Eden (31 page)

“
Just for a minute,” I
said, trying to nonchalantly slide by him. I grabbed my stomach and
hunched over a bit, trying to casually weather another
contraction.

Ryan touched Jared’s arm. “Jared, we
got through an entire city of shells. If she wants to breathe some
fresh air after nearly sixty days in a cave, I say let
her.”

“
You don’t have a say, so
shut up,” Jared said through his teeth.

“
I don’t either?” I said.
I hobbled toward the entrance slowly, but Jared matched every
step.

“
Of course you do,” he
said. “Just...just let me think for a minute.”

I closed my eyes tight.
They twitched every time the drops of water slid from the rock wall
to the ground. “That’s the problem. I can’t
think
in here. I can’t breathe. I
can’t sleep. I feel like I’m dying!”

“
Jared,” Ryan
began.

“
Shut the hell
up!”

“
Maybe we all need some
fresh air,” Bex said.

With wide eyes, both Jared and Claire
craned their necks at their little brother.

Jared’s jaws worked under his skin,
and he struggled to relax enough to speak to me in a calm voice.
“Nina, for all we know the devil is up there. They will stop at
nothing now.”

Ryan shrugged. “Sometimes you gotta
dance with the devil to get out of Hell.”

The further we got to the entrance,
the darker it became. Bex had set up twin-head industrial light
stands around the perimeter, so bright that at first, when they
were all lit, it felt like day. Now the shadows they cast were just
another reminder of our prison.

I moved quickly to the doorway, and
Claire grabbed my wrist. “Maybe we should sedate her?”

I yanked my arm back,
easily shouldering past her. “You’re not keeping me here against my
will! I know I sound crazy! I
feel
crazy! This place is making me crazy! I don’t
want to leave forever. I just...I just want a couple of minutes of
sunshine. Just a moment to feel alive again.”

Ryan appeared in front of me, holding
up his hands. “Whoa, buddy. You’re getting yourself all worked up,”
he said. He spoke through nervous laughter, trying to lighten the
mood. “You need to take a minute to think about this. No one is
making you stay, but maybe if you think about this a little more,
you’ll reconsider.”

Jared looked to me with hope in his
eyes.

“
I thought you were on my
side,” I said.

“
I am, Nigh. I’ve always
been on your side.”

“
No one’s on my side. No
one hears me.”

Ryan relaxed a bit. “Just try to clear
your head and think about it. You’re not a prisoner here. You’re
here to keep the baby safe until it’s born.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’ve thought about
it. I can’t stand it anymore. Who wants to have their baby in a
tomb? Not me. This was a bad idea. I just need to go. I have to
go.”

I made my way to the entrance that led
to the stairs, but Jared stood in my way, his fingers digging into
my shoulders. “I can’t let you go, sweetheart. If you go upstairs,
they’ll kill you.”

“
But, we...you...you need
to get me out of here, okay? I don’t want to be here any
more.”

Jared nodded, his voice low and calm.
“I understand. As soon as the baby comes, we’ll leave. I
promise.”

I shook my head, the tears cascading
down my cheeks. I took a step back. “No. No, I don’t want to have
the baby here. I can’t stay here another night. Not another
second.”

“
That’s a prize-winning
freakout, right there,” Kim said without emotion.

Jared grimaced. “You’re not helping,
Kim. Listen,” he said, returning his attention to me.

My body shook. I was in control of
nothing. Not my body, not where I slept. I couldn’t even go to the
bathroom alone or take a walk. It was too much. Too
much.

“
You can’t make me stay
here. I can leave when I want.”

“
You’re right. You can
leave when you want, but...I want you to stay. The second you’re
aboveground, Nina, you’ll regret your choice. Just...trust me?
Please? Just a little bit longer. Can you stay with me a little bit
longer?”

Tiny twin rivers dripped from my jaw
onto my dirty shirt. I closed my eyes, but all I could hear was the
dripping. The damn dripping. It wouldn’t stop.

