Chapter Two: Sea of Fate
Taken from Chapter One of Keegan and Flanna Chap. 01
Keegan stood and left Flanna's side. He walked toward Miranda, never once releasing the strand of power he gripped her with. Once he felt her too weak to be much of a threat, he released his hold and spoke so all could hear him. You Bitch You're hate for us and our kind was evident for a moment... and during that brief time I saw your true character, your plans of death for my children and my wife. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her up to her feet. You knew your life was over when your child was born. You have sealed your fate even more. Once that babe leaves your womb you are gone... do you hear me? He pushed her hard and she fell back against Lawler.
You and yours will die before this babe graces this world and so will its father, Miranda screamed with rage and was forced from the room as Lawler pulled her away. Her curses filled the manor and she found herself thrown to the bed, once more locked away...
...Lawler gazed down on the woman that he'd secured to his bed. He would punish her. In time, Miranda would feel the pain his heart felt now.
A few weeks later. . .
She wasn't sure how she'd done it, but she had. Miranda slipped quietly from the house and scurried down the walk toward the church where she'd met her lover so many month's ago. Her body, heavy with child, made the walk more difficult as did the occasional contraction that ripped through her system. She would stop, bite her lip and double over as the pain of the child's pending birth forced her to stop. At times, though it had been excruciating, she reached the gates of the church and yelled for sanctuary. She knew it would look odd that she screamed such a word, during times of peace, but she did it anyway. She needed sanctuary from the beings that would take her life and pass her babe to the one she had grown to hate just as much as her Master and Mistress.
The old nun heard the cry just as she had finished her prayers. Her eyes looked up at the being that had come to her and she felt a tear trickle down her wrinkled cheek. She rose up on unsteady legs and slowly crossed the church and entered the outer yard. Sister Agatha peered into the dark and her eyes grew wide in awe as she took in the image of the young woman, her belly protruding as the life inside tried to force its way out. She hurried as fast as her aged body would allow her too and reached the gate. "Shh... my child. I hear you. I will help you."
Miranda's eyes filled with tears and they fell thick and fast. "Please. . .before they-" her voice stopped as she looked up and saw the wings of darkness hovering over her. "Hurry," she shouted. "Oh please, please hurry."
Miranda watched as the Raven dropped down to the walk and shifted back to the beautiful Goddess of Death, Flanna. Her curves were only more pronounced after the birth of her twins. Her long red locks, tugged against her pale skin, falling down in rivers to her thighs. Her eyes were thick with anger and satisfaction and when her mate, the bat and Prince of Darkness, dropped to her side she purred in delight.
Agatha witnessed the arrival of the two demons just as the key to the gate slid home and she unlocked it. Miranda heard the lock give way and pushed the gate open. The two demons hissed in anger as they swiftly pressed themselves closer to the iron rails. "You are only safe there for now. You will be ours again," Flanna hissed. She watched her former slave step back, fear and disgust evident in her soft eyes. Flanna laughed when Miranda fell to her knees and cried out as another wave of contractions gripped her.
Keegan stared through the metal to the woman that had opened the church up for Miranda. He studied her and saw understanding in her eyes. "He is in there, isn't he?" he asked. The old nun said nothing. She gripped her cross and helped the young woman from the ground.
"Come child. Your time is now and we must deliver the child. He cries out for his father," Agatha said. She tucked Miranda behind her and glared at the demons. "If you speak of Gabriel then yes he is inside. He appeared to me and I did not believe him until the cry of the woman reached me. Go now, for you know she will be safe while on these grounds. You are spawns of Satan and are not welcome here." Agatha pushed the girl through the doors of the church and called for her sisters to come.
Flanna and Keegan stepped back from the gates and both spewed words of venom from their lips. Keegan studied the structure before him and sensed the presence of another being. "Go home, Flanna," he told his mate, his eyes never leaving the structure.
"What is it?" she asked. Her thoughts merged with his and she too began to look at the structure differently. "Who is inside? Who is this Gabriel that you find so fascinating? Was he not the true father of Miranda's babe?" Her questions filled his mind, but she was rewarded with no answers, just his "Go home" spoken in silence.
She hissed her anger at being denied, not only her revenge, but the knowledge that the man who'd impregnated her slave was somewhere inside the church and Keegan was not sharing all he knew with her. "I go only because I have two babes that need fed," she muttered.
"You go because it is your place woman, do not question me. Just do it." Keegan's thoughts shifted back to the building and when he heard and felt his wife leave his side. He called out using the channels of telepathy to reach his brother.
