Moonlit River

Chapter 1: Cascade

Good evening or day or whatever time you may be in. I am a consistent writer and yet a varying one, please don\'t kill me if my updates are slow, I\'m just busy with school.

Disclaimer: I wrote this, I own this, I love this. Copy and claim it and you shall suffer a painful death of... well, not really, I lied. But if you take it, I\'ll poke you with a stick. Other than that, you\'re fine. All the characters are original and so on. Thanks, enjoy.

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She stood looking over the edge of the bridge, the cold rushing water brushing the old slats beneath her feet. She put her elbows together on the rail and pushed her palms to her chin leaning a little more over the secluded arch. The air chilled her skin and she shrugged her white sweater a little more onto her shoulders, the light blue, silk night gown brushing her knees. She curled her toes into the slightly damp wood and smiled a bright smile out into the night.

She waited quietly for the night time owls to begin their dark song of the hunt and she touched the warmth of her neck, arching it back a bit to look up into the star filled sky. She leaned against the wood a little more and stretched backwards to let the warmth back into her arms. She moved forward a little bit and blinked. Her bright blue eyes shot open. \"What the he-!\" The wood supporting her waist snapped and cracked beneath her hips, the railing falling into the swift river, and the wood beneath her toes breaking off into the cold water, she fell forward, her hands reaching out to grasp onto the evasive wood, leaving her peripheral vision to leave her to the water.

She plunged head first, her sweater wrapping itself around her and her dress clinging to her body. She rolled in the current and her head came to the surface, allowing her a quick breath before being taken back under. Her legs hit rocks on the bottom and she pushed off of them to make herself reach the surface once more. She used the rocks as leverage to reach the shore, pushing to her right to get back to the shallows. She reached out, grabbing a rock that was covered in green algae, slippery and hard to grasp, she wrapped around it tightly with her legs and arms and slowly worked her way around the edge of it back to the shore. She stood from the water and shivered, the water dripping off of her body in torrents. Her teeth chattered and she moved towards the trees. The leaves of the low branches lay in her hair as she dropped down onto the ground. She was freezing, and her body was tired from fighting the current and having to inch her way around a rock.

Her breath came in sharp pulls at her chest, and she placed her hand gently on her necklace, which lay in the cold crevice of her collarbone. Her eyes drifted to the warm red of the ruby there, in the clutches of gold wreathes of etched leaves. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine a mulberry tree with rich berries hanging from it, as red as blood and as beautiful as her ruby. Her mind drifted and in her absence of conscious white feathers surrounded her body encasing it in a soft bed of wings. The cold sweater lay discarded beside her, and her wings spread from her back, always there without her knowledge.

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He knelt in the tree above her, looking down, his dark crimson eyes focusing on her cold body, her wings wrapped tightly around her, saving her from the chill and pains of a cold. He smiled, his fangs gently scraping his lower lip, his hair draping around his face like a curtain of darkness. His black leathery wings spread in anticipation as he looked down at her, willing him to make a move. To kill a young angel before she was even aware of her own power. His clothes clung to him keeping him in an even more unrecognizable state, being in all black.

He slid from the tree and expertly landed on the ground beside her, avoiding the dried winter leaves. His hand extended out to his sword which lay flatly against his flank, protruding from the back of his cape in an exquisite manner, leaving a wisp of fog behind every time it\'s aura pulsated from the sword within its\' sheath. He kneeled, examining her wings, their tips were slightly blue, like her dress.

A moment of hesitation came over him as she stirred, her wings parting gently to show her face, a beautiful form of grace, her full light pink lips slightly parted, her lashes fluttering on her cheeks. He righted himself as he stood and looked down at the helpless angel child. His momentary smirk widened into a grin of satisfaction. He would be greatly rewarded.

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She awoke laying on silken pillows of black, a warm silver fur laying over her, and eternal darkness enveloping everything in her surroundings. She looked down at her skin, it was rather cadaverous from her earlier plunge into the icy waters. She was looking better though than she had remembered when she had looked down at herself when she was leaning against the tree.

Her mind snapped back to her surroundings. When she was leaning against the tree... She stood hesitantly, feeling her own bare skin beneath the warm fur. She pulled it around her, letting her black hair cascade over her shoulders loosely. She pursed her lips. She could either call out for someone or she could wait for someone to come to the... there was no door. She grimaced and her voiced rang into the stillness. \"Hello?\"

She was answered with the same silence. She sat down and looked around her. Was there any way she could get out that she had missed. She felt the fear begin to work its way into her heart, a cold chill of uncertainty. She wrapped the fur a little more tightly around her as she heard steps coming towards her. Instead of feeling better as she had expected, she suddenly felt an impending dread move into her senses. A darkness that would smother her light with a mere whim of use. She pushed backwards into the pillows.

Two arms arose from the darkness, their nails long and sharp, painted a dark blue of midnight. A man stepped forward to join the eerie arms. He smiled, his beautiful white gleam coming forth and his fangs being evident to her. She smothered a startled shriek as he moved towards her and his eyes came into the faint glow of the light surrounding her enclosure. Blood red seemed to have made its way into them and he was moving with a slight sway, making her heart rate excel out of fear and quiet enticement.

He could smell it, she was afraid, he smiled, his coal hair pulled gently behind the nape of his neck in a long red ribbon, trailing down his back to brush the ground. His sword was gone from his side and he remained in all black. He moved towards her from the darkness and he watched as she stifled her outcry. His smile briefly changed as he watched her move gracefully away, her eyes moving from his hips to his face momentarily. He smirked.

She almost laughed, he was smirking at her. He moved like the water, flowing and beautiful, but dangerous all the same. She shivered, her body pressing into the pillows. He knelt before her, his hand outstretched. Her body melted at the sound of his delving and beautiful deep voice.

\"My dear angel, have you any idea where you are?\" He smiled a devilish grin and his eyes narrowed slightly to become more menacing.

She jumped, her body tense quickly again at the change of expression. She stammered out her words quickly, \"No, I just want to go home-\"

He quickly cut her off with a retort. \"But my dear angel! Home is never as lovely as Hell.\"