Falling Hard

by Shelly Bell

  What was he forgetting? Where was Aurora?

  Mitch picked up his phone from the nightstand beside his bed and unlocked it to see if he’d missed any calls. There were none since that morning, just the one from Zee from earlier. Shit, he was supposed to go take the potion. She would kick his ass for sure.

  There was a notification on his home screen. Someone had left him a Glide video message. The screen name was silver22.

  He entered the app and scrolled to the message. Aurora’s avatar looked just like her, with a round face and a mane of curly hair that resembled a halo around her head. It was smiling at him.

  Mitch couldn’t help but smile as he pressed the forward arrow to play the video.

  Mitch, I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry for everything that happened. It’s not what I wanted, but it’s for the greater good. I’ll see you when you wake up and hope that you can forgive me.

  Fucking excruciating. Mitch sat up sharply, allowing his phone to fall onto the bed with a thud. What the fuck was she talking about? Another knock on the door prevented him from returning to her video.

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s Hutch. Everything okay?”

  “Uh huh. Come in.”

  Hutch opened to door and stepped one foot inside. “Blake said you were going through some 40 Year Old Virgin shit in here. Doesn’t seem like you. I just wanted to check on you.”

  Mitch couldn’t help but laugh at Blake’s joke. The asshole. “Yeah, I’m gonna be all right. Can you talk for a second?”

  “Sure, man, what’s up?”

  “This girl, man. She’s everything. Her body is banging. She is on some glamorous type shit, and she seems smart. Like bonus. But . . .”

  “There’s always a ‘but’ with somebody that amazing. Shoot.” Hutch came into the room in all his rocker glory. He was the coolest guy in the whole house. An amputation hadn’t stopped him from living out his dreams. It was one of the things Mitch admired about him most. He sat on the gaming chair in the middle of the floor and still looked cool.

  “Her father is apparently a real dick. He could cause her some problems. I don’t know if I wanna deal with that kind of shit.”

  “Well, I can understand that. But if it’s some other-world-type shit you see in her, you may not have a choice.”

  “Shit, I’m already dealing with my own messes, man.”

  “It’s just . . .” Hutch was the master of staying out of people’s lives and Mitch picked up on the fact that he was choosing his words carefully. “You don’t usually keep girls around for long. You know what I mean? What makes her different?”

  “If I knew that, I would put a cap on that shit. She just stole the air from my lungs the first time I looked at her.”

  Hutch stared blankly at Mitch for a moment.

  “You know what I mean, man?”

  Hutch scratched his thick blond hair and clasped his hands together. “I do. Unfortunately, I do know what you mean. And I’m telling you, if you had that experience, you should go after her. Fuck her father.”

  Mitch picked up the water bottle from his nightstand and took a long drink. Hutch had a point. He didn’t quite know how to respond.

  “Ay, man, I’ve got to get out of here. Going to watch my brother’s set. But I did you a favor and took those panties off your doorknob.”

  “Fuckin’ Blake. Thanks, man, and I appreciate the talk, too.”

  “Anytime.”

  As Hutch stepped out of the room, Mitch stared at his phone. His friend was right. He would have to go after her. He would fight the devil himself for her. And he would have to deal with the consequences, wherever the road to damnation . . . or commitment . . . led him.

  Mitch didn’t bother with a video message. Instead, he headed for the shower. Whatever she thought she’d done to him, or whatever the problem, they would fix it in person and not using technology. He wanted to feel her beside him and not stare at her through the phone. He needed to feel her against him.

  Chapter 16

  By the time Hazel and Aurora made it to the bridge, the sun was setting. It had taken some time to get Mitch into his condo and back again to get all the supplies. Just one knife wasn’t good enough. In case she needed more, Hazel had enchanted a few pocketknives and researched more spells to ensure nothing went wrong.

