by S. L. Watson
My fingers shot into my hair as I thought of what to do. Molly’s energy was weak but still present. An idea occurred to me. My heart raced as I leaned over Molly’s motionless form and placed a hand on either side of her head and connected with her vibrations. Slipping past the outer biofield of Molly’s aura, I released my own energy and poured out everything I had until my body wobbled from depletion. My head dropped onto her chest, but I refused to let go until I heard a soft murmur below me.
“Ev …”
Fingers trembled over mine.
A hoarse cry burst from my lips when I lifted my head to find Molly’s big brown eyes staring up at me, wide and teary.
She pulled her legs toward her and tucked them under her chin, making room for me to collapse next to her.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice growing stronger.
I nodded, still too exhausted to talk.
Molly squeezed my hand. “I felt what you did. Darion didn’t reveal much about your abilities, but I could feel you making me stronger. Thank you.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” My voice sounded weak and gravelly, and keeping my eyelids from closing felt like a chore.
Cushions shifted as Molly got up. She filled a glass with water and brought it back and carefully tilted it to my lips. She looked around in a daze. “Where’s Darion?”
The cold water soothed my achy throat. I took the glass from Molly and drained it. “You gave us quite a scare. We thought your body might be rejecting Darion’s blood. You went into convulsions and weren’t responding. Darion ran out in a panic to get something. He should be back any minute.”
Molly’s hand flew to her forehead.
“Do you feel any different?” I asked her.
Her fingers crawled across her forehead, massaging the skin this way and that. “The mark, it’s gone. And … I don’t know how to describe it, but I feel stronger than I did before I had the mark, like I could jump off the top of a roof or run a marathon.”
I laughed. “No roof jumping, please. Let me take a look.”
Molly sat beside me and tilted her head to the side, causing the end of her braid to fall over her shoulder. A high frequency vibrated all around her, and there was no trace of the dark magic that clung to her aura.
“I don’t sense the mark anymore. I think the spell worked.” I slumped back and flung my arm across my forehead. Thank God.
“When the mark was there”—Molly wrinkled her forehead—“I felt the weight of it inside of me. It was like something foreign and threatening coiled in my head. But now … it feels empty. Well, not empty.” She laughed, and so did I. “Just light and normal again.”
“I get it,” I said, sitting up and leaning forward, my strength coming back.
Molly shot up and grabbed her bag. “I’m going to go brush my teeth and get rid of this blood breath.” She started down the hall. “Wow!” She stopped and turned back. “That’s not something I ever thought I’d say.”
“Me either,” I agreed.
Molly made a sour face. “Yuck!” Her tongue shot out of her mouth. “I actually drank blood. How disgusting!” Her sour expression turned serious. “But at least it worked.” She swiveled on her heel and headed back toward the hall for the bathroom.
Yeah, I thought. At least it worked.
I leaned back against the cushion, sighing with relief, and shook out my arms and legs, letting the tension fall away as I stared through the open blinds at the red sky.
What’s taking Darion so long? I got up and stuck my head out of the door and scanned the area between the house and my apartment. “Huh.”
Something didn’t feel right. He wouldn’t have left Molly this long. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. “Darion!” I stepped out onto the porch. “Darion!”
A loud thump, like something heavy hitting the floor, came from the back of the apartment.
“Molly!”
I tore down the hall, flying into the bathroom, only to find it empty. My bedroom door creaked, and I bolted from the bathroom and burst through my bedroom door, searching the room. Feet on the floor stuck out from around the other side of my bed. I rushed over and stopped, stunned to see Molly lying on the floor, tape wrapped around her ankles and wrists.
What the hell?
I spun, searching the room, then dropped to my knees and peeled the tape from Molly’s mouth as gently as I could. The duct tape clung stubbornly to her skin like glue, so I gave it a quick yank and winced at the raw skin around her mouth.
Molly’s eyes flew open, and she started to struggle.
“It’s okay. It’s just me. What happened?”
Her eyes widened. “Behind you!” she cried.
