Epilogue

Kendra was leaning over the railing of a ship that had been chartered by the Order. Currently, it was off the eastern coast of the United States and headed toward the middle of the Atlantic. This was her plan. It was a rather simplistic one but she liked the finality of it nonetheless. While Bendis was still alive, it was obvious that whatever Helen did to her, it rendered her completely incapable of movement, speech, or life in general. Her eyes were unfocused even though they were creepily open and no matter how much stimuli was thrown at her, the goddess showed no signs whatsoever that she was present.

“We’re almost there,” Conor said. He was currently piloting the body he somehow cohabited with Pope now. “I just talked to the captain.”

“Thanks,” she replied, wishing she could just relax and enjoy the trip but that was not in the cards for her. Her nerves were stretched taut and had been ever since they all boarded the ship. There was a nagging part of her that thought Bendis would snap out of her imprisonment at any moment and destroy them all. It was so persistent she could even imagine what that would look like. For the most part, it looked a lot like the end of the Little Mermaid where Ursula was incredibly massive and doing her best to sink the ship. Except in her mind’s eye, Ursula/Bendis didn’t get impaled by the ship.

“Hey,” Jenna said, coming up to join the two of them. Her and Felix, along with five other knights, were accompanying them on their mission to make sure Bendis never hurt anyone again. “You all right?”

“I suppose so,” she replied.

“I’m doing good too,” Conor piped in.

Jenna looked at him and sighed.

“You’re going to take a lot of getting used to,” Jenna told him.

“It’s an unfortunate situation but far better than being trapped inside a braindead, comatose body.” This time, it was Pope that answered. They could all tell because his voice was slightly different and his eyes had changed color from Conor’s green to a dark, almost black, color. “I am just happy to be awake again.”

“Well, again, I’m sorry,” Kendra told him. She grabbed his hand reassuringly. “I don’t know when or how, but I’ll find a way to separate you two again.”

“I’m still a little confused on how you were able to do this,” Felix said. “Somehow, when Conor died, his consciousness flowed into you because you were connected using your mysteriously weird hereditary power you got from your mom…”

“Which you neglected to tell your best friend about but whatever,” Jenna interjected.

“Let it go,” Felix murmured. “I wouldn’t have told you either if I had some mysterious power.”

Jenna raised her eyebrows.

“My magic doesn’t count.”

“I didn’t even know what was happening to me,” Kendra told her and not for the first time. “Not to mention a psycho goddess was trying to destroy us all, remember? I didn’t exactly have the time to fill you in.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Jenna replied but she was smiling.

The relationship between the two of them had been strained over the last few months but had recently started improving.

“Anyway,” Kendra went on. “You’re guess is as good as mine. Most of what happens with that weird power is subconscious. Sometimes, I can control it and sometimes it just does what it wants.”

“Gotcha.” Felix responded. He paused, looking thoughtful. “So is it, like...magic?”

Kendra shook her head.

“No. Not magic. That was the whole reason why I was able to keep our interactions from Bendis a secret for so long. Not even she knew what it was. Although, she apparently found out at some point but by then, thankfully, it was already too late,” Kendra explained.

“A gamble that paid off,” Conor replied. Then his eyes abruptly switched to Pope’s. “She deserves whatever purgatorial hell she’s currently in. And once again, I do apologize for almost ruining your plan by attacking Drake and his vampires on my own. In hindsight, it was a reckless decision.”

Conor took control again, looking annoyed, and turned away from everyone, whispering harshly.

“You have to stop doing that,” he said, his voice harsh. “Remember to stick to the system.”

He turned back to everyone and found them staring at him.

“What? We have a system in place for specifically this reason,” Conor told them.

“Just out of curiosity, what is the system?” Felix asked.

Kendra shot him a dark look.

“Don’t ask that,” she snarled. “Trust me.”

Felix held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Okay then.”

Conor leaned closer to him and whispered, “I’ll tell you later.”

One of the other knights, Veronica Jericho, came running up to them.

“We’re there. Are you ready?” she asked everyone.

“More than ready.” Kendra replied.

They followed Veronica back toward the middle of the ship where a cluster of people were gathered. They were all Order members. The captain and his crew had been instructed to stay below deck and they had the top of the ship to themselves. The knights were in a circle around what looked like a solid, steel coffin. It was closed but despite that, all of the knights had various types of guns pointed at it. Each one had a tense, stern look on their face and their eyes never strayed from the box.

Kendra and the others approached it, no one saying anything. They had the same tenseness to their features as everyone else. She slipped between two of the knights and bent down. She opened the lid and looked at what was inside. There wasn’t much to see. The entire inside had been filled to the top with cement. Inside the cement, however, was the body of Bendis. Completely encasing her in cement had been Jenna’s idea and one that Kendra wholeheartedly agreed to. She wasn’t sure if the goddess would ever wake up but if she did, she would find herself entombed which, Kendra figured, would royally piss her off. She really liked the idea of pissing her off.

She placed her hand on the cement and let one of her nails extend into a claw. She scratched a message into it and then closed the lid again. She stood back up and then abruptly exploded into her alpha state. She picked up the coffin like it weighed no more than a somewhat heavy suitcase and walked over to the edge of the ship. Without much ceremony, she tossed the coffin over the side and watched it disappear underneath the dark waters. When it was done, she turned around and shifted back into her human form. Jenna was already there with a robe to clothe her.

“You think it’s over?” Jenna asked her.

Kendra continued staring at the water as she responded.

“If it’s not, we’ll be ready for her.”