“You and what army?” Shayla asked while her fingertips slid down to her hip and grazed across the gun that hung there.
A smirk briefly made an appearance on Casey’s face. “You think you three are gonna jump me right here and kill me?” she asked almost hopeful.
Shayla didn’t say anything for a few moments. She stood and stared back. “No, that wasn’t my plan at all. The way I see it is I’m the one that’s got beef with you. Even though you’ve been a bitch to your sister, I don’t think she’d ever have the heart to kill you. You did somethin’ that robbed me of time with Jace and almost made me lose the best thing that ever happened to me just because of some sick obsession. So, I think it should just be me and you that handle this situation, somethin’ I’ve wanted for a long time.” Shayla took all the guns out of their hiding places and threw them a little ways from her. Had that explosion knocked something loose in her head? She was a deceit fighter, but there was no telling what Casey was capable of now that she had embraced a darker side. Guns were Shayla’s best bet if she was going to win this.
“Don’t you think you should keep the guns?” I asked with uncertainty. Casey’s eyes were practically on fire with excitement.
“No, I wanna do this with my hands. Now I suggest you two get goin’ I know you’ve got Sim to get to, and Masey isn’t gonna want to see this.” I hesitated, not wanting to leave in case she needed me, but with the look she gave me, I knew she wasn’t going to allow that to happen. “GO!” she screamed at us. We tried to ignore the screams as we ran back down the passage, but it was almost impossible. We stopped when we made it to the spot we had split ways with the other group, gasping for air.
“I can’t believe one of them is gonna be dead … who do you think it’ll be?” Masey asked with a slight quiver in her voice.
“I don’t know, but I really don’t wanna think about it right now,” I replied. I wanted to have confidence that my best friend would come out on top of this fight, but in my gut, I didn’t think that was going to be the case. “Come on, we need to keep movin’ to find the others.” We ran down the new passage until we came to another split.
“This place is a maze, it’s impossible,” Masey screamed. I searched the dusty stone floor for traces of footsteps to indicate which way the others had taken but it was unclear.
“Let’s go this way,” I said and pulled her to the left. We ran around a few curves and found ourselves at the foot of a narrow staircase. “Stay close to me,” I told her as I started my way up. I pulled a knife out of one of the slits on my vest and gripped the handle so hard my knuckles turned white. At the top of the stairs, we entered a tomb. Countless skulls were plastered into the walls, staring at us. Their hollowed dark sockets showed us no mercy as we slowly explored the room. There were niches cut out and stacked on top of each other amongst the skulls. Inside the niches were bodies wrapped in a hard white film.
“This is beyond freaky. I thought this junk was only in places overseas,” Masey said.
“I’m beginning to think anything is possible in this world,” I said. We heard muffled grunts coming from a back corner. Once we got close enough to see the source of the noise, I realized we were staring at Sim with a cloth bag draped over his head. He was still tied to the chair, and the blood from the leg wound was beginning to dry on his jeans. “Sim!” I said as I rushed over to help him. I ripped the bag off his head and jerked the tape off his mouth, allowing him to spit out the old rag. He stretched his mouth several time and spit on the floor.
“That thing tasted like ass! How did you find me down here?” he asked as I sliced through his restraints.
“Derek told us where to come, and thanks to Shayla’s crazy ass grand-dad tellin’ her stories of this place, we found it. I think you should probably get out of here with your leg bein’ messed up like it is.”
“Hell no. I’m not leavin’ all y’all down here to fight them dicks when it’s because of my stupidness you’re here. I’m helpin’, gimp leg or not.”
“It’s your call,” I replied, ripping part of his shirt and tying it tightly around his leg. Soft whimpers caught my attention.
Sim placed a hand on my arm. “There’s someone else they’ve been holdin’,” he said. “You need to help her. She’s been here for a while.” I nodded and soundlessly followed the noise until I found another person shackled to the wall in the back, behind a dirty curtain.
