Lailah (The Styclar Saga)

by Nikki Kelly

  Gabriel came into view, taking up position next to Jonah. I watched helplessly as Jonah withdrew a flask from his jacket and soaked Ethan’s body in a clear liquid. His foot was on Ethan’s neck, pinning him to the snow. Gabriel forced Jonah back, and Jonah placed a cigarette to his lips defiantly. He reached in his pocket for his lighter.

  As if in slow motion Ethan, now free from restraint, launched his body from off the ground, bolstering himself behind Jonah. I looked on as Jonah flicked open the metal clasp, and as the end of the cigarette glowed orange with his first puff, he flung the open flame behind his shoulder.

  “No!” I screamed.

  Ethan’s body erupted into flames.

  It wasn’t a quick end. He circled insanely, falling, as his body melted.

  As the flames reached deeper than his flesh and bone, he seemed to explode, becoming nothing more than swirling ash, dispersing in the blizzard.

  I crumpled in a ball. Ethan was gone and I was to blame.

  “Lai.” Gabriel was immediately at my side.

  “Why did you come? You sought my end, and I was giving it to you. But instead Ethan’s gone and he didn’t have to be!” I cried, clutching my aching chest with my hand, blood trickling through my fingers. “I owed him.… He was the only one.… It’s all my fault!” I gasped, bent double, trying to take the deepest of breaths.

  Gabriel turned my chin up to meet his eyes. “Breathe, Lailah, calm down.”

  His pretense of concern for my well-being only filled me with resentment.

  I responded by flinging my body toward him, smacking his chest with my fists, but it was hopeless.

  Everything seemed so hopeless now.

  I sank back into the snow, my hands covering my face. Gabriel sat down beside me. “The Arch Angels sent me to take your life; I don’t deny it, and I didn’t question why. Not until I met you. I thought you were mortal, Lai, and still I fell in love with you. And so I rejected them. We were going to run and I would have protected you.…”

  I wrapped my arms around my knees, squeezing them in to my body. “You told Ruadhan that you killed me…?” I whimpered.

  “I blamed myself. I took too long.…”

  “You didn’t influence Ethan.…” I stuttered, finally looking up to meet his eyes.

  “No. I came to take you away, but instead I found you lifeless. I thought they’d discovered my plan and had sent another to claim your soul. I spent a hundred years searching the in-between—a prison—thinking they had hidden your essence there. I nearly lost myself seeking you out; I started to hear your voice echoing in my mind. I returned to Styclar-Plena and they told me that you were alive, that I had to find you again and complete the task they had passed to me. I refused. I didn’t believe you were still alive. I was tormented.… I hadn’t been able to save you.…” he rushed on.

  “You didn’t fall?” I asked. “Even after you rejected them, they let you keep your immorality, along with your abilities?” It seemed illogical.

  “I didn’t understand why either, not until these last weeks. Then it became clear; I was the only being from our dimension who could find you. That’s why they would not grant my request, they wouldn’t allow me to fall.” Cautiously he stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. “And I am so glad that they didn’t.”

  “Perhaps they thought that when you did find me, you would understand and you would change your mind.” My thoughts crept back to Azrael and his revelation that I was harboring some terrible evil inside of me. And that I had the potential to end all the worlds.

  “Never.” His jaw locked, entirely certain.

  Gabriel’s eyes found their way to the slice running down my body, and his eyes became wide as he pleaded silently, begging me to let him help.

  I didn’t have to ask him again—I knew he was telling the truth, and I opened myself to him. As soon as I did I was filled with such love that it sped through every part of me.

  “Hate to break this up, but we need to move.” Jonah didn’t stand too close. I realized my blood, still flowing from my skin, must have been causing him a lot of distress, so I nodded to Gabriel, accepting his assistance.

  Gabriel kneeled over me and I arched my body backward, letting my long curls tickle the snow below. Steadying my back with his open palm, I felt the tenderness of his breath spread over my skin.

  I didn’t close my eyes as the snow cascaded on top of a backdrop of glowing gold and silver, flowing through my skin and spreading through my veins.

