A big "Thank you" to Ereana, general zargon and Onileo.
Thank you so much for your continued support. I hope you enjoy the next chapter. It does flip between characters quite a lot, so I hope it flows OK.
Emmalisa x
Jaden
Chapter Twenty
"This is not the way I am supposed to die..."
Whilst being encased in glass and being lowered into the blood splattered lobby of the Ritz Carlton, Amalia stood on ruby red carpeting with the best of Beethoven playing serenely around her.
Mentally noting that the elevators soundtrack had got to be the most inappropriate music for a suicide mission, Amalia noticed her hand was still hovering over the ground floor button.
It's too late, you've already pushed it!
She had the urge to press the first floor button just to slow the inevitable lowering of herself into the presence of blood thirsty men of indeterminable species, but didn't think she could stand the cheerful "ding" as the elevator landed.
Hysterics were bubbling in her throat and she feared the second the doors opened into the lobby she would burst out in nervous laughter. Her body was constantly racked with a tremble that seems to start with her outstretched hand.
Everything from the music, to the sound proofing, to the glass on all four sides was complete insanity. She was the bait, and she felt like it. Lowering herself down into the open mouths waiting below.
With that happy thought another tremor shook her.
Perhaps she should have taken the stairs. The flash image of her trying to co-ordinate her trembling legs down two flights of stairs before being taken down by monsters in a bloody frenzy, made her realise she should stop complaining about the Beethoven.
What would she have preferred to listen to as she was lowered to her death?
The screaming of heavy metal? Classic rock? A sweet country ballad?
Let's face it the music selection wasn't her main concern, although it wasn't doing anything to help her hysteria, Amalia decided what she planned to do when she got to the lobby might be a bigger issue.
And that was the million dollar question, wasn't it. What was she going to do?
Wave to get their attention... maybe shout?
"Oi! I'm over here?" Yeah or not.
This was going to take some planning. Which was thankfully what she was best at! She had been planning projects for years as a career.
Granted none of her previous assignments had involved so much blood, and the end outcome had never been her death.
She had never before considered how quickly elevators moved. This one, she would swear, was plummeting to the lobby.
Not much time for a good plan.
Pity, really...
Si could see her so clearly, the slight trembling, the strange little smile that would curl her lip as if she had just thought of something that was funny. He really wanted to know what that could be!
He wished he could think of something... hell anything other than what would happen when that case of glass stopped moving.
He didn't think he could watch her die and yet he knew he couldn't kill them below. So what choice did he have?
He could run, as anyone who knew him would expect him to do. But he wasn't going to leave Amalia to die alone. Then why didn't you have the balls to get into the elevator with her?
Good question, and one that drowned him in guilt and fear.
Where the hell was Jaden?
No doubt, the Demon Lord would have been ripping his shirt off to show an impressive ripple of muscle before throwing himself over the banister and engaging in a battle with odds of 1 on 30.
He may want to roll his eyes at the macho- aggressive idea, but right now he would have given his right arm for the Demon Lord to do just that.
Christ, he needed the Demon Lord. But, how was he going to get the him?
Perform a summoning?
He would need a tree and some human blood. Looking down at the marble lobby he had enough to paint a forest with, so no problem there. He just needed to get them out of the hotel and find a place to summon the Demon Lord back.
He knew it was never going to be that easy but it gave him a plan.
Now it was time for a strategy. He needed to get Amalia out of the lift... no wait! He needed her to stay inside. But how? It was already moving?
With a grin, Si turned and went in search of a fire alarm.
Jaden tried to discover the source of the scream. It had sounded so familiar he hadn't been able to stop himself going in search.
His head whipped from side to side as he looked at the faces of the fast moving crowd. He had materialised on a busy shopping street in New York. And at 3pm on a Saturday it was utter havoc. He had to resist the urge to bare his fangs whenever someone jostled into him.
The humans were moving so fast that he only catch a glimpse of each face before it was replace with another.
None of those faces he knew and the whispers were again strangely silent.
What the hell is going on? Whatever it was, he wasn't going to waste another minute here. He needed to get back to Lia, get supplies and leave New Orleans long behind.
Clenching his fists at the pointless distraction he turned to head back into the side street he had materialised into. He felt his heart lighten with the thought of returning to Amalia.
Would she still be sleeping? He hoped so.
He wanted to wake her with a kiss.
Jaden!
Cursing he turned back to the street. Who the hell was it?
Growling he turned his attention to the afternoon traffic. It looked more like a car park than a road, horns blared as people shouted out their windows. And yet none of the faces he recognised, certainly none of these humans could be responsible for the screaming in his head.
Jaden!
This was beginning to get irritating. Grinding his teeth he glanced over at the other side of the road.
Again, the humans were moving so quickly he could barely even catch their faces-
And then there she was...
