Revelations (Bloodline Series) (43 page)

“Keira,”
he said when the kiss ended. “I would love nothing more than to keep you here
and be close to you for the rest of the day and night. But I really think you
need to face the others. They’ll all be so confused. It’s not fair to keep them
in the dark any longer.”

“I
know,” I nodded, my stomach suddenly tying itself in knots. “Stay with me.”

Chapter 57

Out
of the Dark

Keira

Eligos
teleported us into my hallway. I looked around; it was so nice to be back in my
house. I could hear everyone chattering away.

He
took my hand and led me into the living room. Everyone turned silent. Nerves
kicked in, and my body began to shake. They all looked completely worn out.
They were in desperate need of showers and sleep. I felt it was also safe to
say the clothes they were wearing would have to be tossed. There was no way
they could be fixed. They were filthy, rotten and torn to shreds. Luckily, any
wounds they had sustained had now been healed.

Lily
approached me cautiously. “Answer me one thing Keira,” she choked. “Did you
ever actually stop caring?”

“Never,
not once.”

She
wrapped her arms around my shoulders and hugged me. I broke down in tears,
hugging her back. At least one of them was happy to see me. When she let go of
me she stayed close by. Tyler and Lucian seemed a little wary.

“I’m
not here to hurt any of you. I’m here to explain why I left,” I told them.

“You
left because you agreed with the person who was trying to kill us!” Olivia
spat. “And you succeeded. I don’t care how these guys feel about you, I want
your head on a plate. You killed my brother.” She attempted to come at me,
rather viciously, but Hecate blocked her path. “Get out of my way!”

“This
won’t bring him back,” Hecate said.

“Maybe
not, but it will make me feel better.”

“You
believe your brother is dead...he isn’t,” I told her. Everyone gasped. “He’ll
be back with you very soon.”

“What?”

“It’s
true,” Eligos confirmed.

“Look,
I have a lot of explaining to do. I don’t expect any of you to trust me, or
even want to be friendly with me. But maybe once you learn the truth behind
what happened, maybe when you understand that this was just as hard for me as
it was for you, you will consider forgiving me,” I said, making my way over to
the sofa. I flopped down and sighed. “I guess this all started the day of the
earthquake…you know, the one I experienced but you didn’t?”

I
started right at the beginning. None of them spoke, each of them listening to
every word that came out of my mouth. I expected to be interrupted, asked
dozens of questions, but neither happened. Elizabeth looked amazed when I told
them about the fight between Lucifer and myself, how everything had basically
been a fancy light show to impress those around us. They also seemed to
understand and accept why I hadn’t killed Ballantine on our first meeting.

It
took me a long time to tell the story. We took a break around half way through
so we could make some food and drinks. Nobody spoke to me while this happened.
I finished my story just in time. Eligos experienced REM and disappeared,
returning only a couple of minutes later with Marshall beside him. Olivia and
Jared pretty much dove on him. I couldn’t take the smile off my face.

Olivia
turned to face me. “I don’t know whether I hate you or love you, whether to
slap you or hug you.”

“That
decision is yours, but you don’t have to make it tonight.”

She
smiled at me before hugging her brother again.

“Everything
has been explained to him…Buer took care of that. After all, it was he who
snatched him away,” Eligos told me.

“Good,
I really don’t think I could start explaining things again today.”

“Keira,”
Jake said. “I know it’s late, and we’re all very tired. But we do have some
questions if you would be kind enough to answer them?”

“Go
on.”

“You
said this started not long after the earthquake incident, and that once you had
learned Steve’s true identity, you met with him several times. How? We never
saw you sneak out.”

“Well,
for instance, when I was supposed to be taking a shower, I teleported out of
the house. When I got back, I basically stood under the shower, got wet, and
then came back downstairs. That’s one example.”

“All
this took place right under our noses, and yet none of us had a clue.”

“Technically
that’s not true. Remember when I told you there was something wrong with her
that I thought she was lying to us?” Jake recalled. “Turns out I was actually
right. She must have been having a hard time dealing with everything.”

“I
was. I knew what I was going to have to do, and I was worried to death. You
guys...you mean the world to me. I love you all so much. Lily, you’re my sister
as far as I’m concerned. Elizabeth, we may not have known each other very long,
but you are my family. I love you unconditionally, and of course,” I said,
turning to look at my future husband, “Eligos, you are my life, my soul mate.
You know how much I love you. Knowing I was going to upset you all, that you
would think I’d turned against you...there aren’t words….” I trailed off.

“Is
that the necklace Ballantine gave you?” Marley asked, pointing to the silver
doves hanging around my neck.

“Yes.”

“Don’t
you think you should take it off?” Vetis asked.

“No,
I’ll never take it off. This was his single most prized possession. I promised
him I would always wear it, and I always will. It means a lot to me, too.”

“I
can understand that,” Lucian spoke. “To be honest, I understand why Ballantine
wanted to do this. How wonderful it would be to spend eternity with the ones
you care most about, even if one of them committed a sin. He was right; if a
husband murders someone…yes, okay, he needs to be punished. But once that’s
over, surely he should be able to be reunited with his wife. Otherwise, she too
has to suffer, and she’s done no wrong. I think I, too, would have been torn,
Keira.”

“Me
too; I would love to see my parents again,” Danny added. “But because I’m a
demon, I never will, not without divine intervention.”

“How
were you able to be in two places at once?” Beth asked me. “You were standing
by Ballantine and yet you were killing some demon in front of Eligos.”

