by Trinity Crow
“Nuh-uh,” Cassie said, shaking her head like a little girl might. “I saw what happened to you. I'm not stepping on that ground until Adam is here.”
“Listen,” I said, more sharply than I intended. “This house is no more safe for you than the ground. We need to go.” I stepped forward, meaning to drag her to safety if I had to.
"Don't you touch me!” Cassie screamed. And she screamed again when I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her up and then down the stairs. Her screams rang out like bells pealing over and over. They rolled across the fields and I felt the ground tremble beneath me in response.
Panicked, I slapped a hand over her mouth and pulled with all my might. Closer and closer, we edged towards the drive. With a sense of relief, I heard the throaty roar of a car engine. Thank heavens, Adam had come. If he couldn't make her see sense, he could at least take her away to safety.
The car squealed into the drive and Adam leaped out, taking in the scene before him with one wild-eyed glance.
"What are you doing?" Adam yelled at me. He ran forward, pulling Cassie out of my arms, dragging her towards the car. "Leave her alone!"
I gaped at him, astonished.
"Abby," Cassie cried, “Come with us. You're not safe here."
"What?" Adam stared down at his sister tear-stained and scratched in disbelief.
'The place is haunted, Adam.” Cassie's voice was halting. "Possessed maybe. Can't you see that, Abby?"
"I saw you stone a little creature who never did you any harm, Cassie. I saw that whatever lives here was angered by your actions."
Adam's mouth fell open. "You. . . You believe this possession nonsense?" he demanded of me, then he turned on his sister angrily. "Cassie, you told me you were over all that. You said they cured you."
I stared at them both in dismay, tremors shaking me. Was he going to use the nightmare of the beast from the car accident against her? Bludgeon her with her own fears until her mind cracked like bone on stone?
Another car pulled into the driveway and Tasmyn and Nikki piled out. I heaved a giant breath of relief. Maybe they could help diffuse this mess. At least Nikki could back me up.
But Nikki, after placing one cautious foot on the ground, climbed right back in the car, leaving her window open the barest of cracks so that she might eavesdrop on personal entanglements she wanted no part of.
"Nikki said she heard screams?" Tasmyn looked uncertainly from the limp and bloody Cassie in Adam's arms to me, wracked with apprehension.
"Everyone was screaming," Adam said tersely, “and I have no idea what the hell is going on.”
"Abby was talking to a demon!" Cassie burst out. “And then when I tried to get it away from her, it attacked me.”
My mouth straightened into a firm line at her ridiculous lie.
Tasmyn looked completely astounded. “A demon? What the hell? Uh, Abby?" Her tone pleaded with me to bring some sanity to this.
“Cassie flipped out and stoned my pet fox after hitting me with a rock. I am pretty sure she killed it." I took a deep breath. No matter how mad I was at her, I could not desert her and allow the others to think her mad. "But she's right that she angered something and it wanted her to get off this land. I was trying to shield her from the worst of it and get her to the edge of the drive when Adam showed up."
I looked towards Nikki, hoping she would chime it. I could hear how crazy I sounded, but the dark-haired girl looked away.
"Okay," Adam said, shaking his head. “That's it. I don't want you around my sister anymore. She has enough problems without your psycho, devil-worshiping cult influence. And now there is some lady who traffics in young girls and a bunch of men who want to force you to marry them and have orgies. Whatever is wrong with you," his eyes ripped me up and down as he sneered, "you can just keep it to yourself."
My eyes bulged as I listen to the wild mishmash of truth and fiction spilling from his lips. Cassie gave a start in his arms as if to hush him and then as I watched a dull blush spread over her face. I realized she had texted him all the juicy gossip of the crazy cult girl. I bet they'd had a big laugh. It also explained why he was here so early. He needed to rescue his sister from my evil influence.
"Hey," Tasmyn said sharply. "None of that is Abby's fault."
Adam whirled around, contemptuously. “You can get lost too," he said. "I know about you being a druggie and a thief. I know you were arrested and your own parents want nothing to do with you."
