Forbidden (Fallen 2)

I thought if I blinked my eyes I would wake up. This was exactly like my nightmare but unlike last time I was living it. My breathing stopped. I could see the fright in Jonathon’s eyes as I looked at him. If she was going to kill me I wanted his face to be my last sight even if it was twisted with pain.

Her arm was harder than other vampires and a sickly gray color. In the light provided by Jonathon’s fire I could see that it looked like her skin was peeling as if it was ready to drop off of the bone. Selena was disintegrating. My instincts said to pull her arm away but my brain said it would be useless. She was stronger. Stronger than she looked. Stronger than the last time I had encountered her. Jonathon hadn’t been lying when he said that vampires that have lost their soul mate get stronger. He said the process was much like a star burning out. The fire rages hotter and hotter until finally it just stops and ceases to exist. Selena?

?s time was near but she was still burning brightly. All though her physical strength had grown, from the little that I could see it looked as if Selena’s body was close to falling apart. I wanted to look up and see her face to see if it matched the zombie like arm clutching me but I couldn’t move. I was frozen by her arm and frozen in terror.

“Let-go-of-her,” said Jonathon through clenched teeth.

I could see Selena’s pout in my mind, “Oh, but sweet Jonathon, you owe her to me, don’t you think? Soul mate for soul mate?” she said in a sweet feminine voice mocking him.

Jonathon growled, “I-owe-you-nothing!”

I could feel her smile sweetly, “I thought you might say that,” and then she threw me across the yard where I landed with a thud but thankfully not severely hurt. I looked to see that chaos had broken out. I scooted out of the line of fire and hid behind a bush where I would still be able to watch what was happening. I knew it was pointless to hide. If she wanted to find me she would be able to just by my smell but it still made me feel better to hide behind its green cover.

It looked like a full on war was taking place. I found myself shivering from fright. Jonathon looked like some kind of fierce avenging angel. I had never seen a look of such hatred on his normally passively beautiful face. His hands and arms pulsed with the purplish-blue fire. It looked as if the fire was breathing with him. His eyes were squinted in determination. She danced and shimmered her way around everybody. I could see the faint purple outline of her shield as she glided by people and vampires. She was smiling which made me even sicker to my stomach. This was no longer just about revenge she was just wanted to destroy and wreak havic. Balthazar swung a punch but it just bounced off of her and I could see that it had caused him pain. He cupped his injured hand and I was stunned to see that it was broken and that the bones were knitting themselves back together.

I watched in stricken horror as the Coven member with the bow and arrow cocked it and aimed. It whistled out aimed straight at Selena’s heart. It looked like it connected but it didn’t. Suddenly, the arrow was shooting straight towards the stunned Coven member. His eyes widened in horror and before he could move the arrow sliced straight through his chest and back as he fell to the ground on his knees. Blood poured out of his chest and mouth and he slumped to the ground lifeless.

My stomach heaved and I threw up in the bushes. My eyes glided back to the battle raging before me. I just couldn’t look away. I had to know what was happening. I noticed that several more bodies littered the ground. A couple of the bodies on the ground were stirring so I hoped they weren’t injured beyond repair.

I tried to find the long dark hair of Selena but my human impaired eyes couldn’t find her. About that time I noticed that the ones engaging in the battle were looking around too.

Abruptly, I was jerked back by my hair. I screamed out in pain. It felt like my scalp was being torn off.

“You weak, defenseless, human girl,” she sneered as she yanked me into a standing position. I whimpered. The others noticed where she was and that she was holding me yet again. I was starting to think that Jonathon had been right to want to hide me. I was breathing heavily and I wanted to cry but I was going to hold it together. I was not weak and I was not defenseless.

I grabbed the forgotten knife from my pocket. If only I had remembered it when she grabbed me the first time. My breath ragged I thrust the knife into her leg and like Jonathon promised it went right in and then I elbowed her in her side with all the strength I had left in me. She dropped to the ground like she was having a seizure.

The knife in her leg was glowing the most vibrant blinding blue. I found myself shielding my eyes. She had finally managed to get her fingers around the knife’s hilt. Her hand turned black like it was burning her skin. With a grunt she pulled it out and threw it. I waited for the pain to come expecting me to be her intended target but when I turned around I saw with dismay that someone else had taken the knife for me. I gasped.

Benji fell to the ground with the knife through his brain. Silvery blue blood leaked from the wound. Someone screamed and I realized that it was me. I covered my mouth with my hand to try and stop the inhuman sound coming from it. My eyes found Jonathon and we both looked at each other horror struck. “Get her in the house!” he screamed to someone I couldn’t see. I thought he was telling them to get Selena but instead two sets of hands grabbed me and dragged me away from all the death and murder and the murderess herself. I looked back and saw her standing and cackling! Cackling, like a witch! I closed my eyes and willed myself to stop looking.

The hands deposited me just inside but thanks to the wall full of windows in the sunroom I could still see everything.

I saw that Viola was making things appear and then sending them at Selena, looking for a weakness in Selena’s shield, her red hair swirling around her shoulders. The things that rebounded back, which was pretty much everything, Viola’s sister, Vivian, made disappear. Viola was creative with what she thought of. The variety of things she was throwing ranged from rocks to chairs even a boom box. It seemed like anything and everything swirled in the dark.

“Stop watching,” sounded a voice scaring me. I had forgotten that whoever had brought me in here was still here. I saw that it was Danny and Mason with me. Mason was the one who had spoken. He gave me a sad look. “It’ll be okay. Stop torturing yourself,” he said.

“I can’t help it,” I whispered and put my hand to the glass. “Wait, did you see that?” I asked.

“What?” said Danny and Mason in unison as they moved to look out the window where I was pointing.

“I don’t see anything,” said Danny.

“Never mind. It must have been my mind playing tricks on me. It looked like Aleksei was helping her but that doesn’t make any sense,” I murmured softly.

Danny and Mason exchanged horror stricken glances. “Oh my God the leak!” they shrieked at each other.

I was just as horror stricken as they were to know that what I had seen was true. Aleksei was helping Selena. He was murdering his own Coven! No wonder he had wanted them all to go into this battle. He was going to have them all slaughtered.

I looked at Danny and Mason. “We have to warn them! They won’t fight against him if they don’t know!”

Danny and Mason looked at each other.

“I’ll do it,” said Mason.

“I’ll get the blood,” said Danny disappearing into the basement where I knew they kept a stash of blood for emergencies. That’s how Jonathon had been getting by.

“What’s going on?” I asked.