When I felt his warm, tan skin on mine I breathed in deeply and I smelled his sent, like fresh linen and fruit. He was kissing my cheek; my pale skin was soft to his warm touch. My heart was fluttering and my stomach was soaring with my head in the cotton clouds above us. Only we were in the grassy wonderland of my never-ending dreams, and it was only with him when I was happy. A smile fluttered across my pale, thin lips and decided to stay there a while longer.

He pulled away and I let him, my heart desiring his warm soft gaze. His blue gray eyes met my emerald stare and I saw his perfect teeth show through his beautiful lips. His soft hands rubbed my arm gently and his other hand rested on mine. I had never gel so relieved to be swept away from my life with him by my side and the sun on our backs. I looked away from my life with him by my side and the sun on our backs. I looked away from him to see a ladybug crawling on the sunny grass. I was unhappy with my father for banning me from staying with Shade, the man who had stolen my affecting for two years ago. His eyes were on me, I could feel it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked simply but I could hear the worry in his deep voice and his eyes were quavering; the deep shadows of worry clouding his brain.

“We’re not allowed to see each other, and if my dad finds out we have been together, I’ll be beaten and confined to my room.” I explain, because I tell Shade everything; he is the only person I can trust.

His eyes shone with true understanding. “Then just make sure he never finds out. That’s all that needs to happen. We just need to be very careful.” he smiled halfway, and it made my heart jump. The only time he smiled was when he was with me and even though I had seen it every day for two years it made my heart pound. I shook my head and silent agreement and started to stand up slowly so my bruises and broken toes wouldn’t throb all over again. When Shade saw my attempts to get up he immediately shot up to Help and ease the stress and pain of my weight. His soft hand touched my own and he pulled hard enough to help me but not hard enough to do any damage to my fragile figure. I looked up gratefully at his face that was about three inches above mine and he returned my look with one of his no-problem smiles.

I stared to walk and stumbled; my face showing agonizing pain from feeling my broken toes bending form the small stumble. Tine saw my pain and grief showered his beautiful face; he didn’t even attempt to hide it. He hurried to my side as though an instant reflex, not something you have to think about. He held my delicate arm as to not hurt the bruises and we walked very slowly down the small hill, the blazing grass swords tickling my sensitive feet.

When we were almost halfway down the small hill I fell once more, as I had almost every few steps that I and Tine had taken together but this time Tine fell along with me. I landed on his chest because when he fell he rolled to keep me from falling on the hard ground. His strong muscles tightened from the stress of my weight suddenly on his, but he didn’t even lose his breath. When my head stop hurting I pulled my head up to see two jet black wings with white trimming on the ground on either side of me. I followed them up to see they connected with the back of Shade.

My eyes widened, but not from the shock of seeing wings; we all had those. Just the amazement of seeing Shade’s wings. His wings were the most beautiful wings on the planet, except for mine. My wings were a charcoal black on the down feathers and on the inside they were a pure golden color. I was the only Areus ever known to have any other colored wing than brown, black, or white. I was very proud of my wings and to everyone who didn’t know me personally; I was the one everyone wanted to be. The funny thing is, I wanted to be anyone else.

I rolled to my right and gently fell on the ground. Tine shot up and offered me his hand again, with a look of regret and embarrassment. “I’m so, so sorry! “ I heard him say, his gaze not meeting my own.

“Its fine, you helped a lot!” I say; his smile started to creep onto his face once again, “I’m sorry you have to help me around a lot of the time, I feel week like I’m only a child.” I explain though I’d done it fifty times before and I didn’t see the use in it.

“It’s not your fault!” Shade exclaimed which made me jump a little as I saw his muscles tensing as though preparing for battle, “It’s your father who deserves to die for the pain he puts you in.” His voice starting to growl, and fur started to cover his arms and try to hide his tight muscles.

