Even though David was addressing his tirade to The Well, Michael felt that every word was meant for him, and he felt his stomach fill with anger. He was the only one who was an outsider; he was the only who had been brought here, summoned to this part of the world. And he was the only one whose destiny was to be The Well’s next guardian. “You’ll never succeed!” he roared. “NEVER!”
Flying through the air and transforming at the same time, Michael didn’t notice David had reacted even more quickly and had moved to the side until there was nothing before him but empty air. He dove onto the ground, and by the time he stood up and turned around, David was holding Ronan by the throat. A small piece of Michael’s heart died as he watched Ronan’s body flail and convulse uncontrollably a few feet from the ground and his hands clutch at David’s fingers that were squeezing tighter and tighter around his neck. His boyfriend was being assaulted, and Michael was just staring at him. What the hell was wrong with this picture?
Once again David proved that his reflexes were just a bit more honed. Age and experience did sometimes triumph over youth and bravado. Just as Michael soared forward, David flicked his wrist and sent Ronan flying into The Well. He struck the wall so hard two stones were dislodged and fell off, one of them hitting Ronan on the side of his head, slicing off a bit of flesh before crashing onto the ground.
By the time Edwige and Michael ran toward Ronan, flanking him on either side, two new stones had grown in the empty space. The Well was rejuvenating itself. “You see!” Michael cried. “You can’t destroy The Well, and you can’t kill us!”
“Just like I could never find my way here?!” David replied. “Don’t you remember, you stupid, little boy, that rules are made to be broken?”
“Just like truces?” Edwige asked. She was kneeling beside Ronan, holding him in her arms, but she was looking directly into David’s eyes. “You swore before your goddamned Zachariel that you would uphold peace between our two races!”
“I lied,” he said simply.
Edwige wanted to strike David herself for going back on his word, for wreaking havoc and endangering the lives of so many innocent people, but just then Ronan stirred in her arms and she forgot about global salvation and focused entirely on her son. “Ronan,” she whispered. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” he replied softly. After Michael helped him stand, Ronan whispered, “Thank you, love.”
Enough sentiment! It was time for the animal to be released from its cage. After ripping off his shirt, David tossed it to the ground, and his massive chest began to heave. He felt his shoulder blades splitting apart, and even though the pain was less excruciating than it had been the first time the metamorphosis had taken place, the feeling was still bone-chilling. Clenching his fists, David raised his arms, his biceps bulging, his neck resembling the trunk of a tree, and he howled. “Ahhhhhhh!!!!!”
No one knew what to make of the scene. They were horrified and transfixed, and it looked as if David was going to explode. They never imagined he was going to sprout wings.
Slowly two feathered wings, the color of midnight, emerged from David’s back. They were majestic, about eight feet in length and several feet high, and took up more than half the entire length of the cave. When the transformation was complete, David’s breathing returned to normal, and his wings fluttered lazily behind him. The only sound in the cave was The Well’s vibrations that increased tenfold in response to David’s incredible makeover. When Michael finally spoke, his words could hardly be heard. “Oh ... my ...”
“God,” David said, finishing his thought.
“What the bloody hell is happening!” Blakeley shouted. England wasn’t supposed to have earthquakes? Was she? Well, she must, because the ground was shaking. And it wasn’t just because a stampede of students was rushing past him to get inside St. Sebastian’s and hopefully to safety. All except those two. “Ciaran! Saoirse!” Blakeley cried out. “Don’t just stand there! Get your arses into the gym!”
But when Blakeley got closer to them he couldn’t move either. It wasn’t every day he saw a colleague ripping open a student’s neck with his teeth. “Joubert!” Blakeley gasped. “What the ...”
That’s all he could say before Joubert let go of Talisa’s convulsing body to lunge at Blakeley like some deformed animal and knock him to the ground. He heard some bones in his back break and, sadly, he knew they were the least of his worries.
