Anything For Rachel – Episode 54

 

✒ { S•v Painter} ✔

 

 

 

 

#Episode_54

 

 

I could feel the weight of the betrayal heavy on my shoulders and I felt sick at the thought. How could we have been so blind? How did we not notice that his death had been a rouse? Of course it made sense now how the video of him only showed his face when they broke into the room, but conveniently his body is turned away from the camera when they were killing him, so it was clear that we had all been fooled.

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I turned slightly to my left to look at Pedro.

 

 

His face was long, his mouth hanging open and his eye welled with tears. He looked like he’d seen a ghost, and in all honestly, it felt like we all were. We’d each accepted his death as the truth, so seeing him standing there alive was unbelievable at first, but then the root of how and why sank in and all you’re left with is dismay.

 

 

Poor Pedro opened and closed his mouth over and over, his body shaking as he stared at Patrick. One look was all I needed to know that Pedro had no idea what Patrick had been up to. Thankfully, Octavia reached out to hold Pedro’s hand, giving me the opportunity to turn my back on him for a moment.

 

 

I glared up at Patrick as he walked to the front, stopping to stand beside Demetri.

 

 

“How could you do this to us?” I demanded. “To Pedro?”

 

 

Patrick tisked his tongue. “To Pedro?” He repeated me. “I did this for Pedro.”

 

 

Pedro shook his head at my side. “For me?” He yelled. “You betrayed me and everyone I love!”

 

 

Patrick rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, darling.” He cooed.

 

 

“Why did you do this?” I asked again, my patience thinning. “What good is Rose to you?”

 

 

Patrick turned his head to admire himself in one of the long mirrors, then smiled turning back to face me across the room. “Pedro has always deserved to rule.” He said evenly. “From the day I met him, it was obvious. Being a Master in the king’s trusted advisors wasn’t a place for him, the throne was his true destiny.” He told me. “King Gordo was an imbecile and he embarrassed himself and his people.” Patrick shook his head and his rebels nodded in agreement with him. “My original plan almost worked out, if it hadn’t been for you.” He spat at me.

 

I furrowed my brows and Calvin came to my side. “What does Rachel have to do with anything?” He asked. “What original plan?”

 

 

Demetri and Patrick smiled at each other. “You thought you’d taken care of all of the rebels who had attacked the castle and killed your father, but you didn’t.” Patrick said matter-of-factly.

 

 

“You?” Calvin murmured, his eyes wide.

 

 

Patrick grinned. “Yes, me.” He laughed cheekily. “I was pulling strings behind the entire operation, but everyone knew to never give up my name because if the first plan was a failure, I was going to come up with the next one.”

 

 

 

Pedro was leaning his weight on Octavia and staring up at Patrick in complete disbelief. “You were behind killing our king?” He asked. “I never wanted that! I respect the monarchy!”

 

 

Patrick sighed. “I knew that you did, which is why I needed to change it.” He told him. “I wanted to ensure that you’d have the highest position possible, and that we’d finally have a king who was worth a damn, and I thought Calvin would be that.” He waived his hand at Calvin. “He was so much more kingly when we’d made our plans. We were going to kill Gordo, have Calvin reign, and finally have the ruler we wanted while my Pedro sat at his side as the hand of the king, but then Rachel had to ruin that all.” He glowered at me then turned back to Calvin. “She weakened you, and we no longer saw in you what we wanted, so I planned to kill you and once you were gone, Pedro would become the king, as he always should have been. However, Rachel wasn’t really dead, and not only that but she was carrying the true heir to the kingdom and eventually people would find out and Pedro would be out of a job again, so I had to go back to the drawing board.”

 

 

“And you came up with this?” Calvin said in a deadpan, obviously as tired as I was of hearing Patrick go on about how clever he was.

 

 

“Not exactly.” Patrick shrugged. “I wasn’t sure where to go from there, and then I noticed the change in Pedro. He wasn’t the man I’d been in love with anymore. He didn’t even care about how weak you were or about advancing himself anymore. I suspect that came from Rachel as well because Pedro was not like this before he met her. Rachel ruined yet another plan.” He said annoyed. “I was down on my luck until I met my friend here.” He pointed to Demetri. “He was in Castrum looking for information on Calvin, so I watched him, and one night in one of my dining halls I overheard him and a few of his friends discussing their suspicion that Rachel was not only alive, but that she’d had a baby. Now they planned to

 

 

hunt them both down and kill them, but I thought what a waste that would be.” He and Demetri laughed. “I confirmed to him their suspicions, but I also came up with this new idea. It was good for both of us, you see. Demetri wins because Calvin and Rachel both suffer when we steal away their only child, we force them to watch as we completely destroy their reign and the people’s affections towards them, then we let them know before we kill them just what we plan to use their pretty little daughter. Then for me, I get the satisfaction of knowing in just a few years I’ll finally have the queen we need to rule these people and to take our rightful place in vampire and human history alike.”

