After The Apocalypse (Book 2): Church of Chaos Read online

  “You've really seen me control zombies in your dreams?” I couldn't quite believe what he was telling me.

  “I've seen you do a lot of things in my dreams, Pilar.”

  “Because you dream about me.”

  “I've been dreaming about you since I was a kid,” Seth said. “You already know that.”

  “Vera has mentioned it a few dozen times,” I acknowledged. Vera was Seth's younger sister. She made it no secret that she thought I was a waste of valuable oxygen. I was more than slightly intimidated by her.

  “Ignore Vera. She's jealous.” Seth pulled a small pocket knife out of his pocket and began playing with the blade. He flicked it in and out of the handle using his thumb and his forefinger. It made a dull clicking sound every time it was retracted.

  “She has nothing to be jealous of. She's taller than me, prettier than me and she has much better hair.” I attempted to run my hands through my snarled curls and then stopped. The curls were a lost cause. My hair always looked like pure hell.

  “Vera isn't a part of any of the prophecies. She's pretty pissed off that you're-.” Seth stopped mid-sentence.

  “That I'm what?” I pressed him.

  Seth shook his head, sending too long dark hair into his eyes. He brushed it back casually. “You don't need to worry about the prophecies right now. We can spend the rest of our lives debating the value of them after we rescue your parents from the cannibals in Ra-Shet.”

  “Not that rescuing my parents isn't absolutely the most important thing I can think of, but you can't just tell me I'm part of a prophecy and then not tell me the prophecy.”

  “What makes you think I even know the prophecy?” Seth countered.

  “You're the high priest of the Church of Chaos. There are at least twenty people downstairs who think there is a slim chance that you might actually be a god. If there is a prophesy, my guess is that it's your prophecy.”

  Seth snorted. “It was Jeremiah's prophecy. He was the psychic. Not me.”

  “But you have psychic dreams?”

  Seth stopped playing with the knife. “Fine. You caught me. I have visions sometimes. I suck at interpreting them. I normally lie and claim I don't have them. I hate the whole 'god' thing.”

  “What prophecy am I a part of, Seth?” I crossed my arms over my chest and focused what I hoped was a strong, intimidating glare on his good eye. The iris was the palest, coldest blue I'd ever seen. “I want to know.”

  “You're a part of all the prophecies, Pilar. It would take me years to explain.” Seth sat back up on the bed, all feigned casualness fading away. He was all tense muscles, tight angles and raw strength now. A deeply intelligent and terribly dangerous boy who I had been forced to rely on against my better judgment.

  “All of them?” I repeated with disbelief.

  “Pretty much,” Seth confirmed.

  I took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “And you were going to tell me this?”

  “After I save your parents' lives,” Seth said. “I figure you'll be feeling extremely grateful by then.”

  We sat and stared at one another in the moonlit darkness. “You want something from me, don't you?”

  Seth laughed. “In a matter of speaking. But now isn't the time.”

  “Now is the time.” I put a little more distance between us. “You know I don't like secrets, Seth. I definitely don't like being used or taken advantage of. Whatever it is you want from me, spit it out now.”

  Seth glanced around the bedroom. “Really not the right time to be worrying about what I want, Pi.”

  “Tell me or I won't go with you tomorrow,” I snapped.

  “You can't go to the city by yourself. You'd be killed in a matter of hours.” Seth yawned. “Find a better threat.”

  “I shouldn't have to threaten you. If you have an ulterior motive for helping me rescue my parents then I deserve to know what I'm dealing with.” I was so furious with him that I was on the verge of tears.

  “I'll tell you when the time is right.”

  “Like hell you will. I didn't just go through the nightmare that I did with the Scavengers so that I could start blindly trusting you. I've learned a few hard lessons in the last month. Tell me the truth. What do you want from me?”

  “Fine.” Seth closed the distance between us. His mouth was only inches from mine. I was going to bite the shit out of him if he tried anything nasty.

  “Tell me what you want,” I growled.

  “I want you,” Seth spoke each word with almost vicious force.

