Bloodlines

by Lindsay Anne Kendal

  “What a shame they have to watch you die,” Argyle said, looking at the women for a moment. “Oh well…”

  He turned to face us and grinned. His appearance was shocking. He looked like he suffered from leprosy – all his skin was torn with parts of it hanging from his face and hands. His fingernails looked long and brown on the ends of his skinny fingers. Another larger creature appeared next to him.

  “Do you want me to take care of the women?” The creature asked.

  “No,” Argyle told him, “I do not!”

  He must have been Argyle’s right-hand man in all of this. He wasn’t human. His eyes were a yellowy-brown color and simply had two small holes where his nose should have been. His lips were grey and his skin was a pale red. Instead of hands he seemed to have claws, similar to those of a raven. He was taller than Argyle, but not as broad.

  “Stand down!” Argyle told him before turning to look at us again. “Now, where was I? …Oh yes.”

  He shot a continuous wave of energy at us. We all cried out in pain as it tore through our bodies. The pain was unbearable. I could hear the women screaming and crying as Argyle attacked us. It was as though he was shooting an ever-lasting stream of plasma into us. My skin felt as though it was on fire, my eyes stung and I could feel blood starting to run down my nose. My energy felt like it was being taken away from me. I started to feel weak and very tired. This was it…this was how it was going to end. What would he do to the women once he had killed us?

  Then to our amazement Argyle was hoisted into the air and thrown across the church. We all fell to the floor in agony.

  I watched as he hit the wall about a hundred feet away from us before hitting the floor. He looked up towards us, furious. The large crucifix that was hung on the wall above him fell off. He rolled out of the way quickly before it hit the floor, smashing into pieces. All of the puppets and the creature looked around, trying to see who had done it to him. We did the same but there was no one else in there with us. He stood up and started towards us. The ground started to shake violently, making walking towards us so hard he had to stop. Some of the smaller statues around the edges of the church fell over and smashed. Only a few of the larger ones stayed upright. The creature held on to the pews to keep his balance.

  “Who’s doing…?”

  He was interrupted when all the stained-glass windows throughout the whole of the church imploded, sending shards of glass flying into the animated corpses. Argyle put his hands up to protect his face. A strong wind came rushing through the holes in the wall where the windows had been. It was so strong, that even though we fought to stand, our efforts were useless. The puppets held on to the pews to stop themselves being thrown around the church. None of us knew what was going on. All of us looked at each other, clueless.

  We heard a strange noise, very loud, like the sound of a house collapsing, like wood being torn apart. When we looked up we saw the roof being torn off, bit by bit and flying up into the sky until it was no longer visible. Once the whole of the roof had disappeared the stone walls on the east and west of the church seemed to blow up – yet there was no fire or explosive. We struggled to look outside to see who was doing this, but there was no sign of anyone. I saw Argyle fighting against the wind, trying to walk towards us. The creature he had with him had been blown away from the pew and was holding on to one of the concrete columns that had until a moment ago supported the roof.

  Suddenly a circle of earth and dust rose around the outskirts of the church, higher than my eyes could see. It was as though we were in the middle of an extremely large tornado. Thunder started to roar. When I looked up I could still see the sky, but only a circular part of it. The rest was blocked out by the swirling mass. Black clouds formed sending lightning crackling across the visible sky and illuminating the cyclone. What looked like a bright star in the middle of the sky started to get bigger and bigger. It was coming down to earth. Everyone was staring, including Argyle and his army.

  When the bright light hit the ground, just yards in front of me and the others, the earth stopped shaking and the wind died down to a slight breeze. The light grew less and less intense and a figure started to take shape. We were all watching, waiting to see what else was coming. Its legs became visible, definitely female with knee-high black-leather boots. Then the bottom of a thigh-length leather coat, and a black skirt. I watched as the torso came into view, showing a black corset top and the arms and collar of the coat. I could see its pale skin around its neck before its face and long jet-black hair formed. Its head was lowered at first, but was then slowly lifted until it was straight; it quickly opened its glowing white eyes, to stare straight at Argyle.

  I couldn’t say or do anything – I was in so much shock. Different emotions ran through every inch of my body. I started shaking a little and my stomach tied itself in knots. I blinked over and over again thinking my eyes could be playing a cruel trick on me. But then Tyler confirmed exactly who I was seeing.

  “Keira!” Tyler choked.

  “It can’t be!” David said in shock.

  She stood there still as stone for a moment, staring in front of her.

  “Impossible!” Argyle shouted.

  The demon army went to attack her, but she sent shockwaves out, one after another, throwing them all away from her. She raised her arms on either side of her, palms up with her fingers slightly bent as though she was holding an invisible ball. Lightning struck, staying on the ground but moving and hitting more of our assailants. She kept her arms out and continuously fired energy balls at them all. Only they weren’t like the ones we all fired or even the ones she used to fire. Instead of being a misty semi-transparent white color, they were rich shades of purple. She turned to where the women were being restrained. She scowled at their captors just before a lightning bolt stuck each of them. The women were released and ran over to us.

  “It can’t be!” Lily gasped, as she grabbed hold of Jake.

