Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

like mine have you worked with?”
    “ Not many. It doesn’t happen often. I’ve never kept track, but I would say a few hundred at the most?”
    “ Where do you live in your off time?”
    “ I don’t know. I just roam until I’m called. Sometimes I chill with friends.”
    “ Is there a Heaven where you go when you’re not looking after a family?”
    “ I don’t know anything about Heaven, personally. I’ve been cursed to be what I am since my death. I, like you, have heard there is a Heaven. I have met people who have been there. I myself, have never.”
    "Were you ever a human?” I turned to face him.
    He flinched, ever so slightly, at the question. “Yes.” He didn’t go into any other detail but I could see the rigidity wash over him.
    “ When?”
    His look told me to drop it. “Six hundred and twenty years ago.”
    “ You’re twenty-three?”
    He nodded.
    I felt my eyes get heavy as my head started to hurt again. “Did you see my mom die?”
    “ No, I came afterwards.”
    “ What killed her?”
    “ A shape shifter.” His voice never cracked or wavered as he said it.
    My head instantly translated, as I felt myself drift off into a painful sleep, a werewolf or something that belonged on an HBO show.

Chapter Nine
    Is there Philly cream cheese in Heaven?

    I dreamt things that made no sense to me. I felt lost and confused. My mom was falling and then she turned into an angel and flew back up into the sky. She never came back down from the sky. She also didn’t seem too concerned that I was standing on the road watching her fly away. She didn’t wave to me.
    I woke to find Aleks sleeping beside me on my bed, his warm body nearly burning me as I touched him. I still felt frozen but touching him seemed to take it away.
    A million questions were stuck in my mind. They had nowhere to go. My head was swelling with them.
    Aleks stirred, turning on his side and wrapped his leg around me. He pulled me into him. I let his lips drag up my throat. I giggled until he whispered a word, “Nora.”
    I froze, not sure what to think. I stayed very still, until he started to wake up and opened his eyes to me. I assumed Nora must have been a woman he loved before he met me. The immature side of me seeped out into my mind and started making a mountain out of the molehill. I tried to fight against it, but it made sense to me. I reminded myself about Shane, and then the jealousy fizzled out.
    He looked at me confused, watching the wheels turning. He smiled. “You have more questions now?”
    “ Who’s Nora?” I blurted out.
    He winced in pain at the sound of the name. He pulled away from me, not sure what to do with the question. Finally, after a moment of thought he whispered, “My wife.”
    My heart stopped and I felt a shiver tremble through my whole body. “Wife,” I stated it matter of fact.
    He nodded. “Yes. We were married when I was eighteen. She was the only woman I ever loved in my whole life, until now.” His eyes screamed a pain, where his lips tried to calm with a soothing smile.
    I was awash with sadness, even though the greatest moment of my life had just happened. He told me he loved me. “What happened to her?”
    He looked down at the sheets, breaking the eye contact, as if ashamed. “She remarried and moved on after I died.”
    “ Did you watch her?” I asked.
    He nodded. “Every day I could. I watched her fall out of love with me and in love with him. The sweet soft girl I had married became a hardened woman. It was a tough time and she had a hard go.”
    I blinked away a tear. “You still love her.” It was a statement not a question.
    “ Yes, of course. She was my first true love and I never got closure.”
    “ Where were you from?” I asked, kissing the tip of his nose. I could see him putting up a wall, like I did. I backed off a little.
    He smiled brightly. “I’m from Norway. Aurland; it's on the Nærøyfjord. My family had a farm. My surname was Jonson because my dad's name was Jon—that’s how it was done. So my sisters were Jonsdoter. Our mom was captured from somewhere near the Greek islands in a raid. So she named me Aleksander. It was a Greek name but it sounded Norwegian. Well, it did to her. I was made fun of a lot for my name. Everyone thought it was a girl's name. Education wasn’t as important back then. Not like it is now, where everyone knows about Aleksander the great.” he beamed at me.
    I rolled my eyes. “So can you speak Norwegian still?”