Dedicated to @LilithRose340

"It's an angelic blade made from Empyrean Steel and forged in the holy flames of Heaven." - Elizabeth Pierce

Chapter XVI

"Harlynn!" Jason yelled as I walked through the corridors of Walker Books. I turned around – with some papers under my arm – and faced the wolf boy who was jogging my way.

"Hey, Jason," I greeted him with a polite smile.

Standing in front of me, he shook his head – kind of resembling a wet dog, even though I would never tell him that – and pushed his brown locks out of his eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said automatically.

Jason tilted his head and gave me a look telling me he did not believe me. "Suuurreee...." he dragged out. "Then why do you seem so freaked out? What happened?"

He grinned in amusement. "Met a monster that was too much for you?"

I shook my head to clear my racing thoughts. "I was soulless."

"What?"

"Soulless," I repeated, "meaning I lost my soul."

"Wha-" Jason said perplexed. "How? Do you have it back now?"

I nodded. "A fallen angel who calls himself Lucas dropped my soul in the Silent Ocean and attempted to drown me. Ghost returned it to my body." I shortly summarized.

"Ghost as in," Jason mentioned around with his hands, "your cat?"

"I recently found out that Ghost is my Guardian Angel. The one who saved me from the lizard-like monster which is called a ventula," I explained, realizing with a pang I haven't told Jason yet about Ghost being an angel, but then again, I only found out recently myself.

"Are you really sure that you're alright?" Jason asked again, appearing to be slightly concerned. "Losing your soul is not something to take lightly."

"I don't know," I sighed. "I just don't know anymore," I replied truthfully as we walked together past some offices.

I tilted my head. "Do you happen to know something about this Lucas?" I asked.

Much to my disappointment, Jason shook his head. "There are rumors of fallen angels in New York," he told me, "but they are the elite. Not much is known about them by those like myself. Is Lucas his real name?"

"It's not," I immediately said. Recalling how the fallen did not want to share his name with me, saying how it freaks people out.        

"I can ask around in my pack," Jason offered, "to see if anyone knows or has heard something about this Lucas. I make no promises though."

"That would be great," I smiled, "thank you, Jason."

The werewolf tipped his head, his eyes flashing yellow only shortly. "My pleasure."

Jason turned around back towards his office he shared with some colleagues of his as I went towards the reception, holding the stack of papers tight against my chest.

"Hey, Harlynn," Claire from the reception greeted me with a smile.

I smiled back. "Hi, Claire. I got some papers I needed to give to you from Jack," I said, placing the papers down in front of her.

Claire scanned over the papers once and she put them away. "Okay, got it. Thanks," she told me, typing some things on her laptop. "Will you be leaving now?"

"Yeah," I awkwardly said, holding the strap of my bag. "I could go home earlier."

She nodded in understanding. "Seems reasonable," she told me, "you did got released from the hospital not too long ago, after all."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Later," I added, finishing the conversation, but Claire had already gone back to her work. I shrugged my shoulders and went towards the exit, waving at the security guards and hailing down a cab.

Telling the cabdriver my grandparent's address, I leaned back in my seat and looked out of the window, seeing the grand buildings and many shops of Manhattan fly past.

.

"Great to see you, Angel!" My grandmother greeted me with a wide smile the moment she opened the front-door and saw me standing there. She wrapped her arms around me in a warm hug and I closed my eyes in content, hugging her back. "What a surprise. I did not expect you today! How are you?" She rambled on at once.

I chuckled slightly and held the strap of my bag tightly. "I am doing fine. I could go home earlier today from work," I explained when I walked into their warm and comfy home. My grandmother closed the door behind us. "I thought I'll visit you two."

"I am sure that John would be delighted as well," she mused. "He's in the Creature Cave," she added. "Ever since you send him those drawings and the picture of that black feather, he has been up in the lore. He's very determined to find out what it is."

She rolled her eyes. "It's clearly a Fallen Angel though," she said, "but John is too stubborn to admit that angels are real."

I shook my head. "Oh, they are real alright," I muttered, thinking of Ghost, Metatron and Lucas. I've met three angels so far, which I'm pretty sure is more that most hunters – or anyone really – can say. "That sounds like pops,"  I said more loudly. My grandmother nodded in agreement.

"Do you maybe want some cake?" My grandmother asked me.

"Oh, no," I declined. "I am not exactly hungry now."

My grandmother gave me a worried look. I couldn't blame her, I rarely declined her home-made food unless something was wrong.

"I lost my soul," I told her finally and she froze on spot, her eyes wide. "I have it back now!" I quickly added.

"How did you manage to lose your soul?" My grandmother gaped at me.

