Greetings, friends at Nifty!
It is I, Darc Blackwind with another chapter to Fallen Angel. Chapter 10 has been labeled as one ov the most intense and important chapter in this series, at least by most ov the fans who graciously read my work. Tell me what you think, friends! I'm always anxious to hear what people think ov what I write and if they think it needs anything! My address is arboc969@hotmail.com
Enjoy!
Darc
Chapter 10: The Second Encounter with Evan
The five spent the day training, and indeed, by the time the sun had set, everyone was immensely tired and ready for sleep. Yawning luxuriously, Althea and Miranda sat in the back of Cal's jeep while they let Aria sit up front with Cal. "So, whatcha thinking about?" Aria asked Cal tenderly as he expertly steered the jeep past the large sinkhole in the middle of the dirt road. "You've been awfully quiet, lately. . . . Something on your mind?"
Cal shrugged. "I'm just getting nervous about this last fight between Evan and I. . . . I mean, what if something happens to you and the others?"
Aria sighed. "Cal, you've got a big heart, but why don't you start worrying about yourself for a change? I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."
"I know you are, but that doesn't stop me from caring about you, now does it?" Cal replied warmly. "Plus, without you guys for entertainment, my life would be very boring indeed!"
Aria laughed as Cal got off the dirt road and stopped by Aria's sportscar. "Well, I guess I'll talk to you later?" she asked as she leaned over and hugged Cal tightly.
"I'll call you up either tonight or tomorrow to discuss what we're gonna do about Evan. . . ." he said, hugging her tightly. "Take care of yourself, will you please? I'm sure that Evan isn't your friend anymore as well, and, you know, he might want to harm you. . . ."
Aria smiled as Cal walked her to her car. She got in and looked up at him, winking. "If something goes down, you'll know about it. . . . In the meantime, you take care of yourself too, `kay? You're the leader here. Everyone's counting on you to lead the charge against the Unknown Assailant and Janus Fakto Shureiya Kaieyakllein. . . . And some of us are counting on you to survive too. . . ." She closed the door, started her vehicle, blew a kiss to Cal, and then left before Cal could react. He stood there, watching her leave, his mind blissfully blank as the sun began to set west of him, turning her car into a silhouette.
She's counting on me to survive? Cal asked himself silently as he stood there, watching her car disappear from sight. She . . . wants me to live? A horn erupting behind him snapped him back to the real world as he looked back behind him. Fen was glaring at him through his truck's windshield. Opening the window, he bellowed, "Hey, ninja-boy! Get your ass back in that jeep so I can leave! Contemplate how to get into her pants later!"
Cal dreamily walked back to his jeep and got in. Althea was sitting in the front seat, but there was something different about her. "Cal, are you all right?" she asked gently as he settled into the driver's seat, buckled himself in and took off. Letting Fen pass him, he sighed and looked up at the ceiling of his jeep. The gray fabric was tinged black as he drove towards town and away from the sunset. He pulled over and got out. "Cal?" she asked worriedly, afraid that something had happened to her lover. She and Miranda got out as Cal sat down with a blank look on his face.
"What happened to your horns and wings?" Cal asked distantly as he watched the sunset, his mind aflame with what Aria had just told him.
"Oh, Miranda taught me how to change into a human girl. How's the name Shira sound?" she asked as she slid her arms around Cal's shoulders, watching the sunset with him.
"I like it. . . ." Cal said, more distantly. He sighed a dreamy, somewhat contemplative sigh and looked back at her. "I was so convinced that she, along with everyone else in the world, wished me dead. . . . It was such hell, I can't even begin to describe it. . . ."
Miranda sat down, looking at the two with mild jealousy. "Yes, love. . . . I understand. . . ." Althea said, nuzzling Cal's face with her delicate, pale hands.
Cal smiled weakly. "Until you came along, I thought that I was one of the most hated people on Earth. . . . I thought that if that kept up, I'd have no choice but to commit suicide. . . . But . . . now . . . it makes me wonder, what if I was . . . completely and absolutely wrong about Aria. . . ."
"What are you trying to say, Cal?" Althea asked gently. "Come on, you can tell me. . . ."
"Aria just told me that she was counting on my making through this last battle. . . . I wonder what she's thinking. . . ."
Miranda sat beside the two and looked at Cal with a confused expression on her face. "Cal, why would you think that you're one of the most hated people on Earth. . . ? I mean, you're our leader here! We love you!" Miranda said, hugging Cal from the side. Althea hugged him as well.
