I slapped Gavin on the arm at his smart-ass remark. My mind went back to what happened inside. “I really wish I remembered what I did in there.”
Jonas startled both Gavin and I when we noticed he had just climbed out of the bushes and held his phone up in the air. “No worries, I captured it all on video.”
Gavin walked around the car and slapped Jonas in the head. “You saw us going up against an Al and you didn’t think to come inside and help?”
I slapped Gavin on the head. “Us? If I recall, I’m the one who went up against it.”
“Let’s not fight over whom, what or how, kids. I got it all on video.” Jonas laughed and climbed into the back seat of the car.
I pointed my finger at Gavin as he walked around to climb into the driver’s seat. “Don’t you dare try to take claim to fame on this save. Without me, you and Cassidy would have been that thing’s dinner.”
Gavin started up the car. “There’s the Dhellia I know and love,” he chuckled. “First, I know you saved our asses, but if I wasn’t there with my spell, she’d remember it all and point her finger at you. Second, it won’t matter that you saved our asses because after my spell I put on her, she won’t remember a thing and will still despise you in the morning.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Being a hero is no fun if you can’t bask in the glory of it all.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Jonas said, leaning forward from the back seat. He leaned in and shockingly, kissed me on the cheek. I had never experienced that form of human emotion and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t shock me.
***
Gavin grabbed a few things from the kitchen and threw them toward us. I caught a vitamin water and a Rice Krispie treat in midair while Jonas set up his iPad with the video he had shot using his cellular phone.
We huddled around the iPad and watched the video of Jonas’s view of what had gone down when he had climbed through the bushes at Cassidy’s house and shot video of everything behind that bush. Finally, he had pressed the phone’s camera lens against the window and angled it toward us inside the house.
“Wow, that outfit looks pretty good on me, doesn’t it?”
Jonas put his arm around my shoulder. “You look great in it.”
“Are you coming onto me?”
“No!” he removed his arm quickly and pointed toward the iPad. I glanced down.
The part that I didn’t remember flashed across the screen. We watched it through the first time and I shook my head when it was over. “Let’s play that in slow motion. One minute my hands were empty, the next I had two blades in them.”
“It’s not the blades that are freaking me out,” Gavin said, concerned.
“Show me what you are concerned with.”
“Well, I’m not concerned,” Jonas exclaimed. “Did you see how you slit its stomach, it looked at you in horror and then it dissolved and disappeared?” Jonas hit the play button again and slowed it down.
I watched closely.
I pointed to my body. “Watch this. My eyes fluttered, my voice deepened and bam, blades in my hands. It’s like I thought it, and it happened.”
“Yeah, but watch this part,” Gavin said. “Your back tore, Dhellia. Right here.” He pointed to the left side of my back. “And something is poking through your clothes. Do you see that?”
“I did feel a twinge of pain in my back, but it went away, so I didn’t think anything of it. I wish my back was facing the camera, so I could fully see that.”
Jonas took the video off pause and we continued to watch.
Gavin pointed to the screen. “Watch, you ran toward the beast, flew through the air, took one blade and slit the front and with the other blade, you took off its head.”
I was shocked. I looked like a warrior. “How do you suppose I did that?”
“You were tapping into some kind of power?” Gavin remarked.
“My mother’s or my father’s?”
“I’ve no idea. I’m going to venture to say that these are from your father.”
“Why would you venture to say that?” I asked.
“It’s a hunch.”
“A hunch? The man of statistics and mathematical common sense is going to go on a hunch? I’ve heard it all.”
“Dhellia?” Jonas said my name, but I was too involved in my conversation with Gavin.
Gavin stood and put his hand to his temple. “Must everything be a battle with you? I get hunches sometimes and this is one of those times.”
“Dhellia?” Jonas called my name again.
“You can’t tell me to—”
“DHELLIA!”
“WHAT?!” both Gavin and I said in unison.
“Why is your hand glowing again?”
I glanced down at my right inner palm and the birthmark key inside my hand was pulsating with a greenish-red glow. My eyes darted up at Gavin. “Oh, shit. Not again.”
A gust of wind smacked us in the face and threw us back against the sofa. An oval blue portal opened in our kitchen and two trotters stepped out of the hole and into our home.
These two-legged creatures stood about fifteen feet tall. When they tossed back their massive tentacled heads to roar, chunks of plaster came crashing down from the ceiling and showered us with debris.
I brushed the chunks of plaster out of my hair and off my shoulders, stiffening at the sight and smell of the trotters. Their vile stench was like being in a knackery, filling the air with a rank smell that could gag even the strongest stomach. Their colossal fifteen-foot bodies, encased in double-sided body armor, which protected the soft sides of the beasts, were a visual anomaly, making the whole situation seem surreal.
The trotters’ eerie red slits for eyes scanned the kitchen and dining room, and then narrowed in on us. Simultaneously, their tentacles spread the width of our kitchen and they both dislodged their lower jaws, opening their mouths large enough to consume each of us with one swallow. Three rows of razor-sharp, jagged teeth were stained yellow and red with bits of fat and flesh from their last meals. They roared, releasing their breath—breath that was as rancid as the bowels of death itself—and coating our bodies with that defiled smell and stringy drops of acid saliva.
“Dhellia, those things are here.” Jonas’s voice shook.
“I can see them, Jonas.”
Jonas stepped back on the couch and maneuvered over the arm of the sofa. “Gavin, you got a spell? You got anything?”
Gavin’s body was pushed against me, he shrieked, “I got nothing—how can I even remember my own name, let alone come up with a spell when I’m about to be something’s hors d'oeuvre?”
“They want me. I’m going to let them take me,” I said.
“Oh no, you’re not! We’re not letting you go with those things,” Gavin said, grabbing my hand.
The trotters reared their heads, sending down another shower of shattered plaster and broken slats from the ceiling. They leaned over and roared again just before they moved to attack. Independently of my conscious thoughts, I could feel my body changing. Pure instinct took over, something innate that I never knew I had.
Suddenly, another portal opened in the dining room and Damien flew out vertically in a flying sidekick, nailing the beasts below their armor and thrusting them both back into their portal.
All the gateways closed.
“We have seconds before those despicable beasts come back through their entrance. Dhellia, another key is within a hundred miles of here and you’re both in danger,” Damien roared.
The trotters’ portal reopened and this time, they both stepped out angrier—and out for blood.
Damien ran toward the three of us, encircled us with his arms and pushed us through another portal against our living room wall. As we tumbled through the hole, all I could think about was that we were on the run…again.
Book Two available now
About the Author
www.aprilmreign.com
April was born and raised in
Southern California. She is a single mother of two wonderful boys, and enjoys spending time with her family. Sitting on the beach during a simple sunset is where she finds her most creative place to write.
Please visit her at the following social media sites:
www.aprilmreign.com
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Witch Road to Take Page 11