Ascended (23 page)

S
he saw Enapay approaching and she grabbed him off the trail, holding her hand tightly over his mouth. He struggled until he saw who was holding him. She put her finger up to her lips and then slowly removed her hand from his mouth.

“
Enapay, I need you to do something for me. It’s very important that no one knows what I am about to ask you. Can you help me?” she asked. At Enapay’s nod, Vie told him she needed something from Gabriel, but it had to be gotten without his knowledge.

Together, t
hey devised a plan to retrieve what she needed without being noticed. Vie watched carefully from a distance as Enapay enacted their strategy flawlessly, returning  swiftly to hand her the black blade from Gabriel’s satchel, the Angel Blade that belonged to her. She thanked Enapay, kissing him on the cheek before looking into his kind eyes and saying farewell.

Enapay
felt as though Vie was saying her final goodbyes to him, and that made him regret helping her. He was worried that he’d made a tragic mistake. Before he could share this thought with her, she was gone, having disappeared without a trace.

After leaving Enapay, Vie had returned to the cabin to take one last look at Henry before she left. She peered through the window around back and saw him sitting with Kade. The sadness in his eyes was unbearable. She wanted to take it all away, and she knew she could. Henry had suffered enough; it was time to end it.

She turned around and ran right into the
Chief. He was standing tall, looking down at the resilient young warrior. They looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment without speaking a word.

The
Chief knew where she was going. “You have the power,
Kitala
…use it!” he said, placing his hand on the necklace he had given to her for protection.

When he touched
it, she could feel it igniting the power she had inside her. Vie looked at him and nodded, and then headed out toward the forest.

Like Enapay’s encounter with Vie, Carter was having his own regrets about attempting to speak with Gabriel. He was getting absolutely nowhere with him; Gabriel was hardheaded and committed to returning Vie to the Gates. Carter had never seen him so angry and unsettled before.

The other Guardian
s stood back, afraid to interfere with the two mighty forces. While they were aligned with Gabriel, they also had a duty to serve Carter as the Chosen One. The already-complicated situation was about to get out of control.

“If it’s Vie you w
ant, Gabriel, you are going to have to go through me to get to her!”Carter challenged him.

“Don’t think I won’t,” Gabe shot back. “I need to find her, NOW, and you’re going to tell me where she is, or deal with the consequences! Don’t count on
me taking it easy on you because of our friendship.”

The two of them stood there breathing hard, eyes blazing and fists clenched at their sides,
locked in a state of war until Fallon wedged between them, gently pushing Carter back.

“Listen
, Carter, you have to trust us,” she began.

“Trust
you?” he replied with contempt in his voice. “I think not, ‘Tess’!” he said, cluing her in that he’d found out about her little merge with Tess.

Gabriel removed Fallon
, pulling her from between them, and said in measured tones, “I am going to ask you one more time, Carter. Where…is…Vie?”

Carter
found he could answer Gabe’s question honestly without disclosing where she was, “Vie is with her father, where she belongs!”

His vague response sent Gabriel’s temper flaring
. He was done playing games.

“Where are they
, Carter?” Gabriel gave him one last chance.

“
You kept the truth from Vie, Gabriel, and now that she finally knows who she really is, you want to take it all away from her. Vie is happy, here with her friends, her father, and with me. I’m not going to let you rip her from Henry’s arms; he’s her father and he has the right to be with his daughter after being robbed of her for all these years.”

Gabriel exploded, “Henry is
NOT her father!”

Carter
stopped, his heart skipping a beat; his eyes were wide, and his mouth hung open in shock.

“You’re lying!” he replied in disbelief
. “I have proof that Violet and Vivian are twins.”

“Yes, they are twins, but only one of them is Henry’s daughter
. And it’s not Vie,” Gabriel confessed.

“How is that possible?”
Carter asked, thinking it was scientifically out of the question.

“Just know that it is,” Gabriel replied in an ominous tone.

Carter knew Gabriel was speaking the truth; he could see it in his eyes.

“If Henr
y isn’t her father, then who is?” Carter asked, suddenly feeling Gabriel’s tension.

