The Four Horsemen (The Light Series) (2 page)

Mona opens her mouth
but the captain speaks over her words, “Fasten your seat belts. We are about to
land in Switzerland.”

Constantine comes to
me and sits next to me, placing his hand over mine. The feel of his skin
against mine sparks memories. I think that is his goal, “I can't wait for you
to see the chalet.”

Something about the
sentence is familiar. I look towards the window and close my eyes. His touch
sends chills up and down my spine.
His body writhing against
mine as his lips press into my throat, grazing my skin.
His hot breath
and strong body cover me, every inch of me.

I exhale roughly and
look at him with desire taking over my face. He smiles sweetly, “Bit of a
daydream, love?”

I laugh, headily, “You
are cheating, sir.”

He growls, “I do like
it when you call me sir.”

I wink at him, “I
remember.”

He looks like he might
ravish me any second but I shake my head, “We still have three devils and both
my parents to kill. Don’t go getting any funny ideas about you and me. I don’t
need the distraction.”

He leans in, brushing
his lips against my cheek, “All I’m asking for is one night.” I see his eyes
lower to the armrests and a slow smile creeps across his face, "You
scared?"

I swallow hard,
"Just stop, okay?" I shudder and prepare to land. As odd as it
sounds, I don’t like flying. Even though I have wings and a serious suspicion I
can fly, I don’t like it.

As we land, I have the
strangest sensation, like I have something brewing inside of me.

We walk as a group, a
herd,
a
family. A broken and strange family, and all I
have left in the whole world, besides a father who would let me die horribly
and a mother who neglected me. Regardless of being her champion, I cannot
forget that she left me. She always does.

The airport we land at
is small and private. Being with Constantine has
perks,
avoiding customs is one of them. As we cross the small building, a woman in a
stunning red dress meets us at the exit. She gives Constantine a smile that
makes me nearly gag.

"Brother, you
brought more guests than I anticipated."

He laughs,
"Stella, this is Rayne. You, of course, recall her as my Ellie."

My jaw drops.
Of course.
She had black hair, not white-blonde, and she is
tanned, not stark white, but the face is the same. The slim, strong body is
identical. She beams at me, "Ellie, my precious sister. At last we have
you back."

I leap at her, hugging
her hard. "Stella!"

She wraps around me,
"I have missed you, Ellie."

I could almost cry, I
have missed her so badly and never even knew it.

When I let go of her,
Wyatt steps closer to me. Her fangs drop and blue veins creep along the ashen
skin under her bright eyes. She hisses, "You bring a present for me,
Constantine?"

He laughs, "Oh
how I wish I could leave him in your care, my fair sister, but alas the young
Van Helsing is part of the cause this time."

Wyatt crosses his
arms, "You couldn’t take me and we both know it, mistress of Satan."

Constantine rolls his
eyes, "Did I mention he is also very humble? All about the cause, this
one."

Her blood-red nails
grow into claws as she points at him, "What about Vlad? What about Mother
and Father? What about Stephan? You would side with one of his kind and betray
our blood again?"

I cock an eyebrow and
glance at Mona. What does she mean again? Mona interrupts my thoughts as she
stifles a laugh, "This is like dinner theatre."

I laugh aloud but none
of them even crack a smile. Wyatt takes the great offense as seriously as they
do.

Michelle sighs loudly,
"Okay, look. You guys can play this out in the courtyard of whatever
mansion we're going to. It'll be epic, but like… I'm tired. I have a hankering
for some Swiss loving and a sandwich, maybe tuna. Can we go?"

Mona nods, "Not
to sound like Michelle on this one, but yeah. This is a bit intense."

Constantine walks over
to his sister, "Stella, let's away to the car. We can discuss it
there."

Her eyes land on me
like bright-blue daggers attacking, "Ellie, do you not recall the way they
held you captive? Filling you with poison and pain? How can you allow this? How
can you be near him? He is one of Gretel’s, if my nose is not mistaken."

“He isn’t like them.”
I shake my head, "I don’t know how else to explain it." My eyes are
drawn to Wyatt's. I smile when I see his hardened and cocky face. "He
isn’t the same as them."

