1
It all started with the ringing of my phone early that morning.
I slowly awoke from the haze of dreamless sleep as I registered the sound and grappled for the phone on the table beside my bed, almost knocking it off in the process. Thankfully I managed to catch it before it hit the floor. Forcing my eyes open, I held it close to my face and tried to make out the number through my sleep blurred vision.
Seriously? I thought as the letters of the name registered in my mind. Why is she calling me now?
I’ll be the first to say that although I dearly loved my little sister, she could be a huge pain in the ass at times. Ever since I’d moved out on my own the year before, Hayden had made it her business to keep in touch with me whenever and however she could.
I was beyond annoyed as I looked at the time on my phone. It was six-thirty in the morning. What in the hell did she want so early in the morning?
Well, I guessed it was my fault that I never got up early, even if this felt like a pretty ungodly hour to me. I’d always had this tendency to stay up for half the night, then sleep late into the morning to make up for it. I could’ve tried to fix my hours, considering that they were my own to do with what I wanted, but I’d never felt like it.
Besides, I liked the night much better than the day. It just fit who I was at heart.
I briefly considered just letting it go to voicemail, but decided that doing so probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Knowing Hayden, she’d just keep calling until I answered, and when I thought about it, it wasn’t like she was the type to call this early. I really didn’t think that she’d gotten into a habit of being up at this hour either. Something must’ve been up, and with what we were, I needed to find out what it was.
I hit the speaker button to answer it, although I had no intentions of being nice. It wasn’t like she’d care. She knew how I was.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“I know, I know,” Hayden responded, “But I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t have to. By the way, how late were you up this time?”
Yep, that was Hayden. She always took my bad attitude in stride.
“Don’t ask,” I flipped onto my stomach and laid the phone on my pillow, “So what’s up? There must be something for you to be calling me like this.”
“Yeah, there is. Seriously, Yuki, I do feel bad about this, but Malakai thought that you would be the best one to ask about doing it.”
Now she had my full attention. It was Malakai who had given the order for her to call me.
While the angelic leader of our family did request that we do certain things from time to time (considering that it was part of what we were created to do), he usually didn’t turn to me specifically. While I’ll stop short of calling myself the black sheep of our family, which might be more accurate than they like admitting, he often didn’t feel the need to involve me unless there was something really big going on.
“I see. It’s a request from Malakai, huh? I would’ve thought that he’d call me himself.” I noted.
“He wanted to, but I told him that I’d talk to you about all of it. I thought that it might be better if I did.” Hayden confessed.
“Better if you did? Something must really be up with this.”
I frowned as I said that. I wasn’t liking the sound of this now. Well, I didn’t like getting this call in the first place. This only added to it.
Hayden hesitated, which was another bad sign. My sister never hesitated on anything.
“I don’t know if it’s anything bad per se, but Malakai seems to think that it’s closest to you and that you might be the best one to handle the situation.”
“Good enough. Lay it on me.” I yawned.
“Okay. So, you remember that Michael and Sara got to meet a Nephilim from one of the other families last year, right?”
“Yeah. I remember hearing about it from Dad.”
How could I not remember that one? This Nephilim had shown up out of the blue and introduced himself to my uncle and his wife. His name was Seth Hawthorne and he’d said that he was from the Emerald clan.
I hadn’t gotten to meet him yet, but I did hear all about it from our father. From what he’d said, Seth had also begun introducing some of our family to several other Nephilim from his family and the Violet clan. For the first time since our families were formed, all three were getting to meet and know each other.
“Okay," Hayden continued, "This kind of has something to do with all of that. There’s a Nephilim from the Violet family that’s kind of run away. They’re really worried and think that he could end up in trouble or something.”
“What do you mean ‘kind of run away? Either he did or he didn’t.” I interrupted.
“Fine. He ran away,” Hayden’s tone became a little flat. She always did hate it when I pointed out the obvious to her, “Anyway, as I said, they’re really worried about him, and they were hoping that maybe you could help find him.”
“All right. I get that. But why me? His family could look for him, right? It’s not like they couldn’t travel too.” I sighed, rubbing my eyes.
