Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (19 page)

Brooke

Chapter
Twenty-two

A burning sensation filled my lungs and pain radiated through my
extremities. A coldness coursed through my veins and my head pounded. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt as though they’d been sewn shut.

Inhaling deeply,
my chest flamed with pain. A sob came from my lips as I pulled my arm up into the air. I had never felt so weak in my entire life. My body felt heavy and I was unable to move any portion of it more than a few inches.

I
slowly opened my eyes and strained against the darkness. When they finally brought my surroundings into focus I was staring at an aged, uneven grey concrete ceiling. The sound of water dripping came from behind me.

“Gavin?”
I attempted to scream out his name, but it only came out as a whisper. And my eyes fell shut once again.

Tilting my head back, I
felt gravel move under my neck. The fine, cold pebbles pressed into my cheek and I opened my eyes again. It took a moment for them to focus, but when they did I was staring into the empty, black sockets of a skull.

My eyes
frantically darted back and forth and all I could see were skulls and bones arranged around me.

I tried to scream
, but only a hoarse rush of air escaped me. I rolled over onto my stomach and feebly attempted to raise myself up onto my hands and knees. My entire body shook as I tried to steady myself. Warm tears seeped from my eyes as I tightly closed them in an effort to block out my morbid surroundings. Managing to fight through the pain, I pulled in a large breath and released it; this time a deafening scream echoed throughout the chamber.

The amount of energy it took f
or me to get that yell out drained me and I collapsed into the gravel. Dust flew up and I sucked it in through my nose and mouth. The sediment coated my lungs and made me cough. Each jerk of my chest sent shocks of pain throughout every muscle of my body. I didn’t have the strength to push myself back up and feared I may suffocate.

I heard footsteps crunch
across the gravel and my body tensed up. I had no recollection of how I’d gotten here. The last thing I could bring to memory was listening to the radio in the hotel room.

“Brooke!” Gavin’s voice resonated from the wall of bones.

My eyes shot open. I felt Gavin’s hands grab my shoulders and he turned me over, bringing me into his lap. Sitting down, he pulled my head against his stomach. I laid staring up into his face, relieved that he’d not abandoned me.

“Where are we
?” I asked between heavy pants.

Gavin ignored my question. H
is eyebrows pointed down with concern. “How badly do you hurt?”

“I’ve never hurt like this in my life.”

His lips pulled in until none of the pink coloring was visible. His palm softly stroked the side of my face. “You don’t remember?” he asked.

Closing my eyes, I
tried to remember what had happened before. The images came back and I remembered him saying he’d have to kill me to get me to safety, I remembered him fucking me like a mad man, and then tearing open my flesh with his teeth.

Reaching to my neck,
I felt for a wound but the skin felt unscathed. Weakness conquered me and my eyes again slammed shut to darkness.

I'd lost count of how many days we'd been down there, stuck in the damp tunnels running underneath the city. Having no clue if it was day or night, it may have only been two days, but it
seemed like weeks. The constant eerie sound of water dripping down, running off the bones covering the walls was driving me mad. The skulls with gaping jaws and empty sockets surrounding me no longer had an effect. I couldn't imagine this being the rest of my existence, hiding in the darkness among death. Waiting. Waiting for something within the fabric of fate to unravel. Just waiting for him to let me go.

I was so afraid that I'd forget what the world lo
oked like, what colors were... even in my dreams the colors and vibrancy of everything seemed to be fading, all except the last glimpse I'd had before being dragged down to this haven. The image of mangled bodies lying all along the streets, the cardinal red blood pouring down the gutters; that image of the world above me had been branded into my mind and anytime I thought about it, it was as though I were holding a picture in my hands. Depression could not begin to touch the way I felt. I couldn't help but wonder if my family was still alive, and I couldn't stop the recurrent thoughts of them being snatched up by some horrid creature and drained of life just to be tossed to the side as though they were nothing of importance.

