Dark Reality 7-Book Boxed Set

by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

  Chapter 14

  Arianna awoke to find the house submerged in darkness. The only light she could see came in the form of glowing red numbers on her alarm clock. She squinted to read them, her eyes blurry from crying, and saw that only an hour had passed. For one hour, she’d been granted reprieve from the insurmountable swell of pain she’d been feeling.

  Now, however, the pain returned, and mingled with a rush of anger. But her anger was not reserved exclusively for Agnon as it had been earlier. Someone else was fueling it, someone familiar.

  She closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax just a bit, to push the anger and hurt aside. She felt her eyes grow heavy, felt sleep tempt and tease at her consciousness, but was struck by a sensation that chafed her to her very core. She shook her head several times, hoping the action would clear her brain, and it did, briefly. Rolling to her side, she closed her eyes a second time and felt it again, felt the sensation return. It niggled like nails on a chalkboard, piercing and grating as it shrieked through her ears and scraped everything in its wake before piercing her brain. She struggled to identify it at first, knew it was familiar, but it squealed through her so loudly, she could not concentrate long enough to identify what it was. After several more attempts at naming it, she willed the sound to be softer, and that’s when she placed what it was. The sound was a cackle, a high-pitched female cackle, Jess’s cackle.

  Her blood began to simmer as she wondered why Jess’s laughter screeched through her. Why would Jess trespass in her mind while she grieved so deeply? Arianna did not recall having a dream during her brief rest, so how was it that a voice resounded in her ears, unmistakable and crystal-clear? She did not know why or how, but Jess’s laughter had echoed then, echoed still.

  If it were a dream, she would not ignore it. After all, the last dream she’d had foretold of Agnon, and he had materialized hours later, the silver-haired messenger of death, of murder. His existence made her reluctant to discount the warning screaming inside her as a mere nightmare. Her life had become a nightmare, and with nothing left to lose – no mother, no friends, no Desmond – she decided to find Jess and asked her why her annoying laugh echoed in her head. If the rest of the group was with Jess when she found her, she would face them all. She was not afraid of dying, not anymore at least. She no longer had anyone to live for.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, fought the tears that threatened to fall once again, and forced images of her beloved Desmond from her mind. She tried, instead, to picture Jess’s face.

  Immediately, pale-blue eyes she’d once found open and kind now stared at her in her mind’s eye, glimmering with deadly delight. Shoulder-length flame-red hair framed pale skin dotted with freckles and a long thin nose sloped close to full lips curled to a cruel smile. Just a few short days ago, Arianna had thought Jess was fresh-faced and sweet, her looks representative of her personality. But Arianna had been wrong, dead wrong.

  The time had come to right those wrongs. She was the Sola. She supposed that woven within the fabric of her esteemed title was the obligation to uphold some type of moral code among others like her, other witches and warlocks. As far as she could see, Jess and the others had violated any conceivable moral code that could possibly exist between supernatural beings and human beings. They had used humans as their playthings, had caused them to maim then murder each other. She had seen it for herself, and she could not allow for that infraction, for that blatant abuse of power, to go unpunished.

  Her heart began to pound, its beat a thunderous roar in her ears. The vaguest trace of a current began to ripple at her core, wavering at first. She concentrated harder on the image of Jess she’d created in her mind, focused with every bit of attention she could muster. As she did, a stronger flux of energy surged forth, stronger than the first and drifted from the center of her body, gliding and flowing, until it branched slowly down the length of each arm and leg. Only it did not feel like a reckless force rushing and charging outward. It felt unlike any experience she’d ever had, in fact. For the first time ever, she felt completely in control of her power.

  She breathed deeply to steady her racing heart. She did not want to lose whatever influence she was using to govern the hum of power buzzing through her. With Jess’s deceptive face still swirling in her head, she crossed both arms across her chest to form an x. Her position change, combined with her intense focus, caused the hum to strengthen and pulsate, teeming with energy so potent she felt as if she could move a mountain if she tried. But she did not want to move a mountain. She wanted to find Jess.