"You remember the Alpha who's a fallen angel?" I asked. She nodded. "Apparently, he ripped my soul out of my body and dumped it somewhere in the Silent Ocean."

"My Guardian Angel saved me," I quickly added, "put my soul back in my body." I did not tell her that it was Ghost, feeling like that wasn't my place to say.

"Your Guardian Angel?" She repeated, seemingly slightly in awe. "You have met your Guardian Angel twice now. That's a rare thing to hear. Most people never even as much as gaze upon their guardian – if they even have one – let along meet them."

And I'm pretty sure that nobody has a high-ranking angel as their guardian, my subconsciousness noted. I thought about it for a while. Even Metatron – from who I am a hundred percent sure is an Archangel – seemed to address Ghost with a great deal of respect and admiration, maybe even some fear. And Ghost already told me that he wasn't a Cherubim – which most Guardian Angels are.

Could Ghost be an Archangel? I thought. I guess it would make sense in some ways.

I followed my grandmother down to the Creatures Cave, where we found John hunched over some lore books. "John!" Elisabeth called out to him. "Harlynn is here!"

His head shot up and clear blue eyes focused my way. My grandfather held up his hand in a greeting and went back to his books.

My grandmother scoffed. "Please ignore him for his rudeness. He has been like this for a while now. Always looking in his books. Always muttering about things," she said with a shake of her head.

"It's alright," I commented softly.

"Can I maybe get you some coffee?" My grandmother asked me.

"Sure," I replied. "Don't forget the milk and sugar," I added with a grin.

"When have I ever?"

Watching my grandmother leave the room, I descended the symbol-engraved stairs to reach my grandfather. John flipped through a book, shaking his head in disarray and muttering things under his breath. My eyes glanced towards the map of New York City that covered an entire wall, with the countless notes stuck to it and handwritten scribbles. There were more compared to when I was here before.

"Pops?" I asked, "are you alright?"

"I don't know, I just don't know. I have no idea what it is!" He complained in reply.

I leaned forward and took a closer look at the books and papers in front of him. The first thing I noticed was the picture I took of Lucas' feather and the sketch I made of him and send to my grandparents through mail. John had printed them out. For the rest, it were books written in mostly Hebrew and Latin. The books seemed to be about demons and foreign monsters; winged ones specifically.

"It's a fallen angel," I told him.

"There is no such thing as angels," he grumbled. He looked up at me. "They are just a story, sorry kiddo."

The heavy metal door leading to the Creatures Cave opened, looking up I saw my grandmother walking in, carrying my cup of coffee. A wide grin formed on my face when she handed it to me. I took a happy sip of the caffeinated sugar before I looked back at my grandfather. "I actually met three angels so far," I commented.

"Three?" My grandmother asked in shock, her eyebrows shooting up.

I nodded. "My guardian angel, our fallen angel here," I nodded towards the picture of Lucas' feather, "and the Archangel Metatron."

"Now there are Archangels too?" John whined. "It was probably a Greater Demon! Don't be fooled!" He wailed.

My head shot his way. "Why don't you believe in angels?" I asked my grandfather. "You believe that there are demons and monsters and evil things lurking in every corner of the world, but why can't you believe that there is good as well?"

"If angels are real," he replied, "is God real as well, then?"

I blinked my eyes. "Most likely, yes."

"If there is a God with his armies of angels in Heaven, why does he allow all those things to happen on Earth?" He asked. "All those wars, all this hatred and misery. And don't get me started on the things that go bump in the dark."

"I have no idea," I replied truthfully.

Maybe I can try asking Ghost, I thought to myself. Honestly doubting he would answer me.

"God works in mysterious ways," was everything my grandmother said, a surprising gentleness to her eyes. She glanced at John. "It truly saddens me that you think that way. That you cannot see the good this world has to offer."

John just scoffed in reply and turned back to his books and manuscripts.

My grandmother's gentle leaf-green eyes focused on me. "It's alright. I believe you."

I nodded my head. "I know," I replied.

"Is there maybe something we can do for you? Do you have enough holy water?"

"I have not yet needed to use that," I told her with a grin, seeing as I had yet to encounter any demons. "I could use a new silver dagger though..." I sheepishly added, taking another sip of my coffee.

"You lost it?" John asked with an arched eyebrow.

"No, it broke," his eyebrows shot up even more and I could feel my grandmother's eyes on me. "It shattered to a thousand pieces when I tried to stab the fallen angel. It had no effect whatsoever."

Even though silver should make fallen angels and demons alike at least feel uncomfortable, my subconsciousness noted with a frown. Maybe he just hid it well?

"I believe I have something for you then," my grandmother said after a while. "If you could follow me." She turned to leave the Creatures Cave and I shared a look with my grandfather, who just shrugged and mentioned for me to follow her. So I did.

