"Sooner or later in life, we will all take our own turn being in the position we once had someone else in." ― Ashly Lorenzana

          10 Years Later

          There must've been a thousand candles lining the walls of a circular shaped sanctuary. Their comforting light became blurred in my eyes as I looked down the arm of the hand choking me. My feet were off the ground, and try as I might, his grip was far too strong for me to fly away. At 999 years old, it seems so surreal to finally be staring down death. Who would've thought, the irony that I just barely wouldn't make four digits? I'm being rather relaxed about this, because I did have a good run.

          The creature whom had me by the neck was a demon. Of course, he had the undying thirst to kill angels. Normally, I could easily fight one off. That is why I've lasted as long as I have. Ten years ago, to this very day in fact, I caught Hallow Hex from a vampire. Once I had finished healing him, I left Heaven. I couldn't bare to infect a fellow angel. I fled to the Prehinite dimension, which is barely inhabited. 

          The disease barely effected me at first. Then it set in after about three years. With every three years, it seemed to take a huge bound in acceleration. This past year, I've been too weak to fight. I moved to this sanctuary to live in peace. Yet, the exact opposite came to my door. This is a neutral dimension for creatures just looking to be alone. Unfortunately, a demon bounty hunter came after me. Whom felt the need to seek me down after ten years of solitude, fuck if I know.

          His skin was pure black, lacking a nose and lips. Only fire burned behind his eyes and mouth. His horns curled under, coming to an exact point. I wasn't afraid of him and I wasn't afraid of dying. It was bound to happen. I may be immortal, but I'm not invincible. He began to crush my trachea and I could feel it to a surprising amount. My breaths became harder to muster and the air was colder.

          Suddenly, a breeze whistled through the sanctuary. All the candles were blown out in a swift movement. The coldness became even more real then. I was more uncomfortable with freezing than I was with the lack of air. The candles going out distracted the demon, which tells me he didn't cause it.

          "Drop him, Roron." A raspy voice spoke from the darkness. It sounded familiar but I couldn't place it...

          "We wouldn't want to break your horns again." A second, almost as rough voice stated.

          Roron snarled, "What's an angel to you?"

          "What's he to you?" A third, once again familiar, creature spoke. This one was more feminine, but still male.

          "A payday that could help me retire." He responded. Roron threw me down onto the ground and turned to face them. "But, you, your dead body could help me retire in luxury." He mused.

          I choked, gasping for air as I laid on that icy floor. It's never been this cold before. I guess having a demon here was taking away the holiness of this place. As I looked up, I just barely saw the reflection of red eyes in the shadows of the entrance. Several red eyes, that is. I must've counted six pairs. Even being a demon, does Roron really think he can take on six vampires? He certainly was going to be stupid enough to try.

          "Kill him." The raspiest voice stated.

          "Hm," Roron grunted, "Kill me? That's cute."

          From the shadows, emerged those vampires. They all looked overly hungry. From what I've heard, food has been a little difficult for them lately. Several have moved back to earth to feed. As I moved my eyes down the line, I recognized two of them as previous patients of mine. Their leader, he was the one that gave me Hallow Hex. That explains why he's lost the majority of his voice. Chris was his name.

          His team ran towards Roran in several directions to confuse him. Chris came at him head on at a run, then dropped and slid between his legs. He flipped himself back up and landed a foot away from me. Leaning down, he smiled at me. I still remember the way his smile made me feel, even ten years later. there was always something enchanted about it.

          "I've missed you, my angel." He murmured.

          I rubbed my throat a bit and replied, "What are you doing here?"

          "You still owe me a date." Chris smirked, "Hang on. Let me take care of that first." He stood up and began to casually walk towards the demon as his friends were getting tossed around like salad. "Ryan!"

          The one with short hair, whom I presume to be Ryan, threw him a sword. Chris effortlessly plunged it into Roron's back. He wailed, then was met with Ryan's second blade through his chest. The beast fell to his knees. Ghost, who was dressed like a streetwalker might I add, took a dagger attached to his garter belt. He sliced Roron's throat and blood splattered over his face and chest. It dripped down his cleavage, but by the look on his face, I think it turned him on.

          "Can you please take his body out of here?" I muttered, "It's affecting the spiritualism of the sanctuary."

          "Ricky and I will." Ghost was all too quick to say.

          Oh, I'm sure they will. I saw the smile on Ricky's face. Those two were so going to fuck outside. I was okay with it, as long as it was off the property. This place needs to return to being holy. I felt my arm going week and fell down the rest of the way. Laying on my side on the floor like some damsel must've made me look so pathetic. I could care less.

