by Ivy Carter
~Goodbye my dearest.
Forever in love with you.
Sancha
As the wrinkled, age stained hand puts the used feather tipped quill down onto the small writing table once more. I feel an errant tear escape down her face as I am sucked from her body and implanted back into mine once more.
I open my eyes and I am looking up at Jessa. She is kneeling over me shaking the hell out of me.
“What the fuck just happened, Ells? You just blanked out then fell over! If you wouldn’t have been breathing, I would have sworn that your ass was dead!” Jess tells me in a rushed panicked voice.
I suck in a deep breath then turn and look at her tear streaked face.
“I am sorry that I scared you. Trust me I wouldn’t go through that again for the life of me. But we need to talk to Sebastian now. I need to make sense out of what happened to me.” I tell her in a breathy voice.
“What did just happen to you?” She asks with confusing lacing her voice.
“I think I just experience me in a past life. The person’s picture that is painted into this locket. I think I just became her for a few minutes.” I hold up the locket to make sure she is getting exactly what I am trying to explain to her.
Jessa backs away from the swinging necklace like it has been dipped in cow dung. She looks revolted by the thing.
I hold out a hand and Jessa pulls me up and off the cool damp ground. Sometimes I forget how strong she has become. She barely has to pull and I am flying through the air trying to land on my feet. Then Jessa grasps my hand and starts pulling me up the front stoned walk toward the front door of my brother’s home. I hope that Sebastian has the answers that I seek.
Chapter 26.
When Jess and I get closer to the house I feel something ominous hanging in the air. The locket and the old folded note fall from my mind like day old waste. I reach out to stop her when she abruptly comes to a stop herself.
“Jess, something is wrong in there. Can you feel that?” I ask her in a whisper. Not wanting to draw attention to Jess and myself in case someone is lurking around in the shadows.
Jess simply nods and lifts her nose to the air and sniffs. What in the hell? Another Vampire trait that I am not aware of, I guess. Jessa suddenly wrinkles her nose as if she has sniffed something truly horrid.
“My Goddess!” Jess whispers in a revolted tone. “It smells like something died a week ago then left out to rot is inside there.” She makes a retching sound and I suddenly know exactly what the ominous feeling is coming from.
Minions are on the property. They might even be already inside the house itself. Fates help me! I don’t know if anyone know just how dangerous these nasty fucks are. I quickly pocket the locket and the old note and start to disintegrate. Jess grabs ahold of me right before I am about to disappear and comes along for the ride.
When we come back to our corporal selves, we drop straight into in the living room and what looks like a scene from some B-grade zombie movie. Furniture is overturned or destroyed. Sebastian is on one side of the room surrounded by the High Demon’s minions. He is simply freezing them in place while Tristan is chopping them in half like so much lumber. He is wielding a broad sword; the huge blade of the sword is swallowed by rippling black flames. Not only are the zombie things being split into two oozing pieces. They are also turning to ash with each swipe he makes with his blade.
We are all surrounded by what must be at least thirty minions. How did so many get past the wards?
I look left and find that Gavin and Jaxx are standing in front of a cowering Selene. They are using their light to fry each minion from the inside out, but they are losing ground fast. There are just too many. Jessa runs toward Sebastian spitting flames from her palms as she goes. Frying the revolting beings whenever they come even remotely close to her.
The smell is so overwhelming that I can feel my stomach threatening to give me back my last meal. Then right before my eyes a red hazy light appears, and another wave of minions come hobbling into the front room. The minions are just as disgusting as I remember. Broken dead things with rotting flesh hanging from exposed bone. The clothing they are wearing is nothing but tattered pieces of foul-smelling cloth. As they move at their broken gate, they leave a trail of ooze and maggots in their wake. The minions that have eyes are vacant of any kind of intelligence at all. They simply split up and move in two different directions. Focusing on the two groups of people I care about most in this world.
No! Is the only thought bouncing through my head. There is no way that I am going to let my family be hurt by these horrid smelling walking dead bastards. Anger swallows everything that I am. It flows and burns through my veins and causes my vision to become tinged with red. Blood lust. I want to kill each one of these things. I want to make them burn. To send them back to hell where they belong.
“Don’t let them touch you.” I scream out before I close my eyes and start thinking of one single word.
Ash. Then I start to chant. I feel my palms start to heat, the scripted markings on my skin start to glow, and then an invisible wind starts to lick at my skin as a cyclone surrounds me. Keeping the surmounting danger at bay.
“Those beings who trespass.
Who are unwelcome in this place…
These beings of darkness.
Who have turned their backs on the Light’s grace.
Burn.
You are nothing but ash.
May the fires of Hades welcome you.
Smolder.
The flames call out your name.
Willing to embrace you.
Until you are nothing but ASH!”
I shout the last word then open my eyes and see everyone in the room staring at me in astonishment. The floor is littered with more than sixty piles of still smoldering foul smelling piles of putrid flesh.
“What?” I look around the room and then at them.
“What exactly did you do?” Sebastian’s voice is lace with awe. Damn there is a first for everything after all.
