Rayline. He motioned for me to step forward, and I gave him a small smile as he led me in a different direction. When we were already some distance away from the previous location, I glanced back and saw Jesse at the corner of the street who was watching us intently. I assumed that he would follow from a distance, so I breathed a sigh of relief. Harvey led me down another hallway before reaching a short flight of stairs downwards that seemed to lead outside, and when I stepped out of the door, I couldn't help but stare above. He led me to a garden, and I looked up at the night sky which had many bright stars above it. "Wow," I said in awe as I looked around. There was a fountain in the center surrounded by vibrant green trees surrounded by flower beds of various colors. "This is so gorgeous, Mr. Parker," I said still looking amazed by the sight. "Please, just call me Harvey," he said kindly, and I gave him a faint smile. Then I looked at the lights glittering in the reflection of t
Rayline. "I'm sorry," he said with muffled sobs as he looked up at Jesse. "It's not your fault," Jesse said with teary eyes, but Taylor shook his head. "She said she was willing to go with them if they stopped hurting me... Then they stabbed me in the arm so I wouldn't follow them." Taylor said between sobs. While I watched the three men stare at each other, then I noticed Cole's ragged breathing. He managed to look up through his tears at Taylor. "Who did it?" His voice was low, and for some reason, I didn't really like the dark look in his eyes. I knew that he must be very worried about his mother, but the dark look in his eyes seemed to reflect anger, wrath, or maybe more than that, hatred. "Silas and his friends. I think there are six of them or something like that." Taylor finally said. "Then where did they go?" Cole asked again. This time the tone of his voice sounded harsher."Cole, you can't go after them without having a plan," Jesse said, his voice coming from Taylor'
Rayline. "What?" Cole asked in a shocked and perplexed tone. "We made a deal before," I said finally with a sigh as guilt began to fill me once again. "If I get into trouble, or they are going to capture me... I will call Jesse for help, instead of you." I said hesitantly while looking at Cole to see his mouth hanging open, but no words came out of it. "So if something happens to me, you can stay with your mom without worrying about me." He starts to move away, and part of me starts to freak out. "Cole, we did it to protect you." I keep explaining to reassure him by holding out my hand to him, but he breaks away as he stands up and starts to walk away from me. "So you thought keeping this a secret would protect me, huh?" he growled with his eyes closed, but no one spoke at all, and when he opened his eyes again, I saw a hellish red flicker in his eyes. He was angry. "Just like everyone else. You... Threw yourself and sacrificed yourself in front of me just to protect me." His voice
Rayline. After Jesse had left to catch up with Cole earlier. I was still at his house spending most of my time still lamenting his gesture of being disappointed by me. Chase on the other hand spent the next hour or so making sure that Taylor was doing okay. Earlier he was still bawling his eyes out, but now his condition had become calmer, and the two of them seemed to be looking around the living room which looked a bit messy, as they cleaned up a bit, while I myself was just quietly resting on the sofa, still mulling over the incident that was very suffocating for me earlier. My heart still clutched a heavy burden as well as anxiety like a swirling storm. "Rayline?" I heard a call from behind, and I turned my head to look at Chase who was watching me. "You can change your clothes if you feel like they are not too comfy to wear." "Yeah...I guess," I said quietly in a bland voice as I got up and fixed my clothes. "I will be right back." I headed towards Cole's room. It was not that
Cole. "Cole!" Jesse called out while following behind me. I easily darted past him, my eyes trained to look for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, while I completely ignored him. Flying wasn't really his thing, and compared to me, I knew he didn't really like flying. It had been many hours. I looked at the dark and deserted area as Jesse kept trying to follow me. Yet I could feel his patience wearing thin. "Cole, where are you going?" he yelled again, but I kept getting in his way, and this made him start to get angry. Jesse then flapped his wings to fly above me, rotated to swoop down, and tucked his wings into his body to gain balance. As he got closer to the ground, he changed his angle to horizontal. With his speed increasing, he was able to catch up with me and crash into me from the side, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me to the ground. Then I quickly fought against his pull, but Jesse kept lowering my body with his immense strength. The two of us finally land
Cole. When I arrived at my room, I slowly pushed the door open to see the light in the corner of the room turned on, and there she was, asleep curled up on my pillow. I noticed that she was wearing one of my shirts as pajamas. My gaze softened at her appearance, so I closed the door gently before walking over to the bed and lifting the blanket to cover her. But the moment I sat down beside her, she started to stir. Her eyes blinked open as she realized that I was staring at her. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," I said softly, and she started to slightly sit up. She didn't speak until she finally reached up, wrapped her arms around my chest, and rested her head on my skin. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly, and my arms quickly came up to hug her tightly. "Really, I did not mean for any of this to happen." "Shhh... It's not your fault," I said as I gently stroked her silky hair. "I did not know when you would come back," she said in a muffled voice still hugging me tightly. "I'm
