Divinity

Fighting at least two dozen possessed civilians in Vatican City was not something Lilith had ever expected to do in her life, though all expectation had disappeared since a Tarask nearly ripped her in half and then dragged her with it to hell.

Even after her unexpected return to the mortal world, when anyone would think that nothing could be worse, everything has gone downhill for Lilith and everyone around her.

There were many things she still didn’t fully understand, some more complicated than others, like the use of her new infernal powers, but the concept of betrayal was always something simple, even when the reasons behind it were more complex.

Lilith realized as quickly as Mary that Shannon’s death was due to Vincent’s betrayal; he had tricked them, manipulated them into using them to his advantage, and when Shannon had interfered in his plans by posing a threat, Vincent had orchestrated her death.

So, when her gaze met Vincent’s in the midst of all the chaos, it wasn’t answers she wanted, not a show of regret or an apology, none of it would bring Shannon back; however, the anger that coursed through Lilith’s body made her believe that the revenge would at least make her feel better and bring some peace from Mary and the others.

There was no way she was going to face Adriel and end up victorious, that much had already been made clear, she would be lucky If she managed to survive a real fight with him and not just trying to distract him, but Vincent was another story, one with a much more flattering ending for Lilith, even if he was standing next to the fake angel.

Making her way through the possessed and getting so close to the two men would have been too high a risk if she were still human, but now, with many of her abilities enhanced, it was somewhat acceptable. She had a chance to get to Vincent and make him pay for what he had done, even if that ended up being the last thing she could do in this life.

Lilith once again slammed the possessed man she was holding to the ground, knocking him unconscious, turned her attention back to Vincent and began walking straight towards him.

A strange sensation ran through her body, it wasn’t exactly tingling, but it didn’t cause her pain and that was a good thing after all she had been through; maybe she was about to transport again. Lilith still wasn’t sure how this new ability worked, let alone how to control it.

Just when Lilith was sure that something was about to happen, a small hand was placed firmly on her chest and Camila’s face appeared in front of her.

The look on Camila’s face seemed like a silent plea asking Lilith not to do what she was planning to do, but it was clear that she would not let her take another step, even if she had to fight her if necessary.

“Cam…”

Lilith’s whisper was not threatening, on the contrary, it sounded like a polite request that she hoped would meet with approval.

“No” Camila replied in a less friendly tone, more like an order.

Lilith was surprised by Camila’s uncompromising attitude; she had never seen her interacting with anyone else without a little too much gentleness on her part.

“Down!” Ava exclaimed.

Looking over her shoulder, Lilith could see Ava preparing to release a large amount of Halo energy that would hopefully help them turn the balance in their favor.

They didn’t have time to look for a safer place, so Lilith grabbed Camilla by the shoulders, pilled her close to her chest and made them both kneel down, then covered her with her own body until she stopped feeling the energy blast on her back.

“We have to get out of here” Beatrice declared somewhere behind them.

Lilith’s attention returned to Adriel and Vincent as soon as she was sure that Camila was okay, but it was the herself who placed one of her hands between Lilith’s neck and jaw and forced her to look away.

“Lilith…”

Camila relented a bit this time, her tone of voice shifting form a command to a request hidden only behind Lilith’s name.

It was impossible for Lilith not to give in as well, she heard Beatrice asking Ava to get up and Mary cursing at the pain her wounds were causing ger just by moving, that Camila was looking at her the way she was doing at that moment was just the final blow.

“Help Beatrice” said Lilith as she pulled them both to their feet. “I’ll take care of Mary”

All the possessed were now on the ground and neither Adriel nor Vincent made a single move to try to stop their obvious escape, but from the way Ava was looking up at the sky above them it was clear that the possessed were not all the wraiths there and that their troubles were far from over.

Having to carry most of Mary’s weight so she could stand and walk was the only thing that kept Lilith from going back and ripping Vincent’s throat out.

The reasons why they let them escape so easily were unclear, but it was something they were grateful for once they used the escape route Beatrice had planned from before the mission began to reach the streets of Rome.

