Power & Fire

Several hours later, Samuel finally opened his dark hazel eyes, he looked confused at first, his vision most likely still blurry due to being out like a light for so long, when he finally saw me and the giant besides me he seemed to go back to his senses as his eyes widened and his face became slightly paler.

"P-Please don't hurt-t me!" He stuttered while moving backwards against the wall of the hotel room.

While he was, well, gone, Uriel carried him to my hotel room where we stayed while waiting for Sam to wake up. Uriel and I cached up a little bit He told me about His life in Heaven and I told Him a little bit more about Jason, midway thorough our conversation an incredible spark of pain spread through me, I hunched over my lap but as soon as I felt it, it was gone. What the hell was that? I had no idea. Uriel helped me getting back at my own two feet and made sure that I was okay and then we heard Sam shuffling around meaning that he was about to wake up.

"We are here to protect you Sam, Nero told me about you two." I said gently trying to sooth his worries away so that he could help us faster.

"I'm Castiel, Nero's sister as I told you before. Now, Sam we really need your help." I kept going while crouching in front of him waiting for him to say something.

"Is he...is Nero okay?" He finally replied after a few moments of silence

I took a deep breath, is Nero okay? Should I tell him the truth or smooth him out? I looked at Uriel asking for advice with my eyes to which He replied with a sigh of His own before nodding His head slightly.

"Sam I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know how Nero is doing. All I know is that my brother is working with the enemy and begged me beforehand to protect you, he knew something big was coming, and I'm hoping that you could give us some answers."

He looked suspiciously back at Uriel, I don't judge him, if I passed out and woke up with two strangers interrogating me about my lover I would be suspicious of everyone as well, specially if one of those strangers was almost 7 feet tall. "And who might you be?" Sam asked staring Uriel down.

"My name is Uriel, I'm the cousin." Uriel said rather awkwardly flickering His gaze between me and Samuel.

Sam looked relieved, why was he being so weird and hostile with Uriel? Suddenly realization came down on him. "The Archangel!" He blurted

"Yes, that would be me." Uriel replied still wary of Sam.

"Sam, has Nero talked with you recently?" I asked him breaking him out of his amazement.

And his expression fell, his eyes turned sad, a frown taking over his face. He shook his head sideways signaling 'no'.

"Last time we spoke, he told me that he would be gone for a few days and that I should stay as far away from him as possible."

Like brother, like sister I see. At least Nero had the balls to tell him gently instead of completely breaking Sam's heart with a rushed break up, not that I had much of a choice.

"That was weeks ago." He looked completely heartbroken and betrayed.

"Did he tell you why he was going away?" I asked giving him a small comforting smile.

"Not much, he said that he had to take care of some business regarding Clarence."

"Clarence? What do you know about Clarence?" I widened my eyes and looked at him expectantly.

Sam, on the other hand, looked terrorized and furious at the same time. His fists were clenched hard as his eyebrows met and he closed his eyes.

"Clarence Rayes is a monster, a really thirsty and ambitious one. He was always pestering Nero about his Virtutem Ignis, always asking questions and making experiences under the pretense of 'pure research', Nero eventually got tired of his bullshit and told him to stay away. The very next day when I was working on a new case at the station I started feeling an enormous and painful headache. I ran straight to the bathroom and noticed that my eyes were turning pitch black. In panic I cried out for Nero's help, we later found out that Clarence was trying to have a demon to possess me." He paused and took another deep breath before continuing. "A few days later I was in my car about to make my way home when suddenly someone jumped from my backseat and forced a rag on my face with chloroform making me black out only to wake up chained and bruised. Clarence tortured me for hours before Nero found us and agreed to help him with whatever he wanted regarding to Virtutem Ignis, in exchange I would be safe, no one was allowed to hurt me or my fami-" He was cut midway by a loud banging noise.

I jumped at the sound before looking to my right, towards the source of it, and much to my surprise there was a hole in the wall. I looked at Uriel as He regained His breath, His fist still closed from the punch that He had just delivered, He was furious.

"Are you okay?" I asked concerned at my cousin, He only nodded back, His breathing still incredibly fast.

I looked back at Sam urging him to continue but his eyes were still glued to Uriel's form. "Sam?"

"Yeah, sorry." He snapped back to me. "Hum okay after that Clarence kept experimenting on Nero, each time worse than the other, he was trying to remove Virtutem Ignis from Nero, almost killing him in the process many times. However, this time he went too far. Nero wasn't even able to walk, sleep or eat. He went completely blank as if each and every nerve ending of his went void, his power still resigned inside him but it wasn't the same. Virtutem Ignis wasn't inside him anymore. He could barely talk, the only word he kept whispering was 'Allegra'."

"The Leader of the Witches Coven." I stated with a nod, my heart aching for everything that my brother went through.

"I found her and asked her for help. As soon as she saw Nero she went full on panic mode, every single witch of her coven was rushed to the chanting chamber. It was massive! More than five hundred witches, from all ages were reunited and kept chanting and merging powers. All I remember was seeing a giant bright light and everything turned white. When Nero woke up a week later, he was fully human and his part of the Virtutem Ignis was transferred to you later. Allegra said that it was the only way to save Nero, she said that he might regain some of his old powers as time went by but that for now he was too weak and fragile, he truly was fully human, I'm not sure if he has any of his abilities back yet." I was in shock. I didn't know how to react, all I could feel at that moment was the wetness of the tears that kept falling of my eyes and my heart beating wildly. A warm comforting hand came to rest on my shoulder. Uriel started to stroke my head as He kept muttering "I'm so sorry little angel." or "Nero is strong he's okay." But how? How do I know that my brother is not in some sort of pain as we speak? Clarence might be torturing him and we can't do anything about it. "We need to tell my parents, we need to go back home now." I said while standing up after recomposing myself.

"Sam we will come with you to pack your stuff, we need to leave as soon as possible." I continued while wiping my slightly red nose one more time.

He didn't resist my request and agreed silently. We hurried everything from the hotel, payed for my stay, and followed Samuel's instructions to his house.

Uriel followed Sam inside his home while I stayed outside in the car, to make sure no one else came. While they were packing Sam's stuff I decided to check my phone and perhaps call Axel to tell him that I will be coming home sooner than expected. As soon as I unlocked my phone I was bombarded with notifications, 12 unread messages and 7 missed calls from Axel. I furrowed my eyebrows and glanced at the preview of the texts "Jason knows-"

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"Castiel it's urgent please-"

"Call me ASAP"

"He saw me-"

I didn't dare to open or read the preview of the rest of them, I quickly dialed Axel's number and the ring only sounded once.

"Castiel?! Are you there?" He shouted from the other side in panic.

"Yeah, I'm here! Jason saw what? What's happening?!" I asked feeling my anxiety levels rising as my heart kept beating faster and faster.

"Forget about that, it's not important! You need to come back now!" He said in a rushed and desperate tone.

"What? Why? What the hell is happening Axel?!"

"Jason is claiming Melinda as his Luna tomorrow."

My world stopped. I dropped my phone to the ground as my heart clenched and twisted in pain. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't speak. My mouth felt like sand and dry as it was opened still processing what was going on. So this is what rejection feels like? I felt numb, as if something was ripped out of me, my pride, my love.

"Castiel are you still there?" Axel's muffled voice sounded from the cracked phone that laid in the middle of the path walk, but I couldn't answer, I couldn't feel, I felt empty. The only thought running my head as pain consumed me from the inside was;

Karma is a bitch.