The grey-winged young angel stepped in front of Stephan and held out his arm. "Stand down, Stephan. This is my bounty."
"Oh?"
"You don't know?"
"Know what?" Stephan asked.
"Jaylen is now the Angel of Darkness."
"You don't mean he's Finalis."
"Yes. Jaylen is the one who will destroy everything." Nimiel drew two thin silver shortswords from his back and pointed them at Jaylen. "But he won't get a chance because I am about to slice him into ribbons."
Stephan chuckled. "Be my guest. I've been wanting to watch a seraph fight."
Nimiel grinned darkly as he jumped towards Jaylen, his dual blades barely parried by the trained fighter. He tried again, but his lower attack was parried as well. "You're fast, but how fast?"
Jaylen's arm muscles were already starting to ache, but he continued fighting. He reached down into his pocket between swings to find his blue topaz amulet, but it was quickly knocked out of his hand and landed on the side of the street a few feet away. Nimiel had managed to do that with just his blade. "Nice form. Where did you train?"
"Heaven." Nimiel brought his blades up to block Jaylen's overhead swing. He dropped low and kicked at him. "What did you think I did for those first few years of my life as Nimiel? I was locked up and couldn't do anything, so I practiced fighting."
Jaylen rolled to the side, barely avoiding the seraph who lunged at him. "What? Did you give your beloved swords names?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Nimiel's right blade swooshed through the air. "This one is Pain. And this one is Agony." The left one was thrust forward, ripping through Jaylen's tunic and scratching against his skin.
"Ah!" Jaylen grabbed the shallow cut above his hip.
Nimiel climbed up on top of a nearby house and laughed mockingly as he spun his swords with elaborate ease. "What's wrong, Finalis? Getting tired already?"
"My name is Jaylen. I will always be Jaylen!"
"You are the Angel of Darkness, whether you want to accept it or not. As such, it is my one and only duty to defeat you in order to save the universe."
Nimiel dove off of the top of the building, flipping as he went. A flurry of black petals followed him. He landed gracefully with his tattered grey wings outstretched. One of his swords flew through the air and penetrated Jaylen's boot, pinning him in place. "I might not be able to fly yet, but I can do so much more than you can. Can't run now, can you, Finalis?"
Jaylen struggled to pull the sword from his aching foot as the blood poured through the sole of his boot. It wouldn't budge. "Nimiel, stop. Please stop. Let me explain."
"You don't have anything to explain, Finalis." Nimiel circled him like a shark around a fish. "Because I remember all that you did for me, I will give you the decision as to how you want to die."
Then Jaylen got an idea. "Nim, listen to me. You just said that you remember all that I did for you. You're my friend. Don't let this change that. I am the one who saved your life. I even brought you back to life. I was the only person who brought you food on that ship and kept you company. I never asked for anything in return."
Nimiel stopped and met eyes with him. "I . . ."
"Jaylen, get down!"
Jaylen dropped to the ground as Jeremiah flew overhead. A blast of purple energy slammed into Nimiel, throwing him through the side of a nearby building. Bricks showered down into the street as the citizens ran away screaming.
Jeremiah landed next to Jaylen and pulled the sword out of his foot. "Run. Run as fast as you can and don't look back. Cael is with Trevor. I will send a friend to get you."
"But you can't take on Nimiel."
"I can take on anyone. Now go!" Jeremiah screamed at him as he summoned a ball of bright purple seraph shine.
"But-"
"Now is not the time for you to play hero! You have to get out of the immediate area before Nimiel sends you into his dream world."
For some unknown reason, he obeyed the seraph. Jaylen slid his sword back into its sheath. He took off through the streets as people ran off in a panic. It was like the slave games all over again. He dodged around crowds of terrified people, slid underneath wagons carrying goods, and leapt over crates of various fruits and vegetables that lined the streets. A few merchants held their fists in the air as they shouted obscenities at him, but Jaylen didn't dare stop. He could hear the fighting back behind him in the distance as Jeremiah went one on one against his fellow seraph brother. Why? Why would Jeremiah risk losing everything just to protect the one who was supposed to destroy the universe? Jaylen couldn't think about that right now. He had to keep running and breathing. Once he was outside the city, he headed for the only place he could find. The forest.
Again, Jaylen found himself running for his life through the forest. It was called The Crypt, but he didn't have another choice. Jaylen would rather take his chances with the darkness of the overgrown forest than to stay and be captured. He jumped over fallen trees and across frozen creeks as the mage-glow in the sky darkened. He had to find somewhere to hunker down before it got any colder.
Just as he reached a bluff overlooking the slowly flowing river below him, he stopped. The loud sound of a horse's hooves approaching quickly from behind sent a chill up his spine. They found him. He was cornered with no way out. Without his amulet, he couldn't use his magic to distract them. If it was a horse, then it was probably a mounted guard. That would be a difficult fight on a good day. Guards have reinforcements. He closed his eyes and weighed his desperate options. The water would be freezing. There was no way of knowing if there were any jagged rocks below the surface or if the water was even deep enough. As the sound of the hooves came closer, he made his final decision. This was it. Taking a deep breath, Jaylen jumped from the cliff into the water below.
