Chapter 7

The man sat in a booth all by himself. He had short brown hair and light blue eyes just like in the dream. He had worn black in the dream, but here in the real world he wore a white tank top with a black jacket and a pair of dog tags. I assumed he was wearing jeans rather than dress pants. A pair of sunglasses sat on top of his head, and he wore a gold cross necklace along with his dog tags. He wasn’t paying any attention to me, so I figured he really didn’t know me, but I couldn’t help but notice that he was the guy from my dream. I looked down at my menu. When I brought my eyes back up, he was looking at me. There was that hint of recognition in his eyes again. All expressions were there except for sadness. Only his surprise wasn’t as surprising as it was in the dream. Like he’s seen me before. Like he saw me in the dream just like I saw him. We held that gaze for a few moments before the waitress came to the table with our drinks. We ordered our food. I was told the pizza here was great. I guess I would be seeing for myself. Eric didn’t bring his chess board with him this time. He wanted to talk to my father instead. I knew he was going to ask his next question.

“Sir, there are healers here, right? I heard there were some of the Lord’s own personal healers here.” said Eric.

“Well gee, I wonder who told you that.” My dad said as his gaze shifted to Austin a bit. It shifted back to Eric. “Yes, that’s true. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I was wondering if my parents were a part of it.” My dad smiled.

“Ah yes. Tim and Missy are here indeed.” He said. “I haven’t been able to see them yet, but I know where they are. I’ll take you guys after lunch.” Eric’s face lit up. It was the happiest I had ever seen him. I smiled for him. It was great that he was finally able to see his parents in person after all these years. I couldn’t wait to see them again myself. I couldn’t help but stare at the guy. It was all too weird.

“What are you looking at?” asked Eric in a low voice. I nodded my head towards the guy slightly. Eric looked at him. “That’s Devitri Jackson. He was the youngest Guardian Angel to serve as a part of the Lord’s private guardians. He started as soon as he graduated from St. Bishop’s.”

“Well why was he in my dream? And why does he keep staring at me like that?” I asked. Eric shrugged. He may have been a genius, but he didn’t have all of the answers. I wish he did. Devitri got up from the table slowly after paying his bill, and gave me one last glance before putting his sunglasses down and walking out.

“Maybe he knows your dad and recognized you from Clark talking about you so much.” said Eric with a chuckle. “Or maybe he recognized you from years ago. He did graduate from St. Bishop’s you know.”

“Yeah, maybe that’s it...” I said. Not that I recognized him at all. I may not be seeing him a lot, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t the last time I was going to see him.

After lunch, my father brought us to a huge business-like building. It had to have been at least twenty-four floors, and had windows all over the place. I had no idea where we were until I walked in and saw a bunch of Guardian Angels and healers. They were everywhere. I knew exactly where we were. We were at a headquarters of some sort, and my father had brought us here to see Eric’s parents as promised. We took an elevator up to the sixteenth floor. A bunch of healers were on this floor, just relaxing and going over strategies. Some were even developing their healing powers more. If that was even possible. Eric grabbed onto the cross around his neck. That’s something we had in common (along with other things), but he didn’t do it as often as I did. Actually, it was rare for him. He scanned the room and froze as his eyes set onto a familiar sight. A man and a woman sitting on a couch in what looked like a small lobby.

The man was in his late forties with short brown hair and mint green eyes like Eric’s. There were bits of gray in his hair, but you could tell he didn’t care. He was just as tan as Eric was, and was finely toned. You could see that he had trained to be a Guardian Angel at some point in his life. The woman next to him was in her late thirties. She had long blonde hair and ocean blue eyes. She reminded me a lot of Esme because she had the same type of figure. She was beautiful and aged well. You could definitely see where Eric got his good looks from. As soon as they noticed Eric, their faces lit up and they bolted from their chairs. The woman ran over and wrapped her arms around him quickly.

“My baby boy! You’ve grown up so much!” She exclaimed. Eric flushed and some of us chuckled. The man put his hands on the woman’s shoulder and chuckled.

“Now Melissa, let the boy breathe.” He said as he tore her away gently. She slapped his chest gently with the back of her hand.

“Oh stop it, Tim.” She said. Eric smiled as he gave his father a hug. The two of them pulled me into a hug, and told me how much I’ve grown and how much they’ve missed me. I responded with the same statement. After a few small introductions, we sat down to talk. The elevator door opened and Devitri walked in. Was he following me now? I had to find out what was going on. I waited a while until I found a good time to slip away with the bathroom excuse. I slipped into the room Devitri was in.

