The Vengeance (23 page)

Tension filled the air and everything outside of the immediate crowd around him ceased to exist. Benjamin had made his way to the stairs and was closing the screen door behind him and ushering Gram and Rose inside. AJ expected him to aid in the fight, but apparently it would be AJ alone in this battle. Max was helpless across at the B&B, his powers gone, and every inch of his soul fighting not to run outside. AJ shot a glance at him to warn him to stay put – all it would take is a single touch from someone in the mass to put Max down and it would happen within seconds. AJ wouldn’t risk it.

AJ stood his ground as the crowd began slowly making their way towards him in torturous
parade. They filtered around Abraham, the old man staying put with a wicked grin plastered across his face. With only ten yards or so closing in between them, AJ clenched his hands into tight fists and prepared. He’d focused so intently on the Grims that he had failed to notice the arrival of another.

“AJ!” Robert yelled while ste
pping next to the Healer. “Get in the house! Go to the girls!”

AJ glanced over at him and overrode the initial instinct to pound the man into oblivion for his betrayal.

“AJ, I didn’t mean for all this to happen. I just wanted to come back and know my daughter. This is my fault and my fight. Go to them. Go protect our girls!”

Robert grabbed AJ’s arm, forcing into him the visions of the moments spent with the old man and others, of how much he loved the women inside. He had meant no betrayal.

He leaned over and pushed the Healer towards the door although AJ didn’t budge. AJ debated only for a second whether to stay or do as the Grim asked, hoping that this was not yet another betrayal by Robert. He glanced back at Robert as the Grim stationed himself between the crowd and the stairway to the house.

“We protect them together then.”

“I’ll hold them off,” Robert replied, watching as the Grims in front of him chuckled, enjoying the show.

“Won’t matter much how you do it,” Abraham replied. “It’ll all be over soon for you both.”

“I didn’t know they’d come after them. Don’t let Rose turn into this AJ. Make sure she knows I’m a good man. Make sure she knows that about her Daddy. Now go!” Robert screamed and used all his force to push AJ towards the house before diving into the crowd with fists poised.

AJ finished climbing the stairs onto the porch. The screen door slammed behind him and he shut the heavy wooden door and locked it in place. He only had a moment to glance out the window as he watched the crowd surround Robert. It was in his nature to run back out and fight and protect the father of a child he dearly loved
. He knew it would do no good. He prayed for a swift death for the Grim and a sense of peace in the afterlife. He made a beeline for the room he could feel the group in.

Shutting another door behind him
, he raced to Rose, Addie, and Gram and wrapped them in his arms. Benjamin was at the window assessing whether they could make a getaway that way, but they were too close to the front to do so.

“What’s going on?” Addie screamed as she pulled Rose as close to her as possible.

She was frantic, her voice and tremors mimicking those AJ had watched that night in the barn as Rose’s leg was speared.

“What the hell is going on?”

The sobs burst forth from her and she hugged Rose tightly. Rose began crying as well. AJ’s mind couldn’t work fast enough to determine what to do next. He didn’t care whether he lived to see tomorrow; his only mission in life at the moment was to keep any harm from befalling the family.

“Benjamin, any ideas?” he bellowed? “I’ll only be able to slow them, not stop them.”

Benjamin remained calmly looking out the window. He showed no fear and no anger. AJ wondered if that’s what happened when you became an elder. Perhaps, he thought, you just ceased to feel anything. It would surely make the job much easier.

“Benjamin!” AJ screamed, but still no response.

He was going to have to do this alone, he thought.

The white lace curtains in the window were a stark contrast to the melee taking place outside. Robert’s screams had ceased and AJ knew what that signified. The crowd would now be moving inside. He darted to the window and looked at the lawn. At least two other bodies lay on the ground beside Robert’s. AJ felt a slight quiver of remorse for having doubted the man. No one evil could have produced something as beautiful as Rose.

AJ ran back over to the door and made sure it was locked before pushing the dresser in front of it. He needed time to think and to refocus his strength. He pushed the four others into the corner of the room and with a simple lock of his gaze, silently asked Benjamin to make sure it all ended quickly and painlessly for them, if the situation came to that fork in the road.

The dresser began shaking as angry fists pounded at the door. The screams grew louder as the chants outside grew more furious. Abraham’s evil cackle was the loudest of all, echoing through the house as though they were within the confines of a cave. Wood splintered and cracked as the crowd began breaking down the barriers to their target.

Addie tried to contain her terror, muffling her sobs and screams with her arm as she pushed Rose behind her in an attempt to shield the child. Gram held them both close as Benjamin stood nearby.

As the dresser tipped over and the door flew off its hinges, the remaining Grims surged forward into the room and stopped short of AJ. It was glaringly apparent that Abraham wanted this to be as traumatic as possible. The old man stepped to the back of his clan in what AJ considered a cowardly move and with a stamp of his cane
, signaled them to continue the assault. As they again began their move towards AJ, Rose broke free of her mother’s grip and sprinted full speed to AJ’s side.

Addie screamed and lunged forward but it was too late; Rose was already too far out of her reach. It distracted AJ enough so that he looked down just as Rose latched onto his arm.

The little girl let out an ear-piercing scream as her purple floral dress swayed in motion around her.

“No!” she bellowed, the sound atomic in the air.

As the word passed through her lips, an intense light encapsulated the entire room. Rushing outwards in waves from her petite form, the strength of it pushed furniture away and peeled paper from the walls. The radiance was blindingly bright and absorbed all sound, creating a fog around all of them. The energy protruding from it continued forth in waves and slid the group back a few feet from their place in the middle of the room.

