by Ivy Carter
“What the hell Jessa? We must go! You know what that is. We can’t fight a Wraith; they can’t be killed nor can they be contained. The only chance we have is to run.” Sebastian practically snarls at me.
“I know but… Sebastian, I know that scent. It’s Devon. Somehow he has woken up.” I plead with him with my eyes. But I don’t give him the chance to say no. I just turn and run toward our room.
What I find there takes my breath away. Sebastian grasps me from behind and is just as speechless as myself. Devon is standing in the middle of our room with his hands clasped to his head. He is ragged and dirty. But alive. The beautiful boy who was my best friend and brother, is alive. All I want to do is run to him and put my arms around him. I whimper and try to run toward him but Sebastian is holding onto me from behind.
“You can’t go in there. We don’t know what he is capable of or if he even knows who he is.”
“Devon?” I call out as he lets out another long moan, clasping his head even tighter. His head jerks up and he squints his eyes at me.
“Jesssssa,” Devon hisses out. Sebastian grasps me tighter from behind, getting ready to pull me out of the room and whisk me away at the first sign of a problem. Devon takes a step toward me, but doubles over and holds his head again instead of continuing.
“He is in pain. What is wrong with him?” I stare over my shoulder at Sebastian.
“He is hungry, the pain in this place must have been potent enough for him to awaken but not enough to sustain him. If he doesn’t feed soon, he will expire once more.” Sebastian whispers into my ear.
I feel a tear sliding down my face at the thought of Gavin being in any sort of pain. When he was still human he was such a gentle soul, much to his father’s disappointment.
As multiple tears reach my chin, Devon’s head rears up and he locks his eyes on me. I feel like I am being swallowed from the inside out. The sorrow I was feeling for him lifts from my mind as if a heavy breeze is sweeping it away. But once the sorrow is gone, I start to feel a numbness taking its place.
Suddenly, I am jerked from behind. My back is slammed into the wall along with my head. I feel as if I am waking up from a drug-induced sleep.
The first thing I notice is that the wailing has stopped. The complete silence starts to freak me out. I try to jerk out of Sebastian’s hold so that I can peek around the corner to get a good look at Devon. “Let go.” I hiss at Sebastian who is still holding me tightly. Always protecting me, and I love him for it. But sometimes having a mate stuck to your ass, jerking you around in all directions, can get a bit tiresome.
He gives me an impish smirk that makes him look like an adorable little boy. That little smirk never fails to make me smile back at him, or to forgive him for whatever he has done at the time to piss me off. I just shake my head at him before peeking around the corner into our room like I wanted to do in the first place.
What I see is a still-dirty Devon sitting on the edge of my bed. He’s looking around like he doesn’t know where he is. He stares out the window almost in amazement. The sun is shining today. I can hear the birds singing and the wind blowing through the branches of a nearby tree.
“Where am I?” He whispers out, almost as if to himself. I pull away from Sebastian and run into the room, skidding to stop on my knees in front of Devon. I can hear Sebastian gasp as he reaches out for me as I pass him, trying to protect me once more.
I reach up and turn Devon’s face to mine. Then I look into his blue, blue eyes. They are still the same, but there is a harshness there that wasn’t there before. Before his eyes were innocent and playful.
“Jessa?” He whispers. Then he falls into my arms, almost knocking me onto my ass, sobbing all the while. I can feel tears soaking into my robe. Pulling him toward me, I hold him tightly against me.
“Yes, silly. It’s me. Of course it’s me. I have missed you so fucking much. You have no idea. I felt almost empty without you here with me and Ella.”
Sebastian walks into the room and Devon stiffens in my hold. “Shhhhhhh. It’s okay. He is my mate, my other half. I guess you could call him my soul mate.”
Devon gives me a look like he thinks I am shitting him. I smile and he jerks back from me like I have tasered his nuts or something. Then I remember I have fangs and that Devon is brand new. Even if he is super scary dangerous himself, he wouldn’t know that… OR that vampires are indeed very real.