“Tine, please calm down, there are humans everywhere!” I quietly exclaim, my voice growing urgent. I saw his dark black, soft fur start to hide under his tan skin and his eyes start turning a blue instead of a blood red. I realized that he was calming down and I decided it would be safe to rest a gentle hand on his tough arm. I saw his eyes soften drastically with the only having hair instead of fur. I smiled to myself and saw the ruby grass turning darker as the sun was creeping under the solemn hill in a world of valleys and cities. We looked at each other and in silent agreement and we grabbed each other’s hands while walking into the sunset, not going home that night.

Our hands were getting a little too hot so I pulled mine away and wiped it on my neon orange skinny jeans and started limping down the gray rocky path with my best friend and the man I loved not ever leaving my side, not even for a second. Thinking about that brought a single tear to my emerald eye, but my smile showed Shade that it was out of joy, not despair and anguish as almost every time before. He smiled again and my stomach flipped and twisted, making me feel a little queasy like on a roller coaster or eating too much dessert. It’s something that you’ll never get used to but that I’m totally OK with.

After we had walked maybe ten miles it was about 3 a.m. we never had a tent or sleeping bags so we always sleep in the wild as animals to disregard suspicion and draw the least amount of attention to ourselves as possible. The only animal Shade could change into was a wolf, so I saw his midnight black fur start to keep from his toned arm and his eyes turned purple instead of red, showing me he was in control of his animal nature. I smiled; he was hot even as a dark wolf. I started thinking of a wolf, strong and powerful with razor claws and powerful golden eyes that bore through puny humans and victims that crossed me. My mind saw what I was telling it, and my muscles tensed ready to shift and change to make my body a dog’s skeletal makeup. I felt a tingle jolting through my entire body and I saw pure white fur slipping up from under my pale skin while my teeth started to shape into small daggers. My perfectly dirty fingernails started to morph into sharp, golden claws while my spine started to bend and my legs and arms started to shrink and bow just a little. I felt the strength echo and bounce though my wolfish body.

When in and animal state Tine and I cannot talk out loud but we can send mind messages and all Areus’ can send them to anyone they please, as long as their within a twenty-five mile radius. So of course we thought to each other. You’re hot even as a wolf I thought in a cute tone as I gave him a wolfish smile and lifted one of my angel white eyebrows.

And you are very beautiful, your snowy fur is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I heard a deep voice say in the very back of my mind. He came closer to me and his midnight fur cheek rubbed against my own snow white cheek. We touched noses and started walking towards the sky-reaching pines with our bodies pressed together, creating a medley of salt and pepper. Once we had found a nice pine we curled up together in a large ball and after saying goodnight and a few moments, I had fallen in to a wonderland of dreams, my sensitive mind going wild.

“Marianna?! Are you OK?!” I hear Shade’s beloved voice and my eyes started to flutter open. I saw I had a wolf’s body still so I just let myself go. I felt gelatin-like and I was back to my old non-fur self. My blond hair fell on the ground around my shoulders and I felt my golden claws morph back into dirty fingernails. My arms and legs elongated and my spine straightened. Once I was back to as close to human as I can get Shade was sitting beside me. He leaned over and kissed me and I almost fainted. His lips were soft and beautiful, and he looked as happy as I did. He smiled all the was and I smiled back, my teeth were white like porcelain and his were like pearls. I didn’t was to take away his smile by asking him to risk all his comfort and his life to come with me and live off dead rats with no money.
I got up slowly and my bruises seemed to feel a lot better; Areus’ always heal really fast. I saw that Shade had on his blue jeans with holes in them with no t-shirt so I could see his eight-pack and his large biceps. It made me suck in too much air and I started to cough. He noticed and gave me a devilish smile. I stuck out my tongue at him and gave him an I-love-you-but-your-mean glare. He laughed and it made me smile; his laugh is like liquid gold, its rare to come by and it always makes you smile. My smile was weak though, because I was wondering how to tell him I have to leave. He noticed my half-hearted smile and gave me a quizzical look. I knew that he would ask so I decided just to tell him.
“I know your gonna ask so I’ll just save you the trouble.” I sighed and looked at the ground. I started shuffling my feet, “I have to go. My dad dreamed me last night and showed me how I killed my mother,” Shade opened his mouth and I held up my finger, “He told me I deserve to suffer for what I did and he said to just not come home. So I can’t, I’m sorry. I know it would be selfish of me to ask you to come with me. I will anyways though, Tine, I know you’d have to give up so much to do this for me but i can’t be alone and your my best friend along with my love. Please come with me.” I say, still looking down. I was surprised to feel the warm embrace of Shade.
“I would love to go anywhere you go Marianna, I love you and I always want you y my side.” he hugged me again and then pulled back, “So where do you want to go?”

