Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

  “Death, in the flesh,” Aria confirmed. “So to speak. Like I said, I met her once before.”

  When she’d reaped her.

  Jerry couldn't have looked more shocked if he tried. His mind swam with questions before he remembered that she was up there too. Death had healed him in that hospital and was now living in his head!

  “Funny thing is; Death doesn't save people. She reaps them. So why would she go out of her way to heal you?” Aria asked knowing that she was only making him crave answers even more. She started sniffing the air. “Hmm, there's that thick aroma of destiny again. Food for thought.”

  She turned and continued walking out of the church.

  “Wait!” Jerry pleaded. “I...why would she -”

  “You should get going Jerry. I hear sirens approaching.”

  He wasn't exactly on the F.B.I.'s facebook friends list and he had to believe that she didn't want him locked up in a cell for the rest of his life so he took her word for it that she could hear them even though he couldn't. Aria opened the doors to the church with her mind and a second later she was gone, blasting herself into the air and away from the area.

  As quickly as his damaged body would allow, he picked up Wick's journal then moved to what was left of his torso. He searched his pockets and found the banishing stone before going back to Goose. He shook his best friend until his eyes flickered open.

  “Ahh, my head is not gonna take much more of this,” Goose groaned.

  “We gotta go, now!”

  “What happened?” he asked suddenly realizing that Aria was gone.

  “I'll explain later. We're about to have company.”

  CHAPTER 27 – THE END OF NORMAL

  Sioux Falls – South Dakota

  They had made it to Sioux Falls general without being chased by the cops. Both Jericho's had been patched up and Vic was resting in a recovery room. Goose sat on a chair in the corridor outside Rachel's room next to Cass and Claire rubbing his temples while Joe paced in front of them.

  “Death?!” he blurted, still unable to believe it. His arm was in a sling and his wound didn't seem to exist at that moment. His mind was stuck on one thing only and it wasn't the hole in his shoulder.

  “That's what he said,” Goose nodded. His head was killing him from the amount of hits it had taken but the painkillers were starting to help.

  “Death!”

  “Yes!”

  “Death?!” Joe said for about the fiftieth time. “The grim reaper, the fourth horseman, the end of all things...Death?!”

  “Apparently,” Goose groaned.

  “That's impossible!” Joe yelled.

  “It's really not,” Claire said dismally. “Just about every culture and religion on the planet has personified Death as a free thinking entity and not just an occurrence. All the legends come from somewhere Joe.”

  “Why would Death heal Jerry? And why would she look like the head of a pharmaceutical company?” Cass asked, looking just as freaked out.

  “I get the distinct impression that something as powerful as Death can look like anything it wants,” Claire said.

  “Doesn't explain why she – it would show up a heal Jerry.”

  “Destiny,” Goose said. “There's something Jerry is supposed to do and she's not gonna stop it.”

  “Well, If Death is willing to take a step back then it's pretty freakin' huge! I mean nobody cheats Death,” Cass stated.

  “Cass, we're vampires,” Claire spelled out.

  “Yeah, but we haven't cheated anything. We're not immortal, we just haven't died yet. A sunny day or piece of oak furniture could make that happen. Nobody cheats her Claire.”

  Some how Cass had managed to some up the entire vampire race in one. They were pushed closer to the edge but they hadn’t fallen off yet. They were dancing the line. It made them immune to so many things and weak to others but in the end, one little push from a silver bullet or a stake or sunlight would shove them over the edge. They weren’t immortal. Immortal meant forever and vampires never lasted forever. Eventually, everything dies. It was true even for Aria. She had been reaped. She'd died and gone to hell, the only thing that made her different was that now she had come back. Death didn’t take people twice. That’s why Aria couldn’t die.

  She already had. And now she was back, new and improved.

  Down the hall, Jerry, now patched up with a line of stitches and bandages across his stomach and morphine in his veins had ignored doctors orders to stay in bed. Walking wasn't really a problem anymore so he'd decided to pay a visit to Vic.

  The Irish mage was lying in his recovery bed with a huge bandage around his head and looked very groggy.

  “Evening,” he smirked, barely able to open his eyes.

  “Hey, how you feeling?” Jerry asked.

