by Jenica Saren
Gatlin turned his eyes back to mine in the mirror again and I saw the pity there. Why were they suddenly not trusting me? The same guys who had stuck up for me time and time again.
"All that's left is to make sure his victims wake up alright and don't have any lasting damage." Gatlin nods in agreement.
I balled my hands into fists, trying to control my rage just a bit. Not too much, because I was fucking pissed as all hell, but enough that I didn't blow the roof off the shiny black Jeep. "Why aren't you guys listening?" I shouted. "I know something is wrong and you're acting like a bunch of fucking dicks!" I glanced over at Drea to make sure my yelling hadn't woken her and was grateful that she seemed out cold. It seemed like my best friend was always unconscious these days.
"Ria, it's done! Let it go!" Gatlin roared at me, swerving onto the shoulder of the road. Which, out in BFE, was just gravel.
I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling my rage and magic – was it called magic? - boiling just below the surface. I knew I wasn't as strong as the guys because I wasn't actually a Sin, but I was pretty sure it would hurt pretty damn bad if I blasted him with my power. You know, if I could figure it out in the first place. "I won't! You're not fucking listening!" I screeched back at him, mildly ashamed at the obnoxious pitch of my own voice.
Gatlin turned in his seat to glare at me head on, his silver eyes reminding me of the moon that wasn't even present. Except, meaner. Obviously. "Jonas Holden is dead. The problem is solved. That means it's over." He growled at me, his Sin showing in the display of rage that he was putting on.
"You know what?" I grabbed the door handle and pulled, dragging myself out of the car. Eliam, Beck, and Rafe were stopped behind us, clearly confused about the stop. "I'm out. I'll figure out what's going on, and then you'll be sorry." I slammed the door with way more force than I intended. Oops.
It was possible that I was being irrational, but I knew that something was going on. It didn't end with the mayor's death, I knew that much. The energy was still out there, the taste of something slimy and evil was still stuck in my mouth like a spoiled drink. I wasn't going to give up, not until I knew for sure that the evil out there was gone for good.
30
Ria
I was still seething after about twenty minutes of walking, and I had zero idea where I was going - not that I cared. I was still trying to formulate a plan in my mind, or really an idea of where to start. I knew something wasn't right. Despite my questionable taste in men, I had pretty damn good instincts, and since the whole Sin thing happened, all of my senses were on high alert. Every single part of me was screaming, begging me to pay attention, but I couldn't figure out what the hell I was supposed to pay attention to.
Was it also acceptable to admit that I was really pissed that none of the guys had come after me? I could nearly get kidnapped again. You know, or actually kidnapped. Why did guys never seem to understand that when women said they wanted to be left alone or stormed off in a rage, they wanted to be followed - not in like the stalking way, but just in the we love you so much, don't be mad kinda way.
As I walked, I started kicking loose stones with the toe of my boot and shivered slightly. It was cold as Santa's tits outside and my dumb ass thought it would be a brilliant idea to storm off in a huff while wearing shorts. "Maybe I should just go back and apologize, assuming they're still parked there." I suggested out loud to myself, feeling a little overwhelmed by the night time silence.
Or, my inner self chimed in. You could let them stew and realize that you were right and they should have listened. Wow, my inner self had no mercy.
"I could have been a little more low-key about everything and not been an asshole." I bit back at her, once again speaking out loud. Whatever. It's not like there was anyone around to listen to me. As I noticed the telltale shapes of gravestones, I shivered. Well, no one that could hear me, anyway.
Despite my innate fear and aversion to graveyards, I felt compelled to go in, which was almost creepier than the land of the dead itself. Who the fuck ever wanted to go into a graveyard? But my body was doing what it wanted, an unseen force propelling me forward, regardless of my very valid reservations.
I thought that the feeling of being lured to the creepiest place I've ever seen would go away as soon as I passed through the gates, like in TV shows and books, instead I was gripped by the sudden feeling of overwhelming fear. I froze in place, paralyzed. A very creepy, very foreboding fog began settling over the mass of graves and I was one hundred percent positive that the corpses beneath the ground at my feet were about to start crawling from their resting places.
What I wasn't expecting, and kicked myself internally for not expecting it, was to see my would-be killer striding through the mist, looking like a frail, decaying Undertaker as he approached me. Even with the lack of light from the non-existent moon, I was still able to see him clearly. Maybe it was a Sin thing.
All I wanted in that moment was to run for my life, screaming bloody murder. I tried to travel back to the house, thinking, wishing, begging for my newfound ability to take me home and get me out of the nightmare I was stuck in. Unsurprisingly, I didn't budge. It felt like a giant bubble had closed in around me, and even I could see the irony.
Father Belvieu was only a mere feet away from me and all I could think of was that fighting would be a whole hell of a lot easier if I could move. I was never going to feel like a victim again.
As he got nearer, his scent of rotting flesh rolled over me and I threw up in my mouth a little. I tried to hold my breath as he got right up in my face and brushed a withered finger down the side of my face.
"If only you had remained a child of God, dear girl." He croaked. "You have sealed your fate and the fate of all those who betrayed the Lord's name in favour of the Devil's temptation."
