Redemption (Stand-Alone, Spin-Off to Reaper Series), page 24
“Eve, wait,” Lexi began, but Belial grabbed Eve’s arm and began dragging her toward the exit.
The last Eve saw of Lexi as she was dragged away between Belial and Javan was her standing in the center of her father’s office, looking completely lost, tears still streaming down her cheeks as she watched two monsters drag away her friend.
No one tried to stop them from leaving. No one moved at all. Except for the two officers Belial had created from himself to stand guard. They immediately marched behind them as they made their steady progression through the office. Everyone stared as they walked towards the exit, but no one moved or said a word. Eve caught a glimpse of the two officers, Holt and Ashton, standing nearby, watching with confused and fearful looks on their faces. When he saw Eve, Holt took a step forward, as though he planned on intercepting Javan and pulling Eve from Belial’s clutches, but Ashton placed a hand on his partner’s shoulder and just shook his head. Holt reluctantly stayed where he was, watching as Eve was escorted from the building.
It wasn’t long before they were outside the building, walking towards the parked limousine. As soon as they were clear of the building, the two officers walking with them were suddenly drawn into Belial’s body, vanishing just as Eve had witnessed previously. Javan opened the limousine door and went to get in, but paused. He turned back to Belial, who was still holding tightly to Eve’s arm, and pursed his lips as he considered something.
“It occurs to me,” Javan said thoughtfully to Belial. “There are a lot of people in there who saw my face. I’d appreciate it if you did something about that.”
Belial began to slowly grin back at Javan. “I got you covered.”
Still holding on to Eve’s arm, Belial half-turned to look at the building they just left, which sat peacefully at the opposite end of the parking lot. Then, Belial reached out his free hand toward the building, his palm facing upward and his fingers outstretched, as though he was gesturing towards some great prize on a TV game show. Then, as Eve watched in horror, Belial began to slowly close his fingers into a fist. And as his fingers closed, the building began to collapse.
“No!” Eve screamed. “LEXI! LEXI, GET OUT OF THERE NOW!”
A loud sound of bending steel suddenly filled the air, and the glass windows shattered, allowing Eve to clearly hear the screams that were coming from inside. The walls began to crack and the floor broke apart. Concrete shattered into powder and the support structures all fell apart like they were made of crepe paper. Eve made to run back towards the building, but Javan grabbed her and held her back, forcing her to watch as the building that still contained hundreds of innocent men and women folded in on itself like a large piece of origami. By the time Belial had completely closed his fist, the entire building had been leveled, all screams silenced as only dust now filled the air.
“You bastards!” Eve screamed as Javan began dragging her to the car. “You bastards! You said you wouldn’t hurt her! You said Lexi would be safe!”
Javan shook his head. “I said I wouldn’t lay a hand on her. And my hands are clean. Her blood is on your hands alone.”
22
ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HEAVEN
“T
here are still a few hours before your interview,” Belial said to Javan as the limousine cruised down the road, heading in the direction of Javan’s building. “Plenty of time to get our guest back to her room.”
Belial leered at Eve, who sat next to Javan beside the door. She sat with her arms folded, afraid that if she didn’t, she would lash out with every limb she had and inflict us much pain as possible on both Javan and Belial. She contented herself with a brief fantasy of ripping Belial’s head off and tossing it out the window onto the street.
“Perhaps a new room would suit better,” Javan replied casually, acting as though Eve wasn’t stewing in hatred. “A private apartment with her own bathroom. So that yesterday’s unfortunate event doesn’t occur again.”
“What, you don’t want to strap me to a bed for weeks again?” Eve snapped sarcastically.
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Javan answered, ignoring Eve’s sarcasm.
“No,” Belial chimed in, grinning snidely at Eve. “We’ll just lock your door and keep you shut inside. Like a bird in its cage. Clipped wings and all.”
Eve fixed Belial with a hateful glare, but before she could respond, Javan said, “Enough. Eve is our guest and will be treated with every courtesy we can offer. My mistake was treating you like a prisoner. But my hope is that if you are treated with more respect and are allowed to see exactly what I’m doing for the world, you’ll be more willing to help.”
