by J. J. Dean
She gives me an exasperated huff, before pausing and calling out, "What the fresh hell happened to your hair?"
Before I can answer, Eli replies, "She's sensitive about the color. Her age is catching up to her."
"You asshole," I growl before lunging for him, but he's moved too far out of my way to catch him, laughing openly. I glare at him while he walks backwards to my chair without bumping into anything and settles down. I give him a gesture that blatantly tells him I'm going to murder him when I get my hands on him and face my dear Ms. Frenchie who's staring at me like my skin turned green and I've grown horns from my head.
"Loony Toon, are you going through a phase?" she asks, sounding like a concerned Grandma instead of my best friend.
I roll my eyes before grunting in all of my unladylike glory, "Something like that."
Luna
"So, silver, huh?" my best friend questions while I lean against the counter with my forearms laid out in front of me.
"Yup. I, uh, had the sudden urge for a change." Omitting the truth for Ms. Frenchie's sanity has been something I've done since she bothered her way into my life. Although she knows something isn't quite right with me, an obvious fact from the way I've not grown old and wrinkly like her, she doesn't ask questions, and I keep a lot to myself to protect her. She's a light in my life. I'm not going to risk the old bat becoming unhinged now, especially after forty years’ worth of protecting under my belt. I've worked too hard for my bestie to go crazy now.
"Right, sure," she drawls like she doesn't believe me, but drops it anyway. "You want to talk about the cuties that escorted you inside?"
"Do I have to?" I ask her with another roll of my eyes, something I'm doing a lot lately. If I roll my eyes any harder, they'll sure to get stuck at the back of my damn head.
Ms. Frenchie gives me one of those looks that tells me she'll taint my cookies with laxatives if I don't spill at least one secret. The bitch has done it before, so it's no mere idle threat. Ruthless senior.
"Francis, didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to poke your nose in other people's business?" I exclaim dramatically, clutching a hand to my chest and stepping away from the counter.
One gray eyebrow rises on her forehead, and I laugh heartily at the unamused expression she wears. "You are my business, smartass. So, explain the hotties sitting in my store."
I blink at her, and blink again. "Hotties? Francis, my dear. Since when did you become a cougar? This is information you tell your best friend."
"Would you lower your tone. I don't need people thinking I'm chasing after men that are half my age," she hisses and swats me playfully with the tea towel that had been slung over her cardigan covered shoulder. "Anyway, I'm old, not dead. I can appreciate a good-looking guy or four. Now explain why they're in my store and in your corner. And please explain why you haven't killed the handsome redhead who's lounging in your chair."
I give her a big grin before partly explaining. "I'm sure you remember the handsome redhead and the mountain of a man opposite him. I mean, your traitorous ways wouldn't allow you to forget."
She snorts very unladylike, but I continue. "The other two are new... friends? I met them a couple of days ago and we… bonded over books?"
Why my sentences are ending like questions, I couldn't tell you. I've always been good at hiding certain things from Ms. Frenchie, but it seems I'm having a difficult time lying through my damn teeth right now.
"Okay, I'll accept that." She humors me with her acceptance, but I'll take what I can get. "Are you, you know..." Her faded eyebrows raise comically a couple of times, clearly asking if I'm getting my freak on with one of the guys. I take the opportunity to dish some payback for when she allowed Eli and Asher into her coffee shop like the matchmaking pain in the ass she is.
I gasp with over exaggerated outrage before proclaiming, "Francis, you saucy devil! I'll not answer such questions. Conversations pertaining to my vagina and its nightly activities will remain a secret. You naughty, naughty woman!"
When I'm satisfied she couldn't get any redder, and she's lifting her always freezing cold hands to her cheeks to cool them down some, I give her the biggest grin I can manage, and lean close before whispering, "That's for your traitorous ways. Payback, Francis. You should have seen it coming."
