Cue dramatic gear up sequence, thought Lucy, but not out loud. Snark and sarcasm was how she dealt with pain, but she could see the pain her brother was in. She had never seen Alex hurting this bad.
They had reported the facts to master Quan and she had agreed, after they gathered themselves, to transport them to Balthazar's sanctum. "The master of research has some things to answer for." She stated.
Calie grabbed ammo to reload her pistols, handed Lucy a stachel while asking, "you played baseball right?" The bag was full with little glass balls filled with water. "Holy water bombs. It sends most demons back to hell, but you have to pierce the skin, or shell, or whatever it is around them first." Lastly, the blonde handed Lucy a big baseball bat like club covered in metal studs. "And a tetsubo, for up close problems."
She presented Alex with a blue robe with gold trim and symbols in gold thread etched into it.
"Nice," smiled master Quan, "you look like a true arcanist now."
"Would you like a weapon?" Asked Calie.
Alex wiggled his fingers and white balls of light filled his hands. "Thanks, I got it covered."
Calie took position in front of the siblings. "Balthazar's sanctum is on the top floor of a high security high-rise. He's warded it against transport in and he has lower worlder security on the lower levels." The blonde paced back and forth before them, hands behind her back. "We have to pierce his mundane security, enter his sanctum, get past whatever mystic security he has and save your girlfriend before he does whatever he plans to do with her."
"Easy," said Alex, with a cold stare that just radiated anger, "he's been keeping himself alive with them. He's been stealing their energy to extend his life. If the energy I feel when I kiss Sweety is typical, I can understand how he's been alive for centuries."
"Then we have to get going." Said Lucy, amazed at how fast her brother was understanding how things in this magical world worked. "We can't leave her with him a second longer than we have to."
She looked up at master Quan and nodded. The asian woman nodded back and went through a complicated dance of motions as air around her filled with light. The light swirled, then the air between them shimmered and tore the universe asunder, revealing a scene of a street in front of an old building in the city inside the tear.
The trio dashed through the tear in reality to step out into the street in front of Balthazar's building. After they left, master Quan looked at Tyrria, perched on her arm as if pondering something. She hesitantly leaned in towards the bird of prey and unsurely kissed the bird on the beak. Her look became more confused as nothing happened and the arcanist simply shook her head.
Two serious looking men in suits stood in front of the entrance to the building. They wore sunglasses, earpieces, the works. Calie pulled the two behind a car on the opposite side of the street.
“Ok, we need a plan. There has to be another way inside.” she said. Lucy looked at her intently but Alex’s eyes were locked on the front doors, fuming with hate.
He stepped out from behind the car, “we don’t have time for this. She’s scared, she’s in danger and she needs me.” He strode toward the doors with more confidence than Lucy had ever seen her brother extrude in his life. His hands weaved the magic and pulled apart violently, sending the two henchmen flying off their feet to collide with the support columns of the building’s overhang. Lucy smiled and ran after her brother.
“Or directly assaulting the enemy stronghold is an option I guess,’ sighed Calie, rushing to catch up with the two.
Alex stepped inside the lobby, rows of greek columns lined the polished floor of the building. Six men filed out from behind them down the rows pulling out guns. Alex summoned his shield just as bullets collided with it. Calie and Lucy were dragging the two unconscious guards inside as Alex was being forced back by the impact of the ammunition on his shield. Calie dropped her guard to the side of the door and stepped up beside Alex inside his shield, pulling out one of her heavy pistols. She leaned around the edge of the energy barrier and unloaded a clip at the hired guns. The men were forced to take cover from the hail of .50 caliber rounds. Lucy grabbed the two 9mm pistols the guards had in their jackets before joining them.
“Start moving forward,” snapped Calie to Alex before adding with a hint of venom, “since you threw away our element of surprise.” Alex began to walk at the men, now randomly firing snap shots at the advancing arcanist from the cover of the stone columns. Calie looked to Lucy, “follow my lead,’ and began weaving around the pillars as the three moved up on the guards. They fired shots at the guards that attempted to use the sidewall channels to get to them, keeping the mercenaries pinned. They weaved to the sides in front of one column to swoop back to Alex behind another. Alex continued forward, hot lead bouncing off his barrier as the precision shots from the ladies kept the men from advancing on them. Lucy kept half an eye on Calie, watching for changes in her approach. Like a Soccer guard watching the feet of the center with the ball for sudden changes in direction. When they reached the pillars before the squad’s hold out they broke the weaving pattern forcing the side guards to the front of the columns as they came around back.
