Branded (Fall of Angels)

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

   

  Eventually the mist turned into a light rain and it did not take long to soak me through.  I wasn’t sure if it was because of getting wet or if it was just the afterlife calling to me again, but my body started to tremble with chills, the aches slowly crept back into my limbs and my head started to throb. 

  I couldn’t fight this any longer.  It had to end.

  The rain was suddenly blocked from my skin as something warm was wrapped around my shoulders. 

  “It’s time,” a beautiful voice said softly.

  I could only nod.

  Strong hands helped me to my feet but I didn’t look Cole in the face as he helped lead me back to the car.  The heat that blasted out of the vents couldn’t do anything to calm the chills that shook me with incredible force now.

  The tires found their way back to the pavement and the city came back into view then fell away again as we traveled south.  It took a while before I registered we were going back to the lake.  My suspicions were confirmed as we pulled into Cole’s driveway.  He had been holding me in his own home, just two doors down from my own.  I couldn’t bring myself to feel any emotion about it though.  That was just the way it was; it didn’t matter now.

  With his hand on the back of my shoulder, Cole quickly led me out of the rain and into the house.  The house seemed unnaturally dark for being early afternoon, all the lights were off and most of the drapes had been pulled shut. 

  As we started our descent down the stairs, I barely even noticed the few shards of broken glass that lay strewn on the floor before the back door.

  We both froze at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the doorway of my room.   Light was streaming through the door into the hall.  Even though I had slipped out of consciousness before we had left earlier, I knew Cole would not have left the light on in there.  He had never turned it on.

  Cole’s grip tightened at the back of my neck and I heard his teeth grind together as we stepped into the doorway.

  My knees wobbled, threatening to collapse as I took in Alex standing in the room.  In one hand was clutched the dirty clothes I had been wearing when I disappeared from the yacht, in the other hand was the shiny silver gun.

  There was a long moment where everyone seemed to be frozen, each unsure of what exactly to do.  It was Alex who broke the silence.

  “It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened after I finally reached Jessica’s father and talked to Sal this morning,” his intensely blue eyes stared into my own as he spoke.  I saw the emotions play across his face, terror, relief, horror.

  Alex’s words seemed to have shaken Cole from his stupor.  With a hiss, he shoved me aside, knocking me to my hands and knees.  His body seemed to shake for a moment before his shirt suddenly ripped into shreds.  A pair of beautifully dangerous wings burst from his skin.

  Seeing Cole standing there, in the real world, in his true form, was the most terrifying experience of my life.  The thousands of times he had grinned in glee as he pressed the brand into my skin flashed through my head.  The sound of the demented laughter that I had heard from him and those who were in his charge filled my thoughts.  And Alex was in the same room with him, standing directly in his path.

  These thoughts all passed through my head in only a moment.  That was all it took for the wings to coil and launch Cole at Alex.

  I didn’t even hear my own scream as Alex and Cole collided into the far wall, just to the side of the bed.  The sheetrock buckled beneath the force, dust exploding from the wall as they slid to the floor.  Cole was on his feet again in a movement that was too fast to see.  He grabbed the front of Alex’s shirt and launched him across the room.  Alex’s body hit the space where the ceiling and wall met, the wall again crumpling, before he dropped to the floor.

  Sobs and screams erupted from my chest as I tried to crawl over to Alex.  He was struggling to sit upright, shaking his head as he briefly met my eyes, trying desperately to warn me to stay away. 

  As Cole slowly made his way across the room, I realized with horror there was a spot in Alex’s left arm that was bulging in the wrong direction.  Blood covered his face as it poured from his nose.

  “You couldn’t just leave her alone, could you?” Cole hissed as he reached for Alex again.  He picked Alex up like a rag doll and slammed his body into the wall twice before he threw him across the room again.

  Alex didn’t move for a second that felt like a century.  Then he rolled onto his side and he struggled to prop himself up on his good arm.  He winced at the motion and even though he said nothing, I could see the pain that was in his eyes.  I realized with horror one of his legs was resting at an angle that was just slightly off from what should have been possible.

  “I will never give up on her,” Alex said with clenched teeth as he glared at Cole.  “You have no idea what real love is.”

  Cole crossed the room in three steps, this time grabbing Alex by the throat, pinning him against the wall.

  “It’s too late for her,” Cole whispered, his nose only inches from Alex’s.  “You can’t save her.  I can give her something you never could.”

  Alex’s hands, which had been clawing uselessly at Cole’s, stilled for a moment.  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he choked, his eyes burning with intensity as he met Cole’s livid stare.  “I made a deal,” I barely heard the words as Alex hissed them.

