Awakened (A Fairy Tales Novel)

by Melanie Walker

  Ash watched her closely, carefully walked back to the bed to take Bri's hand. " Bri, do you remember what happened at Fil's?"

  "Fangs killed him... I wanted to leave him to suffer but Fangs came in at the last second..."

  "And before that Bri?"

  "We fought..." As if realization dawned Bri looked at Ashess, tears streaming from her cheeks. "Ezek... My dad, Ash..."

  Ashes could only nod, the pain of clarification was too deep. Ezek was dead.

  *

  Hours passed in the void of Ezeks death... maybe days. Winter and Beast both woke and left the room after a few words on how dare you, what were you thinking variety but in the aftermath of that fateful night they left her in peace.

  Fangs had given the rights of the Dark to Bri making her the first ever female Arch Demon. Ashess told her of the injuries she sustained. Her ribs were indeed shattered and the burns on the right side of her body were almost ninety percent third degree. She had bruised vocal chords and a severe concussion along with a few other broken bones.

  It was the healing that had broken her heart. Fangs had been by her side, almost draining himself in the process of trying to heal Bri enough so that Ashess could feed. He had kept them both alive.

  She was finally able to walk around and for the first time in she didn’t know how long, Bri wasn’t scared to sit by her front window with the blinds open to look at the night stars. She didn’t need glamour and she didn’t need to fear sleep. She had become the scariest demon out there, more powerful than any Arch before her.

  The knock on her door pulled her from her daze and she smiled when she saw who was there.

  "So, how does it feel to be the new Arch demon?" Fangs asked from her front door.

  "Same as it felt to be a Vengeance demon, and then the simple old Embodiment of Vengeance. I guess now I’m the Arch of Vengeance, though seriously I need a new name. It just doesn’t sound cool." Bri propped the door open and welcomed Fangs inside.

  "Funny girl for someone who almost got herself killed." He spoke softly head down. He was and would always be absolutely devastating on the eyes. He carried an air around him, demanding you watch him, see him and the danger he carries so close to his soul. He was a ruthless killer when confronting evil, he was ruthless in matters of the heart. He was everything that she would forever compare everything against.

  "All in a day’s work." She said and shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t want to make light of the situation but in that moment she didn’t know what to say to him and fell back on awful humor.

  "Don’t you have enough names as it is?" He looked up then but propped himself against the wall near her couch.

  "Touché."

  He chuckled silently but said nothing.

  There was a silence between them that the tension made it hard to breathe. "I like Briar." He finally said and smiled the smile that always made everything warm and soft inside of her.

  "So why pass me the throne? A Sire as the first Arch ever... Lots of power to be had there." She wanted the answer to that question badly.

  "Well I already have enough shit on my plate with my Posse, not to mention the fact that demons piss me off in general and dealing with them daily would send me head first into the bloody sunlight."

  When she cringed at his comment he caught the meaning and gave her an apologetic look. "I didn’t mean it like that Bri. Your shit I can handle."

  "And my shit? Is it something you are looking to take on again anytime soon?" It was the pink elephant in the room. It was the one question that mattered most... was he still hers?

  He stayed silent debating the answer to that question for what felt like eternity, considering she was seven hundred years into her own eternity... the answer to that question took longer than any pain and suffering she endured. "I don’t know." He finally said, his voice low like it was grating against concrete.

  It hit her like a slap in the face.

  "Let me explain..." He started when she held her hand up and shook her head no. "I don’t need explanations Fangs, but I had to know."

  She walked to the door to open it when he grasped her arm and stopped her. "I need to explain here Bri. I need to say it and you need to listen." His voice laced with anger as he spoke, demanding she give him the floor.

  She nodded but said nothing.

  "This path we have been on, this fucked up destruction between the two of us, and it’s destroying us both. It’s like you can’t seem to understand that I am a fighter, a killer it’s what I do night in and night out. I understand your reasons for why you did what you did, your reasons are reasons I couldn’t see at first... not till you left. I've watched you walk away from me so many times I can imitate your swagger. I sat outside that night you left, I smoked a cigarette and debated going after you even though I swore I wouldn’t." He let his fingers trail down her arm loosening his grip and pulled her into his embrace where he buried his head in the crook of her neck.

  "I don’t know where you and I fit anymore... we are broken together."

  "Keep me where you have always kept me Fangs..." Her voice cracked when she spoke and she couldn’t hide the tears.

  "It will destroy me Bri."

  Again she nodded and tried to ignore the pain that laced his voice, knowing this was killing him made it a much harder blow to take. He didn’t want to leave her... she forced him to.

  "If the day ever comes that you want me, that you know damn well I am yours forever, all you'll have to do is ask." He kissed the top of her head and pulled her back from him. "I love you." He croaked as he walked out her door.

