Revelations (Bloodline Series) (17 page)

“That’s
very sweet,” I said plainly.

“I’m
going to ignore your tone.”

“Do
what you want…how the hell can I feel sorry for someone who—?”

“Okay,
okay, just...keep listening,” he sighed. “I was on my way home from taking a
walk one evening—”

“I
know the story.”

“How?”

“Lucifer
knows it’s you that’s doing this. He was very upset.”

That
seemed to make him lose his words for a moment. He stood there in silence for a
while before sitting next to me again.

“I’ll
never forget what Lucifer did for me. I will always be thankful…he fought for
me when I went to Hell. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be what I am now. But
please Keira, tell him I can’t and
won’t
stop this.”

“I’ll
tell him, once you explain to me
why
you’re doing it.”

“It
took Lucifer a while to convince God to take me. During that time...no wait,
let’s tell this story, so it actually makes sense,” he sighed. “When my
wife...she went to Heaven, and from what I’ve been told, she didn’t remember
much of what had happened the night she...she...anyway, she asked if she would
see me again, and at the time she was told ‘most likely.’ However, she was soon
told that she wouldn’t see me again that I would go to Hell because I killed
some of the ones who were responsible.”

“I
don’t agree with that.”

“That’s
good to hear. I was then told that my wife was distraught and that for months, she
begged and pleaded to have her soul destroyed. She didn’t want to exist in any
way, shape, or form when all she would ever want was the one thing she couldn’t
have. She felt as though she was being punished too. Eventually, they agreed to
do it....”

It
was getting hard for him to speak, and it was obvious the emotion was genuine.
If this had been anyone else I would have done my best to comfort them, but I
couldn’t be like that with him. I watched as a single tear rolled down his left
cheek.

“The
only thing that I have left of her is a memory and an item of jewelry I bought
her,” he finally managed to say.

“Ballantine,
I’m sorry for your loss, but surely since you know how it feels to lose someone
you love, you wouldn’t want other people to go through the same thing…and, yet
you’re
killing
people.”

“I’m
doing it
for
them, Keira.”

“How
can—?”

“My
wife, my beautiful wife, no longer exists because I—
I,
not her—killed
someone. People are torn from the ones they love because
one
of them
sins, not always by killing, but by being prideful, atheist, taking the Lords name
in vain. Keira, why should the ones who haven’t done that suffer too? Why
should they be torn so easily from the people they loved when it
wasn’t
them
who sinned? You answer me that.”

“They
shouldn’t,” I almost whispered.

“Exactly.”

“I
still don’t understand what this has to do with anything you’re doing.”

“Think
about it, and I mean
really
think about it.” He took a deep breath. “I
know you won’t want to talk about this, but I’m going to use your father as an
example.”

I
turned quickly and glared at him.

“Listen
to me…I’m not saying anything bad about him Keira, just stay calm.” He put his
hand on my shoulder and I shrugged him off quickly. “Keira, you won’t ever get
to spend time with your father again.”

“Do
you think I don’t know that?” I sobbed.

“But
why must it be that way? He has done nothing wrong, and yet he will never get
to see his daughter, who he loves so much, ever again. That is so wrong...it
shouldn’t be like that. He should still be able to spend time with you,
especially since, technically, you’re dead.”

“I
know.”

“When
I finally went to Heaven the only thing I asked was to see my wife. That was
when I was told she was gone. I can’t explain how I felt; there are no words to
describe the pain, the anger, the upset. Keira, nobody should have to feel
that. I want to create a realm where people can go and be together again, where
your father could go, and you could come and be able to spend time with him as
much time as you both wanted,
whenever
you wanted. I have the power to
do that. People who hadn’t sinned would know that once their loved ones had
paid for their crimes, they
would
be able to see them again. All they
had to do was wait, just be patient. They wouldn’t have to live knowing they
would never see them again, like I do…like
you
do right now. Do you
understand what I’m saying to you?”

“My
dad can come here whenever he chooses—he just can’t be seen, not even by me. So
how the hell would I see him?”

“I
would know you were both there…I could make him visible to you. Keira, I’m one of
the most powerful archangels ever to exist. That is not a hard task,” he
assured me. “In fact, it’s one of the easiest things I can do. I could give him
a physical form; you could see him, hold him, go places together again, make up
for all the time you missed. Everyone who has ever lost someone and been torn
away from them in the afterlife could do the same.”

I
couldn’t speak…I just stared at him. I couldn’t believe it, but I agreed with
absolutely everything he’d said. I understood it, and I wanted the same.

“Keira,
please,
please
help me,” he almost begged. “I need someone like you on
my side, someone who understands, someone who wants the same thing. Someone who
is willing to fight for what they know in their heart is
right
. I don’t
want to hurt these people; I want them to live in a world where they can be
truly happy, forever. You know what I am doing is right, so please Keira...help
me.”

Chapter 20

More
Training

Jake’s
Story

I’d
just finished my turn with Eligos’s swords, and man were they heavy…my arms
were killing me. I’d fought against Danny, and to my surprise and his, I
knocked both of his swords out of his hands. Eligos seemed to find this
extremely amusing, but Danny…well, he seemed a little annoyed with himself. He
just kept muttering something like “I’m a demon, he’s a human; how the hell did
he beat me?” But to be fair, I don’t think his mind was really on what he was
doing. Hecate had spoken to me a couple of days earlier and told me that since
we’d lost our parents, his attitude towards everything had changed, even
towards her. We were all hurting, but we couldn’t lose focus. Our parents
wouldn’t have wanted that, and they certainly wouldn’t have wanted us taking
things out on each other and being cold towards one another. Danny was being
funny with nearly everyone…the only people he seemed to be okay with were Keira
and Eligos. I wanted to say something to him to check how he was dealing with
things, but to be honest I didn’t know how to approach him.

