Eternal Devastation (The Celestial Rose Book 3)

by Annalee Adams

  Holding off the hot-headed corpse was proving to be difficult. It was getting closer, almost catching my skin with its serrated teeth. That’s when all hope was lost, knowing full well I could barely hold off one of those things, let alone two. A shredded corpse clambered its way over the field towards me. It was the remains of one of the girls from chemistry class, Meghan, I believed. By the looks of it, she hadn’t had a pleasant death. Being eaten alive was no way to pass a soul into the gates of Elysium. Then again, when was any death pleasant? Meghan was crawling closer, her white, barren eyes lacked lustre, representing the death of a soul inside. Her teeth gnashed away as she slid across the ground towards us. This was it, this was my end, the end of everything I knew and everything that could be.

  Turning away, I closed my eyes and heard the snap of her jaws by my ear.

  Chapter 24: Taylor

  My body was pushed aside as the clambering corpse that lay on top of me was picked up and thrown into the air by the jaws of a huge lycanthrope, a lycanthrope I thought I’d never see again and one whose presence made me smile from ear to ear. My mother ran in and grabbed the remains of a zombified Meghan and threw her to the side like trash in a rubbish bin.

  Harland morphed back to his naked human self, ran over and squeezed me tight. “Taylor!” he exclaimed, landing on top of me and cuddling me until I couldn’t breathe. “Woah, when did you eat all the pies?” he said, laughing and poking at my huge belly. I laughed.

  I sat up, wobbling from side to side. Mother came rushing over, offering her hand and pulling me up. “Eve!” she exclaimed, hugging me, patting my babies.

  “Shit me, Taylor, you’re pregnant!”

  “I guessed that,” I said, smiling.

  “Lucian's going to be pissed at you.”

  “Huh? Where is he, did he survive?” I asked, tears welling in my eyes.

  “Crap, no. Eli said he died. Sorry, I meant it’s cos’ it’s not his, you’ve been gone just over a year.”

  “I’ve what?”

  “TAYLOR!” Elisha yelled, running over. “Is it really you?”

  I smiled as she pulled me in for a close-knit cuddle. Letting go, her eyes were immediately drawn to my ballooning stomach. With wide eyes she said, “and what’s this I see? Are you with child?”

  “Yes, and before you ask, they’re Lucian's”

  “They?”

  “She’s having twins,” Mother said.

  Elisha leapt in the air with joy. “Twins!”

  “Who is this, Taylor?” Harland asked.

  “Oh, sorry, this is my mother.”

  “Your mum's dead.” He said.

  “No, she’s alive but just a child, remember?” I said, he nodded in realisation. “This is my first mother, Eve’s mum.”

  “How the fuck did you get here?” He asked her. “...excuse my language."

  Mother laughed. “Eve actually found me.”

  “Lilith threw me in the mirror,” I said, explaining.

  “Oh,” realisation crossed Harland’s face. “So how long did you think you’d been gone?”

  “Err, I don’t know, about four months?”

  “Try thirteen, mate.”

  “Crap.”

  “Yeah,” Elisha said, nodding.

  “TAYTAY!” a voice yelled. Turning, I saw Nic running full pelt over to me. Grabbing me, he swung me around. “Wow, TayTay, you’ve grown. I smell babies.”

  “Pardon?” I said, eyebrows raised.

  “You’re pregnant, I can smell them.”

  “Err, okay, that’s slightly weird, Nic,” I said, laughing.

  “Forgive him,” Jayden said, walking over. “He’s still an animal in a human shell.”

  “He is, indeed.”

  “Did you meet Jayden?” Nic asked.

  “I can’t remember, sorry, I don’t think so,” I said.

  “They’re boyfriends,” Harland said, winking.

  “Aww, that’s so sweet” I exclaimed, ruffling Nic’s hair. He appeared the same age as me but felt like my younger brother. It was cute that he’d found someone to share eternity with. Then again, Jayden didn’t look like any supernatural I’d met.

  Nic’s cheeks turned crimson. “Thanks, TayTay.” He smiled.

  “Shit watch out,” Harland said as a hoard of fire demons came running towards us. “Get behind me,” he shouted, pushing me back.

