Hades Sent : Book One of the Sent Series, page 17
I push my hands up against his chest. “No, not like this. I’m not ready.”
Greve won’t budge. “You wanted to have me before I put you in the water. Maybe I should have kept you that way.”
My eyes connect with his and all I see is red. Red-filled lust and desire. “You said you wouldn’t take advantage of me,” I mutter. “You said we wouldn’t.”
Greve presses his body closer, causing my hands to become trapped under his weight. He looks right at me. “I lied.”
Adrenaline starts pumping through me. My body is telling me is time to fight and fly. “No! Get off!”
“Make me,” he says while trying to raise my shirt.
“Help!” I cry out. “Don’t do this!”
A laugh escapes this throat. The sound takes my breath away because it does not belong to him.
A shrill, heavy laughter fills the air. “See what I can make him do to you? See what I can make anyone do?”
I look around Greve to see her. My mother standing close, holding her arms out to me. “If you don’t come with me, more things like this will happen. I will break you. I swear to it.”
“Never! You’re a monster!”
My mother chuckles. “You are part of me. Who’s the monster now?”
My own screams jar me awake. One glance at Greve sleeping shows me all that was just a dream. My heart slows down to a semi-high pace. She’s everywhere. I can’t escape her. Not even in my dreams.
The tears fall before I can even register what’s happened. I let them come. Sobbing, is all I can think about doing. How can I get past this? How can I get past her?
I don’t know if I can.
“You won’t get past me,” comes a voice from behind the main door. Chills go from my head to my feet at the sound of my mother’s voice.
She’s back. It’s too soon. I’m not ready. I’m not healed enough to handle this.
“Come with me,” she says opening the front door. Mother holds her hands out to me like she did in the dream. “You’ve survived the first test. Time for number two.”
I glance at Greve still sleeping on the floor. He’s out and there’s nothing more I can do for him. But I don’t want to leave or go with her. I’m terrified, right down to my bones.
“I’m not going,” I spit out at her.
Jade walks up to me quicker than my eyes can register. “You’ll come or I will call Edgeman on your love toy. Would you want him terminated?”
“You said you can’t kill him,” I point out.
“No, I can’t. His father has that right. Would you like to see if his daddy wants to do the honors now? I believe you know what will happen if you don’t come with me.”
Greve will die. I might die, and then it will be over. No do-overs. No option of escape or freedom. We will be just two broken teenagers who died at the hands of their parents.
“Fine. I will come. Don’t hurt him.” I take one more look at Greve before getting up. If anybody gets out of this alive, it will be him. He won’t die because of me.
“You expect me to make that promise?” Mother shifts toward the door. “Edgeman can do what he likes with his spawn, just as I can with mine.”
My body walks toward her as I start to feel her presence. She pulls me close with her mind. My physical body loses all control, but mentally I am still me. “I am your blood! Does that not count for anything?”
Mother shrugs, her face pulled tight. “You would already be dead if you weren’t. Does that make you feel any better?”
My eyes connect to hers. I know that eye contact is a mistake. I’ve given her the easiest way to control me. But still … she needs to see that I am not just her toy. I am me. And I will fight to stay me.
“You are a monster,” I respond trying to sound strong.
Jade spins to look at me. She smiles. “Yes, I guess I am. It’s funny how things turn out in the end. Before long, you will be just like me. We can be the mother-daughter duo you’ve always wanted.”
My hands form into fists at my side. “I’ll never be like you. I’d rather be dead.”
Mother places her hand on my shoulder and squeezes. Her mouth touches my ear. “Wishful thinking … now move.”
And I do. I move to wherever she plans on taking me. Inside, my heart is screaming. It’s pleading for a quick resolution. But my mind isn’t hearing me. It’s too busy following the soft commands of my mother’s voice as she whispers for me to keep walking.
“Obey. Obey. Obey me,” Mother commands in my ear.
Her orders flow through me. They numb me and deplete me.
“Obey?” I mumble.
“Obey,” Jade agrees.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ireland
Jade keeps her hold on me as we walk through town. Her nails dig into my shoulder as she talks to me, never slowing down enough for me to break free.
Everyone around me seems blurry. Their chatter seems muffled. I’m not getting a clear sound out of them. The only thing that is loud and clear is my mother.
“Can you feel them, Ireland? Can you feel their sorrow? Humans are so weak. I barely have to make an effort if I want them to do something. They don’t question. They don’t fight. Humans aren’t worth much, but I do enjoy the entertainment they provide.”
“Hmm,” I say in hopes it will be enough for her.
The public stares at us as we walk down the street to wherever Jade has in mind. They know we are different, even if they don’t want to believe it. And they are too timid to try to do anything about us. That’s probably a good thing. I don’t want someone to die because of me.
“In fact,” my mother continues, “their entertainment value is about to go up another level.”
I want to question her, but she’s not allowing me to. Instead, she tells me to stop walking. We stand on the outside of the central hub for clubs and bars. Mother waves a hand and a taxi zooms in to pick us up.
“We will be back here later,” Mother whispers to me. “There’s something else we must do first.”