"It's true, Cal. We do love you, and will always love you!" Althea whispered, hugging Cal tightly.
And so, the three sat there, both Althea and Miranda hugging Cal tightly, as though they'd never let him go. Sighing, Cal just luxuriated in their embrace, finally truly happy for the first time since as far back as he could remember. "You guys are the greatest," he whispered lovingly as he began to hug them back. "I'm the luckiest guy alive to have friends like you two. . . ." Cal said happily.
With that, they watched the sunset in silence, just reveling in its untapped natural beauty. Althea was the first to break the silence. "I want to be enrolled in your school, Cal. . . . I want to learn stuff like you and Miranda are doing, and I want to be with you. . . . Both of you," she added, making Miranda smile.
Cal nodded and smirked. "I see. . . ." He looked back at the sunset, just enjoying its last rays of radiant light before the cold, inky darkness of night fell about the land. "Well, we'll go and see about that tomorrow. How's that sound to you?"
Althea hugged Cal tighter. "Oh, you're so sweet!" she said happily, hugging Cal tightly. Miranda finally let go and just watched the sunset. "I can't wait!"
Cal sighed and leaned into Althea's embrace. "Yeah, neither can I. . . ." he said distantly. His mind was on more pressing matters at the moment. With Althea's going to school would come her assimilation into the vile subculture of the student hierarchy, something that might harm her innocence irreparably forevermore. He could just imagine his ex-friend James walking up to her the first chance he got and hitting on her. Needless to say, Cal shuddered involuntarily at the thought.
"Are you cold, sweetie?" Althea asked tenderly while she had her arms wrapped around Cal's chest tightly. Cal looked up at her and smiled.
"No. I just thought about your first day at school. Chances are, at least James or maybe even Evan will try to hit on you, and," Cal retched, "that thought didn't settle well with me. . . ."
Althea shuddered too, imagining that bastard Evan walking up to her and trying to grab her butt. "Gracious, I see what you mean!" she said, shaking her head as if trying to get the image out of her mind. "But, don't worry, my love. If either one of those lame simpletons tries anything of the sort, I can blast them with a bolt of lightning or maybe a ball of fire. . . . What do you think?" she asked sweetly.
Cal laughed happily. "Well, I'm not saying they wouldn't deserve it, but you'd be thrown out of school for assaulting a fellow student with `unreasonable' force. So, if they do attempt it, make sure that there aren't any teachers around," he said light-heartedly.
Miranda scoffed. "Don't tell her that! She'd only be risking further escalating the measures! It'd be like hit-and-run!"
"Your point?" Cal asked mischievously. "If she gets into trouble, I'll accept full responsibility for her actions! What more is there to say?"
"I'll try to keep out of trouble, love. . . ." Althea said, realizing that she was being more of a burden to Cal than she intended.
"No worries, love. No worries," Cal said easily, smirking. He then got up and hauled Althea to her feet. Miranda hopped up lithely, realizing that it was time to go. "Well, where should we go now?" he asked. Looking at Miranda, he asked, "When are your parents expecting you home?"
"Well, I told Mom I'd be back around five, so, that means we're already late. . . . Why?"
"Oh, nothing. . . . I was just thinking of taking both of you out to dinner. That's all. . . ." Cal said distractedly as he opened the driver's side door and piled in. The others did the same thing.
"Well, maybe tomorrow. . . . My mom's strict about things like that. . . ." she said uncertainly.
Cal shrugged. "Shigata ga nai, neh?" he asked light-heartedly.
"What?" Althea and Miranda asked in unison.
Realizing that he spoke in a different language, Cal hastily said, "Uh, that's Japanese for `what's it matter, right?'. . . . Sorry, I'm learning it on my free time, and it sorta slips in every now and then. . . ."
"Oh," Miranda said, slightly amused by Cal's involuntary use of another language. Cal, blushing slightly, took off down the highway and didn't speak again until they reached the city limits of Andale twenty minutes later. He pulled beside Miranda's driveway and waved goodbye to her. "I'll see you later, Cal," she said happily as she got out, still wearing his undershirt. "I'll give this to you at school, okay?"
"Yup," Cal said, shrugging. "Take it easy!"
"You too! Drive safe!" And so, Miranda left and disappeared behind the veil of her door.
