Blood Sacrifice (The Blood Sisters Book 3) (13 page)

Vain
was dead and Jessica was gone. With a bitter heart, Amanda turned her back to
the police officers rising to their feet. Their thoughts swirled together like
a spider web through her mind, but laced with a bitter pill.

Vain
is dead.

The
monster slew Vain.

Time
to take her out back and teach her a lesson.

Who
knew magic was real? I don’t want to face this woman.

Luckily
for all of them, they wouldn’t get a chance. Walking toward the elevator,
Amanda swiped her hand through the air and froze the police officers behind
her. She was able to see their faces, even though they were behind her. Their
expressions were seared into her brain and she would never forget the look of
horror on their faces.

A
monster? Amanda was supposed to save the world, and she would. That’s exactly
what she was going to do, even if she sacrificed herself to do it.

She
stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the penthouse suite. Vain’s
girls were up there and they too needed to be free of Vain…no, wait, they were
gone. They had been released by someone else.

Amanda’s
mind flashed out to the penthouse and found the familiar presence of Gwen, at her
most cross.

I’m
coming,
Amanda said with her mind.

I
know,
Aunt Gwen said.

Amanda
was surprised. How had she gotten into the Wild Aces Casino unseen?
You do
have your surprises, Aunt Gwen.

I
know that, child. Believe me, it’s a cross I bear each day. I guess in some
ways I’ve always feared this would happen, but Amanda, we can find a way
through this together.

Amanda
didn’t answer as the doors dinged open because there was nothing she could say.
Despair was an anchor and it
weighed
her
down as surely as a concrete block. The mirror edges around the doorframe
reflected back Amanda’s true appearance and it blood her boiled. Her heart
skipped a beat to see her lips ochre black.

The
spread of Lourdes’s curse tightened like a net across her face and even her
fingernails had grown dark and jagged.

Time
was nearly up; sunset was approaching on the Earth. On her. On her life.

She
stepped onto the carpet and approached the penthouse door. Each footstep singed
the carpet that squished against her toes. Heat and flame rose from her skin,
even if no one else would ever be able to see it.

It
was as if flame burned her soul. At first it tickled and
singed
, but now it was like an all-consuming
firebox. Inside the penthouse was her redemption, supposedly. The Ruby Heart.
The one item that could steal Lourdes stain that was a festering pox across her
skin, but Amanda didn’t want to be saved.

Not
anymore.

She
wanted to fix the world.

Twisting
the door knob, Amanda was surprised to find it opened easily. The room was
dark. Curtains were drawn tight against the windows, but the soft sound of a
human’s breath made it easy for her to locate Aunt Gwen, crouched behind a sofa
while Mike hid behind the bathroom door.

“Aunt
Gwen, you can come out. Show me the Ruby Heart.”

Slowly
Gwen stood and in her hand was the artifact itself. Amanda hadn’t expected it
to take two hands to hold or how beautifully it would shimmer in the dark. It
seemed to glint as if it rested in full sunlight. Amanda swallowed tightly as
she stared into it. The glistening red surrounded her like a giant vat of
Jell-o and part of her just wanted to stay.

Mike
was advancing on her from the right. In his hand, a fireplace poker.

Amanda
lifted her hand to stop his approach. His arms were overhead and his face
twisted as he strained. He wanted to knock her out and his mind cursed her. So
finally, she could read him.

Well,
he wasn’t going to win. Mike couldn’t knock her out when she could sense
everything before it happened.

“You
have no one to pass Lourdes’s curse onto. I killed Vain,” Amanda said quietly.

Gwen
stood firm and her jaw tensed. “Then we’ll give it to someone else. It’ll be
passed onto someone else.”

“Who?”
Amanda asked.

“I
don’t care. Anyone.” Gwen swallowed hard. “Someone evil. Someone with nothing
to live for. Someone.”

Someone?
She was searching for straws just to save her, but what made Amanda so special?
Maybe this choice was it. Maybe this was her gift to the world and the reason
why she was created to begin with.

“Then
nothing changes. This song and dance of death and corruption continues. This
way, things change.”

Gwen
shook her head. “This isn’t you, baby girl. This isn’t—.”

Amanda’s
stomach rolled that Aunt Gwen would try something so sweet. She loved her aunt,
but that wasn’t who she was. It wasn’t their relationship and never had been.
“Term of endearment? Sounds funny coming from you, Aunt Gwen. But I understand
why. I understand you’re trying to reach me, but I’m thinking clearer than I
have in years.”

Gwen’s
face flickered and she felt despair. Real and thick as the night sky.

“You
think I can’t save the underworld, but I can. I can save Dad and countless
others who are trapped in torment.”

“He
wouldn’t want you to do this.” Gwen scowled. “He gave his life to save you,
Amanda. He wouldn’t want—.”

Time
for talking was over. With a twitch of her fingers, the Ruby Heart flew from
Gwen’s hands toward Amanda. Gwen gasped and raised her hand to bring a
lightning storm, but even that Amanda controlled.

She
forced Gwen to her knees with a toss of her head. “Amanda!” Gwen’s voice
shrieked out in pain. “Don’t! Please!”

Amanda
turned the Ruby Heart over in her hands. Funny, how such a beautiful thing
could control her destiny, but she wouldn’t let them use it. Try as they might,
the demons would never let her go. Times had changed. Amanda saw now that she
was born to save people by taking charge of the
underworld
.

So
it was time to join them.

She
smashed the Ruby Heart against the wall and Gwen’s shrieks of terror drowned
out the crash and tinkling sound it made as the shards fell. The sound of a
dove’s call came from the magical Ruby Heart. It fractured to a purple glitter
as it fell to the ground, except its heart. A silver shard, it shined as it
fell against the bed. Amanda felt nothing from it. No magical pulse or a beckon
of power, so she left it.

