by Tara Brown
Tom swings the SUV around and slams on the gas.
"STOP!"
I turn my head as the car slows to a halt. A warm breeze wafts through the window, carrying with it food, garbage, and pollution. Mixed in with it there is something else. I'm over Michelle's lap and crawling for the door to the car. The smell has me by the nostrils. It drags me out.
I run, skipping steps and screaming as the wings shoot from my back. A child watches me as the huge white wings take up all the room in her eyes. I can see the reflection of them in her pupils as I run past.
I float up to a second-floor apartment, kicking the door in. A growl tears from my lips.
I don’t even know who I am anymore. My eyes scan the place, like an animal's would. I move through the dirty carpet in the front room where the TV is still playing. I see a pot on the stove, boiling rice. The warm air hits me again just as a creak interrupts my thoughts. I look to see a door swinging back and forth as the breeze plays with it.
I'm out the door, leaping and floating through the laundry-filled alley to where I see him. He is running as hard as he can, but the ugly sweater is a beacon.
I get above him. He looks back, screaming as I land on him, taking him to the ground. My sword flies through the air at me from Constantine who is out of breath and standing across from me. I pull it as I catch it and spin. The devil's head rolls down the dirty concrete, still wide-mouthed and mid-scream when it combusts into the pile of black feathers.
It joins the debris and floats down the road, scattering with the warm wind.
I stand there, trying to get my breath too. Constantine gives me a look, "That was different."
I almost smile, but I'm scared of myself and the other girls inside of me are silent. All except the first me. She is excited.
The rest of us are silent.
Wyatt comes to me, pulling the blade from my trembling hand, "It's okay, Rayne. Take a breath."
I do it. I breathe and try to calm down. My heart beats in a way I don’t think it ever has and my body vibrates. I can't taste any evil in the air.
Wyatt sniffs the wind, "Third time's a charm, babe. I don’t even smell a little."
I nod, "I know. I can't taste any of it." I turn around to see Stella standing, watching me. She has a disturbed look on her face, "You move like them."
I frown, "Like what?"
"The angels."
I don’t have a response for it. I don’t know if it’s a bad thing or not. Her eyes dart to Constantine. He shakes his head in twitches, "She is not like them. Her heart is human."
I almost tell him that with every one of them I kill, I feel my heart close off more, but I don’t. It would be the honest thing to do, but I have a bad feeling about it. I feel like I should keep it to myself.
The car ride back is awkward again. I always make it awkward. Wyatt and Stella seem stunned and Constantine seems confused. Mona and Michelle ask about the kill, but I just shrug and say, "He's dead."
We get onto the plane, and when it takes off, I'm not afraid.
That makes me worried.
We land in Karachi, and for the first time, I feel like I’m invincible. There is almost no feeling at all except unwavering confidence.
"You’re being quiet."
I look over at Mona and smile, "I feel a little weird. I'm scared." It is the truth; I know I should be scared, even if I can't reach the feeling."
She nods, "Me too."
The small airport smells like Indian food and spices. I like it. It makes me want to eat real food. I like it when I feel normal. Willow always cooked with tons of Indian spices. She was a huge fan of spices and herbs… obviously. Her name feels funny in my mind. She isn’t important to the others. Only me. Willow. It's a name I haven’t thought of for days. I don’t know what to make of that. Am I forgetting her? Are they winning the battle for my mind and heart?
That gets added to the list of things that scare me, even if I don’t feel scared.
We drive around in the car with Tom and Wyatt doing their thing. I can feel the heaviness of my eyes. I can't fight it. I hear them shouting at me as the dead take me.
The dream is a mess. Hooves beat the ground around me in a dark room. The dust dances in the dim light.
I don’t move. I turtle as they ride around me in a circle, like a cowboy would. Their voices are creepy and crackle like they are smokers. “Free us, Rayne. Free us from the depths and let us fix it. Open the seven seals."
