The Devil's Fool (Devil Series Book One)

by McClellan, Rachel

  I glanced around frantically. “Can’t we go another way, by horse maybe? We could go around them.”

  Boaz clenched his teeth. “It doesn’t matter where we go. They will find you. You must fight them now. They must see your power.”

  Tears sprung to my eyes. My chest tightened, and my breathing went sharp. “I can’t do it!”

  Without warning, Boaz grabbed me behind the neck and pulled me toward him. His lips crushed mine, and his tongue forced open my mouth. An uncontrollable rage swelled inside me until all I could do was force the power outward. The windows of the car shattered into a thousand pieces.

  Boaz released me. “There. That’s more like it.”

  Then he stepped on the accelerator, propelling the car forward.

  7

  I gripped the side of the door, knuckles white, and struggled to breathe. The world had darkened again, and a bitter, rotten smell stung the inside of my nose. A dark magical power, more than I could contain, bled from me as an invisible force, turning the trees black the moment my gaze touched them. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to go back to an emotionless state. Some of the anger left but not much.

  Air blew in from the glassless window, whipping the hair around my face. I opened my eyes. Boaz was looking straight ahead with grim determination, yet he was smiling as if he knew something I didn’t.

  Boaz careened the next corner, the back wheels of the car skidding out of control. He quickly turned the steering wheel the opposite direction, forcing the car back on the road.

  “They’re up ahead,” I said, sensing the presence of many Diablos.

  “I will try to get through them, but if they attack us, you must fight to kill.”

  My stomach sunk to a place it wasn’t meant to be, and it was all I could do to keep from vomiting. “I can’t kill.”

  “This is to save your life! These demons will not take pity on you. Kill or be killed.”

  Fear replaced my anger, and I half-considered jumping from the speeding car to run away, all the while knowing I would only make it so far before the Diablos caught up to me.

  “Hold on!” Boaz said.

  Up ahead, the Diablos blocked the road. Most of them appeared corpse-like, but a few still looked human. They had hair, patchy as it was, and a touch of bronze to their skin. For the first time, they all stood eerily still with backs hunched over, hands clenched tight.

  Boaz pressed on the accelerator, attempting to push through their blockade. The first few we hit bounced off the car with a sickening thud, but then we crashed into one that didn’t budge. The back end of the car reared off the ground, throwing my head forward. Before I could react, Boaz was out the door, fighting the nearest Diablos. I fumbled with the door, my fingers searching for the lock. My only thought was to keep them out, and me safely inside.

  To my left, Boaz attempted to lure the monsters into the shade, but they seemed to deliberately keep him in the open, beneath the glare of the sun.

  I should help him. After all, he had helped save me.

  Dark magic was still inside me, humming just beneath the surface of my skin, and I was pretty sure it was powerful enough to make a significant dent in the Diablo’s numbers, at least enough for us to get away. But I was afraid if I used my magic, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I’d seen firsthand how addictive it could be, my parents a perfect example.

  Metal grinded behind me. I swiveled in my seat in time to see an emaciated Diablo tearing the metal frame off the back of the vehicle. The moment the back end was gone, he climbed inside, the joints of his elbows bending unnaturally.

  This time, I desperately tried to unlock the door, but my hands were slippery with perspiration. I was breathing fast and hard—at least I think it was me. Just before the long, jagged-nailed fingers of the Diablo clamped down on the back of my head, I burst free from the car, gasping for air. I barely managed to get upright before I was surrounded by several of the gray demons, their long and thin arms stretched toward me.

  “Kill them!” Boaz shouted.

  I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes, and backed against the car. This couldn’t be happening!

  One of the Diablos lunged for me, and I raised my arm in defense. My fear, laced with anger, was so great that the power inside me broke free and struck the Diablo. It flew back several feet as if shocked with electricity. I stared at my hands, surprised and frightened by my own strength.