It was like being slammed by a truck, his breath burst from his lips in shock, his body paralysed.
She was standing no more than 10 metres from him. Her eyes freezing him to the spot.
Unlike him she wasn't being jostled by the shoppers, they seemed to flow around her like a rock in a stream. Not one human touched her skin.
There was just no way.... But how could he deny it?
She stood right before him.
Those eyes he had known so well centuries ago were piercing him through the crowd.
Without a second thought he moved. The call of Christmas sales was obviously more than most New Yorkers sense of self preservation as more than one human got in his direct pursuit.
Stifling the urge to simply split the crowd wide and move the traffic with a flick of his wrist, he continued to barge through them.
She couldn't be here. Hell, she couldn't be alive! Let alone staring straight at him.
And she had been calling him? Why?
Amalia let out a screech of shock as the elevator came to a complete halt and the lights dimmed to a single spot light above her head. She suddenly knew what a butterfly on display felt like. And then came the screech of the fire alarm.
She cringed as she watched people duck their heads out of their suites before filling out into the corridor. She watched as the first person looked over the banister and saw the lobby floor.
Screams and shouts of warning and fear nearly over powered the high pitched alarm.
Like a stampede people began to run for all of the exits, she was sure she saw a woman throwing herself through a window to escape.
From her vantage point five metres off the floor she could have been watching everything.
Parents carried crying children; more than one child had their hands tightly over their eyes. She would have been glad for that; there were some things children should never see.
One woman fell to the floor, discovered blood coating her hand and let out a gargled sound of fear.
However Amalia wasn't watching the crowd, she didn't notice the flurry of people pushing and shoving to get free.
All she saw where thirty pairs of blood red eyes focused solely on her dangling five metres above their heads.
Si threw the single mattress through the window, and watched as its weight crushed a small shrub as it hit the floor. It bounced slightly, but landed where he needed it; less than a metre from the building.
Going back through the room he pushed furniture to the sides to make some running room.
When he came back through here he wouldn't be able to take the time to move things, and he definitely didn't need to be tripping over anything.
His plan was working so far; although to call what he was doing a plan was stretching the definition of the word. He had a goal and a general idea but no specifics.
The fire alarm had worked perfectly. No doubt the human blood rushing with panic would draw their enemies eyes away from Amalia long enough for him to get her out of the elevator. Then they would run for this room, and jump out the window.
Not bad.
It would have been better if he had a larger weapon than the six inch blade he had tucked in his pants, and an army of Demons to back him up.
Walking out into the hallway, he saw the chaos erupting below. Screams, shouts, tears.
Perfect! What demon could resist that?
Running along the corridor he headed for the elevator shaft. He had seen Die Hard, he knew there would be cables he could climb down. It had appeared easy enough.
Within seconds he would have Amalia and they would make their escape!
Jaden materialised in the rain. London. Perfect!
Not where he wanted to be! Within seconds he was wet and completely pissed off.
What was with the games?!
The moment he had reached her she had dematerialised, taking him on a wild chase over the continents. This was their forth stop and like every time before he had to search to find her.
Damn this!
He should just go back to New Orleans. Back to Amalia.
The guilt of his past wouldn't let him. He had walked away before, left her dying on the floor. Whatever reason she was here, he needed to know. He couldn't live with the guilt anymore.
He had given up everything believing he had killed her. And yet here she stood.
A cherry red umbrella was perched on one shoulder as she smiled at him through the rain.
That smile had on more than one occasion stripped him of all pride, of all words and left him at her utter mercy.
He had been obsessed with her. It hadn't been love; they had never spoken more than a handful of words to one another. They had never shared a tease or a conversation.
His heart ached for his guilt and for his need of Amalia.
This woman had never loved him.
Their relationship had never contained his heart.
No, his heart wasn't standing in the rain watching him. It was sleeping in New Orleans with a slight snore wearing a white bathrobe.
Si pried his blade into the gap in the elevators doors and wiggled. He feared snapping the blade, but thankfully, he managed to make a gap big enough for his hand to slip in.
Gripping the cool metal he pushed. The doors protested every inch with a screech but he finally got the doors to open.
Leaning over the edge he cursed at the distance. The hotel boosted high ceilings, which met there was quite a way between the second floor and the ground.
He was trembling as he reached out and grasped the cables. There was more than one? When he had been planning this, he had assumed there would be one thick cable he could slide down.
Gripping tightly he jumped the distance and swung his legs around the cables. His blood was racing with adrenaline and he was sure he must be trembling.
His arms began to scream with pain, holding his entire weight for such a distance was proving harder than he first thought. Would he be able to carry Amalia back up? Yes! He would be strong enough. All his brothers training and harsh words would ensure it.
With two metres to go, he released his grip and let himself drop.
