A distant explosion went off and the rope loosened for a second. It gave me a minute to speak. “What? I hardly even know you,” I squeaked.
“Don’t give me that. I’ve been following you into every life and you always wreck things for me. Remember when you killed my mother? You made her suffer!”
“Killed ….?” I asked hoarsely. Suddenly, James tightened the garret again.
“Yeah, you killed my mother! You know this, just like you know why we talk through mindspeak.”
I tried to answer, but I couldn’t squeeze anything out of my throat so I just glared at her.
“I’m sick of you, Tess. I am sick of seeing you around here. Say goodbye to your life, to all your friends and your family, and to all your boyfriends. Yeah, you have a pretty good life here and I’m glad you’re gonna have to leave it. I hope you don’t come back for a while, cause I’m sick of having to follow you everywhere.” With that, Tonya nodded at James. I knew she was telling him to tighten the garret, to end things, to end me and my wonderful life. That’s one thing she was right about, my wonderful life here.
I felt the weight of Tonya lift off my stomach. The garret closed my throat down. As I struggled for air, I felt the lightness slip away, leaving me in the dark void.
66. He Saved Me
“JAMES, YOU TURD!” What are you doing?” A man yells. That voice!
A loud grunt, then screams …..
GASP …. gasp ….. gulp for air, precious air. In and out, in and out. Fresh cold air.
My throat hurts so bad.
Someone lifted my shoulders up and held me. Tess, are you OK?”
I peered out. Sad, miserable blue eyes staring at me. It was Ian, beautiful Ian.
“Tessie, I’m so sorry. It was my brother!” He indicated with his head.
I looked over. It was James, flat on his back, looking like a dead man. There were at least six ice darts sticking in him, his eyes, his neck, his chest and his legs. He still had the loose garret in his grasp.
I turned back to Ian. He didn’t look right. His head was shaved for one thing. Why would he shave his beautiful hair? I don’t remember him being so thin. There was an odd pallor about his face, an odd yellow/pale color, and what appeared to be faded bruises on his face and his neck.
I reached up and touched his cheek. “Ian, what happened? You look ….. I don’t know, you don’t look yourself. Are you OK?”
He smiled grimly and vaguely waved his hand around. “I’m afraid they’re all mad at me. Tess, don’t you worry about my situation. I’ll be all right. How about you? You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know. I’ve gotta go.” I leaned on Ian, starting to get up when suddenly he was gone and I had to catch myself. Someone had pulled Ian away. Then, that VOICE again.
“WHAT DID YOU DO? Did you SAVE her? Tonya screeched at Ian while pointing at Tess. Bully Boy and Red were holding Ian, twisting his arms back. “How DARE you! You’re gonna pay for this, lover boy!”
She turned to me, yanking me by the hair. “YOU WAIT!” Then she pointed her fingernail daggers at Bully and Red. “Take him away and hurt him, bad. I don’t want to ever see him again.”
I felt really weak from blacking out but I wasn’t gonna let Tonya get me. I started rubbing my hands together, starting to feel a spark. She was about to get a little surprise.
What was that? I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye. Something landed on Tonya’s head and she quickly released me. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh ……,” She screamed, and then she fell over, trying to protect her face with her hands. It was a Siamese cat in a complete frenzy, biting and clawing all of Tonya’s exposed skin! I couldn’t help but notice the inch long claws that were rapidly shredding Tonya’s coat. They looked like a rake of daggers. The cat paused for a minute, his blue eyes staring at me. Then I realized, I KNEW that cat. I recognized her eyes. One was blue and one was green. It was Princess Hannah, one of the gypsy cats, a real beauty. Suddenly, Princess let out an unearthly howl and pounced on Tonya’s face, ripping off her ear lobe. She looked at me in triumph, blood dripping from her long canines.
