by Tara Brown
I leap at her, hugging her hard. "Stella!"
She wraps around me, "I have missed you, Ellie."
I could almost cry, I have missed her so badly and never even knew it.
When I let go of her, Wyatt steps closer to me. Her fangs drop and blue veins creep along the ashen skin under her bright eyes. She hisses, "You bring a present for me, Constantine?"
He laughs, "Oh how I wish I could leave him in your care, my fair sister, but alas the young Van Helsing is part of the cause this time."
Wyatt crosses his arms, "You couldn’t take me and we both know it, mistress of Satan."
Constantine rolls his eyes, "Did I mention he is also very humble? All about the cause, this one."
Her blood-red nails grow into claws as she points at him, "What about Vlad? What about Mother and Father? What about Stephan? You would side with one of his kind and betray our blood again?"
I cock an eyebrow and glance at Mona. What does she mean again? Mona interrupts my thoughts as she stifles a laugh, "This is like dinner theatre."
I laugh aloud but none of them even crack a smile. Wyatt takes the great offense as seriously as they do.
Michelle sighs loudly, "Okay, look. You guys can play this out in the courtyard of whatever mansion we're going to. It'll be epic, but like… I'm tired. I have a hankering for some Swiss loving and a sandwich, maybe tuna. Can we go?"
Mona nods, "Not to sound like Michelle on this one, but yeah. This is a bit intense."
Constantine walks over to his sister, "Stella, let's away to the car. We can discuss it there."
Her eyes land on me like bright-blue daggers attacking, "Ellie, do you not recall the way they held you captive? Filling you with poison and pain? How can you allow this? How can you be near him? He is one of Gretel’s, if my nose is not mistaken."
“He isn’t like them.” I shake my head, "I don’t know how else to explain it." My eyes are drawn to Wyatt's. I smile when I see his hardened and cocky face. "He isn’t the same as them."
Constantine sighs, almost exactly the way Michelle did, "He is half angel. He isn’t all Van Helsing. You will recall the indiscretion a certain someone had?"
Stella's mouth twitched, "That slut, I knew it. I knew it. I said it and everyone disagreed. He smells like her though, like old whore."
I snort, grabbing Wyatt's arm instantly. His muscles bulge under my hands as he nearly attacks. My hands burn and the nausea is awful, but holding him is better than letting the fight take place in a public place. I whisper, “Please, for me. Don’t do this.”
He growls, "Do not speak of my mother that way."
Stella looks down at her claws, menacingly, "I'll do as I wish, Van Helsing."
Mona grabs Wyatt's arm and drags him off to the side, "Let's go. This is ridiculous."
Constantine and his sister give each other glances. I know they're reading each other's thoughts, they always did. His whole family was able to do it. Now though, they are all that is left of the line.
I look at them both and turn to follow Mona, even though she has no idea where she is going. We both smile when we see the huge black Hummer out in front. She opens the door, "Come on, lover boy. We both know you have to calm down. Where better than the vamp Hummer, to find a nice place to sit and take a few breaths?"
Wyatt scowls at Mona, "You are so weird." Michelle rolls her eyes, "You don’t even know the half of it."
Mona gives her a look. In it I see a thousand things, a thousand bad things. Mona is done with Michelle and her selfishness. I can't blame her, but I also can't be angry with Michelle. I have no ability to maintain a proper grudge—flaw in the system I suppose. Plus, I knew Michelle as Michael. I knew the lost boy who was always sad and alone. My heart broke every day for him, and now I have to celebrate her, even if she is overcompensating.
I close the door of the Hummer as I climb into the back with them. Wyatt sits next to me, nudging me, "You okay?"
I shake my head, "I have a bad feeling. It's been this way since I killed the first devil. It's like I'm expecting something bad."
Wyatt laughs sarcastically, "Of course. This whole thing is bad, everything is bad. Look where we are." He wrinkles his nose, "Speaking of which, what's that smell?"
I smell the air, "I don’t smell anything. Leather seats?"
Mona shakes her head, "You smelling a devil? I don’t smell anything."