  “Nic, transform!” Jayden yelled, standing back and gearing up with a crossbow.

  “Eve stand behind me,” Mother ordered. I obeyed. I wasn’t in any fit state to fight. I could barely walk with the weight of the pair jumping up and down in my womb.

  Ahead of us, the field closed in. Streetlamps flickered to the right and trees swayed to the left. There wasn’t anywhere to run, not quick enough, not far enough. I’d never be able to keep up, let alone muster the energy to fight those things. It wasn’t just Rowena, though, there was a whole army making its way to us. The fire demons were only the start of it.

  Damn, I couldn't just stand there doing nothing. I had to be able to fight, to help in some way. But what could I do? I needed help, heck, we all did. There was no way we could fight the upcoming army. We wouldn’t last five minutes. We had done it before, made a portal, I mean. If we could just reach out and contact Adam, he could send down the angels to help us. Did he even know we were back? I closed my eyes, breathed in, then out, resting my mind and relaxing my soul. I could do this. I had to. Teeth clenched, fists doubled up, I opened my eyes. “ADAM!” I screamed, shouting out with the echo of my own celestial rage. My voice reverberated through the chill of the wind, bouncing from tree to tree, building to building, until it reached up high and touched the celestial sands of Elysium. It had to have made it there, someone must have heard it.

  The army sure did, for they halted position as a familiar voice screamed back at me, “LITTLE EVIE!” Shit. Lilith was there. I looked through the shoulders of my mother and Harland. Was that her? Could that really be her? She was far away but her presence could be felt for miles. She had clearly halted her army, so she could get in first, throw the first punch, so to speak. I wondered what shed think when she saw that Mother was alive and well? Would they recognise each other? Would she know and see the light once again? Was it even possible anymore?

  I didn’t think so, not after what she had done to Lucian. My eyes watered as the height of emotion choked in my throat. It’s so hard without you, Lucian, I whispered. Harland heard me. He turned around in amidst the upcoming threat, kissed me on the forehead, and whispered, “You’ve got this, Taylor Lane, keep on fighting.” Pulling back, he smiled and then turned back and engaged with the first of the fire demons as they arrived.

  I didn’t know where to look, what to do. Demon after demon came pounding into the circle my friends and family had created. I was in the centre as they tried to break through. I knew though, one swipe and my babies would be dead. I couldn’t risk stepping out and helping them. But there had to be something I could do.

  The smoked demons ravaged forward. Some were kept busy with the walking dead, whereas the others were fighting to reach me. I huddled down to the ground and brought my hands in while the feet of my loved ones trampled the area around me. The only thing I could do was survive, and try damned hard, too. But it wouldn’t be long before she reached me, and in the meantime, the wall of demons around us was at least three thick. They appeared to take longer to kill, too, Harland was struggling, even in his Lycan form. Jayden had resorted to using daggers and was quite agile for what appeared to be a human male. Nic was back in lion form, his favourite of all his shifting creatures. And Elisha was somehow getting the demons to fight for her side, waging a war between themselves. It seemed, in this instance, hers was the ultimate power. She could control at least eight of them at one time, by the look of it. My mother, however, was holding a wall of light, pushing the demons back so only the odd one or two broke free at one time. The problem was that she was sweating already, she wouldn’t be able to ho
ld up for much longer.

  Perhaps if I helped, if we joined power like before, then we’d stand a fighting chance, we could keep up the wall together. Palms on the ground, knees bent, I rose, standing tall and reaching out to place my hands on her shoulders. She didn’t look back, she was too busy concentrating on the wall around us, it was the only defence we had. I knew, though, that without help, it’d fall before Adam could even get here, if he had even heard me.

  My hands gripped her shoulders. Closing my eyes, I concentrated, brought the light through my body and travelling it down to my hands. It flowed freely into my mother, embellishing her light with my own, empowering the magic before us and strengthening the wall we had created. My mother’s body drooped slightly, as if a large weight had been taken off of her. She turned a bit and thanked me, smiling as she continued to wield the light to strengthen the wall.

