by Lola StVil
“Rage, we’re only doing what’s best for her. We have consulted many powerful angels on this issue, including the Originals,” Time replied as he motioned towards Emmy seated on the sofa, looking off into the distance.
“I don’t give a fuck if you consulted Omnis. You try to take her away from her family and I’ll beat the shit out of both of you.”
“Dad…” I warned.
“No! This is total bullshit. Fate knew this was going to happen and said nothing. Time could have stopped it from happening by freezing the world, but he didn’t. You guys are supposed to have her back. You’re a sorry-ass excuse for a council.”
“We do not know everything. We only see a piece of the future. We are not—”
“I don’t care what you can and can’t see. Marcus sacrificed too much for your kind to end up the way he did. And if you think I’m gonna let you take his wife away from their kid, you are on some serious drugs,” the last Akon raged.
“We are trying to help!” Fate pointed out.
“How? By taking her away?” Miku asked.
“I’m with my girl on this. Marcus would have wanted Emmy to stay right here on Earth,” Jay replied.
“Thomas and the rest of you, I understand your frustration. However, we know what is best for Death. This is our official ruling,” Fate said.
“Rule this,” Dad said as he made a rude gesture towards the both of them.
Fearing that he would only dig himself deeper into trouble, I made a suggestion. “Let’s take her somewhere so that she’s away from ground zero, but still with family. Let’s place her with her dad, Julian.”
“My son’s right. Julian would care for her, and she’d be a safe distance from the things that remind her of Marcus.”
“That’s highly irregular,” Time replied.
“We are leaving, and we are taking Death with us,” Fate concluded.
Pryor, who had been otherwise silent the whole time, got up and walked over to Fate and Time. She spoke with a voice so cold and calm, it reminded me of Malakaro. “You don’t get to decide where my family will or won’t stay. She’s my mother. I will see to her care. Now get the hell out of my home,” she demanded.
Time and Fate were so deeply offended and upset, they whirled themselves into a gust of harsh wind and blew past us, shaking the house as they went.
We took Emmy to her father’s, where he greeted her happily. He had gone to the funeral but stayed in the back so that he wouldn’t attract attention. Julian was infamous in the angel world. The moment he walked into a place with angels, they started to whisper about him. That was what happened when you betrayed Omnis.
After taking Emmy in, he begged Pryor to stay as well. And she did—for the next three weeks. Pryor made it her mission to look after her mom. She was there in the daytime, and at night she was out trolling for demons who knew the whereabouts of Malakaro.
The remaining Guardians wanted to chase after Malakaro, but my dad heard about Jay and suggested that Miku take him to spend time with RJ. Jay refused to go anywhere. He was hell-bent on catching Marcus’s killer. But Miku was able to convince him that he had yet to heal from losing his own child and that the best thing would be for him to grieve along with her.
Jay wasn’t the only one who needed to deal with the events of the past few days. The Noru team, as expected, was fractured and wounded. We all showed it in our own way. Swoop would space out and get this look in her eyes—deep sadness. She’d try to hide it, but we could tell she was overwhelmed with grief. She’d barely got past her twin’s death and now…
East made it his mission to try to make his cousin feel better. But when he wasn’t trying to entertain her, he was training—hard. He wanted to carve Malakaro from ear to ear. It was easy to see it in his eyes. His rage and anger ran just as deep as Swoop’s sadness.
Randy wanted to help Pry, but like most of us, he didn’t know where to begin. So he checked on her every day, but then he buried himself in books about the angel world. He’d get on his Port and go to the bookstore in Mississippi called Tea & Pages.
There, he found tons of journals written by beings in the angel world. I think he was doing it not only for Pry but because he felt guilty with the way things went down when he last spoke to Marcus. He was also driven by something else: his desire to make up for having been so wrong about Malakaro. Pry told him she didn’t blame him and that she knew he’d meant well, but that did little to ease Randy’s mind.
