A Vision of Green (Florence Vaine #2) (37 page)

“
Very well then,” says Bune, turning to step over to John.

“
Wait!” Frank bursts.

Bune tips his head to look at him. “Yes?”

“
I'll owe you for this, but you have to get rid of the monsters that have infested the town as well. They're the reason John's dead.”

Bune laughs and it's a gorgeous sound, it makes my heart come back to life just a little after the Windigo froze it over. “Easy. It's a deal,” says Bune.

At this the fallen angel approaches John's body, brushing Hayley and the boys aside. He moves his hand over John's chest, where his heart was ripped out and the wound seals up, the blood disappears. John's eyes shoot open and he begins coughing frantically. He clasps his hands to his heart with his eyes bulging in shock and terror.

“
He'll be a little
off
for a few days. Give him time, dying is an ordeal. He'll soon get back to normal. Well, as normal as he can get back to,” Bune says casually.

There are secrets in his grey eyes, and it makes me wonder about all the small print in this deal Frank has just made. Will the consequences for bringing John back to life be worth it in the long run? Only time will tell.

Frank and the others rush to attend to John as Bune turns to face the Windigo, who is now hovering in the corner. It pulsates with icy fear, its gaping, red stained mouth quivering. It doesn't make sense, because Bune doesn't look scary at all, not like the Windigo does. He's more intimidatingly magnificent.

In what seems like a last ditch attempt to save face, the Windigo screams at Bune and blows a gust of ice at him. The scream has no effect and the ice falls away from Bune's body, melting on contact. A slow fire builds up on the surface of the naked fallen angel's skin. It gets bigger until it's large enough to be moulded into a ball. Bune holds the fire ball between his two open palms and throws it at the Windigo. It's like a battle between fire and ice. Fire is most certainly winning.

The Windigo instantly gets set alight. Bune reaches out into the air with his perfectly sculpted fingers and draws a circle in front of him. The circle opens up into a black hole and the Windigo gets sucked into it. Then creatures begin getting pulled into the hole, they come through the open skylight in the roof. Hundreds of Elokos, the owlman, the N
ø
kken with which I had a close encounter, and all sorts of other monsters that I really don't want to look at.

When I glance back at the spot where Green George had been silently observing, I see that he's disappeared. Did he get sucked into Bune's hole too? Or did he simply leave because he knew that Bune is more powerful than him?

The townspeople in the assembly hall immediately stop fighting to get out once the Elokos have been sucked away. The trail of monsters clawing and struggling against their banishment seems like it goes on forever. Soon though, they're all gone and the hole disintegrates before my eyes into nothing but a black dot, then there isn't even a dot. There's nothing. Where has Bune sent them? I'm hoping it's somewhere far away where they can't cause anyone any more harm.

Finished with his side of the bargain, Bune dusts his hands, his grey eyes seeking out Frank again. “You'll be hearing from me,” is all he utters before he steps back inside the shimmering portal he originally entered through and vanishes as though he'd never been here at all.

There's several moments of silence before people begin crying and whimpering, coming down from the hysteria they'd been caught up in. Frank leaves John's side and comes to check on me, but other than being in total paralysed shock for the past twenty minutes, I haven't been hurt.

I spot Josh sitting nearby with his head in his hands. He's been through a lot tonight, we all have. But no one more so than Frank. He watched the man who is his father in every way but blood get his heart ripped from his body, and then he somehow summoned a fallen angel in order to ask him to bring John back to life. I slip my hands around his neck and pull him close to me. He sinks into my embrace like he needs it more than air.

“
How d-d-did y-you do it?” I ask him, after a minute goes by.

“
I have no clue,” Frank whispers into my neck. “Grief seemed to overtake me and my demon took control, telling me the words that would bring Bune here. I was desperate, I couldn't think of any other way to reverse what had happened. The chant spilled from my mouth, but I didn't even really understand what I was saying.”

“
You must have been terrified,” I whisper back. The look he gives me holds no bravado, it just says,
I've never been more scared in my entire life
.

At this, Sam and the Nephilim come charging into the room. Sam takes in the sight of a recovering John on the floor and the female Nephilim who'd been present to witness the whole ordeal takes him aside. She talks with animated hand gestures, filling Sam in on what went down. His eyes dart like a knife to Frank. He clearly doesn't like what he's hearing about the deal Frank made with Bune. He marches straight over to us.

“
What were you thinking Frank?” he demands, weaving both his hands through his golden hair. Frank lets go of me to face Sam.

“
He was dead, Sam,
dead
. I had to do it. We all need John and if it weren't for him we'd all still be lost. Alone.”

“
You can't just mess with the nature of things like that. It's not right, and as for this deal you've made, have you any idea of the consequences? You are such a fool! You might have saved John, but you've gotten yourself into something way worse. You have no clue.”

“
Yeah well it was my decision to make Sam. I'll deal with the consequences when they happen.”

Sam shakes his head ferociously. “You aren't equipped to deal with the consequences. Bune will eat you up and spit you out. If you think living with his demon in you is bad, you don't know what it's like to be indebted to a being as powerful as Bune.”

Frank's voice is gravelly now, like he's trying his best to hold himself together. He swallows. “As I said, I'll deal with it myself, I'm not asking for help. John's alive, that's all that matters to me.”