“What now?” Mary asked as soon as they stopped to catch their breath on a lonely street.

“We need a vehicle” Beatrice replied. “We can’t stay near the Vatican; we must find a safe place”

“Are we going to steal a car?” Ava asked enthusiastically.

“We will not steal it. We will borrow it for a while and then return it to its owner”

“It’s the same as stealing” said Mary just to annoy Beatrice.

“Let’s take that one” Camila interrupted, pointing to a van across the street, her friendly attitude had returned after all.

“Why that one?” Lilith asked curiously.

“It’s not a new model, it has no alarm and no built-in GPS, so it will be harder to track if they find out we took it”

“Smart girl” Mary commented with a proud smile. “Let’s do it”

Ava had already regained enough energy in the Halo to make her manage to walk almost unaided, so Camila went ahead and walked towards the van while the other followed at a slower pace.

“I call ahead” Ava declared, even more enthusiastic than before.

“In your dreams” Mary replied. “Bea will be driving, so the passenger seat is mine”

“It’s not fair, I ask for it first”

“Send your complaint to God”

Arriving at the van, they found Camila already inside the van after having forced open the driver’s door; she had opened the rest of the doors for them and was now exposing some wires under the steering wheel.

Beatrice helped Ava into the back seat of the van, just behind the driver’s seat, and then approached Camila to help her, while Lilith helped Mary into the passenger seat, trying to cause as little pain as possible to her injuries.

“How bad is it?” Lilith questioned, trying not to sound as worried as she really was.

“Not too bad, I’ll heal” Mary replied just before Camila managed to start the van’s engine and let out a small victorious scream.

Lilith couldn’t help but show a small smile when she saw the expression of joy on Camila’s face, even though it didn’t last long as they had to keep moving.

Beatrice sat in front of the steering wheel, Lilith closed the passenger door where Mary was sitting, and Camila circled the van so as not to disturb Ava and her limited range of temporary mobility.

Lilith opened the back seat door ad let Camila get in first, she took that couple of seconds to look towards the Vatican; they were still close enough to hear most of the emergency vehicle sirens in the distance.

She took a step towards the Vatican unconsciously, with the others safe the possibility of going back for Vincent was more tempting to Lilith that the rest of her options at that moment, despite being aware that revenge was clouding ger judgment.

However, before Lilith could make a decision on the matter, she felt a string grip cling to the fabric covering her upper torso.

“No” said Camila with the same firmness in her voice as the strength with which her hand held the cloth over Lilith’s chest to prevent her from moving further away from her. “You’re not going back there”

“Mother Superior is still there” Lilith argued as another reason why she should return.

“She can take care of herself” Mary commented. “If we go back there, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s unlikely we’ll survive”

Lilith was about to respond how little that mattered to her at the moment, but Camila gave a little tug on her clothes to bring her attention back to her.

“Please…”

If Camila kept using that tone of voice and continued to look at her that way, Lilith was sure she could break up with her because there was no way she could refuse anything she asked.

A long sigh left Lilith’s lips as soon as she accepted her defeat to Camila, her shoulders slumped and she felt even her thirst for revenge diminish until it practically disappeared; she brought one of her hands up to her chest and wrapped it around Camila’s hand that held her as she gave her a slight nod.

Camila relaxed noticeably, flashed a small smile and released Lilith so she could climb into the van beside her.

Beatrice stepped on the gas pedal a second after hearing the back door close and drove at a slow speed so as not to attract attention.

“Where will we go?” Ava asked.

“I’ll take care of it” Camila replied before pulling a cell phone out of one of ger pockets.

“Where did you get that?” Mary asked.

“I took it from one of the possessed before we fled, I thought it might be useful”

“I’ll take us out of the city, to the northeast,” Beatrice commented without taking her eyes off the street they were walking down, “see if you can find a safe place in that direction”

“Understood”

Lilith could clearly see everything o the phone’s screen, although she had no idea what Camila was doing, she didn’t even know she had managed to unlock the device to use it freely.

