Follow the Bloodshed (The Executioner Trilogy Book 3) (17 page)

Once I made it to the end of the hall where it led into the large room with the gargantuan hole over the fire pit, I stopped and stood, flicking the light over anything I could find. Maybe something new was there that hadn’t been before. Maybe something more useful than what we already had. Then again, if there was something more useful here it would take more than this flashlight to see it. It was a very good, high dollar flashlight, but they only did so much.

“Do you see anything useful?” Gordon asked. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I didn’t even realize he had come to stand right behind me until that moment. I put my hand to my chest, trying to slow down my heartbeat and having no luck. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“Nothing yet, but once we get a fire lit on her old pit we may see something.” That was the only answer I had and it didn’t seem satisfactory at all when I thought about it. My eyes were good, but not that good.

I let the light illuminate the fire pit as I made my way to it, letting the power of the beast fill me. The beast wasn’t coming out for a little while. At least, not unless I needed it and I would soon. My blinking heartbeat lit up the dark and the plasma swirled in my open palm, pointed at the fire pit. I focused on the pit and let the fire flow just enough to catch the old timber she had left behind. Luckily it was enough to burn for a while with more to spare. It was almost like she knew we were coming. I let that sink in a bit before I shook my head. 

Once the space was sparkling with fluctuating fire light I let the fire bleed back into my body, the glow from within my chest fading like it had never been there. The warmth of the fire before me was like a warm blanket as it moved over my skin and past me to the cool air beyond. If it was possible I wanted to stay right in front of the roiling flames forever, but I knew it wouldn’t be. I felt the presence of companions behind me and turned to see them, letting the fire warm my back. Each one of them had shock and bewilderment in their eyes that was nearly palpable. I felt like if I reached out I could run my fingers through the ripples of emotions in the air. It crawled over my skin like tiny pin pricks as I stood there and watched them move through the space, their eyes wide. I had nearly forgotten   Beth and Gordon had never seen this place. Only Chase had. And Sam was so new to the group she didn’t know about the place at all. I guessed an explanation was warranted when her eyes flicked to mine questioningly.

“Before I died, I had a run in with Lilith. I met her here to discuss the terms of an arrangement she wanted to make. She wanted me to join her, get out of her way, or die trying to stop her.” I lowered my eyes to the ground when her eyes grew even wider, showing way too much white. We all knew how that ended.

“This is also where I had killed her, or thought I had at least. We had no way of knowing it wouldn’t stick.”  I wasn’t ashamed but couldn’t force my eyes upward to look at her, even though she wouldn’t judge me for my weakness before now. I definitely wasn’t the same person anymore. I was tougher, stronger, and more unshakeable than I had been. It had been a welcome change and now I was the type of person I needed to be, to play Lilith’s game and beat her at it. I was going to do just that.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small glint of metal on the far wall to my left, the firelight bouncing off of it ever so slightly like a firefly twinkling in the dark. I turned my head and wasn’t only stunned but ecstatic to see what I had found. A pair of shackles was attached to the brick wall. There was only one thing they could be made out of that would be useful to Lilith. Silver. I let the smile spread over my lips and resisted the urge to give a weak hearted laugh. Now wasn’t that interesting?

Chapter 29:

Luring the Darkness

The plan had begun to take shape when I saw the shackles hanging from the wall like sad, abandoned children. All except that sparkle gave away their sorrow. We decided Sam, Gordon, and I would go back out in to the darkness and do whatever it took to draw vampires our way. Not the best plan, but it was what we had to work with and we would use what we had. We didn’t have the cover of sunlight anymore to shield us yet we had managed to get to the warehouse without incident. I knew it wouldn’t happen again so I figured we could use that fact to our advantage. Granted, the vampires could see very well in the dark but thanks to streetlamps we could still see enough to make it happen, and Vlad wouldn’t follow far behind Lilith’s children. He would never let them confront us without having a front row seat. Call it a feeling, but it begged the question as to why he wasn’t there when the barrier came down and they overtook our home? Maybe he was. He was a silent watcher only there to observe and learn.

