Broken Chains

#4 Back for Round Two (Part 2)

***

After dinner, Cody left, saying that he needed to go and find someone. He knew bringing Skylar was not an option as it was far too dangerous to expose her to the place he was going. So, while he was out, he told Tyler to make sure that Skylar does not come looking for him at all costs. He obviously snuck out without telling Zaylee anything, knowing that she probably already knew a little something about it.

Cody crept out as soon as everyone was asleep. He went into the woods to an entrance of fire. The moment he stepped into the ring of fire, he heard a familiar voice calling out to him “Hello, my dear cousin. I’ve been expecting you,” followed by the sound of crunching dead leaves that matted the whole forest ground, made by the visitor that had already expected Cody would come.

“I’ve seen that you haven’t changed all that much now, have you? Still as mischievous as ever despite having had your coronation I see,” Cody replied with a smirk. “Why did you send Leviathan’s pets after Skylar?”

“I was about to get to that.” He continued to step out of the shadows to reveal himself. He was so similar to Cody that there was not even a single flaw that people could identify that was different about the two of them. The only difference between the two of them was their personalities. “Well, I did notice that a certain someone did not even bother to come to my coronation, so I sent the Shax demons after you, but they seemed like they were more attracted to that little girlfriend of yours. Why is that?”

“First of all, she isn’t my girlfriend, she’s, my sister. And secondly, why do I even need to attend your coronation? You are already old enough to rule the throne anyways.”

“Indeed, you are right,” he started off calmly. “But I am only taking the throne in your place. Your place! The place you gave up just to remain on Earth! I could have lived a normal life but no. Now I have to spend eternity in-”, his voice came as loud as the thunder that roared on a gloomy night.

But Cody was not afraid of his cousin. “Quit your complaining!” he started. “You accepted it. Grandpa was only willing to give it to either one of us. And to make the world balance, it was a sacred duty for you to fulfill. So, stop putting all this on me.”

“That’s the thing Cody. You knew that you were always grandpa and Lucifer’s favorite and yet you refuse to take your place. The two of us may look alike but our souls are nothing alike.”

“Haven’t you gotten the point that I have been trying to get to you all these years - that I don’t have a soul - into that tiny little brain of yours?  Now give me the ring before I choose to wreck something else in your life Nick!” Cody demanded.

“Just because you’re a vampire now does not mean that you will get everything you want,” Nick responded. “You are still weak without love.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Cody said turning around.

“Don’t turn your back on me, Cody!”, Nick exclaimed. “Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t yet realized there are things that Skylar has been keeping from you for these past few months.”

“What do you mean ‘keeping from me’?”

“Even as a vampire, you are still as naive as a newborn. As an immortal, I think you don’t know a single thing about the people around you. You think just because you are an immortal now you can do whatever you want and whenever you like. You may see life as a game, and you won’t believe me but someday someone would come and tear down those walls that you’ve built around your heart. And when that day comes, that girl will fall so hard for you that it would be nothing unlike any of the relationships she’s ever been in. The two of you will learn to grow together, understand each other but there are bound to be obstacles along the way. And once you’ve built that trust, you would break her heart into a million pieces. And as a result of that, that is when you would learn the true meaning of love. By then, you’ll want to get her back, but it would already be too late,” Nick warned him while slowly fading away.

The next thing Cody knew, he was back in reality. In his hands was the ring that he demanded from Nick. Well played Nick. Well, played. It was no ordinary ring as it had the power to protect the wearer from any demonic aura. He brought the ring back home and kept it in a Pandora ring box until he was ready to give it to Skylar. For now, the ring was in its camouflage mode and looked exactly like an ordinary ring from Pandora.

“Good luck, Cody....”, there was a voice in the wind that could make any human feel the shivers up their spine.

***

He headed back to the mansion to see that Skylar was not yet asleep and was laying wide awake, flat on the bed. She looked as if she had something bothering her, he thought. Cody was camouflaged in the dark as he was wearing all black. He was thinking of whether he should go and try to talk to her but then he had a feeling that she may not feel the same way. She was like a princess in a tower to him, impossible to reach and even more difficult to win her heart, especially because he felt like some commoner. But in all the movies he had watched before, the princess did not fall for the handsome prince but finds her true love. But was he her true love?

