The Spark Ignites Pt. 01

I simply blinked, my brain running a mile a minute, the reveal, followed by her casual dismissal of the fact that I was being watched by angels, in case I lost control, was a bit shocking. I tried to keep away from places where religious radicals gathered, to keep off the radar of so-called demon hunters, less bodies, less running, but they knew where I was the entire time- Alariel snapping her fingers in front of my eyes pulled me out of my thoughts.

"I said, let's get started, you can think about that when I'm not doing Nereah a favor, and you can unpack that one later as well."

"Fine, any idea on where to start then?"

I groused, slightly annoyed at her, but deciding to shelve the information for later, as she said, and focused entirely on her. She nodded, satisfied we were getting started, and, after pulling out a pen, she settled into a position where she could write comfortably. The comforting aura had returned, and, if anything, had become more intense than before, a warm blanket covering the entire room.

"Yes, and I am dropping you into the deep end. Let's start with your family. Nereah mentioned a few things, but I want to hear them from you. Parents, siblings, hell, even a best friend you considered as family. Just start somewhere."

Of course, always start with the family, as cliché as it was, it tended to be a kickoff point for a lot of issues, so I was at least somewhat prepared. With a deep breath, I steeled my emotions for what was about to come. They were a touchy subject, and my emotions going a bit out of control tended to summon my flames. To push it back, I chose the ones that were less trouble. Even then, it took me a couple minutes to get everything under control enough to start talking.

"I have two siblings, a brother and a sister, both younger than me. I was the oldest, four years older than my brother, Mark, and seven older than my sister Brianna. I was never particularly close to Mark, but we were family, and cared about each other. I was much closer to Brianna, I helped keep an eye on her growing up, and we just ended up being incredibly close. Mark should be twenty-two this year, and Bri would've just turned nineteen about a week ago..."

I trailed off, and I was staring out the window behind Alariel, but I wasn't looking at anything, just staring off into space, trying to dissociate, and not doing a very good job at it. I had no idea what was convincing me to share these things, these memories, I hadn't thought of them in years. They hurt, back when I hadn't been cast out, when bottling it up hadn't been necessary...

"When I turned thirteen, my cousin Stephanie came to live with us as well after her parents died in a freak car accident, faulty brakes that weren't recalled when they should have been. She was my age, and joined Bri and I's group, and the three of us were inseparable. Steph and I were the sportier, more competitive, while Bri just liked to be around us."

Alariel looked at me with a bit of concern, but let me continue to ramble, and man, I was rambling now. I don't know how long I'd been talking now; I was absolutely lost in my memories at this point. I could feel myself choking up, but I couldn't stop, because if I did, I wouldn't be able to finish.

"Steph and I loved to play sports together, mainly basketball, PIG, HORSE, just shooting threes to see who could make more, didn't matter, and Bri would be our cheerleader. It stayed that way all through high school. Then Steph and I graduated, joined the force full time, worked for a couple years... then, the accident..."

Suddenly, I was pulled back to the present when a hand gently, but firmly gripped mine. I could feel the reassurance coming from the gesture, and I was drawn to Alariel's face, and her stunning blue eyes. She was rubbing the back of my hand with her thumb, and, for someone I didn't know until ten 'o'clock today, a lot of concern.

"It's alright, I know the rest, you don't have to talk about it. We can save that for our next appointment in a couple weeks. You did well today, and if I could make a recommendation?"

Her words were gentle, soothing, they helped calm my raw nerves. I could only respond to her with a nod, not exactly trusting my voice at the moment. I still felt my throat constricting, not wanting to drag up anything else.

"Call your sister, I think it would do you some good, even if it's just a couple minute long chat. I feel like you would be surprised, bonds like that are exceptionally difficult to break, even after everything that's happened."

I couldn't say anything, and I would not make any promises that I would do that. I had left in a rush, never said goodbye. I just disappeared, and I hadn't seen anything about my family in five years. I doubted she even wanted to hear my voice, not after Steph got hurt. Alariel released my hand, signaling that it was time for me to go. We both stood up, and she gripped my shoulder, squeezing it gently. Her other hand fished out a small business card, and she slipped it into my pocket.

