Savior (Book One)

Chapter Twenty

“Pst. Sky. Hey, Sky. Wake up.”
I opened my eyes, staring up tiredly at Leviathan’s face, a small smile on his full lips. I scrunched up my brow and glanced around my room, my cat taking up half of the bed. My eyes shifted back to my older brother and I wrinkled my nose, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “What time is it?” I mumbled, sitting up when Leviathan backed away.
“Time for your studies. I let you sleep in later, and now Michael’s pestering me to get back to teaching. I swear, that guy’s got a stick up his butt.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” I chuckled, standing up and wobbling before I caught my balance. I glanced back at Leviathan, taking note of how he leaned against my door frame, his curly blonde hair pulled back with a leather tie.
He shrugged, kicking away from the door frame to stand in front of me, his height gargantuan to my shorter self. I had always wanted to be as tall as he was, since I was shorter than most of my siblings. Heck, even most of my sisters were taller than me. I was, as some would say, a short little bean. Gosh, I would do anything to be as tall as my brother, heck, to even be built like my brother. I was the more agile one, with lean muscles and a smaller build, while Leviathan was built for strength. He was completely ripped from head to toe, with muscles anyone would kill for. Not too big of muscles, but enough to where no one wanted to mess with him.
“Meh, he won’t hurt me. He’s too much of a softy,” Leviathan spoke, making me delve out of my thoughts.
I smiled, then frowned as the world around me seemed to melt, the scene shifting to somewhere in the future. I blinked and glanced around, confused beyond belief as I looked around the space we were standing in. I glanced down at my left hand, surprised to see my sword there, the silver gleaming from the glowing turquoise stones that lined the length of my blade. I looked over at Leviathan, noticing he held his own weapon, a spear-like weapon with the blade part being made out of pure light energy. He called his weapon, Enlightenment, which I used to make fun of all the time.
So...this must be a dream then, I mused, jumping when Leviathan swung at me, making me raise my own sword to block the attack, but, why am I dreaming about the past?
I jumped up as Leviathan’s weapon swung just below me, the blonde man making sure he didn’t swing too hard, so he wouldn’t accidentally hurt me.
This memory...this was one of the times Leviathan was teaching me how to fight. I was around two thousand years old then, still very young and new to Heaven. And while two thousand years were a lot to a human, for an angel, it was very young, maybe even around a human toddler age. Despite being that young, we still held the appearance of an adult, or even a teenager, like myself. Leviathan was old enough that he looked to be in his mid twenties, though, in human years he probably would be.
“You’re getting better!” Leviathan praised, knocking me out of my thoughts as I parried his attack, swinging my sword at him.
“Well, I’m taught by the best.” I replied, gasping as the hilt of Leviathan’s spear hit me in the side. I fell to the ground, making Leviathan wince and put down his weapon.
“Crap, sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard. Are you ok?”
I went to nod, only to freeze as Leviathan’s eyes darkened, turning nearly black. His skin then looked like it was melting, making me gasp and surry away from him, my back hitting something hard behind me. I glanced behind me, gasping at the blackness that greeted me. I turned back to Leviathan, my heart sinking at the sadistic smile he wore on his face, his head tilted to the side as he stared at me.
“What’s wrong, Sky? Cat got your tongue?” He began walking closer to me, making me jump up to my feet and hold my sword up, warning him to not come any closer. “Aw, there’s no need for that, is there? Why don’t you put your sword down an come here? I promise I won’t hurt you.”
“Listen to your big brother, Sky.” Another voice spoke, making me gasp and turn to a bloodied version of Dominick, his eyes seemingly glazed over, almost dead-like. His once white hair was now crimson, covered with blood.
“Just cave in already. The dark side is much more fun.” I whipped around, seeing Kendrik smiling at me with blood in his teeth, his black hair slicked back.
“None of you are real,” I muttered to myself, dropping my sword and covering my ears when they all began laughing, the sound sinister and dark, making goosebumps raise on my arms. “This isn’t real. It’s just a dream.”
“Is it, though?”
I blinked, glancing up at Allen, who’s bloodshot blue eyes stared down at me, blood covering his side. I began tearing up, my vision blurry as I stared at one of the people I failed to protect...the innocent man I got killed because I was too incompetent to save him.
“This is your reality, Sky. This is where it’ll inevitably end up. Adam always gets what he wants. Always.” Allen said, tilting his head to the side, his glasses slipping off of his nose.
“Allen….”
“You did this to me, Sky. All because you wouldn’t succumb to Adam. You killed me, Sky.”
“No...No. I...I didn’t mean to! I’m so sorry, Allen. I’m so, so sorry.” I cried, falling to my knees. “I’m so sorry...I was too weak.” I gasped, my eyes going wide as a hand wrapped around my throat, cutting off my air supply. I choked, grabbing at Allen’s arm, trying desperately to breathe. My vision started getting fuzzy from lack of oxygen. No matter how hard I scratched at Allen’s hand, he didn’t relent. I started seeing black forming around the edges, my grip weakening as my chest constricted tightly.
