After what must’ve been a five-minute ride down, the doors opened into a great, white room, where a group of three people stood, wearing robes that had a giant red cross on their chest. A woman, and two men. All three of them older than sixty. And all, clearly, completely crazy.
“Gabriel,” the woman spoke, giving me a wrinkled smile as my guards and I stepped out of the elevator. The room we stood in was a sitting room of sorts, like an updated church, with an altar deeper in and hundreds of pews. I couldn’t imagine what the rest of the vault looked like. Must’ve taken ages to dig out and build. “We were worried you wouldn’t make it after Michael’s mistake.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” I made sure to reply snippy, like I couldn’t be bothered with replying. Like I was better than dealing with the humans before me.
“Yes, you are,” the Knight Commander—a Councilwoman, the Councilwoman, though I forgot her name—spoke as she looked me up and down. “And without the others. Where are they?”
I sensed the weight of her question. “They don’t know I’m here.”
“It won’t matter if they do or not. Not after the team is done with them.” She tilted her head, her hair almost fully grey, her eyes a beady brown. “Does it bother you, knowing you won’t be there to save them?”
Crixis was there; he’d take care of them.
I said, “No. Because they’d die in the Hellfire anyway.”
“Ah, so you’ve come to aid us in cleansing the world?” Her spirits brightened, having not seen through my lie. “Very good. I was worried we would have to use leverage against you. Your purifier friends, for example.”
I grew tired of this. My infernal presence gripped the entire room; the guards, the Knight Commander, the other Order members behind her, and anyone else who stepped into the room. They could not run, they could not fight. An eerie sense of calm washed over them, forced by my hand.
So much for not compelling them, but she didn’t give me a choice. She was only wasting time.
“Do you have prisoners here?” I asked, stepping closer to her.
“Yes,” she answered. “We have the Purifiers contained. And Amelia Bennet.”
“And why would you need them?”
“They were chosen to help humanity multiply after the Hellfire stops, and we brought Amelia here to lure Elizabeth.”
Right. Procreation. Sick freaks.
My eyes glanced to the altar. “Release them. Send them up and gather everyone. Every member of the Order should bear witness to—” I paused. “—my power.” Yes, that was a very Crixis-like thing to say. Had to be something the Devil would say, right?
There were no arguments. They couldn’t argue with me or my compulsion. Some of the guards filed away to release the prisoners, and the Knight Commander made an announcement on the loudspeakers, calling everyone to the chapel. And be sure to wear your robes, she added as I made my way to the altar.
Pure, white. I ran my hands along it, noticing for the first time my markings were back. The thin, intricate swirls of tattoos that graced my entire body. They pulsated and grew, an angelic creed I never heard but subconsciously knew.
Teenagers started filling up the single elevator, corralled and confused. Only twenty could squeeze at once, and it took a few trips to get them all up, including Liz’s sister. As their numbers dwindled, Order members began to arrive, sitting in the pews before me. The very instant they entered the oblong room, my will encased them. Their mumbling ceased and their fidgeting stopped.
I had them.
Standing, leaning on the ivory altar, I realized there were no crosses in the room. No statues of Jesus. For being such fans of Christianity, the Order was a little odd. But maybe that was because they planned on worshipping me—or whatever being could grant their apocalyptic wish.
After a while, when the majority of the pews were packed full of people wearing white robes with red crosses, when the Purifiers and Amelia were safely out, I spoke, “You come here, needing me, because the world is full of sinners. You say the only way to cleanse the world is to begin anew. You have all committed terrible deeds in the name of God.” My eyes surveyed the room.
Every pair of eyes was rapt; they could not get up, could not look away from me even if they wanted to.
“I disagree.” I glanced my skin, at the tattoo, the creed, words written so small, in such an ancient and flowing language they look like lines. “As does God. Humanity has freewill. They are meant to make mistakes, they are born to sin. We welcome them with open arms if they repent. To rid the world of sin would be to rid the world of freewill, and that is something I will not do.”
A light rose behind me, and I knew, without looking, the light was my wings taking shape. Not the ever-growing dark things the Devil had, but pure white, clean, feathery wings that inspired both awe and fear.
