Chapter Four

Author's Note - Everything I've posted so far has needed to be edited, but I hope you all enjoy this next part where I introduce a new character and one I find quite amusing to write about. Ladies and gentlemen I introduce to you - Lew.

Lew di Angelo.

The night air was cool against his bared flesh, the breeze caressing his shoulder blades and back as he stood staring up at the large orphanage. He flexed the long tendons extending into the blackness of the night, blending in well so the mortals would see none of his disgusting beauty. His muscular chest was tanned and the skin taught over the hardness of muscle though he did have an air of menace; it was his eyes that brought most people to their knees. Their piercing blue depths were ringed with black, the inner pupil was crimson and it swirled with the spirits of the dead in his eyes.

His eyes, right now, stared up at the building he knew he would find her in. The building where she had last been seen and he had seen her many times from upon the rooftop of homes that he understood their meaning of caution. She could wield a power than none other of her kind had; she had the power of the shadows at her beck and call. Only one of the Fallen had such a talent and in itself it was rare to them even.

A deep breath sent a flurry of unnecessary air into his dead lungs, he needed no air and neither did she but she hadn’t yet realized what she was. He tilted his head back and stared at the moon; a red moon it was and an omen most witch women would not have liked to see.

Lew sighed, he didn’t exactly wish to capture the young angel but there was no choice, his master had commanded it. He was to obey or his mistress would make him pay. It shamed him to have to think such thoughts, that he should fear a woman simply because he had felt the pain she could inflict with her mind. He bared his teeth, the two canines longer than the others but he was no ‘vampire’ he was nothing of the sort. He was something worse, something that fed on pain and flesh, rather than blood. He was a demon, one of the monstrous hybrids created by Lucifer and Eve. In the biblical tales that referred to Eve as a pure virgin woman none dared mention her taint. It was a sin to commit adultery and those poor, poor souls who cried themselves to sleep with a prayer did not want to know that their religious icon was a sinner.

It made him want to laugh, to read a paragraph from the bible was as bad as swallowing numerous bottles of holy water. It tastes bad but it does nothing. He swallowed against the hatred that suddenly rose to succumb him; the memories crowding in the back of his mind, shoving for their turn at his attention. A growl built in his throat, as he slowly lowered himself into a crouch; into the shadows he slid and away from the light.

“You’re a fool if you believe you’ll make it in there without arousing suspicion.” he muttered angrily.

“Not a fool, considering you underestimate my heritage.” he answered with a grim smirk.

“I underestimate nothing, but I do overestimate you. As before I had belief, now only a fool would believe in you.” he growled.

Lew silenced himself immediately, knowing that it would do no good to argue in the darkness before he was to gather the girl. He needed to gather his bearings and prepare himself for a long night of travel if he was to succeed.

His hands tightened into white knuckled fists, he waited. His ears strained towards a small sound, the telltale sound of their whispers; the whispers that brought nightmares and screaming children. Lew coiled his muscles, before finally leaping from the roof.

The wind buoyed him, supporting his light weight as he strained, black tendons stroking hard downwards as he flew. He was a silhouette against the moon, an omen of untold many, and he was one of Lucifer’s children; a child more favoured than the rest of the filthy half-breeds.

He landed on the side of the building, his hands gripped the small ridges of the bricks as he lifted himself upwards, straining to climb up to her window. The window he knew belonged to her room, to the place where she would be captured.

A wail sounded from inside, and the whispers grew louder until finally he could distinguish the words. “Sleew Vakas Enchios Olioros Deikata Ohnimert morto.” Someone, he didn’t know who, was dead.

Lew hoisted himself up onto the window ledge and stood there, framed by the tall window, as he watched her control her shadows with mere words. Words that she herself did not understand but a tongue that he himself spoke little of anymore. He understood their meaning, very well in fact. It wasn’t hard to understand whence spoken, over a soul who spirited itself from the body, its freed from it’s bindings.

She stood there, standing as though she were as powerful as he, Lew di Angelo, and as commanding but he knew better. She was unguided, an angel fallen from the arms of God who knew nothing of her heritage; who knew nothing of her power.

He stepped into the room, falling on the balls of his feet at the head of the dead woman’s body. The girl looked up, her grey eyes wide as she met his gaze but she didn’t flinch. She only cocked her head to the side and waited; perhaps to see what it was he wanted and why he was here.

“I never knew angels to be killers?” he inquired blandly, nudging the body with the toe of his boot.

“Angel…? Whatever, I don’t have time for nonsense. What are you doing here?” she demanded icily, her hands wringing before her.

“Oh, but my dear Drae. This is not nonsense, it is the beginning of sense considering that I am here to control you.” he answered her, but he frowned at himself.

“Of course you sound so very smart, Lew. You’re such an idiot.” he hissed to himself before turning back to the girl.

“The beginning of sense? I’m starting to agree that you are an idiot, Lew.” she sneered his name, as she bent down to retrieve the backpack that lay on the ground.

