Shun

I was sure we would of never broken that kiss, but we had to come up for air eventually. Alice was still wrapped in my wings when I felt a slight temperature drop. It wasn't a natural drop either. I told Alice, "How about you go on back inside? I'll be back in there in a few minutes." She raised an eyebrow at me and questioned my request with her eyes. I told her half honestly, "I just thought I heard something and I was going to make sure and didn't want you to get hurt." It wasn't all a lie. She nodded her head and went back down the little hatch in the roof. Behind me, was a slow, sarcastic clapping.

I turned around and saw Kiba. He had his overly cocky grin on his face when he said, "Bravo, Shun. That was a truly spectacular show I just witnessed. It's a shame though that the most important Fallen to the Blood Rose Clan is falling in love with a human." He walked around me and made me feel like I was being hunted. I said through gritted teeth, "I'm not falling in love with her." Kiba threw his head back and laughed. Messenger angels….Con-artists of the Realm and Earth…

"Don't you mean you can't be falling in love with her, Shun?" There wasn't any sneaking something past a Messenger. They did know everything about everyone. It would be almost stalker like in a sense in they weren't vital to Fallens and Holy angels. Wait. They know everything. "Kiba, what information do you have on Tristan?" He smiled again. It burned me when he did that.

It usually meant he knew something, but wouldn't let it slip without a price. "Now if I told you what I knew, it would spoil the fun of the surprise and nobody would have a show to watch." I found myself right in front of his and picked him up from the ground by the collar of his shirt. He just kept smiling and looking at me with those endless black eyes.

I growled my words, "Do you think this is some kind of game cause you're not involved in this fight?" Kiba chuckled at me. I didn't think he was any position to be finding this amusing since his feet weren't even touching the ground. "Yes, I do think of all of this as a game. A very predictable game and everyone are simple pawns in it. To show you how predictable you are, I'll let you know you're going to be on the ground soon."

I raised an eyebrow. What? How will I be on the ground? I wasn't paying attention when he lifted his feet and kicked me in the stomach, causing me to slide backwards on the roof. He did a back flip and landed square on his feet while I was trying to get my breath back. I felt vulnerable. I had heard rumors from other Fallens that Messengers had entirely different fighting styles from other angels and were much stronger. I didn't believe any of that. I always assumed that we all had similar styles of combat.

Why did they get all of these perks? I didn't want to test those rumors anymore. The last thing I needed was to get my ass kicked before going into battle. I got up to my feet, but wasn't quite able to stand straight yet. Kiba turned around and walked over to the ledge of the roof. His wings unfolded and the feathers moved in the wind. Yet another thing that separated the Messengers from other angels were their wings; they were gray as a symbol that they were with neither the Holy angels or Fallens. Kiba turned his head back to me and said, "I'm well aware that you want your Bondage to stay here so she'll be safe, but you need to take her into battle with you. She's what will determine how you fare against Tristan."

Kiba took off into the sky and left me with his words and footprint on my stomach. What could Alice do that would determine if I beat Tristan or not? It wasn't like she had any fighting skills or knowledge of battle like we did. She may not be like most humans I had met, but she had the same limits as them. I was still stuck in a question mark shape as I made my way back to the hatch.

Alice was probably getting worried because I had spent so much time up here. I carefully went back down the rungs of the ladder, and put the boxes in the storage room back to where they were. When I was back in the hallway, I heard meticulously placed notes on a piano. They were slightly out of tune, but the song sounded fine. It had been years since I had heard anyone touch the piano downstairs in the den of the old tenement building. I followed the sound of notes, and found Alice sitting down at the bench of the piano and reading the sheet music that had been left on the little holder.

Bertha was in the room with her along with a few other of the Fallens that I had left upstairs. I walked up behind her and looked to see what she was playing. What was on the paper and what she was playing on the keys weren't the same thing, but it sounded familiar to me. She played the last few notes of the song, and stood from the bench and bumped into me when she turned around to walk away. She shook her head and realized it was me.

"Oh. Shun, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. Was everything clear on the roof?" Now that Alice had finished playing, the rest of my Clan mates were walking off into another room or back upstairs. Only Bertha stayed with me and Alice. "Yeah. It must of only been a bird or something. Guess all of this war stuff has got me paranoid. Hey, I didn't know you could play piano. What were you playing?"

She turned back to the piano and said, "I'm not sure what it's called, but I've known it ever since I was little. I guess my grandfather or parents taught me it when I was younger." It just sounded so familiar to me. There was no telling where I may of heard the song, and trying to figure it out wasn't what was important at the moment.

Alice was staring right at me and said, "Are you sure it was just a bird up there? Cause your face is red like you've been out of breath recently." I looked over to Bertha and she plainly knew there was no bird involved whatsoever. I sighed and told Alice, "Kiba showed up on the roof and we kind of got into a little disagreement." Bertha's eyes grew wide. Just cause she knew that something had happened on the roof, didn't mean she knew with who.

