Echoes in Eternity (The Pella Series Book 1) (59 page)

“Sisters… sisters,” hushes the one dressed like a huntress. “The unpaid sins of the parents rest on the head of the child who by the way is currently seeking vengeance and expiation.”

“My father is already being punished! I’ve no vengeance to seek; neither would I want restitution from this…” I motion with my hands, “place!” I finish my sentence lamely.

“Your father’s punishment is
not
being rendered by us!” says the first sister, growing impatient and agitated.

“No, it’s not,” chimes in the other, shaking her blonde curls. “The debts that are due to us are still unpaid,” she adds with a hidden threat. How could three beautiful women…flying powerful women with such sweet voices
be so extremely terrifying?

“No, they’re not! She owes you nothing!” booms Nieto’s voice emerging from the smoke, startling me. When I focus the attention of my mind’s eyes, I observe that he is completely bronze in color. The three women shirk from him. But, the huntress is brazen.

“On the contrary…” she emphasized melodically in a sing-song tone, “she committed the filial betrayal! She has not fulfilled her promise…”

“She will work on fulfilling it, if you don’t cut her destiny here.”

“You are trying to guard the
key
of Eden, Cherub! But this isn’t your domain! It’s ours!” the collective voices of the women compose a loud shrill now.

“I go where the
key
goes,” Nieto states simply. “My domain is the protection of the gates of Eden. Your jurisdiction does not encompass the sinless who have counterweights here. You can’t take one without releasing the wrath that comes with the other.”

“She is wanted! The reward is worth the wrath…” hisses the red haired huntress.

“Alecto!” warns the other two, calling out her name in admonishment. What reward?

“Maggie, Tissie,” she croons referring to the beautiful blonde and brunette Furies. “One way or the other, she isn’t coming out of here sisters. We will have her whether the Cherub likes it or not. You know he can’t get passed the
Horns
!”

“Patience is a virtue even here, Cherub!” they say with a veiled threat and fly away blatantly shrieking, their sounds echoing ominously.

The tornado stops and the familiar face of the old Indian I’ve come to know as Nieto appears.

“Why do you have a human face Nieto?” I ask.

“Because I have affections, mind, reason; all things that encompass a human being,” he says in his lilting voice as we continue to descend and fall.

“How far into the depths o
f Hades are you falling with me?” I ask.

“Only to the Consecration Gate.”

“You didn’t kill the Cerberus, did you?”

“Would you worry if I did?” he quizzes me curiously.

“I don’t know. My human side says ‘yes,’ but then my angel side says that it will regenerate.”

“Your angel side is right. This is where death dwells. It will regenerate by the time I leave you,” he murmurs. A sadness falls onto me. I left someone behind me and someone else is going to leave me behind here. I swallow and try to take my mind away from what I must go through, and the one I must forget in order to give him the freedom he long deserves. Distraction: that’s what I need.

“What’s with all the faces? I get the human… You look human now. I may even get the lion and the eagle… Strength, power, majesty. What’s with the ox?” I ask Nieto. This is the first time I see a smile on his face in my living memory, or the memory I’m trying to recollect. He shakes his head.

“What gives? What’s the purpose of your ox face? Is it because you’re stubborn?” I probe, raising my mental eyebrows. His smile turns into a hearty laughter. I think his laughter even livens this hole of misery, death, and punishment just a miniscule.

“The ox is the beast that patiently labors for its owner. He is strong, able to bear any burden given to him and he knows its owner.”

I chew that information a bit
in my head. For the first time, he continues without probing. I keep quiet, because he’s never been loquacious.

“T
he lion is not just strong, majestic, and fierce; but it is also the most royal of animals. The eagle is the king of the skies; the only divine bird that flies above the storms, leaving dangers, sorrows and distress below. The storms make him only swift, strong and powerful; never weary.”

“I didn’t know angels had royalty. Who is your king?” He laughs again.

“Everyone has hierarchy whether it’s desired or not. It’s natural order. The Cherubs are only second to the Seraphim. But we only serve the One.”

“Tell that to the creatures here…” I smirk. “But tell me… Why are the Seraphim the top angels? Are they more badass than you are?” I ask remembering his vicious fight with the Cerberus. Nieto laughs again, the lines around his eyes that had seen too many years smooth
over as he laughs.

“Nothing like that. We each have our particular duties.”

“Is this the particular place you ought to be at this point in time?” I quiz.

He falls silent as his smile disappears.
My jaw falls open, shocked.

“Oh shit! You aren’t supposed to be here!” I utter loudly bypassing my brain.

“Shhhh!” he whispers into my mind.

“Are you rogue?” I whisper into his mind.

