The Wretched and Divine {Black Veil Brides}

4 - Wretched and Divine

    We rode for days, crossing the desert in the direction I ordered.  The horse was sturdy, much brawnier than I thought he would be especially in these conditions.  He listened to this little red haired fireball better than I thought anyone could train a big thing like this.  I had never seen a horse in my life, but I had heard about them when I attended classes.  These were the last of them, the dying breed torn asunder by the wars that had plagued the planet.  Much like the rest of the animal kingdom, their DNA was stored away in the cathedral.  Hell I didn’t even know they had begun cloning these things.  I thought the army marched on foot to destroy those who lived beyond the walls.

    They smashed anyone who didn’t live the way they chose for them.

    That included my faction now.  We had heard of an oasis where a band of rebels had been staying and that was where Ashely, Jinxx, Doll and Pitts were headed now…or at least I hoped they were.  When we ran away, I wasn’t sure if they made it down the wall safely and that concerned me.  They were the only family I could call home, so why had my belay device broken and left me with this girl?  She was little to nothing to me and yet as I held her around the waist, there was something I couldn’t help feeling.

    Maybe it was the fact that I hadn’t had sex in a while and she was attractive.  I cursed myself for even thinking that and mentally growled at the insipidity of that typical masculine thought.  She was more than that, like a beacon of hope or some shit that I could look to believe in.  Maybe it was because she had been covered in blood from head to toe, splattered because of the death of her brother.  Something similar had happened to me, but my parent’s blood had dripped on my face from their exposed entrails as they hung from the wall.

    “Hey,” Light whispered, amber eyes turning back to me.  Her throat seemed like it was too dry or something, like she was having trouble speaking.  When the rainy skies had cleared, they’d given way to heat unlike anything we had ever felt.  The horse was hot, the ground was boiling and the sky seemed to sway with the intensity of the roiling temperature.  I felt fried and her skin was just as fair as mine, the pink in it a tell tale sign that she had sunburned.

    It was only then that I realized we had stopped.

    “What is it?” I croaked, noticing how equally bad off I was.  Her delicate eyelashes covered her irises for a moment and then returned in full glory, her eyes matching the name she had given herself.  She looked like a Light.

    She pointed breathlessly to a rocky site where there was a dark spot of gratifying shade.  I nodded, too weak to speak as I clung to her.  With a light tap of her heels, she asked the black heat beneath us to go towards that haven.  We reached it in only a few minutes, the two of us dismounting under the good span of shadow and allowing the horse to do as he pleased.  I figured if he left, fuck him.  He would die out there in that sun, but Light seemed to know that it wouldn’t leave us.  She quickly moved towards the underbelly of the rock, laying down on the cool sand and allowing her fiery red hair to fall around her.  She closed her eyes for a few moments, seeming to be in ecstasy at the idea of coolness.

    I sat down next to her, relaxing my arms over my knees as I stared outwards at the hell we were crossing.  No water, no food and no clue on how far this place was, I felt blind.  I felt like I was leading this woman to her death and somehow I was riddled with guilt.  Maybe I was wrong for bringing her along, but she would’ve died anyway at the hands of that guard.  This was her choice too, I had to remind myself.

    “Sixx,” she uttered, still desperately weak.  I knew how thirsty she was because I felt the same stinging on my tongue and in my throat.  I glanced at her.