Divinity

Lilith awoke in the middle of the night to the sensation of a hand running up the side of her abdomen and hiding in her back at the level of her sixth rib.

Camila’s face sank even deeper into her neck and Lilith felt a shiver run through her body as Camila’s breath tickled over her collarbone.

Also one of the shorter girl’s legs was over her hip, which made Camila’s body almost completely over Lilith’s.

She wasn’t sure of the exact moment when she became Camila’s human-sized stuffed animal, but there was no chance in this life, or the next, that Lilith would be upset by this.

The warm sense of peace that spread through her chest only made Lilith’s plan to walk away strengthen and make more sense; even though she didn’t really want to leave, she just came back from the dead, or something, but she didn’t want to risk hurting the few people she cared about.

She knew her mother would be disappointed in her, more so than usual, because the one thing she had repeated to her almost as often since she entered the order, besides striving to be the best and achieve her destiny of being the Halo bearer, was that she should not get attached to other because beyond the fact that they should be prepared to die in combat if necessary, they were also her competition to be the next Warrior Nun.

And now Lilith had disobeyed her mother, something she had never done before, at least not intentionally, though none of that mattered anymore, she wouldn’t be the next Warrior Nun, the Halo would surely kill her now that she was transforming into something she didn’t even know.

Besides, her mother must still believe that Lilith was dead and maybe everything was better that way, she could not disappoint her anymore knowing that she had become weak in her eyes by becoming attached and fighting for something mor that her family destiny that she had been so forced to follow regardless of the consequences.

The great irony made Lilith smile, she had struggled all her life to be worthy enough to get the Halo of an angel to protect the others and now she was transforming into something very much like a demon that only endangered everyone around her.

Maybe she was never close to being worthy, maybe she would never make it, and this was the clearest way God found to let her know it.

The unintelligible mumbling of Camila, still sound asleep, brought Lilith back to reality and left the train of unhappy thoughts about herself behind.

The fact that Camila spoke even when she was asleep seemed somewhat tender to Lilith, though it was unlikely she would ever mention it out loud to anyone, especially not Camila.

Lilith actually tried to go back to sleep, although she know she was too restless for Mother Superior’s arrival at dawn, besides, the tingling of Camila’s breath on her collarbone was not helping her to relax, in fact it was causing quite the opposite.

Mother Superior said she had a plan and just needed a little time to work out the details, she also needed to convince Duretti to help them and that was what would probably take more time and effort to accomplish than anything else related to her plan.

Putting together a foolproof plan with how uncertain everything was at that moment was almost impossible, but Lilith tried to plan something functional that she could do alone, on her own, without anyone else’s help.

The plan Lilith had was functional, in theory, though it was also unlikely she could pull it off for as long as she surely needed to; she’d be lucky if she managed to hide out in more than two of her family’s vacation homes without her mother discovering she was still alive and eventually finding her to confront her.

She didn’t want to confront her mother and the disappointment in her that she would ultimately let her know immediately and without hesitation, but Lilith was willing to put up with it so as not to endanger the people she cared about most.

Lilith spent the next couple of hours staring at the ceiling as she went through her mental list of the locations of her family’s properties where she could hide and putting together an order in which she could avoid her mother for as long as possible, knowing that she had the surprise factor due to the fact that legally, and to anymore who hadn’t seen her since she returned from hell, she was dead.

Unconsciously, Lilith brought one of her hands to Camila’s messy curls and took a small lock between her fingers to play with it with extreme care not to wake the girl sleeping in top on her.

The sound of the phone alarm on the nightstand on Camila’s side of the bed almost went unnoticed by Lilith, but the musical tone did manage to wake Camila up and make her squirm a little on Lilith’s side.

Lilith smiled at the growl that came form Camila’s lips as she tried to hide her face even more in the taller girl’s neck.

Camila’s body suddenly tensed, perhaps discovering where she was at after feeling the vibrations of Lilith’s chest beneath her.

The hand hiding between Lilith’s back and the bed slid back over her ribs, causing the taller girl to jerk a little form the slight tingling sensation it caused her.

