by D. N. Hoxa
“I didn’t know they had you. I thought you…” Noah said, then his voice trailed off when he realized we could hear him.
“Take us home, Noah,” Elisa said.
Surprise registered on his face. “Home? With them?”
“Please,” Elisa said with a nod. “If we don’t leave now, they’ll catch us. I don’t want to go back.” The fear in her eyes was unmistakable. Whatever the ECU had done to her, I was willing to bet it was similar to what they’d done to us. I glanced back at Luca, who was still looking out the window, and his pale face said it all.
“We have to move.” The soldiers were on their way.
Noah said nothing else. He grabbed Elisa in his arms again and walked out of the room.
***
My screaming muscles and overtired brain seemed to feed my fear and paranoia with every step we took. I spent more time looking behind me than ahead, and each time I turned my head, I expected one of two things to happen: an ECU soldier to shoot at me—and I no longer had the energy to even protect myself from bullets; or a vampire would decide that just because we were with Noah didn’t mean we weren’t fair game, and sink his fangs in us until we were drained of blood.
Noah took us down the emergency stairs, as if we needed to be tested even more. It wasn’t just me—Luca, Fallon, Grover, even Ax were swaying from one side to the other every few steps. We were at our limits, and if we didn’t stop soon, we were going to fall and not be able to get back up.
It was a while before we did. Noah sent us through an apartment, and out its window, which led us to a rooftop. The darkness enveloped everything around us, and we had to hold hands to make sure we wouldn’t fall. Thankfully, Noah wasn’t using his super-speed. If he did, he’d have disappeared a long time ago, but I suspected he was sparing Elisa, who was still wrapped up in his arms, hiding her face under his chin. After the rooftop, we had to jump a foot down to the ground. My feet screamed in protest but I ignored them. We’re almost there, I said to myself, though I had no idea if we were in the Lair any longer. Nobody around us as we entered what looked like a park with only one of the five lampposts working, spewing dim light across the seven half-broken benches and the ground. It didn’t smell unusual—just asphalt and garbage—until he led us into the trees. I couldn’t tell you what kind they were, how big, or how dense. I just held onto Grover’s arm and pushed my legs forward. The smells of spells made my stomach growl. It was too much, but I had no thoughts to spare on worrying if we were getting into trouble.
Finally, what felt like an eternity later, we saw a house.
It was well built and brand new looking, with maroon walls and three large windows in the front. It looked nothing out of the ordinary, if you discounted the fact that it was in the middle of a park. And when my head got the chance to catch up, I realized, we hadn’t walked an eternity to get to that place. We’d walked for five minutes, maybe six.
“Elisa, they’re right behind us,” I said, though it could have been the fear speaking. “We need to get farther away.” It would be so easy for the ECU to find us—or the vampires, if they decided they wanted snacks before sunrise.
“We’re safe here,” she said and tapped Noah on the shoulder. He immediately put her down. “Nobody’s ever found us in here yet.” She looked better, her eyes more alert, and she seemed very sure when she turned and walked to the door, which Noah was already holding open for her.
I wanted to believe her, I really did, but lately, every time I thought things were going to be okay, that’s when everything went to shit. But the others didn’t ask questions. With their heads down, they dragged their feet behind Elisa, until I was the only one left outside. My ears searched for any sound, but other than insects buzzing in the night, I heard nothing. This place was spelled heavily, that much was obvious. But would the spells hold against the ECU now that they knew we were in the area?
Only time would tell. Sucking in a deep breath, I walked inside the house.
The living room was more homey than I’d have thought. Lots of colors—too much color—all around us, starting with the rainbow rug by the entrance. Pictures of Noah and Elisa were everywhere, in frames, glued to the kitchen walls. Noah looked like a different man in them, and so did Elisa. They both looked very happy, smiling widely in each picture. For a girl who spewed Hedge magic spells like she was a hundred years old, Elisa’s tastes sure surprised me.