  She turned to look at us all for a moment. Lightning still dancing around her. She raised her hand and we all rose with it. We floated over the army to the west side of the church. She set us down close to the wall of earth, out of harm’s way.

  “Keira, look out!” I shouted.

  The red-skinned creature had walked right up to her. As she turned to look at him, it struck her with the back of its claw, straight across her face and cutting her right cheek. Her head turned only slightly to the side as he struck, even though the attack had been ferocious. She grinned and turned to look at it again. She laughed out loud, as all her skin seemed to illuminate. She closed her eyes and the veins we saw the night of the accident began to appear, starting from her fingers. They made their way up both her arms, across her chest and up her neck. The parts of her legs that were visible started showing them and finally, ever so slightly, the sides of her face did so, too. It was as though unseen hands were painting her. The ground started shaking violently again, before parts of it seemed to start swirling around. As though the floor had become a whirlpool or vortex.

  The creature in front of her started to walk slowly backwards, looking around itself all the time. A whirlpool appeared right next to where Keira stood. This one was different though – it glowed a rich red. Suddenly hundreds of creatures came flying out of the swirls of color, some with wings, others without. Something slowly started to rise out of the red whirlpool next to her. His jet-black hair and blood-red eyes. I knew him. He was the guy who had saved her life. The guy who had appeared at the house with an army of demons. Only this time he had something in his hand. A large fiery-bladed sword.

  “It’s him!” Lily gasped.

  The demons flying out of the floor were the ones who were with him that night – only there were nowhere near as many. That night there had been thousands of them, tens of thousands, but now there seemed to only be a few hundred. He stood beside her for a moment. Then she opened her eyes. We all gasped and panicked a little. Her eyes were no longer the brilliant white we were all used
to; instead they were a brilliant red. It looked like her eyes had been removed and replaced with balls of fire.

  The demon next to her turned to look at her for a moment and touched the side of her face that the creature had cut. His expression changed into one of pure anger. He turned his head quickly to look at the thing that had hurt her. The creature started to run but he went after it. The whirlpools disappeared without a trace, as though they hadn’t been there to start with. The demons attacked the human corpses, tearing some of them limb from limb. Throwing fire at others.

  “They’re all protecting her,” Jake said.

  I turned to see Argyle making his way towards her, stopping a few feet in front of her.

  Chapter 28

  Lucian’s Story -Back to Whence They Came

  “Lilith, I’m honored, but not even you can kill me!” Argyle laughed.

  “It’s Keira, actually,” she corrected, “And I may not be able to kill you completely …but I can hurt you like hell.”

  He threw an energy ball at her, but when it got within a few inches of her body, it seemed to just dissolve. He shot another one at her, and another, but the same thing happened each time. He looked down at his hands, obviously not understanding why they weren’t touching her. She started walking towards him slowly. For every step she took forward, Argyle took two backwards, still throwing energy balls at her, and still without effect. She smirked at him before throwing her hands out in front of her.

  A flow of red-and-purple energy flowed from her hands and into him, throwing him against one of the stone columns at the side of us, cracking it slightly and causing bits of dust and small fragments of the stone to fall to the floor. I watched as Keira carried on walking towards him, slightly picking up her pace. She was still throwing the powerful energy at Argyle. He looked like he was in great deal of pain, his fists and jaw clenched in the agony of it all.

  I was distracted for a moment when I saw a bright light out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see the creature being blasted through the pews by the leader of the demon army. He didn’t seem to have a mark on him, but the creature was in a bad way. It was as though he was torturing the thing and thoroughly enjoying doing so. I turned to look at Danny.

  “Why doesn’t he just kill it?” He said. “The creature is obviously no match for him.”

  “I don’t know,” I told him.

  “It hurt Keira. Now he’s going to hurt it,” Lily said.

  “Did you see the way he looked at her when he saw the cut on her face?” Jake said as he wiped blood from his nose.

  “He’s cares for her,” Lily whispered, watching him. “He doesn’t want anything to hurt her.”

  He made the creature rise from the ground and sprayed him with what could only have been acid. It flew from his fingertips, bright yellow in color, and scalded the creature’s flesh. We watched as large blisters appeared on its skin and its face contorted in pain.

  I turned my attention back to Keira.

  She now stood right in front of Argyle and only a few feet from us. I could see her properly now. She looked so different, so powerful…she looked demonic! The flow of energy had stopped, but Argyle was still pinned against the column. She put her hand to the side of his face, before stroking it gently with her fingers. Argyle was breathing extremely quickly – you could see his chest moving up and down frantically. Her hand continued to make its way down him, brushing smoothly down his neck, over his collarbone and only stopping when it reached the top of his black shirt. It was almost like she was seducing him. She ripped his shirt open before looking up at him and giving him an evil smirk. Then she put her hand flat on his chest, just over his heart. He screamed out in pain. A red, statically charged aura travelled down her arm, through her hand and into his chest.

