My Love, Please Kill Me

[pt.23] The Part of The Bargain

Part 23

THE PART OF THE BARGAIN

[Mikael POV]

I howled like a wounded animal, craddling Lunalea’s limp body in my arms. She was returning to her human form—her wings seemed to shrink into her back and the grey in her skin was gone. She’s also very cold.. My vision blurred with unshed tears. I barely had the sanity to check her pulse. To my relief, it’s there, but it was so weak in any moment it could be gone.

“What have you done!?” I roared at Gabriel, furious. I was oblivious to the fact that blood was dripping from her right shoulder, where she had been hit by her own arrow. She was taken aback, pure fear reflected in her eyes.

“S-she’s not d-dead, is she?” she stuttered. “Please tell me she’s not…” Her face was pale; whether it was because of losing blood or because of guilt, I didn’t know and I didn’t care.

“She’s dying!! What’s the difference?!” I lashed out my fury at her.

“Then let’s hurry and bring her to Raphael.” Gabriel blurted out, and I frowned when she said the name. I became suspicious.

“Raphael! Does he have anything to do with this?” I inquired. By that time I noticed an instrument in Gabriel’s hand: a syringe. Did she stab Lunalea with that? If Raphael somehow related to this, I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there’s some formula in the syringe.. “Gabriel, what is it that you injected to Lunalea??”

She shrugged her shoulders, and flinched in pain when the simple movement affected her wound. “I don’t know, I swear! Raphael gave me this and asked me to use it on the healer girl if she turned demon—which obviously she did!” explained Gabriel.

I glared at Gabriel after what she revealed to me. I didn’t know what to think of this. Firstly she helped me out of the dungeon, volunteered to accompany me to the underworld. Then it turned out she had an agenda of her own: accomplishing the task Raphael gave her. Now.. Raphael. What was it with this guy? He’s no less enigmatic than Lord Uriel. He obviously knew more than he told me and seemed like having a plan of his own. I certainly wasn’t sure whether he’s a friend or foe.

My ears picked up some faint growling and howling from the direction of the tunnel where we came, presuming that the demons were heading this way. Obviously, I had a lot of questions in my mind concering this matter, but now wasn’t the right time to pose them. We must hurry and get out of here first. I got up, flinging Lunalea’s body on my left shoulder; this way I could use my right hand to fight if the situation forced me to. Without saying anything to Gabriel, I started walking away.

“Please. Don’t be mad at me. I’m just doing my part of the bargain.” Said Gabriel wearily, trailing behind me.

Again this invoked my suspicion. I glanced at her. “What bargain?”

She blushed. Wait—she did what? I must be hallucinating. There’s no way this woman blushing. “You don’t need to know!” she snapped.

“Fine!” I snapped back and marched faster, not caring if she had to stagger to follow me.

We wasn’t too far from the way out now. There’s one more fork ahead, where I quickly chose the left one—I had made a cross sign on the wall with my sword earlier to mark our way. On we walked down another long dark tunnel. It went up and widened as we approached the gate. I saw a glimpse of the night sky outside and quickened my pace, feeling more than relief to leave this foul place.

At last we’re out. I breathed the clean air deeply, and stopped dead in my track when I realized what awaited us in the clearing. Gabriel almost bumped into me. I heard her gasp. Before us gathered more than three dozens demons, each and every one of them snarling at us, seemingly at a contest to show who got the sharpest set of teeth and the most menacing voice. I clenched my teeth and tightened my grip—both on my sword and on Lunalea’s body.

“How many arrow do you have left?” I hissed at Gabriel.

“Less than a dozen.” She replied bitterly. Uh. No good. But even with a limitless supply of arrows, we’re still at the down side considering the wound on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Blow the whistle!” she reminded me, having spotted no sight of Kieran and the dragon.

I nodded and grasped the whistle around my neck with my left hand, bringing it upon my lips. Then I blew as hard as I could. The sound was on a frequency neither I nor Gabriel could hear, but apparently the demons could. Their growls suddenly turned into painful shrieks. Some covered their ears. After that, they went berserk, storming at us.

I took on a defensive stance; let them come, I would knock them down one by one. Gabriel started firing her remaining arrows. Her speed greatly diminished, but her precision was still outstanding. She didn’t waste not even an arrow, each shoot was a head-shot, instant killing. Meanwhile, I swung my blade, slashing and hacking each demon that came at me. Fortunately, they were just a bunch of weaklings, so it wasn’t to difficult to slay them.

After she ran out of arrows, Gabriel took out her twin daggers out of her boots. She mainly finished off the demons that still managed to move after receiving my blows. Battles, no matter how easy they might seem, were always horrible to experience. Splashes of fresh blood, ear-splitting agonized cries, and scattered limbs never failed to make my head dizzy, but somehow I could maintain my focus on fighting.

By the time all of the demons were nothing but disgusting lifeless array of remains, both Gabriel and I were panting, breathing heavily. I wouldn’t pretend this wasn’t exhausting for me, because it was. I could feel my body drenched in sweats and silently congratulated myself when I noticed Lunalea didn’t have a scratch on her—though her garments were tainted by the demons’ blood.

“Mika!” called Gabriel alarmingly, “I think more of them are coming!”

I took a fleeting look and was aware of the roaring sound mixed with ground stomping that was getting louder. “I know.” I muttered while scanning the sky. Where the hell were Kieran and the dragon?!

“Mikael!”

There they were! A speck of green in the vast black sky. “Run!” I yelled. Gabriel didn’t need to be told twice, it appeared that she had spotted the sight of the dragon as well. We darted towards the descending dragon. I glanced back and felt my heart sink at the immense amount of demons that were after us.

The dragon was getting lower and closer. We could see Kieran stood on its back with determined face. He shouted something at the dragon; we couldn’t hear it due the whooshing wind created by its flapping wings. Then the dragon swooped down pass our heads, its thunderous roar silenced all other sounds. There’s a horrible rumbling noise from the dragon’s belly. I stopped running and turned around just in time to see the dragon breathed a grand crimson fire, engulfing the stampeding demons in an inferno, burning them to the very core. Beside me Gabriel gasped in amazement.

Even from this distance the heat was extremely unbearable, so we took a few steps backwards. Then, after a few moments watching dark figures slithering under the burning flame, our line of vision was blocked by the dragon’s tremendous body as it landed right in front of us. Kieran jumped down at once, rushing towards me and Gabriel.

“Are you injured, My Lord, My Lady?” Kieran’s voice was full of concern, his eyes zoomed in on Gabriel’s wound. “My Lady, let me—“

“I’m fine!” Gabriel snapped, though her voice was unmistakably laced with agony. “Take us to Raphael first. You know the place right?” she commanded.

Kieran stared disapprovingly at the bleeding wound. However, he knew Gabriel didn’t like to be disobeyed, so he just pursed his lips and nodded. We strode towards the dragon and climbed onto its back. I placed Lunalea carefully between Gabriel and myself; she was facing me so I could protect her better from the harsh wind. Once again I felt her pulse: still there, and still weak.. As I wrapped my arms securely around her fragile frame, I cringed at the possibility of not seeing her conscious again. For the first time in my life I felt so afraid.

“We’ll save her.” said Gabriel slowly, without looking at me, before the dragon took off. We left behind the great fire that had yet died down even though everything in it had turned into a huge black pile.