“You are the sinners,” I said, exhaling slowly. “You would cause undue pain and never repent. The world does not need you, or your cause, or your Order. The Templars were told to cease and desist centuries ago; you went against that order.”
A knowing voice whispered in my ear, Show them the light.
“You cannot be allowed to continue. I see in your hearts you won’t stop,” I spoke directly to the three before me, the Knight Commander, and her two generals. They were the Council; they were the reason for everything. “Now, it is time. May Purgatory take you, and may you all seek forgiveness for what you have done.”
My head bent back, and the light that grew behind me, my wings, flapped once. My visions turned white, and I felt warm and calm. The entire room faded away to nothing, those people inside it taken where they could either repent or deny their sins. I took them all, even the secretary upstairs. I took every Order member I could find on the globe, even the ones who crept to the house where Kass and the others were. The Order could not be allowed to continue.
Kass, my beautiful, beloved, rash love. She’d be fine without me. She was strong. She could survive this and anything the world threw at her. It would take time, but she’d get over my loss. She’d have her hands full in nine months.
As the light took me last, I smiled, even as tears ran down my cheeks.
So this was peace.
Chapter Twenty-Six - Kass
Wow. So that was it, huh? My groggy mind couldn’t even put two and two together. I knew we did it more than once—and also more than once, I wondered if we should’ve been more careful—but I just couldn’t stop him. I didn’t want to. I was fully, totally in the moment, because everything had led to it. I couldn’t help but feel like it was the penultimate moment in my entire life.
When I was finally sure my voice wouldn’t crack, I muttered, “I love you.” When he didn’t respond, I turned, reaching for him. I didn’t feel his heat on my back; he wasn’t spooning me like he always did when we slept in the same bed. My hand landed on an empty pillow.
I didn’t feel his heat because he wasn’t there.
He wasn’t here.
What the heck? Where was he? The stupid boy.
Angry, I threw the covers off me, hurrying to get dressed. I was so mad I nearly ran out into the hall naked. Yeah, I didn’t think Max, Liz or Crixis needed to see any of that. Then again, after this stunt, Gabriel didn’t deserve to see me naked, either.
Quickly zipping up my boots, I stormed out. I looked in the bathroom and found nothing. I went down the stairs, aware I was probably waking everyone up, but I didn’t care. Where the heck was that boy? As I looked in the kitchen, I failed to notice the front door was open.
Crixis walked in, a confused expression on his face. His hands held…clothes? Black clothes with a little red X of a cross on them. His hazel stare rose to me, and he instantly looked troubled.
I could’ve asked about the clothes—if we were going to be attacked, if he stopped them and, weirdly, stripped them before killing them—but I only had one thing on my mind: Gabriel. “Where is Gabriel?” I asked. “Do you hear him in the attic room?”
>
“He’s not here,” Crixis stated slowly, dropping the clothes on the couch, staring at them for such a long time, it made my stomach clench.
What was going on here?
“What do you mean, he’s not here?” I repeated. “Where’d he go?” I shoved him. “You were supposed to watch!” I was yelling, I was yelling and it wasn’t even dawn yet. I didn’t care about waking the neighbors. I had to find Gabriel.
“I was supposed to watch for the Order, not stop your boyfriend from leaving.” As Crixis replied, Liz and Max ran down the steps, each wearing a worried look.
“What’s going on? Are they here?” Liz asked, fists clenching.
“No,” I hissed. “But Crixis let Gabriel go.” To them, I realized. He let Gabriel go to them. “We have to go after him—”
“Not without a plan,” Liz said, pulling her hair back. “We mustn’t—”
“I don’t think having a plan matters,” Crixis said, pointing to the clothes on the couch.
“What are…oh. Oh, no. Let me grab my purse. We’ll hail a cabbie.” Before she ran upstairs, Crixis cocked his head.
With his Daywalker hearing, he said, “Someone’s getting into their car across the street.” In a flash, he was gone, gone only long enough to compel the person to let us use their car. He returned to our sight, motioning. “It’s running. Let’s go. You have the address?”
