by Jill Sanders
“What about you?” Larry asked Jacob. “Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?”
“No,” he automatically said. When Mike and Ethan just looked at him, he sighed. “We’ve all had… shared visions,” he admitted.
“Anything else?” Mike asked. “I mean, I’ve had nightly visits from Brea’s aunt who disappeared twenty-some years ago. Not to mention an almost sick ability to read people and find out what they are hiding.”
“I have the healing touch,” Ethan added with a smile. “And, I guess if I have to own up to it, a knack for telling when something is going to go south.”
“Xtina has her… abilities. Brea can… poof.” He made a motion with his hands. “Not to mention, you’re dating a witch.”
“I heard that,” Jess said from the living room.
“What?” Mike called out. “It’s true.” He smiled.
“So, brother, what are you hiding from us?” Mike asked, his eyebrows going up.
He looked around the kitchen table and finally shrugged his shoulders. “I guess, if I had to admit to anything strange, it’s the uncanny way I can read emotions.”
“How so?” Mike asked.
“I can just sense when someone is about to turn. You know, we had this guy in lockup once. He was high on something.” He shook his head. “Well, we’d chained him up pretty good, but moments before he started convulsing, I moved over to him and held onto him.”
The room was silent for a while. “Like one of those service dogs?” Ethan added, earning a glare from everyone at the table. “What?” He chuckled. “They do that. I mean, besides sniff bombs and help the blind to walk across the street, there are service dogs that can sense when an epileptic is about to have a seizure.” Again, the room was silent. “Google it,” he added, crossing his arms over his chest.
Jacob laughed. “Great. If you think about it, you’re the only one with a power that’s useful,” he said to Ethan.
“Well, now,” Larry broke in, “maybe you two just haven’t fully discovered your other powers.”
“What makes you think we have any?” Mike asked.
“Well, wouldn’t it make sense? I mean, you’re all children of those of us who were there that first night. Besides, everyone knows girls mature faster than boys.”
“Great, that means Ethan’s a girl.” Mike smiled. “I’ve been calling him that since we were eight.”
Everyone chuckled.
“If it’s true,” Jacob said once everyone settled down, “then how do we discover our other abilities?”
“How did you?” Larry asked Ethan, who shrugged.
“I just… knew.” He turned to Mike. “Is there anything you’ve just felt you can do?”
Jacob thought about it as Mike looked at him.
Both of them shook their heads at the same time. “Nope,” Jacob said, and was surprised Mike said it at the same time. “Funny,” he said and once more, Mike echoed him. “Okay, we’ve had enough…” He dropped off when Mike mimicked him again. He squinted his eyes at him and watched Mike do the same thing at the same time.
“Are you doing that?” Ethan asked him. “Or is he?”
Jacob put his hands on the table and slowly stood up and watched Mike follow him. “Okay,” they said at the same time, “you’re starting to freak me out.”
“Break eye contact with him,” Larry suggested.
Larry was right. He had been zoned in on Mike this whole time. He turned his head towards Ethan, and Mike sat back down and took several deep breaths.
“Wow,” Mike said. Ethan turned back to him. “Okay, that was strange,” Mike said, rubbing his eyes.
“What just happened?” Jacob asked.
“It was like I was no longer in control,” Mike said leaning back. “
“Was it me?” Jacob asked.
“It had to be,” Mike said. “I sure the hell wasn’t doing that.”
“Try it with me,” Ethan said.
“How? I don’t know how I did it in the first place,” Jacob said.
“Eye contact,” Mike suggested. “You were looking in my eyes the whole time.”
“I’ll give it a try.” He looked into Ethan’s eyes. After a moment, he sighed and Ethan did the same.
Then he rolled his shoulders and Ethan followed. Slowly he raised his right arm, only to have Ethan follow with his right arm. He did the same with his left.
“Cool,” Mike said softly. “Do you have to do what he does first? Or can you just think it?”
