Vilmo's Wrath: Deglon Blood (17 page)

“He is not a distraction if that is what you are asking, Father. I will find them.”

Dumont laughs and continues shoveling his meal into his mouth.

“Love is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a beautiful thing and if anyone deserves to be loved, it is you,” he says.

“You are not upset with me?”

“No, Aria, just stay focused. Since you have only played with your food tonight, maybe you can enjoy it in better company. Go get dolled up. I will have the guards bring the two of you a meal to enjoy together.”

Aria at first thinks she has misunderstood what she had heard, but when Dumont calls the guard in and puts in his request for a table to be taken to Blake’s cell, she becomes filled with excitement. She kisses Dumont on the cheek and races to her room.

Opening the door to Blake’s cell was like seeing him for the first time. He was clean and wears clean clothes. He smiles when Aria closes the door.

“They let me shower and gave me clean clothes,” he says.

“You look good all cleaned up,” she tells him.

He smiles and sits at the table.

“The food smells great. Oh, and you look pretty,” he says, looking at his plate.

Aria sits in the chair across from him and hands him her drawings. As he glances at them, his eyes widen.

“These are amazing. I think you make me look better in your drawings than I am in real life,” he says handing them back to her.

“This is how I see you. You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen,” she whispers bashfully.

They sit in silence for a moment and then begin to eat in the awkward silence created by Aria’s sudden kindness.

“Aria, tell me your dreams.”

Blake’s words frighten her. No one has ever wanted to know anything about her. She adjusts in her seat.

“Okay. Well, I once had a dream I was hanging from a tree by my feet, but it was weird beca...” she rambles.

“No. Not those dreams. What do you want in life? This can’t be what you want,” Blake says softly touching her hand.

Aria swallows hard and looks down at his hand on hers. He gently rubs her hand, melting her heart. It wasn’t long before she was rambling again.

For hours, they talk and laugh. Aria forgot about everything negative that had brought them together. She has never held a real conversation. Not with anyone she didn’t want to kill. She never knew talking could be so much fun.

“Aria, do you think I could see my father?” Blake asks.

Aria jumps from her seat, furious.

“You are only being nice to me because you want something!” she yells.

Her eyes glow brightly as Blake stands.

“Isn’t that what you are doing? Being nice to me only because you want something from me?”

“No! I want nothing from you!” Aria snaps.

“You do! You want me to be with you,” Blake softens his tone and walks toward her. “You want someone to love you.”

Blake slowly reaches for her hand. Aria stands perfectly still. Her eyes dim and her facial expression softens. Blake takes her hand and motions for her to sit back down. She sits and stares at him.

“I—you are right,” she says softly.

“Aria we both want something out of this. I can’t go anywhere, and I won’t try to run. I give you my word, but I need to see my father just for five minutes,” he says.

Aria nods.

“I can give you two minutes and no more. Two minutes each week.”

Blake smiles.

“Thank you.”

Aria leads him to the cell next door. She unlocks the door and follows Blake inside. He turns and smiles sweetly at her.

“Can I spend my two minutes with him alone?”

Aria frowns then turns away and closes the door. Blake races over to his father’s cage. Trouse embraces his son through the steel bars.

“Dad, we only have two minutes. Can you get out of this cage?”

Trouse nods.

“If I escape, they will kill you.”

“Aria will not let anyone hurt me. I will find a way to get out of here and when I do, you run. Don’t look back, I will find you,” Blake says.

“No, Blake! You can’t trust that she will protect you.”

“Shh! Keep your voice down. I have not forgotten how evil she is, but as long as she thinks we have a future together, I will not be harmed. I will get us out of here. She is giving me two minutes a week with you, so we can make a plan,” Blake whispers.

Aria rushes in with a frown on her face.

“Time is up,” she barks.

Blake hugs his father and turns away.

“I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, Son.”

Trouse kicks his empty food dish against the wall as Blake walks toward the door. Aria looks deep into Trouse’s deep gray eyes and catches a glimpse of the worry and love he feels for his son. She slowly closes the door, then stops. Trouse looks at Blake and a tear falls down his cheek. Aria stands frozen in shock. For the second time, Blake has made her feel. Feelings that were stripped from her before she could walk. She walks over to Trouse’s cage.

