Black Wings

Chapter 26

"You brought this human here again!?"

"Shut up, Raphael. You're just upset because you're still not over Rina beating the shit out of you." Gabriel spat back.

"Of course, I'm still angry. And why you still call that traitor by her name baffles me. She betrayed both of you! Her mate and her only friend. She's othing more than demon spawn."

I punched him in the face. Simple as that. Gabriel and Rachel prevented me for hitting him again. Onlookers watched carefully, stunned by the display. The force and suddenness of the blow had knocked Raphael to the ground, leaving him to stare up at me in shock.

"Say it again and I'll kill you." I growled.

"Michael." Lucifer said sharply.

I hadn't noticed his approach, a very surprising thing. I bowed my head as a sign of respect, but it didn't really mean much right now. Lucifer knew this too, I wasn't the same without Rina. A sympathetic look flickered across his face before returning to it's usual neutralness.

"Brother, you know better than this."

"Blame him, he's the one who's talking about Rina like she's nothing more than a monster. And he should know better than to talk that way about someone's mate in front of them. He deserves it, just as he deserved Rina's attack. I know what he does to her, other angels too."

"She is nothing but demon spawn, I have every right to call her such."

I tried to lunge at him, but once again was held back. However, Raphael was met with the end of Lucifer's blade.

"Never speak of her that way again. You forget all she has done for Heaven, despite our treatment of her. That is why I am leaving her search and capture to Michael."

"Capture?" Raphael asked.

"Yes. She is valuable to us, and very important. Do not forget our earlier discussion, she is far more important than you."

"What do you mean more valuable?" I questioned.

"She is now vital to your health and sanity, as well as doing much more around here than most realize. She is also important to me, she has something of mine."

"Is that why she killed one of your men?" Gabriel asked.

"Possibly."

"What does she have of yours?" I pressed.

"That is not of importance now. I expect you to bring her back alive."

"Yes, Brother."

*****
"Another one dead?"

"Yep, another of Lucifer's men. I wonder why it's only them she's picking off. Think she holds a grudge against Lucifer for not doing something?" Gabriel asked me, flipping through news channels.

"Maybe. It's hard to tell what she's thinking anymore. Before, you almost alway knew what she was thinking or doing. But now? I'm just clueless."

"That's wrong."

Rachel came down the stairs in pajamas. She sat down next to Gabriel on the couch, pulling her knees up to her chest. We watched her as she stared at the tv blankly for a minute.

"Rina was always thinking about something she didn't want anyone to know. Kept the secret about being a demon for a long time, and you had no idea until she did something. Rina has the jump on us right now. She knows more than we do and is using it to her advantage. She knows how the angels work, so she's using the demons to counter it."

"If only I could just feel....something from her." I sighed.

"That's right, the connection between mates. Has she found a way to block it?" Gabriel asked.

"No, it's impossible. More like she's trying not to feel anything."

"It's got to be hard not to feel anything, she's got to snap sometime." Rachel said.

As if on cue, a crippling pain shot through my body. I was sent crashing to the floor, clutching my head. Rachel and Gabriel quickly came to my aid. But there was nothing even Gabriel could do, this wasn't physical pain, but it might as well be. It ws like every negative emotion had been concentrated and injected into my body. Sadness, loneliness, regret, and guilt were the most prominent of these feelings. These weren't my feelings, Rina had snapped. One good feeling did come with them though, a glimmer of hope. Gabriel called my name over and over, on the verge of tears himself, as I sobbed into the carpet.

*****
Gabriel was very distressed the rest of the evening. Both he and Rachel were also very careful around me. I had told them it was just Rina's feelings, but we all knew that wasn't completely true. When Rina snapped, all the feelings I had been keeping bottled up went with them. So when I proposed the plan to capture a demon, they both became extremely nervous.

"Michael, that's not even really necessary." Rachel said carefully.

"We went to do it the other day." Gabriel lowered his head slightly, as if bracing for fury.

"And?"

"What do you mean 'and'?" Gabriel questioned.

"And what happened?"

"Uh, we found one. But we couldn't get anything from him. Whatever Rina is threatening them, it's far worse than anything we could come up with. The freaking demon begged for us to kill him. Apparently, death is the most merciful route out for them. They're not supposed to be anywhere near us, that's all we could get."

"That might be why we haven't seen a demon in weeks. But why is Rina keeping them away from us, if she's going to attack us? She's doing stuff all over the world except near us." Rachel said.

Silence fell over us once more. Weeks, it had been weeks since Rina's last direct message in New York. But she continued to show up on the news. She had become the world's greatest story and its most curious case of good or evil. Almost every hour of the day her face flashed across news channels, new deaths or new things caused by her campaign. It was painful to see this, to think Rina was behind this all. It almost felt unreal, like this was some cruel dream I couldn't wake up from. It only get more cruel.

"Joshua!?"

"Amy, where's Michael?"

"In there."

Joshua came in from the hall, panting heavily. His hair was in disarray, and his wings had feathers sticking out in all directions. He obviously hurried here with no regard for his appearance.

"Joshua, what's going on?"

"It's...it's Rina. I think we found her. We've got to move quickly."