by Lia Davis
Lying down beside Kalissa, he pulled her to his chest. “Love you,” he whispered in her ear.
She snuggled further into him. “Love you, too.” She brought his hand to her lips to place a kiss to his palm.
A few seconds later, his phone rang. He smirked. At least, his cousin had sense enough to call. He answered the phone. “Yeah.”
“I…get up to the house ASAP,” Zach said in a rush that told Ayden something had happened.
Ayden closed his phone. Kalissa had heard what Zach had said, so Ayden didn’t need to explain. They dressed and made sure the hay was out of their hair before heading back to the house.
Ayden and Kalissa entered the foyer of the house. Zach was waiting for them. He looked from Kalissa to Ayden and frowned. “The Riverside Coven has reported some kind of disturbance near Friendship Fountain.”
Ayden cursed softly and followed Zach to the living room with Kalissa on his heels. “Zach and I will go check it out,” Ayden said.
“Not alone, you’re not,” Kalissa said with her hands on her hips.
Ayden was about to argue with Kalissa when Mel spoke up. “I’m coming, too. It is better that we’re together. If it’s a portal of some kind, then it will need to be closed. Lydia and Khloe can stay here.” The last statement was said with a pointed tone that said, “don’t ask.”
Khloe looked like she wanted to argue but looked at Lydia and decided not to. “Lydia and I will stay here for a little longer,” she said and then spoke to Lydia. “Let me know when you get tired and we’ll go home.” Lydia nodded.
Kalissa leaned over the back of the couch and kissed Khloe on the cheek. “We’ll be back soon.”
Khloe grabbed Kalissa around the neck with her arms. “Please. Be careful.”
“We will. Love you.” Kalissa pulled out of the embrace and teleported to downtown Jacksonville with the others.
One by one, they materialized several feet from Friendship Fountain, away from human eyes. Although humans knew about witches, they did not know about the Divinities’ powers. Many humans associated Divine powers with demons. Other humans liked to pretend that the preternatural didn’t exist. That was the main reason Khloe hadn’t been allowed back in the public school system to teach dance after her little display years and years ago. Humans thought magical teachers were a bad influence on their children.
“So, what did Khloe do?” Ayden asked, obviously reading her thoughts.
Kalissa looked at him. “What do you mean?”
Ayden smiled. “Sorry. I picked up on your thoughts again.”
Zach laughed. “You remember when I told you about the boy who got trapped inside a ring of lightning?”
“That was Khloe? How old was she?”
“Six.” Kalissa had to laugh. “Bruce had been picking on both of us for weeks. Then, finally, one day on the playground, he pushed Khloe’s last button.”
“And she called a storm,” Ayden said, shaking his head.
“Accidently. Her emotions can unintentionally set off her gift. If she’s sad, it rains on the house. If she’s angry, lightning,” Kalissa mused.
“She was lucky that Aunt Joelle was the school nurse, or they would have cuffed her until Connie got there,” Zach said.
Ayden knew the cuffs Zach was talking about were the same ones Jacen had taken from the demons in Georgia. High school witches that went to public schools had to wear them during school hours. That’s why most of them were homeschooled.
“The school told our mother that before she was allowed back in school, Khloe’s powers had to be bound. Mama said she’d be damned before she limited her daughter’s powers for the human’s silly fears.” Kalissa smiled. That was her mother—the voice of reason and despair. She was always the first parent at the school to protest against the ‘magical guidelines that were beneficial for everyone’ types of things. The truth was, it was always more beneficial for the humans. Mom refused to back down and take their prejudiced notions.
If the humans knew the Divinities possessed the powers of the gods, a whole new paranoia would arise. Witches everywhere would be collected and tested—possibly locked away.
“There it is,” Melaina said when they rounded the corner.
