Michael tried to free the woman’s foot, but to no avail. He wasn’t strong enough. “I can’t free her.”
Charlie dove and tried to free the woman’s leg. The rock fell slightly, discharging a stream of blood from the woman’s injured leg, but not releasing it.
The woman let out a short scream, nearly sucking in water as she almost dropped the mouthpiece. The scream rattled the brothers. They didn’t have much time. The blood would soon attract unwanted company, leeches, topped by the fact that the woman was in serious danger of dying if they could not free her.
Charlie decided he had only one choice: to let go of the control he tried to keep so carefully in check.
He let the strength of the wolf course through his veins, which popped against his skin and sped up his heartbeat. In a blink, his blue eyes flashed to bright silver. The stubble on his chin darkened as if thickening, fast.
A low snarl forced its way out of his throat and into the air bubble surrounding his head. Muscles rippled through his shoulders, down the length of his arms and with one thrust, he heaved the rock off the woman’s leg, as if the rock suddenly weighed nothing. It fell to the ground a few feet away with a slow crash.
Charlie grabbed the woman, pulling her out of harm’s way.
He swam with her in tow, into the cave, as it was the closest spot they could safely check the woman’s injuries. A few seconds later, their heads popped out of the water. Michael surfaced alongside them.
Charlie needed no help pulling the woman out of the water. She wasn’t a tall woman, about five foot five, and her body was thin, but well-toned. His wolf strength yanked her body out and to the top of a rock, with ease. His grip was firm and strong, but his touch and movement of her, gentle.
The woman coughed out some water and fell onto her back, long white strands clinging to her water soaked skin, and the rock below her. Charlie straddled the woman’s hips, wild eyes peering down at her to see if she was okay. He guessed her to be in her mid-twenties.
His wild gaze met hers; shock swirled through her widened hazel globes. She stared up at Charlie’s animalistic features, her mouth hung open in awe.
Fuck! How am I going to explain this?
“Wh- what…” her stunned voice trailed off, her voice caught in her throat.
He jumped up and spun around, trying to re-cage the wolf. Perhaps he’d blame it on her injury. Although, it wasn’t her head that was injured.
Charlie calmed himself, his chest stretching in extended breaths. There hadn’t been another option. He couldn’t let the woman die, stranger or not. But he’d just exposed himself, and therefore his family, to an unknown outsider.
Michael’s empathy picked up on Charlie’s concern, and he knelt down next to the woman, distracting her from his brother. “Are you okay?” He could have answered on her behalf but bit his tongue. I so hate my life…
She was more than okay. Charlie’s appearance hadn’t frightened her at all. She was mystified and electrified by it, almost to the point of arousal.
Michael cleared his throat but said nothing to indicate he knew this.
The woman nodded yes. “Yeah. I’m fine. Thanks to you two.” Her voice held an edge of exhaustion. She took a quick side-glance at Charlie.
Michael helped her sit up. “Nasty cut you got, though,” he noted, pointing toward her leg.
“I’ve had worse,” she admitted.
Charlie spun around, looking human once again. “If you’re so clumsy, maybe diving isn’t the best idea for you. Especially alone.” There was a harshness in his tone he hadn’t meant to use, but he hoped it might scare her, just a little. Keep her from asking questions he did not want to answer.
“Right now, I cannot argue that point,” she replied, her voice guilt ridden. “Thanks, for saving my life,” she added, as if those words hardly made up for what they had done for her.
“Lucky we dove when we did,” Michael told her. He allowed his empathic ability to engulf the woman, sensing for her emotional state again. He was surprised she held no lingering concern or fear over seeing Charlie as something more than human, and did not seem fazed by her near death experience. Abnormal things did not bother her. Hopefully, this would prove to their advantage.
Charlie knelt down to check her leg. He heard the woman suck in a wince as his hand ran down her calf, examining the wound. The cut was substantial in length, but not deep enough to require stitches. He frowned. All their medical supplies were in the jeep. He unzipped his diving vest letting it fall to the rock, and pulled his white tank top over his head, tearing it into strips.