Cal then took off. "That was slightly more than embarrassing. . . ." he said distractedly.
Althea patted him on his arm. "Don't worry about it. It happens. . . . When Miranda was fucking me, I yelled in demonic that I was going to cum. . . . We all have these little maladies, don't we?"
Cal looked over and grinned. "I knew you'd have a fling with her!" he said happily, stroking her lovingly on her slender left thigh. "So, how was she?"
Althea arched her back as she stretched out a kink in her spine, moaning sensuously. "Uuuuhhhhnnnn. . . ." she moaned, looking over at Cal. "She was good, but not as good as you, lover. . . ."
Cal smiled, despite of himself. He pulled into a casual diner and parked in a spot next to the door. "I'm taking you out!" he said happily, shutting off the car. Grinning, he pocketed the keys and unlocked the doors. He then got out and opened up her door, chivalrously offering her a hand. She took it and the two went into the diner, locking the jeep's doors behind them. "Two, non-smoking please," Cal said as he walked up to the hostess, who was eyeing him suspiciously. He grinned, then said bluntly, "It's rude to stare, you know. . . ."
"Er, s, sorry!" the hostess stuttered, blushing as she walked out from behind the podium with two menus. "Th, this way please. . . ."
Cal walked behind her, followed closely by Althea. "So, you want to be enlisted in the school, do you?" he asked her as he took a seat on the far side of the booth. The hostess handed him a menu.
Sliding in next to him, Althea shrugged as she took the other menu. "Yes. Seven hours separated from you is too much. I want to be with you . . . always. . . ."
"What would you guys like to drink?" the hostess asked, in an almost apologetic tone of voice.
"Some green tea, please," Cal said lightly, quite amused with the hostess's attempt to please him after being rude by staring at his ninja-uniformed attire.
Althea thought about it for a second. She then said, "Could you bring me a cherry coke, please?"
"Right away, ma'am and sir!" she said, bustling off to fetch their drinks.
"Anyway, what were we talking about now?" Cal asked lightly, smirking that cocky smirk of his. It made Althea's heart melt.
"I . . . want to be with you more than just before and after school. . . . I want you to help me sign up to your classes. I'd like to learn what you're learning. . . ."
Cal nodded. "Well, some of them are difficult if you've never had experience with the equipment before. . . . Such as Advanced Drafting. One has to know how to use a computer to do animation. Others, one needs to know about how things work, for instance, with my Anthropology class, we're in the midst of learning the value of games in our culture. I'm not talking like football or video games. I'm talking things like duck-duck-goose and tag. You know, children's games. . . ." The hostess handed him his cup and a teapot full of boiling water and green tea packets. She then handed Althea a tall glass of cherry coke with ice and a straw. "Thanks."
The hostess nodded. "The waitress will be with you momentarily." She then walked off.
Turning back to Althea, Cal said, "Are you positive you want to learn what I'm learning? I have friends in the administration, and they could allow you to bypass the prerequisites, but seriously, it'll be hard for you if you don't know what you're doing in the classrooms."
Althea nodded. "Yes. I want to be with you so badly that I'll do anything to keep close to you, to be by your side. . . ."
Cal sighed and smiled lovingly towards her. No one had ever told him that before, and hearing it, even from Althea, was quite shocking, but in a pleasant sort of way. "Very well, my love. I'll get you enrolled tomorrow." Cal leaned over and kissed her deeply and passionately.
"Ahem. . . ." came the high-pitched male voice of the waiter serving them. Cal and Althea broke away and Cal smirked. Althea was blushing slightly. "What can I get for you guys?" the waiter asked sheepishly. He had brown-black hair in a Hitler-style hairdo and was about five feet five inches tall. He wore glasses and had a gaunt look to his face, as though he had forgotten how to sleep and eat.
"Ah, get me the salmon filet," Cal said, smirking cockily at the waiter as he scrawled down the order. "And get her the filet mignon."
"Right away, sir."
"So, how's life treating you, Stitch?" Cal asked as he glowered at his acquaintance. Stitch turned around and glared at Cal and Althea.
"Well, I got myself a job, as you can see, Blade. . . ." Stitch said, referring to Cal's nickname. "It's more than you could hope for. . . ."
"Cal, who is this person?" Althea asked, looking from Cal back to Stitch.
"Ah, Althea, I'd like you to meet James Paquette, or simply, Stitch," Cal said, gesturing to Stitch like he was a zoo exhibit.