The guilt I had –
the gnawing remorse that I had anything to do with this was crippling. Fate? I no longer referred to my crossing paths with Gavin as fate. It was a curse. Why would I have been chosen to play a role in all of this? I never asked to be bound to the devil, I never bartered my soul or sought out books about demons. Hundreds of times I'd thought of running out of those catacombs and throwing myself at the feet of whatever beast would take me, but I was a coward. The thought of handing myself over to death terrified me. The fear that I'd felt when I tried to give myself up before, the way it stitched so unforgivingly through my body when I heard that twig snap behind me... I couldn't do that again, I'd promised Gavin I wouldn’t do that again. As much as I didn’t want to, as hard as I’d tried to convince myself I didn’t – I loved him.

Over what I could only
assume had been days, tremors had started to tear through the ground and I found myself wishing the ceiling would just crash down on top of us, burying us underneath the rubble of the city above. I needed – no, I longed for an unexpected end; that way I wouldn’t be afraid. I knew something sudden and tragic like that was the only way Gavin would allow death to take me.

My finger traced the long
, smooth bones lining the walls and my knees caved underneath me. Grabbing onto the wall, a sharp pain shot up my hand as my finger was sliced open by the broken edge of one of the skulls. I sat down in the gravel, holding my throbbing finger with my other hand, and watched the blood splatter down onto the rocks.

Gavin looked over at me. "You're still weak from losing all that blood. You can't just keep getting up and do
wn like that, you'll pass out."

Staring at my
finger and the small amount of crimson blood oozing from it, I grumbled, "And what does that really matter?"

He
let out an agitated groan. "Damn it, Brooke. What do you want me to do?"

The loud clap of that book slamming shut echoed through the ghastly corridors
, followed by a heavy thud as Gavin chunked it against a wall.

Si
tting down, he lowered his head to his knees, supporting it between his elbows as he pulled his thick hair back in his hands. "There's got to be more to it," he said in a low voice. "This – it makes no damn sense. There's always a reason for everything. Chance. That doesn't exist in creation, or in death. Those things are certain and
nothing
about this is certain. What's the reason? What's the damn reason?"

Squeezing my finger harder, I glared over at him. Another fit of anger
at the situation swallowed me and I snapped out, "So, I guess you fucking that woman in the Garden. There was a reason for that?" He was the only thing to release my anger and frustration on, and each time I let it out I felt guilty for doing so.

His eyes burned as he levelled them at
me. Anger swelled behind them as he fixed his unmoving stare. "Aside from the absolute pleasure I found in fucking her, you mean?"

My mouth dropped and my eyes flinched. He'd never spoken to me like that. He'd never so much as whispered words that would hurt me like the ones he'd just so casually allowed to roll from his lips.

He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his palms back and forth across one another. "Really? You think you can talk to me however you like and I'm just supposed to take it? You too quickly forget
who you're dealing with, love."

I tried to push myself up, but as soon as I put weight on my arms I felt them threaten to give out. I knew if I tried standing I'd fall flat on my face. Leaning back against the wall
, I stared at the floor, pissed.

After moments of silence broken only by the constant drip of water from the ceiling of the tun
nels, Gavin cleared his throat. "And, yes, there was a reason for that. Sin. It brought sin to the world, giving a new definition to the term 'free will.’ That act in and of itself defined death. Without that moment, history would be completely different. Man would have nothing to fear, no reason to not believe in God."

I said nothing. I just thought about what he'd said, trying to understand it, trying to think of some smart-ass way to ar
gue it with him but I couldn't.

My hand rubbed back and forth across the gravel and I picked up a small flat pebble. Rolling it between my fingers, I tried to find a reason for this and when I again failed, I threw the stone acros
s the room. "What about the end? Is that not reason enough?" I said.

"No. The end is simply an event, not a reason. I don't believe in an end. How can everything cease to exist? It's
unfathomable, even for me. There was never
truly
a beginning. Eternity. That's circular, no beginning, no end."

Tilting
his head back against the vertically stacked remains, he stared at the ceiling and said, "It wasn't finished, Brooke. That book was never finished. There can be no end because it was never finished." The tone of his statement was blanketed with a plea. It was as though he were begging a higher power than himself to agree that there was no such thing as an end.