I move out of the way quickly, dodging the tea towel that's flying towards me again, and laugh while I back away from the counter. Before I turn, I call out, "I'll have my usual coffee plus two more, two teas and cookies, please, you wonderful woman. Minus the laxatives, however. You're not allowed to retaliate to a retaliation. It's in the rules."
"We didn't set rules, you heathen!" she calls out behind me when I turn around with my grin intact and stride to my corner of the room where the guys are all relaxed and lounging around.
Eli snatches my hand when I get close enough and pulls me into his lap, leaning his mouth close enough to my ear to purr, "What nightly activities is your vagina participating in and can I join?"
I should really stop encouraging him, but I can't help the loud laugh that bursts from me with his whispered words. I laugh so much that tears form in my eyes. My laughter must be infectious, because Eli's face is tucked into my neck while he chuckles, Asher is smiling at me, Devon is trying to hide his smile behind his hand and Noah is giggling along with me.
I calm down enough so I can breathe without sounding like a donkey braying as I inhale and wipe away the tears that fell. I turn my head and give Eli a quick kiss before admitting, "I needed that more than you know."
He gives me a wink before settling us in my chair, hooking his arm tighter around my waist. When the laughter tapers off, we all just sit around the quaint coffee table in comfortable silence.
Ms. Frenchie shuffles across with our orders, and I narrow my eyes in reprimand. "Why didn't you call me, you stubborn woman. I would have come to you once the drinks were done."
"I still have the ability to carry things, Loony Toon," she answers back, but I can see the appreciation in her gaze at my worry. I roll my eyes before leaning forward to help her deposit the drinks and plate of cookies onto the table.
"Minus laxatives, right?" I whisper, watching the woman suspiciously.
She laughs, before answering me. "Minus laxatives. I'll get you back some other way, though."
The calculating look on her face is a little concerning, but I give her a quick kiss to the cheek in thanks when she leans down to place the last giant mug on the table. With a sweet smile, she shuffles back towards the counter to serve a young man standing there.
Turning my attention to my hot beverage, I rip three packets of sugar and pour them in my cup. What? I like my caffeine sweet. I then tear two more and pour them in Eli’s cup, and skip Asher’s. I slide their mugs towards them and turn to the tea, adding two sweeteners to the one and one to the other, sliding them in Noah and Devon’s direction.
When I'm done, I lift the cookies, place them on my lap and settle back down. When it's still silent and no one has said a word, I look up from my baked goods and find each of the guys staring at me in surprise.
"What?" I ask, popping a piece of double chocolate chip cookie in my mouth and sighing with delight as the flavor blesses my taste buds.
"You know how everyone takes their drinks?" Asher asks in wonderment.
I give him a confused frown before telling him, "Yeah, why? I pay attention, is all."
I shrug it off and turn back to my cookies, but not before I miss the look Asher gives Eli, who likely returns it. I ignore their little moment in favor of my cookies, because they need more attention than the Angels giving one another secret looks.
"Can we start working out our mystery now?" Devon asks a little impatiently, not that I can blame him. He has been ignored since it happened.
"Sure," I tell him with a mouth full of cookie. "Start the inquiry you've been itching to give me since my locks of purple disappeared."
I hear him sigh with relief, and then Detective Devon
is on me like white on rice, "I know you don't feel any different, because you'd have told me, but can you think of anything that could have caused it?"
I think on it a moment, munching away slowly. I go to shake my head, until the memory of the kidnapping at the cemetery blooms inside my head. Looking at Devon with widened eyes, I tell him, "When I was kidnapped at the cemetery, it was by guys who all looked the same. I was put on some marble altar and they surrounded me, chanting something I couldn't understand. Then there was fire, and everything hurt before I passed out and woke up next to my statue again."
Devon's eyebrows draw down in confusion, and he's quiet while he thinks it over. The others are all solemn and serious, each one lost in their thoughts while they ponder on my confession.
"Can you tell me anything about where they took you? Explain maybe what they looked like?" Devon questions.
