“Whatever is blocking her is strong, but I have weakened it. We can try again later and hopefully this time, I’ll manage to break through the defences.”
“Can’t you do it now?” Mrs Stevenson asked sternly, “I want my son back as soon as possible!”
He shook his head and turned back towards me, looking at me questioningly. He pushed up with sudden agility and walked away, shaking his head at Mr Stevenson. Mrs Stevenson however lunged at me, shoving me backwards.
“No, Emma,” Mr Stevenson shouted, grabbing at his wife, but she shook him off. She grabbed my hair, dragging me backwards further into the barn.
“What have you done to my son?” she screamed in my face, spit flying.
“I’ve done nothing; I don’t know what you’re talking about!”My body shook in fear as I shouted at her and I tried to calm my voice down as I asked her, “What’s wrong with him?” She glared at me and began to growl at me and smack my head on the stone floor, until my vision blurred.
“I will kill you unless you bring him back to me,” she shouted, hitting my head again and again until Mr Stevenson and Geordan pulled her off. Stars popped in front of my eyes and, I lay there, curled up in the foetal position on the floor, jumping as I felt rough hands probing my head.
“She’s okay. She’ll live,” a voice above my head said. “Let’s go.”
My head swam and drifted off, curled up in the middle of in the barn. I floated away and awoke in a shadowy place. The smell was vile and it made my stomach churn. I swallowed hard and my head hurt and as I stared around. All I could see in my field of vision was various shades of grey, some almost black, and some almost silver. There were trees in shades forming from dust before my eyes, but terror overwhelmed me and I stood there shaking and shivering as I glanced around. The rank smell was stronger in the slight breeze, blowing dust particles swirling around my face. It smelled like rotten foods and excrement, making me my stomach roll and retch.
A hand touched me and I spun around to face whoever it was, after jumping away from the unknown party. My heart rate sped as I saw Nate standing there, smiling at me, but looking him up and down, I noticed that his legs were shaded grey, almost black.
“How did you get here? I mean I’m glad you’re here, but how did you get here?” he asked, smiling wider at me. I reached out and touched his face, noticing him shuddering as I did so. He tried to step towards me and I noticed he seemed to struggle, as though he was glued to the floor. He grimaced in pain as he tried to move towards me. I looked down and noticed the darkness crawling over my feet and felt as though my feet were being sucked into the floor. I looked at Nathan in terror and he smiled though his eyes told another story.
“We need to move now, Jasmine,” he said in a soft voice, glancing down as he spoke. I nodded in agreement and we moved. As he lifted his legs, his face was strained, with sweat pouring down his face as he bit his lip. I pulled my legs one at a time and felt as though they were sticking to the ground. As we walked on, I could smell a sickly sweet scent with each footstep. “Don’t breathe in the fumes; it wants to consume you.” Nathan’s voice sounded farther away as I fell forwards. His hands snaked around my waist and he pulled me back upright and dragged me a few steps. We moved uphill and he held onto me as though I was his lifeline.
As we finally reached the top of a hill, the blackness swirled about the bottom of the hill and the top was in lighter shades, almost leading to silver. We sat at the top of the hill and I glanced down at Nathan’s legs. They were covered in bright red blisters with black stuff oozing out of them. Looking down at my own ankles, I discovered the same stuff was on them, oozing out and trickling down the hill. Upon reaching down to touch the stuff, Nathan pulled my hand away, hissing, “Don’t touch them. It’s poison.”
As I turned around to face him, I noticed greyness overhead and the sour, rotting smell getting stronger, “Come with me now, Jasmine. Hurry!” Nathan stiffly stood and ran without even looking to see if I followed. I ran as fast as I could, but fell into a patch of darkness and awoke freezing cold, soaking wet, and shivering in the barn. I opened my eyes and it was pitch black. Looking around, trying to get my bearings, revealed Geordan watching me from the door of the barn.
