Fallen 1: Berlin

Chapter XV: Roses are Red

"How are you feeling now?" Berlin asked Sage after he took her to the laboratories where he had a first aid specialist in case any accidents occurred. He could tell that she was upset and he saw a change in her earlier that morning. He could sense her anger and when he questioned her about it, she lied to him. He knew it didn't have to do with forgetting her detox shake. He didn't understand how serious it was until she cried about it.

Everyone thinks I am sleeping with the two of you and the way you fuss about everything I do makes it even worse!

It startled him that that was what Sage was experiencing quietly as she worked for him. He and Cairo were on autopilot when it came to Sage. The guardian side of them took over whenever Sage was around. It was an unconscious action when Cairo mentioned Sage's hand and he saw the red palm. As it was, Berlin's guardian side fought against Elise's advances. He hadn't meant to abandon Elise the way he did, but he couldn't help but worry about Sage.

"I'm fine, Berlin," Sage grumbled as the first aid specialist finished applying the soothing gel on her palm and went about his work. As she got up from the chair, Berlin automatically stood up with her and he saw the way she rolled her eyes. "Berlin, I am fine. This is just a small burn and it will go away by noon. I'm not one of the clients, so I don't need a bodyguard following me around."

Berlin gave her a small nod but he couldn't help worrying about what she had been going through in a place he thought would allow her to grow and become independent. Were the other employees mistreating her because she worked for him? Berlin had never had a P.A. before, so he didn't know how to treat one. Did he make a mistake bringing her there? Was he doing too much? Why didn't anyone say anything about the way he treated Lucian? The boy practically moved in with him, but Berlin never heard any circulating gossip about him.

"How long has it been going on?" He asked her quietly as they made their way towards the elevator.

With Cairo gone for the day, it was just the two of them and Berlin wanted to get to the bottom of whatever Sage was subjected to at work. It didn't settle well with him to know that she came from a toxic working environment only to find herself in yet another sticky situation.

"What?" She turned her big eyes towards him and his heart heaved.

"How long have you been having misunderstandings with the other employees at the office, Sage?" Berlin restructured his question. "Why would people think that you are sleeping with either me or Cairo?"

Sage sighed and pushed her good hand to her curls. "Words started going around on the night of the stakeholder's dinner. I'm just a P.A. and I should not have so many privileges because it makes people think that I slept my way to get here." She stopped abruptly and turned her entire attention to Berlin. "I know I am not qualified as a P.A. for you but I am learning and these past few days have taught me a lot. I am ready to put in some work...but I can't prove myself to you if you keep on treating me like an egg. And why do you treat me so?"

Truth be told, Berlin didn't have any answers yet. The moment Bucha and Ottawa arrived, they went straight to work on him. He expected that of them because he was their leader and if something bad happened to him then it would have affected all of them. They ran tests on him and Ottawa was convinced that Sage was brought by either Seoul or War to confuse Berlin so that he didn't interfere with the clock of destruction.

Berlin didn't believe that Sage was sent to him because War and Seoul didn't have that kind of power. It didn't make sense why they would bring forward someone who would awaken his guardian. Berlin was one of the strongest guardians the Skies had ever had, so it was a disadvantage to both War and Seoul that he had awakened.

Berlin chose not to say anything because there was nothing to say.

"It shouldn't be me who gets your attention, Berlin. You need to take care of your girlfriend first--"

"I thought we spoke about this. I have no girlfriend." He assured her.

"Well, I don't think she understood you. I am being tormented because of you and Cairo. I am grateful that you thought I would be a great asset to your company, but I am really thinking if I will be able to work in such an environment, where I am constantly looking over my shoulder because my boss is too much of a good guy." Berlin didn't like the way Sage was talking about herself. To him, it sounded as if she was criticizing herself and that she wasn't good enough to work for him. She took her incompetence as a disadvantage, yet he remembered telling her that her incompetence gave room for her to learn more and grow in her career.

