Damien casually swirled the blood in the chalice, then sniffed it as if he were sampling a fine wine. He lifted the drink to his lips and took a large swallow, right before he spit it out again and tossed the goblet onto the floor. He clearly didn’t care for the taste.
He motioned for the medical crew, and I watched in horror as they transformed into their demon forms, as Krista had done once before in front of me. The small fleshy horns protruded from their head, the brows furrowed, and their teeth lengthened into rows of uneven fangs.
They pounced on the man while he screamed; ripping chunks of flesh from him as they bit into his skin to feed on him, blood spraying in every direction.
Vance was at my side instantly, ripping the binoculars from my grasp, his eyes flaming red.
“Don’t look, Portia!” he said, as he buried my face against his shoulder. “They’re going to kill this one.”
I let him hide my face there, not wanting to see what was happening to the poor warlock who sat in that chair. I could feel Vance shaking, though, as he fought for control over his own desires.
All I could think of was the fact that Vance had once been subjected to something very similar to this, only he had been allowed to survive. I started weeping into his shirt as he ran his fingers up and down over my back trying to sooth me.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” he repeated, his clenched teeth belying the calmness he was trying to exude over me.
I turned to look toward the cabin door, worried about whether or not any of the fishermen were hearing us, but it sounded as if they were still busy hauling nets in with loud whirring machines.
“He’s gone,” I heard Dad say in a low voice then, and I knew he meant the man was now dead.
“What’s happening?” Vance asked, as he continued to cradle me protectively against him.
“Your dad is testing out his next victim,” Brad replied, pausing for a moment. “I guess he likes this one,” he added, disgust dripping from his voice. “He’s going back for seconds.”
“Will he let this one live?” I asked against Vance’s shirt as I held onto him as if I were drowning.
“It depends on how many cups he has,” Vance answered honestly. “His chalice is big. It looks to be about the size of a pint. If he stops after eight, then they probably plan on changing him. If he drinks more than that, then he will probably just let him die.”
My dad and Brad continued to watch while Vance held me tightly in his arms, his chin resting on the top of my head.
“He stopped at ten,” Dad finally said, after a long silence. “But he’s letting the others take the rest.”
“This is so sick,” Brad said sourly as he continued to watch the scene unfold in front of him.
“He’s starting on the final man now,” Dad added.
“He isn’t going to keep any of them, is he?” I asked, feeling my heart break painfully for the victims involved with this monster.
Vance shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he whispered as he hugged me closer.
“He just passed him off to the others,” Brad said several minutes later. “I think he’s going for her now.”
“We have to watch,” I said, pushing Vance away and reaching for the binoculars on the table again. “We have to learn what it is.”
“Portia, I’ll do it. You don’t have to,” he said, concerned, placing a hand of restraint against my arm.
“No!” I replied, harshly. “I involved in this, too! I need to know what we’re going up against.”
He looked at me for a moment before he released my hand, and I brought the binoculars back up to my face, finding the target once again, as Vance returned to the spyglass he had been using prior.
Thankfully the bodies that had been in the chairs were no longer visible. I didn’t dwell on what that fact might mean, and I followed as Damien began to stalk his new prey.
I watched as the woman on the wall began screaming, tears rolling down her face. I could see she was trying to throw a magical force field around herself for protection, but it wasn’t working.
“That’s why he has the I.V.,” Dad said, in sudden understanding. “He’s drugging them so they don’t have proper control over their powers. He’s running interference.”
Damien walked up close to the woman, reaching through her flimsy barrier of protection, and grabbed her jaw so she faced him head on. He placed his other hand on the back of her head. I could see her trying to say something as he leaned in close, and it almost looked like he was going to kiss her. He stopped though when he was about two inches away from her mouth, suddenly dropping his jaw open and inhaled as if taking a very deep breath.
The women’s body went completely stiff and then she began jerking in spasms. I could actually see the essence of her powers, in the form of light, very similar to the glow I witnessed from my own healing powers.
I watched as the light flowed rapidly up though her veins, into her neck and then out of her mouth, passing out of her body and into his. It was all over in about thirty seconds, and when it was finished, she slumped heavily against the wall.
Damien dropped his hands from her body then. He began to shake as the new powers ran through his body, lighting his veins as it moved through him, until it filled his entire being. He held his hands out away from him, and I could even see what looked like sparks shooting out from the ends of his fingers. It almost appeared as if he was in pain as he convulsed with the power. Finally, after several long moments, I could see that his body was beginning to assimilate the new powers as the lights running through him began to slowly fade away.
“That was some trip,” Brad said quietly, mostly to himself. “I think I’m going to vomit.”
The medical staff then hurried to the wall and removed the woman from it. She was carried brusquely out the door, down to the beach and unceremoniously tossed rather roughly into the waiting motorboat.
We heard the engine sputter to life in the distance and begin to head back out to sea.
