by Keary Taylor
“So you still don’t think I’m bad?” Cole asked hollowly. Honestly he didn’t really care.
“You seem to deserve your position,” she said as she rested her elbows on her knees. “But I almost don’t believe you want this position.”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what I want anymore,” he replied honestly.
“Yes you do,” she said quietly. “You just can’t have it. And you don’t know how to deal with that.”
Cole glanced over at Cambria, his eyes studying her strong features, her sunlit hair. “Some of us aren’t meant to ever have what we want in life,” he said.
“And sometimes we need to learn to let go of the things we want but can’t have,” her black eyes seemed to dance as she looked into Cole’s.
Cole reached up and traced his fingertips along her cheek bone, letting his eyes trace her glowing skin unabashedly. He let his fingers fall to her lips, his eyes lingering there for a long moment. For a moment, he wondered what they might feel like against his.
He suddenly sat back up, his hand falling from her face.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice a little firmer than he had meant it to be.
“For what?” she asked, her face slightly dazed looking at his sudden change of mood.
“For making me forget for a moment.”
“A moment is better than never at all,” Cambria said as she stood. Without another word, she turned and descended into the heat below.
“Here one must leave behind all hesitation;
here every cowardice must meet its death.”
- Canto III, Inferno, Dante
Things had gotten so totally and completely out of control.
He’d seen Jessica, twice, among those along the wall. What she was doing, he had no idea. But being there, she was in more danger than she could possibly imagine.
Time had run out. The entire afterlife knew it. There were only moments left.
All had gathered, the staircase crowded with his brethren. They waited anxiously for Alex’s return, for him to finally meet his fate.
Cole’s stomach felt hollow. He’d always believed Jessica would figure out a way to save him, to somehow beat the afterlife.
But yet again the afterlife was going to win.
The air shifted and grew colder. Everyone shifted where they sat or stood, leaning forward in anticipation.
A cry echoed throughout the stones, barely audible at first, growing in volume quickly. It seemed to fill the air between and around each of them. And just when Cole thought the sound would drive him mad, Alex suddenly appeared before them and instantly collapsed onto his hands and knees.
All fell silent in that instant, as if this moment weren’t quite real, as if Alex himself were an apparition that might vanish at any moment.
Suddenly, Alex’s head snapped up, his gray eyes falling on the council.
“No,” he breathed, his eyes hardening. “I won’t stay here.”
The afterlife suddenly erupted, some cheering, some hissing and calling words that helped earn them the brands on the backs of their necks.
“It is your time,” the exalted leader started.
“I cannot stay,” Alex said as he slowly rose to his feet. “Not when Jessica is still there unprotected from him.” Alex’s hand rose to point directly at Jeremiah.
“Explain yourself,” the leader said, his eyes narrowing, growing stormy.
Alex’s eyes shifted from Jeremiah’s face, to the leaders, and then to Cole’s. They stared at each other for a long moment, a million unconnected words passing between them. Cole gave the smallest of nods.
“He’s been back in the world of the living, trying to bring death to the woman I saved,” Alex condemned.
“Liar!” Jeremiah shouted, pounding his fist on his stone armrest. Small cracks formed on its surface.
“You had better have some explanation for us brother,” Richard said, turning hard eyes on Jeremiah. “You understand it is forbidden to return to their world, to cause harm to any of them.”
“He lies!” Jeremiah bellowed. “The man simply wishes to fight his fate.”
“No,” Cole interrupted, his insides turning hard. “What the boy says is the truth. Our brother has been back, has tried to take the woman’s life.”
“As has our leader!” Jeremiah accused, turning burning eyes on Cole. “As punishment he eradicated my entire living family!”
Shouts broke out, among those around them, and those on the council. The accusations a few exalted made from the walls around them were enough to drive Jeremiah at their throats. Literally.
With madness and death in their eyes, a few of his kind dove at Alex, determined to drag him below without even a trial. The blue eyed’s dove as well, fighting and clawing at each other in the air as they collided with the walkway. The new conveyor who had replaced Cormack sprinted out from the tunnel, his fist instantly colliding with the jaw of one trying to get to Alex.
A circle formed around Alex, determined to protect their intended new leader from the vengefulness of the condemned.
A smile curled in the corner of Cole’s mouth. He had to give it to Alex. It took a lot to cause a war like this in the afterlife.
The black-eyed council member to his right leaned toward Cole. “It’s been nice serving with you, brother,” he hissed.
“Oh, this isn’t over yet,” Cole said in a low voice.
“Enough!” Cole and the blue eyed leader bellowed at the same time.
The entire afterlife fell silent. Finally.
“That is enough,” Richard repeated. “You will all calm yourselves and let the proceedings go as usual. I will not have a war starting under my watch.”
