Sapphire Flame (Sapphire Wings Book 3)

It’s a strange thing to look back on the past as you become older. I suppose that’s because you tend to see things very differently than you did as a child.

I will say that growing up, I certainly wasn’t ignorant of what was happening around me. But being a parent gave me a new perspective on all of it, and it also gave me a good reason to fear what I was now seeing unfold within our family.

I was the second of four children growing up, and from an early age, I remembered us living in a large, elegant house set in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood. Raphael was the oldest of us, and I had followed him within a year. Our twin sisters, Gabrielle and Noel, were born just a year after me.

I still have fond memories of my little sisters in our early years. They were identical, but I do recall that they tended to be nothing alike in personality. Where Gabrielle was often easygoing and even a bit shy, Noel was as much a firecracker as they came. Not to say that she was a bad child. She was just always getting into something. Looking back on those days, I still smile as I recall how often she would end up in trouble for silly little things.

I can’t say that Raphael had changed much after we’d grown up either. As children, he’d always been the ideal big brother. The four of us spent a lot of time together, and he always looked out for us. Part of the reason he’d taken up this task was for the strife that our parents often had with one another. Since they argued quite frequently, Raphael had taken it upon himself to relieve some of the tension by helping to take care of his younger siblings.

As we’d gotten a bit older, we had begun to wonder if our parents even loved one another anymore. They certainly had when they’d first started out from everything we’d always heard. Yet sadly, it felt like that love was tested over and over for all of the petty issues that came up between them.

I can still remember my parents well, even after all these years. Our father, Melvin Renaldi, was a very good-looking man. Raphael and I have always looked a lot like him, although my hair is more of a honey-colored shade of blonde than his was. He also had the same striking blue eyes that we all inherited from him. In my memories of being a young child, I recall him being very intelligent and insightful. I liked to think that Raphael and I inherited that trait from him too.

But for all of this, as the years went on, it seemed like Melvin’s biggest focus in life was providing money and status to our family. As the oldest of the first Renaldi children, he had inherited a good portion of the family inheritance, and within five years, he’d turned it into a real estate empire in Los Angeles. But that in turn led to long days for him both in his office and dealing with clients from the highest ranks of society. Needless to say, it left him little family time most days.

Our mother was a bit of a different story, even if she had ended up making a name for herself there too. Her maiden name had been Elvira Murphy, and in the beginning, it seemed like she was always by our father’s side, supporting him and taking care of our family as he worked hard to provide for us.

Like our dad, I remember her as a striking beauty, with long dark brown hair and big green eyes. Though she was on the shorter side, she had an hourglass figure that most women would love to have, along with an open, friendly personality. Even through all of the troubles that started between her and our father, I can remember her always smiling at us, and spending time with us as much as she could. She really was a devoted mother.

From what my father told us when we were older, it was Mom that had suggested moving to Los Angeles about a year after the twins were born, and he’d quickly ended up agreeing to it. Both of them had thought that it would give our family better opportunities there, and it certainly did seem that way. While Dad became a real estate tycoon, Mom ended up landing a part-time modeling job. But again, her main priority had always been us, and even though she was extremely popular, she would turn down jobs if she couldn’t take us along.

Now one might have thought that these two had everything going for them with all of this, but I’ve often wondered if they moved too quickly in their lives too. Raphael was born within a few months of them marrying, and I and my sisters followed very close after. On top of that, our parents had only been eighteen when they started their family. It was like they’d had very little time to really know each other. But then, maybe they’d just been going on what they felt was true love at the time.

Along with that, I’ve often wondered too if there were expectations within the family that Melvin needed to have children. Although he did have a brother and sister, they never had any children or even married. His brother Lance died when I was around three years old. I had heard that it was some kind of accident, and Dad never wanted to talk about it. Needless to say, I now believe that there was much more to it. It may have even been part of this curse that we now knew about.

This may have also been the reason that our parents decided on the cross-country move that they did. Maybe they were trying to unravel the curse’s hold in a sense by running from the area where it may have originated. But unfortunately, it didn’t work. In the next few years, the petty fights they got into increased dramatically, and sometimes even violently. This was what led Raphael to step up more to help take care of us. At least if we stayed away from them during those times, then we wouldn’t be subjected to harsh words and actions.

