The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set)

by Rue Volley

  “Have you ever considered switching sides?” she asked him.

  “Not until now, because I would enjoy tearing you apart,” Josh said, as he smiled back at her.

  “Oh… you are the charmer. Don’t talk that way… it gets me all hot,” she said.

  Josh stood his ground and held his hand out to Sam.

  She grimaced and took his hand, as he pulled her up.

  Lizzy looked at her too.

  “Seriously, I will put in a good word for you with the big guy… this is amazing! He has snakes eating him alive, and you, on the other hand, have maggots eating their way out of you.”

  Josh looked at Sam, and she raised her eyebrows.

  “Yea, it sucks ass,” Sam said, as she stood there holding her stomach.

  She leaned over and hurled up some of the bile.

  Josh bit his lip and looked back at Lizzy.

  “You are creative. Tell me, where is Rue?” he asked again.

  Lizzy laughed and started to pace, glancing at Sam and then at him.

  “Okay… she is hanging with her Mommy and Daddy. I guess that I could have made her suffer too, but I thought that I would have some fun first,” she said.

  “In memory?” Josh asked, as he felt the snakes twisting in his stomach.

  “Not exactly… not the memory you know. It is more like purgatory. You see Rue’s parents, in their stupidity… cannot move on. They are hanging on to that last bit of life and because of that; I am able to do some production work. I have always loved the theatre; I really have… or maybe it is Lizzy… oh I don’t know,” she said. Lizzy stared off like she was contemplating something.

  Josh looked at Sam and grinned.

  “Germany,” he whispered to her.

  Sam nodded and leaned down slowly, reaching for one of his blades.

  Lizzy turned and smiled at her.

  “Really...? Oh, I am disappointed; I really am. You seem to have some anger in you.”

  Lizzy swung her arm out, and Sam fell back, screaming as she grabbed her head.

  “Now they eat your brain,” she whispered.

  Josh looked at her and screamed out, as he grabbed his blade and lunged at her. Lizzy swung her arm out to him, and he flew across the forest and slammed into a tree. A loud crack rang out, and he slumped to the ground, realizing that his back had been broken. Lizzy looked at Kai, and he shook his head.

  “I didn’t say a word; I just really need to pee,” he said.

  Lizzy rolled her eyes and waved her hand at him.

  He rose up and hovered off the ground.

  His zipper started to unzip itself, and he looked down.

  “Oh…I can’t, I have this thing. I can’t pee in front of girls.”

  Lizzy tilted her head and waved her hand.

  He slowly lowered, and his feet touched the ground.

  Lizzy shook her head.

  “Turn around,” she said.

  He sighed and turned.

  “Do it, I won’t look… then it is back to business. I fear that I am partial to ignorance; it is delicious.”

  Kai looked down at Sam, as she tried to catch her breath, and her eyes rolled in her head. He looked up at Josh who lay under a tree, trying to dig his hands into the dirt and pull his numbing body across the ground. Kai closed his eyes and felt his body relax completely. He took a slow breath. Then faster than anyone could see, he dropped and rolled over to a blade, snatching it up and lunged at Lizzy. He drove the blade into her back and twisted it. She stood there motionless, and Kai let go of the blade and stepped back from her.

  Lizzy held her hands up and looked at them, as the black cracks started to appear and her skin turned to a pale white. She grabbed the blade and started to pull it out, as she hissed. Kai stumbled backward and bumped into something. He felt a hand grab his shoulder and throw him to the side. Lizzy turned, and Theo stood there, blades glowing in his hands. She smiled and jerked the blade out, black blood staining it. She spit out some black blood that rolled down her chin and grinned at him with yellowing teeth.

  “Theodore Barrington… how nice of you to stop by to see me. I thought that I would never see your pretty face again,” Lizzy said.

  “I see that you are still the child, Aiwass,” Theo said, as he stood perfectly still staring her down.

  “It is such a joy to hear you say my name, lover,” Aiwass said, as his eyes rolled to black and he grinned.

