Kill her.
It bombarded me with a spree of images, starting in my childhood. Memories of Granny shooting my dog, Rocky, when he came down with cancer. Granny stomping on my school science project because I’d forgotten to do my chores. Her scornful face whenever I did something wrong and my tiny room where she’d ground me to for the rest of the day. The many times she’d told me that I was cursed.
But nothing compared to the darkest of them all. The memory of her marching me to my doom—to the twisted tree where they strung me up and watched me burn.
Rage filled my head. It was so unfair. I was a child. She had no right to treat me that way. To beat me down until life seemed impossible. Demonic side or not, she’d ruined my childhood and torn away what little good I had left. She deserved to die.
I deserved to kill her.
My legs moved forward by their own volition. The demon inside me squealed in anticipation, a false high filling my limbs with an ecstasy unlike I’d over known. My hand with the dagger reached toward Granny’s neck. A simple flick was all that it would take. One slice and we were through. The thought gave me a thrill. It was just like when she’d ordered me to kill Gabe in the woods. But this time, she was the victim.
At the thought of Gabe my mind froze. The high I’d been feeling turned dark and cold. I recoiled from the anticipation for blood, urges the demon had put into my head. This was wrong. I couldn’t kill another human. Not even if it was Granny. Not even to save my own life.
“I won’t do it,” I screamed.
With one kick, I slammed the feral on Granny’s left into a nearby tree. The demon inside of me began to flail with panic as I drove my dagger into the other feral’s heart. It lashed out and tried to hurt me, but I ignored its attack as more ferals joined the fight.
Granny shuffled to her feet, snatched her shotgun, and ran away without a look back. I managed to keep the ferals busy long enough for her to disappear into the trees. But soon, they overwhelmed me and I found myself pinned to my back on the ground, looking up at the blue sky peaking through the trees.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Elizabeth leaned over me, blocking out my view of the sky.
Her feral puppets gripped each of my limbs with excruciating pressure. There was no escape.
“I’m very disappointed, my daughter.” She plucked the silver dagger from my hands and tossed it into the trees. “Very disappointed. It looks like you won’t be sharing eternity with your mother, after all.”
She gestured at the ferals. They pulled me up from the ground, and although I struggled against their claws, I was no match for them.
“Go ahead, kill me.” I spat.
There was no point in dragging this out. I would never let that demon inside of me take control.
“Oh, I will,” she said, an evil grin curling her lips. “But not until you release my Prince from Hell. Along with all of his armies. Your kind will perish from the face of the Earth by nightfall, take my word for it.”
With that evil proclamation, she turned on her heels and began marching us straight to the Hell Gate.
Chapter Nineteen
The demons dragged me through the forest, kicking and screaming. No amount of Nephilim energy I had left in me could overcome the strength of five ferals. Elizabeth laughed maniacally as I fought to be released.
“Give up, child. This is the end.”
I glared at her, wishing I could make her spontaneously combust with just the heat in my gaze. “Never. I won’t let you kill my family.”
She pouted. “You have no choice. I’m going to annihilate them all...one by one. Even that little boy toy of yours. What was his name?”
Clamping my mouth shut, I bit on my tongue. She didn’t deserve to know Gabe’s name. He was more powerful than she could ever dream. He’d avenge my death, of that I was certain. But my body ached at the thought of dying without saying goodbye to him. In the last few months, he’d become my very best friend and partner. I didn’t want to lose him.
It was only two months ago when he’d surprised me during one of our trips into the city and taken me to a fancy restaurant. The kind with the linen tablecloths, candles on the table, and soft music in the background. We’d spent an hour talking about our childhoods. He’d grown up in Westward Manor, but his parents had taken him to see the world. I’d been so envious of that. I’d never even been out of the state of South Dakota. He had gently taken my hand in his and promised me that we would do the same as soon as everything slowed down. How I wished that could’ve been true for us. I would’ve loved to see the world with Gabe.
