Untitled - Chapter 1

This is my first major piece of writing that i have attempted, just a draft of the first chapter of this novel. constructive critisism will be appreciated greatly. thanks for the support!

 

I jolted awake; a crippling ripple of pain bled through my body, beads of sweat stained my body, I was breathing heavily. I rubbed my sore blue eyes then I glanced at my alarm clock, 12.45pm “Great”. My voice was hoarse and my throat dry. I stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the shower, brushing my hands through my messy brown hair. All over my body were wounds from the previous night, as the water cascaded over me I winced from the pain. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, the wounds had already healed and it’s not like I hadn’t suffered from multiple stab wounds and bite marks that covered my torso before. The amount of blood I had already lost would have easily killed a normal human being. Too bad I wasn’t a normal human being, I was a half demon.

 My human name is Damien Austen. It’s my identity in this world and it was given to me by my guardian, Alexen.

 I wasn’t proud of what I was, who would be? An unwanted offspring of a fiend not good enough for the living world. Demons only re produced either because they were dying and wanted to pass on their powers to some unfortunate child, or to build an army. I wasn’t sure which category my life fit into, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that I know about my past was from one small piece of charred paper which was left with me when I was a baby, it read ‘Apollyon’. Your guess is as good as mine as to what it means, not even the top experts at the Lestaren could decipher it.

 My job wasn’t your average nine to five, this job was a matter of life and death, heaven and hell, life on Earth. My job was to make sure the Canus Arven didn’t rise to power and destroy mankind and reign over the supernatural world. I was a knight of the Lestaren Coven.

 The Lestaren Coven was a network of supernatural beings bound together by one objective – protect mankind.

 I came out of my daze as the water became a numbing cold; I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around myself. Looking in the mirror I always saw a monster, sure I could pass for the very good looking, muscular human being but to myself I’d always be a demon, a scourge and an enemy of the light.

This area was full of us; supernatural’s, everything from werewolves to angels. All of the members lived together in various places around the world, but the leaders and important figures lived in the eastern downtown area of California, well all the high ranking members of the Lestaren Coven anyway. We had agents all over the world, constantly finding ways to rid the Earth of the Canus Arven, battles were always being fought with hundreds of supernatural’s being killed by the day, this was because the war was coming to an end. We could all sense it; it felt like the skeleton in the closet that you were hiding from the world was creeping its way out. Life as we know it was going to end soon, and no one was ready for it.

 “Snap out of it Damien” I said to myself, now I was talking to myself, wonderful. I threw on some clothes that was draping over my wardrobe, grabbed my keys and strode out of my door.

 Today I wanted to run despite the crippling pain that was surging through my body, get some fresh air in my lungs and force some adrenalin into my muscles. I looked around to make sure no one was looking in my direction, and then I sprinted. There was nothing in this world that compared to the feeling of fresh air blasting past my face, the wind tightening around my body as I ran. The city was my playground. I changed direction and headed towards the industrial district, this was my favourite place to run because of the sheer height and size of the factories, all the different shapes of the buildings and the danger of machinery. I leaped over the fence surrounding the construction site, this site had been closed off due to the decaying structure of a half built office block.

 I came to a grinding half, dust swirled around me, and I looked up at the intimidating structure and smirked, just another toy for me to play with. I jumped up and grabbed on to the nearest iron bar then I pulled myself up into a somersault, landed on two feet and then jumped to the next. As I gained more and more height euphoria set in, the feeling was amazing. I paused halfway up the colossal structure, I wanted a harder challenge, sure this was fun but it was no threatening dare. I continued to climb up to the top, bounding upwards with every leap, the metal groaning with every vault. Wind began to lash against my skin reminding me of the wounds from the night before, but I didn’t care, not now.

 Finally I reached the top. I held onto the single vertical bar which protruded from the top, I looked over at the downtown district, the mammoth skyscrapers, the millions of humans, the hum of machines with the afternoon sun scorching overhead. This was what living is. My clothes were beginning to stick to me and sweat dripped from my hair onto my face, I decided I’d had enough fun for today and I had to get to work anyway or Alexen would be angry at me again although I believed that I’d deserved a day off, not him, never Alexen.

 I remembered my challenge that I had set myself halfway up the building, I dared myself to jump. All the way to the bottom. I let out a slight laugh, “Crazy son of a b***h” I said to myself. I took one last look at downtown, spread my arms and fell.

 The noise of the wind banged at my ears, dust swirled around me as if I was in the middle of a tornado, I forward rolled backwards, and then forwards letting gravity take control. As I neared the bottom I brought myself up into an upright position, there was a huge thud as I hit the floor; the ground beneath me collapsed a few inches forming a small crater at my feet, dust from the brick that I had broken formed a circle around me. As I stood upright my bones cracked and my muscles groaned. I’d pay for that in the morning, I let the dust settle and then I continued on my journey.

 In front of me was a factory on the outskirts of the industrial district, perfect. I scaled up the wall using every muscle in my arms and legs to propel me up the cement building; it took me a matter of seconds. This is where I really liked to test myself; I forced my legs to move faster, work harder. I was gaining speed and fast. My breathing became heavier as my heart beat grew faster; it felt like it was going to explode. Oxygen filled my lungs and with one deep breath I took one huge push off the side of the building.

