THE IMMORTAL: A Novel of the Breedline series

by Shana Congrove

  Instantly, Jena positioned herself over Nicolas, trying to shield him from further harm. “You’re nothing but a coward,” she said, looking up at Ashton with hatred in her eyes. “How could you do this to him? He’s done nothing but protect you his whole life.”

  Ashton raked his eyes down at Jena, cold and callously. “You,” he said with disgust in his voice, “have feelings for him, don’t you?”

  For a moment, his words created a feeling of confusion and uncertainty within her. Could it be? Jena thought, closing her eyes. Could there be some kind of hidden feelings between me and Nicolas?

  It was then an image suddenly came to her—a vision. As Jena blinked her eyes open, a memory from somewhere deep in her subconscious flashed inside her mind, fading out everything surrounding her...

  All Jena could see were yellow wildflowers. It was as if she had materialized in the middle of a field, surrounded by a sea of what looked to be butterweeds. As she scanned the area, she looked for anything that might give her a hint of familiarity. For some strange reason, an odd shimmer went through Jena, the kind that made her wonder whether this was a memory from a long time ago, or perhaps from a dream. Nevertheless, she felt as though she had been here before.

  Out of nowhere, the sound of approaching voices caught her attention. When she turned to look, not far away she could see a man dressed in a long gray coat with puffed sleeves, knee breeches, tall riding boots, and a woman who wore a dress of brilliant pink silk and matching gloves. They reminded her of a prince and a princess out of a fairy-tale book.

  Jena watched like a distant observer as they moved closer. The wind was slightly blowing and had ruffled the man’s ink-black hair as the pair crossed the brightly colored meadow. By the way they glanced fondly at one another and held hands, it was apparent they were a couple.

  As the two looked her way, Jena froze, but to her relief, they appeared to gaze past her. Although she could see them, it was evident they could not see her. How strange, Jena thought. It wasn’t until they were a few feet away that she recognized their faces. Jena caught her breath. It was Nicolas, to her surprise, and a young woman that resembled the girl in her painting... identical to herself, except she looked to be from another era of time. Which meant it could only be one person: Isabella Westfield.

  Jena stood completely baffled by what she saw. It didn’t make any sense. There were no records in Nicolas’s journal of him and Isabella having a relationship. However, this perhaps explained the reason for all the missing pages.

  Refocusing her attention ahead, Jena could see the uncanny similarities between her and Isabella, the features they shared: long blonde hair, their height and frame, the pale blue color of their eyes. Looking at Isabella was like staring into a mirror at herself.

  For the longest moment, Nicolas and Isabella both stood face to face with their hands joined as if they were preparing to embrace.

  As Isabella released Nicolas’s hands, Jena heard her say, “Although my heart cannot deny my true feelings, I cannot bear to continue this betrayal.” She broke eye contact with Nicolas and lowered her head, but not before Jena saw the pain in her eyes. “It would destroy Ashton if he discovered the truth.”

  Nicolas instantly grasped ahold of her hand, his expression overcome with distress. “Please, Isabella.”

  She lifted her teary gaze. “You and I both know this is wrong,” she said, shaking her head. “God will surely punish us.”

  Nicolas’s violet eyes bored into Isabella’s pale-blue gaze. It made him seem more vulnerable, and his eyes, too, were unguarded, open like a door.

  Then, as Jena painfully observed, he placed their joined hands over his heart as though it was a piece of glass in fear of shattering. “Punish us for what, Isabella?” he asked. “For falling in love?”

  Isabella leaned into Nicolas with tears rolling down her cheeks. “For allowing it to go this far.”

  Jena’s heart caught in her throat as Nicolas leaned in further and rested his forehead against Isabella’s. “I wouldn’t take any of it back for the world. The only thing I regret is...” He swallowed back tears. “...that I didn’t meet you first.”

  “I know, I know,” she whispered. “If only...”

  “No matter what happens,” he whispered back. “I will always love you, Izzy.”

  “And I you, Nicolas.”

