Beautiful Eternity

by Alicia Deters

  A shadow moved in the darkness ahead of me that none of the humans detected. “Lights!” I shouted.

  Several UV flashlights flickered to life, illuminating the dark and bouncing off the water in tiny flickers. A bigger flash of light flared ahead of us when we caught a stray vampire in our path, but I sensed another in the distance.

  “Lucy, are you getting bad vibes from this place, too?” Max asked.

  We made it to London earlier this evening and immediately set to work locating their den, which happened to be in an underground tunnel system. We traveled over a mile through a network of pitch black channels.

  “Yeah, Max. I am.”

  “Your friend is right, Lucille. We shouldn’t be here,” Elias commented after over twenty four hours of radio silence.

  “Oh, now you want to chime in on things. Why don’t you tell us something useful, like what my father is up to now?”

  He huffed and mumbled, “I don’t know.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “Come again?”

  “I can’t get ahold of Marshall. His phone is dead.”

  I threw my hands in the air and let them fall heavily, smacking against my thighs. “And you’re just now telling me this?”

  The creepy crawly feeling in the pit of my stomach grew heavier.

  “We don’t know anything yet. He might have had to ditch his phone and seek safety. I didn’t want to say anything if it turns out to be nothing.”

  “Everything regarding my father is something. Wake up! Marshall is gone. My father discovered who he was, and we have no idea where he is.”

  Elias grew eerily quiet and turned a cold gaze on me. I probably should have used more tact but my growing tension erased any cordiality I might have had for a few seconds.

  “Ugh, what is that smell?” Allison complained.

  “We’re close,” Gavin said. “Luce?”

  “Yeah, I smell it too.” There was a strong must that permeated these aged tunnels, but on top of that was a growing scent of decay.

  Running ahead of the others, Gavin and I came to a hole in the ground, where the water at our feet fell over the edge in the shape of a ring that looked like a round sheer wall below us. It fell freely into a large chamber below, and on the floor of that chamber lay a dozen bodies, no heartbeats.

  “Shit!” I yelled, and before I could let loose another four letter word, another scent hit me, coming off the dead. It was chemical and burned my nostrils. It was also familiar.

  “Lucy?” Gavin echoed, a warning lacing his tone.

  “Yeah, I smell that too. Everyone out, now!” I shouted behind me.

  Breaking into a run, we tried backtracking to retrace our steps to the nearest ladder cove. A strange hissing sound came from the ceilings, and suddenly we were swarmed by the offensive chemical smell. It was in the air around us.

  I stopped breathing and shook off the slight effects from inhaling once. Screaming erupted around me in the cramped space, but as my friends dropped to their knees, succumbing to the lethargy, I scrambled to collect them in my arms, half dragging them, half carrying them to the closest exit.

  Max slumped, his arm going slack, and I had to set Allison on her feet to keep him from sliding to the watery floor. It had taken only seconds for the drug to knock them out completely.

  “Come on guys, help me out here,” I encouraged as I tucked both their midsections under my arms.

  “Lucy, let me take one of them,” Gavin said as he came up behind me carrying Nick on his back. Elias was behind him with Brody, and thank God we opted not to bring the other house members along this time around.

  I handed Allison off to Gavin, and he cradled her in his arms after positioning Nick’s lifeless body over his shoulder. He wedged Nick’s legs under his arm to keep him from slipping.

  I did the same with Max and held on with both arms. I sighed in relief when we rounded a corner and the light of the city above filtered down an old maintenance shaft. Just before reaching the faint glow, I sensed a powerful presence and slammed to a stop.

  My father stepped underneath the exit, mere feet from us.

  “My darling daughter, you are really starting to piss me off.”

  Growing impatient with the need to help my friends, I stepped closer. “Same sentiments to you, daddy dearest. Now, get the hell out of my way.”

  He chuckled darkly and continued to prattle on about the same boring shit. “It was a stupid move to align with those deserters,” he spat, shooting Elias a disgusted look.

  Temper flaring, Elias dropped Brody. “What did you do to Marshall?”

  “Elias!” I shouted, moving to lift Brody’s face out of the dirty puddle.

  My father smiled. “Let’s just say he is no longer in my employment.”

  When Elias looked ready to charge, Gavin stepped in front of him. “Don’t,” he said coldly.

  Elias seethed but remained in place.

  “Spying isn’t really your strong suit, Lucille. In fact, I think the only thing that’s gotten you this far is luck. But luck won’t defeat me. Do you know what will win this war? My self preservation. Your devotion to others is your weakness and it will always hold you back, my dear. Your love for them will always give me power over you.”

  “You’re delusional, old man. Now, if you’re finished complimenting yourself, I have better places to be.”

  “Ah, yes, your weakness calls. I’ve been experimenting with the potency of my drug, and I must say that I’ve come up with the strongest dose yet. The amount your friends have running through their veins is lethal to most humans. But, oh, what a high,” he added dreamily.

  My blood iced over and drained from my face. “I’ll kill you with my weaknesses before this war is over.”

  He laughed. “You will try, but the war is only beginning and you need to stop medalling in my affairs or your side will see more casualties. Stop attacking my family and I’ll stop targeting yours.”

