Revelations (Bloodline Series) (28 page)

Sleep
must have come quite easily; the next thing I knew, I was sitting up straight,
startled by the sounds of someone screaming. I ran out into the hallway; Eligos
and Elizabeth were running up the stairs. Lucian came charging out of Marley’s
bedroom with a look of panic on his face.

“Thank
God,” he sighed when he saw us. “It’s Marley, please—”

I
followed behind Eligos and Elizabeth. Marley was lying on the floor,
unconscious.

“What
happened?” I asked.

“She
tried to contact Keira,” Beth answered. Eligos gathered her in his arms and lay
her on the bed. Beth continued to explain. “She thought she might be able to
reason with Keira, or at least see where she was so someone could go after her.”

“Did
she make contact?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes,
she was talking to her—”

“Saying
what?” Eligos asked.

“Asking
where she was and practically begging her to come home—”

“What
did she say?”

“If
you stop interrupting me I can tell you everything!” Beth snapped. “We don’t
know what Keira said, we weren’t the ones who could hear her.”

“Then
something changed,” Tyler took over. “She went from being rather calm to panic
stricken. She said she could see him, and that we were going to kill him. A
minute or so later her eyes flew open and she started screaming. She threw her
hands out in front of her as though she was defending herself from something,
then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed.”

“We
need to try and wake her,” I spoke. “We need to know what she saw.”

Lily
walked over to Marley and started tapping her hand, saying her name over and
over. It only took a few minutes for her to start stirring.

“What
happened?” she croaked, putting her hand to her head.

“You
don’t remember?” Elizabeth asked.

“Erm…give
me a minute.” She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “I saw him.”

“Ballantine?”

“Yeah.
Keira told me to get out of her head and leave her alone. I could see him
walking over to her, and said it was his fault and that we would kill him. She
told me we would have to get through her first, and then all I could see was
his
eyes. They glowed bright blue. Then it was like he’d charged at me. I tried to
fight him off, but I got a searing pain right through my skull. That’s the last
thing I remember.”

“Did
he say anything to you?” I asked.

“Yeah...he
said to leave his girl alone or he would come for me.”

“
HIS
girl?” Eligos thundered.

“That’s
what he said,” Marley almost whispered.

“I’m
going to find him and tear his frigging head off!” As soon as he’d spoken he
disappeared. Everyone looked unnerved.

“Marley,”
Danny said, trying to act as calm as possible. “What did you see?”

“I
saw Keira.”

“I
mean in the background…what surrounded her.”

She
closed her eyes for a moment before speaking again. “I could see trees, lots of
them. Sunlight, very bright sunlight. That’s about it.”

“What
about the sky?” I asked.

“The
sky? What about it?”

“What
color was it…can you see?”

“Erm…it’s
blue...but not like the blue skies
we
have. It’s more like a cobalt
blue, deep, and I can see moons, or planets; I’m not sure which.”

“Hmm.”

“Hecate,
what is it?” Lucian frowned.

“All
the realms look different…no two are exactly the same. I can think of a few
with skies that deeply colored where the planets are visible during the
daylight hours. I must go to Lucifer and tell him…he might be able to send
people to search for them.”

“Really?”

All
of them looked hopeful.

“Please
don’t get your hopes up. Now that Ballantine knows you have seen Keira he might
move again. He won’t want to risk being caught,” I sighed.

“Do
you want me to try again?” Marley asked. “I don’t mind.”

“Not
yet; let me see what Lucifer says first. We’ve been waiting so long for a way
to find them, now we might just have it. I wouldn’t want to risk anything going
wrong and spoiling our chances. I have to leave for a little while; please just
try to stay calm.”

They
all nodded.

A
moment later I was standing in the hallway of the palace. I raced into the main
room. Lucifer was standing by the window with Eligos, both of them silent.

“Lucifer,
I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I
must
speak with you. I think me may
have a way to find Ballantine,” I blurted out.

He
spun around quickly. “Follow me.”

I
looked over at Eligos before following Lucifer into the meeting room. He didn’t
turn his attention away from the window. I desperately wanted to comfort him,
but I didn’t know where to begin.

I
walked in the room after Lucifer and sat at the long table.

“Tell
me everything you know,” he began.

“Can
I just ask one thing first? How is Eligos?”

“He’s
a broken man. How would you be?”

“Is
there anything, anything at all, that I can do for him?”

“Bring
Keira back. Turn back the clock so he can stop her meeting Ballantine in the
first place. Tell him he’s dreaming and he’ll wake up any minute now.”

I
didn’t respond. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Eligos must be going
through.

“Now
tell me what you know, Hecate.”

I
told him everything, from Marley trying to make contact to Ballantine’s threat;
he didn’t look very impressed with that at all. When I told him what Marley had
described in the background his eyes widened.

“Firstly,
I now know why Eligos returned. He hadn’t told me any of this.”

“In
fairness Lucifer, he didn’t know. He left as soon as Marley had told him what
Ballantine had said.”

“I
must admit, I’m starting to worry about him. I don’t know how much more he can
take before something inside him snaps completely. I feel for anyone caught in
his path when that happens. He’s one of the strongest demons I’ve ever created…I
know what he is capable of.”

“I
dread to think.”

