Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (25 page)

The end of the sword
scratched across my skin, down my neck, and to the indention between my breasts.

“Tell me
, Gavin,” Azaal said. “Would you give your life, your immortality to save her? What would you sacrifice to preserve her?”

Gavin swallow
ed. His head rose and his eyes held steady; his shoulders straightened and he said, “I would take death. Damnation, if it would save her.”

“Oh, but the pain that you would be forced to experience day in
and day out, year after year – the loneliness that would carve out your soul – can I really forego relishing in the fact that if I kill her right now, I’ve cursed you in the worst way possible?”

Azaal
forced the tip of the blade into my skin. My flesh fought to keep the object from penetrating it, but it gave and the sting from the metal was harsh. Azaal carefully pushed the point through my flesh until it hit my breastbone. My blood seeped around the tip of the sword and my heart slammed against the wall of my chest with such force it threatened to rupture.

Looking at Gavin, I
knew I couldn’t allow him to live with the pain that had conquered his eyes at that moment.

He loved me,
and I loved him more than I did myself.

“
Azaal, stop!” I cried out. My voice echoed from the crumbling retaining walls running the length of the beach.

The corners
of Azaal’s mouth curled up. His eyes cast to the side and he pulled the sword away briefly. Placing the sword in my hands, he glared at Gavin. “You see, Brooke is the only thing that can end your existence. The only thing you’ve ever loved more than yourself, and the only being that can close your eyes for all eternity.”

Gavin
eyes darted from me to Azaal.

“She,”
Azaal pointed at me. “She’s not what you’ve thought she was. She’s not a pure mortal.” Azaal took two steps in Gavin direction and continued, “She’s half angel. She’s the
one
thing that can bring grace to the Fallen, and she’s
all
mine! She is my salvation,” Azaal laughed wildly. “Your weakness, your flaw – you’ve been bound by a woman, bound by prophecy and so,” he turned toward me, “you, Semyeza, will die an honorable death by the hands of the woman you loved. By the very creature who birthed sin. I told you woman was wicked many years ago, and you refused to listen to me.”

The sword was heavy in my hands
; the sweat forming around the handle caused the instrument to slip from my grip and the blade fell to the sand while I held tightly to the handle. The ground quaked, particles of sand jumping up from the ground. Movement on the hill caught my attention and I glanced up to find a swarm of figures running toward the beach.

“You have made him mortal. In your hands, he is purely mortal. With that sword you can slaughter him just as you could any other weak man,”
Azaal shouted over the trampling feet and roaring waves.

“Either you kill him now… or they’ll rip you to shreds,”
Azaal said, pointing behind him.

Gavin collapsed
to his knees. He placed his hands behind his back and he stared up at me. The cold water swirled around my ankles as the tide began to seep up on the shore. Gavin pulled in a breath and his chest pressed out. “Please don’t make me suffer through a meaningless existence any longer. Love, please – don’t,” his voice held a slight tremble and he collected himself. “Just give me peace. Let your face be the last thing I see, not the empty space that you once filled.”

My heart
pushed against my ribs. The blood coursed through me and panic overtook me. Lifting the sword above my head, I paused. How could I possibly kill him? What if he suffered? I couldn’t stand there and watch him die. Trying to decide the quickest way to end his life, I thought the best way would be to slice through his neck. The thought of it mortified me and caused a feeling of remorse and regret to all but drown me.

My arms refused to swing.
“I can’t,” I wailed.

“Then you don’t love him!”
Azaal hissed.

The mass of demons flooded over the stone
walls; their frames scaled over the tall barrier and they ran toward us at a furious speed. Azaal’s face was painted with anticipation, his eyes glistened, and his lip was pulled in underneath his teeth. “Kill him!”

“I love you,
” Gavin said and bowed his head to grant my easy access to his neck. “Just end this, love. End it.”

My voice trembled. “I love you too.”

No matter what I did I would hurt him. If I killed him I would cause him pain; if I let him live I would damn him to his own internal hell.

Azaal
leaned down and tucked a tendril of hair that had fallen loose behind my ear as he whispered, “I killed Dan. Gavin didn’t break the agreement, I did, but I think it’s best if we keep that between us. Wouldn’t want to add insult to injury by making him realize what a fool he is.”

My arms drew back further
, trying to gain as much strength as I could to swing the blade. Closing my eyes, the object shook in my hands. The visions I’d had swarmed through my head and I made my decision. Screaming, I swung the sword down as hard as I could. The metal struck against Azaal’s hard abdomen. The dream I’d had where I’d been told I could kill the devil had given me hope that if I could kill Gavin, I would be able to kill Azaal as well.

