The Beloved Fire

by Chelsii Klein

  Cain and Elijah threw down their arms at the same time with great resistance almost like it was more work resting their arms than holding up an invisible prison. It wasn’t a flash later that Mikayla realized that they’d put down the walls as the queen headed their way. Blake took no time sinking the first knife heavy into the queen’s right eye and if it hadn’t been for the queen screaming out and crouching down to the side, Mikayla would have never seen what happened. Just as she pulled out the knife and looked to the guys, black fluid draining from her eye socket, Blake threw his last knife that sank into her other eye just as the twins threw their hands back up entrapping the queen once more.

  The queen didn’t scream at the last knife, but instead laughed as she pulled it out. “I can’t be killed. I was never alive, I’m immortal. Forever alive in death. Is this the best Anock could assemble against me? Minos, Charon my old friends, if anyone should know I can’t be killed it should be you two.”

  Elijah and Cain shared a looked that Mikayla couldn’t read before looking back to the queen. Cain took a step forward, keeping his hands raised. “Oh but that’s where you wrong. Hell’s Queens can die just as easily as its subjects.”

  Cain stepped back to Blake’s side nodding up towards somewhere behind the queen. “Oh and actually they are what Anock assembled. Good luck.” The twins threw down their arms releasing the queen from her trap as what seemed like a thousand different kinds of spiders all different sizes poured out from an entry way Mikayla must have missed behind the statues to the left side. They ranged in color from black, gray to brown. They sized from a normal spider, to something out of a horror movie crushing towns and villages. Not a single one the same kind. It was Mikayla’s worst fear. Was this really what she was going to see before she died?

  Mikayla gasped out in fear as she tried to push herself away from the spiders, but her hand slipped in her own puddle of blood and she let her head fall back down. With the spiders now seconds away from her, Elijah appeared at her side throwing a black powder over her and in a blink of an eye she was being cradled in Blake’s arms. She would have missed that they were still in the queen’s throne room, if the queen’s screams hadn’t shifted her attention away from Blake’s brown eyes.

  Spiders poured over an invisible box that Elijah held up with his magic. Mikayla looked up to see her phobia crawling above the box and around the sides striking out and trying to break their protective box. Now she really did want to die. Blake held her tighter as the queens screams continued and the spiders pounded against the glass.

  A tickle was in her throat but she didn’t want to cough. It was going to hurt. Her throat was already ripped open. It didn’t stop and before she knew it, she was coughing up blood.

  “How much longer!” Blake yelled towards Cain who still worked crouched over Anock. He was holding her now on her side so the blood poured out of her mouth.

  “Done!” Cain yelled, stepping back as Anock took a huge gasp and sat up frantically as he looked around. His gaze stopped on Mikayla and their eyes locked. If she didn’t know any better, he almost looked more afraid looking at her now than he looked at the queen, ten minutes earlier.

  “Mikayla.” Anock gasped crawling over to her. It didn’t matter that she was in Blake’s arms, he was only looking at her.

  “A” She tried to say his name, but it only came out as a blood gurgling cough.

  “Shhh. Don’t talk.” Anock said sniffling, he was crying.

  “It is done.” Elijah said breaking her and Anock’s reunion. He got to his feet looking out towards where the queen was once in the middle of her throne room. Mikayla shifted her eyes as well and would have gasped out in horror if her eyes hadn’t started to roll back in her head. The queen had been eaten alive by spiders. She shivered when what felt like a river of blood was released from her body in a constant flow from her mouth, she didn’t fight it.

  17

  Survived

  Maybe this was what it felt like to die, Mikayla wasn’t sure, but she took in the peace readying herself for death and pictured Ander’s smiling face, along with him stood Blake. She knew she would see them again and she welcomed the drifting feeling as she faded into the light.

  “No! Do no give up that easy!” It was Blake that was yelling at her, but she couldn’t respond even if she wanted to. Everything in her was numb and even her hearing sounded off. It sounded like they were underwater, and she could only get bits and pieces.

  “Why not?” She heard Anock yell.

  “Charred…no choice…NOW!” One of the twin’s voice flittered underwater next. She didn’t need to listen. It was time to rest.

  “Drink…time…please…la.” Blake again and something else was happening. Something warm and it smelled amazing. Like a warm campfire, safety, forgiveness, but that wasn’t right you couldn’t smell those things.

  Her body almost like being thrown from a car into a brick wall, slammed forward as her eyes were ripped open. She took a deep gasping breath trying to fill her lungs in with air. Other than feeling a little dizzy, she felt no pain.

  A thud sounded next to her and she looked over to see Blake had fallen down next to her, his wrist was slit, and blood dripped slowly from it. She gasped and looked over to her audience before trying to get up to go to Blake. Finding her voice she finally spoke as she lifted up a hand to feel her once torn throat was now complete and smooth with fresh skin. “What happened?”

  She tried to get up, but she was still too weak. Anock rushed over helping her up, keeping her steady. “I’m afraid you drained him my love. You were a lot closer to the brink of death than any of us could have imagined.”

