The Vengeance

The Vengeance

ALLISON RIOS

Copyright © 201
3 Allison Rios

All rights reserved.
Edited by Nanette Funke Goode
www.facebook.com/HealersAndGrims

ISBN:
0989302415

ISBN-13:
978-0-9893024-1-8

D
edication

This book is dedicated to Katie, a dear friend and beautiful soul gone far too soon. Her passing is a reminder that we are never promised tomorrow; make the most of each breath you take. You will always be missed and loved, Katie.

Contents

Thank you to some fabulous test readers, Sarah, Beth, Jessica and Katrina. You ladies are the best.

Thank you to my editor, Nanette. You are an amazing lady, an incredible friend, and I’m glad we’re a team on these projects.

Thank you to my husband, beautiful children, family, and friends for supporting my writing and believing in me.
Love you, love you, love you.

And to R.O. and Dr. M’s office,
just because you guys and gals rock!

Healers:
Human-like beings that are able to take away illness and injury on certain occasions; they are given visions through touch that allow them to see the future of the ill or injured person. Healers discover their gift in their early twenties and may only marry and have children if they give up their gift. Not all people may be healed, and Healers must learn to deal with watching life taken away, as well as being able to grant a cure.

Grims:
The counterpart of Healers. Grims take away life and cause illness, injury, and destruction. They are not inherently evil beings; they are part of a balance system with the Healers to keep the population in check. Many deal with personal struggles over having to take life from others; some are rogue and have become hardened, causing illness and injury where it is not meant to be. They discover their gift in their late teens and unlike Healers, they must wait five years before being able to give up their gift.

Clans:
Family lines that both Healers and Clans descend from.

Great War:
The clash between Healers and Grims, after some Grims lost sight of the purpose behind their gift and instead sought to take control of the world. Healers succeeded in defeating the Grims, although several Grims in certain family lines remained rogue.

Dark clouds overtook a sapphire sky thunder roared overhead. The vehement noise rattled through the sky and shook the leaves from their posts, emptying branches entirely. Wind whipped through the intricate maze of wooden limbs and sent shudders down their trunks, shaking the ground underfoot.

Rose braced
herself with the thick, wooden trunk next to her, wrapping her arms tightly around the sturdy anchor for fear of blowing away. She opened her mouth to scream but only silence escaped. Her tiny arms held firm as she pleaded internally for someone to save her. Two men, both only shadows in the midst of the storm, battled in front of her. While she couldn’t see their faces clearly, she could sense the animosity between them. They were each there to end the life of the other and as far as she could tell, neither had seen her there. That brought a momentary comfort.

The wind picked up as the fight intensified, the agile and strong bodies in front of her tossing each other around easily, as if they were
flimsy stuffed animals. The air pulled at her, enticing her to let go and be swallowed up within the storm. The thunder and lightning increased, the latter striking the ground around her and momentarily lighting up the scene before her.

AJ and Devin. She recognized them in the glimpses of light. The men were surrounded by others, all shrouded in garb more fit for a movie about secret societies than anything she’d ever seen in person. In the light, the surrounding group looked almost
… angelic.

Her hair whipped around her face
and clung to her dampened skin, clouding her vision. She didn’t dare let go to wipe it away. The pink ruffles adorning her shirt fluttered in the winds of the storm and her jean shorts grew heavy as the material absorbed the rain. She felt her arms begin to twitch with tiredness and fought to hold onto the bark. She looked up into the angry sky to see the clouds swirling above her. The longer the fight went on, the stronger the storm grew. She couldn’t help but feel as though the men’s hatred for one another fueled the storm.

She watched the men in front of her battle with a mix of brute strength and wrestling-like moves until suddenly, with a giant clash of thunder and rush of wind, silence filled the air.

The storm ceased. The angelic crowd dissipated as quickly as they’d appeared. And in the distance she could make out three bodies on the ground. Still clinging to the tree, she loosened her grip and took a few steps before stopping. Her shaking legs hadn’t found their center yet.