“I’m not sure.” Jacob thought about getting up and going to the fridge for a beer, and Ethan got up, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and set it in front of him.
“How do I break it?” he asked, causing Ethan to speak at the same time.
“Look at me?” Larry suggested. “It worked last time.”
Jacob turned his eyes to Larry and sure enough, Ethan groaned. “Shit, man that is weird as hell.”
“I wonder why the control didn’t break when he got up to get the beer. You weren’t looking in his eyes anymore,” Mike said.
“Good question.” Jacob looked at Larry, but he just shrugged. “Maybe once I’ve given the task, it gets completed even without the eye contact.”
“Could be. And maybe with practice, you’ll be able to initiate the command without looking at them, too. Rachelle didn’t need to be looking at me to control me,” Larry offered.
“What exactly are you men doing in here?” Jess asked.
Chapter 21
Jess and Xtina were impressed at what Jacob had discovered he could do. He tried it out on everyone except Larry. Jacob felt he’d been controlled enough in his life.
Jess had to admit, it was a strange sensation having someone control you. By the time he tried it on Xtina, he was a pro at it. He didn’t even have to make eye contact anymore. He could just think about what he wanted them to do and they would do it.
When Jacob was done showing off his new skill, everyone turned to Mike.
“Your turn,” Jacob said to him.
“Yeah, I’ve still got nothing.” He chuckled.
“Maybe we need a break,” Ethan suggested. “I could use some fresh air.”
He was probably dying to go back to the field and watch out for Brea.
“Me too.” Mike stood up. “Why don’t we get out of Xtina and Jess’s hair for a while?”
“If it’s okay, I’ll stick around and rest. I had a walk this morning,” Larry replied. “I’m feeling pretty tired.”
“I have a spare room upstairs,” Xtina said. “If you want to lay down.”
“I might just take you up on that,” Larry said, standing up.
“It’s the first door on the right.” She smiled.
After her father headed upstairs to rest, and Jacob, Mike, and Ethan had left, they went back into the living room.
Rose was still asleep in front of the fireplace, but she spared them a glance as they entered the room, then quickly fell back asleep.
“I think we’ve got something here,” Xtina said a few minutes later. “You mentioned that whatever had Brea had talked about waking up. So, does that mean it had been sleeping? I mean, we assume it’s pure evil, right? Maybe we can find something about it?”
Jess felt herself shiver and nodded. “Yeah, most definitely evil.”
“Okay, so, what if it’s this…”—she tapped the page with the moon on it—“Hypnos.”
“Who is Hypnos?” Jess asked.
“The god of sleep. Well, supposedly. It’s just a myth.” Xtina shifted and opened another book she had been using as a reference. “Here.” She handed the book to Jess, who read out loud.
“Hypnos, god of sleep. His mother is Nyx, goddess of night. His twin brother, Thanatos, or death.” Jess glanced at Xtina.
“Go on,” she encouraged her.
“Both siblings live in the underworld, also known as Hades or Erebus. Hypnos lives in a big cave at the edge of where night and day meet. No light and sound ever ente
r his domain.” Jess frowned. “But it says here that he’s a gentle god. That is… if he really existed.”
“Okay, but read on about his twin brother, Thanatos,” Xtina suggested.
“Thanatos is merciless, indiscriminate, and hated by mortals and gods alike.” She set the book down. “It doesn’t say anything else.”
“Not much is really known about death.” Xtina took the book and looked down at it.
“So, you think we’re dealing with death?”
“I don’t know who we’re dealing with, all I know is that we have to find a way to stop him… it. Whatever.”
“What about Selene? I know we talked about the goddess of the moon.” She reached for the book and flipped it open. “I mean, we all saw the moon fall. Right?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t really make sense. The moon is not evil.”
“No.” Jess scanned over the myth. “It does say that she fell in love with a shepherd prince, Endymion. And that the boy was granted eternal youth by Zeus, then placed in a state of eternal slumber in a cave.”
