by Kat Cotton
He held my arms down. I twisted to get away from him.
The crazed look in his eyes scared me. He wasn’t playing around. If he had my power, he sure as hell wouldn’t be using it for good.
I scrambled and got loose of Akira. That knife would be mine. I wrapped hand around the hilt. I had it.
The best thing to do would be get rid of it completely. I kicked at the door, intending to fling that knife far from us both.
As the door opened, Akira flung himself at me, trying to grab the knife from my hand.
I kicked off from the ground, trying to flip him off me. As I flipped him, the carriage heaved. Akira stumbled across the carriage, falling through the open door.
I screamed and jumped up, grabbing for him but it was way too late.
Akira had fallen to the ground below.
Chapter 36
WHEN THE CARRIAGE REACHED ground level, I jumped out.
“Where is he? Where’s Akira?” I screamed.
Even if he’d been evil, I hadn’t wanted him dead. Duke took hold of me even though I struggled in his arms.
“You don’t want to see,” he said.
Damn it. I’d come to save Akira but he’d been beyond saving. Duke wrapped me tight in his arms and I gave up struggling, needing to feel safe.
Lilly, Buzz and Nuno joined us.
“You’re safe now,” Lilly said. “You fulfilled the challenge.”
Akira had been the one to take Duke? That made sense but why? Had he done all this to get to me? I’d never find out now.
“Akira,” I said. “He wanted to kill me.”
I assumed he’d wanted to kill me. He’d said he wanted my blood. Maybe I should’ve just let him. He’d still be alive now.
But no. He’d been evil. He wanted power and it seemed like he’d been prepared to do anything to get it. That wasn’t a good thing. Still, there could’ve been some hope for him, some redemption.
Now there was nothing.
“The cute boy wasn’t so cute,” Lilly said. “Just my luck. I know how to pick him. See, I told you he looked familiar when we first got here. We should’ve known something was off when he preferred you to me.”
I glared at Lilly, then I thought back to that night. That vision I had, the one about Earnest, had always seemed a bit off. I got that vision after accepting the drink Akira gave me. Had it been a real vision? Earnest had been annoying and he’d been a dick at times but had he been evil? His main issue had been that he’d been too focused on his goal to care about anyone else. That didn’t make him evil. It just made him a not very nice person.
Then Akira had told me that he’d overheard that phone call Earnest had made about the delivery, the day that Duke had turned up. Again, that turned the focus onto Earnest. But Akira would’ve known that Duke would be found too.
I’d been played by Akira along.
But Akira couldn’t have done this all on his own. He was human. He had no special powers. He barely had the fighting strength to take Duke down on his own.
He’d worked with someone, and that someone was part of this circus. They’d known me as a child. They were way too close to me.
And, hell, that person had known my name. That couldn’t have been Akira.
“Let’s go,” Duke said.
I nodded so vigorously, I thought my head would drop off. I needed to get out of here right now. This was not a place for me to linger. I needed to find out who worked with Akira, but I wouldn’t be doing that tonight.
Duke supported me as I walked. I should’ve been able to walk on my strength but after what happened tonight, I felt shaky and weak. This place was evil. I knew that.
The five of us left.
“Where’s Earnest?” I asked. “Has he...”
“He’s gone to a better place,” Lilly said.
Normally when people said things like that, they were just words. Reassuring things that people say without knowing a thing about it. But in Earnest’s case, I really believed it. He’d wanted to move on. He wanted a better life for his dogs. They’d be together and the dogs would have a real form. I still wasn’t sure if that was dog or human but it’d be better than transforming to that half-dog, half-human state.
I turned to Duke.
“When will you be gone?” I asked. “You have a quota?”
Duke nodded. “No one knows. Nuno will be next. I have a few years.”
Something in the way he said that worried me. The way my heart skipped when he said it worried me more. That woman, the one in Purgatory, had warned me. I couldn’t get close to him. I moved away, preferring to walk on my own. I had enough to worry about in life without a forbidden relationship.
“I plan to be around for a long time,” Lilly said.
“That’s why she never kills demons,” Duke whispered in my ear. His mustache tickled against my skin.
“I thought she was just lazy,” I said.
Duke laughed.
“I like this world. I like earthly pleasures,” Lilly said. “Earnest hated it. He hated technology and changes. Not me. I’ve been thinking I should become an Instagram star. I have the looks and style. I just need followers.”
I laughed. Lilly wasn’t wrong. She’d be a hit on Instagram.
“Let’s order pizza when we get back,” Lilly said. “All this excitement has worked up an appetite.”
“Are you paying?” I asked her.
She almost choked.
Then I turned to Buzz. “Where are you staying?” I asked. He’d said he’d message me with his hotel but never had.
“I haven’t booked anywhere. I knew you’d totally disregard everything I said so I came straight here. You never listen to anyone else.”
I sighed.
“You can stay with us,” Lilly said. “We have a spare room now.”
I didn’t like the way she looked at him but it’d be nice to have him stay with us. I just had to make sure he didn’t tell the others too much about me, but I didn’t think that’d be a problem.
As we walked, the siren of an ambulance wailed in the distance, reminding me this hadn’t ended so well. I’d accepted Akira as a friend. How had I been fooled so easily?
We walked toward the van in silence when someone slid out of the shadows.
I paused, wanting to see if they were a threat.
“Madame Esmeralda,” Lilly gasped.
A sharp coldness hit me fair in the chest. I blinked, trying to clear the image from my eyes but when I opened them again, she was still there.
Her black hair streamed out behind her and her black skirt swirled around her. Wrinkles lined her face, not disguised by her heavy makeup. Her evil eyes bore into me.
I wanted to run, to escape her evil gaze, but I held my ground. Instead I clutched Duke’s hand, squeezing it tight.
At the back of my mind, I’d known who’d been behind all this but I hadn’t wanted to accept it. That evil mist hadn’t been part of Akira’s plan. He only wanted my power. That mist had been a spell cast by someone who wanted to possess all of me.
Even though I shook, I looked into those eyes I hadn’t seen in ten years. I lifted my chin. I wouldn’t let her see I feared her. She’d exploit any weakness.
“I’ve found you,” she said.
My chest hurt like a hand had squeezed my heart tight.
For ten years, I’d run from my mother, not wanting to be tainted by her. Now, she stared me down and I shivered in fear.
“Join me,” she said.
“Never,” I replied.
My courage failed. I couldn’t be here. I couldn’t be around her. I had to run.
As I took off through the circus grounds, she laughed. A horrible crackle that split the night air like lightening.
“You can run but now I’ve found you, you’ll never escape me.”
I sobbed because I knew that was true.
...
THE END
...
Thanks for reading Demonic Wheel of Death. The fi
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Extras:
Merry Clem-Mas – join Clem and the gang in this fun Christmas short.
ABOUT ME:
I write character-driven Urban Fantasy with kick ass chicks and pretty boy vampires.
I’m a digital nomad, although I hate that term because it makes me sound like a wanky hipster. Which I’m not. Okay, I am a bit snobby about coffee and I sometimes wear twee vintage dresses but that doesn’t make me a hipster.
On my travels, I love visiting weird and macabre places. Mummified hands that remove curses, museums of infectious diseases, collections of taxidermed frogs riding Penny Farthings - hell yeah! And, I can’t really talk about it but one time I even did ninja training.
I love hearing from readers so if you’ve got questions about my books, cool locations I can visit or just want to say hi, email me - [email protected] or visit my website – http://www.katcotton.com.