Divine Uprising Read online

  “Little One, the choices of those around you are not your fault,” Michael said, then he reached for my hand, and with little effort, pulled me into his arms.

  “Brothers,” he announced, still holding me. “We give them the choice, for Light is always stronger than Darkness.”

  Nodding their approval, the three angels began walking through the camps picking up the Nephilim.

  I watched the angels continue to visit us. Time passed in the room as I watched my life on fast forward: the first meeting with Adonis, the training with the other Seekers, and then…

  The day that changed the battle between good and evil. Forever.

  Chapter Ten

  I could feel Seth watching me. I didn’t know if he was gauging my reaction to the next part of the story, but I mentally prepared myself for the visions soon to be in front of me.

  Trying not to clench my hands any harder into Adonis’s side, I continued to watch. Seth was silent as the story continued.

  “The Nephilim started to take sides. Many of them began where the Watchers left off, sleeping with human women. As you are now aware, they had been having children who were even worse abominations than the first. For these children were taught at a young age to satisfy the lusts of the flesh.

  “They became carnivorous, consuming the flesh of other people and drinking their blood.” I bit my lip in frustration as I watched them seduce and take the lives of young women around the earth.

  My father appeared again, this time looking more beautiful than before. Animal fur covered him from head to toe, and on his head was a crown of rubies.

  “It is time to choose,” he said.

  The Nephilim split down the middle. Half of them went to the side of what we now call the Phantoms. The other half stayed on the side of the angels as Seekers.

  Suddenly the sky turned black.

  Rain began to fall; everyone scattered, even the Phantoms, but it was too late.

  “The Great Flood was sent to punish mankind for their evil, not that it did anything to those who possessed gifts like the Nephilim; nor did it keep the Sons of Man that survived the Abyss from continuing their campaign against the Light.” Seth reached out, and everything vanished.

  I could feel the salt of the water as if I was experiencing the Flood again, even though I’d been put into a deep sleep during that time, awakened only by Michael.

  Like I said, he had been like a father to me from the very beginning.

  I didn’t want to ask Seth the obvious question, so I looked to Adonis. Understanding the question in my eyes, he cleared his throat “So we fight the Watchers? Or as humans know them, the Titans?”

  “Yes.”

  “And how many are freed?” Adonis asked.

  “All of them.”

  “I was hoping that was an exaggeration,” I said, finally understanding why the archangels had looked so upset. “So we fight against the Phantoms and the Watchers? Who is going to help us?”

  The question hung in the air. I looked from Adonis to Seth. Seth didn’t seem to want to answer my question.

  The room turned black, and the stars disappeared; I was falling into a pit of nothingness, and then his voice came to me.

  “There is no us, Athena.”

  Confused, I waited for him to clarify. Seth was immediately in front of me, and Adonis was slammed against the nearest wall. I cried out to him, but my voice would not cooperate.

  My mouth opened to scream as Seth blew into my face. His breath smelled like honey, and I was instantly drawn in. I wanted to bathe in his presence. My body convulsed as if it had taken a direct hit. My soul was soothed at his words, yet I knew it was all wrong. My body wouldn’t listen, and it pushed towards the voice. I was desperate, starving, and needed him to be closer.

  “Like I said before, Thena, there is no us, only you and I… only you and I. Do you get it, my love? My sweet, beautiful one? I will search the ends of the earth for you. You are my obsession, my life. I want to possess you…” Seth’s face transformed into that of a relative stranger. A heartbreakingly beautiful being, full of light. I was scared to touch him, but my body craved it.

  His lips crushed mine and stole. They took but didn’t give anything in return. My treacherous body allowed him to steal all of my energy; I freely gave in, knowing it was wrong, and then, as I was coming out of the dream-like haze, something hard hit me across the face.

  “Athena, wake up!” Adonis was standing over me, concern written all over his beautiful face. “Thena, can you hear me?”

