My body plummeted.
A second boom sounded before I’d finished dragging in my first breath.
I tore the noose from my neck and choked down air as I blinked up at the frayed rope swinging above my head. My brain was too oxygen deprived to figure out what had just happened, so like my tangled limbs, I would sort it all out later. Right now, I focused on maximum air intake.
And Hendry. I turned my head, and there he lay, gasping while his empty rope twirled from the wooden beam overhead. Ugly red burns and welts marred his neck. The veins under his skin pulsed, but he was alive. He reached a hand toward me, and I stretched one toward him but was too weak yet to close the distance between us. We were both alive. Relief swelled with each breath.
A horse neighed again, and that prompted a blast of other noises to filter into my eardrums. Gasps. Terrified pleas. Shouting near the back of the nave. The church was in chaos, and standing in the middle of it was an orange horse with Tessa on top. Orange… Was that Bast’s horse?
I only knew it was Tessa because of the exotic slant to her blue eyes. The rest of her face was covered in a red bandana tied around her mouth and a large cowboy hat. She held a shotgun at the ready. Other brothel witches and vampires stood in the side aisles in front of the boarded-up stained-glass windows. Some held guns, and some had already cast spells that sparkled in their palms with all sorts of different scents, aiming them at the congregation. Maybe not all the brothel witches were here, but a lot of them. I smiled with what little strength I had left.
A banging sounded on the roof as loud as thunder. Was it really the Berkano this time or the Silence Collectors pretending to be the Berkano because of my failed sacrifice?
“You brought the Berkano down upon us!” Allison shouted at Hendry and me, her voice pitched with real terror.
She likely hadn’t expected a sacrifice tonight, so to hear the banging… Well, it was an awesome effect to make her squirm. Gears shifted, and steel beams fell into place to keep us locked in the nave.
“They’re demanding a sacrifice,” she shouted above the din. “String those two up again!”
Tessa galloped her horse down the center aisle, her shotgun leveled at the two men behind the pulpits with the ropes. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”
“Let’s see how well your horse likes fire! Ignis!” Allison screamed.
Flames erupted from the floor in the center aisle of the church. Witches and vampires scattered away. Tessa’s horse bucked and squealed. Black smoke boiled to the ceiling as the fire consumed everything in its path.
I lunged for Hendry’s hand and pulled. We needed to get out of here before the church buckled down on top of us, but we were trapped in here. All of us were. Allison had triggered the steel beams to lock us inside.
The licking flames and smoke parted around the three steps in front of us, and Allison drifted up toward us.
“Let everyone else out,” I begged. “You can do whatever you want with me.”
“No.” Hendry hauled himself to his feet, his face covered in soot and sweat. “End this now. It’s over.”
“You brought vampires here, Hendry,” she spat. “You remember what they did to your dad on one of his supply runs? They deserve to die!”
“Would he have wanted me to die?” he shouted. “Would he have wanted me to be your slave?”
“I gave you everything you could have ever wanted.” She stepped toward him, her words as sharp as her glare. “I gave you a safe place to live while the vampires who killed your dad starved slowly.”
I searched behind her, desperate for a glimpse of Tessa, the vampires, or the other brothel witches. We didn’t have time for dick wagging with Allison because her power would help her win. Mine was useless right now, and Hendry couldn’t use his against her with that damned amulet around his neck again. I grabbed the frayed rope that hung loosely around mine, heavy smoke rolling over most of my arm and hopefully concealing my movements.
A loud bang sounded at the back of the nave. A sucking noise filled the room, swallowing the smoke and fire in a drawn-out gurgle. Burnt walls and pews remained, a nightmare version of our once-beautiful church.
Four figures appeared at the back. Jeni, Paul, and Philip, holding his hand to his neck where blood streaked over the backs of his fingers. And the fourth had a face so much like mine.
I blinked. Mom?
She held a finger to her lips, her gaze narrowed at Allison’s back as she marched down the center aisle. Blood smeared the corner of her mouth, almost as red as the shiny, jagged scar on her neck.