“Thank you,” Luca said when Noah closed the door behind me. He finally felt safe. I still didn’t.
“You need to sleep,” Elisa said, walking over to the kitchen and the coffee machine on the small counter. “And when you wake up, you need to separate. There isn’t much time, and I won’t risk my home for long.”
“Nobody is going to separate,” Ax said, reading my mind. “We’re stronger together, and we need to be strong now more than ever.”
“I’m tired,” she whispered, pouring herself a mug of coffee while Noah stood right beside her, always searching her face as if he were expecting something to happen. He didn’t try to hide his affection, either. Elisa apparently meant a great deal to him.
“Elisa, we were being held in the ECU together with you. There were others there as well. The demons, they…” They took them. They took all those people, and probably tied them to walls to suck their magic whenever they pleased. Those witches had no chance if we didn’t help them. None.
“I’m sorry, Scarlet,” she whispered and met my eyes, holding on tightly to her mug. “This is as far as I can take you. Now, sleep.”
“Don’t!” I shouted before the words had even left her lips. She was chanting again, the same spell she put on us while we were in her car. She was putting us to sleep against our will!
By some miracle, I was able to run toward her, even jump over the small coffee table. A punch on her face, just a small one, was going to stop her.
But before that happened, Noah stopped me. He materialized in front of me just as my feet touched the floor again, and put his hands on my shoulders. My magic tried to break free but there was no energy in me to push it forward. Elisa’s voice was the only thing I could hear, the words of her Hedge spell so strange. Something settled around my shoulders, pushing against the top of my head, burying me deeper until my lids were too heavy to hold open.
The sound of bodies falling to the ground scared me, but Noah wouldn’t let me move. My legs gave up on me and the world disappeared to leave place for another, much darker and more sinister.
I’d have liked to rest since Elisa was making me sleep anyway, but they didn’t let me. The demons, the green-eyed man…my father. They chased me down the rabbit hole, their laughter mocking me. Run, little witch, run, they said.
And the worst part? I remembered it all—their faces, the feeling of being chased when I couldn’t get my body to move fast enough, the feeling of almost getting caught by any and all of them, and the desperation of dooming all those witches to a fate worse than being imprisoned by the ECU.
***
When my eyes opened, it still felt like I had the whole world at my back, just waiting to devour me, to swallow me whole. It was a long night—or day—and though no immediate pain in my body caught my attention, I was still tired, my eyelids heavy. Remembering how I’d gotten into that strange room, sleeping in a bed wrapped in bright pink sheets, wasn’t necessary. Elisa was in front of the door, holding her hips looking at me like she was disappointed.
I sat up way too fast and the view went dark in front of my eyes for a second. We were all alone in the room, though it was obvious that somebody had slept on the floor, and the other twin bed across from mine. There were blankets and pillows everywhere, and it smelled of sleep, too. The pink lamps around the room were turned off, sun streaming through the two round windows between the beds. I still wore the white shirt and pants of the ECU, though both now dirty and bloody. I casually raised my arm to smell myself. Shoot…
“First door on the left,” Elisa said. It looked like I ha
dn’t smelled my underarms as casually as I’d thought. “You have clothes in there, too. Don’t take too long.” She turned around and left before I could remember to speak.
Normally, I liked to take my time in the shower, but that day, I was in and out in five minutes. The clothes Elisa had given me fit, but tightly. The jeans were a size too small, hanging lower on my hips than I’d have liked, and the dark green shirt looked cropped on me. I didn’t check the mirror for bruises, afraid of what I might see, and I ignored the dragon bracelet around my hand the whole time. Just pretend it isn’t there, I said to myself whenever the panic began to set in. I would pretend for as long as it took to find out how to get the thing off me.
The others were in Elisa’s living room. They were pretending, too—to watch TV. Noah was nowhere to be seen, probably because of the sunlight. The sink was full of dirty dishes, which meant the others had eaten. When Elisa saw me coming in, she pushed a bowl at me. Cereal. Great.
