Chapter One
CHAPTER ONE
They had sealed the oath in blood. Thirteen warlocks stood in the damp basement gathered around a large black cauldron. Each had contributed three drops of blood to the fire.
"The girl must die," Gabriel Martinez, the high priest who was leading the circle, said.
"Are you certain? Isn't there another way?" A woman asked nervously.
"You knew from the day she was born what she was," Gabriel replied. "We all knew that it might come to this. You must dispose of her, or we will."
"She doesn't know," the man standing beside the woman protested.
"She will. The time is coming. She is going to remember, and when she does, she will be a danger to us all."
"Please... She's only a child..."
"She's fourteen. She'll be fifteen soon enough. Her soul will unlock, and when she remembers what she is, she will be our downfall."
"You make it sound so simple. We can't just kill her. The others tried and failed every time. She is well protected," the woman protested.
"You two have never tried. You must."
"Please don't ask us to do this," the man begged.
"It has to be you. It is vital that Bethany dies before her fifteenth birthday."
The man looked to the woman, his eyes begging her to say something, but she lowered her head and hid her tears. She could not betray the warlocks. She had never been strong enough to fight them. That was why he stayed, after all. She needed him, and he loved her. No one else could protect her from the vows she had taken. This once, though, he wished she had the ability to fight. This was not just a random killing. They were being ordered to kill an innocent girl who didn't have any idea what the prophecies said about her. His heart broke as he realized they had no choice but to comply.
~*~
On the other side of Salem, Massachusetts, Bethany Ashford sat brushing her long blonde hair. She paused and studied her reflection in the mirror. "Do I look okay?" She asked Jade Collins, her "bodyguard" and close friend.
Jade lived with the Ashfords, who had taken her in after she ran away to Salem a couple of months earlier. They knew she was an orphan, although they didn't know that Jade had killed her parents in self-defense using a spell. The Ashfords knew that Jade was strange, but they didn't know just how strange. Beth's parents were just about as mortal as anyone could get, and Jade tried her best not to scare them off. After all, not only had they taken in Jade, who was a Pagan and a Goth, but they had taken in her son, Joey, and asked no questions when he just popped up and she told them he was hers. She liked the Ashfords, even if they were fairly religious Christian mortals.
Maggie Ashford was a heart surgeon who loved cooking. Her husband, Lewis, was a lawyer. Their oldest child, Kevin, was away at college on a football scholarship. Jade had never met him, but from everything she'd heard from Beth and her parents, he sounded like a really nice guy.
"You look fine, Beth," Jade said.
"Are you sure? I mean, Randy's going to be here soon and..." Beth began.
"And you want to look perfect for your little boyfriend," Jade interrupted her. "I know, Beth. You've been freaking out all day about this date. It's just Randy. What's the big deal?"
"It's our two month anniversary," Beth replied as if that should explain everything.
"Oh," was all Jade could think of to say. The whole two month anniversary meant very little to Jade. Although she had a boyfriend now, she'd never been the type to have a relationship before, and she didn't really understand why dating someone for eight weeks was worthy of special recognition.
"It has to be perfect, Jade," Beth insisted.
"You're starting to sound like Randy with that perfection obsession. Is he rubbing off on you?" Jade asked.
"No... I just don't want anything to go wrong. Things have been going so well for us lately."
"Beth, you and Randy are like Mr. and Mrs. Bishop High, the perfect prom king and queen, still stuck in that disgustingly happy newly wed type of couple stage, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth. What could possibly go wrong?"
"I don't know. I'm just scared, Jade."
"You're paranoid, Beth. The two of you are perfectly happy."
"It's high school. People break up all the time."
"Yes, they do, and if you and Randy break up, it won't make the world end, I promise."
"You don't know that."
"Your relationship doesn't hold the key to the apocalypse, Beth."
"No, that was Margo," Beth replied this with a smile, which made Jade laugh. Beth was finally getting comfortable enough with this new supernatural lifestyle she was learning to crack jokes about it. That was a good sign. "You're right. I'm being ridiculous. Don't you ever get like this about Spencer, though?"
"No, actually," Jade replied. "Then again, Spencer and I aren't your typical couple, either."
"That's true... But you guys are still really cute."
"Beth, I have never been described as cute in my life."
"Well, Spencer's cute."