I followed my grandmother upstairs, up to the attic. Occasionally taking a sip of my coffee. Curiosity grew within me, curious to see what my grandmother had for me.

Do they have a collection of supernatural daggers and swords up in the attic? I couldn't help but wonder. I recalled from all the homes we have left in, that there were always odd boxes hidden away in the attic. Some of them were large enough to hold even long-swords and axes.

Voicing this theory to my grandmother, she laughed. "Well, it's true," she revealed. "We have a wide variety of weapons hidden away in both the attic and the Creatures Cave." She grinned my way. "We even have a dragon slaying sword."

My eyebrows shot up. "How did you get your hands on that?"

"It was a gift from a friend," she told me, opening the attic and mentioning for me to go first. I climbed the stairs, waved away a cobweb and soon I stood among the boxes; some large enough to hold even me. Most of them were ordinary wooden boxes; the wood old and raffled, but some of them were still in decent shape and richly decorated with runes and symbols among other things.

My grandmother entered after me and walked towards the boxes, her eyes scanning over them. "Where did I put it again?" I could hear her mutter under her breath as she walked among the boxes.

Taking my attention away from my grandmother, I took a closer look at some of the boxes. Reaching out my hand, I gently removed some dust from a box to reveal a white feathered dragon symbolized on an ivory box, richly decorated with golden symbols. I tilted my head to the side and looked closer.

The dragon that was drawn on top of the box was very different from the dragons I encountered before. The white dragon seemed much more... gentler with a certain nobility over it.

"Got it!" I heard my grandmother say. My head shot up and I saw her walking my way, holding a rather large, long box. Slowly, she walked up to me, while holding the long, wooden chest protective against her chest, carrying it around as if it held the most treasured item in all of Earth.

My grandmother put the wooden chest down on top of another, so it was roughly on the same line as my stomach. She glanced towards the white dragon engraved on the box I was still touching with my hand. "That white dragon is Quetzalcoatl. The King of all dragons and the Alpha of the Amazon," she explained to me. "Inside lies one of his claws."

"But look at this," she added, mentioning towards the chest she got. I leaned forward and took a better look. The box appeared to be made from a dark ebony wood, the only decoration being a pair of white-golden wings engraved on top of the lid. The details of each feather were amazing and I knew it took some outwardly craftsmanship and a lot of patience to make it. "Open it," my grandmother encouraged me gently.

Taking the lid in my hand, I opened the chest. It opened with a squeak, but I ignored it, peeking inside. The insides of the chest where cushioned with a royal purple cloth and in the middle of the chest was a long item wrapped in black leather for protection. I glanced at my grandmother and she nodded, so I gently picked up – the surprisingly light – item and removed the leather.

It revealed a long dagger, or a small sword - roughly the size of my underarm - depending on how you look at it. My hand clasped around the grip and I held the blade up to eye height. It was a triple-edged blade with the cross section reminding me of a three-pointed star. The hilt was formed like wide-spread wings made from the same material as the rest of the blade. The metal it was made from was like nothing I ever saw before; it seemed to glow from the inside out, as if somebody had taken hundreds of stars from the sky and forged them into this very blade.

I swung it through the air – being careful of my grandmother and the many boxes surrounding us, the sword making a whooshing noise. The material was so light, that the blade almost flew out of my hold from surprise. It's like I'm holding a feather, I thought in amazement.

My eyes caught sign of some symbols engraved at the base of the blade. The same kind of strange symbols the journal revealed during the lunar eclipse. An ache formed behind my eyes - lasting not more than a second - and then I knew it's meaning.

God is my strength, it read.

I furrowed my eyebrows and my eyes widened when the symbols glowed up in a bright white light and a fire seemed to form deep within the metal. The flames grew larger and more furious until the blade became almost transparent, purely made of golden-white flames.

Looking at my grandmother with wide eyes, the light of the flames reflecting deep within her green eyes, giving her almost an inhuman look. The blade pulses in my hand like a beating heart, almost seeming excited. "What kind of blade is this?"

My grandmother's expression was unreadable when she spoke in a soft voice, almost like a whisper. "It's an angelic blade made from Empyrean Steel and forged in the holy flames of Heaven. And it seems to have accepted you as its wielder."

"An angel blade?" I gaped. I looked down at the fiery blade. I do have to admit, they look awesome, I thought in wonder.

"It's no ordinary angel blade," Elizabeth spoke. I looked up. "Angelic weapons are not easy to make. To make an angelic sword of this level," she said, "you need part of an angel's grace and it needs to be forged in heavenly fire during the time when the three moons of Heaven stand in a perfect line. Which happens only once every sixty years. The more powerful the angel, the more powerful a weapon you can forge."

