Ethereal Underground Part 12

When she didn't answer, he retreated. She obviously needed some more time to sort out her feelings. Confusion and anger still drifted off of her. Seeing Finlay so clean made Ash long for the same.

"I'm going to take a shower before we eat." He walked away, leaving her to pout in the corner.

Sometime later, Ash stepped out of the small bathroom feeling relaxed and refreshed. He hadn't realized how dirty all this traveling had made him, and he felt pretty embarra.s.sed that Annalise had seen him so dirty last night.

He retreated to the bedroom he and Annalise had shared the night before and laid down on the bed. He couldn't be around her right now. The entire time he was in the shower, he kept feeling her disappointment and it was killing him. He wanted so badly to just scoop her up and ask her to teleport them to some far off planet and never come home. He wanted to say screw duty, but he couldn't. He wanted to protect her, but he also wanted to kill Endarial.

He felt a small smile appear on his face as he heard a quiet knock at the door before opening.

Looking up, he saw Arie's red hair instead of the blonde he was expecting. He tried not to look disappointed as she sat down on the bed.

"You need to come eat."

"I'll be out soon; I just need some time to think."

She nodded. She knew not to press the issue, and began to walk back towards the door. She made it only a few steps before she swung back around and put her hands on her hips. "Is there something going on between you and Annalise?"

Ash sighed and threw the pillow over his face. He didn't want to discuss this with her. "It's none of your business, Arie."

He felt her reach over and grab the pillow that blocked her view.

"I knew it." she smiled broadly "You and the seraph are doing the hissy."

"I said it's none of your business." Ash sat up, annoyed that Arie was prying. She rarely pried; in fact she usually tried to keep the subject off of the females he and Finlay would pick up at the bar.

"Oh, so who I date is your business, but not the other way around?"

"Yes," he said, "Finlay is way too old for you. You are nineteen. He is like a thousand years old."

Arie just stood there staring at him with a dumb look on her face. Of course, he knew it was because Annalise was just as old as Finlay.

"Plus," he continued, "I am more responsible, mature, and grown up than you are."

Again, Arie gave him her blank stare. Of course, Arie was all of those things. Ten times more those things than he could ever be. Ash silently cursed himself. He couldn't think of any excuses. He just didn't like the fact that Arie was with any guy. He wanted to protect her.

"Just don't fall too hard for him," he said after a long pause. "I know Fin and he is not a one woman kind of man. In fact- the guy doesn't stop at women if you know what I mean. He's just about hit up any species that has walked through the Ethereal and then-"

Arie put her fingers up and held them against Ash's lips.

"Shhh. I don't want to hear anymore. I didn't jump into this blindly. I know he doesn't care about me the way I do him- Natara told me that seraphs don't have the same emotions we do but I waited too long for you Ash. You made it very clear that you didn't do relations.h.i.+ps- that you weren't allowed. You're not a keeper anymore. Does that change anything?" She looked into his blue eyes searching for an answer. Ash closed his eyes and sighed. He did not want to have this conversation with her right now. He had too much on his mind already.

"No, Arie. It doesn't change a thing. You are like a sister to me. It would be too weird." He patted her right shoulder and stood up to leave the room. He didn't want anyone to think something was going on. Arie looked hurt.

"I'm sorry," he said, stopping at the door. "I really care about you Arie, but right now my heart belongs to someone else."

"I knew it- I knew it!" she hissed with an accusing finger out. "I got you to confess," she taunted.

Ash groaned again. Arie was manipulative; she had to be in her line of work. He should have known.

"So that whole speech?" he asked.

"Yup, just a way to get you to confess. If you haven't noticed there is a blonde seraph out there that I'm crazy over. Just be careful, we all need our minds clear if we're going to be able to win this fight." She reached over and opened the door to leave. "I'm starved."