My mom—a Silence Collector?
In the next heartbeat, she stood in front of me. A loud boom sounded to my right. But before I could look, Mom whipped her hand up and snatched my collar away, dragging my vocal cords out with it.
Chapter 15
Stunned, I flew my hands to my neck as if to put back what she took from me. My own mother. I searched the space where seconds before she’d stood. Bitter tears scorched the backs of my eyes. How could she kill me, her own daughter?
Battles raged around me, but I couldn’t process who was where as I bled out. Crimson rivers leaked between my fingers and down my wrists where they gathered in a pool before plunking steadily to the carpet, marking the brief time I had left.
I sank to my knees, bumping against something hard. Spells and magic zipped over burnt pews. Fangs flashed white against the charred backdrop.
“Fin!” someone called to my right.
I turned and locked gazes with Hendry, who stood in the side aisle. He stared in horror, the whites of his eyes blazing, his hand jerking to the pocket where I knew the adrenaline needle would be. That would hardly help if I was bleeding to death, though. Even so, he plowed his way toward me.
Behind him, Allison physically fought off a woman who moved faster than a vampire and witch combined. Mom.
With her fist cocked in midair, a slight smile tilted her blood-stained mouth. A burst of static filled my head and cascaded swatches of feelings down to my toes—love, guilt, frustration, and thirst. I opened myself up to all of it, desperate to understand.
She’d taken off my collar, which now rested by my knee, minus my vocal cords. So where were they? And why wasn’t I dead yet?
I opened my mouth, tried for a whisper. “Mom?” It came out as a croak, but it was as real a sound as my heartbeat knocking between my ears, which didn’t appear to be slowing.
Somehow, she must’ve wrenched it off me so fast that it hadn’t stolen my voice or killed me. Maybe Philip’s blood at the corner of her mouth had something to do with her speed.
Her eyes lit with wrath, she drove the punch home into Allison’s face. A macabre sense of delight plastered a grin to mine.
The collar didn’t have me anymore. I had the collar. The teeth on the inside had only been activated a little, and the number one still grooved the outside. One hour left. It was a weapon that could be used against Allison to force her to drop her divisive magic. Either that or die from the collar. One choice, and I was the witch to give it to her. I settled the collar back into place around my neck without triggering the clasp and the magic that hopefully still lurked inside. When she neared me, I would be ready.
But first, I needed to clear everyone out before anyone else really did drop dead.
When Hendry had almost reached the first step toward me, a nearby male witch barreled into him.
“Foetor,” I said, imagining the worst smell I could—vinegar mixed with sewer, rotten meat, burning flesh, and sour milk.
The odor wafted through the nave and instantly had its intended effect. The male witch who fought Hendry stopped whatever spell he’d been about to fling mid-syllable. The rest of them retched or sprinted toward the exit that Mom, Paul, Jeni, and Philip had opened. Even the Berkano scrambled to get out. The only ones who didn’t were Hendry, along with Allison and Mom, who were still locked in both a physical and magical battle that had moved to the center aisle.
My
collar could end all of this, but I needed Allison to come closer. Maybe if I chose the right song, it would piss Allison off enough to do just that.
I opened my mouth on a song about a woman with a heart full of poison. The lyrics rolled from my mouth, floating up through the awful smell and toward the rafters in the ceiling, through the small creases between the boards on the stained-glass windows. But the notes soured when Mom crumpled to the ground after a brutal hit.
Allison whipped around to glare at me. “Shut up.”
I forced myself to go on, my voice cracking, my eyes glued to Mom’s unmoving form. Angry tears tracked down my face, but I funneled that emotion into my lungs and throat to blast the song into Allison’s face.
She stomped toward me. Anticipation licked up my spine, and I loosened my arms and hands like I normally did while singing, ready to spring into action at precisely the right second. She climbed the steps, a sneer peeling back her lips, and shot her palm toward my cheek. The slap crushed my teeth onto my tongue hard enough to draw blood and wrenched my head to the side. My voice faltered for that half second before I picked up the song where I’d left off, biting back a smile that my non-church tongue had drawn her so close.