  “She’s passed out,” Seth said, looking bored yet somehow stronger than before. Was it possible that in the time I had been on the floor, he had grown? He’d been in the dream with me, hadn’t he?

  My head ached. I wanted to scream.

  “What happened?” I asked, feeling suddenly weak.

  “You fell,” Seth said.

  “Fell? When? How? I had this dream, I…”

  Adonis pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “Why are you so weak? What happened to you, Thena?”

  “I… I don’t know. I just had this terrible nightmare, and then you slapped me. I don’t think I dreamed that up.” Adonis had the good measure to be a trifle embarrassed as he winced apologetically.

  “We must go,” Seth announced, looking at me as if he could read the thoughts in my head and see the terrible waking dream I’d just had.

  How had he been in it? I was losing my mind. Seth was there to help us, not to seduce me out of my wits. Was I that attracted to him that I would dream these things up?

  Slowly, I got to my feet and allowed my body to lean against Adonis’s.

  “You’re too weak. I don’t understand,” Adonis whispered against me, and then his lips were on mine. His hands touched me everywhere, and I didn’t care. I was on fire. I was so weak, and I needed him so desperately I wanted to cry.

  My body reacted to his immediately, and I felt bad for being so parasitic in my need to be attached to him.

  He pulled away, the light draining from his face. I felt better but knew it was at great cost to him. “I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, touching his bruised lips.

  “Don’t be… what I give you, I give willingly.” He kissed my cheek, and we followed Seth out, hoping the guy hadn’t watched that unnatural display of affection and strength.

  I followed both men blindly. I had strength from Adonis, but my wits were absolutely fried.

  Seth led us out of the room and into an elevator. I hoped we would be able to find some rest soon. My body was exhausted, and I knew Adonis needed time to recuperate.

  “We will rest soon,” Seth said, not looking at either of us. “But first I would like to show you one more thing.”

  “Perfect,” I mumbled.

  The elevator stopped with a thud, and the doors opened with a whoosh, letting us into a lush apartment.

  “Please tell me we get to sleep here,” I said, gaping at the plush couches and flat screen TV.

  “You get to sleep here.” Seth laughed, and then his expression turned concerned. “Adonis, why don’t you go to sleep? I’ll take care of Athena.”

  Adonis looked to me to see if it was all right; we didn’t often go to bed without one another, which sounded immoral and totally inappropriate, but it was more of a protection and comfort thing. The guy never touched me when we were actually in bed together, let alone kissed me.

  “Go,” I found myself saying as I pushed him toward the hall where I hoped a bedroom awaited him. Nodding, he walked off, leaving Seth and me alone.

  “Hungry?” Seth winked and trotted to the kitchen.

  Surely that was a trick question, because I could have sworn Seth saw the greed in my eyes, as I looked at the gourmet kitchen. I was suddenly ravenous without any clue why food looked so good. Normally, I needed to eat maybe once a week, but now it felt like an entire cow wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my appetite.

  “Pasta?” Seth asked, flipping on the lights.

 
I looked guiltily back to where Adonis had disappeared. He had taken such a hit when he gave me his energy earlier. Granted, I still felt tired, but I knew Adonis was the one who had suffered more. Faint bruises had lined his lips after he’d kissed me, probably from the force with which he pushed his mouth against mine. It was like he had been desperate to replenish what I had lost, as if the entire safety of the world depended on it.

  But that would be crazy.

  Even I, in all my selfishness, knew that I wasn’t that important. It was odd that Adonis had been acting so sacrificial lately. One would almost think he was… growing a heart. His behavior toward me in the past twenty-four hours had been more than selfless.

  My stomach growled again.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” Seth beamed then began to boil water. Not one to claim domesticity, I sat on a barstool and yawned.

  “Do you want any help?”

  “Athena, don’t pretend you know how to cook anything.” Seth rolled his eyes and grabbed some pasta out of the pantry. “And at this point, I think you’ll be more of a hindrance than a help.”

  Point taken.

