Page 49 of Guarded By Death

"Ten-year-old me didn't understand what was truly going on over there. My mom shielded me as much as she could but there was only so much she could do. She put on a brave face, but I heard her quiet cries every time she would watch the news in her bedroom. I would sit on the other side and listen to see if any soldiers had perished, crying myself every time." I try to keep my voice strong.

"A few weeks before he was set to return home the house was in a frenzy. Mom was deep cleaning every day, anxiously waiting for his arrival. She was smiling for the first time in years, she was so happy. She bought me a few new dresses for the trip to the airport and I tried them on."

"My favorite was a light pink one that flowed with lace, and I was admiring it in my bedroom mirror when I heard a loud thud and a piercing scream ring through the house. I ran down the stairs to find her at the front door with a paper crumpled in her hands, she was clutching it so hard that when the uniformed men in front of her went to help her up they had to hold her by her shoulders instead of her hands." My voice is muffled by the ache in my throat and the tears slowly streaming down my face. The deep pain of reliving this nightmare.

Pierce gently wipes away the tears. "You don't have to continue right now," he assures me.

"I need to," I say, knowing I needed to pull up the strength to explain this to him. "The men spoke to my mom for a while, they ended up in the living room and mom held me against her while she wept. She told me to go upstairs and I walked to the end of the staircase out of sight as I listened in."I look up for a moment, trying to roll the tears back in but there’s no use. "He had gone out to check on a unit and was on the way back when his Humvee ran over an IED, it was such a high explosive there was nothing left. We buried my father, but it was just an empty box with a flag draped over it." The sobs wrack my body. I wish I had my father's strength and courage so I would be able to talk about him without breaking down.

He holds me against him fiercely, soothing me as he rubs his hands through my hair. I think about Pierce. He was in the military too. I don't know what he did, but my dad always said that his men were like family, it comforts me knowing Pierce is like family to my dad even though they never met.

I pull back from his chest and look into his glossy emerald eyes. "He was a hero, like you.”

His expression grows grim at my words. He shakes his head, his hard edges darkening. "I'm not a hero," he states, his tone cold as he pulls me closer to his chest.

"Want to go on a walk?" he suggests. Something to take my mind of the hurt sounds nice. The summer air is warm as we make our way back out to the white sands again. A familiar setting, I will never get over. The way the waves come in at night from the tide. The pink skies as the sun begins to fade below the endless water. I adore the ocean so much.

I study Pierce’s stiff expression as we make our way back to the long piece of weathered wood. We sit down and I angle myself towards his body, but he keeps himself faced out at the ocean.

"What's going on?" I ask curiously.

Twenty-eight

I need to talk to you, too

His dark eyes still pointed at the water, he places one hand on my shaking leg to make it stop. He turns his attention to me, a haunted look on his face. "I need you to understand why you can't compare me to someone like your father. He was an honorable man. I am not.”

I place a hand on his leg for encouragement and he opens his mouth to speak, then closes it for a long moment before continuing. "I was created for a sole purpose, Scarlett." His chest moves up and down steadily as he contemplates his next words. "I've never been like you, a human. I actually have never felt the emotions you feel, until I met you." I blush at his words but listen intently as he continues.

"The bond is only there for such a short moment, I only have ever felt fear through other humans. Fear of me, the unknown, their death. But with you," he caresses my face in his large hands, "I feel happiness, adoration, want." He tries to fight it, but a crooked grin appears and makes me melt.

He returns to his serious demeanor, "A long time ago, back when monsters and demons wreaked havoc on earth, God created an army." He stops talking for a moment as he sweeps his hair from his face.

"So, the archangels?" I wonder out loud.

A dark laugh escapes his lips. "No, not like the archangels. Me, my men. We were created for one reason and we were sent to earth to fight. I was the leader of the Shadows." I look at him in confusion.

"We were the men the angels turned to when their moral compass was too high. There always has to be darkness even in the light, but I was loyal to all that is good. An angel of the shadows that was never seen nor heard."

“You had parents though?” I ask, remembering him talk about them at dinner when he met my mom.

He shakes his head. “No. But what else am I supposed to say when someone asks about them, ya know?” he chuckles lightly, “Parents make you weak, having someone to care about makes you weak. So we were created without them.” My heart lurches, no wonder he enjoys family dinners with us so much.

He looks out at the water, then back to me, his emerald eyes narrowed. “I’m heaven’s darkness, but it went too far," he spits. “A divine war was brewing on Earth and God summoned a batch of his strongest warriors to defend his children. I was the commander to a hundred men, but our power was as much as a million trained humans, only we were much, much stronger." He lets a small smile slip, his mind reeling on memories. "We were sent here with one purpose in mind, to find and destroy all that was unholy."

With a shaky breath, I ask, "So God sent you here?"

He shakes his head slowly, "It's hard to explain but there's a lot of higher-ups we have to go through, we were sent by the council, the ones who pay close attention to Earth's divine balance."

I nod my head, trying to retain the information.

"We were ordered to wipe out every unholy entity on the planet and we went gladly, they thought that was a solution to the rebellion that was sweeping across humanity." He gives a look that says 'give me a break' while letting a small chuckle escape his lips. "I ordered my men to annihilate and we began the sweep." His tone is casual and it's not hard to imagine him leading an army, he breathes confidence and his movements are always fluid as if he's a trained killer. This should scare me, but it only makes me feel safer whenever he's near.

He lowers his head. "The problem was, while humanity grew and the evolution of evil became more evident..." He looks at me, trying to rid himself of the memory. "We didn't understand why humans were prone to kill other humans, even when they weren't possessed. They were just evil in their own right."

"The higher-ups believed it was genetic." He bites his lip as he shakes his head. "We were ordered to kill all family members of the 'dark humans'. Humans like the guy from the club, or the alleyway.... you know with the aura I can see."

I nod in understanding as he continues, "That was the problem, they said it was genetic and we needed to kill off their bloodline." He looks at me pointedly. "ALL of them," he whispers as he bows his head.