"I don't know where I'm going, but I know just where I've been," - Five Finger Death Punch
"Muh," Clifton mumbled to wake me up one morning a few days after Christmas. He forced one of my emerald eyes open and giggled. "Muh!"
I squeeze my eye shut and gently push him off me. "What, son?"
"Phone."
I groaned and reached for my mobile device off the night stand. I had a missed call from Thomas Bryant, my nineteen year old cousin. I always remember that he was about two years older than me; his sister Cadence was born the same year as my sister Natalie so I know she's fifteen, but I always forget how old Hali is. She might be around Juliet's age.
I call Thomas back and he answers solemnly, telling me that he had been tracking the hagravens after they left Colorado, and he pin pointed their current stop.
Hagravens are these creatures who are half raven, half witch. In Colorado, they kidnapped a bunch of children, Hali included. A big group of us banded together to take on the hagravens and rescue the kids. Let's just say that Thomas and Balthazar were quite a pair together.
"Where are they at?" I asked him. I was stunned at his answer: Roanoke, Virginia. I know a pair of twins who live there! "I'm on the way there!" I exclaimed, jumping out of my bed.
Thomas announced that he and Cadence are already there. I scowled and told him not to move until I showed up. I hung up and started getting ready.
"Murdock!" I roared as I zipped downstairs, pulling my dark hair into a ponytail.
"Yes?" He roared back from the kitchen.
"Do you remember the ingredients I showed you to summon Balthazar?"
"Yes-?"
"Do it and summon him in the kitchen. I'm getting his ass back in action."
"Would it be easier to just call Keri?" Murdock suggested.
"Keri lives in Alaska with Emily. Balthazar's in Europe with Matthew."
"Oh I forgot!"
"I don't have time to waste dear!"
"Okay I'm on it!" I heard him scurry around the kitchen.
Clifton approaches me. "Son," I alerted. "Get your shoes on and don't forget your coat in your room. We're going to visit Danny and Mindy."
Daniel and Mindy Baker are the twins I mentioned. Fraternal twins, to be correct. They are like Drew, Nephilim I helped rescue from the Leviathan controlled prison they were stuck in for months. Now the hagravens are in their city? Something's not right...
Murdock was excited. He didn't know what was going on but he sure as hell liked those twins. No way he would let anything happen to them.
"I hate these bastard hagravens," Balthazar groaned when we landed in Roanoke.
"See Danny," Clifton squealed. "See Mindy."
"At least it's still holiday vacation," I remembered, ringing the doorbell for house number seven. Half a minute later, a familiar face answered the door. Danny.
"You guys are so late!" He exclaimed. "Christmas is way over with already!"
"Sorry!" Murdock apologized.
"You'd better be!" Danny scowled, but I noticed he had a twinkle in his blue eyes. "This is your punishment!" He snapped his fingers, and a blob of green goo was dumped onto Murdock's head.
Balthazar erupted into laughter. "I like this boy!"
"Not the hair!" Murdock cried, struggling to wipe the goo off of him.
"Who are all these people?" I heard Mindy ask from behind her brother. She approached the door with wide, chocolate colored eyes. "Lynn!" She recognized.
"Mindy!" Clifton spoke for me. "See Mindy!"
"Hi Cliffy!" Mindy grinned. She knelt down so he could run over and have her pick him up for a hug.
"Is your mom home?" I asked the twins.
"Nope, she's at work," Danny answered, checking out Balthazar and my two quiet cousins behind us.
"It's better if we fill you all in at the same time," I decided. "We'll come back when she's-"
"No, you guys can all come in," Danny offered. He and Mindy stepped back so we could all pile inside.
"It's warm in here!" Cadence said in relief, unzipping her jacket. I noticed Danny was double checking her out. She is cute, I guess. No, beautiful. She has long, dark blonde hair and big, hazel colored eyes. And she's about a year older than him...why the hell hadn't I thought of this sooner?
"You guys can sit down," Danny gestured to the living room space. "Does anyone want cookies? We have like hundreds left over from Christmas."
"Hundreds?" Cadence repeated.
"I don't doubt that - these two have the biggest sweet teeth around." I laughed.
"Come on, I'll show you," Danny ushered Cadence into his kitchen. Mindy, still holding Cliffy, followed them.
