Claimed by the Primals

Chapter Thirty-Six

Everything was white. There was no differentiation between ground and sky, only that I could feel that I was standing on a solid surface. Isaac's grip on my throat had vanished, allowing me to breathe again. But I didn't need to breathe. I didn't feel the need to breathe or blink, the nausea disappeared, and so did all other sensations. I felt as free as I did in purgatory.

But this wasn't purgatory.

Along with Isaac, everyone had disappeared. All except for one person. Godric. He was looking around, seemingly as confused as I was. I didn't know whether to run or to call out. He was in his primal form, but angels don't have much of a change. His eyes were red, and four massive wings sprouted from his back.

I had also taken my primal form, which I once thought was also not much different from normal. Until then, my shift had been some of my hair taking on the colors of stars and galaxies. When I attacked Amara, I had grown claws, but they had reverted back too fast for me to examine and recreate them.

In that realm, my hair was longer and all of it had those shifting colors. It swirled around me as if commanded by a soft breeze that wasn't there. Again, my hands converted to long claws and were now a gradient of black at the tips and slowly lightened to match my skin tone just above my elbows. My teeth, too, had lengthened and sharpened into fangs. All of them. Sharp and needle-like.

Between us, the white nothingness began to twist and change color and shape. Mountains formed, and trees sprouted around us. Bodies began to emerge, and in the matter of a few minutes, a miniature tableau of the battle grew before us. For reference, Kade's six-and-a-half-foot form was shrunk down to about two feet, all so we could see everything laid out like a chess board.

And I mean we could see everything.

There were more angels descending on the battlefield from the trees. Godric made such a grand and deliberate show of bringing just the immediate family but was sure to have plenty of back-up so that he wouldn't repeat Abraham's mistake. Thorne had been so confident that he had the advantage in numbers, and I felt safe in that. We were idiots.

Say what you will about their traditions but ensuring that their harems are made up solely of angels ensures that their population is always on an upwards trend.

Godric was thinking the same thing, as his body relaxed, and a slight smile tugged at his mouth. He looked at me with those cold, red eyes. The only time I ever saw any true emotion in them was when he stared at me then. Hatred. Pure and simple. The look of a man that if he could go back, he would have thrown me into the ocean and never once looked back.

He wanted my mom back. He wanted Kallista, his mate, the mother of his children, back. In his eyes, I was the reason she was gone. Mom could have died from old age or a natural illness or hit by a bus crossing the street, and he still would have blamed me.

I was the reason mom was out on the road that night, no one can deny that. But I wasn't the one in the other car. I wasn't driving in the wrong lane, I wasn't the one who hit us and sent us into the ditch, and I wasn't the one who drove off and left us to die. It could have happened to anyone. It just happened to be us. As ridiculous as it sounds, after carrying all of that guilt and pain for the last ten years, it was that moment where it lifted.

The next thing that happened was something I still have trouble believing. Yeah, I know, a lot of that kind of stuff has happened, but... well...

A new kind of light started to grow from behind Godric. This one was gold, and continued to grow until there was nothing but broiling golden light behind my father. It was huge, five times the size of the largest man. There were no features identifying it, but I didn't need them. I could feel its power. It was so similar to that of an angel's, but different. Stronger. Older. Something that wasn't from this world.