She didn’t want to be here but you’d never guess by looking at her. The black aviators gave her the illusion of being cool and cocky at the same time. Her jacket and thick boots smelled like leather but her clean white shirt, tight jeans and honey colored highlighted hair said feminine.

It was hard to ignore her extravagant beauty in a room mostly full of men. Her cool stoic expression doesn’t change as we make our way down the show room floor, not even when she brings the red stirrer in her mojito to her lips.

“Everyone’s starting at us.” She says.

“At me”, I said, “It’s been two years since SGI made an appearance.”

The showroom floor of the Havanna International Spa & Casiono is thick with the ugliest and shadiest of mankind from the slick suited cartels, International thugs, extremist organizations  and small time dictators. This year’s convention was full of the shittiest of humanity.

“You know if someone blew this place up, we’d be able to fix. . . half of humanities problems.”

“If you bought me another drink you’d fix all of my problems.” She says.

We take a subtle turn to the bar.

The International Protection and Security Expo had once been SGI’s playground. The biggest arms dealers conference in the world. Every year we would converge in one spot and the deals would begin. Helios would buy a years worth of arms in one day. He was a big spender, he was charming, he had his own army and a proven record for getting things done at all cost and everyone wanted a piece.

It was a good life. Since the 80’s we’d be welcomed to the expo with all-expense paid rooms and the most beautiful women. Alcohol, concert tickets and watches were thrown around like nothing. Drinks poured freely and some of the most powerful war mongers in the world would beg for Helios attention.

When Helios had missed the conference two years ago there was concerned he’d finally died on a mission gone bad. When he didn’t show up last year and rumor spread about me taking over SGI people thought we’d gone soft.

I motioned to the bartender and ordered two more mojitos, by the time I grabbed them Sera was making time with a girl from the French Foreign Legion.

“We have a meeting”, I said sidling up beside her.

She pushed away from the woman, but they left on very friendly terms.

“Don’t you have a boyfriend ?”, I reminded her

“I have a big heart”, she said

“Well. . .we both know that’s not true. We got a meeting to get to.”

 

In the monotony of monotony that is probably in every conference we spend 10 minutes trying to find meeting room 34H.

The room is bland. Just a round acrylic table and red conference room chairs. A woman in a polished purple suit is sitting down. She has two plain clothed marines with her. She seems uncomfortable. . . I gather the men are here to protect her while at the conference.

I can’t believe who she is. This wasn’t who I expected when I got the message slipped under my door that morning.

“Uh. . . Senator Glass”, I say putting down my drink.

Seraphina looks non-chalant. She didn’t’ follow politics, we were going to have to change that.

“I was told I’d be meeting with the head of SGI, a Mr. Helios Thantos.”

I roll out a chair and sit down. Sera keeps standing.

“He’s indisposed. I’m Leonidas Argos, the new executive senior officer at SGI. This is Seraphina Grigori. My apprentice.”

They shake hands, Seraphina takes off the aviators and the woman doesn’t seem to be expecting a face as gorgeous and cold as hers.

“I won’t waste my time with necessities, Mr. Argos. This is a manner of national security. This could be .  . serious. I’m on the Defense and Homeland Security Congressional Subcommittee. I came across something . . . something my fellow male committee members refuse to be interested in.”

“ Might I remind you SGI is made up of non-nationals? So, national security isn’t a priority for us--”

“This is serious.”

“Senator. I don’t know what you’ve heard but since I’ve taken over SGI we’ve shifted our perspective. I send my men into conflict zones to assist and help with relief efforts. If you’re talking war you need to see someone else. I’m out of that game. Especially with the U.S. I probably know more terrible shit your government is responsible for than you did.”

The senator sighed and reached into her oversized dark purple bag and pulled out a clear plastic evidence bag.

“We received intelligence of a possible terrorist attack on American soil. Special Forces raided a bunker last week. No one talked and we don’t know who, when or where but we found this.”

She slammed a spent bullet on the table. It was bent at the tip and was beautifully polished. It was also heavily modified. A Cop Killer.  It was also made of white gold.

“Who ever is planning this attack purchased a set of these. I was able to trace this bullet back to the SGI. I traced SGI to this conference.”

