34: One More Sunrise for the Dawn.

Two men entered an alleyway looking for the hooded person they had been chasing. One of the men took out an unusual compass; it pointed one way and both men took out their guns. Going down the alley one of the men checks the dumpsters. As he lifted the second lid, Charlie Bradbury jumped up and stabbed him in the neck with a sword. She leaped out of the dumpster and kicked him away before boldly slicing off the hand of the second man still holding a gun. He started to laugh so she pointed the sword at his chest directly.

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded shakily. "And why are you following me?"

"I ain't following you," the man with the bleeding lack of hand replied with a southern accent. "I'm following what you got in your bag there. That don't belong to you, girl. Belongs to my family."

"Yeah? Well, sorry Gambit; finder's keeper's."

"It's beyond your understanding. Hell, you can't even read it."

"Are you always so condescending when someone's pointing a blade at you?"

"Now, you look here - you can cut me down, but my people will never stop." He raised his hands (well, hand). "And you can tiptoe through the tulips like you did in Russia, or you can stow away on the back of a train like you did in Alaska, but soon enough my kin will find you. This ends with you being dead."

Before he grabbed the sword away Charlie noticed an unusual tattoo on his wrist. Once the sword was out of her hands she took off running. The man picked up his gun and took a shot, getting the redhead in the back. She let out a cry of pain but climbed through a hole in a fence and ran regardless.

Zarya was enjoying Nashville with the Romanian twins, surprisingly enough. It was hit or miss with the country music, but Zarya at least got them both to listen to and thoroughly appreciate Carrie Underwood. Both Zina and Zarya dug right into the food. Neither of them cared about barbeque sauce on their hands. For a while Nova kept up her little charade of being too proper for hand food, until she smelled the most delectable chicken wings. To taunt her, Zina and Zarya got the biggest bucket of wings they could order and waved it right in Nova's face. Zina teasingly reached in slowly to further harass her sister. Nova slapped her hand away and ripped a drumstick slathered in sauce from the bucket first. Both Zarya and Zina were in hysterics at the fierce way the elder Romanian tore into the drumstick. At the first bite she melted into the flavor so the three sat and proceeded to dig into the bucket of wings and drumsticks.

After a while it was honestly hard to believe that Nova was unable to turn her humanity back on. They just kept laughing and poking fun at one another like she did with Sam and Dean. There was more walking when they came to a little shop of leather. Zarya got herself a new pair of combat boots and a belt that came with a gun holster. Zina decided on a medium sized, black leather purse. Nova, surprisingly, was staring at the same section of boots Zarya had after picking out a new leather jacket.

"My sister in boots?" Zina laughed, looking down at the sharp and fashionable black, peep toe heels Nova had currently worn.

"I actually used to wear them frequently." Her brows furrowed. "I seem to wear heels when I shut off my humanity. And after I finally got Klaus off of my ass."

"Wasn't that another time you had shut off your humanity?"

Nova shrugged. "A common theme I suppose then."

"You know," came Zarya's softer tone down the way; she was working on putting on her new boots, "there are combat boots with heels down here. Best of both worlds?"

Out of curiosity, the twins ventured down to the section in question. There, indeed, had been a fair sized section of boots that resembled the regular combat boots but included a heel rather than flat bottom. A small smile came to Nova's face, then she reached for a pair decorated with little silver studs. She bent down and placed a small, side kiss on Zarya's cheek before going to check out. Zina snickered at the human's pink tinted cheeks and brightly confused expression.

"We're European, malŭk. The French do it on each cheek to this day."

Zarya made a face at whatever it was the younger Romanian had called her. "What the hell did you just gurgle at me?"

Zina loved the girl's humor. "It's Bulgarian. Something like… little one, in English."

"Oh yeah, Nova mentioned something about you guys knowing a lot of languages. So you're Romanian, and you can speak Bulgarian?"

