by A L Wright
Hartman House
L. Wright
Note: This book is a work of fiction. Any and all characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Hartman House
Copyright © 2015 by A. L. Wright
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
ISBN 1945407024
EAN 978-1-945407-02-4
Published by Noble Blood Books
First Edition: 2015
Prologue
And they were running. Again. They had thought this new location would be more private; it was definitely more secluded being on the other side of a long lake and back inside the dense trees and scrub of the forest. They had planned it carefully. So how did they know?
Maybe they had taken too long to decide on the location. They'd visited the place a couple of times before they performed any rituals there. Too many times. They usually chose places at random. Maybe someone had tracked them. Someone had to have tracked them!
All these thoughts ran through Rodelle's head as they ran. She and her best friend had been hiding from these hunters for months now, and this was the closest they had gotten. It was way too close.
“Wait, stop!” Laren whispered harshly at her, as she came to a halt and hunched forward, hands on knees, to catch her breath. “I don't have a good feeling about going that way.”
“Well we don't have much of a choice, they are closing in on us from behind and I can feel them off to the sides. If we go straight up this way we will eventually hit a mountain trail and we can find one of our caves to stay in for the night.” Rodelle grabbed Laren's hand and got her moving again.
A howl from behind them had the girls exchanging very surprised glances. Laren had calmed all the hunting animals in town. Horses refused to be ridden after them, and dogs and hounds refused to hunt them. For them to have tracking hounds meant they had called on some outside help.
Rodelle paused, turned and crouched down to place her hand just above the ground.
“Obscura,” she whispered, and flung her hand towards the way they had come. Any prints they had left vanished and a small fog rose to obscure any other signs of their passing in the dark.
“Come on.” She rose and the two of them began running again.
As the sounds behind them became confused the girls smiled at each other and slowed to a walk to catch their breaths.
Rodelle stopped suddenly as she patted at her pockets to make sure she hadn't lost anything.
“Why are you stopping? We need to keep going!” Laren whisper-yelled to her.
“I think I lost my scrying crystal, the quartz. That's the oldest one I have!” Rodelle turned back a few steps looking towards the ground, searching for the crystal.
“Come on, please. We will make another one soon, I promise. Let's just get out of these woods fast.” Laren turned and began briskly walking again.
“Ok, ok... sorry. I shouldn't have brought that one with me anyway. I know better than to bring my more potent things to a practice.” She turned around to see her friend walking away and she stepped forward to follow. She just began to jog to catch up when she saw her friend’s eyes get real big and then disappear altogether.
The ground had opened up under Laren and she had fallen through.
“Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.” Rodelle dropped to the ground and crawled over to the edge, peeking over. What she saw there tore her heart into pieces.
Laren's body was staring straight up at the midnight sky, unseeing and unblinking. The hole was deep and filled with large wooden stakes. Two of these had driven themselves through Laren's neck and lower abdomen.
Shaking and sobbing uncontrollably, Rodelle stared at her friends face for only a moment before scooting away from the hole in denial. She wrapped her arms around her knees and sat there sobbing silently. Until she got angry.
Rising, she turned towards the path they had just run up. She slowly walked back the way they had come, fishing in her pocket for... something. She had to have something that would work.
They had always lived on the code ‘Harm none and do as ye will.’ But these men who hunted them, they lived by a different code. Religious nuts who lived by quoting the bible to scare people into following them; to frighten folk into hunting innocent people. Well she had a quote for them, then.
An Eye for an Eye.
By the time she could see the hunters the wind had whipped up around her, picking up debris and causing it to circle around her viciously. The hunters all turned their eyes toward her, too stunned to say anything. She opened her hand to see what she had found in her pocket to use. It was a malachite arrowhead. Laren had given it to her when they first met. Fitting.
She held her hand out just a small ways from her chest and waved her other hand over it while chanting.
“Sagitta cor quaerentium. Minimus erit reus sanguinis!” She thrust her hand forward, palm up and the arrow head flew away from her hand and into the crowd of witch hunters. It dove straight through missing all the older men in the front of the group and drove right into the chest of a young man in the back.
Time suddenly slowed, and she saw everything in crystal clear detail. The young man’s surprised face was handsome, dark haired and green eyed. As the light started going out of those eyes he slowly made to drop the reins of the horses he was leading. He had no weapons, not even a knife. He had several canteens of water strapped to his belt. And around his neck was a leather thong, holding a silver ring with the inscription “Everlee”.
His life had not been hers to take. He was promised to another. He was not really even a part of this group of hunters.
Rodelle realized all this in a split second, while time was still slowed. She gasped in a sob, realizing what she had done in haste and anger.
Suddenly a dark form dropped down beside her. The person was tall and his face was hidden in the shadows of his cloaks' hood. He was not a hunter, she knew that immediately.
