Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series) (40 page)

“That’s when everything got so fucked up!
She turned into a liability that had to go. I waited for the perfect moment, and that even got fucked up. She was supposed to die in that river, dammit! After that, I tried to remind her of all the negatives in her life and that didn’t work. Hell, I tried scaring the shit out of her, lashing her…nothing worked!” Azazel closed his eyes and took a calming breath. “It’s all going to end soon though.”

This got Malachi’s senses on full alert.
“What did you do?” He growled.

Azazel looked put out.
“All I wanted was to have her die in front of you. Is that too much to ask? I didn’t think so.” He gestured back over to Masters. “Seth here is good for so many things, but kidnapping is not one of them. Twice he tried and twice he failed. I thought about killing him but thought better of it. He might still come in handy.”

Walking back over towards Malachi, he got extremely close.
“I needed someone more capable for the job. Therefore I sent your cousin Jeffries over to get your “Angel” and bring her here. He’s almost as strong as you are, but has a mean streak that even impresses me.” With that, Azazel gave a small wink. “I never had any doubt.”

Malachi’s heart was in his throat.
He wouldn’t get to her, Tori and Terah would make sure of it. He tried to control his breathing as he addressed Azazel. “It’s not going to happen, he’ll fail too.”

“Really?
Then why did I just get a phone call, informing me that they had her and were on their way?”

“You piece of shit!
I’ll fucking kill you!” Malachi thrashed and tried to pull out of his restraints as Azazel practically skipped away. He had to free himself. He was not going to let this fucker win…again.

“Tisk Tisk, Malachi.
You know you don’t have the power to kill me. The only thing that can stop me is twenty feet away from you.” He gestured to a pile behind him that contained all their weapons. “Now, how should I do it, any suggestions?” Azazel was almost giddy as he rubbed his hands together.

“I was actually thinking of killing her, and then waiting to kill you after her soul had been reborn.
That way, she’d be constantly searching for her one and only, and never be able to find you. Kind of like torturing you while you’re in the grave. What do you think?” Azazel laughed at Malachi’s struggle.

Malachi didn’t answer, but instead let out a roar of anger as he tried to free his legs.
He couldn’t let her get here while he was helpless to protect her. He had to get free, and quick.

******

Trinity was hurting to the point where she was in tears. It was completely dark and all she could feel was the pain. Her legs were burning and the wrist restraints they had put her in were cutting into her skin. She tried to press them together to relieve the tension, but nothing was working. Constantly blocking out the pain was not helping her to conserve any energy.

At least there were only two now, instead of the original three.
That made her odds a little better when she finally got out, of course she didn’t know how many would be there once that happened. The men had shoved her in the trunk of their car, after roughly tying her wrists together with twine.

Trinity fought back the tears when she thought about the attack at her home.
She had been lying on the couch with her eyes shut, fighting off a killer headache when the doorbell rang. Everyone that would have come to see her where accounted for, so she was confused about who could be there.

When Tori made her way to the front door, she looked through the peep hole and jumped back.
“Fuck! They brought a nephilim!”

After that, everything happened so quickly.
There was a loud explosion that blew up her back door, and two men walked in through the new opening. Terah ran, and was there in a matter of seconds.

Trinity would never forget what happened next.
Tori turned to yell something at her, but never got the chance. As if going at lightning speed, the front door was kicked open and a knife was being dragged across Tori’s throat by an extremely large and mean looking male. Tori’s eyes met hers the split second before they closed and she fell to the ground.

She was momentarily stunned, but then her basic survival instincts kicked in and she ran.
The man that slit Tori’s throat, zeroed in on her and started to make his way over. Managing to miss his grasp by inches, she maneuvered around him and ran into the kitchen to find Terah.

Terah had her hands full with the others and Trinity knew that she was on her own.
Narrowly making it back to the living room, she got to the bag the girls brought over and saw something she recognized. She grabbed the small spear shaped weapon but before she could make another run for it, the man was on her. Wrapping his arms around her, he started to squeeze and Trinity knew she only had seconds before she blacked out.

A familiar sensation coursed through her body; the same one that had come when she was attacked by Seth in the parking lot.
She felt stronger, and knew this was one of the many gifts that Malachi had given her. It took this new energy to be able to use the weapon and stab the man in his leg. The floor came up fast when he ended up dropping her. She hit hard, but didn’t let it slow her down. Turning, she pulled the spear out of his leg and gave no second thought to ramming it into his chest the moment she had an opening.

They both stood still, and it was like time stopped as they stared at each other.
Eventually, he snapped out of it and charged. Grabbing her by her throat, he hit her against a wall and squeezed, successfully cutting off her airway. “You little cunt! You really think that would kill me? You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

Trinity was pulling against his hold on her throat and trying to gasp for air.
She couldn’t breathe, she needed to breathe! When his grip loosened a small amount, she took gulps of air and ceased her struggles. Grabbing the handle to the spear, she looked him right in the eye and choked out, “This is for Tori, asshole.”

Trinity will never forget the sound it made when she pressed the button.
She could just picture the different extensions cutting into the muscle of his heart. His eyes opened wide, obviously not expecting this outcome, before his body collapsed to the ground, bringing her down with it.

She had killed someone.
When she had a moment, she would contemplate how she felt, but right now, she had to get out of here.

The other two men walked into the room just as she was standing up.

