Chaos: A Paranormal Urban Fasntasy Novel (Goddess Kissed Novel Book 3) Read online

  “We need to get her cleaned up and find a way to bring her back.” I tell him in a whispered voice. Speaking any louder as Gavin rocks and sings to his lifeless mate just feels wrong.

  “I will take her upstairs to her room and get her clean and comfortable.” Tristan looks to Gavin. “Help him if you can. Grief that deep can drive us to do things that we wouldn’t normally do.” He pitches his voice even lower… “Watch him. And if you can, be there for him in a way that his sister currently can’t.” Then the room fills with a black swirling mist. Tristan has transported Ella away.

  I turn and walk across the room to kneel beside Gavin once more. “Tell me what I can do to help.”

  He turns his tortured eyes toward me, forcing me to suck in a startled breath. I don’t know Gavin that well but I have only seen this much desolation in someone’s eyes a few times. When my grams died, my grandpa refused to eat and died within weeks of her. I see that sort of pain in Gavin’s eyes now.

  “Let me help Gavin, let me do something to take some of your pain. We are going to find a way to help Ella. She will be back on her feet soon. Let me help you so I don’t go out of my own mind with worry. You will really be doing me a favor.” I try a little humor, but it seems to fall flat. Gavin remains mute and just rocks and rocks Selene’s body.

  “I can bring her back. I can tie her soul to mine and bring her back.” I suck in a breath as he turns crazed eyes toward me.

  “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  He simply smiles a creepy smile, “You will.” Then he grabs my wrist and starts to chant a spell. It almost sounds like the same spell that Tristan used to sustain Ella. But there is a different tone to the cadence of Gavin’s spell.

  I feel as if my soul is being sucked right through my wrist where his grip is tightening. Gavin’s chant grows louder and stronger, then I start to scream and scream. I have never felt such pain as this.

  “Why?” I wail out. “What are you doing to me?”

  “Don’t worry, Jessa. I won’t kill you. I just need your life force to fuel my spell and to lend a spark of life to this empty body.” I fall face first onto the floor, unable to even hold myself up. I can see Gavin out of the corner of my eye, shifting Selene onto her back and stroking her hair lovingly.

  “Sebastian.” I whisper out, hoping that he will come to save me from this pain and whatever insane plan Gavin has come up with.

  “He won’t hear you, no one will. I have spelled the room,” he tells me before he starts to chant even louder and faster.

  “I just wanted to help you. Let me help you.” I plead.

  I feel a sharp pain on my arm and I watch as a long deep cut opens seemingly on its own. My blood pours out faster than what it should, mixing with the blood that has cooled around Selene’s dead body. The blood mixes together as if it is being aided by an invisible hand. Another line rips open down my uninjured left arm. Blood flows and mixes, then starts to steam and bubble.

  The air in the room starts to grow heavy and stagnant. There is something seriously evil going on in this room. I haven’t been this scared for my own life since I was in captivity. I never saw this kind of thing coming from Gavin. He has always been so sweet.

  I can feel the oxygen in my lungs growing heavier as the air above seems to be solidifying. And still Gavin chants, louder, faster… His voice is growing hoarse. I can see Selene’s placid hand laying close to mine. If I wasn’t looking I might have missed it but I could swear that I saw one of her fingers twitch.

  “What have you done little witchling?” A low rumble of a voice rolls through the room. “You call me, and here you are torturing one of my own people. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you for this trespass?”

  I strain to see past the greying that is starting to cloud my vision. What I see takes my breath away. There is a man, or a GOD, standing at almost seven feet tall and clad in head to foot leather. His hair is black as night and his eyes just as dark. The thing that totally mystifies me is that he looks so much like Ella, that it is a total mind fuck.

  “I smell my daughter. Where is she and why do I smell her blood?” The god-type person demands.

  “She is safe, she has been put inside a stasis spell, but that isn’t why I have called you here, my Lord.” Gavin whispers out in a shaking voice. “I beg you, please return my True Mate to life. She was used wrongly, hexed to do catastrophic things that are completely against her gentle nature. I will offer up my life for hers. I will do anything to save her. Please my Lord, help us.”