My skin prickled with goosebumps and I just knew I was going to be sick.
I spat in his face, grateful that I could at least do that. "You're the one killing those people, aren't you?" I demanded, already knowing the answer before he said anything.
It all made perfect sense. He would have had access to anyone in the hospital under the pretense of praying over them. He also could have been around anyone that was touched by the sickness without anyone suspecting a single thing. I also knew that the simplest answer was usually the correct one, and his downright creepiness was enough for me to not doubt the reality of it all. My only question was how anyone could have trusted him. He smelled like death itself and physically appeared to be rotting. How did anyone think that was normal?
He pulled his lips back in a terrifying grin, revealing a mouth full of black, rotted teeth. "Only those born of sin can see Death as the reaper of souls that he is. Heaven demands justice for the atrocities that His children have committed, and I am his avenger." He declared, cackling triumphantly.
Before I could speak again, the psycho had grabbed my arm and begun dragging me behind him. I was simultaneously relieved and frustrated, because even as my feet moved beneath me in an effort to keep from falling on my face, I had forgotten how strong the deceptively frail man was. As he marched on, I tugged my arm back and even landed a few solid punches with my weaker arm, but it was like he didn't even realize I was doing anything. I cocked my arm back and prepared to throw the biggest hit that I could, and when it landed, I felt my hand slip through skin, muscle, and bone. He still didn't slow, even as I withdrew my hand and repeatedly gagged. The hole in his back wasn't even healing, it was just a large, gaping, bloodless wound that stared back at me like a terrifying third eye.
He hauled me up the steps of the church that I remembered seeing when I first drove into town and I started to feel panic rising inside me, the memories that I tried so hard to repress threatening to overtake me. I tried to reassure myself that it was just a building, but the blooming sense of terror in my chest told me that it wasn't.
In a single, fluid motion, I was being thrown across the room, sliding across the wood flooring. I threw my a
rms up over my face as I slid toward a pew. The wooden frame struck me in my middle and the air was knocked from my lungs.
Finally able to move, I rolled over and gasped for breath as I cradled my stomach, stars bursting around my sight and blinding me for a moment. I struggled to breathe as I scrambled to my feet, ready to protect myself by any means at my disposal. When the explosion of light cleared from my eyes, I glanced down at my feet and found myself in a crudely drawn circle that was decorated with symbols that I couldn't identify. The looked like runes, but not any kind of rune that I had ever seen.
"You're going to pay for hurting those people. I won't be another one of your targets." I hissed at the preacher who stood near the door, eyeing me casually.
He yawned dramatically. "Don't you see? You're not a target, girl, you're a sacrifice." He said as he strode purposefully toward where I stood. "Your essence, your carnal sin, are going to give me the power that I need to rid the world of the wretched blasphemy that stains our once beautiful earth."
I drew up to my full height, which wasn't very intimidating, but it made me feel more confident. "The world is just fine the way it is." I growled. "The only stain on this world is people like you, people who think they have the right to control how others live, how they feel, and who they are. It's not your place, nor anyone's, to say how the world should be or whether someone is good or bad." I positioned myself so that I was ready to pounce at a moment's notice, the second he got close enough.
"God wouldn't want this. He wouldn't want people to die, and he wouldn't put a sorry excuse for a man like you in charge of carrying out his wishes. You're sick, and you're going down." I swore vehemently, searching for a surge of emotion, a spark of the power that I had experienced before. I found nothing and tried to control my breathing, trying not to spiral into despair.
The decaying man stopped before me, appearing completely unfazed by the hatred that I was projecting. "God needs strong men to do his bidding, and thanks to His grace, I am more than powerful enough to purge the world of deplorable creatures like yourself." He sneered, obviously no longer amused by the game he was playing.
Seeing my chance, I charged at him, jumping in the air and tackling him down to the ground with my momentum. We fell to the ground and I heard bones cracking beneath me. I made to wrap my forearm against his throat and he shoved at me, sending me sailing through the air and crashing into another pew. The wood splintered underneath me and I whimpered at the pain in my shoulder. It didn't feel broken, but it sure as hell hurt like a bitch.
I rose to my feet and ran at him again, only to be stopped by a wall of flames. I got too close and wailed as the fire burned my good arm. I looked around to find myself in the circle once again, this time trapped. Through the wall, I could see Father Belvieu looking victorious.
"Just stay put. This will all be over soon." He said. He rose his hands above his head and started praying out loud. My head started throbbing violently, making my vision blur and my legs trembled. I covered my ears to block out the sound as his chanting prayer got louder and louder, until it was all I could hear.
I wanted to retreat into my mind, my safe place. I couldn't see or speak, and all I could feel was searing pain as I crumpled to my knees. There was a loud ringing in my ears and when I adjusted my hands over my ears, I found them slick. I couldn't even care about the fact that I knew it was blood. All I wanted was for the pain to stop.
Someone help me. I screamed in my mind, hoping that it would reach the ears of the men that I had somehow come to rely, the men who were my only hope at making it out of this mess alive.
