Darkness Brutal (The Dark Cycle Book 1)

by Rachel A. Marks

  “She is pretty. And she has that innocent energy that screams to be protected.”

  I blink at her, unsure what to say.

  She comes closer and leans on the wall beside me. “I bet you’re nice to her. You probably say all these pretty things to make her melt in those hands of yours.”

  “I’m sorry that I hurt you, Kara.”

  She looks up at me, and I can see it in her eyes: the pain of all the men that have wounded her. Am I now just another name on that list of bastards?

  “I really am sorry.” I want to reach out and touch her, but I force myself not to. “You deserve a true hero, not a fake one.”

  Jax pokes his head around the archway. “Quit makin’ out. Let’s roll.”

  I follow him through the kitchen to the back door, waving at the girls as I go by. Rebecca gives me a confused smile, her eyes moving from me to Kara, who’s standing behind us in the archway, staring at me with the strangest look on her face. As I’m about to close the back door behind me, she’s there, grabbing it.

  “I’m coming, too,” she says.

  Jax frowns. “I thought you were gonna help Lester with the prep for that loony bin job. You said you didn’t wanna come today.”

  “I changed my mind.”

  Sid’s car is a lot nicer than Connor’s Jeep, but it’s not exactly meant for five. He’s driving and Connor’s shotgun. Jax is sitting on the hump between Kara and me. Which I’m not too thrilled about. It’s a bit cozy.

  As we settle in Jax says to me, “We can snuggle, but I expect you to buy me a drink later.”

  After a while of driving through traffic, I ask where we’re going.

  Connor motions to the hills on our left. “Griffith Park. We’re just doing a walk-over.”

  “We walk the property we’re considering filming,” Sid says, “and then see what we think. Fairly mundane.”

  “In other words,” Jax says, “boring as shit. Or BAS, as Holly would say.”

  “Language, Jax,” Sid scolds.

  Jax sighs. “Fine. What’s my penance this time? Memorizing the freakin’ book of Judah?”

  “There is no book of Judah,” I say.

  Kara laughs.

  Connor says, “In that case, Jax, maybe you should memorize the names of the books of the Bible.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Sid says.

  Jax growls and leans his head back. “Wonderful.”

  Eventually we pull onto Crystal Springs Drive and park near the trails. It’s a weekday, so the place is pretty vacant. We get out of the car, and Connor starts pulling stuff out of the trunk.

  “We walked the trails near the observatory a few weeks ago, but Kara and Connor couldn’t feel any entities,” Sid says. “We’re looking for something to film for our next Truth Paranormal special where we focus on somewhere famous.”

  “Griffith is known to be haunted,” Connor says, handing Jax a backpack. “But the stories are all over the place. We’ve been having trouble pinning anything down.”

  Jax holds out the backpack to me. “Make the newb carry the shit.”

  Sid clucks his tongue like a mother hen. “You’ll memorize all of the books of the Old Testament in English and Hebrew. Properly ordered for each version, both the Western as well as the original Tanakh.”

  Connor shakes his head, laughing. “Dumbass.”

  I take the pack from Jax. “So what are the words that’ll get me in trouble?” I ask as we walk toward the first trailhead. I always assumed dumbass wasn’t exactly kosher to the cuss-less crowd.

  “You tell him, Jax,” Connor says. “Get them out of your system for the rest of the day.”

  Sid smiles and taps his walking stick on a rock.

  “Pretty much my two favorite words are off limits,” Jax says, sounding defeated. “Fuck and shit. Fuck, fuck, shit, shit.”

  “That’s it?” I ask.

  Connor smiles. “That’s plenty for Jax.”

  “Because he has no self-control,” Kara adds.

  “Ha. Ha.” Jax walks past us up the trail and says over his shoulder, “That’s rich coming from you, little newb lover. Too bad the boy’s moved on.”

  Connor’s smile fades, and he glances over at me.

  Kara looks like she wants to crawl under a rock.