“Aria, please. Don’t hurt my father, he’s all I have,” Blake begs.

Aria looks at Blake, then turns back toward Trouse.

“He is not all you have, Blake. You have me,” she says softly.

“I know, but my father is …”

Aria raises her hand and Blake is silenced.

“To love so deeply must hurt,” she says, grabbing the bars with both hands to get a closer look into Trouse’s eyes.

Trouse grabs the bars next to her hands and he stares into her eyes.

“There is only one pain that hurts more,” he says.

“What’s that?” she asks with true interest in her face.

“The pain felt when the ones you love are taken from you.”

Aria’s eyes widen, and she steps away from the cage. She looks at Blake and is reminded that she has hurt Blake and can never fix the pain she’s caused. She motions for Blake to leave the room and she slowly follows. Just before closing the door, she looks up at Trouse one last time. Trouse smiles when he sees feeling of remorse in her eyes.

“I will see that you get something decent to eat tonight,” she says as she slams the door closed.

Each week Dumont allows Aria to spend time with Blake as long as she continues her hunt for Nora and destroys as many Vilmo and Szion as she can along the way.

Kills are not the same for Aria. They weigh heavily on her heart. As much as she tries to hide her newly found softness, Dumont notices her weakness but does not confront her. Each day, she tries to put up a good front, pretending that killing the innocent doesn’t faze her. The moment her sword slides through another body, she is reminded of Blake and hates herself more every day. The only person that hears her complaints is Blake. Before long Blake becomes her everything.

“Father, can I talk to you?”

Dumont sits in his study, reading a book.

“Sure. What is on your mind?”

“After I’ve killed Nora, I’d like you to release Blake.”

Dumont stares at her long and hard, then smiles. He calls over a Shadow and whispers in his ear. The Shadow leaves.

“What was that?” Aria questions.

“I am releasing Blake. The Shadows will take him to a safe place. When you find Nora the two of you can be together,” he says.

“Really! Oh, thank you, Father.”

“You better go say goodbye. It may be a few weeks before you see one another again,” Dumont says.

Excitedly, Aria races to Blake’s cell. Blake smiles big when he sees her. She jumps into his arms and kisses him on the cheek.

“I’ve convinced my father to release you.”

“What, really? What about my father?” he asks.

“He will release him when Nora is found, but for now you will be safe and we can be together soon.”

Blake places his hand on Aria’s cheek and kisses her lips gently.

“Aria, we can be together now. You don’t need to kill anymore. You don’t have to be that person anymore. We can make our own family,” he whispers.

Although she didn’t want to betray her father, she no longer wants her sister dead and no longer cares about taking Nora’s life. All she wants is to be with Blake. She wants her own life.

“Okay, I will find you. Take this drawing and leave me a trail. I will leave tonight,” she tells him.

“You will release my father, right?”

Aria nods. Blake kisses her again and tucks the drawing in his pants.

That evening after their hunt, Aria leaves. After an hour, she finds the cabin. All she thought about the entire trip was the smile on Blake’s face and the way it would feel to have him holding her. She slings open the door. Happiness shrivels until gone. Her heart is crushed into a million pieces. Like a disease, anger leaves her feeling nothing but pain and darkness.

Dumont stands next to Blake’s beheaded body. Aria falls to the floor. She crawls to his side and sobs holding his head to her chest.

“Nora and Robbie attacked the group. I heard the call too late. I’m so sorry, baby. There was nothing I could do,” Dumont says, walking out of the cabin with a smile on his face.

Aria sits with Blake for hours, her mind replays his kiss. Everything good she had ever felt dies with Blake.
I will never stop until Nora is dead,
she silently promises.

“I will come to you and we can be together,” she tells Blake’s body.

“
N
ora, Nora!”

Robbie’s voice echoes in her ears. Her eyes are heavy as if the light rays hold them shut. With each second they become lighter, allowing her to open them. Robbie sits at her side, smiling.

“What happened? Did I black out?”

“That happened,” he says, pointing to her right.

Her eyes focus on two baby blankets on the bed. She pulls herself up and leans against the headboard. Nora wipes her the tears from her eyes as she looks them over. Their black hair shines and their skin glows with the perfect shade of gold. She leans in and kisses them.

