Epilogue 2 Rachelle

EPILOGUE 2: RACHELLE

“Rachelle. Wake up.” The voice is commanding. Domineering.

It forces me back from the dark, makes me fight off the drugs.

“Get up, you filthy cunt,” another voice shouts.

Rage. Pure rage blooms in my chest.

“Look, she’s coming around.” The sneer in her voice reeks of Spite. Reeks of everything I don’t have.

“Disgusting. She’s got nothing left.”

But I need more. Want more. All of it. My eyes snap open, aching, burning, dry.

“Now, now. Be kind.” The voice is saccharin sweet and mocking. “She’s just delicious when she’s lying there helpless, waiting to be devoured.”

Hunger. Such hunger.

My head is swimming. The hospital room spins for a few moments as I gaze around at the old, green walls. It’s dim. Dark. Nightshift.

“V-Val?” I whisper, my voice cracking. Wavering black lines vibrate around everything in sight.

Warbled shadows.

Figures standing around my bed, watching me. Taunting me. Shadows.

“Valina!” No answer. She must not be nearby.

Tossing my legs over the side of the bed takes most of the energy I have, but I manage to sit up. The wound in my belly is still tender. More so, the muscles around it are weak.

Atrophied.

Fucking sniper.

“ Rachelle .”

I ignore the whispered word, like I ignored the others. They’ve been there since I woke up from the actual coma several days ago. Haunting me. Feeding on me.

Maybe I never woke up at all. Maybe I’m dead.

It wasn’t supposed to go that way.

Fortunately, Valina found me, the nurse I hired to handle this very situation. A long time friend. A long time disciple of our cause.

She’s kept me under, drugging me every time those damned cretins have come to check on me. Tyler. Gavin Rorshak. All to keep them in the dark.

Pity them their sense of responsibility, the fools.

As long as they kept her safe. My niece. I still need Hellena.

“We do, indeed. Now get the fuck up!” That dominant command makes me flinch, finally turning to acknowledge the hollow eyes of the specter looming over my shoulder.

“Leave me be, Hubris!” I whimper, shying away.

“Oh, you poor dear.” Spite purrs, making my skin crawl. Every word is a knife across my skin.

“Enough lying about. We have work to do. We must act, before it’s too late!” Avarice gnashes his teeth, too close, clawing at my hospital gown.

Take. Take. Take.

Shaking, I tug the I.V. out, dropping the bloody needle to the floor and setting my freezing feet on the linoleum floor. They are right. It’s time to go.

Work to be done.

The black smoke clouds my sight more as I stand, my vision blurring.

And a wonderful sense of dread and purpose fills me to overflowing. It’s easier when I give in to it. When I let them control me, use me as their tool.

My leaders.

My Sinful.

They’ve been with me all this time, guiding me, just out of sight.

Now, they show me the way, a path forward to complete our mission. To save the lost souls of Sanctum.

Blood and fire. We will save them all.

And I will take my rightful place. Even as a sixth specter joins us, Ardor, running his filthy hands up under my gown and driving me wild with desire. It can only mean one thing.

They’re all gone. They’re all dead.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know I learned this from her, my agent. Speaking to me while I slept. Or I read it in my emails, my texts. They’re still out there, my eyes and ears, conveying every detail that happens in my domain.

But it’s just so hard to focus, now, to remember what I did. What they did.

It’s the same, in the end.

As I stumble from the dark room into the hall, I pause, a shiver running up my spine. He’s there, in the chair outside my door, watching me. Shrouded in darkness. He never says a word, but his eyes burn through my skin, flaying my soul with his hateful stare.

Damon. My brother.

But the others drive me forward, harassing my every waking thought. So I must go.

Back to Sanctum Harbor.

A grin aches in my cheeks as I step out into the cool night air, any doubt left behind me, now. Our time is now.

“We are the Sinful. Our will be done.”

The story continues in Hell Breaks Loose (Sanctum Harbour Sinners Book 3).