He watched her, simply watching her without feeling the need to reply for a long moment. The silence thickened until there was a knock on the door.

Drae raised her head, frozen with her mouth hanging open. She looked over at him and he saw the flash of helplessness in her eyes before he decided to aid.

“Merete Okomnine.” he murmured with a quick slice of his hand through air and immediately a shroud of shadows lay heavily over the body.

“What did you do?” she asked him, she stared at the body as if expecting it to get up and walk away.

“Just answer the door, and tell no one that I’m here.” he answered her with a bitter smile.

“Wha-” another knock sounded on the door, hard and insistent.

Drae turned reluctantly towards the door and paused a moment to gather her bearings before turning the handle. She opened the door wide and there stood a small little girl with a plump older woman at her side.

“Drae, I was just up getting the children ready for dinner when Liana had told me that you were carrying a sharp object around the rooms.” began the older woman, her voice carrying a distinct British accent.

“Sorry, Drae.” mouthed the little girl before lowering her head to stare at her sneakers.

“Oh, she must have seen me carrying my walking stick. I don’t know, I just like holding it in my hand and walking around the rooms sometimes because it makes me feel at home. Like how Mrs. Hellene used to take me to the woods to play.” she answered the woman calmly, her face holding the child-like innocence it was supposed to hold.

Lew watched, riveting his attention on her face. She was so beautiful, an angel with wings so white he would believe. An angel that would be his. His little angel, his lover, his mate.

He shook his head forcefully, riding the prospect from his mind and continued to listen to their voices.

“Where is Mrs. Hellene?” the woman was saying, her voice carrying the ring of suspicion.

“She told me she was going to the store to fetch some ingredients for the stew tonight.” lied Drae.

“What? We’re having grilled cheese tonight, not stew.” she said, the woman’s eyes narrowing at the truth behind the lie.

“Mrs. Geraldine! If you don’t believe me then speak to Mrs. Hellene when she gets back from the store!” shouted Drae, reaching for the door and slamming it into the woman’s podgy face.

There was the sound of an outraged gasp before heavy, clomping footsteps were heard going downstairs.

“She’s going to call the police.” said Lew as he stepped from the shadows in the corner of the room, his eyes watching her.

“Hmm? How do you know?” she demanded, disbelief laced in her expression.

Lew sighed, already deciding that he would have much to explain to a girl of her skill level. “Couldn’t you read her thoughts?” he asked her calmly.

“Read her thoughts? What the hell do you think I am? Edward Cullen?” she asked him with an angry huff.

“No. I think you’re an angel.” he answered her.

She flushed a deep crimson, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh for the love of Lucifer!” he ground out between his teeth.

“You’re an angel, one of the creatures of the sky. They have wings and love God and all his holy blasphemy!” growled Lew.

Drae stared at him for a long time before throwing up his arms. “You’re insane!”

“Oh, I wish I was insane but if you need proof then take this,” he muttered.

Lew concentrated a moment, the long black tendons that extended from his back began to materialize. The empty spaces between the muscle and bone began to fill in with a black leathery substance that dripped to the ground with a sizzle.

He heard her gasp but he had closed his eyes, concentrating for he hadn’t done this in such a long while. When he felt that his wings had returned to full form he opened his eyes and looked up at her, “You’re turn.” he smiled.

Her eyes widened, and she raised both eyebrows. He would have to teach her how to do the ‘one eyebrow trick’.

“You want me… to magically grow a pair of wings?” she asked him incredulously.

Lew tilted his head back and gave a groan of exasperation. “We don’t have a lot of time so you’ll have to grow a pair of semi-corporeal wings.” he said instead.

“How?” she asked, looking a tad bit excited at the prospect of growing a pair of wings.

He heard the distinct ring of the phone below, the thoughts of a dozen children rang in his mind and the woman downstairs was growing weary as the operator spoke to her in her dreary tone.

“Close your eyes, Drae.” he instructed. “Concentrate on your shoulder blades, feel the emptiness that lay there. Now imagine a golden light bathing the empty space, forming the contours of your wings. Picture the feathers of your wings, the shape and length you wish them to take. Concentrate.” he told her. “Now, what I want you to do is imagine those wings moving. Let them flex, rotate, give soft strokes.”

With a gasp she ignored his instructions and opened her eyes to look behind her. A pair of wings rested behind her back, a pure white just as he’d imagined but they flickered. Their image of white feathers and golden tips began to fade quickly and he hissed out an irritated breath. She didn’t have enough power to keep her wings out long enough for them to flee.

Lew grabbed her upper arms from behind and held on tight, he felt her heartbeat pickup speed as she wondered how he’d gotten behind her. “Practice, Drae. Practice.” he answered her unspoken thoughts, not giving her the time to wonder how he’d done it.

He wrapped his arms around her chest and held her tight to him, whispering in her ear with a cold breath of air. “Close your eyes.” and he enveloped them in his black wings before letting the sound of crackling flames roar over anything that could or would have been said.