I was still seriously tired, and all of this seemed like a real pain in the ass. A runaway from another family shouldn’t have been my problem.
“It’s not that simple, Yuki. They said that he took off because of some problems with his family and he would probably go out of his way to avoid them if they came looking for him. I don’t know all of the details, but that’s not even the biggest problem. The thing is, he isn’t exactly normal.”
“Are you seriously gonna call us normal?”
Hayden laughed, “Yeah, yeah. I guess it is dumb to say that about us. But I mean it in a different way. According to Malakai, this Nephilim’s father is a Lamia.”
I stared at my phone, now fully awake and with my attention peaked. I knew exactly what a Lamia was, even though I’d never gotten to see one in person. They were creatures that lived on the other side of the Veil that separated the mortal and spiritual worlds, and usually caused a lot of trouble when they crossed over. To hear that one had fathered a child with a Nephilim was pretty hard to believe.
“You’re kidding, right? How in the hell did that one happen?” I finally managed to ask her.
“It’s a long, sordid story that I’ll have to tell you about later. The point is that he’s taken off and they’re really worried about him. His Seraph seems to think that he’s gone to where you live because it’s near the ocean. It might also be a place where he can blend in with the crowds, so they wanted to see if maybe you could find him and at least try to bring him back.”
“I guess. So tell me, are they worried that he might try to hurt someone?” I asked her.
No way I was going into this without knowing what this Nephilim might be thinking. If he was mixed with a Lamia like they said, then he could be very dangerous.
“I don’t think they’re that concerned about him hurting anyone. I think it’s more that you could relate with him enough to get him to come back to them. He’s had some real issues at home and some it sounds a lot like things that you could understand better than the rest of us.”
So that’s how it was. Now I was starting to feel indignant. They knew that I had a lot of troubles before, and they assumed that I could get him to relate to me.
But I sucked it up for now. I could always complain to Malakai about assumptions later.
“Alright, I get it. Tell Malakai that I’ll look for him. But I’m getting some more sleep before I do. If he’s not dangerous then there’s no need for me to do it right away.”
“Okay then. I’ll let Malakai know. Just be careful Yuki. Even if they say he’s not dangerous, we don’t know him.”
She sounded a little tense now. Not that I blamed her. I felt the same way about all of this.
“It’s all good. You know I can take care of myself. I’ll give you a call later and let you know how it’s going.” I promised.
I grunted in frustration as I laid back with an arm over my eyes. I couldn’t believe this. Of all the things that they wanted me to do, they were asking me to find and bring back a Nephilim that I’d never even met?
I knew that I could do it if I was able to find him. It wasn’t like I wouldn’t sense him if he was close to me. Every Nephilim can do that with each other as far as I’d ever known.
The problem here was what he was mixed with. He was a wildcard Nephilim, as my grandfather Raphael would enjoy putting it. There was no telling whether he’d be friendly towards me if I found him or if he’d decide to take the offensive and fight me.
I didn’t like thinking about that happening. Mixed or not, I didn’t want to fight another Nephilim.
I put my phone on the table then turned back onto my stomach and snuggled against my pillow. I was dead tired, and my head was beginning to pound in response to it.
Closing my eyes, I tried to relax. Just another hour or two. Then I could try to take care of this problem.
Hopefully, they’d be wrong about him even being here, though I highly doubted it. Being what he was, Malakai was always well informed when he told us about stuff like this. I was certain that those other two Seraphs were the same way.
It annoyed me as I thought about it. Family problems or not, shouldn’t he still be the one going after this Nephilim instead of putting it on one of us, namely me?
I won’t make excuses for my attitude or lack of enthusiasm. It’s just who I am, and I’ve never believed in the idea of changing yourself just to make someone like you. By this time, I was eighteen years old, yet I felt like I knew more about the world than people twice my age.
I wasn’t born to be normal. Instead, I was lucky enough (yes, I’m being sarcastic) to be born as a Nephilim. My great grandfather, Malakai, is an angel who was sent to the mortal world to create our family. From what I’d always understood, the plan for our family and the other two like us was fairly simple. We would be the protectors between the two worlds; the mortal world and the unseen one called the Veil, which was created to mask it.