Calie cracked hers in the side of the head with the butt of the pistol, sending him crumpling to the floor. Lucy pulled the triggers of her pistols to the sound of disappointing clicks, so she dashed up on the guard as he brought his gun to bear and drove her knee under his chin. There was a resounding crack as the man tumbled backward, sprawled at the feet of the rest of his squad. Calie put a bullet in one of the remaining four before the rest dropped down twitching under an onslaught of Alex’s luminos lightning.
They stood looking at the elevator doors sitting in the end of the lobby, “going up, I guess?” said Lucy just before the doors exploded in fire and molten metal. The hellhound stepped from the wreckage and roared.
Sweety sat weeping and terrified in the cage, suspended above a diagram etched into the floor. It was similar to the circle her master had used to summon her. She hung on a raised balcony serviced by two sets of curved stairs. Light creeped into the room from cracks in large shuttered windows that lined the lower floor and reached up to where her cage hung. Sweety could see just over the banister to the floor of the next level that there was a corresponding circle on the floor below. On a large ornate wooden table between the circle and what Sweety thought must be the doors out of this room he was preparing a ritual. The man who her master was speaking to in the library. Just before… she thought, as the emotions welled within her once more.. just before Master told her he didn’t want her. The tiny girl was wracked with sobs.
“I don’t recall any of the others crying.” He said with a partial glance over one shoulder. “But of course they were all beasts. No…humanity in them to feel the sting of betrayal. No ability to feel abandonment or loneliness.” he turned to look up at her, distracted from his task by this sudden philosophical puzzle. “But worry not my dear, I have a use for you. I have never used a humanoid familiar in the process. Theoretically, the energy you contain will keep me sustained for…” he paused trying to work out a formula for her potential, “well, a very long time.”
He returned to finalizing the ritual at his work table and Sweety returned to crying uncontrollably, her tears running out of her hands and soaking her pink t-shirt.
“Scatter!” commanded Calie. She flicked her right arm out straight causing flames to wreath her arm from her elbow down, coalescing once again into a sword of golden light. She fired off two shots to the beast’s head to get its attention and flanked right to draw it away from the siblings. The hound leapt at the nephilim but its momentum was cut short by an arc of luminos wrapped around one of its back legs. It crashed to the marble floor, rending huge cracks in the lobby. Alex moved his arm in a widening circle wrapping the demon up in arcs of energy like a cowboy at a rodeo. Lucy charged in, leaping into the air and driving her large club down on the monster’s head with a satisfying crack. Calief ran into the fray, leaping over the hound and dragging her blade across its back, splitting the molten marble open to reveal the raging inferno within.
“Bombs!” screamed Calie at Lucy, breaking the redhead’s focus on continuing to bash its head in.
Lucy fished into her satchel and withdrew a glass ball filled with water. She slammed it down into the wound inflicted by calie’s sword and it shattered. Steam poured out of the beast’s fissures as the glowing light faded and it crumbled to chunks of rock as it let out an enraged howl. They looked at the broken and melted elevator, and realized the ease at which they defeated the hound was inconsequential because it had achieved its goal of cutting them off from the lift.
“Stairs, now!’ yelled Calie, bounding to a door on the right of the elevator. The women bounded up the steps two at a time and were leaving the second floor by the time Alex rached the stairwell. He looked up the centerwell to the top floor ten flights up.
“Screw this noise,” he said in not quite a whisper and weaved the magic with his hands once again. Arms at his sides, a flick of his wrists sent him sailing up the center of the stairwell.
He passed the girls as they were leaving the fourth floor landing. “Cheater,” Said Lucy, “you rotten little cheater!” She added, continuing to race up the steps.
“Wait for us at the top Alex,” yelled Calie, “do NOT go in by yourself till we catch up!”
