EVABELLE

"Guys!" Evabelle screamed.

At her cry, both Lucis and Del jumped to their feet, as though filled with a sudden adrenaline flow. Aza on the other hand blinked blearily around. "What now?" She yawned. Then she glanced up at the figure in crouched position, and groaned, plopping her head back down on her bag. "And so it begins."

"Girls," Lucis began. "You need to move now!"

Evabelle ran to Aza and dragged her to her feet, right as the monster screeched a high blood curdling scream, and dove for them. Evabelle ducked, closing her eyes tight, waiting for those long claws to start tearing her open.

Suddenly a large shadow passed over her and her friend. Evabelle opened her eyes to find Del hovering over them, his enormous black wings creating a shield between the girls and the monster.

He glared at the two of them. "Move!" He shouted.

Aza put her hands on her hips. "You can't tell us what to..."

Evabelle shook her head, grabbed Aza's wrist, and yanked her across the room, ignoring her protests, to the opposite wall, under the broken staircase. "Must you?" Evabelle gasped, glaring at her friend.

"Sorry, it's just whenever that guy speaks, I'd like to punch him right in the nose."

Evabelle glanced out as Del swung his arm around, and slammed it into the Annihilator's face. The thing spiraled backward screeching, but quickly spun around, returning with a new force. Evabelle was amazed that neither Del's hand, nor the creature's face was severely injured.

Suddenly Lucis flew to them, literally. He reached out behind him and plucked a feather from his own wings. Evabelle gasped, for just then the soft harmless feather lengthened into a glowing white, deadly-sharp dagger. Then he opened his mouth to speak, but another caterwauling shriek echoed out, and they all looked up. Two more Annihilators flew in followed by an enormous one, its cry seeming to shake the whole building, making both Evabelle and Aza clap their hands over their ears.

Quickly, Lucis grabbed Evabelle's hand and placed the blade in her palm. "Protect yourself." He told her firmly then took off to fight the oncoming monsters.

Evabelle stared numbly at the glowing weapon in her hand. Protect yourself. Did that mean... she would have to...? She glanced up at the terrible battle unfolding before her. Del was not far from her, fighting closer to the floor. One monster lay in an unconscious heap just a few feet from him. Now he was fighting another beast. It was huge, but Del just danced around the creature swiping at it with another glowing blade she had not seen before. He was so graceful it was almost like watching a strange yet beautiful dance. Never had she imagined fighting looking so beautiful. Up above them, near where the bell should have been, Lucis fought the humungous Annihilator, the one who had shaken the building. Just like his brother he glided around his opponent, but Evabelle's heart pounded as the beast's swipe nearly took off Lucis's head.

A sudden blur of movement drew her eyes away from the clash above, back down to Del's fight, but that wasn't what had caught her eye. She felt herself begin to quiver, the blade was gripped tightly in her hand, but she was shaking so badly she doubted she would be able to do anything if one of those things came at her. Evabelle glanced over at Aza, and felt her heart skip a beat. Aza was gone.

"Aza!" Evabelle yelled looking around frantically. With no time to react Evabelle was slammed into the stone wall behind her, her breath in her lungs, gone. The blade clattered to the floor as she struggled for air, but a large leathery clawed hand pressed hard on her throat.

Evabelle's eyes widened. Flecks of spit hit her face as the creature laughed in triumph. She knew this was going to happen. Barely out the door on her way to save the world, and she was already going to die. What was she supposed to expect. Her struggling began to grow weaker. All the sounds around her began to fade. To die. Evabelle's eyes burned as she felt them welling up with tears. But I don't want to die.

Just as her vision began to grow fuzzy, the monster released her. Evabelle collapsed, coughing and gasping clutching her surely bruised throat. She looked up and saw Del. He had smashed the hilt of the blade into the head of the beast. Now the creature stumbled and taking advantage of his delirium, Del charged the Annihilator. It was now the monster's turn to be slammed into the wall of stone, although its face was pressed against it.

With its bat-like wings ready to spring out and knock Del backward, Evabelle tried to warn him, but Del was too fast. Evabelle watched his arm as it came around and grabbed a point near the base of its wing and pulled it out and down so quickly, Evabelle barely had time to blink. She winced as she heard it crack.

The creature screamed. Del leaned forward and whispered into the ear of the crying monster. "Same weaknesses, you fiend." Then he released the pitiful being, where it crumpled at Evabelle's feet.

"Are you alright?"

Evabelle tore her gaze away from the unconscious Annihilator, to look up at Del. Whether or not she had had her voice at that moment she doubted she would be able to speak anyway. All she managed was a small nod.

