Covenant of the Reborn
Page 25
I snickered; it helped keep my dema under control. “You’re a fool to think that you can change me. I kill people like you.”
“Sorry, but you’re wrong! Lyonell was wrong! He doesn’t see what I see, he doesn’t feel what I feel, and more importantly, he doesn’t know the Reborn God like I do,” Natalie argued. “You’re wrong to believe you’re a hopeless person.”
“If you stay, we both will be hunted down like animals. We won’t stand a chance,” I said warily. “Not to mention James and the others are already at risk. Those warriors who escaped will be back soon with more vicious killers, probably in the single digits.” Natalie started to tear up. Both of us would meet death at a very young age if she stayed. It was a certainty.
“Then let’s run away together,” Natalie crudely suggested.
“Are you a fool?” I questioned. “No, I won’t let that happen,” I said through my teeth.
“Why are you trying to stop us from being friends?”
I looked her directly in the eye. Honestly, I was scared, fearful of the possibilities.
“Is it not enough to live in this moment with me? Is it not enough to value the time we spent together?” I asked.
“No,” Natalie answered and smiled. “Only for now.”
Without warning, I charged her and held the Awakened Reborn against a large oak tree. If she wouldn’t willingly leave me alone, then I would have to force her. I had to instill fear into her pure heart.
“What? What are you doing, Tris?” Natalie asked. I began to squeeze her neck as she gasped for the air. “I warned you to leave … but you didn’t listen,” I snarled impatiently. My eyes shifted—the first pillar. I felt my dema rise. I couldn’t kill her on my own accord. My feelings for her would stop me. The demon within had to partake.
“No!” Natalie stubbornly declared.
“Natalie, I beg of you. Go before I do something I’ll regret,” I warned tonelessly.
“Okay,” Natalie silently agreed.
I released her from my deathly hold. “Now go, before I awaken!” I ordered.
Desperate, I turned my back on Natalie, hoping she would vanish from my presence. I withdrew my dragger just in case she decided to fight my demand. I could honestly say that I loved her, but I knew we shouldn’t be together. It was a guarantee; death awaited the both of us if we didn’t separate.
“I can’t kill her,” I muttered very lowly. “It’s Natalie.”
The sounds of the waters flowed like a small waterfall, smooth but peaceful. I was now calm, at ease with my decision. Killers of the Reborn faith weren’t supposed to feel love for their prey. It was unnatural.
Then the sound of footsteps trampled from behind me. The vibrations lingered as I proposed to face the Awakened Reborn girl. “Why are you still here?”
She stood next to the mist hovering above the pond. Without a worry in the world, she smiled and beckoned me. The wonder of her beauty was angelic.
Then I realized that from that moment on, Natalie Grace Schultz wasn’t going anywhere without me.
“I told you before, I am not leaving you.”
“Then you will die young,” I hissed and appeared before her. I placed my dragger on top of her chest. The additional force from the rusty blade would have pierced her chest bones and possibly through her heart. Surprisingly, Natalie didn’t move. She wasn’t afraid of me or my dema, more importantly, she wasn’t afraid to die by my hand. Even with 30 percent of my dema surfacing, the Awakened Reborn was immoveable.
“Do it!” Natalie ordered, challenging my will to kill her. “If I can’t be your friend, then kill me. If I have to die, then I want you to do it. With my death, at least I’ll know you’ll live.”
She called my bluff. I couldn’t kill her! I just couldn’t!
A few seconds passed as we got lost in each other’s eyes—one pair demonic, the second angelic.
“Are you going to kill me or not?” she questioned.
I pushed her down on the ground as I began to tear up. I had never cried, not once. But my emotions overwhelmed me. I knew I had to kill my beloved. It was the only way. But as usual my feelings ruled me.
“Why won’t you leave me alone?” I asked out of rage. The cold evening air ran down my face. The blade acted as a barrier between the two of us—good and bad, light and darkness, life and death. Natalie didn’t say anything in return.
“Why … why do you love?” I whispered. Still, the blade pressed near her heart. Any sudden movement could have meant a fatal wound. She didn’t care, as long as she died by my hand.
Natalie Schultz muttered, “What else is there?”
I withdrew my rusty dragger and pondered. Why did she refuse to believe in anything else but the element of love? It was a mystery that I would never begin to understand.
I backed away. Natalie stood up, brushing off the dirt off my pant legs.
“Am I worth losing everything for?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m willing to find out,” Natalie answered sharply. She wasn’t leaving me. I knew she wouldn’t, but I wished she would. It would be easier on all of us, but apparently befriending an Awakened Reborn wasn’t easy if you were sent to kill one.
“Nat,” I said as my fingers touched her cherry lips and crossed her mouth.
“Yes.”
“You’re stupid for staying with me.”
“It is what girls do when they’re in love with one of their friends,” Natalie confessed.
“Don’t love me. I am evil. I’m not what you’re looking for,” I muttered shamefully.
“You’re my dark angel whom I have been assigned to help guide to the light.”
“I have forsaken the Covenant.”
“Then let the two of us forge a new covenant between us. I will show you the way.”
“Form a new covenant with a Reborn?”
“Yeah, it’ll be our covenant. A promise to always care for one another,” she said.
“Death is just around the corner. Are you willing to go all the way?”
Natalie snickered and answered, “Death never scares me. It’s just the next stage of life.”
If anyone could change me, it was her. I honestly wished I could say that this was a happy ending; if I did, I would be lying. Happy endings were a myth to please the audience.
“Then I won’t kill you. Come with me.”
“If I do, then what becomes of us?” Natalie asked.
I gazed into her ocean-blue and green eyes. The fragrance of the Reborn Spirit danced around us as I muttered, “Let your god decide. He always decides.”
She leaned inward and closed her eyes. Instinctively, I followed, and we kissed. The moment was just right.
The light mixed with the dark, the dark with the light, creating a new covenant of young spiritual bond between an angel … and a demon.
Natalie Grace Schultz wouldn’t let go of me, but a part of me wanted her to. Who would have thought that I, a devious killer, would befriend the one I was supposed to murder? She surrendered herself completely to me and refused to give in to my demand. I knew what she wanted. It was me, and in that moment we were infinite.
Table of Contents
Covenant
Copyright
Contents
Preface
The Promised Child
The Awakened Reborn Girl
The House of Eis Lakota
The Name of Tristan
The Castleton Park Mall Encounter
The Blackfalls Woods
The Decision to Befriend
The Common Bond
Leroy’s Place
Demon Energy
The Division of Two Worlds
The Darkness Falls for the Light
The Explanation of the Five Elements
Arrival of the Nomads
The Wolf Clan
Lyonell Lakota
The Blackfalls Massacre
The Burning of Flesh
Covenant of the Reborn
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