Thirty-Four

I flung open the front door and a momentary sense of peace filled me as I breathed in the night air. Finally, I was able to rid my senses of the horrible stench of the basement.

The streetlights cast a strange, iridescent light over the yard, doing little to keep the darkness at bay. If you’d asked me before, I would’ve told you I was afraid of the dark and embarrassingly pointed to the nightlight Mrs. Hooper kept in the upstairs hall. Not anymore. Now the darkness kept us hidden, gave us a shot at escaping unnoticed.

We decided to let Joseph lead, figuring he would know the quickest route to safety. Our goal wasn’t to make it home in one night, just to get safely out of Elijah’s striking distance.

I felt more than saw Elijah emerge from the shadows, and with one deep breath, I turned around to face him.

“Going somewhere, Rebekah?”

Joseph and Mike slowly turned around at the sound of his voice. Mike’s hand flexed, the rage he’d tamped down flying full throttle to the surface.

I thought about taking off, just running as fast as I could in the opposite direction, and if it hadn’t been for what Elijah was holding in front of him, I probably would’ve. Elijah had James by the throat, kicking at the back of the boy’s feet to make him walk. James was pale and sweating, but he wasn’t lashing out or trying to break free. It wasn’t until I saw the glint of the blade at James’s neck that I figured out why.

James silently begged me to help him, the plea encased in tears that nearly brought me to my knees. I couldn’t help him. I was unarmed, Mike was loaded down with Luke, and Joseph looked as scared his cousin. That crazy old man had us stuck, unsure of what to do or where to run.

“James,” I muttered, hoping he’d hear the apology in my tone.

Elijah wrenched James’s neck back farther, the knife poised at his skin like a promise. “I see you found your brother,” he said to Mike, his gaze skimming over Luke’s body. “I tried, you know. I begged him to give up his contemptuous ways. But unlike you, he wouldn’t acknowledge my divinity. He kept damning me to hell, all in the name of her.”

Elijah’s words sunk in, left me standing there with nothing but the horrid truth ringing in my ears. Luke had been fighting for me, had spent his last hours cursing Elijah until it got him killed.

“There is no point in taking him home,” Elijah continued. “Even a Christian burial won’t save his soul.”

Elijah repositioned the knife, twisting it to elicit a gasp from James’s lips. “It’s actually better this way. Somebody as tainted as Luke needed to be released from the confines of this world and returned to his maker.”

I shrieked, a sound so intense and full of anger that I lost the ability to think. I wanted to tear every scrap of skin from Elijah’s body and stand over him as he took his last breath.

“Don’t,” Joseph whispered, anticipating my actions. “You go after him and he’ll kill James. Please, Dee, don’t give him a reason. Father,” he said, turning to Elijah with a plea in his voice, a plea I knew would go unanswered, “let them go. I’ll stay. I’ll submit to whatever you deem necessary, but please, let them go.”

“The thought of you leaving never crossed my mind, son. You were born and raised here, taught in our ways. And here is where you will die.”

Maybe that was Elijah’s endgame. Maybe he truly wanted to see us all dead, including his own son.

“What do you want from us?” Mike’s voice came from behind me. I turned and found myself staring at Luke’s thighs. They were covered in blood and whatever other horrible, sickening liquid had begun to seep from his body.

“That’s the wrong question.” Elijah stepped closer, dragging James with him. “You entrusted me with your soul, boy, agreed to go through the cleansing ritual and join our humble community. I expect you to keep your word.”

“I don’t owe you shit,” Mike fired back. “Like you said, I’m the smart one here. I said everything you wanted to hear, and what do you know? Here I am, alive and well.”

“For now,” Elijah said, smiling. He swung James around to face me, pushing him forward so that our feet touched and our breath mingled. “About your little indiscretion, Rebekah.”

I saw one thing and one thing only … the knife, clean and sharp.

“I believe I made myself quite clear when I left, did I not?” Elijah asked.

I opened my mouth, had to shut it and swallow hard twice before I came out with, “Please.” Not I’ll do what you want or take me instead. All I could manage was a weak, feeble “please.”

“Forgiveness is something I will grant you, because I understand the world you have lived in. I know that it will take great courage and strength on my part to keep you pure,” Elijah said. “But forgiveness by no means clears you of guilt, and for that you must pay a separate price of redemption.”

“Me!” I screamed, finally finding the courage to offer myself up. “Not him. I was the one who left to find Luke. I was the one who ran from you. Not James.”

“Trust me in this,” Elijah said. “This is a punishment you will not soon forget.”

He turned to James and laid the gentlest of kisses on the side of his head. “By all that is holy, I release you from the confines of this world.”