Ascending the Veil (23 page)

Michael’s deep brown eyes move back to me and he shakes his head. His eyes seek mine to intimidate, and sure as hell, it does stir the fear he desires enough to make me lose my grip on the energy I have built. At that moment, there is a pounding above us and all around us on the walls and ceiling. Michael is just as shocked as we are as he looks all around him.

Sam’s thoughts invade my head,
“They are coming for all of us.”

It is the clearest his thoughts have been, making me see that Michael’s hold on him has weakened, but for how long? I don’t have much time.
I start to fidget, but Sam’s arm doesn’t loosen.

He whispers, “Not yet.”

Michael’s head snaps back to Sam and I. He heard him.
Damn it!
The humming vibration is faint, but I hold on to every surge of energy it is stirring within me.

Ezra’s words pull Michael’s attention from me. “Did you really think that these beings would leave you unscathed
, Michael? You did. You thought they would protect you.”

The pounding shakes the walls and the door behind me. Cracks begin to stretch across the ceiling above us. Michael tightens his hold on a still struggling Nate.

Ezra pushes more, “They are going to come in here and take all of us. You think you will leave this place, but you won’t. They will never let you leave!”

Ezra looks at me, then beyond me at Sam. What is he planning? Ezra looks back at
Michael and his voice thunders, “And, you will never take her. Even as I speak, I can feel her life force, her energy building. She will fight until the very end!”

Michael’s face contorts and shifts inhumanely, then snaps back to its original form. In one swift motion, he drops Nate to the ground like a sack of wheat and pitches the knife he is wielding straight into Ezra’s chest.

Everything moves in slow motion as I absorb the certainty that this is not an illusion. Ezra gasps from the force of the knife driving home and he rocks backward on his knees from the hit. My whole-hearted scream intermingles with the scream of my mother and the yell from the man that is holding me captive in his arms. Raging, I push against the knife at my throat, my only concern is getting to my father. The knife Sam holds against me gives way easily along with the arm holding me captive. I fall forward to the ground and crawl the short distance separating me from my mother and father.

Ezra is crumbling fast and Anna has taken hold of his failing body.

I put my hand behind my father’s head for support. “No, no, no! Nate, Xander, help!”

In an instant, Nate and Xander are at my side reaching for Ezra to help support him and Sebastian is hovering over Anna as she shields Ezra. Her cries are silent as she mouths over and over again, “No. No. No.”

The pounding against the walls and ceiling is replaced with a resonance that I have heard only two times in my life now; the sonic boom of an opening portal and the intimate pull and swirl of the energy from within it. I turn in the direction of the pull and see Michael moving backward toward the familiar glowing gateway. I can’t let him go back!

Heedlessly, I scramble away from my father and let the festering, hostile energy guide my attack. Hurriedly, I capture all the energy I can amass and the fire building within me is spurred when I feel Nate’s and Xander’s paired energy. No, they can’t risk my father for my safety! I turn to tell them both to stop and keep that energy for my father, but my eyes focus on Ezra and blood that is pooling beneath him.

I hear Michael in my head,
“It’s too late.”

No, it
’s not too late. It can’t be.
I pivot on my heels and run to my father’s side. “I love you, Dad.”

I pinch my eyes closed, pull the blade from his chest and charge Michael. With vengeance my lone blinding goal, I grab
hold of his shoulder and bury the blade deep within flesh. Until I feel the pain radiate from one definitive point in my own body, I thought I had struck him. Following the path of the burning ember, flaring now in my chest, I look down and see my hand clutching the shaft of the entombed blade intended for Michael.

Pained and short of breath
, I look up into Michael’s ominous eyes as he backs away from me. Without my hold on him now, my legs give way and I crumble to the floor. The rumble around me begins to hollow. The swishing of the vortex and yelling voices become obscured. I try to concentrate on the muffled sound of scrambling feet and Nate’s voice yelling and screaming my name, but it all jumbles and melts together. The sensation of my energy within, my vitality, seeping out of me in unison with my pumping heart consumes me. My last thought I expend before I slip away is,
“It is not supposed to end this way.”

Nate

My yell for Jesca to stop is lost with everyone else's as she lunges for Michael with the dagger in her hand. She grabs Michael’s shoulder and strikes down on him and they both still. Watching Michael’s expression, both arrogant and satisfied, I know Jesca is the one that has taken the blow. She releases a fistful of Michael’s shirt and stumbles backward, dropping to her knees.

“Jesca, No!”

I crawl away from Ezra and the others and catch her before she falls face first to the ground.
“God, no! Please no!”

I lay her across my lap, her grey tank top already soaked through from the blood she is losing. She is losing it so fast; too fast. I look up at Michael as he turns to enter the wormhole.

No, we have to stop him!
I wipe the tears clouding my eyes and yell, “Xander!”

Without any further explanation, Xander is at Michael’s side, taking him by the shirt and tossing him across the room. Without missing a beat, Xander is on him pounding his body against the wall. Michael tries to holding Xander back, but he is relentless as he pounds him with his fist over and over again.

All of a sudden, the most carnal roar slices through the rumble of the whirling wormhole. I turn to the roar and see Sam Crest running straight toward Jesca and I. Quickly, I scoop her up closer to shield her from the blow he is about to deliver. The blow never comes though. Sam runs right past to Michael and Xander.

I pull Jesca back from my chest to look at her. Her eyes are half open, barely holding onto the glimmer of life left within them. I search for help. Xander is holding Michael against the wall along side of Sam. Michael is not giving up without a fight and Sebastian rushes from Anna cradling Ezra in her arms.

I look down at Jesca’s pale face. She isn’t going to last much longer. The last time I tried to save her on my own, I couldn’t. It was Xander who saved her. I look up at Xander and at the same time he looks at me. He struggles to keep Michael pinned against the wall with Sam. “Nate! Save her!”

