Chapter Five.

"You know he calls you 'violent chick', right?" Greyson asked.

The thirteen-year-old nephilim was glaring at his fourteen-year-old sister. Though they were related by blood, most people didn't see the relation between them. Greyson had sandy-blond hair and brown eyes, while Kayla had dark brown hair and amber eyes. When comparing them next to each other, most failed to see any similarities.

This more than likely stemmed from Greyson's father, who was believed to be an Archangel named Refari. More often than not, nephilim took after their angelic parents more than their mortal ones.

The differences in their personality were almost as obvious as the differences in their hair, too. Greyson had run away from home after their parents misunderstood something, and he patched up a werewolf most nights after the werewolf fought for money. Kayla, on the other hand, wandered the streets of Tejina, looking for even word of where Greyson was, beating up any criminal she found or any person who tried getting in her way.

Up until Greyson found out and went after her to tell her to knock it off. He hadn't planned on coming home at that time, but when Blake, the werewolf, died, he changed his mind.

It was one of those incidents – the one that caused Greyson to approach her – that earned her the nickname 'violent chick' by Cam, the very boy she had just asked Greyson if she could meet.

"Please," Kayla asked. "I know you've got a way to contact him. I just want to make sure he's alright."

"You just want to try and ask him out on a date," Greyson jabbed the spoon he was eating with at her. "All you've done since I returned is pester me to let you talk with him and for information about him. Leave him alone. He just got back from being kidnapped by the Fairy Empress. He's traumatized. Now shut up, I'm almost done with lunch, and Father said he was taking me to one of their mage training fields so that I can stretch my wings."

Kayla sighed and Greyson returned to eating his lunch of honey nut Cheerios in chocolate milk. When he finished, he washed his dishes, then located his father in the study. Not his birth father, but the man he grew up knowing as his father, Lucas Tules.

Greyson was still wary of his parents, as they had said some pretty harsh things about him when they thought he was gay and had raised him on a strict schedule and training program. He wasn't gay, though, just curious what it was about. He was barely twelve at the time, and just interested because a friend had said he'd loved another of their male friends.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back for him, and he ran away, spending months on the streets. There, he'd learned to control his magics and met Blake and Cam, his two first real friends. Blake, the werewolf martial artist, and Cam, the demigod mind mage.

All of that came crashing down when the fairies attacked the warehouse and Blake was killed. That launched into sequence a series of events resulting in the death of the Fairy Empress and Fairy Emperor, the unbinding of Cam's divinity, and Greyson's family learning he was a nephilim.

Something he was proud of. He had wings, after all.

"Father," Greyson entered his father's home office. "You said we would go to the fields after I ate lunch."

Lucas Tules sat at his desk, frowning at a report he was reading. His father was the head of the Anti-Fae Task Force section of the Department of Supernatural Services, and in the wake of the fight, he was largely uninvolved in events.

Fairies couldn't just open portals on their own, and so he had to wait until something happened. The department was still relevant until they confirmed that the fairy threat was neutralized, but there wasn't much work for them to do.

"Do you know a girl named Jessica Holmes?" Lucas asked his son. "She attends your school, and judging by the reddening of your cheeks, you do?"

"Yeah," Greyson said. "She's one of my friends."

And his crush.

"Why is she in one of your reports?" He asked.

"It seems some traffickers went after her."

"But she's not a mage!" Greyson exclaimed.

"Not mage traffickers," Lucas shook his head. "These ones work the sex trade. Going after her awakened her magic, though. It looks like her root spell is the force push from the force school of magic.

"Two agents," Lucas continued. "Are currently watching her. She's at a small restaurant, and seems to be flighty. We think she's attempting to avoid being alone after being attacked."

"What's going to happen to her?" Greyson asked, worry filling his voice and face.

"You said she's one of your friends?" Lucas asked, and Greyson nodded. "Ask her if she wants to hang out. You have her number, yes?"

"Yeah," Greyson nodded. "But I don't want to trick her into a trap!"