She pushes me into the taxi and climbs into the seat beside me. Her energy pulses around me. She’s hungry.
“Where to?” a young girl about nineteen says from the driver seat.
“Take us to the corner of Smith and Allen. You’ve got five minutes. If you don’t get us there in that time, I will kill you.”
The girl swings around to look at Jade and me. Her eyes grow in shock. I flinch at the way she looks at me. I feel her terror, and Jade feels it, too.
“But … that’s across town,” the girls says.
Mother licks her lips and smiles. “I know.”
Hurriedly, the girl drives off into traffic. She doesn’t want to believe what my mother says is true. I know, though. Jade isn’t kidding.
The next five minutes are the longest in my life and quite possibility the shortest for our driver. We don’t even make it two miles before the girl’s five minutes are up.
By the time my mother commands her to pull the car into the nearest alley, the girl is sobbing hysterically.
“Don’t,” I plead.
Jade is too concerned with the girl to remember to keep me silent. Mother’s red eyes focus on me. “Shut up, girl!”
I drop my gaze, feeling completely numb. I can’t just sit here and let this happen. What can I do when she has me in this mental hold?
The driver tries to make a run for it, only to be caught by her hair halfway out of the car. She is dragged back in by her shirt and hair. My mother gets beside her victim, wedging herself between the front seat and the steering wheel.
“Tell me your troubles,” she purrs into the girl’s face.
“Please don’t kill me!” the girl cries.
Jade tsks at her and then places her forefinger on the girl’s forehead. Their eyes connect at her touch and Jade opens her mouth to speak. “You will be complacent. No moving or fighting. Be a sweet little thing for the last few minutes of your life.”
The girl stops then and becomes silent. Jade’s body starts to vibrate and all different types of emotions come pouring out of the girl. Her name, I find out, is Bethany. I hear her name repeating in my head.
Bethany. Twenty years old. Has a son named Houston. Boyfriend named John. She’s an addict. Cocaine is the drug of choice. All of her bad choices seep into the car and find their way to me.
My body shakes from the impact. I don’t want to know about her and I don’t want to feed off her energy. It’s an act of violation and while I know I’ve done it before, I no longer want to do it again. The desire is gone. My mother, however, is just becoming more eager.
“Come here,” she says to me while not taking her eyes off of Bethany.
“Never.”
Jade snatches my hair and pulls me toward her before I can register what happened. A sharp pain starts at my temple from her touch. “I didn’t ask,” Mother hisses at me.
The pain begins to shoot through my arms, causing me to feel weak. She’s doing this to me. I can’t live through this again. Not this type of pain.
“Stop it,” I make myself say. “Stop!”
Jade grips my hair tighter, ripping some out in the process. “Feel her. Taste her misery. You will embrace the demon blood in you one way or another!”
She pushes me so that my skin touches Bethany’s head. Immediately, harsher things pour out of her and into me. Bethany’s life plays out in my mind like a movie. Scenes of poor choices and mistakes flow out of her until I catch a set of green eyes looking at me. Then comes the name that I’ve already heard before. Those green eyes belong to her son, Houston. He was her salvation and her reason to keep going. Houston saved her in every way possible.
I shake my head, trying to get free of her. My mother’s hand forces my head back down. She is unrelenting.
Bethany’s heart begins to slow and her breathing becomes staggered. This is it for her. I don’t know how I can tell, but I do. Mother is killing her. She’s taking her soul.
The sound of screams fills the car. It’s me. I’m screaming for me. For Bethany. For Houston. For everyone’s who’s ever been in a situation they couldn’t control.
When Bethany’s heart stops, the last few scenes of her life filter out of my head and disappear. My hands touch her face because I simply can’t believe my mother killed her in front of me. The girl is dead just because my mother was hungry. She wanted her to feel pain and she wanted her to die.
Worst of all, I can feel the heat returning to my cheeks. The familiar sensation of need and want burns through my veins. No … No!
“You feel it returning, don’t you?” my mother whispers in contentment. “Embrace it because you will never escape it. It’s who you are, who you should want to be. Demon blood is powerful. It’s sacred, and you will learn to love it. Even if I have to force the angel part of you into submission.”
It won’t go away. It can’t. “I feel nothing,” my voice brings the coldness right out of me.
Jade looks at me, smug. She knows I’m lying. “You will start to feel it return whether you want it or not. Now, get the human out of my sight.” She waves her hand at me as if she can’t stand to touch the lifeless human in front of her.
I consider arguing with her, but I know she would dispose of her in the most unhuman way possible. “We are getting out anyway, aren’t we? Let’s just leave her in here.”
She needs to be left here so that someone can find her and bury her. I look up at my mother, waiting on a response.
“Fine. You can ride with her until we get to where she was supposed to take us.” Jade throws Bethany’s lifeless body right on top of me before getting behind the wheel.
My body shudders from the contact. I’ve never seen a dead person up close. It’s not something I want to remember. Silently, I push her off and lay her next to me on the seat. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, making myself look at her.
“She can’t hear you,” my mother says to me. “Does sorry bring her life back?”
