The Rise and Fall

27 - Vessels and Ventricles

There was no guilt niggling in Emiliana's stomach as she tilted her head in awe. There was no funny feeling chewing at her insides or burning in the vessels or ventricles of her heart. She had only gasped because of how easy it'd been to kill this boy; for so many years he'd pestered and annoyed her to the brink where at some points she'd wanted to wrap her little hands around the flesh of his neck and squeeze until she could feel the vibration of his breath in his throat, stuck beneath her fingers, unable to quench his brain. 

But she knew something else too. Friends were dangerous. They released the anger inside her, an anger stronger than she'd ever felt before. When she'd seen Mira die so suddenly, she felt the heat of her blood boiling; she'd suddenly became uncomfortably hot underneath her hoodie with beads of sweat beading on her hairline and just behind her ears. Emiliana thought that the only person she cared for was Leo, if someone disposed of him, she couldn't tell what she'd do. But apparently, friends were just as important and she'd shown herself what she could do when she was feeling that pure anger.

Everyone was still battling around Emiliana. Leo was still tackled Gabriel, landing punch after punch on his reddening cheeks and broken temples, but he was doing a good job of hitting out at Leo to, scraping at his face with his nails and occasionally gaining the upper hand. Emiliana was sat down by Mira's body, combing her fingers through the soft strands of dark hair that had strayed from her ponytail and fallen over her nose and eyes. She tucked them neatly behind Mira's ear and lifted two fingers, one placed gently over each eye, bringing them down slowly to shut them so that it looked as though she was sleeping. Just like Daniel. 

A tall shadow cast over Mira's body and face and Emiliana's head whipped up, expecting to have to defend herself completely unarmed as she'd thrown down her knife when she jumped on Ramiel and it was glinting mischievously on the ground a few metres away. The tall boy looked over at Emiliana, his vision alternating from her to the "sleeping" body laying lifelessly on the ground. He studied her with his dark eyes, noticing how her chest no longer rose and fell in a calm rhythm and her lips were greying without the oxygen needed to keep the blood red was running ever lower on supply. It could only mean one thing and he didn't want to think it like that. A wet film coated his eyes and they became red and blotchy as a few tears streaked from the tear ducts without permission. 

"Haven," Emiliana choked pathetically next to her. It was her fault. All her fault that Mira had died. Haven turned away and his eyes hardened around the edges as he let out a low battlecry before leaping into the middle of the battle, swatting down any angel that crossed his path. Even one Fallen angel got caught up in his frenzy and began stumbling around, struggling to fight with a large gash weeping from his shoulder. Emiliana watched as he was easily taken down by the opposing side. 

It was not just Emiliana who got affected so irresponsibly. She tried to get up and staggered around for her dagger, seeing it shining in the light at her as though it was calling to her. She grabbed it and lunged at the nearest Risen angel, needing to release some of the anger and sadness, just so that she could concentrate on her main target. 

Swivelling around, Emiliana clocked Leo, backed up against the wall, desperately trying to defend himself as Gabriel slashed a sword, that must have been lying aimlessly on the ground, across his hands, cutting them in perfect straight lines. Runny, crimson red liquid oozed from the incisions on his palms, leaking down in drips onto the white, shining wood. Emiliana strode towards his attacker, preparing herself for the final battle where one of them would die. 

And it wasn't going to be her. 

Without hesitation, Emiliana swiped her dagger across the back of Gabriel's white suit slashing it open yet not quite reaching the skin beneath the crisp white shirt. Gabriel shot around like a whip cracking on its prey, a smirk plastered on his face. 

"Emiliana, I've got it," Leo urged, swiping his palms on his jumper to mop up the blood, pain etched across his face as his eyes twitched and winced. 

"We had a deal," Emiliana narrowed her eyes at him, reminiscing back to about an hour ago when she ordered that Gabriel was hers and only hers. She swiped at Gabriel again with her knife, but didn't see the reaction that Gabriel had obviously been waiting to give her. He grabbed her elbow and twisted with one hand, whilst dropping the sword and encasing Emiliana wrist in his now spare hand. He twisted her arm so that she was completely at his mercy, struggling against the pain that was rising from her shoulder where the tendons had been stretched and contorted to oblivion. She kicked out with her boots and caught his knee with her left toes, meaning that he doubled over in surprise and released Emiliana's arm quickly. She stood back and launched another kick at him, but he caught her ankle in his hands and threw it upwards. Emiliana was shocked at his pure strength as she was thrown into the air. She curved her body and flipped over, landing on the balls of her feet, crouched  down so that her hands could steady her as her head span a little. She shook away the spinning and charged at Gabriel again, but, as ever, he was ready for her, pushing her back with a great force that was hard not to stagger back or wave her arms like a bird who was just learning to fly. 

This was going to take a while. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hiiiii

Sorry, I haven't written for ages! I guess it was a little mean because I sort of left it on a very tense cliffhanger. 

So, a thousand sozzles. 

Also, I STARTED COLLEGE THIS WEEK and it's been good, but already it's very time-consuming so I apologise if I don't upload frequently, but I still hope to be doing so. 

Sadly, this book is almost at it's end. Not sure how many chapters because I'm still working on the end, but definitely not many. Three at the most. 

Byee

~ Claudss x x x