"And how did you manage to get this lady within ten feet of you, you sword-brandishing, ninja-garb wearing loser?" Stitch said, glowering at Cal and checking Althea out.
Althea looked revolted as she surveyed Stitch with the utmost disgust. "I love him, thank you very much!" she said, her frowning eyes glowing a shade of crimson.
"No offense, hon, but Cal's a walking death sentence. Why don't you date a real man, like me?" Stitch asked as he flashed her a boastful grin that showed off his sea-green fake front tooth.
"You, a real man? My, you certainly have a high opinion of yourself, don't you?" Althea snapped back, making Stitch wince in agony as though she had physically slapped him. "Get us our food, now! Or we're complaining to the manager and getting you fired!"
"Yeah, you heard the lady!" Cal said, smirking at the intense pain that seemed to be inflicted upon Stitch by the thought of him having to serve his enemy like some slave. "Get a move on, Stitch! Althea and I are hungry!"
"Now I see why you shuddered when you thought about him hitting on me. . . . He's a horrible man! You're thousands of times better than him!" she said, patting him lovingly on his shoulder.
Cal smiled. "I'm glad you approve," he said happily. "Did you see the look on his face, though, when you told him that you thought he wasn't a man?! Hah! I thought he would vomit up his left kidney from that insult! You sure have a way with words, love!"
Althea giggled despite herself. "I admit, I love it when I inflict mental anguish upon your enemies, Cal! They're so animated!"
Evan grinned up at the manor from across the lake. "So, you thought you could just walk out on me, did you?" he asked someone who had her back turned from him. This woman had silky golden brown hair and a slender build, with gently fanning hips and curves in all the right places. Tonight, she was wearing a trench coat to protect her from the cold. "What happened to our friendship?"
Aria turned to look at Evan. "Because you're not you anymore. That's why I left. You attacked and tried to kill a friend of mine, and you were once our leader! How dare you show your face to me now!?" she growled, turning to look at Evan angrily. Her bronze hair flicked over her shoulder as she turned. "At first, I thought it was Cal who changed. But, I found out now that that was not the case! He didn't change, only opened up! You, what have you become?!"
Evan smirked, showing off his vampire teeth. "Simple, luv, I've become much more than I once was! Much more than you, you pathetic excuse for a warrior! HAH!"
Evan's eyes glowed blood crimson in the gloom of the night. Aria had concealed a small pistol in her trench coat as she walked out across the lake to meet with Evan. "I'm at least not you, Evan."
Evan laughed evilly, throwing his head back as he shook with humor. "You fool, I was trying to save you from Cal's grasp. He's the dark one, not I! If only you had listened to me, instead of running off with that hottie who's hanging out with him nowadays, it wouldn't be this way!" Evan drew a double-edged longsword, blood red flames erupting from the hilt all the way past the point of the sword. He started advancing towards her, grinning evilly all the while. "Join me, or perish like the whore that you are!"
Aria had expected this and grabbing the pistol from out of her trench coat, she pointed it at him. "Don't force me to end our friendship permanently, you abomination!" she hissed, her arms tense.
"Aria, luv, why do you point that at me when you know it's hopeless?" Evan asked as he continued walking toward her.
"It'll buy me some time at least. . . ." At that moment, she flared her energy out so everyone in the area who could sense energy could feel hers. HELP! HE'S HERE!! she thought as she began to glow, backing up to the edge of the wooden dock, Evan cornering her. "Don't come any closer, Evan, I don't want to kill you!"
Evan threw his head back in laughter, stopped about fifteen feet away from her, and transformed into his demon form. "Take your best shot, luv! It's on me!" he advised, withdrawing his enormous, leathery, bat-like wings and folding them behind his back.
Needing no more incentive than that to defend herself, she quickly aimed the pistol at his forehead and pulled the trigger multiple times, each bullet erupting from the barrel of the gun and flying towards Evan's demonic face. The first bullet struck him right between the eyes and knocked him back ten feet, making him drop his sword. The second bullet hit him in his left shoulder at an angle so it knocked him into the marina with a big splash. The other four or five bullets missed because of that. Breathing heavily, as though she had just run a mile, Aria walked to the edge of the dock, a cold sweat drizzling down the back of her neck and forehead. She hastily wiped it off and sighed. "So much for our friendship, Evan. Rest in peace," she whispered, walking back up the dock.