Constantine sighs,
almost exactly the way Michelle did, "He is half angel. He isn’t all Van
Helsing. You will recall the indiscretion a certain someone had?"

Stella's mouth
twitched, "That slut, I knew it. I knew it. I said it and everyone
disagreed. He smells like her though, like old whore."

I snort, grabbing
Wyatt's arm instantly. His muscles bulge under my hands as he nearly attacks.
My hands burn and the nausea is awful, but holding him is better than letting
the fight take place in a public place. I whisper, “Please, for me. Don’t do
this.”

He growls, "Do
not speak of my mother that way."

Stella looks down at
her claws, menacingly, "I'll do as I wish, Van Helsing."

Mona grabs Wyatt's arm
and drags him off to the side, "Let's go. This is ridiculous."

Constantine and his
sister give each other glances. I know they're reading each other's thoughts,
they always did. His whole family was able to do it. Now though, they are all
that is left of the line.

I look at them both
and turn to follow Mona, even though she has no idea where she is going. We
both smile when we see the huge black Hummer out in front. She opens the door,
"Come on, lover boy. We both know you have to calm down. Where better than
the vamp Hummer, to find a nice place to sit and take a few breaths?"

Wyatt scowls at Mona,
"You are so weird." Michelle rolls her eyes, "You don’t even
know the half of it."

Mona gives her a look.
In it I see a thousand things, a thousand bad things. Mona is done with
Michelle and her selfishness. I can't blame her, but I also can't be angry with
Michelle. I have no ability to maintain a proper grudge—flaw in the system
I suppose. Plus, I knew Michelle as Michael. I knew the lost boy who was always
sad and alone. My heart broke every day for him, and now I have to celebrate
her, even if she is overcompensating.

I close the door of
the Hummer as I climb into the back with them. Wyatt sits next to me, nudging
me, "You okay?"

I shake my head,
"I have a bad feeling. It's been this way since I killed the first devil.
It's like I'm expecting something bad."

Wyatt laughs
sarcastically, "Of course.
This whole thing is bad
,
everything is bad
. Look where we are." He
wrinkles his nose, "Speaking of which, what's that smell?"

I smell the air,
"I don’t smell anything. Leather seats?"

Mona shakes her head,
"You smelling a devil? I don’t smell anything."

Wyatt sniffs around us
all, like a hound. I start to giggle, unable to stop myself. He moves around
the Hummer until he leans over the backseat. He pulls back quickly,
"Gross. What the hell? Why do they have to bring snacks everywhere they
go?"

I lean over the seat,
"Oh my God, is she dead?" A limp body lies in the massive trunk.

Wyatt shakes his head,
"No, she's alive. They cannot eat dead blood. Stake to the heart won't
kill them but dead blood, that’s the ticket." He runs his hands through
his hair, “Well that’s the ticket for regular vampires that they make. I think
dead blood only makes them sick, really sick.”

I nodded, recalling
that suddenly.

Mona shakes her head,
"I'm not looking. I can't do this shit anymore. This is inhumane."

Constantine gets into
the driver's seat. He starts the truck. I scowl, "Why is there a dying
girl in the backseat?"

He looks at me in the
rearview, "One of you is getting into the passenger seat. What do I look
like—Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy?"

Michelle jumps at the
chance. I can see Constantine's eyes narrow as he mumbles something. Wyatt's
lips turn up into a grin, like he heard the muttering. He probably did. The guy
is part hound, for sure.

Mona points at the
backseat, "Dying girl? Let’s focus."

Constantine sighs,
"Mona, I have to eat. Stella brought me a snack, that’s all. I won't kill
her. I will reward her for the stealing of her blood."

Mona folds her arms,
"I'm not riding in the car with her bleeding in the back. She has already
been bitten."

His eyes twinkle,
there is evil in them. I see a plan on his lips, but he doesn’t speak of it. He
doesn’t need to. Wyatt looks back at the girl and then back at Constantine with
an evil gaze, "You're turning her?"

Two

The chalet is a
mansion. How many ways can one man say mansion? He's a psycho if he thinks this
is a chalet.

He's a psycho anyway.
I smell the air in the
back,
the girl doesn’t smell
evil at all.

Mona nudges me as we
walk along the driveway to the house, "That was an awkward drive."

