╳┊ FOR I HAVE SINNED. *

Each time she called out with no answer she felt something deeper than her heart break. It was as if her soul was being crushed, sttripped away from her and leaving her raw, broken in a way one couldn’t describe with the metaphors of a missing heart or holes inside somewhere that couldn’t be mended. Missing Laney was like missing herself as if it was the Angel who had raised her and made her into Sienna, the beautiful and mad girl she was. Property of no one and everyone and without the touch of Azreal she’d be another poor sad girl, lost and alone. Groaning Sienna tugged on a last lock, shouting for Laney and pressing her ear to the steel frame- the faint sound of something perked Sienna’s head towards Axel.

“I hate you seeing me like this-” She admitted but unsure as to why the raw showcase of emotion in front of him made her feel like she was giving away too much to a man she hardly knew. She felt like at any moment she could cry, and cry so hard she’d fill the cab and end her suffering at once. However, the thoughts faded when the cab stopped and Sienna slid out of the door again. It seemed unreal that there was a party going on, there was the shrill shreik of laughter, and children having fun. “It seems unfair-” she stated, “Laney is dying and the world is still moving.” 

Axel wasn’t the man to openly comfort, he responded better to coldness than he did to anything else for sheer fact he was accustomed to it. As he watched Sienna’s movements, her grief as she buried her head in her hands, he almost offered a pat on the back but refrained. Instead he said, “Crying, from the moment you were born, is only an indication that you are alive,” Axel’s voice is soft, “Watching her suffering and having people think it’s all a bloody game, it’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach,”

Inside the empty apartment complex she took careful steps, she felt the walls for hidden doors and stuck close to the glow of Axel, the only noises the occasional sigh when there was nothing to be found and the echo of foot steps marching towards unknown. Looking at him she shook her head an shrugged. I will be, she mouthed back as they rounded the last room where fliers scattered across the room and blew in the wind coming from and open window. It was empty and looked terrifyingly similar to the room Laney was in, only she wasn’t here and perhaps never was. 

Moving to close the window Sienna huffed pinching the bridge of her nose, “How many hours now until she’s gone..” She trialed knowing the answer already. Looking to the mess on the floor she noticed all the fliers were old Block 122 events, all but one. Dropping to her knees she picked it up, “It’s the festival..the spring awakening-” She rushed her words triplp over syllables and sounds before shoving the paper up at him a glimmer of hope lighting her somber features. “This guy is playing with you right..making a game leaving riddles when he took the eyes of those people, when he drowned those kids at that club…when he killed all those kids at the four hundred ball it’s all been laced with clues and taunting like a cat with a half dead mouse.” 

Tick tick, Axel. Tick tock.

Watching her pick up the flier, he knew her words made sense. This was a game of something bigger than the both of them. In his thousands of years, he had seen some gruesome things and he always remembered the feeling of dread of what was to come. He could only hope that this time around they could preserve as their kind and the human race always did.

“It’s all we have to go on right now,” He said in reply before nodding, “Back to square one,” The man turned his back before the two made their way out of the building, watching their step and as he double checked it on their way out. As the glow of his skin returned to normal, the two bodies made their way out to the street before hailing a cab.

Looking out the window her features pressed into a frown she could feel her heart beating ragged and painfully beneath the cage her bones had created for it. “Without her I’d have nothing..I’d may as well be dead-” She said tracing the faint scars over her throat and neck from the attack she was starting to questions from months prior. 

“Laney and I- before I knew who she was I walked in on her and Lincoln..I still thought they were only siblings and seeing it didn’t effect me like you’d think..I was angry she had been avoiding me to fuck him..I’d have understood if only she had told me..” Looking back at him some of her personality seemed to have returned to her features as she reached for his hand a gentle squeeze, the only apology she’d ever give him. “Girls like me don’t really fall in love..we’re the mistresses of married men, the muse of angels..the sexual release, the food- love is fickle, muses are forever.” 

He paused as the mention of the intricate bond of the McLeod twins, their physical forms were brought into this cycle as brother and sister but yet soul bonds transcended that. “I imagine it can’t be easy having to tell your best friend that in reality her brother is her soul mate,” Axel watches her hand move towards him and he had understood that she liked the familiarity of touch although with him, he wasn’t used to tenderness in the least bit.  “I suppose that comes with less heartache,”

She stated her eyes intense on his, “Because if you do Laney would kill you.” She assured him with the swift understanding of the girls mind, “And if we don’t find her you’ll spend the rest of this life knowing our failure broke my heart- it may not seem like much to you, to have so many heart beats of your own, but this is all I get, this one and I’d lose everything without her.”

Finally releasing his arms he dug her phone from her jean pocket, “I can’t watch this-” She cried unbridled tears rolling in waves over her cheeks as the image of the blonde came into focus for a moment before passing the phone to Axel. Every part of her shook before she took control of herself leaning against him to search the images playing like her worst nightmares.

Pointing to a vague sign she barley made out the faint lettering, some numbers perhaps. “Axel what does that say?” She questioned a certain hopefulness bubbling in her chest at the prospect of finding her. “ Whipping her head back and forth, “Walking is too slow.” Her brain begun processing information faster than she could keep up. “We have to go, she’s there, she has to be there in the video the flyer-” 

(nothing bad will happen, you’ll find the girl, save the day) if only it were that bloody easy.

“And I’m too young to die,” Axel muses as he knew he didn’t want to unleash the wrath he knew Laney to be capable of. More so, there was always Lincoln to think about. Poor Abaddon, he didn’t want to imagine. Sienna’s next utterances was one that caused his eyes to shift slightly, her gaze was intense at a reminder of another high stake. Though Zadkiel had grown apathetic in many mannerisms, he knew the depth of a heart and always softened at the idea of love knowing no bounds.

“A human girl in love with the Angel of Death, hm.” A commentary he said more to himself that her, “And like I said, I intend to live long and the idea of adding a broken hearted girl onto my conscience is one I can go without. Very well, you’ve made your point, Sienna.”

Having watched the tears stream at the sight of Laney’s torturous scene and held the phone in his palm, again taking in the images as they moved on. As her finger pointed to the lettering, he paused the screen, it was fuzzy but there could be a connection to what he thought it could be. [122] It made sense, right? “122. Block 122,” He repeated, “It’s a start,” No sooner, the man’s eyes fall onto his companion as her mind seemed to drag her a million places. He felt her hand reach for his, as her persistent tugging caused him to follow her. But as the bond mate to the Angel of Power, Axel had taken to taking a stand, swinging her back to look at him head on.