Angel Dust by Terry Kuder III (best non fiction books to read .txt) 📖

surprised enough for the both of them. “Your demise will come shortly though. It won’t be as grand as I had planned, but it will come. That energy is still in your body, slowly eating away at you. Three years, Lily. Three years and we will come for her; that you can be sure of.” His voice was very low, almost to a whisper. He had used all of his energy to block her attack and now had nothing going for him except words. He slumped over as his wings started to flap faster. They picked him up into the air, his body hanging there. “Give Master Dowin my regards.” He said as his wings took him off leaving nothing left but silence. The wind continued to blow through the leaves, leaving the two half dead corpses with an eerie feeling.
“That….son….of…a…bitch.” Lily coughed.
Dan slowly got up, holding his stomach and shutting his eyes in pain. He limped over to Lily, holding his back. He fell to his knees, picking Lily up and laying her head in his lap. “That was very stupid of you.” He said after a moment.
She looked up at him with watered eyes. “I won’t die.” Her voice was lower than Ezebra’s was.
“B…but…how? He just said…” Dan started.
“Dan, I’m not stupid. I know who you are.” She interrupted.
Dan looked shocked, but his face relaxed as if he understood. “How?”
“It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I need to die.”
“If you know, Lily, then you know that I can….”
“No, Dan….”
“Don’t be an idiot, Lily.”
“Dan….just….shut up.” Lily closed her eyes. “I know….I know….I know that you can, but you can’t.”
“Why the hell not?!” Dan was getting furious at her stubbornness.
“T….think…about it.” Her head fell to the side. Dan thought about it for a moment. What was she talking about? She knew who Dan was? What did that mean? Why were there so many questions and no answers to them? I hated this. I hated not knowing. What could Dan do for her? Could he help her? Did he know something that could have helped her? No, he couldn’t have. Lily was going to die. There was nothing that Dan could do, was there? Dan’s eyes softened as he finally realized.
“If I do, then he will know that you’re still alive.”
She licked her lips and nodded. “So….Dan?”
“Yes?”
“I need to ask you another favor.”
“Sure.”
“Kill…..me…”
Dan’s eyes started to swell. He knew he had to. If she didn’t die, then Ezebra was sure to detect her. He said that no matter how little the power that was used, he could still find her. He would know that she was alive. “I…I…I can’t, Lily. I just can’t.”
Lily grabbed his hand and placed a fallen arrow in it. “You….need….to.” She was slowly losing consciousness. “It….it’s…for….her….for….Azalia.” A couple of tears slowly went down Lily’s cheek.
“What about three years from now? What about when he comes back to take her? What the hell am I supposed to do then?” He shook Lily. “Lily! Stay with me! Tell me what to do!”
She woke up. “M…m….Mira.” She closed her eyes slowly again. “S…she’s a…rivi…rivivalist….”
“Mira? Mira Nvidian? She’s a secretary. How could she know anything?”
“J….just trust me, Dan. Mmmkay?” She struggled. “Do….it. Right….” She raised her hand up and tapped where her heart was. “….here.”
He tightened his grip around the arrow. He raised it above his head and held onto her tightly. “I will bring you back in three years. We will figure out what to do. I promise you, Lily. I will take care of Azalia and we will figure this out. I won’t be able to do this without you.”
“Mmmmkay.” She said. Dan brought his fist down, jabbing the arrow into her heart. She tensed up, her eyes opening quickly and then closing slowly. She tilted her head up and smiled. Blood oozed down her shoulder onto his hand holding her. “Th….thank you, Dan. Sssss….eeeee…..yyooooo…..lllllaaatttteeeerrr.” She wheezed. Her eyes stayed open and she stopped breathing. Tears fell upon her as Dan let go of the arrow. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. He had just killed the mother of the little girl he was going to take care of. It was suddenly understood why Dan had cried when Azalia called him “daddy.” She had no idea that he was responsible for her mother’s death; that he could have possibly saved her, but instead shoved an arrow through her heart. Would they tell her? My guess was that they probably wouldn’t. Azalia looked up to Dan. They couldn’t diminish that.
“See you later, Lily.” Dan sobbed, holding Lily to his chest. With this final scene, the image faded and the water splashed to the ground in a grand finale of orchestrated drops.

