Chapter Fifteen
Nuriela
There was something wrong with Seraphina.
She stomped down the street muttering to herself.
I must have missed something in the few hours I was gone.
Today, I left only because I had a lead on Joseph and Michaela.
He was surprisingly good at hiding, and maybe I was mildly impressed.
Seraphina was the opposite. She was loud, foul-mouthed, and constantly attracting danger. It was exhausting.
But that voice in my head was murmuring a warning.
I closed my eyes and sensed her emotions.
They were mostly filled with rage and betrayal.
But who betrayed her? The girl was a loner.
Dodging foster families and emotional connections to people like it was her damn job.
Not that I blamed her. She and I had that in common, at least.
The sun had finally set, and evening carried on while I watched Seraphina tuck a backpack in an alley and set off into the night, heading down a familiar road.
She currently lived at a gymnasium. I didn’t feel the need to offer her a room at my place.
Part of her whole growing up and becoming the woman she needed to be included figuring shit out on her own.
Sure, I occasionally left money on the street in front of her or kept the cops from finding her when she stole food and clothing, but that was it.
She was on her own. My wings carried me through the clouds, swooping lazily in the sky while she toddled on.
Her next stop was curious. Seraphina broke into a mechanic shop.
When she exited, she was carrying what appeared to be a full can of gasoline.
I arched an eyebrow. “What are you up to?” I murmured to myself, the breeze carrying the words away into the night.
Seraphina tucked the can of gas into the basket on the front of her bicycle and peddled furiously in the direction of the gymnasium. Well, this was certainly strange, but I wasn’t going to intervene. Not yet, anyway.
She rode around to the back of the gym, avoiding the bright lights of the front parking lot and likely the cameras.
I noted a single SUV in the parking lot and two pink bicycles parked in the rack out front before swooping down and landing on the room.
Using the hatch for roof access, I snuck into the gym to find her.
Muffled screams of pure agony reached my ears from the far side of the building where the offices were located.
Keeping to the shadows and using my power to cloak my presence, I crept through the halls, following Seraphina’s voice.
“You will never harm another little girl again,” she snarled. “And when I find out who the others are, I’ll line their dead bodies up right beside yours.”
Groans and a rapid heartbeat reached my ears.
It appeared she had a man tied up in the office.
And he had been hurting young women. Can’t say that I disagreed with her threats.
The smell of gas reached my nose a few moments before Seraphina appeared in the doorway, a steady stream of gasoline trickling out of the can she stole.
I took off down the hall and away from her line of sight.
Seraphina continued to pour the gas over every surface of every office.
When she ran out, Seraphina pulled out a set of matches and without even hesitating, lit the match and tossed it to the floor.
The building went up in flames instantly.
The crazy-ass girl darted out the back door and slumped back on her ass in the empty lot behind the building, watching the flames grow higher and higher.
Eventually she stood, grabbed her bicycle, and pedaled away from the building and back to the street.
Only this time, she passed the front doors and paused at the bike rack.
“No!” she shouted, running toward the burning building. But it was too late. The entire damn place was on fire.
Sirens blared in the distance, and with a cry of frustration, she took off into the night.
Beneath all the noise of the roaring fire and the incoming fire trucks, the softest cries reached my heightened senses.
I leapt into action, tucking my wings in and using my power of air to snuff out the fire as I dove into a window.
“Where are you?!” I shouted into the flames.
Soft cries for help came from the direction of the main gym. I dissolved my wings and ran through the flames, using a shield of air to keep the fire at bay. The building was collapsing around me, and I urged my body to move faster.
No more cries reached my ears, but I could hear their hearts still beating.
One was faint, nearly gone, and the other not far behind.
I raced through the burning building and found the two girls passed out in the center of the gym.
Debris blocked their way out in every direction; they didn’t stand a chance.
Flames licked at the leggings of the older girl, and she began to scream.
I blasted away the debris and ran at them, snuffing out the fire burning the girl.
The scent of burned flesh filled the air.
I scooped her into my arms, and she groaned in pain.
There wasn’t time to stick around, and I couldn’t carry them both.
My ears couldn’t detect a heartbeat in the smaller child. She was already gone.