  *

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Nine weeks later

  Being the Arch hadn’t really changed Bri... well if you don’t count the number of bitching cry baby demons on her ass daily blathering about pointless stupid gripes that had Bri showing up in the Dark less and less. In her place she chose a Liaison to handle the daily blah blah blahing that Turneds boobed about. She needed the fight now more than ever. Her freedom cost her more in that final few weeks than her entire life.

  She had the power to act before hand and chose to do so. The girls had set up a schedule of rotation, two on two off. Ashess and Briar were team one and Beast and Winter were team two. Bri had placed a ban on Beast to hinder his need to sacrifice at all costs. Meaning: he and Winter went out and handled smaller issues the humans started by lame summoning and what not. Beast was pissed but so was I. I didn’t relish the idea of losing him next and bouncing between him and Belle. I wanted them both dammit! I hated rules!

  Numbers of souls in the Dark still shot high courtesy of the wealth of power they released after taking over the Dark. Beast stayed in the archives for over a week studying up on every fiber of information on them all and Bri simply made it so. Now Ash and Bri were able to side step the aftermath. We no longer waited till they were dead and calling. We got there before it was too late.

  Unfortunately that happened very seldom but at least they were able to stop a few and to Bri and Ashess it was worth it. Bri pushed back from her desk, she took over her father’s office at the law firm in Seattle and used it as her personal space. She would use the office as her connection to him and what he would have done in so many of the difficult decisions needing to be made.

  She if anything understood his reasoning now more than ever.

  She looked at the two leather couches that were in the front of the office before the desk. She closed her eyes and remembered walking in that night she left to search out the knife, seeing Fangs in the light grey t shirt and her stomach dropping when she thought she would never see him again.

  She missed him.

  It had been nine long weeks since he said goodbye to her. Nine weeks of wondering what she was doing and why she was such a fool. She knew the answers, knew them like she knew every aspect of all the tales about her. She didn’t trust herself with Fangs.

  It wasn’t a sexual issue. When it came to Fangs, Bri was not morally
grounded. He had the ability to make her melt into him with a look. No, she didn’t trust that she would never hurt him again. Her freedom came with a hefty price, one he gave to Bri and that price was that the Dark would always come first.

  So she kept her distance and fought herself every minute to not cave into what he told her. She knew he was waiting and she knew he would forever be waiting for her. She hated him for that. She hated that she knew he continued his life without her, after all Vampires were highly sexual in nature and her being gone didn’t mean he had to stop doing what he had always done. She just wished he wouldn’t do it when he knew she would find out. Talk is cheap and gossip is it’s whore. Bri had been told by numerous demons on numerous occasions that he had drifted off into his own world where blood whores were willing and eager.

  Yeah... she hated him for that.

  Letting the image in her mind fade away like a steam of smoke from a lit cigarette Bri walked back to Ezeks desk and sat back in the ergonomic chair and spun slowly in circles when she caught sight of the photos that were still on the wall. Normally her eyes fell on ones that Ezek had been in but looking now she couldn’t help the stream of tears that fell when she looked at the photo of her and the girls on a trip to Disney World.

  They went back in the eighties before Belle had been born to the world as the lovely brunette who fell in love with her beast, even though her tale truly was "Old as Time'. She lifted the picture off the wall and held it to her chest thinking back to the vacation and how they laughed so hard they cried as they watched actresses portray images of them and of their friends who had perished. Belle was now one of those friends and the thought ruptured something inside of Bri so painful that the hurt manifested itself and the picture frame shattered in her hands.

  Bri jumped at the unexpected shattering and sighed, wiping tears from her eyes as she stood to brush the particles of glass from her lap. The photograph fell to the ground turned upside down when Bri caught sight of the faint writing on the back.

  Ezek,

  Still hoping that Disney will never tell my tale, but if they do...Promise me that you will remind me of the three of them and how amazing they are when it comes to handling the cartoon side of life.

  Remind me of this trip and how happy I was...the fun I had...

  Belle

  Bri dropped the picture shocked that Belle had such a sensitive side but also because she remembered a promise she made. A promise that she was about to uphold.

  She sent a text to Beast, Winter and Ash and told them where to meet up.

  On my way. Was Beasts reply.

  Give me ten was Winter and Ash was a simple K.

  Bri had a passing thought as she hurried out the building and to her car if Neverland had bail.

  *

  Ash had to hand it to Bri as they all entered Neverland from the Dark. The pull always made her sick as they were all kind of shifted there, molecules breaking apart in the distance, reformatting as they came through. After all the shit she had seen over her life span, being sucked into thin air and spit back out still made no sense and freaked her out. Being a succubus with...extraordinary abilities, as she like to call it, made her shifting an almost second nature. One she would never get used to.

