by JK Ensley
She smiled. “Daichi.”
He pressed her tighter still. “No! Look into my eyes, Jenevier. Say… my… name.”
She concentrated hard, falling into those limpid pools of sparkling blue. “Tenshi? Wha-what is… no… You are neither my son nor my Blessing. How is it your face is as theirs?” She began to struggle. “Let me go.” Fear and darkness surrounded her, trying to crush her bliss-filled light. “Who are you? Let me go.”
“Jenevier, say… my… name.”
She stopped struggling with him, yet a name would not form in her mind.
He moved his face closer, his nose almost touching hers. “Say… my… name.”
His lips lightly brushed across hers, sending familiar tremors down into the pit of her being.
“Jenevier, my only love. Say… my… name.”
The tip of his nose ran along the scar on her cheek. “This is mine,” he whispered.
His hot breath against her ear made her shiver in his arms. She felt herself melting into him and was powerless to stop it. A deliciously painful jolt ran through her when his lips closed around a spot at the base of her neck, and then her shoulder, two spots on her chest, and another one upon her left breast.
She cried out when he began licking her neck, over and over, the tip of his warm tongue leaving a cool trail upon her skin. He blew upon it.
“Say… my… name. I will hold you forever in the waiting place. I refuse to release you. Say my name. Show me I remain a part of you still. Give me blessed hope or we shall live within the Nether always, my hands never releasing your form.”
The tiny electrifying jolts each of his glorious touches produced, bounced and streaked and clouded her already addled mind.
“I know you… not…” she whispered.
He shook her. “What has happened to you? Did Gabriel steal your mind when he claimed your wings?”
“No,” she said, smiling. “The onyx Elf took my essence. I gifted it to the baby moon.” Her mind drifted. She was being pulled away.
“You speak madness, my love. How can you gift your essence?”
“…Uriel… Uriel’s blade…”
“No! Stay with me. I will not release you. I refuse. Jenevier! Jenevier, can you hear me?”
The darkness was once again taking her vision. She floated, flying adrift upon the wind.
“No, you cannot have her,” he yelled.
A painful blast of light filled her head. She tried to scream but had no voice. Feeling slowly returned. The warm sensation on her lips erased all fear, lulled her heart. His light kisses intensified. Both her heart and body melted with his possessive touch.
She returned the loving act with fervor. She knew these lips, the sweet honey taste of his tongue, the heady scent of lilies.
“Vindicus…” She whispered the name as their lips parted.
Those amazing sapphire eyes filled with tears and were accompanied by the same enchanting smile that had completely stolen her heart, so many years ago.
“Yes, my love.” He kissed her again. “You remember me. You have finally returned to me.” His happy sobs soaked her curls.
“But… why… why am I… in hell?” she asked, fear creeping over her.
“I know not how your life ended, my love, but you are not in hell. I saw your rare light enter the Nether, smelled your deliciously unforgettable scent. I’m the one who holds you here. If you leave me, I will never see you again, never touch you again.” He tenderly circled the tip of her nose with his. “If I release you, never again will I be able to taste the sweetest lips in all creation. I will hold to you always. I cannot let you leave this plane or I will forever lose you.” He kissed her once more. “I cannot continue on if there is no more hope. If you travel to the Otherworld, all hope will go with you. Stay with me, Jenevier. Choose me over all else and be mine, always.”
“Vindicus…” Her voice was fading.
“No! No, I won’t let Him have you back. You are mine.” He held to her so tightly, it was painful.
“Vindicus…” She drifted, slowly at first. Then she was falling, faster and faster. The sensation was gut-wrenching, breathtaking. The inevitable stop came suddenly, but minus the pain she had braced herself for. Instead of a jarring crash, there was a warming impact, smooth and encompassing. She drew in a deep filling breath as her lungs painfully expanded, jerking her body upright.
“Vindicus!” Her scream rang in her ears, filling her bedchamber with the wrath of her remembrance.
Her chest heaved. Again and again, she pulled in deep, filling breaths.