She exhaled sharply, her eyes wide, taking in every inch of him. She had to force her mouth closed, realizing she’d let it fall open.
Removing his vest and tank top left Charlie wearing nothing, other than body hugging diving shorts, which left little to the imagination of what he was hiding underneath them. It also gave her a full frontal view of his broad shoulders, powerful arms and abs so perfect they could have been painted on.
Michael wanted to dive back in the water and leave this party.
His brother, however, was oblivious. Charlie tied the torn shirt strips around the wound, gently.
“This should hold until we get back to the surface. We’ve got medical supplies in our jeep.”
“You carry medical supplies. Do you often find damsels in distress?”
Charlie just shrugged, as if to say, something like that… their eyes met, and a sudden coolness stretched through his muscles, shooting an icy sensation pulsing through his veins. It was as if his wolf-warmed hot blood dropped a few degrees, instantly.
He shivered, goosebumps popping up on his arms.
Charlie Howard had not shivered due to being cold since he’d been bitten by the wolf, ten years prior. He had forgotten what it even felt like.
He didn’t like it. Something about it screamed, this is wrong. Unnatural.
Charlie let go of the woman’s leg, standing, his usual hot blood returning, melting away the icy chill. He shook it off, letting it go with his next breath.
The woman grabbed hold of her long mane of white, ringing out excess water. “What are your names?”
“I’m Charlie. Charlie Howard. This is my brother, Michael.”
“Well, Charlie and Michael, what brings you two down to the bottom of Bloodsucker Bay, other than happening to save this gal’s life?”
“What brings you down to Bloodsucker Bay? Ms? Mrs?” Charlie questioned in return.
“Eva Jordan. Ms. I guess if it matters.” Her gaze fluttered up to Charlie.
His face hardened, then softened. He could not figure this woman out. There was something unsavory about her presence here. Stupid ass wolf. I got to get off the paranoia wagon. Another gift of the wolf… bouts of paranoia and distrust.
“To be honest,” the woman named Eva, explained, “I was looking for some adventure.” She made a face that said, Boy, did I get more than I bargained for.
Michael chuckled. “It’s nice to meet you, Eva. Although I’m sure different circumstances would have been preferred. My brother and I are from the Isle. We often spend our days diving in these waters, strictly in search of damsels in distress.” He winked in a flirtatious manner.
There goes my brother, thought Charlie. Turning on the charm. No woman can resist…
Eva Jordan did resist, however. Her curious eyes still landed on Charlie. He leaned over, outstretched his hand and helped her to her feet. He felt better once he’d touched her again and the strange drop in temperature did not happen a second time. Perhaps it had just been the dive messing with him.
“Thank you. I’m really quite fine now. You two can just do whatever you came to do.”
“And just how are you going to get out of this cave?” Charlie asked her.
“Hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Boy do I sound like a dope. Guess you boys are stuck with me.”
While Eva gathered herself together, Michael whispered to his brother. “Thi
s complicates things a bit. Can’t use magic.”
“We’ll just have to investigate the old fashioned way,” Charlie grumbled.
“Um, I don’t mean to,” the woman named Eva interrupted. “But I can’t help hearing what you guys are saying. Everything bounces off cave walls, you know.” She twirled her finger as if to remind them of their surroundings.
The brothers stared in silence, unsure how to explain to this stranger about magic and witches.
“Look, don’t worry,” she assured. “It’s completely obvious you guys are magical types, witches or something, and you Charlie, well, you are definitely something more than human. I’m sorry for freaking out on you a minute ago… your face up close like that, it just startled me.”
“Wh-What?” Charlie stuttered, unable to find the words he wanted to say. Michael could do no better.
“When I was a kid,” she continued to explain, “my dad summered here on the Isle a few times. He said it was some kind of Mecca for the supernatural community. And he always told me he was sure there were witches living here. Let’s just say I am well versed in the world of the supernatural.”
