Angel Dreams (An Angel Falls Book 2)

by Jody A. Kessler

  The scream comes out of her quick and heart stopping. On the other side of the window is one of Travis’s creatures. It’s black, and faceless, and enormous. If you look at it too long, you start to see things moving inside. It’s indescribable, and terrifying.

  Juliana dives across the car to the other side. The door is standing wide open but as she gets her feet on the blacktop the demons move in to circle around her. I can see at least three of them. She scurries back inside pulling the door shut.

  These soulless pieces of Hell are the ones that shredded me into lifeless bits. I fling myself at them like a madman, waving my arms and screaming at the top of my lungs. They ignore me completely. What they have done to me is history. I’m nothing to them now. They move to stand guard around the car. Juliana huddles on the passenger seat with her head buried in her knees.

  “He’s scaring you on purpose. Don’t stand for it. He’s a weak and pitiful person.”

  “I could feel them. I could feel them, Nathaniel. They’re…”

  She’s talking about the demons. Her voice and body shake. “I know. I’ll stay with you, Juliana. They’re staying outside the car.”

  Travis walks up, opens the driver’s side door, and positions himself behind the wheel.

  “We’re going for a ride. How’s that sound, my Siren?”

  He restarts the engine. Juliana doesn’t say anything. I don’t think she can. He shifts into first gear and we start to move. “I think we’ll take my new car,” he says conversationally. “After I park this piece of shit, you will follow me, and you will be quiet. If you do or say anything I don’t like, I will give you to my Night Terrors. Do you understand, Siren?”

  She still doesn’t respond. I’m afraid her silence is going to anger him further. I’m not exactly sure what that may do to him, but none of us want to find out.

  “Answer me,” he commands with chilling calm.

  “Yes,” she chokes out.

  He parks her car by a van and some tall shrubs where it is mostly unseen from the hospital entrance and turns the key. “My Night Terrors are wonderful pets. If you like, I can make you one of them. Don’t forget. Let’s go. Wait,” he says, pausing, “one last detail.”

  With this last statement, Travis reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a small vial. He uncaps it and pours some gritty substance into his palm. “Your nuisance of a friend can stay here.”

  Before I realize what is going on, he blows what looks like dirt at me. It falls through me and scatters over the leather seat.

  Quickly and calmly, he releases a spell onto me. “A prison’s a prison. In life, or in death. You will stay. Where I know it’s best.”

  And then, as if I’m chained to the car, I’m unable to move.

  “What is this?” I yell, as I struggle at invisible restraints. I try to vanish and reappear outside of the car, but nothing happens. I’m glued to the seat, helpless and exploding with rage.

  “Prison grave dirt. It’s hard to come by, but it’s useful for unwanted pests,” he says.

  Juliana looks at me from the front seat, biting her lower lip, and then her green eyes meet mine. Her thick black lashes, which normally enhance her emerald and gold eyes, now only serve to frame the fear and the tears threatening to spill over.

  “I’ll find you. I swear.”

  She looks away without saying anything and then with a trembling hand opens the door. I watch in utter disbelief at this current turn of unfortunate events. Travis and Juliana walk toward his new pristine looking classic BMW. She clutches her purple bag in one hand, holding it close to her side. The black shadow demons circle around them like body guards from the depths of Hell.

  Chapter Twenty: Terror’s Turn

  Juliana

  How do you find your voice when fear is strangling the life out of you? How do you know if you’ll ever have the chance to say what you really wanted to? What if this is the last time we’ll ever see each other? My brother, my mother, Nathaniel? Why am I so freaked out about Nathaniel, when I really need to be worrying about myself and Corrine? And where is Jared? Is he still alive?

