1 Innocence

"You will come to me" the demonic voice whispered in my ear.

A force holding me against my will pushing against my body. The air leaving my lungs like I had been sucker punched in the chest.

"Never" I whispered, not having the energy to raise my voice to the dark entity surrounding me.

"Oh, you will. You will come, and he will bring you" the voice laughed at me, the feeling of something burning into my back, I screamed.

"Soon you will be mine".

I kicked back against the invisible force with all the strength I had in my body and soul. I ran, into the darkness, into the emptiness. Hearing the voice screaming in pain, as if I had wounded it. I kept running, the sound becoming distant, and then I fell.

I looked around my room, seeing I'm safe and it was just another nightmare. The same nightmare, I've had every night since moving to this damn town. I pushed myself up the bed and wiped the sweat off my head with my hands, willing my breath to calm itself. It was just a dream Lilly, stop being ridiculous. I told myself this after every dream, but how many times do I have to keep saying this? And how many more times will I wake up with the remanence of the seething pain shooting through my back? With my breath now back to its normal pace, I kicked the covers back and got out of my bed. I walked to my bathroom that was joined to my room, I guess there are some perks to this new house, I thought laughing to myself. The house we now live in was growing on me. We moved to Charlottesville, Virginian almost a month ago for my parents to work, apparently this area was in high demand for the business my parents provided. Who knew that metal work was so popular in a small town. They want me to join the business with them when I turn 21, as a coming of age thing, but I just want finish university and then go and explore the wold. What my parents can do with iron and other metals is insane, and they have to travel a lot so I never really saw them, not unless they had someone coming to the store to talk about a project. With a sigh I look at my reflection in the mirror and grimaced at what I saw, the lack of sleep and nightmares was hitting me, the dark circles under my eyes are doing nothing for my appearance. I wasn't unattractive but I wasn't anything special either, my raven coloured hair had some chocolate highlights, it reach down to the lowest part of my back, at 5ft 7 my figure was slim but curvy in the right places, I had some muscle definition from all the years of dance classes and mixed martial arts training I had done through my younger teen years. My skin was as white as snow, my mother used to call me snow white because of my complexion and hair, after a while she got the hint that I didn't particularly like the nickname. The only interesting part of me were my eyes, hazel at the first look, but if you looked deeper you would see so many colours, green, blue, black, brown, and specs of amber. When I was pissed off my parents said that I would get a silver glow around my pupils, which I thought was awesome, but others thought it was weird. I always had to keep my mood in check, being bullied as a kid because what my eyes did, it made me self conscious of it. But I still loved it! The pain still lingering on my back I turned around so my back was facing the mirror and looked round, nothing. There wasn't a single mark on my back, there never was. See Lilly, it's just a dream.

I brushed my hair vigorously ready for the day ahead for me. My first day at university, I thought I wouldn't get in being so late into the term, but somehow my parents were able to pull some string, how I will never know, its not like my family was important. After I applied some makeup to cover the mess that was my face I jumped at the sound my of my phone ringing. I took my cell from my nightstand and answered.

"Yes, mother" I said looking at the clock on the wall seeing I was running out of time to get ready for my first day.

"Elizabeth Serene, is that anyway to greet me" my mother was clearly annoyed because she 'Full named me'

"I'm sorry mom, I didn't sleep well again" I sighed knowing I shouldn't have snapped at her.

"The dreams again" she said as more of a statement than a question. I had told my parents about them and they tried to reassure me but how can you reassure someone that is dreaming of a demonic voice telling me that I will go to him? You just can't.

"I just called to wish you luck on your first day, it will be fine, so don't worry about it. Your father and I left very early this morning to go and check this shipment we have received, but we've got some other business to attend to while we are in New York, so we will probably be gone for the week" she continued on talking to me but I stopped her when she started talking about being responsible while they are gone.

"Mom, i'm 19, nearly 20, not 10. I know not to burn the house to the ground and how to take care of myself" this wasn't the first time I had to. Oh no, it was like this pretty much all the time, they'd be home three days at most before they had a new project to deal with or a metal shipment come through.

"I know Lilly. Well your father is calling for me, so I will try to call this evening. Bye darling" She'd ended the call before I could even say bye.

