The Smokiest Grave (The Unnatural Series Book 1)

by Tosha Y. Miller

  Hendrick followed, pulling out his sword first, which made Cat smile. She opened her leather jacket, so she could have access to her other weapons and whip her gun out if anything came out of the fog. “Right you are, lass,” Hendrick admired the arsenal she held and the curves underneath.

  The pink smoke overflowed, covering the floors, and traveling up the walls. "I don't like how this stuff is surrounding us," Cat said, moving along the open path. The muscles in her neck throbbing from the stress building up.

  She was scared out of her mind with all these creepy dolls around, and the thick, horrible pink fog seeping up the walls. Now they had to wait to see what the curse had in store for them. All of it was enough to give her a heart attack.

  Dammit all to Hades, Maria, you’ve made me a scaredy-cat!

  Hendrick ignored her and pointed at a room in the back of the building. The three white walls forming a box room looked like an add-on, "I bet that's where he is."

  "If he is here," Cat remarked. She had a feeling Hendrick wasn't going to accept his younger brother not being here. She could tell by the hope in his eyes. They reminded Cat of a lost puppy encountering a human. A piece of his heart would break if he wasn’t here.

  Her sympathy intensified like the rest of her roller-coaster emotion overload she has been having because of Maria. This was not fun. When she was scared, the fear was like acid to her blood, when she was mad, the anger was like a hot iron bar to her flesh, now this sympathy was like an ulcer bursting in her throat. She’d had enough of this. Freaken Maria, how am I supposed to work like this?

  A movement caught Cat’s attention snapping her out of her sympathy invasion. She swung around, gun in hand, arms straight as she aimed for anything that moved. “Are you okay lass?” Hendrick asked. His body was stiff and angled forward, protecting her back.

  “Yeah, I thought I saw something move,” her eyes were squinting into the dark shadows that seem to eat the light. Another movement from the opposite direction caught both their attention. “There it is again. You saw it, right?”

  "Aye lass," he knew something was on the move. The footsteps didn’t sound recorded, and there were a lot more feet. Cat turned back around, taking up the rear as they moved along.

  They were more than halfway to the room when Hendrick stopped, making Cat bump into him. “Hey, what’s up?” She looked over her shoulder.

  Hendrick didn’t respond; he froze in shock. Right in front of him was a little body. Its plastic frame had on a pink sundress, its skin was milky and the blonde curly hair that made her look like an angel. All except those red eyes; they were pure evil.

  “Kitty, I can’t believe what I am seeing but-” Cat interrupted him before he could finish.

  “No, you won’t believe what I’m seeing,” Cat said, her voice shaky and high-pitched. Their backs pressed together, so he could feel her trembling. Without thinking twice, he flipped her over his arm, switching places with her.

  His eyes shot out from his head at the sight of thousands of the same blonde dolls crawling out of the tubs. There were a few antique dolls with fluffy cotton bodies and rigid plastic limbs. Those dolls had a tough time standing up, so their limbs flopped around as the dolls tried to get to Cat and Hendrick.

  “That’s not possible,” Hendrick whispered breathlessly, the sword in his hand wavering a bit.

  “I hate to ruin the moment, but the fog isn’t sticking to the walls anymore, it's coming back down,” Cat said while shooting the doll in front of their path.

  Take that, demon cunt.

  She laughed when three more stepped toward her in a line. Their bodies didn’t move right. They looked mechanical.

  Bang!

  She shot all three at once. “Let’s move. We need to get to higher ground,” Hendrick barked, stepping closer to Cat. Like a set of siamese twins, they moved together as a unit.

  Hendrick’s huge sword clanged against the heads of the dolls, making them pop off or shatter. The whistle from the speed of his moving sword reassured Cat. And her bullets soaring through the air gave her excited goosebumps. We could pull this off.

  They reached the tower of carts in time. The pink fog pushed against the boxes trying to coat everything in its devouring path. “I might be able to stop this; can you keep them off me?” Hendrick shouted to be heard over the dolls chattering teeth sound.

