Dancing With Monsters (28 page)

Eos let out a laugh. “You have been
blinded, and I feel no pity to destroy you, my sister.” She
released two balls of light towards Ebony, who in her quick
movements, twisted with a swirl of grey mist out of the
way.

The two balls of light exploded on the
ceiling as they skidded up the wall, bouncing as they did. Sparks
cascaded down on us as I tried to reach Malachi. But Ezra wouldn’t
let me. Instead, I moved closer to Ebony. She looked at me with her
grey eyes and reached out her hand.

Eos let out a grunt as another ball of
light exploded from her hand. It hissed through the air like a
bottle rocket, and hit Ebony on her arm. She was tossed through the
air and skidded across the floor with a trail of mist in her
path.

“
Where are your angels and
demon friends—the ones you wish to make alliances with, huh sister?
Where?!” She barked at Ebony as Eos charged towards me and grabbed
me by the hair.

“
Let her go!” A demanding
voice echoed through the room. Eos let go of my hair. “I said let
her go, demon.”

Seth stood just under the arched
passageway. It framed him like he was standing in a painting. He
looked like a warrior with tense muscles, glaring eyes, and hand
clenched around his weapon— the lightstone that glowed illuminating
the flesh of his hand with curling tendrils of light. He looked
like a masterpiece—a portrait of a bygone hero to me with his
blonde hair sticking to his forehead with sweat, the way he set his
jaw and his eyes so powerful…

Ezra.

She was close to me, and no longer
sitting on the shelf inside of me. She loved Seth, no doubt, and
her feelings were blending with mine. I had to push her emotions
down and internally, I felt a quick apology from her.

Take Ebony’s energy…you
are the final piece to win this battle.

I looked at her and she flicked her
eyes at me as if she had heard Ezra’s words as well.

“
The mutant monster,” Eos
said, gleefully. “My, my, my you are a specimen…one-of-a-kind.” She
gazed at Seth and then turned her attention to the lightstone. “And
bearing gifts—nice,” she flicked a ball of light at him with one
outstretched hand and a ball of light towards Ebony with the
other.

“
Seth!” I yelled, but it
was Ezra forcing his name out of me.

Seth held up the stone and before it
could hit him, a slender blade cut in front of him blocking the
ball of light that exploded into a blast of sparks. Ebony twirled
out of the way in one quick motion with a fluid cape of grey
rolling off her body. Both escaped the blow from Eos.

Once the sparks faded, I could see
Edan standing beside Seth with a broad blade held protectively in
front of Seth shielding him from Eos. They both looked like two
warriors caught in moment of battle on canvas.

“
Ah, another archangel, or
what I like to call an appetizer.” Eos chuckled as she expelled a
slender thread from her hand that wrapped around Edan’s blade
rendering it to dust that sifted through his hands like
sand.

Edan quickly rolled to the floor as
more of the black threads came out of Eos’s hand towards him. She
laughed as Seth kept the curling tentacles away by touching the
ends with the lightstone. They spewed out tiny sparks that didn’t
seem to hurt Eos’s as she laughed like someone was tickling
her.

“
You have to take my
energy and Eos’s energy at one time.” Ebony swooped beside me and
took me by the wrist.

“
She’ll kill us before we
can.”

Ebony shook her head. “She won’t kill
you, but she will kill me.”

Ebony pushed me in front of her and
pressed as close to me as possible as she held my arms up and laced
her fingers through mine. Just like the cool color of her skin, so
was her body. I felt like I was pressed against a stone
sculpture.

“
They can’t fight her much
longer—take our energy now!”

My feet left the floor like a giant
bird had latched onto me and lifted me into the air in one quick
motion. I didn’t have time to think and I could hear Ezra’s voice
inside of me, calming me and telling me to take the demon’s
energy.

We levitated into the air and hovered
behind Eos just as Seth let a blast of light from the lightstone.
Knocked off her feet, Eos never seen her demise coming.