The sounds of human screams and howling cats filled the air. There were a number of Siamese cats leaping everywhere, clawing, biting and scratching their way through the diaboles. They jumped from one victim to the next, claws and teeth dripping with blood and flesh. I turned in another direction to come upon Bully Boy. He was rolling around in the snow, a large cat clawing at his eyes. I was very familiar with that cat, too. She was my own Beauty Queen!!! What a magnificent fighter she was! She too had the extraordinary claws and canines.
Red was also there, just a few feet away. He was crawling on his hands and knees, trying to escape the wrath of the other gypsy Siamese, Empress Stephania, who was screeching with delight as she proceeded to pounce on his head and tear his scalp to bloody shreds.
I’ve got to find Will. I tried to ignore the chaos around me as I searched for his dark green coat. The Spirit Tree was still 50 yards away. I could get there myself, but I wanted to get Will.
My heart stopped. There was Ian, bloodied, lying on the ground. Ice spears were stuck in his chest and legs and he was covered with a layer of ice. I rubbed my hands together until I felt the heat. I got on my knees and slowly ran them over his body until the ice was partially melted. By then, I found a faint pulse. I unzipped my coat and lay down next to him, as close as possible, wrapping my coat around him and resting my cheek against his. His lips were so cold they were blue, so I leaned in and pressed my warm lips to his. I felt his eyelashes flutter against my forehead.
I heard someone clear their throat. I look up to see Will, standing there, looking down at us.
Ian touched my hand and whispered, “I’m OK, Tess. Thank you. You must go.”
67. Tree of the Living Spirits
I took Will’s hand and he pulled me up. I didn’t like leaving Ian, but I knew we had to get out of there. At least Ian was alive. We tightened our hoods and started moving. The witch cats cleared this area of some of the evil ones, but we knew it was only a temporary reprieve. The field was crawling with hundreds and hundreds of diaboles. As we got closer to the Spirit Tree, I noticed something odd. None of the diaboles were within a 30 yard radius of the tree. Why weren’t they get any closer?
“Will, how come the diaboles aren’t any closer to the Spirit Tree?” I leaned in and whispered.
“I don’t know. It’s gotta be something about the tree.”
“Holy crap! Tess, LOOK at the tree.”
I noticed something odd about the swaying branches, but I still couldn’t see what Will was all excited about. “What are you talking about?”
“Look closely at those hanging branches.”
I studied the tree and finally saw what Will was talking about. It was hard to discern because everything was covered with snow and the branches were moving. It was an odd movement though, almost rhythmic, as if to music. Something long was swinging from the branches. What??? It was dead people! You could tell they were dead because of the unnatural angle of their necks. They appeared to be hanging from the ends of the long wiry branches. There were at least thirty or forty of them.
Will quietly stated, “Now, we know why the diaboles aren’t any closer to the tree.”
“Will, how do we know that won’t happen to us?”
“It won’t, Tess. Look around the base of the tree. What do you see?”
I studied the tree and noticed some movement. “There are people huddled around the tree.”
Will nodded. “That’s right. They’re the luminars.”
“Leave us alone,” we heard a girl scream. We looked in her direction to see two people running in the direction of the tree. They were being chased by a group of diaboles. “Will, we’ve gotta help them.”
“Tess, let it go. We’re not in a position to do anything. We’re surrounded.”
One of the luminars managed to break through to the safe zone of the spirit tree. In reaction,
a diabole close to the perimeter raised a long jagged ice spear and aimed it at the back of the luminar. I couldn’t just stand there so I started rubbing my hands together to gather the sparks.
Will grabbed one of my arms and whispered hoarsely, “You gotta stop, Tess. You’re getting unwanted attention from the group behind us and there’s nothing you can do.” I turned my face slightly to get a glimpse of the diaboles behind us. One was staring at us. I folded my arms in front of me as if I was just trying to warm myself.
What was THAT? A flash of electricity, from the direction of the Spirit Tree, jolted across the perimeter and jumped directly to the tip of the ice spear. It jolted around the spear as if engaging in a dance and then it entered the hand of the diabole. He screamed and stood rigid, while the electricity charged though his body. Then he keeled over. The smell of burnt flesh was in the air.
