Avenge (Hillcrest Book 2)

by Cassie Pierce

  The company you keep and all that.

  “Ha....not even close. Jaxon is pissed at me for that mark on your back. For what he knows it means,” he says shaking his head like he said too much. He quickly changes the subject.

  “Look. We don’t have a lot of time. I brought you here because Jaxon and his brothers are holding Cain in the cells here. The ones at the end of this hall. They don’t know who he is to me. No one does but you. I need it to stay that way,” he says, begging me with his eyes to keep his secret.

  “And you what? Want me to help you break him out?” I demand, angry that he would put me in this position. A position where I am forced to lie to my friends, or sell out another.

  “Hell no,” he says. “I want you to talk to him. He wouldn’t tell the others. He has his reasons, but he will tell you. Only you. I can keep you safe while you speak with him. You need to trust me. You want to hear what he has to say.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me?” I ask, suspicion creeping in. If Zane knows what Cain needs to tell me, why not just say it? What is he hiding?

  “I can’t....look,” he says, gripping my hand so hard that it almost hurts. “I would tell you...if I could. You have to believe that. Trust that. There are forces here bigger than me.”

  I don’t know if it is something in his voice, or just the fact that it is Zane, but I believe him. He has never lied to me before, and I want to believe. No...I have to believe that he isn’t lying to me now. That there are still honest people in the world. That he is one of them.

  Zane saw me when no one else did. He reached into the darkness and pulled me out. He was there when I was all alone. He saved me, and he had no reason to. I was a stranger to him. A voice in his head. He gave me the benefit of doubt when he had no reason to. It is time for me to return that favor.

  Maybe I will regret it. Maybe I won’t. Either way, what is the point of living if you are too afraid to be alive. I trust Zane. If he says that he can’t tell me. He can’t tell me.

  “Ok. Take me to Cain,” I say, turning back toward the long hallway that I have never ventured down before. Zane takes my hand, stepping around me so that he is in front. I doubt that there is any danger here, but I still let him protect me.

  It is who he is. Zane is a protector.

  My eyes scan the cells that line the hallway as we walk. A feeling of dread creeping into me as I take in the glowing bars and the shackles that hang from the walls within. I swallow my fear with each step, thankful that they are empty. That the man that I love doesn’t have a secret torture chamber below his living room.

  After all....I know all to well what it feels like to be caged. To be shocked by the power running through those bars. To be shackled and humiliated, stripped of basic needs. To think of Jaxon, Ryker, or Braxton doing that to someone. It makes me sick.

  With each cell we pass, my fear fades. Empty. They are all empty. All eight of them so far. That is until I get to cell number nine. I expect to see Cain there, since he is the one that I am here to see. What I don’t expect. What I am not ready for, if the sight of Bianca Bicada in chains.

  Her pale blond ringlets fall limply down her back, and her usually perfect skin is smeared with dried blood. Dark circles mar the underside of her eyes. Eyes that stare glassily off into space.

  I expect her to sneer. Call me names. Insult me. Something. What I don’t expect is her silence. She looks right through me, like I am not even there, and says nothing.

  “What...what is wrong with her?” I question, my fingers digging into Zane’s back. He stops short at my question, his caramel eyes locking on mine before slowly turning to the girl in question.

  “Ryker..... he went a little too far,” Zane says with a shrug. His cryptic answer leaving me with more questions than answers.

  Ryker? Ryker did that? The same boy who wears batman P.J.’s. That Ryker?

  “Why?” I say, swallowing my revulsion at seeing her that way. Sure. She isn’t my favorite person, but this....

  I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

  “Ry has a dark side. Sometimes his powers get out of control. The illusions he creates are too much for the mind. He....breaks things. He doesn’t mean to. He never means to.” The way Zane says it, with such sadness and calm acceptance, tells me all that I need to know.

  This isn’t the first time Ryker has damaged someone, and it won’t be the last. My mind flashes back to all those times that Jaxon seemed uneasy around his brother. All those looks of distrust and anger. I though that it was because of Jaxon’s role in Sydney’s death, but I was wrong. Jaxon was afraid of what Ryker might do to me.

