Sacrifice (Revelations Book 1) (29 page)

“Not the best going down I’m afraid,” the creature laughed. “But you’ll thank me when we get out of here.” Nico could feel something changing, a heavy weight being lifted from him. The voice sounded one final warning. “Think of something that makes you happy, Nico. Keep it in your heart as we travel, if you lose it for even a moment you might slip away from me and be lost in purgatory forever. Whoever or whatever you love, hold on to them so I can hold on to your soul.”

Those were the last words Nico heard. The world went dark again but this time it wasn’t death, it was something more painful than Rosa gutting him, more surreal than the feel of dying. The pain ebbed into ecstasy and then back again. Something in between being awake in fire and asleep in ice. Excruciatingly painful. And yet he felt comfort at the same time knowing the Gates would close and Satan didn’t have a hold on his soul any longer.

Abby… She was his only thought now. In this strange state of being all he thought about was her. It seemed like years passed, he was neither alive nor dead, he simply was. And all the while he thought of her.

Abby dropped to the ground and rolled as three arrows sliced through the air where she had been standing. Her head snapped up and she locked on a new wave of targets. Just beyond them stood the Beast. He was horrifying to look upon. She wasn't sure how he was changing but the longer he stood there the more human and less monster like he appeared. The air of demonic energy around him seemed to lessen as well. Jack had said the Beast couldn't be harmed until he took human form.

Every second that ticked by he was slipping further and further into a human skin. When that happened he'd be able to walk amongst the masses of humans undetected or maybe even worse, he'd walk through them like a magnet-drawing them all to him like lambs to the slaughter.

The waves of demons separating them seemed to part, clearing an unnatural path to her enemy. "Yeah, that's not suspicious." Seeing the obvious trap laid out in front of her didn’t give her any sort of insight on a way around it. With no other options she knew she had to take it. Hopefully being fully aware that she was walking into a trap would be the one thing to save her ass right now.

Nico would know what to do.

Nico wasn't with her though, she was alone. Abby winced at the thought. Would this fight be different if Nico were still here? Would the tides have changed by now? Jack had reassured her the Gates were closing but she’d yet to see the waves of demons ebb. To her, it felt like this battle was never-ending. How would she have handled this fight if she hadn't learned to kill? Nico had taught her every skill she needed in this fight. Things that no amount of straight A's and college classes could compare to and now when what she really needed was him by her side, he was gone.

The Beast eyed her intently, making her skin crawl. He all but crooked his finger at her to tell her this was just between the two of them. She curled her lip in disgust. If she was going to die tonight then she was taking somebody, or a whole lot of somebodies with her. Preferably the target currently egging her on.

Maybe if I die I'll be reunited with Nico in Heaven.

It was a comforting thought. Although she wasn't sure if it were possible for a vampire to be granted an eternal rest on the other side of Heaven's pearly Gates. She'd like to hope that her efforts in this battle wouldn't go unnoticed by the one being who was supposed to know-all and see-all. Or was that Santa Claus she was thinking of? At this rate all of her myths, religions, beliefs, fairytales, and fright-night flicks were all jumbling up into a giant knot inside her brain. For now, she'd just have to hope to see Nico again, when this was all over and when the world was safe.

She was close enough to the Beast now she could hear his breathing, like the snorting of an angry bull before he stampedes. His breath was putrid and the saliva pooling at the corners of his mouth was tinged green.

She almost took a step in retreat when he spoke, "You will not see him again, Vampire."

Her eyes must have been the size of saucers for as wide as she'd opened them. "You can read my mind?" She crossed her arms over her chest and added, "That's just great."

"Your Priest is dead; his soul is trapped in Hell and belongs to Lucifer now."

"You lie." She spat out the words.

"Do I?" His eyes danced in a flickering array of color that could only be described as flame.

She swallowed hard. He wasn't lying, or if he was she couldn't tell. She wasn't a truth detector and in all honesty she didn't have much hope anything better could have or would have happened. Their track record with lucky breaks was plunging into the negatives.

"He screamed for you as he was cut down and when screaming didn't work he begged for mercy. Your Priest was a pathetic attempt at a hero."

