“Ahhh. Yeah, this is the life,” Merikh sighed as he put both his legs up to stretch then placed both his arms under his head while Collin drives. “I’ll let that slide,” he whispered, and Merikh chuckled then closed his eyes. They were driving smoothly on the freeway when a man in a black trench coat suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, leaving Collin to step on the brakes without warning. Merikh fell from his seat, “I thought you’re gonna let what I said slide!” he stopped his remark when he looked at what Collin was staring at. Merikh, then, opened the door and stumbled to get out of the truck. “Uriel. What are you doing here?” he asked the moment he stood up straight. Collin slowly went out of the truck, too, after he changed the gear to park. 
“I heard Azriel went to visit Nathanael. What are you going to do with the sword?” he asked. His deep voice reminded Collin of James Earl Jones, the man who voiced Mufasa from Lion King, his favorite cartoon when he was younger.
“We, uhm, we just need it to save some kidnapped girls,” Merikh tried to explain.
“Kidnapped girls or the Nephilim?”
“Uhm…both?” Merikh wasn’t sure if that was a trick question or an actual curiosity from his older brother.
“Look,” Collin interrupted, “Mia was taken from us by a dragon, and she found –“
“Do I look like I give a crap about the Nephilim? That dragon can tear her to pieces for all I care. And you,” he looked at Merikh, “whatever it is you’re feeling for that piece of abomination, you better set it aside if you ever want to be reinstated! I came down here not because of Azriel borrowing the sword of St. George. I came here for you, Merikh, I heard you got your grace back. So if you still want your wings back, you better act like it!”               
“Yes, sir,” Merikh suddenly stood straighter. Uriel glared at the both of them before disappearing to return to Heaven. “Guess the word’s out,” Merikh said softly, “fuck. I didn’t want them to know about it yet.”
He turned around to face Collin, “sorry about Uriel. He was never a big fan of Faith choosing Alex and Mia over Heaven.”
“Faith? I thought her name was Sarah?”
“It’s both. Sarah’s her name here on earth, as a human. But in Heaven, she’s Faith.”
“Hey, uh, you can sit on the passenger’s seat if you want. So you can, you know, talk to me about anything.”
Merikh smiled, “I’m okay, Collin. Thank you, but Azriel might want to ride shotgun when he gets back.”
He proceeded to ride on the backseat as Collin rode back to the driver’s seat.
Merikh has been quiet the whole drive. They’ve been on the road for hours, the sun is setting once again and they still haven’t found anything. “Hey,” Azriel came back in the truck unannounced with the sword of St. George. Collin took a sharp swerve in surprise, "mother of fu-" he said, almost hitting a bent post in the middle of the road. “Sorry,” he said, Collin took a deep breath while glaring at him, “okay. So, uh, I got the sword. That’s a good news."
“And the bad news is you told them I got my grace back, didn’t you?”
Azriel slowly turned to his brother, “you, uh, you hear about that?”
“Oh yeah. Uriel was so pleasant about it,” Merikh revealed sarcastically.
“Okay, Uriel is not my fault. Amitiel might have something to do with it. I mean, she’s the Angel of Truth, no less. It’s in her name and job title.”                
Azriel was explaining to Merikh about the “talk of the town” when he abruptly stopped mid sentence, his green eyes glowing, looking straight ahead. “Uhm, Mer, is your brother okay?” Collin sounded really worried for Azriel. Merikh scootched forward, peeking at his bother, “Azriel. Hey. What’s going on?”
“Collin, turn left on that corner,” he instructed, Collin turned as told, “Go straight ahead then turn left at the end. Go straight again and then turn right on the second corner. After that, go straight to the abandoned construction site. That’s where Mia is.”               
The glow of his eyes disappeared, then shook his head. “Kindly explain as to what the hell was that?!” his brother was completely stunned. “Oh, uhm, Mia tried contacting me and I felt her presence. I just followed it,” he explained.
The three of them arrives at the site, and as they went down from the truck, Azriel handed the sword to Collin. “Here, take this,” he said, “you’re gonna need this more than you’re gonna need that iron bar.”
He threw the iron bar he found to the ground and took the sword from Azriel. The three of them entered the unfinished building. They were quietly walking when Merikh decided to break the silence between the three of them, “so tell me, how did you get the sword? I thought Nathanael is very protective of the volt?”
“He is. But seriously, you have no idea what I have to give up to get that.”
“What did you give up?”
“Nothing. Let’s not talk about it.”
“Oh come on! It’s just the three of us! I’m sure it’s nothing big.”
Collin agreed, “yeah. We won’t judge you know.”
“Fine.. I gave up,” he sighed, “I gave up my Applebee’s gift card.”               
