Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

  Joe put his foot a little more firmly on the gas but not enough to make it look like they were running. They just needed to find somewhere secluded otherwise that FBI agent would be reporting to his superiors that a truck vanished into a ring of blue light. Although they probably wouldn't believe them they still wanted to avoid making themselves seem even more shady than they already did.

  They eventually got lucky when Joe drove past a light just as it was turning red. The agents care stopped even though there was barely any traffic on the road. That gave them a good hundred yards distance and they took the opportunity to pull into a large open alleyway.

  Seconds later a blue light erupted around the truck before it disappeared.

  They arrived almost exactly where Vic had brought them after Jerry's bomb incident at the Nearly Departed. They stopped the truck just outside the destroyed entrance to the mansion and got out.

  “We really don't need the FBI sniffing around with what we're about to do,” Joe growled.

  “Well, what do you want me to do? It's not like I invited them,” Jerry moaned.

  “You haven't exactly been keeping a low profile either,” Joe said. “Just get the damn chains and stash the truck back in the garage.”

  They unloaded their hardware and dumped it just inside the house before returning the truck. Again, all four of them were needed to carry the chain through the mansion and into the basement tunnels.

  “Soph, we got it,” Jerry shouted.

  “We need to get started on this right now. We can't risk just drawing the symbols on or they might come off. We're gonna have to actually etch them into the links,” Joe said looking at the metal chain.

  “Sounds like fun. I'll grab some tools,” Goose said.

  “Soph, a little pureblood strength would be helpful,” Jerry yelled.

  “Once Cass and Claire are back, this will go a lot faster,” Joe said but Jerry wasn't listening.

  Sophinia would have been able to hear them come back from anywhere in the mansion, especially since they were dragging that big metal chain so why wasn't she answering.

  The four of them listened out for any sounds of movement but there weren't any. That was when the color began to drain out of Jerry's face.

  “Oh, God, Soph!” he yelled and bolted out of the basement.

  “Sophie!” Joe roared at the top of his lungs but there was no answer.

  The split off, checking every part of the mansion. Jerry immediately searched the library but it was empty while Goose found the same result in the kitchen. The old lab that Parker used to work in, the filing room, the pantry, the office, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, all of them were empty.

  “Nothing! Check the basement!” Goose yelled.

  “I already did!”

  “Sophinia!”

  Jerry frantically tried to think of where he hadn't looked. He rushed down the corridor towards the storage room that was behind the kitchen. It was where she kept all the paranormal artifacts and ingredients for spell work that they'd acquired of confiscated. When he got closer, he saw that the door was ajar.

  He burst in with his sawn-off ready but the storeroom was empty. His eyes darted around as the fear in his heart started to bite down on him. That was when he looked at the floor that made his entire body lose it's strength.

  He collapsed to his knees in front on a pile of black ash. A second, small one was a few feet away.

  Aria had come back while they'd been gone and these two patches of burnt power were all that remained of her visit.

  One for her body and one for her head. Just ashes.

  Sophinia.

  CHAPTER 24 – SUBMISSION

  Sioux Falls – South Dakota

  It didn't seem possible. The empty space didn't feel real.

  Sophinia wasn't something that could disappear. She was eternal. Her being gone made no sense. It was like waking up one day and finding out that the Grand Canyon had vanished. It just didn't seem possible.

  Jerry's heart was rejecting the evidence. The facts had to be wrong. The truth had to be a fabrication.

  He had lost enough.

  Sophinia couldn't be a part of that void in his soul. The one that had been created the day that his friends had died. Sophinia dead...the words didn't even fit together. Like graffiti plastered over a beautiful stain glass window.

  Something had changed in the world. Allowing such a blatant violation to happen was proof that existence was broken and needed to be fixed.

  As he wondered what could have caused the damage, Claire's muffled sobs crept into his ears. She was wrapped in her sisters arms, her tear stricken face pressed into Cass's shoulder. Her eyes didn't want to see the world and Jerry couldn't blame her.

  The whole thing was so ugly. And she was beautiful. Her smooth platinum hair, brush stroke features, gentle nature. It was all so much better than real life.

  Joe gently stroked Claire's hair while Cass's hardened face was beginning to crumble. As hard as she tried to fight them, tears were piercing her eyes. Goose wasn't far away, so still and silent that he might as well have been a statue. Vic was emptying his hip flask down his throat while looking just as hateful as Jerry.

  It was about now that Sophinia would offer words of comfort. She would talk to them about the hidden wonders of the world that were sometimes so difficult to see beneath the dark layer of pain and fear that did it's best to consume everything. She would tell them that the few good things that were left were worth fighting for.

  But that speech would never happen. There would never be any more chess games with her while she spouted wisdom. No more gentle comments to sooth Jerry's concerns. No more comforting explanations or encouraging remarks.

