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-&-

Chapter 29

       The tunnel was just as dark and creepy leaving the cavern as it was when I entered, if not more My mind was still a complete and total mess, and it would be for a very long time, but I knew the only way to sort through everything was to get as far away from Deshua as I could.

       "Awe, yes, Larkin. You were right River."

       We had just exited the mouth of the cave when that voice reached our ears. Adriel pulled us to an immediate stop as I frowned and looked over his shoulder. "Professor Shorzin? What are you doing here?" I went to step in front of Dri, but his hand tightened on mine and he shifted until I was completely behind him.

       "See? I told you they knew where he really was!"

       "River? What are you guys doing here?" A whole crowd of fifteen or twenty people stood surrounding the entrance of the cave, and four of them I knew very well.

       Shorzin, River, and Siena stood at the very front of the crowd. My folklore professor had an elated smile on his face, though River kept glancing at us nervously—well, he kept glancing at Adriel nervously—and Siena just stood stalk silent beside them. Jess was there too, but she didn't look nearly as comfortable as everyone else. If anything, she looked worried.

       "What the hell is going on?" I went to step around Adriel again, but he made a weird sound and pushed me back.

       "Well, you see, when young River here saw you disappear into the very place we purposely made sure no one can go, we make it a point to follow. Especially after your little talk with our Jess here." Shorzin took a step forward, his beaming eyes, with the laugh lines at the corner, gleamed in the dim light of the forest. His usual ponytail was nowhere in sight, and his long hair framed like a curtain around his thin face. He still wore his khaki shorts, Hawaiian shirt and sandals which made the whole sinister air he was portraying all that weirder.

       "Leave me out of this, Jemison. I told you I want nothing to do with it."

       Shorzin just waved off the small woman's words and took another step towards us. Adriel's arm reached around until his hand could grab protectively at the sleeve of my jacket. "I'm sure you could imagine my surprise when pretty boy there followed after you too. Turns out we're not the only ones good at hiding." He let a chuckle follow his words, and I could practically feel Dri tense in front of me.

       What in the actual fuck was happening? And why was Shorzin acting like a massive creep? Like he knew.

       "Fuck off, piss ant."

       "You always did have such a way with words, Avidus."

       Oof. Okay, I guess he did know.

       Adriel stepped completely in front of me at that, blocking every ounce of my view. His hold body tensed liked he was ready for a fight. I knew he could do some damage, but there were at least fifteen people surrounding us. I highly doubted he could take them all, even if I helped. He might have been the demon/not demon thingy, but this was still just a human body. I think.

       I glanced over at River and Siena, who no longer held those inviting smiles. Were they apart of this too? Was anything in this fucking town real?! Siena was in her typical goth attire, but there was a dark fire in her eyes as she looked at Adriel that concerned me. River was standing between her and Shorzin with that nervous glint dancing across his bright eyes.

       They weren't Immortals, I knew that much. They never flashed those signature red eyes and I never had that weird stomach-turning unease around them. Yet, they knew who we were and there were two different kinds of people in Deshua. If they weren't part of the group that worshiped Adriel, than they were part of the one that wanted to kill us. Or, kill me to be more specific.

       "I had a feeling you were poking holes in the spell, but I never would have realized how much. Good job. Creating that whole little human life you got there must have taken a lot power. I'm envious." Shorzin applauded mockingly, though no one else joined him. It wasn't hard to figure out he was apparently the ringleader of the group.

       Which was honestly pretty fucked if you asked me. I mean, seriously? The guy taught us all about Avidus and the Key! He even seemed to idealize the guy! So did River and Siena! Everything in this town really was one, big, fucked up lie.

       "Stay behind me." Adriel spoke softly over his shoulder, but never took his eyes off Shorzin and the others.

       Fine by me. It's not like I planned on running through them.

       "You always did crave more power than you could handle." Dri spoke louder then, his own tone of mocking slipping into the air.

       That's when I realized how they were talking. Like the knew each other personally, from a long time ago, but Shorzin wasn't an Immortal. Not one of Avidus's at least, which didn't make any sense. I thought only the Immortals could be, well, immortal. But I couldn't shove down that sickening feeling that Shorzin was one of the witches that called up Michael. That stuck Adriel in that cavern. Which so did not bode well for us.

