The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set)

by Rue Volley

  “Lizzy Crowley, amazing psychic and reader of the future,” she said.

  Brooke looked at Johnathan, and he grinned.

  “She reads the past and present, not the future,” he said.

  Lizzy sighed, walked to the chair, and sat down on it with a flop.

  “Nice… give all my secrets away why don’t you?” she said.

  Johnathan looked at her and grinned.

  “Well, it’s the truth… sorry.”

  Lizzy leaned up and shook her head.

  “I only show up when someone calls to me, and that is exactly what happened with ah…”

  Brooke looked at her.

  “It’s Brooke, that is my name,” she said.

  Lizzy grinned.

  “Brooke, like bubbling… nice,” she said.

  Brooke looked at her and shook her head.

  “I didn’t know that the board would work. I just wanted to… ah… well.”

  Lizzy looked at her and smiled big, showing all her teeth.

  “You wanted to see Johnathan here, and you got me,” she said.

  Brooke crinkled her eyebrows.

  “I ah, yes… yes I did,” she admitted, as she realized that lying wasn’t even an option at this point.

  Johnathan looked at her and grinned.

  “That was nice,” he said.

  Brooke shrugged her shoulders and grinned.

  “I…I missed you,” she said.

  “I missed you too, Brooke… I mean, I did until you showed up here,” he said.

  Lizzy clapped her hands together, and both Brooke and Johnathan looked at her.

  “Sorry… we don’t have time to dilly dally,” Lizzy said, as she stood up and walked to the window.

  “What do we need to do… to ah, get Brooke back home.”

  Lizzy turned and looked at him.

  “Stab her,” Lizzy said.

  Brooke touched her chest and looked at Johnathan.

  He stood up and looked at Lizzy, as she leaned and watched the sky out the window.

  “Ah… no, give me another option.”

  Lizzy turned and looked at him.

  “Sorry… only one way out for the living… you gotta die here,” she said.

  Johnathan looked down at Brooke, and she shook her head ‘no’.

  “That sounds crazy, Lizzy… Why would we have to kill her to send her back?” he asked.

  “Because it is the toll,” she said.

  “What?” Johnathan asked her.

  Lizzy raised her hands.

  “Not my rules, I just follow them,” she said.

  “Johnathan… I don’t really want to die,” Brooke said, as she looked at him.

  Johnathan looked at her and tried to grin to make her feel better.

  “Brooke… there has to be another way.”

  He looked back at Lizzy and shook his head.

  “There has to be something else to fix this; I am not stabbing her, Lizzy.”

  Lizzy laughed.

  “Okay, if you say so. Like I said, I don’t make the rules.”

  Johnathan walked to her and stared her down.

  “Seriously… tell me how to get her out of here,” he said.

  Lizzy peeked around Johnathan and made a stabbing motion to Brooke.

  Brooke grimaced and leaned back on the couch.

  “Not funny, Lizzy,” Johnathan said.

  Lizzy looked at him, and her face changed from that of joking to completely somber.

  “You have to do it… or I will,” she whispered.

  “If she doesn’t get out of here soon… she will never leave, and we will smell her as she rots away,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan swallowed hard and glanced at Brooke.

  He nervously grinned and looked back at Lizzy.

  “Are you serious?” he whispered.

  Lizzy nodded.

  “This sucks,” he said.

  Lizzy bit her lip. She pulled out a small blade and held it out to him.

  “I will leave...So you can ummm, you know,” she said.

  Johnathan looked at the blade and closed his eyes.

  Lizzy took his hand and placed it in it.

  “Do it, Johnathan… save her so she isn’t trapped here to die,” Lizzy whispered.

  Johnathan wrapped his hand around the blade, and Lizzy tapped him on the shoulder. She stepped around him and smiled at Brooke.

  “I am just going to go to my room so you two can have some alone time,” Lizzy said, as she walked out of the room.