 This is when it felt like I was invincible, when nothing could touch me, nothing mattered. Buildings below me were flooding past me; vehicles seemed like small blurs as I flew past them, if humans looked at me they would see nothing I was moving so fast. Of course I couldn’t really fly, no one could. Again I let my body loose control, my arms and legs flailed and gave their power to the elements. I soon saw the headquarters of the Lestaren Coven come dangerously close to knocking me unconscious, just in time I managed to compose myself and push off the wall and grab onto the window ledge of the opposite building.

 I let go and landed on the floor in a crouch, not one of my most subtle of landings. I brushed myself off and walked through the glass doors of the Headquarters, the building itself was just a cover up, all of the real action was underground. This was because we had to blend in with the real world, it would be impossible to stay true to what we were in the human world; most of us would be locked up in mental institutes if we advertised what we were. No one would believe us, so many of us live double lives, have normal jobs, live in suburban houses with relatively normal families, have a household pet and call it ’Fluffy’.

 The Lestaren Headquarters also led a double life, above the ground it was a normal law firm called Lestar & Co; Imaginative huh? All of the members of the Coven in this area had a job here, whether it was being a lawyer to a cleaner. It was easy to keep tabs on everyone this way.

 As I walked through the revolving doors, Cassie the receptionist shot me a scolding glance; I gave her an apologetic half smile as I scurried into the elevator, pressing the basement button. The basement of the building bared a strong resemblance to a grand medieval castle, the type of ones that you see in Disney movies. The walls were a white stone and had intricate tapestries draped on every wall. Portraits of past members long lost smothered the walls.

 I noticed that there was hardly anyone here today in the main building or underground, unusual. That usually means that something bad is happening, or has already happened. I struggled to think of what happened then mental images of last night were rushing through my mind as I began to jog through the labyrinth of corridors to get to the globe room, nothing that bad could have happened...could it?

 I replayed the night in my head; I was on a mission given to my by Junus, the Kings Knight himself. I was to command a small team consisting of 2 warriors, a mage and a necromancer, plus myself to investigate a potential Canus Arven murder. A young vampire couple was on their honeymoon in Aspen, Colorado and had been reported missing for 3 days, so we went to investigate. When we arrived the mansion that they’d been renting had been untouched for months, so as the necromancer began a séance to see if any local ghosts knew the whereabouts of the couple. Just silence this was very unusual with somewhere with as much history as this place, it should have been crawling with ghosts, unless something had scared them away.

 We heard a screeching noise as the vampires appeared from the shadows. We soon realized we had stumbled upon a nest. A trap. Whoever had given us this information was most likely a spy for the Canus Arven, go figure. The vampires hissed from every crevasse of the mansion, lunging towards us, the warriors fought them off with their swords, using every ounce of strength and courage to ward the vampires away from their necks, the vampires clawed their way through the flesh of the warriors even though they continued on fighting. The mage’s used fire spells in attempts to burn the vampires alive but there was too many of them, we couldn’t hold them off. So that meant I had to use my powers.

 Ever since I was a young boy my powers had manifested from an early age. Alexen my saviour and trainer had taught me to control my powers, I had one of the most deadly powers a half demon is said to possess; Chaos. Chaos demons are the most powerful demons in hell, they were the original angels banished from heaven during the war, which meant that my father was a general in hell. Being a chaos half demon I could, I had heightened read minds senses, strength and speed and I could heal at an accelerated rate, which made me almost invincible. But my most frightful power and the thing that I constantly fight inside myself is my power to destroy. Destruction is what I thrive off, my true powers come alive when pain is being inflicted around me, my will gives into my demon instinct and I kill anything and everything that is around me. Which is at least what should happen, there is something inside of me which can control these demon instincts, I can control what I kill and destroy. This is not supposed to be possible, this self control is the reason the Lestaren Coven accepts me, if i didn’t have that control i would be just another half demon that is damned to be their mortal enemy.

 This is why I am the Covens greatest weapon. The key, the warrior that many of the members of the Coven believe will end this war.

 I felt the Chaos surge inside of me, it thrived on what I was seeing and it coursed through my veins and then...

 Nothing.

 I don’t remember anything. I panicked. What had I done? How had I gotten back to California from Aspen last night? All these questions left a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach. Had I caused the death of all my men? Or had I saved them from a nest of ravenous vampires?

 I slowly approached the door leading to the Globe room and I paused. I could read the minds of the members of the Coven inside, to see what they had planned for me and then I could run, run away and as far away as I could. If I ran away Alexen would stand by me, he would fight with me until the end. I thought about Alexen, our family name would be disgraced and everything Alexen had ever stood for would be destroyed by the demon inside of me, he did not deserve this. Not for everything he had ever done for me, without him I wouldn’t be alive. 

 No.

 I wouldn’t run away.

 Even if I had killed these men I would pay for what I did. I had to face the consequences of the monstrosity inside of me.

 I took a deep breath and pulled open the door...

Author's Note

i know i've missed a few comma's here and there, i'll proof read it again when i have time

Reviews

[Wildecat]

This is a woderful story. I love poems about covens, fantasy and trhe supernatural. nice write.