Wyatt sniffs around us all, like a hound. I start to giggle, unable to stop myself. He moves around the Hummer until he leans over the backseat. He pulls back quickly, "Gross. What the hell? Why do they have to bring snacks everywhere they go?"
I lean over the seat, "Oh my God, is she dead?" A limp body lies in the massive trunk.
Wyatt shakes his head, "No, she's alive. They cannot eat dead blood. Stake to the heart won't kill them but dead blood, that’s the ticket." He runs his hands through his hair, “Well that’s the ticket for regular vampires that they make. I think dead blood only makes them sick, really sick.”
I nodded, recalling that suddenly.
Mona shakes her head, "I'm not looking. I can't do this shit anymore. This is inhumane."
Constantine gets into the driver's seat. He starts the truck. I scowl, "Why is there a dying girl in the backseat?"
He looks at me in the rearview, "One of you is getting into the passenger seat. What do I look like—Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy?"
Michelle jumps at the chance. I can see Constantine's eyes narrow as he mumbles something. Wyatt's lips turn up into a grin, like he heard the muttering. He probably did. The guy is part hound, for sure.
Mona points at the backseat, "Dying girl? Let’s focus."
Constantine sighs, "Mona, I have to eat. Stella brought me a snack, that’s all. I won't kill her. I will reward her for the stealing of her blood."
Mona folds her arms, "I'm not riding in the car with her bleeding in the back. She has already been bitten."
His eyes twinkle, there is evil in them. I see a plan on his lips, but he doesn’t speak of it. He doesn’t need to. Wyatt looks back at the girl and then back at Constantine with an evil gaze, "You're turning her?"
Two
The chalet is a mansion. How many ways can one man say mansion? He's a psycho if he thinks this is a chalet.
He's a psycho anyway. I smell the air in the back, the girl doesn’t smell evil at all.
Mona nudges me as we walk along the driveway to the house, "That was an awkward drive."
I nod, "Why is he making vampires, and why isn’t he talking to us about it?"
Mona's eyes darken, "Why is all we ever have, Rayne. No one is telling us anything. Don’t you think that’s weird? They’re doing this whole end-of-the-world shit and it’s like by guess and by golly. Where is the science and research and planning? It feels a little half-assed, if you ask me."
I nod again, "I think it's all weird and half-assed. The witches and Fitz were the only ones who were actually making an effort to plan."
She gives me a look, "The other thing bugging me—we need to get rid of Michelle. I swear, she's going to sell us down the river again. I have a bad feeling about her."
I can't say I don’t have the same feeling, but I’ve never been big on grudges. Even with Wyatt being an asshole to me, I have never been able to hate him for it. I notice, suddenly, my ability to hate has gotten weaker. With it, my ability to love has too. I don’t love Wyatt or Constantine. I don’t love anything or hate it, not even Gretel. I say I love things, but the depth is more like puddle deep, and the attachment is not there, not like it used to be. I shake my head, "Better to keep her close maybe."
Mona nods, looking like Blair off Gossip Girl more than ever. The scheming face is very Blair.
I force a smile across my face, "We'll have a good Christmas and leave it at that?"
She doesn’t look convinced as we walk into the massive great room. The stone fireplace looks comforting. I sit down in front of it on the huge white shag carpet and sigh wh
en the heat bears down on me. I shiver as my back tingles. Stella comes and sits next to me. I forgot about her, completely. I forgot how beautiful she is. I see Wyatt watching her, and I know it is the mesmerizing awe of her beauty. No one can help it.
She clicks a remote and the huge TV in the corner turns on. I give her a funny look, "What are you doing?"
She shrugs, "Just checking the news. I heard some people talking at the airport about a war."
I roll my eyes, "When isn’t there a war?"
She puts the remote down when it's on the channel she wants, “Not a normal war.” She leans against me; the smell of her is so familiar. It almost relaxes me. I remember being sick and she nursing me back to health. At first she was so angry that he had brought me to the castle, stolen from the Van Helsings. I was sick and dying and soon she saw that. She fed me broth and read to me. I remember her dark curls and beautiful face. I remember the way she always told me that one day we would be sisters for real.
