The Gabrielle Series Boxed Set

by Zachary Chopchinski

  Those vile, crimson eyes peering through that long, silken hair, all underlined with the atrocious grin that always seemed to live on his face. Arawn stood proud, looking from the photograph as though he were looking for Gabrielle.

  So, from then on, the planning had gone into overdrive. Gabrielle spent hours deep in books and documents. She read old papers, maps, spoke with veterans and members of the armed forces, and eventually found that she needed something more to get a firm grasp on a solid plan. It was at that point that she began to use people she had known for years. Individuals that played a significant role in not only her salvation once upon a time, but that of countless others. She made sure to amp up her self-defense and weapons training with Alexandra. Then, the day came. The day when Gabrielle knew that Elizabeth’s body, now in its late 80s, couldn’t push anymore. As she lay in bed one morning, telling Alexandra a story about a lost love with lavender eyes, she slowly took the bracelet off her wrist and handed it to the woman she’d raised.

  “Put this on, my dear one. My life has been magical, but it’s now time I rest. I love you, Alexandra. Thank you for giving me the life I’ve always wanted.” And with that Alexandra put on the bracelet and Gabrielle’s world changed once again.

  ***

  A pang of anger and realization snapped her from her concentration. The time was now; live or die, she had to take as many of these things down with her. This had become her driving mantra in this war. She was able to push the fear aside and never stop as long as she told herself that the end didn't matter. All that mattered was making Arawn pay for everything he had done.

  The creatures were less than fifty feet from Gabrielle when she decided on her next move. She took a hop-step and threw the flare at the advancing army of monsters. The orange flare rolled over and over through the air until it collided with the face of the large Sluagh that led the pack. For a second, she swore she heard the searing meat of the monster’s face as the flare buried into the sluagh’s eye.

  The creature screamed in pain, and Gabrielle responded in kind with a final rebel yell. She ran full speed toward the shambling mass. She pulled a small knife from her vest and situated it in her free hand. With the gun out in front of her and a firm press on the trigger, her final charge began.

  Bullets shredded through the first creature in line, then the next, then the next as she closed the gap between them. This was her moment. If hell waited for her on the other side, she would be ready to show the devil what pain and loss was.

  The bodies of the dead didn’t slow the rest of the monsters as they stumbled and clamored over their fallen brethren to get to her. She’d closed the gap between herself and them, and a thought crept into her head.

  “If you're going to die, die with your boots on…” A small smile tried to creep across her face as she welcomed whatever came next.

  Another explosion shot overhead, this time filling the alley with bright light. This explosion seemed to happen right above her. As the flash of light peaked, the world around Gabrielle rumbled, and all of the air was sucked from her lungs. The light grew brighter and brighter until she was blinded by it and deafened by the rumble.

  At that moment, the world disappeared.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Papa, I do not know why she ran off…” a familiar voice spoke from the distance. Gabrielle thought she was dead, but no, this was something else.

  “She must have said something, Fausto! She is a smart girl. Gabrielle would never have run off like that in the middle of a battle!” another man spoke, his voice aged and stressed yet calm in chaos.

  Gabrielle had met Fausto a few months ago while planning her attack on Arawn. Fausto was a young Italian man with what some would describe as dashing good looks, not by her own words, Fausto was always glad to tell you that himself. With jet black hair and smooth, olive skin, he was a very self-assured man. When his head swelled too much, Gabrielle would poke at his thick Italian accent as that seemed to be the only thing to keep him from going on about himself.

  If Fausto was here, then the older man had to be his father, Giovanni. Gianni, as he preferred to be called, was very wise and extraordinarily well disciplined. In spite of his age, he too had jet black hair and was the spitting image of Fausto in twenty or so years.

  “I swear! She said something about a dog with red eyes and was off down another street when we hit fire. It’s not like her to run from a fight. By the time I found her, she was lucky the explosion didn't kill her!” Fausto replied.