Rayline. Dreams... The weather seemed quite gloomy as I slung my bag over my shoulder and started walking. I stared at the gray clouds hovering above my head, and the sound of thunder slowly echoed in the distance. I have walked this road hundreds of times, heading in the direction of my home. I watched the ground as small drops of rain began to appear on the sidewalk. As I was walking, suddenly my whole body froze, and it felt like something was hitting my chest, making me wince. Then I put my hand over my heart - it felt like something was broken, or like a hand had reached inside me and grabbed something, and now it was gone, leaving an emptiness in its place. I took a deep breath while placing my hand on my chest, and my eyes looked around frantically. I had no idea if I was hurt or if something had happened to me and I needed to get help. But after a while, the pain faded. After that, I withdrew my hand and looked down, wondering if what I was feeling was just my imagination,
Rayline. As the minutes slowly ticked by, my eyes could not help but be drawn to the hallway. I could tell how he was having a hard time from his unhappy expression, but he was trying hard to hide it. I don't know what time he went back to bed last night, and then he had a nightmare. After that, he fell asleep in my arms again, though I don't know how long it had lasted since he woke up before me. The numerous worry bells kept bombarding my mind, and after a while, I started to approach the two guys who were engrossed in conversation. "Hey, does he look okay to you?" I asked Taylor as I pointed towards the bathroom, and he looked up from the screen. "Cole? He seems fine to me. Well," he trailed off, "he's doing as well as he can with the situation." "I did not get a chance to ask him how he was this morning..." I said as I stared into the hallway lost in thought. It wouldn't surprise me if he was still feeling hurt, but I was also not sure if he wanted to talk to me or if he prefer
Rayline. The meeting went exactly as I had expected it to go. Harvey briefly explained the entire situation and what he knew. Basically, all the causes of the riots and rebellion are related to years ago, and the roots have been resolved and dealt with. However, there would be unresolved loose ends and there were still ropes to be tied. Lilith most likely still has more allies and connections in places they have yet to discover, and they need to be sought out and dealt with. It may take a long time to clear things up, maybe even years, and the impact could be catastrophic. Harvey then asked everyone to share their stories and their connections. Cole spoke in front of us all, sharing everything. He talks about how he was first sent to Earth, and how Lilith gave his mother the disease out of spite and revenge. He spoke about the recent attacks, and how they were done as hatred towards him when they were actually related to the rebellion. He then spoke about me, how we met, how he bec
Rayline. As I lay nestled against his chest, I playfully drew small circles on his chest, the warmth of his skin keeping me wrapped in his arms, his wings spread out around me. The morning light sneaked in through the bedroom curtains while the two of us were still snuggled together on the bed, the sheets tattered messily. He ran his fingers through my hair, fiddling with the strands as I listened to his heartbeat, hearing every breath he took. "Did you fall asleep?" he asked softly, making me smile. "I should be the one asking you that." Spinning around to face him, my hand came to rest under my chin. "You were so busy as soon as we got back, and it doesn't seem like we got any sleep last night... or this morning." His lips curled up mischievously and his hand slid down my bare back, giving me goosebumps. "I'm doing okay. It was all definitely worth it." "Mmm...hmm." I tilted my head cheekily. Right now I was in his room at his father's house. As soon as the chaos died down, h
Rayline. He placed his hand on Cole's chest. There was light... a glowing white light that emanated from the archangel's fingertips, covering Cole's body. The light grew more and more, wrapping everything around him, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut because of the blinding light. I clutched Chase's hand as a wave of power pulsed through the room, shaking everything around me. I could feel my heart beating faster, my breath catching in my throat as the tension continued to rise in my chest. The light was retracted back into Cole's body, clinging to his skin. As I opened my eyes cautiously, I saw the light fading away as the archangel got to his feet and stepped back. Without holding myself back, I jumped forward, rushed to Cole's side, and with trembling hands, placed them on the side of his cold face. A few moments passed without anything happening, waiting. I gently brushed his hair aside. Then all of a sudden, his chest heaved, catching a deep breath that sounded so sharp, and
