Page 67 of Sinister Hearts
A memory of Diana always being so welcoming to me came to mind. She was always into Grimstone’s myths and legends and she would tell them to us as teens, around by the bonfire that kept us drunken youths warm. Diana was such a believer, always so superstitious.Who wouldn’t be after falling in love with a Reaper and having three Grim sons.
“She always asked about Ma, but she never told me,” I whispered, hurt by this truth.
Bjorn handed me an old picture, with the edges burnt, of all four of them. They all sat at a table, playing dominoes and cards. You could sense the love and the happiness just by looking at the photo.
“She would rather cut a limb off than betray your mother. They were more than friends, they were sisters,” he sighed, looking at the photo.
“I wish I could have said goodbye. I wish I could tell her thank you, for everything she did for me.”
Bjorn watched as I gazed at the picture of my ma with her friends.
“She called it, ya know, you coming back someday. She said she always had faith that you and Jaxon would reunite. Something about it being in the stars.” Bjorn rubbed his silver beard. It was the same thinking tick Jax had. “I sure do miss her,” he said with a cracked voice.
I picked up the pistol and loaded the chamber. “We’ll call you Dirty Diana.” I placed her in my boot.
I could see Bjorn holding back his tears beaming with pride. “You and Birdie are family, Faye. The Robles bloodline has always been an ally to the Grimwood’s. Your mother and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but I did admire her. She was a true warrior spirit with all her wisdom. She was a nurturer,and a fighter, and I respected her despite all our differences. She was there for her the whole time through her sickness, and was an amazing friend to Diana in the end. The cancer brought them back together one last time.” A small smile spread across Bjorn’s face. “I’d like to think they’re in Valhalla, laughing and singing together in the kitchen at midnight, while they have their margaritas.”
A tear fell from my eye and Bjorn wiped it away.
“Do not weep for them, child, your mother died an honorable death. She died doing what she loved, protecting those she loved.” The giant, silver-bearded Bjorn hugged me, towering over my five-foot-three stature. Come to think of it, Bjorn was the only male figure I’d had in my life since I was a teen. “Two more days before these souls meet death,” Bjorn said, hugging me tight.
Ryker saw footage of the car Avi drove off in, heading northeast. He sent out a drone and followed the trail to an old abandoned factory in the middle of the desert. It’s been vacant for years and forgotten by the public. It’s about an hour away which makes sense. It’s right between Cravyn City and Grimstone.
Creed and Ryker probed the place out while we were figuring out what happened to Birdie and Ma in the catacombs. Sure enough, after five hours of surveillance, he spotted Avi and Vadon driving into the factory and getting out with a woman who seemed to be drugged and held hostage. I couldn’t see who she was though, they had her hooded and tied.
“Penny. It’s Penelope, we know where she is!” I gasped, relieved. Hope started filling my doubt.
“The plan is to get them all out safely. We get the spell binders, we get these bastards, and we get out,” Jax called out, loading his shotgun. “You…” He marched up to me. “Please do not try to play the hero and do something stupid, do you understand?” He grabbed my face with both of his rugged hands.
“I—”
“No, Faye! Tell me you will stay out of the way.” Jaxon refused to hear me. He wanted me to make promises that I simply could not keep.
“How are we going to get them out?” Ryker asked, taking me out of the hot seat.
Creed’s shadows materialized into the room suddenly, surprising us. “A fire, that’s how.” Creed’s smile was deranged as he fully emerged from the cloud of his shadows.
“You can’t just start a fire, what if there’s more innocent people in there? They will be left to die.” I was trying to reason with Creed and talk him out of this deranged plan.
“I really don’t care,” Creed said, deadpanned.
Rocky shoved her way in front of him. “What the fuck, Creed, we don’t know how many they have in there planning to sacrifice! You are a disgusting prick, you know that!” Rocky spat and gave Creed the most evil of looks.
“She’s right. We save the women, then we burn the motherfucker to the ground.” Jax placed his large hands on Creed’s broad, tattooed shoulder. Both of them gave each other a brotherly nod, that only they could understand.
Creed slowly walked up to Ryker and placed his forehead against his, both of them closing their eyes. I watched them telepathically communicate to each other. I gazed at this brotherhood in awe of how close and connected they were, all three of them hauntingly beautiful.
My vision suddenly became hazy and tunneled, my breath caught in my throat. My skin was buzzing like a thousand spiders crawling on my skin. I was no longer in control of my body as something foreign infiltrated every crevice of my being.
“Faye!” a voice shouted in the distance, but the ringing in my ears was too deafening to ignore. My heart pounded rapidly in my head like a drum. My blood coursed through my thick veins, as the darkness pulled me in, extending me deeper into its magnetizing depth.
“Mors decet te- (death becomes you),” I chanted in Latin.
A morbid octane vibrated from deep inside of me that I didn’t know existed. I was conscious, but I wasn’t. My body was a vessel, a puppet for the wicked that lived inside of me. My body was held captive by the source overpowering me. The brutal visions splitting my mind and vision. I was cast out of my own body, hopeless, my bones stiffening—the pain was excruciating. I was a stranger to my own body. My own limbs betrayed me as I gravitated into the air. My mind swarmed with visions of death. Tortured screams ascending to the pits of hell. Chilling whispers swirled around me. All the power in my body succumbed to its substance. My eyes rolled back into my skull, and my eye sockets filled with pearls of white. Objects in the room suddenly defied gravity as everything floated in sync with me mid-air. Time stood still, as my hair whisked majestically against the gravity. My body dropped along with the floating objects.
Jax caught me in a storm of his shadows, and cradled my exhausted body.
“Are you okay?” Jax asked, holding me and looking disturbed.