“Lost something, have we?” he snarled, glaring at me. I was about to shake my head when two pairs of hands grabbed me and dragged me out into the main barn area. They placed me onto a chair and tied me up. My sight was hindered by the ringing in my ears and I shook worse than ever. I managed to make out Nick, Nathan’s older brother, watching with a look of sick fascination on his face. Looking away from him, I met the eyes of Jack who looked at me as if I was something edible, which turned my stomach more.
“Leave now, both of you!” Geordan’s voice ordered from the shadows.
“But what if she gives you trouble?” Nick’s voice asked to the left of me.
“How much trouble can she possibly give me tied to a chair?” Geordan asked with what sounded like disdain in his voice. “Just leave and I will find out why I was blocked earlier.” He looked at both men who nodded and walked towards the door. I sat there in complete silence, which was difficult, but something, some instinct told me to keep quiet and sit still until they were gone.
“I can see that you don’t trust me, but you have to let me help you. I’ve been working on defeating demons for twenty years, but never in all my years have I felt a shift in the balance of power like this. You are incredibly special and you and Nathan together are more powerful than anyone could have imagined or predicted.”
I watched him speak, though there was still something I didn’t trust. Why was I tied to a chair? Why hadn’t he reached out to me before? I asked myself these questions, all the while eyeing him warily as he watched me curiously.
“Why now?” my voice cracking as I spoke.
“I haven’t had a chance before now. You have been exceptionally well hidden. You must know that, Jasmine. Plus, if I had acted before now, Mr Stevenson would have had me killed, but believe me I can be a useful ally.”
I shook my head trying to clear it, since I was still confused, dizzy, and sore from the earlier exploits. He reached under my chair and pulled out some hot food in a clear container — pasta. I hadn’t had a hot meal in what felt like forever.
“Here. Eat this. It will help build your strength. It’s going to be a long night, but we need you to tap into all your latent powers…”
“How do you know I have any powers?” I asked sullenly, remembering he was the reason Nathan and I couldn’t be together. He had reported us and had made my already difficult life even more so. As all these thoughts went through my head, he just stood there stiffly. Without warning, he spun on his heal, leaving me still tied up with the pasta on my lap, burning through my grey jeans and warming my legs.
He was gone a few seconds before coming back with a folding chair, “I think we’ll both be more comfortable if I sit down. Now you have been thinking about why I informed the Stevenson’s about you and Nathan…” he broke off, looking at me and finally noticed that I hadn’t touched my pasta, “Oh dear, why didn’t you say something?” He reached behind me and untied my hands. “Dig in.”
Not realising how hungry I was, I took a bite then stuffed my mouth full of food. It was exceptionally good with a cheese sauce. He watched me for a few minutes, looking slightly revolted before speaking again. “You eat and I’ll talk. Okay??”
Nodding since my mouth was too full of food, I didn’t want to disgust him anymore than I already had, especially if what he was saying was true about Nathan.
“So, Jasmine, where were we?” he paused for a moment as I swallowed.
“Why did you tell the Stevenson’s about my powers?”
“Oh yes, you are wondering why I told them of you and Nathan’s dalliances. Well, my dear girl, I had to. Don’t you see that if I hadn’t and you and Nathan had escaped, and then questions would have been asked. I checked and I am sure it won’t hamper your dest
iny.”
I had been continually eating while he spoke, although I was beginning to feel sick. It was too good to stop, but I forced myself to put the fork on the plate and moved it towards the floor.
“Why are you telling me this? Would you even be here if Nathan was okay?”
“Well, I’m telling you because you need to know and no, I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t banished Nathan. Where you banished his soul to, I cannot say, but I believe you have seen him there.”
I nodded in answer, and I held my hands on my lap trying to show that I was willing to listen.
“Jasmine, he is your better half. With him, your powers multiply and there will come a time that they even may scare you. Now you have to use them to track him down and bring him back. I have until morning to convince you; otherwise, they are going to kill you…”
Gasping as he said this, I realised it didn’t matter if I trusted him. I needed his guidance to bring back Nathan or it didn’t matter. We would both be dead.
“Okay, I’m on board. What do we have to do?”