She shook her head. Now that was a lie. She knew Nico well enough to know that he'd never beg for anything. She gave a look that said
'you're full of shit'
. The Beast grinned. Abby twirled her daggers and sized him up, her stance alone put him on guard. He knew she was done with the talking. He dipped his head and slid his foot. She answered his threat by squaring her shoulders.

They clashed like titans; the earth seemed to tremble beneath them. Abby was certain that tremor wasn't from her, but it did wonders for her courage to feel as if she'd moved the world to defend it. The Beast’s horns sliced through her sleeve and clean through her skin. She hissed in pain and buried one dagger into the creature’s shoulder. He reared back and she wrenched the blade free before he could take it from her.

Last thing she wanted was to be weaponless against him. Sure she had fangs and claws and speed, but there wasn't one inch of that creature she wanted to willingly put her mouth on, let alone take a bite. She rushed for him again but this time he was prepared, before she knew what was happening he hit her striking arm with such force that it sent her flying backwards. The shock of the blow deadened her entire limb and her hand opened allowing her dagger to fall to the ground.

"Shit." She growled as she dove for her weapon. As soon as she hit the ground he was on top of her. The Beast wasn't the savviest fighter, but his sheer size and speed were enough to keep her pinned as he reigned down blows to her head and body.

She tucked herself into a ball and tried to roll out from under him. It was pointless, if the Beast wanted her to stay put she wasn't going to be moving any time soon. She opened an eye to try to find something, anything to defend herself with and instead of finding something useful he slammed his knuckles into her temple with a bone crushing thud.

Stars burst behind her eyelids. Her mind was ready for surrender, even an immortal life has an underlying need to spare itself any more harm, but her body was on autopilot. Her hand reached out, searching the nearby ground for her blade. There was nothing there, but this was exactly where it had landed.

She rolled over and tried to squirm to safety, but the Beast roared with laughter as he brought both fists down on the small of her back. "Where do you think you're going? We're just getting started."

"Screw you."

"Maybe we'll give that a try, you never know, you might like it."

Again she reached into the darkness hoping to make contact with something cold and sharp. The sound of metal sliding along gravel danced through the air a moment before her fingertips touched the cold, hard steel. Someone in the darkness had given her exactly what she needed, a blade. Her fingers wrapped around the hilt.

She rolled over and thrust the end under the Beast’s chin catching him off guard. Pinning him with the tip of the blade biting into his flesh.

"What the fuck? Where did you get that?"

She glanced up at the instrument in her hand. It definitely wasn't her dagger. The blade of black metal jutted out and gold inscriptions ran down the blade. The ornate hilt looked heavy, its intricate designs swirled over the dark metal and a glowing blue jewel was set in the end of the hilt.

Whatever this weapon was, the Beast recognized it and, even better, he seemed to fear it. She slid away from him, still holding the point to his throat. "You know the old saying: Ask and ye shall receive."

He refused to look at the weapon and curled his lip. "It's merely a trinket, nothing useful, it won’t save you."

Bluff.

She could feel it deep inside, he was lying.

She swiped the sword and the Beast jumped back. This was her advantage. She was on the offensive again with the Beast backpedaling. In five steps Abby had him pinned at the wall, even his fur trembled as the tip of the blade neared. Suddenly, the Beast roared and spun to the right. She hadn't been ready for it but she kept herself upright as he tried to get past her. She stabbed the blade into the nearest chunk of flesh she could get to. The Beast's eyes widened.

The black weapon was impaled in his back. She twisted it causing him to roar again. With this weapon it might be possible to actually kill him, he wasn't unbeatable. She slid the blade out and raised it, readying to take her killing blow when her entire world flipped upside down by a familiar voice uttering three simple words.

"Stop this, Abby." Chloe pleaded as she stepped out of the shadows.

"Where have you been?" Abby stood slack-jawed staring at her friend. "We looked everywhere for you."

"I know, but it's time to stop and let him go."

"What? Are you insane?

"I won't let you destroy him."

"What in the fuck are you talking about?" Her fingers flexed, fighting the urge to lash out at Chloe. This was crazy. "He is the enemy. He is trying to start the Apocalypse, release Lucifer, and enslave mankind."

