Losing Faith

The name that could be used for many different things.

It belonged to her though. Before him, before the country, it was her.

One side hunted the demon in her. The other side persecuted her for the angel in her. What was one to do when a birth happened from both sides but was united into one bloodline. Technically, she was neither allowed in heaven and in purgatory she would be outcasted. At least, it was a place to belong. She had defended against Zefiel, Michael and Gabriel when a bounty was placed on her head. The latest attempts were that of legendary demon executioner, Genesis. Though she was older and faster, Israel was sly and elusive. Her tracking abilities through different planes was also extraordinary as she became another kind of bounty hunter for both sides. Race was not an option, and her blood held both so she killed both. It made no difference to her.

One fateful night, everything changed. Her trigger never fired on one but she was gone before she could let herself be broken by a single gaze. He was there. She was gone. Leaning against the wall, she constantly looked over her shoulder and kept running when darkness fell and rested when the light returned. Midnight was her most dangerous hour and on one night only she stayed inside because too many were out and that was risking too much. And she was already risking so much when the night she left one of her targets intact. One arrow made from the depths of hell could have pierced his heart and sent him to the fiery depths for Lucifer to claim him as his own. Stolen made arrows from both sides was an accomplished weapon because she could hunt both sides.

When his voice echoed through the night, she was automatically in her guard. Turning around, she faced the new predator that stalked her like every other bounty hunter looking for their next prize. She would not be his. Her modified Samuel Colt was already postioned up towards his face, and one shot straight between the eyes would do it. Breathing in, she felt the fire rising from her deepest darkness but it had been calmed by the inner light. It was dim but she still had one.

"The past where you tried to have me killed? Where Lucifer tried to have me killed? How exilerating that is, to outrun everyone twenty-four hours a day." Israel commented. Tossing her long black hair from her face, she could see him clearly. "I say you should leave us alone. We didn't ask to be what we were. You have a problem with me, then Raphael should have not been seduced so easily by Carmina. I say, I should put a bullet between your eyes. Do you know what kind of rounds these are?"

A smirk curved the corners of her lips upwards. "Specially designed bullets engineered to kill your kind."

She still maintained a reactionary gap between them. Zefiel was powerful and not someone you wanted to mess with though she did anyway. Like he said, she was famous. Why? She really didn't have the time to find out. There was a long pause as she surveyed the area and slipped the gun back into the thigh holster on her right leg. She only needed one there and the hidden holsters that housed a gun engineered to destory demons. Sighing, she looked at him.

"I doubt they could catch me. Even your Executioner had trouble tracking me, that's why I am the best in the business. You should really stay up to date, Zefiel." Israel looked undetered, instead she made more mockery of it. "It's kind of sad actually. I would have thought after our first meeting you could man up and come for me yourself, but no, you go and take others to do your work."

He was quick, but her blade tipped with silver nitrate was pulled from its sheath on her holster and to his side. If she were to die, he would not be the only one left standing. Though it would not kill him, it was certainly weaken him quite a bit. There was nothing she did without a fight. Now, he was telling her that she had twenty-four hours to respond but her gaze never faltered.

"It's about time, Z." Iza only chuckled. Everything was amusing. When she was little, her mother told her to live each day like it was going to be your last. "You know, my mother made me come up with my last request when I was young. And, once I clued into the fact that life is finite, the thought of losing it doesn't scare me anymore. The end comes no matter what, the only thing that matters is how do you wanna go out, on your feet or on your knees? I bring that lesson to this job. I act, knowing that someday this life will end, no matter what. You should do the same. "

After he dropped his to sheath it, she mirrored his image and turned around to walk away from him. He was her weakness. Though no one could tell it from looking at the way they acted. She hated him as much as she hated the Executioner. Enemies were all she knew of and Cannan was just an acquaintance. Much like her, he wandered around alone but his stunt with marrying the Executioner sent waves throughout both sides. A union. And if another child was born, that child would live the same life she would. On the run, no matter how much its parents protected it.

When she reached another corner, she rounded it quickly and slammed her back against the wall. It was then she released her pent up fright. She never showed it as she leaned her head against the wall to anticipate her other weakness, battling of her sides. "God help me."

24 hours later...

Israel was standing in the same exact spot she had been where Zefiel had come to offer her a treaty. More of a buy-off. She would not be bought so easily, this was her home as much as it belonged to Raphael, her father. She never forgot where she had come from but the newfound courage was enough as she stood there, the black leather jacket whisping in the wind behind her.

"My answer is I will not be pushed around because you think my kind are abominations." She shrugged her shoulders.

Her chin lifted as she breathed in. She knew the consequences she lived everyday and now the daughter of the Archangel, Raphael would not be turned away from a city she was already righted to. She was claiming her title. Guardian angel. Her fear was overcome by her confidence that her father would protect his only daughter. No one would touch her. She killed both and did not care who she did it to. When both sides rejected her, she had no alliance with anyone.

"If you harm the daughter of your brother, thats a serious consequence against that."

Her own was unsheathed at a speed unheard of for her kind. Being a hybrid between the two made her something entirely different though the consequences were far greater. no one understood the battles she fought when she was alone. Shaking uncontrollably, sweating, and mentally becoming unstable was something she dealt with all her life. Raphael was no help, he would only when she was in dire need of something but nothing else he would help her with. Her mother only wanted dominance as she would not.

Dropping her own, she watched her. There was a pure tired look in her eyes as she shook her head. "You do what you have to do, Zefiel. I'm not some child you are going to be pushing around. Genesis and Canaan would kill you in a minute even if you threatened her. Me on the other hand, I just dont care."

She watched him walk away. There was a moment where she just sighed and turned around, walking in the opposite direction. Where he had kissed her on the cheek was burning. The feeling was the demonic sense in her. In one night, she had been mortally wounded, killed four bounty hunters, and faced the Archangel Zefiel only to live to see another day. She would watch the sunrise this morning, thanking anyone who was looking out for her for another day she could do her job. She was a guardian angel, she stopped ordinary crime in a city that everybody forgot.

Zefiel's Home

The speed of her Ninja was impressive as she pulled into the driveway and parked her vehicle in the front of his home. It was probably not the place where it was supposed to go but at the moment, a bed sounded so much better than anything else. Walking up the front of his house, she pushed open the door before the dromo who worked for him could say anything to her. She looked around, admired the work that had been done intensively to the house. Zefiel probably had his own personal touches done before the painters could have come in and did their own thing. There was probably an extensive plan that had been laid down before he had the place built.

Walking up the stairs, she found the room he had been talking about. She closed the door behind her and slipped her shoulders from the long black leather coat. She hissed. The angelic arrow that had pierced in the shoulder was stinging. Though it would probably be another scar she possessed as she doffed the coat onto the large bed stationed in the middle of the room. Next came her black leather vest, black jeans, and boots that were stationed up to her knees. There was blood on the inside of the shirt, along with a puncture marks where she had been hit. The bathroom was occupied in a minute as she turned on the water and stepped underneath the scorching hot water. She closed her eyes and ran her hand over her forehead before she looked and watched the blood wash from her skin.

Mortality was a bitch...