Until Fate

Chapter Nine

It was exactly two months since Phina and I had started college. I couldn't wait for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because those were the days I had class with her. The more we hung out the more attached to her I became. I knew she was developing feelings for me, too. Her body language (not to mention the remarks from my protection squad) was clear; she was quite smitten with me. She found my challenging and somewhat cheesy flirting exhilarating. I fell more in love with her as a person every second. We had weekly study sessions at the park and the library and even went out to lunch occasionally. Nothing had been discussed about our relationship status, but I think both of us knew where this was headed. Using glamour to be invisible at home was difficult when I was used to being seen. I had learned to like it.

When I wasn't at school, I spent a lot of time at Klaus' house helping him decipher the language of females. Apparently things were heating up between him and Maya, but every time they took two steps forward they seemed to take twenty million back. He was raging a war within his head, probably the same one I had over Seraphina. It was different for Klaus though; he already lost one wife to the cruelty of death. I didn't think he could handle another. His feelings for Maya were much stronger than they had been for Katarina. Even if he could get passed the short lifespan, they fought like wild beasts and Maya was conflicted over Klaus' age. Little did she know he was thousands of years old.

I saw the Rooks and Cassie whenever I possibly could. It was silly how much I missed them. I caught myself daydreaming of Lucy's home cooked meals, Maya's annoying laugh, and John Ethan's incessant comments about me pursuing his daughter. They were overjoyed that Seraphina was taken by me. Lucy said she always knew Phina would like me. John Ethan worried about what I was going to say to her when the day came. I knew it was foolish of me to expect her to welcome me with open arms after telling her the truth. After all, we'd been lying to her about so many things all these years. In the end, if she rejected me because of my dishonesty I would respect her wishes even though my heart would be splintered into a thousand fragments. It was a thought I dreaded daily. It was the inevitable outcome of this. I couldn't keep myself a secret from her forever. I didn't even allow my mind to tread over the mortality issue. The mere image of me wandering this earth without Seraphina was unfathomable. It wasn't an option. I didn't know what I was going to do about it, but I knew I couldn't stay on this earth alone like Klaus had done. I would undoubtedly lose my mind.

That cool October morning I sat on the beach with my toes in the damp sand and observed the still lake. It was unnaturally cold for late October; barely forty degrees. However, the high temperature was eighty. The air was no longer humid this time of year. Thankfully it was dry and chilly at times. I sighed heavily and released my wings into the nippy air. The sun was just starting to peek up over the lake. I gazed at the house over my shoulder. I could sense the squad's presence somewhere nearby. One was scouting the air overhead while the others were on foot patrolling the area. Like me, they were hidden to the human eye. Thus far, Lucifer's lesser demons had been easy for us to vanquish. Only two were able to even locate that we were in New Orleans. However, they didn't have a chance to report back to the devil because Klaus and Antony disposed of them. Fighting demons was a messy, bloody battle but it had to be done. We never relished in killing but it was either kill or be killed. The demons were getting sloppy now. Alduin was putting in a lot of effort to cloud Seraphina and I's presence in New Orleans. It was hard enough for them to find us since the population of the city was almost 400,000 and there were many other angels here doing their Watching's.

I stretched and stood up, tucking my wings back into the slits in my shoulder blades. Back inside the house, Tinkerbell was curled up in a ball on the couch. She had one paw over her eyes. I chuckled and stroked her back. She purred and continued sleeping. The smell of Phina's timed coffee maker was tempting. A cup of caffeine sounded heavenly right now, but if she woke up to an invisible being holding a mug of coffee she might squeal a little. Okay, maybe a lot.