I stared at the white gold bullets the Demons had created to defeat Helios. They just hadn’t counted on Helios stealing them. I thought they’d all be destroyed . . .

 “I want to know who SGI sold these too. Who is planning an attack on my country.” Senator Glass finished

“I can’t help. Helios didn’t tell me anything about selling ammunition.”

“We are talking countless lives. Someone must know something.”

“Helios”, Seraphina said, “He can tell us who he sold the bullets to.”

“So . . . he’s not dead”, The Senator asked.

“No”

“Has he gone into hiding ?”, Glass aks

“No. “ I  have to reward Sera on her monosyllabic answers later.

“Where is he ?”

I shifted in my seat and turned to Sera.

“We have to talk to someone first.  No guarantees.”

“No guarantee? Sir, this is—“

“Look, lady. This isn’t your territory. I’m guessing your fellow Senators don’t know you’re here. We’ll be in contact.”

+++

I’d refused to spend the night in Havanna so after our meeting we took a flight back to our hotel in Miami. My passport was from Greece, hers from Russia.

Sera was already on the phone by the time we go in the cab at the Miami Airport, I’d never heard her have a real conversation with her boyfriend. He did a lot of talking and everything else was just mindless flirting and phone sex.

“You want to say goodnight to the kids “, I ask her when we get to the Holiday Inn.

“Uh, no—I’m”, she swayed a little, “Going sleep this off.”

“We can hit the gym ?”,I offered.

“In the morning”, she said and I could tell she was little buzzed.

“Okay. Look, Seraphina  I’ll talk to  Anne about what we should do…”

“You’re not seriously going to release Helios—“

“We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

I went down to the gym to do some dead weights, it wasn’t as much fun without having someone to compete against. I jogged up to my room around 7pm. I could hear crying already even thought it was almost bed time. Harmony squealed when she saw me come in and ran to me. She’d been to the pool that morning.  The room smelled like salt and waterproof toys were everywhere.

I picked her up and walked toward where her baby sister Athena was crying in her portable bassinet. The bathroom door was open and I could hear Aria cut the shower off. I got the girls quiet before she could get out. A part of my brain called for the strict military order Helios had instilled in me. A soldier’s life was sparse with few things, Aria’s had been the same. Our girls lives would be so different.t

I wasn’t in love with Aria and she wasn’t really in love with me either.

Harmony had been a big surprise for both of us in a lot ways. When I took over SGI and we went back to HQ Aria came to. I was gone a lot at first, traveling to fix all of Helios’ wrongs. I was gone weeks at a time and I let Aria stay at my apartment until she had a place and job of her own. That had been almost 18 months ago.

She’d been relatively sheltered and just finding her way in the world and being a mother was work enough. I let the girls have my bedroom while we stayed on the couch. She said she didn’t mind if we shared a bed and I kept promising I'd start renovating one of the units. . . maybe Titus's old one ? I was so busy I couldn’t schedule my usual time with escorts and if when I came back from a  trip and asked for sex she’d let me. Like an idiot I got her pregnant for the second time. I didn't know how the hell was I going to keep my girls safe if I had to ask Helios Thantos for help ?

 

+++

 

“Sorry”, He said, “I’m late”

His arms were framed in the door of the sunroom on the courtyard. Like any  douchebag he had a posse with him. The crippled one and the doctor. He was dressed somberly in all black which made you stand out in the middle of Austin in the summer.

We’d flown back to SGI headquarters first thing in the morning. We’d missed our first flight out because Aria wasn't feeling well and Sera was no help with the girls. She had zero maternal instinct and was pumped up on sleeping drugs because she hated flying. Which was fucking ironic and hilarious.

By the time we’d touched down in Austin I’d requested Anne send someone here so we could talk about how to handle this Helios situation.  I didn’t like the answer I got.

She was sending Paris Prince.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the guy, the problem was he was to slick for his own good and he knew it. He’d was centuries away from his childhood but he’d been born entitled. He’d been a coddled soft Prince. His birth Father was a murderous rampaging tyrant, there’s no way that just leaves you. I’d seen that in his brother.

