Defiant Destiny Ch. 01

Hello everyone, welcome to the Defiant Destiny saga! This is the first story I've ever written and I'm excited to share it with you. I'm not a native English speaker, so please forgive any silly mistakes you might find. Oh, and for the horny readers among you: there will be (plenty of) sex in this saga, but since the story needs to be set up properly, you'll be rewarded at the end of this chapter *wink*

Enjoy!

***

Don't you think defying both God and the Devil is an entertaining destiny?

***

"Alright... Here goes nothing," I mumbled at my laptop screen and clicked on the flashy advert promising me I'd find my soulmate via this dating agency - that promise being flanked by a picture of a couple looking absolutely happy together. "What do I have to lose..." I scoffed.

After ticking multiple boxes indicating I was not interested in any type of newsletter I got to setting up my profile page at this online dating agency. Let's see... Dante, male, 31, tall, black hair, etc. etc. The clacking sounds of my keyboard flooded my small office while I filled in the basic stuff.

Occupation?

I frowned.

Tricky...

I looked around my office that was located on the second floor of an old shoe factory. The place had been empty for years before I bought it with my parents' inheritance. I had converted the upper offices into my living quarters and was currently living there whilst managing the - huge - project of converting the old factory into a nightclub.

Entrepreneur would have to do, I decided, and the sound of my keyboard once again filled the room. Hobbies? Previous relationships? Nothing really worth mentioning there.

Unfortunately.

Talents? A humorless laugh rose up from my chest. The clacking sounds of my keyboard died down as I thought of what to write here.

Able to see angels and demons walk around in their human form I typed, staring long and hard at what I had written, uncomfortably tapping my fingers on the buttons. After a while I sighed and swallowed hard. I didn't even have to add the whole experiencing ill omens phenomenon before deciding this wasn't going to work.

I sighed again, deeply, and clicked the X to close the browser. This would work better on an application form for an asylum than it would in an effort to find my supposed soulmate...

I glanced at a picture frame showing my smiling parents enjoying the sunshine in a park. I missed them terribly. For a while I believed that this seeing-angels-and-demons and experiencing-ill-omens-thing was a direct result of me refusing to properly grieve their deaths. A way for my heart to deal with trauma - that I had simply lost my mind.

Tired, I rubbed my hands over my face. Nope, I realized a long time ago that seeing immortals was a whole different kind of crazy... Angels and demons existed, there was no denying it. I was merely an observer and had no intention whatsoever to let them know I could see them. Damn, my life was complicated enough with the whole experiencing ill omens thing, and I didn't want to add some immortal meddling to it.

I shivered - the ill omens thing was definitely scary enough by itself.

I couldn't remember the actual date when it first happened, but I did recall it was a Tuesday in February, and it was the day I could not postpone it any longer - my annual shopping trip to the mall. I sorely needed new clothes and underwear, and when I ripped through my favorite pair of pants the other day, it was as if destiny told me: it was time.

On my way to hail a taxi, I shamefully noticed myself walking slower than usual. Snorting at my obvious and childish attempts to draw out the inevitable shopping session, I stubbornly doubled my pace and reached the main road, holding up my hand to hail a taxi. As one approached me I felt my heart rate increase drastically and an eerie tingling sensation gripping my neck.

"For fucks sake, Dante, it's just a shopping mall..." I chastised myself under my breath and watched the taxi approach.

Yet as the taxi slowly came to a stop in front of me, my heart rate spiked dramatically and a light sweat broke out on my back. Strange... Still, I brushed it off as a subconscious attempt to not go shopping - which I did not want to give in to - and so I grabbed the door handle to open the door.

The moment my hand touched the handle, however, that strange type of nervousness turned into immediate and overwhelming dread, and I quickly withdrew my hand as if the handle was searing hot.

Bewildered, I stared at my hand. My breath was labored, sweat dripped down my face and adrenaline was surging through my system. I stumbled backwards onto the pavement, panting from the panic that coursed through me. What the fuck was happening? I waved apologetically at the taxi driver, who took an annoyed look at my disheveled state and drove off.

