Alpha Unleashed

by Aileen Erin

  “If you figure it out, let me know.” I took a turn down a residential street, weaving through the blocks. All the house lights were out, which was to be expected at this time of night. We hadn’t come across many people. It seemed like the locals were taking my warning seriously.

  I drove slowly, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. If something was going to happen, I wasn’t getting any visions. At least not yet. The windows were rolled down so we could listen—and smell—for trouble. It was a little chilly, but nothing that a sweatshirt couldn’t handle.

  “Food,” Chris moaned from the backseat.

  I would’ve rolled my eyes at him, but I was starting to get hungry too. “If we don’t see anything in the next hour, we’ll go to Whataburger.”

  “Do you see that?” Adrian tapped the window.

  I sped up, catching movement down the block, but laughed as we pulled closer. Two kids a little younger than me were making out on the lawn. A bike lay on its side on the pavement in front of them. The skunkish smell of pot drifted through the open window.

  Teenagers… I said to Dastien.

  You only just turned eighteen.

  But I feel at least thirty. I feel like I get extra maturity points for all the shit I’ve gone through.

  True.

  The girl started to push at the guy with a whimper, and I almost got out of the car.

  “Might want to head inside,” Dastien called before I could do anything. “It’s not safe out here.”

  They jumped and broke away from each other. The guy shot us a dirty look. “Fuck off.”

  Dastien flicked on the dome light, and they froze.

  The girl grabbed the guy’s arm. “She’s that werewolf from the news.”

  “Just your friendly neighborhood werewolves.” I motioned to the house. “Go home. Being outside at this hour isn’t safe.” And not just because of Luciana and her demons. Nothing good happened at three in the morning.

  “Of course. Thanks.” The girl seemed more than grateful.

  The boy grabbed his bike and took off, and I waited as she scrambled up the lawn and went inside. She waved from the door.

  This was good. I’d actually helped someone tonight, and that felt damned good. I waved and went back to coasting down the street. “Well, that was fun.” Donovan had stopped behind us, but he followed as I turned down another street of sleepy houses.

  Shane grunted. “Focus on your abilities. You have to harness them to find where the action will be tonight.”

  “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

  “Nothing useful,” Shane muttered.

  I jerked the car to a stop, and twisted to look at hm. “Not cool. And you’ve got years of brujo practice on me. Where are all your brilliant suggestions?”

  He stared at the ceiling for a second before meeting my gaze. “Sorry. It’s not your fault. I’m just feeling antsy.”

  “I know it’s been a really shit week, but let’s try to hold it together.” I hit the gas and tried to take my own advice. A note of sympathy passed through the bond and I glanced at Dastien. You’ve been awfully quiet.

  I’m not sure how to help, Dastien said.

  I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. Yeah, me neither. If we were close to Luciana, I wasn’t sensing anything. No magic. The night was quiet. Maybe she’s still laying low.

  No. She’s got power to spare. She’s not going to sit quietly by. Not anymore. He was quiet for a second, but I could feel his thoughts, like gears turning, clicking by as he saw them and dismissed the ones he deemed unworthy. She’s already started trying to make us look bad. I doubt anything’s stopping her from doing more of that.

  If she’s feeling vindictive… I chewed on my lip. Who was I kidding. It was Luciana. She was always feeling vindictive. She’ll try to get us where it’d hurt the most.

  But St. Ailbe’s is too well protected. Everyone’s already on alert.

  Exactly. I was missing something. Something big. Last night, she’d let her demons tear through a few residential neighborhoods. Eight families were dead before the sun rose. She’d made the point that she could get the humans where they slept. They weren’t safe in their own beds.

  I thought of those families, and hurt for them. I couldn’t imagine the pain their loved ones were in. If something like that happened to my—

  Fuck.

  No. She wouldn’t go after…

  I swallowed as the realization sank in. No. She totally would.

  Where the hell was I? We’d been wandering for hours. I slammed on my break.

  “What’s going on?” Chris asked as Dastien’s cellphone started ringing.

  “You really think—” Dastien started but cut off when I shot him a look.