  In spite of Nicolas’s and Isabella’s outward appearance of calm, it was obvious their hearts were breaking. And her heart too, along with her state of mind, felt broken. It was then Jena knew why Isabella decided to dedicate herself to a women’s convent in England, vowing a life of celibacy. Although she loved both Nicolas and Ashton, she could not carry the burden of hurting either one. Regardless of the grief of having to say good-bye, Nicolas loved Isabella enough to let her go. Unfortunately, no matter the choices, the outcome was still the same.

  As Nicolas and Isabella quickly embraced, something took hold of Jena’s throat.

  And then Jena was abruptly back to the present, returning to the cemetery... where Nicolas remained unconscious, and Ashton held her by the throat, squeezing with a death grip.

  Jena struggled to breathe, much less remain conscious. In her peripheral view, she saw a blurry image of someone moving closer. “Please, Ashton,” a voice she recognized said from the vision she had. “For God’s sake, I beg you. Please don’t do this.”

  Distracted, Ashton released Jena and instantly looked at the voice he recalled from a long time ago.

  Jena took a deep, gasping breath and saw Isabella standing close to the redheaded angel, easily recognizable by the remarkable resemblance in her vision and her pink silk dress.

  “Izzy?” Ashton muttered. His eyes rounded in stunned disbelief. “But how—?” he began, but before he could say more, the snap of a whip interceded as it hurled forward at lightning speed. It carried with it a sizzling bolt of electricity that crackled through the air, end over end, and struck his chest like a blazing torch. As it burned and scorched his hide, black smoke rose from his body as if he was burning from the inside out.

  Ashton howled—howled and writhed as everyone watched him transform into a vapor-like fog. In an instant, he disappeared.

  Surprised, Jena turned to look at the woman dressed in leather, who held a whip that sizzled with smoke, and then at the bat-like creature standing beside her who raised an eyebrow and said, “Nice throw, sister.”

  The corners of Electra’s lips curled up. It wasn’t a pleasant grin, more like a satisfied smirk. She turned away from Apollyon to look at Callisto. For a moment, the two sisters stared at each other in silent understanding.

  It was then Jena wondered what they had in mind by the calculating look on their faces. Suddenly, she felt a chill at the pit of her stomach just as something flashed next to the redheaded angel. Jena turned to look. Standing behind the angel was Isabella, and she was glowing, light blazing all around her. Jena watched as her body stretched and elongated. It was as if she was shifting into someone else. Glancing around, Jena saw that everyone else—seemingly oblivious to what was transpiring—had their eyes focused on where Ashton had previously stood, as though they were expecting him to reappear. When Jena averted her eyes and refocused them on Isabella, wings instantly burst from her back—massive black wings, similar to the battle angels. Then, to Jena’s surprise, Isabella’s image vanished and a male angel with bleached, spiked hair magically took her place. Jena looked startled for a moment and then came to realize the angel must have the ability to shapeshift, using her visions of Isabella to trick Ashton. The angel’s quick thinking had saved her life.

  The sound of heavy footsteps made Jena tear her gaze from the angel and peer past him. As three giant shadows slowly came into view, a feeling of relief washed over Jena in waves, realizing the remaining battle angels had arrived. When Cronus, Icarus, and Helios crowded in next to the other male angel and Lailah, a tall man with long black hair, who she remembered as Sebastian, stood alongside them. The golden or
bs of his eyes glowed with a harsh acidic light. With his brows pinched together, he appeared more sinister than the last time she saw him, almost equivalent to Apollyon’s savage disposition.

  Jena was about to look away when a deep voice took her by surprise.

  “Fear not, Jena,” Helios spoke into her mind. “We are here to help you.”

  She looked up then and met her eyes with his. His diamond eyes bored into hers with confidence, and for some reason, it gave her hope.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Meanwhile, Ashton’s ghostly apparition shot upward and tried to escape, but to his dismay, he found himself trapped in some sort of force field even though there was nothing visibly solid surrounding him. Within seconds, he started to shift back into a solid form.

  Jena turned just as a shadowed outline of a monstrous figure began to take shape.

  “What in the hell,” Ashton gritted his teeth, “is this?”