“No,” I mutter while trying to hold back my emotions.
“Demons don’t apologize for killing humans.”
“I’m not all demon,” I say even though I know she already knows.
Mother’s eyes catch mine in the rearview mirror. “And angels don’t kill humans.”
“You killed her!”
Jade lifts her eyebrows in surprise. “Ireland, you killed her. I just helped. You read her thoughts. You were so greedy that you even took her soul! That heat and longing you feel is because of her. It’s because the demon in you needed her.” She laughs at me then. “Pity. Doesn’t that mean that you can’t return to heaven? Killing humans is against all the rules. Your father won’t want you. You are becoming too much like me.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ireland
Bethany’s body slides off the seat as Jade rolls the car to a stop. My stomach rolls from the sudden impact. And because I can’t stand the thought of having Bethany’s body lying face down on the muddy floorboard, I hoist her body back up into position before my mother can say otherwise.
Jade opens her door, not caring to say anything else. She gives me one look to let me know I must follow her.
I murmur a silent prayer, to whoever will listen, before exiting the car. Cool air greets me as soon as I stand outside. My mother grumbles about something, but I try to zone her out. Maybe, if I pray hard enough, I will find myself in a much better situation.
Jade whistles at me, much like I’m her pet instead of her daughter. My face flushes with insult.
“We are going in there,” she points to the building to the right.
My eyes glance to the structure in question and my mouth gives an involuntary gasp. It appears to be a two-story brick building with no windows. There’s one door, exactly in the center, that would provide a way of escape. The bricks are broken in places and some of the mortar has been chipped away. It looks more like a horror house that I can’t escape from if I go in.
Mother sees the panic on my face and takes that as a good sign. Her nails dig into my arm as she drags me inside.
“I have a bit of a surprise for you,” she whispers. “But in order to get the full effect, you are going to have to be a good little demon. Think you can do that for me?”
I want to say no, but I’m scared to. If she beats me too much, I won’t be able to even attempt to escape. “Yes, good little demon,” I respond in hopes that it will be enough to please her.
My mother takes me by the elbow and drags me into a room adjacent to the hallway before I can say anything. White light blinds me as we walk in. Every surface of the room is white. My eyes water from the effort of taking it all in.
The smell of bleach and antiseptic fills my nose, making it burn. My mother is indifferent to the room as she makes sure the door shuts behind us.
She clears her throat to talk. “Demons should never be nice to others without some motive behind it. So this afternoon, I’ve decided to show you want happens when you are kind to humans and the like.”
We stare at each other for a couple of seconds, with her seeing if I will say anything and me wondering what this will lead up to. The door clicks open, bringing our eyes away from each other.
Entering the room are two male humans, both with hands bound behind their backs. Metal handcuffs stretch over their skin so tight welts are beginning to form along their wrists.
My world stops when I recognize who they are. This can’t be happening. I never wanted this for them.
Jade jerks her head toward the back of the room as a means to communicate where the men are supposed to go. They go without one word and stare numbly at me once they get there.
“You recognize them,” my mother exclaims after taking another look at me. “Very good!” Jade snaps her fingers at me. “These men are here because of you. Imagine if you would have just left them alone.”
“They didn’t do anything wrong,” I say in the strongest voice possible. “So, let them go and I will make a mental note not to ever ask for a ride again and I won’t alter an addict’s way of thinking.”
“Mental notes are useless. Especially yours.” Jade makes her way over to the men she’s captured.
She grabs the first one by the chin and looks back at me. “I will get through to you one way or another. Being around death will change you easily enough. Seeing it and being the one that causes it is the quickest way to get that angel switch to turn off again.”
My eyes narrow at her, silent. I figure it’s best to not talk at the moment. That way I might buy some time for all of us.
“Your boy toy is making things harder for me. Greve got all the poison out. Too much of it, in fact, and now you are back where we started. I can’t be having that so I decided to go to further measures and move forward with the second step in in the process.”
“What’s this got to do with Dylan and Levi?”
“Everything. You made a point to touch their lives in some way. Now, it’s time to touch them permanently,” Jade hisses at me.
“They are just bystanders. They did what I asked because I read their minds and gave them orders!” My voice becomes close to shrieking range. “I will not hurt them!”
Jade moves to Levi and snatches his head back to expose his neck. He whimpers under her touch. “Oh, yes you will,” she says simply. “You will do more than hurt them. You will kill them on my orders.”
“No! No more! I won’t! I can’t! They are innocent.” They have family and if I have to go through watching someone else die, I will lose my mind.
The negative and positive thoughts start to collide inside me. I’m so scared of losing who I am. I’m terrified of killing them. What if I can’t get away? What if I will never get to go back home? The reality of what Mother is asking takes another toll of me. The once hardened wall of security around my mind, starts to crumble more than it ever has before.
Kill them. Don’t. Kill them. Don’t … My blood pulses through me with a sense of betrayal. Part of me wants to see the suffering and the other half wants to save them.
Innocent. Guilty. Innocent. Guilty. Don’t. Kill them. Don’t. Kill them.
