Burning

by Carrillo, K. D.

  Eli looked us both deep in the eyes. "The Earth is alive, even when winter descends and life seems to fade away. Love, like the Earth, must be nurtured to grow and thrive. Do you promise to work to keep your love alive and growing?"

  We both said, "I do," at the same time.

  Eli began to chant again. The ivy began to glow like the cord in the shifter ritual and disappeared into our skin. A vine with tiny flowers marked Chloë's wrist, while mine had thorns instead of flowers.

  "The flowers on Chloë's mark represent the female's ability to create life. The thorns on Finn's mark remind him of his responsibility to protect his mate. These are blessings by the Creator and show that this is an excellent bond," Eli announced.

  I vaguely registered when he announced the six of us bonded. I had already grabbed Chloë and kissed her. I felt her dissolve into me. I cradled the back of her head in my hand and allowed my tongue to explore and caress. Nothing existed except her lips, the smell of her hair, and the feel of her body pressed against mine.

  I probably shouldn't have forgotten that it was her father who had performed the ritual. I remembered quickly when he cleared his throat next to us.

  "I'm very glad you are both well matched, but I'd rather not witness how well seeing as she is my daughter," Eli grumbled.

  I looked around and realized Cooper, Jo, Leah, and Grey had already left.

  Dean laughed. "I'd make fun of the way the four of them ran out of here, but I remember the anticipation." He turned to Anita with a heated gaze. "Actually, I think we could all take a small break before we start planning again."

  I looked at Chloë. Her color was brighter than it had been in months. Her lips were swollen from our kiss, and her hair was mussed from my hands.

  "Better make that a long break. Maybe we'll see you in the morning," I said in a rough voice.

  I tossed Chloë over my shoulder, and she laughed. "I'll see you later. He forgets we literally have forever for what's playing in his mind."

  "That sound's like a challenge. I could drag out what I've got in mind for a very long time," I told her.

  "Give me the condensed version tonight. After I banish this demon, I'm all yours," she replied.

  "You are already mine," I said and went into the house.

  Dean

  "What should we do while we are waiting for them?" I asked Anita, suggestively waggling my eyebrows at her.

  She sauntered over to me and slid her hand up my chest. I felt my pulse increase. She pressed into my side, her soft curves molded to my body. Her warm-vanilla scent flooded my senses, and her breath hit my neck as she turned to whisper in my ear.

  "Why don't you and I go somewhere alone..." She paused. My breath hitched before she continued speaking. "And read this book to figure out how to banish a demon."

  I narrowed my eyes at her. "You are a cruel woman."

  She smiled wickedly. The slight emergence of her fangs told me that she wasn't unaffected by me either. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner you will have me all to yourself. Unless an hour is all you need," she taunted.

  "You are a naughty kitty. Give me the book. I know you've read it once already," I answered. I opened the small, handmade, leather grimoire to the page she marked with a ribbon.

  I stopped when I reached a description of a different kind of bonding ceremony. "Anita," I said, getting her attention. She was searching through the trunk I’d carried back from our basement. I pointed to the passage. "Do you think this is what they were doing with the executions?"

  "What?" she asked, peering over my shoulder. "I...I didn't get that far. To bind to humans, the demon must lead them to commit human sacrifices. Three must be killed by fire and the last by fire and brimstone," she said, reading from the book. "There have already been three burnings, and Bridgett was stabbed. Do you think they are already bound to Astaroth?" she asked me.

  Cold fingers brushed against the back of my neck, and I turned, looking for Grey. There was nothing. I rubbed at the spot to chase away the chill. "I don't know, but I think the spirits of the women killed by them won't be at rest until this is over. There wasn't any fire with Bridgett, which makes me think there will be another victim if we don't stop them."

  I felt my phone buzz an alert in my pocket. Anita reached for hers too. She looked up at me with fear in her brown eyes. "I think we know who the next victim will be. Does it have to be Cynthia? As much as I hate her, I can’t let this happen to her,” she said.

