***
I had a moment of confusion when I saw Ian standing there. I remembered the spell warning him not to look me in the eye because I would see him for what he truly was, but as he stood over me he didn’t look all that different, at least until I saw his eyes. They were black. No whites, no irises, no pupils, just endless black. They were not the eyes of a human, there was no soul behind them. I shivered as I realized what I was looking at.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered.
“What don’t you understand?” Ian asked, his voice heavy and strange.
“How is it you? I burned you, but then your arm, in the store, I saw it.”
“Oh yes,” he laughed, making me cringe, “well, that was an interesting little trick of yours, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t heal easily.”
The protective shield was like a weight on my neck, shoulders and back, pushing me down and away from it. I hadn’t truly entered the circle and it wasn’t letting me, but it was more reassuring to me than anything else; that also meant that Ian was outside of its power and protection too. I pushed back to a kneeling position, never taking my eyes off of Ian and brought my left arm up, level with my chest, and grabbed the hilt of my athame with my right hand and drew it out of my sleeve.
I saw a look of confusion come over Ian’s face as he watched me, but it passed and he merely smirked at me, “You’ll have to get a lot closer to me for that to do you any good.” I took a deep, steadying breath, found the power source of my element beneath me, and pushed up to my feet.
“I enter of my own free will,” I whispered the words as quietly as I could and thrust the blade of the knife into the air in front of me and sliced upwards, visualizing a tear in a thick, heavy cloth in front of me. I stepped through and felt the edges of the cut brush over my body, giving only enough for me to squeeze through. I turned, none too happy with giving Ian my back, and raised my right hand to the opening and made a smoothing motion down the length of the cut, whispering the spell to seal the circle again. I felt the power shimmer around me and lock into place just as if I had shut the door to a windy night. I heard the demon beyond the tree line roar again, but it couldn’t reach me now.
“What have you done?” Ian asked and I turned to face him, more confident now but still scared out of my mind. I was committed and there was nothing for it.
“Listen Ian, there is still time to stop this.” I decided I would try for reasoning first.
“What did you just do?” he asked again, but I wasn’t telling.
“Look, just give me Tracy and go away. Leave my city and I’ll let you go.” My voice sounded more confident than I actually felt.
“Oh, Tracy, yes, well, that’s fine, if you want me to let her go I can do that for you.” He was smiling at me and it was like a twisted version of Jensen’s sweet, reassuring smile. I wanted to wipe it off his face.
“Just like that?” Ian started to step to his side, circling me. I knew I didn’t want him at my back so I mirrored him, walking away from him. We were tracing the edge of the circle, facing each other like an old western gunfight.
“Well, I would expect something in return, obviously,” he said with a laugh and a wave of his hand.
“What would you expect?” Ian stopped a quarter of the way around the circle and started back the way he came. I stopped and considered doing the same, but something told me he didn’t want me at the end of the circle he had started from, which made me want to be there all the more.
“I’ll let Tracy go if you take her place… Witch,” he said it like a curse and the power of that one word slapped me in the face. He tilted his head to the side, studying me like a bird ready to peck the worm out of the hole. “That should have done more. Very impressive,” he muttered that as if speaking more to himself than to me.
“You say witch like it should offend me. I’d rather be a witch any day than be… what are you? A warlock? Satanist?” He laughed abruptly and it was an ugly, harsh sound, almost the braying of a mad donkey.
“A warlock, a Satanist,” he nodded, still smiling from his ugly laugh. “No, they answer to someone, something. I answer to no one and nothing.”
“Everyone answers for their crimes, Ian, everyone.” I had decided to stop moving and just squared off in front of him. He laughed at me again, throwing his head back into it, fully enjoying mocking me.
“So pretty to think so. Makes your world make a little more sense to you, I suppose.” He smirked at me and it was ugly.
I was done with the banter. My leg hurt like a son of a bitch and my arm was beginning to shake with the effort of holding the blade.
