A/N – Since we are in the thick of battle I am prompted to talk about heroes. There are so many heroes in this story. Bella of course, and Eleazar has had his moments – but you know who the true hero of this story is for me? TwiliteAddict. This lovely woman's beta skills are on another level. She has added so much shine to the vision I have for these scenes, I am habitually blinded by the crystal clarity her edits add to the story, chapter after chapter. Thank you, dear lady for loaning your talents to enhance From the Ashes for the readers and I.
Also, my patient readers, the quick turn around for posting this chapter is all for you. My never ending gratitude for your support and readership.
Here we go. Eleazar's POV...
I had failed in my duty.
Not only had I pushed Isabella out of the way when she could have finished off The Forsaken, as she was destined to do, but I had placed myself literally in the hands of our enemy.
I had also failed my oaths to my love, to my brethren, and to my High Priest, Ra. As a result, my Carmen was dead, The Source was dying, and the Djinn was about to be deported back to a hell of Sulpicia's making.
"You damaged it. What did you do to my toy, Eleazar?" Sulpicia pouted, twisting my grief to strangulation with her resemblance of my wife, resurrecting the image of the last time I saw her. Carmen had given me the same sad face before I left her for months to keep that Djinn away from...dear goddess, she looked so much like Carmen.
"I'm sorry," I said. Over and over. Only I wasn't apologizing to the thing before me. I was apologizing to my dead wife. And to Isabella. I looked behind me to where I had shoved her into the ground to get to...Great Mother, Hathor, look at what have I done!
The entire wedding host, made up my closest friends and family, including the most influential covens beyond our own, were zombie slaves of the most wicked soul that walked the earth! The whites of their eyes had turned violet, and the purple puppet strings Sulpicia had threaded through their third eye pulsed like a heart beat they moved in time with. It appeared they did not have their vampire speed while under Sulpicia's control. For this I was thankful since things were moving too fast already.
I froze with the shock of it all, too much for any one to comprehend. The entire scene was a horror show as my loved ones brutally attacked their own so mindlessly. Isabella had rushed back to Edward, who appeared gravely ill and frail. She was doing her best to push away any attackers without hurting them or marring their bodies. Gusts of wind whirled around her in spiraling torrents ready to whip forth with the flick of her finger or will alone.
Carmen's likeness grabbed a hold of my coat and pulled me close to her. She reeked of smoke and havoc. Her once golden eyes were now icy blue, flashing with so much cold hatred, I was held captive in the grips of vile negativity pouring from a body I had loved and worshiped for centuries.
"Sorry?" she screeched, madness distorting her features. "You stole from me, ran from me, and all you can say is sorry?"
Her shrill screaming woke something within me. Much needed realization that this creature was not my lover. She was gone. Released from paralyzing fear and despair, anger coiled in my stomach, pounding with the ghostly feet of a vengeful army.
An Army.
Carmen, or rather, this shell that once was my wife, was my test. I had not failed. Knowing this beast was not my Carmen allowed me to loose the sacred gift Sa had given me. I ripped the Djinn's bottle from her hands and tore open my coat, exposing Sa's mark to Sulpicia who recoiled and hissed in sharp recognition, "SA!"
"Yes. It wasn't me that damaged your damn bottle...it was Sa, and he sends his regrets that you cannot stay. You see, Sulpicia...you weren't invited." With a great screaming howl of grief for my beloved whom I would never see whole again, I visualized pushing the army out of me and onto Sulpicia, forcing my brothers to escape the cage of my broken, dead heart to vanquish our foresworn enemy.
Time distorted as the half fluid, half tangible arborescences flowed out of my body with the surging push of a tidal wave, attacking Sulpicia with the force of a thousand loosed demons. Caught off guard, Sulpicia screamed, her zombies echoed her terror, stopping up short to open their mouths and keen like devils.
In a desperate attempt to gather power to herself, Sulpicia cut the zombies' puppet strings. Freed from their hijacker, their bodies dropped like ragdolls to the ground. While she fought furiously with the spirits attacking her from all sides, I ran for Isabella .
I had not taken but several steps before my ears filled with the powerful roar of a lion. I turned to see the sound waves from the roar slam into my army of souls, shattering hundreds of them all at once with piercing vibrations. To my horror, a gigantic spirit lioness surged out of the top of Sulpicia's body, loping towards me, spectral jaws snapping and gobbling up what remained of my ghostly comrades.. I tossed the bottle at Isabella screaming for her to catch, but she had chosen another course. A split decision made in the heat of battle was often a double-edged blade of fortune and misfortune.
Bella stood, tall and fearsome over the body of her mate, eyes on both the bottle and the beast heading for her. With a raging Valkyrian cry, great fiery wings unfurled behind her, flapped once, twice, and by the third time, a gigantic spirit Phoenix flew out of her body to meet Sekhmet's power animal. The Phoenix sailed over me in a rush of heat and flame, seeking its target who had immediately turned tail in abject fright back to the body she had stolen.