“Naga! Naga!”
“You killed Varick,” she yelled.
Uncontrollable rage coursed through her marrow. Her wild eyes would focus on nothing, rapidly scanning everything at once.
Her body moved of its own accord. She leapt to her feet and dashed across the room. Her glowing sword came to life in her hands and she held Amatiste hilt up with the blade running back the length of her forearm.
There were talking blobs surrounding her, incessantly babbling words she could not understand from mouths she could not plainly see. Everything was flashing in tiny incomprehensible scenes—a strobe effect that left the approaching enemies in a different spot with each new picture. She stood her ground.
*****
Raphael had grabbed her wrists, forcing Iole Máni from her hand, and transported her with angelic speed to the surface of Jinn’s baby moon, to the only place he could think of that might help her understand what she was, what she could be, and what she was choosing to become.
He took her flailing and thrashing about to be nothing more than her continuing struggle to free herself from his embrace. He released her.
She didn’t try to scratch his eyes out, as he had thought. She didn’t even yell at him. Instead, she turned her back to him, hands going to her throat.
“Kagi Naga, you will listen to what I have to say. Consider the rest of the universe as lost until you calmly hear me out. Do not try to flee. I will let you leave only when I have finished with you.”
She staggered away from him and fell to her knees. He was pleased. She seemed resigned to finally listen.
“Naga, you can yet be Death. It isn’t glamorous, no. But it is extremely necessary. Imagine what would happen to this universe if there was no Death Angel… only those vile little reapers.” He shuddered.
Her shoulders slumped forward. Perhaps his words were reaching her. Perhaps he could yet save her wings. Raphael’s heart ached at the thought of such magical wings disappearing forever. He didn’t believe he could bear it, the loss of them… the loss of her.
“Naga, you can do this. You only need to remember how.”
She didn’t answer him.
“If you will but try, I vow to help you in any way I possibly can. In truth, Naga, I cannot bear the thought of losing my only little sister. Speak to me. Just say something, anything.” He sighed wearily. “Are you still angry with me? I’m sorry I hurt you before. In truth, I wanted you to be pleased with me, to say all those wondrous things you did.” He sighed again and looked away, blushing. “I was so angry. Angry with you, angry with Father, angry with myself. I knew you weren’t made for me, as much as I wished for it… it would never be like that for us. But why him? Why Apollyon? He certainly didn’t deserve you. That old blue devil took the most precious thing I had ever known, and he soiled it, changed it forever. I hated him with a fire that threatened to consume me. Alas, I accepted what was right for you and eventually moved past my own selfishness. I had no other choice.” He looked back to her then. “Naga? Naga, are you even listening to me? Have I poured out my weary soul to no avail?”
Her tiny pale form crumpled in on itself and she fell to her side.
Raphael stared, confused by the crimson flow covering her neck, saturating her crisp white gown.
“Naga?”
Then… he saw her soul leave. For a couple heartbeats, the mighty Arch stood frozen, shock and wonder filling him.
Her dainty spirit was brilliant, no darkness clinging to it, no black lacing its edges. He had imagined the image of Apollyon had been forever burned upon it, tattooed across her very soul. He was wrong.
When sanity returned, he scooped her limp body against his chest and carried her back home.
Gabriel met him upon her balcony, furious. “What have you done?” he demanded. “Why did I feel her soul leave this plane?”
Raphael had fire smoldering in his golden eyes. “You had already taken her wings?” His words roared, echoing across the sky.
Gabriel blanched. “I took them when she drew her weapon, seconds before you kidnapped her.”
“What were you thinking?” Raphael yelled. “You heard what I said, to her and you both. Taking her wings without talking it through was wrong and I wasn’t going to let it happen like that. You knew my thoughts, Brother. You knew I wished to speak truthfully with her. She was Angel when I grabbed her and human when I released her from my arms.”
Gabriel was staring at her bloodied, lifeless form. “Why did she tear out her own throat?”
“I took her to the moon,” Raphael whispered, but bitter sobs broke through his words.