These fights left quite a mark on my psyche from an early age too. I can still recall a particularly nasty argument between my mother and father when I was five years old. Although I don’t recall what started it or what it was even about, I do remember hearing my mother accuse my father of not caring at all for his family. My father lost his temper and ended up slapping her. Yet what was odd to me was that right after it happened, it was like he’d instantly turned back into himself. He’d apologized to her over and over, holding her and insisting on checking that she was okay. He was even more horrified when he realized that I was standing in the doorway, and had seen it all.

I admit that for a time, I’d feared him a little, and it took quite a while for him and Mom to convince me that he would never hurt us or her again. Looking back on it now, I believe it was the curse affecting them. They weren’t themselves when they got into those fights. It was like their eyes darkened, and the room would start to feel unbearably cold. We were just too young to understand all of the implications of it, although I still suspect that they already knew. They just didn’t know how to stop what was happening.

Things began to spiral more and more as the years went by, even though both of them still tried hard to fight it. All of the petty fighting eventually turned into them trying to best each other whenever they could, often using me and Raphael as pawns in it whenever this darkness took hold, which seemed more and more frequent. It seemed like Raphael and I were pushed to compete in almost everything together, and I even ended up skipping ahead a grade, even though I was a year younger than him.

Yet neither of us ever took such competition to heart. It was odd when I thought about it. For as much as this darkness affected our parents, it never seemed to have any hold on the four of us. Again, it’s a mystery that I doubt will ever be solved.

But looking back on all of this, there were also more tender moments in between the strife. As I stated, it wasn’t like they weren’t trying to fight the negativity that was threatening to consume them. I have many happy memories of our mother lovingly taking care of us, and there were also times when our father would suddenly make extra time to hang out with us. I even recall times when we’d have games, or our sisters would have a recital, and Dad would suddenly show up to see them.

The funny thing was that whenever he did, it was like our mom was just as happy as we were. In those times, it was like the love between them was stronger than the darkness. It might have even been the reason our family was still together.

Sadly, all of this would have to come to a head eventually, and when it did, those awful events would end up changing our family forever.

That summer when I was nine years old wasn’t all that different from the others before. It was a Friday evening, and the four of us had been outside playing in the backyard. We had a very beautiful home with a big backyard that was surrounded by a black wrought iron fence, and all kinds of things to play with out there.

We had been told to occupy ourselves for a few hours that afternoon by our father. He’d said that there was something important that he and Mom had to take care of, and he left Raphael in charge of keeping an eye on us while they did so. Whatever this business was seemed to be last minute, so we had no one watching us.

Raphael immediately agreed to do what our father told him, looking full of pride at getting such a request from him. He’d always been a very responsible child and was always eager to please our dad. He didn’t think that there would be anything to these few hours of watching over his younger brother and sisters, considering we usually didn’t give him much trouble.

However, none of us could’ve ever predicted the horror this evening would bring, when our baby sister Noel seemed to vanish without a trace.

We’re not sure exactly when it happened. Raphael had run inside for a minute to grab some band-aids for Gabrielle, who had fallen off of the swing and scraped up her knee, and I was sitting with her and trying to comfort her. I was nine at the time, Raphael was ten, and my sisters were eight. I remembered seeing Noel standing near us, but she’d gone off by the time Raphael had come out of the house. We’d sat with Gabrielle and helped clean off and patch up her leg, and she’d begun feeling a little better.

Then Raphael noticed that Noel wasn’t around us. He’d looked around us, and asked me where she’d gone. I told him that I didn’t know, and after helping Gabrielle up, the three of us went looking for her.

At first, the three of us really did think that she was just messing with us. Noel had a bad habit of hiding at times just to be funny. Even Mom and Dad had gotten on her for it a few times because she scared them into thinking that something might’ve happened to her.

But within half an hour, we began to realize that something was very wrong. We couldn’t find her anywhere, and she hadn’t come out like she always did. Raphael eventually told us to stay in the backyard while he searched around the entire block, but he still found no sign of her. That was when he finally gave in and called our dad.

