22

Crowley...."

"I'm fine, angel, honestly… Please... Just listen to me. Listen to what I say. There's someone who has been looking for me these last three months."

"Who?" I asked cautiously.

Crowley swallowed hard.

"Her name is Anathema Device…."

My breath caught in my throat and my hand immediately flew up to cover my mouth, stifling the sound that threatened to escape me. My hands went to rest at my sides.

"Angel...?" he whispered softly, his voice sounding strained as he reached out to pull my hand away from my mouth.

I nodded, biting my lip hard enough to draw blood. He looked worried and scared. I couldn't stand to see him like this; it hurt so much.

"Anathema is the witch who lives upstairs from me? That Anathema?" I breathed shakily.

He closed his eyes momentarily as he lowered his hand that was holding my own to his chest. Then he slowly nodded his head yes, and a small smile broke out across his lips as he continued to wipe his eyes dry.

"She was one of the first people to know of your existence, actually. She told me she heard stories of angels appearing in London during the war between Heaven and Hell

of angels fighting and killing humans, angels protecting humans from demons that were causing destruction, and humans taking the fall because they thought God would protect them from evil. She said that the war wasn't always like that. Angels used to fight alongside demons every day for years, and sometimes angels would lose their wings and become human, but they wouldn't be able to change forms anymore and the only way to save their human body from the transformation was to drink something called a miracle, which caused them to become human."

The words that he was saying were making complete sense to me; I remembered that Anathema mentioned that her brother and his friends, Newt, Antigone and Noah were all demons and that they knew each other. They were angels, I assumed, since it was obvious that Crowley and Crowley's brothers, Gabriel and Aziraphale, were both demon-related, and I wondered if that explained what happened to Anathema and Newton's mother. If they drank the miracle, they became human. So what was the miracle and why were Crowley's parents dead?

"So what did you guys do to make your wings disappear?" I questioned curiously.

"We had to sacrifice ourselves... Our bodies. We took the curse of humanity upon our wings when they were destroyed."

"Crowley--"

And then our wings grew again and we were whole again!"

He grinned happily at me as he wrapped his arms tightly around me and hugged me close to him as we leaned comfortably against the sofa. I smiled back, my heart swelling with relief at his reassurance.

He looked at me seriously once more.

"What I need to tell you next is something that you can't ever repeat to anyone. Understand?"

I nodded hesitantly, and watched him intently as he turned his attention towards the floor and drew his knees up slightly against his chest.

"Gabriel has been after you for a long time, I suppose he probably knew where you were all along, although the first sign I saw was how determined he was to find out everything he could about you..." Crowley murmured bitterly, shaking his head slightly.

"How… How is he able to locate you that easily? How does he know where you are?" I whispered, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

He looked up at me again, a faint trace of sadness in his eyes as he answered me.

"I told you… It's my powers… But he found me eventually. As soon as he knew where I was, he tried every possible means to find me to destroy me, but it didn't seem to have any effect...