Dana, Max, and I came to her aide, pushing Master to the wall and holding him in place. Cora pressed the tip of the saw from the chainsaw straight into his chest. It burrowed through him, tearing through muscle, flesh, and bone. Blood squirted everywhere. Smoke circulated around the chainsaw.
Master used his last bit of strength to kick Cora off of him. She fell on her ass, and the chainsaw dropped beside her. The gears slowed, and then died. He had a gaping hole in his chest, but he was still alive. He was still fighting.
“Smile, dick breath!” Priscilla yelled, splashing the open container at Master. He was immediately soaked with gasoline. Max, Dana, and I all exchanged glances, and the three of us each picked up a candle and launched it at his body. Master didn’t just light on fire, his entire body was immediately swallowed by flames. His wings shriveled up, and Master flailed around the room reaching for us, trying to take us down with him.
Max picked up a piece of lumber from one of the seats and shoved it against Master’s chest, forcing him to the floor. The flames were eating him alive, and his screams were getting quieter. He was still breathing, though. It was possible for him to recover, if given time. We had to end this while he was vulnerable.
I picked up the chainsaw that Cora had dropped and gave the cord one good tug. The chainsaw purred to life. I approached Master’s melting body and hovered over him, staring down at the monster that had convinced me my life was worth nothing more than making him great. I spit into the flames. “Fuck you,” I muttered. I waited a few more seconds, taking pleasure in his suffering, and then I pressed the saw of the chainsaw to his throat and detached his head.
So long, motherfucker.
Chapter Forty-Eight
CORA
We stepped out of the castle covered in soot and blood. Exhaustion didn’t begin to describe the way we were feeling at that moment. We were drained, aching, and slightly blown away that any of this had even transpired, but we were alive. Every single one of us. That had never happened before. I lost someone every time a disaster like this occurred, but this day was different. This day was better.
I leaned my head against Max’s shoulder as we trudged through the snow. He wrapped his arms around me to keep me warm, and when we found the blanket he had dropped earlier, he picked it up and draped it over me. There was snow all over it, but it still got the job done. I peeked to my right and realized Melanie was walking with Dana, and Priscilla was walking with Daggett. We all had someone. I smiled.
Max’s steps paused, and the snow crunched beneath his feet. “How we feeling?” he asked the group.
“Like I had my head slammed into a wall,” Daggett groaned, rubbing his temples with both hands.
Max grimaced. “No hard feelings?”
“Considering I was trying to kill you guys, it’s okay.”
“I wonder if the hit to your head ended the hypnosis or if Master dying did,” Dana pondered. It was a good question. There was still so much I didn’t understand. I imagined it’d take a lot of research.
“Whatever did it, I’m thankful.”
Dana subtly gasped. “Melanie, your arm. He bit you.”
Melanie immediately brushed it off. “I’m fine.”
“No,” Dana urged, grabbing a hold of Melanie’s arm. I figured Master must have bitten her while Priscilla and I were on our little adventure, but when Dana pulled back Melanie’s sleeve, there was hardly a mark. “It’s…”
“Gone?” Melanie finished. “Yeah, I’m a vampire. Remember?”
Relief came over Dana, and she bashfully smiled. “Of course.” Dana’s worry for her was sweet, and my heart felt full watching it. My heart felt full, period. We survived the war, and after the dust had settled, we were standing together. It was everything I ever wanted and more.
But then something dawned on me, and my stomach dropped. “Molly…” I said. Max’s blue eyes met mine. “She’s still alive.”
He looked downwards in thought. “I hadn’t forgotten.”
“That dumbass is still around?” Priscilla threw her head back and grumbled. “It’s so like Molly to outlast everyone so we can make this about her.”
“I messed her up pretty good,” Max replied. “She was too weak to fight, and with daylight coming soon, she’s probably hiding out until she can heal.”
“Where would she go?” Dana asked.
“The basement,” Melanie answered. “It’s where Master slept. She’ll be there.”
