Pure Soul Book 2
22

22.Cassiel

Running like the wind I slam my feet against the sand as I look for somewhere to hide or for someone to help me, I’m swiveling my head to the left and then right though I’m not sure why I turn to the right when all that is available to me that way is the ocean waves crashing angrily onto the sand. My intuition is telling me that once I get to the dunes, I’ll be all right, I’ll be safe from the psycho being running behind me. I nearly sag to the ground in relief as I come around the bend and see Aza standing in front of me. As soon as I’m in arms reach of him, I fall into his outstretched arms and moan softly against his chest as they wrap around me, embracing me tightly to him for a second. Suddenly he shoves me behind him like he’s going to be a human shield for me. He’s just spotted his friend.

Placing my hands on either side of Aza’s shoulders I stand on tiptoe so that I can peek over him to see the crazy bitch standing about twenty feet away from us, breathing hard with a death glare in her eyes. I’ve taken a few steps back from Aza and over to the right a few so that I have a better view of her, and my jaw falls open as I stare in shock at what my eyes are seeing. Belial is a fallen angel! A mother bleeping Fallen Angel! What the actual ‘F’! As the sun sets it makes her pitch-black wings look as if they are on fire and I shudder. Her voice feels like broken glass being drawn across flesh. She snidely begins to tell me who Aza really is. I scoff at the fact that Daniel’s dream hadn’t been a dream but a premonition!

I can’t wrap my head around what she’s saying. Aza isn’t a human... Belial continues to speak, and I lose my mind shouting out, “SHUT UP! Just shut up! You’re lying!” My heart feels like it has just fallen out of my chest and shatters like a porcelain vase. My eyes that had been frozen in shock upon Belial are now moving to Aza as I try to form words. “You’re a, a,” I splutter as I try to get the wretched words to leave my tongue. “You’re a Fallen Angel! How can this be? Were you just using me to get to the element? I trusted you!” I scream the words into the late evening air. “How could you do this to me, you’re my true mate!”

Aza looks at me in defeat, the moon full in the sky; its light shining down on him causing him to almost look angelic. “I’m sorry Cass. I was assigned to seduce you, sway you, make you fall in love with me so that I would be able to easily convince you to hand over the Astatine. I didn’t expect to fall in love with you, to find my true mate. I’m not that type of angel. My meaning on this earth is to cohabite with women. I’ve never fallen for another being; be it human or angel, before. Honestly, Asmodeus was in the process of getting me reassigned to another sector because he felt I was becoming unreliable in his unit.”

The rage coursing through me is boiling over and as it consumes my body, my wings burst out from in between my shoulder blades in a blaze of white light which triggers my armor to spill forth, wrapping my body in gold metal, my helmet falling forth to cover the upper portion of my face, ending at the tip of my nose and running across my cheeks, over my ears and around my head with winged sides. I whip my left arm behind my back where I hook it to my shield and then bring my arm quickly back around to block the midsection of my body. My right arm, I throw over my right shoulder and take hold of my newly obtained Astatine sword. No angel has had the chance to put the sword to use yet, but I pull it out of its sheath anyway and go into a fighter’s stance.

Seething at this point my breathing has become ragged, “No one uses me Aza, NO ONE!” I yell out and then charge towards him. He has mere seconds to take hold of his own sword as I bring my blade down on him. It is pure luck on his part that he is able to block it. With a grunt I jump back and lunge at him, this time pretending to aim for his stomach before switching at the last second and lashing out at his upper thigh splitting his flesh open, I stare in shock at seeing the blood flow. A ripple of satisfaction runs over me, causing me to smile. The sword works, the injury doesn’t immediately heal; in fact, it doesn’t heal at all.

I turn just in time to throw my shield up, blocking the thrust of Azael’s sword as he brings his arm down from over his head. Pushing against him I give one hard shove and then quickly move out of the way so that he ends up losing his balance and stumbling forward. Twirling around on him I’m standing over him and growl as my sword goes into his shoulder. Aza howls in pain and I dance away from him, pulling hard at the same time to remove the metal from his skin. He jumps up from the kneeling position he had fallen to when he stumbled. My anger is ebbing as I watch his blood drip from both wounds to the sandy earth beneath our feet. To see him in pain and knowing I caused that pain is devastating to my soul.

“Cassiel, please, just listen to me. I have fallen in love with you, you are my true mate. I do not want to hurt you!” Standing in front of me, Aza is breathing hard, and he tosses his sword to the ground by my feet. Unmoving I stare at him conflicted. I want him to pay for making me look the fool. At the same time though, he is my true mate, I love him and can’t fathom the thought of killing him. Just as I decide to lower my sword, I hear Azael shout out, “NOOOO!” Before I have a chance to see what he is seeing, I feel something plunge through my back, barely missing my spine and though it has narrowly missed my heart and lung as well, it hurts like hell. As I glance down to look at my chest, I see the tip of a sword sticking out of me. My eyes wide in surprise, I look at Aza before falling to my knees. I hear him ask why and in turn a female voice responds though I’m not able to hear her response. After she answers him, I feel a heavy soled boot placed upon my back, pushing me so that I fall forward, my face smashing into the sand as the sword is removed from my body.