“You shouldn’t have so little faith in your Celios, Sebastian.” I decide to answer with bravado since I have to real answer to give him. All I was thinking was that I couldn’t let those things get to anyone that I cared about. I closed my eyes wishing that they were nothing but harmless piles of ash. Then a spell popped magically into my head like so much vapor. Then I started to chant.
Sebastian’s face screws up in displeasure as soon as what I have just said registers. He huffs out a breath then looks around the room again at the mess the minions have left behind. The once rustically gorgeous front room is destroyed.
“What were those bloody things?” Jessa breaks the silence.
“They are the High Demon Lord’s minions. It seems he has grown tired of waiting and toying with Ella. He has decided to up his game.” Tristan answers her question in a monotone voice.
“You are the reason that they came here?!?” Selene shrieks. Stepping out from behind Gavin and Jaxx where she was cowering until this moment.
“It looks that way.” I tell her in all honesty. Giving her a withering look.
“You are the reason for all of our problems. I say we gift wrap your upstart butt and send you straight to his front door.” Selene snarks at me. It she is done playing the meek little doll.
“You have about two seconds get gone before I rip your head from your body then drain your dying body dry.” Jessa hisses at her before I can respond. Her fangs and claws are still very much extended. She takes a step toward Selene causing the waste of skin to scurry from the room.
“I say we take this fight to his doorstep. I am seriously fucking tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop with this fucktard.” Jessa comments with a smirk as she watches Selene’s less than graceful exit.
“No.” Sebastian and Gavin intone at the same time. Both of their voices ring with finality. As if I was going to give them a say in my decisions. Jess just looks at Sebastian as if he has grown a second head. Tristan
and Jaxx both remain silent on the subject for the moment.
I look around the room. Staring at each person in the eyes for a split second. In each person’s eyes I can read something totally different. Sebastian is seething with frustration at not being in control. Tristan is drowning in disappointment and anger pointed directly at my person. Gavin looks befuddled and confused. Of course, he is looking around at what is left of the main room of his home. When he meets my eyes, I read love there, but also doubt.
Then there is Jaxx. When I meet his eyes, I read the sadness, frustration, and anger…But I also read confidence and most of all his eyes are shining with a soul deep love.
This situation with between the four of us is such a cluster fuck. But the mess of my love life will have to wait. I have a demon to summon.
“Jess.” I state simply and hold out my hand. She rushes forward and grasps it tightly just as I begin to fade. Right before we disappear completely, I hear Sebastian and Gavin both scream one word. “NO!”
Then I feel a familiar hand grasp tightly onto my arm. Bringing themselves along for the ride.
I sit us down in the middle of a dense part of the pine forest about five miles from Gavin’s home. I am feeling a little weak and I know I need to replenish my strength, so I am at full par before I face the nasty bastard that refuses to stop plaguing me and those that I care about.
When we are finally back in our corporal forms I let go of Jessa’s hand and bend down and catch myself with my hands landing on my knees, doubling over trying to catch my breath before I pass out. My energy is almost completely depleted.
“What is wrong with her?” I hear the concern lacing Jaxx’s voice.
“Well since her mate left her, she hasn’t had a continuous intake of energy to sustain herself.” Jessa answers the question with a snarky reply.
“I am fine.” I breathe out as I let myself slide to my knees landing in soft fertile soil. I lean forward and did my fingers into the soil and pray that this works.
“Please earth mother lend me your strength for the battle to come. Help me to overcome these great obstacles looming before me.”
I stay in my leaning position out of respect. Then I begin to will nature itself to lend me some of its life’s energy. Enough to keep me going through out the next couple of hours. Enough energy so I am at my best. I can’t be slipping up when I intended to kill a High Demon Lord. To accomplish something that never been done before.
Inside my head I picture streams of green energy flowing toward from all directions. Trees, plants, and wildlife scurrying through the forest all contribute to my plea.
From the sound of Jaxx’s sharply executed breath I know that what I am picturing inside my mind is taking place. Glowing kelly-green streams of energy are gently flowing toward me from all directions. When the tendrils of pure energy hit me, it is stronger than it was the first time I pleaded with nature to help sustain me. I jerk when the energy starts to flow within my body. It feels as if I am being jump started by four-thousand-volt battery.
Jaxx shouts out as I jerk when the energy flow enters my body. He would have grabbed for me if not for Jessa’s quick staying hand.
“Don’t touch her.” Jessa hisses at him. My eyes are closed so I can’t exactly see that her fangs are bared. But I imagine that they are. Jessa isn’t Jaxx’s biggest fan at this moment. Yes, she might sympathize with his situation. But anything or anyone that hurts me is just shit in her book. It’s that simple.
“But it is hurting her. Can’t you see that?” Jaxx pleads with Jessa in response.
“Yes, I can see that it’s not exactly fun for her to have to syphon energy from nature. Obviously, she prayed for a bigger punch of it than normal. But she is going to need it. And she has felt worse pain, believe me.” I can crack open my eyes and catch her giving him the evil eye in return.
The new energy flowing through my veins is electrifying. I have never felt this powerful before, yet nature itself keeps on feeding me. My gift is soaking up this precious gift like a sponge. Expanding and stretching throughout my body.
