Ascended (27 page)

Carter felt the surge of Lucian’s power from the strike transfer into him.

It was as if Lucian could see it happening, too, and he was furious at the allocation. He grabbed Carter by the shirt and lifted him up with one hand. He threw him against the wall, sending more boulders crashing down on top of him.

Vie looked at Carter as they
lay on the ground, separated by several yards, connected only by their eyes. He spoke to her once again as he’d done before, communicating from their souls.
We fight together, till death do us part.

Vie smiled and
gave a subtle nod back to him. In a single moment, they were up and joined together, fighting off every dark soul in the chamber with unbelievable precision and force. They were a formidable combination; their agility and speed together were astounding, difficult to follow with the human eye. They were perfectly in sync, just as the Chief had taught them to be.

Lucian grew angrier and angrier as he watched his army
gaping in awe of them. His rage consumed him and he ordered all his men to attack.

Vie knew the fair fight had ended
; the war was on.

They landed on the ground in front of the
portal once again, in a fighting stance, ready for what was to come next.

Odessa sprang up from out of nowhere and attacked Carter from behind. Vie tried to assist Carter, but Lucian blocked her attempt.

Lucian was smart. He’d figured out what he needed to do to defeat them: he had to split them up. A horde of demons restrained Carter, helping Odessa, and Lucian stepped toward Vie. With each step he took forward, she took one backward.

W
ith her last step, she found herself teetering on the edge of the portal. She didn’t look back—she couldn’t—she was afraid she would see her father’s eyes again, looking back at her.

“Vie,” Carter called out to her as he watched her try
ing to keep her balance.

“Careful,
sister,” Lucian said, his grin evil. “Oh, Violet, come on now; you have to love the irony here. It’s all so familiar to me, watching you stand here with the same look in your eyes your mother had just before she met her untimely demise.”

The circulation of the
portal grew even more turbulent, rotating fiercely below where she stood teetering on its edge.

S
uddenly, Lucian noticed an unexpected change in Vie’s eyes. He turned his head for a second, glancing behind him, to see why her fear had disappeared. To his amazement, Gabriel was standing behind him, eagerly waiting to bring his wrath down upon him.

He lunged forward at Lucian
, knocking him to the ground. But somehow, Lucian disappeared into thin air.

Gabriel looked around, his weapon drawn, waiting for him to appear. When he did, he was standing next to Vie with his arm wrapped around her neck,
“Don’t take one more step Gabriel,” Lucian warned, threatening to throw her down into the portal if Gabriel didn’t drop his blade and step back.

Gabriel did as
Lucian asked, slowly and cautiously discarding his weapon and moving back, one step at a time.

Vie studied Gabriel’s face carefully
, waiting for the signal that was sure to come. When she saw her chance, she elbowed Lucian in the chest with brute force, freeing herself. She turned to face him and said, “This is for my mother,” and spun around, delivering an extremely powerful and impressive jump kick, mid-air, sending him over the side and into the portal.

Odessa screamed
out to her son at the top of her lungs as she watched him fall into the cyclone. She released Carter in her moment of pain, and the demons froze in place.

Carter went to Vie and hugged her tight
, and Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief. Carter looked into her beautiful violet eyes and smiled at her, but Vie was not smiling any longer. Something was wrong; she could feel it. There was a strong presence of evil in the room. 

She looked at Gabriel
, alarmed, and saw that his eyes were wide in surprise. Dimorte was rising up from the portal behind her, slowly and steadily. The presence she felt in the room was her father’s: the Dark Prince himself.

“Vie, Carter, RUN!”
Gabriel cried out. The entire chamber began to collapse as Dimorte continued to ascend through the cyclone.

They both tried to run
, but something—someone—had grabbed onto Vie’s ankle. Lucian had reached his hand out from the center of the vortex and had grabbed hold of Vie; Dimorte descended temporarily, allowing Lucian to finish what he’d started.

Vie couldn’t move
; he was not letting go. She yelled out to Carter and he turned around just steps away from her, watching as Lucian pulled her into the swirling mass.

He ran fast
, reaching out for her hand as she went over the edge, jumping to grab her wrist as she plunged into the portal.

Lucian was smiling as he clung to her ankle
from below.

Vie’s hand was slipping
; she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on. She could see Dimorte looking up at her with his cold, dark eyes, waiting for her to fall.

“Carter, it’s okay,” she said
, looking up at him.

