The Lost Daughter: Hells Hallow Book One

by Bo Reid

  “Can’t you get her to stop?” Johnathan grumbles.

  “No, she’s mad that Cerberus isn’t here.”

  “She hates that dog,” he deadpans.

  “They’re best friends,” I counter. “It’s a love-hate relationship,” I grumble, pushing my covers off and stalking out of my room. “Fine! You want to go see him?” I huff and she meows again. I roll my eyes but pick my cat up, throwing the front door open. I march out into the meadow with my grumpy cat tucked under my arm. The shield lights up and I glance overhead.

  “Vampire bats can’t get through!” I yell up as another one of the vampires in bat form attempts to get through my barrier just as a regular bat swoops inside and clicks his amusement.

  “Oh, I get it, you guys are fucking with them,” I laugh and the bats inside the barrier click once more. “Carry on,” I joke.

  We walk through the barrier, and I march my grumpy, pajama-clad ass through the fucking Forbidden Forest. I grumble my objections, huffing and puffing as the twigs and such stab my feet. I appear on the road that goes around Hells Hallow, just on the backside of Javaraya’s property.

  Hex claws at my arms, attempting to get down. “Stop that, we’re almost there,” I order her and she huffs her irritations. I march through Javaraya’s back yard and bang my fist on his back door. I can hear Cerberus barking and whining from inside the house, and Hex once again attempts to get out of my arms.

  “What?” Javaraya grumbles in irritation as he throws open the back door. He looks disheveled, still in his suit from dinner but it’s halfway unbuttoned and his usually-perfect hair is a mess. “Oh, it’s you,” he huffs.

  Hex jumps free of my arms, running past his legs and through the house. “Hey!” he yells.

  She trots over to Cerb’s cage and paws the latch system to open the door. Cerb comes bounding out of his cage and they once again run past us and into the back yard. Javaraya and I stand still on his back porch, staring out into the yard as they run in the grass and play together.

  “What the fuck?” Javaraya huffs.

  “She wouldn’t stop whining, and I couldn’t sleep,” I confess, moving over to sit on the back steps.

  “He wouldn’t stop either.” He walks over and sits on the other side of the stairs. “I thought he wanted out to see you.”

  “Naw, truthfully, he couldn’t care less about me — well, unless I’m conjuring up bones — he likes her. They’re friends.” I nod my head towards the yard as a dark witch’s familiar and a hellhound chases each other around the grassy back yard.

  “I’m sorry,” Javaraya grumbles.

  “For what?” I ask, confused.

  “Causing a scene.” He shrugs.

  “Meh, you embarrassed yourself, not me.”

  We sit in silence for a while — it really is peaceful here in the darkness.

  “What are we going to do here, Tanda?” he finally asks.

  “Well, I say we just let them be friends, come up with some kind of visitation,” I joke.

  “Not them,” he grumbles. “Us. This.” He motions around indicating the town. “Everything. You need us to all bond together to defeat this evil, but we don’t know what the Hells is going on. You need help, and we need answers,” he says, his tone soft, not demanding and it makes me want to throw my rules and plans out the window.

  “What do you want to know?” I ask after a few moments of silence.

  “What did your coven do to you?” he asks.

  I glance over at him, and he is watching me warily, not knowing if I’m going to answer, or bolt out the back door. And if I do answer, will it be the truth?

  “They stripped their powers and gave them to me,” I whisper.

  “And that killed them…” he trails off.

  I nod my head in agreement. “You can’t strip a witch’s powers; they’re as much a part of who she is as her heart or her lungs, the very blood in our veins. When you strip them, willingly or not, it makes them sick, weakens them, until they finally die from it. Same goes for most supernatural beings, both good and evil.”

  “That’s why your father died too,” he says.

  “You know who he was?” I ask, turning to look at him.

  He nods his head. “Yeah, bit hard to miss that one in the records.”

  I turn to look back out into the yard and see Cerberus rolling around on his back as Hex paws at his tail. I feel Javaraya move closer to me, just slightly.

