Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 12

~Beatrice~

"Any day now…it's not like I have anything better to do." Lilith grumbled from the living room.

Beatrice rolled her eyes, continuing to comb her fingers through Ava's hair. The Halo bearer had her face pressed into the taller woman's chest trying to concentrate on disappearing her wings. She could feel Ava’s heart still pounding from the being wrenched awake by Lilith’s appearance.

"Don't let her get to you darling, keep breathing, nice and easy, in for 4 and out for 4." Beatrice whispered, moving one hand down to gently knead the base of the Halo bearer’s neck.

Ava let out a gentle sigh, the sister warrior could feel the tension draining from the younger woman as she sank deeper into Beatrice's embrace. With a shudder and a quiet whimper, the wings vanished. The sister warrior beamed proudly. Pulling back slightly, Beatrice framed Ava's face with her hands, lifting her head to meet so she could look her in the eyes.

"You did it Ava. They’re gone." She ran her thumbs across the younger woman's cheekbones wishing she could erase the dark circles under her eyes.

Ava offered her a small relieved smile, leaning forward to rest her forehead against Beatrice’s, "Thanks Bea."

"Anytime." She closed the distance to capture the Halo bearer’s lips in a sweet kiss.

~

“It’s a cult.” Lilith stated simply.

They were sitting around the kitchen table, Ava’s hastily drawn image of the tattoo placed in the center. Beatrice had one of the Halo bearer’s hands cradled in both of her own, tracing patterns across the back of it.

"It's a cult?" Ava repeated, looking dumbfounded.
"Like just a bunch of humans that have an unsavory interest in the Halo? No demons involved or anything?"

Lilith shrugged, “I haven’t been able to find out much about their modern sect, there may yet be demonic influences. All I have for you today is some history on the Brotherhood.”

“The Brotherhood...” Ava parroted in a low, gruff tone.

Lilith shot the Halo bearer a dirty look, opening her mouth to, most likely, start an argument, Beatrice quickly interjected, “Ava take this seriously.”

“Fine.” The younger woman groaned from beside her.
“You guys are no fun.”

Shaking her head at Ava’s childishness, "The Halo is like their version of the fountain of youth or the holy grail. They believe they can use the artefact to live forever." Lilith explained.
She pointed to the crumpled piece of paper, tracing her finger over the snake eating its tail, "This is ouroboros, it symbolizes eternity, in this case the cult is after eternal life…",  The former sister warrior moved her hand to the Roman numerals below, "...and this reads as seven in Roman numerals. The perfect number in the Catholic church. It usually stands for purity and perfection."
"They must've captured Mary to try and get more details about the OCS and the Halo bearer, the question is how they found out about the Order and Mary's link to it." Lilith trailed off staring into space with a grim expression.

Beatrice knew what the former sister warrior was implying, if they had a mole in the OCS that was feeding intelligence to this group...she shivered a little. 

“How do you know all this?” Beatrice asked.

“Yeah you said you had seen this before?” Ava piped up from beside her.

Lilith's expression became a little awkward, she looked down at her hands that were resting on the table in front of her, “When I was working with Adriel…He had access to texts that the OCS could only dream about. This symbol was on the front cover of one of them, it caught my eye and so I asked him what it meant. He just laughed at me, he said the book was about a silly group of men whose greed destroyed them and that was their mark.”
“I don’t think he knew they were still operating out there, somewhere.”

There was a long moment of silence, while they processed this new information, Ava was first to speak, “So what now? We have to save Mary.”

Beatrice didn’t like the way the former sister warrior was looking at the Halo bearer, Lilith gazed at the younger woman with a careful, measured expression.

Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like what she says next…

“Well.”
“I have a plan…but you’re not going to like it.” Lilith glanced at Beatrice, obviously directing the end of that sentence at her.

She frowned and crossed her arms, the sister warrior would reserve judgement until she heard the proposal.

