Legions (28 page)

A crushing sound reached
me, and I spun around seeing the last demon crumble to the ground,
wings folded ready to disintegrate. Athen and I ran over to Cyril
and Arie who both looked amazingly well for what they just went
through. Besides Cyril’s clothing and scratch marks, it was pretty
hard to tell he just defeated a towering, winged creature that was
twice the size of any of us. I was thankful Athen and I had only
the little ones to defeat – if there was such a thing.

“You guys did phenomenal!”
Arie exclaimed, her excitement level bubbling over.

A sense of pride started
swelling, and it was nice to hear that someone else thought we did
well too. Athen kicking butt didn’t surprise me considering
everything else he never really let go of, but I didn’t know how I
would fit in the battle equation. The yard looked like a mess, with
one of our tiny birdbaths broken into pieces, and a wooden bench
that looked like it was turned into many little, wooden
daggers.

“I think I’m going to go
start some tea water. How does that sound?” I asked, breaking free
from Athen’s grasp.

“Sounds perfect.” Cyril
said, reaching to pick up some of the broken pieces of cement that
the birds would no longer be frolicking in.

As everyone began spreading
out to pick things up in the yard, it occurred to me how odd this
life was. I was beginning to get used to switching back and forth
between conversations in public, but battling demons in one instant
and picking up yard debris from the aftermath the next was really
hard to grasp. I bounded off towards the house as everyone else was
left gathering any evidence of mass obliteration to toss in the
trash.

I put a kettle of water on
in the kitchen and decided to go take a look at our bedroom, which
was still furniture-less. I was really intrigued as to where the
furniture went. It wasn’t in our yard, at least that I
saw.

I opened up the office door
to let little Matilda out, and she began growling and staring at
the wall in between the room she was standing in and our bedroom
next door. The fur on the back of her neck was on end. I closed the
door on Matilda and quietly moved back into the hall leading to our
bedroom. Guess I can’t change the sequence of events entirely
surrounding premonitions. I took a deep breath in of the ice-cold
air, letting it hit my lungs, signaling the visitor who was waiting
for me, exactly like my dream. We didn’t destroy them all. No
matter how I tried to avoid it, my visions were still leading me
directly to intended destiny.

I opened our bedroom door
where a creature, not unlike the ones we destroyed earlier, was
standing before me. His wings were spanning the entire room, and
his eyes were twice as cruel as the others. Victorious laughter
filled the room.

Chapter 30

The soulless creature stood
before me, waiting for me to enter the room entirely. I closed the
door behind me without locking it. My family had been filled in on
my entire dream, and it looked like they would be participants in
the reality of it, no matter how much I tried to avoid this
encounter. There was no need to keep the door open. It would only
clue the demon into when they were coming down the hall.

I took a deep breath in,
letting the air fill every part of my lungs as I locked my legs
into place, ready for a fight. The demon nodded at me and lunged
towards me. With a speed I didn’t know I had, I dodged to the left,
leaving the demon to crash into the wall. The thud made Matilda
bark even louder in the next room, only adding to the anxiety that
was building up inside of me.

“Is that all you’ve got?” I
chided, as I barreled towards the monster, twisting my body as if
it were a horizontal cyclone. My own nails becoming weapons as I
grasped onto his flesh, attempting to rip any part of it to shreds.
Feeling overly victorious, I jumped off the demon, ripping his
shirt as I went.

Answering my question that
I now wished I hadn’t asked, the demon grabbed my arm with one
quick movement hurling me across the room. My bones crushed into
the wall as I slid down into the corner. I did my best to get out
of the foggy state that the creature had so suddenly thrust me
into. I reached my arm behind me, hoping to prop myself up, ready
to fight again, when I realized this was exactly like my dream. I
was now cornered in this room, squatting. All I could do now was
hope that I could change the outcome that I’d seen so many times
before. Doing my best to concentrate on what I thought his next
move might be from my dream sequence, I leapt from my stance,
tumbling over his head, landing with a thud. I didn’t have a knife
in my dream. At least, that was on my side.

A warm trickle began making
its way down my ear, knowing it wasn’t sweat, I wiped it with my
arm, leaving a rusty, brown mark on my sleeve. I wondered how badly
it was bleeding. The demon lunged at me, carrying a force behind
him that was going to be hard to avoid. I ducked towards the
ground, barely missing his fingers trying to grasp my
neck.

Grabbing the knife out of
my pocket, I reached my arm out, stabbing at his spine but missing
completely. In the background, the teakettle began its wild ride of
chirps and whistles, alerting us all that the boiling water was
ready. I prayed my family outside would hear it, knowing that was
probably my only hope of surviving this fight. Seconds continued to
pass by as the demon took a piece of my flesh out with his nail
while tossing me completely across the room again. The kettle
continued blaring, and Matilda’s barks become more aggressive, I
knew Athen would be here any minute. I only hoped it wasn’t too
late.

The strength in my legs
began to resurface as I became more angry with my inability to
fight off this creature as easily as the ones outside. I was
waiting for the bedroom door to open any second, and unfortunately,
I think the demon was too. I flicked open my knife again,
completely determined to use it as I jumped at the demon with the
blade ready to slice his grey flesh open, landing close enough to
tear through his cheek. The pleasure began building up deep inside
me as the demon reached up grabbing at the hole that was now left
by my handiwork.

The window shattered into a
thousand little pieces as my family tore in through the small
square. Athen reaching for one of the shards of glass, lunged at
the demon who was taken completely off guard as the glistening edge
tore jagged bits and pieces through his skin. Athen wrapped his
legs around the neck of the demon, somersaulting back into the wall
as Cyril took another large piece of glass, jamming it into the
stomach of this soulless creature.

