NOLA Down

Chapter 3. Meeting

             As she slowly came to, all Sera remembered was watching the spirits of Pirate's Alley going about what had been their daily lives. A cracking sound, like lightning, had made her jump. A flash of light on the edge of her field of vision, and it was lights out for her.

She felt a light tap on her cheek. Raindrops? Strange, the sky had been clear all day and the forecast said nothing about rain. Had the weather report been wrong?

She felt the tapping again, but a bit more insistent and firm this time. She squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment before allowing them to flutter open, only to instantly get stabbed by the sun's rays coming from behind the shadowed figure in front of her. She could've sworn they made a halo effect around his head, but she couldn't be sure.

Once her eyes had adjusted, she gasped slightly in surprise at a strikingly handsome guy with dark brown hair falling over his brow, bow-shaped lips, and at least a few days' worth of a beard grown in. He had leaned in so close to her face, she could practically count the lashes framing those beautiful gray eyes. Or were they blue? No matter the color, they were nearly as captivating as the scent of clove and nutmeg wafting from his skin and clothes.

"God in Heaven!" she exclaimed once her senses came back to her and she realized how close they actually were. Her surprise made him snap back to full height. Still from her spot on the ground, she took in a new expression on his stoic face: indignancy. How dare he act offended when he had just been peering at her like something under a microscope?

          Adriel was making sure she was still breathing, that he hadn't literally killed his partner for this mission, when he noticed a scent coming from Sera. Death? No, Azrael would be here if it were. This was... sweeter. They got closer. Sandalwood and.. he sneered. Apple. Damn Lucifer. Lucifer had forever ruined the fruit for a good many of his angelic brethren with that stunt, Adriel included. He was lost in that particularly dark train of thought when Sera woke up shouting.

Jerking up to his full height out of surprise, he frowned. "Well yes, that's generally where He stays," he said dryly, licking his lips. "Could you not do that again, by the way? Father was rather specific when He said 'do not take My Name in vain'."

Since the city's weather was far too warm for a trench coat, he'd opted for a lighter version of Az's cloak in the form of a dark blue cloth hoodie. Pulling a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, he put a cigarette between his lips, tilted his head and put the end of the cigarette to the flame, shielding it with his hand as he did so. Pulling off of the cigarette a bit, he gave it a moment before putting the pack and lighter away. 

        Sera looked at him, mouth hanging open with confusion written across her face, before stammering out a reply. "Excuse me, but you weren't the one being examined like a bug under a magnifying glass just now," she told him.

Grabbing the wrought iron fence behind her that surrounded the Square, she pulled herself to a standing position beside him, coming up his collarbone. She may've been short, coming in at five foot two, but she wasn't about to back down. She looked him dead in those glorious eyes and narrowed her own eyes back on him. "I think I have the right to say whatever I damn well please when someone is looking at me like that and never once offered to help a lady off the ground," she fired off, pointing to where she'd been only moments before.

          Adriel let his eyes glance over her casually after she stood. She was shorter than him, but the fire he sensed in her spirit dwarfed him. This was good. He could see why she was chosen for this, and it nearly made him smile despite being her current target. Her body was voluptuous, almost motherly, for her young age, but her soul - her soul was older. Worn thin in places, cracked in others, but still whole and strong. Ready to face the mission ahead that she currently had no knowledge even existed, and she would need that strength.