“I have a couple of leads to follow in regards to locating the Brotherhood’s operation, but they don’t look promising. While I’m chasing these down, I want you to train.” Lilith nodded at the Halo bearer.
“You need to have complete control of your teleportation…” Ava groaned, Lilith raised her hand, shushing the younger woman, “...I don’t want to hear it. Remember that I can teleport wherever I have already been, so I'm hoping that will work the same for you despite your body not physically being present when you astral projected. I think our best bet at finding where Mary is being held is you teleporting there, finding out where it is, and then teleporting back so that we can launch a rescue party.”

“Absolutely not.” Beatrice answered sharply before the Halo bearer could.
“Your plan is to send Ava alone into the lion's den to find out the location?! She literally has the only thing they are obsessed with and will torture and kill for…”

“Well hang on Bea…”, Her eyes snapped towards the younger woman, feeling a surge of anger that Ava was even considering this incredibly foolhardy option, “... if it’s the only way to find Mary then we don’t have another choice.”

Beatrice shook her head, this was like taking the bracelet off in a attempt to communicate with Reya all over again. She couldn’t believe that Ava was trying to convince her to allow something so dangerous.

“Beatrice, I’m not saying we leap right into this.” Lilith intervened before the taller woman could speak.
“Ava needs to train, she needs to master the new powers, you know that, and I’m sure those were Mother Superior’s orders despite the vacation right?” Beatrice nodded, eyes narrowing at the winged woman.
“So you guys train, Ava gets better at teleporting and stops popping her wings out whenever she gets a fright…” The Halo bearer made an offended noise, “... If my leads fail then we can revisit this conversation, okay?”

Beatrice nodded again, glancing at Ava to see her nodding as well.

This conversation is definitely not over.

~Ava~

"Again." Beatrice commanded, an intense expression on her face.

They stood a couple of meters apart on the shore of the lake. The snowstorm had eased enough that the women could train outside, which the Halo bearer would have been super happy about if not for the frigid temperatures. Still, despite the cold, getting out and doing something different was a relief. Since the conversation with Lilith, Bea had been tense and brooding even more than normal. Ava understood her reluctance when it came to the Halo bearer teleporting into the enemies lair, but this was Mary they were talking about. She couldn't just leave her.

Ava groaned, panting slightly. Shutting her eyes, the Halo bearer took a deep breath, grimacing when she felt the now familiar wave of suffocating tension sweep over her. In the blink of an eye Ava disappeared and reappeared across the clearing. Unfortunately she was supposed to be aiming for the large X that Bea had sketched in the dirt at the edge of the lake, the complete opposite direction.
Dropping to her knees Ava retched, the nausea that accompanied the teleportation had lessened with more practice, but not enough to stop her from emptying her stomach of their lunch from earlier.

"That was closer." Bea smiled sympathetically at Ava's delicate state.

"I actually believe it was further than last time…"

You are so not helping.

"Oh sorry, do you need some praise again? Well done for not vomiting as much this time?"

Thaaaanks.

"Sarcasm, really mature."

"Okay that's enough teleportation today I think." The sister warrior offered Ava a hand, helping her to her feet.

"Thank God." The Halo bearer rolled her shoulders, stretching out some of the lingering tension.

"But, I want you to bring your wings out on purpose for a quick flight before we head home."

Ava pouted, pulling out the puppy dog eyes.

The sister warrior just grinned, moving closer she kissed Ava softly before nipping the pouting lip, "The quicker you do it the quicker we get out of here…" Bea kept her voice low, a hungry expression crossed her face for just a moment before she stepped out of Ava's space.

With a little whine at the loss, she shook out her arms and legs, determined to get this over with quickly from the new incentive. Ava reached for her wings and easier than expected the feathery appendages exploded from her shoulder blades.

Absolutely stoked at being able to bring them forth, Ava grinned widely at Bea who returned her smile before tilting her head towards the lake. Taking a running leap, the Halo bearer swept her wings down propelling herself forwards and upwards over the frozen body of water.

See Halo, that's how you motivate someone.

"You want me to offer to have sex with you? I mean I'm not sure how that would work…"

No! What the hell! I meant to use positive reinforcement!

"Should I be offended by your lack of attraction to me?"

Oh my God! Stop!