  Brooke watched her go and then looked back at Johnathan, who stood there with the blade in his hand staring at it… with his back to her.

  “Johnathan?” Brooke asked.

  Johnathan turned, placed the blade behind his back, and looked at her, as she sat there looking all pretty and innocent on the couch.

  “Brooke… I ah,” he started to say.

  Brooke stood up and stared at him.

  “No,” she said.

  Johnathan tried to grin, feeling all serial killerish with a blade behind his back.

  “Lizzy says that we only have one way… to ah, get you home,” he said.

  Brooke shook her head.

  “I am so not cool with this, Johnathan. I am not into stabbing.”

  Johnathan stared at her and took a step towards her. Brooke backed up and fell back onto the couch. She grabbed a large throw pillow and placed it in front of her, as she squeezed it tightly.

  “Brooke… I want you live; I do,” Johnathan said.

  “So do I!” Brooke said.

  “Then let me help you live.”

  Brooke laughed.

  “Oh, okay… as you stand there staring at me with an ‘I am gonna stab you’ look on your face.”

  Johnathan pulled the blade out, and Brooke’s eyes got really wide, as she stared at it.

  “Holy crap! You have a blade!” she said.

  Johnathan looked at it and shook his head.

  “Oh god… no. Lizzy handed it to me, Brooke… I uh…”

  He dropped it on the floor and stared at her.

  “I would never even think about stabbing you!” Brooke said.

  “Well, I would never think about stabbing you!” Johnathan said.

  “Sure… right!” Brooke said, as she glanced at the blade on the floor.

  Johnathan stepped back from it and looked at her.

  “This is crazy… I uh, I gotta figure out how to get you out of here,” he said.

  He walked to the other room quickly and looked around the room for the book Lizzy had been looking at. He spotted it and ran to it, picking it up and running back into the living room. He stopped, when he looked around the room, and Brooke was gone.

  “Brooke?” he called out.

  She didn’t answer him.

  “Brooke...? Where are you?” he asked.

  He looked at the floor and the blade was gone; the front door was wide open, and he sighed. Brooke had run for her life of course… Perfect.

  He stood there, feeling the bitter cold air creep into the room, and realized that it felt more comfortable to him then the warmth of the house. Not good, or he guessed that it wasn’t a good thing. He heard a giggle behind him and turned to see Lizzy standing there.

  “You suck… I mean, really, really suck,” Johnathan said.

  “Where is she?” Lizzy asked him.

  Johnathan let his hand fall, as he gripped the book in it tightly.

  “You are the psychic… you should know.”

  Lizzy placed her hands on her hips and stared at him.

  “There is no need to be rude,” she said.

  “Brooke ran… just like I probably would have. I can’t believe I even took the blade from you to start with,” Johnathan said.

  “I know right...? I was surprised that you didn’t fight me a little harder,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan tilted his head and stared at her.

  “You lied again,” he said.

  “It wasn’t com
pletely a lie… it was ah… well, screw it… Listen, I like you,” Lizzy said, as she crossed her arms on her chest and stared him down.

  “You what?” Johnathan asked her.

  Lizzy bit her lip and twisted her shoe on the floor, as she looked at it.

  “I think you are endearing,” she said.

  Johnathan let his mouth drop open, and he looked at her in disbelief.

  “What the hell?” he asked her.

  Lizzy looked up and crinkled her eyebrows.

  “You fed with me, Johnathan… Do you know how many boys have not done that?” she asked him.

  “There have been others?” he asked her.

  Lizzy nodded.

  “562… to be exact, I keep dragging them here, and they keep getting all ‘I don’t wanna, and oh my god I can’t do that’,” she said to him. “But you… you are a killer by nature, and you are the one that I have been waiting for.”

  “I am going to get sick,” Johnathan said, as he leaned forward and let the book drop to the floor.

  Lizzy stared at him and grinned.