Of course, every family has its problems and ours was no exception. Our family’s issues started pretty early on, when my grandfather, uncle, and aunts were kids. I don’t know all of the details from that time, but the defining moment was when one of my aunts went crazy from a curse and somehow took control of my grandfather. They didn’t know it for years, but that’s how my dad was created.
Yeah, it’s messed up, but my aunt was also my grandmother.
But maybe that makes it appropriate to say that at least one of us would end up messed up too, namely me.
As I stated before, I don’t make excuses for what I am or what I can do. It wasn’t like I asked to be born, regardless of whether or not my parents loved me.
But thanks to my dearly departed grandmother and that family curse, I’d inherited a little something extra dark and probably not foreseen by anyone.
Even as a little kid, I could feel this dark power deep within me. It ate away at me, whispering about how it longed to escape. It couldn’t in my childhood because I wasn’t what they called “awakened” yet. At least I felt safe to an extent without my wings.
It’s funny for me to think about, but my mother always did say that she’d picked the best name for me, even if it was very different from other boys. She’d had a Japanese grandfather, so she knew the language and culture very well. She also loved the name, Yuki.
As it turns out, Yuki means “snow” in Japanese. According to Mom, it fit me perfectly. I was as beautiful but as cold as snow at times while I was growing up.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t suppress what I was forever, no matter how much I desperately wanted to. Shortly after I turned fifteen, I began showing all of the signs that my wings were getting ready to erupt.
But when they did, so did the darkness inside of me.
Thankfully I was able to call it back fairly quickly that first night, although my father knew right away that something was very wrong. I ended up confessing to him a few hours later about how I’d been feeling it my entire life and how I feared what would happen now that I’d changed.
My father, being who he always was, then set out to try and help me. He contacted a Sumarian named Ren and asked him about how we could best learn for me to control it.
I’ll give credit where it’s due that Sumarians are very powerful beings and also pretty wise. Ren knew that he had to look into it right away and did the best he could to help us.
But that didn’t stop things from continuing to happen. My control was so limited in that first week that the house was nearly wrecked. Everyone was scared of the things that kept appearing because of me. All kinds of different monsters were terrorizing my parents and sister. I guess it was a good thing that we lived out in the mountains and away from others at that point. At least no one else was having to go through this.
It was a hard time for everyone, especially me. I tried so hard to suppress it, and even had some hope when Ren was able to come back and help my father by trying to teach me to control it.
As it turned out, I had an ability that was usually only seen in Nephilim that were born to Fallen Angels. It was called Nightmare. It was a rare thing, and very, very powerful. If I could learn to control it fully, then I would become one of the most powerful Nephilim ever born.
But I didn’t care about any of that. I just wanted to be able to live in peace.
The sad thing was that for a while, it looked like I might actually stand a chance. With meditation and training on how to fight and defend myself, I became more stable.
But in the end, it was like a cruel joke. I was never truly stable; not when the monster inside of me thirsted for blood. Because of that, I ended up losing myself completely one dark night and committing a crime that I would never be able to forgive myself for.
Waking from those dreams of the past, I lay still in my bed. So many memories; ones that I was always trying so hard to repress.
But so much had happened since that dark time too. Meeting the rest of our family, being able to meet Malakai, and being told that I was okay just as I am. That night wasn’t my fault, at least according to him and everyone else.
But no one would ever change my guilt. No, not even a Seraph could do that much for me.
Finally sitting up, I stretched and looked at the clock. It was nearly ten-thirty now, and I could see bright sunlight coming in through the curtains and blinds. Another beautiful yet hot day had started.
I ran a hand through my hair as I got up and headed to the kitchen to make some coffee. Once that was done, I sat down on my couch and turned on the news. I frowned as I listened to the weather. The next week was going to be in the 90s.
Damn, I hated when it was this hot.
Moving to Ocean City had been more of a personal preference for me. I was finally striking out on my own and I wanted to be somewhere that I’d enjoy. I definitely wasn’t the suburb type, considering that I was a single eighteen-year-old guy, but I wasn’t exactly the big city type either. It was only when Raphael happened to mention Ocean City one day while I was looking around on the internet for places that the idea of living here struck me.
