AN: So we finally get some action. Yay, thanks for the reviews!
Noel's POV
"Do you have to go to England for two weeks? I'm going to miss you too much, how about . . . a day? Even better, you can go for a few hours and then come back," Matt said softly as we cuddled on the couch, blatantly ignoring the movie, and instead focused on talking and kissing. I laughed at him before we were caught up in another kiss.
"Consider this your pass to play all the football and workout as much as you want without a girlfriend to hog all the rest of your time," I teased, combing my fingers through the fine hair at the back of his neck. It was the end of the summer between eighth grade and freshmen year. Matt and I had stuck together over the three years of middle school to everyone else's surprise who usually had a new girlfriend/boyfriend every couple of months or so, if that. He'd even earned my dad's respect and my mom was probably already thinking of him as her future son in-law.
"But you're my running buddy in the morning," He mumbled against my cheek before kissing the tip of my nose as we lay face to face. I smiled because I would miss him just as much as he missed me. He was the kind of boyfriend I knew a lot of girls couldn't wait to get their hands on if I ever let go, but I wouldn't. My Gran B was polite to Matt, but I knew she was just waiting for the day when our young love would go up in flames. She didn't understand how we could be so hooked on one another at this age.
"We'll Facetime when the time is decent and you won't even have time to miss me," I closed my eyes as I pressed my face against his and our lips met. They were gentle, comforting, loving in a way that melted me to his love all over again. When they began to become a little rougher and a make out session would surely ensue, the footsteps coming down the stairs alerted us to my mom.
"Being good?" She asked.
"Yes mom," "Yes Mrs. Cipriano,"
"Noel, are you completely packed?"
"Yes," We listened to her footsteps go back upstairs before Matt chuckled, his warm breath blowing across my face as he did so.
"One day it won't be your mom, it'll be your dad, and he'll kill me,"
"If I beg enough, I think he'll be kind enough to make it fast and painless," His blue eyes sparkled with his laughter.
"You're a three time national championships winner in volleyball, you've got to be strong enough to fight him by now, not just beg," I laughed with him this time.
"Noel, daddy's truck just pulled up!" Mom called from the top of the stairs and Matt and I scrambled to disentangle and be upstairs with relatively normal expressions on our faces. By the time dad walked through the door, we were hard at work on chopping ingredients for the salad mom wanted made.
"Hey Princess . . . Hi Matt," My dad's tone changed to disgruntled though Matt was here often enough to just become another facet in our family unit. Mom had gone upstairs and dad headed up as well to change from his dressier pair of work pants. He worked for a security company, setting up appraisals for the work it would take to install. Most of it could be done at home, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he had to go into work to turn in his appraisals and pick up a new pile by the end of the work hours for the day.
"Still hates me," Matt muttered and I kissed his cheek. Before I could move away, he wrapped his arm around my waist, reeling me in for a much more satisfying kiss. Two honks from outside meant Matt's dad was here to pick him up. I walked him to the door and after closing it; we stood on the front porch and hugged for what felt like a long time before he kissed me for even longer until the two honks seemed to take on impatience.
"I love you beautiful," He whispered in my ear like it was a secret just between us.
"I love you too handsome," It was our goodbye and we kissed one last time before he walked away. Mom and dad hadn't come back downstairs and I tried not to think too hard about what was taking them so long as I set dinner up on the table and waited. It had been five minutes and they still hadn't come down, so I filled my own plate and went down stairs to watch the end of the movie whose title had already been forgotten.
"Noel, time to go!" Dad called and I found I'd lost some of my enthusiasm when it came to the trip. It was just me and mom going to see Aunt Vee, Uncle Gavin, and their terribly mannered son, Tyler. My bags were already in the truck along with mom's and I chose to lounge in the back seat as we drove. Our flight departure was midnight unfortunately. Mom and dad were staring way too suggestively at each other and I did my best to ignore them by scrolling through pictures of Matt and I. My favorite was my screen saver, Matt was in his football uniform and I was in my volleyball and we were kissing while it rained. I missed him already, so I chose to play Angry Birds and plug into my music to try to drown out my sadness.
Once we reached the airport and made it through all the baggage checks and full body scans, we waited outside our terminal. Right on time, one of the flight attendants started directing parents and children to take their seats first. I looked away while mom and dad kissed and whispered good byes. Dad pulled me into a tight hug when I hadn't turned back around and I pressed my face into his trademark leather jacket he'd had since long before I was born. It was my first trip without him and that bothered me too.
"Listen to your mom, stay out of trouble, and be a good guest. I love you Princess," He kissed my forehead before I kissed his cheek, giving him one final squeeze.
"I love you daddy," I whispered, my voice was tiny, and I felt like I was back at my first day of kindergarten as I clung to his hand before making the choice to go inside while leaving him and mom outside. He kissed me on the forehead one more time, mom on the lips, and we turned to board the plane without him.
"It'll be a great girls' trip," My mom reassured me as I looked out at the dark night from my window seat.
"I know it will," I said back before doing my best to fall asleep.
******One Long Flight Later and a Happy Reunion Between Nora and Vee******
Nora's POV
"It's such a nice night for a walk," I told Noel as we strolled hand in hand down Gavin and Vee's street. I knew my daughter was still feeling a little homesick as she looked around with distant eyes. She'd Facetime'd with Matt after dinner and had a long talk with Patch when I called him. We'd traveled for volleyball before, but she'd never gone without the two leading men in her life for a long time at the same time. Traveling for her tournaments was a family thing and she always had the option to text or call Matt because the minutes weren't international. We rounded the corner onto another neighborhood street, though these houses actually had a few feet separating each individual building unlike Vee's street where they all ran together in one line.
