Broken Promises – Chapter 20

On March 16, 2019March 23, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing1 Comment

Chapter 20

Drip, drip, drip.

The soft sound slowly pushed its way through the pain and exhaustion.

Drip, drip, drip.

Not the sound of water landing in a pool of its own making, but thick and wet. The sound of life’s essence slowly draining away one drip at a time. The essence of the one who is the entire reason for the universe’s existence. The reason for his existence. One he could not protect, heal, because the chains that held him were imbued with spells that nullified his powers.

Drip, drip, drip.

A sharp rattle of chains, stopping as soon as it began followed by a hoarse moan. As if the voice had been screaming until finally it had nothing left to scream with.

Drip, drip, drip.

Exhaustion gives way to panic, pushing past the pain, forcing eyes open to utter darkness. There is no relief from seeing for himself that she still lives. That her chest rises and falls with the breaths he prays she is taking. That there is still enough of her life blood remain to save her.

Drip, drip, drip.

“Kara?” he calls hoarsely.

There is no answer. Tanis’s panic rises.

“Kara!” he calls urgently.

A soft groan is his only answer. Slumping in his chains in relief he tries to make sense of what had happened. Never in their long existence had Caius come close to the atrocities he had done today. No. Not Caius, Tanis corrected. A demon who vowed to do whatever it took to break him, to make him obey and sever his bond with Kara so the demon could take his place. There was no room for light in the universe he was building, he had told Tanis. Only darkness, pain and chaos. After a few hours of watching the demon torture Kara, of feeling every slice of the whip or blade, of ever touch from the soldiers that the demon allowed near Kara, Tanis was starting to understand what Aden tried to tell him before he left. Why he had done everything his master had ordered, no matter how painful, how vile it was to save the female he loved this pain. Why the boy had refused to break his bond with Kara, because, like Tanis, even if he wanted to save Kara the horror of this existence, he could not do the impossible.

Now Tanis leaned back against the wall he was chained to, his head back, eyes closed tightly, the hard cold metal the only thing grounding him in the darkness. Unable to see, other senses were heightened. The constant slow drip of Kara’s blood was like a deep base drum inside his head. The pain radiating through his body unbearable, burning, stabbing, excruciating. Pain that was not his, but the female that hung in the middle of the room slowly dying. Panic rose as the images of Kara before the darkness descended, her body broken, abused, worsened with each agonizing second that passed and he did not hear her voice.

Drip, drip, drip.

“Kara, love,” he called desperately. “Please. Answer me.”

Drip, drip, drip.

Reaching out with his mind he tried again. Kara, he urged gently. Please talk to me.

I am…here, she whispered weakly through his mind. With those words came the sorrow, the defeat, the humiliation she felt at what he had witnessed done to her. They were immortals. God and goddess with powers that should have allowed them to protect themselves from this, and yet, she had allowed it to happen because her body was not her own.

Tanis felt her humiliation intensify. After all the demon had done to her, her body had responded like a wanton creature to his touch, just as the gods had designed her, and she was ashamed. Tanis clenched his fists, trying rein in his anger at the gods for giving her this curse. Through the ages he had protected her from those who would try to use her weakness against her, but now…. Now he was helpless and she was being punished for it.

“I am so sorry,” he breathed, hopelessness beginning to take hold.

There was the sound of chains creaking, a sharp hiss of pain.

“Not…your fault,” Kara gasped. He could hear her heavy breathing, feel the sharp stab of pain as it shot through her ravaged body. After a moment she continued, her voice strained, “Caius has broken many rules. The gods will punish him.”

“The gods,” Tanis scoffed. “Where were they when Colin had you? When you suffered under whatever demon Caius has sold his soul to, because I know he would never do this to you. Whatever myths and legends surround him, calling him callous, evil, one fact has always remained true. You are his life and he loves you far too much to hurt you like this. No. The gods have abandoned us.” Tanis ground his teeth together, his rage growing to new heights. “DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU HAVE ABANDONED US!” he roared. The last of his strength gone, Tanis slumped in his chains.

Drip, drip….

The silence stretched on. With nothing left but the will to keep breathing, Tanis could not even whisper Kara’s name. Maybe it was just as well. If they died, then the demon would lose. The small window of opportunity with Aden as his catalyst, or whatever he called him, would close and the universe would be safe. A sense of relief washed over him as he sunk further into the darkness where he knew his love waited for him.

A soft glow began to penetrate Tanis’s eyelids, growing in intensity with each passing moment. Chains groaned, whimpers of pain intensified. Something was happening to Kara and yet he could not feel it. That was not right. Once bonded, unless they shielded hard they felt, saw, heard everything the other felt, saw, heard. Drawing on strength he did not know he had left, Tanis lifted his head and cracked his eyes open.

The soft yellow glow radiated out from Kara, completely encompassing her. The brighter it grew, the more Kara’s whimpers grew, her body writing with new pain. The pain of healing. Before his eyes, the cuts that covered her delicate skin began to knit themselves together, bones reset with a snap. Just as there was pain when injuries were given, so was there when they were cleaned, stitched, or reset. What Tanis was seeing was rapid healing that would intensify with the severity of the wound. When the glow grew so bright that Tanis had to close his eyes and look away or fear blindness, Kara’s body bowed, her head thrown back as she screamed one long ragged scream.

Then all was silent once more.

When Tanis looked back at Kara, there was now a low light filling the darkness so he could see her. There were no more injuries or blood on her, her matted hair once again clean and gleaming, her flawless skin flush with life. Suddenly Tanis’s chains unlocked. Unable to bear his own weight, he collapsed to his hands and knees.

What the hell?

Go to her, my son, a familiar feminine voice breathed through his mind.

“Mother,” he breathed in relief. She had heard his plea and come to help them.

With renewed hope and strength, Tanis struggled to his feet and staggered towards her, slipping on the blood that still coated the floors and walls. His arms had just wrapped around Kara when her chains unlocked, dropping her weight onto him. As carefully as he could, he lowered her to the floor, careful to keep as much of her out of the horror on the floor as possible.

Kara took a deep stuttering breath and opened her eyes.

“What happened?” she asked afraid to move.

“Mother is here,” Tanis smiled as he pushed her hair out of her face. “She healed you.”

As the door slid open clothes suddenly appeared on them. A long white dress for Kara. A white tunic and leather leggings for Tanis. The demon storm into the room stopping dead in his tracks, his eyes on something behind Tanis. Eyes narrowed in rage, he lowered them to the now clean floor and the two sitting there staring back at him warily. When he saw they were untouched and healthy, he bellowed in rage.

“How dare you interfere!” he roared his eyes locking onto who Tanis assumed was their mother, Selene, Goddess of the heavens, their queen.

“You accuse me of interfering when you have broken the most sacred rule. You should have died with them two thousand years ago. This,” she swept her hand over the room that held torture instruments and the blood that still covered the walls, “should never have happened. You should never have been able to sink your claws into my daughter so deeply. I should have drowned you like I wanted to in the beginning,” she snarled. “But your father forbade it.”

“How is dear old dad,” Caius sneered, eyes flashing red.

Not Caius, but the demon. Had his mother seen the demon’s slip? Did she realize that it was not her son she was talking to? While there had never been any love lost between the two, the level of hatred he was seeing today had never been this high. It was as if the demon knew Selene somehow, that there was a history between them. What had they missed?

The demon continued, a sneer firmly planted on his face, in his voice, “Out fucking his latest whore, I assume. It must just irritate the hell out of you that the Fates deemed you to only want one man and that man would want every other woman but you.”

Looking back at his mother, Tanis could have sworn he saw smoke coming out of her nostrils as her eyes flash fire. Where the fates had cursed Kara without the ability to say no to another’s touch, they had cursed their mother with only wanting one man. A man who hated her and would rather see her dead than bed her again.

“You were demon spawned and you should be put back in hell realm where you belong,” she spat. “Someplace I might send you still.”

“At least Dad and I could catch up on old times. Oh, wait. He no longer lives in hell realm, does he. He now occupies the throne in the temple where he can keep an eye on you while fucking everything in sight,” Caius taunted with relish. “Must be annoying to have him watching your every move, making sure you don’t interfere like you did in the beginning.”

“I did what was best for my daughter. What was best for us all,” Selene defended regally no remorse in her voice. “And I would do it again.”

“You manipulated the prophecy to your own ends. You made sure she saw Tanis first in an attempt to use his jealousy to keep me away from her!” he screamed. Taking a deep breath, he reined in his temper with visible effort. When he spoke next, his voice was calm, his eyes still angry, but not filled with the consuming rage that they had held before. Looking at Selene with his own blue eyes, he calmly said, “But you failed, didn’t you, Mother. You did not take into consideration that Kara could love me as much as she loved Tanis. That we understood that only together could we do what we were created for. Something you could never do.”

The silence that ensued afterwards was deafening. Caius was breathing hard, his eyes showing emotions Tanis could not decipher. Anger, pain, nausea. What Tanis did notice was the absence of malevolence that the demon excluded whenever he was present. It gave Tanis hope that his brother was still in there, somewhere.

Selene stood stock still glaring back at him. Tanis carefully pulled Kara with him as he climbed to his feet, moving them out of the way before the lightning bolts started flying. To anger a goddess, their queen no less, was tantamount to suicide, and because of the way Caius had bound Kara, there was no way to protect themselves. Pushing Kara behind him as he backed towards the wall, Tanis warily watched both parties warily.

There was a flash of red along with a subtle change in Caius facial expression that told Tanis the demon was once more in control. With a voice that was a slightly different dialect that he had not noticed before, the demon continued, “I became weary of playing your games, Selene, and took matters into my own hands.” If the slip of using her name registered, their mother did not respond. Instead she stood proud and regal. Like a marble statue in a museum, cold and unyielding. The demon smiled. “I spent eons trying to find a way to survive their deaths. Two thousand years ago I finally succeeded. But I was not idle. I schemed and plotted and I waited for my chance. Then I found her,” his eyes found Kara’s and locked with them. “I found her and I bound her to me, and in turn bound Tanis.” He turned back to Selene. “They are mine to do with as I wish and there is nothing any of you can do to take them from me.”

“You will not touch her again,” Tanis snarled stepping forward.

Selene raised her hand halting Tanis in mid-step, her gaze never leaving Caius’s. “No,” she said quietly, her sudden calmness making the three of them very uneasy. “It is true we cannot break the bonds you have wrapped Kara so tightly in, but just because you control her with pain and terror does not mean she is yours. The others and I have come to a decision. You have overstepped your boundaries today. We…I will no longer stand for such abuse.”

There was a blinding flash. When the demon could see again, Tanis and Kara were gone.

“Where are they?” he demanded stepping towards his mother angrily.

“In their quarters resting,” she answered calmly. “Where you will leave them for now. This is the one and only time I will interfere, but hear me, Caius. You continue down this path you have chosen and our retribution will be swift and deadly.” Selene’s voice echoed throughout the chamber with her promise, her power suffocating.

“Don’t threaten me,” the demon sneered walking towards her, stopping a few feet away. “You have neither the power nor the willingness to go through with that threat. You never did.” The demon’s smile grew when her eyes widened ever so slightly, a flash of fear marring her calm composure. She was beginning to suspect who he truly was. Good. He wanted them afraid. Moving so he stood inches before her, his face twisted with disgust, eyes slowly bleeding into the deep red that he knew was all too familiar to her, he whispered. “I found him.”

Selene could not stop her gasp as fear sliced through her being. The demon felt stretch her mind in an attempt to find who he was talking about, but he knew she couldn’t. He had hidden him too well.

“Yes, you should be afraid because I found the one you have all been waiting for. The one that will end your reign in the heavens. I found him as a boy and raised him in my own image. This time I will win,” he cackled.

“You lie!” Selene hissed. “I can feel it. If you truly have the one prophesized, you do not have as much control over him as you would like us to believe. It is still up to the Fates how time will continue. That you can never change.”

The demon moved so he was nose to nose with Selene, invading her personal space. She neither moved back nor flinched, impressing him with her courage. Something she did not have the last time they met. “Are you willing to bet your existence on it, Selene? Because once I am ruler and Kara is mine, I will wipe the house of the gods clean. I will destroy you.”

“You will try,” Selene smiled, her quiet voice deadly with promise, “and as before, you will fail. Do you hate me so deeply that you wish to see her destroyed?”

The eyes that stared back at her were the eyes of her son, and they held a sorrow that clenched her heart tight in empathy.

“No,” Caius whispered as he stepped back. “You know how I feel concerning Kara, just as I know what must be done, and this time it will be different. I will see to it.”

“They will not allow it,” Selene whispered her hand going to her throat as her own past grief assailed her.

“I will not give them the chance. My son deserves to know his mother. Every child deserves to know the love of its mother,” Caius said softly backing further away.

“They will not allow it,” Selene repeated tears coming to her eyes.

“How do you know? Demon spawned as you claim I am, how hard did you really try to stop them…Mother,” his voice low and full of hurt.

With a sob and another blinding flash Selene disappeared.

Caius stood staring at the spot his mother once stood. Waiting to make sure she was really gone before releasing the breath he had been holding. Gods! He had promised himself he would not allow her to crawl under his skin. Not like this. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to calm. The past was in the past. It should be left there. If only he could. He just hoped from now on his father kept her busy enough to stay out of his way until he finished what he started. Unfortunately, for that to happen there would be more pain and suffering before the end was reached, for all of them.

Looking around the room, Caius shuddered. He had tried in vain to stop what the demon was doing to Kara, but the cage the bastard had put around his consciousness was too strong. It was not until his mother arrived had he been able to break free. Something about her presence had unnerved the demon, giving Caius an opening, he took without hesitation. Now that the demon seemed reluctant to come forward, Caius would take the reprieve to regain his strength and repair any damage that had been done between him and his siblings. However, he needed to tread carefully. There were still steps that need to be taken to fulfill a part of the prophecy they had never known existed until recently.

Knowing his time was short, Caius strode out into the hallway, his ever present guards falling in behind him. Time to finish his part of the ritual before the demon took control again. That was on piece of the puzzle he would not allow the bastard to have.

Chapter 19
Chapter 21

Broken Promises – Chapter 19

On March 9, 2019March 23, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Flash Fiction2 Comments

Chapter 19

Almost ever culture speaks of soulmates. That one person who in essence carries the other half of your soul, and until you find them you are never complete. Some spend their entire lives looking for that missing piece, never resting, never being at peace. For Kara the term soulmate means just what it says, only her soul belonged to more than one being. She was the center where light and darkness orbited, keeping the delicate balance that the universe existed within in perfect harmony. Now that delicate balance was threatening to unravel.

