Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-four

Brooke

He’d really almost killed me. I couldn’t shake the way his eyes
had flamed as he ran through the corridors with me. I made my way back to the chamber we’d been staying in and laid down. I still felt so weak, I felt as though death hung from me like a heavy cloak. My eyes traced along the walls, stopping on each skull, wondering what type of life they’d once lived, wondering how many of these ancient people may have known Gavin – been his victim. I closed my eyes and gave into the weakness. Drifting off into sleep.

“Brooke,” Gavin’s voice caused me to stir. I opened my eyes and found him inches in front of my face.
He pressed his warm lips against mine, kissing me in a way he’d never done before. It was so hard, so rough. His tongue pried my lips open, his mouth covered mine in a hard press. Pulling himself away from me, he looked at me, his eyes completely dark. They looked satanic as they bore into me. “Do you love me?” he asked.

Sitting up, I shot a bewildered look at him. “What? Gavin, you know that I do.”

“Why?” His stare was intense, almost accusing.

I sighed. “I – I can’t explain it. I don’t know, I just do. I love you. I
belong
with you.”

A short laugh came
from him, and then his hands reached for my shirt, tearing it from my body. “You’ve no idea the way you belong to me.” His touch was rough as he pressed his hand over my body, sliding down between my legs and ripping my pants from me. Gavin pressed himself on top of me, his hair framing my face as he said, “You’ve belonged to
me
since the birth of man.”

He quickly undressed himself
with a frenzy and excitement as though it had been years since he’d been with a woman. Scooping me up, he placed me on top of him, ramming himself into me. The sensation shot through me, heating my body. The blood flow shifting caused me to feel lightheaded.

Gavin gritted his teeth, his hands clawing at my ass as he forced himself into me
. He slammed me against the wall, bones splintering and cracking against my back. The shards pinched and cut into my skin and I felt blood weep from the gashes.

His fingers snaked up into my hair, grabbing at my scalp and yanking my head back
. He placed his face against my neck and inhaled. “Oh, fuck.
You.
The smell of you… oh, the taste must be –” He didn’t finish his sentence, he just dropped me onto the floor of the tunnel. Spreading my thighs, his eyes gleamed as he stared down at me. He slowly traced a single finger over my cleft and bit down on his bottom lip. Without a word, he leaned down, burying his face between my legs. The silky feel of his wet tongue skirted across me and I gasped.

“Oh – my – God!” he panted out, his eyes darting up to me
, flickering demonically. “You taste so damn good!” His face immediately disappeared back between my legs and his tongue twisted inside me, darting in and out of me, over me. Deep moans vibrated against me as he pressed his mouth hard against me, the stubble on his face burning my delicate skin.

Raising his head up, he grabbed my hips and jerked me down toward him, dragging a pile of pebbles underneath the small of my back. Gavin shoved himself into me, pressing my thighs down against the ground so forcefully it shot twinges of pain through my ligaments.

I panted in pain with each thrust. His hips hit against my pelvis, bruising me from the force he was using. Tension built up, but I didn’t want to give into it. The way he was fucking me was unlike any other time he’d done it. It was so empty, so sadistic… entirely lacking in emotion and compassion.

His hands squeezed the tops of my shoulders, forcing my body against his even harder. With each movement, my head snapped back, dragging against the cold ground. The sound of his skin slapping against mine echoed from the walls.

“Gavin,” I gasped. “You’re… you’re hurting me.”

I heard a maniac laughter explode from him. “Now, how could I ever hurt you?” he asked. He slammed himself into me again, the brutality of it causing me to feel faint. “I would never hurt you,” he growled through a clenched jaw. “Never. You have no idea. You are my salvation, doll.”

Looking up, Gavin’s eyes were black. His face didn’t even resemble him. Panic tore through me and then I saw the glint of his necklace in the light. Reaching out, I grabbed onto it and pulled. My body slowly went numb and I felt coldness fall over me. I was too weak to handle the way he was violently fucking me. Snapping his necklace from his throat, I fell back into the gravel and passed out.

