My Chosen One.
***
Entering Tartarus wasn't a problem for me, not when a part of me had become connected to this place after losing my hand and having it sacrificed. This was because when it had grown back, it had done so with the Venom of God.
My blood, at least the infected part in me, had thankfully stayed in the one place on my body and in doing so it meant that it was the only key left to releasing the Titans. Of course, it was also a means of locking them back up again, hence my sacrifice. Thankfully, I had the power within my vessel to manipulate my own blood, making it travel to wherever I wanted it. After biting a certain shit stain upon the Earth, one whose birthright duped him the only one capable of releasing the Titans, I had ingested his blood and at the time forced it all into my hand when placing it in the Keystone. The rest I had thought had been history.
Of course, now I knew the connection to the Tree of Souls had meant that this Venom of God had travelled to the blood of my own people. That same Venom of God in my hand had the power to strip Amelia of her birthright, which admittedly should have killed her instantly.
Which had me questioning why it started coming back to her now in such a form. But startling still was that she was not displaying the natural abilities of a vampire or the powers of an angel. Naturally, this had me questioning who she truly was since that day I reclaimed her back in the soul fields.
Or should I say, who she was becoming?
These questions plagued me along with dozens of others as I located the right portal that first took me straight to where the Lost Temple of Olympia was. The moment I made it through, I was up in the air and searching for any signs of this ruined castle. The portal inside the temple had once led to the Temple of Janus, but since then, Aurora the treacherous bitch, had sealed it. After this I had my brother recycle it and open it back up as another gateway to my lands. Of course, this wasn't common knowledge, for only I, my brother, and Dom knew, believing its change might one day come in useful if any old enemies were ever to return. Meaning the threat of the Titans once more.
Unfortunately, getting to the other side of the portal in my realm had not been as quick as I would have liked, therefore I knew that time had passed between what the Eye had shown me last. Added to this was the different times that passed in Tartarus than that of my own realm.
I flew over the forest of soul weed taking note of how much it had grown since the last time I was here. Just across a stretch of wasteland I could see the castle in the distance. I shot through the air with greater speed now that I had my destination in my sights, confessing to praying to any Gods that would listen that she was still there but more importantly, that she was safe.
I found my eyes narrowing the moment I saw the destruction before I landed in the centre of the open space, one that had been obliterated, and from the look of things, a power that had managed to take out the majority of the Harpy race! I closed my eyes and pulled back the memory, knowing this was exactly where the Eye had been and where Amelia had been stood when holding it. This could only mean one thing, that the moment she'd let it go that almighty power inside of her had been let loose on the race of Harpies. Making me now wonder if something new had been released as well.
“Fuck me,” I muttered as I took it all in.
I continued to scan the area and it didn't take me long before the scent of blood started to rise up my nostrils. This wasn't surprising considering the utter carnage left in my girl’s wake. However, this particular blood I could sense was one that was still flowing from that of a beating heart. I soon found its cause in the form of a butchered Harpy, only admittedly not one I was used to encountering. For this particular Harpy, at one time must have been beautiful. However, after the beating my Chosen One had given her, that beauty was long gone and hidden under blood and dirt.
She lay slumped over, leaning against the tower wall and if it hadn't been for the heartbeat I could hear, then I would have believed her dead. I walked over to her, glad that she was still alive for I needed her memories to see what had happened to Amelia. The Harpy was unconscious, that was until I kicked her leg with my foot, not yet wanting to cause too much damage. Like I said, I needed her alive and her blood loss was a considerable amount already.
I bent on one knee and gripped her by the neck, giving her a shake until her eyes fluttered open. They were like two crimson snake eyes that soon morphed back into those more mortal in appearance. As soon as she saw me, she grinned, showcasing teeth coated in blood, which made for a sinister sight and one that didn't impress me.
Deciding quickly that I didn't have the time to interrogate her, I placed my hand over her eyes and concentrated on drawing out her memories. This was when I frowned in shock at finding myself blocked and soon had me growling in frustration and questioning my abilities. I couldn't understand how she was able to withstand my power. This was when I looked closely at her headdress, sparking something inside of me. It was the way the dark, smoky, serpents slithered around as if searching for something.
This was when it hit me that I had seen this once before, and many years ago. It had been not long after I had been changed in fact. A demon I had been hunting, simply for the fact that it had strangely been hunting me first, I had found one night in a dark alleyway. But what prompted the memory was it wore a similar headpiece that seemed alive, with these same black vapour snakes escaping his turban.
I had tried to access his mind for weeks before this point, in hopes of discovering who he worked for and why this person wanted me followed. However, I hadn't been able to and the demon had told me why after he'd been caught, telling me he had sold his soul for a second chance at life.
In my naivety at a young age of being newly turned, I had believed he had been speaking of Lucifer, and being fearful at the time of my potential new father’s wrath, I hadn't pushed for a name. I did however try once more to read his mind after being, for the first time, in close proximity with him.
