Page 79 of Caelum

TWENTY

EVE

SEVEN WISHES TO DESTROY THE CROW,

The feathered serpent where Raum rests,

Old ‘souldiers’ shall fatten your ranks.

As I looked at the pictures on my screen, because it was easier than peering down at my belly, I recognized two things.

One, I seriously needed to work out more. My tubby belly distorted some of the letters etched into my skin, and when I thought how all the men seemed to have metal beneath their stomachs, whereas I was all soft and squishy, it made me uncomfortable. Especially when I thought about how all the other girls at Caelum were the same.

Toned and taut was the fashion there.

Two, God was a seriously good tattoo artist.

The amulet on my stomach was beyond surreal. Large enough that its triangular peak rose between my breasts, wide enough that it sat across my not insubstantial hips. It was craggy, formed from bricks in a style that, when he’d seen the ink, had Dre frowning.

But then, Dre was a frowner.

He was going to get premature wrinkles from the way he was constantly puckered up. He continuously looked like he was either getting his tooth yanked out at the dentist or as if Eren had tricked him again and given him sour candy instead of the regular kind—not that we were supposed to have that stuff, but freedom came with the chance to make bad choices.

Anyhow, the sides of the amulet were the least detailed of the markings. Around the inner rim was the clue to finding Raum, but also the wish we had to utter to take him from this world.

Unlike before, we had more to go on than just a mountain range. In the foreground of the amulet, there was a temple. Or, I supposed, a pyramid. It just wasn’t like the ones I’d seen on the National Geographic channel documentary about Egypt’s ancient edifices. It had a flattened top that had four solid lines sticking out of it.

In the background, there was a map, and when Dre had seen that , he really had turned grumpier than usual.

Still, there was no need for a lot of heavy planning. No need to stop off anywhere or grab gear that we might need.

The second we’d returned to our hotel in Romania, Sam had taken pictures of my stomach and had sent them to Bartlett and Avalina. We’d all crashed, had a good night’s rest to preempt the storm that was about to hit us—and I wasn’t just talking about with Raum, but with millions of folk spontaneously self-combusting, there was bound to be trouble brewing—and had woken up to a call from Bartlett with their translation.

Now, an hour later, I’d showered and was waiting on the others to get ready as well.

Though we could afford a larger hotel room or even several on the same floor, Frazer and Samuel only ever requested the largest suite available. I’d come to think that was down to the hotel size itself, but when we’d first landed in Bucharest late at night, they’d done that, and then, when we’d found a smaller hotel in Ploie?ti, they’d done the same thing.

I wasn’t complaining, but all eight of us taking a shower really took a long time.

“It’s like GPS, isn’t it?” I mumbled to Reed, who was lying beside me on the bed, his attention on the TV that was detailing the mass panic and the chaos outside these walls.

Piles of dust were everywhere, inside and out of buildings the world over. Each one was a fallen Ghoul, one that we’d destroyed, and something the humans should be grateful for if they knew the threat those ashes represented.

“What is? The ashes?” His brow puckered, and his blond hair tumbled down over his forehead. I reached over, so happy I had the right to move the strands out of his line of sight, and brushed them aside. As my hand moved away, he sneaked a kiss to my wrist that had me thinking about last night .

His eyes darkened at the sight, and he grumbled, “Behave.”

“Like you did in the bathroom last night?” I teased, biting my lip as I thought about how he’d taken me against the wall after we’d returned from the bar.

“I did what any respectable citizen of the world should,” he retorted.

That had me snickering. “Oh, what’s that?”

“We conserved water, didn’t we?”

He was being serious.

My snickering turned into a belly laugh that had me rolling onto my side as his seriousness hit home. After a few guffaws that gained the others’ attention, and earned me a few grins and a smirk here and there, I managed to bite out, “We wasted more water than we saved!”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“And you’re unanimous in that statement, huh?” I wheezed. More water had gone down the drain last night than had hit us, for God’s sake. Plus, whenever I’d tried to keep things PG, he’d soaped up my boobs and things had derailed.

I mean, I wasn’t about to complain… I’d had three orgasms, and that was like a law. You couldn’t bitch at a man who’d given you three orgasms during a twenty-minute shower.

Or could you?

I was still new to this man-woman stuff. Or, in my instance, men -woman stuff. What I’d learned at the compound taught me that they could beat me if I didn’t fall into line, and that I’d have to cook for them and wash up after them every day of my life.

Thus far, we’d eaten out every day, and the hotels did the cleaning. It wasn’t an example of how the rest of our lives would be, nonetheless it boded well, in my opinion.

