Chapter 42

Orion stared at the apparition walking toward him and he couldn’t believe he was seeing her any more than the burnt tree. But still she came toward him. That feeling of fright came back to him and he turned his head away from looking into her death-like face.

“I killed you,” he said, voice beginning to tremble. “You can’t be here. You fell into the fires.”

“You don’t remember seeing me again at the gate? I chose a different path as Guardian,” she replied, keeping her tone monotonous. “You didn’t seem too surprised to see me back then.”

He turned his head back to her and glared at her. “Yes, I do remember now.” Now he walked toward her. “You have proven to be a hard bitch to die.”

“Orion, stop,” she ordered and he did as she said with a shocked expression. “You thought about God’s gift before – that this tree was one.” She turned and ran her hand across the charred bark.

“So?”

“Come here,” she said as she kept a fixed gaze into his hood.

He went to her, surprised that he was doing what she wanted him to do. What kind of powers does she think she has? He had decided to go to her by choice rather than mental control. And he was more surprised that she had reached out and took hold of his arm.

No woman has ever touched him like this. No, there was that one maid a while ago.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Fear,” said Tracy behind a malicious grin. She knew she hit her mark when she saw him wince as if struck.

“I give you no permission to use that name,” he grunted. “I am Orion, the God-King.”

She had that inner grin and she placed his hand on the burnt tree. She rubbed his clammy hand up and down its bark. “This was God’s gift?”

He looked into her soft, yet condemning eyes and nodded. “It was a gift and I took it. He gave me all the information about the universe. You can’t get that kind of gift at Wal-mart, my dear.”

“And I destroyed it.”

He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. No, there was no way she could have destroyed this tree. There was no way God would have allowed her to do it.

“Yes,” she whispered and looked deeper at him. “I took it from you, didn’t I?”

Sudden loss engulfed him. He didn’t know what to do now that his source of ultimate knowledge was gone forever. “You had no right,” he cried out.

Tracy saw her moment and pushed him away with such force that it knocked him to the ground. “Human life is a gift from God! And you destroyed it – took it from us! How do you justify yourself?”

Orion sat there in silence, staring up into her irate face. There was nothing he could say to her. He could never justify what he had done in the past in a way that could, or would be understood by her.

And then he shook his head. Why do I need to explain myself to her?

“Humans were an accident,” he argued, trying to maintain a sense of calm. “You should have known this being Ilias’ puppet.”

How did he know about our partnership? She tried to look into his eyes, but they were shadowed by his hood.

“I can read your thoughts just as easily as if you had spoken them,” he explained with a sarcastic smile on his lips.

“No,” she replied as she shook her head in sympathy. “We are not an accident. We were created in His image.”

That brought Orion into hysterics suddenly. Tracy had never heard this sound before and she prayed she would never hear it again. When he finally ceased, he glared at her.

“Come now, Tracy,” he said. “Can you tell me truthfully that you have ever seen the face of God?”

She paused for a moment to contemplate where he was going with this. “No,” she finally answered. “I’ve never seen him.”

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“Then how can you say we look like God?” He turned his back and lowered his head. “There’s so much you don’t know – or could even understand. I have seen the universe created by just his voice.” Then he turned back around and looked at her. “And let me tell you, Tracy; I have not seen his face either. My god, Orion, has a face we can all relate to.”

She shook her head; she pitied him for his false idea of a god. He had been raised to believe in a false god – one that appeared human. “That was just some statue your father had made. Orion is nothing but a constellation created by God.”

“No; my god led me to the Forbidden Realms. He told me to take control of the universe.”

“I’m sorry; Orion, but no god would let you or any other human take control of the universe.” She wanted Orion to remember that he was human, but she really didn’t know where they were going and she had to keep him talking. This was the only way for her to give her son more time.

“Your god,” she began again, “is bent on vengeance. My God forgives all. He would forgive you for all you’ve done – if you only ask.”

