Hallows: Den of Serpents

What About You?

Rival Sons- Do Your Worst

Delilah:

B.B. is standing at the entrance to the crypt looking at me. She has a duffle bag hanging off her shoulder. She's dressed in shorts and a loose tank top. Her hair is up in a messy bun. The contacts she was wearing are gone. She's wearing her glasses and the shoes she traded Ticia for her limited edition pumps.

"You should be in bed," I scold her.

"You should stop trying to do stupid s**t alone. You know I love doing things we're not supposed to be doing together," she scoffs and drops the bag on the floor outside the circle before she steps into it. "Is this the reaper that took over my body?"

"The one and only," I nod. She looks him over. I watch as she climbs up on the table and leans before removing the tape from his mouth.

"Apologize to me," she demands. I smile looking down at what will be Ash's body from now on.

"Never," he scoffs at her. Her fist connects with his mouth twice before she leans in close and growls in his ear.

"Now," she orders.

"f**k. You," he coughs. Blood bursts from his mouth. A couple of drops land on her face. She wipes it away with the back of her hand. Her fist connects with his face repeatedly. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

"Stop," I call out to her. "If you kill him before the ritual I'm going to be pissed,"

"Okay," she pants and gets off of him. He's coughing but he doesn't struggle or complain.

"You are making big mistake," he says in his thick accent.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone has told us that," I laugh. B.B. comes over to me and takes my grimoire. She begins to examine the text before she goes over to her bag and comes back with fresh ingredients. "James sent you?"

"No, I knew what you were doing the moment Lucien told me you went after the reaper. I can read these too," she rolls her eyes. "I've been prepping since you asked,"

"Thanks," I say and let her take over. I go to check the body's vitals and go around the room lighting the summoning candles and then the protection ones.

"You too. If you hadn't stopped me, I would have killed everyone," she whispers.

"That wasn't on you,"

"No, that s**t is on you and Carson," she slams her hands on the concrete table. "If I were prepared, had I known and had practice. This f*****g asshole would never have been able to do what he did,"

"True," Alexie agrees.

"Shut up," the two of us growl at him.

"What do you want me to do?" I ask. It's not like we can go back in time to change anything. No matter how much we want to.

"Nothing," she scoffs. "There is literally nothing you can do anymore. Just stop trying to do all this s**t on your own. You're not alone, Delilah. You have never been alone. Stop acting like all of this s**t is on you,"

I don't say anything as we finish preparing. She puts several things into the bowl I had brought with me and begins to crush them all together as she whispers the spell and the name of the demon we want to summon.

"Blood?" I ask when she hands me a dagger.

"Cut his wrist vertically. We don't want him to bleed out before your demon answers the call," she nods.

We both go over to Alexie. She crouches down in the middle of both tables and holds the bowl up as I unsheathe the dagger to cut him. He tries to pull away as I push the rope up his forearm so we have access to his wrist. I cut deep enough to get the blood flowing. It slowly drips down into the bowl.

"How much do you need?" I ask when the bowl fills up halfway.

"He needs to bleed onto the circle too," she carefully takes the bowl back to where she was standing before. She takes a spoon out and begins to stir everything together as she chants the second part of the spell. I chant with her as Alexie continues to bleed. "With the same blade cut your hand. I need some of your blood too,"

"Mine? What for?"

"He needs to be bound to something of the living. Kind of like Tobias was bound to the typewriter," she says. "Unless you have something he can wear,"

"Does my diamond earring work?" I ask reaching up to take the dangling earring out.

"Yeah," she nods. "Drop it in,"

"Okay," I drop it into the bowl. She stirs it and looks up at me.

"Why not to you? You die, he dies,"

"It creates a bond. Kind of like the one that the guys have on each other because of you. I don't want him to bow to my every need. I want him to have free will,"

"Are you saying the guys don't have that?" she asks looking down at the bowl.

"Of course, not. I said kind of. This is different. This is a demonic summoning," I laugh. "A bond between me and the demon will be more like him being my b***h. If I do that, Ash is going to strangle me until I'm almost dead, and when I come around he's going to do it again,"

"Sounds like Ahsan," she smirks. We both laugh.

"How's your head?" I ask.