"How do you know all this?" I found myself ask.

Green eyes met green. "The very angel who gave me this blade told me," she replied.

She nodded towards the flaming sword. "Once this blade used to belong to the Archangel Gabriel," she spoke in a whisper so soft I had to lean forward to hear, "he entrusted this blade to me so that I could give it to you when you were strong enough to wield its power."

"Gabriel," I repeated wide-eyed, my fangirl side immediately recognizing the Archangel. "Gabriel is the angel you met."

My grandmother nodded. "That he is."

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Bonjour, my evilish little demons! Next chapter is here!

Lucifer: And apparently, I am here too

Author: You sure are. Be a good Devil and behave, won't you? *hands Lucifer a cookie*

Lucifer: I make no promises *munches on cookie*

As you can so clearly tell, our dearest Lucifer is here with us as well. It's actually kind of fun to have my characters also appear in the author's note, so I will probably do this more often whatever there are dares/questions or not! :D

Anyway, please drop a comment and tell me what you thought of this chapter! Harlynn's conversation with Jason. John's stubbornness in refusing to believe angel's are real - is there any reason to this? Elizabeth meeting the Archangel Gabriel - how when and where did they meet? Gabriel entrusting his sword to Elizabeth until Harlynn was old enough to receive it. What's the reason for that? What will Lucifer's reaction be upon seeing Harlynn with an Archangel Blade? What's gonna happen next? Predictions?!

Now that that's done, let's go to the dares which is why Lucifer is here...

Lucifer: Oh no...

Author: Oh yes

Author: First step. Luci dear, hang upside down from a chandelier will you?

Lucifer: What? There's not even a chandelier in this room! HA

Author: *snaps fingers and a chandelier appears on the ceiling* Now, go do it

Lucifer: .... I guess that this is not so bad.... *his wings appear and he flies up, hanging upside down from the chandelier*

Author: Oh, there's more! You really thought that this was all?

Lucifer: I should have known... what else do I have to do?

Author: Sing the Dora The Explorer theme song :)

Lucifer: ........

Author: Go on! We're waiting! You know what happens when you won't do it....

Lucifer: *sighs* Okay then....

Lucifer: dorabootscomeone-

Authhor: HOLD ON!! You have to actually sing it!

Lucifer: *grumbles for a bit* Dora. Boots. Come on, Dora. D-d-d-d-d-dora. *sings with an extremely annoyed expression*

Lucifer: Alright! D-d-d-d-d-dora. D-d-d-d-d-dora. D-d-d-d-d-dora Dora Dora Dora the explorer *swings around a bit and his wings mindlessly flap the air*

Author: *Grabs popcorn and enjoys the show and holds out popcorn to the readers*

Lucifer: Dora! Boots and super cool exploradora. I Need your help. Grab your backpacks

Lucifer: Lets go! Jump in! Vomanos. You can lead the way! hey! hey!

Lucifer: Hey! Hey! D-d-d-d-d-Dora. D-d-d-d-d-Dora. D-d-d-d-d-Dora. D-d-d-d-d-Dora *kinda gets into the song*

Lucifer: Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, no swiping!

Lucifer: Oh man! *funny voice*

Lucifer: DORA THE EXPLORER!! *screams*

*room falls silent*

Author: *slowly claps* Nicely sung and you actually kinda got into it, don't you? *laughs amused*

Lucifer: No! *scoffs and looks away*

That was the first dare that Lucie had to do! There's one more to go :) If you have some dares yourself (or questions or anything really) don't forget to comment them below or in an inline-comment!

Lucifer: Why are we at the beach? *squints up at the sun in annoyance*

Author: Because this is where the second dare takes place. Okay, this dare is relatively simple. All you have to do is scream a certain sentence and strip down before you run around :)

Lucifer: I am the King of Hell.... not a porn-star

Author: I don't care. Just do it. Don't worry, nobody is watching but the readers.

Lucifer: ..... what is it that I have to say?

Author: *pauses dramatically* I am a pretty princess!

Lucifer: No way am I doing that... I have my pride to keep

Author: If you won't do it, I'll cut of your baby-making parts

Lucifer: And they call me evil... they don't know you

Lucifer: *takes off all of his clothes and glares at both the readers and the author before he runs down the beach*

Author: *gets phone and films Satan's glorious moment* hehe

Lucifer: I AM A PRETTY PRINCESS!!

Lucifer: *teleports back and puts his clothes back on in a flash* Done?

Author: That was perfect. You are free-

Lucifer: *teleports away in a dramatic poof of black smoke*

Okay, that was it for now then! Don't forget to vote/comment/share if you liked it (and leave questions/dares!) and until the next time!

Hugs and knives,

- Luci