Weeks passed. Autumn grew colder with each passing day, and soon Serenity’s long-sleeves seemed normal: not strange. Wrath listened to the people who loitered around the center, but none of them paid much attention to Serenity. She was just normal. Ordinary. She was an authority figure and some people liked that and some people hated it. None of that made any difference to him.

Still, as each day passed, he grew more and more nervous. What if someone realized who she was? What if someone noticed? No one could find out who she really was. No one could learn the truth about Serenity.

He knew the odds of a magic user finding her were, realistically, quite small, but if it happened, he needed to be ready.

They both did.

Serenity listened when Wrath warned her of the danger, and they started taking self-defense classes together. He had been a fighter for centuries, but Serenity had not. She hadn’t been a warrior. She hadn’t even been a guardian. She had simply been an angel who fell in love, and that was now her greatest weakness.

After classes, they would spar together, practicing the things they learned. They would fight each night and then during the day, she would go to teach private art lessons and he would go to the kitchen. His attitude improved, as did his work ethic. Angelica noticed a difference. Everyone did.

“You know,” she said, leaning in the doorway one afternoon. “I’ve been getting a lot of compliments about your cooking.”

“Is that right?” He didn’t look up from the meal he was plating. He’d perfected his grilled salmon, and was learning how to make different sauces for it. He wanted to help Angelica expand the menu. She could have hired an experienced chef, but she had chosen to give him a chance. He owed her this much. He would give her his all.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were cooking like a man in love, but that’s not you, is it, John Smith?”

He looked up at her and slowly shook his head. “I suppose not,” he told her.

“No,” she repeated. “I suppose not. Well, whatever’s responsible for this change,” she said. “Keep it up. The customers like it, which means I like it, which means you’ve still got a job.”

She left the kitchen and he let out a sigh of relief. He had been pouring his heart and soul into his work lately, and it showed. A server came into the kitchen and Wrath handed off the plate before disappearing out the back for a smoke.

He lit his cigarette and leaned against the wall.

He didn’t realize how long he’d been waiting to hear those words from Angelica until she offered them. His work was paying off, finally, and it felt good.

“Got a light?” The man appeared out of nowhere, and caught Wrath off guard. That wasn’t good. He was supposed to be on edge at all times. He wasn’t supposed to be relaxed enough that someone could sneak up on him.

“Yeah.” He tossed his lighter to the man in the shadows.

“Thanks.”

The man lit his cigarette, leaned against the wall a few feet down from Wrath.

“Busy day?”

“Every day is a busy day when you work in restaurants.”

“I hear ya, man. Been a busy day for me, too.”

Wrath didn’t particularly want to have a conversation with the stranger. He didn’t much care for people he didn’t know. Not after trying to watch over Serenity. He grunted in response, but the stranger kept on talking.

“Lots o’ new people in town, man. All the shops are busy.”

That did catch his attention. Why would there be new people in town? There were no festivals coming up, nothing exciting happening. There were no new restaurants opening, no new businesses launching. There was nothing.

“Why are there people coming to town?” He asked, trying to sound more casual than he felt.

“Some sort of convention,” he rolled his eyes. “A geek thing.”

“What kind of geek thing?” His heart jumped into his throat, choking him.

Not magic.

Not magic.

Not magic.

“Magic of some sort, something like that. People saying they’re witches or some sort,” the man shook his head. “I don’t know about anything like that.”

Wrath’s entire mouth went dry. This couldn’t be happening. They had been so careful for so long, and he should have gotten some sort of heads-up if there was something like this happening. Someone should have warned him. Someone should have let him know.

“That sounds a little crazy,” Wrath finally managed to say. He let his cigarette fall to the ground and crushed it beneath his boot. He pulled another one out and reached for his lighter, but he didn’t have it.

“Sorry,” the guy handed him his lighter back. “Guess I forgot to return it to ya.”

“Guess so.”

Wrath lit his cigarette and breathed. He focused on breathing. Soon the nicotine would calm him and everything would be okay. So there were going to be magic users in the city. So what? There were magic users everywhere in the world. There was no escaping them. Besides, most of these “witches” and “wizards” were nothing more than young adults who read too much sci-fi when they were kids.

No, most of the magic users were harmless. They were simply congregating to share their weird hobby with their friends. They weren’t going to be able to do any harm.

Not really.

Only, as Wrath continued to smoke, he realized that wasn’t entirely true. There didn’t have to be an entire group of magic users to hurt Serenity.

There only had to be one.

It would only take one person to capture her, to snatch her away. It would only take one person to try to hurt her, to drain her blood, to capture her life force. It would only take one, and Wrath had to be ready.

“Where are they meeting?” He asked.

“What?”

“The magic people. Where is their conference?”

“Oh,” the man shook his head. “The hotel next to the community center. You know the one. It’s got the run down sign out front.”

“Bradshaw Community Center,” he whispered.

“Yeah, that’s right,” the man said, but Wrath was already gone.