chapter 9
Darrton
The evening air was cool on my bare back but I had a heat rising in my body that I had never experienced before. I had stroked her, and it felt so damn good. Touching her face was like my own personal Heaven. Leaving her was my own personal Hell.
I climbed up the ladder to the tree house and sat on the cot.
“Bravo, Brother.” I heard Warren’s voice and bile tried to rise from my stomach. “Why did you stop? You could have had her.” He seemed pleased when he walked out from the corner of the room. “She’s an appealing little thing, too.”
A shiver ran down to my toes. He is here? So close to Lizzie? God, there was a sickening feeling rising from my gut. It hadn’t been long since I had seen Warren, but I hadn’t done anything he had asked. I had not moved away from Lizzie or killed her. I was secretly hoping not to see him for a while longer. I couldn’t kill her. There was something about her. She helped me. She didn’t deserve to die, because I dragged her into this. Why does it matter? I couldn’t understand why I cared but I knew I did.
I finally found my voice. “Brother,” I said, standing. “You’re here. Back so soon?”
He picked at his nail and smiled. “I’m here. Looks like you have a wonderful house here.” He gestured around.
“It gets the job done.”
He leaned his head back and really looked at me. “So, how are we to do it since you have yet to succeed?”
“Do what?”
“Kill the miss. She knows too much and it’s time to go. Not that you have been looking for us. It’s time for the ritual and you know the procedure. You have to be there, Darrton. It has begun to irk me that you have not killed this girl, or moved, and have delayed our plans. However, I am trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your wound seems like it has healed itself, brother.”
Wrath built up in my chest. “Looks like you haven’t needed my help. You have destroyed Israel.” I tried to keep off the “Lizzie” subject.
“Ah, older brother. That is what is so great. One down, many more to go.” He nodded and his face was anything but pleasant. A leather bound jacket was wrapped around him and he seemed so different.
“So, Brother, what will it be?”
“A stoning,” Caden, Conquest, said from the window. He laughed and stepped inside. “Since she likes to throw rocks at people, I say a stoning.”
Had he had an encounter with her? He held a motorcycle helmet in his hand and he tossed it onto my cot.
“That sounds great, Brother,” said Warren.
Caden scanned the room. “Where is Ferdia? Have you heard from him?”
“He hasn’t been here, I haven’t heard anything from him,” I said.
All the while Warren had been staring at me. “Something has changed about you, Darrton. Something’s very different. I’m not sure if I like it yet or not.” He picked up a bat from the corner, tossed it up, and caught it.
“Nothing is different, brother.”
Caden laughed and pushed his blond hair from his face. “I think I see it, too. Maybe a good killing will get you back on your toes, dear brother. We wouldn’t want you slacking on your job. You’ve only killed once since you arrived, if I’m correct. The little sneak trying to spy on the girl?”
I cringed and clenched my jaw. “I have changed my plans, brothers,” I tried to say as calmly as I could.
Caden raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“I do not plan to kill Lizzie.”
Warren focused in on my face. “I see a little bit of a bond has built up. It’s pissing me off a little, Brother.”
“I just believe that she would not tell and there’s no need to start here. We would go across the sea...”
Caden snarled, “You want to keep this girl safe? Why is that?’ He walked toward me. “What could possess you to keep her safe out of everyone in the world? Do you desire to court her?”
Before I could answer, Warren said, “I believe he does, Caden. I believe he would like to do much more than court her, though. I witnessed a little scene before you arrived. I thought it might be too much for someone to watch without blushing. I believe Darrton has fallen in love with this mortal.”
Caden grinned. “Too bad she has to perish. We will kill her, Darrton. No arguing about it. She has to die. We might give you some more time to spend with the child.” Caden smiled and cocked his head. “Does anyone else know? That awful best friend with the vulgar mouth?”
My body was shaking too hard to answer. “Ah, who cares if she does or doesn’t know? We can kill her, too,” Warren added nonchalantly.
“We will not, and I won’t say it again.”
Caden raised his head, reached out, and gripped my neck with his bare hand. “What did you say? Are you trying to go back on our bargain? We do not take too kindly to that, Darrton. We swore to one another that no matter the consequences we would stick to the plan. Getting damned to Earth was hard enough, but we all stuck through it. Now, there is no turning back, my dear sweet brother.”
I tried to reach out to him but his grip was so strong on my neck, his fingers crushing my airway.
“What shall we do to show him how we view traitors, brother?”
Warren walked closer and stroked his chin. “I’m sure we will think of something...ah! I think I have it...dear brother.” My breath was coming in short gasps and I watched as Warren stepped toward the window. His hands moved over toward the house and I choked out a scream. “Let’s see how much Daddy loves his children.” Warren snapped his fingers and when I opened my eyes we were in the living room. Caden still held me by the shoulders and I watched as Lizzie’s dad walked in from the hallway.
His eyes were glazed over and as much as I yelled at him he couldn’t hear me. He slid past us into the kitchen without as much as a glance in our direction. He fumbled through the drawers until he pulled out a shining silver butcher knife. I yelled at him but he never stopped. Knife beside him, he walked zombie-like up the stairs. I cringed as I heard her door open. I tried to get away to follow and stop him, but Caden held me tight.
“Looks like Daddy just can’t stop it, now can he? He can’t fight the feeling within him to kill. What a pity.” Warren snapped and we were in her room. The butterfly painting shimmered in the moonlight on the wall. Her chest rose and fell at a steady rate.
Her dad stood beside the bed. The knife in his hand, he was staring at Lizzie as though looking right through her. He held the knife up high above his head. I tried to move but couldn’t get loose. He drove the knife into Lizzie’s chest, and she let out a piercing scream.
“Okay, I’ll go with you. I’ll do whatever you want. Please stop making him hurt her.”
She was convulsing at this point, a look of panic-struck confusion was written all over her pure face. Her blood was dripping down her white T-shirt and she was clinging to it. “Dad, what’s happening to me?” He didn’t answer, only stood there looking down at his murder weapon, before driving it into the other side of her neck. She screamed and fell to the floor.
“Make it stop, make it stop!”
Warren snapped his fingers.
The scene was gone.
Lizzie lay there, her chest rising and falling in perfect rhythm and her dad nowhere in sight. I dropped to the floor and coughed so hard and deep it drew up blood. When I looked back up we were in the tree house. Caden and Warren wore emotionless faces.
“You see what might happen when you don’t keep up your end of the bargain?” Warren asked.
My jowl tightened and I nodded. Caden walked toward me and spoke low, “We meet tomorrow afternoon at Haystack Rock. Be there. And if the girl is not dead, we will know.”
A splitting sound erupted and Warren drew open his wings. “Darrton,” I turned and looked at him. “She better be dead.”
Caden threw his head back and laughed while he jumped from the window. Warren burst from the open door into the sky.
Hearing Caden’s motorcycle, I jumped down from the tree-house. I had to save her. I had to hide her.