I have to try and do this. I close my eyes and immediately see her warm face full of life smiling up at me as I danced with her; the night of our date.

“Nate.”

Her soft whisper
pulls me from my memory. Her olive green eyes have faded, the fight in them almost gone.
No, this is not going to happen.

I pull her to me, cradling her to my body. Hot tears spring from my eyes and the knot in my t
hroat thickens my breathy words, “I am not going to let you go, do you hear me! You will not die in my arms!”

With no reservations, I relinquish every bit of my energy, my life force, to her. The initial current is slow, but I feel the flow of it take on a rhythm; the same as the pumping of my heart. “I said I would always protect you. I will give everything, every part of me, to make sure you live
, Jes. You have so much more to do in world. That is your purpose.” I choke on my last words, “You, Jes, you are my purpose.”

I close my eyes, and hold her close to my body letting my life force restore the woman I will always love.

Sam

Seeing Michael manipulate Jesca’s hand, guiding the dagger into her, it is the trigger that unleashes me from Michael’s hold. Jesca drops to her knees and falls forward. Nate breaks her fall and cradles her in his arms. I pinch my eyes closed remembering the likeness of this scene...Anna dying at both Michael’s and my hand in that cabin.

I look from Nate and Jesca to Ezra, dying in Anna’s arms. Xander has pinned Michael to the wall at the far end of the room.

As I stalk across the room, I yell, releasing the pent up hatred and bitterness I
hold for Michael. When I reach him, I slam my body against his, making Xander stumble away and Michael gasp for air. Quickly, Michael pushes back against me, trying to break away. A second pair of hands push against Michael’s chest; Xander. I glance behind us as the scene unfolds; the open wormhole, Anna crying with Ezra dying in her arms, Jesca and Nate huddled in the middle of the floor. They can’t die here. If they do, their souls will be tortured by these beings for eternity. Xander’s yell interrupts my thoughts, “Nate, save her!”

Xander, growls before pounding his fist into Michael’s face over and over again. “I will kill you
, you son of a bitch!”

I don’t blame him for wanting that revenge. I too want revenge. My whole life has been fueled by power and vengeance. He wants to avenge the death of his parents, the death of everyone taken from him. Most of all he wants to dull the pain of not being the one to save Jesca right now. The thing is, he should be seeking his revenge not only on Michael, but on me as well. Yes, Michael controlled my hand, my mind, but I was part of all the death in his life. I should sacrifice my life for stealing so much of his.

Xander looks back at Nate and Jesca once more. The fear his eyes exude is palpable. “Nate! No!”

I took this boy’s parents from him. Now, his blood, his cousin, and the woman he loves are dying, once again under my influence. I took him from his true legacy, his true purpose, all those years ago. I stole his life to serve mine own and Michael’s. This hate and revenge festering within him will turn him into me. I can’t let that happen.
Sacrificing my life for taking so much of his is not enough, but it is what I have right now.

“Xander.”

Xander takes his forearm now and presses it into Michael’s throat. As Michael gasps for air and tries to grab hold of Xander, he hisses, “I will not lose them Michael. Do you hear me?”

Michael’s face is turning pur
ple now, but he has enough strength to hiss, “You will lose all of them, Xander.”

Xander’s forearm tenses and he presses it harder into Michael’s throat.

I holler to pull his attention to be before anymore damage is done, “Xander, stop!”

Xander looks at me sideways, but doesn’t stop his attack on Michael.

I take hold of Xander’s forearm with my hand and yell over Michael’s manipulation. “Xander, that’s enough!”

He angles his head toward me, eyes narrowed and red-rimmed with anger.

Michael takes advantage of the moment and hits his forehead on Xander’s nose. Xander stumbles from Michael, giving him the break he needs to flee and escape into the wormhole. Before he can make a move, Sebastian is at Xander’s side, taking hold of Michael, and pinning him hard against the wall again.

Sebastian yells, “Xander, gather everyone and get them into the wormhole!”

Xander doesn’t move or acknowledge Sebastian’s words, he just continues to stare at me. I see the mixture of resentment, hate, and loathe he holds for me. I think I see something else, compassion, but it is fleeting when Xander turns back toward Sebastian and bellows, “What about you?”

Sebastian shakes his head rigorously. “Just get them all out of here!”

Xander wavers, looking from Sebastian to me.

I growl, “Go! Save them!”

I quickly look away and Xander’s rushes to the others. Michael grinds his teeth and gasps for air. “You think...you are...free...from me, Sam?”

Sebastian peels Michael off the wall by his shirt collar and slams him against it hard once more. I keep my palms planted on his chest, making sure he doesn’t head for that wormhole.

Michael continues to antagonize, “You kill me, all of you will die when you return to Earth.”

Sebastian yells at me,
“Go help Xander! I will hold him!”

“No
, Sebastian! This is my fight!”

Michael’s strength surges and I feel mine depleting quickly. I look over my shoulder and check on Xander’s progress with the others. I can’t hold Michael off much longer. Xander is crossing the room with Ezra in his arms and Anna by his side. He helps Nate stand with Jesca in his arms,
and then they move toward the wormhole. “Go Sebastian! You need to help seal the wormhole!”

Sebastian’s voice thunders,
“You have to go with us, Sam! You can’t stay here! Once we seal the veil..!”

Somehow, Michael untangles our hold on him and he grabs Sebastian by the throat, lifting him from the ground. I try and pry Michael’s arm from him
, but he brings his other elbow around making contact with the side of my face. I’m thrown off balance, letting go of the hold I had on him. Finding his escape Michael throws Sebastian across the room, punches me as I lunge to trap him again, knocking me to the ground. He runs straight for the portal.