by Heather Karn
One of Avery’s vials was missing which meant Raven had drank it before he left, or taken it with him. A new vial from Raven was present, so I swiped it, stuffing it in my purse. If it broke in there, I’d kick myself. But for now, it was a snack in case I ran into trouble and needed it. I would’ve taken one of Avery or Jackson’s vials, but the only other person needing blood was me, so I had a feeling Raven was still taking blood from himself to give to me and replenishing his with the other men’s blood.
“Okay, I’m heading to my parent’s place really quick. I’ll be back in a while,” I told the women as they entered the house through the sliding door. “I’ve taken some blood with me just in case.”
“Good.” Luella nodded. “Is that chameleon going to be there? Are you comfortable going alone?”
“Clara said she wasn’t there, so I’m going over before they get back.”
“If you need us, just call. Raven changed his mind and took the Suburban. He wanted you to have his truck in case you needed to go anywhere. It’s just as big and reliable as the SUV, but it’s more fun to drive and the Suburban is government property and we shouldn’t be taking it out for personal business…blah, blah, blah.” The naiad used her hand to mimic a talking person as her tone turned sarcastic, and I giggled.
“Raven said that?”
Shannon choked on her water as some of it came up through her nose. “No,” she coughed. “Raven doesn’t care what we use it for, but since he had business at headquarters, he thought he’d take it. Plus, his truck is a lot more fun to drive, but don’t tell him I said so. He’s not supposed to know I took it out.”
“He won’t hear it from me,” I chuckled. “Okay, I’m out of here. Call me if you need anything. I’ve got some knives with me.” Motioning inside my jacket and toward the knife strapped to my thigh, I caught the approval in their eyes. At least this time I wasn’t going to be caught unprepared, unlike how the ghoul had snuck up on me. Since you never knew where danger could be lurking or when it could show its ugly head, it was better to be prepared.
“Be safe,” Shannon squeaked before taking a long swig of her water. Waving to them both, I headed for the garage.
They’d been right. The SUV was gone and the truck was in its usual spot. Grabbing the keys from their hook, I climbed in behind the wheel, thankful again that me and Raven were about the same height. It made switching drivers much easier than when Mom and I switched back and forth in her car. I’d forget she’d driven it last until I sat down and my knees hit the dash and everything got all jammed up.
There were few adjustments to be made, so I was heading out of the driveway in minutes. I wasn’t as familiar with this side of the city, but from the few times I’d left the mansion, I could guess about where I was to find my way home without using a GPS. After all, I’d gone from my home to the mansion only a few days ago. I only had to do that route backwards, which required remembering every turn.
It didn’t take long before I found myself in a familiar part of town, and I readjusted my direction. Somewhere along the way I’d missed a turn. In all it took longer to reach the house than I’d hoped, but I was too proud of myself for finding the way by myself to care. If the chameleon was back, then my mood would change.
The main door was open and the screen door unlocked, so I let myself in without a key. My nose plugged up and my eyes watered the second I stepped inside. Clara hadn’t been kidding about the stench of perfume, but she’d made it sound like only my room had been affected. She’d forgotten to mention the rest of the house reeked just as badly.
“Clara, you sure you only spilled some in my room?” I called, throwing a hand over my mouth and nose. The smell was so strong I could taste it on my tongue. That confirmed it: this was going to be a quick in and out visit.
The hedgewitch stuck her head out from around the kitchen corner, a grimace covering her face. “I know, I’m so sorry. I think I might have stepped in some of it and gotten it all over, and then I threw away the pieces of glass down here, which likely doesn’t help. Oscar already ran away for the night. You know how sensitive his nose is.”
“Yeah, he was probably ready to puke.” My words were mumbled past my hand, and it was all I could do to keep breathing. If it was this bad down here, I didn’t want to think about the mess in my room. “I’m going to go grab the package and get out of here. Sorry I can’t stay.”
She waved me off. “You’re fine. Do you really need those sunglasses in here though?”
“Not going to be here long enough for them to bother me,” I responded, already heading for the stairs so Clara couldn’t try to convince me further that they weren’t needed.
The smell in my room was just as noxious as it was throughout the rest of the house. The pool of perfume that had soaked into the carpet was easy to spot, but my eyes zeroed in on the package on the end of my bed. No matter the perfume smell that was killing my body one whiff at a time, I shut the bedroom door behind me, wanting more privacy. Now that I was here with it, I wasn’t in such a hurry to grab and go.
My fingers fluttered over the postal packaging while my stomach twisted and turned in my excitement. Lifting the large, soft envelop style package, I found my spare pair of scissors and sliced it open. Turning it upside down, I watched a large white-bagged item slide onto the bed.
Setting the outer packaging aside, I focused on the contents of the white bag. A tiny pink and yellow checked blanket made of the softest material I’d ever felt took up most of the room. Mom had pinned a note to the front of it which read: This was the blanket your mother brought to wrap you in, and we saved it to give to you when you were older.
Tears stung my eyes as I hugged the tiny piece of material to my chest. This was from my real mother. Most of my life I hadn’t cared to know more about the woman who gave birth to me. I had my family, and nothing I could do would bring the woman back to life. And it hurt less if I didn’t think about never knowing her. I thought of my father even less.
