Power & Fire

I suddenly felt myself being pushed back to reality.

My whole body hummed with energy as my heart beat strongly against my chest. I felt different, more aware, stronger. And my soul, it felt fuller, complete almost.

I opened my eyes cautiously, guessing the headache that was yet to come, but much to my surprise I felt none. My muscles were stiff, meaning that I had been unconscious for far too long. I tried to sit up in the middle of the reasonably dark room, a broken door on the floor letting the light from to corridor shine through the room, but a weight kept my chest down not letting myself move much.

I cleared my sight adjusting my eyes to the room and looked down, the tingles suddenly returning. It was Castiel, my angel laid unconscious on top of me rather peacefully. I smiled down at her before frowning at the amount of golden crusts that spread through our bodies, but what really caught my attention was the knife that rested on the tiled floor by the bed where we were both staying. Fearing for the worse I switched positions and laid Castiel down completely on the bed beside me as I analyzed her body for any visible wounds.

There were none.

Only a tear in the middle of her shirt, right over her heart, where the golden substance was more concentrated. My head started playing different scenarios and none of them had a good ending even if my heart told me that she was okay. I rushed to fell and press her neck to check on her pulse.

It was soft and quiet but it was definitely there.

I exhaled loudly in relief.

"What the fuck happened in here?" I asked myself out loud. My voice having a rasp to it, making it sound deeper and heavier echoing through the silent room.

My words however didn't went unnoticed.

Not even a second later a tired looking Axel barged in the door less room.

"Jason?!" He almost yelled in disbelief while staring at me with his eyes wide opened

"Yeah?" I asked confused.

"Fuck man." He then pulled me into a hug.

"Dude don't ever scare us like that again!" He said way too restless, he was nervous. There was something wrong.

"What the hell happened?" I asked looking back at my mate sleeping on the bed.

"You passed out, I brought you here and hum..."

"And?"

"And well...How do I say this?"

"Say what?!" I pressed him while getting frustrated.

"Castiel sacrificed herself. She stabbed both of you in order to save you."

It took me a whole minute to process his words, not exactly believing in what he was saying.

I looked down at my shirt and it was, indeed, ripped on top of my heart, and more golden dried liquid spread through my body.

"What the fuck?!" I yelled looking around in confusion, shock and anger.

"I know this sounds crazy but you need to calm down." He said while making calming hand moves.

Castiel was alive, I knew that much, I checked for myself. And the mate bond, it was stronger than ever, I knew she was here, somewhere, somehow I could feel her energy, I could feel her.

"Calm down? Axel my mate stabbed me! And then herself! How the fuck are we even alive?!" I yelled in frustration and confusion.

"You gotta trust me on this one. Whatever she did, she did it thinking it was the best for both, for you. Right now we have other issues to worry about." He said while getting fidgety all over again. The stress from before returning.

I took a deep breath and pinched my nose in frustration.

"What the fuck." I whispered to myself.

I took a quick glance back at the girl laying on the bed, my little angel. We had our ups and downs, mostly due to this whole secrecy. But I had promised myself that I was willing to trust her completely. Even if she stabbed us to save me. This whole situation was wrecking my mind in ways I never knew that were possible. A sacrifice. That's mostly a satanic performance. Was she a succubus? A female demon? A witch? I had so many questions and so little time. Right now I need to calm down as much as I could. Fix problems now, freak out later.

"What other issues are you talking about?" I asked trying to keep my sanity intact.

"The ritual has began." He dropped the bomb while messing anxiously with his hair.

"What?!" I asked shocked jumping in my place, my wolf finally stirring up inside of me for what felt like forever.

"Everyone is back at the school waiting. Apparently Tiffany kept true to her word, she did rush the process, much faster than we all could have predicted it. There are guards circling the whole perimeter as we speak." He paused for a second. "Jason there's a whole mess out there." He finished while shaking his head slightly.

My wolf grew restless hearing the news, as an Alpha it was his duty to protect his pack, as an Alpha King it was his obligation to protect a whole nation, a whole specie. His feral side was thirsty for blood, for revenge. He wanted Tiffany dead but more importantly, he wanted Clarence ripped to little pieces.

"Get everyone out of the school now. Humans, I want them all gone back safely at their houses, we don't want to start any problems for negligence towards other specimens. As for the pack, it's up to each and either one of the members to decide, if they want to go back to safety then they should all be escorted, those who choose to stay are to be completely armed, force vests included. We are going to need all the help that we can get a hold of."

Axel nodded and started mind-linking my orders to the rest of the pack.

Meanwhile I sat down next to Castiel on her bed and held her hand before softly kissing it.

"It's my turn to protect you now." I whispered quietly against her slightly cold skin.

"Alpha, our army is on the move, everyone that you listed is being escorted out of the building." Axel communicated back.

"Good, get the defense and the attack squad to get inside discreetly. Who else is in the building?" I asked.

"Huh..."

I looked at him seriously while furrowing my eyebrows in apprehension, what wasn't he telling me?

He quickly got the memo and sighed in defeat.

"William, Isabella, Ethan, Elijah, Aramazd, and..." His voice got progressively quieter as he spoke.

"And?" I pressed.

He suddenly got a rush of confidence and spitted all at once, surprising me in ways I couldn't possibly describe.

"Castiel's parents and a few of her cousins."

That was unexpected as hell, but after everything that I've seen lately, this was just another day on earth. However, that didn't mean that I could process and react positively at the news though. "What?!"

