Echoes in Eternity (The Pella Series Book 1) (61 page)

CHAPTER XX

BLOOD AND ASH

Alexander Aurelius Pella

“Did I just hear your
inside man
correctly?” hisses Courcillion angrily.

“Yes, you did!” I growl holding the slu
mping body of Elissa completely pulling her into my grasp protectively, and effectively cutting his connection with her. He looks forlorn and bereft.

“Dooooc! Get in here!”

“I thought your man said no one else other than the two of us can help her. He’s not supposed to touch her!”

“I know that! Doc may not be able to retrieve her but he can still help!”

Henry rushes into the Command Center from the adjoining room and halts with the disheveled sight he’s seeing.

“I don’t suppose you two are redecorating,” he mutters seeing the chaotic scene around the room. The only clear area is where the three of us
are on the floor. When he sees the bewildered look on both of our faces, he kneels on the floor to examine Elissa.

“No!” both Courcillion and I shout. Henry extracts his hand.

“Alex, Courcillion. I know it’s been several days and you’re both sleep deprived. Even with your abilities, it can’t go on like this. You have to let me or Anthony or Melissa help you,” he says holding his hand up, reaching up to Elissa.

“Nooo!” we both shout again.

“She’s tossed into Tartarus. The pit of hell! I can’t retrieve her. Not like this. Nieto…” I say and Henry is completely alert; his eyes probe me and Elissa.

“Nieto was racing to
catch up to her three days ago,” I say and my voice cracks.

“What?” Henry asks with rising anxiety.

“He said, she can’t come out…”

“You have experience in retrieving her! You can get her back!” he shouts hopeful.

“She’s falling into Hades! Not just to its door, to Tartarus, Doc! Even Nieto can’t retrieve her and he’s a Cherub! He’s the gatekeeper of Eden! You know the laws! The living can’t enter, but she’s already fallen into the lion’s den we’ve been trying to protect her from. If they capture her…”

“Check mate,” mutters Henry falling to his knees, suddenly strength drained out of him.

“You’re just going to sit and do nothing?” shouts Courcillion. “Can’t your inside man, this Cherub get her back?” he asks me impatiently.

“He said he can’t. Because there’s just too many against him and he isn’t even supposed to be there. The only thing he can do is to prevent her from being sacrificed. That means…” I croak.

“What?” Henry shouts.

“Th
at means Nieto has to kill her!”

“But, could that be
a true death? She’s already going to be in the realm of death,” Henry replies.

“He’s going to kill her long enough to go see Marcus. He has to divert her intended destination.
This brings me to Hedone… Were you able to get anything out of her?”

“Anthony
has bound her already. She isn’t talking, and she sure doesn’t like to be addressed as Hedone. She wants to only be called Hailey… And, I think we may need her to get Elissa back. She’s the only one with answers. We have no idea who orchestrated Elissa’s fall, and I don’t know how much Marcus can do to save her.”

“Do you not understand me? Nieto must kill her to prevent her sacrifice. Only when she dies can her sacrifice be halted and only then
can she go see Marcus. But, I don’t know if Marcus can help her when he himself is under captivity! It’s not like she’s visiting his vacation home!”

Elissa starts shaking and convulsing in my arms.

“Something’s wrong! We have to go in!
I
have to go in!” I say determined. “Courcillion?” He looks up. “You know what to do.”

“Wait!
Is there anything you want us to do?” Doc asks.

I give him a forbidding, angry look wordlessly
, my gaze shooting daggers.

“Right! Okay. We’ll
hold the fort down until you get back with Elissa.” Another convulsing shudder goes through her. This time I feel liquid warmth between us. My hand automatically reaches between us. When my shaky hand comes back up, it confirms my fear. It’s blood. I quickly lay her down to examine her body. There’s a puncture at the junction of her right breast and right arm with a steady blood flow.

“Doc! Get me something to stop the bleeding!” I shout and he rushes into the other room.

“You can’t stop what has already begun!” I hear Hailey shouting.

“And shut that bitch up while you’re there!”

“Alex! Left side!” Duke shouts and applies pressure on Elissa’s left side at the juncture of her breast and her arm. “Doc! For God’s sake! Hurry!” Anthony runs in with his first aid kit.

“It’s not coagulating!”

“She’s supposed to die! Remember!” Hedone’s voice rings.

“I will fucking kill her if you don’t shut her up!” I yell at Anthony.

“Alex! Focus! Look!” warns Courcillion.

“Where the hell is Doc?” I hiss at Anthony.

“I said, look!” Courcillion yanks my arm. Elissa’s eagles on her arms animate.

“
Alexandros!
” I hear my name. “
Alexandros! You bind your eagles on her right arm, and Duke binds the left side. When her heart stops you must be in her mind! There is no resurrection if you’re not connected with her consciousness. She will not be able to wake up.
”

“Duke!” I shout, lifting Elissa up off the ground.

