Now it was my turn to laugh a little.

"I’ll take that as a ‘shut up Megan I don’t wanna move’"

She laughed, louder this time.

"Exactly."

We probably did fall asleep, because the next thing I knew Marie was knocking on the door telling us that dinner was ready.

"Hey Marie can I ask you something?" We were once again walking down that long hallway towards the kitchen.

She looked at me warily.

"What’s up with the black and white room?" I asked because I wanted to see how open she was to talking. The small woman seemed friendly enough, not acting with any malice or ill will towards us. I hoped if we could get her to talk to us, we could learn more about where the hell we were.

It took her a moment, since this was obviously not what she expected me to ask, before she smiled just a little and said.

"The master likes black, and he was going to put all black in the rooms, but once I informed him that some people prefer color he settled to put black and some other color in every room."

I think this was the longest speech I’ve heard her say all day.

"Oh, heh, okay."

"Wait," Jasper said just as we were going down the stairs, "You mean there are more rooms?"

Here Marie actually laughed.

"Well of course dear, what did you think all those doors down that hall were for?" She looked at Jasper and seemed to read her mind. "If you would like I could arrange for you to have your own room. The Master just thought the two of you would prefer to stay in the same one."

Jasper nodded.

"You wouldn’t by any chance have a green room would you?" she looked at me, "Sorry Megan but... you kick in your sleep and I’d rather keep the bruises on my shins to minimum."

I smiled sheepishly.

"Eh heh, yeah sorry about that."

After dinner Marie moved Jasper to the green and black room that was conveniently just two doors down from mine. She asked if I would like another color, but I said no. I liked my black and white room.

“I’m sorry but I will have to lock you in at night, as you are not allowed to go anywhere unattended so soon.” Marie told us and I smiled thinly.

Big lush rooms, fancy food and clothes, but we were still prisoners of sort weren’t we? Marie was small, and if we wanted Jasper and I could probably manage to take her down, but it was the big men guarding the doors that worried me. Even if we broke free of Marie’s supervision, there’s no way we would get passed the guards. A fact Jasper had reminded me as I fretted and worried earlier before dinner. I was glad one of us still had a sensible outlook on this.

It was weird, going to bed that night. The room was just so big, the house so quiet. I bet that if I were to say “boo” in a whisper Jasper would be able to hear it in her room. I wanted to go home. To my small apartment cluttered with years of random junk, where you couldn’t take two steps without possibly tripping over a dog, or a cat. I would have made dinner, sitting around on the couch with my mom watching some crime investigation show where the kidnapper always went to jail. I really wished things like that really happened, and if so, they would happen to me.

Drowning in a pit of self-misery I reminded myself that I should be thankful the first day had gone alright. Nothing to traumatizing had happened yet, I should be thankful for that. But how long would that last? How long before the pretty mask on the situation fell away and revealed the dirty ugly face underneath? Better yet, what was I going to do then? I couldn’t answer.

I was staring up at my dark ceiling, wondering what the next day would bring, when I heard it; the slight shift of the shadows, a creak in the floor. I looked up and my heart slammed into my chest as I saw the figure standing there.

Adam.

I scurried into a sitting position, my eyes wide in the darkness.

He didn’t move. Just stood and watched me, his purple eyes glowing eerily.

The hair along my arms and the back of my neck rose and I swallowed hard.

"Adam?" My voice came out just above a whisper sounding small and terrified, which was exactly how I felt at the moment.

"You’re not mine," he said finally in a voice that made my hands tremble; A voice like death.

He took a step towards the bed. "You’re not mine Megan, why aren’t you mine?"

I slid backwards on the bed, unable to stop myself.

"Wh-what do you mean? Of course I am. You- you bought us from the slave traders."

"No. No you’re not. If you were mine you wouldn’t run away."

He moved faster than I would have thought possible, one moment he was still 5 feet away and the next he was right there, pushing me back against the bed, his face inches from mine.

"Don’t run away from me Megan," he said in that voice that froze me to my very core.

I squeezed my eyes shut as his cold lips touched my forehead. I knew it would come to this at some point. He bought us, despite the pretty rooms and the expensive cloths he still owned us. In many ways it was the same as being locked in those dirty cages. We were his. He could do whatever he liked with us.

I stopped moving. Forcing myself to stay in one place.

Please, I begged silently, please just forget about Jasper.

If I could distract him for now, maybe for at least one night he would leave Jasper alone. For at least one night she would be okay. I owed that to her at least, since her being here was my fault. If I hadn’t asked her over to my house, Jasper would still be at home with her family, happily going about her life.

"Why are you afraid Megan? I can feel you shaking," his voice whispered in my ear, blowing cold air against my neck. I shivered.

Why was I afraid?

I was afraid of Adam. I was afraid of the life we would lead here. I was afraid of what would happen to us if he ever grew bored. I was afraid of going back to those cages. There was so very much to be afraid of. There seemed to be more things to fear, than there were to trust. So much I didn’t want.

I didn’t want this. I didn’t want this man lying on top of me; I didn’t want his lips to press against my neck. I didn’t want to be in this house. I wanted to fight, to scream to do anything to make him let go of me. To get away. But I couldn’t could I? Because as long as I just laid here he would forget about Jasper, he would leave her alone.

"You’re sacrificing yourself," he suddenly said and I opened my eyes. He looked down at me with the strangest expression on his face. Dark shadows still clung to his pale features but beneath that, there was something else, something I didn’t understand.

"You would sacrifice yourself for her?" he asked.

"Yes," I didn’t even hesitate. "I don’t care what you do to me. Just leave her alone. Please." I couldn’t help but add. If I had to beg then fine, I wasn’t above that.

He brought a hand to touch me cheek.

"Don’t you see? That is exactly why you’re not mine. You’re Jasper’s. Would you sacrifice yourself for me?" He didn’t wait for an answer, probably because there wasn’t one coming. "You wouldn’t, I know," he suddenly got off me and began pacing the floor.

"But you should. You should. And Jasper, she would do the same for you, but not for me. No not for me, because you feel no bond. There is no link. There is a bond between you two, from being friends for so long. But me? You don’t know me. There’s no time though! No more waiting for such a silly thing, " he muttered furiously and I could only watch him carefully. Maybe he was insane after all.

His gaze swung back to mine. His eyes narrowed and I had to dig my nails into the palm of my hands to keep from running.

"A link," he grabbed my hand and flipped it over to where my nail had caused it to bleed. He lowered his mouth and kissed it. "It’s perfect," then he was hauling me off the bed and down the hall to Jasper’s room. He threw me on to her bed.

Jasper woke with a start.

"Megan? Wait, what..." her voice faded as she saw Adam. He stood a ways away, staring intently at her. He held out a hand.

"Come here little one."

Jasper slipped out of the bed and was walking towards him before I could even realize what had happened.

"Wait! Jasper No!" But I was too late. Adam gathered her in his arms. His eyes met mine. Held them even as he lowered his head, opened his mouth, and plunged suddenly sharp fangs deep into Jasper’s exposed neck.

{End: Chapter Four}