       "Ha! Look who's talking! You weren't thrown from Heaven for giving away power." The professor-turned creepy weirdo-dude laughed viciously. Okay, I definitely had enough for one day. Scratch that, I had enough for a whole lifetime.

       "True, but I knew how to handle it. You killed half the town."

       "And you turned the other half into soulless man-eaters." His laughter died completely away and eyes so dark they could have been black locked onto Dri's.

       Adriel shrugged, not at all concerned with the sudden change in Shorzin. "It was their choice. They knew what they were getting into."

       "Even so," Shorzin paused to run a hand through his scraggily, greasy, brown hair, "We will not allow you to do so again. The prison was set in place for a reason. It cannot be broken."

       I wasn't sure what Adriel was planning, but from how tense his back was, I knew it would involve fighting. Even though I knew there was no way we were going to get out of there by fighting, I reached for the knife hidden in my jacket. It was meant to fight the Immortals, but I hoped it would work just as well against Shorzin's group. There were humans, right? Well, at least compared to Luke and those red eyed freaks.

       "We're leaving!" I tried to make my voice as steady as possible as I spoke up behind Adriel's back, though I'm sure I only sounded like a frightened child. Adriel's head whipped around to glare at me as I stuck my head around his shoulder, but I ignored him.

       "I'm not waking him up, we're leaving Deshua and never coming back, I swear." I gripped tightly onto the sleeve of Adriel's flannel as all eyes turned to me. "Seriously! You can check our SUV if you don't believe me. We're leaving town and never coming back."

       "I do not doubt you, child." Shorzin's voice was sickly sweet, like he was addressing a four-year-old who couldn't understand why they were in trouble. "But we do not like to take any chances. I'm afraid you must be handled."

       I needed no clarification on how they planned on 'handling' me. I gulped and Adriel shoved me effortlessly behind him once again.

       "Don't do this, Jemison." Dri tried to reason, though his voice was hard and his body unmoving. "You will not like what happens if you do."

       Jemison waved his hand dismissively, like nothing in the world worried him. "As far as I'm concerned you are dead and hold no true power. And once your little girlfriend is out of the way, there will be peace again."

       "Adriel..." My fingers curled tightly into the back of his flannel as my eyes darted around the crowd that had spread out around us. There was no easy escape in sight, and I had a bad feeling I wouldn't be leaving this alive.

       "It'll be okay, Lark." But he didn't promise like he usually would, and his voice didn't sound so sure.

       My eyes landed on River and Siena, and in a last-ditch effort I tried to plead with them. "Come on, guys. Are you really going to kill me? I thought we were friends."

       They exchanged glances with each other and shrugged simultaneously. "It's nothing personal, Larkin. We really did like you." River started with a half-smile. "Peace and balance just come's first, you know?" Siena finished, but the way her lips curved didn't seem so remorseful. I had a sickening flashback of the first time we met, where she didn't care whether I was the new girl in town or a bug beneath her shoe.

       God. I was so done with fucking crazy ass psychos.

       "Larkin."

       My name whispered into my mind like a cool breeze against heated skin. I whipped my head around and locked eyes with the bright green gaze of Jess. She was the only one of the group that didn't seem eager to kill me.

       "You are going to have to run."

       There it was again, her voice inside my head. It almost felt like a fly buzzing next to my ear. I instinctively reached my hand up to swat the bug away but met nothing.

       Yeah. I was already planning on that, thanks.

       "They will take him first. When that happens run back into the cave."

       Yeah right. There was no way in hell I was going back in there. Cornering myself in a tomb with Adriel's real body didn't seem like the best idea.

       "You must. It's the only way you will survive." She persisted like she could hear exactly what I was thing, which she probably could. She was in my head after all.

       "Grab Avidus, he's only human now. He can't hurt you. Then take the girl." The minute the words left Shorzin's lips, the crowd around us began to descend like irritating mosquitoes.

       Adriel pushed me away and was able to throw a few out of the crowd away, before their numbers overpowered him and they grabbed onto his arms. I ribbed my knife out of the jacket's inside pocket and raised it protectively in front of me. The two unknown men who had started on me paused at the sight of the sharp weapon.

       Yet panic flared through my body as I saw Adriel get dragged down the hill, and despite what Jess said, I hesitated. I couldn't leave him, not when he was trying to save me, and even though he ripped my entire world apart, I still loved him.

