Sacrifice (Revelations Book 1) (14 page)

"That is amazing."

"Really?" Chloe blinked. "Of all the magick you've seen, a bag with infinite space is the one thing that surprises you?"

"What can I say, I'm a practical vampire."

"Okay, Ms. Practical Vampire, let's dig into this trip down memory lane."

Abby sat up and started thumbing through the books. Occasionally she'd find a picture that stood out. She'd run her finger over the image hoping for some sort of breakthrough but still nothing happened. Yawn after yawn was met with their eyelids closing. Last thing Abby remembered was the clock striking eight o'clock. Nico still wasn't home but she couldn't bring herself to stay awake any longer. Chloe was already fast asleep. Abby sunk down in the bed and snuggled up next to her friend as a deep sleep dragged her under.

The door squeaked open at an ungodly hour of the day, waking Abby. She grumbled and rolled over pulling the blankets over her head. Her ears perked up despite her body wanting to go back to sleep, she could distinctly hear two hearts beating. Without a doubt she knew one was Nico’s which gave her a sneaking suspicion of who the other belonged to.

Nico whispered to the other person. "Hurry up before the sun touches Abby."

A surge of anger coursed through her body at the sound of Rosalie's voice. "If you just let her burn then all your problems would be over."

"Abby isn't one of my problems."

"That's not what it looks like from where I'm standing."

"Rosalie, don't start." There was something in Nico's voice. Maybe it was frustration or tiredness. "We've been through this."

Rosalie pressed, “If you’d just hear me out, Nico—”

“No, last night was a complete bust. It was nothing more than a wild goose chase and I have a feeling you knew we wouldn’t find what you’d promised.”

“Maybe I was just hoping you’d see the light during our time away. If you got away from that creature for long enough you might see things clearly.”

“Stop it. I’m not leaving Abby. Didn’t you get the hint last night? She is who I want.” Abby sucked in a breath. What had happened last night? An even better question was; did she even want to know? Nico was moving about the room, but she didn’t dare peek her head out of the covers. Whatever was going on was between them and the fact that Nico had defended her made her unbeating heart soar. She had faith that he’d be able to handle anything Rosalie threw at him and from the sounds of their conversation he already had.

Abby pulled the blankets tighter around herself in her half-awake state. She was too exhausted to deal with much of anything. After everything she'd learned last night all she wanted to do was sleep. She'd deal with Rosalie once the sun went down. For now, she buried herself under the covers with Chloe and blocked out the world. She’d expected him to wake her up to let her know he was home, or maybe he assumed she could hear them. Either way Abby slowly drifted back to sleep.

The cold and a familiar restless itching woke Abby. Her internal alarm clock went off at the same moment every day. As soon as the sun started to set in the desert and the temperature started to drop she was awake and ready to face the day. She yawned and stretched, slightly nudging Chloe who moaned and rolled back over. The bright light from the kitchen and smell of freshly brewed coffee greeted her senses as soon as she shook the last remnants of sleep off.

"Good evening, ladies."

Abby smiled at the sound of Nico's voice. Hearing Nico’s voice was better than any alarm clock.

Chloe tugged the blanket over her head and grumbled. "Five more minutes, Dad."

Abby laughed as she slid her legs out of the blankets and shivered as her bare feet touched the cold wooden floor. "Morning." A pile of blankets on the couch grabbed her attention. "Um, where did you sleep?"

Nico nodded towards the couch. "Not the most comfortable night I’ve had but definitely not the worst.”

"Sorry, you could have woken us."

"Nah, you two looked like you needed the sleep." He met her eyes over the rim of his coffee cup. "What did you two get up to last night?"

She groaned and made her way into the kitchen. "Don't get mad, but—"

"Abby, the surest way to get me mad is to start a sentence with that. Now, what did you do? Go demon slaying on your own, you know you aren't—"

"We went to the city." She blurted it out.

Nico stared at her, unblinking, unmoving. Seconds ticked by before he cleared his throat. "Excuse me? You what?"

She was already holding up her hands. "We were careful, no one got hurt."

"What the fuck, Abby?"