  It was incredible.

  He breathed his energy across the wound, and my skin magically glued back together. The pain was gone in an instant, the burning replaced by a cool tingling sensation that rippled down my skin. Every inch of me absorbed his light and I felt my cheeks glow as the last of his efforts wrapped itself around me.

  I pulled my body up to meet his face and I nestled my cheek next to his, threading my fingers through his golden locks, sewing myself back into him.

  I was pulled out of the moment when, from over Gabriel’s shoulder, I saw a black mark creeping in the distance of the sleeping lake, expanding and growing larger, incongruous in the snowy setting.

  Jonah saw it at the same second and shouted, “Gabriel! He’s coming!”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  GABRIEL PARTED FROM ME and ushered Jonah behind him, racing forward before I had a chance to stop him. Now Jonah was at my side, helping me back to my feet. As Gabriel sped across the snow, drawing an invisible battle line, a harrowing figure, cloaked totally in darkness, flew through the expanding gateway.

  It had to be Zherneboh.

  The cracking of Jonah’s fangs as they broke through his gums caused my body to shudder. With eyes blazing the brightest I had ever seen them, Jonah snatched my wrist, yanking me through the deep snow.

  “What are you doing? I won’t leave him!” I chucked my body away from Jonah, escaping his grasp. His eyes shot to me, his body rigid and firm. I had never seen him so terrified.

  “He will end us. There’s no fight here, only a massacre!”

  This time he wrapped his firm arms around my waist and hoisted me into the air.

  I turned to see that Gabriel had produced a sheet of light, keeping the Pureblood from crossing over to where we were. Jonah started to run. I couldn’t see Zherneboh; the silvers and golds twirling and sparkling behind were too bright, his darkness remained pinned to the other side. Gabriel couldn’t hold him there forever, and my mind raced as to what would happen to him when he finally let the sheet fall.

  I struggled, kicking and flapping my arms. Jonah was picking up speed when a fierce hissing split its way through the quiet, piercing my eardrums.

  It was like a siren calling to me.

  The sensation of Gabriel’s gift receded, giving way to a rising heat in my chest. I felt my eyes begin to burn and I pawed them, feeling the thin skin around my sockets cracking. My nails started to ooze blood. Jonah stopped suddenly. As he did, I broke free, landing with a thud in the snow.

  The shrill noise had dissolved the sheet of light and I turned in time to see Gabriel stumble to the ground.

  Jonah shouted at me, “You can’t help him. Go! Now!” He paused for a split second, regarding me the same way he had when the Hedgerley house was under siege—as though it was the last time he might ever get to do so—and with one last look he sprinted in Gabriel’s direction.

  I hauled myself up from the snow. The clouds’ spilled shapes seemed to part briefly, which allowed me to see Zherneboh clearly in the distance. He was immense and towering, and my eye was drawn away from the swollen scar on his forehead, down to his clenched fist, where long bladed talons sliced their way through his knuckles, prominently pointing in Gabriel’s direction as he strode toward him. He was the Pureblood that invaded my visions, and he was going to kill Gabriel, before he claimed what was his: me.

  Grappling to my feet, I let out a violent scream and ran—no, flew—over the snow toward him. As I neared, I felt my blood boil as he
held Gabriel suspended in the air several feet away from him.

  Zherneboh flashed his black orbs toward me, returning my glare. I couldn’t move. Gabriel fell to the snow. It was me who was now suspended in midair. I took in his horrific features; his tattooed markings grew up his neck as if displaying themselves for my benefit. His mouth was vile; every one of his teeth pointed and jagged. His lizardlike tongue, split at the end, ran in and out of the cracks.

  Lailah, run!

  Gabriel’s words found my thoughts, but they flickered, dipping in and out, like he was a radio station that was out of my range.

  Zherneboh let a roar bellow from his throat; it bounced off the sides of the mountains and I was sure that the forest stood still for him, shuddering.

  Suddenly Jonah flung himself onto the creature’s back, but Zherneboh no longer seemed to care for distractions, keeping his stare glued to me.

