Immortal Beauty (57 page)

Celine was in a fury and was about to lose it when Isis came running up to her from the darkness.

“Mother come quickly! Something is wrong with Osiris!” The terror in her voice was real and without thinking Celine ran down the hill to join her daughter. Isis grabbed her hand and pulled her along. “Hurry mother I think he’s dying!” Together they ran down the slope that rushed toward the Seine. Celine’s mind was racing. Was something wrong with their DNA? Was the acceleration simply too much? She remembered all the hideous failed experiments of the past few years, all of those grotesque, unformed monsters. These children were different. They were tall and elegant and god like with the strength of ten men. These two were legend. Maybe they were turning into animals. She would have to get them both back to the lab immediately. She allowed Isis to drag her along until they were in the thick of the trees. She heard the rumbling sound of thunder and stopped walking. Isis almost fell as Celine resisted her tugging and pulling. Celine stared at her. Was this little creature capable of betrayal? Was it possible? Celine saw fear in Isis’ face and knew in an instant that she was being set up. She drew her hand back and slapped Isis hard with the back of her hand as the wind began to rise.

“How dare you?” She screamed at the crying girl. “I made you!” Celine’s rage was out of control and Isis realized that she could no longer breath. Just then a loud chorus of birds sounded out from the tree tops. They swooped down on Celine long enough to break her concentration. The wind was getting louder and Isis realized there was air in her lungs and she rushed into the darkness while Celine was staring up at the angry sky. Isis looked back and began to see the birds falling one by one and then in groups from the night sky. They were all dead.

Osiris woke up in agony. His sides were on fire and he tried to stand. He was chained to a tree with two metal rods poking out of his body. He pulled one of them in vain as the pain threatened to render him unconscious. He knew that the rods could not be pulled out. They had to be pushed through. There was only one way. He jumped up as high as he could and landed straight on his chest pushing the rods farther into his body. When he came to, he already began to feel better. He was healing quickly and with two quick jerks and an enormous howl, he managed to pull the ends of the rods through the sids of his chest. Once the metal was out, the wounds began to close quickly. He needed to rest but he had no time. He had to save his sister. He could smell her and the others nearby. In a few minutes he could walk and began to find Isis and kill the people who did this to them.

Isis ran into Claire’s arms behind the pavillion that Helene Corbet had built before the French Revolution as a secret meeting place for her and her lover. Isis was sobbing.

“She almost killed me! She knows you’re out here. She’s coming.” The words came out in little spurts. “Please let me go get Osiris. I’m worried about him.” She was barely speaking between sobs.

“Go Isis. You’ve done more than enough. Go save yourself and Osiris. I’ll come and find you when this is all over.” Claire hoped that this was true.

The storm grew in intensity and lightning began to strike nearby. Taylor stood still with his arms stretched to the sky. Celine was coming and he could feel the energy oozing from her body. He would have to distract her long enough for the others to do their work.

Celine walked calmly down the path. She gathered her strength and her energy. She was going to destroy them all in one enormous burst of energy. As she walked by the irisis growing along the edge of the path they began to wilt and fade as if they were being consumed by some invisible fire. Celine stopped when she saw Marcus standing in front of her, handsome as always. His arms were crossed and there was the slightest look of amusement in his eyes. Celine smiled suddenly and laughed.

“I underestimated you Marcus. That was my mistake. Your mistake was coming back here. I am going to enjoy watching you die.” She stared at him intently looking for any sign of emotion. If there was but one drop of love for her running in his veins then she would surely win.

“My only mistake dear was letting you out of that cave so many years ago. You win Celine. You can have all the water you want for the rest of forever just like your myths but you are going back to your prison. You can have the water, but you cannot have this world.” He walked closer to her as if he were in no danger whatsoever. That’s when she saw Frankie step out from behind the statue of Venus rising out of the waters.

