Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (23 page)

Brooke

Chapter
Thirty

October 4, 2014

I laid on the bed for hours, wondering how I would ever escape this. Eventually, I heard the doorknob rattle. I shut my eyes and drew in a breath. The rusty hinges on the door creaked as it slowly pushed open. Then I heard footsteps cross the floor.

“Brooke?” Constance said in a low whisper.

Sitting up, I looked up at her. Her appearance still surprised me and I felt chill bumps rise over my skin.

Constance
went to take another step in my direction, but stopped, drawing her foot back like she was slightly repulsed by me. “I can’t just let you stay here. There’s got to be a way to get you out, or at least hide you from him.”

Without thinking, I said, “You want to kill me, don’t you?”

Her eyes darted to the floor. “A little. But I wouldn’t.”

“Doesn’t matter if you do.”

“No. No. He’s a fucking monster. Whatever he’s trying to get from this… he doesn’t need it.” She stood, still staring at me, then turned to the door. “Come on. If Gavin could get to you first, without Azaal finding out, I think you could get out. Those things,” she pointed out the window, “they don’t stand a chance against Gavin.”

I quickly jumped to my feet and followed her to the door.

“Just, don’t make a sound. Not a fucking sound, okay?”

I nodded and followed her out
the door. She tiptoed down the hall toward the stairs and slowly descended. I tried to keep my distance, because although she was trying to help me, I still had to remember she was no longer human and at any moment the demon inside her could overthrow the little piece of her conscience that remained. We made it to the bottom of the stairs and she searched the open room, trying to decide where to lead me, when a loud bang ricocheted from the walls. We looked up and saw Azaal standing by the railing. Panic darted through my chest. Without hesitation, Azaal grabbed the railing and jumped over it. Air rushed around his large frame, and the floor shook when he landed.

Stalking toward us, his eyes flamed. His jaw tightened, and I heard his knuckles crack as he stiffened his arms by his sides.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he yelled at Constance.

She fel
l speechless and backed away from him, flattening her back against the wall.

He shook his head. “I’ll not have you fucking this up either!” He grabbed her by the shoulders and tossed her to the floor.

“Azaal. Leave her alone,” I said, my voice shaking.

His face snapped to the side to glare at me. “You. I suggest you shut your damn mouth. This,” he said
, jerking Constance to her feet, “has nothing to do with you.”

Constance went limp in his arms. Bringing his face to hers
, he spoke through gritted teeth. “I’ve no tolerance for defiance. I’ve worked on this for damn near three thousand years, and I’ll not have you
think
you can stop me.”

Azaal’s
lips pressed against her neck and his jaw widened. The sound of his teeth ripping through her flesh echoed from the walls. Constance let out a long, agonizing scream; her legs and arms moved frantically in an effort to free herself from him. I slid down the wall and crumpled into a heap on the floor. The sound of him guzzling down her blood made me dry heave. I couldn’t look up, and I couldn’t do anything to stop him. Within moments, I heard a thud when he dropped her body onto the floor.

His fingers dug into my shoulders as he yanked me to my feet. “God. A god can kill anything. What else do you know that can
murder death the way I just did? Fallen angels have the power to end the life of anything. Sadly, it seems the only thing that can end one particular Fallen’s life is an angel that hasn’t yet been damned.” Laughing, his eyes turned pitch black. “Don’t worry, before it’s all said and done, even an angel such as yourself will be damned.”

Azaal
carried me up the steps, pausing and releasing a low groan when he reached the top. His face twisted in pain and sweat broke out on his forehead. His eyes pulsed open and he released a hard breath. He continued to carry me toward the door of my room, stopping again, this time, dropping me on the ground and crippling over in pain.

“Damn poison,” he panted as he rose from the floor and snatched my arm in his hand.

Opening the door, he shoved me inside, blocking the doorway with his solid frame. “You try a stunt like that again, doll, and I won’t be near as understanding. Don’t fuck with me again.”

He slammed the door. I listened as his footsteps disappeared down the hall
and then heard another tortured-sounding moan come from him before he shut another door.

I leaned against the wall, waiting for dea
th.

Gavin

Chapter Thirty
- one

Desolation.

We’d traveled for hours and through the miles the landscape remained unchanged. The sky was dark; the ash had cloaked everything in a thick, grey shroud. It resembled snow covering the boughs of the trees. And it was impossible to tell where the road stopped. I could faintly make out the tread from another car, which had to have been Azaal’s because, from the looks of it, we were the only beings still alive. The vampires had begun to slaughter the animals in an attempt to cease their hunger, but blood from animals wouldn’t calm the sadistic need for human blood. Every once in a while the car would go over a bump, and I knew I’d just ridden over a body that had been left in the road and covered in ash.

Raven sat
silently next to me, only speaking when I asked her a question.

My mind had grown numb from everything, and a
ll I could think about was Brooke. My chest tightened up at the thought of how terrified she must be. Azaal thrived on the terror he could create, and the thought of what he could be doing to her sickened me.

