First Estate Bk. 02: Destiny's Child

"There is the problem of capturing him," Raphael reminded them.

"Greyson, can you find him?" Benson asked.

"Yes, maybe not exactly; but I can tell he's in St. Petersburg," she said. "He's heavily warded."

"Who can break through that?" Sloan asked.

"Either one of you could sing him out," Raphael said. "We should practice. I'll play and Greyson will sing."

"Oh, my God," she said. "This is all just a big ploy to get me to sing!"

They all exploded into laughter and the tension was broken. They planned like conspirators. Benson was convinced that they should bring Lila on board and Sloan hated the idea. Greyson was ambivalent and Raphael didn't think it mattered.

"Of course it matters," Greyson told him. "I love Aunt Lila! What if we damage him or even kill him? What would she think if we just did that without giving her a chance to decide what she wants to do? For that matter, Lexi and Landry should know too."

"She's going to be so sad though," Sloan objected. "What if we could solve everything and she didn't ever need to know? I don't want her hurt any more than Greyson does. I'd rather cut off my arm! This is the woman that taught us all most of what we know. So far as we know, she's a very rare breed of cat. She's one of the few Nephilim in the history of the world that didn't go nuts when she came into her powers. She's been like a mother to all of us; well, not you Raphael, but how can we hurt her like that?"

"I just think she'd be hurt worse if we don't include her," Benson said. "I'd feel like I was stabbing her in the back. She trusts us. How will that work if we shut her out of this? How would you feel if you were being shut out? I don't think we should tell Landry or Lexi unless Lila wants us to."

In the end they left it up to Raphael. They all agreed that he was far older and wiser than they were and he decided to inform Lila. He suggested that Greyson communicate with her but she wouldn't do it.

"You bring her here," she told him. "I'm not about to send her something like this without being with her. She may need my love. It would be like breaking up with a boyfriend by text message."

Raphael agreed and in a moment Lila appeared. "Raphael? What the hell?" she snarled at him when she appeared. "I was taking a nap! What's wrong with you?"

"My apologies, beautiful lady," he bowed. "We required your presence in a matter of some urgency. I should have given you warning."

Greyson threw herself on Lila, sobbing into her chest and squeezing her tightly.

Lila embraced her and raised an enquiring eyebrow at Benson.

"Don't cry, little one," she stroked Greyson. "Whatever it is, Mamma is here. Benson, did you say something meant to her?"

"No," he shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry, Lila, but this is something we need to help you with, not the other way around."

Sloan quickly moved to embrace Lila as well and Raphael wrapped them all in fire.

"It's Orion, isn't it?" Lila asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Benson said. "I'm so sorry to have to tell you this. You're someone I love more than I can ever tell you, but Orion just set Sloan up. He was trying to either capture her or kill her, we don't know which. He had a lot of help and we just barely got her out. We hated to tell you, but I thought we owed it to you."

She disentangled herself from Raphael and the girls and walked to Benson. He wrapped her tall, muscular form in his arms and she sobbed into his chest.

"I've seen it coming for a while," she said. "I've been through this a dozen times and it's never any easier. God, I love him, Benson. Why do they turn out like this?" she wept brokenly.

"I don't know. I wish I did," he stroked her flame colored hair. "We're going to try to fix him. Maybe you can help. What do you think we should do?"

"I have no idea," she said. "You were all raised alike. Every one of you is my child and I've treated every one of you the same way. I don't know what happened to him. I've seen him becoming a twisted, broken thing and I didn't know how to stop it. I've never known. I'll help you all I can, but the only thing I've ever been able to do is destroy them. Greyson, you're better at this than all the rest of us put together. What can we do?"

"I can try to break him down and put him back together again, that's the only thing I know," Greyson said.

"There's no time like the present," Lila said.

End, section one.