Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  She reached for him and guided him inside her, letting out a sob of pain and pleasure.

  "I love you," he whispered.

  ****

  "We have to leave this place," Faustine told Elda and his gaunt face frightened her.

  Elda looked at Helena who slept peacefully, the strong medicine stealing her away from even her nightmares.

  "How can we?" she asked, helplessly.

  "We'll call to Sorciére. It has only been twenty-two days. The doorway can be opened for thirty days after All-Hallows. They will do it for us."

  Elda nodded, but looked again, fearfully, at Helena. The doorway took a great deal of strength to pass through and witches could be lost in the space between. Helena could die.

  "I will carry her through myself," Faustine said.

  ****

  Abby lay in bed, frozen as she'd done in childhood when some unknown terror pulled her from sleep and left her paralyzed, straining to hear the tiniest sound which might betray some evil lurking close by. She wrapped her arms across her chest so tightly that she could barely breathe and then Sebastian moved next to her. The fingers of his right hand fluttered against her thigh as he shifted in sleep and she nearly screamed at the sensation. The black writhing monster whose eyes had locked onto hers for only a moment rose up in her mind and then faded away.

  As her eyes adjusted to the room and her mind remembered the man that she loved lay beside her, the beating of her heart slowed and cooled. Watching the gentle rise and fall of his naked chest soothed her.

  Somewhere far away a bird cried out, but otherwise the night lay silent. The room felt thick and hot and she struggled from beneath the heavy feather comforter and sat on the edge of the bed, her feet dangling above the wooden floor. A fire still glowed in the stone fireplace, mostly dying embers and, for a brief hysterical moment, she wanted to douse it in water and suffocate the heat pouring forth. Instead, she stumbled into her tennis shoes and, wearing only Sebastian's Hawaiian shirt, crept out of the cabin and stood on the porch. The cool night stole away the last of her sleepy confusion and chilled her instantly.

  Overhead the black sky held the tiny pinpricks of a billion stars, but she could barely see them. The stars always seemed to slip further and further into the cosmos as summer gave way to fall and then to winter. Her breath blew a white halo and she took huge gulps of air, but could not seem to satisfy her body's longing for a deeper, fuller breath. She pressed her hands against the porch rail and stared hard into the night, trying with all her power to grasp that Sebastian had not died. He did not rot somewhere in an unmarked grave, ravaged by their shared enemy. Still, she could not shake the terrifying gloom that held her captive in its dark palm. It was if an enormous evil had taken hold of their lives and set into motion events that she could not hope to stop.

  She left the porch and walked into the woods, shivering, but needing the cold to soothe her achy body and clear her tired mind. She thought of Oliver and hoped desperately that he lay safe in his bed at Ula having prepared the coven for what surely lay ahead. He would be so happy that Sebastian lived, but would he also be tormented? Abby knew that Oliver's feelings for her moved beyond friendship and she too had felt the stirrings of such things, but none of that seemed real in comparison to her Sebastian.

  "I vow to protect him," she said to the silent night. "I will never lose him again."

  Through the skeletal trees, she could see the luminescent moon. She jumped onto a low tree branch and crawled all the way to the top, nesting in the crook of a large branch. The bark scraped her bare legs, but she leaned her head against the tree and let her mind wander.

  A thousand questions plagued her. Where had he been since All Hallow's Eve? Had the Vepars held him captive and he somehow escaped? Were they, at that very moment, hunting them both? She decided that she would wake him as soon as she returned and they would talk about everything.

  When his scream pierced the otherwise quiet night, she nearly fell from the tree. Instead, without a thought, she swung down three branches and then dropped straight to the earth twenty feet below. She landed and ran.

  The door to the cabin hung from its hinges. She raced through the doorway, not caring about the danger within. The comforter lay on the floor and the sheets were smeared with mud and several dots of blood.

