The Pull of Destiny (Undying Love, Book 2)

by Felicity Kross

  “Arsen shift into your beast and help Cassius. Do as he says,” she instructs.

  Arsen cracks his neck in an aggravated fashion, like he’s trying to get rid of an ache. Then his body starts to change and his clothes tear as he shifts into a large monster shaped like a wolf with draconic features: black fur, purple scales, horns and spines. He’s not as large as Uden, but he is definitely formidable and similar in size to an African elephant.

  With a powerful thrust of his wings, he takes to the skies. He’s fast in the air. He’s looking down at the water, flying as close as he can to the large waves as he flies farther and farther out. He lessens his speed and falters. He can’t find Uden. The demon is somewhere deep inside of the ocean by now, out of Arsen’s range and out of the oracle’s. That’s when I see the oracle’s body trembling. He drops his hands and the storm on the ocean stops. There’s a sheen of sweat on the oracle’s forehead, making his skin glisten just like newly fallen snow. He takes the back of his trembling hand and wipes his brow. I’ve never seen the oracle like this. He’s always in complete control, physically and emotionally. I’ve never seen him get winded. I’ve never heard him raise his voice.

  “Call him back,” the oracle says, exhaustion peeking through his words as he forces his hands back down to his sides.

  “W-will he even be able to hear me?” Tasia asks.

  “Yes, do it.”

  Tasia shouts, “C-come back, Arsen!”

  The monster flying in the sky comes back at breakneck speed, showering us with sand and wind as he lands on the beach.

  “Shift back,” Oracle Cassius says, his voice a deadly calm.

  “Shift back,” Tasia repeats half-heartedly.

  Arsen bares his teeth and shifts. Tasia buries her face in my fur before he’s in his human-like skin, standing naked in front of all of us.

  “He went deep into the ocean as soon as he could, hoping we couldn’t follow him there,” Arsen says. “And he was right, since neither of our beasts do water apparently. It doesn’t matter how powerful your magic is. There’s just too much water here.”

  The oracle stares at Arsen for a full minute. No one says a word and neither of them move. Tasia doesn’t lift her head from my wet fur. It’s like she’s trying to escape everything, like she’s trying to see and hear nothing.

  “Are you all going to check me out all day or are we going to go for plan B?” Arsen finally asks.

  Blade silently comes over to stand beside me and Tasia.

  “You should give in already,” Arsen comments. “Beating me up really would make you feel better, Cassius.”

  The oracle still doesn’t say a word. The always moving colors in his eyes have frozen into a steel gray.

  Tasia lifts her head from my fur, just so she can get a peek at the oracle. “I’m sorry, Cassius. This is all my fault,” she says.

  “No, Tasia,” he says, never taking his eyes off Arsen. “This isn’t your fault. It was my fault. I made a terrible miscalculation. Your side of the bond is stronger, but in order for Arsen to work closely with us like this, you will have to command him every step of the way. Eventually you’ll break him and that won’t be necessary, but until then that’s what you must do.”

  “I understand,” she says.

  She’s shaking so hard. I use one of my big paws to bring her closer to me. She hugs me and whispers a thank you, even though I’m probably just making her shake worse by getting her wet.

  “You should all return to the base,” the oracle instructs. “Arsen and I will join you later.”

  “Is that a good idea?” Blade speaks up.

  “If you are referring to whether it is safe for me to be alone with Arsen, I assure you everything will be fine.”

  “Don’t hurt Cassius,” Tasia says angrily. Though she doesn’t look at Arsen, we all know that’s who she’s talking to. “Do whatever he tells you to, and don’t you dare hurt him.”

  “Well, you heard him,” Blade says uneasily. “Let’s get going.

  I follow Blade and Tasia as the rest of the hunters go back to the armored vans. Blade finds my clothes and picks them up for me. She leads us to a large rock for me to shift and get dressed behind. It’s cold, but we’ll be in a heated van soon enough. When I step out from behind the rock, Tasia wraps her arms around me. She’s still shaking. I know she’s holding back tears.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” I tell her as I wrap my arms tightly around her.

