Hallows: Den of Serpents

Ask Your Sister

All Time Low- Dear Maria- Count Me In

Delilah:

B.B. and Decarious are pulling in. They haven't even walked in yet and the power in the air is overwhelming. It's not just coming from him. It's coming from all of them. The crows and the devils. The energy is so strong it might as well be thick smoke all around us. This is not going to go unnoticed.

"My word," one of James's demon brothers looks around the room. "Is that your reaper, Jim?"

"She's still a babe," James gives him a nod.

"Bloody hell," one of the others laughs. James opens up the front door for B.B. She laughs and jumps into his arms.

"James," she greets him excitedly. "I missed you,"

"As did I," he pats her on the head awkwardly. She lets go of him and straightens herself up before looking back.

"James this is Decarious Addams. Dec, this is James. The father figure around here," she introduces him. Everyone exchanges a look but James looks at her like he's honored to have been introduced that way. She's not wrong.

"Master Addams," James bows. "I've heard a lot about you,"

"You can call me Dec, James. None of that master s**t. I'm black," Decarious steps forward and offers him his hand. James doesn't hesitate to shake it.

"Welcome home, Miss. We're all ready,"

James takes their coats and motions them to the library where the rest of us are watching. I've never seen her dressed in jeans and a hoodie with her hair up. I've never seen her wear anything other than boots and stilettos. She's wearing sneakers. I can't help the smile. She looks almost normal. Younger than she actually is. Rebellious and carefree. An actual seventeen-year-old. Her eyes meet mine as soon as she enters.

"Introductions, B.B.," I encourage her.

"Okay, everyone this is Dec. Dec this is everyone," she says and goes around the room saying everyone's name. She stops when she gets to Carson. "This is Carson. He's like you. It falls on him to teach you how to-" she puts her hands on her head to mimic horns. They all laugh. "I'd listen to him. He's a really good teacher,"

"Dec," Carson holds out his hand. Dec reaches out to take his hand without a word. The moment their skin meets a surge of power flashes in the room. The two of them instantly pull away from one another.

"That's been happening all night," B.B. says.

"It will continue until the devils are joined," James informs her. She laughs. Everyone laughs except the devils in question.

"What does that mean?" Dec asks.

"Before we start. What the f**k is that, B.B.?" I ask pointing at the cat asleep on the top of the shelf closest to the exit.

"You've been here how long and you're just now noticing? What do you think the mini cat trees are?"

"Cat trees? I thought you put up weird little f*****g shelves for your stupid books," I shake my head.

"That's Timothy. He's staying and it's none negotiable," she shrugs. "He won't bother you. You won't even know he's here. He likes being in the garden. Also if you ball up a piece of paper and throw it, he'll bring it back,"

"All right," I sigh. I hate cats. Animals in general. I have enough with the stone. "We have a couple of announcements and requests,"

"I have a presentation regarding the hallows in the cafe," B.B. raises her hand.

"A presentation?" I ask. The others laugh.

"Mhm," she nods going over to the back of the room. The hidden compartment that leads into her secret lab opens up without her moving anything. We spent an hour trying to open it and it never did.

"How the f**k did you open that?" Lucien growls. She laughs as she goes through the hatch and disappears into the darkness on the other side.

"f**k her," I sigh pinching the bridge of my nose. Carson laughs. She comes back with a big black armored case and glass box. She sets the box down on the desk and turns to look at James.

"Do we have a whole watermelon?" she asks. "Or melon. Has to be round,"

He walks out of the room as she puts the huge box on the floor and begins to set up the glass box. James returns with a watermelon and hands it to her. She puts it in the glass box and then turns to face me with a wild grin on her face.

"Okay, I need to see what you're doing now," I say. "But before we start, I'd like to say a few words so go take a seat with the others,"

She doesn't hesitate to take a seat between Carson and Decarious. They both smile at her as she settles in. Seeing everyone like this takes me back to when The Fallen first started. We were just kids with our wagons and instruments. We're not kids anymore. That much I can see. Not me, not B.B., and certainly not them. I've longed for this for so long and now that it's here, I don't know how I feel. It feels like a dream. I didn't think I'd ever leave the island.

"You okay?" Lucien asks. I clear my throat and nod.

"There's a lot of s**t I want to tell you guys. All of you. Not just Bella. I'm not ready to go into details but I can more or less simplify it for you. When I was dead, I wasn't just asleep. I went to purgatory. I did some f****d up s**t. I fell in love. I survived for a couple of hundred years and now I'm here.

"Yes, it is f*****g me up. A lot. But that's my problem right now. Not yours. I need to deal with it before can let anyone else in on it. I'm not trying to be an asshole. I swear. I just need time to get back here. If that makes sense,"

"You don't have to do that alone," B.B. stands up. "If you really want to come back, you need to let us in. All of us. You're not our mom, Del. Not to them, and sure as f**k not to me. The worst thing you can do right now is push us away. We missed you. All of us. You knew you were coming back we didn't," she pulls something out of her hoodie pocket. It's a small silver cup with a string attached to it. "That's for you,"

"What the f**k is this?" I ask taking it.

"I thought you knew everything, b***h," she scoffs. Lucien laughs.

"What is it?" I roll my eyes.

"Say my name into it," she instructs. I look down at the tiny cup and put it up to my mouth.

"B.B.," I say. A cup identical to this one appears in her hand.

