Divinity

Camila awoke with her face still buried in Lilith’s chest, with the taller girl’s arms still wrapped around her. 

It was comforting, she didn’t know how much she had missed sleeping next to the brunette, even though they had only shared a bed twice before. 

She wondered for a second if she was somehow taking advantage of the situation and especially Lilith; she hoped that wasn’t the case because she didn’t want her feelings for her friend to cloud her judgment for what was right and that would cause her to cross some line she shouldn’t have. 

Any line of thought vanished when she felt Lilith’s body tense and begin to tremble slightly. 

“Lilith?” Camila called with growing concern in her voice. 

Getting no verbal response and feeling how the taller girl was still trembling; Camila detached herself from Lilith’s chest, leaned on her forearm so she could lift herself up a little and look at the brunette’s face. 

Lilith’s jaw was tense and her features were contracted, almost as if she was feeling pain; moreover, what made Camila decide to stop waiting, small flashes of orange light started to glow on her skin and around her. 

Camila called Lilith again urgently, fearing that the taller girl could disappear in front of her at any moment by using her teleportation powers while having a nightmare. 

The firm touch of Camila’s hand on Lilith’s shoulder was enough to wake her up, but it also managed to scare her and cause an attack response. 

The taller girl threw a blind punch that Camila managed to deflect despite how sudden and unexpected the move was, after that she also acted on instinct, grabbing Lilith’s arms and pushing them against the surface of the bed using her own weight was she climbed onto the brunette’s hips. 

Lilith was able to lift her arms and back off the bed, even with the curly haired girl’s extra weight on her, but it was just at that moment that her eyes adjusted to the light and she finally recognized who was on top of her, so she stopped trying to get up and free herself. 

Camila stopped applying force on Lilith’s wrists as she watched the brunette drop her head against the pillow as she closed her eyes again. 

“Are you all right?” 

“Yes, just give me a moment” Lilith replied panting, short of breath. 

Just as Camila was about to step aside and remove herself, her attention was completely caught by the sight of Lilith breathing heavily and agitatedly beneath her. 

When Lilith’s eyes opened again, catching the shorter girl staring, her expression changed to one of concern before she finally spoke again. 

“Did I hurt you?” 

Camila’s face contracted into a frown that emphasized her confusion. “What? No, I’m fine” she assured immediately. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m sorry about that” said Lilith, evading the question. “I didn’t mean to...” 

“Hey, it’s all right, you don’t have to apologize.” 

“I could have hurt you.” 

“But you didn’t don’t worry” replied Camila with a soft voice and a small smile. “Besides, you’re underestimating me a little bit because I managed to stop you.” 

“Yeah, you did” Lilith agreed, smiling back. 

Camila’s gaze lowered to the brunette’s lips and it was then that she remembered the position they were both in. 

Lilith didn’t look uncomfortable, Camila’s weight on her hips didn’t seem to bother her and the restraint on her wrists didn’t bother her either. 

A couple of knocks on the bedroom door made Camila jump to the side to get off Lilith as quickly as possible so that no one would find them in that position which could be very compromising. 

Though surprise and nervousness caused the shorter girl to move to the wrong side, where the surface of the bed had already ended and there was nothing for her to lean on. 

Luckily, Lilith’s reflexes were always good, and now they had improved even more after she had acquired her powers, so Camila didn’t fall to the floor and instead was wrapped in the brunette’s arms. 

Lilith pulled the curly-haired girl towards her, making her climb back onto the bed and made her sit on her lap. 

Camila placed her hands on Lilith’s shoulders in order to steady herself and inevitable ended up looking the brunette in the eyes, making any thoughts she had before immediately disappear. 

“Wake up, both of you” Mother Superior ordered from the other side of the door. “You need to eat something.” 

The curly-haired girl jumped slightly over the taller girl when she heard the voice outside the room, but this time she hadn’t tried to leave her position. 

“Oh, yes” Camila replied hurriedly, fearing that the door might open if she didn’t. “Let’s go at once.” 