  “You’re lying. Now move!” I shouted.

  “I’m not lying. If you give me any information you find on the Sword, I’ll pull back my forces from your little Keeper society.”

  I barked out a maniacal laugh. “And how the hell am I supposed to accomplish that when you’ve already stolen our only hope of finding it? How is that search going by the way? Sounds pretty fruitful, father.”

  “You have many resources, Lucille. You’ll think of something. If not, I’ll hit your weak spot with everything I’ve got. Better hurry. Your friends don’t look so good.”

  With that final warning, he stepped aside, and I jumped up the narrow shaft, landing on the last wrung before popping the entrance cover off.

  Gavin and Elias followed with the others firmly tucked in their grip. Pulling out my phone, I searched for the nearest hospital and sprinted in that direction.

  The next few hours blurred into an endless string of regretful thoughts. Max was the first to regain consciousness, and it looked like Nick would recover, but Allison and Brody were both in comas, their heartbeats faint.

  For the second time in the past month I found myself in a hospital waiting room, but it felt like just yesterday. I sat in one of those uncomfortable, stiff chairs with my elbows resting on my knees and my fingers gripping my scalp. The tug on my hair reminded me how tightly wound I was. Gavin slipped into the seat next to me and placed a hand on my thigh to steady it. I hadn’t realized how hard it was bouncing up and down.

  I sat back and raked my fingers the rest of the way down the length of my wavy hair, ripping at tangled knots where the wind had whipped through it during the run. Numb to the sting of my scalp, I stared vacantly ahead at a stain on the wall of the nurses’ station.

  “I can’t handle this.”

  Gavin wound his fingers through mine and squeezed my hand. “I know, gorgeous. It’ll never get easier when you care so deeply. The worst kind of curse is living forever. Knowing you’ll outlive every friend you make can drive a person insane.”

  “Are you sa
ying we should never make friends?”

  “No. The opposite. We need those relationships because we’d go insane without them.”

  “So it’s lose-lose?”

  “I’m sorry, Lucy. I’m not saying this right. We need love in our lives to live it to the fullest, but we can’t let ourselves dwell on the future, because ours is too long and filled with a whole lot of pain. That’s why we have to fill our present with as much good as we can. We have to appreciate all the time we have with loved ones, knowing how precious that time is. It could come to an end tomorrow but we have to be grateful for our today.”

  “You’re right.”

  I couldn’t grieve for something that hasn’t happened and might not, so I had to be grateful my friends were still alive, and I had to hope they’d recover. It wasn’t productive to dwell on the sucktastic things in my life, because that list was infinitely long.

  I glanced over at Elias, who sat opposite us a few chairs down the row. His head was down in true grief, and I felt like a tool for mourning a loss I hadn’t experienced. He had, and I moved toward him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry for Marshall. He was incredibly brave to get that close to the enemy. He must have been extremely loyal.”

  “He was. He was a good friend.” Elias tipped his head up to look me in the eyes. Sorrow darkened them to an almost burnt chocolate color. “Thanks, Lucy. I know you’ve lost people to that murderer too. And I can’t tell you how sorry I am for withholding such valuable information. It could have costed your friends their lives.”

  My phone buzzed with an incoming text. I saw Sophie’s name flash across the screen but pocketed it to return to my conversation and redirect the blame.

  “I have lost people, but I can only focus on stopping the real person responsible for this mess. Nothing else matters anymore.”

  “I’m still with you. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”

  “Thanks. Would you mind staying with them while Gavin and I break the news to the England faction of their missing members? They still don’t know, and I need to check on Sophie.”

  “Sure. Staring into space with my own thoughts is probably the only thing I’m good for anyway, so waiting is the perfect job for me right now.”

  “Thank you, Elias. I’ll be in touch soon.”

  Gavin waited for me by the elevator bank and extended his hand to me when I approached. I took it and checked my text from Sophie. She kept it vague saying she wanted to talk to me about something.

  “Let’s get this over with.” I spoke to the buttons just to put a voice to my dread.

  19

  The London team took the news of their fallen members surprisingly well. Like me, they had already grieved the unknown. Now, they sat together in companionable silence, acceptance of their loss thick in all that was unspoken.

  I stepped out of the room to let them comfort one another and headed down the tiled hallway toward the library, passing several paintings in gilded frames. The library was at the end of the hall and was every bookworm’s fantasy.

  I knew Sophie hadn’t left this room since we dropped her off. Rich solid wood shelving wrapped around the walls and towered over study tables in uniform rows like teachers hovering over their students. The smell of thoughts on paper permeated the air in an intellectual cloud, giving off that disconnected from reality vibe book lovers sought after like their favorite local coffee shops.

  In the corner of the room, I spotted Sophie at a round table, fingers tapping over her laptop keyboard, looking completely in her element. Yellow and red light played across her face as the early morning sunlight filtered through the stained glass windows above her.

  “Have you left this room since we got here?” I asked, smiling for the first time in hours.

  She startled at my voice but peeked up from her computer screen to shoot me a welcoming smile. “I may have left once or twice.”

