Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 118699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 593(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 593(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
It was worth it, brother-mine! I have made a new creature! A new being! A stable meld of a tiger and a mortal!
As Alexander fought the tears that burned his irises, he saw Raphael rise and turn to explore the rest of the laboratory. The child’s eyes glinted and then he was scrabbling out of his chosen hiding spot to tag along behind Raphael. Jumping up on tables with the ease of a cat, the boy prowled along with curious eyes.
Leaving behind a pinkish-red trail of footprints and handprints.
The child was astonishing and wild and he should not have existed. “A mortal is not meant to be a tiger and a tiger is not meant to be a mortal,” he said to his brother, his voice like gravel.
I see two dead wolves in a large cage to the left, Raphael told him at the same time. From the stiffness of their bodies, they died some time ago. They appear to have been torn apart by claws. Old blood coats the inside of the cage.
Alexander tried not to think of the boy shut inside the cage with wolves, but his brain refused to stop making the connection. Why would Osiris do such an ugly thing?
The child has fangs. Raphael’s grim voice in his mind again, the other angel standing close to the far wall with the feral child up on a shelf above him. That extraordinary silver hair hung around the boy’s face as he leaned out to see what Raphael was doing.
Did you Make him, brother? That would be an even worse abomination. Children weren’t meant to be turned into vampires. Ever. It was a crime so grave that the only and irrevocable punishment was death.
Mortals were firefly flickers in an immortal world, but children were still children, to be protected and loved. Never to be abused and broken.
No, Osiris said, but he wouldn’t hold Alexander’s gaze. I simply used a droplet or two of the Making toxin as part of the experiment. His hand spasmed on Alexander as he mentioned the dangerous toxin that built up in angelic bodies, and could only be purged into a mortal—thus leading to the creation of vampires.
Osiris continued to speak into Alexander’s mind. It has merged with his blood. Feverish excitement, a stunned and bright joy. He’s not angel, mortal, animal, or vampire. He’s a true chimera. Bloody coughing as the sound of Raphael tearing the back wall apart filled the air. Help me, Alexander . . . little sib.
“I will,” Alexander said gently. “I will, Osiris.”
A growling sound.
He glanced up to find the child staring at Raphael with fangs bared as Raphael stood in front of a section of the back wall that he’d torn away to reveal what lay beyond. Stone bricks. The odd thing was that each brick was a unique shape—as if the stone had been worked by angelic power.
“What lies here?” Raphael asked the child, as if the feral boy could understand.
Osiris’s eyes shifted again, and Alexander knew. His already broken heart suffered a death blow. Still, he had to be sure beyond any doubt. “Where did you bury the other children? The other wild creatures? The failed chimeras?”
Nothing from his brother.
But Alexander could read Osiris’s bloody face. They are coffins, Raphael. My brother has surrounded himself with the bodies of all those children and animals he tortured. Tears rolled down his face, his wings slumped to the floor.
Alexander, it hurts. Osiris sucked in a harsh gasp of air. Please take me from this cold place so I can heal.
Don’t worry, brother. Alexander turned his attention to Raphael. Take the boy from here, Rafe.
The younger angel didn’t argue. Neither did he try to grab the wild chimera. Instead, he just held out his arms, his hands streaked with dust from tearing apart the wall—and dried blood from when he’d picked up the piece of Osiris’s liver.
The boy watched him with suspicious silver eyes . . . before jumping straight into his arms and clinging to him with sharp claws. Not wincing even though Alexander could see that those claws had sliced right through his leathers, Raphael strode out without a backward look.
The chimera hissed and growled at Osiris as they passed, even swiping out a small—so small—clawed hand, as if he’d tear off even more pieces of his tormentor.
Where is he taking him? He’s my creation! Osiris struggled to get up, was too weak.
Don’t worry, my brother. All is well. Justice said Osiris should suffer pain and torture for what he’d done, that he should scream as his innocent victims must have, but Alexander couldn’t do that to the brother who’d once held his hand and taught him to swim.
Yet he knew Osiris couldn’t be permitted to live. It was clear that he believed he’d done a great thing, that angelkind would honor him. And the terrible truth was that some in angelkind would, should his atrocity of a deed become known. Because evil existed in every species, mortal and immortal. To allow Osiris to live would be to spread a cancer that would lead to more innocent deaths, more devastated parents and small broken bodies.