Rayline. A wave of cool air filled the room as the flames died out, leaving a trail of empty craters. No one moved. No one dared to breathe until the demon himself, Harvey stepped back. All the Nephilim watched his movements in awe, and some of them even bowed their heads in his honor. I leaned over Cole's body, my hands shaking as I brushed his hair, which had fallen to the side. Tears fell again, rolling down my cheeks without stopping. The sound of footsteps coming closer, got louder until they finally stopped right behind me. "Rayline?" I blinked slowly, turned my head towards the source of the voice, and saw Cole's father standing there. His expression changed as his gaze fell on his son who lay motionless in my arms. He swallowed, his gaze filled with such deep pain. "...Is there any other way?" I asked hoarsely. "Is there anything you can do?" He knelt beside me, pain filling his eyes. "I'm sorry," he says hoarsely. I look back down at Cole, and the sobs I have been holdi
Rayline. Seconds. In a mere few seconds, my entire world comes crashing down, shattering into pieces as the heart-wrenching pain rips through my soul. My lungs burned as I let out a horrifying wail, holding onto Cole's chest with all my strength, begging, pleading for him to come back to me. My hands are still clasped tightly in his now cold hands, while my tears are flowing freely. I clutched at his shirt, crying helplessly as if I could bring him back with the despair welling up from within me. Out of the blue, I felt a gentle hand placed on top of mine, and I jumped, before I froze at the sight of Jesse looking up at me, his tattered wings dragging behind him. Tears streamed down his face from pain and sorrow, and his eyes lowered to the motionless Cole. He bites his lip as he looks down, squeezing his eyes shut as more tears fall. A sob that sounded like it was choking his throat before he sucked in a deep breath, and his head lifted. He reached out his trembling hand over to C
Rayline. Chris lifted the sword back up with a solemn look, ready to chop his bones off, and started to swing. But before Chris could swing the sword, Lilith suddenly stepped aside, stopping him in his motion. "Hmm..." Lilith stepped forward, and Chris suddenly stopped in midair. "I think I have seen this before." He said, moving between me and Cole. "You are ready to give up everything, while the ones around you squirm helplessly." She went on, talking about the night Cole would trade himself... to let them kill him so that all of us could leave. Cole's head snapped up to meet her eyes, with a glint of hatred. "But there was something missing, something that happened afterward. What is it now?" She tapped her fingers on her lips, as if in deep thought. "Oh! I remember now!" She let out a maniacal laugh. "You lost the person you loved the most..." Then she lifted a sacred sword, the reflection of its light glistening down on the steel, as her eyes locked onto mine, and I felt a pie
Rayline. To my horror, I watched as the skin of his wings was ripped away from the bones that reached out below, leaving only shredded pieces of flesh. His blood spilled onto the ground, soaking the tiles beneath him. She did not stop. With an expressionless face, Lilith continued to shred her own son's wings... the most precious thing to them. "STOP!" Cole's shout echoed out, filled with pain. Tears flooded his eyes. In a fit of rage, he let loose a blast of power that sent the men flying across the room, crashing to the hard ground. Cole reached out his hand towards Lilith, trying to stop her. Lilith froze in place, while Jesse's screams stopped, his body falling to the ground with a sound that struck my heart. I rushed towards him, my heart sank as I made my way to his side at the sight of the remains of his wings in a pool of blood, and a sick feeling came over me, making me bring my hand to my mouth, trying to hold back the gasps. How could she do this? To her own son. "...H
Rayline. Cole let out a slow breath, as if trying to calm himself down. I hold on to his side, trying to provide support. "But I'm not done with you yet," Lilith continues with a sinister smile. "Cole!" I exclaim as his body abruptly slips out of my arms, throws onto the stairs of the dais, and lands hard on his back. A groan escaped his lips. "To think a half-breed like you could beat me." Lilith walked haughtily towards Cole, her smile full of disdain. "What happened to all those threats, huh?" she asked, her eyes flashing with cruelty as she lifted her hand, making his eyes widen and I could see her power take hold of his throat. "What happened to ripping me apart, hm?" She took a step closer. Cole remained motionless, his blood-red eyes locked on Lilith, full of malice. "What's wrong? Nothing left to say, mutt?" But then, Cole smirked. His blood-stained lips curled up, making Lilith frown, puzzled. Slowly, his hands opened, causing the melted pieces of metal to fall to the gr
Rayline. Chaos broke out in a split second. Before I could even see his movements, Cole was already whizzing over to Lilith. The blazes lining the entire wall burst with the sudden increase in heat, forcing me to lift my arms to protect myself. Screaming and roaring could be heard clearly as Cole furiously swung his claws at her while she quickly dodged out of his reach. Lilith sent a wave of fire that blasted across the room, scorching the air around her, which made Cole lift his wings and throw them off to the side. I ducked down to avoid the lick of flame that shot out when I heard my name being called. As I turned my head, I caught sight of Taylor staring at me, tugging on the enchanted chains that held both him and Jesse, and without thinking, I jumped to my feet and slid towards them. In another corner of the room, Levi and the other demons were too distracted with helping their leader to focus on me, in addition to the battle that was going on inside the room. Once I reache