I tore the page from my notebook and crumpled it into a ball to toss it into the trash bin. I missed, and got up to pick the ball of paper up. Looking down into the trash, I paused at the sight of a black feather. Taking the feather in my hand, I could feel my heart beat accelerate. The feather felt real. I quickly sent a text to Izzy and Willow, begging them to come over.
An hour later, I sat on my bed with the feather on my lap; books lay scattered around me. The textbook I was currently staring at was about the properties of certain stones.
“Hey, sorry it took me so long.” Willow startled me and I jumped to hug her.
“Wow, okay I didn’t know you missed me that much!” She laughed and sat on the bed. “Um, what’s with the books?” Her hand moved to pick up the feather that lay on the coverlet from when I stood up. In comparison, the feather dwarfed her hand. It was about a foot long and as wide as three fingers.
It took me some time to explain my hallucination in the passage, my dreams, and the feather. When I was finished, Willow sat in silence staring at the feather.
“Couldn’t this me from one of Izzy’s outfits?” She handed the feather back and I stood to place it in my dresser.
“Do you ever remember her wearing anything that had giant sized feathers?” I spoke forcefully, because I needed her to believe me.
“You said Ash put everything from the passage into the attic, right?” Willow stood and led the way towards the attic.
It took us a while to comb through the boxes, because Maye had insisted on keeping almost everything from my parents’ estate. Willow got sidetracked when we found the boxes from the passageway. Once her eyes set on the journals, she was lost to me. Every half an hour I would call Izzy and leave a voicemail for her, but she still hadn’t called back.
“Listen to this, your ancestor says that he sought the dead to learn about your lineage.” Willow turned the page and blew dust from the text.
“What do you mean he sought the dead?” I grabbed the journal and tried to find the section she left off at, but Willow took it back.
“He used rituals to bring back the souls of the dead to gain knowledge.”
That confused me. “Wait, I thought you needed something that represented a specific person in order to communicate with the dead?”
Willow smiled. “The blood of someone is the most significant representation of that person. Since he was their descendent, their blood was also his blood.”
That was interesting. The possibilities of communicating with the first witches from your line would be amazing, but I had a feeling it would take a lifetime to communicate with all your ancestors.
An hour later, I was examining clothing from the passageway when Willow jumped to her feet. At first I thought that a spider must have crawled near her, but then I saw the way she was looking at the journal.
“Oh my God!” She looked at me and back at the book. “Did you know how the royal lineages were created?” I shook my head. “It says here that the first witches were Nephilim. Apparently, most of the Nephilim were whipped out of existence. However, the few who managed to refrain from destructive actions were spared. The Cross family was unique, because not only are they the descendants of Nephilim, but they also have the blood of demons running through their veins.”
Willow sat on an unopened box, while I waited to hear the rest. I was descended from Nephilim? Why would a Nephilim allow their blood to mix with a demon?
“It says that they were born to angel and man, but destined to precede the fallen unto earth. They would feed from the darkness to be born again in the light. It then says something about how the royal lineages took part in a ritual and fed on the blood of demons.”
Willow snapped the book shut and stared at me. “You know that doesn’t mean anything bad, right? I mean, even if you have some demon blood in you, it doesn’t make you evil.”
“I know.” Shaking my head, I went back to the box I had been searching through. I moved aside a silk shawl to discover the box we had been searching for. I picked it up and showed it to Willow.
Willow examined the box and had me repeat my experience in the passageway. Her brow was crinkled, which happened when she was deep in thought. She picked through some of the books we brought with us to the attic and started flipping through them. I knew this was a sign that I was dead to her until she found what she was looking for.
Now that I found the bloodstone box, I didn’t have a target to look for. I pulled the box Willow had been going through and started sorting through the journals. Some of the bindings were falling to pieces, but others were perfectly preserved. I came to find that while they all looked like journals; some of them were filled with spells, rituals, and research.
I didn’t spend much time looking at any specific journal, but started organizing them into piles based on their contents. At the bottom of the box, I found the newest collection. There was a journal by a man who would have been my third cousin, a great aunt, my grandmother, and my grandfather. I placed those journals in a special pile. I never considered what my other relatives would have been like, but now I was curious. Descendants of angels and demons; I wondered if any of them knew.
Lastly, a single journal remained in the box. It was more modern and in great condition. I opened it to see that the handwriting was a delicate script, which must have been a woman’s. I quickly flipped through the pages and saw that the further I got in the journal, the worse the writing became. Curious, I went back to the first page and was dumbstruck, when I saw the name “Irena Cross” in large letters.
I was holding my mother's journal, which was a strange concept. I remembered my mother when she still had spurts of kindness and wondered what she had been like before she became a monster.
“Do you know what bloodstone is used for?”
Grasping the journal in my hands, I moved closer to Willow.
“I know a little. It’s used to increase the power of a spell. Doesn’t it also have something to do with protection?”
“Yeah, bloodstone is supposed to provide protection against demons and it also gives the user power over demons. It is also used to banish evil.”