  “I would have assumed that you would inhabit a boy’s body, not that one of a small girl,” Theo said.

  “This body was too good to pass up… You know that her father stole my book and called it his own, bringing him much fame… that of which belongs to me.”

  Theo laughed.

  “That book is a disaster, from an untalented writer,” he said.

  Aiwass crinkled his eyebrows and frowned.

  “You… you don’t like my book?” he asked.

  “I found it unorganized, unfulfilling and non-creative,” Theo said.

  Aiwass stood straight up and gritted his teeth, black blood still running down his chin.

  “Such the critic! I found you much more loving as you slept in my bed.”

  Josh looked up and laughed.

  “Of course...! Way to go, Theo!” he yelled out.

  Theo grinned and kept his eyes on Aiwass.

  “Ignore my brother; he has a serpent’s tongue.”

  “Mmmm. That he does, one of which I would like to feel on me.”

  “Aiwass, release them, now,” Theo said, as he stood there looking totally relaxed.

  Aiwass tilted his head, and his breathing quickened.

  “I think not. Tonight I dine on maggot eaten flash and venom filled liver,” he said.

  “Sounds delicious,” Theo said. “But I have no need to watch you press your will on my family, and I will soon lose my patience with you.”

  Aiwass laughed, and his voice turned into many. He opened his mouth, and his eyes went to slits, still black as night. His tongue popped out and flickered, split down the middle like a snake.

  “I think that I am the one who has reached the end of patience. I once enjoyed you but, now I am afraid that I have no time to play.”

  Aiwass lunged at Theo, and Theo raised his hand, with a pentagram carved into it. Aiwass slammed against it and cried out, as the smoke started to rise on his chest. He looked down and hissed.

  “Trickery is a virtue.”

  Theo leaned into his face.

  “And you are an abomination,” he whispered.

  Theo started to chant in Latin, and Aiwass twitched and shuddered in front of him. Theo raised his blade, and Aiwass screamed out, many languages at once, and a terrible wind kicked up. He laughed and disappeared into the blowing debris with a flash of light. Theo shielded his eyes from the blinding light.

  The wind settled down, and he looked over at Kai who was peeing in the bushes and sighed. He flashed to Sam and waved his hand over her face. She sucked in her breath and sat up quickly, swinging her hands in the air. Theo turned, flashed to Josh’s side, and leaned down, rolling him on his side and running his glowing hand the length of his back. Josh sucked in his breath and pushed himself up, brushing leaves out of his hair. He looked at Theo and shook his head at him.

  “You did that thing?” he asked him.

  Theo sighed and started to walk.

  Josh jogged up next to him, as Sam grabbed Kai’s arm and pulled him from the bush.

  “Hey!” Kai said, as he tried to zip up his pants.

  Sam rolled her eyes and dragged him along with her.

  They caught up to Josh and Theo, and Sam let Kai go.

  “Yes… that I did,” Theo said.

  Sam shook her head.

  “And you bitch at me,” Josh said.

  Theo shot him a look and shook his head.

  “That back there is a regrettable moment, one of which I would of rather not experienced. Aiwass is a very powerful demon, with no compassion. The fact that he is
here is a bad omen of things to come. I would suggest that we skip the usual joking and figure out a plan of attack. Because a storm is coming, one of which I am weary of engaging in. Aiwass is murderess plague, a black death, and does not care who is in the way of his plans.”

  “Gee, that sounds like fun,” Josh said.

  Sam snorted and covered her mouth.

  “Ridiculous,” Theo said, as he started to flash back towards the house.

  Sam hit Josh on the arm.

  “That sounded all Armageddon and shit,” she said.

  “I hate it when he gets this way.”

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” Kai asked, as he stepped up behind the two of them. They both turned and looked at him.

  “Good save back there,” Josh said, as he looked at him.

  Kai shrugged his shoulders.

  “Seemed like a good thing to do,” he said.

  Sam smiled.

  He reached out to take her hand, and she looked at it and shook her head at him.

