Chapter 33: Outlaw

PART TWO BEGINS

Chapter 33: Outlaw

Genie and I had ended up somewhere we should not have been. I knew that much for sure.

For one, our surroundings looked nothing like the outbounds of Aegina; not that I really had any idea of what it was supposed to look like but I knew it wasn't this.

The layout of the building we were transported to was reminiscent of a chapel. It was brightly lit and there were things I had never seen before in my life. Artifacts that seemed to glare back at me for my intrusion and the quality of light did the same.

For some reason, my intuition screamed at me that we were somewhere divine...but also forbidden in nature.

It formed a thought that I couldn't bring myself to accept could possibly be true: that this was what the heavens probably looked like.

"Oh my god..." I heard Genie whisper from beside me; with a deep hint of fear.

"Are we..." I began to question but I was cut off by the sound of a gavel hitting wood thrice.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

There was conversation that commenced for a while and anyone would have thought we were invisible because of how it started without anyone acknowledging us. The universe had other plans though.

My shock from falling dead center in the middle of a private gathering was minuscule in comparison to what ensued thereafter. I looked to Genie and watched as she stood there, immobile and reduced to nothing because of her own surprise. Her eyes found the pendant in her hands, looking down at it like it now burned. She gasped as it grew an eye in the center and blinked at her. My heart stopped. The all-knowing eye. I felt something grow heavily in my stomach as I witnessed her unadulterated fear. She dropped it onto the floor.

The sound of the pendant cluttering onto the tiles finally drew the attention of those around us.

They looked to the side simultaenously, curious as to who or what had interrupted their session.

There were people who looked like us—regular men and women I meant. Although, the aura they carried within their individual stances told me they weren't anything like us at all. I noticed how they were dressed in fine and elaborate clothing; the colors pure and bright. There were mostly gold and silver articles existing within the space. Down to the tiles and pillars around us in the room were draped in materials and ornaments of the same shades.

Before I could even take in anything else, a weight pulled down my legs and forced me to kneel before them.

I saw Genie fall to the ground as well.

However, she cried out in pain.

At first I thought it was because her knees hit the ground too hard but it was something else.

They were hurting her without physically touching her.

Suddenly, I became crippled with fright because of what these strange people were doing.

"Intruders!" I heard someone yell.

There was shuffling as we were surrounded by what seemed like guards.

I looked to them, my emotions far transcending any type of fear I have ever felt before.

The group of people who were no doubt the ones being protected tilted their heads to look  at us from where they stood. The guards were evenly spaced so it had the same feeling of spectators at a zoo looking in from the outside on animals in their cages. There was curiosity, mild excitement and even disgust.

My mind mentally noted that it was five pairs of eyes that looked my way. Their stares became harsher as the seconds went by. As if they had figured something out I had failed to. An older man with a long grey beard narrowed his eyes at me, looking like he wanted to cause me the same level of pain Genie was experiencing but couldn't for some reason beyond him.

I wanted to rush over to her and help, but I couldn't. Genie bawled while holding her head in pain. It sounded like she was being tortured with hot irons.

"S-Stop it!" I finally yelled out loud.

The movements of Genie stopped as I asked.

I looked up with teary eyes to see them all looking at me, only this time the lights had been fully turned on onto our side of the room. With that, they saw me much clearer as I did them.

However, they were looking at me like they had seen a ghost.

But I was only looking at one person in the room.

A man that looked like the midnight sky among all these beings clothed in pure white. His gaze was reduced from a condescening coldness to a look I had never seen before being aimed at me. It was sheer grief. He looked at me like I was dying and I wasn't even aware of it.

"Impossible!" I heard a woman gasp in fright.

My eyes unwilling tore themselves away from the depth of a pair of black eyes onto her.

She was an incredibly beautiful woman with long, brunette hair that framed her face perfectly. The way she grappled at her chest showed that she didn't know what to do with herself in this situation. Her eyes were enlarged and she looked like she was going to pass out any second.

It appeared our escape had caused more chaos than Genie and I could have ever imagined.

Just how the hell did we end up here?

"Larissa, calm down. There is no need to be in such a state." Another man reassured the woman, resting a hand on her tense shoulder.

"Azrael, it's her!" She gasped. "Do you not see who that is?"

"I have eyes, darling. How can I not?"

"Then why don't you use them for once and acknowledge that this is not my imagination and that's really—"

"Elisabetta."

Everyone's eyes turned to the man at the head of the table where they were seated. It was arranged in a circular position in which he became the peak of it.

They marveled at him calling her name—because it sure as hell wasn't mine. They reacted as if saying it was something that should not be done. Almost as if his precious tongue was being tainted by the syllables.

"My Lord..."

"You're finally here." He enthused, arms wide open with a warm welcome. "I have been awaiting your presence."

"You knew she would be here?"

The antisocial, borderline hateful tone came from the heavy-eyed man from earlier. The one who was dressed in black.

I took a glance at Genie who was now unconscious. I still couldn't move to help her.

The head of the congregation simply looked at him with a never-resting smile on his face.

He didn't seem to like that one bit. It was almost like he felt like he was making fun of him. "Ah, silly of me to forget that you're omnipresent and omnipotent. I bet you saw this shit coming from a mile away."

"Mikael!" Someone scolded whilst shocked by his comments.

