She thought she heard Lore’s voice from above, as though coming from a great distance, screaming as loudly as he could for them to leave her alone. She was so confused. She couldn’t see anything for the pillow still over her face and head. But she was sure she heard Lore rushing in from the doorway at the same time she heard him from above, bellowing that he would kill any who touched her.
Then she heard Lore from above say clearly, his voice breaking as though he was overcome with fear, emotion and relief all at once. “Terrus! Carnage! Thank the gods!”~
“Terrus! Carnage! Thank the gods!” Lore shouted as he watched the most horrendous scene of his life play out below him. He fell to his knees, his body collapsing and lying prone above the scene before him, and he sobbed with relief as he watched Carnage, with scythe in hand, advance on everything that moved, except Evangeline, in and around the bed she was bound to.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
~ Lore prowled the halls of his fortress, his anger not even nearly contained. But it was anger at himself, not Evangeline. He could clearly hear her cries, but could not at this moment force himself to go back to face her. He knew he’d have to, and he would, but his own weakness kept him from rushing back to her. He could hear her cries. He knew she was frightened, and he knew she was angry, but he also knew she was calling for him. Which meant she was alright.
“No!” she screamed again. Then she filled her lungs and shrieked as loudly as she could before the sound was choked off suddenly.
Lore stopped in his tracks, listening for her voice again. But there was none. Reality came crashing down on him, and he knew what he’d left her to. He rushed back into the bedroom, a bellow on his lips, snarls reverberating in his chest, prepared to kill all who’d even come close to touching his mate.
But he stumbled to a stop at the sight that greeted him.
A Gargoyle, huge, grey and wingless, moved about the room, slicing and lunging this way and that as he efficiently sliced through any and all of the small creatures who’d meant to defile Evangeline. She was covered in a brownish ooze that had splashed from those the Gargoyle had first destroyed. But she could be cleaned, she could be washed, and the imp blood removed from her person.
Lore only hesitated a split second before taking up a position next to the Gargoyle and beginning to decimate any others of his servants who thought to come out and join the melee. They’d seen him arrive and thought because he was there, they had a chance to battle the Gargoyle with him and win. They were wrong. Lore fought against them all, removing them from this human plane of existence, fighting as one with this unknown grey Gargoyle. This savior who’d been sent from places unknown.
When only one or two remained, did Lore finally rush to Evangeline’s side, leaving the Gargoyle to finish dispatching the final two into oblivion. He shoved the pillow from her tear-stained face and smoothed the hair from her eyes and cheeks. “Evangeline! Evangeline, open your eyes, love! Please, please be okay!” he begged, his eyes flitting from her face to her body and legs.
“Did they touch you?” he asked, on an anguished moan as he reached for the first knot holding her right arm above her head.
Evangeline opened her eyes, a sob on her lips. She didn’t answer him. Her lips trembled, her eyes were puffy and bloodshot from her tears. Her throat hurt from screaming.
There was a sound behind him as the Gargoyle turned to them, having determined that there was no more threat.
Evangeline heard the steps of the Gargoyle behind Lore, and thinking it more of the little creatures, whimpered, panicking and trying to pull closer to Lore.
“It’s alright. They are all gone, sweet. I promise. You are safe,” Lore soothed, untying her other hand before turning to glance over his shoulder and face the Gargoyle. Only he couldn’t see him. He stood and turned to fully face the room, but the Gargoyle was only a faint outline, shrouded fully in pale green mist slowly disappearing from the room. The Gargoyle crossed his arm over his chest, fisted his hand, which still held his brown ooze-covered scythe, and pounded his own chest twice while inclining his head to Lore, his eyes never leaving Lore’s as he faded away.
“Thank you!” Lore shouted at the now empty room. He was so distracted it didn’t even occur to him that the pale green mist was his brother’s.~
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Terrus and Carnage rushed through time in an effort to make it to the place Evangeline and Lore both would need Carnage’s help. Carnage raised his scythe more than a few times and snarled at visions and creatures that swirled around them on their way. But always they fell away before he had any chance to lash out at them. It wasn’t long before the sounds of a female’s screams could be heard faintly in the distance. Carnage looked at Terrus, and Terrus met his eyes, nodding, a grave expression on his face.
“Gooooo!” Carnage said, urging Terrus to hurry.
Finally, Terrus and Carnage found themselves hurtling toward a bedroom. A female, an Angel, tied to the bed on the far side of the room, while imps slowly climbed their way toward her. Their intent clear. Carnage snarled and raised his scythe in the air.
Terrus placed him in the bedroom, his pale green mists swirling. “I shall be back when you are finished.” He left the room to stand outside on the grounds of the fortress, to keep his powers replenished from contact with the soil and grasses beneath his feet, as he listened to the sounds of the Gargoyle taking the situation well in hand above him.
As soon as Terrus placed Carnage’s feet upon the floor, he stalked toward the bed, swinging his scythe, dispatching the first of many. It took only seconds for Carnage to slip back into the battle-born male he once was. He heard the steps of another as they rushed into the room, pausing only momentarily to take in the situation. He watched as a Lore that didn’t know him hurried to his side, placing his back to him, and took up the battle beside him. When the battle was almost done, this unknown Lore left Carnage to continue the battle, while he tended the Angel tied to the bed. As Lore began to untie her, he whispered words of comfort.