I nod, "Why is he
making vampires, and why isn’t he talking to us about it?"

Mona's eyes darken,
"Why is all we ever have, Rayne. No one is telling us anything. Don’t you
think that’s weird? They’re doing this whole end-of-the-world shit and it’s
like by guess and by golly. Where is the science and research and planning? It
feels a little half-assed, if you ask me."

I nod again, "I
think it's all weird and half-assed. The witches and Fitz were the only ones
who were actually making an effort to plan."

She gives me a look,
"The other thing bugging me—we need to get rid of Michelle. I swear
,
she's going to sell us down the river again. I have a bad
feeling about her."

I can't say I don’t
have the same feeling, but I’ve never been big on grudges. Even with Wyatt
being an asshole to me, I have never been able to hate him for it. I notice,
suddenly, my ability to hate has gotten weaker. With it, my ability to love has
too. I don’t love Wyatt or Constantine. I don’t love anything or hate it, not
even Gretel. I say I love things, but the depth is more like puddle deep, and
the attachment is not there, not like it used to be. I shake my head,
"Better to keep her close maybe."

Mona nods, looking
like Blair off Gossip Girl more than ever. The scheming face is very Blair.

I force a smile across
my
face,
"We'll have a good Christmas and leave
it at that?"

She doesn’t look
convinced as we walk into the massive great room. The stone fireplace looks
comforting. I sit down in front of it on the huge white shag carpet and sigh
when the heat bears down on me. I shiver as my back tingles. Stella comes and
sits next to me. I forgot about her, completely. I forgot how beautiful she is.
I see Wyatt watching her, and I know it is the mesmerizing awe of her beauty.
No one can help it.

She clicks a remote
and the huge TV in the corner turns on. I give her a funny look, "What are
you doing?"

She shrugs, "Just
checking the news. I heard some people talking at the airport about a
war."

I roll my eyes,
"When isn’t there a war?"

She puts the remote
down when it's on the channel she wants, “Not a normal war.” She leans against
me; the smell of her is so familiar. It almost relaxes me. I remember being
sick and she nursing me back to health. At first she was so angry that he had
brought me to the castle, stolen from the Van Helsings. I was sick and dying
and soon she saw that. She fed me broth and read to me. I remember her dark
curls and beautiful face. I remember the way she always told me that one day we
would be sisters for real.

And then I died.

The second time she
was part of my life more. I grew to love her more and more.

Now she is like Mona
to me, comfortable. Mona comes and sits with us, "Where is the war?"

Stella shrugs, "I
didn’t hear. My German is rusty and that’s what they were speaking."

A journalist with a
microphone, and a grave look on his weary face, speaks slowly, "It is like
nothing we have ever seen. The Palestinians, the Jews, and Christians have
slaughtered each other in Jerusalem. For the third time in history, Jerusalem
has been destroyed, wiped from the Earth. There is no winner, no clear winner.
The UN has made a decision I feel many of us are mystified by. They have chosen
not to interfere. Every country has pulled back, choosing to defend their
borders only. Americans, British, Canadians, and everyone else have brought their
military home. Bases around the world have closed. All military personnel have
been flown home in what some are calling the most bizarre forty-eight hours
ever lived on this Earth."

My jaw drops. Wyatt
comes to the shag carpet, sitting next to me. Even he and Stella behave as we
watch the broadcast.

"I have been
instructed to be blunt and forthcoming with all details of the situation."
The man's face has a look of uncertainty and disbelief. "We are seeing
unprecedented movements and strategies by all countries. Everyone is stepping
back from it. I have live reports coming in from our journalist in the field,
Katherine Little."

The screen splits into
a view of him and then a view of a woman standing on a hillside. There is smoke
behind her, filling the sky. She pastes a forced smile on her lips but it’s
delayed almost from what the other journalist has said. "Hi Stan. Behind
me is what is left of Jerusalem. The entire city is destroyed. This, two miles
away, is the closest I am allowed to get. Reporters are not allowed closer than
this, and private companies trying to help are
medevacing
the few living
who
have fled the city. Everyone here
is stunned and disturbed by the choices made by the UN. No one here understands
how the slaughter has been allowed." Tears fill her red-rimmed eyes as she
stammers, "Th-th-there is a river of blood streaming through the city.
Reports of the most bizarre nature have been our only information. I spoke to
one witness as she was being strapped into a gurney." Her hand shakes as
she lifts the charcoal-stained fingers to her face with a blackened piece of
paper up so she can read it, "She said, there was a thundering of hooves
on the street. The people stood in awe as a rider made his way through the
streets. He had a crown and a bow and he was killing faster than anyone could
hide. He killed alongside of things that couldn’t be seen. There was fire and
destruction everywhere. Again, it was like a war against things that could not
be seen."