“You aren’t going to like this. You have to drop your block completely, otherwise this won’t work. We have to open your mind and roam out to find Nathan. He could be in a number of different realms or worlds, and we need to find him quickly. We can’t do that if you are blocking me.”
Something he said made me instinctively back away. I decided to remove part of the block I had placed up, but not all of it. I knew he didn’t need to know all the powers I had, and I still had trouble trusting him.
“Okay, sit back now, Jasmine. Close your eyes and reach out with your mind until you feel the walls. When you feel them, move around them until you reach the edges. Take a grip of the edges and pull them down.” I decided to pull them back slightly, knocking a few bricks from the top, but leaving three quarters of them still standing. “Now, focus on Nathan. Think of how you feel when you’re with him. Can you do that?”
I nodded and closed my eyes, deciding to at least try and trust Geordan to do what he was asked, help me to rescue Nathan.
As I began wadding through what felt like water, I focused on him, but just as I began to zero in on his location, the barn door slammed open and I jumped, my walls snapping back in place.
“Jack, what are you doing here?” Geordan’s’ voice asked waspishly. “We were making progress there and you ruined it.”
Jack completely ignored Geordan and stormed over to me, “What the fuck did you do to me?” he growled at me before slapping me in the face. My full cheek felt like it was on fire and the chair went flying backwards with the force of it. I landed on the tree. Both Jack and Geordan froze.
“You better get your brother. We are going to need him to get her out of there.”
I sat there, wondering why they hadn’t moved me, when I felt immense power flowing through me, I was floating. I gazed down on them, with such immense power flowing through me, and it was one of the scariest moments I had ever had. Jack turned and bolted out the door, looking like a horse sprinting from the barn. I let out a chuckle and the whole barn shook with the force of it. I had more power in me than ever and it scared me almost out of my mind. Geordan looked up at me in dismay as Jack returned with Mr Stevenson at his heels.
“What is she doing?” he snarled. “Get her down now!” he commanded, but they couldn’t reach me. I just smiled and watched as it enraged them all further. “We can’t touch her while she’s on the tree. How did she get there?”
Geordan just looked at Jack and he snapped, “It was me. I wanted to know what she did to me!”
“For fuck’s sake, I told you to leave her alone. We need her to get my son back! Did you forget about that, you selfish prick? My son’s soul is out there in the ether because of someone, and she is the only one with the power to get him back. I told you I will strip her powers when she has brought my son back to me.”
I continued to gaze down at them, as Jack turned to leave. Mr Stevenson said into his ear, “One year, brother, and you can do the honours. Now go please while we work out how to get her down from there.” He turned his green eyes around and glared up at me. “Well, Jasmine, you have caused quite a conundrum. We need to get you down from there or you’ll collapse into a coma, which at the moment wouldn’t be advisable,” he said with a horrible grin at the end.
I allowed my mind to roam out, after closing my eyes and blocking them out, until I reached Nathan, but he was weak. Going to him was the easiest decision I ever made, but I could hear them shouting at me, screaming at me to stay awake.
“What are you doing, Jasmine?” Mr Stevenson’s voice hollered, making my ears ring with the power behind his words. “You must not use the power of the tree. Stop now.”
“Jasmine, not this way,” came Geordan’s voice. “Come back.”
Feeling reckless, I didn’t listen, but pulled myself to Nathan. I glanced around, looking for Nathan, and he was almost in complete shadow. It had covered him right up to his neck. He gasped in pain, grimacing with tears streaming down his face as the shadows moved further up. Arms of shadow reached up and almost tickled his chin.
Reaching down, I pulled him up the hill towards the silver lights and could see the shadows reaching out repeatedly, trying to grab hold of him and pull him back down. One of them caught hold of his ankle and he yelped in pain, his face going paler and his head falling. Giving one almighty tug, I managed to break its hold and saw a little colour returning to his cheeks.
As we reached the top of the hill, I sat and looked out while he panted for breath. We sat like that for a few moments before he reached out and slid his hand into my own. His hand was icy cold.
