The Four Horsemen(5)

That gets added to the list of things that scare me, even if I don’t feel scared.

We drive around in the car with Tom and Wyatt doing their thing. I can feel the heaviness of my eyes. I can't fight it. I hear them shouting at me as the dead take me.

The dream is a mess. Hooves beat the ground around me in a dark room. The dust dances in the dim light.

I don’t move. I turtle as they ride around me in a circle, like a cowboy would. Their voices are creepy and crackle like they are smokers. “Free us, Rayne. Free us from the depths and let us fix it. Open the seven seals."

I shake my head and suddenly the dark is gone. I'm standing in the garden at the house inside of the picture where Willow secretly went to meet Wyatt's uncle. Willow is standing next to a bush, picking the flowers off of it. She looks up, smiling softly, "The petals make a calming tea. You can use it to help women get pregnant too."

I look around the garden, noting the clouds are actually painted. The flowers are like paint chips. Willow smiles, "We made a big mistake, Nene." She turns and blows the paint chip petals at me. I jump back and shoot awake. The room I'm in is dark, and I don’t know if it's part of the dream or not. I look around, trying to get my bearings. No one else is in the room. I'm on a bed and it looks like a hotel, maybe. I can smell the Indian food and I'm sweating. I think it's real. I get up off the bed, wondering where the dead took me. I remember some of it. I remember Willow's picture.

"Wyatt?"

I hear rustling from the corner where I see someone sitting. It's Constantine, "Why his name first? Why not mine?"

I bite my lip, "I don’t know. I just feel like I know him better."

He gets up and walks to me, pushing me back onto the bed. I sit up, "I don’t want to do this. It doesn’t feel right, I told you."

He climbs on top of me, biting down on my throat. I feel him pull blood from my veins. I scream but Stella is there suddenly. Her lips crush mine in a kiss that makes me uncomfortable. We have never kissed before. They hold me down, kissing and sucking and muffling my screams.

"RAYNE!"

I sit up, breathing heavily, lifting my hands to my throat, but there is no wetness. I have not been bitten, and I don’t know why I think I might have. I assume it was the dream I don’t remember. I look around at the room, shaking my head. It is a hotel room that I swear I have been in before, but that is impossible.

It's light out and when I look back to the left, Constantine stands over me, looking worried. I flinch when he reaches for me. He looks hurt, "What was that dream? You were screaming suddenly and then you were awake."

I shake my head, "I don’t know."

It's true. I don’t know. I never do. But I suspect that he hurt me in my dream. I still feel his fangs in my neck for some reason. I just don’t want to tell him. I climb off the bed, "Where are we?" My stomach rumbles.

"Karachi, we never got to leave. We found him. Wyatt is there now, watching him. We need to go there." He holds a hand out for me, but I walk past him.

He grabs my arms, "What was the dream?" I shake my head. He shakes me a little, “Tell me.”

"I don’t know, but I think you bit me.”

He shakes me again, "I would never do that to you. Why do you believe them? The dead lie, Rayne. They always have."

"I don’t know." I have to assume this is an old fight. I can't find it in my memories, but he looks hurt like it's an old wound. The girls inside of me are silent.

Tom drives us to the place where Wyatt waits with Stella. "Where are Michelle and Mona?"

"The jet. This city is too dangerous for them. Mona was nearly assaulted."

I gasp, "What? How long was I sleeping?"

He gives me a confused look, "Three days. We thought you had slipped away, to the dreamland maybe."

"What about Mona?"

He shrugs, "Stella ate her attacker before he had a chance to get very far with it. Mona was very upset, naturally, and chose to stay on the jet. Once you have done away with our friend, we will be leaving too. The temples in India and Pakistan are under attack. We can't stay long. The world has erupted in religious wars, only the old countries though. America, Canada, and even Britain are safe. But China, Pakistan, India, Tibet, Italy, France, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and a bunch more are at war. War within their countries. It is not country versus country; it is within their borders. War against themselves and their beliefs."

My brow knits together, "I just don’t understand."

He shakes his head, "None of us do. Even the Van Helsings are at a loss."

