Revelations (Bloodline Series) (16 page)

The
others were already back, waiting in the living room for us, all of them tear
stained. Tyler went to sit with Danny. Eligos, Vetis, Hecate, and I walked into
the kitchen, shutting the door behind us.

“This
is really gonna mess them all up,” Hecate almost sobbed. “Danny was in a
terrible state. I don’t ever want to see anyone like that ever again. It’s
heartbreaking.”

“Lucian
was the same,” Eligos added.

“The
guy I took was in a bad way…the girl too,” Vetis sighed.

“It’s
to be expected; they’ve all lost their families, their homes, everything. They will
be a mess for a long time,” I said. “Did any of you find their parents?”

All
of them shook their heads and told me how they had rummaged through all the
rubble from the houses, but there was no sign of them. Vetis and Eligos agreed
that they had probably been vaporized.

“I
want to go to the town…I want to see it with my own eyes,” I told them.

“I’ll
go with you,” Eligos said, taking my hand.

I
asked Vetis and Hecate if they would mind staying there with the others, just in
case. Vetis was more than happy to, but Hecate looked nervous. You could see
how uncomfortable she was around him. Maybe if Eligos told her Vetis was his
brother and the reason why he had killed the man in front of her, she would
look at him differently. But for now, she just nodded her head, then walked out
of the room quickly.

A
second later, Eligos and I stood near what
was
the harbor. I couldn’t
speak or even make a sound. It was a good thing I didn’t need to breathe
anymore, because I couldn’t. The town was leveled; not one single building
stood. We were surrounded by fire and thick black smoke. Cars were burnt out,
some of them upside down, others half covered by the debris from the buildings.
No boats remained in the harbor…they had all disappeared, maybe sunk. The heat
was almost unbearable; I could feel the sweat trickling down my back.

“You’ve
seen it, now we need to go,” Eligos said to me.

“You
can go if you want, but I need to look around. I know the chances are slim, but
for my own peace of mind I need to check for survivors.”

“Keira,
nobody could survive this, sweetheart; they were just normal people.”

“I’m
staying.”

“Then
I stay too.”

We
decided to split up. I headed into what was the shopping district while Eligos
headed to the residential side. Everything looked the same—black, burnt.
Devastation surrounded me.

“How
could you do this?” I said out loud, hoping that Ballantine could hear me. “You
promised...I never should have trusted you. You bastard, when I see you I’m
gonna kill you!”

It
only took a few minutes for him to appear in front of me. The angel instantly
took over, and I prepared to attack, a ball of holy fire appearing in my hand. “You
mother fu—”

“What
the...who...? I never sanctioned this!” He frowned, looking around him. “Who
did this?” he asked, turning to look at me.

“You
tell me!” I shot.

He
trapped me within the circle of light, rendering me powerless before he spoke.
But I did notice the look on his face; he looked genuinely shocked and rather
annoyed.

“Keira,
I can assure you this was not on my to-do list, not yet. I promised you nobody
would touch the town or your friends. I
do not
go back on my word!”

“Rubbish!
You killed my friends’ parents!” I almost shouted, but I didn’t want Eligos to
hear us.

“I
did nothing of the sort. But I assure you I will find out who did this without
my blessing, and I swear to you I will bring them straight to you. You can do
with them as you see fit.”

“You
do that!”

I
blinked, and he was gone, the circle around me disappeared, and I was free
again. However, I couldn’t calm down, I was so annoyed, frustrated, and upset.
I heard Eligos shouting to me, but I couldn’t move. When he got closer and saw
the angel, he decided to stay a few feet away from me.

“We
need to get out of here. No doubt the authorities will arrive soon. We don’t
want to be seen,” he pointed out.

He
took my hand and teleported us to the drive of my house where Vetis stood,
looking out towards the town. We walked over to him.

“Are
you okay?” I asked him.

“I
want in.”

“Pardon?”

“I
want in. I want to be part of this. I want to stay with you all and fight by
your side.”

“Why?”
Eligos asked warily.

“Because,
brother, I don’t like this. I don’t agree with it; this isn’t right.”

“No,
what you mean is you didn’t get here on time, and now you feel as though
something has beaten you.
That’s
why you want in.”

“You
think what you want, but I’m telling you that’s bullshit,” Vetis barked.

“Really?”

“Hey,
knock it off! There’s enough going on here and enough upset without you two
adding to it. Act your ages and shut up,” I shouted at them both in turn. Neither
of them spoke…they just glared at each other, almost as though they were
challenging one another. “I said knock it off!” As I shouted lightning struck
the ground around us. That seemed to make them both pay attention. “Can we go
back inside, and can you at least pretend to be getting along? I have
heartbroken friends in there,” I said, pointing to the house. “The last thing
they need is you two getting at each other.”

I
didn’t give them a chance to answer; instead, I just walked back inside and
went to the guys. All of them sat in silence. It was so quiet you could have
heard a pin drop.

“I
know this is a stupid thing to ask,” I started. “But, are you all okay? Is there
anything I can do?”

“Yeah,
actually there is,” Jake choked. “Find the one who did this, and bring them
here.”

“Oh
I promise, I will find out, and they will pay.”

“Why
can’t we find their bodies? Surely there must be some trace of them somewhere.”

“I
just went into the town, Jake. There’s no sign of anyone…no corpses, no
bones...nothing.”

“We
can’t just sit around anymore,” Lucian said, looking at everyone in turn. “That’s
all we’ve done, and look what’s happened.”