As I said, our family dynamics were thoroughly affected by the curse at this point, and it came to a head once this happened. Our father became enraged as soon as he and Mom got home, blaming Raphael and yelling at him for not watching his baby sister like he’d told him to. He knew that it had been his one responsibility, and it was his fault that she’d disappeared.

Our mother was immediately doing her best to stop this, demanding that we call the police right away and telling our father that he was wasting precious time accusing Raphael. The police showed up very quickly after that call, and thus began the massive search for Noel.

But things weren’t much better after they’d left the house. Dad was still taking out his anger on Raphael, still blaming him for all of this and telling him that he’d pay dearly if anything happened to Noel.

That was when our mother ended up reaching her breaking point.

As Gabrielle and I stood in the hallway and watched in fear near her, we saw our father slap our older brother hard across his face. Our mother stiffened as she witnessed this, and her eyes became clearer than I could ever remember them being. Within seconds, she was in there, holding Raphael tightly and screaming at our father to leave him alone. I’d never heard her tear into him so hard before, calling him names I wouldn’t repeat and swearing that she’d leave him and take us with her if he ever laid a hand on their children again. She also yelled at him that Noel’s disappearance was his fault. If he’d just been a better man to his family, then none of this would’ve ever happened.

The incredible thing was that it stopped our father immediately. It was like he couldn’t move as he stood there staring at them, and I swore that his eyes also became completely clear for the very first time. Our mother immediately whisked Raphael out and made us go with her to their bedroom, not even looking back at our father.

We lay with our mother in their large bed after that, with her hugging us and crying with us. I can’t remember her being as scared and upset as she was that night. But then, not only did she fear what had happened to Noel, but she also probably knew that her marriage might’ve been over.

But it didn’t turn out that way. Within the next hour, our father joined us. He was now also seeing clearly, and was just as upset as her, although he was trying to be strong for her and us. I confess that it felt good to lay there that night in the loving embrace of our parents, and Raphael seemed especially comforted to have our dad holding him and apologizing, telling him that none of this was ever his fault.

Yet even though Dad kept repeating that through the following days, Raphael didn’t seem to believe it. He took the blame on himself, becoming very depressed. He felt like he’d failed at the most important thing our father had asked of him. Mom and Dad tried and tried to convince him otherwise, but nothing they said got through to him. Even Gabrielle and I kept telling him that we were just as much to blame. We should’ve been paying attention too. If we had, then maybe we would’ve seen where she’d gone.

But none of us could convince Raphael otherwise. He slipped deeper into his depression as time passed, and our parents began to fear for his mind.

It took nearly a week before the police managed to find Noel, but thankfully, it did happen and she was eventually brought home. As it turned out, she’d been kidnapped by a neighbor we thought we knew well.

Sadly, we’d known nothing of his true nature.

He was a very immoral man behind closed doors, with a deep belief in Nazism and connections to various hate groups. I’ve heard that he had a lot of Nazi memorabilia in his home and that they found evidence that he’d kidnapped and killed several other little girls before he took Noel. They all looked similar to her, with blue eyes, auburn hair, and fair complexions.

We didn’t hear about the awful things he’d done to Noel back then. Our father waited until we were in our late teens to ever talk about it. But honestly, I still try not to think about it, even now. It was little wonder that he and Mom were so torn up after they’d found her.

The only good thing that came out of all of this was that this man would never hurt another child. Shortly after his arrest, he ended up committing suicide, although I do admit that the circumstances were incredibly odd.

But more than that, I can never forget the haunted look that Noel had when she finally came home to us. She was afraid of everything and had immediately curled herself into corners, refusing to get up or even speak to anyone. Our mother and father tried just about everything they could think of, but she responded to nothing. While they refused to give up, they were at a loss, and very upset and concerned for her.

Of course, we also couldn’t simply sit by and watch our little sister suffer like she was either; especially not Raphael, who still blamed himself so vehemently for what happened to her. Even though Dad kept insisting to him that he was the one who was at fault, Raphael never listened. This was what led to him sitting with Noel for hours at a time, trying to talk to her and staying close.

