Sacrifice (Revelations Book 1) (24 page)

Nico lowered her to the ground and rocked her lifeless body back and forth. Smoothing out her hair he pressed his warm lips to her forehead. "I'm so sorry, Abby. Why? Why did you try to stop me?"

How in the world was she still hearing all of this when she was clearly dead?

"Abby!" Nico shook her violently as her body went stiff. His sobs filled the air. It was the last sound she heard.

Nico held Abby's cold body, rocking her, making every deal he could think of to God or anyone listening. He'd held out hope for a moment when he felt her heart start to beat, but as quick as it began, it ended. She struggled for breath and choked on her own blood. Nico's eyes burned from the tears. He traced his fingertips over her blood stained lips while he gasped for air under the weight of his guilt.

Why would she try to stop him? What had she tried to tell him? He tried his best to remember, but his mind just couldn't grasp what she'd said.

"Abby, please come back to me. Please." His pleas were met with silence, but he couldn't stop. "Please..."

The knife protruding from her chest made him go cold inside. He could hear movement nearby and figured it was someone coming to help, he wanted to yell at whoever it was. To tell them to go away, or better yet to kill him. After all he was a killer now. The one person he cared most about was gone and she died by his hand, just like Arveda's vision said she would. He should ask for help but instead searing anger engulfed him. There was one person more to blame than himself for Abby's death... Rosa needed to die.

He looked up to see her still standing there, a smug smile plastered on her face. She wasn't running, she wasn't taking a defensive stance. She was waiting for something. Nico refocused on Abby. She looked peaceful, like a sleeping angel, if it weren't for the knife sticking out of her chest and the blood drying around her mouth. He gave her one final kiss and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Abigail. I failed you. I failed us..."

"Oh, would you stop with all this sentimental bullshit, Nico."

Rosa's harsh words only cemented Nico's resolve. He slowly raised his head, his hand clenched and unclenched. "I will—"

"You will what? Kill me for something that you did?” She shrugged. “You killed her, not me."

Nico reached down and pulled the knife out of Abby's chest as gently as possible, not that it mattered now. He still wanted to treat her body with care. But it was a courtesy he wouldn't extend to The Whore. He rose up. "We will finish this now."

"You aren't going to kill me."

"Why is that?"

Rosa grinned and pointed to Abby, "Because you will be too busy trying to save everyone from her."

Nico's eyes widened. The curse. Abby would rise as a real vampire and now there would be no cure. "I will still get some satisfaction from killing you. Besides, I know a little something about new born vamps that you must not."

Rosa smirked. "Oh really? Do tell."

Nico wiped his blade on his pant leg and then lifted it back up. He reveled in its weight, spinning it in his hand. "It's all in how you treat them and Abby is loved. I have faith she won't harm anyone."

"You’re a sentimental fool."

His hand flicked, releasing the knife before she could react. Spinning end over end the blade hit its target. Rosa doubled over and gripped the blade protruding from her stomach. Nico rushed her and caught her with his shoulder, knocking her down and skidding across the sandy road. She screamed in pain as smoke rose from the knife blade. "What did you do to me?" Her head slammed back against the ground as she thrashed. "It burns!"

Nico worked as fast as possible, pulling out large nails from a pouch strapped to his leg. He impaled her through the palms of her hands. Her body convulsed. He moved over her body and pinned two more in the tops of her feet and then stood over her. "You don't think I was stupid enough to come into battle without some holy weapons to use against you, did you?"

"Nico!" She wailed.

He stood and glared down at her writhing in pain. "You deserve worse than what you will get, but rest assured I will still enjoy it."

She struggled against the nails pinning her in place and hissed every time new billows of smoke rose from her wounds. Nico moved over her and gripped the handle of his dagger buried in her stomach. He twisted and yanked it up taking chunks of flesh with it. Rosa's back arched and she let out an ear shattering scream. He flung the meat from the blade and brought it down against her throat. "We end this now."

"No," Rosa pleaded. Her eyes flickered to where Abby's body lay. There was a flash of clarity, some plot she was forming as she still begged for mercy. Nico wasn't about to listen to any more lies. He pressed the blade into her throat and when he could feel the give of her flesh beneath its sharpened edge he pressed harder until he heard a deep growl coming from behind him. Rosa smiled and whispered. "Looks like you didn't raise your mutt good enough."

