by Amber Garr
“Where are we going?” I asked.
If I really expected an answer I probably would have asked a different question. But, as anticipated, his response was silence and another shove between my shoulder blades. Save your energy, I had to remind myself. No fighting right now.
At the end of my death march, he stepped in front of me to open the last door on the left. I originally thought this was another cell, but then understood the hallway had to end at some point. The door opened with a creak and a groan, like a haunted house, and I could see that after a short entryway, we were going upstairs. Finally.
The stairs proved challenging and I ignored the grunts from my chaperone when I took each step two feet at a time. Let him wait for me, I thought with profound satisfaction. At the top, he opened another squeaky door and we entered a large room. I recognized we were in a warehouse, although I got distracted by the gathered crowd.
Atticus hung on the far wall. His clothes ripped and his glasses gone, but it was definitely the sorcerer. With hands manacled above his head out to the side, his feet were strapped together near the floor in a crucifixion-like arrangement. My captor stumbled into me when I stopped in disbelief. Atticus looked unconscious and his head hung down at an angle that surely reduced his air intake.
The right side of the room housed large windows placed closer to the ceiling than the floor. It was dark outside, confirming my suspicion that I’d been here at least a full day. Around to the left, a large open loft stood above several spectacular metal columns. There were no windows on that side and the second floor structure cast eerie shadows over the rest of the room and its occupants.
Directly in front of me stood a circle of people. I quickly counted ten, aside from Atticus and my guard. When the door banged shut, all heads turned at once to face us. They stood in some type of arrangement where each person alternated a colored cloak. Black, then purple, black, purple. Like a homage to the Ravens, although I knew this coloration must mean something much more significant.
In the center of the circle sat a raised platform bed. It reminded me of what hospitals used in the morgue, minus the stainless steel sterility. A red cloth draped over a lump that I unfortunately recognized as a body, doubting the practitioners had stuffed pillows underneath to fool me.
“Bring her here, Charles.”
I instantly recognized the voice and lost all sense of awe. Leanna removed the purple hood from her head and let her long curly red hair fall from its imprisonment. I wished I could be free of my imprisonment that easily.
I got shoved in Leanna’s direction and nearly fell to the floor when my first step used my bad leg. As I got closer, I looked around the hooded menagerie to see if I recognized anyone. I didn’t at first, and I really didn’t know why I thought I would. But as I examined the shapes rather than the shadow of a face visible under the hood, I noticed two of the bodies did look familiar. Two black coats, one tall man, one shorter one. The brothers.
Leanna closed the last few steps between us and held out her arms to embrace me.
“Leila, what did they do to you?” She tsked at Charles and shook her head in mock disgust. “I didn’t want them to hurt you.” She leaned in close to my face. “I’m guessing you put up a fight?” she whispered like school girls discussing a secret new crush - a private joke between the two of us. I used my good hand to push her away.
“Why are you doing this, Leanna?”
“Doing what? Summoning a demon or using you as bait?”
“Bait? What the hell are you talking about?”
She sauntered around me in a circle, while playing with my hair and brushing her hand on my arms. Her demeanor calm and calculated. I hadn’t ever feared the witch before, in fact I would say I’d been a little envious of her and her looks. But the detached way in which she was handling this situation downright frightened me.
“You,” she continued, “are here for the cambion.”
“Conner?”
“Yes, Conner. How many cambions do you know?” She stopped in front of me again and brushed my cheek. “It seems that the little half-demon has a crush on our clairvoyant.”
I didn’t understand why this was important or how she knew about Conner’s feelings. At the same time I felt excited that she’d noticed his interest in me.
“You see, Asmodeus has been looking for Conner Hoffman, as he’s known today, for quite some time. Apparently the naughty cambion’s been ignoring his father’s…shall we say calls, and I promised to bring them back together among other things.”
“What other things?”
“Oh you know, souls, sacrifices, a chance to walk amongst the living…typical demon requests.”
I thought for a moment. “And what do you get in return?”
“Straight to the point. Well, immortality and recognition of course. My powers will be increased and I’ll become the leader of all the Covens and Orders in the country or perhaps even the world. Everyone will fear me.”
“And you kill innocent people for that? You are psychotic,” I taunted and she laughed.
“Oh, silly girl. How your mind is warped. This is the real world. Humans are meaningless and they always have been. Just a pawn in our magical game of chess. Demons, witches, vampires…humans have no idea.”
“Conner won’t come for me,” I stated as strongly as I could, even though I hoped I was wrong.
“He will. In fact, we should get started before he arrives.” She started to walk away.
“And what about Atticus? How can you treat him like this?”
She stumbled in her steps and had to steady herself. When she looked back at me, her face filled with rage. Maybe she did care a little bit after all. Her gaze travelled to the wall where he hung.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she snapped.
“I don’t? It looks to me like you used him for your own gain then tossed him aside. What kind of a leader are you?”
Without answering, she turned around and walked away from me again. “Put her where she can watch.”