"It's fine. Lucien and Ro were in the room when I woke up," she smiles.

"You got laid before coming here to help me?" I laugh.

"You got laid while I was being held at gunpoint with Decarious bleeding out. So, yeah," she smirks. We both laugh again.

"Did you know Lucien is going to Cal Poly?" I ask because it's been weighing on me for a while.

"Mhm, I helped him apply. We worked out a schedule. We're doing all his classes online until I learn to control my feed. By the time I graduate, I should have a handle on it," she says confidently.

"Is that what he wants?"

"He told me he wanted to go there and that he wanted me to figure out a way to make it work for the two of us. That's what I did," she takes a paintbrush from her bag and comes over to me. "Cut his shirt off,"

She begins to paint Ash's demonic sigils on the vessel. They're precise. I expect nothing less from a perfectionist like her. She then takes the earring off and puts it on the vessel. I had seen Lucien's acceptance letter in his binder. I didn't know he had told her. I'm willing to bet that the odd one out is Carson.

"Have you two told Carson?" I ask as I cut Alexie's shirt open. He glares bloody murder at me making me smile. B.B. sighs.

"He's not going to take it well. Luc was supposed to go to Santa Clara," she turns to us and smiles. "The four of us have to sit down and talk about what comes after school,"

"Uh-oh. That sounds like you want to leave as well,"

"Papa Jimenez invited me to Rionegro for Reaper training," she says as she adds the sigils to Alexie.

"Is good training," he nods. "Russia, better,"

"I'll get there eventually," she smiles.

"Reaper training like that would require you to go alone. No stone. No James. No boys. No money. Just you and the clothes on your back,"

"Mhm," she nods.

"What about H.U.?"

"It's just a year,"

"No,"

"Six months in Columbia. Six months in the Sikhote-Alin mountain,"

"Wow," Alexie nods. "Good,"

"f**k,"

I sigh knowing that no matter what any of us say to her she's not going to change her mind and it's on me because she wouldn't need to go to either of those places if I had been training her properly the way dad had asked me to. The guys are going to kill me for this.

"Look, I know you can teach me a lot of things," she says looking over her handy work. "But you're my sister and there are some things you're going to be soft about. You're not dad. He would have trained us both equally if things were different. This is my choice,"

"Okay," I nod. "It's not me you have to convince. Lucien will be more inclined because he's going to be on campus when you leave. Carson, not so much,"

"Carson is going with Lucien," she looks over at me. "There is no way in hell he's going to let him go off on his own,"

"What about you?" I ask. She scratches the back of her neck. She only does that when she's frustrated.

"They-" she pauses. "They love me but they love each other more. They'll worry about me, together. They'll make plans for us, together. They'll be fine,"

"Bella," I go over to her putting my hand over hers. "Why would you be okay with that?"

"I'm okay with all of it. Dec being in the wind. Ro moving back and forth. Vic being in New City. Ahsan doing whatever Ahsan does. I let them do what they do and I expect the same courtesy. I was told that they're all about me right now because I'm the one that brought them together but that eventually, they'll learn to be with each other,"

"With each other?" I laugh and then get serious because this is nuts. "Who told you that?"

"Chance,"

"Chance is a nutcase. What else did he say?"

"A bunch of crazy s**t but I believe him,"

"Why?"

"He's-I don't know. He strikes me as the kind of person that would rather hurt me with the truth than a lie,"

"Except he's not a person,"

"You trust Ash here?" she points at the vessel.

"Not always and I've spent years with him. Like a lot of them. Do you like Chance?"

"I don't know what to make of him. He honest to dad scares me,"

"You did not just say that," we both laugh. "Dad is really scary now,"

"He's having fun," she agrees and places the bowl on the table. "Ready?"

"Let's begin," I nod. "Stand at their feet. Put one hand on the vessel's ankle and another on Alexie. "When he answers, I'll cut the vessel,"

"Sounds like a plan," she agrees.

The two of us take our positions. B.B. at their feet and I at their head. I dip my hands in the blood and place my bloodied fingers on their foreheads. I close my eyes waiting for B.B.'s reaper to link us. The feel of her essence is always intrusive. Most likely because we're sisters. Our energies are almost the same. Combined, it feels like drinking a six-pack of red bulls back to back.