  “You just peed,” she said.

  Kai laughed.

  “You just had maggots come out of your mouth.”

  “Shut up,” she muttered, as she took his hand.

  Josh stopped and looked at her.

  “We have to find Rue,” he said.

  Sam nodded.

  “Let’s get back to the house, and then we can get on that,” she said.

  Josh flashed after Theo.

  Kai and Sam followed closely behind him.

  Chapter 14

  Just Cause You Feel It,

  Doesn’t Make It So

  Water. They say that without it we are nothing… and they are right. I took a twenty minute shower, so long that my entire bathroom steamed up and it had rolled out into my bedroom like fog. I stood there and ran my hand across my mirror, and it streaked, barely allowing my reflection to be seen in it. I turned quickly when I thought I saw a flash of someone behind me, in the mirror. No one was in here though. I swear that I saw it, and yet for me to swear that I was seeing anything right then seemed redundant.

  I leaned up and tried to grin. If this was real life then I should be happy. In fact, I should be doing the happy dance all around my room. You know the one; the goofy dance that we all do when things are perfect. But perfection is subjective, and if I had been making all this up then I shouldn’t be there. I should be locked up in the asylum. Crap.

  I flinched when I felt something rub against my leg, immediately going into “ninja” mode, as I jumped back and looked down, my hands in front of me like I was about to karate chop whatever it was. I sighed and watched my cat sit down and start licking its paw paw. (I never just say ‘paw’… it’s gotta be doubled to add to the cuteness) He looked up at me and meowed.

  “WTF?” I whispered.

  I stared at that cat and then leaned down. I slowly placed my hand on it… so afraid that it would ‘poof’ into smoke. I mean, that cat has been missing since I was little… or so I thought. It started to purr, and it felt like a small engine under my fingertips.

  “Cat?” I asked it, as I scooped it up.

  It leaned its head against my shoulder and let me man handle it.

  I looked up as my Mom leaned in and grinned.

  “There you are!” she said, as she walked over to me and took him.

  “I have been looking for you everywhere, you naughty kitty,” she said.

  I watched her pet the cat and felt like I should scream.

  She glanced at me, and I tried to let the look of shock fade from my face.

  “This cat likes to play hide and seek, all the time,” she said, as she started to walk to my door.

  “Mom?” I said.

  She turned and looked at me, as she gently pet him on the back.

  “Yes, honey?”

  “That cat, how long have we had him?” I asked her.

  She laughed and gave him big kisses on the side of his face.

  “Seems like forever, but to be more accurate… I think since you were five,” she said.

  “Oh,” I said, as I sat down at my vanity and looked back at the reflection of crazy me.

  “What is wrong, Rue?” she asked me.

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “I just, I remember him running away… a long time ago,” I said.

  I looked up in the mirror and the sunlight shifted in the reflection.

  I turned quickly and the room looked the same.

  “Rue… I really want you to see someone, before you leave for college,” she said.

  I turned back to the mirror and cleared my throat.

  “Maybe I should,” I said.

  She was behind me before I realized it. She leaned over and kissed me on the head. The cat reached out and batted at my hair. I reached up and grabbed his paw paw, laughing a little.

  “I am so glad; it will help… I am sure,” she said.

  I tried to grin, knowing that as a parent she was probably relieved. I mean, I didn’t even know how long she had been asking me to do it. I can’t remember. In fact, I don’t know what has been happening… for a long time now. Right?

  She walked to my doorway and left me alone, as that thought lingered in my mind. I am crazy, right? Or maybe the stress of life threw me into a spiral, omitting the reality and building a fantasy world that I wanted to be in. Wait. Why would I build a world where my parents died? Why would I build a world with sorrow and doubt? Oh god.

  I heard a tap, tap, tap on my door and looked, hoping that it was her again. I felt like asking questions, and I needed her to try to help me piece together what the hell I have been doing for the last four years of my life. Sara stood there, grinning all big and stupid. Sara. I had missed her and not, all at the same time.

