Authors: Alivia Anders
in my ear. "What a weakling. Is that the best you can do, conjure a
little firework with your power? Such a sad excuse for Nephilim."
I roled over to give her a kick in the shins when I saw the
silver knife in her hand plunge straight into my rib cage. Pain shot
through me and I screamed. Then, for good measure she twisted it.
My eyes roled back into my head as I fought to stay awake.
"Get her out of here!" Someone shouted through the haze.
Arms slipped under my shoulders and dragged me up more steps.
Arms slipped under my shoulders and dragged me up more steps.
"It's going to be okay, Essalie, I promise it's going to be okay."
My eyes fluttered open to find Leo hovering above me,
eyebrows bunched together in worry. Blood smeared the front of
his tuxedo.
"Hope that was a rental," I made a weak joke and gave
him my best smile, surprised there wasn't any pain where the knife
had gone through my body. I looked down to see blood, lots of it.
"I'm so screwed though. Was that realy Abigail I saw or did I
halucinate that?"
"I'l tel you later, I promise," Leo gave a weak smile and
placed a hand to my cheek then puled me in for a hug.
"How touching, a last minute embrace." Chase said with
mock awe. Claws flung out towards us, each tip covered in
venom. I threw my hands out in front of me to create a shield of
fire, burning off his claws. Seeing the claws fail he then flung himself
straight through the wal of fire, a knife in one hand poised for my
heart.
Leo spun me around, keeping me tight in his arms as the
blade sunk into his back. He shuddered then colapsed the floor,
unmoving.
"Leo!"
I shrieked in horror, sinking to the ground and
placing my hands over the wound. Blood poured faster than it was
supposed to, bubbling and spreading in a smeared pool around
him. "Leo, you listen to me. You hold on, god dammit, you hold
on. Ursula loves you way too much for you to die like this." I
removed my bloody hands from the wound and cupped his ashen
face. "You do not get to die like this."
face. "You do not get to die like this."
He opened his mouth and coughed a bubble of blood. "Do
you trust me?"
"Yes, yes I do." I sobbed and hugged him closer. I didn't
care how much blood I got on my dress, as long as he lived.
Eyes drifting shut, he spoke in the faintest of whispers.
"Then go out...there and kick ass. Trust you-yourself because, I
trust you..." A final breath escaped his lips. I let out a guttural
scream and stood up, shaking from head to toe.
Al around the stadium seats and stage floor was a picture
of hel. Fire burned in patches as people tried to escape the big
top. Demons leap through the packs and slashed at whatever they
could consume, Kayden, Abigail, and Ursula al fighting their own
set of the demons.
Something inside of me snapped like a rubber band
stretched too thin. Rage bubbled under the surface as I looked
down to Leo's body and the surrounding chaos. Enough was
enough. Fire spread from my hands up and down my body,
bathing me in a blinding blue light. I reached further down into my
power, a shimmering silhouette of angel wings spreading from my
back.
I am Nephilim, created for war, built for destruction.
I sprinted down the steps and sent bursts of flame at any
demon that got in the way, incinerating them on the spot and
leaving only a puff of brimstone behind. Light bulbs crackled and
burst overhead, raining shards of glass. In two smooth jumps I
cleared couple of chairs, using the cushions for a little bounce to
cleared couple of chairs, using the cushions for a little bounce to
land right behind Kayden and pierce a demon through the heart.
"About time you opened that vein of magic," Kayden
caled over his shoulder as he twisted his arm into a makeshift
sword, slicing through one of the demons. "What kept you?"
"Where's Chase?" I screamed as I kiled two more with a
single shot of fire.
"Look up, lovely," Chase shoved his face in front of mine,
twisting his smile back to his ears. Grabbing onto my shoulders he
flung me into the air and I colapsed onto the smal plank of wood
connecting the wire in the center to both ends of the tent. Chase
balanced on the center of the wire, beckoning me forward.
But I was one step ahead of him. I flung my hands out and
released spirals of fire, wrapping it around him as I had with
Kayden when we practiced. He only laughed as I drew him in
closer and closer until he was hanging right in front of me.
"What a foolish little girl," he sneered with a gleam to his
teeth. Already the flames were doing their work of lacing up his
body and burning him to death, piece by smoldering piece. "Go
ahead and kil me," he said. "You've already marked your own
grave with your Watcher lying dead in cold blood."
I tightened my grip on the flames to make them burn more
intently. "He wasn't my Watcher. He was my friend, and now he's
going to be avenged."
Rather than weep or beg for mercy, Chase laughed. His
face was beginning to crumble, breaking off in sharp chunks that
sailed to the ground beneath us. "You'l be with me sooner than
you know. I hope you like the taste of demon poison because it's
you know. I hope you like the taste of demon poison because it's
spreading through your body
right now.
"
I stared at him, horrified, as he continued to break off in
dying chunks. My hands moved down to the stab wound I had
received earlier and examined the fabric. Dried blood meshed with
new blood, only this time it was darker and starting to sludge. I
only had to wait another second before I watched my veins turn
black under the skin and overwhelming pain filed my body. I felt
myself free fal to the ground and colapse in a screaming heap, my
wings having been the only thing that saved me from broken bones.
Not that broken bones mattered much when death was trying to
break down your door with his steel-tipped boots.
