by Gina Shafer
“What’s next, Soren?” Marcel asks.
Soren looks uneasy for a moment, as he turns to look at me.
“Next is Abe’s floor. He’s heavily guarded, so it’s going to take every one of us. Even then, we still might not make it. It’ll be tough. This is the time for your guns. There are six demons at the elevator exit, another four down the hall. Three are guarding his room door, and Lincoln is the man on the inside,” Soren explains. My body tenses at Lincoln’s name. I can’t find the strength it will take to stop hating that man at this moment, so I ignore it, and to my relief, so do the others.
“Let’s do this,” Micha says, and we all climb back into the elevator. This time though, we draw our guns. There’s no point in trying to go for the element of surprise now; he’s going to know that we’re here the second a fight breaks out.
Soren bends down and pets Willow behind the ears once more.
“You, girl, I need you to block that fire exit. Don’t let anyone get through those doors. Don’t let him escape,” he says to the dog. For a brief second I wonder if Willow even understands everything that Soren just said, but I don’t have time to think for long.
We are thrust back into the fight the moment the elevator doors open again on the fifth floor.
“Wes, what the fuck?” I see the first demon turn, a confused look on his face as we all exit the elevator. Clearly Soren was going by the name Wes, and this demon can’t understand why he’s standing in the middle of us. The space is tight, more closed off than the other two. I realize that instead of having doors on either side of us, there is only one hallway this time, to the right of us.
The demon opens his mouth to speak once more, but he’s stopped in his tracks by Xo’s small throwing knife entering the back of his throat. One down, I think as the demon’s body falls to the fancy woven carpet.
I lunge forward at another demon, piercing him in the gut with my blade and then spinning around to nick the demon Xo took out in the forearm.
Micha is the first to shoot his weapon. He fires his pistol as a demon comes running full speed at him, aiming and hitting him right between the teeth. That demon’s face is too mangled for me to mark it with my dagger, so I lean down and grab his palm. Facing it upwards, I stab the sharp tip into the center, pulling it out just as swiftly. I move quickly around the room, marking any other fallen demons with my blade.
We make it past the first group of demons, but we’re quickly met with more after Micha’s shot rings through the building. Four come running around the corner; they must be the ones that guard Abe’s door.
Xo shoots at them first, his rifle pulled from his back. The laser points directly at a demon’s head and blows it to smithereens in less than a second. I grab my pistol and fire a shot in the knee of a demon and watch as it falls to the ground. I run up and pierce the side of the demon’s temple with my dagger, then spin and slice across another demon’s stomach. As soon as the metal hits the demon’s skin, Marcel comes up from behind and snaps his already loose neck.
Once the last demon is killed, I toss my dagger to Marcel, who takes the blade and twists it into the demon’s stomach. He wipes it off on his coat and then tosses it back to me.
Now that we’ve made it through, I know there is only one demon left tonight that I want to kill.
Abe.
I march directly toward his door. A few seconds pass before I hear the group’s footsteps behind me, but once I do it spurs me on and my pace quickens.
It’s time to end this.
I twist the knob, but it doesn’t give. I give the door a knock instead. Someone had to have tipped him off that we were here. I’m surprised when I hear the lock click and the door starts to creak open. Lincoln stands in the doorway in front of me, and it takes everything I have not to tackle him to the floor and shove my dagger into his throat. I feel Soren come up from behind me and place his hand around the inside of my elbow on the arm holding my dagger. He doesn’t want me to kill Lincoln. I understand. But that doesn’t make the urge any less.
“Abe would like to meet with you,” Lincoln says in his most slimy, snakelike voice.
“But you must leave the weapons outside,” he continues. Lincoln’s eyes drop to my dagger, and he lifts his index finger slowly, placing it over his lips in the shhh shape. I quickly slip my dagger into my inside coat pocket and we all make a show of dropping our other weapons down to the floor.
When we all step forward, Lincoln shakes his head.
“No, no, no,” he says, shaking that same index finger. I yearn to reach out and break that finger off his hand. Even though he’s helping us, I can’t bring myself to stop imagining ways to kill him.
