The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set)

by Rue Volley

“Your lover is awake!”

  “What?”

  “Rue Volley has awakened and everything is getting ready to become very interesting. I would assume that she will be upon on in due time.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  Michael laughed.

  “Still the skeptic… oh Gabrielle…”

  Josh interrupted him… “My name is Josh.”

  Michael sighed.

  “Seriously this is becoming quite tedious. I grow tired of this human form you are trapped in. Perhaps the glamour has not reached you… let’s see if we can expedite things somewhat.”

  Michael pulled his blades and Josh squirmed on the mirror and then settled as Michael once again lifted from the ground and stared at him.

  Michael started to chant and Josh closed his eyes tightly as the wind picked up in the room and then Michael screamed out as he lunged at him and buried his blades deep into Josh’s chest and Josh screamed out and then started to gasp for air as Michael backed away from him and smiled.

  “Your heart will stop, now,” he said as he snapped his fingers and Josh shuddered and his heartbeat ceased within his chest.

  The most curious thing happened, small sparks of light started in his hands, slowly working their way up his arms and across his bare chest, then his body twitched as the light started to pulsate, one slow burst at first and then over and over again as Josh took a deep breath and arched his back on the mirror, gritting his teeth as a wave of memory raced through his mind, causing waves of pain and pleasure as they infiltrated every part of him. He jerked again and the light burst upward and outward, racing across the stone and then it all returned to him in one bright flash of light and the mirror cracked beneath him and he cried out one name and one name alone… that of ‘Rue’.

  Chapter 11

  The Wrath

  We had just reached Josh’s steps when I felt it, a fire burn through me, and a pain in my chest and across my wrists and I looked down as the redness started and I hissed. Johnathan grabbed my hands and looked at them and I shook my head and looked up at the dark and empty house.

  “He is not here and he is in pain Johnathan.” I said.

  Johnathan looked at the house and then turned me to look at him.

  “You need to track him like you have never tracked anything in your life.”

  I nodded and lowered to the ground and tried so very hard to see color or feel Josh at all but something was preventing me, some kind of glitching and static. I stood up and shook my head.

  “I can’t see shit.” I said to him.

  “Wait.” Johnathan said as he turned and looked down the darkened street.

  “Who is new to town?”

  My eyes widened when I realized that Michael and Jessica were not part of my glamour that I had placed on the town and I flashed towards their home, ready to kill everything in sight.

  ***

  Theo, Kai and Sam reached the library and slammed the doors open and looked around. It looked old and vacant and felt so very cold.

  “Well this is creepy.” Kai muttered as they entered and started to look around.

  “Listen, this place is a tomb to Rue; this is where your parents fell, so I am sure that is why it seems this way.”

  “So everything in this town is a reflection of her now?” Kai asked.

  “It would seem to be.” Theo said as he cautiously moved forward and then he looked up at the ceiling and shook his head at the broken mirror.

  “She left it broken.”

  “But.” Sam said as she raced to the double doors and swung them open to reveal the wing of the library that Theo had built for me so long ago.

  “Ahhh.” Sam said as she covered her mouth and let the stale air race past her. It smelled somewhat of death and they walked forward to see the once beautiful tree in the middle all withered and grey.

  “That is sadness.” Sam said as she looked at it.

  “She killed the tree?” Kai asked and Sam looked at him.

  “You know what? I don’t have time to catch you up to speed.” Sam left him standing there and Theo tapped his shoulder.

  “Rue is unhappy. Therefore, this town will not be pretty.”

  “Oh… shit.” He said and Theo followed Sam as she headed towards the smaller room in the back and she skidded to a stop as she muttered a profanity under her breath.

  Theo stopped and Kai came running up and stopped too as he looked down at a broken mirror.

  “Well shit.”

  Sam looked at him and placed a hand on her hip. He shrugged his shoulders at her.

  “I just don’t get why she didn’t leave the mirrors intact.”

  “These are mirrors with bad memories, remember? The ceiling was when your parents died and this mirror almost killed Jonah.”

  Theo sighed and looked behind them all.

  “What mirror has a good memory?”

  “Oh! Johnathan’s house! Remember in the basement, with the badass horse?” Kai yelled out.

  “Of course!” Theo yelled as he flashed away and Sam smiled at him and he grinned back at her.

  “You have your moments of badassness.” Sam said and Kai smiled as she flashed away from him.

  ***

  Gracie leaned forward, coughed and Jonah looked at Elijah then back to Lily.

  “So… you are saying that we are trapped in memory?” he said.

  Gracie looked up at him and grinned.

  “Not trapped, just placed here like toys.” She said.

  “Like a toy box.” Elijah added and Gracie glanced at him.

  “Elijah thinks we are lost toys.”

  Jonah smiled and looked at Lily. “Perhaps we are.”

  “Listen to me; we have to get out of here before we fade away.” She said to him.

  Jonah touched Lily’s face and smiled.

  “I have never known such happiness as I have here with Lily. It is peaceful, quiet. Just as we wish it to be.”

  “Well that is just great! So you both want to just fade away then?”