Camila rested her left hand on the brunette’s abdomen and used her other arm to get up and move a little away from the other body on the bed. “Lilith!” she exclaimed, looking truly surprised by the taller girl’s presence, as if she hdn0t been there when they both when to sleep the night before.

“Morning” Lilith murmured, taking advantage of her new range of mobility to put her arms over her head and stretch. “What?” she questioned as she met Camila’s gaze upon her after relaxing her muscles again and opening her eyes.

“Nothing” Camila replied hurriedly, as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t; then she slid across the bed to reach for the phone on the nightstand and turn off the alarm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable”

“It was fine, actually” Lilith admitted to her own surprise. “Did you know you talk in your sleep?” she asked as she sat up in bead. The smile spread on her lips as she saw Camila fidget and mumble something in Spanish that she didn’t understand. “I’ll go wake the others and check the perimeter just a precaution” she said after deciding not to push; she got out of the bed and then out of the room.

Lilith stopped in front of Mary’s room and proceeded to open the door carefully because her friend actually slept with at least one shotgun within reach, especially during a mission.

Mary was sleeping on her right side, because a couple of her ribs on her left side were slightly fractured, and she was hugging one of the pillows on her bed tightly as she snored.

The image in front of her made Lilith wish she had a camera so she could taunt Mary later, she even considered going back to the room with Camila to ask her for the phone she had stolen, but remembered there would be no later soon.

Deciding not to spend what was probably their last day together, Lilith stepped back, closing the bedroom door again and in the end just rapped on the wood with her knuckles hard enough for Mary to wake up.

The door to Ava and Beatrice’s room was already open by just a couple of centimeters, so Lilith only had to give it a slight push for it to open all the way.

Beatrice immediately moved as she heard the slight squeak of the old door hinges and looked at Lilith in surprise before giving her small smile.

Lilith smiled back Beatrice, though rather than friendly gesture, she was actually laughing at the position of both girls on the bed; Beatrice had very little space, barely keeping herself on the bed lying on her left side on the edge of the mattress while Ava slept diagonally, face down with her arms and legs stretched out in all directions.

One of Ava’s arms was hanging off the bed and her head was no far from being in the same situation, but that didn’t seem to disturb her deep sleep in the least.

“I’ll take care of it” said Beatrice, also looking at Ava.

“All yours” Lilith replied and then turned around and headed for the front door to leave the house.

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Camila had taken a quick shower to get her messy curls under control when she woke up and was now reaching for the router on the kitchen cupboard while the others were watching the news on tv; except for Lilith, she was still outside.

Although Mary wasn’t really watching tv, just listening to the news while cleaning her shotguns; on the other side, on the larger couch, were Ava and Beatrice, the shorter girl was lying across the couch with her head resting on the taller girl’s lap.

After almost a minute of struggling to reach the router, Camila began to consider calling for help, but Beatrice would have to wake the girl snoring on her lap, which she surely didn’t want to do, and Mary couldn’t lift her arms too much because of the pain form the fractures in her ribs.

Lilith came through the front door just as Camila was about to pull up a chair to help her reach the top of the cupboard.

She could ask Lilith for help, after all, it made sense because she was the tallest of them all, but Camila wasn’t sure she could even look Lilith in the face after she’d told her she’d heard her talking in her sleep.

And that wasn’t even the problem, it would even be something funny to make fun of a bit if Camila hadn’t been dreaming about Lilith the night before; the dream wasn’t at all… excessive, se had already forgotten most of it, but Camila still thought it was embarrassing for Lilith to know that she had dreamt about her.

Luckily, or luckily, for Camila, it was only a matter of a couple of seconds before Lilith noticed her absence in front of the tv and began to search for her with her eyes.

The look of confusion on Lilith’s face as she found Camila still with her arm outstretched toward the top the cupboard softened a bit as she saw the small device lying there.

“What’s wrong?” Lilith questioned as she approached to investigate further.

“Oh, it’s nothing, the internet is acting up and I just need to reach the router to fix it”

Lilith nodded looking up. “I’ll help you”

Camila was about to declined the offer, but Lilith’s sudden closeness as she took a step closer managed to disconnect her long enough for the taller girl to continue executing her plan.

