Chapter Sixteen

Sorry for such a long break! Lets hope for some more Chapter to come out ey?

I know what you mean when you act like that

You don't know it's breaking my heart

Said that it was just never gonna happen

Then almost kissed me in the dark

Every time we talk it just hurts so bad

'Cause I don't even know what we are

We say we're friends

But I'm catching you across the room

It makes no sense

'Cause we're fighting over what we do

And there's no way

That I'll end up being with you

But friends don't look at friends that way

Chapter Sixteen – Shatter

Lucifer's POV

I hold her while she cries. I hold her quivering form as she shakes out sobs in front of her parent's graves. I hold her knowing it was my fault as to why they were not holding her themselves.

She should be beating at my chest, screaming my name in vain for what I had done to my beloved mate, for what I had taken from her.

But she wasn't, which surprised me. Maybe she had not recognised that the devil had taken away her parents, a god worse than any other demon known to man. Instead of trying to escape my hold in fear, terror or hate, she pushed herself into my warm embrace. The action itself was warming to the bond between us but I knew this moment would not last very long.

I also knew her choice. I knew offering her the choice to run was the best thing to do as a mate, but that did not mean I was going to let her go easily. Regardless, her choice was to stay with me for the time being, her thoughts flowing to mine so smoothly it surprised me. The only reason she couldn't see mine, which as my mate she should be able to regardless of having sexual relations or not was because I had learnt to block it. She did not need to see the things that plagued my mind.

Her saying my name that fateful night a week and a little bit ago snapped the bond into place, something that all mate-bonds have to go through. It is normally a pain free process due to the mutual bond, except for my little Nephele, she resisted such urges, very stubbornly may I add.

Feisty she was, and I loved it.

The beast inside my liked it too.

Adding to that thought, many Deities who were like me; gods with the worst of roles had another part of them that was them but was not at the same time. Gods like me were different to those of honour and prestige. It was not because we wanted them, although I now accepted that side of me, we got them because it is what the people originally thought had caused us to be such beings. The individuals in a lot of realms and religions believed we had a reason we did these jobs, and it was because of this beast. Whatever the people thought, in a generalisation of the population, was most likely adapted to us in some way.

The beasts just happened to be one of the few things that was merely caused by the ideas of the general Stella Realm.

In total, there were many realms, or dimensions, in this world. A lot of them had their own religions and cultures, a lot of them advanced with some less civilised than the known mundane world. These different worlds had different names for their planets, had different languages, preached to different Gods. This led to the creation of our system of Gods, with there being one 'God' and Goddess for cultures with similar beliefs. For example, in ancient Greek they called me 'Hades', whereas in Christianity they call me 'Lucifer'. There, in total, are millions of Gods and Goddesses, with some more popular and important that others depending on their area of residence and what culture they had originated from. Generally, if the God has originated and is a part of more than one religion or culture, they are more well known and popular. Another example is that in the Stella Realm, I am known as

død, as this realm uses Norwegian as a language. Earth stole the language rather than them stealing it from Earth. In short, a deity got angry and messed with a group of Stellarians, moving them to a different realm in spite. Quiet funny at the time, not funny anymore as someone had to take control as a totally genetically different race started to breed with humans, causing multiple unique mutations in the offspring, resulting in the genetically altered human genome in the northern parts of Europe. I had to take these 'invaders' back to their own realm. These individuals came back speaking fluent Norwegian, leading to almost all of the Stella realm now speaking a different language. I then had to make sure none of those mutations in the pure blonde-haired-god-looking offspring were to cause drastic side-affects.

This is why the people from Northern Europe are what females from the Mundane consider 'hot'. Of course, there are rarely any pure breed offspring remaining, but this mutation of the p63 gene caused skin that was immune to aging for a longer period of time compared to human skin, as the individuals of the Stella Realm do live longer.

Regardless of his origin, the beast was a part of me as I was a part of it. A truly remarkable bond played out between us, something rare among God and beast bonds. Most were only kept stable with the touch of their mate, others were never kept stable; the jealousy caused by not only the shared mate between the God and beast, but the shared life. Some wanted to be free and roam like any other would.

Mine was not like that.

He was quiet, reserved in a sort. He was an Alpha Male in all senses, as the fan girls would expect, but he preferred to not come out often; offering to observe rather than interact. A shared trait of ours if I was to compare personalities. He only came out when he wanted, and he rarely did want something; although that was changing rapidly since the arrival of our mate.

All these thoughts are made apparent whilst I hold her to my chest as the ache inside my dying heart grows for her. I wanted to take her pain away, and I knew I could, but she would hate me for doing so.

