Angel in Chains (2 page)

Aledyan
looked at the shy but curious girl who stood not so far away from him. At first sight, he had thought that she was an illusion and that his head had finally started to mess with him once and for all. But as soon as she spoke he realized that she was real, and now she was keeping her distance, just in case, and talking with him.

It felt so good to talk with someone again, to hear an answer to his
words. It warmed his heart, and a calmness swept over him. Her presence made him happier, and if he played his cards right he would finally be able to leave this place. If he managed to get out of here, there would be hell to pay for the ones who placed him in here. He could already feel the sweet revenge building up inside him.

Humans had never
really interested him. Before this had happened, he had only thought about his work and never paying them any attention. He had only spoken with a human once or twice before, but now everything was different. This human girl could be the key to his freedom, and he knew what he needed to do to get it. But would he be able to go against everything he stood for? And yet there was something about her, something he couldn't place, but it pulled him like a magnet toward her. One look at her had been enough to make his heart race.

She didn't look o
ld, maybe twenty five, or thereabout. Sweet and furtive blue eyes watched him, once she dared to look at him that is. Her nervousness was obvious, and he understood why. She had never seen any of his kind before. Most humans believed that angels only existed in fairytales, if they believed at all. It was like that on the day he was captured, and he doubted that much had changed during these two hundred years he had been in here.

Funny enough
, but he found her attractive. He had never in his wildest dreams believed that he would one day find a human attractive, but there she was, and her curious gaze sent a pleasant chill through him. Her body was fit, but small. She barely reached his shoulders, and he wondered what it would feel like to touch her long, chestnut colored hair that hung beautifully down one of her shoulders.

He became still
when he realized what had just crossed his mind. His captivity was definitely starting to get to him.

“What's your name?” he asked.

“Inez,” she answered. “What's wrong with your wings?”

He smiled and looked at her
while her name slowly sank in.

Inez.

He liked it.

“
It's a long story,” he answered.

“I'm not going anywhere.”

He gave her a surprised look. Did she really intend to stay? She had just met him, and the way she kept her distance proved that she didn't feel comfortable around him. He didn't expect her to either. He would keep his distance too if it had been the other way around.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because you're obviously in trouble. I want to know why.”

Apparently
, her curiosity won over her fear and shyness. That was a good thing, for him.

“Aren't you af
raid of being trapped in here?”

She winced
as she turned her head toward the cave's exit. Light still came from it.

“Don't worry,”
Aledyan said. “It will remain open for a few days. You still have time to leave.”

Inez l
ooked at him. “I will not leave; not yet anyway.”

That was a good sign, but concern for her safety
awakened within him. She was the one who could help him out of his misery, and he didn't want any harm to come to her, but he knew what was coming. It would soon begin again. Hopefully he had enough time to get to know her, and make her trust him.

Inez couldn't believe
she had just told him that she was staying. It just slipped out of her mouth, and now that it was said she couldn't take it back. For some reason, she didn't want to either. There was something about him that made her feel as if she had to stay. It had nothing to do with his good looks. It was because of something else. Just the thought of leaving him alone in here and letting the cave disappear with him inside for yet another ten years filled her with sorrow.

“Will you tell me abo
ut your wings then?” she asked.

“I woul
d rather talk about you first.”

She gave him a surprised look. “Me? Why
do you want to talk about me?”

“What were you doing before
you saw the cave?” he asked without answering her question.

“I was hiking.
I do that from time to time when the weather is fine and to get away from ... things.” She lowered her head. Telling him about herself was maybe not such a good idea. She still didn't know who or what he was.

“What things?” he wondered.

“If you tell me what you are I will answer.”

“Very well. Tell me what I look like to you.”

Her gaze lowered from his face, and she looked him over from the bottom up. He was extremely attractive even if he looked weak and hurt, but it didn’t stop her from liking what she saw. In the last second, she stopped herself from licking her lips. That would just give him the wrong impression. She didn't want him to see how his presence affected her.

“Well ... um ...” she
started. “You have wings ...”

“Good you noticed
.” He smiled.

Inez snorted, but smiled back. She liked that his eyes
sparkled with life for a second. Just a short while ago they had looked so hollow, as if he had lost all his will to live. Her presence seemed to have a positive effect on him.

“What else do you see?”
Aledyan asked.

A
man that is too good looking, she wanted to say, but giving him ideas would not make things better. “An injured man,” she said instead.

His smile
disappeared. “Apart from that.”

Inez remained silent.
Seeing was definitely not believing this time.

“Just say it. I know you know what I am.”

She shook her head. “You can't be ... because if you are then you belong in a fairytale.”

“Says who?”

Inez opened her mouth, but couldn't answer. She just knew that most people said so. Angels didn't exist, not in her world.

She looked at his wings.
They lay on either side of him, dirty and in a mess. The feathers didn't seem to lay where they were supposed to. They seemed to need a very big comb to get into place. For some reason, she felt the need to get closer to him and gently caress them to show her support, but it would only cause him pain, and he most likely would not appreciate it. She remained where she stood, at a safe distance from him.

“I'm not going to hurt you
.”

The
way he said it made her think that he really meant it, but she didn't answer because she still didn't trust him. She didn't like the way he avoided her questions. Instead of giving her a “yes” or a “no” he fumbled around the topic.

Inez
sighed and felt that the backpack was starting to get heavy. She decided that she could risk putting it down for a while. Once it was on the ground her back felt a lot better.

“Angels have wings ...” she said.

“Yes.”