  I was helpless to stop Zherneboh’s razor claws penetrating and ripping through Jonah’s cheek and down his neck. He flung him aside as if he weighed no more than a matchstick, sending him hurtling into a distant cluster of rocks, all the while keeping his eyes locked with mine.

  My attention flashed to Gabriel, who lay prone in the snow, manufacturing a ball of light in his palm, concentrating intently. Flashes of lightning struck within the mini typhoon, but as Gabriel sat up to expel the light, Zherneboh opened his mouth and released a thick wave of black smoke. It raged toward Gabriel, dispersing his ball of light and knocking him over. Then it wrapped around his throat, the smoke seeping in between his perfect lips, slowly choking him as it invaded his insides.

  The anger inside me bubbled and spilled into the center of my consciousness, and I smashed through the snow.

  As I caught my breath, I stared up at the sky; a few inches ahead, she hovered. I covered my ears, but the sound of her fangs breaking into place made my skin crawl.

  It was the girl in shadow. She had come.

  I tried to reach for her hand, but withdrew as I watched blades shooting from her knuckles and blackened blood smearing her white skin as they burst through. I witnessed something crawling under her skin, running from her wrists up to her elbow. I stayed still, mesmerized by the lines that inked her skin, staining her. The shapes formed, creating the outline of hundreds of quills overlapping one another. I tried to stand and fought to grasp her long, flowing black curls that drifted down just above her hip.

  I couldn’t reach her; she was already moving toward the Pureblood, whose attention was now firmly placed on her.

  I tried to find Gabriel, but it was as though he had blocked me—I couldn’t hear him and he couldn’t hear me. I watched helplessly as he fought with the smoke, his body glowing as he tried to overcome it.

  I shouted for her, but she didn’t listen to me as she glided toward Zherneboh. The edge of his top lip rose and he snarled, finally turning.

  She stopped about forty feet away from him as he revolved back to the now shrinking black smudge that levitated in the distance. He stretched out his clawed hand in front of him as he grew the gateway.

  The smoke began to evaporate as Gabriel’s light won the struggle; he coughed and spluttered, but he was okay.

  I called to him, but he didn’t even look at me. He was desperately scrambling to his feet, falling as he tried to get up.

  The air shifted behind me. Azrael had appeared. He was with Ruadhan. My lovely Ruadhan. I tried to shout to him to leave, but the words didn’t leave my lips. I couldn’t let him be ended. And as the fondness I felt toward Ruadhan filled my consciousness, I remembered Gabriel’s light and his love.

  I was on my feet. I didn’t know who to go to first, and I stood rooted to the spot, my attention swerving to the scene behind me.

  Through the battering of the blizzard, I observed Azrael heave Ethan’s discarded sword from the ground, tilting his head from side to side as he considered it. He drew a small gold box from his pocket. Whatever was inside glowed as he smothered the tip of the sword with the substance.

  I twisted my body back to the girl; though the backdrop was a perfect white, she was still shrouded in shadow. I flew across the snow as she began gliding forward. I lined myself up with her body as I reached her and we stood side by side. I had to know who she was and I had to convince her to help us.

  “Please!” I cried.

  But she just continued forward as if I didn’t exist.

  I grabbed for her shoulder, but my hand moved through her as if she were made of air. I stopped as short, sharp memories of her flashed across my mind.

  She came to a halt before Zherneboh, whose attention was now embroiled in harnessing the diminishing gateway to the third dimension. I watched him ooze black ink from out of his palms, which floated toward the smudge, cascading into its center. It began enlarging in size. Then the realization of what he was doing hit me. He was going to take her through with him. But why?

  Inhaling quickly, I turned to find Gabriel.

  As I did, the girl in the shadow reflected my action and turned to meet me.

  I froze.

  Glowering back at me was me. She wore my face, only she had sharp canines resting slightly over her lower lip and her eyes were enormous black holes, boring into my own.

  I bounced backward, in shock, as did she. I moved my hand in the air and she did the same. Confused, a thousand questions ran through my mind. Why was she mirroring me?

