Conjuring Darkness

by Melanie James

  He knew that he would have to keep a close eye on her breathing. The blue tint of her lips started to fade and they returned to a pale red color. Ryan noticed that Lexi was starting to make small coughs and some of the frothy blood was coming out of her mouth. He had to act quickly, to relieve her lung of the blood and to release the air that got sucked into her chest cavity. It was squeezing her lung from the outside. The first aid kit contained a piece of equipment that resembled a siphon. It had a clear plastic tube with a squeeze bulb attached. He opened the dressing and had Abraham fasten his belt around Lexi’s ribs, to keep her chest compressed. The air in her chest was forced out and he wasted no time inserting the tube under the dressing and into her lung. Once he had removed the blood, he sealed the hose in place, hoping that the one way valve on the end would drain the fluid without letting more air in.

  “Okay Lexi. Now you just have to stay still. You will be fine.” Ryan knew he was lying to her. If she didn’t get to a hospital soon there were a number of fatal complications that could occur. Kate returned and frantically told Ryan about her attempt at calling for help. “I called on the radio. I know someone was answering, but I didn’t know the language. I think they understood me. How is she?”

  “She’s stable. For now. This is going to be a fight for her though.” He pulled out his phone, but still no signal could be found. He remembered what Ben had told him in Haifa. “Shandor, check your pockets for a cell phone and give it to me.” Shandor found the phone and handed it over. “Kate, read me Kemil’s number from my phone.”

  Ryan hastily punched in the numbers that Kate rattled off.

  A gush of relief flooded the group to hear that Kemil and his team would rush to the scene. They would be there in an hour. Shandor took Annah by the hand and then spoke to the others. “Stay here with her Ryan, the witches will be here soon. Annah and I will stop them. You must keep Lexi alive, or they will take her spirit with them through the portal.”

  Chapter Twenty One

  Shandor and Annah stood before the stone altar. Together they placed the amulet in the small depression in the middle of the altar and spoke the ancient magic words. A purplish light began to glow from the altar and grew into a shimmering wall that stretched between the two giant pillars. The alignment was now at its peak and the door to the dark world of the ancient past was open before them. They held their breaths as they waited.

  In a fury of wind and screams, the witches arrived. They circled around like fallen leaves caught in a tempest. The laughter of insanity accompanied the evil shrieks. Shandor squeezed Annah’s hand. “You must do it. Now! They are trying to call out The Seven.” Annah raised up her hands and called. “Lilitu! It is I, your servant!” The great owl swooped down. “Lilitu!”

  Dried blood and dirt covered the sparsely feathered female body. Her head retained the horns that resembled those of the great owl. In a spectacle that could only be imagined in the depths of hell, the hideous thing opened her gaping mouth to reveal a cavern filled with pointed fangs. With her wings fully extended she screeched and hissed furiously at the erratic whirlwind created by the witches.

  This time the witches refused to leave. They continued to circle their cherished portal, chanting their incantation to conjure The Seven. Lilitu snagged one of the witches in her giant claws. There was a crackling sound as the ancient bones and dried flesh were clenched in Lilitu’s grasp. The witch let out a shriek that echoed through the valley as Lilitu devoured her in a series of bone crunching bites. In the distance a horrific wailing erupted from the little group huddled around Lexi.

  Lexi died.

  Among the ripped open wrappers from bandages and first aid supplies there was a small patch of dirt, spattered with her blood. On this little piece of earth, Lexi’s heart seized. Her body laid motionless. Kate fell to her knees in hysterics. Her unintelligible pleas had transformed into sobbing wails of anguish. Abraham held his head in his hands overcome by the death he witnessed. Ryan had been so focused on his frantic effort to save Lexi that he hadn’t allowed his emotions to interfere.

  Now his heart felt like it had truly been broken. He wrapped his arms around her lifeless body, cradling her head against his chest. Ryan’s tears rained down against her pallid face, which not long ago was bright and sassy.