“What you’re doing for the world?” Eve repeated. “You’re planning on wiping out billions of people. That’s what you’re doing. Don’t try and convince me you’re doing anything else, because you just come off as delusional.”
“Eve, I’m extremely shocked by you,” Javan said disapprovingly. “Such a small-minded viewpoint for someone who has lived immeasurable years. I don’t want to kill anyone, believe me, but the lives of those people who won’t survive the serum are inconsequential. They mean less than nothing in the grand scheme of eternity. They’re nothing but specks of dust, their lives amounting to absolutely nothing. If I were to leave them be, how many years after their natural deaths would it be before everything they accomplished in life, all of their dreams, their very names, are forgotten? I am doing them a favor. Through my actions, they can live forever and accomplish more than they ever imagined. Their lives will actually have meaning.”
“Every life has meaning,” Eve replied coldly. “That’s what Angels believe.”
“Every life?” Javan retorted doubtfully. “Really? What about the life of the man who blew himself up to kill you and a room full of people? Did his life have meaning?”
“Yes,” Eve said firmly. “He might have lacked common decency, but every step he took in his life was important. Everything he did mattered in some way or another.”
Javan looked like he was almost about to laugh. “Seriously? Eve, you can’t be serious.”
Eve merely glared back at Javan silently, indicating without words that she was, in fact, dead serious.
Javan turned to Belial, still looking like he was trying not to laugh. “Belial, play Eve that video. Let her hear everything Mr Bailey made of his life. How he mattered to the world.”
Eve watched Belial open the laptop, a smirk beginning to grow on her lips as a look of confusion crossed Belial face.
“What is it?” Javan asked, having noticed Belial’s confusion.
“The video,” Belial replied, clicking repeatedly on the laptop. “It’s not here.”
Now Javan looked confused. “Of course it is. Eve was playing it before, I heard it.”
“I’m telling you, it’s not on here,” Belial growled. He slammed the laptop shut and glared at Eve furiously. “What did you do with it?”
“Me?” Eve asked innocently. “Nothing.”
“No games, Eve,” Javan snapped. “Where’s the video?”
Eve grinned at Javan, unable to keep a straight face. “I didn’t do anything. It’s still on Bailey’s laptop. Thing is, though… That’s not Bailey’s laptop.”
Javan and Belial could only stare at Eve, both with perplexed looks on their faces, combined with impatience and rage.
“It’s not?” Javan asked quietly, an edge of danger to his voice.
Eve shook her head, grinning openly now. “Nope. That’s Mitra’s laptop. Bailey’s is still back under Mitra’s desk. Buried under a building.”
Belial’s cheek twitched as he snarled at Eve, but Javan was shaking his head and settling back into his seat.
“It doesn’t matter,” Javan said dismissively. “No one will find it there.”
“Are you sure?” Eve asked. “I mean, that was a government building you leveled back there. People will want to know why it just fell down. I think there’s a good chance people will go digging for answers, and maybe they’ll find that laptop. Maybe they’ll look on it. Maybe they’ll see Bailey outing you as the mastermind behind the bombing. Maybe then people will start asking questions you might find difficult to answer. Don’t you think?”
Javan pressed his lips together tightly as he thought. Then he shook his head. “By the time that happens, if it happens, it’ll be too late. We start administering the serum this week. I’m announcing it this afternoon. Right after I’ve told the world how old I really am. To show them that immortality is possible.”
“You don’t deserve immortality,” Eve said, turning away to look out the window at the cars passing them by on the street as they drove back into downtown Toronto. “You don’t respect life enough to never die.”
“I respect life, Eve,” Javan replied flatly. “But I see the big picture, not the individual. The continued survival of humanity is more important than those few souls scurrying about out there. What do they think about? Making a difference? Saving a life? Improving the world? No. They think about how much money they have in their bank accounts. How they wish they were rock stars and A-list celebrities. How they can climb the corporate ladder. How much they hate their jobs, how they want a more expensive car or house or anything at all. It’s always about themselves. They think about what they want, not what others need. But I know what they need. I’ve foreseen the downfall of humanity. And humanity’s ever increasing greed is the beginning of the end.”
