Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1)

by Margo Bond Collins

  But apparently I didn’t actually want the best thing for me.

  I sighed and fell into step with my other norm friends.

  Looked like I was going to a party.

  Chapter 11

  The Fairy High football team had won their game, and everybody was celebrating.

  Oh, and they weren’t the Fightin’ Fairies, after all. They were the Hawks. Apparently they used to be the Tomahawks, but that got changed in the ’90s because of racist overtones. The Fairy Hawks.

  Lovely.

  I was amazed at how many kids had shoved into Josh’s dad’s tiny house—and even more amazed that they had all managed to get down to the ranch hands’ houses without anyone up at the main house hearing them. For that matter, I was more than a little surprised that the other ranch hands hadn’t complained. When I walked in, a version of “Kung Fu Fighting” was playing at top volume and teenage boys were jumping around hand-chopping at each other in the middle of the living room. Andrew joined in with a loud whoop.

  “Great party,” I said to Ally in my driest tone. “I can’t wait for my turn to jump over the couch.” The sarcasm might have been muted by my need to talk at top volume, though.

  She grinned at me and tugged me toward the kitchen. Sarah followed us, quiet as usual.

  “Did you and Josh plan this together?” I asked, remembering the way they had been whispering in class the other day.

  “Maybe.”

  “Laney!” I heard someone say my name loudly. And perhaps drunkenly. “Laney Harris! I can’t believe you’re here.”

  Mason staggered over and draped his arm around my shoulder. “Did you hear? We won. We kicked their asses.” His breath in my face was sharp with alcohol fumes. Apparently demons can get drunk, too. Who knew?

  I removed his arm and placed it gently back at his side. “I heard. Congratulations.”

  “Want a drink?”

  “No, thanks,” I said. “I think I’ll sit this one out.” I had demons hoping to impregnate me. The last thing I was going to do was have a drink with any of them. I needed to keep my wits about me.

  “Where’s Josh?” I asked.

  Mason looked around blearily. “I don’t know. Somewhere. Maybe outside? But hey. Hey. You don’t want to see him. Stay here. With me.” Again he tried to wrap his arm around me, and again I disentangled myself.

  “Thanks, but no,” I said. “I’ll talk to you later.” I stepped to the kitchen door and pushed it open, grateful for the fresh air.

  “Wow,” Sarah said as she followed me outside. “He’s really into you.”

  I shook my head. “You know what? I don’t think he is. Not really.”

  “Seems interested enough.”

  “I don’t think his heart’s in it.”

  “Hey, Laney.” Josh spoke into my ear. I jumped.

  “God, you’re sneaky!” I said.

  “Maybe you’re just not very observant.” He stepped out of the shadow of the house.

  I glared at him.

  “I think that’s my cue to leave,” Sarah said.

  “No,” I said. “Stay. Please.”

  She shook her head and stepped back inside. “See you later,” she called.

  “Mason catch you in the house?” Josh asked.

  “Briefly,” I said. “Man, he’s soused. Didn’t know that could happen with . . .” I glanced around, but none of the kids in the back yard seemed to be listening to us. Still, I dropped my voice. “With you People,” I finished.

  Josh laughed. “It’s not that easy,” he admitted. “Mason must have gone through a lot of hooch if he’s wasted.”

  “Hooch?” I asked, amused.

  Josh grinned. “Yeah. You know. The hard stuff.”

  I leaned back. “So are we okay?” I asked seriously.

  The grin faded from his face and he looked away. “I guess so,” he said.

  “That’s not really fair, you know,” I said. “You’re the one who warned me that he’d use a glamour on me.”

  Now Josh was the one looking around to make sure no one was listening. “That was so you could actually avoid it,” he muttered. “Not just notice it while you sucked face.”

  “I couldn’t totally avoid it,” I said. He looked away from me again. I reached up and placed my fingertips on his chin, gently forcing him to turn toward me again. “But I could resist it. And I did. Thanks to you.”

  “Really?” he asked.

