Part 6 (2/2)

”I cannot allow this to be.” He said to her as he walked away from her very quickly and she cried out to him. ”You will be killed!”

She them turned as she sobbed and stepped out onto the balcony. She stepped forward and without any sound at all she disappeared from our sight as she jumped to her death below. I stepped forward as Dorin grabbed my hand.

”We have to get to him now.” He said as he pulled me along with him, through naked bodies and moaning. We reached the door and I looked back as suddenly the entire orgy was drenched in blood. I sucked in my breath as Dorin opened the door and pulled me out behind him.

”Where do we go?” I asked him and Dorin closed his eyes for a minute and then grabbed my hand again, dragging me along with him until he suddenly stopped at a door and leaned into it. He closed his eyes and smelled at it and then opened it up. I stood there as I saw him, Gunner, hanging from a cross and crying out towards the sky. We ran in and I looked up to him as he hung there, his hands and feet securely nailed to the cross. I wanted so badly to knock it down and so I ran towards him as Dorin ran up behind me and stopped me from touching the cross.

”This is his trial, you cannot interfere.”

”Then why are we here?”

”To bring him home once he falls, otherwise he will be here much longer than he needs to be.”

”I can't.” I said as I stepped forward and yelled up to him.

”Gunner, listen to me. This happened so long ago, this is not real.”

He ignored me as he moaned and blood ran from his mouth.

”He is dying!” I cried out as Dorin nodded to me.

”This is his trial, he dies over and over again while Lucifer allows him to suffer.”

”Why would he do this to him? He leads us, he is a h.e.l.lhound.”

Dorin sighed. ”He is not allowed to love, to be happy.”

”No.” I said to Dorin as I looked up and Gunner cried out as he suddenly slumped and it was then that Dorin ran towards the cross and pushed it down to the ground. It hit hard as I fell beside Gunner and saw that he was not breathing. I looked at the steel through his hand and tried to pull it free, but my fingers kept slipping from all of the blood. Dorin then took over and pulled one out, then the other and finally freed his feet. Dorin pulled him up as Gunner suddenly sucked in his breath and cried out as his heart started beating again. I placed one of his arms on my shoulder and Dorin took the other as we lead him out of the room and into the hallway. He stumbled a few times as his feet bled. I looked down and saw the ma.s.sive bruising on his legs and then his chest. This had been a horrible death and I hated Lucifer for doing this to him, for torturing him time and time again. I was so upset as we entered the elevator with him that I let Dorin hold him up as I moved away from Gunner and leaned against the mirrored elevator. I glanced over as Dorin spoke to him softly and Gunner nodded to him.

We reached the house and as we stepped out I watched Finna and Ari join Dorin as they helped Gunner walk. He glanced behind him to see me standing there, feeling defeated and completely helpless. It was then that I felt the chill so I turned as Lucifer stood there watching me from the shadows.

”You.” I said as I walked towards him. He stepped out and his face was b.l.o.o.d.y and beaten. I stopped and looked him over.

”You look like s.h.i.+t.”

He smiled and his lip bled as it had been cut. He hissed and touched it, then he smiled, as he tasted the black blood.

”It seems that I am the only one who knows how ruthless my brother can be.”

”Who, G.o.d?”

Lucifer laughed at me.

”El?” he is no more a G.o.d than I am. What El is defies imagination; he is a politician of sorts, able to simply sway the ma.s.ses.”

I shook my head and crossed my arms on my chest.

”You deserve it, all of it. How dare you make him suffer like that?”

”Who, Gunner?”

I nodded to him as he suddenly busted out with laughter. I lowered my arms as I looked at him with disgust.

”Yes.”

He was on me before I could blink and had me up against the wall, his face to close to mine, his stench invading me.

”You seem to be confused.”

”I am not.” I said as he held my face and made me look into his red eyes.

”Gunner suffers at his own hand, oh I am sure it would appear that I am playing with him and the other hounds in this house surely believe the same...but no, Gunner suffers because he wants to, not because I make him do it.”

”What?”

”Yes, you see his sister died because of him, he offered her like a lamb to slaughter. She was taken to the orgy by Gunner, he knew she would be raped and beaten, but he wanted power and she was payment, it was not until the act was done that his guilt got the better of him.”

”No.” I said as he backed away from me.

”Oh no, it would seem you fell for him as so many other women have before. He is a charmer, I know this first hand. He only slightly redeemed himself when he tried to enact his revenge, but revenge is also a sin.” He said as he hissed at me. I ran past him as the tears flowed down my face. There was no way that this was who Gunner truly was, he could not be that man. He just couldn't be.

”Liar!” I screamed at him as I ran. Lucifer grinned.

”Always.” he hissed as he licked his lip and faded into the shadows.

Chapter Eight.

No One Is Free Gunner slept for days. I sat by his bed and watched him, refusing to believe in what Lucifer had said to me. If Gunner suffered, it was at Lucifer's hand and not his own. I could not accept that the man I found myself falling in love with could have been a monster, he would never hand his sister over to be beaten and abused as she had been. There is no way, so I pushed Lucifer's words aside and believed in the only thing that I could now, that Gunner was the man I believed him to be. He was an amazingly unselfish person who had killed out of anger and revenge for that of his sister. We all make mistakes, we all pay for them and unfortunately all of us here paid more than others did. We were right on the edge of salvation and I didn't know if we would ever be set free, but we would certainly try the best that we could.

I heard the door open behind me and saw Dorin step forward. His eyes looked over Gunner's body and then settled on me. I stood up and walked to him as he stepped back and I followed him back out of the room.

”We have to hunt tonight.” He said to me as I glanced back at Gunner.

”He is not ready.”

”He won't be coming, it will just be us.”

”What? We can't hunt without him.”

Dorin smiled at me. ”Do you think we cannot do this without him? He has been like this many times before and the fight goes on Halo.”

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