Lia screamed as another Demon threw themselves at the glass. Even five metres off the ground they managed to spring for her. Talon like claws glistening red, scratched at the glass trying to gain their grip.
Each time they launched themselves at the glass box it rocked, slamming back into the elevator shaft walls so hard she could hear the cables above her head whining and she could barely remain standing.
This is not the way I am supposed to die...
It just wasn't. For the first time since this insanity begun, Lia felt the prick of tears. This just couldn't be happening!
Hadn't she been through enough over the last five years?!
The trembling had stopped once she had given up her ridged control. Once she had stopped fighting it, they took over but finally ebbed. Now it was the tears that threatened to break her.
She didn't scream again as another and then another flung themselves up at the glass. The blood and spittle was beginning to coat the glass smearing her view out.
The blood red carpet, the glass, the scratches...
Collapsing to the floor, Lia grasped her knees. She didn't regret coming here. If she had managed to save even one innocent life then this was worth it.
A demon had finally managed to reach the lid of the lift, his claws causing him to hang down. She watched as he pressed his face to the glass, sniffing as if to catch her scent. Could he do that through the glass?
When he began to violently buck his body at the glass, she knew he could.
Swallowing down the fear she simply sat, curled up, and watched. Watched them hiss at her, snarl at her. She couldn't hide the grimace as one licked at the blood marring the glass.
This just wasn't right. None of this was right.
How could this happen? Just yesterday she was watching the sunset and floating in the warm sea with Jaden. A tear slide silently down her cheek. How could one day be so perfect and the next an utter nightmare?
"Jaden..." The whispered plea wasn't very loud and had no strength to it.
A gasp escaped as the lift began to whine and slam into the shaft. Again and again, the small glass box was thrust back into the metal that encased it. It wouldn't last much longer.
If she had been thinking about it, she would have realised before now it had only been a matter of time before the lift fell to the ground.
"My God, this is bad..." Five metres won't kill you! True, but the Demons clinging and fighting against the glass will.
She stood and turned desperate for a way to escape.
She looked to the doors... no luck. She knew she was hovering between the lobby and the first floor, which meant there was no way to climb out even if she could open the doors by herself.
Looking to the ceiling she thought of her other options. The second she opens the latch they would be inside. She wouldn't stand a chance.
She hadn't expected to die inside the elevator!
She had been expecting to walk out of it and confront them in the open lobby!
Blinking away the tears she looked back at the claws and blood. Steeling her spine she prepared for the worst. Prepared for the fall.
She didn't have long to wait.
As something slammed into the elevator from above just as a Demon flung at the side, the elevator slammed hard enough to shatter the glass and plummet down to the marble floor waiting below...
Materialising into a busy side street that smelt faintly like -chocolate?- Jaden ignored the gasps and splutters as he went in search.
Belgium. It had to be, every other store was selling chocolate and sandwiched between them was a bar.
This was getting bloody ridiculous! He must have wasted the best part of an hour following her.
The stupefied shock that had seemed to encase him was wearing thin and so was the guilt lying heavy in his stomach.
This was his last day with Amalia. And where was he?! Not where he desperately needed to be, with her.
Instead he was on a wild goose chase, following a supposedly dead woman across the world.
Screw this. He stopped moving and just watched her stare back at him.
He figured he had two choices; he could follow her around the world for the third time, catch her finally and try to somehow relieve the guilt he had been carrying for centuries.
Or... he could go back to New Orleans, spend the day with Lia and build on his future.
He remembered clearly the day he had cursed himself into the stone, when he had given his very soul to have peace, to no longer be the one in charge of his destiny.
Too many wrong choices had led him to her. He had feared himself. He had feared making more mistakes that would damn him even more than he already was.
Hadn't Lia accomplished more to save his soul in three days then he had done in all his centuries of captivity?
He could see the frown flicker across her lips as she saw him simply standing still.
He wasn't going to follow her anymore.
This was just another one of her games.
There was nothing he could do to turn back the time. He could only look to the future.
He bowed his head at her in respect and in parting. This little chase was over, the hunter had lost his will to continue.
He was going home. He was going to Lia...
Turning his back on his past and guilt he walked away.
Smiling he looked into a small store, he couldn't come back from Belgium without bringing Lia some chocolate. She would never let him live with such a crime.
As he reached out to select a small hamper of chocolate sea shells he felt his skin tighten.
It was like a veil was lifting from his sense, and they were screaming. His heart was suddenly racing, his skin sweat soaked.
The whispers were frantic and forceful.
Bitch! She had blocked him!
It hadn't been shock, it had been magic blocking his sense!
Not caring about appearances he materialised straight from the small store to the hotel lobby back in New Orleans.
There he discovered nothing but blood and glass...
Thank you for reading!
Emmalisa x