Fall (Hero Society Book 6)

by Jessica Florence

  “Oh shit,” Asher cursed as he looked around the room and muttered beneath his breath. One by one, the people in the crowd collapsed to the ground.

  “Did you kill them?” Echo cursed at her soul mate, running over to check on a masked woman’s neck for a pulse.

  “No, but I put them to sleep. There is a horrid darkness on the ground outside and they did not need to witness what’s to come.”

  We all ran to the back of the house to look upon the cemetery down the hill. Emily reached my side and squeezed my hand gently. I wished she hadn’t been involved with this mess, but her spirit calmed me. We turned as the sound of footsteps echoed on the porch behind us.

  “So it begins . . . the heroes against the dead, now that love has conquered the curse.” Madam Tully arrived, with her hands lifted toward the sky just as lightning crashed throughout the darkness. Hundreds of torches lit throughout the graveyard, illuminating the small army of corpses that crept up the hill.

  Chapter Thirty- Seven

  Jude

  I knew Rudy had been planning a stunt like this. Half of me expected him to ride on a skeleton horse in front of his army like a dead general. My family—the ghosts who had been trapped at Mallory Mansion—hid behind or within their tombs as the corpses limped toward us like a scene from a zombie movie.

  “We can hurt those kinds of dead people, right?” Rose asked with a slight tremor of her lips, and I replied with the only answer I knew.

  “We can try.”

  Selene’s hand wrapped in mine and squeezed once before letting go. She eyed the army with defiance. It was too early to think about what had happened minutes ago in the cursed room of the gates. Though I sensed the change within me—a cleaned and forged power within my veins—I refused to accept them. Later, when this whole night ended and I woke up in the morning with Selene in my arms would I accept that it was truly over.

  “Let’s go kick some dead ass!!” Lilith hooted and was the first to start running to meet the army ahead of us. Her lover, Leon, raced after her with super speed and was the first to punch a corpse back twenty yards.

  I didn’t feel back for them, they were dead anyways and chose to escape from the afterlife and follow a blind with hatred ghost. They deserved to be taken back to hell with an ass beating.

  Soon everyone had a corpse descend on them with hands outstretched and mouths wide to attack. Some were quick, and some were slow. I snarled as two rotting men tried to grasp my neck, ready to twist, but my power gripped them and ripped them in two.

  “They aren’t dying!” someone shouted as I saw the torn pieces of a decomposing man still moving. It wouldn’t be as easy to destroy bodies as it was to release the souls.

  “You have to open the gates and take them back. It’s your job to protect mankind from the dead,” Selene called out from my right as she touched a corpse and its soul combusted into a variety of red and golds. It would take a lot of power out of me, but she was right. I had to go back to the gates and use them properly. My fight wasn’t out here with the rest of my friends. It was inside the mansion.

  My great-great-grandfather had shared with me his pain of being the one to bring the curse upon the Mallory family. He’d spent his whole afterlife hiding at the dark mausoleum as penance for the sorrow he had brought upon those he cared about. He had told me how to open the gates, and how to close them, something he’d never shared with any of his descendants before me. None of them ever bothered to talk to him, to utter the words he’d been dreaming of for so long. Words about forgiveness. In the end of our talk. He believed I was the true heir of the Hades power. That it may have let each of the Mallory men in the family take a turn but would only yield to me. The crazy thing was I believed him. I left him at the crypt with the hope he’d forgive himself as I had forgiven him, and join us at the mansion, maybe even see his wife who stood watching us all battle against corpses.

  “Dorian!” I howled at the demigod, and he flashed toward me while keeping an eye on Esme.

  “I need you to take me to a room in my house. You teleport, right? It’s how you got them all here from wherever you were taken hostage?”

  The man nodded and grabbed my shoulder. I hadn’t told him exactly where to go, but he knew. The room was empty and remorse flooded through me with the thought of Lucy having been too close to the gates to fight off the draw toward the other side, her soul’s death. But now wasn’t the time. I’d search for her later.

