Forbidden Love

"So why are you here, Faith?" my savior asked, never once glancing at me. Yet he knew that I had stopped dead in my tracks. "Faith?"

I stared at his back, where his wings had once been. Now there were two thin slits about eight inches long torn into his shirt, showing smooth skin. My feet refused to move; they felt like a ton of bricks. Who is this man?

"Faith!" he snapped, drawing me out of my stupor. I glanced at him with wide, confused eyes. "What are you doing?"

"I... how do you know my name?"

"I will explain everything later, okay?" he replied, finally turning to look at me. I gave no response. "Faith."

"No." I shook my head, furiously. "I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on. I don't even know your name, for crying out loud!"

"My name is Nicholas. As for going with me, I'll drag you," Nicholas growled, taking a step toward me.

I took a step back. "I'll scream."

He took two long strides and put his face two inches away from mine. His hands grabbed ahold of my shoulders, holding me in place. "We're in the middle of nowhere. Who is going to hear you?"

I gulped, eyes wide as they stared into his. "A-Are you going to hurt me?"

Face falling, he released me and took a step back, shaking his head. "I can assure you, Faith, that hurting you is something I absolutely cannot do."

"Why?"

Lips thinned into a straight line and he turned away. "We will worry about that later. Faith, will you tell me how you got here?"

"Will you tell me how you know my name?" I retaliated, glowering at his back. Jerk.

His jaw moved, teeth grinding. "You're my assignment."

"Assignment?"

"No more questions. Tell me how you got here."

I looked at the ground for a moment, trying to remember something, anything. My head started to hurt again, the horrendous throbbing not having an end to it.

Placing my headphones over my ears, I began the ten block walk home. For just getting out of school, the streets of my town seemed oddly vacant. Only the occasional car drove by.

Glancing around, I noticed a nice old lady going into her house, her Schnauzer following at her heels. Okay, this is weird, I thought to myself.

Looking to my right, I saw curtains rustling and then an angry face appeared in the window, their eyes glaring hatefully at me.

What is going on?

I stared back at the woman, my eyes never leaving hers. Over the years, I have been able to control the mind reading, learning how to turn it on and off. And this is one of those times where I need it.

Stop staring at me, you evil creature! It's hard to believe that such a pretty girl can be something so evil.

Evil? I'm evil? What kind of monstrosity is this? Shaking my head, I sent the woman a pitiful look and glanced away, finally moving down the sidewalk.

In my ears, Red's "Breathe Into Me" blared, stopping all noise from entering. Sure, it was dangerous, but anything would be a blessing if it has to do with escaping my abusive father, that's for sure.

"Breathe your life into me. I can feel you. I'm falling, falling faster," I hummed quietly to myself. I acted like I didn't have a single care in the world, when in reality, I was wondering what I'd be beat for tonight.

Not getting his beer fast enough? Or perhaps getting too much food. Why did they bother having me when they knew they wouldn't want me? I wondered.

A ghost of a smile appeared on my face as I recalled when my mother had called me her Little Angel. Of course, that was before Daddy Dearest started leaving bruises on my skin. She'd died when I was only seven. A mature age to know what happened, yet not mature enough to understand why.

Looking up, I was startled to find that I'd almost run into a man. I sidestepped him and continued onward until I felt a piercing pain at the back of my skull. I didn't understand what it was until I turned around.

In the man's hand was a smaller sized wooden bat. How fortunate.

"What?" I whispered before falling unconscious.

Coming back to reality, I glanced over to find Nicholas staring at me, his gaze so intense it sent a shiver through my body. "What?'

"Are you going to tell me? I've been standing here for ten minutes, calling your name."

"Oh. Sorry. I was remembering what had happened," I responded nonchalantly.

"And?"

I relayed this information to him, watching as he went from interested to absolutely furious. "This can't be happening."

"What?" I brought my hand up to chew on the edge of my nail. It was a nervous habit I'd developed at a young age.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go."

"Wait! One more question." When he let out a frustrated growl, I said, "I just want to know where we're going."

"My place."

Oh goodie! I thought bitterly. "Can't we go somewhere...else?"

"No," he responded and started walking, forcing me to follow. I certainly wouldn't want to be dragged to his house, or however else he thought of. But being alone with a guy you don't know that could be your killer is risky! However, he could be an angel. A very sexy angel at that.

On the otherhand, my subconscious reasoned, it's not like you'd ever be able to get anywhere with him. One, he's obviously not human. Two, he probably has a gorgeous girlfriend. And three, you're his assignment Do not forget that. Got it?

I let out a withering sigh, staring at his back with a slight longing. Why didn't guys like him ever look at girls like me? I'm not exactly ugly, but with all of my scars and bruises, I'm not very pretty. Maybe I was just born, meant to be lonely for the rest of my life. Why else would this happen?

Now, don't get me wrong; I've had my fair share of boyfriends. But none of them had really complimented me. All they really wanted was sex anyway. To which I obliged to one guy. And that guy had ruined everything for me. That boy, Markus, had once been my everything. Now he's the shit that people step in everyday; nothing but scum.

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn't realized that Nicholas came to a stop until I slammed into his back. My face flushed with embarrassment as I took a step back and glanced up at him.

"You know," he spoke, voice mocking, "you should watch where you're going."

If possible, my face became a deeper shade of red. I probably looked like a fresh ripe tomato. "S-Sorry."

A small smirk appeared, before disappearing as quickly as it came. Turning away, he pulled a small gold key out of his pocket to open a large wooden door. Once open, he swept an arm out and declared, "Welcome to my humble abode."

Oh yay.