I was ready to take her energy as I
closed my eyes and let the sparks fly around me. Everything was in
a mixture of colors. Greys, silver, white…I controlled it all. The
demon’s energy was just that—energy…life…magic that ran through
me.

I felt myself floating on a river of
light that was mine. Everything was serene as I thought I heard the
distant sound of voices calling, but I didn’t listen—I didn’t want
to—didn’t have to. I was in my own world of starry skies that
melted with colors, and for the first time, I felt strong and alive
with unlimited strength and time.

The voices called again, but I pushed
them away. I didn’t want to go back to where I was…wherever that
was, I couldn’t remember, and didn’t care to.

“
April,” said a voice that
rippled the golden light that surrounded me.

“
No,” I said to
it.

Suddenly two hands twirled me around
and made me stare into their grey eyes. “You can’t stay here. The
power is yours, but you cannot stay locked in it
forever.”

I looked at the woman with grey skin,
grey eyes, and hair piled high on her head with golden ribbons
curling through her grey strands. She looked like a marbled
statue.

“
Ebony?”

She nodded her head. “Go back to the
realm of the living. You are needed there…Malachi needs you,
April,” Ebony’s image faded into that of a girl with long, dark
hair and eyes to match.

“
Ezra?”

She smiled as a ghost-like image of
Ebony formed behind Ezra and both smiled at me.

“
We are with you…always
guiding…protecting…” I could hear the mingling of both of their
voices just as a faint image of Eos curled up behind
them.

Ebony turned and with her hand, pushed
her sister away as the swirling grey mist engulfed her.

Seth

“
You should have never
done what you did,” Uncle Hes paced in front of me as I sat on a
bench surrounded by tall shrubs. The sky overhead was rumbling with
storm clouds and looked as angry as Uncle Hes. “You not only risked
everything, and I mean everything,” he waved his hands through the
air. “I mean countless worlds, races, realms…and I don’t know what
I would do if something would have happened to you.” He looked away
and continued to pace like a guard dog.

“
Yeah, but we didn’t lose
everything. And the realms are none the wiser of what happened.” I
stood up and placed my hand on Uncle Hes’s shoulder. “What has
happened has happened.”

He looked up at me with a look of
uneasiness. “You are young, and very lucky to have things come out
this way. I’ll give you that. But,” he raised his finger in a way a
person does to make a point. “There will come a time and place that
things will not work out in your favor. You’ve never experienced
that, and I hope you never do. But you mustn’t get too comfortable
with happy endings, because sometimes you never reach the happiness
in the end of things.”

Uncle Hes tapped me on the shoulder as
drops of rain began to fall from the sky.

“
It’s going to rain.
Imagine us being here just in time of Shangri-La’s rainy season.”
He laughed as the rain came down harder.

“
The demon must be
destroyed.” Rusul stated as he looked at April. “She is a threat as
long as she is out of the shadows. You must understand this,
April.”

“
Even though Eveie has
been nothing but cooperative since we left the Shadowlands, doesn’t
make her trustworthy.” Yolanda sat next to Rusul and both looked at
April across the table.

“
But she isn’t like them,
I know,” April said, standing up with her fingers resting on the
wood table.

We were in one of the smaller council
rooms. Everyone, except Malachi and Nessa were there sitting at the
long, rectangular table as the rain pounded outside and against the
slender glass windows. Only one side of the room had windows that
overlooked the Sapphire Sea that was now a duller shade of blue.
The rest of the walls were covered in shelves with books that held
many law and regulation books of current and past civilizations of
this and many realms. Shangri-La was really a common ground or
meeting place for all problems or issues to be solved.
Unfortunately, our demon dilemma wasn’t going very well.

