Stuart Meczes - The awakening

“That was easy. All it took was a few attractive young Bloodlings to mention about a secret bar they were supposedly heading to. Malachi despises humans — seems to have forgotten he used to be one. Plus he’s a supporter of the SOS. There was no doubt in my mind that if we sent the drunkest, loudest girls in the area into his bar, he’d do the rest.”

For the first time I saw the real Rachel. A woman so consumed with revenge that she teetered on the edge of madness.

“But what about all of the other SOS who attacked me?” I asked. “Surely that’s going against your plans?”

Rachel shrugged. “Hades wants you dead. He didn’t care how it happened. The Sorrow was a failsafe. He gave orders for you to be killed. Sage Asmund sent in his own followers — including Rahuman — to take you out. Others did their own thing so they could fall into favour with Hades. Like Sylvia who faked a premonition without my knowledge and organised a group of Rogues to kill you, or Bargheist who acted without my say so and got himself caught.” She smiled. “Which is why they had to go.”

I thought about Sylvia. How she’d been found dumped in an alleyway with her throat opened. It was Rachel.

Gabriella had one hand closed around the pendant on her necklace. The other was wrapped around the nape of her neck. At first I thought it was a position of grief. Then I noticed almost imperceptibly, that she attempting to undo the clasp with her fingers. It dawned on me. The necklace has diamonds on it!

“But why let us know what was happening; why not just attack us unprepared?” I said in an effort to keep Rachel distracted. “If you’d done that, then the SOS might have won.”

Rachel shook her head as if I should understand her twisted logic.

“I already told you, the siege was a fake. I didn’t want the SOS to actually succeed in unsealing the Veil. Although, Dakin almost managed to get Faru to do it, which is why I had to stop him. In fact it was the perfect cover. He needed to be dealt with anyway; his hatred for Alex was making him a liability.” She nodded her head as if that justified her act. “I’d managed to convince Hades that opening the doorway and unleashing The Sorrow inside a Guardian base would be seen as an outright declaration of war against Earth. One that he wasn’t yet in a position to deal with. So he agreed for me to pretend to the rest of the SOS — apart from my own followers of course — that there would be a real siege on the base to force Faru to open his section of the Veil. All the while it was just misdirection to keep the HASEA and Faru distracted…whilst I opened mine.”

“No…” breathed Gabriella.

“You mean The Sorrow is here?” I choked.

A dark grin appeared on Rachel’s face. “Not just here Alex… here. And you don’t have the Crimson Twins.”

More loud bangs hit the roof. It was followed by the sound of dozens of feet scrambling about. Then I heard the unmistakable scream of The Sorrow’s demented Unicorn. “Not long now,” said Rachel. I looked at Gabriella. She was still struggling with the clasp. “So you’re going to offer me up to get into Hades good books? Is that it? Very original Rachel.” I said sarcastically.

Rachel banged the gun against her head. “No, no no. You don’t understand! Hades is merely a means to an end. My end. I just needed him to trust me. I told him that if he gave me command of The Sorrow whilst it was on Earth, then not only would I get it to murder the boy Lafelei spoke of, I’d give it the hybrid baby that it missed the first time around.”

Gabriella’s jaw tightened. I could see she was trying not to lose her composure. She had also managed to get the clasp undone.

“So what’s the plan after we’re dead?”

Rachel turned to me. “That’s the beauty of it. I’m going to unleash The Sorrow on the Warren anyway. Then everyone will know it was me and that I was working directly for Hades.” She leaned forward with a huge smile on her face. “I’m going to start the war.”

“How could you?” shouted Gabriella. “People we care about died because of you! And you want to kill more? What about all the people who you’re betraying? Faru, Sophia…Delagio?”

The corners of Rachel’s mouth turned down. “I don’t want any of you to suffer, but this is the only way to get my revenge. You think I don’t care but I do.” She stared at us. “I care about all of you, but this is the only way.” I took a step forward and the gun was instantly aimed towards my head. “You’ve got funny way of showing it!” I shouted. “Stay back!” Rachel ordered. The howling grew louder. I could hear footsteps closing in from somewhere nearby. Each one sounded like the beat of a death drum. “Or what Rachel? We already know you’re going to have us killed. So go ahead!” “I said stay back!”

With a movement so quick it was barely perceptible; Gabriella threw the necklace at Rachel. It sliced across the Pixie’s cheek with a loud hiss.

“Bitch!” she screeched, clutching the side of her burning face. Sprinting forwards, we both dived for her at the same time. Connecting hard, we all slammed to the ground together. Gabriella pinned Rachel down and I prised the gun from her grip, throwing it to the other side of the room.

“NO!” Rachel screamed like a demented beast. She bucked, catching Gabriella unprepared and throwing her off. The frenzied Pixie kicked upwards with her leg, landing a crushing blow to the side of my head. Dazed, I collapsed to the floor. Through blurry vision I watched as Rachel sprang into a predatory crouch. She slipped the blood soaked dagger from its sheath. Behind her, Gabriella was still scrambling to her feet.

“I’m not going to let a Chosen kill me like you did my family,” she hissed.

“I’m not trying to kill you!” I insisted, but she wasn’t listening. I recoiled as she raised the blade above her head. The glow of the storm outside caught the edge and for a moment it winked red, like the eye of some demonic creature.

Bang!

The deafening sound made my ears ring. It was followed by a scream of agony. Rachel’s face became a contorted O of pain and shock. A little puff of smoke slipped out of a hole in her arm. Gabriella was standing next to a shocked looking Tim, who was holding the smoking gun. He dropped it as if it were on fire and looked at me with wide eyes.

“I–I shot her,” he stammered.

“You shot me!” Rachel hissed. “You little bastard!”

Before I had a chance to react, she threw the blade at my best friend.

It whirled through the air, heading straight for his jugular. It stopped a fraction from his throat, suspended in mid-air, as if hanging from invisible strings.

“I can’t believe I ever loved you.”

We all spun around to see Delagio appear in the doorway, his arm outstretched and wearing a sad expression. “All this time I thought you cared about us.”

Rachel gave Delagio a pleading look. “Del, I love you. Please don’t-”

Delagio closed his eyes and jerked his arm to the right. The blade sliced through the air and buried itself into Rachel’s throat. Her eyes went wide and she closed her fingers around the handle. I winced as with a rough movement, she pulled the blade out and stared at it. A jet of blood squirted from the wound. Rachel gave a simple nod of her head as if everything finally made sense, then crumbled to the floor and fell still.

Delagio was silent. He seemed stunned by his actions, like he couldn’t work out whether he’d done it or not.

I was about to speak, but a sudden thump on the outside wall stopped me. It was followed by another and another. Dozens of thuds, which made the walls shake. A sound similar to hundreds of crickets started up, but louder and harsher.