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2024-12-26 18:00:48Noah had taken the cuffs off her, placed her in a room, made sure there was nothing she could use to write on her skin, then he had left her alone in the dark.
Sitting on the side of the bed, while Noah moved around freely in the room outside, Serenity stared at the floor and tried to comprehend what was happening to her.
Demons. Angels. Armies of Heaven. Skin Writers.
She’d been too shocked to see the huge bat-like wings which unfurled from Noah’s skin, to ask too many more questions. What would she ask anyway? If she was drugged? Noah had already been adamant, she wasn’t. There was nothing to do now, only unpack the information Noah had divulged and hope for more answers.
Lifting her arm, she stared at the spot she’d written on her skin. The words had long since left her flesh and the fatigue had ebbed. Her fingers traced along her arm softly. She’d never thought much of her gift. It was just something she could do
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“Great.” She sank back against the sofa and watched the demon eat. While she wanted more answers, they weren’t quite the right ones. “How many Skin Writers are there?”His chopsticks hovered in mid-air, and he slowly looked at her. “Not enough… and you’re the only one not controlled.”“Hence why I’m feral?”He shook his head, pointing his chopsticks at her. “No, I called you that, because you fight like an rabid animal. You need to learn combat. How to fight against an angel and win.”“And what about against a demon?”“Demons won’t hurt you. Most won’t even come near you. You scare them.”Serenity cackled, “Ha! Me, scare a demon?”“You can control demons, Serenity. What you write on your skin, you may think is for humans. A way of getting by, in the world. But once you turn twenty-one, the
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Serenity didn’t know how long the command would last. How long it would take for Noah to snap out of his stupor and come for her. It had been almost comical to see him freeze up as she had grabbed her bag and jacket and run out the front door.It hadn’t been so funny, when only a few blocks later, she had collapsed behind a dumpster and gritted her way through the pain and nausea. Now, back on her feet, the fatigue was sinking in and she didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to run.Digging into her bag, she pulled out the wad of cash and counted it. Almost three hundred dollars. It wouldn’t see her stay in a room for long, but it might get her a bus ticket to somewhere she could disappear.She shoved the money back into her bag and kept walking toward the station. Her feet ached and burned with cold, and she scolded herself for not nicking off with the pair of boots by the front door of the apartment Noah had her in.All
Last Updated : 2024-12-28Claimed by the Horde Eleven
“I thought I told you not to stay up too late?”Serenity’s head lifted; eyes gritty as she looked at Noah. Dressed in jeans and a white shirt, at any other time, she’d swoon at how good-looking her guardian was. But right now, she was too wired with what she’d found out.“Do you know once a Skin Writer reaches her full potential, she can write without the aid of anything?” she shoved the book to the side and stood, watching as the demon potted around the kitchenette. He lifted the coffee pot and squinted at it, turning back to her. “Yeah, sorry. I drank it.”He went to the small cupboard and opened it, before closing it again and turned back to her, narrowing his eyes.“All of it.”Noah groaned, shoving his hand through tangles of blond hair, and turned back to the machine, shoving the pot back into its cradle. “Just a word of advice. Leave coffee for us.”
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Having been sufficiently caffeinated, and fed from a little diner just down the street from the apartment, Noah led them through the city. The demon was constantly on edge, putting himself between her and anyone who came too close. While the gesture would have been cute, if he were her boyfriend; it wasn’t, when someone accidentally bumped into her.“Hey! Watch it, or I’ll slice—”“Noah!” Serenity threw herself in front of the demon, pushing him back toward the road and away from the stranger. “Calm down, jeez!”Noah eyeballed the man, who scurried off in the other direction and she pulled the demon after her. “You can’t just threaten people.”“Yes, I can.” He huffed, letting her drag him along, the bags hanging in his large hands.“No, you can’t. Want to keep inconspicuous? Stop creating so much attention.” She let go of his arm and started to wal
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The rest of the day had passed uneventfully. Other than a courier bringing some boxes, and lunch turning up, Serenity had been reading and Noah had answered her questions, when he thought she needed to know the information.Now they were heading out of town, to a safe space where Serenity could train.“When you first meet Patrick, he may be a little…. abrasive.” They climbed out of the cab and the vehicle drove off. Noah walked toward the line of factories and Serenity followed.“How abrasive?”“Uh…” Noah twisted his hand side to side, grimacing as he did. “Depends on the day.”“Great.”“Just remember, you’re technically the one in charge. You hold the power. He’s just trying to teach you how to utilize it.”“Right.”Noah pushed open a heavy door, stepped inside and Serenity hesitated. It was dark and smelt weird. He popped his head back out the door and stared at her, raising an eyebrow. “Really? You’re scared of the dark?”“No… it’s just I don’t like what hides in it.”“Oh, believe
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“But- It’s not-” Noah’s voice sported the same healthy disbelief his handsome features carried, and he looked at the man beside him. “Patrick, it’s not possible.”Patrick chuckled and stepped forward. Serenity tensed and he smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Skin Writer, I’m not going to hurt you. You won’t have to use that toothpick in your fist.”Her hand closed around it tighter, and he chuckled, before starting to circle her.Serenity turned her head, watching him—wary.“The Horde has done well to find her this young. She’ll be a good asset to the ranks, if she can be whipped into shape and not remain so raw.” Patrick continued to circle, and Serenity looked at Noah, jaw clenching. He had warned the man could be abrasive. “But this changes things. So much power, shouldn’t be in someone so young and inexperienced.”
