With her body pressed against Desmond’s, she felt the slight adrenaline rush she’d felt while arguing with him dissipate. She felt as though their powers were mingling, felt the calming presence of his energy flowing through her in a steady current. Yet in that current, she still detected the slightest hint of jealousy concerning her night with Luke. She ignored it, however, chalked it up to wishful thinking.
“I hate to bring him up again,” she said softly. “But Luke has my motorcycle, and I need it back.”
“I will get you another motorcycle if that is how you chose to travel.”
“Well, I can’t afford a car. Besides, I love the freedom of riding,” she said and envisioned herself on an open road, the wind in her face, the sun shining.
“A motorcycle it is, then,” he agreed. “In the meantime, stay close to home. I will stay close, as well. I can be with you every moment your mother is not around. It will give us time to work on breathing and relaxation techniques that will help you channel your powers more responsibly.”
The news that she’d be spending more time with Desmond was the best new she’d received in quite some time.
“Okay,” she said. “But what about Howard Kane?”
The mention of Howard Kane clouded Desmond’s glorious features. “He is close, and you will face him soon. That is why we need to ready you,” he said firmly.
His words suggested she would be preparing for battle, a battle she would be fighting alone. Her heart sank to her stomach and she let go of Desmond.
Sensing her reaction, he pulled her closer. “You will not be alone against Kane,” he said. “He wants us all dead. We will help you as much as we can. Ultimately, though, you will be the one to kill him.”
Arianna squeezed her eyes shut and refused to acknowledge what he had just said. Instead, she focused on the even beat of his heart.
“It is time to return,” he whispered. And with his words, the flowery meadow began to evaporate. Light filled her field of vision, brilliant white light. Desmond and his warmth surrounded her once again, covering her body with wisps of awareness, light and feathery.
Chapter 14
Howard Kane directed his large Chevy Suburban into the Shady Pines Trailer Park in Herald Falls, New York. Though it was daylight, thick fog smothered everything in its wake. Each trailer appeared haunted, crawling with ghostly curdled shapes that dove and lunged at every turn. He found it fitting that the Sola should live in such a sinister looking community.
He parked his car just outside a smaller unit near the end of the long lane, and saw that a rusted Toyota Camry occupied the space right in front of it. He turned the headlamps off, as well as the ignition, and spoke to the men with him.
“This is her lair, gentlemen,” he said.
“Are you sure she isn’t here?” the man beside him, Eli, asked.
Eli had sounded worried, frightened by the prospect of a possible run-in with the Sola. Fear among his followers did not inspire much confidence in Howard. Fear made them potential liabilities. He would be sure to keep a close eye on Eli in the coming days.
“Yes,” Howard replied and leveled his gaze at Eli. “John Pawley confirmed that she is at school. He called about ten minutes ago. You have nothing to worry about.”
Eli raised a brow at him, “I’m not worried,” he said, but his eyes told another story. “I just want things to go smoothly, that’s all.”
Howard could tell that the man had lied to him, that Eli was feigning calm he did not feel.
“Good, Eli,” Howard said plainly. “We fight with righteousness on our side; there is nothing to fear when God is on your side. Fear when fighting alongside the Lord would mean your faith has wavered. Has your faith wavered, Eli?”
“No, no of course not,” Eli replied quickly.
“Good. That’s good, because I need you in top form in the hours forthcoming.”
Howard did not say more on the topic. Rather, he climbed out of his SUV and strode to Arianna Rose’s front door. He turned the doorknob and, to his surprise, the door had not been locked. Given the seediness of the trailer park, most others would have found more security precautions necessary. But no other was the Sola, only Arianna Rose.
He opened the door slowly and peeked inside. The faint light of a side table lamp illuminated the area before them, a crowded area with a couch and coffee table. No one appeared to be in the living-room area. He turned to his men who’d followed and nodded before proceeding to enter the trailer.