“I’ve been staring at them for an hour now, trying to come up with the perfect names for them, but I need your help,” Robbie says, brushing Nora’s hair from her face.

“No, you name them,” she tells him, wrapping her arms around him.

He holds her gently while she weeps at the site of the miracles they created.

“Jeramiah Robert and Elizabeth, Mia Hingi,” he whispers into Nora’s ear.

“That is perfect. JR and Lizzy. I love it!” Nora says.

“You need to get dressed, we have company,” he says.

Minutes later, the family rushes in with wide smiles and open arms. JR is the first to open his eyes and let out a low whine to let them know he was bothered. Nora picks him up and instantly the room is quiet. Just like his father, his sea blue eyes light up her heart. His features are the perfect mix of Robbie and her. Then Lizzy awakes, but unlike JR she does not make a sound. She lies perfectly silent. Nora hands JR to Robbie and lifts Lizzy into her arms. A perfect mirror to JR. All but her eyes, they are gray. Almost like looking into glass, the way they sparkled.

Everyone waits patiently to be introduced to the twins, each falling in love with them as if they were their own. Jonny kisses Nora on the cheek and gives Robbie a tight hug.

“Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this family. This is the happiest day of my life,” he says reaching for Lizzy.

He wipes the tears from his face as he looks down at Lizzy.
I, like everyone else, am unsure of what my future holds, but I am certain that no matter what happens to me, my twins are in good hands,
Nora thinks.
I agree. We are blessed,
Robbie replies silently.

Moments later, Mia and Marina walk out of the room with the twins.

“What are you doing? Bring them back!” Nora yells, jumping out of bed.

“No! You can't stay in bed all day. Get dressed and get out here,” Mia says, kissing JR on the cheek and shutting the door.

“We need a shower,” Robbie says kissing Nora’s neck.

“We wait for as long as we can. Dumont is growing desperate. His body is rejecting every soul, which means the prince’s body is aging faster and has to claim more and more souls every month just to survive. He can’t afford to get caught. The good news is, he has used up most of the powers of the gods and can’t create any more beings. He will save all the power he has left, for us. Time will cause him to grow weaker, without the gods to fuel him. No matter how many souls he claims, it won’t be enough. We will fight when we have to, but our only responsibility right now is the twins. There is nothing or no one more important than them,” Robbie says.

“What about the humans?” Jonny asks.

“There is nothing more important than the twins,” Zen says.

Robbie sends out a call to the remaining Szion, explaining that each family is on their own until Dumont is dead. As if no one hears him, they call out to him for help. Discomfort sweeps across the minds of the family as Robbie orders them to ignore the distant calls that ring in their ears. After weeks of fighting the urge to answer calls—they stop.

Time passes fast. Although they enjoy each day, they live every minute as if it were their last. Everyone spends every waking moment, spoiling the twins. Before long three years has passed. The twins are talking and running around the house, keeping them on their toes.

Every year, Marina insists that the twins awake to the best birthday ever. On their third birthday, Dave and Jonny prepare their favorite breakfast. Waffles and chocolate, and Mia and Zen covered the living room with gifts. Placing the last balloon on the wall, Marina looks over her work.

“There, it’s done,” she says.

Jonny sets the waffles and all the trimmings on the table and joins the rest of the family in the living room to wait for the twins to awake. After a few minutes of fighting with his impatients, Rocco gets to his feet, he and Jonny share a grin, and they race to the twin’s room to wake them. A moment later, they are racing out of the room with JR and Lizzy on their shoulders making airplane noises.

The day goes by too fast and soon. After a great day the twins settle down. Robbie looks at his family and as peaceful as life seems, his heart tells him their lives are about to change in a drastic way. He grips Nora’s hand. She looks up at him. An electric wave of fear wraps the both of them.

“What’s going on with me? What is this?”
Nora asks silently.

“Death. We will lose one of them soon,”
Robbie replies voicelessly.

Nora’s eyes fill with tears as she gazes around the room, looking into each of her family member’s faces.

“No tears, Nora. We do not want them to worry.”

Nora wipes her face and puts on a smile.

“Who?”