I ended up getting a pretty sweet deal on my condo after searching around for permanent real estate. It was on the fourth floor of a high-rise building and right near the ocean, and was a spacious place with a combined kitchen, dining room, and living room right as you walked in. The patio door leading to the balcony was off of the living room and gave me a great view of the inlet and some of the rides. At nighttime, during the summer, it was an awesome sight with all of the lights from them and the boardwalk.
I had two bedrooms down the nearby hall. I’d been using the second one for storage, even though there wasn’t much in there say for a desk with my laptop and printer on it and some boxes that I didn’t bother unpacking. My bedroom was across from it.
I kept a lot of pictures of my family hanging around my home too. As much as I’d never tell them out loud, these pictures brought me a lot of comfort when I felt down during my darker times. Just looking at them helped. They reminded me that I was at least worth something and that I would always be loved no matter what I ended up doing.
Sitting back on my couch, I took another drink of my coffee and thought over what Hayden had told me earlier. Yeah, I’d promised her that I would look for this Nephilim and I had every intention of keeping said promise. But as I sat there, I was starting to realize something pretty important.
I barely knew anything about them.
Hayden had referred to them as a ‘he’, so I took it that he must’ve been a boy. She’d also told me that he was mixed with a Lamia. I knew that those circumstances were probably really bad. I just couldn’t picture a female Nephilim from a family like ours falling in love with something like that. Both male and female Lamias were bad news.
That made me worry a little bit about this situation. What if Hayden had been trying to water things down about this half Nephilim, or even been told to?
I didn’t have a choice. I needed to call Malakai and ask him for the details concerning this guy. No way I was going into this search blind.
I picked up my phone from the nearby coffee table and swiped it open to look through the contacts. Clicking on Malakai’s name, I waited impatiently for him to answer.
Finally, he picked up, “I thought that you would call me. But before anything, how have you been Yuki?”
I expected as much from him. Malakai never did like to start a conversation with us on a serious note. He’d always liked to see how we’d been and if smaller things were going on. I didn’t mind. It was nice to talk to him here and there about all the little stuff.
“I’ve been good for the most part, but I do have a bone to pick with you. Hayden dropped your little bombshell on me at six this morning. Did you plan for her to do that?”
Malakai chuckled. He knew that I never bit my tongue on anything.
“Not at all. I assure you that I told her not to be over-concerned with calling you right away. But it seems that she was concerned enough that she couldn’t wait.” he answered.
“I guess I can take that,” I sighed, “But I was half asleep and didn’t get a lot of details from her, so I wanted to talk to you about all of this before I go on this wild goose chase.”
“I understand, but you don’t need to refer to this as a wild goose chase,” I could hear the disapproval in his voice. But he was probably expecting at least a little bit of attitude from me, “Moving on, how far back do you need me to go with explaining the situation?”
“Not too far. I do remember most of what she got to tell me, like this Nephilim is supposed to be from the Violet clan and that he’s supposed to be mixed with a Lamia. But that’s about it. I don’t even know his name.” I admitted.
“You do have the basics,” Malakai confirmed, “I suppose to start with I can tell you that his name is Peyton Martell. He’s the youngest member of the Violet Nephilim.”
“Okay. So does he have his wings?”
“He does, but he does carry traits from the Lamia side that he inherited as well, such as being able to breathe underwater. He can also manipulate water however he pleases.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. I was living right by the Atlantic Ocean.
“You’re kidding, right? If he’s under the water here, then there’s no way I can get to him even if I manage to find him. I can’t breathe under there.” I reminded him.
Malakai wasn’t deterred, “I’m well aware of that, but I don’t believe that he’ll hide there. It seems that he’s come to your area for a reason. At least, that’s what his Seraph Kinsley has told me.”
“Really?” I sat up, “I’m gonna take a wild guess that it’s because of family problems.”
“So Hayden mentioned that to you as well,” Malakai noted.