Flat on his back, staring up into his colleague’s now-unrecognizable face, Blakeley finally understood what was happening. Evil really was walking among the angels. Lochlan had been right all along! Not only was evil alive at Double A, it was living inside his colleagues. He didn’t know if the thing on top of him was a monster, a zombie, or a vampire. It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, there was still a chance that his friend was trapped inside. “Gwendal!” Blakeley cried. “Listen to me, please!” Frozen on the sidelines, Ciaran and Saoirse watched Joubert release his hold on Blakeley and look down at him with a quizzical expression. It was working; Blakeley was reaching him. “Let me help you, mate,” Blakeley said. “You don’t have to do this!”
Stupid mortal. Joubert already knew that. But he also knew that the leader he had once trusted was out of his mind, Jean-Paul had been senselessly murdered, and all his years teaching theology had brought him no closer to God. He was damned, and there was nothing Blakeley could say or do that could help him.
“I know I don’t have to,” Joubert finally replied. “But I want to.”
At first Blakeley didn’t feel a thing, then it was like a branding iron was being seared into his neck.
His body was flooded with so much burning heat that Blakeley thought he was going to spontaneously combust. And when he saw the flames erupt in front of him, he was convinced that the fireball was him and not Joubert.
“Oh my God, it worked!” Ciaran said as he stared in amazement at the syringe he was still holding in his hand. When he had realized he had an extra one in his pants’ pocket, he wasn’t sure if it could substitute for a stake, but he jammed it into Joubert’s back, piercing his heart from behind, just in case. Score one for the Science Boy! Seeing his coach turn paler by the second, he thought it might be a hollow victory. Then again, maybe not.
“Coach,” Ciaran said, bending low and whispering in his ear. “Hold on! We can reverse this; we can make you live forever. You just have to say the word, and we’ll find someone.”
Saoirse was shocked. Even in the face of death, Ciaran was a scientist and looked for a way to prolong life. Taking in the extent of Blakeley’s injuries, she wasn’t sure any vampire would be able to help him become immortal. They would never know, however, because Blakeley had another wish.
“Get me to Sister Mary,” he said urgently. “Now.”
Ciaran could try to cheat death; Saoirse wanted to respect Blakeley’s request. Scooping the coach up in her arms, she barely felt his weight. “Go to the gym, Ciar,” she ordered.
“I’m not leaving you alone,” her brother protested.
“Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me how special I am?” she asked. “Let me prove it.”
Reluctantly, Ciaran was forced to admit that Saoirse could protect herself better than he could. “Be careful,” he warned.
Following her instincts, Saoirse sprinted to Archangel Cathedral and wasn’t surprised to find Sister Mary praying in a pew near the back of the church. She was surprised, however, to see Nakano kneeling next to her. Suddenly, her burden was too heavy, and Saoirse gently placed Blakeley on the cold, marble floor. He didn’t feel the chill. Switching places, Sister Mary knelt next to Blakeley, and Saoirse sat next to Nakano. As Kano held his friend’s hand, Blakeley reached up for Sister Mary’s.
The nun cradled his head in her lap, not looking away from his fearful eyes, not flinching at his grotesque wounds. She crossed herself and then kissed the small, silver crucifix that always adorned her neck.
“Sister,” Blakeley said, as the blood poured from his n
eck, staining her habit. “Please ... teach me to pray before I die.”
“Repeat after me,” she said. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” She continued, pausing after each phrase so Blakeley could repeat her words, so he could finally speak out loud the prayer that had eluded him for almost his entire lifetime. Saying the words softly, slowly, he felt like a child learning how to speak, learning a language he had never known existed. He wanted to thank her for giving him such a beautiful gift, but the moment after he mouthed the word Amen, he was dead.
chapter 30
The Well wanted to be alone. It had had enough of intruders and uninvited guests and wanted them to leave. It was trying to be subtle, vibrate at a low frequency, shake the earth noticeably, but lightly, hoping its message would be received. Several minutes had passed, and still no one was taking the hint. All right then. The time had come for more drastic action.