“Vie, don’t you let go!” he said
, feeling her hand slip away further. “Gabriel!” Carter called out for help.

Gabe
was running back toward them, but it was all like a slow-motion movie.

Vie had given up. She wanted to let go, hoping that her plunge into
Hell would protect the people she loved.

Carter flashed back to when they were kids
. He had been holding her in the same manner, by the wrist, with the same beast pulling her down. He didn’t understand why he was unable to pull her out, except for the fact that the combined strength of Dimorte and Lucian was simply too much for the young warrior.

With sudden clarity of focus,
Carter saw her blade, tucked beneath her jacket in the waistband of her pants. This blade had the power to end Lucian’s miserable existence. He reached down and pulled it out, and with the strength of the almighty, he swung the blade at Lucian’s neck, severing his head from his body. He watched as Lucian plunged into the bottomless cyclone and quickly lifted Vie up to safety.

Odessa’s eyes
reflected her shock at what she had seen. She shook her head in disbelief and ran over to where they were. She tried to lunge at Vie, but she was already primed for Odessa’s strike.

Vie grabbed her by the neck and said, “What is it they say
? An eye for an eye, right?” she quoted Lucian’s words and cast Odessa into the turbulent funnel where her son had fallen.

Within seconds, all the demon souls were sucked up
into the vacuum of the portal.

Just before it sealed
itself, Violet took one last glance back, and saw her father’s eyes for the last time, still looking back at her.

Gabriel walked over to them, and in a congratulatory way he said, “Hell hath no fury…
,” causing them to all laugh out loud.

“Hey, how di
d you get back down here, anyway?” Vie asked.

“Carter brought me along. I guess he needed a friend
.” 

The three of them noticed
everything had gone silent. There was an eerie, portentous stillness in the room. They looked at each other, knowing something big was about to happen; they could feel the vibration of the ground beneath their feet, and it was becoming more volatile with each second they stood there.

Before they could take one step, the floor gave way. Gabriel spread his wings and wrapped them protectivel
y around Carter and Vie as the Tower came crashing down, collapsing on top of them.

Devils
Tower was no longer standing, and neither were the three of them.

Chapter Twenty-Two

From Out of the Ashes

Outside the T
ower, the others waited for a sign—any sign—of Gabriel, Vie and Carter.

Eli was watching over Jeremy, who was effectively discombobulated by the events that had taken p
lace inside and outside the Tower. After they’d escaped from the Underworld, Vivian’s soul had departed immediately, simply vanishing, leaving behind a very distraught and heartbroken Jeremy.

Camulus tried to explain, as best he could, why she
’d had to leave, and promised him he would see her again one day.

“Vivian’s soul was saved here today
, Jeremy, and you should be rejoicing. When she passed away a month ago, that was the end of her appointed time here on Earth; there is no vessel for her in this world any longer. Her body has been laid to rest and now her soul has been freed,” he pointed out.

As much as Jeremy wanted to take comfort in the words Camulus spoke, he could
n’t. For him, it was as if Vivian had died all over again, and he was back at stage one of the grief process: denial. The world had become meaningless, and he was again overwhelmed with feelings of despair.

He
was in a state of shock, just trying to cope with everything that had happened to him over the past few hours. The denial, combined with shock, made survival possible for him by pacing his feelings of grief—nature’s way of letting in only as much as he could handle. Having gone through this twice now, Jeremy moved quickly through this stage and dug his heels deep into stage two: anger.

“So this is how things work? We save Vivian and now you’re telling me I can’t be with her
, not even to say goodbye? She’s just gone? How can this be part of his ‘grand design’? It doesn’t make any sense to me. I want to see Vivian!” Jeremy shouted.

Fallon had been watching him
become more and more unhinged, and her tolerance for his antics was wearing thin. She walked over to Jeremy as he shouted his opinions at Camulus about the order of things, and placed her hand on his forehead. Jeremy’s body dropped unceremoniously to the ground with a thud.

“You’re welcome,” she said
, smiling at Camulus. One of the Guardians’ many powers was the unique ability to render humans temporarily unconscious. This particular ability had proven to be an extremely useful one for Fallon at the moment; Jeremy was out cold, and now they could get to work.

Then it came, a sudden rocking of the ground; the undulations appeared to Camulus and Fallon to be coming from inside the Tower, and they knew it meant trouble. The ground began to ripple beneath their feet, splitting the earth and causing them to flee with Jeremy quickly thrown over Eli’s shoulder.