Resting his forehead on hers, Tanis released a long sigh. “Caius and I may not agree on a lot of things but this I can guarantee. You may have started the bonding process with Aden, but we will never allow you to finish it.”

“Tanis…,” Kara breathed in disbelief, her heart constricting with what he was telling her. What it would do to her and Aden if the ritual was never completed. The constant need pushing at them, tormenting them. Years of being separated and the pain of that separation would be nothing compared what they would endure if they did not finish what was started.

“No, Kara,” Tanis interrupted. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow him to have even a small part of you. You belong to us. There is no nor ever will be another.”

Tangling his hand in her hair to hold her in place, Tanis kissed Kara with every ounce of passion and love he felt for the female in his arms. As the power began to build, the ties that bound them weave through them, tightening, strengthening, as he felt Kara melt into him all thought left except one. He was home.

Crushing her to him, his kiss demanding as it was giving he flashed them to the bedroom. They had been apart for two thousand years. Two thousand years of not feeling the touch of her hands on him. The touch of her soul next to his. Their clothes gone, his weight on her feeling like heaven, with fingers, hands, lips, they relearned the feel the taste of each other’s bodies. Kara’s cries as her body trembled under his touch were like music to his ears. When she screamed her orgasm, writhing in pleasure as wave after wave washed over her the ritual began. Only after he milked every drop and she lay panting, boneless, completely spent, did he crawl up her body to claim her mouth again.

“You are mine, Kara. Now and always,” he whispered huskily in her ear in a language so old only the Gods themselves remembered it. Sucking on her lobe, he slowly slid inside her, both of their bodies shuddering in ecstasy. “I will love you, cherish you, honor you, and protect you with my life.” He punctuated every word with a thrust.

“I will love you, cherish you, honor you, and protect you with my life,” Kara repeated, her voice breathless as her nails dug into his back, the pleasure mounting with each word, each desperate thrust.

In a burst of power, they flew over the edge together, their souls twining, bonding tighter, cells, bodies becoming one. Metal unable to slow it, space unable to stop it, that power spread touching everything in its path. The universe stopped for one breath of a second. Then it was if the universe sighed in relief and once again began to move forward.

Tanis collapsed on top of Kara gasping, her arms and legs wrapping around him as she clung to him. It was a ritual as old as the words they spoke that they completed every time they came together. Once again bringing the universe closer to harmony. There was only one more piece to the puzzle that needed to be put into place. One more player to begin and finish what had been started. The darkness to Tanis’s light.

“Bravo. Bravo,” a voice that was a familiar as it was foreign purred. Hands slowly clapping broke through the afterglow of their lovemaking freezing them in place. “Now for my turn,” the voice growled.

Kara cried out when Tanis was ripped from her arms and slammed against the wall across from the bed, his arm and legs spread eagle unable to move. Kara started to scramble to the end of the bed to help him only to freeze when she remembered who it was standing in the doorway glaring at her with glowing red eyes. This was not the darkness to Tanis’s light, the other part of her soul, her beloved. This was the demon who had tormented her in her mortal life, who had bound her with spells and curses to him as tightly as she was now bound to Tanis.

The necklace locked around her neck pulsed once, a shock of pain washing away the remnants of their lovemaking. A warning of what she would endure if she did not remember her place. Slowly, her frighten eyes locked on Tanis’s angry ones, her body shaking, with deliberate care she moved backwards until she was on her knees, her hands on her thighs facing upwards, back straight, eyes downcast.

Tanis could see Kara was shaking with fear, her face devoid of any color as the demon walked towards her. Reaching out a hand, he slowly pet her hair, his hand moving down her shoulder continuing down her arm.

“Very good, my dear,” he purred as he fingertips brushed across her ribs to her breast. “You remember your place.”

“Get your hands off of her!” Tanis snarled struggling to free himself from the invisible bonds that trapped him against the wall.

The demon’s red eyes remained on Kara’s face, watching as she reacted to his touch, the terror that he felt coursing through her unable to dampen the pleasure. The Gods had blessed her with a body that responded to the touch of another being. Any touch from any being, be it male, female or creature from another race. He smiled as her body shivered from his touch. The thought that she wanted him tighten things lower in the body the demon inhabited he thought long dead. Unfortunately, it was not yet time to claim what was rightfully his.

A noise pulled his attention from the female on her knees to the wall opposite her. The demon looked at Tanis, amusement dancing in his eyes as he watched him vainly struggle with the invisible bonds that held him in place. Eyes flashing with power, he began walking towards Tanis.

“Oh, I have plans to do much more than simply touch her, brother,” he sneered, his voice echoing with malice and power. “I plan to use her torture you in ways you could never imagined. Then, when you are broken and bleeding on the floor unable to protect your precious Kara, I will rip her soul from yours and make her mine. And you will lie there watching, powerless to help her as I take her to over and over.”

“She will never give you what you want,” Tanis spat.

“I do not need her to give me her power. I am evil incarnate,” he announced loudly to the room, raising his hands to his sides as he turned around in a circle. Once he faced Tanis again he lowered his arms, a sneer on his face. “All I need is her body under mine as I wrap my essence around hers. Then, when she is utterly and completely mine, I will throw you in the darkest hellhole I can find where you can rot for all eternity,” he snarled in Tanis’s face, his eyes glowing red as the two men glared at each other.

“I will kill you first,” Tanis ground out between his teeth, putting all the power he had behind his voice. The sheer amount sent everyone within the destroyer to their knees, holding their hands to their heads crying out in pain. Everyone but the three in the bedroom.

The demon merely smiled.

“Let the games begin.”

Chapter 18
Chapter 20

Broken Promises – Chapter 18

On March 2, 2019March 23, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing2 Comments

Chapter 18

Pushing herself into a sitting position, her entire body aching, Kara stared at the door. Already she could feel the stretching of that part of her that was Aden. It was like this in the beginning, when their bond was new. Just a few feet away and there was a slight pressure that started in her chest, radiating outwards. Nothing uncomfortable, just there. The more distance between them, the more uncomfortable the pressure became, slowly encompassing her entire body until it turned into debilitating pain. After time passed, their bodies would adjust to the distance between them and they could go greater distances without paying the price of being separated. Except if the distance was great, as when Caius had put her back on Krynn and forced Aden to leave her there. The pain of the separation had almost driven Aden mad, and almost killed Kara. With Brynn, her mortal soulmate, at her side helping her, Kara had learned to live with the constant pain, as eventually did Aden. Now, just as they had a few weeks of respite it seemed they were starting over again.

Putting her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands, she tried to breathe through the growing pressure, tried to stay ahead of what she knew was to come. This was just one of the many ways for the demon to torture them. To try to break them. There was a long list of torments he could choose from, and Kara knew the bastard was far from done.

Movement of the air in front of her alerted her to a body before hands gently took ahold of her wrists to tug her hands away from her face.

“Kara,” Tanis coaxed gently, tugging once again. “Please look at me, love.”

Slowly Kara raised her head as he pulled her hands away, the movement sending an ache sliding through her body. Tanis frowned when he saw the flinching around her eyes. Through their connection, he could feel her pain and knew what was causing it. The pulling apart of a soul that had been newly healed was never pleasant. It was always the same at first, and he thanked the gods that he wasn’t the one living that curse so soon after they had come together. Once the ritual was finished, any separation would be much worse. Right on the heels of that was the thought that he had purposely caused Kara excruciating pain by ripping Aden from her. Guilt tried to overwhelm him, but another far uglier emotion reared its head, drowning the guilt out. Jealousy. Why was this boy so important to Kara, and why did she and the demon inhabiting his brother’s body believed Aden was a part of the prophecy?

“Let him go, Kara,” Tanis breathed, resting his forehead against hers. “No matter what you might think, he is not a part of this. A part of us.”

“I can’t do that,” she gasped, her eyes tightly shut with pain. “No more than I could let you or Caius go. He is too much a part of me, of us, of this.”

“He is no part of me,” Tanis growled backing away so he could look her in the eyes. “No part of any of us. There has only been you, me and Caius. Light and Dark circling around the universe’s heart, its soul. You. We are what hold the universe together, keeps it spinning, and now you are telling me this unknown force, this…boy, is a part of us? I don’t believe you. I won’t.” Somewhere in the middle of his speech, Tanis had stood and began to pace in agitation.

Closing her eyes, Kara leaned back, slowly releasing a breath to try and calm herself. Inside she was a mixture of confusion, pain and growing frustration. The pain was definitely not helping the frustration. It was actually turning it quickly into anger. Too much was different this time around, too much unknown. Caius willingly inviting a demon into his soul and being able to stay alive after she and Tanis had passed aside, why did she remember her life as a mortal so clearly? Usually by now it was mist and smoke, there but hard to grasp when she thought hard enough about it. Pushing that thought aside so she could focus on the angry immortal pacing in front of her, Kara’s anger grew. She was no longer the weak naive mortal who did not understand who she was, what she was. She was a powerful goddess who knew every nook and cranny of the universe, every creature, every secret, until now. It made her wonder what else those who held the seats of power, her family, had kept from them.

Pushing away the enormity of what or how something as monumental as Aden’s exitance was and what it might mean for the three of them and the continuing existence of the universe, Kara reached out to him, flexing her powers as she did. The moment she felt the chains that the demon had bound around her, she hissed in pain. It was as if those chains were covered in spikes coated with poison. Each nick sent burning shoots of pain throughout her body, warning her to try no further, promising her far more excruciating pain if she did. Ignoring the warning, she pushed further.

Aden was walking across the landing bay to his ship when he felt the barest of touches across his shoulders. Immediately the pressure that had been threatening to constrict his breathing and incapacitate him lessened. Taking a deep breath, he stopped so suddenly the guards who had accompanied him at Commander Wells assistance almost ran into him.

“Kara?” Aden breathed unsure. Why would she risk the emperor’s wrath by helping him? They both knew intimately what the punishment would be if caught.

“Sir?” one of the guards asked in concern, breaking into his thoughts.

All three of the men following Aden at Commander Well’s insistence knew his secret. They had been handpicked by the commander when Aden was lost in his madness after he had returned from leaving Kara on Krynn. They alone, out of all the other guards and officials under the emperor’s command, because their loyalty willingness to do whatever it took to keep their master, his lady and their secret safe from those who would use it against them understood who and what Kara really was. How important she and Aden were to the continuation of the universe, to each other. That was why they were with him now. Until he readjusted to the new binding, he would be distracted, weak. They would help keep him safe from those who would wish to exploit his weakness.

They watched quietly as Aden turned and stepped to one side so he could see the way behind him, a frown on his face.

“Sir?” The guard asked again. “Is something wrong?”

“I thought…,” Aden began. Another brush, this time along his cheek, feather light. More of the pressure lessened. Along with the ability to finally breath freely came the feeling of love and assurance that the one woman he would ever love was his for all eternity. That no one or thing would ever tear them apart again.

Just as suddenly as the presence was there it was gone, but now Aden could go down to the planet below without the distraction of being separated from part of his soul.

“I’m fine,” Aden assured with a small smile. Turning, he headed for his ship. While he knew that Kara could never be taken from him again, they were far from safe. He needed to finish his mission and return as soon as possible, then the gods help them all.

Urgent hands on her wrists brought Kara back to herself, but it was as if the urgency could not affect her. With that small brush, the connection between her and Aden was now stronger. Now she could breathe and think around the pressure that was building inside her the further Aden moved away.

Another presence just a familiar, just as important, breathed through her, soothing that ache even more. Slowly, as if waking from a sleep, Kara opened her eyes to find Tanis kneeling in front of her watching her intently. Mixed with the worry in his eyes was a fear she did not understand. The reason for the fear washed over her. He had felt her reach out and touch Aden. Felt what that brush had done between them, that their bond was just that much stronger, and the ease of it frightened him. There were rituals to preform to solidify their bonding. It should have not been so easy for Aden to wrap himself around her so tightly. His fear was that Aden would rip her from him forever, just as he tried to do to Aden.

Frowning in confusion, Kara gently reached with his hand still wrapped around her wrist and cup his cheek with her hand. When the power between them rose, as a breeze on a summer day, surrounding them, caressing their skin, their souls, mingling, Tanis’s eyes widened. Touch had always helped, but not like this. Not this strongly.

“What’s happening?” he whispered.

“I’m not sure,” Kara breathed a small smile on her lips. “But it shows that we are still one.”

The warm smile that filled Tanis’s face and eyes brought one to Kara’s. Then his eyes moved to her lips and that warmth turned into heat. The push to finish the age old ritual they had started in the throne room that bound them together as one pushed at them, urging them to finish what was started. Tanis gently pushed it back. Before they could continue they needed to talk about Aden.

“Since the beginning there have only been three of us. Now Caius has brought in an unknown element and everything is wrong. You are both convinced that Aden is a part of the prophecy, a part of us.” He cupped her cheek with his hand, his voice soft, pleading with Kara to hear him. “We will fight the demon together, as we have fought every battle to keep the universe spinning on its course. You, me, Caius, if he is still in there somewhere, but Aden is not a part of what we are. Have you ever considered that the demon brought him here to destroy us?”

The flash of anger that coursed through Tanis surprised him. Memories of the demon in Caius’s body threatening Kara and Aden with blood and pain if they did not sever their bond flashed through his mind. The absolutely surety of Kara that even if breaking their bond was possible, that she would never do as they asked. That from the moment that she looked into Aden’s eyes, the universe itself had declared that she was irrevocably his.

The way the sharing of memories and feelings had always worked between them meant that they could hide nothing, could not lie to each other unless they shielded hard. There was no shielding between them now. Kara was so raw from the abuse she had endured in this lifetime, from Tanis ripping Aden from her and the re-bonding of both of their souls to hers. From having to fight off the demon’s attempt to bond with her and the anger that coursed through her at once more being asked to do the impossible only to be punished for perceived defiance she did not have the energy or patients to shield. She believed that Aden was a part of what was to come. If the others did not want to believe that then they could rot in hell.

Eyes narrowed in thought, Tanis sat back on his heels, no longer touching Kara as he stared at her. Anger between them was nothing new. You could not have a healthy relationship without fighting, and the gods knew they had had some doozies. Yes, once one of them passed then the others followed and there was a two thousand year span between them reemerging again, a time for sleep and recharging of their energy. However, from the moment they woke to their time of rest could last eons. You could not live with another being without having disagreements that could last anywhere from a few minutes to years. Since Kara’s role in their little family was to try and keep the peace between them, the gods only knew that Caius’s and Tanis’s own stubbornness had tried Kara’s patience’s more than once. He had the physical scars to prove it. Once provoked, Kara’s temper was a thing to behold, and fear. Luckily she was hard to provoke.