  “But have you slept at all?” I asked when I noticed dark circles forming under her eyes, her glasses unable to conceal them. Her hair was in a messy pony tail but several strands fell loose around her face.

  “I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about you guys and needed to distract myself. But it paid off! Lucy, I found something.”

  I moved to the chair opposite her and sunk into it, the weight of the night’s events collapsing heavily on my shoulders.

  Sophie started to speak but stopped when she took one look at my expression. “What’s wrong, Lucy? I thought I should be relieved to see you made it back.”

  “I’m fine, but Soph, the others were hurt.”

  I gave her a moment to absorb the news.

  “Wait, are they hurt like they fell and broke an arm, or…?” She couldn’t finish the thought, her sweet and innocent mind unable to imagine such heinous outcomes, even after everything she’s already seen. It was a gift I wish I had.

  “My father was there, and he was expecting us.”

  She sucked in air like she was suffocating. “Oh my God. What did he do? Are they okay?”

  “He’s weaponized his beloved party favor, using it as an airborne toxin. He gassed them with a lethal dose of the drug. They’re not dead, Soph, but they’re in critical condition. Max is going to pull through but is still being monitored. Nick is recovering as well, but Allison and Brody are in comas.”

  Tears welled in her wide brown eyes, and her dainty hand covered her open mouth. Shock and horror rippled across her face, vying for dominance, but then they were both wiped clean by a determination I rarely witnessed in her. She was getting stronger every day.

  “We can’t let this continue, Lucy. We have to do something.”

  “I know, Soph. We will when we come up with a plan.”

  “Um, I think I might have something that will help you come up with that plan.”

  Her eyebrows drew together as she scrolled through her music on her laptop and selected a song, turning the volume to full blast. She pushed her slipping glasses up her nose and began typing. When she turned her screen toward me, I froze at the words on the screen.

  I found it!

  It didn’t take a genius to know what the it was that she was referring to in our current situation. She was being extra cautious in what she spoke out loud, and I understood her mistrust of everyone around us. We’ve been burned too many times, but I still refrained from laughing at seeing her so secretive like she was in the CIA or something.

  She spoke in a decibel no louder than a whisper, knowing I’d hear. Even the strongest sense of hearing wouldn’t detect her voice from more than ten feet away.

  “I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure, but something I read in what little I could make out of the translated texts reminded me of another book I once read back in Wolf Creek. No one else paid it much attention because it was more of a mythology book written by regular people.

  “It turns out that somebody had connections with Constantine and had recounted certain stories related to him, stories that were written off by other humans as fables. But they mention a powerful sword, Lucy. Look, I found the book on our secure network. It’s one of the many harmless books we uploaded.”

  She pointed out the text, and I skimmed a portion, my mouth dropping in awe at the realization that the answers we had been searching for were right under our noses the whole time. Human retellings of Constantine’s supernatural adventures actually existed. Cardinal Trevisani was wrong about humans not keeping their own records.

  “Where, Soph?”

  She spun the laptop back around to face her and typed out a word on the screen before turning it back toward me. That one word was about to change the game in our favor, and a new plan was already taking shape in my head.

  It seemed we were all headed to Scotland.

  †

  I sent a secure message to the other factions to meet me in Edinburgh. Convincing Elias to stay behind to watch over my friends and miss out on the action proved to be the most difficult par
t of my plan. He whined about revenge, and I reminded him whom he was talking to. Vengeance belonged to all of us, but my father was my problem to handle, if in fact my father showed, which I was kind of counting on.

  Gavin and I had gone to the hospital for my daily dose of refreshments, and I stopped by Max’s room to check on him. He was sitting up in his bed watching a soccer game. His bright white teeth flashed against his tanned skin as he noticed me in the doorway.

  “Who’s winning?” I asked.

  “Like you care,” he joked.

  “Like you do either? You must be going insane with boredom.”

  “Hell yeah I am, but they won’t let me out of this place. It’s like a prison. They keep saying it’s for my own good, that they want to make sure I don’t have any signs of brain damage, but—”

  “But there was already evidence of that before the drugs, so their worrying is pointless?” I finished for him.

  “Ha. Ha. Ha. Maybe it’s the drugs still in my system, but that was almost funny, Luce.”

  “Come on. You’re laughing your ass off on the inside. Admit it.”

  “Maybe a little.” He adjusted his position, pushing himself farther up the bed. “It’s good to see you. Thanks for coming in.”

  I sighed, reluctant to ruin his good mood. “You won’t be thanking me in a minute. I just came by to tell you I was leaving soon. We know where it is.”

  He blinked once and three long seconds ticked by before he blinked again. “You’re really going to do this without me?”

  “We need to end this as soon as possible, Max, and I can’t let you fight in your condition. You need more rest and time to recuperate.”

  “I need to be there with you. This road has taken forever to get down, and now you’re telling me I won’t even get to see the end of it?”

  “You will see the end of it. That’s the point. Look, I don’t want to argue,” I said, intending to soften my tone, but it came out steely.

  “Then, let me come with you.”

  “I can’t. It’s too risky.”