He slashed, striking as quick as a snake. The beasts blinked and scattered before his fury. Wisps of dark smoke curled around him as he snuffed them out. One by one, the Qeres poison worked through their twisted souls, turning them to dust.
A few remaining demons hissed and backed into the shadows. The dark ones would be cautious now, crafty, but they wouldn’t give up. Not when their future hung on the hidden power possessed within the soul of this child.
The threat gone, for now, he sheathed his weapon and stared down at the tiny bundle as it sucked life from its mother’s breast. Amazed at how small and fragile it looked, he came forward to examine it closer. A girl. She looked like any other human baby, nothing special. He stroked the porcelain skin of its hand with a finger. The child stopped sucking and looked at him. They locked eyes, and she curled her tiny fingers around his.
Lightning struck within him as she tethered herself to him. In that moment, an unbreakable bond formed. Love, pure and strong, surged through him. He never wanted to leave her side. He would risk everything, even mortal death, to protect her.
A moment later, she looked through him. Her soul had completed its journey into life, into the human realm. She wouldn’t know him or remember him. He would be her invisible protector until her latent powers fully manifested, and she was old enough to choose her destiny for herself. Then he would be dismissed, and her training would begin.
The years spent watching her were the happiest and most agonizing of Kaemon’s immortal life. He could touch her mind, influence her. Their bond allowed him to warn her of danger, block the darkness. She knew something protected her, he felt her gratitude, her awe of him. He even thought she might love him. If only she could see him.
When her father broke her heart, Kaemon stayed by her side, night and day. Quinn sobbed into her father’s white t-shirt. She had found it at the bottom of the laundry basket, left behind in his haste to run off with that woman. As he packed his bag, Quinn begged him not to leave her. Kaemon had wanted to kill him where he stood, but killing humans was strictly forbidden.
He had wrapped his golden-red wings around her, his heart breaking with hers. He probed her mind, seeking out the grief that shadowed her heart. Their bond allowed him to radiate comfort, safety, and love through the center of the pain. She relaxed, but only for a moment. A clumsy but effective wall rose to block his thoughts and keep him from influencing hers. For the first time, she deliberately shut him out.
Her reaction stung. He could push through, force her to accept his invocation, but her rejection set him to brooding. If she didn’t want him there, why should he force himself on her?
“She wants the warm touch of a human. Not some cold, ethereal creature.” The demons preyed on his thoughts.
His knuckles whitened as he gripped the hilt of his sword, never taking his eyes off Quinn, lying on her bed, inconsolable. “Be gone, or I’ll draw the Qeres.”
An empty threat. His heart had weakened in love. The fight drained out of him with every moment of his vanity. They sensed his weakness, his thirst to live in human flesh so he could touch her.
“Look at you, Elite. Bah, we’ve seen Sentinels with more fight than you.” The shadows circled, bold sharks waiting to feed on the turmoil. “Draw your blade, if you dare. Do you even remember how to use it?”
He took the bait, drawing the blade and pressing an attack. The demons arched back, laughing.
“Is that all you’ve got? She doesn’t need you anymore. She’s safe in the arms of another. Too long you’ve been tethered to this weak child. You’re no warrior. The Dominion has reduced you to a common Sentinel. And for what?”
He slashed down, nicking one in the wing. It howled in pain as the poison ate through its body.
“That’s it, Sentinel. Do your duty.” The world exploded in wisps of evil smoke, blinking around him, fetid breath taunting him. He pressed the attack instead of defending, as the Dominion had ordered.
“They want you on a leash, Sentinel. While the other Elites win victory and honor in battle, you sit here, mooning over a human girl.”
They switched their focus to Quinn, their slithering dark tendrils reaching for her.
“Don’t touch her,” he growled.
“Who’s going to stop us?” The tendrils melted onto the skin of her hands, her face, turning her from translucent porcelain to gray as death.