“That could fit. But does it say anything about him being evil?”
“No.” Jess set the book down hard and leaned back against the sofa. “Okay, can we just admit that we’re out of our league?”
“There has to be something.” Xtina reached for another book. Her hand passed over Jess’s grandmother’s diary, causing a red spark to fly between them.
“Damn it.” Xtina jumped up and sucked on her fingers where she’d been burned. “Why does it do that?”
“I don’t know.” Jess frowned and picked up the book, running her hands over the leather. “There has to be a spell on it.” She checked every inch of the binding.
“What’s that?” Xtina, still sucking on her thumb, pointing to front cover. “Was that there before?”
Jess turned the book around and set it in her lap. Slowly, before her eyes, the markings on the thick leather slowly appeared. There was a sliver of a moon which took up half of the front cover. A naked woman lay across the backs of three winged men, all holding swords. She had a key in one hand and, in her other hand, a staff with fire coming out of the end.
Underneath the image, in thick Greek letters, was the word HECATE.
Xtina reached for her book and flipped through the pages. “Here.” She set the book down and Jess gasped when she noticed a sketch of basically the same image.
“Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft, sorcery, ghosts, the night, and the moon,” Xtina read.
Jess set the book down and looked at her friend. “I think we just found my ancestor.”
They left Jess and Xtina alone and hiked across the field. Jacob wanted to swing by the silo before it got too dark. Jess had said that was the last place she’d seen her mother and he wanted to check it out.
“We only have one more night before everything is supposed to happen,” Ethan said once they were out of hearing range of the house. “The full moon is the night after tomorrow.”
“Jess says Brea will be back then,” Jacob added.
“What if she’s wrong?” Ethan asked. “What if whatever it is that has her won’t let her go?”
Jacob stopped. “I’ve seen it myself.” He stood under the trees behind Xtina’s massive house and finally told Ethan what he’d seen the first time he’d shook his hand.
“What does it all mean?” Mike asked. “We’ve all had different versions of what happens in two nights.”
“Have you seen anything else?” Ethan asked. Jacob could see the worry and desperation in his brother’s eyes.
“Jess is pregnant,” he blurted out.
“What?” both of his brothers said in unison.
He held up his hands and glanced back towards the house. “She hasn’t actually told me yet.”
“Then how do you know?” Mike asked.
Jacob closed his eyes for a brief second and then started walking towards the field again. “I saw it.”
“So,” Ethan said, “it must be true. I saw Brea disappear before she did. We all saw what happens in two nights.”
“Ask her,” Mike said. “It’s pretty damn important.”
“Yeah.” He thought about it. “Yeah it is.”
They remained quiet as they walked across the field. When Ethan stopped and looked around, Jacob knew that they had reached the spot where Brea had disappeared.
“We can go on without…”
“No,” Ethan interrupted Mike. “She’s not here. The next time I will see here is down there.” He nodded towards the silo. “Let’s go.” Ethan marched on as Jacob and Mike followed him.
Instead of hitting the silo, they made their way to the doorway that led to the long stairway. It took them almost fifteen minutes to walk through the darkness and make it to the massive silo. Even in the daylight, it was dark enough that they needed the flashlights they had brought along.
“What did we expect to find?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know. Rachelle was just here with Jess. I was hoping…”
“That I’d still be here?” Rachelle stepped out of the darkness.
Quickly, Jacob drew his gun. But before he could react, the gun flew from his fingertips and landed on the ground a few feet away.
“Now, now, that’s no way to treat the mother of the woman you’re seeing.”
“It is if that same woman tried to kill the woman I love,” he responded.
“Oh, how wonderful!” Rachelle smiled and moved forward. “You’re in love. Does she know?”
Jacob glanced over at Mike and Ethan and realized neither of them were moving. Actually, neither of them even acted like they had seen Rachelle. They were both just standing, staring into the darkness.