“
No,” I whispered. I ran
for the door, and Claire and Jared grabbed my arms. With my full
strength, I took one step after another, slowly but surely making
my way to the doorway.

Claire grunted against my strength.
“Nina, stop!”

Bex joined his siblings, grabbing both
of my ankles and wrapping his feet around them. I could have broken
free, but I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to hurt any of
them, I just needed to be aboveground, to breathe fresh air and
feel the sun on my skin. To hear my voice—just one time—without an
echo behind it.

“
Nina, look at me!
Look
at me!” Jared said,
positioning his face in front of mine. “You have to stop. You’re
going to get yourself killed, and the baby will die. Do you hear
me?
We’ll all die!
”

I stopped struggling, and my body went
limp as I sobbed on the ground against my husband. My focus on
survival, irrational or not, had become a monster.

Claire and Bex took a step back with
labored breath. I’d given all three of them a run for their
money.

Jared stood and pulled me with him.
“Okay?”

I nodded, watching him walk into the
tomb. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter Twenty

Legion

I bolted for the top of the stairs,
shoving the altar out of the way. I crawled out of the hole,
squinting against the bright sun filtering in through the
rotunda.

I took a deep breath, letting the
warm, fresh air fill my lungs. I bathed in it, taking in every bit
before Jared dragged me back underground. After a few seconds, the
warm air went away, and the cold, dark feeling of the tomb
surrounded me. Jared had barely let me take an entire breath before
he’d forced me to return.

I opened my eyes and realized I was
still in the Sepulchre. The room was full of shells, poised to
pounce. I could hear Jared crawling up the stairs, yelling my name,
but immediately I was attacked. I fought off one, and then two and
three at a time. By the time Jared reached the top, I had already
taken out half the shells in a fury of moves I didn’t even have to
think about. A small woman threw herself at me, her arms flailing
about. Jared incapacitated her with a single blow. Claire and Ryan
reached the top, quickly followed by Bex, and the mob inside the
Sepulchre quickly thinned. More filed in, though, and we were
running out of room.

“
Back up!” Jared
commanded. “Back downstairs!”

The walls shook, and two large, dark
forms squeezed their misshapen bodies into the entrance of the
Sepulchre. They weren’t shells, but demons, large demons with gray
skin and mouths full of teeth under moist snouts.

The one on the right grabbed Jared
while the other took my shirt in one hand, and slammed my back
against the opposite wall.

“
Hey!” Kim yelled from the
mouth of the stairway. “Get the hell out of here!” Even though the
monsters stood two heads taller than her, she didn’t seem nervous
in the slightest. The demons wailed at her, shielding themselves
with their shoulders, but they didn’t retreat.

The demon that Jared fought barked at
the black-eyed minions filing into the room, and before anyone
could react, a half-dozen of the shells dove at Kim, pushing her
down the stairway. Her scream faded as she rolled further
underground.

Bex leapt in after her, and Claire and
Ryan went to work on Jared’s demon.

I tried to rip my shirt to escape the
grip of the brute, but his hands were gigantic, and I couldn’t
break free. A shell in military fatigues slipped into the room,
walked to me without hesitation, and held a pistol to my
temple.

The demon holding me signaled his
partner, capturing Jared, Claire and Ryan’s attention as well. In a
move so fast I could barely follow, Jared pulled his sidearm from
his belt and held it on the shell. The entire room
froze.

“
Don’t. Move,” Jared
said.

I nodded. I was sure he was furious
with me. His eyes glossed over, and his teeth clenched.

The shell spoke. “We’re taking her out
of this place. Do not follow, or we’ll cut the child from her in
the street.”

Jared held his gun on the shell, his
entire body shaking with rage. Finally he lowered his weapon a
little. “I love you,” he said, immediately tensing his arms
again.

I smiled. “It’s okay. You’ll just save
me like you always do, right?”