“
I have not only Ezra’s
energies; I have Ebony’s and Eos’s as well. I feel that this is my
destiny, and we can learn a lot from the demons. Ebony wanted to
work with the angels, and still does. It was Eos that wanted the
demons to take over the realms.” I looked at April. She was still
the same in appearance, but I could see and hear Ezra speaking
through her. “She was the one that was bitter. Eos threatened that
monster into giving her a portion of that serum.” Suddenly, April’s
hand began to shift with grey tones. It was Ebony surfacing. “But
the serum didn’t work on humans because,” she looked at everyone
with grey eyes. “Because Ebony made it that way—she sabotaged the
potion, tried to get her sister to reason another way, but Eos was
never the diplomatic type. She preferred battle. She consumed the
serum as a last resort and forced her sisters as well. But what
Ebony thought to be terrible, was her chance to make truces with
the angels. Eveie is innocent, and above all, she wanted to be a
mother. Her intentions were never evil—she’s a victim of her
sister’s doings. ”

“
Eveie is a demon, and a
demon must be destroyed. April has not only another monster’s
energy, but two demons as well.” Isaiah gazed steadily at April. “I
don’t even know how it came to this being an issue. Anything demon
or demon related is governed under archangel laws—simple as that.”
He pounded his fist on the table. “Now, I’m taking action, and
calling this to an end. The demon will be transported to Avalon
where the Faes have a facility to handle this delicate situation.
April will stay here protected by the laws of Shangri-La until we
decide what needs to be done with her.”

“
I think we are acting too
quickly here,” Ayil, in all of her whiteness, said gazing at each
of us. “This demon, we can learn from. I think as long as we keep
her contained, she will not resist. And I know she wasn’t the
mastermind of trying to create a serum to strengthen demons. Her
mind is too simple and was manipulated by Eos.” She stood up and
looked at Isaiah. “She wanted to just be a mother.”

“
Demons have shown honesty
and allegiance in the past, especially in the angel-demon wars. We
shouldn’t judge the acts of one demon and consider all demons are
that way.” Uncle Hes gave Isaiah a steady look with his dark
eyes.

Isaiah let out a long, tiresome
sigh.

“
It’s true,” said
Ella.

Everyone turned towards the
dark-haired girl.

“
How did this child get in
here?” Isaiah asked with livid eyes. “What sort of establishment do
you run here where a little girl can just wander in on an important
meeting that shouldn’t be even happening?” Isaiah shook his head at
Rusul and Yolanda before sitting back down and resting his head in
his hands. He let out another sigh in defeat.

“
Eveie isn’t a mean demon.
She saved me when my village was attacked by demons, by Eos. If it
wasn’t for her protecting me, Eos would have killed me a long time
ago. If you want to understand demons, and what their true
intentions are, you shouldn’t condemn them all.” Ella stood with
her black hair cascading down her shoulders.

I knew she was Malachi’s sister, but
Malachi hasn’t woken up from his injuries yet. Uncle Hes reassured
me he’d be fine, but I couldn’t help but worry, and only left his
side when Uncle Hes asked me to.

Yolanda stood and rested her hand on
Rusul’s shoulder. “We are all tired and need to rest to make better
judgements concerning this matter. We, as host of Shangri-La, will
conclude this meeting for now. We will assemble tomorrow and make a
decision at that time.”

“
We will not wait until
tomorrow!” Isaiah pounded his fist on the table as Yolanda glared
at him.

“
You archangel, are a lot
more threatening than that demon we have safely contained. And by
the laws that override your laws here, we can have you thrown in a
cell as well.”

Isaiah glared at her as Edan leaned
over and said something to his father. Isaiah put his hand up to
stop him as his eyes were fixed on Yolanda.

“
Earth angels are in no
position to threaten me. I will contact my superior about this and
resolve this thing by force if I have to. Demons can’t be trusted
no matter what form they are in.” His eyes shifted to April. She
stiffened upon his glance.

“
There will be no
contacting your superiors because of the rainy season. It’s
impossible to even use the portals until the weather is a little
more agreeable.” Yolanda kept her eyes on Isaiah.