by Jill Cooper
Mom had taught them to ride and took care of all the animals, with the girls’ help. Jessica was more interested in machinery, but Amanda had loved the animals. The baby chicks and even the two goats they kept. The pasture was still there, but it was overgrown and no animals had grazed on those fields in years.
The Blood family home, never sold, yet never lived in again. It was like a sacred tomb as Amanda stood on the doorstep, staring at a tarnished copper knocker. The blue door was faded and showed signs of wear, but in her mind Amanda saw it as it once was, beautiful and pristine.
In her distant memory, the wind blew, as the door was opened. Two little girls clutched each other’s hands as they skipped down the road. Flowered skirts and jean jackets, Amanda was small and barely kept up with Jessica as they laughed. Mom, her curls red and flowing, stuck her head out the door.
“Be careful, you two!”
Lunch boxes swung from their hands as they hurried to the bus stop. They didn’t stop, never turned around to see the shining smile of Donna Blood, even as something dark haunted the corner of her eyes.
Danger was coming. They lived on borrowed time. Mom knew, just as Dad did. Amanda had been little and they hid it from her. So busy with caring for animals, even insects, and playing with dolls. Amanda hadn’t a care in the world. She didn’t realize how much would ride on her shoulders. On her soul.
She twisted the old knob and stepped into the open living room of her home. There was no furniture anymore, except for an old grandfather clock in the corner of the room. A rear staircase led to the bedrooms The luster of the hardwood floor had faded—coarse from a decade drying out—but everything was clean. Amanda’s toes gripped the hardwood floor as she made her way across the room and stopped before a stain. Not bright, but muted.
Red. The color of blood.
Amanda bent forward so her fingers could touch the stain. She hadn’t seen it that night. Barely even noticed it the night Mom was killed, but as her fingers stroked against it, her mind came alive with a scream of evil. Faces of torment flashed into her mind and the past played out in her head.
Over ten years ago, lightning flashed, illuminating all of the windows. The den door swung open wildly as Mom, in her nightgown and bathrobe, stepped from the room. Demons by the stairs snarled and charged toward her. Maybe she would’ve gotten further, but she’d locked the den door first.
Protect Jacob. Save the children. His sacrifice needed time to work. It just did.
Her friend. Savior. Her lover. Donna would do anything for him and their family.
With teeth gritted, she stormed into the three demons, who violated her home. Mom struck one with her fist and pushed another back. She wasn’t a fighter, far from it. A demon grabbed her by the arm and she took that opportunity to push her dagger into his stomach.
He didn’t die from the wound; instead the other demons seized her by the arms, as the injured one slit her throat with her own blade. They let her body fall, as lightning flared and thunder crashed outside. Mom groaned as her back collided with the hardwood floor. She grabbed at her neck.
“My babies,” Donna whispered and watched two demons head for the stairs while the other headed for the den door.
No, Jacob.
Her palm fell open on the hardwood, just as a golden light lit up the den. It blocked everything else out from her vision, but she heard Jacob fall. Donna sobbed listening to him fall.
“Mommy!” Jessica’s footsteps rushed down the stairs and that was how it all started for them. That’s when the horror really began.
The memory faded as Amanda’s finger slipped from the floor as she stood. It was the den she really wanted to see. She needed to stand in it again and feel him. It had been so long since Amanda had been able to feel him. This place was cursed now or that’s what they’d always thought.
Aunt Gwen told them demons would track them here. It wasn’t safe to see the home of their parents, but Amanda had always wanted to return. Sometimes she got close, but the remembered misery and despair of the place scared her off.
Not anymore. Now Amanda was stronger. She saw her dad in her mind’s eye. She could feel him and appreciate his sacrifice. She really wasn’t alone anymore.
She pushed the den door open and expected to see all his things, right where he had left them, but it was dark. Empty. The bookcases still held his books, but everything else had been sold or thrown away except for one lone chair. It made Amanda’s heart tight and bitter. That stuff was theirs, hers and Jessica’s. It shouldn’t have been sold without their permission.