Gavin

Chapter Twenty-five

It must have taken me hours, but I finally found a mortal hiding in
an ancient mausoleum in one of Paris’s oldest cemeteries. I was panicked on my way back. I’d not been gone from Brooke this long since all hell had broken loose, and I was terrified that something may have found her. I came running back to the city gates and found the entrance to the catacombs wide open. My heart rate accelerated and I hurried through the doorway. “Brooke,” I shouted. My heavy footsteps clanged down the metal staircase. “Brooke,” I cried out louder. When my feet met the gravel they slid out from underneath me and my hands caught me. I stood up and sprinted down the narrow corridor. I almost ran past the doorway and my hands grasped at the dirt walls to slow me down.

“Brooke?” My scream boomed down the hallway. “Brooke!”

I came to the chamber were I’d left her and found it empty.

Several of the bones had been broken and lay scattered on the ground.

I sprinted through the corridors yelling her name only to hear the echo of my own desperate voice. I darted through the maze of tunnels, the skulls of the deceased staring through me as I ran past them, searching for the woman I feared I’d lost.

When my trail brought me back to the chamber I’d left Brooke in m
y shoulder’s dropped. A sadness fell over me like a darkness covering the sun. Running my hands through my hair, my eyes search the ground.

“No!” 
I howled out like an animal.

I kicked the wall and my foot we
nt through several skulls; fragments of bone flew across the room. I had failed her, and the shame I felt was stronger than that I’d felt the day I had been damned to hell. Her loss weighed heavier on me than the loss of my own salvation, of my own eternal grace, and I was certain would leave me more empty than death itself.

Rage
viciously coursed through me. Whoever had taken her would suffer; the wrath they would face from me would be indescribable. Brooke was mine; she was the light I’d searched for since the beginning of time, and for someone to think they could claim something I had claimed for myself – I was certain the emotions ripping through my soul was what fueled hell itself.

I be
gan punching walls, bones crushing underneath my knuckles and spraying in all directions. My anger was uncontrollable.

Defeated
, I fell to the ground and slammed my fists into the gravel. My head hung and my eyes closed in an effort to regain my composure.

The ground
softly trembled and my eyes opened. A slow rumble boomed through the veins of chambers and corridors underneath the city of Paris. The walls shook and dust loosened from the ceiling and rained down on me. The bones of the walls rattled and the gravel beneath my fists began to quake. The vibrations intensified and dirt fell from the ceiling in sheets. Within moments the trembling ceased and the small tremor of an earthquake had ended.

I rose
to my feet and dusted my knees off. Shaking my head, dirt flew from my hair. Just as I turned to leave I saw a glint in the gravel. I bent down and pick up a familiar silver pendant. My fingers traced over the engraved symbol signifying which seraphim the pendant belonged to.

“
Azaal!” I shouted, anger dripping in the echoing wail.

Betrayed by my own brother! I turned to exit the catacombs. At least now I knew whose neck my hands would wrap around.

Brooke

Chapter
Twenty-six

I felt jarring movements and opened my eyes to see
that I was being carried across a street. “Gavin, what are you doing?” I shouted.

“Gavin? Gavin’s not here, doll.”

Realizing the man who had me flung across his shoulder was not who I’d thought he was, I screamed. My fists banged against his back and I tried my best to kick at his face.

“Stop fighting me!” he said
, and tightened his hold on me. “You keep screaming like that and you’ll draw the attention of the vampires. I’m sure they would love to feed from the woman responsible for the end their immortality.”

He adjusted me over his shoulder and removed his hand from my
ass to reach for the silver handle of a car. Placing me in the seat, he bent down, tugging at the rope around my ankles to ensure it was secure. I jerked my knees up in an effort to hit him in his face.

Like he’d anticipated my move, he yanked his head to the side, a deep red traveling across his
face. I heard his teeth gritting against each other and he brought his face to mine.