The first moment I’d ever laid eyes on Brooke
replayed in my mind. That day in the atrium of the hospital I’d found her undeniably stunning. She had become my obsession, and I’d never wanted anything the way I’d wanted her. Never had anything made me feel the way she had. Love, an emotion I’d never understood – she’d given me that experience. I’d been so damn selfish and greedy. The entire time I’d thought only of the repercussions I could face; not once had I stepped back to contemplate the damnation I would bring to her. Had I really loved her the way she deserved if I’d only thought of quelling my thirst for her? Had I been trying to protect her, or had I only been trying to protect myself from the emptiness I feared I would experience without her? If she died, it may have well been my hands that took her life, because it was all my fault.

I should’ve turned her, she begged me –
begged me
to make her immortal. I couldn’t help but wonder, if I’d turned her, would Azaal still have wanted her? Once again, fear had kept me from protecting her. My fear of the regret I would hold for damning her soul may have cost her, hell, the entire race of humanity, their lives. Releasing the tight hold I had on the steering wheel, I wiped the sweat from my brow. My fingers traced down the sides of my face and came back to rest on the leather wheel.

Following the curve of the land,
I rounded a corner and saw a shadow hunched over near the woods. As the car approached, I saw a male vampire holding a woman’s corpse in his arms. His mouth was pressed to her neck, his cheeks sucking in as he desperately tried to drain the body of any blood that may have been left. When we passed by, his head shot up and a slow smile crept across his face.

Again, a
ll I could see was Brooke. If I found Brooke’s body in the arms of one of those creatures, I knew I would be destroyed.

Slamming my fists
against the dashboard, I pressed my foot harder on the pedal. The car sped down the road, the tires kicking a thick cloud of ash up into the air.

Raven leaned her head on the glass of the passenger window. “They’ve become scavengers
. There’s nothing left to feed on…”

Through the particles
of dust I could see the shape of the castle in the horizon. As I came closer I saw a dark covering stretching across the landscape. I slammed on the brakes and the car spun around. Looking out the window, the horizon was blanketed by a multitude of figures. Vampires gathered tightly together were standing guard around the castle for miles.

Raven peered through my window
at the crowd of demons. She reached for the handle and pushed it open. “I guess we’re walking?” she asked.

I opened my door and stepped out into the chilled air.
The stench of death hung like a thick fog, and the sound of thousands of feet moving in unison broke through the silence. The vampires had all turned to face us. Their ghastly faces stared through me as sadistic smiles curled their lips up.

“What a fucking welcoming party the bastard prepared for us,” I said
, and slammed the door shut.

I knew that
whatever plan Azaal had would be grand and well-thought through. He never carried out something without having carefully planned it out, and I was trying to figure out how in the hell I was going to battle him. He
knew
the prophecy, and I knew whatever was on those missing pages would determine not only Brooke’s fate, but my own. I feared not even I could rewrite the way this would end.

Making my way toward the castle, I
stopped when I came to the dense forest of the undead. I turned and looked at Raven. “There’s no need for you to come with me.” I paused and looked out over the mass of bodies. For some reason, I felt sorrow for Raven and the need to console her for her part in all of this. “Had you told me, it wouldn’t have changed a damn thing! Nothing would have kept me from her. Fate can’t be changed, no matter how many people try to intervene – fate always has her way.”

I walked away from Raven and stood in front of one of the va
mpires, her face inches from mine. Her lungs rattled and a low growl trickled from her lips. The pupils in her eyes dilated and she stared through me like she could strike some type of fear inside me. My eyes leveled on hers and my gaze narrowed. The beautiful allure that immortality gave these beings was withering. Without the blood of man to feed them their radiance was diminishing and the true grotesque creature that lived inside was showing. Their skin had turned from a flawlessly light complexion to a grey tint of decaying flesh. Their eyes had all sunken in and were surrounded by dark purple rings. The veins mapping through their bodies protruded, and the blue coloring of their arteries showed through the transparent skin covering their withering muscles. In some places their flesh had begun to decay and pus oozed from the sores. Their lips had lost all blush coloring and were turning to a dark blue, the plump flesh beginning to crack.

The woman I
had stopped in front of drew in labored breathes, fighting the weakness overtaking her with each passing second. As I stood there, her black pupils swallowed the remaining whites of her eyes. Death was conquering immortality.

The ground beneath my feet
shook. Ash rose and formed a low dust around my feet as the rumble tore across the land. The quaking grew stronger and then quickly dissipated. A short, weak tremor had coursed across the earth. As soon as the ground became still the masses parted and provided a path leading to the castle Brooke was barricaded in.

I walked through
what seemed like miles of a twisting path lined by Azaal’s makeshift army before I finally came to the open door of the castle.

My adrenaline picked up the moment the heel of my boot hit the stone floor.
The echo of my step bounced from the arched ceiling and flying buttresses. Clenching my fists at my sides, I searched the dark entrance. Slowly, I made my way into the center of the room, grabbing the iron railing at the foot of the stairs.

“
Semyeza!” Azaal’s voice boomed from the rafters. “Or do you prefer I call you ‘Gavin’?” His laughter pierced into me and flamed the rage building inside my chest.

I turned and found
him standing in front of a large stained-glass window. His hands were gripping Brooke by the top of her shoulders and a large smile stretched across his face. The pressure from my tightening jaw made it feel as though my teeth may shatter. I hated that he had his hands placed so possessively on her. She was mine!