"Here, my card, if you ever need to talk, just call me. It has my off hours number, not like I have to sleep often, so I'm usually awake. I'll schedule our next official appointment for two weeks from today, same time, alright?"

"Yes, that sounds good."

I replied simply, before she walked me back to the reception area, close to my side.

*****

Chapter 3

"What the fuck was that."

Nereah simply smiled mischievously at me as we walked down the sidewalk near the bay. It was several hours after I had my appointment with Alariel, the sun was setting, turning the horizon a brilliant array of colors. The purples, golds, and oranges of the sky all mixing with the blue ocean. Nereah was wearing a tight white pair of skinny jeans, along with a crop top in the same white, something that showed off her curves and popped against her dusky skin. She was flaunting what she had, and trying to tease me with the sight of her flat stomach.

She knew something, she had to. After the appointment, I had to take some time to get myself back under control. Once that was done, I asked myself a two very important questions. Firstly, how in all the hells that existed did that Fallen manage to extract those words from my mouth, when I barely knew her, much less trusted her. I had trouble telling Nereah about my family, and I trusted her intimately, but this blonde angel pulled up some memories I preferred to leave buried. Secondly, how did she know exactly that I was reaching a critical point, where I was about to lose control of my powers, because looking back, I was damn close to letting it slip its chain.

"Whatever do you mean, my dear matchstick?"

That damned smirk was planted firmly on her lips. Oh, she knew, she one hundred percent knew what happened in there, but she was doing her teasing thing again, where she made me actually ask her the question, even though she had the answer already. It was a game she relished in, and annoyed me to no end.

"How, did the Fallen, drag all of that out of me."

I ground out; I was in no mood to play word games with her right now. I was damn tired, and emotionally exhausted. There were things said earlier that I hadn't thought about in five years, things I hadn't told Nereah, simply because they made my control slip, and bad things happened when I let it go. She grinned at me, like a cat that just caught a mouse in a trap, before taking a more neutral expression, though her golden eyes still twinkled with mischief.

"Alariel, is an empath, with a few abilities related to it. One is a calming effect, that helps people get things off their chest that they would not normally. Things that would stress them to a possible breaking point. There's a reason she's got the best turn around in the city, and why I had to call in a favor with my very close friend."

She stressed the name, that was never a good sign, it meant I was most likely going to be seeing Alariel around, a lot, outside of a doctor/patient setting. Great, if this is what I thought it was, Nereah was doing what she had been trying to for almost a year now.

"Nereah, are you trying to set me up with your friends, again."

At that, her smirk was back in full force. It's not that I didn't want it, she had some great looking friends, but so many were mortal, I would outlive them, and I couldn't take that thought. The ones who weren't, like her and I, well I'm not exactly the greatest catch, now am I? Family issues that can set me off like a quite literal bomb, powers that can drive me into murderous insanity if I let my control slip, oh, and I'm what's called a timeless, don't age, but can still be killed. Wrap that all up with a nice little bow and you've got me.

I still don't know how we ended up together, or even what she saw in me, but she made it clear she didn't care what I thought about myself. She saw something, and she had staked her claim, not that I was in much of a position to turn her down at the time. I was homeless, wandering around LA, trying to avoid gang territory or being shanked by someone looking for easy money.

"Now now, none of that, I think you two would look rather cute together, and now that she's felt your soul, she knows you, just about as well as I do at this point. She's special like that. Able to feel you for what you are, and not the lies you tell yourself."

Felt my soul? Before I could ask what she meant by that, two S.W.A.T. vans shot past us, full lights and sirens. They were moving towards a group of police cars, already positioned like cover. Before I could say something, one of the parked vehicles was launched in a burst of flames. My eyes trailed to where it came from, and I was surprised by what I saw. A few blocks ahead of us, a burning circle was sending out pulses of energy, these pushed back the few officers standing behind barricades, and aiming weapons at it. The final pulse, the largest one yet, was followed by a bright flash of light, blinding me, from what was coming through the obvious portal.