I cursed and as I looked at the clock and saw had 15 minutes before I had to leave. I grabbed the first pair of black jeans and white shirt I could see and threw them on, taking my thigh high boots with me as I left my room and rushed down the stairs. I took my bag off the kitchen island and got my leather jacket from the coat rack by the door, shoes now on, I checked myself quickly in the mirror by the door. Well I guess it's not going to get much better them this. I left the house and got in my car and raced to the university campus as fast as I could.

Parking my car in the first space I saw, I jumped out and locked it behind me as I made my way to the school entrance. Holy shit, this place was huge.

I reached the main desk and told the older looking women behind the monitor my name and asked for my schedules and locker combo. As she was putting my paper work together she gave a warm smile, but I noticed her looking at me strangely. Shit, were my eyes messing up? Not only did they shimmer silver when I was pissed, but also when I was extremely nervous. I turned away from the desk and looked down the long university corridors and saw a group of four students talking. Two females, two males, they were all dressed in White which I thought was a bit strange but then my wardrobe barely consisted of anything other then blacks or white, I didn't do colour. The two guys were facing away from me so I couldn't see their faces, but I could see the girls, both stunning, one with blonde hair and the other with light brown hair. Being to far away to see any real detail I tried squinting to make out anything else, only then did one of the girls look directly at me and she pointed towards me, then the whole group turned and looked over at me. I turned back to women behind the desk before the others could see me looking, I pulled my hair round to the front of my face to hide from the student that i'm sure were now staring straight at me.

I took my class schedule from the women and thanked her as I left to find my locker. I realised I had to walk past the students I had just been looking at, keeping my head down I walked quickly past them and found my locker not too far from where they were standing. I put the combo on the lock and spun the dial but it didn't budge, I let out a sigh and tried again. Nothing. Feeling my heart rate pick up again, I tried once more, but nothing. Now frustrated, I was just about to punch the locker when someone grabbed my fist mid way, an electric feeling ran up my arm at the touch and I quickly pulled away and turning to look at the person who had stopped me, only to see a pair of the most ethereal eyes i'd ever seen looking straight back into mine. They were almost black apart from a silver halo at the centre of his irises, it was mesmerising, they looked unnatural but I could see no indication of him wearing colour contacts. He was gorgeous, no, he was HOT, hell he was everything, he was easily over 6 feet tall, his perfectly chiselled face was something only an greek god should have, his tanned skin looked like it had been dipped in honey, it looked so smooth and I had to stop myself from touching him. And from what I could see of his body there was no doubt it was moulded to perfection like his face. His deep brown hair that looked almost black if it hadn't been for the light was short at the sides and long on top, in an organised dishevelment that made him all the more irresistible. His mouth started moving as if he was speaking and I couldn't hear, I was in awe of this man standing in front of me. I had too mentally kick myself to pay attention.

"Sorry, what?" I said feeling stupid at my lack of composure. Who could blame me? I bet all the girl did this when the saw him.

He looked at me and laughed and shook his head, he held my gaze for a few more seconds before repeating himself.

"I said, do you need a hand with your locker? They can be tricky and as much as I would agree to punching it, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself" he said with a slight laugh to his words.

"Oh, sure, thanks." Although I've hit far worse things than a locker door, but I didn't plan on telling him that, making me think back to my nightmare, with the demonic voice, I shivered.

"No problem" with a small smile he turned and and just like that he opened my locker. Thanking him I quickly shoved my books in and pulled out my R&P studies book as that was my only class for the day. I was released with only having one class as I felt it would help me settle in without being overwhelmed.

"So you will be doing religion and philosophy studies" he stated with a curious look on his face.

"Yeah, that and folk law history. I didn't really know what to chose but those subjects have always fascinated me" He raised his brow and looked into my eyes like he was searching for something. It was like he was looking into my soul.

"So, would you be a religious person then?" Still staring directly into my eyes.

"I mean, I believe in something greater than us. But the whole story behind it all, is just that, a story that parents would tell their children to help them grow to be good people. I get why people want to believe, and if I had solid evidence then I would be one of those people, but no I don't" I started looking anywhere but at him, his gaze was so intense it hurt.

With this he seemed to be even more intrigued. But without saying another word to me he simply smiled and moved back to his friends and walked away, the girls turning back to look at me, and the look they gave me was strange to say the least. Throwing everything else into my locker, I closed it and made my way to my class.

