THE CHALDEAN ORACLE

Freeing Ishtar

Chapter 10

“Hey, hey, Ginger, want to play a game,” the Fallen Angel behind me whispered, poking my back.

            Ever since we had been sitting down, he had tried to get my attention somehow, whether it was by throwing things at me, or kicking on my chair, pulling my hair, or poking me—seriously, infuriating didn’t even begin to cover it.

            I didn’t turn my head, and tried to slap his hand away but I wasn’t quick enough. “My name’s not Ginger and no I don’t want to play a game,” I whispered, my jaw tight.

            The last thing I needed was to get in trouble during my first class. The teacher had given us one or two glance too long. It was probably just a matter of minutes before he said something.

            I heard the table and chair behind me screeched, “Can’t really blame me for that one, now can you? You haven’t told me your name yet and unless the None-of-Your-Business deal wasn’t a joke,” the Fallen Angel whispered, his face dangerously close from mine. I could feel the heat coming from him on the back of my head and his breathe moving strands of hair.

            “Can’t you stay quiet for a second,” I hissed back at him.

            “Is that the game you want to play,” he chuckled. I’m going to punch him. “Whoever stays quiet for the longest? Because I can tell you right away that I’ll lose. And whoever loses gets spanked by the other one.” When he whispered that last part, his voice dropped to a somehow deeper tone. 

            My jaw still clenched I spit between my teeth quickly, “I’m not telling you my name, I’m not playing any games with you and I’m definitely not spanking you!”

            “Want me to spank you,” he asked and I was easy to guess he was smirking right now with his tone.

            I clenched my fist under the table, trying to keep myself from punching him, my eyes fixed on the teacher. He had his back to us, writing things on the board and there was three girls whispering together in the front so at least that kind of help to stay off the radar, but still. The Fallen Angel wasn’t exactly trying to be inconspicuous.

            I wasn’t answering him, and obviously that bothered him because he poked my shoulder again.

            This time I turned to face him, glaring. “Damnation! Can’t you sit somewhere else?”

            “Now, why the Heaven would I do that?” He grinned widely. I shouldn’t have turned around. It was easier to be pissed at him if I wasn’t looking his way. “I quite enjoy myself here,” he informed me, settling back on his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

            I sighed and ran my hand over my face. “Please, shut up,” I begged.

            He rolled his eyes, but then sighed. “Alright, I’ll stop talking, but you owe me a spanking.”

            I glared at him but all I got was his annoying stretched-lips-closed-eyes grin. I should have seen that one coming.

            At least he stopped talking…

            At the end of the class, the teacher asked Levi to stay, so I took that opportunity to get the flap away from him.

            Luckily, I didn’t have my second period with him, but I did share it with Joseph.

            “How are you holding up,” he asked me quietly when he sat down at the desk beside mine.

            I felt a pang of excitement over having Joseph-flapping-Leon talking to me. That didn’t happen to you every day, especially if you were a girl. Maybe I really should try to find out if he’s gay… and he asked me a question so I should answer it instead of gapping at him.

            “I’m still alive,” I tried to answer lightly. The right thing to say would have been “I share a class with a flapping Fallen Angel” but when did I ever answer the right thing? My grades would imply that I was always answering the wrong thing. Why should it be any different here? “How about you,” I inquired. 

            “So far I can’t complain, but we’ve just arrived so I wouldn’t be surprise if I missed anything unusual.” like a seriously annoying borderline stalkerish Fallen Angel?

            I kept my thought to myself but smiled at him nevertheless. It was hard not to. That boy was so gorgeous.

            Obviously, Joseph didn’t try to disturb me during our shared class, unlike some other guy. He listened to everything the teacher said, concentrated, taking notes—the incarnation of the perfect student sitting right beside me.

            The class passed pretty slowly though because of the lack of distraction. It was a calculus class and I had already seen the particular subject we were going over back in Ishim school. It was one of the few tests I hadn’t failed actually.

            When the bell finally rang, I gathered my things and my courage to ask Joseph if he wanted to eat with me. It would be the normal thing to ask, right?

            “Do you have any plans for lunch?” I asked him, as he got up too.

