Club Angel's Kiss

"He was seriously beyond beautiful!" I cried.

My mother stared at me from across the kitchen table, her fork perched on her bottom lip. My brother sat beside her with an intense stare directed right towards me.

I fanned my face with my hand dramatically.

"I'm so in love!"

"Yeah. I'm going to work with you tomorrow," Adam said.

My mouth dropped open. "No, you're not. You'll scare the poor guy away!"

Adam put his hands on the table and leaned forward slightly. "Amber, this guy sounds dangerous."

I raised an eyebrow. Adam could be so possessive over me, his baby sister, when it came to anything at all. Even guys!

"But...just because he sounds dangerous doesn't mean that he is. I mean, you sound dangerous, but you're really just a sweet little teddy bear," I said quickly, staring right back at Adam.

"I am not a sweet little teddy bear!" he gasped back.

Mother laughed and put her fork down. She folded her hands on the table in front of her, a smile on her face.

"Adam, please. Your sister is a big girl; she can stick up for herself. And I'm sure she has enough of me in her to know when someone is bad and when to stay away," she assured.

I grinned and crossed my arms over my chest triumphantly. Adam slumped backwards in his chair.

Even after an entire sleepless night, a picture of King was still stuck in my head like a song. I laid in my bed for hours on end, just repeating the words he said to me about a thousand times in a row.

“You know,” my mother said, bringing me from my thoughts, “this boy must be special to get my Amber all worked up like this. It’s definitely something new.”

“That’s true,” Adam muttered. “Amber never gets excited over guys.”

I stared at them, shock etched across my face.

“You guys are so weird.” I stood up from the table with my plate in my hand and headed over to the sink. My mother joined me shortly after, holding her and Adam’s plates.

“Don’t pay attention to Adam,” she chuckled. “He doesn’t want his baby sister to grow up, that’s all.”

I shrugged and leaned against the counter to watch Mom do the dishes. She smiled at me, her faded red curls falling into her face.

“I know,” I replied. “I don’t mind, but you know he’s killed every hope of a relationship that has ever happened in my entire life.”

Mom shrugged a bony shoulder. “He does what he does out of love.”

I rolled my eyes at my mother’s legendary sentence. She had been telling me that about both my father and Adam since I was probably a week old. It still did not make me feel any better when either of them did something strange, annoying, or just plain mean.

“So I’ve been told.”

Mom looked at me sternly.

I raised my hands in front of me. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”

“Good,” Mom murmured. She went back to scrubbing Adam’s plate fervently.

I sighed and kicked away from the sink. “I think I’m going for a walk. Okay?” I left the kitchen and headed into the front entrance.

“Okay. Take your jacket and be back soon!” Mom called after me.

“You got it!” I yelled back. Gracefully, I pranced up the stairs and down the hall to my bedroom. The door was flung open, as always, and I crossed to the big mahogany dresser. In complete silence I dressed myself in a plain t-shirt and blue jeans.

I stepped in front of my large mirror and looked myself up and down with my dark gaze. A sigh escaped my mouth when it reached my face; my pale skin was much too pale, especially as the backdrop to my unnaturally dark hair. I sighed again as I stared at the image of imperfection.

My stomach wrenched uncomfortably. I smoothed my shirt out before grabbing my brown suede jacket from my dresser, threw it over my shoulders, and hurried down the stairs.

My father was outside, standing on the porch, watching some children play in the yard. I stepped out and smiled.

"Hi, Dad," I greeted.

"Hello, Amber." He put his hand on my shoulder and kissed my cheek. "Where are you going?"

"I think I'm going for a walk downtown," I answered after kissing his cheek.

He gave a slow nod, and I patted his back.

"I love you, Daddy," I whispered. My voice came out softer than I expected.

Dad slowly nodded again. "I love you, too."

I hopped down the porch steps and, after bidding a few foster children goodbye, started on my way down the sidewalk. The air felt like ice. Occasional gusts of wind flew by my face, flitting my hair around, and ruffling the faux fur on the hood of my jacket. No one was on the sidewalks around me, and only a rare car could be heard or seen around the cul-de-sac that I lived in.

Swiftly, I turned a corner down a street that I had been down many times. The numerous familiar looking houses greeted my restless eyes.

I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I felt worried, stressed, and I kept glancing over my shoulder like a paranoid asylum reject. These were not normal feelings for me; it was so awkward.

My tingling legs carried me farther down the street than I had originally planned. The structures around me became dank and unfamiliar. This part of the neighborhood was alien to me. I had been smart enough never to venture beyond the little blue house that was usually my stopping point, but I couldn't stop.

All the sane thoughts usually attacking my mind were no where to be heard. My entire head went dead silent, but didn’t stay that way for long. I was suddenly overcome with strange sentences that I had never been subjected to before. There were voices whisperings thing much too fast for me to even understand, let alone comprehend.

A picture of King appeared in my mind’s eye, just after a female voice chanted something that sounded like, “Why must you?”

I didn’t know what was happening to me. In fact, I didn’t even know where I was going anymore.

I knew what the end of the street looked like, but I, at some point, turned left at a narrow intersection. This area was even darker and stranger than the other.

Panic and fear crept over me like a thundercloud. These thoughts were not mine; these movements couldn’t be mine because I had no idea where I was walking. Something wasn’t right and the atmosphere surrounding this place was so terrible and disgusting feeling.