It wasn’t until after her reply, just as she heard Mother Superior’s footsteps and the sound of the cane hitting the stone floor, that the shorter girl’s brain processed the fact that somehow Mother Superior knew that Lilith was there with her at that very moment and, evidently, that she had spent the night in her room. 

“You don’t want to upset her” Lilith commented quietly. “That wouldn’t be good for anyone in the convent.” 

Camila reacted again when she heard the voice of the taller girl so close to her, she looked away from the door and returned her attention to the young woman below her. 

“Right, you’re right” the curly-haired girl answered with clear nervousness in her voice as she got off the bed, this time in a slower and safer way than before. 

“Be careful, I won’t catch you a second time” Lilith joked, earning a smile form the shorter girl. 

“You would” Camila declared with absolutely no doubt. 

“Always” the brunette affirmed before putting her feet off the bed and starting to put on her shoes. 

Camila mimicked Lilith’s actions and put on her shoes in the same manner; when she finished, she looked up again and found the taller girl standing next to the bed with her bare arms stretched above her head and slightly flexed as she stretched her back muscles, which were fortunately covered by her black blouse. 

Mustering all the self-control she could muster from herself, the curly-haired girl stopped looked so as not to get caught and look like a stalker or worse. 

“Are you ready?” Camila asked, trying to sound casual and carefree. 

“Actually, I’m not going with you.” 

“What?” 

Lilith looked elsewhere in the room avoiding eye contact. “I’ll go back to the safe house, get some things ready and go in search of Mary, just to make sure she’s okay.” 

Camila knew the other girl well enough to know that that answer was more of a half-truth, at best; she was avoiding telling her why she didn’t want to stay. 

“Maybe I should go with you” Camila reoiled, deciding not to push Lilith to tell her more than she wanted to, “I could convince Mother Superior to let me come with you.” 

“Mother Superior is not good with technology, she needs you here because she doesn’t trust anyone else to help her” it was easy for the brunette to notice that the shorter girl was not entirely convinced to let her go, so she reached over had placed her hands on the other girl’s shoulders. “I’ll be careful and I’ll find her, I promise” she added, giving her a light squeeze. 

“Okay” agreed the curly-haired girl, “but you will contact me at least twice a day” she conditioned with a firm posture and voice. 

“Good” Lilith agreed without thinking too much or resisting. 

Camila smiled with satisfaction. “I’ll send you Mary’s reports.” 

“Do it after you’ve had something to eat or Mother Superior will be upset with you..” warned the taller girl, “and me too.” 

“No, you wouldn’t” replied the curly-haired girl keeping the smile on her lips, though this time with a bit more arrogance; without giving the brunette a chance to respond, she stepped forward and wrapped her hands around Lilith’s torso. “Take care of yourself” she said in a pleading tone that surprised even herself. 

“I will” Lilith declared as she hugged her back, “don’t worry about me.” 

Camila released the brunette and took a step back, deciding not to comment on the fact that she couldn’t stop worrying about her even if she wanted to and tried with all her willpower. “Keep me informed of everything” she asked in a kind tone, but it was more of an order in disguise. 

“Of course” Lilith said before stepping back, preparing to use her powers. 

With a last smile as a farewell, the taller girl disappeared in front of her, leaving Camila alone in her room and with a strange feeling in her chest. 

[…] 

Five days passed since Lilith left in search of Mary and, as she had promised before she left, she kept in touch with Camila at least twice a day, giving her updates on her research and asking the curly-haired girl if she had eaten or if she had had enough rest the night before. 

All of this made Camila feel much calmer, although she still worried about Lilith and looked forward every day to messages from the brunette, even though she tried to reduce her nerves about things that were not in her control. 

The sudden message from Mother Superior requesting her presence caused Camila to stop helping prepare food in the kitchen with the other sisters and head immediately to the subway base of operations on the other side of the convent. 

Mother Superior hadn’t said it was an emergency, so the curly-haired girl allowed herself to delay just under five minutes to explain to other sisters she had met along the way how to make and upload a video to TikTok; she knew it was her fault, she had shown some sisters the app two days before and now she had to answer all the questions the others had. 

