Paradox - Progeny Of Innocence (bk2) (Paradox series), page 1
By Patti Roberts
Two Worlds. One Ancient – One New.
License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work. This book is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents depicted herein are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Definition Of Progeny:
One born of, begotten by, or derived from another; an offspring or a descendant.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/progeny
This book is dedicated to a work colleague and friend.
David Nason
Dave. In our hearts you rest. In our memories, you are ours to keep. Save a seat for us, your friends, because this is not the end. Until then, my friend, we shall smile, raise a glass and celebrate a life well lived. With love, Patti X
1953 – 2011
R.I.P.
The Ancient World of Altair awaits…
Map of Altair – The Ancient World
http://bit.ly/ParadoxMapandINFO
Other series by this author
Witchwood Estate – Episodic TV length episodes.
Currently Free - http://authl.it/33m
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1 – Deliver Us From Evil
CHAPTER 2 – The Return
CHAPTER 3 – The Witches’ Grimoire
CHAPTER 4 – Earth To Earth
CHAPTER 5 – Where Was God?
CHAPTER 6 – Progeny Of Innocence
CHAPTER 7 – How Did I Get Here?
CHAPTER 8 – House Guest
CHAPTER 9 – Hollow Moon
CHAPTER 10 – With Me Always
CHAPTER 11 – First Kiss
CHAPTER 12 – The Cat And The Canary
CHAPTER 13 – The First Cut
CHAPTER 14 – The Ferryman
CHAPTER 15 – Urban Legend
CHAPTER 16 – Ambrosia X
CHAPTER 17 – The Plan
CHAPTER 18 – Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
CHAPTER 19 – The Gathering
CHAPTER 20 - Steal The Light
CHAPTER 21 – End Of Days
CHAPTER 22 – Requiem For A Dream
CHAPTER 23 – Knock, knock!
CHAPTER 24 - Flowers For Ambrosia
CHAPTER 25 – Déjà vu.
CHAPTER 26 – Watch You Burn
CHAPTER 27 – Riley Rivers
CHAPTER 29 – The Promise
CHAPTER 30 – Forbidden Fruit
An Excerpt from Bound By Blood
CHAPTER 1 – Beasts Of Burden
Acknowledgements And Special Thanks
Contact
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PROLOGUE
The Ancient World - Altair
My name is Juliette. A very long time ago, during a war that tore my world apart, I died.
It was 1080 AD and the Grigorians, under the rule of Lord Cerberus, had conquered the Bulguardian Army and seized the Imperial City of Altair. Today, towards the mountainous lands further south, the battle continues.
Although victorious in battle, the Grigorians had failed to secure the one prize that mattered most: mortal souls. Altair, all but deserted, had left the favored Grigorian food source all but depleted. Those souls that had remained following the siege during the March Equinox had since fled to the south to join the resistance fighters high in the Mountains of An-nasr, the home of the majestic wedge-tailed eagle, the Aquila Audax, and the natural enemy of the Grigorian race. The Grigorians, who fear naught, yet feared this massive winged bird that ruled all the skies in the vast southern lands.
The Bulguardians, however, had been triumphant in the ways that did matter.
The three remaining Royal Guardians, with the strength and numbers of the Royal Guard, had been triumphant in safely spiriting away the Seven Pinnacles and their prized possessions of mortal souls.
The four Natural Pinnacles, the WAFEs - Water, Air, Fire, Earth, and the three Supreme Pinnacles - Birth, Death, and Emotion, under escort of the Royal Guard, had taken human form and had fallen first. Then, in the safe confines of the Golden Ark, the mortal souls began their return journey to Earth under the watchful eye of Lukita, the most powerful High Priestess in the Realm.
There was, however, a complication the Royal Guardians had not foreseen. Several of The Seven Pinnacles, including members of the Royal guard, had been scattered far across the Earth for hundreds of years, with little or no recollection of who or what they were.
Some were sent to find and protect. Others were sent to track and destroy.
Today, my soul lives on in the heart of a young girl. I faithfully continue to play my part in this war between good and evil. But nine hundred years can pass so slowly, when all you want to do is go home.
The New World – Earth
Grace is not a little girl anymore! And as a teenager, Grace’s visions become more frequent, urgent, torturing her life further still. The answers she hopes to find in her visions only leave her asking more questions... who is Juliette?
When the charismatic Damon Draco begins to take an interest in Grace, it doesn’t take long before Grace falls for his alluring charm, a charm she doesn't quite understand. However, when Riley Rivers turns up in Grace's class one day, she starts to question the feelings she has for Damon.
Then death comes knocking... and when three of Grace’s school friends are found burned to death, and their parents die in a fatal car accident that same weekend, some start to wonder if it really was just a coincidence, or a contrived plan to wipe out an entire family? And if so, why, and by whom? And more importantly, will evil strike again?
You can bet your soul on it!
CHAPTER 1 – Deliver Us From Evil
For as a lamb is brought to slaughter, so she stands, this innocent, before the king.
Geoffrey Chaucer: Man of Law's Tale, 1386
Altair – The Royal Palace
Year – 1081 AD
The beast, nothing more than a frail lamb, lay paralyzed and trembling on the glistening silver platter. It lay there, exposed, with nothing to accompany or protect.