  Sid just keeps smiling at the surrounding trees, looking happy as ever, not noticing a thing. “Another few hundred yards or so and we’ll start putting out feelers, all right?”

  We all follow in silence, crossing onto a narrower trail that leads down a small hill where the trees get more dense, until eventually Sid and Jax stop in a clearing up ahead of us.

  Connor waves me over and takes the pack from me. “What was Jax talking about earlier? Is Rebecca your girlfriend or something?”

  “No,” I say, frustration filling me. “He’s just being an ass.”

  Connor seems to buy that. But then he says, “Just remember, you hurt Kara and I kill you.”

  “Why is everyone so damn afraid of me breaking Kara?” I ask. “She’s stronger than you all think.” I glance up the trail where Kara is touching the trees like she’s asking them questions.

  “You better hope so,” Connor says, pulling a camera and a digital voice recorder out of the pack. He hands me the camera. “Take pictures randomly. Try to focus on the shadows. That’s where the nasty likes to hide.”

  Sid shouts over to me from across the clearing. “See what you can feel, Aidan. Don’t be afraid to open yourself up nice and wide out here. You need to experience the full force of your abilities when it’s safe to.”

  “Yeah, find us a ghost, man,” Jax adds.

  I wander the other way, taking my chance to get away from everyone.

  Sid wants me to feel the full force of my abilities? That’s a terrifying idea. But he’s right—I need to figure out what I can do. The more I learn about all this, the more I’ll know how to fight the darkness when it comes for Ava. I study the trees through the camera lens and snap a few pictures of shadows, trying to work up my nerve to let my walls down completely.

  I spot something covered in pine needles on the ground. As I kneel down to take a picture of what is either a dead rat or an old shoe, something small moves in the corner of my vision to my right. I lower the camera and register two things at the same time: sulfur and a cat. But it’s clear when I look right at it that it’s no cat.

  I have to curl my toes in my Converse to keep from leaping back in reaction.

  The demon is clinging to the trunk of the tree two feet away. It bares its fangs, hissing at me.

  It’s the minion. The one from the party that got Kara beaten up and nearly raped. It almost got Rebecca raped, too.

  Its oversized ears lie back. Has it been following me this whole time? Since the party? How haven’t I smelled it?

  Not good.

  My heart speeds up. I scan the trees, looking for its boss. The Big Cheese is going to be pissed when it realizes Rebecca’s staying in Sid’s house surrounded by all those wards—with me. Unless it already knows.

  Why the hell didn’t I think before leaving the protection of the house? How could Sid just encourage me to roam around out here?

  Luckily there’s no sign of the large demon. Maybe I’m okay. Aside from the problem of Mini-Me, that is.

  I stand up and back slowly away from the thing.

  It turns its head like a bird would, looking at me almost upside down, and makes a garbled noise in its throat. Then it skitters up and across a branch, closer to me.

  I could run, but it would just follow me—or head back to Boss Demon with intel. If I could trap it somehow . . .

  “Connor,” I say stiffly, my eyes never leaving the demon. “You don’t, by any chance, have a hex box in one of these packs, do you?”

  I hear footsteps behind me.
“Is something wrong?” Connor asks.

  Jax skids up beside me on my left, and the demon’s eyes jerk to him. He’s giddy, his grin as big as his head. “Seriously? The newb’s seeing something? Awesome!”

  I wish I could share that sentiment.

  My fingers find the salt in my pocket. Not enough to make a circle. I’ll just piss it off if I toss this at it. “I need something. More salt or chalk to make a circle. Now.”

  Sid’s voice comes from behind me. “Aidan, remain calm and tell us what you see.”

  “It’s a demon,” I say, trying to slow my breathing, “and if I don’t trap it, we’ll have very moody company in a few minutes. Large, moody company.”

  “I can feel it,” Kara says from somewhere on my right. Her voice shakes. “I’ve felt this before, Aidan. At the party.”

  “I just need to trap it,” I say. “I need chalk, or salt, or sacred dirt or something. You guys had to have brought something. You’re fucking demon hunters.”