She took a step towards me and said, "Shun, don't you know Messenger angels aren't ones to be taken lightly?" I know that now. Bertha was shaking her head like I should of known better. Alice was looking at me with concern in her eyes. "Where did he hurt you?" Bertha was still shaking her head when she walked out of the room and into the kitchen. I remembered that Alice was waiting for me to tell her where I was injured. "Oh. Uh, he just kicked me in the stomach. Nothing too serious."

I didn't have time to react when she grabbed the end of my shirt and asked, "Is it ok if I see where he kicked you?" I blinked in surprise. That was the last thing I was expecting her to ask. I thought she might of gotten angry at Kiba for kicking me, but she was concerned with my injury. "Uh, I don't mind." I blushed as she lifted my shirt up and looked at my abdomen. I was surprised to see a large bruise on me. I didn't think he kicked me that hard.

Alice touched the bruise lightly and said, "I know of a little trick that can make this unsightly thing go away in a few hours." I didn't care if it stayed or left, but it seemed like Alice wanted to tend to my wounds. "What is it?" She rolled my shirt back down and stood up straight. "Toothpaste. It takes away hickies, and a hicky is basically a bruise. So it should take this right out."

I raised an eyebrow at her. Not because it was a weird and questionable piece of information, but because she had acquired it. "And you know this how?" She straightened her shirt from where it had ruffled up when she bent over to look at my bruise. "Runo had to get rid of a hicky quickly one day and I saw her putting the toothpaste on her neck and asked her what she was doing. She had explained it to me. I didn't believe her at first till I saw it gone before her parents got home."

Now it made sense how she knew. Alice had a mischievous grin on her face and said, "Why, did I detect a hint of jealousy in your voice when you asked me how I knew? I think I did." I felt my face heat up with a blush. "I was not jealous. I was just curious."

Ok. I was jealous. Alice rolled her eyes and saw I was lying through my teeth when I said that. Did I really want to risk her life just cause of something Kiba had told me? Was it worth it? No, it wasn't worth the chance of losing her just cause it may determine whether I could beat Tristan or not. I had enough faith in myself and my Clan that we could take him down on our own.

The front door of the building opened and the four Clan mates that had gone out into the city to round up the rest had finally made it back. There weren't as many as I expected. Last time I had checked, our Clan was over fifty and strong. In the building we had to of had maybe a little over twenty. I asked Thatch, "Where's the rest of the Clan?" The ones they had brought back with them, didn't look too enthusiastic or rearing for a fight like usual.

Thatch told me, "Tristan had somehow sent out a message to his Clan mates in the city to kill any of our own on site. This is all that made it." He had knocked our Clan from fifty and a chance of winning, to twenty and a snowball's chance in Hell. I sighed. Now wasn't the time to be showing my emotions to the others. As the leader, it was my job to show the strength. And if they saw that I didn't have as much hope now, then we'd lose for sure. I started counting all of the Clan we had with us.

Counting myself, we had twenty-three. And Tristan has how many? Like a hundred? Mason then walked through the door with another Clan mate. They both were panting hard. Mason, the second in command, said to me, "We found Tristan and flew back here as fast as we could. He's brought with him at least forty or fifty Fallens. And they had weapons." Weapons? But weapons from the Holy Lands didn't work for us, and human weapons didn't harm us either.

I asked him, "What's he think weapons are going to do for him?" Mason was still panting, and his white hair dripped with sweat. He told me, "They're made from angel wings from some underground forger. Apparently they ripped the wings from any angels they've killed and taken them to that forger. And since they're made here on Earth, they work on us."

I thought about Tristan and his army mowing us down without breaking a sweat. It would truly be a miracle if we even took out a fourth of his new Clan. I was certain now. There was no way I was letting Alice step foot out into those streets when Tristan arrived.

Alice

This was it? This was all of the Clan that Shun had now? And according to Mason, Tristan's Clan had increased by maybe fifty. And there was no telling how large his Clan here in the city was. Shun was seriously stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fiona stepped through the crowd of Fallens that were circled around Shun and were waiting to received his orders.

She asked him, "What do we do? There's no way we can beat Tristan. Not with our Clan hurting this badly." Somebody in the back suggested that they run. While another suggested joining their Clan. Shun yelled out over the chatting Clan. "Shut up! There won't be any running or joining up with them! Got it!"

The room was dead silent. The Clan acted as if they had never seen this side of Shun before. I knew I sure hadn't. Even Bertha, who was standing in the door of the kitchen, looked surprised.

Shun's hands were clenched in fists and he said somberly, "I'm going to challenge Tristan directly. I'll make the stipulations to where his Clan can't attack us unless I go down. And if I do, you all have to be ready for a fight from Hell. Let's just hope I can win so that won't have to happen."

eck. i feel bleh. -.-'' very bleh. i picked a heck of a time to possibly be getting sick. x.x -dies- well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~