Bound

Chapter NINETEEN

Landon



"Good evening. My name is Walter, and I'll be your server. Can I get you started with a glass of water? Do you prefer sparkling or flat?"

I blinked a couple of times and looked at Walter. He was decked out in a fancy tux and bow tie, a picture of classic servitude. Charis was sitting across from me, a smile on her face and a glow in the air around her. She was vision of splendor and beauty in a deep red velvet dress. I returned her smile, but I wasn't feeling comfortable. Where was Clara? Where were we?

"Flat is perfect. Can we also see a wine list?" Charis asked. Walter bowed and headed off to fulfill the request.

"Where are we?"

She moved her head in a slow arc. "You've never been here? New York City. The Oak Room. I came here once before, with Joseph." She pointed to a table in a dark corner. "Back there."

I shifted so I could see where she was pointing. I couldn't make her out from here. All I saw was a slender leg that ended in a red pump. I could see Joseph though, his brown hair and stubble framing his strong jaw and bringing out his blue eyes.

"Are you okay?" I asked. This memory couldn't have been easy.

"You're sweet for asking. I'm fine. I thought of this memory on purpose. I wanted to share this place, this time with you. I loved Joseph, but that was as far as it went. I know that sounds trite. You... you're more than love. I know you, inside and out. We've already been through so much together."

I knew what she was saying, because I felt it, too. Not that I had too much experience with love, or how it felt to be in it. I just knew what I would sacrifice, what I would do in her name. I knew I wanted her around, and I wished we could have a normal life, a house and a real Clara. Maybe it was simplistic, but it would do.

Walter returned with the wine list and the water. He filled our glasses. "How are we doing over here?"

"We're fine, Walter."

"Very good. Please, browse the wine list. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'll be back in a few minutes." He headed off again to wait on another table.

Charis flipped through the wine list. This was way too normal and it made me uncomfortable.

"Where's Clara?" I asked.

"I sent her away," she replied, as if that was a perfectly normal answer.

"What do you mean... sent her away?"

"She's waiting in a limo outside, keeping an eye out for the Beast. Just relax, Landon, and you'll be able to feel her, too. I just wanted some alone time with you, while he's busy being regenerated. We won one, and we deserve a chance to celebrate."

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. When I did, I could sense Clara as Charis had said, in a car in the street outside the restaurant, watching YouTube.

My next smile was authentic.

"I still can't believe it. You were amazing."

She shook her head, causing her hair to fall in front of an eye and framing her face in the most beautiful way possible. "I was desperate."

"Not that much of a difference."

Walter wandered back over and Charis ordered a bottle of champagne. I imagined it was expensive, but this was our construction - we didn't need to think about money.


"So," I said, pausing. "I think this is the first minute we've had to rest since we met. Even that was... how long ago? It feels like a week and a lifetime both."

"Yeah, everything's been pretty rushed. Then again, time has little enough meaning here."

"Or out there." I remembered my battle with Abaddon, and what he had said. Ten thousand years, and for what? Looking at Charis, at least there was something to be grateful to have eternity for. "It's just... I don't know... if this were a normal relationship I'd be asking you about your childhood, and your folks, and your hopes and dreams. I already know all of that stuff."

"Maybe, but I think some of my opinions of those memories are going to be changing. This place is changing us. How could it not? I remember what he did." Her voice trailed off, and she looked down at her plate.

Walter saved the day, returning with the champagne. She snapped out of her pain and watched him pop the cork and pour.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked.

"We're good with the champagne for now," she said.

"As you wish." He left again.

She raised her glass to me. "To you, and to Clara. Two bright points of light in the darkness of this hell."

I had raised my glass with hers, but I flinched at her toast. "We'll get out of here. I promise."

Her smile was hopeful but unconvinced. We tapped glasses and took a long pull on the bubbly, and then poured some more. I lifted it to drink, but she put her hand on my wrist to stop me.

"Not too fast," she said. "I want you to remember this moment, this setting. Commit it, just in case. One speck of normalcy in our lives."

I nodded and took in the picture of the restaurant, the vision of her, the breaths I was taking without being on the run. I'd been dead for five years, and only now did I feel any sense of peace at all.

It was interrupted when the other Charis went storming past, Joseph following behind her. She looked angry, and he looked remorseful. I knew what he had done, what he had said. I knew what had happened after, in the heat of the apology and the tide of the emotions. Everything was always so urgent. Despite our shared affection and the fact that here we had a child, we'd had no time for that.

Her look was mischievous. "You have a look in your eye," she said.

I could feel my face flushing. "Just a thought. Maybe a regret. There's something about you that Joseph knew, that I don't. Not personally, anyway."

"I could say the same about you."

I laughed. "No you can't, and you know it." Nobody knew me that way. I'd never had the chance.

She licked her lips, and then pushed her chair back and stood up. "We should do something about that."

My heart began to pound, the heat in my face intensifying. "What about Clara?"