  Just then, my head was jerked back and smashed into the top of the door. The Diablo who had crawled inside the car had taken hold of my hair through the broken window. Off balance, I fell to the ground.

  “Eve,” Boaz yelled. “Get up!”

  Before I could, a child-sized Diablo scurried toward me and crawled up my legs. I struggled hard and tried to kick it off, but it was as if the demon had suction cups. Screaming, I swatted at it, but it continued upward until it reached my chest, where it decided to sit and watch me with wide eyes almost as if it didn’t know what to do next.

  “Kill it,” Boaz shouted. He was at the front of the car, trying to make his way toward me, but there were too many Diablos blocking his path. He took hold of a tall one’s arm and tossed him into several others, knocking them down.

  From behind me, a heavy-set Diablo with scraggly black hair crept toward my head. I tried to dodge him, but the child-monster was still sitting on my chest and was immoveable. I hit at it and screamed until a cold finger belonging to scraggly-head was shoved down my throat, making me gag. It was more than I could take.

  Power, dark and cruel, surged to my eyes, and the moment I met the gaze of the Diablo, whose finger I currently held between my teeth, it’s body withered into itself until all that remained was a pile of snake-like skin. I turned my attention to the demon on my chest. With the same venomous look, I shocked it off me.

  I scrambled to my feet, greeted by a new, darker world, only to be surrounded again. I glanced at Boaz in time to witness him snapping the necks of two of them. His momentum spurred me on. With a flick of my wrist, I removed the head of the fattest one in the group. It dropped to the ground like a fallen coconut. I quickly did the same to many of the others. Whatever way I imagined their death, my magic made it happen.

  The remaining Diablos hesitated before coming near me again. Their bodies twitched and jerked, and they looked to one another as if waiting for a command.

  But I didn’t wait.

  Anger and fear, mixed with adrenaline, forced me onward until I could no longer control myself. One after another, I crushed their bodies, turning them to ash and smoke and filling the air with smells of ammonia and mold. Or maybe it was my dark magic that was causing the horrid smell.

  I would’ve killed more, but I froze when a chill raced up my spine. I had felt this sensation many times before under the accusing eyes of Erik and Sable. I spun around, searching for them in the woods. Boaz, who had managed to destroy the Diablos around him, stood erect, watching me keenly. I wanted to cast him an angry look but wanted to find Erik and Sable more.

  Where are they?

  Everything felt wrong about what just happened. Boaz. My parents. But most of all, me. Never in my life had I used such power. If my body wasn’t still humming with magic, I would’ve collapsed to the ground, disgusted by what I had just done.

  Unable to locate my parents, I returned to the car without saying a word to Boaz. I needed time to think. The few remaining Diablos slowly moved back into the forest, no longer interested in me.

  Boaz slid into the driver’s seat and wrapped his hands around the leather steering wheel. “You did well.”

  “Can we just go?” The last thing I wanted was to talk about what had just happened. As it was, I was having a hard enough time calming down. My entire body stung as if a thousand needles pricked my skin, and I was afraid one wrong word would send me out of control again. Boaz seemed to sense my predicament and kept his mouth shut.

  We drove for several hours through upper New York’s rural coun
try. At one point, I thought we may have crossed over into Vermont, but I’d seen no signs to confirm my suspicions.

  The clouds above had grown thick until a light snowfall burst from their seams. Cold air blew through the broken windows, freezing my skin, but I refused to complain. Boaz must have seen the goose bumps on my arms, because he reached behind his seat and grabbed a jacket. When I wouldn’t accept it, he dropped it into my lap without a word.

  By the time we reached our destination, which ended in the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire, I’d managed to rid myself of a lot of the anger. Mostly confusion and doubt remained.

  Boaz’s home wasn’t as large as the one I’d come from but was still huge and set far away from any neighbors, a common thing in the supernatural world. The outside was all gray stone with tall wooden beams in the front, matching two massive cedar front doors. Hunwald was perched out front looking more like a statue than a wolf.