  The wind became strong again, blowing her hair back from the sides of her face. His body was shaking violently as the aura worked its way through him. I saw the leader of the demon army turn to look at her for a moment. When he saw what she was doing he smiled, before returning his attention to the creature. Argyle’s body seemed to be glowing and we could see all his veins coming up through his skin. They were throbbing. Blood started to run from his eyes, down his cheeks and on to his neck. She moved her other hand to his forehead and sent the aura through him again. His nose and ears started bleeding soon after. His cries of pain were deafening. Lily couldn’t stand to watch anymore so she buried her face in Jake’s chest.

  Keira pulled her hands back off Argyle’s head and chest, before she sent him crashing through all of the pews on the west side of the church. He came to an abrupt stop when he hit the wall near the entrance doors, one of only two walls left standing. She stood watching him as he struggled to stand up. He threw kinetic energy at her. She laughed as it entered her body, having no effect on her at all.

  “Fool!” She said. “Do you really think your pathetic power can hurt me?”

  He stood up straight and looked over at us. Then he started to run towards us. We all tried to get to our feet, but we were in so much pain from his attack that it was hard to move. All my muscles felt like they had cramped up. He didn’t manage to get close to us though.

  Keira raised her arms straight above her head. Flames shot up in front of Argyle, blocking his path, before travelling around them both. It was just the two of them now in the elongated circle of flames. No one could get in and no one could get out. She slowly lowered her arms, yet the flames remained, encircling them. He used his telekinesis to throw some of the broken parts of the pews at her. Each one was smashed into pieces no bigger than a pebble, and thrown into the flames before they could get within a foot of her. He fired his energy balls again, but still they did nothing.

  “Bored now?” She said rather sweetly.

  The demon leader heard her and looked at her for a moment before he stopped torturing the creature. He walked straight up to it and drove his sword through its chest. Keira made the flames disappear and sent Argyle through every remaining pew in the church; she sent energy balls and static electricity at him, made the lightning strike him several times before pinning him to a column again. He was bloody, cut to pieces and looked like he was on the brink of death. She threw her left hand out towards the entrance doors and they flew open. Lightning struck the ground at the foot of the doors. Red-and-purple plasma shot from her hand and filled the open doorway. It looked like a hazy window had replaced the doors. The plasma running from her hand turned to kinetic energy and the plasma window started to spin. Slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed.

  “No!” Argyle pleaded.

  “Yes!” Keira cried wildly.

  The doorway turned into a vortex, sucking everything into it. Some of the human corpses held on to the columns to try and save themselves. But whenever one of them did, a demon would grab it and either fly or jump into the vortex with it. The leader grabbed the creature by its throat and dragged it towards the doorway. He turned to look at Keira. She had risen a few inches from the ground and was now facing Argyle. She put her hands out in front of her, palms up. What can only be described as semi-transparent wires of energy came from each of her fingers and shot through his body. They gripped him and pulled him closer to her. The leader walked into the vortex with the creature, while Keira and Argyle moved closer and closer to it. All the while the corpses and demons were passing us, entering the violent swirl of color.

  “No, Keira!” Lily shouted, trying to get to her feet quickly.

  Although all the other creatures were being sucked in, we weren’t. Instead all we felt was a harsh wind. We watched as she moved them closer and closer to the vortex, before disappearing through it. The church doors slammed shut behind them, sending a shockwave through the church. Then there was nothing but silence.

  I looked around me, shielding my eyes. There were bits of dust settling from where the cyclone of earth had been. The sky was perfectly clear, not a cloud in sight, and there was no thunder or lightening. The only people inside
the church were us. I dragged myself closer to Danny and Tyler. Both of them were cut and had partially dried blood on their faces.

  “Are you guys ok?” I managed to say as I sat myself up properly.

  “We’ll be fine, I think,” Danny answered, clutching his left arm.

  “Do you think that was really her?” Jake asked.

  “It must have been,” Sofia said.

  “But…we buried her,” Jason commented, as he slowly dragged himself to his feet.

  “If she had dug herself out of her grave I think we would have noticed,” Tyler said, his eyes welling up with tears. “The earth around it would have been disturbed.”

  “What if it was her spirit?” Lily said.

  “You mean her ghost?” My dad asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know – it could have been I suppose.”

  “Even in death she comes to protect you all,” David said. “She must love you all very much.”

  “Don’t you mean us all,” Tyler corrected. “She loves you too.”

  “But if she was a ghost, why was that guy with her?” I asked.

  “He resides in Hell. God, does that mean she’s there too?” Lily asked as she burst into tears.

  “She should be in Heaven,” Michelle said, also getting upset.

  Everyone looked worried. Surely she hadn’t gone to Hell, not someone so good, who had saved Tyler’s life by sacrificing her own? How could someone who had done that go to Hell? I know she had demon blood inside her, but that shouldn’t affect her soul. But why else would he have been with her? More to the point, how did she get him to come to her?

  “That guy was really pissed off when he saw the mark on her face,” Lily said. “I think he may care for her, more than he let on. I don’t think he did what he did just because it was his job.”

  “He really tortured that creature,” Corey said. “When you were watching Keira with Argyle, I was watching him. After he’d nearly burnt all his skin off with that acid spray thing, he threw fire at it, then he threw energy balls at it. The creature didn’t get the opportunity to fight back. He was too fast.”