Kalissa looked to where she pointed. Next to the fountain, about two feet from the river’s edge, was an oval-shaped energy field. Kalissa didn’t know how to describe it. It had no color. To the human eye, it wasn’t even there, but Kalissa could tell that something was there. She could see the outline of a gateway and waves of magical energy that ran from the outer walls to the center, like ripples in a pool of water.
She reached out with her senses to see who had opened the portal and who, or what, had come out of it. The vision slammed into her, and she fought a gasp as images raced through her mind. After the images had slowed down, she was able to focus on the scene. The portal had been opened from the inside, or maybe from a distance. Kalissa couldn’t tell. A few moments after the portal had opened, two demons came out. They were human-like, with short, dark hair and dark eyes. But they weren’t human. Maybe whatever made her a Divinity also allowed her to tell demons from humans and vice versa.
It’d been a long time since she’d had a vision so clear, and never had one hit her so hard. Was it the energy from the portal that caused the spike in her powers, or the bond with Ayden? Another possibility was that the memory spell no longer dampened her visions.
The first person she saw when her sight pulled back was Ayden. She smiled at him and had to fight the urge to go to him, kiss him, and wrap herself around him. It was a hard battle, but she managed. Life without him would be so…empty, lonely. She loved him, and wanted to spend the rest of her very long existence with him.
Shelving her need for him for later, she cleared her head before speaking. “The portal hasn’t been open for long. The disturbance the witches felt was probably the portal opening. There were two demons that came out about an hour ago.” She described the demons to the group.
Melaina cursed. “Sounds like Etchens.”
“What are they?” the others said at the same time.
“They’re Amiddian demons. They aren’t high enough in power to be Khan’s personal army, but not low enough to be servants, either. However, Khan’s guards, like Demetrius, won’t think twice about using them for their own benefit.” Melaina paused for a brief moment before she continued like she was trying to remember something. “Etchen appear human. The only way to tell them from humans is by their aura. Their auras, like most demons’, are darker than humans’ auras. But some have been known to adapt another’s aura by taking the human’s essence as their own. They are dangerous because they can enter a human’s mind and implant a thought that will grow like a virus.”
Kalissa bet the thoughts weren’t of flowers and puppies. It would be more like death and destruction. “They can take human essences, like vampires?”
“Not exactly. They don’t have to bite mortals, but they will if necessary. They prefer sex, or in some cases, a kiss,” Melaina answered.
Khloe shivered at the thought and asked, “So, Khan released a couple of Etchen to plant thoughts in the humans to destroy each other?”
Melaina nodded. “The virus will grow rapidly and spread from person to person. Humans will turn against each other and destroy a city within days. They could move on to other cities and start a chain reaction around the world.”
That’s just awful, Kalissa thought.
“Kalissa and I will close the portal while you go hunt down those demons,” Mel said to the men, who nodded and set out in search of the Etchens.
Kalissa turned back to look at the portal just as two Lackeys came out. They spotted her and started to run. “Oh, no you don’t!”
She threw her hands out to blast them with an energy bolt. Instead of knocking them to the ground as she’d planned, the energy blast made them explode into black dust. “What the….”
Mel laughed out loud. “Ayden has amped you up.
You’ll have to learn to control the extra strength. Let’s close the portal and go find the guys.”
Chapter 25
Across the river from Friendship Fountain was the downtown nightlife. The Landing had a courtyard with an open stage for live bands, and restaurants with outdoor seating on both the ground floor and the second level. Loud music blasted out of the speakers from the stage. Several groups of people were in the middle of the courtyard, dancing, laughing, and having a few too many alcoholic drinks—completely unaware of the danger that walked the streets.
If the demons wanted to infect a large group of humans, The Landing was the place to do it.
“You see anything?” Ayden asked as they walked along the Riverwalk.
Zach shook his head. “But there is definitely demonic activity around.”
Yeah, Ayden had picked up on that, too. “Wanna split up?”
“Okay, but don’t go too far,” Zach said, leaving to walk around the courtyard.