Ash followed her into the main room toward the lofty smell of something delicious.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Finlay and Annalise huddled on a chair talking. He didn't like how close Finlay was sitting to her. He also didn't like it when Finlay reached out and squeezed her knee. Ash swallowed his anger and watched as they both noticed his presence.

Annalise jumped up. She was nervous, she must have told him. The thought of her sharing their most intimate moments with anyone, especially Finlay, made his blood boil.

Ash stared coolly at Finlay as the blonde strolled over to where he stood.

"You better watch yourself," Finlay warned. Was Finlay threatening him? Was he referring to Annalise or Arie?

"What are you talking about?"

"You are playing with fire here. Annalise is very new to this world- she doesn't understand the carelessness of mortals. Watch yourself." Ash started to open his mouth, he wanted to tell Finlay where to shove it, but he really didn't feel like having another broken hand. Luckily, Natara interjected just in time.

"Come eat. I made human food!"

Ash slowly turned sit down, he was hungry and right now his hunger was more important that his jealousy.

Chapter Nine.

Annalise She watched with a slight irritation as she heard Finlay give Ash his version of threatening someone. As she crossed her arms across her chest, she tried not to show any kind of concern. That was difficult for her, hiding her emotions. She had always been the kind of seraph to wear her heart right on her shoulder, but this intense ache in her heart is where that had gotten her and she was determined not to let it happen again. If she was going to survive, make it back home in one piece physically and emotionally, she would have to toughen up. She only wished Leon was here to help her with that, he would know what to say and do. Only, he wouldn't be happy with what had transpired the night before with Ash. She closed her eyes and tried to erase those thoughts from her mind. Every time that mortal man came near her, she thought about how soft his touch had been, how sweet he was to her. He had shown her the ways of love, and it had been one of the most wonderful experiences she had since being in the mortal world. That was, before she woke up to find herself alone in the eighth layer of the planet; scared and confused. She had found herself going to look for him when she woke up and found him at the hands of Jaron. After hearing all of the shocking revelations from the mouth of the madman, Annalise wasn't really sure who Ash was anymore. Even worse, she had killed for him, and it made her sick.

The seraph remained away from the group and watched as they ate their breakfast. Natara had gone out of her way to prepare a large meal for them, most of it was made out of plants and fruits, but Annalise knew the girl had a knack for making anything taste good. Finlay was even eating his fill, preparing for the battle to come. She wasn't hungry though, the thought of food made her stomach flip in an unpleasant way. Ash sat in a seat with his back to her, which made it easier for her not to try to catch his eye, or have to fight to avoid it. Still, Finlay had been right, if they were going to go down into the dangerous parts of this world, all of them had to work together. He had tried to teach her about battle and sticking together. If she continued to ignore Ash instead of focusing on their strengths, it could put all of them in danger. One of them could end up dead because of it, and that was certainly not something that she wanted to happen.

When everyone was finished eating, Natara brought them over to where Annalise stood, "Are you ready to train before you go? It will be beneficial for you to learn how to fight, and you and Ash to practice using your connection."

"I suppose," Annalise responded and continued to try to hold her emotions in check as the others came to stand beside them.

"It's settled then," Finlay smiled and moved to stand in front of the group, "We shall go outside and do some sparring. You mortals need to learn how to defend yourself against a fallen." He gave Annalise a wink and helped himself to the back door and waved his hand as if to ask everyone to go outside.

She glanced over at Ash, who was walking towards her once again, and tried not to run out the door. Not sure what to say to him, she gave a small smile and continued outside, him right behind her. She could tell he still wanted to talk, and she would do so before they left. Being outside was not at all what she had expected it to be. It was yet another tunnel, however this s.p.a.ce was more of a large square metal tube. It was as big as a large room decorated with the resemblance of a garden. Annalise sighed. She missed the sunlight on her skin and wished they could return to the surface once more. All of this metal and darkness was really dragging her down. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Ash giving her a worried look.

"I do not like all of the manmade materials," she explained and dropped her eyes to the ground.