  I jerked backwards as if he had slapped me. “What?”

  “I want you.”

  “You want me?” I took a deep breath and then swallowed. “Why would you want me?”

  “Oh, come on Pilar. You can't be that surprised. I wouldn't have nearly killed myself saving your life if you weren't important.”

  “Why am I important?” I had my suspicions but the butterflies in my stomach needed confirmation.

  He laughed. “Answer that question for yourself.”

  “The prophecies?” I guessed, still stunned.

  Seth bared his teeth at me in an expression that didn't even try to pass for a smile. “Smart girl.”

  “If I'm so smart, why won't you trust me with the truth?” I asked. “Tell me the prophecies and let me make my own decisions.”

  “Saving your parents is your first priority, Pilar.” Seth sounded disgustingly calm. “It's not exactly going to be easy to get into Ra-Shet, rescue your parents from a flesh-broker and get back out with them.”

  “And?” I knew the task ahead of us wasn't going to be easy.

  “And you're already terrified, emotionally drained and struggling to cope with everything that has happened in your life during the last few weeks.”

  “And?” I didn't try to deny what he was saying. I'd been having nightmares ever since my parents had disappeared. “I've been through hell. It's not a secret. That doesn't mean you have the right to withhold information from me. Especially not if the information is about me.”

  “I can't afford for you to be distracted by a bunch of bullshit prophecies.” Seth crossed his arms over his own chest. “Focus on saving your parents. The prophecies cause more problems than they solve. We could spend years discussing and debating the value of the prophecies. It wouldn't do us any good.”

  “It wouldn't do us any good?” I repeated his words skeptically.

  Seth threw his hands up into the air. “They're prophecies, Pilar. Not facts.”

  “But you said I could control zombies in your prophecies. Now I've had a dream where I could control zombies. Surely that means something?” I demanded.

  “Trusting the prophecies could get you killed, Pilar.” Seth narrowed his eyes at me. “Ra-Shet is dangerous. You need to be thinking on your feet, not trusting in my delusional nightmares.”

  It wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever said to me, but it was pretty close. “What if the prophecies could help us save my parents?” I asked.

  “Why can't you just trust me?” Seth countered. “I've never lied to you. I've never hurt you. I'm going to risk my life to save your parents. People who I care nothing about. This will be the second time I've put my life on the line for you.”

  “It's not that I don't appreciate what you're doing for me, but how can I trust you if I know you're not telling me everything?”

  “Have I ever betrayed you?”

  “I don't know,” I whispered.

  “You don't know?”

  “I don't know. After the way Drake betrayed me, how can I trust anyone?”

  “I'm not Drake.” Seth was angry now. I didn't blame him for it, but I couldn't change my feelings just to spare his.

  “I know but-.” I shuddered and hugged myself.

  “No buts. I'm not Drake. I'm nothing like Drake. I don't know how long it's going to take me to gain your trust, but I will.” Seth reached for my chin but I pulled away from him. He hissed with annoyance. “You will trust
me, Pilar.”

  I sat silently for a minute and then sighed. “I can't let myself trust anyone until I get my mom and dad back.”

  Seth shook his head and stood up. He grabbed his sword up off the floor. I hadn't even noticed that the heavy weapon was there. He must have brought it into the room with him when he'd heard me screaming in my sleep. “Good night, Pilar.”

  I watched him walk almost all the way to the door. “Wait. You're leaving?”

  Seth half-way turned back towards me. “I came in here because I thought you were hurt. You're not hurt and I'm glad you had the nightmare. If you're dreaming about controlling zombies then it tells me that, despite the fact that you're terrified of me, we're probably moving in the right direction.”

  “What direction is that?” I suddenly felt very abandoned and very alone. It stunned me to realize that I didn't want him to walk away angry.

  He snorted back a choked laugh as he grabbed my bedroom door and opened it. “One you aren't ready to hear about until you trust me.”

  He stepped out through the door. His hand was still on the knob as he began easing it closed.

  “I'm sorry.”

