Illuminate (Antithesis Book 1)

by C. L. Fennell

  “It’s not working,” Beth whispered and Eddie leaned forward, lowing his ear to Andi’s mouth to check for breath.

  Azazel's head jerked and his eyes narrowed on the door before he slipped and blocked the opening.

  “Why don’t you go back outside?” he asked and placed his hands on Ezra’s shoulders. My head dropped, I’d forgotten he was staying with them. Thankfully he hadn’t been in the room when I slipped in.

  “I want to see them, Grandpa.”

  “I don’t think it’s the best time for that,” Azazel lowered his voice. “I know you want to help but we have to figure out how to wake them up, okay?”

  All the stories I’d heard about the fallen angel Azazel, all the legends and myths, were wrong. Seeing him talk to his grandson would make you question everything you’d ever been told, the way it had me. I knew he’d done some terrible things in the past, but he’s also worked around what he could in order to save countless nephilim children. He was responsible for thousands of lives, even if he hardly ever showed compassion openly. The only time I saw his mask slip was when Ezra was around.

  “No,” Ezra said and pushed Azazel aside with his tiny hands. “I want to see them now.”

  I took a step forward, not knowing how to handle the situation. On one hand, he had the right to see his parents, but on the other, it could hurt him seeing them that way. The kid didn’t hesitate though, he took long steps through the room and held a look of determination on his face. He wedged himself between their bodies and placed his palms on their chest, then lowered his head.

  Azazel came to stand next to me, and Eddie stood behind Beth. All of us watching the little boy on the floor. Beth looked up, but she didn’t stop muttering until her jaw dropped.

  Ezra was whispering things to his parents but nothing unusual. He was telling them he needed them to wake up and Misty was still gone. He told them he loved them and it was time for them to come back. But what had us in shock was the fact little Ezra was lighting up like a freakin’ glow torch. Blue flames encased the three of them, and his black hair had a haze around it like a halo.

  They both sat straight up and inhaled sharply, and I’m pretty sure I hadn’t blinked. I couldn’t believe it, and If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have.

  The kid healed his parents when he’d never shown any signs of power before, and the most powerful healer we knew wasn’t able to. He did what nobody else could have, and the silence in the room was proof enough I wasn’t the only one surprised.

  “Where is she?” Andi asked and turned her eyes on me. “Where’s my daughter?”

  Chapter twenty-eight

  Misty

  I pulled harder than I ever had and filled my body with more power than it was capable of containing. My nerves were beginning to misfire and twitch, but I kept pulling until I couldn’t take anymore. My eyes were filmed over and making my vision blur, black spots were dancing in the corners. I tried to focus on the faces in front of me, praying to myself this was going to work. A scream tore through me and my arms spread to my sides as I released.

  Bolts flew in every direction, hitting their marks and dropping the bodies instantly. I narrowed my eyes on my family members, trying to control the path of energy through them. I pushed it to their backs, attempting to cluster it around the chips. Their shoulders lifted off the floor and they arched. Claire screamed first and I almost pulled back but didn’t. They were powerful, each of them stronger than anyone else. It might hurt but I had to believe it wouldn’t kill them. I had just watched Andi rip hers out, then she did it to Sebastian. If they could do that, then surely this wouldn’t hurt the rest of them too bad.

  Claire dropped to the floor and stopped screaming, so I focused on the others until they did the same. I didn’t push as much at Sara and Reed, knowing they were not as strong as the others. Once they were all silent, I glanced around the room. The guards were knocked out, and I knew I should be trying to release them from their chips too, but wasn’t sure if it was possible. Most of them were some type of human hybrid, but it didn’t mean they were able to handle my power the way the fallen or nephilim could. I would’ve hated to try to help them only to end up killing them in the process.

  I reached down to feel for Sara’s pulse, and let out a sigh of relief when it pounded under my fingertips. When I moved to Reed, something caught my attention and I jerked around to look. I stood quickly and pulled my sword.

  “I’m not leaving them,” I said and point the end at her. She nodded and I lowered my weapon.

  Raven was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by bodies, and her shadow clinging to her back like an extension.

  “Why,” she asked. “Why do you care for them so much?” She wore the same blank mask as before, her expression giving nothing away. Her black outfit looked expensive, and her make-up was flawless. I tilted my head, wondering how she’d been living. She didn’t seem to be struggling if the clothes and heeled boots were any indications of the money she had. If it wasn’t for the swords on her back and the cold expression on her face, I’d say she looked more like a prom queen than a struggling killer nephilim.

  “They saved me,” I said and took a step forward, she took one back. “I care because they’re my family.”

  Her eyes narrowed and I smiled. She might not have meant to give anything away, but she did. That slight falter in her mask was all the proof I needed. I took another step.

  “I know who you are,” I said and took one more step. “I don’t understand how, but I know it’s you, Raven.”

  “I told you Raven was dead.”

  “No,” I said and shook my head. “I thought she was dead, I thought I watched that man take her soul from her body. I don’t know how, but I was wrong. You’re not dead, you're standing less than two feet from me.”

