The Next Chance

by Shannon Reber

  So the symptoms I knew about were a dangerously lowered heart rate, blurred vision, and distortion of colors. There were several poisons that had similar symptoms. I wasn’t sure which was most likely.

  There were also drugs that . . . of course that was it! The PSA was a medical facility. They had doctors and scientists who had been trained to mix science and magic. That must be it. It was a drug.

  And a lightbulb went off in my brain. When I’d been researching poisons, I’d been surprised to find that a lot of poisonous plants were used in medication. Their dual purposes all depended on how they were prepared, the other drugs that were used along with them.

  I had actually found that foxglove, a poisonous plant, was used to treat congestive heart failure. I had been fascinated by the implication. It told me that even a poison could be used to save lives.

  I had done my best to apply the idea to my own life. Even the worst parts of my life had helped to turn me into the person I was. And that person was a paranormal investigator who helped to save lives.

  As I thought through all the symptoms, I realized that Sheenan had probably used foxglove as the poison. The only reason I was still alive was simply because the PSA had both doctors and otherworlders who worked together to save lives.

  No one seemed to know what the toxin was that Sheenan had used. Was there a way for me to let them know?

  I looked across the table at Daw and Quinn. They were a dream . . . or was it possible Luken had brought a portion of their souls with me to keep me company? It was a nice idea, although it didn’t seem very likely.

  I laid both my hands flat on the table in front of me and looked hard at my sister. “Quinn, it’s me. I was the one who was shot. The poison is inside me.” I waited, sure that her response would tell me the truth.

  “Yes, Madison. I know.”

  I blinked, turning my eyes on Daw. “Are you guys really here or is this all in my head?” I asked him, not sure which was the more frightening idea.

  The image in front of me flickered, then darkened. I went from the cozy warmth of Quinn’s kitchen to the dark . . . holding area, I suppose it could be called.

  I wasn’t afraid. I probably should be but what was the point? I had already been shot and was living some kind of coma-dream inside my brain.

  The blackness continued on for a few long seconds before a light shone from another figure walking toward me. And peace filled me to the brim. It was Erramun, my guardian angel. Maybe even my friend.

  He walked toward me, his wings furled, his face alight. He looked delighted to see me, although there was a shadow of worry on his face.

  I smiled, pleased to see him despite how strange the situation was. “So it’s been you?” I asked as he stopped in front of me.

  Erramun raised his brows. “The things you have seen have been brought to life by Luken’s power. As far as I know, he uses his ability to read someone’s mind to construct a world where the person feels safe and loved.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He did but he also gave me Dylan. That did NOT make me feel safe.”

  Erramun didn’t respond, he simply stood there and waited.

  My eyes sparkled as I bounced on my tiptoes. “I know what poison Sheenan used. Can you get a message to Quinn or one of the doctors?” I asked, eager to get out of my head and back to my own life.

  Erramun nodded. “I am your guardian, Madison. I can pass a message that will help to save your life.”

  “Okay, it’s foxglove. I’d guess Sheenan has a partner who messed with a medication that’s made from foxglove. Atropine is the antidote I know of. I think they’re already giving me that because it raises your heart rate. I’d say that whoever made the drug probably used magic to keep the antidote from working. If you can find whoever helped him, they would know how to fix it.”

  Erramun turned his eyes down. “Doctor Renat is Sheenan’s partner. Both of them are now missing. No one knows how they escaped their cells. They simply disappeared.”

  My heart sank. I had heard of Doctor Renat. Quinn and Tria had both mentioned him and they had both looked appalled while mentioning him.

  If he was working with Sheenan, there was no telling what kinds of horrors they could bring about. They had both scientific and supernatural knowledge and had already started the demon-apocalypse. Evil was the only way they could be described.

  “Maybe Gabe could help,” I said, thinking everything over as I spoke. “Tell them to up the dose of Atropine and ask Gabe to nix whatever magic is inside me.”

  Erramun raised his brows. “Gabe Sheenan and Samara Stavros have both been taken into custody. They are suspected of being Apostles.”

  I thought about that. Could it be? Sam WAS the one who got me in contact with Bhesaj and Gabe was the one who suggested him in the first place.

  I thought back over all my interactions with them. Sam’s family had been cursed because of a demon’s trick. She knew that. There was no way she would work with a demon to end the world. It was a ridiculous idea.

  I shook my head. “I don’t believe they are. I trust them both,” I stated emphatically, trying to think of any way to help.

  Erramun tipped his chin back in a thoughtful pose. “I am aware that they are both innocent. I am also not required to follow the laws of men when they interfere with my duty. I will free Gabe and bring him to your room. You need to collect your strength. It will not be an easy time.”

  He turned to walk away, yet the light that had come from him didn’t fade. The black space around me remained lit like part of him was still there with me.

  I thought back over all the things I’d dreamed. Emma and Dylan had both been there but it had been so clear that we weren’t as close as we used to be. I had grown up.

  I would always love Emma. I no longer saw her as the perfect angel of my childhood. The truth was, she was selfish and inconsiderate. She was also loyal and loved fiercely.

