Page 32 of Be My Salvation

I can faintly hear the crying of the little girl on the wind, as I get past the large machine, another innocent trapped in Noah Rothesay’s menacing clutches, just waiting to be devoured and destroyed. I can’t let him hurt her, or Dinah, I have to do something, somehow get him away from both of them.Push him over the edge of the building. All you have to do is grab him hard enough from behind, and he’ll tumble right off.Thoughts and images race rapidly through my mind of the logistics of doing precisely that, and in every possibility, I fall to my death with him.So be it; at least Dinah, Ezekiel, and Abraham, will finally be free from this monster.My death will be a small price to pay. A defeated sigh escapes my lips, just as I see Noah pointing the gun now at Ezekiel instead of the little girl, and just as quickly, the child turns on him and bites him, and Dinah rushes forward, lunging for her.

NOW!Piercing alarms go off in my head, imploring me to rush ahead and grab Noah from behind. I wrap my arm around his neck, and yank him backward into me. He stumbles and takes me down, until we are both rolling on the small stones that make up the roof’s deck, with our limbs entangled. Noah’s brutal fistconnects with the side of my head, and I momentarily see stars. I try to fight back, and grab his hand still holding the gun, but he resists my attempt. He’s spewing profanities and harsh pants, as he manages to land a few more blows to my face and head, and I feel my body rapidly depleting of energy, as I attempt to grapple for the gun and it goes off, the shot going wide and hitting the brick wall above my head. The fucker manages to twist us, so I end up below him, and he’s straddling my chest. His weight adds to the pressure in my chest, reawakening the pain from my previous injuries, and making it almost impossible to breathe. I strike out with my closed fist, getting him in the nose and jaw, and I feel some satisfaction as blood gushes from his nose, but it’s not enough; he’s still too strong.

Noah manages to turn the barrel of the gun, and I feel it protruding harshly into my chest.Fuck, I am going to die, I know it.My mouth opens, with the words I desperately want to utter to my Nightstar trapped in my throat. I need her to know that I have always loved her, and that she was the best thing that ever happened to me, regardless of the short time we had together. I stare into the emerald green eyes of the monster, who haunts both my waking and sleeping hours, and know that this is the end for me, and that I won’t get another chance to live. Peace flows through me at the knowledge that he will die mere seconds after I do. There is no way Dinah, Ezekiel, or Abraham, will allow him to keep breathing. Reassurance fills me, knowing those two will protect and cherish my Nightstar. As much as I never wanted to share her, I am glad that she won’t be left alone on this miserable earth.

“You scum, you’ll finally get your wish, Samuel. I am going to end you.” I close my eyes, prepared to finally be free of all the suffering this world has forced me to endure, and I picture Dinah back in the field of our home, happy and carefree. Before Noah can press the trigger, I feel the air switch around us, andsomething small knocks him forcefully off of me. I distantly hear screaming, and as I open my eyes and force myself up to my knees, I witness Dinah struggling with Noah near the edge. She’s clawing, punching, and biting at him, using anything she has at her disposal, to keep him down and entangled with her. She’s a furious lioness, fighting to protect her mate from another predator.NO! Fuck no, not my Nightstar!

One moment, they are both on the edge of the roof and the next, Noah is sliding off the side, propelled by one of Dinah’s punches. At the last second, before he falls, he manages to grab onto her hair, and a terrifying scream rents the air before she falls over with him, and is gone from my sight. “DINAH!” “ATASI!” Ezekiel and Abraham shout, as they rush to the side of the roof. My legs refuse to hold me up when I attempt to stand, and my heart shatters into millions of pieces inside of my chest. Why did she do that? Why did she so recklessly try to save me?

“Nightstar!” I reach the edge, and have to grip the rough brick side to force myself to remain upright. I can’t bear to look, and see my Nightstar at the base of this building. I know that I will jump to my death to join her. There is no me without her. There is no reason to keep breathing if she is gone.

