by Sarra Cannon
I shook my head and took two steps back, a tear falling down my cheek at the sight of her.
“Mom?”
Episode 6: The Doorway
Misunderstood
“Mom?”
My mother stood at the entrance to the crow village, her eyes bulging. Her entire body shook with fear.
“Franki, thank God you're here,” she said. Her voice sounded foreign. Almost child-like in her terror. She ran toward me and grabbed my arm. “You're in serious danger. We have to get out of here. He's on his way.”
“Who?” I asked. My breath came in short bursts. “The Devil?”
Mom looked behind her at the entrance to the village. Her head twitched. “Yes. He's been holding me prisoner for a very long time. I finally managed to escape, but we don't have much time.”
“How did you know where to find us?” Rend asked.
She looked at him as if realizing, for the first time, that he was here. “Rend. Thank goodness you're here with my little bird,” she said. “I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been able to keep her safe.”
“Answer my question,” he said.
She blinked several times, tears filling her eyes. “The Devil knows you're here. I heard him talking about it to one of his servants. He can't be far behind me.”
“It's okay, Mom. We're safe here. He can't get in. This village is enchanted, remember? You have to know that.”
She shook her head violently and pulled hard on my arm. “You don't understand.” She pushed her hair back from her neck to reveal two swollen puncture wounds. “He's been drinking from me for months, taking me down to almost death before letting go. He let me heal and then he drained me again. Over and over.”
I gasped and reached up toward the wounds, pulling back before touching them. Her neck looked infected. What horror had she been through? My stomach turned at the thought of her as his prisoner all this time.
“That means he can get inside the village,” Rend said. “When was the last time he drank from you?”
“Hours ago,” she said. “He'll still have some of my power inside him. The spell won't keep him out as long as he has some of my blood running through him.”
“Shit,” Rend said. He grabbed my hand. “We'll go to my house. Or to Venom.”
“No,” my mother said. Her hand was cold and clammy against my arm. “There's another way, but we have to go now. We can't risk him finding us here.”
I looked at Rend and could tell he wasn't happy about being told no. The line of his jaw was straight and tense, and his eyes flashed with veins of silver in the blackness.
“What other way?”
“There's a doorway here inside the village,” she said. “The Devil doesn't know about it. No one outside of the crow witches even knows it exists.”
“Where does it lead?” I asked. She was digging into my arm so hard, I was afraid she was going to draw blood. I had to wrench my arm from her grasp. Rend was already tense enough. I didn't want to aggravate him.
“To a secret network of doors belonging only to the crows,” she said.
“Like the hall of doorways at Venom?” I asked. I wasn't sure she knew about the hall there, but apparently hallways like that existed all over the world and most witches and demons knew they existed.
“Similar,” she said. “But these doors only lead to secret hiding places of the crows. It's the Mother Crow's personal hallway. If we can get inside before he arrives, he'll never know what happened to you.”
“Franki, I don't know about this,” Rend said, turning me toward him. “I don't know that turning to the other crows at a time like this is the best plan. The Mother Crow may be just as dangerous as the Devil right now.”
“I won't take her to the Mother Crow,” Mom said. “I swear it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn't think straight. Rend and I had just gotten here. We hadn't even had a chance to talk about what had happened between us, much less what we were going to do about the Devil. This was all moving way too fast. I didn't know who to trust or what to do. One wrong move could mean all our lives.
“I have to get dressed,” I said. “I need a minute to wrap my head around this and figure out what we should do.”
My mother stepped back and studied me, her eyes traveling from my face all the way down to my toes. Her gaze snapped toward Rend. “You were supposed to be protecting her, not taking advantage of her.”
She lashed out at him, but Rend stepped back. I moved between them and held up a hand. “Stop,” I said. “I've been taking care of myself for the past three years. I'm not a child anymore. I know you're scared and you're trying to help, but I'm not going to let you just barrel back into my life and start criticizing my choices.”
Tears fell from my mother's eyes and she swiped at them. “You're right. I'm sorry, but you have to understand how this looks to me,” she said. “I didn't want to leave you, Franki, but at the time, I thought it was for the best. You have no idea all the things I've sacrificed to keep you safe.”
My heart tightened in my chest. Was that the truth? Had I completely misunderstood her all this time?
“Let me get dressed,” I said. “I'll be right back.”
Mom nodded, but jerked her head back toward the entrance. “Hurry, please,” she said. “I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you.”
I studied her face for a long beat. She seemed to be genuinely worried about me. I had never seen her act this way my entire life. Had I been wrong about everything?
I squeezed her hand once and hurried toward the small rust-colored house Rend and I had claimed as our own.
The Last Kiss
Rend followed me into the room. I searched for my clothes on the floor and began dressing as fast as I could.
“Franki, something doesn't feel right about this,” he said.
I shook my head. “Nothing has felt right for the past week or two,” I said. “My entire life has been completely turned upside down.”