  Her eyes blue eyes matching mine were pinned on mine, and her jaw was clenched, but she wouldn't open more than that.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry I left you there.” Her eyes squinted and her back straightened. “I thought he killed you. If I had known you were alive, I wouldn’t have run away.”

  “Stop being foolish. Raven is dead,” she hissed and disappeared, leaving behind her blanket of darkness.

  I closed my eyes and let the tears fall.

  “I know you’re still here, and I know who you are. You can pretend you don’t remember me, but I know you’re lying.” I took a deep breath. “I’ve spent all these years missing you, Raven. I spent all this time feeling like I was missing half of me. Like I’d lost the most important half.”

  I sat for a few minutes after the shadows reseeded and stared at the wall. I didn’t know how to connect with her, or if she wanted me to, but I had to try and find a way. Now that I knew she was alive I wouldn’t be able to continue my life the way I had been, pretending she’d never existed.

  I stood on my trembling legs and made my way over to where my family had fallen. They were unconscious, which was probably for the best considering what I was about to do. Or at least what I was going to attempt to do.

  Pulling my sword to the front of me, and straddling Claire, I rolled her over to her stomach.

  “I can do this,” I said to myself and shook my arms out. “Just like pulling a splinter.”

  For the first time since I was given my sword, I was thankful it was small. Far smaller than any of the others, which usually made me feel like a child. But at that moment, when I was using it to pierce Claire's neck, I was beyond happy with the size.

  Using my fingers to feel around her neck for something other than bone, I found the foreign object and pitched it between my pointer and thumb. It would have been easier if nephilim didn’t heal so quickly, or if they were able to scar, but it wasn’t hard to find the chip even without a mark.

  The tip of my sword barely sliced the skin when I heard it hit metal. I pinched tighter and laid my weapon to the side, then used my fingers to grip the chip. Claire's body je
rked when I started to pull. I trapped her arms under my knees and pulled again. The blood gushed around my hands and made my stomach churn, but I kept pulling until the long metal chip was out. I held it up to my face and smirked. The thing was dead, not an ounce of electricity running through it. I tossed it away and moved to Sariel.

  By the time I got to Sara my arms were shaking and I was covered in blood. The others hadn’t woken up yet, but their heartbeats were strong enough I wasn’t worried. Sara was the one I was the most concerned with, considering she was by far the weakest of them. She had been human the majority of her life and only turned into a guardian by Andi, not one of the angels. I wasn’t sure how much her body would be able to handle. I made a smaller cut into her neck and pulled slower than I had the others. She jerked more than they had, her arms twitched under me hard enough to throw me off balance. I closed my eyes and braced myself on her shoulder, then pulled the chip out with one sharp yank. Then quickly flipped her over and checked her pulse, I let out the breath I was holding when I felt it.

  A slow clap from the other side of the room broke the silence and I jumped up. Standing near the doorway was Chief Addison, and at the other end of his gun were my friends.

  “What an interesting turn of events,” he said and waved his gun at Harvey to step forward, then to Levi to do the same. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect you to have this much control over your power.” He chuckled to himself. “Well, actually I’d not expected you to have so much power at all.”

  “Let them go,” I said and lifted my sword, not sure how it would protect us against his gun but it was all I had.

  Addison shook his head and laughed again. He was wearing a pin-striped suit and red tie, looking like an old-school gangster with the gun in his hand. I met Harvey’s wide brown eyes and quirked an eyebrow, she shook her head slightly, letting me know she understood what I was asking. There’s got to be something about him that keeps powers contained. It was why Max hadn’t been able to slip, why Harvey hadn’t taken the gun from him, and why no matter how hard I pulled I couldn’t find my spark.

  “You don’t remember me do you?” he asked and I stared at him. Of course I remembered him, it’d only been a couple days since I saw him in his office. “I’m not talking about when you and your adoptive mother came to threaten me. You and I met long before that.”

  I tilted my head before straightening back up. It was a habit I’d gotten from Andi and I needed to break it. I kept my eyes on him, scanning his face for some type of recognition, but there was nothing. Shifting through my memories, I still didn’t find anything.

  “You must be confused because I’ve never met you before.”

  He pushed Levi to the side, forcing him to sit on the bleacher and then flicked his wrist for Harvey to follow. A guard came in behind them and held his gun up to my friends allowing Addison to focus on me. He shook his head and smirked, then pulled out a black beaning from his pocket and slid it over the top of his head.

  The memories slammed into me and I stumbled back.

  “Please hurry, Misty,” Raven begged and I rolled my eyes. I walked faster so she would stop worrying but I didn’t want to. I hated having to see him.

  When we got to the door she held my hand tightly and pulled me closer to her side.

  “Remember what I said?” she asked and I nodded. She was the smarter one so I always listened to her. She understood things I didn’t, and the man said it was because her IQ was higher than most tested geniuses. I didn’t even know what that meant. “Tell me.”

  “I won’t show them what I can do,” I said, repeating the same thing she made me say every day. She said I needed to hide my power from them so they wouldn’t hurt me. But it hurt when they tried to find it, and sometimes I couldn’t stop it from coming out. Especially when they tied me to the metal table.