  My tendrils of power curved around each golden rod of the gates, twisting and pulling until the gold was no longer seen beyond the black death that covered every inch.

  “I am the keeper of the gates, and the master of death. By my right, bestowed upon me by Hades, you will open.” My great-great-grandfather had made me practice the words at least a dozen times before I had left his crypt.

  With a creaking shudder, the gates did as they were told. Peace called to me, and somehow, I knew I could go into the sweet heaven that coddled me. But my heaven wasn’t in there, it was above me, fighting the dead beside her friends. Fighting for mankind.

  With the gates open, I roared with every strength I had left and released my power through the mansion in search of evil souls that needed to be returned from the hell in which they had come. One by one, my power tangled around a soul and dragged them past the gates. I’d never used my gifts this extensively, and while I was exhausted, I shed my chains, and became free. Like my power had been born for this moment, waiting to be unleashed at this magnitude.

  Souls from corpses fighting the Hero Society were ripped from their composing flesh and screamed as they disappeared beyond my sight into the red-and-gold haze behind the gates. When the last of my power returned with a soul of hate and jealousy weaved within its very core, I smiled.

  “I’m taking him on, my right as one of his victims, but you can rough him up before I do.” Trixie stood beside a broken Rudy, whose pleading eyes begged for mercy. For once I was glad Selene wasn’t by my side since we had become husband and wife. She didn’t need to see what I intended to do to my old friend. He’d killed innocent women just to fuck with me, and he’d nearly killed me. Threatened our friends and rose an army of the dead to take over the world one city at a time. But most of all, he had tried to take Selene away from me, and I could not forgive him.

  “You might wanna close your eyes,” I warned Trixie, but she stood steadfast.

  “No, I think I’ll watch.”

  Most heroes wouldn’t harm another human. But Rudy was already dead, so technically I couldn’t actually hurt him. However, I could make him feel everything like he was really alive.

  Maybe I was more of an anti-hero, with a good conscience capable of being bad if the right justice demanded it. Rudy would be given judgment once he walked past those gates and that would be decided from the stains on his soul. I wouldn’t be the one to deliver that on him. He’d face his maker on his own.

  A caw echoed around the room and suddenly Rey landed on my shoulder. He had impeccable timing as usual. He had to have some sort of magic beneath his feathers. Crows never forgot a face, especially a face who had wronged them. Rey loved me. He was here for justice, too.

  Rey made the first move, then my power dug into Rudy’s flesh. Rudy’s pain-filled screams fell on ears that relished in his suffering. Two wrongs didn’t make a right, but they did make me feel like I could sleep better after this. Trixie would find peace once she brought him to the afterlife herself.

  I’d have the rest of my life attempting to repent for the wrongdoings that occurred in front of the gates.

  Chapter Thirty- Eight

  Selene

  The battle ended and boy was it a stinky way to conclude the night.

  The souls within the corpses were dragged to the gates via Jude’s immense power, but their bodies stayed behind. I didn’t want to think about what needed to be done with the piles of rotting flesh strewn over the grass.

  “Now that they aren’t trying to kill us, I think
I may throw up.” Esme covered her lips while her face turned green. She moved swiftly toward the mansion without another word.

  “I motion we head back inside where that strange light is coming from.” Lilith pointed toward the mansion, where indeed a bright light beamed from the roof into the clouds. My powers stirred, and a sweet inner peace surround me like when I was near the afterlife that resembled heaven.

  “Oh! We’re free! We can finally leave!” The four hitchhiking ghosts hauled ass toward the light, and soon there was an exodus of ghosts heading toward the open gates that would lead them to their peaceful afterlife.

  I’m sure some souls would choose to stay here, but many were tired of being trapped. They wasted no time, and no goodbyes heading onward.