Soon he heard her talking to herself, “Who could it be from?” and her also realized that she was holding a piece of paper up. That was when he remembered that he had gotten Alexa to leave a note in her locker. He thought of whether he should go and tell her but that that would be like breaking the fourth wall. His urge got the better of him, so he went in to talk to her. Skylar, who was not expecting anyone to just barge in, jumped up in shock and quickly hid the note under her blanket. He had caught her off guard and scared her because he was wearing all black which made him look like a thief.

“Sorry, I couldn't help but overheard that you received a note today in school. Who could it be from?” Cody interrupted.

Skylar was still in shock, “So you're spying on me now?”

“Not to pry but then I am legally your older brother now. So, spill… come on!”

“Well, I kind of got this note today in school," Skylar finally took out the note that Cody desperately wanted to see. "But then it had me thinking that none of the guys in the school fits this missing puzzle piece.”

“Come to think of it, I kind of heard from one of the guys on my team that he is into you but then I promised them that I would not tell anyone, and a promise made between the guys and I, is a promise I can't break.”

“Why are you still up anyways?” Skylar unknowingly thought out loud.

“Long story short, I had something important to deal with. - Anyways, I think you should really get some sleep.”

“I don’t really feel tired though.”

“What are you proposing, Skylar?”

“Well since you are legally allowed to drive, why don’t we get out of this place?”, she started leaning closer, so close that Cody thought that she was going to kiss him. But that imagination never saw light. Skylar realized what she was doing and immediately pulled back.

What are you doing, Skylar? Get a grip of yourself. You can’t be flirting with your stepbrother. It is wrong. Cody read her mind. She was blushing so hard that she looked like a tomato, hoping that he could not read her mind.

“Are you alright?” he asked her and held her face in her hands.

She still held on to her pride and quickly turned away, embarrassed to let Cody see her vulnerable and weak.

“It’s alright to be a little humane at times, Sky,” Cody tried to convince her that it was a normal thing to blush.

Skylar tried to change the topic, “Can we please go out to one of the 24-hour stores?”

“Sky, it is almost 1am in the morning, are you sure that you don’t want to try to get some sleep?” he protested.

“Please, Cody?” She started making puppy eyes which were so cute that Cody could not resist her request. 

“Fine!” he gave up. “Where do you want to go?”

“Let’s go to Walmart. I want some food.”

Cody’s eyes widened because he knew that she had already eaten a heavy dinner. He was thinking of how she could get hungry especially after already eating so much. Skylar was really unlike any ordinary girls as ordinary girls would care about their diet. Maybe what people say about girls was true that they are always hungry especially during their teenage years.

Upon entering the car, Skylar seemed much impulsive than how she usually was. Cody was not used to seeing her this way; vulnerable to any sort of danger. He had to protect her at all costs even if they were just going to the store. Especially with Nick in the picture he had to make sure that harm her in any way.

Once they got to the mart, it was completely empty and there was no one. However just because Skylar did not have the sight, it does not render her complete safety. Cody brought her in cautiously but then she still managed to wander away from him. It must have been because she seemed a little high that she did not know where she was going. Without Cody guiding her, she was soon lost. 

“Skylar...” She heard a familiar voice which led her to her favorite place in the whole mart; the aisle with all the sweets and snacks, the voice kept drawing her in and it was soon powerful enough to compel her.  She walked towards the section and found the source of the voice. Even if she could hear Cody’s voice in the surrounding, it was as if she was under some kind of trance.

Cody was still running all over the store looking for Skylar. He felt the fear shiver down his spine as he knew something bad was definitely going to happen. Then he thought of the one thing she could not say no to and headed to the section as fast as he could. Once he got there, he was shocked to see that she was really under some kind of demonic spell and also saw the root of all the problems: Nicholas. There he was completely in his true form, taking her through some kind of portal.

