“Do you have a name, or would you like me to call you Damned?”
“Cecily.”
Cecily glared at Gabrielle as the two waited for the other to make a move. Gabrielle didn’t care for most Qalal, especially those obviously not interested in regaining their soul. Cecily definitely seemed to be the kind she liked least, and there was something about the look in her eyes that told Gabrielle that something was particularly off about her.
Cecily cocked her head slightly, allowing the light from the moon to catch a pendant that hung from the choker around her neck. Gabrielle tried to see it better, thinking it looked like the one that Ka’awa and the demons at Yosemite wore. Cecily shifted, blocking the light again before she could be sure.
“You know my name … are you going to tell me yours?”
“Gabrielle.”
Cecily laughed loudly enough that the teenagers quieted. After several moments, they resumed their partying.
“The Gabrielle?”
“I suppose so.”
Cecily stopped circling “I’ve heard a lot about you. From one of your kind, actually.”
“Really? And who would that be?”
“Just a mutual—friend.”
“I don’t believe any of my kind who would speak to you about me would be classified as my friend, Cecily.”
“Well—maybe he’s more like an ex-friend. If you have to be so technical about it.”
Gabrielle was growing tired of the chitchat. “Since I really don’t care much about who you’re friends with who I was once friends with, how about we move on to what you and your coven are intending to do here tonight?”
Cecily bent over in laughter. When she returned upright, Gabrielle caught something else in her eyes that hinted to her that she wasn’t going to like where the conversation was heading.
“Oh, no. On the contrary, I think you would be interested in this particular old friend who is now a very good friend of mine.”
Gabrielle sighed. She wished she wasn’t bound to guidelines concerning Cecily’s kind.
“Enlighten me.”
“This particular friend was once much more than your friend. Much, much more.”
Gabrielle felt the crush in her heart again. She didn’t have to hear his name. There could only be one she could be speaking of.
Now, it was her turn to be rattled.
Gabrielle didn’t say anything for a moment. Cecily seemed to be more than happy to let the information, and its meaning, seep in without interruption.
Javan had certainly made the rounds, and as much as she didn’t want it to, it hurt her deeply. It didn’t seem to bother him at all to be with anyone that crossed his path, making her feel she never really mattered to him at all.
Why does he seem to want me back so badly? Am I just a challenge? A trophy?
After several long moments of her thoughts twisting with the hurt she felt trying to surface, Gabrielle was finally able to regain her composure and break the silence.
“Tell Javan hello. But back to the matter at hand. What’s your intention with these humans?”
Gabrielle was hoping for the worst so she could do whatever she wanted with Cecily. The other six Qalal held steady in their positions, not making any move toward the fire or the humans huddled close to it. If they did, she’d have to take care of them before she could turn her wrath on Cecily. The lives of the teens were more important than her personal vengeance.
Gabrielle was suddenly struck by the track her thoughts had taken. Why did she care whether Cecily had been with Javan? She certainly wasn’t the first female he’d had trysts with, and she was now sure there were many, many more.
Obviously, he has no desire to spare my feelings in any way.
She tried to shake off her desire for revenge, not wanting her decisions to get muddied with emotions.
“We just wanted to join their little party.”
“That wouldn’t be advisable. I don’t think you would do well resisting your urges.”
“Maybe not. Or maybe we’re trying to change our ways. You know, regain our mortal souls and such. Regardless, you can’t stop us from being around humans, Gabrielle. Even you can only interfere if we’re going to kill one.” Cecily looked toward the bonfire. “Or ten.”
Gabrielle hated that Cecily was right, and her hue began to take on a hint of red.
“So, Gabrielle, are you going to baby-sit us all night? Or are you going to just trust we aren’t going to have a midnight snack?”
Staying all night to watch the coven wasn’t an option. She looked at the position of the moon, now well above the horizon, and could tell immediately she’d been gone longer than she’d intended. She’d have to call in some of her troops to oversee the Damned so she could get back to Lucas and still ensure the safety of the teenagers at the bonfire.
Just as she was about to call to them, Cecily spoke again. “How about I make the decision easier for you?”
“And how are you going to do that?”
This time when Cecily spoke, it wasn’t quiet, and it wasn’t to Gabrielle.
“NOW!”
Gabrielle threw up her hand to pause human time and keep the Qalal from attacking. The effect didn’t work. They were still moving toward the now frozen teens. Gabrielle immediately released her hold on time so that the humans could react and descended upon the first Qalal before he even broke the shadow’s edge that mingled the darkness of Halloween night and the glow of flames. She was sure he didn’t even know his head had been torn off. She tossed it the length of a football field and threw his body just as far in the opposite direction, putting as much distance between the two until she could dispose of him permanently. Even as quick as she was moving, she noticed a black stone pendant reflecting the flames as it fell to the ground.
She produced a disruption in the air just inside the circle of the fire’s light and thrust it outward with more force than a bomb’s repercussion, sending the others in the coven flying far enough that she’d have time to deal with them all one by one.