Chloe shook her head. "I'm not human, remember? And neither are you. The problems of mankind don’t extend to us, Abby. Don’t you see? This isn’t our fight, it’s theirs. Let them fight it."

Abby paused and met Chloe’s gaze. She wasn’t the same carefree Striga Abby had met in the desert. The sheen to her beautiful blonde hair had dulled and her eyes were sunken under the weight of dark bags. The transformation wasn’t just physical. Chloe would never side with the Beast or with the armies of Hell if she were in her right mind. “Chloe, come back with me and we’ll sort this all out.” She flicked her wrist, itching to take the Beast’s head, “I have to kill him, if he dies we can stop this all right now.”

“If you harm him then you make an enemy out of me.”

“No, don’t say that.”

“Yes, you will. I’ll never forgive you for it.”

The weight of that statement crushed Abby. She stood staring at her friend unsure of what to do next when she noticed movement to the right, deep in the shadows. Jack blended in with the shadows. Abby cast a sideways glance in his direction and subtly motioned for him to stay where he was. If one thing was going to set off Chloe it would be him. She had to find a way to talk her down from this madness.

“Chloe, I need you. Please. You’re my friend.”

“Yes, I am, but I won’t aid you in this. I’m tired of being used by people.”

“I’m not trying to use you.”

“Arveda is. Jack is. Hell, God himself thinks of me as nothing more than a containment vessel. I’m a spiritual storage unit. Nothing more.”

“You are everything,” Abby shouted. “To me. You’re everything. I have nothing and no one without you.”

“You have Nico, he loves you. Even if he won’t say it.”

Tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes now spilled over. Finally, she whispered. “Nico is dead. Rosa…” She paused and swallowed. “Rosa threw him into Hell.”

Chloe stood emotionless. “I’m sorry for your loss. But it’ll all work out.”

“It will not all work out, Chloe. Snap out of this. Whatever he’s done to you, snap out of it.”

“He’s done nothing to me. He’s opened my eyes to see the reality of the situation. My mother is the enemy, Jack is the enemy. You—”

“I am your enemy?”

“No, but you are her ally, therefore I can’t help you.”

Abby pointed a finger at the Beast, “This creature is the reason Lucas is dead.”

“No, Rosa and Hannah are the reason Lucas is dead and I’ll have my revenge on them. I won’t let anyone else use me anymore. I’ll choose my own side. When I do, I’ll stand and fight for what I feel is right. I won’t bow down to my mother’s wishes, or to Jack’s. I’m not her vessel and I’m not his long-lost love. I get to decide who and what I am and until I decide I won’t aid you or anyone.”

“You’re aiding him right now. You’ve chosen your side.”

Chloe shook her head. “I’m not aiding him. One day I might be the one who takes his head but until I know who is right and who is wrong I won’t let you do something I might come to hate you for.”

“You could hate me for avenging Nico and Lucas?”

“The Beast didn’t kill either of them.” Chloe straightened her shoulders and nodded to the Beast. “And I would hate you for taking away my chance at happiness.”

“Happiness?” Abby’s throat grew tight. “With this creature?”

“No, not with him. The happiness he’s promised me. He will give me what I desire most.”

“He can’t bring Lucas back.”

Chloe’s eyes cast downward. “That’s not what he’s promised me.” She looked back up, tears shimmering in her dull blue eyes. “He’s promised to make me forget.”

“You want to forget Lucas?”

“Not Lucas. Never him. I want to forget Arveda, my sisters,” there was a long pause before she added, “and Jack. Everything about who I am and this place. He will give me absolution from my memories.”

“That means you’ll forget me too.”

Chloe shook her head. “Rosa assured me that I will keep my memories of you and Nico, but I won’t remember my family and the hurt my mother has caused me. And most importantly I won’t remember Jack and what he thinks we mean to each other.”

Abby glared. “Rosa did all of this for him, she killed Lucas and Nico, and now you are siding with her and this creature?”

“The Beast wasn’t here when Lucas died, he didn’t throw Nico into Hell. And for the last time I am not siding with anyone other than myself. Having my memories and free-will stripped from me for two millennia is a far worse betrayal than me sparing his life.”