Diana worked on creating the mixture to end Malakaro, but she couldn’t seem to get it quite right. She refused to give up until she figured out where she had gone wrong. In the meantime, her markings were growing, and Nix, with his animal tricks and timely hugs, had the team wrapped around his little wings, even before he was born.
As for me, my main concern was Pryor. Pryor hadn’t broken down. She hadn’t cried for her fallen father or even said his name out loud. She’d been laser focused on helping her mom grieve. So much so that she neglected to mourn herself. She spent every day with her mom and every night trolling the streets for her sworn enemy.
All of our attempts to get her to Recharge and rest failed. I had never seen her so cold and removed. It was as if she shut down her emotions and she was running on autopilot. The only problem was, sooner or later, what she was holding back would come out. And the last time that happened…people got hurt.
It’s been six weeks since Marcus died. Emmy is showing signs of progress. Although she isn’t back to work, thanks to Pry and her grandfather, she isn’t huddled in the corner, weeping and changing the weather.
Now that her mom is somewhat on the mend, Pryor devotes all her time to tracking Malakaro. That’s why we’re running down a wet alley filled with trash and rats, in hot pursuit of a demon who is rumored to be connected with Malakaro. We chase the demon for several blocks, but we lose him in a crowd of human club-goers.
“Why did you stop?!” Pryor demands of East, who was the closest one to the demon.
“Pry, he can’t use his powers in a crowd full of humans,” I remind her.
“We lost him! Do you realize that?” She swears.
“Pry, I’m sorry—”
“I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to do your fucking job,” she shouts. We all exchange a look of sympathy and concern. Pry looks through the crowd but can’t find the demon.
“Shit! We lost him!” she rages as she kicks in a large chunk on the wall behind her.
“Pry, we’ll find him. And if not him, we have other leads,” I remind her.
“WE HAVE NOTHING!” she blares.
“Pry, relax,” Swoop says.
“No! All we have are rumors that turn out to be nothing. Mixtures that don’t work and leads that are nothing more than dead ends. We have been chasing Malakaro for years! Years! And we don’t have shit to show for it. East should have stopped the demon.”
“Even if he was headed towards the humans?” East replies, taken aback.
“So what if a human gets hurt? We have mixtures; we can heal them. I need to find Malakaro. I need to slice him open and shove his gut down his throat. That’s the goal. Kill Malakaro. That’s the goal; nothing else matters. And if you guys are not here to help me, then stay the fuck out of my way!”
From that point on, things just get worse. Pryor leaves to hunt demons without telling us. More than once she risks her life by going off on her own. And when we find her, she scolds us for helping save her life when we could have been tracking demons. She becomes a one-woman hunting party, and while she does kill an impressive number of demons, she is reckless and out of control.
It’s now two months since her father’s passing, and Pryor is on the brink of self-destructing. It doesn’t help matters that Diana is still unable to get the mixture to turn the desired shade of gray. She sought help from other Healers, but so far, the mixture is still a bust.
Pryor keeps her wild hunting nights a secret. She doesn’t want her mom to worry. But in the angel world, secrets never las
t long. It’s only a matter of time before Emmy finds out and what little progress she’s made will be gone. I talk to my father about it, and he thinks I should keep trying to reach her.
“How, Dad? I’ve done everything I can. She’s gonna lose it, and the last time she did, she was almost taken away. I can’t let that happen.”
“Aaden, I know it’s hard. But you have to push her to accept Marcus’s death. If she doesn’t, things will only get worse.”
“Dad, if I push her and she isn’t ready…”
“If you don’t push her to talk to you and get her feelings out, she’s going to end up getting hurt. She’s not battling demons like a leader. Right now, she’s battling with emotions. And she will lose. One of these nights, she’s going to be off her game and get herself killed. You need to stop that from happening.”