  “Yeah.” It was the most horrible thing I could think of, so why wouldn’t Luciana try it?

  My hands shook as I tried to work the navigation system. I needed to get to my parents’ house. Now.

  “Please proceed to the highlighted route,” the robotic voice said, and I gunned it, taking the turn so fast I thought I might flip the SUV.

  “The guards are still on my parent’s house, right?”

  “Of course. I’ll find out who’s on duty.” Dastien punched the buttons on his cell. “Hey, Gill. Who’s on the McCaides tonight?”

  “Let me check.” Rustling sounded through the phone like the guy was flipping through papers. “Shit. It was supposed to be Rory but he left with the others. I’m sorry. I don’t know how this got overlooked.”

  I slammed the steering wheel. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “Send a team in now.” Dastien growled. “We’re on our way. We might have a situation.” He ended the call. “They’re okay. Don’t worry. We don’t know anything yet.” Dastien tried Dad’s cell, but he didn’t answer. Neither did Mom. With each ring tone, my anxiety rocketed.

  “Shit.” My heart pounded, and I ran a stale red light. No one else was on the road in small-town Texas at this hour.

  Donovan’s headlights shone in my rearview mirror. If what I thought was going to happen was happening, then we all needed to get there. Five minutes ago.

  “We’ll get there in time,” Dastien said.

  “What about your brother?” Adrian asked. “He texted me to check on you after the press conference. He was thinking of coming down, but I don’t know if he did.”

  That’s right. Dad had told him not to come, but if Axel wanted to come home, he was home. He didn’t always listen to our parents. Especially when it came to me. He was my first friend. For a long time, my only and best friend.

  Dastien pushed his number, and my brother answered on the forth ring. “What the fuck, Tess? It’s after three in the morning.”

  “Are you at home?”

  “What?” He still sounded half asleep.

  “Wake the fuck up. Are you at home?” I paused, but only for a split second. “Now. Answer me now.” If he wasn’t, then I was going to have Dastien keep calling my parents’ phones until one of them answered or I got there.

  “Uh.” I could almost see him wiping his eyes. We shared the inability to wake up quickly. We both needed a second to adjust, but we didn’t have that now. “Yeah. Shit. Sorry. Yeah. I came home after class. I saw your press conference. I wanted to see you. Make sure you were—”

  Thank God. “Go wake up Mom and Dad.”

  “No way in hell. Mom is a beast when she gets woken up.”

  True. But not tonight. “Wake them up. Then go downstairs and get the big canister of salt from the panty. Bottom shelf on the right.” I couldn’t hear him moving. “This is life or death, Axel. I’m on my way, but you have to fucking move. It’s three twenty-nine. I have a feeling when the clock hits three thirty, you’re going to have some nasty visitors. You’ve got less than sixty seconds and no time to run.” I put as much force into my voice I could. “Move fast.”

  “Shit. You’re not fucking with me right now.”

  “Jesu
s fucking Christ, Axel! Does it sound like I’m fucking with you right now? This is not a joke. Move it!”

  I heard the sheet rustling. “Mom! Dad!” He pounded on the door. “Wake up! Shit’s about to go down.”

  The sound of his feet hammering steps echoed through the phone. “Salt. Salt. Salt. Shit. I don’t see the salt.”

  “Bottom self. On the right.” That was where Mom always kept it.

  “It’s not there.”

  I took a breath. “Then she must’ve moved it.” Where would she have put it? “Look on top of the fridge. Or beside the stove.”

  “Got it! What do I do? Shit, Tessa. I saw the news footage. Please don’t tell me—”

  We didn’t have time. “Go into the Mom and Dad’s bedroom and pull their bed into the center of the room.” The stairs squeaked as he ran back up.

  “I’m putting you on speaker.” The phone clattered. “We’ve got to move the bed.”

  “You’re going to have them do a circle?” Shane asked over my family’s talking.

  I glanced at him by the rearview mirror. “Unless you have a better idea?” I hoped he had something more, but if not, this would do. For now.