I shake my head and suddenly the dark is gone. I'm standing in the garden at the house inside of the picture where Willow secretly went to meet Wyatt's uncle. Willow is standing next to a bush, picking the flowers off of it. She looks up, smiling softly, "The petals make a calming tea. You can use it to help women get pregnant too."
I look around the garden, noting the clouds are actually painted. The flowers are like paint chips. Willow smiles, "We made a big mistake, Nene." She turns and blows the paint chip petals at me. I jump back and shoot awake. The room I'm in is dark, and I don’t know if it's part of the dream or not. I look around, trying to get my bearings. No one else is in the room. I'm on a bed and it looks like a hotel, maybe. I can smell the Indian food and I'm sweating. I think it's real. I get up off the bed, wondering where the dead took me. I remember some of it. I remember Willow's picture.
"Wyatt?"
I hear rustling from the corner where I see someone sitting. It's Constantine, "Why his name first? Why not mine?"
I bite my lip, "I don’t know. I just feel like I know him better."
He gets up and walks to me, pushing me back onto the bed. I sit up, "I don’t want to do this. It doesn’t feel right, I told you."
He climbs on top of me, biting down on my throat. I feel him pull blood from my veins. I scream but Stella is there suddenly. Her lips crush mine in a kiss that makes me uncomfortable. We have never kissed before. They hold me down, kissing and sucking and muffling my screams.
"RAYNE!"
I sit up, breathing heavily, lifting my hands to my throat, but there is no wetness. I have not been bitten, and I don’t know why I think I might have. I assume it was the dream I don’t remember. I look around at the room, shaking my head. It is a hotel room that I swear I have been in before, but that is impossible.
It's light out and when I look back to the left, Constantine stands over me, looking worried. I flinch when he reaches for me. He looks hurt, "What was that dream? You were screaming suddenly and then you were awake."
I shake my head, "I don’t know."
It's true. I don’t know. I never do. But I suspect that he hurt me in my dream. I still feel his fangs in my neck for some reason. I just don’t want to tell him. I climb off the bed, "Where are we?" My stomach rumbles.
"Karachi, we never got to leave. We found him. Wyatt is there now, watching him. We need to go there." He holds a hand out for me, but I walk past him.
He grabs my arms, "What was the dream?" I shake my head. He shakes me a little, “Tell me.”
"I don’t know, but I think you bit me.”
He shakes me again, "I would never do that to you. Why do you believe them? The dead lie, Rayne. They always have."
"I don’t know." I have to assume this is an old fight. I can't find it in my memories, but he looks hurt like it's an old wound. The girls inside of me are silent.
Tom drives us to the place where Wyatt waits with Stella. "Where are Michelle and Mona?"
"The jet. This city is too dangerous for them. Mona was nearly assaulted."
I gasp, "What? How long was I sleeping?"
He gives me a confused look, "Three days. We thought you had slipped away, to the dreamland maybe."
"What about Mona?"
He shrugs, "Stella ate her attacker before he had a chance to get very far with it. Mona was very upset, naturally, and chose to stay on the jet. Once you have done away with our friend, we will be leaving too. The temples in India and Pakistan are under attack. We can't stay long. The world has erupted in religious wars,
only the old countries though. America, Canada, and even Britain are safe. But China, Pakistan, India, Tibet, Italy, France, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and a bunch more are at war. War within their countries. It is not country versus country; it is within their borders. War against themselves and their beliefs."
My brow knits together, "I just don’t understand."
He shakes his head, "None of us do. Even the Van Helsings are at a loss."
Tom parks the car and I smell it instantly. I can taste it in the air. I get out of the car, walking quickly to it, like Toucan Sam following the smell of the delicious cereal. I look around when I lose the smell. A black feather floats past me. I scowl as I see another. I break into a run to see Wyatt and Stella standing surrounded by feathers.
"What did you do?"
Wyatt looks at me from a dark scowl, "What I had to. He tried to flee. He got a phone call and fled."
I look at Constantine, "Does this change things?"
He shakes his head, "I don’t know. Does it?"