"They all looked the same; gold plated armor, perfectly styled hair but I can't remember for the life of me what color. They didn't talk, but the one that carried me made a noise at one point and, as strange as it is to say, it was a very musical grunt. And they all looked really perfect. Their faces we're too pretty and not one of them had a blemish or freckle in sight," I explain before describing where they took me. "The place I was carted off to was cold and damp; likely underground. There was a long entry way that looked like it had seen better days. Then there was a large room that was completely the opposite. It's as though it has been newly renovated. Everything was clean and, well, perfect. There was the large slab of marble, the altar they put me on, and I remember seeing a wooden cross and Jesus on the wall and candles. So many candles."
Devon is silent again, just like the others, but I watch him closely. Something resonated with him with my explanation, because now he looks a little more worried than confused. His hands are clenched together while his elbows rest on his knees.
As though they timed it perfectly, Noah and Devon's heads snap up and they both look at one another with panic plastered over their faces.
"What? What's that look? I don't like that look." I stumble over my words while I discard my cookies and shuffle myself to sit on the edge of Eli's lap. Devon turns his face so he's looking directly at me but says nothing. He looks at me with concern, his green eyes troubled.
Noah looks at me, back to Devon and then me again. With one single word, he has my entire body turning to stone and my heart beating erratically in my chest. "Sentinels."
"What the fuck are Sentinels?" I hear Asher ask with his gruff tone.
"And why the fuck has Luna frozen on my lap? What's going on?" Eli asks directly after his brother. My ability to give them answers has been masked by the shock and sudden panic with that one word alone and what it could mean for us.
Noah, my hero, explains to them why the three out of five of us are suddenly tense and anxious. "Sentinels are Beings of God. They're essentially glorified warriors, but they're brutal. When most of the Angels chose their sides, and more seemed to side with Lucifer, He created the Sentinels to protect Heaven and battle those who rebelled. They're ruthless killers if the need calls for it. They only obey Him, abide by His rules and no one else."
I hadn't realized I'd turned my head to watch Noah explain to Ash and Eli, but when I finally get control over my body again, I flicker my eyes between Asher and Elijah, and watch the exact moment they realize what the rest of us have already gathered.
"So that means..." comes from Eli, his grip tightening on my waist.
"God sent His Sentinels after Luna," Asher finishes.
We all go deadly silent while our revelation sinks in, and my heart continues to thunder in my chest. I finally shake off my stone like state and ask, "what are we going to-"
Before I can finish my sentence, however, there's a loud bang that comes from the front of the store and the distinct sound of glass shattering. In seconds, I'm on the floor with Eli's firm body above mine, while Asher glues himself to my one side. Noah takes up the opposite side, and Devon is smart enough to pull the coffee table up so it acts like a shield when, not seconds later, shards of the broken glass window that made up the entire front of the store is raining down on us.
Noah
As soon as the glass has settled around us, I lift my head from where it had been tucked against Luna's, protecting her from the sharp pieces of window that just blew up everywhere. When I'm sitting up right, and dust from where the glass had been uprooted from the wall has settled, I find myself suddenly feeling sick to my stomach as panic seizes me on the spot.
Outside of the store, littering the road and walkways, are Hellspawn. Mouths gaping, teeth proudly on display in all of their deathly glory, stand dozens upon dozens of feral demons, each with a nasty glint of sheer hunger for blood in their eyes.
The others lift themselves from the floor and behind the coffee table, only to find the exact same thing I've spotted. Every human inside has fled, leaving the place empty other than us five, as far as I can see.
"Fuck," comes Luna's whispered voice directly next to where I kneel behind the still overturned coffee table, voicing the exact word I had in mind.
"What the Hell are they doing here?" Asher growls, looking over just how many stand outside unmoving, as though they're waiting for one wrong move until they pounce.
"They're here for Luna," Devon responds with a voice like steal and thunder rolled into one. I look over to where he stands a little to the left of me and a foot or two in front of where I stand. When he turns his head to face us, it sends a shiver of dread up my spine, because that look tells me he knows we're surrounded and are the equivalent of sitting ducks. His eyes blaze with restrained fury and when he looks at Luna, who's still staring at the Hellspawn outside, worry breaks through his anger.