  “I failed. I did so bad,” she says.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” I repeat

  Blade goes to join the other hunters, giving Tasia and me a moment. I continue to hold Tasia as I look past her to see the oracle finally move. He steps toward Arsen. His steps are usually so fluid, but these steps are rigid. I’ve never seen the oracle convey anything other than control. But something is different now. Something is about to break.

  I WATCH THE HUNTERS pull out from the beach, but I give most of my attention to Cassius. He came closer to me, but he’s stayed silent since, just staring at me—my face, specifically. Heaven forbid an angel see my naked body. I wonder if modesty is the primary reason why I’ve hardly ever seen angels let out there beasts except for when I’ve made them desperate enough to. Damn, and I can’t stop thinking about the way Tasia broke down like that—because of me. My beast hates it, but my beast and my logician agreed we couldn’t allow Uden to be captured. My beast claims Tasia doesn’t know what she’s doing. She wouldn’t ask us to give Uden up if she understood.

  Focus.

  Cassius.

  I raise an eyebrow at the mute oracle, but it elicits no reaction. He’s just gawking at me. What more does he want? We’re alone now. It’s just me and him. And I’m standing here in the cold, bare ass naked.

  “Well, I’m pretty over this,” I comment when I can’t fucking take it anymore. “Not that I mind you checking me out, but it’s damn cold.”

  Cassius’s eyes change colors slowly. They were stuck on a steely gray before. Seems my words have stirred him up a little. The colors in his eyes are all dark and muddy. There’s nothing bright about his eyes now, and it’s a weird contrast when compared to his light skin.

  “Funny, Arsen. But I know you hate angels more than anything. You may not say it, but this is humiliating for you.”

  I wouldn’t go that far, but I will admit that the way he’s looking at me isn’t particularly comforting. He’s glaring at me like a predator, one who isn’t fucking around, one who’s confident he’ll get the kill.

  I would have moved by now, but Tasia’s words have stuck in my head. She told me to do whatever Cassius wants me to do. I was able to tip Uden off despite her trying to control me earlier. I didn’t exactly say anything, but I was able to point him in the right direction, and he was able to read my cues. It wasn’t easy going against Tasia, but it wasn’t impossible since my beast and logician were on the same page. Then Uden threw me out a window. Ungrateful bastard.

  I need to fight Tasia’s influence again. The angel I hate most is right in front of me. He’s right here in front of me. My beast and logician both want him dead. So why am I frozen in place?

  I dig deep inside of myself, finding my beast. Where is my anger at when the fucking oracle is right in front of me? I hate this angel more than anything. Before this whole Tasia thing happened, I would’ve fought him without any hesitation. I should be tearing out his heart right now.

  Finally, I feel a growl rumbling in my my throat. I can do this. My beast is remembering its anger. I can get control of myself, and I can hurt this self-righteous prick. I can kill him.

  Cassius doesn’t act surprised at my sudden aggression, and he doesn’t move back. If anything, the color in his eyes goes even darker.

  “It seems I didn’t give you enough credit, Arsen. Your resolve and your willpower is great,” he says.

  I’m about to show him just how great my willpower is. I push off the sand behind me. I have my claws extended, aiming
for his heart. But I’m not even able to slice through his robes because he moves faster. He catches my hands as effortlessly as if I was hardly moving, twists me around, and throws me face first onto the sand below. Damn it! I spit out the grainy particles and look over my shoulder to see Cassius standing there, wiping off his hands as if all this is of little consequence.

  “You may have willpower,” he says. “But your physical power is a joke. What I’m seeing better be a result of what Tasia has done to you, because the fact that so many angels have fallen to you, if this is all you have to offer, is truly an insult.”

  I laugh as I stand back up. “Right?” I play along. “But I think the real question on everyone’s mind is why it’s taken you this long to do something about me.”

  At one point, I definitely would’ve been a match for the oracle. I have no doubt in my mind abut that, but right now it’s taking all I have just to disobey Tasia. My strength and speed are absent. While she’s still connected to me, I don’t think I’ll be up to my full physical potential ever again.

  I have become weak.