“Oh, I touched a nerve.” Elizabeth grabbed my chin and shook it playfully. “Someone is extra sensitive about her love life. You can tell mommy all about it. I’ll make sure he gets some very special attention when he dies. Don’t you worry.”
A wad of spit flew from my lips and onto her face. Without batting an eye, she released my chin and calmly wiped it from her cheek.
“You’ll regret that. I’m going to make you wish you’d joined us. In fact, I predict that by the end of the day, you’ll be begging me to let you back on the team.”
“I’d rather die a thousand deaths,” I hissed. There was no way she’d ever turn me to her side.
“Very well.” Nodding at the ferals, she strode ahead of us.
Panic coursed through me as recognizable landmarks came into view. We were getting close to the mouth of the Hell Gate. Soon, she’d throw me in and there would be no stopping the armies of Hell. Gabe, Luke, Raquel, and all the rest of the Nephilim stood no chance against the legion of demons waiting for them. I had to stop her.
“Mom, listen to me.” I pulled back on my arms, causing the ferals to slow down. “Listen to me, please. Don’t do this.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Too, late. We’re almost there.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, demon.” Taking a deep breath, I pulled back again. “Mom, I know you’re still in there. Please, fight her. Don’t let her do this. We have to save our family.”
She stopped walking and fixed me with a jeer. “Your mother isn’t going to hear you. She’s been gone twenty-two years. I took her one day when she happened to wander a little too far into the woods and out of the protection of your precious Nephilim. And you want to know the best part?”
I bit the inside of my cheek, refusing to play her game.
“And no one even noticed.” She broke into a raucous laughter, bending over and slapping her knee. “They couldn’t see a demon right in front of them. All that faith in their little magical borders had blinded them to what was right in front of them. That my Prince is so powerful, even they can’t resist his will.”
Sorrow filled my heart. As much as I wanted to deny it, she was right. No one had noticed my mother’s death. For weeks, this demon had lived among the Nephilim and no one had noticed. Not even my own father. If my mother was still in there, I couldn’t imagine the pain she suffered.
“You’re a monster.” I spoke the words in a hoarse whisper. “You’re evil.”
“It’s all relative, my dear.” Straightening herself up to her highest height, she stared at me through deadpanned eyes. “Maybe, in your next life, you’ll learn that.”
She turned to leave, but I wasn’t done with her yet. Tears began to fall down my cheeks. Hot, heavy things that stung my eyes.
“Mom, please. Listen to me. You can’t let her do this.”
If my mother was still alive inside that body of hers, maybe she’d hear me. She could overtake the demon, save her daughter from the pit. I’d never needed her as much as I did right now. Not even when I was a kid, hiding from Granny’s wrath. She had to listen.
“Get a grip, kid.” She cocked her hip and placed a hand on her waist. “No one but me in here.”
“You’re lying.” I wiped my tears on my shoulder and glared at her. “She’s still in there, listening to every word I say. Admit it.”
“You’re wasting your breath.”
My throat
tightened with emotion as I fought off the doubts. “And she’s going to defeat you. Come on, Mom. Listen to me. Fight for me. You can do it.”
“Forget it,” she screamed, throwing out her arms. The irises of her eyes swirled with a deep, inky blackness. “She’s gone.”
Silence fell between us as we glared at each other. In my heart, my courage was dying. She’d been my last hope. The one person standing between her daughter and devastation. My shoulders fell and I stared at the ground below my feet, thick with dried up pine needles.
“She’s gone because you killed her.” I blinked through the moisture gathered on my eyelashes. “You took an innocent life and you destroyed her.”
“Ha!” Striding toward me, she reached out a hand. I flinched and expected a sudden blow to the side of my head. Instead, she stroked my cheek with her fingernails and cooed. “Poor Lizzy. She doesn’t understand.”
Venom poured from my glare. “Understand what?”
“A demon can’t inhabit an innocent victim. They’re too pure. Our host has to have a bit of evil already inside them. It makes a great home for a demonic entity to nestle into.”