“Only you, Elijah,” he says, pointing that fucking finger into my chest. I look behind me, catching the face of every man standing there. I see uncertainty, hatred, even fear. I don’t see the face of any man that wouldn’t go in there if they were in my position. I look to Soren especially, and when he nods his head, I move forward. He trusts me, and he trusts Lincoln. I know he would never be okay with me going in here without backup if he didn’t.
“Fine,” I say, shoving past Lincoln so hard that it almost knocks him over. When he recovers, I hear the door shut and the lock click. I instantly think this was a bad idea, but I’ve already made the decision, so I go with it, hoping he has nothing planned.
“Elijah... It’s good to see you again.” Abe speaks from across the dark room. I wish I could say the same. He’s standing at a wet bar in the corner, filling a glass with a dark amber liquid. The room is dark, with only the light of a crystal chandelier above the entryway allowing us to see.
“Abe,” I say, angry and harsh. I want to kill him so bad I can feel my fingertips pulse with the need to grab my dagger.
“Your team did a lovely job taking down all of my backup.” He feigns disinterest. I know full well that he was up here stewing every time we got a floor higher.
“Your team wasn’t much of a challenge,” I answer. He chuckles at this and then throws back his glass, gulping the last bit of fluid down his throat. It takes all of my strength to control myself, to keep myself from launching across the room. I’m sure the hatred is seeping from my eyes, so I try my best to straighten myself. I don’t want him knowing how badly I want this, how badly I want to kill him.
“So what is it you’d like this time?” he begins. “I’m sure you didn’t come all this way to have a friendly chat. The dead bodies rotting in my hallways tell me you came to fight. So, is that what you want? A fight?” He’s baiting me. I know he is. In the middle of all this talking, he’s crossed the room, coming to stand in front of me. He’s so close that I can smell him. The earthy scent of wet bark fills my nose, like he’s been lying in a grave for so many years he can’t get the smell from his skin. He disgusts me, and I make a show of it clearly on my face.
“I came to kill you,” I say, squaring my shoulders even more. At least he has the decency to look afraid for a moment.
“Now, Elijah… you know that won’t be happening today. To kill me, you’ll have to get through Lincoln. And not even your mates outside can help you there… That door can only be opened from the inside.” I turn to look at the door, noticing a sheen to it that I hadn’t seen when I entered.
“Magic?” I ask, and Abe nods his head, smiling. I should have known they would have something up their sleeve.
I pull the dagger from behind my back and Abe’s eyes go wide again at the sight of the metal before he quickly replaces the shock evident on his face with anger.
“Which is it, Elijah?” he asks. “I’ll let you walk from this room without retaliating, just this once. Or, you give your life for nothing and Lincoln kills you here and now.”
“I don’t think so,” I tell him as I shake my head. I lock eyes with Lincoln, who’s slowly made his way behind Abe, unnoticed. I nod my head to him once and he attacks Abe from behind. If only I had a camera to capture the shocked look on Abe’s face before he goes dow
n. Betrayed by one of his own; I know the feeling.
“What the hell are you doing, Lincoln?” Abe shrieks, and I hear banging coming from the other side of the door. The others must have heard the scuffle.
“I’m quite sick of the whole ‘King’ thing, Abe. Think it’s time for a change,” Lincoln says as he drags Abe to the nearest chair at the dining room table. He shoves Abe down, grabbing a rope from the shelf near the table. Lincoln must have known all along that we would make it up here, that he would need rope. He quickly knots Abe into his chair and turns to me when he’s finished, holding his hands out like he’s serving me this demon on a platter. I mentally note that maybe Lincoln isn’t so bad after all.
It’s also important to note that Abe hasn’t closed his lips this entire time. He’s spewing hate, his lips covered in spit. He’s beyond pissed, and I don’t blame him. But I’m still going to kill him.
I raise my hand and strike Abe across his cheek with the butt of my dagger, effectively ending his screaming. He looks up at me, red faced, his demon eyes shining.
“You can’t kill me,” he says, his anger turning into a smile on his face.
