The Darkness Within (Sanguine Series: Awakening Book 1)

by H. M Reilly

  “More careful? What do you mean?”

  “Thalia was powerful. She had many powerful friends, witches that knew her. Some nearly as old as she was. Her coven was powerful—they are powerful. I’m sure you’ve heard that they dabbled in black magic and made deals with demons. From what I hear, she left behind a few powerful apprentices.” Logan remained silent as Dixon continued. “You didn’t kill the whole coven, Logan. There have been whispers of magic in Hollow’s Creek.”

  “Are you sure they were part of the same coven?” Dixon only nodded in response. Logan wasn’t sure how he felt about this information, but it didn’t sit well with him. Hollow’s Creek radiated with supernatural energy and even magic, but if anybody from that same coven was still alive, he knew it could only lead to something bad. Even dangerous if the remaining members were also taken by the demonic influence.

  “I can’t say I do. I’m not even sure how many, but I hear there’s at least one or two that weren’t present that night you faced her coven,” Dixon said.

  Logan waited as the young waitress came over to hand him his change, and he counted the cash, tucking a few beneath his half-empty glass of water. He glanced around to make sure she wasn’t within earshot, then asked, “Do you know the other members of that coven?”

  “I can’t say I do. I’ve heard whispers from other hunters that the remaining members delve deeper into black magic. That there is demonic influence involved.”

  “Fuck. You sure?” Logan said. For a moment, he was worried. A witch practicing black magic or dabbling in the darker arts was going to be dangerous. Not only would she have magic flowing through her veins, but she would have other dark instruments accessible to her. He would need to be even more careful if he chose to approach this situation. The information made him uncomfortable and maybe even a little nervous.

  Dixon sat in thought for a moment before answering with a shrug. “As sure as I can be. I’ve heard from some reliable sources. If these witches are making deals with devils, you better find them before they find you.”

  He wasn’t sure what he thought about the information he was given. From what he remembered, the members he and his nephews killed only a couple of months before weren’t very powerful. He had felt it in their energy. They must have been apprentices to the coven and the craft.

  The only thing that set him at unease was the unknown. He didn’t know who the other members of the coven were, but he had an idea of who to ask, and even that thought was risky.

  Logan never doubted his hunting skills when it came to tracking and finding the evil lurking in the shadows. He never hesitated to destroy evil either, finding satisfaction in killing the monsters he came face to face with. As much as he wanted to leave Colorado, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to—at least not yet. He couldn’t leave with the idea of black magic hovering this close.

  After dinner, Logan and Dixon went their separate ways, and Logan had more information to consider than before the meeting. He jumped in his truck and pulled out onto the highway, heading east back home to Durango. There were very few lights out on the highway, and the snowflakes had turned to light rain.

  When he stopped for gas, only a few blocks from his stepmother’s place, he pulled out his phone to call Michael. It was only just after 10:30.

  “Yeah?”

  “Michael. It’s your uncle.”

  “Yeah, I know. What is it? I just got home from work.”

  “Don’t be an asshole.”

  “What do you need, Uncle Logan?”

  “I’m going to need your help. We have a problem.”

  “A problem? What problem? You mean the demon bitch?”

  “No. Remember that witch we killed a couple months back? Well, we didn’t destroy the whole coven,” Logan said.

  Michael paused, and Logan could hear him light up a cigarette on the other end of the line. “What do you mean? What do you want me to do?”

  “I need your help to fucking kill them. This isn’t any ordinary coven. Just listen, Michael.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Charlotte decided to wait a few days before returning her dad’s phone call. She didn’t think the things she had on her mind were very pressing since she’d already waited years. She even wanted to ask about the things she uncovered about Hollow’s Creek, things that made Hollow’s Creek even more mysterious to her, but she knew there was something more to all these stories.

  She still had the recent memory of her confrontation with the dark man etched at the forefront of her mind, and she didn’t want to worry her dad any more than necessary. Any bruises and cuts would only add fuel to the fire when she finally spoke to her dad about the things on her mind.

  Her body still ached right down to the bone. She even called out of work and stayed in bed most of the day, the curtains drawn while she slept and watched old movies on the small television in her room. Jack even spent most of the day curled up right beside her, sleeping.

  The wind whistled past. Leaves fluttered in the branches nearby. The dark of night surrounded her. There wasn’t even the glow of the moon to light her way. The cold air crawled across her skin like the legs of a spider. Chills slipped down her spine. Suddenly, the breeze stopped, and a voice spoke her name, clear as day.

  “Charlotte…”

  She carefully took a few steps forward. The darkness veiled her path from view, and another wisp of wind passed by, tousling her dark locks. The little hairs on her arms rose, the skin prickled with goosebumps.

  Again, the voice spoke her name, louder this time. She continued along her path, and the voice slowly grew louder. Leaves crunched beneath her boots. A twig snapped underneath her shoe, and she froze in her tracks.

