Playing with Monsters (34 page)

I left him in his bed and quietly dressed in the dress I’d arrived in, then headed to my own bed to be able to get some much-needed sleep as dawn broke over the ridge.

By
8 A.M
., my entire world came to a halt and unraveled.

Chapter Forty-One

I awoke from a dead sleep to the sound of terrified screaming inside my head. I blinked, trying to dispel the sleepy fog that clouded my brain. I felt genuinely scared, and a sense of dread without understanding what was going on. I could hear Kendra, but looking around my small bedroom, I couldn’t find any sign that she’d been here. I sat up and considered going back to sleep when something triggered the connection I shared with her, and my mind tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

I could feel her panic, her sense of fear and helplessness, which made no sense. Kendra was at the abbey, safe from anything that could hurt her.

“Lena, run and hide! They’re hunting us; you have to hide,” she whispered through trembling lips.

“Kendra, calm down,” I whispered aloud, as if she was in the same room. My eyes tried to focus on the strange scene I was seeing through her. “What…” I shrieked as what I was seeing came into view, allowing me to take in the morbid details of hacked and dismembered bodies. Familiar faces with lifeless eyes stared back at me. I screamed hysterically as her panic and mine met and collided in sheer terror.

The windows rattled as I tried and failed to contain my emotions at what I was seeing. The abbey looked like it had been attacked, and she was hiding in the corner among the dead who had been indiscriminately slaughtered. It was just like a nightmare I’d had; only this time it was real. I didn’t even pause to figure out how I knew I’d had the fucking nightmare; I couldn’t, as I watched a monster rip one of the elders apart as Kendra screamed and gave away her position amongst the bodies.

“No! Run, Kendra, run!” I screamed, panic-stricken as I watched the creature approach her, even as a younger version of Lucian materialized in front of Kendra and slapped her as she screamed hysterically. I felt it all the way to my bones, as if it had been me instead of her who was being assaulted. “No! Leave her alone, oh God, no!” I could hear footsteps moving closer to me but I was no longer inside my bedroom, I was with her, watching as the horror unfolded.

The man had dark hair and indigo eyes, a shade lighter than Lucian’s, but the runes and tattoos on his body looked the same. As if he’d slipped into a Lucian suit, just for this task. I wasn’t sure how I knew it wasn’t Lucian, only that it wasn’t him. Details were off, such as the tattoos of the people on his arms, whose hands were covering the wrong parts of their faces. I’d spent all night learning every detail about his beautiful body and knew it wasn’t him.

“Run! Dammit, fight, Kendra, fight him!” I screamed as I felt blow after blow land on her body as he hit her. I could taste blood, and feel the taint of evil as it filled the abbey. She slipped in blood and the creatures laughed at her, even as the Lucian wannabe pinned her to the blood-slick floor and smiled as he forced her legs open and revealed her state of undress from her recent encounter with her Harvest partner. “No, let her go!” I screamed as I jackknifed from the pain as she was assaulted. Pain ripped through me and I coughed and choked from it as I rolled in a ball and sobbed. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t my pain I was feeling, but hers.

“Slut, I’m surprised he allowed you to fuck anyone else,” the man seethed as he pulled out of her and rose to his full height, yanking her upwards by her hair painfully. “I’m going to enjoy hearing you scream for me. Put her with the others, we leave now,” he ordered the creatures as he smiled coldly. “Someone is watching us, find out who it is,” he sneered as he licked Kendra’s blood from his fingers. The moment his fist collided with her face, the connection broke and I screamed at the emptiness I felt, as if his blow had killed her, snapping the bond to an empty void where I felt no connection to my sister.

Hands shook me; my mom screamed my name as I wiped at tears as sobs tore through me.

“Magdalena, what is it?” my mom whispered with worry.

“Lena, wake up!” Lucian snarled and I snapped my eyes open and screamed.

“The abbey, oh my God, they killed them all, everyone!” I sobbed at the faces that looked at me as if I’d lost it. The Fae who had been camped on my lawn watched me carefully from the doorway. They’d probably heard my hysterical screams and gotten Lucian.

“That’s impossible; I have people there watching it,” Lucian admitted, but I felt it. His eyes looked me over as I trembled from the loss of my sister.

“I saw it through Kendra, they’re dead, d-d-demons got them. Those things had to have been demons,” I stuttered as I trembled violently.

“Ryder,” Lucian said, his hands released me as he sat back. “Bring them,” he growled as Lucian vanished right before my eyes. I shook my head; that wasn’t right. Witches couldn’t do that, right? Ryder grabbed me and I felt the sensation of time and space shifting around us and then we were inside the abbey and I slipped and landed on my hands and knees in
blood
.

“No!” I sobbed as the carnage was revealed. There were bodies littered everywhere, staring lifelessly at the ceiling as I tripped over them in my rush to find my sister. “Kendra! Answer me, oh God,” I cried as I slipped in the blood, finding her phone where she’d been hidden from her attackers. “No, please, no-o-o!” I screamed.

