But from somewhere, a little voice sounded inside my head, saying, “Come on now, lassie. You can do this.”
Upon hearing this, I knew without a doubt that I could in fact keep us safe. I placed my hand on the car again and shifted us into another dimension, one that was parallel to our own, so I could still see and hear what was happening. Jenny walked into the space where the car was not ten seconds ago and wandered around looking for us, but all traces of us had been lifted and hidden.
After a few minutes, I heard a car on the road and a horn went off, shattering the silence like a gunshot, causing birds to fly squawking out of their trees. Jenny wasn’t the only one there. Joe’s younger brother walked into the clearing and grabbed Jenny’s hand, pulling her away. I heard the car doors shut and listened as it drove away before my hands slumped down exhausted, and I finally fell asleep.
While I slept, I had the strangest dreams about faces pressing in, trying again and again to get through the protection and felt a level of malevolence that I usually only felt around Mr Stevenson and his family. But even after Jenny left, the feeling lingered and I was uneasy, although I was so exhausted that I had to sleep. There was no choice.
. I awakened suddenly at 4:20 a.m., hearing a wailing just outside. When I looked, I saw more spirits than ever before trying to break through the protection. I understood at that moment that this was their woods and we needed to go somewhere else. They didn’t want us here. It was as if someone had said it, although no one had. I could feel it clear as day.
It finally lightened at around five thirty and the spirits disappeared, but not before warning me that we had better be gone before the day was over. I couldn’t agree more. I just needed to find us a safer place to hide, where Nate could recover and I could rest. I checked on Nate before going out of the car. He seemed okay, still sleeping. I knew I had very little strength left for magic; the night before had drained me even more.
I walked out of the area and moved a clump of bushes, to cover it completely. Now the car was hidden, even from me. I picked my way through the woods, listening all the while for feet approaching, but for the best part of an hour, I heard nothing.
I kept walking, heading towards the sound of a river, or stream, hoping that there might be somewhere there that we could hide out for a while, when all of a sudden, I saw that I was in a clearing whose sole purpose was a witch catcher. I was more powerful than most witches, at least I thought I was, but not at this moment. I was too weak to fight and struggle to walk forwards, but I managed through sheer force of will and determination.
When I looked back, I could see markings on logs, on the ground, laid in a pentagram shape, supposed to drain a witch of power and give those powers to the person who set up the pentagram. I had no idea how I knew this, but I just did, which astonished me as much as it scared me.
I walked on, getting faster and faster; I could feel him following me. I didn’t know who, or what he was, just that he was powerful and power hungry. I was something like a feast to him. All those latent powers, I had but hadn’t gotten around to using yet. I also managed to escape his trap; his mouth watered and grasping that fact made me feel so angry that I just stopped and turned around to face this threat.
As I turned round, a small man walked into view and I recoiled, wanting to run again. The man was around five foot, with white hair, white eyes, and a huge nose. Once I had gotten past these things, his teeth were like stone. When I looked down, his hands were clawed, with his huge fingernails rounding at the top. He looked hideous.
Almost as if he knew what I was thinking, he smiled and the effect made him look more terrifying. “So, you’re the one they are all talking about. Hmmm, you don’t seem very powerful to me. Forgive me. I forgot my manners. Now I know who you are, but do you know who I am?”
I stared at him, transfixed, noticing as I did so that each time he spoke, he deliberately moved closer and closer to me. By the time he spoke again, he was directly in front of me, “I am Odoacer the Great.” I must have looked my confusion, because he sighed and began again. “I am a sorcerer, the most powerful sorcerer, even more powerful than you, Jasmine. I have travelled far and wide before coming to rest in these here woods. Last night, I sent those ghosts to ward you off, but it didn’t work, did it? Now here we are and I shall be quite sorry when I have to take you, but undoubtedly for you, it will be better than if the demons get you. For you shall live, but be completely mortal when I am through with you.”