  “There might be a way, but answer me this boy… Are you not the womb-mate to my daughter?” The Lord demands.

  “Yes.” Gavin whispers out.

  “Then I will rescue your lady love… for a price. You will belong to me until I give you back your freedom.”

  There is a calculating look in this Lord’s eyes that I don’t like. I want to scream at Gavin not to do it. That we can find another way. That there is always another way. But Gavin just nods his head once, wrestles Selene’s now twitching body up within his arms, and stands with his head bowed.

  “The bargain is struck, blood of my blood. As I will it, so mote it be.” The flash that comes almost completely blinds me. My ears pop as the pressure in the room shifts. It feels like there has been a great weight lifted off my body.

  Sebastian runs into the room and skids to a halt, quickly kneeling beside me. He picks me up within his arms, not unlike Gavin had been cradling Selene right before he disappeared.

  “What has happened?” He demands as he looks around the room, now empty except for me and him… and buckets of blood.

  “He gave Selene back a spark of life, and then he took her and Gavin with him when he left,” I whisper out, trying hard to stay awake. I need to feed. I can feel the hunger clawing at my insides.

  Before I even realize what I am doing, I strike like a cobra at Sebastian’s neck. He hisses out a breath but just holds me tighter.

  “What kind of lord could bring back life once it is in death’s grasp?” He mutters to himself. I don’t look forward to telling him that the lord had called himself Ella’s daddy.

  Chapter 3.

  Ella.

  Looking around me, I can see nothing, literally nothing, but grey. Grey trees, grey dead-looking grass that crunches under my feet, and a grey sky that is so full of clouds of the same color that I can’t tell if the sun is shining or not. I can see a forest in the distance, also in various shades of grey.

  Could this be Hell? Either way, I don’t want to stay here. I don’t remember why I am here or how I got here. There is a road that stretches out in front of me that seems to scream, “Follow me. Walk straight ahead.” Well, I guess anything is better than standing still and looking around to see this nothingness.

  One step at a time, I walk down the deserted road toward the forest in the distance. I know that I should remember something. I have a nagging thought in the back of my mind that there is something that isn’t right. I know that I don’t belong here, that something happened to put me here. But I can’t seem to access those memories… Or any memories at all. I don’t seem to even recall my own name. Its fucking surreal.

  So, I just walk. Feeling the stones shift under my weight and rub together every time I take a step; the air here seems to be thick with dust. It is truly miserable.

  “Of course, it’s miserable, this is the Fade, child,” comes a grating voice from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

  “Who is there?” I demand.

  “Ahh, I am heartbroken that you don’t remember me. I am your aunt, after all.” Then she is standing there in front of me in all her dark glory. “You see, I have decided to switch sides, as it were. Your dear mother seems to be off her rocker, all her careful calculations seem to have gone awry. I just can’t have that. I can’t be in the losing camp. I actually like being a Goddess and the only way to stay that way is to be planted firmly in the winning camp.”

  Ruby red lips smirk at me as she
twirls through the air as if she is on a spinning toy top. Black flaps of fabric fold around her at impossible angles. She is beautiful in a forceful way. The energy coming off her makes me want to drop to the ground and grovel, but I lock my knees and grind my teeth to keep myself standing. I know that I don’t want to bow. I don’t know how I know this, but I just know that I am not meant to bow to anyone or anything.

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “Why child, I am Morgaine. Well, the Goddess of Chaos. My given name is just so not me, so you may call me by my title. Or you may simply call me Aunt.” She smirks those bright red lips at me again.

  “Morgaine.” I try it out. It sounds familiar somehow. It is like chasing humming birds around and around in my mind. The memory is fleeting, beyond my grasp. “I know you, but I don’t remember. I can feel the memories inside my mind just beyond my reach. I can’t even remember my own name. Can you tell me why?” I ask her in an almost pleading voice.