  I couldn’t speak. I wanted to say something, but I was incapable. How am I supposed to leave him there? I guess I just did it, but I don’t know how it was possible. My mouth knew to stay quiet. Travis’s energy has the force of a hurricane inside the skin of a rabid wolverine. I couldn’t be the one responsible for releasing any more devastation on Nathaniel. Still, the look in his eyes was enough to shatter me into a million shards of guilt, remorse, misery, desperation, and wretchedness. It was perfectly clear he was thinking all of this was his fault, when actually, it’s mine. How could I have let this happen? I wanted to make things right for Corrine. I was hoping that if her situation improved then it might have a chain effect on Nathaniel’s predicament. All I’ve accomplished is to make everything worse.

  “Get in the back,” Travis says as he grabs my arm and steers me roughly into the back seat of his car.

  I clutch my hiking pack with an iron fist, but to some little relief, Travis doesn’t seem to even notice it. I scoot across the seat, as far away from him as possible. Corrine sits in front of me. Her pale blue eyes are bloodshot under heavy lids but she’s awake. I imagine the look on my face is much like hers, afraid to speak and yet silently screaming some important piece of advice to run, or call for help. Anything to get us out of here, but there’s no one. The teeny mountain hospital parking lot is as quiet as a church at midnight. The towering nightmares Travis called his “Night Terrors” stay just outside the car, but still easily within range to come torture me.

  “What the hell is the matter with you?” Travis says after closing the door. He starts the car and drives out of the lot before Corrine answers.

  She shrivels back against the charcoal colored leather. Her voice cracks and she has to try a couple of times before any understandable words form. “I, it’s, I took some of your special blend.”

  “Damn it, Corrine! Is that it?” he says, as if he can’t believe he’s being bothered with something so trivial. “Did you give some to this piece of trash?”

  Travis shoots me a glaring look and then he turns back to the road in front of him. He turns left onto the highway, heading west, and out of town. I watch the distance grow between me and my car with Nathaniel sitting inside helpless and trapped. And then stare at the hospital where my mother is until all hope fades from my view.

  “No,” Corrine says. “But, I think I took too much. I’m so tired.”

  Travis scowls instead of answering her. His already coarse face hardens and his eyes become pinpricks as he drives straight into the harsh sunlight of late evening.

  “How could you do this to me, you ungrateful little whelp? You knew that I needed you tonight.”

  Travis leans forward and reaches for something under his feet. I have a fleeting urge to jump on him while he’s distracted. Then I realize that I’ll probably end up killing Corrine and myself by crashing the car, so I sit and watch from the back seat. He hands Corrine a small black case.

  “How many caps did you take?” he asks.

  I don’t know how she’s able to do it, but Corrine shrinks even further away. “A couple,” she lies.

  “Swallow a pink one.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks, hands unwilling to open the case in her lap.

  “Do you think I spent all those years studying pharmacology and learned nothing? Do you think I’m as stupid as you are?”

  “What’s it going to do to me?” she whines.

  I can hear the choking sob in her voice and can easily picture the tears welling up. I want to cry with her. Her drug induced fog is causing her to struggle to find and pronounce her words correctly. Serious doubts that she may not have survived her suicide attempt didn’t escape me when we were headed for the hospital. The vomiting had to have helped.

  “Pinkies wake you up. You have to be alert tonight. Do it now, or I’ll force it down your throat,” he says, leaving n
o doubt he’ll do exactly that given the first opportunity.

  “Okay, I’ll take it. Just let Jules out. I got really sick and she was trying to help me. Please, Travis. I’ll do whatever you want but she doesn’t need to come with us,” Corrine pleads.

  I knew there was a sweet and thoughtful girl inside that tiny messed up shell. Her circumstances and her family members shouldn’t be held against her. That’s another reason I had to come save her. Unfortunately, things have gone terribly wrong. How am I going to get us out of this?

  My heart pounds as I wait for his answer. Would he really let me walk away?

  “I have a special job for your friend,” he says, his eyes never leaving the road.

  The malign smile lifting the corners of his mouth, the confidence and satisfaction in his tone, and the ever-present black void of his aura, terrifies the life out of me. Unable to think clearly, I ride along, digging my nails into the leather seat as if I can claw my way out of this moving prison. It doesn’t work.

  ∞

  “Get out,” he orders.

