LUXURE

It’s been three months since I last saw my brothers. Not even a grain of sand in the hourglass of my existence, and yet it seems like centuries. Having had a glimpse of the life I once knew, I miss their presence, their guidance, and their strength. I am haunted by the look on Colère’s face the day I left him at the lake with Raphael. Every time I close my eyes, I see thick drops of blood falling through the clear blue skies from the Archangel’s wings. From the second the raging storm subsided, the sky grew silent, the ground dried up, and the clouds parted, I have been fearful for my brother’s safety. I know him better than anyone. He would never have allowed Raphael to come for us if he could have prevented it. He is a skilled and calculating fighter. A leader of men and a phenomenal warrior. For him to have disappeared without trace gives me cause for concern.

The day of the gas station fire was the worst day of my life. I watched the woman I love lose herself so completely to the darkness inside her. The darkness that lay dormant until the day she met me. When I couldn’t find Kade and Selma, I had to make a split-second decision. Raphael was coming for Sirena, and the only place I could take her where she would be too weak to fight me was Uitare. As a human, she couldn’t breathe there, relying on me to keep her alive. I needed her to put that same level of trust in me, to suppress her uncontrollable power until I could get through to her.

The moment we arrived, the absence of sound alerted her to our surroundings sending her into a blind panic. I knew I could teach her to breathe on her own here now that her supernatural side is so strong. The air in Uitare is so much thinner than on Earth, but with concentration and practice, I knew she could do it. She was clawing and punching me. I still remember feeling her rage and fear like it was yesterday. I immediately took her down to the great lake where Selma and I used to spend so much time together. As soon as her body made contact with the crystal-clear water, our tattoos became iridescent. With a final kiss to give Sirena the air she needed to breathe, her lungs opened up, and she drew a long, relieved breath on her own. I watched as she lost herself in the water stripping off her burnt, bloodstained clothes and immersing herself underwater. I gave her the space she needed to begin processing everything that happened. She stayed in the water for days, only coming up for air every few hours, her body evolving to our surroundings, her Siren state taking over.

We spent a month there waiting for the dust to settle on Earth finding our way back to each other. The lack of sound was necessary for us to reconnect. We couldn’t fight, we couldn’t shout, we couldn’t accuse each other of anything. We simply had to rely on our unique reactions to one another to reconnect and find some peace. Without sound and speech, your other senses are heightened, and you notice things you otherwise never would. We were given a rare chance to tune into each other’s feelings and emotions attempting to understand and communicate with each other through them. It was a long and difficult time, but we made progress learning to trust each other again, loving each other, and finding solace in the magic of our union.

I was able to work with her on her self-control teaching her to channel every ounce of grief, pain, and anger and use it to manipulate the water. We worked out every day honing her skills beyond anything she had accomplished before. She developed the body of a warrior, lithe and strong, more supernatural than human, her eyes slowly becoming permanently red. I still see the human I fell in love with through those red eyes, but I do miss gazing into the stunning emerald green that first saw me for who I am.

After a month with no sign of Selma’s return, I decided it was time to leave Uitare and go to Italy in search of her and Kade. We made a pact to meet in a little village outside of Rome if we got separated, and I’m hoping beyond hope, that I will find them there. I’ve spent many nights in the shadows of Uitare listening to the conversations of the Masuulka waiting for any news of Raphael and what happened in Tennessee. With no news of him or Cole and no sign of Selma or Kade, I knew it was time to leave our silent sanctuary and return to Earth. I jumped us around the world, from country to country, continent to continent, to make sure no one could track us. No one can jump as quickly or as frequently as me, and now that Sirena has control over her emotions, I thought it would be safe enough for us in Rome.

Italy is and always has been one of my favorite places on Earth. The history, the culture, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. All of it is so compelling—a true depiction of the greatness that humankind is capable of. We have traveled all over Italy, Sirena thriving in her surroundings, her love of ancient culture and mythology resurfacing. It is beautiful to see, and some days I feel like I have the woman I fell in love with back in her entirety. But, I know that can never be the case, and I’m not upset by it. I love every version of her. Even at her darkest, she is fierce and strong, sexy and every bit the Siren she was destined to be. I will love her until the end of time even if her humanity never resurfaces. I could live with it… but I don’t think she could.

She rarely shows any sense of connection to her old life unless it is through research and losing herself in the stories of those that came before. She delights in the tales of my life and experiences here in Italy at the time of the Roman Empire. I laugh, thinking back to how much Gier and Cray loved it here. They were close friends of Julius Caesar influencing him at every turn. She begs me to regale her with their antics, day after day. I love to see the sparkle in her eyes and the light in her heart fighting to break through.

We have a small house on a lake in the little town where we agreed to meet Kade. We’ve been here for two months now and have yet to find any evidence that they are here or have been here in the past three months. I know Selma would have contacted me if she could. Not to tell me she’s alive, but to check that I am. All I can hope for at this point is that wherever she is, Kade is with her, safe and healed from his wounds. As for Cole, I have no idea where he is, or if he’s alive. And I still don’t know what happened with Raphael.

As she always does, Sirena has gone for a morning swim in the lake behind our house. I’m busy gathering information on Raphael and the Archangels when the doorbell rings for the first time since we moved in. I am hoping beyond hope that it’s Kade and Selma finally finding their way back to us. “Who’s there?”

“A friend.”

