Breaking An Angel

Chapter 12: Go Fish

ALEXIUS POV

I’m coming up to the house from my run and I hear a loud rumble coming from the backyard. I remember that Penelope was supposed to be working on controlling herself and waves of panic overtook. I ran to the backyard preparing myself for the worst only to run up and see Penelope covered in dirt with Azrael and Gabrielle laughing.

Oh thank god. 

I let out a sigh of relief knowing that everything is okay. My attention is drawn back to Penelope her face contorted into a scowl, her arms crossed and her foot tapping waiting for the two to stop laughing.

“Are you two done?” I hear her ask them.

Azrael finally finds his composure enough to respond “relax babe, you just need more practice.”

When I finally reach them there is a huge chunk of ground missing with grass and dirt piles spread around the everywhere, “What the hell happened?”

“Your sister here doesn’t know the difference between gently releasing energy and shatter a hole into the ground.” Gabrielle says with a smile on her face.

“Hey! That’s not fair I’m just learning.” 

“When Sofia first found out she was an empath she was transforming negative emotions and giving positive ones in return. Without dismembering people I might add.”

“You can’t compare me to her,” Penelope responded with annoyance.

I moved in trying to ease the tension between the two women, lord knows we can’t handle to angry women at each other’s throats.

“Hi, I’m Alexius,” I say as I put out my hand for Gabrielle.

“Alexius as in Alexios the Defender.” Gabrielle explains.

“Umm yeah, not many people get that, they usually just call me Alex or Alexis,” I chuckle.

“Well not many people met the first one.”

“You knew Alexios Komnenos?”

“Yeah Remi actually introduced us, he was her”

“Gabi enough,” Azrael began to berate her. “This isn’t our story to tell.”

“Right. Anyways, you can call me Gabi,” she said as she shook my hand with the strength of a grown ass man, “and we’re going to be best friends.”

“I don’t think Azrael is going to like that,” I hear Penelope giggle.

“What do you say little brother, you want to fight for your new bromance?” Gabi taunts him.

“Don’t start Gabi, we both know I can take you.”

Soon after they begin their little fight, it was mostly a playful sparring match. At one point Gabi actually landed a hard hit and rushed over to check on him only for him to tackle her to the ground. This was his claim to victory and Gabi did not seem pleased.

“You got lucky,” she yelled. “If I didn’t think you were such a whiny little b***h boy I wouldn’t have bothered checking on you.”

“Oh come on Gabi, we both know you love me and you just felt bad for hurting your baby brother,” he laughed as he walked back to Penelope. “Ready to try again?”

I zone out their conversation to check on Gabi, “you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she smirks. “I let him win, his little ego wouldn’t be able to handle losing in front of his little girlfriend.”

“You want to go a few rounds, I promise I’ll go easy on you” she asks.

“No thanks, I don’t think I’m ready to die at the hands of an Angel,” I quickly reply.

“You’re immortal now, I think you could keep up.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Luci said you still got your... oh wait has he not told you?”

“No! I thought the deal was off, why would he still give us immortality?”

“I’m not sure you’d have to ask him, he’s basically your dad.”

“My what?” I yell out.

“Oh, I should stop talking.”

Penelope and Azrael begin to walk towards us, a giant smile plastered on Penelope’s face.

“Look if you want we can talk about this later, I’ll even ask Luci to come,” she says.

I nod at her in approval before Penelope can here that the devil is my father.

“Can we try again,” Penelope asks. “I think I can do it this time.”

“Yeah, just try not to blow up the rest of the yard,” Gabi responds. “Ok so this time try syphoning your brother and we’ll try releasing it into the universe.”

P walks over to me and places her hands in mine, we both close our eyes and can feel a warmth radiating towards my fingertips. Penelope opens one eye at me, “why are you stressed?” she asks me.

“We can y’all about it later, just focus on now,” I say before she releases my hands.

“So now what?”

“Now just hold out your hands and try to feel the cosmic energy around you,” Penelope closes her eyes and holds out her hands, palms facing the sky. “focus on releasing it into the universe, and try not to hit any birds,” Gabi giggles.

“Wait! I don’t want to hurt any birds!”

“You won’t if you just focus,” Azrael says with a reassuring smile.

I can see how hard P is trying, she’s squinting her eyes, her brows are furrowed and she’s chewing on her lip. Seconds later we feel a tiny pulse being released, and we look up to see tiny sprinkles of energy coming down on us like a glitter bomb.

Penelope is jumping up and down with joy at the fact that she was able to safely release her energy without damaging any birds. “I DID IT!!!” She yelps running up to Azrael and jumping on him, having her pick her up in a hug.

