Wings Of Choice (Joel Pimentel)

31 - Displeased Father

Earlier that day when Erick just woke up he walked to the balcony for fresh, morning air. Later he found Cassandra taking a look back at Joel's balcony from the palace backyard before she shifts shape.

"She's up to something stupid." Erick shook his head. Without second thought, Erick shifts into a bird and followed Cassandra without her noticing.

When she gets into Lucas's house Erick just waited on a branch of a tree, watching over the place for her. Later he saw the two stepped out from the house. Again, he trailed behind them in discreet.

---

"Now we're losing both of them." Joel leans his hand on the wall for support. He keep playing Maggie's words in his head. If Lucian can't have Erick or Cassandra with him, he might just kill them.

They gave him some water to help ease him up and tells him to sit down. While Richard and Kat are helping Finn to make some potion to flush the supernatural drugs from Jodi's system. Zabdiel is comforting his sister, telling her Erick will be doing fine.

After half an hour of waiting in silence, Jodi opens her eyes. "You're awake." Chris moves his hand on her hair. Jodi moves her eyes and study all the faces inside the room. When her eyes find Kat, she starts to cry.

"I'm so sorry, sis." she sobs. Chris hugs her to calm her down. Everyone was looking at Jodi in confusion while Kat approaches her sister. "Calm down, and tell us what happened. Did they hurt you?" Chris asks her.

Jodi shook her head and keeps her eyes on Kat. "Is it okay for everyone to know who Riki is now?" she asks. Kat nods, there's no point of hiding the fact anymore. "Riki is Cassandra's brother. He has been spying on Lucian for us." Kat turns around and tell the others before she looks back at Jodi. "But what does that has to do with your disappearance?" she asks.

Jodi took a deep breath. "I was a fool, I got myself seduced by that devil and followed him home." she paused to apologize to Chris before she continues. "Riki tried to save me. That's when Lucas noticed something weird. I can't remember it clearly but I remembered both Riki and I was being tied, while Lucas drugged me with something that forces me to say only the truth. Lucian just watched the entire time while Lucas was interrogating me."

"And you told him about Riki helping us." Kat concludes it for Jodi, who then nod and bury her head in her hands. "I'm so sorry, Kat. I didn't mean to."

Kat didn't say a word, she just nod her head, suggesting that she understands. Joel hugs her but she pushed him away softly before she ran out from the room. When Richard tried to chase after her, Yashua grabbed his arm. "Let her be alone. She needs it." he says.

Silence fall back into the room. "I'll tell my dad Jodi is back." Joel says, but paused for a while as he inhaled deeply. "And that we're now losing Erick and Cass." he sighed.

---

Lucas took Cassandra to an abandoned cabin in a deep woods, claiming that he kept Jodi in there. When they got in, there was no Jodi, only a tied up Riki with blood and bruises all over his body.

Cassandra's heart stopped beating when she sees him like that but she brushed it off. She can't act like she knew about him. "What is this? Where's Jodi?" she asks Lucas.

"Well-" Lucas's words were cut by someone barging into the door. "Good to see you, my daughter." Lucian smiles at Cassandra. "Do you know that face?" he points at the unconscious Riki.

Cassandra glances at Riki and wear a poker face at her best. "I've seen him going out with one of my angel cousins. What does he has to do with me?" she asks him.

Lucian looks at Lucas before they both laughed their heart out. "I guess I didn't teach you well on how to lie. That's why you suck in it." Lucian grabs her hand and drags her in front of Riki.

Standing so close to him, she can see the flesh of his cheek. Lucian used special whip that's specially made to torture the ones with angel's blood. Cassandra tries so hard not to shed a tear in front of Lucian. It breaks her heart seeing her brother hurt.

Lucian grabbed her face, his fingernails almost tear her skin and forced her to take a closer look on Riki. "Tell me, do you know who he really is?" he breath each word into her ears. "Tell me!" he yells. His yell wakes Riki up.

He moves his eyes away when he saw his sister looking at him with sympathy. "Told you, she doesn't know about me." Riki lies weakly.

Feeling unsatisfied, Lucian orders Lucas to tie her up too. He then called his servant in. "Do the same thing you did to the guy." Lucian commands. "That's what you get for disobeying your father. Now you better pray that I kill you instead." he hissed, before he left.

Lucas just sat across the room, arms crossed over his shoulder. "Please, don't hurt her." Riki begged to Lucian's servant. "Hit me instead. Hit me like you did just now." he adds, but the servant ignores him and starts hitting Cassandra with the whip.

Erick can hear Cassandra's cry from the distance. The longer he hear it the harder it was for him to hold himself from helping her. Keeping his head up to the sky, he closed his eyes and starts to pray. "I know sometimes we do unholy things that angels shouldn't do, but help me save the ones inside the cabin. For our lives is important in saving the world from the devils." he says his prayer to the Heaven above.

"It's a big lose to die before I get married. But at least I'll die fighting." Erick tells himself. Then he let out his big, strong, black wings out from his back and flies to the cabin. He was determined to save Cassandra and take her back to the palace.