“Devon, calm down. I am still me; we are all just a little bit different now. I have some extra sharp teeth, Ella can do all kinds of scary, crazy, and awesome shit. And you, well I don’t know what you can do yet. But we can figure this out together.”
I hold out my hand out to him, wanting him to trust me as he would have before he died. He reaches his hand out tentatively and I see how dirty it is, how ragged his nails are. He used to join me for manicures and pedicures more than Ella did when we were all still regular humans. Everything being so different and him being so dirty must be so confusing for him.
“Come on pretty boy, let’s go and get you a shower. Once you are done making yourself gorgeous again, I will tell you everything that has happened. As much as I know anyway.” He just nods his head and holds my hand even tighter as I lead him off the bed and out of the room.
Sebastian shadows our steps as we are walking down the hall, still waiting for the need to protect me. I can’t really explain to him that I just know that Devon would never hurt me. I can feel that his soul, what little tattered edges are left, are so… just good. There is not another way of putting it.
Wraiths might be one of the scariest things that the supernatural world has ever seen, but my friend isn’t like that, or he isn’t yet. And if I have any say in it, he will never will be. I will think sad thoughts ten hours a day if I must just to keep him sane and fed.
I follow Devon into the restroom and watch as he starts to strip off his grimy, shredded clothing. Everything is caked in nastiness. I shudder at what it must feel like to wear something so foul, especially for someone as prissy about his appearance as Devon always has been.
Sebastian growls as he sees that Devon is undressing in front of me.
“It’s okay dude, I don’t swing her way.” Devon’s voice has suddenly lowered to a bass pitch that jerks me out of wanting to giggle at Sebastian being jealous of my gay best friend. He turns toward Sebastian, not embarrassed in anyway to be standing there in the buff in front of someone he doesn’t know… “But,” he looks Sebastian up and down. “…if she is willing to share, I might be willing to swing your way.”
He winks at Sebastian, who is suddenly blushing all the way up to his ears. I do giggle myself silly then. I laugh so hard that Sebastian flips me the bird before leaving the bathroom.
Devon is silent as he is now in the shower. I noticed that he has lost a lot of weight. He was always so ripped but now he looks like someone that could use A LOT of good meals. I wonder if Wraiths can eat regular food, or if we are going to have to come up with a meal plan that will include doing drive-byes of funerals.
“So how are you feeling, besides really tired and freaked the fuck out?” I ask and state the obvious at the same time, hoping he will talk to me.
I don’t want him to stew over whatever is in his head. After everything he has been through, he needs to talk it out. Keeping all of that inside isn’t good for anyone. Especially for a species that goes insane on a regular basis.
“What am I?” I hear him whisper from behind the hissing water.
“You know you died, right?” I decide to just get right to it. I have never been the type of person to piss around about things, and Devon has never been the type of person that enjoys shit being candy wrapped.
“Yeah I remember the pain. Then nothing but blackness, then more pain, then more blackness. I think I was stuck in Hell. Or something a lot like it.” I hear him say from the shower. It sounds like he has slid down to sit on the floor under the running water.
“I don’t know if you were
in Hell or not.” I whisper, “But Ella killed the demon lord that was hurting you. That is how we got you back.” I get up off the counter, walk over to the shower, and sit down on the floor beside it.
“Where is Ella? Why isn’t she here with you?”
“She was hurt after we freed your soul from that monster. Her friend Tristan was taking care of her when someone broke in and took her. That happened right before you reformed.” I tell him in a rush, trying to get it out around the tears that are choking my throat.
Devon sucks in a breath and quietly moans as if he is enjoying something yummy. Then I realize I can feel the sucking sensation again. I tap on the fogged glass when I feel that all the sadness completely leaves me. I don’t mind him taking it from me, but I don’t want the numbness to come back. Devon sticks his wet head out around the shower door and just looks at me with wide eyes.
“Did I do that?” He asks in a whisper. I just nod my head and smile.
