Beast, Part Two (The Church #5)

Let’s Go

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Albany

“ Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” Mason Maxwell asks over the phone.

Beast, Maksim, and I are sitting in a pool cleaning van parked a few houses down the street from the Spanish style mansion where Corbyn is hiding.

“No. DOE already has the police department taken care of.”

They hacked the phone system to 911 for this area. Anyone who tries to call in and report the commotion will be talking to a member of DOE. Any other calls will be rerouted to the real 911 operator. Once the attack starts, we have a full forty-five minutes to get in and out.

“All right. I’ll leave you to it. The jet will be waiting at the pickup spot when you’re done.”

I say my goodbyes to Mason, placing my phone back in my pocket.

“What are we looking like?” I ask Maksim.

He’s watching the tablet. Corbyn was smart not to have a camera system installed in his house, but a thermal reading on the building tells us that there are ten bodies inside the downstairs part of the house moving back and forth. We’re assuming those are the guards. There are three others in a corner room that has not moved for a while. We believe those to be the remaining siblings. There are another seven guards upstairs and one lone person upstairs in one of the end bedrooms. Surrounding the mansion are another twenty or so guards.

“Everything looks the same. I think Corbyn is in that bedroom upstairs.”

I also strongly believed that.

“Hawk, do you have that blueprint memorized?”

“Like the back of my hand,” he says through the earpiece. Him, Seth, and Many are around the back side of the home waiting in the crop of trees behind the house.

“Remember,” Maksim states. “If he gets to those tunnels, we will lose him for good.”

Built under the house was a mile long tunnel that ended near a dock. Gassed up and ready to go was his very own boat. We didn’t have enough of us to cover the dock as well as storm the house, so our best bet is to kill him here. We wanted to keep this job small. DOE offered a handful of my sisters, but we preferred they stayed back with Brooklyn and the others at the house.

“Don’t worry. We got this,” Seth says

It took us three hours from the moment we hacked that phone call to now, to get to this point. We have run down the plan and every possible scenario. It’s now or never.

Tapping at the back of the van door has me moving to open it. Standing in front of me is Roberto and his mother, Louisa.

“What can you tell us?” I ask the pair.

Louisa has been cleaning and taking care of Corbyn’s home for ten years. Apparently, he’s an asshole of an employer and doesn’t pay well. Unfortunately for him, it made it easier for us to get her on our side.

“The three children are there and Corbyn. But there is no woman with braids or child.”

“Are you sure?” Beast asks, coming up behind me.

Roberto turns to his mother and asks her in Spanish, if she’s sure she didn’t see a woman with braids and a child in the house.

“No. I’ve been at that house every day for the last five days. There is no woman with braids or child,” she answers him in Spanish.

I quickly relay her words to Beast. He nods his head. That isn’t the best news, but if all goes well, we’re hoping we can find a clue to their whereabouts either in the house or by prying it from Corbyn’s mutilated body. It also allows us to go in heavy with gun power, not worrying about hitting Summer or Gabe.

Beast goes back into the van, before coming back out with one of those large black duffels filled with money we got from the church. He hands the duffle to Roberto. The man’s eyes nearly pop out his head when he sees the amount.

“Thanks again,” I tell the mother and son duo. They quickly clear out.

“All right,” I say, so that everyone can hear. “The sun is going down. It’s time to get to work. Summer and Gabe aren’t there, so I need Corbyn alive until we figure out where they are. Set your timers to forty-five minutes.” I set the timer on my watch, but don’t press start. Maksim, Beast and I suit up, grabbing everything we will need.

“Many, Seth, and Hawk, start heading to the mansion. We are on our way.”

Maksim, Beast, and I set off toward the mansion. It takes us no time to make it to the home. As soon as the house is in sight, I give Zel the signal.

“Zel, start us off.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Zel starts the countdown from ten in our earpiece.

A loud whistling sound shoots through the night. Seconds later, the front of the mansion explodes as the missile Zel launched goes through the front door.

“Whew!” Zel shouts. “I got to get me one of these shoulder rockets.”

“Let’s go,” I shout as I hit start on my watch’s timer.