  "Carlos!" I shouted. He stepped away from his conversation with Eli and Marguerite and strolled over. "The campus alert system sent out a message saying that Cynthia Rojas was seen being forced into the back of a dark sedan in the library parking lot," I said, showing him my phone.

  "I don't mean to sound cold, but we can't divide our attention to search for your classmates right now," Carlos said, handing me back my phone. Anita pointed to the passage in the grimoire. Carlos pinched the bridge of his nose. "It could be, but it also might not be. We need to focus on the demon, not this girl."

  "There isn't a spell in here on how to locate a demon, only how to summon one, which requires black magic," Anita countered.

  "And there is the fact that Cynthia's advisor is Dr. Tuttle," I reminded them.

  "I see. Well, that does change things. Someone needs to access her dorm or apartment and get something personal from her. We can use it in a locating spell," Carlos instructed.

  "Would a picture work?" Anita asked.

  "You have a picture of Cynthia?" I asked, surprised.

  "I might have…hypothetically…taken a picture with my cell phone to put on my dart board," she said with a smirk.

  "That's my girl," I teased her. I turned to Carlos. "When would this happen?" I hoped we had some time. Cynthia was a giant pain in the ass, but she didn't deserve to be burned alive.

  Carlos thought for a moment. "Samhain. The demon will want to perform the last sacrifice when the veil between the living and the dead is open."

  "Samhain?" I asked.

  "It's an ancient Druid holiday when they honored their ancestors to get luck in the new year. It is more complicated than that, but that's the Cliff's Notes version," he answered.

  "When is it?" I pressed. "Halloween. Tomorrow after sunset," he answered.

  "I don't think Chloë and Finn are going to get that hour," Anita thought aloud.

  "I'll go get them. We don't need everyone else right now. I guess they're lucky," I said.

  "Or getting there," Anita deadpanned.

  I cast her an amused look before I rushed into the house.

  Chloë

  Finn's vivid blue eyes bored into me. He strode over and cupped my face in his hands. He tilted my chin to look up at him. I had to crane my neck to lock on to his brilliant eyes. He was so much taller than I was—by at least eight or nine inches.

  "I love you," he whispered and kissed me softly.

  "I love you too," I said against his mouth.

  "Talk later," he muttered, still kissing. He maneuvered us backwards until we toppled onto the bed.

  I slid my hand up his shirt and felt the lean muscles bunch and flex under my fingers. I thought to follow the trail my fingers made with my mouth until a persistent banging rattled our door.

  "Son of a... What!" Finn shouted.

  "Sorry, man,” Dean apologized, “but it's hitting the fan. Anita needs you, Chloë." I pulled my hand from Finn's shirt. "You can come in, Dean." Finn rearranged himself and scowled at the door. "I'll make it up to you later," I promised him quietly.

  "I have some ideas on how," he grumbled.

  I raised my eyebrow. "I'll bet."

  Dean opened the door. His hands were in his pockets, and he stared down at his boots. When his head came up, there was a barely contained rage burning behind his hazel eyes. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to me.

  I looked at the campus alert, something that had been enacted after last year's student disappearances, and had to read it twi
ce. I silently handed it to Finn. "Is there a plan?" I asked.

  "There will be. As soon as you get downstairs and we come up with one," Dean answered.

  "Let's go then," I agreed, and we followed him down.

  Anita and Carlos hunched over a map spread out over the kitchen table. Anita dangled a quartz pendant over the map, but it kept moving repetitively in an odd pattern. I cocked my head to the side, studying it.

  "What is it drawing?" I asked Carlos.

  "Huh? It seems to be a pattern, doesn't it? I missed it. I thought perhaps we didn't have enough with the picture to triangulate her location," he answered.

  I conjured my wand and pointed it at the pendant. "Illuminate," I ordered.

  The tip of the pendant shot out a thin beam, and the map smoked under the stream. When the movement went back to the beginning, I reached out and stopped the string.

  We all stared at the map, speechless.

  "Is that... I mean, shit," Anita stuttered and pointed at the image.