“Hey Jeffries, you ready to go? It took a while, but we eventually took care of…”

The man stopped talking at the sight before him.
She knew she probably looked feral, covered in blood and standing over a body, but she didn’t care. She reached down and grabbed the fireplace poker and charged the two men. All she knew was that they were standing in the way of her and her way out.

It was a decent fight and she had gotten in a few good hits, but her body was too exhausted from what she had already been through.
Eventually, they subdued her and bound her wrists. Before shoving her into the trunk, she watched as they torched her house. A feeling of dread filled her, because she knew that if Terah and Tori didn’t wake up fast, they would truly die in the fire.     

Shaking off her emotions, she strained her ears and tried to listen to what her captors were saying, but their voices were too muffled.
At first she had tried to remember the direction and turns they took, but soon got mixed up. Now, she felt extremely helpless as she lay there waiting for the trunk to open.

Fighting through the pain, she felt around the dark space, trying to find anything that might help her.
She quickly realized that she was the only thing in the trunk. A thought then occurred to her as she felt around the edges of the upholstery and the side paneling.

As a teenager, she had once gotten a flat tire.
Not wanting to have to rely on another person for anything, she watched diligently as Joseph changed her tire. He had pulled part of the paneling off and exposed the jack and tire iron.

Jackpot!
Trinity popped open the compartment and felt around inside for what she had in mind. Finally, she felt the long metal tool and quietly pulled it free. Holding it there, she quickly formed a plan.

After some time, the car began to slow down and Trinity wrapped herself around the bar.
She could do this, she could do this, she repeated to herself. Not knowing what she was getting into, she knew that she was not going down without a fight.

The car eventually stopped, and she heard car doors open and shut before finally hearing voices near the back of the car.
She tightened her grip and waited.

“What the hell happened to you two?”
Trinity knew that voice. Of course he would be behind this; he had been the cause of all her troubles for the last two years.

“Hey, she wasn’t alone.
Plus this she-cat didn’t come easily.”

“Whatever.
She’s never been…”

The trunk popped open and Trinity threw herself up and started swinging.
She got one good hit across the head of one of the men, and felt a small amount of satisfaction when she saw him drop to his knees. A set of hands reached out for her, and she brought the bar down on top of them. Someone let out a curse and she brought it up to swing again, but her weapon was then ripped from her hands.

Hands were everywhere now, grabbing at her as she fought and lifting her out of the trunk.
Someone grabbed a hold of her hair and another got her arms behind her back. A man stumbled towards her and placed fingers against his head where he was bleeding.

“You bitch!”
He yelled at her, before backhanding her across the face.

Shit, that hurt.
Flexing her jaw to relieve some of the pain, she looked back at him. “So I’ve heard.”

“If you guys are done, I would really like to move this along.”
Looking over, she saw a man looking towards them and fear coursed through her. This couldn’t be happening, she thought.

“Aww, so you do remember me.
That speeds things up.” Trinity was frozen as she watched him turn the other way. When she turned her head to see what he was looking at, her fear intensified. No! Malachi! Looking at him now, he resembled a wild beast more than the man she loved. His face was covered in blood, and he wouldn’t stop thrashing and yelling out. At a closer look, she noticed the blood dripping down from his wrists and she had to plead with him.

Malachi, you’re hurting yourself, stop!

It was as if he didn’t hear her, because he continued to throw threats at Azazel and pull on his restraints.

The men brought her forward, and she put up no fight as she examined her surroundings.
As they got closer, she noticed all of Malachi’s weapons not too far from her and got an idea. She had to help. She was not going to sit by and watch what he wanted her to anymore.

Immediately, she started to pull against the men restraining her, kicking out and biting any appendage that she could get to.
With her quick change of going from docile to attack mode, the men were taken off guard and she managed to get free. Not pausing once she did, she started to sprint towards to weapons. She had seen the sword many times to know that it was Malachi’s. After wielding it so many times in her dreams, she was pretty sure she could handle it now.

Leaning down in mid-run, she scooped it up.
Ignoring Malachi’s yelled warning, she held it with her bound hands and pointed it in the direction of Azazel. Damn, this thing was heavier than it looked!

All he did was turn and smile.
“I do like this one. She’s got spunk.”

“Yeah, so much spunk that she took out Jeffries.”
One of the men chimed in.

Azazel looked on, but with an expression of awe.
No remorse was present. “Really?”

“Let them go!”
She gestured in the direction of Malachi and Gemariah, ignoring Azazel’s question.

“’Fraid I can’t do that, love.”
He turned and held his arms out wide. “Tell you what…I’ll give you a free shot. Make me let them go.”

“No!”
This was yelled simultaneously by Malachi and Gemariah, but she wasn’t listening. This, whatever he was, needed to be stopped. Taking a step forward, she swung the sword. A look of surprise crossed his face before jumping out of the way. She missed her mark but did end up cutting a small strip across the front of his shirt.

Everyone was quiet and staring at her with their mouths ajar.

“What the…” Before she knew what was going on, Azazel was directly in front of her and ripping the weapon from her hands. He tossed it to one of his many minions.

“Swing that!”

The man picked it up and adjusted his grip before bringing it back. He didn’t make the forward swing before dropping the sword and going down to his knees. He was screaming in agony while staring at his hands. At a closer look, Trinity saw that the flesh off the man’s hands was disintegrating enough to where the bone was starting to show.