Assaciel sighed but followed after Adacio.
*
Mina was in the process of bringing tea over to Isabella when the young woman cried out. She rushed over to find her on the chaise, cradling her head. "Oh, what's wrong?" She slid the tray on the table and went to her, gently touching Isabella's crown. "Are you hurting?" At the sudden whoosh of air and the sound of wings fluttering, the vampire glanced back at the source.
An angel.
Not shortly after, the pureblood appeared at the entrance, stern gaze unfaltering as he peered at the Arc Angel.
"So many visitors today, hm, what brings you here, Messenger?" Surely it was of grave importance, otherwise, angels rarely had the habit of dropping in.
Gabriel nodded in greeting to both Mina and Aleksei.
âAdacio will soon be joining us,â Gabriel informed them. âThe Nephilim has opened his tomb.â
He turned to look at Isabella, whose face was furrowed with worry.
âN-Nephilim? As in...?â She stammered, her eyes slightly widened. âAre you talking about...?â
âSalvatore,â Gabriel punctuated gravely. âHe needs your help, Isabella. You two are fated, tied together since birth. The further you run from each other, the stronger your bond pulls you back. He is stubborn...â
A grin played at his mouth.
âAvalon, do you know what has become of Maria Lombardi and her daughter Sofia?â Gabriel asked. âDo you know Sofia has become the High Priestess to the Italian Royal Family?â
"Nephilim?" Mina turned a questioning glance over at Aleksei who's gaze pinned on the angel still.
"So I've observed." Aleksei retorted, not at all surprised at the current events. Naturally he keeps tabs on particular persons of interest. "They are in Italia, yes, I'm aware of their particular circumstances." But these are delicate matters that take a certain level of finesse. Can't go rushing in guns blazing like a certain brash hunter he knows would.
âAssaciel,â Adacio called for the angel. He had reached the center of the crypt, and the shadows from below followed behind him, slowly consuming the room when Gabriel vanished. âDean, come.â
Beneath his feet, Enochian sigils slowly began to form, vibrating as the legion of voices returned to their chanting. Adacio joined them, his voice wicked and chorused, reaching a decibel so deep it was terrifying.
âMy son,â he continued, waving to the center of the geometric figure that appeared. âYou will take us to Isabella. Remember your first tongue.â
He spoke of the Angelic language, of course. His steely eyes cast to the golden light coming from Deanâs chest, fighting to penetrate his clothes. It would buzz and vibrate as the boy drew nearer to the sigils, which were etching themselves all over walls and ceiling.
The voices grew louder as they covered every inch, glowing brighter when Dean and Assaciel entered the circle.
âRemember your first tongue, Dean.â
"Not like I gotta choice." Dean gripped at his arms as he followed but it was much like rising from the ocean into a cacophony of celestial insanity. His head filled with so much angelic voices he struggled with every step. Hands gripping his head he gasped at the surge of pain tearing through his system. What the hell?!
"Make it stop!" He cried out, unable to make another step. Who turned the volume up?
âCommand them, Dean,â Adacio instructed him, his voice still booming without skipping a beat. âYou are Nephilimâdeclare your will! Take us to Isabella!â
As the legiĂłn intensified, Adacioâs eyes went from an icy grey to a platinum white.
âYou are a conduit between realms, my son,â he continued. âYou exist on both planes. The extent of your power is virtually boundless! Command it! Command them!â
"I don't want this, can't you just... Take it back?" How can he even hear through all this noise? His senses are raw from all the input. Ugh.
"Stop acting like you're just a mortal, Dean." Assaciel added, just behind him. "Focus."
"Easy for you freaks!" Now he's just frustrated really. They don't get him at all.
Isabellaâs heart was racing now. Flying into a full panic, she leaned against Mina for support, clutching her chest. Her mind was spinning and her ears were ringing. If she hadnât been sitting down, she was certain she would have fallen from dizziness.
âIt-itâs so... itâs... loud...â she mumbled behind gritted teeth. âSomething is happening to Dean...â
She looked around the room, which was beginning to blur, morphing into a bright cacophony of sounds and sight. The only beacon in the chaos was a shock of blond hair and blue eyes.
âCome to me, Dean...â she whispered pleadingly.
The light from the sigils was becoming blinding, and like hands, began to encompass them slowly. The more Dean focused, the more their energy within the room grew and shifted their surroundings. But the more he doubted, the dimmer the sigils would get, instead replaced with darkness and the cold floor of the crypt.
âShe needs you, my son,â Adacio encouraged him. âCommand the legion! Thy will be done!â
SofĂa screeched in rage.
The shrill pitch of her voice was like iron striking iron, shaking the walls of her temple. All the candles simultaneously relit themselves, and her eyes began to glow red.