Maksim, Beast, and I rush toward the mansion. We move quickly, taking down the guards in our path. The rocket blast helped eliminate some of them. It also helps that Zel and Kyra are taking folks down from the roof of the home across the street. We lucked up when we found out the house was empty.

I shoot a guard that’s running toward me with a gun and before I can turn and aim my weapon at the second guard; he drops.

“I got you, Aurora,” Kyra says through my earpiece. “Get inside. Hiroshi and I will handle the rest of these out here and make sure no one leaves the property.”

Beast and I meet Maksim around the front of the house where the hole is. We step through together.

A guard comes out of nowhere. As soon as the three of us turn our guns in his direction, a harpoon flies through the air and pins the man against the wall beside him.

Turning around, I spot Hawk, Seth, and Many coming in through the back.

We make quick work moving through the guards downstairs. When it seems as if we can make it upstairs, four guards appear at the top of the balcony, looking over us into the foyer. They start firing off rounds. We all duck behind doorways and pillars.

I peek around the corner and fire off a round, hitting one of the guards in the chest. He drops to the ground. Hawk takes out two others. Seth gets the last one in the head. Before we could celebrate that victory, two more appear at the balcony overlooking the foyer. They have large machine guns. We all dive back behind the safety of our chosen hiding spots as bullets start to rain down on us.

“Victoria and Yohan are on the move,” Maksim shouts.

I peek around the corner of my wall and see the tall blonde from the video from the house along with the curly-haired guy run up the stairs.

“We can’t do anything with these two above us,” Seth shouts. Bullets continue to rain down on us.

“Kyra and Zel, can you take them out?”

“Let me see,” Zel says slightly out of breath. “No. The window only gives us a view of the top of the stairs. It isn’t wide enough to view the entire upstairs area.”

“Shit,” Maksim shouts. “We’re stuck.”

“They have to switch the magazines in a minute,” Many shouts. “When they do, cover us.”

“You’ll only have about thirty seconds,” Hawk tells him.

“Yes, we know.”

At that second, the bullets pause. We all slip around our hiding spots to shoot. The men with the guns take cover.

“Go, Many,” I shout.

Many runs from behind the wall where he was hiding. He pulls one of his harpoons out of his back, extends it, and tosses it at the wall in front of him, all while in motion. The harpoon lodges into the side of the stairs. Many jumps up onto the bench placed against the wall, leaps on top of the harpoon as if it’s a step and then do a back flip into the air. He pulls out his guns and, as he’s falling back to the ground, he fires off two shots. When his feet hit the top of the stairs, the two bodies of the gunmen fall over the railing and down to the ground.

“That might be the coolest shit I’ve ever seen,” Maksim says with his mouth wide open.

“Many, down,” I shout as Evan steps up behind him with his gun at his head.

A gun fires, but instead of Many falling to the ground, it’s Evan.

“I got your back, brother,” Zel says into the earpiece. He took the shot from the foyer window that faces the top of the stairs.

“Keep moving,” I say.

More guards come in from the first floor of the house. Many leaps back over the stairs and shoots one, while Hawk takes out another.

“I’m going upstairs,” I shout as I move toward the stairway. I shoot my way past the guards as I take the stairs two at a time.

As soon as I get to the top floor, I shoot a guard that was aiming at me. A bullet whizzes by my head. I turn around and another guard is there, but he quickly falls to the ground with a shot to the chest. Turning back around, I find Beast coming up the stairs, his gun aimed.

“You good?” he asks.

“Yeah, let’s spread out,” I check my clip to my gun, noticing I have about ten more rounds in this one. “You go down that way and I’ll go this way.” He dips his chin. I turn and head in my direction.

With my gun out in front of me, I head down the hall. I peek around the corner into the first room and find it empty. Backing out, I push open the next door and ease inside. It’s a bedroom.

The bed is in the center of the room. A patio is on the left side of the bed. I step into the quiet room. Moving through the area toward the open door, I believe to be a bathroom. A dresser is to my right with a mirror. Glancing into the glass, I spot Victoria coming up behind me. I turn around and fire, but she knocks my gun out of my hand, causing the bullet to hit the wall and the gun to slide under the bed. She aims her gun at my face. I spin around and bring my elbow up, hitting her in the face. I then grab her gun arm and bring it down over my knee, causing the gun to fly across the room.