“I don’t know. No more waiting, we start the hunt tomorrow. I will gather all Vilmo and Szion that want to fight and we will start our cleanup,”
Robbie says, kissing her hand.

The next morning the group sets off, leaving Mike, Marina, and Jonny behind to protect the twins.

Each week they are in a different part of the world taking out Light and Shadow. They fight daily for six weeks and still are no closer to Dumont or Aria, only returning home every other week for a few days of rest. Most of their hunts are fairly easy, but in Spokane, Washington they face something different. The streets are quiet, too quiet. Their small group of forty Szion and Vilmo roam cautiously.

“Something is wrong,”
Robbie silently says to Nora.

“I know.”

Six humans stagger from out of an alley bloodied and bruised. Robbie holds Nora’s hand tightly.

“Please help. They're killing us all,” a man says.

They move closer with a small child behind them. Their clothes are dirty and torn, but the bruises and blood look as though it has been purposely slathered on. Their hair is neatly groomed. They never once hesitated or paused when approaching the group of strangers with weapons. Then, a few Szion let down their guard and approach the humans.

“No!” Robbie yells.

The group of what seemed to be humans attack Robbie’s warriors viciously. For a moment, most of the Szion stand in shock. The assailant’s false cries for help and human appearances fooled them all. More importantly, they are unable to sense them. They take out most of the Vilmo quickly and then the young Szion. Before long, half of Nora and Robbie’s men are dead and the rest of them are chasing the beast into the woods.

“Stay in groups and be careful!” Robbie yells.

His family stays together as they slowly close in on the beasts. They hear the distant yells of their men dying and can't help but worry if their family is next. They have no idea what type of beings they are up against.

“Do not leave my side,” Robbie says to Nora.

They see small dirt mounds and barbed wire fences throughout the wooded area.

“Get low,” Robbie whispers.

Crawling on the ground, unheard by the enemy, Nora slips over a large mound of dirt and thrust her spike into the neck of one. Her heart pounds violently, but her hands are steady. She rips her spike from his neck, taking his head completely off his shoulders. She cringes at the sight of blood that gushes from his neck. Her stomach bubbles and she feels faint.
“Not now, Nora,”
Robbie silently says.

“What are these things, Robbie? I have gotten used to the goo, but these things are dying like humans,” Nora says.

“I don’t know, but they need to be destroyed,” he answers.

Then, for a moment the area is silent, that moment ends quickly when many balls of fire hit the surrounding ground. Killing more of their warriors. Mia and Rocco make their way back to Robbie and Nora. Robbie shields them and they watch as the fire pounds at his shield.

“Listen to me, Robbie and I can kill them right now, but you all must go home! We can't protect you here!” Nora tells them.

“I’m not going anywhere without Zen!” Mia snaps.

“Dave is still out there too,” Rocco says.

Nora glances around but sees no sign of Zen or Dave. In her final look over the scattered corpses and large mounds of dirt, she spots Dave.

“Dave!” she yells breaking from Robbie’s shield.

“Nora!” Robbie yells.

Nora watches Dave stumble over to a barbwire fence. Before she can get to him, he falls directly on the razor sharp fence.

“Dave!” she cries.

She drags his body across the wooded area, hoping by some sort of miracle he is still alive. Robbie lifts Dave into the shield and lays him on the ground.

“Oh my god, his eyes,” Mia cries.

Bloody holes have replaced Dave’s eyes and his blood and soul have been taken.

“You have to leave, now! Take Dave’s body home to his son!” Robbie orders.

Mia shakes her head.

“No! No, Robbie. I’m not leaving without Zen.”

“I’m here,” Zen says, holding his side.

Blood drips from his shirt and he walks with a limp. Mia wraps her arms around his neck. Rocco lifts Dave into his arms and they leave.

Robbie faces Nora, wipes the tears from her eyes, and kisses her. They look into each other’s eyes and smile. They close their eyes and send a bolt of electricity into every heart within 2000 feet. Hand in hand they walk around slowly making sure every beast is dead.

Deer and other wildlife lay lifeless in the mess of blood and dead bodies. Robbie and Nora release one more bolt of energy setting everything on fire until there is only ash that will blow away with the wind.