“Fuck, she’s barely hanging on! What the fuck do we do?!” Abraham shouts, his voice heavily laced with panic. I force myself to look, and at first, I can’t even reconcile my mind to what I am seeing. Then the picture begins to become more apparent, and there’s my Nightstar hanging off what remains of a metal sign on the side of the building by her fingertips, and Noah Rothesay, the evil bastard, is holding on to her ankle for dear life, weighing her down. “SHOOT HIM!” I yell at Abraham and Ezekiel, knowing I have no gun. He’s going to bring her down with him. She can’t hold on for much longer.

“What if I miss? I’ll kill her!” Ezekiel yells, and I see him extending his arm, a gun clutched in his fingers. “She willdie either way if you don’t, her grip is faltering!” I argue, and feel hysteria wrapping like thick metal chains around me, and squeezing tightly. “HOLD ON, ATASI, I’M COMING!” Abe hollers, and he starts to drag his leg over the side of the building. How the fuck is he going to get to her like that? She’s got to be at least twelve feet below us. A whimpered scream soars through the air, as one of Dinah’s fingers loses its hold. “SHOOT, EZEKIEL!” I beg, as I stare into Dinah’s terrified eyes. The blast is so loud next to me that it instantly causes a ringing in my ears. Even with the pain, I refuse to look away from Dinah as she sways back and forth, tears sliding down her beautiful face. “Fuck, shoot him again, Zeke!” Abraham screams with desperation. I glance at Noah, and he finally releases his hold with a scream, his face frozen in terror, as blood pours out of the side of his neck, and he drops to the ground below us with a heavy crash. “Hold on, Nightstar, please!”

I feel everything burning up inside of me, as she sways back and forth, trying to force her petite body to get a better grip on the sign. Her fingers are slippery from blood, coating the sign where she must have sliced them open. “Hurry, Abe!” Ezekiel urges, as we both watch Abe try to scale from one window sill to another, trying to get to Dinah without plunging to his own death, but his cast hinders his movements. He slams his arm over and over against the brick, shattering the offending cast, and it falls in pieces below to the ground. “Zeke! Get to the window just above her and break that fucker!” Ezekiel doesn’t hesitate to rush towards the door leading back into the building. I feel a small presence next to me, and tear my eyes away from Dinah to see the little girl, sobbing, with her arms wrapped around herself. “She... she saved me.” The enraged part inside of me wants to be angry that Dinah risked her life for this child and for me. Neither of us is worthy of her sacrifice, but I know that’sjust my anguish speaking, at the very real possibility that I may lose her.

Abe groans as his body smacks into the brick side of the building, as he tries to stretch to reach the next sill, and I’m not sure he’s going to make it. My eyes return to Dinah, who has tears racing down her face. “I love you, Sammy. I will always come for you.”

No, fuck! “Don’t you dare give up, Dinah! You fucking belong to me! Do you hear me? You’re my Nightstar, and I can’t, and won’t, live without you,” I implore her. The sound of shattering glass gets my attention, and I witness Ezekiel hanging from the broken window below us, and right above where Abe is trying to get to. Abe swings his large six-foot-two frame towards the window, and Ezekiel grabs onto his legs, holding him in a desperate grip. I still can’t work out how they are going to get to her, because he’s still too high. Then it clicks in my head, and with dread and fear, I race down the stairs to where Ezekiel is half hanging out the window. I grab onto his waist from behind, allowing him to be able to brace Abraham, who then allows his body to drop, counting on Ezekiel’s hold on his wrists. “ATASI, REACH OUT AND GRAB MY LEGS BABY, PLEASE!”

