Ruined (The Seraphim Series Book 1)

by Sophia Stafford

  “What?” he asked, standing straighter.

  “You said you’re looking for Ada? Well, she’s with Christopher,” he shared.

  “With Christopher?” Azrael demanded, his hands fisting at his sides, his anger clear on his hard features.

  “Yeah.” He nodded, a little weary of Azrael’s anger. “I was preparing a spell for Christopher when Ada came in. She said it was very important, and they both left. That was a few hours ago. I haven’t seen either of them since.”

  “Thank you for your help.” Benedict nodded, turning his attention back to the blueprints and dismissing Nathan.

  “So they’re both in on this,” Azrael said the words that everyone was thinking. “I brought Lilliah here. I brought her into danger.” He slammed his fists onto the large, wooden table, making it crack down the middle and fall to the floor.

  “Wow,” Rebecca gasped.

  “I don’t understand where they could be, though.” Sebastian bent down to pick up the blueprints that were now on the floor with the broken table. “So are we saying they’re still in the building? Are there any hidden doors or something?”

  “Hidden doors,” Azrael said, moving to stand next to Sebastian as he held the plans. “There was another entrance. When this was built, there was another entrance,” he said again, running his finger over the lines. “How could I have forgotten this?”

  “What?” Benedict asked, confused. “Where? I've never heard of another entrance.”

  “It's not in the blueprints.” Azrael ran this hands through his hair, fisting it tightly in frustration. “It was made in secret, in case any of the higher members needed to escape quickly, unseen. Why hadn't I thought of this before?”

  “Right.” Benedict nodded expectantly. “So, where is it?”

  “It's in one of two places,” Azrael decided, not sure of its exact location. “Follow me.”

  Lilliah watched Dena’s blood trickle down, into the ground and into the grooves, slowly filling them. Some of the grooves she had seen before in books and on the walls of The Cure, and some she hadn’t. The spell had started.

  “The first drops of blood have been spilt.” Ada lifted her head, breathing deeply. “It’s the beginning.”

  Lilliah pulled on her chains, trying as hard as she could to get closer to her mother, who was still lying on the floor, unconscious. “Why? Why do I need to die?” she finally asked, letting the chain fall. It was no use; no matter how hard she tried, they wouldn’t budge.

  “Well, technically, you don’t need to die,” Ada informed her. “I just need your blood. But how much do I need?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, so I’ll just take it all.”

  “I will give you as much as you want,” Lilliah promised. “Just let my mum go. Please.”

  “Again, the blood of a mortal.” She held out her hand, pointing to Lilliah’s mother. “How much is enough?” Ada slowly bent down, picking up the dagger at her feet that Lilliah hadn’t noticed before now. “I think it’s better if I just take it all.” She walked over to Christopher first, who in his trance didn’t notice her behind him. “Sacrifices have to be made.”

  Lilliah screamed as Ada plunged the knife into his chest, holding the knife in place for just a moment before pulling it out and letting him drop to the floor.

  “No!” she screamed as Ada dragged him towards the carvings on the floor, allowing his blood to spill into them.

  “And next, the mortal.”

  “Don't touch her! Don’t you dare touch her, you bitch!” Ada ignored Lilliah's frantic screams as she walked up to her mother, the dagger in her hand dripping blood.

  “Please,” she begged, tears streaming down her face. “Please don't hurt her!”

  “It's just a sacrifice,” Ada replied. “Sacrifices we must all make.”

  “No!” Lilliah watched as Ada stabbed her mother, her blood spilling onto the cold floor. Her body lay on the hard ground, life slowly leaving her.

  “Rise,” Ada spoke, ignoring Lilliah's cries and pleas as she desperately tried to claw at the rock underneath her to get to her mum. “Rise from the dungeon that has held you. Rise from the chains that have bound you. With the blood and the sacrifices made by me, your servant of this realm. You will rise.” The walls started to shake. Ada’s hysterical laugh filled the room. “It's working. He's coming.” Her eyes focused on Lilliah. “Now for the final part of the spell.”

