• “C'mon,” James said, motioning for Eyeka to follow him into the forest by his house.
    She followed him happily.
    James was dashing through the snowy streets of the 'burbs, wearing only a red long sleeve tee, ivory slacks, brown leather peasant boots, a maroon scarf, and glasses, his black hair a mess in the white world.
    Eyeka kept up with him easily, only in a plain, sleeveless, black dress that stopped right above her knees, striped black and white gloves, a white belt with black studs, and lace up platform boots that went to her knees, but struggled to keep her glasses in place and they kept becoming tangled with her short purple hair.
    James looked behind him at his friend, wondering if she was falling behind. He slowed for a moment to wait for her to draw nearer, then took off once again. It was Christmas Day, and the two had already finished up with their presents, breakfast, and stocking treats. Now James wanted to show Eyeka a supposedly "secret" place in the forest. Although Eyeka had seen almost the entire area before, she was wondering about this strange, new place in the beautiful forest. He smiled at Eyeka fussing over her glasses, wondering if tape was another gift he should have gotten her.
    Eyeka glared at him. "I can read your mind ,jerk, they just don't like me today" she shouted over the flurry of snow as she took her glasses off, placing them in one of the pockets of her dress and relied on her other senses to follow him.
    James softly smiled and just kept running, not meaning to be offensive at all. "I'm sorry," James said quietly, sincerely.
    She laughed and tackled him into the snow, ignoring the fact he was trying to show her someplace.
    James fell to the ground, startled. "Oh--"
    She smiled at him.
    He looked up at her, grinning with the cuteness of a kitten. When he saw her smile he smiled back, warmly.
    “Aw-w-w, you're so cute~,” She squealed, hugging him, ignoring all the snow they were being buried in.
    James was lost in thought, unsure of what to say at this compliment, but shrugged a little to himself and, shuffling his arms so he could get them out of his cape, he hugged her back, smiling a little more.
    Eyeka continued smiling widely at him.
    James looked up at her face, pale and young, and into her blank eyes, left ocean blue, right emerald green. Even though Eyeka can only see colors and movement when she isn't wearing her glasses and is, for the most part, blind, she isn't human, so the normal pale look human eyes get when blind do not affect her appearance.
    James scooted back a bit sitting up in the process, forcing Eyeka to sit on his lap. "You're in a good mood," he said as though a breath of wind was the only thing that came from him.
    Eyeka blinked a couple times, stood up, and offered her hand to help him up. “I'm always in a good mood when I'm with you,” She replied
    James felt an oddly warm sensation fill his cheeks as he took her hand.
    She pulled him up. "You look cold"
    James shook slush and snow off his shawl. He shivered. "Just a little bit," he said.
    She hugged him, her natural body temperature of 103 degrees Fahrenheit warming him up in no time.
    He smiled, snuggling a little bit into her. "You're warm," he mumbled.
    Eyeka smiled, muttering "cold heart, warm hands~"
    James smiled airily. "Vice versa."
    Eyeka let go of him, asking, "So, where were you taking me?"
    James smiled softly. "We're going to a place I've never seen before in the forest. It's beautiful."
    Eyeka smiled back at him. “Then let's get going!”
    James nodded. He then took her hand and led her through the break of trees. She smiled, squeezing his hand. James smiled a very small, gentle, sweet smile right back at her, continuing the route into the forest. Eyeka was using her magic to clear a path for them, but making it so no one could follow their footprints.
    James looked ahead and behind them. Impressed, he looked back at her. He smiled. "Good show." Suddenly, he stopped and smacked his forehead. "Duh..." he whispered to himself
    Eyeka blinked, looking confused. "What?"
    He turned. "Let me see your glasses, please," he said in his mysteriously airy tone.
    She took them out of her pocket. He carefully took them into his palm. James then reached into his back pouch and took out a small, aging, chained, leather-bound book. He opened to the book's third page. It was nothing, blank parchment.