“Thanks,” I whispered and dug in before my stomach had the chance to start screaming at me. The others stood up from Elisa’s green and blue couches and came to us, leaning over the counter to the side of the cabinets. Elisa looked down at the floor as if she couldn’t wait for us to be gone. I guess I could understand her.
Swallowing the honey flavored cereal, I cleared my throat. “Let’s get right to the point. We’re screwed, probably even more than we realize right now, and we need help.” Desperately.
“What you need is to separate,” Elisa said.
I shook my head. “We’re not going to do that.”
“Then you might as well go turn yourselves back in,” she said with a shrug.
“Okay, okay, let’s back up for a second. Why were you in the ECU in the first place? Why did they take you?” Luca said, but he wasn’t asking the right questions.
“Because.” Elisa raised her brows at him.
“Elisa, the demons have the others. We’re not sure exactly how many, but they have them, and they’re probably feeding off them as we speak. We need to help them.”
“No!” she shouted. “Forget it! I was in there, too!”
“And we got you out,” Fallon spit.
“You did, and thank you for that, but I’m not going back in.” Couldn’t say I blamed her.
“We’re not, either. You hunt the demons, don’t you? For whatever reason, you know how they work. Where they hang out.” Otherwise she’d have never found the ones who caught us and took us into that abandoned hospital.
“You’re not listening to me,” she said, her voice rising. “The worst thing you can possibly do now is search for others! The more of you together, the easier it will be for both the demons and the ECU to find you. Trust me when I tell you, the smartest thing to do right now is separate, at least until the waters clear and you know where you stand.”
My hands slammed on the marble counter, and surprised even me. “We already know where we stand. We have to help those people. If we don’t get them out, nobody is going to give a shit.” I didn’t mention that they were taken because of me, did I?
“She’s right. Those people need help,” Luca said.
“You know what’s strange to me? All this time, the demons have never dared—or knew how—to get into the ECU. The Dirts in there were protected better than anything I can come up with here, yet the demons found them, right after you guys were caught. I wonder why?” And her eyes met mine. Holy cow, it was like she knew. She knew about the green-eyed man, and the kiss I’d given him to free us, which to him had translated into bring a bunch of demons into the facility.
“It’s not strange. The demons are evolving,” Fallon said. “They recognized Scarlet and Luca’s magic. They were speaking.”
This threw Elisa off. “Speaking?” Her voice broke.
“Yes, speaking. They’ve changed,” I whispered, terrified of the memories.
“So how did you escape?”
Once again, everybody turned to me and the dragon around my left wrist.
“It’s that thing. It turned into a sword made of lightning,” Luca said, pointing at my hand.
“It did?” Elisa was smiling for some reason. She came closer to me and analyzed the dragon with narrowed eyes. “Looks pretty ordinary to me.”
“It can kill them. It killed them already. Three of them. Turned them to charcoal dust right in front of our eyes,” I said halfheartedly. As much as I hated that thing, it was the reason why we were still alive and out of the demons’ reach. “Sylvester Cain saw it all. He told us to run away. To find ways to kill them, because Adams would never let us go.”
Not a drop of blood left in Elisa’s face, she went back to lean against the cabinets. “Show me.”
What?
“No.”
“Show her, Scarlet,” Fallon said impatiently.
“I can’t! I tried to do it last night while we were being chased, but it didn’t work.”
“So try again.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and took in a deep breath. “We need help,” I said, turning to Elisa again. “We don’t know how to find their hideouts, and you do. All we need is to be pointed in the right direction.”
To my surprise, she began to laugh. “Look, I’m not going to lecture you about why you’re being stupid. All I’m going to do is tell you that if you leave here together like this, the ECU will have you in cuffs before you can blink. If that’s what you want, fine! Go for it, but that is not the way to help anyone, not even yourselves.”