She nodded. "I can speak Romanian fluently as it is my blood. Katerina taught me Bulgarian because that was her native tongue and she taught me English to be more diverse. I've picked up a handful of others just watching people from the Other Side and let me tell you, Russian and German are two of my least favorite. It does not matter what you say in either language because it sounds like a threat."

The hunter laughed a little. "I can see that. Do you know any, like… severely deceased languages that, say, even demons would shiver at hearing?"

Zina's eyes slid over the tiny but still noticeably curvy human hunter. She knew exactly what the girl had to have been asking about. There wasn't a whole lot that made demons quiver. "You don't use that kind of language."

"But you know it," the human insisted. "What is it?"

She sighed and sat beside her on the bench, her voice dropping very low. "It was a language formed between Remiel and Lucifer in Heaven. Everybody up there spoke Enochian so it's not like they got private conversations ever. They created their own language that would be entirely off the books. Never heard, never recorded, never existed. Kind of like this conversation."

"Why is it so feared then? It's just a language. It's not like people have a crippling fear over the German language after World War II or… or Nordic or whatever is out past Ireland I guess."

A brow quirked up curiously from Zina as her sister rejoined them to put on her own new boots. "Did you know you're Irish?"

"I'm sure she knows, sister," Nova chastised as she laced up the first boot.

"Actually… I didn't." Both twins looked at her suddenly. "I was adopted completely under the radar and compelled to know no different, remember? I don't know a damn thing about my birth mom past the few things I've researched."

"Huh. It must have been something to slip my mind." Nova shrugged. "Yes, your branch of our clan is from a migration to Ireland. The only other notable Vasile from Ireland was Darerca who mysteriously vanished in 1589 from the woods."

"You never heard that tale, sister?" Zina questioned.

"Believe it or not, mother and father didn't exactly read me bedtime stories despite being the child they kept."

"It's Celtic lore," the younger Romanian explained as they continued through Nashville. "The legend of Tír Na nÓg." Zarya had heard that somewhere before but couldn't remember where. "It's the land of eternal youth in Ireland."

Before Zina could continue on about her knowledge of Tír Na nÓg, Zarya's phone rang loudly from her pocket. She hadn't forgotten to text the brothers, had she? "Still alive and well," she greeted when she answered Dean's call.

"Good," he replied quickly, "you need to get to Des Moines as fast as you can."

"What's happened?"

"Charlie found the Book of the Damned and, as she put it, some 'southern fried d-bags' hurt her. She got away though. We're at one of Bobby's old safe houses out here."

Overhearing the conversation, Zina tossed her the keys to the car she had taken to meet them in Nashville. With a look of confusion from the hunter, she mouthed that she would go home with her sister. "Alright, I can be there in about eight hours if I speed recklessly and don't stop."

Once they hung up, Nova smirked at Zarya. "Who's this Charlie that's got you all worried?"

The girl's cheeks turned a light pink but she smiled. "Charlie Bradbury is probably the sweetest human soul I have ever met in my life. Anyone that hurts her I will shred mercilessly. She's one of the few good things I still have left in life."

Zina's lip pouted in a smile of affection for her words. "Then go rush to Iowa and keep the sweet girl safe."

When the newer looking, dark red Charger sped up to the cabin, Sam and Dean drew their guns cautiously. Charlie tried to sit up a little on the couch, hopeful and eager that it was Zarya. The driver's door whipped open and slammed shut in the split second before the ravenette went running up the pathway. The redhead grinned when she heard the female hunter in question arguing with Dean in the doorway. He wanted her to calm down, but she just wasn't having it.

"Who laid a finger on her goddamn head, huh?!" Zarya shouted. "How is she? Is it that bad? Why won't you let me by, Dean? So help me I will move you myself."

"I'm fine, Arya!" Charlie shouted, half laughing. Dean was shoved to the side abruptly and in merely two seconds the redhead was practically smothered against Zarya's chest and abdomen. "I gave a good fight, patched myself up enough, Sam and Dean fixed the rest, and now they're making me 'take it easy'."