  She was gone. And the deep, dark nothingness that now sat in her place would never leave him.

  “Okay,” Wick said happily as he entered the library. His eyes were glued to the iPad in front of him. “The church is all set up but let's try to be gentle with it. It really is a beautiful building. I can see why they wanted it restor...” He finally looked up to see the others in the room. His face instantly dropped. “What happened?”

  Nobody answers because nobody needed to. Wick did a headcount, saw Claire's tears and knew exactly what had happened. It was at that point that Jerry got up and walked away, heading straight for the kitchen.

  He cracked the top on a bottle of Johnny Walker. He'd run out of blue label so this time he went for black. It wasn't as good as blue in his opinion but the burn on his throat still helped. Not much though.

  A few moments later Wick joined him.

  “Was she...is there anyone we should tell?” he asked, straightening his crappy hobo jacket.

  “If you're asking if she had a lover then the answer is no...she didn't think she deserved one,” Jerry snorted angrily before taking a swig of his drink. A moment later, he lit up a cigarette.

  Wick shook his head slightly as if he wanted to object but didn't. “She was a good woman,” he stated.

  Jerry gripped his glass so hard that it almost cracked. “She was an idiot,” he growled.

  “You don't mean that,” Wick stated.

  “Well, she was friends with me! That's about as stupid as you can get!”

  “Why? Because she loved you. Because she believed in you?!”

  “And that was her biggest mistake!” he yelled. “She spent every single day punishing herself for all the things she had no control over! She refused to allow herself to be happy and the worst screw up she ever made was taking me in!” he slammed the glass down on the counter so hard that it smashed. One of the broken glass pieces cut his finger open. Jerry stared at his own blood for a moment. It was so simple. Just a plain red little liquid and yet it was the cause of everything. “Sophinia signed her own death warrant the moment she got involved with me.”

  Wick had no response. He had no argument. There was literally nothing he could do to ease Jerry's pain at that point.

  “Then why didn't she quit?”


  Jerry and Wick looked over to see Goose standing in the doorway.

  “If she was screwed from the start, why didn't she just give up? Why did she work so hard to protect us?” he asked before walking over and pouring himself a glass of black label. “She said you were made for this, right from the beginning. She believed it and so do I! She believed that you were worth it.”

  Jerry had trouble meeting Goose's eyes but he forced himself to. And the worst part was that there was no doubt in them. Even with Sophie gone, he still believed in his best friend. And that activated something else. Not just grief, or regret or adulation at being revered, but a theory. One that had been building since this began.

  “She was wrong! Steve, Sarah, Roach, Parker, Rachel, Sophie...they were all wrong!”

  “No, they weren't. And don't you dare insult them by saying that!” Goose growled. “Sophinia knew, right from the beginning. As soon as this game got started, she knew that you were the one that -”

  “The game...chess!” Jerry blurted. His eyes weren't looking at anyone anymore, he was in his own little world. “That's what this is all about!”

  “What?”

  “Aria! She's playing chess!” Jerry announced. All the pieces were starting to click in his head again.

  Wick and Goose exchanged puzzled looks.

  “That's her goal! She wants the full checkmate!” Jerry said, looking a little obsessive but very sure of himself.

  “Hasn't she already got it?” Goose said trying to follow. “I mean, we're not exactly dancing the light fantastic here.”

  “No, she doesn't. Don't you see? After all the protection we put up on this place, she still broke through it in thirty seconds flat. She wiped out Sophie's entourage, she had us all dead to rights. She could have finished us all right then and there but she didn't, why?”

  They both waited for the answer that seemed to be escaping them but Jerry was on to it.

  “It's not about destroying me, she could have done that in a heartbeat! She wants me to surrender...It's not about subjugation, it's about submission. She can take anything she wants, she checkmate anyone she likes but there's no sport in that! The real victory is in making some one admit defeat. She knew I was going to fight her right from the jump, and that's what she wants to stop. She could take me if she wanted to but no...she wants me to give myself to her...otherwise she hasn't won.”

  “She was built by the Devil. Pride, ego, she has the same weaknesses that Satan has,” Wick nodded.

  “Exactly. She wants respect, she wants me to see that she's my superior. She want's me to worship her. She wants appreciation...”

  “But then why would she kill Sophie?” Goose asked. “I mean she must know that we'd never let that down. If she wants respect, all she's got now is a grudge.”

  “She's showing off,” said Wick. “Killing the strongest member of your group just because she can.”

  “No, Goose is right. Killing Soph is a little OOC for her. I mean, she could have snuffed her when she stormed the mansion, but instead she just snapped Cass's neck, something she knew she could survive. It doesn't make sense.”