Ayden felt a pleasantly familiar presence behind him. He turned to find Kalissa standing there. He encircled her waist, pulled her to him, and claimed her mouth as if it’d been days since he’d seen her last. She melted into his kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Incoming.” Zach’s voice invaded Ayden’s mind. That was another ability Zach seemed to have, communicating telepathically with his siblings and the Divinities. Although he claimed not to be able to read thoughts, Ayden had his suspicions. He looked up to find Zach across the courtyard, motioning with his thumb to the right. Ayden moved his lips to Kalissa’s ear and whispered, “There are two demons to our right.”
Kalissa looked to the right. “That’s them. We need to lure them away from the humans.” They were the same ones from her vision. She gave Ayden a quick kiss on the lips before pulling free from his arms and signaling Melaina to follow her.
Kalissa and Melaina masked their magic and walked past the Etchens, giggling and stumbling like a couple of drunken humans. They were trying to catch their attention. It worked because the Etchens started following them. Ayden was instantly flooded with fear for the woman he loved. The stubborn female wouldn’t take no for an answer.
He and Zach tailed the Etchens as they followed the women to a dark and empty area of the Riverwalk. Kalissa and Mel continued their false drunken steps towards an alley across the street.
The demons looked a little confused until Ayden and Zach entered the alley, blocking their exit. The expressions on their faces were priceless as the light bulbs came on inside their heads, realizing they’ve been trapped.
The Etchens looked at one another and then at Kalissa and Melaina. Melaina moved closer to Kalissa and whispered, “Don’t look in their eyes. That’s how they get in and control your thoughts.”
Kalissa nodded and shifted her gaze to Ayden, standing behind the demons. Ayden gave her a tender smile that reached his eyes before he snapped his attention to the Etchens. He had obviously caught something she hadn’t.
She gasped as one of the Etchens took hold of her mind. Apparently, Mel had been wrong about looking into their eyes. Voices and images flooded her mind. Images of her parents’ dead bodies flashed. They did nothing to help, the voice snarled in her mind. Shaking her head, she refused to listen.
Kill them before they kill you. It was a different voice. A fragment of another image flashed in her mind. She was taken back to the cave where Ayden thrust a death bolt at Jacen.
“No!” she screamed, knowing it was the Etchens who were sending the false images to her. Trying to get her to turn on the man she loved. Pain hit her temples, causing her to double over. Then the scene played over. Ayden killing Jacen and stalking toward her with his hands raised.
Tears ran down her face. She reached out to Ayden through the bond, trying to find a way out of this hell.
The more she fought the visions, the more intense the pain got. She fell to her knees with her hands over her temples. Her head felt like it was going to split open. Then, everything fell quiet. The pain and the voices stopped as quickly as they had started.
She took her head out of her hands and looked up from where she knelt on her knees. Ayden had distracted them, and was now under the same attack Kalissa had suffered a few seconds ago. “No!”
Mel grabbed her hand. Kalissa shook her head.
“He’ll go insane.” Kalissa started to go to Ayden. “The voices…they’re horrible.”
“Calm yourself or you’ll only make thing worse.”
She looked into Mel’s face. Taking a deep breath, “What can I do?” she pleaded.
“Concentrate. Find the connection to Ayden and then his gift.”
Kalissa looked at the Elder with confusion. “I don’t know how.”
“You are his magical partner. You’ll find it.”
Kalissa looked back at Ayden, struggling to gain control. She really didn’t want those voices in her head again, but she had to help him. Opening up her mind, she searched for Ayden, for the line that bound them together. In the depths of his subconscious, she found it and gripped it tightly. His pain and struggle slammed into her as if it were her own. She vaguely heard Mel tell her to hold on.
“Get…out…of…my head,” Ayden said through clenched teeth.
Kalissa used their connection to amplify his ability. He responded by tugging on her magic, drawing it inside himself. The tug made her gasp, and she almost let go. Together, they pushed back on the Etchens’ hold on his mind.