  I turn away from Bianca, unable to look at her anymore. I make a silent vow that when this is over, I will help her. I will fix her. She may be my nemesis, but I will not leave her that way.

  “Just show me Cain,” I say, sadness tugging at my heart as I turn away. Zane nods, taking my hand and pulling me to the last cell along the hallway. This one is different than the others. The others have glowing bars, but Cain’s does not. The bars that hold him in are a shiny black material that I am unfamiliar with.

  “What is it?” I say, reaching out to touch the pretty stone. Zane’s hand lashes out, stopping mine before it connects with the bars.

  “It is onyx. Lethal to demons. That means you. No touching Angel,” Zane chides me. I tuck my hands into my pockets.

  “Cain. I brought her. I brought Maci. Step forward so that she can see you, and for demon’s sake. Use your human form,” Zane growls.

  “You really are no fun,” Cain says stepping out of the shadows, mindful not to touch the shiny black bars that hold him prisoner. I blink when he steps into the light, instantly thrown off guard by his beauty.

  Yes. I said beauty. I am aware that beautiful is not a common adjective to describe a man, but it is the only one that comes to mind when I look at Cain.

  He is almost too pretty to be a boy.

  His golden blond hair is the same as before, but in the place of his blue scaly coat that he wore in his demonic form sits perfectly smooth bronze skin. Where his eyes were once black as night with flames as pupils, they are now a blue that matches the ocean, broken up with little waves of copper that remind me of the sun reflecting off of the water. His nose is perfectly straight, and a dimple resides on his left cheek. His voice carries a lit that I have never quite heard before, and I wonder if English is his first language or if he is only speaking it now because of me.

  I shake my head, taking a step back into Zane as the demon approaches me. Which is all kinds of stupid. He is locked in a cage for Christ sake. It isn’t like he is going to eat me.

  Cain chuckles as he watches me, and something tells me that he secretly takes pleasure from my discomfort. I harden my stare, pushing off of Zane and taking a step closer to the cell. I will not be afraid of a demon locked in a cage.

  “You wanted to see me?” I ask, my voice sharp. Cain’s eyes dance with humor as he looks from me to his brother and back again.

  “Feisty little human that you got yourself Zane,” Cain laughs, teasing his brother.

  “I am no human,” I remind him, my eyes flashing purple with the evidence of my power.

  “Ahhh yes,” he laughs, looking totally unimpressed by little magic show. “That is right. You aren’t human. You are what? Half Angel? Half demon? What does that make you? Even the Nephilim have a name. There is no name for you....is there girl?”

  “I have a name. It is Maci, and as for what that makes me....” I trail off, because honestly— I have no idea. I have asked myself that before. I still have no clue.

  “What that makes her is special,” Zane growls, his eyes hard as he looks at his brother.

  “Defensive much little brother?” Cain teases.

  “Did you want to talk to me or not?” I demand, growing tired of his games. I don’t know Cain, but so far, I don’t like him very much. I am starting to think that leaving him locked up down here with Bianca as a roommate is look
ing better and better.

  Done with this, I turn to leave. I feel bad for Cain. I do. I feel even worse for Zane. He is in an impossible position. His brother is being held prisoner by his best friend. I am not sure why Zane has not shared with the others who Cain is to him, but he has to have a reason. Zane is not a liar. If he is protecting Cain, most likely it is because exposing him will expose more than just a simple truth.

  No....Zane is hiding something, and Cain is the key. As much as I wish that I could help him, I can’t. I also can’t sell Zane out. What I can do is walk away.

  “Wait!” Cain calls out, his voice taking on an urgency that only a man in pain can have. “I...I am sorry. Please..... I.....I will tell you how to help Ashlee.”

  That stops me. My head turns slowly, my eyes fixing on his. I slowly make my way back to the cell, studying him for any trace of dishonesty.

