A/N: This story is set in an alternative universe. God, the devil, angels, etc. are treated as fictional characters. The story is not meant to reflect or disparage any sort of real belief system.
Chapter Three
..
Bella woke and found herself lying naked in the arms of a beautiful man, a man who also happened to be naked. He laid partially atop her, on his side, his body intimately pressed against hers, their legs tangled, his arms wrapped around her. For a moment, Bella allowed herself to drink in the delicious sensation of skin on skin.
Who is this guy? she wondered. She studied his face for a moment. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him. She studied his wings, folded against his back, their feathers blinding white. The part which extended above his shoulders was a joint, as thick as a knee, covered in soft down. She didn't feel crazy, and she didn't think that people in heaven would have a splitting headache like she did. She tried to think of a logical explanation and failed.
She glanced around the room. There wasn't much detail that might reveal where they were. She saw off-white walls and a wood floor. The bed in which they lay was small, with a wrought iron headboard. There was a little balcony, its glass door closed and the curtain partially drawn, but from this angle, she couldn't see anything of the outside that might give her clues.
She brought her gaze back to the ... man, the creature, beside her. Could the wings be a hallucination of some kind? Fake? She reached up a hand and touched one of the wings. It was solid, warm and silky soft against her fingertips. As soon as she touched it, his eyes opened. He smiled sweetly, his eyes warm and tender. "Bella," he said.
"H- hi," she stammered.
"Mmm." He closed his eyes and snuggled in closer.
"Um, could you ... uh ... could you let me go, please?"
He opened his eyes and lifted his head again. "Why? This is very comfortable."
"You- you're naked," Bella said.
He chucked and laid his head back down. "Your powers of observation always were stellar."
She froze. "You ... know me?"
He smiled again and Bella felt her heart speed up. No man should be that gorgeous. "Yes, I know you, Bella. I've known you since the day you were born."
Her breath caught. "Who are you?" And then it dawned on her, and she realized where she'd seen him before. He was that actor, that guy who had been in those vampire movies that were so popular a few years ago. She struggled to remember his name. "Edward?" she asked tentatively, not sure what the actor's name was, but 'Edward' sounded right. Had she really been rescued by an actor... an actor who had wings?
He shrugged. "You can call me that if you like."
"I want to know your real name."
He shrugged again. "I don't have one. You pick."
"How can you not have a name?" Bella demanded. It was preposterous.
He sat up, untangling himself from her limbs, and yawned. "Never needed one."
She decided to try a different approach. "What are you?"
He locked eyes with hers. "I'm yours."
She had absolutely no idea how to respond to that.
He flexed his wings, arching his back in a stretch. Her heart pounded even faster and her mouth went dry. This man was truly a work of art, perfection made flesh. "Your kind call us 'angels'," he offered. "I guess it's as good a word as any."
"So, you're ... my guardian angel or something?"
He laid back down beside her and reached out a hand to cup her cheek. She jumped a little when he touched her, her breath catching in her throat. His green eyes were so warm. She could have stared into them all day. "Yes, Bella. I was sent here to protect you." He traced her cheekbone with his thumb.
She tried to keep focused on the conversation, tried to keep from drowning in those amazing eyes. "What did I do to merit my own angel?"
"Everyone has one," he said. His voice was melodious, soothing, lulling. "But it's rare that we're allowed to come to Earth and be with our human."
"Wh- why then?" she asked. "Why are you here?"
"Because you have an important task, Bella, something that you're supposed to do. I was sent to protect you, to make sure you're able to do it."
"Do you know what it is?"
He shook his head. "I wasn't told. I'm not supposed to know."
"If angels aren't allowed to come to earth, what do they do?" He was still stroking her face and it made it hard to breathe.
"We try to guide you, to comfort you, to make you feel you're not alone. We whisper to our human's heart. You can hear us, but you have to be willing to listen."
"You really have been watching over me since I was a baby?"
He nodded. "I was created the same day you were."
"Do you all ... look like you do?"
He shook his head. "I picked this appearance because I remembered you thought that the actor was attractive. I can change it, if you'd like something else."
"You want me to, um, find you attractive?"
He smiled. "Of course I do. I want you to love me as I love you."
Her mouth fell open a little. "When you say 'love', do you mean romantic love or-" She searched for a word to describe it. "... like, um, 'brotherly love'?"
He grinned. He lowered his face until his lips were only a millimeter from her own. "I burn for you," he whispered.
She was shocked. And more than a bit turned-on. "I ... uh ... thought angels didn't have those kinds of desires."