  "Sebastian!" She screamed his name and tore the room apart, but he was gone. She ran back onto the porch and, like before, the monster fell from the sky. It dove at her and reached with taloned claws as if might grab her and carry her away, but she fell back and its claws caught her stomach, ripping through her shirt and into her flesh.

  She grabbed for anything and her hand found a ceramic pelican that decorated the front porch. She brought the pelican onto the creature's head. Blood splattered across her face, but the thing swooped away and soared into the night sky.

  Abby did not wait. She ran for the forest.

  ****

  The mirror, still concealed behind the heavy velvet draperies, glinted as if cleaned that very day. Its surface swooned in the firelight and Elda kissed Helena gently on the forehead as Faustine cradled her in his arms. He took a deep a breath and fell through the surface of the glass.

  Elda pulled a stool in front of the fire and sat, gazing steadily into the lapping flames and praying for their safe passage. Max stood at the window, watching and waiting.

  When Faustine returned, he brought three additional witches from Sorciére with him. They stumbled into the room, all disoriented from the gateway, and alert for danger.

  Elda knew the three witches, though none of them well. She had not known if Faustine would be successful in bringing help. Though the family of witches knew no boundaries, covens rarely involved themselves deeply in the affairs of others. The fates aligned each witches' life accordingly. To muddle in the life of another might change that witch's destiny.

  "Elda." The oldest witch, Galla, crossed the room and clasped Elda's hands tightly in her own. "Our Indra has disappeared as well."

  "Indra?" Elda spoke her name and then remembered the volatile Sorciére witch who'd grown so close to Dafne. "They are together then?" Elda wondered aloud.

  "There was a human witness. Isabelle," the Sorciére witch Thomas interrupted. "She said that Dafne and Indra were at her home. They left in search of the human called Sebastian. The last this Isabelle saw them, they were walking into a café and a tall very pale man with dark eyes seemed to be following them in."

  Elda frowned.

  "Not Tobias? How could he follow them to France? How could they not sense him?"

  "And why on earth were they looking for Sebastian?" Faustine asked. "Without telling us first?" But Faustine's questions were rhetorical. Elda knew that Faustine did not want to reveal their knowledge of Dafne's deception.

  "We must go to the place that Faustine lost Oliver," Galla said. "Though I fear that our fate may already be sealed."

  "There are many fates," Faustine replied, unwilling to accept powerlessness.

  "Did you know that Indra was hiding something?" Elda asked her.

  Galla keenly sensed falseness in witches, but she shook her head no.

  "We thought it was All Hallow's, and Indra is always so distant we barely gave it a thought. My first sense happened when Sebastian disappeared. I saw him for a moment very clearly in her mind and then felt her cover the thought. I brushed it off..."

  "We all did," the third witch, Demetrius, added. He wore his customary tweed blazer and brown slacks. He clearly had not intended for the day's venture. "It's very clever of them, I think, to put on this craftiness during All Hallow's."

  "Treachery is what it is," Thomas snapped, his face growing red.

  Galla put her hand on his arm.

  "I ignored it in Dafne," Faustine said, bowing his head slightly. "I still cannot condemn her, not without knowing..."

  "What is there to know?" Thomas retorted. "Can there ever be a story good enough? A reason valid enough to lie and deceive her
own coven? To break the most sacred bond of trust?"

  Elda knew that Faustine felt as passionately as Thomas did, but she also knew that he loved Dafne. The bonds that held the coven together were not merely an issue of trust, but mutual love and respect. Faustine never turned against his own, never.

  "I think we must move from this place," Galla said. "I feel what came in here, the darkness is still heavy on this castle. And your spells have fallen short. They are not protecting us."

  "Should we try to strengthen them?" Elda asked. "Might we create a secure space again?"

  Galla looked at Elda with sympathy.

  "Dafne compromised your coven, dear, she broke the spells down first. We cannot override something that began from within..."