  “We deal in ghosts, newb,” Jax says. “Big difference.”

  Someone is moving, clearing the needles from a spot on the ground to my right. I glance over to see Kara drawing a circle in the cleared dirt. “If you can keep it from running, we can do a banishing spell.”

  “That isn’t going to work without the Enochian runes,” Connor says, “and I still don’t have them all memorized. Do you?”

  “No,” Kara says, sounding defeated.

  Jax raises his hands. “Don’t look at me unless you want someone to recite Hamlet.”

  Sid comes forward and hands Connor a small bag he pulled from his pack. “Here’s the sacred dirt.” Then he looks at me, no trace of worry or concern in his voice, as if we’re just standing in the woods chatting. “You only have to open yourself up to your abilities, Aidan. You shouldn’t need anything but your will once you’ve mastered them. These tropes of protection will only matter as much as you want or need them to.”

  Is he insane? I’m a human. This is a demon. Yes, a small one, but it has really big claws and teeth. I take the sacred dirt from Connor, turn to the creature, and move to the side. The thing doesn’t seem to understand what’s coming—probably because lower demons have fairly low IQs.

  The dirt isn’t foolproof for an eternal prison, but with any luck this demon isn’t strong enough or clever enough to know its way around the stuff.

  I need to get it onto the ground, into that circle Kara drew, so I can sprinkle this stuff around it. I move closer, slowly. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this—that’s what I tell myself. I’ve trapped dozens of these bastards. But there’s no getting out of my head the revelation that they can bite me now—they can fight back. God knows what else they could do to me.

  But then something dawns on me: if it can get a grip on me, I should be able to get a grip on it.

  I set the bag of sacred dirt down and slip my fingers inside, coating my palms with its sharp protection. I point to the sack. “Put the rest of this around the circle.”

  Kara takes it and moves to obey.

  The demon scuttles to another branch on the other side of me in a sudden burst, like a crab. And its form begins to change, getting clearer, as the creature readies to flicker away, likely heading back to its boss with an update on my whereabouts.

  Shit.

  Before I can second-guess myself, I leap, grabbing it by a bony limb.

  It clings to the branch, screeching and flailing in shock and pain from my touch, from the sizzle of the sacred dirt on my hands. The surprise jolts through me too, but I recover faster than the creature does, grabbing it with a second hand and yanking. It springs free of the tree, and I’ve got it. I find my balance and sprint to the circle with it tucked like a football under my arm. But before I reach the circle, the demon digs its claws into my bicep an inch deep, sending me to my knees.

  I cry out in pain, fire filling me, making me lose my mind for a second.

  “He’s bleeding!” Kara yells, dropping the bag of dirt to run at me.

  Connor starts to run over too, but I wave them off with my free hand. Panic overwhelms me, and fight or flight kicks in like a jolt of electricity as words begin to flow from my mouth, words I’ve never heard before, words even I don’t understand.

  But the demon does. It screams even louder and unlatches its claws from my arm to lunge for my mouth, nearly slicing off my bottom lip.

  Somehow I get to my feet and make it the last three paces to the circle of sacred dirt. I slam the creature into it; its body hits the ground with a loud crack. The words keep coming from my mouth, so fast I can barely feel my tongue anymore as the demon convulses, black foam bubbling through its teeth.

  I can feel everyone gaping at me now, fear rolling off them in thick, billowy waves.

  “Holy shit,” Jax says. “He’s lit up like ET.”

  All I can do is grip a stick in my fist and write in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in the blood-coated dirt, Palm 91, Zachariah 3:2, then Deuteronomy 9:3: . . . it is the Lord Your God who passes over before you, as a consuming fire He will destroy them . . .

  The demon goes perfectly still at that, as if frozen, and my movements slow. The last letter of scripture trails off in the dirt as my hand goes limp, all my energy gone.

  My mouth stops muttering the strange words, my vision turns dull, and my head starts pounding like I’m being whacked by a hammer. Repeatedly.

  “Holy shit,” Jax says again, sounding breathless. “What the hell was that?”