"We will be out of here soon enough," he said and ran his finger down her cheek sweetly to try and give her some comfort.

She closed her eyes and allowed herself a minute to enjoy the softness of his skin on hers and the excitement it elicited in her body. This was something she had not felt before she met him, and now that she knew what it was, it was not so confusing and scary. When she realized she was showing her emotions so freely, Annalise took a step back from him and crossed her arms. She turned her attention to Natara.

"I think it will be best if Annalise and Ash work together, Finlay, so you can help Arie practice. Just remember, it is going to be best if you fight defensively. You want the fallen to think they have the upper hand so they will get c.o.c.ky and make a mistake. Their new human emotions since being cast out make them unstable. Do not advance on them too much or you will get yourself hurt," Natara explained and sat down on a fake stump. She eyed Ash and c.o.c.ked an eyebrow as if to show she knew this would be hard for him. "If you can destroy their ring, you will destroy the source of their power," she added and looked around at everyone.

Finlay took Arie's arm and walked over to the opposite side of the room to train. Annalise watched as he leaned in to kiss the redhead, full and hard on the lips, before beginning to work with her on how to fight him. What she imagined as jealousy crept up into the seraph's heart as she watched, knowing Finlay would not leave Arie in bed alone and unsafe while she was sleeping. Neither of them appeared to care that they were breaking all the rules by being together and openly showing affection.

"Anna," Ash said which caught her attention.

She turned to look at him and raised her face to get a better look into his blue eyes, "Sorry, I was distracted. I do not know anything about fighting, you will need to spar with Finlay." The seraph found herself not wanting to be too close to him at the moment so she tried to push it off on her friend.

"But we need to work with this affinity of yours."

"Yes," Annalise sighed in agreement. She knew this was true. If they were to have any chance against the fallen, they would need to work together. If their powers were supposedly so great as a team, they needed to practice and try to build it up. She took a few steps back from him and let the water flow from a few inches in front of her hands to the ground.

The corner of Ash's lip went up in a smile, and she herself couldn't keep the smile that spread over her own face as he watched the water flow. They had never been in a situation for him to actually watch this happen. When they were at Jedzia's home she had acted impulsively to save him, but now he could just watch. It reminded her of how happy she had been as she watered her flowers, watching them sprout from the ground. "Try to move it," she said.

Ash nodded, focusing his eyes on the water and moving his hands to mimic hers. The water struggled slightly, and sprayed to either side of them. Annalise let out a girlish giggle, "You are going to have to try harder than that."

She watched as his eyes looked up at her, and heard the challenge in her voice. His smile became more crooked, his concentration more so as the water straightened again and then the entire stream moved to the left and to the right as he directed it. "This is easy, Annalise, why don't you let me show you how to fight?"

She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. Annalise knew that he was trying to use the powers, and doing well with it, but that in battle it would be much harder to concentrate. Suddenly it dawned on her that she was acting as if everything was fine, like the upsetting events had not occurred. She forced herself to stop laughing and felt the irritation filling her up again as he smiled back at her. Using the power inside her, she forced it into her water to create a large and forceful stream of water. She pushed it out towards the mortal. As it came at him, she could see the uncertainty on his face as it slammed into him and threw him into the metal wall.

She made the flow stop, and crossed her arms in satisfaction, "Like I said, you will have to do better than that."

He looked back at her with shock and possibly hurt that she would do such a thing, and regret hit her. It filled her quickly, and she realized that she really could have hurt him physically in her rage. She ran over to him and dropped to the ground beside him. It surprised her when she threw her arms around him when she had just been mad with him a few seconds earlier. "I am so sorry, Ash, are you hurt?" Pulling back, her eyes searched his and at that point, she didn't care that she was showing him how much she truly worried about him. She was just glad he was safe.

Ash smiled at her, and pulled her closer to him, "I'm fine. You've got quite the punch there, Anna."