"We aren't," Lucas said. "We want to help her. If she agrees to hang out, we can take her to the fields with us. Having a friend there might relax her with DoSS. We'll see if she wishes to register that she's a mage. There are already a pair of agents talking with her parents. According to the report, they took a few minutes to accept the truth of magic after it was demonstrated. Jessica is refusing to answer her phone, though."

"Let me-let me try," Greyson fumbled in his pocket for his phone before managing to pull it out and call his friend.

It rang for several seconds before the line picked up.

"Greyson?" Jess asked quietly.

"Jess," he said. "Wanna hang out? My parents aren't so strict on stuff like that with me anymore, and we've never hung out before. And I wanna show you something, too."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I don't-I don't know," she sounded scared to him. "These men came after me, Greyson. It's not safe."

"It's okay," Greyson said, doing his best not to tell her right there what he knew. "I can fight. My parents taught me. And my dad works for the government, he's always got a gun on him. And-and I like you, Jess. Can we?"

His face heated up with his admission, and he knew he was probably redder than he had ever been before in his life.

"Um," she hesitated. "Like me?"

"Yeah," Greyson felt his cheeks flush. "I like you. Like I wanna be your girlfriend. I mean your boyfriend. I want you to be my girlfriend."

Lucas watched in amusement as his son fumbled over his words. He must really like this girl, as the Greyson he knew was serious, composed, and took no nonsense, never fumbling his words or actions.

"O-okay," Jess said. "But I'm scared, Greyson. You said your dad works for the government."

"Yeah," Greyson nodded. "He can look for the bad guys for you if you want. You can tell him what happened."

"I-thanks," she sniffled. "I'm scared, Greyson."

"Where are you?" He asked. "We can come talk to you. Then we can hang out. There's something I wanna show you."

Jess gave him her location, and Greyson promised to be there soon, telling her to just wait there. Thirty minutes later, Greyson and his father entered the restaurant where Jess was shrunk back in her booth, watching everyone with wide, fear-filled eyes.

"Hey, Jess," Greyson rushed over to her as soon as he spotted his friend. "You're okay!"

"Yeah," she pulled herself out of the booth and threw her arms around him. "I'm so scared, Greyson. So much happened, and-"

"Shh," he rubbed her back. "It's okay, Jess. You're okay. Father and I are here, now. You're going to be okay. Father said that he already talked with your parents, you can come hang out with me for a bit. We were going to go to some fields and do some training. I wanna show you something."

"Martial arts?" She asked.

"If you want," Greyson said, leading her out of the restaurant, his father following behind. "Come on, it's going to be cool."

Jess looked around nervously as Greyson led her to his father's car, relaxing only once they were on the way. Greyson kept hold of one of her hands, squeezing it gently anytime she started sniffling. He didn't like it when she was upset like that.

An hour later, they were out of town and along a well-worn dirt road passing through some trees. Another half an hour after that, they were pulling into a field where a couple of men were waiting.

Greyson noticed Jess beginning to turn scared again.

"It's okay," Greyson gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "They work for Father."

"They work for a different department," Lucas told his son. "Trainers are under a different section."

"You're still a Department Head," Greyson rolled his eyes, then climbed out of the car and walked around to Jess's side. "Come on, Jess. I wanna show you something cool. You're going to love it, I promise."

Jess gave him a hesitant look, but accepted his outstretched hand. They were already there, so if the meeting was a trap, it was too late to turn back. Greyson closed the door behind her, then walked towards the men, his father following behind.

There was a table set up, Jess noticed, and a few training dummies that looked like they had seen better days. Holes, cuts, and burns, with several of them missing entire chunks.

"Tr-training?" She asked.

"Yeah," Greyson pulled his hoodie over his head and dropped it on the table. He hadn't worn a shirt underneath, so this left him bare-chested, allowing Jess to see his densely-muscled torso, which she knew came from thirteen years of intense martial arts training. "You ready to see it?"