"Leaving so soon?" a voice behind her asked. She shakily turned her head to see Evan standing there, holding the two bullets in his right hand. He dropped them on the dock and grinned evilly. "But the fun has only just begun!!!"
Driving like mad, Cal and Althea flew through the relatively deserted streets towards the marina. Cal was just finishing up his salmon filet when the energy signal and the cry for help hit him in the back of the head with the force of a nuclear explosion. "HELP! HE'S HERE!!" had nearly knocked him into his baked potato because of its frequency as it passed through him. Althea had also sensed it, but it didn't affect her as profoundly as it did him, so, knowing what was going on, Cal and Althea rushed out of the restaurant in a hurry, throwing down thirty dollars for the meal.
"I hope we aren't too late!" Althea exclaimed as Cal drove like a madman through several red lights, reaching behind him to grab his katana. "I like Aria now."
In about a minute and a half, they arrived at the marina. Slamming on the brakes, Cal put the jeep in park and shut it off all in one swift movement. He saw that something bad was going on at the dock, so he lunged out of his vehicle and ran towards the small point of light moving off in the distance. Althea took off just as rapidly, transforming into a demon and spreading her wings to fly to the sight of the battle.
When Cal had arrived at the point of light, Aria was cornered against the chained post on the far right corner of the dock, nursing a tremendous gash in her left arm and a smaller, but equally nasty-looking cut to her right leg. "EVAAAN!" he shouted, leaping the space between the wooden dock and the murky water and doing a forward flip, drawing his katana.
The demon turned to look at the black form of Cal, a grin on his face. "Ah, so you decided to come to the rescue, did you?!" he asked, withdrawing his flaming sword from cutting Aria down and brandishing it towards Cal.
Cal walked up to him, no doubt in his mind that this would be a battle to the death. There was no fear in his heart, for the moment he had heard Aria's cry for help, he had been fully committed to taking his ex-friend's life. Looking down at Aria, he saw a look of both fright and immense relief. "Why have you attacked her?" he then asked, looking the demon in the eyes angrily, searching his glare for answers.
"Because she left me. And because I was bored. I need to have some fun every now and then, don't I?" Evan asked sadistically, grinning his fanged grin and laughing as Althea arrived on the scene, flapping her wings behind her back as she landed. "Ah, here comes your girlfriend to save the day! Shucks, I don't know how I'll be able to survive with having to fight some little fag and his bitch tranny!" he said diabolically, his eyes deadly narrow.
That was all Cal could take. "YOU SHUT YOUR ASS UP, DEMON!!!" he cried as he lunged at Evan with his ninjato at the ready. Their swords connected and sang with a tremendous, earth-shattering CLAAAAANNG!!! "YOU HAVE PISSED ME OFF FOR THE LAST TIME, YOU PATHETIC BEAST!!!"
They fought fiercely against one another, Cal coming in low with an uppercut from the blunt edge of his sword, Evan blocking and throwing Cal to the side, next to Aria. Flipping up, Cal slashed again at Evan's knees, knowing that in his human form, that was his weak point. Evan punched Cal in the nose with his left fist, knocking him back and he stabbed the wooden dock with his flaming sword. It erupted in a pyre hot enough to melt glass and fuse lead to bone. "You misunderstand me, you fool," Evan said, grinning as Cal jumped as far away from the wall of fire as he could because of the heat. "I am no mere fallen angel. . . ." He twirled his flaming sword, causing a sort of funnel-like manifestation in the air from the flames that licked the blade of his sword. "I am the being that will change this forsaken land once and for all!" The apparition sprouted fiery arms and eyes that were like shadows. He created another funnel-specter. "That is your problem, creature. You cannot face facts, that you shall never overcome me and my power. The only reason that your friend here is still alive is because I was toying with her. She is pathetically weak, worse than you, even!"
Sweat drizzled down Cal's face, soaking his ninja robes and making his grip on his katana slippery. The flaming part of the dock collapsed into the marina, sending up a colossal mist of steam that obscured Cal's vision. All he saw was a hazy silhouette of Evan through the cloud, and of course, the flaming sword, gleaming ever more so deadly because of the steam. "You bastard, we were your friends!" Cal growled, pointing his katana at him. "We fought to save the Astral Plane together, we bled together, and we mourned together! Why have you become this way, damn you?!"