  Cassius ignores me. The way he’s looking at me is hungry, and his eyes are pitch black. I know that look. He wants my blood. The keeper in Favor was the only angel I’ve ever seen actually hunger for our blood before, but it wasn’t like this. He was still lost in his self-righteousness, and he was careful not to touch demon blood during bloodletting. I always thought facing the oracle would be this great show and the ultimate satisfaction once I won. Now that the time has come, it isn’t any of that. This match up favors only one. He isn’t fighting fair, using Tasia, but he is fighting to win. My attempts at rebelling are inconsequential. I’ve offered a few setbacks. I’ve stopped Uden from being captured for now, but I can’t protect him forever. He will be found soon enough, Yuki along with him. I’m only delaying the inevitable.

  The oracle wants my blood.

  “My question, Arsen,” Cassius says, eerily calm. “Give me an answer.”

  “What question?” I ask.

  The oracle touches the back of his neck, where his rust color hair meets his fair skin. He asks in a low voice, “What did Leo say to you that night?”

  “I don’t know if anyone’s told you,” I comment, “but torture usually works better than straight up asking. Even with Tasia’s command to do what you tell me to, I don’t feel compelled to give you that information.”

  “You are a stubborn demon.”

  I smirk. “Anything to get under your skin.”

  Cassius takes a step toward me. Instead of standing straight and tall, his shoulders are rolled forward slightly, almost like he’s about to give in to his beast. Instinct tells me to move back. My beast says he is dangerous. I don’t want to be in range of whatever he has planned.

  I move back slowly, cautiously. I want to run, but I can’t find it in me to disobey Tasia’s command to that degree. I try to read the angel’s moves, but I can’t. He’s almost staggering as if drunk. Energy is rolling off him in pulses. Danger. This is not the type of energy I have come to expect from an angel. There’s an anger here. It’s a pure and unadulterated anger that I’m not sure I have ever felt before, not even from the keeper in Favor. And he was as cruel an angel as any. Cassius isn’t coming for me in the name of some sort of justice or in the name of some kind of God. He’s coming for me because he hates me.

  Suddenly, he moves so quickly my eyes have a hard time following. He catches my throat in his hands. And it burns! Touching an angel has never been a pleasant experience, but this is different. The skin around my neck is literally bubbling. He’s releasing an insane amount of heat, a kind I’ve only seen or felt when my opponent has captured a fire element. I don’t see any fire here, and Cassius isn’t controlling any element.

  I choke.

  I latch onto his wrists, trying to pry him off of me, but his wrists burn my hands too, making my palms bubble and peel. I’m just causing myself twice the pain, so I let go. I should kick him. That might be enough to pry myself out of his grasp, but I can’t move. All I can do is stand here and take it. I don’t want him to know how much he’s hurting me, and it’s taking everything I have not to scream, but I’ve never felt anything like this. This is a worse pain than any silver inflicted injury I have ever endured. Is this angel fire? I’ve heard the term, but I’ve never witnessed or heard anything concrete about such a thing.

  My vision is going white. The color world in front of me is burning away as if it’s nothing more than a fragile film. I’ve succeeded in not screaming, but now I’m going to pass out. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. Maybe this time I won’t wake up.

  Before the welcoming embrace of darkness, of nothingness, can claim me, Cassius releases me. I fall onto the sand and wince in pain. My vision comes back, but I wish it hadn’t. I feel like my neck has almost been severed. It’s a constant fiery pain. The flesh he touched is severely disfigured, and I don’t feel like I’m healing. My reserves of life essence aren’t doing anything for me. I try to get back on my feet, placing my palms flat on the sand, but the pressure and scratchy sand in my wounds nearly sends me into a fit. I buckle, trapped on my knees as I curl inside of myself, holding my hands near my stomach. My body is trembling despite my desire not to let the oracle see me squirm. The pain is so bad I can’t even stay on my knees as I fall onto my side in the sand, curled up inside of myself as I try to stop my body from shaking. The fire won’t stop. I’ve never felt such a terrible physical pain.

  Even if I was in peak condition, this would hurt something fierce. The oracle is more than I ever imagined he could be. I don’t know why he isn’t in the front lines taking care of demons himself if he can hurt us like this. I force a laugh to stop myself from screaming.