“And ... demons.”

Her heart started to beat fast when his face became serious, but she saw no anger, only disappointment.

“If I w
ere a demon, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You would have left this cave screaming in fear.”

“And I'm
just supposed to take your word for it?”

“You don't have to, but I'm t
elling you the truth.” He closed his eyes for a short while and took a deep breath. “There's so much out there that you know nothing about. You live in a world where you are protected from everything that can harm you. As long as you don't see them, they don't see you, but once you open your eyes you become an easy target, unless you know how to defend yourself.”

Inez stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Demons and other creatures I know that you have never heard of.”

S
he swallowed nervously. “So you are saying that ...”

Aledyan
nodded. “With one simple look at me your eyes opened, even if your mind isn't yet willing to accept my existence.”

“You can't be serious!”

“I can assure you that I am, but that protection also means that you aren't able to see other things.”

“Like angels?”

“Like angels,” he confirmed.

Inez shook her head in confusion. “But I can see you.”

“Thanks to this cave. Angels usually reside in other dimensions or the astral plane, but some of us decide sometimes to incarnate. You can pass us on the street without knowing or seeing who we really are because you will only see a human.”

Inez couldn't stop
herself from laughing. “So you are saying that angels in human bodies are walking around out there?”

He nodded. “Yes
.”

“I don't believe
that. As far as I know there's nothing after death or before life either for that matter.”

“You believe that because you don't remember.”

“Yeah, right,” she said and started to feel an ache in her legs. Without a second thought, she sat down with her back against the cave wall near to where she had stood.

His words sounded
surreal. He couldn't be telling the truth, but when she looked at him she saw the wings. They were as real as he was. She wasn't imagining him.

“So once you get out of here I won't be able to see you anymore?”

“Both yes and no. This cave is placed between the astral plane and the physical plane. It was created by the one who placed me here, and it was created specifically to imprison an angel.” He paused for a second and looked at her as if he made sure that she was still following. “If I leave this place you will be able to sense my presence and see me inside your dreams and visions.”

“But I won't be able to ... touch you?”
Inez felt her body tense. The thought of touching him filled her with longing. She didn't understand why she felt this way. She couldn't even explain it to herself. It was simply there, the feeling and need to touch him. It had been there from the first minute she had laid eyes on him, but she would never tell him. He was an angel and she a human. They didn't belong together she told herself.

Aledyan
remained still for a while and just looked at her. Did he see what she was trying to hide? She hoped not.

“No, you won't,” he answered.

Aledyan couldn't understand why his heart was beating so fast. Her question had caused it. What had she meant by it? Did she want to touch him? Or had it just been a rhetorical question?

She seemed nervous
again, and avoided looking directly into his eyes. Instead, she grabbed her backpack and opened it. The strange looking bag was big, black and filled to its limits. The material it was made from made him realize that he had been in here for a long time and that many things had changed on the outside.

Inez
took out a transparent bottle that was not made of glass. She twisted the cap and took a few sips.

“What is that?” he asked.

Inez gave him a surprised look. “It's mineral water.”

“
I mean the bottle.”

She looked even more surprised.

“I've been in here for quite awhile you know,” he reminded her.

“Oh, right. Well, it's called plastic. It has been used for a few decades and
has replaced glass bottles among other things.”

“Why?”

She put on the cap and closed the bottle. ”Because it doesn't break as glass does.” She dropped the bottle to show him. The bottle landed on the ground. "See? And it's also a lot lighter than glass.”

Aledyan
reached out his hand toward her. “May I take a look?”

Silence sw
ept through the cave. She didn't seem sure what do to because she knew it meant that she had to get close to him to hand him the bottle. Aledyan could feel the expectation grow within him. He really did want her to come closer. Why, he couldn't tell. Maybe it was his loneliness talking or maybe it was because her pretty face appealed to him.

He wanted her to trust him. He wanted her to feel safe around him. He needed it if he was ever going to get out of he
re, but something told him that there was also another reason why he wanted her trust.

“May I?” he asked again without
lowering his hand.

Inez slowly got up on her feet. She
was looking at him all the time as if she expected him to do something sudden. Aledyan made sure not to move. He didn't want to scare her away.

She approached him carefully, taking one step at the time
, and when she was close enough she leaned forward and handed the bottle over to him. He gently grabbed it, and when doing so his finger accidentally touched hers.

The touch send a shiver through his body
, and he heard her gasp. She immediately pulled her hand back, straightened her body and jumped a few steps back.

Aledyan
tried not to pay attention to her reaction, even if it hurt him on the inside. At least she didn't run back to where she had been sitting.

He looked at the bottle in his hands
, and he found the soft and smooth material interesting. The white and blue paper label on the bottle looked beautiful, and he couldn't figure out how someone could write the letters so perfectly.

“I sure have missed a lot,” he said.

“Well, many things have changed these last two hundred years.”

“They sure have.”

Inez didn't move from the spot she stood on. Although he wasn't looking directly at her, he could see that she watched him. He wanted her to stay, and tried to look calm, but on the inside he felt tense. A sudden move would make her run back to where her bag was, at a safe distance away from him.

Then he heard her sigh. He raised his head and saw her take a deep breath before her body relaxed.

“Are you thirsty?” she asked. “Or maybe hungry?”

He gave her a surprised look
, but she didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she went back to her backpack and brought it with her before she sat down next to him. She was sitting close. He definitely hadn't expected this from her, not so soon.

She started to ta
ke one thing after another out of the bag, and all he could do was watch with fascination.