Two Halves Box Set

by Marta Szemik

  The havoc settled, and the twins opened their eyes.

  “Is she safe?” William asked, stepping closer.

  The casters stood. “Yes, but she’s devastated. It’s out of our hands now.”

  “We shouldn’t have done this.” William shook his head, roaming his fingers through his hair.

  “It was the only way, Father. The news of your death had to seem real. She won’t give up on us.” Ayer placed his hand on William’s shoulder. “She won’t mourn you for long.”

  “In the meantime, let’s go steal a body.” Crystal winked.

  William’s mouth dropped open. “What body?”

  * * *

  In a cave eerily familiar to Xela’s, pervasive shadows flickered along the walls, cast by the glow of the fireplace.

  “Uncle Xander set up the cave.” Crystal explained. “He thought it’d help him find the witch he once loved.”

  “The witch in Mom’s body.” Ayer added.

  “That’s why he’s drawn to Sarah.” William wiped the sweat off his forehead.

  He and the caster twins rushed toward the slumped body in the chair.William and the caster twins rushed toward the slumped body in the chair.

  “Untie her hands,” Ayer instructed as he crouched and began to loosen the knots at her ankles. William’s fingers danced with the rope, pulling on ends like an experienced sailor.

  Crystal stood tall, her arm stretched out at her front as her hand maneuvered to hold a vortex open on the wall.

  “Done.” William straightened.

  The witches’ arms flopped to the side, and William caught her before gravity pulled her to the floor. Ayer had finished with the lower ropes, and William lifted the corpse, cradling it against his chest. He knew this was the body Sarah would soon possess. It was the only body they had for her, for now.

  Ayer pulled out his palm. In it rested Eric’s blue sphere from Xela’s lair. “It will take you back to Uncle Eric’s home. Leave the body there. We will open a vortex for you when the time is right. Mom should be there by the time you return.” He handed the glowing ball to William.

  “Thank you for your help. I don’t know where you get your strength from.” William backed into the vortex Crystal had opened in the wall.

  “From you and from Ma,” the twins said together.

  Crystal closed the portal after her father had stepped through.

  ###

  Evil-Bent: A Two Equals Novella

  Book 4

  Return to the main table of contents

  Table of Contents

  Book 4: Beginning

  Book 4: Middle

  Book 4: End

  Book 4: Bonus Material

  * * *

  The demon’s fireball flew through the arctic air toward me. It sizzled, cutting the frozen space with heat that would disintegrate my body. Bracing my legs against a sheet of ice, I shot a field of energy out of my arms in defense. It swallowed the sphere, blasting another sound wave through the white plains and lifting fresh snow for a fresh tumble roll.

  You have an order to kill, I repeated the keepers’ mantra in my mind. All of Aseret’s servants shall die.

  The ongoing task to hunt the strayed creatures had kept me away from my family and friends for over a month now. My only companion was my love Mira, whose shapeshifting abilities could hide her in any situation. She has been at my side for almost three decades.

  The job became easier each time I bent their evil spirits out of this realm as I had direct power to bind the underworld demons to the hereafter, a portal no being could escape. But the temporary gift from the keepers was also my doom. Once my job was done, the power would be taken away, along with my immortality and my memories. I had no choice in the matter. My water mark forced me to kill; the keepers’ powers transferred through my soul.

  The demon smirked. From the way his palms twitched, I knew he prepared to send a new blow my way. Spheres of cold fire manifested in my hands, and I threw them at the demon’s chest, one after another. They flew at light speed with blue tails of electricity. The demon fell back, then pushed upright as if an invisible force had helped him.

  How did he do that?

  I released a shot, followed by a firmer one. The whizz of the fireballs released an electric smell of lightning.

  Somehow, he stood up again. This one was strong.

  More energy flew through my veins, its voltage shaking my body as if I’d been dipped in water with a floating toaster. The current spread across my skin in waves. Pain disguised as ecstasy stretched the fleshed spikes on my neck, extending them like a bulldog’s collar. The burning reached its maximum. To me, the next best thing to an orgasm was bending.

