Fan Fiction ❯ Illicit Angels-Caught between heaven and hell ❯ chapter 3 ( Chapter 4 )

Tawny lightly stirred on the couch and her eyes fluttered open. Where was she? She brought her hand up to massage her temple and the previous events flooded back into her mind. The glass shattering…Taylor helping her pick up the shards of broken glass…cutting her self…things got fuzzy after that though. She looked around and found Ariel sitting on the chair reading a magazine. Ariel sensed eyes on her and looked up from the magazine and found Tawny looking at her with a confused expression on her face.

"Oh, hey! You're up! Are you feeling better?" She got up and walked over and Tawny and sat down next to the couch. Tawny slowly sat up and looked around the room. "Pete, Tay and Kelly went home. I told them that I would stay here till you woke up to make sure that you were okay." Ariel explained, answering Tawny's thoughts. It was true, that she had stayed to make sure that Tawny was alright, but she had also stayed to make sure that the small mind-glamour that Peter had planted in her psyche had taken affect and Tawny didn't remember what had really happened with Taylor in the kitchen.

Tawny nodded as she let her friend's words sink in. "What happened?" she finally asked.

"Well you cut your self and Tay tried to make it stop but I guess that it was just a little too much for you." Ariel was proud of herself. She didn't exactly lie...she just kind of glazed over the truth a bit. As long as she didn't completely lie Tawny would never know that Ariel was being less than totally sincere. Plus, she was planning on telling her the truth as soon as she knew what Kelly, Peter, and Taylor really were. Ariel knew that Tawny could be trusted.

"You're kidding me... I fainted?" Tawny got a disgusted look on her face. "What a wonderful first impression." Ariel couldn't help but laugh although inwardly she was slightly startled at how quickly Tawny's mind had come out of the haze from Peter's Glamour. It usually took a person hours before they had enough clarity of mind to talk and move around with out getting dizzy spells and nausea.

"So...do you think you would want to do something with us sometime? Y' know, like, hang out or something?" Ariel asked, eager to change the subject.

"That would be cool. It's been so long since we've hung out together." Tawny already felt much better. Thankfully she was a fast healer. Although her wrist still throbbed. But she was glad that Ariel was there. She didn't realize just how much she had missed Ariel until she and Tawny had been reunited again, thanks to Tawny's stepfather getting transferred to Tulsa, Oklahoma for his job.

"Cool! So, you don't mind if we just randomly show up at your house or something?" Ariel asked jokingly as she stood up and straightened the wrinkles from her clothes.

"Yeah. Whenever you're, like, bored or anything. I don't have anything better to do with myself but sit in this house." She started to sit up but quickly changed her mind and lay back down. Even though she was getting better every second she decided that she wasn't quite ready to stand up yet.

"Alright then! Well, I gotta get going. I'll talk to you later....you're sure you're alright?" Ariel asked. Tawny nodded.

"Just one question, though," Tawny said lightly. "Why all the black?" Ariel shrugged as she made her way to the door.

"I dunno…Taylor, Kelly, Lily, and Peter always wore black and after I started hanging aout with them for a while I just started wearing all black too." Tawny nodded.

"Who's Lily?" Ariel's face clouded over momentarily with an unreadable expression. And Tawny could feel some of Ariel's happy demeanor crumble slightly. She opened the door and stepped onto the porch before answering.

"She was a close friend…I'll tell you more about her some other time, okay? Later, Tawny." Ariel closed the front door after her.

* * *

Taylor shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked down the street. Ariel still wouldn't talk to him. He hated it when she did that. Although he had to admit that what he had done the day before was stupid, but he hadn't been able to sleep since.

He still felt Tawny's blood coursing through his system and he had never felt better in his whole life. The hunger that usually caused his whole body to ache wasn't there anymore. Yet, he felt incomplete. He had been trying to make sense of the feelings that had been running through his mind since yesterday afternoon. His thoughts were interrupted by a noise.

He looked up only to see Tawny circling a large punching bag that hung from a thick tree branch in the front yard. He stopped at the sight of her and watched intently as she jabbed at it a few times with her right fist before landing a left hook that caused the heavy punching bag to sway slowly. She backed away a few paces and stood still, her eyes closed.

