Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  "You have news for us?" Vesta asked evenly.

  "Oh, yes," the Lourdes purred, resting her elbows on the table and clasping her slender fingers before her. She cocked her head to the side and placed her small, slightly pointed chin on her knuckles. "I had hoped Tobias would come..."

  Vesta sucked in a breath, but plastered a hateful smile on her face.

  "Tobias has more important things to do..." Vesta's words seemed to have no impact on the Lourdes, who continued to watch Vesta merrily.

  "I don't doubt that he's busy elsewhere," she whispered, tracing a finger along her red lips. When she pulled her hand away, a single line of blood remained on her fingertip. Blood that Vesta doubted was her own. "In fact, if my powers are not mistaken, he has no idea that you are here at all."

  Vesta glowered at her, but did not confirm.

  "Get on with it," Vesta told her angrily, no longer able to hide her contempt.

  "If you insist." The Lourdes stood from her chair, her long angular body poking through the flimsy dress.

  Tony grunted his approval, but did not speak.

  "I was visited today by a young witch," the Lourdes spoke very slowly, watching Vesta's face carefully. "She was looking for her family. She believed that you had taken them..."

  Vesta's face remained impassive, but her right eyelid twitched, her thoughts blank and guarded.

  "And she believed this because she had something in her possession. A very special..."

  "What?" Vesta's annoyance clouded her features, and the Lourdes flicked a blackened tongue over her lips.

  "A relic."

  Both the Vepars reacted instantly. Vesta moaned as if she'd been socked in the stomach. Tony gasped and then hooted noisily, apparently happy at this bit of information.

  "A relic from your last kill, I believe."

  "Yes," Tony whispered, rubbing his big meaty hands together. "This is your end, little girl."

  Vesta turned on him, baring her pointed teeth, her features twisted, a scared animal ready to fight. He only smiled, and she faltered, her face returning to its previous form.

  "Where is she?" Vesta turned back to the Lourdes.

  "Well, that all depends..." the Lourdes trailed off, leering at Vesta's distress.

  * * * *

  In the shack, Abby collapsed onto her hands and knees, and the lighter skidded several feet away.

  "I knew she was bad, I knew it," Abby whispered aloud, the panic in her voice scaring her more.

  The Lourdes had contacted Vesta, and now they would come for her. Vesta was mad about the relic, mad because she could be watched now, watched without her knowing.

  She rose shakily to her feet and looked around the dingy shack. There were no weapons, no phones to call for help.

  Why hadn't she tried to learn more? Why hadn't she practiced her powers?

  Devin appeared suddenly, startling her backwards toward the tiny fire that crackled behind her. The newspapers had burned and the couch arm let off billows of greenish smoke that smelled like chemical sealers, probably toxic to breathe.

  "Destroy the relic, now!" Devin shrieked, hurtling her vapory frame across the room.

  Abby stumbled further back and then stood her ground, shoving a strand of wet hair from her face.

  "You sent me to her," Abby accused, pointing a finger at Devin. "And now she's given me to them."

  Devin's eyes flashed, the effort causing everything except her eyes to disappear and then return, this time less solid than before.

  "Why did you do this?" Abby pleaded, anger giving way to desperation.

  "You must destroy it now. They will come for you..."

  "No," Abby shook her head. "No way."

  Devin lunged toward her, and Abby expected the impact as their bodies collided, but she felt only a rush of cold and then nothing. Devin was gone again.

  Rain continued to beat on the roof, and wind howled in the trees like haunted wind chimes. Abby was trapped. The shack groaned and shook with the tempest.

  Still cold, but too nervous to sit in front of the fire, she paced the room, avoiding the water cascading into the kitchen. She picked up the lighter and flicked it repeatedly, swearing and then crying when it refused to light. The Lourdes would have directed them right to her. But would they think to check the shack? Or would they continue to the map's final destination? A destination probably no more significant than a patch of weeds. She had been tricked.

  "Think, think," she murmured to herself, flexing and unflexing her fists.

