Aidan Ch11

P.O.V. Justin


Shit he's got a heart after all I think to myself as I watch Aidan storm out of the room, adding a new crack to the wall as he slams the door behind him.

"Someone should follow him," Tiny grunts after a minute of silence.

"No, he's too pissed right now.  Trust me I can hear his thoughts loud and clear.  Just let him fume for a bit and we'll go get him once he's calmed down," Sparks says quietly, staring at her hands.  I'm guessing she's brooding over what Mel said, though personally I think she had it coming. Its pretty fucking hypocritical of her to expect Aidan to kill Jess and then to get all butt-hurt when Mel says she'd kill her if in Aidan's position.    

"What the hell are we going to do about all this?" Mel asks, "I really don't think Aidan's going to kill Jess.  Are we sure that it's Aidan that even has to be the one to kill him?"

"Yes, from what I heard anyways and that isn't really something we can risk being wrong is it?" she asked rhetorically.  

"This is really fucked up, and Aidan's right, how do we know that it's even going to work?" I ask.

"How do we even know you're even on our side?" Mel retorts.

"That's true, you don't even let me into your thoughts," Sparks says, giving me a suspicious once over.  

"So what, you block your emotions from me," I say.  There's no way for me to prove that I'm on their side to them so I don’t even try.  

"Why don't you go and talk to Aidan," Sparks says to me.  I nearly laugh, knowing that this is a ploy to get me out of the room so that they can start discussing all of the information they've been keeping from me.  Too bad they can't trust me, I might know something to help them seeing as how I'm from here and everything.  Oh well right?  Fuck them.

"Where is he?" I ask Sparks, getting up and grabbing my studded leather jacket.  I've got to admit that I've got a weird mix of styles, half-punk half scene.  I know, that basically means that I should be waging war on my other half, but whatever, it fits me.  Judging by the way that Mel, Sparks, and Tiny dress, the two worlds have very similar styles.  Kinda weird seeing as how they practically died when they saw how different the food was, apparently it tasted all right though.

Sparks screwed up her face a little bit, I'm assuming to try and listen for Aidan.

"I can't tell you much except what he's thinking about.  He's on the rooftop of some old building, apparently there are gargoyles on it and it's got a hella nice view.  Judging from how easy it was to hear him it's not too far from here, about fifteen minutes walking distance.  Do you know what I'm talking about?

"Yeah I think so.  Bye."

And with that I walk into the hall in the direction of the cathedral, slamming the hotel behind me hard enough to add yet another crack beside Aidan's.  Well they pissed me off, I'm really just trying to help them, which is really a lot more than they deserve after taking me hostage and then using my money at will.  Fucking Aidan I think, smiling to myself.

As soon as I get outside I leap straight into the crisp night air, pulling on my hood from the sweatshirt I'm wearing under my jacket just in case the sun decides to rise while I'm out.  Shit that would suck, and it's happening more and more lately.  There's actually been a shit load of deaths because of it, much to Lord Ambros' dismay.  He thought the problems with the world would quit after he found a new lover, but he found one and the atmosphere of our world is still steadily declining.

Let me explain a little bit better.  There is a strong magic holding together our world and keeping it separate from the other world.  We call this magic the Seal.  I'm not going to bother elaborating much on how that works, to be honest I'm not entirely sure myself, so I'll just summarize as much as I know.  When God created this world for us he made us swear that we would always keep it separate from the other, threatening this worlds' destruction if the magic between the two ever faltered and the worlds were once again connected.

The magic's core is centered between two lovers, our rulers, who split both the throne and the magic equally.  The destruction of our world started when Lord Ambros' first lover, Lady Mia, died.  We'd believed that once he found a new lover the Seal would be healed and our world would go back to normal, but it wasn't so.

Lord Ambrosius, or Ambros, has recently taken and wedded a new lover, though we aren't going to know who he or she is until the feast that usually follows the wedding.  The feast was held off however because of the problems with the Seal, so we don't know yet who our new ruler is.  

Now the question is how Aidan and Jess fit into this.  I might be able to figure that out if Sparks and them would trust me enough to tell me what's going on.  I sigh as I hit the ground, bending my knees to gain the  momentum to leap yet again, this time onto the roof of the cathedral.  Jesus, I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I'd almost missed it.

I land with a soft thud and scan the roof for Aidan, frowning when I don't spot him anywhere.  Suddenly there is a knife against my neck and my arm is jerked behind me, holding me in such a way that I'll either break my arm or slit my own throat if I try to move.  I sigh and go still, no point in trying to move.  Shit I hope this is Aidan.  

"Aidan?  Is that you?"

"Justin?"  My arm is released and the knife is pulled away.

"Jesus Aidan, nice warm welcome you got there," I say, rubbing my arm as I spin around to meet him.

"Well fuck, pull off your damn hood and I might recognize you sooner," Aidan says and I frown.  His voice lacks its usual cockiness.  I should find that to be a nice change but strangely, I don't.  I like the asshole Aidan, anyone would like the asshole Aidan.  He just pulls it off nicely.  Seeing him all down like this just isn't right, and it's fucking contagious.  That’s just who he is, his mood effects everyone else around him, the goddamn prick.  Actually that makes me feel a bit better, he's still being a jerk just by making me feel like shit.

He frowns at me.

"Why are you so happy?" he asks me and I realize that I'm smiling.

"Oh…nothing.  Sparks sent me to come get you," I say, mentally preparing for him to cuss me and Sparks and the world to hell.

"Oh, well let's just wait a bit," he says, crouching back down on the peak of the roof so that his wings can hang down over it's steep angle.

