I reach behind me and grip my wing and clench down on the wood as I rip the second wing out. I slump down writhing in pain. With tears free flowing out of my eyes like hot lava, I cry out. “I renounce you my God, so that I may save her. Please forgive me.” Saying those words hurts more than the pain of my self-mutilation. A crack of thunder rolls in the sky, loud enough to cause me to jump. It announces to Amorous that they’ve lost one of their own. Warm blood trickles down my back. Without him and without her I’m only a shell of a man.
Lifting one leg and then the other I walk out of Nehemiah’s office and into the transport room with him still tucked safely in my pocket. I stumble at the door way falling against the wall. My blood smears across, leaving a trail of crimson on the stark white paint. I glance back at my wings on the floor, spattered with blood. I take a resolving breath and continue on my way. When I leave here I will never be allowed to come back. Gasps of shock cry out as I pass Keepers in the hall. Inara being one of them.
“Elijah no! Why would you?” Her sweet face is so full of concern for me. I explain that I’ve to save her. She pulls me to the side and heals my wounds. Something she's not supposed to do. The fallen are meant to bear their wounds as slow healing as a mortal human would.
“I'm going to fight for you Elijah. Go, save her. We will find a way to get your wings back.” It only took Jesson six thousand years, I'm not holding my breath. I’m still trying to make sense of the vision he showed me.
“Nehemiah is finished, he’s the one who deserved to have his wings ripped out. He’s gone insane with power. I had to take him down. Tell Michael everything he’s done.”
“I will. And Elijah bring her back to us. She’s our only hope.” She grips me in her arms and hugs me.
I step on to the platform and I begin my free fall. My body speeds toward the earth like a comet from space. I feel the dark wings growing inside of me. Just before I collide with the ground they sprout from my back in a wave of pain as they rip through the scars. I shudder from the pain and fight to use them to save myself. The ground shimmers around me and swallows me up whole. Complete darkness and then a second later and I’m in the holding bin. I hit the ground rolling with the force of ten men.
I hear men coming down the hall. I follow my instincts and open the only door that’s unlocked. I can still hear heartbeats. In the silence of this room I listen. Mapping out the lay of the complex. I’ve got to find the entrance to Hell. It takes me a few minutes but I finally find a location where the sounds stop after they move through a point. That’s what I’m looking for. My gift helps me to move through undetected.
Now I’ve to wait until they’re all away from the room. Every minute I waste could be her last. I need to hurry. Three more mill around the room taking their time. Once I get down there I’ve no idea where they’re keeping her. If I’m noticed they may capture me.
The last man goes through and I enter the room. A single gold door is the only thing in the room. I hear someone approaching, now or never. With a deep breath I enter the door. I walk through a long stone hallway, lit only by lanterns along the way. Here there are no heartbeats, only death. Brennen is the only living soul down here, if she’s even alive at all anymore.
Jesson told me how to get to Lucifer’s palace but once I’m there I’m on my own to find her. I think once I find the palace, I should be able to hear her heartbeat. I keep my head down as I pass other demons. I’m one of them now. The reality of what I’ve down has never been so heavy as right now. So very far away from my God that I can’t feel his presence at all anymore. A hollowness inside me is achingly present. Now I know how Jesson must have felt to be compared to them for so many centuries. He risked his grace to help her and I’ll be forever in his debt.
Chapter 22 ~ All Things Equal
“Sleep well?” I blink open my eyes and find Malphas sitting next to me on the bed. I sit up sucking in a breath. Is it morning already?
“No. I had the most God awful dream that the devil wanted to lock me away in a tower with only his trusty sidekick to keep me company.”
“I see you have your mother’s sense of humor.”
I scrunch up my face, clueless to his reference. “The only joke my mother ever told was that her glass was empty.”
“No dear, your real mother, Emmagen. She is a seraphim high angel.”
“What are you talking about?” My mother wasn’t my real mother? I rub my temples in frustration. And apparently I knew this already. Somewhere in my brain is the knowledge that my real mother is an angel. How could anyone make me forget that? For that matter how could Satan give me those memories back? Unless he is the one who took them in the first place.