Tasmyn stepped back as if he had hit her. Her eyes were full of shock and a dull kind of pain. A pain I knew. When you thought you had outrun your past and it showed up and dragged you back down into hell again.
"Stop it," I hissed. "It's me you have a problem with."
The wind began to rise again, rippling around me and stirring the overgrown grasses of the front lawn.
“The cult I came from were all God-fearing people, but they were as evil as the demons you imagine I am in league with. And Cassie is right about one thing . . . something does live here, something old and powerful. She was warned. You respect the land and its creatures, and it is good to you."
"Like all those unnatural plants in your garden?" Cassie burst out. "Abby, can't you see its wrong?"
I shook my head in denial of that word. "I know it has protected me. I know it had given me a home. I know that it could have killed you, Cassie, and spared you instead."
The faces of brother and sister were twin reflections of disgust and horror.
"I can live with the things it asks from me because here, I am safe."
"You're making a deal with the devil," Adam said in a horrified voice.
I laughed and it was a bitter, bitter sound.
“Am I? The fellowship at New Eden made a compact with God and look how that turned out. They drugged me, Adam. They would have raped me to make me accept that I belonged to that man.”
They all stared at me, their faces blank. Adam's face held only disgust, as if by admitting these horrible things had happened to me I had soiled myself through association. But I wasn't having it. Not anymore. None of that was my shame to bear.
“I fought back and got out. I made it to an old culvert and lay there, unconscious for two days, and then, I crawled though the leaching ponds, through sewage, to get out. Naked, my clothes held on top of my head. I've been beaten. I've been tied up. I've been locked in a closet for a month.”
I stood there, hands clenched in fists. “You just ask that devil what he wants in return," I told Adam. My eyes were burning and my voice cracked, but nothing in me wavered. I would be safe and the devil could take those who stood in my way.
“It . . . it almost killed me,” Cassie said angrily.”And you're okay with that?"
A thin smile curved my lips. "As it would kill me if I broke the rules. It's just like New Eden. Follow the rules and you're safe. Break them and they hurt you. I understand that you don't understand. You think New Eden was awful, but it's an awfulness you understand. You may shake your head at the injustice, but you accept it as part of your world. What walks here is unknown to you, so you call it evil. I have seen evil. You . . . you have no idea.
“Listen well now . . . what is offered to me is what I need. Call it my deepest desire. Safety. Freedom. You can turn away because you have had that almost all your life. But know this . . . you will be offered what you cannot resist, and only after you have faced that should you presume to judge me."
"You. . . You're not who I thought you were," Adam spit out. He stared at me with utter revulsion.
“No, I suppose I am not. You liked sweet Abby, submissive Abby. Abby who looked up to you and thought you a wonderful, protective brother. Now, I see you. You're a bully and a coward. And it terrifies you that I can protect myself. Because if I can, then your sister might see that she can as well.”
"Shut up, you freak!” Adam yelled. He grabbed his sister by the arm. "Come on, Cassie. Let's get out of here."
Cassie threw me a look as her brother tow
ed her to the car, her eyes wet with some emotion that just might have been hope.
"You bought a house, too, Cassie,” I called to her. “Don't think you can just walk away. They won't let you, not yet. Maybe never.”
***
Suddenly, Tasmyn shrieked and pointed to the dirt path that led around the house, the path I had worn by toting cinder blocks one by one to the garden. Cassie's scream joined Tasmyn's and Adam backed up, dragging his sister with him. Unable to see what the fuss was, I moved down the steps, staring in amazement at the flattened mass of fur and bone bubbling and rippling as it dragged itself slowly along the ground.
A head formed near the front of the clot that had once been Mekka, and then an eye popped out, a gelatinous bubble with a black iris that swiveled accusingly, looking for his killer.
My mouth formed a soundless O as I took this in, the screams a background noise to my shock and horror.
“What is it? What is it?!” Adam lurched frantically from side-to-side trying to find the threat. In his arms, Cassie flopped like a rag doll. “Get in the car!” Adam ordered her wildly, ignoring his death grip on his sister that would not allow her to move independently.