  Daylight Saving Time had made it darker sooner, and just like Hazel had prophesied, the bridge was deserted when they arrived. Hazel parked the Jeep she’d borrowed from a friend near the base of the bridge. It took another hour to draw a pentagram in the hill at the side of the bridge.

  Aurora watched as her friend went from a light, airy soul to a master of the dark arts. She had worn a long black coat with tall, black boots that laced all the way up the front of the leg. When Aurora had joked in the car on the way over about her appearance, Hazel had responded, “What’s a witch without a bad ass ensemble, right?” Then she sobered. “Fuck, I hate this magic. There’s the hint of black spells in it. Just enough to make it unbearable.” She cringed a bit.

  “I’m sorry to make you do this,” Aurora whispered, shame overcoming her.

  “It’s necessary. Your father and his buddies are responsible for this kind of magic. One less of them to worry about, if we do this right. Now, concentrate,” she said.

  Aurora refocused on digging the circle around the outer points of the star figure. Cold winds interfered with her efforts, but it wasn’t enough to deter her.

  “Okay. So how long does it usually take?” Aurora asked.

  Hazel looked around assessing the area, “I’m a first timer, so we’ll have to just figure it all out.” The tone of her voice wasn’t exactly reassuring.

  She and Aurora stood near the mouth of Pont d’Amour. The wind picked up and a whistling sense of death surrounded them. “I think he’s coming soon,” Aurora said, if for nothing more than to reassure herself that everything they’d been working on since the start of the semester was coming to a culmination on the bridge that evening.

  “I think you’re right. Are you ready? I have to head to the pentagram. It’s the only thing that’ll keep him off me. Otherwise, I’m a sitting duck out here. You ready for this?” Hazel’s eyes, as strong as she pretended to be, were filled with concern.

  “Yeah, I’ve got this. You go down there and start the chant. We’ll need a good head start.”

  “The knives are in your knapsack. Don’t lose sight of it. I don’t know how many chances you’ll have, but make sure you use the right one the first time. You understand, Aurora?”Aurora opened her arms and threw them around Hazel. The two hugged with the full knowledge that if anything went wrong, it could be the last time they would ever see one another.

  When they released each another, Hazel really was crying. “Okay, go get ’em,” she said.

  Aurora watched her climb down the side of the hill to the safety of the pentagram. Hazel had the huge book in the center waiting for her and opened it to the appropriate section. The low throttle chant began, and by the second time around, the change in the atmosphere was palpable.

  It was time for Aurora to walk ahead and meet her potential fate. She would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t wishing Mitch was by her side. But to risk his life was too much for her. As much as she regretted Hazel drugging him and rendering him unconscious, she would also want to die if he were somehow harmed. It was up to her. With Hazel’s help, she would have to defeat her father.

  Aurora reached the center of the bridge and looked up at the trees around her. That’s where his voice usually came from in the physical world. In her dreams he was everywhere, but on earth he was smaller. There were so many forces against demons, their reach was nowhere near what it had been in the past.

  She waited. The sounds of the water beneath her and the rustle of wind through the leaves littering the ground around her feet were all she heard except for the chant. Hazel hadn’t broke once. The cadence washed over Aurora as she practiced patience and aw
aited the most deadly being she’d ever encountered.

  Pretty girls fall in love, yes? The thin ones with straight, blond hair and golden-bronzed skin from the summer sun . . . the demon taunted. Alchoe was there. The name her mother whispered to her in warning. She was afraid he would hear her call, so her mother had written it down, as well.

  The boys flock to them. But not you, Aurora. Surely, you knew before running after that boy. He won’t understand, will he?

  Just as in the past, the sound of his tattered and drawn voice came down from the trees of the riverbank.

  He won’t understand your half-demon self, will he? He’s one of the good ones. He’s not even fully human himself. Not only are you tragically unattractive, but the part of yourself that you try so desperately to hide will be the very thing that drives him away. A shame. I would have loved killing him.

