Heavenly

A/n: This chapter is so cliche I should kick myself. -sigh- But I suppose its better than what I had in mind before -isn't going to go there...- Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this after my very long writer's block leave. And even though this is WAY off topic, I have started on another story that is up as well (its my only other one so it can't be too hard to find o.0) So check it out! (if you want)

Succumb

I remember reading once that love was supposed to be blind or something deep like that. I dunno', but people seem to have come to the conclusion that "love is blind" means that you are so madly in love you can't think of anything else but the person you are in love with to unhealthy standards. Me, I think that it has a completely different meaning, like, when you are in love with a person, it just takes a while for you to realize it, hence, you're in love, but you're too blind to see it.

Of course that is just me...

It was cold, cold and dark. Ace knelt beside me and laughed. "He'll never find you...he whispered softly. He then smiled innocently and kissed me once on the cheek. "Besides, knowing that Andrew he'd have lost interest in you already... I spat at him. "Awww your no fun..." he frowned, standing up. In a flash my arms were over my head. There was a distinct click and they stayed there. I glared up at him and he was smiling again. "Let's just see how long it takes you to break. Goodbye Darlin'" And with a wink he was gone.

I was tired. That was all there was to it. I was tired and mad as hell-not a good combo. Ace was so very kind as to tell me exactly how long he'd held me captive today. Two weeks this morning, pfft, yeah, knowing just how long I was shackled to a friggen' wall without anything to eat made my outlook on life sooo much brighter.

"Look on the bright side Max, oh wait, there isn't one. That's just real damn peachy!"

At least I hadn't lost my wonderful handle on sarcasm yet, now that would be the real tragedy.

I pulled once again at the evil rings of metal that held my hands prisoner. And like all the other times, they didn't give even a little. I let myself go limp and hung my head, blinking at the sudden blurry vision I had.

"Note to self: Never EVER let a guy kiss you EVER again re: not get kidnapped by a deranged immortal psychopath"

Why could I never win? I finally turn thirteen and what happens? I get an annoying guy who calls himself my "guardian angel" that's making me start thinking about things that I don't need to. And he just so happens to have his own equivalent of an "arch enemy" in the form of a creepy dark angel, demon...whatever...that decided to kidnap me. And all this happens in the course of not even three days. Agh! No girl should have to go through this crap!

The tears that I was fighting to keep at bay finally spilled over and ran down my cheeks.

And he hadn't come to save me yet, and he might never come just like Ace said. I could be stuck here until the day I die of starvation or something.

I made a small, broken, noise in the back off my throat despite myself.

The world was cruel.

/~Ace~/

She was finally breaking.

I watched with what I knew was sick satisfaction through the one-way mirror that separated this room from the one she was in.

We were in an old building that I had found during my travels. It had a very useful interrogation room that I had put Max in. I was in the room looking into it.

I had to hand it to her, her will was stronger than that of the average mortal's but it only took time. Time killed all humans, wait a hundred years or so and even the strongest of them are dead without doing much of anything at all.

"Boy, can she cry like a normal mortal though."

I stared at her with a rather surprising wistful expression as I listened to her wailing.

She was sobbing so hard it seemed like she might just pass out.

"Let her squirm a bit more...?" I thought, still strangely melancholy.

I blinked.

"The hell are you sad fer'? Now you can hurt that little sissy angel boy both physically and emotionally-you should be friggen' ECSTATIC!"

I shook my head vigorously in an attempt to shake off my foolishness.

"Get it together, your getting everything you ever wanted. Power and an end to your vendetta with the sissy boy...so what's wrong with you?"

I paced as I thought, then caught, in the corner of my eye, a reflection in a long cracked mirror that was on the opposite wall from Max's room...and retched.

The face in the mirror was not mine. It was the face of a child, clad in only black jeans with longish scarlet hair and wide burgundy eyes that seemed slowly to be dawning on something. The child stared blinking rapidly in a confused manner, just as I was.