Carnage easily killed the last two imps who tried to attack him, while Lore freed the Angel. Then, stalked to the corner of the room, lifting the tapestry he could scent them on. Behind the tapestry lay a hiding place where he was sure the evil little creatures had lain in wait for their chance to take advantage of the female. Assured there were none left that needed killing, he turned back to Lore… who was, yet wasn’t… Lore. He wanted to know why this Angel was tied to the bed. It was unacceptable!
But Terrus was waiting for him. “Let us take our leave. We have done all we can for now.” He held his hand out to Carnage. Carnage hesitated, but then, seeing the Angel, her legs still bound, reaching for Lore with her now free arms, he knew she’d be alright. Carnage stepped over to Terrus and draped an arm around his shoulders just as Terrus placed an arm around Carnage’s waist, and with the pale green mists from Terrus swirling about them, they began to disappear.
Carnage watched as Lore glanced over his shoulder for him. Not finding him, he saw Lore turn and face the room. Carnage crossed his arm and fist over his chest, giving this strange Lore a vow of loyalty and support. Then they faded from view, and he knew Lore could no longer see him. Just before they completely left this realm, he heard Lore’s voice call out a thanks.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
~ Lore turned his attention right back to Evangeline and untied her legs, before lifting her into his arms and carrying her from the bedroom, and down each flight of stairs until he was in the basement of the fortress. He waded fully clothed into the hot springs that flowed beneath the huge stone structure. There he sat with Evangeline in his arms as he bathed her and soothed her for so long her fingers and toes were wrinkled and pruny with prolonged exposure to the water.
When finally she could look at him without crying, he offered her a sad smile. “I’ll never be able to make up for all I’ve put you through.”
Evangeline snuggled closer to him, still holding him tightly. “You came back in
time.”
“Are you sure? They didn’t…”
“No. You came in time.” She let go of a soft sob on a sniffle, and her face crinkled up as though she’d cry again. “I was so afraid.”
“I know, sweet. I am to blame. Fully. I will never be able to look at myself again. I can barely manage allowing myself to take breath. I am so, so sorry.”
“But you came. I heard you. You fought them all off.”
“When I arrived, there was already another there battling. I was not alone,” Lore said, looking up at the low, stone ceiling above them, thinking of the Gargoyle he’d never seen before.
Evangeline, safe and warm in his arms, snuggled in closer.
Lore kissed the top of her head, ran his hand across the silky, soft feathers of the top of one of her wings. “I cannot expose you to more of this world. You were meant for all things good and filled with grace. I am neither, my love. I will return you to your kind tomorrow. Tell them that I stole you away. They will take you in and shelter you from me, as should have been done from the beginning.”
Still holding Lore, her face turned into his neck, Evangeline shook her head.
“It is the only way, sweet. You deserve…”
“You,” she whispered.
“What?” he asked.
“You. I deserve you. We are one. And you’ve finally learned to put me before your own desires. My heart would break if you left me.”
“But, Evangeline. You see me for what I am now. You see how my selfishness almost had you suffer the greatest torture, the greatest atrocity. How can you even look on me?”
“But you prevented it. And you’re not a man, Lore. You’re an ancient.” She snuggled even closer, almost as though she was trying to climb into his body with him; she just couldn’t get close enough.
Lore sat there, holding her close. He wasn’t sure what she meant by, ‘he wasn’t a man, he was an ancient,’ but she seemed to not want to hear of him taking her back to her own kind. He kissed her head. Knowing full well she deserved so much better and so much more than he was or would ever be. But the idea of taking her back home upset her more than the idea of staying with him. He’d keep her with him. Love her as best he could, without actually mating her. Then, once she felt strong again, he’d take her back to her brethren and do the best thing for her he could. He’d walk away. It didn’t matter how much pain leaving his mate would cause him. He would put her happiness first. “We’ll figure it out, sweet. I promise.”
Evangeline nodded, her hands still clasped behind his neck, strands of his long dark hair caught between her fingers.
“Tell me what you need, sweet,” Lore encouraged, trying to soothe her in any way he could.
For long moments she was quiet and he thought perhaps she wouldn’t answer, but then, finally, she did. “I want to go away from here. I don’t want to be here any longer.”
“So be it,” he answered softly. Without so much as a motion to disrupt her, his mists gathered, and they faded from view.~
Chapter 16
Lore watched from above as Terrus gathered his mists and took himself and Carnage away from his fortress. He watched Terrus offer him a soft smile before they completely disappeared from sight, and the fog before him closed in on him again, blocking the scenes below him from view. He had no idea what would happen next. Carnage hadn’t been there the first time, the real time, when he’d lost his mind and tied Evangeline to the bed. She’d been saved this time. Acaelo had thrust her soul back into her body of the past, to live once again all the atrocities he’d put her through — the assault she’d had to endure because of his selfishness, his selfishness itself, and his negligence. But Carnage had saved her this time. And Terrus had brought him to her aid. He sighed and allowed himself to roll over onto his back, feeling the relief flow through him.