“Oh my God, Jas, you feel like you’re on fire, baby. What happened? How did you get back here?”
He sat up, but started shivering worse. I pulled him into my arms and wrapped my arms around him. “Your uncle slapped me into the tree in the barn,” I said simply, pausing as he sucked in a breath. “Geordan tried to help me find you, but your uncle interrupted. Where are we, by the way? What is this place?”
“This is the Shadowlands,” he whispered so quietly I could barely hear him so I sat back to watch him as he spoke, his voice getting stronger with each sentence. “Demons and monsters come here to die. It’s kind of like what mortals would call Purgatory. I almost died, but I knew you’d save me. I realised you were tough enough not to give up on us, or me. Somehow, you’d save me.” He smiled over at me and I moved towards him, slipping my hand around his waist as I lay me head on his chest and listening to his voice as he continued speaking, “You didn’t show Geordan all of your powers, did you? I don’t trust him. He’s been working for my dad forever and my dad trusts him implicitly, which means we absolutely shouldn’t.”
Shaking my head, I answered him, “No, but we need to find a way to get us home and to remove all traces of this from everyone’s minds. If they remember, they’ll kill us both.”
“How do you know that? I would suggest the same thing, but how are we going to work it? We might need to bottle some of the shadow as a sleeping agent and send them all to sleep. However, it will be a while before I’m strong enough to collect any. Can you do it? I have an idea how we can get home.” Nathan twisted in my arms and kissed me full on the lips, leaning into me until we both lay on the ground as he ran his tongue over my lips.
“I missed you, Jasmine,” he kissed me slowly, slipping his tongue into my mouth. He groaned softly, and then muttered, “God, I missed you, but we need to be careful…” he broke off, kissed my head, and sat up abruptly, leaning forwards and resting his chin on his knees. The sour smell was back, and it was as if the walls were closing in around us. Everywhere I looked now, the shadows became thicker, denser, and the areas of silver decreased.
“The Shadows are angry. We better hurry. Can you collect some shadows and place them in this?” he asked. “I’m going to collect some of those silver fruits ahead and some of the berries in the bushes, along with some silver leav
es.”
I looked at my hands and nodded. He’d pressed into my hand the hot chocolate container from the previous day. I sprinted down the hill even though I could barely see where I was going, but I judged by my nose. I got closer to the sickening fumes and I started to retch, I reached down and licks of fire started to spread up my arms and cold reached into my heart, freezing me in place. Thinking of Nathan, I shook it off and pulled some shadow away. It was tough like pulling apart magnets, only stronger. It kept trying to go back, and it made this sickening, crunching sound, like bones being snapped.
Eventually I had three handfuls, which seemed like enough. I headed back up to Nathan. I watched him for a few minutes and my heart beat a little faster. His hair was mussed up and his face still pale, but his green eyes searched me out. A smile played on his lips as I made my way up the hill.
“Like something you see?” he asked me playfully.
“You know it,” I answered him with a smile and walked up to him, placing a kiss on his lips. We both knew as soon as we got back that we would have to stay away from each other, or risk discovery. I knew I was going to miss him, and that it was going to hurt like hell, but it had to be done. I leaned towards him again, wrapping my arms around his neck and bringing my lips to his, wanting to make the moment last, I slipped my tongue into his mouth and he groaned, drinking me in. He eyes opened and he gazed into my eyes as we kissed. He pulled back after a moment, panting hard and leaned down to put his hands on his knees.
“Nate, are you okay?” I asked him worriedly, while he stared at the ground. I glanced around and the shadows reared up, looking like a slow moving six foot tsunami coming towards us and I looked at Nathan in alarm. He straightened up and glanced over it me, nodding at me as he moved to my side again.
“Ready?” he asked me, taking my hand.
“As I’ll ever be, I suppose.” I replied, looking at him, my long dark hair swishing behind me. He leaned over and kissed me, pulling me around until I was in front of him. He held me tightly. “I love you, you know that. Right?”
Ignition (Escaping Demons Saga Book 2) Page 4