Forever Trilogy 3: Angel Eyes Read online

  Angel Eyes

  Brandon Alston & Quinteria Ramey

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright 2011 Brandon Alston

  Prologue

  If you were granted one last chance to right your biggest wrong, would you will be willing to try?

  Even if failure could cost you the people you love most?

  Or if success could cost you person that loves you more than anything?

  Chapter One

  Abandoned

  *Tristan*

  Ana’s plan had worked perfectly.

  In truth, I had my doubts. The wildfire would need to be enormous to catch the attention of the local media. The small flame I carried toward Brighton hardly seemed capable of burning through the broom handle that carried it, let alone an entire wood.

  Those worries proved to be unnecessary. I had only to release the burning broom handle into some densely packed shrubbery for the forest to ignite. In a matter of seconds, the fire had burned through the bushes and surged outward into the surrounding grass. Streaks of flame converged on the surrounding trees, racing up their trunks and dispersing into the branches where they passed from tree to tree.

  In the span of a minute, the world around me, as far as I could look, had disintegrated into shimmering orange flame and thick black smoke. The fire’s appetite was insatiable.

  As I made the run back to the hotel room, my mind turned to the next phase of her plan. Once we had successfully driven the vampires out of Brighton, we would need to give them something else to focus on. We needed to bait them into a chase. Having thousands of vampires scouring the earth for us wasn’t something I was very keen on, but I had given Ana my word, and she truly believed that this was the best way to save her haven.

  Still, the subject of our last conversation kept stabbing at my insides. I had asked her the question that had been on my mind for weeks: Would she still choose Darren if killing Daemon wouldn’t automatically result in my death? I wouldn’t like the answer. She’d basically told me that my living or dying didn’t matter, that her choice would be the same. Those words had burned worse than any others in all the years that I’ve lived.

  I kept telling myself that I still had a chance to win her back. We were running away together, just the two of us. I had to believe that there was still hope, that our time together still meant something to her. I knew those feelings hadn’t vanished, they were still there, buried inside of her. I just needed time enough to bring them forth.

  I needed just a little more time, one more trip to Neverland before my life was through. Then, I would wish her and Darren the best. As much as I might hope for some miracle to keep me alive, there were two things about which I was absolutely certain: Ana had to fulfill her purpose this time, and by doing so, she would end my life.

  When I stepped into the hotel lobby, I could see people gathered around the television sets. Images of bright, fire filled fields and the firefighters battling them flashed across the screens. As I walked to the elevators, the reporter spoke of how they had never seen a wildfire quite so aggressive. Already, a few neighborhoods were being evacuated.

  I wasn’t terribly bothered by the possibility of a few people losing their homes. Those could be replaced, the lives that were at stake in Brighton couldn’t.

  I began to feel my nerves as the elevator climbed to the top floor. I was guaranteed to have Ana with me for as long as I could keep her safe, until we figured out how exactly we would go about killing Daemon. This chance to be with her was so much more than I deserved.

  The hotel room was surprisingly dark when the elevator door opened.

  “Ana?” I called. I stepped into the hotel room, fearful that she had revealed her location to the vampires too soon, or that they had been following us somehow. But if that were the case, then why was the hotel room still so neat. Surely, she would have struggled.

  “She’s gone,” a familiar voice spoke. Brilliant white light shimmered near the balcony doorway, fading quickly. The girl that stepped forward was London.

  “Where?” I asked. “Why would she leave?”

  “She’s back home in Brighton,” London replied. She moved to take a seat on the sofa and then motioned for me to do the same.

  I wasn’t in the mood for sitting. My stomach turned and anger warmed my temples. “She tricked me?”

  London shook her head. “Ana’s in a great deal of trouble. She’s already been kicked out of heaven, Tristan. Permanently. And now she’s gone and pledged herself to a pack of fallen angels that fully intend on using her and then throwing her away. If the future isn’t changed, she’s going to die Tristan. And her soul will be damned forever.”

  My anger dissipated, fear took its place. “How could this happen?”

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s happened. I’m not allowed to help her directly, but you can, Tristan. You’re going to have to do exactly as I say, and you’re not going to like it at all. More than anything, you’re going to have to trust me.”

  “I love her, London. I’ll… I’ll do whatever you ask.”

  Day III & Beyond

  I have little pity for my enemy; it is reserved for those innocents nearest to him.

  --Unknown

  Chapter Two

  Halloween

  *Ana*

  Contrary to London’s warning, nothing happened on the third day. Nor in the three weeks that followed. Not that that eased anyone’s worries. The calm only seemed to heighten people’s fears about what might be coming, giving birth to wild speculation, and to bickering about what should be done to further protect ourselves. Council Meetings were called almost every other day.

  Grief had also haunted the halls of Wintre. At least for a day or so. None of the vampire hunters that had come to fight with us had made it back. They had either charged recklessly into battle and been trampled, or they had been chased from behind and beaten. The vampires had been careful not to bite any of them, certainly under Nathena’s orders. As there was no venom in their bodies to combat the death that awaited them, there was nothing for Leia’s angels to heal. Their souls had already left this world. The wives and children had only stayed long enough to hear the news before dispersing without a fuss. Loss, it seemed, was commonplace to their way of life.