When it faded, there stood a tall, muscular woman, clad only in black metal gauntlets with veins of fire running through them, a bikini and a loincloth. This showed off her physique, and she was well toned, her arms had just enough muscle, nothing overboard, and you could grind meat on her six-pack abs. My eyes moved up to her face, her eyes and hair seemed to be made of pure flames, as they danced in the sea breeze. She roared, and swung a massive black hammer, one that matched her gauntlets, her arms letting it fly as easily as I could swing a sword, sending a second car back in a burst of fire. Overhead, a helicopter came in as fast as it could, circling the area and making sure she couldn't disappear into another part of the city.

"Puny mortals! You shall not halt me, I will conquer this city, and make it my new domain!"

Her voice sounded almost Nordic, but with certain inflections that set it apart as something different. She stomped forward, launching two officers away in another sweep of her hammer. Suddenly, she stopped, and our eyes locked. Oh, oh fuck me, I knew at least what this was now, as the flames in my soul screamed to be let out, to teach this interloper whose domain it was she'd stepped in to. This woman was a demon, of some kind, maybe a Christian one, or possibly one of a thousand other minor religions, I never could tell.

That didn't matter, not right now, because while I was processing, she'd turned back to another officer, a woman with raven hair, and was about to turn her into paste. For once, I agreed with my powers, we needed to stop this woman, at any cost.

I barely noticed Nereah stepping away from me as my hands sparked, it took a few seconds, but soon I had purple balls of fire in clawed hands. The grip loosened around the flames, and an explosion coming from both palms propelled me forward. My mouth opened, letting out a roar from deep in my throat. At a high speed, I slammed my feet into the demon, launching her away from myself and the officer. She skipped across the ground once, twice, before rolling back to her feet, facing me with a glare.

"You have one chance, leave, now. This city is not yours to conquer."

I could hear the double tone in my voice, it got that way when I truly started using my powers. You had my voice, layered on top of what could only be described as a roar of fire. The heat thrummed through my body as my power sang in my blood, but I leashed it to my will. I would not be losing myself in this fight. I almost didn't want her to just leave, I could feel my desire to fight this woman, and, judging by her dark grin, she was ready for a brawl. She hefted her hammer, and called out to me.

"Come now mortal, come face Tiria'golath, second ranked forge master of Vogret's great fighting pits. I have slain plenty of your kind, and you will be no exception."

She thought I was a human, somehow. I would have fun with that mistake, it would be easy to rile her up if she thought a human was beating her, throw her off her game. That was my usual method for dealing with fights, if they were too mad to think, they made mistakes, ones I capitalized on. Often delivering a knockout blow after they overreached, or made a misstep.

I stood, and took a comfortable stance, prepared for her to blitz me. She wasted no time in doing exactly that, and with a savage war cry, she brought her hammer down. I shifted to the side, and pressed my hand against the head of the hammer, sending it away from me to bury itself in the asphalt. My other hand came around, and cracked her in the head, snapping it to the side with a savage punch. I thought that had stunned her, but I was not prepared for her to strike in the next moment, bringing her own armored hand into a vicious backhand, sending me away from her. I rolled across the ground, planting one hand on the ground to turn the roll into a crouch. I glared at her, and spat out a little blood. That wasn't the most painful, but fuck it always sucked getting hit in the face.

"I'll admit mortal,"

She turned her head to meet my eyes, and spat out her own glob of blood that looked more like molten metal. It hissed against the road, showing that it was hot, incredibly so. While it wouldn't hurt me overly much, I still didn't want to be covered by it. I began gathering more energy in my hand, preparing for another attack

"You strike hard, like a demon. That caught me off guard, you shall not do that agai- "

Before she could finish, I let the control over the fire slip. The explosion once again propelled me through the air, and allowed me to deliver my shin into her stomach, so hard I could feel my own leg protesting the action. The soft whoosh of air leaving her lungs signaled I had hit her hard enough to stun her. She was bent over for a moment, and I decided to rub it in, just a bit. Had to start turning the screws, and upping her anger.

