Locket {24}

They stood in silence, a simmering anger rioting the very air Maia struggled to breathe; but she held fast- keeping her barrier invisible to the eyes strong.

Lorelei must have sensed the newfound wave of protectiveness that lurched over Maia at her words… watching as the angel clutched the locket tightly.

To even think of letting it fall into the dybbuks hands… it revolted Maia to her very core. Instinctually, her fingers tightened their grip, grazing from the metallic dig the chain provided. It was safe with her.

"How did you acquire such a piece, angel? Must have pulled a few strings there…" she grinned, face indistinguishable from the beading eyes.

Since Lorelei's transformation, her voice held a distorted edge to it, inhumane by nature.

Maia answered with silence, not wanting to divulge anything.

The dybbuk caught on. "Playing hush are we? It's boring if you don't tell me you know" her -what looked like a hand- trickled down the space between them, the air rebounding like a soft break in the waters surface… it still held.

Still, she felt anxious, that pit inside her stomach growing deeper. It will hold. It will hold. It has to hold.

However, even with eyes blind to their presence, it still felt as if an audience was watching, monitoring and judging them closely; even from afar.

Her eyes darted, muscles tightening.

Maia's words were strong, wings ruffling. She would entertain.

"One soul, no more, and no less" she breathed, eyes hard and fast, "happy? What does it mean to you?"

That locket had been given to her by Skye, by the original who befriended the angels she were supposed to control. Without knowing, Maia's own heart thundered at the thoughts surfacing, the locket, Jax… something else was at play here, and she needed to know what the hell it was. But before she could get lost in a sea of questions, the dybbuk growled; the vessel stirring at the change in atmosphere beneath her, like a turn in sleep.

The woman… she grimaced, surveying her… lying limp and slack against the floor like abandoned baggage… whomever the angel was that had suffered a fate of watching their human be engulfed by such a distasteful creature... may they have mercy.

Yet said distasteful creature hissed, pinning her eye contact back from the puppet and up to the puppeteer.

"Collecting more than one soul, especially at his rarity, could be my ticket to freedom" her eyes glinted in a sadistic light, "And that locket… retrieving it would grant me a favour"

Maia swallowed, her power waining; the diluting strength flowing through could not amount to when it was tethered to the guardian's… to when Skye took her place above them at full capacity. It was strenuous to maintain.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to hide the struggle as much as possible, needing to stall for time.

Holding fast, Maia openly gazed to the form of a Dybbuk, how mystifyingly terrifying… "Freedom? You hardly seem the type to be controlled- as far as I know, Dybbuk's work alone to harvest souls to sustain theirselves. There is no need for co-operation"

"And what would a guardian who has its deity protecting over them understand of grovelling for freedom?"

Maia struck first. "More than you know"

Those words seemed to stick to the dybbuk. An emotion bubbling behind those dark eyes remained unclear, foggy to understand but it was there. Something besides anger.

"We angels who serve under her know pain, and suffer as any mortal does"

Lorelei shook her head, clicking her tongue, "But angels aren't supposed to have emotions… so what makes you so different?"

Maia licked her chapped lips, frozen for words.

"What made you develop emotions like the lesser beings you righteously protect?"

Blinking slowly, in time with her own heartbeat, the angel who until now had always felt sure of themselves stumbled upon a dybbuks words…

Her emotions; truthfully, she didn't know.

The locket… it trembled within her palm, heating between her enclosed palm as if assisting in an answer- and then it clicked.

"I have emotions because I was supposed to have them" Maia stared down, "Without them I would not have been able to keep my human safe"

Lorelei rolled her eyes, her aura getting darker by the second whether she knew it or not. "Humans make my skin crawl, they disgust me"

"Yet you take the form of one?"

Lorelei snickered, "Not by choice"

Maia stepped back, suddenly very conscious of a stirring Jax that somehow wasn't noticeable.

"They don't deserve your protection, so they certainly don't deserve your tears"

Needing to keep her talking, distracted from her objective, the angel spoke, "They may not deserve my tears, but that won't stop me from crying them Dybbuk, I don't understand how you do not realise this"

"Use my name" Lorelei spat, the contents of the angels words focused around her description rather than message.

Great.

Mouth clenching, Lorelei screamed, "We've gone over this- surely it's not hard!?"

Maia huffed, "Lorelei, I'm sorry, but that is what you are, a name cannot change that you are undisputedly a Dybbuk"

That clouded emotion in her eye that had felt like a mirror dispersed along with her power, the invisible wall cracking at the creature's constant apply of pressure.

"That name you speak so radically of is the one I gave myself- a name to give my pointless life meaning" Lorelei growled, low and rumbling, "I am not something that can be treated like this, I am a creation of the divine as you are, I have name as you have one" she paused, "Maia"

The tension was gruesome, a part of the guardian tugging her lips to a frown at the sorrow she felt for Lorelei- it couldn't be helped.

But the impeding danger of that barrier having fallen shocked her system more so.

And just when it could have not been timed any worse, below them, Jax had winced at an attempt to move. It had not gone unnoticed this time, drawing back unwanted attention; his angel stepping further back.

She seemed distracted, face withdrawn from the conversation the moment Jax moved. Lorelei caught on.

"So you were stalling for time, huh…" she drew out, a long sigh chilling Maia's spine. She paused, eyes flourishing around her, evaluating the surroundings.

And she could sense another angel coming by, in fact… multiple angels, one slightly weaker than the rest.

Cringing, the dybbuk leant back, deciding it was time up.

"Leaving so soon?" Maia questioned, "I was enjoying our little chat you know"

Lorelei deadpanned, consumed by an untameable anger.

"Believe me when I say it's not over"

Maia swallowed her words.

"I know when I'm beat, and I'm no martyr" her words crumbled under her power, it's fog merging, seeping back into the woman as she arose like a puppet pulled by non-existent strings.

Maia had to hold back the urge to intervene… if she were her former self- she could send the dybbuk back to where it came from. But with the look on the woman's face… how cold and pale she was… there was nothing left to save, void of everything that made her human.

As if a re-awaking a machine, the dybbuk spat, now in the voice of a beautiful woman who's cheeks held blooming colour, "Humans are such fickle creatures, I don't know how they aren't dead"

"Because they have guardians keeping them safe from the likes of you" Maia spoke the words on her tongue like instinct before her mind could process them.

Lorelei, to Maia's confusion laughed sinisterly, "I like you- you're interesting…" her eyes darted to the locket, "And when I claim what's mine, you'll be fun to kill"

With a wave of her hand, her body was gone, wrapped in black smoke that merged to the air everyone in that bus breathed.

Maia released a heavy sigh filled with her worries.

A chronic ache lined her bones, sinking her face as she finally felt the repercussions of her expenditure do as it pleased.

She clutched her chest, her ribs strangling her lungs. It was horrible.

So much strength, that Dybbuk held more power than they realised and it was eating away at Maia's power faster than usual.

Lorelei was not a normal Dybbuk.

Behind her, Jax at this point had passed out and she was thankful for it- unable to bare the idea of him seeing his angel in such a state.

Still, she clutched the locket, safe and sound within her grasp that contained the soul of Jax's mother.

-

Lorelei scowled, her face border-lining scary at how pissed she was. A dam angel had intervened.

And when she heard it, her mood soured further.

A voice spoke from the darkness, cockiness lacing every syllable with an edge of boredom, "She won't be happy with this"

Lorelei mused, human eyes greeting another pair, painstakingly similar to her own, "I don't care"

She stared to the shadows, a groan bubbling at the back of her throat, "I'm already dead"