This is a continuation. You might wish to follow this link to the beginning: soiled, part one
The weeks passed without further event. Fall became winter, melting into the holidays with no more than a subtle whisper. The garish commercialism of Christmas made it impossible to miss, but Daños paid little attention to the world at large. His life consisted of home, car, office, and gym, typically in that order each day, and then reversed at the end of it.
Work was a boon and, at first, a solace. Meetings and projects consumed all of his time at the office, and much of his time at home. Sleep came only when it refused to be pushed aside, and those times hit him so quickly and hard that he often didn’t even make it home. Exhaustion dictated he err on the side of caution, but only for the sake of others did he do so. A cab ride to the apartment he kept in the city spared those with whom he’d have shared the road, spared his life as well.
Not that Daños cared. His life, such as it was, mattered little to him.
***
“You promised.” Chloe’s face was earnest, though a bit pinched and wan. It hurt Michael to see her out and about, keeping diligently to her word that she’d let him handle the Chamber, that she’d not push the issue until he could find a way to convince them to reinstate her. Without her wings, she was unable to do more than teach some classes at the Angel Academy, where she was viewed by the other Instructors as a cautionary tale, an example to point out to the fledging and very impressionable Guardian pupils. She’d endured stares, whispers, and occasional direct rudeness without complaint. Indeed, she took the abuse as if it were her punishment.
It was an unprecedented request. And it wasn’t going well.
“It isn’t that she cannot earn back her wings,” said Gabriel for the fifth time. He kept trying to drive this point home, astounded that both Michael and Chloe were sticking to their insistence that she not only earn back her wings, but that she be allowed to retain her Guardian status. Even that wasn’t entirely out of reach, given the fact that the entire situation had been created by circumstances beyond her control. Her intentions had never been selfish, had never been anything but in keeping with what she thought was the best interest of her Charge. But Chloe wanted it all.
She wished to be reassigned to the human Daños.
“Out of the question.” This from David, who looked as though he were reaching the end of his patience with the entire process. ”She’s behaved admirably since you recalled her from the … situation.”
“She’s in love with him,” stated Rafael, his tone laced with derision. ”She’s committed the cardinal sin of Guardianship in developing feelings for her charge.” He leveled a look on Michael. ”And you are altogether too fond of her yourself.”
It was true. Michael looked down at Chloe, and knew he lacked objectivity where she was concerned. She was rare and fine and spectacularly unhappy. Her misery was his fault, despite the computer glitch. He should have caught it, and he should have handled her better from the beginning. ”Yes,” he said. ”I did promise. And I’ve done my best. I can offer you only this. The Chamber refuses to consider any other alternative, and will consider the matter closed after today. You’ll have to decide, Chloe.”
She looked down and scuffed the toe of her sandal along one of the indentions in the golden pavement. Her voice caught on her next words. ”One whole night and one whole day?”
“Twenty-four human hours. If you go now, you’ll arrive in the early evening.”
“Will he know me? Remember me?”
Michael hesitated. ”It’s hard to say. We don’t quite understand the connection. He felt you in those pre-Initial Contact events you tried to sneak in.” Chloe’s eyes widened. ”It’s all been reviewed. There is nothing the Chamber doesn’t know.” He smiled a bit. ”I think it is the level at which you sense one another that led the Chamber to finally agree to this small compromise. They wish to observe the Event.”
“I’ll do it,” she whispered. ”Go tell them. Please. Send me now.” She turned away, then stopped in surprise. Her wings reappeared with a delicate shimmer.
“They already know. Godspeed, Chloe.”
***
Daños sat before the fire in his large leather club chair, his long legs extended before him, crossed at the ankles, idly tapping his index finger against his lips. He lounged slightly to the side and stared into the dancing flames. When they blew slightly inward from a disturbance in the air, he noted it, but didn’t react. A moment later he felt her step up behind his chair. ”Go away, angel.”
“I … c-can’t.”
“You will. I have no desire to see you, and your intentions, whatever they may be, are misplaced. You cannot save me.”
Chloe stepped around the chair and knelt beside his outstretched legs. She slipped her hand beneath his. ”Look at me, please.”
Daños lifted and turned his head to look down at the girl who had consumed his thoughts. She was clad in the same sort of diaphanous garment in which he’d found her the night she’d turned up, sodden and pitiful, in his front yard. This time, however, it was not soaked and torn. It clung to her slender form and settled about her knees in a shimmering pool, but it wasn’t what she wore that made him sit suddenly straighter in his chair.
While he watched, she spread her wings slightly, then settled them around her shoulders, bowed her head and rested her forehead on the back of the hand that covered hers on his thigh. Despite his words, he reached with his other hand and buried it in the dark curls at the crown of her head. ”Chloe,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.
She lifted eyes shining with unshed tears. ”Merry Christmas, Daños.”
part twenty-two
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