My heart sinks as I replay this scene over and over in my mind. I’ve been here before, and it didn’t end well. I slowly turn the handle and open the door, I’m speechless at the figure standing before me. His wings are spread wide, majestic in their beauty, his imposing frame casting a fearsome shadow over my world.

“Gabriel?”

“Hello, Luxure.”

“How? You died as a Fallen. I buried you.” I hear the disbelief in my voice.

“Luxure, you know who I work for. The Almighty showed me his everlasting love and mercy. I gave up my wings when Sirena was born, not because I didn’t want to serve him, but because I did want to. Sirena needed me, and he needs her to remain safe. When I ‘died,’ he restored my wings and my place in the Heavens.”

“Fucking hell. I don’t know how Sirena is going to react. She’s not the girl you once knew.”

“I know. I’ve been watching over her.”

I wonder if his purpose might now be the same as Raphael’s. “If you are here to take her from me, you have a fight to the death on your hands.”

“I’m not here to take her. I’m here to help you.”

“And how can you help us?”

As the words leave my lips, Sirena returns from her morning swim. As she rounds the corner of the house and sets eyes on Gabriel, she stops dead in her tracks frozen to the spot. She doesn’t speak, she doesn’t move. Gabriel can’t take his eyes off of her. “Hello, Sirena.” She looks him up and down taking in the sight of him as she’s never seen him before—the Archangel Gabriel. I feel her pain, her sense of betrayal, and her simmering anger, and start to worry that this could tip her over the edge. As soon as she senses my trepidation, she pulls herself together and walks past him without a word, into the house. “Sirena… sweetheart.”

His term of endearment is too much for her to bear. I can feel it, but she won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how his presence affects her. She turns to face him, her features devoid of all emotion. “Don’t ever call me that again… Gabriel. What do you want from me?”

“I want to help you. I know you still have questions about your family and how this all came to be.”

“I don’t have time to listen to any more of your lies.”

I step toward her offering my hand in comfort. To my surprise, she takes it as he begins to speak.

“Sirena, it was never my intention to lie to you. I was trying to let you live a normal human life. The life you chose for yourself at birth. This has never happened before, and I didn’t know how to handle it. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that didn’t tell you I was alive before now.”

“And mom? Your ‘friends’ slaughtered her. Are you sorry for that?”

He drops his head in shame. “More than you will ever know. I wanted to come to you as soon as it happened, but I couldn’t.”

“You’re a fucking Archangel. What was stopping you?”

“I can’t tell you right now. There are things beyond my control.”

I feel her anger coursing through her veins and step between her and Gabriel to diffuse the situation. “Why did you come, Gabriel? You said you want to help, but you’ve probably just drawn attention to us… X marks the fucking spot.”

“I can’t be tracked. I came to tell you about Kade and Selma. You’ll need them if you’re going to survive what’s coming.”

Now he has my attention. “What about them? Where are they?”

“The Nebeský plane.”

“You’re lying. No demon has ever been there. They wouldn’t survive.”

“They’ve been trapped there since Raphael found you. They’re being hunted by the Čuvari. We have to get them out of there soon, or they’ll die.”

“Does that mean all of the celestials know of Sirena’s existence now?” This can’t be happening. No demon has ever ventured to the plane between the Heavens and Earth. If Gabriel is right and they are there, I need to help them.

“No. They haven’t made the connection between them and Sirena. They are being hunted as trespassers, but if they’re caught, they will be tortured until they give up your location and the nature of Sirena’s existence.”

“They would never do that.”

“The Čuvari are brutal in their quest for the truth.”

“Of course, they are. Fucking angels are the most ruthless killers, high and mighty assholes.”

“I wouldn’t cast stones, Luxure. I saw what you did to those Guardians.” Sirena looks to me, a questioning look in her eyes, but she’s quickly distracted by her father’s voice. “Whatever your thoughts on my kind, I’m your only hope of saving your brother.”

Sirena interjects. “We don’t need your help. Luxure and I will find them without you… and kill any of the Čuvari who dare to stand in our way.”

“What happened to you, Sirena? You chose the light, you chose to be good.”

“You happened. You left me to carry the burden of your death, and the guilt of Mom’s murder. I am who I was destined to be. Now leave us.”

Gabriel turns to me, pain written all over his face. “Contact me when you realize you need my help.” He takes to the skies without another word.

Sirena closes the door kissing me calmly on the cheek as she walks past. “I’m going for a shower. Don’t worry about Kade and Selma, we’ll get them back, no matter who we have to slaughter in the process.” And just like that, she disappears upstairs. I sense no joy that her father lives or fear of our fight to save Kade.

We are about to embark on the most dangerous of journeys. We are going to head straight into the lion’s den to save Kadedus and Selma, to venture where no demon has ever survived in the hopes we can get them out alive. And yet, I know this won’t be the toughest fight of my life.

I realize now that my biggest battle will be Sirena…

Not to keep her alive or to protect her from the supernatural beings that seek to destroy her. My fight will be for her humanity—to bring it back and show her she is more than the sum of her parts. Her demonic side may be overpowering her right now, but I won’t let her succumb to it in its entirety. I will take down anything and anyone in her path. I will exact vengeance on whoever she sees fit, but ultimately, I will lead her back to the light, to the humanity that makes her an exceptional and magnificent being, a unique soul across the planes of existence, and the woman I will conquer the Heavens and destroy the Underworld to protect, to save… and to love for all eternity.