And then I died.
The second time she was part of my life more. I grew to love her more and more.
Now she is like Mona to me, comfortable. Mona comes and sits with us, "Where is the war?"
Stella shrugs, "I didn’t hear. My German is rusty and that’s what they were speaking."
A journalist with a microphone and a grave look on his weary face, speaks slowly, "It is like nothing we have ever seen. The Palestinians, the Jews, and Christians have slaughtered each other in Jerusalem. For the third time in history, Jerusalem has been destroyed, wiped from the Earth. There is no winner, no clear winner. The UN has made a decision I feel many of us are mystified by. They have chosen not to interfere. Every country has pulled back, choosing to defend their borders only. Americans, British, Canadians, and everyone else have brought their military home. Bases around the world have closed. All military personnel have been flown home in what some are calling the most bizarre forty-eight hours ever lived on this Earth."
My jaw drops. Wyatt comes to the shag carpet, sitting next to me. Even he and Stella behave as we watch the broadcast.
"I have been instructed to be blunt and forthcoming with all details of the situation." The man's face has a look of uncertainty and disbelief. "We are seeing unprecedented movements and strategies by all countries. Everyone is stepping back from it. I have live reports coming in from our journalist in the field, Katherine Little."
The screen splits into a view of him and then a view of a woman standing on a hillside. There is smoke behind her, filling the sky. She pastes a forced smile on her lips but it’s delayed almost from what the other journalist has said. "Hi Stan. Behind me is what is left of Jerusalem. The entire city is destroyed. This, two miles away, is the closest I am allowed to get. Reporters are not allowed closer than this, and the few living who have fled the city are being medevaced by private companies trying to help. Everyone here is stunned and disturbed by the choices made by the UN. No one here understands how the slaughter has been allowed." Tears fill her red-rimmed eyes as she stammers, "Th-th-there is a river of blood streaming through the city. Reports of the most bizarre nature have been our only information. I spoke to one witness as she was being strapped into a gurney." Her hand shakes as she lifts the charcoal-stained fingers to her face with a blackened piece of paper up so she can read it, "She said, there was a thundering of hooves on the street. The people stood in awe as a rider made his way through the streets. He had a crown and a bow and he was killing faster than anyone could hide. He killed alongside of things that couldn’t be seen. There was fire and destruction everywhere. Again, it was like a war against things that could not be seen."
The screen cuts back to just Stan. He looks scared as he gazes off into the distance. He jerks, as if the studio has told him to talk again, "Thank you, Katherine. That is most disturbing. We have reports of something similar in the Vatican City but no eyewitness testimony. No video footage is coming from the city or Rome at all. We have been unable to reach our Rome correspondent for many hours." I can see tears slipping from his eyes as he pastes a fake smile on his lips, "We will try to keep you updated on the events as they occur. Please pray for the victims of this horrific event."
Stella turned the TV off, but it's not her that speaks, it's Wyatt. "Shit, Revelations, really?"
I frown, "What?"
Mona gives me a look, "Johnny Cash, the pale horse intro to The Man Comes Around. The rider is death or something, right?"
Wyatt scoffs, "Yeah well, before Johnny Cash sang about it, it was a bible verse. Jesus." Mona wrinkles her nose at him.
Stella looks lost, "I don’t understand."
Constantine comes into the room, "That is because, dear sister, you never cared for scripture. But Uncle Vlad never let me get away with such complacency. I had to learn. The white horse is the first. As the seals in God's hand break, the riders come forth to bring about the end of days." He sips a glass of red wine before he continues, "The white horse is first. He brings with him a bow and wears a victor’s crown. He is war, conquest and war."
I swallow hard, "What does that mean?"
Constantine shakes his head but I don’t believe him. I don’t trust him. I look at Wyatt. He shakes his head, "I don’t know. You killing the devils and sending them to hell with the evil should stop the end of days." His phone rings as he speaks. He pulls it out and gets up, "Hello?" He leaves the room.