  On the other hand, our guardians were meant to be trophies. They had been bitten with the intent to break the spirit of the haven, if it came to that. I could vividly remember Duncan’s face, the way it blanched in response to seeing his daughter on the other side. A monster. He hadn’t reacted rationally to that reunion, his grief blinding him to the danger she posed to him. Imagine if our own guardians had been sent to attack us. Those men who were our fathers and brothers, protectors and community leaders… Would we have been willing to fight our own? To have killed them if need be?

  Thankfully, it hadn’t come to that. There was venom in their bodies, so they could be saved. Though, to be completely honest, there was one way to bring back the truly deceased. It’s called Miracle. But it’s forbidden to use that magic without His guidance and permission. It was miracle that I called upon to bring Daemon back, but I didn’t have the guidance to use it properly. That mistake created vampires.

  Running away with Tristan had been my most recent mistake.

  Not that the haven saw it that way. Because Darren and the others immediately told stories of having remembered being killed and then waking up again, it was assumed that I had been the one to bring them all back. That was why I left in the first place, they all seemed to think.

  These and a multitude of other thoughts skipped through my head as I looked over my balcony at the dying sun. Enormous white tents with multi-colored st
ripes stood tall in the field between the gardens and the maze. The animal hedges that once inhabited that field were all but destroyed by the vampires who’d attempted to invade Wintre. Aspen— herself inhabited by Nadia at the time— had been responsible for protecting Brighton’s physical well being that night, and tonight she would no doubt be responsible for preserving its mental well being as well.

  It was she who stood before the Council and pleaded for the Halloween Festival to be reinstated, that it be done as a personal favor to her. The Elder Witches seemed reluctant, but Aspen had played her cards well, she’d had everyone in the audience in the bag well before the meeting started. After all, she was the angel who had saved their home. Even if the “angel” part of her had returned to heaven weeks ago.

  No sooner had the announcement gone out, was there a palpable buzz throughout the haven. In the following days, smiles could be seen in the halls of Wintre, laughter heard. It was a welcome improvement to the hushed conversations and anxious glances I had become accustomed to in the last few weeks.

  A knock sounded on my door. I half expected Amelie to poke her head through the doorway to tell me who it was. Instead, it was a bigger surprise, Taylor.

  Before I could wipe the shock from my face, she’d already crossed the room and wrapped her arms around me. She was every bit as strong as I remembered—as if maybe her father had been part bear. Her hug nearly suffocated me.

  “Taylor…I can’t… breathe!”

  “Oh, sorry,” she said, loosening her vice grip. Taylor’s cheeks were bright red as she pulled away, and wetness streaked down the sides of her face. She was absolutely adorable.

  “When did you get back?” I asked between gasps for air.

  “Literally an hour ago,” she replied. “First they didn’t want to leave, and then they didn’t want to come home. It’s been three weeks, hasn’t it? Isn’t it over?”

  I shook my head. “There’s no way to know for sure. The vampires could just be waiting, planning something big.”

  For a moment, Taylor eyed me quietly. “Well, I’m choosing to believe that it’s over.”

  I gave her a weak smile. I wished it were really that easy.

  Another knock sounded on the door and Aspen appeared, stumbling under the weight of two large brown paper bags. “Just like old times, huh?”

  Taylor and I ran over to help her. Well, I ran over. It was Taylor who did all the helping. She lifted both bags like they were giant pillows, mumbling something about lifting haystacks back in Texas.

  Out from behind the bags, I could see that Aspen had fully embraced the Halloween spirit. Two cat ears poked out of her hair and whiskers extended outwards from her nose. She had painted her face to resemble that of a kitten, complete with feline eye contacts.

  “Whatya think?” she asked.

  I gave her two thumbs up.

  “Good,” she replied. “Cause now it’s your turn!”

  I felt my face drop. “No way… I thought you were coming to do my makeup, not turn me into some creature.”

  “Oh, come on,” she pouted. “It’s tradition. Everyone’ll be in costume.”

  I looked to Taylor, before realizing that this would be her first Halloween Festival as well. She shrugged.

  “Goodness,” Taylor said rolling her eyes, “you’d think you people were a hundred!”

  I sighed. “What did you have in mind?”

  Aspen’s face lit up like a jack-o-lantern. “It’s a surprise!” She turned to Taylor. “I brought an extra costume and make up kit in case Ana didn’t like the first one, so I’ll just use that one on you.”

  As Taylor lounged on my bed, speaking on her cell phone with who I could only assume was Chris (that silly grin gave it away), Aspen went about making my face as pale as was humanly possible. It occurred to me to ask whether or not she was attempting to turn me into a vampire, but surely she wouldn’t do anything that stupid, not now, and not with what happened with her sister at my mother’s birthday party.

  I did have another question for her though. “How’s everything been these last three weeks?” She hadn’t been by to do my makeup since she had been touched by Nadia, so I hadn’t really been able to see how well she was adjusting to the angelic part of her being gone. By the change in her expression I could tell that she knew exactly what I was referring to.

