The Children of Death, Book Five, The Battle of Sin and Virtue

Erik

Hey, it's me, Erik, just almost dying over here.

Well, dying's an overstatement. But I did get bit by a couple cherubs and had an arrow shot into my right wing. 

I wasn't even in harpy form! I was just an owl, and the angels still shot at me. Honestly, I'm starting to think those guys don't like us.

When I got the letter to come to the head counselor house, I groaned out-loud. Everyone in my cabin was wounded! 

Every time I let my wings out, I was in horrible pain. But I guessed that we did have to keep going on.

So, we packed our things and made our way to the house. Arrows being shot at us as we made the dangerous journey through the battlefield. 

"Demons! Foul, evil demons!" Angels yelled as we ran, some running at us with spears and swords and even trying to just kill us with their bare hands.

I couldn't believe it. 

We finally reached the front porch, pounding on the door. 

"Let us in! Please!"I begged. And the door opened after a bit, the sound of things being unlocked before we were pulled in.

And, dang, we were the last ones here. "Erik! Good to have you, buddy!" Someone embraced me in a bear-hug.

It was Ezra! "Dude! This is crazy, right?"I said.

"Yeah!"He agreed. I noticed that he seemed happier than ever before. And it was probably because his sister was there, hanging close by him.

She seemed nice. I didn't talk to her much other than greeting her when she woke up from being injured, and just having small-talk conversations. 

And--

My entire train of thought was ruined when Valentina rushed towards me, hugging me tightly. 

I smiled, hugging back. She pulled away and then kissed me deeply. I took a small mental note of Ezra standing there awkwardly before he walked off with his sister.

"Oh, I missed you so, so, so much!"Valentina grinned, kissing me all over my face, so much that I knew there was probably lipstick marks everywhere, but I didn't care.

"I missed you, too! Are you okay?" I asked, taking her hands in mine.

"Yeah, you?"She asked me. 

"I'll live." I smiled, "Did you lose anyone in your cabin?"I asked.

"Well, we kinda lost the cabin."She admitted, sighing. I raised an eyebrow, signaling her to continue.

"Those angels let Allyssa out and she blew up our cabin, Storm took the blunt of the damage for us, he sensed it coming and rushed us out of the place. Beatriz is tending to him on the couch right now..."She explained.

I never liked Storm. He was annoying, arrogant, and egotistical. I don't think he liked me much, either. 

"Wanna go see him?"I asked. She nodded, so we headed over to the living room. 

And Storm looked bad. 

He was covered in his own blood, gashes covering his body and burns, too. "There's more shrapnel! "I heard a nurse say, Beatriz cursed.

"He's barely alive!"Another nurse said, cleaning out some wounds, pulling out shrapnel and stitching up wounds.

Valentina buried her face in my chest. "Demons, I don't think he's gonna make it..."She cried. 

"He'll make it. I know he will."I assured, but I don't think I was right. 

After a while the nurses settled with him, running off to go help other people in need. Which left us there with the unconscious head counselor of the Asmodeus cabin.

"I don't suppose you have any good prophecies right about now?"Valentina asked me, leaning on my shoulder, "Asmodeus, I can't believe he did that... he's never this self-sacrificial."

"Hey, it's gonna be okay."I smiled comfortingly. She nodded, kissing my cheek, "Yeah, you're right. I'm- I'm gonna go tend to people's wounds, okay? You go do your own thing. Love you."

"I love you."I replied as she walked off. 

Which left me alone, until I saw, in the corner of my eye, Aella, Loona, and Atticus all frantically talking about something. Well, Aella seemed more confused than frantic. 

I raised an eyebrow, finding it strange, but I didn't really care. There seemed to be a meeting going on in the dining room, so I walked in to listen.

"We need to go out there and fight! We're all just sitting in here, waiting to die!"Natalie, head counselor of the Satan cabin, yelled.

Somehow, when I wasn't looking, the followers of Lailah had showed up.

"We need strategy." Dylan advised, Jade agreed, nodding.

"We need blood!" Natalie argued.

"They have minor angels on their side, we need to call in minor demons! Like... Zepar, for instance." Beatriz suggested, looking over at the 14-year-old Aaron Lopex. 

"Or Raum." I said as I walked in, "If they're gonna fight dirty, we are, too. We might not be able to get the seven princes, but I know that these minor demons would do anything to fight a bunch of angels for fun. And for the good of this camp."

"So, it's settled. We go out at sunrise after summoning tons of demons." Jade said, pleased. 

"It's settled." Dylan nodded.

And everything felt like it was gonna be all right.