After taking a few wrong turns I finally found my class room, walking in I saw most of the students had already sat down but quickly turned my attention to the professor at the front of the class writing on the board. For a teacher he was kinda cute, in an older guy sort of way, must have been in his 40s at least. I walked up to him and handed my forms to him and he looked over them and then back at me and when I looked into his green eyes, I saw something dark and unsettling, what it was I don't know, but I didn't like what I was feeling. I take back what I said about him being cute! He smiled, but his smile didn't reach his eyes and that concerned me even more, he turned from me and introduced me.

"It appears we have a new student joining us today, this is Elizabeth Serene. Miss Serene, if you wouldn't mind taking a seat next to Qemuel, Mr Falen, please raise your hand so she knows who you are" he turned back to the board he was writing on, and I saw someones arm move up into the air. It was HIM. Keeping my head down I made my way over to him, as I sat down and opened my book could feel his eyes looking at me so I turned and faced him.

"So, Elizabeth Serene is your name" the sound of delight evident in his voice.

"Yes, although only my mother calls me Elizabeth, everyone else calls me Lilly" he smiled at this and I was awe struck again by his angelic beauty, how could someone look this good?

"And your name is Qemuel Falen" I said in return.

"Yes, but call me Qem" searching my face, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing, what's with him?

I nodded and he then turned and pulled his own book out from his bag. Only then did I realise his name.

"'Qemuel', like the fallen angel" I said as question and a statement. I watched as his body made an involuntary shudder, stiffening ever so slightly, I don't think you'd notice unless really looking, which I was, I couldn't stop looking at him.

"Yes.. like the fallen angel. For someone thats claims not religious, you know an intriguing part of religious history" he looked into my eyes, what was he searching for?

"Like I said before, I'm fascinated by it . Ever since I was little girl, my parents would tell me stories about the Fallen, I don't really know why they did when they weren't religious but it was what gained my interest to begin with" thinking back to all the nights I would stay up late listening to my parent tell me all the stories about the war that raged in heaven, I would take any opportunity to hide in the corner of a library with any book the retold these events.

Qem looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and I started to blush. Pull yourself together women, you've been around hot guys before. But none like him, he was so different, and not just by how he looked, the way he held himself. It was with such poise and pride, it also didn't suit with outwardly appearance of a young man.

"The Fallen is a topic we are heavily discussing in this class, so I look forward to hearing what you know."

"Compared to you guys probably very little" I breathed in with a smile thinking about it, just because I'm not religious doesn't mean I don't appreciate it.

"I think you are being too modest" he smiled.

"You have been in this class for months already, I've just joined, all I know is what I've researched on my own, and the internet can only give you so much" I shrugged, opening my text book.

"Yes, you are right" he turned his head back to the professor as he started talking about the rebellion in heaven.

As the professor carried on speaking I peaked over at Qem, only to see that he was doing the same to me, I blushed and quickly looked back to the front. Damn, why does he effect me like this? As I thought this I heard him chuckle to himself. Weird. He laughed again. I looked back over to him, this time not caring if he could see me looking, I really looked at him, and something inside me shifted, I can't explain it, but looking at this boy next to me I knew there was so much more to him then meets the eye, I was drawn to him I knew nothing about him. Who are you? And just as I thought this, I saw the corners of his lips turn up into smile. I shook my head and I decided i'm just seeing things, but I cant help but think that somehow Qem knows what I'm thinking. Just then the professor broke me from my thoughts.

"Miss Serene, other the Lucifer, name a fallen angel that is equal to Lucifer himself" he asked me with a wicked gleam in eyes, it was freaky. I was taken back slightly by the question, but I thought for a moment before drawing on inspiration that was sat right next to me.

"Qemuel, was a high ranked angel in heaven and he was equal to Lucifer, if not slightly more so. Although Qemuel was not Gods favourite he held a prestigious place among the first heaven. Until the uprising, Qemuel was strong, loyal, courageous, intelligent and full of pride. When the rebellion begun Lucifer filled him with hatred towards God, Lucifer he felt that he should have a right to rule one of the seven heavens but God did not believe this to true. So after the war between Lucifer and his rebels and Gods loyal angels, he and many others were told to chose between following Lucifer to the realms of the hell, or repenting on earth for all of their immortal life. But Qemuel didn't chose, and there are many stories that tell the following events, some say that God destroyed Qemuel and made his death a warning to the other angels that still had to choose. And others say that God could not destroy one of his angels and sent him to earth because he saw a light inside of him that he knew would grow and be deserving of redemption." I looked around the room and saw that I had every single pair of eyes in the room staring at me like I was some mad. I looked over at the professor and saw him in shock with his mouth slightly open, I let a tiny smirk fall to my lips. Ha, take that professor freaky. And then I decided to add one more comment.