“Hello?” She jerked back against the wall. Her damp hair stuck to the sides of her neck as she looked toward the ground. “I’m here to help.” I squatted in front of her and pushed her hair back away from her face.
“No one can help me now,” she said. Her voice was scratchy. She probably didn’t get much to drink here and from the looks of her skin stretched tight across her bones she didn’t get much food either. “You have to save my baby.”
“Your baby?” I asked, puzzled.
“Ollie … my little Ollie,” she replied, looking up at me with the same gray eyes that made me weak in the knees. My mouth dropped.
“You’re Steele’s mother?” No matter how much I wanted to hate this woman for leaving him, I couldn’t. She was broken.
“Yes. That hateful bastard knows he’s here. He saw him on the cameras.”
“Why would he want him?” My heart pounded in my ears. I had to stay focused.
“He needs his blood to regain his form. He wanted me, but when I was stripped of my witch powers, my blood was tainted. The only way to cleanse it is to inject pure royal blood into it. Since he’s gone dark, his was no good. That only left two people and one he can’t get to.”
“Who’s the other person?”
“You, sweet child. Nabea’s blood runs through your veins.” My suspicions were confirmed. My head was spinning.
“I don’t see how that’s possible.”
“After all you’ve seen, you can’t believe it? You’re in love with a witch’s son. Everything is possible, you should know that.” She paused before continuing, “He didn’t know I had a child. That’s why I left Ollie, to try to save him. Once he saw him, there was no denying it. His original plan was to lure you here using that boy over there. He didn’t know you were in love with someone else, until Casey told him about Ollie. Please go save him!”
“Get out of here while you can,” I told her. She nodded and I ran back to Sim and Masey.
“She gettin’ out of here?” Sim asked.
“Yeah. I don’t have a gun to give you, but I can give you one of my swords. Do you think you can make that work?”
“I’m sure I can. They went through that way straight in front of us. I’m pretty sure they didn’t think no one would find me in here, and they just planned to leave me to die. Let’s go show these fellows a good ‘ol southern ass kickin’.” Banged up or not they weren’t about to steal his fighting spirit.
“Damn right. Let’s go,” I replied, leading the way. We walked through the deathly silent passageway until I started hearing the faint cries of people fighting. I didn’t mean to run ahead of my two followers but the sound made me panic. I came out to an opening that took my breath away. I was standing in a huge circular room that reminded me of pictures I had seen in textbooks of old churches. Thousands of Angels and Demons were painted over the walls that were hundreds of feet high, coming to a point at the top. I walked to over to the stone rail that lined the balcony I was standing on. Below Steele, Jace, Payne, Lance, Savannah, Abby, and Raven were fighting for their lives against a countless number of Valks. “You two are gonna have to find another way down,” I told Sim and Masey as they walked up behind me.
“What about you?” Sim asked.
“I think I can manage to get down there. You two need to hurry if you want your chance at any of these things before I get down to them,” I replied, giving them a wink.
Sim shook his head and gave me a smirk. “Cocky ass, but I’m not gonna lie that’s hot as hell. C’mon, Masey I think I know another way.” The two of them disappeared. I looked to
the sides and found long, velvet material draped along the walls tied back with gold tassels.
“Here goes nothin’,” I said to myself. I ran, jumping on the rail of the balcony, bouncing off and grabbing the décor to ride it down close enough to the ground to jump off. I pulled two swords out of the sheath on my back while I walked over to the fight, twisting them around in the air a few times to work out my wrists, and stabbed the first Valk I came to. Not wasting anytime, I ran and jumped onto a table stretching my arms out and slicing two more Valk’s heads off.
“It’s about time you decided to join us,” Steele replied as I worked to help him manage the group surrounding him.
“I like to make an entrance, what can I say? It looks like you desperately needed my help though. You should’ve had this taken care of by the time I got here, Steele. What’s wrong with you? Move your ass, and let’s let these things know they’ve come to the wrong fuckin’ town.” It was hard to act like everything was normal. There was no way I could tell him what I knew. It would only distract him.