“You stopped when I tapped on the window glass. You didn’t continue to feed on the sadness that was weighing me down. I was thinking about Ella and it was choking me. I could feel you lifting the pain from me but, when it was gone, when I distracted you from what you were doing, you stopped. That is amazing, Devon!”
I wiggle on the floor and laugh. This is GREAT! If he can learn control, then everything is going to be so much easier for him. He won’t kill someone if he can control his hunger!
I just smile at him while he looks at me with a puzzled face. I open my mouth to explain why I am so happy. Gosh, he must think I am on something because I am busy bouncing between being depressed and on cloud nine. Before I can get a word out, the bathroom door is busted open and I see Jaxx standing in the doorway, readying a nasty-ass spell with his eyes fixed on the shower stall.
Chapter 6.
Ella.
Feeling around the dark room that I am locked in, I stumble over a loose rock on the floor and catch myself on the wall. I don’t know how long I have been here, just that I woke up on the floor with a wicked headache. I feel my skin give against the wall, a jagged piece cutting it open. I draw a sharp breath and try to control the whimper of pain from escaping.
I don’t want the people that locked me in this room to know that I am awake. I hear something outside the door, a scraping sound, like a rusty lock being unhinged. I slam my back against the wall and hold my breath, hoping that they don’t hear me, that they think I am still passed out.
“Aww! Sweet little witch, I know that you are awake. I have a present for you.” I hear a chuckle before something thumps into the middle of the room like dead weight being dropped or thrown.
Suddenly I am blinded by light as candles on the walls are brought to life. When my vision clears, I am looking at myself lying in the middle of the floor.
“What the hell?” I gasp out.
“Oh, such language.” The large man at the door, Alexander, chuckles again. “And here I brought you your body. Don’t worry. It won’t hurt when you reenter it. You will feel like you are waking up from a nice, long nap.” He smirks at me. Then he waves his hand and is sucked inside a black hole, or a swirling mass of shadows. I try to take in a breath, but I feel like I can’t breathe.
My body is literally pinned down on what feels like a slab of concrete. I can’t lift my arms or move my legs. Shaking my head from side to side, I try to open my eyes but they feel gritty and are stuck shut.
Opening my mouth feels like I am swallowing sandpaper and gravel. Finally prying my eyes open, I notice that I am in the same small room that I must have been in before. Stone walls look the same as they felt when I was stuck in the dark, feeling my way around. I look down and find that my arms and legs are indeed strapped down with chained belts, connected to a stone slab that I am currently laying on.
I try to reach for my magic, but there isn’t much there. I am used to feeling a well of massive, untapped magic. A power that usually swells within me that I couldn’t use up in a thousand lifetimes. There is barely a trickle of that power left at this moment.
Then I finally remember the knife that was sticking out of my abdomen the last time I was awake and within my own body. I look down at my stomach but I can’t see my feet. I panic for a moment until I remember the sudden swelling of my stomach when I was lost and alone inside the shadow realm.
Feeling something jump and wiggle around inside my stomach doesn’t exactly reassure me. If Jessa was here she was would surely laugh at the face I am probably wearing right now. All I can think of is that alien movie from a long time ago, when the creature rips its way out of the woman’s stomach, leaving her dead in a puddle of her own blood.
I want to rub my stomach and ask the baby inside who she is, and how the hell she ended up here with me. It is not the safest place to be at the moment, even if she is still baking in my oven.
I never even thought about being a mother. No one asked me if I wanted a child. Hell, I haven’t even had sex yet. But here I lie with a bloated stomach and a wiggler who is making themselves right at home.
I try to move my hands once more when the baby really starts kicking, but as hard as I jerk and try to wiggle free, I can’t. My magic isn’t responding as it should. Each time that I pull it toward my hands it seems like it’s being siphoned away.