  “You’re not a sissy,” I say as my voice betrays me by trembling.

  A new searing pain explodes on the upper left side of my back. I involuntarily arch my spine, and this time I scream. I don’t know how it’s possible, but his hands are even hotter now. He’s burning through my flesh layer by layer. Is he going for my heart? I can’t heal any of my wounds. I’m becoming nothing but a burning mass of meat. Clearly, this angel is not afraid of coming into contact with my blood.

  “Are you going to kill me this time?” I ask through gritted teeth.

  “Stop talking,” Cassius orders in a low voice as he presses his hot hand harder against me, making me scream again. “I’d kill you right now if you weren’t meant for something else.” I feel the tickle of his robes as they brush against me. I inwardly shudder as his presence engulfs me, and he presses his lips to my ear. “You may feel you are suffering now, but this is nothing compared to the pain Tasia will put you through. This is nothing compared to retribution.”

  I gasp for air as his smothering presence lifts for a moment. He’s no longer touching me, and he’s no longer hovering over me. I’m by myself, curled up in the sand, naked and exposed. I’m hurting all over. It’s just me and my pain. I cry out as something slices right through my back. It’s Cassius’s hand. This time he isn’t burning me slowly. He’s diving right in, and I can feel his fingers as they clench around my heart. Now I’m burning from the inside out, and I can’t stop screaming.

  “How does it feel?” Cassius asks. His voice is steady, and he hasn’t raised the volume despite all of the noise I’m making. “But this isn’t quite right,” he remarks. “You gored him, caught is heart on one of your horns, and then you killed him.”

  Cassius withdraws his hand from my back, leaving my heart to sear the inside of my chest. The sensation continues to flash through my body, and then he comes back. He grabs me by the shoulders, burning them too, as he forces me to my feet. I can barely stand, but he makes me face him. I don’t know if it’s better to try to keep standing or if I should just let Cassius do all of the work. Which would be less painful?

  The air above Cassius’s head shimmers. I don’t understand it at first. I figure it must be a trick of the light mixed with my fuzzy h
ead, but there’s a definite shape there. Antlers. That’s what this shape is. But they aren’t like any antlers I’ve ever seen. They branch of into many different sections, each one ending in a sharp and pointed tip. They’re hard to see because they’re clear like glass.

  I know what’s coming next.

  Once again, the oracle moves with an incredible speed. It takes a moment after he’s ripped into my chest with his antlers and secured my heart before I feel that pain cut through my body. The delayed reaction does nothing to lessen the agony of it. My beating heart seems to be floating in midair as it sits skewered on one of the oracle’s nearly invisible antlers.

  I gasp as I fall to the ground, unable to do anything else. I can already feel my body becoming insubstantial. Since I haven’t been healing, I can’t be sure my body will even repair. I’m dying, and I’m doing it very slowly. I can’t even fade away properly.

  Between gasps, I ask, “How could you possibly… know how I killed Leo?” I wheeze. “You weren’t there. Yuki was the… only witness.”

  Then I get it. Yuki once told me that Confidant Leo and Oracle Cassius were tied together. Her mother said there was a rumor they could communicate telepathically. She claimed such a thing was possible because of heart magic. I’ve heard the term heart magic, but I’ve never thought much about it myself. It supposedly happens when a bond between two individuals is so great that it manifests into something… more. All this time I wondered how I, at the time a 21-year-old demon, a child in many ways as far as immortals go, was able to kill Confidant Leo. I was strong, but I wasn’t stupid, and I didn’t have much life essence due to bloodletting. I got lucky when I killed my angel master before the confidant showed up, but I didn’t get as much life essence from devouring her heart as I could have because our battle was long and drawn out. I faced the confidant expecting to die, driven only by my rage, and then somehow I defeated him. I killed him and took in vast amounts of life essence. I grew stronger and stronger after that as I killed angels, and I eventually stopped questioning my luck. There was no point. And yet, after all this time, I finally learn that Leo must have been fighting me distractedly. But why? Surely Cassius knew the situation was serious? Why would he have distracted Leo like that?