Eurynome recognized what he had created in Zane. The knowledge that his game had twisted the boy into something sick and wrong on the inside ate at the back of his mind, even as his instinct told him to strike. For a moment, as Zane’s body flew through the void and landed in a crumpled heap, Eurynome felt relief, but it was a short lived thing.
The monster ran at him, intending to stomp Zane under its mighty feet, but the boy moved too quickly. Recovering just in time, he kicked out, landing the heel of his boot to the demon’s knee. Eurynome faltered, his leg giving in under the pain and the weight of his massive form, bringing him down—head drooping.
In that instant, Zane struck. The tentacle of power snapped into the back of the demon’s neck with no amount of gentleness, nearly cracking the skull, ripping through the outer layers of greasy, filth covered membranes. Zane drove his mind to seek out the thing that would destroy the beast, desperation and hate causing him to tear and rip his enemy’s brain as if it were not a fragile organism.
Eurynome struggled, trying to force Zane from his inner barriers as he parried and struck at the boy’s body. Like called to like, and the death eater inside of Zane wailed as the demon’s stronger spirit crushed into the deep recesses of where it hid. Mind-to-mind and body-to-body, they fought and struggled. The battle raged into fierceness that left them both bloody and panting as they struggled to end the other, neither knowing how. In the void, there was no knowledge of time or space, only the death eaters, battling for a fallen girl.
****
Vega drifted among a sea of memories, no longer confused by their meanings. She remembered every life, every death, and all that had taken place. Unlike when the visions had found her, the time line spanned out in order. The ring on her chest lent her its power, and she understood it perfectly. In the year seventeen-seventy-six, she had bargained with the greater demon, and had, in return, died a dozen deaths since. Through every tragic existence and ending, her one true love had watched and mourned her demise. Then, on the eve of her rebirth, they had been allowed one final night of love before it all began again.
This time had been different, though. Zane had changed the game. Slipping through the barrier in the void, he’d come to her in life, helping her to survive. When she’d committed the final fatal act, he had broken free of his chains and had come to her rescue. Even as he fought the demon, her body lay healing and regenerating. The magic of the ring making her whole again had gone unnoticed by Zane and Eurynome as they raged.
Slowly, her consciousness unfurled, stretching itself back into her limbs, reviving the body that had laid dormant in death. The pain of her wounds knitting themselves back together slowly faded in, an exquisite torture that made her want to rejoice, because the agony meant that she was truly alive.
Her relief was short lived, because in that moment, she watched Zane falter. The greater demon’s attack was brutal, the mental and physical onslaught buckling Zane at the knees. As he fell, Vega tried to call out his name, but the words caught behind the lump of anguish in her throat. If he died, it would have all been for nothing. She would have lived and died, endured and failed, all to watch him fall once more.
Crawling through the darkness, half dragging her body toward the battling duo, Vega resigned to sacrifice herself in a final act of love. She’d give her life, her soul, so in the end, Zane would not suffer. Her decision all those many years ago had condemned him to an existence far worse than any death could have been, and from her selfishness, they had both nearly been destroyed.
In the distance a strange ticking began. The sound was deep and rhythmic, as if the hands of a clock counting down until some moment when it would all be too late. Each resounding tick echoed in the vast darkness.
Vega watched as if in slow motion as the greater demon pulled Zane up from the floor. “Zane,” she cried out, dragging herself forward, terrified of what would happen next.
As suddenly as it had started, the ticking stopped, and an absolute silence fell over them. Zane turned his face toward her, bloody and swollen, and she could see the plea in his eyes. His strength was gone, and his life hung from a miniscule thread.
Zane’s harsh whisper broke the stillness, “Happy birthday, baby.”
“No!” Eurynome bellowed.
Zane’s head flopped back and forth as the demon shook him violently.
“No,” the demon screamed again. “I don’t lose. You will pay. Holding Zane by the throat with one hand, large talons piercing the tender flesh, Eurynome drew back his other.
Vega struggled to her feet, her limbs finally useable, if not strong. “Eurynome!” she screamed, and in his surprise, he halted and turned. Staring down the demon that had destroyed her life and all chance of happiness, Vega trembled. “This ends now.”
His laughter filled the void, “And who will stop me, girl. I have destroyed you many times over. You are not a warrior, just a chit.”
Turning back to his victim, Eurynome ignored Vega’s screams. “I tire of playing with you, boy,” he growled. The greater demon’s hand shot forward, intent on ripping Zane’s heart from his chest, just as Vega reached them. In a simultaneous implosion, Eurynome’s hand slid harmlessly through Zane’s chest and Vega’s fell through the demons back.
Toppling through the void, legs and arms tangling as they desperately reached out for solid ground, Zane and Vega fell together. A flash of light blinded them as they plummeted, and the world was lost into confusion.
****
Cool air and lush grass tickled her cheek. Rays of sunshine warmed her body and glowed orange behind her closed lids. At first, she felt nothing but a feeling of peace, and then, she remembered.
Shooting upright, she gasped, “Zane!” Her fear forming a lump in her throat as heavy as stone, she searched for him.
He laid a few feet away, his back to her as he curled in the shade of the rows of rose bushes that seemed to go on forever. Rushing to his side, Vega was almost too afraid to touch him, terrified that he had not survived.
Her hand timidly grazed his shoulder, “Zane?”