But this was only to find that his void was filled with nothing more than black shadowed serpents like those on the top of his head. In fact, there had been millions of them and the black space around my influence had been moving around me like shimmering water running vertical up the walls. Everything in his void was being blocked by these shadowed serpents.
That was when I knew it had something to do with the strange headpiece he wore. Testing the theory and believing all I needed to do was get rid him of it, I had ripped it from his head. I had not known at the time that this instantly killed him, quickly turning him to black sand the second that claim on his soul was severed.
I removed my hand in frustration after seeing the same thing in the Harpy Queen’s void, knowing I would get nothing from her mind and had to do this the old fashioned, threatening way.
“Where is my Chosen One? I asked in a dark unyielding tone, one she was right to flinch at. But despite her reaction to me, she grinned again and said,
“I am happy to tell you that your Chosen One is dead or if she isn't yet, then she soon will be.” I squeezed her neck tighter, yanked her close and made her moan in pain before I told her,
“I can either snap your neck and make it quick or I can make your last moments in Hell extremely painful, before damning your soul to an endless death.” After this threat, her reaction wasn’t surprising, as it made her eyes grow wide in fear, for she knew what this meant. An eternity of endless suffering, one that didn't need a vessel to accomplish it, for it was an end that most of my kind dreaded the most. It was like being a ghost that felt pain and agony, loss and misery. It was the worst existence and with it the worst punishment that any of Hell’s beings could receive.
“You don't have that power!” she tested, in a croaky voice due to the strain on her vocal cords trying to work against the strength of my hand. I closed even more of the space between us and snarled in a way that she would not only hear these words, but feel them also,
“Try me.”
Two words.
Two little words and she cracked, starting by giving me her terms,
“If I tell you, you will let me die in peace?” she asked, knowing that her death was inevitable and therefore not something to bargain with.
“I will let you die, though I doubt it will be in peace. However, it will at least be final.” She closed her eyes at this and nodded, knowing it was the best deal she was going to get. However, by the time she was through I was regretting my word because the last thing she told me was the horrors that she released upon Amelia and Nero.
I snarled in her face, knowing that I needed to act quickly and in doing so I simply said,
“Fucking Harpies!” Then I ripped off her headpiece making her cry out, as with making this bargain for her soul, her original state seeped outwards from within and once more claimed what Zeus had taken from her the first time…that of her beauty.
It was only after she changed back into the hideous image cursed upon her, that she burst into a cloud of black sand just like the demon had that night in the alley. What it meant I didn't know, however looking at the same black sand that covered the floor of the bailey, knowing that it also covered the tomb the Eye usually sat in, I could only assume that it had something to do with the God, Janus.
However, I didn't have time to think on such things too intently, only how quickly I could get to my girl and potentially save her. I took to the air, my large wings blowing back the ash remains of her offspring combined with the black sands the Eye had created. I started to follow the only path they could have taken and took my time to sniff the air. Thankfully, with concentrating, I finally picked up the faintest scent of my girl, the witch, and the three Hellhounds that the Harpy Queen had told me she had released.
I couldn't fly too high for I needed that scent to guide me and surprisingly, it took me to the soul weed forest I had crossed when first getting here. It was a frustrating thought that she may have been down there as I had been flying over. But then a second thought later and I knew this was unlikely, for I hadn't seen any Hellhounds on my journey here.
I swooped lower before landing at the start of the forest, now being faced with a large tunnelled section that had been hollowed out most likely by that of a mage or a witch, making it continue to grow this way.
I quickly ran down the length of it only stopping when the scent of Amelia abruptly turned as if they had run straight into the thick of the soul weed. I paused to look back down at the tunnel the way I had come, knowing now that they were obviously being chased.
“That's my girl,” I commented to myself knowing that Amelia most likely had made this decision to go where the Hellhounds could not follow. I continued to run with supernatural speed to the end, following now the scent of the Hellhounds, knowing that they wouldn't give up that easily. Not even when they had been forced to go around the forest.
As soon as I was free from the soul weed above me, I took to the sky once more and only dropped down when on the other side, back to where I could see the broken temple. After this I picked up their scent once more and it became easier to follow, meaning it hadn’t been too much time that had passed before they had been here. This also meant that it most likely took them a while to make their way through the harrowing forest.
I picked up speed until eventually reaching an access tunnel that led straight down to only one place,
The river of Phlegethon.
There were six main rivers in Hell, and they all led to different places, in different realms. There was the river Styx, the most prominent of all due to its central location, as all rivers connected in some way to this one. It was also known as the river of hatred and was named after the Goddess Styx.
The Acheron was known as the river of pain. It is also one most travelled upon for beings like Charon and only one of many Ferrymen, who used this as a way to transport the dead. The river known as Lethe was said to be one of forgetfulness, aptly named from the Goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion, a Goddess known as Lethe.
The others were Cocytus, the river of wailing and naturally not known as a joyful boat ride. And the last was Oceanus, the only river known to be connected to the mortal realm, crossing over at certain parts of the world. Most common was at the place the humans had called the Bermuda Triangle. Hence the disappearance of ships and planes over the years.
