Bloodlines

by Lindsay Anne Kendal

  “Morning, Keira,” I heard Danny say as he came and sat by me. “Oh god, I’m never drinking again.”

  “Hangover?” I asked.

  “That’s an understatement,” he said, lying back on the grass. “Haven’t you got one?”

  “I never get them. I wake up fine, a little tired, but other than that it doesn’t bother me.”

  “I hate you.”

  “Do you want me to make you something to eat?”

  “Argh, please don’t mention food.”

  “Ok,” I laughed. “How about a coffee?”

  “Please, if you don’t mind.”

  “Back in a moment.”

  I walked in and made us both coffee and checked on Tyler and Lucian. Both of them were still out for the count.

  “Here you are,” I said, passing him the drink.

  “You’re an angel.”

  “Hardly.”

  “What’s up?” He asked.

  “Nothing, I was just staring into space and clearing my head,” I lied. “It was nice to have nothing to think about for a little while.”

  “Yeah I bet.”

  He lay back on the grass, occasionally dragging himself up to take a sip of his coffee. Within half an hour Tyler and Lucian were awake and came out to sit with us. Both of them looked rather rough. Once they had all gotten coffee down them they headed home to get showered and changed. Each of them asked if I wanted to go back with them so I wasn’t on my own, but that’s what I wanted. Time to think and my own space. After convincing them I would be ok they got in a taxi. Finally I was alone.

  I went down into the cellar again; I wanted to see if Elizabeth had written anything about an army appearing. If so maybe she could tell me who the leader was. I still couldn’t get his face out of my head. I knew I would see him again, I could feel it, but I didn’t know when and that’s what was annoying me. I couldn’t tell the guys it would cause too much trouble and I would be questioned to death. In the end they would understand why I kept things to myself, when they could go home safe and not have to worry about being attacked any more.

  I went through pile after pile of papers, until I had skimmed over everything, but found nothing. I didn’t find any more mentioning Lilith either. I didn’t know where to look next. If I went on the internet I’d find myths and legends about Lilith, but where would I start with the guy from last night? If I put in the words ‘army of hell’ it would bring up thousands of stories – how would I know which ones to believe?

  I went back upstairs and sat on the steps of the front porch with another cup of coffee. I had so many unanswered questions and they were driving me insane.

  “So many questions,” I heard an unfamiliar male voice say.

  When I turned around nobody was there.

  “Hello,” I shouted as I got up and looked around the sides of the house, but there was no reply.

  I thought I’d imagined it until I turned to face the porch again. He was sitting on the step close to where I had just been, looking out towards the gardens. I froze on the spot.

  “Who are you?” I asked warily.

  “Don’t be afraid,” he said.

  “I’m not.”

  “Then why don’t you come and sit down?” He quizzed, still staring ahead of him. “Or would you prefer to stand there like a statue?”

  I slowly made my way to the steps and sat across from him. Finally he turned to look at me. I nearly choked on the air. He took my breath away – he was even more beautiful in the daylight. His eyes weren’t the bright red they had been last night. Instead they were an intense dark blue, like deep-blue sapphires. His skin was pale and without a single blemish. His perfect black hair was shorter than it had looked in the dark – it went to just below his chin, parts of it spiking outwards a little, with half a fringe, quite long, falling lightly over his left eye and cheek. He looked young too, only a little older than me, dressed in dark-blue jeans, a black shirt and black-leather steel-toecap boots.

  “Who are you?” I eventually asked again.

  “A friend,” he said before turning away from me.

  “Why were you here last night?”

  “Hmm, inquisitive, aren’t we?”

  “If you haven’t come to tell me anything, then why are you here?”

  “I wanted to meet you.”

  “Why?”

  “Questions, questions and more questions. Can you actually hold a conversation with someone without asking them questions?” He asked sarcastically.

  “I can if I actually want to speak to the person,” I replied coldly.

  “Well, all you had to do was tell me to leave,” he said, standing up.

