My Soul to Keep

CHAPTER 17



"Did you ask her?"

I looked over at Clarisse and shook my head. After the day I’d had, asking Jessie to the Halloween dance hadn't come up.

"No, I'll call her tonight."

"Uh huh, sure you will. Well, there's always the alternative…"

"What's that?"

"Go with me," she said and turned a wicked smile at me.

I laughed and ended up with a fist in my chest. "Ease up, Clarisse. That hurts."

She turned the corner onto my street. I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt and ended up with a mouthful of dashboard as she skidded the tiny Bug to a stop in the middle of the road.

I started yelling at her but stopped when she started snarling at the windshield.

Three winged women stood in the middle of the road in broad daylight. They were unbelievably beautiful and deadly at the same time. Two of them held fiery swords, but the one in front held a glowing mace in her hand. Behind each of them fluttered white feathered wings. The Chosen.

"Stay in the car," Clarisse said and opened her door. It shut with a muted thud. She strolled to the front of the car and partially blocked my view.

"We want to see him," the leader of the three called out to Clarisse.

"Why? He hasn't broken any rules."

"His existence goes against the natural order. The People are not created, they are born of love. Not even the Fallen may swell their numbers unnaturally."

"It was his wish. He was given the chance to rescind. We communed and found his request to be within his rights."

"We want to see for ourselves. Let him speak."

Clarisse's shoulders slumped in defeat. Maybe, if there hadn't been three of them, she might have put up more of an argument. She waved at me to join them. I opened the door and the chilly October air felt ten degrees warmer.

I closed the door behind me and made my way to where Clarisse stood. Usually our street was somewhat busy. Everything was utterly still and quiet. No one played outside or worked in the yard. No sounds of traffic filled the air. No birds or insects could be seen or heard. I licked my lips and tried to squash the fear in my stomach. It didn't work.

"Hi, I'm Connor–"

"Silence, pretender. Step forward."

Clarisse gave a small, almost unperceptive nod. I walked about half way to where the trio stood. They closed the rest of the distance and surrounded me. They looked vaguely familiar…

Then it hit me. The one holding the mace was Shannon MacVie, captain of our cheerleading squad! No wonder Clarisse told me to avoid them. The fact my sister hung out with them started my blood boiling. I began to understand why we didn't get along anymore.

"Shannon?" As soon as I said her name, she ceased with her visual inspection of my person.

"Silence!" She gave me a disgusted look and the three of them began circling around me. "Let us see your true form," she said.

"Okay." I called my wings.

"I said your true form. I don't care what you look like with the tattered remnants of your wings. Bring forth your true self and let us see it in all its grotesqueness."

"Excuse me?"

"I said silence! Do it now!"

Clarisse stepped forward. "Shanria, it is not his fault. He is new and still gaining his power. He knows not his true form. I beg you. Give me time to ease him into the transition."

"Oh, this opportunity is too grand to pass up." She turned her attention back to me and held her finger up to my lips without touching them. "Did not Clarisse tell you of your true form? Let me educate you. This is what one of the Chosen truly looks like!"

She held her arms out to her sides. There was a blinding flash of light. As my pupils adjusted, her true form came into focus. She stood at least three feet taller than her previous five foot form. I looked up into her eyes. There were no whites, just silver. Her hair doubled in length and was white, purer than snow. Her normal looking clothes had been replaced with gauzy linen robes with a silver sash. She was utterly unearthly and utterly beautiful at the same time.

"Wow," I said without thinking. Instead of being told to be silent, she chortled. It sounded like music to my ears.

"This is what you could have looked like millennia before. Before our cousins decided they would rather do things their way. Now see what you have become…" She held up her hand and shoved power at me.

A black cloud surrounded me and discomfort seeped into my bones, but when it cleared I looked straight into her eyes instead of up into them. I'd grown to match her height. Her eyes widened in shock.

"No," she said.