“You must leave here before they track you down next. You cannot keep relying on spur of the moment magic to get you away.” The tall man had a smooth, deep voice.
“I have nowhere to go,” Rodelle whispered, still staring at the handsome young man.
“Yes you do. You just don't know of it. I can take you there. A haven, for those of us that normal people could never understand.” The figure stretched out his hand to her, palm up. His hand passed right through the debris that was still circling her.
She looked over at him, surprised that he didn't disturb the barrier. Darkness clung to his whole body. Looking straight at him was like looking into the depths of a cave. Or a pit. Rodelle closed her eyes and bit down on that memory.
With a tear rolling down her cheek, she asked him “Are you sure I will be safe? Will others there be safe from me?” She opened her eyes and looked back towards the group of hunters, and the young man, who had not yet fallen to the ground.
“I can promise you, it's as safe as you want it to be.” His hand was still stretched out when she looked back to him.
He pushed back his hood, letting his face be seen. She was sure only she could see it, that only she could see him and that the hunters could not. He was very fair in face, no wrinkles. Yet his short black hair was striped with silver at the temples. His eyes were silver to match the patches of hair. She felt no compulsion toward him, he was not using any magic on her. He was offering her an escape.
Shedding another tear for her lost friend and for the life of the boy who did not even realize he was dead yet, she reached out her hand and took the strangers'.
He closed his hand around hers and pulled her from the debris cloud circling around her and in
to his embrace.
Time sped up again.
The debris stopped as she moved from it and fell to the ground, revealing the empty space that she no longer occupied. The hunter’s faces betrayed looks that were confused by her disappearance. The young man finished his fall backwards, dead in that instant. Breaking his promise to his Everlee, and breaking Rodelle's heart for the second time that night.
Then the darkness enveloped her in a soothing warmth and she became blissfully unaware.
Chapter 1
Her mind came out of the warm feeling very slowly, as if it were hesitant to leave it behind. Finally coming awake, Rodelle stretched but didn't open her eyes. The sheets she was lying on were cool and smooth to the touch and smelled faintly of heather.
Sheets?
Her eyes opened wide and she blinked to focus. Her sight was blurry and the room was bright. After a few moments her eyes began to register items around the room she was in. The walls were an off white, with a large closet door standing open. Down from that door was a vanity with a mirror and a lot of small drawers, a padded stool with embroidered roses on the cover sat in front of it.
There was a small table next to her bed with a lamp. The bed itself had pale blue sheets and a dark blue down filled comforter on top. At the end of the bed there was a chair, wooden, with a cushion that matched the one on the stool at the vanity.
But the one thing that she truly wanted to see she knew she never would again.
She closed her eyes again and fought back the tears. Those hunters took her best friend. The only person who trusted her and believed in her. But was she any better than them, now? Unthinking in her anger she had stolen a life from them. An innocent life full of promise, not yet corrupt by the frenzy to hunt down the witches.
Rodelle had never understood the Hunter's need to track down and kill off the things they didn't understand. Most witches were absolutely harmless and were even healers and devoted community leaders. The few bad apples rotted the tree though.
These days, witches were being rooted out and tested on, examined and experimented on. Or just outright killed. It was Salem all over again, but Modern Times. And the majority of the world was completely unaware.
Opening her eyes again she saw that there was a bundle of towels on the vanity, and at that moment nothing less than the promise of hot water could have pulled her from the comfortable bed. Groaning she sat up and noticed she was still in her clothes from last night. She glanced back at the bed in guilt that she may have gotten the sheets dirty, but then got up and headed for the towels.
What had appeared to be a pile of towels was actually two fluffy towels and a fluffy white bathrobe. They all smelled faintly of heather as well. Grabbing all of these up, she headed toward the room’s door, opened it and peeked out.
The large hallway was empty and silent. Her door was almost at the end of the long corridor, which showed twelve other doors all the way down until the wall turned. Figuring the door at the closed end would be the bathroom, she slipped out of her doorway and walked quickly to the end of the hall and listened to see if anyone was in that room.
Silence greeted her as she opened the door, and she was pleased to see that it was indeed a bathroom. More like a shower room, it had no toilets but several sinks and plenty of counter space along one wall. Along the other wall there were several shower stalls, roomy and very private. Picking the closest one she turned up the hot water and dropped her clothes on the stool just outside the stall.
Thanking the Goddess for small miracles, she picked up the closest bottle of body wash and went to work scrubbing herself pink.
Feeling clean of body, she went back to her room wrapped in the robe, toweling her hair dry.
The hallway was still silent, so she wasn't expecting someone to be in her room when she entered. The small lady startled her as she entered and Rodelle let out a small yelp.
“Oh my dear, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Haysel, housekeeper for the week. Just changing your sheets and leaving you some more towels.” The small lady stood at about five feet tall, but seemed very solid. She emanated a somewhat earthy and strong aura.