One of the firsts fights Caius and Tanis had between each other had ended with Kara coming in between them, trying to stop them from killing each other only to die in their arms instead. It was an agony that neither immortal wanted to endure again. No disagreement between them was worth Kara’s life. So they swore an oath never to do anything that would physically hurt Kara again. By bringing the demon into the fold, Caius had betrayed that oath and Kara had once again paid the price. The question was, how were they to fix his mistake before it was too late?

Another push from an unseen force, this one much stronger bordering on pain brought a hiss from both of them. The ritual to bind their souls together was to be performed within hours of meeting each other, from that first kiss when their immortal consciousness was awakened. If ignored too long, the universe itself would begin to pull apart, unravel. They were the glue that kept the universe spinning, kept every living thing that had been created from the beginning of time alive, whole. While Caius had had Kara, he had never started the ritual, waiting for Tanis to emerge. In the throne room, Tanis had kissed Kara, thus the process had been begun between them. Once Tanis and Kara were finished, then it would be Caius’s turn with her. The thought of Caius touching Kara was not what bothered Tanis, it was the demon inside of him that twisted Tanis’s stomach in knots. The fact that Kara had bonded with Aden before the demon had been able to get his claws into Kara’s soul was the only saving grace of this whole mess.

Another more painful yank of his soul and Tanis was moving towards Kara, his lips finding hers. There would be time later to sift through the mess Caius had made of their existence. First he needed to finish what was started and make the woman in his arms completely and irrevocably his.

Chapter 17
Chapter 19

We Interrupt Broken Promises for Cabo!

On February 24, 2019 By HeidiIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hello everyone,

Hope you had a great week. My hubby and I had a fabulous week in Cabo! It was our first trip to Mexico. I was nervous at first with all the horror stories you hear, but Cabo was a lot of fun with friendly people. We will go back again.

Unfortunately, because I was out of the country I didn’t have a chance to work on or post the next chapter of Broken Promises. I will post the next chapter same time same place this Saturday.

Have a great week!

Heidi

Broken Promises – Chapter 17

On February 16, 2019March 2, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing4 Comments

Chapter 17

“Dramatic much?” Aden quipped into the silence.

Sighing, Kara closed her eyes, rubbing her face with her hands. She was so tired and they were just beginning. Everything that had happened in the throne room had left her feeling adrift and shattered. Even though she knew who the people around her were, at the same time she felt as if she did not know them at all. It was as if there were two versions of each of them super-imposed over the top of each other. Even her own mind was trying to decide which reality was the right one. The last forty years of her life or the countless years of her existence. The only one who seemed to stay in focus, who was solid, was Aden, and she clung to that surety like a lifeline. One that Tanis desperately want to yank out of her hands. How was she supposed to keep the two of the men who meant the universe to her from killing each other?

“Are you all right?” Aden asked quietly, wrapping his arms around Kara’s waist and pulling her back against him, ignoring Tanis’s warning. Kara was his, damn it. No possessive jealous immortal was going to keep her from him. When she sank against him, her hands clutching his arms as she shook, he held her closer, his lips in her hair. Gently he pushed his power out and through her, wrapping her in a warm cocoon of safety and love.

Closing her eyes again, her head lying back against his shoulder, Kara allowed her body to sink into that warmth that comfort, if only for a moments peace. After what had happened in the throne room she knew it was a false security. No one was safe from the presence she had seen and felt reaching for her, wanting to own her.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “There are so many emotions, so many memories running through my head, and not all of them mine. Always before when we came together, the memory of who we are, why we were created would take over, pushing our lives as a mortal completely from our consciousness. Our spouses, our children would not exist and we would continue from where we left off two thousand years before. This time everything is mixed together. I do not know who I am, what I am supposed to do. Who I am supposed to be with.” She tightened her arms around Aden’s. “Except for you. I know I belong to you, as you belong to me.”

Kara’s words sent a thrill through Aden. Having her say out loud what he knew deep inside his soul settled something within him. He was where he was supposed to be, but he had many questions about what was myth and legend, and what was true.

“Tanis called Caius brother.”

“In a way we are brothers and sister. We were created at the same time by the Gods. We are equal in power.” She turned in Aden’s arms so she could look at him. “Aden, there is more to the prophecy then Caius has told you. It is a battle that has raged for eons between good and evil. That part is true. There has to be a balance between the two in order for the universe to survive. There cannot be all good, just as there cannot be all evil. Like all things, there are rules. Some of those rules can be bent, some of the minor ones broken, but the important ones. The ones that are necessary to keep the universe spinning, to keep life as we know it safe, cannot. Caius has broken one of those rules by living past mine and Tanis’s death. He has brought players into the game that are not part of the make-up of our universe.”

“The demon Tanis spoke about?” Aden asked.

Kara nodded, the memories of the days before her last death playing before her eyes. Her voice was a whisper when she spoke next. “We knew something was wrong. Caius was acting so strange, but we never thought….” Closing her eyes, Kara shuddered. “That…thing promised when it found me it would make me regret making it wait. That he would find me and….” Again she shuddered. The demon had kept its promise. There had been times in her existence where life had not been pleasant, down right abusive, but nothing compared to what she had gone through this lifetime. “I don’t think Colin finding me was as much of a coincidence as we think.”

“You think the demon sent him to you?” Aden frowned.

A memory long forgotten surged forward filling her eyes, and because the memory was so sudden and the connection still raw and new it bled into Aden and filled his vision as if it was his own.

Mist coated the floor of the forest, swirling around Kara’s bare feet as she slowly crept through the underbrush, her long white dress strangely not becoming entangled in the leaves and sticks. The moonlight shone in patches through the tree canopy giving just enough light to throw shadows. Shadows that seemed to move as she moved. There was no sound. The forest was deadly quiet, which in itself should have told her something was very wrong. Nevertheless, she kept moving forward, pulled by some unseen force that wanted her deeper in the forest.

Up ahead the light grew brighter, as if the trees were parting allowing more of the moon’s light to chase back the shadows. As she slowed, fear finally began to seep its way into her heart. Whatever was up there was not friendly, yet she kept moving forward. When she stepped out into the meadow she saw a man standing in the middle, smiling. He was older than her twenty-two years. Gray showed at his temples and throughout his short black hair. His blue eyes shone as if there was a dim light behind them. His face was as gentle as his smile, but there was an aura around him that spoke of malice contained. A few inches above Kara’s five foot seven, he was handsome in that older gentlemanly way. His clothes were strange. A black tunic with a strange design embroidered down the front that seemed to move as she watched. A trick of the shadows, or maybe…something else. Black pants tucked into knee high black boots, his black cape moved in a breeze that did not exist around his ankles. This man held power that Kara could only imagine. Power far beyond her own.

“Hello Kara. I have been waiting for you for a long time,” he greeted in his deep voice.

“How do you know me?” she asked stopping at the edge of the meadow. Something told her to go any closer would not be good.

“I know a great many things about you,” he mused. “Things that you can only imagine in your dreams. Shall I show you?”

Then he changed. He grew taller, his hair grew longer changing from its black to a deep blood red. The eyes also changed to red, and his smile was no longer gently, but full of that contained malice. He was beautiful. So beautiful that it took Kara’s breath away, but the evil radiating from him spoiled that beauty. She took an involuntary step back. She knew those eyes, that smile. It haunted her nightmares, promised her blood and pain. So much blood and pain.

“No,” she breathed shaking her head in disbelief. “You can’t be real.”

“I assure you I am very real. I have been waiting a very long time for you to reappear, Kara. Long, torturous years, but I have not been idle while you hid from me. Now I have found you we can begin.”

“No!” Kara screamed stumbling backwards. The wind whipped around her, making it hard to breathe. When it died she looked down and her dress had changed. It was the same white, but now the front plunged down to her navel. The sides slit up to above her hips, a panel that barely covered her ass and the front of her dropped to her feet, the back panel trailing on the ground. She felt the cool breeze on her back and knew that nothing covered her skin there. Her hair floated around her in the surge of her own power as it answered his as if it knew him.

“You cannot run from me Kara. Wherever you go, whoever owns you, I will come for you. I will have you.” He stepped towards her, his hand outstretched, his eyes flames. “There is no God or Goddess that can keep you from me now that I have found you. No one. You are mine!”

Just as he was about to touch her, his power caressing her skin, Kara screamed again and the world shifted.

“Yes, yes he has,” Kara breathed her skin running cold as the depth of the lies that Caius had fed her all these years, the betrayal. When they had found her, Caius had seemed her salvation from Colin’s cruelty. Now she knew differently. Caius knew all along who she was, what she was to him, yet he allowed the demon inside him use him as a mask to draw her in so he could wrap his spells around her. She was the key, the glue that kept the balance between good and evil so the universe kept spinning. To control her was to control the universe. And now it had all three of them.

“It was all lies,” Aden said softly, his voice strangled with the pain that revelation brought. “He knew who I was, what I was, and he won my trust, my love, and it was all lies.”

Kara turned to face him, her hand resting on his cheek as she stared into his pain filled eyes. “Not all of it,” she assured.

“How can you say that when his betrayal to you is far greater than to me?”

“Because I see how he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching. When the real Caius peeks through the demon’s eyes. The Caius I know would never use you in a bid for power. Not when he knows the part you play.”

“Then I am just a pawn to be played in this great game of chess,” Aden said bitterly.

“You are the son that he could never have,” Kara corrected gently. She understood his pain. Knew it was justified to a point. She just needed to make him see beyond that pain. “The demon may have whispered where you were, what part you played and Caius in turn found you earlier than was prophesized. That does not mean that he did not grow to love the boy who turned into a man as if he were his own. Caius may be labeled evil in words, but he has a heart and he loves deeply. Even as a mortal, when I first came here I saw that love. It wasn’t until the demon took complete control did that love turn to greed and hate.” Kara relaxed a fraction when she saw the anger and pain in Aden’s eyes turn to uncertainty. When he closed his eyes, his body shuddering, she felt him had push his pain back so they could focus on the danger at hand. When he opened his eyes, the pain was replaced with focused determination.

“If the demon has control of Caius, what can we do to free him. The prophecy was very clear that the catalyst only comes once. If we kill Caius’s body in an attempt to free him it may not kill the demon. The other side of that thought is, according to the prophecy this is the one and only time I, the catalyst, will be present. Killing Caius may cause a chain reaction that will destroy the universe. Is it a risk worth taking?” Aden asked his own horror filling his voice.

Aden was right. Killing Caius in an attempt to free him of the demon would not work. The demon would just jump to another body and be waiting for them when they emerged again. Kara shook her head.

“No, your right. Killing Caius will not work. If the universe survives, the demon will only be waiting for us to reemerge and we will start all over again. What we need to do is work together. If you, Tanis and I combine our powers we may be able to chase the demon out of him long enough to finish the prophecy. It’s the only way,” Kara answered.

“Even if we could without setting off the necklace, Tanis will never allow it. I can feel his presence pressing against mine. Fighting me. He does not want to share you,” Aden whispered his lips in her hair as his arms tightened around her.

“He is afraid you will take me from him,” she explained resting her check against his chest, snuggling closer. It felt so good to touch him. “This is new to him. For so long it has only been the three of us, no one else. Give him time to wrap his mind around you being a part of the prophecy, a part of us.”

“His stubbornness will only end up hurting you. I can’t trust him to keep you safe.” Aden cupped her cheek with his hand, moving her head so he could look into her eyes. “I could barely keep myself from killing everyone in the garrison this afternoon for what they did to you. I don’t want you to endure that again. I won’t allow it. I need to stay here, with you.”

Giving him a smile that was filled with sadness and did not reach her eyes, Kara put her hand over his.

“Don’t Aden,” she begged. “You must do as Caius ordered and go down to the planet. If you disobey he will either use me to force you to go, or I will lose you altogether. I barely survived when you were torn from me in the throne room. I can’t go through losing you again.”

Aden looked at her with such anguish she thought her heart would break.

“It felt as if you were being pulled from me cell by cell. The pain was so excruciating I couldn’t…breathe. I thought I was dying, and no matter how hard I tried I could not feel you even though you were right there in front of me.”

“But you feel me now?”

“Yes, but it’s not the same.”

She could see the uncertainty in his eyes. Feel the fear of losing her again tearing him up side. Even now, with Tanis in the other room, the link between them was growing stronger, binding tighter, trying to push out everything before this moment. Yet there was something about Aden, a feeling deep down inside her that told Kara no matter what happened between her, Tanis and Caius, she would always and forever belong to Aden. Once the ritual was completed, nothing in the known universe or beyond would ever tear them apart again. Ever.

“What I feel is…different. Distant,” Aden continued taking one of her hands in his, bringing it up and kissing her fingers while his other arm stayed firmly wrapped around her. Keeping his eyes on their hands he continued. “I know they insist I let you go, but I can’t.” He looked into her eyes. “I won’t, and I don’t think you want me to otherwise you would not have pulled me back to you. You are the only thing that makes my life bearable. Before you, I was floating through a haze of pain and hatred. I don’t want to go back to that. I can’t,” his voice was almost a whisper. He leaned closer, his eyes moving to her lips. “I am yours now and forever. I love you,” he said before kissing her.

With her heighten sense of awareness Kara not only felt the demand from his kiss, but the fierceness of Aden’s feelings for her like never before. It was not the need to possess her or own her like Anthony or Caius, but to have her love him as much as he loved her. To assure him that she still loved him. His emotions weaved themselves around hers, intertwining until she could no longer distinguish his emotions or his powers from hers.

Words so ancient Aden did not recognize the language but somehow knew the meaning played across his mind. A compulsion so strong there was no chance of fighting it consumed them both. Suddenly Aden knew what he must do to make Kara his until the end of time. Just as he was about to flash them to his room, pain exploded through his body right before Kara was ripped from his arms. Distantly, through the roaring of his blood rushing through his head, he heard her scream but all he could see was a white haze as he collapsed to his knees, his hands pressing either side of his head. It felt as if it was about to explode. Then as suddenly as it started it stopped.

“Kara?” he gasped trying to stand only to fall back to his hands and knees as the room spun.

“I’m here,” she hissed, her voice strained.

Something was wrong.

Looking up he found her across the room with Tanis in front of her half holding her up and half holding her back. Her face was pale, her body trembling. Whatever Tanis had done to him had spread to her, and that pissed Aden off.

“You bastard! Does your stupidity know no bounds?” Aden rasped his voice hoarse with pain as he staggered to his feet. “She is bound to me. Everything I feel she feels. You know this.”

“I will not allow you to finish what was started,” Tanis snarled.

“You can’t stop it,” Aden growled back pushing himself to his full height even though what he really wanted to do is collapse back onto the floor. Gods that had hurt! “Neither of you assholes can. Whether you or Caius like it or not, Kara belongs to me just as much as she belongs to you. Keeping us from finishing the ritual will not change that.”

