Bloody Angel. Book 2

In need of Guidance

He was concerned, consumed with worry. He was scared.

He was angry, beyond furious. Swirling with a fiery rage that pulsed through his veins with every beat of his pounding heart.

He wanted to go back and hold his woman, his mate close until she woke up.

He wanted to run.

He wanted to fight.

He wanted to cry.

He wanted to make them all pay.

He wanted….

Copia roared out and roughly raked his fingers through his hair, pacing quickly back and forth down a short span of hallway before continuing on with a faster pace. He didn't know where he was going, but his legs did, carrying him down to the lowest halls that were off limits to everyone but the senior clergy. Every locked door he met opened with a wave of his hand before slamming shut behind him. The further he went, the darker the halls became, sparsely lit by flickering candles that didn't offer much light. The roughly carved stone walls were damp and crumbling, littered with cobwebs and years of grime. He ignored it all, taking the twisting stairs at the end of the hall.

It started out cold, but the deeper he went the warmer the air became, the smell of brimstone and sulfur hinted in the stagnant calm of these long forgotten halls and rarely traversed passages. The candles were no more, yet the path was shown by a residual glow that resembled a flickering flame.

Finally, he unlocked the last door, one made of heavy solid iron, and entered a large cavern-like chamber. The walls were rougher than the halls leading to it, the air stiff, stale, and almost unbearably warm. In the center there was a void of black that plummeted deep into the earth surrounded by a runic circle of ancient tongues and, like the halls leading to here, the area glowed as though lit by a bright fire. It was around this circle Copia paced, his chest heaving as he struggled to think, to control his emotions.

"O, Dark Lord of the infernal fires, unholy father and guiding light. Hear me!" Copia stops pacing and yells in Latin into the void, holding his arms out at his sides. "I beg an audience! Bless me with your presence and counsel here in my time of need!"

Only his echo responded. Copia panted heavily, the pressure behind his eye increasing. He growled when the echo faded, hands fisting before he turned and swiped his palm against the stone, barely flinching at the pain of his skin tearing on the rough surface. He let it pool in his cupped hand before throwing it down into the pit.

"Lucifer, I call to you! Accept my life blood and reveal yourself, grant me the audience I seek! I am in turmoil and in desperate need of your guidance!"

Chest heaving, he waited in the silence for a reply that never came. The only sound was that of his blood steadily dripping off his fingers into the floor before eventually that too grew silent as his wounds clotted closed.

Sighing in defeat he lowered himself to the floor, one knee pulled up where he rests his elbow on it, unmarred palm pressing into his forehead as he lowered his head to it. Rage slowly fading, other emotions took its place as hot tears slipped from his eyes and rolled over his cheeks. Steady breaths turned ragged, shaky and halting as he inhaled. His eyes burned, so he closed them.

"Please…"

 

"I am always with you, my son."

Copia jumped at the suddenness of a voice to his right, eyes flying open only to shut tighter than before at the blinding light he was met with. The man next to him chuckles softly and through his lids the brightness dimmed. Cautiously he cracked one open and when he wasn't blinded both eyes slowly blinked open and into focus.