Chapter Thirty Four
Talia
One Week Later
Can life get any better than this? God, these men are incredible. When Henry, Micah, and Julie are dead, I will truly be free from all my demons.
We took some time to bond as a group before we set out on hunting the three morons down. Henry won’t be very hard, so we will take care of him and his band of idiots first. He’s held up at his house, so easy work. Micah, we are saving for last, though. He’s the one we will truly have some fun with.
Dad has been a huge help with figuring out how we are going to kill Julie.
The knife they were using on Soren is a special knife, just like I thought, but it’s intended to be used in conjunction with a box.
The box is essentially a soul trapper, and that knife is how to connect and attract the soul to the box.
We have been spending all day in meditation to help me focus on locating Mom.
Once I did, I held onto her so we could get ready to go.
I have no idea how I am doing it, but it’s coming to me so naturally.
I know I need to find a witch to help me learn how to use all of this power, but I also don’t want to get exploited.
For now, my focus is on killing Julie with that same knife they used to torture Soren, and trap her in that box for the rest of eternity.
I am straddling Vaughn’s lap in the back seat as Diego drives.
Caine is in the front seat, and both Laurent and Soren are to either side of us.
I have my forehead resting on Vaughn’s chest as he holds me in a hug.
I stay focused on Julie. I found her hiding in a motel room just down the road.
All I have to do is stay in meditation enough that she cannot escape the room.
I don’t think she has even noticed yet that she’s trapped.
I honestly won’t even know if it’s working until she tries to leave.
It’s like astral projection, but more hands-on than that.
“Breaking news,” the radio announcer says.
“Local businessman Henry Frankford was among twenty-eight people killed earlier today in a massive explosion at his private estate. Authorities have not released an official cause, but preliminary reports indicate there is no ongoing threat to the public… Law enforcement officials have confirmed that Frankford and several of the deceased were persons of interest in an ongoing investigation involving allegations of human trafficking and organized criminal activity. Investigators are currently executing multiple search warrants at properties connected to Frankford and his associates… The investigation remains active, and officials say additional arrests may follow as evidence is processed. Anyone with information related to Frankford or his businesses is encouraged to contact local authorities… We’ll continue to provide updates as they become available. ”
Whoops… How terrible.
I settle back into meditation, perfectly content with Henry’s untimely passing. The others continue talking around me, but I tune them out and focus entirely on Julie. At first, everything feels normal. She’s sitting in the motel room, pacing occasionally, but otherwise doing nothing unusual.
Something changes abruptly, and the shift is immediate.
Julie freezes in the middle of the room.
Her head snaps toward the door before she rushes to grab a duffel bag from the floor.
I can feel her panic as she starts shoving things into it.
Drawers are yanked open and slammed shut.
Clothing is thrown around the room. She isn’t acting like someone preparing for a trip; she’s panicked.
“She figured it out,” I say, opening my eyes.
“Good,” Soren says coolly.
By the time we pull into the motel parking lot, Julie’s panic has only grown.
I grab the soul box and climb out of the truck with the others.
As we head toward the room, I can still feel her through the strange connection I’ve established.
She keeps trying to leave. The front door.
The window. The bathroom. Every path leads nowhere.
I don’t know how I’m doing it, but she’s trapped.
“She’s still inside,” I tell everyone as we climb the stairs. “She keeps trying to get out.”
Dad’s smile is downright vicious. “Good,” he says.
We stop outside the motel room, and no one bothers knocking.
Soren drives his boot into the door so hard that the entire frame explodes inward.
The response is immediate as a wall of fire tears across the room.
The blast of heat is so intense that it steals the air from my lungs.
Before I can react, Soren slams into me and knocks me backward.
I hit the walkway hard as flames roar through the doorway.
For a second, all I can see is orange, and then it’s gone.
I push myself back to my feet. Julie is standing in the middle of the room with both hands raised, her face twisted with panic and rage.
She tries another spell, but nothing happens.
Confusion flashes across her face, and she tries again.
Still nothing. Fear replaces confusion. Real fear.
For the first time since I met her, she looks terrified.
