Redemption Ch. 12

There was a small opening in the door and she peered within.

Her heart almost stopped.

Within the dirty cell was a small boy, about six or seven years old. He was filthy, emaciated, his skin littered with cuts and bruises. Grimy, tangled blond hair covered his head.

He raised his eyes imploringly to her and Boy. Rayne almost passed out from shock.

"Help me, please. Don't let Malvano hurt me again."

It was Lucien, but he was a child. Rayne cried in dismay, shaking her head in disbelief. What had they done to him?

Boy pushed her back and began rattling the door.

"It's locked," he cursed. "Damn-it.

Above their heads, an unholy roar echoed through the house.

"Please," Lucien sobbed, snot running from his nose, his little naked body shivered in terror, breaking Rayne's heart. "Don't let him get me again. He hurts me. I'm scared of him. Please. You've got to help me."

A loud boom rattled the ground. Boy hit the door with his body, but fell to his knees as another pain ripped through him. Rayne screamed and pulled him away from the door. They would never be able to open it, and whatever was upstairs would find them and kill them. For now Lucien was probably safer locked in that cell.

"Boy, we must find that dagger."

"But the boy," he whispered, still clutching his belly.

"We can save him after we find the dagger."

"Nooo," the child screamed. "No—don't leave me again—nooo."

Rayne straightened, intending to reassure the child they would not abandon him, but the cell was empty now.

Her eyes welled with tears as she frantically searched every corner of the tiny room. He's vanished.

Bending over, she gripped Boy beneath his arms and hauled him up.

"Come-on. We need to keep moving."

"And the little boy?" he asked weakly.

"I don't know what happened to him. He just vanished."

Boy closed his eyes. "Ghosts."

Rayne gaped at him.

"Whenever a being goes through a traumatic experience it leaves a scar behind."

Rayne frowned, wondering where he'd learned that. "We need to move. There's something bad inside this place and we need to find that dagger before it finds us."

*******

Devon and Lucien watched the hotel burn down to a crisp. There were a few drones buzzing about sounding alarms, and after a while a large craft hovered over the building scanning for survivors. When none were detected, a flash of green descended upon the inferno. The fire winked out in the blink of an eye.

"We need to leave," Devon said.

Lucien looked back at their building, his eyes focusing on the sealed shutter to his apartment. His loves were in there. Would he ever see them again? Lucien's eyes welled. At least he'd known brief happiness for once in his life.

Devon gripped his arm. "We'll see our families again. I won't let anything happen to you."

For once, Lucien let his brother embrace him without a fight. Memories assailed him, glimpses of the past, things he shouldn't recall. They flooded Devon also. It was as though Lucien's final acceptance of his brother's love and devotion had unlocked a part of their minds. Lucien experienced Devon's love from the moment of their conception. Devon's divine soul had become enraptured with the spark of Lucien's life and he'd cherished and loved Lucien from the very beginning. He'd protected him during their birth and tried to protect them when they'd crossed over into the world around them now. But Devon had grown vulnerable to his newly acquired humanity. His body needed rest and it was during one of these lapses of consciousness, that Devon had lost Lucien. They both relived when a blonde Seraph had tip-toed into the orphanage where the weredragons had to leave them. They too were being hunted, and feared for the lives of the babes.

Garethiel's boyish face came into focus. He was trying to fly in a terrible storm with Devon clutched to his chest. As he laid the crying babe within his viper, Malvano walked into the nursery, led by one of the nurses on duty, and snatched Lucien. By the time Garethiel returned for the other twin, he was long gone with Malvano.

Lucien hugged his brother. Devon couldn't have helped him. He was only a four-month-old infant.

"Garethiel," Devon growled.

Lucien backed away, looking into his brother's enraged face.

"He was just a kid," Lucien sighed. He was tired of looking for cheap scapegoats. "Whoever sent him should have sent a full grown Seraph and not some teenaged idiot."

"That's not the point," Devon snarled. "He never said anything to me. Maybe if he'd have told me..."

Devon ran frustrated fingers through his raven tresses.

"What? What would it have changed. By the time you were old enough to do anything..."

Lucien looked away, remembering every horror Malvano had heaped upon him. He'd escaped when he was eighteen, but by then he was so embittered. Nothing would have swayed him from seeking his brother's blood. Now he knew how wrong he'd been, blinded by pain, suffering, and jealousy. "It's time we make things right...for the people we love. We need to fix this mess our father left behind."

Devon nodded.

"And maybe we need to destroy that portal on Megdoluc. Ash might be right. If Davariel manages to escape the realm of shadows, there's no telling how he might come out of there."

Devon looked warily at Lucien. "But our mother. Luciel was clinging to him."

Lucien swallowed, remembering his mother's startled face in the realm of shadows that time he'd tried to throw himself through it. Had it not been for Devon and the others—

"We need to go," Devon said looking up. "It's almost sunrise."

They levitated together and moved out over the darkened city. At the edge of the horizon, the black sky was turning red, hinting at dawn. It shouldn't have been very bright, but it burned Lucien's eyes, the demon blood coursing through him making him want to look away. Devon took his hand and Lucien allowed it.

After a few minutes, heading toward the torturous sunrise, they reached the edge of the platform where the city floated over the old ruins of the original city of New York.

The metal platform was one hundred feet high. Lucien could hear the waves of a turbulent oceans crashing against its side. Somewhere below was one of the portals to Hell, as well as the hidden chambers of the new council members of the Edenian government...council members Lucien and Devon were sure were nothing more than fallen angels.

Devon wrapped an arm around Lucien's waist and whispered, "I won't let you go. Are you ready?"

Lucien looked down at the never-ending darkness below him and nodded.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and held onto Devon tight.

He felt when they plummeted. The cold wind bit at his skin, tore at his hair. They fell for what seemed like forever before hitting the water painfully. Lucien felt as if his skin had been ripped from his bones. His fingers clutched his brother tighter as they moved swiftly through the murky water.

Devon used his powers to shoot them beneath the city platform until they reached an area not covered with water.

"Breathe," Devon commanded.

Lucien gasped a breath of air into his starving lungs. He held onto Devon a while longer until his head stopped spinning. Devon caressed his back and kissed his cheek, until Lucien could not stand it any longer and pushed away.

He looked around what should have been completely black darkness, but could see quite well with Devon's blood still surging within him.

The ruins of the city devastated him anew. He stared, dumbfound at the destroyed buildings and broken crafts littering the ground as far as the eye could see.

"Come," Devon said gesturing him to follow. "Let's go to where the gate is."

Where is that?' Lucien asked.

Devon glanced at him over his shoulder, his eyes twin beams of blue fire. "Where the Freedom tower once stood."

"That's directly under Zion," Lucien added.

"Yes," Devon nodded. "It is."

Lucien frowned and unsheathed the sword he'd taken from the fallen angel they'd killed moments before. "And afterwards we need to hunt down Ozzy."

Devon sighed. "Yes."

"What are we going to do with him when we find him?"

"I don't know," Devon murmured.

Lucien gripped the sword tighter and followed his brother toward the ruins of the Freedom Tower.