She struggled to call out and no sound arose from her lips. As hard as she tried, the air remained void of her voice. She took baby steps forward, reaching out towards AJ. She knew him; she had grown to like and admire him. Most of all, she trusted him. She’d just seen him abolish another human being and yet her mind somehow still believed that she had no reason to fear him.

As the clouds began to scatter and sunlight trickled through, she arrived upon the scene of the fight. No one was moving but Max, who was sitting in the grass and seemingly unaware of her presence among them. Rose felt the tears forming in her eyes and the warmth of them as they traipsed down her skin. Max glanced to his right and Rose followed his gaze.

Mommy, she thought.

Addie was on the ground in front of him, her body still and silent. Rose wanted to walk over to her but her legs held tight to their location, unwilling to move her forward. The tears intensified and Rose tried to scream, all to no avail. She looked at AJ as he lay on the ground in front of her, his body still as well. She tried pushing herself to move forward with no result. She opened her mouth and silently screamed with all her force, just as a final lightning bolt shattered the sky above them and plummeted into the earth.

“Mommy!” Rose screamed, bolting upright from the couch.
The blood-curdling plea rattled Gram to her core; something had gone wrong, that much appeared evident.

An indigo sky took over the horizon, spreading out above them with a dotting of steamy clouds dissipating as though they knew the threat of darkness had vanished. She stared blindly in front of her. Obstacles clouded her vision, unable to form anything recognizable.

Her chest felt as though someone were kneeling on it. Addie fought to regain a steady up-and-down, in-and-out rhythm for air. The vibrantly orange sun on the horizon pushed through the haze in her eyes and provided a focal point. The wind rushed through the trees and her hearing returned
before she’d even had a chance to miss it. Leaves began rustling while birds scattered, flying above the trio without ever a care of losing that freedom. How lucky those birds were.             

Her body flinched as she tried to roll. The tall, native grass beneath her poked at the skin peeking through torn clothing. Addie fought to sit up but found no part of her body willing to make such a tremendous effort. Every inch of her
being tingled, ached, and burned.

She could feel the warmth of blood trickling from the open wounds on her arm and leg. How much blood she wasn’t sure; she only recognized a constant trail against the early-evening chill of her skin. The shorts and shirt she had thrown on earlier seemed nonexistent as the breeze sent chills through to her very core.

Her overworked eyes forced open into slits while the light from the sunset blinded her momentarily. Panic seized her as she struggled to gain even blurred vision back; she searched the immediate proximity in an attempt to recall what had just happened. While she’d watched every moment of the battle, the scene had been surreal. Prior to that week, nothing outside of humanity had existed. Magic and other worlds were merely movie fodder and not something she’d anticipated encountering in real life. To see two men battling as though special effects were in play had not yet fully sunk into her mind.

At the moment, Addie couldn’t be certain the movie her mind
replayed had actually happened. Her aching head screamed that it had sustained some type of injury. Perhaps her mind had concocted the episode in its entirety.

Warm brown eyes looked up, down, right
, and left as her eyelids blinked furiously to wash away the fogginess. She rolled her head to the other side and blinked again. Her limbs lay heavy as she fought to move them, finding herself only able to muster enough strength to move her head. As the daze cleared, a form began to come together in her line of sight.

His form.

She tried to move her lips but the words wouldn’t come. With a desert-dry mouth and her throat scratchy, a searing pain took over at the corner as she parted her lips. Another gash, she assumed. She tried to swallow but found nothing to wet her pallet. She tried desperately to call his name again.

“AJ
,” she managed to squeak out, her voice abrasive and high-pitched.

His head was so near to hers. His features became stronger as more of the fog lifted from her view. She fought to make her whispers loud enough for him to hear.

“AJ,” she called again. And again. And again. The name was so familiar yet felt so strange rolling off her tongue in a voice she didn’t recognize.

The desperation began to show in her anxious murmur with each repetition of his name. Every moment from the last day was a cloud of unknown. Her mind raced. Had it just
been a horrible dream? A cruel reality? Had everything ended? Who had been victorious?

Her head rolled in the opposite direction while a new wave of dizziness and nausea hit. It was only then that she began to notice she and AJ weren’t alone.