Snarling, Tanis rushed Aden slamming him against the wall. “You will never touch her again, or by the Gods I will kill you.”

“You will try,” Aden hissed struggling to pull Tanis’s hand from his neck. As his breathing was being constricted he could see so was Kara’s.

“Tanis! Stop!” Kara cried pulling on his arm trying to force him to loosen his grip on Aden’s neck as she tried to suck in precious air.

“You kill me, you will kill her,” Aden gasped.

Before Tanis could comprehend what Aden had said, the door slid open and three men with guns rushed in. Without even looking, Tanis sent them crashing against the far walls. The moment they hit the hard surface Kara screamed in agony, crumpling to the floor. The pain lashed out taking Tanis to his knees. Aden dropped to the floor next to him gasping for air.

“What the hell was that?” Tanis gasped.

“What I’ve been trying to warn you about,” Aden snarled. “The prophecies portrayed you as intelligent, not an incompetent ass.”

“Watch it boy,” Tanis growled as he watched Aden push himself to his hands and knees. “You have no idea who you are dealing with.”

“Oh, I’ve seen enough,” Aden snapped crawling towards Kara who lay on the other side of Tanis barely conscious.

“Stay away from her,” Tanis warned grabbing Aden’s arm as he passed.

“I’ve had enough of your stupidity for one day,” Aden hissed.

Suddenly Tanis found himself flying across the room, but just before he hit the wall he stopped and dropped onto the floor in a heap.

“Stay out of my way,” Aden warned. Crawling to Kara he carefully pulled her into his arms. “Are you all right?” he breathed checking her over. When she could only nod he pulled her close and glared at Tanis who had managed to stagger to his feet with the help of the wall. “What will it take for you to understand you cannot fight any of them without hurting her?”

“What is it going to take for you to realize she is not yours?” Tanis countered glaring at him.

Before Aden could do more than narrow his eyes and growl in frustration, Captain Wells strode through the door. One glance around the room and what he had felt in the hall told him what had happened. That much show of power was not going to go unnoticed.

“My Lord,” he interjected calmly. “If I felt that in the hall, the Emperor will have felt it too. He will be here soon to see what the hell is going on. If we don’t leave now…,” he let that thought finish itself.

“Thank you, Captain,” Aden acknowledge mildly, unable to keep the weariness out of his eyes. It had been a very long day and too much had happened physically and emotionally for him to even try. Moving his eyes to Kara, he gentle removed a stray strand of hair off her face. He did not want to leave her. Not with Tanis this angry and so unwilling to listen. “Wait for me outside,” he ordered not taking his eyes off of her.

Captain Wells nodded then motioned the three soldiers who had groggily stumbled to their feet to follow him out the door.

Once they were gone and the door was closed Aden rested his lips on Kara’s forehead. Just from that small touch he could feel the link between them tighten, strengthen. It felt like small tendrils reaching out and intertwining with each other, making them one. How was he going to be able to walk out of this room? Just thinking about it viciously twisted his stomach. What will it be like leaving the ship? Movement caught his eye and he looked up to see Tanis standing over them.

“You stopped me from slamming into the wall because you knew it would hurt her,” Tanis said, his eyes thoughtful.

“I won’t do anything to hurt her.”

“Then let her go,” Tanis ordered quietly.

“You know I can’t,” Aden responded his eyes narrowing. “No more than you can. I don’t understand what is going on any more than you do, but somehow I am a part of this. A part of her. There is nothing you or Caius can do to change that.” As if his name conjured him, Aden felt Caius coming closer, and he was livid. “I must go.”

Standing a bit wobbly with Kara in his arms, Aden carried her to the couch and laid her down. Kneeling down next to her, he brushed her hair from her face as he looked into her eyes, seeing the same unease he felt. His voice showing just how unsteady he was not only in body but emotionally, he whispered, “I will try and find out why this is happening. In the meantime, be careful what you do or say. Try to make Tanis understand what is at stake if he doesn’t do as Caius commands. What he will do to you.”

“I will. Now go before it’s too late,” Kara urged.

Aden looked into her eyes not wanting to leave. With one last kiss he stood and glared at Tanis. “I know you have had more lifetimes with Kara than I can ever imagine, but I have been with her through this one and there are things that you do not know or can even begin to understand. I don’t have time to explain everything to you before I leave. All I ask is that you tread carefully with Caius. He’s been…unstable lately, and Kara has been paying the price of that instability. I don’t want to see her hurt anymore. Not like…,” Aden’s voice trailed off as his eyes found Kara’s.

“You say you love her, that you know better than I do what her life is like, yet you leave her here to face the demon without you,” Tanis said quietly, bringing Aden’s eyes up to his. The anguish in them shocked Tanis.

“You do not want to know what he will do to her if I stay,” Aden whispered.

Closing his eyes, Aden swallowed hard before turning and walking out of the room. Outside Captain Wells and his guards took up formation behind Aden as he headed towards the landing bay. As hard as it was to walk out of that room, he did not want to be anywhere near the destroyer when Tanis took Kara and finished the ritual. He could not promise he would not go back and rip her from his arms and kill him. What Aden did know was powerful immortals or not, Caius and Tanis could not keep him away from Kara forever. One day they would finish what they started.

Chapter 16
Chapter 18

Broken Promises – Chapter 16

On February 9, 2019March 2, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Free Write2 Comments

Chapter 16

Under Commander Well’s watchful eye, the guards carrying Tanis laid him on the couch. Now that the emperor had reacquainted the two immortals from the prophecy, they would be sharing the same room until the emperor changed his mind. This new apartment was bigger with a bedroom off to one side and a separate bathroom. The room was sparsely decorated with an eating table, couch, chair and a couple of side tables. There were no windows or knick-knacks, and the only picture was that of the emperor glaring down at them. Next to the apartment was a room the emperor had especially made to break his new pet. Just the thought of what was in there waiting made the seasoned warrior shudder.

He is giving them a false sense of security while next door is nothing but blood and pain, Wells thought, his eyes once again taking in the room before him. No. That was not true. Not even this room seemed…safe. The very walls excluded evil intent. Gazing down at the unconscious form on the couch, Wells did not envy the newcomer. He also wondered with the way the emperor jealously guarded his witch, how long it would be before he moved her back into her old rooms that were attached to his.

Tanis groaned, his hands going to his head. The guards immediately leveled their weapons at him. Having witness what happened in the throne room they were taking no chances. This male was powerful, and dangerous. The next moment, Aden walked into the room, his presence dwarfing everyone but the man lying dazed on the couch. Wells watched as the young lord glanced at Tanis, a mixture of emotions flitting across his face Commander Wells could quite not read before it settled on grim determination.

“Leave us,” Aden commanded without looking at the men, knowing they would do as they were told without question.

Commander Wells gave Aden a short bow then motioned the men out. Backing to the door, keeping their eyes and guns trained on the figure on the couch,they left one by one, the door sliding closed behind them.

Closing his eyes, sighing, Aden braced himself for what he knew would bean unpleasant conversation. Tanis was important to Kara, so Aden did not want to alienate him. At the same time, he needed to make the immortal understand there was no fighting the emperor. At least not at the moment. Opening his eyes,Aden watched as Tanis slowly sat up, placing his elbows on his knees his face in his hands, trying to shake off Aden’s blow.

“Do you want to see her dead?” Aden snapped into the silence. So much for not alienating.

“Be careful, boy,” Tanis growled turning his head so he could glare at Aden. “You may have been able to blindside me once. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it will happen again.”

“I’ve already heard the same story from the emperor,” Aden growled striding over to Tanis glaring down at him. “I don’t care how powerful you are,I will not allow you to hurt Kara.”

Tanis stood so they were now eye to eye, nose to nose. It wasn’t that difficult since Tanis was only an inch shorter than Aden.

“Not allow?” he snarled.“First off, you are in no position to allow or not allow me anything. I could kill you with a single thought. Second of all, bonded or not, Kara is mine. You will not touch her.”

“Kara chose me,” Aden reminded.

“Because she had no choice! If she had not reconnected with you then the demon would have forced his own bonding on her, and we both know that cannot happen.”

“Just as we both know that is not entirely true,” Aden corrected quietly.He stepped back, his anger fading, although his eyes never wavered from Tanis’s. Yes, if she had not bonded with him, whatever he had felt trying to take her from them would have sunk its claws into Kara in a way they would have never been able to break. But as Aden knew deep down in his soul that was not the reason Kara reestablished their bond, so did Tanis. It was why he was so angry, so hurt.

“Why? When?” Tanis asked the pain evident in his eyes.

“Almost fifteen years now and I don’t know why?” Aden answered knowing what Tanis was asking. “I was sent to retrieve her from Colin and bring her to the emperor. The moment our eyes met it just….happened. The bonding was so fast, so final, there was no questioning it or escaping it.”

Tanis fell back onto the couch with a tired sigh, knowing exactly what Aden meant. Every time he and Kara found each other the same exact thing happened to them. One look, one touch and the bonding began. It was only because she was so weak and did not want to live that it took longer this time.Now all that was left was the last piece of the ritual, and he needed the boy gone and her here. Frowning at the door, he wondered where she was.

“The emperor kept Kara for a few moments longer,” Aden answered the unasked question. “She should be here shortly.”

“You left her with him alone?” Tanis snarled moving to stand.

“Don’t,” Aden said, the promise of violence thick in his voice. It stopped Tanis, startling him. “My master did not go to all the trouble to bring you two together and not allow you to finish the ritual. He will not harm her.” What he left out was the strange way the emperor was acting towards Kara.The complete opposite from just an hour ago. As if her well being was once again important to him.

Tanis heard the surety was in Aden’s voice, but his eyes betrayed him. A slight flinching around the edges. Tanis had Kara’s memories. He knew what happened when they displeased their master.

“I’m assuming the de…Caius was not happy about your bonding with Kara,”Tanis said, carefully watching Aden. Did he know about the demon that resided inside Caius?

“No,” Aden answered his eyes going distant with some unpleasant memory.“He tried to force us to break it, but even if we wanted to we couldn’t. I think he knew that, but he still tried. Still punished us because we refused.”

Tanis frowned. Aden’s voice had grown so soft, so full of a horror Tanis could only imagine what the demon had done to him that would make this obviously powerful man shudder with fear. When Aden met his gaze, Tanis was shocked at the haunted look in the boy’s eyes.

“You must understand the chains Caius has wrapped around us. If you fight him it will rebound on Kara tenfold. If you attack any of his men it will rebound on Kara tenfold. Anything you do to defy him, Kara will pay the price with unimaginable pain.” Aden stepped forward his voice fervent in his need to make Tanis understand. “I saw your expression when Caius mentioned Colin. All the color drained from your face. I know you know who he is, what he is capable of. The things that Colin had done to Kara before we found her….” Aden hesitated,swallowing hard to keep the bile down. “That bastard had her for ten years before we found her. You cannot begin to imagine what he and his son had done…..”

Tanis rose to his feet, rage course through him. “Anthony touched her?”he snarled.

“He did more than touch her. He used her weakness against her, telling her he would protect her if she would give him what he wanted.”

“And what was that?” Tanis asked, his voice squeezed down to a hoarse whisper.

“A son.”

Tanis turned and walked away, his hand over his mouth as he struggled to regain control over his rage. What he wanted to do was destroy everything on the ship then go and find the little bastard and kill him, slowly. But if Aden was right about the spells, then he was trapped.

“I will kill him,” he hissed.

“Get in line,” Aden scoffed. “When Caius found out, he put a bounty so high on both of their heads every bounty hunter in the known universe has been looking for them.”

Frowning at a sudden thought, Tanis turned to face the boy. “Yet when I arrived here, Kara was near death because Caius gave her to his guards.” A small smile crossed his lips at Aden’s shocked expression. “There is very little we can hide from each other. I knew what was happening down on the planet, I just didn’t understand what I was seeing, or feeling. The moment we touched, I knew everything.”

“Then you know how Kara feels about me. How I feel about her. That I will do everything in my power to keep her from suffering that kind of abuse again. Including knocking you senseless,” Aden said with a smug quirk of his lips.

“Again, a lucky punch. It will not happen again,” Tanis promised rubbing his sore jaw.

Snorting his doubt, Aden sobered. “I don’t want to see her broken one more time. She will not survive. Please. Do as Caius asks. Don’t fight him.”

“And you can honestly say that you will not?” Tanis asked his eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Remember, what Kara sees, I also know what you have done to try and protect her, and why Caius is sending you down to the planet. He knows what it will do to you and Kara. How much pain it will cause both of you,yet you are telling me you do not want to hurt her.

“If I refuse, the repercussions will be far worse. Kara and I have been separated for years and we survived.” Barely,he added to himself. “We will survive a few days.”

“Pretty to think so,” Tanis said knowing the lie the boy was trying to convince himself of.

Aden turned away, unable to meet his eyes.

Tanis smiled in response.

“He wasn’t always like this, you know. Caius. Once he was gentle, kind. He had his ambitions, was ruthless when he needed to be, but never…enjoyed that ruthlessness.When we first found Kara, he treated her as if she were something precious.Now….” Aden turned towards Tanis, his confusion plain for the other man to see on his face. “Now I don’t know him. The things he has forced on Kara in the last few weeks…. The Caius I know would have never done those things to her.”

“That is because it is not Caius who is doing them,” Tanis answered, his eyes distant with the memory of that last days they were together two thousand years ago. The pain and fear when they realized what Caius had done. What it meant. How it would affect them all.

“You kept calling him Demon. As if that was his name,” Aden said,breaking into Tanis’s thoughts.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out while his body shook, Tanis looked up at Aden. “Because what is inside my brother, what you heard today, is a demon. I just don’t know which one or why Caius invited him into his soul.”

“The prophecy,” Aden whispered.

“What about it?” Tanis frowned.

“He always said there was someone whispering hints on where to find the original prophecy. That it held secrets that the powers that be had kept from the players, which are Caius, you and Kara. A way to end the cycle of loss and death.”

Tanis’s smile disappeared at the innocent reminder of who belonged to the prophecy and who did not. They had been living the prophecy for millions of years and never once was this boy a part of it. He did not belong now. “I know you have been with Kara for most of this lifetime. That you have been there for her emotionally, done your best to protect her against forces far beyond your abilities, but the fact remains you are not part of this story. As I am sure my brother agrees, I will make sure you will not touch her again. Not while I’m alive.”

“And what about what Kara wants?” Aden asked, his temper flaring. Being with Kara was the only thing that felt right in his life, and all anyone ever kept telling him was he could not be with her. He read the part in the prophecy that mentioned the Catalyst. He knew without doubt that he was the Catalyst and the part he played in the never-ending cycle they were all caught up in. “Whether you or Caius want to admit it or not, I am part of this. Kara is a part of meas I am a part of her. To deny my place in her destiny is to lie to yourself how important I am to her.”