  “Wait!”

  “I thought you didn’t want to talk.”

  “At least tell me your name,” I said.

  “Ha, I’ve got a better idea,” he grinned, taking off a silver ring. “You tell me,” he dropped the ring into my hand and walked down the steps. “When you find the answers you’re looking for, call my name,” he said, turning to face me. “And don’t lose that ring; I want it back.”

  He smirked at me for a moment before fading away in front of me. It was as though he had dissolved into thin air. I stood up and walked into the house with the ring. I sat at the kitchen counter studying it for a moment. It was big and heavy, with a circular display. Carved into the silver was a picture or symbol of some sort. It looked like a rectangular box, only the lid was an arrow pointing east. Spiraling along the arrow was what seemed to be the carving of a snake, and, at the bottom of the box, five circles put together to form a ‘plus’ symbol. There were no words or numbers anywhere, just the carving.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?” I said out loud, as though he could hear me.

  Then it dawned on me. He was a demon, and what do almost all demons have? – a seal. I put the ring in my pocket and grabbed my car keys.

  I drove to the library in the new part of town. It was enormous and had a section on the supernatural. I turned my phone off out of respect for the people studying in there, and, besides that, I didn’t want to be disturbed. I looked along the shelves gathering as many books as I could carry relating to demons and fallen angels.

  I got myself a cup of water and sat at one of the desks towards the back of the room. I looked through the books one by one. I found seals for all kinds of demons, but none of them were even similar to the one on the ring. I went back to the bookshelves and looked for more. I found one that looked really old. The pages were tarnished and the cover was in really bad condition. It was so badly damaged that I couldn’t make out the title of it. I sat down again and skimmed through it. In the middle of the book, spread over several pages, were more seals. There were so many of them that in the end my eyesight started to blur and I had to take a break for a few minutes. I looked at the clock and was shocked to see that it was now 5:15 p.m. it felt like I’d been in there an hour at the most, not over three.

  I got another cup of water then carried on looking through the old book. After examining a few more pages I found it. I grabbed the ring quickly and put it next to the illustration. It was an exact match. I looked underneath the drawing and found his name.

  “Eligos,” I whispered. “Got you!”

  I photocopied the page and was about to see if I could find out more information on him, when a lady came up to me and told me they were closing. I thanked her and left.

  It was starting to get dark now, which upset me a little. It had been such a nice day and I had spent the whole of the afternoon stuck inside a library. Then I asked myself what was more important – finding out who the tall, gorgeous stranger was, or sitting out in the sun.

  I was driving along tapping my steering wheel to the beat of my favorite song, minding my own business. I was only a mile or so away from my house when all my tires blew out and I nearly lost control of the car. I came to a sharp stop and got out. All the tires were shredded. I went to look around but something hit me and sent me flying over th
e hood. I landed on my right shoulder and heard a loud crunching sound. I couldn’t help but cry out in pain and hold it. I heard footsteps coming towards me and tried to get up, I couldn’t move my right arm and when I let go of it to use my left hand to support me, the pain was near unbearable.

  I’d just managed to get on to my knees when I saw it. It had a relatively human shape but its face looked too large for its body. Its eyes were a rich green and its skin seemed to be torn and scaly in parts. I tried to get to my feet but it came at me quickly and I felt a searing pain in the side of my stomach. I looked up at the creature for a moment before a fiery blade tore through it, splitting it in two. Before its body hit the floor it disappeared. In its place stood Eligos, sword in hand. I looked down and saw a bronze dagger in my stomach. There was blood completely covering my jeans down my right thigh. I felt so weak. I tried to use my power to get the dagger out, but I didn’t have the strength. His fiery blade disappeared and Eligos gathered me in his arms and put me in the passenger seat of my car, before fixing the tires and driving us to my home.

