The Garden of Death (10 page)

It was then I realized what we had done.

“Ash, we haven’t stopped them! We just did
what we’ve been trying to prevent!”

“What do you mean?”

“The crisis that we read about in the paper,
the ‘zombie apocalypse’, we didn’t stop it.”

“Yes, we did.”

“What do you mean? They’re still going back
to their families and causing them grief.”

Asher looked around at the crowd of undead
surrounding us. “Oh no. It didn’t work.”

I turned to him, and that was when I noticed
he was flickering like a candle.

“What’s going on?” I cried. I grabbed onto
Asher.

“Eden, what’s wrong?”

“Asher, no!”

“Eden, what are you doing?”

“No, you can’t leave me!”

“Eden, I told you I’ll never leave you. I’m
right beside you, always.”

“But you’re flickering!” Then I realized
what must have been happening to cause him to flicker. “Oh, my god,
you’re waking up!”

Asher

“What?” I blinked, suddenly blinded. I
shielded my eyes. “What’s going on? Eden?”

“She’s still asleep, sweetie. Welcome
back.”

What the frick? I rubbed my eyes and sat up
when I realized someone who was not Eden was crouching down in
front of me.

“Jazmine? What are you doing here?”

“Came to bring you home. Do you realize what
you’ve done?” she said, putting her hands on her hips. I groaned
and was about to sink back into my pillow when I noticed Eden still
sound asleep next to me. She looked so amazingly gorgeous laying
there. I wanted to kiss her perfect eyelids and nose and mouth… but
I couldn’t because my rude awakening was still standing obnoxiously
next to the bed.

“Whatever I choose to do is none of your
business, Jazmine. You’d better not tell the Michaelites!” I
threatened, jumping out of bed. I was glad I had pulled my briefs
back on after Eden and I had made love. I couldn’t think of
anything worse than standing in the buff in front of a girl I
wasn’t in love with. I shoved my arm under Jazmine’s throat and
pushed her back against the wall. She knocked into the bedside
table and sent the lamp and a glass of water I had placed there
crashing to the floor.

She snarled at me and bared her teeth like a
rabid animal. I always knew she wasn’t human.

“What are you?”

“Right now? Someone you’re going to wish you
hadn’t crossed.” She shoved me off, and she must have downed some
angel juice or something, because she was really strong. She flung
me across the room. I flew over the bed and crashed into the
opposite wall. I slid down to the floor. I don’t remember much
after that.

Eden

This couldn’t be happening now! Not now!

“Asher!”

“Eden, what’s happening?”

“Asher! No!”

With one last strong flicker, as if a swift
breeze had swept him out, Asher disappeared into the night. He was
gone from the dreamscape. I sank to my knees. “Asher!”

I heard leaves crunch on the ground beside
me and saw shoes appear in my line of vision. “What happened? Did
he wake?”

“Yeah. I don’t understand. We fell asleep in
a hotel room away from everything… unless it was the stupid maid,
even though we put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door.”

“Perhaps…” Abraham paused before crouching
down beside me and then he put his hand on my shoulder and
squeezed. I looked up at him. “No. It can’t be.”

“What? What is it?”

“It can’t be.” Abraham had turned deathly
white.

“What is it, Abraham? What’s wrong?”

“Someone pulled Asher out of the dreamscape,
and I know who it is.”

“What? Who is it?”

“Someone whose been deceiving you for a
while now. Come on, I’ll show you.” He stood up and offered me his
hand.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Back to the waking world.” Before I knew
what was happening, Abraham had his fingers pressed to my
forehead.

“Wake up.”

Before I could protest or do anything, I was
plunged into darkness. When I opened my eyes, I was staring up at
the ceiling. Light was streaming through the window above my head.
I sat up, and that was when I saw the carnage around the room. I
was back in the hotel room in the waking world.

“Oh, my God, Asher!” I threw back the
blankets, and that was when I realized too late that I was only
wearing underwear. I looked around for my clothes and found my
jeans tangled amongst the sheets. I pulled them on quickly and
found a shirt and pulled it on. It was Asher’s, but it would have
to do. I ran to Asher’s side. He was lying on his side on the floor
behind one of the bedside tables. There was glass and splintered
wood everywhere. What happened in here? I checked Asher’s pulse and
breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered he wasn’t dead… again.
I heard someone talking. That was when I realized Asher and I
weren’t alone.