Daichi ran onto the balcony and snatched her to his chest. “Naga!” His mournful cry resonated through the heavens. “Naga, what have they done to you?” His knees buckled. He sat down upon the cold stone, cradling her in his arms.
Raphael hit his knees in front of them, reaching to wipe the blood from her cooling cheek.
“Touch her not, Angel.” The intense hatred in Daichi’s voice made Raphael jerk his hand back.
“Be calm. Ask Father to restore her.”
Gabriel’s soothing voice only made Raphael’s anger flare again. “Do you not think I’ve been doing just that this whole time? From the moment I saw her soul leave, I have been pleading for her.”
“What’s happening to her?” Daichi whispered.
The Archs turned, gazing in horror as the sparkling clear crystals upon her cheek slowly turned to rarest sapphires, radiant upon her colorless face.
Gabriel gasped. “No…”
“He has her,” Raphael whispered. “She cannot return because he holds her there. I have delivered her into the very hands I once sought to save her from.”
Daichi looked up at the terrified Arch. “Who holds her?”
“Apollyon,” Gabriel answered.
“No. He cannot have her.” Daichi grabbed Raphael’s tunic. “Slay me as well. Let me go to her and rescue her. Let me escort her to wherever she belongs. You cannot let him bind her in hell.”
“Look,” Gabriel said, awestruck.
The witnessing Angels watched as the crystals upon her chest turned to sapphires, and then the ones upon her shoulders as well. Tears slipped from Raphael’s heavenly eyes as the scarlet stains faded and new gemstones painted vibrant blue streaks upon her neck, covering where her nails had torn the flesh away.
“How is this possible?” Daichi sounded like a scared little boy. “If she is dead, why does her body change?”
“She hasn’t fully passed over to the Otherworld. She is yet in the Nether. Apollyon holds her there, keeping her from going where he cannot follow. And… keeping her from being able to return here. She is his prisoner,” Gabriel explained.
“But why does her color change?”
“Because, Daichi,” Raphael said. “Those are his marks, Apollyon’s. Where his sapphires bloom… that’s where he’s touching her, healing her. He was always blessed with such power, yet he chose not to use it. Only with her is he changed.”
“Touching her?” Daichi tore open her clothing just before the scar near her navel darkened.
This was the woman who had held him from birth. He knew where every sparkling scar was upon her body. And his heart sank with that knowledge.
“Do it now, Raphael!” Daichi tore at the Arch’s clothing. “Slay me and send me to save her before he claims her wholly.”
“It will do no good, little brother. He is too powerful for you to overcome, especially in the Nether. You will sacrifice your life for nothing. If Naga wakes only to find her Daichi has been slain, she will not be healed. She will slip back into the Nether and Apollyon’s arms, until the end of all things.”
Raphael’s words only added to the helpless tears dripping from the sapphire Angel’s chin, falling softly upon his only love’s cold cheeks. He carried her lifeless form and laid her gently upon the giant bed.
The three Angels stood vigil over a tiny woman they were powerless to help.
“Daichi, Brother, you have only ever known her thusly—painted sapphire scars and pink curls,” Gabriel said. “You were not privileged to see her when she was fair and golden and beautiful.”
“She has always been beautiful,” Daichi said. “I may not have seen her before she was Naga, back when she was the Jenevier you speak of, yet her thoughts were never hidden from me. I saw her, minus her glorious colors, within her mind.”
Raphael grunted out a laugh. “These glorious colors, as you call them, were all his doing, Apollyon’s. His blending changed her curls, her skin, and her eyes. The sapphires are only there to cover up the many horrible scars she received. Every single one of them was because of him. Every… single… one.”
“Not anymore,” Gabriel said. “The ones now sparkling upon her neck are—”
He abruptly stopped when Raphael shot him a scalding glare.
“Perhaps,” Daichi said. “Yet, the color of her curls denotes her affinity to her Dragons. They may have changed during her blending, but they were always meant to be thus.”