I saw him smile, as though he did me a kindness, and took one more step towards me. I realised that if I was going to act, now was the time. His power, at least some of it, I had managed to copy, giving me strength and power that I would certainly not have had otherwise.
I saw his clawed hands whip up towards my face in the seconds that I figured out about the powers and I put my hands up, placed them on his chest, and pushed him. I knew that I managed to push him through one dimension, but I wanted him as far away from me as possible. I stepped into the first dimension, a barren land full of fire and trees, but nothing else. It was one parallel to our own, and I shoved him through two more dimensions, thinking that it would keep him busy for a while.
I stepped back into my own dimension, and the sound of the forest came flooding back. I turned away and walked up a slope, which stood in front of me, hearing the sounds of animals as they started their early morning routines. As I got to the top of the slope, I noticed a waterfall and I walked towards it, noticing as I did so a small cave hidden beneath the flowing water.
That should be enough to hide us for a while.
I walked into the clearing where the car was hidden and realised that it was now almost seven in the morning. I got into the car and decided that we should move to the sheltered cave and get some protection set up. Nate said nothing to me; he was conscious but still so weak. He grimaced when I placed my hands on the car, transporting it and us into the shelter I had picked out. I left Nate inside the car and went out to check around to make sure the cave was uninhabited.
It wasn’t; there were a few small demons, but I shifted their dimensions without them even noticing. I looked down to the riverbed and saw some wild garlic, lavender, comfrey, ground ivy, and foxglove. Some of these plants would, if mixed together properly make this cave impenetrable to any evil creature, and help me to cure Nate’s injuries. I also noticed an oak tree as I left the cave. Transporting myself down to the riverbed, I caught up a few of each of those ingredients.
Back in the cave, Nate sat in the car and looked around for me. When I got back, I could see he was panicking. I walked over to the car, my arms and bag laden with as many of the plants as I could carry. I placed a basic protection around the cave, and used some of my blood to strengthen it, running my blood from a slice on my finger across the entrance to the cave.
I made my way over to the car, ready to ask Nate about which potions to use and how to make them up, but when I opened the door and saw he was breaking, which surprised me. I had never seen him cry, not even when he stabbed me. Yet here he was… crying.
I put all of the plants onto the ground and climbed into the car, pulled him into my arms, and held him until the tears subsided. He looked at me and I could see the pain in his eyes. “I’m. In. So. Much. Pain.” He gasped out, his eyes crunching as agony shot through him and his stomach rolled. I held tightly onto him, kissing his head and soothing his hair, trying my best to heal him as he lay in my arms. He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, breathing a little easier, “Thank you, Jas. I know you are healing me.” He drifted off to sleep and I made myself comfy in the back seat, falling asleep for a short time. After a few hours he kissed my arm and I jumped in fright.
“Jas, I’m sorry; it just keeps coming at us, all the time, from all sides. You ever think this relationship was doomed?”
“Sometimes, yeah, I really do. It’s so hard just now, dealing with all of our issues, but we have to keep going. Otherwise we’re dead.”
; He just nodded and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep much last night.”
We sat in the car, together for a few more seconds before I got out to prepare the protection spell. I crushed the garlic and some oak leaves, in one of the bowls we had bought at the supermarket, and mixed them together, before adding salt, sage, basil, and rosemary. I also added thyme and when I had enough, I walked over to the entranceway, scooped up a handful of water, and mixed that into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
I then picked up a few stones, poured the mixture in a line across the entrance, and placed a line of stones over it. I then walked in a full circle around the cave, placing the mixture on the walls and the floor, to make sure no evil creature could get in.
As I turned to go back to the car, I noticed that Nate couldn’t be seen from outside the car and when I walked over, I saw a small demon, sitting on his chest. Without caring at all, I sent him into the next dimension, where I had sent all the other demons. As I approached the car, Nate lay there, spaced out. When I opened the door again to ask him if he was okay, I noticed his eyes were glazed and he seemed unconscious again. I ranted under my breath for a minute as I climbed into the car, mixture in hand and placed some of it onto Nathan’s open skin, before running my hand down it to heal it.
