Chapter 1
Something New
Old sights.
Old smells. Old life.
Even if this was New England, for it didn’t matter.
Because, as usual, the years all seemed to simply merge into one and the monotonous tasks were once again starting to weigh down on my soul.
And finding myself now on a flight towards Afterlife was no different than it was last year, or the year before that and so on.
“Dom, did you hear me?”
I heard Vincent speaking and shook the cobwebs of melancholy from my mind.
“But of course,”
I said turning to face my brother, knowing what I would find.
That being arms crossed and a perceptive smug look plastered on his face.
Well, it was time to do what most brothers did in these situations and that was to try and prove him wrong.
“You enquired why our sister decided to go on alone ahead of us.”
There, you smug bastard, I thought with a grin, especially when I saw his face drop.
It was the same face he had whenever I bested him on the mats, something I was pleased to note happened often.
Alright, so I wasn’t in mind to mention how much it took to heal my vessel afterwards, as it had to be said my brother may have been smug, but he was also one tough bastard right alongside it!
But as of late I had found my mind elsewhere, so let’s just say that I wasn’t in a hurry to gift my brother with a victory any time soon.
“So, any ideas why?”
Vincent asked once he’d had his proof that I was listening.
I shrugged my shoulders and replied,
“I don’t know, why does Sophia do half the shit she does…? As usual she is a law within herself and does as she pleases.”
“And most times I would agree with you but this time…I don’t know…”
I watched as Vincent struggled to describe why he felt this time was different, which was when I started to think about her behaviour myself.
It was true that the last few weeks she had been unusually quiet, but when you were as old as we were then it was a common thing to find yourself out of sorts.
By the Devil, but he should even sympathise as he’d felt that way himself on occasion.
Maybe it was time for a new project or business venture, as that usually kept him busy for a while.
“It’s natural, Vince, and it’s not like we haven’t been through it all before with her,”
I said as a way of trying to ease my brother’s worries.
The funny thing was that Vincent had no doubt had this same conversation with Sophia about me, for I was known for my dark moods far more than our sister was.
But then I had the added weight of being the ruling King of a hidden Supernatural Kingdom that lived among the entirety of the human population.
A job that I didn’t think possible to accomplish even half so well, had it not been for the constant support and backing of my siblings.
However, being what I was, then the task was primarily left up to me and for good reason as Vincent was a king in his own right, ruling legions of his own Angels just as my sister, who was a demon and ruled over her own realm. But I, well I was something else entirely.
I was the only Angel, Demon half breed in existence, which meant that with the power of both Heaven and Hell running through my veins then this meant there wasn’t much I wasn’t equipped to deal with.
Of course, being stronger and more powerful than most certainly helped.
But, needless to say, the three of us, well… we made for a formidable and unbeatable force.
Now, if I could just beat my own inner demon named boredom, then life would continue as it usually did, only with less of a bad temper for my siblings to have to endure.
Gods, but did I miss the old days! The days of war to keep my mind busy and my hands even busier.
But long ago life began to lack its lustre and its purpose was becoming even further from the answer why.
But, I knew why.
For shortly, another year would be done with and just one more to add to the long list of ones lived through without her…without,
My Electus.
I tried not to think upon it too much, for truth sometimes it drove me to distraction that only a good fight would subdue such thoughts.
But it was the nights that were the worst.
Those endless, sleepless nights of asking myself when? When would she finally appear in my life as was prophesied.
These were questions I would plague the Gods with had they had any idea.
But, seeing as it was the will of the Fates and essentially the fate of the chosen girl in question, then that answer was like an abyss my heart had long been suspended over. In other words, it was vast, and it was endless.
The only thing I did know for certain was that she had been born and by now would have reached the age of twenty-three.
I knew this as I knew my own need to breathe.
I had felt it that day as if something in my blood had fired up.
After this I refused to take another to my bed, no doubt a foolish endeavor and would account for my mounting bad mood this last twenty-three years.
Even in a moment of weakness I had tried but it felt too much like a betrayal even before I’d set my sights on the girl.
I never spoke of the reasons with my siblings for they would no doubt think me near to losing my mind.