What the hell?  Wasn't he supposed to cuss me out just then?  God he's got a really big heart apparently, lucky for this Jess kid I guess.  Damn, am I really getting all jealous over a guy that used to torture me?  What the hell does this say about my personality?  A psychiatrist would have a field day over this one.

"What's he like?" I ask, not that I really want to know.  I'd really rather not, but if that’s what Aidan needs to talk about to get him to be Aidan again then so be it.  Bring on the envy.

"Huh?  Who…you mean Jess?" he asks, finally looking at me.

"Yeah," I say, cringing over how softly he speaks his name.  Jess is so much nicer than Justin.  Jus-tin.  God it's so rough.  Jess just rolls off the tongue, the lucky bastard.

"He's…I don't know.  He's really shy and shit," Aidan says, looking back out at the lights of the city stretching endlessly before us.  Shy?  I would never have imagined that Aidan's lover would be shy…but I guess it fits.  A bitch for a kinky ass guy like him, God the shit he did to me.  You have no idea.

"I really miss him," Aidan says softly.  I'm not even sure he really said it.

"Yeah," I say.  What the hell am I supposed to say?  He looks so sad sitting there, thinking about this guy that he hasn't seen in god knows how long.  I get a twinge of jealousy in the pit of my stomach and look away.  

"You want a cigarette?" I ask him, pulling out a pack of menthols.  What?  It's not like they can hurt me or anything.

"Yeah," he says, still not looking at me.  I stick two in my mouth and light them both, handing one to Aidan.  He takes it without looking at me, I don't know how he even saw me handing it to him.  Then again, angels probably have amazing vision now that I think about it.  Hell, maybe he just heard me handing it to him.

"Ow!  Fuck me!" Aidan yells and I look over at him, startled.  I laugh when I realize what he did.  The dumbass tried to stick the lit end in his mouth and burned his damn tongue.

He looks at me and smiles this huge ass smile, looking shyly back down at the city, the smile still plastered to his face.  Shit, I never thought I'd see Aidan do that.  That was fucking adorable.  Why does he have to have that Jess kid god fucking damnit.  

"What?" he asks, his smile gone.  Oh shit, am I still staring at him?

"Aren't you cold?" I ask him, trying to change the subject.  He frowns at me as if he knows that his body temperature wasn't what I was thinking about, well not unless it was pressed against me anyways.  Oh god I'd kill to have that again.

"I'm fine," he says, though he's clearly freezing.  Its not like he's got a shirt on or anything, actually all he's got on are those sexy ass leather pants and a studded belt.  I guess the wings don't make wearing a shirt very easy, not that I'm complaining, and the nipple rings don't make looking at his bare chest to difficult either.  Nope, the only complaint I've got about his attire is that he's freezing his ass off.  I'd give him my jacket, but somehow I don't think that would go over too well with him, so I keep quiet.

I watch the embers glow and burn back he inhales a drag of his cigarette, flicking away the ash without ever turning his clouded gaze from a point somewhere off in the distant city.  I sigh, knowing that the view isn't really what holds his attention.

"Aidan, there's probably another way for you to do this, a way that doesn't involve killing Jess."

Aidan ignores me, taking another long drag from his cigarette and rolling slowly between his fingers.  He takes the last drag and flicks it into the city below, standing up as it falls.

"Lets go," he says and I stand up, sighing.  Why can't he just talk to people about his problems, why does he have to keep everything bottled up?  I'm sure he used to open up to Jess, but how long must it have been since they'd seen each other?  

"Aidan-" I start.

"Justin, its none of your fucking business," Aidan says sharply.  I flinch at his harsh tone, and open my mouth to retort but a sharp pain shoots through my stomach and my words are cut short by a scream.  It takes me a moment to realize that it's coming from me and then I'm falling, the world dancing with stars before me.   

Strong arms wrap around my waist and stop my fall.  Well actually it was more of a roll down the steep slant of the rooftop, god I must have looked ridiculous.  Either way, Aidan caught me and is holding me against him while crouching on the roof, pumping his powerful black wings to keep us balanced.  

"Took you long enough," I mumble, my voice muffled by his neck.  God this feels good, that lucky bitch Jess must have gotten this all the time.

"Sorry, that was a bit random," he says, some of his old cockiness returning to his voice.  "Next time you decide to tumble screaming off of a roof, would you please warn me if I'm the only one you've got lined up to catch you?"

"Yeah no problem," I groan, clutching my stomach again.  And then I realize what's wrong.

"Aidan, it's Sparks…" I gasp, panting for air.  Shit this isn't good; I think I'm starting to lose consciousness.  Sparks must have been stabbed or something, this feels like blood loss.

Aidan's already in the air, holding me close to his body as the city blurs below us.  That must mean my head has fallen back, I shouldn't be able to see the city from the way he's holding me.  I watch his glossy black wings pump powerfully beside me and my vision starts to fade.

"Aidan…hurry," I whisper and his wings pump faster but they slow immediately and I hear him swear.  My Mark is burning on my wrist.  Shit, that only happens if I'm in life-threatening danger; Aidan must be weakening now too.  My eyes roll back in my head and I fight to stay conscious, Sparks isn't going to make it.  Shit, if she dies I die.  If I die, Aidan dies.  Well not really, Aidan would take his Mark off me before he lost his life so there's no need for me to worry about that.  I just need to remove my mark from Sparks, now.  

"Justin if you fucking die I'll kick your ass," I hear Aidan mutter beside me and I smile.  God he's such a sweet asshole.

"Love you too dear," I mumble.  

"Stop fucking talking, you're wasting energy which I happen to be feeding to you so would you kindly shut the fuck up," he orders and I frown slightly.  He can feed me energy?  That must be an angel thing.  I feel his grip weaken slightly around me and the sound of his wings beside my ear slows.  Shit, he'd better hurry.