  “I killed him! What do you mean I drained him?” She tried to look up over to read Anock’s face, but it was guarded.

  He swallowed hard a sign he was still worried, as he forced a smile. “He was the only one that could heal you, you two possess the same blood but do not fret, and Blake will live. He just needs rest.”

  Everything hit her at once, the smell, the warmth, the understanding of what was going on made sense. She was drinking his blood, the smells she thought she smelled weren’t smells at all, but feelings that he was trying to pass to her. The only question is: why would she need to drink blood to live?

  “I’m a vampire?!” She yelped trying to step out of Anock’s helpful hold as she covered her mouth with both hands. It was officially time to freak out!

  This brought a chain reaction of laughter from the twins and Anock which immediately made her mad. It wasn’t funny! This was a serious deal. “Why are you guys laughing? This is a horrible way to find out I’m Dracula!”

  Anock threw the twins a look to quiet down as he tried to suppress a smile to explain. “There is no such thing as a vampire. Vampire is just a tale that got confused and twisted from mortal humans throughout the years.”

  “Oh.” She said in a small voice. She felt like an idiot. “I just always thought that since there was so much hype about vampires the idea had to come from somewhere. I guess I just figured there was such a thing as a vampire.”

  Anock smiled. “You mean you wished that Stephan or Damien Salvatore were real, I mean judging by the collection of Vampire Diary books you have in your room, one could only assume.”

  She sucked in her breath. What a jerk. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you know all my book crushes, since you know everything else. So why did I drink it, is that normal? It smelled good and…tasted good.”

  “It is normal, like I told you before you carry dark blood in you.”

  A dizzy sensation hit Mikayla and she swayed grabbing out for Anock who took her arm, holding her steady. “Easy, why don’t you sit down over here? You’re not healed, Blake’s blood just temporarily healed your wound. You have still lost a lot of blood.” The sound of water got her attention.

  It wasn’t until that moment she realized they were on a boat. A very long boat. It almost looked like an old Viking boat and it was huge, with gigantic oars
, although the boat traveled without anyone using them.

  “The river Styx. None of us had the power to transport back to my realm, so we are doing it Cain’s way.” Anock said answering her thoughts.

  “Did you just?” Mikayla didn’t need to finish, and although she didn’t mean for it to, it came out like a secret.

  Anock laughed and shook his head. “No, I didn’t just read your mind. I just could tell you were curious about what was going on.” Elijah peeked at her from the corner of his eye behind Anock before going back to whatever he and Cain were doing. He was obviously worried about Anock reading her mind, just as she should be.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed that. I guess I just don’t understand how it all works.”

  “Well it’s hard to stay out of peoples thoughts. I don’t have to work to read people’s minds, or glimpse what they did that day or even control them, it’s like it just happens and I don’t mean it to, but I do have to work to stay out of people’s minds. It’s like I’m constantly straining to shut off my mind, but it’s okay. I can work a little harder around you, I want this to work.”

  “Anock.” She said not sure what she was planning on asking when a wave of dizziness crashed over her. Cain and Elijah’s heads both sprang up behind Anock drilling holes into the back of Anock’s head that she was sure he could feel. It was clear they didn’t want her spilling the beans.

  Anock stared intently at her frowning like he was trying to look into her mind. “What is it?”

  “I. Ugh, I’m starting to feel something for you.” His face softened as he lightly smiled coming over and sitting by her. It wasn’t what she was going to say, but it also wasn’t a lie, she had felt protective of him.

  “That’s the way it’s supposed to be love.” He stared intently into her eyes.

  “Why couldn’t I have your blood?” The question escaped her lips before she could think.

  “Well.” Anock paused taking a deep breath out before continuing. “My blood was changed when I switched my alliance. Blake still has angel blood even though he has turned to the dark side.”

  “Hmm.”

  “After the Breaking Ritual we will be tied together, and then we will blood share.”

  She dropped the conversation, not wanting to think about blood sharing.

  Looking over the side of the boat to the water, it just looked like ordinary water. With the pitch-black sky around them, hot humid air, the atmosphere was haunting and fit her description of hell to a T. The lantern light hanging at the front of the boat provided the only light, so at first the water was black, but with a closer look, almost like hell itself had suddenly transformed around her, the water reflected an upside down world of fluffy green trees surrounding a beautiful blue pond. The smell of spring flowers drifted through the air as butterflies danced around in the waters reflected world. The smell and breeze, the hot air, made her thirst for the beautiful water before her.

  Mikayla swallowed hard lifting her hand up to her dry throat. The water looked so quenching. She turned her body now to get a closer look at the water.

  “My love, it is a trick of the eyes. The water will do whatever it can to draw you in. You can never touch it. It will melt your body and take your soul, as it has done to too many passengers, who cannot let go of their life and accept death. It is why so this river is often depicted with souls swimming around.”

  Anock now turned her body away from the water. She would have jumped if she’d been standing from shock at Cain’s sudden appearance in front of her. Anock put a reassuring hand on her leg.

  “I’ve had to adapt throughout the ages. My look, personality, along with my way of getting souls carried over to the other side.”