The skin smoked and Nate yelled in pain; his eyes lost the glazed look, yet still terrified and in agony. Tears filled his eyes, but I kept running my hand over the cuts, using the power I had gained that morning to heal them.
Eventually, he stopped screaming and after an hour, his body healed. The combination of the powers that I had picked up from the sorcerer and the mixture worked, healing and cleaning out the wound.
When Nate was fully healed, he hugged me tightly for a few seconds and whispered a thank you in my ear.
“We need to unload, Jas and set up to stay here” I smiled at him and he leaned down to kiss me, but I turned my head away and he kissed my cheek. He sighed in frustration, but left his lips there for a moment longer.
As we got out of the car, he looked around and walked to the doorway, “How’d you know what to use for protection?” I smiled up at him, and winked. As he looked at me, he laughed and I was taken back to a simpler time, when we were in the shack. He looked at me like that then too, but I hadn’t seen him look at me like that in the longest time. Now he looked at me as though I was more of burden to him, and I couldn’t figure out my feelings about him anyway. I was so confused. While I stood next to the car thinking about all this, he walked back over to me, tilting my chin up with his finger so I looked into his eyes. His eyes looked more brown than green today and as he stared into my eyes, I shuddered right down to my soul.
“Jas, I know this is messed up and it’s shit just now, but you need to know I love you. No matter what else you think, that has always been the case. I tried to love someone else, but it was you, always you.”
He brought his lips to mine gently and kissed me softly on the lips as his arms circled my waist and he pulled me against his chest, speaking again, “I would choose this every time, not a moment has ever gone by when I’ve regretted my choices over you. The only thing I regret is how hard this is and how much I wish my family didn’t exist.” He kissed my forehead and let me go, leaving me stunned, bereft and annoyed.
He walked around the back and grabbed the tent, putting it up in about ten minutes before grabbing the bed and blowing that up too. He didn’t let me help, and made me sit in a camping chair, kissing my head softly and running his fingers through my hair. “You’ve done enough, baby. Just relax okay and let me do something.”
After the bed had been put up, he grabbed some supplies from the car and placed them inside the tent. His smile was dazzling as he moved towards me saying, “you’re palace awaits my lady.” He pulled me up by the hand and we moved as one to the car, sealing it by walked around it and placing some more of the mixtures around it. .
I made to walked towards the tent, but Nathan called me over to look at something and from the tone of his voice I was worried, very worried. I walked slowly over to him and he pointed to the riverbed, “Jas, look down there.” His whole body shook and I took his hand, watching at his side as they walked up and down the riverbed. When they stopped and began gazing up at the waterfall, it made us nervous. We stood watching them for a while and we both sighed in relief as the word, “human,” was muttered by us both at the same time. They were thankfully only humans exploring the area at the waterfall.
After the scare, we had tinned fruit to eat, and fell asleep. It was the first time in days that I had been relaxed during my sleep and the first time in months that Nate had gotten a proper night’s sleep. The next day we didn’t even leave the tent, eating a breakfast of tinned pears and strawberries, before falling asleep again. I awoke that night, and it was pitch black in the cave.
I had awakened to the sound of the wind howling and rain falling. I was stiff from sleeping so much. I decided to get up, but my movement woke Nate. He looked at me, smiled, and curled up deeper under the covers. I left him there, hoping he would fall back into a sleep, lifted the torch, unzipped the tent, and shone the torch around the cave. Water came in the back of the cave. I walked over to it and took a sip; it was clean and freezing cold. I stripped to my underwear, feeling a little self-conscious, and had a wash in the water.
