Risen: Beginning of a Legacy

Chapter Thirty Six: Evangeline

Evangeline felt the unease return to her chest as swiftly as the emotion had left it. They weren't out of the woods yet. The wound on her arm seemed to pulse out of time with her heartbeat, the pain beat hot and acidic against her skin. When the foul beast had latched onto her, its fangs deep in her bloodstream, she almost died from the hatred and poison in his dark soul.
     Even as the negative onslaught had filled her and ripped her apart, she had managed to glimpse his motives, the images in his mind. Of herself, of Adonis and of her best friend. The one she had left alone. How could she have been so careless?
     She had even heard her uncle tell Headmaster Thantos that the main Horde legion was headed to the East Wing; where the medic bay was.
     'DeeDee...' she whispered.
Feeling the rush of feathers at her back as they launched her forward and suddenly, she was flying down the corridors, not running. Evangeline let herself enjoy the new sensation of weightlessness and marvel at the fact her feet were not on the ground, she enjoyed it for just a moment and then the Darklore chaos froze the air again and she dropped to her feet at the end of the medic bay corridor.
     The doors to the room were blasted open and standing between DeeDee and the others was eighty feet of corridor, filled to bursting with Horde.
     'Gods...'
Heca skidded to a halt next to her, his hand found hers and he gripped hard to her fingers. Orion, Morgana and Tien were behind him.
     'Plan of attack, Warrior?' Evangeline asked as a handful of forming daemons sensed them and turned to protect the rear of their pressing forces.
     'Kill a shit ton of these eyesores?' Heca responded.
His falchion clinked a little as he unsheathed it. 'Here.'
He reached to his back and removed a Glaive from the straps crossing over his chest. Before she could protest, he had shoved it into her hands. Then unsheathed his other falchion blade.
     'I've barely trained with one of these...' Evangeline admitted as she turned the weapon over in her hands.
     'I think it'll suit you. And remember you have something even more powerful.'
His hand came out and stroked down the feathers covering her new arching humerus bone. Her wings fluttered, his warm hand comforting her, and she pitched towards him, lightly pressing her lips to his cheek.
     'Be careful.'
     'Of course Angel Face.' he teased.
Together, Tien and Evangeline took to the air, willing Elysium light to fill their feathers, burning the Horde as they advanced. Suddenly, from a side passageway, Headmaster Thantos and her uncle emerged, driving their weapons straight into the closest Horde and creating a battle semi circle that, as they fought on, met with the path Heca, Orion and Morgana were making along the corridor.
     Evangeline dropped to the ground, the spearhead of her glaive burying itself deep into a Horde's chest as it advanced on Morgana's back. The girl tossed a thanking smile over her shoulder as she spun, and her weapons cut down a curtain of phantom Horde; a mass of the tendrils that begun forming on their right. Evangeline dislodged the glaive, Heca had been right, it was a great choice for how she fought.
     She twisted, catching a Horde between its talons, thrusting her blade hard into its palm. The creation stumbled and Evangeline brought up her own right palm. She cried out the Latin phrase for light and Elysium radiance manifested. It shone out like a fanned semi-circle of light and pulsed out like a wave meeting the shore when she pushed her hand towards the advancing daemons. The Horde screamed in agony as the strength Evangeline focused on them, burnt the leathery flesh from bone.
     'Orion, Evangeline, Heca! Make a break for the medic bay now!' Her uncle commanded over the crashing metal, grunts and exclamations filling the corridor.
     Evangeline didn't hesitate. She beat her wings once, rising to the air. She shot towards the doorway, landing hard on the ground. Her wings came around her for a moment, and she let the feathers tickle her face, using their power as a crutch. Her own strength and health diminishing from the summons she'd forced herself to manifest.
     The gouges in her shoulder and chest were beginning to sting and smart against the movements she was demanding of them. On her forearm, the skӧll bite was oddly cold, as though a frost had settled on her skin, but in the back of her thoughts she could sense her blood bubbling like acidic liquid in a test tube.
     'You stained them already?! Jeez!' DeeDee called out.
Her voice was exhausted but as Evangeline locked her gaze on DeeDee she was stunned. The three of them had an impossibly strong aura around them, dark purple silk seemed to be curling and lashing around the room of its own volition. Kleio and Gabe were parrying and almost dancing around DeeDee as the three of them battled, the Horde swamping them. Their movements connected, almost as one.
     Evangeline stood, knowing that she was watching a future Intra Terci in action. A flash of purple flew past her shoulder and a whining moan erupted behind her. Evangeline spun on her heel and a skӧll beast met her stare, his chest punctured by the ribbon.
     'Holy--'
     'Evangeline!' Heca bellowed.
His voice was a sledgehammer to her sudden sluggish behaviour. She sensed the Darklore flare on her other side and thrusting her wing tips together, she slashed the pulsing wall that had begun to rise from the floor.
     As the tendrils oozed away into nothing Evangeline staggered, the pain of the skӧll's bite finally filling her body with fire and pain. She knew she was falling down, but before she hit the bloody ground a muscular body slid under hers.
