<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Carolena woke again. She was filled with fear, like the feeling you get when you wake from a nightmare. She glanced sleepy-eyed around her bedroom; Enthrall still hadn’t returned. Good for him, she thought on a smile. She turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but her eyes picked up something through the windows. A glow. That didn’t look right, the sky was still dark, why would there be a glow?
Carolena got up and walked to the window, eyes going wide when she realized there was fire. Fire out in the distance at the tree line of her property. And she wasn’t sure, but there seemed to be people out there, too. She turned and ran from her bedroom, screaming as she went, “Fire! There’s a fire! I need help!”
Suddenly the house was bustling with life. Doors opened and slammed, people came running — servants and Rowan’s family alike.
“There’s a fire out there!” she shouted, pointing in the direction of the back grounds. “All the way at the tree line, it’s going to spread if we don’t put it out!”
“We’re going to tend it, Miss,” the butler told her. Snatching up blankets and brooms, he reached for the door, several other servants in tow, and got nowhere. He dropped the things he was carrying and tried to unlock the door, rattling the knob, “It won’t open, Miss!” he said, still fighting against the stuck door.
Carolena’s heart dropped; she ran to the front door and tried to open it, too. No luck, it wouldn’t open either. “This one won’t open either!” she cried.
Mamaie came hurrying into the foyer, “Rowan is gone! She’s not in her room!”
Then her butler came to her with more bad news, “It’s much worse, Miss. There are flames at the back of the house. We have to find a way out, or we will all perish.”
Gheorghe said, “It’s Alexandru, he’s found us. He will kill us all,” he lamented, wringing his hands.
“Rowan won’t allow him to hurt us, surely she’ll access her magics, she’ll save us,” Carolena said.
“I don’t feel her magic. Usually I do. So either she is already gone, or they’ve found a way to block it,” her grandmother said.
Rowan’s mother was in tears, Rowan’s father trying desperately to console her.
Carolena’s mind raced, trying desperately to find a way out. “Everyone scatter, check every window, every door, there must be a way out.”
Moments later she heard a maid call to them from the bedroom Rowan had slept in, “Here! The window in this bedroom is opened! We can escape through here.”
One at a time, they all climbed through the same window that Rowan had earlier that night. As the last of them, Carolena, herself, landed in the grass on the other side of the window, she heard a very panicked, very familiar voice.
“Carolena! Are you well? Is everyone out? What happened?”
It was Enthrall; he’d returned to find the place in chaos.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Enthrall ghosted back to Carolena’s house and straight into chaos. From the side yard he returned to, he saw the glow of the flames at the back of the house and rushed around back to investigate. The entire bottom half of the back of the house was in flames. He’d tried to force the back door, but hadn’t been able to. It seemed the doorknobs had been rendered useless, jammed in someway, preventing them from being opened. He was stepping back to kick the door in when he spied people jumping out of a first floor window down at the end of the house. He rushed there, praying that all were okay, but mostly that Carolena was among them.
“Carolena! Are you well? Is everyone out? What happened?”
Carolena, flooded with relief to see that Enthrall had returned, grabbed him, “No! We can’t find Rowan! She’s not in the house, and all the doors are sealed. Where is Rowan?”
Mamaie stood facing the flames out at the back end of the property, where the manicured lawn met the wooded tree line. The old woman started walking, “There. My girl is there,” she said with determination and vehemence in her voice.
“Get away from the house. Stay away from the flames, you all have kerosene all over you. Get clear and stay safe,” he snarled at them as he ghosted from where they all stood to the flames out at the end of the lawn some 300 yards away.
Rowan’s mother and father were both taken aback at his disappearance. Rowan’s Mamaie merely snorted and began her journey to the flames in the distance, “Knew that boy wasn’t human,” was all she mumbled under her breath.
Carolena rounded everyone up and away from the house, taking care to steer clear of the flames and make sure they all stayed safe.
“Mamaie! Come this way, stay here with us!” Carolena called to her.
Mamaie didn’t even turn around. She lifted an old withered hand and just waved it at them over her shoulder as she continued slowly moving across the lawn.
All in a matter of seconds, there was shouting, screaming, and if she wasn’t mistaken, a purple mist in the air near the flames where they steadily grew in the distance. Then all was drowned out by a deafening battle cry. Bodies were tossed in the air, and she thought she saw a head tossed high.
Then the mist was rushing at them, swirling high and fast. She wasn’t the only one who saw it — the others began to panic, backing away from it, crossing themselves. Carolena… she greeted it, “Lore! What took you so long?!”
