«Not yet time» It was his last objection. But not already decisive.
«Its time now,» Bob objected. «They will gather for midnight, as during Christmas and Easter, only it will be a terrible sacrament.»
«Rather, Mysteria,» Ferdinand has long appointed the price to such events and on the experience remaining from his lush secular life, decided that they differ little from theatrical performances. The only thing that are designed to approve in the spiritual authority one specific person who spends them. In this case, Cardinal Lisandro. Probably he believes that the throne of Pope is already secured by him. In any case, hardly enviable place will be free, everyone whose mind he embarrassed, will support him.
Behind meditations, Ferdinand himself did not notice how congregates pulled him on the night of a cozy cell. He firmly pressed the handle of the dagger, hiding it under the cape. Consciousness said that it is still early, but something militant inside himt has already rushed into battle.
The dagger with the dragon on the handle was alarmed only at the beginning.
«You need to kill evil with evil,» said Donatello. The conclusion is too abstract and unreasonable. We need to beat the enemy by his own weapon. Kill the devil with the help of his a dragon. It is bold, ambiguous and controversial. But it can work.
Ferdinand did not doubt his power. He forbade himself to be afraid. Wills effort was able to suppress weakness and fear. He was aware that he was elected to die, but to win. His hand in the decisive moment will not tremble.
And what if the decisive moment is still today and the prophecy that there is everything only one moment to strike this just a legend?
Ferdinand did not want to return to the gloomy palace of cardinal Lysandro, but today, as Bob said, the members of the Devils Order will be present there. And their lord always comes as shadow with them. We just need to look around and learn him in the face. Ferdinand was well prepared. His companions were also.
When they came, the sacrament with blood and lily petals was in the night assembly over. Through the dark arches of high windows stood an unbearable smell of the same flowers. Garden lilies! Such light flowers were in such a gloomy place, among the black arches and ghostly burning candles. White petals as if symbolized something dead and unnatural.
Lysandro himself reminded the royal person. But pride is a sin.
Ferdinand looked at the gloomy hall. It seemed to him that there was no unity in the Order. The gathered kept in groups. Rather, some of them were collected in groups, leaving the communion, someone as if hid behind the backs of those who stood ahead.
Bob leaned toward Ferdinand and explained in the whisper:
«A conspiracy is preparing against him. He inspired so long to them that the fallen archangel is the essence of everything that they believed in this a little more sincerely than he wanted, and moved to the Order of Darkness.»
Lysandro just pronounced that he is close to the False Archangel Lucifer, and God at the same time. Like many he called himself elected and blessed.
«This is the night of all nights,» his voice sounded monotonously. «Night when he appears to us.»
The last sentence sounded somehow unnaturally. Ferdinand licked the dry lips. It seemed that the smell of lilies became suddenly particularly sharp, as if one of the flowers burned on fire.
He wanted to raise his hand to take a blond curl from his forehead and could not. The creation at the column saw at him. A divine creation! The azure eyes pierced him through, and the hand, squeezing the dagger, froze, and did not have time to rise. So it means that the deity looks like! He had to think about the debt, about the call, but he was able to think only about that he looks at the unearthly creation. Here it is the most sacred sacrament to see the first angel of God in front of him and know that the angel is alive. Real! Now he is not a statue.
The marble face came to life. It was real, though very insensitive. The eyes that he had got used to see marble, lit with the azure. Cool hair curls were golden. Under the cape behind his back trembling something similar to the overall wings.
Nikolette! The name came from somewhere from the depths, as if the flame candle was lit. The marble angel in niche was not named. In any case, he did not call him, even mentally. Probably, now the niche is empty, because the revived statue stood in front of him. Her cold look studied him. So looks the angel from the height of his pedestal. Eyes shone like azure ice, only they did not blame him.
Ferdinand tried to call a fixed white statue in memory and asked for help, but nothing came out. What he saw now was much better.
Only his hand on the dagger remained motionless. Now he understood what he was warned about. If you do not prepare in advance, when the decisive moment comes, he will simply become not able to strike. So it came out. Only it was no longer important.
He could rush forward, could hit, but did not even try. Although the goal was in front of him. There was no doubt about it. Ferdinand realized that the fallen archangel is here in all its original beauty. For some moment, their eyes met and could not break away from each other.