Rage thrummed through him. He swung the sword in a great, sweeping arch, cutting through the tendrils as they attached themselves to Quinn. He would show them the true meaning of Elite. The ones touched by the blade screamed and withered in death. The gray scales fell from Quinn, and he pressed on. The remaining demons retreated, a murder of crows scattering across the world to hide from his wrath. Lost in a warrior’s rage, he flew after them, leaving Quinn alone and forgotten.
He hunted them, one by one, tracking one to a small graveyard next to the ruins of a gothic church. It hid among the gravestones, cowering at his presence. He drew his weapon, ready to rid the world of another dark spirit.
“Wait,” it pleaded. “I can help you. To be with her, as that boy is. As a human.”
“Lies.” But his heart wanted to believe, and so he stayed his hand.
“We know of those who hold the secrets. The Powers. They hold dominion over births and deaths, do they not? They can make you human.”
“How do you know this?” Could the ancient myth be true? Was there a way to cast off his immortality? Holding Quinn in his arms would be worth the sacrifice.
“I was a Powers, once, befores the falls. I remembers,” it hissed. “Seek the Powers, and yous will finds the answer. Seek Azrael.”
Azrael. He knew the name. He had been the Power who attended to Quinn’s making. He sheathed the Qeres blade. “If you lie, I will hunt you down and kill you where you stand.”
The demon’s head bobbed up and down. Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Azrael. He closed his eyes, sending out probing threads, searching for the hum of Azrael’s psychic signature. He sensed him within the concrete walls of a hospital, a few hundred miles away. Unfurling his golden wings, he launched into the air.
At the hospital, Azrael hovered over a pale boy in a metal bed. Machines beeped and whirred around him, and a breathing tube protruded from his mouth. The smell of imminent death permeated the atmosphere. Azrael wrapped his dark wings around the frail body, golden sword drawn and ready to separate the soul from the flesh.
“Ah, Kaemon. I sensed you would come.”
“Then you know what I want?”
Azrael nodded. A woman and a girl stood beside Azrael, waiting for their beloved to join them. A bright tunnel stretched behind them, a portal to the next realm, to the city of Arcadia.
“Perhaps there is a way.” Azrael looked at the boy and smoothed his dark hair from his forehead. “Is she worth it, Kaemon? Is she worth throwing everything away?”
“Yes.” Kaemon rasped through clenched teeth.
“Then give me your blade.”
Kaemon hesitated.
“Your blade, before it’s too late.” Azrael held his open palm in expectation. “Or have you changed your mind? Is her love not everything you long for?”
He pulled the blue Qeres sword from the scabbard. It sang as it came clear. Azrael took the hilt and brandished the weapon in great, sweeping arcs. Kaemon stared, mesmerized by the rhythmic pulse of the light as it illuminated Azrael’s wicked grin. Then, Azrael lashed out, dragging the blade down and across Kaemon’s bare chest.
Kaemon cried out. The slow poison of the Qeres dripped into his body. His wings withered. Golden-red feathers fell, one by one like autumn leaves to the ground. He fell against the bed, panting. Azrael shoved him backward and into the boy’s waiting flesh. Lightning struck as their minds melded. The boy, Aaron, seconds from death, reached for his mother and sister, and his life force ebbed in response.
Kaemon felt the boy’s heart, his heart now, slow. Azrael placed his hand on
the boy’s chest. A cold burn surged through him, and he saw Aaron rise up from his body. Azrael drew his golden sword and slashed down, separating the boy’s soul from his mortality. A pain ripped through Kaemon as he watched Aaron walk into a portal of light with Ruth and his mother.
He couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. Everything felt wrong, heavy. He struggled against the constraints of the boy’s boundaries.
“You wanted to be mortal. Kaemon. His life and death are now yours, for what it’s worth.” Azrael held his hand up and turned away as a beam of light shot from his palm through Aaron’s body. Azrael smiled as the light seared away all his memories as he, Aaron, awoke to an unfamiliar world.
Suddenly, the pressure eased, releasing Aaron from the past and snapping him back to reality. Aaron’s eyes widened at Azrael as the last of Kaemon’s memories slid into place
“So you finally remember, old friend.” He sneered at Aaron. “Have you enjoyed your life as this … human? Was it everything you had hoped for?”