  Lilliah looked up as Ada approached.

  Her mum’s face, her mum’s smile and her laugh—it all consumed her, setting her anger alight.

  “I swear I will kill you, Ada.” Her lips trembled with a fury that coursed through her veins, her blood pumping faster, harder. “I'm going to make you regret ever touching one hair on my mother’s head.”

  “It'll be over soon, and you'll be together again,” Ada said, the dagger in her hand glistening with her mother’s blood.

  “Not today.” In that moment, everything became clear. All her unanswered questions were answered, and she knew exactly what to do. She shot her head back, her whole body feeling light but powerful. Light rushed through her, filling the room like a fire.

  “What?” Ada screamed, her skin blistering in the light, the force of the light knocking her back. The crash of her hitting the floor made Lilliah open her eyes. Ada lay on the floor, her body tossing in pain. Lilliah’s eyes shot to her mother. Whatever was happening didn’t seem to affect her as she lay on the floor, blood still pouring out of her. She had to protect her mother; she had to protect her mother. The chant kept her going.

  “What power is this?” Ada screamed.

  “My power.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she gave it all she had, her entire body getting hotter and hotter as the energy ran through her.

  “Lilliah.” The voice coming out of Ada's body wasn’t her own.

  Lilliah eyes shot open once more. Bright red eyes were once again looking back at her.

  “Oh, Lilliah.” It laughed, trying to stand, the force of Lilliah's powers pushing it down. “The doors are almost open. I'm almost out.” It grabbed the dagger from the floor. “I will get your blood!” Lucifer flew at her, knocking her back on the floor.

  “No!” The knife plunged into Lilliah's stomach. The pain didn’t register at first as she stared up into the red eyes of the Devil.

  “You've lost.”

  “Never.” Everything became dazed and disoriented. Lilliah closed her eyes once more, letting the light consume her. “You'll never win.”

  Lucifer howled with impotent fury as Lilliah's power shot through him.

  Azrael ran into the room, shielding his eyes from a light that he didn’t understand.

  “What is that?” Benedict shouted, doing the same.

  “I don't know.” His eyes adjusted quickly as the light slowly dimmed, revealing Lilliah lying on the floor, blood spilling from her stomach, and Ada lying next to her. Neither moved. “Lilliah.” He ran over to her and fell to his knees. “Lilliah, please.” He shook her lightly, cupping his hands in her blood-stained hair. “She's dying, Benedict!” he screamed frantically, brushing her hair away from her face. “Help her. She’s dying!”

  “Mum!” Sebastian sobbed, running over to her. He tried to stop the bleeding with his hands. “She's here! She’s been stabbed! Help me! Help her!” His screams were turning into hysteria.

  Chapter 26

  Lilliah squinted. The room was bright, too bright. Where was she? The beep of a machine and the chatter and laughter of someone in the distance all came into focus.

  “You shouldn’t move.” Azrael sat next to her, smiling, his eyes tired. “You’re in the hospital.” It took a moment for her to process the information. Hospital?

  “Lucifer.” She winced, trying to sit up. “Azrael, Lucifer was out.”

  “Lie down,” Azrael ordered gently, standing up and urging her back onto the pillow. “Everything is fine. You’re safe. But you have stitches, so you have to be careful. You've been unconscious for t
hree days.” He pushed her hair away from her face.

  Three days? She panicked again. “No, Azrael, you don't understand. He was back, in Ada's body.” The tears fell before she could stop them, panic rushing through her. “Oh, my mum!” Her eyes widened. “She was there! She was stabbed. Please.” She sobbed. “Please tell me she's okay.”

  “Shhh,” Azrael soothed, stroking her hair again. “She was stabbed,” he confirmed, “but she's had surgery. The doctors tell us she's going to be fine. She's safe.”

  “Thank you.” She sobbed, clutching Azrael’s shirt, holding him close and breathing him in. She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, with her crying and Azrael holding her as close as he could without hurting her.

  “Dena was there too. And Christopher. They were both stabbed and they . . . they were dead!” she shrieked again, her body shaking at the memories. They were dead. She’d seen them.