There was nothing Lilith could do at the moment, so she just looked through the window and waited, although patience didn’t seem to be one of her virtues lately.

Beatrice turned on the radio, which was automatically turned to a news station and a woman’s voice speaking in Italian talking about what had happened at the Vatican filled the silence inside the van.

Even though Lilith understood the language, she didn’t pay attention to anything she heard, everything became white noise, which made it easier for her mind to start wandering to places she had avoided since returning from hell.

Eventually Mary got tired of having no idea what the woman on the news was saying and changed station to one with pop music that was trending, or so Lilith thought because Ava recognized and quietly sang the words to each of the songs.

All sound became white noise again for Lilith, but at east this one was more pleasant than having to listen to a woman deliver news in an overly formal tone.

The time inside the an felt slower than normal, Lilith didn’t even know how much time had passed exactly, the only thing her mind registered was Camila’s voice giving Beatrice directions just before they left the city and now they were parking in front of a house in the middle of the countryside.

Most of the house was old made with wood, as was to be expected from the location of the house, but it looked like it was well maintained and up to date in some things, like the smart lock on the front door that wouldn’t open until Camila entered the correct password.

“Nice place, how did you find it?” asked Mary as she took a look at the decorations. “No, I have a better question: how did you pay for this place?” she added with a small smile. “Don’t tell me you stole money from the bank account of the person you took the phone from”

“No, that money would be easy to trace,” Camila replied, walking toward the first door before entering a hallway. “I used the resources of the order” she said before opening the door and disappearing behind it.

“And stealing from the church isn’t that easy to track?” Ava questioned. “Even if you use it to rent an Airbnb?”

“Only if you know how and where to look” stated Camila returning to the main room, now with a small first aid kit in her hands. “and I made sure to cover my tracks well, so it will take them time to trace the money even if they know where to look”

“Well done, Camila” commented Beatrice with a proud smile on her face.

Mary was forced by Beatrice to sit on the couch so that she and Camila could check her wounds.

Lilith just watched as she hoped her friends’ injuries weren’t too serious; or at least that’s what she did at first, until another throbbing headache caught her off guard.

As unexpected and sharp as the pain was, Lilith managed to conceal it well so that no one else would notice, even when the next thing she heard puzzled her even more.

It sounded like fireflies, it was familiar and recognizable to Lilith, though what she couldn’t understand was why she heard them so close when there were clearly none around her or outside the house.

Looking out the window that was right next to her, she noticed some small light in the distance on a small hill; Lilith cold estimate about a hundred meters to the hill, approximately, so it was impossible for her to hear the small fireflies that were there and it was also a considerable distance to notice such lights so easily.

The sudden touch of a hand on her shoulder startled Lilith and made her ho into an instinctive fighting mode, with a quick movement she grabbed the hand of the possible enemy and was about to make a more direct attack when she noticed who it was; it took her a second to recognize Ava’s face and a second more to let go of her hand.

“Sorry, I was distracted” said Lilith before looking out the window again towards the hill and trying to listen again to the fireflies.

“It was obvious, Bea and Cam were talking to you and you didn’t seem to hear them” Ava replied with a slightly pained expression as she rubbed that hand that Lilith had been holding a little too tightly.

“Is everything all right?” questioned Camila with concern.

“Yes, I just thought I head something, but it was nothing” Lilith assured.

“Well, then come here,” said Beatrice pointing to the couch. “it’s your turn”

“I’m fine”

“You don’t look it” said Mary, gesturing vaguely at Lilith. “You’ve got a little blood all over… everywhere”

“Don’t worry, it’s not my blood”

“Then get rid of it, the last thing we need is for someone to call the police because we left this place full of blood” Mary ordered as she stood up with some difficulty, but refusing Beatrice’s help. “Now, where is the nearest room? I need to pass out in it for a while”

“About that…” Camila murmured.