“We need to learn to fight, I know that. That is how we’ll survive and I think we should just live in a human town.”

“I think we can practice against each other to learn. I already have some training so together would made us better. We could also once we become good go kick a person on the streets butt to see if we win.” He explained and I nodded.

For the next few hours he was teaching me where to kick and punch. I was a quick learner and in a few hours I had gotten very good. We started walking down towards the human town. I grabbed his hand for comfort and he squeezed my hand. I kissed his cheek and we walked with his arm around my waist. When we could see the town I made sure my wings were absorbed into my back and Tine checked his own. We had never been the most honest people anyways so we decided it was necessary to steal some money from convenience stores. It would be quite easy considering I can morph into anything I want to and he can “sway peoples decisions.”

There was a ratty store down the block from where we were standing so we walked calmly over to it and went in. The bell on the door jangled and I jumped just a little. The were playing oldies rock, which was okay, and it smelled like death and smoke which is not a good thing; great. The clerk was an old man with baggy eyes and grey side burns. His wrinkly arms had a lot of age spots and his hands looked well used, for two of his fingers were only nubs. He looked half dead and he was drooling, laying on the glass counter snuggling up like a baby. What a strange man I thought to myself. I never had seen an old man sleep like a small child. Do all humans act like this? I wondered. Since no one was in the store, and the clerk was asleep, there was no need to fight. I went around the counter and pressed the red button. The old dusty register opened but it made a loud ringing noise. The old man opened one of his baggy eyes to see Shade standing there looking at him. I just grabbed the paper money and then snatched Shade’s hand. We ran out and I turned to see the old man fell asleep again! I started walking and took out the money. I now had almost two hundred dollars which isn’t much but would get us by for about two days.

We walked until we saw a sign that said motel and I payed for one bedroom. We held hands and saw that we had a queen, big enough for both of us. I took off my over-shirt and told him I was going to shower. I walked into the shower and after all the hot water was completely gone I stepped out, feeling clean and nice. I put on some pajamas that I had bought and walked out with my hair in a messy ponytail, sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt. He looked at me and smiled; his eyes glinting with joy.

“You look beautiful. I am serious!” he exclaimed to my doubtful gaze. I walked as elegantly as I knew how and and kissed him. He picked me up and set me on the comfy bed. He sat down and we sat there and talked for hours about everything. It was about midnight when we both got in bed after his shower and I fell asleep with my head resting on his bare, moist, smooth chest with his hand on my shoulder.