Once inside, he was immediately greeted with the sour smell of liquor and nicotine. Both familiar scents from his youth, the stench reminded him of his childhood home he’d shared with his mother, before he’d killed her. He glanced around and saw that an empty bottle of Scotch sat atop the far edge of the coffee table, along with fast-food wrappers. His eyes quickly scanned the kitchen area and hallway. He did not see anyone and was about to address him men when the sound of panting and moaning filled the trailer.
Howard felt a small jolt pass through him and his knees buckled involuntarily. The moaning, the stink of alcohol, cigarettes and cheap cologne transported him back in time. For an instant, he was eight years old, his father dead and he alone with his mother. A different man had shared his mother’s bed each night of the week, and they had drunk and smoked a bevy of vile substances before retiring to her bedroom, and that had been when the panting would begin.
The overwhelming urge to march down the narrow hallway before him and kill the two fornicators snapped Howard back to the present. He balled his fists at his side so tightly his fingernails bit into his palms. He glanced at the faces of the men with him. Their heads had turned toward the sound. Fortunately, none of them had noticed his moment of weakness. His movement toward the moaning alerted them to follow him.
The first door on the right was closed, the sounds of sexual intercourse on the other side of it loud. Howard opened the door and boldly stepped inside, expecting some sort of reaction. But he did not get one. The moaning did not stop. The carnal display before him was grotesque. A pale man with dark body hair thrust his pelvis from behind a blonde woman like a barnyard animal, one hand gripping her breast while the other bounced and flopped as he did so. Both the man and the woman had been so consumed by passion that they hadn’t noticed that four men had entered the room.
He stood, stunned, momentarily as they brazenly continued with their depraved act. Another shock bolted through him as it had moments ago and weakened his knees once more. A vision of his mother being ravaged by a greasy-looking man with long hair flashed through his mind’s eye. The man had knelt behind his mother, thrusting, and clutching her breast, just as the one before him did now. His insides began to quiver and sweat beaded his forehead as anger mounted inside of him.
Silently, he unsheathed his blade from his waistband and crept up behind the man. He swung it in a wide arc and slashed at the side of the man’s throat. Blood spurted out immediately. He’d hit the man’s jugular vein. The man cried out and held his neck then flopped to his side, disengaged from the woman’s body. A bright-red pool expanded around him and the shrill scream of the woman tore through the room. The woman spun and faced them.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” she cried again and again, and the irony of her pleas did little to calm Howard.
“Shh! Shh!” he shushed her. “Stop screaming. Please, stop screaming.”
His voice had obviously calmed her as he’d hoped it would as her wailing ceased. She reached for the covering on her bed and attempted to cover herself, suddenly modest after a room full of men had seen her naked and submitting to immoral behavior.
“Please just take whatever you want. I’ll do anything you want, Just please don’t kill me,” she said in a trembling voice.
With her hair in a state of disarray, her blue makeup smudged around her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, and her face the epitome of terror, Howard almost felt bad for her. But pity was an emotion he reserved only for those deserving of his g
races, for the just. And the woman before him was anything but just.
“You have only one thing I want,” Howard said calmly. “And you are going to help me get her.”
The woman looked at him confusedly before a nod to his men ordered them to descend on her. One held her arms while another grabbed her feet. Eli approached with a syringe.
“Please!” the woman begged. “Please don’t kill me!”
Neither Howard nor any of his men flinched at her entreats. Eli jabbed the needle into the woman’s buttock. She blurted out a few incoherent sentences; her voice slurred by the powerful sedative they’d administered then fell to the bed.
“Put her in the truck,” Howard ordered his men.
Three of the four men obeyed, but one paused. Eli hesitated and turned to Howard.
“This is the woman who bore the Sola? This is Arianna Rose’s mother?”
“Yes, Eli. I told you we were coming here for her,” Howard said, impatience creeping into his tone.
“How does she help us kill the Sola, though? The Sola is so powerful, so evil. What makes you think her mother will give us any leverage?”