I turned to look at the tableau of terrified people among the waving grasses. In spite of Adam's own order, he stood stock still, clutching Cassie in front of him like a shield. Tasmyn had stopped screaming and was backing slowly away. Inside the car, Nikki's head was bowed, eyes closed, and she appeared to be praying as hard as she could. The absurdity of the entire scene made unholy laughter well up inside me.
“Look out!” Tasmyn shouted.
I turned in time to see the fox fur begin to twist and spin. As the familiar whirlwind formed, an unexpected lump grew in my throat. The memory of Mekka's tail-chasing antics flashed vividly to my mind. Alarm began to fill me as the spiral of dust grew larger, much larger than it had ever been before. When the dust stilled and fell away, the figure that formed was not the little fox, but the black-haired man I had once mistaken for Nikki's cousin.
“You!” I said, shocked.
He grinned that sly smile, his dark eyes claiming mine.
“You're not Mekka!” I accused, heedless of the panic his appearance had just caused.
He shrugged off my anger and then turning, he let out a low whistle. Mekka trotted around the house, healthy and bright-eyed, stopping just out of reach. I raised a trembling hand to my mouth as relief and joy rose in me.
"He's okay," I said softly, my eyes filling with tears. I offered him a tremulous smile, sure he had something to do with it. He gave me a lazy, sultry smile in return, lifting one eyebrow as if to suggest I owed him now. A faint blush stole into my cheeks, but I ignored it. "Thank you," I said with the deepest sincerity. "I could not have borne to lose him."
The untameable man nodded, but absently, not meeting my eyes. I felt the loss of his regard keenly, but the coyote's gaze had sharpened and swung over my shoulder, shifting from me to the others.
Hurriedly, I stepped between him and Cassie. "She didn't mean to hurt Mekka,” I told him firmly. “She thought he was a danger to me.”
He stared hard at Cassie as if trying to judge the truth of my statement. She nodded dumbly, struck silent by his unexpected beauty. I shook my head as I noticed both Tasmyn and curiously, Adam, was wearing the same awestruck expression.
Coyote tossed his head, long, black hair rippling in the same unnatural wind that stirred the sedges around our feet. He smiled a slow predatory smile, white teeth an invitation against his silky, sun-kissed skin.
“You. . . You know this . . . guy?” Adam croaked.
I shrugged. “We've met,” I said, unwilling to speak of all the things that had happened.
“What? I mean, who . . . who is he?” Tasmyn breathed.
“Gorgeous,” Cassie squeaked and then covered her mouth in embarrassment.
Coyote folded his arms and smiled wider, his muscles seemed to bulge more tightly under the loose weave of his shirt. And was his hair longer?
“Good gracious,” I muttered. The dratted spirit was showing off. I hoped this was a good sign and meant that Cassie would not be harmed. My thoughts came too soon because the smug expression changed to thunderous. Wincing, I knew they would not escape without some display of his power.
Those black, black eyes swept across us. "The dark gathers," he growled, the heat in his voice making my spine bend in longing. There was such power in that voice, even the grasses at our feet bent towards him. Coyote pointed over our heads to the horizon where dark storm clouds brewed. "And my kind grow restless."
Heady pheromones filled the air. Beside me, I heard Tasmyn let out a sigh and Cassie's low whimper brought another blush to my cheeks.
Coyote's eyes bored into mine. "We would . . . join with your kind . . . if only for this season."
My mouth opened and closed a few times, dry from the heat curling up from the pit of my stomach. My eyelids fluttered as he stroked my bare, tan legs, the soft brush of fur making me suck in my breath . . .
Wait, fur?
Looking down, I saw it was Mekka, twining about my legs. He shook his head at me, scolding, and I bit my lip, somehow embarrassed the little fox had seen me fall under Coyote's spell so easily.
Frowning, I squared my shoulders and tapped Coyote on the arm. Someone had to put a stop to this. The group of them looked ready to "join with him" right then and there. "Um, no. That's not how our kind do it." The words do it made me blush hotly.
