Ruby Rising (22 page)

I turned my head to my mother and saw her mouth had been sewn shut, and she was nailed onto the cross with crude nails. They were the same ones that had nailed Phoenix to his own cross. I prayed that death would come soon for her, accepting that I couldn’t save her and grief overwhelmed me, tears again poured down my face.

“You see,
electus
” as he spoke he stroked my face as he spoke and I knew by the feel of his hand that he had changed to his demon self. “You cannot fight me, or even defeat me, she will die tonight, and you will bare me a child who will possess more power, more hate and more strength than even I.”

I stifled a scream as the claw that caressed my face lifted the robe from my legs and drew it up to my chin, revealing my naked body between us. His nails grazed over my leg and up my thigh and over my stomach and I could feel blood oozing down my legs. I fought and managed to get a hand free and punched the demon that lay on me straight in the face. Then I reached for the cross that still hung around my neck and pushed it into the side of his face. I watched as smoke rose off his face as the cross was branded into him.

It didn’t even move him, he simply began to laugh. He pulled the cross from his face and continued to laugh. The laughter turned into a chant, it was in Latin and I could only make out words here and there and none of it made sense. The humming began again, beating into the night like a drum. Mikayla too chanted and drew symbols on my mother’s body with her finger and my mother’s blood. She couldn’t scream with her lips clamped shut, but I could see the fear on her face, the love for me was there too, as was her fear for what was coming for me. She looked at me for a few seconds, and I felt her love flow into me, I felt her saying goodbye. She closed her open eye and let herself drift off as the chanting and the humming continued around the circle building into a frenzy.

Robert did not move off my body until the chanting and humming suddenly ceased, silence filled that air once more. As he lifted himself off me, he forcefully held my face to the side, so that I would have no choice but to watch my mother die.

Again I could not move and I hated him more for that than being forced to watch, I knew she needed to know I was there with her, I didn’t want her to die alone with the fear surrounded her. I also knew that there was no trace of the father I had once known left in him; he truly was the Devil,
Lucifer
himself, and I no longer saw him as Robert De Grey.

He turned his back to me and drew the knife up into the air, I cried out in desperation, begging him to stop. The knife plunged into my mother’s heart with such fierceness I heard the knife scraping the bones in her chest. I heard him twist it grinding the metal against her bones and before he stepped to the side, his arms stretched. Blood covered his hands and he wiped the blood onto my face, I barely felt it as I watched a look of calmness come over my mother, I felt the rest of her love pouring into me, and then her head dropped, and as quickly as that she was gone.

Tears blurred my vision and I screamed and swore at Lucifer, at Mikayla who put her hand into my mother’s body where the knife had been pulled out, and then licked the blood off her fingers. It was repulsive and just another way to hurt me. I watched still unable to turn away as everyone in the circle came over and thrust their hands into the lifeless body of my mother. Then they, like Mikayla, licked their fingers, knelt and kissed the feet of Lucifer and went back to their positions in the circle.

When they had all had their turn, Lucifer went before my mother and lifted her lifeless head up and gave her a kiss on her mouth, before turning to face me again.

He held the knife above me and I felt her blood drip onto me, then I felt a small heat as they were absorbed into me. It didn’t hurt, it had a calming effect on me. I felt stronger and closer to her, even in her death.

“Watch her body now,
electus
you will see something quite beautiful.” As I watched a green smoke filled the air hovering around my mother, I knew it was her earth power, its essence. I felt it around me, I took a deep breath and watched as it moved towards the Devil who had taken her life.

When it reached him it swirled around him, faster and faster until it had no beginning or end. He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes. I knew he was going to take it, take the last of her away. I reached out for it, I watched as my own earth essence mixed with hers, swirling around and combining, I drew it back to me, watched it twist and whirl around me, and I took it into my own body.

Lucifer opened his eyes and stared at me, I smiled as the surprise registered on his face.

“What did you do?” I didn’t see the punch that he threw before it connected with the side of my face. The world whirled around me, I lay still unable to move my body. “How did you do that?”

It wasn’t a question I knew how to answer, I had simply felt the last of my mother’s soul in her earth essence, and reached out for it with my own. Asking it to join me.

I felt his hand press into my stomach and felt it heat up, I knew I had angered him more than anyone had before and I was about to be punished. I was sure by the anger in his eyes that he would have killed me right then had he not needed me still to fulfil his own prophecy.

I smelt my skin start to smoulder, and heard the sizzle as it started to burn and I screamed out again, screamed until my voice became hoarse and the pain started to send me into oblivion. I welcomed it, the blackness taking over so I didn’t have to feel anything, for a while at least.

CHAPTER 27

The first thing I remembered when I woke up was my mother’s face when she had died in front of me. The pain of my body and the grief so overwhelming it physically hurt to breathe. I was lying on a bed, naked and tied by each limb to a corner of a bed with lengths of silver chain. The chains that bound my wrists and ankles were covered in blood red satin, although it didn’t make them any more comfortable. My skin around my left wrist was burnt, angry, and blistered in parts. The burn had basically cauterised the deep gash I had inflicted on myself, the scars would be there for life.

