"Hanna!"
I hear Jared yell my name from somewhere behind me. I turn, my eyes darting side to side until I spot him. He's shoving his way through the crowd. Moving as fast as I can, I reach out for him. Our fingertips touch when two Fallen emerge, each one grabbing Jared by the arm. They begin pulling him away.
"Looks like I win." Moving from behind a scared group of people huddled together; Blondie stands before me blocking my way to Jared.
I don't think. I only act, taking Blondie by surprise when I launch myself at him. I hit with a force strong enough to knock us both to the ground. He laughs like the deranged lunatic he is as his head bounces off the floor. I spare a glance in Jared's direction. Slipping out of his jacket, Jared manages to break free from the Fallen just as Luca intervenes to help.
A sliver of hope sparks inside of me. And then Blondie grabs a fistful of my shirt, pulling me down until his head collides with my face. He flips me over onto my back hitting my head so hard on the floor that for a moment I see stars as blood gushes from my nose, running in rivulets down the sides of my face. Hovering above me, Blondie grins from ear to ear.
Struggling to reach under my back, I manage to pull a small knife out from the waist of my pants. I shove the blade into the space between his bottom two ribs. Blondie’s smile falters, but never fails, even as I continue shoving the blade in with a twist until the hilt is pressed against his body. Using all the strength I have, I push him off. Slipping in blood, I get to my feet.
Reaching for the blade Blondie looks up at me, and laughs. Removing another one from my jacket I drop to my knees, plunging it right into the center of his chest. He's not laughing now. He screams and I run straight for Jared.
I slam into Jared's chest, his arms wrapping around me, while Luca, now joined by Owen take down the two Fallen who'd grabbed Jared moments before. The people closest to us back away in horror at seeing the two Fallen decompose into nothing right before their eyes.
The building shakes violently under my feet. Liquor shelved along the wall behind the bar tumbles to the ground shattering on impact. Fans come loose from the ceiling crashing onto the floor while people scramble on unsteady feet to get out of the way.
Jerking me to the side, Jared pulls me out of the way of a falling strobe light. Hitting the floor with a loud bang, it breaks apart, its pieces scattering across the floor coming to a stop at the toe of Blondie's boot. Knife still protruding from his chest, a sinister smile forms on his blood covered lips.
The building shifts, a crack splitting its way through the wall behind the toppled table and chairs.
He's doing this.
Pulling the knife from his chest, Blondie spits a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "You missed." He throws the knife so fast I don't have time to move quickly enough and it slices the outer edge of my left ear before lodging into the brick wall behind me.
After one last tremor strong enough to knock most of the people still left standing to the ground, the building settles. A hush blankets the room, the only sounds coming from hands and feet scraping over the floor, as people back themselves up against the walls, getting as far from Blondie as they can. The only people who remain standing are The Guardians and The Fallen who at the moment have ceased fighting, dividing themselves to opposite sides of the room.
"I have to admit Hanna, all the screaming and the chaos has been fun. I even enjoyed the bit where you stabbed me, but it's time now to give me what I want." Blondie's voice echoes throughout the room with an undertone of demand.
I throw my arm across Jared, holding him a step behind me. "How about you give me what I want." Probably not the smartest move making demands after he's clearly demonstrated how underprepared I am for tonight, but the fighter in me just isn't ready to give up yet. There's still some part of me holding out for a miracle.
"Bring them." Blondie's eyes shift back to a blue that does nothing to hide the darkness held behind them.
"Them?" Jared whispers beside me, saying out loud what I'm thinking myself.
From behind Blondie, three Fallen emerge from the stairs; each one dragging a body bound and gagged behind them. The sounds of their boots hitting the floor is like gunfire, and I flinch with each step, watching a trail of bright red blood being smeared across the surface of the crimson painted floor.
The Fallen deposit the bodies in front of Blondie. With the tip of his boot he nudges them, flipping them over so their faces can be seen.
I cover my mouth to keep from crying out, or vomiting, or both.
Lying on the floor, displayed for all to see are the badly beaten, blood soaked bodies of Adam, Will, and Logan. One of Adam's eyes is swollen, his lip split down the middle, the front of his shirt saturated in red. And to the left of him are Will and Logan, both of them covered in blood, as veins of dark red creep over their skin. None of them are moving, their eyes closed shut, and the only thing telling me they're even still alive is the slight rise and fall of their chests as they breathe.
Blondie claps his hands, the sound tearing my eyes away from the horror splayed out on the floor. He rubs his hands together, a small smile lifting the left corner of his mouth. "Decision time, Hanna. Give me Jared or watch me kill your friends here one by one. What's it going to be?"
I feel like I'm being split in two. How am I supposed to make a decision like this? How am I supposed to just hand Jared over when doing so could potentially damn the entire world? And how can I not when I know that if I don't Adam, the only family I have left in the entire world, along with Will and Logan will die?
I glance at Eric. Seeing the pain and struggle on his face at watching both his brother and his girlfriend bruised and broken at the foot of a madman and knowing there's nothing he can do to help them is more than I can take.
It's too much.
It's all too much.
