by Kai Leakes
Sanna stood drenched in sweat and covered in blood. Her first taste of demon’s sins was intoxicating. She understood finally how her love felt in it all. Glancing around, she made contact with Khamun. His movements were brilliant, and as he ran, the charges that hit the demons and other evils grounded and made the building hum.
Sanna needed to get to her mother, and she needed to move fast. The stress of it was throwing her off her game. Everything she did was awkward. It was as if she couldn’t spark her full Oracle potential at times, and it frightened her.
Her wings strained her back, and she tried to release them as her body sparked, but no juice would come. It was like she was one giant knot of tension. She could appreciate one thing though. Her knowledge had helped her shoot off rounds from a gun she had no idea how to use.
Seeing an opening, she ran, ducking under flying pieces of monsters’ carnage. Marco suddenly shadowed her.
Kyo ripped demons apart with her bare hands as she also trailed her and her beloved brothers.
Dare and Take worked like a unit of their own, tagging each other, and killed the beasts that tried to take her.
Tears stung her eyes as she ran head on into the burly, molting monster that held her incapacitated mother and another gagged figure. “Give her to me!” she yelled.
The demon laughed and reached back, and pieces of spikes from his skin suddenly shot her way.
She screamed and ducked. Everything moved in slow motion as a body ran into the monster, knocking Sanna’s mother to the ground.
Sanna slid forward, catching her in a low crouch. She glanced over quickly then looked up and saw the good doctor.
Dr. Toure stood, anger contorting his handsome face while he swung a bat-like axe in his hand. The Chicago team flooded the roof while he shouted his commands.
A clicking sound surrounded Sanna as a rough flick brushed against her cheek made her gaze up. In front of her was what the team called the Medusa. Sanna swallowed, clutched her hands, and pushed her mother back quickly, standing to shield her. “Back the fuck up!” she yelled.
The Medusa stalked her with a deathly smile, her tail whipping around in pleasure. “And what are you going to do? Hmm? I’ve been watching you this whole time, and you are nothing but a weak shell of a thing. Oracle? Yeah, right.” The Medusa chuckled, her laugh sounding like a reptile’s cackle.
This bitch is crazy, Sanna thought.
The Medusa reached out, and her long nail traced Sanna’s cheek with a slow smile. “Bye,” she said, reaching back and slicing forward.
Sanna’s eyes flashed as energy pulsed from her like a shield.
Where the Medusa slashed was where those lethal nails of hers broke into a thousand pieces, and Sanna effortlessly ripped the arm off the screaming Medusa.
Sanna’s wings ripped free from her back as they hardened like knives and wrapped forward to slice at the retreating bitch.
“You bitch!” the Medusa screamed. Poison shot from her fangs as she whipped her blade-inlaid braids and razor tail Sanna’s way.
Sanna sideswiped her and landed a kick that lifted her in the air and had her foot dropping down square against the Medusa’s head. That move helped knock her attacker unconscious, as Sanna fell into a crouch near her mother.
Hooking her arm under her mother’s waist, Sanna slowly stood and turned, and ran right into the Dark Lady. Quick annoyance had her stepping back as she tilted her head to the side, flashing a coy smile while she narrowed her eyes. “You will not take me.”
The Dark Lady flinched, madness pooling in her eyes. She smiled back with a mutter, “I know.”
Jerking her arm back, Reina ran a blade into Sanna’s stomach, bringing her forward with a flicker of satisfaction in her dark eyes, and Sanna’s blood spilled everywhere while her mother fell back to her feet battered and bruised.
The Dark Lady’s fangs ripped out in contentment as she moved in one swift motion.
Sanna felt her life rip from her, tears spilling down her face. A quick blur ran in front of her, shielding her, before the Dark Lady could finish cutting her in two. Fire surrounded her, a loud roar rent the air, and she heard Kyo’s and Khamun’s voice yell out, “Sanna!”
Sanna swore she saw fear flicker in the Dark Lady’s eyes as she noticed Khamun appear at her side, grabbing and pulling her back.
In his fury and worry, his power folded over them both. Wings and a gold tail shadowed his movements and flooded the sky as they knocked Reina back.
In that quick moment Reina swore she saw a dragon stand before her. The blade that was meant for the Oracle bitch actually rested in the prize she had worked so hard to get. Glancing at the Oracle bitch, she glared at her stomach and smiled. Yes. She was hurt too, but the brunt of her blade was through the dragon, whose bindings fell around it in ash.
Khamun looked up and felt his mind sync with the dragon in front of him. His Gargoyle, ran in his mind, making him blink as the dragon crumbled and turned back into its human form.
Lying in front of him was the b-boy who’d helped Darren and Takeshi. The man he had just made contact with to learn more about, via Calvin. His Gargoyle, something he’d never had in all his twenty-nine years of life.
Next to him was his love, his Sanna, bleeding to death. Vengeance was about to be a motherfucker. “RJ?” was all he got out as Kyo’s scream filled the sky.