  Above my head I heard the flap of wings and the warmth of the sun shined through a gap in the clouds. They were here! I could feel them above me. Looking up, it was Gabriel, but who was he holding? Angels dropped from the sky before us, strengthening the wall with their light as Gabriel landed within. Letting go of my mother, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The familiarity of the man he held took my breath away. It couldn’t be, could it?

  My body slumped from the weight of the babies. Energy waned as I fell to the floor, nearly fainting at the sight before me. Could it be? Was he really here?

  “LUCIAN?” I screamed as I fell to the Earth.

  “Taylor?” I heard, as the wind rushed around me and I landed on the outstretched knee of my beloved.

  “Lucian?” I asked, my eyes flickered, dazed by the sun.

  “Taylor,” he said, his smoky voice teasing me. My eyes warmed by his adoring smile as he bent down and kissed my lips.

  It couldn’t be, it shouldn’t be, but it was. He had survived, somehow my Lucian had survived. My mind was a mess of emotion, hands trembling at the thought of this being a horrible mind trick Lilith was playing. It wasn’t, was it?

  “Are you real?” I asked as he stroked my hair.

  “Damn, I hope so,” he said, grinning, kissing me again.

  Coming up for air, I studied his face, his ocean blue eyes, his soft pale skin, and I smiled. It was him. My dark knight had come to save me. “Thank you for saving me,” I said, smiling.

  “Thank you for needing to be saved.” He smiled.

  “Oh, I’ll always need to be saved by you,” I said.

  He gently sat me down on the ground amidst the chaos around us. “That’s not what I’ve heard,” he grinned, leaning in to hold me tight. “Err, Taylor, what’s that?” he asked, brow creased, looking down at the bump that held our children.

  I grinned. “What do you think it is, Lucian?”

  “Are we pregnant?” he asked.

  “Well, no.” I laughed. “Technically I’m pregnant.”

  “We’re having a baby?” he asked.

  “Yes, but...”

  “WE’RE HAVING A DAMN BABY!”’ Lucian yelled lifting me up, hugging me and then jumping up to punch the air.

  Harland turned around, grinned and said, “Make that two, mate.”

  “Shit, really?”

  I nodded.

  “WE’RE HAVING TWO BABIES!” he yelled, picking me up and hugging me and our babies tight.

  “Say hi to daddy,” I said, as the little ones beamed light out of my stomach.

  “Aww,” he gushed, bending down to kiss them. “I’m a daddy!”

  “THE WALL!” Elisha yelled, half listening to our conversation, half keeping an eye on the battle ahead.

  I turned and looked. It was breaking.

  “Shit,” Lucian said, he turned to Gabriel. “Get her out of here.” Gabriel nodded.

  “No,” I said, I wasn’t leaving them all there to die. Not now, not ever. “Where’s Adam?” I asked.

  “He’s coming,” Lucian said. “We wouldn’t wait for the rest of the army, not when Gabriel heard you.”

  “We have to go, Eve,” Gabriel said. “Please.”

  “I can’t, I’m sorry. We have to wait a few more minutes. Adam will be here.”

  My mother turned. “Eve go!” she demanded.

  “No, Mother!” I yelled back.

  “Mother?” Lucian and Gabriel said in unison.

  She smiled, waved, and held her hands up again to power the wall.

  They looked at me. “Long story,” I said. “Get ready, the wall's breaking.”

  Gabriel and Lucian pushed me back. I held up my hands, placed them on my mother and bared down, flowing my light into the defence around us. It helped, a bit. The crack started to heal, but would it hold for long enough?

  There weren’t just demons there, there was a whole host of supernatural beings. Some gremlin types were working with Lilith; goblins, Elisha had called them. Alongside, huge snarling beasts reigned in with human mutations riding on top of them. The shadelings had upped and joined her cause, siphoning the life out of the dead or dying. I even recognised a few of Elisha’s fellow Femme Fatales caressing the ranks. We couldn’t let them get too close, otherwise they’d be turning the angels against each other. But what was that next to them? Beside the alluring beauty stood something of equal magnificence, but in a detrimental way. It was the vilest looking creation known to man. The opposite of the Femme Fatale, something different, something new and by the looks of it, it was what Lilith had been trying to create when she messed up and made a whole host of dead zombies trailing the ranks. It wasn’t just any walking dead. The creature was once a human, but one turned inside out. His largest organ, his skin, had been taken off and sewn on backwards, bloody tissue exposed to the elements, pumping blood vessels and arteries pulsating through its warped existence. Those things were deadly, pure death walking in unison with pure beauty, and there was at least fifty of the damn things, from what I could see.