Alex landed at the top, and against orders cracked the door open. Inside the woman that took Sweety sat on top of a desk obviously meant for a secretary or receptionist of some sort. In front of her stood two more hounds growling and snapping at the elevator doors.
“The bitch is back” he said as the ladies reached the top floor. “And two more dogs.”
“Azriel,” spat Calie. “Leave her to me, you two save the familiar”
Lucy reached the top and panted mildly, “Damn, I guess I’m out of shape.”
“Your shape looks fine to me,” said the blonde, running her hand across Lucy’s rear end and causing her to jump slightly as she headed out the door.
Lucy felt her face warm and turned to her brother looking at her suspiciously. “What was that?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Nothing,” she deflected.
“Then why are your cheeks as red as your hair?”
“It is nothing,” she replied flatly and followed the blonde out the door.
Calief strode from the stairwell raising both hand cannons to open fire on the dark haired Nephilim. The woman rolled off the desk and took cover behind the thick wood.
“Ssssssst”, hissed Azriel and the hounds sprung to life bounding at Calie. The fairer Nephilim refocused, unloading rounds into the approaching demon dogs.
Something screamed past Calie’s head. A holy water ball impacted into the open mouth of one of the hellhounds, causing steam to pour out of the beast and it to shatter. Lucy had hit it square in the back of the throat and by passed its shell. The second dog attempted to pounce on the blonde only to be thrown against the wall near the elevator.
“Go, you two,” yelled Calie, rushing Azriel, “save Sweety!”
The Nephilim snapped out her sword again and swung down on the muscular woman. The brunette quickly summoned her sword and blocked Calie’s blade causing golden sparks to shower across the room. Alex and Lucy ran for the large double doors at the end of the floor. The recovered hellhound quickly overtook them, leaping over both their heads to block them from the next room. It opened its smoldering maw and belched out flames that Alex barely had time to raise a shield to stop. Flames roared around the shield making Lucy have to crouch behind her brother to avoid the licking flames.
Alex pushed back on the shield as the hounds breath tried to shove them back. “You know, if you want to tap that,” he said staining, as he nodded his head toward Calie fighting azriel, “as your brother I’m in complete support of whatever lifestyle you wish to pursue.”
“One,” screamed Lucy over the roaring flames as she began to push on her brother to support him, “my lifestyle is none of your business. Two…,” her voice suddenly getting quieter, “ I…may have…already…done that.”
The arcanist finished his preparations and stepped into the second circle on the lower floor. He raised his hands chanting and forming complex patterns in the air. The mystic circles lit up as energy arced from Sweety in her cage to the floor below her. The arcanist’s circle began to grow in brightness as Sweet screamed.
Sweety’s scream pierced the thick doors on the other side of the large room and overpowered the sound of the flames. “SWEETY!” screamed Alex. He felt her. He felt her pain, her despair, all the turmoil he had caused her with his ill chosen words. The bottom of his stomach dropped away from his body, and rage boiled in the pit it left. Without summoning the first stage of the luminos, Alex converted the shield into an arcos blast and fed all of his hatred into the spell. For himself for hurting Sweety with what he did… and what he didn’t say, for Baltazar for what he planned to do to her, and for this damned dog FOR KEEPING HIM FROM HER! The arc ripped through the torrent of flames and slammed into its open mouth. The molten body of the hound bubbled and swelled, finally exploding under the unfathomable power of the anger charged spell. The heavy wooden doors behind the demon incinerated, blowing chunks of charred and shattered door into the room. The older arcanist turned to see what had so brazenly pierced his inner sanctum.
Alex was spent. He was tired and drained and his body ached. But he didn’t let his sister see. With all the false strength he could muster, he looked his sister in the eyes, “I’ll handle Balthazar, get Sweety out of here.”
“What?” she asked, not buying the macho bullcrap spilling out of her brother’s mouth. “No Alex. we can do better helping…”
“LUCY,” he said, drawing on his father’s tone once again causing a shiver down her spine. “Promise me you will get her out of here. Don’t worry about me. You make sure she’s safe first. Promise me!”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Fine!” she spat back, “then you will promise me, when you get her back you will tell her you love her. You will tell her how you feel.” a tear slid down her cheek as she continued. “Don’t push her to the side, Do not question what you have. Just tell her what she means to you. Promise me!”