  Seth pushed the door back open and stepped back into the room. “You're sorry?”

  I nodded and blinked back unexpected tears. “I'm scared, Seth. I trusted the Powers That Be and they kidnapped my parents and sold them for meat. I trusted Drake and he tried to kill me. Now you're here and I just don't know how I feel. I want to trust you, but I can't force myself to. I'm sorry.”

  He sighed. “And yet when I ask you to give me time, you get mad at me?”

  When he put it like that, he had a point. “I need to trust you before you explain the prophecies to me?”

  “Have you ever considered that maybe I need be able to trust you?” Seth turned on his heel and walked out of the room without giving me a chance to answer.

  Chapter 3

  “I hope you understand the depths of the hell you're unleashing.”

  I was sitting on my knees on the cold stone floor of the chapel, staring up the heavy iron cross that crowned the altar. The cross was easily ten feet tall and it looked like it had been in the Church for a hundred years if it had been here a day. The metal appeared to have been hammered into shape. The texture of the surface was rough and pitted as I ran my fingertips across it. I hadn't been able to fall back asleep after Seth had left my room. I'd come down into the main chapel of the Church hoping to find some type of solace in what remained of my faith in my parents religion.

  My mother was a woman of God and she'd read the Bible to me every night when I was a child. She'd spoken often of God, Jesus and the saving grace of the Holy Spirit. I'd never been able to relate, but I'd also never dreamed that I would one day have personal relations with one the false idols that the good book spent so much time ruminating on. If there was ever a time for me to find a relationship with God, this did seem to be it.

  “I don't know what you're talking about,” I said. In a matter of hours, Seth and I would ride for Ra-Shet in a last-ditch effort to save the lives of my parents before they were eaten by cannibalistic upper class of the city. Vera thought my parents were probably already steaks and that we were wasting our time. She hadn't been shy about saying so to my face.

  Vera walked down the aisle of the church and sat down on the pew to my left. Her long, sleek hair hung down her back like a curtain of black silk. Her dress was a short black sheath that would have looked like a garbage bag on me. Her knee-high boots were made of shiny black plastic and featured pointy, open toes and ridiculously high stiletto heels. Clearly she wasn't dressing for function tonight. I wondered which one of the Church's handful of inner-circle members she had dressed to impress.

  “Are you familiar with the battle of Troy?” Vera held up a battered paperback book in her right hand.

  “I'm sorry?”

  “Helen of Troy had a face so beautiful that it launched a 10 year war and a thousand ships.” She tossed the book down in front of my knees. It landed on the stone floor with a thump.

  “I've read the Iliad.” I had no idea where she was going with this. I made no move to pick the book up.

  “Then you should know that nothing but death is going to come from the war you're about to launch with that pretty face of yours.” Vera cocked her head and shrugged her narrow shoulders.

  “I'm not launching a war,” I said. “I'm just trying to save the lives of the two people who matter most to me in this world.”

  “If you don't think you're launching a war, then you obviously don't know my brother very well.” Vera sneered through lips that she'd painted cherry red. Her light blue eyes were bright in the darkness. “He's got a taste for blood and you've given him an excuse to storm the city.”

  “My parents don't deserve to die.” I stood up because I didn't like having to stare up into her condescending sneer. Unfortunately for me, standing up did little good. She was still several inches taller than I was, thanks to the boots. “They didn't ask to be snatched from our apartment and served up on a plate to the highest bidder.”

  “I never said they deserved their fate,” Vera replied. “I'm just asking if you're prepared to take responsibility for the hell you're about to unleash on thousands of innocent people.”

  “I'm not unleashing hell on anybody,” I told her. “Except maybe the flesh broker who is holding my parents.”

  Vera laughed in my face. “You have no idea what you've done or how many people are going to die because of you.”

  “Seth thinks rescuing my parents is a suicide mission,” I said firmly. “If anyone is going to die, it's probably going to be me.”