Aaron rolled away, panting. “You tricked me,” he snarled.
“Did I?”
“You wanted me out of the way. Why?”
“You came to me. You wanted to be human. You let pride and vanity spur you. Leaving her vulnerable was your own doing. And now look.” Azrael motioned to Quinn’s lifeless body. “I forged her soul myself. Do you know how many millennia it took me to find the right mix of angel and demon spirit not to overwhelm a human soul? How many humans I had to manipulate into breeding to get the perfect balance? The Light demanded it, and I obeyed. And what did I get in return? As her maker, I should have been her Sentinel, not you. It was my destiny. You forced me to take matters into my own hands. You brought this on yourself, on her.”
Aaron raised his arms and exposed his chest. “Kill me if you want, Azrael, like you killed her. My purpose died with her.”
Azrael placed the tip of the blue-star sword above Aaron’s heart.
A surge of current jolted Aaron’s mind and then faded, the psychic equivalent of restarting a dead battery. He glanced at Quinn; she turned on her side, curled into a tight ball. Tears of relief spilled down his cheeks as their connection sparked to life. Backing away from the cold blade pointed at him, he reached for her, sending strength through the tenuous link.
“Aaron?” Quinn rasped.
“You didn’t really believe I would kill my own offspring, did you? You’re a bigger fool than I ever imagined.”
Rage consumed Aaron. He whirled and snatched for the blue sword hanging on Azrael’s hip. Within a blink, Azrael had moved behind him and put the sword against Aaron’s throat. “Do you know what havoc can be reaped with a Qeres blade?” The tip of the blade pulsed against his skin, calling to his angel blood. He remembered the feel of Kaemon’s sword in his hands, his sword. If only he could get it, he could destroy Azrael.
“Whose side are you on, Azrael?”
“My own.”
Quinn’s thoughts had blinked out again, and she lay motionless. Aaron ached to go to her. To make sure she was alive, but Azrael held him with the blade.
“Your time has ended, Kaemon, or would you prefer Aaron. You’ve been nothing but a nuisance. I thought I had done enough to rid myself of you without getting my wings dirty. I had counted on your powers and your bond to her being erased along with your memories, but even in this mortal body you remained her Sentinel. It’s time to correct my mistake.” Azrael dragged his golden blade across Aaron’s throat, slow and steady.
Aaron rasped a cry as his body shuttered and convulsed, the immortal poison burning its way through what was left of his angel soul while human blood spurted from his jugular. He collapsed. His life force ebbed, but he pushed himself to hold on until he dragged himself the precious inches to the pale, half-conscious Quinn. With his last breath, he pressed his lips to hers. Her energy surged as his waned. With a kiss, he gave her the very last of himself, his last thoughts before their link was broken forever.
I love you. Never forget it. I’m sorry. Don’t trust Azrael. He pushed the warning deep into her mind as the last of his lifeblood drained away.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her.” Azrael kicked Aaron’s body over the edge of the outcropping. There was no fight left in him. The river yanked at his lifeless limbs. He let the water overwhelm him, pulling him under, calling him to the depths of darkness, to oblivion.
***
Quinn awoke under a clear sky. “Aaron?” She sat up and touched her lips. Warm, as if she’d just been kissed. She remembered the blinding crack to her skull and being dragged under. Her hand went to her head, and she felt for a bump, blood, tenderness, anything that would attest to an injury, but her scalp was blemish free. The thought came to her like a rushing wind.
So, is this Heaven or Hell?
“Neither.”
A bright and terrible being swooped down and landed in front of her. Dark wings stretched behind him, magnificent and beautiful. Quinn couldn’t help but gawk, too awed to be afraid. Two swords hung at his hips. She stared, mesmerized by their glowing pulse.
“Am I dead? Where am I? Are you an angel?” If he were an angel, was he here to take her away? Quinn trembled. How would her parents deal with finding her floating, bloated and gray in the river? And what about Reese and Aaron? Aaron with his green eyes, always there for her no matter how many times she had pushed him away. If she were dead, he would never know how sorry she was, how much she really loved him.