For what of the proof of her birth other than waking up one night after feeling as if my heart had been set aflame?
I even remember the dream as if it had afflicted me only yesterday.
I was searching for something in the forest when I came across a mirror.
I saw first my own reflection staring back at me, one very little changed since I was first gifted this body.
But I heard something beyond it as if the mirror itself was a portal into the future.
It was a woman’s voice and she was scared. I didn’t think after that, I just ran towards the sound, twisting my body side on ready to crash all my weight through to the other side.
However, all it did was stop me, making me bounce back as though it had been made of Hell’s black glass stone.
A material used for many of the floors of my castle in my own ruling realm in Hell.
Granted not exactly what you would call a summer home, but at least it appeased my Demon side to visit every now and again.
Besides, Lucifer was only one being, and couldn’t be expected to keep control over the entirety of Hell.
He was classed as a God, yes, but even they could only do so much.
So, what had I done when faced with the near impenetrable force I was being denied entrance into…I spent the remainder of my dream trying to prove that no will on Heaven, Hell or Earth could keep me from her.
In the end I had taken a run at it but this time once close enough I had punched the center with my fist and at same time, released my demonic sword down my arm.
It finally penetrated the glass but the power of it sent me flying backwards, skidding on a knee with my wings trying to create resistance against the force.
A shock wave had come from the cracks I made and all that was seen after that was a slim feminine hand reach out and rest upon the glass for only a second before I had awoken.
I remember waking feeling so frustrated that I looked down to find the bedsheets torn and shredded in between my demonic hands, with my talons still embedded within the material.
In all of my years upon this earth I had never once remembered being so out of control.
Yes, I’d lost my temper, many a time in fact.
But even then, I still remained in control of my demon side, keeping it locked down and for good reason.
I believe this was down to my angel side, whose battle against the opposite force was a constant reminder to what could happen should I let such a power consume me and take control. Hell, if that ever happened then I would be rendered a useless King and have to be judged myself. Naturally, not something I wanted to happen, which therefore was reason for concern when my Chosen One was finally found.
This slight lapse in control was another reason added to many as to why I never spoke about this sudden change in my character with my siblings.
And, as if fate had also intervened at the time, my long-standing partner Aurora had also tried to make a mockery of me, thinking to use jealously as a driving force to our sham of a relationship.
I believe I shocked everyone when my actions lacked the obvious blood loss and death they had been expecting.
But no matter how beautiful and captivating I had once found Aurora, I knew like most that after a certain time it became impossible to ignore that she was as black inside as she was light outside.
Her soul was rotten to the core and held an ugliness that no amount of beauty could hide.
So, instead of killing the poor fool she had tried to sign over to his own death warrant, I had simply told him he was welcome to her, that being punishment enough in my eyes.
Then I cast her out.
Sophia had naturally approved and surprisingly, so had my brother and until then I hadn’t realised how deep their dislike for her had been rooted.
My only mistake had been a few years ago, when she had appealed to the better and more angelic side to my nature in giving her another chance to prove herself at my council table.
Oh, she had her uses among those, for she seemed to know a few valuable connections that came in handy from time to time.
But what I hadn’t known was what I was to endure in this time was a constant display and shameless attempt at securing my favour once more.
I had indeed put her in her place a few times and the annoyance at this being deemed necessary, well let’s just say that it left a sour taste in my mouth more than once.
I doubted very much that it would be long before my temper snapped completely, and she would once again find herself being replaced at my table.
Sophia would at the very least be pleased.
But thinking of my sister did make me wonder of her strange behaviour of late.
I knew of this deeper calling she felt the Fates had bestowed upon her when it came to my Chosen One.
I had questioned it once when she would hound me like a Hellbeast yapping at my heels urging me to try searching for her once more.
Something I had done, with no success I might add.
For even she knew as I did that it was a hopeless endeavor, as it was always prophesied that she would find me, not the other way around.
She would come to me.
A thought that I admit had tortured my mind and many a time toyed with the frayed old edges of my soul for I was forever growing tired of this eternal wait.
And now, knowing that she was finally in the world somewhere, was even harder than before.