  An aura of power enveloped me. Purple hue hugged my body. I gathered the energy and pushed it to my front, aiming it at him. The fiery orb consumed the demon as soon as I released it.

  He had no time to yelp. His body disintegrated on contact, and the soul was sucked into a void I’d opened with the snap of my fingers, another ability the keepers had bestowed upon me. The demon’s spirit was now bound to the hereafter.

  Ashed mist floated like feathers in the light breeze, spreading the demon’s signature stench of dirty socks and rotten eggs. This monster possessed more power than I’d seen in a while. I followed the drift of his remains spreading across the skies, then falling back to Earth. My gaze connected to each wafer as it touched the snow, dissipating within the white plush.

  A long held breath escaped my lungs. My new skills drained the strength out of my body to the brink of my own death. But the order had to be fulfilled and once my job was done, I’d be no one, stripped of my supernatural gifts for defying the keepers. My choice over a month ago to help a witch marked with a sphere sealed my fate. The keepers, angered by my decision, had punished me. Soon, I would be a mere human, unworthy of the love of my life. Mira would no longer be part of my future.

  Mira and I had followed the demon for three days, apprehending him in the North Pole this morning. His black cloak was easy to spot over the fresh snow, like a drop of black oil in a cup of milk. He was one of the last to survive our month-long quest to exterminate those who followed Aseret. They were always given a choice to change—I could bend their sphered mark and the evil away—but the demons had been scarred too deep to make that choice and preferred to fight. Their souls had been enveloped and murdered by Aseret’s black magic beyond rehabilitation.

  My soul mate insisted on helping, her shapeshifting abilities useful to apprehend other shifter demons. But she didn’t know where her help would lead.

  Three more demons and my job would be done.

  My powers would be taken away.

  My life spared, but at what cost?

  The throbs stopped, and I knew my eyes returned from a full purple to their natural blue hue. Lowering my shoulders, I relaxed. The spikes sunk back into my neck to rest. I twisted my torso to the right, and the vertebra cracked, one disk after another in a sequence of piano keys.

  “That felt good.” I closed my eyes again to relive the threshold I passed. The pleasure of bending could never be explained to anyone. A necessity I needed, like air. A life without my powers was unimaginable, yet closer to reality than I wanted it to be.

  “You can shift back now,” I called.

  Mira crawled out from under the snow. Her white ears shrunk, and the paws spreading evenly over the snow to support her bear’s body lengthened into delicate fingers. Hinds remained a bear’s until she stood up, only then magically transforming into thighs and calves I longed for every day. For a second, before her clothes shifted to cover her, I had a glimpse of a naked caramel goddess, most vulnerable in her shifting state. My soul mate.

  “Wow.” Mira brushed her fingers through her hair. “You look like you enjoyed it better than—”

  “Don’t say it,” I warned, “or I may have to prove you wrong, sugar.”

  Perhaps she knew me better than I thought.

  “Sex.” She smir
ked, grazing across the snow toward me.

  “Tease.”

  “You know it.” She squeezed my hand and nuzzled her nose into my shoulder, pressing her front against me. I wrapped my arms around her and tried to remember a past when she wasn’t with me every day. It was difficult to picture.

  Mira’s body warmed mine, and I realized I was shivering. Part of her shifting nature allowed her to adjust body temperature, sometimes in more beneficial ways than other, like now. The iced aroma of forget-me-not blossoms mixed with her pheromones into an intoxicating blend. That’s why I referred to her as “sugar.” As I recalled the sweet taste of her skin, blood rushed through my veins quicker, filling the lower part of my body first.

  “Here?” My brows rose as I scanned the barren plateau. Even my sight couldn’t find anything beyond the infinite snow and ice, and my sight was almost infinite.

  She nodded, biting her lip and pushed the remaining white strand of hair behind her ear. It darkened into auburn. Only my soul mate knew what made me tick.

  “You may not feel it, but it’s freezing,” I noted.

  “I’ll warm you.”