The air around us turns eerily still, a bone chilling silence washing over everyone while we wait for them to make their move.
"Luna?" a voice behind the counter calls out. If I'm hearing that voice properly, that's Ms. Frenchie hiding behind there. Shit.
"Francis? What the fuck are you playing at?!" Luna calls out loud enough for Ms. Frenchie to hear, but not enough that it triggers the Hellspawn into action. Her voice shakes with horror, and her face has gone ghostly pale, her wide eyes turning to watch Ms. Frenchie lift herself from behind the thick counter she'd been shielded by.
"Luna, I need an explanation this time." Her words shake as they leave her mouth, conveying her fright.
"Francis, I need you to duck back behind the counter, crawl to the back room and to your apartment. Lock the doors and fucking hide, you hear me? I'll explain when everything is safe again, but right now, you need to get your wrinkly ass out of here and hide," Luna explains as calmly as she can, but the worry for her friend is evident in the way her hands clench at her sides to stop them from trembling.
I watch as Ms. Frenchie ducks behind the counter, out of view of the Hellspawn that wait patiently outside to tear us apart. I keep watching where Ms. Frenchie should need to crawl past the gap between the counter and wall. I'm still watching when I witness her face turn into one of horror when the door she's just crawled towards doesn't open.
"Loony Toon, I don't mean to alarm you, but the door won't open so my great escape is slightly hindered," Ms. Frenchie calls from back behind the counter.
"Fuck," Luna curses under her breath. She takes a deep breath before facing me with a determined gleam in her eyes. That's a look I really don't want to see when there are bloodthirsty monsters standing just on the other side to where a window once sat.
"Luna, if you're thinking of doing what I think you have planned, please, I'm begging you, don't do it," I plead, reaching out a hand towards her for... well, I'm really not sure, but my anxiety is rising at the prospect of her getting hurt, or worse, killed.
With wide eyes, she flickers her gaze between my hand and where Ms. Frenchie sits behind the counter, looking torn between wanting to do as I asked and wanting to protect her best friend. From the look on he
r face, I think I just lost this battle.
"I'm sorry, she needs me." Before I can stop her or say anything to prevent her from leaving my side, she's twirling in a blur of silver and is dashing towards her best friend. It must be the signal the Hellspawn were looking for, because the moment Luna sprints towards Ms. Frenchie, they go into a frenzy.
In a blink, Hellspawn are racing towards us with their gnashing teeth and killer claws. A piercing scream penetrates the air, forcing me to clamp my hands over my ears. I can feel myself getting dizzy when the pitch of the noise gets impossibly louder, and my hands aren't enough to block it from affecting me.
Just when black spots begin to fill my vision, a sword is being pushed into my hands. I grab the weapon without thinking about it, dropping the only cover from the noise. Before the sound can cause any more damage, something is being stuffed into my ears. Quickly, I realize Devon has put earplugs in my ears after handing me my sword.
With a grateful nod, we both turn to face the horde of monsters gaining on us. Eli and Asher have joined us to form a barricade between them and Luna, who I briefly see superman jump over the counter with such grace that I almost forget that we're seconds away from being swarmed.
I swing my head around just in time for the first line of creatures that attack. I don't know when he did it, but I notice Devon created weapons for the two Angels of Hell to help aid us in protecting our Fallen Angel. Asher is wielding a nasty looking mace whereas Eli has two long, deadly daggers in his palms.
Without further hesitation, the Hellspawn are on us, black nails flying towards us, rows upon rows of teeth gnashing at us, rancid saliva spitting everywhere.
One creature targets me, and when he rushes towards me, I lift my sword and wait for the perfect moment to attack. When he gets close enough, I swing the sword around my head and in a swift movement, I've decapitated the monster. Another is attacking me the moment I've defeated one, one Hellspawn after another racing towards me with vicious intent.