I winnow, teleport as winnow did seem like a copyright, us out of the cemetery in the little town she told us to travel to. I did not like being in this place, although I was the God that represented death. I hated how she wanted to come here, but I respected her decision. We were currently in Arizona in the United States of America which was 9528 km away from where we were currently residing; the beautiful Lake Como in Italy. I imagine the place where we are staying, the master bedroom that Nephele will reside in as she arrives back to our home in Italy.

The place we will reside in.

I watch as Nephele tightens her arms around my neck lovingly, the space around us materialising before my own eyes as I arrive in our master bedroom. It was different to the place where Nephele awoke as this room was being remodelled for her likings. It was now done however.

Regardless of the room being done, I was a proud mate as I knew that my little nymph found comfort in my arms as she hugged me. I liked the feeling; the warmth that grew inside my chest and the spike of my heart as she pulled me closer. Call me weak, but I would do whatever it took to protect the little firecracker in my arms.

Anything.

I bite my lip in worry as the time passed and she wasn't responding as she usually would. I take a calm breath, knowing that I need to get her out of her state of shock.

She was awake, but her mind was unresponsive and I believe she has gone into a state of shock, although I was no modern doctor.

And yes, there is a story behind that one.

It was strange, but I immediately place her on the bed to my side. I gently lay her head against the soft plush pillow that she had slept on prior, pulling the blanket from the end of the bed, making sure she is comfortable as I formulate what I can do. Crouching in front of my beloved, I hold her neck with one hand so I am supporting her whilst the other hand rests on thigh; drawing soothing circles on the soft denim of her jeans.

Her pretty eyes are glazed over as she stares over my head, making my heartbeat spike in fear.

I knew not to fear as her vitals, and heartbeat, were indeed strong. There was nothing physically wrong with her.

"Amare." I speak softly, trying to coax her out of whatever trance she was in. Instead of doing this, her head rolls to the side slightly, allowing her to make eye contact with me but it was not 'eye contact' per say. It was more 'looking as though Lucifer did not exist'. I bite my lip, pulling it in fear as she slowly blinks up to me, stilling ignoring my slightly concerned glance though. I huff in frustration, and screw up my nose at her ignorance, although I doubt it was her fault that she was ignoring me; she would never do that.

Tears were fresh in her eyes, their shine making me smile softly at her in sympathy. However, I got no response from my smile. No physical response and it seemed as though I was invisible.

My poor little nymph did miss her parents, no matter how much she internally denied it.

I remember seeing her dreams; the car spinning out of control as the bullet pierced her mother's skull. There was never enough evidence to find the killer, but I knew who she was. I could not do anything about it for the moment, but in time she would no longer be a threat to my love. She would never touch a hair on Nephele's head; especially if I had something to do with it.

I knew her brother secretly blamed my darling for their mother's death, although Nephele was oblivious to this fact and was just hurt that he did not want her. I doubt he would be a problem in my 'kidnapping', as she put it, of her. I knew she would be hard to handle for a while, almost all mundane or unknowing mates were.

I was almost surprised by how calm she had been in specific moments. She was not always aggressive and only got so when I was being a dickhead. Which was not unusual as Adam would say.

Regardless of her attitude, which was a major turn on when it shouldn't have been, I call to her again, waiting for her to return from her nightmares, slowly coaxing her with a soft voice and comforting hold.

After I have continuously called her name, and she hasn't responded I take a deep breath. I had to connect with her mentally, and since we were not fully mated, as the supernatural realms would put it, with there being multiple more steps till we were fully mated, I had to do it the difficult way.

I lean forward on my knees and cup the rise of her soft and delicate cheek in my hand, my fingers brushing over her temple gentle, beneath her skull the lobe that was responsible for memories and dreams of sorts. What I was doing was a push on her privacy but I needed to lead her out of her nightmare.

Her body was frozen in place, the air around her growing cold and I knew in that moment, although irrelevant at the point in time, that she had a connection with that God-damn bird.

I hated that thing, yet I knew it had to stay because Nephele liked it.

No, I was not crazy enough to kill it.

I was not that stupid for starters. I had also lived for enough millennia to know not to kill something precious to the female you are trying to court. It never ended well, especially for the male.

I close my eyes, disregarding my other thoughts as I feel the connection between us snap in seconds. This was a power most Gods had, to be able to 'dream walk' as we called it. Dream walking meant we could infiltrate and disrupt a person mind within a second, our minds connecting in a miraculous way that allowed, with proper training, for one to be able to tear apart the complex system of a mind from the inside out. It was gruesome but without all the effort of spilling blood. Although in doing so, we had to connect with the mind.

Some deities could do it easily and without a thought, some very lethal ones indeed. We did not need to have physical contact with the person and we could enter their mind with or without their natural and unnatural barriers in place. With Nephele however, I wanted to touch her. To let her know I am there, also so I could once more touch the silky soft skin she has.

I liked it.

It was a rather simple concept. Nephele was going into a form of shock, for reasons I would ask about at a later date, and I, a dashing hero of course, will pull her out of whatever she was seeing and bring her back to the physical world. I had done it many times before, under different circumstances of course.