“No,” Eve said softly. “The beginning of the end was when I saved you from that storm.” Then, turning to look directly into Javan’s eyes, she said sadly, “I should have left you to die.”
Javan looked like Eve had just slapped her. He looked at her with shocked and hurt eyes, while Belial sneered from the other end of the limousine.
“She’s never going to see it our way, Javan,” Belial growled. “We should just kill her and be done with it.”
Javan, however, snapped, “No! We aren’t killing her, I’ve told you a hundred times. She just needs time to come to terms with our goal. She hasn’t realized many things, she just needs time to figure them out.”
“Maybe,” Eve said thoughtfully. “But there are a lot of things you two haven’t figured out.”
“Like what?” Bella leered, grinning nastily.
“Well,” Eve said slowly, as though she was thinking hard. “You didn’t realize I would escape when you were holding me prisoner. You didn’t realize I switched the laptops. And… You didn’t realize that I have Mitra’s pepper spray in my pocket.”
At that moment, Eve lifted the pepper spray canister that she had been discreetly sliding out of her jeans pocket for the last five minutes and aimed the nozzle directly at Javan’s face, pressing down on the trigger.
“Aarrgh!” Javan screamed in pain as the painful chemicals burned his face and eyes, invading his airways and burning in his nose and throat as he clutched at his face, trying to shield himself from the spray.
Eve whirled the canister on Belial, who was unaffected by the spray, but taken by surprise enough to raise his hand to shield his face, squinting and baring his teeth in irritation.
Not wasting any more time, Eve slammed her shoulder into the door and pushed it open.
“No!” she heard Javan cry, but it was too late.
Eve dove from the moving car, feeling for half a heartbeat that she was flying once more, but then gravity took a firm hold of her and slammed her hard into the street. The instant she hit the ground, Eve felt her knit-cap fly from her head and she rolled over and over as her momentum carried her along, the screech of rubber on the road all around her as cars slammed on their brakes to avoid running over the crazy red-haired girl who had just jumped from a speeding vehicle. Eve heard the crunch of metal on metal as several cars rear-ended each other, then she came to a stop, groaning in pain, not sure of which one of her injuries she should focus on first.
“Crap, that hurt!” she groaned through her gritted teeth.
Then she heard the scream of more tires and looked up to see the limousine she had leaped from screeching to a halt, the driver having planted his foot on the brakes. Not waiting a moment longer, Eve pushed the thought of her pain from her mind, tried to ignore the bleeding from her elbows and forehead, climbed to her feet and ran. She cried out once in pain as she realized her ankle was also sprained and putting her weight on it made it feel like it was about to break off, but Eve ignored it and limped away as quickly as she could manage.
Javan stuck his head out of the still open door of the limousine and squinted around, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to see through the pain and burning that seemed to cover his entire face. Blurry as his vision was, he saw Eve running away amid the angry shouts of drivers stepping out of their damaged vehicles.
“EVE!” he roared out through the limousine door. “EVE!”
Eve ignored him and kept running, vanishing down an alleyway between two buildings without looking back. Javan retreated back inside the limousine and glared at Belial through his red and puffy eyes.
“Bring her back,” Javan snapped.
Belial cocked his head onto one side, as though he was thinking. “Why?” he asked. “We don’t need her. The serum is ready. She can’t do anything for us.”
“Just bring her back,” Javan repeated firmly.
“You’re losing focus, Javan,” Belial sneered. “If you indulge this fantasy of yours much longer, you’re going to lose sight of everything we’ve been working towards.”
“Remember our agreement, Belial,” Javan said dangerously. “Now… Bring. Her. Back.”
Belial sighed. “Fine.”
