Fallen Angel

Chapter 76: Emily

As the pain surged through me I could feel something pushing up my throat. Like I needed to vomit, the urge to let go was strong. Something was pulling at me, dragging through my neck. My mouth widened involuntarily, forced open as the sensation made its way out. It felt like something was crawling through me.

A grey mist wafted out of my mouth, it was similar to the one that the beast had held in his hand. The devil grabbed it as soon as it passed my lips, it screeched with an ear piercing yelp. Again the beast held the mist in his hand, whispering the sweet words that I could not understand until the thing calmed. Like the previous it purred as it wrapped around his arm and up to his neck, amusing the beast.

On the shoulder of the beast, the grey mist stilled as a long thin flame rose up beside the devil. Taking it into his thumb and index finger, the devil pushed the flame into my skin at my groin. It burned and as I cried out with the pain, I felt the warm tears trickle past my temples.

Again and again the beast pushed the flaming line into my body, slowly moving up my torso. He was stitching me up with fire. Lifting my head to look at it, I saw the line of fire that started at my groin and was as high as my ribs. Blood didn't ooze out of me even though my body was open, I was naked yet the beast didn't look at me with intent. In fact, he seemed more concerned with the mist sitting on his shoulder.

It would turn to his ear and it looked like it was whispering in it. The beast would swat at it and the mist would turn back to the view of me with my innards exposed. He reached down to my body, delving into the cavity and wrapped his hand around my heart. The touch was soothing even if the grip was firm, as the hand slid away I felt a nail scratch over the surface.

A dark smile slipped over his face as the scratch continued, curling as if he was writing something on my heart. Through the pain of it, I thought that I detected a full circle and it made me wonder if he was writing his name on my heart.

Would the devil do that? I didn't know but I wanted to.

"What are you doing?"

The beast ignored me.

"Did you write your name on my heart?"

He smiled, pulling his bloodied hand out of my chest cavity. Blood dripped off his hand, some of it pooled in the dip at the base of my neck. The devil opened his hand flat and placed it over my face, removing it almost as quickly.

"Bound in blood." The beast offered.

With his bloodied hand, he took the flaming line again and finished off his task. The other hand raised, bloodied even though he didn't put that hand into my body. It pressed to my chest over my heart, firmly pushing against the muscles.

"Where did you get that blood from?"

"From the one you are bound to." He said with a malevolent snigger.

I looked around and could not see Brannon, he wasn't pinned to a table with his body open like I was, he wasn't even in the circle of fire with us. So this was it, I was bound to the devil even though he said that I wouldn't be.

"You lied." I cried out angrily.

"I did not." He hissed.

"Then what did you do?"

The world around us snapped into blinding white, another void of nothing. Before me was the man that had everyone fooled. Anton smiled as he sat on a leather wingback that had appeared. He gestured to the one that had appeared for me.

"What did I do Emily?" Anton said with a certain smugness.

I looked down at my body, dressed as I had been in his office, no longer in pain and definitely not pinned by a flaming trident. Sitting on the chair, I looked at Anton with so much confusion.

"You offered devotion even though it wasn't required, I merely accepted that devotion."

"It was for Brannon, not you."

Anton looked at me coldly, the smile slipping from his face.

"And who said I took it for myself? You jump to conclusions far too easily."

I sat back, stunned. Anton crossed his leg as he settled into his seat, looking like he was the king of everything he surveyed which at the moment consisted of two chairs and me.

"Your devotion is written on your heart Emily, your love for Brannon will always be constant. You offered and I accepted, your unwavering loyalty to my son will be easy for you and as a gift, I have given the same to you. He will always love you, he will always treat you as you deserve but you should know that he already did that, he would have always done that regardless of any tampering on my part. Brannon is like his mother, devoted until the bitter end. They love without question, they see the good in everyone and give to others without a thought for themselves. It is not surprising that he found love with another that could be so giving, there is so much goodness within you that he found it comforting. Dare I even say it; you are similar to his mother. Defiant yet still plays by the rules. A good heart yet deep within there is a bad girl waiting to be unleashed. Fiery and beautiful, inside and out."

Great, so he found a girlfriend like his mother. Like that didn't conjure up some awkwardness.

"That's why the other was never going to work out. She was too imbalanced in the levels, too dark for him even if he is a fallen angel. We need a certain amount of purity in our lives, we need to ensure that the darkness does not invade our minds and control it. After all, this is just heaven's waiting room. We have to ensure that those who come here and wait for judgement are treated fairly."

Which I knew anyway. Heaven wouldn't want a tortured soul turning up at the gates.

"Your blood on your head, being that your mind is still your own but your heart belongs to Brannon, his blood went onto your chest. The same for him, though I believe his experience was far different to yours. Everyone experiences changeovers differently, it is fear. What you saw was your ultimate fear, what Brannon saw was his. You could look to his changeover and say that it was nothing compared to your suffering but remember that suffering is different for everyone. What you suffered with the pain in your body, he suffered with the pain in his mind. Remember that when you question what happened to him."

I nodded, wondering what had happened to Brannon.

"So what was the white thing you flicked out and those grey things?"

"The purity spell," Anton offered with amusement filling his face. "A vile little thing to try and catch, it was determined to run away from me. The grey was the fallen angel entering your body and the old angel leaving. Another vile creature, it refused to leave and tried to convince me to stop the process."

"So am I fallen angel now?"

"Almost."

He smiled and snapped his fingers, I plunged into the inky black. It was burning hot; my body was soaked with warm water. I tried to stop my body from sinking but my limbs felt so heavy, it was dragging me down. Lethargy was taking hold of me, I couldn't fight the need to let go.

I needed to breathe but I feared that I would drown, even though it was not possible for me to die. It felt like my mind was going to explode from the lack of oxygen. Constricted and struggling, I felt the pull of hopelessness take hold.

As I let go of my will to live, I thought about Brannon. I'd done this for him, everything was for us. Even in my darkest hour, I still thought of him and how much I wanted an eternity with him by my side. He was my everything.