chapter 2

I now stand in front of the Grand Council of Elders. They are a bunch of old farts that rule over the Enmortals. In all there are six of them, it was one of the big guys favorite jokes. Their job is to enforce punishments and laws. Personally I don't take them seriously but I play by the rules to avoid punishment from Lucifer.

We were called here to discuss the news from last night's news that describes a small red head jumping from a building and then flying away. Needless to say I was a bit of a prime suspect.

So anyway back to whats going on. Their wrinkled, graying faces are all contorted into anger, well all except Beatrice's. I really don't think she knows where she is at, or why she is there for that matter. She is Lucifers Enmortal and wife thats right Big Guy is a watcher. And he is able to break his own rules with no qualms. Anyway he drove poor Beatrice insane years ago and then dumped her on the Elders so that they would take care of her and he wouldn't have to worry about the crazy old bat.

Either way they are not happy today, due to the fact that my little stunt is now blown all over the news. They sit shuffling papers with the occasional mummer between each other for a while before someone finally spoke up. And of course it just had to be ol' Tabatha. She is the oldest member, and is generally the one to lay down the law, or speak for the council. Seriously though I think she is like three hundred years old or something. Okay thats a lie she is like eighty but still.

"Hazreal your wings are a gift not a publicity stunt." She chided a great air of authority about her. I just shrugged as if blowing the secret of the Enmortals is nothing. To me it was just that, I had done worst. Jason stood near by looking in my general direction, he was not happy with me either. But he would get over it, once again this wasn't the worst thing I had done and I would probably do worse.

"Due to you'r blatant lack of authority and the rules of the council, your punishment will be decided her rather than in a normal trial." Olover said as he looked through his papers, he is the second in command to Tabatha. And he always smells like wet cement and pennies.

The Elders all huddled into a circle and began to mutter to each other. I caught a few snippets of their conversation.

"...Dangerous to all of us..."

"...Execution..."

"...Remove her wings..."

"...Pickles!..."

They all turned to Beatrice who had crossed her eyes and had a dopey and distant smile on her face. They all took to yelling Beatrice's name a the same time and I felt a little ping of guilt in my stomach as I smiled at that. It isn't nice to smile at the damaged but who wouldn't find that funny, talk about comic relief.

After about twenty minutes of constant arguing and a few more interruptions from Beatrice, the council finally decided. Tabatha stood up and looked at me dead in the eyes.

"Hazreal, do not do this again, if you were to do this again the reprimand shall be three fold. For the crime of trying to expose the Enmortals you are on probation until further notice. We will be watching you." Tabatha informed us then she waved me and Jason away and I was glad to finally get out of there.

God they pissed me off. It was just a little stunt. And if they didn't force us to hide our wings constantly, then I wouldn't have found the urge to stretch them. This sure as hell didn't deserve stupid probation!

I rolled my eyes and walked out of the macabre stone room that held Enmortal meetings and punishments. The funny part was that a posh polished building that looked as if it should hold presidential meetings, held the meeting room.

A irritated sigh escaped my lips and I turned and punched the wall that hid the meeting room. Stupid Elders with their stupid rules. I pulled my hand back to look at my reddening knuckles and leaned against the wall by the elevator. Jason hit the button to call the thing and glanced at me a worried look crossing his face, it was not like me to loose my temper.

"Do you need to eat?" Jason asked me. Probably recalling that I haven't eaten in about a week. I shook my head quickly and gave him a shocked look. Why would I eat in such a public place. I may be a rebel but I'm not that indecent, or insane for that matter.

"Okay, sorry." He said with a light laugh. I rolled my eyes and pushed off the wall. The elevator was slow today. I stared at Jason for a moment then at the little dial thingy announcing what floor the elevator was on at the moment. My foot tapped impatiently waiting on the damn thing to ding and announce its arrival. After a few long minutes it arrived. I reluctantly stepped into the small metal box, Jason stepping in behind me. He stepped to the farthest corner from me and pulled an inhaler from his pocket.

