Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels)

by Alex Apostol

  He was rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. I knew whatever he meant, it had to be serious. That was the same look my dad had when I’d told him I was pregnant.

  “I checked in late and I couldn’t really explain why when you weren’t even hunting at that moment.”

  He looked at me briefly and then back down into his lap. I still wasn’t grasping why this was such a big deal.

  “I don’t get it. Everyone’s late sometimes. Why were you late anyway?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

  “I was late because we were lying down, talking,” he admitted in a low voice.

  I couldn’t help but giggle under my breath at the innocence of his response.

  “That’s it? I wouldn’t have gotten upset with you if you had just told me you had to go. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  He ran his hands through his thick brown hair just to have it fall back down into his eyes again. His face was tense and his forehead was wrinkled in thought. It was the face I usually made when I was debating whether I should lie or not.

  “I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay in bed…with you.”

  I understood exactly what he meant. If I had needed to be somewhere while his warm arms were around me, I wouldn’t have even attempted to go. We both knew we weren’t allowed to feel these things for each other without there being serious consequences, so what was the point? Before I formulated a response, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

  “I think I’m going to take a quick nap now. I didn’t get any sleep last night,” he said as he relaxed his body against the seat.

  I knew that was just an excuse so he wouldn’t have to address the situation and I didn’t blame him. I had no idea what I would say to him once he awoke from his nap, but at least I had some time to think about it now. If I was lucky, he would pretend to nap the entire rest of the way.

  *

  It was almost midnight when we finally arrived at our destination in Massachusetts. I think in his attempt to avoid me, Sari had actually fallen asleep. His mouth was slightly open and his breath was slow and deep. I turned the truck off and sat for a moment just listening to him. He looked so peaceful and at ease when he slept.

  “Sari,” I whispered as I pushed on his thigh to wake him up. “We’re here.”

  Instead of waking up, he gave a soft groan and placed his hand on top of mine, rubbing it gently. For the first time, his touch didn’t send my heart racing or knot up my stomach. I felt reassuringly calmed and relaxed. A smile spread across my face as I stared down at our hands clasped together. Not wanting to ruin the moment, I sat silently and took it all in. Sari’s thumb ran along the back of my hand softly.

  “We’re here,” I repeated, sure that he was only half asleep at this point.

  “Hm?” he groaned without movement.

  His eyes flickered open and he sat there frozen, looking at our hands linked together before he released his grip to stretch.

  There’s the coven’s house,” I said, pointing out the driver’s side window.

  Neither of us had expected to see a place like the one we sat parked outside of then. It was a beautiful, two story white home. The front porch wrapped all the way around to the back in a quaint country way. The front yard was lush and green with vast colorful gardens all over. The property was surrounded by a perfectly painted white picket fence. Normally, this would have been common for the area, except for the fact that it was below freezing outside and all the other yards were covered with a few inches of snow.

  “Not the usual run down shack I’m used to raiding,” I commented as we stared out the window in awe.

  “Let’s take a look around, shall we?” Sari said as he opened his door, barely shutting it so he wouldn’t wake anyone in the house.

  I grabbed my flashlight from the glove compartment and shut my door quietly as well before walking up to the white gated entrance. I reached and pulled the gate towards me in one swift motion. I knew it was going to give an echoing creak and that the best thing to do was to get it over with. We stood for a moment and looked at the house in the distance. It was still dark and there was no sign of movement within. It was safe to proceed.

  “You know your powers and mine are far greater than those of any common witch. You don’t have to be so cautious,” Sari chuckled softly as he watched me creep onto the property.

  “Old habits die hard, I guess,” was the only response I could come up with. My mind was entirely focused on the task at hand.

  “These witches may use their powers for small, harmless things like gaining a great house, but I know for a fact they also hurt and kill innocent people without thinking twice about it purely for their own gain. There’s no harm in being cautious,” I justified as I crouched behind a bush.

  Sari raised his hand, signaling me to continue heading towards the house. We knelt down beside the hedges surrounding the porch while I waited for our next move to come to me. I had to come up with our plan of attack carefully.

  “What are you doing here?” a soft, small voice asked from behind us.

  Sari and I jumped up, whirling around to see who had snuck up on us. When I saw a young woman standing there with her arms full of harvested plants and herbs, the tension in my stomach released. She couldn’t have been older than nineteen and stood about the same short height as me. Her long brown hair fell to her waist except for the bangs cut straight across her forehead, resting on the lids of her eyes. Her face was glowing, naturally kissed by the sun.

  “Hi. I’m Kamlyn and this is Sari,” I said slowly, trying to think of a cover to why we were there in the middle of the night. “We are…local reporters from the paper.”

  Sari glared at me from the corner of his eyes. I knew he hadn’t been expecting me to lie to them, but for some reason I wanted to know more about this coven. There was no way I could attack such an innocent looking girl just because I had seen a vision of her in this horrible coven. What if I had been wrong or just dreaming?

  “We’ve been assigned to interview locals for the human interest section and this week the paper wants to interview you and your family,” I lied with more ease.

