Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (2 page)

“
Azaal?” The sweetness of Brooke’s voice broke my thoughts.

“Yes. He
was
a friend of mine. I guess you could say my oldest friend. We both were angels assigned to watch over man at the beginning of time – seraphim. They referred to us as the Watchers. At one time, our identity was known to man.”

Brooke stopped me. “So
…the things in that book – all those things are true?”

“I’ve not read the book, so I can’t vouch for the validity
of every word, but I’d say yes – it is truth.”

Brooke’s head
tilted to the side as she studied me. “What was your name?” she asked, narrowing her gaze.

It had been so
long time since I’d thought of my name. “Semyeza,” I said.

Her eyes widened. My name struck something within her. By her reaction, whatever had been mentioned of me in that book had not been pleasing to her. After a long pause, she asked,
“Why did you change it?”

“I didn’t deserve any part of grace, not ev
en the name given to me by it.”

Brooke brought
her knee up to her chest, rested her chin on the top of it, and stared at the floor. Talking out loud to herself, she said, “The creatures that you were supposed to keep safe were safe from everything, but there was no one to keep them safe from you.”

At t
hose words, chill bumps rippled across my flesh. Those were damn near the same words that wretched woman had uttered to me that day in the Garden.

Brooke
methodically rubbed her hand over her shoulder, refusing to look in my direction. “The book said that the end would come from the union of a Fallen and a mortal marked.” Finally allowing her eyes to meet mine, she said, “I guess that would be us? My tattoo – that’s the mark? The unmarked soul you took was Ashley’s?”

S
lowly, I shook my head. “I’d always thought the prophecy meant that the love between the two would be so strong that one of my kind would turn an unmarked mortal immortal, not that love would cause a Fallen to take the soul of an unmarked mortal out of rage.” I released a defeated sigh. “Rage – do you have
any
idea how hard it is to control that emotion when mixed with love? Such emotions are volatile when they coalesce.” Pushing her up, I pulled the t-shirt up to reveal her tattoo. How I’d not noticed the intricate detail inked in her flesh was beyond me. “Do you have any idea what your tattoo says?” I asked.

Her eyes narrowed. “Says? It doesn’t
say
anything.”

My finger traced over the loops and swirls in the wings. “Oh, but it does
. The butterfly itself represents transformation – a departed soul… all these little circles and trails within its wings are letters from a language no mortal has ever known.” For the first time, I studied the letters tangled within the design and the words caused a slight chill to course through my veins.

“What does it say?” Brooke asked, sounding fearful of what my answer would be.

I whispered the words to her, “Forbidden salvation laced within wings, the power to bring a creature of death to his knees.”

Turning to me, Brooke’s face was pale. Her eyes
were veiled behind tears as she asked, “You’ve never noticed that before?”

“No.”

I should have noticed it. It should have jumped out at me, but I’d become so flawless at pretending to be human… I’d allowed myself to believe I was, and I let emotions blind me to everything that tried to warn me to leave her be.

Silence fell over her again. Dropping her leg
from her chair, she turned and looked out the window. I sat staring into my lap and dreading the events that would unfold. Azaal had never had his hands in anything that wasn’t absolute evil.

Some of what I’d said click
ed and Brooke quickly turned to me. In an anxious whisper she said, “You said you thought the prophecy meant you’d make someone immortal?” Before I could answer, she’d grabbed me by the shoulders, her fingers cutting into my flesh and her eyes watering up. “You can make people immortal?” Behind her ice-blue eyes laid sheer desperation. They widened into a pleading look. “Gavin… make me immortal!”

Closing my eyes, I bit down on my bottom lip, fighting the gnawing urge I had to give in to her desire. Even though the agreement had been broken, I knew what was best for her, and I couldn’t do that to her.

“I can’t,
” I said.

“Why? Why not!
Why
wouldn’t
you?” Her voice had risen to a hysterical yell. “I don’t want to die, and if we’re all damned anyway…please.
Please
. Please, don’t let me die.” She covered her face with her hands, still muttering “please” through broken sobs.

I reached over and ran my hands through her hair
, gripping the base of her skull firmly in my palms. “Love, you
don’t
want me to do that. Not now. If I turned you now – we’re
all
damned, but if mankind ends the way Azaal said it would, my turning you would damn you to hell. You are unmarked, which means that when this all ends – when there is no such thing as the world of the living – you will find grace.” Relaxing my face, I sternly said, “I’ll
not
be the one to damn your soul to hell.”

Brooke bent over, cradling
her head in her hands. She was weeping uncontrollably and I could barely make out the strained words that came from her lips. “I’ll be damned,” the words trickled through her cries, “if it means I’ll be with you.”

“No,” I whispered
. Her words pained me and I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. She was breaking and I couldn’t do a damned thing about it. I
had
to let her break.

Several minutes later, w
hen she’d finally calmed herself down, I felt her fingers dig into my forearm. Wiping her wet face on her shoulder, she said, “You never told me why Ashley was at your house.”

I
stared up at the ceiling. “Of course.” Scratching across my brow, I wet my lips with my tongue, trying to decide the best way to describe all this to her. “In order to keep ourselves from falling into situations such as this –” I hesitated. “The Fallen choose where to find their pleasures carefully. We can have any woman we so choose, but it’s safer if we don’t get involved. Don’t give emotions the ability to control and sway our decisions.”