Daddy…Amanda’s fingers swept against the leather recliner in the center of the room.
With her eyes closed, Amanda allowed herself to sit. A deep inhale was all it took to smell him. A smell of leather mixed with pine, from all the work he did in the yard. A slight hint of grease, from when he worked on the car with Jessie. Something just the two of them did and Amanda didn’t understand why her sister loved it so much. She suspected it had something to do with him.
When she opened her eyes, she was six years old again. The den was polished and perfect. Pristine, as all of Dad’s things were. A fire flickered in the fireplace and in front of her on a small table, a tea set.
Amanda poured two cups of pretend tea—just water—into cups. And on tiny plates, small crackers. “One lump or two, Daddy?”
Her voice was so kind. So sweet, it scared her that she had changed so much.
Dad put his book down and sat in the chair opposite her. He wasn’t sleeping much, judging by the lines around his eyes. His face was scruffy. from not being shaved. The sleeves on his white shirt were rolled up and he wore a black vest that hadn’t been buttoned. Amanda never saw the worry on his face, even as he rubbed it. Although she was an empath, she was only six, and just hadn’t known.
“Two lumps. You know how I love my sugar.”
Amanda pretended to put two lumps of sugar in his tea and then they clinked their cups together. “Bottoms up!”
He never stopped watching her with his careful blue eyes. “You know how special you are to me, Mandy?”
“I know,” Amanda said shyly, but she didn’t really know, did she? Why was he always in his study working so hard? She wanted to play dolls and roll around in the dirt with him as she did with her Mom. Like how he spent time with Jessica working on his car.
Dad put his hands on her knees. “If you don’t really know, it’s my fault. I’m sorry. My work is important, but…want to lie in the grass tonight?” Dad sighed. “Want to gaze out at the stars with me? Just the two of us?”
Amanda nodded in a hurry. “I’d love that!”
“Good,” Dad grinned. “I’ll lay on your princess blanket, if you promise not to tell.” He gave her a wink and Amanda giggled.
“It can be our secret,” Amanda whispered.
“We’re going to have lots of secrets,” Dad stroked her hair back and gazed deep into her eyes. “So many secrets, Mandy, once you’re older. You’ll have to keep them just between us. Okay?”
Amanda sat back straight as the door opened. A strange man was there to visit. A priest, but not from church. Dad stood in a hurry, as if to block her view. “What the hell—.”
“Jake, we have to talk.”
It was Mike. How hadn’t Amanda known it was him that came to talk to her Dad? Was it Mike who warned Jacob that the demons were on the move?
Amanda opened her eyes, and the memory, the last of the memories she had time for, faded. Her dad had been a good man. She ached for him. She ached for all of it, but time for indulgence was over.
Miriam stood in the center of the room with her arms folded. Her head was buried down deep, like a bird, drifting to sleep. She was solemn in this place of deep mourning. Amanda appreciated her kindness.
“I’m ready,” Amanda stood from the recliner and caught her reflection in the patio window. Nothing about her was familiar anymore. It was all black and evil. The faces of the dead screamed out in torment, ami
d the fabric of her dress.
All that was left was for her walk into the underworld.
Miriam turned toward the patio door and it flew open. She held a hand up and in the distance in the fields, a staircase to the underworld opened. “Make your decent and I’ll close the path up after you.”
Tears of gold sparkled in Miriam’s eyes and she cupped Amanda’s chin. “May God be with you, child. May He have mercy on your soul for what you are giving up for all of us.”
“Thank you,” Amanda whispered and started forward. She reached the patio door just as someone blocked it.
Jessica.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Jessica
It had been so long since Jessica had been home, it almost didn’t seem real. She wished there was time to process and really think about it, but there wasn’t. Jessica had to ignore the yard and the old maple tree where once she carved their initials with her Swiss army knife. She had to get to Amanda, because outside a war was brewing.