Shakily I sat down on the pavement, feeling the dread and panic dissipate almost instantly the moment the taxi drove off. My eyes trailed the yellow vehicle and I came to a disturbing conclusion: I just had a panic attack because I didn't want to go shopping.

Seriously?

Suddenly a loud CRASH drew my eyes to traffic. For a brief moment I was stunned and could only gaze numbly at the two cars that had crashed together. Tiny detail: one of the cars was the taxi I had not gotten into mere seconds ago. Teensy tiny detail: the spot where I would have sat was completely and utterly smashed by the bullbar of the pickup truck that had crashed into it.

So yeah.

Ill omens...

At first my rational mind tried to convince me that what happened was a mere 'regular' panic attack, and that it was sheer and utter complete fucking coincidence that it prevented my death. My mind tried to rationalize the subsequent two times too. However, as my brilliant math teacher once told me: twice is coincidence, thrice is a pattern.

This was definitely a pattern.

Thankfully, the addition of seeing-angels-and-demons-walking-around to my supernatural skillset went a lot smoother and significantly less traumatic. The first time that happened was shortly after the taxi incident - on my way to the supermarket, I noticed a stunning young woman sitting in the grass near the pond watching the sunset. She had a subtle glow about her - one that could not be explained by the vibrant sunlight bouncing off her smooth skin - this was something different. That moment was the only moment in my life when I stopped and stared at someone.

The woman glowed. I was not imagining it - she had an unmistakable golden glow around her.

The woman noticed me and politely smiled at me before turning her face back to the sun. Yet before she had resumed her peaceful posture, her eyes snapped back to mine - alert and searching.

"Can I help you?" she asked with a beautiful, melodious voice, though there was a clear hint of suspicion lacing her voice and smile.

Nope - not happening - no way I was going to talk to glowing people. I blatantly ignored the shiny lady and ran away to the solitary safety and nauseating misery of my home.

The next time I dared venture outside, I saw more and more glowy people, but also a considerable amount of shadowy people - as if their shadow seeped out of their very pores.

Not long thereafter those auras as I had started referring to them - it sure sounded a lot better to me than hallucinations - revealed an increasing amount of detail to me. It didn't take long for elongated shapes to appear in these auras that eventually turned into wings.

More and more details began appearing and finally I was able to put a name to an aura: angels and demons. They had to be - all the boxes were ticked - the angels had gorgeous, grand golden feathery wings, while the demons possessed a variety of nasty looking attributes, ranging from wings, tails, horns and everything in between.

Growing up I had often heard stories about angels and demons, but had always dismissed them as stories or legends. Now that I was seeing them in real life, I was actually surprised at how human they appeared - despite their auras, the vast majority of them could easily pass as an overly caring or horny human.

Luckily, they didn't seem to pay me any mind, as long as I avoided making eye contact with them. For some reason, whenever they looked into my eyes they stopped and stared, like I was some kind of freak. Perhaps I was...

I probably was.

***

About a month after my abilities surfaced I was in the supermarket perusing the selection of breakfast cereals, when I noticed from the corner of my eye a flickering golden aura - as opposed to the steady, comforting glow the heavenly ones usually had. It was like a light that constantly tried to burn bright, but couldn't, and kept faltering. It was a man - or rather, an angel - who just passed me and turned the corner into the confectionery aisle.

I stared at the corner the angel had just turned. A flickering aura? That was odd...

Despite my rational mind yelling at me to stay far away from any immortal, I found myself immensely curious and intrigued, and figured it wouldn't hurt to just take a look.

The moment I turned the corner, however, I froze.

As I had grown accustomed to seeing, angelic auras were supposed to have beautiful translucent, golden etheric wings - this angel didn't have any of that. His left wing was nothing more than a deformed stump, yet it was his right wing that made me stop in my tracks. It was like all the feathers and most of the skin and bones had been brutally ripped off. All that remained was a single, large bone protruding from his back, leading up to the joint, with some bone fragments and tendons dangling off of it.

My eyes were glued to his etheric wings, or rather - lack thereof. Of all the auras I'd seen, this one had to be the strangest and, somehow, the most terrifying.

What the hell happened to him?