"Really, you expect me to feed on this, this pathetic animal?" Abaddon snorted, standing with his arms folded tight across his puffed-up chest. He stared down at the animal that had been placed before him. The tiny, beady eye of the beast reflected the flames blazing hungrily in the massive stone fireplace. Black eyes rolled frantically to and fro in their orbits, searching Abaddon’s private dining chamber in an eager bid to procure a swift path to freedom. Regardless of the desperate animal's resolve to escape this predicament, the scales of justice did not offer mercy. This creature surely was a lamb to the slaughter.
The young Mongol girl with the black-inked forehead backed slowly away from the table, her hands clasped in tight fists behind her back. Her satiny skin glistened in the muted glow from the blazing torches hanging on the high stone wall behind her. Her head remained bowed in a show of fearful respect.
"Apologies, Master," she offered, in an effort to pacify Abaddon’s mounting anger.
With a quick flick of his wrist, he flung an ornate dining chair effortlessly across the room and into the crackling fireplace. Flames and a blast of glowing embers exploded across the room.
"This is outrageous; this is a meal fit for a peasant, and yet still you dare place it before me!" Abaddon’s fist smashed down hard on the surface of the mahogany dining table, shattering a lead crystal decanter and a single goblet. The blood-red liquid, freed from its crystal constraints, made a slow passage down the deep grooves in the timber tabletop before congealing droplets pooled on the marble floor below.
The girl flinched. "Shall I remove the animal, Master?" she asked, then quickly continued. "Perhaps you would prefer the taste of my flesh?" She pushed her long, black, flowing hair away from her shoulders, exposing her throat and barely-covered breasts.
"Hmmm," Abaddon murmured, considering her proposal. "What is your name?" he asked the girl, almost interested.
The blood vessel on her throat pulsed steadily beneath her flawless skin, summoning him closer. It was certainly a worthy offer, and one that he thought about now with careful consideration.
He glanced at the animal before him. A fresh spasm of fear bent the animal's head back at a grotesque angle. White froth foamed and dripped from the beast’s twisted mouth. Abaddon scowled. The girl certainly was offering him a worthier choice. The scales tipped…
"Temulun," she answered, softly, but with a hint of something resembling pride.
He studied her as one would a bug on a sliver of glass under a microscope, waiting for dissection.
"This would indeed be an honor for your family, if I were to accept this offer, would it not?" Abaddon said, circling Temulun, tracing his finger slowly down her slender throat, then further, beneath the meager brown fabric that only just managed to conceal her child-like breasts. He felt her heartbeat quicken beneath his fingertips, and smiled. "Lead us not into temptation, dear girl, but deliver us from evil..." He murmured the words softly in her ear. "Are you evil, Temulun?" he asked, circling her tiny frame.
"No, Master," she replied. "Your father honored our family once, many years ago, by taking my sister Cheren in the last Great War, when food had also become scarce. My family has been grateful for the opportunities that your father bestowed upon us."
"Ahh, yes. My father, the mighty Lord Grig. Before my beloved father’s unfortunate journey into the afterlife. Perhaps your sister was a curse, dear Temulun? She was, after all, the last one to see my father alive. Was she not?" Abaddon feigned a remorseful sigh. Bitter memories still toyed with his thoughts, burdening him with disappointment and resentment. He was acutely aware that his father had only ever had real affection for his brother Cerberus, and Theria, his sister. The Gods would certainly not help him if anyone were to gain knowledge that it had been by his, Abaddon’s, hand that his father had died, and not by the hand of a subordinate half-breed bastard son of his father’s.
"I do believe that your brother-" Temulun began.
Abaddon’s hand snapped up and squeezed Temulun’s mouth shut. "Do not ever speak of that half-breed bastard as being my brother. He is not worthy of that title. Do you understand me?" he asked, shoving her away forcibly.
Temulun stumbled and fell backward hard against the massive dining table, but did not fall. The second goblet teetered precariously for a moment, and then smashed to the floor at her feet.
"Apologies, Master. I will not make the mistake again," she said, wiping a trickle of warm blood from her lips.
He eyed her through narrowed yellow slits, but inwardly he was pleased. Pleased that she, too, thought it had been the bastard son who had taken his father’s life. The truth about his murderous deed was indeed still safe.
"See that you don’t, otherwise I will have your head on a stick for the eagle," he said, stalking away.
He swiped his hand through the air, and watched as splintered pieces of timber from the shattered chair and broken shards of glass flew effortlessly into the massive fireplace, forcing a plume of flames and grey smoke to spew out into the room. "Yes, yes, yes, I remember your sister only too well. My father was most pleased with Cheren’s offering. She was a beauty, your sister, as indeed you are." He glided toward her and lifted her chin abruptly with his finger, then leaned in and slowly snaked his tongue along the side of her face, tasting her. He had other plans for this girl named Temulun, he decided. Death would not be her fate on this day. "Go now," he demanded, waving her off with his hand, dismissing her.
"And the beast, Master, shall I-"
"Leave it," he spat. "Doors," he commanded.