He leaned back to his original position and she could breathe a bit better. "Oh? Have you ever met an angel?"
"Well, no, but in the movies ..."
He snickered. "Always a reliable source of factual information."
She blushed. 'Yeah, okay, you got me there. But the religions ..." She tried to remember what she'd learned in Sunday School about angels. They were supposed to be pure and holy, God's messengers and warriors. White robes and halos and all that. They weren't supposed to lay naked in bed with women and grin like they had a mind full of dirty thoughts.
"Religions were created by people, Bella. People who viewed the message through a lens of their own culture and made their culture's rules and taboos into divine law."
Which she interpreted as him saying that angels weren't so pure after all.
He laughed softly and reached inside the little table by the bed. He pulled out the Bible that was apparently standard in hotel rooms all over the world. He flipped to a page near the front. It was printed in Spanish, but he read it aloud in English. "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
She had never heard of that passage. "Angels had kids with humans? Giant kids?"
He laid the Bible aside. "Well, like a lot of stories that got handed down orally for thousands of years before being written down, there were some ... alterations. We can't have children with humans, and the 'giants' were probably their explanations for fossilized bones they found, but the general gist of it is that some angels did come to earth to be with their humans, the 'men of renown' who did something important. And, what's more, people knew about it."
She wanted to get off the subject of angel sex. She hastily changed the subject. "Where are we, exactly?"
"Ushuaia, Argentina," he said. "I'm sorry that I couldn't get us any farther, but I was exhausted. I'm not used to the gravity and thick air down here."
It impressed upon her again that he was from somewhere else, another plane of existence where even the gravity was different. "How long are you here for?" she asked. Maybe he would have time to get used to it.
"I can't go back," he said.
She gasped. "Never?"
"Not until you go." And she blinked because by "go" he obviously meant he was stuck here until she died.
"You have to follow me around for the rest of my life? You can't leave?"
He glanced away, but not before she saw the hurt in his eyes. "If you don't want me here, Bella, I can disappear. You'll never know I'm around."
"I didn't mean it that way," Bella protested. "I meant that you must be sad to not be able to go back to Heaven."
His eyes came back to her, glittering, intense. "If you ask any of us whether we'd prefer to stay in Heaven or be with our human, we'd all choose to leave, even knowing we cannot return until our human passes over."
So, loving their human was something automatic with them. Bella felt strangely disappointed.
He shook his head. "We all love our humans and we want to be with them, here on Earth, so we can take care of them, but not like this. I always knew I'd fall in love with you, and I've waited so long to be able to hold you like this, to touch you, to breathe in your scent."
Twenty years?
He nodded, and again answered her thoughts. "Our time moves differently than yours."
So he was a mind reader like Jacob.
"Only yours," he answered. "Our souls are bound, Bella. I have heard every thought you ever had."
Bella's face burned. She really didn't really like that idea, especially considering some of the thoughts she'd had about him.
"Don't be embarrassed," he said softly. "Bella, I've loved being a part of your mind. I love the way you think."
A change of subject was definitely called for. As if on cue, her stomach growled. "You're hungry!" he said brightly, "It's time to eat!"
"You sound sort of ... excited about that."
"I've never eaten before," he said. "I can't wait to try it." And then his eyes darkened and he lowered his head again, his lips a hair's breadth from hers. "There are a lot of things I am looking forward to trying with you."
Bella shivered. She couldn't help herself. She lifted her head to cross that fraction of an inch between them and kissed him. He made a soft sound in the back of his throat and threaded his arms around her, his hand cupping the back of her head.
Bella could count on one hand the number of times she'd been kissed in her life and none of them had ever felt like this. She hadn't believed that a kiss like this existed outside of the realm of fiction, a kiss she could feel through her entire body, a kiss that melted her bones and caused pleasure to knot inside her.
He drew back from her and she heard herself make a protesting noise. He gave her another tiny peck on the lips. "Soon," he promised. "You're not ready yet."He stood, and held a hand out to her. "Let's go get some breakfast."
She could only gape at his naked glory. Her eyes traveled down his body and widened a little. She glanced away hastily, her face pink and heard him chuckle softly.
She took the sheet with her when she got out of the bed. "Where are my clothes?"
"I hung them up to dry," he said. He slid open the glass door and chill air swept through the room. He strolled out to the balcony. "Edward!" Bella screeched.
"What?"
"You're naked!"
He blinked at her.
"Get inside before someone sees you and calls the cops!"
