Prologue
+1+
It’s bitter and cold
The snow whips around me blowing the lapels of my coat. The cold is comforting against my hot skin. I continue to walk in circles leaving my foot prints on the rooftop ledge. From 800 feet below the city of New York goes on not noticing me.
The Angel seems to appear out of nowhere on the rooftop. her white coat blends into the snow, the gaudy gold buttons make it easier to spot her. Her light brown hair whips in the wind, her hands are tucked into her pockets.
“The weather is a bitch, is she not ?”, I say.
“The weather isn’t what chills me.”, She offers.
Her voice is jarring, deep, raspy. It sets my teeth on edge. Her eyes look red. . . she's been crying, I didn't think she had any tears in her.
“When this is all over, I don’t know who will be left standing.”, I say.
The Angel approaches me.
“The winners, dear Prince.”
She removes her blades from her pockets. I do not react, I know why she is here. I give no illusion to mercy.
“ Please give my last words to Helios.”
“Speak them, Prince.”
“ Seraphina, please tell him you are the most beautiful assassin I’ve ever had the pleasure of being killed by.”
I step off the ledge and fall.
3 months earlier
Counting Stars
counting stars
“This is so fucked up you know, first Hannah and now you--”
“Really, Eric ? Really ? Hannah died way to be sensitive.”
He let out a grunt of frustration and I just shook my head and picked up the last of my boxes. The living room was strangely empty without my clothes and crap covering it. The furniture had been my dad’s but I decided to let Eric keep it.
“You’re leaving me hanging, Is. How am I going to find another roommate ? Not to mention you’re moving in with a guy you’ve only been seeing for like what ? a year? Seriously ?”
I rolled my eyes. Had it really been a year ?
“Please, Eric. . . I’d only been dating you for 3 months when I moved in with you.”
That shut him up real quick. I’d been an idiot to fall so hard for him during my junior year. He was the introspective, smart and snarky grad student auditing my Venetian Monarchy class.
I thought he was the one. He had some roommate drama in Manhattan and decided move to Williamsburg, I'd even convinced Hannah to leave student housing and move in with us.
What I didn’t know was that Eric was still seeing his other girlfriend. Of course this was after the lease was signed. I’m pretty sure our lovers turned friends situation would have made a great sitcom, because somehow that one year lease turned into two and finally three.
“I’m just worried about your safety is all.”, he said
“Thanks, Eric. . . I can take care of myself. I’m sorry this is just something I have to do.”
"Isobel", he called after me one last time.
Giving up he shook his head and headed back into the kitchen. I know he will be okay, even if he has to move back with his parents in New Jersey.
I realized when I left the apartment I was finally saying goodbye to the cloud of grief that has swallowed me since Hannah’s death. I get to start over.
Not because I want to
Because I have to.
+++
“Have to ?”, I repeat Isobel’s final words as our salads arrive.
There is something smoldering about how Isobel looks tonight. Her black dress and flowing peplum fits snugly over her ashen skin. The entire time I’m listening I stare at the tiny white-blue sapphire glinting on a white gold chain over her chest.
“Have to”, she repeats,”I just don’t feel like I belong with . . .
“Humans”, I whisper as if it’s a taboo thought to not be human anymore.
She smirks and picks at her salad and manages a few bites. I know she’ll say that the salad is
good. . .but not satisfying. Not what she is really in the mood for anyway.
“Eric would eventually notice I wasn’t exactly eating normally and I just hated living this . . . lie. Not to mention I want to be with you.”
I nodded in understanding and we fell into a comfortable silence. I’m partially glad it turned out this way. I needed her close to me. Especially during these trying times.
“That sapphire looks amazing on you.”, I break the silence.
She touches her neck and smiles at me.
“It does, Thank you. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned”
I raise my water glass and she raises her wine glass.
“Happy Anniversary, Isobel.”
“Happy Anniversary”, She says an uncontrollable smile on her face.
Somehow... .somehow we had made it one whole year.
A year of long walks, dates at libraries, late night dinners, lazy Sundays, stupid fights, warm laughs and sober confessions. Very sober on my part.
