Better off Dead Book Two

by Odette C. Bell

  I wondered how very disappointed she would be in me. How much good had I actually done? Yeah, I took down Hell gangs. Sure, I’d taken on some pretty nasty bounties in my time, too, but what had I actually done? Survived. That’s it. Everything I’d done I’d ultimately done for myself.

  “Child,” she said, her voice wavering as her hand shook. She placed her fingers on my cheek. They had a warmth about them – and it was one that almost kindled my old memories. “It is good to see you.” A deep smile parted her lips.

  “Sister Mary, why are you here with him?” I didn’t beat around the bush as I let my eyes slice over to Sonos.

  He was still seated all the way back against the couch, one of his large, strong arms propped up along the back. He drummed his fingers on the plush leather. “Just how long is it going to take you to trust me?”

  “I’m never going to trust you,” I said through clenched teeth.

  The sister suddenly grabbed my hands, clenching them tightly. With wide, wide eyes, she searched my gaze. “You have to.”

  I understood that Sister Mary was here with Sonos, but I still wouldn’t have guessed that she trusted him. Maybe he’d kidnapped her – maybe she was here for some other reason. But there was no way in Hell – or Heaven – that the sister would ever be on his side.

  “He destroyed the orphanage—” I began, my voice shaking with repressed anger. Okay, it wasn’t even that repressed. I sliced my gaze over to him, and I let hellfire build up behind it. I didn’t really care what he was doing – that he was nominally helping me. I would never forget what happened that day.

  The sister simply held my hands tighter, squeezing her fingers in until she could’ve cut my circulation. “You must.” She pried away one of her hands to brush the hair from my face.

  Though Sonos still looked casual, and he sipped from the lethal liquid in the expensive led tumbler he was holding, he never let his gaze deviate off me. I got the impression as Mary let her fingers trail down my cheek that he wouldn’t mind doing the same.

  ... As soon as I thought that, I shoved the thought away. I almost thought of pushing Sister Mary away too as I caught up with what she was saying. “Sister, he—”

  She pressed her finger against my lips. “Do not say it, for it is not true. Sonos was not behind the horror that day.”

  I’d had a lot pulled out from under my feet over the past several days. But this was a bridge too far. I finally pulled back from her. I shook my head. There was a flighty quality to it as my hair jerked around my cheeks. “I was there,” I hissed. “I remember everything. Every scream,” I sliced my gaze over to him, “every damn flame. How could you say that he wasn’t behind it?”

  “Child, a lot has happened to you in your short life, and not all of it... not all of it may be as it seems.”

  As far as explanations went, that wasn’t one.

  I let my gaze search hers. And for the first time, I tried to decide if she really was who Sonos said she was. She could just be a copy, right? Sonos could have just taken one of his lower demons, spelled the guy, given him a habit, and told him to act like the only teacher who’d ever respected and loved me.

  Maybe that suspicion was somehow playing in my eyes, or perhaps Sister Mary was now a mind reader, because she shook her head as she trailed her fingers down my cheek again. “I assure you it’s me. I managed to survive these long years since the accident all so I could get in contact with you like this one day.”

  “Sonos,” I growled. “I don’t know what you’re playing at. I don’t even know what you’ve done to the real Sister Mary, but this ends now—”

  “Have you opened the box yet?” he asked, his tumbler halfway to his lips. I wouldn’t say that there was a smile marching over his mouth, but there was something close. Whatever it was, the look in his eyes was by far the most important thing. It was intense on a level I’d never seen before – and when it came to Sonos, every damn thing he did was intense.

  My gut kicked. I went to shake my head, but I thought better of it. Why share this information with Sonos?

  There was really only one thing I should do here. I turned to leave, but Mary wouldn’t let me. Wrapping her hand tightly around mine, she locked me to the spot.

  She went to touch my face again, but I leaned back out of the move. I stared at her with open suspicion now. “I don’t know who you really are, but there’s no way you’re Sister Mary—”

  “You used to come to me when you were a young child – no more than six. It would be the middle of the night, and you would’ve woken from one of your terrifying dreams. You would curl up in the chair in my room, and I would read you stories until you went to bed. Do you remember what the stories were?”

  Of course I did. My gut kicked. I tried not to let my fear show, but I knew it played in my eyes.

  “Around the World in 80 Days. That was your favorite. You were fond of Jules Verne’s stories, but you loved the adventures of that particular tale. Whenever I read it to you, the horrors of your dreams would just slip on by. I gave you a copy. Do you still have it?”

  Yeah, I still had it. But this proved nothing. I frowned hard. “Anyone could’ve found out about that—”

  “It was during one of those nights that you admitted to me that you feared you’d killed your parents.”

  I completely froze. Despite the fact that I’d only been six years old, I recalled that event. It was the only time in my entire life I had uttered that particular horrifying thought out loud.

  “I tried to assure you that it hadn’t been you, but you still feared your power, even then.”

  I tried to shake my head, but my neck simply wouldn’t allow me to follow through with the move. Instead it kind of just shuddered there, making me look as if I was a doll someone had pulled all the stuffing out of.