  Mira’s breath left a trail in the air between us. It flowed from her mouth and touched my lips, curling around my cheeks as I breathed her in. My inhales shortened, and heart sped up. She drew her hands up to my hair, tangling her fingers until their tips touched my scalp. My goddess drove me to the point of ecstasy in seconds. No other woman could ever make me this crazy, and we haven’t even kissed. I ran my hands under her shirt, stroking her spine on the way up, the way she liked it.

  A quiet squirm escaped her mouth, and before I knew it, Mira’s lips covered mine and her tongue danced in my mouth. My muse captured my soul with each deepening kiss. I closed my eyes and felt as if I were spinning. Tingles flew through me, and with a pinch, my flesh extend around my neck into Mira, breaking when they touched her skin.

  I winced.

  She pulled back. Her eyes held mine, and I blinked to clear a sudden blur in my vision. Mira went out of focus again, and the Arctic begun to spin behind a fog. I smelled the iron tang of my blood.

  My knees buckled, but Mira caught me before I hit the ground and sat beside me on the snow. The sky stretchd its infinite clarity.

  “This is really taking a lot out of you.” The concern in her voice trembled with worry and anger. “Lie down for a moment.”

  I couldn’t argue: my legs wouldn’t hold me up for long.

  “Let me see your neck,” she whispered, tugging at the bulked turtleneck under my chin. Her fingers brazed the broken skin that covered my spikes. “They’re bleeding again.”

  “They’ll heal.” I took her hand away from the burgundy dots I imagined dripping down my neck, remnants of my fleshed spikes that ruptured during bending, then kissing.

  “You cannot keep doing this. Why don’t you speak with the keepers again,” she pleaded. “Perhaps I can talk to Father.”

  Castall, Mira’s father, was one of the three keepers who watched over humans, vampires, and warlocks. She’d felt guilty about his harsh decision, but I had a feeling my friend didn’t have much choice in the matter. The keeper of warlocks who used to protect and guide me had been overruled by his partners, Drake and Gabriel. I saw it in his eyes each time we spoke of the inevitable.

  “You know the deal. Unless I bend the mark back to Xela’s wrist, they won’t help.” My eyelids grew heavier each time I blinked.

  “Talk to Xander,” she almost begged, the same way she had each time I weakened. “My brother will understand. Xela will too. I’m sure he doesn’t mind her having the sphere.”

  “She’ll hurt him if she gets it back. She won’t have a choice, and I’ll have to imprison her.” I removed a thermos from my backpack, opened the canister with hot tea, and sipped. “I cannot risk to cause you pain. Your brother’s turmoil would hurt you too. Besides, removing Xela’s mark was the right thing to do. I wouldn’t even want to change that.”

  Mira tightened her palms and stood up. Steam rolled off her skin as if her entire body breathed. “And you’ll just do your job for the keepers and be stripped of your powers. They’re using you. It’s not fair. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  It was odd to see Mira standing in front of me in shorts, sneakers, and a thin blazer when I had bundled up in an arctic coat and boots. Made the seriousness of her words soften. Each time she tried to argue against what needed to be done, my heart ached, as I had no choice in the matter. Mira and Xander’s appeals to their father didn’t help. My relentless shifter wouldn’t give up on me.

  “I took off a mark. In the keepers’ minds, I’m a traitor. The only reason they let me continue is because of my history of serving them.”

  “So? Where is it written that you can’t take off a mark? You’re an evil-bender. If it’s not allowed, then no one should be able to do it!” Now, steam seemed to come out of her ears more than the rest of her body.

  “It doesn’t have to be written, sugar. I didn’t ask the keepers’ permission. That’s all that matters.”

  She pouted, dropping on her knees in front of me. “You’ll be mortal. That’s not enough time for us. I can’t lose you.”

  “I will still love you. I will always love you,” I lied. I was the only one who knew my punishment included more than stripping the powers of an evil-bender or shortening my life span. I hadn’t found the right moment to tell her. Maybe there wasn’t one.

  “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” she asked as if she’d read my mind, and pulled on my hands. “Stand up, nice and easy.”