"Although I don't believe God would have destroyed a divine" I looked at Qem sat next to me, looking as if he was holding his breath.

"And why would you say this Miss Serene" asked the professor with a knowing look on his face as his eye flicked to Qem, it was so quick I barely notice,

"God created all his angels for the purpose of obeying his commands and one angel went to beyond his abilities to fulfil these wishes, and this was Lucifer, the Morning Star, the Light Bringer. Many believing that he was the angel that would bring hope to humanity in its darkest hour, but in the end he did many bad things, things that no mortal would dare comprehend and yet he was allowed to live. Yes he was banished from the heavens for all eternity and was to become the keeper of hell, but he lived. Qemuel was lead astray by him, if God could spare Lucifer for all that he did, I believe he spared Qemuel and sent him to earth" I looked at Qem and saw he was dumbfounded by my words and I gave him a smile, to which he composed himself.

"Well Miss Serene, I do believe you have left us all speechless" Mr Freaky said, yeh thats your name from now on professor. And again Qem laughed at what seemed like my unspoken thought. Okay something strange going on, this isn't a coincidence, with that thought he turned and winked at me. The professor started to move on when the man beside me started to speak.

"As much as i'd like to agree with Miss Serene, I do believe there may be a part of story she is missing" Mr freaky looked at Qem and gestured with his hand for him to continue.

"Although Lucifer fed him twisted words about God, Qemuel had his own intentions for doing what he did in the rebellion. How do we know these intentions were pure? On all accounts Miss Serene was correct, Lucifer began the rebellion, Qemuel followed suit, but how would we know he was just led astray and didn't have an ulterior motive" Qem turned his head towards me as he said the last part, so I took this as my cue to speak.

"Mr Falen, as you have said we do not know the motivation Qemuel had behind his actions, I do wish to believe however that regardless of his intent his original feelings toward his lord, were pure. After all, no one is born evil, it is grown, made and moulded, and it turns into something ugly and something only the devil himself would do. I said Qemuel was an extremely intelligent angel, he was a force to be reckoned with, and yet, he did not start the rebellion, Lucifer did, and with that alone you can see the hope of what good may lay within him regardless of the destruction he was capable off, this is why I believe god spared him" I gave a satisfactory smile to Qem when he was left with his mouth gaping open, but he closed it promptly. He looked at me amazed and what looked like admiration in his eyes. Oh man I could lose myself in the depths of those eyes. Again, he smiled like he could hear my thoughts.

With our debate at a close the professor gave us an assignment, to write a paper on the fallen angels and what part they played in the rebellion in heaven, and he had instructed for us to work in pairs as this was going to be a large paper which was heavily counted towards our finale grade.

"Miss Serene and Mr Falen, you two will work together on this paper, it seems you both have a lot to offer with this subject" with a nod to us, he told the rest of the class their assignment buddies and dismissed the class. I got my stuff together to leave and noticed Qem standing next to me holding my book for me to take, with his lips turned in a perfect smile. This man could stop me in my step with just one look. Laughing to myself I saw his eyes flicker with concern to something behind me, I turned and looked but I saw nothing.

I turned back and took my book. " Thank you" shoving the book into my bag, and placing it over my shoulder.

" My pleasure, Lilly" he looked at me one last time before turned away leaving. As Qem left me standing in the room alone, I knew, somehow nothing, in my life would be the same ever again.

Lunch, came sooner than expected, I entered the large white walled cafeteria, and got a tray and stood in line with other students. I saw Qem and his friends from earlier across the room, his eyes met mine and like a girl being caught with her hand in the cookie jar I flushed and turned away quickly. No sooner had I done this I felt a presence behind me, I didn't need to look, I new it was him, his sent was intoxicating and it was in the best way. But how did he get to me in seconds, he was on the other side of the room?

"How did you do that" turning I had to lean back slightly to look at him.

"Do what?" He smiled at me innocently. He was standing so close to me, his smell invading me completely.

"You know what" I stared at him waiting for an answer.

"I'm quick on my feet" he shrugged, scratching the back of his head looking away to his friends.

"Uh huh" not believing it, I turned back and picked my lunch from the counter and paid the lunch lady for my food.