I stepped back and looked down. My taller body wore robes just like hers, but of the blackest black. I held out my hands and my skin had turned a dark blue. My fingernails had been replaced by talons of deep crimson. I reached up and touched my face. It felt mostly the same except for deep ridges on my forehead tipped with long, slender, smooth horns.

"Cool!"

I turned and saw Clarisse. She'd changed, too. Her clothes were gone, but she wasn't wearing robes. She didn't need to. Her skin was pebbled with shiny black scales. She had horns as well, but they were twisted and ridged. She had no whites to her eyes, but instead of silver, they were completely red. Her face remained just as beautiful as before, but her teeth were sharp and pointed and hung over her lip, like a vampire's. Her wings stood straight out to her sides and seemed to radiate darkness around them. She looked hot and evil.

"Wow." I was starting to repeat myself. I didn't understand all the hubbub. "I thought you said we were hideous?"

Clarisse stared at me in awe. I wondered what my face looked like. I walked over to her tiny pink Bug and tried to bend down to look in the side-view mirror. It didn't work.

"Sorry, Clarisse." I ripped the mirror off the side of the car. I'd have her show me how to fix it later. I held the tiny mirror in front of my face and gave a little gasp myself. My hair had turned as white as Shannon's. My eyes glowed red like Clarisse's. I had fangs, but they were shorter. I’d been half hoping for scales like Clarisse, but my skin looked normal, just blue. Gone was every freckle and blemish. My lips were a little darker blue than my skin and my ears came to a point above my hair. I looked friggin cool. My horns shone like onyx and sprouted from the sides of my forehead and swooped up until they almost met above my head. I wanted to take a picture.

I dropped the mirror and it dissipated into nothingness. I turned and smiled at the three Chosen in front of me. They frowned and turned toward each other. The other two quickly assumed their true forms as they leaned in and whispered quietly to themselves.

I turned to Clarisse. "Not too shabby, eh?"

Her eyes went wide and she started shaking her head to tell me to be quiet. "Act disgusted," she mouthed.

"Why? I look friggin’ cool."

The others lifted their heads at my statement. Clarisse mouthed a word I didn't have any trouble understanding. My father used it enough whenever he stubbed his toe or smashed his thumb with a hammer. It happened every other day or so.

"What did you say?" Shannon ignored the other two and strode right up to me.

"I said I look friggin’ cool?" I didn't get what the big deal was.

"You are hideous! You are imperfect and there is no room for imperfection in this world!" She swung her mace at my face.

Oh, that's why Clarisse told me to be quiet.

My twin black blades met the ball and shaft of her mace. Her weapon sparked. Mine seemed to feed off the sparks. They started glowing. I'd never seen anything glow black. They radiated darkness like Clarisse's wings. Shannon stared at my blades like I'd just skewered two puppies with them.

"Not possible," she said and looked at me. "He is an abomination. He deserves not to live!"

The other two Chosen attacked me. Clarisse intercepted one of them with her fiery sword, but that still left two of them against me. I was going to get my ass kicked. Or killed.

They weaved in and out and attacked me simultaneously like they'd been fighting together since the beginning of time. For all I knew, they had.

They moved very slowly and I blocked every attack without much effort. A block here, a parry there, I got bored quickly and slid the blade in my right hand up the shaft of Shannon's mace and nicked her finger. I had just wanted to give her a reason to stop attacking me. Instead, she screamed and jumped back. She looked down at her finger as silver blood slowly dripped down to the paved road beneath her feet and made a sound like a church-bell as it struck.

Everyone stopped fighting and stared at Shannon. She sucked in a deep breath and bowed low. Turning, she gathered the other two Chosen with a sweep of her hand. They leapt into the afternoon sky and left Clarisse and I standing in the middle of the street.

"What the hell just happened?"

"You drew first blood. The fight was over unless they wanted to restart the war. They only meant to humiliate us."

"I hope they know it would take a lot more than a cut to humiliate me. I'm still in high school."