"That's grand and all but I'm gonna need names of the sons of bitches that still caused you injuries. I wanna take these 'southern fried d-bags' and overcook their wings a lot."

"Maybe after but I did come back with the Book of the Damned."

"Which sounds awful, by the way."

"Yeeaahh… here's what I've learned so far. About 700 years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirrelled away by herself, she emerged with this." Carefully, Charlie pulled the book from her backpack. "Each page is made out of slices of her own skin written in her blood. I told you, it's eekish. According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for a while. There's a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark magic, end-of-times nastiness. As far as what language it's written in, I'm thinking it's some kind of…uh…"

The book had been passed around until it landed at Dean. The elder Winchester had been staring at it strangely with a dark look on his face. When she noticed, the Mark on her arm started to itch. Sam called his brother's name, and it took a minute, but finally he snapped out of it. "I don't think it's a good idea if I touch this." He handed the book back to Charlie, muttering about going to get the rest of their stuff.

"What the hell was that?" Charlie looked up at Sam.

"It couldn't have been the Mark, could it? I mean, it's on me too and I wasn't ogling some creepy old book."

"You also barely touched it too," the younger brother commented.

Hesitantly but curiously, Charlie handed the book back to Zarya. The thought of the pages being a nun's skin perturbed her enough where she really didn't want to, but reluctantly the ravenette took the book in her hands. With a small sigh and her fingers gingerly on the corner of the cover she opened it up and glanced at the first page. She blinked a couple of times and then her brows furrowed. Sam and Charlie watched her green-blue eyes slowly scan across the blood written words as if it were just a poor handwriting.

"Do you… do you understand any of that?" Sam asked apprehensively.

"Don't douse me in holy water or stick me in a circle of holy oil, but… I might be able to pick out a few words. And they do not sound good even when they don't make sense. Why the hell is this thing in any of our presences?"

Sam finally met her eyes with the book still in her hands. "We're going to find a cure to get the Mark of Cain off of Dean, and you."

Auriel flipped through a grimoire mindlessly with a hand supporting her head. "I'm really not sure what you had in mind after what happened to Alina and Felix."

Saskia's eyes rolled. "If Felix had not been as he was and did as he had then it could have turned out better. Their studies worked well on Nova."

"Yeah, because she ended up a vampire from the Originals' line. That's the trick is separating the bloodlines since Esther performed the spell successfully. She gave the vampires the ability to turn and be superior, but still too grounded to nature and therefore deeply rooted in its rules. The alterations done to Alina and Felix gave them extended life, but you saw how it deteriorated them."

"I'm not hoping for unstoppable, immortal beasts, Auriel. Just an army of mindless creatures who can turn weak humans into more. What of the Book of the Damned?"

"It was found by a Charlie Bradbury who is actively being pursued by the Styne family and protected by Zarya and the Winchesters."

Saskia made a face of disgust at the mention of the Stynes. "What happens if Zarya dies with the Mark of Cain?"

Auriel's eyes widened slightly with wonder. Dean became a Knight of Hell if he died with the Mark. What would happen to a girl with the dhampir gene dormant? "Surely Lucifer would ship her right back before we could find out. He doesn't seem too keen on letting her turn so long as she doesn't want it."

"She's not going to have much of a choice sooner or later. If they succeed in finding the spell to break the Mark of Cain it could rip her humanity right out of her."

"What happens then though? Everything about Zarya is currently experimental. We never anticipated Lucifer actually imprinting on anyone, let alone her."

"We keep pushing until she gives him an imprint back."

"Be careful what you seek, Saskia. For any creature, even another angel, to leave their own mark upon the angel's grace is a bold thing to do. It weighs heavily and affects quite a bit."

Saskia smirked as she watched the flames dance in the fireplace. "I know exactly what it means, Auriel. And I am going to make certain it happens."

