She followed his gaze and they both counted the raised lines that marked their failure. Twelve sets of death gleamed on his skin, a reminder that they were nearly out of time and almost out of chances.
Nearly two and half centuries had passed since Zane and Vega stood at death’s door for the first time. Attracted by the promise of freshly killed meat, Eurynome the Death Eater had followed the scent of desperation and blood. His hunger had led him to a small human town where the rage of war had laid waste to all things. As he devoured the rotting and charred meat of the fallen, a spark of life had caught his attention.
Normally unconcerned with beating hearts and living meat, Eurynome had been intrigued by the draw he felt to the peculiar being, and when he had uncovered her dying body, he understood why. The last glowing embers of a life that never had the chance to burn brightly still clung to her as she begged for some sort of divine assistance.
In that instant, he had been struck by the oddness that, even though she was sure to die, she pleaded for the life of the boy who lay in her arms. The opportunity to corrupt a truly pure soul had never been presented so nicely to any demon before.
Standing with his back to the great billows of black smoke, Eurynome had drawn one clawed hand across his face to clear the dripping blood from his chin and looked down on the naïve beauty before him. “Your lover is dead and gone, child. Only the power of a greater demon, such as I, can resurrect such things. Your life force is nothing but a tiny grain of sand in the vast desert. Only a greater demon, such as I, can restore such a thing. Do you ask these things of me?”
Vega had swallowed hard against her fear and instinct. “Yes. Please, save us.”
“I shall give you life, but in return, you must face a challenge. If you lose, your souls shall be mine.” There had been no hint of satisfaction to the demon’s graveling voice.
Vega hadn’t asked for details, she had simply repeated the same words. “Yes. Please, save us.”
The demon had tossed his long black hair out behind him as he laughed with raucous supremacy. “You are not smart. You must know that my task will be nearly impossible.”
Drawing on the little strength she had left, she had stared into the soulless, black eyes of the greater demon. “Our love is strong enough to defeat anything, even death. Is that not why you are here?”
His wide mouthed grin had revealed dangerously sharp teeth. “I was here to feast on the flesh of the dead. Those who perish in great turmoil always taste sweeter. However, your little beating heart is something of interest to me, and for that reason alone, I stand before you. My conditions are this. You must live. You must love. You must experience the tumultuous existence of humanity and not be broken. The life given to you will not be easy and your strength will not be what it is now. I will hold your boy captive, and he will watch your life from afar. Your happiness and your sorrow will give him much pain.”
Vega had turned the proposition over in her mind before she asked, “If I fail?”
The demon had lowered himself onto his massive haunches and traced a single black claw down her cheek. “If you fail, and you die by man’s hand or your own, this boy will be given free rein to seek out your vengeance. Maddened from your death, and his hate for all that he has witnessed, it will be a bloody retaliation for his victims. In the moment of their death, he shall take their final breath into his body. I shall allow him to use that power to awaken you no more than thirteen times.”
Vega had taken one look at Zane’s graying face, and at the same time she hated herself for her selfish need of him, she had asked only one thing more from the demon. “You mustn’t plan on keeping me from him? That solitude alone will kill me.”
Feeling gracious, the demon had decreed, “From the rise of the moon until the rise of the sun, I shall grant you that eve of your rebirth to be in your lover’s arms once more. When the daylight comes, you shall be reborn again. If you find yourself unable to complete this task within the time you reach your twentieth year for the thirteenth time, you shall both serve me for eternity.”
Bending down, she had placed a farewell kiss onto Zane’s lips before she sealed a pact with the demon. That had been the last time she saw Zane for nineteen years.
Each reincarnation, she was born without knowledge of who she was or the deal that she had struck. Each time she was resurrected from her death, that knowledge awoke inside her and filled her with a desperate guilt. If she had allowed death to take them both, they may have not ever known such suffering. Instead, she found herself standing in another graveyard facing her final chance to save their souls from Eurynome’s curse.
Zane took a deep breath and felt his strength returning. He knew that Vega’s thoughts were dwelling on her choice to condemn them. Pulling her into his chest and kissing the top of her head, he offered her the only comfort he could. “We will find a way, my love. It’s not over yet. We have one more shot. “
Her green eyes were filled with sorrow as she turned to look up at him. “Why would it be different this time?” The tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Don’t worry about tomorrow, love, when we only have this one night.” His voice was a husky promise of the hours to come.
She smiled and her lips met his, and they left the decay and rot of the grave behind them as they strolled hand in hand into the fading twilight. They spent the night in a tangle of desperate need and gentle passion, consummating their reunion and saying their goodbyes in every way they could.
Wrapped together in only a bed sheet, they stood on the tiny balcony of his one room apartment. As the purple haze of dawn began to bleed into the distant sky, fear found purchase within their minds. Vega trembled and Zane fought back tears. As they had done each time their time together ended, they clung to each other in desperation, praying that somehow the sunrise would not come.
In the moment before the first light of the day seized the sky, Zane slipped a ring on Vega’s finger. Holding onto the simple silver band with rose buds engraved into its surface, he begged her. “Find the ring, Vega. In your next life, it will be what saves us.”
There was no time for further explanation. They hastily spoke their confessions of love and shared a final kiss full of sorrow and passion. The dawn broke, and in the glowing haze of early morning, a discarded sheet lay on an empty balcony. Two wandering souls, one pure and one dark, returned to the world in another time and another place. A fresh destiny was recorded for a mewling babe that was born, and for a young man in love, a fresh eternity of hell began.
About the Author
Catherine Stovall is the author of many fiction works in the horror, steampunk, paranormal, fantasy, dark fantasy, and YA genres. She is also the editor and a contributor to several anthologies produced by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, Vamptasy Publishing, and Steamworks Ink.
Catherine is a fearless creature who surrounds herself with the joys of life both in and out of her fictional worlds. She lives in Southeast Missouri with her husband, three children, and pets. When not writing, she spends her time riding motorcycles, wearing elaborate hats, and genuinely enjoying the oddities in life.
A lover of social media, she encourages her fans to reach out to her through facebook, her website, and twitter, so they can share in the experience of publishing and creating.
Visit Me!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorCatherineStovall
Web: www.catherinestovall.webs.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Stovall/e/B005LET560
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CathStovall
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Condemned To Die (The Death Eater Series Book 1) Page 4