  Potent power poured through her veins like electricity and light filled her field of vision, brilliant, blinding, white light. The experience was identical to the one she’d had with Desmond the first time he’d sifted with her from the nightclub to a meadow. But instead of feeling surrounded by warmth, his warmth, she felt cold and alone.

  Desmond. Suddenly, Jess slipped from her thoughts and all she could think of was Desmond, how much she cared for him, how much she would miss him. He was gone. She would never see him again.

  Both hands instinctively covered her heart and the twisting ache in her chest returned full-force. With her concentration broken, shifting from Jess to Desmond, she pictured his face and was lost in a vast, unknown sea. Hurling and tumbling though a silvery abyss, he filled her every thought, her memory, her mind. Beautiful and serene, his face was perfectly sculpted as if it had been carved from marble, and his azure eyes, bottomless oceans of tropical water, stared at her through the void. She reached out for him, was sure she’d called his name. But he did not respond, and her hand did not touch his skin. It landed, instead, on something hard.

  As soon as her hand grazed the hard surface, on impact, Desmond vanished and darkness seized the light. The cold she felt was replaced with stuffy, dank air. She found herself lying on her back feeling as if she were being pulled to one side against her will.

  “What the hell?” she murmured and her voice did not travel far. She became increasingly aware of very limited space, and very limited air. She felt as if she were enclosed in a sealed area.

  Her arms rocketed forward involuntarily and slammed against something hard and close by. She forced her arms out to her sides and felt only a little more room in either direction. Panic gripped her as she felt barriers all around her, all the while, the air available seemed to diminish rapidly.

  Sweat began to stipple her brow and her heart started to slap madly against her ribcage. She did not know where she was exactly, just that she was confined to a dark, tight, airless space.

  The need to free herself from the tight enclosure, to feel air circulating around her, pressed her to move. She reached out again, pushing her arms forward, trying to force the barrier closest to her face farther away. But her effort was without result. The barrier did not budge.

  Her breathing became short and shallow, claustrophobia instigating an attack of anxiety. Had she been buried? She wondered. She blinked several times, sure she was dead and that being aware of her burial was part of her eternal punishment.

  She was about to begin screaming and thrashing when the strange tug she felt stopped abruptly. She jerked to one side and felt an idling to her back, redirecting her focus from walls closing in around her and airlessness. Her body was on high-alert, waiting and listening. The only sound was an odd whirring. After several seconds, the movement restarted and she lurched to the opposite side.

  She braced herself and tried to prepare to be pitched to one side again, and she was. Less suddenly than the first time, the pull she felt was interrupted. The idling resumed, competing with the whirring sound. But over both, a high-pitched cackle sliced through the waning air. Arianna felt her heart stop.

  The high-pitched cackle belonged to Jess. She realized she had found Jess, and that she’d sifted to her. She reached her hands out and felt along the walls around her. The one overhead was s
mooth, but the rest had a fuzzy quality to them, like flat, stiff carpeting.

  Realizations hit her like a sledgehammer. The tight, cramped space, the limited air, the carpeted walls, to movement and idling, all of it gelled at once. She was in the trunk of a car. She’d teleported herself to the trunk of Jess’s car.

  A bump jarred her and made her roll to one direction.

  “Goddamn potholes!” a shrill voice yelled then the car came to a stop. When the idling ended, Arianna guessed the engine has been turned off. Now, she heard Jess’s voice distinctly. And Jess was not alone. A male voice spoke, as well.

  Not willing to allow herself to be held captive in Jess’s car, though Jess had no idea Arianna had sifted there, she focused every ounce of her energy on being outside, beyond the confines of the trunk.

  Her entire body tingled once again and her power felt controlled. Only this time, she worked at blocking Desmond from her mind. As hard as it was to do, she did not want to risk finding herself at the bottom of an ocean, or a trash receptacle, or inside a coffin. The horrific possibilities were endless. She had never sifted on her own before the trunk incident. Apparently, losing focus on where she intended to go was a risky endeavor, one she would not want to experience again.

