by Noree Cosper
I coughed. “L-let you return unto your place into the Eclipse.”
The steam dissipated, leaving behind rippling water. Beneath the liquid, the symbols on the circle Adrian’s nanites had engraved in the concrete glowed with a pale light.
Marge and Lucy rushed forward to flank Irae. Irae raised her hands and a ring of fire surrounded her. Viktor lifted his hand and Irae flew up into the air and over my head to slam into the amphitheater.
Rain began to pour down from the clouds.
Jonah followed behind Tres and Adrian, who had also pulled out his gun, as they circled around Aaron, still floating on the wind. I jerked my attention back to Sariel and focused on the ritual.
“In the name of our Lord, let my will be done.” I let the last words pass from my lips.
The light from the symbols intensified. I had to shield my eyes to keep it from blinding me. When I looked back, nothing remained in the circle.
Chapter 39
What had just happened? Esais wasn’t supposed to disappear. The banishing should have only removed Sariel from Esais’s body. I expected it to exhaust him, but he still should have been here. I walked to the circle. My feet sloshed in what was left of the water. The light had faded away and the symbols had a burned look.
“What have you done?” Irae cried.
She stood at the entrance of the rink with one hand on the rail as she favored her left leg. A shaft of bone broke through the skin at her shin and blood trailed down her ankle. Fire burst in her hand but it shrank and sizzled when the rain touched it.
“You’ll pay for taking him from us,” she said.
“You really expect to fight like that?” I asked. “Can you even walk?”
She drew her hand back and thrust it forward. A gout of flame spewed forth. I dodged forward into a roll. The flames hit the water and a loud hiss erupted as more steam rose. The flames followed me as Irae moved her hand. I continued to roll forward. I got to my knees and lunged at her, keeping low, and hit her in the calf. She screamed and toppled over. I pulled a knife and held it at her throat.
“Surrender,” I said. “It’s over.”
She opened her mouth and spit fire at me. I jerked back but I was too slow. It would hit me. The fire dissipated inches from my face in a fiery burst, like it had hit a wall. Hatred dance in Irae’s eyes as we glared at each other. She’d fight to the very end.
I jammed the knife in her throat. She gurgled, her eyes widening as she clutched at the metal blade. Blood bubbled from around the knife and her body began to spasm. I stood up and turned to Viktor.
“Thanks for the save,” I said.
“Sure.” He looked at the circle. “What happened?”
I scanned the rest of the battle, which wasn’t much. Jonah had a cane sword in his hand pointed at Aaron. Adrian and Tres stood on either side of Jonah with guns pointed at Aaron.
“This is finished,” Jonah shouted over the sleet. “Surrender.”
Aaron laughed. “What? Are you planning on turning me over to the police? Do you think they can hold me?”
“Good point,” Adrian said and pulled the trigger.
Aaron jerked and stared down at the hole in his chest. Blood spread on his shirt. He shuddered and fell. Jonah spun around and glared at Adrian.
“That was unnecessary,” he said.
“No, it wasn’t. What did you expect to do with him? There’s no precedent for imprisonment of someone with his powers, unless you have some way of dealing with nephilim we don’t know about? Would you rather some government get a hold of him?”
“He could have been rehabilitated.”
“His little blizzard murdered hundreds if not thousands of people. Sounds like a monster to me. You know what we do to monsters,” Adrian said,
I turned back to the circle. They could argue this point among themselves. I had bigger problems. I shifted my sight. Bright colors ebbed and flowed around me. Joyous memories and moments of children who’d visited this place. They were tinged with a dull red from the battle we’d just had, except for the spot where Esais and Sariel stood. There was a small black dot of nothing. No color, no Eclipse, it was just empty. A chill ran down my spine. That was impossible.
“Where’s Esais?” Tres asked from behind me.
I turned back to him. My whole body was shaking. Maybe some from the cold and the fact I was wet, but it was more than that.
“I don’t know,” I said in a soft voice.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Viktor asked.
The wind had died down along with the sleet now that Aaron was dead. Of course, those weren’t the only things that had died away. The conversation had as well. Everyone was looking at me and waiting on my answer.
“Something went wrong,” I said. “Esais disappeared when I banished Sariel.”
“Well, where did he go?” Jonah asked.
“I don’t know,” I swallowed hard. “I think he might be dead.”
“Oh, dear,” Lucy said.
“I think I misheard you,” Adrian said in a cold voice.
Tres shook his head. “I don’t understand. This was supposed to get Esais back.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“You’re sorry? That’s all you have?” Viktor asked. “I thought you people were capable. Now everyone I care about is dead.”
“Don’t blame Gabby,” Lucy said. “Maybe if you had told us something sooner, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Viktor’s face grew splotchy red. “What would you know about it, demon spawn?”
Lucy crossed her arms with a scowl. “My father may have been demon tainted, but I know enough to make my own choices and not be swayed.”
“That’s enough,” Jonah said. “We all need to calm down.”
I stared at Adrian. His lips were pressed in a thin line and his ice-cold gaze met mine. He shook his head and walked off. My heart squeezed in my chest.
