with me the most. The way she would wrap her chubby little fingers around my own, or the way she giggled when I would run my own finger around in a circle on her palm. The way I would run my fingertip down her nose to soothe her and rock her to sleep in my arms.
She was my greatest creation.
And she had been taken from me.
By the Gods, how I wanted to kill them both! I wanted to take the life of those who took my little girl away from me, over and over again until they felt only pain! But even then, I knew it would not be enough. Because the pain of losing anyone you loved was one that would always be eternal. I had lived with my pain for over 2000 years, and the hardest part was realising I would never follow them into the Afterlife.
I would never be reunited with them again.
This had been the hardest pill to swallow once I had been turned, for I knew even if I had died, my soul would never end up in the one place hers had. In truth, this was why revenge had never been on my mind when searching for the Lance of Longinus. The Spear of Destiny and Holy Lance that had pierced Jesus’ side when he was upon the crucifix.
No, what I had wanted was what had been owed to me. What had been promised by Jesus himself. Because with the blood of God, then I would finally have the power to grant me my place in Heaven. I had made the deal with Jesus so that I may one day become an Angel and have the power to resurrect my daughter. That was the motive behind searching all of those years for the Spear’s tip.
Ironically, the moment it happened I discovered I had no powers to do so, for I was not a full Angel. My deal with Jesus to bring my daughter back had failed. Because what no one knew, was that I had not only intended to sacrifice my life that day to Jesus’ cause, should my action bring about my death. But after what happened to my daughter, I had intended to make the sacrifice with a promise made.
But his promise in death had not happened and with my own end on the horizon shortly after, I made my own promise, telling myself that one day I may have the power to bring her back. Unbeknown to anyone, it had been my very reason for living and had kept me focused for more years than not. Yet, after what happened with Keira and the Triple Goddess ritual, that day it all changed. The day I gained my Angelic side, was the moment that dream of bringing her back was long gone. It would then be years later that any chance at happiness was found once more and that was when my Chosen One finally entered my life.
Amelia was my gift from the Gods.
My chance at another life, and one not focused solely on the bitterness of my loss. I'd allowed myself to love again, and the moment that I had lost her, I had felt as though it was happening all over again. I had not wanted to admit it at the time to anyone, not even to myself. But since my rebirth, that had been the first time I had felt that hopelessness of death taken from my hands. A feeling I remembered all too well when it happened to me as a mortal father.
I left the table and walked towards the open balcony, needing to put space between the present and the past. I took in the view of the Realm of Lust, making out in the distance the black river that snaked through the land, barely visible through the eternal rage of the never-ending sandstorm. Another reminder of how love had the power to change us all. As the force created by Asmodeus the day his precious Sarah, Dom’s mother, was taken from him, could be likened to the force of hatred my brother let grow, when his own loved ones were taken from him by the lightning of the Gods.
But as I took in the towering mass of carved black stone that was Asmodeus’ castle, I thought about why I was never granted what Jesus had promised me. But then, deep down I knew why, just as I knew exactly what my failings had been when I