Even Hmjeu had given him the royal treatment. He’d sheltered  Paris and told him he was this mythical figure. Hmjeu had been kind to Sera, but it meant shit since he’d done it because he wanted her to be Paris’ protector and whore. No. Paris didn’t know shit about the real world.  I considered his scars half his personality

Sera kept a cool expression as he came in. We shook hands and he kissed Sera, it barley lasted a second but it was still unprofessional.

“You remember, Callum”, Paris said, “He helped design the ammunition. So I brought him along.”

“Yeah.” I said

“Look. Let’s keep this short. We’re not talking to Helios. We aren’t going to give him information he could use to bargain with us,” Paris said.

“People could die if we don’t try.”

“Leon. . .people are going to start to pay attention to me and my movements so I’ve got to be careful.”

“Are you being watched”, Seraphina pipes up.

“No. I mean yes. But no”

“Paris, what’s going on ?” she asks  in a tone I’m not used to.

“Well”, he sat back, “Love, as you know Anne and I are setting up a plan to slowly reveal ourselves to human”

“Oh’, I said opening a beer, “That is a  dumb idea”

Paris just smiled his full white smile and kept going.

“Right, well we thought it might be easier if we. . . built some trust first.”

“Meaning.” I said cause he was hiding something.

“Well. . . I’m running for office.”

“What ?”, Seraphina said suddenly losing all of her cool, “You never said—“

“Calm down. . . it’s just a council seat. To start. Not a big deal but you can never be too careful.”

 

+++

It rained that night. I ran  from the parking lot and up the steps of the SGI apartment complex.  I was late bringing dinner home. I jogged up to the second floor and left Sera’s food  by her door and gave it a quick knock before bursting into my own apartment next door.

“Sera’s not home”, Aria said from the table, “Paris took her out.”

“Okay”

The apartment was neat. Before it had been sparse but Aria liked color and she spent more time there than I did.  Sera said growing up in the commune Anne never allowed any color. Aria painted the walls orange. The furniture was gray, but she put up bluish—green vases and lamps.  All the kitchen appliances were yellow, red or blue..

Aria read when she ate her chain-restaurant salad, she liked to walk to the RiteAid down the street to buy magazines, (pregnancy test) and books. The manager knew her pretty well. I warned her about making outside friends. I turned my on 75” TV on and relaxed my brain.

I’m woken up in the middle of the night by Sera’s laughing. I jump up from the couch and open the door.

Sera’s hair had been short this morning and now went past her shoulders. I smelled the vodka and tequila the minute I got close to them. She and Paris were holding each other up and laughing. They were wet from either the rain or sweating. They had had glow sticks on their wrist and glitter in their hair.

“Look. ..look, Baby”, he said holding up her key, “I think it’s this one.”

“Okay. I think I”, she slurs and manages to get the key in the lock.

He smiles a greeting at me.

“I thought Anne sent you here to work.” I said.

“Don’t worry we didn’t talk about Heliu—Heli--Work.”, he turned back to Sera and seemed to sober up, “I’m going to stay. . . is that okay.”

Sera looked at me as she tried to open the door, Eventually I had to turn the key for her. Her apartment was just one room it used to be an office. Just a bookshelf served as a separating wall.

The floor was cluttered with clothes, protein powder, weights and shoes. Glasses filled the sink. Paris passed out on the couch and Seraphina sat on her bed, taking out her hair clips. She walks barefoot into the bathroom and I hear the water running and the sound of some electronic brush over her face.

“I teleconferenced Senator Glass. We talked about Helios”

“What now ?”

“I think we can trust her”

She’d peeled off her dress for a black pajama set, she pulled a blanket off her bed and draped it over the sleeping man on the couch. She took off his tight shirt and pants.

“I’m drunk right now, Leon. Can this wait.”

“Yeah, I know. This is a 24 hour a job.”

“Your job. You’re the one in charge—Mr. Senior Officer—“

“That’s going to be you one day and soon.”

“Stop it.”

“I’m serious Sera. I can’t take Helios’ place permeantly. I would if I could but . . . I got another kid on the way and I need to actually be there. I can’t trust the other guys, we need fresh blood.”

“I know. I know.”

 “Okay, good-night”

“Night”

I watched until she got into her bed and closed the door. I’d kept an ear out though. Paris was . . . extremely harmless but I was protective. Sera and I had the longest layover imaginable in Alaska a few months ago where we’d had one to many margaritas at a Chipotle and she’d confessed that she hadn’t had sex with Paris since we’d been exiled. I thought she was joking but she got pretty somber and I changed the subject.

