Vengeance (Burning Beliefs #2)

Prologue

I've spent enough time on Earth to realize almost everything is a metaphor. That the world we thought we knew was only one we'd heard about. A place where humans thrived, where our orders came from shadowed higher places. They used to come from God, but almost no one knows who has intercepted the throne. Almost no one. That's what I'm going to figure out.

My name is Castiel. I am an Angel of the Lord. My first visit to Earth was on a mission to uncover the "villains of society", as it was put, and to bring them to justice. I didn't realize, however, that I would be redefining justice.

It was common knowledge that the creation of half-humans, half-Angels, Nephilim, was forbidden. Even if God knew of their powers, he wouldn't speak of it. Most of us who knew about the monstrosities were taught to believe that they were things to be feared. I didn't realize that my greatest fear was supposed to spawn from two twin girls. One with hair the color of chocolate, and one with hair the color of the sun.

Madeleine was indescribable. I'd been shown pictures of humans before, of Adam and Eve, but Maddi looked nothing like the ivy-covered woman I'd seen in the drawing. Eve had long black hair, down to her waist, with empty eyes and a smile that looked forced. But Maddi... she glowed. Wherever she went. Her hair was a pale gold, wavy and rich, soft to the touch, and beautiful. She was there when we first fell to Earth, my brother Oziriah and I. We crashed into the pavement, cloaked in sweat and black dust. We had heard about Earth, studied it, examined their practices, even watched human souls in Heaven on weekly shifts. But none of it prepared us for the actuality of this planet, where we landed. It was some kind of urbanized Eden called Michigan, in a larger continent called America.

Maddi was working as a nurse at a nearby hospital. She had just ended her shift when she discovered us on the way to her car. There we were, pathetic and dirty. There she was, tired and hungry. But she insisted upon bringing us into the hospital, checking us in, keeping us there under her insurance until we were healthy. My vessel, who was younger than when Sam and Dean knew him, was reckless at this time. He had his wife and his child, but he had gambling issues, alcholism issues, and impossible desires as well. I'd like to think that my possession of him cleansed his soul, made him a better human. In all honesty, I know he's dead.

My brother didn't make it. He flatlined in the hospital, his heart gave out after a meeting with a nurse. A strange nurse. She was extremely perky and actually quite nauseating when she had checked up on me, but when she left Oziriah's room, she was stiff. Frowning. Almost smug.

I hadn't met any humans before, but I knew a demon when I saw one.

Maddi came in a few days after Ozi, with her eyebrows furrowed and her irises holding a certain sadness about them. I didn't understand why she was upset at first, since she was bringing news of my release from the hospital, but I understand now. I understand a lot now. She would spend late nights with me in my room, supposedly working, reading me these strange human stories (I still wonder, why in the world someone would consider offering a mouse a cookie), and holding my hand, telling me about her family. I always pitied her. Her sister had died in a car crash when she was six, her mother had been in a coma until some merciful doctor had pulled the plug the year before, and her father had left them all just before Maddi was born. When she started crying, telling me that she wished he were here, I squeezed her hand, and I said, "If he left you before he even knew you, why do you think he deserves to know you now?" She smiled at me. And I remember the feeling I got with that smile. I'd never felt anything like it, nothing remotely close. I called it contentment at the time, told myself it was because I was doing something nice for a human, but I was unaware of it's true identity.

Maddi was depressed when I was released. A part of me was sad too, but I paid no attention to it, as my mind was set on only one thing: tracking down that demon.