“Hey, beautiful.”
I whipped around but instantly relaxed. “Lucas. Thank God you’re here. Someone snuck in and attacked Molly. I don’t know how—” I glanced up to see that my bedroom window was open and the screen popped out.
“Shit. Whoever it was must’ve broken in through my window. Did you see anyone?”
Lucas leaned into the bedroom doorframe and slowly shook his head. His expression gave me pause, but I ignored the strange tingle of warning.
“Help me with this tape.”
When he didn’t move to help, I knew something was off.
His lips turned up in a sneer I’d never seen on Lucas before. “I like her better taped up.”
My nerves buzzed as I shielded Molly’s body with mine and tried to make sense of the Lucas who glowered at me. A black glow caught my eye from the bedside table. The truth stone! But where was the pouch that contained the serpent stone?
Lucas followed my eyes to the bedside table. The corner of his lip curled up as he sniggered and pushed away from the doorframe and snatched the stone.
A pang shot through my chest. The stone worked just as Freya had said.
“Don’t worry,” Lucas drawled. “Before I borrowed your boyfriend’s skinsuit, I had him get rid of that pesky stone bound with the protection spell. Won’t do you any good now.”
I struggled to match the Lucas I knew with the one who stood in front of me. “You’re not Lucas.” Magic hummed at my fingertips.
He laughed with a note of mockery. “Ding-dong.” The laughter died on his lips. “Took you long enough, but I guess, you’re not as powerful as your ancestors. I snuck in, right under your nose.” His nostrils flared, and then he chuckled, as though he amused himself.
“What did you do to Lucas?”
He leaned casually against the doorway again and rolled the black truth stone over his knuckles. “I’m the one making demands here. Now, be a good girl and give me what I want, and I’ll let your little friend live.” His eyes flicked toward Molly. “And maybe your boyfriend too.”
“Where’s Lucas?”
His silence mocked me, but it was the cruel grin that sent fear twisting through my veins. What had he done to Lucas?
When the heat burned inside me this time, I welcomed it. “Forget it, shifter. I’m not giving you anything.” I lifted my hands, and a blast of energy sent him flying backward. The force knocked him off his feet, and he slid on his back down the hall.
I slammed the bedroom door and locked it, then yanked open my bedside drawer and took out a pair of scissors and cut the tape that secured Molly’s limbs.
“Climb out of the window.” I held onto Molly’s trembling hands as I pulled her to her feet and ushered her to the window.
She rubbed at the red rings on her wrists left by the tightly wrapped duct tape. “I’m not leaving without you.” Her voice cracked.
The shifter was up and thumping back toward my bedroom door. He jiggled the handle, then kicked at the door.
“There’s no time to argue. I’ll be fine, I promise.” I shoved her toward the window.
The door burst open just as Molly jumped and vanished outside. Before I could react, the shifter leaped through the air and knocked me to the ground. He landed on top of me and wrapped his hands arou
nd my neck with inhuman strength. He squeezed the air from my lungs until my vision blurred. My head thrashed back and forth as I struggled to get free, but he only squeezed tighter, until I felt my consciousness slipping away. My arms stretched to either side of my body, and my fingers clawed against the carpet in search of the scissors I’d tossed aside after cutting Molly’s tape. I arched my back, trying to knock the shifter off, but my strength waned. A loud ringing filled my ears as panic seized me.
“I see why the bartender liked you.” The shifter licked the side of my face while I squirmed underneath him with every bit of energy I could muster. “You’ve got spunk.” He bit my lip.
I tried to scream, but nothing came out. The taste of blood filled my mouth, and I choked on it as it pooled at the back of my throat. Everything faded; my arms and legs tingled as they fell limp.
The shifter’s laugh echoed in my ears as his hot breath hovered over my face. With no air left in my lungs, my eyes drifted closed. Then I heard a loud thunk, and my attacker fell sideways.
I frantically gulped for air. As my breathing steadied, my vision returned, and so did the feeling in my arms and legs.
