Revelations
Page 19
“He came into the human world in the flesh. It was there where he met his true love again, and she fell into his arms. They lived happily together, but time was short. He did not want to lose her, and so, desperate to extend her life, granted her the gift of angelic blood. He did this by extracting his own blood and feeding it to her. He thought it would keep her alive and with him forever.
“He was wrong. The transformation gripped her very soul, and she lost everything about her that made her human. She became little more than wild beast. And she thirsted for human blood. When he saw what he had created, it pained him greatly, and he took recluse from his love. He locked her away, barring her from him forever.
“But what he could not predict was the spawn that would come forth from her. For the humans she bit before she was locked away transformed into others much like her. Their numbers grew quickly, but each successive transformation retained less and less angelic blood. The result of which, paradoxically, was that less and less of the beast instincts were activated in them. And so, over time, the creatures that had been let wild in the world of man began to conform to the rules of society. They began to retain more and more of their humanity, and soon – the Vassiz race was born.”
“But… I don’t understand. How did you become captive? Are there more of you anywhere?”
“We are the only ones left. A war broke out between our kind and our brothers. It threatened to shroud the entire world in darkness. It raged for many years, with many casualties on either side. Neither had an advantage, but we were slowly destroying both worlds we lived in – the dream realm and the human world. In the end, to preserve life on this earth, the six of us you see before you today, three male and three female, were set to be imprisoned here, in exchange for an armistice.
“But we were betrayed. After we were placed here, the Vassiz leaders ordered all other angels to be killed. They were overtaken without warning and had no chance.
“It was genocide.”
“The Vassiz did this?” Nora was shocked. “Who commanded it?”
“Those known as the elders today. They rose to power following our imprisonment and have ruled over all other of their kind ever since. They are ruthless. They killed any others – members of their own race – who held memories of our fight. The only Vassiz that were left were young and newly converted. They did not know the secrets behind the elders’ rise to power and could never suspect it.”
Nora was amazed. It was the elders who commanded all the packs after her and the elders who got their power by killing all those around them. No wonder they were the oldest Vassiz left.
An anger at the cruelty of it all started to rise within her.
“What did you mean by what you said earlier? That ‘she shall come as one of them, yet set apart’?”
“Your first feeding. You took Vassiz blood.”
Nora felt a pang of guilt. “How did you know?” she asked softly.
“I can feel your life essence. It is different from the other Vassiz.”
Suddenly, Nora realized that everybody else was staring at her. Hunter, at her side, was looking at her with wide eyes. So were Alexander, and Madison. They had both gotten up to stare right at her.
“What?” she asked, addressing the question to all of them at once.
“Your first feeding,” Hunter began, “you took Vassiz blood?”
How did he know? Nora felt the eyes of everyone on her. All were expecting, and waiting. “Yes,” she admitted.
“Who?” Madison asked in that chiming voice. Her tone was much kinder than Nora remembered from before.
“Korver’s wife,” Nora said slowly, staring past everyone to the far wall. “His pack attacked us. It is where Alexander took the arrow for me. She was trying to kill me, I’m sure, and her sons and husband went after Alexander. I got her down, and…” she gulped, “… and fed.”
She felt Hunter squeeze her tighter. “Welcome to our race,” he said softly.
While all that was happening, the…angels…had risen again, and were all looking to her as if expecting a command.
“How did you know?” she asked Hunter again.
He smiled and nodded toward the front-most angel. The one who was speaking to Nora.
“You were talking…to all of us?” Nora asked, surprised. The man smiled at her.
“Yes. You have us at your service, Nora. Only speak and we will do as you command.”
“I have a question. What was that thing that fought me and kept you here?”
“It is a creature from nightmare, ripped straight out of the dream realm. Some would call it a daemon.”
“But…how is that possible? How can something be ripped out of the dream realm?”
“It can only happen here, in this place. This chamber is the one point on the entire earth that the dream world and the human world…touch. There exists the slightest bit of overlap, and the result is that it becomes possible to go across worlds fully, in the flesh. The darkness you see to your side? It is the barrier between the two.”
Suddenly everything started to make sense. Nora remembered being thrown across that barrier, remembered the feeling of losing herself all-too-clearly. So there was a reason why the sensation was the same as coming back to her body from entering the dream world. Or rather, not entering, but projecting herself there.
“It is the same barrier that the first angel used to come into the world of humans to spawn the Vassiz. But going across it is not something one should do twice. It is dangerous to cross like that. You risk losing yourself in the void that exists between the worlds. And in the dream world, imaginations and nightmares run wild. The creature was one such; it was a guardian, put together from the greatest of nightmares that hunt the dream. Created to keep us locked here forever.”
“But not anymore,” Nora said.
“No. Thanks to you, we are now free.”
“So…now what happens?”
“That is your choice, Nora.”
She thought for a moment. She looked at Hunter, standing beside her again, looking at her reverently. She saw Madison and Alexander, holding each other in their arms, watching her with respect. She felt the gaze of the angels directed only at her.
They were all waiting for her to decide what to do.
“We will fight against the elders,” she said coldly. “And make them pay for what they did to you. For the travesties they committed against their race. For the oppression and fear they spread amongst the Vassiz. For what they did to Alexander and Rafael. For the ruin they brought onto the Vassiz they claim to serve, we will fight, and we will win.”
A cheering erupted from the angels, and it wasn’t just in her head. They moved their lips, and sound came out, but it was unlike any sound she’d heard before. It was pure and clean. And elated. She felt their joy with her decision. She looked to Hunter briefly, and he smiled approvingly.
“Wait,” Nora said, addressing the angel again. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Gabriel.”
The End, Book Two.
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