Liz nodded while Max glanced to his feet and mumbled something about putting shoes on. Didn’t the boy know we didn’t have time for shoes? Screw the damn shoes.
I was in the car, waiting, for what felt like forever. Why were these people so slow? Why couldn’t we just hurry this along? Gabriel was missing, and he probably (stupidly) went to the Order himself, trying to be a hero or something.
What a dumb blonde. Didn’t he know that this was my story? If anyone was going to play the hero, it had to be me. Not him. Not him.
As the others filed in the car and Liz drove us off, I felt my hands shake.
Oh, Gabriel. What did you do?
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Liz
As I frantically drove us through downtown London, I couldn’t believe it. The mere idea Gabriel would march straight to the Order was ridiculous. The boy was smarter than that, wasn’t he? Although, I had no room to talk, after discovering I was pregnant with a traitor’s baby. I’d lost myself to misery.
Michael. Just thinking about him still hurt.
We were all fools.
I could feel Kass bouncing in the backseat. Max tried to calm her, but she practically snapped his head off. Crixis had run ahead; he was probably already there. Please, I prayed and hoped with all my heart, let Ames be okay.
“I’m sure Gabriel is fine,” I said, repeating what Max had told her. “I’m sure all of this will be…” I blinked, eyebrows creasing, and I slammed on my breaks, causing the driver behind me to swerve and honk as he went around. Once I got over the sight, I pulled on the side of the road, slowly getting out while both Max and Kass rushed.
I didn’t understand what I saw.
A whole horde of people…no. Teenagers. Dozens and dozens of teenagers of all ethnicities, huddled together, whispering and wondering, all in front of the Order’s headquarters. I recognized some of them, having handled their paperwork. Were these the missing Purifiers? They were never missing at all.
I lost track of Max and Kass as a familiar face pushed past the teenagers to envelop me in a giant hug. Hair a honeyed yellow, curly to the extreme, a flowing skirt that screamed hippie; Ames clutched me for dear life as she whispered, “You work for these people? Tell me you’re quitting, Liz. They’re insane.” She pulled back from me, eyes widened in shock.
I wasn’t sure what the Order had told her, so all I could do was nod and ask, “What happened?”
“I was painting, waiting for your call that you’d landed. And then, the next thing I remember is waking up in a room full of kids.” Ames referenced the Purifiers, even though the age gap wasn’t that big. “They hardly fed us. We had to share a toilet.” She shivered, remembering the horrors of it. “It felt like I was there forever, until…”
“Until what?”
“Until they let us go. They just unlocked the rooms and brought us to the elevator. Like they had a change of heart—but they’re so crazy, I don’t think that was it.” Ames ran a hand through her hair, glancing at all the Purifiers. “Bloody hell. They had all of us down there, why?”
I grabbed her arms, squeezing gently as I assured her, “I will explain everything later. Did you see anyone else down there? A blonde boy?” There were numerous blonde boys around us, but Gabriel would’ve left an impression. He didn’t look like he was only eighteen.
To my surprise, Ames nodded. “When they were herding us to the elevator, we had to go through the back of this…chapel. In the front, there was a blonde boy, but he didn’t look like a boy.” She inhaled and shook her head. “I swear, Liz, I saw wings behind him. I think…I think he was our guardian angel.”
Ames had no idea how close to the truth she was. I grabbed her hand. “Keep the kids here,” I told her. I wasn’t sure what we’d do with them, not until I saw what happened inside. If they were all out here, where was the Order? “I will be right back.”
My baby sister looked at me with such frightened, sad, and relieved eyes. “Okay, but you bloody well better hurry.” She assumed the guise she wore as a teacher and corralled the Purifiers away from the road. Passersby slowed as they drove and walked by. If we weren’t careful, this could end up on the nightly news.
I’d deal with that later. Right now I had to catch up to Max and Kass. I couldn’t let them go against the Order alone.
Running inside, I spotted Crixis holding an elevator for me. I ran to him, not even aware of the fact there was no one behind the welcome desk, nothing but a pile of clothes. Once I was inside and the doors shut behind me, I glared at the two Purifiers. “Do not run off on me again.” My tone was authoritative, harsher than ever.
