Aurora - Book 1 - The Blessed Ground

2. Orientation

"What is your full name, Aurora?" She gets what looks like a scroll out.

"Aurora Elowen Winslet."

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

"Were you a student on Soitera?"

"Yes. I was about to go to college at BlackRock."

"I've never heard of it." She smiles. "College is a good thing, though. And since you were already a student, you shouldn't have too many problems transitioning here. But the classes will be quite a bit different. Do you know what happened to you?"

"All I can remember is a man with a knife chasing me. Then there was a bright light. I heard someone yell. I think it was Everett's dad. I need to check on them."

Rave moves to the seat beside mine and pats my arm. "We will. I promise."

Xander comes in and hands Eden a folder. Then he sits on the couch.

She reads for a few minutes then closes the folder. "You were attacked in your home. While running away, you ran in front of a car and were struck. You were then sent to the hospital. Your body gave up after three days. The injuries were too great for you to recover from. You immediately woke up here."

"Three days?" I don't remember any of it. "I want my dad." I hug my knees and cry into them.

She pulls me up and wraps her wings around me. All the sadness vanishes again. I feel peace and love. "It'll get better. I promise. Let's get you checked in."

I wipe my nose and sit down. "Ok."

"It says here your biological parents are deceased?"

"Yes. My dad adopted me. Is my mom here?"

"No. Neither of your parents are here."

The sadness floods back in. I wish I could have met my mom.

"I am going to have you share a room with Rave. I think it'll do you both well."

Rave pats my arm. "We will. I'll show you around."

"Yeah, they can help each other study." Xander opens another folder.

Eden smiles. "Of course they will. For your first classes, you will be in Soitera travel, flight, history, powers, law..."

My mouth falls open. "This is a lot."

She gives me a kind smile. Then goes back to her paperwork. "You'll do fine. Healing. That will be a full schedule. I'll get a copy of your schedule and your supplies sent to your room. Xander, can you give her a tour and make sure she gets something to eat, while I do this? She's probably starving."

He stands up and gestures at the door. "Right this way."

I glance at Rave and she jumps up. "Sure, I'll come with you."

Xander leads us to a cafeteria. "Whenever you're hungry, walk in that door and they will give you a tray of food. It can't get any simpler."

He's not joking. It really can't get any simpler. The tray has a lot of food too. Creamy noodles, bread, vegetables, and an apple.

"You forgot your juice, sweetie." A nice lady with white wings making the trays puts juice on my tray. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"You are so young to be on your own. If you have any problems, you come see me. I'll help you. My name is Minda."

"Thank you."

"Have an extra juice."

She puts it on my tray as Rave pushes me out the door. We find a table. The food is kind of plain. But it's food and I am starving.

Xander watches me eat everything. "You can eat on Soitera too. You could eat what you're used to down there. But this is basically what we eat here."

"I would eat anything. I was so hungry. And this is good. There's nothing wrong with it."

Rave drops her apple core. "We have meat in the cursed lands. The bread and veggies get old here. But yeah, it's not bad and you won't die of starvation or anything."

Xander seems lost for a second and blurts out, "And I promise I won't hurt you. I'm the one who usually helps the people from Soitera who come here. It shocked me when you went to Lucifer, but I understand he was calm. But please don't think I will hurt you. I only want to help you with the transition."

Rave giggles. "It's usually his job. But Lucifer loved stealing his job. He was really rubbing it in."

I'm still not sure, but I nod. "Ok. So, when did you guys die?"

"We were both born here. We never lived on Soitera."

"Born here?"

"Yeah, angels and demons can have babies. Just not with each other."

"Huh?"

Xander chuckles. "Two angels can have babies, or two demons can have babies. We are forbidden from having relations with each other. An angel and demon cannot be together."

"Why?"

Rave shrugs her shoulders. "The babies come out like you. They are half and half and never get to pick a side. It's a cruel fate. Most don't survive infancy though."

My stomach twists. "What happens then?"

"Well, the parents have their wings ripped out and they're sent to die on Soitera. They have to live the rest of their days as mortals."

I take a deep breath in through my nose and try to swallow my emotion. "That's horrible."