Kyo moved like the wind as she ran to the falling body. Lenox was behind her, trying to keep her calm as he shook his head and let her go.
Power flowed between Khamun and Sanna while he looked her over, blood flowing from her. He moved fast, grabbing the Dark Lady, who stood distracted at the man who was once a massive dragon but now lay in a crumpled heap, her blade idle in her hand.
“You fucked with the wrong ones,” Khamun coolly said. He twisted her blade from her hand and finished what she had intended to do to Sanna.
“Kill that bitch!” Kyo screamed as she held RJ in her hands. She wiped his dirty face and pulled off the rest of his molting ropes as she sat near Sanna, protecting them both.
Khamun’s bite was swift. He watched as the paling Dark Lady screamed, sucking her and ripping the darkness from her. She clawed at him and kicked, but he held her tight.
Marco’s laughter filled the air while the Medusa fought her way through, only to end up being halted by Calvin.
Vengeance echoed in the air as the Medusa slashed at the man she desired for so long, concern in her eyes. Dropping into a backflip, her braids slashed at him as she got close enough to the Dark Lady to pull at her.
Marco rushed forward, guns blazing. His muscled body slammed into them both like a ton of bricks and sent them flying over the edge of the building.
Khamun also cocked his Glock and sent rounds of bullets flying, blood dripping from his lips while he backed his cousin.
“Aw, fuck, no! We not done, hermana!” Dark wings ripped from Marco as his yell formed an energy jolt.
A mystic light from Calvin ripped through the air and covered the screaming women. A web of white holy light absorbed into their skin, fusing and twisting, causing burning pain through their bodies, making Calvin and Marco smile in satisfaction. Calvin looked down from the edge of the building as the women landed with a thud and disappeared. “Try to take from me and I leave ya ass burning. Ya heard me?” His emerald eyes flashed in the night mist as he yelled. The protection sigils on his arms and hair swirled and glowed, and sweat dripped from his brow as fatigue hit.
Winter’s quiet voice hit everyone’s mind as she disappeared in the cloaking mist, ducking past a fighting Darren, Take, Kali, and Amit. “I’ll see where they went and report to you.”
Kyo’s choked cries hit every member hard. Take stopped his final beat-down on a misting demon and ran to his sister’s side, Dare, Kali, and Amit right behind him.
“Sis?” Takeshi questioned.
Kyo looked at her sister lying unconscious, and her beaten godmother leaning against Dr. Toure. The man in her arms w
as the one from in her dreams and lay dying against her. “What did they want?” she muttered, tears thickening her speech while she rocked.
“More like, who did they want?” Takeshi whispered. He watched the partially breathing man named RJ brush his hand across Kyo’s dirty face, and swirling sigils on his arms that matched the markings in the Nephilim book lit up.
“Me and the Oracle,” was all he said as silence fell over the team.
Time seemed to stop as rain spilled over the roof, drenching and washing everyone and everything, as the Oracle lay in pain. The world ebbed in and out for her as knowledge waned with each slow beat of her heart.
Her mind ticked and struggled to stay whole as her breath stalled in a quiet whisper, “He’s the Key to the second book.”
Epilogue
(Lost Scrolls of Nephilim: Text two)
I believed this would be the end of my entry, but I am wrong. It has happened. Betrayal in our Houses once again. They have taken a Disciple and polluted him with Darkness. His noble House sits in ruins and pain. The Templars mourn his betrayal, yet The One God’s son has known this betrayal would come. He tells us that Betrayal will form our Houses and guide us in protecting the innocent. I do not understand how, but I will never question my faith in His word.
He also prophesied that the one who betrayed us will return to correct the wrong. It is hard to believe, but believe, we must. They have taken much from us and have desecrated our line, stole our children and planted seeds of malice and pain within us, but we stay strong. We will not be taken.
This loss of the Judas shows that we must do all we can to protect those innocent in the world. The Humans. Who are now the carriers of half our seed, our children, Nephilim. The One God has put in his books warnings of the enemies’ dark Nephilim seeds and how it is our turn to protect what we love. The Children of this World.
Our vows to the One God’s son has expanded, and we will eradicate that which tarnished the Light. Betrayal is what founded our Houses, and Betrayal is what will end their Curse. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. She will be our mortar, the Triad, her strength, the Dragons, her armor, the Reaper, our and her weapon. The Sin-Eaters will fill the skies, reap what was sown and wash away the sins of the Fallen. The Cursed.
We the Founding Archangels of the Houses of Light will prevail through our seeds and our memories. As was Ordained, so shall it be.
~ Elders Gab’reel and Chii de V’ance /Neffi and An-jii de V’ance
Urban Books, LLC
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Sin Eaters: Devotion Book One Copyright © 2012
Kai Leakes
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ISBN: 978-1-6228-6099-9
First Trade Paperback Printing August 2012
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living, or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
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