So he was Mikael? My so-called potential ex-lover? I guess we didn't end up in the wrong place after all.

Though I was stung as he looked at me in disdain.

"This cannot be real," he mumbled and within the next second he teleported before me.

He grabbed me by the arms harshly, pulling me up off my feet. It felt like someone was trying to take me from underwater while weights were shackled to my ankles.

"Who are you?" He hissed vehemently.

I had never seen someone's face so angry before. All the lines drew together as he brought me closer to him and for some reason, he was all the more majestic.

This man was simply too beautiful.

His black hair suited his eyes as he stared deep into my soul. His face was a harder type of chiseled in comparion to Angelo's—looking at him I thought Angelo's features were definitely much kinder and easier on the eyes in comparison. However, they could have easily been mistaken for as brothers with how unexpectedly similar they looked. At least to me they did.

Looking at Mikael felt incredibly detrimental to my eyes; not in the never-before-experienced-this-type-of-blessing type Angelo gave me as I watched him glowed, but a classified potent kind.

This man demanded my attention, even in the worse ways.

And my eyes had no choice but to give it to him.

I didn't have much of a choice. Not when he was squeezing the living daylights out of me to answer him.

"Answer me!" He yelled into my face.

I flinched at the sound of it but also because of a few tables being overturned and curtains whipping with a strong wind that came out of nowhere.

"Mikael, you're hurting her."

"Stay out of this, Larissa." He growled like an animal.

How the tables have turned.

Literally.

"I'm not going to ask you again," he warned me threateningly, a disposition so unbefitting for a so-called angel. "Who are you?"

The woman was panicking on my behalf at this point.

"Don't be ridiculous! Did you not hear what our Lord just said? He greeted her as Elisabet—"

"She's not!" Mikael snapped. "There's no way she could be! That woman died centuries ago! There's no way she could be standing here before us like this. There's no way. I saw...I saw when she...it's impossible." He firmly contended this blasphemy.

"Anything is possible." She sighed, her hand reaching out to him, but he evaded it.

Her face fell in disappointment.

"She said to let her go."

I looked up to see the guy from before. It was the one whose name began with an 'A'—Ariel I think it was—and he gave Mikael a brooding and dangerously calm look.

"Is that a threat I hear?" He said with narrowed eyes. "Are you picking sides now because you were a close confidante of hers in the past, Azrael?"

Yeah, I thought him being named after a mermaid was a teeny bit strange too.

Azrael simply stared at him.

There was no humor; just cold hard seriousness.

He didn't need to repeat his words before Mikael clenched his jaw and with one snap of his wrist, he flung the doors to the area open. The glass doors shattered with his power as he made a scene by tossing me to the side and storming out of here.

I grunted at the impact and fell to the floor.

Just as I did, I felt a hand wrap itself around my shoulder. It was a warmth that was similar to Angelo's, not as remedial and ignited by passion, but just as comforting. "Are you okay?"

I looked up to see the sympathy of the woman from before. She looked at me, disbelief still bordering the lines of her eyes but she also looked...happy?

"I'm..."

"You shouldn't be touching her, Larissa. Who knows what creature she is now. Aren't you afraid of being tainted?"

Her face tore into a sour expression unsuitable for her soft face. "Why are you speaking as if she is some kind of demon, Damon?"

I found it ironic that for someone with that name he'd be pointing fingers at me.

He ignored her inquisition and turned to the person in charge.

"She's technically an outlaw, my Lord." He pleaded with his eyes not ever meeting his. "I can't understand why you wouldn't greet her as such, instead you welcomed her with open arms. We have to take the correct procedures when dealing with her. If not, I'm afraid we will have the same thing happen again due to our emotions overweighting our rationality of doing what is right."

"Are you suggesting that we lock her up?" Larissa gasped and stood up frantically.

As she did, I thought I would fall, but there was an imaginary shoulder that I was still leaning on.

Her attention was on my rival that I didn't even know existed until a moment ago, yet she was still taking care of me.

"It wouldn't be the first time," the older man said nonchalantly, but there was an undertone of cruelty that he just couldn't disguise.

"You freaking—"

"Larissa." Azrael interrupted smoothly. He was by her side, holding her back from lunging at him.

His hand on her waist seemed to do the trick as she took a deep breath and looked away angrily.

"What is your opinion, my Lord?"

There was a moment of silence before he looked between the party of us. A tangible mess. His eyes seemed like they held the universe with its depth and it was a wonder how I could meet them without wavering like most of them had done. Not that it lasted for long but I still found it impressive of me.

"Take her to the west wing of Spring Hall."

"My Lord—" the man interjected in astonishment.

Larissa let out a sigh of relief.

"She shall reside there until dusk. By then, our other guests should arrive then we can have this discussion again. Meeting adjourned."

***

A/N:

Welcome to Book 2 of "The Fallen Angel"! If you made it this far, you're a real one. 🖤 There were many things that I wasn't satisfied with in the first part of this series—I'm sure you were too, but for this book my goal is to crush those shortcomings and so far the plot is looking much more superior. 😏

Also, I wanna express my gratitude to you bubs for over 200K reads! Couldn't have ever imagined so many of you when I started writing this for fun. Stay safe & thank you for being apart of my little world.

P.S. I still don't have a schedule for updates but I'll try for weekly so you don't wait too long. 😭