Still sniffling, but proud I hadn’t broken down in sobs, I sat the blanket beside the rest of the bag’s contents. There were only two, a black jewelry box and a thin envelope. Since the box had caught my attention first, and who didn’t love jewelry, I snatched it up next. Inside was the last thing I’d expected.
On a bed of black satin lay a medallion similar to the one Raven wore. This could only be my parent’s House, whichever one of them had been the vamlure. Kicking myself for not having Raven describe each of the House’s symbols when we’d talked about them, I ran my thumb over the pendant. Since First House was designed as a tree, I could rule that House off my list. This pendant had the same thin circular border as Raven’s, but instead of a tree design, a large teardrop, or blood droplet, fell from the top of the pendant down toward the bottom. Since it was made of gold, I’d have to ask Raven what exactly it was.
I took the necklace from the box and held it before me to study it further. The long, gold chain let me hold the pendant in the air, and I surveyed it as it spun. After all this time, and all the changes of the last week, I was finally getting answers. Hopefully the letter would hold even more.
Grabbing the pendant out of the air, I was ready to slide it back in its box when the soft brush of carpet under shoes startled me. I jerked my head up and stared around the room. The only person home with me was Clara, and she certainly wasn’t in the room. In fact, no one was with me.
“Quit being so jumpy, Koda,” I coached myself, setting the necklace in the box. “There’s no reason to creep yourself out.”
The box clicked shut as another step reached my ears. There was no way I’d misjudged this sound, not when I was fully paying attention to every noise in the room since the first had startled me. Someone else was definitely in here with me, but who?
Another step, this one closer, chilled my blood as my eyes rounded. It was an Other. An invisible person. Some of them chose to live in seclusion, but most were well trained assassins since you never saw them co
ming. So why would there be an assassin in my bedroom?
My throat tightened, and I coughed to clear it, and give myself a reason to reach for my purse. I shouldn’t have waited. I should have drank the blood before I left the mansion. It was my luck that I’d run into trouble in my parent’s house.
Trying to keep my panic under control, I dug in my purse with one hand while I reached for a knife with the other. All the while, my body’s defenses went into overdrive. Now that I knew what it felt like and what I could do, summoning the changes was easier and faster. I didn’t need that extra terror added to the mix.
My fingers had just reached around the blood vial when the soft whispering of moving material reached me and an arm wrapped around my throat, cutting off my air. A blade hit a concealed knife in my jacket, saving me from being gutted, and it gave me time to sink the knife in my other hand into my attacker’s thigh.
He howled, his grip loosening from his shock and pain enough for me to be able to twist out of his hold. I skittered away, turning in time to see the blade land on the ground at the foot of my bed, blood staining the steel and the carpet.
Two soft impressions in the carpet drew my attention. A week ago I never would have been able to see them, but since drinking blood a few days ago, my heightened sight could make out the divots in the carpet where the man stood. A plan came to mind, and since it was my only plan, I jumped on it.
Reaching inside my jacket for a second knife since my first lay on the ground at the foot of the bed, I pulled it out. Knives were my best weapon, and I could hit anything I threw them at. Then again, all of my previous targets had been stationary paper targets. This was new having a living creature as my target, a target I couldn’t even see.
Pounding on my door made me jump, and I turned to it as Clara called to me from the other side. The invisible man played right into my hands.
One foot after another lifted, landing closer as he charged me. I had less than a second left before impact when I released the knife. It buried itself in some part of him, but I didn’t wait to see what he’d do. Jumping at where the blade was sticking out of him, I felt his body under mine.
I’d hit him in the right shoulder, and before he knew what had hit him again, I dove at his neck, my teeth elongated into fangs. The moment they sunk into his skin, the man howled and I pumped as much venom into him as possible. His body shook beneath me until he collapsed, sending both of us to the floor. My brain didn’t catch up with itself until he stilled. His chest didn’t rise again, and I let out a deep gust of air…until pounding on the door started again.
“Koda you open this door right now or I’ll break it down!” Clara screamed, and I was halfway to the door when I stopped. It sounded like Clara, but there was something off about her voice, something that wasn’t just quite Clara.
“I’m okay,” I stuttered, backing toward the bed, attempting not to trip over the man I couldn’t see. “I’ll be right out.”
“What happened?”
Ignoring her question, I dug out the vial and twisted the cap, chugging its contents like it was the last drink I’d ever have. If I wasn’t careful, it would be. Snatching up my cell phone, I pulled up the phone app and tapped Raven’s name.
“Koda? Seriously, let me in!”
Normal Clara would either have busted the door down already or calmly waited for me to exit. This whiny Clara wasn’t normal, and I prayed the real Clara was safe. Grabbing my desk chair, I crossed the room as Raven answered.
“Yeah?” he asked in a low voice, probably still in one of his meetings.
I shoved the chair under the door handle and my heartbeat tripled. “I’m at my parents’ house and I’m being attacked by Others. I just killed an invisible man, and there’s a chameleon in the hallway pretending to be my friend. I don’t know who else is here with me.”