  “How did you get our powers?” he asks.

  I shrug my shoulders. “I think a few coven members spent years collecting powers from other beings.”

  “You mean stealing,” he corrects.

  “Probably.” He nods his head as a few more beats of silence pass between us. “Anything else?” I ask.

  “That’s enough for now.”

  “What does bonding require?” I hear a deep voice, and when I turn, I see Arius standing in the doorway.

  “Truthfully? I don’t know, no one ever gave me a straight answer on that. It’s why I went with a blood contract; seemed like the strongest thing,” I answer, turning on the step and leaning against the railing. I bring my feet up, pulling my knees to my chest.

  “What if it doesn’t work?” he presses, moving from the doorway and coming to sit with us on the steps.

  “Then we try something else,” Javaraya says.

  “Why?” I ask, brows pinching together in confusion.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Well, uncomplicate it,” I demand, wanting answers as well.

  He looks away, hanging his head slightly and I narrow my eyes at him. Javaraya doesn’t move and doesn’t answer me so I huff and push myself up to stand. I march down the stairs and into the grass.

  “Let me know when you’re ready to fucking share, and I want my cat back!” I yell over my shoulder as I continue my march towards the Forbidden Forest.

  “Tanda!” Javaraya yells. “For Hells’ sake woman.”

  I am so beyond sick of men constantly being in charge. Constantly thinking that just because they have a dick they get to make the fucking rules, and that everyone should just do what they want. That they don’t have to share but they want you to. Double fucking standards.

  Most of all, I’m beyond fucking sick of my fucking hormones telling me it’s totally okay to throw all my plans out the goddamn window. That it’s okay to climb into his lap and spill all my secrets, because shocker, they’re all fucking hot.

  It’s not fair. I march through the woods until the ground starts to shake beneath my feet.

  “Whoa,” I mumble, reaching my hands out to grip a tree close by. “Shit!” I scream, and sprint through the trees towards my house. The ground is shaking underneath me and I barely manage to dodge a tree as it falls into my path.

  I manage to make it into the clearing of my home as I fall to the ground. “Fuck!” I grit, pushing myself up off the ground and sprinting the final ten yards into my house. “I really wish I had my cat,” I mumble to myself as I collapse into the doorway just as the ground stops moving.

  “It’s starting,” I hear Daniel say overhead.

  “It started a long time ago; it’s just amping up again,” I grumble.

  “You’re running out of time,” Mel says in a soothing tone that does not match the severity of what is going to happen if I don’t start changing things.

  “Basically, we’re fucked,” I grumble.

  “You might have to tell them,” Johnathan says. “Everything,” he adds.

  “I don’t have to tell them shit,” I argue, pushing myself up off the ground to assess the damage of my home.

  Everything is broken; there are lamps on the ground, tables overturned. Nothing that was once in a kitchen cabinet remains in them. Panic sets in, and I bolt to the potions closet, throwing open the door and promptly taking a deep soothing breath when I see the protection spell that covers the room also works for earthquakes. I sigh, leaning against the door frame and sinking to the ground.
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  “Wanna open up?” I hear a deep voice call from outside. I push up off the floor, feeling my eyebrows pinch together in confusion as I walk towards the front door. I push the door open, stepping outside and see Arius standing just outside the barrier.

  “Your friends tell you where to find me?” I call, motioning to the vampire bats relentlessly flying around the sky.

  “Nope, a little birdie told me,” he calls back. I turn and narrow my eyes at Johnathan but he just ruffles his feathers, letting me know it wasn't him. “I can smell you.”

  “I can’t smell that bad, I recently showered,” I retort, knowing full well that isn’t what he means.

  “Seems I get a drop of your blood on my tongue and it does things to me. One of those things being the ability to track a specific bloodline from miles away. Yours just happens to be the one I want to track.”

  “And you want me to just open up and let you in?” I ask.

  “I said please,” he calls, raising his hand to just slightly ghost across the barrier.

  “Actually, you didn’t.”

