Breaking An Angel

Chapter 20: How You Win

PENELOPE POV

It’s been a week since Gabi and Azrael left, and Raphael and Jo have been in and out of the house. All I feel is sadness and despair with Jo around, Adi has been busy with school so she hasn’t seen much of him lately.

Achilles has been stuck at the company ever since our parents’ tragic accident, I think the board is trying to convince him to merge with another company, but I’m not exactly sure what’s going on there. He says he’ll take care of it and I trust him.

Alexi on the other hand has been busy trying to figure out what demon powers he has, so far, he’s found that he can shimmer, create energy balls, and something Raphael called apportation which is just a fancy word for being able to make things appear from one place to another just by thinking it.

Alexius and I have been having a lot of fun learning how to control our newfound powers, he almost set the house on fire at one point and Raph was not pleased. Achilles doesn’t really care to learn how to use them, he says he’s grateful for the immortality but he doesn’t really care for the demon side of things. Adi on the other hand has been avoiding training with us since Jo and Raph are usually there making sure we don’t cause mass destruction.

“You singed my hair you asshole!!” I yelled at Alexi after just barely dodging one of his energy balls.

We’ve been practicing in the backyard for a few hours now and we’ve moved on to learning how to use our powers during a fight. For the most part I am able to syphon energy and emotions whenever I want, but sometimes people’s emotions get too overwhelming that I can feel them without wanting to.

“It’s not my fault you’re too slow.” He laughs at me before shimmering away from one of my blasts.

“ItS NoT mY FAulT yOUrE ToO SlOw” I mock him. “Not all of us have the ability to shimmer away like a little bitch.”

“No seas asi Penelope (don’t be like that).”

“You too are children; how did I get stuck babysitting?” Raph groaned.

“Because Jo just mopes around, Raz and Gabi are off on celestial business, and you can heal us if we get out of hand. Why don’t you join in on the fun, I’m pretty sure I can take you both on?” Alexi taunts him.

“Please, you’re a baby celestial and with second rate demon powers.” Raph responds.

“Ouch my dad won’t be too happy that you insulted his creations. Come on, get your hands a little dirty, or are you afraid to get your wings singed.” Alexi retorts as he bounces an energy ball in his hand.

Raphael looks at Alexi with a smirk before he takes off his leather jacket, “let’s do this.” He says as he cracks his knuckles and pops his back muscles.

“Do we really have to do this?” I ask them hoping they’ll let me leave.

“Yes!” They both answer at the same time.

We all stand in a circle before Raph begins to speak, “So here are the rules, everyone is on their own and no holding back. There is going to be a 30-foot radius from this point that we can’t leave until the other two concede got it?”

Alexius and I both nod in agreement. This is total bullshit by the way, they’re both immortal and invulnerable, Raph has wings and heightened abilities, while Alexi has demon powers, this isn’t going to end well for me.

Hit after hit, I was able to keep up with the guys for a while, but they were getting overly aggressive and competitive they started to ignore me and go after each other. At one point I was just standing there while they were throwing punches, I could feel their frustration with one another for not conceding, I could tell they were getting tired.

I was getting annoyed with them, I syphoned as much emotion as I could from them, and as soon as I saw an opening, I jumped in front of Raph placing my hand on his forehead bringing him to his knees like I did with Remiel.

“Retract your wings Raph.” I said to him as I began channeling alI of his emotions waiting for the perfect time to strike as Alexi kept shimmering around trying to avoid my hit. I could feel that my eyes were glowing, so I closed them trying to focus on sensing where Alexi would land next.

And BOOM I released a pulse of energy sending Alexius into a tree with a big thud. I released Raph and stood in between the two, my eyes still glowing.

“Que putas (What the f**k) Penelope, you almost took me out,” Alexi scowled as he struggled to get up.

Raph was still slumped on his knees trying to shake himself out of that daze, “what the hell did you do to me Penelope, my head is still spinning,” he said as he grabbed onto his head steadying himself with one hand on the ground.

“That boys is how you win,” I smiled at them. “Now am I free to go or do you need help dragging yourselves into the house?”

“You can go,” Raphael waved me off.

******

I’m lounging around in my room after my shower, I’ve been a bit anxious lately since I haven’t been able to reach Azrael since he’s been gone. I know he can take care of himself but I just want to be near him to see it for myself.

There’s a soft knock on my door as I’m looking for clothes to wear. “Come in” I yell out. Jo slowly walks in and closes the door behind her and I come out of my closet still only wearing my towel.

“Hey Penelope I wanted to see if you could ta... oh I’m sorry I can come back a little later,” she says as she notices what I’m wearing.