I swallowed a hardness in my throat, because not only was this not over, but I wasn’t looking forward to what needed to happen in that basement.
The bushes suddenly shook in the distance, and we all took a step back. Someone was walking through the twigs and leaves, stumbling toward us with nothing but a pair of ripped, filthy jeans on. My first instinct was to assume it was Molly, but it was clearly a male figure coming at us.
“Oh, God, what now?” Priscilla griped.
This person looked lost and confused from the manner in which he looked at the yard, the trees, the falling snow. A bit like a drunk bumbling out of a bar at three in the morning with no memory of how he got there. I didn’t feel in danger; I felt curious as to who this was. I took a step closer to get a better view, and Max moved along with me to keep me safe. The man had wavy brown hair that came down to his ears. It was unkempt and dirty, like he hadn’t cut or washed it in years. Something about him felt familiar.
Wait a second…
“That couldn’t possibly be…?” I mumbled under my breath.
I looked at Priscilla as she approached my side. She leaned forward and squinted, and the same thought I had immediately entered her mind. “No fucking way,” she said. “You gotta be kidding me.”
“What?” Daggett asked.
“It’s him,” I said.
“It’s fucking hippie Joe,” Priscilla clarified. He stepped into the light just a few feet in front of us, and sure enough, it was in fact hippie Joe. The last time I saw him, he was tied to a tree in Rookridge, rambling on about the strange noises in the forest. He disappeared not long after that. We all assumed he ran away or died.
“Joe?” I called out.
He stopped walking and rubbed his eyes to make sure he was really seeing us. “Cora?” Oh my god, he remembered me after all this time. Joe glanced around the group I was in with a bit of suspicion and a dab of confusion in his eyes. “What are you guys doing out here in the snow?” He looked down at his shoeless feet. “What am I doing out here in the snow?”
“I thought you were supposed to be dead,” Priscilla said.
I chuckled. “There’s a lot of that going around these days.”
“Dead?” Joe repeated. “Why would you think I’m dead?”
“You’ve been missing for a year and a half,” Max informed him. Joe looked at him strangely, like he didn’t realize Max was standing there, and then his eyes widened when he let his words register. “A year and a half? I…”
“Wait a second. You were the werewolf Priscilla and I ran into,” I realized. “The one that took the stick.” I could see him putting the pieces together as I spoke, slowly remembering everything as I told it.
He weakly smiled. “Yeah, yeah…I’m sorry about that.”
“Sorry? You didn’t eat me. So thank you.”
Joe almost laughed, because it sounded ridiculous.
“You’re a fucking werewolf too?” Priscilla asked as she folded her arms. “Jesus, are Cora and I the only non-supernatural beings in this fucking state? Or are you a fucking mermaid?” she asked me.
My brow raised. “No, but I wish. That’d be amazing.”
Max stared at Joe intently. “So what the hell is the story? Have you been here this whole time?”
Joe shrugged. “The last thing I remember is him using some kind of mind control or magic on me. He said I had to stay a beast until he no longer needed me, and then he chained me up in the basement. I guess he didn’t need me anymore.”
“He’s dead.”
Joe nodded. “That works too.”
I gently put my hand on his shoulder. “Well, goddamn, Joe, you don’t know how relieved I am to know you’re alive.”
He was still nodding, still completely out of it. Joe’s voice broke as he asked, “Can I go home now? My body doesn’t feel so good, and I smell like meat.” I thought he was going to hurl all over me, so I cautiously stepped back.
Max nudged his head at the group. “Why don’t you guys take him to the car and let him rest for a minute?”
I handed my blanket off to Joe, and Dana wrapped it around him. She took one arm while Priscilla took the other, and they leisurely led him back to the car. “Come on, Joe,” Priscilla began as they walked. “You got some shit you need to catch up on.” The three of them disappeared.
Daggett and Melanie lingered behind. “You need backup?” Daggett asked.