"Why are we here?" Thomas grumbled. Typical.
"Danny and Mindy are Nephilim," I informed. "We'll need all the help we can get to fight the hagravens."
"What about Megan, or that weirdo Garth?" Thomas reminded.
"Megan is on Garth's boat. Garth is doing his own thing...Garthing people..." I tried to say with a straight face. I heard Clifton ahh-ing and ooh-ing when he saw all the cookies in the kitchen.
After a little while everyone was more comfortable. Cadence and Danny hit it off quick. Clifton was stuck to Mindy like glue but she said she didn't mind it.
What I thought was funny was how the twins would call Clifton "Mini Lynn" as his nickname other than Cliffy. But does he look like me at all? He's got his father's eyes and tanned skin tone. Sam's face. Dean's smile. I might have had that same shape of ears when I was a baby though. That counts, right?
Eventually, I had a sippy made for my son. He drank it while Mindy gently rocked him back and forth. I was amazed at how good she was with him. His eyes were getting droopy, which meant nap time was coming. I was going to suggest watching a movie, but he seemed to enjoy hearing everyone talk around him.
When he was fast asleep snuggled in Mindy's lap, the mother of the twins returned home from work. "Whoa," she gasped when she saw all of us crowded in her living room.
"Hi Miss Baker!" I waved.
"Hello," Carrie greeted us with wide eyes that matched Danny's. "What's going on?"
"So those hagravens kidnap kids?" Danny repeated.
"And they're here in town?" Mindy added.
"Yep," Thomas deadpanned.
"We have to help," Danny exclaimed. "We can't let them do that!"
"How dangerous are they?" Carrie asked in concern. I could tell she didn't want to just send her children off to battle.
"We're more dangerous," I promised her.
"Mom, can we go help them, please?" Danny and Mindy begged.
"I..." Carrie hesitated. "Oh, alright. I don't think I'd be able to stop you anyway."
"YES!" The twins gleamed, giving each other a high five.
"Any idea where they are?" I asked Balthazar.
"Racquel wasn't my only spy, you know," He smirked. I only smile, trying to remember Racquel. An angel who was smitten with Balthazar but she never realized it until she sacrificed herself for him.
I miss her. She was the one who told me about Adena's existence.
I push my thoughts aside. "Cliffy's asleep so he's benched for this one. Carrie, is it-"
"Yes, I will keep an eye on him," she finished. "He's too cute not to say no to."
"If anyone knows that, it's me," I agreed. "Okay guys...let's go..."
...
...
...
Balthazar zaps us to somewhere in the city, causing Mindy to gasp. "The school of the dead!"
"Wonderful," I sighed, looking up at the apparently abandoned elementary school. "You sure about this, Balthazar?"
"Positive, Miss Winchester." He replied.
I nodded and bravely used angel mojo to push through the double doors into the school. "You can carry a shotgun?" I heard Danny whisper to Cadence.
"Yeah," she whispered back.
"I taught her," Thomas rudely blurted. I turn around briefly to sock him in the shoulder. He glares at me and I pursue forward.
"You guys think you will hunt the hagravens without me?" Everyone heard from the entrance. We all turn around to see a short man with crew cut black hair and thin brown eyes.
Ciar!
"Of course not," I grinned. "I was just wondering when you were going to show up."
Ciar chuckled and approached us. "Today we are finishing the hagravens for good. They murdered Keri's mother. They murdered my love..."
"Intrrrrrruderrrrrssss!" I heard a familiar screech.
"Hey!" Cadence yelled, sprinting into the school's gymnasium. "I'm back!"
A flash of short, sandy blonde hair went past me. It was Danny chasing after her, and Mindy chased him, and Murdock chased her, and I chased...yeah, it was a chain effect.
Ciar pushed past all of us and summoned his wings. The light he emanated from spreading them out allowed us to get glimpses of the hagravens - they were perched along the walls and bleachers.
"THIS IS SPARTA!" Murdock roared, just as Cadence did some kind of battle cry. Danny used his powers to blast a hagraven back; Cadence unloads a shotgun round into it; Mindy touches the creature last to set it on fire.
Ciar snapped a hagraven's neck. Murdock recited a spell to have one erupt into flames. Yes, fire is their weakness. Thomas smacked one with his shotgun just as Balthazar ripped its wings off, and Thomas violently blew its brains out.