          Chris walked over and knelt down beside me. He gently brushed a stray hair out of my face. "Is there anything else we can do for you?" He asked.

          "I know it's a lot to ask," I said as I glanced around, "But could you please relight the candles?"

          "All of them?" Vinny gawked.

          "Just do it." Chris growled. He lifted my head and set it in his lap. "Whatever it takes. He saved my life and Ghost's. We owe it to him to return the favor."

          "Thank you." I forced a small smile.

          He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Of course. I can't have a dead date, after all."

          I giggled the best I could, "You're adamant about getting that date, huh?"

          "It took me ten years to find you. Now that I have, I'm not letting you go." He said. Then he thought about what he told me and added, "Sorry if that sounds a little overbearing."

          "There's nothing you could say that would ever shock me." I replied, "How'd you find me?"

          Chris glanced away from me. There was something shameful about to come up from his throat. He absentmindedly ran his fingers through my hair. He sighed, "Things have been rough for us since the war ended. We were raiding Roron's place while he was out... I found his hit list and saw your name on there. My stomach dropped. When I told the others, they all were more than happy to help me come find you. Lucky I found you when I did."

          "You can stay here, if you'd like. This floor is a lot more comfortable than you'd think." I lightheartedly joked.

          His small smile seemed to remain. His skin had healed remarkably well from the burns. The majority of scaring he had covered up with tattoos. As for his face, it was hard to tell under the shade of his hood, dark lighting, and layers of thick makeup. His loving eyes lingered on me.

          Chris resisted admitting, "We can't stay here. Us or you. When Roron's client finds out he was unsuccessful in killing you, he'll just send another bounty hunter. We're all currently living on earth and we've been relatively safe there. I'd like you to come with us, please."

          "As much as I would love to, I lost my ability to cloak my wings." I muttered.

          It's not exactly something I like to talk about. Honestly, I have no idea if it came from Hallow Hex, or if it's a result of not using my cloaking ability in so long. There was no way I could safely go to earth without humans doing something outrageous. Either some religion nut would turn me into a sacrifice or a scientist would try to dissect me. Humans are somehow the weakest yet nastiest beings. Just the thought of living amongst them wasn't pleasant.

          "We live somewhere with very little humans. It's a little... Cold," Chris snickered, "But, it's safe. Even if safety wasn't an issue, I can tell you're very weak. I couldn't live with myself if I just left you here with no one to care for you or protect you."

          I swallowed down my pride, thought it hurt like fucking Hell. Closing my eyes, I embraced the silence. His breathing had an addicting rhythm to it. "I will go with you, if you'll stay with me here for the night. I need time to recharge before making a journey across dimensions."

          "That's more than understandable." He responded. Chris lifted his head from where he was looking down upon me. He addressed one of his friends, "Tell Ricky and Ghost we're staying here for the night and they have first watch, since they had to go mess around."

          "They wonder how they both have a social disease." Ryan muttered and began to pace out of the sanctuary.

          I stifled a laugh, "I think it's sweet how they can still be so lively even though they've been together for half a millennium."

          "You wouldn't think it's sweet when they're keeping you from sleeping." Chris spoke as he readjusted. He laid down in the opposite direction as me and rested my head on his stomach. He continued to play with my hair while he muttered, "That reminds me, I think they have a milestone anniversary coming up."

          "How do you still keep track after all that time?" I wondered.

          "Fuck if I know. I guess if you love someone enough, it's a little hard to forget the day you fell for each other. But," He let out a breath, "I digress. I believe you, my angel, need some rest. Close your eyes and fall asleep."

          That was easy when he's been playing with my hair for the past ten minutes. There's something about it that just makes me so sleepy. The others finally finished lighting the candles again. Funny how it took them a second to blow them all out, but twenty minutes to relight them. Destruction is careless, and carelessness takes little time. Actual creation takes more than time.

          The energy of each flame traveled into the air, the marble floor, and the waterfalls surrounding the entrance. A glow reentered the sanctuary. Both in the air, and in my soul. I could feel it's warmth once again. Closing my eyes, I let myself fall into a calm state.

          I've spent the last ten years here alone. Not a single person came to visit. All in one day, a demon and an old love has graced my presence. All those years ago, when Chris came into the hospital, I had never planned to grow any kind of attachment to him. Many of my patients come and go quickly. Burn victims, however, must stay for a very long time. It took me a week to figure out what was compromising his healing factor. Even after that, he still had to stay in my care for an addition two weeks.