  She touched my face again, and this time I let her. I wouldn’t have been able to stop her. I couldn’t even lift a finger, let alone open my mouth.

  “You did not kill your parents, Eve. Someone far darker than you is responsible for that particular horror.”

  I immediately turned to face Sonos.

  “No, not him.” Sister Mary stepped in close. “There’s much that’s been kept from you – much that must be finally revealed.” She dropped her hands and clasped mine tightly. She took in a deep breath. It was as if she was encouraging me to do the same, but I was still far too suspicious.

  “We don’t actually have all day, Eve,” Sonos said as he pinched the bridge of his nose then let his hand flop over his eyes. He pushed it up his brow and stared at me from underneath his palm. “Hilliker hasn’t stopped. He now has quite a number of your possessions. It won’t be long until he uses all of those expensive Santini charms to try to attract you to him. There’s only so much I can do for you if you can’t do anything for yourself.”

  “What exactly do you want me to do for myself?” I snarled through white lips.

  “Just listen to him – and trust him. He is the only reason you’re safe.” Sister Mary looked so damn honest as she said that. And as she squeezed my hands tightly but not too tightly, it reinforced her sincerity.

  I went to try to shake my head again, but I just gave up. My shoulders deflated.

  “There we go. Finally. Getting through to you is like hammering nails into coffins,” Sonos grumbled.

  “What exactly is that meant to mean?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Before you go on about this being a trap again, it was simply an analogy – clearly one you do not understand. Now, can you take a seat? I don’t mind if you stand there – but you have had a rather big week, haven’t you?”

  I snarled at him. I didn’t really want to take a seat, but Mary gave me no option. She pulled me over and pushed me down. While she was technically old and frail now, that didn’t matter – if she wanted you to follow her will, she could still force you to, no matter what.

  When she was done, I just... I sat there. For several seconds, no one said anything. Bo
th of them stared at me. While Mary did so with loving fondness, Sonos... I didn’t know. He just looked at me. I wanted to tell myself that he’d always looked at me in that specific way, but maybe he hadn’t. Because maybe his intensity had never really shone through before. I’d always been too intent on either running away or screaming at him to notice.

  He stared at me briefly from over the top of his tumbler again, then finally dropped his attention to his lap as he finished the liquid.

  He settled the tumbler into the air beside him, and it hovered there as if there was an invisible table. “I didn’t destroy the orphanage,” he said blankly. “And when you are strong enough to access the memories in the box, that is what you will find out.”

  “You—” I began. But I was the one to stop myself this time. I sliced my gaze over to sister Mary.

  It really was her – I’d confirmed that now. That meant that... what? She was telling the truth? That, for my entire life, I’d been carrying a false memory about Sonos?

  “But you’ve promised to kill me on multiple occasions,” I rose to my own defense as my reason caught up with me.

  He chuckled. “Did I really promise to kill you? Or did I promise to remove your resurrection curse?”

  “It’s the—” I began, about to tell him for the fiftieth time that it was the same thing, but he leaned forward.

  He locked that intense gaze on me, and boy, now it was like the power of a thousand stars combined. “It is not the same thing, Eve,” he said, slowing down every word so I could hear them – so they could sink in like bullets. “Trust me on that.”

  I almost retorted that I would never trust him about anything, but Mary scooted forward on her seat. She sat right on the edge of it as she stared at me entreatingly. “He did not have a hand in the destruction of the orphanage. But he did save who he could – you and me,” she said, regret in her voice.

  I could barely move my lips. “What?” I managed after a lengthy pause, my breath turning to a wheeze as it shook out of my mouth.

  “He saved us. He did not kill everyone else,” she repeated. She stared at me entreatingly. If her gaze could’ve conveyed anything, one would automatically assume it was the truth. But I knew so much better.

  Mary had only just managed to get me in the seat, but I shot up. My heart began to beat hard, powering around in my chest as if it would rip from my rib cage and kill me on the spot.

  I headed straight for the door. Thus far, Sonos had remained seated. He looked relaxed too – or at least, his posture was. The skin around his eyes was a little too tight. Now he pushed to his feet. He spread a hand toward the door. I expected that he would lock it and keep me trapped in here with him, but he didn’t. Clearing his throat, he briefly looked down at his feet. “What she’s saying is the truth. I know you don’t want to hear—”

  “I think about it every single day,” I said in a cold, haunted voice that could barely shake from my lips. “All the screams, all the blood, all the fire.” On the word fire, I collapsed my arms around my middle. I started to shake as those horrifying memories blasted through me. I felt like they were roasting me, as if I was back there on that day, the flames leaping high, racing through the building, burning everything in sight.

  “You were lied to, Eve,” Mary tried in an entreating voice.

  “These are my memories,” I spat. My lips were now so white, it felt as if someone had tied them up. “I don’t know what you two are playing at. I don’t know why you’re doing this, Sister,” I added in a shaking, betrayed voice. “But you cannot just take away my memories and pretend they’re not true. I know what happened that day.”

  “Your memories were replaced. That’s why it’s important for you to open that box – one day,” Sonos said, a clear warning shaking through his tone.

