His Wingless Angel

Damascus Arison could feel all 321 horsepower between his legs as he raced his Kawasaki Ninja H2 R down the highway. The night was as dark as his matte black bike. The only illumination came from the light that sat in the center of his motorcycle. The rain was heavy as it fell. The drops hit the front of his visor, but Damascus did not care. 

His heart had been shattered into a million pieces after he had left his grandmother's bedside in the hospital. She had taken her last breath while he was present. Damascus held her hand as the weight of it fell into his palm as her eye lids had closed with her last breath. 

Ada Arison had raised Damascus at the age of fourteen years old after his father's "accident". Ada had been his father's mother, but she had not been in his life much before she came and took him away after his father's funeral. 

Adrian Arison had been a cruel man in life and Damascus had always assumed that Ada had kept her distance same as his mother who had fled from his father before Damascus had any time to get to know her. The last memory that Damascus had of his mother was her distraught face as she kissed him one final time before picking up her suitcase and leaving their family home. 

Adrian refused to speak her name after that day and always referred to her as the "traitor" if ever she was mentioned in his presence. Damascus, however, knew the true reason that she had left. He may have only been four years old, but her screams in the night had haunted him late into his adulthood. 

Adrian had been the second hand to the Dragon King and Damascus had assumed the same role after Prince Gabriel Eros, his son, took the throne. Damascus never blamed his mother for leaving. He knew that for her to survive she needed to run as far away as she could. Damascus of course was unsure if she had made it. The one time that he dared to ask his father, Adrian had grown angry and took his anger out on Damascus's backside with the leather belt that Adrian always wore. 

Damascus quickly wiped at the rain that was gathering on his visor to see the road more clearly, but it was a futile effort. Rain and motorcycle helmets were not a good combination. 

Damascus thought of his grandmother once more. In the hospital she had cupped his cheek as he sat in the straight-backed chair. A single tear had fallen down his cheek which she quickly wiped away with her thumb. "Do not fear, D. I am going to the sky. You will find me there anytime you look up at the stars. I will be the one burning the brightest," Ada had whispered with a sweet smile on her lips. Her lids had already begun to half close and Damascus could feel that their time together on this Earth was coming to an end. 

Before Damascus could react, a dark shadow emerged out of the trees and crossed the highway. Damascus had tried to slow down too quickly for the speed that he was going and the 321-horsepower beast beneath him began a deadly wobble. The death wobble so they called it. Damascus attempted to keep control but in the end the machine did what it wanted and flew. Ejecting its rider in the process. 

Damascus slide on the concrete. He could feel the cement tear at his arms and legs and down the right side of his body. He came to a crashing halt close to his bike along the side of the dark highway. The light from his bike was the only light around. Damascus felt as though his entire body was on fire. As if he was caught in the flames from a dragon's lungs and there was no escape. 

The rain that fell did nothing to extinguish them either. Damascus closed his eyes and let the feeling overwhelm his sense. That was until he felt that he was no longer alone. Damascus slowly opened his eyes, and his vision was filled with the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes. Light shown from behind her and cast what looked to be gold wings coming from her back. 

Damascus had never heard of a golden dragon before. He wondered if the woman who looked like an angel was in fact one. One that had come to take him to his grandmother. 

"Are you alright?" she asked. Her voice was beautiful as well. The sweetest song to one’s ears. What was that he detected though? Worry? Why would an angel be worried? She was there to finally take away his pain. 

"I am calling for help now," the woman said. Help? Damascus's brows pinched together. She was not an angel. She must be someone who had seen him crash his bike. Embarrassment instantly filled Damascus. This beautiful woman had witnessed him being an idiot. An idiot who rode his bike in the middle of a rainstorm with nothing on besides the short sleeve black shirt and jeans he had worn to the hospital. 

In another instant, more were gathered around Damascus, but no strangers. Those from the dragon kingdom. King Gabriel must have sent others after he had left the hospital. Gabriel had been there as well to offer his support. 

Unlike Adrian, Damascus's closest friend was in fact the King. They played together as children. It had all but been decided that Damascus would take over as second. Gabriel's father had seen to it. 

"It is alright we will take care of him," Ebony, one of the warriors that Damascus had trained himself, said to the woman who was still kneeling over Damascus's body. 

"He needs a hospital," the woman argued. She sounded defensive. Ebony tried her best to shrug the woman off. Ebony hated when she was argued with. 

"We will take him to our hospital. It is not far from here. Thank you for stopping and checking on our friend," this came from Jax, another warrior that was close to Damascus. 

Before Damascus could say anything to the woman, he was picked up by Ebony, Jax and two others. Damascus's wounds had him grunting in protest at the hurried movements as they picked him up and put him in the back of one of the black SUV's that most of them drove. 

Damascus eyes closed as the back door was shut and the sounds of the rain hit the top of the SUV. Each of the warriors filed into the vehicle and took off down the highway in the opposite direction that Damascus had been headed in.