"Good." Del then reached out his hand to help her up.

Evabelle blushed and began to reach her own hand up to accept his, but she stopped. The world seemed to slow as Evabelle saw the leathery shadow come behind Del. At that moment Evabelle realized he was done for. There was no way he could turn fast enough, but that didn't stop Evabelle from trying to warn him. A raspy cry escaped her lips, even though she knew it was no good.

Suddenly a large board crashed into the Annihilator's head, causing it to stagger away. Del whirled. Just behind him Aza stood breathing hard. "Did you know that when you do that, that vibrating pain shoots up your arms?" She leaned against the board, rubbing her sore limbs. "I mean wow it hurts!"

Del and Evabelle stared. "What are you doing?" Del yelled.

Aza glanced up at him. "Just paying you back for saving my friend, you dummy. I hate owing people."

Del opened his mouth, but just then the monster regained steadiness and lunged at him. He reeled and slashed out with his own dagger, swiping it across the chest and Aza with her board bopped the thing on the head again.

"Would you quit that?" Del snarled at Aza.

"What? Saving your life?" She shouted back, as she swung the board around once more.

The board missed the monster and continued on to Del, who just managed to duck before the large chunk of wood smashed into his cranium. "No!" He growled, snatching the board from her and wedged it into the Annihilators stomach causing it to double over. "Getting in the way, you idiot!" Then he tossed his blade to Aza, who caught it clumsily. "If you want to be any kind of help, just stay and protect her." He jammed his head toward Evabelle. With that he turned to take on the next beast.

Aza groaned and marched over to Evabelle. "I just can't stand that moron! I'm about ready to shred his wings and feed them to those monsters." She shook her head. "Wow, now that sounds really weird." She then glanced down at Evabelle, who had yet to speak, with one hand still on her throat. "Oh, sorry, Bellz." She reached out her hand to pull her up. "Are you okay?"

Evabelle accepted her friend's hand, slightly disappointed and a little relieved it wasn't Del's she was taking. She nodded slowly at Aza's question. "I think so." She said a little coarsely.

Aza examined Evabelle's throat gently. She smiled when she finished. "I think you'll live."

"And you're a doctor now, are you?" Evabelle coughed as just a few simple words burned her throat.

Aza smirked. "Maybe, I wouldn't be speaking if I were you." Then her tone changed. "But seriously, are you alright? I mean you slammed into that wall pretty hard."

Evabelle ran her fingers along the back of her head. There was definitely a goose egg forming there, but other than that and her sore throat, she felt miraculously well for someone who had nearly been torn to bits by bloodthirsty demon monster.

Finally, Evabelle nodded again. "Like you said, I'll live."

Aza shook her head. "I would have been here, but I needed a weapon, something that wouldn't make me feel absolutely useless. I know we got that one dagger from Lucis, but that was just one, I needed something myself." She then looked around, curiously. "Speaking of which, where is that blade?"

"Oh, I dropped it." Evabelle whispered, looking around as well. She felt her stomach lurch as her eye caught sight of its hilt just beneath the unconscious Annihilator. "Umm," Evabelle swallowed.

Aza saw it too. She crouched down and carefully pulled the blade out from underneath the beast. She paused, staring at the monster.

"It's amazing," Evabelle said quietly, trying not to strain her voice. "That that thing was once something like Del and Lucis."

Aza licked her lips. "You know I didn't even think about that." Slowly, she rose to her feet. She turned to Evabelle and charily placed blade back in her hand then she opened her mouth to say something, but a painful cry overhead stopped her.

That wasn't an Annihilator's scream. Evabelle's heart pounded as she looked up to see Lucis, go limp and begin to fall. No! She thought, panic freezing her mind, but suddenly he flapped his wings giving Evabelle a brief sense of relief, though it was quickly doused as a shower of blood rained off his wings reminding Evabelle insanely of rose petals falling from the sky. Lucis managed to ascend back up to the dinosaur of an Annihilator, who taking advantage of Lucis's weakness charged at him. Lucis swerved away, but clumsily. Evabelle could see it now. His snow white wing was stained scarlet.

Evabelle felt sick and rather faint. From the way he was flying, she knew he wouldn't last much longer against that thing. "Lucis!" She cried hoarsely. Desperately she looked back down at Del, but he was busy with his own monster.

"Evabelle, stay here!"

Evabelle turned just in time to see Aza darting away. "Aza!" Evabelle yelled, her throat searing with pain but that didn't matter anymore. She watched her friend run over to a far wall where she began to climb a set of iron rungs Evabelle had not noticed before. Quickly, Evabelle stepped forward to follow her friend, but instead she found herself tumbling to the floor.