“No,” Max replied. “I don’t think we need a group for this one.”
“You sure?”
Max looked at me, and I nodded. “We’ll catch up later,” I added.
Daggett left, but Melanie stayed. She looked apprehensive. “I thought we weren’t splitting up anymore,” she said.
I walked toward her. “You’ve been to hell and back, Melanie. You can sit this one out. We’ll be okay.”
Melanie shook her head. “You might be right, but as horrible as this has all been, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more empowered or full of purpose as I do right now. You did that, Cora.”
“Me?” Now I was the one shaking my head. “No. Melanie, every bit of strength you have inside of you is your own doing. Who you were then and who you are now, it’s like night and day. You tapped into a part of yourself I didn’t even know existed.”
She chuckled. “Death can change a person.”
I smiled. “Sometimes even for the better.” I tilted my head at Melanie and said, “You know, right before you died, I had really grown to like you, but now I kind of think you’re cool as shit.”
Melanie laughed hard. “Cool, huh?”
“Yep. It’s okay if you want to admit you think I’m cool, too.”
Her laughter had become even louder. “You’re many things, Cora, but cool isn’t one of them. But I love that.” It sounded like an insult, but her voice was warm and her eyes were twinkling. She meant it in the best way. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Everything. You risked your life and security to come find me, and if that hadn’t happened, I'd be dead right now. Like, actually dead. You’re the family I always wanted, but never deserved.”
“You always deserved it, Melanie. Always.”
She curled her lips into her mouth, and from the shimmer of her eyes, I knew she was holding in a tear. Melanie pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly. We rocked slowly. After a minute, she stepped away and said, “If you guys aren’t back in five minutes, I’m coming after you.” She then jogged back to the car.
I took a deep breath and turned to Max, who was already in the middle of taking me by the hand. We walked through the snow and back to the castle together, ready to face danger for, hopefully, the final time.
Inside the castle, we eventually found a slim door that wasn’t shut all the way, and there was a handprint of blood on the wall beside it. Molly must have staggered her way through the castle, rested here for a moment, and then yanked open the door and headed downstairs. We cautiously walked down the steps.
I expected the basement to be a dark, messed up place with chains, dead bodies, and other experiments. Instead, the overhead light was on and the room was mostly empty except for a few boxes and a washer and dryer. Even more surprising, Molly wasn’t hiding in the shadows. She was right where we could see her, seated on the concrete floor, her legs straight out in front of her with her torn dress barely covering her thighs, and her body slumped ever so slightly to the left as blood oozed out of her and trickled to the floor. Her skin was white as paper, and her breathing labored. She was tired and hurt. She was fading.
Her head didn’t move from its position, but her eyes lazily rolled over toward us as we approached. “Come to gloat?” she asked, almost laughing. Perhaps at herself. Molly shuffled her legs against the dirt-covered concrete, and with an enlightened tone said, “Oh. You’ve come to finish me off then.”
Max walked off of the bottom step and edged near her. “You tried to kill Cora,” he said, the anger dripping from his words.
“Oh, boo-hoo.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“And I failed at both. Typical of you to rub that in my face.”
“Is this fucking funny to you?”
Molly pressed her hand to her seeping wound. “Of all times for you to think I feel like laughing.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
Heavily, she sighed. “It must give you so much joy seeing me like this.”
“Believe it or not, I wanted none of this for you.”
“You never gave a damn about me, Max,” she said as she weakly shook her head. “I was always an afterthought to you.”
“People break up, Molly. I’m not gonna spend the rest of my life apologizing for us being incompatible. Seeing the shit you’ve done to everyone…I’m glad I went with my instincts all those years ago.”
She cynically laughed, but she was losing so much blood the laughter barely squeaked out. “It always works out for you in the end, doesn’t it? You get the girl, you get the victory, you get to be right, and you finally get rid of me. Must be nice being Maxwell Reid.”
“You tried to kill the only person I give a shit about. Fuck your guilt trip.”