And incredibly, it worked. Noel slowly began speaking to him again, although she still wouldn’t do so to us or our parents. Our father then decided that it was time to enroll her in therapy to see if they could help her to heal more, and our mother did the same with Raphael, although I didn’t think that she told Dad about it for whatever reason. Both of them seemed to be starting to heal with the therapy and each other.

But it also began presenting another problem for our family. Noel began clinging to Raphael almost constantly, practically refusing to leave his side. She’d follow him where he went, sit outside the bathroom door when he was in there, and even slept beside him in his bed at night. For as damaged as she was, it was becoming disturbing to see this as time went on.

Our father began worrying about it after about three months. Although we didn’t know it at the time, he and Mom feared what might come out of Noel’s damaged mind. That was when Dad finally made the decision for us to leave Los Angeles. Although Mom was reluctant about it at first, there was no changing his mind. Too many bad things had happened there, and we needed to get away so that we could start to heal our family.

“It’s time for us to start fresh.” he’d said when he told us this news.

In the end, Mom agreed, and we ended up moving back to Maryland by the end of that year. We headed back to Madison, where our parents had grown up, and settled into a nice farmhouse there. I admit that it was very different than what we’d been used to, but it was also a welcome change for all of us. This countryside and house would be a place to feel safe and sound.

Well, as safe as we could’ve been with what followed the Renaldis.

The farmhouse was picked by our mom. She’d insisted to Dad that she wanted to move there because she’d loved the property from the moment she’d seen it, and I think he agreed. Once we were there, we’d done our best to settle in and move on. Noel began coming out of her shell more as she continued attending therapy to help heal her from her trauma, and after five years, life had begun feeling almost normal for us. We were a family again, at least in a sense.

Then, everything began to change, leading to the start of what I called our destiny.

It was shortly after Raphael turned fifteen that he began getting sick. It was a gradual thing at first, almost like he’d caught the flu. That wouldn’t have been unheard of, considering that it was October, and the seasons were changing. Although it had taken us a while to adjust to the drastic temperature changes, we’d become used to it after the first year. None of us got sick, which we really hadn’t before anyway.

At least, until now.

At first, Mom and Dad tried the usual treatments to help Raphael feel better. Some medicine, bed rest, warm soups. Mom doted on him a lot, making sure that he was comfortable and even bringing him some meals in his room. This didn’t always go over well with Noel, considering she didn’t like when Mom was too close to Raphael for whatever reason, but she ignored any protests from her. Mom’s only concern was making sure her oldest son was okay.

But Raphael’s health only seemed to be getting worse. He became weaker, and his back was killing him. We could see that his shoulder blades were becoming painfully swollen too. It got so bad that he didn’t even want to get out of bed. This concerned my mother enough to bring up taking him to a hospital, but our father refused.

“You don’t need to worry.” he’d told her, “This is all part of Raphael’s growing up. He just needs time to finish going through his change, and he’ll be all better once he does.”

Even though Mom didn’t like it, she still honored what Dad told her. When I asked her why, she only told me that he understood all of this far better than she ever could. It was a strange statement and one that I wouldn’t understand until much later.

At this point in our lives, we’d known nothing of our angelic heritage aside from what our father would tell us, but he never really elaborated on things, so it didn’t make much sense to us. Looking back now, I often wonder if he was trying to protect us when we were younger because of what had tried to influence him and our mother. It was all with the best of intentions, but sadly, those weren’t enough to make much of a difference.

The worries I’d been having over Raphael’s illness were front and center in my mind that particular night. I’d come up to study with him and had a report that was due in a week but couldn’t concentrate on much of anything, not even the book sitting in front of me as I sat in the desk chair near Raphael, who was still in his bed.

I let out a frustrated sigh as I pushed my glasses up a little on the bridge of my nose. Yes, I had needed glasses to read since I was in grade school. Of course, such a thing changed once I became a full Nephilim. My daughter Mia had gone through the same years later with her own need for glasses. Perhaps it was a hereditary thing for us.

“You do realize that you’ve been on the same page for ten minutes.” Raphael pointed out.

He shifted slightly against the pillows behind him. Mom had suggested to him that he should try to prop himself up against them to help alleviate some of the pain in his shoulder blades, and incredibly, it was working pretty decently for him. Score one for Mom.