Acaelo had trapped him in this place, forcing him to watch while Evangeline relived that which she endured at his own hands, that which caused her to break the first time. And now that she didn’t break, now that her past was changed, he didn’t know what to expect. He half expected Acaelo to appear, angrier than he’d ever been at having part of his revenge thwarted. But he didn’t. Lore got to his feet and started wandering again, looking for another opening in the fog to see what he’d find next. He truly had no idea what he’d view next. All of the past for Evangeline and himself had changed.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Carnage realized they weren’t moving. They were just — there, surrounded by dense white fog. They couldn’t see anything but each other. Carnage truly feared if he let go of Terrus, or Terrus let go of him, and either wandered more than a foot or two away, he wouldn’t be able to find Terrus again. He nudged Terrus and jutted his chin out at nothing in particular, then moved his eyes around the space they were in. He grunted and shrugged. His way of saying, ‘What is this? Why are we just hanging in limbo here?’
“We may not be done yet. We are standing guard over Lore.”
Carnage wrinkled his brow and thumbed over his shoulder as though to say, ‘We just left Lore.’
Terrus shook his head. “He’s here. This is where he’s locked away by Acaelo. When he finds that we’ve saved the Angel, disrupted his plans to torture them both again, he may try to attack Lore. Lore is defenseless against him as he is.”
Carnage nodded his head. A firm set to his lips, acknowledging that yes, he needed to still be here to watch over Lore. Carnage looked around. He gripped Terrus’s shirt and went first a few steps to the left, then a few to the right, waving his other arm about to dissipate the fog. He was looking for Lore, but holding onto Terrus, so he didn’t get separated.
Finally he looked back at Terrus. “Lore?!” he growled in his gruff voice.
“He’s here. I can feel him. He’s wandering in that direction,” Terrus answered, pointing behind Carnage. “We’ll stay here, just apart from him in case we are needed. Acaelo is so deranged now, he won’t be aware we are here, if we stay a bit apart.”
Carnage nodded. He turned and faced the direction Terrus had indicated Lore was in, taking Terrus with him since he still gripped his shirt. He was no fool; he’d known Lore for some time now. He knew Lore was about half crazy and prone to distraction. And just in case Terrus was, too, he kept a grip on him just to be sure he didn’t get separated. He planted the wooden rod of his scythe in the fog beside his feet, scythe end towering above his head, and took up sentry, just as he’d done for hundreds and hundreds of years before finally freeing himself, his people, and finding his way to Whispers and his heart — Carolena.
Terrus brushed lightly at Carnage’s hand where it gripped his sleeve. “I’m not going to leave you here, Carnage. You do understand that, don’t you?”
Carnage looked at Terrus’s hand brushing at his own, then at Terrus. He grinned at Terrus, then pushed Terrus’s hand away from his own where he still held on to him. “’Es,” Carnage answered, tightening his grip.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Lore wandered for what felt like days. He’d lost all track of time and space since being lost in the fog. It was almost like the purgatory he’d heard the humans speak of throughout the centuries. The place they all went to await judgment for their sins. The place they all reviewed their actions and accounted for them before being allowed into what they called Heaven, Hell or possibly sent back to try it all over again. He’d been to Hell, and so had his Evangeline. She didn’t deserve it, not at all. The fact that she’d been forced to endure such a punishment because of his own selfish, gluttonous, covetous, careless choices angered him so he found himself calling out to Acaelo. “Acaelo! Where are you?! Come to me at once, you coward! I demand you face me now! What makes you any better than me? You torture the innocent without regard to the unfairness of it all! I demand you show yourself now! This instant!”
Of course, there was no answer.
“I will kill you!” Lore bellowed. He ranted and raged until he was completely exhausted. Then he began to call out f
or Evangeline. He had no idea where the past image of himself had taken her when their past had been changed. He had no knowledge of it, since he’d not actually lived that altered path. But eventually, the fog in the distance began to thin. Then it was as though it actually separated itself for him to move through. He hurried toward the spot he could see in the distance. “Evangeline!” he screamed. “I’m coming, sweet!”
But when he got there, it wasn’t Evangeline he looked down on. It was Danae, held gently in Carrik’s arms as he whispered words of love to her.
~ Danae looked up into Carrik’s bright green eyes, her own filled with tears. “I love you, Carrik. But I can’t go against my father. I’m all he’s got left.”
“How can he call himself your father when he stands against the very thing that makes you happy?!” Carrik demanded.
“You don’t understand, Carrik. He’s not like you or anyone else, save his siblings. He’s different.”
“I understand only too well! I am Dragon! That is why he won’t even think of you with me.”
“He tries to protect me from those who would wish us harm should they find that an ancient, even a child of one, would dare to mate with a Dragon.”
“Either that or he envies you your happiness! I know of your father. You forget I’ve breathed almost as long as he has. I know his stories. We were friends once, Danae!”
“I know. I know, but he doesn’t envy me my happiness. He fears for my wellbeing.”
“Is that why you’ve kept us a secret from him? Because you don’t want him to worry?” Carrik asked, a dare to tell the truth clear in his voice.
Lore Page 13