Tawny took in a deep breath, trying to center her self. She couldn't explain all the sudden giddy energy that filled her, making her feel shaky and unbalanced. Ever since the day before, only an hour after she had came back to consciousness. Taylor's face and his voice taunted her memory. Every time she thought of his crystalline blue eyes, she felt…well…she wasn't really sure how to describe how she felt. She felt dizzy, but in a good way… and her heart seemed to quicken its pace. But she also felt a hesitation, like a rabbit that senses a snake near by.

As that thought crossed her mind Tawny was reminded of the dreams she had had the night before. The same dreams she'd been having since her father left when she was eight. As the screaming and the bloody visions filled her mind she found the right incentive to start sparring again.

Tawny opened her eyes, inhaling before taking a step forward and pivoting her body, neatly turning a no-handed cartwheel. When she was balanced on both feet she found her self standing in front of the punching bag. With out consciously telling herself to do so she began to punch and jab at the punching bag. Though her eyes were open she no longer saw the reddish brown, eighty pound bag. Instead she saw a man before her. The man looked completely normal. But he `felt' wrong…not quite a void, like Taylor, Peter, and Kelly…but…out of place. Like an ancient artifact randomly placed among modern nick-nacks. Tawny knew this man very well, though she had no idea who he was. But he haunted her dreams every night. When he opened his mouth and smiled, blood spilled down his chin, like a kind of vile poison. As she imagined this man in life like detail she continued her onslaught with her fists, landing harder and harder blows with every hit.

Taylor watched in fascination as Tawny sparred with the punching bag. He watched as her muscles moved and contracted. Her skin glistened in the afternoon sun with a light sheen of perspiration. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, though a few strands had fallen out due to her physical activities. She moved flawlessly, as though she was dancing. She almost seemed to be reacting rather than exercising, almost like she was fighting against a real adversary instead of sparring with an inanimate object. As he continued to watch, Tawny took a step back, pivoting her body and performed a flawless roundhouse kick. However, the force of the impact of Tawny's foot rocked the bag so hard that the branch broke under the off-center weight, crashing down on top of Tawny, who immediately dropped to her knees, covering her head with her arms as she braced for impact.

With out realizing that he had decided to do so, Taylor rushed over to Tawny, at her side in seconds.

"Tawny?!" he called out. He saw a few branches moving strangely. He reached down through the branches and pulled Tawny to her feet. "Are you alright?" She stood in shock for a few moments as she surveyed the brush from which she had been pulled. "Tawny?"

"Yeah…I…I'm fine," she finally replied, shaking her self out of her stupor. "Wow…never done that before."

"That tree had it coming anyway," Taylor chuckled. Tawny looked up at him in amused surprise.

"Y' know," Tawny began, "You have a really nice smile. You should smile more often." Taylor cocked his head.

"You've only known me for a day," Taylor countered, the corner of his mouth still struggling to stay up turned. "How do you know I don't smile all the time?"

"Beca-" Tawny stopped her self. She had almost let it slip. Let what slip? Tawny wondered. She had been about to say "Because your kind are meant to suffer". But that didn't make any sense. What `kind'? She shook the confusing thoughts from her head. "I dunno…you just…seem really quiet." Taylor nodded.

"That's `cause I only speak when I want to say something. People sound stupid when they babble."

"Oh." Tawny felt her cheeks redden, being a well known babbler herself. Taylor smirked at her, an expression that made him seem slightly demonic. She nervously tucked a few stray locks behind her ears.

"So…do you often spy on your neighbors?" She asked coyly as she reached up and played with one of the earrings on her right earlobe. Taylor couldn't help but fix his stare on the band-aid that now covered the cut that had almost caused him to take her life. I hope the mind-glamour doesn't wear off, he thought.

"No," he replied simply. A silence descended on the two teenagers. Tawny didn't know what else to say. Why did Taylor make her so nervous? No…it was more than being nervous. There was something about Taylor and Peter and even Kelly that literally frightened her. She looked down at her feet and kicked at the ground for a few seconds until she looked back up at him through her eyelashes. What was it about Taylor that made him seem so…different?