"We are not talking about this again, Sage. Take the day off and cool down. Tomorrow we have an important meeting with a new client," Berlin said. He watched as her eyes widened and knew she was going to protest, but he gave her no room. "I am not asking you to take the day off, I am ordering you. I'll take care of the situation here at work, so go upstairs and get your stuff and go home."

She pursed her lips and watched as he walked off in the opposite direction before she made her way to the elevator.

Before he could make it further, his phone rang and Lucian was on the other end.

"I thought you should know that we found the mole working for War and Seoul...well, at least his body." He announced. "I am at the city morgue. His body was found on the banks of the river and was brought here."

Berlin gritted his teeth. "Who was it?"

"Justin Keys. He is a newbie. He started working for us about a month ago. Before that, he worked for a small security company across town." Lucian explained.

Berlin recalled Justin Keys. He was someone who kept to himself and now that he looked at it, he might have come into contact with Seoul. Seoul's unique gift of embedding suggestions inside the subconscious of his victims would have earned him a place in the Elite Team One, but his ego got the best of him. He was not a team player and always did things to please the Power. That was the reason why he was the right person to push forward the destruction of humankind.

Each guardian had their own unique talents, but some were considered too powerful and were sealed by the Power. Berlin's talent was blacklisted because it was considered vindictive and was sealed by the Power but at times he was able to access it. Berlin had the ability to allow evildoers to relive every horrendous moment they inflicted on their victims like them. The bullies, murderers, and rapists went through their memories as if they were the victims. He created a little hell inside the head of the abuser.

"Did you take my soul stone with you, Lucien? You know what happens when we take a life unnecessarily."

"Yes, I have it. You need to hurry up and get here before the door opens." Lucien said.

"I am on my way," Berlin said grimly and made his way towards the morgue.

A FEW MINUTES LATER...

Berlin rushed through the corridors of the morgue after he was directed to where the body was. The nasty part of guardians taking unnecessary lives was that it left behind a cervix for the sullies to pass through into the world of the living and reign havoc. The sullies were identified as evil spirits or demons even by humans, but either way, they were very dangerous and sometimes deadly. The sullied could only pass through the gateway left open after a guardian took a life undeserving to leave the plane of the living at that given time. It was a counteraction to a bad decision that reminded the guardians that they had to protect the innocent and not kill them.

The sullies were powerful entities and they were able to slip through the cervix and possess the body within several days. The only way to get rid of them was to possess the guardian's soul stone that could be used to banish the sullies and close up the gateway. Just as he got to the morgue where Justin Key's body was kept, Lucien rushed out with his face pale and his eyes wide with fear.

"It has started." He announced as he handed Berlin the amber pendant.

"Keep a watch out. Don't let anyone in." Berlin instructed Lucien as he entered the darkened morgue and created a void that would prevent the humans from seeing or hearing what was happening there. He watched quietly as Justin's bones cracked and joints bent at odd angles to show that the possession of his corpse had started.

"I...smell...a...guardian!" A hiss escaped Justin's lips as his spine popped and elongated while his neck bones stretched and his pitch block eyes turned towards Berlin.

"A sully like you does not belong on this plane," Berlin warned him.

Berlin was sure Seoul killed Justin on purpose in order to keep him busy while he and War went about carrying out the orders of the Power.

The extension of Justin's spine burst out and elongated into a jagged tail, his fingernails were pushed out by the large black claws and he got up from the gurney before he stretched languidly. His body expanded until he was almost touching the ceiling. A long slimy tongue slashed from his mouth as he eyed Berlin.

"You underestimate me, guardian. I'm not like the other sullies you've fought in the past." The sully spoke as he ran his razor-sharp nails across the ceiling and the lights together with the ceiling boards came crushing down on Berlin.

Berlin jumped out of the way as he felt his guardian take root within him. It had been a while since he felt that much power, ever since his punishment started. The slumbering guardian had indeed woken up. Fire ignited his blood and fortified his bones as his muscles stretched and his small human physic expanded to accommodate him. Before the punishment, his wings stretched out with the fires of judgment and his divine weapon materialized in his hand. Just the sight of him was enough to make any sully cower away in fear. Unfortunately, this time around, he neither had his wings nor did he have his weapon. He had to do with what he had.