  She concentrated on seeping through the walls of the trunk, on fresh air and freedom, and felt her body become weightless. White light filled her vision and within seconds, she stood atop pavement. She immediately crouched low, gulping cool air while clinging to the bumper of Jess’s car, before scanning the surrounding area.

  Sodium-vapor lights cast an eerie yellow sheen over the blacktop and a building loomed close by. Everything around her was familiar, but she did not know why. It wasn’t until she her eyes swept past the building to the football field beyond a low wall that she realized she was in the rear parking lot of her school.

  The sound of car doors opening then closing abruptly drew Arianna closer to the car. Why would Jess be at the school in the middle of the night? She wondered. Something did not feel right. Warning whispered through her and raised the fine hairs on her body.

  Originally, Arianna had wanted to catch Jess off-guard, to surprise her and confront her. Now, however, she decided to change tactics. She wanted to follow Jess and see what she was up to. Deep inside her, a primal voice screamed that Jess was not simply visiting the school to hang around its parking lot.

  When she saw Josh trailing Jess to the locked back doors of the school, that primal voice was validated. She watched as Josh snapped the lock with both hands, as easily as anyone would have snapped a thin twig. He was a large boy, broad-shouldered and tall with thick ropey muscles. He looked like a linebacker capable of breaking the lock with his bare hands without supernatural powers. The fact that he did possess them made his bulk all the more lethal.

  Both Jess and Josh strolled inside Hallowed Hills High School without a care in the world. Arianna waited several moments then followed. She did not need to see them when she entered. She heard their voices immediately, heard Jess’s intermittent cackle. She wondered what the hell was so funny, why she needed to laugh all the time at every little joke people made.

  Arianna slunk down a long, darkened hallway and stood just beyond the doors to the gymnasium. She followed the voices, followed the shrieking laughter that had taunted her brief sleep and led her here.

  There, she listened as Jess and Josh’s conversation turned serious.

  “So that’s eight doors on the east side and six doors on the west, plus the front entrance and the back one,” Jess said.

  Arianna peeked around a set of heavy doors into the gym and saw that Josh held a clipboard and was charting what Jess had said.

  “Okay, got it,” Josh said. “We need to make sure all of the doors are chained shut. We don’t want anyone to escape.”

  “No, we definitely don’t want that,” Jess agreed then laughed. “Oh this is so exciting! This will be our biggest triumph yet!” she said and bounced on the balls of her feet like a child.

  Arianna wanted to wring her neck. Her heart began its fitful pounding. Something was being planned at the school, something awful. They were planning to trap the entire school and do what? What awful event did they have in store for the students of Hallowed Hills High School? After seeing the gruesome display at the party a day earlier, Arianna could only imagine.

  “What about the windows?” Josh asked and interrupted Jess’s demented happy-dance.

  Jess froze on her tiptoes and smiled. “Chris will be waiting for anyone who tries to escape out a window. Don’t worry about that. He will cover it.” She laughed her awful laugh again and resumed bouncing. “Ooh, they’re all going to die. I can’t wait!”

  Arianna could not believe what she’d heard. An icy chill raced across her skin as she imagined the hundreds of students who attended the school, as well as teachers, scrambling to escape certain death, only to find doors chained shut, or Chris waiting for them outside if they were lucky enough to escape. She stepped back away from the door and expected to find a wall to lean against. Instead of falling against a wall, however, she fell against a water fountain. Her backside depressed a small button and she heard the faint tinkle of a thin stream of water trickling from it for the briefest of moments.

  The sound, faint and fleeting, was barely audible. A normal human being would not have heard it. But both Jess and Josh’s heads snapped in Arianna’s direction. She was caught. Dread slithered down the length of her spine as they began walking toward her. She contemplated running, but since George was not with them, she figured the odds were in her favor. She felt confident she would be able to take them one way or another. She was the Sola, after all.

