The Four Horsemen (The Light Series) (11 page)

I get up, noticing the
dead there. They’re sparkling and twirling about me. Wyatt takes my hand,
pulling me behind Constantine through the halls.

“What is it?”

He shakes his head, “I
cannot even describe it. You need to see it to believe it.”

I scowl, “Okay.”

We walk out the front
door and I stop instantly. There is a lineup of people. They are starved and
ragged looking. They are weak and tired. They have sores, and in some cases,
severe injuries. I don’t even know what to say or do. I can smell and almost
taste the evil in them. My stomach rumbles.

Constantine smiles, “I
know, right?”

I give him a confused
look, “Why are they here?”

Stella comes walking
around the corner with a man in her arms and blood dripping from her lips,
“They want to die. God told them to come to you for absolution.”

I stumble down the
stairs, “I can’t help you. I’m sorry. God was wrong. I can’t kill you all.”

A man walks to me,
“You are the sin eater; you must bless us and let us go to him. You are our
redemption.”

I look around as the
crowd starts to come towards me, “Why are you giving up? Why don’t you want to
fight and save this place? Why not fight together to kill the horsemen and save
the Earth from Lucifer?”

I look back at Wyatt.
His jaw is
set,
I can see he is ready to fight. I
shake my head, “We cannot sin.”

He smiles, “Self
defense is not a sin.”

“Wyatt, I need the
light of the world. I need it from my mother. I have to get into that garden.”

He nods, offering me
his hand. He pulls me to him. Constantine looks around and then at Stella, “End
them, sister. No one wants a bunch of cowards on the Earth anyway.”

Stella starts to
laugh. I hurry back into the house with Constantine and Wyatt. My stomach is
burning from hunger. I drop to my knees, pressing my hand against the door and
leaning my exhausted head.

Constantine drops to
his knees too, “We need to go now. We need to find that garden.”

Mona walks over, “I’m
coming. I have a feeling I’m supposed to.”

I glance over at
Michelle. She shakes her head, “No way. Not even for the road trip. I’m staying
here. That’s the freaking Z-
Apoc
out there. You guys
go ahead.” She has slowly become less of a human. I suppose not having a soul
has ruined the person she used to be. The person I loved.

I look at Wyatt, “I’m
taking Mona and him. When I ate from Constantine, you would have absorbed some
of my evil; the taint will be on you. You’re not the sin eater, you’re just
tainted.”

He opens his mouth but
his mother comes forward from the couch, “She is right. The sin eater has
reason for eating sin, you do not.” She smiles, “I need your help anyway.”

He is about to argue,
but she shakes her head, “I have found the horsemen. I need your help.”

He looks back over at
me and nods,
“Okay.” I don’t like the look I see in his
eyes. He looks at Constantine, “You keep her safe.”

He nods once.

I look at Mona, “I’ll
fly you, and he can do his weird vanishing there.”

She smiles, “This is
the right choice, trust me. I can feel it.”

The gate comes when we
least expect it. We have sat in the same spot by the stream for a day and a
half. Mona has run out of her packed food, and Constantine has been eyeing her
jugular up like it’s nobody’s business. I’m hungry in a way that can’t be
helped. I push away the desire to suck Mona of every last drop. When I am lost
in a thought about ending this all by any means necessary the gate
materializes.

It looks the way it
did in the dream. My feet walk before I’m actually ready. Mona grabs my hand,
and I swear I’m in a fairytale. We get inside and look back as Constantine
walks through. He closes his eyes and swallows hard as his feet cross the
boundaries. He smiles wide, “Well, that’s that then, isn’t it?”

I laugh, “What?”

“A vampire has never
entered the gates before.” His eyes twinkle, he’s always so cryptic. “We have
too much sex, too much killing, and a general lack of a soul.” He winks at me,
“But I am not a regular vampire.” He steps to me, “Let’s hurry.”

We cross the grassy
field to the village. A woman in white walks towards us, the one from the dream
walk. Her eyes lift and a fearful look crosses her face; we see her realize
that we shouldn’t be there. We are not fae. She stops dead in her tracks,
“How?”

I smile, “I’m the daughter
of Lillith. I need to see her. She has summoned me.”

The woman looks around
quickly, panicked. “You brought it right to them, after all these years and
after all her hard work… You brought it right to them?”

I shake my head,
“What?”

She sighs, “The weapon
against the angels.”

I look at Constantine.
He looks pissed. “What weapon?”

“The light of the
world.”

He gives me a sideways
look, “Where is it?”

Mona’s jaw drops, “Oh
God, is it inside of her?”

My jaw joins hers on
the floor. I shake my head, “That can’t be right. I have only death and badness
in me. Not to mention, a bunch of other girls. There’s no way.”