Taken aback by this, I took a slow step in his direction-at the same time he took an equally cautious step towards me.

Was that me?

The face in the mirror contorted sickly.

It was me!

What had happened? The face looked so very familiar to me; I'd seen that look somewhere before but where I couldn't exactly place.
Being the sore loser that I am I started racking my brain again trying to find some sort of relation. After sometime between deep thinking and Max's cries it clicked in my head.

"Andrew," I thought in awe

"It's almost the same look he has when he looks at her...that damn girl"

I looked over my shoulder at said girl for she had suddenly become very quiet. She had cried herself into unconsciousness.

The awe that I had disappeared with a loud bang and a notable amount of anxiety took its place.

"Oh God..."

My knees buckled of their own accord and I found myself on the floor.

This was bad, very, very bad. It would ruin my plans...everything I've busted my ass for up until now would be gone all because of a huge unexpected uncontrollable urge.

I felt my heart lurch and give a little stutter, then start beating double time.

I had to do something, what I had to do was almost painfully clear, but actually being able to do it was a different matter entirely.

Just then, a yell sounded outside the door to my room along with a string of profanities. I whipped around, muttering profanities of my own as the door burst open and I was knocked back in a flurry of fists and white feathers.

I wondered idly whether or not he would buy that I was really passed out. Throughout all that crying I was actually able to formulate a half-decent plan, weather or not it would do any good wasn't exactly clear-cut but I was desperate enough to give it a shot.
My plan was simple: wait until he comes to check on me again, hope that he'll believe that I'm dead and unshackle me from the wall to move me wherever. Again it wasn't the best mode of escape a person could think up but I needed something to keep my hopes up. I let myself go limp and took the smallest breaths I possibly could, wiling my heartbeat to slow down.

Soon I found that I had slipped into a state of pure calm. And with that I started to remember the good I had up till now, the things that I thought didn't even exist only a few minutes ago.

I remembered the first time I went to the zoo, the day Sam and I skipped school to go see that Avril Lavigne concert, a few months ago when mom finally let me streak my hair blue. But mostly, I thought about who I realized was the most significant person in my life right now, Drew. His smile/smirk, his wings, and the way they were so soft and warm under my fingertips, the way he talked, the way he acted, the way his eyes twinkled whenever he was thinking about something vulgar or devious. I could have gone on forever just remembering every aspect of him and I would have too...if I hadn't started to feel like a total stalker.

It was strange; Drew was the easiest to remember so perfectly, even more so then my own parents. That spooked me...it was like destiny or something, like I'd known him all my life and before.

I opened my eyes and looked into the darkness.

Had I? Had I known him that long? It could be possible, he was an angel--my guardian angel--so couldn't it have been possible that he had always been looking after me? Even before I was even thought of?

I contemplated this for a while but couldn't come up with an answer so I dropped it.

I was starting to get that strange feeling again and it was making my heart ache in a strangely sad way. I closed my eyes and concentrated on being ''dead''.

It was calm for a few minutes more until something unexpected happened: to my right, a sound like a lot of glass shattering ripped through my calm like a knife and I was bathed in a florescent light.

I blinked at the sudden light as my eyes tried to adjust to it, more confused then anything else. Thoughts like "what was that?" and "how did that happen?" flashed through my head. Then I finally registered that it seemed to sound like people were fighting and swearing like sailors as they did so.

"Maxine!!!"

My eyes widened in disbelief and I felt my heart stop beating.

Eyes blazing like bright orange embers, Drew was in the process of trying to beat the tar out of Ace. They were rolling around on the glass littered ground, kicking and screaming and cussing as they tried to pin each other down.

"Max! Don't worry! I'll get you, hon, just hold on!" He called out to me in a tone he probably wanted to sound funny, after he was able to get Ace pinned.

Ace roared in defiance and heaved Drew off of him. Both scrambled to their feet and started at each other again.

