Cataclysm (2 page)

I paused before starting again, hoping my words would sink in.

“Cyril is strong, but so is our love for one another. Arie knew that better than any of us, with as much as she’s had to witness between you and me. We can do crazy things when we think we will lose the one we love. She caught Cyril speaking with some of Azazel’s demons, throwing everything she thought out the window. As you know, our mind says one thing – our soul another,” I finished.

“Yeah, I know,” he muttered, hugging me. “I’d give everything to save you from that side. Even if it meant…”

“Knock it off! That’s what Azazel is counting on, and Arie knew it. We just have to hope her plan is solid… That the distraction she created is enough to keep Cyril on our side, searching for her. She wants to keep him in a constant pursuit of her for the next few days or week. That’s her goal. She thinks she only needs to buy a little time more. She feels he knows if he goes to the dark side while she’s gone, he would never see her again. He’d realize she might never be brought back to our family because of his choice. There is no way for Azazel to spin that type of scenario. At least, that’s what we’re hoping he thinks.” I looked deeply into the only part of Athen that was recognizable in the shadows, his eyes.

“Why would Cyril in constant pursuit of her, buy us enough time, and make the outcome so Cyril doesn’t turn on us?” Athen asked me the same question I quizzed Arie on only days earlier.

“Her hope is she’ll spring back like new. Like nothing ever happened. She wants us to provide as much proof to Cyril as possible, showing him what Azazel is doing. She wants us to introduce him to the families who have already had members turn to the dark side. We need him to realize it’s all a sham.”

“Why couldn’t she accomplish that if she were here?”

“She felt pretty certain that every minute she hung around, brought Cyril and Azazel closer together. Some of these other families lost their loved ones in the next room. We want to go talk to these families so he can hear firsthand what happened. Arie didn’t want to take a chance while she merely went to the kitchen that Azazel would get to Cyril. She felt she could never leave him alone.”

“So, how are you involved? How did this happen?” his voice full of concern.

“She was inspired, by your uncanny ability to manipulate and depend on the memsors. She thought if she left even more dependable memsors around, her memory would snap back even quicker than yours. Her hope is to come back almost immediately with the triggers she left. She still plans to stay in hiding from Cyril for as long as possible, though.”

“You’re telling me that we’re going to let poor Cyril chase after Arie, go through all of the heartache and grief, knowing full-well she’s fine?” A bit of anger edged into his voice increasing my worry that this could get between us.

“She’s your sister! Don’t look at me like this was my idea. Your stubbornness runs in the family, obviously,” I said, completely exasperated.

“How long have you guys been planning this? Was the demon attack a setup too? Matilda vanished as soon as we got the call so she had to have gotten taken down…” I could see the faint shadow of his fingers grinding on his temple.

“She first asked me for advice that day we had taken down the Legion that caused all the fires up in Whistler. I disagreed and did my best to sway her, but I obviously didn’t do a good job of it,” I sighed.

“I didn’t expect her to find a way to get defeated so quickly. She worried Cyril would be swayed sooner than I thought. She found some minions and didn’t give them a fight at all. I saw the visions beforehand. As quickly as the attack happened, I’m guessing her plan panned out exactly as I saw it.”

Athen was up pacing now.

“I don’t know how we can keep this from Cyril,” he said, his voice filled with regret, knowing he had no other options.

“We have no choice. If we turn back on Arie’s plan now, it’ll all be in vain and Cyril might fall into Azazel’s hands. You and I both know this. If Arie is half as good as you with the memsors, everything should be totally fine,” I said, more to convince myself than him.

“Why don’t you tell me what is so special about her memsors? What does she think she placed so strategically around, that couldn’t be screwed up? That her plan will actually play out.” He squinted at me, curiously.

My hand glided along the moss that had made a cushion on the rock I perched on. Feeling the spongy material made me think back to the bog, and everything Arie and Cyril did for me while Athen was gone. With all that had come to pass in the last few months, I knew I had to trust my judgment. I had grown stronger both physically and mentally, and because of that, I believed in Arie’s plan. I looked up at Athen and couldn't help the smile that spread across my face.

“For starters, I’m one of them.” Saying it out loud made the shiver return to my spine.

Athen let out a huge sigh. I wasn’t sure if he was releasing bottled up anger, frustration, or fear.

“We just might be able to pull this off.” Athen came back to the rock and sat next to me. Placing his arm around me, I began to feel the warmth of his soul surrounding me. He brought me back to the place I needed to be.

“Are you mad at me?” Not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

He kissed the top of my head, pressing his lips there for a few seconds. I was sure he was pondering a way to stay controlled and not let his anger overflow.

“No. Arie knows me too well. If she told me, I would have stopped her. She knows Cyril better than any of us. If she’s willing to risk what she did, I need to trust her. I need to trust you. If anybody could pull something off like this, it would be you two. It’s not like this is the first time you and Arie have pulled off some crazy shenanigans for the greater good,” he said winking at me, making my heart completely melt.

“Well, since I’m still unaware of what all those could be from my past, I can’t wait to someday remember them.” I told him.

“You will. Plus, I’ll continue to help you remember them. I promise.” He bent down and gently kissed my cheek. “Right now, though, we need to trust her.”

The weight of the moment quickly became evident when a voice came through the trees.

“Trust who?” Cyril’s voice boomed down the path before he even reached us. I prayed I could hold myself together.

“Karen,” Athen said. “We were debating what to tell her if we had to go back to Whistler. It’s not like Arie’s presence won’t be missed, especially as social as she is.” I was so relieved for Athen’s quick thinking, as weak as the line may have sounded.

“Huh, whatever.” The pain in Cyril’s voice was devastating. “Let’s get this over with. The sooner we do the Awakening, the quicker we can go try to find her.”