The man himself didn't appear like the regular angels either. His blonde hair was a tangled mess and he wore dark clothes, not the prim and proper pastel colors of the angels' usual attire. He was also older than the average mid-twenties when angels seemed to stop aging and immortality kicked in. This guy had to be late thirties or something. How strange... I guessed this meant he must've lost his immortality somehow and judging by the - lack of - wing on his back, it must not have been a gentle transition.

Seeing the tendons dangle along to his movements somehow made me feel angry for his sake - even though I did not know this man, I felt sorry for him, I was worried for him, I was...

...caught.

The moment my gaze left his wing and looked down at his face, I saw his pale blue eyes stare intently at mine. He walked up to me and the bones on his right wing joint swayed and bumped into each other to the rhythm of his steps. My gaze shifted to his wing and I found myself strangely transfixed by this disturbing phenomenon - I could almost hear the bones rattling... Only when he cleared his throat to get my attention, did I notice he was standing right in front of me.

The angel looked at me curiously with those pale blue eyes, searching mine for something I didn't know. He then shook his right wing, eerily rattling the dangling bones, and my eyes immediately snapped up to witness this utterly horrifying phenomenon. I barely suppressed a chill. Looking back into his eyes I realized he knew.

He knew that I could see what he was.

The angel kept staring deeply into my eyes, peering into mine at different angles, apparently looking for something. His brow contorted into a confused frown before he leaned over and did the darndest thing - he sniffed me. Standing back up straight he looked me into my eyes again, visibly confused.

"You're human?" he asked softly.

My heart rate shot up. This was a conversation I did not want to have. I had already stupidly crossed my self imposed line of never interacting with immortals, and I found myself desperately wanting to leave. However, as my eyes nervously sought out the quickest way to exit the supermarket, my gaze inescapably drew back to the angel. His aura mutilated aura triggered something in me, but I couldn't figure out what.

The blonde angel in front of me was patiently waiting for an answer. I tentatively made eye contact and nodded.

He then took a long moment to think and looked me over, almost judgingly.

"Interesting... Walk with me," he said with a small smile, turned around and headed towards the exit, his maimed wing eerily swaying to the rhythm of his steps.

Common sense yelled at me that this was my chance to leave, to go and continue living my simple and safe life without actual interaction with the immortals. However, this man intrigued me immensely. I watched him slide past the queues at the cash registers and without thinking, I followed him.

I found him standing outside the supermarket, waiting in the sunshine while rummaging through his pockets. When I stood next to him he looked at me with a delighted twinkle in his eyes.

"Want some liquorice?" he asked, and held out his hand with some of the black candy in it for me to take.

I stared at his hand, excessive childhood warnings to never take candy from a stranger popping in my head.

"I absolutely love the stuff. Greatest thing since sliced bread. I swear I've become addicted to it. Are you sure you don't want some?" he asked with a smile and a wink, again eagerly offering me the candy in his hand. "They're not poisonous or anything," he mumbled with his mouth full.

I politely shook my head.

"Suit yourself," he shrugged and crossed the street towards the city park. I quickly caught up to him and walked next to him in silence.

It was springtime and while the park was deserted, nature was bustling with life. Animals and plantlife had all woken from their winter slumber and were enjoying the sunshine. It was still a little cold outside, but that didn't stop nature's elaborate mating ritual. Birds were happily chirping in hopes of attracting a mate, squirrels were chasing each other in the trees and all of the plant life had donned itself in the most exotic colors to attract bees for fertilization.

And here I was... walking silently next to a liquorice loving angel.

"You know, I've been to The Netherlands once," he said, as he was carefully selecting which piece of black goodness was to be his next treat. "There was this one shop in Amsterdam that had an entire wall filled with every type of liquorice you could possibly imagine. All the colors, shapes and flavors you could ever desire. It was Heaven," he declared with a big grin and a wink.

That made me chuckle. No, it made me laugh out loud - very loud. The look on his face, the deliberate pun, it made me laugh so hard tears were coming to my eyes.

"Heaven, huh?" I asked him in between fits of laughter.

"Ah! So it does speak!" he laughed, prodding me in the ribs with his elbow.