“I’m definitely unanimous. We saved the Earth last night, even while I rocked your world.”

I hooted at his cocky grin then slapped him on the stomach to shut him up. “Don’t. Seriously,” I wheezed; my own belly was aching from laughing so hard.

He winked at me. “What’s this about GPS?”

When my laughter had burned off some, I managed to drawl, “God-Positioning-System.”

He groaned. “That has to be the worst joke ever.”

“It’s not a joke! It’s true. He’s telling us where to go, isn’t He? That beats the satellites the humans use.”

“True,” he retorted, sliding his arm around my shoulder and hauling me close. “Can I talk you into another shower? It’s my turn in the bathroom next.”

“Nope.” I stuck out my tongue. “Nestor asked me first.”

His eyes darkened again, but this time, in a way that told me his Hell Hound was present. Everything inside me tensed. Not in concern, but with need.

Goodness, he was delicious when his beast surged forth.

Stroking my fingers over his brow, I murmured, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be better when this is all over with.”

I couldn’t blame him and knew we were all on edge over what Bartlett had explained to us in their last call.

That he and Avalina were so knowledgeable, not just from their time on Earth, but also from the things they’d studied and lectured on, was a great boon.

This time was different than the last. Amid the leaves and branches on my body, the thousands of tiny letters and words had crafted together one wish. The amulet? Written into its design were two wishes. Two. That meant things were getting complicated, and it also meant that Sam was likely going to get the action he’d been so keen on seeing…

More than that, the amulet’s clue had referenced the feathered serpent, which was an Ancient deity from the Toltec, Aztec, and Mayan civilizations.

Apparently, there was a major pyramid in San Juan Teotihuacán in Mexico that was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, but Bartlett had explained that the clue in the markings on my belly indicated a different location. One on a site called Tula in Hidalgo, Mexico.

So, we had two wishes to worry about uttering and a destination to fret about reaching.

Dre, whether he wanted to or not, was going home, and from the grim expression he’d been wearing ever since our early morning wakeup call from Adam and Eve, he was looking forward to it as little as the rest of us were.

After Eren was done in the shower, Reed got up after giving me a kiss and headed for his own ablutions. Within the hour, we were all ready to rock, and as we headed out of the hotel, the true devastation we’d reaped on the world became evident.

The news was calling it Armageddon, and it was damn inconvenient, actually. It meant that most flights were canceled, and that we’d been scrambling to find a carrier who was flying to Mexico today.

Thank God we were rich because Frazer had spent a small fortune on the tickets!

The streets of Ploie?ti were dead as we made our way to Bucharest airport, and driving from the small town and onward to the capital was definitely an eyesore. People suddenly being incinerated left a mess behind, not unsurprisingly. Ghouls who’d been driving cars had crashed and caused pileups, which were a major source of the chaos. Getting through the traffic jams they’d caused meant we were running late as we approached the airport, having spent most of the journey using back roads to get there.

As we left behind a world torn by chaos and fear and soared into the sky to head back to London, I released a relieved breath to be in the air and away from the mayhem on the ground.

I thought about the people, the innocents, who’d perished last night, and guilt filled me, and I knew I wasn’t alone in that. Everyone was quiet. For most of the journey, truth be told. Heading to London, then on to Atlanta, and finally into Mexico City, we traveled nonstop and grabbed a rental at the ghost-staffed airport before setting on our way for Tula.

Mexico was just as badly affected as Romania had been, and why wouldn’t that be the case?

Drekavac’s line had roots that spanned the globe. Every country in the world was feeling the force of his death.

Still, it was like driving through a warzone. Cars pulled off at the side of the road, and people wandered as though they were lost and aimless, heading for somewhere that was known only to them. They were armed with random stuff—signs from the roads and things from the jungle that lined some of the paths we had to drive down.

“It’s like something from Mad Max ,” Stefan grumbled as we hit Ocampo and were around twenty minutes from Hidalgo.

Eren whistled. “Jesus, you’re right.”

“Or Die Hard ,” Reed mused, and so began an argument between the two as we drove into the city and made our way to Tula.

Hidalgo was a strange mixture of small and large. A bit like Ploie?ti in its feel, but nothing like the major cities of London and Geneva. The buildings were small, somehow, a little ramshackle. I wasn’t one to judge, but I had a feeling that this particular area we were driving through was poor. Everywhere seemed to need a lick of paint, and the roads were tight with the abandoned vehicles, which made things even narrower, and even the cars looked older.

As we headed over a bridge, we saw clusters of men gathering at one end of the street and I felt the car quicken up as we crossed onto the other side of the riverbank.