“No, I mean your mother showing up here like this,” he said. He sat down next to me on the bed as I pulled the tank top over my head. “If the Devil had her prisoner for the past several months, how did she suddenly get free on her own? He wouldn't have just let her go. Not after what she'd heard.”
“I don't know,” I said. I pulled my pants up and started searching for my shoes under the bed. “She's obviously terrified. You saw the marks on her neck. I think she's telling the truth.”
“I'm not saying she's lying to you,” he said. “I just think we need to be careful.”
I stretched to reach one of the shoes that had somehow gotten pushed way under the bed. My hands were shaking. “What do you think we should do, then? Where can we possibly go that is going to be safe from him?” I asked. I finally grabbed the edge of the shoe and dragged it out. “How did he even figure out that we were here in the first place? It's like he has eyes everywhere. I don't even know where to begin to fight back against that.”
“I don't know,” he said. He stood and punched a fist against the wall. “I hate this. I want to keep you safe, but I feel powerless. If we can get you to Venom, we can regroup there. I can call in any favors and friends who might be willing to stand and fight.”
I finished dressing and stood. My head throbbed with a sudden headache. “If we can even get there at all,” I said. “The Chicago entrance is ruined. He's already got eyes on Paris. Probably all the others, too. What about the entrance from your house? Could we go through the hall in Harper's house to get there?”
He shook his head. “It's not that easy,” he said. “The only entrance to Venom from my house is through a specific hallway outside of Venom. It's a trick I put in place with my own magic. If we go through the hallway in Harper's house, we can get to my house, but not back to Venom. Not directly, anyway. It's complicated.”
I ran a hand through my knotted hair, still tousled from sleeping. I glanced over at the bed. I would have given anything for just one
more peaceful night here alone with Rend. I wanted nothing more than to be lost in his arms again.
“We have no choice,” I said. “Anything else is too risky. If we leave the safety of this village, we're vulnerable until we can get back to Venom. For all we know, the Devil is already out there waiting for us to leave.”
Rend turned to me, his chest rising with each labored breath. “Okay. We'll follow her through this secret doorway of the crows, but at the first sign of trouble, we bail,” he said. He moved toward me and put a hand on my cheek. “I won't let anything happen to you, Franki.”
I wasn't sure it was entirely up to him, but I wanted to believe he could keep me safe. I wanted to believe there was a future for us, outside of this constant danger.
“I won't let anything happen to you either,” I said with a smile.
Rend smiled and lowered his lips to mine. I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my body tightly against his. Our kiss deepened as we opened to each other. I dug my fingers into his back, wanting him closer.
His hand slipped behind my head, tangling in my hair. His other hand gripped my shirt into a fist, desire overcoming us as our bodies went up in flames. Now that I'd had a taste of what it was like to be with him, I wanted more.
But there was no time.
I groaned and pulled away, pressing my forehead against his as we both panted and caught our breath.
“We have to go,” I said.
“I know,” he said. He pulled back and locked his eyes on mine. “When all this is over, we're going to finish this. I'll figure out a way for us to be together, Franki.”
I blushed. “We were pretty together last night,” I reminded him.
He bit his lower lip and his eyes sparkled. “Yeah, but I was holding back,” he said.
His words made my stomach flip in a rush of desire and anticipation. If that had been him holding back, dear God I wanted to know what it felt like when he gave all of himself.
Someone began knocking furiously on the door of the house and Rend groaned.
“Franki, we have to hurry,” Mom said. “I think I saw movement outside.”
“I'll be right out,” I called.
I lifted onto my tiptoes and kissed Rend one more time. As our lips met, I sent up a silent prayer that this would not be the last kiss.
The Door
Mom sat on the top step of the porch, waiting. She stood as we came out, her eyes full of fear.
“I think he's close,” she said. “We need to get to that door as soon as we can.”
She took my hand and pulled me down the stairs. Rend followed closely behind.
“Where is this door?” he asked.
“It's below the stone altar in the center of the village,” she said. “The Mother Crow created it decades ago. None of us were ever allowed inside without permission, but I've been through the doorway once before, when I was younger.”
“Where will we go once we get inside?” I held tightly to her hand, trying to remember the last time I had actually held my mother's hand.
“There's another village similar to this one that was set up about thirty years ago,” she said. “Some of the other crows lived there for a while, but it's been abandoned for the past ten years or so.”
“Wait,” I said, slowing. “How do you know the rest of the crows aren't all living there now? Mary Anne said they all disappeared after the Mother Crow's fight against Harper here in Peachville.”
She shook her head and yanked on my arm, putting all of her weight into it. “I just know,” she said. “The Mother Crow wouldn't have gone anywhere Mary Anne and her friends could go after her. She would have hidden somewhere new. I imagine she's set up a new village somewhere, by now.”
My stomach knotted. Were we doing the right thing trusting my mom?
I wasn't sure, but we couldn't stay here. Rend was right, though, something didn't feel right about all of this. I needed to know she could be trusted. I needed to know that, after all this time, she was willing to tell me the truth.