            “I do as a matter of fact, I went to see the basketball coach and I have try-outs during lunch break.”

            “You want to play basketball,” I asked frowning. Was that like his childhood dream? To play a sport instead of killing Demons?

            “Sure, but it’s the getting closer to the other humans and learning more about them that truly appeals to me,” he clarified.

            Of course. I snorted, “Oh well that’s a sound way of thinking.” I should have thought of that.

            We had been walking side by side in the hall, but Joseph stopped and looked down at me, smiling. “Do you want me to see if there’s a spot open in the girl’s team?”

            “Hmm, maybe that wouldn’t the best idea,” I made a face. “I don’t have that good of a aim.” correction, I can’t hit a target even if it’s the size of a flapping building and the wind is in my favour “and since you’re already covering the extra curricular activities in the sport department, I should maybe try to get in all the other girly stuff people do, like their senior album or that ball they do,” I rambled, not exactly enthusiastically. There was nothing appealing about it to be honest…

            For some reason, my answer made him smile. Actually I think it amused him—he was chuckling a bit too. “Yes, that would be a good idea.”

            “Alright,” I took a deep breathe “Well, see you later then”

            “Yes, see you later” he kept smiling and we parted ways.

            I sighed and headed for the cafeteria. So much for my lunch plans. Now I would be alone. Maybe I could try to find that student counsel kid—Dominic was it? He’d probably know all about that senior extra activity crap.

            When I stepped in the cafeteria, I stopped, looking around, trying to find the chatty boy.

            But then someone stood very close behind me and whispered in my ear. “What’s wrong with your friend’s hair, moro mou?”

            I elbowed the Fallen Angel in the stomach before I could even think about how stupid it was to do it. “Nothing’s wrong with his hair,” I simply stated, not giving him the pleasure of looking his way.

            His laugh made strands of my hair brush against my cheek. “It’s yellow. And curly. Yellow cherub hair.”

            “Aw,” I crooned. “Are you jealous?”

            Levi walked around me, and stopped when he was standing right in front of me. “Would you want me to be,” he smirked.

            I rolled my eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

            Leave creepy Fallen Angel. Leave right now. You might be hot but your presence in general and your attitude makes your hotness moot.

            “It would if you spanked me,” he answered and wiggled his tongue at me.

            Again, creep.

            I tried to step around him, but he followed me. “Sit on ice, will you,” I groaned in exasperation.

            Yes the guy had saved my life, but that didn’t erase the fact that he was annoying. I was doing him a favour by not killing him or telling Joseph he was here, so the least he could do was leave me alone if he didn’t want to give me clear simple answers.

            “As long as you sit with me.”

            I frowned. “I’m not sitting with you.”

            “You owe me a spanking,” he reminded me, though in my mind, I didn’t. I owed him my life, sure, but not a spanking. “So the way I see it, either you get on with it right now or you indulge me with your presence during our lunch break”

            I snorted. “You make it sound dirty.”

            The only answer I got was his eyebrows wiggling.

            I swallowed loudly.

            “Fine, I’ll sit with you,” he grinned. “As long as you answer a few of my questions.” And he stopped grinning.

            Score!

            After a few seconds, the Fallen Angel shrugged. “Fine, I can work with that.”

            I looked at him in disbelief, but he seemed serious, so I shrugged too and followed him to the line at the cafeteria and when we both had food—spaghetti, very imaginative—I made my way with him to an empty table.

            Getting answers would be worth enduring him. And he was suddenly quiet so that was nice.

            After taking a bite of pasta—it was so bad, surprisingly—I wiped my mouth with napkin, not wanting to look like a slob and stated the first thing that came to my mind. “Sources tell me a girl probably came to free you from the cells.”

            Levi grinned. “Jealous?”

            I rolled my eyes. “Curious.”

            The Fallen Angel rolled his spaghetti in his plate, his gaze fixed on mine. “Sorry to disappoint your romantic expectations moro mou but no chick came to free me from my captors.”

            “Are you sure,” I pressed. What my father had told me, with what the Demon had said made that conclusion the most plausible. And the Fallen Angel could be lying to me.