  One by one, we entered the mansion to the ballroom where the crowd laying on the floor slept blissfully unaware of everything that happened around them. Performers from Jude’s circus surrounded a lone man who stood in front of the bright light with a confidence only a ringleader could have.

  “We’ll never forget you.” The trapeze artists walked into the bright beam after waving to him, then floated up like the light was an elevator to heaven. Many ghosts stopped to talk to Jude before they left this Earth, in which he’d embrace them, then urge them to be free of this place.

  Joslyn and her tiger and the little boy and his pet elephant walked together into the light with big smiles. The sight was beautiful, and even though I assumed I had no more tears to cry, little tears fell while I watched these souls find peace.

  “Never seen a sight like this before,” Draco murmured in awe. I looked at my friends, who were enraptured by the scene before them. It wasn’t every day you saw the dead rise and the dead find peace, wherever that was to them. There were still some ghosts in the house, standing to the side without the desire to move onward. They watched their friends go with happy expressions, waving goodbye. Their time to go would come, but they had unfinished business they wanted to complete. I understood, so I kept my power away from them.

  One last figure walked toward Jude. The only soul left who wished to leave. Lucy.

  Despite everything she’d said before this night, Lucy risked her soul for us.

  “Thank you for trusting me.” She spoke to Jude but then turned her head toward me as well. She meant her words for the both of us.

  “Thank you for saving us.” I drifted from the Hero Society group and walked toward the single ghost and Jude. Jude’s power pulsed in response to my movements. Oh boy. This was going to be an interesting wedding night.

  “I wish you guys a happy marriage. Maybe you should name your firstborn Lucy.” She winked and gently touched Jude on the shoulder before giving me a knowing look. With a performer’s flair, she twisted her body into a flip and landed perfectly for a tightrope act into the light.

  We watched her disappear, then Jude bellowed words for the gates to close. It took only seconds, and the light disappeared, too.

  “My wife,” Jude growled as his hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me toward his hard, warm-blooded body with a heart that thumped beneath his chest.

  “Husband,” I teased innocently, which brought about my favorite smirk on his face.

  “I think your plan won tonight.” He tucked me into his side as our friends came closer, wanting to get in on the hugs and celebrations.

  “Now that we’ve saved mankind and they have no clue, again, I think I’ll wake them up and we end this party.” Asher slapped his hands together, ready to work his wild magic.

  “I hope tonight ends with sleep.”

  “I vote it ends with a cup of tea.”

  “We’re having sex tonight.”

  Of course Lilith made everyone laugh as the crowd began to rise, unaware of what had just happened around them. The smell outside the mansion would probably chase them back to their cars quickly, but besides that, they had no clue we’d just battled an army of the dead.

  “I think I’m gonna celebrate November first with my wife. Everyone can see themselves out,” Jude announced loud enough so the crowd heard. People grumbled about being suddenly exhausted and walked toward the exit.

  “I think we’re gonna head out, too.” Esme peered at Dorian, who watched the crowd leave in all their finery.

  “Us, too.” Rose hugged Draco tightly, then they waved us goodbye and departed.

  All our friends were safe. My husband swept me off my feet and walked swiftly toward his room.

  “Happy November first, you two.” Madam Tully bid us a goodnight as she walked with her arm tucked into a man down the hall. I vaguely wondered who the man was since he looked familiar to me, even in ghost form.

  “That would be my great-great-grandfather.” Jude answered my thoughts, as he took the stairs two at a time. He opened the door to his room with ease and set me down onto my toes after crossing the threshold as husband and wife.

  I wanted to take my time with him and revel that this man was mine. I’d get to keep him. However, I knew that just because he wasn’t destined to die on his thirtieth birthday anymore didn’t mean he wouldn’t die one day.

  My hands ripped at his jacket and the button of his slacks.

  “In a hurry?” he teased, but his eager fingers were at the pearl buttons of my old dress with haste, as well.