“I am Azrael.” He held out his hand to help her to her feet.
“Azrael?” Something stirred inside her, uneasiness she couldn’t put her finger on. “Your name. It sounds familiar.”
“I’m your Sentinel, or guardian, as your kind like to call us. I’ve been assigned to you.” His voice was a symphony of peace, layers of deep sound humming out of every syllable, soothing away her concerns.
Quinn had a vague memory of a being of light following her, comforting her, reaching into her mind. It must have been this Azrael. Her guardian.
“You summoned me. I’ve brought you In Between to give you time to choose, away from the demons’ tongues, away from their lies and influence. To give you a clear head. Time to think about what you really want.”
“What are you talking about? What do those things want from me?”
“Your death. Isn’t it obvious?” Warmth radiated from Azrael though his tone seemed cold in contrast.
“Why?”
“For your powers, of course.” His smile masked a slow burning annoyance.
“What powers? I don’t have any powers.”
“Don’t you?”
“No.” Girls with powers didn’t poison everything they touched. And if she had powers, she would have used them already.
“You can see them, can’t you? The dark ones? The demons? No one else can. You’re the one they speak to. Your powers are emerging.”
“That’s crazy. I’m just a girl. Why would they want me dead?”
“Just a girl? No, Quinn, you’re much more than that. It is prophesized that a human baby would be born with the perfect balance of angel and demon souls, someone to restore balance to the world and tame the dark ones forever. You are that human, Quinn.”
Quinn shook her head. “This is a dream. I’m washed up on the beach somewhere, and my imagination is running rampant.”
“This is no dream. Deep down you sense it. Why do you think the demons have tormented you so much? They knew you were vulnerable.” The light radiating from Azrael brightened and dimmed, pulsing with every word.
“So why didn’t you come sooner? Why haven’t you been protecting me?” Quinn gritted her teeth. If he were her Sentinel, why would he let them torture her? “I demand an answer.”
“You didn’t want to see me, you kept blocking me. This was the only way I could get to you and only because you finally called out for help.” Azrael’s wings beat in frustration. “Time grows short. I don’t have time to explain every little detail
. It’s taking the last of my energy to hold In Between together.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth? How do I know you’re not one of those creatures? You could be lying to me, like they did.”
“I could be. But I’m not. You were created for a purpose. Search your heart. Much lies in there, untapped, power that’s been waiting to be awakened.” The ground trembled, and small cracks appeared in the night sky. “I can’t hold you here much longer. It’s time for you to decide. Now, before it collapses and death chooses for you!” Azrael raised his voice in competition as the sky grumbled and cracked.
“Decide what?” Quinn wiped a cold drop from her cheek and shivered. Rivulets of water trickled from the growing fissures in the false world, reality leaking through, destroying the facade.
“Life or death. It’s your choice.” The world faded to black, and then snapped back into focus as if someone had flipped a light switch. “I can teach you how to use your power, to destroy the dark ones and restore balance, if you want. If you live, I will be your greatest ally, be by your side and teach you how to protect yourself. I can’t force you. You’ve been granted free will. You choose.”
“It’s not that easy. I don’t want to go back to that craziness. I don’t want anything to do with the dark ones.”
“Then die.” Azrael raised a hand, and the ground shook.
“Wait! I need more time!”
“There is no more time.” Azrael gave her a fierce look, and she scrambled back, the light inside him dimmed further, flickering as if it might be snuffed out at any moment. “Life is never easy, not for you, not for anyone. But you can choose. I grow impatient. This bubble is about to burst.” Azrael’s words hurled at her like thunder. “I can end it now, and the Light will choose another.” Azrael pulled the golden blade from his scabbard. “I can release your soul from your body. It will be quick; you won’t feel a thing. Maybe you weren’t the right soul after all. The choice is yours. Do you really want to die?”
Quinn pictured her funeral. Her mother, dressed in black, weeping as they lowered her into an open grave. Her father stood beside her, a baby boy in his arms, blond hair, chubby cheeks. Her brother.
Pretty Dark Nothing Page 24