Charles grabbed a hold of me a little more forcefully than before and steered me closer to Atticus. I guessed our conversation was over. He got to the empty wall and looked around, searching for something. With me still in tow, we trudged back to our starting point where Charles grabbed a chair with his free hand and flung it over his back. Our return stroll to Atticus was observed by every person in the room. No one said a word and no one tried to help. I focused on the table in the center with the body on top. From my field of view, I could see a few strands of long black hair peeking out from the cover. Angela.
I tried to pull free and rush back to Leanna. Instead I only slowed down our forward progression a tad.
“Leanna! What are you doing to her? She’s just a kid!” My struggles proved futile.
“Oh no, Leila. She’s much better than a kid. You’ll see,” she said in a twisted sing-song voice.
“What’s wrong with all of you? How many have you killed? We know about Erin and Miranda… and Jake!” That last name got me a reaction, although not the one I was looking for. Several cloaked figures snapped their heads in my direction and fixed me with a dangerous scowl.
“You know he didn’t give you up. Why did you kill him?” I continued.
Leanna actually cackled. “Oh, I know he didn’t give me up, Leila. And I most certainly didn’t kill him.”
She lifted her arm and one of the cloaked figures stepped forward. When they removed their hood, I looked directly at Jake Montgomery, his face somber and still covered in bruises.
“Jake?” I whispered. “What are you doing here?” I didn’t understand why he’d want to continue working with the person who killed his sister.
“He’s here because he did exactly what I wanted him to. This is his reward.” I looked at her in confusion and she laughed. “Yes, you innocent. Did you think he came to you out of kindness and concern?”
Suddenly her words began to make sense. Leanna c
ould see the shock written all over my face. “There you go, Leila. I sent Jake to you knowing that you and your cambion would eventually figure it out. We were almost finished and I needed to lure them all in.” She flicked her head toward Atticus. “No point in leaving any witnesses.”
She had no intention of keeping us alive tonight, I could see that much in her eyes. And she was so confident in her plans that my legs began to tremble in fear. I could not let this happen. Leanna was a lost cause, but perhaps Jake still had some humanity left.
“Jake, don’t do this! She killed Erin. Think about your parents. Think about your friends. I know you care, I saw it the other night. This isn’t your only option.” The tears in my eyes helped convey the message. “Please, Jake.”
“Enough!” Leanna commanded and when I tried to respond, no sound came out of my mouth. I screamed and screamed, but it was like a silent movie with no subtitles. Charles slammed me into the metal chair and handcuffed one hand to the back railing in a split second. At least he had avoided the busted wrist.
Atticus shifted like he would wake. But when his body went lax again, I realized I was by all myself for the moment. Charles stepped to the side under the windows and stood like a professional body guard. His attention focused on the two prisoners and Leanna. With the way he looked at her, I wondered if she was dating him too.
The circle had reformed and the alternating black and purple cloaks reminded me of a bruise. The ten of them were equally and perfectly spaced and when I realized that the different colored cloaks were delineating males from females, I finally understood the distinction between witches and sorcerers. Gender.
Leanna raised her hands to shoulder level and closed her eyes. When I watched her mouth move without sound, I briefly wondered if they’d cast an anti-hearing spell on me too. But soon the sound became a whisper and when the rest of the circle joined in, I could clearly hear the chanting. Latin again.
The atmosphere in the warehouse shifted. It’s hard to explain, but it was like a change in pressure. Not like in an airplane, but more like an elevator in a skyscraper. The chanting became louder and louder. Lights flickered and I swear I saw a slight fog forming a barrier around the circle. On second glance, I convinced myself it was only a product of shadows and my frazzled nerves.
The voices suddenly stopped and everyone’s head turned to look at the girl on the table. Nothing happened for a few moments but then I saw it. The red velvet cloth slowly started to slide off the girl from head to toe like some imaginary force controlled it.
Something like a demon.
He appeared in the same manner as before. Red glowing eyes first, followed by a face and a semi-transparent body. His attention focused all on the girl. Angela Stillwater had been kidnapped for Asmodeus.
I watched as he ran his index finger up her body, across her forehead and back down the other side. He placed both hands on her face and turned her head from side to side, examining her like a patient. His assessment didn’t end there. For another five minutes he touched, licked, and smelled various parts of the girl, nodding with approval each time.
“Will she do, My Lord?” Leanna asked.
Asmodeus lifted his head toward the ceiling and closed his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath and when he blew it out, he smiled a crooked grin.
“She is perfect,” he hissed. “Young, virginal, and gifted. This should be enough to complete my transition.”
Leanna smiled with great fulfillment and I felt sickened with disgust. The entire entourage of intolerable supernaturals was happy that Angela’s sacrifice would appease the demon. He placed his hand over Angela’s face and squeezed. Not hard enough to break her, but firm enough that I could see the muscles in his forearm working.
“Begin now,” he commanded and the circle of magic users started chanting again.
The demon smiled and closed his eyes. He joined the chanting; only his dialect sounded much more prominent and his resonating voice carried throughout the entire room. The hair on my body stood up as the magical energy nearly suffocated me. The lights dimmed again but this time they never came back to their original brightness.
A strange glow surrounded Asmodeus’ arm and Angela’s body. It was transparent enough for me to see him move his hand to her throat. She began to squirm and when she suddenly reached up to grab the arm holding her down, I jumped in my seat.