Nico slowly turned to find Abby standing behind him. The creature that stood before him wanted blood and thanks to his battle with Rosa there was enough of it to lure every bloodsucker within a twenty-mile radius. He held up his hands hoping the gesture would calm her, but instead she growled more. "Abby? Abby, are you in there?"

Her lips curved into a vicious smile revealing long, sharp fangs. Her red eyes narrowed in on his neck as she cocked her head to the side. She stepped forward snapping her head to the right when a scream sounded from a fight nearby. Nico slid to the left and waved his blade to regain her attention. She swung back toward him and moved in closer.

Nico gestured, urging her to come closer. She flicked her tongue over her fangs and crouched down to attack. His heart pounded in his chest. There was no way he could kill her, not a second time. Even if it didn't feel like her anymore, she still looked the same... Except for the blood red eyes. "Abby, please come back to me. I know you’re in there somewhere."

Abby sprung from her spot in the road, hitting Nico in the ribs when they collided. Her speed was faster than before and Nico could swear she hit harder now too. As he pushed back he kept trying to talk her down. "Abby, please listen. You don't want to do this."

She snarled. It seemed to be her non-verbal answer. Yes, she did want to do this. She wanted blood. When her hand shot out the sharp claws that tipped her fingers sliced through the sleeve of his shirt. Warm liquid trickled down from the wound and Abby's nose twitched.

"Abby, don’t'—"

She pounced on him knocking him to the ground. He struggled keeping her at arm’s length. It was his only option. He couldn't hurt her. He had to find a way to restrain her. She growled and flicked her tongue over her fangs.

"I'm not killing you, Abby. You have to fight this."

Her claws sunk into his flesh.

He wanted nothing more than to shake some sense into her, but he couldn’t risk hurting her. "Stop!”

"I can't" she whimpered.

It sounded so much like Abby's voice, but there was a hint of malice to it. Maybe part of her didn't want to kill him, but a much bigger more primal part of her was in control now. A shuffling noise caught her attention for a second and Nico reacted. He rolled over to pin her on the ground, his knife was in his hand and he held the etched blade up. "Don't make me do this, please."

She grinned. As if this was all fun and games, and he could only imagine that for a vampire this would make the game more fun. She wriggled her arm free and landed a solid punch to his chest knocking the wind from his lungs. The predator inside her took over and pushed him back as he struggled to regain his breath, she stalked toward him slowly.

Abby growled at the man beneath her. Her stomach burned from the scent of blood in the air. She was hungry, she wanted to feed, and this man was covered blood. He was familiar and from the way he was staring up at her it was obvious it was someone she knew. Abby licked her lips.

She knew him, there was a nagging at the back of her mind, a name rolling over and over. Nico.

"Abby, stop this." Nico held up his hands and tried to slide out from underneath her.

She gripped his shoulders holding him in place, tilting her head from side to side as if sizing him up.

"Abby, please."

"Please?" She pursed her lips together. There it was, his name. Nico. Her... What was he to her? Lover? Something more? Something less? Definitely something more. She inhaled taking in his scent. She whispered again, "Please?"

"Yes. Please fight this evil inside of you. You’ve done it before, you can do it again. You don't want to hurt anyone."

She paused and gave him a heated look. She remembered who she was, it wasn't as if she'd completely forgotten, but the hunger was so much stronger than reason. Her mind was a jumbled mess but echoes of feeling started to punch through. He was Nico, he was hers, she was his. She knew him even though her mind was clouded.

Her lip curled into a snarl. There it was again, the hunger. An unrelenting driving hunger. "I know who I am. It's just—" Another sharp inhale made her throat burn. "So much... Blood."

"Abby, listen to me. You've controlled your hunger all this time. There's no reason to give into it now."

"So much blood," she repeated.

"I know." He paused. "Focus on me, focus."

She nodded and locked her gaze on him. Then her eyes moved to the blade in his hand and all the pieces fell into place. Abby sucked in a breath as she grasped her chest and felt the warm liquid that soaked into her leather top. Pulling her hand back she stared at the blood. "You killed me."

