Alix (The Coven's Grove Chronicles #1)

by Virginia Hunter

  Without thought Alix screamed, “Look out, behind you!”

  That’s when she realized her mistake.

  Every eye in the room turned toward Alix, and for a split second, all went quiet. The beady, glowing orbs of hellfire that the monster used for eyes, narrowed as it took a deep breath, smelling the air. Alix couldn’t say for certain, but the creature appeared to grin in satisfaction just before it snarled, and charged the window.

  Alix backpedaled, and slammed into the railing on the far side of the landing.

  The creature crashed into the wall, shattering glass, and stone. It was too big to get through, but began gouging chunks out of the wall, screaming in rage.

  Panic ran through Alix’s veins like a shot of adrenaline. Her thoughts raced by in flashes, until an image stuck in her mind. Lightning. She fell to her knees, and slapped her palm onto the cold steel of the landing. The panicked thought released into the real word on her command. An image of a giant, yellow lightning bolt, imprinted across the metal grating.

  Bricks blew past her as the beast burst through the wall.

  Alix rolled toward the stairs. She didn’t try to stop herself, as she tumbled down the hard steps. Instead, she squeezed into a ball, absorbing the barrage of jarring blows. She ended her descent against the railing of the second-story platform. A groan of pain escaped from her lips. Blinking back the spots of color that danced across her vision, Alix looked for her pursuer.

  The creature stepped out onto the third-story landing, eyes still blazing, and filled with hunger. Once both of its feet touched the imprinted area, lines of blue electricity erupted from the platform. As if alive, the arcing bolts crawled up the creature’s legs, and along its heavy torso, until they covered every inch of the monster who now stood rigidly twitching.

  Holy crap, it worked, Alix thought, amazed. She had no idea how long the trap would last, but decided it was best not to waste time sitting there watching. She struggled to her feet, panic still surging through her. She raced to the next set of stairs, taking them two at a time. Half way down to the next landing, she crashed into Sam. The petite blond was bent over, and moving at a crawl.

  They both lost their footing in the collision, and flew through the air. The pair landed in a tangled heap at the foot of the stairs on the first-story platform. Upon impact Sam squealed in pain, and Alix cursed, as her head smacked off the metal grating.

  “For the love of—” Alix began, as she untangled herself from Sam. “Are you tryin’ to get us killed?!”

  “YOU ran into ME!” Sam retorted, sounding more like her old self.

  Alix got up, and hauled Sam to her feet. “Run!”

  They both reached the ladder that led down to the street at the same time. Alix hit a curved lever, and watched, as metal rungs sped by them so quickly they were a blur. The bottom of the ladder struck the sidewalk with a loud clang. Without urging, Sam clambered down to the street, Alix hot on her heels.

  The sound of gunfire echoed off of the buildings up above, and the deep roar of the monster began anew.

  Alix glanced up as her feet touched the pavement.

  Electrical lines no longer skittered along the bony scales of the beast’s body, but smoke coiled into the air from the many scorch marks left by Alix’s trap. The creature glared down through the grated steel. Black lips peeled back in a snarl, to reveal the many yellowed, jagged teeth of its slavering maw. Heavy arms ending in boulder-like fists, slammed against the third-story landing repeatedly. The entire structure shook from the assault, and a handful of anchoring bolts came free of the brick wall.

  Alix threw her arms up, shielding her head, as she ran out from under the fire escape.

  Sam stood in the street, gazing up at the fire escape.

  Alix came to a halt beside her friend, and looked up as well, thinking of Troy. Please don’t be dead.

  As if in answer to her plea, Troy dashed through the gaping hole where her window used to be. He continued on like a freight train, plowing into the creature that mindlessly hammered at the crumbling fire escape. The force of his tackling blow carried them both over the railing. They plummeted to the earth. Troy riding and punching the monster all the way down. Their fall ended with a deafening crash, as they smashed into the roof of a jeep. The hardtop buckled from the combined weight and velocity of the two combatants.

  Alix screamed, and rushed over to the two entwined bodies now embedded into the vehicle.