The body slumped to the
ground, wings completely contracted and unidentifiable as such,
with Athen hopping off and tossing the glass to the pile of
shards.

“I can’t stand that sound!”
Arie flung the door open and bounded down the hall to turn off the
tea water.

Athen looked over at me,
holding out his arms as I ran right into them. Feeling the comfort
of his clutch, I buried my face into his chest. Not wanting to see
any of the devastation that was left in the room or on my body, I
closed my eyes shut as tight as they could be. I felt like such a
burden had been lifted having him back again. The crumpled demon’s
body was now beginning to dissipate into the air, for which I was
grateful.

Matilda’s paws were
scratching frantically on the door in the next room. No more being
cooped up for her. She was making that clear.

“Nice job, Ana. I mean it.”
Cyril said, over his shoulder as he went to let Matilda
out.

“This is getting really
tiresome, Athen. Is it always like this?” I murmured before
slumping completely in his arms, not hearing his answer.

***

I was obviously not in our
home in Victoria. First of all, we had no bedroom furniture there
at the moment, but secondly, there was a beautiful view of the
harbor right outside the window. Everything around me was so plush
and grand. I reached my arms out from under the covers, feeling my
body stretch the way it only does after an amazing night of sleep.
Athen wasn’t in bed, but I had a sneaking suspicion he wasn’t very
far off. I wiggled my way up out of the comforter and did my best
to try to figure out where we might be, when it hit me we were at
the Empress Hotel. Porcelain clanking in the other room alerted me
to the fact that Athen was on his way in.

“Hey, sleepyhead.” Athen
said smiling, carrying in a tray of tea and cookies. “You kinda
slept through the whole afternoon tea thing downstairs, so I
thought I’d try to recreate it a little up here.”

I couldn’t believe I’d
slept so long, since the last thing I remembered was being in
Athen’s arms the day before, after the fight.

“Have I been out that long?
Since yesterday afternoon?” I was so embarrassed.

“You are the one who has
most recently been brought back, and I’m the one who is exhausted?
This makes no sense.”

“Come on, sweetie. You’d
been gone for half a century – I was only gone a couple months, if
that, really. I don’t think I ever truly left.”

I grabbed the teacup, which
had such tiny little pink flowers all over it – perfect for the
setting at the Empress, wondering what kind of delightful flavor I
might get to sip on.

“So did we leave poor Cyril
and Arie to take care of everything?” I felt a little guilty,
knowing the answer already.

“Yeah, pretty much. I’d say
when everything is back to normal, we are going to owe them pretty
big.” His grin said everything.

Nodding my head, I took in
the warm, gold liquid, coating my throat on the way down to comfort
my belly. The tea hinted of oolong, and I hoped it would perk me up
enough to get back to normal.

“It’s kind of nice that our
room gets destroyed, and then, we wind up at the Empress Hotel.” I
was so happy to be alone with him, I couldn’t even hide my
grin.

“Yeah, not a bad place to
have to hunker down at for awhile.” He said, flipping on the
television as we snuggled, and I sipped my tea.

“Do you think this thing
that’s happening is as big as it feels?” I asked Athen.

“I think it’s bigger, Ana.
This is personal for him, and why he chose now out of all of the
centuries that have come and gone to begin his disturbances, we may
never know, but we’ve got to make sure we are all prepared. I don’t
just mean us either. Our network is moving as swiftly as his is.
We’ll be ready when the time is right.”

“How will we
know?”

“There won’t be any missing
it.”

“I’ve gone over all of the
memories that have slowly been rebuilding, and I don’t think I’ve
come to anything that resembles what we could be up against. Is
that right?”

“True, there’s been nothing
like what this threatens to become. The key is knowing how many
false starts and mini-battles we are going to have to contend with
until the one that counts occurs.”

“Kind of felt like they all
counted.” I began snuggling into the back of him, hoping for maybe
one quick nap, so I could count myself as fully recuperated. The
last several days had really created an exhaustion that seemed
almost impossible to shake.

Waking up next to Athen was
literally heaven on earth. Seeing that the light was still shining
outside, I was thankful I didn’t completely sleep the day away. I
rolled in towards his beautifully defined body, placing my head on
his chest. I grabbed the sheet, which was the only fabric left on
the bed, and pulled it up around my shoulders, feeling the warmth
of his skin next to mine. Having Athen back in my life was
incredible. I felt complete again. My soul no longer ached. I moved
my body on top of his as he began kissing my neck, his breath
sending a chill throughout my body.

“There’s a possibility, you
know, that this is heaven. Right here.” I whispered into his
ear.

I closed my eyes, thankful
that the serpent-eyed woman was no longer present in my dreams. She
was quickly becoming a distant memory. She might be back to fight
us with the rest of the Legion, but she couldn’t steal his heart
from me and that was the most important thing.

“I think we’ve had a piece
of heaven for quite some time, my love.” He told me, raising my
body up. I felt his lips against my skin, tracing his way back up
to my neck.

Hoping that we could stay
here forever, I let myself fall back down into his arms. His hands
reaching down my back on the way to grab the sheet once more to
cover us up.

***

We were both overlooking
the beautiful view on the lawn. The temperature was on the verge of
freezing. The air was signaling a thunderstorm was on the horizon,
but I didn’t care. Springtime thunderstorms were actually quite
gorgeous. If this was where Athen wanted to be, then this was where
I would be, outside, standing next to him. The months that we had
been apart had torn at me from every single direction. At times, I
wasn’t sure if I’d even make it, especially knowing there was
someone else vying for his attention. That someone also happened to
be an absolutely beautiful being, as long as she stayed in her
human form, that was.