  Connor shakes his head, obviously stumped—and freaked.

  Sid says in an awed voice, “Excellent, Aidan. Just stunning.”

  Kara hesitates for a second, but then she takes me by the arm, trying to help me to my feet. “Are you okay? My God, Aidan.”

  I grip my head, glancing back to make sure the demon’s still trapped. I’m not sure how, but it’s frozen in the same contorted pose of terror, its white eyes now a dull grey. It won’t be any trouble anymore. I don’t think.

  “We need to get these cuts cleaned,” Kara says as we head back to the car.

  Sid pats me on the shoulder, making me flinch. “Amazing, just amazing.”

  “Holy mother of all shit!” Jax is shouting. “Did you see that? He was a damn Christmas tree back there.”

  “Calm the hell down,” Connor says. “You’re giving me a migraine.”

  “What the fuck was that?” Jax continues. “Toward the end his damn eyes were fucking glowing! That was some alien shit, man! Frackin’ Cylon alien shit!” He laughs at the sky.

  Sid must really be happy, because he’s not saying anything to Jax about his language.

  “You’re not helping,” Kara growls at Jax. She turns back to me. “You’re going to be fine. It’s just a few scrapes.”

  I study the gashes on my arm. They’re still bleeding thick red streaks. “I don’t know. That was . . .” Insane. Terrifying. Fucking nuts.

  Kara looks like she wants to say something, but she just swallows hard and looks into my eyes. Fear leaks out of her. Fear of me or for me, I can’t tell.

  “It felt like a freight train rolling through my body,” I say. It wasn’t like it normally is when I trap a demon—not even a little bit. Something happened. Something took over. Inside me.

  Sid stops ahead of us on the trail and turns to face us. “That was your power manifesting itself, Aidan. A stunning and glorifying sight. And we were all very privileged to see it.”

  “He was fucking glowing,” Jax says again. The guy has a one-track mind.

  “Was I really?” What does that even mean? How does someone glow?

  “It was awesome, man!” Jax says. “Your skin at that tattoo thing on your arm went marbly and lit-up, and whatever you were writing burned into the ground as soon as you wrote it in the dirt. Then your eyes did this smolder thing for a second.” He looks a
t me all tense, like he’s mimicking my smolder. “Right after that you went limp.” He smiles as if I should be thrilled at what he’s describing.

  I didn’t feel anything hot, didn’t see the words burn in. I didn’t feel anything but pain and the urgency to act. I said words I don’t know. That’s never happened before. I always know—that’s part of my weird thing. I always know. And now, suddenly, I acted without a clue. Like I was being guided.

  I wipe my forehead with my hand, and my palm comes away wet with blood.

  “I have a feeling that this is just the beginning,” Sid says. “We’re all in for quite a ride.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Once we’re back at the house, Kara gets the first aid kit. Sid takes it from her, saying he wants to talk with me alone, and leads me into the office.

  “Don’t be afraid of your gifts,” he says, rolling a second chair next to the one I’ve plopped myself into. “You’ll learn to use them. And once they’re finished awakening, you’ll be in full control.”

  “What do you mean awakening?” That doesn’t sound as cool as it should. Not after what happened today.

  “That will be a discussion for another day. For right now I want to let you know that I may have found a lead on your family. Your mother’s family, that is.” He studies my wounds.

  My pulse picks up at the idea. “What did you find?”

  “Are you positive that you want to know these people, Aidan?”

  “Why’re you asking that?” Maybe he found something he knows I won’t like.

  “Just merely making sure that you want the whole truth. Sometimes it isn’t what we think it will be.”

  I pause, looking at the lines and marks working their way up my arm. “Yes, I want to know everything. I need to know.” Because, if anything, today showed me that this thing inside me is a hell of a lot more powerful than I thought. Maybe this is what will save us.

  Sid starts cleaning my wounds delicately with a Q-tip, like I’m six. It’s weird. And comforting. He knocks me off balance, but he’s genuine, I think.