Know Me By Name

2014

Aleksander. The name made me smile. Ever since his name had appeared on my body, I had wondered what he would look like. My son—my beautiful son—looked so much like his mother.

Aleksander stood tall, nearly as tall as me. His blond hair was long like mine and his mother’s. But he had my hazel eyes and wings perfectly mixed between my love’s and mine. I was mesmerized by him in the best way possible.

Talking a cautious step forward, I grabbed his shoulder. He tensed for a hot moment and then eased into my touch. Pulling him into me, I hugged the son whose life I had missed out on. Now he was a grown man-angel.

“Aleksander,” I said, almost whispering his name. “My son, loot at you.”

He pulled away from me a bit. “So, you’re my father?” A soft smile pulled at the corners of his mouth.

I nodded. “I am.” My hand immediately found my love and pulled her into the family reunion. “We have much to discuss.”
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Kaylee and the strange men who had taken me here guided me into a secret room. Alek hovered behind us, his wings still out. Poor thing had no idea how to retract them. He still had so much to learn. What had they been teaching him?

“Sit,” Kaylee said, motioning at a chair with a heart carved into it. “You have missed centuries, my love.”

Each man that had met me in the strange shop at a chair. One man had eyes similar to the woman’s except his were blue instead of purple. Were they related? How had my love and my son gotten involved with these strange humans?

“Matthew, allow me to introduce the Roses.” My love motioned at all the odd men around the table. “Without them, I would not be here and neither would Aleksander.”

I nodded. Part of me felt terrible for reacting negatively to the strange humans, especially if they had helped my family. However, something still felt off about them. I would pass judgement once I knew more.

The short one with pale skin looked me over. “My name is Jonathan. Thousands of years ago, a demon name Mecurial tortured Man to become warped, the exact opposite of God’s vision. We became pale and blood thirsty. The devil believed we would follow her will, but Man hated us and we were few. We were called demons though we weren’t. Lore calls us vampires.”

Vampires. My reapers had spoken a little bit about them. In their whispers, all I could father was that they were hard to kill. Their souls were so destroyed, Guardians had difficulty deciding where to send them.

The green-eyed one stared me down. It was clear he didn’t like me. “I am Zachary. Much like Jonathan, this is not the life I chose. Lilith, Satan’s first demon, seduced an angel. We were not born out of love or from God’s will. We vaguely have powers of angels. Man calls us Nephilim.”

Nephilim. The reapers knew where they went according to my top sources. The half-angels rarely got involved in conflict. My reapers took them to Heaven. No one truly understood their powers.

“They call me Brian,” a shaggy-haired man said, “Mecurial created us as well. He tortured a Man for months on end. There was no end to our suffering until a full moon. That was when Mecurial ended our suffering. He left us cursed. We shift with each full moon. Mand and demon know us as werewolves.”

I cocked an eyebrow. My reapers had not mentioned werewolves. I would have known about creatures that shifted. To be fair to my reapers, werewolves were probably most similar to Man.

I faced the last man, the one with the strange eyes. He seemed to be the leader of these creatures. He stared me down. The blue-eyed man regarded me like I was garbage.

“I am the original warlock. Lilith had relations with Man to create us. My name is James. Now, who are you and how to do you know Kaylee?”

Warlocks. I had to shake my head at that. Warlocks were banned from Heaven and Hell. When they died, their souls never rested. My reapers had no idea what to do with them, neither did the Guardians.

Folding my arms across my chest, I took in each creature. None asked to be created, but they took it in stride. They had made progress in Man’s world. They lead seemingly normal lives.

“I am the angel called Matthew. Kaylee and I are Original Love. What more do you need to know, warlock?”

His eyes blazed. “An angel? How did you get here?”

“Will power,” I said.

“Matthew, behave. Aleksander and I owe the Roses everything.” Kaylee placed a hand to my chest. “James, Matthew hear the call I paced to Heave years ago, the one you helped me with.”

“What is he doing here?” Brian asked, growling loudly.

“I came to bring my love and son back to Heaven.”

Notes

Hey guys. I know I have been away for way too long. I wish I had better reasons than what they are. The last few months have been awful to me. I was in and out of the ER with a kidney infection that had been misdiagnosed as a UTI. My nana passed (we expected it) but it's still weird to think I have no grandparents left. I have had to file 2 police reports this past weekend because men are awful sometimes. But, I am back... tentatively, and I will be updating much more frequently.