“Marshall, make her stop,” she demanded.
I decrescendoed my voice so I could hear him.
Limping up the center aisle was Dad, with what looked like Tessa’s shotgun aimed at Allison’s back. His red-rimmed gaze stuck on Mom near his feet. “No.”
“Marshall!” she snapped, her lethal stare pinned to me. “Only I know where the antidote is for your amulet. Yours and Hendry’s. Hendry, you stop her.”
Hendry’s arm hung at an odd angle as he dragged himself up the steps toward us. “Take back these rules that govern us, Allison. Stop stealing everyone’s magic for your benefit alone.”
“It’s hardly my benefit alone,” she scoffed. “Don’t you see the safe fortress around you?”
“It’s not a secure fortress, though,” Dad said, stepping closer. “The flooded part of the church allows in all sorts of creatures.”
Something shifted behind Allison’s eyes. “What?”
Dad stopped before the first step. “It appears that all the blood the Silence Collectors gave to you in exchange for a hanged body with undamaged vocal cords went missing. All that blood that was meant for Maggy, my wife, the one with the Rift Curse, the one who actually needs it. You saw how it changed her, made her stronger, didn’t you?”
Allison flattened her mouth into a thin line.
“You drank it yourself,” Dad hissed. “Maggy needed blood, needed vampires to give it to her, so she sang a blood song while they slept to draw them closer. Sometimes, they were let in through the front door. Other times, they crept in through the flooded part of the building just to give her what you took from her.”
Allison’s hands fisted at her sides. “I put a stop to that when I removed her vocal cords.”
A shot of venom heated my veins and trembled fiery rage though my body. I couldn’t believe this woman. How could anyone be so evil? I stopped singing, too angry to continue.
“No. You didn’t,” Dad said. “All that blood she drank created a psychic link to the vampires, like what they use among themselves, so she could still sing her blood song.”
“I killed her. Just now, I killed her,” Allison said, screwing up her sneer into what would never pass for a smile. “She’s dead.”
Dad lifted an eyebrow. “Or is she playing opossum like she did that last time, just before she removed your vocal cords, tit for tat.”
Hendry jerked back as if he’d been hit, then he flashed out his hand and yanked off Allison’s scarf. At her neck was a shiny red scar that matched Mom’s. Yet, she could still talk, likely with everyone’s magic she’d stolen.
“Maggy ruined everything,” Allison hissed. “I used to have enough magic to control everyone’s vocal cords so they’d never speak out against the church and never help the vampires. Now most of it goes to my voice…” She hovered her hand near her scar. Rage clouded her eyes as she turned toward Mom.
In that split second that her attention was diverted, I snatched the collar off me and lunged. Caught it around her scarf-free neck. Twirled my fingers around the fastener at the back. Even if she didn’t have vocal cords, it would still kill her. Hopefully.
She snapped her gaze back to me, her mouth agape. “What?” She swallowed, her throat bobbing against the silver metal. “What did you just do? How are you still…?” Her hand fluttered to her neck as she looked at mine, her fingertips digging into the grooved number one that was surely a lot less now.
She likely had minutes. Seconds, even. It would be better if I talked slow, then.
“Take back your fake rules,” I ordered.
She stared at me long and hard without even a flash of consideration, the gears ticking in her mind on how to reclaim her power instead. It was written clear as water in the press of her red lips and the tremble in her jaw.
“Take this thing off me, and I will,” she lied.
“If my mom really is dead, then you just killed the person who took it off me.” I schooled my expression while agonized worry swamped the rest of me. “All that power you stole can’t save you now, so send out another message to lift the rules. Tell everyone there’s nothing to be afraid of if we all work together. And tell us where you keep the antidote for the amulet poison.”
“How did she do it?” she demanded, fiddling with the collar’s clasp. “All that vampire blood she drank? Marshall, go get me a Berkano.”