  I didn’t want to turn to him. And I certainly didn’t want him to see the tears trailing along my eyelashes. I couldn’t help it as a blast of anger took me. Whipping my head around, one or two of my tears fell from my eyes.

  They splashed onto the carpet between us. I was surprised when his gaze deviated off me and locked on them. But not nearly as surprised as when he actually seemed disappointed, as if the sight of a lowly human crying could ever tug at the heartstrings of such a powerful, evil demon.

  “Just listen, Eve. Do yourself the justice of hearing this out. You have been waiting to find this out your entire life. Now the truth is at your feet.” He stared down at the tears again and fell into a meaningful silence before turning around, flopping back on the couch, and grabbing his tumbler. He didn’t take a sip. It looked like it was more of a prop for his strained, white-knuckled hand.

  The last thing I wanted to do was remain here and have my traumas dug up and reworked before me as if the most horrifying memories of my life were nothing more than unsatisfying elements of a story to someone else.

  Mary pushed to her feet again. She knew me well – much better than Sonos. She could see the need to retreat dancing deeply in my pupils. So she stood between me and the door.

  “Get out of my way, Sister.”

  She shook her head in a flighty move that saw her veil tumbling over her shoulders.

  “I said get out of my—”

  “Hilliker was there that day. You wouldn’t remember that,” Sonos said as he stared at the liquid in his tumbler, “but he was. Along with many other representatives from the church. Or at least his branch of it.” Sonos took a drink. At first, he just pressed his glass against his lips as if he was looking for something to rest his mouth – and truth – against. Only when he confirmed that I wasn’t about to retreat did he bother to actually swallow down the liquid – though he didn’t look as if he was enjoying it much.

  Sister Mary started to drag her hands back and forth over her legs. It wasn’t clear if the webbing of her fingers was sweaty or if she was trying to clean herself of something else – some traumatizing thought or memory.

  “Everything Sonos said is correct. Hilliker and his priests were there that day. They had come for you.”

  I sneered. It was nowhere near as strong a move as I was usually capable of. It made my cheeks all fat and crumpled. It would’ve made the look in my eyes all the more confused, too. I tried to hold on to my anger for as long as I could. Because without it... without it I’d have to start believing what was being said here, and it just couldn’t be true.

  “I remember everything, though,” I began again.

  Mary grabbed my hand. With tight, shaking fingers, she held onto me for dear life. “You will not be able to remember the truth until that box is opened.”

  “If that’s the case, then I’ll bring it here. You can open it right in front of me. There’s no way—”

  “You don’t want to know what you are until you’re powerful enough to accept the truth,” Sonos said. His voice was somewhere between forceful and completely submissive. It wasn’t submissive to me, though – just to the fact he was repeating. If I didn’t know better, I would almost believe that he was saddened by this.

  “But I thought you brought me here today on the premise that you would finally tell me everything?” My voice was empty.

  “All those years ago, the orphanage was attacked by Hilliker. He was intent on killing everyone. And using you to—” Mary began.

  “That’s enough,” Sonos said in a rumbling voice that reached through the room like a strong hand.

  Mary immediately looked at her feet as if she’d done something wrong.

  I just let my wide, angry gaze lock on Sonos. “Who are you to tell her that that’s enough? Who are you to sit there and—”

  “You will have a few days at most before he comes for you. I tried to slow it down by—” he stopped abruptly but nodded at my ring finger and the engagement ring thereon, “but it didn’t work. I shouldn’t have underestimated Hilliker. He has been planning this since the day you were born, after all.”

  “If you expect me to believe any of this,” I said in a weak voice
, “you’re fresh out of luck.”

  “Exactly how much you believe is up to you. However, it’s time for you to understand exactly what the stakes are.” He dropped the glass. The magic spell that usually made it float wasn’t quite quick enough. The tumbler tilted to the side, and most of the golden liquid threatened to spill onto the floor, but at the last second, every drop remembered they were under a spell, and they retraced their steps back into the glass. It sloshed as the tumbler floated beside him.

  He slowly reached his hands down and placed them on his knees. “Hilliker wants to use you as an endless sacrifice to the Banished.”

  On the word Banished, Mary looked as if she’d lose it. She became as pale as a ghost. She also quickly grabbed her cross and muttered the Lord’s Prayer.

  I knew a lot about both Heaven and Hell. It was my work – so of course I did. There were quite a number of creatures that had been banished over the years. Heck, the Devil himself was a fallen angel. But I’d never heard of one particular soul being referred to as the Banished as if their banishment was somehow more important than everyone else’s.

  Sonos’s gaze flicked across my face. “I see that means absolutely nothing to you. So let me help you out. Have you ever heard of Beelzebub?”

  I made a face. “Yeah, of course I have. He’s—”

  “Not what you think. He has no place in the current Hell. He has never had a place there.”

  “Are you trying to rewrite history now?”

  “Just you’re incorrect perception of it. Beelzebub was a name – one of many – given to the Banished.” The way he said the Banished was the same every time. It was as if he would only allow himself to utter it in a single vocal range in case being too loud or too quiet would somehow call this Banished to his side.