Sorrow filled his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You killed me!" She screamed. "I thought you wanted to save me. I thought we would be together, that we’d have a life together."

"We can still have those things."

"No, we can't. A part of you will always see me as a monster." She flashed her fangs and growled. "Finish it, Nico. You said you would kill me."

"No. I can't."

"Do it!"

Nico dropped the blade and held out his hand to her as he sat up. "No."

Another whiff of blood hit her senses like a ton of bricks. Her body bristled. She needed to feed. He was saying something but all she could hear was the drumming of his pulse. Her fangs elongated, her claws sharpened. A scream rose up in the distance, a call for help and Abby narrowed her eyes.

Nico slid out from underneath her and knelt down trying to hold her focus. “Abby, ignore it. Listen to me.”

She scraped her claws against the gravel road, flaring her nostrils to hone in on just where her prey was hiding. Maybe she couldn’t hurt him, but she needed to eat and whoever was calling for help was about to be her first kill. Abby met Nico’s gaze. “I need to feed, you will kill me for it. That is where we stand now, Priest. You’ll never love me.”

"Abby, don't—" He’d seen Abby’s muscles twitch a split second before he’d lunged for her but she was gone before he could move.

He spun around, calling out her name over and over. She was gone and all he was left with was the cackle coming from a few feet away. Small imp-like demons were hissing and pulling at the nails he'd pinned Rosa with, one by one they were eroding the iron spikes and in the process killing themselves in order to free her.

Nico rushed over and started kicking and stomping the tiny demons but more and more rose up, swarming around his feet and making it impossible for him to kill all of them.

In a matter of minutes, she was free and Nico was still fighting off the little gremlins. The Whore stood there, arms folded over her chest and laughing.

"You bitch," he yelled. "You got in her head."

Rosa glared back at him and with a wave of her hand the smaller demons vanished. "Oh give it up, Nico. She's right. You won't ever love her. We both know you’re too prideful. You wanted her to be pure to make her deserving of your love. Am I right?" Rosa smirked. "She's sullied now. She's unclean. Now she’s no longer your fairytale. You don’t get to have a happy ending." Her smile faded and her features turned cold. "Now you get to wallow in your misery like the rest of us. You took from me, now I’ve taken from you. We aren't even, not by a long shot, but for now it will do."

Nico blinked. "What the fuck are you talking about? What did I take from you?"

"Hope." She glanced down at her fingernails as if bored by the conversation. "You took away my hope, and now I've taken away yours."

He was stunned. What was she talking about? "How did I do that? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You told me once that evil never changes. Once something is corrupted it can never come back."

"Rosa, I..."

"Shut up, Nico." She pointed an accusatory finger at him. "I would have walked away from all of this... If you had given me a chance. But you chose the church the first time. And the second time you chose her."

"Bullshit, Jack told me he tried to help you and that you were already on your path when we met. This is another one of your manipulations. You can't get in my head."

She smiled. "I'm already in there. Even better I'm in hers."

"I'll kill you, you crazy bitch." He closed the distance between them and gripped her throat, squeezing as hard as he could.

"Go ahead. Try it." She croaked.

His hand steadied, but didn't loosen. "As much as I will enjoy this maybe I should let Jack do the honors."

Her eyes went wild for a moment. She hissed, "Coward."

"I'm no coward, but I'm not killing you just yet either. I'm keeping you alive so you can fix this."

"There is no fixing it, she's a vampire. You were warned that if you killed her all hell would break loose. You didn't listen."

"She jumped in front of me, to save you. She was protecting you." His eyes narrowed. "Why? Why would she do that?"

"Simple. I told her that if she kept you from killing me I'd tell her where Chloe is."

His rage boiled up again. "You lied to her!"

"No." He squeezed her throat harder, but she managed to whisper. "I know where Chloe is."

"Where?"

"Dead."

"What?" Nico shook his head. "No."

"It’s true. Poor girl was so devastated over the loss of her beloved Virtue that she wandered out into the desert and took her own life. And you know what that means, right?"

Nico's eyes widened. "Her soul went to hell."