  I smiled. “Really. All I kept thinking was ‘This is just a glamour.’”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I didn’t see any reason to tell him how Mason’s kiss had affected me. “So,” I said, changing the subject to something more neutral. “Did you go to the game tonight?”

  He nodded. “Pretty much everyone did. Except you, of course.”

  “Except me.” I sighed. “Everyone seems to be pleased about the game.”

  “Oh, yeah. We stomped the Yellow Jackets, and they’ve been state champs several times.” He shrugged. “The team’s totally worked up.”

  “Thus the drunken revelry.”

  “Indeed.” He started to say something else, but just then his attention was caught by something in the corner of the yard. He stared intently at what looked to me like an empty patch of grass. “Wait here,” he said distractedly. He stalked slowly toward the empty space, scanning around him as he went.

  I felt a frown furrowing my brow as I watched him. What was he doing? I was so intent on following his progress that I didn’t initially react when I felt an arm snake around my waist from behind. I guess I thought it was Mason, and I half-turned to tell him to quit it when a second hand clamped down over my mouth.

  “Be very quiet,” a voice whispered in my ear, and it wasn’t alcoholic fumes I smelled this time. It was the rotten smell I’d come to associate with Bartlef. I stilled, trying to remember what Josh had told me about how to deal with demons.

  Not much, I realized. Just how to recognize a glamour. And that things that would kill a human would generally kill one of his people.

  I didn’t have the first idea of how to kill someone. Especially not when that someone had me firmly in his grasp.

  I rolled my eyes back in my head and caught a glimpse of his profile.

  It wasn’t Bartlef.

  It was a guy about my age, but it wasn’t anyone I recognized from school. This guy was a complete stranger.

  At that moment, I saw the air shimmer around me and felt a wrenching in my gut, as the demon holding me moved us into the ethereal plane and took off all at the same time, enormous wings making a huge rushing noise and stirring the hot Texas night air. By the time I thought to struggle, we were so far in the air that I was afraid of falling. Instead, I clutched the arm around my waist, holding on as tightly as I could.

  As I watched the figures below me grow smaller and smaller as we flew higher, I realized something awful.

  No one had even noticed that I had disappeared.

  * * *

  I started shaking when I realized that there was a good chance no one would have a clue where I was.

  We flew for a long time. I watched the Texas landscape roll away beneath me, short trees, wide pastures, and gentle hills all blurring into indistinct dark mounds, fuzzy through the gauzy barrier of the ethereal plane. Eventually my captor slowed. I wasn’t sure if he was tired or if we had reached our destination.

  Evidently it was the latter, because we circled over one long metal building several times, dipping lower with each revolution. When we landed, my knees gave out and I stumbled out of the demon’s grasp. If I had been planning it, I might have been able to get away at that moment. Instead I sank to the ground.

  And maybe I wouldn’t have been able to get away; as I looked around, I realized that there were about ten other demons standing around us. Or at least, I assumed they were demons. When I had pulled away from my abductor, I had also staggered out of the ethereal and into my own world, so I couldn’t see any wings. But they we
re all looking at me with the same creepy, speculative look that Bartlef had given me at the pep rally, so I was guessing that they had similar motives. And batlike appendages.

  “Bring her in,” a voice behind me said. One of the bystanders hauled me roughly to my feet, shoving me through the door and into the building. It looked like some sort of workshop, with power tools and work benches scattered throughout.

  Plus one more ominous-looking device that had been pulled to the center. It looked like it used to be some sort of exercise bench—the sort that you could use to do angled sit-ups—but it had been modified. Some sick soul had soldered manacles to the top and bottom. Right. The better to chain you up, my dear. My mind skittered away from the thought.

  Unfortunately my body couldn’t follow my mind when it skittered away.

  And yes, they chained me to the contraption. Because that’s what evil demons do when they’ve kidnapped a teenage girl and taken her to their lair. Workshop. Whatever it was. I snarled and fought and said ugly words the whole time, but there were three of them holding me down. There really wasn’t much I could do other than try to keep from either collapsing into tears or breaking out into hysterical screams. I’d seen the outside of this building from the air, and I hadn’t seen any lights nearby. I didn’t think anyone would hear me scream. So I tried to content myself with cursing. And spitting.

