Collin went back up from the basement and sat across Azriel, placing his hands to his head. He lets out a groan, “ugh! My father is fucking useless!”
Azriel just stared at him, “is it really your father triggering that frustration or those two shacking up?”
He slams his hands on the table, “can it be both?”
Azriel stood up from his chair and went to the kitchen. He came back with four bottles of beer, “where’d you get those?” Collin asked as his friend placed the bottles on the table. “I have my ways,” he smiled, opening two of the bottles and handed one to Collin. “Thanks,” he said and clinked his bottle to Azriel’s, then they both started drinking. “And we’re having beer early in the morning,” they both laughed then suddenly a big chunk of smoke blasted through the first floor of the B&B. Collin and Azriel dropped to the ground, glass exploding all over them including the bottles of beer they left on the table. Azriel covered both of them with his wings, wincing in pain because of the glass flying around them hitting his wings. Collin had a few cuts on his arms and face. When the smoke left, Azriel ran downstairs to see if Collin’s dad is still sitting pretty in the basement.
***
I woke up and the sun is shining outside. I slowly sat up and found myself wrapped in a blanket, naked. I looked over my shoulder to see a naked Merikh sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. I smiled and remembered the event the night before. I quietly stood up to go to the bathroom to fix myself, careful enough not to wake him up. Thankfully the plumbing still works and I was able to take a shower and take the last pieces of clothing I had kept in my duffel. I swiped the steam off the mirror and saw myself. The freckles across my nose are always visible after a bath. My brown hair that goes down my back, my light brown eyes shining like the life in me has been fully restored, and the cuts and bruises I had all those years are almost the same color as my fair skin, leaving them invisible when looked at from far away. I decided to look away and dried myself up before putting on my clothes. I went out of the bathroom and Merikh is still asleep. I quietly went out of the room to go downstairs to see if Azriel and Collin are awake.
When I got to the last step, I saw Collin had cuts on his arms. I stepped closer, “oh my God, what happened?!” he looked at me with his eyebrows, once again, furrowed. He seemed pissed. “Demons decided to crash in here. That’s what happened,” his voice was angry, then Azriel came out of the archway. Collin looked back at him, “your dad’s still downstairs. Intact,” he said. Collin just nodded.
“Why didn’t anyone of you wake me up so I could’ve helped you fight?!” my voice sounded more demanding than I thought. Collin raised an eyebrow and chuckled, “well, we could’ve woken you up if we wanted to but we thought that, maybe, you were too tired to be disturbed.”
I don’t know why but I felt enraged. Instead of saying something, I slapped Collin. His head was still tilted to the side, “I’m so sorry. I –“ I had cut myself off, shocked as well, with both hands covering my open mouth.
He lifted his head up and dropped the broom on the floor. I looked down and saw that every window and every glass in the room were broken. I looked at my hand and saw that there was blood, I looked back up to Collin to see his face had some cuts on it. “Collin, I didn’t mean to. I –“
“You know, you can fool around with anybody, I don’t fucking care! But I did everything for you and all you’re going to repay me is a fucking slap on the face?! For what, huh? For just letting you know we didn’t want to disturb you after you had sex?!”
“It’s not that! It’s how you said it! It’s like I owed you some kind of explanation for doing what I did last night!”
“I did not need anything from you! You,” he paused for a moment, trying to stop his anger, “you know what, I’m done,” he suddenly said then he turned around to walk away from me.
“Where are you going?!” I asked, well, yelled.
He turned to face me while walking backward, “I’m leaving, and I’m taking my dad with me.” He turned his back again and disappeared as he turned right.
I was about to follow him when Merikh placed a hand on my shoulder, I looked up and he just shook his head. I heard some footsteps, I looked over to the archway and saw Collin walking with his dad in tow, still in cuffs. Neither of them looked at us as they walked out of the door. I heard the car’s engine start and drove away. Another thing I didn’t notice was Azriel’s wings. They were untucked and somehow, bleeding.
“Azriel,” I said softly, he stood up and looked at me. “What happened to your wings?”
“Oh, uhm, when the demons came in a cloud of smoke, they broke every glass in the room. All of the shards were flying towards me and Collin,” he paused, looking down at that one large shard of glass he’s playing with on his hands, “I untucked my wings and covered the both of us.”
He placed the large shard of glass on the table, it has blood on it. “Collin was hit by that glass. Thankfully, it was just on his thigh and not anywhere else. I healed him after checking if his father was still in the basement. We kind of figured they were trying to set him free but because of the cuffs, they weren’t successful and just decided to scare us,” he continued. He placed his hands to his wings again, closing any wounds it had endured when they took cover, then he tucked them back and continued cleaning the glass. He took the broom from the floor and started sweeping again. Merikh walked around to pick up some broken pieces of tables and chairs, “we got nothing to do right now. Let’s just help clean up and plan on getting Collin back, okay?” he whispered to me as he passed me by and kissed the top of my head before moving on to the next room.
***
Collin and his dad arrived at Reno Beach. His father gave him directions to a house that has a view of Lake Eerie. “Is this one of the houses you kept from mom and had your side pieces in?” Collin sarcastically asked his dad as he turned off the car engine.
“Of course not. Your mom knew about this house. This is where the three of you got conceived,” Mr. Roth proudly said.
“Eww, dad. Too much information.”
His father lets out a laugh as he got out of the car, walking around to the passenger’s side to help his father out of the car. “Aren’t you going to take these cuffs off?” he asked his son. Collin just looked at his dad and he surrendered to him even without a word. He just placed his hands up. The two of them continued walking towards the house when a force suddenly pushed Collin away from his father. He hit his back on the car and groaned. A man, who is probably about 6 foot 3, walked towards him and grabbed his face. “So you’re the famous Collin, eh?” then he looked back at Mr. Roth, “he does look like you when you were younger.”
“Told you he is,” his father replied.
“Who are you?” Collin asked, grunting.
The man looked back at Collin and his eyes turned white, “The name’s Beleth. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
He helped Collin up and led both him and his father inside the house. “Can someone please take these fucking cuffs off?” his father demanded. His minions weren’t moving then one of them suddenly said, “sir, the cuffs are too powerful. No one can remove them.”
“Only the Nephilim can,” Collin said as he drank from the glass of whiskey that Beleth offered him. “Of course,” his father said softly and laughed, “of course it’s the Nephilim! It’s always that fucking Nephilim!” he shouted in anger. Beleth walked towards Mr. Roth, lifted his hand up, and looked at the cuffs, “hunters. Always with these magical items. Cursed or blessed, they’re going to fucking use it on anyone.”
He placed it back down and sat on the couch and looked at Collin, who was standing by the window, looking out. “You know, son,” he started, “women are not really all that.”
Collin slowly turned his face to look at Beleth, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Beleth laughed, “oh Collin. I know how much you’re in love with the Nephilim. I think everyone knows, I mean, even the angel knew.”
“Who? Azriel?” Collin fully turned to face him. Beleth just drank his scotch. “How did you know Azriel?”
“Did you forget? I’m a fallen angel. I am related to those bastards with wings,” he chuckled.
“No, I didn’t forget. I meant, how did you know that he knew about how I felt about Mia?” he was getting suspicious, placing the glass on the table beside the window. Beleth smiled, “I know because Azriel, is not really Azriel anymore. Well, at least not this moment.”
“What’re you talking about? What did you do to my friend?” he walked closer to Beleth, grabbing his shirt, demanding an answer. The king of Hell just drank from his glass, “let’s just say your friend is far, far away and not available for you right now.”
“Then who is in his vessel?” he growled at him.