    Eyeka stated the obvious. "I may be rich, but I cant really go buy glasses at this very moment so please don't break them...”
    James looked up at Eyeka. "Exactly why I asked for you to give them."
    Eyeka laughed.
    "Alright- I need you to do something for me." Placing the glasses on the book's parchment paper, he reached into his pouch again and revealed a tiny knife. He extended the knife to Eyeka. "I need you to cut me."
    Eyeka looked down and almost shakily said, "Does it need to be your blood?"
    James barely nodded.
    Eyeka sighed. "Where?"
    "Anywhere, really. But its not a big cut, I'm not doing much magic anyway. I'm just repairing your glasses and making them sturdy." James lifted up his sleeve with his teeth. "Here should be good," he said. He pointed to his arm. James looked up into Eyeka's eyes, slowly, but softly. She barely cut him, just enough so that he would bleed.
    The pain wasn't there. He didn't feel anything and thought she didn't do it until a small fleck of maroon seeped from his forearm.
    Eyeka had stopped breathing at the smell of his blood.
    He pressed his thumb against it. More blood came from the cut, and he wiped it clean off with his thumb, then stroked the book's page with tiny, blotted letters spelling "Ferivechi." James hovered his palm above the glasses. An eerie glow came from it and covered the glasses.
    Eyeka had closed her eyes and focused on seeing things through James' eyes the way she reads minds, so she could see what he was doing.
    James looked at her thoughtfully, his brightly golden-tinted eyes dreamy and gentle. She'll be able to see much better now. The world will look perfect in her eyes again.
    Eyeka lost her focus, looked at him and tilted her head.
    James smiled, oblivious to the fact that Eyeka just read his thoughts. "Well...are you going to take them?" he asked, holding the glasses up.
    She took them and put them on. "Just an F-Y-I, everything I see in the world is perfect in my eyes when you're in it,” she said, looking into his eyes.
    James blushed at her compliment and smiled. “You flatter me too much. But..."
    “And yes, that means I read your mind,” Eyeka said.
    "You're sweet. Thank you."
    Eyeka blinked and looked around. James blushed a little more, observing her intently as she tried her new pair of spectacles.
    Eyeka smiled. "I like them, they work much better," she said, taking his wrist and kissed the spot where she cut him, making it heal as if she'd never done it.
    James blinked, his mouth open a little. He looked at his healed wrist and traced it with his finger. “Wow...that's amazing."
    Eyeka smiled. "It's not much, really"
    James looked at Eyeka with his bright gold eyes, and smiled.
    Eyeka made the snow falling on them swirl around them instead and continued to keep the pathway cleared for their use.
    "Uh-huh." He smiled at her. "You're amazing."
    Eyeka winked at him. "Duh."
    James just smiled, stepped forward, pecked Eyeka on the cheek, and hugged her.
    Eyeka hugged him back, tightly.
    James smiled, a normal smile, not airy, not toothy...just a normal, warm smile, and squeezed her close.
    Eyeka smiled semi-normally, though still looked like she was gonna rip someones head off, BUT didn't bother hiding her fangs like usual.
    James felt something on Eyeka's back that startled him a little. They were just her wings. He bit his lip and tried to hide his own angelic wings.
    "Do you want to see something?"
    James let go of the hug but still kept relatively close. “Sure.”
    She turned around. "unzip the back of my dress..."
    James slowly reached out and took the zipper of her dress, and pulled it down.
    She pushed the fabric away from her back, stretching out her black angel wings, to reveal a really bad looking scar down her spine.
    James gasped slightly, shivering a little, bringing a slightly trembling hand to his lips. His eyes barely widened.
    "I did this when I jumped off a cliff running from my fathers guards. Instead of landing on the rock i saw over 100 ft down, I lost my glasses and ended up slipping."
    "Good Lord...” said James. "I'm terribly sorry..."