Evabelle's head pounded. What...what's going...on? Her thoughts were slowing. She was dizzy and felt nauseous. But Lucis... he... Evabelle crawled out into the moonlight and felt her hand slip on something. His blood. And Evabelle couldn't hold it in. Her body heaved and everything in her stomach came up all in one.

She groaned and rolled away from the pool of bile. Now Evabelle lay on her back in the middle of the floor, right out in the open. That's probably not good. She thought sluggishly. Above her moving objects went in and out of focus.

A bat monster was circling a bloody angel. Evabelle's eyes widened, no, an Annihilator was circling a wounded Lucis. She struggled for a moment, trying to rise, but she had no strength. Suddenly a figure along the side of the wall above caught her eye. Aza! Evabelle's friend was pressed against the stone wall, calculating the distance between herself and the beast. Evabelle knew what her crazy mind was thinking and saw what happened moments before it actually occurred.

Aza jumped from her ledge, free falling through the air. Evabelle just stared with her mouth agape. With the blade raised, and a war cry echoing in her throat, Aza flew like an action hero across the ravine, and like an action hero she miraculously landed on the back of the bat, and finally she sunk her blade into its wing.

Once more an earth trembling shriek reverberated through the building and Evabelle lay there unmoving as the creature arched back and her friend nearly fell to her death. Aza clung clumsily to the wounded beast as it shook and cried. Suddenly the beast went still and fell like a stone, plunging down with a smaller than average human clinging to its back for dear life.

Evabelle snapped out of her shock for a split second to discover that she was screaming. "AZAAA!" Her friend was going to die. And Evabelle truly understood the meaning of uselessness.

Two things happened very suddenly that Evabelle had no time to register what they were. First a streak of white and red zoomed across the moonlit bell tower, nearly crashing into the falling monster. And second, a wave of darkness swooped over Evabelle and scooped her away.

The crash echoed in her ears causing her legs to buckle and Evabelle to burst into tears. She was blind and her friend was dead. Dead, splattered across the stone floor. Gone, forever. Everything was gone. Wait. She could feel warm arms holding her up. And she could hear a voice murmuring in her ear. And slowly those words began to shape themselves into reality.

"Shut up, you idiot. Your human friend's alive. Be quiet, would you? Please just stop screaming. You don't need to cry anymore,"

Evabelle tried to breathe slowly, but she couldn't stop shaking. She did manage to quiet her screams, but she could still feel tears flow down her face.

The voice was strained, struggling to sound calm. "Open your eyes, Evabelle. Evabelle, look at me."

Slowly Evabelle opened her eyes and found herself gazing into two deep pools of violet. Del's strong hands had her shoulders. Her own hands clung to his arms so tightly, that she knew it had to be painful. She released him so quickly pushing away, that she lost her footing and tumbled once more, but with Del's speed he managed to catch her close, causing Evabelle to gasp. Gently he lowered her to the floor.

"I'm sorry." Evabelle sobbed, putting her head in her hands. "I-I didn't mean-I-"

"Evabelle!"

Evabelle's head snapped up. Azalyn Kendall, alive and well, was running toward her. She slid to her knees at Evabelle's side. She had a hand over her mouth. "Oh my-" She gasped, her eyes scanning Evabelle up and down. Slowly she lowered her hand. "Evabelle I thought you said you were alright."

Evabelle just stared at her friend. "You- you were worried about me?"

"You have a concussion, you numbskull." Del stood over her, folding his arms. "And you crawled right out into the open, and just laid there."

Aza glared up at him. "Would you just shut up! You have no right badmouthing her. She-"

"Evabelle, are you alright?" A worried voice interrupted.

Evabelle turned her head and saw Lucis coming toward her. His azure eyes were wide and his face was pale. "You don't look well." When he reached her, he crouched down by her on her other side, looking into her eyes.

"Me?" Evabelle squeaked again. "But-but," she glanced back at his crippled wing and her stomach did a somersault. "Your wing!" Evabelle cried. The blood on his wing had streaked all the way down, appearing like scarlet paths in a snow covered field.

"An excellent point." Del glowered. "She's not the only numbskull of the night." He stepped over Evabelle and over to his brother. "What were you thinking? Taking on that thing alone?" He scolded furiously as he examined the injury.

Lucis sighed. "Well, next time we can draw straws."

"Oh, very funny." Del snarled. "You- you could have died."

"All of us had a chance of that tonight." Aza input.

Lucis nodded. "Yes; and what about you taking on four of them yourself."