The screen cuts back
to just Stan. He looks scared as he gazes off into the distance. He jerks, as
if the studio has told him to talk again, "Thank you, Katherine. That is
most disturbing. We have reports of something similar in the Vatican City but
no eyewitness testimony. No video footage is coming from the city or Rome at
all. We have been unable to reach our Rome correspondent for many hours."
I can see tears slipping from his eyes as he pastes a fake smile on his lips,
"We will try to keep you updated on the events as they occur. Please pray
for the victims of this horrific event."

Stella turned the TV
off, but it's not her that speaks, it's Wyatt. "Shit, Revelations,
really?"

I frown,
"What?"

Mona gives me a look,
"Johnny Cash, the pale horse intro to The Man Comes Around. The rider is
death or something, right?"

Wyatt scoffs,
"Yeah well, before Johnny Cash sang about it, it was a bible verse.
Jesus." Mona wrinkles her nose at him.

Stella looks lost,
"I don’t understand."

Constantine comes into
the room, "That is because, dear sister, you never cared for scripture.
But Uncle Vlad never let me get away with such complacency. I had to learn. The
white horse is the first. As the seals in God's hand break, the riders come
forth to bring about the end of days." He sips a glass of red wine before
he continues, "The white horse is first. He brings with him a bow and
wears a victor’s crown. He is war, conquest and war."

I swallow hard,
"What does that mean?"

Constantine shakes his
head but I don’t believe him. I don’t trust him. I look at Wyatt. He shakes his
head, "I don’t know. You killing the devils and sending them to hell with
the evil should stop the end of days." His phone rings as he speaks. He
pulls it out and gets up, "Hello?" He leaves the room.

Constantine sighs,
"I agree with young Wyatt, this shouldn’t be the sequence of events as
long as the devils take their evil with them."

Stella looks at me,
"Do we continue to allow her to kill the devils or does she die to save
the world?" Her face tells me which she would prefer, and I agree.

I look down, wondering
the same thing over and over.

When I look up,
Constantine is in front of me. He drops to his knees and tilts my chin up,
"The world will end and it will find a way to save itself that doesn’t
involve your death. No matter what, I say we kill the last three devils, now.
We leave now. Before the rest of the world falls apart
;
kill them before they come for you. Even if they are gone and the whole world
dies, you and I will live on together."

I nod, it's selfish
but I don’t care. I don’t want to die. I want to live. I want to feel again. I
feel like I am renting my body, not fully experiencing it. The other versions
of me are panicking inside of me too. I think it's why I can't feel everything
I used to, we
are
spreading the emotions too thin
amongst all five of us.

Stella wraps a slender
arm around me, "We will help you, Ellie. No matter what, we want you to
live. Let the world save itself.”

I nod, "Okay."

Mona gives me a smile
too, but I can see the fear in her eyes.
Michelle texts on
her phone on the couch, not really paying much attention to it all.
I
smile when I see her pose, "What are you doing?"

She gives me a look,
"
Snapchatting
."

I don’t know what that
means but she poses again, duck lips this time. Mona rolls her eyes, "That
is why the world is ending."

I laugh as Wyatt comes
back in, "They want you to turn yourself in. The religious heads have
teamed up and spoken to my parents, and they're blaming you." I wince and
wait for him to switch sides. He looks at Constantine, "No doubt they were
tracing the call—we should go."

Constantine nods,
giving Mona a sad look, "Rain check?"

She smiles, "When
the world ends and begins again, and no one cares who Rayne is, we will restart
Christmas. Make new traditions. Or we will hide up here in the Alps and eat
until the end comes for us too."

I feel sick.
The other girls inside of me all agree, we feel sick.