I pulled away from her stinging touch. She was lying. Demons knew how to spin the truth into something completely unrecognizable. Another lesson from Gabe. She couldn’t be telling me the truth.
“My mother...”
“Your mother was already a little bit evil.” A grin stretched across her face. For the first time, I saw ugly in her. “That’s the only way I could’ve inhabited her. I mean, it’s no wonder, with a grandmother like that. I think your whole family has a little bit of evil inside them.”
My gut clenched and I hunched my shoulders against the pain. As a little girl, I’d imagined my mother as a lovely woman. Like a fairy-tale princess. The kind who would kiss my boo-boos and read bedtime stories. But, she’d been raised by an unloving and harsh woman. She could’ve been just the same. All this time, I had been fooling myself.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Elizabeth did a little jump and pushed her hair out of her face. “With a mother who was not only possessed, but evil, you’re royally screwed. I mean, look at you. There was no way you could escape Hell. You’re as evil and screwed up as the rest of us. Take my suggestion: embrace it and roll with it. Only then, will you become worthy of all you have been given.”
I felt the last remaining strength I had seep out of me. My legs buckled and my head bowed. The ferals began to drag me across the ground, following their giggling leader deeper into the woods.
The only thing I’d wanted during these past few months was to become worthy. Worthy of the Nephilim and the warrior position I held. Worthy of being the daughter to a great leader and kind father. And worthy of being Gabe’s partner. Fighting tooth and nail to become deserving, I’d screwed it up so many times. And it was no wonder. The cards had been stacked against me since the beginning. I’d had no chance. I was fighting a losing battle.
“I’m going to cherish the looks on your friends’ faces when we come marching down on your precious manor...” Elizabeth was chatting away while I stewed in my misery. “...might keep some of those humans around as slaves. They’re handy, when they’re subdued. My Prince might agree to that.”
I thought of Laramie, shackled and chained in the stables, forced to serve the demons. She’d die before then and she’d probably take all the horses with her. Poor Reba. I never got to say goodbye to my beautiful gray horse.
There were so many things I wish I could take back. Things I’d said and done. Time when I should’ve been better. Tried harder. Listened to my father. Followed his guidance. Followed the rules. My life was peppered with such regrets.
A memory flitted inside my head just then. It was of the last dinner Luke and I’d had—our weekly ritual which had fallen by the wayside during my temper tantrum. He’d been excited about something he’d found in a journal, a note he’d made when he and my mother were together. It was shortly after they were married and dreaming of a family together. My mother had been adamant about wanting a little girl with rosy red cheeks and blue eyes. She’d had a dream about it, she’d told my father. And in the dream, her daughter would be the greatest warrior the world had ever seen.
Luke had been so excited to show me, but I’d slammed his book shut and pushed it away. I wasn’t the world’s greatest warrior. Not even close. But he’d taken my hands softly in his and explained that the greatest didn’t mean the strongest, the fastest, or even the most deadly. It was something that came from deep inside. An innate knowledge of one’s self. An urge to do right in the world. To save it.
I blinked against the afternoon light as it pierced through the trees above, wishing my father was right there, beside me. He’d know exactly what to say in this moment. How to make everything better.
Watching Elizabeth’s feet trekking ahead through the brush, I tried to imagine what Luke would tell me. If anyone would know, it would be me. I was, after all, his daughter. All this time, I’d been obsessing over the other side of my other parentage. But I had an equally good father’s blood running through my veins.
The words came to me, as though from his lips. I could imagine him sitting there in his office chair, gazing down at me with soft eyes and rubbing a hand on his chin. The sleeves of his shirt would be rolled up to the elbows and a coffee stain near the collar. In his hands, he’d be holding a book like a lucky talisman. His voice would be smooth and quiet, in the kind of pleasant hum that could put you to sleep.
He’d smile and remind me that not everything I’d done was wrong. That it wasn’t that long ago I saved a man in the woods who I thought was nothing more than a demon. And that I’d risked my life to save Gabe. Fought evil by his side. I’d saved a town—a town of people who had tried to kill me. And I’d even saved Granny.