“Aight, aight. Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he replied as he snapped ones neck and threw it to the ground. I was about to drive my sword into one’s stomach when it started convulsing uncontrollably and fell to the ground. Masey stood behind it holding a gun equipped with lethal chemical filled bullets.
“Nice,” I told her. Sim was off to the side releasing his built up aggression on a handful that had him cornered.
“I see you found him,” Steele said.
I nodded. “On accident,” I replied.
“Where’s Shayla at?” Jace shouted. I didn’t know what to tell him at this point. Since my best friend had yet to make an appearance, things were looking grim. My mind wondered back to my visit in the graveyard. Was the Angel there to claim her?
“These things are multiplying,” Steele said. “Stay close so we can have each other’s back.”
“Steele, we need to get out of here,” I said.
“That’s not like you to give up on a fight and let the bad guy win.” I just don’t want him to hurt you.
“Please, just listen to me.” He nodded and started to fight our way to a side door. I knew Steele was at my back even though I couldn’t feel him. I heard his grunts and deep breaths as he worked his way through, slaying this mass array of creatures coming at us with all their brute force. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw several flying across the room. Puzzled at an over exertion of force I didn’t know he was capable of, I glanced back. To my horror, I found that he wasn’t fighting these things anymore, there standing before him was Derek. The two of them stood toe-to-toe, exchanging blows with their hands while their swords clanged together, each time making me wince with worry. That should be my fight, not Steele’s!
My attention was quickly shifted back to three Valks that had started to crowd me. They cowered back making me have to step toward them for my kill. I heard a deep throaty scream from Derek and glanced back to see Steele pulling his sword out of Derek’s shoulder. Two more Valks suddenly jumped down from one of the above arches, testing all the skills I had learned. That’s why I didn’t see him. Their plan to pull me away from Steele had worked and Wheeler was stalking his revenge without my knowing. My back was completely exposed. I didn’t see, but someone else did. The person that promised to sacrifice his life for me. I didn’t realize what happened until I heard Wheeler’s screech of pain as the dagger that Steele kept in his right leg sheath inserted deep into his neck, almost simultaneity I heard a sound come from Steele that I never wanted to hear. It wasn’t a scream, it was more like a gurgle. He wasn’t giving the satisfaction to his enemy of hearing him in pain.
“Gotcha …” Derek said.
He twisted the sword, driving it deeper, with a flick to the left making Steele give another slight grunt and then he slowly pulled it out of his mid-section. I didn’t care about what was in front of me at that moment. I needed to get to Steele. I turned my back on the Valks I was fighting, but they seemed to be more interested in what their leader was doing instead of chasing after me. Derek’s foot lifted and he kicked Steele in the chest making him fall backward, clutching his stomach. My arms wrapped around him before he could hit the floor. But with his weight, I had no choice but to go to the ground with him. I knelt on my knees, trying not to look at all the blood, instead a single black feather delicately floated through the air and landed on his chest. I picked it up and looked in front of us at the Angel of Death. I knew at that moment who he wanted. There was no hope, and these were going to be my last few moments with Steele.
“Please don’t leave me …” I sobbed while cradling his face. He was starting to pale. I pushed his blond hair that was matted with sweat back from his eyes. “I need you. I want you to stay with me.”
“I wanted to know you …” he choked out.
“You did know me, better than anyone ever has,” I replied.
“No … I wanted to know you outside of this. I could see myself gettin’ old and gray in your eyes. My future was there. You gave me hope that there was somethin’ other than this … you gave me love. You fixed a broken man.”
“Please … Ollie … don’t talk like this is it. I can’t go on without you. I love you so much.” I whispered.
“You never have to go on without me. I’ll always be here with you. It’ll just have to be in a different way. If I could change this I would. I’d follow you anywhere. Beat this, Reese, and live a life I wish I could’ve shared with you. I love you.” I leaned down and kissed his lips. It was the last time I would feel their softness against mine. It was the last time I would get to look into the gray eyes that saw deep into my soul. It was the last time I would hear him tell me he loved me. I pulled back as Ollie took his last breath and left me alone.