“I am,” another familiar voice called from another corner of my room, and a red head stepped out from my closet. Her blue eyes sparkled as an evil grin mimicked the wicked humor in her voice. “Let’s see if you can do that little trick again. I’d love for you to suck on my blood.”
“And there’s a witch, Raven,” I added, staring at Clara’s witch friend from the mall.
“I’m calling the others. We’ll be right there.”
The line went dead as I faced my next opponent.
Chapter 27
Another knife made it into my hand before two balls of lightning grew from the witch’s hands. She sneered at me, moving closer. If her tactic was to back me away from the door so she could let the chameleon in, I had other news for her. I wasn’t moving.
At least that was the plan until two large bolts of lightning shot at my head and I ducked and rolled to avoid them. The wooden door exploded sending charred bits of wood in every direction. Even the top of the chair had disintegrated from the attack.
“Not so strong now that your magic user friends aren’t here, are you?” the wrong Clara sneered, walking through the rubble to join in the fight. Behind her, a large male stood in the hallway. It wasn’t the sheer size of his massive chest and biceps that attracted the attention, but the single eye in the center of his forehead. Who in this world had enough money to pay a cyclops to attack me? And better yet, why me?
“Anyone care to explain what’s going on here?” I asked the group as the cyclops ducked under the door frame. Immediately the room felt a thousand times smaller with his bulk taking up most of the open space. I was going to die.
“Isn’t it obvious?” the witch giggled, picking up the black box on my bed. “Oh wait, you don’t know, do you?”
“Don’t know what?” I asked, narrowing my gaze on her. She needed to drop that box and back up.
She tsk’ed her tongue at me. “Now, don’t be rude. And I’m sorry, I know you expect me to explain before Sisal kills you, but I’m not going to. You can ask your dear ole dad when you find him in the afterlife. I wouldn’t want to ruin your father-daughter bonding moment.” There was no time to open my mouth before she nodded to the cyclops who gave me a large, toothy grin.
His hand fisted, and as it flew at me, my body responded, and not how I’d expected. Instead of diving out of the way, the heady sense of dominance seared through my bloodstream, bringing with it the purple, smoky glow that I’d experienced when battling Luella’s ice prison. My hand shot up and I braced my feet as the cyclops’ fist hit my open palm. Both of our eyes widened in disbelief when the fist stopped and I didn’t fly through the wall into Clara’s room next door.
It didn’t stop the brute. When the shock wore off, his other hand fisted and flew at me. This time my body reacted how it should have. Leaping into the air, I landed on his arm as it flew past where I’d been standing. He fell off balance, and I used the time to kick out my booted foot at his eye, but he caught my leg and the next second I flew across the room to smash into the bed’s thick wooden headboard. Falling to the bed, I lay dazed for a few seconds before the charge of electricity in the room brought me back to the present.
Diving off the bed, I avoided being charred a second time by mere milliseconds. I sure hoped the third time wasn’t the charm because that meant I’d be fried for sure. The bed flew against the closet wall and the cyclops peered down at me, a hateful snarl showing off his rows of sharp teeth. He may not have had much brain capacity, but he made up for it in brute strength, which he continued to readily demonstrate.
“Hurry up and finish her,” the chameleon hissed. “We’re running out of time. The mansion is across town, but I don’t want to cut it so close, you idiot. And she already called for help.”
The cyclops’s fists clenched tighter, and he took one step toward me before the window above me shattered. Glass flew in every direction as a sound between a growl and a hiss echoed off the walls. A soft gasp forced me to look up. I’d curled into a ball to avoid most of the shattered glass, and to protect myself from the next attack. Well, it wasn’t coming at me.
Raven stood a foot from my head, st
aring down the cyclops and women. His skin emanated the purple glow mine did whenever my skin became like armor, or a shield. I couldn’t see his face from this angle, but whatever it was had the witch paling and the chameleon taking a step back.
“Get out and you’ll live to see another day, because if you stay, you die,” Raven growled in a voice so cold it made me shiver.
The witch pulled herself together first. “Kill it,” she ordered the cyclops, pointing at Raven. “Kill it and then the girl. Report back to me when the job is done.” She grabbed the chameleon’s hand and the next instant they were gone.
My eyes rounded. Only about five percent of witches and warlocks could teleport, and of those who could, few showed the ability to others. Now that they were gone, it was us against the cyclops. Well, Raven against the cyclops. I tried to stand and get out of the way, but pain lanced up my leg.
Both creatures roared and charged. Scooting through the pain to lean against the wall, and trying not to cut myself on glass in the process, I looked to my leg to see the cause of my pain. My stomach turned. I hadn’t been as lucky as I’d thought. Blackened skin and red, blistered burns wound around my right leg. The witch’s lightning had hit me after all.
Smashing sounds brought me back to the present in time to see the cyclops slump to the floor amidst the remaining bits of what had been my dresser. The mirror that had hung on the wall across the room so I could check my hair before leaving lay buried in the creature’s chest.
Raven stared at me from the center of the room, his chest heaving. The glowing skin was gone, and his eyes were dim from exertion. He took in my situation, leg included, and his eyes darkened further.