"Okay," Charlie sighed, "even the Bletchley Circle couldn't crack this thing. I've tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg."

Dean looked up from the files he had been reading. "Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Those people following you? Hm? All kinds of wrong. I'm talking multi-generational, centuries old wrong. The Styne family; Men of Letters' files have them dated back to the early 1800s. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the Nazis before they came into power, and they profited from it."

Zarya's jaw was ajar in a frown. "So, they're like the supernatural Du Ponts?"

"Basically. All of the spells they used came from a book of 'unspeakable evil' which they lost nearly a hundred years ago."

"Alright," Sam tried to shrug off the chill creeping on his spine, "so they're bad. So what? We've faced worse."

"Sam, read the file. The way the book works is, when you use it, there is a negative reaction. I'm talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We've been down that road before."

The brothers started to go back and forth about whether to continue or not. Zarya tried her best to drown them out and read. When she looked up again, they were both gone. Seeing the confusion on her face, Charlie informed her raven haired companion that Sam and Dean took it outside for a ride since they forgot her snacks. Zarya nodded slowly. She mentally ticked off another time she successfully avoided being alone with Dean.

"I heard you've been through some crazy stuff," the redhead commented when they sat on the couch to take a break.

Zarya chuckled humorlessly. "So they caught you up, huh?"

She nodded. "I just don't understand why you left, Arya." The onyx haired hunter smiled softly at the nickname. "You seemed like you were finally doing alright."

"I was, I guess. But after Purgatory I just… I felt the weight of the world on me, Red. And no matter how much time I spent around Sam and Dean I had never felt more alone."

"Well, the good news is that you know more about where you came from now, right?" She smiled.

Zarya returned the smile. "Sort of?" She laughed. "It turns out the Vasiles are endangered creatures still being hunted to this day so it's just lie on top of lie to hide in the darkness. But I've met a good few of them and while they have their dark sides, they're all pretty wicked. I also found out that my mom was friends with Mary Campbell-Winchester."

"No way! How the frack did they know each other?!"

"I'm still pretty fuzzy on the chain of events, but it seems like Mary would have known my maternal grandmother, Audra, who wound up a hunter because Nova mercilessly murdered her parents…" She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.

Sam and Dean burst back through the door then. Both women jumped to their feet, demanding to know what was going on. "The Stynes," Dean answered quickly. "They found us. The douches are all jacked up too."

"What are you talking about?" questioned Zarya.

He tossed a cup of something into the fireplace. "I emptied a full clip into one of them before the son of a bitch went down."

While Sam and Dean bickered again about whether or not to destroy the book, Zarya looked to Charlie with determination in her eyes. "Whatever happens, Red, I've got you." She stepped closer to the door and windows, hand reaching for her revolver when she froze. She recalled Dean's comment about his full clip into one of the Stynes; would her six shooter do anything at all? As her arm rested back by her side, mind racing when a new car sped into the area, something cool brushed beneath her sleeved arm. She inwardly sighed. A glance back to a shaking Charlie gave her the drive to take hold of the angel blade. Lucifer's angel blade.

The Stynes burst through and Dean called as loudly as he could bellow for the ravenette. Her green-blue irises flickered a fiery magenta before she took off and started wailing on the Stynes. Dean jumped in for the bigger man while Jacob focused on Zarya with curiosity in his eyes.

"Aren't you a cute little thing, sweet pea. Who might you be?" His eyes then flicked to the angel blade displayed proudly in her hand. "That won't get you very far, darlin'."

"I'd put money that it will, actually." She smirked. The blade turned in her hand, revealing the sigil engraved. Jacob's eyes widened before looking back to the girl with the short raven hair and fire in her hybrid colored irises. "And my name, is Zarya Vasile!"