His body shook, his jaw clenched. She knew he’d be mad, but he didn’t know what it was like to not remember anything. This was one argument she was determined to win. "Nico, you can't keep me locked up here. I need to have a life."

"I can keep you locked up, clearly I haven't done a good enough job."

Chloe managed to lift her head up long enough to interject her thought on the subject. "We had to find out her past, Nico. She deserved to know."

He craned his neck from Chloe back to Abby. "Oh my Lord. You two went to find out about your old life? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been? What if someone had recognized you? You could have been taken into custody and held in a police station, a hospital, and what would have happened if the sun had come up? Huh? You two don't think things through."

He was right, they hadn't thought all of it through, her only defense was a sheepish response. "But nothing happened. We were safe."

He took a couple of deep breaths and rubbed his temples. "Carry on, little Miss Junior Detective. Tell me everything now so I can deal with the multiple strokes I'm going to have all at once."

"We went to Hex—"

"You've got to be shitting me. Chloe, what the hell? You take her to a goth bar to keep a low profile?"

Chloe murmured from under the blankets. "Well she's got the fangs, she kind of fits in there."

"Oh ha ha." His eyes settled back on Abby. "Go on."

"Well, I met people."

"I'm sure."

"And then Lucas came."

"And?"

Abby's words rushed out as fast as she could move her mouth hoping to get his reaction over and done with as quickly as possible. "Chloe found out where I used to live and we broke into the house."

All the color drained from Nico's face. "You're joking right now. Right?"

"Um, no..."

Nico stood up, walked stiffly to the counter, and grabbed the coffee pot. Holding his mug with a shaky hand, he poured another cup without bothering to look over at her. "Anything else you need to tell me?"

"Yeah." Abby signed. "We found out my name is Jane, my middle name is Abigail. My parents are apparently loaded and my father is a pastor of a church not far from their house."

"He's a pastor? Did you find any clues as to if you being cursed was maybe in retaliation of his religion?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so, because, well... We found something else."

"Something else?"

She nodded and fidgeted unsure of how to explain what happened next.

Nico narrowed his eyes at her. "Spit it out."

"We found a hidden room inside the house. Lucas said there was evil down there and if he went down there it would attack, but I had to see what they were hiding. I couldn’t just leave after coming so far."

"I'm going to kill that fucking Virtue next time I see him."

Chloe chimed in. "Can't kill a Virtue unless you crush their heart. Immortality has its perks."

Abby pinched the bridge of her nose. Chloe egging Nico into a fit wasn’t helping her cause. "Anyways, it was fine.”

Nico took a breath and placed his coffee cup down with a thud as black liquid sloshed over the rim. “What do you mean it was fine? Lucas could sense something. What happened?”

“We went down there and found a bunch of chemistry stuff, and spell ingredients, but then there were these tables with straps... And blood."

"Wait, what?" Nico's brow drew together in a tight line. "Tables with straps and blood? And chemistry stuff, spells. What the hell are your parents into?"

Abby swallowed past the lump in her throat. She didn't want to say the next part, every inch of her wanted it to not be true, but the moment she went down the stairs she'd known it deep down inside. "They are Satan worshipers."

"Abby, Satan worshipers are teenagers going through a goth phase in high school, they sacrifice the neighbor’s cat and eventually grow out of it."

She shook her head. "No, they really are. They have a shrine or altar thing, the minute I was near it I felt sick. It's evil, They’re evil."

"They had a shrine?" He grabbed a scrap of paper and pencil and started to scribble something. When he was finished he handed it to her. "Did it look like this?"

Abby's eyes widened. "That's it!" A wave of nausea hit her just from staring at the picture. "How did you know?"

"Your parents are part of a cult known as the Cult of the Little Horn. It's one of the other names for Lucifer. If they had all the things you described I'd wager a bet they are high up in the cult, maybe even its leaders. This isn't good.” He paused and tacked on, “You’re leaving something out, I can tell."

“There was a Hellhound guarding the basement. Like I said, it was fine. Lucas took one swipe at it with some sword he pulled out of nowhere and the thing died. It was a baby, no big deal.”

