Dealing with the Devil (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 1)

by Siddoway, Jennifer

  Before he could get out his warning, smoke and weeds exploded from the floor and four demons emerged, surrounding him and dragging him away. He summoned his sword and began hacking away at them, but it was four against one. Aidan looked over his shoulder and sneered. “I warned you to stay out of this,” he called. “Now you can play with my pets until Wynn and I are finished.”

  The demons and Caleb disappeared with a flash of light and it was just Aidan and I again. “We are finished,” I told him angrily.

  “You’re going to choose that self-righteous Guardian over me?”

  “I am not ‘choosing’ him. I’m rejecting you. Now get the hell away from me!”

  “Hell,” he said without missing a beat, “can never, and will never, be away from you. You're part of it! It’s time you come to terms with that.”

  I spat at him.

  “I'm going to give you one more chance,” he said, “I don't want to harm you, or your family, but I will if I have to.”

  “My family has nothing to do with this! I’ve obeyed every one of your rules, which means you cannot touch them!”

  A menacing smile crossed his lips as he spoke, “The problem with you humans is that you only think in one dimension. I don’t need to touch them in order to make them suffer.”

  I pulled my arm back and punched him square in the nose. Something black oozed from his nostril as he growled, wiping it away with his sleeve. He snarled, curling his lips over his sharpened teeth like an animal and I saw a flurry of images, just like it had happened before. I was standing in the parking lot of Mom’s restaurant, The Red Door, and saw Elyse coming out the back. She was pulling her keys out of her bag and not looking where she was going, when a large white truck came barreling down to road towards her. There was a gust of wind, a sheet of newspaper went flying across the road and trapped itself on the driver’s windshield. They couldn’t see where they were going and the tires jumped the curb. Elyse looked up at the headlights just in time for the two of them to make contact. The next thing I saw was her broken body on the ground and a pool of blood oozing out around her.

  I gasped when the vision brought me back into the present and I was once again in the dance hall. “You wouldn't dare!” I spat at him.

  A quick look of surprise and then triumph flashed across his face, but he quickly controlled it. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and his eyes dared me to try and cross him. “You're not giving me a whole lot of options here. You know what I want.”

  “I’m not going to be your puppet! How many times do I have to say it?”

  “So be it.”

  With a puff of black smoke he disappeared and I was alone in the corner of the room. All at once, the dance resumed around me and I was surrounded by my classmates. The coldness in his threat was haunting and my heart beat wildly with fear. I ran frantically back to Ryan’s table and approached him panting. “Ryan! I need your keys!” I pleaded.

  “What?” he asked in confusion.

  I slammed my fist on the table and yelled at him. “I need your damn keys!”

  “What’s your problem, Wynn?” Monica mocked me from beside him. “I told you she was a freak. You can’t take the Gyp anywhere in public without the risk of her making a scene.”

  “Elyse is in danger,” I told him significantly, hoping he registered the weight behind those words. “I have a bad feeling and I really need to go to her.”

  When he saw the fear in my eyes, Ryan sobered up immediately and I was grateful he knew my secret, enough to know something was seriously wrong. “Shut up, Monica,” he snapped.

  “Are you crazy? How are we going to get home?”

  His voice was soft and stern, “She’ll bring it back.”

  “What t—”

  “She can take my car,” Lacey interrupted.

  Ryan, Monica and I both turned to her in shock. “Are you serious?”

  She nodded. “Wynn wouldn’t be asking unless she had a good reason. I’ll drive you.”

  “Fine, you can come, but we have to leave NOW,” I insisted.

  “You’re leaving?” Phillip pouted.

  Lacey sighed sadly. “Sorry, Phillip, but I’m going with her. Ryan, can you take him home?”

  “Sure.”

  We walked away when Lacey had a second thought. She turned around and went back and kissed Phillip passionately on the lips. When she pulled back, he had a confused smile on his face and she chuckled nervously. “I’ll call you later.”

  “Kay.”