The mist started at the top of the house, doing his best to hold back the flames as they tried to climb the wall. There was only so much he could do; his brethren, the elements had never restored him to full capacity. He couldn’t call the elements as Rowan did. It was why he’d been so thankful to commune briefly with them when she’d removed Carolena’s curse. But he did his best. He breathed air at the flames, to try to send them back down the wall as opposed to the roof, which was their natural direction. But without water, there wasn’t much he could do.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Lore saw the flames in the distance and Rowan in the middle of them, hesitated while he dropped Destroy into the chaos and took note that Enthrall was there, too, as he swirled toward the house to see if he could stop the flames there from taking Carolena’s entire home.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Destroy saw the flames fast approaching as he clung to the mist that carried him toward his female. He’d not closed his eyes this trip and had seen all the horrors, all the nightmares, all the damnation that accompanied Lore’s every living moment. He had a whole new respect for the Ancient, but that was not what held his attention. It was the sight of his female, lashed to a post surrounded by flames. His battle cry didn’t even wait until he hit the ground, when he saw a male rush into the flames in an effort to kill his Rowan before he could save her from the flames. Lore dropped him, and he hit the ground running. But since his woman was already walking unscathed from the flames, he ran to those that had placed her there. Grabbed the first and tore him in half before stalking to the next, a steady roar pouring from him.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Enthrall rushed into the chaos, grabbing the first man who ran out to meet him. With inhuman strength he grabbed the man, holding the hair at the top of his head with one hand and the collar of the shirt he wore with the other; then, with force not many had witnessed, he pulled the man to him while forcing his head back so far the vertebrae in his neck began to shatter. He plunged his fangs into the man’s throat and ripped it away with a roar of satisfaction. Another man who had been running at him noticed a moment too late that Entrall’s eyes glowed red, and the fangs in his mouth dripped blood from his fallen friend. He tried to change direction, but it was too late. Enthrall was on him in a heartbeat, ripping the throat from that man as well.
He turned, looking for the next bastard that was to die that night and saw a man run out of the flames. Had he been burning with Rowan? The flames now seemed to move away from Rowan. Enthrall saw her raise her hands to the heavens and knew she called the elements to her, all would be well. Then a battle cry sounded from above him, and he smiled. Destroy had arrived. The next minu
te and a half was filled with roars, agonized screams and the sound of flesh being torn from the very bones it was meant to protect.
Enthrall saw the man who’d come from the flames that surrounded Rowan sink down to his knees among the carnage surrounding them and wasted no time stalking to him, snatching him up and to his feet. “What say you?” Enthrall snarled in his face.
The young man shook his head, “Nothing. I have nothing. Do what you will, I deserve it.”
Enthrall was sure the man would plead for his life, so this surprised him.
The young man held out a charm on an old piece of thin rope to him, “Give her this, please. Tell her I’m sorry.”
Enthrall looked at the charm in the boy’s hand and leaned closer to his face to snarl anew. Then before he knew it, Destroy was bearing down on him, having run out of men to tear apart, a fresh roar in his chest, and Rowan was stepping in front of him and the boy, demanding that Destroy stop.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
Rowan’s eyes were huge, the smoke and the filthy rag making her gag, she was trying to scream incessantly, trying to call her powers, but none of it was successful.
The last ring of kindling had gone up in flame, and the mound she stood on was beginning to catch as well. She tucked her toes in, curling her feet, trying to keep them away from the flames as they took off and spread. Just as the burn became unbearable, she saw a man burst through the flames, covering his head with one arm as he reached for her with the other hand. He thrust his fingers at her neck, wrapping them around the old aged hemp rope at her throat and tearing it away from her. “Do it! Do it now!” he cried to her. “Call down the elements, kill them all, kill US all.”
Rowan realized that the man was Vasile. He’d ripped the charm from her throat, in effect, freeing her powers. She wasted no time. She raised her head to the heavens mentally calling upon anything and everything she ever knew or dreamed she knew existed in this universe. She heard a battle cry sound above her, but didn’t even pause to take notice. The winds grew, the clouds swirled and the earth itself called out to her. The chains fell from her body, the ties binding her wrists fell away. She reached up and pulled the rag free from her mouth and throat. She opened her eyes and without a conscious thought walked calmly through the flames, not a single singe on her body. She walked, her arms raised above her head, a steady ancient chant falling from her lips, through ten feet or more of burning flame. She heard a voice whisper in her mind, “Here, Witch. We need you here.”
Almost in a catatonic state, she watched as though her body moved of its own volition. She turned looking for that which called to her and found the mists swirling about the top of the house in the distance. She threw her hands in that direction, the rains at once answering her command. Falling at a rate many would call torrential as a band of heavy clouds moved swiftly toward the beaconing mist.
The cries of agony and battle swiftly died down around her. She turned, still not quite herself, and found a bloodied and still volatile Destroy picking up pieces of bodies and tearing them to smaller pieces. Enthrall stood, with a terrified young man in his grip, Enthrall’s fangs on full display, snarling in his face.
Destroy in his crazed state finally noticed that Enthrall had a man in his possession that had not yet been broken in half or torn into multiple pieces. He bellowed out another battle cry and rushed the young man where Enthrall held him, pondering ending the young man’s life himself.
Rowan quickly moved the few steps to Enthrall, placing herself in front of the man. “No!” she shouted at Destroy, holding her hands up in front of her.
Destroy screeched to a halt just short of his chest touching her fingertips. While he knew who she was, he was in battle mode, and his beast demanded blood justice.
The rains that Rowan called down had expanded and were now pelting them all, slowing extinguishing the flames that not only threatened to overtake the house, but the flames around what would have been Rowan’s funeral pyre.
