Illumine (18 page)

in my ear. "What a weakling. Is that the best you can do, conjure a

little firework with your power? Such a sad excuse for Nephilim."

I roled over to give her a kick in the shins when I saw the

silver knife in her hand plunge straight into my rib cage. Pain shot

through me and I screamed. Then, for good measure she twisted it.

My eyes roled back into my head as I fought to stay awake.

"Get her out of here!" Someone shouted through the haze.

Arms slipped under my shoulders and dragged me up more steps.

Arms slipped under my shoulders and dragged me up more steps.

"It's going to be okay, Essalie, I promise it's going to be okay."

My eyes fluttered open to find Leo hovering above me,

eyebrows bunched together in worry. Blood smeared the front of

his tuxedo.

"Hope that was a rental," I made a weak joke and gave

him my best smile, surprised there wasn't any pain where the knife

had gone through my body. I looked down to see blood, lots of it.

"I'm so screwed though. Was that realy Abigail I saw or did I

halucinate that?"

"I'l tel you later, I promise," Leo gave a weak smile and

placed a hand to my cheek then puled me in for a hug.

"How touching, a last minute embrace." Chase said with

mock awe. Claws flung out towards us, each tip covered in

venom. I threw my hands out in front of me to create a shield of

fire, burning off his claws. Seeing the claws fail he then flung himself

straight through the wal of fire, a knife in one hand poised for my

heart.

Leo spun me around, keeping me tight in his arms as the

blade sunk into his back. He shuddered then colapsed the floor,

unmoving.

"Leo!"
I shrieked in horror, sinking to the ground and

placing my hands over the wound. Blood poured faster than it was

supposed to, bubbling and spreading in a smeared pool around

him. "Leo, you listen to me. You hold on, god dammit, you hold

on. Ursula loves you way too much for you to die like this." I

removed my bloody hands from the wound and cupped his ashen

face. "You do not get to die like this."

face. "You do not get to die like this."

He opened his mouth and coughed a bubble of blood. "Do

you trust me?"

"Yes, yes I do." I sobbed and hugged him closer. I didn't

care how much blood I got on my dress, as long as he lived.

Eyes drifting shut, he spoke in the faintest of whispers.

"Then go out...there and kick ass. Trust you-yourself because, I

trust you..." A final breath escaped his lips. I let out a guttural

scream and stood up, shaking from head to toe.

Al around the stadium seats and stage floor was a picture

of hel. Fire burned in patches as people tried to escape the big

top. Demons leap through the packs and slashed at whatever they

could consume, Kayden, Abigail, and Ursula al fighting their own

set of the demons.

Something inside of me snapped like a rubber band

stretched too thin. Rage bubbled under the surface as I looked

down to Leo's body and the surrounding chaos. Enough was

enough. Fire spread from my hands up and down my body,

bathing me in a blinding blue light. I reached further down into my

power, a shimmering silhouette of angel wings spreading from my

back.

I am Nephilim, created for war, built for destruction.

I sprinted down the steps and sent bursts of flame at any

demon that got in the way, incinerating them on the spot and

leaving only a puff of brimstone behind. Light bulbs crackled and

burst overhead, raining shards of glass. In two smooth jumps I

cleared couple of chairs, using the cushions for a little bounce to

cleared couple of chairs, using the cushions for a little bounce to

land right behind Kayden and pierce a demon through the heart.

"About time you opened that vein of magic," Kayden

caled over his shoulder as he twisted his arm into a makeshift

sword, slicing through one of the demons. "What kept you?"

"Where's Chase?" I screamed as I kiled two more with a

single shot of fire.

"Look up, lovely," Chase shoved his face in front of mine,

twisting his smile back to his ears. Grabbing onto my shoulders he

flung me into the air and I colapsed onto the smal plank of wood

connecting the wire in the center to both ends of the tent. Chase

balanced on the center of the wire, beckoning me forward.

But I was one step ahead of him. I flung my hands out and

released spirals of fire, wrapping it around him as I had with

Kayden when we practiced. He only laughed as I drew him in

closer and closer until he was hanging right in front of me.

"What a foolish little girl," he sneered with a gleam to his

teeth. Already the flames were doing their work of lacing up his

body and burning him to death, piece by smoldering piece. "Go

ahead and kil me," he said. "You've already marked your own

grave with your Watcher lying dead in cold blood."

I tightened my grip on the flames to make them burn more

intently. "He wasn't my Watcher. He was my friend, and now he's

going to be avenged."

Rather than weep or beg for mercy, Chase laughed. His

face was beginning to crumble, breaking off in sharp chunks that

sailed to the ground beneath us. "You'l be with me sooner than

you know. I hope you like the taste of demon poison because it's

you know. I hope you like the taste of demon poison because it's

spreading through your body
right now.
"

I stared at him, horrified, as he continued to break off in

dying chunks. My hands moved down to the stab wound I had

received earlier and examined the fabric. Dried blood meshed with

new blood, only this time it was darker and starting to sludge. I

only had to wait another second before I watched my veins turn

black under the skin and overwhelming pain filed my body. I felt

myself free fal to the ground and colapse in a screaming heap, my

wings having been the only thing that saved me from broken bones.

Not that broken bones mattered much when death was trying to

break down your door with his steel-tipped boots.