He stirred, his mouth forming a delicious pout as he opened his eyes. A moment passed in amazed silence as they looked at each other—whole, well, and alive. Falling into each other’s arms, they kissed, words of love drowning as their lips met again and again.
Vega hadn’t felt so alive in over two hundred years. “Did we win, Zane? Are we really free?”
He kissed her once more, his fingers caressing her cheek, “I don’t know, love. I don’t know.” It was so hard to care when he had her alive and breathing in his arms.
They fell into embracing and kissing once more, the perfume of roses thick in the air around them.
At last, Vega pulled back. “I don’t understand what happened. I can’t imagine how we managed to break free.”
A perplexed look crossed Zane’s face as he said, “I am not—”
“Love,” the old familiar voice came from near a fountain positioned only a few feet away. “Well, that, and you beat the clock.”
Zane and Vega stared in wide eyed wonder at the man who sat on the small stone bench, dressed in his priest habit, dark eyes shining with mischievous knowledge, and a thin halo of gold setting a little askew above his head.
“You see, Eurynome’s terms were that Vega had only to live to see her twentieth birthday once. What Eurynome did not stipulate was that you couldn’t have some assistance,” he spread his hands in a very angelic gesture, “or that, if you did die, you could not be resurrected. He lost.”
Breaking through her shock, she asked, “But how and why did you help us?”
“Well, I didn’t do that much. Your love for each other is what saved you. I only supplied the ring and the swift transportation back from purgatory,” the priest chuckled. Motioning for the two lovers to stand and follow, he began walking through the rose garden. “When I found you all those centuries ago, I could sense the demon’s influence, and so I brought your bodies here. Come, follow me.”
When they reached the center of the rose garden, two stone coffins lay undisturbed. Side-by-side, they sat, holding the human forms the two had left behind. Tears shined brightly in the couple’s eyes as they stood before their resting place, faced with mortality once again.
In a soft tone, the priest continued, “Even after my death, I came here. I could always feel the life in the both of you when others did not. So, it was then, that I made a plea to save your young souls from the hands of a demon. Of course, my request was granted, or we’d not be standing here now. However, I could not intervene with my presence, so I gave Zane the ring that would bring you back one day, whole and well.”
Voices combining in soft sadness, they whispered, “Thank you.”
“No, thanks is needed, my children. You see, you may have made a deal with a demon, but it was love that drove you to do so. Your intent was not to do evil. It was to keep the bond you shared intact. Not to mention, Eurynome is one of the world’s darkest powers, and this blow will take him down a few notches.”
“So, what now?” Vega asked, voice trembling with effort not to burst into sobbing. “Are we dead? Is Eurynome dead? Does it all end now?”
“Eurynome has only been cast back through the nine circles of hell, until he can muster the power to rise again and walk this bloody Earth,” the priest answered. “As far as you two are concerned, you are in limbo. If you would choose to forfeit the mortality that you have just gained, and to end your worldly suffering, only one of you will pass onto a better place.” He eyed Zane carefully, “One of you is tainted, and would perish in the pits of hell fire, because of the demon spawn that is secured to your soul.”
Zane could feel the hunger gnawing inside of him, as if the very mention of the death eater had made it stir once more. Taking a step back from Vega, he tried to press it down deep inside of him, so that it might remain dormant, but the bastard had claws.
“I will not give him up again,” Vega cried out, trying desperately to pull Zane back to her side.
“That is not your choice, child. Look, even now, he hungers. And by giving you back life, he cemented the creature to himself forever. If it doesn’t feed on the death of others, Zane will die. Once more, without Eurynome to master the lesser demon, it will be uncontrollable. Your beloved will become a monster.” The priest spoke the words with sadness, to tell the children such things gave him no pleasure.
“No! Just no! There has to be another way,” Vega pleaded.
She threw her arms around Zane’s neck, pulling his strong body toward her, denying that he could be such a terrible fiend as to feed on death again. However, what she did not see was the change that had begun.
The death eater fought to the surface, the lingering smell of death around Vega too tantalizing to resist. As Zane faded back into his consciousness, the monster smiled. Its empty sockets filled with a darkness comparable to the void, only seeing the victim that so willingly pressed against him. The taste of her on the air was honey and butterscotch, and he delighted in the flavor as the invisible tentacle slowly wrapped around her.
Vega felt a tingling sensation, as if something was creeping up her spine, and she hugged Zane closer. When his arms did not move to embrace her back and his lips did not find her cheek, she pulled away, ready to argue her case. Instead of her beloved, she looked into the face of a deadly beast as it smiled at her with desperate hunger.
Till We Meet Again
About the Author
Catherine Stovall is the author of many fiction works in the horror, steampunk, paranormal, fantasy, dark fantasy, and YA genres. She is also the editor and a contributor to several anthologies produced by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, Vamptasy Publishing, and Steamworks Ink.
Catherine is a fearless creature who surrounds herself with the joys of life both in and out of her fictional worlds. She lives in Southeast Missouri with her husband, three children, and pets. When not writing, she spends her time riding motorcycles, wearing elaborate hats, and genuinely enjoying the oddities in life.
A lover of social media, she encourages her fans to reach out to her through facebook, her website, and twitter, so they can share in the experience of publishing and creating.
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Destined to Live (The Death Eater Series Book 2) Page 7