“How can we even guarantee he will show?” Sam probed, a note of tension in her voice. I could see her body stiffen and feel her anxiety rolling off of her like smoke. I wanted to reassure her, but the truth of it was that we had no idea.

“Do you want the honest answer?” Sam nodded. “We can’t guarantee anything. Not anymore, but I think it’s worth a shot. He’s the only one who will know where Lilith is so we can finally end this.” I meant each word I said and it seemed to be the only confirmation she needed. I wasn’t going to sugar coat anything. It wasn’t in me to lie considering the circumstances. I had no reason to.

I looked at Beth and Chase. Beth was sitting, resting against one of the brick walls and injured arm down at her side. Chase was examining the shackles to make sure they would hold, pulling with everything he had to make sure they were secure in the wall.

“Will they hold?”

He was panting as he answered, “Yes, they’ll hold. And you were right. They’re silver.” A grin was plastered on his face.

If Gordon was right the silver in the shackles should weaken Vlad enough so we could get Lilith’s location out of him. I was willing to do whatever it took so we could have a world to finally live in and one where my child could grow up. I was so ready I could barely wait to leave.

We had put all of our weapons down next to our bags when we sat in front of the fire and formulated what little plan we had. A plan I was still unsure of.

Before I changed my mind about going out, I put my machete in its sheath and slung it over my shoulder. That was closely followed by the quiver of arrows going in the other direction, a knife at one hip and a gun on the other. Chase and Gordon had found a lot of ammunition at the sporting goods store inside of the mall. Practically an entire back pack full and I was grateful. At least we wouldn’t be limited to only hand to hand combat for a while. When I looked up from my task Gordon’s eyes met mine. He had been digging around in the bag full of stuff from the jewelry store and had finally stopped and was staring at me with something gripped in his hand.

“What do you have there?” I enquired with a sly grin on my face. Yes, I was curious. He had been acting strange; like he wouldn’t make it through any of this. Was it because of the threat of his brother, or was there more to it?

He stalked towards me, all grace and predatory like a wild animal, his gaze not once leaving mine. He was up to something and it was no good. At least, that was how it felt. The smile melted away when he was standing in front of me, our faces mere inches apart.

“I found something for you at the jewelry store. I figured since it’s the end of the world and we don’t know if we’ll make it out of this I wanted to give you one last gift.” His voice was somber and I could feel the seriousness of his words. They jabbed my heart and twisted like a knife.

His words sank in and I knew for certain that he thought it would be the end for him. Well, I had news for him. He wasn’t going anywhere as long as I had something to do with it. He raised his closed fist and let a chain with a pendant fall from his hand, holding onto the very end of the silver chain so I could see it. It was beautiful. A sparkling orange stone was surrounded by silver filigree and housed on a sterling silver chain. I reached up, mouth open in awe, and lightly grazed the stone with my fingers. The firelight reflected off of it, making it look like the flames were moving inside of the stone.

“That’s beautiful,” I whispered. I didn’t know what else to say. I let out a sigh and looked into his eyes. All I saw there was sadness and adoration behind sparkling onyx, the fire reflected in his eyes an echo of the passion burning within him.

“You’re beautiful,” he said as he raised the chain in both hands to clasp the necklace around my neck. I held up my hair, letting it fall when the necklace was safely clinched in place. I looked down at the gem and ran my fingers over it again. It was absolutely gorgeous and reminded me of the fire.

I wasn’t sure if it could survive the fire of the beast at all, but I was sincerely hoping. The fires I burned were straight from Hell and nothing could withstand them. Nothing but me, it seemed. Tears burned behind my eyes and I tried so hard to keep them from falling, keeping my eyes wide enough to keep them from spilling over in rivers down my cheeks. This moment was too beautiful and I wanted it etched in my memory forever. I closed my eyes, taking a mental snapshot, and   opened them to find Gordon hovering over me, his hand suspended like he was about to push hair out of my face.