  Elda nodded, trying to hide the hurt from the prying thoughts of the witches around her. She knew they felt it though.

  ****

  Abby stopped at the water's edge. The moon reflected a pale halo in the dark blue surface. She knew that the creature stalked her and would soon come into the lake opening and see her there, vulnerable and nearing death. The warmth in her hand spread out away from her torn stomach and each breath grew harder to take in. She could feel the softness of her insides spilling against her shirt which terrified her, but each time her mind tried to grab hold of the image of organs falling from her ripped body, she chased them away and focused instead on her breath.

  Remembering a spell from the Astral Coven's Book of Shadows, she started to whisper the incantation as she recalled it. Knowing that her words were imperfect, but the power of the water would help her, she dropped to her knees in the wet sand. Gradually, the few clouds in the sky began to shift, guided by a soft, cold breeze. Abby felt the sting of air against her hot skin. Slowly the lake grew dark and the moon was all but hidden behind the accumulating clouds of gray. She then shifted her focus to the waters itself, envisioning the hardening of the surface. Her strength had begun to abandon her so that the singular focus Elda had been so insistent she find in previous lessons, kept getting lost in the feverish dreams of a slipping mind. She crawled closer to the water until it lapped her knees and shins. Only then did she start to see it wobble and take form. It was barely solid when she began to crawl across it. The surface dipped and undulated beneath her as she squirmed. Slowly she found the center of the lake and collapsed upon it. She lay very still because, in the woods behind her, she heard the winged monster crashing through branches knowing that it had mortally wounded her and did not need to conceal itself.

  The water held her and she cloaked herself the way that Oliver had taught her. She imagined that she became the water. Every piece of her body took on the misty blue that surrounded her.

  It searched for hours, flying back and forth overhead, swooping close to the water and in and out of the forest. It had begun to make garbled cries that sometimes sounded like a whimpering dog and other times more human. All the while, she felt the blood leaking out of her body and dissipating into the water around her. She thought that she might die at any moment, and thought worse that Sebastian might already have died and, in the stark night, relived his death again and cried soundlessly for the unfairness of the world. After a while, she wished for death, but it did not come and nor could she sleep because if she broke her concentration, the water would become liquid and she had no strength to swim. Eventually the creature went away and, unable to turn over, she pulled herself to the shore using her elbows and scooting her feet. She did not make it, but lost consciousness and the water swallowed her whole.

  Chapter 31

  "How many are missing?" Galla asked.

  "Four. Abby left first. Dafne disappeared two days ago. At first we didn't even realize she'd gone as she often avoids breakfast and has been keeping to herself lately. At dinner, her absence was noticed and, when we went in search of her, one of the row boats was missing as were some of her things. Oliver left to find Abby more than a week ago, but came back today when he dreamed of Lydie. Lydie was taken this morning when Helena was attacked."

  Galla looked grim.

  Outside a raven soared through the early morning sky. Elda looked around the library at the towering shelves and the thick oriental rugs and wondered why everything around her felt so old and near to death.

  She felt Galla's inquisitive eyes and she let her mind fall open, for an instant, to the secret dread that lived inside her. Galla gave her a small nod of understanding and then returned to Thomas who had begun to rattle off a plan of action.

  Galla interrupted him. "Before we leave, gather an item from each of the four. It should be something very personal otherwise I will be unable to get a read."

  "I will go to Lydie and Oliver's rooms," Faustine said. "You can secure items for Abby and Dafne."

  "And Sebastian," Galla added. "I want to try to understand what happened to him..."

  "Of course." Elda and Faustine left the three witches in the library.

  ****

  They traveled by boat to the small coastal city where Ula housed their cars and other affects. At the warehouse they chose two separate vehicles. Elda also went quickly to the upper level and saw Dafne's secured trunks lying open with items strewn about the floor. She snatched up a small copper ring and dropped it in her pocket.

