Eclipse

9.

"What's this?"

"This is a compilation of all of the information that I have gathered ever since the prophecy was made," Kieran declared. "You'll be helping go over this one last time before we head off to find that Nephilim prophetess."

"And what exactly are we supposed to be looking for?"

Kieran shrugged. "Anything, really. Anything that could be a sign..."

"A sign of..."

"What exactly is about to happen."

"Right."

Kieran split the stack in half, and soon I was immersed in his findings, full of pages that recorded Nephilim and Lupi deaths, pages that recorded supernatural occurrences, pages that recorded flares in demon-dominated Nephilim activity. I soon determined that the Fallen didn't actually physically reside on the planet, but rather in a parallel dimension of sorts that humans now more commonly referred to as Hell. Similarly, the residence of all things godly and angel-like was called Heaven, except Hell was virtually a prison, binding the Fallen and sinners within. But, like all prisons—or prison movies, perhaps—escape is always possible. Most escaped Fallen tended to venture a seductive conquest, sleeping with the weak-minded in the hopes of increasing the demon-dominant Nephilim before the angels could recapture them, generally preying on the weak and those who sold off their bodies.

After a half hour of poring over the papers, Kieran broke the silence by swearing quietly but violently all the same.

"What is it?"

"Take a look at this."

I leaned over the counter and realised he was reading an annotated page from 'The Beginning'. My eyes quickly ran over the highlighted phrase that he was pointing at: 'Larentia stood before the towering angel again, and remained silent until her began to speak. He explained to her that her child, and his descendants, would always have the blood of the wolf running through their veins. The purpose of their lives would be to extinguish those of the felonious offspring of the Fallen, the Nephilim. To compensate Larentia's loss by slaying the Fallen was impossible, leaving this as the only conceivable possibility, but it was not enough. Larentia begged and pleaded for ample revenge, but the angel, the essence of purity, firmly refused and dismissed her.'

"Yeah... what about it?"

"Megan, don't you understand? This says that the purpose of the Lupi was to destroy, or at least kill, the Nephilim. Their purpose was to atone for the sins committed by the Fallen, and now, millennia later, not only to we have rogues partying and downing shots with the Nephilim, we also have you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. What happened two years ago, you yourself said: you could tell that Leo Juarez was your mate. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Stop beating 'round the damn bush and spill it, would you?" I finally snapped, annoyed by his evasiveness. Where was he trying to get?

Kieran sighed heavily and rolled his eyes at my apparent dim-wittedness. "Larentia's wish is basically... you could say it's disintegrating. There are other books that you could find that say the a Lupi could literally never get along with a Nephilim without ending up killing him, and now... look at us! I think that maybe the whole Lupi wish thing is starting to disintegrate, or wear out or something like that."

I could feel the blood draining from my face as I processed his words. At first it seemed like nonsense, but looking at it closely... there was a possibility that his idea had some merit. Besides, didn't I dil to detect the Nephilim scent on Leo, or the Lupi one on his killer? Kieran could very well be correct.

"Shit," I murmured. "What does that mean for me and the Lupi in general? Do we die... or do we just lose the ability to shift and all of the add-ons?"

"I don't know," Kieran mumbled, shooting to his feet.

"Where're you going?"

"Where are we going," he corrected as he cracked the knots in his back from sitting hunched over for so long. "We need to find Cassandra."

"Who?"

"The prophetess," Kieran said exasperatedly at my inattentiveness. "Now go and get changed. We're going to be leaving in five."

I rummaged through the bags that Kieran had bought and scavenged a pair of plain black tights and a full-sleeved shirt that hung off my shoulder blades and bit too much. My reflection eyed my tangle of hair warily, and after an attempt to run through it with a brush, I soon gave up, settling with tying it loosely behind.

Kieran surveyed me sceptically at the door, wearing a blazer over a white button-down shirt and a pair of jeans, looking neat and fresh with no evidence of the sleepless bags under his eyes I'd seen before. "She has higher standard than you think, so be prepared for some perfectly intended insults headed your way."

"Gee, thanks. I'll be sure to join you with my imaginary insult-proof vest," I replied sarcastically as we headed to the elevator.

"You do that."

We remained silent after that, and the quietude continued long after Kieran started the car, until the stillness in the air finally became too much for me to handle. The Lupi were not designed to sit in one spot for a prolonged period of time.

"How much longer?" I asked. He'd been already been driving for half an hour.

"We'll be a while. Try to get some sleep or something," he replied quietly. I thought I could detect a faint sense of nervousness in his voice but ignored it all the same.

"How long's a while?"

"Don't make me drug you," Kieran threatened, and I noticed the tenseness in his arms and he readjusted his grip on the steering wheel.

I sighed softy and leaned back into the seat, and sleep came surprisingly fast. My nap was seemingly short and, as always, disastrous, but by the time I had fought my way into reality, Kieran's car was parked in front of an old double-storey mansion that could have been a slice of the 1800s, with the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen standing at the door that was half hidden by the large garden. Her features were the most enviable I'd ever seen, and she was staring through the trees, directly at Kieran with a ferocious snarl twisting her lips.