"If something's happened to her, Kurt, I swear I'll never forgive you."
"Shut up, Hannah, and sit down."
She knew they were inside the house, but she could hear them as clearly as if they were standing beside her. More than that, she could see them sitting at the table with Jonah.
"We know where Sundown lives," Hannah said. "Why can't we go get her?"
Kurt curled his lip. "Are you out of your mind? We march into a Dark-Hunter's home and do what? Tell him to hand her over?"
She lifted her chin defiantly. "Yes."
Looking up from the laptop where he was working, Jonah rolled his eyes. "I'm really sick of you two fighting. Take your sister out of here while I do this."
His voice ...
There was something about it that tugged on the edge of her memory. But what?
Kurt grabbed Hannah by the arm and hauled her out of the room. As soon as they were gone, Jonah pulled out his phone and dialed it. "Hey. I've got her heartbeat on the monitor so we know she's still alive. Yeah, I think it's a good sign that the Hunter hasn't killed her yet."
At the sound of those words, Abigail felt a surge of some odd emotion throughout her entire body. Her teeth elongated. It was the demon again. It was reacting to being here.
Why?
Raw, unfettered rage followed the wave. The demon wanted to taste Jonah in the worst sort of way.
I can't do that.
Yet she salivated. The taste of warm, sweet blood filled her mouth, making her ache to take some from someone else. The haze turned brighter. She walked through the door without opening it. With no real understanding of moving, she found herself in the kitchen with Jonah.
He looked up and blanched. He dropped his phone straight to the floor, where it landed with a thud. "What's wrong?"
She licked at her fangs. Taste him.... You know you want to.
Strangely enough, she did.
Abigail reached for his throat, but he jumped to his feet and put distance between them.
He kept backing away from her. "What did they do to you, Abby?"
Abby ...
No, that didn't seem right. She was ...
Caught in a maelstrom. She could feel the winds whipping, howling, and tearing at her. The room spun around as more images flashed. She saw the past, the present, and a future filled with horrors that were indescribable.
But the one thing she saw clearest ...
The night her parents died. And this time she knew why that voice had been familiar. Who had been there with "Sundown."
"You were there." She pointed her finger at Jonah, who stood before her, gaping.
"What are you talking about?"
She didn't answer as the demon swallowed her whole. Before she knew what she was doing, she was on him, biting into his neck. The moment she tasted his blood, she knew the truth.
Jonah was a Daimon. It was why the demon in her wanted to annihilate him.
The souls of his victims screamed in her head with a chorus that was deafening and sickening. They wanted their freedom.
And she wanted his blood.
"Abby! Stop!"
She recognized Kurt's voice, but there was no way she would listen to him. Not now. Not when the demon had her.
Kurt ran at her back and tried to knock her away. She turned on him and hissed, while she maintained her grip on Jonah, who was crying and begging for mercy.
Really? After all the people he'd ruthlessly killed to live, he had the nerve to beg for his own life? The hypocrisy sickened her even more.
"Coward," she breathed in his ear. "You could have saved my mother, and you didn't." He had swallowed her soul so that he could live. Damn him! Agony and fury bonded inside her to such a level that it was all she could do not to rip him apart.
Instead, she reached down to his boot, where he always kept a knife hidden. In slow motion, she saw Kurt lunging for her back. Before he could reach her, she stabbed Jonah in the heart.
He gasped, then burst apart into a shower of gold dust.
"No!" Kurt drew the word out, but it was too late.
Jonah was dead. She'd killed him.
Numb and dizzy, she stared down at her pristine hand. There was no blood there. Nothing left of Jonah except a shimmering film that graced the floor. Iridescent like the wings of a summer butterfly.
She could hear the laughter of the human souls as they finally ascended to their rightful places. But more than that, she heard their gratitude. At least she had saved them. Too bad no one had saved her parents.
"What have you done?" His eyes wide, Kurt stared at her as if she was a stranger.
And she was. She didn't know herself any more than he did. "What have you made me?"
"You were supposed to be stronger. Not ... not-" He gestured wildly at her. "-this."
A weird odor filled her head. It was like sulfur, only stronger. It was ...
"You took demon blood, too," she accused him as she understood what the demon was telling her.
He didn't deny it. "What was I supposed to do? I'll turn twenty-seven in a few months. I don't want to die any more than you do. At least it's better than killing a human."
Was it?
Hannah came out from the back of the house. She stared at Abigail with horrified eyes before she let out a shrill scream.
Abigail covered her ears as pain split her skull. She glared at her "brother." "You lied to me. All of you. You didn't tell me about Daimons."
Kurt narrowed his gaze on her. "You didn't need to know about them."
Oh, now there was an award-winning answer. "You told me the Dark-Hunters were our enemies."
"They are our enemies. They hunt and kill us."
It wasn't that simple. Not anymore. Jess had been right. They had lied to her. Used her. "You have no idea what you've done. What you've set into motion."
You will be known forever by the tracks you leave. Her mother's words haunted her now.
I will be known as the woman who ended the world. She felt so sick. Lost. Confused.
Betrayed.
Kurt grabbed her arm. "Abigail, listen to me. We're not your enemies. We took you in when no one else would have. My parents raised you like one of their own."
But there was more to it than that.
The truth hovered around the fringes of her mind like a ghost she could neither see nor touch. Only feel.
She stared at him as her conscience shredded her over her actions. "I don't trust you anymore."
Hannah stepped forward. "Abby-"
She moved away from Hannah's grasp.
I need to go. She didn't want to be here. It no longer felt like home.
It felt like hell.
She'd taken innocent lives. Killed an elder Guardian. Her life would never be the same. And it shouldn't be. Not after what she'd done. She stumbled back toward the door and went outside. The sky above twinkled with stars. It looked a thousand times brighter tonight than it ever had before.
Why?
Why would it be that way when everything was so wrong? Surely it should be storming. But it wasn't. The world appeared completely ignorant of the horrors to come.
"I have to fix this," she whispered. Before it was too late.
She would go with Choo Co La Tah to the Valley.
And there she would die.