“What were they doing?” I asked Eren, who was at my side.

He curved his arm around my shoulder. “They looked like they were going to start looting.”

“People, no matter where you go, are bastards,” Frazer stated, his tone condemning as he over-revved the engine in his agitation. “They’ll take advantage of the chaos the world over to try to make a quick buck.”

“They’re going to steal?” I theorized.

“Yeah. Knock down doors and break windows to get inside stores.” He grunted. “The bitch of it is, we’ve killed one source of evil but humans… there’s just no helping them.”

His words, though they’d been throwaway, affected me as we carried on driving toward the ancient site. The bridge had let me see the colorful houses up ahead, which shone in bright jewel-like colors amid gray brick frontages that had spray paint on them. Not as graffiti, but for advertising a business, and I could only assume that the business belonged to the house owner.

When we finally parked the car, aware that we’d have to walk the rest of the way to the site, it amused me to see a Catholic church opposite one of the smaller trails we were taking.

Either they were trying to spare the souls of those who dared to believe in ancient deities or were looking to pick up donations from visitors, I wasn’t sure which. Just knew that today was going to be a slow day for them considering most of the world’s population was concerned more with hiding out than heading to church.

It was hitting four o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky. My skin felt slick from the heat, and the last thing I wanted was to be walking toward a temple that might or might not be the place of our deaths, but sometimes, ya just had to suck it up and get on with shit.

At least, that was what Nestor said.

I didn’t necessarily agree, but it wasn’t like I had a choice.

“I hope this is the right fucking place,” Frazer mumbled as he grabbed a backpack that was loaded with water and other stuff. ‘Stuff’ because I hadn’t been there when he’d packed it after we’d made it into Mexico City and had hit a camping store.

I had a feeling he thought we were going to have to camp out here, and that was the last thing I wanted.

To be honest, I needed to be in and out of this place as soon as we could.

After last night, and then just that short glimpse that showed me how humans were exploiting the situation for their own gain, I wanted to get on with things. Move ahead if that was an option for us.

Maybe our death lay at the end of this journey, I wasn’t sure. But I knew we had no say in the matter. Not now. I was acting as God’s hand, for whatever reason, and as crazy as that made me sound, it was the truth.

We were ridding the world of a scourge, and yet…

I sighed.

Not all humans were like those looters, and maybe they were poor and starving. Not all humans were like those in my cult who could kill innocents because they were ill. Not all humans were like the men who’d taken advantage of a young Stefan, paying him for sex so he could fill his belly. They weren’t like the man whom Dre’s parents had paid to help them cross into America, only for him to kill them on the way there. They weren’t like Nestor’s parents who’d abandoned him to a priest because he was sick, nor were they like Eren’s brother-in-law who’d abused a mentally disturbed child…

Or were they?

Six examples of humans at their finest.

Why were we trying to save them again?

Stomach churning, and not from the blanket of heat that hit me as we began to trudge toward the complex, I grabbed Frazer’s hand. Even he had been affected by evil humans. Hadn’t his cousin been raped? Hadn’t his parents locked him in a mental asylum?

It seemed like only Samuel and Reed hadn’t been touched by the evilness of mankind.

“What is it?”

Frazer’s low voice had me shaking my head. “Nerves,” I lied, because I wasn’t nervous, just unsure if the people we were saving deserved our sacrifice.

“God, this would normally be crowded at this time of the day,” Dre stated gruffly as he eyed the empty site.

The ruins were massive, and even from this distance, the figures atop the temple were visible for all to see. Those four soldiers, made from basalt and carved so they stood thirteen feet tall, were the reason we were here and not in another part of the country.

The Toltec warriors were why Bartlett had suggested we come to this temple and not the Pyramid dedicated to Quetzalcoatl.

“How can a Ghoul be living in there?” Nestor argued, swiping a hand over his brow where sweat was beading. “Hell, Ghouls . It’s an archeological ruin! ”

“Perfect hunting ground,” Dre ground out, his face stormy and his body so tense that I wanted nothing more than to go to him, to hug him and ease his stress. But he didn’t want that from me.

Not yet.

I had to pray there’d come a time when he did, otherwise my Pack wouldn’t be complete.

“Do we think they’re living inside the temple?” Frazer questioned.

“They’re not like temples nowadays. These places had secret caves underneath them, tunnels that even the archeologists studying them haven’t found yet. It’s not unlikely that someone could be living down there,” Samuel explained, always the voice of reason.

I frowned at him. “But why would they?”

“Because they can?” he countered with a shrug.