  “It was all Ada,” Azrael said, holding her while her body shook.

  “They’re dead,” she repeated, squeezing her eyes shut.

  “Yes,” he whispered, holding her close. “They’re dead. They were dead when we got there. No one could have saved them. Lilliah”—he held her back to get a better look at her face—“Ada chose to do this. She chose to kill. You couldn’t have helped either of them.”

  She knew the words were true, but it still didn’t stop the guilt. She had lived, and her mum had lived, but Christopher was dead. She even cried for Dena, whom she had previously hated. Once her tears had finally dried up, he pressed her button, alerting a nurse that she had woken. Her room became a flutter of activity, with nurses and doctors coming and going, all checking on her condition, which didn’t give her much time to dwell on her guilt.

  “Where are Sebastian and Rebecca?” she asked as the doctors and nurses worked around her.

  “They’ve been taking turns sitting with you and sitting with your mother down the hall. I’ll get them in a minute.”

  “You are healing at a remarkable rate,” one doctor noted as he checked her stitches over. “How do you feel now?” he pressed, still clearly puzzled.

  “I always heal quickly.” She shrugged, trying to smile.

  Azrael cut in and started asking the doctor about her aftercare and how long until she could travel back home, taking the doctor’s attention away from her. She breathed a sigh of relief when they were eventually left alone, and Azrael sat beside her again, pulling her close.

  “For a few seconds back there, I thought I was going to lose you,” Azrael shared once her tears had dried.

  “I think for a little bit, you did.” She looked around her room for the first time. “How did you find me?”

  “I’ll always find you, Lilliah.” He smiled down at her. “It just took a little longer after we were thrown off the path with that stupid phone call.”

  “Dena called you,” she told him.

  “I guessed.” He nodded. “What happened down there, Lilliah? When we found you, there was a strong light, and Ada was on the floor already dead.” He stared at her, frowning softly.

  “It was me.” She tried to think of how to explain what had happened to her. “Remember when I told you about that light that had come out of me when I was in Heaven?” Azrael nodded. “Well, it was like that. All of a sudden, I knew what I was doing.”

  “So it came out of you?” he clarified.

  “Yeah. It came from me. I don’t know how, or what it was, but it hurt Ada. It burnt her.”

  “See,” he said as he smiled down at her, “when it came down to it, you didn’t need to learn how to fight. You protected yourself.”

  “I still attacked Dena,” she smiled proudly. “She came at me, and I got a hit in with my stake. I actually hurt her.”

  “Well, that explains the bloody stake.”

  “Yep. That was me.” She beamed up at him. “Wait, where’s Benedict?”

  “He’s at The Cure. They’re in upheaval there, trying to select a new leader.”

  She nodded. It must have been a shock to not only lose two major leaders, but to also find out that one of them had been conspiring with the Devil.

  They both sat in silence, just enjoying being this close to one another. There was a moment back there when she’d thought she'd never see him again or be held like she was now. And when it came to her final moments, it was his face she had seen.

  “I can't live without you, Lilliah,” Azrael spoke first, disrupting the silence. “There would be no point to me if there wasn’t you.”

  She lifted her head to get a better look at his face; he was staring back at her, his features full of emotion.

  She should have told him he was being silly, that he had lived a thousand lifetimes without her, but she didn’t. She knew exactly how he felt. Instead, she lifted her head and smiled. “Me neither,” she whispered back. “I . . . I love you.”

  “Good.” He bent down, brushing his lips on hers gently. “So don't ever scare me like that again.”

  “Are you really not going to say it back?” She giggled, pressing her lips to his a little harder.

  “Love is a very mortal emotion. It’s a very mortal word. And it doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings for you.”

  “Really?” She blushed.

  “Yes, really. But as there are no words that could describe my feelings, ‘I love you’ will have to do.” He brushed his lips against hers.

  “Right, you need to stop kissing me like I’m made of glass,” she joked, pressing her lips on his once more.

  Azrael groaned, deepening the kiss.

