Power & Fire

Sam, Uriel and I left immediately, none of them asked anything, just kept quiet and followed my orders which made the trip back home rather silent and awkward. The tension was palpable inside the car, both of them had questions but knew that it was for the best if they didn't ask them, and I was thankful for it.

During the car ride I had a wave of emotions and decisions parading in my head before making me think what my next move should be. Should I go to his house? To school? And then what, cry and hope for him to take me back? I decided then to text Aramazd to help me. We agreed that it was best if I went home first, took a shower and accommodated Samuel in his new temporary house. Having Sam as my responsibility has actually become a great distraction, he's innocent and doesn't deserve to be involved in any more problems or drama and that thought had me motivated to not make any rash decisions no matter how much I wanted to burn both Melinda and Jason alive.

Pulling into my driveway I turned down the radio that was currently playing "Death in My Pocket" by Machine Gun Kelly, a song that I'm sure that fate was playing to provoke me even more with the relatable lyrics in my situation, I mean I've never heard it playing on the radio before so why now? I snapped out of my thoughts and got out alongside with my bag. Hearing two loud thuds in response I knew that both Uriel and Sam had exited as well. Inserting the key and opening the door I let them enter before me, closing the door behind me softly.

"This is it, welcome to my house." I said softly smiling at them weakly. "Come on follow me, I'll get someone to help you with your stuff." I continued before walking further into the mansion. After showing each of them their rooms I excused myself to take a shower and texted Aramazd to come over.

I undressed and stood in front of mirror in the bathroom, simply staring and letting my mind fly to wherever it wanted so that I could wash the thoughts away with the warm water. I looked the same as the last time that I looked at myself, except for the obvious red eyes from crying. Taking a deep breath I furrowed my eyebrows and reminded myself who I was. I'm Castiel Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and Charmeine Morningstar, daughter of the Devil and God's sister, holder of Virtutem Ignis, I'm the Angel on Fire. My eyes starting burning with a glowing orange color as a goosebumps spread all over my body. I refuse to shed any more tears over a boy. I'm more worthy than this, we will talk as adults and come to an agreement. No matter how painful the outcome can be. I stepped into the shower and washed my exhaustion away.

Once I was dried and dressed I decided to head downstairs to address the commotion that was unraveling there. Maria stood in all of her short height with a wooden spoon while scolding Uriel who stood tall as ever rubbing his hand in pain while Sam was laughing away and Aramazd just stood there as confused.

"Castiel my sweet angel! You are back! And brought this brute that you call a cousin with you!" She said rushing to give me a hug while glaring at Uriel who was trying to control his amusement towards the tiny woman. Their height difference was comical, Maria was terribly short and Uriel terrifyingly huge, hence why she only managed to hit His hand with the spoon I presumed.

"What's going in here?" I asked with a genuine smile, I missed this.

"I was greeting all of our guests as a good head maid that I am, when this tall brick with wings decided to pick me up and spin me around as if I was a child. You brute I held you when you were a child!" She started spitting out with incredulity and embarrassment lacing her voice.

Uriel took a step back holding both his hands in the air. "I was trying to hug you! You are just so small and ti-"

"I dare you to finish that sentence boy! I dare you!" Maria cut him off while raising her wooden spoon towards Uriel, whose eyes widened comically never removing His gaze from the spoon in her hand, His face draining of color. The whole situation kept going with a round of laughs in between, until Aramazd motioned me to go upstairs so that we could talk in private, leaving the rest with their bickering behind.

Once settled in my room he looked at me with pity.

"You heard the news huh?" To which he nodded.

"Yeah, when Axel couldn't enter in contact with you he freaked out and called me." He explained.

"So? What am I supposed to do now? What if he announces during school?" I asked him while massaging my temples.

"Now? You go to school and hang out with your friends, the worst part of your mission is done and you should celebrate that first. When they announce the situation, if they announce the situation, which I'm finding incredibly sketchy to be true, you stand tall and proud. Remember who the fuck you are Castiel. You don't need some arrogant little boy making assumptions and playing with your feelings like this." He said getting agitated by each passing moment. "But it was my fault! I pushed him away, I started this. Not him. Me. I made him believe that everything we had was nothing more than a game, that I had played with his feelings the whole time!" I replied getting hot all over. "And it wasn't? You are trying to tell me that this whole mate charade wasn't a game? You needed a distraction and so did he. Never once did both of you sat down and talked and got to know each other. Do you even know his middle name? You went from exchanging glances at each other to meeting family with no steps in between or whatsoever. You were both going too fast. You didn't like him, you liked the idea of him because he was your mate, and so did he with you, all because of a fucking bond that for some unknown reason Aurora formed. And don't try to justify his actions Castiel, no matter how hurt you are you should never cheat on your mate or betray them like he's doing."

I stood in silence absorbing his words and concluding that he was absolutely right. We were going too fast.

"But it's not too late you know? You can still get to know him and learn about his mistakes, trust me there are many of them, and have your happy ending with your mate. However, don't you ever put yourself down because of him or any other person got that?"

He pulled me into a hug and patted my head softly. "What do you mean, he has committed many mistakes?" I murmured into his dark shirt.

"Not my story to tell, he needs to own up to his mistakes and be true with himself while telling you personally. Now get your bag because we are going to school in 5. I called your parents, they are on their way here to talk with Samuel. I'm coming with you to school, Lucifer's orders. Uriel will stay here until either Gabriel or yours parents arrive." He explained while getting up.

I grabbed my school bag, took a deep breath and headed downstairs once again.

***

The drive to school almost felt nostalgic, a bit dramatic? Yes, it's only been like what, a week? Two perhaps? Aramazd quickly snapped me out of my thoughts by slamming his car door shut waiting for me to follow him.