Cyril looked horrible. He didn’t even look like himself. Instead of the big, overwhelming presence I loved, what I saw was a being who had been beaten down. He looked like a person about to wither into the air. His shoulders were forward, back hunched, eyes sunken in. When he looked up at me, I turned quickly to hide my surprise. Flashing back to the gorgeous creature that I had met up in the pub at Whistler, it was hard to believe this was the same person. Cyril had been so full of life. His eyes sparkled incessantly. His humor was always nonstop, and his lust for everything absolutely contagious. Now I saw a being barely able to carry his own weight.

My gut twisted while Athen built the fire. I hoped the images that Cyril would be seeing soon wouldn’t give anything of our plan away. We needed to confirm where she was located, and the sooner the better. I had my hunch based on our plan, but all we could do was participate in this and see if it was correct. I grabbed the rope from my backpack, sure we would need to restrain Cyril for the events about to take place.

We were back in the cave, and I did my best to make eye contact with Cyril. I saw the redness etched into his wrists from where the rope dug deep into his flesh as his body fought the images of Arie being gone. I didn’t want him to suspect anything, but it was so hard to look at him. I felt a million times better being able to confide in Athen, but it was crucial that we both keep everything from Cyril until Arie tells us it’s okay, or otherwise, her sacrifice had been for nothing. I still had a persistent uneasiness. I became certain that what I sensed was a separate feeling from all the lies and deceit surrounding Arie’s situation. I hoped to be wrong. I really didn’t want to deal with what could be hiding in the woods at the moment. This was supposed to be our temporary refuge, not a stomping ground for the dark demons.

Athen was spreading out wool blankets and down pillows everywhere, getting things situated for our night. I did my best to shift some of the bags we had with all of our clothing stuffed in them. My hand landed on some of Matilda’s dog food, and an ache began to grow again. Having Matilda whisked away, was something I had prepared for, only it left me with the same old emptiness.

The squat I was in began to make my feet go to sleep. So I let my body fall to the ground, when suddenly a slight shift in the earth occurred.

“Put on a few pounds, Ana?” Cyril’s playfulness couldn’t completely be squashed.

I quickly scanned our dimly lit cave, to see Cyril and Athen suddenly upright, holding the cave wall. I did my best at giving a dirty look to Cyril.

“Little volcanic tremor?” my voice squeaked by accident.

“Must’ve been.” Athen gestured to the surroundings. “Guess that’s what happens when you choose a volcano as a safe haven.”

“You know?” Cyril’s voice joked, showing a bit of his old self. “I’m not sure what I was thinking, hedging all my bets on you two picking a safe place to be. You really don’t seem to have the best of luck.”

“That’s the Cyril I know!” I said, winking at him. “You’ve got me by your side, Cy! What are you worried about?”

“Speaking of that, did you ever give that poor girl’s clothes back from that shapeshifting accident you had?” he asked, grinning.

Rolling my eyes, my hand managed to find a small piece of wood that I threw directly at him. If it wasn’t for his quickness, I would have nailed him. I felt a little more at peace knowing that Cyril’s humor could be pried out, bit by bit, when he was with us. We all were better as a family. That’s why this was so important, not for only us but the world.

“At least, I left her with some. It’s part of the learning curve,” I said.

“Call it what you want.” Cyril’s voice trailed off, as the earth began to dance once more.

The fear began swelling up inside me. This was not a quick tremor. The floor continued swaying, and the noise was deafening, as the giant rocks of the mountain made their voice heard.

“Athen!” I screamed. He came to my side instantly.

“Come on! Get away from the wall. We’ve gotta get outside,” he yelled over Mother Nature.

She rumbled above us all, determined to make her strength known. He grabbed my waist and hauled me out as tiny pieces of rock began falling from the sides and roof of the place we had barely started calling home.

Once outside, we saw the boulders that were no longer where we last spied them, making me extra nervous about what could be on the horizon. The movement stopped. My heart was pounding, as it dawned on me that if we had all been flattened from a freakish earthquake, while Arie was still out there wandering around, it would be the end. None of us would be able to call each other back.

“Guys, come on. This is a little weird. Tremors are one thing, but I think that could be classified as a real earthquake, and that’s not that common here. Besides, this place seemed logical at the time…” My voice accidentally trailed off as the strange sensation began entering my body again.

“No, I mean like,
activity.
I don’t think we’re alone out here,” I whispered, thankful that I still had most of my knives on me. They had become a normal staple of my attire since I began my training.

None of us wanted to go immediately back into the cave, so we set out to do some investigating. By this time, the only thing guiding us was the moon. If we weren’t alone, that could actually work to our advantage.

Doing my best to maintain a quietness with each step I took, I found myself not paying much attention to where we were going, until I realized no more moonlight sprayed down on the path before me. Athen and Cyril had gone directly into the forest. I had followed without even realizing.

“Guys, do you think this is where we should be at this very moment?” I asked, bumping into Athen and then doing my best to stifle a laugh.

“I think it’s a bit better to be undercover, rather than out in the open,” Cyril whispered.

Off in the distance, an eerie hoot echoed through the air. Stirring up the vulnerability, I suddenly felt. I reached for Athen’s hand, as we continued our hunt for something we were unsure of. Athen squeezed my hand reassuringly and didn’t let go, as we continued pressing on through the forest.

The branches from the fir trees kept springing back and smacking me, keeping me on my toes. As a blackberry snagged my jeans, I stopped to untangle myself with Athen lingering behind, while Cyril kept trudging forward. It seemed he was on a mission, and I was pretty sure if he came across anything like what we feared, he wouldn’t be able to contain himself. I had to admit, though, that a part of me wanted to take a chunk out of a demon right about now too.

A snap of a twig behind us made Cyril stop in his tracks and rush back to us before I even blinked.