End of Eden (Se7en Sinners Book 2)

by S. L. Jennings

  “Whatever,” I grumble, refusing to give her the satisfaction of being right. “Let’s find Jinn and get the fuck out of here.”

  As expected, the street is blocked off for several blocks, so we walk past the barricades to find Jinn. He’s in a black SUV waiting for us as if L called and informed him of the plan. I’m not surprised. If Lilith did take this opportunity to get rid of me once and for all, Jinn would know something was up when I didn’t show. I can’t see them forgiving her a second time, and I truly believe she wouldn’t jeopardize her own survival.

  Traffic is a mess, and we’re gridlocked for over an hour. By the time we make it to the apartment, L has already sent three status updates: at least six dead, twelve people injured, and no sign of Sister. They even checked the hospital, just in case she was called in. There’s still a lot to sift through, and it’s early, so they’re expecting to recover many more victims. However, firefighters were able to get most of the fire contained, so that’s one plus. Still, I can’t find it in my heart to feel optimistic.

  “Why don’t you get a shower and lie down,” Lilith suggests after watching me pace the floor all afternoon, my eyes flicking from the news to my phone.

  Why don’t you eat shit and die?

  “I’m fine,” I insist, even though I’m covered in soot and debris. Even Jinn insisted I rest, but there’s no way I could sit on my ass while my sister and the rest of Se7en are out there. And Crysis…he ran off so quickly, I didn’t even have a chance to question him.

  I head into L’s room and pull out the small cell phone hidden away in my purse. Surprisingly, there are half a dozen text messages.

  Did you make it out ok?

  Where are you?

  I need to speak with you. Call me.

  Eden, we need to talk.

  Tell me you’re ok.

  WHERE ARE YOU?

  I close the bedroom door and press the only number programmed into the phone.

  “For fuck’s sake, Eden. Answer me when I text! I was about to say fuck it, and approach fucking Legion just to see if he had seen you.”

  “Sorry. I’m fine. Have you heard anything?”

  It’s loud wherever he is, but I don’t hear any sirens or car alarms. That’s a good sign…I hope.

  “No new updates at the moment.”

  “You’re not there?” Strange. I mean, I know my sister means nothing to him, and he just played nice to get to me. And it’s not like he owes me anything. Still…

  “I was for a bit, but once I spotted the Se7en, I had to pull back. I can’t blow my cover. But there are Alliance agents in there.”

  “And they’re looking for her?”

  “They are. Rev knows how important she is to you. Still, with the Se7en there, search and rescue is limited. Not the time and the place for a showdown.”

  I try to feel some modicum of relief with that bit of grace, but I can’t exhale. Not yet. Not until she is found safe and sound.

  “Can you…can you feel her?”

  “It’s not like that, Eden,” he explains, his voice going quiet. “I can feel the presence of new life. I can feel the shadow of death. I can’t determine if someone is dead.”

  “But can you at least try?” I beg, not giving a fuck about pride.

  “I did. I got as close to the wreckage as I could. I felt death all around me, but I can’t feel the who, just the what.”

  “But—”

  “Eden. There’s nothing I can do right now. I’m sorry.”

  I close my eyes for a beat and take a deep breath, saying a silent prayer for patience. “I know. Thanks for trying.”

  “There is something…”

  “What is it?”

  “We found—”

  I hit End and stuff the phone into my pocket just as the bedroom door swings opens. Legion stands there, his expression weary, face smudged with soot, and dark clothing dusted with ash. Still, I rush to wrap my arms around him, seeking comfort in his presence.

  “Oh my God. I’ve been worried out of my mind. Please tell me you found her. Please tell me she’s safe.”

  Legion places a hesitant kiss on the top of my head and holds me tight to his body. “We found her.”

  “Is she ok? Where is she? She must be freaking out. I need to go to her.”

  L stills my frenzied rambling by grasping me firmly by the shoulders. “Eden…I need you to sit down so we can talk.”