Her laugh rose up like a maniacal cackle. "Bingo. Gold star for you, Father."

He shook Rosa out of her laughing fit. "That's a God damn lie. Arveda already told us Chloe didn't even have a soul anymore."

The Whore narrowed her gaze. "No, she told you only a small part of her soul remained. There's a difference. Trust me," She paused to lick her lips, "I know for a fact."

Before he could try to figure out what she meant by that she'd slammed her knee into his groin. As he doubled over in pain Rosa bolted for safety. Between coughing and inching up on his knees, Nico took a deep breath. The pain of having his balls racked with her knee didn’t take long to pass, but it was just long enough for her to flee. He had to form a new plan. Find Abby or go after Rosa.

Rosa was now a secondary concern. He had to find Abby before she hurt herself or someone else. He had to comfort her. She was hurting and hungry and somehow, someway he had to make it better for her.

Abby scaled a nearby building and leapt from roof to roof as she narrowed in on her prey. Their heartbeat was fast, Abby could smell their fear-tinged sweat in the air. She could even taste it on the tip of her tongue. The hunger pains drove her forward without concern for who or what was waiting for her up ahead.

The sounds of a struggle grew louder and as Abby crossed the roof of a small house she peered over the edge into the alley down below. A group of six demons circled around a woman. Abby perched on the edge of the ramshackle roof watching as they cornered the person Abby had been hunting at the back of the narrow corridor. The woman was familiar, but Abby’s focus was on their heartbeat not who they were. The woman turned in a circle holding a dagger in one hand and an empty palm facing out with the other as if she could stop them from progressing any further. A breeze sprung up sending tendrils of light brown hair and the scent of wood smoke dancing all around. Power radiated from the woman, but the scent of it wasn’t enough to extinguish the smell of fear that was making Abby’s mouth water.

The female victim looked up and locked eyes with Abby. Dread settled in the pit of her hungry stomach. “Don’t look at me,” she cursed under her breath. A smile broke out on the woman’s face and a small remorseful part of Abby wanted to run away.

There was a war going on in her head. The primal, hungry part of her had only one train of thought.
Feed. Kill. Drink.
The other part cried out for mercy.
Stop. Help. Friend.

The female called out, “Abby, don’t just stand there! Hurry up and help me.”

Feed. Kill. Drink.

Abby jumped down from the roof, landing behind the demons. Their blood smelled putrid, as hungry as she was it wouldn’t sate her hunger. The demons spun and Abby saw a crackle of electricity leave the woman’s palm, striking one of the creatures in the back.

Recognition hit the rational part of Abby’s brain. The woman was a Striga. Abby knew her. The name wouldn’t come to her though. She shook her head to clear it from everything except for her purpose.

Feed. Kill. Drink.

Abby flexed her hands, the lethal claws that tipped her fingers extended and she leapt on the closest demon. Gripping its head in her hands as she sank her claws into its skull Abby gave a quick jerk and the creature’s inhuman cries went silent as its head ripped from its body.

The next one climbed over its fallen comrade to gnash its blackened fangs in Abby’s face. She dodged it easily enough and gripped the creature by the arms. With a grunt and little effort, she pulled both arms from their sockets and for a finishing touch gripped it by the throat. Her claws sliced through the demon’s flesh as her fingers curled around its windpipe and with another tug the pitiful creature crumpled to the ground. Abby snarled and tossed the dismembered chunk of tissue and cartilage away.

The Striga was making quick work of two others using a combination of fire from one hand and electricity from the other. Her dagger lay at her feet, long abandoned to the use of wielding magick. The two remaining demons retreated as soon as the Striga turned their kin to ash on the gravely asphalt.

Abby twitched to go after them, not to feed, but for the sheer fact that she was a predator and it was coded into her DNA now to chase when something weak and fearful ran. The Striga leaned forward, bracing her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “Thank god you showed up when you did, my magick is running low.”

Abby cocked her head to the side. “Running low?”

“Yeah, I’ve been fighting those bastards for the past thirty minutes. There were more I took out before they corralled me in this damn corner.” She jerked her head towards the opening. “Come on, we’ve gotta find Meri and the others.”