Get them here. Demons
had wanted Amanda almost all her life. She couldn’t let them win. Jessica
couldn’t let Amanda fall prey.
So
no matter how much Jessica worried about those kids or how much she loathed her
actions, she left. For Jessica, there was no other choice. It was time for
Nancy to stand on her own.
Lourdes, Queen of the Underworld
“Let
the underworld open its fiery gates upon the Earth, let it be a plague that
brings me what my heart most desires,” Lourdes, queen of the underworld, said
with a smile, and pressed her thumb to the parchment paper laid before her.
“Let
it bring me Amanda Blood, but may Jessica burn in hell. Make her bleed until
she utters my name.”
Lourdes
retreated back to her throne while the chant for battle echoed throughout the
underworld. The bounty was set, dead or alive, to the spoils of war.
It
was time for Lourdes to walk the earth. It was time for Amanda to do what she
was always meant to do and free Lourdes from her dark prison. Amanda’s strength
had reached new heights and she was finally ready.
Amanda
and the Bloods had faced demons before, but none like her. No, Lourdes thought
with a callous smile, this time would be
different. Much different.
Let
the demon clans war with each other for Amanda. Destroy each other, it didn’t
matter to Lourdes. All that mattered was she have her prize, one way or
another.
A
queen shall rise and the mighty Bloods shall fall.
3: Jessica
The
car purred as Jessica left the city limits and entered the hills covered in
dense, rotting trees. The undergrowth was long dead, and moss covered tree
trunks were her only cover as she dimmed the headlights.
Leaves
rustled and through their intertwined canopy of protection, Jessica followed
the moonlight. Coming up and over a hill, Jessica’s eyes made out the bikers’
clubhouse, Gypsy’s Curse .
Back
at the scene of the crime. Time to make things right.
Cutting
the engine, Jessica sucked her bottom lip. Her youthful face was aged by the
worry lines around her lips. Beauty was reserved for Amanda. Stubbornness,
Jessica had that in spades.
She
slipped her leather jacket onto her narrow shoulders; it fell to just above her
low rise leather pants. Old, comfortable boots protected her feet as she kicked
the car door open. The old girl’s 1966 hinges groaned in protest, but Jessica
wouldn’t part with her dad’s old Chrysler 300.
It
was all she had left of him— of her parents and what once was normal. Her soul
still sang, and Jessica wouldn’t let the demons take that from her.
They’d
stolen enough.
Shotgun
in hand, Jessica made her way down the hill. The leaves crunched like the dead
beneath her feet even though it was only summer. Nearby demons would rot everything away sure as they’d steal a human’s
soul bit by bit.
It
was a breezy night and her red curls blew off her back as she surveyed the
land. The middle-of-nowhere clubhouse was a big, old rectangle with wood
siding. Smoke wafted up from the corner chimney and peering around it, Jessica
just barely caught a glimpse of a rickety set of creaky stairs leading up to
the second level.
Windows
at the front flashed an orange, neon ‘OPEN’ sign. The music was so loud, the
rhythm thumped inside Jessica’s chest. The cranked music would hopefully
provide her with cover.
She’d
rescue her sister and get away from his place. Get as far away as she could.
She
froze. Guards.
There
were two by the front entrance standing behind a row of shiny Harley
motorcycles. Decked out in leather vests and jeans, they wore leather
caps.
From
this distance, Jessica couldn’t tell if they were human or demon. Sure their
skin looked slightly gray , maybe a bit
dull, but the corrupt soul of an evil being could only be seen close up.
Muscles
popping, they didn’t exactly look like the brains of the operation. No, the
brains were further up the food chain and that was who Jessica wanted, but
going through the