It means that love arises. Like a knife in the heart. How to hit the head. Consciousness revealed to the unknown worlds, and he suddenly understood. She knows everything. He was sent to kill her, and she knows it.
He squeezed the knife and hid his hand behind his back. It was a chance. The second one may not be introduced. And yet he missed it. He wanted to bow his knees in front of her.
Ferdinand did not immediately notice that an angel with a gold head appeared not one. Next, similar to the shadows stood some people. Just people, not supernatural creatures. But one of them was unusually handsome. The brunette with emerald eyes. He looked at Ferdinand hostile.
Nicolette has already moved towards Lisandro, she was fast as a shadow. No one seemed to see her. None of those who could alert. Obviously, only the conspirators saw her and supported. Lisandro himself, too, did not see her, until she came very close. Face to face. Did he recognized the devil in the face?
Ferdinand regretted at this moment, that he is not able to read thoughts. He could not look into an angels consciousness or into a persons consciousness. But the fatal moment is approaching, he felt it. Now there will be something significant. Only he had no right to intervene.
The bloodless lips of the angel slightly revealed, like a slit in a different world.
«Be blessed!» Nicolette said with some frighteningly cold intonation. Suddenly the knife flashed in her hand. Just on the moment. She managed to put him in the body of the cardinal so sharply that Ferdinand shuddered. Absolutely indifferent, rhythmic, calculating. Nicolette cut him from the bottom of the belly to the throat. Blood spattered her skin and clothing. But the angel himself seemed to be pure, even in the blood. Or is it just an illusion?
Ferdinand watched it as if from afar. Many were in a hurry to run out of the hall. Someone shouted. The most reasonable, apparently conspirators, knew that there was a force from which they did not escape and just watched. Silently. Like Ferdinand himself. In this case, he was not for nor against. This case did not concern him, like his fellows. Their Order did not have the right to interfere if it was not about the direct execution of the order.
Nicolette did not embarrass. She raised the blade in her hand. For some reason, this simple action resembled a mystery much more than the rite spent before.
And then she disappeared. Ferdinand looked stupid on an empty place. The feeling was like that, as if the statue itself went down from the pedestal and just left. He so hoped that she would look at him again. He wanted it insanely. Instead, at the exit, he was pushed by the very beautiful brunette, whom he noticed next to her. Obviously, he did it on purpose. His smile talked so much.
Today he didnt make his business. There was only hell in his soul.
Chaste
Something was wrong. Something reminded her about heaven, empty after the fall of the devil. Something flourished in the soul like a rose with sophisticated blood spikes. Everything suddenly became like before, on a single moment. But this moment was decisive. Memories came back suddenly with frightening reality. All she could not remember earlier, lay like on the palm. Rather, stood before his eyes. The moment of fall, pain, fire, cuts.
Only one word was in the head. It should have happened. The consciousness burned. But her face remains a calm face of the statue.
Nicolette came out of the palace as a creature from another world. In essence she was it, but the purple cape had already hid the wings. The purple color the privilege of kings. She was even more than the queen. After all, it is the essence of the king of the kings the devil himself. Previously, no feelings were reflected on her beautiful face, but now it was frozen anxiety.
If someone saw her in the dark, he would not have resisted. Subconsciously people understand that there is a danger in front of them, but no longer can take a look from the destructive beauty of the magical creature. The first victim was not far off. Judging by cassock, it was a cardinal, for some reason remaining without satellites. Probably, he was also going to a secret meeting today, but he decided on the way that wine is much more important and so he was significantly late.
Well, he met the desired deity right on the road and did not even understand what he was honored. He was splashing, holding over the wall, but he saw suddenly Nicolette and an almost empty bottle with a rumble fell out of his hand. Why is a broken glass in the moonlight so much like precious stones? Nicolettes face has been crushed repeatedly in every fragment, as if illuminating them from the inside.
It is not surprising that various dubious night creatures immediately stretched to the glass.
The cardinal did not look at them, he looked at her. His wallet was not entirely empty, but the search for courtesan today was not crowned with success, but the fallen angel stood in front of him in his entire beauty. A seductive insensible face in disturbed in a light disgust.
