A low rumble came from beneath the antique Persian rug they stood on and no doubt Ezek heard the threat loud and clear. "I wish to end this discussion and have no part in your plans." With that Weaver drew out a knife and looked to Fil. "Where Princess Briar is concerned, we have a deal." He swiped the knife across his palm as the blood pooled he handed the knife to Fil. "Shall we sign in blood?"
*
Belle held the round vinyl record in her hand and smiled at one of the splurges she allowed herself. She didn’t need nice things, clothes and all that. She had her friends, her books and her vinyl’s. The record in her hand was a new piece that she had to get specially made. Florence and the Machine was the new obsession this week and ‘Howl ’ was intended to hear on an old record player and listening to the song Belle smiled because this girl was light years smarter than half the musical talent out there. Her music had soul and purpose and in times like these a good song could calm the nerves. Nerves because she had reached the end.
She took a seat on the single chair in the living room and listened to the static as the needle slid along the record, the kick drums were the key and with a glass of veno in one hand a pen in the other, Belle began to tell the tale of her and Beast. Winter knew it all because Belle knew that Snow White would never tell a soul until the inevitable came to pass. The rolling thunder in her veins told her it was coming tonight.
She could see Erychs smile, those crystal blue eyes, she could feel the wide expanse of his chest against her fingers, the way his blond hair fell around them like a shelter when they made love and in that moment she would have done anything to touch his cheek one last time.
Another glass of veno.
The song replayed itself because that’s what Belle wanted it to do. This record was a single title and meant for a night like tonight would be, was planned to be.
As if on cue she could see the four of them dressed in black slip past the hedges that circled her front lawn as the figures broke off and two came from the back, the other two kept guard out front. Belle rose and looked at her clothes, it was odd sure but there are no rules to keep in a moment like this. She lit another cigarette and let it hang from the corner of her mouth. In bare feet and jeans she slipped the key to the hidden safe in the back lining she had sewn into her shirt. She pulled her hair free of the tie and let her auburn locks fall down over her shoulders.
She danced in circles as the two figures crawled belly first until they were feet from the back door. Belle smiled and turned the volume up on the player and continued dancing because, fuck, this song was so fucking perfect for this moment.
Beast would have loved the fuck out of this song.
Last thought.
The men were inside and it was the moment of truth as Belle looked over at the men who had lasers pointed on her chest. "Hey boys." She said and pulled the smoke from her lips and the bottle of Veno fell and shattered to the floor. "Just gonna get this cleaned real quick." She slurred and her knees buckled when she fell to the shattered glass gripping the two biggest shards before looking up. "Shoot me and you will hate what happens next."
"We want the contract. If it means shooting you we will."
She laughed and honestly she was way too calm for what deep water she was in. "Not gonna happen." She said and held her hands up; the look of shock on their faces was priceless. Blood trickled down her arms and she watched it drip drop on the floor beside her feet.
The last sound she heard besides the curses of the demons sent to kill her were the words that echoed in the empty room.
"I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hollowed ground…”
*
As chaos demons went Bri had expected more. She had been uneasy in Delkons presence and felt as if she were forgetting something, or maybe ... there was no answer because none of it made sense. She was home and in her own bed, re-hashing the meeting with Delkon that had turned up nothing but an ally. Delkon's knife was fake and the magic used to create it was so weak it wasn’t even a blip on the radar. The whole time she stood there, expecting a mess but it was spotless wherever she looked, waiting for an interruption that never came and the anticipation while waiting for Delkon to gather the fake had been damn near excruciating.
It took the entire drive back to shake the feeling that time was running out and so much, so much to do, that she and Fangs split off. She crawled in her own bed and Fangs went off to his Crypt. They said nothing about the “we kind of did it and then almost did it” moment back at the hotel. But man she wanted to seriously get down to it.
God things were complicated and the meeting with The Poet was set for Wednesday, and it was Tuesday morning. She knew it was residual effect from meeting with Delkon and it was more than enough time to get ready. All she really had planned was a major talking to with Belle about the attitude lately and making sure Ash was good and fed.
Rising from the bed she walked to the picture window that sat in her living room and looked across the street to the graveyard that had at one point been where she'd have gone when her thoughts were too much. Now though, after such an intense couple of nights she couldn’t get her feet to move. She wondered if Fangs sat on the opposite side of the stone wall of his crypt that separated them, was he sitting thinking of her his mind just as scrambled? She reached out and knew that he was thinking of her, she could feel it in the blood rushing through her veins.
God would she be welcomed if she crossed the hundred yards between them and asked to finish what started last night? She didn’t think that she had the guts to try. The same blood that told her he wanted her was also telling her that his claim on her was only getting stronger and that triggered her conversation with Ash last night.