Gavin

Chapter
Twenty-three

October 3, 2014

My hands were caked with the chalk-like substance from the gravel. Staring down at my hands, I traced over the lines running the length of my palms, trying to ignore the twitching in my muscles. Waves of intense cravings would crash over me, slamming through my body like a tsunami made from shards of glass that stuck into each fiber of my skin, pricking and poking me to the point that I was unable to get comfortable no matter how I positioned my body.

Pain pulsed through me. My entire
body ached down to my bones. I quickly pulled my hands underneath me to stop myself from making a mistake. Sitting firmly on top of them, my feet curled and kicked at the ground, sending a cloud of fine dust floating up into the dark air. Chills crackled through me and I could feel the fever set in. Perspiration trickled from each of my pores, making my skin damp. My clothing clung to my body as I fought this ungodly want. My heart had lost all rhythm and jumped sporadically in my chest, at stints contracting several times before releasing the blood back through its chambers. Spasms shot their way from inside me and my arms and legs would stiffen. Tossing my head back, it slammed into the ground. I laid staring at the dirt ceiling, sweat pouring down my face and pooling at the base of my neck. I gritted my teeth and let out a low growl as I forced that forsaken urge back down into the pit of my being.

My mouth was parched and thirsted fo
r something tainted and bitter. I ran my tongue across my teeth to try and force saliva into my mouth. Another groan of restraint ran from my lips as the next intense surge of pain coursed through me. Gripping handfuls of gravel, I turned and made the mistake of looking at her. It had been nearly a week since I'd fed this need and like any addict, I knew the only way to cure this god-awful sensation of torment would be to find my vice. How I got her here by draining her body now served as the greatest of temptations because I knew exactly how succulent her blood was, and I knew if her blood was such a delicacy, the satisfaction I would feel from breathing in her soul would be damn near unbearably pleasurable.

My breathing
grew more labored as I watched her lying there. Her back was to me and she was curled up with clothes folded underneath her head as a makeshift pillow. She was so weak, so ready for death, I knew she wouldn't fight me. She'd welcome it.

I all but lost the slender thread of restraint I'd maintained when she rolled onto her back, forcing me to watch her breathe. The chilled air of the catacombs had caused her skin to tighten
, and the beads of her nipples were visible through the lightweight material of her blouse. Each rise of her chest was pure temptation, unadulterated and raw. Biting down on thumb, my feet pulled underneath me. I rose slowly, my eyes never leaving her rising chest as I made my way over to her. Sweat ran down the bridge of my nose and dripped from my brow as I stared down at her. Weakness fell over me as I straddled her. The feeling dropped me to my knees. The sweet aroma of her lifted with the air, and I could no longer control myself. My hand trembled violently as I reached for her, forcefully rubbing my sweaty palm over her perfect breast on my way to her neck.

As
I was leaning down, her eyes fluttered open and then froze in a tearful stare. "Gavin..." she softly said, and pressed her hands against my chest. "Please. Just end this."

I hovered
over her and my inner voice screamed at me to stop, but the feel of her beneath me was too much. Brooke grabbed the back of my head, thrusting my face to the crevice of her neck and holding me there.

"Give me peace. Please. Don't let me die afraid
." Her voice shook uncontrollably and her grip on me tightened.

I released a breath against her flesh a
nd ran my tongue over it. My body was twitching, my mouth was salivating, and I'd covered her entire body with the perspiration seeping from my skin. The pounding of my heart echoed loudly in my ears and I released a guttural groan. Moving my mouth over hers, I looked into her eyes; they were desolate, void of all brilliance they'd held before my touch – she'd given up.

"Please," she begged once more
, and brought my face down to hers.

The in
credible warmth of her lips beneath mine sent a rage flushing through me. I pressed my mouth to hers, carefully prying it open with my tongue. Heat poured into me as she let a breath flow from her mouth to mine. My breath fell ragged, tinged with an animalistic growl as my hands pawed at her flesh.

