AN: This chapter is set in the past, it gives a bit of the background of who the seven were and what happened with them. Well, what happened to two of them. I'll explain what happened to the others later.

There had been seven of us originally. We met in the middle of a battle between humans and shifters, on that battlefield we made a pact that the seven of us would live until the supernatural walked among humans as equals and there were no secrets. That original pact lasted ten years. It was when we were meeting that the idea to take it a step forward was introduced, instead of just living until there was peace, why didn't we live forever to make sure that there was always peace after we had achieved it. Everyone agreed and overtime we lost sight of our original goal. It was no longer about living forever to ensure peace; it was just about living forever. We agreed to trade everything for a chance at immortality. How could we have known the true price that we would pay? We thought that as long as we stayed together we would never be alone, that we could truly stand the test of time. We discovered that we were what everyone else thought we were, stupid kids playing with forces that we didn't understand. It was a lesson learned much too late.

Chapter 3

"Tyrino, what do you think?" The question posed to me was whether or not we should was whether or not we should break the original pact. It made sense why we would but I wasn't sure whether or not we actually would be able to live forever. We all wanted to, but whether or not we could actually achieve immortality was a different matter.

If my answer had been different that day than the future would have a played out very differently. Alejandro never would have tried to keep his mate at arm's length. He never would have blamed himself for her death. He never would have sacrificed himself to follow her into death.

Alejandro was the only wolf shifter among us. He was the first one to die and the one that made us realize our own mortality. He had been the one that held us all together through all the years. I had never been able to figure out how he had done it. He just always knew what to say to defuse any argument that we had. He was always there to mediate fights and compromises. He was the one that kept us from killing each other on numerous occasions. When we lost him we effectively lost the heart of the group as well. It wasn't long before the others started following him.

Our greatest flaw had been our complacency. All of us had grown complacent from our status. During the first century the seven of us spread rumors about seven sentries. We told epic tales of their feats and all the challenges that they had won. We got the word out that they were sentries of peace. When we finally revealed ourselves as the sentries no one questioned it and no one challenged us. Everyone was too scared of our supposed powers. By the time someone decided to try and take us on, the powers that we had lied about having we actually had.

We stayed together for 20,000 years. Well we didn't really stay together but we stayed in touch and lived within a day of each other. But over the centuries we started to drift apart. By the time Alejandro found his mate we could rarely meet without going for each other's throats. When we lost Alejandro we all met up and actually sat down and talked for the first time in centuries, without the accusations and arguing. We set up regular meeting times for a couple times each year and made more of an effort. It had been our first taste of mortality that we had had in a long time, and none of us liked it.

We realized that we had already been thinking of ourselves as immortal, that we had forgotten that we could still die. We started to be more careful. We took precautions and we stayed in much closer contact. We started meeting at least once a month instead of at least once a year.

Unfortunately the added connection wasn't enough to keep Rafael with us. The older of the two angels among us, he was the second to leave. It happened so fast that none of us even knew what had happened. It wasn't until years later that the full story came to light.

Rafael had always been the one that was closest to those outside the seven of us. He kept in contact with his brother, and when his brother decided to move on, he moved on with him.

He gave us no warning about his plans. One day he was there, and the next no one could get in contact with him. We weren't worried for a while. It wasn't uncommon for one of us to get sick of the others and disappear for a week or two. It wasn't until he missed the next meeting date that we began to seriously worry.

We searched for him for years without success. It wasn't until the remaining five of us stopped looking that we learned part of what had happened. Even after that it wasn't until centuries later that we learned the answers to the questions that none of us had ever voiced. Guess that's the one advantage to immortality, you never run out of time. Doesn't matter whether or not you want to.

After Rafael's death we drifted apart again. You would have thought that we would have learned from the last time but I guess we were just doomed to repeat mistakes of the past. There had been a part of each of us that couldn't accept the new reality of life with Rafael. Alejandro had been our heart, and Rafael had been our soul, so to speak. He was the one that we always looked to for answers, the one that we trusted above all others. Even more so than Alejandro.

We had all needed to learn to adapt, but we couldn't do that when what we saw when we looked at each other, were the ones that weren't there. I guess that you could saw that the Rafael's death was also what brought us back together. In a twisted sort of way. Three centuries after Rafael disappeared, a young angel found me. He gave me a letter that was stained with age with an unbroken seal. The words on the envelope were in Rafael's elegant script, simply reading, "To those that remain" I didn't open it until I had found the others again. There were five letters in it. One for each of us, I still don't know whether or not he knew that we would all still be alive or whether he was just optimistic. I guess that it doesn't matter anymore.

None of us told the others what our individual letters said, I knew that mine was too personal. Even for them.

I just wish that they would have arrived sooner. Maybe than I could have carried out Rafael's last request, maybe than I wouldn't have lost everyone.

AN: Sorry that it's not very long. If you guys are interested in knowing more then leave a review telling me.