"Will you teach me?" he asked, amused. "How your kind do it? Would you? Would you walk as little sister . . . or as mother to the clan?"
"I wi . . . " Cassie stepped forward, eyes glazed.
"No, you won't," I told her firmly, pushing her back into Adam's slack arms.
Coyote caught me by the hand, his head turned upwards, face alert. "Listen!"
I canted my head to listen, but heard only the wind. My senses were not as powerful as his.
"Your enemies come." The words were urgent. "You must decide before your choice is taken from you."
The wind whipped around us, reaching a fever pitch. Coyote blurred as he leapt into the wind, became Hawk, and soared away.
The spell broke and the three of them staggered away from me in horror. Cassie leaped into the car without a backward glance, while Tasmyn slid in beside the still praying Nikki and gunned her engine. Only Adam had time for a parting shot.
"You are beyond redemption," he raged, his face contorted with disgust. "You stay away from my family. You can have sex with those animals or pray to Satan, I don't care, but don't cross me."
He leaned forward, spit flying as he ranted. "There are people who are very interested in finding you, Abby. People who might just find you if you don't stay away from my sister." He leered at me, eyes filled with hate. "They were right to lock you up. Even to beat you. You are unnatural. You're damned. Just stay away from us, you bitch."
The cruel river of hate poured over me, but the waterfall of words had no heat, leaving me untouched. He flinched as I lifted a hand to wave at him. "May your god be with you, Adam," I told him, amusement lacing my words.
He cursed me as he drove away, but I had already dismissed him from my mind. Coyote was right. It was time to choose. I would not face the coming storm powerless. Not with all that was laid before me. To the people of this town, I was damned if I accepted such a power. But when that howling pack of men came for me, I would be damned if I had not. I laughed, feeling the wind stroke my cheeks. Like Felicite, I would choose my own manner of damnation.
Chapter 32
A low buzzing in my bones told me Adam would not get the chance to betray me. Someone already had. Perhaps it had been done through innocence or even ignorance, but the consequences would be brutal none-the-less. My body tensed as the sound of the car grew louder. My breath grew short as terror constricted my veins and my legs trembled with the need to run.
They came . . .
The thought jolted me. Yes, the Br
ethren of New Eden came, but they came as interlopers to a place already ripe with power. Power that could be mine. Power to slay my enemies. My breathing steadied and all thoughts of running slipped away. I would do whatever I needed to do to be free and unharmed . . . And I would not feel guilty. If necessary, the land would feed well this day.
The car turned into the drive and I saw the hated face of Brother Jabez light up with vicious anticipation. He, too, was hungry. I smiled, feeling the air around me take on that hint of moisture which preceded the coming of the fog. Far in the distance, thunder rolled, reminding me I was not alone. The faint howls of the pack rose to meet it in challenge.
No, not alone.
They stepped forward, boots stomping the grasses flat. The swagger in their walk seemed designed to thrust their pelvis' forward threateningly. Laughter danced inside me at this display. How pitiable that this was their only source of power.
They arrayed themselves at the bottom of the stairs, deferring to Brother Jabez to speak, though he was not an Elder.
Very well. Let them say their piece before the land gave a final judgment on their crimes. I inclined my head, not submissively, but as if giving permission to speak. Jaws tightened and a low mutter arose. Jabez sent a swift look around the group before fastening those ice blue eyes on mine.
"We have come to take you, Sister Mariam." He let the ambiguous words hang like a threat before adding. "Take you home where you belong."
"This is my home," I said simply. "I belong only to myself."
Jabez ignored this. "You have done wrong , woman. Ignored the instruction of your betters and sought to break the bonds you agreed to."
"I agreed to nothing! And I think my feelings on marriage to your father were made clear."
"Elder Elijah almost died from that blow to the head," Brother Jabez told me, with barely controlled anger.
"A pity he did not," I said, my own voice implacable.
"Look at you, you wanton slut!" Elder Ishmael exploded. "You hair uncovered and your limbs showing what should, by right of God, be only your husband's to view."
