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The Sweetest Sin Ch 1 By: Helena F. Lupin
Finger tips ran down a column of names in a large ledger thicker then two grown men’s hands put together from wrist to finger tip of the longest finger. “Hm...Burnsteed, Oliver...” A deep voice murmured. “Ah, yes here you are.” Pale gray green eyes like a storm over the sea turned upon a man no more then in his twenties, his hair short and blond, his eyes a classic blue. “You will be led to Judgement Room D 406.” The man who spoke held up a hand, beckoning forward someone who stood off to the side. “Take him there and hold him until his judgment time is told to you.”
“Yes, Wolfe.” A shorter man bowed, a pair of snow white wings folded close to his back. He stood tall again and led the blond away, terror written in his eyes. Wolfe sighed, sometimes his job. He knew that this was one of those cases where someone would be sent to hell. The Angel of Purgatory turned from with leather bound ledger in his hands, taking it from it’s perch on a red marble pedestal. Wolfe’s assignment stood as thus, to judge the souls that were brought to Purgatory by Death Angels, to decide if they go to Heaven or Hell, or even back to Earth in one of four forms. A spirit, a ghost, a poltergeist, or a reincarnation. As with his type of Angel one would think with his colder nature that making such decision would be easy, they never were.
Wolfe walked at a curt pace through a massive golden and jeweled door that led to a white marble corridor with various other doors, his head held high and his stride filled with his ever present purpose. He caught his own reflection in one of two massive mirrors that stood on either side of the hall when one first entered it. He looked at it with close scrutiny as always. Angels were not usually prone to having feelings about how they looked, but he was one of the rarity. His whole appearance told what he was, it was impossible for his brand of Angel to take to Earth, even a normal Angel was forced to hide their wings, but he had larger problems.
Wolfe raised one hand and twisted one lock of his shorter hair, there was just enough of it to fall into his eyes. It was different shades of pale grays and whites, like wolf’s fur and his skin was pale as the marble of the walls around him. With just these trails and his large, silver white wings, he could have hidden, but it was his wolf ears and tail that gave him away. As a Wolf Angel he would always stand out, even among his own kind. It was a little known fact that even Angels could ridicule.
He shook his head and walked away from the Mirrors of Truth, heading for a door at the end of the hall. Each of these doors lead to a part of the Angelic Archives. The more important records were kept where Giles could get to them at all times, in the Guardian Angel’s very room. Wolfe did not even knock, he merely opened the door and walked into the candle lit room.
“Ah, Wolfe, how pleasant.” A voice muttered someone off to the Wolf Angel’s right. He turned, his tail giving an annoyed twitch. At a desk piled high with books an Angels sat with his pure white wings spread out and laying limply on the floor behind him, careless, but Giles rarely cared really as long as no one stepped on them. “I assume you have the ledger on you?” Wolfe dropped the book upon the desk before Giles with a resounding thud.
The Guardian Angel pushed his thin gold wire rim glasses up the bridge of his as he turned one brilliant blue eye and one lime green eyes turning on the Wolf Angel. “For all that is holly, Wolfe, you are six eleven, sit before looking up at you gives me neck pains.” The Guardian Angel remarked as he opened the ledger, brushing his hair back over his shoulders. Wolfe would never know who elder Angels dealt with long hair and wings at once. Giles hair was golden with hints of copper hidden through out, it fell in large, thick, gentle waving curls down the Angel’s back several inches past his waist. Wolfe hooked a foot around the leg of a near by chair and pulled it forward to sit upon it silently. The Guardian Angel pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. There was but one things that stood out about Giles’ face really, and that was a black twisting tattoo like vines that ran from the left side of his forehead where it touched his hair line and down over his left eye to stop just above his lips. One would have to look closer to see that in that twisting shape was an Angel chained with it’s wings pinned. “I know you wont like what I have to say.” Giles said after a few minutes.
The Wolf Angel’s lithe form straightened considerably. “We are being sent to the Parallel Purgatory.” The Parallel Purgatory was another name for Earth since it too was an in between for Hell and Heaven, it lay on a parallel plane to true Purgatory.