  “You make no sense, Ragazzo! Non hai completato quello che ti è stato chiesto!” Gianni often yelled in Italian when he was frustrated, and lately, the bracelet had not been functioning properly. Sometimes it worked like she’d known it to for the last hundred years and other times it seemed to be running out of magic. Like a sputtering car running out of gas, it would flicker, and sometimes the magic would go out. Gabrielle didn’t know what this meant. Was her journey almost over or had she broken it somehow? Either way, she had no choice but to deal with it.

  “That is enough, the both of you!” The weighty voice of a woman ripped between their bickering. The dense, Russian accent immediately gave her away. Lyudmila. “Lady Death” as some they met had come to call her. Expert with her rifle, she’d claimed the lives of over three hundred enemy soldiers. One hundred eighty-seven of those kills were from a ten-week period alone. She was as deadly as she was beautiful. The thought caught Gabrielle by surprise, and her mind flickered to the only other woman she had found to be as beautiful. Morrigan. She forced the many faces of Morrigan out of her mind and focused on Lyudmila.

  Before the war, Lyudmila was a student at university, then the war started, and she found out she was a natural at claiming lives. She, too, had silky hair the color of coal, but unlike the other two, Lyudmila had flawless fair skin. Men were just as attracted to her as they were fearful of her. Gabrielle adored that about her. When she spoke, her words could either entice you to hours of conversation or escort you to your death.

  “She had her reasons. She has not abandoned her post before, this must have come from a place of reason. How are her wounds?” Lyudmila asked. Her footsteps echoing around Gabrielle.

  Slowly, Gabrielle began to regain her wits. The group was traveling through a small town when they were hit by enemy fire. In the chaos, she knew she’d seen a massive hound with red eyes circling Fausto, and in a split decision, she pursued the beast. That’s when she fell directly into Arawn’s trap.

  Her eyelids fluttered, and sunlight forced her to snap them shut again.

  “She’s waking!” Fausto yelled, sliding his hand under her head and trying to support her.

  “Careful, Fausto! She was hit in the head by that explosion. Give her a moment to come to herself,” Gianni snapped.

  Gabrielle coughed and drew a deep breath of fresh air. She kept her eyes closed for a moment. Still, the bright sun lit the darkness under her lids. A low groan escaped her lips as all the aches developed over her body. Whatever had happened, she knew she’d barely survived it. This could not have been the Sluagh.

  “Careful, Gabrielle.” Lyudmila crooned as she placed an unnaturally soft hand on Gabrielle’s shoulder. “You were in an explosion. A bomb detonated just over you causing the two buildings around you to crumble. Fausto found you just in time to keep a large wall from collapsing on you.

  “I…I’m…fine…” Gabrielle groaned, attempting to sit up only to fall back on her shoulders. Another hand slid under her to keep her from hitting her head on the hard ground.

  “Rest, child,” Giovanni soothed. “This battle has ended for now. There is no reason to get moving yet.”

  Gabrielle tried again to open her eyes and keep them open. She slightly raised her lids and slowly allowed the sun to fill her eyes.

  The four had taken shelter in a partially destroyed building with the majority of the roof missing. By the position of the sun, Gabrielle knew it was still early in the morning. Her three companion’s fa
ces oscillated between relief and concern as they looked at her. She grew frustrated as she attempted to survey her surroundings best she could, but between her soreness and her three caregivers, it was immensely difficult.

  “Let me up!” Gabrielle snapped, pushing the hands of her supporters away. They did not protest as they stepped back and gave her birth. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I’m OK. Really.”

  The bracelet was fast at work in its heightened state, and already she could feel her tenderness lessen. With another groan of pain, Gabrielle rolled herself on to her elbow, and then hoisted herself into a sitting position. Her head swam as she rose and she had to focus on not throwing up.

  Fausto leaned against what looked like it had once been a table with one foot up and a portion of his hair hanging in his face as if he were posing for a magazine. Typical.