  “Like I got my head caved in,” Vic groaned. “Don't worry, the magic will do it's job. I'll be fine in a day or two.”

  “Good to know,” he smiled. “Listen, I never got a chance to say thank you. You stuck with us and you didn't have to. You could have bailed on us anytime you wanted with your teleport thingy but you didn't.”

  “Already regretting that decision,” Vic laughed painfully. The laughter died and Vic became more sullen than he'd ever seen him before. “Long time ago, I was in a bad way. Sophinia was there for me. She told me that I could repay her by looking after you, so here I am.”

  “What happened?”

  Vic snorted. “We don't know each other that well.”

  “I don't know. You've been inside my head,” Jerry shrugged.

  “Never doin' that again.”

  “Yeah, can't blame ya,” he grinned. “Oh, I took the liberty of refilling this for you.” Jerry pulled Vic's hip flask from his pocket and put it on the side of his bed.

  “Oh, you're a saint,” Vic said happily.

  “You rest up,” Jerry nodded before leaving him in peace. He walked down the corridor towards the others.

  “How you feeling?” Joe asked.

  “Like shit. You?”

  “About the same,” Joe shrugged, wincing slightly when his shoulder moved.

  “Rachel?”

  “No change,” Claire sighed as Joe used his good arm to pull her into a hug.

  “Well, I was thinking, Wick said something about a witch doctor in Africa. He couldn't cure him but he gave him a few extra years. Maybe he can do something for Rach,” Jerry said awkwardly.

  Just mentioning Wick was difficult for him. They all saw it but Joe was the one that understood.

  “Hey, two wars, four tours, sixteen years in the military. They teach you not to question it, so when the time comes you can do it and you won't hesitate,” he said carefully. “It's not right...its never right, it just is. You did what you had to.”

  Jerry gritted his teeth and nodded. He knew what he was trying to say but he couldn't help thinking that it was different for him because he was different. “That was a line I said I'd never cross...and I crossed it.”

  “You're not the only one,” Cass managed to smile. “Four hundred years Jerry. You're not the only one that regrets the things they've done.”

  “The fact that you actually care means something. If you didn't feel guilty then we'd have something to be worried about but you do,” Claire agreed.

  They all stayed silent for a moment as Jerry tried to keep the guilt from eating him alive. Wick was a bastard, he'd killed Sophinia and Jerry had wanted revenge. But now, all he could think about was how disappointed she would have been.

  Goose managed to break the uncomfortable feeling that was lingering. “So, witch doctor?”

  “They can do some pretty amazing things,” Cass nodded. “But trust me, the chanting gets old very quickly.”

  The four of them walked into Rachel's room. It was a little box room with a bed, and open window and TV that was showing the news.

  “I hear the scenery is nice in Africa,” Goose shrugged.

  “Better pack yourself some bug spray
.”

  They froze in shock. Rachel was awake!

  “Rach!” Jerry yelled as they all crowed around her bed. She was sitting up, holding her head and wincing in pain. “Iron bitch, you made it!”

  “Keep your voice down, my head is killing me!” she moaned.

  Jerry couldn't help himself. He wrapped her up into he hug, despite her groaning when he did.

  Rachel's face suddenly fell and tears began to well up in her eyes. He knew exactly what she had just seen in his mind. “She's gone...”

  The joy at seeing Rachel awake was sapped and replaced by the hollow sickly feeling everyone one got when they thought about Sophinia's absence. She started to cry and Jerry quickly hugged her again.

  “I'm so sorry Rachel,” Jerry whispered into her ear while stroking her hair.

  She suddenly snapped away from him looking completely shocked. She had just scanned everything else that had happened and couldn't believe it. “What the fu -”

  “Rach, you probably shouldn't be using your power right now,” Jerry said quickly.

  “Let me get this straight...Wick and Sophie are dead, God's gone, Death is in your brain and you made a deal with a psycho demon that has a crush on you?!”

  When she put it like that it did sound pretty bad.

  “Well...err...she's not technically a demon...” he said meekly.

  Rachel clamped her eyes shut looking like she was going to punch Jerry. “I leave you guys alone for five freakin' minutes and somehow you manage to turn the freakin' universe inside out!”