Her brother nodded and the two entered the shattered doorway.
Balthazar stood in the circle behind the heavy work table, and Alex knew he was too weak to last long so he had to take the offensive while he could. While Lucy went right as soon as she crossed the threshold to skirt the edge of the room and reach the stairs, Alex went into his kata and shoved the whole table at the ancient arcanist. “Keep away from her you bastard!” Balthazar raised a hand as the table sped at him, slowing its approach but still shoving him out of the circle before he managed to make it stop.
“Insolent whelp,” the man said, as he shoved the table to the side with a flick of his wrist, “a neophyte like you has no chance against someone with my command of the mystic arts.”
Balthazar raised his hand and opened it to release his plasmos. Alex got his shield up just in time, but the impact of the elder mystic left cracks visible in the shield. The arcanist’s other hand quickly came up and a flick of a finger sent Alex flying back into the wall next to the destroyed door. ‘Just keep talking’ thought Alex as he watched Lucy out of the corner of his vision climb the stairs as quickly and quietly as she could. Struggling to his feet as fast as he could, he launched a luminos arc at Balthazar trying to keep his attention on him instead of his sister. The man flicked the strike to the side with a lazy flick of the hand.
Sweety watched from the cage on the mezzanine. He had come for her. Her master was here, he did care. Her heart swelled but soon bagan falling again as the ancient arcanist flung the young man around like a ragdoll with a superior grasp of the art. She knew her master couldn’t last long, and tears continued to trickle down her cheeks.
Alex stood up again, muscle and bone aching only to have the man flick a wrist at him again. Blood sprayed from Alex’s chest as a thin line opened up in his skin.
“Master!’ Sweety screamed.
“Oh! It’s concerned for you. How touching.” the old man taunted. Alex realized he didn’t see her as a person. She, like the other familiars were things to him, resources, a source of power.
“She is not an IT!” Alex spat back at him. “She is a person.”
“She is nothing more than bottled celestial power.” he continued, shooting another bolt at the boy that Alex was able to block with a shield this time. “If you were really one of us you would understand that.’
“If you can’t understand she’s a person with feelings and needs, then maybe I don’t want to really be one of you.” Alex was struggling to keep the shield up under the old man’s energy bolts. “I am going to save her, or you’ll kill me and our connection will be broken and she can go home. Either way she’ll be free.”
The arcanist stopped flicking bolts and fired a constant beam of power into Alex’s shield. The boy strained to keep it up under the attack. “Oh, I don’t have to kill you to make you incapable of stopping me. And don’t think I’m unaware of your sister attempting to free the familiar. Even if they get away I can always find her again.”
Lucy had made it to the cage, inside sat a wet and haggard Sweety. Her eyes were ringed in a sullen shadow and she looked even paler than usual. The drain had stopped but random arcs still jumped to the circle below. The creep was killing her, and it broke Lucy’s heart to see her like this.
“Miss Lucy!” she whispered excitedly. “Please get me out of here. Master needs me! I have to go to him!”
Lucy looked over the cage; it looked like a foot thick bronze disc with five thick fingers curling up like a hand to close her into it. She didn't see a lock, but the redhead figured the fingers were large enough, removing one should let Sweety slip out. Lucy raised the tetsubo and began driving it into the hinge at the bottom of one finger. The soft metal dented under the impact of the tempered club, but not by much.
The girl was still crying, “Please Miss Lucy, please. He needs me.” she sobbed over and over again. Lucy pounded the hinge, again and again, and the dent barely grew. Lucy grunted and screamed through gritted teeth, all semblance of stealth lost in her frustration. Sweety sniffed in as her rescuer continued in vain to destroy the cage. The familiar reached out a hand between the bars and touched Lucy gently on the shoulder. Lucy could feel her anger, not diminish, but temper. As if all her white hot rage focused through her muscles. The battle club struck the hinge this time and the brass shattered and tore, the weight of the finger bending and ripping the metal as it fell.
“What the hell was that?” panted lucy. “Is that what you do for Alex?”