Rage
flew across Azaal’s face and he grabbed me. He violently tossed me up into the air, holding me above him by my throat. Gavin rose to his feet and grabbed onto me, his fingers digging into my waist while Azaal’s hands tightened around my throat.

I looked down and saw blood soaking through
Azaal’s shirt. “You can’t kill me!” he screamed.

The ground shook
from the footsteps of the legions charging toward us. A rushing sound came from behind me, and the water that had pooled around Azaal’s feet retreated. The tide sucked out and all you could see was the floor of the sea.

The earth trembled
violently and a loud explosion boomed through the sky. A thick cloud of black smoke filled the horizon and the ground began to split. The rumble of the bedrock breaking apart faded into the gurgle of the smoke pluming up into the darkness and the roar of the large wall of water now rushing toward us.

Gavin pulled on me
, and Azaal fought back. Azaal pressed his lips to mine and a rush of air came from my lungs as he pulled my breath in. Coldness crept across my skin, and a weakness filled me. Cold hands struggled to pry my body from the two angels. A sharp sting sunk into my wrist and I glanced down to see one of the vampires latched onto my arm. Another clawed at my leg and bit down.

“Let her go!” Gavin screamed just as another vampire clamped onto my body. The roar of the ocean grew louder, deafening the shouts from Gavin and
Azaal, silencing the growls of the demons feeding from me. Closing my eyes to give into death, the sting of the angry sheet of water slammed against me.

The sound of waves
surrounded me and the cold water claimed me. The suction from the rolling upsurge pulled me free from the grasp of Gavin, Azaal, and the vampires. I was sucked out in a large wave. The gurgle of water filled my ears and the sharp sting of it flooding my lungs shook me.

My chest burned and felt like it would explode. I fought to find the surface, but the suction of the waves had me trapped. I opened my eyes
to try to find which way was up and the salt stung them. Black – everything was completely black. There was no way I would escape this. Shutting my eyes, I surrendered to the darkness that had overwhelmed me. Succumbing to weightlessness, my body fell limp and I was tossed like a rag doll in the raging, torrid waters.

The panic subsided.
Peace. I felt peace. And the last thought I had before I left this world was of Gavin.

Gavin

Chapter
Thirty-three

Darkness. Complet
e darkness. A darkness like I’d never experienced, the kind that completely consumes you. I frantically reached out, searching for some part of her, for warmth underneath my palms – but I found nothing.

My eyes began to focus and I could faintly make out the desolate landscape that surro
unded me. The horizon was bleak; the thick ash falling from the sky made it impossible to see more than a foot in front of me. The light grey substance covered my skin, a blizzard of impure snow reminding me that this world would no longer be what I had grown to know it as. The ringing in my ears dulled, allowing me to recognize the sound of waves crashing against the shore. My stomach was pressed down into the gritty texture of sand and I felt a cold wetness seep underneath my body. Pulling my knees underneath me, I attempted to stand. I stumbled; my legs were weak and threatened to not support my body.

“Brooke!” My voice strained as I called out for her. The only sound was the soft rumble of the tides rushing up on the shore.

My feet steadied beneath me. The sand bled between my toes as my weight transferred completely to my legs. I took no more than three steps and I felt hair beneath my feet.
Dropping to my knees, I desperately reached out. I felt her cold skin beneath my fingertips. The feeling sent a shock throughout my body. Reaching underneath her back, I pulled her into my lap. The past few weeks had changed the course of the world. My desire for her, my love for her, my inability to deny myself from her – I needed her. For all I knew, she was the only thing left in this world. My weakness had been the catalyst for the war that ended mankind, the world of the living. I sat back in the sand, cradling the head of the one thing in existence that completed me, not certain if I would be forced to spend eternity completely alone. I knew nothing except that if her eyes had been shut forever I would, for the first time, long for death.

I was desperate for some way to save her, to save myself.
If I could only pull that last piece from her I could turn her. We could be damned together, because I couldn’t lose her. She was mine… she’d always been mine. I’d searched for her since the beginning of time and I refused to let her go. My mouth quickly found her neck and I bit down, my teeth crunching through her cold, wet flesh, but there was nothing left. Pressing my lips to hers, I attempted to suck in a breath, a glimmer of her soul. All that filled my mouth was cold, empty air.

She was gone.
Emptiness surrounded me, the world had vanished.