Sulpicia's physical form still fought, but it had used her reserve of magic to fend off the last of heartier spirits, and was growing weak. My heart leapt when I recognized it was Xandru handing her ass to her. As the Lioness spirit rode toward them, Sulpicia jumped up on its back before reaching under the neck of her dress to pull out a small sachet. She chanted some sort of curse or invocation as she threw its contents into the air..
Xandru vaulted upon the Phoenix's back as it flew past to give pursuit.
The Djinn's bottle had sailed through the air, only to slip through Isabella's fingers, as she, too, was weakened by separating her spirit animal from her body. Breaking open on the ground before Edward, Benji's essence wafted up from the wreckage of the bottle, forming for a fraction of a second, in the outline of a man. I saw fear and confusion riddling his features. Before I could scream at the Djinn not to, he jumped into Edward's body to hide.
The cloud of enchanted dust Sulpicia had thrown began eating a hole in the atmosphere like termites through wood. Beyond was a black vacuous maw of space-time. Bella's Phoenix reared up before it, screeching and hissing fire, refusing to follow Sulpicia through it. Not so for Xandru. His ghostly form leapt from the Phoenix's back and dove through the wormhole before it closed.
I did not stop to think about where Xandru was going or what would befall him there. Whether the Phoenix followed or not, Xandru casting off and jumping in came as no surprise to me. His spirit form was to only last until the rising of the sun and he was no stranger to sacrificing himself for others. I bid him godspeed on the other side.
The reluctant Phoenix wheeled about in the sky and returned to her host body. The moment the gigantic bird's essence entered through Isabella's crown chakra, her strength returned and she began patting Edward down, knowing something was amiss. Little did she know, what was amiss was actually more, misplaced. With the soul of a Djinn.
Dread spread throughout my body, hoping beyond hope the Djinn, who just jumped inside Edward was not the broken, bitter thing I had been traveling with these many months. I prayed Sa's magic had healed him as it had healed me.
"Edward? Edward...talk to me." Isabella's tension crept along the edges of her voice. Battle and magic worn, she searched the wandering eyes of her mate for recognition.
He ran his fingers over his face and looked down at his body before speaking to her.
"Edward? Ahhh! So that is his name. He is not here. My name is Benji. And I am in your debt." Edward's voice took on an accent similar to Jaru's.
Oh no. I hustled up to Bella's side as quickly as I could, passing Carlisle who was struggling to reach his wife and children. Haggard from having been fused with so much magic, they were all trying to pick themselves up off the ground where Sulpicia left them like discarded toys.
"No, Benji, you are in my husband, and I would kindly ask that you...get out," Bella spat.
"If I do, I'm afraid your husband could die. Sooner, rather than later," Benji calmly replied.
"Where is he?" Her golden eyes flashed full black, rainbow light reflecting in their surface. She was scanning his aura.
I took the opportunity to scan her quickly myself. Her entire body was alight with swirling phosphorescences of light - power no one else could see in this way but me. The command of her strengths was near perfection. She had a handle on so many of her powers so quickly. Xandru had been right about her potential; it had exploded from her during her transformation to vampire just as he had surmised.
"He is within the vaults of his consciousness. You have retreated to those spaces within yourself, my Queen. You know he is safe until we can find a cure. Until then, I will function as caretaker for this ailing body."
"More like thief!" She shook with anger. "I am not your Queen, or anyone's for that matter!"
He placed his hand on her cheek and she had to resist curling into it. I empathized with this longing, this trick of the mind and heart when your lover...is not your lover.
"Ahhh, but you are!" he crooned to her. "I remember enough to recognize who you are. You are Judgement. Ma'at riding on the Benu bird, the Phoenix who rises from the ashes. You are the Champion. The one who will help me find what I long for. And when you do, I will return to you what you long for. Love. The one that is forever.."
At that moment, I knew unequivocally Sa had healed Benji enough for him to be able to have this spark of recognition, wisdom and peace. I was so grateful, I sent up a prayer to the great Spirit Bear who had blessed us both. I hoped he slumbered happily in his cave above us in the mountain, knowing what good he did for us today. He gave us more than one victory.
Bella began to sob. I could not help but drop to my knees and comfort the child within. For that is what we all are in despair - children, grieving our innocence lost. I needed to validate Benji's oath. "Isabella," I whispered, "he tells you the truth. You know it. You feel it."
She looked up and around. Her face was smoke stained and her hair was entangled with the leaves and twigs she had strewn up with her magical winds of defense. The fires were dying out, and our loved ones were coming to, helping one another stand and try to make sense of the shocking aftermath. Alice and Jasper were leaning on each other, their eyes wide at the ruination around them.
Finally, Bella placed her hands on her lap and stood up offering her hand down to Benji. Her expression resolute and determined.
"For Love." she stated, helping him to his feet.
"For Love." the Djinn replied.