She shoves me away. I turn around to face her. She wipes the blood away from her busted lip and then sneers.

“You fight like a woman scorned.” She chuckles. “I wonder if it’s because I killed your man?”

I glare at her before charging. We throw blows back and forth. I catch a right hook to the face, but return with an uppercut to her chin. She swings at my face again, but I dodge her blow before punching her in the throat. I run toward her as she stumbles back, tackling her to the ground. However, she uses her larger body weight to flip us over to where she’s on top of me. She punches me in the face so hard, my head slams back against the floor. Searing pain explodes behind my eyes. She wraps her hands around my neck and squeeze.

“You will die,” she snarls down in my face. “Just like he did.”

That’s the last time she will mention Nathaniel’s death. I let the anger and the pain I’ve had inside me for the last two months boil up in me. Rage fills me.

I let go of her wrist and dig my thumb in her eyes. I press until I darn near slip my finger in the socket. She screams, releasing my neck. I push her off me. We both get to our feet quickly and face off again. Her eyes are red, but she can obviously still see.

“This will take forever,” she chuckles. “We are too evenly matched.”

I snort. “Bitch, you could never be me.” Taking the blade out of my back, I toss it at her. It lodges right in between her chest and stomach area. She stumbles back before falling to her knees.

Her mouth moves, and blood sputters out. “You….you….”

I turn my back to her, and then back kick, pushing the blade further into her chest. I listen for the sound of her body hitting the ground. The thud it makes is music to my ears.

I grab my gun that slid under the bed. Walking over to her prone body, I fire two rounds into her head. Killing Victoria didn’t bring back Nathaniel. But it felt darn good. I make my way out of the room.

Beast

I watch Albany as she slips down the hall. I turn away and head in my direction. In order for Corbyn to get to those tunnels, he had to go back downstairs. The last time the heat sensor picked him up, he was upstairs, and I know he hadn’t been down those steps.

The sound of gunshots was still going on beneath me. Slowly, I creep down the hall, listening for any noise.

“Keep your head on the swivel, Kid,” Priest says in my head.

“Slaughter the devil, boy,” Mother encourages.

“Quiet,” I tell them both.

Noise from the bedroom at the end of the hall has me heading in that direction. I stop at the closed door.

“Let me come with you,” a male voice says.

“No. You will stay here and fight,” Corbyn replies.

I kick open the door. Corbyn is standing in front of an opening in the wall. It looks like an elevator. It wasn’t in the blueprints.

I fire off a round that hits Corbyn in the shoulder. He stumbles back into the elevator. Before I can fire again, the wall slides back into place.

“Nooo,” I shout. Rushing to the wall, I beat my fist against it.

“Once it’s been closed, you can only open it from the inside,” I turn to face Yohan.

His hands are up in the air as he backs away from me. “I finally come face to face with the almighty Beast,” He chuckles.

Lifting my gun, I aim it at his head.

“Wait,” he says. “You mean to tell me I shot your girl and then kidnapped her, and you’re just going to shoot me? I know you’ve waited for this moment. Do you want it to be over so quickly?” he nods toward the gun in my hand.

Looking down at the weapon, I think back over the moment Maksim told me Yohan took the shot at Summer. I remember running his face through my memory, telling myself that when I’m done with him, he will never look the same again.

“Show him what you’re capable of,” Mother hums.

“Let me out,” the demon whispers.

I toss the gun to the ground. Yohan grins, dropping his hands by his side.

“Let the fun begin,” he snarls before charging toward me. He swings at me, but his fist meets my Bowie. It slices through his flesh. The blade lodged in between the knuckle of the pointer and the ring finger.

Yohan lets out a gut-wrenching yell. I yank the blade out of his hand, then jab it up through his chin and out through his mouth.

He gurgles up blood. I release my hold on the weapon, and he falls to the ground.

“Smart, Kid. You don’t have shit to prove to him. Go find your family,” Priest’s voice praises in my head.

I grab my gun off the ground as I head back out of the room. I spot Albany in the hallway.

“Corbyn?” she asks.

“Through the tunnels. There was a hidden elevator in his room.”

We both run back down the stairs. When we get back toward the foyer, a guard runs from the back of the house toward us. Albany and I raise our guns, but a bullet splits the man’s head. Hawk steps out of the shadows.