  “Why would you do that?” I question, wondering why he would help us. What is in it for him.

  “Because the bitch that killed her, killed my Lila too.”

  That stops me.

  “Who? Who killed her?” I demand, rushing toward the bars, only to be stopped at the last second by Zane. He reaches out, grabbing the back of my shirt to keep me from touching them.

  “Hecate. The Queen of all Witches.” The way Cain says it, with so much hate and venom in his tone tells me all that I need to know. Hate alone will fuel his desire to help us. He hates this Hecate person.

  “I...I don’t understand?” I say, my confusion growing.

  “I image you do not. I need to tell you a story. A story that will make this easier to understand. Is that all right with you?” he asks me.

  Turning to Zane he says, “Do we have time?”

  “Yes,” Zane nods, looking at me apologetically. “I spelled the house. They are all frozen. They are unaware of any of this. To them moments have passed. We have time. Tell her. Tell her everything. It is time that she knows the entire truth.”

  “Am I going to need to sit down for this?” I ask, half serious and half kidding. In my experience, most truths are better sitting down.

  I gasp as a bench appears from thin air, its soft cushions pressing into my legs from behind. I turn to Zane, who just smirks before pointing to the seat.

  “Show off,” I mumble, taking the offered seat.

  “Ok,” I say, turning to Cain. “Tell me this story.”

  If only I would have known what a story it was, I might not have asked. You see, that is thing about truths. You may need to hear them, or think that you want to, but once the truth is out, the reality from before can never exist again.

  Sometimes you don’t realize how sweet that reality is, until fate comes and snatches it away.

  ∞

  ~ Chapter 14 ~

  “I know that you have heard about Lila being sentenced to death by the council for loving me. Zane says he rescued you from her tomb,” Cain says, waiting patiently as I nod.

  “The part that no one knew is that Lila was favored by the Creator. His favor alone could not save her, but in death he gave her a gift. He gave her spirit the ability to remain as it was, and to take corporeal form while in the void. The Creator gave her a locket made of sea glass. He mixed in it a drop of his blood that gave her the ability to travel from the Elysium Plain to the Void. While in the void, she would have flesh and bone that were as real as when she was alive. This was a gift, because as a demon I am able to freely access the void.”

  “While we could no longer be together in the mortal realm, we were still together. For years..... Hell...for centuries, our love survived this way. I could touch her...hold her. Then Hecate happened, and everything changed.” His voice grows sad at the end, and I am suddenly glad for the bench. My legs growing weak as I find myself sucked into his story.

  “Did she kill her?” I ask, wondering how you can kill someone who is already dead.

  “No worse. She killed the thing that made her who she is. She killed her goodness. She turned her into a soulless monster. Just as she did your friend. That is what Hecate does. She tricks others into killing for her. At least...that is what happened in Lila’s case.”

  “I am still not following. Did she place a spell on her or something?” I ask, my brain trying and failing to put together the pieces.

  “To understand, you first need to know who Hecate is,” Zane says, jumping into the conversation. He takes a seat beside me on the little bench, his thigh pressing against mine.

  Across from us, Cain nods his agreement. His fist clenching at his sides as he starts to pace the tiny diameter of the cell. Forward, back, and forward again he paces. His eyes turning to liquid fire with each passing second. As if sensing that Cain needs a break from story time, Zane resumes the crash course on all things evil.

  “Hecate is the Queen of all Witches. Some say she was the first witch. She is as beautiful as she is powerful, but like most things with both beauty and power, she had an ego to match. She was selfish and cruel. A hateful ruler who would often punish or kill her people just for sport. So wicked that she lost her soul, turning into a demon. That is how demons are made. They are supernaturals who forfeited their souls. The Wiccan culture rebelled against her, and together the Wiccan council crafted a spell to banish her. Banishment was the best that they could do, as no witch alive was powerful enough to kill her. With their combined powers they trapped her in the void. To be ever present and aware, but never to be free.”