She barely gives the steak a second look as it arrives and I falter a little at the brightness she has lost. I remind myself that it’s not my fault she is a daemon, a creature whose sole purpose was to ensanguinate Demons, but somehow it always will be my fault.
I think a little part of me liked the danger, that I was in love with something meant to kill me.
The whole time I'm thinking this I’m itching to pick up my phone, to see if there are any messages, if anything has changed with “The Angel situation”.
But, I’m leaving it all behind tonight for her. As I’d done the 14th of every month when we celebrated our monthly and finally our yearly anniversary. As our glasses touch I can pretend like I have a normal job, with normal e-mails and a normal girlfriend. The thought makes me laugh and I an feel the familar tension of my second smile. The smooth black scars stretching and pulling around my lips with every word.
I raise my hand and signal the waiter, slipping her a handful of bills.
“Keep the change”, I say my eyes still on Isobel and our full plates.
“We just got our food. What are you doing ?”, Isobel asks as I pull out her chair and take her arm.
“Giving you what you really want want.”
+3+judas
“Fuck”, I groan as her small body collides against mine in the alley.
The brick digs into my shirt and I can smell more grease than I should from the back alley of a 5 star restaurant. The vents circulate smoke and the night is warm and balmy. I clench my hands at my side as Isobel loosens my tie and opens my shift collar
I lean down to kiss her again and she pulls back my dark hair, exposing my neck and throbbing vein. Before I can breathe she bites into my neck, I hear the soft sound of satisfaction against my neck and I remember to breathe.
The instant the quick pain hits, everything becomes clear and vibrant, I pull away gently when I think I’m going to pass out. She turns away from me and wipes her mouth. I keep my eyes closed as I feel a cold antiseptic cloth graze my skin.
Isobel ties a light scarf over my neck and we walk hand in hand out of the alley and down Amsterdam avenue. I’m a bit weak on my feet, but it doesn’t feel awful.
“I love you, Isobel Charter.”
She laughs and puts her shades on.
“If you loved me, Paris Prince, you wouldn’t let me wear these high shoes on dates.”
I let go of her hand and pick her up in my arms. There are only 7 more blocks to her car, I pray a little that I don’t drop her.
“Happy ?”, I ask
She just smiles.
“I love you, Paris Prince.”, it stills my heart like the first time I heard it., “Although . . .”
“What ?” I say noting a sudden chill in the air.
“That’s not what I really wanted tonight. . . if you catch my drift..”
I sigh and think of a way around the subject. It was our anniversary if there was anytime to give in. . .yet something. My pride, my reputation, my promises. . . I think. . . got in the way.
“I think I’ve lost entirely to much blood tonight for anything of that sort.”, I played it off just trying to enjoy the feeling of her in my arms.
I set Isobel down and we walk faster down the empty avenue, which is odd because it’s Amsterdam avenue on a Saturday night. It’s almost like the light and warmth has been sucked away from the evening.
It’s so cold.
We are being followed.
Isobel feels it too and soon our walk breaks into a full speed run when I hear hard methodical footsteps behind us, we barely make it to the next block when a solid figure steps into our path.
The figure is a tall broad muscular man with dyed white hair cut into a short military crop. He is wearing a fitted gray shirt and cargos. An SGI brand on his large bicep, followed by an intricate tattoo of the alpha. Leonidas is written on the corner of his shirt.
This man is an Angel.
I step in front of Isobel.
“W-what do you want ? We’ve done nothing this is--”
“You have been given a second chance, Demon”, The muscular male Angel--Leonidas--spits at me
In a civil manner he hands over a large white envelope with my name neatly scrawled in angelic calligraphy. Inside is a piece of heavy silky sheet of white paper.
Paris Prince
Is Cordially Invited
To a Private Tete a Tete
with
Helios Thantos, Chairman SGI pmc.
Sunday 9am
By the time Isobel and I look up the male Angel is gone with nothing left except a chill in the air.
“You’re not going are you ? After what happened last time.”, Isobel asks as we make it to her Jetta.
“I have to. Things haven’t been this tense between our race in years. Helios must be finally ready to tell me why he is in the city. We can’t just go on ignore each other forever. At least this will be a private meeting. . . in case he humiliates me again.”
“You don’t think they want to restart the war from your country. . . do you ?.”