"They were young." Del muttered bitterly. "Easily taken care of." He didn't sound particularly happy about it.

"Not by himself!" Aza exclaimed.

Lucis smiled. "It appears you have saved all of us tonight, Aza. I am truly glad you volunteered to go with us, otherwise I doubt some of us would have survived this night."

Del grunted and extended his brother's wing out. Lucis gasped, jerked forward, his muscles tensing at the pain.

Evabelle leaned toward him. "Lucis?" She spoke, her voice sounding panicky.

A strange shivery jolt convulsed through Lucis and Evabelle's heart pounded. Lucis looked up, his breathing a little unsteady. His face, seemed clear of pain, yet his eyes spoke otherwise. "I'm fine, Evabelle. You don't need to worry. I've dealt with worse."

Evabelle saw Del tense at these words and turn away for just a moment, however when he turned back he was as stoic as ever.

"Evabelle, you need healing." Lucis was watching her carefully. "This has been quite an exciting night for you."

Evabelle felt her eyes burning, but she would not cry again. His wing, which was obviously in pain, was bleeding profusely. But here he was looking at her, wanting to help and comfort her. "Please, don't fuss over me like this. I'm fine, just worry about yourself."

Del scoffed. "Right, if Lucis ever worried about his personal well being, then maybe I could take a holiday." Then Del reached back and plucked a dark feather from his wing and pressed it against what appeared to be the source of the injury.

"I don't think that's going to work." Aza interjected.

Del ignored her and closed his eyes. He began to chant in strange language that sounded strangely like a song. "Je lucerna mea va zoivis tu Lucis Mendax." He repeated this little saying three times and on the very last one he ended it with amen.

Evabelle watched in amazement as the black feather emanated a strange glow, a sort of violet color like Del's eyes, but it began to change. The shade of the feather began to lighten to match the white of Lucis's wings. The now bright feather then seemed to sink into the wounded wing and Del's hand now held nothing against his brother's wing, but traces of the purple still hung around his fingertips.

Del opened his eyes and removed his hand. "We need to wash your wing off." He said finally.

Lucis, during the whole process had also had his eyes closed. Evabelle had seen the sense of relief spread through his body as the dark feather absorbed into his own. His muscles relaxed as all tension was released from him. He opened his eyes as well. "But first things first." He looked at Evabelle.

Aza was still staring. "Did that just... I mean... are you all better now?" She looked at Lucis.

He shook his head. "No not completely, but I should be in about twenty four hours. Our power cannot heal completely unless it is a small injury, but it does speed up the healing process." Then he reached back and plucked one of his own feathers from his good wing.

"Lucis," Del stepped in front of him. "Let me do it. You have this tendency to stretch yourself. I'm not sure you noticed, but you're already injured."

"Am I?" Lucis smiled. Del glared at him. Lucis sighed and nodded. "I'm well aware of my limits." Del scoffed, but Lucis continued. "Don't worry. It appears to be a small concussion. I can take care of it."

Del didn't seem entirely convinced, but he didn't stop Lucis as he crawled around him so he could reach Evabelle. Lucis lifted his hand with the feather and placed it on top of Evabelle's head, who stiffened.

Lucis gazed at her and smiled gently. "You don't need to be afraid."

Evabelle blinked. His blue eyes were so kind and soft and full of light, that Evabelle felt herself return the smile and probably for the first time that night she began to feel calm. Then Lucis began the same chant that Del had, although there were a few differences. "Je lucerna mea va zoivis tu Evabelle Angel."

Evabelle closed her eyes as a soothing, yet tingly warmth spread throughout her whole body, but especially around her head, making her feel if she opened her eyes she would see some sort of halo of light encircling her head reaching out to her with its kind of love. Slowly that strange feeling ebbed away and she opened her eyes. Lucis was watching her. "Do you feel better?"

Evabelle's smile widened. "Yes-I didn't even notice-I mean-thank you!" Pain she hadn't even realized was there before was gone. She nodded.

Lucis smiled. "You should be fine now. You might still have a bump on your head, but it should be gone within a few hours." With that he rose to his feet. Del seemed poised as if he expected his brother to fall. Lucis raised a hand. "I'm fine. For goodness sake, Del."

Del watched him. "Can you blame me?"

Lucis sighed. "We will return, girls. Del and I are just going to wash up." Then he and his brother turned away and left Evabelle and Aza to stare after them.

When the boys were gone, Aza turned to Evabelle. At first she didn't say anything, just kept glancing up at Evabelle's head then back to her face.

"What?" Evabelle asked nervously. "What's wrong with my head?" She reached up and began to feel around as if expecting an extra hand to be growing out of it.