Finally, he’d grin and say that if that wasn’t great, he didn’t know what great was.
My heart began to pound loudly in my chest as energy returned to my limbs. Maybe it didn’t matter if my mother was evil. It didn’t matter if she’d been possessed at my conception and cursed me with a sliver of demonic entity. All that mattered was me, here and now. How I reacted to the world around me. My past didn’t dictate my future. Neither did the things I couldn’t control. Elizabeth couldn’t steal those from me. Her Prince couldn’t either. I was a Nephilim warrior, through and through.
I was worthy.
“You won’t win.” I cried through happy tears, still envisioning Luke in front of me. “Maybe you’ll have your victory today, but you won’t win this thing. Evil always loses. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
Elizabeth turned to face me. She wore an incredulous smile and shook her head. “But can’t you see? I’ve already won. Take a look around you.”
I twisted my neck. At least twenty more ferals had joined us, their eyes flashing red with a thirst for blood. Their presence didn’t distract from the one distressing factor that made Elizabeth so giddy. We were here.
We had arrived at the Hell Gate.
Chapter Twenty
Elizabeth’s grip around my wrist cut the blood flow from my hand. Dragging me toward the cavernous Hell Gate, she chuckled, soft and throaty.
“I guess this is it. The end. I thought, as a mother, I’d feel a little something. But strangely, I’m no different.”
A low huffing breath left my lips. “That’s because you have no soul.”
“I guess you’re right.” Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she grinned. “Lucky me.”
The hole loomed in front of us. Evening had come to the Black Hills National Forest and darkness had settled within the rocky descent. It was the second time I’d been dragged against my will to this location. And it was the second time I was unsure if I was going to make it through.
“Once more should do it,” Elizabeth mumbled to herself. “Then my Prince will walk among us and I shall be rewarded beyond my wildest dreams.”
“The only reward you deserve is
a swift kick in the shins.” I yanked my arm away and she laughed.
The ferals behind us began to snarl and hiss. I looked over my shoulder to see at least ten majestic horses striding toward us. Their glossy coats quivered as they galloped into the clearing. Astride their backs sat a handful of Nephilim warriors with their weapons held high.
I nearly wept in relief. At the front of the pack rode Gabe on his midnight steed, Clint. Fury raged on his face, his jaw tense and a growl on his lips. He lunged at a feral with his long thin sword and skewered it through the shoulder. Behind him, Luke, Raquel, Ashley, and Adam came charging in, along with several other warriors that I recognized from the manor.
“Gabe!” My raspy voice broke.
He looked up from his attacker, his green gaze burning with urgency. “Lizzy! Hang on,” he yelled. “I’m coming.”
“It’s lover-boy to the rescue, is it?” Elizabeth sneered, tugging me as I fought her grip. “I thought you were better than that. This is the twenty-first century, isn’t it? Who needs a man to save you anymore?”
“He’s going to send you back to Hell,” I hissed. “And all of your friends.”
She clicked her tongue and leaned in, as if to tell me a secret. “That won’t be necessary. Hell is coming to them.”
With a shove far stronger than I expected, she pushed me backwards into the descent to the Hell Gate. Once again, I found myself sliding and spinning down the gravelly hole, unable to stop my momentum. I knew that once I hit the bottom, the war would be over. The demons would win. My family didn’t stand a chance.
The world was going to end.
The sensation of being dropped into a warm bath hit me first. My body suspended in midair and despite my back-peddling, I was stuck. Panic coursed through me as I twisted and fought.
This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the end. I’d come so far. It didn’t make sense for my life to end this way.
The thick liquid in front of my face began to thin, until nothing but a thin membrane separated me from Hell. Dark forms danced on the other side. Shadowy ferals, dozens and dozens of them, ready to make their way onto Earth. They opened the great wide chasms of their mouths and snarled. Although muffled, I could still hear the strength of their vicious roars.
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