“Why would we be sent? Or more so, why me?” Wolfe asked calmly.
“Quiet simply one of each Angelic type will be sent, except for a Council Angel, will be scent.” Giles replied as he held up a hand just in time to stop Wolfe from speaking. “I know that no such group has been scent to Parallel Purgatory since the birth, life, and death of Jesus himself. You were chosen for you are the best of the Wolf Angels, young yes, but our best. And our reason for going...a child of a Hellion Angel has been found.”
Wolfe could not stop himself now. “A Hellion Angel cannot reproduce! As a Fallen One that followed Lucifer to Hell that is impossible, that right left them when they deserted Heaven! Even for one of our Angels to have a family is near impossible!”
Giles nodded. “Yes, but it would seem that was not true. I’ve spoken with one of the Servant Angels, it was never gone from them, just harder now that they do not bask in the same power as us, a balanced power.” Giles sighed. “The child is actually a teenager, sixteen to be exact. He was born with something different from us, it could make him a danger should he turn against us. He has a power from each Angelic type.”
“But...for that to be...his father would have to be...”
Giles nodded. “This teen does not know it...but his father was the Right Hand of Lucifer. And if we do not draw him to our side you are to kill him and take his soul yourself and lock it in Black Heaven.” Wolfe felt his throat tighten, he would not deem anyone worthy of Black Heaven except for the Devil himself. Black Heaven was nothing but shadow space in a realm opposite of true Heaven, a place created for the darkest things to exist in for all of eternity, it was the one thing not attached to Heaven, Hell, Earth, or Purgatory in anyway, it worked upon it’s own time and it’s own pain and sorrow. Perhaps, now that Wolfe thought about it, he would not even send the Devil there, it was just that much of a disgusting place. The Wolf Angel knew of only one creature, though he knew nothing of the creature he was too young to know anything, that had been placed there, and it had been both God and Lucifer that had sent it away. The Eater.
Wolfe’s ears gave an annoyed and uncomfortable twitch under the hood of the black leather trench coat he wore. He felt blessed that the city was iced over in winter and thick with frosty winds blowing between the towering buildings. The coat hid his tail and wings as well which pressed tightly to his back. His tail was bristled out from the cold, which annoyed him further. HE WAS NOT MEANT FOR COLD WEATHER!
Giles stood beside him, a thick tan scarf wrapped around his neck and covering all the way up to the bridge of his nose, leaving only his hair to spill out and his eyes to blink around in the cold, his glasses being constantly knocked awkward by the small winds. A slightly darker tan coat was wrapped tightly about the smaller Guardian Angel, his arms also wrapped about himself in tanned gloves as he shivered just a little. “I have never been fond of the weather upon Earth. Heaven weather is always so mildly pleasant...” The Guardian Angel’s voice was muffled and miffed.
The Wolf Angel fought a snicker which came out as an off key cough. “Well, the others of our group will be meeting us at the pent house we’ve been given. We are merely to do reconnaissance.” Wolfe said at last. Giles sent him a rather dark glare that said the Guardian Angel wished to be inside and warm right now. The Wolf Angel dropped a hand onto the other’s shoulder. “I promise that once we spot him we can go to our temporary home and I’ll make hot chocolate.” Wolfe could see the smile that reached Giles’ eyes. The Guardian had always had a soft spot for anything with chocolate in it, especially hot coco.
Giles looked around their surroundings again. They were standing on a busy sidewalk just outside of a café, several feet from a crossing walk. Cities were always so crowded, and this place was no exception. “There!” Giles said as he nodded to a point on the other side of the street. Wolfe glanced up.
A teenager was standing looking into the window of a book store before walking past it, several bags from that store in his hands. His hair was short, with a gentle curl that left several strands of black falling into his dark eyes. He was short, no more then five foot five or six, with the petite form to match the height. His skin was Angel pale, but there was a blush pink spreading across his cheeks from the cold. He wore jeans, a deep green sweater that hung to mid thigh on him, a lighter green scarf with matching thick wool gloves. An innocense that comes from those with souls untouched by evil shimmered around him. All in all, the teen was...cute.