“So you know about witches and magic… and stuff,” Charlie confirmed, sounding uncharacteristically confounded.
“Yup. Can’t do any magic. Not a witch. But my father is what you could call an expert, and I, well I travel around with him now, helping him with his research.”
“Wait a minute,” Michael said. “Eva Jordan? Your dad isn’t by chance Anthony Jordan, the author, is he?”
Eva’s face lit up.
“Who is Anthony Jordan?” asked Charlie.
“My father,” confirmed Eva.
“Wow!” replied Michael with renewed interest. “Your father wrote the Modern Day Guide to the Supernatural, didn’t he?”
“That would be correct.”
“William has that book in his study, Charlie. For someone coming from a non-magical background, his work is quite thorough. It’s a handy guide, I must say.”
“Of course, most people think it’s just made up drivel,” Eva remarked. “He is not exactly a respected literary genius in the writing or scientific community.”
“Well in the witch community, at least this witch community, he’s got fans,” said Michael.
“You’ve read it?”
“Cover to cover,” Michael told her. “I’m not just a pretty face,” he claimed with a wink.
“Got a little inner geek, eh?” she jabbed lightly.
“I’ll never admit that,” he responded through grinning lips.
She laughed at his response. Michael liked her. She was easy going and his empathy didn’t pick up on anything potentially dangerous. No warning signs popped out of her emotions. Her feelings made a lot more sense now.
Eva wasn’t scared seeing Charlie in his non-human form because she was aware of the supernatural side of the Isle. Still, she had amazing recovery for being in a near death experience.
Charlie, on the other hand, did not like the situation at all; it seemed wrong to him. First, that they just happened upon a woman in trouble near a cave not often explored, only to find out she is aware of their world, something few know. And the timing... right after a dead body was found in this very cave...
Then again, she did have a nasty gash on her leg and was truly panicked when they had found her. Plus the man found in the cave had been dead for years, and had been killed by their mother. This Eva Jordan couldn’t have anything to do with that.
He could tell by Michael’s reactions that he wasn’t getting any strange vibes, so Charlie shook it off as paranoia. His wolf senses were tingling at full speed though, warning him there was something not right about this entire situation.
But perhaps that had more to do with the fact they were standing in a cave where his parents had stood, shortly before their deaths, and had nothing to do with Eva Jordan.
“So you’re summering on the Isle again?” Michael asked her.
“Yes. My father rented a place on the shore, just outside of town near the Mermaid Point Lighthouse.”
Her father was on the Isle as well. Michael wondered if he might get to meet him.
Charlie cleared his throat. “This is all quite interesting,” although his tone clearly meant the opposite. “But we’re losing the day. We should get a move on.”
He tried to pass off his doubts as purely paranoia, but something nagged at the back of his mind. Something about this woman was not trustworthy. And the sooner they got out of the cave, the sooner he could be done with her.
“So where are you headed?” Eva asked them.
Michael smiled, taking out the crystal.
“We are heading that way,” he pointed, as the crystal turned and lit up, toward the darkness of a cavern not too far ahead. They jumped back into the water and swam to the embankment of the cavern. Once out of the water, they unhooked their flippers, leaving on shoes that were flexible and waterproof. Eva wore the same style flipper. They left the flipper parts behind and carefully stepped into the cavern.
The crystal grew brighter, and the cavern was surprisingly easy to walk through. The brothers had expected the terrain to be more difficult to negotiate. Another five minutes in, the light from the crystal unexpectedly went out, plunging the trio into complete darkness.
Up ahead, voices echoed.
They were not alone in the cave.
CHAPTER SEVEN
William and Melinda reached Emily’s house. They located her father in the garden out back.
“William Wakefield and Melinda Howard. Well, I’ll be! What brings you two out my way?” He motioned for them to have a seat under a gazebo in the center of the garden.
“It’s good to see you Mr. Morgan. You look like you’re getting around better,” Melinda noted, although she had not seen him since his last visit, with Emily, for dinner a few weeks prior at the Howard Mansion.