And all around me, everyone started laughing. Dominick. Kendrik. Even Leviathan. Allen only smiled in my face as he choked the life out of me, his eyes changing to a deep bloody red. “You’re going to die, Sky. You and everyone you love.” He then started laughing, my eyes rolling in the back of my head as I let out my last breath.
I then shot up in my bed, breathing heavily as I looked around the motel room, my heart racing in my chest as I placed a pale hand over my throat, making sure everything was ok. When I felt no odd marks on my pale flesh, I let out a slow breath and glanced down, smiling softly as Anabell lightly snored, her arms wrapped tightly around one of the spare pillows. My gaze shifted over to the bed Leviathan occupied, only for my brow to furrow when I saw that he wasn’t there, his blankets all shifted around. I frowned, standing up from my bed before I checked the bathroom. When I deemed he wasn’t in the room, my heart began racing as I went outside, only to sigh when I saw the tall blonde sitting by the door, his head resting on his knees.
He glanced up when I sat down next to him, those turquoise eyes following me until I was situated. “What’re you doing up?” He asked, his gaze shifting to stare at the parking lot.
“Nightmare,” I admitted, pulling my knees up to my chest. I glanced over at him, leaning my head against my knees. “What about you? Why’re you out here?”
Leviathan looked at me and shrugged, running a hand through his blonde hair. “Couldn’t sleep. Too much on my mind, I guess.”
“That’s understandable.”
We then lapsed into silence, neither one of us saying anything to the other as we sat comfortably against the wall. That was, until Leviathan sighed, catching my attention as he leaned to the side, itching his...butt. He saw me staring and raised an eyebrow.
“What? My ass itches. Damn ants won’t leave my poor tush alone.”
I laughed, unable to help myself as my eyes teared up. “Really?”
“Uh, yeah, really. It’s like my ass is a buffet to them. Ah shit, no wonder. My dumbass apparently sat in an ant pile. My luck, huh?” He stood up, smacking his hands against the back of his pants, attempting to get the ants off of him.
I stood up, glancing behind him. “I think you got them all. I don’t see any.”
Leviathan nodded and leaned against the wall, instead of sitting against it. He then glanced at me, raising a curious brow. “So...a nightmare, huh? What was it about?”
I nibbled at my bottom lip and looked at him, rubbing my hands against my arms as I shivered, remembering the creepy dream. “Well...at first I dreamed about a couple of memories. Um, one where you had been waking me up and we were talking about Michael and that stick up his butt.” Leviathan smiled at the memory, but said nothing as I continued to talk. “Then it shifted to one of the days you had been training me. It got...it got weird. Like, your eyes went black...then your face stared melting. Then Dominick and Kendrik showed up...and then….and then Allen appeared. He started taunting me...telling me that...that I killed him. And it’s true. I...it was my fault that he died. If only I was strong enough to protect him...smart enough to have figured out who Lucus truly was...he would still be alive.”
“That’s bullshit.” Leviathan snapped, making me look at him in surprise, seeing the heat burning behind those heated turquoise depths. “You had nothing to do with that human’s death. You didn’t know, ok? That doesn’t make it your fault. How could you have known who Kendrik was pretending to be? Or that your human friend would be killed? You had no idea, Sky. And that’s ok. You’re not supposed to know everything. So don’t blame yourself, ok? Blame Adam for starting this damn war in the first place.”
I began tearing up, my eyes filling with tears as Leviathan pulled me into his arms, cradling my head with one of his large hands, his other hand rubbing gentle circles against my back. I wrapped my arms around his waist and cried against his chest, everything that had happened in the last year coming at me all at once. I cried for Allen...for Henry’s daughters...for Bud and for Anabell. I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore, my eyes heavy from the tears. When Leviathan let go of me, I wiped my eyes and gave him a small smile, watching him stare at me sadly.
“Thank you. For...for telling me it wasn’t my fault. I...I really needed to hear that.”
Leviathan smiled, pressing a kiss against the top of my head. “Well, it’s true, Sky. You’re not to blame for Adam’s mistakes. Now, we should probably get some rest. I’m suddenly tired as shit, so if I’m going to get that Sword back, I need to be at a hundred percent.”
I nodded silently, watching as Leviathan lifted his arms up to stretch, making me pause as I caught sight of a bunch of tiny scars, one of them large and jagged, as if he were cut with something. I frowned, glancing up at Leviathan, who seemed not to notice as he yawned, lowering his arms. I never noticed them before, not even when we were changing. What the heck were those? I mean, I know they were scars, but...how did he get them? Angels healed naturally fast, and Originals even more so. So how did he have scars?
“Um, Leviathan?”
Leviathan glanced at me, quirking up an eyebrow. “Yeah? What is it, squirt?”
“What happened to your stomach?” I asked curiously.
Leviathan surprised me when his eyes darkened, his brows pulling together as his whole demeanor seemed to shift. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” He said then went inside, leaving me confused.
I frowned at his dismissal, wondering what he was trying to hide. My question was...why wouldn’t he tell me? It’s not like having scars was bad, or anything. I was just curious as to why he, as an angel, hadn’t healed them yet. Was he hiding something from me? Why would he hide anything from me? And why did he completely close himself off when I asked him? Was he hiding anything else from me?
I sighed, rubbing at my temples before I went inside, deciding not to dwell on my thoughts any further.