“No, Destroy! He saved me. At the last minute he saved me,” she explained.
Destroy’s chest heaved with effort to control his beast, “Die!” he snarled out, pointing to the young man.
“No, he won’t die. Not today. He freed my magic, so I could fight back. He ran through the flames and risked his own life to do so. Do not kill him,” Rowan said calmly.
Destroy didn’t move toward the man again, but he did snarl none-too-happily at her command.
Enthrall said, “That’s the only reason he still breathes.” Then he looked at the young man he still had a death grip on and snarled, “Make no mistake about it, we can change that at any time.”
Chapter 28
An old voice rang clear and strong as she muddled into the middle of the destruction, “Rowan! Come here, girl! Let me see that you’re well!”
Enthrall looked from Destroy and himself back to the old lady demanding that Rowan give her attention. There was no way possible they could pretend that what had just happened, hadn’t happened.
Rowan, still a bit dazed, turned toward the old woman and smiled weakly, “I’m fine, Mamaie.”
“Let me decide that!” the woman snapped as she shooed Destroy out of the way so that she could reach Rowan.
The look on Destroy’s face was almost comical. He stood there dripping the blood of his enemies, chest heaving with his efforts to maintain calm since Rowan wouldn’t let him break the last human, and this little, tiny, wisp of a woman shoved him aside as though he were as human as she was. He looked at Enthrall and raised his eyebrows in question. Enthrall raised his right back at Destroy.
“Mamaie, I told you I’m fine,” Rowan said again.
“Yes, well, I will tell you if you are fine. You have not ever taken full possession of your magic. I will tell if you are fine or not,” Mamaie snapped.
She walked right up to Rowan and slapped a hand to her forehead and another to her chest. “You have no fever. And your heart is strong.”
She snapped her fingers in front of Rowan’s eyes. Rowan blinked and jerked her head back.
“Your eyes are quick to react. You seem to hear okay,” Mamaie said to no one in particular.
“Mamaie, I promise, I’m well,” Rowan insisted.
“Are you sure?” she prodded.
“Yes!” Rowan nearly shouted exasperatedly.
Mamaie, who was just turning her attention to Enthrall, whipped her head back to Rowan, “Did you just use a tone with me? I don’t think I heard a tone from you, did I?” she demanded, eyes sharp and focused on Rowan.
“No, ma’am. I didn’t use a tone,” Rowan conceded.
“I didn’t think so,” she answered as she focused fully on Enthrall.
She squinted her eyes, “What are you, boy?”
Enthrall looked to Rowan, who shrugged and rolled her eyes. He regarded the old woman in front of him, but wasn’t sure how to answer.
Mamaie waited for his answer, but in the meantime grew impatient. She didn’t take her eyes from Enthrall, but waved her hand behind her brightly scarved head, “I know that one’s a Gargoyle… the horns give it away. But you… I’m not completely sure. Could be a Fae, could be a shifter — but I don’t smell any kind of wet animal, and it is raining, so. But you could be a vampire. So what is it? What are you?”
Enthrall figured she knew about all there was to know, so he went for broke, “I’m a Vampire,” he said with tone.
Mamaie raised one single eyebrow, and he amended his reply to end with, “Ma’am.”
Mamaie nodded once, sharply, “That’s better.”
Then she turned on Rowan, “Which one is yours?”
Rowan sputtered, “I don’t… None of… Why would you think one of them is mine?”
Destroy took a step closer to Rowan’s Mamaie, his amber eyes intense, a look on his face that said, “Do not deny me again.”
“Girl, have you ever known Mamaie to be a fool?” Mamaie asked.
“No, ma’am,” Rowan answered, looking
down at Mamaie’s feet.
Nothing further was said, so Rowan looked up to find Enthrall still holding a spellbound human by the throat, though they both watched Rowan, Destroy standing right behind Mamaie an expectant look on his face while he watched Rowan and Mamaie. Obviously none of them would be letting this go.
Rowan raised her hand, which caused the winds to swirl again. She snatched her hand back down to her side and jutted her chin at Destroy, “That one. He’s mine.”
“Very good choice, girl. A noble male,” Mamaie said. Then the old lady stunned them all again when she snatched Destroy’s hand in hers and led him away saying, “Let me tell you how to take care of my girl.”
They were about five feet away when Mamaie paused, looked back to Rowan and said, “Clean this mess, girl. We can’t have this about when the sun comes up. Too many questions we don’t want to answer.”
“Yes, Mamaie,” Rowan answered. She looked back at the destruction around her and sighed. “I don’t know how.”
She lifted a hand and swirled it about. The ashes and embers that hadn’t quite gone out fluttered a bit before dropping back down to the ground.
“We’ve got this, Rowan. Go with your family. Make sure they are all well. Send Lore to help me. We’ll take care of this,” Enthrall told her.
Enthrall yanked Vasile’s neck back, using his fang to lightly slice the young man’s neck. Enthrall lapped the blood from the shallow wound. “I’ve tasted you. I can track you anywhere. You run, I will find you, and you will not be saved this time. Am I clear?”
Vasile didn’t say anything, but he nodded.
Destroy, Book 2, Whispers From the Bayou Page 22