  Perhaps unsurprisingly, demons don’t care if you curse at them. And unlike the Wicked Witch of the West, water—or at least, saliva—doesn’t melt them. And that about covered my options, as far as I could tell. I did get a few good kicks and scratches in, though.

  When they had me good and chained down, the one who had flown me in left the building. Everyone else took up a sort of waiting stance.

  I think the creepiest part was that they all looked like perfectly normal high school boys. One of them even had on a varsity letter jacket. He looked like he’d probably played in a football game of his own that night.

  I decided to switch tactics.

  “Okay, you guys,” I said. “That was really funny. Why don’t you let me go now?”

  One of them shuffled his feet and glanced at Varsity Jacket Guy. The rest of them acted as if I hadn’t spoken.

  “Please?” I said, focusing my attention on their apparent weak spot. He looked at Varsity Guy again, then clenched his teeth. “You don’t have to do this,” I said quietly. “You could just let me go. I won’t tell anyone you were involved. Really.”

  “You certainly won’t,” a deep female voice said from the door. I craned my head up until I could see Miss Biet, Fairy’s senior English teacher, standing in the doorway.

  “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

  “Taking control of the situation,” Biet said, “Since you clearly know far too much for your own good.” She walked over to me and placed her hand over my stomach; her long, pale fingers stretched out across my abdomen and she closed her eyes. She started humming and I felt a chill radiate from her hand and sink through my clothing and into my skin, spreading out through my limbs.

  I fought the chains again, twisting and pulling. And crying and screaming, too. Biet just pushed down harder. “Hold her still,” she commanded. The boys circled me and held me down. She pressed harder, pushing her palm into my abdomen. The harder she pushed, the colder I got, until my teeth were chattering.

  And just as my entire body went numb with cold, she lifted her hand and snarled. “Neh Dumaya,” she said.

  Varsity Jacket Guy hissed, then smiled the ugliest smile I’ve ever seen. “Mine, then?” he asked.

  Biet nodded shortly. She spun on her heel and slammed out the door. Most of the demons followed her, leaving only the three who had chained me down. The weakest link boy wasn’t one of them.

  Varsity Jacket Guy took the jacket off and draped it over a table nearby. He leaned in close to my face and whispered, “Did you hear that? You’re all mine, sweetheart.”

  Like my original abductor’s, like Bartlef’s, his breath smelled rotten.

  “God,” I said. “Don’t you people ever brush?” My teeth were still chattering, so it came out less sarcastic than I meant for it to. The guy didn’t even respond. He just placed his hand on my stomach in the same spot Biet had and smiled evilly.

  I squinched my eyes closed and turned as far away from him as I could. This was going to be awful—and I had no choice but to stay right where I was and suffer through it.

  Chapter 12

  I managed to keep my eyes closed for all of about two seconds before they popped back open.

  Keep him talking. I had to keep him talking.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  I was surprised when he answered me. “Eddie.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked.

  He drew back a little and looked me in the face. “Those Fairy boys weren’t doing their job. Just like I told Bartlef and Miss Biet—they’re not up for it. Get it? Up?” He snorted at his own joke. “But I am.”

  My breath caught in the back of my throat. “You don’t have to do this, you know,” I said. My voice came out dry and cracked.

  “Of course I don’t have to,” Eddie said. “I want to.” He nuzzled his nose into the crook of my neck and drew in a deep breath. “This is going to be fun.”

  “Hurry up, Eddie,” one of the other two whined. “I want my turn.”

  Oh, God. I was going to vomit.

  And that gave me an idea.

  Might as well go with my gut, so to speak. I inhaled deeply just as Eddie replied to his impatient friend, “Shut up, Pete. You’ll get your turn.”

  His breath made me want to gag.

  So I did.

