14: more hard

~~Week~~

Two weeks had passed since the attack. Two of them, but you would think it was more recent with how everyone was acting.

Archdemons were at Lucifer's throat with wanting to counterattack, castle workers were still in chaos as they worked to accommodate all of the guests.

And then there was Angel and Mauraline.

Angel was always tranquil, but she was now in training for the position that they had wanted Rose to take over, as Lucifer's heir.

Maura was always either in her room now or in her mother's. She had been working on a portrait of her mother, both going into her mother's room to study pictures and sleeping and drawing in her room. She refused to tell me where this new fascination with drawing her mother had come from.

Nor would she tell me where she was and what happened to her during the angel attack.

The door to her room was slightly cracked open and I heard voices.

"Did you love her, Auntie Liz?"

"Yes, dearest, almost as much as I love you."

I pushed the door open a little more and saw Lizzie holding Mauraline in her lap. Lizzie's hair had grown in black and she didn't want to dye it anymore. The tips of her hair were still blue, but it had faded from its original brightness. She had it cut to her mid-back recently so she didn't trip over it while playing with Maura in my absence.

"Look, Auntie!" Maura cried, jumping off of Lizzie's lap to pick up a small mouse in the corner. "It's a mousie!"

"We should put it outside so it can go back to its family," my sister replied, reaching to take it from her hands.

"No!" she yelled, holding the mouse to her chest. "I want to keep it!"

"You're just like your mother," Lizzie sighed, finally coaxing it from her and setting it outside the window.

"What was Mom like?" Maura asked, her voice small.

Lizzie looked over and smiled before scooping the girl into her arms and setting on the bed with her.

"Rose was like a star, shining through everyone's darkness. She only saw good in people unless she felt you were too far gone to even consider. She wanted to help everyone and keep them safe. She once convinced me to take an alley cat home for a week because she was starving in the cold and was over everyday, nursing that cat until it was healthy enough to go to the new family she found for her," Lizzie smiled at the memory.

"She loved music. Singing was her greatest passion, and she was damn good at it too, excuse my language, dearest. She had her fair share of demons to fight against, but she took it in stride. Everything she has ever done was to keep her loved ones safe," she paused, a tear running down her face and it landed in Maura's hair. "Even now, wherever she is, whatever she's doing, it's all for you and my brother, Mauraline."

"Mommy loves you too, Auntie Liz," Maura jumped up and landed in front of Lizzie. Her eyes were serious and so bright.

"I'm not so sure about that, dearest," Lizzie sighed, bending down from the bed and sitting in front of her. "When she was mine, part of me wanted to keep her light for myself. I was selfish and cruel to her. I had hurt her so much that she still flinches when she sees me, dearest. I have a long way to go," she paused and pressed her lips to Mauraline's forehead before she continued, "but one day, she will look and see her Lizzie again."

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~~Rose~~

"Archangel Rosalina."

I paused and turned and watched Gabriel run up next to me and nod towards my office.

"Yes, Archangel Gabriel?" I asked once we stepped inside, closing the door behind me.

"I have found the information you've been looking for and you were right, Zayn was murdered," he said, showing me the papers in his arms. I sighed and looked through. Someone had used one of the wrath daggers Michael had made.

In my mind, that narrowed it down to a few people.

"And my father?"

"Another murder. Someone had slipped a hallucinogen into each of his means without missing a beat, meaning that it had to be someone who could intercept the food before it got to him."

Suddenly, the list broadened again.

"Something to slowly deteriorate his mind," I added, realization hitting me. This checked out with Michael's story that something seemed to be off with his mind, that he wasn't in control.

"It altered his consciousness slowly and caused his body and mind to decay away," Gabriel said, showing me the blood results. None of the other archangels knew I was investigating behind the scenes, considering they were mostly against me.

"What about Zayn's blood sample? Has Lucifer released his body completely into our care yet?" I asked.

"He allowed me to investigate in his castle, but under supervision. Only Archdemon Lucifer and Archdemon Grace know about your change in position."

"Good. And his results?"

"The same drug was in his sample, he was dead long before it was staged. Someone had to know how to get past the wards in that prison because they were also down."

"This matches up then, but he wasn't completely dead or else samples of the wrath daggers wouldn't have been found," I thought out loud. I had told Gabriel about the wrath daggers and how only three of them existed.

"The crazy thing is the drug found in their systems. It was phencyclidine, also known as-"

"Angel dust."

"That's correct, Rosalina," he paused and pulled out a sample of the drug as I sat at my desk. "It's not easy to create, but one of the archangels on the council has been mass producing and selling it, according to my sources, meaning the leak is one of us."

"I'm not surprised, truly. I knew it was a council member, not the question remains who killed them both."

At that moment, the door opened and another burst of power coursed through my veins, but it was only a flicker.

"You... didn't kill my son?" Razael asked, his eyes clouded and misty.

"Archangel Razael, I may have not been on... rather great terms with your son... but I am no murderer," I paused and stood, walking to him and placing my hand on his shoulder. "Even with everything he did to me, I did not kill him."

Razael broke then and I held him up. I had never seen a man cry as much as he did, and it made me pity him and his broken heart.

"Thank you, Archangel Rosalina, thank you," he cried.

Suddenly, the power came back and I felt the bond slip in place.

"Razael..."

"Find him."

"Find who?"

"Find the bastard who ruined my son, Archangel Rosalina," he paused to pull back to stare into my eyes. "Find him and make him pay for the pain he's caused us both over my child."

I blinked, realizing something. If he was this bad around the same time as my dad, then they both had to have it in their systems for a long period of time. Meaning Razael was right, someone changed his son.

They made him as bad as they made Michael.

"I promise, Razael, I will find him and I will make him pay."

After Razael composed himself, Gabriel escorted him out and to his room. I plopped down in my chair, mulling over all the new details I had.

As I dozed off to see Mauraline for her training session, I was left with more questions than answers.