Because with each passing year I knew that it was simply another one for me to add to the list I would be forced to miss out on.
But of course, I wanted her to become of age, for I found it nothing but distasteful when a woman was taken too young, as was the case for more years than it had not.
Something I was thankful to disallow in my kingdom when I was king, for a girl could still be just a girl even after she had discovered her first bleed.
It was too soon in my eyes and thankfully my thoughts were mirrored throughout my kingdom.
No, I didn’t want some fearful little one and six in my bed… or should I say, as times now expressed it, a sweet sixteen-year-old.
No, I wanted a woman to warm my bed who had grown into her body with the curves a female should have.
I didn’t want to feel bone beneath my fingertips when I touched her, but soft flesh I knew would do nicely in cushioning against the hardness of my own body.
But alas, this was all just a dream for until I met her, then I would never know.
My only clue had been a blonde-haired beauty displaying a golden fleece of my very own.
Reason enough not take one to my bed again until a weakness became too much in Aurora.
The truth be known I had simply wanted to feel something sooner than not, a clear mistake on my part.
“Dom?”
Vincent called my name in question and this time there was no getting away with feigning my interest in what he had been saying.
“We are landing soon,”
he informed me with an annoying knowing chuckle.
I nodded in acknowledgement as I was in no mood to converse as to why I was acting in such a distracted way.
No doubt he knew, for that was the thing with Vincent.
He was the one who could read me like no other and just know how to calm my fiery nature.
He knew far too much in fact, and sometimes he would simply look at you in the knowing manner that I often found infuriating, simply because it felt like a weakness when another knew of my inner turmoil.
But then again, he was my brother and his love for me was the reason he worried.
It was the reason he cared enough to help, and this would often come in the form of saying very little or nothing at all.
For he knew nothing could ease the echoing ache I felt, as though a piece of me was missing.
And sometimes, like now, that hole felt like a fucking chasm!
I watched as the world below became closer and it was when seeing this view that the theory that God was just a kid with an ant farm could really take shape into truth.
However, the Gods had very little say in humanity and the choices they made, for free will was, unbeknown to them, their greatest gift, if not also an incredibly destructive one.
I couldn’t help but wonder though was she down there in the world below me somewhere? It made me want to touch the window and see if it was warm, as the glass had been that night in my dream.
But I was aware of Vincent watching me and let’s just say that I loved my brother enough not think it necessary to cause him reason for alarm.
Damn it, but I wished I had just flown the plane as I had wanted to, but then it was as Vincent had said, what was the sense of having a pilot on the payroll only for him to be sat instead as a passenger? Besides Vincent and I had business to discuss, which unfortunately had been concluded an hour into the flight.
Our time in England had been a pointless one for no alliance had come from my meeting with the Hellbeasts’ King, Jared Cerberus and other than finding some worthy entertainment for the night, it had been a pointless endeavor.
He was a stubborn bastard, I had to give it to him.
But, alas, it looked to continue to be an endless hope that one day the rulers of our realms would reunite.
But I wasn’t holding my breath, for this was something I had been trying to achieve for a very long time now and unfortunately, with no alliance in sight, it was soon becoming a dying dream.
I watched as the plane came in to land and for some reason I found myself more than eager to be off it.
I don’t know what had come over me, but I felt a sort of pull, like some ancient instinct was kicking in and telling me to get off the plane.
So, after barely even waiting for the wheels to stop turning, I had the door open and was dropping to the ground from my private jet.
“Dom! What are you doing?”
I heard Vincent calling behind me, but I didn’t stop.
I jumped down from the plane and found myself walking past the black Rolls Royce Phantom that was waiting for us and towards the main building of Portland’s international airport.
Suddenly I felt a hand restrain me and I turned around to find Vincent asking what had gotten into me, but I barely even heard him.
I simply looked back at the main building and stared with such intensity I swear I could have rocked its foundations if I had wanted to.
But instead, the only foundations that moved were my own when I felt a feeling unlike any other rock me to my core.
I couldn’t explain it, but it was as though I could feel something coming.
Something life changing.
Something…
New.