“Upstairs?” he asks, right as the others join us.

“Clear,” Albany replies. “Corbyn is in the tunnels.”

“What?” Maksim shouts. “I told you if he gets through those tunnels he’s gone for good?”

Seth taps him on the shoulder. “Relax, brother. What do we know about Corbyn?”

Maksim looks confused, but answers. “That he’s a patient and smart man.”

“That he likes kids,” I say, pulling out my phone.

I tap the screen until I get to the camera system I’m looking for. Holding the phone up, I allow everyone to see it.

“What’s this?” Maksim asks.

“Just watch,” Seth beams.

The view we are seeing is from a camera that’s been stuck to a wall. In the frame is Emory and a dark tunnel. We all watch as Corbyn appears through the tunnel. He’s holding his shoulder where I shot him, a gun down at his side. The moment he spots Emory, he pauses. Emory is on the floor with her knees tucked to her chest, whimpering.

“Hello,” Corbyn says in a soft voice. “Are you lost?” he looks back over his shoulder before turning back to Emory. “How did you get down here?”

Emory looks up from her seated position. She stands up slowly, a headless rabbit clutched in her hands.

“Wait,” Corbyn tilts his head to the side. “Have I seen you before?”.

He makes the biggest mistake he could make, by turning his head and looking over his shoulder once again. Pulling her Bowie out of the body of the rabbit, she then drops the stuffed animal to the ground. Emory attacks. She runs toward Corbyn. He turns around at the last minute to see her coming. He lifts the gun in his hand to aim at her. She quickly dives on her stomach, sliding between his legs. She slices into his calf muscle as she comes out behind him. He drops down to his knees. She jumps up, runs back toward him and does a cartwheel over his head, planting her blade deep in his shoulder as she goes. She lands perfectly back in front of him, then kicks the gun out of his hand.

“What the fuck was that?” Maksim shouts. “You’ve had this kid sleeping in the same house as me all this time?”

Seth laughs. “Isn’t she an angel?”

“Of death,” Maksim grumbles as we all head to the bookcase we know that leads to the tunnels.

After sliding the bookcase open, we quickly make our way through the dark narrow walls. The moment we spot Corbyn and Emory, she skips over to us.

“Good job, tiny soldier.” Seth high fives her.

I go to Corbyn. Grabbing him by the collar, I turn him around to face me.

“Where are Gabe and Summer?”

Corbyn grins. “I don’t have many regrets. But you, you could’ve been my best pet.”

I didn’t give a shit about his regrets or what he thought of me. There was only one thing on my mind: finding my family.

“Where are Summer and Gabe?” I snarl, not in the mood for this conversation.

He laughs. “I’m giving you one last gift. He will be my greatest legacy.”

His body goes limp in my arms. I roar as I slam his head against the concrete tunnel walls over and over. I don’t stop until I feel hands on my shoulder.

“He’s dead, brother. It’s done,” Maksim pleads.

I release Corbyn’s bloody corpse and step away from him. My heart is racing, and my world is spinning. Even after all this, I don’t know where my family is.

“We will find them,” Albany says.

“Lucien will work nonstop until he locates them. With DOE helping, we will find them.”

They all rally around me, but they don’t understand without Summer and Gabe I can’t go on. I can’t face another day not knowing if they are safe and alive. It’s been hard these last few days trying to keep the darkness away and to remind myself what’s real and not. I won’t be able to manage it much longer without them.

“Yes, give in to the darkness for good,” the demon whispers.

“My greatest legacy,” Maksim repeats Corbyn’s words while looking down at his body. He turns and looks at me. “To Corbyn you were the greatest prodigy he had. It was why me and my siblings hated you.”

“What are you getting at?” Hawk asks.

“He said he was giving you the greatest gift. Which means he’s giving you, you.”

“How would he do that?” Many asks.

Albany gasps. “By creating another Beast.”

“So, Gabe’s at the Church?” Seth asks.

“No,” I growl as I realize what he meant. “He’s with my mother.” I take off back down the tunnels. We needed to get out of here and back to that jet. It’s finally time I face my mother once and for all. And this time, one of us won’t survive.

“Let’s go kill that bitch once and for all,” Priest says in my head.