31
Gray
I scrambled to get out of the Jeep as Ria stormed away. I opened my mouth to call after her, but nothing came out. I didn't know what I could say to change her mind, to make her turn around and hear us out. I understood her unease, better than she could have imagined; it was all too easy, too obvious. But we had caught Holden red handed leaving Sanya's room as she died.
Then again, the question remained of how he managed to accomplish the things he did, and what he did was still a larger mystery still. I could give her that much as I had my doubts as well, but like the others, I couldn't sense anything.
I stood between the back of the Jeep and Ria's silver car, staring after her as she walked away.
Within seconds, everyone was climbing out of their vehicles and congregating where I stood. Eliam surprised me by being the first to speak.
"What the fuck just happened?" He demanded, staring at Gatlin with a combination of anger and concern. It seemed like I was the only one who could see how much he had quickly come to care for the girl with strawberry blonde hair and stunning green eyes. We all had.
Gatlin was in Eliam's face within two strides, his eyes blazing. "I didn't do anything. She was convinced that we were wrong about Holden and just didn't want to let it fucking go." He snarled back.
As their bickering got loud and more heated, I tuned them out, focusing instead searching for Ria's light in my mind's eye. I couldn't always pinpoint a person's location, but with Ria it was effortless when I looked. Just as she did in my mind's eye, she glowed like a flame and illuminated even the darkest of rooms.
She obviously didn't know it, but our lives were a very dark place just over a week before - well, they had been a dark place for a long time before that. When she walked into our lives, it was like the world turned on its head and showed us a light that we had somehow been missing for so long.
Just over a century before, our seven turned to six, and we were left with all the stress and concern over when - or if - our family would ever be reunited.
Ria took all that anxiety, worry, and pain away just by entering a room. These days, we ate as a family, we laughed as a family, and we worked as one solid, functioning unit. I could count on one hand the number of jobs that had gone off without a single fight since our number dwindled. We weren't whole. Then she came around and just magically fixed us, as if she saw nothing broken in the first place.
It was for that reason that I couldn't help but side with her at least a little bit. Even if she was wrong, we owed it to her to at least look into the possibility of there being a separate culprit. That was the least that we owed her, and everyone else knew it as well. If only we weren't so stubborn.
"I think we should go after her." I said, my voice ringing out clearly over the shouting and name-calling. Everyone stopped to stare at me and I kept my face a neutral mask, despite how strongly I felt about what I was saying.
Gatlin crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. "She's wearing shorts and heading the wrong way. She'll be back." He insisted.
"He's not wrong." Eliam pointed out. "Plus, she can always travel home at any time she wishes. She's already shown she has a strong talent for it."
"Traveling aside, her feelings are hurt and she's had to deal with a lot in just the measly week that she's been around, don't you think?" I scolded as I looked each of my brothers in the eye, daring them to disagree. None of them did. "I think she didn't serve to have her concerns completely invalidated, even if we didn't agree." This I directed at Gatlin who at least had the sense to look contrite. I knew he would never hurt her on purpose, but his anger got the best of him sometimes, and none of us wanted to believe that there was a missing piece in the puzzle.
E crossed his arms over his chest impatiently and stared me down, neither of us willing to back down. He and I had always had kind of a rocky relationship, which was surprising because our Sins were so different. But we were both leaders and we had both lost so much, we just had our own ways of dealing with things.
"Well," Eliam started. "What do you suggest we do, then?"
I sighed, relieved. "Like I already said, we should go after her. Women don't actually want to be left alone when they make you think they do."
Kellan blinked slowly. "That doesn't make a damn bit of sense, Gray." He grumbled.
Shrugging, I held back a chuckle. "That's w
omen for you." I stated simply.
We got in the cars and started slowly making our way in the direction that Ria had walked in. Following the road about half a mile we still saw no sight of her and I started to worry a little that maybe she had actually traveled back to the house, then my entire speech in her defense was for nothing.
I opened my mind's eye and searched for her light. I found it immediately nearby and it was flickering wildly. My eyebrows knit together in confusion, having never seen someone's light act quite the way hers did. When it started shrinking, I felt dread course through me like the tail of a fiery whip cutting me to the bone.
My eyes flying wide, I was about to use my link to tell my brothers what I had seen when we all heard it, Ria's voice screaming in our minds.
Someone help me!
Both cars skidded to a halt with Eliam almost ramming Ria's car into the back of the Jeep. Is everyone okay? He asked over the connection.
I nodded in my frazzled state before realizing that he couldn't hear me nod. We're all fine. Ria is up ahead about a quarter of a mile. We need to hurry.
Without any further acknowledgment, Gatlin pressed hard on the gas and we went flying down the road. When we reached the church, the only one the town had, I shouted, "here! Turn here!" I could see her light, flickering and shrinking in size. I was coming to realize that it meant she was in danger; it was her life force slipping away.
I didn't even remember getting out of the car, all I could see was the front double doors of the church and our girl's fading light. Approaching the front doors, I threw out my hand and knocked them clean off their hinges, sending them flying to either side of the hall and crushing pews with the force of the impact.