He must have been expecting that move, because the demon didn’t flinch. Instead he bent down closer to her face and spoke in her ear. I couldn’t make out his words since the rest of the circle continued chanting, but I guessed it was meant to be soothing. She stopped struggling and began to sit up. Asmodeus helped guide her as though she were made of glass.
Once in a sitting position, her back pointed toward me but the demon faced my direction. The whispering continued and I abruptly remembered where I’d seen this play out before- in Erin’s vision. The face that leaned over her before her final moments had been blurry, but my instincts told me I would soon be witnessing the murder of another innocent girl.
The original incubus, Asmodeus, bent in and kissed Angela fully on the mouth. Her body stiffened at first, before the tension in her back flowed away. She didn’t necessarily return the kiss with her body language, but she didn’t stop him either. I felt like a voyeur until her skin began to shrivel. It was subtle at first, and perhaps if I’d been able to see more than her back, I would have noticed it sooner. Her arms fell to her sides and the demon laid her back down on the table, never once breaking the physical contact between their lips. She was dying right in front of me, literally having the life sucked out of her.
“Stop!” I cried. My voice echoed through the large room especially when everyone else went quiet. I guess they couldn’t hold my silencing spell while they were busy summoning a demon.
“Ahhhh. My psychic has returned to me,” Asmodeus jeered.
“Silence!” Leanna screamed as she spun toward me, yet before she could take one step in my direction, she was stopped.
“No!” The demon commanded. “Let her speak. I would be greatly amused to hear what she has to say.”
Now that my attention centered on the incubus, I noticed his body was nearly solid. His face morphed through several looks, all of which belonged to the men in my life. Becoming what I wanted most. He settled on Garrick’s boyish face with Conner’s dark curly hair. The clothes also changed although they were not from this time period. He looked similar to a pirate with black pants and a frilly white shirt.
By the time he spoke again, he’d made his way to the edge of the circle next to Leanna and directly in my field of vision.
“Bring her to me.”
Charles came over, unlocked my handcuffs, and dragged me to a spot just outside the circle. The demon reached for me, but jerked his hand back when he hit an imaginary wall.
He glared at Leanna. “I am not strong enough yet!”
She cowered under his decree. “I’m sorry. If she hadn’t interrupted--”
“It still would not have worked!” He cut in. “We have been trying for over a year, and yet you have not succeeded as promised.”
A year. They’ve been sacrificing people for an entire year.
“My Lord,” she said as she bowed her head. “Perhaps you need one more?”
He pushed her aside and motioned for Charles to bring me closer. I fought against him, but when we were almost to Leanna, he shoved me inside the circle. Apparently the demon couldn’t get out, but it was no problem for me to fall in.
“No!” I stammered. When I hit the floor, I flipped over and began to crab-walk away from Asmodeus. His face still sculpted a perfect replication of Garrick and his body took on Conner’s shape.
“Come here, little psychic,” he cooed as he reached toward me. I crawled until my back hit the table in the center. The impact caused Angela’s arm to fall and it hit me on top of the head. I screamed and jumped up, running to the opposite side to put the table between the demon and me.
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br /> He shook his head and smiled. With slow, methodical steps, he started to move around the table to catch up with me. I mirrored his moves and maintained the space between us by walking my own circle. After a minute of this game, he raised his eyebrows and sighed.
“Enough of this.”
The next instant he popped into existence behind me and wrapped his arm around my neck. I didn’t even have time to scream. His hot breath caressed my throat and ear as he sniffed me. This time, I didn’t get any images from him. Maybe he had nothing to share, but more likely, I just learned that when I was this terrified, I couldn’t use my gift.
He began to seduce me. Or at least that’s what I would have called it had I been an outside witness. The hand not holding my throat started to slide around to the front of my body. He kissed my neck, shoulder, and ear with a gentleness I would have thought impossible. My reaction became automatic when he squeezed my breast and moved his hands to my hips. I pushed back into him and closed my eyes, wanting him more than I’d ever wanted anyone before. I had no control over my response.
A small laugh escaped his throat and with a deep groan he pushed on my hips to turn me toward him. His mouth swallowed mine and he kissed me passionately and deep. Lost in the sensation, a nagging feeling kicked around in the back of my mind. Whatever it wanted to say, it didn’t matter. All I needed at this moment was him.
My hands and feet began to tingle. My legs quivered and I had a hard time breathing with his mouth smothering mine. The novelty of his kiss quickly wore off when I wrapped my arms around his neck and touched my own skin. Dry and leathery, that troublesome feeling came back full throttle.
He was killing me.
I put both hands on his shoulders and pushed him away. It wasn’t as strong as I would have liked, but it accomplished the job. Stumbling back a few steps, I watched him lick his lips and then wipe his mouth with a sleeve.
“Mmmm. Why did you stop? We were having such a great time.”
I tried to speak, but felt too drained to move the muscles around my mouth. Instead, I shook my head and put some more space between us. Asmodeus stretched his long arms above his head and a hint of bare stomach peeked out from underneath his pirate shirt. He caught me staring at it.