  As my thoughts whirled, a forceful cracking disturbed the stillness and my attention became transfixed on the sword that struck from behind, fissuring its way through her shoulder blade, piercing straight into her heart. The blade broke through the sternum and punctured the front of her form.

  Zherneboh let out a harrowing screech.

  I lunged forward to the girl and as I did, she seemed to melt into me. My eyes fixed on the sword that was now perforating my own chest. Shaking, I brought my hands to clutch either side of the blade; it was then that I saw the tattooed markings covering my arms and the loose curls cascading down my face, coal black.

  The truth was undeniable. The girl in the shadow wasn’t mimicking my face.…

  She had always been me.

  There was no other explanation. She was an extreme darkness that had been hiding inside me all this time, patiently waiting to take over.

  I jolted forward as an explosion of light soared from behind me. I felt Zherneboh’s presence in me disperse as he left this plane; Gabriel had pushed Zherneboh back through to his own dimension, sealing the gateway.

  As he faded away, the tattoos running the length of my arms began to shrink, disappearing slowly. The sharp daggers boring through my knuckles began fading away, until my skin was white and clean once more.

  She was dying.

  I turned around and lifted my face to find Ruadhan, his hand still held in midair where he had gripped the hilt of the sword, and Azrael positioned several feet behind him.

  “Cessie?” Ruadhan’s voice quaked. “No, love! No!”

  He reached to wipe a tear from my cheek, and pulled away, his hand covered in blood. “You said it was a Pureblood!” Ruadhan screamed. “You said she was safe!”

  Azrael smirked triumphantly behind him.

  I tried to speak. I ran my tongue along the razor points of my teeth and felt them as they became blunt once more. I dropped to my knees.

  Gabriel was at my side first, but he flinched, withdrawing from me as he took in the blade lodged through my chest.

  “What did you do to her?” Gabriel shouted, turning to Azrael.

  Gabriel’s words surrounded me, but he wasn’t with me; there was no sense of his connection. All that existed now was a void.

  “I didn’t do anything. You can all see what she was harboring inside her now. You couldn’t do your job, so I had to do it for you. Albeit by Ruadhan’s hand.”

  “I didn’t know…” Ruadhan’s voice was empty, his arms hanging low at his sides; he seemed to sway.

  “You created her, how could you
…!” Gabriel stuttered.

  “Two hundred years I have wandered this disgusting world searching for her mother. I struck a deal with the Arch Angels—I find Aingeal, I find the Descendant. I find the Descendant, I end her existence. Then we could both return home. I’ll settle for my own return, I don’t need Aingeal. I will have the light of Styclar-Plena.”

  He spat on the ground where I perched, numb.

  “You think they’ll let you return when you are so tainted?” Gabriel said. “You’ve been corrupted by this world, and now you will fall.”

  Azrael staggered backward as Gabriel lunged for him. He reached for the back of his neck, and when nothing happened, he seemed to panic.

  “How can I save her?” Gabriel yelled as he grabbed him.

  “You can’t. The demon inside her is already dying. Look, see for yourself,” he said, gesturing to me. “The demon strikes when Lailah goes beyond her dark Vampire side. Likely her Pureblood lineage morphs through her skin in extreme situations, or of course when there happens to be a Pureblood in near proximity.”

  “Azrael—” Gabriel gripped him by the collar urgently.

  “When the demon dies, she will just be left with the two sides of her very nature—a hybrid of Angel Descendant and Second Generation Vampire. Zherneboh’s venom will still run through her blood, the darkness fighting inside her against the light. The difference now is that she knows they both exist: the light and the dark. She won’t be able to hide from it anymore, and in her inability to accept both parts of what she is, she will lose her immortality and that frail human body that she was born into will break and she will be ended.…”

  I coughed, choking, and Gabriel flashed to my side. Still holding tightly to Azrael, he shouted, “How do you know all this?”

  “She was not the first, but she is the last.”

  Gabriel’s attention locked on me, and Azrael took the opportunity to break away. As he fled, Ruadhan made chase.