I hold a finger lightly to her temple, the coolness of her skin surprising me as the room also grows colder. I purse my lips and concentrate, entering her own mind in a flash. I place a conscious thought to the outside world, making sure I am aware of the world around our physical bodies as I enter her mind.

I feel my metaphysical body fold as I am forced into another's mind, the feeling rather odd and unpleasurable in comparison.

I open my eyes as I feel the world around me now materialise to find myself standing in the middle of a high-way with cars being scattered around me. The world around us was moving slow, so slow in fact that the car didn't appear to be moving at all, but I knew it was. The rain around my body was slowly falling to the ground, the clothes that I was wearing in the real world however, were not going wet in the process as I was an intruder in this dream, I was not really here. I knew that, but the scene around me felt real.

Regardless of what was reality and what was not, I had been in a person's memories before. I knew what to do.

I knew I didn't need to get her out of this intensive state of shock, but it would be better for us. We do not have a lot of time in the human world, we have to return to Hell soon and frankly, I have no reason to come to the lovely Lake Como in Italy. There was no point in us being here, the only reason I got her out of the situation from earlier was because she was become dangerous to herself.

Also, to that, I needed to get us back to Hell. There was still the threat of Judas and his people, with them currently closing in on our location although it was masked from the Mundane and Magical world currently so they could pin point us yet.

I also needed to get her and that bird to together so that bird can sort its shit out.

With Nephele being around that idiotic bird, there was going to be trouble. The scenarios and cold bursts happening around the castle would not stop unless that bird was going to be a good bird. Lilith and I decided it was best for her to be isolated for a while, for the two to be apart why we figured out how Nephele can control her new-found connection with the bird, and get that fucking bird under control.

Regardless to this fact, I take not of the car ten metres in front of me, the cool silver shining under the lamp post it was passing under at an incredibly slow pace. I step towards the car, taking not of the two floating reapers above the car.

Their black robes floated in the air, whirling in a slow chant as the watched for the moment of death about to occur. I furrowed my eyebrow at how there was two of them, as only one person in the car died that night, and that person was her Mother. A gleam from the corner of my eye makes me turn my head, that rain falling down a little harder against the pavement yet still not causing me to get wet.

I then notice the killer situated five hundred metres away, mundane with a sniper rifle in camouflaged clothes lined up in front of them as they lay on their stomach in the bushes on the mountain directly in front of the car. The car, which was on the high-way, was following the curve of the road with the bullet only being fired in the one second the car was directly facing them so they could receive a clean shot. I purse my lips as I watch them fire a shot, the bullet barely leaving the gun as I turn my head back to the car in front of me. I mentally reach out to the killer, surprise taking a hold for a small second as I know who was aiming at the car and trying to kill Nephele rather than her mother.

Anger wants to take over, the beast inside ramming the gates of control but I push back, knowing this is nothing but an illusion.

This is not real.

I continue to walk to the car, my hand stretched out in front of it as I watch in pain as Nephele screams as she too can now see the approaching bullet from the middle of the back seat.

She was sitting in between her brother and her younger self, with neither of them noticing her as she looks around frantically. Pity washed over my chest, my heart hurting for her as she continues to scream in probably both fear and pain.

I lift her up, my hand outstretched as I imagine the object, or Nephele, to be moving towards me. Telekinesis, a common power of the Gods. Infinite for me, finite for others. It took a while to master, but that was eons ago and I could use it with ease now, simple as signing paperwork.

Or fucking.

I will away the thought of my subconscious, noting it as provoking something that does not wish to be provoke currently.

Regardless, as my love is lifted is lifted, she remains unfazed, only noticing when she has passed through the silver door of the car. She looks around evidently confused as tears continue to stream down her face as they did in the real world too. Her legs unfold as they try to reach for the ground in a panic.

"Nephele." I voice from my position a few metres away, my hand still held up. Her head turns to me with a shocked look but somewhat relaxes on her movement. I smile softly and set her down softly, moving closer to her at the same time. I do not gain her attention for very long as she turns back to the car just as the bullet pierces the wind-screen, the sound of glass shattering following three milli-seconds later. I move closer to Nephele so that she is only an arms-length away. I watch a hand come over her mouth as she watches the bullet enter for mother's forehead, the tip puncturing through the skull and into the brain with a wild spray of blood. She watches with tears running down her face as the car swerves to the side, crashing into the concrete wall that separates oncoming traffic from going into inbound traffic. She stands rigid and still, her hand still covering her mouth as the car flips, her younger self's head being smashed into the side of the window with another shatter of glass as the seat she was sat in is ripped apart.