  With a stone-cold expression, Electra drew back her fierce weapon and positioned it back on her hip, while her sister Callisto looked visibly amused by Ashton’s unsettling reaction. The force field, after all, had been her doing. Although this time, the creature was defenseless when her shield surrounded him.

  Apollyon raised an eyebrow in Callisto and Electra’s direction. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you?” He averted his eyes from his sisters and focused them on Ashton. “Never piss off a woman who can kick your ass,” he said mockingly. “Much less two,” he tacked on.

  Ashton shot Apollyon a murderous glare. “Shut your foul mouth,” he growled, exposing rows of sharp teeth, “before I rip your tongue from your fucking head.”

  As Jena watched, nestled under the shawl and huddled closely to Nicolas, she half-expected the bat-like creature, who called himself Apollyon, to make some sharp-witted comment in response, but he simply looked at Ashton coolly and remained silent.

  It wasn’t until Roman and Bull stepped from the shadows and saw Angie’s wolf lying on the ground, motionless and bloodied, that Bull’s panic-stricken voice broke the silence. “Noooo!”

  “Bull—” Roman started, but Bull was already running toward his beloved, fearing the worst. As he neared her, a crackling noise thundered through the air and the ground under his feet began to tremble. He reeled back, surprise blooming across his face, as the earth abruptly broke open and exploded with light. The cemetery that housed the dead suddenly lit up with flames, rising in colors of gold and red.

  Bull looked from the fiery pit to Angie’s unconscious wolf, to the battle angels. The air was thick with smoke, and the smell of fire was choking. Then he coughed and coughed again. “Someone,” he finally said, shielding his face from the burning flames, “do something—”

  And there it came, crawling out like a demon rising from the deepest pits of hell. As it dug its clawed hands into the ground, lifting itself up, the enormous creature was definitely not human. It had five heads, all of them shaped like a serpent: golden vertical slit-pupiled eyes that glowed against its blood-red scales, wings like a dragon, and jaws filled with dagger-sharp teeth.

  A wolfish grin played across Ashton’s face. “Master,” he hissed, and raised his powerful wolf arms, his claws reaching for the sky almost as if he was reaching for the thing that had risen from below, pleading for its help.

  One of the reptilian creatures leaned close to Bull and roared in his ear. The sound sent a jolt of adrenaline through his body—and along with it, rage. He gritted his teeth and tried to stand, but his legs buckled under him. He struggled on his hands and knees, trying to pull himself closer to Angie’s wolf, but the thick smoke and heat radiating from the flames were too much.

  “Benjamin!” Lena cried out to her brother, her heart twisting inside her chest as she and Justice rushed to his side.

  Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. Jena turned, her eyes searching the graveyard desperately for Lailah and the other battle angels. She couldn’t see them through all the smoke, but she heard growling, and then several pairs of glowing eyes suddenly flickered in the darkness. She scrambled closer on her hands and knees, trying to get a better view, but she could make out only the flash of weapons that looked to be swords and the dark shapes of enormous wolves along with another dark outline of what seemed to be an enormous feline of some sort.

  Jena turned to scramble back only to find Ashton waiting for her, in his human form, standing next to his brother’s motionless body. He bitterly smiled down at Jena, who was too shocked to do anything but stare up at him.

  “I’m going to ask you one more time,” he said, offering her his hand. His voice was harsh, impatient. “Join me, my beloved.”

  The shrieking noises coming from the five-headed serpent caused Jena to flinch and look away. There was a scream, and among the smoke and burning flames, she could see three dark figures that looked to be a woman and two men, standing before the demonic creature. It snorted plumes of smoke and hissed at them like a cobra, readying itself to strike in unison. Jena took a deep, shuddering breath and tore her eyes away from the horror. For a moment, everything seemed to hang in suspension. Then her attention focused back to Ashton, her eyes darkening as they met his gaze. As she stared into his haunted eyes, she remembered the intimate night they had shared. Images, more than thoughts, were rushing through Jena’s mind, terrible and disturbing images of the next morning, of the monstrous creature she’d become, of the repulsive face looking back at her in the mirror. It was like a distant dream, like something that had happened to someone else and not her. Then her mind came back to focus. Somehow, Ashton managed to seduce her then, but now, she was determined not to give in to him a second time.