          Being that I had isolated myself in that room with him, we had nothing better to do than talk. I had never spent that much time with an ordinary patient. He was no ordinary patient, though. I learned more about him than I ever thought I could care to want to know. There is so much about him that is beyond interesting. He told me about his past, his make broken hearts, the tragedies he'd seen. I sympathized with him because I had seen many disasters in my time. However, I only saw the aftermath in my hospital or the smoke that reached the Heavens. He, though, he had seen it from the front lines.

          After he left, I left. I couldn't safely be around other angels and patients with Hallow Hex. I'd still get news reports over the years. Once and awhile I would see his face in the papers, reminding me of the unforgettable time we shared together. The demon and vampire war lasted three years. Unfortunately, the demons won. They pushed vampires out of their own land. I know Chris would've stayed and fought if it was just him, but he had others to look after.

          In all this time, I have never met someone who's memory stuck with me so much. There was something about him that my heart was drawn too. He was enchanting. His cologne drifted into my senses, mixing with the smoke of the candles. The methodical nature of his fingertips running along my hair took away any will I had left to stay awake. Quickly, sleep overcame me.

          Chris' sweet, raspy voice gently awoke me the next morning. He whispered into my ear as he ran the back of his hand down my face, "Angel, it's time we go."

          I groggily opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was him sat up beside me. Ricky stood not too far behind, examining me. Ghost and Chris were the only ones I had any actual meeting of. To him, I was a stranger. I couldn't blame him for staring. An angel must be an unpleasant sight to him as well.

          Chris helped me to sit up. My chest hurt badly, like my ribs had be raked or something. As I made an audible groan, I felt the pain continue in my throat. My hopes were it would get better overnight. Unfortunately the damage Roron did on my neck set in and grew to be worse with time. Chris' expression fell when he heard my little cry.

          "Don't speak. I'm worried you'll hurt yourself if you do." He told me. Chris stood up and offered me a hand, helping me to my feet. "Ghost is working on opening a portal up now. Once he gets it open, we need to go through it as fast as possible. We don't want to alert anyone. Is there anything you need from here?"

          I shook my head "yes" and carefully walked over to a chest resting under the candle alter. By Chris' direction, Ricky helped to pull it out for me. I opened it up and grabbed a few articles of clothing, a bag of crystals, and a very small journal. It may be small, but it had a lot written in it's pages. It wasn't mine, actually. It was that of someone who I miss. A dear friend, killed many years ago. I keep his thoughts with me to comfort me. Everything else though is just useless items. I've never been much of a materialistic person.

          Ricky shut up the chest and put it back where it belonged. I knew I shouldn't dare to speak, so I mouthed a "thank you" to him. He smiled and spoke at a soft tone, "It's no problem. I never got a chance to thank you, for saving Ghost's life. I've been alive for five hundred and twenty seven years now, and Ghost has been my mate for five hundred years. I barely can remember those twenty seven years without him, and I don't ever want to know how that felt again."

          I simply smiled, unable to "awe" at how precious that is. Chris mentioned last night they were hitting a milestone in their relationship. I'd say five hundred years is a milestone. Just from what I saw in that hospital, Ghost and Ricky have been through a lot. They obviously love and deserve one another.

          I couldn't help but take in Ricky's appearance. It wasn't like any normal vampire, or any normal anyone for that matter. He wore a black vest with no shirt underneath. Black jeans, a skull belt buckle, and a key necklace. All sounding pretty textbook evil, right? Then you realize, one of his arms may be covered in tattoos, but the other was covered in metal. I guess he ended up with that bionic arm after all. Ricky was already a very strong creature with a hard edged presence. That, just added to his levels of badass.

          After doing a little discussing with the others, Chris approached me. He had a long black scarf in his hand. Chris gently laid it over my shoulders, telling me, "I wasn't kidding when I said it was cold where we're doing. I know angels don't typically feel temperatures, but you've lost a lot of your angel abilities, haven't you?"

          "How'd you know?" I murmured.

          "I thought I told you no talking?" He sassed me and I rolled my eyes. In actuality, it did hurt  like Hell and I regret it. Chris continued, "Last night, you got a case of the chills in your sleep. Don't worry about it. We'll get you somewhere warm soon enough. Unfortunately the portal tends to have a habit of dropping us a little ways from the cabin. Once we're inside though, I promise I'll get you wrapped up in blankets and give you some hot chocolate."

          "Ghost makes great hot blood chocolate," Josh said, "I'm sure he knows how to make it just as good without blood."

          Chris leaned near me and whispered, "Don't tell him I said this but he's a bit of a blood whore."

          "I heard that." Ricky unhappily snapped.

          "You know it's true." Chris chuckled.