I can hear the shrill of screams as time speeds up once more, a hard look on my face as I watch the Angel of Darkness overhead take her mother in his arms, the ghostly like body, and evaporates into a cloud of black smoke as her soul is taken away. I watch intently as the other Reaper also disappears with a flash, my head instinctively turning to the place where the killer was, noting how they were already gone.

I continue to watch, just as Nephele does, to how her little body is thrown through the window with the seat belt that was around her snapping. I watch as her lifeless body is thrown to the ground harshly, her bones snapping. I shake my head as she should have died.

She should have died from that impact of the head, yet she did not.

She should have died from being thrown through that window and yet she was alive.

My attention was ripped away from me as my reality barriers I set in my head went off, the alarms triggering as something had breached the area, I had set up to be monitored.

Prior to coming here, I had set mental alarms around the house and property we were currently on. I was actively using brain power to monitor the space around us, noting who was coming near and if they were a threat. I fade out of Nephele's mind, noting where this intruder was currently before slipping back in.

"Nephele, we need to go." I call to her in a rushed voice. "Now."

She turns to me in a frenzied state, her hair a beautiful mess and her eyes wide. I watch her nod her head before I grab her arm a bit to roughly and pull us both out of her mind. It wasn't hard by any means, but it was probably again a bit to rough for her as she wasn't used to it. So instead of standing normally like me, as I had done this before, she is now shot up in the bed gasping for air.

I close my eyes as I let her get ready, not telling her anything of course. I map the house mentally, pin pointing the intruder and slipping into their own mind easily. Their barrier wasn't very strong, indicating it was a Cambion.

(A/N the stupid dude things they fought in Chapter 11)

Of fucking course. There are probably more on the way. I groan and open my eyes to find Nephele now standing in front of me with a strange expression. I expected her to be looking at me but I was surprised we she didn't. She was looking behind me with wide eyes.

Fuck.

I duck in time as the whirling of air noted me of another presence that remained unnoticed in my spatial noting. How strange.

I stand and spin around to come face to face with Cerberus. So, he wasn't trying to hurt us, he just wanted to play. Cerberus had multiple forms, with this one being a larger one but with only one head.

"Cerberus." I say with an eye roll. His paw was outstretched as he had just aimed that at my head. He places it down on the floor once more and stops moving for a few seconds before he transforms into a smaller creature. I smile proudly at my beloved pet and turn to Nephele as she lets out a sniffle.

"He-he changes forms?" She asks quietly, the large hoodie she had retrieved whilst I was being aware of the Cambion in the house going to her mid-thigh and flowing way past her hands. I smile softly and chuckle at her reaction.

"Yes, he is generally responsive to whatever form he feels more comfortable with," I turn to look back at him with a sigh, "except he has taken a liking to you and has given a form he thinks you will like the best." I explain with a boyish smile. The puppy has turned into a white Samoyed puppy. Nephele kneels down in front of the puppy, by passing me as he runs into her arms. I groan internally, hating how she was giving him more attention than me but I knew that I could do nothing but watch.

I felt betrayed, but I knew we had more pressing issues to attend to.

She stands with the fluff-ball in her arms and turns to me with a sad smile, expecting me to talk, which I was going to.

"We have to leave here." Nephele looks even more saddened by this news, her body turning to the window which shows the sunny lake and the pebbled shoreline of this property. "I can bring you back but right now it is not safe." I say, knowing she liked it here.

She nods her head absentmindedly as she strokes the puppy's fur whilst looking out the window. I sigh as she doesn't reply, but I also know she is mentally exhausted and trying to process the whole state-of-shock scenario.

I still need to find out why that occurred as it came out of nowhere. Regardless, I grab her shoulder softly and start to imagine the Castle in more detail. I feel the world slip out from underneath us and the new one materialises as we teleport back to my, our, home.

I had a lot going through my head, and I had a lot to sort out whilst Nephele was to rest in my chambers. Except, when I had opened my eyes to what I imagined to what should be a peaceful castle, I was pleasantly surprised to find a castle filled with chaos.

Utter and complete chaos, the sound of shattering glass from the chandler that is situated in the large foyer to the private area of castle echoing down the hallways. I groan and turn to Nephele, watching her face as she notices who was arguing.

Using my foyer as a boxing ring was not in the equation. Yet here they were, fucking Lilith beating the shit out of Freja in the middle of the marble tiled floor, cracking it as if it was just some inexpensive stone.

"Stabit." I boom across the foyer, causing both of their bodies to freeze as my command overrules both their instincts.

(Halt.)

"Quid in irrumabo est hic agatur?" I again ask, simultaneous to Nephele's struggled gasp as she notes who the female fighting Lilith is.

(What the ... is going on here.)

Well here we go.

Sorry for such a bad chapter, and its super messy. If you need clarification, please just comment and let me know lol...

Word Count is 4678 words.

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QOTC: What is your biggest fear?

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SONG: that way - Tate McRae

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