by Cheree Alsop
My admission hung in the air as if caught in the sunlight that filled the truck bed with warmth.
I heard Virgo’s feet shift on the pavement before he said, “So what happens now?”
I studied the dried blood that was caked beneath my fingernails. It was a moment before I could put my thoughts into words. “We save Ceren, then we figure it out.”
“And if we can’t save her?” the warlock asked, voicing my worst fear.
I closed my hand into a fist. “Then there’s nothing to figure out.”
Chapter Thirteen
The sound of car tires turning into the parking lot made me lift my head. I watched James slam on the brakes hard enough that the car skidded the last several feet before everyone opened their doors. Mitch and Alia climbed out of the car with the rest of the werewolves. I scooted to the edge of the truck bed as casually as I could manage.
“How fast did you guys go?” Virgo asked in shock.
“Not fast enough,” Mitch said, giving me a once-over.
“Yeah,” Alia seconded with worry on her face. “Zev, is that your blood?”
“I’m fine,” I told them. “Let’s go.”
“To find Ceren?” Mitch asked.
I nodded.
“Who’s Ceren?” Alia’s tone was uncertain.
Another car turned into the parking lot.
“The ghost who’s been haunting Zev,” Mitch explained.
Guilt at his phrasing made me say, “She hasn’t been haunting me.”
“But she’s a ghost?” Alia repeated with a confused expression. “And we’re here to find her?”
“We can find anything,” Frost told her. He paused and glanced at Safira. “Except that I’ve never found a ghost before. What do they smell like?”
“I’m not sure,” she replied.
Striker just shrugged.
Safira looked at me. “Zev?”
The car pulled up next to Virgo’s, saving me from having to answer. I was surprised when Professor Shipley and his wife Kristen climbed out.
“We’re ready for a ghost hunt,” the professor told me.
Kristen elbowed him and he winced. “He means to say, we’re ready to find the physical embodiment of your female specter,” she said by way of apology.
I felt overwhelmed by their support. A glance at Virgo showed the warlock watching me.
“See what I mean by people counting on you?” he asked quietly.
When I couldn’t find any words to reply, the warlock ducked under my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Come on. Let’s go find your ghost.”
“So how do you know she’s here?” Alia asked as we made our way past the science and arts building.
“Because this is where I first saw her,” I explained. “And when she mentioned going back to the beginning, this is where she came. I have to assume she was somewhere close when the earthquake hit.”
“I’ll grab my first aid kit,” Professor Shipley said. “We might need it.” He reached for the door to the building.
“Wait!” Virgo and I shouted at the same time.
At everyone’s surprised stares, Virgo glanced at me. “We had to borrow it for Zev. Let’s just say there’s not much left.”
I took his cue. “Yeah, and my fight with the khavis might have left things a little messy in there.”
The professor nodded. “No problem. Kristen and I can handle the mess later and I’ve got a refill for the kit at home.”
“I’d recommend adding some real thread for stitches,” I suggested.
Kristen patted her husband’s shoulder. “I told you a sewing kit wasn’t a good replacement.”
The professor gave me an apologetic look. “To be fair, I didn’t think I would need to stitch anyone up. That was an oversight.”
“No problem,” I told him. “What you had was lifesaving; trust me.”
He grinned. “Glad to hear it.”
We walked around behind the college. A fence in the distance split the property from the neighboring construction work that appeared to have been on hold for quite some time given the weathered appearance of the half-finished buildings.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Dorms,” Professor Shipley said. “The college was working on accreditation to a four year and figured with the expansion it would be good to put in more living quarters for the students, but the accreditation wasn’t approved and construction stopped pretty much the same day.”
Kristen shot her husband a worried look. “The students hang out there on weekends sometimes. You don’t think she was there, do you?”
“We’ll phase and check it out,” Mitch said.
I watched the werewolves run off in wolf form toward the fenced-off buildings. I wanted to join them. Being left with the humans and accusatory warlock didn’t feel fair. Oblivious to my thoughts, my pack easily leaped the fence and we soon lost sight of them in the debris beyond.
“Leave them to it,” Kristen suggested. “Where else can we look on this side?”
“There’re the gardens and the halls beneath the library. Sometimes the students slip the lock and hang in there after hours,” her husband said.
We had taken a few steps in that direction when a howl reverberated through the air. Everyone looked at me.
“What is it?” Alia asked.
The notes of the howl were high and tense, a warning and summons at the same time. Adrenaline flooded my veins, dulling the pain in my side. “They found something.”
I hurried in that direction and the others fell in behind me. Another howl sounded.
“Something’s wrong,” I said as my nerves jangled with the clashing tones. “I think they’re in trouble.”
Virgo pulled up a corner of the fence and held it for me to climb beneath. The professor and his wife quickly followed with Alia coming last. I slid down the side of a hollowed out basement and limped around the corner, then stopped short at the sight in front of me.
The four werewolves snarled and snapped at a jakhin. Her black hair hung in straggly strings in front of her eyes and she slashed at them with her long claws.
I took a step forward to help them, but Virgo grabbed my shoulder.