  Gianni sat in a small chair just next to Gabrielle, clutching a rifle as if prepared for battle. He had seen the horrors of war before and had not lost his edge even in his old age.

  Lyudmila was perched atop a stack of old crates. She, too, tightly held a weapon. Her rifle was never out of sight. The sour look on her face contradicted the sweet person Gabrielle knew her to be. This was her warrior's face.

  Gabrielle looked around the tattered partial room and realized that they were in what was once a cafe. The roof was completely gone, and a large portion of the walls were either missing or severely damaged, but the bar and excess of tables and chairs gave it away. She listened for a moment for the sounds of combat in the distance. Nothing. They were safe. For now.

  A glimmer of light reflected off the bracelet that always encircled her wrist. Gabrielle looked down and let her eyes slide over the engraved words. The letters were faded, and the bangle itself was covered in battle scars, but Gabrielle knew underneath all of that was the Gaelic word for traveler. She’d been a traveler for most of her life, or what felt like most of her life, but this was going to be her last adventure. Once Gabrielle found Arawn and killed him, the other souls he’d enslaved would be able to pass into The Other World and could finally rest in peace.

  “What happened?” Gabrielle asked finally, wondering if she should stand or stay seated. A wave of vertigo came over her as she pushed herself off the ground before letting herself plop back onto the hard floor.

  “After we found you, we brought you here. We thought you were dead for sure when that bomb exploded over your head and the building fell. We almost didn't find you,” Gianni answered, a mixture of concern and parental frustration apparent in his voice.

  “You mean I barely found her in time!” Fausto interrupted, pride swelling in his chest. He loved being the hero when he could, and youthful arrogance always seemed to coincide with this attribute. Sometimes it was charming. Mostly, it was met with rolled eyes and scoffs from the others. Gianni fell silent and looked to his son.

  “Yes. You found her. Only I specifically asked for the two of you to stick together while Lyudmila and I broke wide and provided cover from above. Next thing we know, the both of you vanish. I think you owe the three of us an explanation Gabrielle,” Gianni’s voice grew in intensity.

  “You’re lucky we were able to break the scouting line to go look for you,” Lyudmila added. Though Gabrielle knew that the group helped, when Lyudmila said things like that in a plural sense, she almost always was referring to her rifle and herself and not the others on the team. Even when their team was nearly twenty strong, Lyudmila often just kept to herself and her rifle.

  “I’m sorry. Truly. I thought…well, I thought I saw some…” Gabrielle paused for a moment, knowing she couldn’t really tell them what was happening. Not unless she wanted what happened to Sam and the others on the farm to happen to them.

  “…scouts. In the light from the explosions, I thought I could see more sneaking around us. So, I tried to catch them. In the dark, I lost my way and ended up in the alley.” Gabrielle looked at her feet. She didn’t have to fake the guilt she felt. She could have easily gotten the rest of the team killed.

  “It’s lucky for you that you were so noisy in your attempt to sneak up on the scouts! I could hear the shooting blocks away. That’s how I was able to track you. Only it felt like no matter how fast I moved, I was always a street behind you,” Fausto interjected. He always had a way of changing the focus of the discussion when he wanted. With Fausto in such hurry to catch up, he must have missed any corpses that she left in her wake.

  “It was also fortuitous in timing. Soon after Fausto found you and signaled the two of us, an aerial bombardment started on the town. Most of the structures were reduced to rubble. That is why we had to bring you here. We barely survived the blasts. In a way, looking for you is what allowed us to move and ultimately saved us,” Lyudmila chimed in.

  Though it was absolutely terrible to admit it, if the town was nearly destroyed by explosions, the remnants of the monsters would be gone too. If anyone were to come across them later, what was left would be unrecognizable. She looked at Gianni, who had softened his expression.