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Serenity paced, Noah tapped away on his phone and Patrick watched her. “So, let me get this straight, I’m not only a Skin Writer, for the Horde… but a Skin Writer for the Legion? How the hell does that work?”“We don’t know. They are predominantly of the Horde. There’s only ever been one recorded case of a Skin Writer being of the Legion.” Patrick mused.“Hayyel.” Noah muttered, not looking up from his phone and Serenity glared at him. What was so important that he had to be on the device constantly? “God, she was a bitch. I was so damned glad when the Horde found her and ended her miserable life and those two fucking cowards who took her to the Legion.”Serenity pushed the thought of the Horde killing their own and thought to what this meant. Of how it would change things… if it changed things, like Patrick had said.“But I’ve heard of Nephilim,” Serenity sa
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The cab ride back to the apartment had been silent. Noah hadn’t uttered a single word to her. There was a lot of information she had to process, on top of what she had already learned and it didn’t seem like the right time to try and strike up a conversation with someone who wasn’t in the mood to talk about it either.But now, sitting back in the apartment, surrounded by books which couldn't shed any light on it either, she couldn’t help it. “I thought you were supposed to know everything about me?”Noah looked up from his phone and blinked, narrowing his eyes at her. “That’s not how it worked. We were told to look out for you. We did, but from a distance. If you needed us, like in the alley with Iraziel, we’d be there. Everything we knew about you, outside that, was purely from watching you.”“Yeah, because that’s a comfort.” She spat, crossing her arms over her chest and she stared a
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Noah peered at the wand and shook his head. “I can feel the taint from the angel bone, from here.”“Too bad. It’s mine.” Serenity replied, picking it up and she turned it over in her hands again. She liked the feel of it. The coolness of the bone combined with the warmth of the wood.“I just don’t like the fact it’s got angel in it. It’s like it can—”“What? Influence me? Allow the angels to find me? I doubt that’s how it works, Noah.”The door of the factory opened, and Serenity’s gaze shifted to Thorne. The demon’s gaze shifted to the wand in her hand and his eyebrows furrowed together as he signed. “Keep that shit away from me.”“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Serenity shoved the wand under the edge of her hip and crossed her arms over her chest. “There, you can’t see it.”“I can still f
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This was it. Serenity was about to pick out the one instrument that apparently, according to Noah, would be the most important of her young life; and for some stupid reason... she was nervous as hell.“Your wand or stick or whatever you chose to write on your skin, is an extension of you. Some Skin Writers choose one for the rest of their lives, some pick and choose until they find something they like. What you choose today, may not be what you use tomorrow.”Patrick picked up the battered black leather case and placed it heavily on the table. Noah came to Serenity’s side and waited for the man to open it.“There’s a variety of tools you can use for writing.” Patrick opened the case and turned it, showing the contents. “You can use wood, or iron, or glass, or—”Serenity picked up the shiny golden stick and turned it over in her hands.“Gold…”“Is it real gold thou
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None of them had spoken for almost three hours.Noah had finally come back, after running off, his tail between his legs and he still hadn’t looked at Serenity. They were sitting on the sofas, quietly sipping at coffee. The headache which had woken her, still pounded behind her right eye, causing Serenity to feel sick.“Do we have some Advil or something?” She finally asked, rubbing her temple.Thorne climbed to his feet, going to the kitchen, and returned with pills, depositing them into her hand. She swallowed them and sat back again, her gaze finally moving to Noah.The blonde still had his head bowed, the now cold cup of coffee in between his hands.“Are we going to talk about it?”Noah’s eyes closed and he licked his lips, sending a spike of desire and a flash of memory through Serenity. He finally lifted his head and looked at her. “I don’t particularly want to.”“Tough,” She said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I want answe