“I don’t think so. You stay here. We’ve got this,” the warlock said.
He jogged toward the fray and left me standing at the corner. Professor Shipley and his wife came up behind me. Shipley’s gasp was seconded by his wife’s.
“Is that what you fought?” Kristen asked.
I shook my head, unable to take my eyes away from the battle. “It was bigger, but jakhins are no joke.”
“That doesn’t look like a joke,” Professor Shipley said quietly.
I had to give the werewolves credit. I had never in my life stood back to watch the pack fight. Usually I was in the heat of battle, which ironically was my comfort zone. My fists clenched as I watched them leap and evade, using the military tactics of distraction and force to drive her to the wall.
“Grab her,” Virgo yelled.
The werewolves listened to him. Mitch dodged a swipe of claws and dove for her shoulder while Striker and Frost each grabbed an arm. Safira snuck behind the creature and latched onto her hair.
The jakhin gave a yowl of fury. Her claws lashed out, catching Striker deep enough to make him yelp, but the big werewolf refused to let go.
The small knife Virgo held flashed in the sunlight. It looked impossible for the tiny blade to bring down such a ferocious creature, but I had seen it happen. I watched the warlock dart to the right, then the left, looking for an opening that wasn’t compromised by either a snarling wolf or the jakhin’s reaching, long-fingered hands. If he could just stab her, the jakhin would be dead. But she was too strong for the werewolves to bring down.
Virgo appeared to run out of patience. He lunged forward, sidestepped a slash toward his face, and drove his hand toward the creature’s chest.
Just when I thought the blade would penetrate, the jakhin turned her entire body
in a feat of supernatural strength. Mitch slammed into Virgo and they both fell to the ground. Freed of some of the weight, the jakhin grabbed Frost by the throat and threw him into the wall. The wolf fell motionless to the ground. I watched helplessly as Virgo scrambled for something in the dirt.
The jakhin towered over him, ready to disembowel the warlock with a single swipe of her claws. I ran forward, but there was no way I would reach him in time. An earsplitting shriek sounded from the creature. She reached for him and would have ended Virgo’s life if Mitch didn’t react faster than the monster. He grabbed Virgo’s foot and jerked back. Virgo let out a yell as the werewolf’s fangs bit into his skin. The yell turned into a yelp of surprise as the werewolf’s strength sent the warlock nearly across the entire pit.
The werewolves formed a protective front to block the creature from reaching us. Professor Shipley knelt over Virgo.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Virgo rolled over, his eyes wide with panic. “I dropped the knife! We can’t kill her if I can’t find it!”
A glance toward the jakhin showed dust kicked up everywhere. There was no way we would find the knife in that.
She made a grab for Safira, but the werewolf dodged out of the way. The clover and apple scent of the jakhin’s hunger wafted over me. I fought back the urge to bare my teeth. Her slimy tongue snaked out of her mouth in anticipation. To her, we no doubt looked like an inevitable meal, and with the knife gone, we might soon be.
The memory of another knife striking into flesh made my heart race. There was no way I would reach it in time in my condition. I spun.
“Professor, I need your help!”
“Anything,” Professor Shipley replied.
“There’s another knife,” I told him. “It’s in the middle of a pile of bones in the bathroom by your class.”
The professor looked from me to the jakhin. “I would ask why there’s a pile of bones in the bathroom, but I feel like there are more important issues at hand. I’ll be right back.”
“I’m coming with you,” Kristen said.
I watched the pair scramble back up the side of the construction hole and to the fence. The feeling that our hope left with them hung over me.
I turned back to see Mitch be flung across the dirt. He rolled over and over until his back struck one of the walls. Alia gave a cry of fear and ran to him. In all the chaos, I had forgotten the girl’s presence entirely.
The fact that she was in danger from the jakhin as much as everyone else made me act. Frost pushed back up to his paws and limped forward to join me. Safira and Striker had backed the jakhin into a corner once more, but she wasn’t at all happy about it. Virgo stood with the werewolves; he had a hand on each of their shoulders, whether for support or strength, I couldn’t tell. Both werewolves’ coats were clotted with blood, and Striker wasn’t putting any weight on his back paw.
“Mine,” the creature said in a voice that grated against my eardrums like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Both Safira and Striker growled low, angry threats, vowing to keep her from reaching the rest of us. Virgo’s runes glowed, but they were faint as though the creature’s darkness was affecting him. I could see in the warlock’s bowed shoulders and wary gaze that he thought all was lost with the knife. The fact that he didn’t run told me more about him than a thousand conversations could have.
Mitch pushed back to his paws, but he wavered unsteadily beneath Alia’s hands. The fact that she could keep him from joining the others told of the shape he was in.
The jakhin lashed out. Safira jumped to the side, but not quickly enough. A yelp escaped her as a line of red sprouted along her cream-colored fur. The realization that I was seeing my pack killed piece by piece nearly undid me.
“Leave them alone,” I growled loud enough that the jakhin’s head jerked up.
