The next morning Gabriel, Ivy, and I were in the kitchen, waiting for Beth to come downstairs. I had no doubt that when she did, she'd have a killer hangover, so I was using my phone to look up hangover cures.

"What I don't understand is why you two didn't come straight home." Gabriel said.

"She wanted to see Molly, who knew she was coming. This is what most teenagers do. They go out, they party, they drink, they do things their not supposed to. We would have raised suspicion if we'd been seen outside and not gone in." I rolled my eyes and kept scrolling, "We're supposed to be blending in."

"It doesn't matter why it happened, just that it did." Ivy looked up from her embroidery. "And now we need to decide what to do about it."

"Don't punish her. The hangover and this cure will be punishment enough." I winched, reading the ingredients.

"We never planned on punishing her," Gabriel promised, "After all, it wasn't her fault."

I fixed my gaze on my brother, "Are you implying it's mine? I'm not the one who decided to let her socialize."

"Speaking of socializing, who was that boy who brought you home? We've seen him before, haven't we?" Ivy asked, changing the topic. She could sense a conflict from a mile away and hated it when we argued.

I sighed, "Xavier Woods. He's been hanging around a lot lately. Good kid. I had to reap his girlfriend a few years ago and he's all she would talk about on the way to Judgement. Seems to like Bethany a little too much though."

"We'll have to be careful. We can't risk him seeing something." Gabriel crossed the room and stood by the window, looking out in thought.

"Word of advise, don't try to forbid her from talking to him. It's only going to make her like him more."

"You mean the feeling is mutual?" Ivy asked in concern.

"I don't know, but she seems to like him." I pursed my lips, "If they step out of line I'll talk to her."

Bethany walked in looking tired, with dark circles under her eyes. She opened the fridge, poured herself a glass of orange juice, and drank it greedily. I got up and began taking things out of the refrigerator and pantry Ivy put her embroidery down and turned to her, "How are you feeling?"

Beth rubbed her temples in pain, "I've been better...I don't know how that happened. I feel so childish..."

Gabriel looked at her, "There's no need to fret, Bethany. Now that we're human, we're bound to make some mistakes."

"You're not angry?" she looked at us in confusion.

"Of course we're not angry." Said Ivy, "How can we blame you for something that was beyond your control?"

"That's just the point." Bethany sat down at the counter, holding her head in her hands." I should have known. It wouldn't have happened to any of you. Why is it only me that makes mistakes?"

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Remember this is your first visit to earth. You will learn from your experiences and in time you will be able to avoid such situations."

"Humans are fragile." I said putting the ingredients in the blender and watched as they turned into a murky red liquid. I poured the strange concoction into a glass and slid it over to my sister, "To much or too little of something and their bodies shut down."

"What is this?" She asked disgusted.

"Hangover cure. You want to hang out with humans, you have to accept human consequences."

Later that day, Bethany had gone out to buy groceries and had come back with a beautiful weimaraner named Phantom. His owner, an old woman named Alice Butler, was going to be moving into a nursing home and couldn't take him with her so Beth had adopted him. Being a dog person, I was absolutely delighted with her decision. That one anyway... It wasn't long after that Xavier came to the door looking for Bethany.

I didn't like eavesdropping but I found it very useful at times. He'd used the excuse of checking on her to get in but by the time he'd left, they had a date scheduled for Friday at the movies. As I'd warned against, Gabriel and Ivy had quickly shut that idea down. All of this, Beth vented to me about later.

"I don't see what the big deal is. It's just a date." We were up in her room, drinking hot chocolate and talking about the outing that would have taken place that night

"Oh, Beth...Let me ask you something. Why do people date?" She shrugged and I sighed, "People date to fall in love, get married, start families. That's something that we, as angels, can never have. What would you do when you're called back home-and you WILL eventually get called back- you'd be heartbroken. And so would he."

"I just want to be normal."

"I know." I gave her a small smile, "But the more normal you are around mortals, the more different you are around our brothers and sisters. I don't know how long you're going to be here but I do know who's always going to be there for you. Just trust us on this. OK?"

"Ok..."

I picked up the empty mugs and walked toward the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I went down stairs and put the mugs in the sink. Gabriel and Ivy were in the music room and the heavenly sounds filled the whole house. She sang while he played his guitar. No mortals could ever come close to the perfection.

I understood what Beth was going through. I too, had once been curious about our father's favorite creation. I wondered and watched as Adam and Eve grew old and Cain killed Abel. I watched as they populated the world. I wondered what it would be like to join them in their humanity...but I'd never acted on it as Bethany wanted to.

I was still thinking about this when I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and I could no longer sense Bethany's presence in the house. I sprinted upstairs and into her room and sure enough, she was gone. I had a pretty good idea of where she was and whom she was with too...

"She's losing points for this..." I grumbled and went to my room, pulling on my boots and grabbing a jacket.

I went to the music room, interrupting the sweet melody my siblings were creating. Gabriel and Ivy, seeing the irritated look on my face stopped playing and stood up. "Tell me she didn't."Gabriel muttered.

"It's not in our nature to lie, Gabriel."

They followed me to the hall, Ivy grabbing my arm before I could walk out the door. "Don't go. You'll make a scene."

I pulled my arm out of her grip and walked down the steps, "I'll be back later. Keep the light on for us." I let my wings unfurl, tattering my Iron Maiden shirt, but i didn't care at the moment. It would be much faster to find them from the air. I flew high into the night sky above Venus Cove so that I wouldn't be seen and followed the streets until I saw the movie theater.

Bethany and Xavier were walking into a little cafe called Sweethearts when I spotted them. I glared down at the small building. I considered myself a forgiving person, but not only was Bethany endangering the mission and herself, but she was also doing exactly what we'd told her not to do. We did not need another nephilim incident.

I landed in the alley way next to Sweethearts, pulling on the leather jacket to cover my torn clothes. My anger was rolling off of me in waves, so badly that the flowers planted outside of the building wilted and died as I walked past them. I walked into the cafe, people turning to look at the new arrival. They quickly went back to their meals though when I set my glare on them.

Bethany and Xavier were sitting in a booth talking, smiles on their faces. They hadn't seen me yet, but they were about to. I stalked over and stood in front of their table. Bethany turned and the look of happiness on her face immediately melted away when she saw me.

"Azrael..."

"Don't. Just don't." I cut her off. "Obviously what Gabriel, Ivy, and I said doesn't have any meaning to you. Well congratulations, Bethany. You're normal."

"Hey, she was just..." Xavier tried to defend her.

"No. Zip it. This doesn't involve you." I snarled at him, my eyes flashing dangerously, "Have fun on your date, Beth. I hope you realize what it's cost you."

A pained expression crossed her face at my words but I turned away from her. Not wanting to take my anger out on her any more than I already had, I walked out of Sweethearts, slamming the door behind me.