Camulu
s shouted to Eli, “Take Jeremy back to the reservation!” Within seconds Eli had taken flight.

Fallon and the o
thers watched in horror as the Tower began to collapse. It was as if the Earth had swallowed it whole, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Devils Tower was reduced to a pile of rock…and their friends along with it. There were no signs of life; just ash and rubble and an eerie silence.

They moved closer to where the T
ower had stood only seconds ago. Fallon dropped to her knees and started digging frantically through the ruins, screaming, “Gabriel!”

Camulus went to her. He put his hand on her shoulder but she ignored him and continued to dig, desperate to find Gabriel.

“Fallon,” he shouted, trying to bring composure to her frenetic state. She stopped only for a second and then went back to her digging. He stepped in front of her to command her attention just as she slowly lifted her head to look at him, a single tear in the corner of her eye. He bent down and met her gaze, extending his hand to help her to her feet. Camulus tugged her close to him and wrapped his strong arms around her in a warm and tender embrace.

“I know
, Fallon,” he said, feeling her pain. “I loved him too.”

Fallon stared at the wreckage, still in the arms of Camulus, looking over his shoulder. She closed her eyes and pra
yed long and hard, begging the Ruler of the Skies to hear her plea and return Gabriel to her. She thought he was punishing her for her sins by taking away the one person she couldn’t imagine existing without. As she opened her eyes, she saw a single rock topple down from the top of the pile, followed by another, and then another. She pulled away from Camulus and her eyes lit up in surprise.

“Fallon, what is it?” he asked
, turning to see what had gotten her attention.

“It’s Gabriel!” she replied
, running toward the rubble. “Camulus, Eli, over here!” She began anxiously removing rocks from the massive pile.

The others joined in, sifting through the debris alongside her, uncertain where it would lead but hopeful in their quest. Then came that one moment where everything in the entire universe suddenly made sense
: a hand stretched up from beneath the vast pile of rocks, and from out of the ashes came the miracle Fallon had prayed for. That miracle was Gabriel.

Fallon grabbed his hand and lifted him up from the wreckage.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” she shouted, and then wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

Gabriel
scanned his surroundings, suddenly noticing not everyone was accounted for.

“Vie!”
he yelled, breaking free from Fallon’s embrace. He immediately turned around, reaching far back through the trench from which he’d come. “She was right behind me, holding my hand. She’s here!” he continued to clear the path to free her.

The others joined in desperately trying to save their fallen comrade.

Then it came: Gabriel felt the warmth of the hand he knew belonged to Vie, and hoisted her through the passage to safety. He held her in his arms for a much-needed moment and then he quickly reached back inside the depression, looking for the final hand he hoped would reach out to his…but it didn’t come.

“Carter!” Gabriel yelled
, first beckoning to him, and then ordering him, hoping for a different outcome. “Carter, you need to get out of there now!” He knew he was there somewhere, since they’d all been together when the Tower had collapsed.

Hysterical, Vie tried to go in after him but Fallon pulled her back
, trying to reassure her. “Gabriel will find him, don’t worry, Vie.”

“Let me go! I need to help!”
Vie kept trying to break free from Fallon’s hold. She was unable to control the feelings of despair that engulfed her soul at the mere thought of Carter not surviving.

“
Don’t just stand there, help us!” she demanded. They all looked to Gabriel, and with one nod from him, they continued to search for Carter, knowing that the odds were not in his favor. His state of being had been terribly compromised by Dimorte, and Gabriel feared the worst.

After what seemed like hours, Gabriel stopped digging and collapsed
, his fatigued body draped over the pile of rocks. His head hung in desolation.

“No, no
, no!” Vie shouted, seeing defeat in his eyes. She continued where Gabriel had left off, removing rocks from random spots on the mound of the crumpled Tower. “Carter!” she shouted incoherently.

“Vie, I’m sorry,” Gabriel said
as he approached her.

She just looked at him, confused as to why he was apologizing to her. “Sorry, for what?” she asked. “Carter is fine. We just have to get him out of there.”

“No, Vie, it’s over.”

Vie refused to hear him. She shook her head in disgust at Gabe, upset by his insinuation that Carter was gone. She walked away and continued her search
.

Camulus looked at Gabriel
, knowing the young Guardian was not going to give up on Carter anytime soon. They waited, allowing her to figure out on her own that he wasn’t going to be surfacing from the rubble.