He immediately shouted Nicholas’ name while transforming into his true form; a black-winged angel-like creature. Nick tossed Skylar aside, but the impact never made its mark as she was caught by Cody. “Back for round two, Nick? I thought that I already made it really clear that you will always be second best even if you are older.”  Cody’s remark made Nick even more angry. Nick charged towards Cody but as if there was a force field protecting Cody from Nick.

Since Cody forfeited the throne to Nick three years ago, their grandfather knew Nick would someday try to attack Cody. So, he placed a protection spell on Cody so that if Nick were to attempt to attack him with his newfound powers, it would be impossible.

“You win this round Cody but mark my words, no matter where you go, I’ll be there, and I will find a way to get you for leaving all your dirty work to me.”

“We’ll see Nicholas, we’ll see.”, said Cody watching Nick as he descended to hell, thinking of how much trouble Nick would be when he goes back down there. Cody snapped back to reality and upon seeing Skylar still unconscious, quickly rushed to her. “Skylar!”

He quickly checked if she still had a pulse though he assumed her fall was not really that serious. There was no pulse. He started panicking on what he should do. To use his demonic powers to bring her back to life or to turn her into a vampire? He would never turn her into a vampire without her consent for he knew how it was like to lose his soul forever, so he did not want her to suffer as he did.

He decided to use his powers to resurrect her and also erase any memory of whatever happened to her that night. Once he felt her pulse return, he tried to control his awakened urge that he had never had before… the urge to drink her blood. He knew it was wrong, so to manage the urge he brought the sleeping Skylar home before he went out again on foot into the forest to find something to feed on before he inflicted harm on the one person that he did not want to hurt.

Once he got back at the break of dawn, he knew he had to give her the ring before anything else happened to her. He also made sure that the ring was charged with a demon shield first before he gave it to her. Since he dropped out of The Academy of Dark Magic, which he was supposed to be studying with Nicholas and other demons alike, he had forgotten almost all of the spells that he had learnt. So, he continued to stay up looking through all his books from the academy.

If only I could have gotten through the course but then I chose to immediately jump to the fight which I initially won. However, after a couple of days, I chose to forfeit the throne to him; my opponent, a person who was not fit to rule but then what choice do I have, in exchange for immortality, to rule the whole of hell by myself?

He thought as he was flipping through all the books he used to study from whilst he was in hell.

Cody had his own reasons for wanting to forfeit the throne though he was the only one who was illegible to rule, he never wanted it to just be handed down to him. He was also apparently too young to rule over a whole kingdom, so he found an alternative which was to challenge his only opponent to a duel. After finding out that the one person he had to fight was his cousin, he couldn’t bring himself to fight him. He forfeited the fight and left everything to Nicholas.

Though it had always been what Nick’s mother wanted for him – to rule the throne of Hell – all he ever wanted was a chance at an ordinary life on Earth.

Once he had found the spell and activated the demon shield on the ring, it put his mind at ease which finally allowed him to sleep like a baby. But it wasn’t as simple as he thought it was, he still had to keep a huge secret about his whole family being descendants of demons from Skylar.

He believed that if he even ended up telling her, it would put her in much more danger than she already was, with the other world. He tried to forget about whatever happened that night but couldn’t. Too much had happened that night that he could not forget. He had used his powers to save Skylar who was almost at the brick of death and his cravings for blood had returned.

“You didn’t think that this was the end, did you now, Cody?”, someone managed to get into his head that night. “Cody...”, he heard another familiar feminine voice. This woke him from his slumber to find himself drenched in sweat. “See, I told you I get you back for whatever happened.” came the voice again at the back of his head. He knew exactly what Nick was doing to him but decided to let Grandpa handle whatever happened as everything Nick did would have a worse consequence on himself.

As he thought of Skylar, he could feel that his feelings for her were growing, and he could not ignore the fact that all he wanted to do was to protect her not only because he had made a pact with Alexa but also that because he was starting to truly love her.