Merikh and Collin stopped walking, looking at Azriel hoping he was kidding. “And you’re upset about that? There are no more open Applebee’s, just so you know,” Merikh quipped then they resumed walking to find Mia.
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong,” Azriel replied, “there’s one open. It’s in Pasadena. The God of War is a huge fan. He literally fought to keep that place open. So now, he basically owns the place,” he explained.
They were quietly searching again when Merikh still couldn’t shake the fact his brother has a gift card, “but how did you get the gift card?”
“Seriously?! We’re trying to look for Mia and you want to know how I got the freaking gift card?!”
“Uhm, yeah.”
Azriel gave an exasperated sigh, “I got it from a raffle. Happy?!”
Merikh and Collin looked at each other, wondering what raffle Azriel joined in. “In case you were wondering, the raffle was held by the God of War when he won the Applebee’s. And one thing you should know about our brother is that he loves food. Like you, I mean, you love sex. I love iced coffee.”
Merikh tapped his staff on Azriel’s upper left chest, “hold on, hold on. Who told you I love sex?”
Collin stifled a laugh, “oh this is gonna be fun,” then he continued to walk. The two brothers followed suit.
“You don’t have to say it,” Azriel uttered, “you basically think about it a lot and you sometimes forget to turn your loud thoughts off. Do you have any idea how many times Mia popped in your head when you think about it? A LOT. Like, if you actually do it with her, she’s gonna be too tired to move.”               
Collin stopped from his tracks and looked at Merikh, “what’s with the look, Collin? You’re not her boyfriend. And don’t you dare tell me you haven’t thought of it too.”
“Okay, first of all, I am her best friend. I have every right to react in any way when it comes to her. And second, I am not going to try and act holier than thou, but yes, I have thought of it.”
Merikh scoffed, “and you never made a move?! Were you waiting for a competition?”
“Of course I’m not waiting for a competition, you ass. I just didn’t want to, you know, hurt her or anything,” Collin said, “but hold on, how come I couldn’t read your minds?”               
“Well, we do have an on and off switch for it. Fallen angel or not. It’s like our defense against traitors and demons who wanted to know what’s going on up there. Kind of like for confidentiality purposes.”
“Why? Are you curious about what Mia thinks or about what’s going on in my head?” Merikh snorted.
“Yeah, so I can punch on the face and break your nose again if you think of Mia that way again.”
Azriel laughed and Merikh playfully smacked his brother’s arm as they went down to an underground passage.
While walking, Merikh felt like someone was behind them. He turned his head to see what it was and he saw smoke then a blue flame was about to flow to their direction. His eyes were wide and shouted, “blue flame! Blue flame! Blue flame!”
He pushed Collin and Azriel to run for cover, they were able to jump to the side before the flame reached either one of them. They were about to step out of hiding but they heard footsteps that followed the blue flame. Merikh held his staff tighter and hits the man on the neck. The man coughed, bending forward. Merikh was about to hit him again when he held his arm up and caught the staff. His hand suddenly glowed a bright orange, like a flame was about to start. Merikh’s eyes widened, about a quarter of his staff was melting. He tried to take his staff back but the man was holding on it tightly as he stood up straighter. Collin, then, swung the sword to the man’s hand and he screamed. He saw the sword Collin was holding and he became infuriated. He marched towards Collin, decapitated arm to his chest, he was about to transform into a dragon when Azriel held him by the neck. “Collin! Now!”               
Collin stabs the dragon to the chest as Azriel stepped back. He pulled the knife back to see purple blood all over it. “Wait,” Azriel told Collin then pulled out a small vial, “Dragon’s blood can be used in a lot of things, especially for spells.”
“Rory asked you for some didn’t she?” Merikh asked, still pouting over his staff. “Yeah, well, I had to tell her what we were gonna fight,” he replied. Collin helped Merikh up and continued walking around the metal walkway. 
***
“Help!” one of the girls was shouting, “heeeeeeeeeeelp!”Some of them were covering their ears and rolling their eyes like they’ve already given up. “Will you shut the fuck up?!” one of those men leaned in, his eyes were snake-like, and his hands were shining bright orange. The girl whimpered as the others pulled her closer to them to comfort her. Then we heard some footsteps. The guy who yelled at the crying girl said something and I heard some other men talking. I heard some bone-cracking punches, some grunting, then I heard a sword being yield at something – or someone.                
I moved closer to the gate-like door above us. I started screaming, “Collin!” The other girls were pulling away from each other, and I saw hope on their faces. I continued screaming, “Azriel! Merikh!” I heard a jog getting closer, then Merikh passed the gate. “Merikh! Over here!” then he jogged back and crouched down. “Hey gorgeous,” he greeted me. 