Sweety dropped to the floor and struggled to stand. Still weak and looking like death. Lucy grabbed the tiny girl and held her up. Whatever she had given to Lucy, whatever power she transferred, it had weakened her even more. “We have to get you out of here.’
“I need to get to Master.” she said weakly. “Miss Lucy, he needs me.”
“You can’t possibly transfer more to him in your state.” said Lucy in shock, “Sweety it could kill you.”
Sweety gasped and looked over Lucy’s shoulder toward the doors. “Miss Lucy, Calie needs you.”
“I’ve got to get you to safety. Calie can take care of herself.”
“Miss Lucy, she’s losing. She will not survive.”
A cold weight settled in Lucy’s gut. She had never had real relationships, this woman she had just met brought up feelings she never felt before. Below Alex was taking a beating, his shield barely holding. She lost both her parents less than a month ago, and now she faced losing more people she cared about. The fear gripped her heart so hard she didn’t at first notice she was no longer holding Sweety up. When she realized the small weight of the girl wasn’t there anymore, she looked around. The girl was gone. ‘Damn, she thought, even at death’s door she was fast’. She looked down, torn between Calie and her brother. She bolted down the stairs. Sweety was going to help Alex, she rationalized, even if it cost her own life. It was Calie that needed her.
Calief struggled to remain standing. The gash in her thigh was bleeding out onto the floor. She had gotten a few good licks in, the muscular woman was slashed on her forearm and she had given her a cut on her cheek. But the slash on Calie’s bicep and hand, not to mention her thigh, were bleeding far worse than Azriel’s wounds. She tried to brace herself on her sword blade but the angelic weapon bit into the marble floor and slid, cutting a large gash and dropping Calie on her face.
“Pathetic,” taunted the gruff voice of Azriel, “I heard you were supposed to be good Calief. But I guess I’m just better.” The brunette raised her sword in both hands over her head for the killing blow. So focused on victory she didn’t hear the foot falls coming up behind her. “Your death will taste so sweet, Calief”
Lucy ran as hard as she could, she had never ran so fast in her life. As she approached the back of Calie’s tormentor she slid like she had a thousand times into base playing ball. As she glided between Azriel’s feet on the polished marble floor, Lucy rolled over and slipped parallel to her blonde angel, digging in and popping up on one knee. As she did she grabbed at the golden sword laying in front of Calie’s hand and thrusted up, Azriel’s defenses abandoned for her coup de gras blow, and shoved the sword into her chest right below the woman’s breast bone. The tip jutted out past her spine and suddenly evaporated like the light in a tube of neon when the power is cut.
“How?” Croaked Azriel, as the blood already dribbling from the corners of her mouth began to choke her throat. “You can’t touch….” her eyes faded as the wet gurgling sigh escaped her lips and she crumpled to the ground.
Lucy dropped to the ground beside Calie. She lifted the blonde’s head and cradled her in her arms. “It's ok. You’re going to be ok.” she cooed.
Calie looked up at Lucy with a smile, “I knew it. I was right about you.” she caressed her cheek with a bloody hand, leaving a streak that near perfectly matched Lucy’s hair. “You are so special Lucy.”
“Keep quiet.” whispered Lucy, having taken off her shirt and ripping it into strips. “You are going to be fine. You are strong. I’ll get you patched up and we can get out of here.” She sat there in just her sports bra, calie’s head on her lap, binding her wounds with the tatters of her t-shirt. “You can’t leave me now, you have a friend now. You don’t have to be alone anymore.” The nephilim’s eyes closed and her body went limp. “Don’t leave me.” Lucy said softly, sobbing
The tremendous energy of the arcanist slammed into Alex’s shield. He was down on one knee struggling to keep it at bay. Cracks slowly formed in the energy disc and Alex pushed with all his might not to be shoved back. He strained as hard as he could but his muscles were failing, his magic was failing, and unless Lucy got Sweety out of here he would fail Sweety.
“You can’t hold out forever neophyte. You don’t have near the experience to face someone with centuries of training. Give up now and I may be merciful,” said the arcanist.
Alex was on the verge of breaking, any second the shield would give way and the blast would destroy him. As long as Sweety was safe though, Alex didn’t care what happened to him.
“Master.” he felt her hand on his shoulder, and his heart jumped into his throat.