“Start ? That war never ended. Who knows what Helios has done since isolating Queen Anne’s College this past year.”
The conversation and jovial mood ended there. Ever since Helio's appearance almost a year ago nothing felt the same. For years Angels and Demons had lived as refugees in this world. Being civil and biding time. Now, Helios had isolate us. Whatever he had been planning. . . we were just waiting.
When Isobel’s car pulls into St. Lilth’s we walk around back and take the private outside entrance to my rooms on the bottom floor. It's still hard for me to think of them as mine. That Father is really gone.
I know the Brothers will be up milling around the common areas and I’m just not in the mood to talk to anyone else tonight. For now I just want to be alone with Isobel.
Isobel kisses me one more time before heading off to the shower, and for a moment i seriously consider following her. Instead I fall back onto my chaise lounge in the corner, staring at the mess of Isobel’s unpacked boxes. My eye resting on the bed I’m not quite sure I’m ready to share with her, but really want to.
I fall asleep on the chaise lounge in the corner and let the invitation from Helios fall to the floor. Somewhere in the darkness I allow myself to think that this will be the first time in a long time I will get to see her.
+4+alone in kyto
Helios had arrived at the doorstep of St. Lilths nearly a year ago. He had said nothing that day and as soon as he was there, he was gone.
An invitation had arrived much like the one I received today, the same silky paper. . .except then it had somehow appeared on my nightstand. It was my first official meeting with the enigmatic Helios Thantos. Chairman of the Seraphic Guard Infitine, An elite army of Angels. The only surviving male Angels in existence.
It had been the end of winter and had snowed in the city for 3 days straight. The weather had lost its charm with the residents, making it all the easier to find a place where we Angels and Demons could meet and be unseen. Outdoors was preferable considering our number.
189 Demons and 14 young daemons fell into place behind me as we waited in a secluded area inside Central Park for the Seraphic Guard and the Angels to arrive.
The Angels seemed to arrive as if by a mirage. First I made out the pronounced features and gregarious muscle and height of the male Angels and the lithe stiff figures of the female Angels.. There are 72 members of the Seraphic Guard and 192 female Angels.
When I looked at them and I looked at us, I was hit with how small we were. What a small group of misplaced creatures we were in a world we maybe didn't belong in. In a place where we could never belong.
It was the first time I’d seen the male Angels up close in centuries. They have the same stark blue eyes and classic features. They are all tall, broad and thickly muscled. They looked less like soldiers and more like warriors.
Helios appeared surprisingly young, up close. At a regal 6’4 He stood out as being leaner that his men with long textured brown hair ,his eyes bright and clear, his stature were straight and commanding. His solid cut cheekbones could be a fucking national treasure.
Then he smiled that genuine arrogant smile.
The Seraphic Guard stood back, surrounding and perhaps protecting the female Angels. Among them I see Anne, The Angel Mother. standing in the crowd, now demoted to just a simple Angel.
I search out for Seraphina among the Angels but I didn't see her. I quickly scanned the crowd, my eyes landing back on Helios and there I find her.
Seraphina is not just standing with Helios, she and three men are standing behind him. She doesn’t regard me or him. She is watching my Brothers with her large vacant eyes.
“Demon”, Helios says, “I say it has been years since I’ve seen one of you--.”
His accent is modern and casual. He sounds jovial and upbeat, like we are meeting at a bar or something. It’s a little patronizing.
“I could say the same--”
“Of course then it was on the battlefield and they were all dead”, He finishes.
The wind picks up and I find I'm comforted by the cold. What do I say to that comment? What do I do--
“MORS ET ANGELIS REVELATUM.”, I heard one of the Brothers shout from behind me.
Death to the Angels
I turned to see Brother Callum charge from his place behind me in a mad fervor , he lunges towards Helios. Helios doesn’t seem fazed as Callum gets closer.
“Callum, Stop ”, I shout, “Central park is neutral land. You can’t--
Callum knocks me into the snow when I try to stop him, the tail of his coat slips through my fingers. He fights as Lysander and Jona attempt to stop him. Callum manages to breaks free and pulls a long white gold knife from his coat and aims at Helios. I recognize it from being used as artwork in our halls.