“Portia! Hand me the night vision goggles in my bag, quick!” my dad called out to me.
I dropped my binoculars onto the table and hurriedly rummaged through the duffle bag until I found them.
“Here!” I said placing them into his outstretched hand.
He had them on in a flash and was soon looking about, scanning the waters for the small motorboat.
“There!” he said pointing across the bow as he located them.
We moved our line of sight as we followed the point of his finger but couldn’t see anything out in the dark night, though we did hear the engine slow slightly.
“They dumped her into the water!” he exclaimed suddenly.
“Dad!” I shouted in dismay. “We have to go get her! She’s too weak and she’ll drown!”
“It’ll take too long to get this thing started!” he replied, shaking his head as he looked over at the controls. “If we fire it up right now, it’ll alert them also,” he added as he looked out over the water.
Vance was instantly out the door of the cabin, and suddenly I heard a splash.
“He’s swimming to her!” I said as I ran out the door, trying to see him in the dark but to no avail.
“They’re leaving now, in a hurry,” Dad said as he continued to watch out the window.
“Enrico!” I shouted from the door, trying to get his attention, just as Brad appeared at my side.
“Tell them to drop the nets!” I begged Brad as I gestured toward the working men. “It’ll take too long to pull them in!”
Brad ran forward toward the fishermen gesturing wildly with his hands as he spoke rapidly in their native tongue.
Enrico balked and was shaking his head violently, arguing back in Spanish, clearly not wishing to drop his load.
“Tell him we’ll buy him all new nets if he’ll drop them now!” I shouted, before turning back to my dad. “Can you see them? Is Vance okay?” I hollered at him, feeling my nerves rise to an all-new extreme.
I turned to look at Brad, who was still arguing with Enrico and the other crewmembers.
“Screw this!” I said under my breath and I strode out onto the deck.
I centered all my emotions, feeling the urgency and the energy racing through my veins. I lifted my hands out, raising them in a slow motion high into the air.
A hard wind suddenly raced through the atmosphere, whipping my hair free from the claw that held it, thrashing it wildly around my face.
The nets began lifting up out of the water, following the motion of my hands, until they were swinging in the pulleys full of fish. I moved my arms in toward my body and the large metal robotic arms swung the nets into the boat.
The fisherman were screaming and hovering into a corner now as they pointed first at the nets and then over at me, terror written plainly on their faces.
“Get this boat moving!” I yelled to my dad and I heard the engine fire up at that exact moment.
The boat started forward slowly as Dad turned it slightly to adjust the course, heading in the direction where we needed to go.
Brad was frantically trying to calm the screaming men behind me and keep them from jumping overboard.
I rushed around to the port side and leaned over the edge, looking out into the darkness as we picked up speed, looking for any sign of Vance, or the woman, out in the wave-rippled water.
“Over there!” I yelled to my dad, pointing as I spotted him, his red eyes glowing in the distant darkness.
He was treading water in the spot where he had flipped the woman over, and he was holding her head up trying to keep the waves from washing over her face.
Dad maneuvered the boat up alongside him, and Brad and I reached down into the water to grab the woman from him.
We hauled her up onto the boat as the fishermen looked on in amazement, being silent for the first time as they watched us.
Their moment of silence lasted until Vance climbed back into the boat. They got one look at his red eyes and started screaming again.
This time Enrico did jump overboard.
“Oh, good grief!” Vance said, throwing his hands into the air, before jumping back into the water after him.
Chapter 15
We went to work quickly on the woman, laying her flat on her back on the deck, while Dad checked her for a pulse.
“She has a pulse, but she isn’t breathing!” he said, and he slightly tilted her head back and began to blow into her mouth.
Brad and I watched him work quickly with her.
After a few breaths, the woman started coughing violently, and water began gurgling out of her mouth.
We rolled her to the side so the liquid could drain from her without choking her again. She took several gasps of breath.
“Brad, ask one of the guys if they have any oxygen onboard,” I said, knowing that she needed extra help.
He relayed the message to the three remaining fishermen onboard who looked at him with wide eyes like he was crazy. I didn’t think they could even comprehend a thing that he was saying to them.
“I think they’re in shock,” he replied with a shake of his head. “They aren’t answering me. I’ll go look for some in the cabin.”
We heard a squeal from the men then and looked up to see Vance dripping wet, dragging an equally soaked Enrico back onboard the vessel.
Vance sat Enrico down with the other men and touched each of them, effectively freezing their bodies with a spell, to keep them from moving. He sloshed his way back across the deck and knelt at my side.
“How is she?” he asked, panting slightly.
“She isn’t conscious yet,” I said. “She had a lot of water in her lungs.”
“Heal her,” he stated, looking at me.
“What?” I asked in shock, his words not really registering.