It was hard enough to be able to think of anything when Lilith was so close and especially when she was looking directly at her without averting her gaze, but when Camila saw her bending down without ending eye contact something in her brain stopped working.

Everything got worse when Lilith’s left hand rested on her hip while her right arm wrapped around her legs at the height of her mid thighs and the pulled her even closer until she finished every little space between them.

A small cry of surprise escaped Camila’s lips as Lilith returned to a fully upright position and used the strength of her arms to lift her off the ground.

Camila hadn’t even finished assimilating that her feet were no longer touching the ground when she felt the side of Lilith’s jaw move over her stomach.

“It that enough or do you need to put your legs on my shoulders?” Lilith questioned without showing much effort in her voice because she was lifting all of Camila’s weight.

She knew what Lilith meant, she would turn around and let Camila sit on her shoulder to give her more height, but her mind considered a slightly different position just for a split second.

“Así está bien” Camila hurriedly replied in Spanish unconsciusly.

She felt the heat rise up her neck to her face as she let her own thoughts make her nervous; she took a big breath of air and forced herself to calm down to continue working.

Camila picked up the router and in less than a minute managed to restore the internet connection, so she put it back in place and placed her hands on Lilith’s shoulders.

“Ready” Camila announced, almost perfectly hiding the nervousness in her voice.

Lilith didn’t give a verbal response, she simply performed a squat, descending until Camila’s feet touched the ground again.

Feeling watched by someone else, Camila looked up and met Mary’s eyes on her as she had a big smile in her face.

“Is that all?” Lilith questioned as she pulled her arms away from Camila and moved back to and upright position, though keeping the same short distance without taking a single step backwards.

Lilith stepped into her field of vision towards Mary, so Camila had to look even higher before responding.

“Yeah, it will only take a few more seconds for it to work properly”

Before Camila or Lilith could think of anything else to say, or either of them could simply take a step back to put some distance between then, the sound of more than one vehicle approaching the house caught both of their attention.

“Mother Superior arrived” Beatrice announced with a small smile as she looked out the window.

Lilith was the first to react, she walked straight to the front door with a tense posture, a bit defensive, and opened it.

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The plan that Mother Superior had put together with Duretti wasn’t bad, it was the best they could do under the circumstances they were in, but that didn’t mean that Lilith liked it at all.

Lilith remained silent throughout Mother Superior’s explanation, she kept her back against the kitchen island an her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for the most opportune moment to speak.

Beatrice and Ava would stay together, keep a low profile with the least amount of intervention for the church to make it harder to track their location while Beatrice would be in charge of training Ava to confront and defeat Adriel.

Camila and Mother Superior would go to Spain where they would set up a base of operation to track Adriel and help keep them all off any radar for a long as necessary.

And finally Mary and Lilith would have hide together somewhere moderately close to Beatrice and Ava to come to their aid if necessary.

Lilith knew that staying separated in pairs was best, that way it was less likely that Vincent and Adriel could find them, but she already had her own plan for herself.

“I’m not going with Mary” Lilith announced.

“What?” questioned Mother Superior with confusion.

“Oh, come on, I only called you Catwoman once” Mary complained. “I don’t want to be the one to take care of Ava, I already did it once, so if you don’t want to go with me then I’ll go with Bea and you’ll take over Ava’s training”

“Hey!” exclaimed Ava, notoriously offended.

“I’m not going with any of you” Lilith clarified.

“What do you mean?” asked Beatrice, looking as confused as the others.

“It’s not safe for anyone to be near me, even Ava” Lilith explained. “I’d better stay away from you”

“Lilith” Camila called, “that’s not…”

“We don’t know what I’ve become” Lilith interrupted, “what I am now and what I might become, and I won’t put any of them at risk; I’ve already put them at risk since I came back… even before I left”

“We won’t leave you alone” Mother Superior replied, “we know the risks and…”

“That’s not true, no one knows what I am capable of now, not even I do”

“Even so, we accept the risks” said Camila.

“We won’t let you go through all this on you own” Mary added, slipping her hand over Lilith’s shoulder. “It’s still you, Lilith, our sister”

“In this life and the next” Beatrice commented.