  The rhythmic clacking of Jess’s trendy leather boots echoed through the gymnasium like the hands of a clock ticking down to the exact moment they would face off. Arianna had never fought a pair of her kind before. It would be the second “first” of her night. She took a deep breath and stepped away from the wall.

  Though still partially concealed by shadows, Arianna was no longer hidden by the doors.

  “Oh Arianna, I know you’re there. I can feel you. Just come on out,” Jess purred. “I should have known you’d follow us. A nosey bitch like you can’t seem to keep herself out of trouble.”

  Nosey bitch, huh? Arianna thought and felt an unprecedented spike in her powers. Her vision began to vacillate between multiple vibrant colors and blood red.

  “What do we do with her,” she heard Josh ask, his voice muffled as if it were traveling a great distance to reach her ears. “You know Agnon thinks she’s important.”

  Important indeed, at least that’s what everyone kept telling her. Arianna’s entire body began to tremble and heat filled her body. Pure power sprinted through her veins, rushing from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She felt as live and dangerous as a high-voltage wire dangling above an unsuspecting victim.

  “Oh Agnon can go to hell, that crazy old man,” Jess trilled, unaware of the transformation occurring just feet from where she walked. “Besides, I want to have some fun with her.”

  “I don’t know, Jess,” Josh hesitated and Arianna wondered whether his body instinctively cautioned him, if deep inside he sensed she was more powerful than they were. “It doesn’t seem like a great idea, and I’d watch what I say about Agnon if I were you. I swear that guy hears everything.”

  “Shut up, Josh. Don’t be such a tool,” Jess dismissed him. “Arianna! Come out, come out wherever you are!”

  Arianna slid her foot forward, though she had not consciously decided to do so. It was as if her body, fueled by the power coursing through her veins, had moved it. She felt her emotions begin to melt and seep from her. Jess was in her crosshairs. Jess who taunted her now, Jess who had used human beings like toys before killing them, Jess who planned to kill the entire student body of her high school would die shortly.


  “Oh there she is,” Jess crooned as if she were talking to a toddler. “Finally came out to play, huh?”

  Arianna did not say a word. The intense heat she was feeling just below the surface of her skin was too intense to ignore. Her body began to radiate red light, shining as though it could no longer contain the immense power she possessed.

  “Uh oh, someone looks pissed,” Josh joined in the teasing.

  “What a dumb-ass power that is,” Jess commented.

  A loud hissing sounded from the vicinity of Arianna’s hands and she raised them to waist-height.

  “I’m shaking in my boots,” Jess continued.

  “You are both dead,” Arianna heard herself say in a voice that sounded foreign to her own ears.

  Jess cackled and lifted her arms. A flow of fire fanned from her fingertips and Arianna deflected them with ease. Jess’s eyes widened in shock and she no longer laughed, all mirth stripped from her. This time, Arianna laughed aloud before gesturing with her hands to one side. As she did, Jess’s body was tossed like a ragdoll across the hallway. It slammed into a row of lockers with a thunderous thump that felt as if it shook the walls around Arianna. Jess’s body was limp as it slipped down the wall, and when it finally fell to the floor, Arianna saw that an enormous indentation stood where Jess had hit.

  In Arianna’s peripheral view, she saw Josh charge her. She immediately raised her hands and flicked her wrists to the opposite side. His large body careened through the air and crashed against the far wall of the gymnasium.

  “Shit!” he yelled as his body slid down the wall and crumpled to the ground. “How the hell is she so strong?”

  “I don’t understand,” Jess said and she clambered to her feet. “Who are you?” she sneered and tried to advance.

  Arianna moved one of the two hands aimed at Josh and held Jess in place. With Jess stilled, Arianna spun to face her. Jess was a crimson silhouette.

  “I am the Sola,” Arianna said levelly.

  A blend of fear and shock overtook Jess’s features, but she recovered quickly and resumed her haughty expression.