Anger edged its way into Howard’s already changeable mood. Eli was questioning him. He wondered who exactly Eli thought he was. Eli had not heard the voice of God. Only Howard had.
“I have a plan, Eli,” Howard hissed. “God’s plan. Do you question God’s plan? It sounds to me like you are.”
“No, no, Brother Howard. I would never,” Eli fumbled but was interrupted by the sound of Howard’s booming voice.
“God does not speak through you, Eli. He speaks through me! How dare you question my plan, God’s plan? Were it not for your father, I’d strike you down here and now!”
Eli did not respond or bristle at Howard’s words. He knew better.
“Now, get here out of here so that we can move things along. Make no mistake about it, we will not fail. Evil will not rule this world. Arianna Rose will burn at the stake as God intends.”
Eli would not meet Howard’s weighty gaze. Instead, he kept his head bowed, eyes lowered and assisted the other two men as they covered Arianna’s mother in a sheet from the bed. Once she’d been covered, they hauled her to the truck parked behind Howard’s.
Howard stayed behind after the others had left, breathing the air Arianna breathed, feeling her presence all around him. He knew he would triumph, that her remaining days were numbered. His assurance came in the form of a very special, very sacred article he had in his possession. Iron shackles used in the various witch trials during the 1600s had been passed down to him through his ancestors. Blessed by a Puritan priest, the manacles had been designed to restrain the most powerful witch; they’d been designed to restrain the Sola.
A thrill of excitement raced down Howard’s spine, the Sola’s death so close at hand. In the cuffs his kin had created, Arianna would be unable to move her hands and enact her powers; she would be powerless to conjure evil. He smiled at the thought of her being rendered powerless then took a final look around her sad little trailer. In less than a day, the world would be absolved of her vile existence. Arianna Rose would be denied her chance to destroy humanity.
Chapter 15
Without warning, Arianna stood before her trailer, home again. The golden light she’d enjoyed had weakened until it had dulled to a pale gray. Mist bled from fleshy clouds that crowded the sky. The world around her had faded to a sickly version of the one she’d just visited. But to her surprise, not everything had disappeared. Desmond remained, surrounding her with his warmth. In the past, he had faded along with the magical field they’d stood in. But this time he hadn’t. And she was grateful for his presence.
Wrapped in his arms, she felt calm, safe. Desmond was the only person who truly understood her. All her life, she’d never had a true place among any group she’d ever been a part of, and those had been few and far between. Most of the time, she’d been alone. Moving from town to town, whether it had been of Desmond’s doing or not, had not helped matters. But encircled in Desmond’s sturdy arms, for the first time ever, Arianna felt like she was home.
She rested her cheek against his solid chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart, feeling his energy waft through her with every pulse. She did not want to let go, wished they could stay as they were forever. She breathed in his scent. He smelled of leather and spicy aftershave, masculine. Warmth spread throughout her and lingered low in her belly, need twisting inside of her.
Suddenly aware of their close proximity and the effect it was having on her, Arianna allowed her arms to drop from his waist and stepped back. Heat crept up her neck and flushed her cheeks, embarrassment at her overwhelming attraction to him.
As if he intuited her desire for him, Desmond hesitated for a moment and did not release her from his hold. When finally he did, Arianna felt breathless, but knew she needed to say something.
“I guess I should go inside now and sleep for like, the next twelve hours or something,” she said and immediately cringed at how silly she’d sounded, how juvenile.
“Good, you need your rest,” he replied. “I’ll be back in the morning. When I return, we need to decide what to. But one thing is for sure: you cannot go back to that school.”
“That’s for sure,” Arianna agreed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She smiled at Desmond involuntarily, unable to hide her eagerness at seeing him in less than twenty-four hours. She had no idea where he went when he left her, whether he ate or slept, or had a wife or girlfriend. The thought of him leaving her and resuming some sort of warlock domestic setup with a woman as gorgeous as he spurred a spark of jealousy through her blood and straight to her heart. She knew feelings of jealousy were as irrational as they were dangerous, but she’d had no control over it.