“Sweety, you need to get out of here.” He said through gritted teeth. “Lucy was supposed to get you out of here. Lucy!” he screamed to his sister, tears spilling down his face. “Lucy, you were supposed to get her away from here!”
“Master, please,” she pleaded.
“How sweet,” chuckled Balthazar, “I knew it would never leave without you. You have failed, boy.”
Sweety crawled under his arms to bring her face up to his. “Master, please Master, accept my love.”
“Please Sweety,” he begged, “get away, run. I need to save you. I have to protect you”
“Please Master, take my love.” She finished in a soft whisper as her lips touched his.
And once more the world went white.
The blast wave hurled Balthazar back against the wall to the second level. It shook the building, shattered the discarded work table, blew out all the windows and cracked the marble walls and floor, even spreading cracks out to where Lucy held onto Calie. Lucy found herself screaming as the world around her trembled.
When the light faded to the point Alex could once again see, his first sensation was the fear that gripped his heart to see that his arms were empty. Sweety wasn’t in them. He looked around, “Sweety?” he called searching for her. It wasn’t till he looked up that he saw her, floating above him angelic in a brilliant white, flowing dress. The dress hung in the front and back in two pieces that started at her waist, exposing her thighs and the golden sandals that wrapped up her calves to her knees. Her lips were silver and almost mirror-like, and a gold mask like a half sun covered her eyes. The dress only came up her front to connect behind her neck leaving her back exposed as eight plasma-like arcs of light flowed out from her back. They flowed up above her head and then back down like wings. He followed the energy down and saw that the ends of the energy flowed into him. Only then did he realize that he was no longer tired, his body no longer ached. In fact, he felt better than he ever had before. He felt stronger, and charged in a way, like how he had after their kiss in the park.
“Do not worry, I am here Master.” she said in a strong commanding tone that rang like a bell when she spoke. Gone was her adorable babydoll voice, and he found, as awe inspiring as her new voice was, he missed it.
Balthazar dug himself out of the chunks of rubble from the damaged wall behind him. Alex could see he was in pain, his right arm hung at an odd angle and a bone stuck out through the skin of his forearm.
“How,” were the first words he could muster at the sight before him, “how can you be able to unlock its full potential? No one has ever accomplished it before.”
“Her!” said Alex forcefully. “Because she is a person, not a thing.”
“Insolent whelp, you are still no match for me!” Balthazar sneered. “I don’t care how lucky you are with your magic, you still can’t hope to stand against me! I have walked this Earth for thousands of years!”
“Stop it you fool, I don’t want to fight you. You are in no condition.”
The mage screamed and summoned up a plasmos with his one good hand.
From above him came the musical voice of Sweety, “let’s kick his ass, Master!”
The blast from the arcanist seared across the room and struck a shield Alex didn’t have the time to put up. “I’ve got defense Master, you take offense.” said Sweety.
Alex fired up his plasmos and the energy arced out of his hands and onto the floor like a sink overflowing. He swung the energy overhand and it flowed up the wall behind him, crossed the ceiling to the side of Sweety and slammed down on the broken mezzanine as Balthazar jumped to the side, splitting it open to the floor below and throwing up debris along its path. Balthazar flung bolt after bolt only to have them bounce off the shield or be smacked from the air by Alex’s plasmos. He was wielding the two arcs like his video game character’s whips. Alex then went back on the offensive, cracking the energy whips again and again. The ancient arcanist threw up shields as fast as he could only to have them shatter one after another. He drove the man back until he fell against the wall. Alex was about to order his surrender once again when the damaged wall gave way and Balthazar screamed as he plummeted down the side of the building.
Sweety floated down, the mask fading away like it was never there and the wings dissipating as he caught her in his arms. The girl giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh Master, you do love me! You do!” Her sweet girly voice had returned.
Tears welled up in his eyes, “Of course I love you Sweety. I have loved you from the moment I first saw you. Nothing in the world could mean more to me than you do.” he squeezed her with all the strength he had and she drank it up, feeding on his love. “I love you more than anything. I would die for you, I was willing to.”
“Don’t you dare, Master” she squeaked, “I wouldn't survive without you.”