“Holy shit! She is starting to glow.” Jessa says in a hushed voice. Jaxx just grunts in response.
It feels as if my gift or power or whatever you want to call them have hallowed me out from within and filled the space left behind. I have never felt this full of magic.
When nature’s gift finally tapers of I jump to my feet and stretch my limbs. I look down at my arms and admire the scrolling shimmering markings left behind from the blood scribe. I can feel that my eyes are glowing more than normal. Jaxx is staring at me as if he is spellbound.
I turn a full circle, looking at the majestic pines surrounding us, giving a quiet thanks for this amazing gift that has been graciously bestowed upon me.
“You are too beautiful for words.” Jaxx whispers out when I am finally facing him and Jess once more.
“You are bound to another. You are not allowed to speak to me that way.” I tell him simply. There is an undercurrent to my tone. It sounds like waves crashing over rocks. Reminding me of my mother speaking when her power switch is flipped on.
Jaxx suddenly drops to one knee reminding me of how he acted when he didn’t know me. When I thought I would have to let him go forever.
“My lady, please I beg you to take the gift you so graciously gifted me back. Unbind me from this false mate. Free me from these shackles. I beg you.” Watching him beg on his knees is just to fucking pathetic. I would never have thought this proud beautiful man would ever beg me for anything.
I look down at his left wrist and see the Celtic symbol that matched the ring that he once wore when he was still under Selene’s spell. I wave my hand in a circular motion.
“What I have once given.
I now take away.
I release you from your false vows.
So I mote it. So shall it be.”
My voice thunders through the forest as I chant out the spell. As I wave my hand in the complete circle, I feel my gift start to pull on the enchantment I laid within the binding. It’s as if it has grown into his skin by sinking roots there. He grunts out in pain as his face screws up and turns an alarming shade of red. But the whole process is over in seconds.
“There you are free of the little wicked bitch. You can thank me later” I tell him in a monotone voice. Residual anger at the whole situation fueling my ire.
Jess is staring at me wide eyed as I turn toward her and hold my hand out for the map, she has kept safe within her satchel bag.
“Can I have the map please?” I ask Jessa in a sarcastic simpering tone which makes her bust out into laughter.
“You in bitch mode is so fucking sweet to see, wench!” She tells me as she reaches into her bag and pulls out the folded piece of paper. When she hands it to me, I gently unfold it and study the simple but crude drawing featured in the middle of the paper.
As I study it Jaxx comes in behind me and leans in close to see over my shoulder. I smell her familiar scent and have to force myself not to lean back into him for that all too familiar comforting embrace.
“I didn’t know what I was doing when I was with her.” He whispers low so only I can hear what he is telling me.
“I know.” I barely mutter out. “But it doesn’t change anything. We have both been with other people. We have both explored other relationships. Traveled down completely different paths. Fated Mates are supposed to be forever entwined. The two of us have severed our bonds, our fate together.” I tell him the last part louder so that Jessa can hear what we are conversing about. She shouldn’t be excluded from a conversation that has no bearing on the here and now.
Jessa turns and start walking away obviously trying to give us some privacy. The leaves crunch under her boots as she walks. The sun glistens off her gorgeous blonde mane.
As soon as she is out of ear shot, I turn and face Jaxx head on. Just looking at him sucks the breath from my lungs.
“Eyes of ice. The most beautiful I have e
ver seen.” He finishes the last of my statement with me. Then smiles a small smile with his gorgeous full lips.
“Do you still feel anything at all for me?” He asks me simply.
“I feel everything for you.” I take a ragged breath letting my emotions overrun me. “I feel anger and loathing. I feel hatred and hurt. I feel love and longing. But most of all I just miss the way I felt whole when I was with you. Like I belonged somewhere with someone. I relied on that feeling. Reveled in the fact that I knew for sure that it would never fade or leave me behind. But you proved me wrong. You left. Then you returned with her in tow.” The last comes out harshly.
I spin around then turn and take a step back. Looking at Jaxx and his expression if surprise.
“Do you want to know what hurt the most? Do you?!?!” I yell. “It wasn’t the fact that when I was finally able to connect with my absent mate he was in bed with another woman. It was when he finally came back to me. It was when he looked at me as if he saw nothing, no one. You didn’t know me. After everything we had been through, was I that easily forgotten?” I ask him with so much emotion lacing my voice that it comes out hoarse and choked.
Jaxx falls to his knees right before me. His eyes are glittering with unshed tears as he looks up at me. He reaches out and grasps my hands within his larger roughened ones. He cups them so they are facing upwards then he looks down at them as he speaks.
“In your hands you hold my heart, my soul, and our future together. Don’t crush that. Forgive me… Embrace what we could be again. Together we could accomplish anything. I know in my heart, a heart that beats only for you, it knows that you still love me. Everything is at your mercy. At least open your heart to the possibilities of us.” He finishes his speech looking up at me as a single tear trails down his sculpted unshaven cheek. I take my hands away from his and his face crumbles. But I simply reach out and cup his cheek catching his sadness inside my palm.