  I pushed up to a crouch. “The keepers won’t compromise. In their eyes, one step away from your duty means you’ll turn to the dark side. They don’t want to take that chance.”

  “You’re not like that.” Squatting, she held my hands between hers. I didn’t need gloves with Mira around.

  “I know.”

  “They know it, too. They’re just being stubborn.” She furrowed.

  “Funny how that’s exactly what I love about you but hate about the keepers.” I smiled.

  Her brows rose, but Mira didn’t argue.

  I must seem weaker than I thought.

  “Are you strong enough to vortex us?” she asked.

  “I think so.” I let go of her hands and packed the thermos into the back pack.

  “I hope we don’t bump into the other demons. Xela’s reading showed the last ones will hold magic beyond our understanding. I don’t think you can face them in this state.” She grabbed my hand to help me up. I used her strength to pull myself and leaned against her.

  “Me too.”

  Secretly, I didn’t want to face off against a demon for a different reason. If I killed the last three, I may as well have committed suicide.

  Mustering strength, I twirled my finger to release the energy of a vortex: a time hole which could take us back to her home in the forest where I’d moved in. I no longer stayed in my waterfall room in Monasterio de Piedra where I used to live. Too close to the keepers. Too close to those responsible for my doom. Besides, the caster twins, Crystal and Ayer, had been living there for the past month.

  The air swirled, lifting the snow. The flakes drifted up and down in a sequence of twirls which reminded me of angel halos. The doorway opened, beaming green from within. The aroma of rosemary and peppermint, Mira’s home, enveloped us as we stepped in over the threshold. The peaceful snow and ice left behind reminded me of the loneliness I’d soon experience. My memories would soon be wiped away.

  * * *

  The heat from the fireplace filled the hill. A blend of spices wafted by the entrance.

  “Take these off before you boil.” Mira unzipped my jacket and flung it on the hallway bench.

  “You’ll pick that up after, won’t you, dear,” I heard her mom, Mrs. G, holler from the kitchen. As always, the witch didn’t need to see what Mira had done.

  “Of course, Ma.” My shifter rolled her eyes.

  “A
nd don’t roll your eyes at me.” Mrs. G. raised her voice.

  “How does she do that?” Mira’s innocence was another one of her charms that made the fleshed spikes on my neck tingle. She knew her mother better than anyone, yet followed the same charade a mortal would.

  “She’s a witch.” I laughed, pushing off my boots before I pulled my feet along the floor into the living room.

  “Did you get him?” Xander lifted his gaze from a paper. His legs were draped over the side of the couch, and head rested on Xela’s lap. His witch was occupied with writing magic spells in her new book, propped on the elbow on the other end of the sofa.

  “Yeah, I got him. What happened to you?” I slouched in the arm chair beside the fireplace, pressing my hand on my chin to crack the back of my neck to one side, then the other.

  Xander’s arms were covered with red blotches. Some spots broke, releasing yellow puss. He’d looked like he ran into a bee hive. “Allergy, I think. It’s been itching since this morning. I can’t seem to shift out of it fast enough,” he complained.

  Xela put down her pen. Her eyes rolled back into their black hue, not an uncommon sight whenever she did a reading or foresaw a prediction. Then she chuckled under her breath before resuming writing her spells.

  Xander kept scratching his blotches without asking me what’s next. We all knew what’s next, but I was the only one with the full wrath of the keepers’ consequence thrust upon me.

  I sighed.

  “Let me see those.” Mira peeled my turtleneck back. “I’m gonna put ointment on your neck.” Her fingers brushed my skin and spread green goo from a jar. I noted she braided her hair into five parts, running from the back to the side of her face, the way it had been this morning.

  “Your natural hair suits you better.” I touched the leftover tip.

  She smiled. “I know. It’s just something new I tried.”

  I winced.

  “Stop moving. You fight demons without a flinch; I think you can hold still for a moment. It will help heal.” Though she meant to scold me, her soothing voice eased the itching, or perhaps it was her touch and the cream that smelled nicer than it looked.