Renata
"I can't fathom such a thing," Nirvi continued to explain from the front seat of the car. Tahoma was driving and the other two sat quietly in the back. "In all of my existence, stragglers have always been lone creatures who avoid the company of undying at all costs."
"You don't think Balam is behind this?"
Nirvi scoffed. "She can't afford a war with us. She doesn't have the numbers or the means to make a 'straggler army'. It can't be her or her people."
"Perhaps a smaller clan," Tahoma suggested.
Nirvi shook her head. "Not likely. It's possible. I am not overestimating my own reach or underestimating theirs, it's just...something isn't adding up."
Renata agreed. She felt she was finally getting closer to an answer, yet as she looked out into the pitch-black night, she wondered if this wasn't going to be a good kind of revelation they came upon. The foreboding sensation bubbling in her chest burned like acid, and she wanted to run away and hide until all of her problems simply went away. Alas, that was not a viable option. "Well, unless they've evolved overnight, someone is behind it," Renata added her own thoughts.
"You're right," Nirvi agreed, "let us hope we find out who as soon as possible. The idea of having an unknown enemy who is capable of swaying the power of stragglers is unsettling to say the least."
After a few more miles, they pulled into the parking lot of the diner. She imagined how she and Tahoma had sat in that diner not hours ago, unable to enjoy their hamburgers and onion rings.
The car engine cut off, and there was this moment of deafening silence. That impulsive part of her wanted to fill it with her frustrated screams. Instead, Nirvi sighed. "Let's get this over with. And remember...whatever happens, stay sharp." The four of them exited the car, immediately surrounded by Nirvi's most lethal guards.
Renata agreed with Tahoma when he said these people wouldn't make a difference, but if it brought some level of comfort, she wouldn't question their presence.
The air was more crisp then she last recalled. The bite of the air felt like a warning.
They entered the diner, and there Keone was. With his annoying buzz cut. His annoying tan complexion. His annoyingly sharp jawline. His frustratingly calm expression. And don't get her started on those bright, jewel-like eyes! That red which plagued far too many of her nightmares.
He stood up from his seat and eyed the extra security. "Are they really necessary?"
"Nevermind them," Nirvi spoke up with her smoothly diplomatic tone, "where is Angel?"
Keone kept his hands folded behind his back. "He'll be here soon. Just to be clear, this meeting was set up with Renata."
"Renata falls under my protection. Did you really think I would let her come here on her own?"
"She's her own womanâ"
"She is right here!" Renata snapped, stepping from in between Rocio and Tahoma who took it upon themselves to be her human shields. If she learned anything from their most recent conversation, it was that she was the only one actually safe. "It's ten, whereâ" She cut herself off as she felt goosebumps rise across her skin, tingling at the back of her neck and crawling to the middle of her back. She gasped and took a step back as the famed Angel stepped from the shadows.
He was tall. Dark brown complexion. Deep, wise, black eyes. Shortly cropped hair. Wide nose. Firm lips set in a stern line. Handsome. Strangely normal.
She felt an odd pulling sensation at the center of her chest, and she knew deep in her heart that it was connected to him. There was this snapping tension between them that she didn't quite understand. It was uncomfortable and made her feel out of control. It made her feel that maybe he was not safe to be around.
His unassuming eyes set upon her own searching ones. Though she did not know him at all, the grim reaper, she knew it was  of his when his features crinkled with confusion. His wide hand settled on the center of his chest, and everyone recoiled when he gave a quiet gasp.
Keone looked back with a frown, confirming everyone's suspicions that something was wrong. "Angel?"
The man shook his head, and he looked in amazement at Renata. "What is that?"
Renata looked down at herself, as though the answers to his random question would come to mind. "I don't know."
His features began to harden. "Stop doing it."
Renata looked around at her allies who only responded with their own bewildered expressions. "I'm not doing anything." She took a step forward, but this only worsened that tightening feeling between them. Her muscles tightened and swelled with...power?
Angel surprised everyone by taking a step back. "Stop what you're doing girl, this will not end well." His own hand clutched at his shirt. "That's enough."
Renata was not in the mood for more confusion. She stepped forward again, motivated by a building frustration. "You said you would help me. You said you would end my suffering. Why won't you help me?"