“We’ll
deal with him as or when the time comes. As for Keira and her whereabouts,
there are five realms with skies as you described. I will arrange for our people
to go and search for them. Now, Marley; I think she should try to keep tabs on
Keira. I’m not sure how powerful this girl is, but if she can track Keira
without her knowing about it, that would be advantageous.”

“I
don’t know if she can do that. The last few times she contacted Keira like this
she actually got inside her head. Keira has always felt Marley.”

“Practice
makes perfect. However, if I’m honest with you, I don’t think we’ll be waiting
much longer,” he said, standing.

“How
do you mean?”

“He
has Keira now; he knows it will be damn near impossible for us to take him down
while she is on his side. I doubt it will be long before he starts a full-on
attack on earth. That’s when we strike.”

“Lucifer,
be honest with me…now that Keira has gone, what are our chances of actually
being able to win this and take Ballantine down?”

“Almost
zero. Our only hope is that Eligos will have the emotional strength to take
Keira down.”

“Is
he powerful enough?”

“She
is stronger than him in almost every way, but she loves him. That will weaken
her; the problem is, it will also weaken him.”

“I
don’t know what to think or what to do anymore. Nothing makes sense.”

“You
need to be strong like you always have. You need to fight and try to bring down
the opposition. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“What
do you want me to do right now?”

“Go
back and speak to Marley. Ask her if she knows how to keep track of Keira, or
Ballantine, without alerting them. If she can then keep me updated. In the meantime,
I will send out some people to other realms similar to what you described. When
I know something, I will be in touch.”

“Can
I ask one more thing? Do we
have
to kill Keira? I mean, if we can make
her see sense and get her back…do we still need to kill her?”

“Yes
you do. She won’t come back to us, not now. And even if she did...I could never
trust her again.”

Chapter 35

Block

Keira

I
woke up and found myself on the bed in my plain little room. Tina was sitting
on the end of the bed watching me. I tried to sit up, but my head hurt so much
that it was almost impossible for me to lift it from the pillow.

“Stay
still and rest, Keira,” Tina said, putting her hand on mine. “I need to fetch
Ballantine. Don’t try to move.”

I
nodded and watched as she walked out of the room. The pain I was experiencing
made me feel physically sick. Even if I simply tried to turn my head to the
side, I thought it could quite possibly split open. I was about to try and heal
myself, even though I didn’t know if I had actually sustained an injury or not.
I couldn’t remember what had happened. The last memory I had was sitting under
the tree with Tina talking about her past.

“Keira,
it’s nice to see you awake, my dear,” I heard Ballantine say. He sat next to me
and took my hand in his. “How are you feeling?”

“I
feel like my head has been trampled on.”

“I
can make that go away.”

“What
happened?”

“You
don’t remember?” he asked, puzzled.

“No,
I don’t remember anything. I was talking with Tina and then I woke up in here.”

“Hmm…interesting.”

“What?”

“Nothing,
don’t worry about that now.”

“Please
tell me what happened? Was I attacked?”

“No,
not exactly. You had a visitor.”

I
raised an eyebrow at him and instantly wished I hadn’t. The searing pain across
my eyes was excruciating.

“Keira,
your young friend Marley managed to get inside your head. I assume she was
either trying to convince you to return or find out where you were. Tina
panicked and came to get me quickly. I instantly knew what was happening to
you, and when I heard you tell someone to get out, it only confirmed it.”

“What
did you do?”

“I
joined in the conversation, which is why you have such a bad headache. I apologize
for that Keira, but I had to send her on her way. It was a bit of a brain
overload for you. Let me fix you up.” He leaned forward and placed the palm of
his hand on my forehead. I went light headed for a few seconds and then found I
could move painlessly.

“Thank
you.”

“We’re
going to need to do something about your friend.”

“What
do you mean, ‘
do something’
?”

“Don’t
worry, I won’t hurt her. Although I will confess, I did threaten to go after
her if she tried it again.”

“What?”

“I’m
being honest Keira; do not shout at me. I have no intentions of
actually
attacking her; I just wanted to scare her off.”

“You
promise?”

“You
have my word, and as far as I’m aware, I haven’t let you down so far. Now, by
doing
something
I simply mean we need to block her out so she won’t be
able to contact you again. Well, you can do it yourself…you’re an angel after
all.”

“How?”

“Keira,
has nobody shown you how to use what you are? Hasn’t anyone taught you?”

“I
don’t exactly have angel friends, do I? I know a lot about the demon side of me…it’s
mainly self taught though.”

“I
must say, a lot of it
is
self taught; you need to experiment with it.
But I can teach you a lot of things…or should I say
show
you, more than
teach
.
How are you supposed to know what you’re capable of if people don’t tell you?
You can do things you wouldn’t normally have even dreamed about.”

“Can
you teach me, or show me, whatever?” I asked.

“I
thought you’d never ask. First though, let’s take care of the mind invading.”

He
leaned forward and placed his hands on either side of my head but didn’t
actually make contact with my skin. He closed his eyes, and I saw bright lights
at my sides; then it was over.

“There
we go,” he smiled. “All sorted; she will not be able to contact you again.”

“I
don’t feel any different.”

“You’re
not meant to. Now, while you were sleeping I had a good think about things. I’ve
come to the conclusion that it would be dangerous for us to stay here now. If
your friend reports what she has seen here, other demons or Lucifer may be able
to track us down. I don’t want to put these people at risk, so we’re leaving.
Most of them have already gone…some to other groups, others to another realm
quite different in appearance to this one.”