“I know, but I can’t concentrate right now,” I confessed.

“If you’re worried about me, then stop it. I’ll be fine.” Raphael reminded me.

“I know,” I mumbled. I closed my book and turned to face him, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what Dad’s been saying too. I know he’s said it for a long time, but do you believe all that angel stuff he’s been telling us?”

“I do now. Why?”

“Doesn’t it seem a little weird to you? I mean, we’ve always been normal people. How can a human possibly have kids with an angel, and then those kids change into half-angels?”

“You’re really gonna call us normal Michael?” Raphael teased.

“You know what I mean.” I huffed, crossing my arms.

Raphael chuckled, putting his book down on the bed beside him, “I know, I know. But seriously, yes, I believe him now. Those dreams I’ve always had and now all this stuff with my shoulder blades and back; it all fits.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. The dreams where you see all of us with angel wings. I really can’t see myself as an angel though. It sounds way too weird to me.” I responded.

I twirled my pencil in my fingers as I spoke, not able to look at him. I never felt that comfortable talking about this subject. There was something about it that unnerved me, although I couldn’t explain why.

Raphael took my attitude in stride, smiling at me as I glanced back at him.

“Seriously Michael, you’re like an open book. You’ll probably make a much better angel than me when the time comes.”

“Why?” I had to ask.

“Because you’re a better person than me. You know that. I’ve always had a hard time opening up to others, and I couldn’t even protect my little sister before.” Raphael confessed.

Here we went again. I hated it when he started downing himself like this. He was way too hard on himself, and unfortunately, that never seemed to change, no matter how hard we tried to convince him otherwise.

“Come on Raphael. You know that no one blames you for what happened to Noel, especially not her. She adores you.” I reminded him.

Raphael frowned, looking away from me.

“That may not be a good thing.”

“What do you mean?”

He wouldn’t answer me, but I confess that I did suspect what he was alluding to. Noel had remained extremely close to him, and though she now would interact with the rest of the family, she continued clinging to him in an almost unnatural way. She even insisted on still sleeping beside him at night, even though she was now thirteen. Our parents didn’t like it one bit, but couldn’t seem to stop her, no matter how hard they tried. Needless to say, it was causing a lot of friction lately within our household.

As if like clockwork, there was a knock at the door. We both looked up to see Noel and Gabrielle peeking in.

“Want some company?” Gabrielle grinned at us.

“We brought snacks!” Noel chimed in.

Raphael immediately put on a normal face for them, smiling like he always did, “That sounds great.”

I do admit that the four of us were unusually close for the most part. Perhaps that had come with the trauma of what happened to Noel and seeing our parents fighting so much in our younger years. Our bond was formed both out of love and survival. We leaned on each other because there were times when we felt we had no one else but each other.

Yet, as I sat there and watched Raphael with Noel sitting beside him, my first real inkling of the truth of what was starting to happen was creeping into my mind. Noel didn’t look at Raphael like a sister would. I could tell that much in how Gabrielle looked at us. There was something more in Noel’s eyes, and for the first time, I began to have doubts about the truth of their relationship as siblings, at least on her part.

We ended up passing this evening together like we always did, although I still felt somewhat uneasy with my thoughts. Eventually, it got later, and we all decided to call it a night.

But as one in the morning rolled around, a cry awoke me from a sound sleep. I sat up in my bed, straining my ears to listen, and realized that someone was moaning in pain. My mind immediately went to Raphael. Had things gotten even worse?

I got up and rushed to his bedroom door, which was right next to my own. When I opened it, I saw Noel sitting on the bed with him, and he was leaning over in terrible pain. Noel looked at me with frightened eyes as soon as she realized I was there.

“Please, help him, Michael!” she cried.

I hurried over to the bed and sat in front of Raphael, holding his arms to get him to at least look up at me.

“Raphael, what’s wrong? What’s happening? Please, tell me!” I begged.

He wouldn’t answer me, only leaning over more. My heart pounded as I saw that his back looked worse now, his shoulder blades extremely swollen and looking like they were pulsating.

Noel was starting to panic now, jumping off of the bed and screaming at me, “Come on Michael! We need to get him to a hospital!”