Defiled
Angel of Darkness Book Seven
Defiled
Copyright © 2015 by Mackenzie Morris
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Chapter 1
Two Months Later
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Uh . . . yes, yes I think I can. Where am I?"
"Purgatory. Don't worry. You are in good hands here. I know what I'm doing. Though, this is the first time I have done this for someone so close to me. I hope this will not be too awkward. Slowly open your thoughts again and focus for me. Focus on my voice."
"Okay. The fog is fading."
"Perfect. We will begin this process with the simple questions, just to make sure that you are awakening naturally into this new state. How are you feeling?"
"Strange. I feel cold, empty, and like I'm longing for something. But I don't know what that thing is."
"That is completely normal. Just take your time and focus on anything that enters your mind. Don't be overwhelmed by this place. Do you know my name?"
"Jeremiah. Seraph Jeremiah."
"Very good. Now, once you feel steady enough to continue, we will begin."
"I think I'm ready."
"All right." Jeremiah's voice was calming and soft. "Now, start by stating your full name."
"Kato Amelia Corrifus."
"Maiden name?"
"Vallen."
"Good. How old are you?" Jeremiah asked.
"Twenty-five."
"Very good. When you are ready, why don't you tell me your life story so I can get a better view of the value of your soul?"
"My life story?" Kato asked. "I'd rather not. It's . . . it's not something I'm necessarily proud of."
"That doesn't matter to me. Ka
to, you specifically asked me to be the one to do this for you instead of Tarael. I'm here. We have all the time you need, but time is very precious no matter where it is being spent."
"Of course."
"Please begin. Tell me why your soul should be given to the angels instead of the demons. This is very important, so don't leave anything out, especially not about the events surrounding you and Divinus. Prove to me that you weren't the one at fault in that relationship. But start at the beginning."
"My mother always told me to be poised, submissive, and silent. Appearances were everything to her, and my father made sure that she was able to impose her will on me even from a very young and impressionable age. We were peasants, field workers in Lorm. We couldn't grow much there because the ground was hard and mostly red clay. What little we could grow wasn't enough to pay our taxes. But my mother was insistent. She would take a month's wages and spend it on one dress for me. She spared nothing. I would be wearing silk, lace, and pearls while we starved just so I could look how she believed a proper lady should look. Before I was tall enough to even see over the kitchen table, I was being slapped with wooden spoons if my posture wasn't perfect. She would test me by placing books on my head. I couldn't read them, but I had better not drop them."
"Why was she so insistent on you being proper?" Jeremiah asked.
"Marriage, of course. I was their only female child. With my brother, James, being . . . troubled in the mind, I was their only chance to move up in the world. I was apparently attractive to men from an extremely young age, so they viewed that as my ticket to being cared for in life. My father would bribe the servants of the noble houses whenever balls were being held just so I could sneak in and hopefully be seen by some rich man. I was only six when it started, but I was taught certain ways to look at men and make them look at me. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was simply following the orders from my mother. But I never did well enough to garner the proposal my mother was so adamantly pressuring me to achieve."
"Never?" Jeremiah asked.
"Never. Sure, I was asked about doing other things that I didn't fully understand until I was much older, but that would have been a step in the opposite direction. I had to value my morals above everything else, you know?" Kato asked. "Anyway, that part of my life didn't last very long after all. On one of those nights, after playing princess at some noble's dance, I returned home to find a house full of blood and overturned furniture. There were claw marks all over the walls and the windows were shattered. My parents were dead. My brother was standing in the middle of it all with blood covering his arms and legs, but he was uninjured."
"Werewolf attack?"
"Yes. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, it is the only thing that makes sense. I was so young, so I had to have someone to take care of me. The guards showed up and took me and James to the orphanage in town where I quickly fit in with the other children. The man who ran the orphanage-"
"Was he mean to you?"
Kato laughed. "No. Quite the opposite, actually. He was wonderful. He would play games with all the children and teach us things. That is where I finally learned to read. We all called him Father, even though none of us were related to him. Those days at the orphanage were filled with running around in the yard, planting flowers, and eating candy by the handful. It was paradise to finally be a kid. Father was a rich man who happened to have never had children of his own, so he opened the orphanage and funded it with his own wealth. We were like the children he couldn't have for himself. We loved Father. If I could have stayed there with all the children, I would have."
"What happened that made you leave?" Jeremiah asked.
"Not getting older, if that's what you're asking. Father let even the oldest children stay far past when they were more than capable of getting jobs and taking care of themselves. He didn't want them to leave . . . except for James. But you already know all about him and why he left the orphanage. I really don't want to have to tell it."
"Then don't. It's all right. We will discuss James later. Carry on."