  “No, you are not. I watched you kill that boy I brought to you… You are special, like me,” Lizzy said to him.

  “So…are you telling me that I didn’t have to kill him for us to ah…?” Johnathan said, as he stared at the floor.

  “Nope… you sure didn’t, but you did it and now we can do it again,” she said.

  Johnathan looked up at her, as his hair fell in his face.

  His throat felt dry, and his stomach ached.

  “Lizzy… you are crazy,” he said.

  Lizzy smiled, walked to the front door, and closed it.

  She turned back and stared at him.

  “Maybe… just a little,” she said, as she pinched her fingers together.

  Johnathan looked around the room for anything to grab and hit her with.

  “Don’t do that, it hurts my feelings,” she said.

  Johnathan turned quickly to look at her.

  “Hurt your feelings...? Are you kidding me? You drag some boy here, and we killed him. Now you brought Brooke to me and try to get me to stab her. Not cool, Lizzy… not cool at all,” he said.

  “Oh, come on! Did you see her face...? I mean, it was hilarious; she looked just like that boy did… all confused and scared, it was delicious,” she said.

  “Delicious...? What the hell are you, Lizzy?” Johnathan asked her.

  Lizzy took a step towards him and grinned, a wicked grin.

  “Have you heard of demons?” she asked him.

  Johnathan narrowed his eyes.

  “You are kidding me, right?”

  Lizzy relaxed her grin and tilted her head at him.

  “What...? You never have?” she asked him.

  Johnathan took a step back and kept his eyes on her.

  “I have read about them, if that is what you mean,” he said.

  “Well, I am a pretty big deal, Johnathan… I mean, I have lived forever,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan continued to back up and bumped into a small table by the couch.

  He reached down, steadying himself, and looked at her, trying to smile.

  “I think I should go now,” he said.

  Lizzy shook her head and smiled.

  “It took me forever to find protectors before; you creatures are a curious lot to me… all immortal and pretty. I get lonely, Johnathan… very lonely.”

  Johnathan cleared his throat.

  “Ummm, yea okay,” he said.

  “Why are you all weird now?” she asked him.

  Johnathan stood up straight and laughed.

  “Oh, I don’t know… maybe it’s all the demon stuff,” he said.

  “Oh come on...! If I was that bad, I would have killed you when you popped up here with me.”

  Johnathan scanned the room again.

  “If you don’t stop trying to figure out what to hit me with; I am going to get pissed,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan looked at her.

  “What do you want, Lizzy?” he asked her.

  Lizzy stepped towards him.

  “I want to be topside again… and you will help me do just that.”

  Johnathan laughed out loud.

  “Well, I have read about demons and isn’t something like you running around on earth kind of a bad thing?” he asked.

  Lizzy smiled.

  “I have things to do up there… old scores to settle,” she said.

  “So you want revenge,” Johnathan said.

  “On who?” he asked.

  Lizzy walked to the window and looked outside.

  “Oh, someone you know,” she said.

  Johnathan watched her, and she started to glitch a little. He blinked his eyes and focused on her. She looked back, and her image changed from her pretty self… to one of unimaginable horror for a second. He blinked and stumbled backward.

  Her image returned to normal and she turned to him.

  “Sorry about that; it happens when I get upset,” she said.

  “What the hell, Lizzy?”

  She laughed and held her hands out to him.

  “Oh, come on… you are not what you appear to be either, Johnathan Graph,” she said.

  “No… no. I admit that I am not all human, but what you just glitched to was ah…”

  “What...not so pretty?” she asked.

  “I ah… I just, well never mind… who do I know that you know?” he asked her.

  “Jonah,” she said, as she looked at her hands.

  They started to crack and turn to black.

  Johnathan looked at her hands and shook his head.

  “You need to calm down before you get all weird again.”

  Lizzy looked up at him, and her eyes were black. Her skin was changing to pale white and small black cracks started to appear, making her look like a cracked and weathered doll.