  “Things got a little out of control Rach,” Goose said looking like a naughty child.

  “Ya think?!” she shrieked.

  She'd been awake for ten seconds and she was already telling them off.

  “I had to do something,” Jerry said quietly.

  “How do you know that she's even going to keep her end of the deal?”

  Jerry sighed and looked away. She was right that Aria could turn around and call the whole thing off any time she wanted. Especially if she happened to find someone more entertaining than him. It was a frightening idea.

  Suddenly his eyes went wide as he caught a quick glace of the open window. Handing from the handle was silver pendant. His silver pendant.

  He walked over and saw the angel engraving on the front of it. Aria had taken it from him when she'd captured him in the cabin. Now she was giving it back.

  She had payed a little visit to Rachel's room and now she was awake.

  Aria had snapped Rachel out of the coma. She had been the one to put her in it after all. Now she had reversed whatever she'd done to her.

  “She's having too much fun,” Jerry said as he put the pendant back around his neck and tucked it into his shirt. “I think she just proved that she's willing to hold up her end.”

  Now it was Rachel's turn to sigh. “I hope you're right.”

  “I am.”

  “Really? Cos I think you're screwed!”

  “We're gonna be okay Rach,” Jerry smiled.

  “No we're not...” Goose said with his jaw hanging open and his eyes bulging. He was looking up at the TV.

  Jerry saw what had shocked him and quickly turned the volume up so that they could all hear the news caster. “...wanted in connection with the explosion at Newton High school two months ago and now with the murder of an unidentified man that was found in St. Paul's church in Mitchell, South Dakota. Daniel Jericho and Gregory Gibson are to be considered armed and extremely dangerous.”

  Their faces were flashed up on screen along with a phone number for the F.B.I.

  Jerry and Goose had just been made into federal fugitives.

  “Now we're screwed,” Jerry blurted just as dumfounded as his friend.

  The only thing that broke them out of their stupor were the sound of sirens approaching in the distance. They paused for about two seconds before bolting out of the room.

  Jerry was slowed down by his wound but ignored the pain as they both rushed out of the elevator and towards the parking garage. Vic was out of action, Joe was wounded and Rachel had only just woken up. They needed to get police attention away from them.

  “So, I guess we're not going back to school,” Goose panted.

  “I think they kind of frown on wanted murders being in attendance,” Jerry winced as they approached the The Boss.

  Of course they thought they were murders. The feds already had them connected to what happened at the school and a few more random explosions. Now they'd just left a two halves of a dead guy in a church along with bucket load of their own DNA.

  They got in the car as quickly as they could.

  “You know Jerry, sometimes it really hard work being your friend.”

  “I know...I wouldn't blame you for quitting.”

  “You see me getting out the car?”

  Jerry nodded and pulled out his keys. This was it. Running now would mean the untimely demise of any chance whatsoever of a normal life. They'd be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their days, which given recent events seemed pretty numbered.

  He started the car and tore out of the garage just as six cop cars arrived at the hospital. They shot straight past them and into the street causing them to swerve and skid to turn around and give pursuit.

  The Boss roared down the roared down the road with flashing blue lights in the rear view mirror leaving behind anything they once called ordinary.

  Normal was overrated anyway.

  TO BE CONTINUED

  Authors Note:

  Well, there it is. Two down, six to go!

  If you're fans of the same things I am, then I'm sure you spotted the where my inspiration came from. I did my best to give a few shout outs in the process *cough* Inception/Sherlock/Supernatural/Buffy/Richelle Mead/Christopher Nolen! *cough*

  And most of all I hope everyone enjoyed the character of Aria. She's going to be a major player in the rest of the series so love or hate her, she'll be here. I can promise that you will find out what Jerry is, what makes him special and what his 'destiny' is in the next book:

  Blood Heavy: Revelations

  Subtle title don't ya think?

  Now that my injury is almost healed (Radial Nerve Palsy is not something I'd recommend BTW), I can get back to speed writing so the 3rd should take as long as this one did.

  Thanks to all the read. I look forward to hearing what you thought...even if you hated it...but I hope you didn't...even though I know some of you will...it's inevitable...but I still hope you don't...I'll stop rambling now...if I can...

  :)