  Corrine had already climbed out of the car and is standing nearby hugging herself, misery written all over her face.

  Travis pushes the seat forward giving me room to slip out. His soul-sucking demons are back, but they keep their distance, hovering near the trees like hungry wolves. Their presence alone is enough to keep me doing whatever Travis wants.

  We’re in the old mining district. Where he parked the car may have been part of a camp once, but all that remains are the partial walls of a cabin and some heavy timbers, strewn here and there, and decaying like the memories of the old days. The drive had taken a couple of hours. I know roughly where we are. Not that I’ve been to this exact location before, but I have been in the area. Silver was the reason for the destruction to the mountains around here and apparently it’s the reason we’re here tonight.

  “Find me a piece of ore. The highest content of silver that you can. Raw silver, or the ore, and any crystals you can find. Tonight is the only time in Cancer that the moon is right. I will get this done tonight, or you will suffer.”

  “It’s almost dark, Travis.”

  “You better hurry then.”

  “Jules can hold a flashlight for me,” Corrine says as she moves in my direction.

  Travis doesn’t respond verbally, but the withering look he gives her makes her step back.

  “Can I take a light, please?”

  “Trunk,” he says.

  Corrine finds the flashlight and hikes away from us. The mountainside looms in front of her, deep in shadow, but I can still see the streaks of yellow and rust, gray, black, white, and even some purple where different minerals are exposed to the air and the weather. Piles of old mine tailings cover acres of ground, and I can’t imagine how Corrine will be able to find what she’s looking for. She disappears into a nearby stand of blue spruce and then I’m alone with him and his demons.

  I stare down the trail, looking back from where we came. Could I make it back to the paved road on foot? How far is it? Five miles perhaps. It’s hard to gauge the distance, mostly because we were moving at a snail’s pace over the rough road. All the way Travis pissed and moaned about every rut or pothole hurting his precious new car. Then he kept glaring at me or Corrine after any bump as if it were our fault somehow. I’m not sure what’s so new about it. The BMW looks pretty old to me, but he seems obsessed with these cars. If I could get away from him, I wouldn’t be able to follow the road anyway. He would find me. No, I would have to go through the woods and stay out of sight.

  “There’s no going back for you, Siren,” Travis says as he takes a backpack out of the trunk of the car and slips it over his back.

  “What did I do to you? Let me go and I won’t turn you in for kidnapping.”

  “What did I do to you?” he mimics in a terrible impersonation of me. “Why do you even try to lie?”

  His black eyes narrow as he glares at me. He’s a little shorter than I am but I feel like the smaller person, wanting desperately to cower or at least take a step back. Better yet, run away as fast as I can, but I hold my ground afraid to move and unleash the lurking Night Terrors.

  “You lack respect for important rituals. You have no idea how hard I worked to bring the succubus to me. Tell me what you did to her, you brainless tramp.”

  Fear and disgust are at equal measure as tiny bits of spittle hit my face as he talks. I shift my gaze away from his evil eyes and refuse to answer him. I refuse to cooperate in any way with this demon-loving scumbag. He can threaten me all he wants, but this pathetic little man is getting nothing from me. He grabs my arm and yanks me to the side. The toe of my shoe catches on a rock and I stumble and go down. Landing on my one free hand and both knees sends a jarring shock up my arm to my shoulder. I try to ignore the impact. I twist to the side and decide to plant myself on the ground, rather than stand up and take more of his crap. He relinquishes my arm after a painful tug. I hear his boots scrape across the gravel and then the car door opens. I stare longingly across the clearing at my envisioned path to freedom. That’s when I see her.

  She’s keeping her distance and I’m not totally sure what or who she is. I can’t see her face beneath the shadow of an oversized hood, but I’m not completely freaked by her like I am of the Night Terrors. My instincts are screaming that she’s not alive, but also not a threat. Could she help me? My gaze flicks over to the opposite side of the clearing where the soul-sucking demons are still hanging around. They’ve moved out of the trees and are a few feet closer. Instinctively, I know they’re watching me and a grip of icy steel wraps around me like shackles. Travis’s Night Terrors are more horrific than anything I could conjure up in my worst nightmare. Indescribable pain, anguish, and horror are what they infuse into your being just by being near them. Quickly, I look for the lady. At first, I don’t see her, but then I get a glimpse of dark green moving away through some tall shrubs.