With a snarl of determination, I jumped into the air, my wings snapping out, and rushed directly at the ceiling. I aimed my body for one of the skylights, blasting the glass away and shielding the girl in my arms.
Fire followed us out into the night, the flames growing ever higher.
Fire trucks had arrived and worked to put out the flames as we took off into the night.
I flew directly to a hospital, uncertain how I could help the girl.
She was human. Using too much Vis-El on a human was dangerous.
They could go mad, their little bodies unable to handle the power.
So I dropped her into the emergency room, shouting for help before I ran out. I flicked my wrists at the security cameras, altering the footage enough to keep me out of it.
The nurses and doctors sprang into action, quickly admitting the girl and doing whatever it was they did to save her life.
Something about the girl tugged at my soul.
She seemed close to Seraphina’s age, maybe a year younger.
And this little feeling in the back of my mind told me I should stay and wait for her. So I did.
It wasn’t long before the girl was carted to her own room. Luckily, it had a window. I swooped down and flicked the lock, opening it and landing lightly beside her bed. She was bandaged up almost entirely. The fire had burned her from ankle to neck down her left side.
She was sleeping, a morphine drip tucked in her vein on the undamaged arm.
I sat beside her and held my hand out over body.
Heat from the fire lingered. Closing my eyes, I scanned her body for the worst of the damage and whispered quietly, offering what little bit of healing I could without doing any further damage to her psyche.
The girl stirred as I finished. Her eyelids fluttered open, and bright, emerald-green eyes met mine. They were filled with pain, fear and anger. Not unlike my own.
“Who are you?” She coughed out the words.
“Someone who can help,” I murmured, reaching out a hand and pressing down gently on her throat. She didn’t move, only watched. Closing my eyes once more, I sought out the smoke in her lungs and forced it up out of her body.
She coughed heavily then sucked in a fresh breath of oxygen. “Thank you.”
I nodded, not really wanting her thanks.
“My sister?” she whispered, and our eyes locked once more. But I didn’t need to speak for her to know her sister was dead.
She didn’t cry, but closed her eyes and bit down on her lip, retreating within herself. Like me, she was alone. And it that moment, I knew this was the one I was meant to find.
“Lo?” I spoke the name softly and her eyes snapped open.
“Do I know you?” Her voice quivered.
I shook my head. “No. But I think we were meant to find each other. I cannot take away all your scars, but I can help you get revenge.”
Lo’s eyes sparked with fury. “She did this. She killed my sister. I heard Sara’s voice. And my father’s.”
This was going to be difficult, but only with the complete truth could she handle the future I had to offer. While she recovered, I was able to find information via the police. Human minds were quite malleable. And in doing so, understood why Seraphina started that fire.
“Your father was a pedophile.” The statement didn’t surprise her. “He was going to offer your sister to someone tonight. Instead, he died in that fire.”
“So did my sister,” Lo snapped, her body shaking with anger, and something else. I sensed guilt.
“I don’t believe Sara would have set that fire if she knew you were there.” This was true. Seraphina might be a general nuisance, but she wasn’t evil. If anything, she offered help to those who needed it. “Why were you there tonight?”
Lo closed her eyes and her lip quivered. “We were supposed to be. My father said I had to bring Maddie and get to the gym. He said he had a present for her.”
Fucking men. How could a father do such a thing to his own child? I nodded. “Did he…did it happen to you, too?”
Lo shook her head. “Almost. Once, I think. But the memory is vague. I was maybe four years old. My mother was still alive then. I think she stopped it. Then she died giving birth to my sister a few years later.”
Her story was tragic, and the memories of my own losses threatened to spill out. I stood, shoving them back into the corners of my mind. “If you wish to go your own way now, I will leave you. But on the chance that what you seek is revenge, I can help with that.”
Lo’s emerald eyes regarded mine for some time before she spoke. “I want revenge.”
I nodded grimly. “This path is dangerous and you will learn of monsters far greater than your father. I can’t promise you’ll survive this war.”
Lo shrugged then winced at the movement. “I don’t have anything else left.”
She was alone in this world. Lost and set adrift, as I was. Perhaps together, we could heal some parts of us. Or at the very least, give her something to live for.
“My name is Nuriela.” I stood at my full height and let my wings slowly unfurl at my back. “And here is where your path for vengeance begins.”