“It’s unbelievable,” Abraham said. It
sounded as if he was in shock.

“Hello, Abraham. Boy, have the years done
you well. You look good. Better than good, you look…”

Barf! It was Jazmine! She was standing there
talking to Abraham as if she knew him. And was she flirting with
him? I wanted to be sick. She had to be at least half his age!

“Don’t do that, Jazmael. You have no idea
what I went through when you left!”

“For your information, Abraham, or should I
say
Abrael
, I got kicked out for falling for someone who
betrayed his own father.”

Abrael? Jazmael? What were they talking
about? And Jazmine was kicked out? Kicked out of where?

“You two know each other?” I blurted before
I could stop myself. They both turned and looked at me. Well,
Abraham looked. Jazmine considered me a bug that needed to be
squashed.

“You! Always interfering with my love life!
You can’t have everyone to yourself, you little skank!”

“Jazmael, that’s enough!”

“Shut it, Abe. I’ve done pretty well without
you for the past two thousand years. I can fend for myself a bit
longer.”

I flinched. So did Abraham. He looked like a
puppy that had been yelled at for doing something wrong. I looked
up at Jazmine, and then decided I needed to match her stance. I
stood up and stepped in closer to her. She didn’t back down.

“So, you know, Abraham,” I began. I needed
to dig for clues. Abraham did say that the person who had woken
Asher had deceived us. I now knew this person to be Jazmine.

“Yes. Abrael and I go way back,” she said
flippantly. “The day I got kicked out, which mind you were after
the angels who chose to follow Lucifer got kicked out of the Realm
of Fire, I got doubly wounded, which is why you don’t want to cross
me.”

“So you got kicked out for falling in love?”
I asked. I was a bit shocked at that revelation.

“Yes. Our father was strict. He set rules
for all his winged children. But as you may know, Lucifer never did
like rules.” With a smirk, she looked back toward Abraham. “Neither
did Abe.”

He smiled back at her. Oh, man, I realized
that they really were in love.

“Wait,” I said as something dawned on me.
“You said you got kicked out two thousand years ago. You’re over
two thousand years old?”

“Don’t act so surprised. I’m not some old
hag. I am the Angel of Fate. I’m immortal, so I will never age. If
I do die in some ugly way, I can bring myself back because, well, I
control everyone’s fate.”

I gasped. Then everything clicked.

“It was you who killed me! You put those
Death Blossoms there in the Realm of Death and killed me!”

“Ding, ding, ding! Not very bright, are you?
Gosh, humans and their short lifespans and dumb education
systems.”

I narrowed my eyes at her and remembered
Asher was lying on the floor still unconscious. I knelt down beside
him.

“Humans are so weak. They are no match
against us angels, which is why the rule was put forth in the first
place.”

“What rule? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you know. The one you just broke. The
one that caused you to be created. You are the product of sin. I
should have destroyed you and your parents long ago, but someone
wanted you to be created.”

I couldn’t believe what she was saying!

“You were going to kill my parents?”

“Yes. They and all the other Nephilim spawn.
You should never have existed,” she scoffed. “And I’m the one who
gets punished for falling in love with a demon!”

Abraham stepped forward and put a hand on
her arm. “Jazmael, we should get out of here.”

“One moment, handsome.” She kissed him
and
stroked his cheek. I found it hard to suppress the urge
to make an audible gagging noise. “I have something to do
first.”

“I’ll be waiting,” he told her. Jazmine
turned to me and leaned down over Asher.

“What are you doing? Don’t touch him!”

“Relax, skank. Wherever I’m sending your
lover boy, you’re going with him.”

I felt my jaw drop.

“Wow. Why the change of heart?”

“I’m not changing my heart,” she said as she
crouched down beside me. “I’m just sending you home so you can be
with lover boy.”

