(Ambrosia)
I felt like I had a flaming rod shoved straight into my chest cavity… And I guess by all standards, I did. The pain was explosive in my upper abdomen and I couldn’t tell where the incision started or stopped.
Both hands instinctively shot up to the wound, covering the knife handle and the panic set in when I realized he really stabbed me… Andres, he really fucking stabbed me...
What a fucking bastard! After all that time we spent together I thought we were friends. Well, I knew we werent friends, but still… STABBING ME?
I wanted to yank the knife from my chest cavity and throw it straight at him, but I knew better than to pull it out. I would just bleed out faster if I did.
I could hear commotion and screaming from both sides, but my mind was a blur. I couldn't focus on any one thing, just my own heartbeat in my ears. Then the feel of my blood draining from my body and spilling into the ground below where I lay dying.
Holy fuck, I was dying… The thought was so foreign to me. And the feeling of losing this much blood, this fast, it was almost freeing. But I didn’t want to die, I wasn’t ready! Not yet. Not like this! What a stupid way to die.
All those nights we spent narrowly escaping death at the hands of much more brutal creatures while in Pandora’s Box… And a fucking knife is going to kill me? A goddamn stab wound.
I don’t know what was more ironic. It’s a time like this when my Human body really hinders my survival. The ability to die when you get stabbed is so stupid.
“You have about 3 minutes until she bleeds out completely and you wouldn’t be able to revive her. Give us the amulet!” Andres snarled.
I instantly heard Rowen snap his fingers and I could feel the amulet being lifted from my chest. Rowen didn’t even fucking flinch, he just handed it over. Jesus, Rowen, what the fuck!
I desperately tried to reach up and grab it. Just to try and stop it from moving, but It was like my hands couldn’t move fast enough.
Everything was in slow motion and I could hear shouting from somewhere behind Rowen. I assumed this was his brother’s shouting in protest.
I had hoped they would protest! I tried to shout out for him to stop. I didn’t want him to give it to them either.
My life definitely wasn’t worth the looming apocalypse. One life versus many. But I couldn’t make out any words. All I could feel was the blood pooling in my mouth.
Any word I tried to speak just ended in blood spewing out of my mouth at this point. I leaned over and started coughing up blood onto the ground.
“God damnit Andres, why did you have to fucking stab her? She was my fucking prize and now you’ve gone and killed her! What the fuck man!” Dominik snarled under his breath at his brother. I could hear the frustration in his husky voice.
Then I saw Dominik clasp his hand around the amulet, and he looked down at me with pity in his eyes. His look was really more one of frustration, panic, and sorrow. As if he were trying to say sorry to me with his looks.
Then he and his brother lifted themselves into the sky and were gone, taking the amulet with them.
Immediately Rowen had me in his arms. He ripped the knife from my solar plexus sending pain shooting through my body. It was a way worse pain than what was already there.
I groaned in agony as blood ran out of my mouth and down the front of me. Rowen stuck his hand over my solar plexus and tried to heal the wound.
“Fuck, why isn’t it working? Why isn’t she healing!” Rowen cried. I could feel his sheer panic, it was radiating off him like an atom bomb.
Just the feeling of his fear had me in a full blown panic, but my mind was too disoriented to really feel the panic, or understand what I was feeling.
“This is an Angel blade!” Raziel snarled, and the sound of his voice made me tremble. I had never heard him angry before, and I never wanted to again. He had the scariest pissed off voice I had ever heard.
I suddenly was grateful that I was not on the receiving end of that voice. It could have been the blood loss making things seem worse than they were.
But, if we are being honest, I wasn’t in pain anymore and that had to be a good thing… Right?
“We can’t heal a wound created from this.” Raphael chimed in. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. What should I do? How can I save her?” Rowen shouted.
The desperation in his voice was unnerving.
I should have been more afraid, but I was in and out of consciousness at this point and wasn’t sure what was really going on. I blacked out momentarily, and when I came to, I found myself in Ramses’ arms.
He had his hand over my wound pressing hard on it, but I was too weak to protest. Hell, I couldn't feel it anyways. I was just struggling to keep my eyes open.
“Adiuro vos ab Angelo magica ferrum. A insanabile vulnus habetur nunc, et sanábitur ánima mea.” Ramses chanted over and over. The words swirled through my brain like a knife through fog.
Suddenly, I could feel something moving inside of me. It felt like it was leaving my body, whatever it was. I felt the wound in my chest start to stitch itself back together, and it made me sick to my stomach.
I immediately rolled over, out of Ramses’ arms, and hurled all over the sand next to us. It was a mixture of blood and whatever I had in my stomach, which wasn’t much from what I can remember.
