Pandora’s POV

Weeks passed with me watching as Teek grew stronger, better... wiser, but... She had one major flaw – she didn’t put a hundred and ten percent into what she was doing. Maybe she was afraid she would hurt someone, maybe she didn’t see the need for all the violence and maybe she was right. Maybe she didn’t need to be the way that I was, maybe she needed to remain the way that she was – pure and pristine, but that was not what she asked of me.

„Again.” I demanded after I saw little Johnny throw Teek against the wall across from the room. She grimaced in pain as she pushed herself up from the ground. I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath just to keep up with the torture, because... Yes, this was a fucking torture for her.

„This is pointless, Pandora!” She shouted from the other side of the room. A bit of frustration... anger? That’s good. „I will never beat a fallen!”

„Not with that attitude you won’t.” I graced her with a pointed look, before I repeated harshly, „Again.”

She remained silent for a moment, before she shook her head and loudly proclaimed a ‘no’.

„What did you just say?” You see, the reason behind the sudden wave of anger in me was because she was the one to ask me to make her tougher, for fuck sake me and Shads even taught her to fucking curse and now she’s all up in my face with an attitude. Right now I was her commander, and she was my trainee... Right fucking now she couldn’t say ‘no’ to me, she was supposed to do what I told her, for as long as I told her, and in a way I fucking told her if she didn’t want to be a whiny bitch anymore and survive all the kidnappings and the upcoming fucking battles.

„I’m not going to hurt another man,” She folded her arms over the tight crop top she was wearing.

She... what? The angel honestly believed she could hurt Johnny with a training sword? I turned to look at Christ who was just shrugging his shoulders. I pointed my head to the door, allowing him to leave the spacious hall. „How do I put this so you understand...” I took a deep breath, mimicking her previous action and crossing my arms over the white button up shirt. „Nobody can ever hurt you... One scratch and we can all get blown to the fucking smithereens!”

„You don’t know that for sure,” Her eyes squinted on me.

„I’m not taking any chances, Teek,” I replied. So what... is this going to be a goddamn staredown right now? To be quite frank I preferred the weak and helpless Tempest over this one. Not that she knew how to protect herself. She had gotten fucking cocky – Gates found it amusing – I fucking didn’t. „Raise your sword.”

„I’m done fighting with this plastic piece of crap,” She declared and threw it away. Did I fucking hear it right? Just a minute ago she said she’s not going to hurt another man and now she announces that she’s sick and tired of using a training sword?

„Take this one,” A sword was thrown from behind my back, making me turn around to see Gates standing there with a wicked grin on his face.

„Whoa... it’s heavy...” Teek mused, getting my attention back to her and the sword she was holding. That was my sword. Her fingers slid along the blade until she flinched back, „Ouch,”

„For fuck sake...” I mused as my hand landed on my face. What did I just tell her about injuring herself? After a short moment I turned to look at Syn. „Why the fuck did you give her my sword?”

Gates held his hand up, silencing me, as he stepped forward, seeming as amused as fucking ever. Did he think this was a bloody game? Wielding that weapon, someone could get seriously injured. „That’s Drakorian steel,” He explained, his browns landing on the weapon.

Teek’s eyebrows shot up as she hesitantly shifted her gaze from the sword she was holding towards the infamous devil, „wait... you mean the steel from the Heavens?”

„Yep,” He nodded, „You see, love, this was my father’s sword... God’s sword... Don’t know why he ever felt a need for a weapon as such, but who am I to judge, right?”

„And how on Earth did you get it?” Teek spoke directly to him, completely ignoring my presence. Thanks, friend, thanks a fucking lot. „Don’t tell me you stole it.”

„No... of course not.” He chuckled, „Dear Michael forced it through my chest when I decided I’d leave the Silver City.”

„He... what?” She whispered looking at the sword like it was a sacred artifact. Well... in a way it was, and in lot of ways it definitely wasn’t. Too many angels were slayed with the blade for it to have it’s sacred value at this point.

„The sword Michael pushed through my back was two times as big... so I made it into two of these, giving them both to whoever was my commander at the time,” At the time? To my knowledge I have always been his only commander.

„If there’s two—„

„Pandora lost one of them in the battle of the fallen,” He continued his story telling. Of course, blame me... blame me for fucking everything – why the hell not? I’m his scapegoat after all. I simply rolled my eyes. „So... if Pandora wants it back, she will have to fight you for it.” He grinned, turning around and walking towards me, before he whispered, „It’s about time you taught her to wield a real weapon.”

„Are you fucking insane?” I hissed in his face, „You know what Drakorian steel does to demons.”