  Seth’s movements were fast, concise, almost unrecognizable. The man was one big conundrum. Nothing about him made sense: him being our partner and the freaky dream I had about him which still had me slightly scared. Even the way he moved around seemed odd, as if he was moving to an otherworldly tune.

  The fact that Seth seemed to have grown bigger over the course of a few hours made my insides flutter, but not in a good way. His arms, once just toned, now looked beefier, like he had been chugging protein shakes while telling us his little story. His height hadn’t changed as much as the bulk of him. His t-shirt looked like it was ready to rip away from his body. Not that I would mind if it did, I just found it slightly distracting and inappropriate for a working business relationship.

  “I could just take it off, Thena. I mean if that would make you more comfortable.” He flashed a cheeky grin before dumping the pasta into a bowl.

  Super. Apparently I had forgotten about a couple of tiny, albeit important details: angels could sense emotions, sense thoughts, everything about us. I should have known that. Even though he was considered a part of the Fallen, he would have that talent as well.

  Talent. The thought made my brain swarm with possibilities. If he’s Fallen, that means his perfect state has been altered, which means…

  “Seth?”

  “Just say it, Athena, before you embarrass yourself.”

  I bit down on my lip before speaking. “What do you look like?”

  Seth stopped moving. I noticed the flex of his muscles against his shirt as his hands pushed against the granite of the countertop. His head hung as if a cloud of darkness had suddenly taken residence over his body. The room shifted. Cold trickled in, leaving me nearly breathless, and then, I saw it. Icicles began forming across the table and underneath my fingertips. The steam was flowing off the pasta in puffs of white vapor. Seth, immobile, tilted his head back. Muscles tightened across his back through his shirt, almost screaming for release. Slowly, I rose from my chair and walked toward him, noting that the temperature had to be at most zero degrees, given the icy glory of the room. If Adonis hadn’t been a few rooms away, I would have had the good sense to be frightened right about then.

  As I approached Seth, I reached out, hoping to put my hand on his. Even though I’m not really sure what good it would possibly do. I guess it was the human side of me, yearning to be empathetic and comforting, which was probably better than the demon killer side right about now. Especially considering what I was comforting.

  Seth’s head snapped in my direction, his eyes a blaze of red. I jerked my hand back. Logic finally seeped into my consciousness that this angel, although on our side, was more dangerous than I could have imagined. For he was the absence of light and everything I’ve fought over thousands of years to protect.

  I grew chilled at Seth’s touch as he reached to cup my face. The red of his eyes glowed and I could almost see the demon inside. Slowly, the transformation began. Pulling his hand back, he let out some air, and his shirt ripped to shreds. His body, once beautiful and unmarred, was then absolutely covered in tattoos, from head to toe, in black and silver markings. I felt dumbstruck as he turned around. His back was covered in one large tattoo that resembled wings. The tattoo was silver, lined with giant feathers, but hanging from them was a touch of blood that dripped down his back. It looked so real that I felt I could touch it. That if I just wiped up the blood, it wouldn’t be the reality he had to face. I lightly brushed my fingers over his back. I was stunned when I felt warmth on them. Looking at the sticky substance on my hands, I realized what was taking place wasn’t possible, yet it was happening. Blood dripped from my fingertips, and then in an instant, Seth grabbed my hand and pulled it in front of his face. The red in his eyes expanded and nearly filled in the white. He reached down and licked the blood off my fingers as his eyes rolled back. I wanted to pull away, but his grip on me was strong and intense.

  I was weaker than I realized, considering he was still holding me in front of him. Normally, I would have been able to have him flat on his back by then.

  When he released my hand, he began to show me other markings on his arms. They appeared to tell a story.

  What is with this guy and stories, anyway?

  The tattoos glowed under his touch. His words flowed from his lips in rapid succession. “Cast out of the Heavens to suffer alone. Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.”

  “Seth?”