I strain holding Ezekiel, who, in turn, is Abraham’s lifeline, as all three of us refuse to give up on our girl. A loud grunt fills the air, and I’m afraid to try to look out the broken window for fear of throwing our precarious balance off. “Thank fuck,” Ezekiel mutters, and I’m desperately hoping with everything inside of me, it’s because Dinah has managed to get a grasp on Abe. “Sammy, pull us back, hurry!” I use the strength I didn’t even know I had left, to take a step backward and then another, dragging Ezekiel forcefully from the window, and in turn, more of Abraham begins to appear. When Abe’s waist materializes in the opening, a scream sounds, and my heart drops to my feet. “Grab her, she’s slipping!” Abe yells, and Ezekiel plants his feetlike a giant, stubborn oak tree, refusing to be moved. I release my hold on him, and rush to grasp Dinah through the opening, her terrified eyes meeting mine, as I wrap my fingers around her wrists, and brace the lower part of my body against the window frame. “Let go, baby, I have you now, Nightstar. I will never let you go,” I grit through my teeth, as she releases her hold on Abe’s ankles, and her weight yanks me forward.

Abe quickly disappears through the window, and in the next instance, I feel thick, powerful arms wrap around my waist, bracing me and keeping me firm and safe, as I hold Dinah. A tattooed arm darts out the shattered window, and the hand attached grabs Dinah below where I’m holding her. The two of us, Ezekiel and I, use our combined force to heft Dinah up from the side of the building, and back through the window. The minute she’s safe, Abraham releases his hold on me, and I go stumbling backward, taking him and Ezekiel down with me, my grip refusing to release Dinah, and she ends up sprawled on top of me and sobbing. I remove my hold on her wrists and wrap her tightly in my arms, feeling my heart still galloping in my chest at almost losing her. “You’re safe now, Nightstar. It’s over, baby.”

Chapter forty-seven

The Sinner

Dinah

It’s been three days since the incident on the roof with Noah Rothesay, the one which I was certain would be my last moments on this poison-filled earth, until my three lovers banded together to save me. When I was finally safe, and we could all catch our breaths, we went back up to the roof, and found a traumatized Magdalena sitting next to the brick ledge, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she sobbed. It took some soft words, and reassurances that she would be safe with us, to get her to leave the warehouse. She confessed that Noah murdered her whole family before taking her prisoner. The reason why he wanted the little girl remains a mystery, but I shudder to think what his nefarious purposes might have been, and I’m so thankful we managed to stop him.

When we reached the bottom floor of the warehouse, we were reunited with Dartmouth, and one other surviving rebel, who looked perplexed at everything that happened. Dead bodies of both insurgents and Brotherhood men and women lay everywhere. So much bloodshed and death, all for one man’s appetite for power, greed, and glory. Noah’s broken body greeted us outside of the warehouse, and honestly, it was a welcome sight, even if it was a little anticlimactic. I would have much preferred cutting his chest open while he was alive, and ripping out his heart, instead of him falling to his death, but I guess a death is a death, and it pleased me to know he felt absolute terror in those last moments. I refused to look awayfrom the sight of his cracked skull and sightless eyes, allowing myself to sear that image into my mind’s memory. I demanded that his body be brought back to the capital, and placed on the symbol of the Brotherhood’s crest, for all to see what happens to a man who valued nothing but power, and easily used humans as discardable chess pieces. Sarah wasn’t thrilled with my order, but I couldn’t have cared less. She insisted that I set myself up as the de facto leader, and here I am leading. I also believe my mother would have been proud of my actions, and at the end of the day, I care more about a dead woman’s opinion than Sarah’s.

Magdalena has been placed in the care of a rebel family, who stepped forward to care for her. I was both relieved, and wary of allowing the child to be separated from us, but I knew every time she looked at one of us, all she saw was death, and if she was to have a future, and some sense of stability, in this turbulent world, I had to let her go. It doesn’t mean I trust anyone with her. I now have spies of my own keeping track of her, Bithiah, and her mother. I’m learning what it means to be a leader, one painful step at a time.

Both Sammy and Ezekiel have been extra quiet, and reserved, since we returned from the warehouse. Sammy has once again shuttered himself away with his thoughts, reliving, I am sure, the moment when he almost lost me. My protector blames himself, even though it was my own actions that caused me to fall off that roof. I’ve begged him not to distance himself from us, and to talk to me, that together we can work through anything, because we love each other. He agreed, but I’m not sure he meant it, so only time will tell.