Molly stood over us, poised with a cast-iron skillet. Her hair frizzed from her braid, and her eyes stared, wild and sharp, at the body sprawled across me. She tightened her grip on the cast-iron handle. Then she propelled her arms forward.
“Stop!”
The skillet halted in midair, inches from the shifter’s head. I exhaled a sigh of relief.
“He’s done something to Lucas. I need to question him. Then we’ll decide what to do. Let’s bind him before he wakes up.”
I wanted to take this monster out as much as Molly did, but he knew where Lucas was, and I planned to make him talk.
Molly heaved the skillet onto the bed and helped roll the shifter off me. We found the tape he’d used on Molly and wrapped his hands and feet together.
“Payback’s a bitch.” Molly kicked the shifter in the side.
I always knew Molly was badass, but this was a side of her I’d never seen before. Darion would have been proud.
Darion!
“The shifter must have done something with Darion too. He’s been gone too long. I need to go look for him.”
“Oh my God,” Molly said. “When this asswipe was taping me up, he was laughing and congratulating himself about ‘pulling one over on the renowned Vitarian Tracker.’ Darion doesn’t like to talk about his life before he came to Earth, but he mentioned once that he was good at finding people.” Her entire body trembled when she asked, “Is Darion a Tracker?”
“Yes!”
Molly bolted for the door. “Molly! Wait!”
She didn’t turn back.
Shit!
I left the shifter on the floor and took off after Molly.
Tires crunched over gravel, and headlights flashed into view as I tore across the porch. Mom! Thank God!
She parked and got out of her car and ran toward me when I waved my arms.
“What’s going on, honey? I got Darion’s message about Molly and the spell, and came straight home.”
“I have to find Molly. She’s looking for Darion. A shifter attacked us, but he’s bound up in my apartment. Can you make sure he doesn’t escape while I find Molly and search for Darion?”
My mom radiated a mix of emotions. “A shifter? Is Darion okay?”
“I don’t know. He ran out of the apartment to get something and never came back, and then we were attacked by the shifter.”
Blotches of red sprang from my mom’s aura as she opened the passenger door of her car and Luna sprang free. “You look for your brother. I’ll deal with this shifter.”
“Oh, and, Mom …”
She turned.
“He’s taken Lucas’s form.”
Her mouth twisted with disgust as she ran up the porch with Luna at her side.
I took off in the direction of Molly’s cries. Not much natural light remained, and it was even darker within the forest.
“Molly!” I followed the trace of energy she’d left behind, and searched between the trees for signs of both Molly and Darion.
The greenhouse.
I latched onto Molly’s vibrations and ran toward the greenhouse. Sheets of stars and a bright gibbous moon replaced the fading crimson sky and made me wish I’d thought to bring a flashlight.
Fear gripped me as I realized that no trace of Darion’s energy was near.
I darted up the path behind the greenhouse and heard Molly’s whimper inside.
Broken pots and shredded plants lay across the floor.
Molly clung to a piece of black fabric. “He was in here. They must have snuck up on him.”
A pile of black ash on the floor caught my attention. Activated charcoal. That was what Darion had been getting. He’d planned to flush his blood from Molly’s system.
“The shifter must have had an accomplice. They took Darion. I don’t sense him anywhere, but we’ll find him, I swear.” I tucked my arms under Molly’s armpits and lifted. “Come on, Molls. Let’s go get some answers.”
“If he’s hurt Darion, he’s going to wish I’d put him out of his misery.” She wiped her eyes with the torn fabric from Darion’s shirt and locked her arm around mine.
We walked arm in arm back to my apartment in silence. Luna’s growl vibrated on the other side of the partially open front door. She circled the bound shifter, who sat perched in a wooden chair in the kitchen with multiple layers of duct tape securing his body to the chair. He stood no chance of escape.
“Molly, dear.” My mom held her arms open. She caressed Molly’s hair back. “I’m so glad to see you awake and safe.” She glanced over the top of Molly’s head. “Tell me everything.”
