Echoes in Eternity (The Pella Series Book 1) (62 page)

“Them?”

“Yes, it gives not one but two keys to Eden, because they’re the children of two perfect hal
ves of the same soul: yours and hers.”

“No! No! No!” I shout as
overwhelming grief drowns me. I’m losing my family once again.

“What did you expect? When she matriculates each time, it’s a new life by default. She’s no longer your wife any more than they’re your children,” Nieto warns.

“Don’t fucking try to delude me like I’ve existed just a couple of hundred years! She’s still Marcus’s daughter. She still has the same DNA, still has the same soul. She experienced birth fifteen times while retaining her core identity. And those kids you wish to eradicate are ours!”

“There is one other way you can get your children without having them eligible for sacrifice
and vulnerable targets for the Fallen. Did they not snatch Miss Ellie right under your protection? I am falling after her to lessen the damage which will still be considerable. In light of this, I don’t think you would choose the way in which your children can be retrieved…” Nieto offers but I jump in.

“Try me! You’ve never been a parent. You wouldn’t know what it means to lose a child
or what lengths one would go to save his child.”

“Be that as it may Alexandros, I
know I am right on this one.”

“Tell me!”
I growl.

“Your children would have to matriculate.”

“Okay.”

“Through Elissa.”

“Naturally. She’s their mother.” I listen eagerly. But then he drops the bomb.

“But you can’t
contribute to their matriculation. Someone else has to.” My face darkens with fury.

“Absolutely not!”

CHAPTER
XXI

J
OURNEY OF DEATH

Elissa
Cassandra Duncan

My heart doesn’t give up easily. The thumping of my heart speeds up as
if several jungle drums are beating at top speed. Wasn’t blood supposed to spew like a geyser? I feel the warmth of my blood surround the cold fang. In fact, I can feel each distinct nerve ending like a million burning and stabbing pains as the poison spreads throughout my body rapidly. My body fights, resists. My vision is blurred; my eyes look at Nieto behind the bloody veil of my eyes. I can see his lips moving, but it is unclear whether he’s talking to me or praying. I hear my heart’s battle echo in my ears and the gush of my blood, racing to force the poison out of my system. I feel my cells trying to repair my heart, trying to push the foreign objects, the protruding fangs out of me. All the while my tears force their way through. The warm beads are thick and clouding my vision in crimson. I realize that I’m crying but those aren’t tear drops falling; its blood flowing. I try to move my arms down, but my muscles disobey me. Other than the spasmodic, violent jerking of my body, I can’t make my muscles move at will. I have no will, just the intense desire to die to end my agony. Harrowing pain is incessant, increasing, and soul shredding. Is this what my father is going through for me every day since he gave himself up to save me?

Finally my screams run out and a silent O is left behind. But my mind can’t find a peaceful, pain-free corner to hide in! The poison finds its way. The visions of Sarah’s attempt to kill me, visions of being pushed into the frigid waters fill my mind. Then, I hear it before I see it.

“Massssteer…
She
is here! In our own domain! I can feel her blood burning within her veins and hear Cerberus’s poison calling out to us!” I vaguely recognize the hissing voice, but can’t place it. The pain is halting all my sanity and faculties.

“Who?” the deep voice booms with a tinge of barely concealed knowing excitement
, seeking confirmation.

“The sacrificial lamb came to the altar on her own. She is not resisting,” hisses the first voice.

“Why aren’t we informed of this? Who is becoming the gate master?”

“I can’t see him sir…” the voices dim. I am convulsing. Pain is searing, burning me from
the inside out. My eyes roll back into my head as Nieto is feverishly moving his lips in some ancient language; his many hands are a blur. His faces flash in the eyes of my mind.

“Miss Ellie!” Nieto’s voice echoes in my mind rising above the pain.
“Come to this pain free corner.” Which pain free corner? Every cell of my body is exposed to excruciating pain! Nieto creates a bubble inside my mind to have a coherent moment, but I am unable to reach it. I’m dying. I feel my soul slipping away.

“We can’t let your soul slip away Miss Ellie!” Nieto’s voice booms and momentarily the command of his voice is above my pain threshold. Wishing for a final death would be an understatement.

“Give me my final death Nieto! So many people will be set free if I’m gone. Even Marcus, your brother,” I whisper as I make a feeble attempt to smile.

“Some lives are
more important than others. Yours is one of a kind. You’re the balance between both of our kinds! Your life is priceless…” his voice dims again as my soul screams in excruciating agony. I’m surprised at the fight my body is putting up when I want to let go.

“One more day of this pain Ellie! Then I seal your soul! Don’t give up child!”

“I can’t take it anymore! The pain of angels is too much to bear!”

“You can! You will! Half of you
is an angel! You’re one of us! You do have it in you! One more day child! Give me one more day! Then your heart will stop and the pain will cease… long enough for you to talk to Marcus.”