"Nothing," Aza replied. "I mean, well you didn't see it, but the feather, it... it turned gold."

"Gold?" Evabelle asked in wonder.

Aza nodded. "I say that might just prove that you're one of those angel things after all."

Evabelle shook her head. "I still don't know about that." Aza shrugged. "Aza," Evabelle now truly looked at her friend. "Are you okay? I mean I just watched you jump off a ledge, twenty feet in the air, stab a mythical monster with a magical dagger, and nearly plummet to your death."

Aza raised her eyebrows. "Well, when you put it that way, it makes it sound like I should be in some kind of mental hospital. That's probably why I don't think about stuff before I do it."

Evabelle shook her head again. "Oh Aza, you scared me tonight. How did you survive that fall? I mean I heard that crash and..."

"Well I wasn't in that crash. Lucis just zoomed out of nowhere and plucked me off of that monster. I actually felt kind of bad. I think it might have made his wing a little worse." Aza sighed. "But, it was good to see that that Delaney does actually care for someone though."

Evabelle had seen that protectiveness in Del's eyes as he had told his brother to be careful. It was so sweet and...

Aza cut through her thoughts. "I'm not sure if you had the right to worry about me though when you were just sitting under us ready to get flattened."

Evabelle blinked. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"I hate to admit it, but Del was sort of right. I mean you crawled out into the middle of the floor and just laid there. I saw you when I was on that thing's back. You didn't even move when it started to fall. I thought he was going to crush you and I swear if you had died, I would have pounded you."

Now things were beginning to make sense. The blur of white and red had been Lucis rescuing Aza and the swirl of darkness had been Del rescuing her. Evabelle felt a bit of warmth rising to her cheeks as the memory of Del holding her, comforting her, his eyes gazing into her own. She shivered.

"Are you okay?" Aza asked.

"Oh, yes!" Evabelle exclaimed quickly. "I'm fine."

When the boys returned, the girls had found their bags and had cleared them away from any of the monsters, amazingly nothing was crushed. The one Annihilator that had crashed in the middle of the floor didn't seem like it would awaken, but some of the others, Evabelle wasn't so sure. She opened her mouth to ask if they were going to get going, but then she saw the boy's faces. Exhaustion was written all over them. It had been a long night for the entire group.

Lucis reached into his bag and pulled out a small pouch and out of the pouch he pulled out a small hand full of what appeared to be ordinary chalk dust, but Evabelle knew better. "What is that?" She asked nervously.

Lucis stood over one of the monsters and sprinkled it over its head. "This is just a bit of Mage magic. A friend of ours let us borrow some. This powder, is like hyped up Narcal Powder, which is a powder that will put you to sleep and will keep you asleep depending on how much you breath in. This stuff is a little stronger, it should keep the Annihilators in the state they are in, unconscious, for twenty-four hours, so by the time they awaken, we'll be long gone."

Evabelle continued to watch him curiously, but it was Aza who asked. "What's a Mage?"

"Kind of like a witch, but they hate being called that."

"Why?"

Lucis sprinkled a bit more on the one that had attacked Evabelle earlier and she could see the wounded wing tucked carefully almost behind the other. "A witch is an evil being created by the Demons to worship and follow their orders, but a Mage is a witch, who has broken away from those traditions and has decided to clear their own path and make their own destiny."

Aza shook her head. "It's just incredible, all this fantasy stuff."

Evabelle found it rather fascinating herself. She wanted to ask more about the Mages and vampires and all the other creatures in this new world, but Del didn't seem in the mood to speak, and she figured Lucis would willingly go on about all the magic, but he had to be worn out and she didn't want to strain him.

Once he was finished with the last one, he and Del began to drag them outside. Once this task was completed it was finally decided that Aza would keep watch first. Evabelle tried to protest, saying it wasn't fair, the Annihilators had come during her shift, but Lucis told her for her to heal properly she needed to get some proper rest. After Aza, Del volunteered to go next to make sure his brother didn't kill himself.

Evabelle yawned, feeling exhaustion sweep over her. After that Annihilator attack she had wondered if she could ever sleep again, but it seemed the moment her head hit her bag she went out like a light. Soon vivid dreams began to engulf her, but in her conscious mind she knew she wouldn't remember it in the morning.

~(A/N: Sorry! This part is really long! This was the best stopping point in the chapter. I still hope you liked it though! There was quite a bit of action. Please tell me what you think! Was is intense? Did it have you at the edge of your seat? If not please tell me! I want to make this good and your input is extremely appreciated. Thanks! :D )~