Evan grinned. "I take that back. Perhaps you are the weaker of the two of you. . . ." he said, walking towards Cal and Althea, who had leaped over the missing section of the dock and walked to Cal's side, her eyes glowing. "You have always been a jealous little shit, Cal. . . ."
"Jealous? Why am I jealous of you?"
"Because of my power, and my friendship with Aria, and my-"
"I WAS THE ONE WHO INTRODUCED YOU TO HER, OR DID YOU FORGET THAT?!!" Cal yelled, interrupting him.
"Heh, yeah, I suppose you're right on that, for a change. . . ." Evan said, growling a low, unearthly growl from deep down inside his throat.
"You leave here now, or else we will kill you," Althea said, growling.
Evan's eyes narrowed, him glaring at her. "There's something different about you. . . . What are you trying to hide from the world, demoness? What don't you want Cal to know about you or have you simply forgotten?" Evan asked. "No matter." His eyes flickered back to Cal. "DIIEEEEE!!!" With that shouted, he lunged at Cal at an unfathomable speed, impaling Cal on the end of his sword before Cal could react. Cal gasped and looked up at Evan with frightened eyes. "You always have been the weak one, haven't you?"
"NOOOOOO!!!!" Althea shouted. Aria got up and ran to attack, but was instantly blasted off of the dock by the flame specters Evan created and sent at her. She flew off of the dock, flipping like a knife in the air, and crashed into the murky water with a loud SPLOOSH!!
Althea was glowing. "YOU BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!!" With that shouted, she raised her right hand and screamed, half blinded by tears, "TEARIOSNEK FRIESH KABRA DOTEN ELECTROS!!!!" The sky above the two opened up in an electrical storm that showered down, electrocuting Evan to the fullest with sixty billion amps of electricity. He dropped the flaming longsword and shuddered. Cal gasped as he wrenched it out of his torso, his crimson blood flowing out of the grievous wound freely. Althea then screamed, "TEARIOSNEK BATRA KYOSEI DUUTEN PYROS!!!!" and a circle of black fire erupted at his feet, throwing him off of the dock, screaming in pain.
"THIS CANNOT BE!!" he shouted as he spread his wings, flapping them and taking off into the night. "I'LL HAVE MY REVENGE, FOOLISH GIRL! REMEMBER THIS NIGHT!" And, with a radiant flash of light, Evan was gone.
Breathing heavily, Althea ran to Cal, who was about to collapse from loss of blood. "Here, let me heal it!" she whispered, putting her hand to the wound and channeling her energy like Miranda had taught her to do. Cal staggered as he felt the rush of energy into his stomach. A minute later, Althea looked up at him and smiled. "Don't scare me like that, lover. . . ." she whispered, kissing him. He kissed her back, very passionately.
"A, a little help here w, would be appreciated!" a voice moaned from the background. Snapping to, Cal hobbled over to Aria and hauled her out of the water. She was bleeding more fiercely from the cuts to her arm and leg, and there were several bruises on her forearms, as the sleeves of her trench coat had somehow been ripped off. She hugged Cal tightly. "I thought you'd never show up. . . ." she whispered as she hugged him.
Cal smiled, hugging her tightly around her waist. "I promised you I'd watch over you, didn't I?" He then let go of her, helping her walk down the dock to Althea. "It was Althea who saved the day, though. . . . Maybe Evan's right. Maybe I am just a helpless, weak dark one. . . ."
"You're stronger than you realize, Cal. I saw this when you two were fighting. You just need to hone your skills. . . . That's all," Aria said as the two met up with Althea. Hopping over the gap in the dock, Cal helped her too. "Thanks. . . ."
"That's what I'm here for. . . ." Cal said happily. He and Althea helped Aria walk to his jeep. "I'm not going to take you back to your house," Cal then said as he opened the jeep door up for Aria and helped her crawl into the back seat.
"Why?" Aria asked, somewhat apprehensively. For a brief moment, she thought that Cal had somehow manifested his dark side against her. But, seeing the look on his face, she knew that that wasn't the case.
Cal smiled as he looked into her eyes. "Because Evan might return to finish the job, you know? It's safer if we're all together. Three of us can repel a demon much better than just one, neh?"
"I guess that makes sense. . . ." she thought as she put pressure on her leg wound. She didn't make any complaint about it, though.
"D'you trust us?" Althea asked as she piled in to the front passenger seat.
"Yeah. . . ." And so, Cal turned the key in the ignition and brought Aria with him and Althea back to his house.