My senses were all still out of whack from whatever Ramses did to me. I no longer felt the life force leaving me, but it was still a disorienting situation.
As soon as I gathered enough bearings to sort of know what was happening, I couldn’t stop my loud ass mouth.
“What the fuck were you thinking?!” I shouted at Rowen. I didn’t even care that he was my Master and I just broke every pet rule there was.
I looked up from the sand and wiped the blood from my mouth, locking eyes with Rowen. He gasped and I could tell he had a mixture of emotion flowing through his face.
He Just grabbed me and pulled me straight into his chest. He didn’t say a word, he just held me and tried to calm his erratic breathing.
“Ramses, what did you do? How did you do that? How did you heal her?” He said slowly.
“I bound the magic from the Angel blade, and allowed the wound to be healed. I had no idea if it would work. but I panicked and had to try!” He stammered.
So Ramses saved me, what the fuck is an Angel blade? My thoughts were still a mess in my jumbled mind.
“Thank you, brother. And regarding the amulet, I don’t want to hear a fucking word from anyone. I know what I did, and I’m not fucking sorry!” Rowen growled.
“And I would do it again, and again, to save her.” He said softly. I heard incoherent mumbling but couldn’t make anything out.
“We understand, brother.” Ramses said cautiously, trying not to make the mood worse.
“But you can’t deny the fact that we are so fucked now.” Nico chimed in. Rowen took a deep breath in.
“I know, and I don’t exactly know what to do about it just yet.” Rowen said.
I hadn’t even realized how hard I was clinging to Rowen until he tried to pull me off him. I promptly released his suit vest from my hands and reluctantly sat up, locking eyes with Rowen.
I was feeling a lot less foggy by now, and the realization of just what happened started to sink in. The Angels had the amulet.
“Why… Why would you let them have the amulet?” I asked him. Pain flashed through his face, sheer agony as he replied.
“I couldn't lose you, not again.” And I thought I saw a tear starting to form, but he blinked it away before I could be sure.
I looked up at everyone standing above us. The sheer turmoil plastered on everyone's face was enough to say everything I was thinking.
First off, the apocalypse is about to start and it’s all because Rowen decided to save a Human, which was me. Secondly, with the Angels having the amulet, they would open Pandora's Box.
I had just spent months inside that Box, and I was familiar with the creatures that lurked there. No one here had any fucking idea what they were getting themselves into.
The terror that’s about to hit us when that Box gets opened made me shudder. And Third, whatever creature was inside Pandora’s Box that could create the portal between here and The Otherside would definitely be creating that portal…
While I wasn’t familiar with The Otherside, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be. Handling the creatures inside Pandora’s Box was going to be challenging enough.
I knew we were in for a war between the realms, and I had a sinking feeling that this was one war that we may not be able to win.
Chapter 2(Rowen)I watched as Andres snatched the blade from his brother's hand and shoved it straight into Ambrosia’s chest. The panic I had been trying to hide exploded at the sight, and the urge to run straight to her was suppressed as I tried to remain calm. I needed to keep the illusion that I had my shit together and I was collected enough to sort this out. I could heal her, she would be ok. I just had to get to her fast enough and that was my only worry. Viper was howling in my mind and it wasn’t helping my situation any. I could hear the shouting of my brothers behind me as I watched Ambrosia fall to the floor at Dominik’s feet. She was grasping for the knife and I hoped to the gods that she didn’t try to pull it out. Not yet, I needed that knife to stay right where it was. Luckily she didn’t pull on it, she just clasped her hands around the wound. I could see the blood draining from her wound, spilling out onto the ground where she lay. It was coming out pretty quickly, a
Chapter 3Once we got home and were alone, I turned to Ambrosia. “Are you ok?” I never got to ask her during all the commotion, and the looming apocalypse. “Yes, Rowen. I’m fine. I feel fine.” She said, lifting her crop shirt so I could see her perfect porcelain skin underneath. I softly ran my fingers over the spot where she had once been impaled. Not a scar in sight, just a lot of blood. “I have so many questions, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.” I said. “I know, I have so much to tell you. Being in Pandora’s Box for three months was really insane.” She said. My eyes widened. “Wait, did you say 3 months? You were gone for 3 months?” I said, shock filling my face. “Yea? How long has it been here?” She asked. “It’s only been 3 weeks here. So with the time difference, every week for us was a month for you. I can’t believe you were gone for that long.” I said. “I was starting to think I was going to have to stay there, forever.” She said, with her head down. I could tell it was rea