     'Gods...'
Heca's voiced faded out as the melodic, elegant sound of chanting crept into the room. Finally, finally the ritual being cast by the Angyali tutors and candidates throughout the castle was breaking through, the Darklore weakening.
     Evangeline forced her head up, her uncle, Headmaster Thantos and Morgana were nearly at the doors. Orion, Tien and the other three almost had the room eradicated. Evangeline sighed and dropped back against Heca's warm and supportive chest.
     'I think I might have to tap out now.' she murmured.
His hand came up to lay against her forehead, the touch made her instantly cooler, the feel of his palm cut through the blaze and agony tearing her up from inside.
     Evangeline bit down on her inner cheek. If she began screaming now, she wouldn't stop. No fear, fear would bring the Darklore back. Heca's hand tightened on hers, and his voice was low next to her ear.
     'Hold on, just a little longer, please, my brave tattoo artist.' His voice lifted a fraction as he doled out another one of his nicknames, 'don't give into the pain yet.'
     'Enough.'
A blast of ice wind filled the room. Darkness and danger overwhelmed them all and as if carpeted by chain mail or iron, none in the room could rise. Trapped by his death grip, Evangeline sucked in breath as a beautiful male stepped from the vheil he'd been clouded in.
     His bare chest mesmerised, covered in a satanic language she didn't understand, it caught her gaze even as Evangeline instantly knew it was as evil as it came, the runes etched in dark ink against his skin were captivating, terrifying.
     'Who is he?' she whispered.
     'Your defiance does you no credit.'
His voice was satin and caramel, but his gaze promised death. Evangeline ceased to breathe. His expression held such intensity that it stripped all life from the room. The stain of all the souls he'd taken were layered in his eyes, which were a stormy, fluid obsidian. The colour of them mirrored in his wings.
     As the mirage of this immortal stepped closer to where Heca and she were being shackled to the floor, Evangeline wanted to run but was too fascinated to try. Heca's voice sounded again by her ear, and she was instantly reminded of his warm embrace around her, as every muscle in her body spasmed and tensed.
     'Lucifer. Herald of Death.'
     'One of the rumoured vessels from Legacy?' she whispered back.
Heca's small nod against her head calmed her as Lucifer bent, his elegant legs folding so he crouched in front of them, his head tilted so his blonde ponytail swung down is left side.
     His hand came up towards her face and Evangeline urged her wing to twitch and protect them if they could. But his frozen blast, passed Evangeline unharmed. It sunk against Heca tossing his body flat against the floor.
     'Stop!' Evangeline cried.
The immortal's eyes shifted to hers, but his hand remained stretched out and Evangeline could sense Heca's pain. Her gaze refused to look to him though, the ArcAngelus in front of her capturing her focus.
     'The sort-of-famous, almost interesting and constant stain to His plans, Evangeline.' His gaze did a curious, almost lazy sweep over her, 'you seem to be a... survivor.' Lucifer informed Evangeline.
     The Fallen ArcAngelus' voice was calm but the storm in his eyes held her fear and intrigue in check. For a moment they continued to observe each other.
     'And yet you still attack me.' Evangeline bit back slowly.
Lucifer's lip hitched up a little, the smile on his face held no warmth and the smell of death and destruction was thick in the air, a heavy smog that fell heavy on Evangeline.
     'Get away from our students.'
Headmaster Thantos was surrounded by sparks of electricity, the Darklore holding him to the ground broken. In an instant Lucifer was no longer beside Evangeline and she felt the Darklore pulsing around her diminish as the fallen ArcAngelus advanced towards the headmaster.
     'You're getting old Thantos, that took you an age.'
     'You are not welcome in my school,' Thantos growled.
His hands, holding tight to the two falchion blades in his hands and the aura of energy around him was incredible. As Heca struggled to tug both of them back, Evangeline watched the two opposing strengths meet. Lucifer summoned a substantial sized scythe, the weapon cutting through the air at speed.
     The clash of metal was ferocious and swift. Evangeline sunk down, her vision beginning to tunnel and the sound of battle and men at war became muffled and out of sync with her eyesight. She tried to alert someone, anyone that her heart was jerking in her chest. But her arms were too heavy to move, like the blood had been replaced with lead.
     Windows above them shattered, the broken sound of beating wings joined the soundtrack. Evangeline, fighting the heaviness of her eyelids, tried to focus on what was making so many voices scream.
     'Wait... gods no.'
Evangeline fought the ache and turned to his voice. Heca's eyes were unusually bright; the captivating green, so pure in colour Evangeline had occasionally wondered how they were so undeniably emerald, looked almost like unshed tears glossed them.
     She forced her head to follow his line of sight and as the fuzzy static grew at the edge of her vision, she could just make out a crumpled body. A body missing one, vital, extremity.
     Her eyes rolled back, her blood turning to boiling lava under her skin. The last thing she registered were two sets of black wings, disappearing into the freckled night sky.

                                                                  ~