“What did you do to them?” he asked.
“Nothing.” She smiled and moved closer. “Well, I just made sure they wouldn’t bother us while we had a nice little chat.”
“Let them go,” he growled out.
“I will when we’re done. I need you to tell my daughter to stay away from here.”
“Why?” Jacobs’ eyes narrowed as he called out to Ethan with his mind. He focused on breaking Ethan free from Rachelle’s hold, forcing his brother to move towards his gun.
“She needs to stay away,” Rachelle repeated. “For her and everyone else’s safety. I’ve seen what happens. I’ve seen the mess you all have caused.”
“We have caused?” He chuckled. “From what I’ve heard, you’re the one who started it all.”
“I’m trying to fix everything!” Her voice echoed in the silo. “Keep her away.”
“What do you care about Jess? You left her!” He felt himself reach into Ethan’s mind and break him free.
“I’m concerned about her safety.”
“You’re so concerned that you threw her across the room onto a glass table. How concerned were you then? You could have hurt her.” He willed Ethan to grab his gun and felt his brother respond to his wishes. “Or the baby,” he added after a moment.
He heard Rachelle gasp. “Jessica? Jessica is pregnant?” Rachelle took a step back and shook her head. “It can’t be.” She blinked a few times.
He heard Ethan pick up the gun just as Rachelle did. She turned and faced Ethan, then screamed something and disappeared right as Ethan pulled the trigger.
Instantly, his brothers were free of her hold.
“What the hell was that?” Mike asked.
Ethan was looking down at the recently fired gun in his hands. “What the…” he said, looking at the weapon like it was a snake.
“That’s mine.” Jacob walked over and took his weapon from his brother. “Rachelle happened. I think she’s gone for now.” He walked over to where she’d stood. He leaned down and shone his flashlight on the spot where she’d been standing. “But not before Ethan put a slug into her.”
“I shot Jess’s mother?” Ethan asked.
“No, I shot Jess’s mother.” Jacob stood up and glanced up. “It’s getting dark. We’d bette
r head back. I’ll call this in.”
Chapter 22
Yesterday…
Jess listened to Jacob getting ready for bed in the next room.
With Xtina’s help, she had filled everyone in on what they had found out and showed them the picture Xtina had taken of the image and writing on the cover of the book. Thank goodness she’d gotten the picture, because the image had faded as soon as she had put the book down.
They still hadn’t found anything about how to stop the madness or even how to save Brea.
All she knew was that she had one last night with Jacob and she wasn’t going to let it go to waste. Opening the drawer of his dresser that she’d filled with her own clothes, she pulled out the sleek black material and smiled.
When Jacob walked in, the look on his face told her that she’d hit a home run with the outfit.
“What?” he asked, then a smile slowly crossed his lips. “I like the way you think.” He slowly undid the buttons on his shirt. “You’ll have to tell me, someday, where you got that.” He nodded towards her. “So, I can purchase a dozen more like it.” By the time he reached the end of the bed, her mouth had gone dry from watching him slowly remove his clothes.
Now he stood in front of her in nothing but his boxer shorts and she couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming over all those wonderful muscles.
The past few months of cold weather had faded the tan she’d seen on him at the lake this summer, leaving it almost as pale as her skin was all the time. She could see more of his muscles now and enjoyed seeing them flex under her fingers when she touched him.
“I didn’t expect to feel like this,” she said when he reached out and touched her knee with his fingertip. Her eyes closed as his hand spread on her thigh and he moved closer to her.
“Like what?” he whispered next to her skin.
She moaned when his other hand moved to her other knee and followed the same path up and down her legs.
“Consumed.”
She heard him chuckle, but then he moved to the edge of the bed and gently pushed her legs wider. He edged his way between them while keeping his hands moving over her skin.
“You’re consumed?” He smiled up at her. “I’m bewitched.” He paused and met her eyes. “And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