  “Weird… at first,” she replied. “The kids at school who knew about me would just stare, like all day. And grown-ups would ask me random questions like ‘What happens after you die?’ But I’ve learned to deal. I think knowing my sister’s an angel helps. Even though I was really only an angel for a few days, I feel a little bit closer to her.”

  She spun me away from the mirror over my dresser and began to braid my hair. From experience, I knew that she could braid insanely fast, and true to form, she was spinning me back toward the mirror in a matter of minutes. I still had no idea what I was supposed to be… a ghost maybe?

  “Well?” she asked impatiently.

  “It’s um, great,” I replied, admiring the thin crown braid she had circled around my head.

  Her lips frowned. “Not hilarious? Oh! Wait! Duh….” She reached into one of the bags and took out a shiny gold hoop. She spun me around again, her fingers slipping into my hair once more.

  “How about now?” she asked, returning me to the mirror.

  Though my heart sank, I forced a laugh. The golden ring was a halo; she’d made me into… an angel. It was clever, it really was. It’s just that the halo was a symbol of heaven, of home— a place that I could never return to. I had failed for the last time.

  **********

  The house was alive again.

  The sound of music greeted us as we emerged from my room—an angel in white, a kitten with a newly added tail (she’d scavenged a black robe tie from the pile of things in my closet I hadn’t ever worn), and a rather racy looking fairy princess. The costume Aspen had outfitted Taylor with revealed a lot more skin than I had ever known Taylor to be willing to show, but she had gone along with it. Growing up on the farm had been good for her physique and her chiseled tummy and toned legs held up well to being openly displayed.

  The entire haven had showed up to the Halloween Festival. At least, I couldn’t imagine that this many people wasn’t everybody. We had to fight through crowds all the way to the back door. Had I not been a princess, it might have taken an hour. People definitely got a kick out of the costume.

  No sooner had I stepped foot outside did fireworks explode in the night air, writing “Welcome to the 153rd Halloween Festival” in bright orange flame. Cheers were sent up in response. After a few seconds, the words jumbled into a giant fireball and burst into a million tiny flames which spread out over the entire estate, hovering only a few feet over our heads, illuminating the night. Such a bold display seemed to defy the normal paranoia about protecting the secret of our existence, but I guessed that after having lived with the near constant threat of attack for three weeks now, it was only natural to want to loosen the collar for a bit.

  The air was warm, definitely the result of magic, which was lucky for costume wearers like Taylor whose revealing costumes would have, under normal circumstances, left them victim to the autumn chill.

  As we followed the mass exodus over toward the tents on the other side of the gardens, Aspen seemed almost beside herself. “Isn’t this exciting?” she asked with a big grin.

  I had to admit, it was. This was me and Taylor’s first ever Halloween Festival and it had started with a bang.

  “Get ready to run!” Aspen shouted, still grinning and picking up her pace. Taylor and I looked at one another and shrugged before matching Aspen’s stride.

  Suddenly, figures began to jump out of the ground, wrapping their arms around whoever happened to be nearest. My heart had nearly jumped into my throat before I heard the squeals of laughter. What I was sure had been a vampire attack was only our guardians covered in oddly colored body paint and ripped up old uniforms, wal
king straight legged with their arms outstretched in an attempt to resemble zombies.

  What began as a steady walk became an outright sprint toward the tents. Despite the chaos, the three of us were able to stay together. I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed so much. For what felt like the first time in ages, I was truly having fun.

  About a hundred feet out, I saw Aspen’s eyes get big, she was pointing over my right shoulder. Not a full second later, I felt arms close around me, my body being lifted off the ground with hardly any effort.

  “Gotcha,” said a familiar voice. An instant, irresistible smile spread across my face. I made no effort to get free.

  I felt myself being carried away from the herd, and then laid down in a patch of tall grass. Darren joined me there, wasting no time in putting his lips to mine. He had been different since his brush with death, just as my mom had been different after she had come back from nearly becoming a vampire. Except, whereas the experience had just made her more easygoing, Darren became more passionate, as if he was afraid that death was still looking for him, that it could find him at any moment and take him away from me. I don’t know how many times I’ve told him that this wasn’t a Final Destination movie. Still, he was always finding opportunities to kiss me now, to tell me that he loved me. That, I didn’t mind at all.

  With so much emotion behind his touch, it was hard not to let myself get carried away. Sometimes, I would want more. I was tempted to say so now. But I had only ever experienced making love with Tristan and to be honest, the thought of letting myself go like that, with another boy, even one I loved as much as Darren, was kind of scary.

  Technically, I was still a virgin.

  “Can you sneak away tonight?” Darren whispered. Sometimes I wondered if he couldn’t read my mind too.

  His words brought me out of my own head. “I don’t know. If something was to happen and I wasn’t here…”

  “That’s exactly why I’ve planned a surprise for you tonight. My asking was just a formality, really.” He gave me that confident smile of his. I suppose that made my reply a formality too.