  “She's sending you a message,” Wick said before taking a swig from the black label bottle. “She's done screwing around. If she wants you to give yourself to her...then she's giving you one last chance to do it. Otherwise, she's going to kill everyone you care about. It's the only reason she's not here right now...she's waiting for your answer.”

  Jerry turned and gripped the edges of the kitchen counter so hard that his knuckles looked like they were trying to break through his skin. He took a deep breath as the faces of his friends moved through his mind.

  Steve, Sarah, Roach, Parker and now Sophinia. Rachel was in a coma and it was all his fault. He hadn't pulled the trigger, but he had sealed their fates. He had to make it right.

  He couldn't bring them back, but he could avenge them.

  “Get the chains ready, lock and load on everything we've got,” he ordered. “She's gonna get her goddamn answer!”

  Vengeance overtook sadness. They would grieve later. Right now, they had a fight to go to.

  As Cass, Claire, Joe and Vic carved the Enchoian binding symbols into the chains they'd gotten, Jerry did the same to his newly created retractable arm blade. Once he was done, he moved onto the car while Wick explained to Goose the details of the exorcism.

  It was actually pretty standard stuff. Some symbols, a binding link and an incantation that was a little longer than they would have liked.

  An hour later they were ready.

  All the gear was loaded into the trunk of the restored Boss 429 where Jerry waited for the others. Joe and Claire were having a seriously hard time saying goodbye to each other while Cass just looked unbelievably annoyed at the fact that she couldn't be a part of this fight.

  As he watched them, he couldn't help feeling guilty. Aria wouldn't kill him but she'd show that she was more than willing to stamp out his family. It wasn't right that he had some kind of immunity and they didn't.

  In one of those rare displays of fondness, Cass grabbed Goose and pulled him to a quick but heavy hug. She broke away from him and grinned but Jerry could see that there was worry behind her smile.

  “Try not to die you little bastard,” she said trying to hide the fear in her voice. “You're fun to pick on.”

  “I'll do my best,” he shrugged and smiled.

  Next to them, Joe and Claire pulled away from each other. She had tears in her eyes.

  “You damn well better come back to me,” she sniffed.

  “Yes ma'am,” he smiled before pressing a kiss to her forehead. He and Goose joined Jerry by the car just as Vic walked over.

  He offered Jerry his hip flask after taking a swig himself. The four of them were the fighters in this battle. The priest was back-up. If things went south, he could still use the stone to banish her and give them time to get away. Unfortunately, the sun and Aria's power meant the vampires couldn't even get near this fight.

  The four of them got into the Boss, with Jerry and Goose up front and Joe and Vic in the back. Jerry fired up the engine for the first time and she roared to life, growling like the beast she was.

  For a second he didn't move. He just sat there enjoying the sound before finally putting his foot down and tearing out of the mansions garage.

  As he gunned her down high ninety heading towards Mitchell, he almost forgot just how desperate the situation was. For a moment he was just a teenager, driving the car he'd always wanted with his best friend riding shotgun. But that didn't last. Soon the severity of the whole thing crept back into his brain and he realized that the drive was becoming an uncomfortable silence.

  Goose seemed to realize it too and shuffled anxiously. He seemed to want to say something but couldn't find the words. Eventually he did manage to speak.

  “Why do you think she wants you to surrender? You think it has something to do with her ascending? Like she can't get what she needs from you unless you give your consent?”

  “I don't know man, maybe. Maybe she can't soul suck me unless I give her permission. Or maybe it's not even about that. Maybe she's planning to send me to hell where her boss will be waiting with some Vaseline and a chainsaw.”

  “If you're lucky,” Goose said grimly.

  “You're right. Knowing my luck, it'll be a bottle Viagra and a pair of bolt cutters.”

  “Thanks for such a lovely mental image Jerry,” Vic winced from the back seat.

  “Yeah, you should be a motivational speaker,” Joe groaned.

  Jerry ignored there comments but it was obvious that Goose wanted to say more.

  “Listen...If something happens, I mean if this doesn't go the way we want it to -”

  “No, no, no,” Jerry cut him off. “We are not doing that.”

  “Doing what?”

  “The whole 'if I don't make it back, tell Tiny Tim' crap. We're not gonna start planning our own obituaries before this fight even gets started,�
�� Jerry growled.

  “Okay...” Goose shrugged. “I was just gonna say, if you die and I have your car?”

  Jerry couldn't help but laugh. “Hell no!”

  “What? It's not like you're gonna need it,” Goose argued.

  “Dude, if I die you're gonna bury me inside this thing!”

  “Fine...dick!”

  “Bitch!”

  “Jerk!”

  “Pussy!”

  The four of them started laughing together. They were on their way to biggest fight of their lives and all they could do was argue about the car.