Vengeance (Burning Beliefs #2)

Chapter Seven *edited*

GRACIE'S POV

That's not fair. That's really not frickin' fair. The one time I manage to fall asleep, I'm waken up at three in the morning by some incessant bleeping noise blaring from the computer room. Can Dad shut his equipment the hell up, or am I going to have to take a jack hammer to it?

I push my pillow into my ears and groan.

"Shut it off!" I shout.

Dean doesn't even hear me.

I pop up from the ground, to see that he's got pillow-muffs, too. Fantastic. Guess this is my problem now, since neither Sam or Zephira or my father are helping.

I slam my hands to the side of my head, cursing under my breath as I power-walk into the next room. Now where would you find a jack hammer?

I slam the door behind me. The room is completely dark, with only luminescent green lines twisting from monitor to monitor. Throughout all of the neon chaos, I find the source of the problem.

The fourth dot is less than a mile away from the other three dots.

My eyes widen. My heart stops for a few seconds. Holy mother of cheesecake and spiral pasta, she really is alive! And she's right there.

"Dad!" I run screaming into the next room.

"Not you too," Dean mutters into the couch.

I didn't dare turn off the system.

"Dad!" I scream again.

Where the hell is he?

Sam pops his head out from the main entrance. He can barely open his eyes. He can barely even hold onto the doorframe. Zephira is behind him, crossed arms, dry eyes, glaring at me like I suggested we should all go mosh pitting together.

"Gracie, this is what's known as 'quiet time', when people like to sleep," Sam yawns as he rubs his eyes.

"She's -- and it's -- and I -- Serena," all of these words tumble out of my mouth because I can't even comprehend it. After seven Goddamn years of drinking myself to sleep, she's here.

My stomach growls like a feral animal, pain suddenly launching up my windpipe so that it burns when I breathe, but I don't care. I can't care. I hardly even notice it at first, because holy cinnamon sticks and marshmallows, it's Serena.

"What about Serena?" Dean asks, fully alert.

The beeping is fading into the background.

"She's close, she's literally -- she's here," I breathe.

All at once, we move into the computer room. Dad is still MIA, but we're all wide awake. Our eyes catch fire as they light up with the green dots. Everyone freezes as we stare at the data blinking back at us, an alarm system blaring off, because she's close enough.

"We need to go get her," I say.

"And do what?" Dean says.

"Bring her here!" Sam says.

"Then what?" Zephira says.

Then what?

What now?

This whole time, it was all about getting her back home, we never thought about afterwards. I guess we'd just move on again, but that doesn't make any sense. We'd spent all this time trying to bring us back together, so why would we fall apart?

What do we do now?

"I have no idea," I say.

Rushing. Wings. Dad.