  The remaining witches scrambled about the portal. They screamed for their demons to come forth and save them from Lilitu, who had already devoured three of them. Shandor and Annah were forced to take cover under the stone altar, and could only be observers of the surreal battle scene that played out before them. Annah had done her part by calling Lilitu. She had finally decided that the only way to redeem herself from a millennia of cruelty was to sacrifice her eternal soul. It was the only thing that could be done in order to get Lilitu to defeat the witches.

  “The girl is dead!” Shandor knew it was his turn to redeem his own vengeance-filled existence. He had to save Lexi’s soul from being stolen away into eternal darkness by the witches. Shandor grabbed the amulet and stood in front of the glowing portal. With the shining disc held above him he shouted to the witches. “You can only see this again on the other side!” He threw the amulet through the portal, and the remaining witches flew down into the supernatural abyss. Shandor took Annah’s hand as they ran from the portal, which suddenly closed up and disappeared.

  Lilitu was still there. Her huge wings flapped as she walked on the ground with her massively clawed feet. A lion’s roar grew from her cavernous mouth and echoed through the valley below. She smelled Lexi’s blood on the ground and went to investigate. Annah looked at Shandor and cried. “There is no way to stop her. Without that amulet we truly have no protection from her.”

  Chapter Twenty Two

  The moon shining through the window was the only light in the room. Two entwined bodies rhythmically moved with their shared passion on the bed. They stopped and caressed each other gently. Ryan thought about how he had seen the moonlight on Lexi’s lifeless face in the desert. His heart was well and truly broken. At times it seemed like only yesterday, when in fact, it had been two years ago.

  Now his heart overflowed with life and love once again. He ran his fingers through the girl’s hair and kissed her again. He was completely and deeply moved to passionately make love to her once more.

  He was interrupted by a hideous shriek coming from the dark. The piercing screech alerted them and Ryan jumped up. “Shush...listen.” They heard the noise again. Ryan reached out and quickly pulled on his shorts. “Stay here.” Ryan walked quietly toward the bedroom door. The screeching had stopped. He tried to be as stealthy as he could while he navigated through the darkened doorway. A yellow glow on the wall eerily took the shape of an animal. It resembled the head of a bear. The light also made the shapes of stars on the wall as well as a crescent moon.

  Ryan felt the hot breath from the large black beast in front of him. He reached out and touched it. His hand was soon covered in the slobbery goo dripping from Buddy’s mouth. “Shh Buddy. It’s okay.” In the rectangular shaped structure next to Buddy there was a softer sound. Ryan walked over and looked down. He gently scooped up the tiny demon. “Hi Annie! I thought you were awake. He gave his three month old baby daughter a kiss and held her against his chest. The little yellow nightlight illuminated her face, and he could already see that she would look just like her mother. He carried the cooing baby to the bedroom.

  Lexi rested in the bed, still aroused from their love making session. She glanced at the moon outside through the window, and thought about that moonlit night in the desert. All that remained now was the little scar on her side. She remembered the feeling of floating above her own body while she witnessed everyone struck down by grief as Ryan held her. She remembered how he suddenly and forcefully flung her body to the ground to start CPR on her. He didn’t stop, until Kemil and his team arrived with the ambulance. It was so strange to see her body forcefully arched upward from the shock of a defibrillator.

  She thought abo
ut how the monstrous creature had swooped over her body and then jerked back at the sight of the owl necklace that Ryan had so sweetly placed around her neck. Lexi reached down and held the little owl pendant in her hand, and thought about Annah and Shandor the Magician. Shandor had tricked the witches through the portal by throwing something that appeared to be the amulet. He had literally kept the amulet up his sleeve and then used it to banish Lilitu from the scene.

  Ryan walked in carrying Annie and he laid her down next to Lexi. “I think she’s hungry, or she just misses you.” Ryan noticed that Lexi had been holding her owl necklace and looking at the moon, when he first walked in. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I was just thinking about Shandor and Annah. I can’t believe how much Shandor loved her. To wait thousands of years to save her, and then to actually take her back to the place in time before she was taken away to the temple. How cool is that? Eternal love. I was wondering if they’re having as wonderful of a life in ancient Mesopotamia as we are here in this old Montana farmhouse.”

