Sadly, I do not own any of the characters from Fallen, nor do I own the story. Lauren Kate does.

Chapter 1

First Glance

It always had to rain.

My knees are damp and muddy, covered in green moss and brown dirt, as I meticulously scrub at the Orpheus statue with Todd Hammond. Detention was what we were serving. It was such a regular occurrence for me that I don't even know what I got it for – it could have been anything this week.

Roland Sparks and Mary Margaret 'Molly' Zane lazily lounge by the grand, dirty statue of the angel Gabriel, Gods number one, you could say. Gabriel was the one who led The Watchers down to Earth to cast a watchful eye over mankind.

This is how we got here. The Angels, the purebreds, I mean. Molly, Gabrielle, Daniel, Roland, Arianne and I. The Angels at the Recreational School 'Swords & Cross'. But why they, excluding Daniel and myself, were still in this hellhole was beyond me. Swords and Cross is a prison for kids who behave badly, really badly, and have to be contained. We came here because of one thing, but it's over for now and we should have no reason to stick around anymore.

Or so I keep telling myself.

Lucinda 'Luce' Price is at the heart of it. And also, she happens to be the girl I love. That Daniel loves, and that Daniel has of course. I was just her other love interest for a short while, when Daniel was pretending to despise her, reluctant to end her life like before.

Luce and Daniel and I are at the centre of an eternal war. Before the Watchers it was believed that Angels and humans should not love, especially because one half of the relationship would die and the other would live on to love and loss forever. But the watchers saw things a different way. They believed, well, when I say they, I mean Gabriel, his army of 200 too loyal to disobey him and be faithful to the laws, decided they should have mans daughters for their own. So they flew down from the mountains and had them for their selves, the mean were weary of them, these wondrously beautiful creatures and shied away, letting the Angels take their woman. They bore children with the Watchers and the children were what we call Nephilim, part angel, part human. Only a handful of pure blooded angels, like myself and the others here, still roamed the earth. Though the Angels at Sword and Cross were banned from heaven, forbidden to return.

So I was not at all shocked and surprised to see Molly smirk and raise her head to the one Angel forgiven for his sins on earth, in heaven in heaven as if to say. "Look at me Gabriel, how do you like this?' She sits on his shoulder, her heels scraping against his robe that falls to his roman-like sandals, his toes poking out from underneath. 'Go to hell.'

Now, Orpheus, he was truly, commonly known as a real historic figure, though the other characters in his story were not as well believed as he was. Orpheus invented the lute, yes I know, surprise. He led The Watchers under the ground, not quite earth or hell and trapped them there, for they had killed his family and taken everything he loved from his fingers. Roderope Mountains, it is said if you enter to cave - Devils Throat, funnily enough - you could still hear their pleading and screams for help. The lute, or lyre, as the nuns, priests and professor's like to call it, was a famous possession to them all – though most didn't know it – the Angels covet it because it is of value to the humans and the two races are at an unending war to steal it from the Devil's Cave.

Not much excitement, news or anything new ever came. Rarely, we'd have newcomers and if they were lucky, they'd have committed a crime huge enough to draw attention to themselves though it was never anything us angels hadn't seen before. Like Luce, despite having two people or ready swooning over her and a hell lot of people wanting to kill her, her accident would have given her a lot of unwanted attention from the other inmates.

No matter how hard I scrubbed and polished this stupid Orpheus statue there would always be a sloppy green moss and thick mud plastered to it, stuck in the little crooks and corners, the tiny holes the disastrous rain will produce every few years. This is probably the best and worst detention ever.

Best – because the teachers will never have to worry about us forgetting. And worst – because we actually have to do it until then lesson finished bell rings. Which was what? Another half an hour.

So, I just sit, hoping Ted will carry on working hard enough that I might actually look like two of us done some work on the statue, and lounge on Orpheus' shoulder, lazy as a cat.

Dragging my hand through my long black hair, I sense a distraction nearing. I say distraction but really it's just a car – a few cars – nearing the school. A distraction for the kids.

But probably just a passer-by, someone who'll only glance and hurry off in the same direction – with no intention of stopping.

So, you could imagine our surprise when not one, but three squad cars idled by the front gate, waiting to be let in. I could sense the distress of the dogs, pawing at the van doors, yearning to get out and the uneasiness of the officers as the shifted in their seats and glanced towards the prisoner. Whose mind, I could tell, was smug – but that was all. I couldn't tell you anything about that person. This annoys me.

Randy, our very masculine female detention officer pays us no attention as she calls in to inform someone to open the doors and let the police in. The students were standing undecided, not knowing whether or not to advance on the car to get a look or take several steps back away from the police.

I hop down from the statue and jog towards Randy. "Hey," I say, pretending to catch my breath, "What's going on? Who is that?"

Randy looks at the clipboard in her big hands, flipping through a few crisp white sheets of paper before tapping her finger down a few times and grunting. "Rich kid. Eighteen. Sapphire Rosmaria Belkoni." She drops the paper. "She'll be in your dorm room and I expect you to make her feel at home."

"Wait, wait, wait. If you expect me to make an eighteen-year-old girl feel at home in let's face it, a mental institution – don't you think I should at least have a right to know what landed her here in the first place." I say, frowning deeply. She could be a mass murderer for all I know and really I do need to know.