  When she lifted her eyes, she met a pair of glowing eyes glowing in the distance. They were the color of translucent emeralds, almost transparent in the dark. Slowly, the green eyes faded away, swallowed by widening pupils. She watched, curious.

  Something fell from the trees and right to her feet. She bent over to retrieve it and examined it with her hands. A flower. A black rose. The petals were almost as soft as silk between her fingers and the stem long and strong. She ran her thumb over the side, catching the edge of a thorn, much sharper than others. Charlotte gasped, the thorn biting into her flesh.

  She stood up, still holding the rose in her hand as blood oozed out of her wound. She stared at her hand, pale in the darkness, and watched the dark bead pool at the tip of her thumb. She lifted her thumb to her lips and sucked the blood away. A moment later, those glowing eyes faded away, and that voice faded to a whisper.

  “Charlotte. Come to me. You. Are. Mine.”

  She startled awake, torn from her dream, and she nearly fell to the floor from her bed. She glanced around the room, her vision still blurry with sleep. This was her third dream since moving to Hollow's Creek with such dark, mystifying images that felt much too real to her. The most recent was more vivid than the previous.

  She never woke refreshed from these dreams. Instead, she felt drained of energy, but going back to sleep was not what she wanted. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and picked up her phone to check the time. It was only half-past four in the morning.

  Charlotte rose from the bed, grabbed her robe, and went into the bathroom to jump in the shower, hoping these dreams would stop and soon. The hot water soothed her swollen joints and aching muscles. She stood there much longer than needed, the water cascading down on her relaxing the pain away.

  The last of the suds rinsed from her skin, and the dark images floated right along down the drain. Still, she wondered what these dreams were trying to tell her or who was trying to speak to her.

  As she stood there, enjoying the last moments of hot water, thoughts of her real father came into her mind. He was nothing more than a mystery to her, the other half of her natural-born existence. Not that she ever knew her mother either, but her dad was so quiet and secretive about her real father that it made her wonder just what he could be hiding ab
out her bloodline.

  When the water started to cool, she shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. When she grabbed a fresh towel to dry off, she examined the wounds found weeks ago on her thigh and left breast. They still looked as bruised as ever. Blood oozed from the wound on her breast, darker than the last time she noticed it, which worried her. What sort of wound just became worse over time or just didn’t heal? There was something going on here. She went over to the medicine cabinet, searching for something to put on the wound, but all she found were various medications in those orange prescription bottles. Maybe she would stop at the pharmacy to find something when she left the house later.

  Another day passed before she finally picked up the phone and called her dad. It was the middle of the week, and she wore three-day-old pajamas, hoping he would be home or at the very least available to take a quick phone call with her. She had no intentions of having a serious conversation with him over the phone.

  After four rings, he finally answered, and she could hear the television in the background. The volume was loud enough for her to hear a crowd erupting over a touchdown on the field. He must have been home alone. Rachel hated football.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  “Hey, Charlie. What’s going on? How’re you doing?”

  “I’m okay, Dad. Just been busy.”

  “Too busy to speak to your Dad?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. Been working a lot of shifts at the tavern.” It was almost totally true. With her birthday in another month, she was trying to collect some extra cash for her first birthday single since she was still a teenager.

  “I figured. Just giving you a hard time, sweetheart. What’s going on, though? You called the other night, and I thought it might’ve been urgent.”

  “It’s nothing,” she said. “Think I can come down to your house? Maybe grab us a pizza and stay for a little while?”

  “Sure. It’s just me tonight. Leila has basketball practice, and your mom is out of town at a conference up in Denver.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you soon.” Charlotte rose from her bed, and after a quick shower to wash away the laziness that had settled over her, she dressed and headed out the front door. Before she even left Hollow’s Creek, she called the pizza place around the corner from her dad’s and ordered them a couple of meat lover’s pizzas for delivery. Easy on the sauce and extra bacon for her dad.

  She made it down into Sequoia just after seven pm, and when she opened her dad’s front door, she was greeted by the fresh, greasy scent of pizza. The television was playing loudly down the hall. “Dad?”

  “Back here, Charlie.”

  She made it down the hallway and set her purse down on the floor, having a seat on the couch. Halftime was already over, so the game still had another two quarters to go. Charlotte reached over and pulled a slice of pizza from the box. As much as she didn’t want to interrupt her dad’s alone time with the questions floating through her mind, she needed to clear the clutter from her head. She needed clarity, but first, she needed to fill her stomach. The last thing she needed was to let her hunger fueled emotions get the best of her.

  The small collection of beer cans sitting on the coffee table had grown from two to four since Charlotte had arrived. She knew her dad wasn’t a big drinker, so she knew by finishing this many beers, he would be feeling relaxed. It helped that his team was winning. There were only a couple minutes left, and the game broke for commercials when Charlotte glanced over at him.