“But you would be free Sweety.” he whispered, still not letting her out of his embrace with tears in his eyes “ You could go home.”
“Why ever would I want that, Master?” she whispered back and nipped him on his ear. “All I want is to love you, and have you love me back. I want to be with you always. Till your days on Earth are done and I carry you to heaven to be together for eternity.” She pulled her head back to look at him, her aquamarine eyes glowing and tears once more welling up in them.
“That’s the most wonderful thing I could ever think of, Sweety. I want to spend eternity with you.” He pressed his lips to hers and felt her love once more, bathing the destroyed room in heavenly light.
They walked out of the sanctum to find Lucy crying on the floor, holding Calie in her lap clutching her to her chest. “She’s gone.” sobbed Lucy “I was too late.”
Sweety knelt down next to them. “She is not gone, Miss Lucy, I can still feel her.” Sweety laid her hands upon Calie and light shone from her body and enveloped them both. The angelic dress faded away, leaving her original T-shirt and schoolgirl skirt.
Calie’s eyes fluttered open and she gasped as air flooded her lungs. “Lucy?” she whispered as she beheld the redhead holding her.
“Yes.” Lucy nodded, tearfully “I’m here.” and gently kissed the blonde’s soft lips.
“I rekindled her celestial spark. She will be fine, Miss Lucy.”
“ We should go.” Said Alex. “With what we did to the building, I’m sure the authorities are on the way. Can you walk Calie?”
The blonde wobbled to her feet with the help of Lucy. “I’ll be fine.” she touched her gold bracelet and the gem glowed blue once again.
In front of the the air rippled once more as reality tore asunder and a portal opened back to the Library. And they limped through.
The TV was on again and covering a suspected terrorist attack on a private building in a city hundereds of miles from their home.
“We do seem to be good at causing a lot of damage.” Quipped Lucy, as she nursed the nephilim’s already mostly closed wounds from the couch. She had got the blonde down to her underwear to apply various ointments and bandages. Sweety had cleaned up the house following the golgotham attack in mere hours. Of course, Alex had insisted they help, except Calie since she was injured. But Sweety still outpaced them and did most of it. She even made dinner after, and when everyone was fed the two snuck up to their room while Lucy was tending to Calie.
“Ouch, I’m fine.” whined Calie.
“Uh uh,” countered Lucy. “I’m not having your beautiful skin scared. That scared warrior thing might fly for that Bitch we killed, but I’m keeping you in angelic perfection if I can help it.”
“Aw!” cooed Calie, sliding her lips across Lucy’s and kissing her deeply. “Speaking of angels…” her tone changing as they parted. “You picked up my sword.”
“So?” asked Lucy, not following.
“Lucy, that sword is a piece of my soul. Only an angel or a Nephilim can create one.” she looked deeply in redhead’s eyes and became annoyed when she realized the girl was still not getting it. “And only one of those can hold one. Lucy, you are nephilim!”
Lucy shook her head, “no, I’m not like you. I couldn’t be.”
“Oh come on. You're physically superior to everyone you’ve ever known. Strong, athletic, graceful,” she grasped Lucy’s chin gently and lined their eyes with each other’s, “breathtakingly beautiful.” and she kissed her again softly. “You’re a nephilim.”
“How?” asked Lucy.
“I suspected it from the start. I looked into it that first night. Your father wasn’t in the order,” she paused, causing Lucy to mime the hurry up motion. “But he was an arcanist. And I suspect, much like Alex and Sweety, your mother was his familiar.”
“What?” said Lucy, “No, that can’t be.” but she thought about it. Her mom never called her dad by his name, never that she could remember, but she always called him, my love. Every time she addressed him. Like Sweety called Alex Master.
“Lucy, it makes sense. The chance a car wreck took them both? If he died, she took him to heaven. It's what they do. It's what Sweety will eventually do for Alex.” she sighed and looked down, sorry for Lucy's plight. “You still lost both parents because she had to do her duty. And she couldn’t say goodbye to her children because she had to take him.”
After a quiet moment more than Lucy could stand she looked Calie in the eyes, “So what does that mean? I’m a Nephilim, but what does it mean for me?”
“It means you are not even close to your potential. It means,” and she kissed the redhead once more, “I start training you tomorrow.”