“I need to go visit a fellow warlock in a nearby town and see if coven formations have begun; all business, you know? It’s not like I have anyone waiting for me, though,” he said and she swore he’d read her mind. “I’ll be back shortly after the sun rises. I promise. In the meantime, try to stay out of trouble, okay?”
Arianna rolled her eyes exaggeratedly then said, “Okay, fine, if you insist.”
Desmond smiled at her, his face serene and angelic. His coloring and overall appearance was Nordic, but the energy he radiated was otherworldly, divine.
“I do insist,” he said and the corners of his mouth faltered. “Stay safe Arianna. We need you in one piece. I need you.”
His words had caught her off guard. He needed her. He’d said it himself. But in what capacity? She wondered. Did he need her powers, her leadership, or was it something more?
“I’ll do my best,” she said and wanted to ask every question as it popped into her head. She lowered her eyes, instead, afraid of the answers she might hear had she dared ask.
When she lifted her eyes, Desmond was gone.
“What the hell?” she said to no one. “Good-bye to you, too, Desmond.”
Alone and suddenly chilled to her bones despite the abnormal warmth of the mid-November day, she wrapped her arms around her waist and walked toward her trailer. A quick glance at the parking spot in front of her porch revealed that her mother was home. The pathetic Toyota her mom had driven for as long as she could remember waited there, rusted and looking as though it would collapse under the weight of the thick fog.
Arianna was not in the mood to answer what promised to be an unending battery of questions from her mother about why she was home from school so early. She leaned against the railing that she’d formerly tethered her motorcycle to and fished around inside her bag for her pack of cigarettes. When finally she found it, she slipped a slender cylinder from it, placed it between her lips and lit it. She inhaled deeply and the nicotine entered her system immediately. Moderately relaxed and a little lightheaded, the morning replayed in her mind. After her skirmish with Cheryl and Preppy-boy, Luke had grabbed her. The way he’d looked at her had winded her as though she’d been punched
in gut. He’d narrowed his eyes at her, his face stricken, disgusted by her. He knew what she was now, and wanted nothing to do with her. She did not blame him. But not blaming him did little to ease the disappointment she’d felt, the shame. And while she was not happy about either dropping out of high school in her senior year or being forced to transfer to yet another district, she was relieved she would not have to see Cheryl, Preppy-boy or any of Luke’s friends any time soon. She would not be forced to endure the judgmental stares, the intentional snubs or the looks of disapproval. And she would not have to see Luke.
Luke. She did not want to think of him, did not want to address the gravity of what had happened between them, yet he had crept into her mind again, no longer welcome, uninvited. She extinguished thoughts of him, along with her cigarette, and braced herself for her mother’s illogical wrath. Arianna hoped her mother’s overnight guest had gone home. She doubted she could withstand another awkward introduction. She had experienced many in the course of her lifetime and wanted to avoid more than she absolutely had to.
Arianna sighed loudly then turned the handle of the front door. As usual, the front door was unlocked.
“Mom! Hey Mom! You know, you really ought to start locking the front door. Any weirdo could just let himself in,” she called out then mumbled under her breath, “Or you’ll just bring him home from the bar to spend the night.”
She walked into the trailer and dropped her bag on the floor just inside the doorway. She looked around and didn’t see her mother, but did see that the living room was in a state of disarray. An empty liquor bottle sat unapologetically on the side table next to the couch and fast-food wrappers were strewn on the coffee table.
“Way to clean up, Mom!” Arianna called. Her mother did not answer so she called out again. “Mom, I know you’re here your car is outside!” she said then it occurred to her that maybe her mother’s new friend had arrived in his own car and that they might be out together.
Planet Urth Boxed Set Page 40