  I smiled weakly when she joined me and we marched out determinedly to the parking lot. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

  “Never been more sure in my life,” I told her as we were running to the car. “Something is wrong.”

  She sighed, unlocked the car doors, and we threw ourselves inside. “Well, I’m not going to argue with the girl whose instincts saved my friends lives. Maybe it’s a sixth sense.” She sat in the driver’s seat and asked, “Where are we going?”

  She turned the ignition and put the car in reverse before I responded. “My mom’s restaurant.”

  “That’s not too far from here,” she noted.

  “Yeah, but it’s far enough,” I mumbled. Lacey’s hands gripped the steering wheel as she floored the gas and went speeding through a stop sign. The cars on either side slammed on their brakes just in time, blared their horns at us, and we skidded through unscathed. Her face reflected in the blue glow of the dashboard as she urged the car to greater speed.

  I bit my lip and prayed we weren’t too late.

  The adrenaline had a strange effect on my brain, I was able to absorb everything in crystal clear detail as she drove. The city raced by us as Lacey leaned on the accelerator, pushing the engine even harder than she had before.

  When we finally reached the parking lot, I nearly hurled myself out of the car, stumbling over my feet as I leaped onto the asphalt, looking for any sign of blood, or a body. There was nothing. Relief overtook me as I then began to search for her instead to warn her of the oncoming danger, but I didn’t see her anywhere.

  “I don’t understand, where is she? I saw her standing at this exact spot.”

  “You … saw her?” Lacey asked confused.

  I realized my mistake, but it was too late now so I just nodded in response. “It’s difficult to explain, but yes.”

  “Could it have been a mistake?’ Lacey offered, still trying to be helpful. She walked around the side of the building where the dumpsters were to help me look.

  I shook my head and looked around the edge of the road. “It’s never been wrong before,” I told her. “Was it the other entrance? I don—”

  At that moment, I heard the sound of a truck whizzing down the narrow street and I turned around to look for it, only to find myself face to face with headlights. I heard someone scream and two long arms shot out protectively in front of me, shoving me to the side of the road just in time. My head landed violently on the curb and the truck’s breaks squealed in the night air. I didn’t see it when she and the truck collided, but I heard the horrible crunch of bone and flesh. A body slammed into the asphalt with a tremendous — crack. I pulled myself off the ground to find Elyse lying in the middle of the road.

  My world stopped when I saw her, because she wasn't moving.

  “No! ’Lyse!!”

  The truck continued to squeal down the road without so much as a pause and Lacey came back around the corner. “Oh God!” she gasped in horror.

  “Lacey, call 911. Tell them there’s been a hit and run. Elyse? Elyse, answer me!”

  She’s loosing too much blood, I shuddered to myself. Grabbing my wrap that had fallen off, I fastened it around her trying to stem the flow of blood.

  “Elyse! Stay with me!” I demanded. “Help will be here soon, you’re gonna be okay!”

  Nothing I did would rouse her and I noticed that her skin was already getting cold beneath my fingers. My chest convulsed with hysterical sobs as I held her close again
st me and called her name into the darkness. “Elyse! You can’t do this to me now, I need you. I love you!! Please don’t leave me. P-please!” I blubbered miserably. “Please, Elyse, don’t go!”

  Her blood soaked through the fabric of my prom dress and smeared across my hands and arms. My breathing labored and I was nearly hyperventilating when I looked down and saw the bluish tinge at the edge of her lips. My beautiful sister, limp in my arms. Her golden hair was drenched with blood and her radiant aura no longer surrounded her. I spent my entire life idolizing her, wanting to follow in her footsteps, and her selfless act of saving me had been the crowning glory of her legacy. I couldn’t let it end like this! I had to save her.

  There was a familiar sound of fluttering of wings and Caleb shimmered to the parking lot. “Caleb, thank God! Get over here, she needs you!”

  His face went pale when he saw us there, but didn't move from where he stood. “Wynn…”

  “Why aren't you helping her?” I demanded.

  “Because that’s not why I'm here.”