“Her father is Dimorte
, Lucian’s father…the Prince of Darkness,” he said. “You need to tell me where she is now, Carter, before they find her. The portal has been opened and the Dark Ones have been unleashed. We don’t have very much time. If you really love Vie, you’ll tell me where she is.”

Carter pondered it
for only a split-second before he realized it was the only way to keep her safe. “Come on…I’ll take you to her,” he said, feeling a sudden alarm going off inside his soul. He couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that something was terribly wrong. In fact, the closer he got to Henry’s cabin, the more disturbed he became. Carter began to run at full speed, suddenly overcome with the urge to get to Vie.

Vie ran fast through the forest. The brittle branches snapped as her body plowed a path through the trees. Like a missile, she sailed by, conjuring up images of Lucian that propelled her onward. The closer she got to the Tower, the clearer she saw his maniacal face grinning in delight. Now Vie was chasing the images, running harder and faster than ever before.

S
he heard the screams of her sister calling for her and knew she had arrived. The trees parted, and there Vie stood, looking up at the ominous Tower that stretched to the sky. A passageway opened and Vie entered without hesitation.

Several minutes later, the entrance closed, but not before Jeremy entered through it. Kade had confided in him that she was worried Vie was in trouble, mentioning that Henry had said someone had to help her ‘because she was going after HIM by herself.’

While Kade
had had no idea what he’d meant, Jeremy did. He knew that the ‘him’ Henry was referring to was the same evil being who dwelled beneath the Tower. He made the decision to follow Vie, no matter what it took.

Unfortunately
, Jeremy didn’t have the ability to keep up with her supernatural speed, but lucky for him, Bella did. The giant bear had approached Jeremy in the forest where he’d stopped to catch his breath. Bella seemed to know that Vie was in trouble and that Jeremy was trying to help her. Jeremy thought he had seen it all until the large, intimidating bear bowed down before him. The whole experience was surreal; he felt like he was in a make-believe land when he climbed atop the bear’s back and took the ride of his life.

Someone
must have been watching over them; luckily, Bella helped him arrive at the Tower in the nick of time. He slid under the passageway just before it closed, sealing him inside with Vie and the devil.

The Guardians arrived with Carter at the cabin where Henry was staying. They swung the door open without knocking, startling Kade and Henry.

“Carter
, what’s going on?” Kade asked, alarmed by their unexpected entrance.

“Where is Vie?” he asked
, panicked.

“I don’t know
,” she said, confused by all of the strangers in the room.

“Kade, it’s really importan
t that you tell me where she is,” he said, hoping she knew where Vie was.

“Carter, I swear to you
, I don’t know where Vie went,” she confessed. Carter knew she was telling the truth. Her eyes didn’t lie. “But Jeremy went after her. Maybe he’s found her; he left right after she did.”

“Terrific!” Carter yelled
, annoyed. “Now we have to worry about him, too!”

Just then
, Enapay entered the cabin. His guilt and worry for Vie had been eating away at his conscience. “Carter, I have something to tell you…to confess, rather,” he said, his face creased with worry. “Vie asked for my help. She said she needed something—something that had been taken from her.

He
turned his attention to Gabriel. “It was me: I retrieved the blade from your satchel. I thought I was doing a favor for Vie, but the more I thought about it, the more it felt wrong. I’m sorry.” Enapay looked down with the shame of having stolen from the man who’d saved his life that day at the ranch.

Gabriel was immediately alarmed.
“There’s only one reason she would have wanted the blade: she must know it belongs to her.” Gabriel cast a horrified look at Camulus for clarification of what they both already knew: Vie had gone after Lucian.

Henry spoke
from his chair, his quiet words causing fear in the roomful of people. “She has gone to save her sister.”

“How do you know this
, Henry?” Carter kneeled down to ask him.

“She told me.
Vie said she’d figured out what he wanted,” Henry spoke like he was in a trance.

“And what was that
, Henry?” Carter prompted him, afraid of his answer.

“His daughter!”
Henry said, glassy-eyed.