  “You can’t be,” Jess spat. “The Sola is with us. She’s on our side. It’s in the prophecy!”

  “I will never stand with you and kill innocents. The prophecy is wrong. You are wrong!” Arianna shouted.

  “No, I’m not!” Jess argued. “You are not the Sola! You can’t be!”

  A flow of energy flared inside her so intensely, it flashed from Arianna’s fingertips. “I am. I am the Sola. And I demand you tell me what you’re planning here?” she said through clenched teeth.

  “Oh you demand, do you?” Jess mocked. “Good for you! Keep demanding. I’m not telling you shit!”

  Arianna’s powers began to teem dangerously. “What are you planning?” she shouted again feeling her ability to reign over her powers slip from her as they stormed violently.

  She felt a torrent of fire begin to spit from the outstretched hand that held Jess. But just as the flames emerged, her body pitched forward. Something solid slammed into her back and knocked the wind from her lungs. She stumbled and fell forward but felt her body being held upright. She tried to turn, to break the hold on her, but felt her arms being pinned to her sides.

  Without her hands, she could not unleash the full potency of her power. She was being held from behind. Arms gripped her tightly. She tried to move, but felt as if she’d been seized by steel clamps, squeezing and clutching her so firmly, she struggled to breathe. But steel clamps did not hold her. Josh held her. She’d focused her attention on Jess and had been distracted. She had forgotten about Josh, a mistake that would likely prove fatal.

  Arianna tried to sift from Josh’s vice-like grip, tried to concentrate on being behind Jess. But concentrating was impossible as she felt her ribs being crushed by overwhelming pressure.

  “Don’t fight it,” Josh whispered menacingly in her ear. “I got you and I’m not letting go.”

  “Bastard!” Arianna spat. Josh laughed a cruel, hollow laugh.

  “Time to die, bitch,” Jess said and she strutted toward her.

  Jess made her fingertips dance and as she did, miniature bolts of lightning crackled from them.

  “Nice trick, Jess,” Arianna managed with arrogance she did not feel. “Is that all you’ve got?”

  Jess tossed her head back and laughed. As she did, the miniature bolts of lightning sizzling between her hands mushroomed into impressive flames. Arianna’s eyes grew wide and she realized she was about to die. She writhed and tried to arch her back, but to no avail. Josh tightened his grip on her further and the pressure became unbearable. Her eyes felt as if they bulged and her lungs burned. There was no way out. Her powers were not available to her, and the pain she felt prohibited her from focusing long enough to teleport away. She was as good as dead.

  Arianna closed her eyes and surrendered to her fate. She allowed her mind to envision her mother, Lily, Luke and Desmond, though she doubted she would go where they had gone after death.

  Desmond. His name whispered through her mind and she only wished she could see him one last time.

  She focused all her energy on him, on the feel of his touch and felt the first sting of Jess’s fire lick at her legs. She envisioned him cupping her face and felt the bite of pain recede like a wave. Jess, seeing her unflinchingly accept her fate, was not amused in the least. She retracted her hand as if regrouping her own energy and was about to launch both forward again when a familiar figure appeared behind Jess.

  A tall, golden-haired figure with eyes so blue they penetrated the dimness of the empty school materialized like an archangel. He hoisted shining daggers high above his head then plunged them, lightning-fast, into either side of Jess’s neck. Jess fell instantly and the figure withdrew the blades from her neck immediately. He looked up, his ethereal eyes meeting hers for an instant, before he heaved a dagger toward her.

  The blade hurled end over end in Arianna’s direction and she froze and squeezed her eyes shut. Josh cried out and she felt his grip yield. She slipped from him and spun to face him immediately only to see that a dagger was buried to its hilt in his left eye. But Arianna did not care about Josh’s eye. All she cared about was the man who’d wielded them.

  “Desmond!” she cried and closed the distance between them.

  “Arianna,” he breathed and she dove into his arms.