Camila said goodbye after the brief explanation and continued on her way to the room where the old documents that the convent and the church considered important were stored; however, when she got there, she found the place completely empty, without the presence of any other person, including Mother Superior. 

A small adrenaline rush ran through Camila’s body when she discovered that Mother Superior was not where everyone in the convent, and it was from there, believed to be their base of operations, but that she was in the real place where the most important objects were kept and which was also the place where the weapons were kept along with the encrypted servers that received the secret information of the OCS that came to them from all over the world. 

Camila hurried to close the wooden doors of the file room and immediately went to the secret entrance that was hidden as one of the many display cases in the room; there was no lock to pick, either physical or digital, so the security of the entrance consisted solely of its secrecy. 

Mother Superior was seated at one end of the long rectangular table with the relief of the map of the Earth’s surface on which she precisely located the various OCS bases around the world. 

The older woman was looking intently at the laptop screen in front of her. “We may have to go to London” said Mother Superior without looking up from the document she was reading when Camila stopped right next to her. “The Order believes a minister may be possessed by a demon and they need us” she reported precisely. 

“I’ll get my thigs ready” Camila answered automatically before really analyzing the information the older woman had given her. 

London was not far away, but it would make returning in case Lilith needed helo not as quick as if they stayed in Spain as they had done so far. 

“Is there anything else, Camila?” questioned Mother Superior as she noticed the younger girl’s slightly lost gaze on the map on the table. 

The curly-haired young woman returned her attention to the other woman and took a slightly deep breath before finally answering the question she had been asked. “Lilith’s last update this morning was from Portugal and she clams to be very close to finding Vincent...” he stated as she resumed a straight posture and clasped her hands in front of her. “It’s just that Mary’s clues suddenly disappeared and last night I dreamt that we met her again; and I know that dreams don’t predict anything, but I think we’ll finally find her and we’ll know what happened, and maybe she has information that will help us to defeat Adriel.” 

Mother Superior nodded and let out a long sigh as she closed the laptop in front of her. “Camila, there is a possibility that Mayr is still alive somewhere” she said, “but we must prepared ourselves in case that is not the reality.” 

Camila wasn’t good at thinking about negative futures, it was both a blessing and a curse; she was even sure she had been misreading between the line of Lilith’s words and actions towards her, but she didn’t ask to avoid being optimistic, maybe even a little selfish or narcissistic, and contemplating the possibility that there might actually be something there, between the two of them. 

“Could you teach me?” asked the younger girl, with a much more defeated attitude. 

||||||||||||||| 

Finding Vincent was the biggest problem, while following him was much easier; Lilith wouldn’t have to try too hard to catch him, the man was so drunk he could barely walk properly. 

She let Vincent walk away from the bar, they were in too busy a plce and anyone could be on Adriel’s side, which would cause a big scene and later a much bigger problem when they informed the fake angel that someone had taken his great friend by force. 

Lilith gave extra points to Vincent when the man seemed to notice her presence, he may not have known exactly who was following him, but he definitely knew someone was following him. 

Vincent’s last mistake was to believe he had lost his pursuer and they to hide in a narrow alley on a desolate street because Lilith didn’t hesitate for a second to take the opportunity, finally confronting him after days of hunting. 

She appeared in front of him using her teleportation powers, caught him off guard and this made it easy to place one of her hands on Vincent’s neck to subsequently push him firmly against the brick wall without getting resistance, although the man proved not to have to fight or move a single finger to push the brunette back. 

“You’re drunk” Lilith pointed out in disgust as she smelled the strong scent of alcohol of the ex-father's breath. 

“I was celebrating” Vincent replied with a smile despite the tight grip on his throat. 

Lilith smiled before continuing. “Better, considering what I’m going to do to you” she added before hitting Vincent hard in the face, then in the stomach to finally make him turn around and smash his face against the brick wall while holding both her hands behind his back, preventing him from moving. “You know what I’m looking for” she said firmly as she brought her left hand close to Vincent’s face and made one of her claws, the one on the index finger, appear. 

“Mary” said Vincent, trying to catch his breath after the blunt blow to his stomach, “she is alive.” 