"What the BLUE HELL HAPPENED!?!?" Cal's mother shrieked as he, Althea, and Aria limped through the door ten minutes later.
"Calm down, mom. Someone who mugged us is stalking Aria, and thus, I got caught in the crossfire. Be more considerate of my guests, will you please?" Cal whispered as he persuaded her to follow him into the next room, making up a reasonable lie on the spot.
"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK YOU'VE BEEN INTO SOMETHING YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN INTO! IT STARTED WITH BRINGING THAT GIRL HOME WITH YOU, THEN, LAST NIGHT YOU COME HOME BLEEDING FROM THE SIDE! TONIGHT YOU BRING HOME ANOTHER ONE, WITH SLASHES, AND YOU'VE BEEN STABBED! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU??!" she screamed, spit flying from her mouth and impacting unpleasantly against Cal's face.
"LOOK!" Cal bellowed, letting his temper get the better of him. "I KNOW I'VE BEEN ACTING STRANGE, BUT SO WOULD YOU IF SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAD HAPPENED TO YOU!!!" Breathing heavily as though he had been running for hours on end, he saw his mother flinch as though she were physically struck by him. He sighed and said, "Sorry I yelled at you. But you're being unreasonable. Aria's life is in danger, and I swear to the Almighty that I'll use my sword to protect her. Althea and I brought her here so she could get a good night's sleep without worrying whether or not she'd wake up in the morning." Cal scoffed, highly offended by his mother's narrow grasp of what had just happened to the three of them. "Judge yourself before you judge others, and speak less. It shows your intelligence, or lack thereof, when you yell like that."
Cal's mother sighed and looked away. "You know, Cloud wouldn't treat me this way. He'd be-"
"In case you haven't realized by now, gentle mother, I am not my older brother. He's off at college and I'm the only one here who can stand you!" he growled, turning his back on her. "Look, I'm sorry for turning this place into a hotel all of a sudden, but this is important! We have to discuss this stuff and I only ask that you give me that much courtesy to allow me and Althea to take care of our friend. You would have let Cloud have at least that much leeway!" he added, making his mother's face turn ghostly pale.
"Cal. . . ." she began, at an apparent loss for words.
"Look, my friends are waiting for me. If you won't let Aria stay so we can guard her, may I borrow fifty bucks so I can rent a hotel room for her?"
"No. . . . They may stay. . . ."
Cal then walked up and hugged her. "Thanks!" he said jovially and left the room, leaving his mother standing there, bewildered at how he had manipulated her into saying yes.
"So, what was that all about?" Aria asked as Cal and Althea helped her limp to the downstairs where the extra bedroom was.
"She just said that I've been acting very weird lately, what with bringing a demoness home, coming home wounded, and bringing you home. Obviously I couldn't tell her that we had just fought against a demon bent on destroying the universe, so I just told her we got mugged and a stalker is after you. Decent lies?" Cal asked
Aria giggled. If she didn't know the truth, and if she took a look at them, she would have believed it. "You're always the amusing mastermind, Cal!" she said jovially as she sat down on the edge of the guest bed in the spare bedroom.
"Perhaps. . . . She did seem put out after I told her that she would have let friends of my brother stay over if someone was stalking them," he said, winking at her. "Now then, Althea, could you possibly heal her wounds? I mean, you healed mine. . . ." he asked the demoness sweetly. Smiling, Althea put her hands on Aria's leg and arm wound, channeled her energy to the two troubled spots, and almost instantly the blood stopped trickling from them. Seconds later, the wounds started sealing up. An astonished look on Aria's face told it all. "Thank you, love," Cal said, patting Althea gingerly on the back as he took a seat on the floor at the foot of the bed. Seconds after that, the wounds were fully healed. Althea sat down across from Cal and looked into his eyes enchantingly. She blew a kiss to him.
"Now I see why you two make such a great couple," Aria said, smirking as she surveyed Cal and Althea with great interest. "It's as though you guys are the perfect match. . . ."
Cal smiled as he leaned against the bed. He then looked up at Aria. "Yes. She's absolutely the guardian angel who's been watching my back, isn't she?"
Althea sighed and transformed once again into her demon form, her long ribbed horns sprouting from just behind her hair line and curving all the way back to the floor and her wings sprouting out of her back, folded neatly behind her. She sighed once more in comfort and said, "Ahhhh, that's better. . . . Transformation is always uncomfortable. . . ."
