Just as she assumed that she was done with me.
A fact on which she would soon find herself proven wrong…very, very wrong.
I tore my eyes from the bed, tired of seeing her there in my arms like some cruel memory on repeat. For had it not been her room, then I would have found my fist embedded somewhere in space and the centre of the painted wall.
“You!” The second I heard the hiss of anger coming from the door I knew exactly who I would find standing there like some twin image of both mother and father combined.
“I don’t have time for you, boy,” I commented letting my dark tone speak for itself.
“I don’t give a fuck if you do! You did this! You pushed her away just like the first time!” Theo roared at me, storming his heavy frame inside her room and making me snarl at him for doing so. Right now, this room was off limits.
“You know nothing of which you speak and therefore this will be the only warning you get…back the fuck off, Theo!” I growled in a dangerous way, one the brazen youth didn’t take seriously.
“Man, you got some fucking nerve, you treat my sister like that and expect me to just what, let you get away with it. I don’t give a shit if what she saw wasn’t…”
“You spoke to her?!” I snapped, suddenly realising it and hearing it in his voice for myself.
“I didn’t say that, but the way I look at it, seeing as she left you then it’s no longer your business even if she did!” The second he said this was when I officially lost my shit, releasing the firm hold I’d had on my demonic side and relishing the moment of furious freedom!
“Big. Fucking. Mistake!” I snarled low and menacing before I made my move. Theo braced just in time for me to fly into him, forcing him back through the door so we wouldn’t destroy anything Amelia treasured.
We ended up crashing into one of the many stone walls in Afterlife, before I grabbed him and threw him down the hallway, one that was getting closer to my intended target. But then the asshole simply shook it off and barreled right back into me, causing us both to go crashing into some antique sideboard that almost crumbled on impact.
I felt a fist in my gut, just as my own connected with his jaw for the second time that day. However, the longer this continued, the more and more my demon seeped through and before long I couldn’t stop it as the leather on my glove ignited into Hellish flames. Meaning that if I didn’t put a stop to this, then I would end up doing something that couldn’t be undone the moment I touched him.
For a single touch by the hand of the Venom of God was all it would take to,
Kill a Draven.
“ENOUGH!” I roared and forced him to his knees using my will against him, just as I had done with his father. Only this time, he didn’t know it, but it was done so more for his sake than mine. So, despite making it less than a fair fight, the alternative would have undoubtably been far worse. Besides, I needed to get to the bottom of that call and fast.
“Now you will tell me where she is?!”
“Fuck…AHHH!” He ended this insult in pain as I twisted my fist, mimicking his spine.
“Lucius, stop!” Keira shouted coming out of Dom’s office, clearly still upset shown by the tears streaming down her face.
“I will, just as soon as he tells me what I demand to know!” I informed her calmly despite my demonic appearance. Then I felt her hand on mine, the only being in the world able to touch my hand and survive. This was due to the same Venom of God in her blood, being why she was unaffected by it.
Her touch startled me enough that I dropped my hold on the boy’s mind and staggered back, feeling my wings hitting the wall first before my back followed.
“He doesn’t know where she is, she wouldn’t tell him, just as she wouldn’t tell me,” Keira admitted in a devastated tone.
“You spoke to her!? When, what did she say?!” I demanded in a rush of words.
“Luc, please just calm down and…”
“NO! For fuck sake, Keira, don’t you see, all this deception, all these fucking lies are the reason I am now stood here without my Chosen One! She ran because I agreed to do as you asked of me!” I said verbally lashing out at her.
“I know…I know, but please if you will just listen to me and let me explain then I…”
“NO! No… FUCK NO! I am done listening! I have never once gone against you or said no to you, Keira, but I am fucking done! No more, No fucking more! Because all the lies, the secrets, where has it got me…WHERE IS MY GIRL!?” I roared losing it and I only knew this when Theo rose slowly and positioned his mother behind him, protecting her now and staring at my exposed hand.
“Easy now, Luc…let’s just take a breath,” Theo said in a calming tone that was meant to bring me back from whatever had claimed my vessel, aiming for my mind next. So, I followed their fearful gaze and looked down at my own hand, feeling it pulsating with Hell’s power like the Devil’s own limb was attached to me. And that wasn’t far from what I found, for it was only a glimpse of the charred black scarred skin that I had been used to seeing whenever I finally removed the glove.
However, now in the height of my wrath, it was more like volcanic rock with glowing magma showing through the cracks, as it had arisen from Hell’s own rivers of fire with the sole purpose of causing death and destruction as it was currently creating an opening in the floor. A growing circle of energy where I was unknowingly summoning up that same liquid fire I seemed able to command, and it was now flowing up through the opening I had made and being absorbed into the tips of my molten crusted fingers, each digit cursed for an eternity. It was as if it was reaching for its demonic puppet master, the edges of the flames licking out and scorching the stone floor, turning it black like my own burnt skin. Its infection spreading like soul weed, snapping outwards with every inch grown from the glowing hot serpents that continued to reach for me, as it was obvious that I was the one dragging them up from the portal I had made from Hell.
“Lucius, let go.” I heard Dom’s voice coming closer, after first taking hold of Keira’s shoulders and pulling her further back, nodding to his son to protect her as he took their place.
“I am not sure I can,” I confessed, my voice barely being that of my own, as it only just made it through the hold this undiluted rage had on my demon.
“Yes, you can my friend, you just need to fight it.” I looked up at him and saw the sincerity of those words in his purple gaze, his own dark wings now hiding his family from my view.
“She ran from me,” I told him, giving him the root of my rage.
“She ran from us all.”
“But she is mine.” My demon growled for us both as I felt the first tentacles of flames curling around my arm, feeding the venom in my flesh with a power I could barely contain. Dom looked to my hand and closed his eyes a second longer than what was needed, for it was the first time he had seen it since I’d lost it completely all those years ago.
“Then the Fates will grant her back to you,” he told me in a strained tone that said so much more.
“You can’t know that,” I said gritting my teeth at the very thought of the words I spoke.
“Oh, but I can, for they granted me back my own,” he said looking behind him and lowering a side of his wing to see his wife, who had tears in her eyes. But I found the sight too painful to look at anymore…for he had his Chosen One. He had fought for her and won! I snarled down at my hand, the hand now cursed by the first sinful act of an Angel of God and one that turned to poison. The one I had no choice but to sacrifice at the gates of Tartarus before it grew back into little more than a cursed hand of the Gods!