"It's an interdimensional communications device. Dad put it in the things he left," she grins. "I think he expected me to call him but I need a break from him. He's a d**k. I always have it with me but I think you should have it,"

"Thank you," I say feeling a knot form in my belly. "I don't know if I want to use it,"

"Well, it's there. When you're ready," she shrugs. "Dad called it the call to the dead,"

"You can talk to anyone of us," Stacy adds. "Lucien is a dumb ass. He doesn't know what to say to heartbroken girls. He only knows how to make them cry. Ask your sister,"

"f**k you," Lucien flips her off.

"See?" Stacy laughs.

"What are you going to do with the watermelon?" I change the subject. B.B. grins and walks over to the black box on the floor.

"I got it," she says looking at James. She holds her hand out, her fingers spread, and then she makes a fist. The latches pop open and the lid folds back.

"Good job, Miss. We can now start phase three," James praises her.

"Yes," she fist pumps before crouching down to take a small glass box from inside. "Turn your attention to the big screen, please," she points at the T.V. Dylan turns it on for her. Carson leans forward to look inside the case on the floor. "Don't touch anything," she warns him without looking back. He looks up at me and grins. "Okay, so we have three months until our grand opening and I want our prisoners out of my new lab by then,"

"What? Why are you moving your lab? What about this one?" I ask.

"This is a little lab. I'm limited in what I can do here," she explains.

"Okay," I nod.

"Okay, so if you all turn your attention to the TV. I'll show you my idea and possible solution. Before I begin I want you all to know that you can say no," she grins.

"Will we want to?" Stacy raises her hand. B.B.'s grin just gets bigger.

"I hope so," she laughs looking down at the little box in her hand.

"Oh, s**t," Lucien sighs. "Is this worse than the zombie fish?"

"Zombie fish?" both Decarious and Ahsan ask.

"Right. New guys. She's nuts and a f*****g genius," Lucien provides. "Carry on, baby,"

"Okay, a few years ago, I created a tracking chip for my lizard Strawberry Swirl the fourth. I made it because my lizards kept disappearing and it made me sad. Anyway, it's tiny," a blueprint comes up on the screen. "Originally, I intended it for it to be injected but I used caesium and it f*****g killed my lizard and I gave up on the entire concept,"

"Off-topic. What are you holding?" I ask. "No, no. I want to know if you plan on killing them,"

"No, I never planned on killing them. Just storing them until we had an actual plan," she waves her hand. "So, this chip is tiny. So, I made this," the image changes into what looks like a little gel capsule. She opens the little box and lifts a tiny silver pill. "It's a few other things now but the intended purpose is tracking,"

"Okay, what are the other things?" I ask. She's nervous which means whatever those things do is going to make us question her sanity and maybe even our own.

"It's better if I show you," she sighs and moves over to the glass box with the watermelon. She takes a syringe gun from the black box and loads the pill into it. She shows it to us and opens the box. On her tiptoes, she reaches inside and injects the pill into the watermelon before shutting it and turning to face us. "Okay," she points at the TV. "The capsule will melt away the same way any capsule does. It'll release the liquid particles inside," she then takes a tablet from inside the black box and unlocks it to show us six apps. "Green means good. Yellow means okay. Orange means ouch. Red means oops. Blue means uh-oh. Black means done,"

"Okay?" I ask confused.

"Green is to scare the target," Natalie explains. "Yellow is emotional damage. Orange has a cure. Red requires an antidote. Blue is painful and requires an antidote within minutes. Black means instant death,"

"f**k," Ahsan whispers.

"What category does this fall under?" I ask.

"Red,"

"I can work with red,"

"Well," Carson shakes his head slightly.

"Just tell us what this does," I say. She opens the red tab and a bunch of files come up on the TV. She activates the first one. The profile opens up and a countdown begins. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. A brain comes up and turns red.

"Okay, it's red because it's not finding the neural responders. But on a real brain, the particles attach themselves to it in flexible streaks linked to the chip," she points everything out on the screen. "You can never take it out ever again. Pulling it out will slice the brain up killing the host,"

"Holy s**t," I whisper.

"That's not all. It broadcasts what the person is saying and if they're close enough it picks up on other voices," she looks down at the tablet and smiles. "And should we choose, we can make the streaks spin to terminate the host," she looks up to meet my stare. "We'd have complete control of all of them at all times. They can go back to whatever they were doing for Alexie but they'd belong to us,"

"Show me,"

"Here," she comes over to me and hands me the tablet. "The little red option is the kill switch. Press it,"

I do as she asks. The streaks on the brain on the screen begin to spin. Watermelon juice leaks out of the tiny hole she made to implant the chip. I set the table down and step away from it. She lifts herself up to sit next to the glass box.

"f**k," Ahsan repeats.

"You want us to implant actual people with this? Other hallows?" I ask.

"I did say you could say no," she shrugs. "We can't let them leave. We'd be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives. We don't have enough people to track them on foot. It's this or kill them. Once this is over we can deactivate them. It's not actually metal so they can't be accidentally killed by a CT scan or other s**t,"

"What if they go to the U.S.F.D?" Ahsan asks.

"They won't," she smirks.

"What makes you so sure?" Victor asks.

"Because if they do, they'd be giving the F.D. a way to take control of all Hallows around the world. I'd sell this tech to them to get them off our backs. Something tells me Alexie wouldn't like that," she shrugs. "There is nothing anyone can do about this once it's installed," she reaches into the glass box and takes the watermelon out. She slams it on the floor to reveal the tiny chip and the streaks. "Not a single thing. But if you it's too warped for you. I can just gas them all and we forget we ever had a subbasement,"