  "An inverted pentagram. Well now, I can't believe I missed this," Carlos mumbled to himself and sat back in his chair.

  "The demon is screwing with us. How could he use her image against us to block the trace?" I asked Carlos.

  He closed his eyes and released a weary sigh. "The only way I can see is if he has already begun to torture her. He could carve spells into her skin. He knew we would try and find her."

  "What is the point?" Finn asked.

  "To stall. He isn't done setting up the trap, but he couldn't resist the opportunity to screw with us," I answered. "How long does she have?" I asked Carlos again.

  "I'd wager he will wait until the witching hour on the eve of Samhain. That will be the moment the veil is the thinnest," he replied.

  "I'm going to step outside for a few minutes. I have to think of something, because this isn't going to work," I said.

  Finn reached out and grabbed my wrist. "I'm coming with you."

  I started to argue. "No, I just need to think."

  He rubbed the edge of my tattoo with his thumb. "I'm coming. I know you can protect yourself, but I'm going to be there to watch your back regardless."

  I nodded and opened my hand for him to slip his into mine.

  We walked out into the crisp fall night and headed away from the house. I sat down in the grass, which was turning slightly brown as winter grew closer. It cast a glittering sparkle under the moonlight and crunched underneath me.

  I placed my hands on my knees and released my stress with a forceful exhale. I released the cords that attached my spirit to my body and felt myself float away. I raced through the night and landed next to my spirit guide, Mickey, the red-tailed hawk.

  She turned her head to one side and then the other, studying me with her keen eyes. I looked at myself and realized that I had transformed into a ghostly specter of a hawk. I hadn't consciously planned to seek her out, but she was exactly what I needed.

  I flapped my translucent wings and raced back to my body. I came to with a start and found myself lying in the grass with Finn hovering over me.

  "What the hell was that?" he nearly shouted.

  "I think it's called a spirit walk," I squeaked, still coming back to myself.

  Finn opened his mouth to question me further but was cut off by Mickey's screech.

  I looked up at him and said, "You need to move back a bit and sit down. I need her to stay and she won't if she sees you hovering."

  I could see that he didn't want to move too far away from me, but he moved back several paces and sat down. A moment later, Mickey swooped down with an efficient flap of her wings and landed in front of me.

  I knew the routine by now. I stared in her dark eyes and felt the dizzying fall into her vision. Trees were scattered around a ramshackle old house. A creeping mist rolled across the ground, and the briny smell of the ocean filled the air. A ghostly scent of death mingled with the salt.

  I watched as skeletal ghosts pulled together out of the fog. They walked through the walls of the house and disappeared. There was desperation in their movements, their faces frozen in a mask of terror. I felt like an old wound had been ripped open, and they were pulled from a restless slumber.

  Their clothes were Victorian, hanging from their emaciated bodies. I felt myself being led closer and closer to their ceaseless movement through the outside wall. I followed them through and saw Cynthia bound in an old tub.

  Dr. Tuttle hovered over her and held an old straight-edge razor in his hand. I noticed that Cynthia had been stripped naked, but she no longer seemed to be concerned about her exposure.

  Her body was a patchwork of shallow cuts and trails of dried blood. I looked into her former advisor's face and observed that his eyes were completely black. He dragged the edge of the blade across her stomach, marking her with an inverted pentagram. Cynthia had blood trailing away from her mouth, where it appeared she had bit into her own lip.

  My vision pulled back and I could see signs welcoming me to Olalla, Washington. Pictures and images flashed rapidly through my mind like I was a computer downloading information.

  I rushed back through the layers of the vision and rolled over, dry heaving. I heard the creak of stairs and the worried mingling of voices, but I continued to heave. Finn returned to my side and rubbed my back while the last of the tremors racked my body.

  My voice trembled, and acid threatened to rise in my throat while I relayed the contents of the vision. Dean pulled his phone out of his pocket, his fingers moving over the touchscreen, and explained what he’d found.