  Morgaine walks slowly toward me, the dark fabric drapes of her dress billowing out behind her. She lays her hand on my head and I feel a jolt of energy inside my mind. It is so painful that I let out a hoarse scream and fall to my knees. I barely stop myself from face planting on the ground.

  “You were stabbed by a soul blade, a very powerful and evil weapon. It sucks the person’s essence and power out of their body until there is nothing left but an empty husk of what once was. And that is only if you are lucky. Most don’t survive. You have friends and family back on the living plane right now working to save your life. Not that I think that they will be successful. They are simply not powerful enough.”

  I am breathing hard by the time she finishes her little speech. “But what is my name?” I huff out, still short of breath.

  “Oh child, how remiss of me.” She smirks again. “Your name is Arabella. You are the sole Daughter of a Goddess, The Celios. The Great Champion of the Light. Which is just shit, since the so-called light is being led by your mother, who is an evil bitch. Don’t get me wrong, she used to be a shining beacon of Hope for those so close to the darkness of our world. But now madness has taken hold, and she is literally falling off her rocker, if you get my point? Her games aren’t going her way so she is lashing out. She… she wants you dead, child. She knows that she won’t be able to control you and her influence over you isn’t as strong as she wants it to be. She sees you as a rival, and she will not permit you to live. That is why you are here now. The soul blade was a gift from your dear momma for those that want you dead.”

  She pats me on the head as if she hadn’t just destroyed what was left of my world. I have a mother and she wants me dead. Not because I did something horrible to her, just because she can’t control me. What kind of person would do that, Goddess or not?

  “Not a very nice one, child. I just told you that.” Morgaine huffs out at me.

  “Get out of my head!” I grit out, starting to feel a pressure building inside my mind. I push that pressure with everything I can. There is a gasp from in front of me.

  “It seems you still have some of your gifts after all, Ella.” She laughs out. “Seems I have made the right choice after all.” She muses to herself.

  “I don’t understand any of this. And what are those black mist things circling throughout the trees up ahead?” She gasps when she looks in the direction that I am pointing.

  Thick black shadows, some in silhouettes that look vaguely human, are swirling faster and faster toward us. They are escaping the trees now and forming a great black swirling mass that is moving closer every second that we stare at it.

  My aunt is fidgeting, almost twitching as she watches the swirling mass. I decide to pick myself up off the ground and dust myself off. I have a name, Ella. It seems so foreign to me. But also, familiar at the same time.

  “What is wrong with you?” I ask as the wind kicks up and grey dust begins to blow in all directions across this desolate landscape.

  I don’t hear her answer because I am suddenly bent over in pain, a soul-deep pain, a pain so desolately wonderful that I don’t know whether to weep or scream. What is happening to me?

  “No, it can’t be possible. How is this happening? How in the hell are you suddenly carrying a child and on this realm? Don’t you ever do anything normal, child?”

  She stares at my midsection as if something is going to explode out of it at any second and eat her face off. If I weren’t just as freaked out I would be laughing at the expression on the Goddess’s face.

  “I don’t know what is happening.” I whisper as I wrap my arms around my suddenly very swollen stomach. “My head feels like it is going to explode. I wake up here in this world of grey with no memories. Then I meet a Goddess that says she is my aunt, learn my name, and that my mother is trying to kill me. Oh, and let’s not forget that my mother is also a Goddess. Then I am suddenly what looks like six months pregnant all at once?” I finish in a shriek that could break glass. My aunt slowly claps at my little tantrum.

  “Are we finished now?” She smirks just before she shivers.

  “No, he can’t be here yet. I can’t face him as I am now. She took too much out of me when I left. I can’t beat him with only dregs of my powers flowing through me.” Morgaine is muttering to herself and shaking her head at the same time.

  “Who are you talking about, who is here, or is almost here?” I ask her.

  She says one word that seems to scare the living shit out her, the color leaving her face.