“Look,” Lucy said. “We’ll find out what happened. I’ll summon an oracle.”
Tres clenched his fists. “I’m sorry. I can’t right now.”
He turned and walked off in a different direction than Adrian.
“Oh, you people are brilliant,” Viktor said.
“Young man, I believe it’s time for you to leave,” Jonah said. “I suggest you build a new life and not deal with entities not of this world and further. Come, I’ll take you home, Gabby.”
I shook my head. Their footsteps faded away and I was left to stare at the small bit of nothing. How had I broken things so badly? And how could I fix it?
Chapter 40
I walked down the stairs of the Van Helsing family mausoleum with two roses in my hand. I’d been dreaming of this graveyard lately. It was only a matter of time until I visited again. I stopped at the fresh plaque with Esais’ name on it. There was nothing in the tomb, just a name to ease the grief.
It didn’t work for me.
After a month, there had been no sign where Esais had disappeared. Adrian and Tres had just left with no word to us. Since Lucy had already performed the oracle ritual for Jonah and me years ago, she couldn’t perform it again. Each person only had one chance for the ritual.
Instead, we’d poured over books in search of what happened. The closest I’d come was information about liminalities, which were pockets that formed between the material world and the Eclipse. It was possible that one had been created during the banishing. Still, I had no idea on how to reach one or if he was even alive in such a place.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
I sighed and moved farther in. I stopped at Dimitri’s plaque and wiped the dust from it. I placed my last rose in front of it.
“I failed to keep my promise again,” I said.
“You know he never asked that of you,” Jonah said from the top of the stairs.
“I still made the promise.”
“It’s a foolish one. They know the danger they face.”
I shake my head. “That stupid
curse. I told you at Dimitri’s funeral, it’s cruel.”
“It’s not just the curse. They’re hunters, Gabby. You know the life expectancy isn’t long.”
I bowed my head. “It doesn’t help though.”
“Will you walk with me?”
I gave one last look at the plaque before I climbed up the stairs. We ambled up the path towards the house. The Carpathian Mountains loomed over us above the oaks of the Codrii Vlăsiei forest. The sun peeked out from the clouds to shine a little light on the somber day.
“Has Lucy left?”
“Hmm, yes. She’s tracking down another lead on this liminality thing,” he said.
“I hope she finds something, but…” I just shook my head.
He patted me on the shoulder. “Come, my dear.”
“Tres and Adrian didn’t come,” I said.
“No, they’re not good at these kinds of things.”
“I doubt they wanted to see me.” I swallowed the lump that was in my throat.
“They’ll come around.”
“I doubt it. I took their brother away from them.”
“You did what you could.”
We walked through the gates of the cemetery and up the path to the back of the house. I paused at the stairs that lead down to the sublevel. An iron gate barred the entrance. It was the place Dimitri had created for me in case I died. My body could be sent here instead of being buried. I hadn’t been here since Dimitri had died. Dimitri’s wife had not wanted me near her son.
“You can always open it again,” Jonah said.
I shook my head. “This place isn’t my home. It never really has been.”
“It was once for ten years.”
“What is ten years in comparison to the rest?” I sighed and looked up at the sky. “What now?”
“Well, I, for one, plan to return to New York, help the city rebuild and finish Andrei’s dream of the hunter organization.”
“With no Van Helsing to lead it?”
“The boys will come around,” he said again. “And this will help them move on.”
“That’s a noble dream you have.”
“What about your plans?”
I let out a deep breath. The years pressed on me until I felt physically exhausted. Would this ever end? Not until Allegra was dead.
“I’m going after her again. And I owe Faust my thanks, personally.” I smiled an unpleasant smile.
“Do you really think you should be alone in this? That’s two demons to contend with,” Jonah said.
I gazed up at him, taking in the wrinkles on his face. Time was catching up to him and he wasn’t the spry hunter he used to be, despite how much he tried to hang on to his youth with his alchemy. He and Lucy were all I had left now for family. Jonah had been my constant for decades. They were both capable, but Dimitri had been capable, too.
“It’s just me for now,” I said. “We can’t spare anyone else.”
“The hell you can’t.” Marge’s voice traveled in the air from the door of the house. She stomped our direction. “You just gonna leave me behind?”
“You’re still here?” I asked. “I’m surprised you stayed this long.”
She shrugged. “Where else do I have to go?”
“It’d probably be better if I did things alone.”
Marge snorted. “That’s so fucking asinine.”
“That’s a big word for you.”
“She’s right though,” Jonah said. “Even for the two of you it’s dangerous. Maybe you could go find the boys.”
I shook my head. “I should give them time, like you said.”
“You’ll need to do research and track the demons first,” Jonah said. “That would give the boys time to see reason.”
“What reason?” I asked. “It was my fault we lost Esais.”
“No,” Jonah said. “We were in a circumstance way beyond our control. I’m not going to go over this again.”
“This is my quest,” I said. “I can’t drag them into it after what happened.”
Marge shrugged. “I don’t care if we grab them or not. But, I’m down to kick some demon ass. Come on, you need me on this.”
Jonah stuck his hands in his pockets. “Someone needs to look after her.”
