He took the bowl of chocolate ice cream from Serenity’s outstretched palms. Cold. It was still a sensation he wasn’t used to. When winter hit, it was really going to kill him. That much was for sure.
“You have your ice cream. Now dish. What are you? Where are you from? Why are you here? And what do you want from me?”
“That’s a lot of questions.”
She just stared at him. It was perfect: her stare. She didn’t realize how cute she looked when she was staring at someone. Maybe she thought she was scary, but Serenity couldn’t be scary if she tried. She was much too sweet, too innocent. There was too much about her that she wore on her sleeve.
“I turned human six months ago,” he finally said. “And I ended up here. On Earth. There’s not much more to the story.”
“It wasn’t by choice, then. You didn’t want to be human.”
“Does anyone?”
She raised an eyebrow, obviously implying he was insane. She wanted to be human, after all. She had cut off her wings. For angels, becoming a human was a voluntary process. Demons didn’t have that luxury. If they pissed off enough of the otherworld, they could be converted to humans that day. They didn’t get a choice in much of anything.
Yet another thing Wrath liked about Earth.
Here he could be who he wanted, go where he wanted, do what he wanted. There weren’t limitations. There was nothing holding him back from being strong or wild or free. He could hunt or fish or jog. He could live anywhere. He could just be.
And right now, what he wanted, more than anything else he could imagine, was to be with Serenity.
“Why did they turn you, Wrath?” She dipped her spoon into her bowl of vanilla. It was pale and sweet, like her, but even vanilla ice cream wasn’t boring. Not the way Serenity seemed to eat it. She had sprinkled chocolate chips, sprinkles, and bits of nuts in her ice cream. Talk about bursts of flavor.
“Because I was angry.”
“About what?”
“About everything.”
“Not to stereotype,” Serenity said carefully. “But isn’t that one of the primary hallmarks of a demon? You guys are angry and vicious and mean?”
“Isn’t a hallmark of an angel being sweet and demure?”
“All right,” she rolled her eyes. “So not all stereotypes are true. Still, it’s not like demons are supposed to be friendly.”
“They aren’t supposed to be so angry they’re completely out of control.”
“What did you get angry about, Wrath? Surely there was something.” She watched him, carefully seeing how he would respond. She wasn’t judging him, though, which Wrath found quite interesting.
“There are people who hurt fallen angels.”
“I’m aware.”
“I hunted them.”
That did seem to surprise sweet Serenity. Her mouth formed a tiny “o” as she watched Wrath.
“I had other jobs before I discovered what really happened to angels after a fall,” he said. “Other things brought me to Earth, but I always returned to my own realm. When I met a fallen, though, when I discovered what happened to make one of them a lost fallen, well, I knew I had to do something about it.
“You’re quite the go-getter.”
“I was mad, Serenity, and disappointed.”
“In the humans.”
“In everyone. Here I was, a demon, and I couldn’t even stop something as simple as someone killing a fallen angel. Angels already have a difficult enough time adjusting to their new lives on Earth without having to throw getting murdered into the mix. They don’t exactly warn you guys about this stuff, either.”
“How did you know?”
“How did I know what?”
“How did you know they didn’t warn us? I mean…” She shrugged, looking helplessly around the room. He noticed how tiny her space was, how discreet it was. Serenity didn’t believe in “go big or go home.” Her entire apartment was small and although she had obviously lived there for a long time, there wasn’t much to see.
She was ready to leave at a moment’s notice, he realized, and she must be constantly scared.
How terrible it must be to live that way, to endure that way.
“I met a woman.”
“You?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Surprised?”
“You don’t seem the type to fall in love. No offense, Wrath, but you’re a bit rough around the edges.”
“I wasn’t always this way,” he said quietly. “Someone changed me.”
“An angel?”
“A lost fallen.”
“Oh.” Serenity fidgeted with her hands and then held them firmly on either side of her bowl of ice cream. “Tell me.”
“She was beautiful, of course, but then, so are you. All angels are. It’s why humans are so fascinated with your kind.”
“You aren’t exactly hard on the eyes, either, demon.”
“I’m not a demon anymore.”
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”
“She wasn’t just pretty, though. She was sweet. Kind. She was lovely, Serenity, and she was delicate.”
“She didn’t know she was being hunted.”
“She didn’t know she was being hunted.”
He took a bite of his ice cream, but he didn’t taste it. Not now. Not while he was thinking of the woman he had loved and the pain he had felt when she perished. No one could understand that pain until they experienced it themselves, and it was something he hoped no one ever had to.
“Wrath?” Serenity placed her hand on his. He looked at it, confused. “Tell me what happened to her.”
“Harmony,” he choked out. “Her name was Harmony.”
“It’s a beautiful name,” Serenity agreed.
“We were happy together. She had left the city. Said she didn’t feel comfortable around churches or temples, but neither one of us really knew why. She was drawn to those special places, the holy places, but there was always something under the surface. She felt like she was being watched there. She decided she could pray on her own, that she didn’t have to be around a building just to worship.”
“So you left.”
“We left together. I wasn’t supposed to be away from my realm for that long, but I was a young demon. Headstrong. Didn’t really care what they did to me. So I didn’t have my powers for a little while? When I was with Harmony, I didn’t need them. And then one night, they came for her.”
“How did they find her?”
“It was stupid,” he shook his head. “A woman in the neighborhood was getting married. Asked us to come to the ceremony. Neither one of us wanted to, but we both figured we were overreacting. After all, what kind of angel feels uncomfortable around a church?”
“One that isn’t an angel anymore.”
“Harmony was all human at that point. She kept her scars covered, of course, because she didn’t like attention, but that day…that day was different.”
It had been hot.
Summer.
They’d both been covered with a thin layer of sweat by the time they reached the church. Elizabeth and Edward were already inside, along with most of the other guests. Only a few remained outside.
“Wait,” Harmony said. She slid off her jacket that covered her scars. “It’s too hot to wear this inside the church.”
“Are you sure?” Wrath looked desperately around, but no one was paying them any attention. At least, no one that he noticed.
“I’m sure,” Harmony smiled. “It’s silly to worry about my scars, isn’t it? I’m sure people won’t notice them as much as I think they do.”
But she had been wrong.
They had both been wrong.
Wrath shook with sadness as he told Serenity how they had left the church after the wedding, laughing, happy. They had been walking home, arm-in-arm, when it happened.
The footsteps.
They heard them softly at first, but then louder. The steps grew closer and although Wrath was a large man, he was only one man, and he didn’t have his demon powers. Not on Earth. Not then. Not ever.
Harmony heard the noises, too.
“Wrath?” She whispered, but he shook his head. They were going to be fine.
“Just keep going,” he said. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
It wasn’t nothing.
They made it to her apartment as the group of magic users caught up to them. They tore through the building and into her tiny space. They pushed Wrath out of the way, tied him up, pinned him down.
And then they hurt her.
They killed his darling.
They killed Harmony.
It wasn’t enough, though. They took her blood, as much as they could, and then they left. His wails woke everyone in the building, everyone on the street. His wails of helplessness, of horror, could be heard for miles.
He screamed into the darkness until he could scream no more, and then he let the night claim him.