That’s not what Lilith expected, she believed that Mary was hiding by going after Vincent’s steps and hoped that by catching him her friend would finally come out of the shadows to take her revenge. 

“Don’t lie to me” the brunette ordered, applying more force against the man’s hands and back. 

“She’s alive, I swear” Vincent insisted in a growl. “If you kill me, you’ll never find her.” 

Lilith considered the possibility that the coward in front of her was only lying to keep her from killing him in that place, but there was the possibility that he was telling the truth, that Mary was captured and in danger. 

“Where?” 

“In Toledo, in the desert.” 

“Is she with him?” 

“It’s a fortress” Vincent answered, evading the questioned he had been asked, “it’s heavily guarded.” 

Lilith considered her option for a second, clearly she didn’t trust Vincent, but if there was the slightest chance that Mary was in danger, then she wpuld go to save her. 

“Show me.” 

“It would be a pleasure.” 

The brunette pulled Vincent to her and then pushed him against the wall again, then threw him hard on a car that was just at the entrance of the alley. “Don’t play with me” she warned seriously before grabbing him by his shirt and forcing him to stand up again. “Or we’ll find out after how many broken bones you stop screaming.” 

“It’s not something I’d like to know.” 

“Believe me, I would.” 

“I don’t doubt it...” 

Lilith ignored Vincent fron a second and looked at the sky, she knew it was late and that there was little time left of daylight, about forty minutes mor if her calculations were correct; Toledo was not exactly a short distance away and she was not willing to wasted more time than necessary. 

“Let’s take a shortcut” the brunette commented before using her powers to lead them both to a little-traveled park in Madrid. 

Vincent staggered after the teleportation, disoriented and a little dizzy, although both could have been caused by the amount of alcohol in his blood rather than the sudden move from one country to another. 

“That was... strange” Vincent mentioned. 

“Maybe it’s just the whiskey” Lilith replied. “Now, how are we going to get there? Because I don’t think we’ll get a warm welcome if I teleport us there.” 

“Let’s get a car, your powers make me want to puke.” 

“That’s definitely the whiskey...” Lilith muttered before starting to follow Vincent. 

At the entrance of the park there was a small group of four men, all followers of Adriel, trying to convince people passing by to join the false angel’s faith and Vincent was heading straight towards them, so Lilith held his arm tightly to keep him. 

“Relax, I’m just going to get a car to take us to Toledo; besides, I highly doubt those guys can help me stop you.” 

Lilith agreed to that fact and released Vincent, though she stayed close, one step behind, while he held a less than two-minute conversation with Adriel’s followers before one of them handed him the keys to his car across the street. 

Vincent thanked them for their cooperation and signaled Lilith to follow him to the black car; they both got in, the older man sat in front of the steering wheel and the brunette in the passenger seat. 

“That was surprisingly easy” Lilith muttered to herself once her companion started the car’s engine and began to move through the streets. 

“Please, as if you wouldn’t have fought to the death against anyone if Duretti or any other cardinal had asked you to” Vincent mocked, keeping his gaze straight ahead on the read. “I ben you'd still do it even if you weren’t a nun anymore.” 

“That’s none of your business” Lilith replied crossing her arms over her chest. 

“You were always the most loyal, even though you were not the most believing” the gray-haired man pointed out. “The most believing was always Beatrice; she clung so desperately to her faith in the hope that God could help her with a sin that doesn’t exist.” 

“Just speed up” the brunette ordered, not wanting to continue the conversation. 

Vincent, to Lilith’s surprise, obeyed without further insistence and remained silent for more than half an hour, concentrating only on driving. 

“How is Suzanne?” Vincent questioned as they neared their destination. “It must be difficult for her, she believed in the order and power of the church, she dedicated her life to it, and now everything she fought for has fallen apart.” 

“Don’t even mentioned her, and don’t call her by name.” 

“All right...” replied the older man. “What about Camila? She may still be a rookie, but she’s talented.” 

“Shut your mouth or I’ll rip out your tongue” Lilith warned, reaching the ned of her patience. 