Rumbling louder, The Well shook the earth more violently. Brania and Imogene fell to the ground on top of each other, and Ronan grabbed onto both Edwige and Michael for support so he wouldn’t topple over. Only David stood tall, unfazed by the anger that was erupting around them. As the rocks in the walls started to grind against each other and shift position, the cave began to fill with dust.
David smiled and raised his hands over his head, making his wings stretch out a few inches farther. “I pledge to you, Zachariel,” David prayed, “that I will destroy this Well and wipe its existence from your earth!”
An earsplitting roar bellowed from The Well itself, and the stones in the ground and the ceiling started to split apart from one other. Michael didn’t know who was in control—David or The Well-but it looked like the cave was starting to be demolished. He held on to Ronan tighter and was glad to see that his boyfriend was getting his strength back, that the fire was returning to his eyes, but Michael wondered if it was too late. What could they possibly do to stop David from carrying out his depraved plot? Sure, the man was demented, but he had been successful. He had found The Well’s location just as he had threatened.
“Water connects life to death, bridging the gap to immortality,” David said. “Once I sever your connection and destroy the source of your abhorrent race, you will wither and die as Zachariel and I have always wished it to be!”
“Will you shut up about Zachariel!” Michael cried. “He is nothing compared to The Well!”
David loved accepting a challenge from someone he considered a fool. “Let’s see about that,” he fumed.
Standing with his back to The Well, David tucked his wings in close to his body. Then he arched his back so they could unfurl at a rapid speed and slap against The Well’s already shaking stones.
Laughing wildly, David kept flapping his immense wings, and each time feather struck rock the entire cave shook. Soon it looked like The Well was being torn from its foundation. Michael couldn’t believe it. David was doing it; he was actually destroying The Well. This had gone too far.
“Are you strong enough to fight?” Michael silently asked Ronan.
“I’ll be right by your side, love.”
Splitting apart, they each jumped up and grabbed onto a wing, but David’s unnatural appendages were so thick and powerful, they wouldn’t bend. Michael and Ronan could only hang onto them, unable to touch the ground with their feet to gain leverage. As a result their added weight did nothing to slow down the wings’ assault.
“Slide!” Michael heard Ronan silently yell, and they both slid down the wings in opposite directions until they were at the tips. There they could plant themselves firmly onto the ground and hold on to the uncooperative wings. As they dug their heels into the cave’s vibrating floor, it took all their strength to prevent the wings from unfurling completely. But they were succeeding. They heard David’s laugh die as his wings fluttered with even more intensity, like a fly’s when it knows it has been captured. Only this time Michael and Ronan were the pests.
Even though the boys had interrupted David’s assault on The Well, destruction had been set in motion, and all around them the hallowed ground was crumbling. Water was starting to pour into the cave from crevices between the rocks, crevices that were widening with each second. Brania felt the cold rush of water around her feet, and she realized that she was way out of her element. Not to mention her comfort zone.
“Just how far underwater are we?” she asked.
“A few hundred miles,” Edwige replied. “Give or take.”
Give or take?! Brania was suddenly gripped with an irrational fear of drowning. It was irrational because she was a vampire, and she should have the ability to swim a hundred or so miles while holding her breath. But this living and breathing underwater thing was an unknown concept to her. She had spent the past several centuries landlocked, and she preferred it that way. Plus, her feud with water vampires made her despise the sea, so perhaps her fear of the water wasn’t so irrational after all. It was, however, going to pose a problem, since the water was now rising up to her knees. “How am I supposed to get out of here?!”
“The same way you got in,” Imogene replied.
That’s my girl, Brania thought, always willing to serve your mother.
“As long as you give me my freedom in return,” the girl said.
The words stung Brania and created such a heat within her body that it threatened to boil the water around her. “What?”
Despite all the chaos, Imogene was calm when she spoke. “Whatever is going to happen to me, if I continue to live or die or remain in this limbo, I want to do it without being tied to anyone,” she explained. “I want to be free.”
