Part Four: End - m

Bendis was in…

Pain!

She wasn’t accustomed to this. What was it? It hurt so bad. It was like her insides had been replaced by rivers of molten lava. It clawed its way through her, weakening her and actually bringing her to her knees. She could feel her power still inside her but for the first time since she had awakened in this existence, it was nearly beyond her reach.

How can this be? she thought to herself, her inner voice sounding like a mewling, begging child. I am Bendis, Goddess of the Moon! I am immortal. This cannot be happening to me.

But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself of that, it was useless. She was hurting. She felt actual, real pain. She screamed out as a particularly intense wave of it hit her. When it was over, she opened her eyes and saw four people standing there, staring at her.

Looking down at her!

Kendra. Drake. Merrick Bane. And, of course, Alrich. Her Alrich. In that moment of complete and utter agony, she could still remember their time together. The love she’d felt had been real and the betrayal after he left her had been real too. She hated him for that. For daring to leave her but that hatred was nothing compared to what she felt toward Kendra. That woman was, no pun intended, a complete bane of her existence. All of her careful planning and for what?

Nothing.

She had nothing to show for it.

Kendra had thwarted her at nearly every turn. Every plan to destroy or kill her had backfired save for her boyfriend's death, Conor Dewar. There should have been nothing special about her and yet ever since she was four, she had stubbornly persisted and lived despite Bendis’ best efforts. Jonah had been the very first attempt to use Kendra’s death to hurt Merle Bane but somehow, the mother had managed to break the hold just long enough for the grandfather to charge in and stop her. That had still worked out more or less in her favor. Merle lost the woman he loved and his daughter as well. The girl even spent her childhood in those delightfully awful foster homes. Each time a family even so much as thought about taking her in, Bendis would guide them to a different choice without them knowing. That had been a pleasant little afterthought on her part. Things were progressing well after that. She had gotten her hooks into Merrick. Had turned Deanna Shade to her cause. Had finally managed to orchestrate the death of Alrich’s last living son, Merle.

But then Kendra gained her birthright, took the Alpha power, and, on top of everything else, had awakened some latent, extra-normal ability that shouldn’t even exist. She had used that power to devastating effect and instead of being reduced to a useless lump of depression and grief, she had managed to devise a plan that actually…

HURT HER!

How was that possible?

She was a goddess!

A goddess!

She reached a hand up to her face and dabbed underneath her eyes. Then she looked at her fingertips and was surprised to find them wet and glistening. She stood there and stared at them for a moment, completely dumbfounded. She was crying? Tears were coming out of her eyes? She didn’t cry. She didn’t even know she was capable of it. But here she was, her weakness laid bare for all to see. It forced her to think back on those damned threads, the thin, gossamer ones that she had never noticed before. She remembered everything she had seen when she touched the ones leading from Kendra to Drake, the knights, Elijah and Jenna Bishop, Alrich, and her brother Merrick.

Seen was not quite right though. She had seen things, sure, but mostly she had felt them. The images had been confusing and unclear but the things they made her feel were not. She had felt a plan being formed. A plan to eradicate the vampires and a plan to find out how to hurt her and maybe even kill her.

The moment she touched that thread, she knew Drake had betrayed her. She knew he had plotted with Kendra for the last several weeks, planning with her using that incredibly annoying power of hers to reach out to the minds of her co-conspirators and fine tune everything. The worst part of it is that Kendra had known she wouldn’t catch on or at least surmised enough to take the risk. Somehow, she must have figured out that her power was a blind spot and she had used it to plan her downfall. Even now, this whole battle was one big trap. A set up so the Order and the Bane Pack could slaughter the vampires that Drake helped create.

Her army.

“No!” she suddenly screamed. Her rage was so overwhelming and powerful that it literally warped the air in front of everyone. She could feel her power surging through her body, a massive reservoir of it with no end. Her eyes blazed with smoky black and purple energy that radiated out of her and into the air. Slowly, she rose to her feet, the waves of agonizing pain sweeping through her were nearly unbearable but she forced herself to ignore it. The hand she had used to pull out Drake’s heart was dripping blood but she barely noticed that. She barely even noticed when the blood crawled sluggishly into her pores and the power inside it was absorbed back into her reservoir.

She had to fight to keep her head up but she managed it. Her eyes found Kendra’s.

“You did this! You...y-you...HURT ME!”

Kendra stood there, stoically silent as she watched the goddess’ mental stability completely deteriorate. There was a smug sort of satisfaction on her face but despite that, she was still wary and cautious.

“Good. I’m glad you’re in pain!” Kendra’s voice was strong and unyielding. “After all the misery you’ve caused, you deserve that and worse. You brought this on yourself!”

She began moving closer to Bendis. Alrich and Merrick were walking toward her on the other two sides and eventually, the three of them were circling the goddess.

“I’ve waited centuries for this. For vengeance. My family was innocent, Edolie!” Alrich screamed. “And you’re not.”

“Careful,” Merrick chimed in. He was eyeing Bendis carefully.

Bendis watched the three of them coming toward her, still on one knee. The pain was getting worse but she knew it wouldn't kill her. She couldn’t be killed. She was immortal.

She started laughing, the sound coming out mostly as wheezing gasps.

“You fools,” she whispered. Her chest hurt and it made her voice sound small and weak. “I-I’ll just kill y-you al-all af-after I heal.”

Her smoky black and purple gaze swung to Kendra again.