She glanced at the clock on the wall it was a little past ten am and she knew where to find Ash. Grabbing her jacket she dashed from her house and headed for some answers.
Fangs could feel Bri drawing further from him and wondered why she wasn’t sleeping. Moments like this he wished he could handle the sunlight; he would have gladly sacrificed something else for the chance to be with her during the light of day. An image of her lying sprawled on her bed the black satin sheets a rumpled mess beneath her. He could see the tip of her breast peeking beneath the top of the sheet and his mouth watered as if prep Bring himself to suckle the rippled tip.
“God damn it!” He roared and rose from the floor and stalked the large square space he was refined to. Fucking bed in the corner did nothing for him but make him want her more. The erection hiding behind his jeans had been a constant nuisance since the moment he got in the Fj three nights ago and his balls were passed blue and damn near black. He needed release but the thought of jacking himself in the shower with the image of Briar in his mind was too perverted. Luckily he was saved by his cell phone ringing.
He knew it was Ezek before he even saw the screen.
The call was quick and enough to kill the blue balls and change the outlook of the fight for the knife completely, not to mention this time... he didn’t know if Briar could come back from a blow of this magnitude.
*
Bri was on her way to Ashess' when her phone buzzed against her hip, tempting fate she answered the phone while driving and her luck lately she knew it was a risk.
" Bri." Ashess' pained voice had Bri pulling to the side of the road and taking a deep breath. The panic in that tone was as big a clue to trouble as a damned flare in the road.
"What is it Ash?" She barely got the words out as terrifying images of what Fil had done to her now. Every fiber in her being told her he had everything to do with the panicked call.
"Get... get to Belles, Briar! Now!" There was no arguing and Ash dropped the call.
With a deep breath and a silent prayer Bri flipped a bitch and headed west to what she feared was nothing shy of absolute devastation.
*
Chapter Fifteen
There are no words to describe the pain that is associated with the death of a loved one. How can a
nything, word or vice try and explain a black hole like loss. As some of the most told stories through the years, Briar, Ashess Belle and Winter had held one another up. They knew each other’s struggles, the dark pasts that fueled them to fight.
Winter was the only one who had ever breached the dark hole inside of Belle. The two of them had a connection similar to the one that bound Ashess and Briar. Walking in the giant doorway of Belles Bellevue home the lurking pain and sadness was combustible. The fear of what took place just hours before was still residual and Bri felt Fil the instant she crossed the threshold.
"Winter?" She called as the frail thin form of Snow White stood before her, her back turned as she looked through the foyer. Winter spun and the pain on her face was palpable. In the background there was a tune, it was haunting and the crackle and scratch from the vinyl record and the echo of the song reverberated through the entryway.
" Bri." Winter croaked and stepped forward, followed by Ash who walked backwards through the foyer, her eyes locked on something Briar was terrified to know.
"She's dead." It was a statement, a true one. Beauty, Belle, her tale and her light... gone.
Winter choked on the tears and stumbled forward to Briars arms when Ash spoke. "If what I picked up from the entry she was going to be attacked, I picked up the scent of four demons Bri." She leveled her stare with Briar. "They were Fil's guys Bri. He had to know the contract was here."
"Has he got it?" Bri asked as tears formed in her eyes. Her first thought was let the fucker keep it, Belle paid the price and at this point Bri cared less about another five hundred years beneath him. Fil would kill her the first day and at this point she would be glad to pull back from everything she had and everyone she loved. Belle was expendable to Fil and so would Ashess, Winter and Fangs. One loss was enough she couldn’t handle anymore.
"No, she didn’t give it up, she wouldn’t have." Winter said lifting her head from Bri's shoulder. "By the time..." she paused and looked back through the foyer and a grief so intense overwhelmed her and she squeezed her eyes shut as more tears rolled from her jet black lashes. “By the time she took her last breath they were so terrified they ran like little school girls."
"Scared of what?" Bri cried and let Winter go because she simply couldn’t stand any longer. When no one answered she looked at Ash. "Scared of what Ash?"
There was a shuffle from the foyer leading toward the rest of the house, and that damn song was still echoing a world of sadness throughout the house. What came through the entry was... shocking.
*
Briar folded the paper that Belle wrote before taking her life. She glanced over to the man who was.... absolutely breathtaking. So he was Beast, the one true love of Beautiful Belle and he was back to slaughter anything that came near the contract. Brought back by Belles sacrifice.
"Fuck." Bri cursed and paced the almost empty living room while she waited for her father, who was no doubt talking with Belle before sending her to NL. Hopefully he would have answers because they had nothing and Winter wasn’t talking, she was damn near comatose. Unlike herself and Ash, Winter would wear the wounds open for the world to see.
And that song was still playing.
Fuck... Fuck.
