Renegade (Heven and Hell #4)(56)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I left then, wandering down to the beach, watching the crashing waves, and staring out at the blue. It was then I realized what that look was in her eyes.

Guilt.

I didn’t want her to feel guilty about being near me.

But I didn’t want to stay away, either.

Chapter Nineteen

Heven

He was waiting for me in the chemistry lab, just like I knew he would. The green fog spilled from the room, snaking out into the hallway and creating clouds that hung low to the floor, lurking… creeping… waiting…

I shuddered at the thought of walking through it to get inside. I thought of the empty green faces downstairs and the worried expression on the journalist’s face as she reported the “epidemic” sweeping the high school. There was no epidemic.

There was only a madman’s revenge.

My teacher appeared in the doorway, her black pencil skirt and blue blouse looking less than fresh, her hair completely out of the normal bun she styled it in. I wondered if she was anywhere inside her body or if Beelzebub killed her the first time he took over her skin. Part of me hoped she was dead, that she wasn’t somehow trapped inside with him.

That was a fate worse than death.

Sam and Kimber ran into the hallway, calling out my name, and I held up my hand. “Stay back. This stuff is everywhere.” I cautioned, watching as the fog drifted ever so closer.

“Heven, let’s go,” Sam called out. “When I said it was time to stop procrastinating, I didn’t exactly mean right this second.”

But I didn’t get to choose when to fight. I never had. I could hide for as long as I wanted, avoid the inevitable, but I always knew it was coming. And by avoiding it… by avoiding it, I’d allowed Beelzebub to bring his tirade to Earth.

Now might not have been the ideal time, but there would never be an ideal time to confront Beelzebub.

Sam started down the hall after me and Beelzebub/Mrs. Engles made a tsking sound. “Better tell him to stay back. Wouldn’t want him to fall prey to this nasty virus going around.”

“Don’t come any closer, Sam.” I warned, backing away from a tendril reaching out for my shoe.

“Oh, you’re safe,” he said, watching the fog fondly. “I made sure the Soul Reaper couldn’t be harmed by this.”

“Heven!” Sam demanded, wanting me away from Beelzebub.

“But you’re the only one I want alive,” he said, eyes narrowing.

He wanted me alive? “I thought you wanted me dead,” I replied, flat.

“Why don’t you come in and we can talk about it?”

Being alone with Beelzebub wasn’t something I cared to experience.

“No!” Sam yelled, running down the hall a little more. Beelzebub sent the fog rushing toward him. At the end of the hall, Kimber screamed and threw up her hands, blocking it from going any farther, stopping it just before it hit Sam.

“I suggest you do what I want before things get ugly.”

“You want to talk?” I asked dubiously.

“For now.”

I swallowed and looked back at Sam. Then I nodded. Sam made a sound, a cross between a groan and a roar, and then yelled my name.

“Wait for me outside. I’ll be out soon.”

“Heven, this is nuts! Get away from him.”

It probably wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve ever done, but I wanted to know why he suddenly thought I should live, and I also wanted Sam and Kimber out of the building before the cops showed up and hauled them out.

Trust me, Sam. I’ll be fine. Please go. Wait outside.

If you’re not out in five minutes I’m coming in, he threatened, his words reverberating through my brain and giving me a headache. Make that three minutes.

I didn’t look back as I stepped into the lab. I was afraid if I did I would change my mind and run away. Instead, I stepped forward, right into the green cloud, feeling it swallow me whole, and walked right into a meeting with my enemy.

The fog was very thin in the room, just barely visible by the windows and hovering just above the floor by the desk at the front of the room. My reflex was to hold my breath, to try not to breathe it in, because even though Beelzebub said it wasn’t going to make me sick, I didn’t trust anything he said. It was probably a trap. I was probably going to get sick and die, giving him exactly what he wanted.

Calm down, I told myself. Thinking about my impending doom wasn’t going to help the situation.

I turned my attention toward Beelzebub. The first thing I noticed was that he was barefoot and his toenails were painted pink. A pair of black high heels were sitting by the desk at the front of the room. He caught me looking at them and said, “Do you see the kind of things I must endure to get near you?”

“Do you want me dead or not?” I said, ignoring his words.

“You’ve been mine, you know, since the day you were conceived.”

Again, the reference that this all somehow started with my mother. “Why?”

“She made me a promise she didn’t keep. And so her promise fell to you.”

Vague. His answers were vague. I could try to get more, but the actuality was I would never know if he told the truth. The answers I needed had died with my mother.

“So you tried to kidnap me as a child.”

“It isn’t kidnapping when you rightfully belonged to me!” he snapped.

It was weird seeing my teacher with such fury on her face. Sure, she was a real pain in the neck, but she’d never been cruel.

I decided to fast-forward a few years. “Why haven’t you tried to kill me?”

He smiled. “I have come to realize having you alive is much more beneficial.” He stalked toward me and I wasn’t as intimidated as I probably should be, probably because he was disguised a woman who wasn’t much larger than me.

“The Soul Reaper has a unique ability—a control—over the souls in hell that no one else possesses. And since I possess you, I wield control over power that will not only make me more powerful, but will make me all powerful.”

Was I hearing things or did he just say he was going to overthrow the Devil?

“I’ll never do what you want,” I told him.

“You will. Because if you don’t I will go on a killing spree that makes what I have done since being banished here look like fun.” His lips curled back over his teeth in a menacing snarl. “And I will start with that boy you will do anything for, and once he’s dead, I will go after that old woman you live with.”