"Your lack of wings tells me the rumors are true." The sully spoke as he inched back from Berlin.

"What rumors?" Berlin asked with very little patience left for the sully. They were conniving and always looked for a chance to escape. When they did, they destroyed everything in their paths and killed without thought.

The sully in front of Berlin was quite strong and Berlin could tell that he believed in his abilities, which was the reason why it showed itself in front of a guardian. Most kept themselves hidden in the corpse and escaped into society. However, the stench of a rotting corpse always gave them away.

"Rumor has it that five guardians have fallen and they are here on this plane among the humans. How delicious it would be to feed on their fear and misery while they are weakened." The sully licked his scaly lips and smacked them together.

In order to preserve their rotting corpses, the sullies had to keep on feeding on the misery, pain, and fear of those who surrounded them, so they inflicted a lot of tragedy on society.

"Do I look weakened to you, sully?" Berlin narrowed his eyes as he looked around the corpse for the sully's name.

One disadvantage that the sullies had when they entered a plane that wasn't theirs was that they were not supposed to expose their identities. However, the sully's name always appeared somewhere on the corpse they possessed, which was the reason why they needed to keep away from guardians who could use their soul stones to see the name and banish the sully.

"Ooh..." The sully chuckled giddily. "Don't tell me you are searching for my name, guardian. It's not here." He ran his hands over the graying body he possessed suggestively and added. "It is somewhere you'll never find it."

"Give me your name and let me send you home or I will burn through your soul." Berlin gritted his teeth.

The sully threw his head back and screeched. The sound was so bad that Berlin felt a warm liquid trickling down from his ears to his neck. He rubbed the liquid away and when he looked down at his fingers, it was blood.

"You are going to have to fight me to get it, guardian..." The sully rasped angrily.

Berlin grinned grimly, relieved that the sully decided to play hard to get. It had been a while since he had such a challenging battle and the guardian in him bounced with giddiness in the anticipation of the fight. Fiery claws elongated from his fingers and fiery veins crackled against his skin as his body expanded and he was almost the same size as the sully.

"With pleasure..." Berlin snarled as he attacked the sully.

Sage sighed as she collapsed on her bed and closed her eyes. The events of that morning played in her mind. She couldn't believe she let her emotions overwhelm her and she ended up crying in front of Berlin and Cairo. Elise was out for blood and so was Nellie. She couldn't directly blame Berlin and Cairo for what happened, but it didn't make sense to her why they would react to her that way. She wondered how Berlin was able to build such an empire for himself when he was so clueless about what was happening around him. Sage didn't understand why he would not want to be with Elise, who was thoroughly established and had connections that would further Berlin's business endeavors. Sage couldn't understand why Elise would be threatened by someone such as her until she saw the way the two men reacted.

It was true that she found Berlin attractive. She doubted there was a sane woman who didn't. However, Sage had boundaries, especially since he was the person who rescued her from a very bleak future. She was grateful to him and didn't want to do anything to jeopardize what she had at that moment in time. She was not going to give in to her whims and sacrifice that amazing opportunity.

Sage sat up abruptly with determination written in her eyes. She had made up her mind. She was going to do everything in her power to keep away from Berlin and Cairo. She was going to keep it strictly professional and only associate with Berlin when she needed to.

"Who am I kidding?" She grumbled to herself as she sagged back to the bed. "I am his PA. How do I avoid him when it is my job to stick to him like glue?" Her cheeks were stained with blush as she recalled how concerned Berlin was with her.

Was Berlin the nice guy she thought or was he particularly nice to her? Was there something he needed from her? The way he had placed his forehead against hers was an intimate moment between someone and their employer. She told herself that she wasn't going to think about it, but the warmth that surrounded her when he held her in his arms and the minty breath washing over her face as he spoke lightly to her made her second guess just what Berlin was after when it came to her. He had a fever that morning when she saw him, but as the minutes progressed, that fever went down and Berlin was himself once more.