The teens’ attention was complete. They huddled together as close to the fire as they could get. They had no idea what was going on in the inky blackness around them, but they were smart enough to be scared.
As she made her way to the next Qalal, a female, Gabrielle scanned the area for Cecily. She saw her faint energy vibrating in the distance, moving swiftly to the east.
I’ll catch up with you later, Cecily.
Gabrielle ripped the head of the female off next, discarding it in the same way as the first. The next one came to her as if he was going to fight. He had no chance, but she wasn’t about to stop to let him in on that information and made quick work of his disposal as well.
By this time, two of the remaining three had regrouped and were fleeing north. Gabrielle put her hands before her, clapping them solidly together. The two Qalal stopped as the ground beneath their feet began to tremble, then roll violently. Before they could try to move away from the lurching earth, Gabrielle opened her hands again, ripping the ground apart angrily. When she saw them fall toward the bowels of Hell, she slapped her hands together again. The earth closed its mouth, plumes of dirt and rock erupting from the rejoining. The sound it made, like the loudest clap of thunder, echoed for several moments.
She turned to see where the final Qalal had fled. To her surprise, he hadn’t fled at all. He was just below where she hovered—on his knees. He was bent over, hands palms down on the ground in a show of surrender. Gabrielle descended, slowly.
“Please, angel. This wasn’t what she said would happen. We weren’t going to actually hurt anyone. She said we were supposed to scare them. She said it was what you wanted us to do because they were in some kind of wannabe vampire coven. She said you wanted us to scare them so they
would realize what they wanted to get involved in.”
Gabrielle was stunned. Why would Cecily do something like this?
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“She said you were Gabrielle, The Angel of Karma, and if we helped you, you would help us get our souls back—so we would have another chance for salvation.”
He looked up at her, his red eyes pleading with her as much as a soulless creature’s could. Another pendant with a black stone at its center swung from the chain dangling around his neck.
Gabrielle realized the look she’d seen in Cecily’s eyes hadn’t been imagined. The female Qalal had known exactly whom she was all along and exactly what Gabrielle was capable of doing to her coven.
“She sent them into a slaughter under the guise of redemption,” Gabrielle said in a whisper.
Cecily knew who she was. She knew Javan. What would be the motivation be to lure Gabrielle out to the middle of nowhere for a fake attack on a group of teenagers?
All at once, Gabrielle knew why.
“Lucas!”
Chapter Seventy-six
Lucas ~ The Book of Barabbadon
Javan walked to the rear of his car, and like the door that seemed to open by itself back at the gym, the trunk opened for him before he put a hand on it. It was as if an invisible chauffeur was always several steps ahead of him.
Lucas didn’t know what Javan was getting, and he didn’t care. He took the opportunity to look back in the car at Gabby, who still seemed to be out of it. He sighed and started to turn back around. He hoped Javan would let her go after he got the book, but he wasn’t sure if either of them would make it out of this.
Just as he was about to fully face the direction he’d originally turned from, something landed hard against his chest, knocking him into the car. What had felt like a railroad tie when it hit him was now in his arms, and was just a simple long-handled shovel. He looked up at Javan. The smug smile plastering his face was exactly what Lucas had imagined during their conversation in the car.
“I have to dig up the book you want?”
“That’s right.” The voice didn’t come from Javan or either of the occupants in the car. It came from his left, and it belonged to a female.
Because of the shadow she was walking through, all he could see of the woman was her black knee-high boots. As she moved closer, the light rose up her body until he could see her face. He knew from the red eyes that she was a vampire.
An exceptionally beautiful vampire.
Like with the Elders, once he looked at her eyes, he was unable to look away. He hated this feeling. And tonight he didn’t need to feel any weaker or more useless than he already did. Once again, he was caught in the midst of yet another being who was more powerful than he was in every way.
She stopped in front of him. She was so close he could smell her—rosemary and lemon. His two favorite scents. Lucas felt the desire to move closer to her so he could enjoy the scent more.
She leaned in, inhaling deeply near his neck, then moved back enough to meet his gaze. “Mmm … yummy.” She licked her lips slowly.
He was suddenly aware he couldn’t, or didn’t want to, move. His heart pounded harder in his chest than he thought possible. She was surely able to see the rhythm of the blood thrust through the veins traveling up his neck that she was staring at intently.
“Cecily,” Javan said from behind her.
Cecily looked away briefly. It was long enough to release Lucas from the hold she had on him. His hand flew to his chest, and he sharply sucked in air. He hadn’t realized he’d failed to take a breath since she first looked at him. It was the same experience he had the last time he was face to face with a vampire, only this time, Gabrielle wasn’t capable of saving him.
