28. Hardest Choices

"Seriously, syrup on a cheese toastie?" he asked, shaking his head at me now sitting on the kitchen island where he had put me. After getting me out of my dress, he had ordered me to hide temptation and meet him downstairs, where he was doing grilled cheese sandwiches.

So, after putting on a pair of black and white tartan pattern draw-string trousers and a white T-shirt, I made my way downstairs. But it was a pajama set that I added a bra to, because you could see my nipples through the top and I thought that was just cruel.

Plus, my stomach was right… I was starving. Meaning sex for the time being was off the cards. And the second he saw me, he picked me up and popped me on the small island so I could watch him finish off making our food.

"Well, it isn't steak but its damn good," I said with my mouth half full, getting my lips all sticky with the syrup I had decided to drizzle over it.

"And you think my club is full of freaks? ‘Cause that there is just plain weird," he said, biting into his own and nodding to me with the neck of his beer. He had also gotten me one but so far, I had been too busy with my gooey sweet cheese.

"Well, it's a first for me if that helps, but then it was right here sitting next to me and I thought, mmm, that sounds good," I told him, because we had left it on the island since this morning. However, he started frowning at me, before asking,

"I didn't know you were such a syrup lover, thought biscuits and coffee were your thing… that and beer," he said, nodding to the untouched bottle he had put next to me when handing me my grilled cheese. I just shrugged my shoulders and said,

"I guess it's a new thing, but as for the beer…" I picked it up and started to drink it down, when suddenly a thought hit me. And in my realization, I dropped the fucking bottle. Which meant it smashed on the floor and before I thought about it, I slipped off the island, stupidly cutting my foot in the process.

"Ella!" he shouted, but I didn't have the time to explain, because suddenly something else was taking the place of my panicked realization. The second my blood hit the floor, a bright green glow erupted all around us. I covered my eyes as a moan of complaint came from me, but as for Jared, he saw what was happening before I did. Which meant he quickly grabbed me and spun with me in his arms, getting me out of the way just in time, making me go dizzy.

"What's happening?" I asked the second we looked back to where I had been standing, now seeing a glowing green portal swirling on the floor, one that was growing rapidly. To the point that the whole island suddenly fell into it, making me gasp.

"I don't know… your blood, it's like it opened a summoning portal," Jared told me, his voice strained as his concern started to grow.

"Oh shit! I didn't mean to do that!" I told him, making him tense.

"I know."

"So, what do we do now? We can't just live with that weird green glowing puddle in our kitchen," I pointed out irrationally. However, before I had chance to get my reply, the next disastrous thing to happen came in the form of a vicious growl and this time…

It didn't belong to Jared.

We both looked to the wall of windows and the second we saw movement, I couldn't help but scream, just as they all leapt forward as one. They all smashed through the glass, tunneling their sleek bodies through the air and through the destruction they had caused.

"ELLA, RUN!" Jared bellowed, pushing me toward to stairs in order to save me. But as I did this, I could see all the HellHounds gathering outside, just waiting for their turn. What looked like hundreds of them, now clawing their way up through the other portal I could see glowing next to where Jared had parked the car. And it too, just like the glowing green portal I had created, started to grow. And to the point that, just like the island, it started to swallow up the car, making it disappear into the Hellish pit bellow. Not before one of the monsters clawed its way up and over it, leaping from the hood, before it could fall completely.

"There are too many of them!" I shouted, just as Jared had started fighting them, his body half changed so he could claw into them, slicing them open and making them howl. All I could see was a sea of HellHounds, all coming this way, with only one person in mind.

They wanted me.

It was just like that day when it had first happened. Suddenly it all started to come back to me. All the warning signs, the things that Orson had said to me. Because I knew now…

I was the cause.

I was the one that had brought them here. I didn't know how or why but I knew that I was the only one with the power to stop it. And running away wasn't the key. Not like Jared wanted me to.

So just as Jared was close to being overwhelmed by the sheer number of them, all tearing through the cabin and making it look like Swiss cheese, I searched for the feeling I had that day.

The day that I had first touched the book. The one I had spent this last week ignoring. It was a power I could feel lying dormant inside me until the time was right. Well, now I knew that time was right and that time… was now.

It had to be to save the man I loved.

Which is why I called forth the book and with it, felt my entire body start to change. A green mist rose around me, before it became something fluid. Something tangible. It wrapped around my body like Demonic ribbons made from the essence of each and every soul I had at the ready, just waiting eagerly for my command.

So, without a single thought, I twisted my hand around slowly and brought forth the book, making it appear in front of me. Just like it had been begging me to do so since that day. Because this was one thing I had chosen not to tell Jared. I convinced myself that he had enough to worry about. That he'd had enough on his plate. Too much for me to add to it and tell him how, in my dreams, I could hear it speaking with me, asking me…

To come home.

I never understood it then, but as I looked down at the glowing portal I had made, I knew now what it meant. Because this hadn't been my first life. No, that one had been stolen from me. Taken from me by none other than…

Jared's wife… Lerna.

I could see her now. Telling me goodbye. Telling me that she would see me again. That she would be ready. But then…

So would I.

But first I needed to save my HellBeast King!

Meaning I let my anger burn as I suddenly screamed, opening my arms wide and telling my souls,

"KILL THEM ALL, SAVE THE HELLBEAST!" This was enough and all it took for them to escape, flying out as one. The souls seeped from the book in one long cloud of green smoke, filling the cabin with all of them, until they each started to take form. Each of them were quick to protect the man they had not long ago fought against. Each one taking hold of a HellHound and ripping it to pieces, dragging them away from Jared, who was still fighting, but was now in his HellBeast form. But it hadn't been enough, because too many of them had been tearing at him as one, and he had been forced to try and take them all on in the fight.

I knew that he would have fought to the death to save me. Which was when I realized the truth.

I placed a hand at my stomach and that thought quickly changed, coming back to me as the realization hit me from earlier. Knowing now that…

He wouldn't have just fought to save me.

He would have died saving us both.

Like this, I now felt it.

I felt his baby growing inside of me.

I was pregnant.

That Hellish portal wouldn't ever close with me here, no matter how many souls I had to fight them.

Meaning there was only one thing left for me to do.

I had to save us all.

I took one last look at Jared, screaming as he took a bite to the neck, hoping I still had chance to save him. I lashed out a hand, causing one of my souls to act quickly, killing the HellHound before it could tear his throat out.

"Jared," I whispered his name at the pain I felt, seeing him now lying bloody on the floor, the fight drained out of him as his body turned back into that of a man.

One that I could see, thank the Gods, was still breathing!

So, I told my souls,

"Protect him and do not return to me until none remain, and he awakens." I knew they had heard, despite them continuing to fight, something they would have had to do infinitely, unless I ended this.

So, without thinking more about it, I went to the one place I knew would be safe. The one I had opened a portal to, and felt within my bones would be in my own domain.

I kicked away the banisters, without taking the time to marvel at my new strength, and jumped straight off the stairs, and into…

The portal below

I screamed the second I fell, bracing myself for impact as I knew I would surely have to land. But then, when it came, incredibly, I landed on my feet and felt strength envelope me the second I did. It was as if wherever I was, it had instantly started feeding me with power.

But that power diminished quickly the second I heard a single voice.

A voice I knew and this time, it wasn't from Jared's past.

It was from my own.

Because clearly, our fate had been entwined even before I was born as a mortal, but not before my first life. No, that had kick started everything.

I knew that the second I turned and finally faced my fate.

Faced Lerna.

However, the very last thing I ever expected her to say was,

"Welcome back…"

"My sister."

To be Continued.