The Pentagram Child(173)

It was only when the rumbling started that I was able to piece it all together. Feeding the door a drop of blood was like injecting a small amount of adrenaline into a dead heart and getting enough from one beat to gain access to the Temple. However what Alex had done was to fuel that heart with enough power to pump a constant beat, with my blood acting as the catalyst.

The lush green life travelled along the veins as if chasing the dead away and pretty soon the whole tree was full of life once more, standing tall in all its superb glory. Although we soon found out this wasn’t the only dead thing to make its appearance to the land of the living once again.

“Wh…what…haaave…you donnne?” I asked slurring as I was finally released and fell backwards being too weak to stand.

“I invited some friends to the party.” He said laughing as the vast space shook like it was some aftershock from seismic waves that kept rolling through the levels of the earth beneath us. I saw the dust and debris raining down from the ceiling and I looked back to the walls when the thundering came from all around us.

I saw Lucius stop and look around the room as if he already knew what was about to happen and only in my wildest of nightmares would I understand. Because this was the point when my life turned into some horrific zombie movie.

I had to squint my eyes to begin with as the first shadows emerged from the crypt’s holes but soon it started to look more like a wall of black was closing in on us. Like a swarm of bees all moving around each other, it was hard to pinpoint just one. It didn’t make sense until the first line of bodies drew closer and Lucius raised his sword.

“Oh God no! You…you raised dead!” I whispered as I managed to sit up and cradle my wounded hand to my chest, putting pressure on the bloody slice made there.

“No… you raised the dead, dear Catherine.”

“Is this best you can do before you die at my hands, Nephilim?!” Lucius shouted, taking a better stance and looking truly magnificent with his flaming phoenix wings stretched out behind him. He looked ready to take on an army and as the first bodies came into detailed focus I sucked in a worried breath, realising how true that statement was.

Lucius was going in to battle and he was doing it alone.

The living dead didn’t walk and stumble along like mindless drones as they did in most movies. No, they went at him with purpose as if he held the key to their resurrected survival. It was like a horde of bodies that looked like their dry flesh had been pulled downwards as it hung from the elongated bones like weighty material. Black holes for their eyes, mouth and nose held no features from their past lives and the most distinct body part was the lines of ribs that showed through the sheer stretched skin that looked as thin and as breakable as tissue paper.

“LOOK OUT!” I screamed as the first wave attacked him from behind but I needn’t have feared as Lucius cut them down with one swipe, taking five in one go. I watched in pure amazement as he flung his sword around at such speeds it almost looked like the blades on a propeller going round. He spun, ducked and bent at the waist in a series of movements that was so efficient no one really even got close to him. But the more he cut down the more that steadily replaced them.

I was just watching as he flipped his body around and out to one side arching his weapon downwards which took out another three with one move. Then I was grabbed from behind and with my dry blood still coating the wooden dagger it was held to my throat.

“Time for us to get back to our own private party.” Alex said and in his excitement I felt the spray of spit hit my ear and neck.

“Let me go!” I said trying to struggle but giving up quickly when I felt the bite of pain under my neck. I could see Lucius trying to make a path to get to me but each time he tried he was attacked from a different angle. I knew he needed help, just something to give him that small window so he could get to me but more importantly… to Alex.

So with this new plan in mind I drew in a deep breath and tried to block out the throbbing pain in my arm. I knew I had but one chance at this and I had to make it count. So I tried to relax and blank my mind in order to draw in some energy. I had no idea how to do this so I tried the only idea I had and that was to concentrate on not only everything else around me but seeing it all differently. Not looking at what was in front of me as a person or an object but looking at it as an aura. Something that conducted an essence like the supernatural beings did in order to feed. I had to see the world in their eyes and feel out the different energies like Draven had told me about.

It was only then that the world for me changed and for once instead of seeing a place of horror, it became a place of beauty. Colours lit up all around the tree of life and even each of the battling dead became a red glow that filled the room with crimson light. It was almost blinding and if I hadn’t had a blade to my neck I would have shielded my eyes. But in the end this became a means of drawing in this newly discovered energy as a way to protect myself. Like my mind took over and started to absorb the auras around me in long streams of colour now travelling towards me. The sole purpose of this was to make the world less bright but in doing so it made me feel strong…very, very strong.