Part I: Michael
"I wish that I could put to bed
All of the monsters hiding within my head."
-Noel Renaldi
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It's funny, but I've found that over the years, bad habits tend to die hard.
I was reflecting on that as I sat beside the open bay windows, taking in the mellow Sunday evening. It was a welcome respite from the recent events that our family had gone through, and even daydreaming there, I was doing my best to push it all to the back of my mind.
Of course, I also knew that my older brother wasn't too happy with me stating earlier that I didn't want to talk about such things today, but that didn't bother me. After nearly fifty years, Raphael and I should've been used to pushing each other's buttons when we felt like it. Besides, things were mostly okay for now, so there was no reason not to take a break and try to relax a little while we could.
So, there I was, enjoying the gentle breeze and looking out at the nearby trees. Even though I didn't wish for it, my mind wandered to what had happened the month before. It had been an awful ending to what we'd hoped would be a happy life for Sevee. But then, maybe we should've expected it too.
From the moment we'd learned that Sevee was in love with the beautiful Astarte named Lenore, we knew that we were in for trouble. Yet even though we knew that it may only end in tragedy for what she was, we'd been foolish enough to believe that we could stop that from happening. It was hard to swallow that she was gone when we'd tried so hard to save her, but at least her and Sevee's son was spared.
I admit that seeing Sage was a relief for us, and even though I'd been a little concerned about Sevee being able to take care of him mostly on his own like he insisted, he was already proving that he was a good and attentive father. Even though he was only about sixteen, I had little doubt now that he'd handle taking care of Sage very well.
"Relaxing?"
I opened my eyes as I heard my wife Sara's voice. She was coming into the room with me.
"It's the best past time, especially for everything that's recently been going on." I responded with a smile.
I watched her as she sat down beside me. She was still such a beautiful woman. I still found it hard to believe that I now called her mine. I did feel like a very lucky man. I'd been so sure after Missy left and eventually died that I would never fall in love again. I'd even told myself that I'd guard against it, much like Raphael had.
Yet, from the moment I'd met Sara, everything had clicked between us. She was so kind and warm, a perfect complement to me in every way. It was very easy for us to move from a friendship into a serious relationship, and while I knew that a part of me would always miss my first wife, I felt like destiny had brought me to Sara.
There was a knowing smile on Sara's face as she looked at me, "It seemed like Raphael was a little irritated when I talked to him earlier. Are you trying to provoke him about something again?" she asked me.
Yes, she knew all too well how Raphael and I liked to push each other's buttons at times. It was a bad habit we'd both had always had, even if most others didn't see much of it.
"Not at all." I answered, "I just told him that I wanted to take a breather for today with everything that's been happening. It's not like there's much more any of us can do right now, and it's been traumatic enough first with dealing with Missy's spirit then losing Lenore."
Sara looked down as I said that, chewing her bottom lip, "Do you think Sevee's really going to be okay now? It's been so much for him to deal with recently, and he really did love Lenore. He's even raising a new baby without her."
"Well, I think a lot has changed for him, and it's probably going to be a long time before he feels like himself again with losing her, but I also think he's stronger than we give him credit for. Besides, he's already proving to be an amazing father, and he loves Sage very much." I reminded her.
"I know." Sara lamented, "I just wish he hadn't had to go through all of that."
I nodded, then stood up and stretched.
"Well, at the risk of sounding terrible, time does help with pain like that, even if it does also linger."
Missy stood up with me, "Is that a roundabout way of saying that you still regret what happened with Missy and Noel?"
"I do have regrets over things with Missy, and I probably always will." I confessed, "But Noel's not really such a sore spot for me as much as she's always been for Raphael."
I held her face, running my fingers over her cheeks as I looked at her pretty green eyes. Even nearly twenty years after we'd met, she was still such a beautiful woman, and looking into those eyes brought a calm to my soul.
However, Sara wasn't about to let this conversation slide like she'd done many times before.
"What exactly happened with Noel and Raphael? He's always refusing to talk about her. Why is that?" she asked.
She'd always been very observant with things, even though we rarely spoke about Noel. But then, we had always stuck to the story that she had died by suicide a long time ago. I knew that Sara at least had an inkling that there was more involved with all of that with Raphael, but Gabrielle and I kept quiet about those things. It wasn't our place to talk about it, and besides, this little skeleton was best left buried with how this curse continued to affect our family.