  “No. That’s pretty solid. If they had some holy water or something—”

  The sound of furniture squeaking along the hardwood floors filled the car.

  “I have holy water,” Mom said.

  There was a huge bang, and Mom yelled. “What was that?”

  The clock on the dash read 3:33. My stomach bottomed out.

  “It came from downstairs. I think it’s here,” Axel said. “We moved the bed. What now?”

  “Use the salt to draw a circle around it. Do not leave any gaps. Make one full circle and then go around again to make the line thicker. Mom and Dad, you get on the bed.”

  “How far away are you?” Axel asked.

  “Five minutes,” Dastien said. “Maybe less. She’s driving as fast as she can.”

  My hands sweat as I gripped the steering wheel. I was already doing 80 in a 35 and I’d go faster if I thought I could handle the turns without killing us all.

  “What’s that smell?” Mom’s voice confirmed my fears. “Oh my God. What’s that smell?”

  Shit. I was too late. “Axel. Are you done?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Finish it. Now. Then get on the bed.”

  “Okay. Okay. Just need one more second. I’ve got one circle, but it’s super thin. Going around—”

  “There’s no time. That smell is the demon. You better be drawing that circle from inside!”

  Mom’s whining scream sent chills down my spine.

  “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. No more.”

  The line went dead.

  “Whose voice was that?” My voice sounded too airy, even to my ears.

  “Stay calm. I’ll call again,” Dastien said.

  This time, the call went straight to voicemail.

  We hit a straightaway and I gave the car more gas. Whatever the speed limit was supposed to be now, I didn’t care. My family was on the line. They didn’t have magic. They had no weapons. And they couldn’t heal like I could.

  If something happened to them…

  Dastien called Axel over and over again, and the sound of his voicemail message echoed in my ears.

  It took forever to get there.

  I screeched into the driveway, threw the car in park, and jumped out. Donovan and his group weren’t far behind us.

  Dastien moved fast, tossing me my bag of vials as we ran into my house. The door hung off the top hinge and the screen was shredded.

  Mom’s prayers carried down the stairs and I took my first breath in what felt like hours…

  Then I heard the hissing.

  I climbed the stairs three at a time, only slowing before hitting my parents’ room. Clutching a vial, I was ready to throw as I stepped to the doorframe.

  And froze.

  Mom, Dad, and Axel huddled in the center of the bed, watching a figure slam itself into the salt circle. Mom was clutching an icon and rosary in one hand and throwing holy water from a small container at it with the other.

  The demon ran at them again, and then bounced back, like it was hitting a wall.

  If not for the sulfur burning my nose, I might not have noticed the figure was a demon.

  It looked like me. My hair in a ponytail. Wearing the sundress with yellow flowers that I’d worn to the press conference. But the eyes…

  Its eyes were two solid red orbs.

  It hissed, and a wave of demonic energy rolled over me, making me dizzy. I gripped the doorframe. This one was much stronger than the last demon, and if I let it, it could suck the soul straight from my body.

  Or my families’ bodies.

  I lifted my vial of brew number two as I entered the room. Dastien was at my side and the others slipped into the room behind us.

  “That thing doesn’t look anything like the last one,” Chris said.

  “This one’s a major demon,” Cosette said. I didn’t turn, but I hoped she had her sword ready back there.

  “Mistress wants you dead.” Its head tilted to the side as it studied each of us. Assessing us.

  “Feeling’s mutual.” I said a prayer, and threw the vial, but the demon didn’t flinch as it shattered. “Shit. Twos are duds.” Clinking sounded behind me as the brujos readjusted.

  It swiped off the black sludge dirtying the sundress, and then shot me a look of pure rage that had me stumbling backward.

  “We need more room to fight.”

  It stood there, slowly inching forward, as its red gaze darted among us.

  I wasn’t sure why it hadn’t attacked yet, but that wasn’t going to last. Once it was done assessing what we were and how to kill us, it was going to.

  I backed out of the room, not wanting to turn around, but we needed to draw it outside. Not everyone could fit in my parents’ bedroom. We were going to need everybody in this fight, and I wanted that thing as far away from my family as possible.

