Page 99 of Lourdes & the Mafia
“It has been a very long time,” a voice from the darkness answers, and I watch a lone figure step forward. His features become clear, his entire body glowing, pulsing a white light.
I can’t help but stare. At this man, this creature. He’s… he’s beautiful, that much is true, with white skin and hair golden like rays of sunlight trapped within the strands. It’s not the anger and cruelty marring his expression that makes me stare.
It’s the wings at his back.
Broken wings.
Torn in half, scraped and bloody, feathers torn and naked against bright pink flesh. Curved bones protrude from behind his spine. Grotesque. Macabre. Painful.
The broken wings twitch as the man smiles.
“You found me,” he says.
Ramiel frowns. “I thought I caught your scent in the parking lot. Now I know it’s true. What do you want with la vidente?”
My breathing goes shallow.
The man smiles. “I want what any fallen angel wants…” Light lashes out, catching Ramiel by surprise as it pierces through his chest. “Retribution.”
Blood splays and I open my mouth to scream…
Right as the vision fades around me.
Ramiel
Iloathedtoleavela vidente. Loathed to untangle my limbs from her own and leave the warmth of her body to don my suit and go back out in search of what I found.
I don’t tell my brothers where I’m going. Let them live in a state of bliss with her for moments longer. Because when I uncover the truth—and I will—there is sure to be war.
So let them have a moment longer of happiness.
It’s the only thing that propels me to leave them.
I transport away from the Underworld, landing in the human realm. The moon is concealed behind clouds, only a sliver peeking beyond the darkness.
I admit, the fingerprint of magic left behind in the parking lot of Sinful was surprising. It was a mere fraction of magic, a mere dust particle in the wind, and yet I recognized it just the same. Like something from a long lost memory. Something that occupied a space in my life, so long ago.
Something that breathed memories into me, as old as time itself.
Back before the Underworld and sinning. Back before there was flames and ash and snarling teeth. Back when there was golden-white light and clouds and white feathers.
Back before I fucking fell.
That dusting particle I sensed is stronger here. It pulses like a live wire, only growing and growing in the darkness.
I know I’m not alone, even if I can’t see him.
“I know you’re there.”
There’s a rustle, like a leaf twitching in the wind.
“I know it’s you.”
We all were similar, in the same sense that Lorenzo, Kane, and I are similar. We share a sliver of magic, and yet are innately different. Touched by the same hand, gifted with different magic.
“It has been a very long time.”
The voice is as I remember. Beautiful. Echoing. Haunting. In the same way that all my brothers and sisters were. But the creature that steps from the darkness is nothing like my memories.