Nico’s mouth hung open. “No big deal? You were in the presence of a baby hellhound, which the Virtue killed, and it’s no big deal? It’s a very big fucking deal, Abby.”

“Why? We’re fine, the creature’s dead. No harm, no foul.”

“Hellhounds live in packs. Once you kill one you’re marked with their scent. Virtue-boy doesn’t have to worry about it because his heavenly nature masks the scent, but you two are, for all intents and purposes, mostly human. Even being a vampire doesn’t cover the scent of a dead hellhound. They’re going to track the two of you here.”

Abby lifted her arm to her nose and sniffed. “I don’t smell anything.”

“You can’t smell it because you aren’t a hellhound.”

“I don’t know,” she said unconvinced. “Are you sure this isn’t another one of those rumors demons spread to scare humans? Like the thing about newly turned vampires?”

“It’s real.” Nico picked up his cup of coffee and took another drink. “But I’m glad you can take this all so lightly. What’s given you this boost of confidence this morning?”

“Maybe I just found my inner strength.”

He made a noise, like the vocal equivalent of an eye roll. She was feeling stronger, more confident. Her eyes skittered to the fridge as her stomach tightened from hunger. Abby hopped off the counter and made her way to the fridge. She ignored the curious stare she could feel Nico giving her as she opened the cooler from Alexander and pulled out a bag of blood.

When she turned around with the bag of liquid in her hand Nico slammed his cup on the table. "Oh no. Absolutely not, Abby. We aren't doing this. I told you I would feed you. Where the hell did you get that anyways?"

She defiantly sunk her teeth into the plastic and took a long pull before answering, "You can't feed me enough Nico, it would kill you. Alexander gave me this and he said he’ll ship out a cooler every week to keep me well fed. That way, you don't drain yourself, I don't starve, and you don't have to worry about anyone getting hurt. I haven't felt this good since I woke up a month ago. I feel strong and healthy and, well, I feel good. So I'm drinking it, you’re keeping your blood inside your veins, and everybody comes away a winner."

Nico blinked as Abby stood there. He was either shocked that she'd stood up for herself or mystified by something else entirely, but she wasn’t backing down. After several long seconds he blew out a heavy sigh and nodded. "Well, okay then. I guess you've got it covered."

"I do." She smiled brightly and hopped back up on the counter to finish her breakfast when a knock at the door interrupted them. Chloe sprung up before either of them could move and snapped her fingers at Abby. "Take cover."

The door opened before Abby could do anything more than scoot closer to the west corner of the kitchen where the sun was least likely to hit her. Rosalie stepped inside, keeping the door wide open. "Nico?" She glanced in the kitchen and smiled. "There you are."

Abby watched as he clenched his hands at his side. "Shut the damn door."

Chloe flung her hand out using a burst of magick to slam the door behind Rosalie and added, "Don’t they have manners where you come from? You don't just let yourself into someone's home."

Rosalie ignored the Striga and made her way into the kitchen. She drew up short seeing Abby in the corner sucking on a bag of blood. “Oh," she flinched. "I see you’re feeding it from a bag today?"

Abby couldn't help but growl at the woman, and deep down it felt good to do it. This time Nico didn't seem to mind either, he simply gave Abby a little smile before turning his attention back to Rosalie. "Abby, I mean, Jane..." He paused and looked back at Abby. "Which name do you prefer?"

She stopped mid sip and mulled it over. Jane was her past. Abby was who she was now and she liked who she was. "Abby."

Rosalie took a step back. "Why... Why would you ask it that? Where did you hear that name?"

Nico shrugged. "The girls headed into the city last night, too. Abby found her family, turns out her old name used to be Jane." He arched a brow at Rosalie. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about all this, would you?"

"No," Rosalie stammered. "Of course not. But she is dangerous, Nico. I am begging, God is begging you to put her down now."

He took another drink of his coffee. "Why the rush?"

"She's an abomination, she's evil. If she's been made aware of her past, then she might try to get some sort of retribution on her unknowing family. Nico, you cannot wait on this. She must die now."