"They don't know, do they?"
Danny's question rang in Angel's ears and she closed her eyes, holding back tears. "No." She whispered. "No, they don't."
"I'm sorry." His eyes flashed with regret and he released his hold on her wrist.
"Don't be, I wish for you to continue. Tell me what you know. I just… I didn't want Daniel and Xiwang knowing." Shaking her head sadly, she whispered, "Hold on for a second, it's late, so let me get changed and I'll put tea on." Walking to the fire, Angel knelt down, putting a pot of water over the coals, dreading the conversation she knew she must have.
While waiting for the water to boil, she ducked behind the curtain and struggled out of her dress before slipping on a silky nightgown. Letting her hair fall from its braid, she walked back out and Danny's eyes widened. For the first time, she looked like a legitimate angel. Straight out from the old paintings.
Handing him a cup of tea, she leaned back against the hearth next from him, playing with the ends of her hair. "This is a difficult conversation for me." She murmured. "I have never told anyone these things. And it is just my luck to find a guy who was trained in perceiving. So go ahead, tell me what you know."
"Are you sure?" Danny asked kindly.
"Yeah." She wiped a tear from her cheek with the heel of her hand, "It was bound to happen sooner or later."
Gulping, Danny whispered, "Your wrists, they are surrounded by callouses and scars. Types that can only be acquired by one thing. You wore shackles- by the look of it; you wore them for many years."
"It was only about nine months." She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them to her body. "But I was a fighter. Was willing to do anything to get away."
"You tore your wrists?" Danny asked in surprise.
"What?" She shrugged. "Pain doesn't bother me. If a fox is caught in a trap, they will chew their own foot off to get free. I am much the same. You could see the blue veins of my wrist and if you really looked, you could see the bone. I had fought so long at those shackles- I was willing to cut my own hand off if it meant getting free. I was so close when my captors found me. They knew what I had been trying to do and put me in a cage instead. Like a bird to be studied. I learned not to trust. That to be wary was to be wise."
"Was Fury in on this?"
"No- not exactly. He didn't become a player in this crazy chess game until later. I knew of him before then but he wasn't involved in that part of my story... At least, not directly."
Green eyes flashing, Danny traced the scars which wound their way up her arms. "There isn't a chance that you would tell me your story, is there?"
"No. Can we just leave it at that? Is there anything else you can read from me?" Angel made a face, secretly hoping that he didn't know any more.
Shaking his head slightly, he looked at her with sad eyes. "Other than the fact you limp when you walk, no. Whatever else happened to you, you are hiding the marks."
Slumping with relief, she looked like she was going to try and pull away. Sighing, Danny grabbed her wrists and yanked her close. Falling on top of him, she gasped in surprise, unsure of how to react. Wrapping his arms around her, Danny hugged her tight.
Deciding to just go with it, Angel snuggled close to him, letting him hold her.
Ouch. Danny thought to himself. Note to self, remember that you have broken ribs. Looking down at Angel, whose breathing was slowly steading out, he frowned. What are you afraid of little bird? His arm was over her wings and he felt them fluff out slightly the way birds wings do when they sleep.
They lay like that for an hour before Danny was one hundred percent sure she was asleep. Carefully, so as not to wake her, Danny lowered her so that she was lying face-down across his lap. Her nightgown had a low back to make room for her wings and Danny gulped, uncomfortable with what he was about to do.
Hooking a finger in the back of her nightgown, he pulled it down just a couple inches so that he could see her back. Long scars criss crossed her back, leaving trailing, inch thick scars. Showing that at one point she had been whipped- something only done to trouble makers in top security prisons, the worst of the worst.
Right in the middle of her back, a mark was burned into her skin, marking her for all eternity. A square inside a triangle inside a circle, it was the mark which is burned into the backs of international criminals… Those who are sentenced to death.
Letting go of her, he leaned back against the wall and shook his head, suddenly quite nervous. "Angel," He whispered, "What have you done?"
Oh Dear... Is Angel not all that she appears? ;)