Chapter 4“Thank you for talking to me. I can't imagine what you went through and I’m so sorry I had no way to get over there to you. Katrina is the one who figured out that the amulet transported you. That’s when we got The Shadows to deliver a message to you, but it had already been three weeks by that time. We found out where The Others were operating and where a few of their bases were. We infiltrated them, killed a bunch of them, but never found you. Had I known the amulet could even possess that type of power, I would have said something about it being around your neck immediately. But I had no idea. Had I just said something sooner…” I said, and trailed off. “Don’t you dare think like that, don’t even bear that guilt.” She said, as she stood up and put her hand out to me, helping me up as she turned off the water. We had been sitting in there for a while, and I was sure it was getting close to the hour mark when everyone would be coming back over for a debrief. Once I stood up
Chapter 5I think we all were confused at this point. A Human doing magic? And how did us, supernatural creatures with superior senses, not see the creature? Or hear it, until it was too late? Or would have been too late. All questions burning in our throats. “Ok, so first thing is first, I have no idea how I materialized us. I don’t have the amulet, and honestly I just did the same thing I have been doing for the past three months. I thought of safety, and then we were here. So how I did it, with no magic, and only being Human, is beyond me. Secondly, when you’ve lived in Pandora’s Box for three months, you start to recognize the signs of danger. These creatures are stealthy. They never make themselves known until it’s time to attack. By then it’s too late for their prey to escape. I saw the trees moving, I heard the wings flapping, and I knew she only had seconds. I honestly wasn’t even sure if I would make it in time, but I had to try. That creature was an Alicanto. There aren’t a
Chapter 6I turned back to the creature. “Is that true?” I asked him. “It is, we have been speaking in Whisper. It’s a long lost Fae language and has been dead for longer than it ever existed.” He replied. “How is it that I know this language? I have never spoken it, and I feel like I’m only speaking my own language right now.” I stammered. “Have them release me, I will show you.” He said. “If you hurt me, they will kill you.” I warned. “I know, they may still kill me. But I need to show you this first.” He replied. I looked back at Rowen. “It’s ok, he will not hurt me. Let him go and get to safety!” I commanded. All of the Reavers immediately dropped their fireballs, as if they were forced to, and then materialized back to the porch with everyone else. “Well that was easy.” I said. The creature laughed. “Yes, because you used magic on them. They had to listen.” He said. I gasped. “I didn’t even realize I did it!” I cried, watching as the creature stood from the ground, towering me
Chapter 7(Raphael)Watching Ambrosia tame that beast was one thing. I had seen much crazier shit in my lifetime. But feeling the force of magic that was used to command us all to stop holding it down and materialize to safety… Now that was something completely different. Talk about violation of basically everything. One minute I'm helping hold a beast, the next minute I’m materialized onto the porch and confused as fuck as to why I just did any of that. It’s not everyday that there is something with more power than a Reaver… And honestly, I didn’t like it. Luckily everyone had the same feelings of confusion, but no one could tear their eyes from what we were seeing. Ambrosia looked as if she were sucking in the bioluminescence around her. I never noticed it until we were far enough away to actually see it, but it looked like it was drawn to her. Or she was pulling it into her as she moved. I grabbed a hold of Topaz and pulled her close. She flinched when I touched her, but she's no
Chapter 8I instantly closed the gap between us, causing her to jump back, but I reached out and held my hand against the small of her back to steady her. She gasped slightly but tried not to let me know she was terrified. I could feel her fear swirling around me like a tornado, and the instinct to just feed from her without warning was so strong. It was as if I was hyper aware of everything she was doing. I could hear every breath, pinpoint every shift in her eyes, and feel her blood pulsing. “Don’t hate me, but we need to get something out of the way.” I purred, while tracing my fingers along the side of her neck over her silver collar. It was almost torture waiting to sink my fangs in, but the way she stiffened in my arms had me feeling almost bad… Almost. “I-is it going to hurt bad?” She whimpered softly. I pulled back some and we locked eyes. “No, not really at all actually. I think you’ll find it somewhat pleasurable.” I said, and then I sank my fangs into the side of her nec
Chapter 9(Rowen)After listening to Ambrosia explain what happened to her while she was out there with that beast, things started falling together in my mind. I wasn’t sure of anything really, but it almost seemed like Dominik was going against his brother. I remember clearly when he decided he was going to separate his good and bad sides. It was something that everyone warned him about, and he just didn’t listen. The repercussions of splitting your good and bad side could be catastrophic… Especially when you’re a fucking Archangel, and harness that much power. Once the ritual was complete that efficiently split the sides, it turned Azrael into Dominik and Andres. Andres being the bad side. Together they wrecked havoc unlike anything we had seen. Destroying species, plotting to gain control of territories, tormenting the supernatural world in more ways than one. Then one day they were just gone… No one really knew what happened to them. Word around the underworld was they went to a