  “That is where she encountered my Lila. My sweet, innocent Lila,” Cain interrupts, his anger finally under control. I let out a sigh of relief when I see that his eyes are back to the color of the ocean.

  “She tricked Lila into believing that I was falling for another in the mortal realm. I tried to assure her that I would never do such, but Hecate is powerful. When she plants a seed, she uses what magic she has left to make it appear real. She convinced Lila that the only way to keep me was by helping her steal the soul of an Angel during a reassignment transition. She told Lila that the soul would be for her to use to come back to me, but in reality, she planned to keep it for herself.”

  Ashlee. He is talking about Ashlee.

  I see it then, the guilt that Cain wears so heavily upon his shoulders. The pain in his eyes as he speaks of his beloved. Slowly, all the pieces are starting to click into place, and the end result is scarier than anything I could have ever imagined.

  “Are you saying....You mean that?” I start, unable to find the words that I refuse to believe. Fear has stolen my voice, but even in the silence I know it to be true.

  “Yes,” Zane says, grabbing my hand and squeezing for reassurance. I let him. I need it. I need all the reassurance that I can get.

  “Hecate used Lila’s angelic soul to steal Ashlee’s, and then she killed her,” Zane finishes the thought that fear refused to let me voice.

  “I...I don’t understand,” I say, tears making a track down my face as a layer of ice wraps around my already numb limbs.

  “Why? Why did she do this?” I demand, anger and fear fighting for dominance inside of me.

  “She wanted out, and she saw Lila as a way to escape. Your friend....she was just wrong place...wrong time,” Cain says sadly, slumping against the wall in the far corner of his cell.

  Wrong place? Wrong time?

  How many times have I thought that exact same thing, except.....

  This wasn’t that. If Hecate would have just let things play out, Ashlee would have come back. The way that she was supposed to. The way that she was always meant to. She only died because they stole her soul.

  I would have my friend back right now. My real friend! Not the evil wanna be bitch that has been torturing me since I got here.

  “So.... let me get this straight? This Hecate is a super witch, who talked Lila into high jacking Ashlee’s soul, and then she killed Lila. Like for real this time. Then, because that wasn’t extra enough, she then switched places with Ashlee. Trapping Ashlee in the void, and injectin
g her soul into Ashlee’s body?”

  Jesus! This sounds crazy....even to me.

  “Can I still save her? Is there any way that Ashlee walks out of this alive in the end?” I ask, clinging to the last tiny thread of hope.

  Hope is such a fickle thing. How we cling to it, even when we know happily ever after isn’t meant for us. How one tiny thread of hope will give us strength even when we are exhausted. How when that thread is cut, we just give up. There is power in hope, but there is also pain. Pain, because when reality comes crashing in, we aren’t prepared for all the darkness that our tiny spark of hope kept away.

  Cain crushes my hope.

  “The only thing left for you to save is her soul. She cannot come back. Her light has left her, but you can free her soul. Allow her to return to Paradise,” he says sadly. He doesn’t look at me when he says it, and I know that he knows what it is like to have that hope ripped away.

  Lila was his hope, and Hecate stole her. In his own way, Cain is doing the best he can to help me keep mine. I think it is this moment that I see that all demons are not bad. Just like I have already learned that all Angels are not good.

  That perhaps, what defines good and bad, is not who or what someone is. Rather, who or what they choose to be.

  Cain may be a demon, but he chooses goodness. He chose love over evil, and even now he defends that love at the risk of his own life.

  “I understand,” I whisper, pushing back the sadness and pain that wants to drag me under. The darkness that wants so desperately to pull me down. There will be time for that later. Right now, I need to focus on how I can help. What I can do. It is the only way my heart will survive any of this.

  How does one lose her best friend twice?

  “Tell me. Tell me what to do. How do I free her and kill this witch?” Anger radiates from me like a million hot coals as unease stirs inside of me.

  I will kill her. I don’t care if all the witches on the damn Wiccan council were not strong enough to do it. I don’t care if it kills me! I will kill her, or I will die trying.