As much as Brania wanted to get angry, as much as she wanted to throttle Imogene and hold her ungrateful head under the icy water to see what really would happen to the girl, she couldn’t, because more than anything else, she was hurt. She had come to love her companion in a way that she had never loved any other being. The feeling, clearly, was not mutual. Brania wanted to tell Imogene that Imogene had been her salvation this past year, the only ray of light in an endless tunnel of darkness that had threatened to destroy her. But she was not used to pleading; she was not used to fighting for a relationship to survive. “Fine,” Brania said, her voice much harsher than the feelings that lay in her heart. “If that’s what you want, you can have your bloody freedom.”
“Thank you,” Imogene replied. Satisfied, she grabbed hold of both Brania and Edwige, and then there were no more women in the cave.
“That leaves this hellhole to just us boys!” David bellowed. He was frantic to make it look and sound as if he were still in control despite the counterattack Michael and Ronan were putting forth.I promise you, Zachariel, I will not lose this time! David gave his wings one powerful flap, and both boys were sent hurtling in different directions. It was a crushing move, but it wasn’t enough to claim victory.
Wading in the frigid water that was now up to their waists, the boys saw that The Well had recovered, it had stopped shaking, even though the cave continued to tremble, and was back in full control. Enraged by The Well’s fortitude and spirit, David let out a growl and flew to the top of the cave, seemingly intent on diving into the belly of The Well to see what treasures he could find and annihilate on the other side. The Well had other ideas.
Just as David dove, the stones on the top ledge of The Well multiplied and spread out to create a lid, a barrier to conceal its precious contents from sight and seal itself from trespassers trying to gain unwelcome entry. David was descending so quickly he was unable to decrease his speed or switch direction and smashed into The Well’s new protective shell.
Dazed, but clinging to the top of the stone, David began to spin around as The Well burrowed itself lower and lower, plunging under water until it ultimately disappeared into the ground. “Nooooo!!”
David shrieked, “Looks like you’ve failed yet again,” Ronan jeered as David rose from the water.
His jet-black wings were fully outstretched and dripping with wate
r that made each feather glisten.
But it was an illusion. His wings were actually starting to molt, and soon the water around him was sprinkled with feathers, making it look like he was standing in a pool of black rain. Noticing the change in his appearance, David fluttered his wings faster, which only made the shedding quicken.
What was happening? Was Zachariel playing some cruel joke? No, the fallen angel was just tired of backing a loser.
“Once again you have failed!” Zachariel said, his voice booming throughout the decomposing cave.
The voice was so thunderous and so hateful that Michael and Ronan had to cover their ears. David merely fell to his knees. “No!” he protested. “I’ve come so far. I beg you, Zachariel, do not abandon me now!”
“After all the power I’ve bestowed upon you, you are still nothing but a failure!” the livid angel roared. “David Zachary, you are on ... your ... OWN!!”
“Noooo!!” Wailing like a lost child, David rose as stones fell into the water with such frequency and fury that waves started to churn, and it was as if they were in the middle of the ocean. This couldn’t be happening; this shouldn’t be happening to him. No, there was still time to teach Zachariel a lesson. To teach them all a lesson that they should never underestimate David’s power.
Diving underwater, David disappeared. The cave wasn’t that large, but Michael and Ronan still couldn’t find him. They craned their necks, peered close to the water’s surface, and still no sign of him. They only saw David when he shot back up, one hand reaching out, not content until it wrapped itself around Ronan’s neck.
Startled, Ronan tried to pry David’s fingers from his flesh, but the man was determined to take him hostage. With one fist raised overhead David flew higher and faster, breaking through the rock, and into the sea above. He had turned his rage at Zachariel for deserting him into action. And not a moment too soon, because seconds after he broke through the rock ceiling, the cave was gone. It was no longer a safe haven, no longer The Well’s sanctuary, just another part of the ocean.
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