I’ve been stabbed before, though never near my chest but this time the searing pain coursing through me is completely different from any stab wound I’ve experienced before, and I wonder if the Fallen have managed to get their hands on the Astatine as well... I go in and out of consciousness a couple of times at one point catching Azael whispering against my ear, “I’m so sorry Cass,” and my face becomes damp as the tears falling from his eyes land on my cheeks. His voice fades and then I feel hands on my body, lifting me off the ground, seconds later I black out.

I can’t say when I came to but when my eyes flutter open, I find myself in a very brightly lit, white room. At first, I thought I was back in heaven, but realization slowly descends upon me, as I realize I’m in a human hospital room. “Cassiel?” I hear someone say my name and I try to maneuver myself into a sitting position before searing pain shoots through my upper left chest near my collar bone and straight down my left arm causing me to whimper before collapsing back into the mattress. Suddenly I feel the bed begin to move, my upper half being repositioned as the top portion of the bed raises. My eyes land on Zadkiel. “Hey, you, you gave us quite the scare. The Fallen Ones have managed to get their hands on the element and used it on you.”

My throat is sore and scratchy and when I try to speak my voice didn’t rise louder than a whisper due to lack of use. “Sorry,” I say and manage to produce a small smile. “How long have I been here?”

“Just about three days,” Zad replies. “I have to get back to the heavens and update them on your status. I will return later this evening.” He takes my hand in his giving it a squeeze and I stare at him in shock because I’ve never seen him show affection towards me before. Honestly, I thought he hated me. I say okay and squeeze his hand back showing my appreciation the only way I can. Zadkiel nods and then leaves my room, leaving me to the silence, and emptiness. I wonder about the rest of my unit and am curious as to why Ananiel, Daniel, Turiel, and Baraqiel aren’t milling about. The thought is fleeting as my eyes grow too heavy to keep open and I drift off into the darkness, welcoming the sleep.

When I wake next, I notice my room is pitch-black which is odd because a noise or sound of some sort within the room caused me to stir from my slumber. Hearing the sound again, my eyes dart around the room until I spot something in the corner, no, not something, someone perched on one of the hospital chairs the kind that have the wood arms and frame and the cushions that are wrapped in mint green vinyl. “Oh good. You’re awake.” And though the voice sounds familiar, I can’t put a face with it at the moment.

A light is turned on and I can’t help but say, “what are you doing here?” Belial is standing next to the light switch, her black fathomless eyes locked on me in a glare.

She stalks towards me until she is standing right next to my bed. With a sneer she leans over, her face hovering inches away from my own. “I’ve come to finish what I tried to do three and a half days ago.”

Confused I ask, “and what exactly might that be?”

A maniacal laugh comes from her before she responds; “that’s right, your back was to me, so you didn’t see me as I came up behind you and slid my sword into your flesh.” Her grin is menacing as she continues to keep her eyes locked with mine. “This time round though I understand how to use this and end you.” Fear flashes in my eyes as I look to see what she is holding onto. She is tightly gripping a silver dagger that’s roughly 12 inches long. The blade has a blue hue to it, and I realize why she is holding it so proudly in the palm of her hand. The dagger has been doused with the Astatine element.

“Why do you want to end my life?” I look at her baffled. Even though she’s a Fallen Angel, I’ve never done anything to her to cause the wrath I see raging in her eyes. “I don’t know you, haven’t done anything to cause the hatred flashing in those soulless eyes of yours!”

Belial rolls her eyes and then smirks at me. “You have ruined everything I had worked so hard to achieve. Did you know Azael was on the path to becoming a duke in one of the realms of Hell? That was because of me. I had it all planned out, he was finally starting to show interest in me, and I was going to make it so we could both rule the realm. But then you show up and destroy everything! So, I figure, if I have you out of the way I can get everything back on track and still obtain the life I want. And besides, ending an angel’s life, the recognition I will receive thereafter will be astronomical!”

I have no rebuttal towards her commentary and look around the room to see if I can use anything as a weapon or at the very least a shield. Just as my hand takes hold of a bedpan sitting to my right on some type of rolling tray table, Belial decides she’s done chatting and taking the hilt of the dagger, grasping it in both hands, she raises the weapon high above her head before swiftly plunging it downward, aiming straight for my heart. I maneuver the pan across my chest as I see the blade coming towards me to lie between my breasts, but the only thing that helped in doing was to lessen how hard the impact was and that was just barely at all. Screaming I feel the pain streak across my body like a spider web as the Astatine dowsed blade hits its intended target.

As the element is still unknown to most beings and hasn’t yet been utilized in the killing of either angels or Fallen ones, it is quite the surprise to both Belial and I to see the most extraordinary, brilliant golden white light explode from my body as the Astatine pierces straight through my heart. The room is engulfed in the brightness making it look as though daylight is spilling through the darkness of night. My dying thought is ah, the Astatine has to be driven straight through the heart to succeed in destroying us. An explosion resounds throughout the entire building, shaking floors and rattling windows in the process but then there is absolute nothingness...

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