  What was its power, though? It appeared weak, devastating and scary looking, but with its arteries on the outside, surely that made it weak? Easy to kill? Perhaps its power didn’t allow you to get close enough to swipe an artery or two, and considering they walked alongside the Femme Fatales, one would presume they had a similar power, a way of manipulating the mind of those around them. If that was the case, if they were anything like the Femme Fatales, or like Rowena, then we wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Blustering wind flustered over our heads. The power of an immortal army gave way to the winged creatures above us. Luckily, they were the winged creatures I knew; they were Adam's army, and there he was, flying down, the greatest of them all with Charmeine by his side.

  “PULL BACK!” Gabriel yelled to the angels by the wall. Lilith was coming. She was metres away and beside her, riding on the beast she came in on, was a little girl who looked the same age as Eli. Where was Eli? I wondered. Did he survive?

  Lucian pushed me to Gabriel, nodded, and Gabriel grabbed me, soaring into the sky. I kicked, screaming to be let go. How dare he? I needed to know they were all going to be okay.

  “Pack it in, Eve. I have to save you.”

  “No, you have to save them first,” I yelled. “I order you!”

  “Damn you, Eve. I’m not listening to your orders anymore, you have a knack of finding trouble.”

  “Please, Gabriel” I pleaded. Gabriel slowed down, flying high above the battle taking place below. The demons had broken through, people were flying everywhere. Adam had landed, and losses were apparent on both sides, but who?

  Adam looked up and ordered the angels to rise and pull back, each picking up one of my loved ones on the way. “They’re coming, Eve. Look, we can go.”

  “Wait, where’s Eli and Lawrence? Did they survive?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll send scouts out to look for them. Don’t worry, they’re both Seers, after all, they should have seen this coming.”

  “Not funny, Gabriel, not funny.”

  Chapter 25: Eve

  The journey upward was a turbulent ride
, a panicked streak of light, as Gabriel flapped his mighty wings quickly, bursting through the clouds at a rampant pace. Landing in Elysium was never a pleasurable experience, especially when being carried by your closest friend and thrown forward at such a force your insides threatened to become outsides.

  “Careful!” I yelled, bouncing across the crystal floor. Here we were again. The axe lady gave me a nod, smirking as she handed out tickets to the dead and fallen.

  “Really, you tell me to be careful?” Gabriel said, frowning. “You’re the one who ends up fighting for her life every time I see you.”

  “Ha ha,” I said, clearly unimpressed. “What’s going on with you, Gabriel? I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

  “I was... I am,” he said, lowering his head. “It’s going to take some time, Eve.” He said looking at my stomach.

  “You’re not mad, are you?”

  “No, why would I be?” he said, frowning. “Why... do you remember?”

  I nodded. He smiled and kissed my forehead. “But I’m sorry, Gabriel. I’ve found my happiness... you need to, too.”

  His head lowered. “I... but I waited,” he said.

  “I know, I’m truly sorry. You’ll always be my best friend,” I said, placing my hand on his shoulder and pulling him in for a hug. “We were always close, Gabriel,” I said, “Always will be. You mean the world to me.”

  He smiled, nodding. I hugged him again. “I’ve missed you, I’ve missed us,” he said.

  “Me too. My life was only ever simple when I was with you.”

  He nodded, pulling me in close to his chest. I breathed in the scent of everything I’d ever dreamed of, ever loved. We were a match, he and I, always had been. We were easy. The problem was, simple wasn’t what I wanted anymore. The life of Taylor Lane had changed me, brought my light into the darkness, and now I encompassed both. I needed both in my life. I had to have both. It was Lucian I loved, desired, and lusted over. He was my darkness and I was his light. Together we could accomplish anything.