The Pentagram Child: Part 1 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (14 page)

My hand touched the handle and noted the great crack I had created in the door just to get her to finally leave. I knew she was there, right behind the door listening to my outburst of rage but before I could really let go I needed her to get away from me and with more than just a flimsy piece of oak between us. If not I would have let my Demon take over,  ripping the wood like paper only to haul her back into my arms and never letting her go again.

But instead of my arms I could now hear it was my brother’s arms which had come to her aid. I opened up my senses further and listened to what was being said whilst holding my forehead against the broken door. I held my fists at the same height as if waiting for another knife she unknowingly would be plunging in my heart. And then it came soon enough…

“I still love him, Vincent.” By the Gods! There were no sweeter words spoken and no harder words heard in all my years taking breath!

This was when my knees hit the floor, cracking the stone with the pent up power that was just begging for an even greater release. I closed my eyes as I’d done in front of her just to try and calm the flames I knew consumed my irises.

“As do I my love…as do I,
my Keira.”
I said letting my head hang and the burning tears form under my lids that I refused to let fall.

I don’t know how long I continued like this, knelt by the door but it was a while after that I heard Keira’s plea to be taken from this place. And hearing my brother take my heart into his arms and carry her off, was like trying to swallow a bitter pill the size of my fist. I wanted to take back what was mine, and demand he hand her to me to care for but I knew this was not what she needed or more importantly, what she even wanted. So, as I don’t know how many times before…

I let her go.

At the distant sound of Vincent’s Dyna wide glide Harley Davidson purring down the road, I rose from the floor and launched myself up and twisted my wings to curl round me as I flew through the arches in the balcony and out into the desolate night. I let gravity take me as I free fell before then spreading my wings out to catch the air that pushed against each feather, taking me upwards. I tilted to one side to turn before using my strength to take me further up the building Keira had ran from.

I pushed myself to rise higher. Beating my wings was definitely easier than beating back my anger. I quickly reached my intended perch at the highest point of Afterlife and landed not caring for the cracks I created with the force. With one knee to the floor I looked up in time to see the light of Vincent’s bike manoeuvring along the winding road with Keira gripping onto his body like she feared she would fall off with every turn.

I stood up to my full height on the small stone platform and watched until they went out of sight, torturing myself. I was tempted to follow them but then I knew it would only serve as yet another mistake in a very long list of ones already committed. No, my time was best served deciding what my next move was in getting rid of one Alex Cain. In the very little time I knew of him I hadn’t been able to find anything about him, other than his human life. He was off the grid in my world and this was what worried me the most.

    Nephilim were created when the Fallen of Heaven would fall from grace even further, taking that extra step when sleeping with a human and producing a child from that forbidden union. This was the reason they were punished. Angels who passed on their powers and longevity through to humans who couldn’t be controlled. They were a dangerous breed for one reason and one reason only… they were exempt from my interference in regards to the law. The Gods believed they had enough human nature inside their veins that they were allowed to live in the world with the same free will granted to each human soul.  They themselves walking as immortal Gods amongst mere mortals and having no one to answer to.

This meant they held no loyalty to me and nor were they expected to. I could only get involved if they broke one of my laws that tipped the balance enough to be classed as interference with another human life. They could literally walk into a bank, break every person’s bones with their superior strength, killing them and then take every penny to then get away with it. But if they happened to kill an old lady by sucking the energy from what was left in her fragile body, only then could I bring them to justice. The reasoning behind this was that every human had the free will to do good granted to them in the hope that they would walk this path. But it worked the other way also, the ability to bring about destruction in the form of a knife, gun or bomb, killing without thought and no remorse. This was also their own free will and path to choose if they so wished.

The world was filled with killers and dark tainted souls anyway, so what if half of the Nephilim were that way inclined? However, this reasoning never sat well with me and was a decision that I never happily accepted. But it was one that I had no choice but to abide with. That was my own law to adhere to.

And now that Heavenly decision was made even harder to accept thanks to one of their kind, that for reasons unknown, had insinuated himself into Keira’s life. This caused me to think murderous thoughts indeed. If only I could get away with breaking my own rules and take this cretin out of the picture, oh what fun I would have ripping him apart with my bare hands!

I don’t think I will ever forget that moment when seeing Keira again after all that time. The pictures I have of her are but a miniscule of the beauty she possesses and its shine equalled that of the sun, blinding me when gazing upon it after so very long. It was as though we were the only two people that existed at that moment, so much so I didn’t even give the parasite that stood next to her a second thought, hell even a first thought when seeing her.

She, as always, was my only.

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair, pushing it back like I was close to ripping each fucker out from my scalp if it would only bring me relief from this burning wrath. And by the Gods but what it had felt like when I finally touched her for the first time. I thought I would come out of my skin, that or embarrass myself like the unruly teenager I had accused her of acting.

When she had mentioned about my temper getting the better of me, what she didn’t realise that up until that point I had still not managed to regain my control over that ‘famous Demon temper’ of mine. But one look at her sat in my chair was enough to heat my blood for very different reasons. I hadn’t lied when I told her that it suited her, however what I would have liked to have added was a whispered fantasy in her ear about how I had always felt a desperate need to make love to her on it.

The sight of her blush again, one brought out even more in that delicious cherry red dress that clung to even tastier curves. But by the Gods she was sin and bliss combined, wrapped in the softest skin alive. It took me back to the days and the perfect hours spent tasting every inch of her.

