~~Young~~

Chapter Thirteen

   Good, she was leaving.

   Gage wasn’t too happy where he had ended up when following Sera from above. This was not the side of town a woman like her should be found on. Though she seemed to be navigating it well enough he didn’t think she had any idea of the dangers lurking in the darkness, the ones he could see clearly from his vantage point. He thought he was going to have to get involved when she stopped at the crossroad, when he noticed that all too familiar gleam in that disheveled man’s eyes when she paused too long. Whether he was after her or what was in her cart it didn’t matter, either way Gage wasn’t about to let him harm a hair on her head…oh no, she was plenty good at harming herself it seemed.

   This little jaunt into the underbelly of Vancouver pissed him off, what, was the posh and polished life she lived not enough of a threat for her? Was every breath she took not dangerous enough, not enough excitement in her life that she figured hey, let’s go for a walk where crime was the major source of income for those living here. Whatever good she hoped to do was nothing compared to the danger she was putting herself in.

   But, thankfully, once she set her feet moving again, broke into the open night the homeless man slunk back to his hidey hole excusing Gage- at least for now- from getting involved.

   It was the last place he would have thought to find her…and the only reason why he had found her so quickly. His first instinct was to go looking for her at one of the up-town hotels, but knowing how unpredictable she was to him, how she always seemed to be the exact opposite of what he believed, he made a quick U-Turn for the run down side of the city and lo and behold…

   He turned from Sera’s retreating figure to watch the woman on the landing below him- who herself was watching Sera as she pulled her hood over her head and walked away- for a few moments longer before spreading his wings. Though there was no resemblance between the two, Gage had the sense that woman was a maternal figure in Sera’s life. Odd considering she shared nothing of the life that Sera’s own mother did…or maybe not so odd taking into account who her mother was. Their conversation had certainly been that a daughter would have with a mother. And despite the grin that should have crossed his face to know it was centered on Sera’s feelings for him, a few key words had that damned anxiety running rampant in his chest again.

   Sera was afraid getting too close to Gage would cost her her freedom.

   Moot point really considering any association with him whether friendly or not was going to cost Sera her life, not just her freedom, but it only solidified in Gage’s mind that she really was the one he was after. So she was indeed guilty of something, of something severe enough to end in incarceration and with so many other markers pointed in her direction it wasn’t hard to guess what.

   He sighed to himself and gave into the phantom pains and rubbed away at his bare chest. How was he going to explain to Lucifer that even though she was the guilty party, that he was indeed responsible for ending her life, he couldn’t have her soul? At least he had no idea she was thisclose to being done before thanks to Death’s little affirmation there, but still there would be some questioning involved. He’d know better if Gage tried to claim ignorance to knowing she was of the innocent, know Gage would check and triple check rather than risk his immortality before taking her life.

   And there was that too, the becoming mortal thing. He had been thinking about that a lot- mostly while Sera slept  on the train, giving him nothing better to do but think-about what would happen to him once he could- and would be shortly after becoming such no doubt- be killed. Since he didn’t have a soul what would become of him? Would he cease to exist, his rotting mortal shell the only proof of his existence? Or by becoming mortal would he gain a soul? Have something to move on to hell? It sure as shit wasn’t going to be heaven assuming the sins of his flesh would carry over to his newly installed soul.