Revelations (Bloodline Series) (36 page)

“Are
you saying you’re simply going to let her kill you?” I choked.

“I’m
saying I don’t care who does it. I just know I have no intentions of living
through this.”

Chapter 46

Panic
Attack

Keira

After
returning from Diversia, Ballantine took to staring out at the currently
erupting volcano. His face and body language were completely unreadable. Even
his eyes refused to tell me what was running through his mind. I stayed with
him, not saying a word. I just wanted to be there so he knew he wasn’t alone.
Any time he wanted to speak, I would be there to simply listen. Nobody else
approached him. I think they were worried about upsetting him; either that, or
they were simply too shocked and upset themselves and didn’t want to talk about
it.

“Over
the next forty-eight hours I’m going to bring us all together. I just need to
decide on a meeting place, somewhere we won’t be found,” he began. “However, I
think we may have a traitor in our midst.”

“How?
Who?”

“I
don’t know. But how else would Lucifer and your friends have known where the
group was hiding? I’m just hoping that they killed the traitor too. At least
some good will have come from the attack.”

“What
happens after you bring everyone together?”

“I
think you know the answer to that, Keira.”

“How
are you going to do it? Are we going to split up? Attack different countries
simultaneously?”

“I
originally thought about doing it that way, but now I’m not sure it’s the best
way forward. I think we need to stick together.”

“We
won’t be able to do the whole world in one attack,” I frowned.

“And
why is that?”

“Are
you crazy? They have military you know…nuclear weapons; they’ll blast us to
kingdom come.”

“Keira,
my dear, sometimes you need to remember what we are, what we’re capable of.” He
tried to smile. “I will freeze time, just like I did the first time I
introduced myself to you. Do you remember?”

“Yeah,
when we were at the harbor.”

“The
whole world will come to a standstill.”

“Wait
a minute,” I said, rather confused. “If you can freeze everyone on the spot,
then why in God’s name did you need to recruit so many people? Why haven’t you
just wiped the world out? Why did...?”

“Okay,
calm down. The answer is really quite simple. I can freeze the world’s
population, but I cannot freeze demons, Keira…nor can I freeze other angels. I
can keep them in one spot for a while, but not thousands of them all at the
same time. If I had gone at this alone, Lucifer would have sent his armies, and
I would have had to retreat. I’m not going to get very far with just one of me,
and tens, if not
hundreds,
of thousands of them, am I? I needed to grow
my numbers to be able to fight and push through them while we wipe the world
clean. Then we can start afresh. Now do you understand?”

“Yeah,
yeah, I get you. But why not just use another planet? It’s not like there’s a
shortage of them, is it?”

“It
wouldn’t have mattered which planet I chose Keira; it would have still come to
this. They class what I’m doing as
wrong
. Letting people be happy is
wrong
.
I chose earth because it’s so densely populated that I knew I’d be able to have
a lot of bodies for my followers to possess. Human’s reproduce for fun; there
are more humans than any other species. It’s nothing personal, just simply for
those reasons.”

“Are
there more spirits simply waiting for a body at the moment?”

“Yes,
so as soon as we kill more people they can take them over. If any are
salvageable from the last attack….” He paused for a moment. “They can inhabit
those. I cast spells on a lot of the bodies they take. If they are completely
destroyed they will dissipate but if there’s a chance they can be healed,
fixed, whatever you want to call it, they will remain so we can inspect them
and possibly use them again. You see, sometimes the spirits leave the bodies
before they actually have to. They panic and the ‘fight or flight’ response
will kick in. I keep telling them to stay in their shells, and they’ll have
more chance of surviving during battle, but, you know yourself Keira, when you’re
scared out of your mind, you don’t tend to think rationally. You automatically
want to protect yourself, and maybe flee. Anyway, they won’t keep the bodies forever…they
won’t need to, just long enough to use them to attack. After that they’ll be
released, and either returned to the people they rightfully belong to, if they
choose to stay with us, or laid to rest. The people who will be joining me once
this is over won’t need them anyway.”

“Why?”

“Remember,
spirits can see each other, touch each other, unless one is from Heaven and the
other from Hell. It’s humans who cannot see them, feel them. If a spirit tried
to attack a human they would just pass through them. The human may shiver a
little, but that’s it. They certainly wouldn’t feel pain. When this is over, I
can cast my spells and work my magic so that spirits from opposite realms,
Heaven and Hell, will be able to see each other. They will be able to
experience touch without the aid of someone else’s body.”

“Yeah
I’m following you now. Anyway, when are we attacking?”

“I’m
not completely sure yet.”

“You
must have an idea.”

“Keira,
why are you suddenly so interested?” he asked, seeming a little concerned.

“Honestly,
I want to know how long I have to mentally prepare myself for what’s to come. I
want to get my emotions in check, considering I’m going to be facing my
friends. I still don’t know if they all survived our last confrontation, so I’m
nervous about who’s going to be there.”

“I
should have known…I’m sorry. If I can get us all together in the next two days,
we will attack on the third.”

“Oh
sweet Jesus,” I said, wide eyed, and took a deep breath.

“Don’t
panic, you’ll be fine,” he tried to comfort me. “I promise.”

“Okay.
Do I need to be present at all times? I mean, when all your people arrive.”

“No,
just for main discussion.”

“Can
I stay close to you? Let’s face it, none of them like me, so I don’t want to be—”

“You’d
be by my side anyway,” he smiled. I nodded and turned silent. “Well, sitting
here isn’t going to get things done. We’ve suffered a terrible loss, good, kind
people have died...but they wouldn’t have wanted this to stop. They’d expect me
to carry on, to win, and to give the people we still have everything I have
promised them. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

“What
do you want me to do?”