  “You leave him out of this. This is between me and you,” she shouted at the ridgeline on the other side of the bridge. Mitch, she whispered in her mind.

  The demon continued. You hear me, don’t you, weakling? You should be in fear for your life right now. It’s only a matter of time. And never mind your little boyfriend. He won’t save you. Remember, you aren’t the type of girl that men save. You’re the kind they fuck and leave. Alone.

  “You bastard,” she screamed. Aurora’s voice cracked, exploding from the pit of her sickened stomach. “I want to see you. We need to talk. Child to father. Come here now, you sick fuck!”

  I’m the bastard? Lest ye forget so soon. Your mother is the one who conceived you with one of us, which one, she can’t be sure. Either way, you should have never been. You’re an abomination. But that’s neither here nor there. I’ll put you out of your misery soon. It’s for the best, really. I mean, you’re nothing at all. Do you know that? Nothing. At. All.

  As he spoke, the thin outline of a figure materialized and moved closer and closer to Aurora, until his stale breath misted in her face. Do you know where he is? He’s coming to look for you. And when he gets here, he’ll find nothing but your remains. Is that what you want for him? Why not save yourself the trouble and come willingly?

  Alchoe was there, but he wasn’t. In order to stake him or whatever the fuck you called stabbing a demon to death, he would need to be if full form. He was still too strong. Still not in front of her like he needed to be.

  “I’m not coming with you. You can’t make me go,” Aurora was screaming at him, her voice so loud it rang in her own ears.

  Can’t I? I could have made you leave this place long ago. It’s just a sweeter victory when you choose on your own. That’s what I’ve been waiting for. For so many years, you’ve tormented the humans. At times, it was fun to watch. Those times when you visited me, fitful and tormented, I’d seen it all.

  “I never visited you. You haunted me. I was tortured my whole life and you were the cause.”

  Is that what you think? No, child. That’s not the case. You sought me out. You control your own mind. It’s called free will. You exercised it. He laughed, his grizzly face taking on color. His flesh was grayish and molten. His eyes were a flaming sapphire.

  “I never did that. You. It was always you!” She was screaming again.

  The chanting behind her grew louder. The air chilled to somewhere south of zero and her breath showed in a cloud as she screamed into the night air.

  You are denying who you are, girl. You are my child. You called out to me. You always do. You are half demon and that part of you has ruled your life from the day you were born.

  Aurora steeled herself. As her absent father developed before her like an old Polaroid picture, she watched.

  Somewhere deep in her soul, that quiet part of her knew he was right.

  Chapter 17

  Something was wrong. Mitch couldn’t shake the sensation crawling all over him. Still hazy, he stood in the opulent, golden glow of the bathroom across the hall from his bedroom. The maid came once a week. Unlike most college dorms or quads, they had shit like scented soaps and framed mirrors in their bathroom. Sconces and shit he wouldn’t have known about otherwise. He stepped out of his funky workout clothes and into the shower stall.

  After he turned on the faucet, streams of water hit him from all sides, even from below. It was one of his favorite features of the condo.

  Scooping water into his hands, he pushed it through his thick, dark hair. In an instant, he saw her face. Most of the time when he imagined her, it was in a beautiful haze, reminiscent of the night he’d met her behind Billy’s.

  He gripped the shower wall to steady himself. This image was of her struggling with something. In the thick darkness, she was yelling, her voice hoarse from crying and desperation.

  The jagged image cut into his mind without warning and his gut ached from his inability to help her. Just as suddenly as it had come, the vision was gone, leaving in its wake a thick, gut wrenching sense of urgency. Mitch turned off the shower and attempted to process what had happened.

  What had happened was a first. His mother had once told him he the power of sight that only came to special pack members, but he’d never believed her.

  Mitch grabbed a towel from the neatly rolled sets on the towel bars and wrapped it around his soaked frame. Padding back to his bedroom, he was unconcerned with the mess he was leaving behind him. He needed to get to her. As preposterous as it seemed, Aurora could be in danger.