Max was the only one who nodded.
The ride down was long, and Kass moved to place herself between the doors and me. I let her, knowing she couldn’t be stopped. I just hoped whatever awaited us at the bottom wasn’t death by a thousand bullets.
Crixis stood near me, showing me a badge of some kind. “The receptionist had this…or she did, before she…” He stopped, not knowing what to say. “It was the same way on your sister’s street. I heard them coming, but by the time I got there, there was nothing but clothes on the ground, as if they just disappeared.”
I looked at him strangely. People didn’t just disappear. There were fundamental laws of physics that went against the very possibility of such a thing happening. I gingerly took the key card from his outstretched hand, gazing at the photo that was on it. A middle-aged woman, plump, bright red lipstick. The back of the keycard had some kind of barcode on it.
After a long ride, the steel doors opened, and Kass ran out before I could stop her. Though…she didn’t run long. Her legs stumbled as she fell. We were in a room that was much longer than it was wide. A church of some kind, full of white pews and even an altar.
This was where Ames said she saw the blonde boy. Gabriel.
As Max and Crixis searched the vault, Kass and I remained in the chapel, going pew by pew, spotting nothing but robes hanging limply off the backs of pews and on the floor, bunched up as if whoever wore them just faded from existence.
Kass’s legs froze. She was only a few pews in. I headed deeper, to the altar. “I don’t get it,” I heard her whisper. Her fists bunched by her sides, shaking.
I stepped onto the altar’s platform—this white space was going to give me a headache. Too bright, too non-stop white. It hurt the eyes. As I squinted, trying to block out some of the light, I saw something on the ground behind the altar. Jeans and a T-shirt. The same clothes Gabriel wore. I felt the urge to vomit, but I swallowed it back down as I reached for the shirt, sluggishly standing. I glanced to Kass.
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br /> “I’m sorry,” I said, stepping away from the altar, moving to her. “Gabriel’s gone.” The words sounded strange on my tongue, and I was certain to her, they sounded even stranger.
Her hazel stare fell to the shirt I held, and she shook her head once. “No, I don’t—I don’t believe that. He’s here, he’s just…” Naked? Hiding? Whatever Kass thought to finish that sentence with, she kept quiet, stepping backward, closer to the elevator.
“Kass,” I spoke, knowing if I ran to her, she’d dart for the open elevator. “Whatever happened here, Gabriel did it. He saved all those Purifiers. He saved us. He defeated the Order.” Saying it aloud should bring relief, but as I said it, I felt the furthest thing from it.
“No,” Kass said the word again, as if saying it repeatedly would change facts. Facts I still was unsure of. How could Gabriel have done all this? “No. I don’t believe that.” Her face hardened, and I was a split-second too late in realizing what she would do. She sprinted to the elevator, faster than me.
“Kass, wait!” I shouted after her, but the elevator doors dinged closed, and I stood there, against the steel, clutching Gabriel’s shirt for an eternity. I pounded on it, as if it would bring her back. The last thing I needed was to lose that girl in London.
Suddenly, I was no longer alone. The cold presence of Crixis made me turn to face him. “It’s empty. There’s no one else here but us,” he told me, but all I could do was point to the elevator. There had to be stairs somewhere, right? “Let her go. No matter where she goes, I’ll be able to find her.”
I pursed my lips, remembering how it felt after discovering Michael’s treachery. This was nowhere near the same. Michael betrayed us; Gabriel saved us. Whatever Kass felt, I couldn’t even begin to understand.
“She needs time to process,” Crixis added, gently taking the shirt from me.
All I could do was nod along.
After a few minutes, Max came into the room, pushing his huge glasses farther up his nose. “I don’t understand what happened here,” he said, frowning, an expression I’d never before seen on the boy. “What happened?” His voice nearly cracked. The silence that was his answer was too much for him to bear. “In the past year, I’ve lost two Guardians. I watched that thing—” He pointed to Crixis. “—nearly kill the girl I like. I watched Kass die. Don’t tell me Gabriel’s gone, too.” Behind his glasses, his eyes squeezed shut, and he had to tear them off to wipe at them.
Staked! Page 136
