Wings that Guard Me

Chapter 30 Raphael

As soon as Miss. Halo and I are alone again I burst out laughing. The little scene Tony created earlier has been playing in my head on a loop. Humans are just so ridiculous. Some might even say it's cute, that's disgusting. I just can't stop laughing at this. The little human falling for Angel. Too bad she can't love him back.

"What are you laughing about?" I stop and look at Seraph. She seems genuinely confused. For all her school and training she really has no idea about the human world, or humans for that matter. She can't even tell when one is crushing on her.

"You and Tony." I smirk.

She's clueless of course. I try not to roll my eyes, yet. This is a lot more entertainment than I was banking on for her first day back. "What are you talking about?"

"He has a crush on you Angel Wings." My voice is almost a taunting purr. This is one chance to mess with her and point out how naive she is that I am not passing up.

"He wants to crush me? I don't get it." She's states obviously very confused.

This gets me laughing again. "You've never even heard of a crush before have you? Let me guess, first time on Earth? And as much as you've been taught or trained you don't know the first thing about humans and their culture. It's adorable that you think you know things but you actually have no clue."

"What are you talking about?!" She spits at me.

"He likes you Angel. He's fallen for you Angel." I tell her carefully. I watch her for a reaction, fascinated by how this would affect her. And I just couldn't help myself, I had to say it. "And you can't ever love him back. You can only break his heart. You can protect his life but you're going to break his heart. You can't protect him from yourself."

I watch as realization hits her. She cracks, almost literally. Of all my years with this job I'd never seen a Righteous crack like this. Just the thought of her being the cause of any sort of pain to him seems to be almost traumatizing to her.

Here I thought I would come the closest to hurting her like that, I never would've imagined that she would be the author of her own pain. Even though everything I was raised to be is reveling in her self torture a part of me is telling me to stop. Telling me not to add insult to injury, rub salt into those wounds.

She really must be new at this. And now I realize it. I was so distracted by all the fun I was having that I didn't bother to actually try to place her in my memories. She's the Righteous I was sent to eliminate. But I killed her. A dagger to the heart. I imagine it's much like the pain she is or will feel due to this knew development. Her war is now on two fronts, and part of that is my fault. This mission went pear shaped, and now I have to pick up the pieces. This will be the most interesting visit to the human realm I've ever had.

With all my slightly malicious pondering I fail to notice that she is silent, has been silent the whole time. I finally snap out of my thoughts when she sits down, hard. I snap my fingers in front of her face. "Hey Halo? You in there? Angel? Answer me Wingless." I try to get her to snap out of it, using pretty much every annoying nick name I've thought of calling her. But nothing really works.

I crouch down to I'm closer to her level. "Seraph," I whisper. She finally focuses on me. "You need to snap out of this. You are no use to him if you don't get a grip. You can figure something out, but first you need to get your head back into the game." Slowly she nods.

We are interrupted by slow loud clapping coming from outside the the door. I stand in an instant and turn to the new threat.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A wayward child of Hell and his little haloed pet." Scarlet says with her venomous voice. She saunters into the room, an evil smile fixed on her face. Her jet black hair hangs down her back with the single red streak on one side. Her brown eyes might fool any human, but I see the red in them. The humans would say she's Asian but there aren't nationalities in Hell. Her tall and thin frame seems unthreatening but I know there's a hell of a lot of crazy and almost as much power behind her frame. Today she's dressed in a red mini skirt and a black crop top with a dark denim vest. Her style portrays her personality perfectly to me, not to anyone else.

"What do you want She-devil?" I hiss at her. My muscles tense, ready for whatever attack she might have planned.

"Imagine my surprise when I found out you've been keeping an eye on a human. Not taunting, not causing trouble, watching. Maybe I should pay him a visit. The funny thing about humans, they're so fragile." She cocks her head to one side and her smile widens.

"Stay away from him. Your fight is with me." My voice gets deeper and my jaw grinds. My hands curl into fists and my eyes watch her as she starts to slowly walk around.

She laughs a little, the sounds makes me sick. "It almost sounds like you care. And anyway, my fight isn't with you, it's with her. And the best way to get to a Righteous is through their human. You know who taught me that." She scuffs her foot on the floor, pensive.

"What do you want?!" I barely shout at her.

She stops her mindless roaming and looks at me. "Play this game with me. Please?" She says so innocently.

"This is not a game!" I spit back at her. Every ounce of my self control is keeping me planted in my place. If I attack her here no one wins. Except maybe her. She'll finally have proof of my betrayal, something to hang over me for good.

"No it's not Raphael, it's war. And everyone is fair game." She takes one last glance at me and heads for the door. "See you on the battle field." He throws over her shoulder, blowing me a kiss on her way out the door.

I don't relax. I stand ready even several minutes after she's disappeared from sight and sound. "Who was that?" I look down at Angel Wings who, though obviously shaken up, looks firmly set in her shaky confidence. I look back where the she-devil left from and answer Angel, "That would be our new problem, she just handed us a declaration of war."