I eyed him for a second, amused at his bedhead hair, cocky smirk, and the shades he wore that made him look beyond cool. I was still finding it hard to reference what exactly it took for someone to be cool, but at that moment, I had a walking, talking definition of it.

At the same time, he was hot. And that made things more confusing.

How could someone be hot and cool?

He cocked a brow at my study, and I grinned at him which seemed to surprise him because both brows surged upward this time. “What?”

“Just wondering how you could be hot and cool at the same time.”

The guys all started snickering around me, but I shrugged because it was a genuine question. Samuel’s cheeks flushed a little, but I laughed when he curved his arm around my waist and hauled me into him.

“I’ll make you pay for that later,” he growled, dipping down to kiss my lips.

“Promises, promises,” I teased back, eyes sparkling—not that he could see beneath the shades Frazer had insisted I buy in Harrods.

He snorted, then to all of us, said, “That old ‘souldiers’ reference is my major concern.”

Reed nodded. “The spelling, but also the fact they’re going to join our ranks? How the fuck can ancient stone statues join our ranks?”

“I don’t know, but I think we need to climb up there and investigate them.”

“Is there no way inside the temple?”

“Yeah, I’m sure there is, but that’s territory unknown to all of us and we have no idea how we’re going to get Raum outside into the open so we can tackle him.” Sam rubbed his chin. “There are two wishes for a reason, guys. Maybe one is to trigger the soldiers and the other is specifically for Raum?”

Because I didn’t know what the wishes were, I couldn’t say. Last time when Avalina had translated my tattoo, I’d been present. The men had uttered the wish, but it hadn’t worked. The world hadn’t descended into chaos as it had after last night. So, to my mind, it had been silly for Bartlett to specifically ask that I leave the room so I couldn’t hear what they were discussing.

The off-chance that the Jannah in me responded and granted a useless wish, one that wouldn’t have the same power as if I were in the presence of the next Ghoul on our hit list—the Crow—seemed unlikely.

God was giving out locations and weapons for a reason, after all—for us to take the Originals out in person. Still, I understood the need for caution. Bartlett and Avalina had lived longer than anyone else on Earth, all because God was punishing them for falling for the devil’s temptation, and had never thought to see the day that such a feat could be managed.

Well, it had, and we were onto round two.

Raum was another demon on Wikipedia . Ironically enough, he could shape-shift, and in his downtime tormented humans while on vacation time from his real job as being an earl in Hell.

Well, that was what the humans thought.

In real life, or IRL as Samuel called it, he was one of the three Original Ghouls, and today was his day to die.

“The ‘souldiers’ have to be an inherent aspect of what goes down today. For them to be a part of the clue,” Eren mused. “In the other clue, we had the means and the location of getting to Drekavac. That must mean the basalt Toltecs are a key to the plan.”

I had to admit I was relieved that the temple wasn’t as high as I’d expected. Fifty or so steps—I could handle that. It was the walk toward the temple that was going to crucify me because sheesh, it seemed to be even hotter than before.

From a distance, the entire lot the temple sat on seemed to be covered by white, chalky dust, but as we approached the sacred ruin, it wasn’t white but a yellow-green that came from bleached grass that was springy beneath our feet. I could empathize with the parched flora because I was already chugging from my water bottle and we were five minutes into our fifteen-minute trek.

It was so strange to leave the modernity of Hidalgo and head into this, the ruins of an ancient civilization. Well, Hidalgo wasn’t exactly New York—if I knew what New York was like, that is—but still, it was a huge contrast from a people who had lived thousands of years before Christ .

In the distance, the four soldiers began to grow larger as we approached, and the sight of them had something inside me fluttering to life.

The sensation was beyond bizarre because the only other time I’d felt it was when the guys did something to turn me on. So, yeah, it was definitely strange.

“The mark’s glowing,” Samuel muttered, and he dragged me to a halt.

At his words, the others stopped too and peered at me like I was one of the artifacts on Drekavac’s wall, caged in glass and there only for his entertainment.

But he was right. Beneath my shirt, the amulet on my stomach was truly visible through the thick cotton—I was back in my regular uniform of yoga pants and one of the guys’ shirts. Today’s was Reed’s. Mostly because I loved his scent and he’d worn this yesterday, so it was loaded with his essence. Maybe a day-old shirt was gross to wear, but I really didn’t give a damn.

What was I supposed to wear on a death trip?

High heels and a little black dress?

Nope.

“Think that means we’re on the right track?” Eren mused.

“Has to be.” Frazer released a relieved breath. “Thank God Bartlett wasn’t wrong. That would have been a real pain in the ass.”

