SACRIFICIUM (THE UNDERGROUND Book 1)

by Allie Doherty

  “I guess it’s time for another vote.” Tavis sighs, standing tall. “Those in favor of –”

  He doesn’t get to finish before I drop to the floor, gripping my head. Images flood my mind, just like before, and none of them are happy.

  Hunters…

  Floods of them, bursting through the bank doors with their talismans, rendering my protections virtually useless… They rip us all apart in minutes with their semi-automatics and sewn offs. I see their smug smiles, and on the wall of the bank, the time. We have three hours before our world implodes.

  That vision fades away as another takes place and my brain takes a moment to realize what I’m seeing.

  I’m watching a child – she’s a hunter, going through the vigorous training and propaganda that makes them want to hunt us. The training starts when she’s very young and I watch her grow before my eyes. I see her put in the ring, going toe-to-toe with hundreds of other kid-hunters, and celebrating her wins. Then, I see a witch brought to her when she turns eleven. Her bright red hair is brushed back out of her face as she takes the knife in hand and ends a life for the first time.

  There’s something familiar about her, but I don’t recognize her yet. Not until she gains her teenage face.

  One witch turns into fifteen, each dying at her hand. I watch as she goes on raids with her father, ripping families apart on his command.

  And then I see her as she is now, on the day that she’s given the mission to track me down and get close enough to kill me.

  “Are you sure you can handle this, Maeve?”

  “Trust me dad… That witch is as good as dead.”

  I pull out of the vision and grasp my chest with shock and pain. She’s kneeled in front of me with tears in her eyes. The fact that she’s been crying makes them crystal clear, and that’s when I see it – The brown fleck in her otherwise ice-blue eye…

  The one in the shape of the hunters mark.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “We don’t have long, the hunters are coming. Three hours, maximum.” I pull myself from the ground, ignoring Maeve’s outstretched hand. It’s hard for me to believe that she’s the traitor that Karelia warned me about.

  I suppose if there was a way to kill me, it would be getting close enough. But what I don’t understand is why she hasn’t…

  I sleep in a cot next to her. She could have slit my throat and taken off before anyone ever found out, but she didn’t…

  Anger and confusion mix within me and the power tingles up my arms. I want to hurt her for her betrayal, and so I do.

  I let go of my long-practiced control and with a snap of my fingers, she’s made unconscious. I make no effort to catch her, and I smile when her body crashes to the ground. The impact is sure to leave a bruise.

  “Theo, what’re you doing?” Tavis asks.

  “Put her in the training room!” I command. “She’s got some explaining to do.”

  ***

  When she wakes up, she looks confused. She’s not bound to anything, because I know she’s no threat to me – not with the way that I feel.

  “You lied to me, this entire time, didn’t you, hunter?” She looks up at me from the ground and it’s hard to keep my voice strong because it’s my best friend I’m staring at – or at least, I thought she was.

  But it was all a lie.

  Her eyes go wide and then she stares at the ground. I see her throat bob as she swallows down the lump living in it. She opens her mouth and then closes it.

  “Cat got your tongue, Maeve?”

  Her eyes finally meet mine, and they make me angrier. Now, all I see in them is that fleck that tells me who she really is.

  “I didn’t…” Her lip quivers as she speaks. “Not the entire time, I promise…”

  I snap.

  Pushing my power through my hands, I force her body flat to the ground, and then I yank it up into the air and slam it back down. Her bones crack, and one or two may have even broken. Her screams pierce my ears, but I feel very little sympathy for the traitorous bitch.

  I force her so hard into the ground that when I open myself up to her pain, it feels like someone is standing on her. All of the air is gone from her lungs and she can barely stay conscious.

  I let up a little bit, not wanting her to tap out just yet.

  “I didn’t lie,” she chokes out, unable to lift her face to speak. “Please, just let me up so I can explain.”

  “Explain or try to kill me?” I spit. “That’s what you were sent here to do, right? Like the rest of the hunters.”

