When Angels and Serpents Dance

Blood. Blood and destruction were everywhere I looked. Once a green field was now colored in red, as if someone splashed cans of paint all over it. I didn’t know Nephilim could bleed so much. Warriors could be seen all over the place, running from body to body, touching and hoping that at least one of them will have a heartbeat. I already knew they didn’t. I’ve seen this kind of destruction before, but I hoped I never would have to see it again. One body in particular drew my attention. Not too far away from me, my youngest warrior Clay laid with his eyes closed and chest ripped wide open. I didn’t have to check to know that his heart wasn’t there. This wasn’t a random attack. This was a sacrifice. “Captain, we are receiving reports of attacks from all of the Kingdoms.” - Sasha, one of my apprentices said somewhere on my right side. Blood of a human, claw of a werewolf, vampire fang, eyes of an Elf and Nephilim heart. Those were all ingredients to open the Gate we sealed shut more than 2 millennia ago. “Captain?” A flashback to a time we were taking an Oath. A human, werewolf, vampire, an Elf and Nephilim. We swore to protect this Earth, no matter how it looked like after the Great Flood. Somebody was trying to undo all of what we’ve done. Rage was boiling inside of me as I looked over the faces of our friends, families, warriors that just finished their training and were willing to give their life for peace. I refused to believe they were back, but foul smell of sulphur remained in the air, making it impossible to deny what actually happened here. Demons were back, and someone was obviously helping them. “Sasha.” - I turned towards a trembling girl, and I felt sorry for all I was sure was going to come. “Yes Captain.” “Those reports you mentioned; I want all of them on my table in an hour.” “Yes, of course.” “I also want the list of people that knew about this shift exchange.” “I’ll have it all on your table.” “And Sasha?” “Yes Captain?” - she looked at me with evident fear in her eyes. “Not a word to anyone back in compound.” Quickly nodding, she hurried towards the city, disappearing into the forest. Darius, my second in command and most importantly my adoptive brother, was shouting orders to a group of warriors that seemed like they wanted to be anywhere but here. I shared the sentiment. Most of them never even saw a dead body, not to mention this kind of m******e. Darius kept his eyes on me as I approached them, dismissing the warriors. “Please tell me this is not what I think it is?” Adoptive or not, he was the only family I had, and it hurt me to see the fear in his eyes. We were both born somewhere on the shores of what was once Dead Sea. I never knew my mother and father and neither did he. A High Priestess Salome took us both in. We grew up together, fought together and promised to guard this realm with everything we have. This incident was a reminder of Old Age when Noah thought he succeeded in his quest sent from God . Only, he was extremely wrong. What they both forgot about were the Gates of Hell, and the Great Flood opened all of them. “It’s demons Darius. I think they are back.” His nostrils flared before he threw his sword on a ground with a loud thump. “How is that even possible?! We sealed it all, killed them...” “This was a sacrifice. You know it as well as I do.” “No, I don’t want to believe that.” “Their hearts are missing, and we are receiving reports of attacks in other Kingdoms. You know what that means, right?” “This is bullshit!” - his anger was getting the best of him and we started bringing unwanted attention to us. “Hey, hey” - I hugged him. “Calm down, alright?” “How can I be calm, when there is a loose demon somewhere, destroying everything we worked for?” “I know, but we need to keep our heads cool. We can’t panic now. Look around us. These people need us to be calm and collected.” Both of us couldn’t stay here. I was sure the city was in frenzy, waiting for the news of what has happened, and I knew what I had to do. “Look, one of us has to go back to the City. Burn all of the bodies and take the team back.” “What are you going to do?” - he finally looked at me. “Somebody needs to go North and check the Gate. I am not going to risk any more of our people.” “No, absolutely no.” “Brother, it has to be me. Half of our warriors never fought a demon before.” “Then I am going with you.” “No, you aren’t. You will contact the Council and schedule a meeting.” “Elie...” “This is not up to discussion, it’s an order.” “You going alone is extremely reckless.” “That’s why I’m not going to go alone. Seth will accompany me as well as Twins.” After a moment of silence, followed by deep intake of air, I knew he would agree. No matter the danger, he was well aware that if there still was anything