Tirade (Heven and Hell #3)(71)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“You are so arrogant.” I rolled my eyes and smiled.

“You like it.” Riley leaned forward.

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

Riley’s eyes narrowed. “I know damn well you didn’t suddenly decide to ditch the love of your life. Tell me what you want to talk about.”

It was now or never. I reached out and grabbed onto his wrist. “I want to know what you’re hiding,” I asked, my eyes locking on his, which flared silver before widening with guilt.

And that’s when I saw his answer.

Sam

I stripped off my shirt and dropped it on the ground. It was soon joined by my shorts, shoes and socks. I stood there, at the edge of the woods in the deepest cover of night, staring out over the inky dark lake. There was a breeze that moved the water; it rushed toward me, lapping at the bank, almost calling to me, begging me to come in.

I wasn’t scared. Very few things scared me anymore. At the top of the list was death. But not my death. Death of those I loved. I could pretty much take anything as long as I knew the people I loved more than myself would still be there.

Which is one of the reasons I was here, at this lakeside at night. I had someone to set free. There was a group of loved ones who mourned because they didn’t know if the person they loved was safe.

I tossed my boxers with the rest of my clothes and then I dove into the water. Icy liquid rushed over my skin, but I wasn’t cold. My eyes blinked, adjusting to the darkness, and a line of bubbles floated from my mouth. I wouldn’t need to breathe down here. I began pushing my arms and legs through the heavy water, remembering exactly where I needed to go.

I wouldn’t ever forget this place. The place where I hid a body.

It didn’t take long to find her. Or rather, what was left of her.

Andi. It seemed important to remember her name, to give her that respect of identity, because to my shock, there really wasn’t any physical identity left to her.

I will help you. I told her as I treaded water just over where she lay.

She wasn’t in good shape. I hadn’t given much thought to what she would look like. I’d been so focused on setting her free. But now reality was sinking in. It was probably good that I didn’t need to breathe right now, because I probably wouldn’t have been able to anyway. Being sentenced to a dark, watery grave hadn’t been kind.

When I first left her here, I had wrapped the vegetation growing from the lake floor around her ankle, securing her body to the bottom. But those plants were not what held her here anymore. No, she was basically reduced to a pile of bones that lay partially concealed by the plants and matter of the lake bottom. Her skin was no longer covering her bones, but I did note there were some patches here and there. Those patches were being slowly eaten away by hungry fish.

Her clothes were nowhere in sight and most likely had been carried away by the current. I realized there was really nothing left to identify her by… except her teeth.

It was a gruesome sight. I thought of all the movies and shows on TV that portrayed dying and death as something that wasn’t ugly and scary—but it was. It was horrible and stomach turning.

I wanted to shut my eyes, but I didn’t. I needed to see what I had done. This girl, once full of life and beauty, was a girl still missed and loved by many. She had done nothing wrong, but I punished her by trapping her down here, essentially making me no better than Beelzebub.

I hadn’t chained up her soul, but I had chained her body to the floor of the lake.

I wanted to make it right. I shook my head. There was no making this right, but I could at least, hopefully, bring some peace to the people involved.

I swam closer to her remains and reached out to take her hand, to lift her body up, but her hand was gone. The bones from the wrist down were missing. I looked at her other arm and that hand was still intact.

I realized then that I couldn’t just grab her body and pull her to shore. There wasn’t much left holding the bones together. Her body would break apart and pieces of her would be lost.

God forgive me.

It seemed like an even worse crime to disturb her further. It seemed disrespectful somehow to break apart her body, to drag her to shore, all because I wanted to feel better about what I had done. There was no feeling better. There was no way to make this go away. Yes, I wanted her family to know peace, but dragging her bones to shore suddenly felt like it would only make things worse.

I didn’t know what to do.

Slowly, I sank back into the depths of the lake and swam away, leaving her body where it lay. Once back on shore, I dried and dressed, still pondering what I should do. I needed to do something. I pulled out the disposable cell phone that I bought on the way here and I dialed.

“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”

“I-I’ve found a body in the lake,” I said, using my palm to cover up the end of the phone.

“Where is your location?”

I quickly gave the location and then I hung up the phone and wiped my fingerprints away with my towel. It was easy to crush it in my grip. Then I opened the towel and let the many pieces fall into the water and slowly sink from sight.

I didn’t know what the police would say when Andi was found or even if they would find her. I only hoped they would and that it brought some peace to her family. China and her stupid quest for that scroll. The scroll that I had foolishly helped look for.

I made my way through the forest toward where I parked. It was a long walk because I didn’t want my truck to be too close to where I would be. As I walked, I remembered, I thought…

I realized.

Riley once practically admitted that he knew what China was looking for. He once practically told me he wanted it too. Heven told him that she had it when she found him… That was the reason he had come back.

Pain seared through my middle, causing me to double over and gag into the grass. The hound in me began to fight and I gave in, changing right there on the forest floor. Heven. That thing inside her was riled up. Something was setting it off.

I had a feeling I knew exactly who it was.

Heven

I was sucked into his memory—his confession—hard and fast. I almost jerked back because of the brutality of it, but I held strong. This would be the only shot I had to get into Riley’s head. I shied away from thinking about what Riley would do to me when he realized what I had done.

I blinked, focusing, not on what I saw, but what he did. Because I asked him what I wanted to know, the answer—the thoughts—were in his mind for me to see.

He was standing outside, on a dock. The ocean was rough that night and the moon was the color of blood and it reflected right off the water, giving everything the shade of death. He was angry, beyond anger… to the point of shaking. He wanted to shift, to morph into the strong hellhound that he was and rip him from limb to limb.