  It did not matter that his hands were stained with blood, that he had just killed two of their kind. All she wanted was to feel him, touch his solid form as proof that he was not a figment of her imagination.

  When she felt his sturdy arms envelop her, his warmth surrounded her. Relief swept through her and carried her on a current.

  “Desmond, you’re really here,” she whispered and buried her face in his neck. The spicy, masculine smell of his neck, his smell, filled her and the floodgates that had held her emotions at bay faltered. She wept unabashedly.

  “Where else would I be if I weren’t with you?” he said into her hair and she clutched him tighter.

  “I love you, Desmond,” Arianna said. “Please don’t leave me ever again.”

  She had never put herself at the mercy of a man, but no longer cared about pride or self-preservation. She loved him and loving another meant being vulnerable, completely vulnerable, whether she liked it or not. Arianna loved Desmond. He was indelibly etched into her soul.

  She felt his lips press to her cheek and she turned her face toward him, toward his mouth. Wrapping both arms around his neck and clinging to him like a lifeline, she pressed her body close to his and savored his heat. His lips brushed hers and sent a tingle of electricity through her body. His mouth felt blissful against hers, and she wanted more. She immediately swept her tongue hungrily over his lips, parting them. His tongue teased at hers, meeting it thrust for thrust seductively, until need twisted achingly, low in her
belly.

  When he pulled away from her, Arianna felt as if she’d been slapped.

  “We must take care of them,” he nodded toward Jess and Josh, “before we leave.”

  She heard his words and knew what he meant, but was drunk with euphoria. Desmond was alive and with her. Her heart felt full, blissfully full. She did not want to let go of him, not even for a moment, but they needed to clear the school of evidence. They needed to incinerate the bodies.

  Desmond stepped back, away from her, and the distance between them grew by just a few feet. Even that small degree of separation caused a sharp pang in her chest. But she knew what they must do.

  Unwillingly, she tore her eyes from him as he retrieved his daggers and tried to focus on Jess. She channeled any energy that remained after the enervating scene that had unfolded before Desmond’s appearance. She did not have much left. Much of her force had been sapped when Josh restrained her and Jess began attacking her. Now, Jess lay in a pool of her own blood, a fact that should have pleased her, especially since Jess and Josh had been plotting death and destruction at their high school. But she did not feel pleased, not about that at least. The joy she felt over Desmond’s safety usurped any other emotion she could possibly feel. The time would come to celebrate Jess and Josh’s fall, but that time was not now.

  A sudden tingling at her fingertips signaled the readiness of her power. Her reserves had replenished themselves, and faster than ever. She was growing stronger. She could feel it.

  Effortlessly, an arc of fire blazed from each hand and met with Jess’s body, white-hot and precise. Within seconds, Jess was reduced to a heap of ashes. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Desmond watching her. She turned to face him and saw pride touch his lovely features. She offered him only a half-smile and blinked to keep her tears at bay.

  “Your powers have grown, haven’t they,” he said softly as branches of blue fire danced between his hands. “Just in the last few days, you’ve grown stronger.”

  She nodded and he smiled. Then he slowly turned from her and cremated Josh’s body. When Josh’s hulking body was turned to ash, Arianna felt Desmond at her side. He leaned in and lowered his mouth to her ear. His lips grazed her earlobe and his breath was hot when he spoke.

  “Let’s take care of the car they came in and get out of here,” he whispered, the rough stubble of his chin sending a shiver up her spine.

  They moved together to the rear parking lot of the school and, together, they destroyed Jess’s car. When no trace of it existed, Desmond pulled her close to him. She felt the steady beat of his heart thrumming in time with hers and suddenly, Hallowed Hills High School, along with and the ashes of Josh and Jess’s bodies and car, vanished from sight. Light burst into her mind; brilliant white light, warm and inviting, and she was carried on a roaring wave. The warmth she felt, Desmond’s warmth, filled her fully. She was light, free from pain and fear, from grief and loss. Every worry she’d ever felt dissipated like grains of sand in the wind. She felt herself fall away.