  “If you think my brother is going to let you die, then you really are much stupider than I thought.” Vera brushed her fingers back through her long hair and clucked her tongue at me. “Seth's been looking for an excuse to ravage the city ever since the day we were forced to flee from its gates. Fate and luck have given him the power to level Ra-Shet into dust and rubble. All he was missing was an excuse to do it. Until you came along, that is.”

  “If Seth had wanted to destroy Ra-Shet, he didn't have to wait on me to give him a reason to do it. He's told me that human beings have been sold at meat markets within the city walls since before we were born.”

  Vera shrugged. “Maybe you're right. But if Seth really cared about all those innocent lives being lost, it might behoove you to wonder why he hasn't done something to stop the murder before now?”

  “I can't afford to worry about Seth's motives,” I said. “Not when my parent's lives hang in the balance. Seth is going to do whatever he damn well wants to do. I can't control him and neither can you. Don't try to pretend like you think I'm responsible for anything your brother does.”

  Vera hissed at me through gritted teeth. “You're right. I can't control him. If I could, you wouldn't be here right now and Seth would be in the library preparing to give his Thursday sermon to our loyal followers. Instead he's down in the basement, checking weapons.”

  “Your followers are a bunch of raving whack jobs,” I pointed out. “I don't blame Seth for not wanting to deal with them. He's not a god.”

  “It's irrelevant whether or not Seth is really a god. It only matters that everyone outside the Church of Chaos believes he is.”

  “What?” I blinked at Vera in total confusion.

  “You're so ignorant, Pilar.” Vera fluffed her hair again. “I don't even know why I waste my time trying to talk to you. You don't understand anything about my brother or the Church of Chaos. You most assuredly know jack shit about life in Ra-Shet. You didn't understand your own life within the confines of the Cube until your ignorance nearly got you killed. You understand exactly nothing about anything. Yet you're perfectly willing to walk into someone's life and demand that everything be changed to suit your moods.”

  “Actually, I don't really care about anyone's life other than mine. I just want my life back.” I spun on my heel and walked o
ut of the chapel before she could see me cry.

  Chapter 4

  “Motorcycles?” I frowned at the pair of vehicles that Seth had so lovingly serviced and prepared for our trip to the city. Each one was dark, shiny and clean. Both had weapons and supplies strapped onto their metal frames.

  “Dirt bikes, technically.” Seth grinned at me and patted the handlebars of one of the bikes.

  “I don't know how to drive,” I said.

  “You'll learn.” Seth looked entirely too pleased with himself as he straddled the larger of the bikes. His long legs were covered with black leather pants and lace up boots. “Unless you'd rather ride with me.”

  “Don't you have a car or something?” I demanded. “A vehicle with four wheels and multiple seats?”

  “Have you seen any roads coming up to the church?”

  “No.” I hadn't really thought about it, but no.

  “Have you seen any cars?”

  “No. Dammit.” I scowled the bike. “What if I break my neck?”

  He laughed. “After everything you've been through since you left the Cube, do you really think you're going to die because you laid over a dirt bike?”

  “It would be kind of anticlimactic, wouldn't it?” I glanced unhappily down at the motorcycle.

  “Extremely.” Seth lovingly stroked the handlebars of his bike. “In all seriousness, you need to learn how to ride a motorbike.”

  “Why?” I prodded at the bag that Seth had fastened to the back of the smaller bike. I had no idea what kind of supplies we'd need to rescue my parents but I figured Seth probably had it covered.

  “We're going into the city to rescue your parents from a flesh broker with a really nasty reputation for selling anyone who stands against him as meat for human consumption.” Seth rubbed his hands together as he raised one eyebrow at me. “How are you planning on getting out of the city if Bud Moon kills me?”

  “What?” I stared at him in horror. “You told me that your plan is to get in, get my parents and head back to the Church before the sun sets.”

  “Not everything always goes to plan, Pilar. You should know that better than anyone.” Seth twisted the ignition on his bike, making the engine jump to life. The whine of the engine droned out all conversation as the bike's exhaust expelled a cloud of blue smoke. “You really want to be stranded if I die?”