“He is still pure.” Wolfe murmured. “We may just be in time.” Giles nodded. Something about that pure soul though was bound, sad, it was still something so beautiful none the less.
“Go ahead to meet the others.” Wolfe went on. “I’ll follow him for a little while and find out where he lives. You would think as Angels we would already know this.”
“One; he is under Hellion protection and therefore hidden from us, and two; there are simply to many people in such a small place for even us to keep track of, only God may do that and he talks only when he must.” Giles replied before walking in the opposite direction down the street. Wolfe shook his head before making his way to the crossing walk and to the other side of the street to follow the teenager.
The Wolf Angel took his time and found himself led to a shop called Sins Dolci, where the teen entered. Wolfe raised an eyebrow, wondering what kind of place the teen was going into because the name meant Sweet Sins in Italian. Wolfe followed as he was supposed to none the less. Walking inside he found himself in the middle of a chocolate shop, it made him smile now that the name of the shop made a new kind of sense. There were sweets that were more for adults and fun kinds, all of it lining the walls and on shelves.
“Welcome to Sins Dolci.” A sweet, soft spoken voice said from somewhere before Wolfe. He stopped and looked toward the counter to see the teen standing behind him. It dawned on him then that the teen worked there. The teen had removed his scarf and gloves, his face losing its flush in the warmth of the room. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Uh...no, I’m merely looking.” Wolfe said and offered a smile to the child innocent teen. The teen returned his smile and nodded as he went about his business. Wolfe did look about the shop, his wolf ears aware of the shuffle of feet in a back room and the strong scent of fresh chocolate. It seemed everything made in Sins Dolci was made by hand there and put out to sell.
Wolfe glanced at the teen. “Do you just work here or does your family own the place?”
The teen looked at him as he hopped up to sit on a stool behind the counter. “My family owns it, my father and two older sisters usually do the baking, they say I have the best people skills so I man the register and help customers.”
Wolfe made his way to the counter, leaning onto it just slightly. “They make it all, that has to take a lot of your time.”
“Yes.” The teen nodded. “But it is fun. Especially when you get to taste test all of the things that you make.” The teen slid from the stool. “Wait here.” He walked into an open doorway that led to the back. A few minutes later he came back with a bright smile and a plate of chocolates of all sorts. “You reminded me that I had to put these samples out.” The teen took his seat again and put the plate aside, a large blue glass thing that stood out with all its little sweets.
“I’m Wolfe, I’m new in this city.” The Wolf Angel smiled. “My bothers and I just got here maybe less then an hour ago and finished moving everything into our new pent house. I don’t know why, but this place really caught my eye. I think I may have to send something home to my mother.” Wolfe had to make every attempt to earn the teen’s trust, truth could come later.
“Oh, that’s very nice. I’m Sar.” The teen replied before offering out his hand.
“Sar?” The Wolf Angel could not stop himself. What gave him the right to question Sar’s name when his own was not all to normal?
“It’s short for my real name, Sarah.” Sar answered. He never once brought up that Wolfe had an interesting name. He just gave a soft, sweet smile as he folded his hands lightly, delicately on the counter top. “So...how many bothers do you have?”
“I’m the youngest of seven.” Wolfe replied as he gave a quick count of how many of them there would be in his group. “We don’t know what possessed up all to come here, but we went with the impulse.”
Several hours later as Wolfe left Sins Dolci he had learned that Sar had never known his mother and that his sisters were in fact his half sisters going by the names of Jena age twenty five and Paula age twenty seven. The shop had been in business for just over seventeen years. And most prominently, Sar was sweeter then honey and twice as gentle. His hand tightened on the plastic handle of the small bag of chocolate he had bought from the teen so as not to raise suspicion for coming in and buying nothing.
The Wolf Angel sighed, his breath showing white as clouds in the cold air as night was setting in. He really did not want to lock this child away in Black Heaven. He felt as if...he should be protecting this child, standing at his side for all of time to come. Wolfe shook his head. The emotion was not right, something was wrong. A scream shattered the growing silence of the night from within Sins Dolci and as the Wolf Angel jerked around to look at the shop window blood splattered it in an arch.
“SAR!”