Our mother came rushing in as she said this. She stopped and gasped as she saw Raphael, then hurried over to the bed.

“Oh my God, Raphael!” she cried out in fear.

But just as quickly, Noel was trying to pull her away.

“Get away from us! You never help anything!” she hissed.

This was the Noel that always caused the most problems. It seemed like her personality could change in an instant, becoming angry and aggressive towards anyone who ignited her fury, no matter how stupid the reason behind it was. But Mom was never intimidated by her, and immediately snapped back at her.

“Stop it, Noel! We don’t have time to deal with your mood swings and nonsense! We need to help your brother!”

Raphael doubled over as they argued, his head resting on my shoulder. Through his painful breaths, I heard him whisper to me.

“Don’t let it control her.”

That was when a loud ripping sound echoed throughout the bedroom. I stared in horror as I saw Raphael’s shoulder blades rip open. But as they did, the most incredible thing happened.

Large sapphire-colored wings emerged from the wounds.

The room went dead silent as this happened. I somehow managed to look to my side, seeing our mother staring at this scene with wide, frightened eyes and her hands over her mouth. She couldn’t utter a sound as she spun around and ran out of the room, presumably to find our father.

As for me, I was sitting back on the bed now, staring at Raphael as he took in deep breaths to regain control of his breathing. The wings shifted a little with each one, shining in the dim light. I’d never seen such beautiful wings before. They were breathtaking.

But for all of this, I was also now accepting that it was all true. Our father was right. We were from a real angel’s family. These wings were the ultimate proof of it.

As I sat there in shock and trying to completely process this, Noel slowly came over to the bed. She sat down near Raphael, smiling as she held his face. Her smile wasn’t loving or sincere. It felt creepy and knowing.

“You see?” she whispered, “I told you that you are my Angel.”

“Michael... what... what is this?”

I turned as I heard Gabrielle’s shaking voice, seeing that she was now standing in the doorway. I hadn’t even realized that she was there until now, and she looked just as frightened as our mother had.

She nearly jumped as our father laid a hand on her shoulder, “It’s what you’re meant to be, all of you.” he told her.

“D-Daddy...?” Gabrielle managed.

“It’s all right now. Just calm yourselves down. He’ll be okay.” Dad reassured us as he came into the room. He came over to the opposite side of Raphael’s bed from Noel, leaning down to look closer at my brother’s new wings, “It looks like he was right about the process, and these are some beautiful wings. How are you holding up Raphael?”

“My back is burning,” Raphael whispered, still holding his shoulders tightly.

Dad sat with him, holding his shoulders to help him sit up more. He then looked over at Gabrielle.

“Bring me some water and towels. We need to clean up his wounds and make sure that his wings are okay,” he instructed her.

“But... but I...” Gabrielle’s voice came out meek and still shaking.

“Come on Gabby! You need to help us take care of your brother!” Dad reminded her.

“Y-yes, sir!” Gabrielle managed to spit out before hurrying out of the room. I noticed that she had her hands over her face again as she did. She was way too scared to think straight yet, so I got up to help her.

I found her standing in the nearby bathroom, crying as she was grabbing some towels. It didn’t look like she was doing well at all with any of this.

“Hey, come on. You need to calm down and help Dad take care of Raphael.” I urged her as I pulled her into a hug.

“Oh my God Michael! It’s real! It’s actually real!” Gabrielle sobbed.

“I know. I get it.” I breathed, feeling the weight of this on me too. But I managed to keep myself together. I needed to help Raphael now. I could always fall apart in private later, “It’ll be okay. We’ll help Raphael, then Dad can tell us more about what’s going on with all of this.”

Gabrielle managed to calm herself down after a few minutes and look back at me.

“Okay, but I don’t know where anything is to put any water in up here,” she told me.

I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile as he caressed her cheek, “It’s fine. Just take the towels in there and tell Dad that I’m looking downstairs for a bowl to put the water in. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” Gabrielle agreed meekly, “Please hurry.”

I agreed, then headed downstairs. Even though I was thoroughly shaken up, I was determined to do what I could to help Raphael.