  I could feel myself getting weaker and colder every minute. When we pulled up the drive everyone came outside. Tyler was shouting, “Where the hell have you been? We were worried to death,” while Lily was shouting at me for not having my phone on. They soon went silent when they saw Eligos get out of the driver’s side. He ran around the car and pulled me out.

  “Who the…?” Tyler began.

  “Get out of my way!” Eligos told them all as he walked towards the house.

  When they saw me limp in his arms and the blood on my clothes they panicked. Lucian ran and opened all the doors for us while Jake threw all the cushions off the sofa so Eligos could lie me down. When Lily saw the dagger in my stomach she burst into tears and dropped down beside me, taking hold of my hand.

  “Keira!” She shouted. “Why aren’t you healing yourself?”

  That’s when the guys saw the blade.

  “She’s too weak. I need all of you to back off,” Eligos told them sternly.

  “Who the hell are you?” Jake said, coming towards him.

  “If you don’t back off she will die. Is that what you want?”

  “No!” Tyler said, grabbing Jake and pulling him back. “Do what you need to do.”

  I couldn’t see properly anymore. Everything was a blur.

  “Can I stay close?” I heard Lily ask. “She’s my best friend; she’s like my sister.”

  “Just stand back a little,” he told her.

  “What are you going to do?” Danny asked him anxiously.

  “My job,” he answered as his eyes turned red.

  They glowed so bright that even I could make them out.

  “What the hell!” Tyler said, looking into his eyes.

  He turned away from them and raised his hand, and as he did so the dagger rose out of me, yet I felt no pain. He sent it flying across the room so hard it stuck in one of the walls. He put his hand over the stab wound and I felt a tingling sensation. Then it turned into the feeling you get when you have pins and needles. A moment later I felt the same sensation in my shoulder. My vision started to come back slowly and I saw him pull his hands away from me.

  “Keira,” I heard Lily say. “Can you hear me?”

  “…yes,” I croaked.

  “Get her a drink,” I heard her say to one of the guys.

  “Can you sit up?” Eligos asked me.

  “Yeah, I think so,” I said, looking into his now sapphire-blue eyes.

  “Come on.” He took my hands and pulled me slightly until I was sat back normally on the sofa. “Are you ok?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, looking down at the blood on my jeans.

  He stood up in front of me and Lily grabbed him and hugged him.

  “Thank you,” she cried.

  “You’re welcome,” he told her.

  She let go of him and came next to me, wrapping her arms around me for a moment. Then the guys came over and thanked Eligos.

  “Here, get this down you,” Danny passed me a cup of tea.

  “Thanks,” I said, before sipping it. “What was that?”

  “A demon, and quite a high-ranking one,” Eligos told me. “It takes a lot of power to summon something like that.”

  “It was so fast.”

  “And you weren’t on your guard. You must be ready for anything at any time!”

  “How do you know so much? How did you know where I was, that I was in trouble?”

  “It’s my job to, now,” he told me.

  “Says who?” Tyler asked.

  “Lilith.”

  Everyone went silent.

  “I had a feeling that would get your attention,” Eligos smirked. “Now, I must go.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “You need to rest – you lost a lot of blood. We’ll meet again,” he said as he started to disappear.

  “Thank you,” I shouted to him.

  Then he was gone.

  I tried to stand up but I went really dizzy and Danny had to catch me.

  “You need to eat,” Lily told me. “It’s the best thing for you, and drink plenty; you need to get your body to replace the blood you lost.”

  “I need to get showered,” I told her.

  “Not yet,” Danny said, lowering me back down on the sofa.

  “See how you feel once you’ve eaten something. One of us will take you upstairs and Lily can wait while you’re in the shower,” Lucian said, sitting next to me.

  “I’ll go and get you some food. I cooked dinner but we were so worried about you that none of us have eaten it yet. I’ll go and warm everything up and bring it in to you,” Lily told me.

  “Thanks, Lily.”

  The guys sat around me.

  “You scared us to death,” Tyler told me.

  “When I saw you in his arms I thought you were dead,” Danny said.