The weight of my decision…
The staring eyes of all the Guardians and Fallen…
The way Jared's looking at me right now, like he's willing to sacrifice himself, no questions asked.
"Maybe I'm not making myself clear enough." Blondie removes a knife from behind his back. The blade is as black as I imagine his soul (or lack thereof) is. He presses the sharp edge of the blade to the soft padding of his finger. "Maybe you need more of an incentive." Using the tip of his knife he points first to my brother and then to each one of my friends lying helpless on the floor as he calls out, "Eenie meenie miney moe." With a sudden downward motion he drops to one knee, stabbing the knife in his hand through Logan's heart. Her eyes pop open as a breath bursting with a spray of blood passes over her lips. Her body goes limp, a trail of blood running from the corner of her mouth into the platinum blood of her hair, and for a moment, I can't stop staring at the contrast between the two colors.
Maybe I'm in shock.
Eric cries out in anguish. At his sides Luca and Owen hold him back until he finally gives up, dropping to his knees.
Jared moves out from behind me. I grab ahold of him tightly, swiveling him back around to face me. Grabbing his arm with both hands the symbol on my wrist lies flush against the smooth skin of his inner forearm.
"Jared, no."
"I don't have a choice." He lays his hand over mine. "If I don't go he'll kill them and I can't live with being the reason for your brother’s death.”
"But..." I want to argue with him. I want to tell him not to go. I want to tell him that if he does Blondie will only try to use him to spread darkness and despair, but I don't. I don't say anything, because I don't want Adam or Will to die. I don't want to watch the life bleed out of them like I did with Logan.
"It'll be okay." Jared starts to pry my fingers from his arm.
Around me I feel the pressure of the Guardians stares weighing me down, Cassidy's being the heaviest. I look at her, watching her shake her head and mouthing the word No, but I can't stop replaying the look on Eric's face when he watched his girlfriend die right in front of him. Can I really make him watch his b
rother die too? Can I watch the death of mine?
I lock my eyes onto Jared's face. In his eyes I see he's made up his mind and there will be no changing it.
I don't want to let him go. I want to find another way. I want some miracle to fall from the sky and save the day, but there is no miracle, and I'm out of time.
Blondie's won.
"Eenie meenie miney moe," Blondie singsongs. He stands, hovering above Adam, knife held high in his hands. Awake now, Adam strains against his bindings, his one good eye landing on me before squeezing shut in anticipation of what's to come. Tears fall from his eyes and every time they hit the floor, a part of me dies.
No, no, no. Stop. Please Stop. I want to shout it. I want to scream it. I want to let go of every ounce of power given to me by the symbol on my wrist to tear Blondie apart, but I can't. I can't shout. I can't scream. I can't move. I'm frozen and Adam is going to die and the only thing I can do is watch.
"Stop!" Jared shouts. "I'll come with you."
Blondie hesitates at Jared's proclamation, and then thrusts the blade down anyway.
The world shifts into slow motion. Power builds within me just out of reach. I'm not in control. Under Zoe's command I'm nothing more than a puppet being forced against my will to stand motionless and silent. She kneels at the head of my brother with a smile on her face and a wave of her fingers.
When this is all over, I swear I will make her suffer and beg for death.
On his knees now, Blondie smiles, the blade almost there. At the last second he leans forward, stabbing the knife into the floor. Meeting my gaze, he winks, then bursts into laughter.
I'm seized by relief that Adam's still alive and a seething hatred so strong that if it weren't for Zoe holding me here I'd be across the room ripping Blondie's heart out with my bare hands.
The glow of the symbol on my wrist intensifies tenfold, shining from between Jared's arm and mine. Two things happen: whatever hold Zoe has over me dissipates so that I'm me again and a mirror image of the symbol burns itself into Jared's inner forearm. Pulsing with a soft iridescence, the symbol on his arm sinks below the surface of his skin until it's no longer visible. He looks at me confused. I have no explanations. I'm just as confused as he is.
Blondie clears his throat and I'm overcome once again with the urge to rip his heart out. At the look in my eye, Jared takes my hands, stopping me from using my telekinesis. "Don't. Think about Adam now."
"Time to go Jared. Unless of course you want Adam here to die for real that is.” Knife held loosely in his hand, Blondie kicks Adam hard in the lower back. I clench my jaw so tight, my teeth hurt.
Jared grips my face with both hands forcing me to look at him. He kisses me softly. "I love you." Letting go he takes a step back and then another and another until he's joined Blondie on the other side.
"This is all your fault!" Cassidy screams at Eric. "If you had let me take Jared to Thomas when I suggested, none of this would be happening right now. Whatever happens next is on you." She looks down at him still crouched on the ground mourning the loss of Logan, with disgust. In this moment I regret ever helping her. She looks around at the other Guardians. "Well, don't just stand there. Do something to get him back." She charges at one of The Fallen closest to her, the other Guardians doing the same.
The cries of the people smooshed against the walls grow louder nearly drowning out the sounds of battle in the middle of the dance floor.
Blondie watches the mayhem unfolding around him with quiet amusement; his hand wrapped around Jared's upper arm like a vise. He pulls him toward the stairs, stopping at the edge.