       "Larkin run!" He shouted as they dragged him further away, but I couldn't. I sucked in a shaky breath, raised my knife higher and then chased after his captors. "Larkin stop, go!" Adriel's voice was filled with rage as he tried to shove the men off him, but Shorzin had made sure to bring men far larger than him.

      I raised my hand, ready to stab it into the nearest creep, when hands suddenly ripped me away. "Let him go!" I shouted as my knife went flying into the air, then lost in the mass of trees and brush. Those hands hoisted me effortlessly away. "Stop! Let him go!" I was screaming, though my throat was already raw from earlier.

       I reached for Adriel, begging him to just take my hand so we could figure out how to get the fuck out of there, but another pair joined the ones holding me back and ripped us apart. He didn't stop fighting, but those dark eyes locked on mine, and the look there tore my heart from my chest. We really weren't getting out of this.

       "Snap it." Shorzin ordered casually a few feet away, as those unfamiliar hands pulled me further from Adriel.

       Then the most horrific sight I would ever witness played out before my eyes. The two guys holding Adriel stopped their retreat while a third walked towards them. I realized too late what was about to happen and could only watch in horror as the man placed his hands on either side of Adriel's face, and twisted viciously. The 'crack' sound was nearly as loud as the one in my chest.

       "No!!" I screamed so loudly my throat felt like I swallowed fire. I kicked and thrashed my body viciously as the men tossed Adriel's limp body to the ground, but there was no leeway in their hold. "What have you done?!" I shouted in pure agony as those hands ripped me further away. If I thought my world had fallen apart before, it was nothing compared to the sight of the person, who was supposed to be your everything, get their neck snapped.

       There was a sick smile pulling on Shorzin's lips as he turned to me. "Oh, relax. He's not dead. Well, at least not the 'real' him." He snickered, and there was nothing more in the world that I wanted than to take a very dull stick and shove it repeatedly into his brain. "I'm sure once he regains himself, he'll be able to build a whole new human body, maybe even reanimate that one if I don't decide to burn it. Sadly, I can't say the same for you."

       I knew his words were supposed to terrify me, but I actually found them relieving. He wasn't dead.

       "Take her to town square, we'll have a ceremony and-" Shorzin's face went slack, his dark eyes growing distant for the briefest of moments before he shook his head. "Actually, no. Take her into the tomb, let's have some fun."

       I didn't notice or care about the hands holding me hostage and dragging me back into the cave. My brain was still replaying that horrific sight over and over. The only hope I had was knowing he wasn't really dead. That he couldn't die. I prayed to whatever god there was that that was true.

       I caught the briefest glimpse of Jess before I was dragged back into the cave. There was sweat on her brow and those green eyes were glued to Shorzin, her slender mouth mumbling silent words no one heard. I had a feeling the sudden change of plans was her doing. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to give them hell.

       "Let me fucking go!" I shouted as they dragged me back down that tunnel I was becoming way too familiar with. "You no good, peace of shit, fuck-tard!" My screaming fell on deaf ears, except for Shorzin who only laughed.

       "You know, your first life was nowhere near this feisty. It makes things interesting."

       "Suck ass, you fuck."

       A sharp slap rang throughout the tunnel as the back of his hand connected with my face. The hit was so hard, I went dizzy, and fell limp in my captor's hold. "Now see, that wasn't so hard. I would say to learn some manners, but you won't be around long enough to do so." I could only groan in response as ringing sounded throughout my entire skull.

       The torches flickered to life as soon as they dragged me into the crypt and threw my body against the stone base of that slab. My back connected sharply with its base and I let out a gasp as pain shot down my spine. I blinked dazedly up at the two who threw, only to not recognize the large men walking away.

       Shorzin hovered only a few feet away, Siena and River still lingering at his side. God, this was really fucked.

       "Are you sure leaving her is a good idea? She might try to wake him." Siena spoke up at his side, though Professor Fuck-Tard just scoffed and rolled his eyes.

       "The girl is clueless. She didn't even know she was living with him. I doubt he told her what to do. You two may leave."

       They nodded briefly at Shorzin, before turning and walking away without a glance back. I take back what I said earlier, they were the ones not winning the Friend of the Year award. It was all mine. Yay.