"Alright, I'll grant you that much," Jade admitted.
Jade and Beth were part of a group called the Silver Society, and so were their boyfriends. Every few decades, the four of them, along with eight others, incarnated in whatever place needed them the most and worked together to keep the supernatural bad guys at bay. This time around, they were all in Salem. Jade and Beth had only found out about the Silver Society the previous September. It was January now. They were both still adjusting to everything they had seen, but they were starting to get the hang of it.
The doorbell rang. "He's here," Beth said. "Are you sure I look okay? Maybe I should change-"
Jade rolled her eyes and said, "Your outfit is perfect, you're perfect, Randy is perfect, your date will be perfect, and someday, you're going to have a bunch of perfect little babies. Just go already!"
Joey, who had been in another room with Timothy Ballard, the other "stray" the Ashfords had taken in, suddenly appeared in the bedroom. Joey could teleport using a dimension that he was the key to. Beth and Jade were both so used to his use of this form of travel that it never surprised them anymore when he showed up. Joey studied Beth for a moment before saying, "You pretty, Aunt Beth!"
Beth giggled. "Thanks, Joey," she replied.
"Randy here."
"Get going, Beth," Jade said.
"Right. I'll see you guys later," Beth said. She hugged Jade goodbye and kissed Joey on top of his head before heading downstairs.
When Randall Schwartz, who was better known as Randy, saw Beth arrive in the hallway, his heart began to beat quicker. "You look amazing," Randy said.
Beth blushed. "Thanks," she replied.
"This is for you..." Randy handed Beth a single red rose.
"That's so romantic," Beth gushed, kissing Randy quickly. "I'm going to put it in a vase." She hurried into the kitchen and selected a pretty blue vase. As she filled it up with water, Beth felt arms come around her from behind. Randy's body gently pressed up against her own, and she took comfort in his familiar embrace. Randy's arms had become Beth's sanctuary. She always felt safe when he held her.
"I figured I'd take you to your favorite restaurant tonight," Randy said.
"That sounds great," Beth replied.
They walked outside together. It was a clear night. The moon was full and the air was cold. Snow covered the ground. Everything was beautiful and serene. It couldn't have been more perfect.
When they were about a block away from the restaurant, Beth slipped on some ice. Randy caught her before she even fully registered that she had been falling.
"Thanks," Beth said with an embarrassed smile as she looked into his eyes. She was blushing, but her cheeks were already so pink from the cold that she was fairly sure Randy wouldn't notice.
"No problem," Randy replied. "That's the advantage of dating a slayer... We have strong reflexes."
"I see that." She kissed his cheek before realizing they were not alone.
Several people had surrounded them. Randy cursed softly before turning toward Beth. "Sorry, that just slipped out... I'm so not in the mood for this," he said. He pointed to a tree. "Beth, keep your back to that tree and don't move. If you get into trouble, yell for me. I'll protect you."
"Okay," Beth replied. She was walking toward the tree when the first warlock attacked her. He was on top of her within seconds. As Beth shrieked, Randy tried to pull the warlock off of her. The other warlocks began to attack, ripping Randy away from Beth. Randy knew they were outnumbered and tried to figure out a way out of the situation.
When Cassandra Jones appeared beside him, Randy felt relief flooding through his entire body. Chances were that Cassandra was not alone, and even if she was, she could take down armies of angry bad guys on her own if she needed to. Cassandra was the number one slayer in Salem, and her name alone struck fear into the hearts of bad guys across the East Coast.
"Cass, help Beth!" Randy shouted.
Cassandra immediately set to work on trying to help Beth get away from the warlocks who had her pinned down. They had stabbed Beth more than once and she was losing a lot of blood. Cassandra knew it would be a couple of minutes before she could get through the crowd that was attacking Beth. She hoped it wouldn't be too late.
"Never fear, Arnie's here," Arnie Gelman cried dramatically as he arrived. With him were his best friend, Aideen Phillips, and Aideen's boyfriend, Jesse Rodriguez. The three of them were also very skilled slayers.
Aideen rushed to Randy's aid, while Jesse and Arnie tried to help Cassandra get to Beth. "Man, Deenie, am I glad to see you," Randy said as Aideen finally killed the last warlock who was attacking him.
"Are you okay?" Aideen asked, automatically examining him for signs of injury.
"I'm fine. We need to get to Beth," Randy replied.