Vie could see them watching her, talking about her as if she
weren’t there, and that angered her further. She approached them and spoke.

“Do you think because I
’m not one of you that I don’t hear you? I hear you! Every single thought you exchange secretly among yourselves, know this: I hear you! Carter is alive, I can feel it. We have a connection—not that I expect any of you to understand what that might feel like, since the Guardians are expected to be devoid of those emotions—but it’s real and it’s alive, just like Carter. If he were gone, I would feel it. And I don’t. So excuse me if I choose to continue searching for the one we were sent here to protect with our lives!” she shouted.

“Vie
, please,” Gabriel said, approaching her with caution. He opened his arms to embrace her but she abruptly backed away.

“Don’t
. Just don’t,” she responded. “This is all your fault! You brought him back here with you, to find me. You couldn’t just leave it alone. You had to interfere. Lucian was my problem, not yours, and certainly not Carter’s, and now…now…” she broke down, unable to even say the words aloud as she collapsed into Gabriel’s arms.

He held her tight, feeling every emotion
she released as it traveled from her soul through his. Unbearable agony consumed his entire body. He couldn’t stand the torment; he ordered the Guardians to search for Carter once again, and to literally leave no stone unturned.

The rescue mission was back on. They would not leave until Carter Stone was found, dead or alive.

“Thank you,” she said to Gabe humbly, the barest trace of a smile playing across her lips.

The recovery mission continued at Gabe’s order. They all dug in
, tirelessly removing boulders from the enormous pile of wreckage. Their collective strength was extraordinary.

Vie joined in and dug
as if her life depended on it, and the truth was it did. She couldn’t imagine being separated from Carter again, not after all they had gone through to be together. Just the thought of it was more than she could bear. As she dug deeper and deeper, images of Carter raced through her head. They flickered, one by one, like a sequenced order of their life together, beginning from the first moment they met. The final moment played horrifically as she saw his face just before the Tower collapsed, inspiring her to dig faster and faster in her efforts to find him.

Camulus was also deep in thought, reflecting on the moment when Vie had first arrived at the Gates. It was almost as if time had rolled back. He remembered seeing Vie, bleeding profusely, alone but not afraid at the entrance of the Gates where he and Gabriel had been training. She was so small, but even then, a mighty little warrior. The sadness in her eyes was a hauntingly familiar despair that Camulus wanted to take away from the tiny girl who was lying, bloodied, at his feet.

Gabriel
had run to her immediately and had knelt down, put his hands over her lacerations, and healed her wounds.

W
hat no one else knew was that although Gabriel had healed the wounds of her flesh, Camulus had healed the wounds of her soul, her mind. He was the reason Vie hadn’t remembered anything about her life as a human, and he was also the reason she had been given a very special gift: her photographic memory. Giving her the eidetic memory was his way of replacing the human memories that had been taken away.

Camulus
hadn’t meant to intentionally hurt her; he’d only wanted to erase the anguish he’d seen lingering in her beautiful violet eyes when she’d arrived. He had wanted to protect her from the feelings that would have undoubtedly scarred her soul.

He wished someone would have shown him that same kindness when he
’d first arrived at the Gates. The memories of a lost life were forever etched in his soul, and he carried the burden of them with him every day of his existence.

Camulus flashed back to the present and Vie turned, just for a moment, to look at him. Their eyes locked together in an all-knowing stare, and Camulus saw the same look of sadness and despair in her eyes that he had seen when she’d arrived at the Gates all those years ago.

All he wanted to do now was return what he had taken from her
: her memories. Considering the current circumstances, he feared those memories might be all she would have left of the boy she loved. As with Carter’s life before, everything in Camulus’ life had just come full circle. He decided it was time to right his wrong.

“Stop!” Camulus shouted after painfully watching Vie dig aimlessly for Carter. “Move aside,” he said, directing the Guardians with his hands to stand back.

Gabriel took Vie by the hand. They all slowly moved back, as if they knew something extraordinary was about to happen. Camulus stood on top of the rubble and held his hands out
from his sides. He lifted his head toward the sky for a moment, the sun’s rays glistening on his face, and then he folded his arms tightly across his chest and began to spin. Like a human drilling machine, he bored into the ground, descending far beneath the surface of the Earth to search for Carter.

Vie had no idea what had
caused Camulus’ actions, but she knew from looking into his eyes that he was determined to find Carter or die trying. She scanned the wreckage and watched all the Guardians pouring everything they had into the rescue mission.