“
Right. Just wait for
me.”

“
I’ll wait for you,” I
said.

Hesitant, and clearly conflicted,
Jared lowered his weapon. In the next moment, I was dragged
backward with such force I felt I was flying. The rooms of the
Sepulchre flew past, and then I was in the sunlight. The streets
blurred as the demon raced me through the old city. A few minuts
later, I was dragged into an old building.

The fiend tossed me, and I skidded to
the middle of a room. At first glance, the room was a filthy mess,
and then I realized the pile of sheets was a provisional bed. No
medical supplies or baby blankets.

“
What will you do to him?”
I asked, hesitant to make eye contact with the rotting pile of
flesh standing at the door.

“
He waits to devour
him.”

I groaned. Pain seared through my
body, and I knew I would have to calm down if I were to slow down
the contractions. The more time I gave Jared to reach us, the
better chance we had. I climbed onto the tufts of sheets, and
leaned back on the heels of my hands.

A shell, a large woman, was allowed
entry. I braced myself to be attacked, but she grabbed a fistful of
my sweat-drenched hair, lifted me to my feet, and then ripped off
my clothes with her free hand. She pulled an oversized nightgown
over my head, pushing me to the floor. I raised my hands to defend
myself, but she only grabbed my wrists and tied them with cloth
restraints attached to wires. Those thick wires were fastened to
the cement floor with bolts. Once she completed her task, the woman
left me alone with the demon.

Dirty windows lined the wall to my
left. The outlines of dozens of shells cast shadows against the
muddy glass. I wondered if I could take the giant standing guard at
the door, but I knew that Jared and Claire had trouble with him,
and I hadn’t exactly trained how to ignore labor pains while on the
offensive. I subtly tested the bolts. They seemed fairly secure,
but I was sure I could break free when the time came. The one exit
would pose a problem; I didn’t know what else waited on the other
side. I could probably break through the window, but once again,
the contractions…

I tensed, trying to breath
through the pain. “Oh...my
God
!” I grunted. Deep breaths turned
into panting. Sweat dripped from my hairline into my eyes. Just
when I thought I might break in half, the contraction subsided. I
let my body relax against an old cushion propped against the
wall.

“
Can I have some water?” I
asked.

The demon’s beady eyes shifted toward
me. He snarled, and then looked ahead.

The cramping grew more intense with
the next few contractions, and then I felt a warm gush between my
legs. When I looked down at the clear liquid that had drenched the
sheets, I realized my water had broke. A short relief of pressure
came, quickly followed by a spasm so intense that I nearly passed
out.

I wailed, and moved back against the
wall. Nothing I did escaped the agony. “Please,” I whimpered
between breaths, “help me.” Another wave washed over me; my
blood-curdling screams echoed throughout the building. The panting
didn’t help, nothing helped. My hands balled into fists, shaking
and white-knuckled.

When the agony paused for a minute or
two, I would let my body fall limp against the cushion. Already
exhausted, I knew unless Jared saved us, my abilities would be
worthless.

The intensity of the next contraction
took me by surprise, and I sat up straight, my knees bent and
widely spread, I straining against my restraints. Unsure of what I
was even saying, my mouth formed every obscenity I’d ever heard in
my life. When it was over, I collapsed against the cushion,
bawling, whimpering for my husband. Pressure between my thighs
provoked me to reach down. Something soft and wet, covered in hair
was barely peeking out from inside me. The baby was beginning to
crown. I looked to the demon. He didn’t even seem to be on alert.
Jared wasn’t even close.

I closed my eyes, making a
concentrated effort to relax all of my muscles. Even when the pain
came again, I refused to give into it. I refused to push. When the
agony became too much, I held my screams inside. Any tensing on my
part could push out the baby, and that was something I refused to
do until I saw my husband. The waved crashed into me, and I lowered
my chin to my chest, bit my lip, and stared intently at the wall
across the room. I would. Not. Push.