"You're bleeding," Aideen pointed out. She touched his head and her hand came away covered in blood. "Sit down, Randy. You need to be healed before you can help Beth. She's got Arnie, Cassandra, and Jesse helping her. Take care of yourself first."
"I can't. She's my girlfriend. Besides, I'm a slayer. It's my job to protect her." Randy nearly fell over as dizziness threatened to overwhelm him.
"And right now, you can't stand up straight. You can't help Beth until you're okay," Aideen pointed out.
"What did we miss?" Dylan Messina asked as he and Alex Paxton arrived at the scene.
"Warlocks," Aideen replied. "It looks like they were after Beth again."
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Randy said suddenly. He turned around and vomited, making it clear he had a concussion.
"Easy, Randy," Aideen said gently. She rubbed his back and helped him sit down.
"I'll heal you," Dylan volunteered.
"No, Dylan, you're the strongest healer we have," Randy protested.
"Exactly. Me healer. You injured. Healers heal injuries. We're a perfect match tonight."
"Beth probably needs you more," Randy pointed out.
"He's right," Alex said. He motioned toward Beth and the others. "Arnie just collapsed because he was trying to heal Beth. She's hurt pretty badly. I'll heal Randy. You go fix Beth. Deenie, go take care of Arnie."
"Yeah, alright," Dylan replied, apparently agreeing that Beth needed him more than Randy did.
"I guess we're Team Fix the Empaths," Aideen added with a grin.
Aideen and Dylan hurried to Beth and the others. All of the warlocks were either dead or had fled. As Aideen set to work on breaking the connection between Arnie and Beth, Dylan knelt beside Beth and realized just how seriously she had been injured.
"This is closer than they've ever gotten to killing her," he said to Cassandra and Jesse.
"Jade's going to be pissed," Jesse replied.
"You're right about that," Jade said, joining them. "I felt Beth get attacked and got here as fast as I could. What the hell happened? Is she alright?"
"She'll be fine," Dylan replied. "It's just taking a lot of energy to heal her."
Arnie opened his eyes and sat up. He tried to let go of Aideen's hand. "No way, Arnie," Aideen said firmly. "Beth is still down. I'm not letting go of you until I know I don't need to keep you grounded anymore. You'd just take her injuries on again if I did."
"It was warlocks again," Jesse explained.
Jade cursed. "We really need to figure out why the hell they keep coming after her," she said. "She's not going to last much longer if this keeps up."
Dylan finally finished healing Beth. She opened her eyes and sat up, but almost fell back down immediately. "Take it easy, Beth," Dylan said as he steadied her. "I had a lot of damage to fix. Don't get up too quickly. Are you okay?"
"My head hurts," she replied.
"They didn't hit your head," Dylan said in confusion.
"No, they hit Randy's," Aideen reminded him.
"Right, the empathy. Wow, even when you're getting attacked you take on the injuries of others... You're lucky it didn't kill you!"
"Please don't remind me how useless and incompetent I can be when it comes to supernatural battles right now, okay, Dylan?" Beth asked with a sigh. "I hate not having any blocks."
"You're not useless, Beth," Jade said. She'd said the words to Beth a hundred times before, but at times like these, they never seemed to sink in. "You will learn to control your abilities one day. Everyone has to start somewhere. You're still getting the hang of things."
"I don't get it. Everyone else has some sort of control over their abilities. Why am I the freak?"
"Empathy's hard," Arnie said. "Remember, it took me years to learn how to work my blocks, and I still lose control sometimes, like tonight."
"I can't fight, but I'm always the one getting attacked. I have no blocks, so I usually end up having to be rescued even if I'm not the one who gets attacked. I know very little about the supernatural, so I can't contribute much to our meetings. What the heck am I good for?" Beth demanded in frustration.
"You're learning, Beth," Dylan said. "Don't be so hard on yourself. Yes, it's taking a while, but it usually does. It's not like we all learned to do this stuff overnight. It's just that most of us had training from pretty young ages, and you never did. In fact, you had to hide your gift because your parents wouldn't have understood. That's really hard to deal with, and it makes learning that much more difficult. You just need some time. You'll catch up."
Beth had heard the encouraging words too many times before. She was sick and tired of feeling useless. She looked at Randy, who was finally recovering, and said, "I'm sorry. Can we just go home?"