Cal decided to take his black ninja robe off, setting it, along with his sword and gauntlet-like gloves aside. Aria sighed and took off her shoes and trench coat, setting both beside the ninja robe. "Quite a night, isn't it?" she asked as she lay back on the small bed, letting its warm comfort envelop her slender form. "Thanks for coming to the rescue, Cal and Althea. . . . Without you guys, I'd probably be dead. . . ."
"Well, we certainly wouldn't want that. You're a main source of our strength, Aria," Cal said humorously. Then in a very dire and relieved tone of voice, he added, "I'm glad we were on time. I felt your signal like a nuclear bomb went off just behind me. I was so alarmed that it knocked me into my salmon dinner!"
"It did not!" Aria said humorously, playfully smacking Cal in the arm.
"Seriously, it did! I saw it myself!" Althea said happily.
The three of them spent the night discussing things about how to handle the threat Evan now posed on them and eventually, into the wee hours of the morning, Aria fell asleep. So did Althea, leaving Cal alone in the bedroom as he gently picked Althea up and carried her off to his bedroom. He lightly shut the door with a small click and lay her down on the bed, undressed her, and tucked her in. Looking at his digital clock, he read 1:39AM. Sighing, he got out of his ninja uniform and set his sword next to his bed in case he had to reach for it quickly, and then crawled into bed and shut off the lights.
Cal felt a pleasant sensation upon him and he woke up, hastily reaching for his katana. "It's just me, lover!" whispered a loving and urgent voice from within the bedsheets. The room was pitch-dark, the only luminescence coming from the alarm clock, which read 3:16AM. Cal felt her silky-smooth hands grasp him about the base of his already hard penis and her tongue lick the underside hungrily. "You're so sweet, I just want to lick you and lick you until you beg me to stop!" she moaned as she sucked on his cock, letting her tongue wrap around it every now and then.
Cal groaned quietly as he felt her spread his legs and begin to deep-throat his long, hard penis with an insatiable fervor, her delicate and gentle hands massaging his ball sack. He pulled the covers back, exposing the beautiful silhouetted form of Althea and running his fingers through her mane of silky maroon hair. A delicious sucking sound came from Althea's gullet as she sucked him for all she was worth, wanting nothing more than to give him the most pleasure he could have imaginable. She pulled away, pulling on his cock as she left, and kissed her way up his groin to his chest to his face. "You're such a brave person, Cal! I was terrified when that bastard ran you through with his sword," she whispered as she passionately French kissed him.
Cal looked into her eyes and kissed her nose. "I'll never leave you, Althea. If I have to come back from Hell to be with you, I will!" he whispered, wrapping his arms around her slender waist and massaging her buttocks. He slipped a finger in and began to twist it around inside of her hungry rectum. "I want to be with you forever, my love," he whispered as he felt Althea tense up from the sensation of getting fingered like that. Slowly, Althea was arching her back as Cal fingered her, slipping at first one, then two fingers, then three into her anus, stretching her delicious, puckered muscle. Althea began to gyrate her hips in sync with his fingers.
"Oh, Cal!" she moaned as she felt his hand slip in and out of her anus with a sticky slapping sound. "Ooh, my love, don't stop!" Cal felt her hard cock pulsating against his stomach as she straddled his lap, their cocks touching each other and pulsating in unison. Deeper and deeper his fingers bored into her back door, caressing the very core of her body. Making sure he was massaging her prostate gland, he felt her pre-cum leak out onto his stomach and cock, the feeling absolutely wonderful. Althea shuddered with this sensation as well, moaning loudly and arching her back so her beautiful, pale breasts thrust out at Cal as she felt his fourth finger enter her from behind. "Oh, God! Uhhhnnnn!!!" she moaned gutturally, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she arched her back in an extreme angle.
A sheen of sweat glistened in the crevasse between her breasts and Cal slowly and deliberately withdrew his hand from her backside, her buttfuck juices glistening in the viridescent light from the alarm clock and window. She slowly came back to Earth, gasping for air and sweating profusely. She looked down at him longingly and peppered his face with kisses. "We'll make love later today. I don't know if Aria's listening to us or not," Cal whispered, kissing her longingly on the lips.
Althea sighed in exasperated longing and settled back underneath the covers and wrapped her arms around Cal, resting her head on his chest. Cal kissed her forehead and whispered, "Good night, my darling angel."