  We may not have been the friends we were in childhood if she had survived. We would be family, though. I was in love with her brother. She would have mocked us endlessly, though also fought tooth and nail against anyone who said a word against us.

  I missed her more than anything. My new friends were very different than she had been, though they were equally as loyal. I no longer felt like the lonely, lost little girl I had been for so long.

  Because of Emma’s friendship, I had made it through my childhood. Because of my counseling group, I had made it through Emma’s death. And now, because of Ian, I was in the process of making it through my new life.

  It wasn’t just Ian, though. It was Quinn, Imogen, Serena, Spencer, Daw, Dawson, Erkens, it was my new family. I wouldn’t crumble. I was strong because of the support system around me and the strength I had found within myself.

  So yeah. I gathered my strength and prepared for whatever was about to happen. Or that was what I thought, anyway.

  ELEVEN

  The translucent cord of golden-white light led me back to my hospital room. It was such a strange thing to see myself lying half dead in the bed. It was even stranger to see Spencer and Imogen standing in the door, both of them looking at me.

  They weren’t looking at the me in the bed. They looked at the piece of my soul that Luken had been protecting in that holding place. Both of them could see that I was there.

  Spencer moved to the side as someone stepped up from behind him. The sight of Gabe and Spencer standing side by side was odd. A demigod and a guy with phenomenal power. It was similar to staring into the sun with binoculars.

  The fact that Erramun stood behind Gabe with his hand rested on his sword hilt was even more impressive. Imogen glanced at Erramun, her mouth falling open. It was clear she’d never known he’d been there.

  I wondered if Spencer had known. Ian knew. And that brought me up again. Ian. He wasn’t there still. What did that mean?

  Gabe stepped to the side of my bed and looked at the nurse who was injecting something into my IV. “You might want to s
tick around,” he said and laid his hands over my temples.

  Imogen caught my eye and motioned to the me on the bed. “Go. If your soul isn’t in your body when you’re healed, things are going to be a little difficult,” she said, giving me an encouraging smile.

  I nodded to her and turned back to my body. It was an odd feeling as I drifted closer and closer. I kind of didn’t want to go back to my body.

  The life Luken had given me inside my mind had been so good. The people I loved were right there by my side. Ian was right there. Everything was good or good enough, anyway.

  When I went back to my body, it was to a world where demons were running rampage. People were suffering. Life was hard.

  It was also wonderful, though. My family was there, waiting for me to come back. And I had a job to do. I needed to help stop the demons, to make up for my horrible decision.

  You can’t stop this. The end of the world is here. I can help you, Lanac’s voice said in my mind.

  My soul jerked to a stop right above my body. I tried to force it back in. It didn’t work. I was the proverbial square peg someone tried to push through a round hole.

  “Gabe, wait,” Imogen said, darting forward. She rested her hand on the rail of the bed and looked at the fragment of my soul. “Spence, the demon has her. Can you exile it without exiling the part of Madison’s soul that’s here?” she asked, her eyes still fixed on me.

  Spencer didn’t speak. What he did was step over to stand next to Gabe and turn his chartreuse eyes on me. Something inside me cringed away when the yellow-green glow came from Spencer’s eyes.

  The darkness didn’t leave, though. It was still inside me, wrapped around me in the lightlessness of my mind.

  “You cannot banish me, Exiler. Not without tearing Madison’s soul further. I’m sure you know how dangerous that is to the girl,” the voice in my mind said but it was my soul that spoke those words.

  “Madison,” Erramun said, holding out his hand to me. “You are in control. You are a strong woman. Ask God’s help in removing the demon’s thrall from your soul.”

  I thought about it, recalling all the masses I had gone to with Ian’s family as a child. I DID believe in God. I didn’t believe the way Ian’s parents did, although that wasn’t really the point.

  I had gone through a lot in my life and had never been sure that God cared. In the last year with everything I had seen, I knew there was indeed a higher power out there. I had seen a little boy going off to his afterlife and it had looked like paradise. I had seen Erramun and Luken, both with faith and the power to make even the most doubtful person believe.

  “Please, help me,” I prayed, not sure if I had to make the sign of the cross as Ian’s family did or not.

  As I prayed, though, the darkness inside me faded. I could feel it clinging on for dear life yet its hold wasn’t even close to as strong as it was before. It was like a falling man reaching out for a rock that wasn’t anchored to the ground.

  The same confusion I’d felt before passed through my mind. What was I doing there? It must be a dream.

  It wasn’t a dream and I knew it. I prayed again, harder than before and even the confusion faded. The falling man’s rock was rolling.

  That thought made me want to chuckle. There was no time, though. I had to get my soul back into my still unconscious body. I had to help save the world.

  As I floated toward myself, I could see the tattoo on my side. The helm of awe tattoo was glowing. It was a protection against evil and it appeared to be doing its job. The fact the demon had attached itself to my soul had to be why my body hadn’t allowed my soul back in.

  The problem was, my soul didn’t want to go back. I could feel everything the closer I got to my body. I had been free of pain in that holding place. Inside my body . . . my chest felt like a rhino sat on it. I remembered being shot. The explosion of pain had made me feel broken. Right then was so much worse.