"Can we lose the damn song, it’s depressing as hell." Ashess said and stood to turn the player off when Beast snarled, and, given the story she left behind Ash stopped in mid step not d Bring to get any closer.
"Beast..." Bri said "we just want to try and process here, we won’t hurt anything."
"It's not that..." He said for the first time since Briar had been there. "It's a clue... I think... Her memories are still a little... Hazy."
"Wait you mean you have her memories?" Bri asked completely taken back by his words she didn’t even hesitate to get closer.
He nodded and the song came to an end... juuuust to start again. Bri had a passing thought that if she ever heard this song again it would be too soon. "I will know everything she knew within a few days. My first memory was her last... her last thought... I...er, called Winter off memory alone." His crystal gaze fell on Winter. "You were closest to her correct?"
Winter nodded through her tears. "She told me the story between the two of you a few years back in case something like this happened."
Both Bri and Ash cursed.
When Winter flinched she cried out. "I'm sorry but she swore me to secrecy knowing if you guys had any idea what she was capable of you would never have left her alone."
"Damn straight." Ash yelled stepping closer to Winter. "You have known what she would do in a moment of danger and what Winter, you were fine with it?"
Winter dropped the tears and went full force anger. "How dare you even think I would be ok with this!" At Erych's growl Winter knew it was in defense of her and looked over her shoulder at the almost naked man in the corner. "She won’t hurt me Erych." Her voice was calm and gentle until she turned back at Ash. "I am not her keeper, or yours or Bri's. How many things that are beyond weird up have you guys asked me to keep quiet about? Don’t stand there and judge me Ash because I am doing a fine job of hating myself right now!" Her voice cracked as she yelled the last part.
Ashess stepped close until she and Winter were nose to nose. "You should hate yourself."
Jesus, at that statement you could have heard a pen drop if it hadn’t been for the damn song playing.
"Let’s not get into a battle about hating ourselves." Bri said and stepped between the two of them hoping to keep them from saying anything else that would completely shatter the balance between the three of them.
"Why?" Winter asked the ice in her tone could have frozen the tears on her cheeks. "Cinderella has more than enough self hatred for all of us."
"Is that what you think Snow White?" Ash asked her voice calm and Briar wondered if Winter knew that when her voice went that low she was about as deadly as a serial killer. "I may have the staple on self loathing but I never would have let one of you sacrifice yourself. I would have found another way."
"There was no time Ash. She thought fast on her feet and new it was the only way." It was Beast, er... Erych who spoke and the three of them looked to the broken crumpled figure in the shadowed corner, his eyes still on the record player.
"She had time enough to write her god damned story." She spun when her own voice cracked and Ashess didn’t show weakness. "She should have run."
"But they would have been back. She did it because I won’t be defeated by demons. Demons are snacks."
"Jesus, does any creature not a demon think they are the biggest bad of all?" Briar asked he Bring Fangs similar words from last night. Last night felt years away, hell an hour ago felt like a lifetime had come and gone.
Erych laughed.
Winter left out the front door.
Ashess walked out the back.
Briar went and sat beside Erych. "Anything from the song yet?"
He shook his head no and reached for the volume and as the vocals got louder Bri glanced at his face and...damn he was hurting. Everything was falling apart.
At. The. Seams.
When she felt her dads summons she told Erych to stay put and that she would be back before dawn and rushed to get to her father in hopes Belle was waiting there for her. She had never been desperate to see a spirit as she was in that second.
*
What surprised Bri most was that her father was summoning her from Fangs crypt, most likely because he assumed that was where she would have been. She was probably in a bit of trouble for not sticking to Fangs like he asked.
The drive to the Crypt took place in rush hour traffic and the I90 was a cluster of exhaust and pissed off humans all of which were in a mad rush to get home. Bri wasn’t in a rush she decided as she tapped her breaks after moving all of three feet.
Jesus… Belle was dead, and by all accounts her reasoning was to save Bri. She wanted to be grateful but she was pissed. So many things made sense now that they all knew the truth. She was angry an
d she had every right. She killed her one true love and then was forced to live in order to earn him a second chance.
Laws were laws, and Wares were a genetic species. Turned Wares were slaughtered. The only reason Belle hadn’t been killed was because she had been protected by the Demons and Ezek. Now she was gone and the Beast was back. Couldn’t deny the fact that he was terrifying.
Hell of a weapon.
She hadn’t realized she was crying until she felt a stream of tears falling upon her hand. Stopping herself immediately because she needed to seriously hold it together. There would be time for mourning when this shit was over with.
She still had to get with Ash and Winter and force them to make up, she needed a stable team now more than ever and a rift like that, left unattended, would tear until they were enemies.
Awakened (A Fairy Tales Novel) Page 16