“Magdalena, come with me,” Synthia whispered as she struggled to pull me away from the destruction.

“No, she’s here, she has to be here!” I screamed and pulled away from her. I caught sight of a leg that was partially hidden behind one of the couches and lost it. It wasn’t attached to anything; I could see that from where I stood. I could hear my mom and grandmother screaming over my own horrified sobs, and I moved towards the leg, only to find Ryder blocking my path. He shook his head even as Synthia tried to get me to understand her words.

“You don’t want to see her like this,” she repeated. “Keep the memories you have, Lena, not the ones you will have if you see her now.”

“Let me go! That’s my sister!” I wept, “These are my people! Oh God, who would do this?” What kind of a monster would tear people apart or kill on this kind of scale? It was a fucking massacre, and everywhere I looked, bodies littered the abbey floor.

“She’s not here,” Lucian said as he helped them move me backwards, towards the doors.

“Let me go!” I yelled as the elements shook the abbey even as one of the creatures I’d seen through Kendra’s eyes stepped out of the hallway, his eyes glowing blood red as he smiled and dropped the arm he had been holding. Thunder boomed outside, and before I had even considered my move, the silver eyed demon-fae guy was there, ripping the monster’s heart out with one hand and severing its head in one fluid motion.

I screamed as a sob tore through me. Demons, demons had my sister. She couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t be. I’d feel it if she was. I refused to believe that Hecate would take my sister; I’d already lived through so much, how could she be so cruel as to allow this to happen? I struggled against the arms that held me, and I heard Lucian give Ryder permission to ‘Shut her down,’ whatever the hell that meant.

My hands clamped against my ears as I wailed in disbelief at what my mind was trying to tell me. “Kendra!” I sobbed as I doubled over with pain from the loss, this wasn’t happening. It just couldn’t be. I’d already lost so much; I couldn’t lose her, too. I wouldn’t survive it. I wasn’t strong enough. I’d been strong for too long, barely able to build the wall to hold the pain that threatened to consume me daily, I’d been barely breathing! This? This would destroy me; it would destroy the coven! I screamed louder, unwilling to hear or see anymore.

I felt Ryder touching me, his hands cradled my face even as I tried to get away from him, then he whispered in a gentle voice even as blackness rushed up to devour me.

“My…sister,” I whispered as the blackness took hold and everything shut off.

*~*~*

~Lucian

I watched as Lena went down, fighting against Ryder’s hold as she struggled to understand the destruction inside the abbey. I moved with him as he took her outside, and placed her beside her mother and grandmother on a large blanket he’d glamoured.

I was staring down at her when the woods surrounding the abbey began to fill with my men as well as the demons under my control. They moved from the thick forest, numbering in the thousands. It didn’t go unnoticed by Ryder who looked at the army who converged on us.

The fucking bloodbath in the abbey shouldn’t have happened. I’d been distracted, and Lucifer had been here; his stink permeated the abbey. He’d taken Kendra, probably mistaking her for Lena. He’d seen us in the club together; he knew she was more than a casual fuck.

My men moved closer, depositing the witches who’d escaped to the safety of the forest at my feet, which was somewhat a relief knowing that Lena wouldn’t be alone and that the coven was contained. For the most part.

“Found these ones hiding in the forest,” Phayden said, his red eyes shifting from me to the abbey. “Got started without us?” he questioned and I growled.

Helen and her spoiled of a bitch little daughter weren’t among the bodies, nor were they with the crowd that had escaped into the forest, neither was Devlin.

“Spread out, look for any other survivors. Do not harm them, and find Devlin. He was stationed outside the abbey to observe this place and he’s missing,” I growled, watching as the demons moved into efficient groups and spread out as they reentered the thicket for any more survivors. Ryder watched as the demons disappeared and turned to look at me with something akin to suspicion.

“You control hellhounds, and you sure as fuck are not the right hand man to Lucifer. You told me that you and your people weren’t Lucifer’s demons either; who the hell are you, Lucian?” he demanded.

“Think bigger. Right hand man is nothing more than an illusion, keeping him out of too much trouble is only part of my responsibilities. Looks like he’s chafing at his restrictions and wants to challenge me,” I replied as I kneeled down and looked at the girl Lena considered a friend, Kat. “What happened here?” I asked as she cried, loudly and noisily.

I pinched the bridge of my nose before using compulsion and snapping her to attention. I knew Ryder watched, trying to pinpoint exactly who or what I was, but I didn’t care. I didn’t have time to, either.

“What happened here?” I demanded and she ground her teeth together and winced as pain shot through her mind, which is how Lena should have responded, instead of being able to think for herself.