"The older children in the orphanage would help take care of the babies and the toddlers. No . . . the reason I wasn't there forever was because bad luck likes to follow me, I guess. The orphanage was ransacked during the Eight Night War, but I was saved by an angel who was fighting with his paladin out on the battlefield. The paladin didn't seem happy about helping a worthless orphan like me, but the angel was kind and flew me to the harbor where he told me to get on a ship and leave. I obeyed."
"Do you remember the angel's name?"
"Zeriel. It was Zeriel. Funny how things get connected like that, huh?" Kato giggled. "So, I sneaked on board the closest ship I could find and hid down below deck in the cargo hold. I wasn't a very good hider at that point, so the crew found me once we were a few hours out to sea. Out of every ship I could have picked, I picked the worst one. They were a group of ex-slavers who had been secretly shipping slaves in between shipments of tobacco and textiles. To them, I was just one more slave to be sold. They were mean, but never truly hurt me. I like to think that was because I worked hard and had a keen interest in the way the ship worked. Eventually, the captain took notice of me and he began training me. He taught me everything I needed or wanted to know about sailing. I owe everything in my sailing career to that man."
"Do you feel gratitude to a slaver who forced you to work?"
"Strangely enough, yes. I do. If it wasn't for that captain teaching me about sailing, I never would have been able to be a captain myself."
Jeremiah sounded like he was deep in thought. "Interesting. Continue. What happened then?"
"Then . . . I grew up on the seas. I stopped being a slave girl and started fitting in like a member of the crew. I was one of the men. I spit, cursed, and learned to hold my liquor. You know, all the things my mother would have thrown a fit over. But I didn't care. I actually had a few friends in the crew. It was nice. I was free."
"But then your bad luck caught up with you, didn't it?" Jeremiah asked.
"Even out in the middle of the Onyx Sea, my bad luck didn't stay away for very long. It all came literally crashing down around me when I was fourteen. I had been asleep one night when I heard the cannons. The next thing I knew, I was in the water swimming for my life as the ship was sinking behind me."
"Is this where Divinus shows up?"
"Yes. I was so scared, but he looked enough like an angel that I believed I could trust him."
"Foolishly believed."
Kato scoffed. "Maybe. But at that point, I was just desperate to be on dry land. I took his hand and held on for dear life as he plucked me out of the water and flew to Cilona. That's where I spent the next few months of my life, by Divinus's side."
"Did Divinus take care of you?"
"He did. At first, it was simply as friends. But then things quickly changed. We grew closer and did everything together. We were at a chocolate shop in Cilona when he first kissed me."
"Divinus made the first move romantically?"
She sighed. "Yes. He did. But I trusted him. I believed that he loved me. He made me feel so special, so I returned the kiss."
"I'm sorry, but I have to ask some very personal questions now."
"Go ahead. I am no longer ashamed."
"That is good to hear. Maybe you are growing used to this change. All right, Kato. Were you a virgin at that point?" Jeremiah asked.
"Yes. I lost my virginity to Divinus. We were only together once."
"Why?"
"Why what?" Kato asked.
"Why were you only together once?"
"Because it hurt me."
"I see. Was he the one who initiated it?" Jeremiah asked.
"Yes. He was very eager."
"Noted."
"Do you want details?" Kato asked.
"I would prefer not to hear them. Why don't we jump to you getting your ship? That was soon after that, wasn't it?"
"It was. I got scared after h
earing a priest talking about being pure. I felt like I was somehow dirty, impure, or defiled. I ran."
"You ran away from Divinus?"
"Yes. I was scared, so scared." Kato said. "I was only fifteen and no one had ever talked to me about how to be in a serious relationship with someone, so I did what I had always done. I ran. I wanted the same freedoms I had out on the ocean. That's when I first stole something."
"You managed to avoid theft longer than most orphans."
"That doesn't mean I'm proud of it. But I knew I would need money and I knew that the temple to Carvael had just collected offerings. What desperate girl wouldn't be drawn to that?" Kato asked. "I stole all the gold I could carry then bought myself a ship and hired a crew. That's what I had been doing when I met Jaylen at the harbor a few years later."
"Okay. And no more Divinus?"
"Not until he fell and was injured. I took pity on him and nursed him back to help. He then disappeared and showed up again inside Jaylen's body. You know the rest of the story."
Jeremiah hummed a bit as he thought. "Except for some of what has happened over the past two months. I've been busy with Cael and hunting down Sulstair the necromancer. Please tell me what has happened since the fight in Cilona against Nimiel. I need this to be in the most vivid of details. Actually, if I have your permission, I would like to view it."
"How would you view it?" Kato asked.
"With your permission, I can open your soul and watch the events of the past two months. It will be much quicker and I will be able to get all the details I need."
"Go ahead. I have nothing to hide, Jeremiah. Though, I would ask that you not linger on the intimate moments, for Jaylen's sake."
"Of course. You have my word. Just relax and let me take over your thoughts. Since yours and Jaylen's souls are combined, I will be able to see both of your accounts. Now, relax. We are going back to the morning after Jaylen escaped from the fight in Cilona."
Angel of Darkness Books 6-10 Page 13