  Ryan laid down on the bed with Annie between Lexi and him. “Oh I don’t know if they will stick around in that period of history. With a time traveling magician you never know where they could end up. To tell the truth, what we have right here would be pretty hard to beat.” He gave little Annie a kiss on the forehead and then leaned over her to kiss Lexi.

  In the kitchen, Allie Cat was sliding Lexi’s cell phone across the countertop, in an attempt to get it to vibrate like it had been doing off and on for the past hour. The cat curiously looked at the glowing screen.

  “10 Missed Calls: Kate

  “10 New Messages – 10 From Kate- urgent.”

  Previews

  Hour of Darkness

  Chapter 1

  She ignored the painful thorns as she strained to pull back the remaining vines from the small opening between the large granite boulders. The jungle’s relentless undergrowth had kept this place hidden for more than a thousand years and now Kate would be the one to reveal the secret.

  Her heart pounded with excitement and anticipation as she quickly turned on her flashlight. The beam probed the darkness, but all she saw was more of the speckled grey and black rock.

  “What do see?” His voice called up from a few feet below her.

  “Nothing. Not a damn thing. What a letdown.” The sweltering heat and humidity of the Amazon Basin rainforest only enhanced her frustration and disappointment.

  “Well Kate, why don’t we take a break? There’s a lot more territory to cover yet.”

  “Just give me another minute.” Kate moved some smaller rocks from the opening. “Yes! I found something! It looks like a very large tunnel...wait...I think it might be a large chamber!” She turned and danced in celebration.

  “Nice dance moves. I suggest that you come down from those rock before you end up in a—”

  Kate’s feet slipped on the loose rocks. She skidded nearly off the edge of the cliff, but was saved by his muscular arm that swung down and caught her. Kate took a glance down over the edge and took a deep breath. “That was close! Thank you!” You are such a stud. I wonder what it would take for us to just stop messing around and get down to something good. We could have what Lexi and Ryan have. I really believe it. Maybe I should quit being such a smartass all the time.

  “Wow! Is that what it takes for you to say thanks? I ought to dangle you off cliffs more often!”

  “Smartass!” Kate smiled at him and admired his exotic good looks and his hot body. She knew that it was only a matter of time before something happened.

  Down in the dense dark forest below, they began to hear the rhythmic drumming. It was deep and foreboding, not at all like the drums of a dance. These drums seemed to be a warning.

  Accidental Leigh

  Chapter 1

  Apparently the strangest, yet most powerful thing has happened to me, which isn’t saying much. After all, I’m a single, overworked and underfucked elementary school teacher. Maybe I should say that because I have a non-existent love life, I decided to spend my summer break doing something new. Write. Like most women I love reading romance stories. I follow multiple series and authors that keep my masturbatory fantasies pretty well filled with anything that could possibly suit my mood. I have a pretty creative imagination that often puts together some pretty exciting ideas that are drawn from the themes of my reading habit. I figured why not write these down? They could someday be bestsellers! Like I said, something strange happened and that is why I need to keep a diary of what’s going on.

  It all started last fall. I had been casually dating a guy named Carl, a math teacher at the middle school. Don’t get me wrong he’s a nice guy. He just doesn’t come close to being a shadow of what my book boyfriends are like. Carl is just too...normal. He’s soft, pale and a little lumpy. We never had that spark that made me even consider having sex with him. One Saturday morning, he called and wanted to see if I’d like to go out to dinner and catch a movie. I really tried to ignore him, but he’s a persistent little devil. How could I be tactful about saying that I already had plans? I mean, it was the day that I had been eagerly awaiting, since I finished reading the third book in the Shifted Hearts Vampiric Wolf series.

  Book four was ready and willing to provide the long awaited pleasure. I was all set. I had bought the perfect mood candles, the bath soaps and a giant size package of batteries. Not just the family size package, no. This was the size that the Red Cross orders during extended power outages from catastrophic natural disasters.