Dad reaches her before she can attempt anything else. He grabs her by the throat and slams her into the wall hard enough to crack the drywall behind her. The entire room rattles from the impact. Julie claws at his wrist, but he doesn’t move.
“Took me twenty years to find you again,” Dad growls.
I step into the room, carrying the box beneath one arm, and her eyes find me immediately. For a moment, neither of us speaks.
“Hi, Mom,” I say with a sweet smile. I open the box and pull out the knife before handing it to Soren, and Julie immediately starts talking.
“Wait, honey. Please. I’m your mother. Please don’t let him hurt me. Henry, he made me...”
I raise my hand, and the words die instantly. Julie blinks in confusion and tries again. Nothing comes out. I didn’t even mean to do that. Neat.
“It’s all you, Soren,” I say as I step aside.
He takes the knife from my hands and slowly approaches her.
Julie struggles harder against Dad’s grip.
Her eyes dart wildly between us as she finally understands that nobody is listening anymore.
Nobody cares about her excuses. Nobody cares whose fault she thinks it was.
Soren stops in front of her, and for a long moment, he simply looks at her.
It’s not with hatred or anger, just exhaustion.
“You never gave me a choice,” he says quietly.
The knife slides into her stomach, and Julie screams. The sound is muffled by whatever strange magic is keeping her silent, but the pain still shows on her face.
“You trapped me in a life I never asked for because you were too selfish to accept being alone.”
He pushes the blade deeper. Julie thrashes violently, and Dad doesn’t even flinch.
“You spent centuries trying to force people to love you… You killed every mate that came near me. You hurt the people I cared about.” Another twist of the knife before he withdraws the knife, and blood immediately follows.
“You hurt her... You spent your entire existence trying to take choices away from other people... But this choice is mine... So long as my bond with Talia remains, you’ll stay exactly where you belong.
” He looks back at me. Then at the box. Then Julie.
“Alone,” Soren says. He pauses for just long enough that the words register before he slams the knife into her chest and twists.
He casually pulls the knife free, and Dad lets her body crumple to the ground before Soren lays the knife in the box.
I shut the lid and bring it down to the ground so Diego can start helping me nail the wooden box shut.
The moment Julie’s soul disappears into the box, the tension drains from the room, and Soren is more relaxed than I have ever known him to be. It’s finally over.
For a moment, though, no one moves. After everything she put us through, after centuries of torment and obsession, it’s over so quickly that it almost feels anticlimactic.
“Well,” Dad says, dusting off his hands. “That was way easier than I expected.”
“Easy for you to say. You weren’t on fire,” Vaughn snorts.
“You weren’t on fire,” Diego says, rolling his eyes at Vaughn’s theatrics.
“I was emotionally on fire.”
“Fucking idiot,” Laurent laughs.
I glance down at the box in my hands. It doesn’t look special. It doesn’t look powerful. It certainly doesn’t look like something capable of holding a soul for eternity. It just looks like an old wooden box. Still, I can feel Julie inside it. Faint. Furious. Trapped.
“What do we do with her?” I ask.
Dad glances down at Julie’s body before looking back at me. “I know a guy.”
The room falls silent for a moment. “You know a guy?” Caine asks slowly.
“I know lots of guys.”
“That answer somehow made me less comfortable,” I laugh.
Dad shrugs like he’s discussing the weather. “Don’t worry about it,” he says. “I’ve got this part handled.”
“Alright,” Soren sighs. “Let’s go home then.”
The drive is strangely peaceful. No celebrating or mourning.
We are exhausted, so we sit in silence. The adrenaline is fading from all of this, and reality is finally settling back into place.
Henry is dead. His ring is dismantled. Julie is trapped.
Micah? Well, he’s just fucking pathetic.
He can be handled a different day when I care enough to go hunt his pitiful ass down.
For the first time in what feels like forever, there isn’t an immediate catastrophe waiting around the corner.
I end up curled into Soren as the others debate dinner options.
Diego is insisting that we should order pizza, but Laurent is sick of pizza.
Caine sides with Diego because we did spend a large chunk of the day hunting down a witch.
Vaughn agrees, and Soren chimes in to agree to pizza as well.
This evolves into a talk about toppings.