“Don’t cry, my love. It’ll all be over soon.” He moved a few strands of hair out of my face and tucked them behind my ear, leaning down and stopping a few centimeters from my lips. “And our child will have a world to live in. That I can promise you.”

“How can you be so sure?” My ears strained against the crackling fire, trying to hear the words. The ones I wanted him to whisper. That everything would be alright because it had to be, but the words that came out were even better.

“Because I believe in you, I believe in us, and I believe our child wouldn’t exist now if there wasn’t a world after this.”

I nearly melted, my knees turning into limp noodles. He had an effect on me I couldn’t describe and at that moment in time I was so thankful no one was watching. Or at least, that I could tell.

“Good. I’m glad you do. I was beginning to think there would be nothing left after this. It all feels hopeless.” Again, I couldn’t look at him. It happened a lot when I didn’t like to say what I was thinking, but it was staring me in the face with no way to avoid it. He didn’t force me to look at him and I was grateful.

“Everything will work out, even if I can’t be there to see it.” He pulled me into his chest and I laid my head there, listening to the thump, thump of his heart beating beneath his ribs.

“Everything will be okay, and you will be there to see it. We both will.” I let the words fall from my lips. I meant every single one of them.

I couldn’t help but wonder why he thought he wouldn’t make it out of this to see our child grow up. I desperately wanted to know. Right now wasn’t a good time to ask. Not when we were about to go out into what could be a blood bath to find the one person who could give us some answers. His hands rubbed my back and he pulled away, the emotions in his face and eyes changing within a few seconds.

“We need to get going. We may be out for a while.” He smiled. I smiled back.

He was right. We did need to head out and get this done as quickly as possible. I bobbed my head and moved away; looking towards Sam who was cleaning the silver knife we had given her at the house, her gun loaded at her side. She looked like Lara Croft standing there polishing the metal, minus the long hair and the inappropriate clothes. She was wearing hiking boots though. When we got here from hell I gave her some of my clothes to wear because she didn’t have anything and it looked like we wore the same size after all. I couldn’t help but smile.

She looked up like she could feel me staring at her. For all I knew she could. I was able to feel quite a lot of things I couldn’t see so I was pretty sure she could do the same. In Hell she must have been going crazy. I commended her for keeping herself as sane as she was able to while there. She was practically a shining example of sanity at the time and she had only gotten better since being on the surface. She was terrified at first, but picked herself up and dusted herself off to turn into an extremely helpful part of our little entourage.

“Are we ready?” she probed. We both nodded in her direction as she reached into the back pack in front of her, pulling out a few thick silver chains from its confines. “Are you sure these will hold him until we can get him back here?” This was to Gordon.

He nodded again and answered, “I’m positive. He’s extremely sensitive to silver, which is why he avoids it at all costs.”

I reached up and fingered the pendant around my neck. This explained some of the reason he gave the necklace to me when he did. He had absolutely perfect timing. The silver around my neck with the perfect burning stone was exactly what I needed to keep Vlad from ripping my throat out. We stood for another quiet moment, looking at the ground and scuffing our shoes along the worn floor. Instead of looking down on ourselves because of the danger we needed to build each other up. Someone needed a pep talk.

“Hey guys.” Both set of eyes turned up to me at the words. “Everything will be alright. You want to know how I know?”

They both looked confused.

“It’s because, no matter what, you two have never stopped fighting. Sam, while you were in Hell you continued to kill the monsters that scared you. Gordon, because you loved me and are more powerful than even I realized to begin with. We are stronger than them. We just don’t know it yet, but we will.”

Sam’s eyes brightened and Gordon’s burned with a passion I only saw when he looked at me. That was a lot easier than I thought and my grin returned. I was expecting to have to make an even grander speech than the small one I made just now, but I was thankful for that. We needed all the time we could get and we didn’t have any extra to convince them  we could do this. That we could go out there and bring them all to their knees.

“Now, let’s go out there and make the darkness our bitch.” Never had I said words I felt were truer. We were out the door within moments, and about to meet destiny.