Heavenly Blood

26 - Max

I wanted more than anything for Olivia to be here with me. She always knew how to handle these situations. She would be the one to charge into the room, lift Alec onto a bed and discuss all the possibilities and their likelihood's with the doctor before planting herself firmly in a chair between the bed. She would have beckoned me to sit next to her and held my hand, telling me repeatedly it was going to be ok. She would be tell me that my heritage was not my fault, gently kiss my forehead and hold me. But she wasn't here. I sat alone in the dark room with my brother and best friend unmoving in front of me. A hour. Two hour. Three hours had passed. No angel blood would accelerate the healing this time. Alec lay recovering from an overdose, the divinity overpowering him. I felt so helpless as I watched the occasional violent shaking and animalistic scratching followed by long periods of nothingness.

Alice. She paled by the second. Her heart had stopped thirty minutes ago. No one had any idea what this meant. No resuscitation procedures were performed in case this was all part of the process. No one had ever been changed before in a setting that it could be documented so the exact timing and process was unknown. All that was known was it was slow and painful. So far not a shriek. Fear crept into my heart that Alec had simply killed her. I had wondered at one point if that would be better for everyone. And if he were to die from an overdose...

I bite my lower lip hard and hung my head. A few drops of blood pattered onto my jeans. I couldn't think like this, I couldn't believe I thought it would be better. Neither one deserved this. Isla sat slumped and unconscious in her seat by her daughter, her fingers reaching towards her. I had heard the end of the story, a story that was not mine to hear but I had heard it none the less. My own was that I was given to the people I thought were my parents, taken in on the belief that my parents were angels who had been killed by vampires. The irony. The fourth hour ticked by.

"Will they ever wake up?" I asked timidly as Curtis sat next to me, "I don't want to be alone in this world."

"Alec should pull through, you will still have your brother," he replied.

"Should. Could. Maybe. I wish I could get a fucking straight answer." I flung the chair back and moved the wall, hugging my body, "Either way I won't have my sister."

"I know how much Alice meant to you Max. I foresaw it also," his voice was soft now, "And, for the record, just because you love Alice doesn't mean you love Olivia any less."

"Don't you dare say her name," I hissed, "She deserved more. So much more. So much more than what she got."

"How did she die?" He asked, "Because it wasn't just protecting Alec and Alice, was it?"

"If you are asking if it was because we were gay then yes," I whispered, "Why was it that the last two hundred years were the only centuries that Angels started living on Earth more permanently? They forgot their own teaching..."

"You blame yourself as much as you blame Alec," Curtis finished.

"If you know so fucking much why haven't you intervened more. Helped us!" I screamed, "Why only come back now? Now it's all gone to shit."

"Janet and Keith told us they had a better hold on the situation than they actually had," Curtis replied, the first change in his normally cool voice to that of ice, "It was only when we found out they were Host sympathisers that we got involved. Don't think for a second that it was easy staying away from our daughter, knowing the pain she was going through, but we knew this day was coming and that only then she would need us."

"Why does this matter? Why does any of this matter?" I screamed.

"Because of Alec's past." He held my eye and I realised, "There is a prophecy that involves the children of light and night. They are the future rulers of their worlds."

"And you think that refers to Alice's kids?" I asked.

"Alice was entering the third trimester when she....stopped responding. That's why I've asked Doctor Inda to perform a c-section."

Inda entered followed by two Angelic nurses. I had never had such a strong urge to punch anyone in my life. Instead, Curtis detained me in his arms and carried me out the room. I writhed against him, kicking to save my friend. A fire burned within to protect her dead body for further brutality. Instead I was thrown in a room, which was promptly locked after Curtis left. About six minutes later, Alec's bed was wheeled in also.

****

At some point I must have passed out. When I woke light was streaming through the window and Alec was standing above me. I pulled myself quickly off the floor before hugging my brother. Despite the pent up hatred I couldn't deny, I was grateful for not being alone anymore.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Dizzy," he replied, "I can't walk for shit still."

"How long have you been up for?" I asked.

"About an hour," he replied, "But we have both been out for nearly two days. So far I haven't heard of an attack so that may mean no one yet knows or..."

"Don't!" I warned, "We can't think like that besides..."

I stopped. He had only just emerged from a near fatal over dose and we were locked together in a room designed to contain Angels, Demons and Vampires. I was not about to tell him that Curtis had organised a c-section without consulting basically anyone. The last thing I needed was berserk Alec while being caged.

"Besides what?" He asked.

"Besides.....they will likely still come for you," I babbled, "Fuck I shouldn't be telling you this."

"What?" He pressed, "What is it?"

"I swore an oath...."

"Max..."

"Dravon took you as a baby to .... practise torture...."

"What?"

I exhaled, "Isla told me that Dravon was told his son would kill him and take his throne so he took you first. He raised you until you were approaching adulthood and used you.....used you as a test subject for new torture methods. He wanted to know how to control his people...."

"I don't....what...I..."

"You escaped," I continued, "Which is why you were walking in the sun. You wanted to die. When Alice found you..."

"Oh my fucking...." Alec crumpled to the ground, "Why do I not..."

"Remember?" I guessed, "Alice took your memories whose were taken by Isla the first time. You were separated and then found each other again."

"This is all..."

Alec was interrupted by the door suddenly opening. I unfurled my wings quickly and rose them in a defensive position as Curtis entered the room. I quickly smashed his body against the wall as he entered, pinning him in place. His own wings unfurled, stronger and larger than my own, who then threw me off into the opposite wall. His face came closer to me as I writhed in my position. His other wing acted as a barrier so Alec, even though he couldn't in his weakened state, couldn't attack directly.

"Get off me!" I hissed.

"Shut yo and listen to what he has to say," Curtis warned.

"He who?"

"Me."

Curtis dropped me, both his and my wings retracting as Lucifer stepped into the room. I had never seen him in the flesh before. Instantly I knew this wouldn't be good. He ha£travelled all the way here, found us here. Lucifer was too lazy usually which meant this was for some self interest. I didn't know if I wanted to hear what he had to say.

"You need to stop fightly like children amongst yourselves if you know what's best for you," he purred.

"Why?" Alec barked, "What do you know."

"I know they are coming," the devil replied.

"Who?" I questioned, not wanting to know the answer.

"The Host," he replied, "All of them."