by Raven Steele
My legs weakened, and I slouched onto my bed. I’d never met my grandfather. Why would someone I didn’t even know want me dead?
He stepped in front of me. “You need to come with me. It’s your only chance to survive.”
“Where would we go?”
“Just pack a few things and get dressed. Be ready in five minutes,” he said and left the room.
I sat there, stunned. Leave?
For a full minute, I didn’t move, but after the initial shock, a new thought revealed itself like a shiny new gift. I didn’t have to stay here anymore. I didn’t have to see my parents ever again. I was free. If they wanted me dead, surely their spell surrounding the property had been broken, but if it wasn't… I thought of Boaz. He would protect me. He would stand up to them just like he had earlier. I hoped, anyway. He seemed to have a genuine interest me. For what purpose, only time would tell.
I packed quickly, my mind processing different scenarios. I could leave with Boaz and possibly talk him into giving me some money. Maybe he would even drop me off at the bus station. And if he wouldn’t do any of those things, maybe he would let me work for him doing… what, exactly? I knew nothing about him.
I pulled on my favorite jeans. I could figure it out later. At least I never had to see my parents again. And I would be alive, thanks to Boaz. But why was he helping me? I would have to be extra careful around him.
I was just pulling a sweater over my head when I heard, “You are a work of art.”
I jumped and turned around. Boaz sat in the corner on a small chair, hidden within the shadows. Somehow, he had snuck back into the room, and my face reddened, wondering how much he had seen.
Swallowing hard, I said, “I’m ready.”
“Good. The diablos are growing in numbers even as we speak.”
“How do you know?”
“I can sense it, and so can you.”
I shook my head. “But I can’t sense anything,”
Boaz appeared behind me, as fluid as water from a tap.
“Close your eyes, love,” he breathed into my ear. The breath from his lips warmed the skin on my neck, making me feel lightheaded. One arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me into him, and the other moved slowly to the side of my neck, where his fingers rubbed up to my earlobe and back down to my collarbone. I almost moaned in pleasure.
“Focus on the diablo," he said, "the one who tried to take your life. Picture what a vile creature he was, and how he deserved to die.”
A murky fog clouded my rational mind, and I obeyed. I thought back to the diablo in the woods as it had approached me with malice on its face. I remembered how Boaz had slammed into him, killing him within seconds. I was glad he was dead. He deserved it.
I inhaled deeply, letting hate for the diablo fill my being. The smell in the room changed to that of rotten flesh, but I didn’t waiver. I pushed my consciousness to the forest beyond and searched for the rotting creatures. Not far away, I found them moving sporadically in jagged, circular motions. There was no order to their movements, yet their graceless march slowly moved closer to the house. There must’ve been at least fifty.
I let out my breath and opened my eyes. The room was darker than I remembered, and the colors were dull, as if I’d entered a whole new world.
“There are so many of them,” I whispered, flinching at my new surroundings.
Boaz removed his hand from my collarbone. “I knew you would see them.”
“Why is the room so dark?” I asked.
“It’s the reflection of true power. Get used to it.”
“I don’t like it.”
Boaz spun me around. “Right now, I don’t care what you like. I need you to be strong to get out of here. You’re going to have to fight.” He took my hand and pulled me from the room, grabbing my bag as we went.
Fight? I’d never fought anything before, not physically, anyway.
Boaz’s pace was so fast I barely managed to keep my footing. “But aren’t you strong enough?”
“Not like you.” He continued to pull me down the long steps to the foyer. My wrist ached from his tight grip.
“Please stop, Boaz. I don’t want to do this!”
He didn’t slow down. “Look outside, Eve. The sun is out. I’ve already taken something that will protect me, but it won’t last long, and I won’t be at my full strength. I can’t fight them alone. At least help me to save your life.”
I tried to resist his grip, but he was too strong. He jerked me through the front doors and recoiled when the light from the morning sun touched his skin. He lowered his head and continued to drag me toward a black car parked in the circular driveway.
Boaz opened the passenger door and tossed my bag in the back. “Get in.”
I hesitated a moment before I slid into the passenger seat. I wanted to leave this place more than anything, but I was terrified to fight those creatures. The only way I could do it was if I used magic.
Boaz rounded the car and jumped into the driver’s seat.
“I can’t do this, Boaz.”
“Do what?” he said, bringing the car to life.
“Use magic. I won’t do it.” I didn’t want to smell that horrible smell or watch the world go dark again. By now it had mostly returned to normal.
“You’d rather they kill you? Kill us?”
I glanced around frantically. “Can’t we go another way, around them maybe?”
Boaz clenched his teeth. “It doesn’t matter where we go. They will find you. You must fight them now. They must see your power, or they will always hunt you.”
Tears sprung to my eyes. I rubbed the heel of my palm onto my chest as if I could stop it from tightening. “I can’t do it!”
Without warning, Boaz grabbed me behind the neck and pulled me toward him. His lips crushed mine, and his tongue forced my mouth open. An uncontrollable rage swelled inside me until all I could do was force the power outward. The side windows of the car shattered into a thousand pieces.
