Rachel Higginson - Sunburst

She was actually a terrible teacher when it came to homework and tests. She was one of the most brutal. And she didn’t accept any late work unless we had a note from a doctor proving we were on our death beds. This was unfortunate for me, since I never got sick, and my parents would die before they let me lie about something like that. But, she was also our volleyball coach and Rigley’s mom, so occasionally we were given grace for the random error in punctuality.

Today was one of those days.

I slid into my desk behind Seth and across from Tristan. The tension in the air was so thick, I wanted to reach for the six-inch blade hidden under my bubbly denim skirt, but I refrained. It wouldn’t do any good to beat either of these boys up; they were still determined to act like Neanderthals.

Tristan shot me a smile, which I returned, but Seth didn’t even turn around. It had been three days since I spent the night with him; he had given me the cold shoulder ever since, except during training- then he was giving me the very hot, very deadly, very skilled shoulder. It was when he was kicking my ass with his damn pirate sword that I wished he would just stay distant, until I could give him what I wanted.

I glanced over at Tristan while he listened to the lecture on the War of 1812. His head was freshly shaved; he was rubbing his hand over it in the way he did when he was thoughtful or pissed. His skin was darkening again, now that he was out in the sun all the time practicing or helping his dad with the planting. And his bright green eyes were intent and focused forward.

He was striking. Sometimes I couldn’t believe just how gorgeous he was.

It was disconcerting to stack him up next to Seth. Seth’s looks were so classically perfect, his burning amber eyes, his flawless, golden skin and his tussled light-brown hair. He looked very much the Angel that he was.

But Tristan was all dark beauty and rough exterior. His muscles weren’t genetically made, but hard-earned over a childhood of manual labor and constant physical activity. His nose wasn’t exactly straight and his eyebrows were maybe a little thick, but he was Tristan- my Tristan. And I was afraid of how unwilling I was to let him go.

I knew what I was supposed to do…. what I was expected to do.

But I had to wonder if I was capable of living out this part of my destiny.

I didn’t love Seth.

I didn’t even like him as much as I liked Tristan. Tristan’s muscles weren’t the only thing that had been fought for and refined over time. My feelings for him spanned my entire life; they had developed constantly and consistently for as long as I could remember.

And while I felt something for Seth, there was part of me that thought my physical and emotional reaction to him was as much of a genetic complex as his godly body. Tristan had worked for our relationship. Seth had appeared in my life and expected there to be one.

That probably wasn’t fair to him, but there it was all the same- the root of my issue.

My attention was drawn back to Seth when something moved along his back. I swung my gaze to him just in time to watch the tip of a Shadow’s pointed tail whip around Seth’s back.

My breath hitched in my throat and I stared at Seth, waiting for the disgusting little demon to reappear. Shadows were exactly what they sounded like, black smoke like creatures that were actually more flesh and blood than incorporeal material. But they appeared as black, hazy smoke and could disappear at will, floating off into different dimensions or returning to Hell in their downtime. They could also make any shape they wanted and appear as apparitions or hallucinations. Over the winter I’d mistaken one for a deer in the road one night and that’s how Seth was introduced into my life.

But I hadn’t seen one in a while- which was a bit disturbing. Still, it was unwelcome to watch one crawl all over my Counterpart in the middle of the day. I waited for Seth to react, to show the tension the little bastard would bring to his broad shoulders or a bit of desperation as he tried to get the shooting pain off his skin.

Shadows were our exact opposite.

Where we were made out of light, they were made out of darkness. Their touch to our skin was the harshest, most torturous kind of cold. And to them we were unbearable heat. We were purely made from Heaven and goodness. And they were spawned in the depths of Hell from only the vilest evil.

Their direct touch would kill a human on contact. And in huge hordes, they had the ability to take an Angel’s life. Although one couldn’t do much danger other than an annoying kind of hurt- like death by a million paper cuts kind of pain.

Seth must be insanely in control if he wasn’t even going to brush off the wispy little thing.

It reappeared around Seth’s bicep and I only saw it because I was paying such close attention. It wrapped around and around, slithering up and down Seth’s arm and across his t-shirt like a snake.

Still, Seth didn’t even flinch.

I reached forward and tried to smack the Shadow off his back, but it scurried off before I was even close. Seth did feel that though and shot me a WTH look. I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was serious or not.

He was.

My face scrunched up in confusion, but I shrugged it off. He turned back around and started taking more notes on the lecture. The bold Shadow came back, this time winding around and around Seth’s neck. The deathly color of the Shadow was such a contrast to the healthy glow of Seth’s skin. The Shadow was skin to skin now, Seth should have been feeling something- especially around his neck.

I couldn’t believe the proverbial balls on this Shadow. He was antagonizing Seth- an Angel- while me- another Angel- sat behind him and in a room full of humans!

While there was an ongoing war over the state of this planet, there were boundaries set in place, divined by God Himself and agreed upon by Lucifer. Humanity was to be left to their own decisions. We all knew this- good, bad, even humanity understood they were masters of their own fate. They probably didn’t understand the true consequences for their decisions, still they were left to determine for themselves who would ultimately control this planet. And in order to do so, we had to follow rules.

While Shadows could influence, they couldn’t outright attack. And in the same vein they weren’t allowed to outright reveal themselves or come in direct contact with humans.

Sure, they broke the rules all the time, but to break them in front of two Angels was just downright stupid.

Seth still hadn’t bothered to remove the Shadow. It seemed quite content wrapped around his neck, like a scarf. This baffled me. It would only take was a little bit of internal Light to singe the pest so it would scamper off to the depths of Hell it came from.

I decided to help him out. I reached up- way up, because he was so tall, and readied my hand with some of my own Light. But just as I grabbed the back of Seth’s neck in a firm would-be choke hold, the stupid thing disappeared again. Seth jolted from the unexpected shot of warmth through his skin and swirled around in his chair again.

“What, Stella?” he asked seeming annoyed.

“Uh, you had something on your, uh….” I trailed off, not knowing how to explain it to him now. But why was he acting so completely oblivious to it? The few times I had been unlucky enough to come in contact with Shadows skin-to-skin, they had lacerated my skin and shot their deadly iciness straight to the marrow of my bones. The pain had been unbearable. And Seth didn’t even seem to notice! “Never mind.”

He shook his head at me, seeming both confused and surprised by my behavior, and then turned back around.