There is a horrible screech as a metal door opens and then the thud of heavy footsteps enters the room. I strain my neck to the side to see who has entered the room, and I see Alexander, the ugly fuck. I hold as still as I can. Maybe if I can make him think that I am weaker than I am, I can think of a way to escape. I feel him rubbing his scarred hands on my stomach, murmuring something as he caresses my midriff.
“What are you doing?” I want to screech but all I can do is murmur. My throat is completely dry. I can barely make a squeak.
“I am flooding your womb with my magic so that I can make the gestation period of my spawn shorter. My magic is making my heir strong.”
He cackles when I try to move away from his hands that are now caressing my bare stomach. He has pushed up my shirt and is now putting pressure on my stomach.
“Stop! You are going to hurt the baby!” This time I do scream at him. I feel a fierce need to protect this child. She is in my stomach. I am carrying her inside my body. So that makes her mine, mine to protect.
“Stay still or I will have you silenced. I am not going to harm my child. I will make him strong, the strongest child to ever be born. Even stronger than you, witch!” He hisses out the last word as if being a witch is something dirty.
I practically bite my lip as he continues to push and prod my bare stomach while I am powerless and strapped down. It feels like a violation.
I want to turn my head and hurl, but suddenly I feel tired. Even more tired than I did when I first woke up. My energy and my magic seem to be deserting me when I need them both the most.
I close my eyes to try to shut everything around me out. Especially the fucktard that doesn’t know the meaning of personal space. I try to ground my mind and connect with whatever natural energy I can find in this desolate place.
I reach and reach with my inner self. Until I feel the slightest bit of healing energy far below the surface. I fist my hands and hope that since my captor isn’t a witch he won’t see the tendrils of magic flowing out of the ground and into my body, fueling my healing. I am literally running on empty. I murmur inside my head, promising to replace the energy that I am sucking out of the ground, silently thanking whatever source the natural magic is coming from.
Lying silent and still, I slow my breathing so the bastard inside the room with me will think that I have fallen asleep. I throw my awareness out and focus on the rooms and walls of the mass fortress that I am imprisoned in. I see spots of light; I am assuming that it is the Shadow Guards moving around the fortress going about their duties. I reach out further beyond the many rooms and floors of the stone walls around me, and I find vast nothingness. Nothing but fog, smoke, and shadow. A giant void s
urrounds the fortress, and even if I do get myself free I have no idea how I am going to escape this fortress with its many guards, let alone this plane of existence.
I am woken from my trance-like sleep by the grating sounds of the door slamming when Alexander leaves my prison. I quickly look around and find the room empty, so I close my eyes and force myself to concentrate on rebuilding myself as fast as possible. I can feel the power welling from within, collecting and waiting to be used. If I can concentrate long enough, and if the stream of energy holds out, I might be able to syphon enough energy to mist myself across planes.
The next time I wake up, the room is dark and the straps and chains that are wrapped around me seem tighter than they were before.
“Scribe, will I be able to transport myself home, if I will it to be?” I am talking to myself like a loon, but I feel better talking out loud to the ancient power that was absorbed within my body. It makes me feel less alone.
It feels as if a part of my brain suddenly wakes and a voice inside my consciousness starts to speak…
I am sorry, my lady, but only a full Goddess can trace between realms.
I bang my head against the hard surface underneath me and open my mouth to silently scream out my fear and frustration. I can feel my body still sucking energy from out of the ground and atmosphere around me. So I start to work on my bindings by doing a quick chant that suddenly just pops into my head. I hear the quiet clanking of the chains as they unwind from around me. I will them to fall silently to the ground.
As soon as I am free, I shake out my limbs, stretch out my arms above my head and rotate my ankles. Then I push myself carefully upward, slightly clumsily since I am not used to the extra weight around my middle.
As soon as I am upright, I push myself off the stone slab and feel along the gritty walls for the door. When I reach it, I can hear things beyond the stone walls that surround me. There is yelling and blood curdling screams on the outside of this room. I reach around blindly, trying to find the latch to the metal door and then I will it to unlock. With a groan, the door swings inward and I see a new version of hell come to life.