“Ok, Ian, what exactly is it that you need me for?”
“Oh I could just as easily use Tracy,” he shrugged flippantly. “But I would prefer you.”
“Fine, for what?”
“To summon power. Obviously a witch of your abilities would enhance my powers much more than a simple little girl.” He turned and walked back to where he had stood originally, closer to me than I would have liked, but I didn’t want to give away any ground. He actually stepped out of the circle into the trees and disappeared for a few moments. I had the intense urge to run after him, get to Tracy before he could and just get out of here, but I held my ground. He came back, dragging two very large duffle bags into the clearing. They were held closed at one end with drawstrings and looked big enough to hold a body in each. And as that thought entered my mind, my stomach lurched.
“I’ll make the deal even sweeter for you,” he said when he had come far enough into the clearing for me to hear him and turned to face me. “I’ll let dear Tracy go,” he nudged the bag closest to me with his right foot, “and I’ll let Jensen go,” he kicked the other bag with his left foot and I heard the muffled groan from the second bag, “if you’ll take her place.” A cruel smile curled his lips and made his eyes darker rather than lighter as smiles should do. I tried not to look at the bags. I tried not to let the pain show in my face, but it was difficult.
“Why do you have Jensen if you only need one sacrifice?”
“Because he helped start the spell work so he has to be here,” he shrugged and tried to look casual about it, but the anger threaded in his voice betrayed the façade. “How did you happen to keep my pet out of the circle?” He nodded towards the trees off to my side now that I had walked farther into the clearing.
“The same way I kept you out,” I took another step closer to him but he didn’t move to mirror me. He wasn’t going to walk away from the bags before the negotiations were through.
“But I am in the circle,” he gestured at the clearing with both hands, amusement plain on his face.
“No, no, you’re not.” I smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile.
“My pet gnashes at the edge of the circle and cannot enter the clearing, but here I am, standing in the clearing. How can you say that I am not in it?” His amusement slipped into bemusement like I had done something simple and adorable like a child.
“What’s your name?” I asked carefully.
“Ah,” he laughed again, but now it sounded like breaking glass or metal on a chalkboard and made me cringe. “You are very bright. Yes, I would much rather have you than the girl.” He actually kicked Tracy in the bag and I found myself coming forward as if I could stop him in time.
“So, that’s why I can finally look you straight in the face; you’ve already possessed Ian, is that it? Then why do you need another sacrifice?” I wanted to understand everything before I brought Jodi and Steven in and knew what we needed to do.
“Answer me about my pet.” He sounded sullen; his mood swings were going to pose a problem if I didn’t keep him mollified.
“Fine, if I answer you, will you answer me?”
“Agreed.”
“I set another circle over yours to protect myself and I entered it ritually. That is a thing of evil; it cannot enter my circle of protection unless I invite it in,” I said it as matter-of-factly as I could.
I decided it were best if he didn’t know I hadn’t just set my circle over his and had erased his circle. Call me paranoid, but I don’t think that would have made him happy.
“Hmm, so you knew that I wanted you to come to me?”
“No, you said you’d answer my question if I answered yours. You don’t get to ask another question until you answer mine.”
“Yes, I have already entered Ian’s body, you are correct. I need the third sacrifice, human obviously, to seal the possession and my ascension. Blood for blood, a life for a life, you understand.” He smiled at me with a nod.
“I wouldn’t think a demon would worry about karmic balance.”
“I don’t make the rules my dear; I only follow them – when I have to.” He shrugged casually. I decided to let that one go, we would have to agree to disagree on whether or not he was following karmic rules. “Alright, well, time is wasting, I do need to have this ritual underway almost immediately if I am to get it done in time, so, will you be staying or shall I proceed with Ms. Tracy?”
“You know I can’t let you kill her.”
“Wonderful, if you’ll just get rid of that little knife of yours and join me over here in the middle?” He reached a hand out to me, just as if he were my date for the night and wanted me to take his arm.