  Elijah stepped up now next to Cain with a wicked smile. “Yeah back when Rome ruled the world, Cain used to look like an old decrepit man, and beat people into the boat that didn’t want to come along for a ride with his walking Cain.”

  Mikayla couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that how you got your name?”

  “Well my name is Charon, but someone.” Cain paused looking over with accusing eyes towards Elijah. “Started the name Cain because he thought it was funny when I used to have to beat people into my boat.” When he said Charon, she remembered from school who he was. The ferryman. The one who delivered souls to their afterworld.

  Cain launched over shoving Elijah hard, who didn’t seem to mind because of his current distraction laughing at his friend. Anock looked pretty pleased with the past events as well.

  “So all those stories of having to place two coins on the eyes of the dead to pay the ferryman, were those true?”

  “Awe you mean a coin in the mouth. Yes, I believe that there was a time when that was required. It was a prevention spell to ward against coming back, although it got twisted along the way to people coming up with all sorts of different meanings behind the coin. I am however responsible for taking souls to their rightful realm or district. Of course after they go through Elijah there.”

  “Or as Greek mythology would call me, Minos.” All three men laughed at this, and for the first time it didn’t seem like they were in hell or that these people were supernatural beings fighting for her soul. In what normal circumstances would someone find themselves alive and floating down the actual river Styx with Minos, Charon, a fallen angel, and a dream walker that were laughing and engaging in normal conversation?

  It just had to be her.

  “There’s been a lot of different depictions of Cain throughout the years. The old man was always my favorite.” Elijah said laughing as he walked away.

  “Okay so what other old stories are true?” To Mikayla every old story was starting to sound closer to the truth than anything, well, besides vampires obviously.

  “Hmm, well. It depends on what old stories you’re talking about.”

  Mikayla smiled at Anock’s joking nature. “Oh yeah, I forgot I’m talking to an old man. The beginning of time probably seems like just yesterday to you.” She said.

  He acted offended but proceeded with the demeanor. “Yeah it does just seem like yesterday I had to fly up hills both ways to and from school in twelve feet of snow.” This made her laugh. It was nice to feel normal for a moment. Well, as normal as you could get for being in hell, or should she consider it the underworld?

  A gasping breath came from Blake as he bolted up right grabbing hard at his chest.

  Anock sprang up immediately and addressed Cain. “We need to be back! How much longer?” His voice was filled with concern. Blake looked like he was dying. She needed to go to him.

  Just as she went to stand, a pain shot across Mikayla’s neck.

  She was in her real bedroom, dressed in her favorite Navy sweatshirt Ander had given her and a pair of pajama pants. Everything in her room was just how she remembered it, soft yellow walls decorated with posters and quotes of her favorite poets, and books. Other than poetry and reading the next big teen novel, Ander was the only thing she’d ever taken an interest in. Thinking of him she looked over to her nightstand that held a lamp, alarm clock and picture of her wrapped in Anders arms at graduation, her cap falling off from her small head and Anders hat perfect. That had been one of the happiest days of her life.

  Ander was her best friend, her rock, her everything, she loved and missed him so much. It only made it worse that now after all this time she realized how worried he must have been about her. Now her mom was close to dying, and she would never see either of her parents again or Ander. It was all her fault.

  Mikayla got up from the bed and walked over to her nightstand picking up the picture of her and Ander. She could just hear Ander now, “There’s no trouble too deep you get yourself into that I won’t ever be able to dig you out of. My love for you runs deeper than the deepest ocean Kayla.” A tear escaped and trailed down her face at the thought of his warm, strong voice. She would give anything to see her best friend again.

  Her bedroom door opened slowly, and James walked in,
shutting the door slowly behind him as he turned and looked at Mikayla. “I thought you would miss him most of all.” Mikayla sat back down on the edge of her bed, wiping quickly at her tears.

  “I do miss him, and my parents. This is all my fault. I wish neither of you guys would have come into my life. You know, you’re a pretty shitty angel. You’re lustful, and you let me be taken into purgatory.” Mikayla said accusingly, she blamed him just as much as she blamed herself.

  James looked confused for a second but then looked down letting out a sigh. “How much do you know?”

  With everything that Anock had told her she felt like she knew too much. “I know enough. Enough to know this is all your fault, well, in one way or another and I believe you owe me an explanation.”

  At this James laughed and walked over to sit on her bed as far from her as he could without falling off the edge. “Hmm, or your just saying that you know something, when your really don’t know anything.”

  Mikayla let out a loud sigh. “Cut the shit! When did you decide I wasn’t worthy enough for you? When did you decide it was okay to throw away my life? A real angel wouldn’t let this happen!” She stood now, not being able to sit still. She paced impatiently in the small space between the bed and the door. If there was anyone that could have saved her, it would have been him.

  “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about. I’m still here, aren’t I? I’m still trying to get you home to the people you love!” James yelled standing up now too.

  “Take me home, really home, not in a dream. Please, please take me home.” Mikayla put her shaky hands up to her face, she didn’t want him to see her cry. It was a cry of frustration, and not sadness, but she still didn’t want to give him the pleasure of her tears.