Forsaken (8 page)

Once he stops, I call Trent.  He looks at me, smiles, and I feel like a weight lifted
off my shoulders.
 

Samael takes a deep breath then he looks up at me and nods.  I know what this means.
 He doesn’t want to waste any time at all.
 

“Trent, do you want to play with those puzzles that you talked about?” asks Samael.
 

Trent smiles.  “Yes.”
 

“Good.  This is going to be fun.  But remember, you can’t make any loud noises no
matter what happens.”
 

“This is not going to work, Samael!  And even worse, Ezra will know as soon as we
try.”
 

“Stick to the plan, Kayla.  Put the wards up around that door so he can’t get in.”
 Before I can even respond, he looks at Trent and smiles.  “As soon as the puzzle
is down, take him and run toward the Otherworld.  That is the best chance you got.
 I will stay and stop Ezra in case you can’t hold the wards up while getting away.”
 

I shake my head.  I’m feeling so nervous and I have this gut feeling that this is
not going to work, but I do as he says.
 

Trent stares at the wards around the window and I feel it go down within seconds,
and so does Ezra.  The wards never even completely disappear.  Trent weakened them
and just when they were close to gone, I could feel it being strengthened again.  Once
Ezra puts those wards back up, he puts mine down and fear keeps me from being able
to move at all.  When I feel Ezra’s presence get stronger, I move to stand in front
of Trent, and Samael stands close to the door, protecting both Trent and me.  
 

Ezra barges in the room, practically taking the door down on his way in.  I can see
the fury in his eyes.  He’s still in human form, but his eyes are yellow and full
of rage.  In a blur of movements, he walks by Samael and pushes him down on the floor.
 My heart is racing and I wish more than ever that I had my dagger in my hands.  I
clench my fists and I’m ready to move toward him when his gaze locks on mine.
 

“Don’t even try it, nephilim!” he warns.
 

From behind him, Samael stands and shakes his head for me to leave it alone.  In my
mind, I can hear his words, “I got this.”  I can hear Trent sobbing behind me, so
I don’t move.  I stand there and stare into the demon’s angry eyes.  I won’t attack
him, but I’ll also not let him get past me.  I start to bring up the wards to protect
Trent when the demon moves toward me.  He’s faster than I anticipated.  He puts one
hand around my neck and I can feel his nails scratching against my skin.  In a matter
of seconds, he throws me against the wall, and snatches Trent to take him away.  Samael
jumps on his back to try and stop him.  Trent cries even more.  I feel dizzy as I
get up from the floor, but I manage to stand and move forward to help Samael, but
he drops to the floor in pain and Ezra takes the opportunity to get away with Trent.
 

 I get down to help Samael.
 

“Are you going to be okay?” I ask.
 

He nods.
 

“We need to get you and Trent out of here!” he growls.
 

“Yeah, yeah… and you too.”
 

“Worried about me?”
 

I shrug.  “No one deserves to be stuck in Hell.  Well, except for Ezra.”
 

The door swings open again and Ezra comes in, and I freeze in place at the sight of
him.  He is no longer in human form like usual, but he is not in demonic form either.
 He still uses the human body as a shell, but his eyes are yellow, and his hands have
finger nails so long and sharp that he wouldn’t need but one of them to kill a human.
 

I can tell that Samael is still hurt and weak, and even though I’ve never been so
terrified of anyone before, I stand between Samael and the demon, determined to protect
Samael at all costs.
 

SAMAEL
 

I can see the fury in his eyes and I can’t believe Kayla is trying to defend me now
of all times.  I don’t even think I’ve ever seen him this furious before.
 

“Kayla, move!” I say as I manage to sit up.
 

Ezra walks past her, pushing her to the side and putting up an invisible wall so that
she can’t get near us.  He then continues to approach me.  I can hear her yelling
at him, but I block it out.  I use all of my strength to stand up.
 

 “You foolish nephilim,” Ezra snaps.  “We are done here!  Is being human what you
really want?”
 

I don’t say anything.  I know that right now, being human would make me weak and being
weak decreases my chances of getting Kayla and Trent out of here.
 

“How foolish of you to think I would make your dreams come true without strings attached,”
he says.
 

He walks closer to me and I stand where I am.
 

He stops right in front of me and reaches into his pocket.  He moves before I can
do anything.  I feel the dagger pierce my stomach and I drop down to the floor.  He
puts his hand on the wound and says a few words in a language that I don’t recognize.
 
 

He then looks at Kayla.
 

“Do we have a problem?”
 

She is frozen but she shakes her head.
 

“Good.” He looks at me one more time, “Remember that this is what you asked for,”
he says.
 

He walks away and as soon as he is out of the room, the wall holding Kayla drops,
and she comes rushing toward me.
 

My memory flashes back to when she got stabbed at the Academy and I carried her to
the infirmary.  
 

My eyes start to close, but she cups my face in her hands and says, “Look at me.  Just
focus on me and stay awake!”  She grabs a shirt stacked on the floor and puts it over
the wound trying to keep blood from sipping out of my body, but I know this won’t
happen.  She tries to heal me and I feel when some of the pain is taken away.
 

I try to each into my pocket, but she stops me.  “Don’t move,” she says.
 

“Pocket—”
 

She reaches into my pocket and grabs her ring.  She looks at me as if she is hurt.
 

“I’m sorry,” I say.
 