One of his hands slithered
down the thin white material of her dress and he cupped her breast in his palm. His dark eyes stared at me, challenging me to come claim what was mine.

Fire flashed through me and a low hiss of air escaped my lungs.
“Let her go, Azaal!” I growled, my nostrils flaring. I walked into the room and approached him.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he said
, and shook his head. “Stop right there, or I’ll kill her!”

I froze and my eyes locke
d onto Brooke. Her eyes were bloodshot, her lips were trembling uncontrollably, and there was a pleading in her eyes like I’d never seen.

Azaal
wrapped his arms around her frame and pressed himself flush against her back. Lowering his face, he brushed his lips over her neck before his eyes darted back up to stare at me. “My oldest friend,” he said. “What a beautiful woman you fell for. So lovely – so obedient, so tempting. Something about her is so different from any other mortal I’ve ever seen. The smell of her...” Azaal buried his face in the cradle of her neck and inhaled a long breath. Letting out a groan of pleasure, he moaned, “And her taste…ahhh. That taste is enough to make even me weak!”

I’d never felt so damn helpless. My fear for her paralyzed me and I felt trapped.

“I’ll die before you taint her!” I screamed, my voice shaking from sheer wrath.

Azaal
face jerked away from Brooke. “Oh, you’ll die…but not before I strip you of all pride!”

His hand snaked
up her arm and pulled the thin strap of her dress down, exposing her breast. The chill coursing through the room caused her nipples to harden and the tanned skin around them puckered. His hand wandered back down and his fingers grabbed her nipple and tugged.

N
o longer able to control my anger, I lunged at him. I grabbed his wrists and forced them away from her. Brooke freed herself from his grip and ran out of the chamber. I pushed Azaal back against the cold stone wall. Pinning his arms by his head, I placed my face close to his. “You’ll not harm her. Do you fucking hear me? She is mine.
Mine
. Nothing in existence of this damned world will take her from me. Not you, not the devil – not even the end of this world will take her from me!”

Azaal
laughed. “Your weakness has blinded you. You
really
believe you can save her? Even if you turned her immortal – she’d no longer be the creature you’ve come to love. There is no
saving
her. I promise I’ll make it swift. I wouldn’t dare be able to make her suffer after the pleasure her body brought me.” His lips flinched up and another slow, deep rumble of laughter came from him.

The
blood traveled through my body at lightening pace, setting my entire body on fire with anger. My grip on him tightened and I prayed that I would be able to find a way to kill him, to torture him. I wanted to make him face something emptier than death, something more gut wrenching than hell itself.

“Don’t worry
, Gavin,” Azaal smiled. “She had no idea what I was doing to her. She thought it was you. She kept calling out your name, begging you to stop hurting her. Evidently, over the years you’ve become a tender lover because she couldn’t handle the way I fucked her. My ability to change my appearance comes in rather handy. She had no idea it wasn’t you.”

Screaming, I slammed his skull against the stone walls so hard the pieces of rock flew out from behind his head. My breathing grew
heavy and I couldn’t hear myself thinking.

“You’re a disgrace! Demon!”
I hissed. I released my grip on his wrist and swung at him. My fist met his face and the force slammed the side of his head back against the stone. I punched him over and over as I cursed him. Angry tears streaked down my cheek. Blood seeped from his face, but the harder I hit him, the louder he laughed. My hands wrapped around his throat, trying to strangle the laughter bubbling from it.

Azaal’s
hands shot up and clenched around my neck. “Has love made you that demented? You know you can’t harm me.”

I pushed my body into his, poundin
g his head against the wall again and again. I shoved him across the room and stared at him. Shooting across the floor, I grabbed onto him once again, this time slamming his body against the window. The glass shattered and we tumbled out onto the brick patio.

Azaal’s
eyes popped open, filled with anger at my actions. He rolled over and pinned me down against the concrete. Glass crushed underneath me.

“You keep trying to fight me and I swear to you that I’ll rape her right in front of you. I will make you watch me fuck her and then I’ll kill her. Don’t doubt me
, Semyeza.” He rose and I scrambled to my feet.

I backed away and stared at him. I knew that it was
useless; fighting him would get me nowhere. The damage we would do to one another was only superficial, and I knew that if I kept going he would do what he’d promised.

“Now,” he said as he straightened his shirt out. “If you’re done with that t
heatrical display of wrath…” His voice trailed off. His feet crunched over the shards of glass as he stepped back into the castle. “Brooke?” he yelled out. “You may as well come out. You know you’ve nowhere to go.”

Jumping through the window, I
took off running through the darkened hallways. I pushed open doors and called her name out. I ran up the stairwell and found her sitting in a corner with her knees pulled up and her face buried in the material of her dress.

I fell to my knees in front of her and lift
ed her face to mine. Brooke’s eyes opened, and the blueness of them struck me. My breath stopped, and I desperately pressed my lips to hers. Pulling the base of her head toward me, I kissed her like she was life, with a passion that only someone on the brink of death could have for life. I whispered, “I’m sorry, love!”