“Heal her,” he replied again, wiping his dripping hair away from his face with his hand. “I don’t want to try it while I’m having these demonic reactions. I don’t know if they’d affect my magic at all.”
I nodded my head at him in understanding before turning back to the woman in front of me. I reached out and placed my hands gently on both sides of her head, letting my energy flow from me into her, the soft white light moving quickly throughout her body as it searched out the areas in need of attention. When the transfer was finished, I removed my hands from her and sat back.
A few seconds later she slowly opened her eyes and looked around, flinching visibly when she saw Vance leaning over her.
“It’s all right now,” I said, nodding my head toward him. “He saved you from drowning.”
“What happened?” she asked with a cough, and I could hear the accent of her native Indian tongue coming through her speech.
“You were the victim of dark magic tonight, and you’ve lost all your powers through something called a demon kiss. Your body was discarded into the ocean afterwards,” I explained.
“Where am I?” She looked around.
“You’re in Mexico, on a fishing boat in the Sea of Cortez,” I replied to her as she looked at me.
She glanced back warily at Vance again.
“He isn’t a demon?” she asked, with trepidation creeping into her voice, her nervousness apparent.
“No,” I said shaking my head. “Someone once tried to change him, though, and he still suffers from reactions to the near conversion.” I wanted to help her to be able to relax around him and not fear him.
She looked him over for a moment as if trying to decide whether or not to believe what I was saying.
“Thank you then,” she finally replied, her gaze holding his own. “And I am sorry for your suffering.”
“I’m fine,” he said with a soft smile. “I just want to make sure you’re all right.”
“Would you object to coming back to shore with us and telling our coven what has happened to you?” my dad asked gently. “We’re trying to stop the person who did this to you.”
“No. Not at all,” she said. We helped her to her feet and guided her into the cabin out of the night air.
Brad wrapped a blanket he had found around her, and we helped her to sit down on the bench at the table.
“What are we going to do about this other mess we’ve made tonight?” Dad said as we looked out at the magically restrained fishermen.
“I have no idea,” I said, biting at my bottom lip. “I didn’t really have time to plan correctly before I cooked up that little show of power I made out there. I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it, Pumpkin,” my dad replied. “We’ll think of something to tell them.”
“I suggest we try honesty first and see if that works,” Vance said. “If it doesn’t, then we’ll try Plan B.”
“It can’t hurt, I guess,” I replied, figuring since I was the one who had caused the commotion then I should be the one to explain things to them.
I left my dad with the woman and walked back out onto the deck to stand in front of the crew.
The four of them just stared up at me with wide eyes, and I turned to look back at Vance who was leaning casually in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest, watching me closely.
“All right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “First of all, I want to apologize for scaring you all nearly to death. That was truly never my intention.”
Brad stepped up next to me and began translating my words into Spanish for them.
“We never meant to expose you to any of this,” I began again, when he paused, waiting for me to continue. “I need to tell you some things that will be difficult to believe. Do you understand me so far?”
Their eyes switched from me back to Brad as he translated, then back to me when he was done.
“Do they understand what I’m saying?” I asked him, unable to tell if they could or not.
“I’m not e
ven sure if they know who they are right now,” Brad said with a slight grin creeping onto his face as he fought back a chuckle, trying to remain solemn over the situation and failing miserably at it.
I turned back to face Vance.
“Now what?” I asked, lifting my hands uselessly before dropping them back at my side. “I don’t think anything I’m saying is computing.”
He moved away from the door and walked up next to me then, before reaching out and touching each one of them on the forehead once again, this time effectively putting them to sleep.
“We need to construct a believable scenario,” he said with a sigh, “something they can wake up to and think they’d just experienced a horrible dream or something like that.”
“Like what?” I asked, not even knowing what kind of believable scenario we could build out of this mess.
“Well,” he said, thoughtfully, “I think we should call your grandma and have her meet us at the marina first of all. She can take our lady in there back to the condo with her and get her taken care of.”
“Yeah, then what do we do?” I asked, curious about where he was heading with all this.
He looked over my head at the metal mechanical arms holding the bulging fishing nets on the boat.
“Then we should go back to our original coordinates that we were at when we were watching the house. We’ll drop one of the nets back into the water, and we’ll construct an ‘accident’ with the other. I think we could make it look like one of the arms broke and let the net fall on these four knocking them out. When they wake up, hopefully they’ll just think it’s all a crazy dream they had when they were unconscious.”
“But both nets were still in the water when this happened. And what about when they start telling each other about the nightmare they’ve just had?” I asked, feeling doubtful about whether or not this would work.
“I find that the human mind tends to want to accept the most plausible reason it can find for something.” he replied. “I’m sorry, but it’s what I’ve got. Take it or leave it.”
“I’ll take it.” I said, stepping up to him and placing my hands on his temples. “But we have to get rid of these red eyes for it to work.”
Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss Page 16