  “I’m not a goddamn hunter,” she tries to yell.

  “You have the birthmark!” I scoff. “Stop trying to save your life! It won’t work! I’m going to kill you… in less than two minutes, I will snap your neck and you will die.”

  “Please, Theo…” She cries. “Just let me explain. I promise I would never try to hurt you. The birthmark… it’s –”

  I see the tears drop from her eyes and land on the floor beneath her, and despite myself, my heart pulls for her. Distrust nibbles away at my mind but so do the memories we’ve shared as friends, since the first day on the bus.

  I take one hand off her and focus it on the chair in the corner until it slides across the room, landing in the middle.

  Pulling her from the ground without a touch, I force her into the chair. She’s in too much pain to move quickly, so I take the opportunity to get close. With a knife, I make a small cut on her wrist, ignoring the hiss of pain coming from her and embed it in the wood of the arm, binding her to it.

  “Tell me the truth!” I demand.

  “Theo,” she cries, lifting her eyes to meet mine. “I can’t… I don’t know how to say this.”

  “You were sent to kill me, right?” I ask. “That’s why you were on the bus?”

  She doesn’t say anything. She just nods, letting her tears roam free.

  “You were supposed to be my best friend, you were like my sister… and you were the one I was warned about, all of this time…” I yell, letting myself feel her betrayal. “We were supposed to be family!”

  “No,” she shouts. “I swear! I stopped my mission months ago. Whoever this ‘close person’ is, it’s not me, T. I promise you. You were my only friend. The only one I’ve ever had… we are family.” Her tears run down her cheeks and she hangs her head in shame.

  “You’re not buying this?” Knox’s voice sounds from behind me. “Tell me you’re not buying this. Of course she’s the one!”

  “Is everyone packed?” I ask him and he nods. “Good, we need to leave soon.”

  “What about her?” He flicks his chin up at Maeve. “Theo, I know she means a lot to you, but think of the coven. She’s not your best friend anymore, she’s just a hunter. The safest thing we can do right now is end this.”

  By ‘end this’ he means kill her.

  It sounds like such an easy thing when he it comes out of his mouth, but staring at her makes it harder. She’s not just a random hunter – she made me feel like I had somebody when I was on my own, she taught me to fight, she taught me how to survive, and she nearly died for me…

  It’s a crazy thing for me to think, but if she hadn’t been sent to kill me, I never would have survived this long.

  How’s that for irony?

  “You need to make a decision, Theo…” Knox says.

  “Give me some time alone with her,” I plead with him, but he doesn’t move from the room. “Please, Knox… I just need to think.”

  “Okay, fine…” He nods. “But you need to make a decision and you need to do it fast… whatever you choose, I’ll stand by it. I just hope you make the right choice for us all.”

  He lays a soft kiss on my cheek before he leaves and promises he’ll be there when I need him.

  I pace back and forth; weighing up my options.

  “Look, if you need to kill me, I won’t try and talk you out of it but first, I need you to know my side.”

  “Okay,” I say, lift
ing and dropping my arms with a slap. She gnaws at her bottom lip and sighs. “Don’t beat around the bush, Maeve! Just freaking tell me…”

  “God, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m so sorry, Theo…” She starts. “My father is a hunter, and I was raised in a hunter’s commune… Some were Jessops, some were Mitchell’s and some were Winchesters, but they were all resolute in one goal: extermination of witchcraft.”

  She takes a breath before continuing. “I was brought up to hate witches and everything that you represent. I was trained to be a killer with no mercy... I wasn’t lying about the fight clubs, Theo. They were barbaric! And I had to work twice as hard as every other kid! I had to practice and fight twice as hard, because… being a hunter? It’s only half of who I am.”

  “And the other half is what? Oscar nominated actress?”

  “The other half was my mother…” Tears stream down her face along with her party make-up. “She was a witch.”

  My blood runs cold.