I bit my lip and waited on the panic attack as my mood shifted from pissed to claustrophobic and paranoid. No Enmortal liked elevators they were too cramped and held no means of escape in the off chance of an emergency.

Jason slid the inhaler into my hands just incase and rubbed my left wing -the one closest to him- and I loosened up a bit. He moved to rub both of my wings as the elevator went to the top floor and began its journey back down every lurch making my head swim an my stomach twist.

"You sure you don't want to eat?" He whispered quietly in my ears as he worked a particularly sore area of my right wing causing me to moan lightly. However I still caught what he said and shook my head no. He sighed but continued to rub. I think I eventually fell asleep because I don't remember the trip home, he has an ability to be able to do that to any Enmortal when rubbing their wings. I think its because thats the most relaxing thing that anyone can do, especially since our wings lock up easily if not cared for properly.

When I woke up, Jason was no where in sight. Instead Eva stood in my room almost silently. She smirked at me and pulled me up from my sleeping position.

"Good morning sleepy head!" She practically yelled. I flinched my ears still to sensitive from the silence of sleep.

She smiled hoping I would speak for the first time, this has been her goal since the first time she met me. I just shook my head. After about the third break in, I stopped questioning how she got into my house. I mean really we had changed the locks multiple times and even had safety bars on the windows and a security system. I guess breaking in was one of Eva's hobbies.

I stood up and went to go shower. A note was on the sink saying that Jason was going shopping and that he had let Eva in. I smiled and stripped down and turned on the hot water. When the scalding water hit my wings and back, I smiled and let my muscles relax.

Eva is short for Evessa. She is one of the most random Enmortals you can meet. She, like all of us, has a slim frame. For the most-part she is tan, and has long black hair that reaches her mid-back, she hates to wear it down tho.

There are many of us and we mainly have had an ailment in our life and our parents signed a deal with Lucifer to keep us alive. However in that process they have gotten themselves killed. Although, a few of the parents made a second deal thus killing their partner to gain eternal life. Anyway thanks to the mess that our parents have put us in, we can't live a normal life, nor can we have any other purpose than to do Lucifers every bidding.

A sudden crash caused me to jump and turn off the water. I do believe that Amy is in the house, she had a habit of destroying things when she was in the house. It isn't like she means to, she is just a huge klutz. I sighed stepped out and quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a tank top, these are my normal day clothes seeing s how the day normally ends in sparring with Jason.

When I walked into my living room five minutes later, Amy was trying to put my TV screen back together with bloody hands. I smirked at her frustration at the broken glass and strode over to help her. Eva stood in a corner holding her breath she had a problem with blood, always made her sick, which I found kind of ironic because of her need of it. I waved her away and she left the house to go find her watcher.

I gave Amy a questioning look and she smiled up at me sheepishly. Amy is short for Amethyst she is what we call a young one at the age of twelve and a half and has short spiked out black hair. She is unusually short for her age too, by that age most of us would be a whopping five foot ten, she however was just barely reaching five foot three. She is also a clumsy ball of energy that almost no one can stop once she has gotten an idea in her head. That might explain the potato launcher in the corner and the potato in my TV.

"I tripped." She muttered sheepishly. I rolled my eyes and wrote down on a slip of paper that we needed a new TV... again. Jason walked in and tried his best to ignore the ruined television. He muttered a few swear words under his breath and handed me a sheet of paper from the Grand Council of Old Farts. I frowned as I took it that it would be a reminder of my probation.

"You are taken off of probation to do a quick rescue, four Enmortals have gone missing. You, Amethyst, and Evessa need to go retrieve them and take out their captors." Jason informed me while pulling Amy away from the now flaming and destroyed TV.

"We leave tonight." He added and led Amy to the door telling her to tell Eva what is going on and to dress for cold weather. I sighed, went to my room, and began to pull out my cold clothes. This was going to be a long trip.