“Helen let them in, she let those creatures into the abbey. Helen opened the back doors to let us out, as if she felt bad for letting the monsters inside, but when Tabitha tried to escape with us, she sealed the doors and we couldn’t get them open again. The screams, oh god, the screams were so horrible. She killed them, by letting those creatures inside, she sent everyone who was left in the abbey to their deaths, they’re all dead!” she cried and hiccupped. “We couldn’t save them so we ran and hid before they could come after the rest of us. We’ll leave this place, start over, those who survived are agreed. We have to.”

“No, you won’t,” I whispered as I stood back up, my eyes moved to Lena where she slept peacefully without the pain that was tearing her apart just a short while ago. I wasn’t willing to lose her, or to allow the coven to run this late in the game.

So Helen had had a hand in this massacre of her own fucking people. I’d noted the doors in the back already; they were covered in blood and had been magically sealed shut. She’d sealed them in, stealing the only chance they’d had at surviving the horrors that were visited on this place. Kat’s retelling of Helen’s actions meant the bitch had knowingly assisted in the killing the high priestess, along with most of the elders who argued against her taking Tabitha’s place when the time came.

This was on me, I’d allowed Lena to distract me and in doing so, I’d been ill prepared for Lucifer’s attack. He’d descended on the abbey with a fucking army which was no easy feat. There’d been no ripple effect from that many demons escaping hell at the same time.

“Found Devlin, they got him pretty fucking good. He stayed conscious long enough to tell us it was Lucifer who did this. They caught Devlin as they were leaving and gutted him good. He said Lucifer looked a lot like you and he was bragging that Lena would think it was you who was killing her coven, and that she’d believe it was you raping her when he got her to the in-between. I know he left Dev alive as a message and a jab at you. You think he knows he took the wrong twin?” Spyder asked, his senses were hungrily seeking the carnage behind the abbey walls. We could all sense the souls that were escaping their bodies, seeking entrance into the world beyond this one.

“Doubt it, he’s still high off the bloodlust,” I snapped. He’d thought to take her in my form? How had Lena discerned that it hadn’t been me who’d been here? Not once since seeing this mess through her sister’s eyes had she turned accusing eyes at me.

I ignored the answer, knowing it was because I’d let her get too fucking close to me, it had been a mistake. I allowed my armor to form around my body as I beckoned to the fleeing souls, calling them to me with whispers of sweet revenge for what had occurred to them.

Ryder and his crew watched as I absorbed the souls and took them inside of me. I wouldn’t feed from them, but I would allow them to be present when I took Lucifer’s head. The rush of power from them joining the staggering numbers of souls I already contained sent a ripple through the abbey, and I remained guarded as I watched Spyder ordering my men to collect the dead and pile them together. My men walked freely into the abbey and I wondered if Helen was the one who had brought down the wards when she allowed Lucifer and his demons inside. I would have to question her and Cassidy once my men found them, if they ever did. Those bitches could be with Lucifer, or if he double crossed them, they might be running for a very long time.

Kat said the coven intended to run from this place of death and I knew she spoke true. I couldn’t allow it, not with Katarina being so close, and with her newly awakened powers, the seal was about to be awakened as well. I couldn’t chance the repressions that would come from it.

No, it was embedded in their collective coven psyche to survive, to run and hide from the monsters that hunted them. Katarina wasn’t among the dead, if she’d been, I would have felt the seal going to the veil with her. I hadn’t felt shit.

“Check everywhere and make sure no one is hiding inside the abbey,” I ordered. “Ryder, put the survivors to sleep while I figure out what to do, please,” I said to the man who watched me coldly as the souls continued to arrive and settle into my armor. I pushed power into them, knowing he sensed the magnitude of it as I absorbed the armor and returned to human form.

“Bane, Benjamin is just beyond that thicket watching us.” I nodded to one of the densest parts of the forest that surrounded us. “He was present for this, get him and figure out what his damage is,” I said as Bane mentally tracked the kid and locked onto him. “See what he knows and why he chose to show his face here after all this time.”

“With pleasure,” Bane hissed, and apparated into the shadows of the forest.

“We need a plan, they will run from this,” Spyder said as he surveyed the sleeping witches.

“How do we stop them from running again?” Deviant asked as he moved closer.

“We need to reconstruct the scene. The abbey is old and they use a boiler to heat the common rooms and the residential areas. The weather is just beginning to turn and I am sure they would have had it in use. Make it look like the boiler exploded in the early morning hours. Have it appear as if the bodies of those who died were burned beyond recognition in the resulting fire,” I said turning to Ristan who nodded that it could be managed. “This should only destroy a portion of the abbey and hide what really happened here today.” My eyes drifted to Lena, where she slept unaware of what was about to happen. I felt my gut as it dropped and hid the wince and anger that my next words brought with force. “I want their minds wiped. Give them new memories of what happened. We need to reset the past few months and adjust their memories of our presence here.”