Only a few weeks had passed since my father had told me not to come back to my home when Shade and I were meeting our first enemy, exiting right? We were walking up town when a strange looking man walked up to me while shade was at our apartment and I was shopping at the grocery store. His brown shaggy hair swayed in front of his dark brown eyes. His face was badly shaven and his teeth were a little yellow but straight. His shirt was a dark forest green and his pants were baggy and torn but other than that he was fairly attractive; muscular and a perfect pale complexion. He asked me if I was Marianna and when I said yes he pulled something out of his large boot. When I saw it was silver and glinting I kicked him right in the face and ripped the small dagger out of his pale hand.He looked up at me automatically after he had fallen on the ground. I could already see where his eye was turning purple.
“What do you want?” I ask, ferocity showed in my voice.
“Please stop! I just need to warn you of someone coming to attack you!” he started to babble randomly, “I’m Aden, it has come to my attention a large group of Iratus are coming, and they only come for special people. I think they are after you and Shade. Shade is a very powerful being and they could use you as weapons. I just want to give you my dagger, to help you. It has magical qualities just say Invitos and any weapon you want appears. Also if you lose it, it will come back to your holster.”
“Thank you,” I said, making my voice sound strong like a warrior and my brow morphed into fierce determination. Me being the paranoid soul I am had to make sure it was a trap first, though. “Why don’t you give me a demonstration?” I asked and he didn’t look worried. Okay so he might be ligit.
“Invito!” Aden quietly yelled and suddenly a sword-like shape appeared. Then it became clear and had a rainbow inside of it; a diamond sword. OK that is very impressive I have to say.
“OK so how do you get it back to a dagger?” I asked quizzically, wanting to know all about this dagger before I show it to Shade.
“Simple, say Invito and it goes back to normal,” I guess the dagger heard him because it shrunk and looked just like any other dagger. However when I was handed the dagger it glowed a beautiful light purple, like the color a flower would be; as though accepting me to hold it.
“When I held it, it didn’t do that...” his voice trailed off, his brain swept away by memories of his adventures with the dagger. When he came back he added,”His name is Interfeci.”
The name made my eyebrows raise and he nodded to confirm my suspicions. My blood almost stopped and my clutch on the daggers leather hilt. The swords name is Murder in an ancient and long dead language. I swallowed and put the dagger in the holster of black leather Aden had gave to me. He told me that I could find him in forest of no hope, which sounded hopeless to find him in there but when I told him that he said the dagger would lead me, whatever that means. So we went our separate ways and I ran to my hotel to warn Shade.
I bust into our hotel and I heard the water flowing through the shower drains and a man singing. Shade had the most beautiful voice and when I heard it I just stopped after a minute or two I shook my head and opened the bathroom door. The shower curtain was pulled over the shower so I saw sea shells and hermit crabs still on the blue watery curtain. I felt bad because as they painted the crabs and starfish with their legs moving in mid-dance. I shrugged back into reality and yelled loud enough for Shade to hear me. I heard the water stop and I saw one tan arm shoot out and grab the sea blue towel that was beside the shower; I smiled and looked at the steamy mirror to see a tan blob behind the pale blob that was me. I whipped around and saw the beautiful man-beast that is Shade in front of me.
“Hey.” he said, not meaning to growl but his voice was really low because he was trying to talk quietly.
I breathed and smelled his shampoo, but he smelled manly, I don’t know how else to explain it. “H-hey...” I stammered and I could feel my face flushing and looked down at his feet. I didn’t know why but I was getting really nervous. I didn’t even know I could get nervous. I could feel his tough, damp hand rubbing my cheek and then down to my somewhat pointy chin and gently guided my head up to meet my own. When old lips touched I felt a vibration on my hip where my dagger was. I ripped out my dagger by its hilt and threw it on the tile sink. I put my hands on his back and felt the place that would be where his wings would be. He scratched my back in the same spot. I pulled away and looked at me with something I’ve never seen before. I think he looked at me with compassion!
