Fallen Angels

It began on a tireless Friday night in Greenwich Massachusetts. Rhea Black was working the late shift at The Blue Moon, a small 24 hour diner on the main downtown strip. Her shift was supposed to be over hours ago but as usual she was talked into covering for her friend Selene Valo for the third time that week. Selene was constantly coming up with reasons not to work and Rhea was getting really sick of covering for her. Had they not been so close, Rhea would have told her how she felt. Rhea and Selene have been friends ever since Rhea was 4 but she started to really lean on Selene when her parents died 8 years ago in a car accident. Mr. Moony, Rhea's boss began making his way towards her while she was filling the sugar jars and restocking all the tables. "Rhea..." he cleared his throat, "If you take care of the table in the corner, you can go home once they leave." Mr. Moony was always really nice to Rhea because he had been friends with her parents. "Thank you Mr. Moony, I appreciate it. I have a paper I need to finish for class" Rhea said smiling until she saw who was sitting at the table. It was her ex boyfriend Alastor Lenox. They had broken up the summer her parents died. She sighed and walked towards the table. Of course, he was sitting with Shax, Lillith, and Kali. Three of the most useless people, in Rhea's opinion, she had ever met. They all came from money especially Alastor. His father owned a bunch of trendy night clubs throughout Massachusetts and New York. "Hey baby, I was just talking about you." Alastor said with a smug look on his face. "Don't call me baby," Rhea said glaring at him and the people he chose to spend time with. "Just let me take your order and get it to you so I can go home and forget I saw you." With that, Alastor stood up and smiled at her, "I love it when you are feisty baby." At that moment, Mr. Moony walked up behind Rhea, "Rhea, you know what, go ahead and go home. I will deal with this table for you. You've had a long night. In fact, why don't you take a few days off?" Rhea loved him at that moment. "Thank you so much Mr. Moony...really...thank you." Rhea said glaring once more at Alastor. She went to the back, grabbed her coat and purse, and headed out. Her car was parked behind the restaurant so she never walked to it without her pepper spray. Once she was in her car, she put the key in the ignition and tried to start it. She was constantly having issues with it not starting. Fortunately it started on the 2nd try. She reached over and pushed a CD into the CD player and by the time the music began she started to relax.



Meanwhile back at the diner, Alastor was in an argument with his friends. "You know Rhea very well Alastor...she will never believe what she is until someone shows her. And by "someone" I mean you. And by "show her" I don't mean scare the crap out of her." Lillith said getting exhausted. "Lillith, please shut your mouth long enough for someone to tell you once again what has been said 5,000 fucking times...she will not listen to me. She hates me. Why would she believe anything I say to her?" asked Alastor. Lillith sighed loudly, "Because my dear Alastor...she still loves you. I see it on her face when you are near her. She looks around like she doesn't want to look bad to you. And I have seen her look in the mirror right before talking to you. She may act like she doesn't want you but I can see that she does." "Aw, my baby is a romantic," Shax said grinning at Lillith. Lillith smiled and if she had blood in her veins, she would have blushed. "Okay, fine. I will try to convince the woman I'm in love with that she is a witch and I'm a vampire, and that we have to procreate if she wants to save what's left of her family. Sound good?" Alastor said sadly. "Alastor, honestly...you know she will forgive you. After all, it was your dad that killed her parents, not you." Kali said trying to be helpful. "Kali, while I value your opinion. It is not needed. Whether I did it or not, I still knew how they died and never told her. She is going to hate me." Alastor said sadly. "It's never too late to tell the truth." Kali said although saddened by Alastor's animosity towards her. Kali has, for the longest time, had a huge crush on Alastor...everyone except Alastor knew about the crush. Unfortunately, Alastor's heart and future belonged to Rhea...and Kali wasn't dumb enough to even try with him. "Do any of you have any idea how hard it is to see the woman you love everyday and know you can never have her? I feel like the instant she knows the truth and knows how fucked up my family is she will never want to have anything to do with me again." Alastor said sadly while Mr. Moony was within earshot. "I love her more than I love myself...but I know she doesn't."