He could feel the
power and warmth of whatever the light was. It felt like the aura which extended from his hands as he healed, only on a much larger magnitude. AJ stood frozen and unable to move. His mind frantically wondered what the hell was happening as he tried to assess where his enemies were and how he would stop them. Then the voice entered his mind again.

“It’s my turn.”

AJ had no idea how long they were stuck in the burst of light, as time stood still. When the illumination dissipated – as quickly as the brilliance of it had begun – he was left staring at the openness in front of him and an entire mob of Grims piled on the ground.

With the arm Rose had latched onto he pushed her behind him, readying himself to protect them from the onslaught. He realized then that there was no movement from anyone. He quickly looked around to see if Addie, Gram, and Benjamin were down as well
, only to find them still standing in the corner and holding tightly to one another.

“Rose!” Addie screamed while rushing towards her little girl and wrapping her into a bear hug. “What the hell were you thinking baby? What happened AJ?”

She frantically brushed the hair out of Rose’s face and pulled the little girl as tightly to her as she could. AJ stepped forward towards the first of the bodies, scanning them for any movement. He reached down and felt for a pulse with nothing pumping back at him. They were dead.

All of the Grims were dead.

He counted them, carefully, as Benjamin followed closely behind doing the same. As he reached the front of the house and the last of the bodies, he turned to Benjamin.

“One is missing,” he whispered, somewhat scared that one of the Grims would come back to life. “I counted them all and one is missing.” He had no idea what happened and felt ashamed that he was as confused and scared as he was.

“Abraham,” Benjamin whispered back. “He’s on his way out of town. I can feel the distance growing. He’s gone for now.”

“But he’ll be back.”

“I’m sure he will. But let’s not worry about that right now. We have a big mess to clean up.”

AJ looked outside at the bodies on the lawn. He couldn’t look left or right for fear that the entire neighborhood was outside observing
, wondering what had happened.

“Bring them in,” Benjamin ordered. “I froze time when we first began our walk for anyone who doesn’t know about us. I had a feeling something was off and thought it best to keep the entire block from knowing about our existence. No one will be out there watching. As far as anyone knows, their lives will pick up where they left off fifteen minutes ago.”

Max had already arrived on the lawn by the time AJ made it outside. Together, they carried the Grims into the house as Benjamin directed them. Addie and Gram stayed in the back room with Rose close to them.

AJ shook his head as Max shot him a look. They’d talk about it later, he mouthed. The last body was Robert’s and they carefully lifted it off of the cool, wet grass and into the house. They set him gently on the couch and placed a blanket over him.

“What now?” AJ asked.

A house full of bodies was bound to raise questions by the three women in the back.

“How are we going to bury all these bodies?”

“We aren’t,” Benjamin replied as he touched the first one, a blast of light disintegrating it into non-existence. “They’ll receive a proper burial on the other side.”

Benjamin walked through and touched the bodies one by one as he sent them off to the afterlife. He approached Robert’s body and AJ stepped in front of him.

“Not this one,” he said. “This one, we bury.”

“AJ.”

“No negotiations. He helped save our lives. He’s Rose’s father and he deserves the opportunity to be remembered as a hero by her. Rose deserves that, too.”

“Have it your way,” he replied.

The three females came out and looked around, Addie noticing first the blanketed body on the couch.

“Is that …?”

“Yes,” AJ replied, nodding.

Her eyes instantly swelled with tears as she looked down at her little girl.

“Don’t cry mama,” Rose replied. “Daddy’s not gone.”

“Oh sweetie, your daddy,” she started, interrupted by Rose’s voice.

“My daddy i
s right here in me. He’s a part of me. He always was and he always will be. We’ll see him again someday.”

“We will,” Addie whispered.

She was confused at her daughter’s calm in spite of the circumstances. It wasn’t normal.

“What happened in there?” AJ asked Benjamin.

“Well, it seems we are right back where we were a month ago, doesn’t it?” he said.

Addie collapsed to her knees next to Robert. “Did he cause this?” she whispered.

“No,” AJ replied. “He stopped it. He took all of them on for you and Rose, Addie. Your daddy was a hero, Rose.”

Benjamin stepped forward and placed a hand on AJ, pushing a memory into AJ’s mind.

As Gram had pulled up to the house the morning after the battle against Devin, she sensed something was different. The feeling was a familiar one and as she saw Benjamin, she understood why.

As Benjamin approached the car she had a feeling Rose was the person he was in search of.

“Hi,” Benjamin said, a smile across his face.

“Hi,” Rose replied after some initial hesitation, clutching her ragged, stuffed bear to her chest.

“I’m Benjamin,” he replied, extending his hand.

“I’m Rose,” she giggled, taking his hand in hers. He bent down and whispered in her ear.

“You’re very special Rose. Our secret is a very big secret for a little girl. Can I count on you to keep it?”

Rose nodded.

“You are going to do great things very, very soon. You have your mother’s heart and your family’s strength
, combined with the innocent beliefs of childhood. Believe with all of your heart and you will change lives. I’ll see you again soon.”

Rose giggled the innocent laughter of a child and then instantly sleepy, she wrapped her arm around AJ and fell against him in a new dream world; one from which she’d awaken.

“Rose?” AJ was stunned. “I thought Healers aren’t revealed until their early twenties.”

“That’s true,” Benjamin replied, crouching down to Rose’s level as the little girl smiled.

“Then how?”

“Rose isn’t just a Healer. She has the blood of both clans flowing through her veins. Luckily for her she has her great-grandmother’s disposition and a family who has loved her with all their hearts. Upbringing can make a world of difference to a person, AJ. And since she has the blood of both running through her veins, she is the strongest of any being on earth. More powerful than you and I combined, actually. And with a heart as pure as hers, I’m not surprised that her strength is revealed early. Only happens once in a lifetime.”