“Love is such a sweet thing, don’t you think, Talgon?” came Derek’s voice closer than I hoped to hear it. “I guess Sim wasn’t who she would do anything for.” I looked up to find him and Wheeler standing over me. He ran the sword used to kill Steele against a small gold bottle with odd markings all over it, making some of his blood drip into it. The markings started glowing. I wanted to get up and fight him, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to leave Ollie’s body. I had no fight left in me.
“Finally!” Derek said. He drank from the bottle and gave it to Wheeler, who did the same. “What darkness only sees, let the world behold thou true form!” The skinny pale boy I knew started to melt away. I was left staring at the man that fought throughout my dreams. Wheeler turned into the hideous beast I saw save Dermetheus in the dream.
“Dermetheus …” I mumbled quietly.
“Yes … that is the name you humans will forever fear. Now, what to do with you my sweet little nemesis?” Dermetheus asked. He raised his sword still covered in Ollie’s blood to my throat. I could feel the tip pressing in. I pushed toward it, making it dig deeper. The warm blood started to run down my neck.
“Kill me,” I said hoarsely. I had nothing left to live for at this point. How was I to go on without him? He showed me love in a way I never thought possible and this was the only way to be with him forever.
“What?” he asked, looking at me confused.
“Please … kill me,” I replied a little louder. His sword pulled away.
“What to do? What to do?” he asked as he paced in front of me with his hand on his chin. “On one hand, I know if I let you live you’re going to keep trying to stop me, but … on the other hand, you did provide me with the last ingredient to my remedy to get rid of the hideous human body I’ve been forced to be in. Hmmm, it’s a hard decision for me to make. Maybe I should let you live to face this agonizing pain you’re going through right now. Death would almost be too kind for me to give you at this point. So, I think that’s what I’ll do!”
He turned away from me and I my eyes fell back down to Steele. “On second thought, kill her.” My eyes shot back up. “I don’t feel like playing with her anymore. She isn’t worthy of my sword so
Talgon, you do it, and use that disgusting piece of filth’s sword,” he said, pointing down at Ollie’s sword that lay a few feet from them. Talgon picked up the sword and walked over to me.
A sword being pushed into your chest is an indescribable feeling. The wound felt ice cold, but as I watched him pull it out covered in red, a burning sensation shot over my entire body. As I fell back going to the ground, I saw Shayla running toward me.
“No!” she screamed. Her voice sounded like it was getting farther and farther away from me. All I could hear was the sound of my heart beating. Thump…thump……thump…………thump……… It sang me to sleep as it came less frequent, a sleep that I would never wake up from.
THEIR VOICES WERE MUFFLED at first. I struggled to make out their words because it sounded like they were so far away from me. I opened my eyes to find a brightly lit solid white room with only the bed I was laying in, a mirror hanging on the wall, and an old dingy metal chair in the corner. It felt cold and instantly I knew something wasn’t right. I directed my attention to finding the source of these voices. Maybe someone could tell me where I was.
Sitting up, I noticed a large window in the middle of the wall south of my bed. I carefully and very slowly eased myself out of the bed and went to the window, thinking my body would be stiff. From the looks of the slight dip the mattress held, I had been lying there for quite some time. However, I had never felt better. I stretched anyway and then cautiously peered through the glass to find another room, one that had a window overseeing the outside to my right. It looked like a normal hospital room with cheesy paintings on the walls and a shelf full of an array of vibrant colorful flowers. Suddenly the voices became abruptly louder, startling me. I took a few steps back.
“Why isn’t she movin’? Her wounds have been healed but she just sits there starin’ out that window all day long. This has been goin’ on for months now,” Fuzz screamed as he came into view. This was the first time I had ever seen him look aged. Worry had creased his dark face in lines that were turned inward with anger.
Reckoning Page 21