But I stopped as I got to the landing before the second small set. My mother was down there in the den, sitting on the couch in the living room. Her face was buried in her hands as she leaned over her lap, and it sounded like she was trying to hold back tears.

It felt like my heart was in my throat as I saw this. I’d never seen my mother so upset before, say for when Noel had been kidnapped. She was always such a strong-minded woman. But now, she looked broken. I knew that I couldn’t just leave her like that. Surely Dad would understand that she needed help too.

“Mom?” I said, keeping my voice soft as I walked over to her.

She quickly looked up as she heard me, her long dark hair hanging around her tear-stained face.

“Michael?” she whispered.

“Are you okay? Can I get you anything?” I offered. I wasn’t sure of what else to do.

Mom slowly stood up, then hugged me tightly. I stiffened for a moment, then hugged her back, feeling a familiar comfort in it. So many times she’d comforted me like this when I was little. It was now my turn to comfort her.

“My God Michael,” she whispered as she held onto me, “you all really are one of a kind. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe your father. Now I can’t even calm myself down to take care of your brother.”

This was just like her. She was such a loving mother to us, and she was so afraid of what was happening to Raphael. How could I not take this time to love her back and offer at least a little bit of comfort to her shaken world?

“It’ll be okay Mom. Dad’s taking care of him, but he needs our help. He asked if we could find a large bowl to put some water in so that he can clean up where Raphael got his wings. Then he can check them to make sure they’re okay.” I gently explained to her.

Mom slowly pulled back, nodding as she pulled herself together.

“Okay.” she breathed, “I’ll be okay. Raphael’s what’s important now. Come on. I know a bowl we can use.”

She guided me into the nearby kitchen, where she opened one of the bottom cabinets and pulled out a large basin bowl. We filled that with water, then hurried upstairs.

“We need to move quickly Michael.” Mom urged me as we went up there, “We can’t wait too long for this. The last thing Raphael needs is an infection.”

But as we got to the top of the stairs, both of us heard shouting. Mom and I both stopped near the open door as we saw Dad now standing with Noel. He was extremely angry at her now.

“You will not keep doing this! Get out!” he ordered.

“You can’t make me leave! I have a right to be in here!” Noel countered, just as angry as he was.

I stared at her as she said this, again thinking that she looked different somehow. Her eyes seemed darker, almost wild in fury.

Gabrielle had moved to the other side of Raphael as this happened, and I noticed that he was holding her hands in his. Even in his painful state, he was trying to comfort her.

Like Mom, Dad didn’t back down from Noel. He’d never, ever shown any fear of her, no matter what she did. Even after we’d moved here, he’d had to keep Noel in therapy not only to help with her emotional issues from her kidnapping, but because she’d at times go into violent rages, especially when she didn’t get her way. Although the therapy had helped a little, it was still an issue here and there for us, and Dad always did his best to stop her when those outbursts happened, even at times having to physically restrain her.

No one in the family was immune to these fits either. I’d experienced her rage firsthand about a year before when I wouldn’t let her take some books that I was reading from my room. She’d gotten extremely angry at me and began to throw them at my head, actually striking me with a hardback’s spine and gashing the left side of my forehead open. It took all the strength my father had to pull her out of there because she was still kicking and screaming and throwing things, and he ended up locking her in her room so that he and Mom could help me.

Of course, he did make sure that she was back in the therapist’s office the very next morning to address this, along with trying to come up with ways for Noel to quell her anger more. As for me, I’d ended up with five stitches and a small scar that I still have today, although I now tend to hide it under my hair.

Raphael managed to speak up as Noel remained defiant, “Noel, please leave. I can’t handle this now.” he requested in a strained voice.

Noel stared at him with shocked eyes, then swiftly turned away and ran out of the room. The door to her room slammed within seconds, but none of us were concerned. If she wanted to have one of her fits, then she could do it in her room and let Raphael try to heal.

Dad drew in a long breath to recompose himself, then went back to Raphael. Mom also went over there, sitting the bowl of water on the dresser near them.

“Are you okay Elvira?” Dad asked her. It seemed like he’d noticed that she’d disappeared for a while.

“I’m okay. I just needed a little bit of time to pull myself together.” Mom assured him. She gently touched Raphael’s shoulder, “Are you still hurting Raphael?”