Kayden stabbed the last of the demons and rushed to
where I laid, just in time to watch me arch my back and let out a
violent, chiling scream. He pinned me down, encasing my thrashing
body in an iron-clad grasp. He looked past me to someone else,
pleading. "What do I do? Can Nephilim survive this kind of
poison?"
I snapped my head to the side to see Ursula and Abigail
standing side-by-side, unable to take their eyes off of me. Ursula's
dress was torn in several places, dry blood covering half of her
face and chest as tears ran down her cheeks. "I don't know," I
heard her say to both Kayden and Abigail. "I've never seen it
actualy used on someone. It's a forbidden poison because of how
fast it spreads."
Another scream ripped through my lips, startling the three
of them. Abigail reached down and grasped my ankles while
Ursula paced back and forth, running her fingers through the mess
Ursula paced back and forth, running her fingers through the mess
that was left of her hair. Suddenly she stopped and plunged her
hand in-between her breasts, puling out a smal vial of red liquid
held around her neck by a thin silver chain. "Here, take this," she
said quickly, shaking heavily as she stood in front of him. When he
didn't accept it right away she shook even harder. "A- a medicine
woman gave it to me years ago. She said I would know when the
right time would be to use it."
Kayden reached out and took it, popped off the smal cork
and poured it down my throat without a second thought. I tried to
pin-point the taste, metal and bulets and spray paint al at once,
just as I closed my eyes and prayed to wake up in the morning.
"For yours and hers sake I hope so."
F I F T E E N
I was dreaming.
Spoils of perfectly cut, fresh grass laid out before me like
an evergreen sea. Flowers in the forms of roses and daisies and
tulips in every size and color imaginable sprouted up from the dirt,
petals in a dance for sunlight. I hadn't the faintest clue of how I'd
gotten to such a lovely little meadow and not destroyed it
thoroughly but I didn't question it either. For the moment I felt safe,
at peace.
Staring up into the endlessly perfect blue sky above I
picked a purple rose from the meadow and brought it to my nose,
breathing in the fresh, clean scent.
I roled over on my side to pick another flower when I
stopped. Apparently I wasn't the only one in my private field.
Kayden laid just liked I did on the ground, hands resting behind his
head as he lazily observed the sky above. The second I turned to
look at him did he turn to look back at me, an incomprehensible
look on his face. Gently he reached out to place a hand on my
cheek, resting his cold skin against mine as he sighed.
"Do you know what it means to truly be alone, Essalie?"
His voice lingered in the air like smoke in a parlor room.
I came up with a dozen different retorts, each one more
wounding to his ego than the last. Yet I found I didn't want to say
them; instead, I just wanted to stare into his eyes. We lingered
there, his question hanging in the silence for an immeasurable
there, his question hanging in the silence for an immeasurable
amount of time. His eyes burned into mine, the muddy brown
turning into an enchanting hazel, shimmering like a desert in the
sweltering heat. Inside each other’s eyes, we exchanged tales of
our pain. I was surprised to see just how much his hurt echoed my
own.
"I think you already know the answer to the question at
hand, Kayden,” I whispered, the smalest smile I could manage on
my lips. Slowly my eyes started to shut, my head lowering as the
darkness began to swalow me whole. Al around me my dream
began to flicker as my subconscious fought to keep it alive.
Another hand pressed on my free cheek, the shock from the
sudden intensive cold pressure bringing me back to my dream for
but a moment.
"Essalie, you need to stay with me. Just for a little while
longer," Kayden whispered with a strong tone.
As much as I wanted to agree and stay with him in a
perpetual dream-land forever, suspended in time, the darkness was
coaxing me with a better offer. Everything around me felt so
comfortable, so warm and soothing.
My eyelids fluttered. “Why?” I mumbled, my voice thick
with sleep.
A hand ran through my hair as I heard a soft chuckle echo
around me. “Because I am a foolish demon, driven by desire.”
"I don't think that’s foolish,” my whisper was barely
audible as I fought to stay awake. It felt like weights were trying to
keep my eyelids down, but I strained against them so I could see
his face one more time before sinking back into sleep. “I cal that
his face one more time before sinking back into sleep. “I cal that
bravery, or balsy.”
This time when my eyes opened I knew it wasn't just
another dream. My body had a dul ache to it, the kind that told me
that somehow I had managed to survive to see another day. That,
and because Kayden was sitting at my bedside looking like he
hadn't slept for several days straight.
"Hey," I said hoarsely, and immediately winced at the
sound of it. I tried to swalow but it felt exposed and raw. "It's al
good. I'm stil alive."
Kayden snapped up from his chair with enough force to
rocket off to the moon. His eyes were a bright brown as he stared
at my face for a moment before breaking into the hugest, most
awkward smile I think I'd ever seen on him.
"What," he began. "Is your freaking malfunction? I've been
sitting here for nearly two days thinking I was going to have to cal
your brother and make up some wild excuse that magicaly turned
you comatose." He sank into the cushioned tan chair that matched
the bedroom decor of wherever we were with a grand sigh. "At
least now I can take you home in one piece."
Every inch of me felt like I'd been kicked in and roled
around in a bucket of glass shards for good measure. Somehow I
was stil able to smile. "Where the heck are we, anyway?"
"Charon's Hospital. It was only a block away once we
cleared everyone out of the tent. No one realy noticed your super-
saiyan transformation, too. Mostly everyone just wanted to know if
saiyan transformation, too. Mostly everyone just wanted to know if