  She snapped her head to look at him, mouth gaped open. She watched his pleading eyes and sucked in her fear, “Yeah, I got this, just keep it short,” Cat turned around. If the dolls had figured out how to climb up, she’d be screwed. She took a big breath of air noticing they were still having trouble and for some reason, the fog wasn’t rising anymore.

  Hendrick ran up the rest of the tower. Cat didn’t know what he planned, she hoped it was good.

  The damn dolls climbed over each other to get to Cat. Their mouths clicking as they opened and closed, “Alright, here we go.”

  Bang, bang, bang!

  Her gun went off, taking multiple dolls down at once with each shot. Over and over she did this, using her skills to keep them at bay. But there were too many of them and those tiny sharp teeth were piercing into her skin.

  The minutes felt like hours, she was knocking them off with her feet and shooting their little heads off. “Ow! The little shits are biting me.” Their teeth must be sharp because they were penetrating through her leather boots. Dammit, not the boots!

  After a few minutes, Cat heard Hendrick saying, “Just a little longer Kitty.”

  Cat looked at him as he sliced open his arm from the wrist to the elbow. Thick crimson blood gushed out, “What the hell are you doing?” Cat didn’t watch him long, though, sharp teeth bit into her legs. “Aaah!” I’m getting tired of being chewed on.

  Bang!

  Her last magazine was almost empty.

  “Well, I'm running out of weapons, and I can’t feel my legs anymore. So, hurry.” Her voice cracked.

  Click.

  Her bullets finally ran out. “Dang it,” she could feel Hendrick’s worried gaze on her.

  Okay, time for the big guns.

  In a typical situation showing her power was not an option, but this was an exception to her rules. She could die if she did nothing and let the dolls chew on her.

  Besides, what did she care if Hendrick knew she could perform spells, he already knew she wasn’t a Natural. That was more than most knew about her.

  Because it is rare, and he could use it against you. An angry voice deep inside of her whispered. "Shut up, there's no way I'm dying to keep the secret," Cat muttered to herself. She would have to deal with the consequences later.

  With her right hand, she pushed out her power. The sweet taste of lavender splashed in her mouth and the intense electricity coursing through her body begged to be released. “Volant,” she flung tons of the little doll bodies into the air. She heard Hendrick behind her mumble something like blimey.

  She kept using minor incantations to send any doll that came near her flying into the wall. But one after another, their little bodies kept coming for her. Their sharp nails grazed her skin as they somehow learned to jump.

  With the left hand, her mystical voice recited, “Congelare,” and a few dolls holding sharp things in their little hands froze in mid-attack.

  Cat swayed as the room spun, Whoa, that was a strong one.

  After a few minutes, Cat staggered around. “Oh no, crap!” Her body got heavy and her legs quivered under the stress. She wanted to collapse from her exhaustion.

  Her vision blurred. Uh-oh, she pushed herself too hard. Everything moved in slow motion…

  The stupid things were still coming.

  She put a hand to her knee and said, “Ignis,” one last time. If I must die fighting, so be it. Her body went limp. She was like a loser in a Mortal Combat game and at any moment a deep voice was going to announce, Finish her.

  She tried to at least control her landing and go straight down. Her body wasn’t having any of it, th
ough. Her body was directing her right into the deadly pink fog.

  Her soul was too tired from using her power to do anything but fall. She screamed in her head as she fell but nothing came out. The pink fog laughed at her as she dropped, opening its mouth to devour her like everything else.

  Cat closed her eyes refusing to watch herself die. When her descent stopped, she opened her eyes. She was inches away from its stinging depth. Holy hell.

  Something firm on her body pulled her away from the sea of pink. She looked up.

  “I’ve got ye, love,” Hendrick swooped her up in his arms and rested her head on his chest.

  “You can fly,” she smiled. Her voice sounded like a pathetic whisper as if she smoked fifty packs a day.

  She opened her eyes again; they stunk and begged to be shut. Hendrick looked down at her. He was holding onto a thick brown rope that hung from the ceiling. “Maybe not,” she said, and closed her eyes again.