  “What?” she asked him.

  “You ah…” Johnathan said, as he pointed to his eyes and swirled his finger around.

  “Oh… oh, okay… sorry,” she said.

  She looked at him, and the color in her eyes started to come back to her, from black to green.

  Johnathan sighed and looked at the door.

  “I know that you care about her… a lot. It is a pity; I like you too,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan looked back at her and tried to keep his bad thoughts in check, knowing that she could probably see everything he thought.

  “I totally can hear you,” Lizzy said.

  “Sorry… you just ah, I never.”

  “Yes, you have,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan tilted his head.

  “You know… Clytie... the one who stabbed you; she is a demon of sorts,” Lizzy said.

  “Clytie… she was the one I visualized for you to bring here.”

  Lizzy smiled.

  “Yea, about that. I can’t do that. It is some old rule, sucks really. She would be awesome to eat.”

  “So you can’t kill her,” Johnathan said.

  “No… wish that I could; she would be delicious… We kinda have a thing for our own,” Lizzy said.

  “Awesome… okay,” Johnathan said.

  Lizzy laughed.

  “You know, you really are quite cute… It surprises me that Rue does not find you irresistible.”

  “Yea… well anyway, what about Brooke?” he asked.

  “What about her?” Lizzy asked him, as she took a step towards him.

  Johnathan straightened his shoulders and tried to look taller.

  Lizzy smiled, as she tilted her head up to stare at his face.

  “You should always stand up straight; you really are quite tall you know?”

  “I don’t… I mean, help me get her home, Lizzy.”

  Lizzy smiled at him.

  “What is the trade, Johnathan?” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan looked around the room and then settled back on Lizzy’s face.

  “I will stay with you, if you get her home,” Johnat
han said.

  Lizzy opened her mouth and then closed it.

  She stood there and pondered his offer and then shook her head.

  “That was tempting, it really was… but I got something else in mind.”

  Johnathan started to get irritated, and Lizzy laughed.

  “Oh, come on… I will tell you, stop thinking bad thoughts,” Lizzy said.

  “Well, what do you want?” Johnathan said.

  Lizzy tilted her head and grinned.

  “I don’t want to do you,” Lizzy said.

  Johnathan blushed a little.

  “Sorry, I just thought that maybe you ah… oh forget it,” he said, as he realized he had thought about it… thinking that maybe she was really lonely.

  Lizzy giggled.

  “Johnathan… we are going to go topside. I will take Brooke back home… this instant, and all I need from you is two little things,” she said.

  “What little things?” Johnathan asked.

  “Well, first of all… I need for you to give me your blood… and want to,” she said.

  “Okay and what else?” he asked without hesitation.

  “Oh, okay, that was easy enough… Well then, once we get there I need for you to convince everyone that I am good,” she said.

  “You want me to lie then,” he said.

  She frowned at him.

  “Seriously, that kind of hurt,” she said.

  “Sorry… sorry, Lizzy, but you are a… ummm.”

  “A demon,” she said.

  “Yea… I mean, you guys don’t have the best track record.”

  “Oh! Please,” Lizzy said, as she waved her hand in the air and half laughed.

  “We are necessary… as your kind is.”

  Johnathan decided to skip the debate.

  “What else?” he asked.

  “Well,” she said, as she walked back to the door.

  She placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it.

  She opened the door and then looked back at him and grinned.

  “Get me in, make your friends trust me, and then you simply let me do what I need to do.”

  “What do you need to do?” he asked.

  “I need to feast on Jonah’s bones,” she said, as she ran out of the house, the door slamming behind her.

  “What!?” Johnathan yelled, as he ran to the door and pulled on the handle

  It would not move.

  He ran to the window and looked out; he couldn’t see anything. The snow had picked up, and the lane leading up to the house was covered. The wind was blowing the snow around so thick that he couldn’t even see past the first tree closest to the house.