Eternally Yours (10 page)

“Alexia? Alexia, wake up!”

I'm being shaken, and I wake with a jolt, noticing an unknown form lurking over me in the dim light. I can't tell who it is with my blurry vision. I blink a couple times, rub my eyes and moan. My head is pounding.

“Ah gods, finally. You had me so worried, Alexia.” The blurry form lets out a long-held breath. Even without my vision I know that voice. I could never forget it now. Now that it’s ingrained in my memory.

“How do you feel? Do you need anything? Do you want water?” His words come out rushed and panicked. He is concerned for me, and I fall a little bit in love with him for it.

I have cotton mouth and feel dizzy and nauseas and suddenly everything comes back to me. Was I just dreaming or did we really kiss?

“Ug,” I moan, “My head is pounding, and I'm dizzy. Water would be amazing right now. Oh and my mouth feels like a desert.” My eyes track his every movement.

He nods and reaches somewhere next to me. “Can you sit up?”

I nod. “I think so.”

“Here.” He helps me sit up and holds a wooden bowl to my mouth. “Drink.”

I let the water cool my torrid mouth in greedy gulps. Before long, the bowl is empty and he takes it to the waterfall to replenish it.

“What happened? How long have I been asleep?”

“About two hours. We should get back soon. The ceremony starts at nightfall.”

“Oh.” I rub my head.

“Ah, I want to thank you for letting me....nourish and heal by..., you know. Thanks for that.” He breaks eye contact and rakes a hand through his still wet hair, making it spike back up. “If it wasn't for you I'd be dead. I am in debt to you, Alexia. I owe you my life, and I can’t express how sorry I am that I almost…” he chokes up on his words and swallows nervously. He mumbles a few things in a language that I don’t understand harshly and shakes his head at himself. “I almost killed you, Alexia. I couldn’t stop. I still don’t know how I did.”

“First of all, you saved my life, twice! Second, I wanted to give you my blood.” I clear my throat. “And third, well, I liked it. I don’t regret it. I wasn’t going to let you die, especially when it was my fault.”

I reach up to rub my neck where he bit me, and find that there are no marks. I know when a
demon
bonds, the female gets a permanent mark, one that matches his mark, and then he can only live off of her sustenance. It’s clear that we aren’t bonded, and I’m not sure why I am not happy or relieved about it. Just curious.

“It was not your fault,” he corrects me scathingly. “You have caught on to flying faster than anyone I have ever heard of. And the fact that the Hell Horde has escaped Hell tells me something is very wrong. They are bound to Hell by Lucifer for all eternity, never to escape.”

“So that's what those things were? Some kind of Hell-dem…” Oops, I don’t know if I call them a
demon
if it would be accurate, but I don’t have a very good brain-to-mouth-filter. I don’t want to offend him.

“
Demon
, you can say it. Yes, they are a
demon
of sort. Do you feel good enough yet to fly? We need to leave before they find us.”

“I still feel a little dizzy. I should be okay soon though. I just want to sit here a little longer.”

He nods and stares off in space, thinking quietly.

“How did you find this place?” I try to break the silence.

“My parents used to come here. They brought me when I was a fledgling.”

How did his parents find it? And why in the world they would come here, outside the walls?

“It's a long story.” He knows me so well already, that he is answering my unspoken questions. Do I know him so well?

“We have nothing but time,” I insist.

He looks at me for a long moment, deciding. “Can I trust you with my life?” The seriousness in his words and expression make it clear to me that this is something he has probably never told anyone else. How many deep, dark secrets does this tormented boy have?

“If I have not already proven that, I will do so however you wish,” I say seriously. He has saved me more than once, and I owe him my life.

The corners of his lips pull up in a sweet half smile, and he looks so young and innocent that it almost breaks my heart to think about what a hard life he’s had at such a young age. Was he ever really a young boy that got to play with toys and was coddled and nurtured and loved?

“Okay, I will tell you, but like I said, it's a long story,” he takes a deep breath.

“My mom was a
demon
like me and she met my dad when she went off to the Grand Mecca. He was an
angel
. They fell in love and started seeing each other in secret. Of course, they were arranged to marry someone of their own kind and it tore them both to pieces. They met up constantly behind their fiancé’s back, and they both avoided the marriage union with their fiancé, putting it off as long as possible because of their love for each other. My dad couldn’t bear to imagine my mom drinking anyone else’s blood and lying in the marriage bed. It drove him crazy, so the very last day, the day we are forced to consummate the bonds; they exchanged blood and became bonded to each other instead, so that my mom could only live off of his blood. It also marked my dad with her specific symbol, and he had to hide that mark from the
angel
s every day, or face death. They planned on escaping the walls to live together and on the first journey outside the walls they found this island and this cave. From then on they would come here, to be together. They were bringing supplies and food here little by little until they had enough to start a life here.

“Well, a half a year later my mom finds out she is pregnant with me and all hopes of leaving the City vanish and it gets too risky to keep meeting every day. My mother's husband was starting to suspect that it wasn't his child because she avoided their marriage bed so much and the bond still hadn’t taken place. They didn’t share the mate markings or a mind-link. He started keeping her close to him, not letting her leave their house, and even though she shared her blood with him, it didn’t truly nourish her.”

“Because she was bonded to your dad?” I ask.

“Exactly.  It's a bond for life. She acted like he nourished her, so he wouldn't find out, but she was pregnant and you need more blood to sustain two lives. Her health started to decline very visibly and that’s when he really started getting suspicious of her. He suddenly allowed her to come and go as she pleased again, in hopes of following her.”

“Oh no. What about your dad?” I ask.