“Hello Celine!” He smiled and waved at her and he was dressed all in black like a rebel. They all were. This was too cute. They believed they were some sort of superheros. Frankie’s flippancy annoyed her and she focused all of her energy on this smug little man who thought he could interfere with her plans. She remembered the last time she killed him in this way. It had been so messy. At least they were outside this time. She saw him begin to struggle for his breath. She was so intent on her purpose that she did not hear the thunder overhead. She smelled ozone and knew that the lightning would be coming next. Taylor was going to blast her from above. She ran back to the house. He couldn’t get her if she was inside. Frankie recovered his breath quickly and watched as Celine tried to outrun the lightning. She ran up the hill and was almost at the terrace when she saw Sasha. It was a shock but she knew somehow it would be her. She had to deal with the immediate threat first. She had to get out of the storm. Sasha smiled at Celine and reached her hand out to the ballustrade and for a moment Celine thought that Sasha had switched sides and was offering her a hand. Then she saw the shimmer of metal as Sasha picked up the first of the legendary swords of the immortals. With amazing speed she threw it at Celine. It spun with a whirring sound and landed with a sickening thud in Celine’s stomach. A dark red stain appeared on the steel gray silk, so dark that it appeared black. One by one Sasha threw the eight swords at her as if she were some knife thrower in a circus. One by one the small swords found their mark. Celine was grunting and groaning and slowing down considerably. She was hurt but by no means out of the fight.

“Is that all you got Sasha?” She yelled at the American girl and felt the blood dripping down the front of her chest. She started to pull the first of the swords out when she heard Sasha say.

“Not even close.” Celine looked at Sasha who suddenly yelled. “Now!”

Without any warning the lightning came. It found the metal of the swords and Celine was blasted backwards to the ground. The white heat destroyed evertying else around her and Cleine was conscious only of being bathed in light and pain. She looked up an dsaw Sasha standing above her. She smiled at her enemy with a look of admiration. The mysterious storm disappeared and the park was quiet again.

“You see? You can’t kill me. I am the true immortal.” She reached up with her hand which was stinging with a thousand neeedles of pain and removed the first sword. She was pulling out the second one when she noticed Sasha fanning herself with a lovely oriental fan.

“We are more alike than you know Sasha. For a moment there on the terrace I thought you had joined my side and we could truly be sisters. You have no idea what could have been yours.” She pulled out a third knife and felt her strength beginning to return. Taylor was walking towards them now and Celine glanced in his direction and knew that the lightning had only made her stronger. She was filled with the raw energy of the gods of nature. Nothing could stop her now. She stared at the man Sash loved and he began to choke and gasp and then without warning he fell to the ground. “Say goodbye to your boyfriend…again.” Celine laughed at Sasha who held the fan up to her face to hide her expression.

“That’s it Celine! I have had just about enough of you messing with my love life.”

“Sasha no!” Marcus was screaming as he ran to them. Sasha ignored him and raised the fan above her head. Celine successfully pulled most of the swords out of her healing body now. Taylor was slumped on the ground and no longer breathing. His body began to vibrate obscenely and Sasha knew she only had a couple of seconds. She jumped on Celine to hold her body down and raising the fan high above her head she whispered: “Time to die. It’s a bitch. You’ll love it.” The fan came down with all the force Sasha could muster nad chopped through Celines prettey white neck. Sasha pushed her body weight down and than cut through veins and cartilage and came to a halt when it hit Celine’s neck bone. Blood was flying everywhere an Sasaha was covered in it. She looked at Celine’s face and saw the horror register in the green eyes that would never see another sunrise. She let the fan rest, stuck in the bone and reached for the broadsword in her boot. With the finesse of a good butcher, she started hacking away at the rest of the bone for she would not be satisfied until Celine’s head was no longer attached to her body. She had come back to life too many times. She yanked at Celine’s gorgeous hair and pulled the head free of the body. At that very moment Sasha felt something rush inside of her. It hit her in the center of her body and she felt the baby move violently as if it had been shaken. With revulsion she knew immediately what had occurred and she couldn’t move. The soul of Celine had jumped into her unborn baby! Sasha’s hand still held the head of the real monster and could not release her grip. She couldn’t command her body to do anything with this new darkness engulfing her mind. She heard a cry arise from the night and felt herself being knocked to the ground. Osiris had pounced on her and was clawing away at her furiously before she even knew what had happened.

“You killed my mother!” He slashed her face and neck. Frankie came running up to them wildly swinging the whip chains in both hands high above his head. Instead of pointed steel there were round spiked balls at the end of each one. Gathering as much momentum as he could he threw the chains at Osiris’ head and they caught the beast around the neck which knocked him off of Sasha. Taylor and Marcus ran up to Sasha as they heard Osiris howling in pain. They couldn’t believe all the blood. It was truly a war. Taylor picked up Sasha and without a word ran up the stairs to the terrace and into the house with an unconscious Sasha in his arms. Once Sasha had saved his life and now it was time to save hers. He knew what he had to do and headed toward the door with all the bizarre carvings on it.