The woman shakes her
head, “You must leave now! Back to the gates before they see you.”

Constantine steps
towards her, “Why are you helping us?”

Her bright-blue eyes
flash, “Not everyone wants the world put back the way it was before God changed
everything. Not all of us believe in genocide.”

Mona looks at me,
“What do you want to do?”

My jaw sets in typical
Rayne stubbornness, “I want to free her. She is expecting me. She wouldn’t have
called me here unless there was no other way.”

The woman smiles, “You
know she is captive here?”

I nod, “We suspected.
That or she was in league with my father.”

“She would never help
him, not ever.”

Constantine gives me
another look, “We need to turn back. This could be a trap. I don’t know enough
about the light. I assumed…”

I snap at him, “We all
did. My mom and Fitz both thought it. Everyone thought it was in
her—Lillith.”

Constantine laughs,
“And all this time, those Van Helsings have had you in their grasp, forever
seeking the light for his holy pain in the ass.” His laugh makes us all laugh.
I’ve never seen him so free.

I scowl, “Don’t talk
about God like that.” I don’t even know why I’m defending him. The guy has
never done me any favors.

Constantine scoffs,
“Not God—Michael. God would have nothing to do with this.” He starts to
laugh harder. He bends forward, almost taking a knee.

The woman in white
laughs, “The garden takes your cares. You are like a child again. The effect
will wear off.”

I shake my head, “I
don’t want it to. Look at him. He’s free.”

She speaks over
Constantine’s howling, “You have to flee, sin eater. They will kill you and
steal your light. They will use it and send everything with a soul back to
heaven. It’s the reset button. The fae will take back the world, the fae and
the witches and the creatures.”

I shake my head, “I
have to kill Lillith first. The gate may never show itself to me again. I have
to use this chance. We only got through because the nixie helped us.”

She bows subtly,
“Please reconsider.”

I squeeze Mona’s hand,
“Sorry.” I look at Mona, “Can you take my friend back though? She’s human.”

Mona scowls, “I’m
staying.” She gives Constantine, who is still laughing, a look. “Maybe we should
send him back though. He’s a mess.”

Constantine grabs my
other hand, but doesn’t stop snickering. “Let’s go do this. I need to get out
of here. I’m cramping up.”

I smile at the woman,
“Thank you.”

She shakes her head,
“Don’t thank me, I should force you from the garden. But I too desire her free,
I suppose. Go around the town. Avoid the people. Take the back steps and avoid
eyes. Yours are obvious.”

We walk to the village
but stay on the outskirts. Constantine looks around as we sneak about the dense
forest. “When I say fly, Rayne, you fly as hard as you can. You fly hard for
the gates and kill your mother just outside of them. They cannot keep you here
without a bargain. No matter what, do not deal with the fae.” He’s back to
being crabby and serious. I’m actually relieved. His constant laughing was
weird.

He whispers, “We will
not have an argument about this. You will make me a promise on this now, or I
will carry you like a child back to the gates.”

I can’t reach my fear
of this place, but I know I’m terrified so I nod, “Okay.”

He stops me, looking
into my eyes, “Do you promise me that you will do whatever it takes to end
Lillith outside of the gates?”

I nod, “I do. How do
we kill her with no weapons in here? Can you bite the fae?”

He laughs, but it’s his
usual bitter one. “No.” He looks around, “They must have weapons somewhere. We
don’t need to worry about killing the fae. They won’t fight us. They’ll use
cunning. Besides silver is the only thing that can kill them. We only need a
knife to kill Lillith. You separate that head from the shoulders, just outside
of the gate. That’s the plan.”

I look at Mona, “You
should go to the gate or hide.”

She shakes her head,
“I have a bad feeling that I have to stay with you.”

Constantine sighs,
pulling us towards the castle. I look at the town below us when we get to the
other side of the castle “Why do they hate us?”

Constantine leans in,
“They don’t hate.
They’re perfect
,
they
don’t have negative emotions
. They can be worried or cautious but they
don’t hate or even dislike. They are not fighters. Why do you think they have
never defeated the humans? They have never fought them. They would win in a
heartbeat, but they do not resort to violence.”

Mona narrows her gaze,
“How is Lillith here then?”

He raises his
eyebrows,
“They’re cunning as hell and evil as the day is
long, as long as their purpose is noble. Noble to them means serves their
purpose. They are not to be trifled with.
At all.
They
are the only creature, beyond Lucifer and God
himself, that
can trade your soul in a bargain. I would bet Lillith bargained hers away to be
protected from Lucifer.”

We climb the steps to
the crystal palace and my heart is in my throat. Mona leads us to the top
floor. Constantine looks around uneasily, and Mona looks like she has tears in
her eyes. I can’t feel anything, but I am scared. I know I am. The girls inside
of me are silent.