“What happens after…?” I whispered. “If the world is broken now, then how is it going to be when we get rid of another chunk of the Ghouls’ population?”

He shrugged then curved his arm around my shoulder. Bringing me into his side, he said, “We’ll do what we have to. Even if it means grabbing another boat and traveling to where we need to go next.”

I bit my bottom lip. “It could take a long time.”

“We have all the time in the world.”

Did we though?

I wasn’t sure, not after what I’d seen from the humans who’d begun looting in this relatively small town. I hadn’t seen the like in Bucharest, but it was undoubtedly the same the world over.

With news of the apocalypse, people weren’t going to start behaving better, were they?

Wasn’t it strange that I was more scared of them than the Ghouls we were about to kill?

Because my men were focused on this current issue, I decided not to cloud things with ‘what-ifs?’ since there was no guarantee we’d even make it out of here, so fretting about the future couldn’t happen when it was the present.

Frazer hauled me alongside him, and Samuel and Stefan seemed to hustle close like they wanted to be near me.

Were they as scared as me? Maybe not about what was about to go down, but of the future?

I carried on gnawing on my bottom lip as we finally made it to the temple.

It was forged from a gray stone that was weathered by age and the climate. The steps were both soft from being trodden upon frequently and yet remarkably clear-cut, making me wonder how the ancients had forged this kind of temple with their limited tools.

“You don’t think Quetzalcoatl is Raum, do you?” I whispered, the thought slithering through me like the feathered serpent to whom this place was dedicated.

“No. Raum is no god. No creature to be celebrated. He’s just an opportunist,” Samuel replied.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked him.

“Because God pointed us here for a reason. He has a plan, and we have to have faith.”

When the others began nodding, I realized that somehow, along the way, the guys had come to believe where before they’d been definite atheists.

I guess it made sense. What with their mate glowing like fairy lights I’d seen in the Christmas movies and taking them on a day trip to meet Adam and Eve…

Because he wasn’t wrong, not technically, I nodded and began to climb the steps.

We were purposely quiet now as we approached the top of the temple, which was a kind of plateau. We weren’t sure where the Ghouls were supposed to be living in this damn place, which didn’t exactly make things easier for us.

The temple was on the tourist trail. Nothing as major as some of the other sites, but a busy place nonetheless. Today, it was a ghost town, and while that was to our benefit, it didn’t exactly help us blend in.

I was surprised that the Original had no guards here at all. Maybe he lived all alone in this temple?

Because that wasn’t creepy.

Not one bit .

Or were we safe from them because they were hidden within the ancient ruin?

Just as creepy.

The second I stepped onto the plateau where the soldiers stood guard, I eyed them warily. That feeling of connection hit me once more as I stared at the stylized bodies of the Toltec warriors.

They each wore a headdress and had a stern expression chiseled onto their faces. They had boots and a belt with a kind of, what I could only call, stone kilt, and then on their chests, the emblem of Quetzalcoatl—a fierce serpent with a kind of feathered mane.

They were beyond spooky because their determination was evident.

And only I seemed to sense that.

I wasn’t saying that everyone believed them to be decorative, but I felt their purpose. Sure, it was to protect the temple, but more than that, it was to do what had to be done to defend their deity. And as that resonated with me, I realized how truly disgraceful it was that Raum had infiltrated this place and had made it his home.

As though they were living breathing creatures, I sensed the soldiers’ disgust, their desire to cleanse the temple that was theirs to guard for an eternity…

The overwhelming thoughts swirled around my head as I stepped toward them. They towered over me, over twice my height as I peered up at their stern visages, rubbing my fingers over where I could reach, needing to physically connect with them in a way I couldn’t explain.

When I reached the fourth one, I turned around and saw the land ahead.

The temple stood on four levels, each built up with rounded, oblong bricks that had supported these soldiers for several hundred lifetimes. Ahead, I could see columns that had been shorn down to thigh-height, and that spoke of a community of buildings that had once stood here. I could see more foundations, a lot of the parched grass and dusty white paths, then, in the distance, a mountain and some of the city beyond.

“Eve?” Reed asked, his voice quiet but, in this dead space where there was no noise from anything, not the crowds of humanity who should be here to visit this ruin, or even a car engine or a plane rumbling overhead, it was loud. So loud, I flinched.

Turning to him, I stared at all my mates, saw their confusion, their wariness as they stared at me then the soldiers.

It was one thing to theorize, but to stand here now ?

There was a purpose here.

As I moved back toward the center of the plateau, I sucked down a breath and stated, “Make a wish.”