            He rolled his eyes at me. “Yes definitely.”

            If only I could have an in-built lie detector…

            “No girlfriend of yours,” I pushed again.

            “I haven’t had a girlfriend in…” he snorted, running his hand through his hair “wow, a while, I’m more of a one night escapade kind of guy,” he grinned. “I get bored quite easily, I did get married though, three…” Levi frowned, “no wait, four times I think…”

            “Woah,” I looked at him in disbelief, “what’s wrong with you, you don’t even remember how many times you got married?”

            That Fallen Angel was seriously messed up.

            “Meh, it wasn’t that spectacular, obviously… I’d have more define memories if it had been.” The way he grinned at me, I think I should have been offended.

            “What’s wrong with you?”

            “Don’t you listen in class,” he laughed coldly. For one second I remembered who, what was sitting in front of me. It wasn’t just an annoying boy. No, it was an evil creature. “Fallen Angels don’t exactly have anything to gain from physical relationships that don’t require a lot of bodily harm, I mean not the kinky kind.” And with that comment, I was reminded of the annoying boy

            “So what? You marry anyone that comes along in Vegas,” I snorted and took a bite of food.

            “Something like that…” he smiled a bit. It wasn’t a smug smile, and something told me I shouldn’t be asking more details about who he married.

            “Well then maybe that’s how you majorly pissed off someone because I think there’s an Exousies that seriously wants to see you dead,” I pitched in, trying to change the subject and get more answers.

            “Oh really? Only one, I must be doing something wrong.” Smug smile, check.

            “I’m serious. When I arrived here I was seriously hit by a wave of “skin the Fallen Angel and make a leather coat with him” subliminal messages, which is weird since Exousies shouldn’t be backing up Ishims, only humans,” I whispered, looking around to make sure no one was listening.

            “Maybe it’s because you still have a direct link with the Angels because you are an Ishim,” he trailed thoughtfully, frowning, gazing down.

            I frowned too. “What do you mean?”

            “It’s why I’m here,” he explained, staring back in my eyes. “There’s something wrong with this place. Usually, schools like these, they have spiritual protection against full-on Demon attacks and possessions and mind control freaky things, but here,” he let out a short breathe, almost of incredulity. “It’s like there’s none of those and Demons can do whatever they want.”

            Woah. That wasn’t good. Wait. “Wouldn’t have Angels felt it,” I asked. Angels would have felt that.

            “That’s the thing,” he answered, almost excitedly, and leaned in, like he was about to tell me a secret. “They can’t. They send their messages but they don’t reach the humans. That’s probably why you heard all the “kill the muthafucker” messages all at once. Exousies might just think people are getting more distant with their consciences.”

            Okay, woah didn’t even begin to cover this. If the Fallen Angel wasn’t lying, something seriously wrong was going on here.

            “How did you learn about this?”

            “A friend of mine,” he shrugged, but then frowned and shook his head “Well actually, you know what I’ll be honest. At first I came here because three girls disappeared—”

            I cut him. “And you want to join their lesbian run away trip?”

            He smiled, like what I said was very appealing to him. “You’re funny. No, I think someone took them.”

            “Someone?”

            He nodded. “A Demon is my best guest.”

            Again, woah, that was major. “Couldn’t they have just run away? Or they disappearance aren’t related together?” Humans ran away all the time and people left their hometown, or got killed in alley by freaky humans. Not everything was related with our kind.

            “Trust me, I have a sense for that kind of thing.”

            I asked the most obvious question I could come up with. “What would a Demon want with three human girls?”

            “First guess was virgin sacrifice but I gathered intel and it doesn’t fit. The two first one were probably virgins but the third one was a known slut so at least we got that crossed off the list.”

            I raised an eyebrow. “We?”

            Levi smiled widely. “Don’t you want to help me? Isn’t this why you’re here? To catch evil?”

            I just started at him in disbelief. Was he really asking me what I thought he was asking me? And all of that aside, catching evil? Wasn’t he evil himself? Why would he pray on his own kind?

            “So how about it, want to catch evil with me little Ishim,” he repeated hauntingly.

            It is official, I have entered the Twilight Zone…