It’s four in the morning when I get the call. My father was right, Pryor got herself killed—almost. She was tracking a demon with the power to disappear and reappear at will. She chased him into an alley filled with his friends. She had no backup, no plan, and no exit. They attacked her from every angle, then placed her in a Holder. The only reason they left was because Spider told them the team was on the way. They bought his bluff and fled. He then called me.
“I think the First Noru has lost it. Shame, really,” Spider says as he takes me to her. She’s in a bubble-like prison in an abandoned lot in downtown Los Angeles.
“Spider, you have no right to keep me here!” she shouts as she pounds her fists against the plastic that trapped her. When she sees me, she curses Spider for calling me. She vows to make him pay for it.
Spider looks back at me fearfully.
“She’s not going to hurt you,” I reply.
“It’s okay. I’m cool. I’m not afraid,” he lies.
“Thanks for calling me,” I tell him.
“Yeah, sure. Look, I understand losing people, ya know? I may look like a perfect specimen of entrepreneurship, but I have some scars. I’ve been hurt,” he assures me.
“Ah…yeah, I’m sure you have,” I reply, not really sure what to say.
“And I know about losing parents. I never knew my dad, and my mom sent me away. Messed up, huh? But in the end, I made a friend. You know, due to my winning smile.”
“Sounds about right. Spider, give us a minute,” I reply as Pry continues to curse and threaten everyone and everything.
“Aaden, get me out of here right now!” she demands.
“Pry, you need to deal with what’s happened or it will take over,” I warn her.
“I don’t need a therapy session. I need you to let me out.”
“You need to deal with your loss. Trust me, not dealing will cost you a lot more.”
“Aaden, you don’t know what I need. Now I am ordering you to let me out!”
“Pry, talk to me.”
“I am not here to cry on your shoulders so you can feel useful. I was tracking a demon—”
“Alone! You tracked him alone with no backup, and it almost got you killed.”
“I could have taken them. I just needed more time.”
“Damn it, Pry, don’t do this. If you don’t want to talk to me, then talk to my dad. Talk to Julian. Hell, talk to Bex, just please start dealing with this.”
“I am dealing with it!” she promises.
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“Then say it,” I challenge.
“Say what?”
“Tell me what happened to Marcus.”
“You know what happened to him,” she says with a small voice.
“You say it and I will let you out.”
“Screw you!” she spits.
“Pry, your father is dead.”
“Just shut up, okay?” she snaps.
I don’t listen to her. Instead, I repeat it over and over again in hopes that it will start to sink in. The more I say it, the angrier she gets and the more she pounds against the Holder. She yells at me to shut up, but for her sake I keep going.
“Pryor, Marcus Cane is dead, and nothing you do will bring him back. He’s gone. He’s gone.”
“NO!” she shouts as she kicks the Holder with such force it splits in two. Now, free from her prison, she attacks me.
“Pry, don’t!”
Suddenly her eyes go black; her face is twisted with ire. Her hair whips wildly behind her. She holds out her hands as she hovers above me. I call out to her, hoping she can regain some kind of control, but she doesn’t. She holds out her hands and Pulls me. Her ability to take life is stronger than it has ever been. The dark blast of smoke coming from her palms hits my chest.
“Argh!” I scream as she uses her powers to violently rip the life from my body. The agony is unthinkable. I had no idea her powers were this strong. I can’t focus. I can’t think, I can’t even use my wings. When she Pulls, it’s like having my flesh peeled off me. The agony is beyond what an angel can endure. There is no doubt in my mind; if Pry doesn’t stop within the next ten seconds, I am dead.
“I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP ABOUT MY DAD! SHUT UP!”
“Pry, you’re…killing me.”
“YOU SHUT UP! MY DAD IS NOT DEAD. HE’S NOT DEAD.”
I am not strong enough to blink let alone use my wings. Moving my lips takes the same amount of effort as moving a mountain. My sight begins to fade. I’m on the ground, writhing in pain. Damn, this shit hurts!
“SAY IT! SAY HE’S NOT DEAD!”