“Yes.” Raphael was speaking aloud, yet he sounded as if his words were meant for his ears alone. “Father let her true colors come forth during that glorious blending miracle. Yet, I still want to know. Why did it have to be with him? Why was he the one blessed with her innocent heart? He has done nothing but destroy and disobey since the day he was created. Why was he so blessed… Why? The lowliest of the light ones would have been better for her than the Prince of Darkness.”
Daichi smiled knowingly. “Because, Raphael, it was never meant to darken her. It was meant to lighten him. You see, Naga is who she is, whether her outside reflected it or not. Apollyon is the one who was changed. You have known him always, Brother. Have you ever seen him in such pain? Have you ever known him to be as completely miserable as he is now? No, you have not. A dark one such as him could never know ultimate pain. The kind of pain that comes from the heart—true pain, true misery, soul rending grief—a mother losing her child, a husband losing his wife, a son losing his precious mother. The kind of pain that stops the heart… yet accursed time just keeps ticking on, no matter how badly you wished it did not. He knows this pain now. He knows exactly what it feels like—the stabbing ache that never eases. He now knows loss, and sympathy, and regret, and hopelessness. That was the blessing Father gifted him when He allowed the blending with my precious Kagi Naga.”
“΄Tis true,” Gabriel whispered. “He can never hate as he once did. His heart is no longer in it. How can a being deal out misery when he’s completely consumed by love… and the loss of it?”
Raphael stared at her tiny, motionless body, tears blurring her image. “But… at what cost? She may be hell’s torment, but has she not suffered at least as much?”
“Yes, and such is life,” Daichi said. “The good with the bad, so often that’s the case. Alas, that is why I now draw breath. I was given birth through her grief, life from her tears. Now, as long as we’re together, she will be healed, whole, happy. Apollyon has no such hope. In truth, I almost feel sorry for him. To know an eternity minus that little Angel right there… I can imagine no worse hell.”
They stood staring at her silent form, but their minds were on joys and sorrows of the past.
“Look,” Daichi whispered, pointing at her. “Did you see that? I could have sworn her leg just moved.”
They watched intently as her muscles slowly began to twitch,
electric impulses of life trying to awaken her cold, still form.
“She has been absent her body too long,” Gabriel warned. “Be on guard. This isn’t going to end well, for any of us.”
Daichi was horrified. The intermittent muscle spasms gradually gave way to full on seizures. He tried to go to her, hold her while she suffered.
Raphael held his arm up, barring the blue Angel access. “Hold, Brother. You don’t want to be too close. Trust me. Forget not, she is the Angel of Death, built to be lethal. Give her time to regain her bearing, to regain her mind. And give her adequate space so that you may keep your sickeningly beautiful head right where it is, upon your shoulders.”
Her body jerked upright as she inhaled noisily. Her black eyes were rolled up in her head. Her snowflakes could no longer be seen, just eerie, haunting blackness. The three mighty Angels flinched when she screamed out the name of the Prince of Hell. It echoed and rang throughout the gilded palace halls.
“Naga! Naga!”
When Daichi called out to her, those wild black eyes locked on him. Yet, there was no hint of recognition in them.
Chapter 36
Shamsiel
(SHAM-she-eel)
Once again, Apollyon was left on his knees, empty-handed, sobbing bitterly, openly.
I am supposed to be the Prince of Hell, yet I wallow in my own personal one, he thought. At least she returned to the realm of the living. There is yet hope. I may see you again one day, my love, my Jenevier.
He wiped his eyes and looked around to see if anyone had witnessed him losing his lovely wife, and then his composure.
The Nether was a vast terminal of sorts. Jeweled streets ran this way and that—multiple pathways leading to many Otherworlds. Hell was but one of them. This was the neutral grounds, the place where the blessed and the damned both passed through. The depot stop after death. This was the only spot where the light ones and the dark ones crossed paths without conflict. Each Angel passed through the Nether, escorting certain souls to their final home. There was a truce surrounding the place. All beings, no matter their affinity, held it as sacred, hallowed ground.