Wyatt swallows hard, "I don’t think so."
I bite my lip, "His evil leaked out a bit. I tasted it in the air."
Wyatt nods, not saying anything. I feel like screaming. What if the evil is back and I am responsible for it.
Constantine shrugs, "His kind are the ones who send you to the depths of hell each time; I would imagine he is able to send a devil there too."
Wyatt's eyes meet mine, "I'm sorry."
I nod. He rarely says sorry, unless it’s about the incident but he hates talking about that. A smile finds its way onto my face, "It's not like the world is going to end from it."
Wyatt laughs, tossing my sword at me. I holster it, dripping blood and all, and turn and walk back to the car.
Four
The last devil is easy to find. They all were really. The witches had tracked them, Constantine and his team had located them to exact places, and Wyatt smelled them down like a hound. It is not the effort we assumed it would be. It is the only time it has ever been easy. The combination of earth witches, Constantine, technology, and a Van Helsing has never been used before though.
When we find him, the last devil reeks of destruction and evil. We chase him in an SUV. He doesn’t realize we are the ones following him through the streets of Capetown. He’s in the backseat of a car that is driving around Capetown. The men in the front seat are firing on crowds of people, with AK-47's. When the car stops, the devil stays behind, like he is sucking the evil from the car before he gets out and walks down the alleyway.
Constantine wraps his arm around me to mask the smell of me. We follow the devil until the crowd thins. Then I sprint, jumping onto a barrel on the side of the road, unsheathing my sword at the same moment my wings tear from my back. He doesn’t even get a chance to turn as the sword separates his head from his body. He crumples to the ground and becomes a pile of black feathers.
I turn to face Wyatt and Constantine but a wind comes up the alley before I can get a word out. My triumphant smile fades when I can't see past the dust blowing and mixing with the feathers. My feet slide along the cement from the wind pulling me to the funnel that has formed. I step back, trying to get out of the way as the feathers suck up into the air where they're released and become black raindrops.
My body is slammed into the building next to me. Wyatt shakes his head, "We gotta go now." I shudder from the pain and nausea, “We are getting handfasted again. This is bad.”
He smiles and turns, running down the alley. I jump, still holding his hand and lift us into the air with my wings. They flap like a bird's would. I don’t know how I feel about that, but as the black raindrops chase us, one lands on my wing. I wince as it burns. We land at the car. We don’t talk, we get in and Tom drives, fast. Stella, Mona, and Michelle are waiting for us on the jet; it's ready to go.
When we take off, I watch from the window as dark clouds cover the city.
"This is bad," Mona mutters.
I nod, "It doesn’t seem to be working, me killing the devils." My eyes seek out Constantine's. His face is stoic, but I can see the fears wandering about in his eyes. He offers me a smile but I shake my head and from somewhere hear Willow say the words, "We have made a big mistake, Nene." I don’t even miss her calling me Nene. That is a bad sign.
We fly to Britain, landing on a small airstrip outside of London. Constantine hurries to the car waiting for us that he called for. Tom jumps in the driver's seat. We all get in quickly. Tom speeds to the small castle that I recall the second we arrive. My heart skips a beat for the first time in days and Ellie softly weeps inside of my mind.
Stella looks at Constantine with her blue daggers, "You invited the Van Helsings to our home?"
Wyatt nods, "We need to talk to them. They don’t stand a chance against Rayne now. The devils are dead. None of this was the prophecy. They feel betrayed by God too."
Constantine keeps the stoic look going, ignoring both Wyatt and his sister.
I look out the window of the SUV as Tom parks the car.
Wyatt looks at the rain, “We need to stay out of this rain. Everyone hurry.”
We all run inside. I suddenly realize I have my sword in my hand and am face to face with Wyatt's evil mother Gretel and his ex-fiancé Sarah, in the foyer of the large estate. I don’t even recall pulling it.
Gretel laughs. I glare at her.