    Eyeka laughed, pulling her wings back in against her back "not a big deal, just means that's my most vulnerable spot."
    James looked at her, once again, thoughtfully.
    Eyeka looked back at him. "Mind zipping the dress up now?" she said, tucking her wings up against her back.
    James blinked a couple times, but then shook his head a little and nodded.
    She smiled. "Thank you"
    "Yeah." He zipped it up carefully, delicately, staring at the scar with almost a fearful look.
    Eyeka blinked and looked at him worriedly. "Whats wrong?"
    James bit his lip a little. "I'm...a little like you. But I don't have scar like yours..."
    “You have angel wings, I already know that"
    James shook his head. "Not just that though..." He lifted the shawl off his shoulders and dropped it on the ground.
    Eyeka watched him curiously.
    He lifted his shirt and took it off, putting it on his shawl. He looked at her with large, sad, gentle eyes. His body looked normal, if not almost gaunt-looking, ut the thing that stood out was James heart. A red blotch in the shape of a human heart looked as though it were pushing out against his skin, trying to break itself free.
    Eyeka blinked in disbelief.
    Each pump of the heart made it look like it were turning purple, then back to a light red.
    Eyeka "huh... this may sound weird but that is not the weirdest thing I've ever seen...”
    James shrugged. "I wouldn't doubt you."
    Eyeka smiled "Oh by the way, while we're confessing all these oddities, I might mention that I don't even have a heart.” She walked up close to him and really gently placed her hand over where his heart was.
    James trembled.
    She pulled her hand away. "You feel pain a lot, don't you..."
    A tear was James' only reply. Eyeka spread her arms out, offering him a hug. James came forth, accepting her embrace no matter what his painful heart touched.
    "You know... I can make it stop hurting..." Eyeka said in the silence passing between them. "Well... at least temporarily..."
    James looked at her with fearfully hopeful eyes. "Y...you could?"
    “Well... it depends... One, you could become a fallen angel, in which case your heart literally wouldn't be there, that doesn't mean you wont have feelings though either. Two, the same goes for being a demon... but you also get an unlimited built in blood supply.... but you can pass out and go into a coma if you lose TOO much blood... and Three... I can change my shape and form and anything else about my body. I can also do that for you, but that choice would mean no wings... Although that also means that if you become a fallen angel I can make it so your wings are the same color as they are now"
    James looked at Eyeka for a while. He didn't know how to comprehend this very well. "But..." he said, in rather airy, high-pitched, childish tone. "They said...they said I'm..."
    Eyeka looked at him. "If all I do is alter how your body is physically, I can undo it, if you just want a small break from it.”
    "I...I appreciate you wanting to help. I really do..." James was looking down as he said all this. "But...I still have four years left of my life.
    "I can bring the dead back to life." Eyeka avoided mentioning the consequences that had for her.
    James suddenly looked at Eyeka, his eyes wide. "H-how do you go about that?" He suddenly shivered again, and he quickly picked up his shirt and thrust it over his head.
    “I give the person essence of life, something I can do, as a demon... If I have their body they have everything back, if not, they lose all their memories but are still alive" Eyeka hugged James again, warming him up in the process.
    James looked at her with awe. He pressed himself closer to Eyeka, her warmth making him feel home...
    She smiled "of course, you can come to me anytime if you decide on any of that... but one thing... If you die and I bring you beck, get far away from me... for at least a few hours.”
    He looked up at her. "How come?" He felt foolish to ask like a little child.
    She looked away "I become my true form, my demon side shows through, the part I cant control, the part with blood lust..."
    James looked down. She must have had a big hold on herself when I asked her to cut me just for her glasses... he thought.
    She smiled at him.
    He smiled back, hugging and snuggling into her a bit more. he smiled and just held him. James felt like falling asleep in her arms.
    “Come on, lets finish up getting to this place you want to show me, then we can go someplace warm”
    "Okay." James picked up his shawl, shook off the snow, and wrapped it around himself, taking Eyeka's hand again and leading her towards the spot.