  “My father didn’t know she was a witch when he met her. They fell in ‘love’ and she got pregnant. When the hunters found out, they tried to kill her and so she ran. I was told that my father spared my life and she died in childbirth….” She cries harder. “But it was a lie. It was all a lie! Mendez told me the truth. My mom kept running with me until I was two-years-old! Then, they tracked her down. They couldn’t kill her because she was too strong, but they kidnapped me and raised me in the life. They didn’t tell me who – or what – I was. They were hoping I would never know what I could do, but then I turned nine and –”

  “Your powers manifested,” I finish and she nods.

  “A few months ago, the community council got news of a powerful witch on the rise. A girl with magic like no one had ever seen before. She even took on a High Priestess at seventeen, a mere fledgling, and she won… they couldn’t allow power like that to live, but sending a regular team was too risky for the likes of her. They needed a hunter who could protect herself against magic, and so I was called up to finally prove myself loyal.” She sighs. “And I was so happy. It was the perfect opportunity for me to show them that I was one of them… I didn’t have a choice, Theo!”

  Anger bubbles inside me at her excuse. I throw my hand up in a swift movement. She screams in pain and I don’t stop.

  “Your blood is boiling inside of you right now,” I spit. “One more degree higher and your dead.”

  Fear takes over her tired eyes and I lower my hand, letting her body return to core temperature.

  “You always have a choice, Maeve!”

  “You don’t get it,” she sobs. “They weren’t just orders from a council. These people raised me. They were my family… But I got it wrong! I got it so, so wrong. My brother, he died so that I could get out, and I did! I’m not one of them anymore. I’m one of you! You’re my family now, Theo! I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. You have to believe me! Please…”

  I look at the knife in my hand. It would be so easy to slit her throat and be done with it…

  After all, she deserves it. If not for me, then for the other witches that have died at her hand.

  If Karelia was here, she’d tell me to avenge them all, and I should!

  But all of the memories we’ve shared together and everything we’ve been through… I’m not sure I can do it.

  I guess Knox is right; I do have a decision to make…

  ***

  “How are we doing?” I ask Tavis and Knox in the main room.

  “We’re ready to go, mostly,” Tavis tells me. “How much time do we have?”

  I look to the clock on the back wall.

  “Less than an hour… We have to move now!”

  Maeve comes behind me with her bag and mine.

  “You can’t be serious?” Knox exclaims. “You’re letting her live? She is a hunter, Theo!”

  There’s a fire burning behind his eyes, and I can’t blame him. I’m not the only person in this coven that has been lied to and put at risk by Maeve’s deception. But he doesn’t understand… She was the first person in my life who so much as pretended to give a crap about me since Anna died.

  “Look, half of this coven would be dead without the skills she taught us. She’s not the one that Karelia warned me about, but someone in our midst has sold us out, we need to find that person.”

  “I’m looking at her!” Knox is irate. He takes a step forward, closer to getting in Maeve’s face. She squares her shoulders and steps forward on impulse. “And if it’s not her, it’s her cop boyfriend!”

  “We do not have time for this!” I yell. “You said you’d support whatever choice I made. I made this choice, so support it!”

  He opens his mouth again, but Tavis cuts him off.

  “Theo, do you trust her or not?”

  I lick at my bottom lip and curl it into my mouth and shake my head.

  “I don’t know yet…” I say, honestly. “But I do trust that she’s told me the truth...”

  “Which is what exactly?” Knox asks.

  “She –”

  “Guys!” Zhavia shrieks. “It’s too late! They’re here!”

  I look back at the clock.

  “No, that’s impossible! The vision said –” I stop talking, because suddenly it makes sense to me; the hunters have been tipped off about our plan. Maeve was telling the truth; she’s not the snake in our garden – she can’t be – she was with me this entire time. There’s no way she could have made the call…

  But somebody else did.

  “What do we do?” I hear a panicked voice cry.