       Then it was just Shorzin facing me, a wicked gleam in his dark eyes. "Does this seem familiar to you yet, Larkin?" He glanced almost nostalgically around the tomb, his eyes lingering on the skull resting at the base of the stone slab before dropping back down to where I was huddled on the floor. "Do you not remember the last time we were in here together?"

       I didn't say anything as he walked forward, only used my elbow to scoot away from him. My head was throbbing, whether from his hit or just the whole fucking day I wasn't sure, and my back was screaming in pain. I could make a run if I really tried, but I had no doubt he had fuckheads stationed throughout the tunnel and its entrance. I wouldn't get very far.

       I closed my eyes and sucked in a shaky breath. "Jess...?" I tried to ask as loudly in my head as I could, though I doubted I did it right. I wanted to cry when she didn't respond.

       "I don't blame you if you don't. You never were too bright." He stopped at the base of the stone slab, right next to that skull. Then the psycho stepped on it.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

       But the minute the old bone cracked and crumbled beneath his sandal the images hit me. I was no longer lying on the floor in fear, but standing next to the stone slab, holding the hand of the demon/angel thing to my face. He was still awake and smiling sadly up at me as I cradled his palm to my tear stained cheek.

       "I'm so sorry."

       "I know."

       The words rushed through my ears as if they were spoken right next to me, whispering like soft lullaby's.

       "Please do not hate me."

       "I could never hate you."

       I cried over him with my heart torn into a thousand pieces at the act I must commit. Then the images disappeared on black smoke, until new ones flashed through my mind. He was sleeping now, with those thick black chains binding him firmly in place. I hovered over his peaceful face, still crying while my tears seemed to leave permanent imprints against his cheeks.

       "You have done well." I didn't need to glance over to know Jemison was behind me.

       "It is not permanent." That was the only hope I could hold onto as I watched the man I loved fall into an eternal cage.

       "Indeed, it is not... Which is why I am sure you can understand what I am about to do." I didn't have a chance to question him, or even turn around.

       Just like my modern Adriel, hands wrapped around my head and snapped my neck swiftly to the side. Pain ricocheted down my back, but then I was no longer the girl who put the fallen angel to sleep but lying on the floor and watching her dead body fall beside me.

       I gasped and the image disappeared completely. "You killed her—me. Right here."

       "Hm, yes. As I must do again, I'm afraid. I can't risk you waking him, just like I couldn't risk it then." He traced his fingers leisurely over Adriel's stone slab, and I had the sudden urge to stand up and shove him away. "Rather ironic, don't you think? I killed your first life here, and now your bones will join hers. It gives me chills."

       "You're fucking insane."

       He paused and glanced down at me curiously before shrugging. "Probably, it's bound to happen when you live as long as I have. Avidus might have the power to turn humans Immortals, but I know the secret of long life. Dying is easy, living is much harder—but so worth it.

       "Look," I tried in another last-ditch effort as he circled back to the entrance of the tunnel. I didn't really care how he was able to live so long, I only cared about surviving. "Even if you kill me, I'll just be reincarnated. You can't keep me dead. That Azzie-guy will always send me back until Adriel does wake."

       Shorzin shrugged again, like he didn't have any care in the world. "Then I will kill your next life, and the next, and the next. I do not care. Killing doesn't bother me, actually I rather enjoy it."

       What in the actual fuck was Adriel thinking bringing me here? Everyone here was fucking insane!

        "Though, I think I'm going to enjoy putting you through a slow death." He traced his hand almost lovingly down the stone side of the tomb's entrance, his dark eyes flickering up to the roof. "Yes, trapping you in here with your lost love as you starve or suffocate. Now that is poetry."

       "Larkin..." Jess's voice sounded in my head once again, though it sounded distant and jumbled. My heart raced in my chest as I tried to desperately cling onto her. "Blood... key..."  Were the only words I could understand before she disappeared.

       Shorzin stepped back into the tunnel, his hand still on the side of the entrance, his sickening smile shining brightly down at me. "Do enjoy your time with him while you can." Then, with a flick of his hand, the stones and dirt above the entrance shrieked and rumbled before caving in.

       Sealing me forever in Adriel's tomb. 

-&-

Right, so, please don't hate me (blinks innocently at you all from the safety of my room).

The show must go on!

Hope you kind of enjoyed :'D