I wept. For the first time ever I
wept
and released a long breath into her as I cradled her limp body in my lap. My lips pressed against hers one last time and I spoke the words that the Creator had used to breathe life into the world so many years ago. “Pranayana,” I cried the words into her mouth, and then lay next to her in the sand. The cold waters crept underneath me and I clung to her tightly. I had lost everything. I had damned the world, twice. I’d served as death, as sin, and had brought destruction to the only piece of the world I ever cherished. We all have a legend, and mine was utterly wicked and foul. The legend of darkness and despair, and as punishment I’d been left to mourn the decisions that led me to love her, for had I never loved her I would have nothing to mourn. I would lay right here for the rest of my wretched existence, because I had nothing to live for.

“You were mine
,” I screamed into the darkness, grabbing her hand and bringing it to my lips. “You were mine!”

Brooke’s
finger twitched in my palm. “Always yours,” she whispered.

My breath caught, my heart stalled
, and I quickly turned to face her. The color had returned to her face and I felt the warmth returning to her hand. Leaning over her, I grabbed onto the sides of her face and peered deep into her eyes.

“Always yours. I will always be only yours,” she said, a warm smile falling across her lips.

My mouth pressed over hers, my tongue tangling with hers as her arms embraced me. The cold water rushed up around us, draining back over her chest. Tearing my mouth from hers, I stared at her. Her eyes held a timeless endlessness to them. She had died, but only the mortal part of her had faded. Darkness cannot claim the light of an angel not damned, and seeing as how she was made from a blessed union of an archangel and a mortal, the only part of her that could be taken by sin was the human part. For whatever reason, I had been granted salvation and forgiveness within her. And there I sat, staring into the eyes of a creature made specifically for me in ways I’d no idea.

Sitting up, Brooke looked at me. The sun pierced through the thick clouds, casting a dim glow over the landscape. “So, there really is no end then?” she asked.

I placed my hands at the base of her head and pulled her forehead against mine. “No, love. This … this is the beginning.”

Making my way from behind the lush bushes covered with exotic purple blooms, I stepped out into the clearing. The sun bathed me in a warmth I hadn't felt in an eternity. The thick grass absorbed the sound of my feet as
I made my way toward the sparkling waters. A light breeze blew through the Garden and ruffled the feathers of my wings. Glancing behind me, I saw the brilliant white feathers shaking as the air rushed over them, and I felt peace. Forgiveness.

I stopped at the edge of the bank,
and my toes sank into the warm sand as the calming water lapped around my heels. I watched her wade toward me, with each step more of her body becoming exposed. Tiny droplets of water beaded up and rolled down her perfect curves, forcing a guttural groan from my mouth, and I bit down on my lips to silence it. Her damp, black hair clung to her breasts and her deep blue eyes set on me in an unforgiving stare. Adoration and love welled inside me, causing my chest to tighten.

Reaching out, I grabbed onto her hand a
nd helped her up onto the bank. Her body fell into me; her hot wet skin slipping against mine made me feel a completeness I'd longed for since time began. The soft trail of her fingers swept over my flesh as she felt up my chest and palmed the silver pendant that hung from my neck. She glanced up at me, a soft smile forming her face before she laid her supple lips to mine in the most innocent, most pure kiss I'd ever experienced.

"
Our beginning," she whispered.

"Yes, love. Our beginning," I said, rubbing my hand down her back and across the downy feather
s of her wings. Brooke stepped away, taking me by the hand to lead me out into the lake with her, and I heard a familiar voice over the rumble of the waterfalls.

"And what has man named this one?" That question echoed through the Garden and caused a sti
tch of panic to flood over me.

My eyes darted through the tree line to a secluded part of the lake and I found
Azaal standing at the banks with Amazerek, both staring at a mortal woman wading in the waters.

Brooke pulled on my hand. "Come on, Gavin," she called
, the sound of her voice tore my stare away from Azaal, and I followed my love into the cleansing pool.

I couldn't worry myself with what deviant plans he was making this time. I had what I'd always wanted, what I'd always needed. Although eternity is nothing more than a cycle, we each determine our fate in the very beginning, and
as unfortunate as it may seem – the devil's fate never changes.

Locking my eyes on Brooke, I heard the woman whisper to
Azaal, "Safe from you?"

I closed my eyes and
pulled Brooke to me, crushing my mouth over hers.

Brooke... she had always been, and always would be my legend.
Always mine, for eternity.

In the beginning...