Wrapping his hand around my
chin, he yanked it up. “Woman, I suggest you calm yourself down. Your life means
nothing
to me, and I’d just as soon kill you right here.”

My vision blurred behind
tears. This man’s skin was perfectly pale and flawless. His eyes were black and hollow; wrath flamed behind them. His hold on my chin tightened and he inhaled, his eyes rolling back in his head. Looking back down at me, he arched one brow. “That man didn’t love you. He knew what you were and was using you,” he said.

I had no idea who this man was, but he was enormous, intimidating, and everything about him was utterly cold and wicked. I shook my head, anger rising inside me as I pressed my
lips together. “I don’t care if you kill me!” I hissed.

“Did you not hear me
, woman? I said that creature didn’t love you!” His voice echoed through the empty streets.

Drawing
in a breath of rebellion, I snatched my face from his grasp. “Yes, he does. And when he finds you, he’ll kill you.”

The man cackled, bringing his hand to my face as he propped one
leg on the running board of the vehicle. He rested his elbow against his knee and propped his face in his other palm. His eyes flickered as he stared coldly at me. “You really believe that an immortal being damned by mankind is capable of human emotions? You’re just as naïve as the rest of them. No wonder no one ever knew.”

Tears of fear, of panic, of tiredness, of defeat streamed down my face. He brought his face toward my
cheek and whispered, “Although I’m sure he loved the way he felt inside of you. The way you tasted when his mouth was on you.” His slimy tongue grazed across my skin, twisting my stomach in knots of repulsion. Frantically, I tried to push him away from me, jerking my face in the other direction to get the wretched feeling of his tongue away from me.

“We’ll see how much he loves you. I’m curious
to see how this story ends,” he said, slamming the door shut.

I watched as he made his way
behind the SUV and climbed into the driver’s seat. The steering wheel knocked against his knees when he slid into the seat. He started the car and quickly pulled away from the side of the road. I sat there, staring down at the ropes that had me bound, wondering where I was being taken to, what role I truly played in all of this. What reason was there for this? Waves of anxiety crashed over me, and each time the thought that Gavin would save me subdued the urge to sob uncontrollably.

“You know,” he
said, “I sent that book to you.”

I continued to stare down into my lap.

“But no one knows how it ends. Isn’t that odd? The prophet died before he finished it. It’s just as much a mystery to me as it is to you.”

Adjusting myself in the seat, I snarled,
“I can only hope it ends in your death!”

“So fe
isty! No wonder he chose you.” He laughed a short stint and then glared at me. “I can’t die. When all this is gone, when mortals and the damned creatures we’ve created have vanished from existence – I’ll still be here. I’m untouchable. I’m a god, and you can’t kill a god.” His slender fingers tapped the wheel, and the corners of his lips pushed up. “And Gavin,” he shook his head solemnly, “he’ll still be here, forced to live an eternity knowing that he is responsible for the death of an entire race, but most unforgivable, he’ll be responsible for the death of the one creature he loved.”

The words that were coming from his mouth c
ut me, and I lashed back at him. “I thought you said he didn’t love me?”

“Such
a smart ass! Gavin
thinks
he loves you. He’s fooled himself, become too entwined within the lives of mortals. But he’ll soon realize he was with you for his own selfish desires, he’ll realize that he used you, and then when he sees you draw your last breath,” he paused to suck in a deep breath, “oh, the torture
that
will bring him!”

“Why do you want to hurt him?”

I watched his jaw clench, his arms stiffen, and his eyes narrow.

“He damned us all,
” he replied. “Damned every last one of us.”

We sat in silence for a few moments. My mind raced
, trying to figure out a way to get away from this man.

Clearing his
throat, he spoke. “You’ve no idea who you are, do you?”

Snapping my head to the side, I growled,
“What I’d like to know is who the hell
you
are!”