"Aren't you cold?" She shivered a little, pulling her jacket a little more tightly around her. "It's freezing out here!"

"Not really," Greyson shrugged. "I can regulate my body temperature by manipulating the blood within me. I'm perfectly fine. Do you want to see it now?"

"See… what?" She asked, and he grinned at her.

It was the first real grin she had ever seen him show, and she barely had time to process it when a pair of magnificent, white-feathered wings stretched out of his back.

Greyson felt his grin widened when he saw Jess's awe-filled gaze. Nephilim wings were among the most beautiful things in existence when ignoring straight-up divine things and gods. Showing her his wings was definitely the way to go to impressing her, now that she knew about magic. It would also help relax her a lot more knowing that she had a friend she could confide in about her powers.

He flapped his wings, flying straight up into the air. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but an art he'd begun working on a few months prior. His wings had an innate magic to them that augmented his flight when he wanted it to, though he could also fly without that magic.

For several minutes, he flew around, stretching his wings in comfort with the knowledge that the fields were magically protected from outside sight. No one would see him flying who wasn't in the large clearing that was several hundred yards around.

The teen loved the feeling of the wind on his face, even if it had an arctic bite to it. To him, there was nothing better than soaring through the sky, free as any bird.

Other than hanging out with his real friends, anyway.

Greyson flew back down to Jess, landing a few feet in front of her, his face red from the thrill and excitement of flying freely.

"You-you-you have wings!" Jess exclaimed.

"Yep!" He grinned as he tucked his wings against his back. "I'm a nephilim – my birth father's an angel. Father's only my step-dad. But he's still my father. Father works for the Department of Supernatural Services, they deal with magicians. Mages, you're called."

"I'm?" Jess asked, then felt her eyes widen. "You… know?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "There were a couple of agents keeping an eye on you while you were at the restaurant. That's why Father had me call you. Your parents already know-"

"They probably think I'm a freak!" Jess exclaimed in horror.

"They've accepted it," Lucas stepped forward, and Jess gave him a hesitant look. "They agreed to us bringing you out here, even. Some agents already talked to them. Do you want to register yourself as a mage? You'll be given access to government-assisted training, which is cheaper than finding a teacher for unregistered mages."

Lucas gave his son a look at that. Greyson had a teacher for unregistered mages, and was unregistered, himself. It wasn't legally-required to register, but generally recommended for anyone who didn't intend on joining the underworld.

Registration gave access to cheaper trainers, shops with cheaper magical supplies, and several other similar benefits. It was generally better in the long run.

He wanted to pry and find out who his son's trainer was, but for the moment, he was leaving it be. Doing such a thing would only result in losing some of the trust he'd built up after Greyson asked to come back home.

"You don't have to decide right now," Greyson told her. "But I'd recommend it. Their trainers are cheaper. A trainer for unregistered mages can cost a hundred or more an hour. A registered one might cost twenty to forty."

"The report," Lucas cleared his throat. "Said that you performed a force push. A teacher for that would run around fifteen an hour, and most sessions don't last more than an hour or two of basic practice."

"After that," Greyson told her. "It's mostly just practicing until the spell becomes natural to you. The more you practice, the less magic it's going to cost to cast and the easier it'll be. The more you'll be able to do, too. The only downside to registration is that once you're an adult, they'll want you to do work for them when your services are needed, but they'd pay you for it, too."

"Since you have a common spell," Lucas interjected. "You probably wouldn't be called up on that often. We generally only do it if someone's particular skills are needed. If you had a rare ability like my son's friends do, then you'd probably find yourself called on more often. Which is probably why they refuse to register themselves."

"Who has magic?" Jess asked Greyson. "We're not the only ones?"

"Of our friends?" Greyson asked, and she nodded. "He wasn't referring to them. I have friends from while I wasn't at school and stuff. One of them's a spatial mage and one's a mind mage. Those are called lone schools of magic, and they're incredibly rare for anyone to possess, and they were born with them, which is even rarer."

He grinned at her.

"Wanna see me fly again?"