Looking up I was mortified to see the ceiling was covered in mirrored tiles, I could see my entire body laid out, my legs were held open by the chains and my mother’s blood had dried on my face in the shape of Lucifer’s fingers. My face was bruised, a horrible shade of black and purple where he had punched me in the jaw and slapped me. I whimpered when I saw his claw like hand print branded on my stomach, desperately wanting to touch it, I fought the chains but they were just too strong. I was being forced to look at his mark and the blood of my mother. I had a cut on my inner thigh from where he had tormented both my mother and I. My throat was a dark shade of purple, and it burned when I swallowed.

The only thing that stopped me from falling apart completely, from losing all hope, was the fact that I could feel her in me. Her essence, it warmed my heart to know that she was part of me.

I had no idea what I could do, my powers and abilities were no longer limited to earth, water, air or fire, I had something that even they didn’t know about. How had I taken her essence from the Devil himself? I had literally reached out for it, felt it, joined with it and pulled it into me. I had willed it, wanted it, believed in it and asked it and had desperately needed the last part of her that was left on earth.

I remembered the look on Lucifer’s face when he realised that I had taken it from him. Even the punch that had blackened my face had still been worth it. I wondered if he still bore the mark of the crucifix on his face.

It was only Thursday, I wondered if there would be another sacrifice tonight, if more blood would be shed. I had nobody left for them to take, no friends, no family. I felt a wave of drowsiness and let it take me back into a world where I didn’t feel my burns, the bruises or the grief that held my heart.

I woke up to find Mikayla standing at the foot of the bed, wearing her blood red robe, the hood down and her dark hair flowing over her face as she bowed her head at my feet. An eerie red glow filled the room as the sun set on another day.

“Nice of you to join us, I was just thinking about cutting up your legs to get your attention.” She lifted her hand and revealed the black onyx dagger, it still pulsed with her blood. “I’m sure this would be more than capable, although, I’m not sure what our blood mixed together would do.”

I stared up into the mirror on the ceiling, looking off into an empty corner to avoid looking at my own marked body. She moved around the bed slowly until she was standing behind my head. 

“We only need you for your body Ruby,” she ran her finger along the side of my face, I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at her. “But watching you in pain? That does something entirely different to me.”

She pushed on my bruised jaw until I arched my back against the pain, my eyes flew open and I looked directly at her, refusing to cry out, to give her the satisfaction of hearing it. She continued to push, using her fist, her knuckles felt like rocks against my face.

I watched as she ran her fingers slowly down the chain towards my burnt wrist. I watched the snarl on her face grow into a smile and she cocked her head to the side never taking her eyes off me. When she reached my wrist she pushed the chains down as far as they would go, pushing into my burns and exposing more to her. Mikayla wrapped her hand around it and squeezed as hard as she could. My back arched automatically to the pain, I turned my head to the right and squeezed my eyes shut. I groaned into my mouth and fought to control my breathing, as the pain intensified and my entire body broke out with sweat.

“This is nothing compared to what you will feel tomorrow night, you will wish you had died instead of your mother.” She continued to squeeze while I continued refusing to scream.

“You can’t handle the fact,” I paused and took in a few noisy breaths through my nose so I could keep my voice even. “That I have been chosen to bare his child…and not you.”

I watched as the anger flared in her, hate turning her eyes from her usual green to black. She grabbed a handful of my hair and wrenched it back, drawing her fist. I closed my eyes and prayed that she would punch me hard enough to knock me out again.

“Stop!” His voice boomed through the room, I opened my eyes to see Mikayla’s fist shaking an inch from my nose. “She wants it more than you do Mikayla, she doesn’t want to be awake.”

I looked towards the door where he stood; he had given up the pretence of his human form and now stood before me as his true demon self, wearing his blood red robe. For a second I wondered if he was naked underneath and shuddered at the thought. He still bore the mark of the filigree cross I had given him, although it had faded considerably.

Still I said nothing. I had nothing to say that would change what had happened or return my mother to me, return my life back to the boring, predictable and safe routines of school and homework.

“Leave us,” he ordered Mikayla from the room, her mouth dropped open for a second before she scowled and left. “You have many secrets young one. Secrets that you don’t even know you possess, rest assured we will find out what they are, together.”

I dug deep within me for any remaining courage, still trying to be brave and keep my breathing even, despite the rapid thud of my heart beat. My body betrayed me and I began to shake uncontrollably, my teeth chattering so fiercely it caused pain to shoot into my head.

Lucifer raised his hands over my body and held them just above my skin, I could feel a heat radiating from him as he followed the contours of my body.

“There is something in you, something different that I haven’t seen before.” He dragged a sharp nail up my outer thigh drawing blood. “Can you feel her power in you, mixing with your own? It’s blissful isn’t it, feeling someone else’s power in you? Taking that away from them, ripping it from their body as it departs, and taking their soul with it.”