Words don’t come out of my lips or
through my mind. I’m defeated. I am ready to give up just as soon as my soul is severed from my body. I’m losing consciousness but the pain is enduring. There is nothing to hold me back. I have just enough resolve left to set everyone free. I even shut Nieto’s voice out locking myself inside the walls of agony, letting it consume the last bit of my fire to survive and exist. I can see Nieto trying to get to me through the wall, but I close my mental eyes.

A bloodied knuckle lands on the wall I
am surrounded by with such a force that it shakes my soul to open my mental eyes. The bloody hand-print appears with dark crimson blood lazily running in individual rivulets towards the ground. There’s a face behind the hand, and a shaky voice.

“If you die, what do I live for
?” he says, momentarily grasping my curiosity. What? Who?

“You promised! You promised me Elissa! You would find us! When the going gets tough, you leave!
You always leave! Did I leave you?
DID I LEAVE YOU?
” the desperate shout echoes in my head.

“You weren’t free. Be free…”

“How could I be free without you? Fuck freedom! There’s no such thing! I gave myself to you freely! That is my choice! How dare you take it away from me? How does that set me free when you,
YOU
take my choice away?”

“You were under duress.”

“You have not seen fucking duress yet! You leave me; I will come and find you. I have harrowed Hades for you! I’ll do it again! You run from me and I will scour Elysium. This is a coward’s way to get out. If you want to leave me, you owe it to tell me to my face, in the flesh that
YOU DON’T WANT ME
! Only then will you be free of me. Only then… Elissa.”

Another deep, soft as velvet male voice joins
in.

“I hate to agree with Pella here. But it
is
the coward’s way out Elissa! I want you to come back, because I can’t wait for you to tell Alexander you don’t want him to his face. Unlike him, I’m not forced to bond with you. I have fallen in love you freely, desperately and completely. I chose to love you! If you only choose to love me back in return as you did once! You can again! Just come back! Please…”

A guttural growl resounds in my mind. I instinctively know that it’s Alex.

“A few more hours Elissa, your body is adjusting and saturating the poison. It will plateau, and give in for a time and soon your heart will stop…” It’s Nieto.

I hear two horrified gasps
with Nieto’s statement.

The sudden shriek of the eagle and the roar of the lion are like the b
urn of salt on a deep gash, a bleeding wound. My own scream accompanies their shrieks as I cry out in blistering pain.

“It can still be to our favor, masssster,” I hear the hiss.

“Only if we finalize the death as a sacrifice! If not, she’s simply dead, blemished and worthless! It has to be a sacrifice for the gates to be opened, you idiot! Her simple death will not open Eden up to us!”

The rapid rain of flaming arrows light up
our dim surroundings. Nieto is back to his Cherub form. Through my clouded vision, I see him shoot fiery arrows and wield a thrashing sword at someone I can’t see. My heart beats are no longer drumming. It’s down to the speed of intermittent drops of water from a broken leaky faucet. My breathing shallows to low whispers. Someone is trying to reach me, but Nieto is like a tutelary deity at the moment, preventing all access to me.

I thought that
Azaziel was shackled and tossed into the depths of Tartarus.

‘
You’re in the depths of Tartarus, stupid!
’ I remind myself.

“He’s still shackled. But, this is his domain and he manages his minions!” whispers Nieto’s voice into my mind. He’s not even winded after who know
s how many minions he’s fighting, I vaguely think to myself.

“I’m not human. I’m made for this! I don’t tire, I don’t give up, I don’t deter from my mission,” he
says in that intonation of the lilting old Indian’s voice I’ve come to find comforting. No matter how dim my vision is, it is like watching the wind fight the creatures of Hades in an agile dance.

“Phlegethon! Encase her! Once the fire of Hades touches her, there is nothing he can do to stop you!”

I can hear the shriek of the Furies, battling against Nieto. The approaching roar of the very pissed Cerberus and its deafening footfalls echo through the rising gray walls and reverberates in my dimming mind.

“
The poison has spread, your body is ripe. The window of opportunity to thrust the fang deeper into your heart is now!”

The power of speech departs me; I can’t even respond to his remark in my mind. I can’t move my muscles.

“You are at the cusp of life and death. Both the soul and the body cling to life. But the cusp is severe. You must be on one side or the other. I can’t abandon the fight; we are simply outnumbered! In no way should you allow Phlegethon to plunge the last stab! You’re on the altar willingly! It can either be a sacrifice to their benefit, bringing forth the Armageddon or a temporary death!”

How can I stop Phlegethon? I don’t have the strength to freak out
let alone stop a fiery monster of Hades. The dim blue aura spreads around me to preserve my soul to be reawakened. But, the thick imploding fire approaches the Horns of Consecration, purposefully climbing the face of the wall to entomb me. He isn’t allowed to blemish me with its fire and he must deliver the killing stab into my heart. I attempt to move my arms to deliver the killing stab to myself, but I’m unable to move them as if I’m paralyzed. Nieto makes the effort to get to my side. His human face is singularly focused on me, watching; his arms are swinging and wielding his fiery sword so fast, the aurora borealis like lines his sword yields can write my epitaph here in the three-folds of the night sky.