I walked around the cave, thinking about the previous few days. How close we had come to getting caught. How Nate and I still had to talk about our relationship, if there even was one. I still had to figure out how I felt about Nate. I threw on some of my new clothes and continued to think about us. Yes, I knew that I loved him, but did I still want to be with him even after he had tried to kill me?
I hadn’t been thinking or taking note of the time passing, but when I heard Nate whimpering in his sleep, I walked back into the tent. I heard Nate talking in his sleep.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” He whimpered again and as I sat beside him, he awoke crying. “My dad was in my head asking where we were. I couldn’t tell him anything. Thank goodness you drove us here.”
He was really upset and worried, but he climbed out of the sleeping bag and crawled into my arms for a hug. He turned his head towards me and I looked into his eyes for a minute. He leaned in and kissed me properly, a kiss that tore at my inhibitions about us and our relationship.
He kissed me like a drowning man sucking down the last of his oxygen and I shuddered as I wondered what I should do. Damn, all these distractions were stopping me from making decisions. He shifted himself so he too sat up in the bed, and hesitantly he leaned in towards me. I looked at the floor, trying to figure out what I should be feeling at that moment, when he touched my chin, turning my head to him.
“I love you,” he told me, “more than my own life and more than anything else in this world. I am so incredibly sorry for hurting you. I will do anything you ask if you will let me try to make it up to you.”
I looked at him, tears brimming over my eyes, and watched as he leaned into me, lowering me backwards. The kissing became more intense and soon we were both panting for breath, gripping each other tighter. He whispered again that he loved me, as he stopped kissing me and pulled my jumper over my head. I helped him remove his jumper and we kissed again. We lay in the tent, lit only by the low setting on our torch, with his body draped over me. I never wanted this moment to end.
As soon as my head processed that thought, we heard a loud crash in the distance that made us both sit up so fast we banged our heads together. We fumbled about, pulling our jumpers back on and rushing out into the cave to see what the disturbance was this time.
As I ran to the entranceway, Nate stumbled and fell, but picked himself back up. We looked out, examining the river in the near total darkness. We didn’t hear another sound, but we didn’t need to. The moment had been ruined. We walked back to the tent slowly and zipped ourselves in, not a moment too soon.
Ten seconds after we had zipp
ed the tent up, we lay in the darkness, having turned out the torch to save battery, when we heard voices. These weren’t just any voices; it was the voice of Nick and Leanne, followed closely by Jenny and Gordon. We were in danger again. I felt myself groan internally and felt Nate stiffen beside me.
He told me silently that his dad was in his head again asking where we were. He blocked out the fact that his sister and brother were in the cave; if he had registered that thought, then Mr Stevenson would have realised where we were.
We heard them marauding through the caves, checking every nook and cranny, but they never came near our corner, or went near the car. The protection we placed did its job and hid the evidence of our location.
How did they get in here? I realised that the water from the rain must have washed some of the potion away. They wandered around the cave for over an hour, and passed by so close to us, I was sure one of them would hear us breathing.
The silence in the cave was shattered as a mobile phone went off. From the sound of it, it was Nick’s. We heard him answer to a very loud but indistinct voice on the phone, saying, “Yes, Father… Over an hour… No sign of them… We will. See you in half an hour.”
I prayed that they were leaving and, as if Nick heard my prayer, he told the rest of the group the plan. “We are going to cave this place in. Go back into the town and meet the family there before heading back to the UK. We think they might have headed there after nearly getting caught.”
Jenny growled. “Why are we caving this in? If they have gone back home, why are we wasting time here?”
“Well, Jenny,” answered Nick’s voice, sounding as if he was speaking to a child, “in case they haven’t gone home, we need to make sure this place is hidden. They could hide in here and protect it from us.”
It went quiet again and then we heard footsteps heading towards the exit. Nate shuddered and gasped. I froze, hoping they hadn’t heard him. They all turned around and searched the cave again, but found nothing. “It was just an animal. Never mind, it’ll be trapped in here.”
Ignition (Escaping Demons Saga Book 2) Page 23