  With the group calming, she brought her focus back to the reason she was there in the first place. They only had a couple of days left to stop to Arawn, and the longer they sat in this demolished café, the more time they wasted. The rest of the group thought they were on their way to kill Hitler and put an end to the war, but Gabrielle knew that history couldn’t be changed. Everyone on the team would die, but it would all be worth it if Gabrielle could kill Arawn and save their souls in the process.

  Soon, they would all be in the fight of their lives. The entire group knew it, yet they viciously fought to get to it. War does strange things to people. With a deep breath, Gabrielle hoisted herself to her feet, wobbling when she rose. She brushed her legs free of soot and straightened her brown leather jacket.

  “When do we move out?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  When she first met Fausto and the others, Gabrielle had been living as Elizabeth. It had taken her some time to find a group who was serious about getting close to Hitler to kill him. Of course, talk of killing the maniac was a buzz throughout Germany, but few were bold enough to actually want to try it. Gabrielle didn’t blame them; it was a scary time in history. She had searched tirelessly through news articles before she came across the one word that would change everything.

  “Arditi”

  Possibly some of the best warriors from World War I, the Arditi were Italian soldiers that were as fierce as they were cunning. These soldiers could look death in the face and death himself would run screaming. They ran directly into the mouth of the beast with a smile on their faces and a cigarette in their mouths. When Gabrielle first learned of the Arditi, she knew there had to be some survivors left to take up her cause.

  Eventually, she learned of a small group of men and their sons that were driven to go directly after Hitler themselves. With their skills, abilities, and intelligence they were certain to be successful. While she was still in Elizabeth’s body, she made sure to meet these brave men and tell them of her wonderful daughter who would be joining their cause.

  When the day came that she passed the bracelet, and her spirit, down to Alexandra, she went directly to them and joined the ranks. The road to tracking down a dictator being somehow helped by the god of the underworld was a lot bumpier than Gabrielle could have imagined. Over the last couple of months, the Arditi had been reduced from over twenty fierce soldiers, down to just four.

  As they fought in some of the most adverse and savage battles, heading directly toward the heart of death and madness, father and son fell time and time again. The more men that perished, the stronger the remaining became and the closer the group got to their goal.

  ***

  The sun hung high above the foursome as they marched down a tree-lined country road. The aches from the previous night were nearly all but forgotten as the bracelet performed its magic and kept Gabrielle in the fight. It was a strange sensation. The closer she came to Arawn, and t
he more she fought the monsters, the stronger the powers from the bracelet seemed to grow. It was as though it wanted to kill the god as much as she did.

  The group walked in silence as they kept their senses keen for signs of Germans around them. As the group rounded a bend, they all dropped to their knees. Lyudmila brought her rifle up and scanned the horizon for any signs of the enemy. With or without a scope, Lyudmila had the eyes of a true predator. Like a falcon in the sky, when she chose to take an enemy, there was little hope of escape.

  Giovanni and Fausto scoured their immediate surroundings for threats. A still target is an easy target for an aware enemy. One good shot or explosion could reduce the team to nothing.

  Gabrielle thought about her journey and how close it was to being over. She knew she had to fight, but the thought had entered her mind that she was currently living as Alexandra. There couldn’t be any other lives to be lived. What did that mean for her? What would happen once Arawn was dead? Either way, Gabrielle knew she couldn’t let herself die now when she was so close to ending this crazy journey.

  She forced herself to think of all of the faces of the people she had met and lost on this journey. Those that she had met, loved, and watched die all at the hands of a god that had no business with the powers he possessed. She had a purpose, and that was not just to live the tales of these lives, she had to avenge them. Gabrielle would avenge all of them.

  With a wave of her hand, Lyudmila signaled that the coast was clear, and the four rose and began to march once more. Lyudmila took point and led as they marched in their diamond pattern. Spending time with such fierce warriors in this life had given Gabrielle a much greater understanding of war tactics than she had ever wanted to know. Mortar fire had been an issue in these parts, according to Gianni, so they all marched with the expectation that their next step may send them diving for the nearest ditch.