“No m-more g-games, Little B-Bane.” She laughed again but there was a crazy sort of tinge to it that unnerved everyone there. “I’ll have y-you ki-killed sl-slow.”

Beyond the three that circled her, she could make out the rest of the wolves, the knights, and the mages. Most were battered and beaten up. Some were bloodied. Some looked to even be missing limbs, which she guessed was from the power she unleashed that destroyed the hotel. The knights had their guns trained on her. Every mages’ hands were glowing with power. All the wolves bared their teeth at her.

She laughed again.

It was all so futile. So useless.

“I’m im-immortal, f-fools.” She laughed again and this time it was a high, shrill thing full of hysteria and a touch of panic. The pain was not lessening. It was gaining more teeth. Gaining more heat. A spasm suddenly hit her and she doubled over. Her hands turned into claws that scrabbled at the broken debris around her. She looked up with bloodshot eyes and a gaunt, haggard face. “I’m immortal. Imm-immortal.”

“You may be immortal,” Kendra started saying as she walked closer. She knelt down so her face was just inches away from the goddess. “But we hurt you. We got to you. Has anyone ever done that before you crazy, psychotic bitch?”

Then Kendra, still in her powerful alpha state, backhanded her with the force of a speeding train. Bendis’ head snapped to the side which made the burning, incessant pain flare up even more. It was so...so...annoying. It wouldn’t go away. She couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t just go away.

Kendra moved back and Alrich took her place. Her wonderful, noble knight. Her lover and friend.

Her betrayer.

“You forced this on yourself, Edolie,” he told her. His words did not bear the anger she was expecting but they still hurt nonetheless. “You forced this on yourself when you turned me into a monster and forced me to slaughter my family. You deserve every bit of pain. Every bit of misery.”

His face suddenly morphed from his statuesque handsomeness into a monstrous combination of human and wolf. Massive jaws full of razor sharp fangs suddenly lashed out and clamped onto her shoulder and neck.

She screamed. The incessant, annoying pain became something far worse. Her vision turned black and something like dizziness crept over her mind.

This...Is...Not...Possible!

She kept thinking that but here she was, brought low and to her knees by a bunch of mortals. Pets of the gods. That’s all they were. A project. Harmless to her. She could feel herself panicking and fear grew inside her with astounding force but she had no idea why she should be afraid. Should she be afraid of an insect now? Will the sight of a tiny, newborn kitten make her quail in fright? What about a cuddly stuffed toy the human children love so much? The very idea was ludicrous.

Alrich was abruptly gone and then Merrick took his place. He looked so much like his grandfather at that moment. The same hatred was on his face too. One of his hands gripped the back of her neck and she could feel claws there. He brought his lips up to her ear and whispered.

“This is for my father. I hope you rot in whatever hell finds you.”

Then the hand gripping her neck tightened as the other one buried itself inside her guts. The sensation was an odd one. There was pain but there was also a sickening...pressure. Then it was gone. Merrick stepped back and she was left on the ground, still on her knees. But she was alive. Of course she was alive. She couldn't be killed after all.

The pain kicked up a notch yet again and she screamed out her rage.

“This will stop!”

She pulled in her power then, readying it for one final push to end Kendra and everyone else there. She knew what that would mean but at that point she didn’t care. Killing Kendra would come back on her in a disastrous way but at least then, the pain might actually end. She forced herself to look up at the werewolf bitch and let a smile stretch her lips. It made her face look hideous.

She looked down at herself and saw pale light making her skin glow beautifully. Her head sluggishly looked up and she found herself looking at the moon.

Is it night already? she asked herself. For some reason, she couldn’t remember the sun going down.

The pain, she mused. It must have her confused.

She took in a haggard breath and looked up at the sky and stared into the face of that beautiful, silvery moon that was and was not her.

Fitting, she thought to herself as she felt the waves of energy coming off it seep into her. She drew more and more of that power inside her and used it to wall the incessant pain off and give her the strength she desperately needed. Slowly, she got to one leg and then the other. She swayed a bit on her feet as dizziness hit her again. There was a brief moment when she thought she would fall over but thankfully, she was able to keep her feet.

Kendra took a step back and everyone else followed her lead. They all sensed something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Kendra’s eyes started to glow with that unnatural, white power again. Merrick dropped into a fighting stance. Alrich exploded into his enormous, white wolf. His luminous, blue eyes stared at the goddess and refused to look away. Merlin stood there with his arms folded over his chest, his face uncharacteristically serious. Jenna, Felix, and most of the others in the Order were drawing closer now, each one on high alert.

Bendis laughed again.

It was a low thing at first but then it grew in strength and power. There was that tinge of insanity lurking beneath it and the longer she laughed, the more crazy she sounded. She didn’t care though. In fact, the laughter felt extremely...liberating. Yes. That’s the word she wanted. Liberating. It was, she thought, a very fitting word indeed.

“You all stand there and mock me now. A goddess.” That laughter bubbled up as she spoke. Her eyes suddenly snapped to Merrick. “You will regret that.”

Bendis moved so swiftly there was nothing anyone could do. The mages couldn’t even flinch. Alrich could only turn and watch what happened. Kendra also, even though she was the closest to Merrick.

One second, her brother was there, perfectly alive and well, and the next, his head was cleanly severed from his body with one blow from the goddess. Bendis screamed out as the most horrible pain yet slammed into her, right in her chest. Her agonized scream of pain quickly turned into a laugh of triumph though.