“Cecily, I know you’d like to have fun with Lucas,” Javan said as he made his way to her, “but we need him alive. And we don’t have time for games—even though I’d love to play a few of my own.” Javan glared at Lucas, then smiled and kissed Cecily from behind on her neck. Cecily didn’t hide her enjoyment. She closed her eyes and placed her hand behind Javan’s head, pressing him harder into her. When he was finished, Javan moved away from Cecily, positioning himself between her and Lucas. “Here’s what you need to do. Take these directions into the cemetery, and when you get to the point where it’s buried, dig. When you find it, bring it back to me, and I’ll release Gabrielle. Do you think you can handle that, human?” Javan continued to glare; his black eyes seemed to be rummaging through Lucas’s mind. Lucas wondered if he’d always been like this.
How could Gabby love someone so malicious?
“Yeah,” Lucas answered dryly. “I can handle it.”
Lucas studied the small piece of paper in his hand. A rough map of the cemetery and its tombs were drawn on it. There were simple instructions written below the map. Lucas glanced at Javan, avoiding Cecily’s gaze. He didn’t want to be spellbound again.
“Are you going with me?”
Javan grinned. It wasn’t meant to be friendly. “You’re on your own. We’ll be waiting here—with Gabrielle.” Javan’s smile turned back into a sneer. “Make sure you move quickly and quietly. I’ve taken steps to ensure a certain amount of time for you to be alone in there, but I won’t be able to keep people away long. Especially tonight.”
Javan stood and stared; the expression on his face showed his growing annoyance. “GO!”
The sound of his voice was less than human. Lucas jumped, his heart lurching for several beats, remedying the feeling of being unable to move. Lucas’s feet seemed to be moving without his prompting, likely his mind trying to force his body to flee to safety. He knew that wasn’t possible, so he forced his mind to slow down.
He stopped at the opening of the cemetery and looked at the unadorned white pillars flanking the passage between the walls that ran the entire border of the cemetery grounds. Spanning across the top between the pillars was an iron cross that any who entered would have to pass under. Lucas recognized where he was. As he read the simple plaque on the side of the entry, the words confirmed it.
“Saint Louis Cemetery Number One.” Lucas spoke the words aloud and stepped into one of New Orleans’s cities of the dead.
The caw of a crow came from above. Hair stood on the back of his neck and down his arms. He didn’t bother to look up. He knew by now what he’d see. The crow cawed again as if to protest not gaining his attention. Lucas kept his eyes down, focusing on the piece of paper in his hand. He read the directions and went to his left as it indicated, then proceeded to the next to last walkway on the right.
As he walked, Lucas tried to calm his mind and nerves. He recalled the trip he took two years earlier with his grandmother to try to stop focusing on Javan, Cecily, Mara, and Gabby’s condition—to distract himself from thinking of crows.
They’d come here on a cemetery tour during a long weekend get-away because it was supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the world. Lucas found the idea silly at the time, and he caught himself laughing humorlessly at his ignorance. Now, he knew spirits and far worse existed.
He came to the next step in the directions and made the right, then the next to last right. The cemetery was spookier now than the first time he’d been there. He was here at night then, too, but this time, he was aware there were things lurking in shadows.
“Now I believe in monsters and fairytales,” he said under his breath.
The map showed he needed to follow the path he was on to its end. It wasn’t far, according to the drawing, and made an L shape. He was supposed to dig where the path ended, so he followed it until it did. Except for a narrow space between the tombs to his left that led to another path, he was completely shielded from view.
Lucas stuffed the piece of paper into his front pocket and slammed the spade into t
he earth. Maybe it was soft ground or anger trying to escape his body. Maybe it was the book, under who knew how many layers of soil, helping in some way because it wanted to be free, but for whatever reason, Lucas was able to remove the dirt with little effort.
He felt eyes on him, watching what he was doing. He didn’t want to see whatever the eyes belonged to, so he never took his attention off the ground he was butchering. Every time he stabbed it, he wished it was Javan, or a vampire, that he was ripping apart instead of a bunch of dirt. Through the anger and terror, he had a profound need to hold Gabby safely in his arms.
She’s all that matters right now.
He didn’t know if he’d survive the night, but he would do anything he could to save her.
As he raised the shovel again and thrust it into the ground, it hit something hard. The force caused his hand to slip down the wood handle, shoving a splinter that felt like a chopstick into his palm.
Lucas dropped the shovel and grasped his hand, bending over in pain as he tried to stifle a cry. The last thing he needed was to give Javan another reason to get rid of him. He could stay quiet if it kept the situation he was in more stable.
As he stared at his palm, a stream of blood dripped from his hand onto the dirt he’d ripped from its home. He looked at the fresh earth he had exposed—smelling its scent, realizing the pain it would have been in from his abuse if it were capable of feeling. With all that he had learned existed in the world, what he thought were impossible things, that lived and breathed—could feel—the idea that dirt could feel pain from the beating he inflicted upon it became less unrealistic.
“I guess you got me back,” he said to the dirt.
Lucas turned his attention to his palm and picked as much of the splinter out of his hand as he could. It came out mostly in one big, painful piece, but little ones were still embedded in his skin. Something he’d have to take care of later.
Inception (The Reaping Chronicles, 1) Page 49