Tanis’s entire body tensed. Aden could see it took a great deal of willpower for him to relax and not attack him for suggesting Kara may love him, may want him in her bed. Caius was dangerous, but this man, if given the chance, could be so much more.

“The legends say you are the benevolent one, the gentle one. From what I have seen today you are far from those things. You would love nothing more than to kill me,” Aden said keeping his voice as neutral as possible, “but you can’t, can you. Not when you know what it will do to her.”

“Do not believe everything you hear or read. I may be labeled as the benevolent one and Caius evil, but there is rarely ever any true good or true evil. The only constant in this game we play is that Kara is the balance that keeps us from destroying everything that had been created, good or evil. The one truth that is written in stone, unchangeable, is that Kara belongs to us and we will destroy anyone who tries to take her from us,” Tanis answered his eyes and voice telling Aden he was walking a very fine line.

“Until now,” Aden corrected.

Tanis came up snarling from the couch. Tired of being threatened by males who thought they had a right to tell him who he could love, Aden’s thin hold on his temper snapped. Holding his ground, he snarled, “If I wanted to take her from you, you would not be sitting here now. I would have killed you long before you came near her, but I knew how important it was for you to find her. So much so I willingly gave her up knowing what it would cost me. It doesn’t change the fact that for some reason only the Gods can fathom I am apart of this, whether you like it or not.” The image of Caius with Kara only minutes before cooled Aden’s temper some as curiosity pushed its way forward. “Something is different, though. Something has changed.”

The sudden change in mood made Tanis blink in confusion. Whatever Aden was thinking that put the crease between his brow and frown on his face so suddenly seemed important, so he pushed his own anger back and asked, “What?”

Aden looked up at him. “Before I left the throne room, I watched Caius with Kara. He was…gentle,” Aden finally said after struggling to find the right word. He looked at Tanis wanting him to explain to him what he had seen. “These last few weeks I have seen him do horrendous things to her and enjoy every minute of it, but as I left the throne room I saw him look at her as if she was the most precious thing in the world again. The sudden change doesn’t make sense.”

Before Tanis could respond, Kara walked into the door, stopping in her tracks as she saw the way the two were staring at each other and felt the residual anger that still permeated the air.

“What did I miss?” she asked frowning.

Tanis immediately walked to her, pulling her into his arms. Two thousand years he had been waiting to hold her, he did not want to wait a moment longer.It was not until she melted into his arms that his body finally relaxed. She was with him, she was safe.

“Did he hurt you?” Tanis asked moving only far enough back to look into her eyes. Kara shook her head no before burying her face once again in his chest, her arms winding tightly around him. Frowning he looked to Aden for answers.

“I think I know what he did,” Aden answered sadly. Walking towards them,he hovered his hands over Kara’s head, slowly moving them down across her shoulders and down her back but not touching. “He strengthened the web, didn’t he,” he sighed stepping back.

Kara nodded.

“Web?” Tanis asked.

“I told you about the spells he has wound around her so that if she tries to fight it rebounds on her tenfold. Think of them as a spider web, each strand weaving throughout her body connecting every nerve ending, and when you pull one of those strings it vibrates through the entire web, setting off each and every nerve at once. That is what happens to her when that web is activated. It’s one of the ways Caius controls her…us. The threads must have weakened when you…tore me from her during the bonding.” Then he frowned moving closer again, his hand hovering over her.

“What?” Tanis asked worriedly. He did not like Aden near Kara, but Aden was not trying to pull her from his arms and he could feel the boy was genuinely concerned for Kara.

“He seems to have added a few more. Interesting,” Aden mused. It was difficult to stand by and watch another man hold her, and it must has shown on his face because suddenly Tanis pulled her behind him growling.

“You will not touch her,” Tanis snarled glaring at Aden who had frozen with his hand still extended.

“Stop!” Kara commanded moving in between them.

“He is not part of this, Kara,” Tanis snapped glaring down at her.

“Yes, he is. I don’t know how or why, but he is. You know this to be true, Tanis. You felt my soul cry out for him. Searching for him.” Kara put her hands on Tanis’s chest, her eyes begging him to calm down.

Did she believe the lies Aden had been feeding her. That he was part of this? Part of this age old war? Part of the makeup of the universe? Part of her?That last thought set Tanis’s blood boiling with rage. There had only been the three of them. Good and evil circling around Kara, keeping the universe spinning in its delicate dance. Kara was good and pure. Despite the differences in the two brothers, she loved them both equally. Aside from their mortal soulmates, there had never been anyone else but the three of them.

Until now.

In order for the demon to bond with Kara, it would first have to break one of theirs and then force Kara to his will. It had to be an act so vile his black essence could break through the light of what was their love for each other. Bending her to its will, breaking her, controlling her, owning her.

Tanis knew why the demon had not been able to take her from them. No matter what the prophecy claimed them to be, Caius claimed to be, what their elders deemed him to be, deep down Caius truly loved Kara, and the thought of hurting her, possessing her, did not sit well with him. But this time Caius had broken the rules. He had invited an unknown entity into his soul. Managed to break one of the most stringent of rules by surviving his and Kara’s death.Waited and searched to find her first, then had done acts so vile that in all their years of struggle Tanis thought him incapable of. The images that tore through Tanis’s head. Images of what had been done to her while he had been unable to help her, set his teeth on edge. Images of what had been done to her in the last twenty-four hours. And then there was the necklace. The once piece of the puzzle that made the least sense. A piece of their mythology that was deemed so vile it was thought to have been destroyed. How did Caius even find it?

A small movement behind Kara and Tanis’s eyes narrowed once again on Aden as images of him helping Kara heal after Caius was done torturing her flowed through his mind. Of Aden being punished for disobeying his master time and time again because he tried to shield her from the worst of the pain. Of those rare moments when alone…. The images were suddenly gone.

Tanis frowned down at Kara. They had never kept secrets from each other before. Before he could question what was so important that she would start now, Kara’s emotions washed over him in that familiar soothing way and he realized something. That as much Aden loved her, she loved him too. That she needed Aden to survive much in the same way as she needed him and Caius to survive.That the last part of the ritual that was beating against him to finish what was started, was also beating at her and it was not all aimed at him. That some of it was aimed at Aden, pulling him too her as it pulled Tanis. It was a comprehension that tore something deep within Tanis he did not understand, taking that simmering rage of jealousy and bringing it to a rolling boil.

“You will never touch her again,” Tanis hissed taking a step forward with Kara still in his arms, his eyes blazing with rage.

Kara dug her feet in, holding Tanis away from Aden as Aden’s frustration and terror of losing her sliced through Kara, making her gasp. She needed to calm his fears before they incapacitated both of them. Kara’s calm pushed through Tanis’s anger. I need to speak with Aden. Alone.

Tanis looked down at her, his eyes wary. When he saw the love in her eyes, love he knew was for him because he could feel it weave itself through his soul, soothing his rage, the love that had always been there, would always be there, he finally nodded. Cupping her face in his hands, he leaned his head down, kissing her tenderly until she relaxed against him with a soft moan. It was to reassure her that he was not angry with her and a clear message to Aden that she was his. When Tanis moved back and his eyes found Aden’s, his hands still gently cupping Kara’s face, his eyes were no longer tender.

“Touch her and I will make you regret it,” Tanis warned. He gave Kara one more gentle brush of his lips before releasing her, turning and walking into the bedroom, hitting the button with more force than necessary so the door slid closed.

The silence was deafening.

Chapter 15
Chapter 17

Broken Promises – Chapter 15

On February 2, 2019February 9, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing4 Comments

Chapter 15

There was very little time and too much to do, to say but he had to try. First….

“Get out,” he ordered to the remaining spectators who were lingering, his eyes never leaving Kara who lay on her side on the cold metal floor with her back towards him.

As the room slowly cleared, he made his way to her, praying her injuries were ones his limited healing power could fix and that she would not hate him for what he was about to do. The gods only knew she had plenty of reasons to hate him already.

They knew all the legends and myths surrounding who they were, what their purpose was, and some of them were actually true. The one that was not necessarily true was that he and Tanis hated each other and fought to win Kara’s affections every two thousand years. Where there was a little rivalry between them, Tanis and he both knew that the most important being was Kara, because without her the universe would cease to exist. She was the glue that held everything together. If her life force were to be extinguished for good, then yes, he and Tanis would be at war and the universe would crumble into complete chaos. Until then they shared her just fine.

The hardest piece of the prophecy was the part where Kara died by one of their hands. Each of them worked hard at not being the one who hurt her, but eventually one of them would falter and she would pay the price. Last time it was Caius who faltered. No. Falter was to mild a word for what he had done. He tripped, fell flat on his face, scraping skin and muscle from bone leaving them all raw and exposed. He had been so blind in his stupidity he was not sure there were enough “I’m sorry” or “Please forgive my stupidity” he could say to lesson the hatred he had seen in both their eyes.

Caius had no idea why the demon had receded, allowing him to come to the forward, but he would not waste the time he had been given. Carefully kneeling down next to Kara, his body aching with age, he gently rolled her over onto her back. Relief washed over him when he saw her eyes closed and her breathing even. She was unconscious. Good, because what he was about to do would hurt and he had hurt her enough.

Closing his eyes, he placed his hand over her heart and carefully probed through Kara’s essence, knowing one false move could kill her. He did not want that, never had wanted it, but in order to break her the demon had brought her to the brink of death many times. Now she was as close to an immortal as they could become and her will was once again strong. Caius knew she would fight the constraints of her bonds and the demon’s control once she woke, as would Tanis. If he did this right, he could minimize the damage the necklace could do to her. While they were hard to kill, there were a few weapons they did fear. This necklace was one of them.

After he healed what he could, he turned to the spells the demon instructed him to weave around her through the necklace so they could control her. As he thought, the spells had been weakened by Tanis bonding with her. Taking a deep breath, clearing his mind of his churning emotions, Caius carefully strengthened the spells. Tweaking them here and there so whatever the demon tried to force on her, the punishment would not be as severe and in turn leak out onto them.

Even though Aden had tried to hide the fact Kara had helped him earlier, Caius had felt it. He felt everything she did. Even if there was a great distance between them, they were never truly without the other. While knowing the other was still alive, what they were feeling at any given moment was the only solace they had, it was also a curse. For they felt every injury, every death as if it were their own. That was one of the reasons Caius began looking for a way to stop the endless cycle of life and violent death they were trapped in. He could not bear to endure feeling Kara’s life force slip away from him again. At least he knew he would follow her soon after.

His brow beading with sweat, Caius broke the connection and straighten, leaning back on his heels, his head back, eyes closed. In order to heal her and mend the spells, he had to delve deep into Kara’s soul, who she was. A sort of melding of the two of them. Where they had done this many times before, it was always disorienting when they pulled away. Once he felt more himself, he looked down at Kara. This time would be different. This time, if what the demon had promised him was true, the cycle would end and the three of them could live out their existence in peace, together.

“Kara,” he called softly.

Caius’s breath caught when Kara opened her extraordinary hazel eyes looking directly into his. There was no fear, no defiance in that look. She knew him now. Knew herself. She gazed at him as an equal, as a sister to a brother. As someone whose love knew no bounds, and even after all he had done to her, that love still filled her eyes as she gazed at him. Yet underneath that love was a flinching that he knew he had put there. A little piece of his heart died with that knowledge.

“Hey,” he said softly, smiling.

“Hey,” she answered smiling back. An emotion flicked through her eyes. Sorrow. Her smiled dimmed. “Why, Caius?” she breathed.

Guilt washed through him and he could no longer keep her gaze. There was no good reason, no excuse, that could make them understand why he had betrayed them so completely, so he did not try. Instead he pushed himself to his feet with an ease he had not felt in many centuries and walked to his throne. Just that one touch and he was already feeling the effects of having his siblings awakened. His body was growing stronger, years melting away from him as it did them. When the process was done, they would all look like they were in their mid-twenties and their power would be unstoppable. Tanis and Kara would reach their peak much faster than he would. Caius had centuries to melt away. Instead of days it would take weeks to finally reach his prime. Then…. He pushed that thought away. Now they were aware, his siblings could read his emotions, maybe even his thoughts. He did not want Kara to know the horrors the demon had waiting for her.

When he turned and sat on this throne, Kara was on her feet facing him looking down at her dress, such as it was. Shaking her head, with a sigh the white material slowly melted into a light green flowing dress. The scoop neck was still low showing cleavage, but that was all. The shoulders were held together with small broached leaving her shoulders bare. The dress was gathered just below her breasts then hung down in folds to the floor with a small train behind her. She looked up at Caius, her lips somewhere between a smile and pursed in disapproval.

“You never could stand seeing a woman dressed properly,” she grimaced.

“That is not quite true. Just not you,” he smiled.

Waving his hand in front of him, a brush of power washed over Kara and the dress shimmered then solidified. It was still the same color, the same design, but now it was layers of chiffon so sheer it barely covered what lay underneath. Kara looked down at herself knowing this was the only compromise she was going to receive. Yes, she was his equal, yes she could fight him, but at the moment she had more important matters to discuss than waste her energy on how sheer her dress was.

Kara could feel the spells along with the necklace’s magic surrounding her, constricting, binding. The years of torture were still firmly imbedded in her memory, as was the promise of more violence the demon had excluded before it had disappeared. Their souls may not be connected, but through the necklace she still belonged to the demon. Was still his…pet.

“Tanis will not be easily broken,” she said looking back at Caius.

“No, he won’t.” Caius sighed. “Although, once he realizes the lengths the entity will go, I think Tanis will concede. As stubborn and proud as he is, he loves you too much to see you suffer.”

“Can you?” she asked looking directly into his eyes. “See me suffer?”

Again he could not meet her eyes. “I had no choice,” he answered stiffly.

“We all have a choice, Caius,” she chided.

“Not anymore,” he countered so quietly Kara almost did not hear him.

When she did not respond to his comment, Caius turned back to her. The sorrow in her eyes as she watched him tore at something he thought buried long ago. Standing, he swept down the stairs to stand directly in front of her. Reaching up he gently caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, his eyes taking in every nuance of her features.

“It will all become clear soon,” he whispered his lips a breath away from hers. “Now you must finish what we have started today. Then…then we can begin.” It was then Caius felt fear flash through her. She should be afraid, he thought his own pain of what he must do creeping forward. “He will not rest until he has broken us all to his will. What he wants…,” he hesitated, his eyes closed as if in pain. He did not dare share what the demon wanted from her. Not if he wanted to be strong enough to mitigate the horror of what she would go through. Kara was not the only one with chains binding her. “Go,” he ordered turning away from her so she would not see his own fear.