She sprinted forward with such speed and strength neither brother nor Charlie had ever witnessed. She headbutted Jacob hard into a wall, cracking it from floor to ceiling. She swiped over and over again with the angel blade knicking him in various places, but Jacob did his best to keep her silver blade at bay. He finally got a chance at one point and grabbed her arm as it swung down to him. Zarya shocked him by whirling around, using his grip tightly on her to move him, and tossed him over the couch. The second Styne with Jacob knocked Dean to the floor. He moved to grab Zarya from behind but she could feel it coming. She grabbed him before he could do it to her and flipped her swiftly over her head.

"My, my," Jacob chuckled after wiping away some blood on his lip. "What are you, sweet pea? A Vasile you said? Tricky family they were. Didn't think they were still kickin'.

"Oh, we are. And I'm the one kicking the hardest."

Zarya swiftly ran up and over the couch with one foot gracefully hitting the arched back of the furniture. As she was mid-air they watched her other foot swing forward and kick Jacob Styne as hard as she possibly could with the momentum in his face. His head turned with the force, cheek cracking, and he landed with a loud bang onto the wood floor. Zarya landed on top of him and drove the angel blade deep into his chest before yanking it back out. Blood splattered across her face. Dean ran over and grabbed her first, pulling her off and away from Jacob Styne. By time her feet hit the floor again on the other side of the couch, Lucifer's angel blade was gone again.

"Go get in the car!" the elder Winchester told her firmly while ushering Charlie towards the ravenette. "I don't actually know if these sons of bitches will stay down!"

Zarya immediately grabbed the redhead's hand and sprinted to the Impala with the brothers in tow. Once all four were in the vehicle, the drive away from the cabin was dead silent. Charlie was horrified and terrified for her raven haired friend. Sam was guilty of burning a book that wasn't the Book of the Damned hidden in his bag. Dean was somewhere between enraged and deeply concerned with the Mark of Cain scorching his arm; he knew damn well it was Lucifer's angel blade in Zarya's hand. Zarya, however, kept her eyes fixated out the window the entire drive. Her expression was unreadable. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice the way the mirrored Mark scorched her skin as well.

She thought about tucking and rolling out of the car in the beginning of their drive. Returning to the cabin and doing whatever it took to make certain those two Styne fellas weren't coming back. She could still feel something dark looming. Dean had made Sam destroy the Book of the Damned, so they thought, but Zarya couldn't help but feeling like it wasn't destroyed. Something in her intuition screamed that it wasn't over yet; that something even worse was about to happen. As her thoughts began to spiral downwards a warm hand clasped around her cool one, making her jump. When she looked over, Charlie gave her a comforting smile. Her shoulders relaxed, a soft smile coming to her own pale lips.

[Flashback, spring 2012]

"Wait," Sam looked at Charlie with bewilderment, "how long did it take you to crack into Frank's drive?"

The redhead shrugged timidly. "A day or so."

With an almost creepy silence, Zarya had walked in then. The door to Charlie's apartment made no sound as it opened or shut. Dean quickly did a double take when he realized her presence. "Is there anything you can't hack into?"

Charlie jumped in her seat when she heard the ravenette's soft voice. "I… uh…" She hadn't realized that she actually rose to her feet. "N-not yet… who are you?"

Sam offered a small smile. "It's okay, Charlie; she's with us. This is Zarya Deighton."

"And yes, she happens to be an extra creepy ninja," Dean added with a grin.

Zarya approached the girl with a heartwarming smile and her hand extended. "I promise you I'm not creepy nor an actual ninja."

Charlie's cheeks were turning almost as red as her hair the longer she held eye contact with Zarya. It was astounding the way the young woman had seemingly supernatural beauty. The natural lighting of the apartment highlighted the indigo tint to her black hair that fell in thick, messy waves down to her shoulder blades. She was nearly pale as porcelain without a single freckle or flaw on her face except the purple circles beneath her eyes. Her eyes though were unlike anything Charlie had ever seen in person. Were they green? Were they blue? It was a brightly perfect combination of both. Zarya's hand was cool to the touch, but it drew the redhead in. She could see the lightness in Charlie's eyes even through the striking fear. Pleasantly surprising the redhead, Zarya pulled her in by her hand for a warm embrace.