“Yeah, she did. But on that note, I don’t think it’s fair that you all just jumped to assumptions about me being able to help him. I’ve had my issues, but no one should have to compare notes about what different people go through.” I complained.
“Calm down Yuki. I’m not jumping to assumptions with this. While I do feel like he may be able to relate to you, I’m asking you to search for him because you may be the best suited to handle him if any issues should arise. I know you’re strong enough and that you’d do your best to make sure that he’s returned unharmed.”
Damn. I didn’t have any argument when he put it like that, so I relented a little.
“All right, I get that. But seriously, what’s going on with his family to make him take off? It sounds pretty major.”
Malakai let out a soft sigh, “It is, and it isn’t. I’ll explain more about it to you later. But for now, I’d appreciate it if you can find him. I don’t believe that he will attack you or cause harm to anyone. We’re just very concerned for his safety because he’s never left England before.”
Okay, so he had me there. Even if I wasn’t that comfortable about all of this, there was no way I could walk away from it knowing that this guy might be putting himself in danger.
“All right, I’ll do it. But tell Kinsley and those Violets that they owe me big time.” I grumbled.
Malakai chuckled, “I’ll make sure that they know. Thank you for all of this Yuki. I know it’s sudden, but you understand how important it is.”
“Yeah, I get it, and it’s no problem. I’ll give you a call once I know something.”
“All right. Just take care.”
I grunted and tossed my phone onto the couch beside me. How did this kind of stuff end up happening to me? Even though I had the time, I didn’t exactly want to spend the day in the heat looking for a wayward Nephilim.
But thinking about that, I kept wondering about all of it too. There had to be more to all of this for Malakai and those others to be so concerned. He’d said that he wasn’t dangerous, but at the same time, Malakai had felt like it was safer for me to try to find him because of how strong I was.
I hoped that he was right about the harmless thing. I didn’t want to have to fight another Nephilim if I could help it.
I sat back and thought over everything that I now knew. So, his name was Peyton Martell. I wondered what he looked like. Was he anything like me or my family?
Even if it was a pain for me to have to find him, I wanted to learn the answer to that question. For as much as this bugged me, I was also getting pretty curious about him. That was enough to make me suck it up and get ready to go.
Getting up, I headed to my room and grabbed some clothes so that I could take a quick shower. After turning on the water and undressing as I waited for it to get hot, I took a moment to inspect myself in the mirror. Luckily, I didn’t look too tired now.
Running a hand through my messy hair, I let out a long breath. I’ve always liked my looks. I was lucky enough, like most of my family, to be born with a beautiful face. With my dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, a lot of people found my features to be kind of striking. Even though I wasn’t overly built, I was toned enough to look good to others.
Not that I cared that much about what others thought, but it was still nice to consider that.
I tried to relax a little as I stepped into the shower and began washing off. I knew that I was going to have a long day ahead of me, so I may as well do this while I could. Once I was feeling refreshed, I turned the shower off and stepped back out.
After getting dried off and dressed, I ran a brush through my hair and decided to head out. I wasn’t that hungry at the moment, so I’d just pick up some lunch later.
I grumbled a little about the heat as I stepped outside. It was only a little after eleven and hot as Hades out there. The traffic was starting to pick up, though it wasn’t that bad yet.
Hurrying across the highway, I made my way to the boardwalk. The sound of the ocean was in my ears now and the air smelled refreshing. People were starting to walk up and down the boardwalk and I saw some of them riding bikes. On the beach, I could see umbrellas set up and people lying in the sand and playing in the water. Vacationers and visitors, no doubt. It was that time of year.
I ended up walking up and down the boardwalk and going into the open shops for about two hours before I decided that it was time to refuel and get some lunch. By then my stomach was telling me that I needed to eat something.
Going into the small diner near the end of the boardwalk, I took a seat at the bar and ordered a sub and drink. But as I waited, I couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed. I hadn’t found a single sign of any other Nephilim around there and I’d been up and down the boardwalk. I was certain that he’d stay near the ocean, given what he was. Was he evading me somehow?
The restaurant was full. Like me, people had stopped in there to have lunch or escape from the heat. No one took much notice of me, even if I noticed all of them. Call it a force of habit to always be aware of everything around you.