“You never answered my question, Caius,” she reminded.

Caius closed his eyes, the sound of his name on her lips stirring that once lost and forgotten emotion. Compassion. “There is a price for everything, Kara. For what I want my price was high.”

“And what is it you want?”

Caius turned his head so he looked at her. “To never feel you die again. To know there is nothing or no one that can separate us again,” he whispered.

“And what was your price?” she asked her voice a whisper because something deep inside her knew she would not like the answer.

“My soul.”

It was not the tone of his voice that sent a chill down Kara’s spine freezing her blood in her veins. It was the low guttural voice that radiated an evil so foul she did not know how Caius stood under its weight. The one that flashed red in Caius’s eyes as it said at the same time, “His soul.”

“What have you done?” Kara breathed her hand over her heart as she gasped for air.

“What I had to,” Caius said wearily. “Now go. If you stay much longer I will not be able to let you leave. Not to….” Closing his eyes tightly he turned away from her. If he wanted to finish what he started over two thousand years ago, Caius needed Tanis to finish bonding with Kara so the demon could use it against him. “Go,” he whispered his voice echoing throughout the room

Kara did not hesitate. She turned and quickly walked from the room, the guards outside taking positions around her as they escorted her to her new quarters.

Caius slowly walked over to the windows, staring down at the planet below them. Soon Aden would be down there, away from Kara. The pull on their souls would be painful, excruciating if the demon decided to leave the planet’s orbit and head to their next destination. Caius would do his best to keep in control of his body so they stayed. What was to come would be painful enough for Kara. If he had any control of their destiny, he would not add to it. He just wished there was some other way.

If you truly want the cycle to end, you must do as I say or you will lose her. Forever.

With a small shudder as the evil he had invited inside him slid through his soul, Caius closed his eyes bowing his head. He would do as he was instructed. He only hoped he could live with himself when he was done.

Chapter 14
Chapter 16

Broken Promises – Chapter 14

On January 26, 2019February 2, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing3 Comments

Chapter 14

The room was deathly silent. No one was breathing, there was no rustle of clothing or metal. It was as if the universe and everything in it held its breath for the explosion that was to come, because there would be an explosion. One of epic proportion.

Kara lay in Aden’s arms for the first time in a long time feeling complete. Oh, her body was still bruised and bleeding, but her soul was able to take a deep breath and not feel as if a vice were squeezing it, making it hard to expand. That too she knew would be short-lived. Even though she knew who she was, what she was. That she was powerful, a goddess. That she had lived more lives than she cared to count, fought even more battles. And the last and most unsettling piece of knowledge, that her life was not her own. In truth it never had been. None of them had been truly free, just that the chains that had bound them to their fate from the moment they had been brought into existence were much more subtle than the ones the demon bound her with now. They were a tool of the universe. Her job was to keep the balance between darkness and light. The last she remembered, darkness had gained a new player, and it was winning. Knowing what she knew of the past mixed with what she knew of the present, things had not changed much in the last two thousand years.

Movement next to her, an arm pulling her gently against a body she knew better than her own, and she remembered what she had just done. She had defied the demon who had locked her once mortal body in chains so thick, so strong, not even the most powerful of them could free her. Knowing she would pay for her insolence, she could not find it in her to regret her decision. Not because it was the only decision, but because the male that held her so gently, that breathed her name in her ear as if it was a prayer, was a part of her soul she could not exist without. Another such soul tugged at hers, willing her to acknowledge what had always been, what was true. Kara slowly opened her eyes, searching for one of the beings that had been her constant companion her entire existence. When she found his eyes, she flinched at the anger, the betrayal in his as he stared in horror at her.

All around them, people lay on the floor dazed or unconscious. Ignoring them all, his eyes only for the two lying by the dais watching him as if he were the starving tiger in the room and they were the only available food, Tanis stood and started for them, stopping when he stood towering above them as he glared down. There was a comfort, a level of trust and surety between Kara and the boy that was only earned through battles of blood and pain. Where the only person you had at your back was the one who had put their life before yours time and time again to assure that you both lived to see another day. The intensity of jealousy that consumed him was foreign and unyielding, covering everything in a red haze.

Clenching his fists, Tanis was unsure what he should do. Part of him wanted to rip Kara from the boy’s arms, and then teach him that he was nothing compared to the power Tanis wielded. That he was not worthy to touch Kara. The other part, the one being smothered by this new jealousy knew Kara still love him, still need him, and as the depth of her love for him brushed against his heart, his soul, it told him nothing had changed between them. She was still his. Her feelings for him were older, more comfortable, but just as passionate as her feelings for the male holding her

“We don’t understand this anymore than you do,” Aden assured carefully in the tense silence. Part of Kara’s soul once again belonged to him; all of him once again belonged to her. It was more than Aden had ever hoped for since he learned of the prophecy, and he would do nothing that would take her from him again. Adding flame to the fire that was Tanis’s jealousy would not be productive to that end. “What I do know is I am not here to take Kara from you.”

“You are not a part of this,” Tanis said, his voice strained with his anger and the effort to stay where he was.

“I think that despite your best efforts I am once again bonded to her proves otherwise,” Aden responded. He had tried to keep his voice neutral, but he was tired of being told he had no business claiming Kara as his. The only thing that stopped him from saying anything else was Kara gently his arm. A subtle warning that this was not the time. That there was a bigger threat in the room than a jealous god. A vengeful demon.

“You were warned,” a voice growled, echoing throughout the room.

With a look that told Aden they were not through, Tanis moved to stand in-between Kara and enraged demon.

Sighing, Aden burying his face in Kara’s hair. Is a moment of peace too much to ask for?” he asked letting his exhaustion fill that thought.

Unfortunately, yes, Kara answered just as weary. She shifted slightly in Aden’s arms and too late realized her mistake. The bond between them was healed to a point. The one between her and Tanis was waiting for that last piece of the ritual that would seal it. Make it as unbreakable as hers and Aden’s once was. It was her body that was still bruised, battered and bleeding that shot pain sharp and immediate through her, forcing a gasp from her lips.

“Kara?” Aden asked worriedly, moving so she lay on her back and he lay next to her, his upper body raised so he could look her over to see where the pain was coming from.

“I’m fine.” She tried to smile to assure him, but it ended in a grimace.

“Liar,” he frowned, but there was no more time to think about injuries. Hot scalding rage washed over them, burning where it touched. Kara cried out, her back arching. Aden gritted his teeth, his head bowed, eyes closed as he tried to ride out the pain. Nothing ever good came from this much rage and the one who wielded it.

“You’ve lost, demon. You cannot bond with her now,” Tanis hissed, unable to completely hide his own pain. What the hell? What kind of demon could make his emotions a weapon? The only answer was a powerful one. Tanis was starting to wonder if he had completely underestimated the creature.

The demon chuckled. It was kind of chuckle that raised the hair on the back of your neck. That spoke of a slow painful death. Low and full of evil, it sent shivers down the spines of those in the room still conscious. “You understand nothing. I haven’t lost her, yet.” His eyes moved to Aden who hovered protectively over Kara, trying to shield her with his body. As if that would save her. “Once again, because you could not let her go, she will pay the price.”

“Aden did not disobey you. I was the one who could not let him go,” Kara corrected softly. Turning her head, she looked directly into his eyes and said in a tone that spoke of a defiance that she thought long lost. “I was I who chose him.”

The silence dragged on as the demon held her gaze. The rage was gone, but Kara could not decipher the emotion in his eyes or the expression on his face. A mixture of pain, anger and longing she did not understand. Finally, it settled into an unfeeling blankness that frighten her far more than his rage.

The three watched him warily, Tanis keeping himself in between the demon while Aden and Kara lay on the floor. Careful with each movement, Aden moved so he sat next to Kara, pulling her into his arms. They knew the risk they were taking by doing this, that they would be punished, but Aden could feel that she was too weak to sit on her own and he could not bear letting her go. Not yet. Even though their bond was back in place, it was still raw and bleeding, and Aden could feel there was something missing. Some new piece of the puzzle that had yet been put into place.

As Kara settled in his arms, her fingers fisting the front of his shirt, he realized that she felt it too. Was there was still a chance she could be taken from him? Looking down at her, he saw the pinch of her face and realized that she was still in a great deal of pain. If they were to survive whatever was to come, she needed to be stronger. Brushing the hair from her face, he gently lay a kiss on her forehead. With that small touch, he released some of his power into her, seeking where she was hurt most and carefully mending it. With each touch, Kara’s body relaxed a little more, and that piece of her that was inside him loosened a bit more.

A swish of material far too close startled Aden out of his concentration, bringing his eyes up. The emperor had walked past them, and he had not even noticed. That was a form of carelessness that was too dangerous for words. Glancing at Tanis, Aden saw he had moved so he could watch the emperor and them at the same time. The expression on his face when he caught Aden’s eyes bled from wary to outright hostile. Great. Once more being trying to take Kara from him. Unfortunately, this one he could not fight because he was also a part of Kara and that in turn would hurt her.

What was left of the red guard surrounded them, standing at attention, awaiting their master’s orders. It broke the tension between Aden and Tanis so they focused on the real threat in the room. The emperor.

The emperor had reached the top of the dais. Turning, he sat on his throne, leaning back, one arm carelessly on the arm of the chair while the other he rested his elbow, his finger rubbing back and forth on his lip as if he was thinking about something of grave importance as he watched the three below him.

The silence stretched on.

Finally, the emperor sighed. A weariness passed over his face as he closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they focused on Kara, ignoring the rest.

“Kara, come,” he ordered quietly.

Aden felt Kara’s hands convulse in his shirt. Neither of them wanted to let go, but they knew if they did not the consequences would be painful. What Kara did not need right now was more pain.

“She is not some pet you call to you,” Tanis snapped, his full attention and hostility now on the demon.

“Actually, she is,” the demon answered calmly, a small smile on his lips.

Tanis looked down at the two on the floor as Aden very carefully moved out from under Kara and stood. There was an unsteadiness to the boy’s stance that he tried to hide and failed. It was something Tanis understood all to well. Until the ritual was finished, none of them would feel…steady. What Aden did not know was that hell would freeze over before Tanis allowed him that privilege.

As one, they both reached to help Kara to her feet.

“Do not touch her,” the demon snarled, that calm façade slipping for a moment, showing the true beast beneath it. Just as quickly it was smoothly put back into place.

They both froze. After a moment of hesitation, Aden slowly straightened and stepped back, his eyes dutifully forward. That small distance cost him dearly. Tanis ignored the warning and gently took ahold of Kara’s arm.

“Let her go,” Aden said, his voice tired, defeated.

“You have not earned the right to tell me what I can and cannot do with my mate,” Tanis growled pulling Kara up and into his arms.

Aden’s eyes flashed with his power as they narrowed on Tanis. Logically he knew that Tanis did not know the rules, who the master was and the consequences of disobeying him. But the fierce protectiveness that raged through Aden was not logical. If Tanis did not let go of Kara, then she would pay the price, again. That was not acceptable.

“I have been with her in this lifetime through more pain and torture than you and your many lives could ever imagine. I know the rules and what it means if we disobey them. You do not. So I will repeat myself only once. Let. Her. Go,” Aden said that last through gritted teeth, his fist clenching at his sides.

He’s right, Kara’s voice breathed through Tanis’s mind. I must go to Caius or he will punish us.

That thing is not Caius, and he has no right to you. We defeated him in the paste. We can defeat him now. Tanis said angrily not understanding why she would give in so quickly. It was so unlike her.

You are right. He has no right to either of us, but this time is different. This time he found me first and he bound me in chains that we cannot break, Kara reminded reading his thoughts. If you attack him it will rebound on me. If you kill him…it will kill me.

Tanis’s eyes widen as he turned to face her. “He can’t do that,” he whispered looking into her eyes.

“But he has,” Aden answered when Kara look away, his voice filled with the weariness of countless of sleepless night. Ignoring Tanis’s narrowing eyes when he glared at him, Aden went on. “You have felt her pain. You know what he did to her just this morning. What he will do to her again if she does not obey him. Is that what you want for her?”

“Kara,” the demon called, his voice a low deep growl telling them he was growing impatient.

Knowing what hesitating any longer would cost, Kara pulled away from Tanis and began to walk towards the dais. Before she was out of reach, Tanis grabbed her arm pulling her back. Kara tried to pull away, but he only held on tighter.

“You don’t have to obey him,” he said looking down at her, frowning when he saw the frighten look in her eyes.

“Yes, she does,” Aden corrected again stepping beside him.

“Don’t,” Tanis snarled when Aden reached to pull her from him.

Aden’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Do you want her to suffer?” he hissed.

Before Tanis could retort Kara cried out in pain and seconds later it bled into him. Years of protecting her, shielding her kicked in and he immediately tried to block the demon’s attack only to find he could not. Gritting his teeth, he pushed back as the demon increased the pain.

Aden watched in horror as Tanis tried to fight the inevitable. He knew from experience the pain would only become worse, and he would not sit by and watch Kara suffer because Tanis was too stubborn to see their reality.

Swearing, he grabbed Kara wrenching her from Tanis’s grasp. Suddenly the full force of the demon’s attack hit both Aden and Kara. Crying out they collapsed to the floor. The moment Aden released her the pain stopped.

“Shit,” he hissed rolling onto his back trying to blink the spots from his eyes. Next to him Kara lay on her side barely conscious.

“Kara!” Tanis cried going to help her.

“Stop!” Aden’s ordered his voice echoing throughout the room as he rolled protectively over her, his hand up ready to push Tanis away if necessary. Although he was not sure what he could do. The demon’s punishment had taken the last of his strength. Under him, Aden felt Kara move slightly before her fingers weakly grab a hold of the wrist closest to her. Once their skin touched his power increased and the spots began to diminish. Moving his hand so he held hers, Aden quickly masked what Kara was doing from the emperor, but he could not hide it from Tanis.

Tanis hesitated, his eyes widening slightly when he felt what she had done with Aden. Sharing power between their kind was an intimate act seldom done, but more common between bond mates. This more than anything brought home how close Kara was wedded to Aden, and Tanis was unsure how to handle the knowledge. Always it had just been the three of them. Now this boy was protecting his mate from…him, and Kara was helping.

A low chuckle broke into the silence. Aden slowly lowered his hand, his eyes staying on Tanis and not the figure who now slowly walked towards them. Again, Tanis thought this strange because the demon was the danger to Kara, not him. Deciding to puzzle this new development out later, Tanis turned towards the demon, his eyes narrowing in rage.

