Page 95 of Crimson Promises
A shadow moved over me as I screamed again, a hand covering my mouth. I went to bite it, my intention to draw blood. Instead, this time, it wasn’t red eyes that pierced mine. They were evergreen.
ChapterTen
Lucifer
The Morningstar was once Heaven’s most treasured angel. More beloved than God, he had thought. He certainly was more powerful, more charismatic, more everything. It had only made sense that he should be ruling in God’s stead. However, he had made some fatal errors. First, he underestimated The Original’s abilities. All inferior to his own, of course, as he was the first and most cherished archangel created in God’s own image. Second, he didn’t have the legions or numbers the angels had. During The Great War, his soldiers were of a higher caliber, trained by his personal generals. None of his soldiers were conscripted or forced to be there. They joined because they genuinely believed that he offered a brighter future. He was the Lightbringer. Many in The Ordinary class were left to the shadows, unacknowledged or forgotten about by God and his privileged Originals. Third, he had rushed into a war too hastily. While there were moments when the tide of battle had turned in his favor, overthrowing the Almighty, who sat on the ultimate throne, would not be an easy feat. He had to have patience, infinite patience, to ensure all pieces on the chessboard were in play.
Errors he would not make again.
He paced the span of his manor. He admired his reflection in the polished white and black marble tiles.
The key to his vengeance was in the form of a twenty-something mortal girl, who, for reasons he did not understand, continued to evade his capture. He had sent Behemoth. A catastrophic failure.
He felt the spark of her power when she was firstborn. When he closed his eyes, he could see the universe’s different planes and the golden dots that represented those who heldaurum, the manifestation of angelic power. The day she was born, he had awoken from a deep sleep with a smile as wide as the Cheshire cat, finally someone who held a vast amount ofaurum. There was something different about this one. Heraurum, which generally appeared as gold in his mind, alternated flashing between white and gold.
Something he hadn’t seen in thousands of years.
Adimidium. Adimidiumwith healing powers.
Someone who could make a difference in this war. He needed her at all costs.
But then, just as quickly as she had appeared, she vanished.
He had scoured the planes for her, but nothing apart from the fact that he knew she was on earth had helped him to find her. Every night for twenty years, he searched, coming up empty until one unexpected evening.
Whatever had been concealing her presence had vanished. Oddly, only an Original could offer that level of protection.
All this time, she had been in a small town off the coast in Oregon. From that day on, he watched and waited for his opportunity. The lower demon and Behemoth had failed. But their efforts were not for naught. He had learned from her dreams that he so often enjoyed twisting to nightmares that a fallen angel had helped and defended her. There was a bond between the two he did not yet understand. When he was through, that bond would be torn to shreds.
Once again, he met his reflection in an ornate silver mirror. His once blue eyes, the color God had created the sky after, were now a blazing crimson red, and his opalescent wings were now the color of the blackest night.
Lucifer Morningstar would rise again like a phoenix from the ashes. The Final Battle would find its way to Earth’s doorsteps just as he had planned and waited for. And this time, he would not lose.
ChapterEleven
Bennett
The expression on Aurora’s face, when she found out I was Remy, was a sucker punch to the gut. The bracelet was a slip-up. Aurora had made it for me when she was around six. She had been making friendship bracelets for the other girls in her class. None of them had accepted them. Aurora had spent the entire evening in her room, crying into her stuffed animals. One night, I finally prodded her into playing dress up with me, meaning that I would stand incredibly still while she draped bright colored feather boas, tiaras, and butterfly clips in my hair. It was then that she presented me with the bracelet. She had opened her palm with one hand layered over the other. Decorated with rainbow-patterned, neon-colored beads, the stretchy bracelet had my name in the middle.
I held onto that small act of kindness ever since, a reminder that there are those in this world who deserve love and compassion. So little of that had been showed to me in this lifetime.
I hated to be the one to tear her world to shreds. If anything, I wanted to glue every piece together like a delicate mosaic, but she demanded the truth and deserved to hear it. There were some things I couldn’t tell her or anyone ever, but I was as honest with her as I could be.
She had asked for space, and I was doing my best to honor that.
It had been three days since our last conversation.
But I still had a job, so I was back to watching her from a distance. Instead of actively participating in her life, I was once again a passive observer.
She had been waking more frequently from nightmares. The closer we got to her twenty-first birthday, the bolder Lucifer would be in his attempts to capture Aurora.
The night we had gone our separate ways, she had begun convulsing in her bed, choking and gasping for air. I had to shake her awake. She seemed on the verge of consciousness but fell back to a fitful sleep, thrashing at her covers. Every night since, I watched vigilantly, there to bat away the horrors she was experiencing in a dreamscape I couldn’t follow her into.
During the day, her hand would ghost across her neck in search of her necklace. It was evident that the news of what led to her mother's death devastated Aurora.
Whatever trauma she may have been silently processing, she refused to listen to my warnings of safety. The girl was infuriating. She crossed the street between cars, ran alone, and continued to walk to and from work. Aurora seemed to be egging on an attack. How could she not take this seriously? Did she not see she was playing roulette with her life? Creatures from another dimension were trying to kidnap her. This was not a Netflix special. It was real.
I should have fisted her ponytail and locked her in her condo until her birthday, but no, Michael didn't want to disrupt her. I could hear his voice in my head: “Let her go about her day-to-day life. It’s your responsibility to keep her safe, Caelum. Not hers.”