  “No,” I rasp, shaking my head frantically and backing away from him. “No. No. Don’t tell me…” The words are smothered by the growing knot in my throat. Tears well in my wide, terrified eyes. “No. Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me she’s…”

  “She’s alive,” he asserts. Slowly, with his palms raised, he steps toward me and cups my tear-streaked face. “She’s alive, Eden. Cain is at the hospital with her now. She’s suffered some burns, broken bones and lung damage from smoke inhalation, but she’ll live.”

  “Well…why didn’t you say so? Let’s go!” I try to struggle out of his grasp, but he holds me still.

  “Eden, there’s something else…” I watch as a dozen shades of sorrow darken his gaze. “Ben is dead.”

  I suck in a sharp breath and touch a trembling hand to my lips. “Ben? Oh my God, Ben. Sister… She has to be devastated.”

  “She doesn’t know yet. She’s still in surgery, and with her condition, it’s probably best to get her healthy first.”

  I nod, completely understanding. Sister has to be completely traumatized, and learning that her boyfriend was killed could stall her recovery.

  “You’re right,” I acquiesce, turning for the door. “I won’t say anything. Let me just grab my coat and we’ll—”

  “You’re not going to the hospital.”

  I spin around so fast that I give myself whiplash. “What? Yes, I am.”

  “No, Eden.” L flexes his fists at his sides, his jaw tight with irritation. “The news is reporting this as a gas leak, but we have reason to believe that this was a premeditated attack. We were able to retrieve what appears to be parts of a bomb. Toyol and Phenex are analyzing it now.”

  My gaze goes wide. “A bomb?”

  Legion nods solemnly. “That’s what it looks like.”

  “And…and they wanted to kill me?”

  “That part is unclear. But if that was the goal, then we can’t risk you being out in public. Whoever did this was so bold—so vile—that they would kill innocents without thought. They wouldn’t hesitate to try it again.”

  “Lucifer?” I whisper, inwardly hoping that he couldn’t be capable of such evil. He told me that he got off on punishing the guilty, and has no desire to hurt those that do not deserve his wrath. And while he did kidnap and humiliate Sister, he didn’t hurt her. It was all a sham to get to me…to protect me, as insane as that sounds. Still, that doesn’t explain the use of the Called. He influenced humans to do his bidding. Mass shootings and bombings that claimed thousands of innocent lives. Was he in the driver’s seat? Or did he simply provide the vehicle that drove those people to unforgivable malice?

  When Legion shakes his head, I huff out my relief. “I don’t think so. He wouldn’t risk hurting you. Even if he hates that he can’t have you, he knows you’re much too valuable.”

  “Then who? Who would do something like this? And why? What would they have to gain from slaughtering humans in such a vicious, disgusting way?”

  L rakes a hand through his hair, sending bits of ash raining down onto his shoulders. “Eden, the bomb used…we’ve seen something like it before. It was years ago, but we tend to keep tabs on our enemies.”

  “Enemies. If it’s not Lucifer, then who else could it be? Who would have the manpower—the balls—to go up against demons?”

  The answer punches me in the gut before it even leaves his lips.

  “The Alliance.”

  With simmering rage coursing through my veins, I reach into my back pocket.

  I did this.

  I did this.

 
Ben’s blood is on my hands. All those innocent people…Sister…I’m responsible for their fate. I didn’t trust Crysis, but I wanted to. And my father…how could I have been so stupid. Am I really that desperate for love? That weak for some false sense of family?

  How could I have fucked up this badly?

  “We need to get washed up and get ready to go.”

  “Huh?” L questions. He frowns when his eyes fall on the cell phone gripped tight in my palm.

  “We need to get ready,” I repeat.

  “For what?”

  I tap out a quick message with fingers shaking with fury. “There’s someone you need to meet.”

  Legion weaves through the slush-soaked streets, his jaw ticking with rage. His hands are wrapped so taut around the steering wheel that his knuckles are white. He hasn’t uttered a word since we left the apartment. He won’t even look at me.