âYou wonât stop him,â Maria threatened from behind the glass. âThe boy is too powerful.â
âBut his mind is weak!â Sofia snarled. âHis will is weaker!â
She snapped her fingers, and robed monks surrounded her. They, too, began to chant.
âYour hexes wonât work, Sofia! He is a Nephilim!â Maria cried, almost smirking.
âShut up!â
Command the legion? What did that even mean? Dean couldn't ask as the waves of energies crashed until he snapped his eyes in the opposite direction. Wasn't that Isabella's voice among the crazy? He was sure... A whisper...
His eyes shimmered as he stared ahead, as if... He could almost see her... In a chair.
She kept fading out. Like a bad picture on a screen.
"Wait." He focused on that image, as if he could piece the threads that made up the image until it was whole.
It was something and he snatched at it.
"Isabella!" The name tore from him as he took off like an idiot toward the giant image before him. Please don't crash. Don't crash.
He leapt off the ground and hit a force only in a second, like jumping into a pool, then he was falling sideways as he crashed into the floor, carpet, his back taking the brunt of the fall. Then he pushed up, head spinning. What the hell?
That thing, the image was still floating there as if a giant tear swirling with white and gold sparks of energy. Assaciel stared from where she stood on the other side.
"Holy shit is that... Did I just portal back?" He turned his head back toward Isabella and Mina. She too stared a little wide-eyed.
Dean pushed to his feet, the world was still spinning but he'd somehow made it with everything in-tact.
"Welcome back, Salvatore." Avalon said cooly from across the room. He's served himself tea and sipped.
"Screw you." Dean muttered in greeting.
The vampire merely smirked with a raised brow. Bastard.
âDean...?â
Confusion riddled the young girlâs features as the blond boy soared toward them as if through thin air. Her heart skipped for a second with surprise, until her mind finally comprehended what had happened.
She rose to her feet and smashed si to him, wrapping her arms around his torso and digging her face into his chest, directly where that gold light would be shining. She squeezed him tightly as if she were afraid he would vanish; as if she were making sure he was truly there.
âIâve missed you...â she thought, her eyes misting slightly.
Directly behind them, Adacio stood, his eyes of steel fixated almost incredulously on Isabella. As she slowly pulled away from Dean, knowing she probably agitated him, he studied her features as if in disbelief.
That moment was fleeting as he fell into step beside them to look directly at Avalon with a familiar smirk.
âIt has been quite some time, my old friend,â he said.
That voice. It snapped him in her direction as if by instinct but she was already rushing toward him. All he could do was stand there while she clung to him.
And then complete silence dropped over him in that instance.
How did she...?
"Isa...Bella... Hey." His hands rose up, then he realized the cut... He'd cut his palm before but there was no scar?!
Blinking, he gently returned the embrace. Trying to smother awkwardness. What did she mean she missed him...?
Wait. She didn't say that out loud, did she?
No, he wasn't going to ask that.
He's no friggin Jedi.
Right?
He held on to Isabella and glanced at Mina who slowly rose back up from her knelt position and smoothened out the ruffles of her skirt. Her gaze swung to Avalon and a tilted smile touched her lips.
No. Nothing from her.
Or maybe he was just hearing things.
He had a ton a questions.
But that had to take a back burner especially when the entourage joined them.
How does he close that freaking portal???
"Welcome back as well, comrade. You don't look a day over a century." Avalon knew him too? What, was he popular with everybody?
Dean wouldn't look at him. Absolutely not.
Assaciel cleared her throat, "Dean, you may want to close the tear through space and time any day now."
How would he even-- one glance at it, what, like closing a door in his head or--
The glowing portal snapped, crackled, and whoosh-- gone.
Ok that's one way.
Isabella jolted just a moment as the portal crackled and popped, causing her to clutch Deanâs hand briefly from surprise. But as if she were electrocuted, her hand recoiled, and she looked at him questioningly. The moment her skin touched his, she could feel that Nephilim energy like static coming off of him. He was buzzing with this newfound power, and it didnât look like he even knew it.
She would have to corner him privately and ask later. She knew he would be apprehensive to talk, let alone be around any of these people currently gathered in the manor. She retreated beside him, careful not to touch him again, though stray strands of her inky locks still clung to him like magnetism.
Adacio chuckled at Aleksei.
âI would compare you to fine wine, but you have not aged a minute,â he retorted with a grin. âImmortality becomes you.â
His grey eyes shifted to Isabella, peering at him curiously from behind Deanâs shoulder. They were tethered together by something no human could fathom, it was written in the language of their limbs; it was swirling in the pools of their eyes and the way they looked at each other. Even her hair couldnât stay away from him. His heart sank, but it wouldnât be apparent on his features as he then redirected his gaze at Mina.
