What the Halo? I ONC2020 I

Chapter 12: Cain

For nearly half an hour we walked through the abandoned subway tunnel with the assurance that all trains would be halted on this route thanks to Grigori. I hadn't been interested in fighting against the flow of first responders pouring into the station to help the children, so we took the tunnel as a detour. When we arrived at the next platform—Michaela still clinging to my arm—we met shocked expressions from the morning commuters, confused by our presence on the tracks.

As I lifted Michaela off the tracks and climbed up behind her, I dusted my pants off and pulled the hood from my head.  "There's been an accident," I said with all the authority I could muster, "there'll be no trains this way for hours." Curses hissed through the crowd of commuters who were already late to their destinations and some of them turned to follow us up the stairs and into the street.

Michaela shuffled next to me, her head hung and the sarcasm lost from her tongue. That alone would have raised my suspicions, but it hadn't been just that. She was injured, and I could smell it like decaying flesh beneath a hot summer sun, though I wasn't absolutely sure why she was hiding it from me, I could reason that it was because she didn't want me to think her weak. There was no scent of blood, the smell emanating from her was different, something I'd never smelled before, and I wondered if it was internal, perhaps she had a deeper sickness, but I said nothing, leading the way into Starbucks and holding the door open for her.

"Sit," I commanded, my eyes lingering on her pale face for too long. Michaela didn't protest, she simply looked up at me and licked her index finger and then aimed it for my face. I recoiled, having a flashback of her flicking fingers.

"Hold still," she said, determined to reach my forehead.

"What are..." she was fast, her finger moving furiously against my skin until she was pleased with her work and turned, walking through the tables back to the direction we'd sat the day before.

I stood for a moment stunned, and then remembered Grigori's fingers marking me with an upside-down cross. I smirked to myself, an angel concerned with a demon making a fool of himself publicly. Thankfully his mark had done no harm, it was only his way of putting a target on my head, which Michaela has just removed.

After a long wait on the line, I ordered myself a black coffee, and with the aid of the barista—a female this time—ordered Michaela something with caramel and whipped cream. The shop's tables were mostly empty, save a sprinkling of college-age students sipping iced beverages and pounding away on laptops in armchairs. Though the line swelled as people stopped in to pick up their melted ice-creams with whipped cream masquerading as coffee.

I found her at the same table, hidden away in a back corner against a large window that framed a street corner busy with new yorkers. I placed my coffee down and then hers beneath her hands, which were hovering in the air, fingers clasped tightly against the air, and her eyes screwed shut.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sitting across from her, unable to keep the suspicion from my voice. Her eyes snapped open and her fingers tightened around the air but did not reach her palm as if she were holding something I could not see. The color of her eyes shimmered briefly from green to pale yellow, distress flickering through them. I tilted my head in concern which surprised me and reached out to touch her hand.

I passed my fingers through the empty air she clutched and my fingers connected with something hard. I roared unable to stifle the pain that shot up my forearm. My head fell to my hands as I seethed from the searing agony that flooded my head. As I caught my breath, her hand found my face and lifted my chin to meet her eyes.

"Sorry," she whispered, flicking her nail into the air. The sound of something metal reverberated. "It's my halo, demons can't touch it."

I inhaled deeply, reminding myself never to touch a halo for as long as I lived. "Touch it... or see it?"