Near me, I could see a young couple sitting with a baby in a booth. The baby didn’t look to be more than a month or two old. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but wonder what that must’ve been like. I knew that I’d never have kids, and what I am wasn’t the only reason.
“Here you go, hon.” The waitress said as she brought me my sub.
“Thanks,” I replied.
I considered trying to ask her about the one I was looking for, but figured that wouldn’t have worked too well. I didn’t even know what he looked like. I’d been going on senses alone in my search. I might have to rethink my approach if I kept having no luck.
My sub was very good, as their food always was. But as I tipped the waitress and stood up, I noticed that something had been left behind in the booth where the couple had just gotten up. The woman had grabbed her diaper bag but missed her purse.
I shook my head, smiling a little to myself. May as well do my good deed for the day. There was no telling what she might’ve had in there that was important. So I grabbed it and quickly headed outside.
Luckily the couple had stopped just a few feet away, and I could tell that the woman was searching for her purse in the stroller.
“Hey, I think you forgot something,” I called as I walked over and handed it to her.
“Oh my God, thank you so much!” the woman gushed.
Her husband was thanking me as well. I didn’t stick around long, just telling them that it was no problem and going on my way. Nope, it never hurt to help others when you saw the chance.
By now the heat had become even more oppressive. I knew that I couldn’t keep up my search in this, so I decided to head home and rest a little. This and the crowds were just too much to look for a stray Nephilim.
Finally getting back into my condo, I took off my shirt and laid down on the couch. The air conditioning felt extremely good and before I knew it, I had drifted off into a light sleep.
As I did, I fell into dreams of happier times when I was a child with my parents and sister. Even if I had to repress myself now, I did have the chance to be happy back then. The memories were enough to make my dreams pleasant.
I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing. I sat up and stretched, then reached over and picked it up.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t answer the phone like that! It’s very rude!” Hayden chided me.
“It’s my phone you know!” I retorted. I pushed my bangs out of my eyes, “Anyway, what’s up? You checking on how I’m doing with all of this?”
“Of course I am. Any luck?”
“Not yet. This is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s the beginning of summer and everyone’s coming here for vacation; and on top of it, I haven’t been sensing him at all.” I complained.
Hayden sighed, “I’m sorry Yuki. I know this is a lot, but they seem to think that he’s there and you can find him.”
“Yeah, that’s what Malakai said when I called him this morning. But what exactly did he tell you about this guy?”
“Not a whole lot. Just his name and that he’s mixed with a Lamia; and that they’re worried because he took off all at once. Why?”
So she knew as much as I did. Oh well. It had been worth asking.
“Just wondering. But seriously sis, I’m not too sure that I’ll be able to find him. I can’t sense him right now and I don’t even know what he looks like.”
“That’s part of why I called you. I thought that you might need some extra help, so I called his mom. Her name’s Kira by the way. Anyway, she sent me a picture of him and I’m going to send it to you.”
“Kira huh? All right, go ahead and send it to me. You can tell her that I’ll do what I can, but I can’t make her any promises.”
My voice faded a little as I spoke. Damn, I hated letting someone down like that.
“Will do. Give me a bit.”
“Thanks, Hayden. I’ll look for it.”
I waited anxiously for her message after hanging up. After another minute, it finally came through. Opening it, I found a picture attached with Peyton’s name.
It definitely wasn’t what I’d been expecting. The boy in this picture was really beautiful. He had large, oval-shaped eyes that were a perfect mix of blue and green just like the sea, and his hair was honey blonde and swept around his delicate face. He seemed kind of on the smaller side too.
“This is Peyton Martell?” I whispered.
I almost couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t monstrous at all. He was absolutely gorgeous.
I clicked off my phone and looked out of my patio window as I stood up. This settled it. I would keep looking for him. If anything, I wanted to meet him in person and get to know more about him. Even if it took me all day, I’d do my best to find him.
That was if he was even here. I hoped they were right about this now, and not just for a wild goose chase if they weren’t. A piece of me needed to meet Peyton now, not because of what he was.
But because I needed to know if he was like me.