  “The dolls are dying, love. I mixed my blood in the potion and overturned the curse by casting my own. But, the fog is still rising. I have lost too much blood. I cannot hold us up with my power.” He shook her in small gentle waves to focus her fluttering eyelids.

  “Water,” Cat tried to say, but her throat wouldn’t let the word form loud enough for anyone to hear. Hendrick had to put his ear to Cat’s mouth.

  “Did you say water?”

  She licked her lips with her last bit of energy, pushing through the pain to talk. Her movements were slow, and her eyes would barely stay open. She took a deep breath trying to spit out her words, “You need water to release the poison?” Cat could taste copper on her tongue and smooth liquid rising in her throat.

  “Brilliant,” he looked around for a few seconds. Perfect.

  He slapped her cheek gently to get her awake, “Can you use your power to activate the sprinklers, Kitty?” He hated putting saving them all on her, but he didn’t see any other way. She was the only one that could save them both.

  "I can try." She lifted her weak shaky head. The water sprinklers were several feet away.

  The pink fog sizzled Hendrick's boots. "Hurry lass," he pulled his legs up higher on the rope. The other sliced and bloody arm held Cat but his grip on her was weakening.

  She whispered the spell, but nothing happened. "It's okay love. You rest I’ll-"

  "Shut up, so I can build up my strength." Cat stiffened

  Cat could feel a power source, so she pulled on the orange glowing static. She opened her eyes after a few seconds, and she was grasping Hendrick's head. Her fingers were pushing their way through his soft hair.

  "What are ye doing lass?"

  "I don't know, but it feels right."

  ***

  If things were different, he would have said something charismatic, but the fog was up to his ankles and sting through his leather pants. He weakened as if the fog was sucking the power out of him. The drowsiness was coding his brain. Soon he would lose control of his grip.

  To distract himself, he focused on Cat’s face. The beautiful flesh was compelling enough to pull him back to the matter at hand. When the vibration of her power prickled his skin he got concerned, "Kitty?"

  She turned away, almost falling out of Hendrick’s grip and pointed her finger at her target. Her soft dark hair was floating around her face, framing the shining teal eyes as she screamed the word, "Ignis!"

  Twenty-three

  Hendrick’s muscles tensed at Cat’s dead weight collapsing in his arms.

  Whatever she had done, worked. Better than he expected. Instead of one sprinkler going off, they all went off at once, pouring water onto the pink fog.

  He sighed as the fog began to disappear, “Thank the Gods.”

  Hendrick smiled as he looked at Cat; he squeezed her tighter despite his aching arm. “The bloody woman did it.” He stepped onto one of the cubes carefully. The horror house could still be active.

  Hendrick waited for the fog to disappear with shaky arms. His left arm was still burning from where he sliced the skin open to deactivate the curse. The counter curse was a long, arduous process that he needed time to finish.

  He was glad Cat was with him, if any of his people were here with him they probably wouldn't have had survived. When Dragonvires lose blood, they lose their strength and power. So, he needed someone with abilities like her to have been successful.

  He smiled down at her disheveled body. Only she could have pulled this off.

  “Right love, let's finish this,” Hendrick said, stepping down from the top cube while kicking off what was left of the dolls. As he made his way down, he put his bloody palm to Cat’s lips to heal her.

  Her skin and muscle in her legs was almost gone. A shiver went through Hendrick as he looked at her once flawless skin. Now, she was full of bites and boils from the fog.

  It was amazing she lasted as long as she did. Hendrick felt guilty, so he was glad his blood would fix all those marks.

  A soft female voice whispered as his foot touched the last step. Wait, Dragonvire.

  Hendrick wasn’t sure if he was imagining the soft command or if the voice was real. When the soft soothing voice continued, he listened. Listening didn’t seem to help, though, because he didn’t understand what she was saying. So, he repeated the word out loud.

  “Mostrati,” he said, unsure of his pronunciation. His face scrunched up trying to say the word right. The unfamiliar word left his mouth and he fell back covering his face as a huge silent explosion erupted right in front of him. He stumbled back.

  Hendrick could feel the warmth from the flames. He didn’t breathe until the blaze collapsed on itself. What the bloody hell was that?