  “I’m sorry,” I told them. “I just let my guard down for a few minutes, that’s all.”

  “Like that guy said you can’t at the moment – none of us can,” Jake said.

  “Who is he?” Tyler asked.

  “I don’t know,” I lied. “I think he’s the guy who was here with the army, the leader.”

  “What?” they all said.

  “I only said “Think”; I don’t know for sure.”

  “He’s a demon,” Tyler shot.

  “I don’t care what he is,” I told them. “If it wasn’t for him I’d be dead.”

  “He said it was his job to know where you were,” Jake said. “That Lilith had given him that job. What did he mean?”

  “I don’t know,” I lied again, staring at Tyler in the hope that he wouldn’t open his mouth. “I wish I did know.”

  “Lilith!” Lucian pondered. “Isn’t she supposed to be the wife of the devil?”

  “Yes,” Tyler confirmed, staring back at me.

  “Well, she is my new favorite person,” Lily said, walking in with my dinner. “If it wasn’t for her, that guy wouldn’t have been there, and I’d have lost my best friend,” she choked, as her eyes welled up. “As for him, he should be an angel.”

  I nodded in agreement and took my dinner from her. Everyone went to grab theirs and stayed in the living room with me.

  None of them questioned me again, other than to ask what the thing that attacked me looked like. Once I’d let my food go down I let Lucian carry me upstairs into my room. Lily came with him and sat on my bed while I was in the shower. I looked at my stomach to see if the blade had left a mark, but there was nothing. I put a tank top and shorts on and pulled my dressing gown on over the top. When I picked my bloodstained jeans up, Eligos’s ring fell out of my pocket. I looked at it and smiled, knowing I could get him back here whenever I wanted. Even if it was only for five minutes, I had to see him again and it had to be soon.

  “How you feeling?” Lily asked as I walked into the bedroom.

  “Tired and a little light-headed.”

  “Here give me
those,” she said, taking my jeans off me. “No matter what, I don’t think this amount of blood will come out of them. I’ll throw them out.

  “Thanks, Lily.”

  “Are you coming back down?”

  “No, I’m going to try and get some sleep. I only got about three hours last night and, after all this, I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

  “Ok, well the guys will probably come and see you before they go. I’ll tell them not to wake you if you’re asleep.”

  “Thanks,” I said, hugging her.

  As soon as she walked out I got on my bed with my laptop. I went straight on to Google and looked up the name Eligos. What I found amazed me:

  Eligos – also known as Abigor. Grand Duke of Hell. Appears as a handsome knight, carrying either a lance or sword.

  I clicked on to another website, it said:

  Eligos. Grand Duke of Hell and a demon of high degree. Possesses knowledge of all wars, past, present and future. Commands sixty legions of demons…

  “Sixty legions!” I said to myself. “A legion of something is six thousand…that’s 360,000 demons!”

  I looked back at the screen:

  … a demon of the superior order, favored by lords. A fierce warrior demon.

  I closed my laptop and lay back staring at my ceiling. So I have a warrior watching me. He commands an army of 360,000 demons. Lilith sent him, I thought to myself. Why, why now? Why hadn’t anyone come to see me before now, if my blood is your blood then I’ve had this since birth, so why wait until now?

  I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep, not with so many questions in my head. I stumbled across my room, still light-headed. One thing I needed to master was how to use my power to combat blood loss. I pulled a pair of loose jeans on and my boots, and grabbed the ring. I opened my door quietly and listened for a moment to make sure nobody was around.

  I sneaked as quietly as I could down the hall and stairs, holding on to the walls and banister for support. I could see the others sitting in the living room. I grabbed my car keys and went out the back door. I walked around the house, occasionally stumbling into the walls, and got in my car. I knew I couldn’t start the engine; they would hear it. Instead I took the handbrake off and made the car roll down the path, constantly checking that the guys hadn’t seen or followed me. When I reached the end of the approach to the house I started the engine and shot off into the countryside.