  The creature was on the bottom, and had hit the roof first. Its thick arms and legs twitched randomly. It was unclear if the beast was alive or dead, but the burning embers for eyes had gone dark. Troy lay on top of it, motionless. A tiny trickle of blood ran from his nose, to pool on one of the creature’s scales.

  Alix took hold of one of Troy’s dangling arms. The warm, electrical sensation she had felt that night in the tattoo parlor danced along her fingertips, through her hand, up her arm, and into her body. She gasped in shock and relief. Somehow she knew Troy was alright, or would be all right if they got the hell out of there—fast.

  The twitching beast groaned, and began to move, disoriented. Troy’s head snapped up, his expression sharp and alert. His eyes focused on something behind her. “Look out!”

  Alix released Troy’s wrist, and spun around.

  A man stood not more than a dozen feet away. His black long-coat was buttoned up all the way to his neck, and covered the lower part of his face. In his gloved hands was some type of shotgun. A short flame burst out the end of the barrel, and the explosive sound reached Alix’s ears just before the slug hit her square in the chest. The blow threw her into the crushed jeep behind her. Pain was something Alix had become accustomed to during her years of living on the streets, but nothing like this.

  Darkness crawled along the fringes of Alix’s vision. She clenched her jaw, as she slid down the side of the car, fighting the urge to pass out. Her breath came in short gasps that did nothing to fill her lungs. Numbness seeped out from the point of impact encasing her body like a cocoon, and a feeling of utter calm washed over her.

  The events that followed got a bit hazy. She knew Troy was standing over her yelling, but how he had gotten there, and what he was saying were complete mysteries. Sam appeared beside him, and the two of them pulled Alix to her feet. Hands rummaged through her pockets, as she was dragged to what she thought to be her car.

  Alix giggled, hoping that the probing hands belonged to Troy. She tried to say as much, but she didn’t think it came out right because Sam and Troy just looked at her like she was a half-wit.

  The humorless pair threw Alix into the backseat of her Volkswagen Bug, and then climbed into the front seats. The familiar sound of the engine revving tickled her ears, as she laid down on the cool, padded bench-seat. The car jerked suddenly as if it had been rear ended. But Troy didn’t stop to check the damages, or get the insurance card of the jackass that hit her pretty purple Bug.

  Alix found that she didn’t really care. In fact, all she wanted was to sleep. As if the thought were a command, her eyelids closed, and she drifted into the blackness.

  Alix blinked back the sunlight that poured in from the windows. The purr of an engine hummed in her ears, while the gentle vibration of the car massaged her aching muscles. She groaned from the soreness in her chest.

  “Sounds like someone’s finally awake,” Sam said from the front seat.

  “Good,” Troy replied.

  Alix tried to sit up, but her vision blurred. So she slowly settled back. Much better, she thought. Maybe I can just stay here forever. An impossible hope she knew, but that didn’t prevent her from wishing. Once her eyes adjusted to the brutal brightness, she recognized the gray interior with furry, purple seat covers, and the floor boards filled with empty take out bags of her Volkswagen Bug. At least her car had made it out of that mess last night.

  Sam’s head peeked over the passenger seat. Her blond locks were just as disheveled as they always were. “You okay?”

  Alix gro
aned again. Her chest throbbed, while her limbs felt like she had just swam the English Channel. Other than that, she was peachy, and managed to ask, “What happened?”

  “We were hoping you could tell us,” Troy answered in that deep sexy voice of his.

  Everything that happened that night was a blur. Alix focused her thoughts on the last moments she could remember before she spoke, “I think I got shot.”

  “No shit,” Sam said matter-of-factly. “It’s how you’re still alive that’s got us stumped.”

  Alix closed her eyes remembering the gun going off. “There’s a mirror in the glove box, could you hand it to me?” She knew what had happened, why she had survived, but she didn’t think the others would understand if she told them. Alix glanced at the backs of her hands, as Sam searched the glove compartment.

  One of the matching flower tattoos was gone.

  Alix pulled up her sleeve to find unmarked skin all the way up her forearm. Just as she had expected—the tattoo had completely disappeared.