Lilith could be stubborn, but she was unlikely to win an argument when everyone else was against her; she accepted her defeat when she made the mistake of looking at Camila and met her pleading expression that would make her give in to any situation.

“Fine…” Lilith murmured without taking her gaze away from Camila’s.

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Mother Superior was going over the details of the plan with Beatrice and Ava, at least the parts that involved them, while Camila handed a couple of disposable phones to Mary, one for her and one for Lilith.

After a brief explanation, Camila let Mary inspect a bit of the contacts stored in the phone’s address book.

She knew she had to keep her eyes open to answer any questions her friend might have regarding the form of communication they would have throughout the mission, but Camila couldn’t keep her gaze form wandering to Lilith, who was standing a few meters away.

Lilith had been completely silent after agreeing to go with Mary and train with her to be able to control her own powers, then she had walked away when they all went outside the house.

It was not unusual for Lilith to be suspicious of any stranger, she always kept her distance and was attentive, so seeing her inspecting in detail the Pope’s private security men accompanying Mother Superior was not entirely unexpected.

“It couldn’t be more obvious” Mary murmured.

“What?” Camila questioned, returning her attention to the girl in front of her, thinking she had missed something she had said earlier.

“Nothing” Mary said before tucking one of the phones into her pants pocket and glancing over her shoulder to give Lilith quick glance. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care for her”

“She would never accept someone else taking care of her”

“I know, she still too stubborn an idiot”

“Language”

Mary smiled before handing the second phone back to Camila. “She’ll only accept it if it comes form you” Mary explained at her confused expression, “so give it to her yourself”

“But…”

“We don’t know when the next time we will see each other again” Mary interrupted. “Go say goodbye”

Camila was sure that Mary knew something, or at least she suspected it, but she was also right, so she picked up the phone and started walking towards Lilith with slow and a little unsure steps.

Lilith became aware of her presence when she was a couple of steps away, turned to look at her, then looked behind her to finally meet Camila’s gaze again.

“It something wrong?” Lilith questioned with a tone of confusion in her voice, having the defensive attitude she used to take when they were in the middle of a mission.

“I just wanted to give this to you” replied Camila as she extended her arm while holding the disposable phone in her hand. “My number, Mary’s and Mother Superior’s are stored in there” she explained at a fast pace due to her nervousness. “Beatrice and Ava won’t have a phone, but they will have our numbers and will call us if they need us”

Lilith absorbed the information given by Camila and finally nodded before reaching out her hand to take the phone. “Thanks” she murmured with a small smile on her lips.

Camila kept her gaze on Lilith for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to say to have the conversation she really wanted.

“What you said before, about not knowing what you are now…”

“Cam…”

“I don’t know either” Camila interrupted, not letting Lilith try to avoid the subject, “and maybe I can’t help you find out, but I’m sure the answer to that won’t change who you are”

“There’s no way we can be sure of that either”

“But I am” Camila reaffirmed. “I’m sure of that because I know you, Lilith” she extended her arm until she placed the palm of her hand on the taller girl’s chest. “I know the purity of you heart and I know that nothing and no one in this world can change it”

Lilith wrapped her right hand over Camila’s hand resting on her heart. “Maybe it doesn’t depend on us, but on something bigger” she said without taking her eyes off Camila’s. “And if something bad comes to change me, if some divine power turns me against you, you have to promise me that they will stop me no matter what the cost”

“No, I will fight against any divinity for you”

“I know” a smile full of sadness appeared on Lilith’s face, “but I wouldn’t want you to do it, it wouldn’t be worth it”

“It’s time to go, baby girls!” shouted Mary from somewhere behind Camila.

Lilith averted her gaze to Mary, so she didn’t see Camila’s movements to grab her by the shoulders and pull her towards her to finally cling to her in a right embrace.

“Of course it would be worth it” Camila whispered against Lilith ear. “You’re worth it”

One of Lilith’s arms slipped around Camila’s back and gave her a light squeeze.

“No more than you” the taller girl murmured before pulling away slightly and breaking most of the contact between their bodies. “Take care” she said by way of farewell with a small smile on her slip before letting go of Camila completely and starting to walk away.