Wings that Guard Me

Chapter 33 Seraph

I saw Raphael drag Scarlet off after school. I stayed with Tony and made sure he was safe. But it's been hours. Okay, maybe that's a little of an exaggeration. It's been an hour. But something doesn't seem right.

I glance at Tony's house. Nothing out of the ordinary. Grey is over there with the others right now. He'll be safe. I can risk going out to find out what's going on. With a last quick glance at the house and head out.

I don't know where to even begin to look. There's one thing I can try that might work. I can use my halo as a sort of locator. It might not work on Raphael but it will for Scarlet. So I rush to the last place I saw them and twist my halo ring a few times, concentrating on what I want it to do. After a deep breath, and lots of hoping it would work, I close my eyes and move my hand around. My halo grows warmer the closer to the correct direction so I follow the heat.

I walked a long time. I kept a steady pace incase I would run into something. And with my eyes closed I could hear a lot more and a lot farther. So I focus on my hearing and following the path my halo leads me on. It's slow, but I don't have a lot of options. If she's as bad as Raphael says she is, I'm not entirely sure he can eliminate this threat by himself.

After a while I hear something, or rather someone. Really it was just groaning and it sounded like kicking leaves, but it was still unmistakable. The sound of an idiot who got beat up because he was stupid. I open my eyes and start picking up the pace. It sounded like he was in bad shape. I stopped using my halo and just trusted my senses.

I nearly stop when I see him. His dark shirt is ripped in many places. He wi covered in blood. His hair is a wreck and it looks like he's having trouble supporting himself. He is leaning against a tree, his weight completely off one of his legs. They had obviously gotten into quite the fight. I can't tell who the winner is from what he looked like, but it doesn't look good. So I keep going.

"You took your time Angel," comes Raphael's raspy voice. He coughs and looks up at me. I think he tries to smirk, it's hard to tell.

"What happened?" I ask seriously.

"What does it look like? We had a fight." His tone is bordering on sarcastic. I'm guessing it's a coping mechanism, so I'm assuming that means he lost.

"Thanks, it's not like I couldn't see that for myself," I comment, matching his tone. I take this chance to smirk. It's not everyday I see him needing help.

He tries to laugh but it comes out as a cough. "You should see the other one." That response is so unoriginal I can't believe he actually said it. I roll my eyes. "So you gonna help me or what?"

I sigh, "Where are you hurt? Is it bad?" All jokes aside, if he was asking for help it had to be bad.

"Do you really think I'd ask you for help if it wasn't?" He spits a response. Which is basically what I expected him to say.
With a frustrated sigh I nod. I step forward and take his weight from his bad leg. "I can get us there faster," I tell him. I try and take as much of his body weight as possible and prepare for the run ahead of us. Running isn't the best idea, his injuries could be made worse by all the jostling. Flying would be better, but I don't have my wings. It will still be fast with the strength of my kind.

"There?" Raphael asks. And that's all he gets out before I take off. There's nowhere else to go, I take him to the house. I'm hoping that the protections Grey and I put up won't kill him because he's only half Fallen. Or maybe me dragging him across the perimeter half dead counts as consent or an invitation to be within the boundary lines. That would be very convenient.

We arrive at the edge of the property, of our defenses, and I stop and pause. "What's wrong? Why'd you stop?" He asks.

I take a deep breath and look around. "Let's hope this works," I whisper, mostly to myself.