Gabriel and Camulus just looked at each other. Henry
had just confirmed what they’d figured out only minutes earlier: Violet knew everything and she was seeking her revenge.

“No, no, no, no!” Carter shouted
, and then turned around, going after Gabriel, fists ready. “This is all your fault! You did this! Why couldn’t you just leave us alone? If anything happens to Vie, I swear to God, Gabriel—”

“Enough!” Camulus roared. “We are wasting precious time sitting here arguing about whose fault this is. There is only one person responsible for this, and that person is Dimorte! Now we can either stand around here pointing fingers at one another
, or we can stand together and fight…for Vie!”

Gabriel and Carter realized their arguing was not going to do
Vie any good.

Carter was having a hard time focusing. Just the thought of losing Vie had sent him into a tailspin
, and Gabe could see it in his eyes. He walked over to Carter and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look at him. “Pull it together, Romeo, we need you. Vie needs you!” he shouted at him.

“Carter!” Gabriel called his name
again, snapping him out of his tailspin. “We will find her, I promise you.”

Carter could see
in Gabriel’s eyes that he was telling him the truth. He did believe they would find Vie, and his confidence in that belief restored Carter’s ability to believe what Gabe did. They joined together to lead in their new mission: to rescue Violet.

Chapter
Nineteen

Rescue Mission

The tunnels were dark
enough that Vie couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. She tried to maneuver her way through the passageway by putting her hands against walls and following where they led her. Ironically, she didn’t feel afraid any longer of the dark that permeated the tunnels beneath the Tower; the extreme fear she’d experienced in the past had been created by her, like an inner defense mechanism, in an attempt to shield her from the darkness that lived inside her.

It was her DNA, that macabre part of her father within her, which she had run from unknowingly all her life. That part of her soul had just unleashed an inferno of fervent ferocity and a hunger for revenge, and just like her father, she was feeling extraordinarily merciless
at the moment. The feelings of rage cascaded from inside her like lava from a volcano that had just erupted.

She moved
, steadfast and determined, along through the tunnels, feeling energized by her contempt for the Dark Ones. “Lucian!” she called out to him in a bold, threatening voice.

Nothing but silence answered her.

Jeremy could hear her calling out to Lucian. He was worried
; her cries echoed brazenly through the tunnels, sounding not at all like his friend, Vie. He had to get to her to try and stop her from this suicide mission. Jeremy took a lighter out of his pocket and flicked it on so he could see what was up ahead.
I don’t want her to walk this alone.
He started walking faster. He could see the shadow of a person just a few feet away, and was relieved he had finally caught up with Vie. He put his hand on her shoulder and she turned around, but it wasn’t Vie; it was Odessa, and she was not happy to see the intruder.

Vie was standing in the center of the room where she had last met up with Lucian. She spun around, calling out his name, demanding that he show his cowardly face to her. The room began to fill with a thick black vapor which then drifted together into a cloud of murkiness overhead. The haze lingered above her, giving off an evil stench as it sank to the ground directly in front of her. Slowly it collected, taking on the shape of a figure. Lucian had arrived.

Meanwhile, Carter and the other Guardians were racing against the clock to Devils Tower. Thoughts of Lucian were clouding Carter’s head, and his mind was consumed with anger and fear, a lethal combination for a Guardian to possess.

Gabriel picked up on Carter’s negative energy and knew he would be in peril if he couldn’t find a way to control his emotions;
in his opinion, anger was one letter short of danger. Lucian would be able to smell his fear from miles away and use it to destroy him.

They arrived at the Tower
, and to Carter’s surprise, Bella was lying down at its base. She looked up at him with sadness in her eyes and then laid her head back down. She appeared to be waiting for someone to return…waiting for Vie. 

Carter kneeled down beside Bella and said, “What’s the matter
, girl?”

S
he lifted her giant paw, and Carter saw the angel pendant that Gabriel had given to Vie, the one she’d had around her neck when she disappeared, lying in the dirt.

“She’s in there!” Carter shouted
, holding up the pendant.