She came over and took my hand. "She's fine in the car. She'll let us know if the Beast shows up. Come on, love."

I stood up, and her lips met me there, soft and warm and filled with passion. We stayed that way for too long to be appropriate, and when she broke the kiss I was a puddle of goo. I reached into a pocket and found a wad of cash, which I dropped onto the table.

"That should cover it," I said. Charis started dragging me towards the door.

We were out of the restaurant and passing through the bar. It was a stroke of luck, bad or good I'm not sure, that I noticed anything at all other than Charis, and even better or worse luck that I saw the smoke.

"Charis, wait," I said.

I stopped and stared at the wisp of white air rising from the bar. It curled up into the sky and then spread apart into perfectly formed angel wings. I followed it back down to a slender cigarette, and the cigarette to dry lips mixed into a white beard. The head shifted just a little, just enough so that I could see that the smoker knew I was there, and knew I was looking at him.

"It can't be."

I looked back at Charis, who seemed just as shocked. I had a sudden feeling our consummation of the relationship would be waiting a bit longer.

I walked over to the bar. Charis and I found a space on either side of the man, and leaned in. We were nice and close, and when I made eye contact I was sure.

"Avriel. How are you here?"

"Who are you?" he asked, suspicious. "How do you know my name?"

I stared at him without answering. Avriel wasn't supposed to be in the Box. Avriel had been set free. What the hell was going on?

"Well?" he asked again. "Who are you, and how do you know my name?"

Something had changed. Was Avriel himself, or was he Ross? Had he recovered that quickly? "Are you Avriel? Avriel the Just?"

He was deliberate, taking the cigarette from his mouth and stamping it out in a nearby ashtray. "Who wants to know?"

"My name is L-"

Before I could finish, he'd pushed his bench out of the way, and a wrinkled hand was headed for my face. I ducked under it just in time, but didn't avoid the knee that caught me in the gut and bent me over.

"Get away from me," he shouted. "Both of you. Get away from me." He pushed his way past us and ran out the door.

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water," I said.

Charis kissed my cheek. "I guess you still owe me."

We ran after him.

Clara was waiting for us outside, leaning up against the side of the limo. I did a double-take when I saw her, because she had grown up again. She was barely a child anymore, now a teenager with all of Charis' looks.

"Which way?" I asked her, skidding to a stop. She tilted her head behind her, and I saw his back vanish over the wall and into Central Park. "You could have stopped him."

She smiled. "I didn't know he was running away from you."

"Ross?" This wasn't part of the original memory, I was sure.

"No. He's not strong enough. Not yet."

"Come on." I hit the gas again, and the three of us ran across the road, playing Frogger with the cars and vaulting the wall behind Avriel. We raced along the path, dodging pedestrians and keeping an eye out for a suit with long white hair, but he was gone.

"Lost him," Charis said, pulling to a stop and looking around.

"Clara, you can't find him?" I asked.

"Sorry, Pops. I've got nothing."

I spun around, searching the trees. There was nothing but shadows. I walked over to Charis and put my forehead against hers. "Whatever he is, he's gone. We might as well go back to plan 'A'."

"Guys... gross." Clara joined us, her eyes sparkling in the starlight. In the moment, I wished more than anything that we were normal, and she were real. Was it crazy to love a figment of your imagination?

"How long until Ross levels up?" I asked.

"You know time is meaningless, but if you want some kind of measure... three hours? Maybe four or five? Until he catches up anyway."

Time wasn't as meaningless when you could never get enough of it. I took Charis' hand and started walking back the way we'd come. If plan 'A' was out, we could at least relax at the restaurant for a while, instead of standing around outside.

"Are you coming?" I asked Clara. She was standing behind us, just watching.

"Wait," she said. I stopped and turned around. A dark shape was passing behind her.

"Clara!" Charis tried to warn her.

She must have known what would happen. That was the only thing to explain why she didn't move. The creature pounced towards her, dark and slick and formless. A wraith, I knew. I had fought one before.

It was only inches away when Avriel burst from the trees, sword in hand, and slammed into it. Caught by surprise, it howled and stabbed out wildly with a dozen spears of sharp oil that the seraph avoided with seeming ease, twisting and hopping to the side, then charging back in with his blade.

Its face snapped out at him, sharp teeth in a huge jaw trying to wrench his head from his body, but he planted a fist into it and forced it to retreat. The sword came around in a wide arc and smashed through the blackness, sizzling in the night air and bringing an intense smell of frankincense with it. The demon howled and tried to run, but it didn't make it very far. Avriel pounced on it and stabbed it a dozen times or more, until it finally lay still, and then vanished.

"Wraiths," he said, probably the closest thing to a curse the angel could manage. He looked over at Clara. "Okay, fine." He walked to where she was standing, unfazed by the whole sequence of events. The seraph fell to his knees and held out his sword. "I've been waiting for you."