"Sure," Randy replied. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she replied softly, feeling defeated. "Please just take me home."
As Randy and Beth walked away, Jade shook her head. "Typical," she mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Dylan asked.
"She wanted everything to be perfect, and look what happened. I mean, I don't really get why, but I do know that tonight was important to her. Beth has never hurt anyone in her life, but she can't even have one night where she can just pretend to be normal anymore. That's not fair."
"You're right. That really sucks."
"Arnie," Aideen said suddenly, "you're bleeding."
"No I'm not," Arnie protested in confusion. "The empathic wounds healed when you pulled me back."
"No, she's right," Jesse said. "Look at your arm."
Sure enough, several small cuts were appearing on Arnie's arm, all in a perfect row, one at a time. Arnie cursed. "Oh, Missa," he said softly. He looked at the others before adding, "Melissa's hurting herself again."
"I thought she stopped doing that," Aideen said in concern.
"She's trying," Arnie replied sadly. His heart hurt as he once again felt helpless.
"We better have someone check on her," Jesse said.
Arnie nodded. "I'll go tell Alex," he replied. It was really the only thing he could do.
~*~
Melissa Morgan sat in her bedroom giving in to her self-destructive urges. Arnie had finally called Melissa on the fact that she self-injured in October, and she had struggled to stop ever since. In November, the secret she had been hiding for her entire life had been revealed. Melissa's uncle had been abusing her since becoming her legal guardian after her parents died when she was two years old. When Alex had finally gotten the truth out of her, he'd killed her uncle.
It was a mercy killing, using a spell that caused no pain. Alex and Arnie had both felt that her uncle deserved worse, but Melissa had begged them not to use force on him, and Alex had respected her wishes.
Since Melissa had been kicked out by her aunt after her uncle's death, she had moved in with Alex and Jesse. Most of the time, she enjoyed living there. Alex was a good guardian, and he was also a good listener, and Melissa got along pretty well with Jesse. There were times, however, when Melissa still felt incredibly guilty about what had happened.
This is your fault! Melissa's aunt had screamed the words at her. She had no proof, but she knew Melissa was somehow responsible for her husband's death. While Melissa usually did not let her aunt get under her skin, this issue was different. She happened to agree with her.
I let Alex kill him, she thought. I didn't even try to stop him. I just let it happen. I'm a murderer. With that thought in mind, Melissa began hurting herself. She hadn't done it much since moving in with Alex and Jesse. Since her primary trigger had been her home life, she was doing better and didn't need to self-injure to cope. The problem was that now she had a lot of conflicting emotions and didn't know what to do with them. Her uncle had deserved to die, but did she have the right to make that call?
Punish yourself, Melissa, she thought. You have to. You were bad. Murdering mortals is wrong...
With Arnie's tip that Melissa was in trouble, Alex had immediately split a body off and sent it home. He found Melissa curled up on the floor with the blade from a box cutter.
"Melissa, give me the blade," Alex said gently.
Melissa jumped, startled by Alex's sudden presence. She obediently handed him the blade. "I'm sorry," she replied softly. "I couldn't deal."
"It's okay. People who have addictions like this slip up once in a while. I'm not here to judge you, Kid," Alex said. He had a habit of affectionately calling everyone "kid," which really annoyed Cassandra, but Melissa didn't mind it so much.
"I wish I wasn't so messed up," Melissa said with a sigh.
"Hey, everyone's messed up in one way or another," he replied soothingly as he began disinfecting her injuries and cleaning up the blood. "I still think you should try and talk to a professional, though. It might help you heal from the trauma."
Melissa rolled her green eyes. Although she could change her appearance at will, she had not bothered that night. "Alex, my answer hasn't changed since the last time, okay? Therapy's not my thing."
"I really think it could help you. You need to talk to someone, Melissa. You can't keep doing this to yourself."
"That's what empaths are for. I talk to Arnie."
"That's not enough and you know it."
"I could add Beth into the mix."
"Melissa-"
"Whatever. I'm going out," Melissa decided abruptly.
"I think you should stay in for a while and calm down first."
"No. I want to go. You can't stop me."
Alex sighed. As her guardian, he technically could stop her, but he didn't want to argue with her any further. He knew better than to push Melissa when she clearly needed space. "Alright," Alex reluctantly agreed. "Just be careful."