I started at the beginning, from the time I’d arrived at the hospital that morning.
She shook her head when I gave her the recap of what had happened after we’d entered Molly’s dream. “Absolutely reckless,” she scolded, which made me hesitate to tell her about the blood potion that Molly had drunk, but I didn’t want to leave anything out.
“Everly.” She leaned against the kitchen island and ran a hand through her short raven hair. “You, of all people, should know how dangerous blood spells can be, after last year.”
I pulled a barstool out from under the kitchen island and hopped onto the wooden seat. “I know, Mom, but we had no choice. Oria said it was the only way to save Molly. We did what was necessary, just like the last time I used this kind of magic.”
“All that matters now is Molly’s safe, so let’s focus on finding your brother and Lucas.” Her brows knitted together as she narrowed her gaze on the shifter. “There’s something I need from the house.”
She left and returned within minutes, carrying a long, thick rope, which I knew wasn’t just any rope. It was spelled to restrain magic.
“It’s time we wake this monster up.” She ran her hands across the twisted rope. “Molly, honey, I know Darion explained some things about us, but this creature is not Vitarian. He comes from another planet altogether. What I’m going to do may seem grotesque and cruel, but it’s the only way to deal with him. If you want to go over to the house and wait, that’s okay. Darion wouldn’t want you to see this.”
Molly straightened her spine and shook her head, her brown eyes wide and stubborn. “No. I’m not going anywhere until Darion is safe and back home.”
Satisfied, my mom turned back toward the shifter.
Luna’s hackles rose as her growls grew more aggressive.
“She smells the Shimera,” my mom explained. “Come here, girl.” She called Luna to her. “I’ve got this,” she whispered, and brushed her finger across Luna’s brow to calm her.
Luna hung back, giving my mom space as she stretched a length of rope from the bundle in her arms and wrapped an end around our prisoner’s exposed neck. Smoke hissed as the skin melted away.
“What’s happening?” I asked my mom, who seemed to have expected t
his result.
“The spelled rope restrains magic. Well, the Shimera—that’s the name of their race,” she explained when my brows shot up at her reference, “only have one kind of magic, and that’s hiding behind their false skin. They hate their appearance. Just wait,” she said as the rope burned through what looked like Lucas’s flesh.
My stomach recoiled at the smell, and Molly stared wide-eyed at the sizzling flesh.
The room filled with an earsplitting scream as the shifter’s head whipped up, and his eyes snapped open.
“Stop!” he cried. “Please take it off.”
I grimaced. Underneath the disintegrating skin appeared red and pus-filled flesh. Molly bent over, gagging at the smell. I pinched my nose, afraid I might barf if I breathed one more whiff of the decaying odor. I didn’t know how my mom tolerated being so close to him.
When he caught me gawking at his skin, he wailed and thrashed against his bindings. His effort was of no use. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“Tell me where my son is.” The cold, harsh tone of my mom’s words sent a shiver down my spine.
The shifter growled and continued his pointless fight with the tape. He howled when Luna darted in and bit his leg. “I’m going to roast that beast when I get free.”
Luna barked triumphantly.
My mom loosed more of the rope from her hands and drooped it over his shoulders.
The acrid smell of burnt flesh sizzled at the contact, exposing more of his rotting flesh. The nauseating odor permeated the room.
Molly dashed over to the kitchen cupboard where I kept candles and incense. She chose a long incense stick and lit the tip, waving the smoke around us. It helped, but not much.
The shifter remained tight-lipped, earning himself a twist of the rope around his face. I wanted to turn away, but he knew where Darion and Lucas were, and if he thought we were weak, he wouldn’t talk. I hardened my resolve, and my eyes bored into his. What kind of monster hides under someone else’s skin?
“Where’s Lucas?” I demanded. “Where’s my brother?” I scanned his fingers for the royal Ever signet, but it wasn’t there. Either he’d taken it off when he’d changed form, or this wasn’t the man from Molly’s dream or the photo with my father.