"Oh! Right." He snatched the clothes off the railing and stepped back inside. He looked down at his body with interest. "Well, would you look at that!"
Shrinkage was apparently a new experience for him as well. Bella's face was beet red. She snatched her clothes from his hand. They were dry but cold clung to the fabric. Bella yanked on her clothing as fast as she could. Even though she kept her eyes fastened to the floor, she was sure he was watching. She could feel his gaze on her, like feathers brushing her skin.
She looked up to see Edward dressed in a black hoodie and jeans, his wings startlingly white against the dark color. She walked around behind him and saw that he had cut two large slits in the back of the hoodie. The feathers up near the top where his wing joined with his back were crumpled, caught inside. She straightened them out and he sighed. "Thank you. That was bugging me but I couldn't reach."
"We can't walk around in public with your wings showing," Bella said, and started thinking of the ways they could conceal them. Perhaps they could get some kind of large duffel bag, which he could wear like a backpack, with his wings tucked inside.
He smiled. "No one can see them but you, Bella."
Then the world was truly deprived of a beautiful sight. They gleamed like a pearl in the light streaming through the window. She looked down at her bare feet. "I don't have any shoes."
"Oh, that's right. People wear shoes." He seemed to be making a mental note of that fact. He wiggled his own bare feet. "I forgot them."
"Can't you, just ... you know ... poof some into existence?"
He laughed. "You have seen way too many movies. What's the first law of thermodynamics?"
"Matter or its energy equivalent can be neither created nor destroyed," Bella recited.
"See? I told you that paying attention in your physics classes would come in handy."
"We'll have to buy some, then," she said. "We can't go around barefoot."
He shuffled awkwardly. "We don't have much money. I was able to get what was left in your bank account, but there's not a lot."
She was curious. "How did you withdraw it?"
"I went to your bank, invisible, and took it out of a teller's cash drawer. I left a note saying which account it was from." He looked worried. "Was that wrong? I know they wouldn't have let me have it if I asked. So, I left the note. That wasn't stealing, was it?"
He looked so worried that she had to soothe him. "No, Edward, that's fine. A bit unorthodox, but you were honest. How much did this room cost?"
He looked guilty, a flush appearing on his cheekbones. "I didn't exactly ... pay for it. I found one that was empty. It wasn't being used. Is that stealing?"
She thought about it. "Well, if they weren't going to get any money from it anyway, I suppose not. Maybe we can leave a tip to cover the cleaning costs or something. How much do we have?"
Edward pulled the money from his pocket. "I had to buy the clothes I'm wearing," he confessed. "They cost ten dollars. I did it the same way I did at the bank." He started counting the money.
"Ten dollars? That's a bargain," Bella praised. He smiled at her, pleased, and then went back to counting.
"One hundred twenty-one dollars and fifteen cents," he announced.
Oh, shit. They weren't going to get very far on that.
"We don't have to pay to travel," Edward said. "I will fly us wherever you want to go."
"Even if we're just paying for food and lodging, that money won't last long."
"I don't need to eat," he offered.
"Won't you be hungry?"
"Yes, but I won't starve. I'm not mortal."
She couldn't stand the idea of him being hungry, even if he didn't really need food to survive. She chewed on a fingernail, considering. The obvious solution was to contact Jasper, but how? It was a certainty that "they" would have Jasper's phone bugged, expecting her to call him. An idea occurred to her: Jasper went to Benny's Pub every Wednesday night to play darts. She could call him there.
"That's a good idea," Edward said. She jumped a little. It was odd to hear someone respond to her thoughts as if she'd spoken them aloud. "Can I buy you some shoes now?"
"Sure. Size seven. Wait- That's the American size. I don't know what size I'd be here."
Edward knelt and lifted her foot, holding it in his hands. He surveyed it critically, measuring it against his palms. "I think I've got it," he said.
"You're going to get some for yourself, aren't you?"
He hesitated.
"Edward, you can't go around barefoot," Bella insisted. "Jasper will wire some money to me. We'll be fine."
"All right. Wait in here until I come back." He leaned down and kissed her again before he left.
The room was in an American-style hotel, which meant it had its own bathroom. Bella used it and then stood before the mirror, trying to comb her hair out with her fingers as best she could. She noticed that there were spots of dried blood on the front of her scrubs top. She used a washcloth and soap to try to scrub it out, but to no avail. "Out damned spot," she quoted. Oh, well. At least it was a little lighter.
