Requiem

REQUIEM

Copyright © 2011 by Jamie
McGuire

All rights reserved. Printed
in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be
used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information
storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of
the author except where permitted by law.

Published by

Jamie McGuire,
LLC

607 West McKinley
Avenue

Blackwell, OK
74631

The characters and events
portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real
persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the
author.

Smashwords
Edition

Cover design by
justinmcclure.tv

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jamie McGuire

Requiem

ISBN
0-615-48742-7

ISBN 978-0-615-48742-7(13
digit)

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To Eden and Hailey...my
little beacons of light

My sunshine
eternal

Chapter One

Three

I was back. Surrounded by darkness, two
blurry forms crouched before an open safe, hidden behind a large,
hinged bookcase. They breathed heavy, working at a feverish pace to
find what they had searched for the past months. One of the men
froze, and all movement stopped. He leaned further into the safe,
using both hands to pull out a thick, leather bound book.

“
That’s it. Dear God,
that’s it,” Jack whispered.

Every corner of the room held a warning. Lit
only by the moonlight filtering through the blinds of a single
window, antique swords and axes hung on the walls, bordering
hand-painted landscapes of war and death. The air was stale,
lacking human lungs to circulate it.

I had been there many times before, but my
hands still trembled, knowing the panic would begin soon. It was
coming, but I couldn’t stop it. It would play over and over like I
was stuck in time, in a bad dream—or in Hell.

Jack’s fingers ran over the branded seal in
the center, and looked to his friend.

“
Are you sure you want to
do this, Jack?”

“
Are you sure it’s her,
Gabe?” Jack replied. Gabe nodded slowly, and then Jack continued
with a sigh, “Then you know the answer.”

Hearing what Jack’s human ears couldn’t,
Gabe’s head jerked to the side. “It’s too late,” he said, his eyes
twitching back and forth as he listened. “They’re here.”

They shoved the documents, artifacts and
jewels back into the safe, and the fair-haired man effortlessly
pressed the heavy bookcase flat against the wall in an attempt to
conceal any evidence of their presence.

“
Don’t worry about that
now, Gabe! Let’s go!” Jack growled.

“
I’m trying to buy us some
time!”

Their shadows glided over the wooden floor
as the men fled the room, and I stepped aside, watching them in
silence, knowing their fate.

Gabe ran ahead, gun in hand, accustomed to
Jack falling behind. He waited at the end of the hall for his
friend, calculating a way out.

“
The roof,” I whispered in
his ear. “You always use the roof.”

A large, warm hand reached out, and Jack was
pushed against the wall.

“
What are you…?” Jack
began.

Gabe lifted his finger to his mouth, and
then pointed to the upper floor. Jack nodded quickly, pushing his
tired body from the wall. They bolted down a corridor, tightly
rounded a corner, and then launched themselves up the stairs. Both
men took two steps at a time, their hands gripping the banister to
pull themselves along with each leap.

“
The roof!” Gabe called as
many voices echoed below them, none of them human.

Jack’s eyes widened when a terrifying shriek
came from below. His stride grew longer as he streaked through
another door, climbing a second stairway. He heaved a breath of
relief. The narrow walls of crumbling concrete meant the roof was
just a few steps away.

Already at the top of the stairway, Gabe
shouldered through an outer door, and ran across the roof to the
edge. He looked down, four stories to the road below, and then at
his friend. “We’ve still got two minutes, Jack. Are you sure?”

“
Do I look ambivalent to
you?” he shouted, tightly grasping the book to his chest. “I have
to find a way to stop it!”

I frowned. In the past, I had begged my
father to leave the book behind. Dozens of trips to this place
taught me that Jack and Gabe’s plight would replay exactly the
same. Each time I attempted to change the outcome, it just made the
end harder to watch.

Gabe sighed in submission, and then jerked
his head to the north, gauging the distance of their escape. “Then
it begins.”

The shrieking grew louder, and Jack closed
his eyes. “I have to save her,” he said in a low, grieved
voice.

Jack’s body jerked forward. His tie slapped
against his neck, and the wind howled past his ears as he flew
through the night sky. It seemed as if the second he had taken
flight, he had landed on another roof, four building away. Jack
lurched forward with the sudden stop, bending at the waist, making
a loud grunting noise as the air was forced from him with the
sudden impact. Gabe released him, then.

“
I’ll never get used to
that,” Jack smiled, smoothing out his jacket and tie.

“
I could have let you take
the fire escape, Brother, but with those beasts on your tail, only
parts of you would have made it to the street,” Gabe said with a
smirk. His grin quickly faded when he looked up. “They are drawn to
it. We need more distance.”

Jack nodded. A door identical to the one
they had escaped from was a few yards away. He yanked open the
door, and then Gabe followed him down the stairs. After three
flights, Jack slowed his pace, and his chest heaved.

“
Come on!” Gabe
growled.

“
I’m coming!” Jack snapped,
taking another deep breath before descending the last two
flights.