„Then you should be careful,” corners of his mouth lifted up in a sinister grin.

The arrogant bastard... My attention fixed on Teek, who gave the sword a sway or two. I noticed the spark of power in her purple eyes. A reckless power. And how in the greatest depths of Hell was I supposed to take the sword back, hmm? Cut off her arms with some invisible weapon and seize the blade, watching as the world go up in flames? Or maybe I should use the plastic shit of a training sword against the Drakorian steel?

„I’m ready...” Teek announced confidently. Well fuck me with a popsicle and call me Nancy... My eyes shifted around in search of... anything I could use against her. She was inexperienced and holding the sacred weapon made her feel invincible just like the angel blood made Wormwood lose his fucking marbles.

She wasn’t ready for it.

Wielding it enhanced the weakest feature about the person, which in this case was confidence. Some fucking insane confidence mixed with rage. Why rage? Well, as I said it has been through a lot – the sword I mean – and Drakorian steel didn’t mix well with slaying angels – it absorbed a small part of those dying angels turning it into pure rage for the one wielding the sword. So if you felt the least bit angry while holding the blade, it boosted the feeling to some great lengths. It was to be used only in a battle.

Without a warning she came charging for me and for the first time in my existence... I felt scared. Those first blows of the blade were heavy yet quick... I managed to limbo out of the blade’s way in the very last moment.

Nevertheless Teek got out of breath really quick. Her inexperience showed. She was fast, I could give her that, but she didn’t know how to conserve her power, and I thanked everything almighty for that. If she would’ve been taught to fight previously – I would be beheaded in the first seconds of this sparring.

I could hardly see her, at one point the blade was just an inch from my cheek as I spiraled out of it’s way. „Teek... wait...” I panted, managing to get some distance, before she charged at me again. I was forced to lean back as I defended myself by catching the blade with my palms from the each side of it. It was slipping, she was forcing it down on me. „Seven... Hells...” I mouthed, realizing if I let the blade drop even by an inch, I wouldn’t be able to get it back up and it would go through my chest.

„I. Am. Better. Than. You.” She spat, anger multiplying by each passing second. At that point I was a second away from starting to believe in God and praying itself.

I took a sharp breath, before my hands wrapped around the blade with a loud, painful scream coming from my insides. Fuck... What are you doing, Teek?! Blood was dripping down my wrists and landing on my white shirt. „Gates!?” I screamed realizing I was losing the battle and Teek was about to kill me. I swore it felt like the steel was cutting through all the bones in my hands.

„Enepsigos, stop!” Gates roared, rushing up to us and placing his hand on top of Teek’s. Suddenly she bolted away from the sword, looking like a deer in headlights as I fell to the floor.

My chest heaved as I panted and my hands pulsated with pain as blood gushed out of them. I threw the sword away as I grimaced in pain, rolling to my side, with my hands trembling in front of my face. It was the most unimaginable pain. Cold sweat formed all over my forehead.

„What have I done...” I heard Teek muse as Gates dropped to his knees in front of me.

„Pandora.” He spoke sternly, before sitting me upright, „Pandora, look at me.”

I felt him touch my hands and my demonic form flaired up just like that. Not only the veins around eyes, not only my voice, but the full glory of being a demon. „Don’t touch me!” I screamed, the demonic voice echoing through the hall. He looked taken back.

The demonic form disappeared as soon as it had appeared and I got to my feet. I shifted my attention between Gates and Teek. „You both are exactly the same...” I hissed, before I walked to the door and out of the marble hall. „A fucking match made in Hell...” I whispered to myself as I winced in pain, after I had raised my hands to look at them. Blood was still dripping from my wounds and it didn’t seem they were going to heal anytime soon.

Fuck.

I tried my best to push the pain to the back corner of my mind as I rushed up the stairs and kicked open the door to Matt’s lair.

The fallen was laying on the king sized bed only in his boxers as he paged through a book of sort. His eyes raised to meet me with an unspoken question lingering in the air as I stumbled in the doorway. „You have to help me...” I spoke in a raspy voice, „You have to fix me...”

„Wh-what happened?” He managed to get out, before his eyes trailed down my bloody shirt and fixed on my palms.

„Teek...” I sighed, tilting my head back, feeling the burning sensation grow only stronger around my wounds.

„The angel did this to you?” His legs fell over the edge of the bed, before he got out of it.

„She was...” I blew out the air from my lunges, trying to fight with the pain, „She was... fuck... she was wielding my sword...”