When we get into the
large throne room, my mouth is dry and my heart is beating out of control. She
is where she was the last time, speaking to the man, only he isn’t himself. He
is something else altogether. He is stunningly beautiful. The kind of beauty
that makes me
forget
who I am. Lillith’s back stiffens
and she turns. The man’s lips curl into a sexy smile. I moan a little. Mona
grips me, “Who is that?”

I swallow hard,
shaking my head, “I don’t know. In the dream world she was talking to a man who
had the blue veins.”

She wrinkles her nose,
“He was hideous. I remember.”

“That’s him.”
Constantine says.

She shakes her head,
“He is beautiful.”

Constantine leans in,
whispering so softly I can barely hear him. “Try to keep remembering him as the
man from the dream. I have a bad feeling about him in particular.”

I frown, “Why?”

He gives me a
disturbed look, “When I saw him, I felt movement.”

I scowl, “What?”

He nods at his pants,
“Movement, growth, attraction.”

I make a face, “What
the hell? Why?
Ewwww
. Dude.”

Mona laughs nervously,
“I think I misheard you.”

He shakes his head,
“You did not. If I’m attracted to a bloke, we have an issue. That’s never really
rung my bell, if you get my drift. He probably doesn’t even know he is the
bait.”

The room isn’t silent
but it’s quiet. The few scattered people talking in small clusters watch us but
continue to speak to the people around them.

My mother smiles at
me, “What a surprise.” I can see that it is not. She walks to us, desperate to
look controlled, but I can see the panic in her eyes. I barely register her
being there. The man next to her is all I see. His blue eyes meet mine and I am
lost. He smiles, so I smile. He looks down, bashfully, so I do too.
His smile turns to a lip bite
,
I bite mine
.
I bite so hard I blink as if leaving a trance. Constantine nudges me, “Easy
tiger.”

Mona is a forgone
conclusion on whether or not he can have her. She is entranced, fully. She
looks up at him through her lashes, and I see him do something I don’t think he
expected to do. He seems genuinely surprised at his reaction to her. He is
stopped in his tracks. Instant jealousy fills me, but my mother catches my eyes
again.

When I look at her, I
feel nothing. I want so badly to run to her or kiss her or cry, but I am silent
inside.

Her eyes fill with
tears, “You misheard me, I suspect.” She glances at the beautiful man. I notice
he doesn’t move or blink or do a single thing. He stares. It’s creepy. He is as
lost in Mona as she is in him. I look at my mother and realize she has a sly
smile creeping across her lips.

She ignores the man
and looks back at
me and Constantine
, “You must go. Do
it and go.”

I shake my head, “I
have one question.”

She nods once. I look
around the room at the people watching us. They don’t speak. They stand there
like a Jane Austen movie, watching us in gowns and jewels. If it weren’t for
the rustic furnishings and throne, I would swear we were in one of those rooms
where you gossip and do a turn about the room.

“How did you get
pregnant with me and where was I born?”

Her eyes sparkle, “I
left the garden, met with Lucifer. I’m sure you, being a succubus of sorts,
have figured out how babies are made. I came back here and gave birth to you.
You were born in the garden, but you have a complicated soul. So I had to take
you away. I took you to the orphanage and got the nixie to find the right
witch.”

I look about the room.
Constantine whispers, “How does one lose their head in a place like this?”

Lillith laughs softly,
“They do not. The sharpest thing here is the wit.” She winks at Constantine,
“I’m sure you know this already, but you brought your weapons with you.”

The mention of weapons
makes the others in the room nervous. They look shocked at Lillith’s wording.
Silence falls upon everyone as a woman comes from the back of the room, from an
arched doorway. She is dressed over-the-top fancy, like Marie Antoinette but
worse. Her blonde hair actually looks like a cake with pink flowers all through
it. My mother’s face draws in. She whispers, “Do it now.”

I frown, “What?” What
does she want? Does she think I’m psychic?

I see something dawn
on Constantine’s face, but the woman comes towards us with a soft smile. My
mother points, “This is the high priestess,
Faranelle
.”

She looks down her
long, creamy nose at me. Her pale skin and sparkling blue eyes are an amazing
contrast. The fae are so beautiful. I see what Constantine was talking about. I
have only ever been attracted to guys—okay and Mona’s glossy lips, but
this woman makes me feel something I have never felt before.

Constantine becomes
something I have also never seen before. He drops to his knee, “Milady.” He is
humble suddenly.

She smiles at him,
“You may
rise
, Lord
Basarab
.
You owe me no fealty.”

He shakes his head,
“And yet, you inspire it in me.”

She blushes and I see
my mother is again confused at the behavior of the lady as she was the man.
Mona and Constantine have an effect on them both, just as they do on Mona and
Constantine. The four of them have a moment.