“NO”, I shout
But it’s not Helios that Callum has to watch out for.
When Callum is less than a foot away Seraphina steps infront of Helios and takes Callum by his wrist twisting it until it breaks. He falls screaming to the ground. She turns his broken wrist and forces him to impale himself on his own weapon.
Enraged, Lysander comes up behind her and tackles her, they both collide into the snow. I look over at Helios but he smiles as if his life hadn’t just been threatened.
They struggle for several minutes until Seraphina forces Lysander down into the snow with his arms pinned tight behind his back. He still put up a fight, pulling her long hair with his teeth.
“Get off me, you bitch”, Lysander yells while struggling against her grip
“Watch your tongue, Demon”, Seraphina says, “Your Brother is not yet dead.”
She lets Lysander go and I motion for Damien to see to Callum. Helios' other bodyguard (Leon, I'd learned tonight) places a warning hand on Seraphina's arm and she pulls back.
"What ?", said Damien a little to casually, "He's obviously dead."
"I'm not dead you fucker", Callum yells from where he is prostrate on the ground. A few of the younger Angels are aghast by his cursing.
“I thought”, says Helios bouncing on the balls of his feet, “This was a neutral zone.”
“It is”, I said, “I am sorry. Callum is stupid and impulsive. He just--”
“It looks to me young Prince, like you need to learn to control your boys. But you are just a boy yourself are you not. “
“Helios I-”
“I nothing. That’s the thing, Paris Prince. You were all just children when you left our home. Maybe deep down inside you still are nothing but a boy.”
“No, Please. It is essential we have an understanding. I want pea --”
“Now, now, now don’t talk back to me, boy.”, he says shaking his finger at me.
“I am not talking--”
He turns on his heels and ignores me. I want to shout at him to stop but that seems. . . childish. The other Angels soon leave as quietly as they arrived.
That was it. The last time any Demon has heard from an Angel. 10 months and 3 weeks ago. Since then a second gate had gone up around Queen Anne’s. They were all but Isolated now.
After that horrific meeting I had called together the people I felt I could trust the most.
Jona, my real brother
Ashe, my closest friend
Lysander, the loyalist man I knew
Damien, the supposed intellectual and medicinal doctor.
I sometimes joked to Isobel hat they were my devilish four horseman of the apocalypse. I still haven't told them this.
“This is certainly new”, Ashe had said that night while sliding into the leather chairs in front of Father--my desk.
I closed the door to the room Father had used as a private office, shutting a way the view of my unmade bed and messy bedroom. I had called this meeting following the debacle with the Angels.
Damien, Lysander and Jona also sat in front of me. They are more uncomfortable by the situation being able to see little bits and pieces of Father’s private collections around the room. It was odd being in here, Father had never allowed in anyone other than me.
“It is”, I agreed, “Brothers, you are here today because you were loyal and steadfast in the midst of the treachery Isaiah caused. For that you will be rewarded. The Seraphic Guard’s appearance will no doubt create unrest and tension between our kind . As well as the introduction of the daemons to our ranks.
Unlike Father I do not believe in a one man rule. You will be my eyes and ears for the Brotherhood. I want you to be my closest advisors when it comes to the future of our race. I can’t do this alone.”
The Brother’s expressions went from nervousness to serious.
“If I may”, Offered Damien lighting a cigarette, “There is a lot of unrest over the young daemons. Fewer brothers are willing to donate blood and the daemons are all so young and impulsive. It isn’t fair that they should be our responsibility after Isaiah created them. . . I doubt I can cure them.”
Only Damien would dare say Isaiah’s name, his name was Mud around here. Although at the time Damien was also clearly smoking weed.
“You will in time Damien, I know it. In the mean time I’ll be sending the daemons to Down River Academy as day students. Perhaps school will give them structure. . . something to focus on besides their predicament.”
Ashe laughed from where he was tilting the chair back on two legs.
“How do you plan to pull that off ?”, Ashe asked
“Writing a big check. . . the one I’ll get once I sell some of the shops. . .including shop 34”
.
Lysander and Ashe sit up a bit realizing I’m selling our old shop. It was for the most part a done deal.