  Cole’s expression suddenly went blank.  Slowly a look of realization, anger, fear, and defeat all mixed on his face. 

  “No,” he quietly hissed. 

  “It’s true,” Alex whispered.  “And you know there is nothing you can do about it.”

  Cole’s face distorted with an emotion beyond anger.  “No!” he screamed into Alex’s face.  He slammed Alex’s head against the wall, leaving a dent behind it.  I could see Cole’s knuckles turn white and my screams poured out of me as I crawled across the floor. 

  With a sickening snap that filled the room, Alex’s struggling form suddenly went limp.

  With one final heave, Cole threw Alex’s still body across the room, where it crumpled into a heap just behind the door.

  I sat frozen on the floor as the world fell silent and seemed to stand still.  I held my breath as I waited for Alex’s chest to rise and fall, for him to stir in anyway.  He didn’t.

  Cole looked from Alex’s body to my face.  As I looked back at him I didn’t feel fear, I didn’t feel anger.  I couldn’t feel anything.  The perfect features now only seemed to emphasize the truth of what he was.  His face twisted in anger that reflected the monster within. 

  Without saying a word, he turned to the door and walked out, his wings trailing behind him. 

   

  X

   

  I held Alex’s limp, cooling body in my arms for hours.  The full truth of what had happened had still not hit.  My body felt numb, I stayed detached from it; no emotions filled me.  In truth I was probably in shock. 

  I didn’t realize at first how the chills had disappeared, my body relaxed, my head had stopped pounding completely.  My strangely enhanced vision and hearing seemed to still be intact and with how my head had stopped spinning the effect was amazing.  It was hours before I realized that I felt perfectly normal again.  Better than normal.  At least that was how my body felt.  Inside, I was beyond broken.

  Eventually as I caressed Alex’s cheeks, felt how they were no longer warm, felt the heat of his strong hands disappear, cold, cruel reality started to sink in.

  Alex was dead.  Cole had killed him.

  The tears began first, building in intensity as they rolled down my face and spilled onto the top of Alex’s head as I cradled it against my chest.  Small sobs bubbled from my lips and grew into cries of agony and torment. 

  Through my grief I couldn’t understand what had just happened.  What had Alex’s final few words meant?  He had made a deal?  There was nothing Cole could do about what?  A
nd why had Cole suddenly left after?  Why didn’t he just finish me off?

  As no answers came, I realized something else.  I had felt as if I had been under the influence of some kind of drug the last week or so.  In a way I had.  The feelings I thought I was having toward Cole, my strange, resigned behavior, it had all come from Cole.  He had planted those feelings in me, made me see those awful visions of Alex and Sal.  Planted things that weren’t real about Cole and I into my head. 

  One thing I knew he had been telling the truth about though.  I had indeed been dying.  Now I wasn’t.

  The last traces of even room-temperature warmth faded from Alex’s skin and it started to turn cold.  The reality that Alex would never hold me in his arms again, never make another light hearted joke, never flash me his brilliant smile again was too much. 

  I was hysterical as I mourned over the loss of the man I loved more than I would have ever thought it was possible to love someone.  Screams and wails poured from me and my crying did not stop when the tears ran out.  Anger, frustration, sorrow, and pain ran though me, pounding me like a train wreck.

  When I finally quieted on the outside, there were a few thoughts that kept running through my head, over and over.  I couldn’t go on without him.  What was the point of living if the person I loved the most was gone?

  As if in answer to my question, something shiny from across the room caught my attention.  I crawled across the blood streaked floor toward it, sitting in front of it as I gently picked it up.

  The gun had seemed so inviting before when Cole had given it to me.  It had promised to end all the pain.  While it was a different kind of pain now, it seemed to promise the same thing.

  I sat with shaking hands holding the gun.  Even though they shook, I felt suddenly very calm inside.  I knew there was no way I could continue on now.  There was no point in going on.  The decision was so simple to make.

  Without breathing, I raised the gun.  The cool feeling of the barrel against my temple was calming and comforting.  It would all be over soon.  I wouldn’t have to think about anything but my own branding in just a moment.  I had endured plenty of those, this would be easy.

  Taking a deep breath, I squeezed the trigger.

  Click.

  It took me a moment to realize what happened as the sound died.  I drew the gun away and opened the chamber.  It was empty.  I then realized it felt lighter then when Cole had first given it to me.  It was as if someone was trying to play a cruel, sick joke on me by emptying the gun that had held my only escape.

  The gun dropped to the floor with a thud and a fresh wave of tears consumed me.  The reality of what I had almost done and what I now couldn’t do hit me like a ton of bricks.  My head dropped to my knees as I pulled them into my chest, my shoulders shaking as I let the tears have me.