“Hi, I'm Rodelle. What do you mean housekeeper for the week? Housekeeper for who?” Curiosity overwhelmed her.
“Oh, well, you see we switch jobs every week. All the folks here at Hartman House pitch in and take care of each other. There's a schedule. Housekeeping is easy, most people take care of their own rooms, so I just end up vacuuming the halls a lot.” Haysel spoke quickly while finishing up making the bed. “There you go! Since you just woke up you will probably be hungry. Afternoon meal is just finishing up, but there may be some left if you hurry.”
Haysel was just about to head out the door.
“Wait, where do I go for the meal?”
“Oh, I forgot, yeah you wouldn't know... and it's a large house. Easy to get lost! Go down the hall to the left turn, halfway down that hall there is a staircase. Three flights down you will come to the main foyer. Take a right there at the bottom, through the double doors into the dining hall. Enjoy!” And after that rush of information, the small lady shut the door.
Rodelle moved quickly to the door, opened it after her and poked her head out, but Haysel was nowhere to be seen. Baffled by the girl’s quickness, yet glad that only one person so far had seen her in a robe, she ducked back into her room.
She was still holding her old clothes to her chest but was loathe to put them on. They reminded her of the night before and she needed to be strong just now until she knew where she was and what she was expected to do here. She really hoped she hadn't just willingly subjected herself to a group of scientists or researchers. The name Hartman House didn't really make it sound like an evil scientist’s laboratory.
Rodelle moved towards the bed and her eyes caught again on the doorway to the closet. Figuring why not, she walked up to it and clicked on the switch just outside the door. The light turned on and revealed a very large space with hanging bars on two sides and bins with a few drawers on the back wall. And it was full of clothes.
There were clothes of all sorts, and all sizes too. On the floor there were shoes everywhere. It took about twenty minutes to decide what she wanted to wear. She felt a bit guilty for taking things that didn't belong to her. Hopefully she could earn her keep. Without being cut open.
Finally deciding on a three-quarter bell sleeve wine colored blouse and a mid-calf length black gypsy skirt, she hurried over to the vanity to try to make something out of her hair. She sat down and looked in the mirror. The face looking back was the same she had seen every day before, but different. Her normal apple shaped cheeks were a bit gaunt and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes themselves, normally a very dark brown was a lighter, richer brown today, bordering on a mahogany color.
That would figure. She had been trying not to think about her spur of the moment spell that ended so tragically for the boy in the woods, but her eye color brought it all spinning back. She had done major spells before, calling on extra power, and her eye color would be changed afterwards. But it usually changed back within a few hours.
Her stomach rumbled at her. She would have to check later to see if they changed back.
She grabbed up her brush and gave her hair a quick untangle. Her straight dark brown hair was nothing remarkable, just long. Which was annoying most of the time, but she could never bring herself to cut it. She had no hair ties, so she went back to the closet and found a small black scarf to tie it back with. She never was one for makeup, so she didn't dig through the vanity to find any. She really did wish she had some deodorant though. Meeting new people made her a very sweaty kind of nervous.
She slipped on the black flats she had picked out along with the rest of her outfit and left her room.
Making her way quickly down the hallway she noticed it was brightly lit and the walls were light colors, but thankfully not hospital white. There were plenty of windows letting light in and some of them were ope
n to let in the spring air. There were no paintings of somber looking people on the walls, just small tables and stands with vases holding flowers or crystals. That was good. Crystals wouldn't be on display in a hospital. But it was also very curious.
She found herself at the top of the stairs before she realized it and had to grab the hand rail as a wave of dizziness washed through her. The stairs went down for a full three flights before reaching the landing and spreading out in a huge foyer. The sheer vastness of the space before her made her head spin for a moment longer, until she realized someone was watching her from below.
Her eyes locked with his and the room stopped spinning. She could see him clear as day despite the space between them. His eyes were silver with small streaks of blue near the irises. His skin was fair and smooth, and his jet-black hair was long, tied back at the nape of his neck but continuing down to the middle of his back. He had mid to high cheekbones that held no color but shaped his face like a porcelain statue of some Greek God. He smiled slowly and Rodelle wondered if he heard her think that.
But wow, he was gorgeous.
After shaking her head and attempting to snap back to reality she began to walk down the stairs. The young man stood in the same spot the entire time and waited for her to finish her descent, holding her eyes the entire time. She stepped off the last stair and walked slowly until she came to a stop before him in the middle of the room.
She wasn't necessarily a short girl at five feet and seven inches, but he made her feel small. He had to be at least six-two, maybe taller, and solidly built. He was wide shouldered, with lean muscles cording underneath his black polo shirt. She could see his aura, dark and streaked with red and knew she stood in front of someone with blood on their hands and should probably be scared. But she wasn't scared. His shoulder looked like a very comfortable place to rest her head.