We entered in the building standing next to each other, heads raised high, faces not giving anything away while passing by many groups of people that stood in front of their lockers and wouldn't stop whispering and looking at us, most girls checking Aramazd out. I don't blame them, Aramazd is incredibly beautiful and exudes a powerful aura, his dark features making him look mysterious and dangerous. Brown hair with dark eyes with a light hint of red, it was so subtle that you would only notice if you got really close to his face, high cheekbones and a 5'o clock shadow, he looked more mature than the rest of the male students here, adding another motive for him to be the centre of attention.

We finally arrived to my locker and my heart ached noticing that there wasn't anyone from our group there waiting for me as they would usually do. That made me appreciate Aramazd presence a lot more. I retrieved my books as usual and headed to class, I missed the first 3 classes so I would be attending this one and then it was lunch break.

I wonder if they have announced it yet.

I was suddenly pulled into a hug breaking me out of my sad thoughts.

"Castiel! I have missed you so much!" Isabella exclaimed while squeezing the living lights out of me. I smiled at her hugging her back.

"I missed you too. All of you." I said with a soft smile looking at the boys that were standing in front of me.

"Group hug!" Ethan yelled and pulled all of us into his bone crushing embrace.

"You idiot I can't breathe!" Elijah squealed.

"Good." Ethan replied sadistically.

William eventually broke them up and we all took a deep breath appreciating the air in our lungs.

Aramazd just stood there bored. I wasn't the only one to notice this, seeing that everyone suddenly tensed at his presence, well everyone except for Ethan of course.

"You look grumpy, do you want a hug too?" Ethan asked opening his arms and started walking towards Aramazd but Bella quickly smacked him in the back of the head and stopped him.

"I didn't know you were bringing Aramazd along." Axel said

"Father's orders." I replied and watched Axel's eyes shine with understanding.

"Right. Come on we will be late to class." He said motioning ahead, ignoring the burning glares of confusion that Bella, Will, Elijah and eventually Ethan sent him. None of them actually daring to ask anything. Axel was, after all, their soon to be Beta.

Class went by rather quickly, I didn't pay much attention to what the teacher was saying, my mind was elsewhere, wondering and cogitating about what was yet to come. My gut was telling me that this lunch break wouldn't be ordinary. Eventually the bell rang and my stomach was churning with anticipation. I moved closer to Axel and whispered to him.

"Is it now?"

To which he replied with a pitiful "I'm not sure". We kept walking through the large corridors as a group heading straight to the cafeteria, my eyes wondering everywhere looking for any signs of Jason or Melinda. Isabella and William were chatting away as usual and opened the cafeteria's doors and held them waiting for us to enter and then proceeded to close the doors again.

I slowed down my steps, not sure to which table they were heading, I didn't even know if Jason and them were on speaking terms, eventually I realized that we were heading towards their usual table making me take a relieved breath, maybe things aren't as bad as I imagined. You see our table had seven chairs in total, it would usually be Isabella, William, Ethan, Elijah, Axel, Jason and I, and as we sat down the most uncomfortable feeling grew in the pit on my stomach, I looked at the seat besides me, where Jason would usually sit and noticed Aramazd sitting down in that spot as a replacement. Jason would never approve of this, he was always wary when it came to Aramazd, hell every time we fought it was because of Aramazd, so having him sit in Jason's seat replacing him felt like a betrayal, perhaps I'm being too paranoid about the whole situation but my body wouldn't stop sending me signals that something wasn't right.

All of the sudden everyone except for me, Aramazd and very few student clasped their heads and held them almost as if in pain, I stood confused and nervous, feeling my eyes swirling and switching when suddenly the cafeteria's door opened with a loud slam against the wall and everything started making sense to me, the mind-link in the pack. There they stood together holding hands and looking around tall and proud with smiles in their faces. Axel then started gripping his hair almost in pain and the rest of the group followed. Of course they weren't going to announce it out loud, the human students in the school would start asking questions about what a 'Luna' is and would find it more suspicious than everyone clasping their heads due to the loud bang from the door, they wouldn't even notice or remember that they clasped their heads a second earlier than the door had slammed.

"Mind-linking isn't supposed to be painful. Why are all of them acting like this?" Aramazd said looking back forth to the people around us and towards the door.

I was as confused as he was and turned my attention back to Jason and Melinda, however I wasn't ready for the sight in front of me.

They both stood in each others arms, he was caressing the side of her face, brushing a few stray hairs away and leaning in closer and closer, their lips almost touching.

I couldn't watch, I refused. I turned back to my friends worried by their pained expressions when suddenly my chest started to feel heavy, my pulse slowing down and a burning hot pain started consuming me from the insides. I gasped in pain and crashed against Aramazd feeling weak and dizzy, my body shaking and trembling while breaking into a sweat.

"Castiel? Castiel!!" Aramazd suddenly yelled while trying to hold me up straight, but I couldn't, my body felt like it was being drained, a constant pounding in my head and a heart clenching feeling.

Axel managed to get through his pain and look back towards us and mutter some words.

"He's blocking us... he's...Alpha command...hurts." He ended with a soft whimper.

I could feel Aramazd's body shaking with anger, his movements making me even more dizzy triggering my body to start bleeding through my nose, my eyes glowing with a bright orange color and my back arching a burning sensation forming in my forehead as if I was being branded with a symbol.

"The Virtutem Ignis" Aramazd whispered his face paling in panic and fear. For the first in my whole life I saw Aramazd scared, terrified. His horror stricken gaze never leaving me, my forehead.

My body kept twisting and curling in pain, I could feel my consciousness slowly slipping away, I turned to the cafeteria door once again and noticed that only Melinda stood there.

Her gaze was painted with horror, pity and guilt. So much guilt.

"I'm sorry" She had mouthed.

And then I closed my eyes.