  Elda had shown her some basics on manipulating water. But how could that help against two murderous Vepars? In the few conversations she'd had about them, the details were blurred. When it counted, she had nothing useful to go on. Were they stronger than her? Faster? Could they move things without touching them?

  * * * *

  Time flew and dragged in unison. Her body ached with the effort of trying to move objects about. She had succeeded in lifting the ragged couch an inch, before it dropped back to the floor, vomiting a stream of stuffing into the air. She had opened and closed the door twice, levitated a sheet of newspaper and turned a puddle of rain into ice. Each activity took mounds of mental and physical strain, all of which left Abby feeling exhausted and headachy. At least twenty minutes had passed since seeing Vesta at the Lourdes's lair, and though they had not arrived, intuition told her that they were coming. She considered leaving the shack, but feared their paths crossing in the open.

  Her body felt hot, feverish even, a result of her heavy concentrating, and she'd put the fire out long ago, fearing that the Vepars would track her by the smoke in the air.

  Bursts of uncontrollable grief plagued her, thoughts for her family, who might already be dead, for Sebastian, who she might never see again, even for Nick. His watery eyes swam before her, and she shook the thoughts away, afraid that they sucked even more of her quickly dwindling energy.

  She should not have left the castle so abruptly. If she had gone to Elda, a better plan would have been concocted. Perhaps Elda would have come with her. Instead, like a fool, she had run away, intending to fight the unknown evil on her own. Now she would probably die for it.

  Outside the rain slowed to a dull trickle. The steady stream pouring into the kitchen faded to a drip ...drip that grated on her nerves until they felt raw and exposed.

  She picked the lighter up and stood near a window staring out at the glistening forest. It would not come to life, and each frustrated flick rubbed against the tender skin of her thumb. She knew that Devin was controlling the image in the lighter. She did not know when the realization hit her, but it had. Devin was angry and intentionally preventing her from seeing Vesta's whereabouts. Her compassion for Devin had all but died, and just as she prepared to fling the lighter across the room, a voice drifted through the open window.

  "You see, Vesta, she was telling the truth, there is the shack," Tony's booming voice rang in Abby's ears, and she clenched her eyes shut in a spasm of fear. They were close, very close.

  "Just because the markers are true does not mean we will find the witch. The Lourdes likes to play her games, I'll believe it when I see it," Vesta's voice was strained, and Abby knew that she was afraid. Not afraid of Abby, but afraid of the repercussions awaiting her.

  "Oh, we'll find her all right. I'd bet your life on it." Tony's laughter rang out at his own joke, but Vesta did not retort.

  Abby pressed herself against the wall and moved to the glassless window nearest the voices. They were so close that she could smell them - one of them anyway. An odor coppery like blood and something more bitter, animal sweat maybe, poured into her flared nostrils. She could hear their shuffling feet, the variations in their breathing. She wondered if they could smell her as well.

  "Don't ya have your little ring, Vesta?" he taunted her. "You know they only give those tools to Vepars in whom they sense weakness?"

  "Tobias will make you pay for this disrespect," she growled.

  "Oh, no, my dainty
moth, it is you who will pay..." he trailed off, laughing under his breath.

  "Let's check that dump," Tony said, his heavy footfalls silent.

  "No, we have no time to waste on juvenile exploring," Vesta snapped, not slowing.

  "I'll catch up with you, then. Of course, alone you might not make it," he told her, mock uncertainty in his voice. "It'd be a shame to let the witch get to you before Tobias."

  Vesta did not reply, but Abby knew that she had stopped, she could hear her shallow breathing only feet away from Tony's.

  "Fine, then, I will wait, but hurry up."

  Abby's skin crawled, danger flaring in her brain like a never-ending fireworks display. She moved back from the wall, planting each foot gently, careful to avoid dried leaves or newspaper. She could hear Tony circling around the shack, searching for the door.

  "Looks to me like we got some pretty recent footprints here," he called out hungrily as he closed in.

  Chapter 29

  Reluctantly, Sebastian handed several of Claire's journals to Elda.

  "Don't worry, I will give them back," she said. "Also, I wanted to show you something in the Astral Coven's Book of Shadows."