Streaks of gold across the night sky amidst the fury of black wings disrupted whatever calm there was. The sounds of bombs dropping and steel against steel pierced the calm air about the place. Her remembrance of the place had already been ruined by her parents’ murder and now, there was something new to add to the list.
This was the place Jessica might lose Amanda forever. Everything had come full circle.
There was no time to think about how bittersweet it was to see the two-level home or how the open yard hadn’t changed much. Sure, the white picket fence was peeling and cracked, but that was all Jessica had time to remember. She couldn’t let her memories get in the way of doing what she had to do.
Her hand rested on the door handle. It was time to go. Push on and find her sister.
Duncan took her by the shoulder. “Go in through the back and I’ll check the front. I’ll try to keep the angels and demons off of you, Jess. Just be fast and quick. Remember if anyone stands in your way, you’re gonna have to deal with them swiftly.”
Jessica couldn’t pinpoint it, but something about his voice was different. It held a harsher quality than what she was used to. Maybe he was just nervous. Who wasn’t a little on edge? “Shouldn’t we take this on together?”
Duncan’s smile was playful and crooked. Shouldn’t he be more serious about this? They had arrived at the finish line after all. “I wish we could, darlin’, but if Amanda sees us both coming, she will run. We don’t want to spook her.”
That made sense. It did. Jessica exhaled. She was so nervous.
“You find her and you don’t let her go. No matter the cost.”
This was it. Pep talk over. Hopefully she’d be up to the task. Jessica stole a kiss from him. “For my own luck.”
Duncan stroked her hair back and his eyes glinted with passion. “There’ll be time later. I’d always make time for you, darlin’.”
She could stay there forever and get lost in his eyes. Something about them was more hypnotic than usual. The way they glinted, with specs of brown adrift in a sea of blue. Had Duncan’s eyes always been so haunting? Powerful?
“I love you,” Jessica whispered, but what was wrong with her? She had to go.
Duncan nuzzled her lips. “We’ll be together forever. Now, go Jessie. Go.”
Jessica broke free of her trance, popped the door open and took off running. Normally she loved a good fight, but she avoided the air fight. Angels clashed against flying demons high in the sky, except for the occasional nose dive. Dirt shot up, as bombs were dropped to earth. Never in her life had Jessica seen demons with black wings. She would’ve loved to put a few in the grave.
For now, she couldn’t draw attention to herself. All Jessica could do was keep her head down and run. Heart pounds and legs aching from being weak. Heaven knew, the run wasn’t that long or hard.
She jumped the white picket fence and edged around the windows of her Dad’s old den. Her heart clenched to be so close to it. Inside a darkened silhouette moved and Jessica paused at the paint chipped door. Her hand just above the handle, Jessica froze. She couldn’t move. Her heart was in her chest.
Amanda was in there. She knew it. Jessica could practically smell that sweet fruit scent that always lingered around her.
The door was pulled open from the inside and Jessica’s heart leaped out of her throat, to be face to face with her sister again.
Only, Amanda wasn’t her sister anymore. Jessica didn’t want to believe her eyes, but her heart convulsed in pain to stare directly into the face of her tormentor.
Lourdes.
It was the face of a twisted monster. There were slight differences. Amanda was still under there, but it was as if she had been covered with molten ash. Her real features still poked through, like the way her nose crinkled and that adorable chin that Mom always used to kiss goodnight.
Her dress was a work of tortured souls. Her arms and neck were covered in tight black ink and her hair had lost its lustrous red sheen—instead it was a tangled mess of black curls and above them all…a set of horns.
But her eyes…her eyes were Amanda’s. Everything about them was what Jessica loved. The green, the purity. Somehow her baby was in there and wasn’t lost at all. She could reach her, Jessica knew she could.
“You can’t go.” Jessica stood her ground, but her voice broke with sadness. “You can’t just march into the underworld. Amanda—.”