It’s weird to see my sister with a guy like this but he seems like a good dude, and besides he’s an Angel he can’t possibly be bad.

“Are we supposed to be able to see that?” I ask Gabi, trying to ignore my sister making out with Azrael 5 feet away from me.

“Humans can’t see it, but since we’re all supernatural, we can,” Gabi responds.

“Alright spirit fingers,” I say looking towards Penelope. “You should keep practicing, one good outcome doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve mastered control.” 

She finally climbs off Azrael and looks at me sheepishly, “you’re right, I’ll keep practicing, but can we go inside for today, that took a lot out of me, it was draining.”

We all nod giving her the okay and she runs back inside to wash off the dirt from her first attempt. I’m left alone with Azrael and Gabi, who are still sneering at each other from their little fight earlier.

“We need to get Luci here,” she begins talking to Azrael. “He has some explains to do.”

“What are you talking about?” he asks with a concerned look on his face.

“He didn’t tell us we would still receive his gifts, and he may or may not be our father,” I respond.

“Why is he always causing a s**t show and leaving us to pick up the pieces?” Azrael asks with frustration lacing his tone.

“You know how he is, what do you expect?” Gabi looks at him giving him a silent command.

“Tell Penelope I’ll be back, I’m going to go get our dear brother,” he says. “Also, you can call me Raz.

“Nice to meet you Raz, you can call me Alexi.” I say with a smile.

Azrael releases with silver wings and takes off leaving Gabi and I walking back to the house.

“Where are your other brothers?” 

“Achilles is working and Adonis is planning our parents’ funeral.”

“Sorry about that by the way.”

“It’s ok, they may have been our parents but it was in name only, not so much the bond, especially with P and I.”

Gabi nods in acknowledgement and doesn’t continue her interrogation.

******

It’s been almost a week since Raz left to find Lucifer, Gabi has stayed with us to protect Penelope, but I know deep down she loves us already. We’ve been hanging out a lot, I can’t help but feel drawn to her, not in a romantic way, more like brotherly love. Whenever I train she wants to join and I can honestly say it’s made me better, we have sparring matches and I have been able to keep up with her more and more as time goes on.

Penelope has been taking Raz’s absence hard, she’s thrown herself into her work and completed like 5 projects. She has a plan to complete a 6th but she has to meet with one of the local billionaires to see if he’d be willing to donate a small fortune to get the project going.

Gabi, Adonis, and I are sitting in the living room playing cards at the coffee table, Penelope just arrived from work and she’s been pacing around getting more anxious with every passing second.

“For f***s sake P,  siéntate (sit down) you’re stressing me out,” I yell out hopeful that she’ll take my advice.

“Cállate (shut up) and quit being an asshole I’m just distracting myself.”

“You don’t seem very distracted to me,” Adi responds lightly shaking his head before placing another card down.

“They’re right Penelope, if you can’t handle being away from Raz now, then you won’t be able to handle it if you decide to complete the bond,” Gabi adds while taking her turn.

“It’s not all my fault, I’m dealing with my separation anxiety and then I have to pile on Adi’s as well, it feels suffocating,” P replies glaring at Adonis.

“The way you’re acting feels like it’s a lot more than that, are you sure it’s only Adi’s,” Gabi asks while looking towards me. She’s also started calling Adonis Adi now much to his displeasure, she’s like another brother I didn’t ask for.

“And I won!” I scream out in triumph.

“What are you talking about? I was about to win,” Adonis whines.

“What game are you guys playing anyways?”

“Blackjack”

“Poker”

“I thought we were playing Go Fish?” Adi looks at us confused.

We all burst into laughter, “you i***t when did you ask us for a card?”

“Idk I thought this was a silent one since everyone was moody, I’ve just been picking up cards you guys have been putting down,” he answers, cluelessly looking to me then to Gabi.

“Ok I think my brother bonding time is officially over,” Gabi snickers, “let’s go Penelo.”

Here sentence is cut short when we hear a knock on the door, followed by Lucifer making his grand entrance. 

“What’s the point of knocking if you’re just going to walk in?” Penelope asks with a miffed look on her face.

“Well where’s the fun in that love,” Lucifer responds with a smirk.

Raz walks in behind him and as soon as Penelope sees him she’s running to him, jumping up and wrapping her legs around him.

“Miss me that much sweetheart?” He chuckles with his face buried in her hair.

“Now let’s bring the attention back to me,” Lucifer commands. “I hear my boys wanted to talk.