Th
e way I was describing my life up until Brooke sounded so cold, and I knew the casual way I was recounting it made it sound even more callous. “So, if we decide we desire the pleasures of the unmarked, we need those that have no interest in relationships. Those that let us have complete control over the situation, and those that do exactly as told. A woman must be trained to be with us, tailored so that emotion hasn’t the slightest chance of weaving its way into us.” I paused and watched her brow twitch as the image of who she’d believed I was became more tarnished by each word I uttered. “The club that you went to with Ashley is more than it appears.”

A rush of red color
flew over Brooke’s face as she realized I knew she’d gone to that club. “Raven finds us women and trains them to be submissive, to not ask questions, to not get emotionally involved. That club trains women to please demons, and those women have not the slightest clue of the sadistic creatures they are providing satisfaction to.” Brooke shifted her gaze down to her lap and furiously tore at her nails. “There’s another part to that club, Brooke. Raven also finds us those who are marked.” Swallowing, I waited for Brooke to question me. She just stared off. It looked as though she was staring through me.

“You see, w
e are cursed. We inherently harbor hatred toward man. From their sins we lost eternal grace and for that, we crave to take the immortal part of man. It’s a thirst I haven’t yet learned to control. An addiction that nothing can quell.”

Brooke shook her head from side to side. “You kill people?
For no reason?” she asked in a despairing whisper of a breath.

“Not usually. I can take just enough to satisfy
my need. The others are the ones who kill them.”

Her jaw hung open and her eyes flinched.
“Others?”

“Yes. I believe
you
would refer to them as vampires.”

Brooke let out a nervous laugh. “
Vampires? This can’t be real… that club is full of –” her voice lowered as she spoke to herself, “I can’t believe I’m about to say this – vampires?” Bowing her head, she covered her face with her palms. “This is insane.” The muffled sound of her thoughts broke through her fingers. “Absolutely insane! This isn’t real. This
can’t
be. I’ve lost my mind, right? This just isn’t – it’s not how – it just can’t be true.”

She continued
to incoherently mumble to herself. I grabbed her and spun her body toward me. My sudden movement startled her and she fell silent, prying her eyes open.

“
Sorry to say, but this is how the world really is. It was part of the curse. Mortals and immortals are not meant for one another, love.” Curving my lips up into a devious smile, I said, “Do you remember the words I said to you before I kissed you for the first time? Didn’t exactly understand what I meant when I said ‘you’ve no idea the trouble I could get into for this’, aye? Trouble doesn’t
begin
to describe it.”

She drug
her hands down her face and concentrated on the floor.

“Ashley.”
Leaning my head back against the cushion of the seat, I tried once again to explain. “She was one of the women Raven had trained.”

Brooke int
erjected, “But she acted like –”

“Let me explain. Just let me be done with this conversation.”
I released an agitated huff. “
She
was trained. She knew absolutely nothing about who I really was. I told you the ones who are trained have no idea what darkness they are dealing with.”

I knew all of the information she’d been given
over the past four hours was unbearable, and she probably hadn’t even begun to fully process it in her head. Her eyes quickly flooded with tears. Biting down on her lip, she softly asked, “You slept with her?” The question sounded desperate for an answer I could not give her.

“Yes.
Before
she ever worked with me.” I wanted her to know that I had not lied about that at least. “Only a few times. I could tell she wanted more, so I told her that arrangement wouldn’t work out.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? How could you let me sit there, like a fucking idiot, and be friends
with her? I told her things – damn it, Gavin. How
could
you lie to me like that?”

“And what should I have told you, Brooke?” I
felt my jaw tense up and my heart rate pick up speed. “Should I have said, by the way, love, your friend there, she was trained to fuck me so that I could have sex with someone without sucking their soul out and gulping down their blood? Because, you see, I’m not exactly what you think I am. I’m a damned angel forced to wander the earth for all eternity and feed from mankind?” Pulling my hair back with my hands, I closed my elbows around my face and let out a loud groan. “That would have gone over well, don’t you agree?” I said, peering at her through the bend in my elbow.

I reached up to the side of her face an
d caressed it softly. Wiping the tear out from under her eye, I said, “Love, you are the only woman I’ve ever pursued. Never have I chased a creature the way I did you. You infested my mind, haunted my dreams – had I not fallen all those centuries ago, I surely would have fallen the moment my eyes found you.”

A soft smile shaped
her mouth. I moved my face to touch my lips to hers, but her hands pressed against my chest and lightly pushed me away. “Why did you kill her?”

Wanting nothing more than to be done
with this conversation, I sighed. “Because – you’re mine.”

Brooke blinked, her eyes narrowed.

“She threatened to tell you. I couldn’t bear the thought of her hurting you. Ashley’s the one who came into my office that night. I thought I could handle things. I knew if you found out about her things would spiral out of control.” Stretching my neck, I tried to release the tension just thinking about the chaos that conniving woman had caused. I blew out a cleansing breath before continuing. “The anger I felt with her trying to manipulate me. I lost my wits and all I wanted was to punish her. I couldn’t control my anger. I was livid that she would hurt you. I couldn’t lose you, or let her hurt you.” I grabbed my pendant and ran my finger over the cool metal.

Brooke hung her head, wrapping her arms
around the back of her neck. Her body heaved from the sobs she let out. My heart felt heavy at that moment. I draped my arms around her slender frame and held her. My chin rested at the base of her neck and my body rose with each pitch of hers. I didn’t know what else to do than to cling to her tightly as she wept. There were no words that could take back what I’d done, and there was no comfort I could give her aside from my touch. I knew the sorrow she felt was immeasurable. The guilt she must feel from falling for the soul who had damned the entire world, and all from his love for her.