“You see that’s why you need your memories back,” he says calmly, matter-of-factly.
“Please don’t kill me but, I don’t want to give him my soul.”
“I’ll give him the message.” He gives a halfhearted smile and heads toward the door. “Oh and Brennen, I left you a pen a pad to write Sam your farewells. I’ll make sure he gets it.” He winks before closing the door behind him and locking it.
Sure enough a blank notepad and pen sit on the table where I left my dinner last night. The tray’s been replaced with breakfast. I can’t do this. I don’t want to die. Maybe he won’t kill me. Maybe you haven’t seen enough episodes of Criminal Minds. My subconscious blares back.
I see they’ve placed a knife in with my silverware. I slip it into the back pocket of my slacks and plan to go down fighting. I straighten myself up a bit. What if he wants to meet me in person so that I can beg for my life to be spared? After a few minutes go by I begin to panic. I check the door to see if it’s locked and all the windows.
Finally my thoughts peak with fear. Something’s coming for me, I can feel it. Panic floods through me, spiking my adrenaline off the chart. I grab the ornately carved dining chair and hurl it into the glass window. The glass shatters and the artificial light bulb burns out revealing nothing but a brick wall. “No,” I cry out, sinking down to the floor.
“That was his favorite piece in the room.” Malphas appears by my side. My chest rises and falls from the exertion. I glare up at him through blurred eyes. A flicker of light near his hand catches my eye. He’s gripping a small knife in his hand. I reach around to my back pocket. It was mine.
In one fluid motion he’s behind me. He grabs me by the hair, tilting my head back and pressing the blade to my throat. A thousand thoughts run through my mind. I meet his cold, dead eyes. Ending my life won’t cause him an inkling of remorse. But I’ve made my choice. I see the look in his eyes indicating he’s ready.
“Looks like you die in my arms in either life Brennen.” He begins to pull the blade over my neck. It burns as warm liquid runs down my shirt.
“Stop Malphas, I’ve a deal for you.” Malphas stops, but holds the knife in place. A dark haired beautiful man has entered the room. It has to be him. He strides towards us and from his grace and ease of movement I recognize him from my dreams. The blur finally has a face.
“You fell Elijah? For her?” he asks as if he can’t believe such a thing with his own two eyes.
“Let her go Malphas and I’ll give you something of far more use to you.” So this is Elijah? He holds a small pewter box in his hand. It looks heavy, perhaps it’s lead. Malphas let’s go of my hair but points the knife up against the small space where my head meets my neck.
“Who do you have there?”
“Two for the price of one. This box contains Nehemiah, the oracle reader and Orneus.”
“Well, well, someone has been a naughty angel.” Malphas considers the offer for a while.
“You have a deal. Take her, she’s of no use to us without her powers anyway.” Powers? He jerks me up by my arm and shoves me toward Elijah. “The master will be pleased he has you at his command.” Malphas stretches an evil grin over his lips that would make grown soldiers cry for their mommy’s.
Elijah pulls me under his arm and tosses
the box to Malphas who palms it easily. “Come on, we need to get you out of here.” He glides his fingers down my arm to my hand and an electric current buzzes within me like nothing I’ve ever felt before. He squeezes my hand and my stomach launches itself over other organs completely. Who is this guy to me again? We take on a quick pace, weaving in and out of corridors and halls. They all start to look the same after a while.
We fly through a gold door and into another room. There are a few men inside and they lunge toward us all at once. Shit and double shit! Elijah gets in front of me and lands a blow to the looming freight train of a man, sending him tumbling backwards. He snaps the other guys arm in two. In the next instant he breaks the neck of the last man like he were opening a jar of pickles. He takes my hand again and leads me through another maze of halls and doors.
We finally burst through a door and bright light nearly blinds me. He fishes his phone out of his pocket as we keep running. He barks out a few directions to someone and then leads me up the steep rocky hill. The loose gravel causes me to slip and I hit the ground hard. He scoops me up and keeps running. His strong arms act like I’m nothing more than a sack of groceries.