She heard the door open and peeked out to make sure it was Edward before going back out to the bedroom. He carried a bag in one hand, which he dropped when he saw her. He held out his arms and Bella went to him happily, laying her cheek on his chest as he first wrapped his arms around her and then his wings. She was starting to love that. They muffled sound and light, creating their own little private world inside. "I wanted you to know something," he said softly. "I fell in love with you the summer that you worked at the nursing home. I had always loved you, like our kind do, but this was something different. Something special. I'd always known that I would, but nothing could have prepared me for how powerful it was."
That had been the summer of her senior year, right before Tyler had ...
"I'm glad you killed him," Edward said, his eyes blazing green flames. "He was evil."
"Do evil people have angels?" Bella asked.
"Some of them," Edward replied. "A person doesn't usually turn evil overnight. It's a gradual process. Their angel, unwanted and ignored, can fade away if they give in to despair. But sometimes, the angel goes with them, becomes twisted as they are. They're cast out, become the Fallen, but they still can't contact their human. They exist in limbo here on Earth, a hellish existence of constant hunger they cannot sate, until their human either dies or they give up and fade away."
"Is there a hell?"
He nodded, his face grim. He said no more and Bella didn't want to ask, not now. She shivered and he held her a little closer. He kissed her forehead and then pecked her lips. "Come, see what I bought."
There were two pairs of shoes in the bag. Bella's were brown suede sneakers with a swoosh on the side, and Edward's were hiking boots, which Bella thought was an odd choice.
"I liked them," he said simply.
He had also bought her a gray down-filled parka. "Oh, Edward, thank you. That was very considerate of you."
"I didn't want you to be cold," he said. "There is a pair of gloves in the pocket."
She was afraid to ask how much everything cost. "Not much," Edward answered. "Forty dollars. American money goes a long way here." Are you ready to go get breakfast?"
She smiled. "I am." She put on the shoes and they fit perfectly. Edward slid his feet inside his boots and tugged at the upper laces. He frowned.
"You have to do it this way," Bella instructed, showing him how to pull out the lower laces and work the slack up to the top.
"I should have gotten tennis shoes," he said. "They are not as complicated." He stood and stomped around, trying out the sensation of having shoes on his feet. He looked up from his feet and smiled at her. "Squishy," he announced.
"Let's go. I'm hungry." Bella started for the door but he caught her hand.
"Let's go through the balcony door," he said. "There are maids' carts in the hall."
He left a ten dollar bill on the table and slid open the glass door, closing it behind them. They were three stories up. Bella closed her eyes. She did not like heights.
"Ready?" Edward asked. He picked her up, one arm beneath her knees and the other under her shoulders. She wound her arms around his neck and held on tightly. She hid her face in his neck and nodded.
He climbed up the railing and jumped, his wings catching the air and settling them into a smooth glide.
"Where are we going?" Bella asked. Don't look down. Don't look down. She felt him flap his wings once, twice, giving them more lift.
"I found out there's an American-style restaurant on the other side of town. I thought you would like that."
It was going to be his first experience with food but his selection of a place to eat was based on her preferences. He banked, turning them in a wide circle before drifting to the ground. His landing was as smooth as though he were stepping down from a curb.
"How do you avoid us being seen?" she asked.
"I can be invisible, remember? I can make you invisible too, while I'm flying, but it takes a lot of effort." He stood her on her feet and pointed across the street at a building that had the familiar name of an American chain restaurant emblazoned on its wall. "Perfect!" Bella declared and he beamed at her praise.
The hostess and their waitress spoke English and they were given English menus. Edward slowly flipped through the pages, staring at the pictures. "I don't know what to get."
"I do," Bella said. "Trust me."
She ordered bacon, eggs over-easy, fried potatoes and pancakes, along with a pot of tea for both of them. She prepared prepared a cup for him, adding sugar and a splash of cold water from her glass so he wouldn't scald himself. She pushed it across the table to him. "Drink," she said.
He picked it up and sniffed at the cup's contents before taking a sip. His eyes widened and he took a larger drink. "This is good!" he said. He took one of the sugar packages and tore it open, pouring the contents into the palm of his hand. He licked a finger and poked it into the grains and gave it a lick. His eyes widened again and he looked positively delighted. "Taste!" he said, holding his finger out to Bella.
She chucked. "I know what sugar tastes like."
He took all of the packets out of the rack and ripped their tops off one by one, pouring it all into his tea. "Edward, you'll make it too sweet," Bella warned. But he gulped down the contents of the cup and said, "More?"
She refilled his cup from the teapot and he grabbed it before she could add the cold water. He took a gulp and yelped.