  Alix jerked her sleeve down before Sam’s face popped back over the seat.

  “Here ya go,” Sam said, offering the compact mirror.

  Alix took it. “Thanks.” She clicked the tiny button to open it, and eased the tattered remains of her shirt apart.

  Sam whistled. “That’s a hell of a bruise ya got there. Sorry about the bra, it was toast.”

  Alix looked through the small mirror to verify Sam’s comments. The absence of her favorite bra told of its unfortunate demise, but that was the least of her concerns. Browns, blues, and purples, mixed together in a nasty circle about the size of a large fist, right in the center of her chest. Great. How the hell am I gonna play this off? She cleared her throat and said, “Maybe I got grazed. Or it was a misfire or something.”

  Sam’s deadpan expression practically screamed that she wasn’t going for it. “Look girl, I already know about hunkalicious over here,”—she jabbed her thumb at Troy—“Ya don’t have to hide anything on my account.”

  Alix frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I told her why I came looking for you,” Troy answered.

  “He thinks you’re hot,” Sam chimed in, her old devious look returning.

  Troy snorted. “Yeah, but it’s more than that.”

  Heat touched Alix’s cheeks. “Must be my uncanny ability to take a hit.”

  “I don’t doubt that after last night,” Troy said. “But again, it’s more than that.”

  “So are you going to let me in on this unquenchable desire to find me, or do I have to guess?” Alix asked, her curiosity genuinely piqued. She tried to sit up again, this time much more slowly. A spell of dizziness hit her, but once she steadied herself, the feeling went away.

  Sam nodded, and flipped around to face the front. “This is gonna be good.”

  Alix noticed the landscape they drove through was far from the towering buildings and crowded streets she was used to seeing. Open farmland, covered by a solid sheet of snow, stretched as far as the eye could see. “Where are we?” she asked, perplexed.

  Sam looked over her shoulder. “Southwest sugar, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Let Troy have his say.”

  Alix shook her head, exasperated. “Fine.”

  “We had to get out of town,” Troy said, responding to Alix’s question. His broad shoulders shifting in the driver’s seat. “Those...things followed us to the hospital, and pretty much everywhere else we stopped. I lost them before we got out of the city limits though.”

  Alix looked at her blond-haired friend. “Why the hell were they after you?”

  Sam’s eyes widened, “They weren’t after me. They came to the shop looking for you.”

  A chill ran down Alix’s spine. What the hell? Why are they after me? Her mind began to race until a shocking realization dawned. “So, what you said last night, about everybody. That was true?”

  Sam paled,. “Yeah, it’s true.”

  Tears blurred Alix’s vision. She buried her head in her hands and wept. Oh, God. It’s all my fault. Hank, I’m so sorry. She had brought ruin down on those she loved. How wrong she had been to think she had found a home and a family. She should have stayed on her own.

  Troy and Sam were silent.

  Alix wiped the moisture from her eyes, sniffling. “So what’s the story Troy?”

  He glanced in the rearview mirror, concern in his crystal blue eyes.

  “I’m okay,” Alix lied. “Tell me. It’ll help take my mind off things.”

  “Okay,” Troy began. “That night you and I met, I’d convinced myself it hadn’t happened. I mean, to get thrown across the room like that, and not have a scratch to show for it isn’t really possible, right? That’s what I’d told myself anyway.” He shifted in his seat again before continuing. “I went on that job, where that kid got shot. It was intense like I’d thought it would be, but everything was going okay. There were small pockets of rioting all around the area. I was lucky enough not to have been caught up in it, until the night I left to come back to New York.”

  “I watched the news almost every day after you left the shop,” Alix blurted, remembering what seemed like endless nights of loneliness and dread. “I didn’t see anything about any trouble with an EMT.”

  Sam snickered, “Damn, TV stalker.”

  Alix shot her a glance that would have sent most people directly to hell. “I was just watching the news.” She sighed, knowing how lame that sounded.

  “Whatever,” Sam replied, not quite under her breath.