“Please tell me there is at least one bed in this place”

“There are three rooms, that’s the best I could get, so most of them will have to share”

“Well, Beatrice, see to it that Ava doesn’t use her powers while she sleeps” said Mary as she walked down the hallway to the rooms. “If anyone dares to wake me up, I swear I’ll shoot them”

With that warning, Mary disappeared from the others’ view, leaving Beatrice surprised and a little nervous about being paired with Ava to share a room.

“I’m tying of sleep too” Ava declared, intertwining her arm with Beatrice’s and began to follow in Mary’s footsteps. “Come on, Bea, let’s go to bed”

Lilith noticed Beatrice’s cheeks turn a deep red as she looked to Camila for help as Ava dragged her into another of the rooms.

Camila couldn’t help but flash a huge smile and wink at Beatrice just before she disappeared from sight along with Ava.

“I see to have missed more than I thought” Lilith commented, having a slight suspicion of what this was all about.

“Maybe a little, but I can catch you up later, now we should also go to sleep”

“I’ll have some water first”

Camila nodded slightly while showing a small smile before walking towards the hallway and disappearing into it as well.

Lilith felt a little calmer being alone, she let out a long sigh that didn’t help her body to stop feeling so tense and walked towards the kitchen until she stopped in front of the sink.

Turning on the faucet, Lilith hurried to take some water between her hand to clean the blood on her face, then she tried to get rid of all the blood on her hands, but that seemed to be a bit more complicated task since she even had blood between her nails.

The memory of Crimson’s death whipped Lilith’s mind, she didn’t feel entirely guilty because she knew that Crimson would have opened her throat if she had the chance, she was very close to do it.

What actually puzzled Lilith was how she had killed Crimson, a strange instinct took over her and the claws in her hands had come out so easily as if she had complete control of her new abilities.

At the thought, her claws come out again and Lilith watched them intently as she held her hands under the flow of the water, thinking about how that was all possible; the claws, the teleportation and having survived hell and then coming out of it.

“What’s taking so long?”

Camila’s voice took Lilith by surprise, her back took a straighter position and the claws of her hands were hidden again; she hurried to shut off the flow of water and finally turned around.

Camila looked tired, almost as if she was about to fall asleep standing up, her flattened laughs were now visible with her head uncovered, besides her shoes and gloves were also gone, that meant that Lilith had spent more time looking at her hands than she thought.

“Go to sleep, I’ll keep watch tonight” Lilith replied, evading the question that had been asked.

Camila’s feet dragged on the ground in Lilith’s direction while on her face appeared again that pleading expression she had used before.

“They won’t be able to find us, especially not tonight, it would take them longer to track our location” Camila assured once she was only a step away from Lilith and reached out her hand to take hers. “We need to rest, so let’s go to bed”

Camila gave no opportunity for a response, she simply pulled Lilith by the hand towards the room they had been ggiven without receiving any physical resistance from her.

Lilith allowed herself to be carried by Camila to the bed, she didn’t even bother to take off her shoes before lying down next to her and it wasn’t until her head rested on the pillow that she allowed herself to admit to herself that she was indeed exhausted, though her physical tiredness was no impediment to her mind continuing to work s she stared at the ceiling.

“You’re thinking too much” Camila murmured. “I can almost hear your thoughts”

“Sorry” Lilith replied, turning her head to meet Camila’s gaze upon her.

“It’s okay, I understand” Camila raised her hand and brought it close to Lilith’s holding it and intertwining her fingers with hers. “We can talk about it if you want”

“No, I’m fine” Lilith said, though she knew her lie was obvious and easy to detect. “Rest”

Camila smiled despite all the tiredness she was struggling with. “You too” she whispered before closing her eyes ad giving in to sleep.

Lilith couldn’t help but smile as she watched Camila’s eyes slowly close and the features of her face relax.

Then Lilith allowed herself to appreciate her in silence, she could even swear she began to heat Camila’s heartbeat after a minute, but she attributed that last to exhaustion that was making her hallucinate thing; she didn’t take her eyes off Camila until she lost her own battle with sleep and fell asleep.