  "In Olalla, there was a sanitarium the locals called Starvation Heights. There was a woman, Linda Hazzard, who claimed she could cure illnesses with fasting. During her career, she reportedly starved several dozen people to death and fraudulently obtained their estates. She was convicted of manslaughter but only served two years at Walla Walla State Penn. She was paroled after that and apparently went on to practice medicine in New Zealand before returning to Washington. More people died under her supervision until she died of a fast in 1938."

  I rolled over to sit and asked Dean, "Does this place sound right for my vision?" He shrugged. "You're in charge on this one, Dean. I'm not a hundred percent yet. I can manage the spell, but the rest I think you should coordinate," I told him.

  "I don't think I deserve the faith you are placing in me. I didn't keep Bridgett alive," he argued.

  "Dean, that blame doesn't belong on your shoulders. We all shrugged her off when she wanted to go into town. None of us could have foreseen that she would go on her own," I consoled. "Why that place?" I asked out loud.

  "It sounds perfect for the demon. It's a place where people were killed without compassion and motivated by greed. There is a lot of spiritual turmoil there, and the veil between the living and the dead is very thin. Astaroth needs a place with spirits that have not moved on to the afterlife. Not that he'll be able to claim the earthbound souls, but he'll try," Carlos argued.

  "We need to get moving. Cynthia is being tortured as we speak." I stood up and stumbled a bit.

  Finn wrapped his arms around my waist, trapping me against him. "Have you finished the banishing spell?" he asked me.

  "No, but it's in the grimoire," I pointed out.

  "Oh, and do you have everything you need?" he countered.

  "I...uh..." I deflated, sensing defeat.

  I wanted to move quickly. I’d felt her pain, her fear, and her willingness to surrender in the vision. I really, really, disliked her, but I didn't want to leave her in the hands of a demon and his puppet.

  "We can't leave her there until tomorrow night," I bickered.

  "I agree, but you can't go," Finn told me. He kissed the side of my head to take the sting out of his order. "You are exhausted and won't be any good to her or any of us if you don't sleep and get some of your strength back," he whispered.

  And he was right, but I didn't want to hear it. I wanted her suffering to stop. I wanted to save her, but my magic
was like a battery that had only started to recharge.

  If I couldn't rescue her, maybe I could stall. It was what the demon had tried to do to us with his tracking trick. I sat back down and released my spirit for one more walk. I saw the ghosts walking the grounds of the old sanitarium. I used my powers of necromancy and asked the spirits to guard the living from the horrors contained in their personal hell.

  They moved with purpose through the wall, and moments later, the night filled with shrieks. Dr. Tuttle ran out of the building with his hands on his head, screaming, and dropped to the ground.

  I had some experience with the psychological trauma spirits could cause. They worm into your psyche and whisper every fear, remind you of every transgression. I imagined that someone like Dr. Tuttle had a lot of guilt that could be played against him.

  Astaroth stepped out of the building. His slick, black wings popped open. He stared me straight in the eye and took flight.

  I gasped when my spirit rushed back into my body. "I think he's coming here," I said in a rush.

  "Did you occupy Cynthia's torturers?" Anita asked. I nodded. "Then let him come," she said calmly.

  "Can he do anything to us physically?" I asked Carlos.

  "He can't take your soul unless he forces you to do something. Souls are his main goal, but if he realizes you cannot be turned, he can physically harm you," Carlos answered.

  "If he's coming here, how can we fight him and save Cynthia?" I asked.

  My mother descended the steps of the porch as if making an entrance at a debutante ball. "I believe I can be of assistance here. Eli dear, it has been much too long since we’ve stepped into the fray. Would you like to take a little trip with me?" she asked as if she were planning a fun weekend getaway.

  "We will have to wait until tomorrow. I saw Chloë's vision. The entire auto-da-fé is in residence. We might be invulnerable to serious harm, but we are not omnipotent. Nor is it impossible for us to be temporarily incapacitated. We'll need Cooper. We can leave as soon as he wakes in the morning," my father answered.