  “Slow down,” I warn, after he narrowly misses plowing down a pedestrian.

  Three minutes ago, he nearly sideswiped a parked car. When he doesn’t react, I try apologizing for the umpteenth time.

  “L…I swear to you—I wouldn’t have done it. I would never steal from the Se7en. I’m sorry for not telling you about Crysis, but—”

  “You care about him?” He spits the words out with such vehemence, I can’t be sure he just put a hex on me.

  “What? No,” I insist, my face screwed in disgust.

  “Then why did you make me swear not to tell the others yet? Why did you want me to meet him alone with the promise that I wouldn’t kill him on sight?”

  “Because I want to be 100% sure he had a hand in that bombing. There’s been enough unnecessary death. What could be the harm in questioning him before you rip his head off?”

  “And these little meetings you had with him…”

  “Two. Two meetings,” I clarify, holding up my middle and index fingers.

  “He never indicated to you that there was a hit on your life? Or your sister’s life, for that matter?”

  “Of course not. If anything, he seemed to want to protect me. He knows about my time in Hell, and how the Alliance would react to that news. He vowed to keep my secret to keep me form being a science experiment for the rest of my life.”

  L snorts, “For a price.”

  “Yes, but he knew I wouldn’t steal from you. I couldn’t even if I tried. He still kept my secret.”

  “But he also conveniently kept you away while an entire building collapsed on innocent people. A building you were supposed to be in. So maybe he didn’t want to hurt you, but it seems pretty damn apparent that he knew someone did.”

  I have nothing to refute his theory, so I don’t. I’m just happy that he’s speaking to me again.

  “Nephilim aren’t angels, Eden,” he continues. “They aren’t bound to a vow to protect. They’re dangerous, duplicitous, and vengeful.”

  “Funny. He said the same thing about you.”

  “He doesn’t give a fuck about you!” L roars, smacking his palm against the steering wheel. “That night in the bar…he could’ve stopped you. He could have saved you from going down that dark road. Hell, he could’ve handled that asshole in two seconds flat. But he deceived you, and allowed your anger to fester. If we hadn’t showed up when we did, he would have let you kill those people. He would have stood idly by and let you become a murderer, not even caring about the anguish and guilt you would have had to carry around with you for the rest of your life. He could’ve helped you then, and he did nothing.”

  I chew my lip, locked in a prison of my own thoughts before whispering my hideous truth.

  “I’m already a murderer.”

  “What?”

  I take a deep breath, and repeat the words that have been buried deep down in the dark, dusty attic of my soul. “I said, I’m already a murderer.”

  “Eden…”

  “When I was a child. His name was Lucas. He used to try to…do things to me. I told my mom, but she didn’t care. Or maybe she thought it served me right. I told the teacher, but no one believed me. They thought I was just as crazy as my mother. And there I was—just a child, with this unknown power at the tip of my tongue. I just wanted to make him stop. I just wanted him to leave me alone. So I told him to walk out into the street, just as a bus was coming. I killed him. I ruined that bus driver’s life. I inflicted the worst pain imaginable on his parents. So, no, Legion. Crysis would not have let me become a murderer. I already am.”

  I turn towards the window, watching the blurry fragments of buildings and people through watery eyes. “I’ve never told anyone that story. I was always afraid that saying it out loud would make it real. Hell was inevitable. It was always in the cards for me. It was only a matter of when.”

  Warmth trails along my jaw as Legion gently turns my head towards him. “If anyone is deserving of grace and mercy—it’s you. You were a child, Eden. You had no clue of the weight of your actions.”

  “But what about the people I watched be slaughtered in Hell? I sat there and did nothing. I was quiet…complacent. I am just as responsible as Lucifer for their deaths.”

  Legion shakes his head. “When one is cast down to Hell, the mortal notion of death is never final. They are tortured, maimed, disfigured, but they live again to suffer another day. Whether you spoke up or not, they would have met the same fate.”