Melissa left the house without another word. When she was a couple of blocks away, she changed her long red hair to black and her eyes turned blue. She knew it would make her look exotic and wondered if Arnie would still think she was attractive. No matter what she did, Arnie seemed to think that she looked beautiful. The two were not officially dating, but were essentially viewed as a couple in spite of this. They were friends with benefits and spent most of their time together.
She had barely made it to the waterfront when she was attacked by a vampire. "Pretty neck you've got there," he said as he grabbed Melissa from behind. He pulled her body against his own and tilted her head so that her neck was exposed.
Stay calm, Melissa told herself. He can't possibly do anything worse to you than what you've already been through. You have nothing to be afraid of.
With a calm one would not expect from someone in her present situation, Melissa said, "Thanks. It looks better without holes in it, though, so if you don't mind..."
The vampire hissed and pressed his fangs against her neck. "You're going to make a nice snack," he decided.
"I'm no one's snack, buddy," Melissa replied, shoving her elbow into the vampire's gut with enough force that he staggered and released her.
Melissa quickly scanned her surroundings for something, anything that would get her out of this situation. If she ran, the vampire would catch up with her and capture her again. There was no point in even trying that method. There weren't any stakes lying around, but a wooden chair sat on the waterfront. Melissa grabbed it, and with one swift hit toward the ground, she broke it. She took a jagged piece of the chair in her hand and decided it would have to be good enough.
The vampire had recovered and was coming toward her. Melissa kept the "stake" hidden until he was close enough, then tried to shove it into his heart.
The vampire got her weapon away from her and laughed at her. He held her down. "You're a foolish girl," he said. "You can't slay me. I'm Uanie. You stand no chance against me."
"You're Uanie?" Melissa asked. The Uanie were the most powerful and respected vampires that could walk during the day. "That's a laugh! You can't have earned enough respect to get that title, so how did you do it? Is your daddy Uanie? Did he talk them into letting you become one of them?"
"Don't anger me!" He snapped.
"Or what? You'll kill me? Well, you're going to try to do that either way, right? I might as well amuse myself first. You bad guys are so sensitive about your precious pride." Her comment angered him enough that the vampire released her for a moment. Melissa stood and ran. She stopped running when she reached the water.
As the vampire rushed toward Melissa again, she tripped him. He fell into the water. Seeing an opportunity, Melissa climbed up a tree while the vampire was still under water. The vampire cursed and climbed out of the water, now more determined than ever to kill the tiny girl who was making him look like an idiot.
Melissa laughed softly as the vampire tried to figure out where she'd vanished to. She waited for him to get closer before swinging from a branch and kicking him in the head. She looked at the tree and said, "Sorry, Tree... Please forgive me." She proceeded to snap a smaller branch off of the tree and shoving it into the vampire's chest. He was dead in seconds.
It was only after this victory that Melissa noticed Arnie standing nearby and staring at her with his jaw dropped. "Hey, Arnie," she said casually. "How long have you been watching?"
"Oh my Gods, Missa, where did you learn to do that?" He asked. "I saw most of it. I was going to help when I realized you were doing just fine on your own."
"I picked it up from watching you guys," she replied.
"Do you mean the slayers?"
"Yeah. Every time we've gone into battle and you guys have gone off and fought, I paid attention."
"You got all of that just from watching? Wow, Missa, you should train! Seriously, you'd make a good slayer."
Melissa beamed at him. "Thanks, Arnie. That means a lot to me. I've been telling Alex since I joined the Silver Society that I liked kicking bad guy butt."
"Are you okay?" Arnie asked gently.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He didn't hurt me."
"No, Missa. I mean, are you okay emotionally? I know you hurt yourself."
"Why is it so hard to block you?" Melissa asked. She sighed in frustration. "I'm okay, Arnie. I just had a slip-up. I'll be fine."
"Okay. You know if you want to talk, I'm here for you, right?"
"I know." She kissed him. "So, how do I go about getting trained?"
"You talk to Cassandra. I'll tell her what you did tonight. I'm sure she'll be happy to set you up with a mentor."
"Okay, cool." She paused. "There's one thing I haven't gotten the complete hang of yet... Can you help me smite the corpse before the cops show up?"