Lilith was supposed to be patient, she had been trained for that, she had even learned to do it at home long before she had any real training; she could stand still in one position, without moving a single muscle for hours, in the middle of a mission, she had done it more than once before, but Vincent knew her well, though definitely not as well as Mother Superior, and he knew well what buttons to push to bring her out of whatever state of inaction she was trying to maintain. 

If she thought about it in depth, that shouldn't have surprised her because, after all, Vincent had planned Shannon’s death and had made sure to keep her as the next in line to be the next Halo bearer, so it was very likely that the original plan before Ava showed up was to get her to break Adriel out of his prison in the Vatican catacombs. 

Lilith stopped rambling as soon as a property came into view in the distance and was silently grateful that they were finally reaching their destination, though tension spread through her body the closer they got. 

Vincent turned the steering wheel to the left, turning off the dirt road and onto the property that sat in the middle of nowhere. 

There were three men at the entrance standing guard, something that definitely did not please the brunette. 

“If you make any sing or do anything out of line...” 

“You’ll kill me” Vincent interrupted, turning off the car’s engine, “I know.” 

“I won’t kill you” Lilith replied with a smile. “I wouldn’t take that pleasure away from Mary.” 

They both got out of the car and walked straight towards the three men guarding the entrance. 

“Eminence” greeted one of the men, possibly the one who was in charge of the three. 

“Evening, gentlemen” Vincent replied, giving a good performance. “I brought a friend home” he gestured to Lilith with a false, but convincing smile. 

The brunette was forced to play along with the older man, so she made an effort to show a smile and accept the half hug Vincent offered her as part of her role. 

The three guards bought their act and let them in without asking any questioned about it. 

Once the two were out of sight of the guards, they separated, at least enough to stop touching each other, and simply walker around the property with Vincent leading the way. 

“The ecstasy of meeting a truly divine being in indescribable” commented the man of faith after a prolonged silence between the two as they entered the building and defended the basement. 

“Was Shannon worth killing?” Lilith questioned without letting her guard down, looking nearby for any sing of an attack. 

Vincent stopped in front of an old, rusty grille that indicated the beginning of the cells, and turned to his companion. “Divine truth is not so easily judged” he said calmly before looking back inside the building. “That’s her cell on the right.” 

Lilith gave him one last warning glance before she went into the corridor in search of her friend. “Mary?” she called impatiently, though the only answer she received was the sound of the grille closing behind her, which made her turn around immediately and watch as Vincent set the lock to trap her there. “Where is she?” the brunette questioned, downplaying the importance of the closed grille door between them. 

“She didn’t survive, Lilith” Vincent answered in a calm voice. “Mary is no longer in this life, she’s in the next.” 

Using all her willpower not to reach through the bats of the fence and rip the man’s head off, the brunette tried to get answers. 

“What is this?” 

“An opportunity” Vincent said, looking behind Lilith at three men coming out from inside one of the cells. “Adriel knows what you are. He can help you. I bet you to offer yourself to Adriel, This is your true cult.” 

Lilith followed the gaze of the man in front of her, she looked over her shoulder and smiled as she found the armed men behind her; she saw the opportunity to vent her anger without killing Vincent yet; she turned around and shed her coat throwing it to the ground, the used her powers to make her claws appear. 

“Traitor” the brunette muttered angrily as she advanced towards the guards. “Murderer.” 

“In his name, capture her” Vincent ordered the other men. 

Lilith let one of the men strike the first blow, then used her powers to kill then one by one, though she wasn’t finished with that because six other men quickly, approached down the hall, pointing their weapons at her; she took a second to breathe before letting her fighting instincts and especially her anger take over. 

Everything happened too fast after that, she acted automatically and ended up standing in the middle of a pile of corpses without remembering exactly each of her previous movements, everything seemed blurry if she tried to remember what had happened in the previous minute, but she did not feel regretful in the least. 

The sound of a gunshot and the sensation of a bullet piercing her right shoulder brought Lilith out of her thoughts; looking over her shoulder she could see one of the men still alive, badly wounded and pointing his gun at her, though as she pulled the trigged again not another bullet left the rip of the barrel. 

Feeling the anger still lingering inside her, Lilith walked towards the man, who tried to crawl on the floor to flee, and attached him burying her claws in the guard's back until he stopped moving and screaming. 