“And why is that?” I ask, sitting into the chair opposite him, placing my dagger into the sheath at my ankle.
“Because I have too much to tell you. After all Elijah, I am your father.” He laughs and then leans over to spit blood onto the carpet.
“Only by marriage,” I say, laughing back at him. If he thinks this is the way to get to me, he’s sorely mistaken.
“She always asked me to spare you, Elijah. That’s the reason you’re still alive right now. She came to me. Every day we had you, she came and asked us to let you go. Not to harm you. That she would tell the Sicarri everything. I told her she was a spoiled girl who needed to be taught a lesson. When I told her we were going to kill you, she broke in and cast that sleeping spell on you. We tried every way we could think of to kill you, but nothing ever worked. I don’t know where she learned that magic, but there is a lot I do know about her.”
“What’s your point?” I spit. He’s hit a nerve in me, and he knows it. Maybe my Vara shield is not as bullet proof as I had hoped.
“I could tell you everything,” he offers. “I could tell you how to end all of this.”
“Why would you do that?” I ask, confused.
His gaze moves to the spot where my dagger is hidden beneath my pant leg.
“Don’t use that on me,” he says and it sparks the memory of Aiden in my mind. I contemplate for a moment. Lincoln paces in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at the situation between Abe and me.
This is my chance. My chance to learn all of the information the Sicarri have spent their lives searching for. He’s offering it all, in exchange for his life. All I have to do is keep this one demon alive. Can I do that? Could I live with myself?
For me, it’s not that simple. Maybe I’m still raw from what he admitted about Vara. I can’t really tell when I made up my mind, but before I know it, I stand, plucking the dagger holstered at my ankle on the way up. I twirl it in my fingers, feeling the weight of the steel for the thousandth time. I know this blade, I know how it moves, how far I need to plunge it into a chest cavity to stop a heart. I take comfort in this dagger, the one thing I don’t hate Vara for leaving behind.
“No, Elijah, don’t...” Abe pleads, but I don’t hesitate. I glide the blade of my dagger across his throat and smile as the pools of blood run down his lifeless body and toward my boots. That’ll be a bitch to clean up. I feel nothing—no joy, no sadness, nothing. I stand before Abe’s lifeless body, knowing he’s behind those eyes screaming at me, wanting to kill me, wishing he could get out. I’ve doomed him to an eternity trapped behind meat and flesh. This body will rot, but he will still be stuck. In time it will turn into bones, and then nothing, but still… he will be trapped, unmoving, unable to ever possess another human being.
Lincoln and I finally lock eyes over the lifeless body before us. He brings his fingers up in a salute and suddenly disappears in a blur of blue flame before me. I haven’t seen magic like that in my lifetime, and it’s left me confused. I’m not sure what just happened, but I think it’s clear that we have underestimated Lincoln all this time. He’s clearly more than just a demon… He showed me that. So why did he want me to know? And, more importantly, what the fuck is he?
Whatever he is, the Sicarri will find out. I keep my head lowered, ready to answer to my people on the other side of that door. In one swipe of my blade, I’ve incited a war, one I intend to fight to my very last breath. I can only hope that they’re ready to fight as well.
As my footsteps echo through the room, I am met with a shiny pair of black patent leather boots that stop me in my tracks. My eyes wander up slowly, following a long slim leg covered in soft black fabric. Up they travel, higher, higher, over a pair of beautiful perky breasts surrounded by long, wild red hair. Before my eyes even reach her face, I know. Deep, deep down I know, Standing in front of me is…
“Vara,” I whisper as my eyes finally lock on a pair of silver-glazed demon eyes shining back at me from the face of my wife.
Looking up from underneath my lashes, I blink over and over to make sure what I’m seeing is real. When she speaks, I’m sure of it.
My wife isn’t dead. She isn’t gone. She’s here.
“Hello, Elijah.” She speaks… She speaks and I feel the world shift underneath my feet. Hello? That’s what she chooses to say to me? I don’t answer her right away; I can’t answer her right away. The silver is gone from her eyes, making her look even more like the woman I married.