  Travis backs out of the car and closes the door. I watch the pointed toes of his cowboy boots walk up next to me and stop.

  “Stand up.”

  When I don’t move, his left foot kicks me hard. Something in my hip tweaks and a shot of fire zings down my leg. An involuntary scream escapes from my mouth. I scramble to my feet and make a run for it. My feet slip on the gravel and loose dirt but keep moving forward, clawing at the earth to get away. A shriek of terror escapes me as two towering black shadows slip in front of me, blocking my way. Making a quick attempt to go around them proves totally useless, they move faster than any human. At any cost, I can’t touch them for fear of disappearing into their black depths. I spin around and see Travis watching me. His face is hard and angry as he takes the few steps needed to be in my face again.

  He reaches out and grabs my hand. I try to yank it back but he’s squeezing the bones so hard I think he’s going to break me. Lifting my hand up to chest level, he inspects the fingers of my right hand. Repulsion and creepiness add to the fear swimming through my body at his touch. Travis repositions his hold so he’s gripping the edge of my hand with my pinky finger sticking straight out. I’m positive he’s going to break it, and I feel a wave of nausea roil inside my stomach. I look away, unable to watch the mutilation of my own body or see the seething hatred on his pointed face.

  My little finger nearly snaps as he yanks my hand down and to the side. As my knees are about to buckle, I feel an almighty slap across my face.

  “Look at me, stupid girl.”

  Instant tears spill over my burning cheek as intense pain radiates into my brain from the impact. I keep my head turned far to the right, refusing to look at him. He raises my captured hand, holding it between us, like some sick and twisted proposal.

  “The back seat of my new car was absolutely perfect. Now there’s a tear in the leather. And scratches,” he says with icy calm.

  The pain in my hand, the instant migraine, and the demons standing behind me are making my heart race and skip and my lungs unable to
function. The world begins to spin and all the edges are turning black.

  “How dare you,” Travis roars in my face. “I’ve been waiting for a car like this for years and in one ride you’ve ruined it.”

  With those final words, I feel him fumbling with my finger. Part of my consciousness wonders if he is going to tear my pinky off. I’m mostly numb by now and am beginning to feel distant from my body, as if we are two separate beings. That is, until he rips my fingernail off.

  Hysterical screams tear from my throat. Falling to my knees, I cradle my bleeding finger against my stomach and scream and scream and scream until I feel something being shoved into my mouth. Reaching up, I grope for the dirty tasting thing, but he stops me. While he squeezes my wrists, I spit and push the rag out of my mouth and let fear choke back any remaining cries.

  He yanks me back onto my feet, holding me by both wrists.

  “Have you forgotten my Terrors already, Siren?” he asks with his frighteningly calm self-assurance. “They like to devour souls one small piece at a time until there’s nothing left.”

  How could I forget them? They’re looming a few feet behind him, eight feet tall and blacker than a bottomless pit. They have a distinct maleness about them even though they’re missing any real facial features, and they’re curious about me — or more like savagely hungry for me.

  “Keep your mouth shut and do what I say or I’ll give you to them. Do you understand?”

  I nod and he lets my hands drop.

  “Walk,” he says and nods his head in the direction Corrine had gone.

  I move mechanically only changing direction when Travis says to.

  “Stop,” he orders, and my footsteps halt instantly.

  We have only gone ten feet or so and I dare a look over my shoulder as I hear Travis moving away from me. The demons stay within a few feet, leaving no chance for trying to run again. Walking back toward his precious car, Travis stops and picks up a hunk of granite from the ground and then wedges it behind the back tire. I turn back around, not wanting to be caught watching him.