"We've got this one way or another, Red."

[Present]

"What happened?" Sam exclaimed, running up with machete in hand. "What is this?"

Dean grinned after swigging the beer in his hand. "I know right? Six vamps. Solo. I think that's gotta be a personal best."

"You couldn't have waited? Or asked Clarke to come?"

His grin wavered. "I did ask Zare to come. She's at the bunker with Charlie."

Sam chuckled lightly. "Don't tell me you're jealous of Charlie."

"Okay first of all, I could have reason to be jealous of Charlie if… if Zare and I actually had anything going on, which we don't. And that could be partially because I think she's avoiding me."

"Why would she be avoiding you? Everything's seemed alright to me. She probably just wants to catch up with Charlie. They've always been pretty close."

"You know what? Doesn't matter. I ganked the vamps to take the edge off. I'm sorry. I don't always wait around for you, especially with you looking at me like that all the time."

"Look at you like what?"

"Like that. Like I'm some sort of a-a diseased, killer puppy." He sighed. "Look, I'm sweaty, and I'm covered in vamp juice. Can we just talk about this later? I'd like to get back to the bunker, get my buzz on, and uh, you know - pass out watching 'Speed 2 - Cruise Control'. We cool?"

Sam blinked a couple of times before stiffly nodding. "Cool."

Zarya gave a slight jump in surprise when she exited her bathroom to find Charlie sitting on her bed with an innocent smile. "It's my job to sneak up on people, Red," she teased and tossed her dirty clothes into the hamper in the corner.

"And you didn't think I'd pick up a thing or two from the master?" Charlie grinned. "You know, last time I saw you, your hair was much longer and more difficult to manage."

She laughed a little and touched the ends of her shoulder length black hair. "Pretty sure I can say the same of you too. Video games scare you into snipping it?" They shared a laugh. Zarya sat at the head of her bed beside Charlie. "I actually cut my hair because I was disguising myself as one of my vampire ancestors I was trying to rescue from a hidden organization with a Virginia college my parents also supposedly went to."

The redhead blinked a couple of times, mouth slightly ajar. "You haven't had a single dull moment, have you? I do like the haircut though. Makes you look even more badass. Less Arya Stark though and more… Raven."

"Raven who? And Arya doesn't have super long hair. She also had short hair in the beginning. I've been catching up in my down time and car rides."

"Uh, like, DC's Raven? Teen Titans Raven? Mark my words, when this entire fiasco is over - because it will be soon - I am taking you to Comic Con and you are dressing up as Raven. While you are correct about Arya her short hair was more boyish looking. Yours is…"

"Raven?" Zarya smiled. "I'll cosplay Raven only if you agree to be my Starfire then."

The redhead beamed with a bright smile. Her hand came up, pinky held out. Zarya's pinky wrapped around hers. "You've got a deal, Raven." Once their hands dropped back down, she changed the subject. "So… can I ask what's kinda clearly going on between you and Dean…?"

She bit her bottom lip. "Is it really that obvious?"

"You two were just about always side by side and suddenly you'll barely make eye contact with the guy. What could have possibly happened? I mean, it's not like you guys would have slept together and now it's horribly awkward for at least you." When Zarya failed to say anything in response, Charlie's eyes widened. "No!" She gasped. "Come on, you have to talk about it to someone. Please."

Zarya sighed and curled her knees to her chest. "I really thought I was finally opening up to someone else, you know? Then… then Metatron killed Dean while he had the Mark of Cain and First Blade so I just bolted. Next thing I know I'm running into Dean. I was sure I finally snapped, and honestly I wish I had because the Mark of Cain brought him back as a Knight of Hell." Charlie took her hand and gave it a little squeeze as tears brimmed in her friend's eyes. "It was still him, kind of." She sniffled and one tear slipped out. "But it wasn't at all and I should have known better but I didn't care at all."