Tom parks the car and I smell it instantly. I can taste it in the air. I get out of the car, walking quickly to it, like Toucan Sam following the smell of the delicious cereal. I look around when I lose the smell. A black feather floats past me. I scowl as I see another. I break into a run to see Wyatt and Stella standing surrounded by feathers.

"What did you do?"

Wyatt looks at me from a dark scowl, "What I had to. He tried to flee. He got a phone call and fled."

I look at Constantine, "Does this change things?"

He shakes his head, "I don’t know. Does it?"

Wyatt swallows hard, "I don’t think so."

I bite my lip, "His evil leaked out a bit. I tasted it in the air."

Wyatt nods, not saying anything. I feel like screaming. What if the evil is back and I am responsible for it.

Constantine shrugs, "His kind are the ones who send you to the depths of hell each time; I would imagine he is able to send a devil there too."

Wyatt's eyes meet mine, "I'm sorry."

I nod. He rarely says sorry, unless it’s about the incident but he hates talking about that. A smile finds its way onto my face, "It's not like the world is going to end from it."

Wyatt laughs, tossing my sword at me. I holster it, dripping blood and all, and turn and walk back to the car.





Four




The last devil is easy to find. They all were really. The witches had tracked them, Constantine and his team had located them to exact places, and Wyatt smelled them down like a hound. It is not the effort we assumed it would be. It is the only time it has ever been easy. The combination of earth witches, Constantine, technology, and a Van Helsing has never been used before though.

When we find him, the last devil reeks of destruction and evil. We chase him in an SUV. He doesn’t realize we are the ones following him through the streets of Capetown. He’s in the backseat of a car that is driving around Capetown. The men in the front seat are firing on crowds of people, with AK-47's. When the car stops, the devil stays behind, like he is sucking the evil from the car before he gets out and walks down the alleyway.

Constantine wraps his arm around me to mask the smell of me. We follow the devil until the crowd thins. Then I sprint, jumping onto a barrel on the side of the road, unsheathing my sword at the same moment my wings tear from my back. He doesn’t even get a chance to turn as the sword separates his head from his body. He crumples to the ground and becomes a pile of black feathers.

I turn to face Wyatt and Constantine but a wind comes up the alley before I can get a word out. My triumphant smile fades when I can't see past the dust blowing and mixing with the feathers. My feet slide along the cement from the wind pulling me to the funnel that has formed. I step back, trying to get out of the way as the feathers suck up into the air where they're released and become black raindrops.

My body is slammed into the building next to me. Wyatt shakes his head, "We gotta go now." I shudder from the pain and nausea, “We are getting handfasted again. This is bad.”

He smiles and turns, running down the alley. I jump, still holding his hand and lift us into the air with my wings. They flap like a bird's would. I don’t know how I feel about that, but as the black raindrops chase us, one lands on my wing. I wince as it burns. We land at the car. We don’t talk, we get in and Tom drives, fast. Stella, Mona, and Michelle are waiting for us on the jet; it's ready to go.

When we take off, I watch from the window as dark clouds cover the city.

"This is bad," Mona mutters.

I nod, "It doesn’t seem to be working, me killing the devils." My eyes seek out Constantine's. His face is stoic, but I can see the fears wandering about in his eyes. He offers me a smile but I shake my head and from somewhere hear Willow say the words, "We have made a big mistake, Nene." I don’t even miss her calling me Nene. That is a bad sign.

We fly to Britain, landing on a small airstrip outside of London. Constantine hurries to the car waiting for us that he called for. Tom jumps in the driver's seat. We all get in quickly. Tom speeds to the small castle that I recall the second we arrive. My heart skips a beat for the first time in days and Ellie softly weeps inside of my mind.

Stella looks at Constantine with her blue daggers, "You invited the Van Helsings to our home?"

Wyatt nods, "We need to talk to them. They don’t stand a chance against Rayne now. The devils are dead. None of this was the prophecy. They feel betrayed by God too."

Constantine keeps the stoic look going, ignoring both Wyatt and his sister.

I look out the window of the SUV as Tom parks the car.

Wyatt looks at the rain, “We need to stay out of this rain. Everyone hurry.”