10

Plans

The sun peeked over the horizon and the morning birds began their torrent of lively chirps. Morning was breaking through and I had been so enthralled with the show that I had forgotten what time it was. I looked down at my watch and noticed that it was ten till six. I stretched and yawned, rubbing my eyes. It was hard to believe that six hours had gone by that quickly. What was to happen next, I wondered. There was only twenty days left; technically nineteen now. The events that I just watched occurred three years ago. Ezebra was sure to be stronger and with Lily just being resurrected and Dan had probably not practiced in a long time, they were sure to be weaker than he was.
"So, what now?" I asked aloud. Both Dan and Lily didn't utter a word. Did they even know? Would Ezebra even come on his own or would he bring reinforcements? Considering that he thought Lily was dead, he only figured that he would have to face Dan. From what I knew about Ezebra, he would come alone. He would be cocky enough to think that he only had one foe to face. Even so, what kind of plan did they have? Dan had three years to think about this. He had to have something in mind. "Well? Anything?"
"Dan, did you bring your bow?" Lily said turning to him. What kind of question was that? Of course he didn't have it. In fact, I had never known Dan to have a bow. Did he sell it? Come to think of it, the last time I saw it was when it had fallen out of his hands during the battle.
"You should know better than that, Lily." He said smiling. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small triangular contraption about the size of his palm. It was a dark silver color, almost black. It looked as if it folded in on itself numerous times and was held together by a latch in the middle. He flipped the latch up and the device began unfolding. It turned over about four or five times before reaching it's full length. It arched like a "d" and at the tips of it a string was attached. Along the arch, square pieces of metal hung out. Dan snapped each of the pieces and locked the bow in place. The process took mere seconds. Dan pulled the string to make sure the bow was sturdy enough. It seemed as if the string was going to break. What was he going to shoot? He didn't have any arrows with him. I had thought too soon when he pulled six metallic pieces from a pouch attached to the back of his waist. The pieces were opposite halves of a full arrow. The tips of them were made to screw into each other, which Dan began doing properly with a steady hand. The entire process, bow and arrows, took thirty seconds.
"Whoa. Wait a second." I held up a hand. "You guys are going to practice now?"
They both looked at each other, smiled, looked at me, and shrugged. "Yeah." They said in unison.
"It's six o'clock in the morning." I proclaimed incredulously.
"Tyson," Lily began. "I don't think you are understanding the urgency of the situation that we are in." I sunk back as she rose, the cloak falling off of her. She began walking towards me. "A man....no, no, scratch that. A vile being will be arriving in nineteen days. Nineteen days, Tyson! And do you know what he is going to do?" Without thinking, I was walking backwards as she continued to advance towards me. "He's going to take my daughter. He's going to take my Azalia and turn her into one of those things he calls Angels. He's going to twist her into something unfathomable, something horrendous, that you won't be able to recognize her when he's through. Oh, but that's the least of your worries, Tyson. Prior to all of this," She held her hands out to demonstrate the size of what she was talking about, "he's going to kill everyone in Zephyrus. He's going to kill Mira, he's going to kill Dr. Avist, and most importantly, he's going to kill you. He will not lay mercy upon one single soul except for the person he chooses to tell his tale. He's going to obliterate this city into nothing and do you know why? Do you know why, Tyson?! For no reason at all. No good damn reason except to make his mark in this world! To leave his signature. It doesn't matter that he's in control of a whole sactified fucking kingdom! He's going to do all of this and that's probably after he toys with everyone, rapes the women, slits the children's throats, burns the crops, and Gods knows what else!" Her voice kept getting louder and louder. She had backed me up against a tree now and was poking one of her long fingernails into my chest.
"Even all of this is the least of your worries. My daughter is talented, Tyson. She is fucking talented and brilliant. That's why he wants her. He wants her so that he can add to his ever growing army of fucking eight year olds that will grow up and be trained to be monsters! And let me tell you something, dear Tyson. He's not doing this just so he can have a little collection of dolls for him to play around with. Oh no! That's not the reason at all. Once he has a large enough capacity, he's going to destroy Talemenle. He's going to repeat the steps that he's going to take with Zephyrus, but magnify it a million fold. He's going to bring down this planet and burn everyone in it! Oh, sure, there will