“Not bonded more than a few moments and already you are fighting over her. You should heed Lord Sahen’s warning. He has learned the hard way what it means to try and protect her from me.”

Tanis watched Aden climb once again shakily to his feet, leaving Kara where she lay on the floor. He thought it strange that the powerful boy would not meet either of their gazes.

“Lord Sahen,” the demon said as if nothing had happened. As if the universe had not just shifted.

“Yes, my Master,” Aden answered bowing his head.

“Take our…guest,” he grimaced when he glanced at Tanis who bristled, “to his quarters. Then I want you to go down and pay a visit to the queen.”

“I thought she served her purpose,” Aden said confused by his master’s command.

“She delivered the package, yes, but not as promised. Colin did a better job breaking my beautiful pet. Since neither one of us want Colin anywhere near Kara, it leaves me with no choice but to break Tanis myself.”

At Colin’s name, Tanis stiffened. Colin was the queen’s consort who was known for his sadistic appetites. The thought of Kara in Colin’s hands for any length of time made his blood run cold.

“I want you to personally show her the correct way to break a spirit. Then when you are done, I want you to hand her over to her people. Tell them who she really is and let them deal with her as they see fit. After that I want you to find someone to take her place who will not fail us,” the emperor finished.

“That will take weeks,” Aden protested not catching the panic laced with bitterness in his voice or stopping himself from glancing at Kara in time. After everything that had happened, to be parted from her now…. The thought chilled him.

“Yes. It will,” the emperor agreed his eyes narrowing.

A faint flutter brushed against Aden’s mind, soothing his anxiety.

Aden, Kara breathed. Go.

The relief Aden felt at her familiar presence washing through his body calmed him. She was still there, still his, but she was also very weak. Any more zaps like the last one and she may not survive it whole. He would have to make sure Tanis understood rules before he left.

“As you wish,” Aden answered calmly, coolly, even though every cell in his body was screaming no. Kara’s assurances did nothing to alleviate his fears. From past experience Aden knew that leaving her alone with his master would be far from all right. But as Caius had so plainly put it, disobeying him would only cost Kara more pain. “I will return when the job is done.” He first bowed to the emperor then turned to the guards, motioning them to take Tanis and follow him.

“I am not leaving her alone with you, demon,” Tanis growled stepping away from the guards. He too knew leaving Kara alone with this…thing was dangerous, something he would not allow.

Gritting his teeth in frustration as the two demi-gods glared at each other, without thought of the consequences he was sure he would regret, Aden’s fist connected with Tanis’s jaw. There were a few gasps as flesh connected with flesh and Tanis crumpled to the ground. Aden knew he would hear about it once they arrived in Tanis’s rooms, but he would be damned if he let the stubborn idiot cause Kara anymore pain.

Stunned silence followed sd Aden, swearing under his breath, stepped back shaking his hand as pain radiated up his arm. All around him people stood frozen, the only movement the blinking of their wide eyes.

“I think I speak for us all when I say I did not see that coming,” Commander Wells drawled as he walked up to the crumpled figure on the floor. His eyes full of amusement, he looked from Tanis to Aden. “Although I wished you had done it sooner,” he grimaced. When Aden gave him a slight smile it seemed to unfreeze the room.

The emperor began to chuckle, bringing Aden’s eyes to his master.

“Be careful who you direct your anger at, my young one,” the emperor warned the amusement still clear in his voice. “And do not think you will be able to render my brother unconscious so easily again. He will take measures to ensure you regret it when he wakes.”

“He’s a stubborn fool,” Aden snapped turning his glare back to the figure on the floor who started to groan.

“Stubborn yes. Fool? No. He is just very protective of her,” the emperor said softly as he knelt next to Kara.

The soft tone of his master’s voice, the way he gently rolled Kara over brushing the hair from her face, changed Aden’s scowl into a frown of confusion. If he did not know better he would have thought someone different, someone who cared for her wellbeing, knelt over her. But that did not make any sense. Not after the way he had treated her these last few weeks.

“It is ingrained in us to protect her. She is the glue that keeps the universe together. If she is destroyed…,” the emperor whispered so softly Aden had to strain to hear him. Then suddenly his master seemed to remember he was not alone. “All of you, leave us. Kara will follow when I am through with her,” he ordered harshly.

Aden motioned for the guards to take Tanis out of the room, but he hesitated before leaving. Watching as the emperor put his hands on Kara, Aden wondered at his master’s sudden softening towards her. Taking the fact the agonizing ripping of his soul did not start again as a good sign, Aden did the hardest thing he had had to do in a long time, He left Kara alone with the unstable emperor before their master realized he was still there.

Chapter 13
Chapter 15

Broken Promises – Chapter 13

On January 19, 2019January 26, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing4 Comments

Chapter 13

Kara lay gasping for air, Tanis’s heavy body lying on hers making it harder to breath. Groaning, Tanis lifted himself far enough so he could look into her eyes, his shinning with his triumph. When he saw the look of horror on her face, that triumph wilted.

“Kara?” he whispered not understanding her reaction. They were together again. She should have been happy.

“What have you done?” she breathed.

He frowned down at her. This was not what he was expecting. Always their reunion was a happy one, a joyous occasion as they relearned each other’s bodies, souls. Then he felt it. Although their memories had been restored and the players were once again immersed in the elaborate game of chess they had been playing for thousands of lifetimes, something was different. Because this time Tanis was the one who started the ritual that bound their souls, he encompassed a majority of Kara’s soul. While Caius was still there, his presence had been pushed to the background, so he was there but not forgotten. Although this time there was a difference. Someone else, a stranger, held a larger piece firmly in his grasp. Someone powerful who was in this room. Tanis had a moment of disbelief followed by a stab of jealousy that stoked his fading anger. That was before his eyes saw what lay around Kara’s neck. Then the focus of that anger switch and boiled into a rage that blotted out all other concerns. His eyes filled with blue flame and locked on the necklace.

“I will kill him,” Tanis snarled. Before Kara could caution him, Tanis’s eyes shot to where Caius sat. “You dare!” he hissed.

“Be careful of your tone, Tanis. The rules have changed, and you don’t know the dangerous line you precariously walk on,” Caius warned his eyes narrowing.

“Take this piece of filth off her!” Tanis demanded, ignoring both Caius’s warning, and Kara’s pleading eyes.

“No,” Caius replied calmly.

The silence that followed was heavy with unfiltered hatred. The onlookers who were still conscious stared in amazement at the unknown male as he glared at their emperor as if he was an equal.

“Then I will,” Tanis snarled in the silence.

Before Tanis could touch the necklace he found himself flying across the room. Slamming into the floor and sliding across the polish metal, lifetimes of training kicked. Rolling until he stopped himself, one knee was down while his hands held his torso up, ready to attack, a snarl on his lips, he readied himself for attack. “You bastard! How could you defile her with that abomination?”

“There are more ways to defile than a cursed necklace,” Caius sneered, the innuendo of what he was referring to thick in his voice.

The memories of what he had force on Kara only hours ago once again filled Tanis’s mind and he saw red. Snarling he stood. The only thing that stopped him was Kara’s desperate voice yelling in his head, “No!”

Before Kara could scramble to her feet to physically stop Tanis from making a huge mistake, Caius spoke.

“Kara,” he ordered calmly.

Weeks of pain and torture, along with the knowledge of what the necklace would do to her if she disobeyed, froze Kara on her hands and knees.

“Very good,” Caius cooed as he once more stood. “Very good. You will do well to remember your place. It may be less…painful for you both.”

“I said, take it off her,” Tanis demanded striding towards Caius.

Guards moved to stop Tanis, but with a wave of his hand they flew backwards away from him.

Kara screams filled the room as she collapsed, writhing in pain on the floor.

Tanis froze, staring at her in horror. “What have you done?” Tanis whispered his eyes returning to Caius. Tanis was far too old not to know exactly what the necklace was and what it meant that Kara wore it. The necklace rendered the wearer unable to disobey its master. It did not harm the wearer if someone else caused harmed to others.

“I tweaked it a little,” Caius shrugged. “You harm any of my guards, or me, Kara feels our pain tenfold. Her soul may be yours, but the rest of her is mine.”

As Tanis watched the gleeful abandonment fill the face of the male that stood before him while he watched Kara writhe in pain, he realized that this was not his brother. Caius would never have caused Kara this amount of suffering. Not even when he was the enemy and Tanis was her choice. No, what stood before him not his brother, but the demon they had fought two thousand years ago. The one who had enslaved his brother’s soul. The cost was their lives, but the demon had been defeated, or so they thought.

“How?” Tanis breathed.

The smile the demon awarded Tanis spoke of a madness deep seeded within its evil soul. “Easy.” he answered in a tone that left Tanis cold. “We never died.”

Tanis eyes grew wide. If they never left the physical plane, then the demon had had two thousand years to plot and plan, to lay his traps and wait for them to resurface. Tanis looked at Kara as she stared back at him, her face struggling for neutral and failing. They both knew what this meant. For the first time in the history of the universe, another entity, one that was not of this dimension and made of pure evil, was in control.

The outcome of the universe was no longer in their hands.

An unpleasant thought crossed Tanis’s mind. If the demon inhabited Caius’s body, then, “Where is my brother? Where is Caius?”

“Gone. He used the last of himself in a useless bid to give you time to start the ritual.” There was no inflection, no emotion what-so-ever in his expression. It was just fact. The parasite had taken the body and the host was gone.

Tanis staggered sideways a couple of steps, his lungs having trouble drawing air, his heart stuttering. Gone? But that was impossible. If Caius was gone, then why were he and Kara still here? The demon had to be lying. It was the only explanation.

Clinging on to that one thought, that one hope, he stared at the demon who stood staring at Kara with a look of hunger and longing.

“They would not have allowed this,” Tanis breathed.

“They are too arrogant in their power to see me,” the demon sneered.

“Now that we are awake they will know what you have done. They will destroy you.”

“They have already tried…and they failed,” the demon shrugged. “Do you think this is the first time we have been here, at this exact moment. Oh, the place is different, the shells that hold our souls different, but the circumstances, the juxtaposition have all been the same.” He turned to face Tanis, the madness in his soul turning his eyes red. “There is not a word that describes how long I have lived. How many times we have faced each other, fought each other, lost. No more!”

Without warning bolts of energy shot out of Caius’s hands encircling Tanis. He screamed in agony as they hit him sending fire into his spine spreading outwards, dropping him to his knees. Every nerve ending was on fire, every muscle contracted, threatening to tear. His lungs froze leaving him unable to scream, and there was nothing Tanis could do to stop it. From across the room, far from the fight, Kara screamed in agony, yet nothing touched her. After a few moments, the lightening disappeared, and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had begun, leaving Tanis on the floor gasping for air as bright spots danced across his eyes.

“In the end you too will fail, and you will be mine. Just as Caius was. Just as Kara is,” the demon snarled.

Tanis looked at him then followed his gaze. Kara lay on her side clutching her abdomen in obvious pain.

“Such a helpful side effect of the bond you cling so desperately to. That one feels what the other does.” The demon glanced at Aden who lay next to the throne unconscious, the tearing of Kara’s soul from his too painful even for the strong sorcerer to endure. Now to see if all his careful planning held true. He glanced down at Kara, his senses reaching out to her, gently searching her soul as if he was afraid he would hurt her. A far cry from the way he had treated her body, but then again, a soul was a fragile thing, and killing her was not what he wanted. What he found pleased him.

“Yes!” he breathed. “Her soul. Don’t you feel it? You don’t surround it, saturate it. Although she does yours. Interesting,” he mused walking towards Kara, his hand outstretched.

“Don’t touch her!” Tanis snarled as he pushed himself to his feet. Reaching out his hand he lashed out with his power, knocking the demon across the room away from Kara. Just as quickly Kara screamed in agony and pain lanced through Tanis, once again dropping him to the floor.

The demon’s evil chuckle filled the room. Tanis looked through the watering of his eyes, watching Caius slowly climb to his feet, unharmed. “You were always a slow learner.”

“Bastard,” Tanis hissed clenching his hands trying to keep himself from lashing out again. The demon had set his traps well. There was no way Tanis could fight him without hurting Kara, or worse, killing her.

“You need to find a new name for me. That one is becoming tiresome,” his voice bored.

“Then give me a name,” Tanis suggested.

The demon chuckled. “And give you power over me? I think not. Now, back to my original thought. Kara is not completely yours.”

“She has never been completely mine. My brother always held a part of her, and I believe he still does,” Tanis added carefully. The demon hesitated only for a moment, but Tanis saw it. It gave him hope that Caius was still in there, somewhere. Still, the demon was too close to Kara and too unpredictable to push. The gods only knew what would happen if he completely went mad.

“While that is true, there is a small obscure piece of the prophecy the powers that be keep hidden that tells of a time where there will be a third that will bind him or herself to the Key. It is called the Catalyst.” He glanced up at Aden who lay still as death then back to Tanis. “After the ritual that awakens the part of her that is immortal, a part of her soul remains open and vulnerable for a short period of time. Waiting for the catalyst to claim what belongs to it. If that piece is not claimed within a certain period of time, then whoever she bonds with in that life time, which is either Caius who represents evil or darkness or you who represents good or light, will fill the void.” He looked back down at Kara, his red eyes darkening with eagerness and hunger. “This is one of those times. By ripping Aden from her, you have opened her soul, her power, her destiny for me to claim. It’s time I right a wrong that was made long before this universe was created. Time I take what should have been mine,” Caius declared slowly walking towards her.

“Caius or I would have felt the difference, and Kara has never mentioned it.” Tanis had no idea what the demon was talking about, but the ten layers of hell would freeze over before he let the bastard touched her again.

“That is because it is only felt when the Key is nearby. I have not been idle these last two thousand years. It took time but I found the Key. I kept him hidden, molded him into my weapon and brought them together when the time was right so her soul would open, and I could claim it before you appeared. What I did not consider was the binding would be instantaneous and unbreakable. No ritual, not even touch. Just one look and they were one.” The smile he directed at Tanis made his pulse race as the enormity of what he had done finally sunk in. “Now, thanks to your deep seeded jealousy, you have done what should have been impossible.” He turned back to Kara. “Now she will be mine.”

“You will not have her!” Tanis vowed staggering once again to his feet. If he could not use his powers against the demon, then he would physically stop him. He just hoped his brother would forgive him after he was through. Reaching his hand out, he willed Kara’s body to come to him. Sliding across the slick metal floor as if invisible strings pulled her along, she was almost to him, his fingers brushing her skin when he found himself in the air, an invisible force squeezing his neck cutting his air off.

“You will not take what is mine,” the demon snarled stalking towards them.

