Vengeance (Burning Beliefs #2)

Chapter One *edited*

GRACIE'S POV

I slam him against the bricks, holding my knife against his neck. The sound of his flesh hitting the wall reverbs around the entirety of the alleyway maze. Every twist and turn holds a new threat, a new danger, and I've just found mine.

"What do you know about the Angel Galilee?" I hiss.

The Angel, possessing a dark, spiky haired man with gray eyes, swallows hard and whimpers. Sweat pours down his forehead and fear glimmers in his irises.

"I-I-I don't kn-know anyth-thing," he stutters. "L-last I heard, she was tr-tracking you down."

"So she's alive?" I spit, digging the knife deeper.

The Angel shuts his eyes tight and mutters a few prayers. I cuss under my breath and roll my eyes, waiting for him to get the hell over it.

"No," he whimpers. "No, I don't think so."

"Thinking isn't enough," I narrow my eyes at him. "I know you know who I am. So tell me something I might actually be interested in."

He stays silent, mouthing prayers to the heavens, squeezing his eyes even tighter than before. I let out an annoyed groan, and slide the tip of the knife underneath his chin, slicing through chewy flesh and tight tendons until I reach the base of the tongue.

He gasps. "She was in a following!" he rambles. "Some kind of cult or order, I don't know. No one is told who's in it, but they were told by Lea to track you down if anything happened to her, and so I think -- I mean, I know -- that they're looking for you, and if they find you, they're going to kill you."

"Not if I kill them first," I jerk the knife out of his jaw. The Angel crumples to the ground, clutching his throat and breathing hard. "Give me their names."

He forms the cross symbol from shoulder-to-shoulder quickly, before praying that God forgives him for this.

"Esmeralda, Danika, Kallidan, and Ezidiah," he speaks, his voice rough.

"Thank you," I say curtly.

With a final motion, I pull out my Angel blade, dig it into his stomach, and twist. I walk away as bright white lights explode behind me, because I've learned to never look back.

It's been seven years since Serena died. The thought makes me want to laugh. I thought I could change the future, and what I saw in the vision of her execution, but it's improbable. You can't change time. My visions are just visions, and I can't do a damn thing about them. I only know what's going to happen without a single power in the universe to stop it. I saw Lucas and I kissing in my apartment before it happened. Yes, we did sleep together. No, I don't regret it.

However, I don't understand why I got that vision so long ago, if it was so recent for me. The incident was just a couple of months before now. I mean, yes, I'm sleeping with Lucas of all people, but he gets his way. I've learned that it isn't up to me. I might as well sleep with him without protest, if I'm going to anyways. I just don't see how it deserves a vision.

Castiel. Dad. My father. He's found me. More recently, when I was living in Chicago. I'm not an idiot, I know he's tracking me, but it's only annoying when he confronts me about it. I've moved on past the depressed little seventeen-year-old I was. That Gracie is long gone. I, me, the new Gracie, am exponentially superior than some juvenile little girl throwing hissy fits and placing blame oh herself. I know I broke my father's heart, multiple times, but who cares? My life, my rules. That theory still applied at seventeen.

When Dad first found me, it had only been three months since I'd left Serena. I was killing Angels in Detroit, leaving their bodies in the sewers, or ditches, or muddy, gaping valleys. He told me that what I was doing was wrong, that I was hurting my own family. I'm not Spencer Reid, obviously, but I know that a half-Angel is related to Angels. I had been killing off members of my bloodline, my father's brothers and sisters. But they were not my family.