Page 45 of Roman

“This is unbelievable.What the hell was on that scroll?”Lucian asked.

“It’s a prophecy.A powerful spell.It has instructions on how to perform the ritual Lucifer needs to get out of Hell.”

Roman slammed his fist on the table.“The Vatican had this knowledge the whole time and never once thought to tell us there was a way he could get out?You, Ramiel.Surely, you read this all those years ago.Yet you told us nothing?”

Ramiel’s face went cold, the tattoos covering his skull standing out under the light of the room, his dark brown eyes narrowing.“You really think that of me, Roman?You all know goddamn well that there’s a whole secret chamber locked up tight.They never allowed me access to it.No matter how much I asked.This scroll was obviously from there.If I’d ever come across anything even hinting he could get free, I would have told you straight away.Hell, I would have stolen the damn thing myself.”

Roman felt guilty that he’d even insinuated Ramiel would do such a thing.Out of all the angels, he’d been the only one to stay true to their faith.The rest of the angels lived mostly a life of sin if one followed The Bible.Mind, the mortals did not know the so-called Bible they followed was utter rubbish.Over the centuries, people copied and rewrote it so many times that most of it was an exaggerated fabrication.The Vatican had been furious when they discovered Ramiel had the original book, which was written long before the human version existed, and despite the pope’s decades of begging, Ramiel refused to give it to the churches.Ramiel had chosen to stay true to the Almighty for all these years.There was just no way he could be the one who’d betrayed them all.

Roman shook his head.“No, of course not.Forgive me, Ramiel.This talk of betrayal has made me uneasy.”

“The humans don’t trust us.You know this, Roman.They never have, not since the chaos we caused so long ago,” Ariel told him calmly.

“Look, I spoke with the cardinal who takes care of everything in the vault.He told me what was on the scroll.Lucifer needs a prophet who has the blood of an angel in their veins.He must kill them at one of the gates leading to Hell.He requires a powerful witch to help open the seals.After spilling the blood and draining the life force of the prophet, he will be able to pass through… Everything will be able to pass through,” Ramiel said.

Silence swallowed the room.Roman knew what most of them were thinking.

What should they do about Charlotte?

“Is she a prophet?Does she have visions of the future?”Maalik asked with a frown.

Roman stared into his whiskey, wondering why everything always had to be so fucking hard.“Yes… she has visions.”

“And you never thought to share that information with the rest of us?”Maalik glared at him.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on.I witnessed her have a nightmare in her cell when we first brought her here.The injuries she sustained while asleep followed her through to this plane.She said she was being chased by demons.I thought little of it until I spoke to Armaros.He has been having the same visions, or more, appearing in hers.He said it has been happening for years, since she was younger.That he’d been protecting her and keeping watch over her.Until they both saw each other back when we rescued her the first time, they both thought the other didn’t exist and that they’d just been having normal dreams.Then, all this happened, and I kind of got a bit preoccupied with current events,” he said, feeling guilty.

“We can’t kill her now,” Lucian said quietly.

“We never were,” Roman snapped.

“If she is a prophet, we should keep her.They are rare.She could help us,” Lucian added, ignoring Roman’s outburst.

“What does it mean when the prophecy says the blood of an angel in her veins?Is that implying one of us at one stage had a child?”Grigori asked, eating a cold slice of pizza.

“We would know, surely.I thought all the Nephilim had been wiped out during the witch wars.They made it their business to make sure we didn’t reproduce.”Cael frowned, looking at everyone, scratching his beard.His sun-bleached blond hair hung loose just above his shoulders, and his storm-gray eyes flickered around the table, watching everyone closely.

He had heavily tattooed his arms, hands, and body.His neck, hidden under his beard, bore elaborate mandala tattoos that continued down under his shirt.His ribs and stomach had a menacing giant skull head, which looked eerily real.When he had his shirt off, he looked like he was the bringer of death.

Cael was one of the rare few fallen who chose not to live in the mansion, like Sabriel.He had a condo over in Malibu on the beach.He was an adrenaline junkie and addicted to surfing.When not doing some kind of extreme sport, he was being a playboy and jet-setting off to other countries.His favorite place was Queensland, in Australia.He would disappear for months and be hard to get in contact with.Once, Roman had asked why the infatuation with the place, and his simple reply was:It’s peaceful.

“There are other groups of angels as well as many rogue fallen around the world who chose to disappear and blend in.Many of them could have families, children, an entire line of descendants, and we wouldn’t even know about it,” Ariel said quietly.

“Ariel’s right.There could easily be Nephilim.Not everyone has been as careful as we have,” said Roman.

When they had first fallen and rampaged, causing chaos around the world, there had been… accidents.The mating between angels and mortals had created Nephilim, a half-angel and half-human breed.They quickly learned these babies had enormous powers, unpredictable ones at that.The witches moved through the planet, eradicating every baby that an angel made, escalating the hatred and the war between the two species.

Dark times, indeed.Roman inwardly shivered at the horrible memories.

“I agree.We all know it’s not a descendant of one of us, and as far as we know, the other fallen angel clans have lived by the same strict rules as we do, so I doubt it would be any of them.It’s obviously from a rogue angel.It would be impossible to even track the angel down.If they were active in Charlotte’s life or knew of her existence, they would have come to her aid by now, surely,” Roman said, taking another sip of his whiskey, ready to retreat to his room… to Charlotte.

“Maybe there is a way for Armaros to track her bloodline?Maybe the witches could help him,” Lucian said, sitting back in his chair, yawning.

“Once Armaros is awake, we should at least ask if he could do it.Now that we know her role in this, we should try to find out more about her past,” Grigori suggested, reaching for his fourth slice of pizza.

Roman nodded, agreeing with them.

“I think we can also all agree, now that we know what Charlotte is, killing her isn’t an option.We can’t let Lucifer get hold of her, either.Our first responsibility is to the people on this Earth and the heavens.If he gets out, that’s the end of days.He will slaughter everyone, and once he wipes out all living beings here, he will turn to the heavens and try to take the Almighty’s throne.We can’t let that happen,” Maalik told them.

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