  I stood completely still with a fake smile plastered on my nervous face, hoping she would buy what I was saying. Who ever heard of small time reporters coming over in the middle of the night to do an interview? I was usually better at coming up with bullshit on the spot. She stared at me for a while before her face lifted into a shining smile.

  “Oh, that sounds fun!” she exclaimed, taking a step closer and readjusting the plants in her arms. “I’m Demi and my sisters are inside.”

  “I hope we’re not imposing. I know it’s really late. To be honest, we’re kind of behind on this column and took a shot in the dark that you would still be awake,” I went further into the lie.

  The trusting young girl continued to smile as if there were no way I could be making any of this up. She led us up the front porch and into the house. She showed us to the living room before leaving to tell her sisters of our arrival. The house was just as charming on the inside as it had been from the outside. The carpet was plush and light in color. I took my shoes off by the door and felt the cushion under my feet with every step I took as I walked over to the couch. The focus of the room was on an old brick fireplace that I could practically walk right into.

  “What are you doing?” Sari leaned over and whispered in panic. “We know who they are, why don’t we just get rid of them?”

  I was surprised at his readiness to off someone without knowing for sure if they were really evil or not first, especially after meeting Demi. At times he seemed more like a ruthless assassin than an angel.

  “You saw that girl, Sari. There’s no way she can be doing the bad things I saw,” I reasoned quietly, glancing around to make sure no one was listening.

  “You said so yourself, Kamlyn. This is a dangerous coven and they can’t continue to do what they’ve been doing,” he reminded me in a slightl
y mocking tone.

  “Just go with me on this, please,” I said, narrowing my eyes to make what I hoped was an intimidating face.

  Before he got the chance to agree with me like I knew he was going to, I heard someone softly clear their throat from across the room.

  “Can I help you?” the woman asked with a sense of arrogance and annoyance.

  The woman stood as far away from us as the room would allow. She was wearing a long silky black nightgown that had a slit cut drastically high up one of her thighs, showing off her perfectly smooth leg. Her fire-red hair fell just below her shoulders in tight ringlets. I felt like I was staring at a living harlequin romance novel character.

  “I’m Kamlyn Page and this is Sari…Angel…o…” I responded softly, stuttering as I tried to come up with a plausible last name on the spot. “Angelo.”

  Did Sari even have a last name? This thought had never crossed my mind, but I was curious. I shoved my wonderment aside to tackle the task in front of me.

  “We’re reporters from the local paper and…” I started as if it was perfectly rehearsed, but the woman held up her hand to cut me off.

  She walked over to where we were seated, swinging her hips while locking her eyes onto Sari’s. She sat down fluidly in an antique velvet chair, crossing her legs and sticking out her chest while she adjusted her nightgown.

  “Well I have to say, this is certainly a surprise,” she began, licking her lips a little during her pause.

  I noticed her not so subtle interest in Sari as she continued to only look at him while she spoke. It sent a fiery heat throughout my entire body. I was shocked my blood wasn’t boiling.

  “The town’s never showed any interest in us before,” she said as she stood up again and walked straight over to the loveseat we were seated on, stopping just inches in front of Sari. “My name’s Adena,” she introduced herself in a low sultry voice as she stuck her hand out to shake his.

  My eyes narrowed as I watched her bend over to Sari’s level, exposing her cleavage.

  “And I’m Kamlyn,” I said abruptly, standing up and squeezing myself in between Adena and Sari.

  “Yes, you already said that,” the temptress said, rolling her eyes before turning back around and walking over to stand next to the fireplace.

  Again she bent over, now giving us a clear view of her silken covered rear end as she repositioned some of the logs unnecessarily. I glared as Sari sat next to me and felt the anger bubble up inside when I caught him sneaking a peek at her. I swung my hand to smack him across the arm, reviving him from his trance.

  “What?” he asked as he rubbed his arm. “I was just making sure she didn’t have any trouble with the fire.”

  He looked up at me innocently and smiled. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Adena blow into the fireplace when she thought we weren’t looking. The logs burst into bright red and orange flames without the help of a match.

  “These damn fireplaces take so much effort to light, don’t they?” she chuckled as she walked over to the chair she’d been sitting in previously. “Sometimes you have to give them a good blow…”

  She smiled at Sari and gave a small wink before turning towards me. My inward stewing was about to turn to outward violence if she kept it up. I took a few small breaths to regain control over myself.

  “The fire smells great,” I commented so she wouldn’t think anything of my frustrating huffing.

  “Mhm,” she responded with little interest before turning her focus back to Sari. “So tell me, how did someone as handsome as you become a reporter in this town?”

  “Well,” I jumped in. “I started at the paper first and when Sari and I started dating a while back, I brought him in to work alongside me.”

  To make sure she understood what I was clarifying, I put my hand on Sari’s thigh and rubbed affectionately as I smiled back at Adena. Her face fell with obvious disappointment and boredom, returning to its previously irritated form.

  “Let’s get this interview over with then,” she said, standing up with less flair than she had before. “I’ll get my sisters.”