Unable to pull herself away from him, she spoke truthfully, "I do not know what I would do if I lost you or was the cause of you being hurt." It hit her suddenly, the thought of losing him. Even though they had only known each other for a few days, there was something between them that made her attached to him. Something that would miss him when she went home. Love perhaps.

"Anna," he whispered and ran his hands up and down her arms, "Don't worry about me. I should be apologizing to you. I'm sorry I left you this morning. I just needed to get out of there and get out some energy, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"But you left me," she insisted, trying to make him see how much it had hurt her, "A seraph is most vulnerable when they are sleeping and I trusted you enough to fall asleep...and you left me there...in the underground alone."

"I'm really sorry, Anna, I just mess everything up. When you told me you weren't going to kill me, I was just so happy and I was afraid that one of us would die and I would have missed out on the chance to just be with you."

"But when a mortal loves another, they do not just leave them there, alone," she insisted, drawing from the small amount of knowledge she had about the mortal culture, surprised at the word love she was using so freely.

He paused and cast his eyes to the ground as he let her go and leaned back against the wall. Covering his eyes with his hands, he shook his head and then looked back at her, "I don't deserve you. I'm no good for you, you could do so much better than me. You're a seraph and you're so kind and I'm just a screw up."

"No-"

"Yes, yes, Anna," he insisted and grabbed her again to make her look at him, "When this is over, I will make sure your name is cleared and you can go home."

Annalise could see the seriousness in his eyes, but also the pain and regret. She wanted to tell him that she did care for him, that she forgave him, wanted him to want her to stay here with him. Part of her wanted to go back home, but the biggest part of her wanted him to ask her to stay. Beg him to do so, and she would tell him that she loved him. Then they could be together. Annalise did none of these things, however, she just looked back at him with sadness in her eyes, feeling as if he wanted her out of his life so it could go back to normal. Before their time alone together, she thought he had not wanted her. She desperately wanted to go back home and be a seraph, continue her life as it had always been. But that would mean that she would be without Ash. Now, she realized wholly the extent of her feelings for him, but she was terrified. It would never work between them. So why was she feeling the need to beg him to stay with her? If he cared for her as she cared for him, he would not have gotten up and left Natara's home to "get energy out".

"Leon would not have left me. When I healed you, it took a lot out of me, so much that I slept for several days, and Leon did not leave my side."

Ash frowned, "See that's what I mean. No one can be better than your precious Leon."

It hit her hard, that he was speaking so lowly of Leon. They had been together for over a thousand years, and Ash would never understand that. He was not much different than Finlay, she could see that now, and she was not sure why she thought there was even a small possibility that they could work out. She tried to remind herself that Finlay and Ash would drink ale and have fun with women, and push her feelings for him aside.

There was silence for a few moments before he spoke again, "Did you tell Finlay about...us?"

Annalise let the shock play over her face as she looked at him, "I would never tell him such things! I cannot believe you would think that. He asked of course, and I told him what I did was none of his business."

She tried to shut her feelings off quickly so as not to show how hurt she was once again and decided to once again try her hand at joking to get the conversation off the night before, "You know, you look very handsome drenched in water."

"I think you would too," he said, eyes growing serious.

She paused, seeing the water on his clothing start to shake. When she opened her mouth to say something, she was stopped by the water flying off of Ash and onto her. Closing her eyes as it drenched her, she could hear him laugh at her and then his weight on top of her. She snapped her eyes open as he grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head.

"What do you think you are doing?" she demanded and felt her face turn an embarra.s.sing shade of red.

"Fight me! You can't teleport. How are you going to get a fallen off of you?"

Annalise paused and considered his words. He wanted to spar with her, make her think about what to do once they are around their enemies. Her face grew serious as she caused rain to pour from above them. She tried to fight him off, moving her hips up and down to try to buck him off of her. "I do not know, Ash," she said finally, exasperated when the water did not affect him even though is smacked against his back hard.

"You aren't hitting me hard enough."

"I do not want to hurt you."