  Galla was an air element and wanted a peak or a cliff to catch the mid-day breeze. They parked the two cars at the base of a rocky outcrop and the six of them climbed to the top. They sat together in a circle, their jackets whipping roughly back and forth. Elda's long hair splayed out behind her and she closed her eyes against the chill, inviting the sweet freedom that called to her.

  Galla took Lydie's tattered baby blanket in her hands. The yellow fabric had faded and worn bald in spots. Elda could still see the ghostly images of once bright orange and purple ducks, now mostly edges of feet and beaks. She leaned her head on Faustine's shoulder and remembered how good it felt to be comforted by someone that she loved.

  Galla closed her eyes. Her hands clutched the blanket and her mouth turned down, but she made no sounds at all. When she finally opened her eyes, they looked troubled.

  "Tormented child," she said. "Images of a sand dune, an old dilapidated house, her house as a child maybe, a strange tree, a willow, but bright red in color, a dark soul there with your witch Dafne, talk of a curse. Who took Lydie? A Vepar, yes and no, a mutant, human in it and an animal..."

  They all listened closely. Galla did not receive a story when she read the energy of another being, but instead bits of images, words and feelings, which together they would attempt to make sense of.

  "Lydie's childhood home, I'd imagine. It was near the base of a sand dune in the woods. It is quite fallen now and she hasn't been there since she was very young," Faustine said.

  "I'm sure she has gone recently," Galla replied, staring at the blanket. "But maybe not in her body. In her astral body, I think. Yes, I'm sure."

  "She can't travel in her astral body," Elda told them, but knew in that moment that she was wrong.

  "She can and she hid it from you. I feel the cloak of secrecy now," Galla continued.

  "A red willow? Are you sure?" Faustine asked, concerned.

  Galla nodded.

  "The Lourdes of Warning," Elda completed his thought.

  "Why would she astral travel there? And how?" Max asked, clearly upset. As Lydie's teacher, he felt responsible for the young witch.

  "Called, I would imagine," Thomas replied. "The astral body is easily guided, especially when something is amiss. I have been called to strange places in my astral journeys. Places filled with purpose if I could only see them correctly."

  "Why didn't she tell us?" Max looked toward the ground as if an answer might be found there.

  "You said the person that took Lydie was part human or animal? What does that mean?" Faustine asked Galla, shifting the discussion.

  Galla stared at the distant clouds. They moved quickly across the light sky.

  "I didn't see it, I felt it and it
felt...different. Not like a Vepar..." She held her hands up in frustration. "I don't know."

  "Go on." Faustine handed her a soft leather bracelet of Oliver's. Helena had made it for him not long after he arrived at Ula.

  Galla took it and closed her eyes. Her features softened and she did not drift for long.

  "Oliver has been with Abby on some kind of search." She smiled. "I think that he loves Abby. They seemed to be discovering something big, perhaps. Yes, there are other witches, young ones like themselves. I feel him going down into the earth, but then all is lost for me."

  She shook the images away and held her hand out for the next item. She rarely got more than a fleeting idea of what went on in the individual's life over the previous days or possibly weeks if she could make a really strong connection. The wind did not seem to be boosting her power a great deal.

  "It's Abby's hair," Elda said handing her a small satchel with an inch of Abby's hair tied with a purple string. "Helena cut a piece for the ritual in the Circle, but it never came to pass."

  None of the other witches spoke, but Elda suspected that they disapproved of a witch living in the coven who had not spoken the vows.

  Galla took the hair from the satchel and the color drained from her face. She swayed from side to side. A tear fell from her tightly-closed eyes and, when she returned to her body, she looked dazed.

  "Abby is near death." Galla started to fall to the side and Thomas steadied her. She pulled heavily on his arm and stood. "Something attacked her in the night, she and Sebastian both. He lives! I can find her."

  Before they could protest or ask for more, she began to fumble her way down the rocks, leaning heavily on Thomas as if the visions had depleted her.