  Sari looked over at me and chuckled.

  “Shut up,” I demanded as I removed my hand from his leg.

  The other two sisters we hadn’t met were a combination of their younger innocent sister and their aggressive older sister. They walked over to us with smiles on their faces while Adena scowled in the corner next to a cowering Demi.

  “I’m Aura and I’m so freakin’ excited to do this interview with you,” exclaimed the dark haired one as she shook my hand with force. “No one in town ever wants anything to do with us.”

  The girl’s face was parted into a ridiculously wide smile. Her bright blue eyes shone as she moved down the line to shake hands with Sari as well. With the perfection of a ballerina, she twirled around, sending her long, black hair and flowing nightgown around as she made her way to the chair across from us.

  “Hi, I’m Brook,” the last sister said while shooting us a winning smile fit for a spokeswoman.

  Her face was beautifully tanned, as if she spent the majority of her time lounging on the beach despite the freezing weather outside. Her sun-bleached blonde hair fell to her waist in meticulously spiraled mermaid curls. Her pale blue eyes were complimented exactly by the almost sheer nightie she was wearing.

  Seeing all four of these women in one room was enough to make any girl feel insecure. Each one had their own special type of beauty that surpassed anything I’d ever seen. I tried my best to concentrate on questions I could ask them to back my reporter story while learning a little about them, but it was hard to focus while all four of the witches stared at me; Adena’s eyes burning a hole through me, Demi’s shyness consuming me, Aura’s extremeness overpowering me, and Brook’s bubbly personality filling me. It was a lot to take in at once.

  “Alright, first question,” Sari jumped in. “How old are each of you?”

  The women seemed surprised with the simplicity of this question and they took turns exchanging glances with each other.

  “Adena’s the oldest,” Aura couldn’t help containing herself.

  I could tell she was going to be doing most of the talking. Adena shot her a malicious glance, but it didn’t deter Aura from continuing.

  “She’s twenty-eight. Brook’s next in line, twenty-six. I’m twenty-three and Demi is the baby. She’s only nineteen.”

  “Shouldn’t one of you be writing this down,” Adena questioned, clearly implying she had no confidence in our ability to remember such simple information.

  “Oh, right…” I muttered as I felt through all of my coat pockets.

  Saving me from embarrassment and possibly being figured out, Sari handed me a pen and a notepad he seemed to have retrieved from thin air.

  “Thanks,” I smiled as I took the items from his hand. “Now, where are you from? And where have you lived besides here?”

  The four sisters looked at each other as if communicating through eye site how to answer the question.

  “All of us were born in England actually, except for Demi,” Brook said in her perfect, lucid voice. “Our mother moved us here when our father died.”

  Sari and I looked at each other in confusion.

  “If your father died, who is Demi’s father then?” I asked the obvious question.

  The sisters looked at each other and sighed, as if they had not thought us to be clever enough to piece that part together.

  “Our mother had a passionate love affair after we moved here, but the man died as well,” Aura blurted out before the sisters had a chance to discuss their response with their secret glances.

  Adena reached over to her overly excited sister and pinched her on the back of the arm. Aura whimpered for a moment before hardening her face and staring straight ahead.

  “Alright, that’s really all we can tell you tonight. It’s getting late.” Adena said coolly, already showing us to the door before we could protest.

  “Is there a t
ime we can reschedule?” I started to say, but the door was slammed in my face before I could finish the thought.

  The wind was blowing fiercely, freezing me to the bone as we stood on the front porch in the dark. Sari put his arm around my shoulder to keep me warm as we walked back to the truck. All that was left to figure out was what to do about the sisters. There was no doubt in my mind what these women were and that they needed to be stopped.

  12

  “I think I’m drowning, asphyxiated. I wanna break this spell that you’ve created…You’ll be the death of me.”

  – Muse

  “Told you we’d be back,” Sari smiled.

  Adena stared at us as though she had just been cleverly outwitted by a toddler. She didn’t say a word. She just stepped aside, letting me and Sari into her home once more for questioning. During our long conversation last night after returning to the truck, Sari and I decided we couldn’t really do anything about these witches without seeing proof of them doing something wrong. It was the right thing to do.

  “Let me take your coats for you,” Adena said in an oddly pleasant voice and held out her hands.

  Not wanting to rock the boat before getting a chance to speak with the family again, we handed over our jackets to her.

  “You know where the living room is. Help yourselves to some tea there on the table and I’ll get my sisters.”

  Adena’s voice was almost unnatural. It was calm and collected, which seemed uncharacteristic of her from what we saw the night before. I thought she was going to be angry with us for returning so soon and especially together. I knew there was nothing more she’d like than to get Sari alone. As long as I was around, there was no way in hell that was going to happen, though, and she knew that. Sari and I sat down on the loveseat again and waited for the sisters to grace us with their presence. We sipped on the hot tea left out on the coffee table to pass the time. I stole a glance at Sari, getting lost in the curves of his plump lips as he closed his eyes. I let mine close as well.