“So spell us,” I said. She’d done healing spells on me already, I was sure of it. Why not a hiding spell or confusion spell for the road?
“I intend to,” Elisa said. “But no spell I can put on you is going to keep them away for long. Do you understand me? They aren’t going to stop until they get you in their hands again.” I didn’t think she realized it, but with every word she spoke, she terrified me more and more. Or maybe she did realize it, and that’s why she was choosing those words.
“So what do you suggest?” Ax asked, breathing heavily. He was mad, fists gathered by his side, his eyes red. “We just separate and leave? Forget any of this ever happened?”
To be honest, I wished I could do that. I wished I could forget about the demons and the witches who were like us—Storm witches. That was what the green-eyed man had called me. I wondered if the others would hate the name as much as I did if I told them…
“I suggest you separate for now. Leave in twos. Give it a few weeks before you get back together. Learn to shield your magic like Scarlet, and when your heads clear again, you can design a plan that will not lead you into the ECU’s hands, or worse, the demons’.”
“Or, you can help us find the demons right now, and we can get on our way.” Trying to keep the anger off my words wasn’t working. None of them knew what had really happened. None had any idea how the demons had found us, but I did. And the longer I stayed there doing nothing, the faster I was going to lose my mind.
But Elisa shook her head. “I’m not going to find any demons any time soon. The ECU is after me, too, remember? I’m going to lay low for a while.” With a sigh, she rubbed her face furiously. “I’m sorry. I really can’t help you.”
I was going to shout at her with everything I had when somebody beat me.
“She could be right.”
We all turned to Luca. Was he joking?
Didn’t look like it.
“If we separate into twos, we can use a few weeks to find others. What did we talk about when we decided to break into the ECU?”
“You broke into the ECU?” Elisa said, her voice high pitched as if she was about to have a heart attack. I flinched. Yeah, now that I thought back to it, that was a pretty fucking dumb move.
“We talked about how much stronger we’d be together,” Ax said, ignoring Elisa.
“Exactly. If we all separate into…” Luca counted us with his eyes and his math didn’t add up. “If all of us go looking for others, when we get back together t
o plan, we’ll be stronger. We’ll have a better chance.”
“It’s too risky,” Ax said, but his heart wasn’t in the words. He was staring at the floor, thinking about it, his eyes glazed over.
“But it would be more efficient,” Grover said. “We could travel the whole country if we had to, to find others who are willing to fight.”
“Yes, that’s awesome,” Fallon cheered, a fake smile plastered on her face. “Except we can’t fight demons!”
“Scarlet can,” Luca said, nodding at me.
While they spoke, a different kind of plan developed in my mind, one I was pretty sure none of them was going to like. It’s why a vital part of said plan was to never tell them about it.
“But we won’t have a dragon in our hands, will we? If we can find them at the store, let’s go get em, but we can’t!” Fallon said.
“We don’t need to. She’ll be enough. Didn’t you see what happened in the room?” Grover said, grinning widely at me.
“She turned them into dust,” Luca whispered. “If there are enough of us to cause a distraction…”
“Yes, by inviting the demons to suck on our power,” Fallon spit.
“Exactly,” said Ax. “If we plan carefully, we can lure them out in such a position that it will be very easy for Scarlet to finish them all off.”
“That’s assuming we can find them,” Fallon said. I didn’t take it personally—she had nothing against me. She was the only one to see how flawed this so called plan of theirs was. For starters, as soon as the demons smelled us getting close, they’d be all over us. They’d suck us dry before we could lure them out. There was no telling how many of them were there, and going in blind was suicide. Experience told us as much when we went into the ECU with Oscar the werewolf traitor.
“You can do it, right? You can make that thing work again?” Grover asked me.
I couldn’t hide my flinch. “I don’t know.” I was going to try, that was for sure. It was part of my brand new, shiny plan.