I met her eyes with a glare. “I’m the one you want. I helped kill your sister or friend or whatever she was.” I spat on the ground. Red colored the patch of dirt it hit. With a hand clamped tightly to my side, I limped forward. “You don’t belong here. You’re a devourer, a demon of a different plane. You don’t get to stay and hurt those I care about.”
“Zev, what are you doing?” Alia asked in a loud whisper.
I limped past where she crouched beside Mitch. The smell of his blood lay thick in the air. Footsteps reached my ears. I kept my focus split between their sound and the angry shrieks of the jakhin.
“Dark magic brought you here,” I said, keeping up the rant. “You are a taint upon this place, a scourge. You must leave.”
“Zev, get back!” Virgo said.
I limped around Safira before he could stop me. One more step put me between the werewolves, the warlock, and the creature who wanted to devour them.
“Mine,” the jakhin said.
With reflexes faster than I expected, she grabbed me by the shoulders and put her forehead against mine. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from hers as her eyes changed. Instead of the shiny, pupil-less black void, swirls of white appeared. They whirled in mind-numbing patterns. I felt myself sink inside of them, become a part of them, embrace the nothingness through which they swirled.
“Zev!” Alia shouted.
“Let him go!” Virgo demanded.
“You are nothing,” a voice said in my head. “Give in to me. Become a part of the darkness.”
I felt the urge to do exactly as she said. Her voice promised an escape from pain, from helplessness, from the inability to find my place in this world. She could take me away from it all. She would end my life.
I forced myself to speak past the mind-numbing darkness. “There’s only one problem.”
The jakhin’s eyes narrowed. I wanted to laugh at the surprised question in them, but I didn’t dare lose my concentration for fear that she would have me entirely.
“Zev!” a voice shouted.
I jerked my gaze away from hers and turned my head. The sight of the knife in the professor’s blood-stained hands filled me with relief. It was clear by the pallor of his face that the scene in the college was as bad as I remembered. But there was no time for regrets, only time for action.
“Professor, now!” I shouted.
The sound of the knife flying through the air told me its trajectory was low. The shine of its silver blade caught the corner of my eye as it turned end over end. I twisted hard enough to tear through the stitches in my side and managed to snag the blade before it flew past us to the dirt wall.
I turned back to the jakhin with my prize gripped tightly in one hand. Her milky eyes widened and shifted to black again. A shriek of rage tore from her jagged-toothed mouth and her claws tightened in an effort to tear me apart before I could act, but she was too late.
A primal yell escaped my lips as I slammed the tiny blade into her chest. The moment the lavender-coated silver penetrated her skin, the jakhin’s muscles tightened and her shriek cut off. She stumbled against the wall and dropped me. Her claws locked open, her teeth stopped gnashing, and she toppled forward.
Hands and teeth grabbed my arms, pulling me free before the creature could crush me. She hit the dirt in a cloud of dust. My chest heaved as I stared at her still form. I almost believed she would rise again. It felt too surreal that the small knife could do so much harm.
“Lavender and silver,” Virgo said. He shook his head. “And to think I’ve hated the smell of lavender my entire life. Mom always said I would learn to appreciate it.”
The sad smile he gave me made me miss his mother’s eccentric ways all over again. She would have known how to find Ceren. She would have fixed everything.
“Zev?”
I turned my head at the quiet voice. It was almost too soft to be noticed, but I would have recognized it anywhere.
“Ceren?”
The ghost’s form was nearly too faint to be seen. She had her arms wrapped around herself as though she was cold, and she looked as if she had been crying.
“It’s almost t
oo late, Zev,” she whispered.
I rose shakily to my feet. “I don’t know where you are. You have to help us. We’re trying to find you!”
“Is that her?” Alia asked.
“Get details,” Kristen encouraged. “What does she know of where her body is?”
They both looked in the same direction I did, but it was easy to tell by their searching expressions that neither saw the fading ghost.
“Ceren, where are you? What are you aware of?”
Her form faded even more when she said, “It’s wet here. The water helps, but I hurt. I can’t move.”
Her image flickered and then faded away.
Alarmed, I ran forward, but I stumbled on an outcropping of dirt. Professor Shipley caught my arm before I could fall.
“Take it easy,” he said. “We’ll find her.”
“But she’s almost gone,” I told them desperately. “We’re going to be too late.”
“Close your eyes,” Kristen said.
I stared at her, wondering if she had gone mad. Ceren didn’t have time for us to play games or wait until I was calm.
I shook my head. “I don’t have time.”
Kristen set a hand on my arm. “Zev, you can help her. Just close your eyes and listen to me.”
It took all of my self-control to do as she asked instead of running off to the last place I had seen Ceren. My instincts urged me to listen to the psychic. It was the last hope Ceren had.
“Alright,” I said. I closed my eyes. “Now what?”
“Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth,” Kristen instructed.
I grimaced at the uselessness of it, but did as she said.
“That’s it,” she continued quietly. “Let the breathing calm your thoughts and chase away any worries of Ceren you might have. If you focus on the negative, we might never find her. Instead, think only of her face as you breathe. Let it focus in your mind. Breathe in…breathe out.”