  A blood-curdling scream erupted from his mouth. I heard a ripping sound that made me want to pass out. He turned around again. The wing tattoo was suddenly real. Wings burst out of the tattoo on his back, though half of each was missing. Damaged, as if someone had taken a knife to them and cut in haste without care for the person they were attached to.

  Seth’s voice interrupted my shock. “A reminder.”

  “Of what?” I whispered, my voice audibly shaking.

  “What I am.”

  I reached out to touch part of the white and blood-stained feathers. He looked away and said with choked words, “Marked.”

  Seth’s eyes transformed from red to white, a brilliant white to be exact. The silver tattoos on his arms lit up, and his hair grew all the way down his back right before my eyes. His face turned hard like a statue. He smiled, and in that moment I couldn’t breathe. I’d been given a glimpse, a very small glimpse, into what he used to be.

  It wasn’t until Seth reached out to wipe away my tears that I realized I was crying. I hated showing weakness, but it was heartbreaking. It reminded me so much of what had happened to my brothers and sisters when they’d chosen to fight with the Phantoms. It killed me and infuriated me at the same time.

  I know El was fair and just.

  I just hated that humans, in all of their sin and corruption, were given second chances, while those like Seth were not.

  I calmed myself down and managed to catch my breath. Seth led me to the couch. I sat in relative silence while I watched him transmute back into his normal form. I tried not to stop breathing altogether when I got another glimpse of his perfectly sculpted chest and abs. Wisdom told me to look away, but like a moth, I was drawn to the flame. I took in the curves of his chest, and the way his breath seemed to be laborious as he moved fluidly back into the kitchen.

  I was suddenly thankful angels were always fully clothed rather than in their state before the Fall. I closed my eyes and waited for the food to be done. I felt exhausted. Yet, when my eyes closed, all I could think of was the fact that Seth would forever be separated, never given a second chance. And my heart was again weak for the partner given to us. After we’d won, after the Titans were defeated, what would happen to the ones who were Fallen once they’d sworn their allegiance? Would they continue to live as outcasts, or would there be a place for them in Eden as well?

  “Nobody knows, Thena,” Seth answered, bringing a heaping pi
le of pasta with him to the couch. “And to be completely honest, I’m not sure if I care to know. What’s done is done. It would be unfair of me to ask for more from Him, whom I betrayed.”

  “Fair?” I choked. “How is any of this fair? Don’t get me wrong. I understand that consequences must be faced, but…” I sighed, not able to finish my sentence.

  Seth smiled sadly. “Still so young and innocent.”

  My vanity took in the compliment swiftly, but I was still perplexed, and to be completely honest, a little leery of him and his stories. I looked up with questioning eyes.

  “Yes.” Seth put the plate down “You’ve been around since your beginning, but what about mine? Have you any idea how long I’ve been around?”

  My mind wanted to quickly work the figures, and then I realized no numbers came to mind, naturally because he was first. He’d been around since the creation, since El had first made the world what it is and was. He’d been around when others fell; he had been around when the choice was made for him by his brothers. Before my conception, he’d been alive and breathing.

  “Now, shall we eat? You look positively starved.” Seth rubbed his hands together and threw a fork at me. I snatched it out of the air and dug into the pasta.

  “They will come for you, Thena,” Seth said, watching his hands. “I’ve been told to inform you. I’m nothing but your guide, as well as your protector in case things go… wrong.”

  “They? Things go wrong?” I swallowed. “What are you talking about, Seth?”

  “The angels, the Seekers, all of us need you to do something. It’s why you’re here, why I told you the stories of old. Why Adonis is resting up.”

  I lifted my eyebrow in curiosity. “And just what exactly is supposed to happen?”

  Seth pushed away from the couch, a curious smile on his lips. “When you were named, you took on the identity of Athena. Can you not put two and two together?”

  “Four?” I said lamely, trying to change the subject. Shifting in my seat, I looked up again. “You need me to make some sort of wise decisions on your behalf or something?”