 

 

Octavia frowned deeply, her eyes glistening with unwept tears. “I can’t believe you could do this, Patrick.” She muttered quietly. “I thought we were your friends.”

 

 

Pedro straightened up beside her. “All Patrick cares about is himself.” He snapped. “That couldn’t be any more clear than it is right now.”

 

 

“You still have a flair for the dramatic.” Patrick sighed. “Too bad you couldn’t keep your backbone to go with it.”

 

 

Pedro whooshed passed me, taking Patrick and Demetri by surprise. Everyone around me broke into action when we saw that the men were, for the slightest of seconds, distracted.

 

 

Four of the men broke out of the line to run to Patrick’s side, while Cromley and Renard jumped out at the furthest side of the line of men, instantly grappling on the floor. It was obvious more of the men in here were better fighters by the way my quick eyesight could see how one second it would look like Cromley had the upper hand, then the other guy would be on top of him pulling at his head instead. Calvin was across the room, easily plowing through the men that were trying to protect Patrick.

 

 

 

I glanced to my side and saw Lexton and Octavia looking out at the chaos with wide frightened eyes. When I turned back to look forward again I just barely had enough time to notice the man running at me with his full speed. I hardly had time, but I whooshed out of the way, causing him to pass me slightly, then I gritted my teeth as I shoved my fist forward right between his shoulder blades, wrapped my hand around something squishy, and yanked it back out. I glanced at the black heart in my hand for only a millisecond before throwing it to the other side of the room. The man turned almost slowly to look at me, his eyes looking a little astonished that I’d just done that, then they went blank as Octavia’s hands wrapped around his neck. She snapped it, and threw the head over in the opposite direction from where I’d thrown the heart.

 

 

We moved forward slightly, staying away from the biggest concentration of men where Cromley and Renard were and we moved into a triangle formation, me at the head, flanked by Octavia and Lexton as three more men narrowed their eyes our way and broke free from their group.

 

 

I glanced to the side to see Calvin rush away from where Pedro and Demetri were fighting, over to wear Cromley was about to lose his battle against the biggest guy in the room. Calvin helped Cromley end the man, then he glanced at me, just in time for me to run forward towards the first man coming for me. I dropped to the floor, sliding forward slightly like I’d seen Calvin do earlier, and I swung my legs under the first man’s legs. He tumbled forward, not expecting to be tripped, and as he started to fall on top of me, I shot my hands out right, grab both sides of his head like Renard had taught me, and I snapped quickly to the right, hearing the loud snap and tear sound of the skin at his neck and shoulders as it separated. I kicked forward, my feet meeting with his gut as his headless body continued it’s decent onto me, and I kicked his body back over my head to Octavia where she grabbed him from the air and began dismantling.

 

 

 

I risked one more glance over to Calvin and I caught his awed smile. He looked proud of me as he turned back to Pedro where he was fighting with Demetri. Pedro had him on his knees, and he was about to deliver the kill move, but Calvin called to him.

 

 

“He’s mine!” He told him and Pedro held him still until Calvin could get there while Patrick coward in the corner behind them.

 

The girls and I took out the next two men, acting as one until, me taking the men down, then Octavia and Lexton finishing them off and throwing the pieces everywhere.

 

 

Cromley was finished with his half of the men, and he rushed around the room, taking the body parts and throwing them all out into the hall outside of the room and lighting it all on fire.

 

 

It was hard to tell how many were still left because with all of the things my mind was having to process the mirrors all around us kept throwing off my count, but there were definitely only a few of the rebels still alive including Patrick and Demetri.

 

 

I heard Demetri cry out and I saw Calvin had him on the floor, his hands around his neck and a gaping hole already in his chest. Behind them, Pedro was taking down the last man in front of Patrick, but when I looked at Patrick I thought it was weird that he had his back turned to them and he was doing something in the corner, and then when he spun around, right after Calvin had killed Demetri, he slapped Pedro and the other man aside, both of them screaming out in pain as the black elbow high gloves that Patrick now had on connected with their skin.

 

 

Calvin tried to turn around fast enough, but Patrick’s juniper laced gloved hands were wrapping tightly around Calvin’s neck and he screamed out.

 

 

 

“Calvin!” I shouted and Cromley rushed back into the room and Renard backed up after taking down the last rebel near him. We were all frozen.