  He stepped into his bedroom and pulled on jeans, a sweatshirt, socks and shoes at the speed of light.

  Mitch grabbed his black pea coat from the bed and left the room like it was on fire. He made it down the stairs and saw the dim light of the sitting room, where a fire was going. They’d never used the fireplace.

  His promise to Blake came back in a flood. Shit!

  He proceeded to walk toward the door, shooting a glance over his shoulder. There was no time to comment on the girl who didn’t seem like Blake’s type on the couch. If her clothes were disheveled and she was ripping Blake’s clothes off, the scene would have been more common. Instead, they had books spread over the coffee table and Blake was discussing what seemed to be a salient point from one of his business classes.

  “See ya’, man.” Mitch didn’t wait for him to respond, nor goad him for studying. It was obvious he’d put a lot into his evening, and there would be plenty of time to razz him for his sudden change in choice of woman.

  The door closed with a click behind Mitch and leaves softly fell onto the ground. The air was frigid, even more than normal. He wanted to shift into a beast, but he didn’t. He fought every one of his internal instincts to save his girl. Barging in as a wolf, or worse, in his naked human form, wouldn’t do. He’d scare the shit out of her and there was no concrete proof she was in mortal danger. He wished his vision would have been clearer.

  Instead, he charged across the campus, his boots crunching on the freshly fallen leaves, and sharp, crisp air biting into his face as he ran at top speed.

  The dorm was lit, the activity of students in the common area spilling over into the dark walkway in front.

  Mitch averted them and headed to the side of the brick structure. He gauged the rooms on the third floor for Aurora’s suite. The bricks were slick with ivy, but he grabbed on and scaled the building, calling on his superhuman strength to hang on, one at a time. He didn’t want to call attention to himself, so he leaned into the building, slowly and steadily climbing.

  The thought of a locked window crossed his mind, but it was better than reaching her room and having to break down the door. Word of something like that would spread across campus at the speed of light.

  Her ledge, like most of the other windows, jutted out and made for an easy grip. He hauled himself upward and scanned the room first. It was dark, only the glow of her television power button lit the room beneath a blank screen. He searched for Aurora in the darkness, from the chairs to the floor to the bed.

  She wasn’t there.

  Instead of climbing down the wall,
he jumped. The four stories of the building passed by him at lightning speed. Mitch landed in a crouching position on the grass.

  Walking out to the sidewalk, he glanced up and down the street. The scent of something rank wafted faintly to his nose.

  Mitch grabbed his phone from his jacket pocket and pulled it out. Watching the message again, he paid close attention to Aurora’s every word.

  . . . wanted to let you know I’m sorry for everything . . . it’s not what I wanted . . . it’s for the greater good. I’ll see you when you wake up . . . forgive me.

  Her message was strange, but even stranger was the fact that he couldn’t remember anything concrete about the day. He’d started out heading to Zee’s.

  Another thought shot out from the recesses of his mind. Hazel. She’d been watching him as he fell into a slumber. It wasn’t in the dorm, though.

  Mitch began walking toward Hazel’s house. He struggled to recall the events of the day again. He’d gotten out of bed and headed to Zee’s. Aurora. He’d been with her. And then the image of Hazel. Anger filled him, but he had no idea way.

  Finally, the fucked-up, cryptic message Aurora had video texted him made more sense.

  Mitch picked up his pace. Getting to Aurora was the singular mission that propelled him forward. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her safe. But where was she?

  The image from the shower was of her alone. She was outside. It was so dark, nothing seemed to be around her. She was yelling at someone. But who?

  Mitch arrived on Zee’s porch in record speed for his human form. Only moments had passed.

  Raising his hand to knock on the door, another image hit.

  He was waiting on her porch. Hazel opened the door and it was morning. She’d had her mad face on. Who was behind him?