“Quartz is used for protection and containment, right?” I had heard the word demon too many times lately. I was starting to feel ill at the implications that this box had.
“S, I think this box was made to contain a demon and to protect others from it. It makes sense considering what you saw in that passage and last night…”
I held my hand up to stop her. I was beginning to feel caged in. If that box was meant to protect everyone from a demon and I unleashed it, that meant I was responsible for anyone it harmed. Oh God, what if it hurt someone I care about?
“The only thing I can’t figure out is why it is interested in you. I mean, it makes sense that you would see it in the passage, but why would it follow you here?” Willow walked to me and spun me around to face her.
“I don’t know! Okay? If I knew I would tell you, but I don’t.” My head was beginning to spin and I couldn’t get enough oxygen. Willow noticed immediately and led me downstairs and back into my bedroom. I sat on the bed with my mother’s journal still clenched in my fist.
“Maybe we should ask Maye about this?” Willow asked shyly.
“No!” I started to panic again. “I don’t want to worry her. She’ll probably just say it was a hallucination or whatever. This is something I need to figure out on my own. Besides, we don’t even know if this demon is going to come back….”
LIAM
“How did it go?”
I turned to find Kali sitting on the couch in my living room. She wasn’t dressed to tempt, but only a saint wouldn’t want to devour her. Her flaming red hair hung to her shoulders and her bright green eyes held power and wisdom. She had a knowing look, as if she were mocking me, which she likely was.
“I’m assuming you’re asking about my mothers’ scheme? It went fine.”
“Oh, really? What’s with the shiner
then?” She walked to me and gently pushed the puffiness around my eye.
“That is a present from her foster brother. I think he likes me.” I smiled, and wrapped my arm around her waist to pull her in closer, but she spun out of reach.
“I don’t think so.” She smiled coyly. “I just came to see if you need some advice, since the Cross girl is a different sort of breed than you’re used to.”
“I don’t need advice when it comes to females.” I crooked my smile at her. “You should know that.”
“Ha! You don’t have issues when it comes to women with no morals or in my case, women who don’t have time to search for someone better.” She crossed her arms and looked at me lazily.
“I was just teasing. I don’t think of you in the same group as all those other women. You know that.” I moved closer and tipped her chin up to look her in the eyes. “We’re friends. You know that, right?” Her expression changed to a fleeting look I had never seen before and then switched back to her usual self.
“That isn’t the point. I just wanted to make sure you know to take it slowly with the girl. She has been surrounded by darkness her entire life, but she still has some innocence.”
“You’re worried that I might corrupt her? Why do you even care?” This was a side of Kali I had never seen. She didn’t normally concern herself with others and was even less likely to, when she didn’t know the person.
She made an exasperated noise and shoved my chest hard enough to slam me into the opposing wall. “I do care about other people you know. Is it that difficult to believe I might have a heart?” When I stay silent with a dumbfounded expression, she continued. “Just because I was created instead of born, does not mean I don’t have feelings! What I do is a job; it doesn’t mean I enjoy it! Besides, I do know the Cross girl. Her parents were one of my assignments.”
“Her parents were an assignment? You mean the Hellhounds went on a wild hunt to catch them? I thought the coven killed them.”
Kali shook her head. “In their case, we went on the hunt to consume them. They were powerful witches and had a spell in place. Their bodies died, but their spirits continued to avoid death. My sisters and I hunted them down and consumed their souls. It was one of the few assignments I enjoyed.” She smiled, and let loose a deafening howl. The furniture began to seizure as the wall behind Kali, appeared to crack down the center. The crack spread and the wall began to ripple. A riptide tore through the wall and swirled in a clockwise pattern. The hypnotic nature of the vortex picked up momentum, until a black hole emerged in the center. “Catch you later.” Kali smiled back at me, and disappeared into the portal. There was a loud pop and the portal imploded on itself and disappeared.
I watched as her back disappeared into the portal. She must have been really bothered by our conversation, because she normally refrained from opening a portal unless it was at place of divine power. It took more energy to create a portal anywhere else.
I thought back to the implications of our conversation. It sounded as if she cared for Savannah, which was strange for a Hellhound. When one of the sisters was given an assignment it was serious business, but the sisters only went on a wild hunt for the worst cases. As one of the few mortals who knew a hellhound on a personal level, I knew what they went through.
To track down prey, the sister had to know the scent of their victim. However, a hellhound did not smell the scent of perfume or skin. They smelled the soul of their prey. To do that, the hellhound would need to immerse themselves in the memories of their prey.
When the pack went on a wild hunt, they had to immerse themselves in the entire being of that person. It is somewhat like bathing in their soul. The hellhounds would relive every action their prey took, they would feel the pain the victims felt, and the scars left behind. Kali would have taken the place of each sacrifice, she would have been immersed in the soul that offered those sacrifices, and would have endured every scar the Cross family inflicted on Savannah. I did not envy her.