It was a small office room with white walls and a mahogany desk. Devitri was sitting there with his feet up on the desk, and a book in his hands. I closed the door. He didn’t look up from his book. I cleared my throat. I wasn’t entirely sure how to go about this. I didn’t have much time to think about it though, because he finally looked up from his book. Again, he was surprised to see me but not like he was in the dream or the restaurant. I was pretty sure half of it was because I was suddenly in his office though.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

“Who are you, and why am I suddenly seeing you everywhere?” I asked. He closed his book.

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me. You appeared in my dream last night, I saw you at the restaurant and now you’re here! Why are you following me!” My voice was starting to raise. I knew I had to try and keep it down. I didn’t want someone coming in here. My shouting didn’t seem to phase him. Instead, he smiled.

“I was in your dream, huh?” I rolled my eyes and put my hands on my hips.

“Can you look at the bigger picture here, please? You’re following me, and I want to know why.” I said.

“Well for starters, my name is Devitri Jackson. I’m a Guardian Angel and I’m not following you.” He said.

“So then why are you showing up everywhere? And why do you keep looking at me as if you recognize me or are surprised to see me?” He better give me the answers I was looking for.

“It’s just a coincidence I suppose” Devitri said. Yeah right. Coincidence my a*s. “I happen to be great friends with Clark. He showed me a picture of you when we first me. Excuse me for thinking that you’ve grown into a beautiful young woman.” I had a feeling he was trying to make me feel bad. It was working.

“Oh...” That’s all I could say. I opened my mouth to ask another question when suddenly a scream broke out. Devitri and I jumped into guardian-mode. He sprung from his seat, feet planted firmly back onto the ground. He ran out of the room first, seeing as how much more experienced than me he was, and I followed quickly behind. I quickly joined Eric and Wyatt. Eric was protecting Wyatt from the front, so I decided to take the back.

“What’s going on?” I could hear Devitri asking my father.

“There was a commotion from one of the other rooms, they’re checking it out right now. If we’re lucky, it’s just a false alarm and no Dark Angels managed to find their way into headquarters.” He said. The headquarters were also surrounded by a light magic barrier.

The ten minutes we spent waiting might as well have been ten hours. I could see the worry on everyone’s faces, and some fear as well. The wait was agony. As a guy walked out holding two other guys by their arms, Eric and I both sighed in relief. They weren’t Dark Angels. They were just two Guardians Angels who seemed to have a disagreement. I almost burst when I found out what the disagreement was about. Eric managed to contain me. The argument was over the fact that one of the guys slept with the other guy’s girlfriend. Are you kidding me? I mean, yeah that’s bad, but they couldn’t have taken it outside? They just made a whole bunch of guardians and healers worried and scared. At least they were kicked out of headquarters until they settled their differences. Honestly, I would have thought a good punch to the face by me would have settled their differences, but Eric gave me a stern look and told me it would do the exact opposite. I hated when he was right. Especially at times when I wanted him to be wrong. I plopped down into one of the chairs. I rubbed my temples. Austin walked over and massaged my shoulders.

“What were they thinking?” I asked.

“That’s just it. They weren’t thinking at all.” said Eric. “I don’t understand how people can expect to solve all their problems with a fight.” Eric wasn’t huge into violence. I mean, yes he’s a guardian, but that violence is different. It’s to protect someone he cares about. He would never hit a man, for instance, who stole his sandwich or something. I’ve seen people get into a fight over something that stupid. Eric would find a rational way to deal with the situation.

“Skylar, who was that guy you were talking to?” asked Wyatt.

“What guy?” Both Austin and Jasper asked. Austin shot Jasper a glare, who returned the very same glare. I had a feeling one of these days those two would be getting into a fight. Over me. And if it wasn’t over me, they would find something to fight about.

“It was Devitri Jackson.” I replied. “It’s nothing to worry about you guys. It was a harmless conversation.” I got up from my chair and pulled Eric aside.

“So what did he have to say?” He asked. Sometimes it was like he could read my mind. He knew me all too well. I explained the short conversation that Devitri and I had. “I’m sure I would count it all as ‘coincidence’ but then again, you can never be too sure I suppose. Just be careful.” He always told me that. Even when he didn’t have to. Clarissa walked over to us.

“We’re going home you two.” She said with a smile. The two of us nodded. Eric walked over to his parents and gave them one last hug. I gave my dad a quick hug before parting ways. It was back to worrying about him again. However, Devitri remained on my mind for a majority of the trip.