“Now,” Ayden gritted out. She pushed with him to force the attack back to the Etchens. Their magic merged and grew. With one last shove, they sent the energy into the demons.
Both demons dropped to their knees and howled in pain. Kalissa glanced to Melaina and shared a knowing look. They raised their hands, and at the same time, shot both demons with an energy bolt. The creatures disappeared into thin air.
Ayden sagged into himself. Zach rushed over and pulled him to his feet, letting him lean on his shoulder.
“See you at the house,” Ayden said hoarsely.
“Love you,” Kalissa said as Zach and Ayden faded out.
Kalissa paused. There was something in the air.
Melaina noticed Kalissa’s hesitation. “What is it?”
“Do you feel that?”
Melaina shook her head. “No. Did you have a vision?”
Kalissa sighed. “No, maybe I’m just being paranoid. I’m wound up, I guess.”
“Come on. I know just the herb to calm your nerves.”
Kalissa smiled at the thought of Melaina’s herbal teas. Curling up next to Ayden with a cup sounded good right now.
She let out a gasp when a figure stepped out of the shadows. It couldn’t be... She’d been there when his heart had stopped beating. “Liam?”
Melaina shifted beside her nervously.
Liam smiled brilliantly and walked closer to her. “Hello, Isa. Miss me?”
Shaking her head vigorously, she took a step back. “How…?”
A dark shadow fell over his features. “What neither of us knew was that my father is a demon. My demonic powers were unlocked the day I died.”
“Stay away from us,” Melaina warned. Liam ignored her and proceeded forward. Melaina tried to blast him, only to have it backfire, knocking her into the wall behind them.
Kalissa wanted to go to her but didn’t want to turn her back on Liam. “What do you want?” She glanced back at Melaina and was relieved to see her breathing.
Liam stood a few inches from her. He reached out and stroked her cheek. Kalissa flinched away from his touch. “I have come for what is mine.” He grabbed her by the waist and vanished.
Ayden and Zach flashed into the living room. Lydia jumped up off the sofa and came around to stand in front of them. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Ayden said waving off Lydia’s concern. Zach helped him sit down on the sofa.
Zach gave them a short version of what happened downtown. “We were able to defeat them.”
He looked at his cousin and asked, “Do you need anything? Water?”
Ayden shook his head.
Khloe perched herself on the edge of the coffee table in front of them. “Where is Kalissa?”
Ayden frowned. “She and Mel were right behind us.” Panic flooded him like a dam breaking. Kalissa.
Khloe had sensed his emotions and her bottom lip trembled. She started to shake. Lightning flashed outside. “Oh, gods, something happened.”
Ayden leaned forward and cupped her head in his hands. “Try to calm yourself. I’ll find her.”
A shift in the air had him whirling around. Melaina materialized and staggered back against the sofa, holding her stomach. “Liam…he took her.”
Chapter 26
Kalissa paced the large master bedroom suite in the house Liam had taken her to. He’d teleported them to the bedroom and left her there. He told her the doors and windows of the house were protected by a spell. She could leave the bedroom, but couldn’t leave the house. The bastard had covered his bases.
The first thing she noticed when she arrived, was that she was in his bedroom. As if… Then she saw the pictures of her on his dresser mirror. They were recent photos. Shots of her at work, walking to her car after work, going to the police station after her parents’ deaths. The most disturbing one of all was the one of her and Ayden at the cabin in Blue Ridge. He’d been stalking her.
Fucking psycho…
The bedroom door opened, and Liam came in with a tray of food. “I thought you might be hungry,” he said as he carried the tray to the small table next to the window. He hadn’t changed much since she’d last seen him. Though his blond hair was longer, brushing the tops of his shoulders, his blue eyes were darker, making them almost navy blue. Everything else was the same, including his ego. No surprise there. What did she ever see in him besides a handsome face?