“What are you doing?” he hisses back trying to apply pressure to her bleeding wound.

“It won’t work. We need to get into her mind right now!”

“What?”

“Right now!
There’s no time to lose. Take your place, and give her
Life Force
all you’ve got. Get back to the last night you saw her. Now!”

Maximilian Courcillion doesn’t have to be told twice. He takes his former position behind Elissa’s nude body
. She’s only taking shallow breaths.

“No matter what happens, you or
Henry can’t touch her, Anthony! Do you understand that? No matter what happens, no matter what you see! Don’t touch!”

“Yes, sir!” he acquiesces.

“Duke, we will get into her mind, but we have to remain anchored here until her heart gives out!”

“How will we
do that?”

“I don’t know. We’ll find out soon enough!”

Courcillion’s hands focus on Elissa’s Hieron Osteon and he starts lending his own life force to her.

“Get closer! Merge your body with hers. Let your body do the job while
I hold her left arm so you can bind yourself with her eagle. That’s your psyche connection.” Duke sheds his bloodied shirt, ripping it as I did earlier, leaning Elissa’s back onto him; he links his right hand’s fingers with Elissa’s effectively connecting her eagles with his Phoenix.

“Lift her off the ground!” I order
. When she’s ensconced on his lap I merge with her body and she’s sandwiched between the Duke and I.

“How will you merge your eagle with hers?” Duke asks concerned.

“I’ve done that already. Her eagles are not the only couriers I can utilize to enter her mind,” I say.

“Elissa,”
I whisper into her lips. “Let me in baby,” I plead with her. My body is painted with her blood. Her head lulls back to Courcillion’s shoulder.

“I’ll position her head at the crook of your neck,” I say.

“Fine!” he mutters.

I stand on my knees and lean in whispering my soul into her lips through my kiss.

“Elissa!” I call out to her just as our souls thread in a light blue flame. Not a second after her body arches and the piercing screaming escaping her lips shakes all three of us, but neither I nor the Duke falter or let her go. I feel a forceful pressure, liquid and warm pushing from her chest.

“I’ll be by your side forever. There’s no life without you, baby,” my lips whisper into her soul, as the love of my existence exsanguinates tucked between two men who love her. Elissa’s back arches when the death blow
is delivered to her heart. The force of it reverberates through Duke’s body, both of us feeling her pain in our collected psyche. My lips are sealed over hers, our life forces united, encircling our connected bodies, keeping us intact, and forcing her soul to remain in the shell of her body at her Hieron Osteon. Elissa’s heart speeds up, thrums harder, louder, fighting a losing battle. She gurgles, and I taste blood in my mouth oozing from my lips, my chin, and body.

“She’s going!” hisses Duke through his gritted teeth, his voice gravely as if he’s been crying.

“Don’t fucking let go!”

“Not even if you begged me, Pella!” he shouts back.

Elissa’s body is writhing in pain.

“Why is she suffering?”
Courcillion growls.

“Nieto inoculated her with Cerberus’s poison!” Elissa’s lifeless arms linked with Courcillion’s start trashing about. If we were to let go of her body, she’d
be writhing in agony.

“Can’t we take some of her pain away?”

“No! She has to bear the pain alone,” I say, not able to speak above a whisper for fear that it will reveal my agony. But the fucking tears fog my eyes and in large strings run down my cheeks, betraying my personal hell. Her screams escape her lips again. I can’t let go! I can’t let her die!

“Elissaaaa!” I shout through our connection.

“You promised! You promised to come and find me! I had you what, two fucking days, and now you’re leaving me!”

“It has to be this way. I’ll… I…will…come back,” her words come out pained and through a slipping mind.

“You promised! You promised me Elissa! You would find us! When the going gets tough, you leave! Did I leave you?
DID I LEAVE YOU
?” I ask desperately.

“What’s happening?” Duke asks.

“She fucking wants to leave me. She’s giving up!”

“The hell she is! Elissa!
” he says shaking her. “No one forced a bond on me and yet I love you! I have always loved you. Choose me instead! I have waited for you, for your forgiveness so long…” Duke begs. More blood gushes from her body seeping from the sides of her. God! How much more can this fragile body handle this?

“Once the heart stops the exsanguination will stop. Then you wait
until she’s ready,” says a calm Nieto.

“Why is she still suffering?” I ask.

“This is the payment of sin she doesn’t owe so the
Fallen
can’t sacrifice her for the sins of angels.”

“Would they leave her alone after that?”

“No, but they can’t kill her.”

“What the hell would the Fallen still want with her?” I growl.

“You know the answer to that Alexandros,” he replies calmly.

“Do I?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t allow either Eden or Hades
to use her as a means to your ends!”

“That’s not up to you!” he roars impatiently for the first time. “Some purposes are higher than any other. Some lives are supremely more important than any other. She’s that. You’ll protect her, but we can’t allow them to come back!”