Grey I - Intentions

Chapter 35 - The Road to Hell

This is where your vision starts, where your visions starts to blur.
Have you ever thought of giving up on what you love the most?
Did you forget about the ones that you would hurt?
Just a few more seconds, then the pain will be gone.

In Fear and Faith - The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Four more figures began to take shape out of the fog; a quad. I could sense their bonds to each other, their connections. My mind couldn't concentrate on theirs though, my thoughts were swimming, spinning, as I tried to understand what the man in front of us was saying. James' father was dead. Was he threatening us? Saying he was going to send James to Hell to be reunited with the monster he had grown up with? That wasn't how it had sounded. Was he back somehow? Did James know? My questions were answered a moment later.

"You're new family look shocked, Gabriel? Don't tell me you haven't been honest with them? You were always such a truthful boy."

He paused to look at our faces, and I took the opportunity to do the same. James looked sick, no longer a mask of calm control, no longer able to hide his feelings. A mix of horror and hatred was so blatant on his face he looked like a different person. His eyes held the look of an animal whose paw was caught in a trap, desperately looking for an escape, any escape.

"Come with me without a fight and I won't have to kill your friends...I still will, of course, but at least I won't have to. So I'll enjoy it more. Except her," his eyes settled on me, the grin returning to his lips. "He would prefer to have her alive as well. In fact, I hear you're a bit of a package deal here of late."

He nodded to one of the Darklings that had appeared from the darkness, she raised a gun, pointing it directly at my chest. The man looked back to James after a short pause.

"You can't win, not this time, boy. Come without needless injuries, your father will be upset if I have to damage you. That's his pleasure, not mine, and I don't want to kill her, but I will if you make me. You're more valuable to him. She's a bonus - but you, you've always been his favorite."

The man looked like he very much wanted to kill me, but James wasn't even looking at him, his eyes were glued on the gun in the woman's hand. His jaw clenched.

How fast can you make a shield?

My mind was still spinning and for the first time, his presence didn't calm it. Who was Gabriel? And who was this man before us? It certainly sounded like James' father was very much alive. I felt the claws of betrayal run down my back, squeezing my heart and making each breath painful. I knew James could feel my mind, everything directed at him, I knew he understood every doubt I was battling, but I didn't answer his question, I just looked over at him, all my questions on my face.

Forgive me, Angel, please. I'm sorry.

And then he was gone.

One moment he was standing beside me, the next he was across the grass and before the man. I heard the gun fire in the same moment my Shift ripped out of me. I called my Sign and hastily threw it up before me, but it wasn't strong enough. I didn't have enough time to pack it and I felt the bullet tear into my shoulder, right beneath my collarbone, barely off from my heart.

The pain rippled down my arm and across my chest, but my air had softened the shot and it was barely an inch into my flesh. My entire arm burned, but I ran for one of the men coming for James' open back as he attacked and dodged and countered the man whose eyes were now just as black as my own, as James'. A moment later I heard Kael and Nevaeh running for the others too.

I made it to the man just in time before he brought his razored knuckles down on James' back. He was almost as large as Kael, but unfortunately, he was quicker. I sensed someone behind me a second before I felt the blow. I tried to turn my body from the hit, to lessen its effect, but he was too quick. I stumbled back from the force, but kept my position between James and the men, my Shift snarled through my teeth as I turned to fully face my opponents, my back brushing James' for a moment.