Roughly shoving another man away, Jeremiah finally returned to his seat. Cole felt his entire frame tense as they sat side by side. Cole felt on edge. Something big was about to happen and he didn’t need Jeremiah making things crash and burn.
“You, my boy, have caused a great deal of stir around here,” Richard said in a voice filled with authority. “The voices of most have been heard. Can you tell what is happening here lately?”
Cole did feel a little satisfied snake curl up in him as things were explained to Alex, what was wanted of him, that he couldn’t go back. The chaos around them attempted to pick back up and died again and Cole knew it was coming before Richard even spoke.
“Alex Wright,” he began. “The deeds of your life have been accounted for and judgment will be passed. Your actions must be made known.”
“No!” Cole heard the scream from the masses around him. Prickles flashed along his skin. He knew that voice all too well.
And then she landed on the catwalk, looking fierce and ready to fight with every living cell of her body.
“No,” Jessica breathed again, her eyes burning. “You cannot take him.”
Cole couldn’t help the grin that spread on his face.
This was nowhere near over yet.
“...and when he had moved on, I entered along the deep and savage road.”
- Canto II, Inferno, Dante
Cole closed his eyes for a moment, simply breathing in and out. He could feel her, with everything in him, he could still feel her.
Jessica.
So close yet so far away from him now.
She wouldn’t be coming back to his world for a long while now. She’d finally escaped them, for a full human lifetime. She’d gotten the help she needed and she’d been cured of the disease that infected her body.
He’d watched her. A part of him needed proof that she wasn’t coming back, that she truly was gone for good. He had to finally admit that she was when he saw that she was again aging.
There would be no more chasing Jessica, no more holding out hope that someday, maybe someday…
Cole opened his eyes when he heard the rustling of feathers. Thousands upon thousands of beings flooded the cylinder, every pair of eyes resting upon him where he stood there on the stone walkway.
&nbs
p; Not a word was spoken as they watched him. Today Cole would finally learn his fate.
It was his election date.
The council drifted into their seats, some new faces, some he had served with for over a century.
Cole couldn’t help feeling smug that Jeremiah’s face was not among them.
He turned to meet their eyes, resting on the blue-eyed leader’s face. They stared at each other for a long moment, memories becoming a blur of time that was endless. They’d served with each other for a long time, they knew each other like brother’s.
“The fate of our brother rests in your hands,” he finally began, tearing his eyes from Cole to search the masses. “You all know what he’s done, how he’s broken our laws. You’ve all see how he’s lead the condemned. You must all decide now if he is to continue his leadership.”
Cole’s eyes fell to the ground for a moment. The last year had filled him full of so much doubt and fear and a million other things he didn’t think he was capable of feeling any longer. Somewhere along the way he had forgotten who he was.
His eyes lifted to those along the wall, instantly meeting a familiar face. Cambria met his eyes strong, her chin lifting just slightly.
Something stirred in Cole’s stomach. Something felt hungry and greedy.
Cole may not have been able to pursue Jessica any longer. But he finally realized he no longer wanted to chase after a ghost.
Jessica was not the end of all things.
There was something sitting right in front of him that maybe Cole did want. There was a position that proved Cole was not worthless and was not soft and weak and a sad broken being.
He stood a little straighter, his eyes focused on Cambria’s for another moment, before looking at his brethren and sisters. They each studied him in the quiet that filled the cylinder.
“All those in favor of Cole Emerson continuing his leadership of the condemned and the condemned council?” the re-elected, blue-eyed leader finally spoke in a voice filled with power.
There was a fraction of a moment where the afterlife’s residents hesitated, considering where they wished to pledge their allegiance.
“I,” the echoes finally boomed, loud enough to make the stones beneath his feet quake.
Cole felt his insides re-harden in a familiar way and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“All those opposed?”
Only a few scattered, weak sounding voices fell flat in the air.
Cole met Cambria’s black eyes again, his eyes smoldering as he looked up at her from under his black lashes. A twisted smile curled on each of their faces.
“Welcome back to the council, brother,” Richard said.
This was who Cole was. He was not a good man, never had been and never would be. He’d changed this last year, but he would always be the selfish man who did what he wanted, who valued his non-life over everyone else’s. Cole was the man who had fought his own branding and then branded thousands of others throughout the centuries.
Being the leader of the damned was who he was.
And it felt so satisfying to be at it again.
“It’s good to be back.”
Keary Taylor is the independent author of BRANDED, FORSAKEN, VINDICATED, AFTERLIFE (Fall of Angels series), and EDEN. She lives on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two young children. To learn more about Keary and her writing process please visit her at:
www.KearyTaylor.com
or
http://KearyTaylor.blogspot.com