The strange houses on either side of the street became vacant. Windows on all sides of them were dark and empty. Some did not have doors, and those that did were half knocked down or rotted. The porches were sunken in and had awkwardly shaped bushes and vines growing up from them.

I immediately took a disliking to this place, to this area of the neighborhood. It made me uncomfortable rather quickly.

My legs suddenly turned down a narrow alleyway that resided between a white house and a giant old stone Tudor. It was even darker down this place, which I didn’t understand how because the sun was shining quite brightly above.

As stealthily as I could, I moved my hand to my back pocket where my cell phone was. My head repeated Adam’s phone number in a frenzy of panic.

“I wouldn’t call him.”

For the first time since I started walking, I stopped. I didn’t know if it was because of the unfamiliar voice that echoed through my head, or if it was because I was at the end of the alley.

I finally looked around. I was alone, thank the lords. I pried my phone from my pocket and flipped it open. My fingers began flying, pressing in Adam’s number with little beeps. It was cold as I pressed it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“A-Adam, can you come find me?” I whispered, slowly sinking down onto the ground. My back touched the wooden fence that separated the alley from the rest of the neighborhood.

“Amber? What the hell? Where are you?”

“I’m not sure—“

“Oh, Amber, Amber, Amber.” I heard a male’s voice call out my name and click his tongue.

Slowly, I lifted my eyes from my knees to see a tall man with black hair positioned beside a woman with yellow-blonde shoulder length locks. A younger brunette male stood behind them. They were dressed in all black, except for the woman’s bright red high heels.

The man standing in the back was giving me a strange look, like he was sorry or regretting.

“What…what do you want?” I whispered.

Adam was yelling in my ear, trying to get my attention. I ignored him. This situation was not a good one and I didn’t want to push it any further than it had to go.

“Nothing,” the man in the front said with a wide grin. His hands, which had been stuffed in his pockets, revealed themselves. His fingers were long and pale, and for some reason, I felt a stab of fear hit my stomach so hard I couldn’t breathe.

“Then why are you here?” I growled. My tone and forcefulness surprised me. Usually I crumbled under this kind of pressure or stress.

“We wanted to meet you,” the woman said.

I immediately knew I wouldn’t like what she meant by that.

“Who are you?” I yelled.

“Who are you talking to? Amber, talk to me, dammit!”

I knew Adam would be so pissed off if I didn’t start talking to him, but what would I say? It would just draw more attention to me and that was something I did not want to tempt.

The raven haired man walked forward and bent down before me. I looked up fearfully at him, almost dropping my phone. Adam’s voice heightened in volume. I no longer heard him, however, because I was completely drawn in by this man’s captivating eyes.

His hand reached out and plucked the phone from my hand. Though it was away from my ear, I still heard the screeching sounds of Adam calling my name and asking who I was with. The man pressed the button to turn it off, ceasing the only sound of hope I had.

He dropped it to the concrete below us.

“You are quite beautiful,” he murmured. “That must be why word of you is running through the covents like wildfire.”

“Can we just go? She didn’t do anything to us.” The brunette spoke this time. I felt thankful to him, but I knew his words would not work.

“Draegan, you will be silent!”

The poor boy took a step back as the woman flashed him a look of murderous intent. I felt sick.

“Wha---what---what are you talking about?” I stammered.

His hand caught my chin and lifted my face up. He was mere inches from me and I could feel his ice cold breath on my cheeks.

“You’re so clueless,” he whispered.

The woman laughed. It was such a hideous sound that I could feel my stomach lurch.

“That’s the downside of being a human, I suppose. Not knowing anything about the outside world, not being able to see what’s really happening. Oh, I pity the entire species.” His eyes hardened when he looked into mine.

A scream inched its way up my throat. My lips parted just slightly; I was getting ready to completely let one go as loud as I could. There had to be people around that would hear my bloodcurdling scream and come see what was going on. There was only a small wooden fence blocking us from three different houses, maybe more. There had to be people alive in them.

“I will enjoy taking you away from that godforsaken covent.” He leaned forward very slowly, a gleam in his eyes that I knew better than to mess with.

But that had never stopped me before.

His lips moved closer to mine…closer…closer…

“STOP IT, DRAKKAR!” The brunette had appeared behind the other man and had his hand locked on his shoulder, pulling him backwards. “Leave her alone!”

The blonde’s mouth hung open in obvious shock.

I took this opportunity to my advantage. While they fought with one another, I took off down the alley, leaving my cell phone behind. There was no way in hell I was going back for it, that was for sure!

My feet echoed through the silent place. I had no idea how I had gotten in the alley, but when I saw the area between the white house and the Tudor house, I immediately took off through there. The woman was shouting at me, telling me to get back there.

That was not happening.

My hands flew out and grabbed a mailbox to regain my balance.

“Get back here and stop running from me!” I knew the woman was chasing after me at that point.

Fear started climbing up my stomach and throat again. Palpitations attacked my heart from that vicious feeling.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed over my shoulder. My pace picked up and I thought I was home free as I saw the end of the street nearing. I could see the sidewalk that I had walked down to get on this road.

A cold hand grabbed my neck and threw me back. My head smacked against the concrete.