Cataclysm (11 page)

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, holding out her arms. We all waited. All of us holding our breath that Cyril would do the same. What seemed like hours passed by, when he finally stepped forward towards Arie and embraced her, closing the door behind him.

“I think that right there, tells us how close he truly was towards falling into Azazel’s trap. There’s no other reason for him to have been so calm,” Athen surmised.

Arie and Cyril were going to meet us back at the Kingston home. They had spent the night at the hotel, while Athen, Noah, Matilda, and I returned to Kingston. Arie and Cyril had a lot to go over, and none of us wanted to interfere. It was a delicate balance, to say the least.

Matilda started going crazy, and we realized that Cyril and Arie had already pulled into the garage. Running to the mudroom, I was shocked when Arie opened the door. What I saw, staring back at me, was Arie and her bright, green eyes. We had planned on doing the reintroduction process here, but somehow they already did it.

“She was right. She did the right thing. What’s to be mad at? Besides, I got it all out on you,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry about that, by the way.”

Athen came down the hall and hugged his sister. “You went through the full change? I can’t believe you’re already back to us – green eyes and all!” Athen exclaimed.

“We figured the reintroduction process would be almost nothing, since it has only been a few days. And we were right!” she exclaimed.

“Well, let’s go into the family room. Noah is up in our guest room getting set up. We’ve gotta get him down here. We have lots to discuss,” I said.

Laughter was ringing out from both Arie and myself, creating far too much excitement for Matilda. She was bouncing around warbling and barking, enjoying everything as much as we were. Afraid that Athen might really let me go where I’d bounce on to the couch and then directly off, I squeezed his neck tighter vowing to hold on.

“What do you think?” Cyril questioned Athen.

“One…two… three!” Athen hollered.

I held on hard in my attempt to stay in his arms. I closed my eyes tightly; afraid for when I might be plopped on to the cushion below. What I felt, instead of gravity playing a trick on me, was the warmth of Athen’s lips running across mine. The softness reminded me of a better life that we would someday get again. I knew there’d be a day, when the weight of the immortal and mortal worlds would no longer be heavy on our heart. The hope for a life where love and kindness ruled, rather than constantly battling hate and evil, created a longing deep inside.

With every kiss I returned to Athen, the love to win the war grew exponentially. I didn’t want this moment to end, but he slowly released his lips from mine, hearing Noah coming down the stairs.

We had lots to discuss and go over now that things were somewhat back to normal, or at least our version of normal.

We had all decided that now was the best time to make our way to the mountain. The earthquake activity escalated beyond anything natural. It had to be demon made. Having Noah with us, also, made it seem a little safer. We could no longer ignore the training that was going on at the base with Lilith and her faction. The tunnel system that Lilith had constructed was far too intricate to explore entirely with only the five of us, but we might be able to get in a few of the tunnels to see what lurked inside. It was a risky move but a necessary one.

Pulling off into one of the visitor parking lots, we all hopped out of the Jeep. I grabbed Matilda and placed her on the gravel. I was really nervous about using her, but she was small enough to come in handy if need be.

“What are you guys thinking?” Noah asked. He hadn’t been to this area before.

“If we hike in about six miles, we’ll start running into some of the entrances,” Cyril said, pointing to the trailhead that was farthest from where we parked.

“I think if we walk up most of it and then scale the rest in the air, we’ll get there in good time. We’ve got plenty of daylight.” Noah’s forehead creased.

I wasn’t sure if it was with worry for what we might encounter, or if he always wondered if he’d run into Vanessa. That was a real possibility in all of this mess. Vanessa wasn’t gone. She was just on the wrong side now, with no memories of a life once lived. My heart was heavy for Noah.

Athen came over and helped me secure my pack on. Cyril helped Arie with hers. He still didn’t seem to have any anger bottled up from what we put him through. I kept thinking that, at any moment, it would expose itself, but it didn’t.

Matilda seemed quite excited, but I was worried about her wearing out on this trip.

“Do you really think we’ll be using Matilda?” I asked, grabbing her so I could carry her for the first part of our hike up the mountain.

“Better to be prepared,” Cyril grimaced, not wanting to let our favorite family member out of our sight either.

“You promise nothing will happen to her?” I was not in favor of bringing her with us.

“I promise! Plus, the worse thing that happens is that she pops back up at our house. Nothing can really happen to our girl. She’s got it made.” Cyril was scratching her ear, as I tried to adjust her in my arms.

I glared at him. His humor wasn’t what I wanted for a confirmation.

We all looked like a bunch of hikers out to enjoy the day’s gorgeous weather. I wished that were the case. Instead, we were out hunting the demons again. I know everyone promises me that this isn’t always how it is, but this is all I’ve fallen into since I came back.

We had only been hiking for about thirty minutes, but it seemed a lot longer than that.

“Whoa,” Noah muttered. “Are you guys feeling that?”

The overwhelming sense of evil came at us all, from every direction. The army, Lilith helped to build, had grown tremendously since our last visit.

“It’s bigger than I thought it would be. There’s no doubt they call this place home. I only wonder how many there are now,” I sighed, not wanting to let go of Matilda at all, but her heaviness became apparent once I thought about what we might be about to encounter.

Athen stood still, waiting for me to catch up to the group. He grabbed Matilda from me and allowed the blood flow to start up again in my arms.

“Thanks,” I said, kissing him on his cheek. “Do you think we should stick to our plan?”

“I think at this point, we need to play it by ear. We might get enough answers wandering around before ever trying to enter their tunnel system,” Athen answered.

“Let’s get off the path and start exploring!” Cyril’s voice was brisk. He wanted to get the show on the road, and I didn’t blame him.

There were sticker bushes snarled in about every direction that we wanted to go, which made scaling the trees the best option. Looking over at Athen carrying Matilda, I was thankful it wasn’t me who was going to attempt to jump from tree to tree holding a bulldog. I don’t think it would matter how much practice I had, the outcome would be sketchy at best.

As we made our way deeper into the forest, the lichen-drenched trees were entangled with one another. The bark was no longer visible on most of the trees. I sprung from one tree to the next. If we weren’t headed to view some very ugly things, this trip would be one of the most enjoyable we had experienced in a while.

The negative energy got stronger with every leap towards the center of the forest, which only meant one thing. An entry into the tunnel system had to be near.

Athen grabbed a little camera out of his pack and began strapping it onto Matilda’s collar. Noah perched himself above us on another limb, taking in our little undercover setup.

“Nice work, Athen,” Noah commented.

“Thought we might as well try it, since I bought it last year. We might only catch videos of Matilda running through the weeds or something, but who knows.” Athen beamed. He loved getting to use his gadgets.

I let my body slide off the limb that I had been perched on and landed rather gracefully. Cyril, Arie, and Noah all landed near us, quickly taking off their packs.

“It’s like you two are on a suicide mission all the time.” Athen wasn’t happy, but he knew there was nothing he could do. I was going to go in.

“I think it’s good for us to quickly look in there, and if anything happens, we’ll rush out, and you can take them all down,” I said smiling.

“Let’s just get this over with, “Athen muttered.

I started towards the pile of boulders, crunching on the twigs and pebbles below. Even though it was the brightest part of the day, being in the forest this deep made it seem like evening. The glossy green Salal leaves were thick in our path as we marched our way to peer into the underworld.

Everyone was right behind me when I stopped short of the boulders. There was quite a pile of them, and suddenly, my nerves got the better of me. My imagination started going crazy as I pictured hundreds of dark demons, with eyes glowing red, ready to attack me. Images of lifeless bodies began flooding my mind, as I worried that rituals were also happening underground.