The man’s face grew red
and his chest expanded, I assume from his efforts to control the anger my lack of fear caused. Glancing at me briefly, he said, “My name’s Azaal –” he paused and took another quick look over at me.

I felt my eyes widen and my thoughts swam around inside my
head. Azaal? He was one of the Fallen; why would he want to hurt Gavin so badly?

“Touching that Gavin would speak
of me after all these years.” He chuckled to himself. “Gavin, such a common name Semyeza chose for himself. Funny such a pompous being wouldn’t choose a name meaning god. Now, back to you, my dear woman, have you even the slightest idea of what you are?”

Having no idea what he meant, and too afraid to say something that may damn me to my death more quickly than he’d planned, I remained silent.

“Tell me, what do you think of infidelity – no, better yet, what do you think of your whore of a mother?”

I fel
t fire scorch across my flesh at his insult. I tried to jerk my arms free from the rope twisted and knotted around them. “Don’t fucking talk about my mother!” I yelled.

“Oh, tender spot I grazed there?
And such foul language to come from someone of your lineage. But it’s the truth. You are the result of an affair.”

Pulling in a deep breath to try and calm myself, I huffed out,
“You’ve lost your damn mind! My mother never –”

Abruptly cutting me off, he shook his finger in my face and asked,
“Why would you know? You’ve villainized your father, but it’s really your mother you should blame.”

My mind came to a gridlock. How on earth did he know anything about my family? I mumbled to myself,
“How did you…”

A
smile shaped his lips. “Oh, we each have a special gift. Mine is the ability to hear the whispers of the heart, the silent wishes of your mind. And I, unlike anyone else, actually know each last detail of the prophecy – those pages that were missing, well, they had some very important details I didn’t want anyone else to know. You’re not completely mortal. You have the blood of the angels coursing through your veins.”

Numbness washed over me.

Shaking his head, his eyes darted over to me. “Those dreams you have. Never gave you the slightest idea of what was to come?” He laughed. “Those were only warnings. A way of the immortal part of you trying to keep you from your demise.”

My teeth clamped down on my bottom lip.

“You weren’t drawn to him because of love. You were drawn to him because he’s part of your blood, because of your fate.”

That comme
nt pried my eyes open, the tears gushing from them as my face reddened. “Say whatever you want, but don’t you tell me it wasn’t love! The way I feel for him – don’t you dare deny that!” Releasing a heavy sigh, I said, “I love him. My life didn’t begin until him.”

A soft laugh pressed through
Azaal’s lips. “You’re wrong. Your life began when he fell.”

I didn’t want to believe him. My wrist
s were beginning to burn from the rough rope laced around them. I tried adjusting my arms in some way to relieve the pain.

“
One sacred angel was sent to produce you. Since he was sent for the sole purpose of your conception, his union with your mother was considered blessed, and instead of a vampire you’re a half breed of an angel. Until you, all angels have been male.” His dark eyes shot back over to me. “Lucky you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not half angel. I’m not.”

Azaal growled, “You – are – not – human!”

“How –
” I stopped midsentence and my jaw loosened.

“I don’t understand it completely, but you are what you are. You are the prophecy – and I can only hope you die easily. I hate struggles, espe
cially with beautiful women.” His hand reached over and caressed my thigh. I jerked my leg away and stared at him with hatred blazing behind my eyes. “Please,” I whispered. “Please, just leave me alone.”

Azaal
pulled his hand back and gripped the steering wheel. “You just want Gavin to have been the last man to touch you?” Jealousy dripped from his tone.

Leaning my
head against the cool window of the car, I sobbed. As his words set in, my cries turned into uncontrolled wails. Every so often Azaal would snicker; I believe the sound of my turmoil caused a tingle of pleasure to creep up his crooked spine.

Once I’d managed to calm myself, he said,
“We’ve got a little bit of a drive ahead of us. You should probably rest.” He looked over in my direction briefly. “But I promise I won’t kill you until you see him again. Take comfort in the fact that you’ll get to tell him goodbye, doll.”