  “Please let me in? I just want to know you’re okay.”

  “I’m okay,” I say, taking a few more steps into the yard, closing the distance between us.

  I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen letting him in? I really shouldn’t ask myself questions like that. Even worse than asking myself stupid questions is when I let my hormones make stupid decisions for me. Right now those hormones are pulling me towards the barrier. Causing me to lift my hand, call to my lightning, and mumble a small incantation that opens a doorway. Those hormones allow him to take my hands in his, and those hormones make me stand perfectly still as he looks over every inch of my body.

  “How did you get here so fast?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “I flew.”

  “Thought you were hungover.”

  To that he smiles, moving his hand slowly up my arm and then wrapping it behind my back and pulling me close to him. “I’m fucking miserable.”

  “Good,” I reply, but it comes out lacking any conviction.

  “You’re dirty.”

  My mouth pops open before I realize he probably means the dirt covering my knees and hands from falling on my ass in the fucking woods.

  “Come on,” he says, pulling on my hand and walking towards the house. I pass through the front door and he walks in behind me.

  “What, don’t need an invitation?” I mock.

  He laughs. “Hate to break it to you, Babe, but that only counts when you’re dealing with a dwelling where a being with a soul lives. Looks like you don’t have one,” he says tapping his finger against my chest.

  “Sure I do, it’s just tainted black.”

  “I’m sure it is. Where’s the bath?” he asks.

  “We are not bathing together,” I say firmly as I cross my arms over my chest and take a step back from him.

  “As much as that does sound like something that needs to be on my to-do list, I was just planning on making you a bath. Letting you relax, you’re a bit tense.”

  “I’m also not leaving you unsupervised to roam around my house.”

  “Why not? Got secrets?”

  “Don’t we all,” I counter.

  “Indeed we do. But you also have a bat, a crow, and an owl; all of which, I think would let you know if I got into anything I shouldn’t. Plus I suspect all the good things are already charmed to where I can’t get them. You know it wouldn’t kill you to trust someone every once in a while,” he says.

  “Says the vampire that insisted like two days ago that he doesn’t work with witches. Why the sudden change of heart?” I muse.

  Arius leans down, gripping my waist in his hands and pulling me into his chest. His tongue darts out to lightly lick up my neck and he whispers in my ear. “Blood changes a lot of things, Babe.”

  “Clearly,” I say in a husky whisper. “Bathroom’s through there.” I pull back, raising my hand to point out the master bedroom and bathroom. Arius smirks then turns around and stalks towards my bedroom. I hear the water turn on, and I slump against the back of the couch for support as my knees wobble.

  Stupid hormones, such a disadvantage.

  “All set,” Arius says.

  I turn and see him leaning against the door frame. I push off the couch and walk over to him, he tracks my every movement with his eyes as I pass him.

  “You’re not staying,” I tell him as I watch him bite down on his lip.

  “I’ll be right out here.” He motions to the living room.

  “Why are you doing this?” I ask, turning to face him and crossing my arms. Once again calling back my defenses, layering my bricks one by one to create a wall between us. A wall that I greatly need.

  “Why shouldn’t I?”

  “You’re supposed to hate me,” I counter.

  “Thought we’re meant to work together,” he says, crossing his arms and mimicking my stance.

  “Yeah but we’re not supposed to want to work together, or want… anything else,” I huff.

  He steps closer to me. “Something else you want, Babe?” he presses.

  I tilt my chin to look up at him. “Just a hot bath.”

  He smirks. “Then by all means.” he motions towards the bathroom. “It’s all ready for you.”

  I turn and walk into the bathroom closing the door behind me and enchanting a lock in place before stripping out of my now-dirty pajamas and stepping into the steaming hot water. I sink down into the tub, letting the water heat up my skin and color it a bright shade of red. Leaning back against the tub I close my eyes and know in my head leaving a vampire in my home unattended is a horrible idea. But my heart is warring to change my mind.

