“What’s that smell?” The coppery air smelled like burnt hair mixed with iron, especially when I bent down to pick up my phone.
I watched James’ nostrils widen as he took in a deep inhale. His eyes grew larger when the stench hit him. “Goddamn it, Ray.”
James took off running to his apartment door. I had to stay close to him so the Death Flames wouldn’t shock him. He left me no choice but to run in my heels.
The apartment door was unlocked, and we were both inside in a matter of seconds. Newspapers, magazines, and flyers reached almost to my height throughout the entire apartment. The only décor was the maze through the various types of paper. “How do you live like this?”
James was on a mission to the only door not opened in the apartment. He didn’t turn around when he answered. “I don’t live like this. He signed my release for prison. I have been telling him for years to clean this shit up. It will kill him one day.”
I watched my captive’s profile as he cleaned the mess in front of the remaining door. I couldn’t tell by his expression if he saw Ray’s death in a vision or he just assumed this was the way he was going to go.
When he finally pried the door open, the stench was even stronger. James flipped on the light. When I stepped into the room, only a reclining chair was visible. The rest of the room was covered in floor to ceiling newspapers. On the chair was a sleeping man covered in a coarse wool blanket. Beside him was a perfectly lit, fat cigar—sitting on paper. The stumpy fingers that held the cigar were perched right in the flames. This was the smell out in the hallway and this man had no idea how close to death he was. He was snoring louder than the sound of the small fire flames.
“Goddamn it, Ray. I told you this was going to happen.”
I looked back over to James, who frantically stomped on the newspapers. The only thing he managed to do was spread the embers to other pieces of paper. I rolled my eyes and pulled off the blanket Ray was using. “Bonfire 101: How do you kill fire?”
James was still in frantic mode and spreading fire. He didn’t even answer me.
Having enough, I used my best scolding tone. “James!”
“What?” He stopped stomping and looked over to me.
“How do you kill fire?” I held the blanket to him.
His jaw was moving back and forth as he ground his teeth. The more he stayed silent, the more a vein protruded on his forehead.
“Don’t blame me for this fire,” I said to James as I was bending down to cover the flames with the blanket. I only stood up and stomped on the newspapers once the flames were covered. “The best way to kill a fire is by snuffing out its oxygen. Seriously, have you never been camping?”
“Honey, I have only been in the city or in jail, take your pick. They kind of frown on me building fires at either location.”
I couldn’t help it, I felt my face lift in a smile. “You called me Honey.”
I leaned down toward Ray’s face and shook his shoulders. He was sleeping so deep, he had forgotten to take his glasses off. His glasses were so magnified, when my shaking woke him up, his enlarged eyes took over his whole face. He lay in the chair, blinking big blue eyes at me. “I didn’t know angels would have the same eyes at cats.”
If he thought the cat eyes were something, just wait until he saw my natural eyes. I held my hand out to Ray’s uninjured one. “Oh, I am not an angel. I met a few, and I definitely don’t want to go down that path again. We need to get a look at your hand.”
It took an awkward minute of him staring at my hand before Ray would finally let me help him stand up. With his hand in mine, I walked him to the living room. I heard James following behind us, murmuring words I wouldn’t allow myself to say. I couldn’t think anymore with the smell lingering in the other room. I found papers piled on something that resembled the shape of a couch. I knocked the papers on the floor. Thank God it was a couch, because I needed to sit down. There was no standing if I wanted to heal Ray.
“I am going to do something and you have to promise me you won’t freak out.” I looked into Ray’s enlarged eyes hoping for some indication he may not be okay with what I was about to do. He didn’t answer. Instead, he continually blinked at me as he held eye contact. I hope I was not about to make a mistake.
I grabbed his burnt hand. He had to have been in shock because Ray didn’t pull back when I touched the raw flesh with my fingertips. I closed my eyes and listened to Ray’s heartbeat, searching for a pattern. He was so trusting of me that he calmly sat there and waited for me to do whatever it was I was about to do.
God made each heart with their own unique beating pattern. If I could find the rhythm, I could interfere with it. Once I found Ray’s rhythm, it would be easy for me to jolt it. I could stop his heart and his blood would immediately stop flowing like a dam. When the blood got backed up, it would flow into his lungs. It could kill him. But he was safe with me. Unlike other members of my family, I wasn’t that type of creature. I had figured out how to heal with blood.
I used the natural rhythm of Ray’s heartbeat and forced more blood into his injured hand. The quicker the healing blood flowed, the quicker his hand healed. For whatever reason, Ray trusted me and allowed me to heal his hand quickly. James, on the other hand, was breathing hard behind me. I released Ray’s hand and stood up as soon as it was healed.
“I knew you were angel,” Ray finally spoke.
I shook my head ‘no.’ Despite me not being able to kill him, I was just enough on the wrong side of wicked to use his trust in my favor. “I need you to do two things for me. Can you do that Ray?”
There he went, blinking those eyes behind the glasses. No words, just the opening and closing of eyelids. When this was all over, I swore to myself I was going to pay for him to get contacts.
I was going to take that as a ‘yes.’ “First thing: I need you to throw away every single newspaper you have. Can you do that?”
His eyes widened for a moment like he was going to argue, but his words didn’t match what his eyes said. “I will do anything for an angel.”
“I am not an angel,” I corrected him again. “The second thing I need from you is to keep telling James’ officer he lives here. I will make sure he goes to his check-ins, but he is going to live with me for a little while. You can call me anytime. What is your phone number?” I called his phone once he gave me his number.
This time, I checked my coat pocket for everything I brought with me. We had too much stuff to do to come back here. I turned to James who was throwing a hoodie sweatshirt between our arms.
“What are you doing?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“Putting oxygen out of the flames, what does it look like?”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. The harder I laughed, the more he tried to put out Death Flames. I was still on the verge of laughter, but I somehow managed to keep it together to explain a little about my Death Flames. “It doesn’t work that way. Death Flames aren’t literally flames you can extinguish. You can get dressed with them on, shower...live a normal life. I can even command it to extend or shorten. But, you can never put it out. Only I can.”
He stopped moving and stared at me like he was trying to figure out which direction to go. I knew I was wrong for taking his choice away, but I need him. He will learn how much I could help him too. “Ready?” I asked him after I gave him a few moments in silence.