“Vincent!” she shouted angrily, her voice echoing off the basement walls and cells. 

Looking back to where they had come from, she found no one; Vincent had fled while she wasn’t paying attention. 

Lilith thought maybe that was for the best, she was sure she would kill him if she saw him and she still couldn’t calm down, she knew that, as much as she hated the idea, she needed him to get the answers she wanted; she took a deep breath in a last attempt to calm herself and finally walked through the bodies of the guards scattered on the ground towards the gate where she had last seen Vincent. 

She stopped in front of her coat, carefully picked it up and made sure the phone was still inside her pocket, then heard something in the distance with the help of her powers, at least another dozen guards running upstairs and heading her way. 

Knowing that another confrontation would only waste her time, Lilith decided to get out of there, although it took her a second to know where to go; the convent where Camila and Mother Superior were staying didn’t seem to be an option, she couldn’t show up covered in blood there and, besides, she didn’t think she was ready to give them the news. 

She wasted no more time and used her powers to teleport to the sade house where she and Mary had hidden weeks ago; appearing amidst the darkness and overwhelming silence of the room. 

The sound of heavy combat boots on the wooden floor echoed throughout the house as Lilith slowly advanced towards the bathroom guided by the spatial memory of the place. 

She walked in and turned on the light in the small white room, then took a couple more steps forward to finally stop in front of the large mirror above the sink, feeling strange as she looked at her own reflection; her face and arms were covered in blood splatters, and the vast majority of it was not hers. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t recognize herself physically, her appearance was still the same, but there was something different, something had changed since she died and come back to life. At first she didn’t want to accept it, she tried to convince herself that it was only her new powers that made her feel strange; however, after what had happened only five minutes before, she could no longer fool herself. 

She had killed people before during some missing that had gotten out of control, always to protect herself or someone else, as a last option not to be taken unless strictly necessary; however, what just happened was something completely different. 

Somehow it wasn’t her, her brain didn’t quite process what had happened until afterwards, it was as if something else took over, something very dark that increased and made her follow her baser instincts. She couldn’t even compare herself to an animal, animals hunted for survival, for self-protection, and what she had done was not that. 

The distant ringing of the phone inside her coat snapped Lilith out of the downward spiral of thought she was having. 

It wasn’t necessary to got check who it was from to know it was a message from Camila asking for an update and to make sure she was okay, it was the usual time of night that the younger girl did; however, Lilith couldn’t find the strength to move her lefs and go get the phone, she couldn’t break the news to Camila, she knew what that would do to the other girl. 

Besides, even Lilith herself, hadn’t finished fully processing the news, anger had prevented her from feeling the pain or any feelings until that moment; she looked at her hands resting on the sink and couldn’t help but feel that the blood on her was Mary’s blood, that it was all her fault. 

She turned on water faucet of the sink and tried to get rid of the blood, she rubbed her hands hard and the red liquid did not stop staining the white porcelain where it drained to the drain. 

Frustrated, Lilith turned off the small faucet and immediately after walked to the shower, pushed the plastic curtain aside and reached out her hand to the faucet to turn on the flow of cold water as much as she could; she began to wash her hands and arms hoping that this time the blood would go away, but the blood was not the real problem and as it disappeared she did not feel any better. 

The crying came suddenly, she did not know when the exact moment was when she had started crying, but she realized this when breathing began to become a difficult task to perform. 

It was strange, she had never cried like this before, she forced herself not to break down when her father died and Shannon’s death had happened in difficult and dangerous circumstances, so she also didn’t allow herself to break down when it happened so suddenly, she was focused on keeping the rest of her sister safe, on getting the Halo to protect them, so there was no time to process her feelings. 

Now that she thought about it in depth, perhaps her obsession with the Halo was caused by the fear of not being strong enough to protect the people she loved. 

Suddenly she found herself on the floor of the shower, under the cold water running from the shower head, hugging her legs and burying her face in her knees as she cried for everything she hadn’t allowed herself to cry for at the time, for all her losses. 

To her father. 

To Shannon. 

To Mary. 

To herself...