"I'm not gonna judge you, Zarya." She told the ravenette softly. "You were grieving the loss of someone you cared about deeply. To even think you had a sliver of him back… I can't blame you for anything. Loss does that to people, and someone with a heart like yours would get hit in all the worst ways. Is this how you got the Mark of Cain mirrored onto you…?"

The raven haired hunter nodded solemnly before taking in a sharp breath. More tears had started to fall down her pink cheeks slowly. "The whole summer was liquor and sex, why not toss in some good old murder?" With her free hand she tried to wipe away a few of the tears but more still fell. "Some, after the initial panic subsided enough, thought it mirrored onto me like it had to Saskia from Cain because we loved each other."

"Your tone of voice makes me believe you think otherwise."

"I do," her voice shook. There was no stopping the flow of warm tears by then. Anxiety had taken hold of her vitals, speeding up her heart rate steadily. "I think it was just the darkness inside of me trying to siphon off of his. Dean got the Mark while I was gone and then I was around it for plenty of time. It only latched onto me after he died. After I abandoned all hope. I think there's something inside of me that's even worse than a Knight or the Mark of Cain…"

Charlie wasn't afraid, she was worried like hell for her best friend. She could see the fear in Zarya's eyes through the tears. "Alright, then let's put the pieces together. The Vasiles have been shrouded in lies for so long, so what do we know that's absolute fact that would have impact on you?" She reached over and wiped away some of Zarya's tears with her sleeve.

Zarya took a deep breath to calm herself. Something about the redhead's light brown eyes still managed to ease her worries. "When Lucifer passed the Mark to Cain, it was the night Saskia was born using a feather from both archangels to ensure hers and Runa's… slash Remiel's survival."

"That's… oddly lined up. Keep going."

"Something separated Remiel and Saskia because they used to be on the same page but then Saskia took off and found Cain. Rumor has it it's because she thought taking the Mark would put her on Remiel's level because Saskia was originally born a nephilim."

A look of deep thought furrowed the redhead's brows. "What if Saskia was trying to be Remiel's vessel and she thought the Mark would make her strong enough for the archangel?"

"But if Remiel was desperate enough, why would she turn down a perfectly willing vessel? Her nephilim daughter at that. Shouldn't she have been a better vessel than Runa?"

"How has she kept Runa around so long though? Think about it - Remiel found a poor, sick, human woman on her deathbed. Neither of them wanted to die so they had to come to some sort of agreement. Remiel then used Runa for, what? A solid thousand years before suddenly acquiring a husband and daughter? I mean, who would take a strange woman with an unknown name as a wife?"

Zarya's eyes widened with a revelation. "A king rising to power."

"But there weren't exactly a whole lot of those thousands of years ago. Most of the men that got crowned king were down in…" Her expression then matched the ravenette's.

"The mediterranean," she smirked. "And judging by Saskia as a person, I think I'll go as far as to say Persia."

In one swift movement Charlie had her phone out with her thumbs tapping quickly across the screen. Zarya had closed the space between them and read over the redhead's shoulder. "King Darius I of Persia," she announced with a proud smile. "He needed to take a wife to secure his position as king when a mysterious woman entered Persia. They married in 523B.C. which gave him the throne. So Saskia Vasile is a Persian princess." Her smile vanished. "That makes so much disturbing sense…"

Zarya grinned and threw her arms around the redhead. "Thank you, Charlie."

"For what? All we did was figure out that Saskia has a really alarming back story. It's not like it helps you figure out what to do about Dean or how you feel about yourself."

"No, but talking to you did ease my mind. It's not something I'm going to figure out in one night. It's been taking me all this time just to unravel the truth about my birth family and I still barely have anything to go on. It's just been really nice to talk to you again."