  “I love you.” She hugged me and smiled. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “I love you too, Raven,” I said but I didn’t smile back. I knew it wasn’t okay, it was never okay.

  The door flew open and he pulled us inside by our shirts, our feet dangling in the air as he held us up.

  “You’re late,” he sneered. He was wearing a suit which meant he wasn’t going to be testing us, but his black cap was on so he was planning something. He always wore it when he wanted to hurt us. “How hard is it to walked a few feet and get here when you’re expected?”

  “It’s my fault,” Raven said and he shook his head before throwing her across the room.

  My hands wrapped around his wrist and I shocked him before I could stop myself. His eyes snapped to mine and he smirked.

  “Well, well, well,” he said and pulled me closer to his face. “Looks like someone has been holding back.”

  My body dropped to the ground as Raven’s attached herself to his back. The look on her face was terrifying, and her shadows closed in on us. The man’s eyes widened and Raven wrapped her hands around his face, pushing her shadow into his mouth. I’d never seen her do that before. He reached back and grabbed a hand full of hair, flipping her in front of him to the ground and pinning her down with his foot.

  “Take it,” he said and someone stepped from behind me. The other guy hovered his hand over Raven and pulled her shadow out, her body dropped to the ground and her eyes stayed on me, lifeless.

  She’d always told me if anything happened to her I should run and never look back.

  I screamed and turned to the man with the black hat on, the one I hated more than any of the others. He’d moved to the other side of the room and was talking to the man who killed Raven. He wasn’t paying attention to me, but I knew he would be soon. I got up and ran as fast as I could, taking the tunnels Raven had been forcing me to remember, and then I slid through the hole she’d made in the stone wall. I kept running, ignoring the pain in my legs, and tried to ignore the pain in my heart. I kept running until the dirt became grass, and the lights from a town were shining around me.

  I shook the memory off and narrowed my eyes. Addison was smirking, knowing I just placed who he was and enjoying the anger I'm sure was written on my face. I remembered him alright, not only was he the one who ordered someone to kill her, he was the one who strapped me to the metal table.

  “It was you,” I whispered. “You’re the one who electrocuted me.”

  “And look how well you’ve turned out. Now let’s make a deal,” he said and motioned to where Harvey and Levi were. “You will stay here with me like you should have been from the beginning and I’ll let your friends go.”

  I shook my head and opened my mouth, but before I could respond he held up a palm.

  “If you think you have a choice, I’ll kill them before you get the chance to fight. You should also be aware your power will not work on me now, so it would be a waste of your time to try.”

  Chapter twenty-nine

  Max

  As soon as Andi asked where Misty was I realized how much time it’d been. Without saying anything, I tried to slip to her but couldn’t. I went outside and stood on the front porch, then closed my eyes and tried again.

  Just like before, I wasn’t able to slip to the building, but maybe I could outside the gate. I focused on the area we’d stopped last time and felt the tug. I let out a relieved breath and slipped, landing in the desert with the facility lights in front of me.

  Sprinting toward the gate and not seeing a guard, my heart began to pound. I rushed through the courtyard and down the hall, slowing when I heard voices. I peeked around the corner and then stepped back. There were two guards in front of the door I needed to go through, and they were young. Much younger than the others had been.

  I opened myself up and felt for Misty. When I found her, I tried to pull her power to me, but it was locked down tight. Which meant I had to get past them another way, one I didn’t want to use on these kids. The voices raised, and I rounded the corner quickly. I didn’t have time to wait or figure out how to not hurt them. I came up behind their backs
, ignoring the voice in my head telling me not to hurt kids, and hit them both in the carotid artery. They dropped instantly and I lowered them to the ground gently. I closed my eyes and checked their pulses, relaxing my shoulders when I felt it. I hated the move, but I was thankful it was one Sariel forced us to know. We’d spent months going over the techniques and how to use it correctly without killing the person.

  I took a good look at the faces and shook my head. They couldn’t have been older than thirteen and felt the same as the others had. Not human and not nephilim, but some type of hybrid. Their immature bodies didn’t look right holding weapons bigger than their arms.

  “You natural born nephilim are uncontrollable. You either need someone to make sure you’re not causing mayhem or you should be put down. This is your last chance to join us.” I closed the distance between me and the door, trying to figure out where I’d heard the voice before.

  “If you hate nephilim so much why are you creating more?” Misty asked. It was a question I’d wondered myself when I’d first heard about it.

  “I am not creating nephilim. Those abominations were a product of their evil fallen angel parents not being able to control themselves. The soldiers I enhance are going to be the only thing standing between humans and supernatural. If there is another war, which I’m sure there will be, my soldiers will be the heroes. They will take out every last one of the otherworldly creatures roaming our Earth.”

  “What would you do with them then?” Misty asked. It was obvious she wanted answers, but I felt like she was trying to buy time more than anything.

  “Either kill them or shut them down until they’re needed again,” he said. I assumed it was Chief Addison who she was talking to, so I wasn’t surprised to see him when I cracked the door and slid in the room.