“That I am. That I am. Doc finally got the pain meds right and my back has never felt better! Just you two wait until you’re this age…” he trailed off.
Melinda took a sideways glance at William. Aging. Something he would never experience. Something she would. Another reason they could never be together.
“Mr. Morgan,” began William, “we actually came today to speak with you about something rather urgent.”
“Oh. I see. What can I help you with?”
“It’s regarding Emily,” William revealed.
“Emily!” His eyes widened. “Is she okay?”
“Um. Well. We are hoping you might be able to tell us if she’s okay,” Melinda said.
Emily’s father looked confused.
“Mr. Morgan, what can you tell us about Emily’s ring?” William got right to the point.
At the mention of the ring, Mr. Morgan’s face turned ashen, and he lost all vigor.
“It was a gift,” he stammered. “I gave it to her years ago, but it once belonged to Emily’s mother.”
“Does it have any special purpose?” Melinda prompted.
Mr. Morgan still did not answer.
“Look, Mr. Morgan. I hate to be blunt,” Melinda stated, “but we don’t have much time. I am sure, after living on The Demon Isle these last few years, that you must be aware there are things on this island that are not… normal.”
Mr. Morgan stood and paced the gazebo.
“I am quite aware,” he divulged with complete seriousness. “It is the reason I moved my family out of Georgia, and to The Demon Isle in the first place.”
William and Melinda listened intently.
“It took me years to locate this Isle. I tracked rumor after rumor, followed clue after clue. I needed to find a home for my family that strengthened magic and my search led me to here, to The Demon Isle. Of course, there were also warnings, that because of the nature of the Isle, many dangerous things were attracted here as well. It didn’t matter though. I needed strong magic to save Emily from a life of pain, and fear. It was her mother’s dying wish
that I bring her here. She lived just long enough to see it through.”
He paused taking a coarse breath and continued, his voice sure, but sad.
“You see, Emily takes after her mother. She was a spirit vessel. So is Emily.”
William’s eyes brightened with understanding. “The ring, it blocks the spirits?”
“Yes. We gave Emily the ring when she was a little girl. As I said, it was once her mother’s ring. But when Emily started exhibiting signs that she also had the gift, her mother took off the ring and we gave it to Emily. Removing the ring left Emily’s mother vulnerable to spirits. Normally, she was prepared for this. She had taken the ring off many times, and allowed spirits to enter her body willingly. There was a time she helped many lost souls pass along messages and move on from this world.”
“It is not always as simple as that,” William surmised. “Is it?”
“No. It is not. Her mother came into contact with an evil spirit. I don’t know how much you understand about spirit vessels, Mr. Wakefield, but some spirits, if strong enough, can possess a living, human vessel. It is nasty, hard work to get them back out once you let them in. One such spirit tricked my wife and possessed her for weeks. Emily was still young; she just thought her mother was ill. Not long after it was over and my wife was free from the possession, I gave Emily the ring. Her mother did not want her to experience such things at her young age. You both know my Emily,” he justified, gazing at them. “She’s so sweet natured, so lost her in books, and studies.”
“She’s also super smart and quite strong willed when she puts her mind to something, Mr. Morgan,” Melinda reminded confidently.
He nodded in worried agreement. “She is. Now. She had to become strong after her mother passed away.” He swallowed hard before continuing. “You see, before we came to the Isle, the ring’s power had started to weaken. We feared what would happen if the ring failed completely. We just wanted Emily to have a normal childhood. A normal life.”
“So you moved here,” Melinda confirmed. “So the Isle’s magic would strengthen the ring’s power.”
“Yes. Once we were here, and my wife knew that the ring would protect Emily, she passed on. She had been sick for some time. Cancer. She stuck it out long enough to see for herself that Emily would be protected.” He paused again and shakily continued. “I was terrified when she left to go to college, but the power from the Isle seemed to hold, especially since Emily came home to visit nearly every weekend.”
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