I closed my eyes for a few seconds before opening them again, still unspeaking.

“Ah, I love a challenge, so many people give in so quickly, but you…you have much more self-control then most don’t you. Maybe this is why you are the Chosen One, electus.”

I forced my mind elsewhere, desperately seeking a way to take myself out of the room mentally, knowing he was about to put my body and mind through a test of pain threshold.  After deep breathing didn’t have its usual calming affect I ended up praying. I had prayed so many times during the last few days and although I knew I was probably running out of favours, I also felt that there was someone with me, that they were listening.

I felt the first blow hit me in the ribs, the chains shaking as my body responded to the force of the blow. I kept my eyes shut, knowing that he had hit me with something cold and made of metal. Pain radiated through me, still I was silent and kept my eyes tightly closed. I heard him laugh before the next blow hit me across my shins. It was controlled enough that he didn’t break them, but I would be surprised if I would be able to walk on them. I moaned into my mouth, refusing to give him the same satisfaction I had denied Mikayla. I prayed for release from the pain, prayed that God would help me.

I felt the bed dip between my open legs and held my breath, expecting the worst. Instead he ran his bony fingers up my thighs, slowly until he reached my bikini line.

“Tomorrow night you will feel me inside you I will take you to hell and back. Then I will let five other people do the same. If you survive, you will bare me a child, born of this world but more demon than me. He will be so powerful you will most likely die giving birth to him.” He continued to touch me, using his nails to open my folds to him, exposing my most vulnerable part to him. I knew what was coming and it only made me hate him more. He knew it was the only way to make me scream.

I felt a tear roll down as I turned my face to the bed beneath me and he pushed his bony, claw-like finger into me. I screamed out, unable to hold it in any more. There was so much pain as his nail scratched inside me, the heat from his skin felt like I had a hot poker inside me. I felt blood trickle out of me.

“Ah, there we go, now that wasn’t so hard was it?” He removed his finger from my body and leant over me until I could feel his breath on my neck.

I was desperate to get him off me, and fought the chains that bound me, screaming in his face, and crying tears of fear, fuelling his desire even further. I could feel his hardness through his robe between my legs as he pushed it into me. I squirmed and fought as he pushed and laughed.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, looking directly into his face I focused on the black pools of his eyes and forced every ounce of will in me to hurt him, to save myself. A huge burst of light filled the room, I felt his weight lift off me as my body continued to pulse. I heard the window smash, unable to see. I was blinded by its brilliance.

I felt him pushing against the power that had forced him off me, I could feel his heat pushing and testing. I mentally felt for the shackle on my wrist and concentrated a burst of energy down my arm and it burst apart. I repeated the action on each shackle until I was able to stand up. I retreated to the furthest point of the room as the door opened and I felt Mikayla enter. I had only seconds to get out before they managed to stop me or my power stopped. I still wasn’t sure how it worked or how long I could hold it for. I had never mixed my abilities before, the blinding light that seemed to keep the demon back pulsed like a shield whilst I used the air in the room to lift me towards the window. As I dove backwards out the window I focused everything I had on the building and when I hit the ground, the roof collapsed on half of the house, including the section that I has just escaped from.

Without stopping to see if I had even managed to hurt them I ran into the darkness, not knowing if I was running towards more danger, death or salvation.

As I ran I kept praying, my body ached, my ribs felt battered and I wanted to explode with every breath I took. My shins had screamed as soon as my feet had hit the ground, trying to make me listen. My throat burned and my body screamed for water. As my adrenalin surged, I was able to ignore the pain enough to keep running. I heard yelling behind me and then lights began to flicker over to my right. I realised that someone was creating fire balls and sending them out randomly into the night to create a better field of vision. I kept running until I hit a wooden fence, desperately I climbed over it and kept going. Eventually hitting a tree line dense with large trees and was grateful for the cover it offered. I stayed on the edge of the tree line and the open paddock, not wanting the irony of getting lost in the bush and dying from dehydration after escaping the devil.

I was grateful for my love of running, knowing that I would have had to stop if I hadn’t loved it as much. I slowed my pace but continued to run, even as my lungs burned and my body resisted the physical toll it was taking.

Eventually I slowed, unable to catch my breath, but still continuing to move forward. I staggered and fell too many times to count. Each time I forced myself back up onto my battered legs and kept going. I knew I was barely moving but I couldn’t stop, if I did, I would be taken back to that hell hole and I knew what was in store for me in twenty four hours.

As my breath evened out, I was able to pick up my pace again to a jog. I felt exposed, my breasts bouncing on my naked chest. I continued to slow as I needed and speed up when I was able until I saw the first rays of dawn peeking over the horizon.

It was then I saw it. A road. I ran towards it, keeping to the tree line and desperately hoping I was going towards a town, any town and away from hell.