Suddenly, Belial seemed to break apart like a balloon that had been blown up too much. His very flesh dissolved in an instant as he split and was immediately replaced by a bright blue light that crackled and waved like fire. In the same instant, the blue fire that was Belial shot out through the open limousine door and up into the sky, seeming to grow larger and larger as it poured out of the vehicle. Motorists watched in awe and fear as the blue fire spiraled up into the sky, defying all known laws of physics as it burned and sparked in air alone. Then it bent in the sky, like a cobra arching its back as it prepared to strike, and rushed back towards the ground at an alarming speed. Everyone in the immediate area felt their hair stand on end as the air filled with static energy. The blue fire pulled up from its fast descent at the last moment and skimmed across the surface of the ground, moving more like a giant serpent than flames, and shot into the alleyway Eve had disappeared into, the air crackling with heat and energy.
Eve was scaling a chain-link fence at the opposite end of the alleyway when she felt the energy and the heat approaching. Sitting on top of the fence, with one leg hanging down on either side, Eve looked up to see a wall of fire crackling along the ground towards her, moving impossibly fast.
She knew what it was the moment she saw it. There was nothing else it could be. Only Belial would have that kind of power, and the sight of him rushing towards her in such a terrifying form made Eve forget that she was several feet above the ground and she let go of the fence, simply falling backwards onto the other side. Eve hit the ground hard, landing on her back and cracking the back of her head on the pavement, crying out in pain as spots flashed in front of her eyes. She knew there was no time to let her vision settle, though. The crackling fire was only seconds away.
Eve scrambled to her feet and took off at a sprint, ignoring the angry shouts of pedestrians she accidentally bumped into in her haste to escape. Their shouts suddenly turned from anger to fear as Belial exploded out of the alleyway with the force of a bomb, the chain-link fence vaporizing as he swept over it, his power completely consuming it.
The blue fire paused momentarily in the air as it seemed to be looking for something. Eve glanced over her shoulder as she ran to see it suddenly dive towards her. Reacting on instinct, Eve dove to the right to hide behind a small wall beside a driveway that led down to an underground garage. Just as Eve reached the shelter of the wall, the blue fire crackled by, snapping like a whip as it seemed to reach out with a tongue of fire and grab Eve, missing by only inches. Eve could feel the searing heat on her body as Belial shot by like a train. Eve covered her ears with her hands as the roar of the fire was almost deafening, and she watched as Belial soared up into the air and began to turn around, coming back to snatch her up, seemingly oblivious to the terrified screams of the people on the street, the screech of tires as motorists slammed on the brakes and quickly put their vehicles into reverse, speeding away backwards, away from the phenomenon that seemed to be made up of nothing but blue fire that crackled like electricity.
Not allowing Belial a chance to turn around completely, Eve leaped to her feet and ran down the driveway and into the underground garage. She ran past the security gate, the guard having already taken off at the sight of the flying blue fire. Eve ran deep into the garage, seeing numerous cars parked all over the place, people leaving them here while they went to work.
Eve could hear the sound of the blue fire growing louder as it began descending on the street once more. She knew Belial would have seen her come into the garage, so there wasn’t time to take in her surroundings. She sprinted on her sprained ankle as fast as she could, limping and wincing in pain, searching for a doorway that would lead her somewhere else, or an elevator that would take her away, but she couldn’t see anything. She looked around frantically, aware of how loud the crackling sound was becoming. Eve then turned and looked back towards the garage entrance and felt a hot ball of dread suddenly drop in her stomach.
The only other way out. Eve had run right past it and not seen it. It was beside the entrance, behind the guard’s booth. A doorway that was clearly marked exit. Only now it was too late.
Belial reached the garage.
As the blue light of fire and energy filled the garage entrance, Eve dove to the side and hit the ground hard. She quickly rolled sideways until she was hidden from sight underneath an SUV. Eve came to a stop on her back, looking up at the undercarriage of the large vehicle as she heard the crackling of Belial’s monstrous fire-Demon-self swirling around the garage, searching for her, sniffing her out. A car alarm suddenly began to sound as Belial passed over an expensive looking silver Lexus, only adding to Eve’s fear and anxiety.