Max sat beside her, his crumpled body leaning against a tree for support. His head buried down into dirty hands. The vertical paths on his dusty cheeks were evidence of tears. The sight forced Addie’s thudding heart down into her stomach. Max wouldn’t cry. Unless…

Her chest burned with the familiar pain that signaled tears, starting in her stomach and working its way up into her throat.

Tears peeked from the corner of her eyes and fell like anchors towards the now hallowed ground.

“No, no, no, no, no
,” she cried out, her voice as rough as before.

Her chest rose and fell in painful heaves as cries turned into sobs before she shut her mouth tightly in an attempt to hold it in. The sadness that overtook her soul was like nothing she’d ever felt before, reeking of loneliness and regret.

The adrenaline rush came on just as it had the night Rose had fallen from the ladder, forcing every inch of her body to tingle and shake. The sobs welled inside of her but she refused to let them out.

If she cried, she felt it would all be too real. That he’d be really gone. If she held it in, perhaps time would stand still and she could lie here forever simply looking at him.

“Max!” she cried out.

Locking eyes with her friend
, she looked over at AJ as if to signal Max to help. She fought to regain focus; to will him to run over and heal the man she loved.

“Max, heal him
… please … Max … MAX!”

Her voice, though scratchy, had been found.

Max sat next to her as his own tears pierced his eyes with fervent speed. He was frozen in place, unable to flex a muscle to even reach out to Addie. He wanted to stop the pain she felt but knew the order of the universe would not allow him that luxury. He had always followed the rules. Never had he broken them, not even for love. He wouldn’t start now. To do so, he told himself, would demean all that AJ had done; to disrespect his friend’s sacrifice.

AJ was gone
and there was no sense in everyone losing powers over this. He needed his gift to justify all that had happened; if he could help people, AJ wouldn’t die in vain.

Max remembered back to a few days before as he and AJ had sat in old rocking chairs donning the rustic front porch of the bed and breakfast. Neither had spoken as their eyes simply scanned the horizon, taking in the never-ending beauty of the green and golden fields. Max had known AJ’s thoughts were engrossed on how to protect Addie. The kid had already told Max to take care of her after the battle, sure he wouldn’t walk away from it alive. With so many Healers in the area, Max wasn’t convinced AJ would lose his life – until he placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and allowed the visions to flow.

He had never before opened himself to AJ that way. The force of the future that flashed through his mind was sickening. He had watched AJ grow from a naive young man into a strong and powerful warrior for good. It seemed impossible that the end was nearing for the lost and frightened kid he’d once taken in. Yet the visions flowed furiously through his cognizance; first the battle, then AJ healing Addie. Finally, visions of the two of them crowding around AJ’s visibly lifeless body with tears streaming from exhausted eyes.

Max recalled yanking his hand away that day on the porch, refusing to absorb what he had just seen. AJ only looked over at him with a knowing stare – an apologetic stare – and then shifted his gaze back to the horizon.

“It’s okay, Max,” AJ had said, his eyes never again making contact with his oldest friend. “I’m prepared and willing. I know the way things have to be and I’ve accepted it. My heart doesn’t ache for the fact that I will lose my life, but rather that there are people left behind who will ache in their heart for me.”

The moment was bittersweet as AJ understood what his mother must have felt in her last months on earth.

It had taken everything in the old Healer at that moment for Max not to cry. Now he found himself unable to retain the flow of tears that he’d restrained since days earlier. The walls came down and the barriers ruptured with the sight of his friend lifeless on the ground in front of them.

Addie looked back over to him, her face red with a mixture of anger and devastation and her heart shattering into a thousand pieces as each second passed.

“Please, Max,” she begged again, her voice fading to a whisper. “Please, please do something.”

He knew she’d hate him forever. He knew she’d never forgive him for staying put and not rushing to AJ’s side. He knew she would never recover from the pain of losing the man she loved while feeling betrayed by her friend.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered back, heat stinging his face from the shame and damage his response would reap. “I’m so sorry, Addie, I’m so sorry.”