I noticed that I had been holding my breath and let it go quickly. There he was, my own personal miracle fighting my own personal demon. My eyes couldn't keep up with their movements as they came at each other again and again.

They cried out alternetly, either in pain or in triumpth. It killed me to not be able to actualy see what was going on, but from the many more bit-off curses and injured roars comming from Ace, it seemed Drew was getting the upper hand. The fight dragged on and on for what felt like days until Drew must have suddenly backpedaled away to the left because I could finaly see him. He spat at the ground. Dark red. He flaped his wings once and got a good distance off of the ground. Somehow he hovered there.

"I've...!" He roared.

Ace turned, hurt badly, and ran at Drew at a pace I could actualy see.

"I've had it with you!!!"

Drew shot forward in a movement that took no more than a millisecond, sending a hard blow to the side of Ace's head, he screamed and with an explosion of blood he crumpled to the ground like a falling tree.

Drew landed, stumbleing awkwardly. He looked down at Ace and kicked him once with his foot, his body rocked with the blow.

I hung my head in disgust and my face paled. That was the first time I had ever seen a dead body before.

Hands were suddenly at my wrists, I looked up to see Drew kneeling in front of me, his eyes never left mine as he broke the shackles as if they were made of paper. Once I was free I through my arms around him, hid my face in his chest and started to sob. I was safe, he was safe, it was all over.

He sat us down and pulled me close, burying his face in my hair. He rocked us back and forth murmuring soft comforting words. His voice was muffled, because he hadn't bothered to remove his face from my hair.

I realized for the first time that he smelled rather nice. Like rain, mint, roses, cinnamon, orchid, and another clean smell I didn't have a name for. For what seemed like forever all I could do was cry my little heart out and clutch Drew like a ditz until I got to the point that I thought I was hurting him. If I did he didn't complain, he just sat and held me protectively.

When my wild sobs faded to quiet sniffles he spoke.

"Max," he murmured, gently pulling me away so he could look me in the eyes.

His words came out quickly like rushing water after that. And he suddenly slipped into a proper way of talking that suprised me.

"I'm sorry. It is my entire fault that this has happened to you. I...I was cocky and did not think of the consequences that would arise if I was to lose to him-"

The confused look I gave him stopped the rush for a minute. He blinked and in a surprised way even though his face was carefully expressionless.

"Oh, you must not know about that, well, that conversation is better suited for another time, okay love? Anyway, I was utterly and absurdly stupid I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if you decided to never forgive me which, if I may say, would hurt me deeply but if you wanted to be mad at me I suppose you would want to hurt me deeply now wouldn't you?"

He laughed shakily.

"I'm sorry, I just can't seem to say what I'm trying to say at the moment so if you wouldn't mind could you deal with this nonsense just a little bit longer?"

He pulled me back to his chest and took a deep breath as if to calm himself. There with my ear pressed close to him, I could hear the quick anxious thudding of his heart. I counted somewhere around twenty beats every two or so seconds.

"You, you are quite extraordinary did you know that? It took me so long to finally track that bastard down, I was thinking of the worst, I thought he'd have killed you or worse since he hates every fiber of my being but here you are, alive and alert as far as I can see and-"

His heartbeat had gotten so fierce I couldn't count them anymore, so I cut him off sharply.

"Okay! I get it okay?! You're sorry. So stop talking like you have, like, ADD or something! And that way you're talking: cut it out! It's really starting to creep me out!"

I looked up at him, and he looked down at me. After another grueling moment of silence he got the strangest look on his face that suggested he had come to an important decision on something.

He touched my cheek, light as a feather, and started leaning in, and stopped too close; just like that day we met. I didn't dare move.

"Max..." he cooed apologetically and with slow hesitance, closed the tiny gap between us...

Gosh...I'm I annoying with cliffhangers or what? lol. I know it sounds rushed and I realllly suck at fight scenes, but I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Laterz,

Neko