  “Alexander.” She whispers, then looks around as if telling me his name is going to cause him to suddenly morph himself onto the grey dusty road right in front of us. I wrap my arms protectively over my new baby bump. I might not know how the hell I am pregnant, but the baby inside me is now mine to protect.

  I shiver as she completely spazzes out and swirls around and around once more. Only this time she isn’t doing it to make herself look beautiful. She is looking for someone.

  “The Shades are almost among us. Where they are, HE isn’t far behind. If I could I would take you with me from this place, but I can’t. You must follow this path and fight your way back to your body. You must live Ella, or all will be lost.” She suddenly stops spinning, looks me dead in the eyes, then disappears in a poof of red, mist-like smoke.

  I look around for her, but she is gone, as if she had never been here in the first place. The mass of black is now mere feet from me, blowing my hair in and around my face. I swat at it, trying to keep my line of vision clear as I wait for what is coming next. I can feel my knees shake. If this Alexander can scare the piss out of a Goddess, what will happen to me when I must face him?

  And then, everything stops and changes. The wind dies completely; the dust seems to have gotten sucked straight out of the air around me. Sunshine suddenly breaks its way from behind the grey cloud barrier, color brightens and bleeds into everything around me.

  Gone is the dullness of the land. In its place is a beautiful Spring day. I can even smell the scent of flowers in the air.

  If I hadn’t been standing here when it happened, I wouldn’t believe anything that just happened right before my own eyes. The mass of black swirling shadows has stopped and separated into great, hulking, humanlike beings. They’re spread out across the road in front of me. They have a sameness to them, but if you look long enough at each one of them, you will see that there are slight differences between each being. There must be at least twenty-five in total, and they are staring sightlessly at me. It’s starting to wig me out.

  I hear the crunching of stone against stone and two shadow beings step aside to make way for a giant of a man. His hair is sporting braids at the temples as the rest falls in loose waves down over his shoulders. His face is like carved granite that time has ravaged. There are scars, so many scars on his face, neck, and what I can see of his arms. He isn’t attractive in the least. But he is fearsome. Like he was made to strike fear into the people that face him. As for myself, I am trying not to piss myself as his b
lack eyes suddenly lock onto me.

  “It looks like we have a new guest in my realm. How remiss for me not to be here to greet you myself when you first arrived.”

  He smirks and I swear I can hear granite cracking as he does so. “Well men, what should we do with the newcomer? Should we welcome her as the princess she is or just kill her?” I take a step back as he laughs.

  A few of the men standing around him smirk and leer at me, while others stare straight ahead, almost as if they are ignoring their master. I can see the changes to the silent men’s faces as they avert their eyes from me. Their faces are changing; they are losing the sameness that the nasty lot are retaining.

  “I would rather not die.” I tell the master of this realm. Which causes him to give the same grating laugh.

  “Well, come closer girl. Let’s get a good look at you.”

  I tip my chin to look him in the eye. I will not cower before this bully. Kill me, will me? No, I think not. From what I understand, my body isn’t even in this realm. I am sort of an astral-projection of a sort. My soul has traveled here, but my physical self is on a different realm all together. So, chances are that he can’t kill me outright.

  Instead of going to him, I wait him out and make him come to me. I stare at him straight in the face until he loses his amused smirk and starts to stalk toward me. The ground shakes with each step, an expression of his anger, no doubt.

  “Yes, I see that you are indeed your mother’s daughter. She and I struck a bargain not long ago.” He says in an offhand manner as one of his scarred hands reaches for my face.

  I flinch away from his touch. There is something about him that I find vile, evil. At my flinch, his smile is back and I am pissed at myself for showing that he affects me at all.

  He is silent as he looks me over from head to foot. He pauses as he takes in my swollen belly and raises an eyebrow. Then he throws his head back and laughs out a huge guffaw.

  I am in the middle of wondering why he is finding my new pregnancy funny when he suddenly grabs me by the upper arm and pulls me toward him. It happens so fast that I can’t make a move to stop it. His huge, scarred hand engulfs my protruding stomach. He bends and then presses his face into my stomach as I try in vain to struggle free.