Lucy looked back with apprehension, and was about to argue, when the house shook. “What the hell?”
Calie took hold of her before she stood, and whispered with a smile, “angel sex.”
Lucy’s eyes got wide and she looked up to their room, “oh god Alex, please don’t blow up my house.”
Sweety collapsed on top of Alex spent, literally glowing and oh, so happy. The connection was so much more than just kissing. The petite girl was panting with a smile a mile wide. Waves of energy were still pulsing off of them. Slowly diminishing, but still shaking the furniture in the room with every wave.
“That was so wonderful, Master.” she giggled, “I want to do that all the time.”
There it was again. Master. He understood why she called him that. He now believed she served him because she honestly wanted to. But that title made him feel she was lower than him. That she was beneath him. And Alex felt so differently, he felt she was so much more than him. She was perfection, she was divine. Her calling him that, still left a sour feeling in his stomach.
“Sweety, I don't want to be your master.” She sat up suddenly and he realized uncomfortably, they were still “entwined’. “Wait,” he groaned, “I love you Sweety, I do. I want you. Oh, do I want you so bad. But I just don’t want you to be a slave. I don’t want you as a servant.” he pulled her to him, her head rested on his chest and she listened, once again to her favorite music as he spoke. “Honestly Sweety, I’d really rather have you as my wife.”
She sat up again, with slightly less discomfort on Alex. “Your wife?” tears were welling up in her eyes “yes!” she exclaimed, “yes Alex, I would love to be your wife.” she collapsed down on him again, sobbing happy tears.
She said Alex. She didn’t call him master. She called him Alex. He could feel tears in his eyes as well. She was free. They were free to love each other because they loved each other, not because they had to. She lay there as her tears subsided, listening to him for what seemed an eternity, and then said softly. “We will have such beautiful babies.” She raised her head to look into his eyes again, “I could start preparing myself to be fertile for you right away.”
“That’s ok Sweety,” he said, happy but apprehensive. “Let’s get married first and worry about that down the line. We have other things to figure out first.” She was free but she would never be a normal average girl. And Alex couldn’t possibly be happier.
Epilogue
The party was in full spin. Money flowed like water in the form of expensive drinks, food and entertainment. A young auburn haired man in glasses entered the room in an expensive suit with a girl so beautiful, and flawless that she could have been a living doll. She wore a short, sparkly dress resembling something out of a fairy tale, and hung on his arm like he was the very air she breathed.
A tall blonde in a silky white evening gown wove her way gracefully through the crowd, drawing appreciative looks from most of the men here and more than a couple of the women. She walked up to the bar and ordered a drink. A large built man in a severe suit slipped up behind her.
“Don’t tell me a lovely thing like you is here alone.” he said in a deep voice.
Across the room near the hor'dourves, a tall, sultry redhead wearing an identical gown in black bumped into another severe suited man.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.” she said flirtingly.
“It's fine, babe” he almost growled in an identical bass to the other man.
She turned around to return to the food table when she felt his breath on her bare back.
“S’ok babe, maybe you can make it up to me.” he said in a slimy tone as she felt his hand try to slip around her waist to get at her breast. She spun around, producing a small spherical object from who knows where and smashed it into the side of his head.
The blonde looked at the man and winked, “who says I’m not here with someone?” she saw in his eyes as the lust shifted his pupils momentarily from brown to red. She smiled and Whispered, “The security guys are demons.”
Flesh bubbled and sizzled off the man’s face as the holy water from the Redhead’s bauble ate away his covering. “Yea, got that already.”
The redhead grabbed the man’s arm and hip tossed him into the buffet table. She snapped out her arm materializing a flaming sword of golden light and shoved it into the man.
The blonde snapped out a similar blade and ran it up into the other man’s gut and out his mouth. Both men erupted into fame and disappeared in scars of ash on the floor and table.
“Sounds like the party has started, my love.” said the doll-like beauty dreamily.
“Sounds like it.” he replied. “Well, we don’t want to miss out. Do we?”
He leaned down to her as she pushed herself up to her tiptoes to bring their faces closer together. Just before their lips touched, she purred happily and whispered, “this is my favorite part.”