  A loud crash on his left had him grabbing for his sword from his back and flinging the weapon at the next threat. His nerves were shot. With the blood loss and something trying to kill him every five seconds stressed didn't even come close. He steadied the shakiness.

  “Hey dude, it’s Marcus and Jake.” He stuck his empty hands out from behind the wall. “You almost got me.”

  “You can come out,” Hendrick grumbled.

  “Hendrick you'll never believe what happened,” Jake said, darting out. Followed by a slower Marcus. Then, Maria and Ethan walked up behind him dragging an injured Keanu.

  “I'm sure I can guess,” they all stopped, looking around.

  “Of all the tricks of Hades, there must be thousands of dolls scattered around,” Maria whispered, as her lower lip trembled.

  Jake cleared his throat, “Okay, maybe you do know what happened,” Jake finished, backing up absently while trying to put some distance between him and the dolls.

  Hendrick rushed over when he noticed Keanu, “What happened?” he asked clenching Cat a little tighter to his chest. He could feel his heart pounding against Cat’s cheek.

  “I'm not sure, Keanu hasn't fed with his vampire beast in a while. I think that’s why he is not healing,” Marcus stepped next to Jake, answering Hendrick’s question. His eyes were wide, and he sounded like he was panting.

  The ache in Hendrick’s chest expanded. He tried to stay calm for his people. If the leader freaked out, everyone would. He could freak out later.

  Maria chimed in when Hendrick looked her way, “This last week my neighborhood was attacked by vampires, so I've been taking vampire poison in my coffee. Just in case one of them got the bright idea to attack me. I can’t help him. Sorry, sir.” She bowed enough to show the top of her head.

  ***

  “What is this nonsense? Why ye no ask for help lass?” Ethan barked at her, crossing his arms. Maria and Ethan weren’t the best of friends, but Ethan protected his own. Maria was part of his family now. Knowing that she didn’t ask for help made him angry.

  “This is not the time, old friend,” Hendrick put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder, “Where's Yvonne?” Hendrick continued.

  ***

  “I don't know. She went to find the source of the curse when I got trapped,” Jake cleared his throat as
he said the last words. “Those doll arms were no joke. They had razor sharp nails…” his voice trailed off. “We thought Yvonne was here, or Cat could help.”

  “Well, both thoughts were wrong. Ethan, go find Yvonne,” Hendrick’s tone was lethal. He didn’t fight so hard to stop the curse just to lose Keanu and Yvonne. With that, Ethan put his thumb to Keanu’s forehead which showed his love for his cousin and ran back upstairs.

  “How is Cat?” Maria asked. She paused before continuing, “I'm sorry sir. I couldn't block the curse; it was too strong. I managed one floor, but that only helped Ethan and me.” Hendrick put his finger to her lips to stop the nervous blabbering.

  “It was not yer fault. I have a feeling this was done with Chris’s blood. Ye are no match for royalty blood magic. I’m just glad you kept each other safe.”

  Cat surprised everyone. She shot up from Hendrick’s arms, “Aaah! Aaah!” Her eyes were bloodshot as they looked everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Hendrick could see a hint of the teal power in their wildness. She reminded him of a scared, primitive cougar. She was ready to attack at any moment.

  Hendrick could see the sparks of power trying to push through. “You are okay, Kitty. I got you, remember?” She jumped backward, stumbling around when he reached for her.

  Cat ran her blood-caked hands through her dark hair. “Dolls. Disgusting dolls everywhere,” she mumbled, and pulled at her hair. Her legs were too shaky to stand. She leaned against the wall and slid down the smooth surface curling her legs into her chest.

  She looked feral. Hendrick’s heart broke. She must have been dreaming about the attack. At least her legs were looking good. Her boots were gone, and her pants stopped at the knee, but at least her skin was better.

  Hendrick walked to her with silent steps, “The dolls are dead. You gave me enough time to counteract the curse. Thank ye.” He touched her knee, “Ye saved us all.” When she pushed harder against the wall, Hendrick stepped back.