"What was that about not surprising you, bitch?"

She really didn't like that, and let me know with another blow that would have shattered my ribs back when I was human, but now, it only threw me back. I smashed into a cop car and it crumpled around me. Pain flashed through my mind, but was quickly swallowed up by my power, working to dull the ache and get me back in the fight before she could take advantage of my position. She stood up, glaring at me as I pushed myself out of the wreckage, slipping back into a stance that would allow me to cross the distance between us in an instant.

"Bastard! I will break you and turn your body into fuel for my forge!"

Her voice was a booming shout, and the molten lines across her armor and hammer glowed white with her fury. It looked like she was finally getting serious. I should too, because I could hear more officers coming, and, after a quick check I noticed the helicopter from earlier was some news one.

Fuck, I knew I was already gonna end up in the headlines, but now I'm sure they were broadcasting this live. Had to end this, and fast. I took a deep breath, and let my powers truly out of their chains. I felt the inferno spreading across my arms, my tattoos were writhing. Even if I couldn't see them, I could feel them coming to life as my sleeves burned away, showing off the marks of the Burning Abyss. I stood there, purple flames trailing off my body like a billowing cloak, and the woman, Tiria'golath, her hair waved like a flame in the breeze. All was quiet for several moments, before we both roared at each other, and charged. I knew if I took hers head on, I would be sent back, so I improvised. One hand gathered power, preparing one of my more powerful attacks. When we finally clashed, I spun around her hammer strike, using my other hand to deflect it again. It made her have to correct her swing, or else she'd bury it in the ground like before. The hand I had charging my attack came around as I twisted, pointing it directly at her face.

"Checkmate, bitch."

The power in my hand erupted with the fury of a volcano, even more powerful than the ones I'd used to move in to attack her, and it launched her backwards. As her body sailed through the air, purple flames burned away her top, leaving her half naked and covered in my fire. She landed almost thirty feet away in a loud thud, and lay there, unmoving. Her chest still rose and fell, but she wasn't getting back up from that. I stood there, flames still trailing off me as I centered my mind, resisting the demands of my powers to go over and finish the job. Reeling my powers in took a lot more effort that I'd have liked, they were still ready to go, but I shackled them again. I stood back up to my full height, took one step, and another, then fell to a knee. Suddenly, Nereah was there, by my side, propping me up as we started walking over to a bench on the side of the street.

"I can't believe you did that; do you even know who you just fought?"

I shook my head, too tired to talk. Pulling my powers back like that left me weak, they didn't like going back in their box, and threw a fit because of it. They reduced my ability to survive attacks, making me easier to hurt, or even kill me. That was why Nereah was there so fast, she knew this by now, and preferred for me to have someone there who could put up some sort of fight while I couldn't.

"She is one of the twelve forge masters in an group of underworld fighting pits, one run by a particularly brutal warlord. They're part of a minor religion in the far north of Scandinavia, but have made a name for themselves as excellent weapon makers, and you just bested the second ranked one. I wouldn't be surprised if she came back for a round two, her honor would demand she do something."

"Fucking great, no good deed ever left unpunished."

I grumbled as I caught my breath, she was going to be a problem, some way or another, I was sure of it. Nereah just sighed and rubbed my shoulder as I muttered nearly every curse I knew under my breath. A few minutes passed by, letting me burn through my annoyance as the officers moved over to try and restrain the woman. The sound of footsteps brought my attention onto someone approaching us. It was the officer that I had just rescued. Up close, I could see that she was Asian, Korean if I had to guess.

"Sir, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

It was almost mechanical, but I could still hear the slight tremble in her voice. She was shaken, not that I could blame her after what just happened. I took a couple seconds, before nodding

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

She introduced herself as Sergeant Hana Yang, then started asking questions, the basic things, name, age, et cetera. She relaxed as she got into it, the tremble going away as she did her job, but one caught me off guard.

"And why did you step in?"