Gabriel started moving the brush that covered the entrance to the
Underworld. “It’s here, I know it is. We entered the tunnels right here!” he said, combing through the brush. He stopped, pulling at something, and then held up a piece of fabric that had been clinging to one of the branches of a thorn bush at the base of the Tower.

It was clothing of some sort
, and as he held it in up, Carter knew instantly what it was and who it belonged to. The piece of fabric came from a shirt he remembered Jeremy wearing at the reservation just hours earlier.

“It’s Jeremy’s,” he said
, taking it from Gabriel’s hand. “He must be inside, with Vie.” With the realization that they were both locked inside with the Dark Ones, totally at their mercy, Carter began a more frantic search for a way in. He pushed and pulled on the mammoth rock, looking for an entrance, spinning around and kicking it with what could only be described as an impressive assault to the side of the Tower.

He used
everything he had, packed with so much force that when he struck it, the ground beneath them shook as the anger inside him was unleashed.

Gabriel confronted Carter immediately
. Carter was young and headstrong, but Gabriel knew he had to collect these attributes and subdue them before they waged their war with the Dark Ones.

“Look at me
, Carter!” he bellowed, trying to be heard over Carter’s efforts. “Get rid of it now. The anger, the fear—there’s no place for any of that here. He who angers you conquers you.” His voice softened with understanding. “Leave it here, Carter, or stay behind with it. The choice is yours.”

Carter knew Gabriel was right. He could feel
the way his emotions were clouding his judgments, and yet he felt consumed by the burning rage inside him. He had to find a way set it free; or at the very least, bury it for the moment.

Gabriel was standing by, waiting for his answer.

Carter looked at him and said, “I choose victory!”

Gabriel smiled, pleased with his young protégé. “We’ll get her back
, Romeo, you have my word,” he promised.

Whether or not they could indeed save Vie was irrelevant to Gabriel. He had learned a long time ago from
Camulus that one must believe he can climb the mountain before he takes the first step, or he will never be able to reach the top. Carter and Gabriel both needed to believe they could conqueror this mountain, because neither of them could survive an existence without Vie.

Gabriel
reached in his satchel and handed Carter his blade. It was magnificent, shaped like a boomerang and able to exert deadly force. As Carter reached for it, Gabriel said, “Don’t hesitate, Romeo. Command your weapon to do what you want it to do. No mercy, Carter.”

Carter nodded and reached around his back t
o tuck the blade into the waistband of his pants. They were ready. They stood in silence, each one lost in his private thoughts as they waited for the scouts to return.

Fallon and Camulus returned from their surveillance of the Tower. They had bad news: there was no way in.

“
All the usual passages are sealed with an invisible force field. Even we aren’t able to break through it, and I think it’s useless to even try. We’ll only waste our energy,” Fallon reported.

Gabriel spread his wings and flew to the top of the Tower in an attem
pt to break through at its weakest point, but the shield deflected his effort. Even Gabriel’s invincible powers could not so much as crack the massive rock. He took a moment to reflect on the reality that Vie was trapped alone with the devil.

“It’s no use
. I can’t get in,” he said, feeling defeated.

Carter looked at the dismal expressions on the faces
in the group and couldn’t believe they were giving up. In an awe-inspiring moment he stood up and took control.

“So this is it? This is what defeat looks like?
” he said, scolding them about their premature reaction to the current predicament in which they found themselves. “There is no wall anyone can build to keep me from Vie.”

He
had a moment of clarity followed by a grin. “Come with me!” he said, pleased by his thoughts, and took off running.

The Guardians didn’t know what
he was up to, but they could see whatever idea he’d had seemed to bring him great pleasure. With no other foreseeable options, they followed blindly behind him.

Jeremy was having some troubles of his own. His collision with Odessa, a debacle that might very well cost him his life, had put a damper on his plan to aid Vie. He didn’t understand how, but Odessa was controlling his body without so much as a touch. He couldn’t seem to break free from her control over his limbs as they moved further into the Underground.

She escorted him to the dungeons, where he had been
previously with Carter, and threw him into a cage as if he were an animal. She glided over to him, almost floating on air, and circled around him, finally stopping in front of him and putting her hand up to his forehead.