But this time I didn't have to come up with another excuse not to keep talking about this. A loud commotion began outside of the room, making both of us look towards the doorway. I could hear shouting out there that had come down from the stairway, and let out a tired sigh. Here we went again with Noah and Raziel. This innocent visit that Noah had wanted with Seraphina while she was here must've gone bad again, even if that wasn't surprising.
"And again..." I muttered as I let Sara go.
"You really should step in more now Michael. I know this isn't all Noah, but Raphael's not willing to do much about it." Sara pointed out.
"Well, they are his son and grandson." I responded.
"And Seraphina's our granddaughter." Sara countered, "Be reasonable Michael. We need to be careful about how much of this Seraphina has to hear. Her mind's still healing."
She had a point, and besides, I knew that Raphael probably wasn't going to say much to this, even when he saw them later. It was all too much like the past to him. I couldn't help feeling frustrated though. All I had hoped for was a quiet evening and break from all of the tension. I guessed this was what I got for being named the head Nephilim in our family, whether I wanted to be or not.
"Alright, I get it, and I'm not in the mood to listen to this right now either. It's time to put a stop to it." I reluctantly agreed.
Both of us went out of the doorway to the hall. As we did, we saw that Raziel and Noah were standing nearby, still arguing. It had started becoming heated at this point, and both had their wings out. That wasn't a good sign. If they made this into a physical fight, then part of my house could end up destroyed.
Of course, seeing this was hard too because of Noah's one wing. It was a constant reminder of the cruelty this Fallen's curse brought. While we had hoped that it could be reattached after it had been cut off, we'd been unsuccessful. Thankfully, it hadn't seemed to affect Noah's other abilities, but it was still sad to see that when he hadn't even had them a month.
"And I told you that you will not! She's still your cousin!" Raziel was yelling at him.
Same old argument that had been going on for nearly two months now, and was only getting worse. That was when Noah had suddenly announced that he was in love with Seraphina. As disturbing as this was, we'd done our best to deal with it, especially for everything else going on. I'd been trying to leave a lot of this to Raphael to handle. After all, he was his grandson, and I was aware that he'd warned him repeatedly to leave Seraphina alone and think about what he was saying.
But it wasn't stopping Noah from insisting on this, and it was bringing more and more friction between him and his father.
"It shouldn't matter! If she chooses to be with me, then there's nothing you or anyone else can say!" Noah countered.
"I'm warning you, if I so much as catch you looking at her the wrong way, you will be very sorry!"
"And what will you do?! You know you can stop me from seeing her!"
"In case you've forgotten, I helped bring you into this world, and I sure as hell can take you out of it!"
Time to step in. This really should've stayed Raphael's problem, considering they were his son and grandson, but since they were here and he wasn't, then it was up to me. So, I walked between them and kept them an arm's length from each other.
"That's enough. I don't feel like having my house destroyed today, and I don't want you upsetting Seraphina anymore then you probably have. So get back and be quiet." I ordered.
I had noticed said girl upstairs, looking over the banister with wide eyes and a hand to her mouth. Her father was behind her, and gently escorted her back as I moved between the two fighting.
Unfortunately, neither listened to me.
"You and Dad need to put him in his place Michael! He can't keep doing this!" Raziel insisted.
"Butt out! This is only between me and Seraphina!" Noah shot back.
"I told you both to be quiet!" I reiterated.
I made sure to be firmer this time, even though I hated having to flex power over them. But I also had no choice. They were too angry at each other to cooperate.
The two glared at each other, but did finally back down. Sara looked shocked as she stood nearby.
"What in the world has gotten into you two? You looked like you were about to kill each other." she informed them.
"I caught him." Raziel stated as he glared at Noah.
"You didn't catch anything. I can be as close to her as I want." Noah countered.
"I warned you about trying anything, and Sean saw it too. We're not letting you pull her into this!" Raziel argued.
Enough was enough. I needed to separate them now until they cooled down again.
"Noah, come with me. Sara, can you take Raziel upstairs so he can calm down?" I requested.
"Sure." Sara agreed. She was able to get Raziel to go upstairs with her after a moment of coaxing.
As for me, I waited until they were gone to pull Noah aside to the dining room. At least with just us being down there I could be sure our conversation would be private.
"I guess you want to talk about this now." Noah breathed as he stood with me. His temper had finally died down, and his eyes looked a little clearer.