Halfway towards her house, Rhea noticed her car starting to overheat so she pulled off to the side of the road and pulled out her cell phone. Unfortunately, Rhea lived out in the middle of nowhere and the closest to civilization was back towards the The Blue Moon. She tried to call Selene but of course Selene was still sleeping off a hang over from the night before, hence why she wasn't at work. Rhea finally realized that the only other person she could call was Alastor because no one else she knew would be awake at two o'clock in the morning. It rang a half a ring before he answered. "Hello gorgeous, I was just talking about you."

"I'm flattered," she said dryly, "listen, I realize you are very busy right now hanging out with your friends, but my car is pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of BFE and I need some help. Please don't read too much into it."

"Alright, do you see any signs or do you have an idea where you are at?" Alastor asked. "Yeah, I'm halfway between the cafe and my house. Can you please come get me or help me get my car running?" Rhea asked in a slightly fake sweet voice. "Give me about ten minutes." Alastor said and hung up. "Why do I feel like I just made a deal with the devil..." Rhea said to herself. Ten minutes later exactly, Alastor pulled up and parked his car behind Rhea's. "I tried to get here quicker. I didn't want you out here in the dark too long by yourself." He said smiling at her. Rhea sighed, "I'm fine Alastor. Believe it or not I can take care of myself...as long as mechanics aren't involved." Alastor began to walk around the back side of his car to grab the two big water bottles he got from Mr. Moony, once he knew who the water bottles were for. Rhea already had the hood of her car up but he could tell by just being close to her car that it was still too hot to put the water in it. "Well, we pretty much have to wait about twenty minutes for the car to cool off before I can do anything." Alastor said and saw the look of irritation on Rhea's face. "Damn, I need to get home, I have a huge paper I haven't gotten to work on. I was hoping to get it done tonight but that's pretty well fucking shot and now lucky lucky me, I get to spending twenty minutes with my ex. Yippee." Rhea said irritated. Trying to not look hurt, Alastor asked, "Look, I know it's not how you wanted to end your night but do you want to go back to The Blue Moon and get some ice cream or something?"

"Yeah, why not? I'm not going to get anything productive done right now anyway." With that she got in the passenger side door on Alastor's BMW convertable. She laughed when he turned the key because instantly 30 Seconds to Mars began to blast throughout the car. Alastor quickly turned it down. "Heh, sorry about that." Rhea started to get a slight feeling of nostalgia and quickly shook it off. "You haven't changed. I bet you still go down to the bridge every day."

"Well, not everyday. I have gone there less and less lately but that's probably because you don't go with me any more." Alastor said.

"What, so just because we broke up you stopped going to the last place you saw your brother alive? That's silly, Alastor. You went there before you and I got together. Why would you change that over me?"

Alastor pulled off the road slowly, put it in park, and turned to face Rhea. "The reason I stopped is because even though I get emotional about my brother being gone, I always felt like with you there, there was nothing I couldn't face. Nothing I couldn't handle, because I had the most beautiful woman I have ever met by my side. And now I get sad because she's not there anymore." With that, he started the car and they both sat in silence the rest of the way.

Rhea felt bad about what she had said to him. About two years before she and Alastor had met, his brother Sebastian got wasted at a party and drove off the Greenwich city bridge. Alastor said that he knew the instant his brother stopped breathing...although never explained how.

Alastor was always a much different person when he wasn't around his friends. He was sweet, romantic, and he treated her like a princess. The instant he got around his friends though, he became this smartassed, annoying, control freak until she couldn't keep up with his mood swings anymore. It was always extremely frustrating for Rhea because she was the only person he had ever let see his good side. Selene always told her they looked good together but at the same time, she never liked him and made it well known.



(To be continued)