Sleeping with Monsters

by Amelia Hutchins

  “I didn’t come here to fix it,” he growled.

  “What did I do wrong?” I asked offhandedly.

  “Does it fucking matter?” he snapped. His gaze lingered on me and I lowered mine as I chewed my lip.

  “No,” I replied before I continued. “If you knew someone you loved was going to die, and you could stop it, would you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What if it cost you everything? What if the price was more than you could pay?”

  “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect someone I love, even if that price was to walk away and pretend I didn’t care, Lena. Sometimes you have to die a little to save or protect those you care for, even at the cost of yourself.”

  “Did you ever care for me, or was I just something you wanted to play with?” I asked softly as I lifted tear-filled eyes to his.

  “Go to bed. You look exhausted, Lena,” he ordered, and I watched him stroll to the door and pause there, as if he’d planned to say something else. He stared at me for a long moment before he pulled the door closed behind him.

  Chapter 34

  Long after Lucian had left the room I remained awake, poring through the journals inside my head. I ignored the witches who pointed things out as if trying to divulge information to me as I studied every journal and every entry in detail. I discovered things, old things that happened during their lives as I read about those who had lived before me. My mind continued to fill up like a filing cabinet as I processed each of them. In every journal, towards the end, one name repeated: Katarina. She’d been the first journal I’d read, and in every one since, she reappeared. Her name and the initial L continued until the very last one.

  I’d discovered the seal, an ancient thing believed to open the doors to the other worlds. My heart had skipped a few beats as I’d learned of it and what it did, considering our world’s current situation. Then…then I learned about a witch who had stolen it. Katarina had taken it from her lover, L. She’d done as her coven had bid her to, betraying him, and since then, it seemed she played a part—or more to the point, her curse did—through every generation of witches born since.

  The last journal held more information than any before it. It told of a woman, who had been half-witch, half-nymph. She had been possessed by the seal, but when she bore her lover a child, it somehow tethered to the child’s soul. It was murdered soon after birth, a fate no infant should endure before he’d even experienced life.

  I slept restlessly as nightmares plagued me. I dreamt that I was the nymph, forced to birth a child only to be slaughtered as it took its first breath. I awoke, drenched in sweat as I fought off the tremors of the nightmare that lingered. Katarina had cursed the coven, of that I was sure. She’d betrayed L, who I assumed was Lucifer, and I wondered if that made Lucian the hunter who slaughtered her time and time again to protect it from falling into the wrong hands. Was he its keeper, forced to hunt it down to protect it? How did he fit in?

  I dressed and moved around the room, pushing my things into a pile as I readied to go out and face the crowd. I eyed the clock, noting it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. I shimmied out of the sweats and into a skirt, one that hugged my figure and flowed to my ankles. I picked out a camisole, white and soft that flattered my complexion. I piled my hair into a messy bun and stared at my pale complexion. I looked ill or exhausted but honestly, I felt it to my bones.

  I picked up the notes I’d scrawled in bed, along with the journals from the seer’s house, and headed out to find my grandmother. I entered the main room and stood still for a moment, watching as everyone moved around, laughing and dancing as if the world wasn’t going to hell outside. Kat and Dexter slow danced together, ignoring the others and the fact that it was a fast-paced song playing. Synthia and her group were present, some dancing while others watched them with annoyance, as if they’d rather be out destroying something.

  I started forward the moment I caught sight of my grandmother. She was looking over the crowd, and the moment she saw me, she waved frantically. I increased my pace as I lifted my skirt and moved towards her.

  “Lena, have you seen your mother?” she asked.

  “Not since she left the room earlier.”

  “I have not been able to find her since earlier, either. I’ve sent others to find her and no one has been able to locate her yet.”

  “Maybe she is somewhere with Alden?” I offered.

  She waved her hand in the direction of the bar, where Alden was resting his arms against the bar as he stirred a drink and spoke with Vlad. My gaze searched the crowd and then rounded on my grandmother.

  “Her room?” I asked.

  “She’s sharing one with Kendra, and we can’t locate her either,” she admitted.

  “She wouldn’t leave the club.” I frowned as I considered the fact that she would. If Kendra had left, Mom would have followed to protect her, and neither of them had very strong magic. “I have the journals for you.” I held the bag up and she nodded.

  “Let’s go somewhere quiet,” she said as her brow creased with worry. “I feel like something is about to happen… Something is off, I just know it.”

  “Everything is off,” I said, and she laughed nervously.

  “Oh, Lena, it is, isn’t it? How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine,” I groaned as I watched her gaze dart to the crowd again.

  “You’re always fine, aren’t you? My brave girl,” she uttered as she pulled me close and hugged me tightly. “Even as a child, you were always the one who never complained and remained in the back while Kendra took the spotlight. You and Joshua were always getting hurt, and yet you never fussed or wanted holding when it happened. You’d just puff up and tell us you were fine.”

  “Mom wouldn’t have left the club, not after dark.” I pulled back and smiled at her. “She was terrified of the trip over here from the abbey. She hasn’t wanted to be outside since.”