lurking around, I was the best warrior we had. “No reckless decisions and for all that’s holy, please don’t play a hero. Alright?” “Okay.” - I had to give him that much. “Promise me?” “I promise Darius. Nothing will happen to me.” After another hug, he reluctantly let me go. Now I just needed to find Seth and the twins. A lone figure on the northern side of clearing caught my attention, and if it wasn’t for his size, I probably wouldn’t realize it was Seth. As I got closer, I realized that he was hunched over someone, rather than something, and was completely oblivious of the world around him. “Seth?” He just kept staring at a girl that was laying at his feet. “Hey, are you okay?” I wasn’t exactly sure if he wanted to be left alone, but there was one rule we lived by in this line of work - no emotions. We didn’t have a rule when it came to relationships between warriors, but everyone tried to avoid them exactly for these reasons. The look on his face was all too familiar. It was a devastation of losing someone you loved, someone you cared about. I didn’t want to press him, but we had job to do. Nephilim never had time for mourning. “Do you want to talk about it?” “Not really.” - and he speaks. “Who was she?” He finally looked at me, misery reflecting in his blue eyes. “Really don’t want to talk about it Elyssia.” “Okay, but if you do...” “I know where to find you. What can I do for you?” He stared as he poured a can of oil over the body. “We need to go North. I have to check the Gate and the rest of our people.” “Are you going to tell me what happened here?” “I will when we’re on the way. But if you’re not able to come, I’ll understand.” He stood at full height now, looking behind my back, no doubt seeing all of the burning bodies. His scowl seemed to deepen, but I really hoped he will overcome whatever was going through his head. He turned his attention to me, and I knew he was back. “What do you need me to do?” _____________________________________ Getting Aneera and Draew to join us was an easy part, trying to keep them quiet on our way to the Gate, was not. “Why are we walking? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love walking, but it would have been much faster with one of the cars.” - Aneera started. “Yes it would have been, but in that case we could have brought fireworks as well for whatever attacked our people back there.” After a moment of silence, she started talking again. “Yeah, you have a point. So what exactly was it that attacked them?” I was trying to avoid confirming anything until I was completely positive that demons were involved. If someone summoned a demon to our dimension, they were playing with very old and very powerful magic. The type of magic my Aunt Salomé warned me against on multiple occasions. I also didn’t want panic and mass hysteria in our ranks. Most of our warriors nowadays only heard stories of what demons were capable of. They never even saw any of them, not to mention fought one. “I am honestly not sure, and I hope I am wrong about my suspicions.” “But you are suspicious of something, aren’t you?” - Draew continued. “Yes I am, but it could have been an animal, or lost Giant.” “Giants don’t take Nephilim hearts. This was something else.” I could feel Seth’s eyes on me, but I refused to look at him. He also was part of the Great War. When demons attacked for the first time, his mother died, trying to defend him. He was only 10 years old. The war our species fought against demon kind lasted for almost a thousand years, and all of us referred to that period as Old Age. Shortly after the Great Flood, new species started showing up. Elves, Werewolves, Vampires, and all of them created their Kingdoms, separate from the Human one. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only novelty on Earth. They all forgot about the ones that were lurking from Underworld. “Captain?” Hand on my shoulder pulled me from my thoughts, and worried face of Aneera came into focus. “Sorry, I was just thinking. What did you say?” “I said, we’ve been walking for almost 3 hours now. We should’ve been there by now.” I looked up and saw an Oak tree that was a start of our warded area. “Do you see that tree?” - I pointed towards it. “That is beginning of warded territory. We are basically there.” “Can you hear that?” - Seth completely stopped, looking towards the sky. I couldn’t hear anything. But that was exactly the problem. I couldn’t hear birds, insects, none of the other animals seemed to be anywhere around. “I don’t hear a anything.” - Aneera looked at him. “Exactly and that’s the problem.” Before he could even finish the sentence, siren started wailing in the distance, while my heart started going into overdrive. Aerial alarm. “What is that?” Aneera pointed towards the sky, where two birdlike creatures were