Fear No More

Chapter Twenty Six

Her right hand came up and slowly stroked my left cheek. Her touch sending shivers through me. I could barely think straight with her standing before me. This is what I wanted. This is what I needed. I can't lose her a third time.

"Victor." She spoke softly causing my attention to snap to her fully. "This is not the end. There is more that you have to do." She added with a soft smile that showed her discontent with what she was saying.

"I know." I replied as I leaned into her touch. My eyes not leaving hers for a second.

"Good." She responded with a warm smile as she stepped closer to me. Our faces mere centimeters apart from each other. "There is also a few more things I need to speak to you about."

"Later." I said as I closed my eyes and connected my lips to hers. It was neither a rough nor rushed kiss. We savored the contact. Savored the touch. Her lips were soft against mine as her hand slowly glided from my cheek to my chest. The length of the kiss was lost to both of us as we disengaged from each other.

Both our eyes closed, her breathe warm against my lips and mine was to hers. I leaned my head forward and rested my forehead against hers. I was not sure why or how she came back to me, but one thing was for certain. I will not let her go again.

A cough from Gabriel broke us out of our little moment which only seemed to anger both Julie and myself. We turned to see Gabriel only staring at us with a slight blush upon his cheeks.

I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but there are more important matters at hand. Gabriel said as he turned around and gestured to the academy before us. The destruction that was caused by Gabriel and Michael was beyond what I initially thought. We can't leave it like this. Quin could be here before we know it and we have no defenses.

This side of Gabriel truly had me surprised. I would have thought that an archangel could have a personality like this.

"Can you give Penelope back?" Julie asked Gabriel as we distanced ourselves slightly. "I have a few questions for her."

Of course. Gabriel replied before he began to glow a bright white. It was over in almost an instant before Penelope's body returned to her previous form. Her torso slumped slightly before she regained her composure.

"Penelope." Julie asked in a serious tone as if she was trying to deduce what exactly she was.

"Julie?" Penelope began after she took a deep breath. "How are you still alive?" She added, apparently not caring that I was right there next to her.

"Me being alive is not the relevant item of focus at this moment." Julie replied as she linked her right hand in my left, releasing her hold on my right hand. "What we need to know is what you are. Who you are. Only then can we understand Victor's situation."

"Understandable." Penelope said as she ran her right hand through her hair, brushing over her right shoulder. Crossing her arms above her chest she began to reveal what she was. "I am one of the very last of the Vessilum. A supernatural that can host higher beings. Beings we come into contract with.

"We can call upon them to aid in battle. Enhance our strength, fighting capabilities, and even allow them to fight in our stead. They provide us with power, and we provide them with a corporeal form. A body within the mortal realm." She continued with a few gestures of her right hand. "In some cases, with the higher being having enough power, he or she can prolong the life of the host. I am one of those cases. Gabriel has allowed me to life for over a millennia."

"What about Victor? Is he the same as you?" Julie asked as the soft smile upon her lips faded away as she began to think.

"I don't think so, not entirely." Penelope said deep in thought. "Although he should have the genes from his mother's side. He doesn't show the typical signs of being one. I highly suggest that Michael was forcibly contracted to Victor when he was a baby. Allowing for the connection to succeed with the least amount of risk."

"What did you say?" I inquired as I took a step forward, the wings on my back stretched outwards slightly showing his unease.

"That Michael was forcibly con-" Penelope began before I cut her off.

"No!" I almost shouted as my wings flexed. My eyes locked with Penelope's. "You said that I should have the genes from my mother." I added as I watched for any reaction out of her and a reaction I received. It was a look of shock and the unease that comes with being caught out. "How could you know that? Who was my mother?"

"I... uh..." Penelope began but she began to backtrack, her expression showing one that displayed her unease in this situation

"What do you know!" I shouted wanting answers from her. If she knew anything about my mother, I had to know.

"Victor, please." Penelope begged as she lifted her arms in front of her. As if gesturing to me to calm down.

"TELL ME!" I shouted louder as the rain stopped, the droplets in the air hovered where they stopped, not moving nor rotating. Lightning danced around my wings as my hair began to lift upwards. My anger surfacing. I was not willing to let her play games with information about my mother.

"You're mother was like me." Penelope said in an almost defeated tone. It was apparent that she did not want to confess yet was powerless to withhold the information. "She was contracted to the second most powerful archangel, Rafael. Before you, she held the record for the highest ranking contractee. But she... uh... she died many years ago. A decade and a half roughly. Killed by her lover. Her mate. Quin." She added as she turned her focus to my eyes to see my reaction towards the name.

When she found no reaction, she appeared slightly confused, yet she continued. "You being her son should have the same effect all Vessilum parents and offspring have. A shared bloodline. The Vessilum and the other parent form a hybrid of sorts within the child. Yet you are different. Not like any Vessilum that has lived. Michael is forcibly contracted. He cannot return to Heaven. He is apart of you as you are of him."

"But how did you know her?" I asked her as my mind tried to wrap around the abundance of information I have just received.

"That is not a simple question." Penelope replied as she ran her hands through her hair.

"How?" I repeated louder, the lightning dancing around my wings picked up as it crackled through the air. As if trying to connect dozens of the still rain drops together via a network of lightning bolts.

"Victor, you wont like the answer." She replied as she almost pleaded with me.

HOW! I shouted as the hundreds of other voices lacing my voice returned. My anger soaring to high as Julie squeezed my hand trying to calm me. It worked but not enough. The lightning still danced through the rain drops but it was not as dangerous as when it began.

Penelope stood their shocked at the turn of events. Never did she think she would have to reveal to me the one secret that she wanted to keep hidden. The one thing she thought she could keep from me.

She stood then with her mouth agape, trying to figure out how to tell me her most desired secret above all. Either that or she was trying to concoct a lie that was believable enough to sate my desire to know what it is. Whether or not she could come up with such a lie would remain undetermined thanks to the unwanted as well as undesired interruption by a person none of us wished to see.

"They were sisters." Quin spoke from above us as his large black wings, sprouted from his back flapped to keep him in place. His hands at his side, his pitch black suits well tailored matching the coloring of his wings. His gaze left mine to Penelope's, a dark smirk appeared upon his lips. "Hello, dear sister. How I have missed you."