  I took a step toward it and then stopped.

  What am I doing?

  This wasn’t my plan. When Boaz’s hand touched the small of my back, I jumped.

  “Your new home awaits,” he said.

  “This isn’t my home.”

  “Would you like me to take you back then?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then where will you go?”

  I looked past his shoulder. I had no one else to turn to. No money. No friends.

  “Stay with me for a few days,” he said. “Give yourself some time to rest and to come up with a plan. Then I’ll take you wherever you want to go. It’s your choice.”

  I inhaled a big breath. A few days should be plenty. In fact, it was more time than I should spend with Boaz who seemed to share my parent’s obsessiveness for power.

  “Why were my parents in the forest?” I asked suddenly.

  His expression went still. “What do you mean?”

  “Earlier in the woods, with the Diablos. They were there watching us.”

  “That’s impossible, love. They left hours before we did.”

  “First of all, stop calling me love. Second, they were there. I felt them.”

  “Eve,” he emphasized. “A lot was happening. I’m sure you confused it with something else.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, but I frowned.

  A lot had happened, and fast, too. Maybe something else had been in the forest with us. Another witch, perhaps? All I knew for sure was that I still felt horrible with hate only a thought away. It had left patches of darkness in my mind like the hot embers of an extinguished fire.

  “You’ve had a terrible ordeal,” Boaz said, crossing the threshold into his home. “Let’s get you something to eat and a place to rest.”

  I hesitated briefly before following. Only a couple of days. It would all be over before I knew it.

  8

  Boaz opened the doors into a grand foyer that was as wide as it was tall. I stepped inside, and when a gust of cool air rushed by me, I rubbed my arms with my hands.

  “Wait here,” Boaz said before disappearing behind a door to his left. I didn’t have a chance to stop him.

  The inside of the home was a sharp contrast from the décor of my parent’s. It was more rustic and … cruel. It was the first word that popped into my head, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. It’s not as though the oil paintings of various night landscapes hanging on the walls screamed ‘I-want-to-hurt-you’; in fact, they were quite beautiful on their own, but combined with the rest of the home’s decorations, including a silver spiked chandelier just above my head, I didn’t feel safe.

  In less than a minute, Boaz returned followed by a thin woman with graying hair. Her black dress made her complexion appear paler than she really was. When my eyes met hers, she quickly looked down and did not look at me again.

  “Eve, this is Mariel. She will be your personal servant while you are here and will get you whatever you need, whenever you want it.”

  Mariel nodded vigorously.

  “No, really,” I said. “I can take care of myself.” Poor Mariel looked as if one more task might make her collapse.

  “I wasn’t asking.”

  Before I could argue, Boaz was across the wooden-floored foyer with his hand on another doorknob. “I will return soon. Mariel, feed her whatever she desires.”

  She jerked at the sound of her name, and then Boaz was gone.

  I waited for her to say something, but she continued to stare at the ground. Her right hand was shaking. “Don’t worry about dinner. I’m really not hungry. Could you just show me to my room, please?”

  “Boaz said to feed you,” she murmured.

  “I know what he said, but I’m not hungry. It’s been a long day, and I just want to lie down.” My tone was sharper than I intended, probably a side-affect from using magic.

  Mariel wrung her hands together and bit her lip.

  I placed my hand on her shoulder but removed it when she flinched. “It will be all right. I will tell Boaz I didn’t need you. Really, don’t worry. But I would love your help tomorrow, if that’s all right with you?”

  For the first time, she looked at me, her gray eyes vibrating within her sockets. I tried not to stare, but the constant shifting of her beady eyes was something I had never seen before.

  Mariel nodded slightly. “Right this way.”

  I waited a second before following after her. Maybe she was overworked. Having servants wasn’t common, but for families high up in the supernatural world, it was expected. And many times, as I had seen with my parents, those servants weren’t always treated the best. If this was the case with Mariel, then I needed to get out of here as soon as possible. I didn’t want to substitute one bad for another.

