Only Human: Angels and Demons

Chapter 68: June Jackson

Back to Original POV

The limo occasionally bumped as it drove over the unpaved streets. I should have been paying attention to the landscape whipping past my window, but I couldn't look away from the permanent bracelet on my right wrist. I was only just realizing that I have had this thing weighing my arm down for a month now, but I barely noticed it anymore. The little pinprick of blue light was new, however.

"This light here tells you that the bracelet has its charge. You only have one shot, so it should only be used in absolute emergencies. You just need to point this light towards the intended target and say 'Luminous Strike.'" Ulysses had said.

'"Luminous Strike?'" Hendrix asked questioningly.

Ulysses had shrugged. "I had to choose a phrase that she wouldn't say accidently. I mean, can you imagine?"

"I think it sounds bad ass." Jimmy said with a smirk.

"What happens when I say... that phrase?" I had asked carefully.

Ulysses had fought to not roll his eyes and spoke slower as if I couldn't understand. "The elven crystals contained in the bracelet will release all its power in one electrifying blast. The bracelet will then be useless until it gets recharged. No tracker, no anything."

I leaned my head on the window as I continued to stare at the light. Ulysses assured me yesterday that it would work, and didn't allow me to practice or test it like I wanted. With how he treated me, there was a part of me that wondered if he only adjusted the bracelet to have this little light and that the whole 'luminous strike' thing was just some lie to give me a false sense of security. The fact that he gave Hendrix some small devices that protected them from the blast was the only reason that I gave the elf's words any credence.

"How long are you going to stare at that fucking thing?" Jimmy's voice interrupted me. I looked up at the annoyed and annoying vampire. His hand rubbed at his buzzed black hair, and his black eyes challenged me.

I groaned. If I didn't already have enough to deal with, I have to now tolerate this angsty teenager of a vampire where ever I went. "I'll stop staring at it then." I said and directed my eyes to the window. My eyes didn't stay there long. Every time a tree went past, I would think of Cenderion and I had to look away. I still hadn't talked to him since our last conversation where I told him I needed time. I hadn't visited the saplings either. I was afraid I'd run into him, and I still couldn't figure out why I was so angry with him. Why could I tolerate Hendrix and not Cenderion? They both kept this secret from me, and they both have done things to me in the past. What made Cenderion different? Why was his betrayal of my trust more hurtful?

These past few days I have been coming to terms with what it meant to be a mortal angel. I spent every morning speaking with the Angel's Heart as long as it would allow me to. This was what I've gathered so far. I'm not going to sprout wings and be able to fly (that was my first question, and I was rather disappointed with the answer). I'm not going to be ascending into the heavens—At least not anytime soon. I am not a warrior or messenger of God. I do have powers, but the Angel's Heart isn't sure how much I can control. In other words, most of my abilities are passive, and they are beyond my conscious control. For instance, exuding a light aura that attracts and soothes other creatures with light in them (meaning every species that exists except for demons), being able to resist the wiles of magic weaker than my own, and lending my magic or power to those who know how to tap into it.

The Angel's Heart told me there may be even more, but there has never been a creature like me before. I even have an ability that angels don't normally possess, which is the ability to heal myself rather quickly. I had always been a quick healer back home, but on this magical continent it was inhuman... Which I'm not entirely human, so that tracks. It was due to this healing ability that allowed not only Hendrix to feed from me frequently, but for Mary to draw blood from me as well without feeling drained. That was a feeling familiar to me when I was on chemotherapy. That stuff knocks out your hemoglobin which is what carries the oxygen in your blood. So even if my body wasn't technically losing any, it felt like I had been bled dry until I got a blood transfusion. Now that I think about it, how did I get cancer if I was an angel? I would have to ask the Angel's Heart when I got back.