  I didn't know what exactly he was getting at, but I knew Elyse was going to die if he didn't stop her bleeding soon. “Caleb, what are you waiting for? Save her already!”

  “I can’t,” he told me agonized. “That's not the way it works.”

  “You can tell me all about it when my sister isn’t dying!”

  “Wynn. Your sister isn't dying … she's dead.”

  “Then break the rules! I need you, Caleb, please.”

  Without warning, a pearly white wisp of air rose up through my fingers, like a breath of air. Her soul flew over to Caleb and materialized into the form of my beautiful sister. She stared at me, then her eyes fixated on her mortal body that lay broken in my arms. My thoughts caught up with me then, as I remembered what Maya had told me. This is what they do. He wasn’t here to see me at all, he was here in an official capacity. He would be the one to take my sister from me.

  Elyse looked up from her body straight into my eyes. I opened my mouth to speak and demand that he make this right but before the words were out, he and Elyse were gone.

  ~ * ~

  Caleb returned a few minutes later, alone.

  He knelt beside me as I wept, still holding Elyse’s cold and lifeless body. “I’m so sorry, Wynn.”

  “What did you do?” I demanded.

  “I helped her to cross over.”

  “You could have saved her!” I accused, chocking through tears and sobs of grief. “But instead you … you killed her!!”

  “I know you’re upset right now, but you and I both know that isn’t true.”

  I clutched my chest and gasped for air as panic and fury set in. I could barely breathe, choking back tears. “Wynn, I tried to get to you, when Seroquel saw … I got there as fast as I could…” Caleb sputtered.

  “You promised to protect them,” I spat angrily. “You promised to protect them, even when I couldn’t. You—”

  He cut me off with a worried look, “Wynn, your aura! You’ve got to calm down or you're going to shift!”

  “I don’t care!” Anger rolled off me in dark waves.

  “Yes, you do! No matter how bad this hurts or how miserable you’re feeling, I promise it’s only going to get a thousand times worse if you fall back now.”

  “You want to know how I'm feeling?” I snarled through clenched teeth. “Let me show you!”

  With every ounce of hate and pain the last few months had brought, I invaded his mind with wordless expressions of grief. He flinched when I broke through and his face contorted into agony.

  I stared at the face of the man who had failed to save my sister while he truly knew how I felt. But hurting Caleb didn’t bring me any satisfaction. He wasn't the one I wanted to make suffer.

  “Get out of here,” I sobbed.

  “'Wynn.”

  “I said GO!” I shrieked. He turned to leave and I called out after him. “And, Caleb … this time don't come back.”

  Caleb's face was pained as he saw my sorrow, and he shimmered away from the street. All the feelings I'd bottled up over the last few months broke free. My mother’s betrayal, Caleb keeping secrets, Aidan’s power over me, and now, Elyse.

  My eyes flashed black and I saw my own aura for the first time as I let the demon out.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Hell Hath No Fury

  In my rage, I let go of the glamour I always hid behind and all the hate and agony I felt ripped from my chest in an explosive wave of fury. I screamed in anguish and rage into the dark sky, not caring anymore who heard me. Leathery wings burst from my back and my auburn curls Elyse had been so careful to twist back, turned dark and matted. The gorgeous prom dress she had laced me into earlier was covered in her blood and I shredded it off my serpentine body with sharp talons.

  I heard Lacey gasp and saw her back away out of the corner of my eye. I knew I should be concerned about mortals seeing this, but all I could think of was my sister’s killer zooming away in the truck. I was not going to let him get away. My world was a film of red hatred. I looked again at Elyse’s poor broken body, lying in unnatural angles in a pool of dark blood. I couldn’t hear the ambulance yet, but I knew it would be here soon so I took off down the road behind the driver. Lacey recovered enough to shout, “Wynn…!” but I wasn’t stopping for anything.

  I felt the wind on my back as I flew down the road in the direction the truck had driven off. I was going to find the one who had killed my sister and I was going to end him. I’d never expected Aidan to go this far, but he wasn't my main concern right now. I was going to find the man who killed Elyse and make him pay for what he did.