"Yes, but let's start with you pulling your wing in." I responded.
"Sure."
Noah retracted his wing easily and without argument. I was glad of that. Things were tense enough at the moment.
I crossed my arms as I regarded him, "Okay, now, why don't we start with what's going on? What did your father get so upset about?"
Noah shrugged, "It wasn't anything that bad."
"Don't lie to me. You know I can tell when you do." I warned him.
"Seriously, it wasn't anything. I was just talking to her and telling her that things were okay between us. Dad and Sean just got the wrong idea when they overheard it." Noah explained, sounding a little begrudging now.
I was starting to get the picture. It was more than likely not as innocent in context as he was trying to make it sound.
"Noah, I know that Raphael has talked to you about all of this. You only think you love Seraphina because of how you're being affected." I reasoned.
"I'm not being affected like that, and everyone's jumping to conclusions. Besides, even if she did love me back, what would it matter? She has the right to do that." Noah countered.
"It matters because you're cousins. It doesn't make a difference whether you're Nephilim or not. You're still family, and nothing good will come out of that." I stated.
Noah huffed at my words, "And you'd do anything you could to stop me, wouldn't you?"
"If I must then I will." I warned him, "Consider this my final warning Noah. Leave Seraphina alone, or I will make sure you do. Understand?"
"Hn."
"Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I get it."
Ah, the ignorance of youth. How I missed it. But I wasn't about to let this all continue. Not for him, and certainly not for Seraphina.
"I'd hope that you mean this Noah. You won't like it if I step in. I'll make sure that you don't see Seraphina at all." I warned him.
"Yeah, we'll see." Noah muttered.
I didn't try to stop him as he left the room. After a minute, I heard the front door open and close where he'd headed outside. Letting out a tired sigh, I sat down in one of the chairs at the dining room table, rubbing my head. What a mess this was all turning into. Our family certainly knew how to stay troubled, especially when it came to falling in love, or at least believing we had.
Thinking about that brought back memories of when my Mia had met Sean. That relationship had been troubling enough when it first started. Even though I couldn't say that I ever truly disliked Sean, his instincts had always worried me. I wasn't a fool about him either. I knew that he had too much of an interest in Mia from the beginning for there not to be trouble, and when he ended up attacking her, it proved my intuition correct. I was just glad that he'd been able to restrain himself enough not to cause her irreparable harm, and that she in turn was able to break him.
The incredible thing was that afterwards, Sean had turned into a calm and devoted young man. It was easy to tell how much he loved Mia, and he became a very attentive and loving father when Mia had their twins. It was a relief for me as I saw all of this, and I confess that I now trust Sean without question. I know that he'd do anything and everything to protect his family.
However, Sevee's relationship appeared doomed from the start. I think that Sevee hadn't truly intended to fall in love like he did. He'd been far too smart for most of his life, and had become extremely bored with it, which often led to his acting out and getting in trouble. Meeting Lenore was like meeting a kindred spirit in a sense, not to mention that she'd offered him an opportunity to explore a side of him that he'd never known before. While I confess that such a thought does bother me at times, I also can't completely blame him for such things. He is still a fifteen year old kid, not to mention had inherited the Fox side of his family genetics.
But be as it may, it was easy for us to tell after we met her that Sevee was deeply in love with her. I think we all knew that there would be no happy ending for them, no matter how much we wished for it. Lenore was a forbidden creature, and created by another Fox. It was only a matter of time before he'd come back to try and take her, and in the end, he also took her life. We were just grateful that their son was spared.
But now we had the looming issue of Noah and Seraphina to worry about. What a mess this all was turning into. Noah certainly seemed to believe that he was in love with her now, and nothing we could say was going to change his mind.
As I sat there, Jekia's words to me in private at his palace echoed in my mind. Although he'd reiterated them at the gateway between the worlds, he'd made sure to speak to me alone while the others were in the room with Sevee and his new son.
"A bit of advice that I wish to pass onto you Michael. You should look to the past in order to solve issues of the present. Keep that in mind with what may come." he'd told me.
Looking to the past.
The idea of the past and present colliding was both sobering and frightening, yet I couldn't deny the connections the more I thought about them. Jekia may have been warning me of how this curse worked, and I feared that the damage was already being done. This was far too much like back then, far too much like what looked to be a little problem that blew up into tragedy.
A tragedy that nearly broke our family completely, and led to some of the darkest moments of our lives.