I didn’t mean for this to happen. It wasn’t my plan.

“I see you’re finally awake,” A shadow’s low rumbling voice echoed in my mind as I rubbed my wrists where bindings, long ago, had left scars painting my white skin.

“Seems so.” My voice was always so foreign, in a wind-chime way, tinkling and soft like a young girl's, it was much prettier than any other voice in existence, “Do you have business with me?”

I felt the pressure of his Grace pressing against my own power, raging for my submission, but it couldn’t achieve its obvious mission. It held no strength over what was mine. No more strength than an ant against a tree. I allowed myself to look up towards him, at his lean outline, the broad shoulders, messy black hair and coal eyes. I was allowing him here, and I was well aware he could feel the thrum of my anger, which I forever suppressed within me. Challenging as it may seem, my face stayed as stoic as ever, eyes resting on his lingering form, “I asked you a question.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to answer. I’m not yours to command.”

“Likewise.” I released my wrist and slid off the stone slab, my bare feet landing with an inert gracefulness on the cool smooth floor, “But, again I request you state your intentions before I grow annoyed with your presence.”

“Spunky, aren’t you. I thought you had no emotions, not being human and all.”

“You are very aware that humans are not the only creatures with emotions.” I reminded him patiently, straightening my clean golden-threaded robes thoughtfully, “Though you are correct, I’m not human. But you’ve known that for many centuries.”

I was still waiting for him to answer my previous question. However, I knew he would get to it eventually, and he knew I’d not do anything like acting on my threats.

“Could I borrow Lucillia?” He finally asked after chattering about common things I held no care for.

My head tilted slightly on its own accord and I felt my lips lilt in a frown, eyes remaining focused on him, “What do you want with my sister?”

I knew his intentions were never pure when it came to women.

“Hell, you can never get past that.” He grumbled, glaring at me sharply, “It was hundreds of years ago. You’re insanely stuck on holding a grudge.”

I raised a brow, indicating that I had no reason to allow him into my domain, and he was starting to bother me.

He scowled in my general direction, lowering his head and holding up his right hand, “I solemnly swear on my life that I am not going to touch her,” he grinned, but his head was still lowered and I only knew from instinct that he was smirking, “Unless she asks me too. I do have a sort of charm.”

“Are you insinuating that my sister would stoop to such lows as consummating with your kind, Angel?”

“You wound me.” His hand was pressed over his heart in a mock pain, “Really you do.”

I sighed to myself, turning slowly and gazing at him dryly, feeling my power expanding, detonating slightly and thrusting his away, “I’ll have none of that, you harm her and you’ll not even make it back to the Gates of Heaven to beg your creator for asylum.”

“You tell me that every time, and yet, here I am. Can I go get her now?” He brushed off my warning easily enough and submitted his bubbling aura.

I said nothing, and he took my acceptance and slipped past me. His subtle warmth escaping when he vanished around the corner.

I allowed him here, in my domain, only because my sister, my flesh, and blood fancied his company. I couldn’t kill him, for she would hate me for such an act, and I needed her as an ally. His kind shouldn’t be here, but Lucillia insisted, and I complied. She was the only one I’d ever let get away with something like that. If I ever found another Angel within my realm, they would be cinders before they could unfurl those feathered wings and shoot into the air.

It was quiet then, the silence that settled over me in such a way, wrapping me up tight and cutting off my throat, my veins aching as oxygen was denied to my blood. I have no veins. I closed my eyes tightly, long elegant fingers covering my eyes as the agony splintered my flesh, tearing deep into my soul. It was all so sudden, so abrupt that it dragged me to my knees.

My talons shortened as I stared at my bloodied hands, still no air filtered through my body. I don’t need to breathe, I don’t have blood, my heart… It’s beating…

“Don’t fret, my sweet.” A languid, sultry voice spiraled around me, pulling on my heartstrings, driving my body insane, anger surging through my nerves and limbs with startling speed.

He shouldn’t be here, “You’re forbidden from entering this place. This is my domain.”

“And yet, here I am.” He hissed, hot breath brushing over my right ear, making my spine stiffen and my arching veins begin to burn.

Gasping for breath wasn’t working, I didn’t know how to breathe, my lungs wouldn’t expand, my throat would loosen, and I felt haze in my head, so muddy and dark. I struggled for a single gulp of air and managed a strangled word, “Leave.”

I felt my own power humming viciously, lashing at the air, crackling dangerously, but he was doing something, something other than physically maiming my body. It was being torn away from me, like a warm robe being stripped off, leaving me pitifully exposed, vulnerable, like I could never have been before. The pain was growing more intense, and it seemed my body grew more human with each moment of it, and before everything collapsed into darkness, his rolling laugh filled my ears, “I don’t have to bow to a pitiful human. For I am the Archangel Uriel.”