“Yeah,
that took some concentration. It’s called astral projection. Actually, there
were three of me. The one standing in front of Eligos was also an illusion. I
knew I would have to take Ballantine by surprise in order to take him down.
Needless to say, it worked. But damn, it was hard and tiring. Watching from
afar and being next to Ballantine—acting as normal as possible
and
projecting my power—was difficult enough. When I saw Eligos about to let the
demon kill him, that really took some strength. To be honest, I didn’t think I
would be able to pull it off. I was really shocked when I did. It became a
little easier when the image of me on the hill could dissipate.”

“What
do you mean,
afar
?” Hecate asked. “Where were you?”

“I
was in Hell.”

“What?”
Eligos, Danny, and Hecate exclaimed. “How?”

“Lucifer.
He actually hid me in a room in the palace. Nobody had any idea I was there. He
made me my own little viewing pool so I could pull everything off.”

“You
were in the palace?” Eligos said, shocked beyond belief.

“Yes.
Crazy I know, but it worked. Lucifer shielded me and made sure the room was
completely off limits. Nobody could even get up to the top floor.”

“Unbelievable.”

“Keira,
I have a question,” Tyler said. “You told us you didn’t want to hurt us...so
why leave us in the path of a killer wave? For all you knew it could have wiped
us all out.”

“I
knew Eligos, Hecate, and the others would get as many of you to safety as they
could...but you’re right, I did put you in a very dangerous position. I didn’t
know if any of you had been hurt, like I explained before. But I knew that if
any of you had been, I would have done whatever was necessary to bring you
back. I’m sure Lucifer would have helped me with that.”

“You’re
sure?”

“When
Lucifer and I first began talking, I told him I wasn’t prepared to risk your
lives to bring Ballantine down. He told me not to worry, and that even if
anything happened to you, at my hands, he would make sure your deaths were only
temporary. But the thoughts of any of you being dead for even a short amount of
time still crippled me, especially when I would have been the one responsible
for it.”

Nobody
really spoke after that. They had been through so much and now had an
information overload. They were all physically and mentally exhausted...and so
was I. Hecate suggested everyone should get some rest. Vetis, Oroan, Unsere,
and Eaven returned to Hell, and one by one the rest of us made our way to our
rooms.

As
soon as I walked in my bedroom and fell back on the bed, Eligos closed the door
and lay beside me.

“I
haven’t stayed in here since the day you left,” he told me. “I couldn’t stand
being in this house any longer than I had to be.”

“I
swear I will spend the rest of forever making it up to you.”

“You
don’t need to. I’m still processing everything, but my vision of what happened
is becoming clearer. I understand your predicament. It just hurt like hell.”

“I
know.”

“But,
you’re here. You’re back. And tonight, whether you like it or not, you are
falling asleep in my arms.” He smiled.

“Oh,
I like that.”

Chapter 58

A
Fresh Start

Keira

I
woke up the following morning still in Eligos’s arms. Neither of us had moved a
muscle all night. The sun was shining bright through the windows, and I knew by
its positioning that it must have been around midday. I could hear people
moving around downstairs, but I didn’t want to move.

“Morning
sleepy head,” Eligos whispered.

“More
like afternoon,”

“Really?”

“Ah-ha,”
I said, snuggling into him. “I’ve missed this.”

“I
didn’t think we’d ever do this again,” he breathed, squeezing me tight. “From
now on, I get this every night and every morning.”

“Deal.”

We
snuggled together for around another half an hour, then Lily knocked on the
door.

“Are
you two awake?” she called.

“No,
we’re asleep,” Eligos replied.

“Okay,
well when you wake up, the kitchen is full of food.” She giggled, and I heard
her walk down the hall.

“Food,
Eligos,” I said, shaking him.

“So?”

“Food!
I’m starving.”

“Urgh,”
he groaned and finally released me.

After
getting dressed and having to physically drag Eligos out of the bed, we made
our way downstairs. Everyone was in the dining room. Eligos and I filled our
plates and joined them. The lads seemed ravenous. The fight had obviously
helped them build up quite an appetite. The room was silent, the only noise coming
from knives and forks scraping and tapping the plates.

Once
everyone had eaten, they remained in their seats. Lily looked over at Lucian,
who nodded, and she spoke.

“Keira,
we’ve all been talking this morning. We’ve all said the same things; we’re glad
you’re back, and we understand the predicament you were in. But we’re all going
to need some time to process things and accept everything before we can move on
properly. This won’t happen overnight, but we’d like to think things will go
back to how they used to be,” Lily explained.

“Of
course, I understand.”

“Also,
now this is over we’ll be leaving,” Jared told me. “As much as we enjoy everyone’s
company, we’d like to go home. We do hope we can keep in touch though.”

“When
are you thinking of leaving?”

“Well,
we were going to get our things together today and set out tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.”

“Are
you actually going to take some time to speak to Keira, or are you all going to
continue with the silent treatment?” Eligos asked.

“Of
course we’ll talk. We just need her to understand that isn’t easy,” Lucian
answered.

“It’s
not easy for her either, remember.”

“We
know.”

“Maybe
try cutting her some slack. She does what she can to make sure everyone lives,
the world itself isn’t destroyed, and you all act like the injured ones. Just
look how you treated her after what happened with your parents. You seem to
only think of how hard things are for
you, and what
you
need to
get past it. Maybe put
her
first for a change,” Eligos snapped, before
storming out of the room.