  “Well you know, tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, especially if you snore tonight.” The dress dropped from my shoulders and puddled on the floor.

  “Happy late birthday, Jude.” His gaze devoured my bare skin as I stepped away from my dress and lifted onto my toes, our lips a breath away from each other.

  “And here’s to many more with you.” I meant to gently press my lips against his, but he had other plans that quickly moved us to the bed.

  We’d found our heaven in this life and vowed to live each heartbeat like it was our last, to thrive in the light with love, then exist in the darkness without each other.

  “I think my birthday is going to be my favorite day of the year,” Jude moaned, as he settled between my legs. His hand reached up to take off the last bit of clothing he had forgotten.

  “Keep the hat on.” I stopped his hand, and then Jude Mallory, the mysterious ringleader who lived in a haunted mansion, made love to his wife.

  Epilogue

  Three Hundred and Sixty-Four days Later

  Jude

  “Happy birthday to youuuu!” The group around me sang, and for the second birthday in a row, I had something to smile about. I’d gotten to live beyond my thirtieth birthday, which made me the oldest Mallory in over a century.

  “Make a wish, you old man!” Asher hooted and I made a mental note to give him shit later about his dig. In the past year, I’d moved in with Selene and became friends with the Hero Society who stood next to me against the dead one year ago. The boys accepted me without hesitation, and while my power wasn’t much help against the living, I still tried to assist as much as I could.

  I’d turned the mansion into a museum. The Seahill Association of History had been beside themselves when I proposed the idea, and people came from all around the world to look at Mallory Mansion. We’d cleaned it up, restoring the beauty in the intricate details, and turned what was once a haunted home into a top destination for weddings and ghost hunters.

  “I already have everything I could wish for,” I laughed to my friends as a soft hand rested on my shoulder. Instinctively, my fingers grasped onto the hand in comfort, remembering all we went through to get to this moment. Selene and I had relished every second since our wedding night.

  “Just hurry up, blow out your candles, and make a wish. I want a slice of that cake.” Draco rarely voiced his sense of humor, but with his little one growing within the safety of Rose’s belly, he had something to bring out the true joy in the everyday moments. He couldn’t stop himself from laughing and teasing the other members of the crew.

  Gwendolyn’s robot friends jumped on the cake and waited patiently. It was unnerving at first to see robots ac
t like they were real but after having dealt with a life of ghosts, I got over the reaction quickly.

  “How about for a little girl?” Selene whispered in my ear, so softly I didn’t think anyone else in the room heard her.

  The candles were forgotten for a moment as I turned to face my wife. We hadn’t exactly been trying for a baby, but I’d shared with her months ago that having a baby had been another one of my secret dreams besides getting married.

  “You’re serious?”

  She nodded, her bottom lip pulled between her teeth nervously.

  Without a word, I turned and blew out my candles on the large, homemade cake . . . my first birthday cake in decades.

  I wished for many more birthdays to come with my family and friends. I wasn’t going to part from this world easily, when I had them around. Now with a baby on the way, I made a promise to the universe that I would do anything to keep that babe safe, to love the baby and its mother as long as my heart beat in this world, then into the afterlife.

  “I’m gonna be a father!” I hollered to the group of people who cared for us, and I wrapped Selene in the safety of my arms. My fingers drifted over her still small belly that would swell with the product of our love.

  Now I had one more reason to love my birthday—the day I was supposed to die. Instead, I started a new life where I didn’t just exist. I lived.

  The End

  Sneak Peek of Spring (Coming Nov2020)

  His blue eyes stared at me so intensely, I sensed the need to move from where I sat on the couch, watching the newest episode of my favorite show. It was rare for me to be able to sit down and watch one of my shows not on the DVR, and he was ruining my mood by being surly and stoic.

  “I doubt anyone is going to attack me while I sit in my living room wearing my sweater. No one’s hiding beneath the couch, so can you go outside the room or something. Your stare is annoying.”