Every part of my body says I should give her what she wants, but I can’t. So with the last three seconds of life I have left, I tell her the truth, even if it hurts her and kills me.
“He’s gone. I know you loved him, but he’s gone. Marcus is…gone.”
“SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT UP!” she screeches like a pissed-off banshee as she sends one last surge of power towards me. I can’t attack her back. Even if I could, I wouldn’t. This is it. I’m going to die here in this alley with her.
“Call the team,” I mumble as the last of my life force starts to slip from my body.
“THEY CAN’T HELP YOU!” she informs me as she comes down to the ground to watch me die up close.
“Not for me…for you…don’t want you here alone…when this is over,” I whisper as my eyes close for what will surely be the last time.
But just as I’m about to give in to sweet death, my life force slowly starts to return to me. I open my eyes and find Pryor on the ground beside me. She’s sobbing heavily and unable to stop trembling.
“It’s not fair, I just got my dad back and now he’s gone. Why would Omnis give him to me and then take him away? I just got him back. Aaden, I just got him back…”
I gather all my strength, sit up, and place her head on my chest. I kiss her forehead and tell her everything is going to be all right. But we both know “all right” is a very faraway place, a place even angels can’t always get to.
Chapter Twenty-Five:
Fractured
I took her to an inn upstate. That way she was far enough away that she could focus on herself yet close enough should her mother need her. Thankfully, Julian vowed to keep her updated. He also helped me by convincing Pryor that the world would not perish if she took a few days off. Once she finally agreed, Pry spent the entire weekend alternating between “sleeping” and crying. I never left her side. She scolded me for not Recharging, but I couldn’t close my eyes while she was in that state.
Now, I stand over her, watching her as she sleeps. She’s in the fetal position, clinging to the blanket. She looks small, fragile, and meek. But she’s not, and that’s why I have to make sure she agrees to what I’m about to ask of her.
All I want is to have this woman in my life, and now, I’m going to ask her to go away. This is such bullshit!
However, even as I curse the thought, I know it’s what I have to do; it’s the only way to help her. I mean really help her. Pry is hurting so much she can barely stand it. At one point, she found herself weeping for both Sam and her fathe
r.
Soon after, the nightmares came. She’d wake up with her powers activated and have no idea she was doing it. She almost killed the housekeeper that came to check our room. At that point I had to call Jay and have him use his power of persuasion to convince the entire staff at the inn to take the weekend off and leave us there alone.
“How long have I been…” she mumbles as she begins to wake up.
“I gave you a mixture to help you sleep. That was about twelve hours ago,” I reply.
“Was Uncle Jay here?” she asks.
“Yeah, for a few minutes.”
“Why? What happened? Is he okay? Is my mom? Did something happen to Randy? Oh no! Is East or—”
“Pry, everyone is okay. He just came to do me a quick favor,” I reply.
I explain to her what happened with her powers, and it all comes back to her. I promise her that the staff is fine and that she doesn’t need to worry.
“What about Diana? Did she have any luck yet with the mixture?”
“Pry, there has been no new development. I promise. Now can you try to calm down?”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay,” she says as she rakes her hands through her tangled hair.
I hand her a mug containing the liquid blend Diana gave me. It’s called Kalm. It’s the angel version of chamomile tea. It’s supposed to make it easier for the angel drinking it to find inner peace and tranquility. It’s never done a damn thing for me, but it’s worth a shot. She thanks me, takes the mug, and starts sipping slowly.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“Kalm is nice but not nearly as nice as a bottle of Coy would be right now,” she says.
“We are not adding Coy to this equation.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right.”
“Do you need anything?”
“No, but I would like it if you sat next to me,” she says.
I do as she asks and sit alongside her on the bed.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t mean it,” she pleads.
“Yeah, I know.”
“The first few seconds when I wake up, I forget that he’s gone. Those few seconds are everything to me. But then I remember, I remember my daddy is…”