“He was going crazy, literally. He thought maybe she and the babe were both dead, because she just stopped showing up to meet him. He knew that after about three days she would start going downhill, because we need to feed about every day. Three days is torture.” His voice is sad now. After a long pause he continues. “Anyways, she was really smart, so she knew that her husband let her suddenly go out so that he could follow her. Luckily, she lost him on the way to meet my dad. To make a long story short, she managed to meet my dad about once a week to feed, which wasn’t nearly enough. Between the lack of blood and her waning strength I came five months early right here in this cave.”

His voice is quivering and I try my best not to cry. My throat is tight and my heart hurts for him so bad. He squats down in front of the waterfall and idly plays with the dirt, grasping handfuls and letting it sift through his fingers as he puts himself back together. I struggle to my feet and to my surprise my dizziness has faded and I am able to walk over to him. I sit next to him and hug him.

“This is the first time I’ve been back to this cave.” His voice is quiet and melancholy now. “This is the cave in which I was born and my mother died.”

“I’m so sorry, Shadow. I know there just aren’t any words to take away the pain.” I squeeze him tighter in our embrace and he rests his head on my shoulder.

He clears his throat. “So my dad left me on my mother’s best friend’s door step. He didn’t dare leave my with my mom’s husband, because he knew he hated me. So, I was adopted my Lilith’s mom.”

My face registers shock and surprise. “Lilith’s mom was your moms-”

“--Best friend,” he finishes for me, nodding his head.

“So I grew up and I was twelve years old when I got my fangs, just as all
demon
s do at that age, and I also got a severe pain in my back. This went on for weeks, even months until I was writhing in agony. My adopted mother knew something was wrong but didn’t know what. As you know, or will find out if you haven't heard, if you keep your wings locked up inside yourself too long, you will experience excruciating pain. They have to be released every so often. Anyways, my dad kept an eye on me from afar in the City as I grew up. He noticed something was wrong one day when I just fell to my knees in agony. So he dragged me down an alley to the wall and flew me here. I was in too much pain to even know an
angel
had me in his throws flying me over the wall. I was winking in and out of consciousness with pain. Anyways, when we got here, to this cave, he explained everything to me. About him and my mother; my real mother. At first I didn’t want to believe him, because I had grown to love my adopted mother and father. But it made sense when he told me about the pain in my back and helped me release my wings. Most
angel
s don’t get wings until they are eighteen, but apparently since I'm a half-breed he didn't know what to expect. I agreed that I think I needed to fly, because I had been feeling an urge to jump off of something high. I just thought I was crazy.” He laughs cynically and shakes his head. “So he took me to that waterfall. He was going to explain everything to be about how he had to release them for me and that whole spill I gave you. But at the time I was mad at him, at my mom, at the world. I didn’t want to be a half-breed and I didn’t want to have a dead mother and emptiness in my heart. So stupidly, I just ran off the cliff and decided I didn’t need his help then, since I had come so far without it. You know how that story ended, with me a broken mess on the rocks below.”

I gasp. “That story was…you? It wasn’t about an
angel
, it was about you?”

He laughs bitterly and nods.

“That was me. So you know what happened first, but after I fell, dad brought me back here and I was even in worse pain. We thought I might die at that point.

“After falling I was in bad shape. There were broken bones, gashes and I was losing blood rapidly. Of course, I hadn’t had my first feeding yet, since all these things appeared at the same time, so I had no idea that I needed to feed to heal. Luckily, dad knew more about me than I did because of his love for my mother. He held my mouth open and dripped blood into my mouth from his wrist until I came to. While he did he told me how he felt for my mother and me. He loved her so much, he always had. He missed her to the point where he didn’t think he could go on. He cried right there, and it broke me. My father
was just
sitting there, giving me his blood, my head in his lap, pouring out his soul out to me.”

I don’t want to sully the moment with inadequate words so I just rub his head and kiss his cheek, letting him get this heavy burden out.

“When I healed we talked of everything and I finally believed how much he loved me and my mother. I had forgiven him for abandoning me. He only did what was in my best interest. It felt so good to be loved.

“We made my first flight, which was even worse than yours,” he laughs. “A few minutes later we were marveling at my new black wings.”

“What did you do after that? What about your dad?”

“My dad. Oh my dad. No matter what I looked like, I was the best thing that had ever happened to him, besides my mom. He told me that all the time. He accepted me just as I was and loved everything about me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time with him after I finally found him.” He swallows and inhales. “My dad was burned to death in front of the City, as an example to all those who mingle with different kinds.”

“How did they find out?” My eyes are as big as saucers, my heart thumps wildly in my chest.

His voice is almost a whisper now, his eyes glassy. He squeezes them shut and tears roll down his cheeks. I can't imagine how bad he's hurting right now. “The
angel
s saw his mate marking, they knew he was a
demon
s consort, and everyone was officially mated by the time they saw it so they knew he had an affair on his wife as well as the
demon
’s husband. Also, my mother’s husband realized it finally and came forward to express his suspicions that it was his wife who bonded to my father. He confirmed it when the authorities showed him her mate marking on his arm.”

“That's not fair!” I cry. “The authorities are wrong! It doesn't matter what kind you are, you can't choose who you love. And they certainly can't choose someone for you, regardless of what they think.” I rant. “I hate this whole arranged marriage thing...” My voice is back to normal now as I comfort Shadow. A nightmare is what it is. It can't be real life. How come no one knows of this tragedy?

He composes himself now, holding his pointer finger and thumb over each eye, hiding from my field of view as I rub his back. His wings aren't out, so I feel the ridge of each and every scar that's back there.