Revelations (26 page)

An anger at the cruelty of it all started to rise within her.

“What did you mean by what you said earlier? That ‘she shall come as one of them, yet set apart’?”

“Your first feeding. You took Vassiz blood.”

Nora felt a pang of guilt. “How did you know?” she asked softly.

“I can feel your life essence. It is different from the other Vassiz
.”

Suddenly, Nora realized that everybody else was staring at her. Hunter, at her side, was looking at her with wide eyes. So were Alexander, and Madison. They had both gotten up to stare right at her.

“What?” she asked, addressing the question to all of them at once.

“Your first feeding,” Hunter began, “you took Vassiz blood?”

How did he know? Nora felt the eyes of everyone on her. All were expecting, and waiting. “Yes,” she admitted.

“Who?” Madison asked in that chiming voice. Her tone was much kinder than Nora remembered from before.

“Korver’s wife,” Nora said slowly, staring past everyone to the far wall. “His pack attacked us. It is where Alexander took the arrow for me. She was trying to kill me, I’m sure, and her sons and husband went after Alexander. I got her down, and…” she gulped, “… and fed.”

She felt Hunter squeeze her tighter. “Welcome to our race,” he said softly.

While all that was happening, the…
angels
…had risen again, and were all looking to her as if expecting a command.

“How did you know?” she asked Hunter again.

He smiled and nodded toward the front-most angel. The one who was speaking to Nora.

“You were talking…to all of us?” Nora asked, surprised. The man smiled at her.

“Yes. You have us at your service, Nora. Only speak and we will do as you command.”

“I have a question. What was that thing that fought me and kept you here?”

“It is a creature from nightmare, ripped straight out of the dream realm. Some would call it a daemon.”

“But…how is that possible? How can something be
ripped out of
the dream realm?”

“It can only happen here, in this place. This chamber is the one point on the entire earth that the dream world and the human world…touch. There exists the slightest bit of overlap, and the result is that it becomes possible to go across worlds fully, in the flesh. The darkness you see to your side? It is the barrier between the two.”

Suddenly everything started to make sense. Nora remembered being thrown across that barrier, remembered the feeling of losing herself all-too-clearly. So there
was
a reason why the sensation was the same as coming back to her body from entering the dream world. Or rather, not entering, but
projecting
herself there.

“It is the same barrier that the first angel used to come into the world of humans to spawn the Vassiz. But going across it is not something one should do twice. It is dangerous to cross like that. You risk losing yourself in the void that exists between the worlds. And in the dream world, imaginations and nightmares run wild. The creature was one such; it was a guardian, put together from the greatest of nightmares that hunt the dream. Created to keep us locked here forever.”

“But not anymore,” Nora said.

“No. Thanks to you, we are now free.”

“So…now what happens?”

“That is your choice, Nora.”

She thought for a moment. She looked at Hunter, standing beside her again, looking at her reverently. She saw Madison and Alexander, holding each other in their arms, watching her with respect. She felt the gaze of the angels directed only at her.

They were all waiting for her to decide what to do.

“We will fight against the elders,” she said coldly. “And make them pay for what they did to you. For the travesties they committed against their race. For the oppression and fear they spread amongst the Vassiz. For what they did to Alexander and Rafael. For the ruin they brought onto the Vassiz they claim to serve, we will fight, and
we will win
.”

A cheering erupted from the angels, and it wasn’t just in her head. They moved their lips, and sound came out, but it was unlike any sound she’d heard before. It was pure and clean. And elated. She felt their joy with her decision. She looked to Hunter briefly, and he smiled approvingly.

“Wait,” Nora said, addressing the angel again. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Gabriel.”

The End, Book Two.

Can’t wait for Book Three of the Forsaken Saga?
Sign up for my New Releases email list (
http://eepurl.com/KKvqb
) and be the first to know when it comes out!

New Releases Email List:

Want to be the first to know about my new book releases? Don’t want to miss the rest of the books of the
Forsaken Saga?
Click the link below to sign up for my email list, and get an email in your inbox the day they come out:

http://eepurl.com/KKvqb