“She is not yours,” Tanis choked, his fingers on his neck trying to pry the invisible force away. It was only then he realized just how powerful the demon was. Far more powerful than any of them were, maybe even more powerful then the powers that be. This was not good. How were they supposed to fight something this powerful? The thought was interrupted when the demon in question shoved his face into Tanis’s face.

“She should have been mine! She would have been mine if not for the other’s interference.”

Something in the demon’s tone made Tanis think he was not talking about Kara, but someone else. Then he sensed Kara’s soul once again seeking, looking for what had been so viciously ripped from it.

No, Kara, Tanis begged desperately, the thought of sharing her unbearable even though he knew it was the only way to save them. Please!

There is no other way, she whispered the pain and desperation in that thought forcing a shudder from Tanis. Just as she was about to reach the one she sought another soul, a malevolent soul, brushed against hers, burning her as acid would burn skin. A soul that was ancient.

No! He could not have her. He could not bond with her or all would be lost. Desperately Kara tried to pull back, but the tendrils of that soul were sticky, and the more she struggled the more of it touched her. Much like a fly caught in a spider’s web.

“NO!” she screamed aloud.

Aden lay on his side near the throne barely conscious. Power crackled around him, screams of terror filled his ears, but he could only lie on the floor struggling to draw a breath. She was gone. She was gone and his whole world collapsed in on top of him. Better to die then live with this mind numbing soul crushing loss.

Aden, Kara breathed through his mind, desperation thick in her voice.

Kara? unwilling to believe it was her.

Then the most incredible thing happened. Her soul brushed against his. Just as quickly something ripped it away. Something…evil. No! It could not have her! Not as long as he lived.

Gathering what strength he had left, Aden pushed himself up far enough so he could see what was going on. Tanis hung suspended in the air clutching at his throat. Kara lay below him with Caius leaning over her, his eyes gleaming red, his long fingers reaching down to touch her.

A voice Aden had never heard before whispered in his mind. You cannot allow him to touch her. If he does, all will be lost.

Fear stabbed Aden heart. He had to save her, but in his weakened state he knew he would be able to make it to Kara before Caius touched her. He needed time, but to attack Caius would bring pain down on Kara. Maybe if he aimed at Tanis, breaking Caius’s hold it would be enough of a surprise to give him time to pull Kara closer to him.

Shoving his hand towards Tanis, Aden unleashed what little of his power he still commanded, sending Tanis flying backwards while pulling Kara towards him. Unfortunately, he was only able to bring her halfway. He would have to go to her if he was to save them all.

Caius stumbled backwards, blinking in shock at the suddenness of the attack. Even as she moved, Kara arched her back, gasping for air that would not come. Grimacing at the knowledge he had inadvertently harmed her, Aden staggered to his feet and down the stairs to where Kara lay, collapsing onto his hands and knees next to her.

The last time it had only taken one look into her beautiful hazel eyes and he was hers. This time he could feel their souls reaching out to each other, but for some reason it was not enough.

“What do I do?” he whispered desperately.

“Kiss me,” Kara answered hoarsely.

He could do that. Smiling down at her in response to her smile, Aden leaned down. Just before his lips touched hers the demon’s voice, thick with malice filled the room.

“Touch her and the last two weeks will seem like a caress to what I will do to her!” he snarled.

Aden hesitated. He would not do anything to hurt the female in his arms. Even if it meant his death. Kara did not give him the choice. Reaching up, she tangled her fingers in his hair pulling him down to her.

“NO!” the demon roared.

The moment their lips touched power flared out with enough force it knocked everyone against the back walls. Deepening their kiss, Aden wrapped his arms around Kara, pulling her tightly against him as once again their souls wrapped around each other, tangling together becoming one. Tanis and Caius may have held her soul all these eons, but they were no longer the only ones, and with that one kiss Aden changed the course of the universe.

With that one kiss, he was home.

Chapter 12
Chapter 14

Broken Promises – Chapter 12

On January 12, 2019January 19, 2019 By HeidiIn Creative Writing2 Comments

Chapter 12

Power.

Power filled the room, immense, suffocating. Power that was foreign as it was familiar. Power that staggered Tanis, engulfed him as soon as the door slid open. Gasping for air, he dropped to his hands and knees, the guards around him taking a cautious step backwards, their eyes wary as they watched. Did they not feel it? Did it not slither down their throats through their mouths, their noses, choking them?

Then the memories came again. Not smooth as a stream that lazily wound through the forest, unimpeded, but with the force of a tidal wave crashing into a rocky cliff, tearing, forcing its way into the cracks and crevices, destroying everything in its path only to be remade on the ocean floor, full of sharp jagged edges.

Tanis rose up on his knees, head thrown back, arms wide, and screamed. All that he was exploded outwards, rearranged and slammed back into him remade. Something deep within him he did not know existed, something that had been waiting for just this moment, clicked into place and suddenly he knew…everything. Who he was. All of him. The lives…so many lives…he had lived, loved, died in. The battles he had fought, the women who he loved and had borne children for him so the prophecy lived on. The power he held. Power that branded him and his siblings gods. In that one moment of clarity he knew exactly where he was in the universe. Everything about the mortals surrounding him, their strengths, their weaknesses. Who the male on the throne was to him. His brother, his nemesis. How many times they had fought together, against each other. The betrayal that was still bitter in his throat, painful in his heart. The one that cost them the very reason for their existence.

Rage, two thousand years simmering, roared through Tanis, blotting out every thought but one. Kill the demon sitting on the throne. Not even the call of his beloved would deter him from his revenge. That one thought brought a whole new barrage of memories, none of them his, all of them of the female lying on the floor clinging onto a life she no longer wanted. Memories of love, of joy, of misuse, of pain. So much pain. And as his memories awoke the part of him that was immortal, her memories awoke the part of her that understood what was happening to her, to them. A part that screamed to be released from the bonds Caius had woven within her, around her with the cursed necklace. Chains that were unbreakable even for a god.

Tanis’s rage intensified. How dare he!

Dropping back onto his hands, sucking in precious air, Tanis tried to speak and failed. A few more gasps and he managed to raise his head to glare at the figure who sat with a smile so full of triumph, of evil, that any sane male would recoil from it. Tanis was not one of those males. He was too old, to jaded, to familiar with the figure before him that all that smile did was piss him off.

“You bastard!” he snarled hoarsely.

The room gasped at the audacity of the newcomer. Did he not know who he spoke so disrespectively too?

“Hello, brother,” Caius sneered, the last word uttered as if it were something foul.

“You are no brother of mine,” Tanis sneered, pushing himself up so he sat on his heels. The room spun before settling into vision fuzzy around the edges. It was always like this when they woke to their true selves. Painfully disorienting. Something Tanis did not want to be when he knew the bastard in front of him was already very aware of who he was. “Not after what you did to her.”

Caius shrugged. “I did what I had to do to win.”

“It has never been a competition,” Tanis yelled pushing to his feet. Staggering a few steps forward as the world ran in streamers, he caught himself on a nearby post with one hand. The other he put to his head and groaned. He always hated this part. Almost as much as each time the love of his existence died in his arms.

“Hasn’t it been?” Caius asked, his anger leaking into this voice. “We awaken. We vie for her affections and she chooses. Then the battle begins. It has always been about competition. Who is the strongest, the most willing to fight for her, to die for her.”

“Which is why we are still fighting,” Tanis hissed, a sudden spurt of pain slicing through his head. Gasping, he blinked his eyes, trying to clear his vision. If he was going to survive this, he needed to have his wits about him. He looked up at Caius and was happy that the fuzzy edges had become clearer. “She loves us both.”

“Yet time and time again she chooses you because of a lie.”

“I never lied to either of you,” Tanis snapped.

“True, but you never corrected it either,” Caius countered.

“And when she chose you. Did you tell her the truth? All of it? Or did you only tell her the parts that would draw her to you?” Tanis asked taking a step towards the dais.

“Enough of this,” Caius snapped, waving a hand to dismiss the conversation. “Finish what has been started so we can finally end it.”

“I will not allow you dig your claws into her any further,” Tanis swore standing his ground. With Kara so close, so near death already, it took everything he had to stand his ground. Every cell in his body screamed to go to her, to save her.

“She is already mine,” Caius snarled, slipping forward on his throne as if he wanted to stand then thought better of it.

“If that were true, you would not be pushing me to finish it,” Tanis smiled knowingly. “You may have bound her to you through that damned necklace, but you do not truly have her soul. For that you need me.”

The smile Caius gave him made Tanis uneasy, but his own smile did not falter. He would not allow the bastard to know how hard it was to allow Kara to die. It was what she wanted. To end this existence and be free of Caius.

“She will never truly be free of me, for even if she dies, I will live on and I will find her as I found her this time. Do you really want her to suffer as she has again and again, for I will find her in every life time until the two thousand years are expended, and we once again stand before one another. Do you hate me that much, brother, to cause her that much agony?”

A movement caught the corner of Tanis’s eye. As one, he and Caius turned to the boy who had fallen to his hands and knees next to the throne, gasping as if it was hard to catch his breath. Up until that point Tanis had not even noticed him, which confused him. The power that radiated off the boy, and he used the term because he was comparing the thousand plus years with his own many millenniums, was impressive. He should have noticed him among the mortals, but he hadn’t. Thinking harder Tanis realized that he knew the boy was in the room because he had seen him walk in here before him. Just as suddenly the boy was a blank, as if he was not right there in front of them. A few flickers of life, as if whatever was shielding him was losing power, and suddenly the boy was a brilliant white light.

“Aden?” Caius asked reaching for him, concern lacing his once scathing tone.

“Why are you trying to hide him from me?” Tanis demanded stepping forward. A sudden rustle of cloth and metal froze him in his tracks. The shock of what they had witnessed had worn off and the guards were suddenly doing their job. Guarding their emperor.

“I have done nothing,” Caius answered absently, the anger evaporating under the sudden sharp concern for his apprentice. The sudden emotion had confused the demon who possessed him, for he did not understand love or compassion, and allowed Caius to escape the prison the bastard had put him in in the back of his own mind. Kneeling down next to Aden, Caius was careful not to touch him. Something was wrong, and he had little time to find out what it was before the cold-blooded demon took control again. “What is happening?”

“She’s dying,” Aden squeezed out. There was no air to show the panic that thrummed through his body. He was losing her. Not in that even though she was not his, she would still be there. He could still see her, talk to her, hold her. But in that final there is nothing left but memories and grief and pain.

“What?” Caius asked in alarm, his eyes shooting towards the figure on the floor. “No!” he breathed.

“I’m trying to help her, but she does not want to live so she is fighting me.” He prayed that the panic he felt coming off his master was real. Only the man who cared for them both would panic like this. The man who had tortured them as if their pain gave him pleasure would have revealed in their pain. He gasped out the one last bit of information that he hoped would drive Caius into action. “Our bond is taking me with her.”

The panic in the eyes that shot back to Aden was very real. Maybe there was still hope.

In the back of Caius’s head the demon roared. It would soon break free of the cage Caius had thrown it into and then there would be hell to pay. It had been only in these last few months that he had realized what a fool he had been. Now he barely had time to warn the male who now hated him and save the female that was the reason for his and the universes existence. Struggling to his feet, Caius looked at his brother, the only other person he trusted with his life, his soul, and those two things were lying on the floor dying.

“I have little time,” he said waving the guards to put their weapons up.

“What are you talking about?” Tanis snapped, although there was doubt in that tone. There was something different about Caius. Something in the eyes, in his posture.

“You must begin the ritual or he will take her,” Caius urged.

“That boy is no match for us,” Tanis sneered. “And Kara would never allow him to bond with her.”

Caius closed his eyes and counted to ten. He had forgotten how frustratingly stubborn his brother could be, and he was supposed to be the reasonable one. Opening them, he narrowed them on Tanis. “Don’t be a jealous fool. It does not become either of us,” he scolded.

Before Tanis could retort, he was suddenly airborne and flying towards the dais. When he reached Kara, Caius dropped him on the floor next to her.

“Unless you want to lose her forever, start the damn ritual. Now!” The last was meant to be forceful, but the air left him and the demon roared in his head. Doubling over, Caius fought not to lose consciousness so he could hold the demon back for as long as possible, giving his brother time to do what he had been created to do. Save them all.

Tanis stared at the hunched figure on the dais in confusion. What the hell was going on? Then he felt it. Evil so vile that it burned his skin where its power touched. A laugh that did not belong to his brother but something dark and depraved started low and eager from Caius’s mouth. Tanis did not hesitate. Looking down at the prone figure next to him, he reached for not only with his hands, but his mind, his soul, his power. The moment his skin touched hers, it felt as if the very air around them stopped moving. Carefully he turned her over, brushing the hair from her face. Wishing he had more time to learn her features in this life time, he leaned down, pressing his lips to hers. There would be plenty of time later, if they survived.

Pressure within them, around them, began to build, contracting down to a single pinprick, waiting until the moment when their souls touched before it exploded outwards with such gentleness the only outward signs that anything had happened was those in the room, across the ship shivered as the power danced over their skin.

Time stood still. There was a moment of understanding, of joy. They were together again. Two thousand years of waiting, of stuck in the endless loop of her dying in his arms and she was once again here. Alive. Then he felt it. A strange link that was not his and did not lead to Caius, but someone that did not belong. Tanis followed it down the metaphysical line to find the boy. Aden. At first Kara’s soul, the essence made of who she was, began to rise, to protect. Not in fear Tanis would harm her, but in fear of what Tanis would do to Aden. Where there was confusion on how or why the bond was forged in the first place, one thought was very clear from both Kara and Aden. They did not want it broken, and they would fight with everything they had to keep it whole.

Tanis, no, Kara’s weak voice breathed through his mind, pleading with him not to do this.

He does not belong, Tanis growled. Aden was not part of the universe’s equation. Kara belong to him and his brother, and neither of them shared her with anyone else. It was not the way the Gods intended it, and Tanis would see that it stayed that way. Gathering his will, he attacked Aden’s hold on her.

The room stood in silence as they watched the figures on the floor. Kara lay motionless as Tanis leaned over her, head bowed in concentration. Aden was on his knees, his eyes closed tightly in obvious pain, sweat beading on his face as he fought some unseen force. The emperor was now sitting on this throne, his elbows on the arms of his chair, his fingers tented as he watched the two figures on the floor before him. He could feel the power between them building, intertwining, tearing. The second burst of power that filled the room slammed all who stood in the room back against the walls, dropping them in heaps onto the floor. With a cry of agony and profound loss, Aden collapsed to the floor at the same time Kara screamed, her back arching. Tanis’s head fell back and he roared to the heavens in triumph before collapsing on top of Kara.

In that one instant, the universe shifted.

“It is done,” Caius breathed, his red eyes full of triumph.

Chapter 11
Chapter 13