When we reach the top, Dr. Kennedy is there. What in the world is going on? “No time to explain Brennen, we have to get you to safety,” she says as she grabs my arm.
“Wait I need to tell her goodbye. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.”
“Hurry Elijah,” Dr. Kennedy rushes out.
Elijah pulls me into his arms and hugs me. “I know you don't remember me, but I love you. I kept my promise and I will try to come back to you.” His eyes, so blue I feel like I could drown in them, hold my gaze. Without warning, he presses his lips to mine. Oh my God this stranger is kissing me. His kiss is desperate, full of passion, and as I'm pulled away by Dr. Kennedy I reach out for him like he's my lifeline. But before he can reach my fingertips I'm in another place entirely. He's gone. I touch my lips where his had been sealed, just seconds ago. What was that?
Dr. Kennedy and I are in a large room, bustling with people disappearing and appearing right out of thin air like were in some high speed Vegas magic show.
“Where are we? Where's Elijah? Who and what are you really.”
“Bren enough with the twenty questions. Let's just try and get your memories back.”
“Do I’ve to give you my soul?”
“That's absurd.” She leads me into a room that looks like an intensive care unit at the hospital. If I wake up and this was all some crazy dream, I may punch someone in the face.
“Hello Brennen. I'm Inara.” A beautiful caramel skinned woman introduces herself to me. She smells of papaya and orchids. Her tightly curled hair is held back by a silk scarf. “Elena, can I speak with you alone for a moment.”
“Stay right here okay. I'll be back in a minute.” Okay mother. Geesh. They walk over to an empty room but I can still see them through the glass.
“He did what?” Dr. Kennedy yells out. And a heated conversation ensues. Everyone here is so perfectly beautiful. I wander around the room. All of the beds are empty except for one. I drift over toward the person, wondering what ails him. A man with long blond hair and a deep tan, lies peacefully in the bed. His abdomen has a bandage wrapped around it completely covering his torso. He peeks one eye open and gives me a sleepy smile as if he knows who I’m. Who knows maybe he does. Apparently everyone knows more about me than I really do.
A woman enters the room and the world seems to stop and pay homage to her beauty. She makes a B-line for me and throws her arms around me, hugging me as if I were a floatation device. Well this is awkward. She pulls me back to examine me. “Are you alright my darling?”
“Yes I'm fine. Thank you.” I stare blankly back at her. The smile fades from her perfect features and worry takes its place.
“No you're not, what did they do to you?” she asks gripping my shoulders.
“I'm not sure which “they” you are referring to. The devil held me hostage wanting my soul. But his goffer mention something about the chosen ones taking away my memories, so I apologize if I should know who you are.”
“They took your memories?” Her brows peak at this news. “I’m your mother and you’re covered in blood.” Not something I think I'll ever here in the same sentence again. I reach my hand up to my neck and remember the knife wound, it must have been superficial because it’s now dried over. I glance down at myself and see a trail of blood all the way to my hip. She's my mother? As if I could refute the emerald green eyes staring back at me that irrevocably match my own.
She reaches out and touches my wound. I wince at the pain, but a second later the pain is gone. I reach back up and the cut is gone. I’ve millions of questions but she looks as if she does too. I explain to her what happened with Malphas.
“And where's Elijah?”
“He stayed behind, acted like he may never see me again.”
“I'm sorry dear but will you excuse me for a moment I’ve to find out the whole story.” The three of them look like a trio of butterflies, I could stare at them all day.
“I heard what Elijah did and if you do see him again, tell him Mud says, thank you.” I pull up a chair near the man and have him tell me the story. He has a faint Irish accent when he gets worked up. Just as he’s wrapping up the drama, the group of lovely ladies comes back over. Their faces all look full of remorse, never a good sign. I just want to go home, be back in the comfort of Sam’s arms. Although Elijah’s steamy kiss was one that I won’t soon forget.
The one claiming to be my mother starts off. “The only one of us who can perform a memory transplant is...”