He was a man of mystery and it seemed to Sage as if he was an old soul. It was as if he knew more than he let people believe. It was in the way he spoke or sometimes she caught him staring into the distance deep in thought. Sage didn't know what she did to have such luck in stumbling into his life, but she believed that under his supervision...

Sage frowned as her room was suddenly saturated with a scent she knew so well.

Roses...

It hadn't been long since she had bought her mother roses the last time she went to see her but the scent couldn't have stayed that long in her apartment, especially as strong as it was? The scent teased her as she opened her eyes and looked around the room. It was as if she was waking up in a dream where everything was hazy and hypnotically calming. She breathed in the scent as it got stronger and gasped when she felt hands on her thighs and waist.

"Sage..." The whisper came to her and she moaned when she felt the lips against her shoulder and neck as the hand pushed her blouse away and exposed her skin. A head came into view with thick dark hair and she saw a hint of that pale complexion she was familiar with.

Cherry red eyes snapped up to hers and a wicked smile painted itself on his lips as he claimed hers in a bone-crushing kiss.

"I missed you, Sage. I know you missed me too." He rasped against her lips and Sage couldn't collect her thoughts because he was all around her, keeping her in a state that she couldn't break away from.

"Winston Archer?" She squeaked in puzzlement as he continued tormenting her with his kisses.

She knew that was a dream because there was no way that Winston Archer would know where she lived, let alone kiss her like that. Why would she concoct such a dream so suddenly? Berlin had warned her about Winston.

"Call me War." He said as he moved back and shed his black tux jacket before he loosened his red tie and smirked down at her. "I don't understand what it is that keeps my mind constantly thinking about you. From the moment I laid my eyes on you that night, I knew you were special."

"War?" Sage tried to pry his hands away from her so that she could try and figure out what was happening, but the scent of roses got stronger and she felt as if she was swimming in a pool of oblivion. "I can't, we can't--"

She started but War stopped her by kissing her again. "Yes, we can," he assured her as he undid her blouse and revealed her lacey bra inside. "Don't you want this?"

Sage felt suffocated as she struggled to keep her blouse on. "No, I don't!" She exclaimed, catching him by surprise long enough to be able to push herself away from him. "What kind of sick dream is this?" She shook her head to try and wake herself up, but when she opened her eyes again, Winston/War or whatever his name was still ogling back at her in surprise.

"How is it that you are able to break free from my abilities so easily?" He frowned at her pensively. "Unless..." His eyes widened a little before they became hard and grim as if the answer was foul and unthinkable.

Sage moved away from him and took a deep breath. "I don't know what kind of twist joke this is, but if you really are here, in my room, then I suggest you get the hell out before I call the police!"

War chuckled and ran his hand through his hair. "What you don't understand, my sweet Sage, is that I have your scent--just like Maxiel and Artemon. I am a hound and I can find you anywhere." He held his hand up towards her and a force propelled Sage forward before she found herself in his arms again. He nuzzled her neck and shoulders, then smiled and said, "I have been a good boy all this time but I think it is time for this good boy to collect his treat."

Without warning, she felt fiery hot teeth pierce into her shoulder and Sage screamed as pain and fire seared through her veins.

Sage landed with a dull thud onto the floor tangled up in her sheets and sweating profusely. She sat up and panted as she looked around at the empty room. What kind of nasty dream was that? She crawled out of the sheets and dashed into the bathroom before she looked at her neck through the mirror. There was no mark on her shoulder and there were no indications of anything that had happened in the dream, but there was a thin sheen of sweat coating her skin. Her blouse was buttoned up and her lips were not red from being kissed thoroughly by Winston...no, War.

"War..." Sage rubbed her lips pensively and went back into her room. Why did she have to dream about him of all people? The dream was so vivid and she could have sworn she could smell the scent of roses in her room. Just how tired was she until she was able to concoct such a realistic dream about a man she had only met once?

Her stomach grumbled loudly and she tiredly made her way towards the kitchen to make herself a sandwich, not noticing the fresh red rose that had fallen beside her bed...