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“For fuck’s sake…” Noah pushed open the stall of the toilet and looked down at the woman. The syringe hung out of her arm, her veins blackened, lifelessness to her eyes and he turned, going to the next stall. “Of all the fucking places to give birth…”He kicked open another stall and spotted the woman, her eyes blood-shot, the man crouched between her legs, as the baby let out its first bawling cry.Never in his centuries of being a demon, had Noah heard anything so raw. The power of that baby girl’s cry seeped into his bones and he slowed, crouching down next to her father. “You can’t look after her. You know that.”The man, his eyes bloodshot with whatever he’d just shot up, nodded, and held her out to him. “Take her. We don’t want her.”Noah slipped off his jacket and held it out, as her father deposited t
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Serenity gasped awake, her heart hammering, a sheen of sweat coating her and she reached for the bottle of water, downing half of it in one breath. “Holy shit…”The memories had been so intense. So real and so very painful.She could still feel the pain Thorne had been in when Archon had tortured him. Or the emotional pain Noah was in, when he had literally been begging for permission to go and get his friend.The door opened and she looked up at the demons standing in the doorway. Thorne’s hands raised. “Are you okay?”“I-I’m not sure…” she managed and took another drink from the water bottle. “I-I didn’t think they’d be so raw and intense.”Noah came to her side, sitting on the end of the bed and she pulled her knees to her chest. “And that’s only a little bit of our memories. For the little bit of blood, you consumed. Imagine more. We&rsquo
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“Take it slow, the first time back can be a killer.” The waterskin lifted to Noah’s lips, and he sipped at the cool fluid. Coughing, he laid back against the cot and looked at the man standing above him. “How long?”“Two years.”The man grimaced. “Ouch. You’ve done well to get this far, without being killed. But it was touch and go there for a few minutes. I had to get you off the battlefield before you woke up. It wouldn’t have gone down too well with the soldiers.”He turned and went to the table to the side, picking up a small plate and bought it back to him. “We’ll be safe here for a while.”Noah sat up and took the plate, suddenly ravenous and downed the cooked hare in a matter of minutes.“At least your appetite is okay. You’ll need your strength.”“For what?” Noah a
Claimed by the Horde Forty Six
Serenity could still hear sizzling flesh and the cry of pain when Noah had been branded. It had been worse for Thorne. He didn’t have the chance to call out. His grunt had hurt more than anything and she had almost turned the brand on Claudette, just to have her know what they were going through. But she knew the six-hundred and sixty-six Hunters behind her would have had something to say about her attacking their leader.With bile rising in her throat, Serenity turned to Claudette and glared at her. “There, it’s done.”She dropped the brand to the ground, the clang of metal loud in the room as she watched Noah climbing back to his feet, after sinking to his knees with pain.The brand was red raw, bleeding and she turned away, looking at Thorne. He’d already gone through so much pain, but she’d just added more. “Are you okay?”His face had paled, but he nodded. “Fine.”She tur
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“Branded? Hey, hang on a damned second.” Serenity planted her hands on her hips and Claudette turned as the hall fell deathly silent. “No-one said anything about branding or giving blood. This is sounding like more trickery and bullshit and we had enough of that with Owen.”“Owen wasn’t even a witch. He was a useless angel familiar with a good acting routine. He asked for your blood, so the Legion could have something of yours to scry with and find you easier,” Claudette offered, her tone becoming cold. “This is not like Owen at all. If you want to be tethered to the Horde, you will have to be tethered to them. If you are hurt, they will know your pain. If you die, they will die.”Serenity wanted out. She didn’t like the idea of possibly causing the death of two people she’d come to care for, because she didn’t know what she was doing, and might be killed herself.“Th
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“I’m not so sure about this…” Serenity’s arms itched in the linen gown she’d been dressed in. Thorne and Noah flanked her, still in their own clothing, looking comfortable, while she itched like crazy. “Why don’t you two have shitty gowns to wear?”Neither of them spoke, and Serenity huffed.“This is bullshit.”The three of them followed Claudette and the guard which had guided them earlier, back up the steps of the catacombs, through the Ministry and to a large hall. Stepping inside, she felt the pair of demons bristle at the sheer number of people in the hall.“Claudette…” Noah warned, and the woman smiled, showing brilliant white teeth.“Come Noah, surely you would remember the need of witnesses? Six-hundred and sixty-six, if I’m not mistaken?”Serenity looked around the hall.Six-hundred and sixty-six hunters… “Noah