flying towards us. And they were flying fast. “Run.” “What?” - all of them seemed confused. “I said run! Now!” Realizing that we might be in imminent danger, all three of them started sprinting towards the tree. Wards were nothing against higher demons, but I hoped that whatever this was wouldn’t be able to go through. Before I could reach the warded area, creatures impact sent me flying further away, right on to the pile of rocks. “Captain!” Dust was everywhere, and I had a feeling my head was split in two. I could hear voices, but it was hard to focus on any of them. “I’m going for her.” - it was Aneera, and as much as I appreciated her willingness to save me, I couldn’t risk her life. “No! Stay where you are.” - I grunted and hoped they could hear me. Looking to my right side, I could recognize two silhouettes that seemed to be of human shape. “What in the Hell?” Seth must have noticed what I did as well. Two pairs of wings were behind their backs, and this day could only get worse if spiders started crawling all over me. Angels, in flesh and blood. If I was going to die, I will not do so by laying on the ground, waiting for them to kill me. I pushed myself into the upright position, pulling out the sword that accompanied me in many battles. I could see them fully now. I looked towards where three of them were standing, and was happy to see they were safe, for now. Our wards were not meant for angels, and they couldn’t keep them out. For more than 2 millennia I waited for them to return. I wanted answers. I needed to know why did they abandon us? Why create us in the first place if you’re just going to leave us. I remember the day they all disappeared into the clouds, led by much larger Angel. Later I found out it was Raphael, the commander or Watchers, our fathers. The one that also slaughtered all of our brothers and sisters that turned out bad. These two were smaller than he was, but that shape of wings could belong only to an Archangel. They were our friends once, but I despised them with my whole being. Their wings started retreating and I could see runes cascading over their naked chests, hands and neck. It was ancient Enochian. And dear Heavens, they were beautiful. Whoever thought that Elves came from them instead of demons, have never seen an Angel in person. If I didn’t hold such a resentment towards them, I would even say they were perfect. “What do we have here? Nephilim?” - shorter one spoke, looking straight at me. He was smiling, taking me in from head to toe. “What the hell are you doing here?” - I think I hear Aneera’s sharp intake of breath as soon as I spoke. I wasn’t planning on playing nice, no matter what the reason for their appearance was. “Definitely a Nephilim. I always wondered how you guys looked in person.” “You’ve seen me, now get lost.” He started laughing, as if our interaction was extremely amusing to him. “Gabe, I like this one. Can I keep her?” My head was pounding, and I was pretty sure I was bleeding on multiple places. I just wanted them gone so that I can deal with a mess that is called our world. “I really have no time for this. Whoever you are, I want you gone.”  The other one took a couple of steps towards me, when an arrow flew from behind me, landing between his legs. He looked straight to Aneera who was one of our best archers. Well, no one said they were welcome here. “The next one goes between your eyes, Angel.” “We have names.” “Yes, and we don’t want to know them.” Aneera might not have been around when they left us, but she knew the stories, and I am sure, held similar kind of resentment towards them. “Look, what is your name?” - he looked at me again, but I had a hard time seeing only two of them, instead of four. I really needed to lay down and let myself heal. “You are bleeding, and I can help you.” “Not a chance. I would rather die than accept anything from an Angel.” “Technically, we are archangels.” - Smiley started. “I know what you are you i***t, I’ve seen your kind before.” Pain sliced through my skull, making me drop my sword. “Please let me help you.” – the one called Gabe spoke. “What do you mean you saw our kind before?” They spoke at the same time, and I would have laughed if I had power in me to do so. “Last time we were on Earth was more than...” “Two thousand years ago, correct?” - I finished for him. “How is that possible?” “Uriel, shut up.” “Why don’t you both shut up and leave?” - I closed my eyes, when another wave of dizziness hit. This was very bad. I couldn’t fight if I was unconscious. “We need to talk to your Leader. What was her name?” - taller one turned towards Uriel. “Eyssia. We need to talk to her. Our brother...” “She will never talk to you.” - Seth exclaimed. Before the darkness took over, last thing I heard was sound of wings and someone shouting my name.