“It’s kind of numb now,” Raphael admitted, sounding a little stronger than he’d been.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t find a way to treat him more? There’s so much blood here. I’m worried about how much he’s lost.” Mom tried to reason with Dad.

“It’s okay Elvira.” Dad assured her, “This all played out just like my father told me it would. We just need to clean him up and try to help him be more comfortable. This is a painful process, but it doesn’t last long after the wings emerge. He’ll be back to himself within a day or two, and hopefully, be able to pull them in soon.”

“I’ll... be able to do that?” Raphael asked as he looked at him.

“You will. I promise you’ll figure it out, and I’ll help however I can.” Dad reassured him.

Mom let out a tired sigh as she wet some wash clothes, using them to start cleaning off Raphael’s back and shoulders.

“I still can’t quite wrap my mind around this Melvin. Your father really was an Angel. But why did he have to go back like he did? We need his guidance, especially with everything in the last ten years. At the very least we could’ve used your mother’s help too. I wish she was still alive. He probably told her a lot about this too.” she went on.

“There were reasons that he couldn’t stay with us, but it’s not something we should talk about. It might only bring back trouble.” Dad told her. He looked and sounded subdued now, like whatever had happened was a bad memory for him.

Gabrielle spoke up as he said that, “Our grandfather really was an Angel, Daddy?”

“Yes, he is.” Dad confirmed, looking more like himself again, “I saw his wings when I was a kid, and he and my mother were always honest about it.”

Raphael cringed and leaned forward again as Mom cleaned him off closer to where his wings were coming out. She stopped and gently held him.

“It’s all right. Just stay still. I’m almost done, then you can rest.” she promised, kissing his temple.

I decided to keep up the conversation we’d been having as I watched him hold her arm and lean into her embrace.

“I don’t get it, Dad. If our grandfather knew that this was going to happen to us, then he should’ve been able to help us at least a little bit. And what about you? You’re his son. Do you have wings like this?” I asked him.

Dad shook his head, “No, and unfortunately, I’ll never get them.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. Why do this if you can’t change like us and he had to leave us?” I challenged.

I halfway expected our father to get mad at me for insisting on this, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked to his right so that he wasn’t facing any of us, and his eyes looked sad. It was strange for me to see that. My father had always been a very strong and confident man, say for the crisis when Noel was kidnapped, but no one could expect any parents to be that strong during that. It was like this affected him just as deeply.

“It’s not that he ever wanted any of this to play out as it has. As I said, I can’t talk about what happened, but I will say that it was something very bad with your grandmother and me, and he did what he had to so that he could spare us. But I do know that he’s always been watching over us, and I’m sure he’s horrified about what happened with Noel. He’s probably angry at me too. I definitely don’t think that I’ve turned out like he hoped I would.” he confessed.

Mom had finished with Raphael, and walked over to Dad, hugging his shoulders from behind.

“Stop being so hard on yourself Melvin. You’re a very good man, and you’ve tried so hard. You take good care of us, and you’ve always taken care of me. Yes, bad things happened in those first ten years, but that wasn’t us. You know that, and I’m sure he does too. We’re free now because we were stronger.” she reassured him.

“Yes, I know.” Dad acknowledged, “We both made mistakes when that darkness tried to overpower us, but we’ve been able to start over as a family here.” He looked at the three of us, “I know it won’t be easy, and the four of you will probably have to suffer some with this change, but we can’t avoid it. Just know that your mom and I will be here for you through it all.”

I could’ve sworn that I saw tears in his eyes as he said this, but he was able to hold them as he and Mom went back to making sure that Raphael was okay.

As for me, I look back on that night and think of it as the first real sign of what was to come. Not only did we know more of the truth, but now, I was starting to put together what may have been happening when we were younger and our parents were always fighting. There was something more behind it, something they feared talking about to us.

Maybe, in the end, they were trying to spare us from this curse. Maybe they didn’t even fully understand it. But then, I don’t think that any of us, even my father, could have predicted how this was to be the start of the darkest period in our lives. They may say that all clouds have a silver lining, but the fact is that you have to get through the storms first.

And the one coming for us was about to be one of the deadliest.