  “She didn’t want to come after you either, but she did. You’re her child, she’d have gone to hell for you…” She paused.

  “Before I turned dark,” I finished and smiled tightly. “Am I so different now?” I asked, wondering if I changed that much in so little time.

  “No, but you hold yourself away from us, as if you are protecting us from what you’ve become. You all do it now, like you are unsure of your welcome and, my darling… You are of my line and so loved. If I had to choose from a million other souls to be mine, I would always choose yours for its purity.”

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  “Let’s find somewhere without ears, shall we?” she said, and I nodded, following behind her until we were alone in a small room. “So, what did you find out?”

  “I went to the Guild a little over a month ago, almost two months now. Inside the Guild was a room, one that was filled with artifacts from our coven. They were old artifacts, some over a hundred years old or more. Inside the room were journals and grimoires, several of them. I touched them and the words and spells left the grimoires and entered me. I have everything that was inside of them in my head.”

  She sucked in her breath as her eyes grew wide with what that meant. “Lena, that is deadly. Grimoires don’t just enter a soul unless they have a need to. I am going to guess that it wasn’t your intention to take them, but to only read them?”

  “Yes, but as I read, they slid from the page onto my skin and disappeared. Now they’re in my head. I can use them as if they’re my own personal grimoires. Only the journals aren’t mine and each one says a name, Katarina. She was in love with someone named L, and hunted by a monster. Only…I don’t think the monster is as she says, I think he is protecting or hunting an object that can open the doors to the other worlds. She took something from him, like a seal of some sort. There are sketches and ideas of it, or more to the point, what it is. I think it is evil, as in it changes people once it inhabits th
em or is activated. The creature hunts it, to keep it from anyone who would use it to open the worlds. Once the seal passes through a world, it unlocks it. Or so I think, or maybe all of them at the same time, but that part was unknown.

  “I think when Kendra and I were in Hell, one of us unlocked it. Before I turned, when I was speaking to Mom, Kendra shouted at me inside my head to help her. I thought I imagined it, and now, now I think Kendra is being controlled, or she is the seal and is in trouble.” I explained the journals, and how the nightmares we had suffered had been mentioned over and over again, and how every time it replayed, a new curse was put into play somehow.

  “You’re saying that she isn’t your sister anymore?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “When has she ever told on me, though? When has Kendra ever been able to hold a grudge for more than a day? She isn’t the same, and I know she’s been through a lot, and it’s different than when we were little, but something is wrong with her. My gut is telling me that she isn’t Kendra, not anymore. Whoever it is, it’s not my sister.”

  “She has a devil’s trap on her body, she isn’t possessed.”

  “If it was a demon, we’d know. But I don’t think it is a demon that has control of her. Too many things are adding up to be wrong lately. The seer in the woods, the news that our birth father played a part in it, and the fact that Kendra might not be Kendra, and that is worrisome, especially with Mom missing,” I admitted. “I’m going out to find her.”

  “If what you say is true, then we need to be very careful. There are too many unknowns unfolding, and it’s moving faster than we can stop it,” she muttered softly as she watched me.

  “I should go; it’s dark and the temperature is going to drop soon.”

  “Lena,” she said, grabbing my hand to stop me as I moved to the door. “I love you. I need you to know that in case anything happens. The sand isn’t always right. It’s been wrong before, when you were born, and the boys. You should go to Lucian and tell him what is happening. He will help you. You’re carrying his child now.”

  “He doesn’t need to know yet.” I chewed my lip. “If and when I tell him, it’s my choice. No one deserves to believe something good is happening only to have it torn away from them.” Not that he’d consider it as much.

  “He left a mark upon you to protect you,” she acknowledged. “If you’re in danger, he can find you?”

  “Yes, he can. So can Spyder, so if I don’t come back, you can go to them for help.”

  We left the room together, and no sooner had we stepped out than one of the new kids handed me a phone and ran off. I frowned as I looked down at it and back up as the kid retreated out of sight. The towers were down, which meant no service. I started to put it in the pocket of my skirt when it rang. I stared at the screen, then slid my thumb over it and held it to my ear.

  “It’s time to move your piece into play, sweetheart.”

  Ice rushed through my veins as Lucifer’s voice whispered through the phone. My heart leapt to my throat as blood pounded in my ears, drowning out his words.

  “I told you, Lucifer, I’m not into playing games,” I muttered as I bit my lip as my grandmother covered her mouth with her hand to keep from gasping. My mother screamed in pain and I closed my eyes as Kendra’s laughter followed it. “Where?” I asked without hesitation. I fought a sob that constricted my throat. Tears entered my vision as I watched my grandmother put it together.

  “We are at your house. Lose your guards, Lena, or I’ll show you what it is like to watch the flesh be ripped from someone while they still breathe. If I see anyone else with you, she dies. Be a good girl and play your part, and your mother can live.”

  The phone went dead and I turned it off as I moved to my grandmother. I hugged her as she struggled to keep it together. Lucifer had my mother, and worse, if I was right, Kendra had taken her to him.