    She still had the snow swirling magically around them. He felt the snow whirling around him, as if by unnatural forces, and he marched through the snowy plains and the forest and soon they reach the entrance to the spot. Eyeka made the snow go away so they could see better.
    The landscape ahead of them was incredible. Eyeka had awe in her eyes. A large opening, about a mile or so wide, lay ahead of them. Old ruins, strung with vines and forestry and flowers, covered it so well it was almost undetectable by the human eye. Large, lush oaks rose up into the frozen winter branches. A meadow stretched the majority of the clearing. The frozen atmosphere above the peaceable green scene on the ground level seemed as though it were incapable of touching even the slightest part of the meadow. Not a snowflake that came through the top of the forest's canopy touched the ground successfully. The ice didn't even reach down the oaks halfway. It was the tiniest, most beautiful, silenced place James had ever been to.
    “What do you think?” he whispered.
    "It's amazing...”
    "Come on. You have to come inside."
    James pulled her along into the meadow clearing. As they neared, the temperature rose to a normal summer's day. Eyeka followed, still in awe.
    James showed her around. "Do you like it?"
    “I love it, and you can feel it right? The magical draw it has, like it used to belong to an ancient being?"
    James definitely felt it. He nodded. "I've never felt so attracted to any place in my life."
    "I have, on my home planet. A place called Darkness Falls"
    She smiled "It's a really beautiful place, not beautiful like this, but it has the same feeling. The falls have a sort of silent loudness to them, and at night the place transforms into something unexplainable.”
    James nodded thoughtfully, looking around the whole place. He sighed. How powerful this place made him feel, how calm, how pleasing...
    "I'll have to show you someday." Eyeka leaned on James' shoulder slightly.
    James looked down and smiled softly at her. "Yes...someday, I will come with you to see your beautiful home." He pressed his arm holding hers a little closer.
    Eyeka shook her head "It's not all beautiful... My father is horrible, what he does is horrible, what he's made me do is horrible..." She was holding back tears.
    James looked down. "Oh...Eyeka...”
    Eyeka looked away "I've tortured many, murdered children in front of their mothers... nothing like that can be beautiful... its just that place..."
    James' arms suddenly were wrapped around her waist. "Shh...”
    She was silent. He held her close and tight, one hand on her hair, stroking her hair gently, and hugging her close with the hand on her waist. She hugged him tightly, letting the effect of the ancient presence around calm her.
    James closed his eyes, not feeling his wings protruding from his back, not knowing they were wrapped around them both, and not knowing that they were enveloped in between them.
    "Thank you, James.”
    The only sound Eyeka heard was the sound of wind in her ear. "You're welcome, Eyeka."
    Eyeka smiled, and was completely relaxed for once.
    James felt something odd about Eyeka, as though she were discovering something. "What is it that you think in your mind, my friend?"
    Eyeka "That I might not be a danger to anyone at this very moment.”
    James replied, in the softest and most beautiful tone Eyeka's ears have ever heard: "That's because this place...is a sanctuary...and I knew...somehow from that moment I looked at you, I knew something was troubling you..."
    “There will always be something that troubles me as long as I'm alive.”
    "I know...so I looked around, I found this place...this marvelous place...to keep your troubles away even if your troubles seem to follow you into the deepest reaches of this meadow...that you would find some sanctuary within its boundaries..."
    She looked him in the eyes. "This place is only my sanctuary as long as your here"
    "Exactly why I came with you...and I'm staying...so we can stay as long as we would like..."
    Eyeka just continued hugging him. “Anywhere is my sanctuary if you're there, even in an orphanage I'd feel calm with you.”
    James opened his eyes, smiling as he looked into the sweet girl's eyes with his own. "I would be the last on earth, or anywhere...and yet I would feel the same way if you were with me, too..." he replied, pressing his wings and arms closely around her, but at that moment--
    Eyeka decided to ignore her common sense and Reacted on instinct. She leaned up and kissed James on the lips.