"I miss daddy, one look from him and Tyler leaves me alone. Now he's trying to flirt with me and it's unacceptable in all cultures to knee a boy in the balls when he doesn't listen to you politely ask him to stop as you continue to remind him that you have a boyfriend that could very easily kick his ass,"
"Language!" I snapped at Noel, though I knew she was just letting out frustration. Her and Patch usually talked that way around the other, so it wasn't a complete surprise.
"Oh, sorry, kick his arse," I shot her a look and she half smiled in apology. Before I could say something else, two sets of hands grabbed me and threw me into the darkness of the alley between two houses that looked abandoned. Fallen angels, I didn't know how and I didn't know why, just that somehow they were here, and had thrown Noel beside me before we both stumbled to our feet. In the darkness, I could make out shiny scars from the faint moonlight, and they seemed to cover every inch of skin. Noel stood slightly behind me to my right.
"The Black Hand's daughter and another descendant at that, I heard you're still the most powerful Nephil on the planet, and here you have a half Nephil and half fallen angel, now how did you work that out?" The biggest and tallest of them said with a deep, disgusted voice as they cornered us farther into the alleyway. I looked at them and imagined what I'd done to Dante that day, and set off thousands of bombs in each of their heads. Yet they seemed far from effected as they all chuckled.
"Nice try, nice try, but not good enough," Noel grasped my hand and I caught a glance of her before her hard gaze turned on the biggest one. She looked so much like Patch in this very moment, eyes aflame with rage held barely in check, and I couldn't seem to get my muscles to work to pull her back behind me as she moved forward.
"You know, I don't like having your voice in my head, but I figure if you can do it to me, then I can do it to you, right?" Her voice was steely and held malice before suddenly the leader gasped and went to his knees, cradling his head between his hands as he strangled on a scream. Noel reached forward and grabbed the gun that poked out of the holster on his back that had been previously covered by his jacket. The three fallen angels rushed her but they too went to the ground, groaning and gasping for air. In each one's back, Noel shot two bullets where their wing scars would've started, and then they were all motionless.
"Noel," I didn't see the transformation, didn't sense the difference, until my daughter had just saved us both. She carefully set the gun on the ground and turned to look at me and I watched tears roll down her cheeks. I took a couple of steps toward her, but she immediately countered me with a couple of steps back.
"What am I mom? Don't give me some crap about being your daughter or try to tone it down. I deserve some answers," Her voice broke part way through, but she pushed on to finish her sentence.
"Can we get out of here first?" I asked gently, moving towards her, but she continued her retreat.
"I saw his mind, his memories, and his weaknesses. They'll be out for eight hours at least, start talking," I sighed as I leaned my back against the wall and she did the same on the opposite wall, eyes trained and watching me as if I'd attack her too.
"A Nephil is a someone who can be possessed at a certain period by fallen angels, these kind of men, and more importantly, your father. When I was eighteen, with your dad's help, we managed to dispose of all the fallen angels, or so we'd thought, to free Nephils from their oath of fealty to be possessed. All we knew for sure about you being born was that you'd live forever, that at some point you'd stop aging, and that you weren't showing any outward signs of being able to mentally or physically do anything Nephils or fallen angels could do," It was more information than I'd ever wanted her to bear. Patch and I had agreed to tell her when she turned eighteen and could better process the information, now my fourteen year old looked like she'd seen a ghost.
"So I'm not human," She whispered, closing her eyes, and tipping her head back.
"No," I waited for some outward sign of emotion or for some sort of reaction, but she seemed to be holding herself dangerously in check.
"He was in my head, the leader, telling me he was going to find a way to make you swear fealty, that I'd be next if that were possible. He was trying to scare me. I could feel the line from his mind to mine like a little string was connecting them. He tried to poke around in my head and I felt like walls were suddenly formed, protecting me, and I wasn't even doing it. Then I knew that connection was open and went into his mind and saw all the basic information he knew about himself, a few worthless memories of drinking and gambling. I don't know how he escaped what you and dad did, I didn't see that, but I wanted him out of my head, so I thought about setting his world on fire, and it just happened. His pain didn't even frighten me though and when those others were coming for me, I knew I'd be okay. I knew I could protect me and you," She had opened her eyes to look at me by the end. They were filled with an eternal sadness though, as if she'd lost her humanity.
"I tried to do what you did, but I couldn't. It was like my mental attack just bounced back, as if they had some shield to deflect it. They weren't ordinary fallen angels," I couldn't believe I was even talking to my little girl about this, explaining how I could mentally ruin someone as if I was discussing the weather, and I heard her take a deep breath.
"Do you think you could cut our trip short?" She asked as we both simultaneously pushed off the wall. To my surprise, she hooked her arm with mine, and I was hoping everything would be okay with her, even if it didn't seem like it right now.
"I'll call your daddy, let him know what happened, and see if we can't catch a flight back to Maine within the week. I don't want to put Vee or her family in danger by being here any longer than we have to. I'll make up something, I don't know what, but I will,"
"I can at least act like I have food poisoning so we can stay at Aunt Vee's instead of calling more attention to ourselves by touring London, especially if there are more fallen angels around," Noel explained and I nodded with permission. We finally made it back on to Vee's street.
"At least you can see Matt sooner," I offered her a smile, but watched her face fall and eyes become resigned.
"I don't think we'll work out, not anymore anyway," She whispered, hiding her pain by avoiding my eyes as we made our way up the steps to the front door.
AN: Please, please, please review!