âIâve been away too long,â Adacio said, offering his hand so that he could take hers in greeting. âForgive me, Aleksei, is this your betrothed?â
Her touch came and went, drawing his gaze back down. Had she attempted to take his hand? He glanced at her, wasn't she supposed to be with the other guy? It didn't make sense. But the look of confusion on her face didn't help either. She ended up sliding beside him. Yet her hair stuck on him like static cling.
Did this mean he couldn't touch anyone?
Minus points to Nephilim powers.
Aleksei grinned fondly back, it's as though no time had passed between them.
Dean stared toward the entryway, mapping out the exits this manor had. He didn't know how he summoned that portal so until he learned the tricks he'd be running full-hunter mode.
Whatever the case, he'd protect her. It was his job to anyways.
Adacio approached someone else, a young womanâvampire too. She gave him her hand like an aristocrat would, formality at its finest.
And then he asked something that tugged at Dean, he stared at Adacio then Aleksei. Wait. Betrothed?
Aleksei's smile softened and his eyes shifted toward Mina, a look only someone who regarded another with admiration, respect and love would.
No doubt.
"Verily so." He confirmed.
"Then why'd you kiss her you asshat?" The hissed words left him before he realized it and the entire room trembled under a sudden force of pressure.
"You should calm yourself, boy, less you ruin my dwelling." Aleksei regarded him with detached coldness, "It's a misunderstanding on your part, I was merely kissing goodbye to someone else. Whom happened to be inhabiting Lombardi at the moment."
"Bullshit."
He quirked a brow, "Proving my point."
"Say that to my face." He fisted his hands, unbeknownst to himself, his eyes vanished under the glowing orbs of light flaring out like a fire reignited. All he wanted to do was hurl the vampire into the next dimension andâ he backed away, exhaling sharply. What the hell? He turned and left out the doors toward another room just far enough away.
His hands shook with suppressed energy he had no idea how to begin controlling. What if he hurt people? Shit, he couldn't be near anyone like this! He shook out his hands and clutched his head, swimming with voices again. The fucking angels wouldn't stop talking.
He leaned against the wall willing for silence. A moment, anything.
Crackling sounds drew his gaze up, fuck him, little volts of lightning arched out from him. This wasn't good. He felt like a charged bomb waiting to go off.
He shouldn't be here if he was just waiting to blow. He turned his gaze toward the windows. But where then...?
âDean...â Isabellaâs voice trailed after him as he stormed away. She turned to look at Aleksei helplessly and frowned. âWhat have I done?â
Adacio studied his son interact with Aleksei, feeling the disdain permeating the atmosphere with electricity. He also observed how Aleksei watched over Isabella; the purity between them and their relationship was something he had never seen shared between human and immortal. It was truly like witnessing a wolf safeguarding a lamb.
He shook his head, then his eyes met with Avalonâs and turned grave at the mention of an entity inhabiting Isabella.
âIs it true?â he asked, though already knowing the answer. âWas it her you spoke with, Aleksei?â
Again, his eyes searched the young girl, finding traces of Maria within her features. Her loyalty to Dean and Aleksei was like a mirror or a time capsuleâreminiscent of the relationship he, Maria and Aleksei were entangled in lifetimes ago.
His countenance fell slightly.
Isabella furrowed her brows as Adacio spoke with Aleksei. Who was he talking about?
Her mind whirled with broken thoughts and blurry images, scents and sounds. She only remembers the feelings in her chestâa yearning and a deep sadnessâbut she couldnât decipher them from her own.
Her eyes searched the emptiness where Dean had once been, noting the crackling energy he left in his wake. She knew he hated when she followed him, but she missed him so terribly...and when did she ever listen to him, anyway?
âGo to him,â Adacio answered for her, noticing her hesitation. âIt is where you are meant to be.â
Her eyes both questioned and thanked him, and she did pause for a moment before she nodded and slowly went after Dean.
When she found him, she made sure to stand several feet apart, unsure if he wanted her near him.
âPlease, donât go,â she said softly. âI just got you back...â
At the query, Aleksei peered at her and shook his head, no, she'd done no wrong. Then his attention returned to his dear friend, "Indeed it was." He confirmed, a note of sadness crossed his features at the memory.
He too noted the way her energies fluctuated when it came to that boy, it's him she'd tethered to from the beginning.
~~
Her presence had the power to banish the worst of it. Dean sagged against the wall, the brunt of pain lessoning. "Funny you'd say that, don't you have a vampire to pine for?" He pushed off the wall, straightening himself.
Adacio stiffened, searching the ground as if he were to find and answer among the marble. A vein appeared on his forehead as he delved deeply into thought.
âThat means theyâve awakened her,â he muttered to himself. Then he reverted his gaze back to Aleksei. âWhere are they keeping her?â
***