She shakes her head, "You think I can't hurt you, sin eater? You think I need the sin to weaken you? I can kill you just fine the way you are."
I flex my back, shooting my wings out of my back and ruining, yet again, another shirt. Her eyes widen, "No. It's not possible."
I point my sword at her, "Still feeling confident in your original statement?"
Her face is as pale as my shimmering wings. Sarah stares at them in awe, "So pretty."
Gretel looks at Wyatt, "What did you do to her? Why would you help her this way? How did she become an angel? The world is falling apart and you are to blame for betraying us and helping her."
I can almost feel his anger in the room. His body is completely tight and his voice is eerily soft when he speaks. "Want to tell me about my father, Mother?" He says her name like it is poisonous to his tongue.
Her lips tighten.
He laughs bitterly. I can almost feel the wounds inside of him. "I think not. Don’t you dare tell me any of this is mine or hers. This one is you, you and all the old ones. You people are disturbing. The length you have gone to live by the oaths we swore, and yet, you are nothing but a hypocrite."
She looks defeated. The mention of his father has pulled away her anger and made her small and weak looking. The others inside of me scoff at that notion and remind me not to be fooled by it. I still watch her, but lower my sword, pulling my wings back in, using the mental distraction and relaxation Wyatt taught me. I just wish he could touch me or kiss me without it burning and making me nauseated. I have a longing to soothe him; it’s odd since I don’t seem to feel anything else.
Stella walks in front of me, looking down on Gretel and Sarah. They both grow wide-eyed. Gretel tries to mask her fear of Stella with a smug smile, "How have you been?"
Stella nods, "Excellent. Seeing the sin eater destroy everything you have banked on has been delightful."
Gretel swallows hard. Constantine pushes his way between us all, "Ladies, ladies. Please. You are all welcome guests. We have matters far more important than this to attend to."
Gretel gives me a sneer. God, I want to feel my hate for her. I know it's in there. She drives me insane. Sarah can't stop looking at Wyatt and then me. Her eyes dart back and forth.
Wyatt steps in front of me completely, "We have something bigger than any war between our kinds. The black rains came, Mother."
Her eyes grow pained and shocked simultaneously as words leave her lips softly, "Then the Red Horse is also upon us."
The Red Horse
“When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creatur
e say, "Come and see!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.”
Revelations.
One
The fire is lit and we are huddled around it for heat. The castle is drafty, just as I recall it being. Maria won't stop hugging me, and crying. Regardless of being a vampire's servitor, she is very Catholic. Her desperation and despair at the loss of her religion weighs heavily on her. I wish I had a way of helping her, but I have nothing.
"You have wings now, Miss Ellie. You are the hand of God. You must give me last rights, in case I die. I cannot go to hell for being a servitor."
I kiss her forehead and hug her, "I don’t even know what the words are. I'm not Catholic."
She cries and shakes her head until Constantine comes to her. He tilts her face, so her eyes meet his, "You will not be afraid of the events that are taking place. You will be loyal and strong."
Maria releases me. She smiles, "Would anyone like tea?"
I frown but Michelle nods, "Can I have some liquor in mine?"
Wyatt nods, "Me too."
Mona raises a hand from the sofa, "Here as well."
I roll my eyes and look at Gretel, "I need you to explain it one more time."
She sighs, pacing in front of the massive hearth, "The four horsemen of the apocalypse have long been believed to be a lie. A rumor. A myth. Recent events have obviously proven that wrong. The first rider is conquest and strife. According to legend, he looks exactly as the witness claimed him to be in Jerusalem. Riding a white horse, wearing a crown and carrying a bow. The second rider brings war. Where the first caused nations to segregate themselves, the next horse brings war, nations against each other. The red horse is the destruction of civilization by fire. We are assuming that in modern times that would be bombs."
"What about the other two?" Mona asks.
Gretel shakes her head, "Let's cross that bridge when we get there. If we can find them, we can kill them and maybe the next two won’t come. They come in order, and they wait for the horseman before them to finish his task before they come."