Boaz released me. “That’s more like it.”
He stepped on the accelerator, propelling the car forward.
I gripped the side of the door, knuckles white, and struggled to breathe. The world had darkened again, and a bitter, rotten smell stung the inside of my nose. A dark magical power, more than I could contain, bled from me as an invisible force, turning the trees black the moment my gaze touched them. I closed my eyes and sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to go back to an emotionless state. Some of the anger left but not much.
Air blew in from the glassless windows, whipping the hair around my face. I opened my eyes. Boaz was looking straight ahead with grim determination, yet he was smiling as if he knew something I didn’t.
He careened the next corner, the back wheels of the car skidding out of control. He quickly turned the steering wheel the opposite direction, forcing the car back on the road.
“They’re up ahead,” I said, sensing the presence of many diablos.
“I will try to get through them, but if they attack us, you must fight to kill.”
My stomach sank to a place it wasn’t meant to be, and it was all I could do to keep from vomiting. “I can’t kill!"
“This is to save your life! These demons will not take pity on you.”
Fear replaced my anger, and I half-considered jumping from the speeding car to run away, all the while knowing I would only make it so far before the diablos caught up to me. If I began killing, no matter the monster, wouldn't that make me like my parents?
“Hold on!” Boaz said.
Up ahead, the diablos blocked the road. Most of them appeared corpse-like, but a few still looked human. They had hair, patchy as it was, and a touch of bronze to their skin. For the first time, they all stood eerily still with their backs hunched over, hands clenched tight.
Boaz pressed on the accelerator, attempting to push through their blockade. The first few we hit bounced off the car with a sickening thud, but then we crashed into one that didn’t bu
dge. The back end of the car lifted off the ground, throwing my head forward. Before I could react, Boaz was out the door, fighting the nearest diablos.
I fumbled with the door, my fingers searching for the lock. My only thought was to keep them out, and me safely inside, an irrational idea considering I just blew out all the windows.
To my left, Boaz attempted to lure the monsters into the shade, but they seemed to deliberately keep him in the open, beneath the glare of the sun.
I should help him. After all, he had helped save me.
Dark magic still hummed inside me, vibrating just below the surface of my skin. I felt fairly confident it was powerful enough to make a dent in the diablos’ numbers, at least enough for us to get away. But I was afraid if I used magic at that magnitude, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I’d seen firsthand how addictive it could be, my parents a perfect example.
Metal twisting groaned behind me, making me swivel around in my seat, my pulse racing. An emaciated-looking diablo was tearing at the back of the car, stretching the windowless back open more. When there was a gaping, jagged hole, he climbed inside, the joints of his elbows bending backwards.
I desperately tried to unlock the door, but my hands were slippery with perspiration and kept slipping from the handle. “No, no, no.”
I punched at the car and cursed it. With my erratic heartbeat and flustered thoughts, I couldn’t concentrate long enough to direct my magic, but I sure felt it bouncing inside me like an uncontrollable bullet.
Before long, jagged-nailed fingers clamped down on the back of my head. I burst free from the car, gasping for air and had barely managed to get upright before I was surrounded by several of the gray demons, their long and thin arms stretched toward me.
“Kill them!” Boaz shouted.
I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes, and backed against the car. This can't be happening!
One of the diablos lunged for me and I raised my arm in defense. My fear, laced with anger, was so great that the power inside me broke free and struck the diablo. It flew back several feet as if shocked with electricity. I stared at my hands, surprised and frightened by my own strength.
A hand fisted my hair and jerked my head back, smashing it into the top of the door. The diablo who had crawled inside the car. He tried again, but I dropped to the ground.
“Eve,” Boaz yelled. “Get up!”
Before I could, a child-sized diablo scurried toward me and crawled up my legs. I tried to kick it off, but it was as if the demon had suction cups. Screaming, I swatted at it, but it continued upward until it reached my chest where it decided to sit and watch me with wide eyes, almost as if it didn’t know what to do next.
“Kill it,” Boaz shouted. He was at the front of the car, trying to make his way toward me, but there were too many diablos blocking his path. He took hold of a tall one’s arm and tossed him into several others, knocking them down.
From behind me, a heavy-set diablo with scraggly black hair crept toward my head. I tried to slide away, but the child-monster was still sitting on my chest and immoveable. I struck at it and screamed, but my cry was cut short when Scraggly-head shoved a cold finger down my throat, making me gag. It was more than I could take.
Power, dark and cruel, surged to my eyes, and the moment I met the gaze of the diablo, whose finger I currently held between my teeth, its body withered into itself until all that remained was a pile of snake-like skin. I turned my attention to the demon on my chest. With the same venomous look, I shocked it off me.
I scrambled to my feet, greeted by a new, darker world, only to be surrounded again. I glanced at Boaz in time to witness him snapping the necks of two of them. His momentum spurred me on. With a flick of my wrist, I removed the head of the fattest one in the group. It dropped to the ground like a fallen coconut. I quickly did the same to many of the others. Whatever way I imagined their death, my magic made it happen.
The remaining diablos hesitated before coming near me again. Their bodies twitched and jerked, and they looked to one another as if waiting for a command.