  But you shouldn’t try to count on your heart for its opinion, it will always lead you into an abyss of broken dreams and empty promises. All stories have an ending, don’t fool yourself into thinking they’ll all be happy. Truth is, they rarely are; most of the time ,your fairytale doesn’t include a knight in shining armor. The best you can hope to get is a life filled with mediocrity, and dying a less-than-painful death. The dreams you had as a small child are better suited for the storybooks. Don’t fool yourself into thinking happily ever after’s exist. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Arius

  I walk through Tanda’s cabin, picking up the turned over tables and sweeping up broken lamps. Moving into the kitchen, the bat and crow follow me overhead. I start putting the unbroken vials into the cabinet; I move to wipe up the spilled herbs when I hear a deep voice behind me.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you,” I turn suddenly but only see the large bat perched on the counter. I shake my head and turn back towards the spilled herbs; when I touch them with my hand, I instantly pull back from the sting.

  “Fuck,” I hiss.

  “I tried to warn you.”

  “Who said that?” I grit, turning around to see the still-empty house.

  “Are you truly that dense?” the bat says, and I blink a few times before shaking my head.

  “I should have guessed,” I chuckle.

  “You really should have,” he says, his tone lacking any humor.

  “She gave you all voices, didn’t she?” I ask.

  “Of course she did, and you are an idiot. That is Vervain.” He tips his head towards the pile of herbs.

  “Vervain doesn’t burn,” I counter.

  “You would do wise to remember where you are; nothing in a Morass cabinet is as it seems.”

  “He’s right,” I hear Tanda call from across the room. I turn and look at her, the sight nearly bringing me to my fucking knees. She’s wrapped in nothing but the world’s smallest towel, and she’s dripping wet. I really want to make her wetter.

  “I’ll remember that next time,” I tell her, reaching back to grip the counter to prevent myself from falling.

  “What makes you so sure there will be a next time?” she asks, as she pull
s the towel from her body and I bite my lip just waiting to see… anything.

  Until she conjures up another pair of pajamas and I groan letting my head fall back and hearing her laugh from across the room. “Witches,” I grumble.

  “So, vampire, why are you here?” she asks.

  I look at her and watch as she waves her hand, mumbling something and snapping her fingers. Everything in the room that is on the floor and broken starts to stitch back together, propping up to fall into its proper place. She creates a fireball and tosses it into the fireplace and then moves to sit on a blanket in front of the fire.

  “Well, witch, I already told you,” I say, moving over to sit on the large couch.

  “Yes, but I don’t believe you.”

  I laugh, shaking my head. “Of course you don’t.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she huffs.

  “You have trust issues,” I deadpan.

  “I think we all have trust issues; it’s in our nature.”

  “True, but you have it bad, babe. Who do you have, honestly, that you can trust?”

  “I have a cat, a bat, a crow, and an owl,” she counters, and I just stare at her, waiting for the punchline that has to follow that because she is joking. Has to be fucking joking.

  “You’re serious,” I state when she doesn’t burst into laughter. She glares at me, narrowing her eyes and once again crossing her arms over her chest. “Oh Hell,” I huff. “Babe, that isn’t the same as having someone to trust. A person to talk to, someone you don’t have to spell to give a voice so they can talk back.”

  She glances away from my gaze, and I take a moment to study her. Her heart is beating faster, her wet hair is dripping, soaking into her clothing and dripping to the ground.

  “Well, who do you all have?” she argues.

  “For starters, Ernesh has his Grandfather; I don’t think he talks to his parents much but I know he’s always been close to his Grandfather. Kalayavan is tight with his mom. He doesn’t see her much because after his dad turned over his council seat they went back to Hell, but I’m pretty sure he goes back there a few times a year. Dearil used to have his parents, but they died; I don’t think he has anyone now and it shows. Ajal’s had a mate for a few years, territory set up, like an arranged marriage. I don’t know how much they truly trust one another but they’re close enough that it counts as having someone. Javayara doesn’t really have anyone, and he’s a grumpy fucker because of it.”