  “You wouldn’t have,” Troy said, saving Alix from complete humiliation as Sam continued to smirk. “No one was injured...Well, not permanently at least.” He smiled at Alix through the rearview mirror before continuing. “As I was leaving town, I came across some people that needed help—their kid actually. The boy had been caught up in part of the rioting, and had some severe trauma to his leg and shoulder. I did what I could before the mob showed up. There were maybe two dozen of them armed with whatever they could find, and angry enough to unleash violence on whoever got in their way. I helped the family make a run for it to an apartment complex. The place was pretty rundown, but there weren’t a whole lot of options at the time.” Troy paused, and took a drink from his bottled water.

  Alix suddenly realized how dry her throat was. “Could I get a sip of that?”

  Without a word, he handed the bottle back to her.

  Her eyes lingered on the muscles of his shoulder and neck, as she took the water. “Thanks,” she croaked. His black shirt fit tightly to his body, making it impossible not to imagine what lay underneath. Of course she didn’t have to imagine, she’d seen him without his shirt first hand, which didn’t help in the slightest. Tearing her gaze from the man, Alix took a sip from the bottle, and ended up guzzling the whole thing.

  “You hungry?” Troy asked. “You’ve been out for awhile.”

  “I don’t know about her,” Sam said. “But I’m freakin’ starving.”

  Troy laughed. It was a welcome sound, warm, and infectious. “Okay. We need to look for a place to stop for a while anyway. Sound like a plan?”

  “Yep,” Sam replied, as Alix nodded.

  They went on in silence for a few miles until Alix’s curiosity got the better of her. “So what happened? How did getting chased by a mob make you come looking for me?”

  “The long and short of it: I got shoved out of a four story window.” Troy eyed Alix through the rearview mirror. “I shouldn’t have survived that fall, but I didn’t even break a bone. And this thing you put on me,”—he pointed to his chest—“It started burning and glowing like on the night we met. Scared the shit out of me.”

  Alix felt the blood drain from her cheeks. I’m so busted.

  “What did you do to me, Alix?” Troy asked.

  Sam twisted in her seat to look Alix in the eyes. “Yeah, and how are you still breathing after getting shot in the chest?”

  Alix sighed in defeat. “You wouldn’t believe me if I to
ld you.”

  Sam scoffed. “Seriously?! After last night. C’mon Alix, give me a break. I’m not that blonde!”

  “All right!” Alix replied, with a bit of irritation. “It’s just hard to explain.”

  “Use small words then,” Sam persisted.

  Alix pursed her lips, but continued. “I’ve got this gift or something. It started when I was like sixteen. I can take thoughts and images from my mind, and bring them into the real world.”

  The only response to her revelation was the sound of the engine chugging away, as the Volkswagen chewed up miles. Not a word from either of them. Sam’s expression was a combination of shock, disbelief, and confusion. Troy kept his eyes on the road, and flexed his jaw in contemplation.

  “Well?!” Alix blurted in a panic, afraid they might throw her from the car at any moment.

  “Holy-no-shit!” Sam gawked. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that years ago?”

  Alix gave her friend a flat look. “Really? Like that would’ve gone over well.”

  “I would have understood.” Sam scrunched up her nose, and crossed her eyes playfully. “Eventually.”

  Alix rolled her eyes.

  “So the tattoo you put on my chest…It was a thought that came out of your head?” Troy asked. There was tension in his voice.

  “Sort of,” Alix said. “I inked part of it.”

  Troy glanced in the mirror. “And that’s how you survived being shot. You have the same thing?”

  Alix bit her lip. Troy’s tattoo was the part she didn’t understand. She didn’t really understand any of it, but the symbol on Troy’s chest had her at a complete loss. “It’s similar, but there are some differences.” Alix pulled her sleeves up. “I put two matching tats on my arms the year before Hank found me. They were...I don’t know, ‘wards’ against harm. Mainly just protection from the elements in case I had to sleep outside in the cold.”

  Sam’s eyes widened. “Hey, what happened to this one?” She grabbed hold of Alix’s right arm. The one no longer decorated with a tattoo.