Kayden stabbed the last of the demons and rushed to

where I laid, just in time to watch me arch my back and let out a

violent, chiling scream. He pinned me down, encasing my thrashing

body in an iron-clad grasp. He looked past me to someone else,

pleading. "What do I do? Can Nephilim survive this kind of

poison?"

I snapped my head to the side to see Ursula and Abigail

standing side-by-side, unable to take their eyes off of me. Ursula's

dress was torn in several places, dry blood covering half of her

face and chest as tears ran down her cheeks. "I don't know," I

heard her say to both Kayden and Abigail. "I've never seen it

actualy used on someone. It's a forbidden poison because of how

fast it spreads."

Another scream ripped through my lips, startling the three

of them. Abigail reached down and grasped my ankles while

Ursula paced back and forth, running her fingers through the mess

Ursula paced back and forth, running her fingers through the mess

that was left of her hair. Suddenly she stopped and plunged her

hand in-between her breasts, puling out a smal vial of red liquid

held around her neck by a thin silver chain. "Here, take this," she

said quickly, shaking heavily as she stood in front of him. When he

didn't accept it right away she shook even harder. "A- a medicine

woman gave it to me years ago. She said I would know when the

right time would be to use it."

Kayden reached out and took it, popped off the smal cork

and poured it down my throat without a second thought. I tried to

pin-point the taste, metal and bulets and spray paint al at once,

just as I closed my eyes and prayed to wake up in the morning.

"For yours and hers sake I hope so."

F I F T E E N

I was dreaming.

Spoils of perfectly cut, fresh grass laid out before me like

an evergreen sea. Flowers in the forms of roses and daisies and

tulips in every size and color imaginable sprouted up from the dirt,

petals in a dance for sunlight. I hadn't the faintest clue of how I'd

gotten to such a lovely little meadow and not destroyed it

thoroughly but I didn't question it either. For the moment I felt safe,

at peace.

Staring up into the endlessly perfect blue sky above I

picked a purple rose from the meadow and brought it to my nose,

breathing in the fresh, clean scent.

I roled over on my side to pick another flower when I

stopped. Apparently I wasn't the only one in my private field.

Kayden laid just liked I did on the ground, hands resting behind his

head as he lazily observed the sky above. The second I turned to

look at him did he turn to look back at me, an incomprehensible

look on his face. Gently he reached out to place a hand on my

cheek, resting his cold skin against mine as he sighed.

"Do you know what it means to truly be alone, Essalie?"

His voice lingered in the air like smoke in a parlor room.

I came up with a dozen different retorts, each one more

wounding to his ego than the last. Yet I found I didn't want to say

them; instead, I just wanted to stare into his eyes. We lingered

there, his question hanging in the silence for an immeasurable

there, his question hanging in the silence for an immeasurable

amount of time. His eyes burned into mine, the muddy brown

turning into an enchanting hazel, shimmering like a desert in the

sweltering heat. Inside each other’s eyes, we exchanged tales of

our pain. I was surprised to see just how much his hurt echoed my

own.

"I think you already know the answer to the question at

hand, Kayden,” I whispered, the smalest smile I could manage on

my lips. Slowly my eyes started to shut, my head lowering as the

darkness began to swalow me whole. Al around me my dream

began to flicker as my subconscious fought to keep it alive.

Another hand pressed on my free cheek, the shock from the

sudden intensive cold pressure bringing me back to my dream for

but a moment.

"Essalie, you need to stay with me. Just for a little while

longer," Kayden whispered with a strong tone.

As much as I wanted to agree and stay with him in a

perpetual dream-land forever, suspended in time, the darkness was

coaxing me with a better offer. Everything around me felt so

comfortable, so warm and soothing.

My eyelids fluttered. “Why?” I mumbled, my voice thick

with sleep.

A hand ran through my hair as I heard a soft chuckle echo

around me. “Because I am a foolish demon, driven by desire.”

"I don't think that’s foolish,” my whisper was barely

audible as I fought to stay awake. It felt like weights were trying to

keep my eyelids down, but I strained against them so I could see

his face one more time before sinking back into sleep. “I cal that

his face one more time before sinking back into sleep. “I cal that

bravery, or balsy.”

This time when my eyes opened I knew it wasn't just

another dream. My body had a dul ache to it, the kind that told me

that somehow I had managed to survive to see another day. That,

and because Kayden was sitting at my bedside looking like he

hadn't slept for several days straight.

"Hey," I said hoarsely, and immediately winced at the

sound of it. I tried to swalow but it felt exposed and raw. "It's al

good. I'm stil alive."

Kayden snapped up from his chair with enough force to

rocket off to the moon. His eyes were a bright brown as he stared

at my face for a moment before breaking into the hugest, most

awkward smile I think I'd ever seen on him.

"What," he began. "Is your freaking malfunction? I've been

sitting here for nearly two days thinking I was going to have to cal

your brother and make up some wild excuse that magicaly turned

you comatose." He sank into the cushioned tan chair that matched

the bedroom decor of wherever we were with a grand sigh. "At

least now I can take you home in one piece."

Every inch of me felt like I'd been kicked in and roled

around in a bucket of glass shards for good measure. Somehow I

was stil able to smile. "Where the heck are we, anyway?"

"Charon's Hospital. It was only a block away once we

cleared everyone out of the tent. No one realy noticed your super-

saiyan transformation, too. Mostly everyone just wanted to know if

saiyan transformation, too. Mostly everyone just wanted to know if