    James took a tiny breath of air in, feeling the girl's gentle lips upon his own. She had only lingered there for a few seconds before pulling away, but it was as if the pain in his heart, the very vital, clinging to the last of its life organ in his body, was gone. Every feeling felt gone- it was only Eyeka there, embracing herself with him.
    When she had pulled away, James felt as though he were weightless.
    He opened his eyes. She was looking down. He took a little while to recuperate; he felt woozy, so he sat slowly. Eyeka was just standing there, not looking at him.
    James was looking down now. He held his mop of messy black hair, trying to think straight. ... was his only thought.
    Eyeka sat down, finally saying something. "I'm sorry, I acted on impulse."
    James looked up at her. "Why are you sorry?..."
    “Because, I wasn't thinking straight and acting on impulse is the number one cause of death.”
    "But...you didn't kill me. You weren't in a life threatening--"
    "But habits are hard to break." And now you'll never see me the same way...
    James put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I've seen the true you. That's all I need to see from you. Do you know why?"
    She shook her head.
    "Because...the pain in my heart...is a little less. Because you acted on impulse...you made me feel better..." James seemed to struggle to get to the point.
    She looked at him and smiled.
    "Because......" James looked at Eyeka, his golden eyes glowing. “Fallen angel...I love you..."
    Eyeka's face showed shock for a split second and she smiled widely and hugged him. "I love you, too!"
    James was surprised for a moment, but, the moment she hugged him, he hugged her right back. Eyeka was smiling, a lot.
    It was a good idea to show her this place after all, he thought, as James kissed her head softly, and the two fell slowly asleep together. That night, neither of the two were haunted by their usual nightmares, or suffer from insomnia.
    All James saw in his dreams was white calmness and the little fallen angel, whose hand was wrapped in his so very softly and whose head lay weightlessly upon his stomach...
    Eyeka started to stir.
    --He felt a slight disturbance.--
    Eyeka sat up and stroked his hair before getting up and stretching.
    --but it was nothing, and he breathed peacefully. James thought also that he felt a hand on his head, but he didn't mind.
    Eyeka smiled. "Be back in about 10 minutes" she whispered, kissing his forehead before taking her clothes off, changing into a wolf, and began running.
    James heard a sweet voice in his ear, whispers guided into thoughts.
    Eyeka was just running around the clearing and a bit into the normal woods, stretching her legs.
    James lay upon a stretch of meadow in the very middle of the clearing, a beam of gentle blue icy light sprinkling down from the heavens.
    Eyeka ran up to him, covered in snow.
    He was dreaming about Eyeka, having transformed into a striking, almost sensually attractive young woman covered with droplets of water and large portions of snow, a crown of crystals resting upon her temple.
    She changed back to her human form, but not having her clothes.
    James felt something wet and moist drip onto his forehead. He blinked repeatedly. "Mm...?"
    "Morning, Love,” Eyeka sung sweetly.
    James blinked again, then he sat up slowly, squinting at light. He looked around, spotting Eyeka. "Oh good--" He noticed that she was almost the same way that she was the transfigured Eyeka in his dream, half nude, but covered in (melting) snow. He blushed a little.
    Eyeka tilted her head. "Why are you blushing?"
    "Oh, I uh...I was dreaming..." he muttered a little, dipping his face in the cold water. He looked up at her beautiful form. "About you."
    Eyeka smiled widely.
    James smiled that cute, airy smile at her. He reached out and barely touched her hand, and then her waist. He traced a finger down her thigh and to her foot. "Yes...it was exactly how I thought it to be." James stood slowly.
    Eyeka laughed "Don't you forget how ticklish I am..."
    James smiled, barely a hint of a smirk crossing his face. “Naturally.”
    Eyeka learned close to his face and kissed him.
    James returned it, touching her cheek with a few gentle fingers.