The other luminar had been caught by the group of four diaboles who had been chasing them. They were carrying her to one of those death mounds. She looked terrified as they laid her down on the frozen mound and placed their hands on her, causing her skin to turn translucent. “Oh no!” she screamed, her head moving rapidly back and forth. THEY WERE FREEZING HER TO DEATH!
Will gripped me so I wouldn’t move. There were at least 40 diaboles standing between her and us.
“I can’t just stand here, Will.”
Suddenly, a loud CRASH of thunder. Several bolts of lightning flew from the Tree and struck the diaboles who were holding the girl. And it wasn’t just a quick strike. The stream of electric charges continued zapping the diaboles, causing them to jerk around as if they were attached to puppet strings.
We were both staring at the spectacle of the lightning show. I wonder where it actually came from – the Tree, or from a powerful luminar under the Tree?
“They’re distracted. It’s a good time to cross over.”
“Yeah, I would say that it’s now or never,” Will responded.
There were only a few diaboles between us and the safe zone. We walked past them, and as soon as they were behind us, we broke into a run. We didn’t stop until we were under the arms of the Spirit Tree, panting hard, hands on knees, gasping for breath.
I heard someone shriek behind me and I quickly glanced back to see a diabole near the perimeter. She had been whipped up in the air by the end of a long thin tree branch, entwined around her neck. She was grasping at the branch, kicking frantically with her feet, trying to escape. Her struggling eventually ceased with a few spastic jerks.
“She must’ve stepped over the safe zone,” I shuddered.
We made our way to the luminars that were huddled around the trunk of the tree. I asked Will, “Do you feel that?”
“Yeah, it feels like electricity in the air.” Will just barely touched his hands together and the sparks flew.
“Look at that,” I pointed toward the luminars sitting together. There were flashes and sparks all around them, too. You could even see arcs of electricity between the tree branches. “Will, have you noticed how the branches of the Tree are moving? The wind isn’t affecting them. It’s almost as if the branches are moving in harmony, rubbing together to stir up electricity.”
Will nodded in agreement. “That’s exactly what it looks like.”
There were only about seventy people around the tree. Where was everyone? Did many luminars die? I felt a lump in my throat, thinking about Mercy.
“Will, I do see Nadya and Dika, and there’s Sam and Doug.” I pointed to them huddling under the tree. As if he heard me, Sam suddenly looked up.
“Hey, look who’s here?” Sam shouted as he and Doug came over and hugged us.
“Oh, my God, what happened?” I asked when I touched Doug’s back and felt something sticky. I stepped behind them to see their backs and legs covered with blood.
“It wasn’t that easy getting through the gauntlet, but we managed.” Sam gritted his teeth as he smiled. He was obviously in a pain.
Doug added gleefully, “They tried to stop us with their stupid spears, but it didn’t work.”
Sam added, “In fact, two of them are swinging from up there at this very moment.” He pointed to the hanging bodies swinging from the tree.
Will suddenly shouted, “What’s that noise?”
We turned around. It was the diaboles. There were hundreds of them encircling the Tree, standing right up to the perimeter, pounding ice spears against the ground, screaming something, a chant, getting louder and louder.
“What are they saying?”
“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN
THY BLOOD SHALL RUN
THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”
68. Dawn
Will said grimly, “Tess, they plan on rushing the tree. Something’s gotta be done. There’re so many of them that they may be able to get through the perimeter.”
I stared at the diaboles while answering Will, “I know what we have to do, even though I don’t exactly know why. I just know that we have to do this.”
I walked over to the crowd of luminars. By now, everyone was standing up, watching the diaboles with great trepidation. “Everyone, please listen to me.”