“What
else could we do?” Tyler shot at him. “We don’t know who we’re looking for, or
where to even start. What would you have had us do?”

Lucian
couldn’t answer him…there
wasn’t
anything we could have done. Where
would you start with something like that…a search for the unknown?

Eligos
and Vetis had now entered the room; God only knew what they must have been
saying to each other after I left them outside.

“Look,”
Vetis sighed. “There is no easy way to say this, and I know you’re already
dealing with a lot. But...when the authorities get here, it’s going to cause
more problems for you.”

“Why?”
Lily asked.

“Think
about it…Lily, isn’t it?” he confirmed. She nodded before he continued. “The
whole town is destroyed, even the surrounding areas. So, why has this house and
the people in it survived, yet everything surrounding it is dead and gone?”

“So,
what you’re saying is that we need to move?” I asked.

“That’s
exactly what I’m saying.”

“And
where are we supposed to go?”

“You
don’t have to destroy the house…you can move it. You are powerful after all,
and that is just a parlor trick really.”

“Yes
sure,” I almost shouted. “Let’s just plunk the house in another town. That won’t
look strange, will it? That won’t have people wondering where the hell it’s
come from.”

“Keira,
I’m pretty sure Lucifer could play with people minds and plant false memories
of it. You’re an angel…so could you.”

“Yes,
let’s invade people’s brains, and then what about other things that aren’t so
simple? Mail, maps....”

“Lucifer
has done this several times…he can sort everything out in a split second. It
would be as though the house had always been there. Nobody in the world would
think any different.”

“Keira,
you don’t have to move far. Let’s see how far the damage path goes, then move
the house a mile or so away from it,” Eligos told me.

“Okay,”
I sighed.

Vetis
went back to Hell to have a word with Lucifer while Eligos went to see how far
the damage had spread. I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do for the guys, or
for myself for that matter. I went and stood outside on my own for a while,
waiting for the two of them to return.

Chapter 19

Is
the Bad Guy...Really Bad?

Keira

Lucifer
had worked his magic. Even the money from the guys’ parents’ accounts had been
put in the lads’ names. The house had been relocated roughly two miles north of
where we were originally, still out in the country, so we had our privacy. He
took care of everything for us, and was deeply saddened by what had happened to
the guys’ parents. We had all decided the guys would stay at my place for the
foreseeable future. They knew they were more than welcome and could treat the
place like home. They also had each other close by for support.

It
had been two weeks since the attack on Salem. The police were no closer to
finding out what was going on, and riots had become more and more popular
around the globe. People just wanted answers; they wanted to feel safe, and rioting
was how they were expressing that.

Vetis
had stayed with us, but the tension between him and Eligos was almost
unbearable. One minute they seemed to be getting along, and the next they wanted
to kill each other. They were like an old married couple at times. Hecate was
still wary around him, but nowhere near as nervous as she was when he first
turned up. He had tried to have conversations with her, and now she was okay
sitting down and talking with him for a while.

I’d
studied Vetis a little, and he was portrayed as a bastard in the legends,
called names such as “The Tempter of the Holy,” and “The Destroyer.” I had no
doubt that if he was pissed off he could probably live up to those names very
well, but in general he seemed okay, and most of all, trustworthy. Tyler seemed
to have “clicked” with him, and spent most of his spare time training with him.
Most of the guys seemed to spend their time training now; probably their way of
dealing with what had happened recently.

Today
I was spending some time on my own for the first time in a while. The loss we
had just experienced had affected me too, but I’d had to be strong for
everyone. Now I just needed a little time to myself to get my head straight
again. Sadly though, as usual, my alone time was interrupted.

I
was sitting in the middle of a field underneath a tree when Ballantine appeared
next to me. This time I didn’t even flinch…I remained completely calm.

“Keira,
how are you?” he asked sincerely.

“How
do you think I am?”

“You
tell me.”

“I’m
sitting next to someone who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths,
whose aim is to wipe out every human life, who allowed my friends to be
attacked and have their parents taken from them—”

“I
did
not
sanction that! I did not give anyone permission to attack Salem
or your friends.”

“But
if you weren’t trying to play God,
nobody
would be getting permission to
hurt these people. So I’m sitting with someone, talking, when every fiber of my
being is telling me to kill them.”

“So
why aren’t you trying?” he quizzed.

I
didn’t answer him. The truth was, I really wanted to know the reason why he was
doing it, and I wasn’t the only one…Lucifer did too.

“If
my friends knew I was talking with you after everything you’ve put them
and
me through, they would never speak to me again.”

“That
didn’t answer my question, Keira.”

“Why
are you doing this? Why do you want to talk to me so badly?”

“Ahh,
so that’s why; you want to understand.”

“Yes,
without you being cryptic and doing a disappearing act this time.”

“I
have enough time free to speak now.” He stood and looked up at the sky for a
moment before speaking again. “When I was alive,” he began, “the only thing I
ever wanted from life was to be happy. To have a wife who would love me as much
as I loved her, and to have children we could raise together. I wanted a good
job to be able to provide for my family so my wife could concentrate on raising
and loving our children; so she didn’t have to work and miss out on her
children growing up,” he said, turning to look at me for a moment. “Is that
unreasonable?”

“I
don’t think so.”

“Neither
did I, and for a long time I had that. I felt like the luckiest person alive.
My wife was beautiful, so kind and loving, an amazing mother and woman all
round. I always felt so lucky to have her, and I never thought I deserved
her...I loved her, so very much. You know, even after being together over
fifteen years I still got butterflies in my stomach every time I looked at her.”