"That's life. We can't mix. I wouldn't want to lose baby after baby anyway. That would be more horrible than losing my wings and dying on Soitera."

"True."

Xander pushes his tray back. "It's forbidden for any angel or demon to touch you sexually for now. You have to pick before you can find a partner. And honestly, you shouldn't even be worrying about this stuff at seventeen."

Rave laughs, then she stops abruptly. "He's right. Let's go. You can see our room."

"I want to show her where medical is first."

"Angels need a medical area?"

"Yes, we can get hurt." He helps me up.

We return our trays, and I get a little tour.

The offices seem to all be near the entry. Classrooms are on the first and second floors. Third floor is all rooms for students. There's a library and lab room. It's all normal rooms. Nothing seems to be exceptionally out of the ordinary.

Our room is nice. I have my own big canopy bed, desk, a nice size dresser, and mirror. Rave and I share a big bathroom. It seems perfect. I'll have to find a safe spot and a place for alone time. I wish I could go home though. I miss Dante and my dad. Hell, I even miss Everett and his parents. I miss everyone and my home. Everything was finally better.

Xander gives me a hug and wraps his wings around me. I feel love and peace again. I wish that feeling would stay.

"She's going to need that all night, Xander." Rave plops into her chair.

"I'll get her something to help her sleep. If she panics in the night, send for me."

Someone knocks on the door and Rave flings it open. "Hi, Lucifer."

"Eden handed me all this shit." He drops eight books and just as many pads of paper on my desk. "Told me to deliver it. I see you found your room."

I run and jump. He catches me and I wrap around him. I squeeze and snuggle him.

Xander stares at him. "How did..."

"I have no idea." Lucifer shakes his head and rubs my back. "Are you tired?"

I shake my head.

Rave answers. "Yes, very. Thank you for asking. Xander was going to get her something to help her sleep. Or else he'll end up in here all night too."

"You can't drug her or keep making the feelings vanish. She needs to feel them to move on."

Xander pulls me off Lucifer. "Not tonight. She needs to get some sleep. She's exhausted. She'll be up all night and trying to go to class tomorrow will be horrible."

Lucifer looks in my eyes and drags his fingertips across my head. Darkness closes in on my vision, and I feel him catch me as I drop.

"Can you do that to me too?" Rave giggles.

I stretch my toes in the morning. I have never felt this good in my entire life. I am so rested and warm. I try to sit up, and something tightens on me. It's a wing. I vaguely remember waking up crying sometime during the night. Someone had wrapped a wing around me before I'd fallen back asleep.

I stretch my arms and feel a warm spot. Xander is sleeping beside me on his stomach. We're not touching but his wing is stretched over me like a blanket. It's so soft and warm. I love angel wings.

I try to slide out, and it tightens again. Maybe I don't love them as much as I thought I did. I have to pee. I roll for it.

Xander opens his eyes and moves his wing off me. I run to the bathroom as fast as possible.

He's sitting on the edge of the bed when I get back.

I land on my knees beside him and bounce in place. "What now?"

"You need to get ready for class."

"I don't have any other clothes."

Rave cracks up laughing from her bed. "We forgot that. Take a shower and I'll get you some. But be fast. I need a shower too."

"Ok." I run back to the bathroom.

By the time I get out, there are a bunch of clothes bags on my bed and Xander is gone.

"Just pick out something for now. We'll find more for you later." She runs to the bathroom and slams the door.

The clothes are black and tight. Tall high heels. All very sexy. I put on a short black dress and high heel boots. Then I add a few curls to my hair.

She comes out in a tight leather outfit and heels. Her makeup and hair are perfect.

"Why are we so sexy?"

"This is how demons dress. Angels are boring. Half the time it looks like they wrapped sheets around themselves."

"Is it required? I don't want to wear sheets."

"No. There are no rules about clothes. You can wear whatever you want either way. I don't know why they do that. Flat shoes, no makeup, no hair styling, and covered as much as possible. I would rather look good."

"Me too." I bounce a curl in the mirror. "I need some makeup."

"We'll get it later. We have a couple classes today. Mr. Hamon is first. Grab your powers book. We need to be on time. Let's go."