          It wasn't hard for me to figure that out. I already knew he had a social disease, and I saw the way his eyes glistened at the sight of blood last night. When he was covered in it, he could barely contain himself. He had to instantly take his husband outside and fuck him. Rather, get fucked by him. Ricky is actually shorter than Ghost, but it's all too obvious that Ghost is the bottom. He has a huge ass that he makes a point to sway whenever he walks, and somehow he has tits nicer than any woman's I've ever seen.

          Regardless, they were a lovely couple. Ghost finally got open the portal. He held the edge of it and bowed beside it. Ricky was the only one to find it adorable to the point he giggled. It was cute, but that's not my boyfriend. So, I'll resist calling him adorable. He has his own indescribable charm.

          I followed Chris through the portal. It wasn't a portal as much as it was a tear. That's more of what it looked like too; a tear. The edges were cracked, not smooth. It's size would fluctuate a tad, making it slightly nerve-racking to go through. Once I was through, the cold hit me like a brick house. Snowflakes and violent winds rushed my face. My hair whipped in front of my eyes, making it hard to see anything. I pulled the scarf Chris gave me over my face.

          It was also the dead of night. Not a light was around for miles and angels don't have night vision. The cold was paralyzing to me. It ripped down my throat like a tiger's claws. The whistling of the wind made it impossible to hear a damn thing. All my senses were suffocating in this storm. Suddenly, I felt two arms pick me up from under my legs. Somehow through the chaos of the extreme weather, I saw Chris was the one holding me. I cuddled into his chest more and tried my best to put my mind somewhere else.

          After what felt like an eternity, there was finally a little bit of light. It was the smallest red light burning in a lamp outside of a building. Someone else opened up the door and Chris carried me inside. It was still darker than dark, but I at least felt warmth meet my body. The harsh winds were now muffled behind the walls and I could hear the others again.

          "I'm sorry about the lack of lighting. We are still vampires, after all." Chris joked lightheartedly. "I know you can't see us, but I promise I can see your beautiful face as clear as day, and it's covered in snow. I'm going to set you down on the couch and we'll get you in some dry clothes."

          Just as he said that, I felt myself being rested down on a piece of furniture. Someone turned on a dim light. It was red as well, which is the darkest light you could have. I could barely see a thing, but it was better than nothing. Chris sat down beside me and dusted away some of the snow covering me. He took the items in my hand and set them aside. Then he gently pulled my sweater down my arms.

          "This is Ghost's, so it might be a little off in size, but it's all I could find with an open back." He said.

          Chris placed a sweater in my hands. I felt it around a bit until I knew how to get it on. Being that it still had some of a back towards the bottom, I had to pull it on from my feet up. It still was rather warm and fit nice. It was a little lose around my chest, but that was to be expected.

          "Thank you." I whispered.

          He moved closer to me and draped a blanket over my shoulders and lap. Chris embraced me the best he could having the maneuver around my large wings. "Hot chocolate will be here shortly." He mused as he bopped me on the nose.

          I giggled and murmured, "Thanks again, for everything."

          "Don't mention it, angel." He responded. "Really, don't mention it. Stop talking. You're hurting your throat. It's hurting me to hear you speak because your throat is so raspy."

          There was some shuffling around me. I felt a warm mug be placed in my hands, and I could somewhat see it in the darkness. My eyes were starting to adjust, but barely. What do you expect from a light creature? We can't see squat in the dark! Sometimes I wonder why I was ever born a light creature. I prefer the lifestyle of dark creatures much more. It's not light I can change it though. Unless I was bitten by a vampire. We're way off from that, though.

          "Careful, it's hot." Ghost said in a very feminine voice.

          "That's not the only thing that is." Ricky responded and I could practically picture his smirk.

          "Save it, you two." Chris groaned.

          "Says the one with his arm around an angel like it's his boyfriend." Josh muttered.

          He sighed, "Do I have to send you all to your rooms?"

          "No, mother, we'll behave." Ricky patronized him.

          I said nothing and just enjoyed my hot chocolate. It felt so reliving to travel down my throat. The warmth consumed me quick enough that I felt comfortable. They were right, Ghost makes some damn good hot chocolate. Truthfully, I haven't had earth foods in a long time. Anything would probably taste good when your taste buds have been starved. Angel "food" is bland. It does better for our bodies, but it sucks ass.

          Just like that cold. Luckily, I am in very warm arms. Even though Chris and I only shared a month at most together, we felt so comfortable with one another. It's almost as if we've known each other our whole lives, when we've barely scratched the surface. Something about him, it put a spell on me.