Irredeemably Me

"I will search for you despite it all...always."

He was an ethereal being to her still. Camila's eyes could barely leave him despite her knowledge of his stance on vampires and witches, he was still...celestial. She couldn't quite match his presence with the world around them. He did not belong.

"You wish for answers." His jaw was perpetually stern and his eyes looked out into the night sky, his hands clasped together on his lap and he sat upright, shoulders squared.

There was a glow about her father she couldn't deny. The angel was not made for the dark. There was no place for him in it. And yet...once he'd found solace in it...in her mother no less.

"How old am I?" Because never knew her own birthday, only the day she'd been left outside of the fire station and she'd celebrated that day as her birthday, but doctors had said she'd been about two months old at the time, though an exact date was a luxury she wasn't granted.

"You will come to find that your age is of no concern to you any longer." Gabriel eyed his daughter for a moment, her own light still haloing her body and he was glad for it. The darkness had yet to stake a claim over her completely. "The moment you took your last breath for the first time...is the moment you were deemed an immortal."

"How did...I happen?"

"It was a brief moment in time," Gabriel sighed softly. "A regret I will forever carry with me."

And Camila never expected herself to be wanted by the man, but hearing his words hurt her nonetheless. She was a mistake to him. Something he should never have allowed to happen.

"And yet I fought for your life like it were my own." This stunned Camila as she looked to her father. "I have hope for you, Araquiel. I have faith you will be better than those who brought you into this existence."

He stood slowly before offering his hand to her and feeling compelled to do it, Camila took the offered hand, allowing the man to lift her to her feet.

For a moment they just watched one another and she was astounded by how much of herself she saw in him.

The moment passed and Gabriel revealed his wings to her. Beaming lights that lit up the night for miles around them. A glowing gold that warmed everything it touched.

"Release your own, they were made to fly free." The father caught his daughter's frown and a small smile played on his lips for a only a moment. "Envision them and they will come to you."

And as if by the command of her father's voice, her wings did exactly that. Unfurling behind her, ripping through her jacket and shining with the same vibrance as her father's.

"Years ago there was unrest in Hell," Gabriel watched as Camila's eyes took in her own wings with fascination. "Your mother had just birthed an abomination she'd conceived with a human. My brother, you may know him as Lucifer, deemed the child an insult to Hell itself and sought to have it cast out. Your mother, ever the prideful one of her things, defied the very being that created her."

"She...loved the child?"

"Lilith cannot love, Araquiel, never be deceived by that notion. She carries no affection towards those she births but your mother is a possessive creature. You are hers." Gabriel circled his daughter, taking in the magnificence of her wings, their glow as strong, if not stronger, than his own. "It is why I expelled you from Hell myself." He came to a stop in front of her once more. "The birth of your sibling coincided with a feud between my brother that is of the light...and my brother cast out to the darkness. Michael brought us together to wage war on Lucifer, lay waste to Hell and bring about the restoration of light on this dark world."

Camila could see that her father was once again living in the moment. She could see the memories shining in his eyes.

"Your mother...she is ever the seductress. For you see, Camila, Michael is the epitome of light, however, I am weak to the darkness myself. Lucifer had taken many opportunities to recruit me, little did he know, it would take the wily mind of a demon to bring me closer to the darkness." The archangel sighed softly, his eyes taking in his daughter's reaction. "It was a moment of weakness, a moment in which the war and fighting left me...exhausted. And in that moment of weakness, I allowed my greatest regret to come to light."