Her eyes closed, and she smirked. “There’s the man that left me. I was wondering when you’d show.”
I walked forward. “Are you dying?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not healing. I guess me and your boyfriend are incompatible in more ways than one.”
I licked the dryness away from my mouth. “It doesn’t have to be this way, you know.”
Molly scoffed. “Like you care.”
“I do.”
She narrowed her eyes wickedly at me. “Why would you care about what happens to me? We were never friends. We were barely acquaintances. My existence doesn’t benefit you in any way. If anything, your life is better without me. You don’t have a single reason to give a shit.”
“Yes, I do. Owen.”
My mention of his name forced a startled reaction out of her. “Owen’s not here anymore,” she trembled.
“You think he’d want this for you? He’d hate to see us acting this way.”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants, because he’s not here. You made sure of that.”
I knelt down in front of her, and her eyes flared defensively at me being so close. “I loved your brother. I may not have known him all that long, but he treated me like family right from the start. The days we spent on my grandma’s roof shooting the breeze are some of my favorite memories. I think of them all the time. Hurting him, especially killing him, is the last thing I ever wanted.” Molly’s eyes were wet as she listened. “The way you feel about yourself as a vampire is the way he felt as a werewolf. He just…he wanted to be free.”
“Free…” she echoed.
“You and I were never able to get close and maybe I’m to blame for some of that. I wasn’t able to see what you’d been going through your whole life. I’m sorry life was so cruel to you.”
She looked away, and a tear rolled down her eye. “I don’t need your pity,” she said coldly, but her tone didn’t match the pained expression on her face.
“I know you don’t, but I’m giving it anyway.”
Molly focused back on me. “Why are you trying to be nice to me? I wanted to kill you.”
“Because all life is precious. Even yours.”
Molly let out a little chuckle, but her lungs were full of so much blood it came out like a hiccup. “Just like you to take the high road like you’re some kind o
f saint.”
“I’m not a saint. I’m just human.”
Something went off inside her head, and Molly’s eyes drooped with sadness. “You know why I still wear this dress?” she asked. “Because it’s the last human decision I ever made. The color, the fabric, the perfume…that was all me. I look at the fringe against my knees and I can almost delude myself into believing the girl who saved up to buy this still exists. That I might still be her.”
“You still can. With help.”
Molly weakly shook her head and blinked. “No. It’s too late. The dirt on my hands will never come off. I could live another hundred years, and it’ll never cleanse my sins. I just need to be stopped.” Her head dipped forward, the energy slowly draining from her. “All I want now is to be with my brother and get a little bit of that freedom you talked about.”
“You want…?”
“Kill me,” she said. “I’d do it myself, but I don’t believe in suicide.” A bit of a strange sentence coming from a murderer without a pulse.
From beneath the material of her dress, Molly pulled out a piece of wood with a sharpened end. “I whittled it myself,” she admitted. “I don’t know why. Maybe to use it on him or the girls or myself. I can’t even remember.”
My hands began to shake. “Are you sure about this?”
“There’s no hope for me. All I can hope for now is God’s forgiveness.”
I looked over my shoulder and called, “Max?”
“No,” Molly said urgently, and then forced the stake into my hand. She wrapped my fingers around the piece of wood tightly. “It has to be you. I want my last moments to be just like his.”
Owen’s.
This wasn’t about anything between the two of us. It was about leaving this earth as closely to Owen as she could. Maybe it made her feel more connected to him, I don’t know. But who was I to deny it?
She kidnapped me, fed from me, tried to kill me and everyone I cared about, and yet…I wasn’t angry. I pitied her. I realized that I would live a life filled with love and friendship and all the joys of growing old and experiencing life. She wouldn’t, and she never had. Molly would bleed out in a basement during the cold of night, and if her last morbid wish brought her closer to her brother, then I would do what she requested.
Lunar Rebirth (Lunar Rampage Trilogy Book 3) Page 32