Immediately, complete silence fell over the group and they all turned in my direction. As soon as I saw their eyes, an immediate sense of déjà vu swept over me. I suddenly realized I had seen many of them before, and it wasn’t around town or at school. No, I had seen them when this conflict came to a head before, when the good witches were fighting for their survival. It was in the woods of France prior to the Karmic Apocalypse of the Wiccans in 1345. Many of them were the same souls that were with me over 600 years ago. I could feel the magic and the power in them.
“I am very grateful for your presence here today. I know it was difficult to get here. All is not lost. Please do not be discouraged.”
A young woman with long red hair asked, “What do you mean? There are so many of them.”
“That does not matter. We have other things in our favor. You must do as I ask.”
The chanting of the diaboles and the pounding of their spears was getting louder. I knew they were trying to drown me out. “You must position yourself around the tree as closely as you possibly can. While you are there, you must rub your hands together to generate static electricity. Do not stop rubbing until everything is over.”
“How will we know when it is over?” An old man with a gray beard asked.
“You will know,” I proclaimed.
We all crowded around the Tree of the Living Spirits and started rubbing. I’ve never seen the aural color of different shades of purple swirling in such abundance. It indicated the presence of sensitives, intuitives, and visionaries and, of course, the magic that was building in its intensity. They continued with their rubbing.
The diaboles chanted: “THY BLOOD SHALL RUN, THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”
As the intensity of the rubbing increased, I begin to sense a rhythmic pulsing in the ground. There was a shower of sparking which morphed into circular arcing between the luminars and the branches of the tree. The wind around the tree picked up its own intensity, further increasing the rapid movement of the swirling branches.
The diaboles continued, “THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”.
“NO EVIL WILL HAPPEN TO THE JUST”, an unearthly shriek that sounded like wind came from the bowels of the earth. Did I imagine it? It reminded me of the haunted voices I had heard sitting under this very tree a short while ago; only those voices were filled with terror. These voices were filled with wrath.
The diaboles, again, “THY BLOOD SHALL RUN”.
“I WILL POUR MY FURY UPON THEE”, the screaming voices emerged from the ground around the Tree with the howling wind. Under the branches of the tree, the sparking around the luminars was so intense it appeared to be filled with dense iridescent light.
“THY BLOOD SHALL RUN,
THY BLOOD SHALL RUN,
THY BLOOD SHALL RUN.”
The frenzied diaboles started running across the field, huge ice spears
in their hands, heading directly at us.
By that time, the pulsing felt like a vibration running from the roots of the tree through the trunk and the branches. It was shaking the earth around us. “Keep rubbing,” I cried. “THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH OF DEMONS”, the screaming voices yelled into the wind at the approaching diaboles. A massive streak of lightning crossed the sky and made a direct hit on the Tree of the Living Spirits. Every branch of the tree stood straight out, sparks spraying from the tips. Thunder CRACKED from the instantaneous collapse of the air.
And then, an ear splitting ….. BOOM ….. the long, sharp branches of the Tree of the Living Spirits exploded from the mother tree, flying toward the center of the life forces in the field. Directly towards the hearts of the approaching diaboles.
69. Aftermath
“She’s still out, Mom. Let’s go.”
“I don’t want to leave her.”
“Mom, you need to eat.”
“I’m just so glad that Tess didn’t die. There were many who froze to death in that field.”
A gentle hand smoothed back my hair.
Quiet. They’re gone. Opened my eyes to be stung by brightness. Closed them.
A light touch on my hand. A flood of warmth, sunshine, sweet smell of spring flowers.
I opened. It was a little blurry. I saw Miss Cassie with her light gold haze watching over me.
“Hello, Tessie.”
“Hi”, I whispered. “Was Auntie, Annie and Eve here?”
“Yes, and Rainy and your grandma. They went to eat.”
“They OK?”
“They’re fine. Just worried.”
“I know I’m in the hospital,” I sighed.
“Yes, dear, but you’ll be all right.” She patted my arm and I felt a momentary tingle of relief.
“What happened, Miss Cassie? Last thing I remember was being under the Spirit Tree and feeling an explosion.”
A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2) Page 33