  “Lilliah.” They broke apart as a teary-eyed Rebecca stood in the doorway. “You’re awake.”

  “Hey.” She smiled back, still keeping a hold of Azrael’s shirt.

  “Oh,” Rebecca squealed, running into the room and throwing her arms in the air. “Never do that to me again!” she begged, throwing her arms around Lilliah as she sat in the hospital bed. “I thought you had died.”

  “I’m fine. I'm alive.” She held her friend close for a few minutes. “I'm okay.”

  “Sebastian's in your mum’s room,” Rebecca said with a smile, finally pulling away and wiping her eyes. “He's been so worried about you.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine.” She grimaced, settling back against Azrael as he sat on the edge of her bed. “Can I go and see my mum?”

  “I don't know. Your stitches—” Azrael began before an overexcited Rebecca cut in.

  “Oh, I'll go and get a wheelchair,” she suggested quickly. “Just stay here. I'll be right back!”

  “Well, I guess that’s a yes then.” Azrael shook his head as they watched Rebecca run out of the room.

  “What happens now?” she asked, entwining her fingers with his. “What happens when we go home? Is the threat over?”

  “Well, you will go back to college and catch up with your friends. And I'll meet your mother.”

  “Meet my mum?” she cut in. “How the hell am I going to introduce you? How am I going to explain to her that I am an angel? Or that Seb's a demon?”

  “Benedict can do a spell. All she'll remember is a gas explosion. That's what the rest of the world thinks. If you want to tell her the truth, then that's up to you.”

  She nodded and snuggled closer to his chest, forgetting everything that they would soon have to face. For the first time, she noticed her necklace lying on the chest of drawers near her bed. It was the first time she had taken it off since she’d received it as a young child. Was she still under Michael’s spell? Would she still be reincarnated? She had no idea what was coming, and she doubted everything would now be easy because Ada was dead. They still had a lot to deal with, and a lot of unanswered questions. But for once, she wasn’t afraid. No matter what they would come up against, as long as Azrael was by her side, she could do anything, including trying to explain to her mum why her new boyfriend looked at least twenty-eight years old. Or why they were all in New York and their house had blown up. They'd find a wa
y.

  Rebecca came back in with a wheelchair, ready to take Lilliah to go and see her mother.

  “I’m surprised you even brought me to a hospital,” Lilliah said as she slowly lowered herself into the chair. “Couldn’t Benedict help me?”

  “He did,” Azrael said, walking beside her as Rebecca wheeled her out into the hall. “The knife cut into your stomach and hit your kidneys. Benedict stopped the internal bleeding, but you were so weak your wound wasn't healing. You needed medical attention. Ada had put a spell on your mother to make magic not work on her. It’s why we couldn't find her with a locator spell. Benedict tried his hardest, but in the end . . .”

  Rebecca steered her into the small room where her mum lay in a bed, still sleeping.

  “Lil?” Sebastian asked as he slowly stood from his seat. The thick, hard circles under his eyes, his messy hair, and his crumpled clothes told her everything she needed to know. He hadn’t been sleeping or looking after himself.

  “Hey.” She held out her arms, ready to embrace him as he almost ran across the room to her.

  “You’re okay. You’re alive.” He sobbed into her shoulder. “They said you were going to be, but I was just so worried. I needed to see you to be sure.”

  “I’m fine,” she soothed. “I’m okay.” Her eyes flickered to her mother and to the beeping machines around her. She looked perfect—not a bruise or a mark on her face or arms. “When she said they had Mum, I didn’t have a choice. I had to follow her.”

  Sebastian pulled back, wiping his face with his hands. “I get it.” He turned to their mum. “I would have done the same thing. But when I went down into that cave and saw my family all slowly dying . . .” He stopped as his voice became choked up again. “We’re family, Lil. Us three are the only family we have. We have to look after each other.”

  “I know, I know.” She smiled softly before she wheeled herself closer to her mum’s bed, taking her mum’s hand and holding it tightly. She looked over at Rebecca and Azrael who were standing in the doorway, silently watching the exchange and giving the family its space.