My Angel, My Devil (unfinished) by Tamara L. Garcia (books to read for 12 year olds .TXT) 📕

nearest to me. The inside of the flower was puffy and soft looking, while the leaves on the outside looked smooth and protective, as it curled around the inside. I poked at one smooth leaf, and immediately pulled back. The leaves wiggled a bit, as if it had an animal mind.
I looked at my finger to confirm what I thought to be a cut. It was.
I stared at my finger with aw, studying my blood. As I recollect, I’ve never bled before. Thinking that this soft, thick white substance is my blood, and it’s been running through me my whole life was kind of odd to think of. I’ve never seen blood before, but I’m guessing by the surprised looks of the Night Beasts this is not normal. “What?”
Salvage just nodded his head, with a surprised look on his face. “Of course,” he said, astonished. “It makes sense you would have the blood of the Gods. It just validates what you are,” he looked expectant at me. I was just looking confused while Fate and Red nodded their heads in agreement.
I turned my head back to my finger. The little drop of white fell to the ground, and greenery flourished not ten seconds after the blood hit the grass. We all backed off, as a few trees were growing in ultra fast motion, merging with each other.
“What the hell,” said a deep, husky voice. I looked behind me, and there were two boys where the Night Beasts should have been. One was big and beefy, not over doing it, just medium bouncer size. His long, dark curly hair framed his face like one of those ancient Roman statues. His eyes were a shocking icy blue, with a slated pupil-kind of like a cat’s, but not quite. His eyes were glowing. For a second I was transfixed, but then a huge crack sounded.
My attention was quickly turned to the now merged tree, still growing and cracking the other branches of trees. My stomach knotted in my panic. Did I cause this?
If I did, how could I stop it? My thoughts were interrupted by another crackling noise. The ground became unstable, rumbling and shaking under my uneasy feet. A crack in the ground started to form, rich soil separating and dancing along with the shaking, oddly colored grass. The soil turned black, and the dark blue grass shimmied with each other, casting a few fire flies to shoot up in unison.
The fire flies’ light was white, so the ground kind of looked like space. I bet it would be even more beautiful from above. I shook myself mentally from the strange things around me, and how easily it came to me to just think of it as normal.
I turned back to Salvage. “What’s going on?”
He looked thoughtful, then back up. More strange flowers were blooming, only larger. A dark tree root came from one of the cracks on the ground. “I would say because of your blood,” he said, dodging another array of flowers. “It seems the earth element is strong in you. That, on top of you being a goddess now makes this whole place holy ground now. It’s under your complete control since your blood touched this place and made all of the Wild Iryses grow.”
“Wild what?” another tree root surfaced, only this one was right beneath me. As it moved upwards, I crouched down so I wouldn’t fall. It didn’t work. Before I could hit the ground, a dark figure surrounded me.
I looked up to see a man with dark skin, icy blue eyes that glowed with a certain kind radiance only a true beast could emit. His face was pulled into a scowl, and his lips were pulled back to show his grotesquely sharp incisors in a threat. I heard a gasp, realizing it was me. I was surprised.
I stared in awe at him, his tropical beauty something I haven’t come across in a while. I’ve only seen people like him on TV. His dreadlocks were pulled back in a short pony tail; his face was angular with no trace of an immature boy. I was in his arms, but I could tell from looking up at him he carried himself with a lot of pride. His eyes perceived that, too.
His mocha colored skin in contrast with my own moon pale skin was striking. I found it unpleasant, and it made me a bit irritable. I couldn’t tan for my life. His blizzard-like glare was turn unto me. “Are you well, Milady?” his deep voice bellows, and I can feel it’s rhythm throughout my body. My cheeks flame. Oh my Angels, I thought. He has a British accent.
The flames in my cheeks quickly extinguished, and my surprise vanished. The feeling slipped through my fingers and out of my reach. Again, I was frustrated. Again, it went away. “I’m fine,” I said with fading irritation. He handed me over to Salvage and jumped over to where this strange man was. He looked shocked, and definitely not human. He had long pointy ears and moon-pale hair pulled back into a pony tail. He was tall, with spider-like skinny pale fingers and rusty brown eyes. The dark man said something to him, and his eyes darted to me with surprise.
“Ask it to stop,” Salvage said. I almost jumped; his lips were to my ear and he kept whispering the same thing.
I just looked at him. “How,” I said.
He gave me a slight smile. “Ask it to stop with your heart.”
Just then, my heart started beating fast, and my blood called out to the strange growing plants. Everything slowed down, and I felt every heart beat individually. The rhythm was slow and calm, and one heartbeat was loud and chaotic: stop.
For a split second the giant tree pulsated, and afterwards it stopped growing. Completely; not even the pace of a normal tree. I stared in awe, and realized the other plants had stopped as well. Within the last few days, odd things happened. I tried denial even though it didn’t work that much and I still believed this was kind of real. But this took the cake, and I mean really took it.
Nothing better than power to snap your eyes, open I guess. Feelings came rushing back to me-shock, embarrassment, anger, disbelief, and the greatest one of all: sorrow. If I weren’t being held by Salvage, I would have crumpled to my knees and cried until I died. Well, apparently I took the alternative, because when I woke up I felt a lot better.
Imprint

Publication Date: 05-07-2010

All Rights Reserved