Her neck arched, forcing her face towards the sky as the sobs began to increase. Her hands
gripped the ground as if the entire world might flip over and spill her in a never-ending free-fall through the sky. Her mind exploded with images of all the what-if scenarios. The thoughts ravaged her mind. What if she’d not volunteered to help? What if she’d told him how she felt sooner? What if she’d forced him to give in to his feelings for her? Would he still be alive?

She thought about their kiss and the electrifying shock it had sent from her lips down through every inch of her soul. She would have stayed in that moment longer if she had known what today would bring.

The sadness crept from her mind throughout her entire body. The soreness from Devin throwing her twenty yards was nothing compared to the pain that surged within her soul at the loss of AJ. Unlike Robert, AJ hadn’t walked away. He had died for her. He had done all of this to protect her and her daughter. He had loved them as no one else ever had and now she would have to bury him along with every hope she had of finding happiness.

She turned once more to look at AJ. She sought a miracle to bring him back to life. Addie realized his hand was still on her arm, his soft skin connecting to hers. She became perfectly still, not wanting to lose that moment. She wanted the feeling forever.

Closing her eyes, she wished for the world to swallow them both up and send them to eternity together. She could see them both on the ground as she let her mind leave her body. She and AJ, stretched out in a perfect cross shape on the soft grass as she swirled higher and higher up into the sky and through the branches, breaking through to the radiance of the sunset. That was what she had always wanted; to share every sunset with him.

Her sobs lightened to a choked whisper and weary eyes opened once again to AJ. She used her strength to roll onto her side, bringing her free hand down on top of his.

“Take me with you,” she whispered, the words shattering her very soul.

She felt
a wave of selfishness rush over her for not caring in that very moment about leaving Rose.

Rose needed a mother. Addie had first-hand experience in needing a mother’s love, but she couldn’t help but think tha
t the anguish over AJ would end if she could just be with him, wherever he was.

The flow of tears picked up again. Her stomach warped into knots and she heard a sob escape Max’s lips behind her.

A strained gasp forced her eyes to open. AJ’s body twitched as though life had just rushed back into him.

He let go of her arm, curling into a ball as pain surged throughout his body. Every punch, every blow from Devin coming alive again in memory. I
t all flashed through his mind: the fight; Addie being thrown; AJ stopping Max from healing him. His mind was searching for a truth, an answer as to whether she was still alive. His eyes wouldn’t open to let him see, no matter how hard he tried. He had no control over his body. His muscles flexed and stretched as his body writhed on the ground. Addie watched in horror, unable to move towards him and in shock that he was moving at all.

Max watched from behind her in stunned
silence. On hands and knees he crawled around her shaking silhouette to his friend, pulling AJ into his arms and keeping the Healer secure.

AJ’s b
ody thrashed against Max’s hold but the older man held tight with brute strength. The adrenaline had kicked in for him as well and his body felt stronger than it had been for years because of it.

Fingers clenched into fists
as AJ continued to writhe. Outward appearances looked as though he were being brutalized from the inside out, but his mind focused on the exact opposite. His body was healing itself from the inside out, inch by inch and organ by organ. His ultimate sacrifice had made him stronger, fiercer, and more revered. It unleashed strength from within that was only allowed to the highest of all Healers.

His eyes snapped open and instantly found Max’s. He blinked, allowing the light to reset his vision before a crooked smile surfaced on his dirty – but now barely wounded – face.

While it felt like hours, only mere seconds of silence passed before everyone came around to what they’d just experienced. After the month it had been, with all the strangeness that had occurred, Addie thought she would be immune to anything further that seemed out of the ordinary. This proved her wrong. She was still in as much shock seeing all of this unfold as she had been watching AJ heal Rose.

AJ’s attention immediately shifted to Addie, his head snapping towards where he remembered her to be. Without words, he rolled out of Max’s grip and pulled himself across the ground to her, scooping her up into his arms. He was breathless.  He felt no need to breathe until he was sure Addie was alright. He searched her eyes to see how badly she might still be hurt. Once in his arms her strength let go and she melted into his grip. Ecstatic sobs escaped from her lips and she found enough resolve to wrap her arms around him and hold onto him as though she were climbing a cliff with no safety gear. He was her harness.