But I didn’t wait. I attacked.
Chapter 8
Anger and fear, mixed with adrenaline, forced me onward until I could no longer control myself. One after another, I crushed their bodies, turning them to ash and smoke and filling the air with smells of ammonia and mold. Or maybe it was my dark magic that was causing the horrendous smell.
I would’ve killed more, but I froze when a chill raced up my spine. I had felt this sensation many times before under the accusing eyes of Erik and Sable. I spun around, searching for them in the woods.
Boaz, who had managed to destroy the diablos around him, stood erect, watching me keenly. I wanted to glare at him, but wanted to find Erik and Sable more. Why were they here?
Everything felt wrong about what just happened. Boaz. My parents. But most of all, me. Never in my life had I used such power. If my body wasn’t still humming with magic, I would’ve collapsed to the ground, disgusted by what I had just done.
Unable to locate my parents, I returned to the car without saying a word to Boaz. I needed time to think. The few remaining diablos slowly moved back into the forest, no longer interested in me.
Boaz dropped into the driver’s seat and wrapped his hands around the leather steering wheel. “You did well.”
“Can we just go?” The last thing I wanted to do was talk. As it was, I was having a hard enough time calming down. My entire body stung as if a thousand needles pricked my skin, and I was afraid one wrong word would send me out of control again.
Boaz seemed to sense my predicament and kept his mouth shut.
We drove for several hours through upper New York’s rural country. At one point, I thought we may have crossed over into Vermont, but I’d seen no signs to confirm my suspicions.
The clouds above had grown thick until a light snowfall burst from their seams. Cold air blew through all the broken windows, freezing my skin, but I refused to complain. Boaz must have seen the goose bumps on my arms, because he reached behind his seat and grabbed a jacket. When I wouldn’t accept it, he dropped it into my lap without a word.
By the time we reached our destination, which ended in the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire, I’d managed to rid myself of a lot of the anger. Mostly confusion and doubt remained.
Boaz’s home wasn’t as large as the one I’d come from, but was still huge and set far away from any neighbors, a common thing in the supernatural world. The outside was all gray stone with tall wooden beams in the front, matching two massive cedar front doors. Hunwald was perched out front, looking more like a gargoyle statue than a wolf. I couldn’t fathom how he got here before us.
I exited the car and took a step forward but stopped. What was I doing? This wasn’t my plan.
When Boaz’s hand touched the small of my back, I jumped.
“Your new home awaits,” he said.
“This isn’t mine.”
“Would you like me to take you back then?”
“Of course not.”
“Then where will you go?”
I looked past his shoulder toward an endless forest. I had no one else to turn to. No money. No friends.
“Stay with me for a few days,” he said. “Give yourself some time to rest and to come up with a plan. Then I’ll take you wherever you want to go. It’s your choice.”
I inhaled a big breath. A few days should be plenty. In fact, it was probably more time than I should spend with Boaz who seemed to share my parents’ obsession for power.
“Why were my parents in the woods?” I blurted.
“What do you mean?”
“Earlier with the diablos. They were there watching us.”
“That’s impossible, love. They left hours before we did.”
“First of all, stop calling me love. Secondly, they were there. I felt them.”
“Eve,” he emphasized. “A lot was happening. I’m sure you confused it with something else.”
/> “I don’t think so,” I said, but frowned.
A lot had happened, and fast, too. Maybe something else had been in the forest with us. Another witch, perhaps? All I knew for sure was that I still felt horrible with hate only a thought away. It had left patches of darkness in my mind like hot embers of an extinguished fire.
“You’ve had a terrible ordeal,” Boaz said, crossing the threshold into his home. “Let’s get you something to eat and a place to rest.”
I hesitated briefly before following. Only a couple of days. It would all be over before I knew it.
Boaz opened the doors into a grand foyer that was as wide as it was tall. I stepped inside, my insides trembling. A gust of cool air rushed by me, and I rubbed my arms, trying hard not to think about how hours earlier I had been killing demons.
“Wait here,” Boaz instructed before disappearing behind a door to his left.
The inside of the home was a sharp contrast from the décor of my parents’. It was more rustic and, I struggled to find the right word, cruel. It was the first word that popped into my head, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. It’s not as though the oil paintings of various night landscapes hanging on the walls screamed, ‘I-want-to-hurt-you’. In fact, they were quite beautiful on their own, but combined with the rest of the home’s decorations, including a silver spiked chandelier just above my head, I didn’t feel safe.
In less than a minute, Boaz returned, followed by a thin woman with graying hair. Her black dress made her complexion appear paler than she really was. When my eyes met hers, she quickly looked down and did not look at me again.
“Eve, this is Mariel. She will be your personal servant while you are here and will get you whatever you need, whenever you want it.”
Mariel nodded vigorously.
“No, really,” I said. “I can take care of myself.” Poor Mariel looked as if one more task might make her collapse.
“I wasn’t asking.”
Before I could argue, Boaz was across the wooden-floored foyer with his hand on another doorknob. “I will return soon. Mariel, feed her whatever she desires.”