“You should probably put on pants!” I said, snickering quietly. After I was done I grew serious, “The come to the bed, I need to tell you about Aden and Interfeci.” He nodded and only a minute later he came out clothed and his face back to the stone expression as normal. I had on a stony expression also and my arms were, straight along with my back. My hands were clutched and set in my lap; Shade knew that meant I mean business.The dagger was again on my hip and I pulled it out as he sat beside me and his eyes grew when he saw it, as I knew he would.
“Where did you get this?” Shade ask never taking his soft but strong eyes off the magical weapon.
“OK so a man named Aden came up to me and told me some things called Iratus are after us, and your stronger than you think you are. Also he gave me this dagger and said it would protect me.” as he raised his eyebrow I said, “it’s magical. Just watch, Inivto!” I yelled as I was thinking of a strong, golden sword to match my wings with two edges and a strong, leather hilt with the blade glimmering in the dim light of the room and I saw the small blade elongate and turn from a sterling silver to a staggering golden. This made Shade’s jaw drop and didn’t remain cool like I had with Aden.
“OK, we could really use this.”
“Yeah, but that’s not all. I think it accepted me because when I held it, it turned purple for only a second. I don’t know why but I think it was for me.” I said, eventually thinking aloud. My brow was furrowed and my lips pressed together.
“Oh wow. Okay so pretty much we found a group of people trying to kill us for no reason and you found a man who gave you a dagger that was destined for you,” he ran through everything so quickly it seemed weird.
“I guess so, ya.”
“Okay cool now that were clear on that lets watch some t.v. and go to bed.: he said like everything I just told him was no more important then what channel we should watch. I looked at him with slight anger and he noticed with some understanding. He realized that it was important to me and he hugged me, bringing me head to fit into his neck. After our hug he put his arm around me and we laid down, not talking, content with the presence of each other.
I awoke to the convulsions of Shade beside me in the large, tan bed. His eyes were closed and he was sweating with his tough hands reaching everywhere and his legs were kicking me over and over I felt the bruises stack on my already bruised shins. I saw a tear come to his closed eye and his body stopped moving completely as more tears started to slip down is flushed cheek. He mouthed a word that I couldn't catch and and laid there, tears rolling down his strawberry cheeks ad I sat there wondering whether to wake him up or whether his was in a dream session with his family.
After about ten minutes I decided it was bad for him to cry so long. I shook him until his eyes flew open and frantically looked around, and as his eyes connected with mine, a shot of life strained through his body. He grabbed my arm, right where the leather band I wear always stays. As his eyes connected with mine, the sea of blue tortured my expecting mind with a horrifying image. The large sun-cooked field was a miraculous green as the grass danced in the soft breeze. Then a horrifying yell broke through the warm air as though to protect me. He had Interfeci in his hand, I could tell because it was glowing purple as though longing for me. It had grown into a broadsword and was stabbing and slashing at a disgusting creature. It had a long figure, but you could see every bone in its pale-green body. I believed that alien was a woman due to the strip of cloth covering her chest and resting on her shoulders, kind of like a shirt that is way too small. She was wearing a skirt-like piece of long cloth going down to her knee-cap which jutted out from her skin. I followed my gaze down her slim, overlong fingers and saw a small but razor sharp golden knife coming from a small, what looked like a grass weaved hilt. Before I could wonder how something like grass could be strong enough to be a hilt I saw crimson blood dotting the golden knife. I followed it down and saw the specks turn into large spots and those turn into a stream of what looked like liquidized rubies but what I knew was blood. As I looked down on the floor to see myself lying there under Shade with a large gash right under my leather band with the glinting rush of blood streaming onto my dirty shirt and along my arm down to the ground. I was conscious, but only for a little while. My eyes were starting to glaze over but I had the bottom of my shirt ripped off and pressed against the gaping wound to try and stop the bleeding. I looked eventually at Shade once again, and my eyes became even larger than when I had seem my bleeding arm. Shades arm was going crazy and he then come how landed a stab right in the heart of a creature. There were creatures scattered everywhere, their lifeless carcasses strewn everywhere. He whirled around as soon as he had stolen the life from the very last of the aliens to see me gripping the last strands of consciousness I had left. He saw me and saw all the blood I had lost, drenching everything around me. He saw my limbs cease to move, and he saw me die.