Forgotten for the moment Osiris recovered from the painful blows the whip chains had delivered to his head. He reached for the broadswoard Sasha had dropped in a pool of his mother’s blood. His mother was dead and his sister was no longer on his side. He was alone in the world and he knew that he would always be a monster to them all. He drew the sword up high and in a swift movement plunged it into his heart. He twisted the handle around and around trying to cause fatal damage. He did not want to heal this time. He heard Isis.

“Osiris! What have you done?” She ran up to him and tried to remove the sword.

“It’s too late sister. It is done.” He smiled at her sweetly and licked a salty tear off of her cheek. “There is no room for us in this ugly world.”

“You can’t leave me alone! You can’t go! Osiris!” She pleaded upon dead ears. He no longer smiled nor did he move. He was gone. Claire moved in silently and wrapped the sobbing child in her arms. Frankie watched them unaware of his own tears falling unseen down his own face. Out of nowhere Magdalene descended from the sky and landed on Claire’s shoulder. It was finished.

ETERNALLY PRESENT

Sasha stirred in her bed. The sun was full in the sky and the windows were open to a beautiful day. She was sore but did not feel too bad. Taylor was seated at her side and he looked really tired but cute at the same time in the way a little boy can be who just woke up from a nap.
“Sasha, please don’t be mad. I didn’t know.” He started to cry a little.

“Taylor, everything is fine. I feel fine. I was going to tell you about the baby when it was all over. There wasn’t time before.” She smiled reassuringly at him and her smile froze in place as her hands absentmindedly ran over her stomach. She was way more pregnant now. She looked at Taylor.

“Sasha, you were dying and I couldn’t let that happen. Marcus knew the waters would heal you and so did I.” His voice was trembling.

“Taylor, what did you do?” Sasha no longer smiled but her hands kept running in circles around this baby; around Celine.

“I went to the source.” This told Sasha nothing and after an eternity he finally said. “I threw you in the pool of Locium.” He stared at the floor and didn’t see that Sasha could not help but laugh at him throwing her in the sacred pool as if they were at some high school party.

“Taylor. Thank you for throwing me in the pool. You saved me and you saved our baby. And you made her grow a little faster. What are you gonna do?” She smiled and took in a deep breath. And as she breathed out, she released the pasts. All of them. The only thing she had left now was the love she felt for Taylor and their unborn child. She ran her fingers through his dark hair and pulled him onto the bed with her where they lay side by side as she continued the soothing stroking of his wavy locks.

“You’re not mad?” He sounded more and more sleepy. Everything was perfect. They were a family now and they were home expecting their first child.

“Mad? Darling, we’re alive and we’re healthy and we’re going to raise our wonderful baby in this fabulous house with people who will love her fiercely and forever. It sounds like Marcus’ long awaited dream has finally found it’s way into our world. The nightmare is over and we can all wake up.” She hoped she sounded convincing. It was hard to deceive Taylor. She believed there was no reason to throw a fly into the ointment on their first day of freedom from the evil Celine. They were all free now and safe, for the moment. Sashsa was absolutely sure that Celine’s spirit had jumped into her baby at the exact moment of physical death. Maybe it was Celine’s final revenge, or maybe it was just the way it happened. Nyoirin would have told her that it was her karmic responsibility to nurture the one she had murdered so coldly. Revenge always has a price. She must now give birth to the life she had taken. The world existed by rules of this balance whether we acknowledge them or not. Sasha was optimistic though and thought that maybe it would be alright. She would raise her little girl with love and fill her head with dreams and be the kind of mother to her that her own had been. She would keep her little secret from Taylor and from everyone else for now. This was between her and Celine. It was her destiny now to nurture all that was once good in her. She smiled and was in a state of near grace trying to grasp just how strange and perfect and puzzling this life could be. At least she was part of this conundrum. She was alive and surrounded by love in the heart of the city she loved more than any other in the whole world. In that moment she was truly happy. It had all been worth it for this one blissful, eternal moment. She could hear the sounds of her friends outside as she began to drift off to sleep.