Conflicting thoughts entered his wicked mind. Thoughts he despised. He had pledged his faith to his god Orion as a child, yet there could be some truth in what Tracy had said. He doesn’t want forgiveness; he wants total control. Yet his life right now was in a spiral spinning downward. Everything he had thought he had achieved was beginning to slip through his fingers.

There was one last chance to obtain all that he desired and then Tracy came and destroyed that chance by burning the Tree of Knowledge.

That bitch, he thought as rage came back into his soul. She would have to pay, if he only had one of his lovely spikes. He could use his divine powers of destruction but that would be too quick and very little pain – he wanted her to beg for death.

He closed his eyes and turned his head. He grinned when he tasted the unknowing fear in her heart. She knew he was up to something, but she didn’t know what it could be.

In his mind, he found himself back in the altar room and he quickly went over and took hold of the nearest spike. He stared at it for only a moment, satisfied, and then he opened his eyes again and knew that he was still standing only several feet from Tracy – just close enough.

And it all happened so instantaneously that Tracy didn’t comprehend what was going on until it was too late and she was grabbing hold of the spike as it ran through her stomach. There was a small prick and then that was all she could feel, but she knew it had to be worse than just a tiny prick you get when going to the doctor’s. She dared to turn her head and that was when she saw the other end of the spike exiting her spleen.

In that last moment of life, she was taken back in memory to that terrible time when she shared her body with Nanaac and Orion had impaled them almost the same way. It wasn’t raining now as it was then, but the gist was pretty much the same. And in both times – then and now – she felt that she had failed her son.

“I’m sorry, Tracy,” Orion whispered to her behind a grin. “But you won’t be seeing your God any time soon.”

She looked terrified into his red eyes. All was lost, she worried.

“I’ve made sure that the gates to Heaven were sealed and locked.”

The final thought she had before death was that she had failed Connor Barker and that she prayed that she would get a chance to tell him how sorry she was that he felt he had to die to protect her.

But that wasn’t Tracy’s last weapon, either. Just as she slipped into that cold other place, every thought, memory, and feelings with those memories slid from her mind down to her hands, and then through the metal spike where they connected with Orion’s trembling hands.

The sudden rush of emotion and memories caused him to let go of the spike and he fell back as if struck hard in the face.

He sat up, tears in his eyes, and roared in hatred for the entire human race and their putrid emotions. He had long ago given up his rank as human, and now to have all these emotions striking him at all sides, it made him more vulnerable than the weakest child. And he was forced to live through the memories – even though they only lasted mere seconds. In all the memories Tracy was able to give him, she was able to supply human emotion.

She could almost remember every birthday and Christmas she had. And then she remembered her daughter Alexandria (how happy she was to have her and then how her heart broke when she learned that she had become a Dreamkiller) and son Vincent. Her life was as complete as any human life could have been.

There was something about having these memories that was unbearable for him. He was happy when she was and she hated himself for what he had done to Alexandria. He even hated himself for pushing his finger and killing Connor Barker (but he wasn’t completely dead after all). But still, he began hating himself for causing so much needless pain in Tracy Kingston’s life.

He crawled onto his knees, clasped his hands together, and looked up into the blue sky. “I dare not ever ask for forgiveness,” he screamed, tears running down his cheeks. “I only want mercy! I cannot endure these emotions.” He hasn’t wept like this since he was a child just after getting whipped by his loving father.

It was in that brief moment of anguish that he realized that he was human like Tracy had said. And there was nothing he hated more than to allow himself to accept that idea.

“God!” He wasn’t sure who he was screaming at; his god Orion or God who had created the universe and everything in it, including Orion.

He was human and he hated himself for being so. But wasn’t he something more than that? It certainly appeared that Tracy was – otherwise she couldn’t have gotten into Eden. Wasn’t he the God-King Orion? Ruler of the world? And soon, ruler of the known universe?

Orion stood up and wiped the damned tears from his eyes. “After I kill you, Mykella, I will destroy your God. I am God now.”