„Sit down,” He took me by my upperarm and led to the armchair which was placed in the corner of the room. I broke down in the seat, before he kneeled down in front of me, wrapping his fingers around my fists as he inspected the wounds. „It will need stitches... and there’s some scar tissue we will have to get rid of for it to heal properly.”

„Do whatever you have to do...” I replied, looking over his broad shoulders.

„It’s gonna hurt.” His hazel eyes locked with mine, „I have to clean the wounds with—„

„Holy water?” I snorted, seeing him stand up to his full hight, „Yeah, I know.”

With a nod he disappeared out the same door I had just kicked in. Holy Water... Shit. The actual holy water, of course he would mix in some peroxide or whatever they used to clean the wounds of mere mortals, but fucking hell... The actual Holy Water was something that was obtained from the glistering lake of Silver City and not all that crap they used in churches.

Why did I want to willingly shove my hands into something celestial? Well, remember what I said about the sword absorbing particles of angel souls? They decayed over time and this decaying created the rage we saw in Teek earlier. If you cut someone with this sword – it created an infection, a mass tissue rot. One way or another – the person who was wounded would eventually die.

Matt returned with a plastic box of sort and a crystal bottle of sparkling water. The holy water would burn me – the same as if I decided to stick my hands in a puddle of lava, but... it would get rid of the infection. „Hey... Just don’t use it all on me... Teek stabbed herself with the sword...” I wasn’t sure if angels experienced the same side effects, but hell, I wasn’t taking any chances.

„What the fuck were you both even thinking...” He shook his head, before he pulled another chair closer and took a seat in front of me. He placed the med-kit on the glass table right beside us.

„Just... stitch me up...” I sighed. I actually didn’t want to rat Gates out – this was not the time to tear this disfunctional family appart.

Matt took the crystal bottle, unscrewing it, before looking at me. „Ready?”

„No,” I frowned. When would I ever be ready? „Just... do it.”

„Okay.” With a deep breath he poured the Holy Water over my palms. A plea for mercy in a form of a loud, lung ripping shriek resonated through the room and maybe even through the house. Matt had to hold my hands down to keep them from shaking. „Shh, I’m done... it’s over...” He comforted me, which was the trigger for me to start sobbing uncontrollably. Tears trailed down my cheeks as he took a clean cloth and wiped off the excess water. The white cloth turned red in just a matter of seconds.

Blood drops were landing on his bare legs, making him flinch. Just then I noticed he was wearing a pair of white rubber gloves. The holy water mixed with my blood kept dripping on his leg, burning him. He took it like a champ, tho.

„I have to cut out the scar tissue...” He explained, taking the scalpel.

„Do what you have to do,” I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. This was by far the best part of the whole procedure. My hands were still on fire because of the holy water, making the touch of the scalpel feel like a light tickle. When he started stitching me up, that was almost as bad as cleaning the wounds. My best guess was that he had sterilized the needle with the same fucking holy water.

„I’m just gonna wrap you up so you don’t pull out the stitches,” He explained, taking the gauze from the glass table.

„Thanks...” I opened my eyes to see him sliding the roll of gauze around my hand, „Also... knowing how I’m now a disabled person,” A small smile krept on my lips, „I’d be super thankful if you helped me out of these bloody clothes.”

„Stand up,” He motioned for me to get up from my seat, „The right day to be dressed in all white, huh...”

„Shut up,” I chuckled as he struggled with the belt of my pants. After a short moment, my pants were by my ankles and I simply stepped out of them. He stood up, before his fingers went to unbutton my shirt. „You can just... rip it off... It’s not like I’m gonna wear it ever again.”

A smirk crept up on his lips. Without a warning he ripped the shirt open, his eyes fixing on mine. What? What the hell is that stare? For another long second his stare lingered on my lips. Just do it. Another second went by without the kiss I wanted so badly. Instead his gaze lowered to my chest, which was all covered in blood. „Gates did this to you, didn’t he...”

„Does it really matter?” I sighed as I turned around, „Pull the shirt over my arms.”
Without a word he complied. I felt his lips on my shoulder as well as his arms around my waist right after the shirt had landed by our feet. His hand slid higher and higher until he was cupping my breast.

„Pandora?” The high-pitched voice sounded from the hallway as Shads’ lips trailed up my neck, „Pandora! I’m so- so sorry, I... Oh!”

I looked over both my shoulder and Shads’ to see a blushing Teek standing in the doorway. „Matt, stop. Teek’s here.”

„I don’t give a fuck,” He breathed against my skin.

„Stop,” I chuckled, his five-o-clock shadow tickling my neck. I heard the heavy sigh as I stepped out of his reach. „You have to clean her wound.”

„My wound?”

Notes