  I felt weak and helpless. I couldn’t even move. I wanted to refuse to go back to my body . . . to escape the pain.

  I was no coward. I could not hide when something hurt. I would stand tall, face down what I had done, and do my job.

  A purple glow filled the air and then descended into me at the same moment my soul settled back into place. It was both disconcerting and a little exciting as my body began to tingle. As the feeling grew, the beep of the heart monitor got a bit faster.

  I didn’t know if gratitude or horror was a better reaction. I felt both. I also felt some serious pain. It was so much worse than I had expected.

  I wasn’t conscious. I was aware, at least sort of. I could feel it as people bustled around me, hear doctors and nurses talking, even hear . . . and feel them remove my breathing tube.

  I didn’t know how long it was but slowly, things began to settle down. Fewer voices were around me and I became more aware.

  My eyes fluttered, showing me a hospital room and a group of people. I wanted to speak, to tell them all how much I loved them. The words wouldn’t come, though.

  The normal sounds of the hospital were all around me. Shoes squeaked on concrete floors. Machines beeped. Other machines buzzed. It was the beeping I focused on.

  As it grew a little faster, things clarified around me. I could see the dark circles under my dad’s eyes, the scruff on Daw’s face, the way Quinn had bitten her nails down to the quick, and more. Erkens stood close, looking as though he held his breath. Dawson stood back, his arms folded as he stared at the monitors.

  I wanted to turn my head to look at the monitors too. There was too much going on. Too much pain. Too much confusion. Too much magic.

  I blinked again, opening my mouth to speak. “Wh--” I broke off. My mouth was dry as a bone and my throat hurt like crazy.

  A nurse stepped closer, nodding as she injected something else into my IV. “It’s going to take you a little while to get used to being conscious again. I’ve given you some pain medication, so you should be feeling better in a few seconds.” She continued to talk but I wasn’t really paying attention.

  My eyes fluttered closed, yet I opened them again. I had been asleep for long enough. There was work to be done.

  My body gave me no choice. My eyes closed again, taking me down into a dreamless sleep.

  TWELVE

  Noah looked around in wonderment. He had been very young the last time he’d ridden in a car. And the feeling of speed mixed with the sight of the still unbombed city was an amazing sight.

  He pressed his face to the glass, staring out at the unfamiliar landscape. He had never seen so many lights. Streetlights. Stoplights. Lights on porches. Lights in windows. It was mesmerizing.

  There were so many people. Despite the curfew and the attacks that had already happened, he could even see people peering out the windows of their houses. They clearly didn’t believe there was real danger.

  There was, though. Noah knew the dates of the biggest attacks and they were only hours away from the first bombing. It would happen in New York City and would be the first step on the path to ending the world.

  After New York, Washington DC would be hit, then the attack would move through the country. Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Nashville, Portland, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, and Charlotte would all be destroyed in the next few days. After that, things would get bad.

  The demons would move their incursion overseas. In a matter of months, the world would be laid to waste. The only cities left standing would be under the demon’s control.

  He wanted to take a few moments to enjoy his freedom. He didn’t have long. He knew it but Noah wanted that small segment of peace to hold onto.

  His lips curved up into a wide grin when Ian stopped at a red light. He saw a girl a couple of years younger than him peeking out a window. She held a flashlight whose beam was shaped like a flower and she had it pointed at another window across the street.

  Noah glanced in the other direction and saw another little girl with a simi
lar flashlight. Her beam was a heart shape. The two were very obviously friends and even more obviously didn’t like having to stay inside on such a warm, summer’s evening.

  He flipped the switch on his laser, making it nothing more than the pointer it had originated as. He pointed the light at the wall next to one window, then turned to point it at the other girl’s wall.

  When he’d gotten their attention, Noah flipped the intensity up, pointed it at one of the street lights, and made the light explode. A shower of broken glass cascaded to the ground and the little girls both flashed their flashlights at him.

  Noah grinned, feeling sad as Ian pulled away. He hadn’t been able to hang out with kids in a long time. He missed the simple fun it could be, even when it was a couple of girls.

  More lights passed by. Noah didn’t bother with them. He simply watched, filing away all the wondrous things he would probably never see again.

  An odd, cold feeling passed over him. It was as if he’d had his favorite toy ripped away from him like he’d been told he could never touch that toy again. It made him angry, furious . . . livid. He wanted blood.

  He watched as a scene played out in his mind. Some part of him had been cast out . . . like he was a demon who’d been exorcised. His skin ran cold at that thought.

  Come to me, my son, a voice said in the back of his mind.

  Noah blinked, his mind in two places at once. He could see the car around him. He could also see some sort of magical box. He was inside that box. No. That wasn’t it at all.

  Only part of him was inside that box, a tiny fragment of . . . his soul? He wasn’t sure. All he knew for sure was that it was a demon speaking to him.

  It is true, you are not trapped yet. When they find the truth about you, they will lock you away. They will fear you, hate you. You must kill them. You are intelligent. You have the ability to do this with ease.