Keone began to approach his boss. "Angel, what's going on?"
"Stop coming closer!" Angel snapped. "This will not work. I cannot help you."
Hearing those words were more devastating than she thought they'd be. They shot straight through her body, leaving behind holes, and in those holes a freezing cold filled them.
"That's it?" Her voice deepened with emotion. "You won't help me?"
At this point, he was shaking with tremors. "I can't. I was wrong before to think I could help you. We'll only hurt each other. I must leave." Big shadows burst from his back and she just knew he was going to disappear into them.
"You mean I'll hurt you," she said out loud right as the realization hit her. "You're afraid of me."
He froze at her words, giving her all the confirmation she needed.
"You don't understand what this means," he warned as the shadows became bigger and bigger, "for you, for the world. Don't push this. I will leave, and that will be that." Resolve filled his expression. Slight confidence returned. He went to turn his back on everyone, even Keone who stood in complete disbelief.
Renata didn't know what she was doing. She acted on instinct. She acted out of desperation. She threw up a hand, reaching for those shadows. To her utter shock, they stilled and began slithering toward her. "You are not leaving like this. You will stay." Her voice didn't sound like her own. It was authoritative and unyielding.
Angel looked at the shadows and stomped his foot on the ground. The sound of it echoed so loud she thought her eardrums were going to burst. Everyone else flinched back in pain, but Renata remained standing tall. His eyes narrowed. "What do you think you're doing? Don't start something you cannot finish."
Her muscles strained and she had the vague sense that they were playing an otherworldly version of tug-of-war. "This is your fault," she snapped, "I don't know how, but seeing you here and now, I know this has to do with you."
"Let go," he gritted from between his white teeth. As each second passed, he looked more and more menacing.
"No."
"Ma," Tahoma whispered to the side, "you feel that?"
Nirvi nodded. "I hear them. Way too quiet, but they're coming."
"That's way too manyâ" Rocio screamed as she looked over.
Renata jumped and looked to the side to see the diner windows were completely obscured by the bodies of the monstrous looking straggler. She stumbled into her sister and looked back at Angel.
"Shoot them!" Nirvi commanded. And just like that, the chaos began.
Renata covered her ears and Tahoma tried to drag her away, but she was unmovable. So was Angel, whose focus was solely on her. When he spoke, he did not shout above the deafening noise of guns, shattering glass, and screams. "It does not matter how many pathetic bullets you use, I will only raise my puppets once more."
"It was you!" Nirvi shouted. "You sent the stragglers."
"Angel," Keone walked closer, "this isn't like you. What is going on?"
The grim reaper spared a brief look at his top soldier. "You've been a loyal servant. We tried your way, now we're trying mine."
"By hurting Renata?"
Angel looked like a completely different person from then and the first moment he emerged from the shadows. "I will not relinquish my power. I am eternal. I will not die." His eyes cut to her, and her stomach dropped. "You've left me no choice, Renata."
"Renata!" Tahoma pleaded. "We have to get you out of here!"
The stragglers were breaching the windows and gradually making their way deeper into the diner. Renata felt like her heart would soon burst from her chest like a scene from Alien. She didn't know what she expected from meeting with Death, but this was the worst case scenario.
Just my luck.
But she would not give in so easily. She raised her other hand and pulled with more conviction than before. "Stop this," she commanded.
"I am the end of all life," he responded calmly, "I have been here since the first breath, the first transformation, the first growth. You have no idea what you are against." His face turned concentrated and he pulled right back.
She looked around at the terrified faces of her companions who had no idea what the hell was happening between them. Not that she truly did either.
"Both of you, stop it!" Keone yelled over the chaos.
It was too late.
Renata took a step forward, and a look of victory splashed across Angel's features, but he didn't understand that she did this only to have more leverage. She screamed and she yanked at the shadows, at his power and absorbing it into herself.
His face turned panicked in a very human fashion. "No!" He shouted, yanking at the same time.
Whatever fight they engaged in, it created a tension of power between them that could no longer take the pressure of being thrown back and forth. That final yank of unparalleled strength blew the two apart, casting a great, daunting black shadow across every which way, throwing everyone to the ground.
The shadows sliced through her, some of them catching in her. She landed on her back, the air knocked out of her. Blackness danced across her vision.
This was very, very bad.