She
stepped away and Gwen fought to grab her ankle as she walked by. “What have you
done, Amanda? That was our only chance to save you.”

The
pain in her eyes was palatable. It gave Amanda pause. She bit her lip and
stared down at Gwen and Mike’s crumpled face. “I’m sorry you don’t see how
perfect this is. To have me in the underworld. I can stop the demons. I can
free the souls.”

Mike
shook his head against the stasis field. “It’ll never work, Hon. I know you
want it to, but if you don’t govern the demons to destroy, they’ll turn on you.
It’s only a matter of time.”

Amanda
raised her eyebrow. “We’ll see about that.” She continued on. She dropped the
stasis field once she hit the elevator. Gwen and Mike would chase after her,
Amanda knew they would, and that was part of her plan.

The
casino had been evacuated and she needed Mike and Gwen to leave the casino too
because Amanda’s work wasn’t done. Sin Town needed to be destroyed and to do
that; she was going to destroy the casino.

It
was lights out for the Wild Aces.

****

Amanda
stood in front of the casino. The police barricade held back the citizens and
the police trained their guns on her, calling for her surrender—but she paid
them no mind. She focused on the revolving door of the casino and saw two souls
charging out toward her, screaming her name.

Her
Aunt Gwen and Mike, someone who tried to be her friend. It was bitter to think
on them and how they refused to give up on her. Sweet as they were, they were
fools. She was beyond saving and maybe that was hard for them to accept, but
for Amanda, it was child’s play.

She
still was able to feel flickers of their emotions—pain and desperation, mostly
from Gwen. Mike was still unreadable, but Amanda understood why now. He
suffered great loss in his life, but soldiered on, even when there was no hope.
Even when his heart was nothing but a bottomless pit.

Because
he had to. Because it was the right thing to do.

Now,
that was Amanda’s job. She understood it. She embraced the pain not for
herself, but for everyone else.

“Freeze
young lady, or we will shoot you!”

“Amanda!”
Gwen shrieked as she got closer. Mike lunged for her aunt, a look of terror on
his face.

He
thought Amanda would hurt her? Never. All Amanda wanted to do was get away. Why
couldn’t he understand that?

She
glanced at the police and something about her face caused them to fall back.
Amanda didn’t have to look at all of them to repeat the effect. A flick of her
fingers pushed them away and pulled their weapons from their hands.

Amanda
turned her attention back to the casino. She squeezed her hands into fists and
with one giant motion, tore the giant antenna from the top. It sailed down
toward where they stood. “Stand back,” she warned the gathering crowds.

“Gwen!”
Mike pushed her out of the way and they both tumbled into the police barriers,
but they would be all right. Maybe a bit bruised or sore, but they’d survive.
It was more than Amanda could say for Sin Town.

Turning
her back to them, Amanda gazed up at the sky. Where the power had been funneled
into the Wild Aces Casino, red clouds formed and tumbled through. Bolts of red
electricity shot through the darkness and hit the casino. It traveled downward
and the portals surrounding it flexed like open doorways.

In
that space, Sin Town could be seen. A gray place where the rain always fell and
the builds were smashed together in squalor. Nothing good could come like a
place like that. Nothing at all. It caused sorrow and despair. Amanda needed to
put it out of its misery.

Through
that portal, With a light heart, Amanda smiled to see Duncan—her old friend—and
her sister Jessica jump through back into Vegas, but they weren’t alone. They
brought some of Vain’s girls with them.

More
lives were saved because of what Amanda did. That was never more apparent than
right then. It gave her what she needed to
soldier
on. What she was doing was right and just. Her family would never see it and
maybe she was a fool to expect they would.

They
loved her. Just as she loved them, but she it was time to let them go. No
matter how bad Amanda felt about it,
it was time.
Maybe she was never
destined for this world. Maybe she was simply meant to pass through.

Jessica
ran straight for Amanda. “Mandy!” Her legs pumped hard and Amanda couldn’t
bring herself to look at her sister. “We got out, okay? I have Duncan. We’re
safe. You can stop whatever it is your doing.”

“I
really can’t.” Amanda tried to make eye contact, but the horror on Jessica’s
face made that impossible. Her insides cringed, folding on top of themselves to
feel the pain that Jessica herself was feeling. “It’s time for me to go,
Jessica. My thirty-six hours are almost up.”

There
was so much pain in Jessica’s eyes, her soul cried out with a wail.
I can’t
lose my sister. My God…look at her…Even her dress is changing.

Amanda
gazed down and saw it was true. The tattered blue dress was shaded black upon
the hem and the darkness was slowly creeping up.

“Keep
each other safe. Love each other.” Amanda’s lip trembled and felt the flux of
emotion riding through them both.

Jessica
shook her head. “Mandy, baby, please.” She gritted her teeth and extended her
hand toward Amanda. “Take it and let us help you.”

Duncan
stood behind Jessica and he vexed with confusion. “Whatever this is, let us
help you stop it. C’mon, girl.”

“You’ll
understand. Later, you’ll all understand.” Amanda lifted her arms to decimate
the casino, but she was hit in the back by a gust of wind. What had happened?

Gwen.
Amanda was so distracted by her sister, she allowed herself to get caught off
her guard.

Her
body flailed and Jessica caught her torso and dragged her away from the casino.
“You can’t save me, Jess,” Amanda fought against her, but wasn’t expecting the
pinch she felt at her neck. It was a mistake to engage Jessica. A mistake to
allow herself a good-bye that now might cripple the world.

Ludicrous,
she gazed around and saw Mike’s stonewall face. In his hand was an empty
needle. “It helps,” he barked in a gruff voice, “to always be prepared.”