  Seeing Neverland for the first time was also a trip she didn’t care to take. Maybe it was seeing all the lost souls looking for a dream that would never come true... maybe it was the souls she banished her that were serving time until punishment...maybe it was knowing she was about to be an accomplice in breaking Belle out of the clink.

  She followed Bri silently as did Winter and Beast who looked completely freaked out by it all. Hell he had been here for over five hundred years just chillin’ out waiting for his second chance. The whole thing was depressing as hell.

  She wondered if he was nervous about seeing her, wondered if he refused to get his hopes up. She thought about her own lost love...even now after so many centuries had passed.... if she had the chance she wouldn’t blink an eye at getting another shot with him.

  She glanced at Winter, who still after so long, still would not talk to her unless it pertained to the group. Ash could feel the sadness inside of her like a second skin, like an entirely different bond from what she shared with Bri, but just as powerful making it impossible to not scream in frustration.

  She hadn’t seen Marcus around since the night of Belles death, knew that Marcus had hurt her, terribly she could do physically nothing, could say nothing directly about it unless Winter called to her. At times, her grief, her anger was so strong Ashess would get physically sick with no choice but to vomit.

  She wanted Marcus' head on a stick without even knowing what he had done. She knew enough from emotion alone and that is what had Ash out secretly every free night looking for the sorry son of a bitch always finding nothing. He had literally vanished.

  Bri started slowing her pace, stopping every few cells to check the name and number on each entry. They were getting close to Belle and Ash felt a moment of hesitation at what they were doing. Not fear, hell no she wanted Belle back and was willing to try anything. No the hesitation came from Beast. They were so in tune with one another that emotionally there were no longer any secrets, and right now Beast was damn near terrified. A thought that had Ash terrified as well.

  Whatever was behind the door they were walking to was not Belle, it was something ancient and terrifying and it wanted Beast.

  *

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Bri paused on the outside of the cell that held a very old, very terrifying Warewitch. She had been burned in Salem with all the other innocent women, having mind fucked an entire town into believing that she and the other witches were in fact evil. the story just as famous as they were.

  Sarah Claiborne had been born a Ware just as Beast had been only she was around long before the Celtic wars. Dipping into magic’s at a young age she mastered her abilities by the young age of thirteen and was kicked from the Wares world and sent out alone. It was that mistake the Wares made that ruined so many lives, Beast and Belle included.

  Bri could feel the tension surround the four of them as they looked inside the cell at the woman who was old in age but her beauty was striking. The vision she wished for was not one they expected to see. She was vengeance tenfold and her hatred called to Bri like a new lover, wrapping her in fingers of anger and hatred making it hard to breathe. Beast stepped close, undeterred by the woman’s vision and calmly but sternly spoke. " Bri do not let this woman get to you, she will break you."

  Bri nodded and stepped forward remembering exactly what she was capable of and pounded on the glass barrier between them.

  Starbursts of light shot around the never ending hallway causing them all to squint in the brightness of the lights. Pete had surrounded this bad old bitch with some serious pixie dust, the magic used to house the souls.

  Sarah smiled when she saw Beast and clapped her hands triumphantly. "I see your day of reckoning has come..." She smiled and sniffed the air, reminding Bri of Cane that day she showed up on his door, her fury like candy to a fat kid. "Tell me..." she looked at the four of them her smile growing, "is Belle in Neverland then?"

  Her question made them all shiver. "That’s why we're here." Bri said, voice stern letting the power of an Arch shower the Warewitch.

  "Is it?" Sarah asked, her voice losing all the entertainment and edging in anger.

  "I want the spell that binds Erych and Belle broken immediately."

  "I bet you do Sleeping Beauty."

  "Watch your tone old lady, I have power you can’t even imagine and I’d just as soon turn you into nothing than fuck around even a little bit with you." Bri spoke calm but her energy was nothing to be questioned. She let that energy creep out to Sarah and surround her, suffocate her until she nodded in what appeared to be pain before Bri relented. "Break the spell... please." Bri asked using her kindest voice possible at the time, it came out like a growl so Bri added the please for good measure.


  "Can’t be done."

  Bri calmly asked why.

  "She already sacrificed herself...for you it seems. Fat lot of good it did her too."

  Bri smiled, having done her own research in the last nine weeks while they tried figuring out their own powers. "That’s exactly why you will do it. The sacrifice wasn’t warranted, it was pointless and Erych gained nothing in his return. You owe him, you owe Belle and you will owe me as well when I release you for your kindness."

  "Release me..." She seemed to think it over and Bri waited unfazed by her delay. She literally had all the time in the world. "Release me into what?"

  "The world to go...wherever."

  Sarah stepped forward to the glass, closer than Bri liked because she wanted nothing more than to hit this beautiful creature. "There is a price to be paid if I do this."