I paused when we reached the stone altar. I took my hand from hers and watched as she lifted the stone, revealing a staircase that led down into the darkness.
“Come on,” she said, motioning for me to follow her.
“Hold on.” My heart raced.
She had already started down the stairs, but she stopped to look up at me. “Franki, there's no time for this.”
“There's something I need to know before I can follow you down there,” I said. I crossed my arms over my chest, holding myself tightly, afraid even to ask for the truth after all this time. I wasn't sure I was prepared to hear the answer. “I need to know why the Devil is after me specifically,” I said. “Out of all the witches in the world, why me?”
She shook her head and her eyes searched my face. “We can discuss this later,” she said.
“No. We need to talk about it now,” I said. I remembered my conversation with Mordecai on the ride down to Peachville. He had said the secret to my unusual strength was not my crow heritage. It was my father's. “I need to know who my father is.”
Mom narrowed her eyes at me, her entire forehead wrinkling. She leaned against the edge of the stone stairway. “I don't understand—”
“My whole life you kept my powers a secret,” I said. “You made me feel ashamed of myself for having these abilities, always warning me not to use my power or to let anyone know what I was capable of. Why? It was because of him, wasn't it? Because of his darkness?”
She lifted a hand to her mouth and sat down on the steps. “Franki, I just need you to come with me now,” she said softly, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“You have to see this from my point of view,” I said. “You abandon me without a word three years ago and now you show up out of nowhere, asking me to trust you. If you really want me to trust you, you have to give me this one thing. This one truth.”
She shook her head and avoided my eyes. Her shoulders shook with sobs. “Okay,” she said. When she looked up, it was Rend's eyes she met, not mine. “You have to understand that I didn't know who he was when I met him. You have to know that I had no idea the things he was capable of.”
Rend's eyes darkened. “Who?”
She turned to me. “Your father was a vampire,” she said. “A very powerful one by the name of Solomon.”
Rend gasped and backed away from the altar. “Solomon is Franki's father?”
My eyes widened. The name meant nothing to me, but Rend's face said it all. He actually looked frightened.
“Who is Solomon?” I asked.
“One of the original founders of the Brotherhood of Darkness,” Rend said. He met my eyes and I could see the disbelief inside. “Solomon is the Devil's brother, Franki.”
My mouth fell open and I brought a hand to my heart. “What? You're telling me I'm related to the Devil?”
“Technically, he's your uncle,” Mom said. “You have to see why I could never tell you about him. You would have wanted to know more. You would have wanted to meet him or find him, and I couldn't explain to you what had happened to him or why you could never know him.”
“What happened to him?”
“Franki, I know you want answers, but if the Devil comes through that door, none of us will leave here alive,” she said. “I can explain everything to you once we get inside.”
I nodded, my hands numb from holding them in such tight fists against my ribcage. My father was a demon. A vampire. The darkness I had struggled with my entire life was his darkness.
Mom stood and reached for my hand.
I stared at it a moment, feeling that I finally understood why she had kept all this from me. Maybe it was true that I had been too hard on her. Maybe I had been seeing her from the wrong eyes all this time.
I put my hand in hers and followed her down the stairs, trusting her for the first time since I was a child.
The room beneath the altar was so dark I couldn't see anything more than the outline of what
looked to be furniture arranged in rows.
Mom released my hand. “Wait here a second,” she said. She descended the final steps and a few seconds later, lit a match that sparked red in the darkness. She used the match to light a small candle at the base of the stairs that illuminated the entire room with a deep red glow.
“The Mother Crow put a series of traps in place down here,” she said. “The candle disables them, so it's safe to come down now.”
I looked around, seeing now that the furniture was actually rows and rows of bookcases. “What is this place? A library?”
“All the spells and history of the crows,” she said. She moved toward the corner under the stairs. “The door is this way.”
I glanced back at Rend and he nodded, but looked worried. We were putting our lives in her hands, not even knowing where we might end up next.
She led us to a wall that looked like solid stone. No doorway in sight.
Silently, she placed both her palms on the smooth stone, her eyes closed. In an instant, the outline of a door appeared, the wing of a crow carved into its center.
I gasped, reaching forward to run my fingers along the wing. It looked nearly identical to the one carved on the doorway in the hall at Venom. The door there had been made of wood, but the symbol was the same. I wondered if they led to the same place, but before I could ask, Mom pushed on the stone and it gave way, revealing a small dark hallway.
She took my hand and pulled me through.
I stepped around her and peered into the darkness. Rather than a long hall of nearly endless doorways, there was only a handful here, just as she had said.
I turned back just as Rend approached the doorway. He stepped forward, but slammed against an invisible barrier. His forehead wrinkled and he pushed his hands against the spot where the door had been. Again, they hit a barrier like glass, completely see-through, but very real.
Horror flashed in his eyes and he reared back, ramming the barrier with all his might. He shifted to smoke and tried again, but the door would not let him through.