I stare. Thinking. Wondering. I’m taking in her features and searching deep within myself for a shred of the love that I used to have for her.
I can’t find it.
“Why are you here?” I ask her while simultaneously crossing my arms over my chest. The move feels a bit like self-defense, my arms acting as a shield to deflect her next words. No matter what she says, nothing will explain the things that she’s done. I shouldn’t even be standing in this room with her, let alone speaking to her. But for some reason my feet are rooted to the floor and I find myself unmoving, waiting for her answer.
“I came to see you,” she says, stepping closer to me. For a moment I honestly consider the fact that I’m going insane. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve thought I saw Vara. But when she shifts her body closer once more, her scent permeates the air between us and I smell the perfume she always used to spray—oranges. She’s real, and she’s completely unchanged from the day I left her.
I scoff at her, holding back a laugh. She’s here to see me? What a fucking joke.
“And why is that? I know everything about you now, Vara. You lied to me the entire time we were together… You’re… one of them.” My traitor voice cracks at my last words. Damn it. Even though the love I had for her is lost, I’m still deeply affected by her lies.
“Please don’t be angry. You know I would never do anything to hurt you… Or Soren for that matter.” Her voice drips like melted butter through the room.
“Except you did Vara, you hurt both of us. You have no idea what we’ve been through,” I spit at her.
“That’s where you’re wrong Elijah. I do know. I know everything. I’ve kept eyes on both of you this entire time. How else do you think you woke up?” She asks, moving close.
“That was you?” I ask, my voice no more than a whisper.
“Of course it was Elijah,” She answers, her tone almost rude before she catches herself. I’m reminded that this woman in front of me is a demon.
“Why would you do that?” I ask her, growing angry.
“Everything I did, I did for us. To keep us safe, to keep our son safe,” she says as she moves even closer. I can feel the heat of her body mingling with mine. I could believe her; I could grab the back of her neck and pull her to me. I could forget everything she did, trust her again, and be a family again. I feel myself giving in and I’m not sur
e why. Everything in me is screaming at me to kill her, to slide my dagger into her belly while she’s still close enough to do so. But my body remains unmoving.
And then I notice the green of her eyes, and I feel like something is missing. I find myself wishing they were blue…
Karina’s blue.
This isn’t the woman I’m in love with. That woman is safe in her room at the house, away from this evil thing in front of me.
“Elijah…” She reaches across the short distance and brushes her fingers across my bulging forearm, still crossed against my chest. At the feel of her cold fingertips, my body snaps out of its paralyzed state and stumbles backwards, almost falling. At the same time, I feel the wall behind her explode, shaking the furniture and crashing the breakables to the ground. I fall on my ass and squeeze my eyes shut on impact. I hear glass breaking and rumbling from deep within and then things grow quiet.
When I open my eyes again, Vara is gone. The draft from the window beside me blows, ruffling the curtain covering it. I stare, dumbfounded.
She escaped.
I don’t even notice the doorway was blown open until my men are stooping in front of me, asking what happened. Lincoln stands in the back, his arms crossed behind his back. He’s watching me, curiously. It must have been him who magicked the door open. I frown deeply, remembering his disappearing act earlier.
“Dad? Did you hear me?” I hear my son ask, his voice different. Oh yes, I remember, Soren isn’t in his own body anymore. My eyes travel slowly to the face that I try to recognize as my son’s. He frowns deeply, worry covering his face like a shroud, and I realize I haven’t spoken.
“I’m fine. I just…” I start to tell him that I just saw his mother, but I look to the open window once more, for proof that I’m not crazy. She really was here.
“Your mother was here, Soren. She came after I killed Abe. After Lincoln disappeared.” My gaze moves back to Lincoln. “You’re going to explain that little disappearing act,” I say, and lift my finger to point directly at him. Lincoln lifts his palms up and shrugs. I’m about to open my mouth to make him explain it now when Soren’s voice catches my attention again. Only this time he’s not speaking to me; he’s speaking to the others, to Marcel in particular.