“I don’t know”, Lysander spoke up, “Sometimes I think we should cut and leave the city to the Angels. Anne was docile, domestic, predictable. . . Helios is something else. He wants something.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t forget My Brothers. Coming to this world, making this city home. . . we were here first and we will be here last. If Helios does something to ruin the harmony we live in. . . well . . .”
“Are you talking about war, Paris?”, Jona ask.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that.”
---
The thing about The Seraphic Guard will always be this.
They weren’t children during the war that made us all refugees. They were warriors. Soldiers.
They devoted their life to waging war against Demon-kind. Their hatred ran raw and dark. To them war was a lifestyle and pledge.
The story goes a millennia ago The Seraphic Guard’s 100 men were hand picked by The Angel King to embark on a dangerous journey to find a new safer world for the future.
The men flew for months, trying to find a mythical bridge to another world they didn't even believe in. When they crossed into the human world the elements quickly battered and burned their wings
Frightened they instantly flew back to Homeland. There they bound and covered their wings and ventured back over. They searched the early human world but found nothing but early native people and primitive weapons.They searched far and wide across the world.
However, The Seraphic Guard became lost in the human world and spent 100 years searching for a way back to Homeland. They spent years here. Hardly aging and searching for a way back home. When they finally made it back to Homeland they feared what they would find.
It was soon revealed to them that what had been 100 years to them on Earth had been barely one year in Homeland. They were overjoyed at that realization ! Ready to head back home to their women and children.
However, The Transgression and gendercides had occurred while they were away. The Seraphic Guard came home to nothing but wasteland and graves.
They spent 10 years trying to rebuild life in Homeland. The isolation drove some insane and they lost many along the way.
Somewhere along the way (rumors abound why) Helios Thantos became their leader. Eventually they decided to leave Homeland and go back to the human world, where perhaps they could make new lives.
They returned to find the human world different from the one they had left. The Human world was alive and loud in the midst of the 19th century.
The rumors and Isobel’s historical research don't offer much on what The Seraphic Guard did in the early days, or how the Seraphic Guard became known as SGI.
Isobel’s resources at the university only come up with SGI, pmc in payroll dated as early as 1939.
German payrolls.
SeraphicGuard Infinite, pmc
They were a private military corporation. They were mercenaries. They were not nationalist of any human territory, they held no allegiance to none and therefore provided services for all.
Helios has been quite adept at turning muscles into money while remaining covert. SGI was the private military that every government in the world wanted but just didn’t know why. After all war was all the Angels knew, they had centuries of experience so why not make a living of it. Helios had spent years winning other people's wars and I could only think what he wanted now.
He wanted to win his own war, of course he'd have to start one first.
It made me nervous. The SGI were being what they always had been. Warriors.I got angry at Father suddenly. Why had he had us sewing buttons ? We should have been training for this.
Isaiah.
Isaiah had learned about SGI. He knew they were here and he knew what Helios could be capable of. He saw it coming so he built his army of daemons. He did it to protect us. And me ? I tore it down.
What had Isaiah said ?
The apocalypse is near.
Isaiah had done what Father would never do. By creating the daemons Isaiah had given us weapons. He had tried to create an army so we could at least have a fighting chance. He just knew he had to get Father and me out of the way first. Pacifist can be quite hard to sway.
His creatures weren't perfect. They came with the price of blood. His own blood. If we could somehow turn the daemons to lust for Angel blood, it could change things. Give us some leverage.
I turned on the chaise and nearly fell off. Settling on my back I peer into the darkness.
Maybe, Isaiah was a hero.
If only I could find him
+++
Whew ! So there it is. Did I really post this ? Also fair warning Isaiah isn’t really a big part of this so. . . warning. I promise this is all the retrospective we are going to get but I needed some times to pass between Lux and Bellum
This version has a few minor changes to the way the world is portrayed. Just some fine tuning.
Helios' (eel-E-O-us) last name being Thantos really stuck with me because it means . . . you know death. I just realized that Thantos is the greek word that makes up Thanatopsis, which is odd becuase I had Thanatopsis' name SO LONG ago. so. . . hmmm.
I know there was a smidgen of "as you know" but I feel even the characters need to be reintroduced to the situation since it's been a year.
LANTC
Longer Author's Notes To Come.