Arnie laughed. "Sure," he replied. He took Melissa's hands in his own and coached her through raising the energy, then sent it toward the corpse. It went up in flames and was nothing but ashes a short time later. "That was pretty good for your first time," he said proudly.
"Thanks." Melissa kissed him again. "So, did you have any plans for the rest of the night?"
"Nope," Arnie replied with a smile. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"Let's salvage the night and go somewhere."
"Okay. Where?"
"Anywhere." The only thing Melissa knew was that she didn't want to go home yet.
"That sounds like fun," Arnie said. "Let's have an adventure!"
As Arnie hotwired a car, which he would be sure to return to its rightful owner later, he felt Melissa's eyes on him. He could feel her emotions, and he had to admit that he liked what he was sensing when it came to her feelings toward him.
As long as it stays casual, he reminded himself. If you date her, the curse will get her. Arnie had lost too many girlfriends. It seemed that every time he dated someone, she was killed. No matter what, he wasn't going to let that happen to Melissa, even if it left both of them wishing that their relationship could become something more.
~*~
A warlock blood oath was unbreakable. Knowing that, the man sat in his secret sacred space going through every magickal book he had and searching for a solution that didn't involve him murdering Bethany.
If he could just find a way to lock the truth away permanently, maybe they could go on the way they always had. Perhaps she wouldn't have to die.
"Please..." He said softly. "Don't make me do this. There has to be another way."
A book fell open at his feet. He picked it up and looked at it in confusion. The spell on the page in front of him would enchant a knife, making any death it caused instant and painless.
"That's not good enough," he said with a sigh. "I can't do this. I can't kill her... She's just a little girl."
Another book floated toward him. This one was blank inside, but had been enchanted to provide messages from the other side as needed. It opened up to its center, the golden page waiting for a question to be asked.
"What can I do?" He asked the book. "Do we have to kill her?"
You took a blood oath, the book replied in its usual intricate black script. The only way to avoid killing the girl is to kill yourselves instead.
He considered this. If it were only about him, he wouldn't have hesitated to give his life so he didn't have to take Bethany's, but he couldn't make that choice alone. The woman he'd protected ever since they were children was just as caught up in this mess as he was. He couldn't leave her.
"We could go out together, peacefully," he said aloud. "I could make sure it was painless."
You can't just die, he scolded himself. Too many people count on you. And you can't leave her. She needs you. You love her, and she's already lost enough.
"Suicide isn't an option," a voice said from the door.
He jumped as he realized who'd breached his sacred space. "Amos," he said softly.
Amos White gave him a look that was not completely without sympathy. "Sometimes, we have to do things we don't want to, my friend," he insisted.
"She's still just a baby, Amos... I don't think I can do this." He wouldn't admit weakness to most of the warlocks, but he'd known Amos for his entire life. They'd grown up together. Amos was one of the only people who knew all of his secrets.
"You're a warlock. You may not be in the Erica Vitti Society, but you hold a tremendous amount of power. You can't keep turning your back on your heritage."
"You did, for a while."
"I went through a rebellious stage for a couple of years in college, but my old man straightened me out," Amos replied. "Now, my son's a young E.V.S. member preparing to continue the legacy of the White family."
"Amos... I don't think I can do this. It's Bethany."
"You know a blood oath can't be broken."
"But if we're dead-"
Amos shook his head. "You know how smart Gabriel is. He put a clause into the spell. Neither of you can kill yourselves until you fulfill your oath. It won't work if you try."
"Then we'll just have to kill each other."
Amos gave him a knowing look. "You could never do that to her. And she'd never be able to bring herself to kill you. Besides, that would be a waste of life and power. Neither of you deserves to die."
"At least we're adults, Amos!" He sighed. "She's only fourteen."
"And if she makes it to fifteen, you know what will happen. We all have to do things we don't agree with. That's what being a warlock means."
He sighed. He knew Amos was right. There was no way out of this. The most he could do was try to make it painless.
"Come on," Amos said. "Let me buy you a drink."
There was not an alcoholic beverage strong enough to make accepting the inevitable path he had to take any easier, but he accepted the offer anyway. "Thank you, Amos," he replied. "Just let me clean up first."
As he began to put everything back where it belonged, he tried to ignore the pain in his chest. He knew what must be done. There would be no getting out of it. Bethany was going to die, one way or another. The sooner he accepted that, the sooner it would all be over.