  His explanation give me a tiny shred of relief, but it still doesn’t erase the guilt that has plagued me for weeks. It still doesn’t make what I did—or didn’t do—right.

  When we pull up to the diner Crysis arranged for us to meet at, considering our usual meeting place is crawling with law enforcement, I’m the one giving the silent treatment. Not because I’m angry with Legion, or anyone else for that matter. But I’m ashamed. And I’m afraid that what he suspects about Crysis will be true, and I will have added even more names to my growing list of victims.

  Legion opens my door and helps me out of the car, keeping his hand on the small of my back as we enter the diner. The place is completely empty, save for a waitress at the counter and Crysis who sits at the farthest booth from the door. His blonde, shoulder-length hair is pulled back, and he’s wearing a black cable-knit sweater. He sips coffee, his shrewd green eyes studying every step towards him. I’m sure he has a gun trained on us right now. It’d be wise. Legion has one aimed right between his eyes from his coat pocket.

  When we approach the booth and slide onto the bench across from Crysis, I’m not exactly sure what to say.

  Hey, Crysis, meet the guy who shot all your Alliance buddies at the rest stop. Legion, please meet the angel hybrid that blackmailed me to gain information about you.

  Thankfully, Crysis puts me out of my awkward misery.

  “Eden,” he nods once.

  I return the sentiment. “Crysis.”

  He trains his emerald glare on Legion with not a hint of anxiety or reluctance. Crysis is only half angel. Legion is a fallen angel turned demon assassin. How evenly matched are they? L doesn’t have full usage of his powers, although, thanks to Niko’s sticky fingers, he has possession of them. I don’t even know the full extent of what Crysis can do, but I think he is biologically human…mortal. However, his challenging stare is of one who does not fear death.

  “I assume you’re the Nephilim coward that tried to blackmail and manipulate Eden,” L snorts, looking Crysis up and down.

  “And you’re the demon that let her get dragged to Hell because you were too chicken-shit to stop your master,” Crysis retorts. “Funny, you seemed bigger through the scope of my rifle.”

  “Funny. I don’t remember seeing you at all, considering you ran like a bitch and let your men die.”

  I hold up my hands to halt this ridiculous display of machismo before it escalates. “Seriously, guys? My sister is in the hospital, and you two want to measure your dicks? Look, if you want to fight, do it after we find out who planted that bomb.”

  “I told you over the phone, Eden—I had nothing to
do with it,” Crysis insists.

  “Yet, she was just conveniently with you when it was detonated?” Legion challenges, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “If I was in on it, wouldn’t I have insisted that she go see her sister? Not meet me on the next street?”

  He has a point. If Crysis was a part of this plot, I wouldn’t have been at the pub with him, far enough away from the blast that I was spared.

  “Did anyone else at the Alliance know about us meeting?” I ask him. “Or know we’d had contact?”

  Crysis shakes his head. “No. I haven’t told a soul. Not even your father.”

  “So unless they didn’t know I had moved out, which is unlikely, there was no way they could have known I was supposed to be there.”

  “Which means…” Legion muses.

  Crysis frowns, realizing where this is going. “But that doesn’t make sense…”

  “That attack wasn’t meant for me,” I breathe.

  Legion whips out his phone and urgently taps out a message. “Toyol and Phenex are headed to the hospital.”

  “And you can trust them?” Crysis questions with an air of smugness. “I mean, it was one of you that betrayed her and offered her up to Lucifer.”

  “I trust them with my life,” Legion answers, his voice filled with authority. That’s the end of that.

  “And Lucifer did it because he thought he was protecting me.”

  L turns to me and frowns. I place a hand on his forearm and nod, reassuring him it’s all right. “Lilith told me everything. Lucifer was supplied the angel venom if he agreed to use it to kill the Se7en. With them out of the way, I’d be unprotected and vulnerable, and the real threat could move in. Instead, he reneged on the deal and trapped me so he could take me to Hell where I couldn’t be found.”