  “We are dead love.” Jonah said and Elijah looked at the two of them and back to Gracie.

  “Dead?” Gracie said.

  “Yes… we are aware of death, as we were once not able to achieve it.”

  “So you know why you are here?” Gracie asked them.

  “Well, assuming I am correct, we did not survive some sort of accident… I can't remember any details, but I know we are supposed to be here love.”

  Elijah shook his head and looked at Gracie.

  “Maybe we died too then.” He said.

  “No… we did not. I know we did not die Elijah.”

  “How?” Lily said quietly.

  “How, what?” Gracie asked her.

  “How do you know?” she added.

  “Well… I just do.” Gracie said and Elijah laughed.

  “Gracie thinks she knows everything.”

  Gracie clenched her fists and looked back at him.

  “Listen to me… I know I did not die because I want life, those who die and come to memory no longer want it, they are happy… like them.” She said as she waved her hand at Jonah and Lily.

  “It is always a possibility, knowing your mother… that you are just being stubborn.”

  “NO!” Gracie yelled at all of them and Lily held onto Jonah’s arm and Elijah looked down.

  Gracie recomposed herself and sighed then she held her hands out in front of her and Jonah walked to her just as she started to speak.

  “Love… look.” he said as he touched her hand and she felt him and looked down at her hands that were now becoming solid.

  “Oh… that is… that is awesome.” She said as she held them up and grinned.

  “So… does this mean you are not dying?”

  Gracie looked at Elijah and grinned.

  “This means there is something great happening.”

  “What?”

  “My Mom remembers me.” Gracie said and she sped out the door and Elijah followed
her as Jonah and Lily waved goodbye then Jonah called out to them and they stopped and looked back.

  “Gracie!”

  Gracie stared at him and grinned.

  “Tell them all that we felt nothing and we are at peace and that we enjoyed their friendship.” He said.

  Gracie nodded and both Jonah and Lily slipped into the darkness of the tent.

  Gracie reached out and Elijah took her hand as they raced across the open field in search of freedom.

  ***

  I stumbled, which was nothing new… but on a mission it was annoying and up until that point I had taken on this whole badass demeanor like an action hero. Johnathan caught me and we rolled on the ground together until we came to an abrupt stop and he rested on top of me. I looked up at him and he smiled.

  “You need to get off of me please.” I said.

  “Oh yeah… sorry.” He said as he stood up and held his hand out to me. I looked up at a dark house, that of Michael and Jessica’s.

  “Okay… so what is the plan here? We go in and kick all ass and then what?” he asked me.

  “I am going to ask one question… where is he, and then stab everyone in the eye.” I said as I started to walk towards the house.

  “Woah… woah.” Johnathan said as he grabbed my arm and I stopped and looked at him.

  “We need to be just a little bit more organized than that.” He said to me.

  “Like how?”

  “Well… how about this? I will go to the door and knock and do the charm thing.”

  “Then we stab?”

  “Rue seriously…” Johnathan said as he laughed and I did not.

  “Okay, listen. I know you are all kickass first right now, but that is not going to get us anywhere. We need to be smart.”

  “Oh…I am not smart?” I said.

  “You ARE smart, but when you are pissed shit gets all crazy.”

  “Not true.”

  Johnathan laughed and waved his arms around.

  “Seriously? All this and you say that?” he said.

  I sighed.

  “Listen, I did not “change” things because of anger, it was because of love Johnathan.”

  “Listen to me. We will get Josh, and Gracie and Elijah. I have no doubt. Will you just trust me once? Just once?” he said to me.

  I tilted my head. “Okay, but if things gets all wackadoodle I am stabbing people.”

  “Fine… deal.”

  I nodded and he walked up to the door and knocked as he glanced back at me. Jessica answered and he started to talk to her as I knelt down and out of the way, then he stepped into the house and the door closed and I stood up and shook my head, tapping my blade on my leg.

  “What the hell.” I muttered as I started to feel such an impatience fill me it made me nauseous. I finally flipped the blade in my hands and started for the front door, ready to kick the shit out of everything in my path. Just as I lifted my leg to kick the door in, it opened and Johnathan stood there, looking somewhat odd and then he started to fall and I dropped my blades to catch him. He fell to the side and I looked up at Jessica who was holding a small knife in her hand, dripping with blood.

  “Oh bitch you just made the worse mistake of your life.”

  I looked down to Johnathan as he gritted his teeth and looked at me all glossy eyed.

  “Okay so my plan was not the best one.”

  I smiled. “You think?”

  “Seeing that she stabbed me with poison, yes… I think.”

  “I hate to say I told you so.”

  “Do me a favor and stab her in the eye, Rue.” He said as he held his stomach.

  “Oh... you watch me.” I said as I looked at her.

  Jessica smiled at me and waved me in with her free hand and I slowly picked up both blades and stood up, staring a hole right through her.

  Jessica giggled and took a step back, raising the blade to her mouth and running it across her tongue, letting it cut into the meaty part of it. I didn’t really care, trust me… and as we all know, I have seen my fill of blood and grossness.

  “So… what are you, or better yet… who are you?” I asked her. She stopped the blade and looked at me with a grin on her face.