I jumped onto the bleachers and tackled the nearest hagraven. It screeched angrily and scratched my face deep with its clawed hand. I slammed my hands onto its chest and personally ganked it.
I heard Cadence scream in agony. I cast my eyes down to the gym floor through the darkness to see that a hagraven stuck its claw right into her gut. I was seconds away from going to her but Danny beat me to it. His eyes started to glow a bright blue, just like Drew's did when we fought. True Nephilim power trying to peak at the surface.
Danny stuck out his hand and the hagraven burst into flames and burnt to death quickly. He dashed over to Mindy, who was holding Cadence up. Danny knelt down and as soon as he touched my cousin, he was glowing white like Ciar was before.
This gave me an idea. "Murdock!" I cried. "Do what you did to Mendax!"
"What?!" he yelped. "It's too dangerous!"
"The explosion will-" I started, but a hagraven flew at me. I blasted it back and cursed at it. "The explosion will kill them! I'll protect the others!" I promised.
Murdock nodded, trusting me, and started to recite the powerful spell. I stood still and closed my eyes, trying to channel all of my half archangel power to hopefully make a way to shield us all from the blast. "Brace yourselves!" I warned everyone, as I felt myself start glowing an angelic light.
Murdock finished the spell, and everything around us enveloped into an inferno explosion.
I open my eyes and prayed for the best. We were outside...or really, we were still in the gym. The entire school had been reduced to nothing but ash.
I heard coughing from behind. I did a roll call on everyone immediately.
"Thomas?"
"Alive,"
"Cadence?"
"She's okay," Danny answered. He was the one holding onto her now.
"Danny?"
"I just talked! I'm okay too!"
"Mindy?"
"Here!"
"Balthazar?"
"Here, Miss Winchester."
"Ciar?"
"Yes,"
"Murdock?"
...
...
...
"Murdock?"
...
...
...
"Mudock?!" I screamed, looking until I found him unconscious face down. I turned him over and he groaned up at me, and I couldn't help but smile. "Ducky." I said.
"Yeah-?" he replied, wiping his nose that was bloodied.
"Your glasses are broken."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! AGAIN?!"
"Yes I'm kidding!" I laughed, helping him sit up. "I'm sorry, I had to do that. It was too funny to pass up."
"Hey, Lynn," I heard Mindy alert. I turned around to see what she wanted, but I was met with a sudden tub of green goo getting dumped on me, causing everyone to crack up laughing.
At the Baker residence, Carrie was relieved to see her kids again. Clifton was still sleeping too, so we were spared of him having a fit from being left behind.
Balthazar offered to zap Thomas and Cadence home, but Thomas said, "I think she wants to stay for a while." and motioned to Cadence and Danny in the kitchen. Danny was playing doctor and cleaned up any cuts she had. Thomas must have softened up since Danny did save her life. I told Carrie this and she smiled.
"Stay," Clifton requested himself of me.
"That's not up to me," I told him.
"Of course he can stay," Carrie said. "Like I said, he's too cute not to say no to."
"Yeah Cliffy! You can spend the night!" Mindy decided.
"Yuh!" Clifton squealed with excitement.
Ciar waved us goodbye, and I noticed he looked different. His decades long chase of the creatures who killed Keri's mother was over. I'm pretty sure I know where he's gonna go flying off to after he walked out of the house.
"How are things going?" Balthazar asked me as we sat outside. It was snowing, but the weather never affected us.
"We're closing the gates of Hell," I told him. "And I found out that Jackson is a Knight of Hell."
"You're joking."
"I wish."
"Bloody hell," Balthazar groaned.
"Even worse? Castiel took off with the angel tablet."
"Excuse me-?"
"Yes Balthy," I recite an old nickname. "I know about the tablets."
The French angel sighed. "Another storm's going to come."
"It will be a bad one," I admitted. "I just hope we'll be ready for it."
Disclaimers: Hagravens belong to Bethesda. Skyrim players ought to know them. Danny, Mindy and their mom belong to Simple Paradox from her story, "When Angels Are Watching" They did make a cameo appearance in my previous story (Lost Along The Way) but I always forget to do these author notes.