The Gathering

by Fiore, L. A.

  Holy shit. Even I felt the power of the magic. “Is the city locked down?”

  “Yes. Get them out of here.” She turned and threw herself back into the fighting.

  Bain

  We stood in what remained of Bourbon Street. Ivy was trying to save those we’d lost. Her powers were back, powers that I’d never seen in all of my years. She wasn’t able to save some, and with each one she couldn’t, I felt the anger grow.

  “They wanted Aria,” she said.

  “They can’t have her,” Josiah hissed.

  “No, and they know they can’t touch her. What happened to Ellis and Aine?”

  “They fled.” Brock was shocked, pissed but unsettled seeing Aine fighting for the wrong side.

  “We’ll get her back,” Ivy said. “We’ll find a way to get her back.”

  “Is it over?” Josiah asked.

  “No, they were just testing the waters,” I said then added, “When they come at us for real, it will be more than Ellis’ creatures.”

  He paled, and I understood because what was coming was going to be legions of dark creatures. We didn’t have enough, even with Ivy having her powers back. We needed help.

  “I have to get to the mayor. He needs to get in front of this, needs to calm people down.” Josiah looked around, his expression changing slightly. “Considering what just happened, I would think there would be more chaos.”

  “Cinder’s taking care of that.” Ivy’s comment turned all of our heads. She actually smiled. “She’s Gluttony. She and her siblings are weaving their sin through the city, distracting humans from the ugly. Better for them and it weakens the one who’s coming.”

  “Wait, Cinder is Gluttony?” Brock looked betrayed for a second then shrugged his shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. Her éclairs are sin.”

  “Aria’s okay?” Josiah asked.

  “She and Dahlia are in the root cellar. They’re fine.”

  He exhaled in relief then said, “I’m going to the mayor. We’ll regroup at the house.”

  Josiah

  The mayor was on his third scotch. The man wasn’t making any sense, walking around his office ranting. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

  I’d never been in his home before. I was surprised by how opulent it was. How did he afford it? He ran on a campaign of rags to riches. I just didn’t realize how rich he was talking.

  “We need to calm the city down, sir. You have to do a press conference. These are your people. They need you right now.”

  “It can’t be stopped. He lied. Promised me riches, but he wants to destroy it all. Look at my city!”

  “What can’t be stopped?”

  “He’s coming.”

  I pulled my gun. Fuck. I walked right into the lion’s den. “Who’s coming?”

  There was terror in his eyes. “He wants it all. He won’t stop. He can’t be stopped.” He paled, his focus shifting to the windows. Even I felt it; something was coming, something really fucking dark. “It’s too late.”

  I heard the claws on the concrete. “They answer to a new master. They’ll come for you,” he warned.

  Rage erupted in me. My head jerked to the mayor. “You were the one behind the deaths? These are your people!”

  “Not anymore.” I hadn’t seen the gun. He didn’t turn it on me. He put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Creatures poured out of the house, running into the woods, but I heard some heading in my direction. In my last moments, my thoughts turned to Aria. She was safe; she would live through this, and she wouldn’t be alone. I thought of Dahlia, my heart twisting that I’d never see her again. The creatures were growing closer. I braced. I wasn’t getting out of this alive, but I’d take as many of those fuckers as I could.

  The door opened, I aimed. “Don’t shoot.”

  “Nick! What the hell?”

  He slammed the door and barred it with a chair.

  “That’s not going to hold them.”

  “We don’t need to hold them for long.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Cop intuition.”

  They hit the door; it bulged. The sound of their claws against the wood gave me the chills. “I’ll go high,” I said.

  “And I’ll go low.” He glanced over. “We’ve been here before.”

  “Our best chance is to pick them off as they enter. How’s your shot?” I asked.

  “Best in my class.”

  “Cocky, yeah, we can use a little of that right now. Nick?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t know the kind of supernatural being you are, but you’re a damn fine cop.”

  His head snapped to me. “You’re getting out of this.”

  “If I don’t, the city is going to need to rebuild again. You would make an excellent sheriff.”

  His hand fisted his gun, bright eyes turned back to the door. “There’s only one sheriff for this city.”

  The door gave, splintering into pieces. There were so many. As many as we killed, more appeared. The glass shattered behind us. They had distracted us, came up behind us, and trapped us in. I spun, even though I knew it was pointless. I didn’t fire because it wasn’t the creatures. It was Bain and his crew in their true form.

  “The good guys are here,” Nick shouted over the sounds of death.

  Bain’s crew took the creatures out in minutes. The largest of the group turned to me. Bain. He was at least nine feet tall. He shifted as he crossed the room.

  “It’s coming.” His focus was outside. He looked troubled or was it rage. I couldn’t tell. “We need to get back to the house.”

  39

  Ivy

  I released the spell on the house in the bayou. It wasn’t needed anymore, either we fought it back or life as we knew it ended. I looked around at those gathered, my family. It was time.

  “I need to unleash him to kill him.”

  Josiah’s head snapped to me. “But freeing him, we’re trying to stop that.”