“But why? You hate me. You still call me
Skank. Why did you go after Asher if you had Abraham all this
time?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she shrugged and turned
to look at Abraham. He was watching the exchange with the biggest
grin I had ever seen him wear across his face. “I did it to make
Abrael jealous so he would come find me, since I was stuck in the
Earth Realm.”

“So, your names, Jazmael and Abrael, are
they your real names?”

“Our Angelic names, yes. All full-blooded
angels have an Angelic name. They change them if they come to the
Earth Realm.”

I had a million questions I wanted to ask
her.

“So, Markus isn’t your real brother?”

“No. Being his sister was my cover. I have
to go, but I shall see you soon.” Before I could ask her anything
else. She placed a manicured finger on each of Asher’s and my
foreheads. The last thing I had seen before everything fell away
around us was Jazmine’s wink.

Asher

When I opened my eyes, I realized I was no
longer in the hotel room. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, then tried
to sit up. Mistake. I had the worst damn headache I had ever
experienced. I moaned and lay back down on the soft grass. My eyes
sprang open again. I looked up at the blue sky with scattered white
clouds. Was I back in the garden at the Michaelite Sanctuary?

“Asher?” I looked around and saw a familiar
face lying next to me.

“Eden.” I reached for her and sat up,
ignoring my pounding head. “What happened?”

“You wouldn’t believe this, but Jazmine is
not whom she says she is.”

“Actually, I do believe that.”

Her eyes widened. “You knew?”

“I’ve suspected something for a while. Ever
since she made me watch you die.”

“You… watched me die?” Her voice broke. Then
she threw herself into my arms. I wrapped my arms around her and
pressed my nose into her hair. She smelled sweet like strawberries
and earthy like rain and plants.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. It was
soon after that I realized my soul was missing.”

“But that was my doing, not hers.”

“I know. I don’t blame you. I love…”

“You love…” she sat up and looked at me like
an expectant child.

“I love you,” I whispered. Her lips and body
came crashing down on top of me, and at that moment, I didn’t want
to be anywhere else but right here in Eden’s garden.

Jazmine

I couldn’t believe after all this time I had
found him again. The person whom I gave everything up for, and also
the person who caused my downfall. The man who was beside me was
the reason I was the way I was. He was also the reason why I had
changed my mind about destroying the Nephilim, including Eden.

For now, anyway.

“Where are we going, Abrael?” I asked as he
led me to the end of the dock. I looked around at the old fishing
trawlers and sailors who probably hadn’t seen a bathtub, or a
barber for that matter, in a good while.

Abrael stopped at the end of the dock and
turned back to face me. With a smile, he said, “Home.”

I felt all giddy inside like a human school
girl whose crush had just asked her to the prom. I was finally
going to live in peace with my love after all these years. I gave
him a smile and accepted the hand he held out to me.

“Oh, no, you’re not.” Abrael and I paused
and turned around slowly, only to be met with two sets of angry
Nephilim eyes.

“Lakyn,” said Abrael vehemently.

“Don’t think you two can just run away from
what you’ve done.”

Now was the time to pull out my exceptional
human acting skills. With a flick of my hair, I said, “Whatever do
you mean? We haven’t done anything wrong.”

Unfortunately, Eden’s parents saw right
through my mask.

“Don’t play dumb, Jazmine. We know you
killed Eden,” said Rachael. She then trained her icy glare on
Abrael. “Abraham, how dare you hire my daughter to do your dirty
work.”

“It’s not my dirty work. She has a God given
talent. This is the perfect job for her.”

“Bullshit. I know who you really are,
Abrael.
” Lakyn said Abrael’s name as if it were poison on
his tongue. “That’s why we are here to deal out your punishment on
behalf of the Michaelites.”

I tried to hide my fear, but it was
impossible. So, I did the only thing I could think of.

I ran.

To be continued…

First of all, I’d like to thank the amazing
Regina Wamba for creating the gorgeous covers and branding for The
Eden Chronicles. You go up and beyond my wildest expectations and
are always there for a brainstorming session! Love ya!

To my rock star editor, Rogena
Mitchell-Jones. What did I do to deserve you? You are an absolute
godsend and a savior in times of need. I would not be able to
survive without you! Thank you!