“Why would you—”
 

“I was hoping I could make you forget him.  I don’t want you to get hurt, Kayla.  You
and I are two of a kind.  We understand each other.  I thought maybe we could take
Trent away… together and—” I start to cough up blood.  She tries to heal me again,
but I can feel the blood, I can feel myself get weak, and there is no amount of healing
that will help me.  And the worst is that I’m starting to feel hot and have trouble
breathing.  I know right away that he did make me human, and without my nephilim abilities,
I have no chances of surviving in a world where humans don’t belong.
 

She looks me in the eyes.  “Damn it!  You’re not leaving me here alone!”
 

I manage to put my hand on hers.  “You know that you are not alone.  Let me go.  This
is for the best.”
 

“How can you even say that?”
 

“’I’ll be able to come back and help you and Trent more than I can help you now.”
 

“How do you think you are getting access to this place?”
 

I laugh.  “I made enough damage during my life to know that Hell is where I belong.
 They’ll accept me with arms wide open.”
 

I start to cough up blood.
 

I look up at her, “You need to save him Kayla.  He is part of us and we… you, need
to protect him.” I see that she’s crying and that terrifies me.  This is the most
fearless girl I have ever met.  She doesn’t cry!
 

But it’s too late for me.  As much as I got a hint of a desire to fight, I can’t.
 I close my eyes and I’m gone.
 

***
 

KAYLA
 

I put my ring back on and hold Samael’s limp body and I scream until I have no voice
left.  When I finally get a hold of myself, I try to heal him one last time.  Nothing
happens and I feel it in my bones that nothing will happen, but I keep trying.  I
know I can’t be here alone.  I don’t know what to do.  I sit here and hope that Samael
will show up as a ghost, demon… anything, just as long as he shows up, but nothing
happens.
 

“He’s gone, my dear.”
 

Startled, I look up and see two beings standing behind me: a man and a woman.  
I’ve seen them before… where?
 

One of them looks at me and I see the images of them outside, right before I healed
them.
 

“We’ve been trying to break the wards for a while now.  We found a way in when they
were weakened.  We must get you out of here, nephilim.”
 

“Kayla.  My name is Kayla, not nephilim!”
 

They give me an apologetic look.
 

“Who… what are you?” I ask.
 

“We are who you made us,” says the woman, “we owe it all to you.  You saved us.”
 

“The Forsaken,” I whisper, remembering what Samael told me about them.
 

They nod.
 

“I can’t leave.  Not without Trent.”
 

They give me a puzzled look.  They think that I’m the only one here, and I think back
at how often Trent is not in this house.  Trent has to be hidden in the human world
somewhere.  Maybe the others will help me find him.
 

“We don’t believe we have much time,” says the man.
 

“How are we getting out of here?” I ask.
 

“We are able to take care of the wards. Once we are out of here, we will guide you
into the Otherworld, and from there, we can try to guide you back, but we are unsure
of what we can really do past this world.”
 

 I nod.
 

I stop and look back at Samael one more time before I follow them out through the
door and then, out of what looks like a front door to this place.  I feel the heat
from the fires.  Outside, there is nothing but mud, grass, and fires.  I follow them
as we walk toward the darkness of the Otherworld.  The man walks in front of me and
the woman walks behind me.  It’s not until we’re closer to the Otherworld that I hear
the screams coming from the lost souls.
 

“Are they coming from the Otherworld?” I ask.
 

“No,” the woman shakes her head.  “They are coming from others who are like we used
to be.”
 

I feel the uncontrollable need to heal them.
 

“Not now,” says the man as if reading my mind.  “You need your strength to go back.”
 

I nod.  “I’ll come back to help you,” I say.
 

They look at me with nothing but admiration and faith.
 

As we approach the Otherworld, I get consumed by my own fears.  Will I make it out
of there?  Will I be able to contact Hunter for help?  I hate asking for help, always
have, but I know I need him.  Will he even answer my plea for help after so much time
has past?
 

STEPHAINE
 

The time has come.   Over the years, I had been using my abilities and connections
with other fallen to know what was happening at the Academies.  I knew that they needed
Ben to find Kayla and Ezra, and I was sure that Ben could help if he chose to, but
I was afraid that taking Ben back to that world would set him back.  And so, there
were moments when I dreaded this time and moments when I hoped this day would come
and everything would go smoothly.  Now the day is here and Ben will have to choose
sides.
 

Little by little, I could see the change in him over the years, but he also didn’t
have the influences of other demons and fallen ones.
 

I kept expecting him to one day leave me and go after his father, but he kept the
promise he made to his mom, to turn away and live his own life and, for as long as
he did, they would all leave him alone.
 

Now, everything is about to be tested.  Truth is, I’m a fallen and he is half-demon
and we can’t pretend to live normal lives forever.  We can’t keep hiding at this beach
cabin and pretend that the entire world around us isn’t falling apart.
 

What I fear the most is that he will resent me for showing Ethan where we are and
for hiding from him throughout this entire time, that his father was holding Kayla
and the other nephilim hostage.
 

I look at him lying on the bed with his eyes closed.  He didn’t belong where he was
raised…. Not with that demon, not with any demon.
 

Ben feels there is something wrong before I can even sense that they are here.  He
opens his eyes and practically jumps out of the bed.
 

When I turn around, I know something went horribly wrong.  It’s not Ethan who I see.
 I find myself surrounded by fallen ones.  Ben takes a step forward and stands in
front of me.
 

“What do you want?” he asks.
 

Their gazes fall on me.  “We need her.”
 

Ben laughs.  “Well, too bad.”
 

He stops laughing when his mom walks in.
 

“You can leave.  ALL OF YOU!” he snaps.
 

“Son, we’re not leaving until we get what we came here for.”