  “We were only delaying it. I can’t hurt him in his realm; he needs to come into ours. He’ll be weaker and that will allow me to do what needs to be done.”

  “And what is that?” Jareth asked.

  He knew; I saw it in the tightness of his expression. “One cannot live without the other.”

  “Why you?” he demanded.

  “Earth is mine and only through me will he be vanquished.”

  “You knew?” Jareth demanded of Bain.

  He stood so still, but pain showed in every part of him. “Yes.”

  “There has to be another way.” Josiah was pacing. “There has to be.”

  “There isn’t. We came close once, but we weren’t strong enough then.”

  “During Tristan’s time?” Josiah asked.

  “Yes. The one who comes has wanted this world for a long time. He almost succeeded, but part of giving up my immortality was to bind him to New Orleans. Even if he breaks free, he and his minions can’t leave unless I release them.”

  “How do we know we’re strong enough now?”

  The words were just out of Josiah’s mouth when the humans appeared, flooding the bayou. You didn’t need to be supernatural to feel their emotions; fear, anger, rage, and devastation, but under all of that, was determination and strength. Some looked on us with incredulity, and others were terrified, but they were here. Regardless of their beliefs, they were here because we all had a common goal…survival. One among them stepped forward. It was Grace. She was petrified, her body shaking with her fear, but there was a resiliency about her too. “We’ve come to fight. We don’t understand what you are; we don’t understand what is happening, but we know we share a common threat. This is our city, and we want to help protect it.”

  My eyes found Josiah’s. “Because last time we didn’t have the humans.”

  We took the fight to them, standing on the outskirts of the most haunted place in New Orleans. If we won, this place would no longer carry that mark. I loo
ked around at the different beings all gathered to fight back evil. Man and mystic working together again. It was good; it was how it should be.

  They came from everywhere and not just Ellis’ creatures. Evil creatures of all kinds descended. There were so many. I felt the ripple of fear that washed through those gathered. We were seriously outnumbered.

  I stood with Bain on one side and Jareth on the other. Cyril was here too, his coven with him. There was anger in him, something he was going to need to work through, but first, he needed to see this done. Josiah was leading the humans. They were in the city, away from the worst of the fighting, but there was sure to be battles and death. It hurt to know they would pay the price for something they didn’t even know existed, but they were making the choice. It wasn’t being made for them. I glanced at Jareth, braced and ready for the fight, but under the warrior, there was pain. My eyes found Bain’s. Devastation stole over me that this was it for us, but it didn’t weaken me. It made me stronger because like he had once said...I was fighting for him. “I’ll look for you in the stars.”

  His hands fisted. “I will see you again.”

  Love was its own magic…I hoped so.

  Staring out at the legions who had answered the call of evil, it was time to balance the scales. “I could use that help now.”

  Lights shot down from the heavens and fire came up from the underworld. My mother appeared, her warriors behind her. Her sisters and brothers appeared, gods answering the call for humanity. My father stepped from a pillar of fire and with him was Darius, the devil…my brother, their legions of demons at their back.

  “Happy birthday, daughter,” my mother whispered.

  It was my birthday. Thirty-three was an important number. Dr. Nelson had been right. We shared a moment because we both knew it would be my last birthday.

  The four pieces of the symbol, it wasn’t my memories that would come back when they were put together. It represented love and life, and together, we were powerful, enough that it required an answering call from darkness. The spell was simple, the balance of life acting as the catalyst. “I release you.”

  The earth rumbled, the temperatures dropped, and from the darkness stepped a being.

  Bain

  “I’ll look for you in the stars.”

  Every part of me felt those words. All she’d been through, and this was how it ended for her. I’d give my life for hers in a heartbeat, but she was right. Earth was hers, the link was to her and only through her could it be broken. It went against everything I believed to watch her give the ultimate sacrifice. My hands curled into fists.

  “I will see you again.” Somehow, I would defy death. She and I were not over. We were only just beginning.

  “I could use that help now,” she whispered.

  The gods arrived, and with them the numbers to give us a fighting chance. There was more to Ivy’s plan. She hadn’t shared it with us, but I knew this was just a distraction until she finished what she started. A ripple went through the masses before the one who had haunted this world stepped from the darkness, and with him, the part of my past I couldn’t remember.

  Hades appeared at my side. “Your artifact. It’s a talisman, forged in the fires of the Sumerian temples.”

  Ivy’s head snapped to me when Hades added, “You weren’t born of a Sumerian god. You are one.”

  Looking into those purple eyes. They had claimed me from the very first glance. “I know.”

  “Bain?” she whispered.

  Love looked back at me. She had said she was drawn to this world. She was because even then she was mine. A voice carried across the field, a voice I now remembered.

  “Well, if it isn’t my brother.” Chaos moved through his legions. “I have waited for this day for a long, long time. You can imagine my surprise when I learned the one who had trapped me, the one who had taken that which I wanted, had given it all up…” He raked his gaze over Ivy, “…for a lesser being.” He taunted Ivy at her look of confusion. “You didn’t know? My brother, the god of creation, and he gave up his immorality, his divinity, lessened himself to become a weak human all for the love of a woman.”