But as for Phlegethon, this was known as the river of fire. It was also the only river that led straight to the depths of Tartarus. If legend was correct, the tale goes that Phlegethon runs parallel to the river Styx in only one place. It is said that the Goddess Styx was in love with Phlegethon, but she was consumed by his flames and bitterness for their lost love, and was therefore sent to Hades. Eventually, when Hades allowed them to reunite, a new river formed and connected at only one point in Hell…
The Realm of Lust.
Standing on the edge of the spiral tunnel I could see for myself that getting down there mustn’t have been an easy task. In my eagerness to reach the bottom quickly, I jumped and kept my wings curled close in the free fall, only opening them to aid in my landing. The moment I reached the bottom two things struck me, the first being the dead Hellhound and the second was the strangest by far.
“Keira?” I said her name the second I felt the lingering essence that she had been here before and had unknowingly left her mark. I knelt down to pick up one of the shell casings of a bullet, raising a brow in question. But then my memories came back to me and I was soon muttering another name,
“Wild Bill Hickok.” I shook my head at the character that being was and continued through the broken door with haste.
However, the moment I breached the opening I heard it at the same time feeling it.
Another heartbeat, but this time it was one that was struggling to carry on. Meaning, combined with the blood I scented, it could only mean one thing…
Nero was dying.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bloody Betrayal
After a quick scan of the cave, I found a dead Hellhound with a slashed underbelly still burning from its infernal insides spilling onto the cave floor. It was one still being fuelled by the flaming river it had died close to, for its essence was still yet to be fully extinguished. I focused on the diminishing heartbeat, noting the droplets of blood that led the way, along with the faint sound of life. I rounded a corner leading to a small cave-like crevice and once there I found another dead Hellhound with a sword embedded in its skull and a dying Nero lying next to it.
She had three deep lacerations across her torso slashing open first material, then skin and flesh down to the bone. Her eyes fluttered open as if sensing my presence and I got down on one knee and took her hand in my own. Her pulse was nearly non-existent, and I knew there wasn't much time.
“Amelia, she…”
“What happened to her?” I felt like a heartless bastard for asking but I needed to know. She closed her eyes and released a sigh and I took it as a good sign that it seemed to be one of peace, not worry.
“I got her on the boat, she's safe on the boat,” she said, repeating this as if needing to hear it to comfort herself.
“You sacrificed yourself to lure them away from taking the river, didn't you?” I asked feeling that question weigh heavily in my gut knowing that this woman here lay dying in order to save my Chosen One. There was no greater gift to receive or any payment worthy of such a sacrifice. However, I did have at least one thing to give if she was willing to accept it.
“She is safe now, she's safe on the boat.” This was her answer and it made me smile, then I put my gloved hand behind her head cradling it with my palm after first making it smooth without armour. Then, with the other hand I raised it to my mouth and bit into my wrist where the blood would flow the fastest.
Then I asked her,
“Do you want to live, for if you do, I will own your soul as you will be one of my own, and your soul will be forever…?” At this her eyes snapped open and she said with renewed energy,
“I would make
a shitty martyr, so…fucking spare me the spiel and just tell me where to sign and give me your blood, yeah…I kind of wanna live here…” I had to laugh at the brass humour even in the face of death. I would enjoy owning this one and admittedly was already contemplating making her my newest council member, for she most certainly deserved the status.
“Then say the words…say that you swear your loyalty to me and grant me your soul and in return you will gain the eternal life of a vampire, for I will gift to you my blood and you will then become one of my own,” I told her and she closed her eyes. But then as she was obviously waiting she cracked one eye open and said,
“What are we waiting for here, a cocktail umbrella and a straw?” I smirked and leaning down a little whispered,
“I need your words, little brave witch.” After this it finally dawned on her, making her tell me what I needed to hear.
“I swear my loyalty to you and that of ownership over my soul. Now please hurry up and feed me before I die.” I grinned down at her and readily fed her my wrist. She latched onto it and started to drink down my blood with gusto. However, despite ingesting so much of it, I knew it would be a while before she would be able to fully heal, but it was enough not to die at least.
As for her turning, well, I had no idea on this either seeing as she was a witch and had been sent to Hell first as a mortal. I knew this, not because I had checked up on her, but because this was what happened to most witches. My own witch had been slightly unorthodox in her turning and therefore it was quite a different story.
So, other than coming outright and asking her why she was sent down here, then I had no idea. But as her new Master it was my right to ask it, yet it wasn't a question I would ask until the time was right. It was something I would want answered in the near future though, for if I potentially did ever decide to take her topside, as I had the power to do so, and assuming she agreed, of course, then I would want to know. For if she was to be on my council then I would have to know the reasons why she was down in Hell in the first place. For all of those on my council, as a matter of trust, I needed to know about their history. After all, knowledge was power, and to be forewarned of any issues that may arise in the future would only aid me further in dealing with them.
Roots Of Rage: A Vampire King Paranormal Romance (Transfusion Saga Book 9) Page 20