"Hey, why don't you come sit with me and my friends, don't worry they don't bite… much" he laughed at his own joke, which in turn made me laugh. I walked with him back to his table and he started introducing everyone, although not all of them looked impressed that he brought me over.

"This guy right here is Kokabiel" he punched Kokabiel in the shoulder as a friendly jab, he was handsome for sure, but he didn't compare to Qem, he was the same height as Qem, but he had soft green eyes and blonde hair, his build looked to be the same as Qem too, but his skin was slightly lighter.

"Sup? Kokabiel is such a mouthful, call me Kobe" he said to me with a boyish smile, I smiled back and turned to the next to be introduced which was the blonde girl.

"This is Tien" he tapped her shoulder and she smiled at me, her blonde hair tied back from her face, with blue eyes, and a fair complexion, she really was beautiful.

"And lastly, this is Nefta, but we call her Tia" he pointed to her as he stood next to me, she just looked at me, there was no warmth in her brown eyes, her brown hair hung just below her shoulders, even without the warmth the others showed me I couldn't deny she was just as beautiful as Tien. They were all so beautiful. Well that just leaves me as the odd out in the looks department.

I looked at Qem and he had an almost sad look on his face as he looked at me he shock his head.

We ate our lunches and the conversation was fairly easy going, talking about the latest celebrity gossip and the boys talking about sports, that was until I mentioned that all of their names were of fallen angels, everyone but Qem shrugged it off, he was on guard. They said their family were crazy religious and that's why they got given their names. Qem held my gaze through most of lunch, I had to force myself to look away each time. As the bell went to indicate lunch was over, I got up to put my tray on the trolly and Qem was stood waiting to do the same thing,

"Here's my number. You'll be needing it so we can call to discuss the assignment" he handed me a small piece of paper, as our fingers grazed I got the same warm electric feeling run through me, I was hard not to sway from how it made my body react.

"Thanks, I'm glad you're not the kind of guy to just let the girl do all the work." He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, the desire so evident of his face, I blushed for god know how many times today from this boy. He leaned in closer so that his lips were next to my ear.

"Never." It was lower then a whisper, his breathe tickles my ear, it made me shiver.he pulled back and walked away without looking back.

The rest of the day went by in a flash. I was walking back to my car when I saw Qem was getting into his white Mercedes AMG, damn that was a nice car. I got to my black Chevy Impala, yeah okay my impala was a decent ride, but Qem's AMG was something else. I pulled out of the parking lot and drove home, this time at a legal speed.

Driving along and enjoying the scenery I replayed todays events in my head, so many times today did I feel like Qem was in my mind somehow, its not possible, but his reactions were too in synch with my thoughts. Checking my rear mirror I could see a black Sedan driving behind me, and getting too close for comfort so I pushed on the accelerator and got out of reach from the Sedan, but then a few seconds later it sped up too, weird, if it wanted to over take then why didn't it?

And then it happened, it came into the back of my car, spinning the car out to the other side of the road and into the ditch that led into the frostiest area I was driving down. My car didn't flip, so I wasn't upside down in the car, but pain started to pound in my head as I felt something warm run down my face, I reached to touch face and saw that my hand was covered in blood. Okay, not good. I removed my seat belt and turned my body so my legs were ready to kick the door open. After 3 forceful kicks it opened and I fell out onto the grass, my head now starting to spin, I crawled away from the car, thats when I noticed a dark figure walking towards me, I tried to focus on the person walking towards me but it was too hard, my eyes couldn't register the dark shadow. My body now taking full effect of what just happened, it gave out and I collapsed completely to the ground, the smell of dirt and grass making its way into my nose, I pushed with all that I had onto my back and looked up at the now dark sky. It looked to calm, the midnight sky, is this it? Am I going to die? No! I yelled to myself, I turned my head in the direction I saw the figure approaching to see that the person was now standing a few yards from me, but when I looked to its face, all I saw was red eyes glaring at me, and darkness encompassing the rest of its face, the fear I felt from my dreams came rushing through me like a tidal wave. I needed to move, fast! I pulled myself up from the floor and started to run, but I only made it a few steps before I felt pain run down my back, just like in my dreams. I fell to my knees screaming, it felt like my skin was melting, I fell onto my chest against the ground. I heard a loud crash, almost like thunder, I tried to turn to see where the noise came from but the pain was too much and the last thing I remember, were two strong arms lifting me from the ground, and before the darkness came, I felt safe.

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