Grounded ~Book Four of Winged~

Incident

He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me and that'll be it. That will be the end of me forever. My kicking gets weaker and I no longer have the strength to claw his hand so I'm just hitting and tapping his hand and arm wildly barely able to control limbs now. Over the high ringing in my ears, I hear knocking on the bedroom door. It sounds far away, but I hear it. My eyes widen more than they are already and look towards the door as does Malachai. I open my mouth and try to make a noise, any noise. Malachai's eyes sharply go back to me as a very small unhuman noise escapes my throat and his nails begin to dig into my skin and break it, making it start to bleed. My only call for help that I could get out in this situation and it wasn't enough as the person on the other side of the door doesn't react or hear it. He tightens even more and it hurts so much more. The knocking sparks hope in me though and my kicking gets a little bit more energy behind it and I kick his legs and around just trying to get him to stop and so I can make some sort of noise to alert the person on the other side of the door that Malachai is trying to strangle me to death right now.

Knocking happens again at the door, "Trinity...? Malachai...?" Eli says from behind the door. "Are you guys okay?" He sounds like he is hundreds of feet away from us when he is only about eight feet away and behind a door. My flailing legs hit a leg of the table in the corner right near us and it clatters and scraps against the floor. It makes the noise that I couldn't physically make. My only hope for help is in that noise. The door opens sharply, violently, and Eli's eyes widen at the sight of Malachai's hand around my throat. Malachai throws me to the side and I land hard halfway on the table. My hip hits the side and I crumple to the ground, gasping for air in between coughs with my hand to my throat, stunned in pain.

"Get off of me!" Malachai shouts and I look up from my place on the floor and see him thrashing about in a headlock from Eli. Eli's eyes are wide on me, scanning to see if I'm okay. His eyes are fixated on me. He has a strong need to know if I am okay or not. Taking advantage of him being distracted by what my wellbeing is, Malachai breaks free of the headlock and immediately lunges at me, tackling me down roughly against the floor..

"Malachai!" I yell and fight against him, throwing weak punches as his hands come to my throat again. Eli recovers from his shock fast and grabs Malachai, dragging him off me again. Tears well up in my eyes. He's too far gone. We can't help him. Beleth and Etheriel quickly appear in the doorway and take in the situation. Etheriel rushes to me, laying on the ground crying in pain, still trying to catch my breath from being without it for so long. He pulls me into his body and soothes down my hair caringly. My hand finds my neck still feeling the pressure from Malachai strangling the life out of me. Malachai thrashes and fights rapidly against Eli. Beleth goes and helps Eli constrain him. When Beleth touches Malachai's arm, he is transported to a memory from Malachai. It's brief and then he's fully back to reality, restraining Malachai. They start to drag him backwards out the door. They have to get him out of the building so they can take him to Barzakh.

"Hey, hey." Etheriel gently makes me look at him in the eyes. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head?" His eyes scan my face and neck rapidly.

"I'm o-okay. No." My voice comes out a little raspy. I hear a commotion in the hall of several people and Malachai. It sounds like more people get involved. Movement in the doorway catches my attention and I look up to see Dominic standing confused in the doorway.

"What happened?" He takes a step into the room. His eyes scan me, stopping on my neck. "Oh no..." His shoulders fall in disappointment and his eyes are filled with concern. "How can I help, Trinity?" With a hand on my throat, I look across the room up at him.

I feel Etheriel shake his head, "Help them take Malachai the Barzakh..." He says quietly, continuing to smooth my hair. It takes a while on the floor with Etheriel to catch my breath from being strangled. After a few moments past, everyone is back at the door, looking in concerned. There are whispers in the doorway between them as they try to figure out exactly what happened. Beleth informs them of what he saw in Malachai's memories.

"...if Eli didn't come in she was going to die... somehow lived that long..." I hear Beleth say in whisper tones to them.

"Let's go back to your room, okay?" Etheriel suggests and I nod and he helps me to my feet. Everyone moves out of the way when we go to leave and they don't follow us as we walk through the main room and to my room. He lays down on the narrow bed first and I lay down with my back to him. He holds me tightly and eventually we both fall asleep.

I wake up and Etheriel is no longer in bed with me and it saddens me a bit, wishing just to be in his arms longer. I slowly get up, my hip hurting from being thrown into the table yesterday by Malachai. I change into fresh clothes since I woke up in the clothes I wore all day yesterday and notice a giant bruise on my hip and side. If I had a mirror, I'm sure my neck wouldn't be looking any better. I open the door to my room and freeze before leaving because now I hear people talking.

"She needs to be connected to someone's life force again... Yesterday should've been enough to prove that to us. She could've died." I here Etheriel argue.

"We can connect her to mine again." Dominic offers and I hear several noises of disproval, but I don't know who they came from.

"No, connect her to mine... I am stronger than all of you. Better chance she will always have an immortal being as back up." Beleth says and everyone goes quiet.

"He's got a point. He has more ways to protect himself than us. Many more powers. It took many strong angelic beings to take him down last time." Belphegor chimes in. No one speaks up to challenge this.

"I can do it the old way therefore less people know how to remove it unlike how you did it last time. This way is in no recorded texts and only exists in the heads of the people who were alive when it was still preformed that way a lot." Beleth speaks up again.

"I agree with him this is the smartest way." Eli speaks up.

"Why not one of us Arch Angels?" Zerach suggests.

"He has more means of protecting himself and many demons who will do whatever he wants them to." Belphegor turns down Zerach's idea.

"He's right... Although I hate it... Beleth's the best bet for who will live the longest out of us. He is already much older than us and also has immense powers." Etheriel says, not sounding thrilled to actually say it.

"What do we need for it?" Dominic asks and Beleth gives him a short list. I leave the room and as soon as I turn out of the room I have everyone's attention, all their pitying looks directed at me.

"How did you sleep?" Etheriel questions as he meets me when I walk into the main room. I shrug and he kisses the top of my head, smoothing my hair down in the process.

"How are you feeling?" Eli asks caringly and I try to force a smile as a reply which kind of fails. Dominic is no longer in the room and I suspect he left to get whatever Beleth asked for.

"We are going to attach your life to Beleth's." Etheriel speaks down at me and I pretend like I didn't already know and nod slowly.

"We will protect you, Trinity."