  An eye for an eye. Blood for blood. Life for life.

  I didn't have to go far.

  The car had driven off the road around the corner and plowed into a telephone pole. As I got closer, I saw the newspaper still plastered against the windshield. There was steam rising from the engine block and the driver slumped over the wheel, with a smear of blood trickling down from his hair.

  He was young, probably right out of college, but I didn’t care about any of that. All I cared about was that he had been the one to end her life. Snarling with rage, I pulled him from the wreckage. He groaned as I dragged him by the collar of his shirt and roused him to a waking nightmare.

  “What’s going on?” he mumbled.

  I grabbed him by the hair and smashed his face against the telephone pole. It made a satisfying crack against the metal. My hands were more like talons as they squeezed his skull and slammed it against the pole again and again. He cried out in pain a couple times as his skull fractured and blood poured down his face.

  Not willing to let him loose consciousness, I threw him on the ground and slapped him hard across the face. The man cowered beneath me and I watched him whimper like a child, begging for his life. “Please don’t hurt me!”

  “It’s too late for that,” I sneered. “You took someone away from me I will never get back! Believe me when I say, I’m going to make you suffer!”

  His eyes went wide for a moment as my wings splayed out behind me. I unhinged my jaw and opened widely, drinking up his aura. Last time I had willed myself to stop, but I had no reason to restrain myself anymore. I wanted to know what it would feel like as I pulled his soul right out of this fragile body.

  Do it! A voice hissed in my head. Kill him. An eye for an eye.

  In the haze of rage, I almost didn’t notice the voice … was not my own. Even though the words urged me to greater violence, the voice belonged to … a child?

  I paused for just an instant. Why is there a child’s voice inside my head?

  “He killed your sister, you know he deserves this,” the voice said soothingly.

  The words were so sweet to my soul, I almost gave in to those enticing words of vengeance.

  Caleb was gone, there was no one left to stop me.

  We were alone, him and me, with no witnesses around.

  No demons were forcing my hand
this time, I couldn’t blame this self-indulgence on another. That pause proved to myself I was in control of my actions and from this moment on, I was making a choice.

  The pause stretched immeasurably as I held this man’s life in my hands. As the silence went on for what seemed like an eternity, the blood thundering in my ears began to ebb and I could hear him whimpering in my grip.

  I looked down at him and my anger turned from him to another. I was familiar enough with demon tactics to not fall for it a second time. I remembered the look of triumph and surprise on Aidan’s face and realized this had all been a set-up, what he had been planning all along. He considered this poor man expendable, just like Elyse had been. They were all just pawns in our elaborate game.

  I dropped him to the ground, horrified at how dangerously close I had come to taking a human life. Still, even knowing that it had all been a ruse, I didn't trust myself not to kill him so I backed up a few feet.

  Out of nowhere, I heard the giggling of a child and it caught me off guard. I turned and saw an antique doll lying on the ground, cracks spreading across her old face and her lace dress yellowed with time. The doll’s head turned to me and smiled. The aged limbs pushed the porcelain doll up and she looked up at me with wide glass eyes. “Why did you stop?”

  A smile twisted up at the corner of her mouth as I pounced on her. She shimmered out of sight right before I was able to grab her and I tripped over the curb, falling hard onto the street. Without thinking, I used my hands to catch myself, slamming my entire weight on the palms of my hands. The skin was still tender from Caleb’s patchwork job and I let out a yelp of pain. “Aughh!” I rolled and cradled my hands in front of me.

  A little girl appeared behind me, this time with the antique doll in her hand. She was fuzzy, out of focus, as if not entirely here. I was able to see through her to the building behind. “Ah ah ah!” she taunted me. “It isn’t playtime yet. We still have to introduce ourselves.” Her blonde curls cascaded over her lace collar and her bright, twinkling eyes were in complete contrast to her dark and ominous aura.

  “YOU!” I growled, coming towards her. “This was a trial? You’re the one who did this?”