 

 

Octavia, Lexton, and me were near the back of the room on the side closest to the door, and Renard and Cromley were just a few feet ahead of us and to the right, while Pedro and the last rebel standing were in the far side of the room to the right of where Patrick was holding the love of my life.

 

 

“No one moves or I will kill him!” Patrick screamed angrily, his hair a mess and his eyes wild. “I’ll snap his neck!” He yelled as he yanked Calvin up to his feet and his screamed out in gurgling pain. The way Patrick was holding Calvin made it impossible for any of us to rush him and take him down without endangering Calvin.

 

 

I couldn’t believe where we were right now. Against so many odds we’d managed to have gotten the upper hand in the battle, yet still, here I stood with no Rose, and Calvin in front of me being tortured. We were out of options.

 

 

How the hell did Patrick even get those gloves? There wasn’t anything in the corner, and he couldn’t have just been keeping them on him or they would have hurt him. He tightened his grip on Calvin and his knees went weak, but Patrick kept yanking up on him, the sizzling sound of Calvin’s skin mixed with his mangled cries tearing me apart inside.

 

 

“Just admit defeat.” Patrick said coldly. “You’ve all failed. The girl isn’t here, and you’ll never find her!” He told us. “Leave now, and you’ll have at least a chance of living until my new army hunts you down. I’m giving you a chance to go, hide if you want, but if any of you move on me now, I will force you to watch me kill the king.”

 

 

 

I closed my eyes, unable to believe that we’d come this far just for things to come to this. Rose had to be here. She just had to.

 

The blueprint of this room popped into my mind and I remembered memorizing the exact size of this room, yet now that I was thinking about it, the room was actually much smaller than it should have been. I popped my eyes back open and everything became so clear.

 

 

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the first thing I should have seen the moment I walked into the room but with all of the craziness, it had escaped my notice. Now though…now the only thing I could see was the small fairy toy lying in the corner of the room opposite from the one that Patrick was holding Calvin on.

 

 

The mirrors.

 

 

The room is too small, and there’s a toy, and Patrick had to get those gloves from somewhere. The panels of mirrors. Rose has to behind one, just like those gloves must have been. They’d built hidden compartments into the walls and hidden them behind the mirrors. Rose is here.

 

 

I took a step forward without thinking, and Octavia yanked my hand back.

 

 

“I said no one moves or I kill him!” Patrick screamed again.

 

I widened my eyes at Octavia and Lexton, then tilted my head ever so slightly to the direction of the toy and they both looked at it, keeping their faces relaxed.

 

 

I turned back to face Patrick, but Calvin was struggling against him.

 

 

“He’s…He’s going to kill me anyway!” Calvin choked out as Patrick squeezed tighter. “Kill him, its ok.”

 

 

My body froze. “Calvin, no!” I yelled. “No!”

 

 

Calvin looked passed me to Renard and Cromley. “Find Rose, take care of them.” He muttered breathlessly. “I love you, Rachel. Tell Rose too. Everyday.” Patrick’s eyes were wide, terror creeping in. “It’s an order. I order you to kill him.”

 

 

Everything happened so quickly, even my vampire senses felt overwhelmed. I began running as Patrick twisted his hands around Calvin’s neck, the snapping sound piercing my ears, and Pedro jumped between them in the slightest of spaces. Cromley and Renard were rushing forward as Calvin’s eyes went blank and his head slumped to one side, barely still attached. Renard caught Calvin’s lifeless body as it slumped over and he pushed his head back upright with Cromley, while Pedro grabbed Patrick around the neck just as Patrick grabbed his. Pedro was screaming in pain, but he held firm to Patrick’s neck until I grabbed Patrick by the shoulders and ripped him away from Pedro.

 

 

“I guess I’m always the one ruining your plans.” I whispered menacingly into his ear as Pedro shoved his hand into Patrick’s chest and ripped out his heart, then I snapped his neck a dropped his body to my feet.

 

Calvin’s neck was fusing back together and his eyes were searching the room for me.

 

 

I froze in place, my heart almost feeling like it was swelling knowing that we’d finally won. Calvin and I were both ok and we were about to save our little girl. I smiled at him, and he sighed in relief, smiling too.

 

 

Then the man in the back of the room ran for it.

 

 

He stopped in the doorway, pulling something from his pocket and tossing it forward. “I’m not dying for this cause!” He screamed, then disappeared to the left corridor and Renard shot from the room after him.

 

 

I turned back to the center of the room where I saw the grenade he’d thrown hit the floor and roll towards the corner that the fairy toy was in.

 

 

I looked over at Calvin, then I ran as fast as I could towards the grenade.

 

 

“Rachel! No!” He screamed, trying to get to his feet.

 

 

I knew what I needed to do.

 

 

 

 

Final Episode up next