  She wasn’t looking at my brother; her focus was only on me. “I don’t understand.”

  “Our time was coming to an end. My brother, the god of chaos, couldn’t accept that. He wanted this world. It wasn’t his to have. Then I saw you, the young goddess charged with protecting the world after we stepped down. If he ruled, you would have been forced to live in darkness. I sacrificed it all so that you could walk in the light. You were drawn here because I loved you even before I knew you.”

  I’d remember always how she looked at me in that moment because that was the kind of love worth breaking the rules for, worth sacrificing for, worth dying for.

  “And now you’ll both die,” Chaos taunted.

  “No, you will.” Ivy’s voice carried over the battlefield. “This place isn’t the one you tried to claim. You might be powerful, but there is too much good and love in this world. You don’t stand a chance.”

  She was right, and it was time to summon the others. I shifted. My howl shook the earth, and my pack dropped to their knees. Their alpha called, they would come.

  Ivy’s voice was just a whisper on the wind. “The ghosts of New Orleans I release you.”

  My head whipped to her, the power that she wore like a second skin as her plan unfolded. The ghosts were tethered to this world because a piece of them still lingered in Ellis’ creatures. Ghosts were powerful enough on their own, ones forced to linger would be unstoppable. Rolling in like a fog across the landscape, white shadows were absorbed into all of us. The power of their collective was incredible. Chaos felt it too. Some of his arrogance faded.

  Ellis appeared, Aine at his side, arrogant even now.

  They came on the wind, through the fields, up through the fairy rings. Not just the shifters, but other creatures of myth and lore, the ones who hid from human eyes, all gathering to protect their world. Ivy’s hounds flew down from the heavens and shifted at her side. Ellis’ smile died on his face.

  It was my turn to sneer. “For what you did to her you die first.”

  The world took a collective sigh, the air stilled, the hum of dark and light straining to battle and then all hell broke loose.

  Ellis had creatures around him, shielding him. I ripped through them, my sights only on him. He ran, fear for his life had him fleeing. He didn’t get far. My hand curled around his neck.

  “You picked the wrong side.” I squeezed until his neck snapped. Dropping his body, I sought Chaos. I needed to take the head off the snake. We circled each other.

  “I’m going to enjoy killing you,” he hissed.

  We charged one another. He raked his claws down my chest. I roared and sank my teeth into his neck, tearing at the flesh. He howled in pain and rage before he tossed me off of him. Even being outside of his realm, he was strong. He was a god. He attacked; I sank my claws into his chest and lifted him. Throwing himself backward, he linked his legs around my head and flipped us. The air was knocked from my lungs when I crashed to the ground. He pounced, stabbing me in the back, ripping his claws through my flesh.

  “You’re not strong enough to defeat me,” he hissed. “And I’ve had a millennia to ponder this moment, my revenge and your death.”

  He was right. I wasn’t strong enough, but I’d die trying. I flipped us and landed a solid punch to the side of his head then I charged.

  Josiah

  The streets of New Orleans had turned into a battlefield, in every street and every alley, pockets of fights between good and evil raged. Those of us unable to fight huddled together, behind overturned cars and smoldering buildings, seeking in vain for a means to escape, to find safety in a city that was no longer safe.

  I watched as death invaded our city, witnessed far too many fall, but they stayed, and they fought. Ivy had been right; humans deserved to know what else lived in the world with them. It made them str
onger; it made them connected.

  We managed to battle the first wave, but on the cusp of that, another descended. We wouldn’t win, we weren’t strong enough, but we were all prepared to die. And then they appeared, shimmering into existence. A legion of beings carrying rough-hewn sacks filled with arrows and wooden bows over their shoulders. They circled the humans, lifted their weapons as if commanded, and a sea of arrows pierced the creatures that surrounded us.

  “What are they?” Doris asked, her hand holding her gun as she shook, her eyes fearful but with a touch of hope that hadn’t been there only moments earlier.

  Nick answered, his voice almost reverent, “They never get involved, escaped into another realm ages ago.”

  “Yeah, but who are they?” Jasmine pressed.

  He looked over at her; a smile curved his lips. “The Elves.”

  Ivy

  I fought to get to Aine. She had betrayed us, but she wasn’t responsible. She would not become another victim of Ellis’. She spoke, but it was Ellis I heard in her words. “Soon demons will be able to come and go freely; no more will we be confined to hell. Our master is going to set us free.”

  “I know you’re in there, Aine. You are not lost.”

  “She’s gone,” the shell that was Aine replied.

  “No, she’s not. You don’t get to have her too.”

  “Soon, you will be dead, and my master will rule over this land.”

  “No, he won’t because he’s already lost.” I held her empty gaze. “I evoke my rite.”

  “What are you doing?” Aine pulled her weapon. She heard the sonic boom. “You opened the borders.” She grinned. “We can get out.”

  “And they can get in.”

  “Who?”

  The man in black appeared, carrying his umbrella. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.”