Zeke is wrestling with the fact that he has killed both his parents. It’s left him angry, confused, and ready to take on the world in a fit of rage. I know he has said it needed to be done, and that they meant nothing to him. They weren’t great parents, but they were his, and right or wrong, it has left a mark on him,one even Abe can’t seem to break. I hope that with time and all our love, yes even Sammy’s, we can bring back some of his joy. I miss my calculating, demanding husband, and I know sooner or later, his melancholy will lessen. It hasn’t been easy for Zeke in all this, and although he’s remained strong, the wounds inside of him are festering, and I fear he will need to release his anger, before it causes an explosion that we can’t come back from. I’m prepared to stand by his side and help him heal as best as I can.

My berserker, on the other hand, seems relatively fine, aside from being a little irate that I fell off the side of a building and almost died, and he had to climb like a spider to get me. He’s stepped up, where the other two are struggling, helping me to manage the warfare against the remaining areas where the Brotherhood is still actively fighting against the resistance. Sarah seems to be extremely pleased by his actions, and I find that, more often than not, they are both looking over maps and planning orders together. I still don’t know if she’s loyal to me. I often find her staring at me, with a wistful look in her eyes that I can’t read, and it gives me the creeps.

The only thing that still concerns me, and keeps me from being able to rest, is where my father and David are hiding. There have been no sightings of either yet. The rebels that pledged their allegiance to me, and my leadership, swear they have no intel on them, but I don’t know if I believe them. They didn’t just fall off the face of the earth, and my father desperately wanted to see his plan to overturn the Brotherhood transpire. They are still here somewhere, rats hiding unseen in the walls, just waiting for me to let my guard down, as I attempt to obtain a sliver of hope, and happiness, so they can pounce and steal it from me.

I can’t allow that to happen; no matter what, I will end their tyranny. My father will not get to use me against my men, or anyone else. I am still the Unholy Ghost, and she cowers for no one.

Chapter forty-eight

The Sinner

Dinah

“I’m off to see Nael,” I whisper as I kiss Sammy’s cheek. He stares into the unlit fireplace in the bedroom, which all of us are now sharing. I’m worried about him. I thought that finally, with Noah’s death, some of his demons would dissipate, and he could come back to me and be the old Sammy again, but that’s the devastating thing about trauma, and living through a horrific experience like he has. It never goes away, and it intimately changes who you are, leaving you on unlevel footing until you either move forward, or remain trapped in the past that broke you. He will never be the same, and I have to make peace with that, and accept who he is now. I’m hoping Sammy will move forward, instead of returning to the past where no hope lies. Regardless, I will stand by his side, no matter what he chooses. A love like ours is precious and priceless, and I will never willingly relinquish it. He nods in acknowledgment, as he threads his fingers through his dark blond, wavy hair with distraction. “I’ll see you later,” he mumbles, but I don’t know if he’s actually talking to me or himself.

I make my way out of the room and down the lavish hall, which is filled with priceless artwork, expensive chairs, and golden lamps that cast amber shadows, mimicking the warmth the mansion lacks, towards Nael’s nursery. At first, my guys balked at me having one set up. Zeke and Abe both wanted Gabriel’s son moved somewhere far out of the reach of theBrotherhood, and while I agreed, I felt that where all of us are together is the safest place for him and his mother. If I were being candid with myself, I know I wouldn’t have been able to separate myself from the little boy, whose features resemble my brother. He’s the little piece of Gabriel I still have, and I’m loath to be parted from him.

I nod to the two guards standing sentinel at the door, and slip inside the quiet room. I know it’s late, and his mother has already put him to bed, but I just can’t seem to help myself. His baby scent, and beautiful dark hair call to me, and I feel a peace I don’t get to experience anywhere else, except in his presence. My eyes take in the light sage green walls, with the exotic animals that Zeke drew on their surface. Who knew my Prince Charming was quite the artist? I think a part of him wanted to do something for Nael, in order to feel close to Gabriel once more. His love, and grief, for my brother only strengthens my bond with him.

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