"Too hot," Bella said. "You didn't give me a chance to warn you." She added a splash of cold water. Edward eyed the rack where the sugar packets had been stored. "What is the pink stuff?"
"Artificial sweetener," Bella replied. "I don't like the way it tastes, but give it a try."
He opened a packet and poured out the powder into his palm. He touched a finger to it and licked it off. Bella's insides clenched as she watched his tongue.
"Blech!" he said, his face wrinkling. He hastily dumped the rest of the powder into the saucer under the teapot, brushing off his hand with the other.
Bella looked around. They were the only ones seated in this section. She used her talent to lift the sugar packets out of the rack on another table and floated them to him. It made her headache a little bit worse and she was surprised when he winced.
"You can feel my headache?" she asked.
He nodded. "We share it. I've never felt pain before."
Her reply was halted by the appearance of their waitress, who laid multiple plates on the table and a little jug of syrup. Edward inhaled, closing his eyes. "It smells wonderful," he said.
Bella thanked her and waited until she departed. "What do you want to try first?"
He shook his head slowly. "I'm not sure."
"Pancakes," she decided. He'd liked the sugar. "Let me prepare you a bite." She smeared butter on a small section and doused it with syrup, cutting off a bite with the side of the fork and then spearing it with the tines. "Open," she commanded. He did, and she fed him the piece of pancake.
His eyes widened with shock and he sat motionless for a moment.
"Chew," Bella told him.
He did, slowly, that stunned look still in place. He swallowed and shook his head in wonderment. "Bella, that's amazing," he breathed.
She broke off a piece of bacon next and thought he was going to cry. "Is all food like this?" he asked.
"No. Bacon is one of the pinnacles of human culinary experience," Bella said. "Nature played a cruel joke on us: if it's tasty, it's bad for you. The stuff that's healthy doesn't taste anywhere near this good."
He froze in mid chew. "Bella, he said softly. "Get under the table."
"Huh?"
"Quick, Bella, hide!"
She obeyed, ducking under the table and crawling over to clutch his leg, hiding her face against his knee. His hand slid down to rest on her head, his fingers gently stroking her, as if in reassurance.
She saw a pair of legs in dark pants approach the table. It was one of "them". Her heart pounded so hard she was surprised he couldn't hear it. He asked Edward something in Spanish, and Edward replied, perfectly fluent, rattling off a reply in that melodious voice of his. There was a short exchange of conversation and the legs retreated. "Stay for a moment longer," Edward whispered to Bella.
No problem. She didn't want to come out. She would live happily down here with the crumbs if she was safe from "them." He had to coax her out and when she finally emerged, she went straight into his arms.
"You're trembling," he said softly, bushing her hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ear.
"What did he say?"
"He had a picture of you. He said that you're wanted in connection with a terrorist attack."
"Promise me," she whispered. "Promise me you won't ever let them take me back. Promise me. Even if you have to ... "
"Bella ..." he looked down into her eyes with anguish writ upon his features.
"Promise me," she insisted.
"I promise." He bent his head and kissed her.
The waitress cleared her throat. She had their check in her was looking at Bella oddly, studying her features. Bella's heart sped up. Edward had given her the money to hold, so she quickly counted out enough to cover the bill and the tip. "Keep the change," Bella said.
She grabbed Edward's hand as soon as the waitress turned to walk away. "We have to go," she whispered urgently. "I think she recognized me."
He glanced around. "Wait here."
He walked quickly to the vestibule and scanned the front. He was back at her side in moments. "Let's find another door," he said.
"Did you see one of 'them'?" she asked.
"No, but I'm still not comfortable with leaving that way."
They went around to the back, where the kitchen and restrooms were located. There was a glowing EXIT sign and Edward headed straight for it. "Wait! It's a fire door," Bella said. "If you hit that bar it will-"
A shrill screeching alarm went off as Edward pushed it open. They were between a dumpster and a van, out of sight . Edward lifted Bella into his arms and launched them upward, his wings beating steadily at the air until they were high enough for him to catch the thermals and glide. Bella clung tightly to his neck. They were over the hills behind the city, headed toward the snow-capped mountain ridges.
"I liked breakfast," Edward said suddenly.
Bella laughed. "I'm glad." The laughter died as quickly as it came as a sobering thought occurred to her. "They're not going to let me go, are they?"
"No."
They'd always found her before. Now that they were really putting effort into it ...
"Stop," Edward said. "You're beginning to despair."
"How can I help it?" she asked.
"I am with you," he said simply. And she supposed that was enough.