“You don’t have time for that,” I said, though I had no idea how accurate that was. “That collar’s been stuck on the number one for a while now. Now, do it. Tell them. Do something good for once before you die.”
“No. No, I don’t need vampire blood to get this godforsaken collar off me. I need more power.” She glanced above at the frayed hanging ropes.
Something snapped. Then a sharp inhale of breath cut short. Allison slumped to the bloodstained carpet, her muddy brown eyes vacant. Veins and arteries stretched from her neck, caught between the teeth of the collar in long, bloody strings. The gash in her neck matched the oval-shaped, silent scream resting on her lips.
Blowing out a shallow breath, I stumbled down the steps toward Mom in the center aisle, my legs like dead weights. Not knowing if she was dead or not helped me cling to hope, but of course I had to know for sure. A sob welled in my chest as I sank to my knees next to her and brushed the hair from her face. With her eyes closed and her mouth parted as if in song, she looked at peace.
Hendry came up behind me and touched his fingertips to the scar at her neck. “She has a pulse. It’s faint, but it’s there. She’s alive, Fin.”
Relief folded me in half, allowing me to drink in her sweet scent that smelled like childhood. My rush of tears fell to her cheeks as I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Dad limped up behind us on his bum leg holding a vial of clear liquid. “A vampire named Philip found the antidote for our amulets. Can you believe it?” His face crumpled when his gaze connected with mine, and I swept toward him in a crushing hug. “I’m sorry, Fin. I’m so sorry.”
I cried into his shoulder, too relieved for words.
Behind him, the Berkano and the brothel witches entered through the nave door, their hands over their noses and mouths.
“Mihi,” I whispered, and the scent of spiced apples fanned the horrible stink away.
Everyone breathed easier. Philip and Tessa, standing next to each other, lowered their hands at the same time. As they looked at each other, a shock electrified the air between them, one powerful enough to freeze them in the moment, to flood Tessa’s cheeks the same color as the bandana holding back her glossy hair and the blood still leaking from Philip’s neck, to charge the church with even more hope for the future.
Still clinging to Dad, I reached for Hendry beside me and immediately found solace in the warmth of his fingers threading through mine.
A watery smile twitched across my mouth as I gazed up at Dad and then at Philip behind him. Philip dragged his attention away from Tessa long enough to give me a nod and a slow grin.
“We’re going to be okay, Dad,” I said and squeezed Hendry’s hand. “Have faith in me.”
Epilogue
Allison didn’t take back her rules before she died. She also hadn’t broken the spell she’d put on Hendry and me to tie up our tongues whenever we talked about the church or the hanging ritual. Color me surprised. But in some ways, it was good we couldn’t tell anyone about the ritual that could give another witch more power. We didn’t need a repeat performance of someone like Allison.
About a week after the whole ordeal, Hendry and I stood outside the church in the parking lot while a song of hammers pounding and chitchat echoed throughout the night. Humans, witches, and vampires had congregated here to rebuild the church, including the section of the roof destroyed by the flood, and, so far, no one had run away screaming, whether because of bloodlust or because someone was the object of bloodlust. Granted, the Berkano and witches were working separately, not together, on two different areas of the church, but this was progress.
I had a plan to continue that progress written between the ruler-straight lines drawn on the paper on my clipboard—a schedule for both humans and vampires to donate blood. Unlike baths, this would be completely voluntary, just as rebuilding the church had been. We were all going to need to work together to survive together, and this would help us do just that.
Hendry would be in charge of the bloodletting, a task I knew he was excited about since it involved medical knowledge. Dr. Hendry had a nice ring to it.
But with the rules still engrained in our heads, it would be slow going, not just for witches but for the vampires, too, I suspected. One of our own had drawn them here with her blood song to drink from them. Another group of witches had enjoyed slaughtering them for parts. It was good they were taking their time to trust us.
Blood Song: Division 7: The Berkano Vampire Collection Page 17