“Jake,
do you want a coffee?” Hecate shouted to me through the kitchen window. “Or
would you prefer something cold?”

“A
can of Pepsi would go down nice,” I shouted back.

A
moment later the can was in my lap…she hadn’t even walked outside. It made me
smile to realize how much I loved the powers we all had.

“Are
you okay?” my Lily asked as she sat next to me.

“Yeah,
I’m not too bad. Are you?”

“Unsere
was just showing me some spells…they’re fantastic.”

“I
didn’t know Unsere was here.”

“Yeah,
she came a while ago. She had to go back to Hell though…Lilith wanted her or
something.”

“Fair
enough; so what’s gonna happen now?” I asked.

“What
do you mean?”

“What
are we all doing? I’ve finished training for the day, and obviously you’re
finished now.”

“I
don’t know…I was going to make dinner for everyone.”

“Okay,”
I sighed.

“You
sound so fed up.”

“I
just want this to be over. I wanted it a long time ago, but no, we carry on like
normal…whatever
that
is.”

She
didn’t know what to say to me…what
could
she say? We all seemed to have
been saying the same things over and over for the last few months, but in the
end nobody could say anything they hadn’t already said a dozen times before.
She put her hand on my shoulder for a moment and tried to smile at me before
she went inside to start cooking. I lay back on the grass for a couple of
minutes, then felt drops of rain on my face. The weatherman had told us to
expect some extremely heavy rain over the next few hours, and it looked as
though it was about to start.

Everyone
got inside literally seconds before the heavens opened, and the rain fell. I
watched through the window as it hit the ground and bounced up again about four
or five inches. I couldn’t remember ever seeing rain so heavy before—it was
actually rather beautiful. Eligos came into the room asking me if I had heard
from Keira, and when I told him I hadn’t he walked out, leaving me on my own
again. He didn’t look impressed; he always seemed to be worried when she wasn’t
near him, but I could understand why after what they had been through.

Nobody
had spoken with her since she’d left that morning. She wanted a bit of space,
some time on her own to try and come to terms with recent events. I could
understand her need to get away for a while; when she was home she spent most
of her time comforting everyone and trying to assure us all that we would be okay.
She was everyone’s rock, their shoulder to cry on, the person they went to if
they needed to confide in someone or just get something off their chest. To be
honest, I didn’t know what we would do without her. We tried once before, and
none of us coped very well. She was so strong and caring, never moaning at
people for wanting to use her as a therapist. She just did whatever she could
to help us. But she needed a break from that now.

I
looked at the clock; it was now almost 6 P.M., and Keira had been gone almost
eight hours. Even for her that was a long time to be away. I admit I was
starting to worry a little too, but then I thought,
seriously, what sort of
fool would try and take on a demon-angel mix-up
? Nobody with half a brain
cell would do that, surely.

“Eligos
is starting to worry about Keira,” Tyler said, entering the room. “And so am I.”

“I’m
sure she’ll be okay.” I sat down on one of the sofas. “She’s tough, remember.”

“Tough
yes, but not invincible.” He flopped down on the sofa facing me, his face
showing nothing but worry. “Why can’t she just think to check in from time to
time?” he sighed. “I might take a drive into town, see if I can see her.”

“She
will be pissed if you do; she needs a break. You know she needs time to
herself.”

“I
understand that, but at the moment, with everything that’s going on, she—”

“I
know, I know, I get it.”

“You
get what?” I heard Keira say.

I
turned around to see her standing in the doorway. She stared at me for a moment
and then sat on the sofa next to Tyler. She looked different, more troubled
than normal and worried.

“Are
you alright?” I asked her.

“Fine;
what is it you ‘
get
’?”

“That
people get worried when you’re out for long periods of time.”

“I’m
fine.”

“You
look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Tyler pointed
out. “Why not put some of that weight on us?”

“Because
your back would break with it,” she sighed. “I’ll be fine. I know you worry
about me, but you don’t have to, honestly.”

She
sat there twisting some of her hair around her fingers and looking as though
she was in a world of her own. Tyler stared at her…you could see the love in
his eyes. I felt so sorry for him. A moment later Eligos came into the room, and
seemed relieved to see Keira sitting there. He came and sat next to me, looking
rather annoyed that Tyler hadn’t moved to allow him to sit next to her. Tyler
couldn’t seem to care less.

“Have
you had a nice day?” Eligos asked her.

“Hmm,
just needed some time to think. I didn’t go into town, I just drove around for
a while and stopped for a couple of hours in the country. Then I went to Hell
to see if Lilith was busy, but she wasn’t there, so—”

“Did
you see anyone else?”

“I
saw Lucifer, but he was kinda busy too.”

I
watched her all the time she was talking to him…something wasn’t right. I could
see she was lying, although I must admit she did it quite convincingly. She
slipped back into a world of her own. Eligos looked concerned but never said
anything. Eventually Tyler walked out of the room and Eligos jumped up quickly
to go and sit with Keira. She snuggled into him, laying her head on his chest
and closing her eyes. I decided to give them some time on their own.

“Something’s
not right,” I said as I walked into the kitchen. Tyler and Lily turned to look
at me.