  It started to move faster. “Run,” I whispered.

  The wolves heard and everyone else followed them. I quickly backed to the stairs—not wanting to turn my back to it—and then it leaped at me.

  I jumped to the bottom of the stairs in one go. My hands touched the floor as I hit the ground. The demon scrambled after me, knocking down picture frames. It lunged, almost slashing my ankles, but Dastien grabbed me, tossing me out of the house. A boom sounded as it tore through the wall. We only had a few seconds before it was on us again.

  Cosette stood ready with her sword and this time, her skin was definitely glowing. “This one will be faster than the other. Get ready to try the new potions.”

  Adrian, Donovan, Meredith, and Chris had already shifted. Claudia waved her hands over them, drawing a few glowing knots. The saint’s ruby ring glimmered on her finger. “Hopefully this will keep the demon blood from burning you.”

  Shane and a pale-looking Raphael stood shoulder to shoulder. Shane held his first and middle fingers out, ready to flick some spell. A bead of sweat ran down Raphael’s face, and I had a moment to wonder if we should’ve left him on campus before he stumbled back a step.

  As I dug out another vial, Dastien’s change ripped through our bond. Claudia drew another knot, and I felt her spell wrap around him.

  Shaking off drywall dust, the demon appeared in the doorway.

  “Stop!” I threw all my will in to the word. All I had to do was freeze it, and we could end this before anyone got hurt.

  It stopped moving and I let out a breath as I turned toward Cosette. “It worked. Hurry and—”

  Panic surged to me from Dastien, but that was the only warning I got.

  A heavy weight fell on me, drowning me in choking sulfur. I hit the ground, and only just managed to get my hands up before the demon tore out my throat. Its claws flayed my side, and I screamed. The cuts burned like fire licking my skin.

  Wolf-Dastien rammed it, and suddenly the creat
ure’s weight was gone. The wolves surrounded it, slashing out, but unlike the lesser demon, this one wasn’t taking damage. Any hits the wolves landed just made it more pissed. I couldn’t tell if Claudia’s spell was working because they couldn’t make the thing bleed.

  Raphael picked me up off the ground, and it felt like my side was being torn apart. The heat of the pain spread down my leg. We had to end this. Fast.

  Claudia and Shane’s hands moved rapidly. A burst of magic rippled through the air, but whatever it was supposed to do to the demon didn’t work.

  Cosette landed a few slashes, and finally a little blood oozed out. It coated her blade like dark sludge. The demon barked something and black flames erupted. She shrieked, dropping the sword as it went up in a puff of ash and smoke. Her fingers were blackened, but she made a motion, conjuring a crossbow. “That one was my favorite.”

  My vision blurred at the pain in my side, but Dastien’s strength rippled through the bond, giving me just enough power to steady myself.

  He moved in front of me, protecting me as I grabbed everything I had in the bag. I’d lost potions three and seven when the demon hit me. I still had vials of five and nine.

  “With the power of our Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I banish you from this world, and send you back where you belong.” I put all the force of my will into the words, believing them to be true. Needing them to be true.

  When the glass shattered, the spell exploded. I hit the ground hard. The pain from my side stole my breath, but I knew I had to get up. I managed to get to my knees.

  The demon’s yellow dress had a blackened hole in the chest. Steam rose from it, but the damage wasn’t enough to slow it down.

  The wolves jumped back, but Cosette stayed on her feet, landing bolt after bolt in the demon’s body. Her crossbow reloaded itself and her bolts hummed with magic that made the thing’s skin sizzle and crack. It roared, lunging for her. She danced away, still shooting, but it moved too fast for her to get a kill shot.

  “Keep distracting it!” I called. Trying to ignore the pain growing in my side, I hobbled to the other witches.

  “Is that all?” Cosette laughed as she fired another bolt.

  Shane, Claudia, Raphael, and I brought out every vial we had left. We surrounded the demon as Cosette darted around, keeping it blind. The wolves circled, driving it away from us with flashes of fang and claw.