"I am Julius," the strange man said with a small smile on his face at Brynn's bewildered expression.

"Julius?" Brynn breathed in disbelief.

She hadn't expected her father to be so tall. His face resembled that of a Greek statue with chiseled cheeks and large, ice blue eyes. His torso was left bare while his lower half was clad in a pair of loose pants that were the brightest white she had ever seen. And his wings surprised her. They were enormous, nearly two times as long as he was tall and they were steel gray. Even in the darkness she could see the stain of blood on his wings.

"Yes. I am your father, you are my daughter," Julius stated, approaching her.

Brynn scooted backwards off the altar, catching herself before she fell. "Please, don't come any closer," she said, holding her hand up like she was warding off some great evil.

Julius paused and his smile turned into a smirk. "You do not have to be afraid of me. I am not here to hurt you…I was told you have many questions for me by the one who sent a message to me."

Brynn nodded and lowered her hand, certain that he wouldn't come any closer. "What kind of angel are you?"

"An angel of death...I'm one rank from being an arch angel." His eyes glinted like ice on a sunny day. "I'll become one soon though. Then my ascension into being a seraph will quickly follow.

Cocky much? Brynn thought, trying to sort through her questions for the real important ones. "Why did you choose my mother?" she demanded, crossing her arms. "And then leave her once you impregnated her?"

"Why did I choose Daria?" He laughed. "Daria was one of the few that still believed in the old ways and the oldest beings in the world. It helped that she was a beautiful, young woman and stronger than most. I fell in love with her and we created life." His face turned serious. "As most angels do, I wanted a son to come from my relationship with your mother. But no angel had successfully impregnated a human female before. I was the first angel father. But Daria did not conceive a son. She conceived a daughter, she conceived you."

Brynn frowned. "Sorry I'm such a disappointment, but you didn't have to leave her just because of me. You could have stayed, let her have me, and try again a few months later."

"I do not highly believe in second chances."

"But don't you miss her?"

"I do, but I always see her in her dreams." His face turned even grimmer. "I know she was sick for over two years and that you were taking care of her, even if she never showed me your face. I could not find your thoughts, search through your dreams for you…You were simply invisible to me from Heaven and I was not going to come back down to simply search for something that had caused me much disappointment in the past."

"If you feel so disappointed in me, why did you agree to meet me?" Brynn felt a flash of white hot anger course through her veins. "You could have gone on with your life and left me out of it."

"I was curious…My only child was calling for me, for a reason I did not know. What I found struck my curiosity even more. My child was between a legion of humans and the prince of the old ones." His smirk returned. "With a spear in her chest."
Unconsciously Brynn touched a hand to her chest, feeling the echo of pain. She didn't know how she had been saved; Nuada's weapon should have killed her. His aim had been true and she could still taste the blood in her mouth. She should have been dead, but she was alive.

"You're probably wondering how you managed to live and return from the scene without a mark," Julius guessed, folding his arms over his chest. "I broke the prince's spearhead from its shaft and collected you in my arms. Only an angel could have saved you from such a dangerous weapon, my child."

Brynn dropped her hand to her side once more. "What happened to the others?"

"The humans are dead," Julius told her bluntly with a look of satisfaction on his face. "They thought they could shoot me with their tiny weapons…The demon and your prince managed to survive, but I will find them and destroy them for attacking me when they saw that I was taking you away from them…"

Meyers is dead? Brynn shook her head, the color in her face draining. "No…you…you killed them…in cold blood! How could you?"

"Easily. Humans annoy me with their greed and their constant need to be the center of attention. This war against the humans must commence and soon, but I do not believe your elf lover is the right person to command the army." He laughed coldly. "He'll be dead anyway so it will not matter…"

Brynn took a step back, then another. "No! You can't kill him! You can't kill the humans!"

"I told you that I am an angel of death. Killing humans is my job." He scowled at her. "As for the elf prince, it will simply be payback."
"You belong in Hell!" Brynn snapped, opening her wings threateningly as he approached her. "Angels are supposed to be good and pure. You're nothing like that." Her eyes glowed with a blue light.

"Oh that wounds me. You wouldn't believe how many demons have told me to go to Hell, but hearing it from my own daughter? I can't let that go unpunished."

Brynn leaped out of the way as he flew at her. She beat her wings once and sent him careening into a wall. A shriek tore at her throat as he beat his wings hard and sent her flying through a wall into the night.

It took her a moment to climb to her feet, the pain she felt echoed from Nuada hurting her as badly as the real pain she was in.

"Brynn…" Julius called, walking lightly out of the church.

Got to do that teleporting thing again, Brynn thought, focusing on the image of a place where she'd be safe. Please God…let this work one more time.

"You will be disciplined," Julius said, approaching her again as she drew her wings in around her. "If you could not be a warrior son, you will be a warrior daughter of the sky."

Brynn closed her eyes, focusing on the place she felt safest. The feeling of the cold grass on her feet changed into cold tile. She no longer felt the breeze, instead heard the hum of an air conditioning system. Brynn didn't want to open her eyes to see where she was because she was afraid that it was all just a trick of the mind.

"Brynn pet, how did you get here?" Abe's voice asked from somewhere ahead of her. "And why are you dressed like that?"

Brynn opened her eyes and saw the blue fish-man standing there with concern in his large blue eyes. Tears came to her eyes and she jumped into his arms, burying her face against his chest.

"Abe! Something terrible has happened!" she exclaimed against his chest. "My father -"

"Is an evil angel of death," Abe cut across her. When she pulled back to look at him, he cocked his head to the side. "Kendra revealed some more of the story when Hellboy came back and he told us that Julius had kidnapped you…" He blinked. "I was worried about you."

"I'm putting you in danger being here then," Brynn whispered, backing away from him. "Just like I put Nuala in danger earlier."

"If you're talking about the gunshot wound to her shoulder, you don't have to worry about it anymore. Her wound healed." He took a step towards her, but she backed away from him again. "Brynn pet, why are you acting this way?"

"I'm the reason all those men died…All of the good guys are dead because of me, all their blood is on my hands because I wanted to meet my father! More are going to die and…" She shook her head and punched the wall beside her. "God! Why didn't I listen to Meyers while he was alive? Why didn't I stay in the protection of the Bureau complex like he told me to?"

"Brynn…"

"If I had listened to him, Nuada wouldn't have summoned my father to this world and I wouldn't have put so many people's lives in danger. No one would have had to die for me." Tears fell from her eyes in raging rivers as she hit her fist weakly against the wall. "I wouldn't have put the world in jeopardy or started a renewed war with the humans…Meyers…Meyers wouldn't be dead…"

Abe hesitated, unsure whether or not to touch her. "Brynn…"

"I never apologized to him…I never told him what I really thought about him! I told him that I hated him and that I never wanted to see him again…I shouldn't have said those things…He – he helped me get my job at the diner and he always tipped me the best…He was my best friend for these past few years and I…I treated him like shit in the end. Now I'll never get the chance to tell him that I…"

"That you what?" someone asked and Brynn felt a surge of joy and anger course through her veins.

"You…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: I have no clue why I didn't include Nuada in this chapter, but I think the next chapter will explain where he was and why. And just a head's up, there is only going to be 20 chapters to this story. Why the rush? I just can't keep a story line going for much longer without making the story something dumb or Mary-Sue-like. Sorry. I hope you stick around for the rest of the story, next update will be soon.