Just as their exit came into view, the
shrieking and snarling grew louder. Jack looked over his shoulder
and saw that Gabe had stayed behind, his firearm held closely to
his face.

“
We’re not going to make
it. They’re too close.” Gabe breathed.

“
GABRIEL!” An animalistic
hiss cried above them. It was one voice, but it was also
many.

Gabe cocked his gun and narrowed his eyes.
“Go, Jack. I’ll hold them off.”

“
Gabe….”

“
If you want to save your
daughter, then go!” Gabe yelled.

Jack clutched the book to his chest and made
his way outside. He burst from the door, and then grasped his
knees, unable to catch his breath. He leaned against the door and
lifted his face to the heavens, closing his eyes.

“
God help me,” he
whispered.

The shrieking stopped momentarily before
piercing the air again.

For the first time, Jack looked into my
eyes. He was afraid, something I'd never seen before. It felt
strange at first, as though he shouldn’t have been able to see me.
I watched a familiar look of resolve paint his face. “I’m going to
save you, Nina.”

As if he’d never spoken to me, Jack's eyes
darted in every direction to determine the best route of
escape.

Just as he had made his decision to flee,
the wood splintered behind him, and dozens of long, clawed hands
exploded through the door. Jack’s eyes widened in terror as demons
grabbed at his chest, his legs, his neck, and face. The sharp nails
shredded his shirt, and sunk into his skin; blood spilling from his
open wounds.

“
Nina!” he screamed. His
flesh ripped under the pressure of the long talons grating across
it.

His arms and legs were thrust forward, and
then his body bent in half and disappeared, sucked into the hell
that awaited him inside.

“
Daddy!” I screamed into
the darkness.

Hands held my outreached arms and I slapped
them away. “No! NO! Daddy!” I wailed, trying to get away. I wasn’t
strong enough.

“
Nina, stop! It’s
me!”

As reality sank in, I stopped fighting.
Jared sat next to me in our bed, holding my wrists against his
chest.

“
Nina?” he said, leaning
over to flip on the lamp.

My eyes squeezed shut, rejecting the light.
Sweat soaked my cotton gown, and damp hair matted against my
forehead. With trembling fingers, I wiped the wet strands from my
face. It always took a few moments to calm myself, but it wasn’t
fear this time. I was angry.

“
They’re getting worse,”
Jared said, concerned.

I had to clear my throat. “They’re so real,”
I whispered. I could still smell my father’s cologne, and the
screeching still rang in my ears. Returning to the same place
almost every night to watch my father die felt like torture.
Resentment replaced the fear, and that was a good thing; I felt
better equipped to handle anger then the overwhelming helplessness
that normally woke me.

“
Nina?”

I licked the salt from my lips. “I’m
okay.”

“
That’s the third one this
week. I don’t think you’re okay,” Jared said, his face tense. “Same
one?”

Reluctant, I nodded. Jared worried
obsessively each time he had to wake me from a nightmare. He was
tormented by the screaming, the trembling, and the inability to
stop it. He watched me for a moment before pulling me onto his
lap.

“
Maybe you should talk to
someone.”

“
I don’t need a shrink,
Jared. They’re just dreams,” I said, more to myself than to
him.

He pulled me with him, resting his back
against the headboard. I worked to relax. My days without him the
previous spring had been good practice when I didn’t want to bother
him with my ridiculous human fears and feelings. But I struggled
after the nightmares, even after months of perfecting my
talent.

I tried to think of anything but the
terrifying image of my father being torn to shreds, so that I could
settle down and fall asleep. Jared’s feverish chest against my
cheek was comforting, and I breathed in his amazing scent. Any
other time I would have instantly felt at ease, but after the
three-peat of the worst nightmare I’d ever had, it didn’t work.

“
I’m going to take a
shower,” I said, abruptly peeling off the blankets tucked around
me.

“
It’s three o’clock in the
morning, Nina. You have to get up in three hours anyway for work.
Why don’t you just try to sleep?”

I scooted to the edge of the bed, and
planted my feet on the floor with my back to Jared. “Have you
slept?” I asked him.

After a short pause, he let out an
exasperated sigh. “Yes.”

“
Then there’s no reason for
me to go back to sleep. I don’t want to sleep, anyway. It’s the
same thing every time I close my eyes.” I waited a moment, and when
Jared failed to argue, I pushed myself off the bed and walked into
the bathroom.

The pipes whined when I turned the shower
knobs, and I stood in front of the sink waiting for the water to
warm. The visions from my dream burst in short, loud scenes. The
screeching, the sound of my father’s shoes running up the stairs;
it wouldn’t stop. Closing my eyes, trying to focus, I rubbed my
hands with my face and then looked in the mirror. My features had
changed from when Jared and I first met. Spending much of the
summer indoors while my leg healed had left my skin pale and
lifeless, and I was sporting a matching pair of purple circles
under my eyes.

Our near-death experience in the restaurant
seemed like a lifetime away. Aside from the occasional news story
about the police department’s finest meeting untimely ends in
bizarre and unrelated accidents, our days went by as if Grahm, and
Shax, and the book had never existed.