Amanda wasn’t happy to see her. Instead, she sighed as if Jessica was a problem. Something that had gotten in the way. “Like I have a choice?” Her words struck Jessica hard. “You think if there was another choice and I wouldn’t take it? To stay here, with you? My sister…” Amanda stretched a handout. Her fingernails were jagged and black and her palms held black tattoos of thorns and heartbreak.
Jessica took her hand without question or hesitation. She held it and squeezed it hard because this was Amanda. It didn’t matter to her if she was the queen of the underworld. Her sister…they’d be together until the end and Jessica wouldn’t let her go. She couldn’t. Maybe Jessica had thought, for a brief moment, she could sacrifice her…
Jessica would die without Amanda and that meant they found a way to do this together. If they both went into the underworld to save the world from Lucifer and his demons, maybe things would finally be right. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Duncan, or a life she might have had, but maybe this was the Blood sacrifice that was needed.
Maybe this had always been the part they were meant to play.
Together, instead of apart.
Miriam’s nose flared. “We’re wasting time. Amanda, Hell has split. Only your return to the throne can stop what is about to happen!”
Amanda’s eyes searched Jessica. “We can’t be responsible for destroying the world.”
One more time, Jessica pleaded. “Give Aunt Gwen time. She has what she needs. She’s almost here, Amanda. Please.” Jessica wasn’t above begging for this. “Five minutes. Please. If she doesn’t show, we go. Together.”
“Together?” Amanda’s forehead creased. “No, I can’t let you do that. You belong here. You’re not…you’re human, Jessica.”
“Barely. Because of you. If you’re going to the underworld to clean house, to release the lost souls, let me help you.” Jessica squeezed her sister’s hand and Amanda gazed down at it. “Please.”
Amanda licked her lips and her eyes widened. “I don’t know.” She gawked back at Miriam, but the angel shook her head. Fire and brimstone shone in her eyes. “It cannot be done. Only one goes into the underworld and that person has already been chosen!”
Jessica clenched her teeth and stared Miriam down. “You don’t get to dictate what we do. You might be an angel. You might serve a higher purpose, but we’re Bloods. We stick together, no matter the odds.”
Miriam’s cheeks reddened. Eyes wide, she shouted. “You think that has done any of you any good? We told you to stay away, Jessica Blood! Now the angels are in trouble out there. Something is very wrong, and while you
can’t feel it, you can’t see it, I can!” Miriam drew her sword.
Amanda’s eyes widened. “Miriam!” She splayed her arms out wide to protect Jessica. “No, don’t do this!”
“I wish not to, Amanda.” Miriam gulped a deep breath of air as her golden wings expanded wide in a terrible display and the sound of thunder shook the house. “We all wish not to do violence against any human. It will break the heart of heaven itself, but Jessica Blood must step aside. And if she won’t, no matter the tears we shed for her….”
Her words were cut off as a sword blade erupted through her torso. The angle screamed as the glowing red blade cut upward, nearly tearing her body in two.
“No!” Amanda screamed and grabbed the angel’s slumping body. “Jessica!” Amanda’s tone changed to one of desperation, seeking help.
“Get away from that blade!” Jessica grabbed Amanda by the shoulders and wrenched her backward, but she didn’t understand. Who was there? What had happened?
Miriam’s body began to dissolve into gold dust. What remained was snapped in two by a pair of strong hands and she disintegrated one golden note at a time.
What? No blade could kill an angel! Jessica didn’t understand….
As the haze dispersed, Amanda’s shrieks of terror faded. For through the cloud of vapor came Duncan Jasper’s smiling face.
No way was that happening. Jessica knew Duncan better than she knew herself. There was no way he would take out an angel. She thought back to their talks in the car, how he kissed her and held her—almost like she was his property. Something had been off about him, but how could it be? Was he sick?
Injured?
He snarled in a way that Duncan wouldn’t. Jessica couldn’t catch her breath as he brought his sword up in an offensive stance. She pulled Amanda back, against the wall behind her. Whatever was happening, Jessica couldn’t believe he was in control. “You’re better than this, Duncan. Please, don’t.”