Jeremy thought this was the moment
—the one just before death, where his entire life would flash before him. He prepared himself for the end and hoped it wouldn’t be too painful.

Odessa looked him
over with her cold, dark eyes. “What a pity I have to destroy such a beautiful creature, don’t you think?” she said, turning her head to look toward someone outside the cage.

Just then
, Vivian appeared in the open doorway of his cage. Jeremy was completely shocked; just looking at her took the wind right out of him.

Vivian stepped out of the shadows and
moved closer to him. The nearer she got, the more alarmed he became, but at first he didn’t understand why he felt so disturbed by her presence. Then she looked up at him and he was horrified at what he saw: Vivian’s eyes were as red as the devil’s.

She smiled wickedly at him and whispered in his ear,
“Hello Jeremy. Did you miss me?” She moved even closer and started to nibble his ear. Her actions quickly intensified as she began to bite and lick his ear wildly, much to Jeremy’s confusion.

He struggled to gather his resolve as he pushed away from her slightly.
“Viv, what have they done to you?” his voice faltered as he looked at the altered shell of the girl he’d once loved.

His
remark seemed to surprise and anger her. She leaned into him as though she were trying to suck the air from his lungs, and pressed her body tight up against his. Again, she licked him, this time on the corner of his mouth, sliding the tip of her tongue across his lips. She flashed a seductive grin as she toyed with him. “Come on, Jer, don’t you want to play with me?” she said, tugging the strap of her dress down her shoulder, the sexual connotation obvious.

Jeremy grabbed her arms and forced Vivian to look at him
; her eyes were filled with desire and her smile was provocative. Jeremy knew she wasn’t the same Vivian he’d said goodbye to such a short time ago, but his heart was aching with the reality of seeing her again.

He couldn’t help himself; he
pulled her in and kissed her hard, giving her everything he had. She thrust herself at him, matching his intensity, lifting her legs to wrap around his waist as her kiss left his lips and moved down his jaw toward his chin.

Jeremy grabbed onto the back of her thighs
to support her hips, lifting her higher, pushing her back firmly against the wall. He grabbed her hands, intertwining his fingers with hers, and pressed them above her head, still holding her against the wall with his body. He continued to kiss her as he moved one hand to her throat in a caress; her eyes widened in surprise and anticipation of pleasure.

He tightened his grip and noticed the ecstasy in her eyes; she
tried to go for his lips again, but he pulled his head back.

S
he smiled in enjoyment of the game, not catching on to the change in his demeanor.

He leaned in closer to her
, but this time, his eyes were hard. He spoke through gritted teeth, saying, “I am going to get my Vivian back!”

Furious
at his words, she took control and spun him around, restraining him against the wall with lightning speed and inhuman force.

Vivian sneered at him and replied with a
malicious grin, “That’s a pity, Jeremy. This was your last chance to have what you’ve always wanted: to feel my body against yours!”

Those were the last words he heard
before she smashed his head hard against the wall and watched his body drop like a lump of clay to the floor.

Back in the chamber, Vie was faced with her own evil demon: Lucian. He was not the beast that Vie remembered seeing at their last meeting, but a man—a dark and extremely beautiful man, well-spoken and alluring.

Lucian had
many gifts: one of them was the power to lure unsuspecting souls with his physical beauty and mysterious charm. But his real purpose was to smash, mutilate, and darken in every way he could. It made no difference whether it was a body or a soul, flesh or ideas, matter or spirit. The aim of Lucian and his Underworld was exactly the same in every case: to destroy. He deceived by lying and counterfeiting, by play-acting and masquerading, by illusion and fantasy. He was powerful and dangerous, and not to be trusted under any circumstances.

He stood
, poised for confrontation, looking straight into her soul.

Vie showed no fear and
she knew he saw that immediately.
Bring it on
, she thought, staring back at him.

“Violet, how nice of you to stop by
. I’ve missed seeing you. Where have you been hiding these days?” he asked, his tone politely curious, as if they were meeting for a social engagement.