  “I need you to distract Lucian and the others so I can sneak out,” I said firmly, managing to keep the fear in my voice hidden. “I won’t lose them. I will fix this, no matter the cost. I will end this game of theirs once and for all. You have to trust me on this. Give me at least an hour to reach them. After that, tell Lucian where I am and who I am with. The Fae will follow him, but I need you to stay here, do you understand? Promise me you will stay here where it is safe,” I urged.

  “I can’t promise you that,” she said as she tugged me into her arms and held me. “You will not make it out of this unscathed, Lena. If you can’t save Kendra and your mother, get out. Don’t be a hero like your brother was. You are the power that holds this coven together; you hold us up right now and keep us safe. If she isn’t our Kendra, she isn’t worth dying for. You have to live, do you understand me?”

  “I’m not planning on dying,” I whispered against her ear.

  “They want her, right? This Katarina?” she asked.

  “Something like that, and the seal she holds. I have to go,” I said.

  “No, not yet,” she mused as she touched her index finger to her lip. “If they came for her, why do they need you there? You said the journal mentioned the nightmares the coven suffered and how they mentioned runes, right?”

  “Yes,” I mumbled as I checked the time on the phone I held.

  “Come with me,” she said as she tugged on my arm.

  “I don’t have time!”

  “You do for this,” she countered. “They need you for something, or they wouldn’t have taken my daughter. If I am correct, you play a big part, and in case that is what I think it is, I need to do something. If we end it, the next generation will not suffer from their deadly games anymore.”

  I followed her into the room and once she’d finished doing what she needed to, I gently kissed her on the cheek. “I love you; if I had to choose a family to be mine, you’d always be my choice too.”

  Chapter 35

  I slowly rounded the corner of the house, gaze darting around as I searched the chaos going on for my mother. I found her atop the pile of drained bodies, tied to a corpse. My stomach dropped and my knees threatened to buckle as I took in her disheveled appearance. Her clothing was ripped, her hair mussed and covered with dried blood, which I prayed wasn’t hers.

  Her eyelids opened as if she sensed me, and she lifted her tawny head, shaking it and using her bruised arm to shoo me away. I wasn’t leaving her. She was my mother. Fate had brought us here; for whatever fucked up, twisted reason, we were here facing down the devil and creatures that shouldn’t even be in our world.

  I exhaled and struggled to gain what little courage I could as I stepped forward, revealing myself. No one turned or even looked at me as I walked to the circle. It was drawn in human blood and I swallowed the bile as I looked at the pile of bodies and realized they’d been sacrificed. Innocent lives had been lost to create a protection circle which couldn’t be broken. The same one Katia had used, only thicker this time.

  “There’s our girl,” Lucifer said without turning around. When he finally did, I swallowed hard to keep from crying out as I took in his appearance. Gone was his mask of civility and humanity. His piercing blue eyes took in the swaying skirt and my disheveled appearance from the trek over here. I hadn’t bothered wasting time changing. I’d simply slipped a small knife into my pocket and had headed out the moment my grandmother had created a small scene and distraction.

  The icy wind bit into my skin as it howled and sent my hair whipping into my face. The skirt lifted, revealing my legs as I slowly stepped forward until my toes touched the line.

  “You will let my mother go and I will enter the protection circle. You cannot force me to enter it; I know how it works, Lucifer. Once you have let her go and vowed that she is not to be harmed, you can have me to do as you want,” I said without letting the tremor that rocked through me show in my voice.

  “You’re fire and ice, Lena. You surprise me,” he chuckled as he
moved to the pile of bodies and kicked a young woman’s corpse. “At first I wondered how he could be drawn to you, but as I’ve learned, you’re special. You break the rules, and yet you have an honor code you follow, just as he does. You’re selfless, which you shouldn’t be. You weren’t created to be selfless; you were created to be dark and deadly. Yet here you are, coming to me to save a worthless human.”

  “You didn’t create me,” I growled, but his lips thinned as they lifted into a beautiful grin that made my heart pause before pounding faster. “Let her go,” I demanded adamantly. “You said if I came, she could go. Let her go and give me your word that she won’t be harmed, and I will enter the protection barrier you’ve created. If you think to harm her after I am inside, I will hurt myself and Lucian will be here within moments. Do you understand?”

  “We made a deal, Magdalena. There’s no reason to get angry,” he purred as he pulled my mother from the pile, the ropes disintegrating. She shook her head as he pushed her towards me. Tears streamed from her eyes as she rushed to me, only to be thrown back as she crashed into the barrier. Lucifer laughed and I exhaled slowly as I struggled to remain composed.

  Demons moved closer to where I stood, smiling at Lucifer as I released a pulse of magic, enjoying their screams and the heavy scent of sulfur as they burst into ashes. I didn’t back down as he snarled and pulled my mother up by her hair.

  “You have a thing for killing my friends,” he snarled.

  “You need new friends.”

  He shoved my mother through the barrier and I breathed a sigh of relief as she rushed to me, hugging me tightly.

  “Lena, don’t go in there,” she pleaded as I embraced her tightly and then pulled away.

  “Go into the house and activate the wards,” I uttered as I pushed her hands away as she tried to hold on me.