Two black-clad Mongols with massive arms heaved the heavy timber doors open wide. Their long, thin beards, twisted and braided with ivory-colored beads made from human bones, dangled below their chins.
Temulun hesitated for a moment, then scurried quickly from the room, past the leering guards, praying that they had not overheard Abaddon’s rejection of her. She would not tell her family that she had been undesired by the Master. That he had preferred the flesh of the beast to her own. That humiliation, she would keep to herself. Perhaps he would allow her to please him in other ways. His unquenchable desires were far from a secret in the Realm. She would have another opportunity, as her sister had had, to complete her task. She was determined to fulfill her destiny and make her people proud.
Abaddon waited until the doors had completely closed behind the girl before he returned his gaze to the trembling beast in front of him. He studied the frenzied, unblinking eyes as they watched him, then looked further down to where a beating heart pounded hard against a soft, woolen chest. Snow white, and pure as the driven snow on the peaks of Mount An-nasr. He ran his hand along the beast, petting it, quieting it, soothing it, then he swiftly pulled his hand away and thrust his fist deep into the ribcage of the animal. He twisted his hand effortlessly through broken bone and sinew, and separated thumping heart from beast. He watched it for a moment with morbid curiosity as it pulsed spasmodically in the palm of his bloodied hand. Then he curled his lips back and lunged into it hungrily, savoring it as one would a perfectly ripe blood plum. The animal’s blood was warm and bittersweet on his tongue; it would suffice, ward off his appetite, for now. However, it would not be long until his uncontrollable thirst returned, for human blood and the gratification obtained from the mortal soul. The mortal soul: the forbidden fruit, the personification of immortality for his kind.
He swiped his bloodied hand across his chin. Droplets of blood marked the front of his white, ruffled shirt. He tilted his head back and let a guttural howl burst from his lips. Far below, in the darkness outside, he heard others respond in kind.
It was time, he decided, letting the heart fall away from his hand and onto the ground with a plop. The animal’s blood-drenched woolly chest was still now. Only the flickering flames from the crackling fireplace were mirrored in the glazed eyeballs, relaxed now in death. A pink tongue dripping with crimson saliva hung flaccidly from its open mouth.
Abaddon heaved himself at the massive timber doors and pushed them open wide, startling the two guards standing rigidly at the doorway outside. He saw no reason to delay any longer. It had been centuries since he had left the Realm.
Pandora sashayed up the arched hall toward him; she was eager to resume their earlier encounter - before Theria’s unexpected interruption.
"Abaddon, I-" she began, eyeing the bloodied fabric sticking to his chest.
"Not now," he said, cutting her off and walking past her without any further concern. His thoughts were solely driven by his unyielding desire for human blood, and, of course, the incredible high attained from the mortal soul. The blood of the beast had only quickened his craving for more.
"Then I will-"
"Go find someone else to entertain you," Abaddon said, irritated by the conversation. "I am sure there is somebody else floating around here somewhere that will pander to your incessant needs. Your husband, perhaps? That would be a change, now wouldn’t it?" He smiled, amused by his words. Then he began chanting as he strode away. "My dear beloved Father, which art now in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Yes, on earth indeed," he chuckled. "Forever and ever…" Then Abaddon descended the curving staircase, five stairs at a time, until he reached the bottom only seconds later.
Pandora turned away and snorted, "Idiot..." She walked swiftly toward the two men standing on either side of the massive doors, and stood for a moment, appraising them. To the larger, taller man she said, "Come, I have something for you to do." She ran his twisted beard across the palm of her hand, rolling the beads between her fingers, then tightened her grip on the man’s long, black, braided whiskers and led him away.
CHAPTER 2 – The Return
Abaddon swept across the floor until he came to the centre of the majestic foyer. He positioned himself on an elaborate gold engraving of a giant oak tree carved in the black marble floor. A portal to the outer worlds. He raised his arms, imitating the overwhelming structure of Christ the Redeemer, and prepared for his fall. The floor at his feet began to quiver and slowly fall away, exposing a bottomless starlit abyss below the golden oak beneath his feet. A violent spasm contorted his shoulders. Seconds later, black feathered wings shot out from between his shoulder blades and rippled with anticipation.
Suddenly, the massive timber doors, embossed with an imposing golden eagle, flew open, startling him. His head snapped around. His eyes bored into the eyes of this unexpected intruder. A guttural hissing sound seethed through his clenched teeth. His stare was met with a set of almost equally yellow eyes. The marble floor beneath his feet solidified once again. He exhaled as his massive wings slowly recoiled and were gone.
"Oh brother, I did not mean to startle you," Cerberus chuckled as he discarded his heavily engraved sword and shield noisily on the floor. He unlatched a golden clasp at his throat, whipped a black knee-length cloak, trimmed in red, off his shoulders and dragged it across his forehead and his matted fair hair. Then he wiped the heavy fabric down his chest before letting it drop to the floor beside his booted feet. He wiped his hands down his black leather thighs, then pulled his brother toward him, embracing him. He pounded his hands on Abaddon’s back and released him. "I have missed you, my brother."