"Gabriel. It has been too long. Why do you hide behind the gates of this worn building?" A figure appeared on the steeple of the church. His dress was that of a normal human, though he was anything but normal, and most definitely not human.
"Hello brother," Gabriel answered back, using the same pattern of thought. He descended from his resting place and dropped down quietly to the rocky path opposite of Keegan, still behind the gates and still within the protection of the church. "It has been some time. I see you still have your whore with you."
Keegan's lips sneered in disgust. "Yours is inside birthing your spawn."
Gabriel laughed. "She is birthing your enemy, my son and you know this. You also know that he will return one day to rid you and yours of the demonic souls you have inside you." Gabriel kept one thought on Miranda, the other on his brother.
"You know that woman will die as will the child, the moment they leave this church. Lawler will be waiting for her to come out of hiding. She can not live in there forever nor can the babe. Lawler wants his son and we seek our revenge against the woman and her vile actions and thoughts." Keegan stepped up to the gate and looked intently at his brother. "Come over to this side my brother. Do not hide behind the walls of man and your so called God."
"I told you why I am here. The babe and its mother will live. You will not claim the child this night, or any other."
The two forces stared at each other. Their paths long ago decided by choices they had made. Gabriel still felt kinship with the man that was his twin. He loved him, he just knew that he would someday have to be destroyed either by his hand or one of his offspring. He felt the contractions rip through Miranda and he sent her a wave of love to hold on to while she waiting for the arrival of her babe. He then returned his attentions to his brother.
"Keegan, you should go. Enjoy what time you have with your family, for your time is coming to an end as is mine. I will be called back and am needed to fight for other souls, my son will take my place here. You know your life too will come to an end. . .it is how it must be."
Keegan laughed. "I have cheated death once. We both have. Look at us. Had you made the same choice as I we would have been unstoppable. But you could not. You took the easier path, because you are weak. You have always been weak."
Gabriel shook his head at his brother. He opened his arms, his glimmering wings of white, silver and gold showered the church yard with light. "This is life, brother. This is more joyful then anything you could ever imagine. It is not an easy life. It is not easy to take the lives of demons. . .and it will not be easy to take yours. I still feel for each life I end, though it is one that is possessed with the vile nature of man and beast. You though. . .you chose the path of Darkness and Death, for that I feel great sorrow. It is too late for you. . .and for the woman you bred to carry your children. Will you raise them as you think they should be raised? Or will you give them a chance to be a kinder creation... it can happen you know. It is happening now even as we speak."
Keegan smirked. "You speak of choices. We both chose to take the wench's body that night. You chose to sink your cock into her fleshy surface and steal her maidenhead and I too enjoyed taking her sex and exploding deep inside her. It was both of us that abused and filled her body with our liquid and it was both of us that wielded the slices we placed upon her skin as we claimed her life. Because you chose to plea your forgiveness and I did not, for even to this day I was not and am not sorry for my actions. . .you believe you are better then I?"
He laughed openly at the spirit before him. "You are no better. . .you just chose another way to kill that makes it seem justifiable to you."
"I am done talking to you... my son is arriving and I must be there for them both. Till we meet again, brother," Gabriel inclined his head in parting and then left; his imaged faded as did the light he'd brought with him.
Keegan growled low. Instead of taking to the skies he walked deep into the city. His dark orbs searching for someone to feed his anger. He found what he sought and come morning the young woman would be found drained of life, her body abused and mistreated from his torment against her.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Gabriel reached Miranda's side just as the last push was given and his son emerged from her womb. He covered her with his spirit. Though no one could see him, many felt his presence including Sister Agatha and the sweet Miranda. The sound of the babe's wailing pulled the exhausted Mother back to the present and away from the dream like state Gabriel had placed on her. She opened her eyes and lifted her arms, though heavy with exhaustion, and waited for the child to be placed within their embrace.
Miranda felt her lover's presence as she welcomed their child. She'd been given the dreams of his reason for leaving her months ago. She knew she was a vessel for the greater good and she welcomed the knowledge. Now as she held her son, the memories of her joining with Gabriel seemed as if they had occurred just yesterday, though she knew that was not true. "Look, is he not the most beautiful creature to grace this world?" she asked her lover, though something told her no one saw him in the room with her.
"He is a most handsome young one," Gabriel answered. "I am proud of you. You suffered greatly for him. You have earned your place in the Heavens." He kissed her lips and pressed another to her forehead. "Rest now my love. You have a long journey ahead of you."