“Hi,” I said. 
“Alright, step back. I’ll get you out of there.”               
He took his staff and started hammering it to the lock, but it wouldn’t budge. Azriel went closer, “move aside,” he asked of his brother. He hammered his sword down to the lock, breaking it in two, “and that’s how you do it.” He gave a smug smile.
“Show off,” his brother commented. Then they pulled the gate up, Azriel peeked inside to say hi to me then his eyes shifted to my left. He sees the other girls crouching together at one corner, “oh shi–“ he cuts himself off before he held out a hand to me, lifting me up. Then Merikh and Collin entered the hole to get each of them out.
I was helping to pull the girls out with Azriel, then I hear footsteps. I looked to my side where the only way out was being blocked by a tall muscular man. “Uhm, guys,” I started, “stop what you’re doing and hand me the sword.”
Azriel was about to ask why when he sees the man. He helped the girl go back inside and handed me the sword of St. George. He closed the metal door back down and stood with me. The man briskly walked towards us, arms turning a bright orange, and his nails turned into sharp talons. I swung the sword towards him but he was able to avoid the blade. Azriel untucked his wings when the man suddenly blew out a fire from his mouth, he grabbed me to duck down and covered the both of us with his wings. We were about to get back up when he came closer and grabbed Azriel by his wings, throwing him to the side, hitting his back on the metal fence. I heard him grunt. I tried to hit the man with the sword, he avoided it again, and grabbed me by the neck. I was almost out of breath when I lifted my arm and pierced his heart with the sword. He lets go of his grip, dropping me to the floor. I stumbled as I tried to stand up, coughing and catching my breath, trying to get to Azriel.               
“Azriel, are you okay?” I whispered, helping him sit up.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he grunted and looked up at his wings, it was a little bent. He tried to further open his wings but it was too sore for him, kind of like having a sprained ankle. He tried one more time, and even in such great pain, he was able to spread his right wing. He pulled it closer to him and laid his hands onto it – he was healing himself. He looked at me and gave a weak smile, “go on. Help them. I’ll be okay, I promise.”
I gave him a reassuring smile before standing up again to go to the closed gate. I pulled it up again and Collin lifted himself up. He saw Azriel sitting on the side, mending his wings. He looked at me then I just gave him a weak smile. We helped the girls up, one by one. When all of them were out, we helped Merikh to get back up, then he saw his brother just sitting there quietly. “His wings got a little broken,” I told him, “but he’s gonna be okay. Your brother’s strong.”
“Yeah, I know. But are you alright?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
He nodded and walked towards his brother. One of the girls, Stella, tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and was greeted by a group hug, “thank you,” said Stella. Collin bent to get the sword and led the way out of this literal stinky place. Merikh helped his brother, while I held on to the girls who were also holding onto each other. 
When we arrived outside, there were people there with their cars all parked. There were police cars and paramedics. “Did you do this?” I turned to Collin.
“Yeah. I sent a few SOS to some people. Told them about you finding these girls, and a couple of them found missing posters to social media posts of missing girls dating way back early 2000s,” he nodded at a man wearing a gray suit. He walked closer to Collin, shook his hand, “thank you, sir, for coming here.”
“It’s my pleasure, Collin. Your mom was a good friend of mine. She raised a true gentleman,” he replied, then he looked at the girls and told them that he and his team are going to bring them some place safe, get them tested for any illnesses that they might have gotten, and they will be contacting their loved ones for them.               
All of the girls nodded and gave me another group hug before proceeding to go with the cops. I looked over to Merikh and Azriel, who were waiting by truck for us. I walked over to them as Collin talked to the men in uniform. “Azriel, how’re you doing?” I leaned on the open door.
“I’m okay. It’s just a sprain on my wing, it’s fine. But thank you though, for helping me and checking up on me,” he smiled at me. I looked over at Merikh, who was strangely staring at me, “what? Did you miss me?” I joked. He leaned forward, then he held my face. He kissed me, pulling me closer to him.               
I heard Azriel say, “woah. Damn.”
***
After talking to the cops, Collin turned around to walk over to the truck only to find Merikh kissing Mia by the truck. He was taken aback by what he saw but he didn’t let anyone see it. When they parted, he saw Azriel looking at him.
Sorry, man, Azriel said to his thoughts.
It's fine, don’t worry about me, he replied.
Azriel just nodded slightly. He walked closer to them, but he walked straight to the driver’s side, ignoring Mia, who was about to say something but closed her mouth again and turned towards the passenger seat door.                
Azriel closed his door, a bit awkwardly, as he witness one of his friends getting a broken heart, while the other two might start some romance in the midst of an apocalypse.