“Duty calls whether we ought to be at a particular place or not. I think even humans have something called the ‘
exigent circumstances
’. This would be one of those situations. I need to preserve your soul and then stop your heart with the poison from Cerberus just long enough for you to reach Marcus until you can be pulled back and resurrected,” he says. I notice that he didn’t answer my question but there is now a more pressing question gnawing at my mind.

“Don’t I die?” I ask. I need to understand what will happen to me.

“Yes, you do die… technically.” I don’t like the sound of this ‘technicality’. I feel the fervent desire to probe more. It’s my life we are talking about here as if we’re talking about a particularly ordinary day outside. Agitation washes over me. Rolling my mental eyes, I probe further.

“If the Emergency Response team was able to reach me at that particular point, would they pronounce me dead on arrival and
not
the revivable kind of dead, or could they resuscitate me or defibrillate my heart? What kind of dead are we talking about?”

“No human can revive you. You’d be DOA,” Nieto says with finality as if he’s very familiar with
the current terminology. But then again, he roams the earth.

“Ahaa… The question then becomes, how do I get to be undead, or is this the end of the road for me? Are you leaving me here for good? Am I to assume that the Furies were right?”

“Half right.”

“Shit, Nieto! Stop being cryptic. You’re talking about killing me! Within the last month, I discovered that I’m a Nephilim. Not just a Nephilim but I matriculated for the sixteenth time.
Alex Pella had been my bodyguard for centuries; my father is a Watcher who is being punished here…”

“Locked up,” he corrects me.

“Whatever…” I shake my head. “Being here is punishment enough. So, locked up, punished seem like all the same shit to me just with different labeling. And to top all of that,” I add in exasperation, “I have also learned that my father’s punishment was in exchange for my protection and life. Clearly, all his efforts were for nothing since I’m here, and he’s here, and you’re the one delivering me!”

“Do
human babies get inoculated?” he asks. Did he not hear all of my venting? Or, is he deliberately being obtuse?

“Yes, they do! What’s that got to do with me? Can’t you just give me a straight answer at all?” He ignores me once again.

“Do human mothers and fathers sit their children on their laps, hold them down and let the doctor prick the needle to their tender flesh? Do the same loving parents allow the nurse to make the baby cry while injecting a dose of a disease that will get the child sick with fever as its body adjusts to the germs which are introduced to them?” My eyes widen with understanding.

“You’re getting me vaccinated? Against what?” I shriek.

“Answers will come to you when you are ready to understand them. I am not at liberty to explain them to you. All you have to know is that I would never harm you. Marcus would never harm you. Alex would never harm you.”

“You left out my
nanny and uncle…” I state quizzically.

“They’re both bound to protect you and love you. They would do everything in their power to keep you away from harm,” he responds. But he leaves out the statement where they would never harm me. Could they harm me? Would they want to? My heart constricts anew.

“When do you get to kill me?” I ask.

“We are nearing the destination. I will preserve your soul before I stop your heart.”

“What about my body?”

“Your body is the temple of your soul. It stays intact. You must complete this journey.”

“You haven’t told me how I get back, or if…” I swallow, raise my mental chin up, “…if I get back.”

“You need to be resurrected by someone who isn’t here. I’m sorry child. That’s the way it’s supposed to be…” he says sadly.

“Child? Nieto, I’m a grown woman!”

“Yes, you are. But I
have lived for eons. Even with all the lives you have lived, you’re still a child to me.”

“Why are you sorry then?” I search his face and his mind. His mind reveals nothing, but his eyes… his ancient eyes are darkened with sorrow as if somehow they are pained for me.

“Why are you grieving for me Nieto? What am I missing?”

“Who said I’m grieving for you?” he replies with a question of his own.

Who is he grieving for then? What is going to happen and to whom?

“Who then?”

“You’ve not met them in this lifetime.” Them? As in more than one person? Oh, shit!

CHAPTER XIX

P
AIN OF DEATH

E
lissa Cassandra Duncan

In the darkness, I see the ground approaching. Is it something Nieto
is enabling me to do or can I really see the dim light? I finally see the two pointing horns with a stone slab in the base towering over what looks like the entry to a passage.

After what feels like an eternity, our feet finally touch the ground
and I expect myself to crash the ground, but Nieto halts my descent, making me ease onto my feet. I’m still wrapped inside the protective skin he covered me in.

“You know Nieto, I know
about the Horns of Consecration,” I say pointing at the now towering altar.

“You do?” he asks preoccupied. I didn’t
know angels could be preoccupied.

“Yes,” I smile.
“The Minoan, Egyptians… they all had it. But what is it doing here?”

“It’s the gatekeeper,
” he says, but he’s motionless as if he’s talking to someone else with only a portion of his mind paying attention to me. He’s answering me like a parent answering his child while on the phone. A little annoyed, a little patient, and not completely participating in the conversation.