  “No.” She shook her head, crawling back slowly. “I refuse to be the monster you have become.”

  His face twisted into a mask of rage and his eyes blazed with a wave of painful anger. It was then that Jena braced herself, noticing his impending changes were rising fast. She watched in silence, pleading to God to stop it, as his features began to contort and elongate until he was entirely unrecognizable. Jena was amazed at how quickly his transition took over. Thick black hair pushed out of every inch of his bare skin and trailed down his broad shoulders. In a matter of seconds, it covered him completely.

  With her eyes fixed on his hideous face, Jena felt her chest tighten. Ashton looked very angry. Angry enough to kill her. The vicious expression on his face was enough to impel Jena to her feet.

  The moment she stood, she heard him growl deep in his throat, and then his clawed hand was on her arm, gripping painfully, forcing her forward.

  Jena took a shaking breath. “Please, don’t do this,” she pleaded, straining against his strong hold, but her resistance only infuriated him further. He jerked her arm with such force her feet went out from under her. Jena fell to her knees, agony shooting through her as the skin tore from the bits of gravel and the uneven ground below.

  “Get up,” he growled.

  Painfully Jena turned her head, searching for help, but she couldn’t see past all the smoked-filled darkness. Her head jerked back when something sharp dug into her skin and wrapped tightly around her ankle. Jena cringed but didn’t scream, biting her lip to keep it at bay. In sheer panic, she clawed at the ground as Ashton dragged her from behind.

  “Let her go,” a stern voice said, seemingly close by.

  Ashton froze in his tracks but kept a firm grip on Jena. He looked away from her and to the unfamiliar voice.

  “Let her go?” Ashton said, squinting his shrewd luminous eyes, searching for the stranger among the thick cloud of smoke. “Who dares to tell me...” He let out a deep-throated cackle. “...what to do? And more to the point, whoever you are, what do you mean to do about it? Surely, by now, it would seem obvious that none of your kind can kill me.”

  A tall blond, who Jena recognized as Jace’s twin brother—the one who Angie described as the Chosen Son—emerged from the veil of smoke as though he came out of nowhere. Behind him were huge wolv
es, perhaps as many as ten, a giant black panther, and Jace’s beast. They paced back and forth, growling and snarling.

  “Maybe we cannot kill you,” Jem said as he stepped forward, his palm crackling with light. “But sometimes there are far worse things than death.”

  Jena watched in amazement at what looked to be a bolt of lightning shooting straight out of the palm of Jem’s hand. As it made contact with Ashton’s chest, he instantly howled and clutched at his charred and scorched hide.

  Among his piercing howls, Jena could hear the sounds of wings flapping. Crouched on the ground, she looked to the dark sky and a sense of relief suddenly took hold. Flying above—so close she could feel a soothing current of air breeze against her face—were the glorious battle angels, equipped with swords, preparing to fight against the five-headed serpent. Then she heard them shouting.

  “Attack!” Cronus called out, leading his comrades in arms into battle.

  With lightning speed, Icarus swung his sharp-edged weapon as one of the serpents snapped its head forward, slicing clean through its thick-scaled skin. The monstrous head struck the ground and blood spurted like an acidic red fountain.

  The remainder of the reptilian creatures simultaneously let loose a hellish shriek as though they felt the death of the fifth companion.

  Seething with anger and unbearable agony, Ashton fell to his knees, grieving over the foreseen death of his Master. A look of despair flashed across his face by the tragedy of his loss, but it passed quickly, and unbridled fury reawakened inside him.

  “Now!” Cronus yelled, louder this time. We can do this, he thought silently, rearing back his sword, getting ready to slay his enemy. God created us for this, to protect the innocent from evil, and we will not fail him. As he swung his mighty sword that was as long as his forearm, Helios, Lailah, and Frigg followed suit. All at once, they decapitated the snake-like heads in the flash of light, and at the same time it released Jena’s binding spell. Now, their task was almost complete.