I sighed. “Fine, but we need to do this right. With planning.”
“And kicking in the door.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “When the time comes.”
“I’ll pack my stuff.” She strode back inside.
Jonah cleared his throat. “If you’ll excuse me. I need to make sure she doesn’t break anything valuable.”
He began his trek toward the house. I leaned back and gazed up at the sky, blinking back the tears that hung in the corners of my eyes. With a sniff, I wiped them away. Even though I’d lost the Van Helsing brothers, I wasn’t alone. With Marge, things would get bloody, but that was good. Allegra and Faust deserved bloody endings. I intended to deliver them.
I stared back at the cemetery as the sun dropped behind the trees. I’d find a way to rectify things.
First, though, I needed to deal with my own demons.
Epilogue
Tres stared down at the discarded peanut hulls on the bar, forgotten and tossed away like him. He rubbed his face when his eyes started to blur and then waved the bartender over for another shot. His power was gone. Esais was gone. Who did he have now? Jonah? Lucy? They never cared, not like Esais.
The bartender set a double shot of whiskey in front of him and walked off. The television droned on about the relief efforts for New York. They should have let it burn. Then maybe Esais would still be here. He gritted his teeth. It was all Adrian’s and Gabby’s fault. They’d taken everything from him.
“Someone as pretty as you shouldn’t be so sad,” a husky female voice said close to his ear.
He jerked back and turned with wide eyes. The woman leaned back and crossed her legs, which were accentuated by the slit in her long red dress. An alluring smile formed on her full lips and she tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder.
“How about you buy me a drink?” She tapped her manicured nails on the counter.
He let his gaze linger on her full breasts and the curve of her hips. If this had been another day, maybe.
“I’m not in the mood.”
“Oh, but I think you are,” she said. “Especially when it concerns family troubles. And your family is very troubled, isn’t it, Tres?”
He stared at her hard, his right hand clenching. “Who are you?”
“Call me a generous friend. I so want to be your friend, Tres.” She leaned closer.
“You’re a demon, aren’t you?” He turned back to his drink. “If you leave now, I won’t send your ass back to hell.”
She gave a fake shiver. “Ooh, I love it when a man wants to play hard to get. Of course, if I leave, you won’t get your power back.”
He paused, holding the glass to his lips. The strong sting of whiskey wafted up his nose. “Demons just screw people over.”
“But it was the angels who did that to your brother. And Gabriella. Maybe things aren’t the way you’ve been told.”
Tres set down his glass. It had been Sariel’s plan to destroy New York. Sariel had manipulated people to get what he wanted and not have to take blame for what he did. He had killed Marge just to get Esais to agree to give him his body.
“Why not let a demon try to help?” she asked.
“Esais is gone,” Tres said in a flat voice. “My power is gone.”
“Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean one of those can’t be remedied. And don’t you want to get back at those who lost your brother?”
Rage filled him, and Adrian’s face rose in his mind. He’d been the one to sever Tres’s tie to the Fates. Maybe if Tres had continued to work with the Fates, Esais would still be alive. And that bitch Gabby was the one who’d messed up the ritual. They needed to pay.
“What do you want?”
“Oh, just a little t
hing. You’re not even using it.” She ran her nails up his arm. “Your soul.”
He gripped the bar and stared at his drink. They always wanted souls. Gabby said they sought to corrupt humans. He’d be damning himself if he did this.
“Think how much your brother has done for you. Doesn’t he deserve a little vengeance?”
He bowed his head. He was the reason Esais made a deal with Sariel in the first place.
“What’s your name?” he asked. “I’m not going to call you mysterious benefactor, or whatever.”
She chuckled. “Allegra.”
“Gabby’s demon.”
She sighed. “Yes, I gave Gabby the gift of immortality, though she doesn’t appreciate it. I mean, look how long she’s had to kill demons? Still, you shouldn’t let one angry girl get in the way of having your brother. You could actually say it’s her fault he’s gone.”
“Even better.” He drained his glass and set it on the bar. “All right. I’ll do it.”
Allegra smiled and leaned close. “Good, all we have to do is seal things with a kiss.”
The End
Noree’s Notes (The Omega Effect 2018)
Thank you so much for taking this journey with Gabby and me. I cannot express how much I appreciate that you decided to pick this book up and read it! And now, you are reading this as well.
The Omega Effect has taken me a while to complete. This series was a byproduct of a roleplaying game I played with my friends. A few years ago, I parted from a majority of those friends and my it emotionally impacted my joy in this series. I had to put the Van Helsing Organization aside and work on other projects. Even when I did pick it back up, it took months to get back into the series.
Another factor of the slowness, was the original plot of Omega effect was divided between A Dose of Brimstone and this book. I have to do many revisions to make what I had previously written to match the new plot. However, I feel that the fourth book, A Cure for Lust will be written much faster.
So, in this book a huge divide has happened in the Van Helsing Organization. Just when Gabby was getting a support network, it has fallen apart. The next book will focus on her fight with Allegra. Finally. I’m hoping for A Cure for Lust to be released this fall or winter. So, be sure to keep an eye for it. You can actually do this via several ways.