The unfortunate drunkard looked at her with such a lust, as if he had yet the strength to fit into the loop, if she would not satisfy his passion. Well, if from dissatisfaction, he will want to dye, she can help him. Nicolette felt than nails on her hand unexpectedly turned into gold claws, as if she became a dragon.
«If you know that the devil is in front of you, what prevents you from running?» She almost exhaled him into his face a stream of fire, not a word, but he was not even frightened. Her beauty prevented him to think rationally, as well as many others.
«Gold!» He took the velvet wallet on the ribbons, where the coins were. «Emeralds, rubies,» cardinal tried to take off the rings from his thick fingers, but was too drunk for this. «At least my cassock, everything you want for this night.
«All I want? And what if I want your soul? Didnt you give it already to your God?»
«Oh, a lovely girl,» he touched her face with his fingers. «Who will not forget about God at the sight of you?»
«The one who believes in Him,» the face of a wonderful young man at the meeting did not leave her head. He was even more inflexible than she. That is why for a moment she confused him with her former heavenly fellows. His faith in God was even harder than her connection with the devil. He was indebted as a rock, dangerous as the blade dagger and at the same time absolutely innocent. This innocence did it somehow special. At the thought of him, everything was suddenly empty and nasty.
Nicolette pulled away from the greedy fingers..
Now she had no desire to play. She just became disgusting.
He waited. He was ready to begging, almost whine, but the angels face was left adamant.
«Lust is a sin!» Coldly said Nicolette and extended forward a clawed hand. Her fingers clutched right into the throat. The victim fought in convulsions for long. Nicolett easily tear off the fat body from the ground and pressed against the wall. He could not shout, just fought in agony. And his blood flowed on her claws.
Her wings trembled in the premonition of how the soul will spin from the dead body. In the meantime, he is still alive, let his sins wash off with blood.
Ferdinand came out of the empty residence with the feeling that the apocalypse was already accomplished. In his soul turned his blood pressure.
How could this happen? He always considered himself immaculate and suddenly Consciousness was clouded.
The effect of a strong impact on the head moved into something fiery. It was not only the body, but also consciousness. He seemed to be trapped, there is no exit.
The gold creation still stood before his eyes. The heart beats like a caught bird.
His statue! His deity! Perhaps he himself created from the shrine an idol. And here is the punishment. The devil took the appearance of this idol.
It seems that this time the devil won. Ferdinand left only one desire, go to his beloved statue of angel, rush to her knees and reveal the veins. Let the blood wage the sculpture, flushing all his sins. And pain and desire to sin then simply will not remain. But how then the Order will have time to find and dedicate the next favorite. He cannot let down everyone. Can not! Nevertheless, the image of gold creation firmly sat down in his brain. He looked in the night, and saw Nicolette. Her lips moved slightly, like fading snakes.
«I am your death, and you are mine,» the words also sounded in the brain, almost burning.
«Do you not have little things for the needy?»
Ferdinand did not immediately notice some a beggar, but obediently put him a coin. Only a strange cut-off beggar in a torn cape not immediately left him.
«Gold!» He turned the coin in clawed brown hands. «Do you know that all gold in the world is from the devil?»
Ferdinand didnt see the monstrous face under the hood, but saw only the scandal curls of Nicolette, the golden beauty of the fallen angel.
«Yes, I know,» he said with difficulty.
A strange creature suddenly laughed.
«Do not fall into trouble!» It warned and left.
«I already got,» he wanted to say, but could not. It was not just a trouble. It was the end of the world! For him one! And this is just some days before the end comes for the whole world.
If Nicolette survives and comes to power, the devil will own the whole world.
But how can you think about the elimination of the creature, without the beauty of which, the world seems to cease to exist?
How can you split the shrine to that you are praying?
All the paths suddenly became curves and wrong. And all because of this meeting. It was impossible to look at her earlier than you bring a ritual knife, but he looked. And everything suddenly changed.
Ferdinand returned not to himself in the cell, and broke into the chapel, fell on his knees before the altar, not far from the niche with a statue. He could easily pass for a madman. He asked all the saints about forgiveness and strengthen, he almost sobbed, because the prayers did not help. From the inside it seemed to burn fire.