  She flipped the book open and pointed at the line of names.

  "Blake and Daniels, both here," she said, running her fingers along the page.

  "Devin and Abby are in that book?" he asked, surprised.

  "Yes, Abby's grandmother, Arlene. Amazing, it skipped only a generation."

  "Arlene, she knew my grandmother."

  "Yes, though I do not believe that she was a witch. In fact, it's possible that Arlene was watching your family's bloodline, but she died before your sister was born."

  Sebastian looked up as the door opened, but it was only Bridget with coffee.

  "Abby's still not awake?" he asked.

  Bridget, avoiding his gaze, left the room and Elda continued to stare at the book.

  Sebastian had a strange feeling - something was off.

  "Is Oliver still doing okay?"

  "Oh, yes, he is well." Elda smiled and pointed at a page. "Here is your great grandmother Isabelle."

  Sebastian had seen the name already, Claire had shown it to him, though neither he nor Claire knew their great grandmother.

  "I think I should wake her," he said, leaving his coffee untouched.

  "No, Sebastian," Elda said suddenly as he neared the library door.

  He turned to face her, but found that he did not want to look too closely at her eyes.

  "What happened?" he asked.

  * * * *

  Abby did not wait for the door to burst open, she moved quickly and quietly into the tiny bedroom, seeking not refuge, but a means of escape. There was a small hole where a window had once been. Branches poked into the room. As the front door banged in, she leapt, using all of her strength to pummel herself out of the shack. The bushes caught her, slowing her hurling body, but the strength of her jump ripped them from the earth, leaving a few tangled around her calves and waist. She landed with a wet thud on a patch of soggy grass, adrenaline causing Vesta's scream to die out in her ears.

  Her legs instantly sprang forward, almost leaving her torso behind in the rush to flee from her chasers. She felt a hand, for only a second, clasp her shirt, but jerked away before they could take hold. The trees rushed at her like the jumping adversaries in a 3-D movie, but she dodged them easily, throwing her weight from side to side, sometimes pushing off the thick trunks to propel herself onward.

  Behind her, Vesta and Tony crashed through the forest. He snarled as he ran, plowing over the smaller trees and occasionally banging against the larger ones, removing massive hunks of bark in his wake. Vesta, much more agile, sprinted, leaping high and fast like a carnivorous deer.

  Abby wanted to jump and searched frantically ahead with her eyes for a branch, but feared their strength. What if they leapt easily onto the branch beside her? What if Tony caught her in midair and pulled her to the ground? No, she had to run and pray that she could gain some distance.

  Overhead, the rain picked up again, abandoning the gentle pitter-patter for a torrential downpour. The leaves and pine needles became dangerously slick, but Abby could feel the energy as it built inside of her. Every muscle and fiber in her body twitched excitedly, and she sensed the gap growing as the two Vepars fought to maintain her quickening pace. Blinking furiously, she watched the trees up ahead. The pines gave way to wide-berthed elms and oaks, their ripe green leaves flapping as the rain beat against them. The sound of Vesta and Tony died, leaving only the bawling rain and her pounding feet as noise.

  As she moved into the thicket of elms and oaks, she spotted a thick branch twenty yards ahead of her and at least forty feet into the air. She did not know if she could spring that high, but felt a glimmer of hope in the image of that branch. Ten feet away, she focused all of her energy into her calves and thighs, swinging hard with her arms as she jumped. The branch moved toward her swiftly, but almost five feet below it, too far to reach with her outstretched arms, her jump ran out of power. Her legs flailed wildly in the air and she fell back to the earth with a hard smack and an audible crunch as the bones in her left foot shattered. She did not know if she screamed, aware only of the awful explosion of pain that snaked through her foot and up her leg.

  Wanting to lie on the ground and howl in agony, she overcame the pain, and rolled across the forest floor into a pile of weeds that barely reached over her head. The pain slowed, but the rain beat on. Within seconds, Tony and Vesta sped by, their bodies a blur in the downpour. Abby held her breath as they passed, fearing their ability to hear her, or worse yet, sense her pain.