“Let them go first,” I motioned to Jensen and Tracy with my chin, never taking my eyes off of Ian.
“Oh no, my dear, you first and then I’ll let them go.”
“I’m not an idiot. If I go first, you’ll kill me and there’ll be nothing to stop you from killing them.”
“But why would I do that? Once you have sacrificed yourself I won’t need them anymore.”
“Because you’ll want to get rid of any witnesses.”
“That’s a risk you’re just going to have to take. Now, stop stalling,” Ian said.
I drew in a deep breath to calm my nerves and dropped my athame to the ground. He smiled at me and nodded slowly, encouraging me to come to him.
This was the part of the plan that I hated the most; I would have to go willingly to him, unarmed. I took slow, careful steps to him, taking as much time as I dared to close the distance between us. I concentrated on Steven’s energy and drew the heat into both of my arms, desperately trying to control the energy to keep it from bursting into flame in my palms. I didn’t want Ian to see what I was doing. I was only a few feet away from him when I felt the heat grow in my hands until I was sure my skin must be red and blistering from it. The memory of the grass I had set aflame in the school and the trees Ian had carved into flashed into the front of my mind and the pain in my hands tripled. The pain of controlling the element clawed up my arms and past my elbows.
“Yes,” he hissed at me, “come to me, witch, come to me.” I stopped just three feet away from him, hoping that I appeared scared and angry and was just hesitating. I watched him start to lean for me and I opened the channels between Jodi, Steven and myself and screamed in my head for them to come. I bent my knees and with a wild, wordless scream I lunged at Ian, my hands formed into claws, reaching, tearing in the air for his face. He leaned into my lunge, realizing too late what I was doing. My fingers found his face, nails ripping down his cheeks until I could hold on. I pressed my burning hands into his face, shoving him back with my body.
He screamed as wildly and wordless as I had and tore away from me, stumbling backwards, and I fell to my knees on the ground. I looked up and saw Jodi and Steven running into the clearing towards us. Ian was clawing at his own face, slapping himself, trying to put out the fire that he could not see, crabwalking away from me. I was strangely calm as I watched the blisters burst over his skin, melting holes into his cheeks and forehead as it burned relentlessly. Steven and Jodi both had their bottles of holy water in their hands, Steven gripping his rosary in the other. They reached Ian and started flinging the water on his body. He fell to the ground screaming, steam rising up from his body, his clothing smoldering from the inside out.
“Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name,” Steven started the prayer, he and Jodi flinging the holy water on every part of Ian’s body that they could reach. “Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.” Ian screamed, but could not move under the weight of the prayers.
“Keep praying!” I screamed and got to my feet, tripping myself and nearly falling again in my rush. Steven started to repeat the prayer again. Ian screamed again but a roar of frustration colored it and I watched, horrified, as he was able to start to push away from the ground. Without thinking, I plunged my hands down, the earth giving way to my hands. I searched until I found the wandering roots of the trees that I had used to form my circle and begged their help and felt them respond to my call. The surface of the ground began to roll, a threatening rumble shook the trees around us. The roots broke the surface of the ground and reached for Ian, grabbing his wrists and ankles and pulling him tight against the ground, twisting and twining around him until he couldn’t move. The roots drew the shape of the star I had walked the day before, binding Ian in the same place the magic of the circle had laid me.
I pulled my hands free of the ground, relieved when I saw the roots didn’t let Ian go, and ran to them. He roared again and I felt an icy wind rush around us, whipping at our faces and thunder cracked overhead. I looked up to see the black and gray clouds swirling malevolently in the sky and lightning ripped through the clouds.
“I think it’s working!” I screamed at them over the thunder and wind and Ian’s screams. Steven kept praying. I heard Jodi take up the chant of the elements, their voices taking up the same cadence so you almost couldn’t tell who was saying what.