Brooke’s
fingers fisted my hair and she whispered, "Take me. Give me an end. If you love me, be the one to grant me peace," into my opened mouth. Those words flew down my throat, my hands pinning her down firmly as I rubbed my lips over hers, relishing in the feel of her sacrificial offering beneath me.

As I let out a breath so that I could pull the drug I needed from her, she tensed up.

"Saints, come to my aid. Come to meet me, angels of the Lord. Receive my soul..." She was reciting a prayer while tears carved their way down her cheeks. She was asking a damned soul, a fallen angel to take her life, but hoping for deliverance from hell.

The fact that she’d just begged for me to
murder her, tempted me in a moment of absolute weakness, and was now praying for salvation against my lips caused a rage to ignite inside me. I quickly pushed myself up and stood over her. My fists clenched at my sides, my muscles so rigid I thought they may snap at any given moment. I shook my head, pulling my bottom lip in under my teeth. Reaching over my head, I banged my hands against the cold ceiling, and dirt exploded out from under my palms.

"No!" I yelled, the sheer volume of it startling Brooke
, who was now balled up into a sobbing heap. "This is not your end. I
will not
be your end. I will not be your angel of death." Pacing back and forth, I shouted, "There's no fucking end! Punishment. This is
my
punishment. I'll not be damned again, I'll not damn myself to that kind of torture. You were made for me. Made for
me,
and if you are the
only thing
I successfully refute in my existence, so be it!"

"Don't do this to me," she cried. "Please. Do
n't let me just rot down here."

Fury
flamed within me. I grabbed her, throwing her over my shoulder and groaning as I ran through the twisting corridors toward the entrance. "Death? Is it death you want? Is that what you long for?" I screamed through my gritted teeth. Her nails dug into my shoulder and she was crying hysterically. "I'll not be the one to shut your eyes for eternity, but if death is what you want..." I stopped in front of the slender entrance, and moved her down from my shoulder. My entire body heaved as I held her in my arms as though she were my bride.

"
Wh – What are you doing?" she asked, her eyes blown wide in horror.

I stared into her eyes.
"Granting you your wish. Outside those doors, death waits for you." Raising my foot to kick the door down, I felt her arms clench around me.

Sever
al painful wails came from her. "No – no. I don't... I don't..." her words were swallowed by cries and I collapsed into the floor, her body falling limp across my arms.

I sat there holding her, a
shamed at what I’d almost done. I could feel her heart pounding through her chest into mine. With each hard thrust the feeling of her blood pumping through its chambers sent sharp twinges of my sadistic need spiraling through my core.

Her fingers sank into my shoulders. “Why? Why did this have to happen? What did I do to deserve this?”

Swallowing back the monster tearing up my insides to get to her, I tightened my grip on her. “I wish I could answer that. But this is not a form of punishment for you.”

The demon inside me screeched. My desire to take her life was unbearable and I knew that I had to feed this urge before I ended her life. I brushed her hair from her face and sat her up. “I don’t want to kill you, but, to be honest
, I’ve never had the desire to kill something as badly as I do to kill you at this very moment. I’ve got to find something to rid this from me.” The sweat was now running down my face, dripping from my arms as I fought back the need to rip her soul from her core, to taste the nectar of her blood flooding my mouth. “Go back down and stay there. Promise me you’ll stay there?”

Brooke didn’t say a word, but I knew she wouldn’t leave.
She stood up and approached me, attempting to give me a kiss.

Holding my hand out, I stopped her. “I can’t. I don’t trust myself.”

She stared at me; hurt, scared, defeated. Her face was ghastly pale and the whites of her eyes were bloodshot. The fact that I’d just denied her pained me, but all control was gone.

“I’ll not be gone long. I promise,” I said, my fingers digging into my wet palms. My body kept trying to lunge after her, but my mind was able to keep my feet planted firmly in place.

Her steps clanged down the metal stairs. When I could no longer hear her footsteps I opened the door to search for a mortal, or if none could be found, I’d have to poison myself with a vampire – to tame this morbid need.