“Let me guess, locked inside a lead box, in the hands of the devil,” I finish her sentence. They all sigh in tandem. Still not convinced I actually need my memories switched out again, I shrug my shoulders. It sounds like this place is better off without the master puppeteer anyway. “So you’ll fill me in on the important details later, like how my mother wasn’t my mother.” I examine the one who declares herself to be, suspiciously. “But I need to get home. I’m sure my teacher is worried and Sam.”
Dr. Kennedy looks at her watch. “You’ve only been gone an hour on Earth.”
“Wait what do you mean, on Earth? Where are we?”
“Come on ladies, let’s head to the visitor’s center, we can catch Brennen up over brunch.” I’m herded to an elevator and whisked away by three of the most gorgeous women apparently in the universe.
They spend the next few hours telling me all about my life. Dr. Kennedy insists I go back to calling her Elena and admits that prior to my memory transplant we’d grown quite close. She’s missed hanging out with me, but Nehemiah insisted she keep up the façade even when I started having memories return. They tell me about my gifts and how they think that I should go away to college without any divine superpowers, however it’s entirely up to me. They said I hated them anyway.
When we finally get to the part about Sam and Elijah and our epic love triangle, my mind is on overload. I’ve been head over heels for Sam for months, or so my memories tell me. The trio of angels at my table tell a far different story. They tell me my heart belongs to Elijah. They tell me how I defied Nehemiah so that Elijah and I could be together.
Nehemiah ordered things to be reset to the way they would have been had I never met Elijah. So the memories I’ve now aren’t really fake, they really happened, this, I really have a hard time wrapping my human mind around.
They fill me in on Sam’s great destiny and mine. It takes me a while to lift my jaw up off the ground on that one. And lastly they break the news about Sam’s mark, what really happened the night of the fire, Will guarding him constantly, and any hope of a future I’ve with him, slips through my fingers like sand.
When their lips finally stop moving, I wish they could unsay every last bit of it. “Can you just let me go on the way I was before? I don't want to know all of this. I was happy in my bubble of ignorance.
&nb
sp; My mother puts her hand over mine. It warms me ten times over. I've never knew what a mother's love was supposed to feel like until now. “You only have two paths Brennen, the oracle let you live on the other path for a short while, but now you are back on the path that you set out on in the first place. Every choice you make is like a map, leading you to the next choice. Left or right, right or wrong. You've always made the right choices when it was you getting the opportunity to do so.” I could listen to my mother recite the back of a cornflake box and it would be music to my ears.
“What will happen to Elijah? Is he a demon now?” From what I've gathered from my dreams and what they've told me, he means a lot to me. He ruined his life to save mine and I’ve to do everything I can to help him.
“Listen to me Brennen. We are all on his side, we will get his grace back somehow, but know that it's a very delicate situation. You'll have to keep away from Elijah, he is under the command of the most evil one of all.”
Seriously, this is my life? Both of my guys are poised and in position to kill me in a moment's notice. Could I pick a crappier destiny? “How bout Hanz and Franz here, are they taken, possessed, or demons?” One of the shirtless men refills my glass and the other feeds me a grape like some Egyptian love slave. Hm? Maybe I was only half joking. I smile up at him and he returns the gesture.
“Brennen.” Both Elena and my mother squawk in unison. Geesh, seventeen here, not married and damn sure not blind, hello? Inara looks like she’s right there with me. I wish Emily were here right now, she would eat this place up.
They’ve reconstituted all of my past, tried mixing it with my present, and all I got was a big pot of mush.
“Did anyone bother to find out if my plan of telling Sam the truth worked or if Nehemiah condemned me for the fun of it?” My mother looks to Inara and Elena, she’s been out of the loop just as much as I’ve.
Neither can look me in the eye. “I should have stood up for you. I’m sorry Brennen. I was here when Elijah brought you in that night. I’d never seen him so upset. He sat on the floor and cried his eyes out. Nothing could console him. He wanted to disobey Nehemiah even then, but he wasn’t strong enough,” Inara says, her voice is sorrowful and quiet.
My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) Page 19