  “Everyone get ready, fighter or not!” Tavis’ eyes make slide to Katia. “It’s about to be a blood bath...”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  They’re pushing through the defences with their talismans. We’ve blocked the doors with everything we could find, but they’re not going to hold long and it’s only a matter of time before they bust through. Katia is front and centre with me and despite her reluctance to fight, her face is hard and her eyes are narrowed as she thrusts her fists up in front of her and gets ready to attack.

  If I had the option, I’d have her hidden away somewhere, ready to heal. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of injured after this fight, and though I’d never say it aloud, I’m not expecting everyone to survive… especially if Katia goes down.

  Maeve is on my other side and her hand grasps mine for a quick squeeze. I squeeze back and she smiles at me. In one look, all is mostly forgiven. She was with me when the hunters were alerted, and I can’t help feeling like we’re about to die. I don’t want to die with regrets…

  My eyes connect with Knox’s across the hall. There are three teams of us in positions, ready to fight for our lives. One team headed up by me, one by Tavis and Knox, and the other by Zhavia and Max.

  I have no idea who is making it out of this alive, but I wouldn’t put my money on Amalie. She’s shaking like a leaf beside Tavis, and I get it – last time, she faced a hunter she nearly died…

  But she’s not the only one. Maeve nearly died on a mission too. The difference is that right now, Maeve has her game face on.

  The banging on the bank doors is getting louder by the second. At first, it was a few half-hearted pushes, but now there’s more effort behind it, and possibly a battering ram of some sort.

  I wish we had guns and knives and grenades… everything the hunters are sure to have, but all of our weaponry we have is stored away in one of the back rooms and we don’t have time to get it; leaving us with nothing but our hand-to-hand skills and our ability to dodge bullets.

  With one final thrust, the doors break and the people behind it flood the bank with their weapons raised.

  We have nowhere to run, and our only chance of survival is to battle our way out.

  I don’t have time to count the hunters coming at us, but if I had to guess, I’d say there was less than fifty, but more than thirty. There’s a big, burly man with long, tied-back hair comin
g straight for me, and Maeve steps in front, pushing me back.

  She moves punch-for-punch with him, but he’s stronger than she is – especially now that I’ve weakened her – and she’s losing. With one final punch, she’s on the ground and he’s hovering over her with a knife raised.

  Plunging it down twice, the blade penetrates her shoulder and her stomach and blood erupts from the wounds; I’m frozen in shock, unable to help her, and it’s too late.

  I’m watching everyone around me – all of the people I have grown to have love for – get slain by the barbaric killers, claiming to be protecting society against people like us. They all have guns in their hands, making it an easy massacre for them, but not a single round has been let off.

  They use their knives and hands only because they want to prolong the process and have as much fun as they can with us, and they can, because they’re winning.

  I see something moving out of the corner of my eye… it could be a hunter, but still I don’t move. Instead, I close my eyes and let them come.

  Hands grip my shoulders and shake me violently. My eye rip open by instinct and I see Knox’s staring straight at me. His mouth is moving but I can’t hear anything but a ringing sound in my head. He shakes me harder, and finally, the scene around me comes to life.

  “Theo!” He yells a final time. “We need you!”

  They need me.

  It’s like ice-water to my face and now I’m running. I head for the burly man first, he’s punching Max in the face and once again, his blade is raised.

  I know that jumping on his back won’t do much damage, and so I stop looking at him like somebody I need to take down and go for the greatest pain on earth – hair pulling.

  I grip the ponytail tight and rip with all of my force. The man screams like a girl as I pull him backwards to the ground and aim goal-scoring strikes at his head. His knife clatters away from him and Max doesn’t hesitate in picking it up and sliding it into his gut.

  Next, I move onto a woman who has Katia cornered. Max is hot on my heels to protect his girlfriend, but a scream sounds out from across the room. Penelope is being pummelled to death by a behemoth and she’s crying for somebody to help her. Max looks at me with a clear message in his eyes. I nod and he throws me the knife.