Sam stares him down for a few seconds, then strides away, disappearing into a circle of Nephilim who are quietly discussing the recent turn of events.

My head and heart hurt thinking of what might happen to Frank. Sam isn't easily provoked into anger, this whole thing must be fairly bad for him to lose his temper like he just did.

“
Are you going to be okay?” I ask in a shaky voice.

Frank plasters on a brave face, but I can see in his aura that he's drowning in apprehension and confusion. “I'll be fine,” he says. “I always am.”

“
I hope you're right.”

For the next hour we get swept away in the commotion of the Nephilim telling everyone that disaster has been averted and that they can make their way back to their homes. I sit on a bench at the back of the hall, away from the crowds, because the emotions seeping into me are too much to absorb. I need to distance myself from all of the fear and anxiety, from the swell of relief. Thankfully all of the humans were too consumed by the Elokos' music to bear witness to the Windigo and to Bune, and to the fire of Frank and the other boys.

I hear something shift beside me before I glance to the side and almost fall off the bench. Green George is sitting beside me, his eyes trained on the people leaving the hall through the double doors at the front of the room.

“
W-what are you doing here?” I ask in fright. There's a strange aspect to him, he doesn't seem angry at what happened to his creatures, in all honesty he seems entirely indifferent.

He turns and gives me a ghost of a smile. “I thought I'd say goodbye,” he says.

“
You're going away n-now,” my words come out in a statement.

He nods gravely. “I was merely an overseer in all of this. I could see in your eyes before that you thought I'd intervene in the fighting, but that's not my purpose. I watch and observe. Whether an outcome is good or bad doesn't concern me.”

“
Well you don't
only
watch all of the time, you intervened the day I almost drowned in the swamp because of the N
ø
kken.”

“
Ah, a moment of temporary insanity I'm afraid. I can see something in you child, you're destined for great things. You'll see. Those who come from the elves are precious and few. I thought it a terrible waste to let you die like that.”

“
I think you have me mixed up with someone else,” I mumble, furrowing my brow. I'm not destined for great things, unless a strait jacket is great. I don't imagine it is. My brain feels on the verge of breaking into pieces with the pressure of contemplating all that has occurred tonight.

Green George places his hand on my shoulder, and I can almost smell the fresh scent of the woods off his skin. I expect him to say something else, reply to my statement of inadequacy, but he only stands and walks away. I feel like calling him back, but I'm not a girl bold enough to order around a God. His form drifts into the crowd of people, none of them noticing him or batting an eyelid. Then he's gone. I'm thinking this might have been the last I'll ever see of him.

I don't see my dad or Karen anywhere, so they must have left already. I'm grateful that they have, because I just can't face either of them right now. I'm feeling too many confused emotions about Dad. Should I forgive him for his ways since I now know
why
he acts like he does? Or should I feel even angrier at the fact that he thinks being able to hear other people's thoughts is a good enough reason for being a degenerate junkie? I have a feeling I'll never truly know what to do about him.

All I know is that being an Empath is hardly a cake walk, and aside from my little anti-anxiety pill habit, I've never resorted to drugs to avoid being who I am. I've also never abused another person just because I can't stand being what I am.

The boys are helping John into his truck, but Hayley slips into the driver's seat since John is still a little out of sorts. Well, a lot out of sorts actually. He looks like he can't understand what's happening. I stand off to the side, watching them all. They are such a family even though none of them are related by blood.

In their auras I watch the colours of love and concern sweep through each of them. Nobody's mentioning the deal Frank made. I guess it's a bit of a grey area and they're all just too relieved that John's not dead any more. Unlike them, I just can't stop thinking about it. When will Bune call in Frank's favour? What will that favour be?

Frank slaps the roof of the truck and they drive off. He strides over to me and folds me into his arms, taking a deep breath of my hair. Caroline and Josh are waiting in the back of Frank's van. Neither of them have said a word about tonight. I don't think they really know how to digest it all. Their auras are unmistakably riddled with confusion.

I'm going to have to sit down with them at some stage and tell them everything from start to finish. They deserve at least that after all they've witnessed tonight. I wonder how the Nephilim plan on covering things up, I mean, they can't just leave everyone in the town knowing that monsters came out of the forest and tried to kill them, can they?

“
Come on,” Frank says, breaking through my thoughts. “Let's go home.”

We get into the van and drop off Caroline and Josh before heading back to the farmhouse. Frank takes my hand and guides me straight to his bedroom. I don't protest because I just need to be with him now. Feel the protection of his arms around me. Frank slips off his shoes and jeans before crawling under the covers. I do the same.

When I move to get into the bed beside him he pulls me right on top of his body, fitting me along the length of him. I get comfortable and slide my arms around his shoulders. It's in this position that I fall asleep, my face resting in his neck, breathing in the scent of his skin, relieved in the knowledge that for now danger has been averted.

I'm dreaming about my heart again. Unlike at the end of the last dream, where it had transformed into a tiny red marble, it's now even bigger than it had been. I hold it to my chest, my arms wrapped tightly around it, this big glass heart-shaped object. It's beating.
Thump, thump, thump, thump
. It has glittering dark red veins running through it, like a road map. Each one represents a feeling, a person or a thing that I care about.