  She jumped into the room like she was jumping over an imaginary line drawn at my doorway and held her hands out to me. The invitation to the ‘hug’. I stared at her and slowly stood up, knowing that I had no idea what to say to her. The last time I saw her, I thought that she was going to Europe… on a sabbatical. One I was sure that she needed after the whole Caine thingy and trying to destroy us… on accident.

  She stood there and tilted her head at me, and I had to stand up at least. Not hugging Sara is like beating a puppy down, and I had no need to create anything that was going to be a problem.

  Sara threw her arms around my neck and hugged me, like it was the only hug that she was ever going to give. I stumbled a little, as she swayed with me. She let me go and held onto my arms.

  “I am sooooo excited,” she said.

  “Uh huh,” I said, figuring that agreeing with her was the best and only option that I had.

  “I mean the party of the year...! Of our lifetimes, right?” she said.

  “Sure,” I said.

  She laughed and pounced on my bed, rocking my pillows off of it and onto the floor.

  “You know, I waited to buy the perfect dress… because you are the procrastinator. But when your Mom said that you were going 100%, I was like… O. M. G,” she said.

  I looked at her and stared at her face.

  She looks like the Sara I know, no worries and all giddy with excitement.

  I grinned and turned back to the vanity.

  “Well, I figured it is ‘the’ party,” I said.

  “Damn skippy,” she said.

  I sat down and started to brush my hair out of its tangled mess.

  “You know… Johnathan is home from school, and I would bet that he was the one who invited you,” she said.

  I laid my brush down and cleared my throat.

  “Home?” I asked without turning to her.

  “Yep… from what I hear, he is done, and now he can inherit all that business stuff with his Dad,” she said, as she rolled on her stomach and placed a pillow under her.

  I sat there and waited for her to keep talking. I mean, all I have to say is “he died Sara and now he is living challenged”… but I so can’t say that. Because as far as I know, that is n
ot the reality of it.

  She grinned and placed her chin on my pillow, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

  “You know, I think that he likes you,” she said.

  I turned to her and crinkled my eyebrows.

  “Why would you think that?” I asked her, feeling like I was having someone else’s conversation.

  “It is on the wind,” she said, as she giggled and placed her face in my pillow.

  “On the wind, as in rumor?” I said, as I turned and looked at her.

  “Mayyyybeeee,” she said all girlie.

  She spent about five seconds holding it all in, and then burst like a rumor damn all over me.

  “Okay, okay… here is the skinny. I heard that he came here specifically for you,” she said.

  “Huh,” I responded.

  Now in Sara’s world, a “huh” to such news simply will not do.

  She sat up quickly and tilted her head at me.

  “Huh...? Are you kidding me? He is like the hottest thing on the planet, and now he is the hottest thing with all the money.”

  I turned back to the mirror and looked at my face.

  “Money isn’t everything,” I said.

  “Oh!” she said, as she started to laugh.

  I looked down at my hands, and they looked a little blurry.

  I swallowed and turned in my chair to face her.

  “No… it isn’t. Money is just a ‘thing’ but love, love is…” I started to say.

  “Love is what?” she asked me.

  “Love is need, like air and water,” I said.

  Sara stood up and stared at me.

  “That is all fine and good, but who will make sure the water is clean?” she asked me.

  “I don’t follow you,” I said.

  Sara grinned and dropped to her knees, placing her hands on my knees.

  I peeked up and looked at her face.

  “Money is a necessary evil, like a house and a car… nice ones hopefully,” she said.

  I bit my lip and placed my hands on hers.

  “It isn’t… trust me.”

  She grinned and squeezed my knees.

  “Is there something you want to share with me?” she asked.

  I had to bite my tongue, because I so wanted to talk about Josh and how I didn’t know how I was going to live without him… if he was even real. I mean, I love him, more than water… more than air, and now I sat there wondering if he was just something that I conjured up out of loneliness… or maybe insanity. Sara smiled and stood up. I watched her and never changed the expression on my face.