  “Dad?”

  “Yeah, Charlie?”

  “I did want to ask you about something. Maybe talk to you about it.”

  He turned in his recliner to face her, giving his undivided attention. “What’s going on?”

  “Uncle Jimmy told me something that I don’t understand, and it seems unreal to me.” He didn’t answer, and her anxiety grew. “He told me something about myself that I never heard before, and it doesn’t seem possible either.”

  “And what did he tell you, Charlie?”

  “He told me I was a demon hybrid. He’s made comments about me being a ‘little devil spawn’ too. And I want to know why.”

  Her dad closed his eyes and let out a sigh, and Charlotte was unsure how to take his reaction, but she didn’t feel good about it either. “Because you are, Charlotte.”

  “What do you mean I am?”

  “Charlotte, I don’t want to have this conversation. This is not important—”

  “It’s important to me.”

  Her dad hesitated for a moment and looked past her, off into the distance. A sad smile appeared on his face before he spoke again.

  “I know I told you some things about your real mother when you were younger. My baby sister, Nicole. She was full of life and light. She loved to sing, perform. She dreamed of moving off to Hollywood after she finished high school and finding a place in Tinseltown. She and I were close. Your uncle Jimmy always did his own thing, even when we were kids.

  “Anyways. She met your…your father when she was only seventeen. He was a little older than her, maybe a couple years as far as I knew. He was the opposite of her, at least personality wise. Dark themed tattoos, black clothes most of the time, clove cigarettes, and he loved to drink. He was from Ireland or something.

  “When I first met him, I knew something about him was off. Maybe it was his attitude. Very full of himself and rude to others. Animals feared him. Our family dog, Rosey, would growl when he came around, but she never approached him. But he was kind to Nikki. At least as far as I knew. Your grandparents didn’t like him and didn’t want him in their house after meeting him once. They were still living in an old family home in Hollow’s Creek at the time. I was sharing an apartment with some friends out here in Sequoia, finishing up my third year at the community college.

  “They hadn’t been dating long when Nikki came to me crying and scared because she thought she was pregnant. She hadn’t heard from your father in about a week, but I know she didn’t tell him about her suspicions. I was the one who took her to the clinic to get checked, and sure enough, she was almost two months by that time. She was scared to death, and for a while, he didn’t answer her calls.

  “One night, she came over with a duffle bag, and she looked like she had been crying. She caught your father with another woman. His other girlfriend. She didn’t speak of him again after that. Not until just before you were born.”

  Charlotte felt a pang in her gut. Her father was just a piece of scum who knocked her mother up. She lowered her head, still listening to her dad speak.

  “Anyways. As Nikki’s pregnancy progressed, things didn’t seem normal. I don’t remember how long it took, but it took a toll on her. Physically, mentally. She always seemed very drained, and the pregnancy progressed much faster than what would be considered normal. By six months, the doctor told her she was already at full term, and they were telling her she needed to decide on a labor plan. You didn’t give her a chance to decide, though.

  “It was the last week of October, and she hardly left her bed. Your grandparents called her out of school with the flu that week, and that’s what it seemed like. She was sweating, hardly slept, and her whole attitude had changed. It seemed like she was possessed. Everyone was worried about her, about you.

  “Your grandparents called the local priest to come in to check on you. The priest gave his blessings and said to keep watch over her, keep her comfortable. By Halloween, things seemed to calm down enough for Nikki to sleep at least. Early the next morning, some strange things started happening. Like a presence hung over the house, and it was a dark one. The midwife was frightened, almost too frightened to continue, but she did.

  “Labor was difficult for your mother, but it was quick. She hardly had the energy to do it. There was a lot of blood, and I remember the faint smell of rotten eggs when you finally arrived around three am. Her body gave out, and she bled out. The doctor couldn’t arrive in time.

  “After they cleaned you up and I held you
for the first time, I couldn’t believe all this dark energy surrounded your birth, but when I saw your eyes, I knew you were his. You have his eyes. I kept you, though, and I named you Charlotte like your mother had planned. After Nikki’s funeral, I took you away from Hollow’s Creek like she wanted, and your grandparents left the house. They didn’t even consider putting it up for sale after what happened.

  “Your uncle and I ceased contact for several years afterward. Nikki’s death led him down a path I couldn’t follow because you were my child. He took up studying the occult and vowed to kill any demon he crossed paths with. Including your father.”

  “Are you saying my uncle would kill me, too?”

  “No, Charlotte, I won’t let that happen, and you should know this!”

  Charlotte leaned back against the couch, trying to wrap her mind around her dad’s story. She couldn’t believe the story surrounding her birth. It all sounded surreal to her and even a little made up. Her dad must have just had too much to drink, but she wondered who in their right mind would make up such a ridiculous story. Plus, it explained little of what she found surrounding the supernatural activity revolving around Hollow’s Creek.