I fell to my knees at Ian’s head and Jodi and Steven followed on either side of him. I reached out a hand to both of them and we formed a circle around him with our arms. “By the power of three times three, I bind you demon,” I began my chant, falling into rhythm with Jodi and Steven’s voices. “By the power of three times three, I bind you demon. By the power of three times three, I bind you demon,” I kept all emotion out of my voice and concentrated on raising the power between us.
Ian began to writhe on the ground in pain, the smoke from the holy water faded away and his face turned up to me. I stared into his black eyes and he spoke to me in a voice no human could have and in a language I didn’t know. Steven’s voice faltered and I felt the pain the words were giving him. I gripped his hand tighter and lent him my strength. Jodi chanted a little louder, leading Steven back into his concentration. “By my will, I banish you, demon. By my will, I banish you, demon.” I steeled myself, found my center and the power contained therein, and held his gaze with my eye. “By my will, I banish you, demon!” I cried out over the howling wind and heard Steven cry out, “Deliver us from evil!”
Ian screamed in pain and lightning crashed down around us, slicing into Ian and striking a tree close to us. I felt the wood breaking long before the bark started to give and I lunged forward, pulling Steven and Jodi with me just as a heavy tree branch came crashing down over Ian’s shoulders. He lay there, immobile and silent, as the winds began to die and the thunder faded away. I looked up into the sky and saw the clouds were still there, but the black and gray were gone. Steven was crying and Jodi was shaking, holding on to him. Ian’s eyes were closed and his mouth was slack. If his eyes had been open, I would’ve known he was dead, but as they remained closed, I knew he was just unconscious.
In another moment I felt the air around me shift, as if taking pause in the Earth’s rotation, and the ground below me rumbled as thunder cracked over head. A black mist erupted from Ian’s chest. A pain ridden howl tore through the air in the distance. I pulled my gaze away from Ian and looked out at the trees beyond my circle of protection to see a pillar of smoke rising above the treetops, dissipating as it caught the bre
eze. I heard the howl of the hell hound fading as the mist over Ian’s body grew weaker. The demon and his pet were leaving this plane. The ground continued to rumble as the roots of the trees began sliding away from Ian, disappearing back into the ground. The tremors subsided with the last root tip gone, but the large tree branch still pinned Ian to the ground.
Before I could succumb to the effects of shock, I ran, tripping and nearly falling, over to the bags that Jensen and Tracy were in. I had a split second when I wanted to free Jensen first, but I thought better of it and tore the bag open that Tracy was stuffed inside. She was crying and trembling, but with my help she crawled out. Her wrists and ankles were bound, making it awkward, but we managed it.
“Shayna?” she gasped, staring at me, confused, but instead of asking any more questions, she clutched my sweatshirt and pulled me into a hug. “You’re always saving me! It’s like you’re my very own, live guardian angel,” she sobbed into my shoulder with a laugh. I looked at her, a weight on my back suddenly there and undeniable.
“What did you call me?” My voice was hushed and she couldn’t hear me over her own sobs. I felt Steven and Jodi at my back and they eased her away from me, pulling her to them so I could get to Jensen. He crawled out of the bag, weak-kneed and as shaky as Tracy, bound the same way at his wrists and ankles. His face was covered in bruises and swelling, but he smiled at me and the endless blue of his eyes sparkled for me.
“A guardian angel, that’s what she called you,” he whispered.
Chapter 20
Jensen was bloodied and bruised from a fight he’d had with Ian. He told me that, for as long as he could remember, they had powers. They never knew anyone else who did, so they had been teaching themselves with books and the internet their whole lives. Ian had become obsessed with growing his powers. The more they learned, the more he craved. It was a vicious cycle that Jensen, the weaker of the two, had been caught up in. Jensen admitted he had been helping Ian, just like Ian had told me. But when Ian killed the first goat, Jensen realized what a wrong turn they had taken and tried to stop Ian. It was Jensen stopping the rituals that had the police stumped.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 26