Constantine sighs, "I agree with young Wyatt, this shouldn’t be the sequence of events as long as the devils take their evil with them."
Stella looks at me, "Do we continue to allow her to kill the devils or does she die to save the world?" Her face tells me which she would prefer, and I agree.
I look down, wondering the same thing over and over.
When I look up, Constantine is in front of me. He drops to his knees and tilts my chin up, "The world will end and it will find a way to save itself that doesn’t involve your death. No matter what, I say we kill the last three devils, now. We leave now. Before the rest of the world falls apart; kill them before they come for you. Even if they are gone and the whole world dies, you and I will live on together."
I nod, it's selfish but I don’t care. I don’t want to die. I want to live. I want to feel again. I feel like I am renting my body, not fully experiencing it. The other versions of me are panicking inside of me too. I think it's why I can't feel everything I used to, we are spreading the emotions too thin amongst all five of us.
Stella wraps a slender arm around me, "We will help you, Ellie. No matter what, we want you to live. Let the world save itself.”
I nod, "Okay."
Mona gives me a smile too, but I can see the fear in her eyes. Michelle texts on her phone on the couch, not really paying much attention to it all. I smile when I see her pose, "What are you doing?"
She gives me a look, "Snapchatting."
I don’t know what that means but she poses again, duck lips this time. Mona rolls her eyes, "That is why the world is ending."
I laugh as Wyatt comes back in, "They want you to turn yourself in. The religious heads have teamed up and spoken to my parents, and they're blaming you." I wince and wait for him to switch sides. He looks at Constantine, "No doubt they were tracing the call—we should go."
Constantine nods, giving Mona a sad look, "Rain check?"
She smiles, "When the world ends and begins again, and no one cares who Rayne is, we will restart Christmas. Make new traditions. Or we will hide up here in the Alps and eat until the end comes for us too."
I feel sick. The other girls inside of me all agree, we feel sick.
Three
The plane lands in Ciudad Juarez. Again, we somehow get to land on some strip that looks like a dusty farm crop. The smell in the air is bad. I am hungry the minute we walk from the plane to the car that is waiting. Tom nods at me. I nod back. He shakes his head subtly. I realize he is nodding at the trunk. I pretend to fix my sock as everyone gets into the SUV. He pops the trunk and a man comes flying
out. He looks like he might be Mexican and a little bigger than I am. He tries to run but I jump him, pinning him down. I see sore-like burns on his lips so I don’t kiss him. I hover over him and suck his soul from him. He cries out into my mouth as he dies. I moan my exhale, "Wow."
Michelle watches me for a second before scrunching her nose up, "What was he guilty of?"
I shudder as the feelings and images wash over me, "Tom's favorite." He hates pedophiles. This one was also a serial killer. The images of his horrific crimes will sit in my mind, torturing me for the rest of the day. Michelle leans over his dead body, "Look, hash sores."
I frown, "What?"
She points, "He smokes hash. He has sores from the hot knives."
I get up and look down on him, "Ew." We walk to the car. Wyatt looks back out at me, "Really?"
I nod, "I was hungry and he was bad."
He sighs and closes the door. Tom drives and Wyatt does his weird smelling thing.
Stella laughs uncontrollably at it. I frown, "Laugh later, otherwise he won't do it.”
Wyatt looks back, "There are a lot of bad people here. I can smell it everywhere. Witches and even a few vampires." He gives Constantine a look. I look at him but he avoids my eyes, "I thought you were the last."
He nods, "We are. Those are abominations."
I don’t know what that means, and honestly, I have too much on my plate to worry about them.
We drive for what feels like an eternity. I almost close my eyes but Stella shoves me, "Stay awake, you know what you’re like to wake up."
I smile, taking a deep breath and looking at the nasty surroundings. "This place is gross. I always thought Mexico was beautiful."
Mona nods, “This is not on the brochures. They keep this dirty little secret to themselves for sure.”
Stella scoffs, "Most of it is. This place is a rat hole."
"STOP!"
Mona moans, "Finally."
Wyatt sniffs the air, ignoring us and our moaning. He points back the way we came from, "That way."