"Here friend, let me handle it," Finlay said as he came to stand over the two of them.

Ash shook his head, "No, I've got this."

Finlay sighed and took the mortal by the clothing, and pulled him off of Annalise. He placed him off to the side and cracked his knuckles, "Alright, sweetheart, show me what you've got."

Annalise looked at him in confusion and began to get up, but Finlay was on her quickly and pushed her back onto the ground. She let out a yelp as she hit the metal floor, panic rising in her body. He tapped her bangle, which forced her wings out of her back and across the wet floor. She opened her mouth to object but he covered it quickly, much to the irritation of Ash. She could feel his anger rising, protesting as he came back to stand beside them. He didn't like being pushed aside by Finlay.

Finlay ignored his protests and lowered his face down to the seraph. "Fight me, come on Anna."

She narrowed her eyes in anger, furious that he was making a mockery of her in front of everyone. She brought on the rain, harder and faster this time which brought a curse from Finlay's lips. Pleased with herself, she made it swirl around the two of them, taking it upwards to the ceiling and bringing the water spout pounding down on his back. He moved a hand to wipe the water off of his face and she took the opportunity to reach for his wrist to tap his bracelet and release his wings. She could hear a shocked gasp come from Arie, which made Finlay pause and look up at her.

Annalise pushed herself off the floor with her wings and grabbed ahold of the seraph's clothing to take the two of them into the air. She reached into her pocket to retrieve her gun and slammed it over his head.

"Ow, Anna, watch it."

Annalise ignored him and grabbed his hair, pulling it upwards and then balling her other hand into a fist. She slammed it into his chest and he finally let her go. He hovered in the air, still, and looked at her in shock. Annalise took a few deep breaths and lowered herself to the floor, surprised at herself and her sudden fight.

"That was pretty good," Finlay admitted as he tapped his bracelet to hide his wings and fell to the ground. He landed on his feet and cast a worried glance at Arie and then looked back at Annalise, "You had me very distracted. I think if you can use that little brain of yours with the fallen like that, you will be fine."

She looked down at her hand, surprised to see that it was not broken as Ash's had been when he hit Finlay back at Arie's home. It made her feel more empowered to know that she was some sort of a match for the fallen, even if she was still terrified. She watched as Arie ran over to Finlay, shooting her a less than happy glare, and started whispering to the male seraph.

Annalise looked over at Natara who gave her a silent clap, and over at Ash who looked very surprised that she had fought so hard when Finlay spared with her. She knew then that Ash was her weak spot. If one of the fallen got the best of him, she worried that she would be weakened, or if he betrayed her, that would be the end of her. It scared her to think of these things.

"Alright guys, we need to get you out," Natara said suddenly as her head snapped over to the back door, "Sounds like I have company."

The group stood up quickly and followed her to the far side of the room. She lifted up an iron bench that sat there, and placed it off to the side. Natara reached down to the floor, she used her hand to dust off some of the dirt and pull up a trap door. "This is going to take you to the ninth layer, follow the tunnels and it will lead you to the tenth. That's where you will find Loki. Expect fallen to attack on your journey, and it could take a few days to even reach the bottom layer. Be careful, the ninth layer is home to banished creatures, including many original inhabitants. Trust no one."

"Well, let's go," Finlay said excitedly, being the first to start down into the darkness. When he landed he paused, and looked back up at the group with a smile, "Annalise, don't forget I am depending on you for healing for the mortals. I will do it if I need to but it won't be pleasant. We need to all work together. From now on, put your issues to the side. Deal?"

Everyone looked back and forth to each other and nodded. Annalise wasn't sure that she wanted to spend too much time with Arie and she knew the girl wasn't fond of her either, however, she was Ash's friend and that made her somewhat important to the seraph. The redhead followed Finlay down into the hole and Ash followed suite. Annalise walked over to the hole in the floor and saw him looking up at her from down below, "Come on down, there's nothing to be afraid of."