  “I am Jessica, Michael’s sister.” She said.

  “You know what?” I said as I stopped and tapped my blade on my leg.

  She looked at me and tilted her head.

  “I hate liars.” I said.

  “Oh!... you hate liars? You are the one who built this lie!” Jessica yelled at me.

  I sighed and stared her down.

  “I will be the first to tell you that I have issues.”

  She laughed and shook her head.

  “You are a child who threw a big fit, changing things as you wanted them to be… you are nothing more than a time keeper, you do not control time itself.”

  I looked down at my blades and I knew she was right, I knew that I had in fact changed everything and put it all where I wanted it to be. I had placed myself in a situation that I desire, making everyone around me just as I wished them to be and in turn it was a lie. God damn it.

  I looked up at her and grinned.

  “I think you are a glamour yourself Jessica.” I said.

  She laughed at me.

  “I am not; if anything is fake… it is you.”

  I gritted my teeth and then closed my eyes allowing the energy to flow through me, I had not tried any spells in so long I had no idea if I could do them right, but I had nothing to lose at this point. I took a deep breath and I guess dumbass decided that she would take a run at me and before she reached me I swung my blade up as she skidded to a stop, right at the tip of it and I looked down the length of the blade into her now not so smart ass expression.

  I spoke one word in Latin and then another and with each word I spoke she started to move back from me as I moved forward and the light started to wrap my arm and slither its way up my blade and towards her. She stopped as she backed into the couch and placed her hand behind her, gripping the knife tightly in her other hand.

  Then her face twitched one slow move at first and then another and she started to sweat as I continued to chant and the light swirled off of my blade and above us both in a circular motion. She looked up at the light as she continued to vibrate and twitch like some horror movie and she grabbed the sides of her head and screamed as I could hear bones crunching and things readjusting themselves in her body.

  She moaned and fell forward, still clutching the sides of her head and her back waved and cracked like a wave of water under her shirt and I muttered the last word and the light penetrated her body in sharp lines, criss crossing and cutting through her back and arms and legs and she screamed and folded backward, almost in half and then with a blur of motion she stood straight up, shook out her hair and stared me down and my heartbeat almost stopped in my chest as I stared Clytie down.

  “Oh fuck you.” I yelled at her as I raised my blade and flashed forward, she twisted under me and I felt a slight burning as she caught my right side with the tip of her knife. I hissed as it burned and pivoted on my foot, bringing the hilt of my blade down on the back of her head and she stumbled forward as I spun around to see her standing up quickly, touching the back of her head and smiling as she pulled it to her face and saw blood.

  “You have become quite the warrior.” She said to me.

  “You have no idea.” I said as I moved forward and she jumped, I dropped one blade and grabbed her foot and brought her down over my head and slammed her to the floor on her back. She screamed and rolled as I brought my blade down and it slammed through the wood floor at least a foot in depth.

  “Bitch! Stop moving!” I yelled at her.

  She laughed and flashed behind me, she placed the knife to my throat and then quickly cut me, just a little and I felt the blood leave me but I did not panic. She then placed it to my heart and whispered into my ear.

  “I fucked him.”

  That was enough for me, enough
to make me numb and knowing that it was in fact true made me do something I didn’t think I would ever do. I lifted my blade and stabbed myself with such force and quickness, right through me and into her black dead heart.

  Johnathan stared at her back with my blade sticking through it and then he pushed himself up as she gasped for air and slumped against my back. I hissed as I looked down and saw my blade buried into me and the blood started to flow from it and onto my hand.

  Johnathan ran around in front of me and grabbed his head and stared at it and then looked at my face.

  “Holy shit.” He muttered.

  “Yeah… this is shit, I need ahhhh, you think you could help me?” I said, as I felt a little dizzy.

  “Okay… okay.” He said as he gently touched my hand and I let the blade go, he gently moved it and I yelled out.

  “I am sorry… I’m sorry...okay, how about this, we do this fast… one quick pull?” he said to me.

  “I don’t care; just get it out of me.” I said as I felt myself starting to get heavy.

  “Okay… on the count of three.”

  I looked at him and tilted my head.

  “One… two…”

  And he jerked it out and I screamed as Clytie fell to the floor behind me. I grabbed at the wound and held my hand over it, blood seeped through my fingers and I shook my head.

  “This may have been a bad idea.” I muttered as Johnathan became blurry and I hit the floor hard, next to Clytie. I looked into her eyes and narrowed mine.

  “So worth it… you bitch.” I muttered as everything faded to black.

  Chapter 12

  Price To Pay

  I woke to birds chirping. How odd and yet not. I took a breath and sat up in my bed and looked around the room and could only hope it was real, something I could grasp and not memory. I started to move and I hissed as I looked down at my chest and felt it. It was sore and I lifted my shirt and looked at the white gauze and saw a small stain of blood seeping through it. I lowered my shirt and shook my head knowing that stabbing myself with a blade infused with such hatred…the hatred that I had in my heart for Clytie was not the best idea I had ever came up with, but I woke and that alone is the best thing that could have happened.