  Upstairs, more paintings of night landscapes hung on the walls. Some were cities lit up by the moon, others were forests painted in the night sky, and a few were black and white photographs. There weren’t any day scenes and not a single one was of a person. This unsettled me, but I still wasn’t sure why.

  Mariel stopped in front of a wooden door at the end of the hall. She hesitated before opening it, revealing a room slightly smaller than mine at home, but decorated much nicer. The one item I focused on the most was a built-in bookshelf that took up most of one wall. It must’ve held hundreds of books.

  I turned to comment on how nice this was to Mariel, but she had already slipped out the door. I sighed and surprised myself by wishing Boaz was here. At least he was someone to talk to. I flopped to the bed, groaning and tightening my jaw. He had made me use magic, more than I ever had before. It was to save your life, I reminded myself. Was that so bad?

  Turning my head on the pillow, I noticed a door on the other side of the bookcase. Because of the bookcase’s immense size, it would’ve been hidden from me as I walked into the room, but from the bed’s angle, I couldn’t miss it. I stood up to investigate.

  Inside was a closet, more like a room with how big it was, filled with some of the nicest clothing I’d ever seen. I walked among them, my fingers trailing their soft fabrics. At the back of the room, an open doorway led to a marbled bathroom. In the center, four black columns surrounded a massive tub.

  I walked over and turned it on; water shot out of a gold, snake-shaped faucet. While the tub filled, I returned to the closet to admire a row of designer dresses. I couldn’t help but wonder who they were for. Boaz probably had one, if not several girlfriends, and most likely the dresses were for them. I grimaced, thinking of the kind of women Boaz associated with. They were probably women just like my mother—cold and calculated.

  A red dress with a line of diamonds around the waist caught my eye. I bravely pulled it off the rod and held it against my body. It looked like it would just barely fit. The material felt like silk but much softer, almost like cashmere. I smiled and returned it. After my bath, I would try it on—just for a minute.

  The warm water, the clothing, and a room full of books were a welcome distraction from the fact my parents had tried to kill m
e. But I had survived, and now I was free from their wrath. I sunk farther into the bathtub until my head was covered by water. Soon I would be starting a new life all on my own. I surfaced and smoothed back my wet hair with a smile on my face.

  I could’ve stayed in the tub all night if it hadn’t been for the red dress, which lured me out prematurely. I dried off completely, including my hair, before I slipped it over my head. Its soft material was like warm breath all over my skin. I twirled into the bedroom and stopped in front of a mirror, gasping in surprise. I looked regal and confident, two things I’d never felt before.

  Is this what freedom felt like?

  A knock at the door had me frantically glancing around, trying to decide if I had time to change. “One minute!”

  I snatched the bathrobe from off the bed and was about to pull it on when the door opened. Boaz stepped into the room. He had showered and changed his clothes into dark pants and a gray V-necked sweater.

  I pressed the robe against me, trying to hide the red gown. “I said give me a minute.”

  “My mistake, I thought you said ‘Come in’.”

  “Sure you did.” I took a tentative step back.

  His eyes narrowed. “What are you hiding?”

  Busted. I sighed and dropped the bathrobe. “I’m sorry, but I just wanted to try it on. It’s so beautiful.”

  Boaz eyes widened, and his eyebrows lifted. “It’s not the dress that’s beautiful. It’s you. The dress only compliments what you already have.”

  “Regardless,” I said, turning toward the bathroom. “It’s not mine. I shouldn’t have tried it on.”

  Boaz frowned. “Of course it’s yours. All of this is: the room, the clothing, and most importantly …” He took my hand before I could stop him and pulled me toward a dresser. “These are yours.”

  Boaz pulled open the first drawer. Lying on black velvet were all kinds of jeweled necklaces. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires twinkled in the light.

  I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”