He yelled, louder than I had ever heard before and he knelt by my lifeless body and looked at my dead eyes. All he did was weep, and he wept for long hours and the sun set slowly although tonight the stars didn’t show. He then pulled out my wings fully so they caught the moons shine, but now they were black and silver, like oval moons on my wings. They were not a golden which I thought was odd, because when Areus die their wings turn a jet black but mine turned a shining silver.
I shook my head violently and I was back in our small hotel room with Shade looking at me as though I had been captured and returned. He scooped me up in his arms squeeze my back as I felt something hit my shoulder. Shade was crying and I hugged him and rubbed his shoulder blades, trying to keep my cool from the thought I had just seen. He started whispering my name over and over, and for the next few minutes all I heard was Marianna, Marianna, Marianna and the soft thumping of music coming from a room farther down the hall. After a few minutes I leaned away from him to see he was returning to his old self. I knew he was worrying it was going to happen, but he should tell me anyways.
“Hey, I saw it,” I said awkwardly, my hand clutching his own.
“It was horrible...” he said and I could feel his hand starting to sweat, “What if that really happens? I can’t lose you, especially not like that!” I noticed he didn’t mention himself being an awesome fighter or how I got stabbed specifically.
“I know, I know” I cooed, squeezing his hand to show him I was still here, “I don’t think it will happen, but if it does, you should go back to your family.” I said, not really knowing what to say to make him feel alright.
Shade didn’t say anything, he just turned away and walked to the refrigerator. He opened it too forcefully and the door completely ripped off, to see green skin crawling in the refrigerator. It had no bone or muscle to cover, but it was somehow alive. I saw it squirm along, leaving an oozing trail behind its leaking body, as though showing its self where it had been due to the lack of eyes. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t in a vision, but I knew that I wasn’t because I never felt the icy sensation and then the searing burning that follows to see into the future or at least something someone else sees. I was most definitely awake and I looked again to see the little ball of slime and skin walking up to Shade and starting to climb on his bright, almost sunshine yellow Chuck Taylor's. He just sat there and curiously watched as the skin pooled around his sunshiny shoes. When it started to climb up his pant leg he started to try and get it off his leg. He tried to get the huge glob of skin off his calf while it was still trying to climb up to his thigh. I noticed that when it moved it still left skin on hes leg where it had been.
“It’s eating me! Oh dear God! It’s eating me!” I heard Shade yell, his voice starting to sound a bit panicky.
I didn’t have any idea what to do so I brought Interfeci cut out of my holster where it gleaned purple and started to quiver when I held it. I had to find out why it did that. As I jerked myself from my dazed state of mind I saw the skin grew up to his waist. It looked like clothing that he had only half put on and it was wrinkled at the top from all the kin that hadn’t been used. I saw his leg snap out and kick the small love seat by the window. The horrified look on his face told me that he hadn’t told his leg to do that. Okay, I thought to myself, so it’s not only eating him but it controls him too. And I can’t stab it without possibly hurting him; great. I puffed and noticed my dagger started to shine different colors. I felt like it was trying to tell me something. I decided that I should trust it and I reluctantly raised my arm, my hand tightened against the warm, tough hilt.I wanted to close my eyes but I knew better than that and I aimed my arm at the rolls of skin going up his firm chest. I thrusted my arm forward and I heard the small dagger puncture the smooth, light green skin and it deflated with a puff of air that blew on my face. The smell was putrid and horrifying. I opened my eyes and stopped gagging from the smell that came through my unsuspecting nostrils. I saw the green skin stop engulfing Shade’s body and the tips of the skin started to turn from a pale green to a remarkably disgusting brown color. The skin started to crack and spit deeply. The skin shattered and dropped, dead off Shade very quickly. When the skin touched the floor completely it disintegrated and vanished. I wondered if that was the skin or the knife, but I didn’t think about it too long. After all I had a half-freaked boyfriend that needed me!
“You okay?” I asked, seeing his pants were still intact and his shirt was still in one piece. He had control of his muscles which was another plus most definitely. I didn't know what else to say.
Between deep breaths Shade said,"Yeah I guess so. Do I really have a choice?" he asked with little to no enthusiasm,"I will be fine in a minute, or a few days...".



“Okay cool.. I’m glad you won’t be scarred for life,” said a bit of sarcasm in my cool, quiet voice.

“Yeah, me too. That was just so weird! I can’t believe it actually happened!