“No, it’s okay, what’s wrong!” I ask her concerned.

Jo looked at me like she was scared to ask me whatever she needed, “I need your help, I’m miserable and I was wondering if you could help me.”

“You mean like syphon you?”

“Umm sure, I’ve actually tried converting negative emotions into positive ones so maybe I can give you a smidge if happiness.” I say with a smile.

I go back into my closet and find a shirt that I stole from Azrael, it still smells like him, peppermint, I put it on and pull on some panties and head back to help Jo. We sit down on my bed with her hands in mine, she looks more distraught than usual, her eyes are red rimmed and puffy like she’s been crying.

“Ok, so you’re going to have to let your emotions out so that I can syphon them and then I’ll try to convert them and give you positive ones. Okay?” Jo nods in understanding.

Jo’s gaze turns to my hands as she begins to silently cry, I can feel all her anguish caused by Adonis ignoring her. I have been so worried about my own brother, but Jo is going through the same thing, except she doesn’t have anyone to take the pain away, she’s just been dealing with it. I’m going to have to talk to that dumbass, he’s just hurting himself and Jo so his ego doesn’t take a hit.

I begin to hug Jo as her pain becomes unbearable, it becomes so crippling I decide to lay her down on my bed and just hold her while she lets out enough for me to syphon and convert. Ten minutes have passed and she has not stopped sobbing, I can’t handle her feeling like this so I decide that maybe this could be enough, I hug her into my chest and focus on all the happiness that she deserves and the energy begins to flow through me dissipating at wherever our bodies touch.

Jo’s breathing begins to even out, and her sobs become sniffles the longer I hold her, I don’t think this eased all her pain, but it should make it easier for her to function. At least until I can knock some sense into Adonis. She falls asleep in my arms as I continue to transfer positive energy into her, and slowly sleep overtakes me as well.

GABRIELLE POV

We’ve been searching for Remi for a week, and we have found absolutely nothing, there’s a rumor going around the underworld that there’s a fallen angel living amongst the humans. I was able to get the location of the place, so I’m on my way to scope it out.

Raz has a few dozen of his angels searching for Remi, but he’s come up empty too. I’ve let him know of the lead I have, so hopefully if I find her there, he doesn’t show up late. I think Raz is still upset with me for not telling him what was going on, a part of me agrees with him, maybe if I had told them what was going on, we could have avoided this entire situation.

I reach the address I was given and it turns out to be a penthouse in downtown Manhattan, I decide to just fly into the balcony, and hopefully I don’t scare any unsuspecting humans if I have the wrong place. I silently land on the balcony and quickly retract my wings before anyone sees me. The balcony door seems to be unlocked, so I silently make my way in. There doesn’t seem to be anyone in in the immediate vicinity so I start to snoop further into the apartment.

I hear noise coming from behind one of the closed doors and the closer I get, the louder the sounds of pleasure become, I decide against entering the room, but before I turn around, I hear a familiar voice call out to me.

“Gabrielle, it’s nice of you to join us, please come in.” I hear a breathy voice.

I open the door knowing who’s calling out to me, the scene that I am brought into makes my cheeks flush crimson, Remi is on top of some man enjoying the pleasures the body brings, but he’s human.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I’m almost finished,” she says as she continues moving. “So, what is it you need from me?”

“Remi I’m here to take you home,” I say turning my back to her.

“Don’t be shy Gabrielle, I know in all your years you refused to participate in this simple pleasure, but I’m sure Alexius has shown you a couple of things, he was very good with his tongue.” She says almost with a maniacal laugh.

“Remi can we please talk about this at home?”

“I don’t have a home Gabrielle, I never belonged with any of you!!” She screams.

“I’m taking you back one way or the other, so get up now,” I say as I turn to her ready to drag her out if I have to.

When I finally see her, she’s holding a blade to the human’s neck, “now Gabrielle, you wouldn’t want this poor human to die because you refused to take no for an answer would you. He was very fun to play with, but I’m sure I can easily find a replacement. Now what you’re going to do is you’re going to walk on out of my luxurious home and never come back, if I see any of you here then I will go on a rampage and kill every human in my wake. We both know how well that turned out last time.”

I walk out of the room and towards the balcony ready to leave when I see Azrael arrive. He enters the apartment and quickly notices me coming out of the hallway.

“Was she here?” He asks me looking concerned.

“Yes, but she has a human with her, let’s go for now, we’ll be back.”

“We can’t just leave her here Gabi!” Raz yells at me.

“It wasn’t a question Azrael, that was an order, don’t make me pull rank.” I respond with a cold demeanor.