* * *

Peter looked over and studied Ariel's face as she watched the horror movie intently. Her brandy brown eyes stared eagerly at the screen as she bit her bottom lip. He couldn't help but smile as she wrinkled up her button nose in disgust when the woman in the movie fell due to an injured ankle.

"Get up!" Ariel cried as she jumped in her seat and changed positions for the umpteenth time, like she usually did when she watched a movie. "I cannot believe this! Just get up! It's your freaking ankle for God sake! I mean, c'mon!" She paused as she witnessed with disgust that the man came back to help the damsel in distress before the evil creature caught up to them. "No, no, no! How stupid are you?! Don't go back for her! No way! I just...I... ARGH!" She sat on her knees and grabbed at her hair in disbelief of what she was seeing. Peter laughed.

Ariel turned to look at him. "And just what is so funny, Peter Jonathan Marx?" He shook his head and put an innocent look on his face.

"Nothing! Nothing at all.....it's just very, um.....amusing." Peter tried desperately to hold in his laughter.

"What's so amusing?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at him expectantly. He shrugged.

"Nothing," he said plainly. He fought the pull at the corners of his mouth. She leaned over and grabbed the front of his black shirt and pulled him to face her.

"You'd better tell me what you find so funny, Pete, or I'll...I'll.....do something!" Peter's eyebrows rose in intrigue.

"Oh, you will, huh? And what is this 'something' that you are going to do to me?" Ariel smiled wickedly. She knew what Peter was thinking.

"Hmm, your impertinence bores me," Ariel said in a haughty voice. "You should know by now not to question the All Mighty Ariel. No fun for you today. You are banished from my sight! Go!" Peter pouted his lips, making it very obvious of his disappointment in her statement.

"I'm sorry." He said pitifully. Ariel couldn't help but smile.

"Alright, don't even gimmie those puppy dog eyes. I invented the puppy dog eyes, my friend." Peter rolled his eyes as he grinned. He wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her closer to him as they reclined in the living room couch at Ariel's home.

They sat in silence for a while as they watched the movie, only half interested in it. Suddenly Ariel sat up and turned to face Peter on the couch.

"Pete?" she said softly.

"Yeah?" Peter faced her so their eyes met. Ariel reached over and, grabbing the remote, turned off the television. She placed it back on the table where she had retrieved it.

"I've been thinking...a lot..." Ariel let the sentence hang as she tried to find the right words to express what had been weighing on her mind for the last few weeks.

About what?" Peter prompted. He turned so he was leaning against the arm of the couch and focused his attention on Ariel.

"Well," she blushed as she looked away briefly. "I was thinking…about, um…about our relationship."

"What about it?" Peter asked carefully, trying to figure out what she was getting at. He could see that something was making her uncomfortable. He drew his eyebrows together in question.

"Um…see…uh…we love each other, right?" She bit her lip as she looked at him unsurely.

"Yeah…yeah, we do…" Peter waited for her to continue.

"When…are we gonna…" Ariel took a deep breath, looking down at her lap. "When am I gonna become one of you?" Peter's blood froze at her words. She was speaking of the ritual.

"I…I've actually…been thinking about it…but I'm not sure if I really want you to go through the ritual." Her head snapped up so her eyes met his, her hurt shining clearly.

"Why not?" she asked, obviously hurt. Peter smiled sadly at her.

"Because I don't want you to be like me. Ell, being immortal is lonely. Trust me...I just don't want you to go through that." He reached up and caressed her face with the back of his hand as he looked into her eyes.

"I won't be lonely, I promise," Ariel insisted, almost begging. Peter sighed and closed his eyes.

"Let's think about it for a little while longer, Ell, okay?" Ariel nodded in acquiescence, leaning into his hand.

Peter couldn't stand it anymore. He leaned forward so that his lips brushed over hers and they let their foreheads rest together. The feeling of his touch made her feel warm all over. Her eyes closed as she concentrated solely on the fact that he was there with her and they were touching. Even the smallest touch from him made her feel light and confused.

A/N chapter three! YEA!!! Plot is starting to appear. Reviews? Please?