  And then I thought of every foul, disgusting thing I could come up with.

  It didn’t take much. I was terrified, my stomach hurt, and my gut roiled every time I looked at these guys.

  It only took a few seconds. Before he even had time to react, I vomited all over Eddie’s shirt.

  “Oh, gross!” he yelled, taking a step back from me. “That’s disgusting!”

  This from the guy whose breath caused the reaction.

  Pete started laughing, bent over, hands on his knees. “Ah, man! Never mind. You can have her.”

  “You stupid bitch!” Eddie yelled. He drew back his hand as if to hit me. I gagged again—less realistically this time, but still, it was enough to make him take another step back.

  “I don’t care,” the third guy said, coming up behind Eddie. “Get out of the way, man. I’ll teach the bitch a lesson.”

  Eddie was stripping off his shirt and wadding it into a ball. “Go ahead, Sims. She’s all yours.”

  Sims slid into the space Eddie had just vacated and leered at me.

  The sick, sour taste in the back of my throat grew thicker.

  “No,” Sims said, clamping his hand down over my mouth. “You spew again and you’ll drown in it.” His eyes gleamed. I didn’t doubt for a minute that he’d keep his word. I swallowed convulsively.

  “That’s better,” he crooned. He slipped his hand up higher so that it covered both my mouth and my nose. “You’ll like this,” he said.

  I fought against his hand, fought to breathe. My eyes rolled around wildly as I tried to gasp in air through his thick fingers.

  Eddie watched us clinically for a second. He tossed the balled-up shirt into a nearby trashcan and took a step toward the door. “Don’t let her die,” he said. “And hose her down when you’re done. I’m going to take a shower. Make sure she’s ready when I come back.”

  The edges of my vision were growing dark, and I heard a whooshing noise that I felt certain was my consciousness slipping away. It was followed by a loud thunk, and suddenly I could breathe again. I had a confused moment—I didn’t think my consciousness was heavy enough to make such a loud noise—and then I dragged in a deep breath of fresh air.

  Well, okay. Not so fresh, given my earlier actions. But at least it was air. And fresh or not, I was d
eeply grateful for it.

  Suddenly Mason’s face loomed above me.

  I shook my head to clear my vision.

  Josh’s face joined Mason’s.

  “You get her out of here,” Josh said. Mason nodded.

  “Wait,” I said, more weakly than I had intended. Both of them ignored me. Mason started working on the chains that bound me. I raised my head in time to see Eddie and Pete both jump Josh. Josh slashed at them with something in his hand.

  “Come on,” Mason said, tugging at the chains. He hissed suddenly, and drew his hand back as if something had burned him. He turned and started scrabbling through a pile of items on the closest workbench. “Got to be here somewhere,” he muttered.

  “Looking for these?” Sims said from a few feet away. He held up a fist and opened it. A set of small keys dangled from the ring in his hand. “Come and get them, I dare you.”

  Mason literally growled and leapt toward Sims. The air around him shimmered, and suddenly all I could see were his wings, dark blue and stretched out, obscuring everything beyond them.

  Then they were rolling on the ground, flashing in and out of my sight—going back and forth from the ethereal, I guessed. Sims had his wings out, too, their bright red hue contrasting sharply with Mason’s.

  I’d seen fights before, at school in Atlanta. Some of them had been pretty ugly, but none of them came close to this. Mason fought dirty, kicking and jabbing anywhere he could reach. Sims was worse, biting and scratching as well.

  Then Josh was above me, wings flapping, always hovering just out of reach of Eddie, who was moving in and out of the ethereal, trying to take him by surprise. They both popped out of sight.

  I couldn’t see anyone anymore, but I could hear the fight going on behind me.

  Suddenly Josh lunged in front of me just as Mason and Sims flashed into sight and landed with a crash on the floor. Mason pinned Sims down. Josh pounced, using the object in his hand to jab through Sims’s wing and into the concrete below. Sims screamed, his high-pitched wail echoing throughout the metal building. Josh spun back out of my line of sight.