"Very well, Cam," Randy huffs, and shrugs her shoulders before lifting the paper once again, her blue eyes falling over the words and a startled gasp slipping free of her lips. "Whoa, she. . . Her dad – I mean. She pretty much disabled three FBI agents, and her father paid them to let her live once they had injected her with a sedative to knock her out. But until this incident she seemed pretty much sane. Despite getting into trouble for drinking, smoking, vandalising – nothing odd about your average teenager." I nod in agreement. "Three FBI agents, "Detective James, Bourne and Willis were found on the ground, unable to move, Miss Belkoni was found… at the sight of the crime… smirking and towering over the guards. Detective Jones said "She put up a hell of a fight, before we got her out. Yes. Before we got her out with animal tranquil. I'm not your superstitious type, but there's something not right with that girl""

"Whoa, so she's the most serious case we've ever had her at Swords & Cross?" I say, I'd seen a lot in my time but for an eighteen year old girl to have done this, it was shocking.

Randy nods, her perm bouncing up and down on her shoulders. "Yeah, but I want you to make her feel at home. I know Molly's listening, so news will travel fast about her little situation," Little, my ass. "Anyway, the kids are gonna avoid her as much as possible."

I smile at her charmingly, knowing I couldn't wiggle my way out of this one if I was to be sharing a room with her. Which was gonna be pretty awkward, you know, me being a guy and she being a girl.

The girl and the cops were no gone, hidden inside the building. I was about to sneak away myself before the megaphone boomed. "All Class F Students, report the main hall. Immediately. I repeat. Report to the main hall immediately."

Sitting inside the main hall, a.k.a the inside gym, a.k.a the makeshift disco, a.k.a the detention hall. That's if you weren't to be punished by cleaning the forever grimy statues out back.

Randy takes her position behind the podium, takes the mic twice and I think I hear her utter the words 'testing, testing,' How cliché. "Attention, all students. I have to—"

All heads turn as the main doors slam shut and in walks a tall girl, with raven black hair and sapphire blue eyes. I recognise her to be the girl who had walked in earlier escorted by the many, many police. She was much prettier than I had ever imagined. Sapphire Rosmaria Belkoni. She smirks as she notes all eyes in her direction, clearly used to the attention. Her blue eyes jump from each student, sharply, before landing on me very briefly. I blink a few times, dazed despite myself. Sapphire walked with the kind of importance a princess would have; back straight, head high; eyes directly in front. "Make an announcement? Is that what you were going to say? How cliché." Sapphire bits her perfectly soft, pink lip. "Oh, please, do continue. Don't mind me."

Randy was just about to announce we had a new student here. A dangerous new student. And Sapphire knew it.

She wanders down the hall, in my direction, looking for a place to sit. But, glancing around quickly, I find that the spare seat is next to me. Right now, there was a mix of excitement and fear in me. That detective was right, there was certainly something not right with this girl.

Randy clears her throat and looks down at the podium, her eyes scanning notes she would have prepared for the occasion. Except Sapphire wasn't supposed to show up, so her earlier plans lay on that podium forgotten. "Uh, well, boys and girls, this is Sapphire Rosmaria Belkoni. She's a new student here. Um, I would like you to make her feel at home. Now, before I finish, could Roland Sparks, Cameron Bright and Miss Belkoni herself stay? Thanks. You're now dismissed."

I stay frozen in my seat as I hear the noises of the other kids pushing back chairs, whispering, shouting, laughing and making their way towards the doors. Roland glances at me, confused and to be quite honest a little scared. So, Molly had gotten the news around. It didn't matter if we couldn't die, I guess, the fear of what Sapphire might be able to do to us was enough fear. We still felt pain.

I glance to my right and see Sapphire had crossed her legs, and was looking rather bored. I finally take in what she is wearing, short denim shorts and a tight white t-shirt. Hot, if you asked me. But I wasn't sure if she was one of those girls who'd take offence at a compliment like that.

Randy gestures for us to come forward. Scratches her head, Purses her lip. Confused, my brain screams, and worried. "So Roland and Cam, you guys will no longer be sharing a room together. Roland you will be moving in with Arianne, who has been informed of our situation and Sapphire you will be moving in with Cameron." She gestures to Sapphire and then me as if introducing us.

Sapphire smirks and mutters, "That's what you think," I make a mental note to ask her what she meant later.

Roland's head snapped in my direction. Then he's looking back at Randy. "You're intermingling the sexes now?"

"About time," I grin. Sapphire looks unimpressed, but there's something at the back of her eyes that tells me she is pleased about this. Like I could show her a good time.

Sapphire smirks, rolls her eyes, before shooting me a wink. "You wish." She mutters again. Before turning on her heal and walking away, she throws me a smile over her shoulder, "You coming or what?"

"So," I say lounging on my bed, as I watch Sapphire slowly spin herself around the room on our chair. "What do you do for fun?"

Suddenly she freezes, a slow grin spreading across her face. She glances at me, then she glances at the window, then at me, then back to the window. "Huh, security her sucks, dude." Pouncing off the chair she darts to the window, her hand reaching for the lock—

"—that's never going to work—"

The window slides open. She's already halfway out, before she gestures for me to come with her. I shake my head, perfectly comfortable with lying in bed all night. Sapphire stares deeply into my eyes and I fight the urge to tell her how beautiful she is. Come one, Cam, I tell myself, get a grip of yourself. "Please?" Her voice, oh, so wonderful, is that voice. Like the tinkling of glass, the look of a rose, the feeling of forever. "It'll be boring without you. Not at all worth it."

I grab her hand.