  * * * *

  The rain released its stronghold and returned to a monotonous drizzle that gently pelted her throbbing limbs. Within minutes of her crash-landing, her leg began to heal. The bones made a soft grinding sound like gnashing teeth, but the pain of their recovery burned with the ferocity of a California wild fire. It did not merely cling to her foot and ankle, but traveled up her thigh, into her stomach and eventually her head. Unable to watch for the Vepars through the agony, she clenched her eyes closed and focused on invisibility. She had no idea if it were even possible, but could think of no other option.

  The crash of branches and bushes deeper in the woods taunted her. Not sure if they were moving towards her or away, she waited, her face slick with rain and sweat. The muddy grass below her felt slippery and reptilian, as if thousands of tiny wet snakes writhed beneath her.

  "Abby?" The whisper slid beneath her discomfort and penetrated; it was familiar, but so faint.

  She struggled onto her elbows, her stomach still planted firmly on the ground, her legs splayed out behind her. She searched the woods, her eyes narrowing on every tree and shrub, but nothing popped out. Were they trying to trick her?

  "Abby, where are you?" the voice came again, closer now and mad.

  Through the mist to her left, Abby watched in wonder as Dafne's reedy figure emerged. Her long black hair was wet and plastered to the pink tank top that hung loosely from her bony shoulders. Her eyes were narrowed, searching, but she had not spotted Abby hidden in the weeds.

  Dafne walked closer. and Abby could see that her jeans were soaked and slowly sagging down to reveal two very pronounced hipbones.

  "I'm here," Abby croaked, poking her head above the weeds and lifting an arm to wave.

  "What happened?" Dafne demanded, moving to Abby's side and staring down at her with disapproval.

  "I-" But Abby was silenced by Tony as he barreled out of the woods and plowed into Dafne. Her body flew like a rag doll and smacked into a tall oak tree, coming to rest at its base.

  Abby felt a scream bubble inside of her, but did not release it because Tony did not seem to see her. He stood, a crooked grin on his grotesque mouth, surveying the damage that was Dafne. Dafne struggled feebly, her head like a rag doll flopped at an awkward angle.

  Vesta sprinted from the woods behind him, her long, talon-like
fingers curled as if ready to fight. She slowed as she saw Dafne crumpled on the forest floor.

  "Dafne," Vesta hissed in delight.

  "She's mine," Tony roared, pushing his ugly face close to Vesta's. She drew back and bared her teeth, but said nothing.

  "Where is the other?" she asked, as Tony circled the fallen Dafne, licking his lips as if he could already taste her.

  "Not my concern." He knelt down beside her and ripped a handful of black hair from her scalp, shoving it to his nose and breathing deeply. Dafne let out a weak squeal and attempted to fight him groggily, but her arms went limp. He lifted Dafne's thin wrist to his revolting mouth and sank his teeth into her flesh. Any movement from Dafne ceased as the venom took hold and carried her to unconsciousness.

  Abby felt tears begin to stream over her cheeks, followed by annoyance at her fragility. She stared at the two Vepars, her blood hot with shame and anger. Concentrating her rage upward, a thick, leafy tree branch above them split and fell. The branch struck Vesta in the shoulder and sent her onto her knees in the dirt, but Tony leapt out of the way. He looked around wildly, searching for the source of power that he knew was there. Abby felt his eyes rove over her, once, twice, but no dawning appeared. He could not see her, almost as if her prayer for invisibility had worked, but Dafne had seen her.

  Before she could give it further thought, Tony buried his hand in Dafne's hair and started away, dragging her limp body through the forest. He looked like a Neanderthal, lugging his club through the dirt behind him. Vesta struggled to her feet, shook her head once and followed.

  * * * *

  For several excruciatingly long minutes, Abby waited for her foot to heal completely. Finally, only a dull tingling remained where shattered bones had been. She stood, placed weight on it gingerly, then more, when no pain alighted. Ahead of her, she could hear Vesta and Tony and, more importantly, Dafne - the wet crunching of her body dragged across the forest floor.