I can't help it; I follow, or try to. Blondie turns at my approach stopping me with a flick of his finger, sending a force of energy slamming into my gut, knocking me down where I slide a few feet backwards. He blows me a kiss then turns to the insanely tall and muscular Fallen guarding the stairwell. "Burn it all down."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Adam sits with his back against the alley wall watching smoke billow out from the emergency exit door of The Iron Knife. He hasn't said a word or looked at me like I wasn't a monster since I carried him outside and healed some of his wounds. But at least he's alive and that's all that really matters.
Further down the alley, Eric sits with the lifeless body of Logan cradled in his arms. From here it almost looks like she's sleeping, though I know she's not. Like Adam, he hasn't said much either, except maybe to Logan who can no longer hear him.
I tear my eyes away, wanting so much to believe she's not gone. One minute she's there, full of life trying to help save my brother, and the next, I'm watching her choke on her last breath and it's all my fault, because I underestimated Blondie. I underestimated him and she died.
I don't want to watch any more people die or be hurt.
I don't want to think about how Jared will suffer at the hands of Blondie in his pursuit to get what he wants from him.
I don't...I don't want to watch Will die.
I force myself to look at Will lying unconscious on the ground while Luca diligently pulls blade after broken blade from his battered body. He's removed seventeen so far, piling them up on the ground at his knee. Some of Will's color has returned, the dark red veins receding with each broken shard being removed, but I know he's not out of the woods yet. Fallen blades are like poison, sucking life away, and Will is full of so many. What if...
God, I can't go there. Not after Logan. Not after Jared. I can't lose anyone else tonight. I just can't.
I can't.
Each breath I take becomes harder and harder. I'm at a crossroads and I don't know what to do. Do I go after Jared, tearing the town apart to find him? Do I grovel for forgiveness at Eric's feet, because surely he must blame me for Logan? Do I try to comfort my brother who looks at me with fear in his eyes? Do I sit beside Will, holding his hand until he regains consciousness? Because I want to do all of those things but I have no idea how to begin to do any of them.
Would any of it even be enough?
Everything is spinning out of control and there's nothing I can do to make it stop. There's nothing I can do to make it better. There's nothing I can do to undo all the terrible things that's happened.
I want to scream and just this once, I do. At the top of my lungs I let it all out. All my frustrations. All my fears. Everything. No one looks at me. Not even Adam, and I wonder if I even screamed at all.
I have to do something to help someone, somehow, somewhere, because just standing here being torn between wanting to chase after Jared and wanting to comfort Adam, Eric, and Will and knowing that I really can't do anything at all, is torture.
"Luca." He looks up after pulling yet another piece of broken blade from underneath Will's collarbone. "Can you keep an eye on Adam for me? I'm going to go back into the club to make sure everyone's gotten out okay."
"Sure." He wipes some of the blood on his hands off on the front of his Ramones t-shirt. "Hanna,"
"Yeah."
"Be careful in there."
"I will."
I head up the fire escape running into Owen at the top of the stairs. "Is everybody out?" Smoke rolls out of the open door in waves filling my lungs with each breath. I cough in the crook of my arm.
"I think so, but I don't know for sure. It's getting hard to see in there." With the neck of his shirt pulled over his nose and mouth, Owen pulls in a wheezing breath.
"I'm going to go in, take another look around." Because I have to do something before doing nothing destroys me.
He coughs, struggling to pull in clean air. "I'll go with you."
Ice cold water rains down from the sprinklers over head, the one's that work anyway. After The Fallen set fire to the club only half the sprinklers came on dousing most of the flames, but not all, leaving some parts still burning.
Owen taps me on the shoulder. "I think I see someone over there." He points to the bar, which happens to be currently engulfed in flames. If there is someone back there, there's no way out I ca
n see.
"Hanna!" Kat screams from the other side of the bar. "Please, you have to help me! I don't want to die!" Her face is streaked with soot and tears, her eyes large and afraid. In the distance sirens wail, not close enough to be of any help. That whole section of the club will be gone before they ever get here.
"What do we do?" I ask Owen, hoping he has some idea.
"I don't know." He doubles over in a fit of coughs, his whole body convulsing with each one. With some effort he rights himself just as a beam overhead falls, crashing down onto the bar.
"Kat! Kat are you still there? Are you okay?" I inch closer trying to see over the flames.
"I'm okay, but you've got to get me out of here," she pleads.
"Okay. Just let me think." I look around for anything useful, but there's nothing. If only the sprinklers above the bar were working then maybe...
I rub my finger over the symbol. What if I can control the water? Telekinesis is about moving things, so in theory I should be able to redirect the water flowing out of the working sprinklers.
Right?
"Kat, just hang tight. I'm going to try something."
"Okay."
I take a deep breath only to realize how stupid that was when I'm overcome with uncontrollable coughing.
"Hanna?" Kat calls.
"I'm still here." I cough a few more times before I'm able to breathe well enough to attempt my plan of moving the direction of the water.
I close my eyes, focusing on the water pouring from the sprinkler closest to the bar. In my mind I picture the water flowing to the side instead of straight down and when I open my eyes I'm amazed to see that it is.
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