I huffed out loud, wondering what she would really think of me if she knew the level of my obsession… well, before she thought me a ruthless bastard who stomped all over her heart, with no explanation given. This was just yet another punishing thought that had plagued me for what felt like eternity.  

But once I started I couldn’t stop as I thought back to her sat in my modern day throne. It engulfed her in its size enough that I wanted to scoop her up and lay her over my lap before kissing the past behind us and effectively numbing the pain for us both. I wanted to hold her and keep her safe like I needed oxygen to travel my body to keep it living. I had almost groaned out loud when she rolled her lip nervously as I blatantly stared at her. It was almost laughable how much she wanted to bite it and I think I would have done if I hadn’t been more concerned about my growing erection at the time.

But when she forgot herself and gulped back the Absinthe, then there was no way in Hell or out of it, that I wasn’t going to touch her. If Vincent hadn’t given me a look and shake of his head when I went to pick her up then I would have snatched her to my arms before she could get her next spluttering cough in. Instead I had to satisfy myself with rubbing her back and holding back every instinct that was ingrained in me since the day I first saw her.

I shook my head, trying to steer my mind away from these thoughts when I noticed Ava flying towards me from a distance. She, like my other family members, had not been happy with my decisions in leaving Keira and had even been openly hostile towards me at times. But as usual she came to me when she felt my pain, offering me a comfort we both knew I didn’t deserve.

She dipped her wings in a graceful swoop until she was close enough to land on my outstretched arm.

“Ah my Rara Avis, how are you my precious one?” She ruffled her feathers like she always did when hearing her pet name of ‘Rare bird’ in Latin. She nudged my hand and squawked at me, with her head tilted. I knew this was her way of asking me what was wrong.

“I saw my heart again tonight and she…she was not happy.” I never had any problems speaking so freely to my pet and I put this down to so many years of sharing her body when needed. Let’s just say it was certainly an ice breaker.

She shifted on my arm getting closer to my neck, where she rubbed her satin feathers under my chin in an affectionate manner. I laughed, stroking her and basking in a moment of freedom from my worries.

“I need you to keep an eye on her for me… can you do that, my girl?” She looked back at me and made a piercing call before she took off towards the direction Keira and my brother had taken. I instantly breathed a little easier for it but that was short lived when I felt I was no longer alone.

“Feeling any better after your little chat with bitchy feathers there?”

“This is not a good time, Sophia.” I said without looking at her but knowing she was sat on the wall of the roof garden behind me.

“Has it ever been a good time over this last year, Brother?” I didn’t reply but instead watched my bird until she flew out of sight.

“Say what you came to say and have done with it.” I almost cringed at the sound of my harsh demand but not being able to help it feeling the way I did.

“Something needs to be done about this Alex Cain.” This finally made me turn around and I noticed Zagan in the background keeping a watchful eye on his own heart. I nodded to my commander at arms and he nodded back respectfully before leaving us alone.

“Something will be done, have no doubt in that, Sister.” I promised jumping down from my view point until I was at the same level as my small sibling.

“You know most of what she says is because she doesn’t understand why…you realise that, right?” She said and I cracked my knuckles when they both flexed at my sides. This reaction couldn’t be helped when I thought back to all the hurt in her voice and the spite behind each and every word she lashed out at me like a weapon…Her greatest weapon against me.

“And she never will know.”

“Dominic…”

“NO!” I barked at her and then took a deep breath to calm myself before continuing on with what I needed to say.

“No, Sophia, for this she can never know.”

“And why not?” I was walking past her when I stopped. I shook my head and then turned back to her to hit her with the truth just as the Oracle once did with me that day.

“Because if she ever knew the truth, then she would never let me go.”

“And that’s bad because…?” My reaction to these thoughts was always the same. My panic at it ever coming to pass was soul consuming and made me close my eyes tight to hold in the greatest fear I had ever known…my one and only true fear.

“Because if she never let me go, then she would never let go of her destiny of death…”

“But…” I held up my hand and my eyes snapped open to express the seriousness of my next words, the only words that mattered when it came to my future and preventing it with my last breath…

“A death…Sophia,

“…at my hands.”     

Keira

Chapter 9

Pity for Your Brother

I can say there is nothing quite like escaping your past whilst holding on to an Angel taking your breath away on the back of his bike. I clung onto his hard body in front of me and as I lay my cheek to his back I let my tears run down his leather. I didn’t know if he knew as I silently sobbed at his back but I would feel his abs tighten each time I inhaled sharply. I would feel bad if he did but I knew it couldn’t be helped. The dam had broken. It had crumbled beneath the weight of a year’s worth of tears and I didn’t know how I was ever going to fix it again.

That’s what Draven did to me. That’s what an immeasurable amount of love did to you. It was infinite, it was vast and it was endless. It was an ever burning flame that no matter what Draven did wasn’t ever going to extinguish, lighting his face even in the darkest of hours. And the painful truth was that I knew that I would grow old and blind well before I no longer saw him.

So I cried. I cried for the man who held my heart in his hand and crushed it right in front of me. I cried for the man who still held it in his fist and even though broken, still wouldn’t let it go. I watched the world go by feeling as empty as the road we travelled down and could only muster up enough thanks that I wasn’t alone in this.

I felt like I had been alone for so long now it was like standing at the mouth of a bottomless hollow in the earth looking down. Wondering all the time when a hand would come over the edge of darkness to grab me, pull me under and drag me into my own misery deep enough that I would never be able to claw myself out again.

My mind kept up with these depressing thoughts all the way, up until a point I hadn’t even realised Vincent had killed the engine.