My laughing slowly reduced to an occasional chuckle, leaving me drying my tears with the back of my hand.

"I've always wondered what Heaven looked like. It seems now I know," I replied with a grin, finally agreeing to take a piece of liquorice he yet again eagerly offered me.

"What's your name, son?" he asked as he approvingly watched me put the candy in my mouth.

"I'm Dante, Sir. Nice to meet you," I replied, holding out my hand.

He took mine in his and shook it with a firm grip.

"None of that 'Sir' nonsense, please. The name's Alexis."

We leisurely continued our walk, both enjoying the gooeyness in our mouths. Alexis made sure I was well fed during our stroll as we engaged in some smalltalk. I told him about my factory that was in the first stages of being rebuilt into a nightclub. He was genuinely interested in my endeavors and I gladly told him about my plans, discovering he was an unexpectedly helpful sounding board when it came to some of the ideas I had. Apparently, Alexis made his living as a very successful real estate agent and it turned out he had been very interested in buying the factory from the city council at the time. Somehow I doubted that it was very typical for an angel to engage in real estate, but at the rate this man gorged on liquorice, he'd need a job to pay for it.

After a while we reached the big pond in the middle of the park and sat down on a creaky wooden bench, silently watching some squirrels chase each other in the otherwise deserted park. Alexis' phrase "liquorice Heaven" kept bouncing around in my mind, bringing the occasional grin to my face. Before I knew it, I turned to him and looked at him expectantly. "What does Heaven look like?" I asked him softly.

The worn park bench creaked loudly under Alexis' weight as he leaned back and looked up to the sun nearing its highest point in the sky. After a while, he took a deep breath and sighed wistfully.

"Heaven... Heaven could very well be a synonym for light," he said with a small smile. "Sure, there are buildings, parks and whatnot - similar to life here on Earth. But everything there seems to be made out of tangible, pliable light."

He looked at his hand, rubbing his fingers together, almost as if he was trying to remember the feel or texture of the light.

"Words cannot describe the sheer beauty of that place. Take the trees for instance," he said, gesturing to a nearby oak. "Because their barks are so faceted, the trunks almost look like they're sparkling diamonds with all the light coming from within them. The trees alone are a sight to behold, let alone the rest of Heaven," he said with a sad smile.

Despite being used to seeing angels roam the Earth, I never took the time to imagine what their own plane would look like. His words painted a beautiful picture, though.

"That sure sounds like a magnificent place," I replied, trying to visualize it all.

Alexis took a big sigh and shifted on his seat. After a while, he cleared his throat and turned to me.

"Now it's my turn to ask a question. You can see what I am," he stated and flexed his right wing for emphasis. The tendons and stray feathers bumped into each other in an unnerving way, making me swallow uncomfortably. I nodded.

"Can you see the others too?" he asked eagerly, inching forward on the park bench.

I tore my eyes away from his horrifying aura and found his twinkling eyes eagerly staring into mine.

"You mean the other angels? Or the demons?" I asked, unsure which he meant.

Alexis grew visibly excited and did not bother hiding his grin.

"I guess that answers my question. Impressive!" he laughed, a twinkle appearing in his eyes.

Not one to receive a compliment without giving a proper reply I mumbled a soft, "Thank you. I guess..."

Part of me still couldn't believe I was actually talking to one of the immortals. Especially when I vowed to myself I would never let them know about my ability. I looked over at the angel at my side. He didn't seem to mind that I could see his true nature. In fact, he seemed to be thrilled by it.

Alexis began shifting enthusiastically on the bench, once again making it creak loudly under his weight. He was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Just how much detail can you see? Describe my aura for me please," he inquired and peered at me with an eager look on his face.

I looked at Alexis, unsure of what to do. Was this a test? Ded he not believe me? I dragged my eyes away from his wide eyes and huge grin, and looked at his destroyed wing. I could perfectly distinguish every little detail of his wing - the broken bones, bits of flesh that still clung to them, even a few stray golden feathers that survived whatever it was that happened to him.

As I began describing what I could see in horrendous detail - as requested - I saw Alexis's face light up with unfiltered enthusiasm. When I was done, he stared at me with wide eyes and barked out a surprised laugh.