"Yeah." Was all he could answer.

"Yeah? Well get them out of there are you crazy? They might have connections and be involved on some dark shit but we are going against a Goddess for fucks sake!" I expressed raged.

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"You see, they are actually our best front line. Without them we are completely fucked." Axel replied cautiously waiting for my reaction.

"What the hell do you mean?!"

"Hell indeed." He said quietly almost to himself before continuing. "You will understand once we get there." He replied while motioning himself out of the room.

I followed him and passed by a bathroom where I splashed cold water against my face, as if trying to wake up, all of this felt like an actual nightmare. Never in my life did I imagine that I would be in this position right now. And I hate it. "Wait! We can't leave Castiel here all by herself. Get Isabella to come over as soon as possible, I'm sure she will appreciate some female company when she wakes up."

"If." He said in a dark sober tone. "If she wakes up." He said with his head hanging a little lower than before.

He hurried towards the car as I adjusted my eyes to the brightness outside. My eyesight was strangely much clearer and sharper than before.

I put my thoughts aside and entered the fast sports car.

Speeding down the road we arrived to school in record time. The building was just about to finish all the constructions and to wrap up the rebuild, it was a shame to think that if things didn't go our way, the whole building could burn down to ashes or worse.

We exited the car and ran to meet up with the outside team.

"Guards! Hold position."

"How many do we have?" I asked Lieutenant Jobbs who was the responsible for the outside team of the entrance wing.

"Your Majesty." He bowed down and waited for my nod of approval to keep on going. "Royal army has around 400 guards. Other Alphas and nearby packs have been notified as well, it might take them a few hours to arrive, adding 200 more for now. Students that decided to stay round the 90s in number Sir."

Ninety more people, I had expected much fewer to stay, so those news brought some hope to my heart.

I nodded at him.

"Good. We don't need to notify more packs for now. We need a more detailed assessment of what's going on inside the building, we don't know how fast or how grave things can escalate. If it comes to that point, we will try to hold the enemy down as long as we can until the Alphas and packs from others continents notify and confirm back to us. Russia on top list. Germany too. And China. I want all of them on speed dial." "Yes, Sir!"

"I'm going in."

I grabbed a handgun, a glock 9mm and tucked it on the right side of my waist just in case. We had a special bullets designed to explode with the target, no matter which species. And I wouldn't hesitate to use them.

I entered quietly and looked around. I was quickly pulled aside by a dark figure who dragged me towards a classroom.

"William let go of me." I ordered in a whisper.

"Sorry."

"What's going on in he-" I was suddenly interrupted by a loud bang and a few grunts.

Everyone around me mentioned me to keep quiet with their fingers.

I listened to them and tried to understand what was happening outside our door.

A few crashing and breaking of various materials could be hurt, just like grunts of pain.

"Lucifer we can't kill them." A soft angelic voice said.

"I know." A grunt of pain and a final crash followed the familiar dark, cold and chilling voice.

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I didn't have time to fully process what I had just heard because of a sudden an immense sense of orange and red lights that reflected through the door.

Fire.

I looked back alarmed at William, Ethan, Elijah and Aramazd.

"There's a fire outside! We need to get them!" I mind-linked them in urgency.

They simply shook their heads side to side, except for Aramazd who was reading something on a old notebook with a familiar golden stamp on it. It bothered me a lot how unfazed all of them were acting. There was a fire outside for fucks sake. I grew frustrated at this, everyone was acting like they knew something that I didn't. But I'm the Alpha, I'm the one who rules things, I'm in control of every situation. My wolf was terribly conflicted. He wanted action, to do something. And then someone opened the door from the outside.

All the males inside this classroom stood up and straightened themselves up and proceeded to bow down and kneel.

My eyes almost popped out of their socks as I took the sight in front of me.

Flashes of Castiel's suspicious behaviours crossing through my mind in a matter of seconds.

"Your parents..." Ethan said looking confused as well. She frowned. "What about them?"

"You said 'it's not like they can come back from the land of the dead'." She paled.

"I said that? Oh haha The Land of the Dead is what we call our hometown, it's a family joke." She said fiddling with her blouse.

"Where's your hometown?" I asked.

"Far away."

"Far away where?" Axel pushed.

"It's complicated." She said looking panicked.

"What are your parents names?" Her eyes widened.

"Why?"

"Just curious..."

"My mom's name is Charmeine."

"Oh like the angel?" Eli asked interested.

"Yes, we are a really... religious family."

"That's cool! How about your dad?" Axel asked. She froze again.

"M-My dad's name is Luci. He's not from here so he has a weird name haha!"

Suddenly everything started to make sense. A grip of pure fear surrounded my heart, making my chest ache a little as I stared in shock at the two Heavenly creatures in front of me. An angel, absolutely beautiful, shining brightly with her pure white light, and beside her a tall dark monstrous beast with two horns sticking out of the top of his head, features so sharp that could cut me with just a glance, his eyes so red that could reach inside my soul making my blood run cold. Fire, bright burning flames cocooned his figure like a coat would. Their stance was incredibly powerful, no living being on this world would ever dare to cross them, not in a right state of mind. The power this couple exuded, it was something like I've never felt before, they looked like they could end the world by simply clicking their fingers.

I fell onto my knees in disbelief surrendering myself completely. My ego as an Alpha, as a King, completely forgotten as my body consumed greedily the energy they exuded.

The Mother Angel...

...and The Devil.