8: angels and Demons
SAVANNAH
It was Sunday evening and rather than finishing my homework, I was intoxicated by my mothers’ journal. It was interesting to see how her writing changed as she became older. Before her ascension, she had been a normal witchling. After her ascension, she became addicted to her power.
It was strange to read about my birth and the years after. She was a completely different woman from the one I knew. She almost seemed loving, when she wrote about my birth and the first time I walked.
It was late and I could barely keep my eyes open. The words kept blurring together. I was beginning to fall asleep with the journal propped on my pillow, when my eyes caught sight of the word demon. As I read, I learned that my parents had researched the journals from our lineage and read about us being descended from Nephilim. They focused on how our line way unique after drinking the blood of a demon. It didn’t take long for them to develop a theory about how Demonic blood mixed with Angel blood was a key ingredient to gaining power.
Once they discovered the common denominator, they began researching how to capture and angel and a demon. It didn’t take long for them to realize that it was a foolish plan and was likely to get them killed. Instead, they decided to capture a fallen angel. Demons and fallen angels were alike and yet vastly different. Demons were truly evil creatures. However, fallen angels had once been ordinary angels, who had fallen from heaven and now possessed demonic power.
I had processed more than enough information for a single day. I wisely decided to push the journal away and felt into a comatose-like sleep. I dreamed that I was running through a forest, while being pursued by the demon. Its eyes were bright yellow and they floated towards me on the waves of darkness.
The next morning, Willow and I filled Izzy in on everything she missed the previous day. She looked worse than I felt. Her eyes were bruised and puffy and her skin had a grayish sheen to it. She claimed it was a simple cold, but I became more concerned when I saw her that afternoon walking through the halls like the living dead.
After school, the three of us went to my house and I showed them my journal. Willow scrutinized the sections I told her about, while Izzy slumped against the pillows on my bed and nodded absently at everything we said.
“Your parents were even crazier than I thought! They wanted to summon a fallen angel?” Willow leaned towards my sitting place at the edge of the bed. “Did they ever try it?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t read that far yet and no you are not going to read it before me.” She gave me the puppy dog look, as if it would implore me to hand over my mother journal. “I’m guessing that they did. Otherwise, why would the fallen angel have been in the box? It had to get in there somehow. My guess is that my parents put it there.” I shrugged.
“Don’t you want to know why the thing is stalking you?” Izzy’s normally bubbly voice was now a raspy whisper. “What your parents did or didn’t do doesn’t really matter. It’s in the past. What matters is why this demon thing showed up in your bedroom. What does it want from you?”
“Any great ideas on how to find out what it wants?” Willow and Izzy exchanged awkward looks. “That’s what I thought. The only clue I have is this stupid journal. Whatever it wants is most likely related to my parents’ scheme.”
“Um, I have one idea.” Willow ducked her head and her cheeks brightened. She didn’t normally take the lead in our group and was more likely to follow our plans, not the other way around. “Well, we could take the time to read the journal, do a bunch of research, and mostly likely still be completely clueless. We would probably get ourselves killed in the meantime, or… We could summon the demon and find out what it wants on our own territory.”
Willow smirked, but I could feel my courage plummet to the ground. Summon a demon and not just any demon, but a fallen angel? I didn’t think I was that desperate.
“That is a horrible idea.” Izzy voiced, before I choice say the same. “What if the demon decides
to eat us or something? Are you two powerful enough to take on a freaking demon?” Izzy had a look of complete horror on her face.
“Well, no. Just listen a second, Savannah is going to go through her ascension this weekend, which means she will have full use of her power. I may not be powerful, but I can be of some help and even you can do minor magic.”
“I can do magic?” Izzy’s color came back at the tidbit of information.
“Yep, and we can put protection spells in place to confine the demon to our circle. It won’t be able to touch us. We can even pull on the elements to give the circle that extra boost of power.” Willow jumped to her feet and grabbed her tote. She pulled out a few books from the meadow falls library. One of them was about demons, while the others looked like spell books.
“How do we pull on the elements?”
Willow was busy looking for something in her books, which meant I was the designated tutor. “Everyone has an affinity for at least one element. Usually there is a specific element that is strongest. In Ash’s case, he is strongest in the fire element. Willow is strongest in Earth. We are going to need to find out which elements respond to you. That way we will know which elements you can pull power from.”
“How do we do that? Wouldn’t I know if I could do magic?”
“Nope. The average human has no idea how to use magic and the type of books at places like Barnes and Noble do not teach the correct methods.” Izzy nodded, while the crease that resided on her forehead gained ground.
“Tonight, I’ll do some research on how to summon a demon safely. Can you work with Izzy to find out which elements respond to her?” Willow pushed her books back in her bag, and stood impatiently.
“Yeah, I’ll work with Izzy. I still don’t think I like this idea though.”
Willow left and Izzy soon followed. She was too exhausted to do anything else today and I completely understood. That night I went to read my mother's journal, when Ash came into my room. His face was dominated by an irritated expression he rarely used.
Caged in Darkness Page 9