“Get
yourself ready. Prepare yourself. Leave the rest to me.”

I
watched him walk away from me. Once I was alone I slid down the wall. If my heart
was still beating it would have been doing well over a hundred a minute. Even
though I didn’t need to breathe, I felt as though my chest had tightened and I
was struggling to take a breath. I was convinced I was suffering from a panic
attack—dead girl style. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind, but that
proved very difficult.

“Keira,”
I heard Tina say. “Keira, are you okay?”

“I’m
having a panic attack,” I struggled to say.

“How?
You’re technically dead.”

“I
don’t know, but I tell you I am.”

“Erm…well
then.... I don’t really know what to do,” she said, panicking a little herself.

“I’ll
be okay.”

“Is
this because it’s nearly time?”

I
nodded.

“Keira,
the sooner it happens the sooner this ends. Everyone can be happy. We won’t
have to wait around, hide, worry about being found.”

“A
lot of people are going to die. People
you
know. Doesn’t that worry you?”

“Of
course it does; I care about these people...but we all knew the risks involved.
Ballantine never sugar coated anything for us. He told us it would be hard,
dangerous, and that some of us wouldn’t survive. We still joined him. Even if
I
don’t survive, I will die knowing that I fought for people’s happiness, for
their freedom. If I survive, I will enjoy spending forever watching people
smile. I think that’s more than worth the risk. This is worth fighting for,
Keira.”

“I
understand; I’m just frightened of watching my friends get hurt...or worse.”

“That’s
a natural anxiety. But know this…they will be happy, together, and they will
have y
ou
to thank for that.”

I
didn’t respond, I just closed my eyes again. I knew my friends, if I could
still call them that, wouldn’t thank me for what I was doing. They would always
hate me for helping to end the lives of so many people.”

“Do
you want me to stay with you? Ballantine thought it may do you some good to
have company, but if you want to be alone I understand.”

“Tina,
I really don’t know what I want right now. Well I do, but….”

“You
want your lover, don’t you?” she said softly.

“More
than anything.”

“You
never know; maybe one day in the future you will be together again.”

“He’ll
never take me back. I know that,” I sobbed. “All I can hope is that he
survives. I couldn’t live in a world where he doesn’t exist.”

“What
if...what if something happens to him?”

“I
already have that taken care of. When I first joined Ballantine I had him make
me a promise. If anything happens to Eligos...he will put me out of my misery.”

“What?”
she yelled. “He’s gonna kill you? He actually agreed to this?”

“I
had to beg him, but eventually he agreed to respect my wishes. I gave up
everything for him, Tina. I want people to be happy. If anything happens to
Eligos, I will never be happy. I don’t want to live without him. Ballantine understands,
and so he eventually agreed.”

“Well,
I hope to God he lives. I’m sure Ballantine will do what he can to make sure he’s
safe. He won’t want to take your life.”

“I
know,” I sighed. “I guess I’ll know the future in just a few days time. It will
either be one of longing, but knowing the man I love is breathing, or nonexistent.”

Chapter 47

Preparation

Lily’s
Story

Nobody
had managed to sleep the previous night. I don’t know about anyone else, but
my
mind was racing. How could you mentally prepare yourself for what was coming? I
didn’t think it was possible. However, I noticed something really strange.
Hecate seemed to be more worried and anxious than we were. She was fidgety,
quiet, and very reserved. I knew she would be worried about what happened to
Unsere, Danny, and obviously us, but something seemed off. I didn’t want to
push her to talk, but in the end I was so worried I had to approach her. I
followed her outside and sat next to her on Keira’s swing.

“What’s
wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“Hecate,
we’re friends; you can talk to me, you know.”

“I
can’t.”

“Look,
anything you say to me is in confidence. I won’t tell a soul. Why not share
some of that weight you seem to be carrying all by yourself? Because, no
offence, you seem to be struggling.”

“You
swear you won’t tell anyone?”

“I
swear,” I nodded.

“It’s
Eligos. He...he intends to die during the battle.”

“Come
again?”

“It’s
the truth.”

“Who’s
told you this?”

“He
did.”

It
took me a few seconds to be able to respond. “I don’t understand; why would he
do that?”

“He
won’t kill Keira…he can’t because he loves her too much. He knows someone will
have to take her down, and he can’t live without her anymore. So he has no
intentions of living on. You know the worse part...I won’t be able to do
anything to stop him.”

“I’ll
talk to him.”

“You
can’t let on you know.”

“Okay
look, this is big, right? Surely he would expect you to tell someone?” I asked,
standing.

“No,
before he left last night he told me I wasn’t to tell anyone. He doesn’t want
anyone to try and talk him out of it. His mind is set.”

I
just stood there, not knowing what to say.

“I
don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

“We
need to stay as close to him as possible during the fight. We can’t let him
die.”

“I
know.”

“Ladies,
Vetis has asked that we all join him in the living room,” Danny shouted out of
the kitchen window.

We
made our way inside and sat together on the sofa. Once everyone was comfortable
he began.

“I
know this is hard for everyone. I understand you must all have a lot running
through your minds. Anytime now, the battle you have been awaiting for months
will begin. Let me tell you, you can never be ready for something like this.
When the time arrives shock will set in, fear, panic...your self-confidence
will completely disappear. This is
normal.
It’s to be expected. I
promise you, your confidence will return as soon as you start fighting.”