When we arrived home I decided to go for a walk on the beach. I carried my purse with me just in case I needed my holy water. As I walked along the beach, I held onto my cross. The sand felt soothing under my feet, and since the sun was starting to go down the sand wasn’t so hot. I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going, but that made the adventure all the more enlightening. I would go wherever the shoreline took me, and then make my way back. I tried to put Devitri in the back of my mind, but the dream and the conversation with him earlier continued to pop up. The way he had been looking at me said that there was more to his story. There was something he wasn’t telling me, but what was it? I looked up from my feet to see another person on the beach. I guess I wasn’t the only one who decided to go for a sunset stroll along the beach. The closer I got to the figure, the creepier things began to feel. The atmosphere became uncomfortable. I unzipped my purse as subtly as I could. I couldn’t be sure that this was a Dark Angel, but I took precaution just in case. As I got closer, I tried to look ahead the best that I could, my hand just slightly reaching inside of my purse. I was wishing that it was just a bit darker outside. That would make it harder to see me reaching into my purse.

Dark Angels may have been described as the “vampires” of the angel world, but they weren’t exactly like vampires. They didn’t have the ability to see in the dark like vampires did. Speed and strength were a different story. It all depended on how powerful they were. If they had dark purple eyes, chances were that they could kick your a*s. But as I mentioned before, they rarely came out of hiding. If they did then they probably mostly travelled at night and alone. This guy could have been anyone. I could only assume that since he was travelling during sunset, he wasn’t one of the powerful Dark Angels. They usually travelled at night because their dark eyes would be harder to see unless there was some sort of light around. That’s why some Guardian Angels carried some form of light with them. As I passed by the figure, I snuck a glance at him. It was a guy with short black hair who looked to be nineteen or twenty. He wore sunglasses, so I couldn’t see his eyes. Clever for a Dark Angel (assuming he was one). He wore black jeans and a black t-shirt. He was also smoking a cigarette, and the way the wind was blowing it blew the smoke right into my face. I tried my best not to cough. I tried to remain calm as we passed by each other. His pace slowed and I got the feeling that he was staring back at me. That’s when I knew that I wasn’t in good company. My muscles tensed up a bit and I stopped. I took a deep breath before turning around and taking out my holy water. I had thought I was quick, I was the quickest one in my entire class, but this guy was quicker. In one swift move he grabbed my wrist before I could throw holy water in his face. How did he get so close so quickly? We hadn’t been that close when we stopped.

“Well well. Look at what we have here.” He said. He wasn’t considerate enough to blow his cigarette in smoke in the opposite direction of my face. This time I really did cough. He was gripping my wrist a bit too tight. I almost thought he was going to cut off the circulation. “A little newling.” I never understood why Dark Angels referred to young Light Angels as “newlings”. We were hardly new. It was one of those things that started long ago, and you didn’t bother questioning it too much. If you did, you would just end up confused. I always did. Besides, this guy was hardly that much older than I was.

I had no words. I had never truly come face to face with a Dark Angel, except for the time in the restaurant with Austin, but even that was a quick fight. It was beginning to eat at me what color his eyes were under his sunglasses. If they were dark purple, then I was doomed. I had no chance. I had to get my act together. How could I prove that I could look after Wyatt if I couldn’t even get myself out of this situation. The more I tried to break my wrist free, the harder his grip got.

“I have to admit that you were pretty quick there with that holy water of yours.” He said. “But not quick enough.”

“What do you want?” I asked. That was a stupid question. Of course he wanted to try and influence me. But then if he did, why go through the trouble of conversation? Why not just get it over with? A smirk appeared on his face. He grabbed the bottle of holy water carefully, and pulled it out of my hand. The smoke from the cigarette in his mouth continued to blow in my face. I didn’t appreciate that. He poured out the holy water on the sand, and tossed the bottle aside. He took the cap out of my hand and tosses it aside as well. Didn’t really see a point in that. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, and this time he bothered to turn his head away from my face as he blowed out the smoke. He let go of my wrist. I rubbed it gently. “What was that for?” He chuckled.

“I don’t need you throwing holy water in my face.”

“What do you want?” I repeated. He put a hand in his pocket and took his cigarette out of his mouth again. He blew the smoke away and stared me in the eyes. At least I assumed he was staring at my eyes. The smirk never faded.

“I’m here for you, Skylar Donovan.” Umm... What? Now he really rendered me speechless.

Reviews

[Shay]

xD YAY now i have finally met Devitri.. o.o beach scene was awesomeness me needs more.. love the ending to this chapter ssooo gooood

[Tanya Lynn Bendily]

Really? That's great ^_^ Glad you're enjoying it!