I recite the spell out loud. As soon as I utter his name the flames around the room all flare. We both smile at one another waiting for him to answer. Alexie tries to pull on the ropes but there's no way he's ever going to get out of them. She looks around startled.

"What?" I ask.

"You don't feel that?" she ask with a smirk.

"Demon," Alexie whispers. "He's coming,"

It takes a moment for me to feel it. The blood in the bowl begins to ripple as the walls of the crypt shake. Dust sprinkles around us, the flames all rise, and the heat is sucked out of the room.

"Don't move," she whispers. We both stay absolutely still. I almost scream when the bowl of blood falls between the two tables. "Now. The cut,"

"Right," I take the dagger and cut the palm of the vessel's palm. Blood instantly begins to pour out onto the floor. Alexie cries out when the cut on his wrist opens up like someone is pulling it open.

"Put your hands back on them. Don't move," B.B. instructs.

I place my hands back on their forehead. She whispers his name and encourages me to do the same. The two of us chant his name as the summoning ring fills with the blood of the two bodies on the table.

"Alexie," I call out to him.

"Don't kill Rosa,"

"f**k you," B.B. laughs. "I'm going to do what I want with her. With your entire family. You're Russian. You should know how things work,"

"Please," he groans as blood starts to leak out of his eyes, his nose, his, ears, and his mouth.

"Body and soul," I remind him.

His blood drips down to the circle until the outline of the summoning ring is completed. A massive gush of hot air swirls in the room. The smoke coming off the candles turns black and swirls around us before it begins to force itself into the vessel. The candles all turn off and Alexie begins to choke and seizures on the table. Beads of sweat are sliding down my face, my back, and my chest. B.B. is trying to keep her breathing even.

Suddenly, the room goes still. The two of us look up at one another. I swallow hard feeling the heavy presence hanging over us. Alexie is still breathing. We both jump but don't make a sound when the vessel abruptly sits up. She lets go of the two of them and tucks her hands behind her back. The body turns so his bare legs are hanging off the table. He gets up and moves over to Alexie.

"You're in deep s**t," the deep dark voice echoes in the crypt. "My nephew is waiting for you on the other side," he looks over at my sister. "You scared someone that means a lot to him. I pity you because no one means anything to that boy,"

Ash covers Alexie's mouth. His head falls back as he takes in the power of the reaper inside of Alexie. B.B. licks her lips and lowers her head as if she were praying. Her reaper is very present right now. Sympathy is written all over her face. I sigh heavily feeling sorry for her. I've read a lot about what she is and it sounds painful. Terrifying even. I don't think I'd be able to handle being Merciful. Not just to those that deserve it but those who don't. I wouldn't give a single f**k about what happens to them.

"Ash?" I whisper. His eyes shoot to mine and he smiles, that perfect smile on this vessel. I chose the one that looks most like him. It took us a while to find the right one.

"Delilah," he says my name. "What have you done, silly?"

"I wasn't going to leave you there after what we did, my lord," I shrug. He laughs stepping closer to me. He tilts my head back so he can look into my eyes from above. It's something he's done since we met.

"What did I say about calling me that?"

"What you say and what you like are two different things," I whisper. B.B. snorts catching his attention. He grins.

"This is B.B.?" he asks.

"Yeah,"

"I've heard a lot about you," he tells her.

"I've read a lot about you. Del isn't really the talkative type,"

"No, she isn't," he agrees. "Reading as you did. You still chose to help her?"

"Yeah, she's my sister. If you're what she wants. Then who am I to keep the two of you apart?" B.B. shrugs.

"Hmm," he looks down at me. His neon green eyes spark for an instant. "You're right. She's good with weird,"

"Now what?" I ask him.

"It'll take some time for me to get my power under control in this vessel. I need to rest," he holds his hand out pulling what's left of Alexie's essence into him. The body goes up in flames and quickly turns into ashes the same way the reapers B.B. killed did. "You chose one almost the same profile as my body,"

"It took some time," I nod.

"Good girl. I'll be sure to thank you properly once I've settled," he leans in pressing his cold lips to mine. Heat sparks all over my body despite it. He smiles, liking my reaction. It's really him. "Soon, silly. I promise,"