+++

Aria made us breakfast the next morning. In her usual way Sera had done a complete 180 for our meeting today. She was wearing a navy blue three piece suit.  Her hair was dyed a darker brown and slicked back.

“Morning”, Paris said as he came  into the courtyard sunroom for breakfast. He hadn’t shaved, he seemed uncomfortable. He watched Zacharias and Les doing laps in the pool. Their wings on full display

“Everything okay ?”, I asked picking up the tension between Seraphina and Paris

“He cleaned my apartment”, Seraphina said, “You just do everything without asking me first.”

I opened the cooler that was always magically filled with Coors.

“What’s this really about ?”

Paris smirked, “She is still mad about me running for a council seat. I mean it’s the Bronx, no one cares about the Bronx.”

 “Why you making  a big deal out of this, Sera”, I said, “ SGI has been exiled. We can’t go back to New York City anyway.”

“I—I care. They are going to search him and those internet people—“

“Bloggers.”

“I just. . . I don’t want that. To be searched. To be looked up”

“Sera you are being petty”, I said and felt real bad about it.

“Leon you don’t understand, “ Sera looked to the door and back.

“What?”, I asked.

“We. . . got married”

I froze thinking I missed something.

“What ? When  ? Where ? Why ?”

“I—Hawaii few months ago.”

“Why ? WHY ?”, I repeated. I was getting loud and Paris had his face in his hands still staving off a hangover.

“I don’t know”, Sera said, “. . . we were in Maui and it was nice and it just felt like a world apart and he—we---on the beach.”

“God, tell me he didn’t marry you so you’d sleep with him”

“Leon, I told you we aren’t doing that.”, she said

”You knew you made a deal with me. . . with SGI. I  thought we were going to do this together. You said if I trained you that you’d take over for me. We had a deal”

“I can do both, Leon”, She said, “I’m not even allowed in the city, so it doesn’t mean anything. It didn't mean anything”

Paris sat back in the chair and folded his arms.

“Fuck, Sera”, I stood up, “If you think that then you are worse than Aria sometimes. I swear you people let Anne and Hmjeu lock you up for all these centuries and you are like children.”

I got up from the table, Callum and Damienr had come in and caught the tail end.

“Leon—“

“Stop Sera. The truth is we are Angels and they are Demons. SGI operates outside whatever rules Anne and Hmjeu had. We are outsiders to them. We are exiled Sera. Exiled. You have to choose SGI, cause you don’t have another choice. If you didn’t consummate this thing then you need to get it annulled.”

Sera stood up gripping a butter knife.

“How can you be so archaic Leon. You are not my Father so stop acting like one.”

“I will the minute you stop acting like an impulsive child-”

She got up from the table before I could finish.

“Don’t we have work to do Leon ?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you in the car. Paris . . . call me when you are ready to take us to Helios.”

Paris looks up for his phone, and goes through a few messages.

“Actually. . . we can go now  if you can get a plane. Also we are going to need a boat.”

 

Wow, so the Arms conference spells out TIPSE. That was so not intentional.

So, why does this not work ? Well for one I figured they would go to Helios and then in the vein of all thrillers “some guys would rush in with a gun”. . . then I had no idea what next. I didn’t know where else to send them. I didn’t know who Helios sold the bullets to, I didn’t know if there was a plot twist.

I didn’t even know any other scenes I wanted to hit... and months later I still don't. I just knew I wanted Sera and Paris to be really good at compartmentalizing their business and personal relationship... something that could still happen in QC.

 QC pulls a lot of notes, scenes and ideas from this for inspiration. . Of course the situation and characterizations are very different. Notably the relationship between Leon and Paris. In QC Leon is still unsure about Paris but he has a more respect for Paris that he does here.  Leon is also more subordinate to Paris in QC,  making him way more amiable about his mistrust and envy of Paris.

I would have wanted to explore more of Paris and Sera’s carefree and reckless relationship but there isn’t a lot of room for that in the Alternate Universe. I

 

Also, this is what I imagined Sera's hair to look like.