  I hate to even admit this, but I even bought the perfect skimpy little negligée to wear after my four hour bath. Oh hell, I might as well admit it, I had already received a special gift to myself that arrived in discreet packaging. It promised to measure up to Vladimir Wolf’s fictional hardened length, every thick inch of it. Back to Carl, who couldn’t let go. I finally let it blurt out of my mouth.

  “Carl! I told you that I already have plans. I’m busy tonight.”

  “Doing what, Leigh?”

  “Dammit Carl...I have a date already!”

  “Oh? Really? With who?” Carl said who with a very nasally and sarcastic by the way tone and that really just got me mad. We’re talking about my boy Vlad now.

  “You wouldn’t know him. His name is Vladimir and he’s from Romania.”

  “What? Let me guess, you have a date with a fictional character. That’s what it sounds like to me. Why didn’t you just say you didn’t want to see me anymore?”

  “OK fine, Carl. I would rather stay at home and masturbate than go out with you.” The stinging words rolled off of my tongue and hung in the atmosphere between cell phone towers like a swarm of bees. I clamped my mouth shut, as if I could still stop them from getting to Carl, but it was too late.

  I had everything just right. The mood was set and I slipped into a nice warm bath with my Kindle ready for action. Then it happened. In the second chapter, my beloved Vladimir, my hero, my fantasy love was dead. Dead! Some low-life werewolves killed my vampire-wolf shifter with a wooden stake wrapped in silver. I screamed in pure agony “Dead? Dead! No!”

  I spent the next couple of hours sitting on my bed crying, my tears dropping on my Kindle. Sad, I know. I called my sister in Pittsburgh who shared my love for Vlad. I needed support and all we did was cry. And make threats against the writer who had so swiftly brought grief into our lives.

  As the weeks went by, I slogged my way through the stages of grief over that damn book. I finally shook off my disappointment with the author and channeled my bitterness into creative energy. I made a decision. I would take matters in my own hands and start to write my own books. Just to have a plan was refreshing and I looked forward to getting started.

  One wintery day over my holiday break, I decided that as long as I had some free time, I would start preparing. Now, everyone knows that a writer has to have a little nook where all their creative ideas can get put into words. I have a one bedroom apartment that has whatever spac
e my damn cat allows me to use for myself, which isn’t much. A desk, that was the one thing every writer needs, and I finally found one for free on the local online classifieds. Someone was getting rid of it and I immediately called the number.

  “Hello?” It was an elderly woman that seemed sweet.

  “Hi, I’m calling about the desk you listed. What can you tell me about it?”

  “It’s a desk, not a job offer.”

  “OK. What’s it made out of? Is it big or small? Can’t you describe it a little?”

  “It’s small, old and I want it gone. Do you want it or not?”

  Of course, I said yes and by that afternoon I stopped by the address. It was an old run-down Victorian house in a run-down neighborhood. It was sitting out on the porch with a little sign that said FREE. The desk was very small and very old. It was made from wood and finished with a dark red stain. Four table legs and a square top that lifted open to keep a few things inside. I guess you could say it is more of an antique secretary’s desk. Just big enough to use for a writing surface. Perfect for me, because I wouldn’t have to deal with having an argument with my cat, over moving her carpeted towers and tunnels. I knocked on the door to at least thank the lady, but nobody answered. Once I loaded it into the trunk of my car, I looked back at the house and I saw just a glimpse of someone watching me from an upstairs window. The curtain was yanked quickly closed and although it was strange to me, I was happy to have found my little desk.

  I made a nice little writing nook in my apartment. I set the desk so that I would be able to look out the window. I imagined myself lost in fantasy, hammering out one best-seller after another. I had more fun setting up my space with some inspirational décor. You know the stuff you pick up at any bookstore or gift shop. That’s where it all stayed, untouched until the end of the school year. Well, not exactly untouched. My furry black cat, Luna, decided that I had extended her playground by adding a nice little perch under the window, and provided yet another set of scratching posts for sharpening her claws.