B00AO57VOY EBOK

by Myers, AJ

  “Get inside,” she growled. “Both of you.”

  She turned to lead the way and I saw her stagger. She reached out for something to catch her fall, but there wasn’t anything close enough for her to grab on to. I ran toward her, but Nathan was faster. Sweeping her into his arms, he hurried over to a chair at the kitchen table and gently placed her in it. When he stepped back, I saw what I hadn’t seen in the garage. Her skin was almost gray, and her lips had a bluish tinge to them. There was also something kind of…hazy about her. It was almost like she was just mostly there.

  “You teleported?” Nathan roared as I dropped to my knees next to Grams’ chair. I felt a burst of panic when I took her hand and felt how icy her skin was. “You teleported from Washington, Shea? Are you mad?”

  My head snapped around at that and I gave him a confused look. I’d accidentally teleported from Washington once myself. I’d ended up doing a face-plant right in my front yard, in fact. But I sure as hell hadn’t looked like Grams when it was over.

  “Oh, yes,” she hissed, pinning him with an almost deadly look. “I’m quite furious with both of you, actually. And for your information, I am perfectly capable of making that kind of journey. Even Ember has done it. Surely you remember that dramatic exit?”

  “She’s eighteen, Shea!” Nathan yelled, throwing up his arms in frustration. “Eighteen, damn it, not pushing eighty!”

  “Numbers,” Grams snorted, waving off Nathan’s concern like he was just being silly. “Teleportation is about power, Nate, not age.”

  With an aggravated growl, Nathan gave up and scrubbed his hands over his face like he was trying to pull it off. I gave him a soft smile when he let his hands fall and he muttered, “You two are going to be the death of me for sure.”

  “Now that you have right,” Grams said, her voice as cold as her skin. “In fact, you have one minute to explain why I wasn’t notified immediately about the killer they’re calling Blood Red before I zap you into oblivion. And when you’re finished with that, you can explain to me why you and my granddaughter are creeping in at dawn when this monster is killing girls who look like Ember!”

  By the time she finished speaking, her voice had risen to a howl of fury that seemed to reverberate around the room long after she finished shrieking. For a second, there was nothing but silence and that unnatural echo of Grams’ voice. Giving her an unpleasant look, Nathan turned and grabbed the tea kettle without so much as a word. Filling it with water, he slammed it onto the stove. With every move he made, Grams looked a little more pissed off.

  “I want answers, Nate!” she finally snapped, shaking off my hand when I laid it on her shoulder in an effort to calm her down a little before she had a stroke or something.

  “And I’ll be happy to give them to you, Shea—as soon as the rest of you arrives.”

  I turned around to stare at Grams again, my mouth falling open. So that was why she looked funny. She wasn’t all there! That so didn’t make teleportation look safe to me.

  The look on Nathan’s face combined with the strained tone of his voice said very clearly that Grams wasn’t going to like what he had to say if she forced him to speak again right then. Given the night we’d had, I really couldn’t blame him. Grams must have seen the signs too, because she scowled at him and then turned another dark look in my direction.

  “Ember, what are you wearing?” she grumbled, fingering the edge of my hood.

  I jerked away from her and shot to my feet like someone had just jabbed me with a cattle prod, forcing myself not to reach toward my neck. Grams had yet to see Nathan’s vampy stamp of ownership and I really didn’t think right then was the time. If she was pissed because we were ‘creeping in at dawn’, she’d be beyond furious then.

  She’d be homicidal.

  I caught Nathan’s eye as I passed him on my way to get a mug for Grams and saw he looked as nervous as I did. Nervous and sad. As much as I hated that mark, I knew Nathan hated the fact that he’d given it to me more.

  When I closed the cabinet and turned back around with Grams’ mug in my hand, she was watching us like a hawk. She looked from me to Nathan and back again, her eyes sweeping us from head to toe. After thoroughly studying us for a few minutes, she leaned back in her chair and sighed in what could only be exasperation.

  “The bank?” she asked, taking me by surprise.

  “Excuse me?” I said, exchanging a confused look with Nathan.

  “Did you rob the bank?” Grams asked, clarifying her original question. “You’re both dressed from head to toe in black. You’re wearing a hood to cover your hair. I want to know if the authorities are looking for the two of you.”

  “No, we didn’t rob the bank,” I said, rolling my eyes because that’s what she expected me to do.

  “Ember, I think we should—” Nathan began, but I cut him off in a hurry.

  “Get Grams a blanket!” I nearly shouted, already headed for the door. “Good idea, baby. I’ll be right back.”

  “Ember, get back here,” Grams commanded, sounding more like herself, just as I reached the promise of escape.

  Grimacing, I stopped where I was. I stood there for a second, debating whether or not to run. I was younger, faster. Grams could teleport herself across the country. Given those odds, I decided I’d lost before the race began.

  Plastering the fakest smile in history on my lips, I turned back around to face her. To my surprise, she didn’t even look angry anymore. She didn’t look…anything, actually. Her face was so blank that, for just a second, I wanted to go check to make sure she was still in her body.

  “Where were you tonight, Ember?” she asked calmly, even pausing to smile at Nathan when he set a steaming mug of tea in front of her.

  “Oh, you don’t want to hear that story,” I told her with a nervous laugh, waving my hand like we hadn’t been up to anything that included breaking and entering—or coffins.

  “Oh, but I think I do,” Grams argued with a tight-lipped smile.

  A little help here! I thought, giving Nathan a frantic look as he took a seat next to Grams, a tall black travel mug in his hand. Yeah, that wasn’t tea.

  “We broke into the funeral home, I lost Em for a full five minutes while she was communing with the dead even though she was standing right in front of me, then we took a two hour siesta in a couple of coffins,” he said with a shrug. I glared at him, and he winked at me as he lifted his mug and took a long drink of the blood it contained.

  “What?!” Grams shrieked, the color returning to her cheeks all at once. It appeared the rest of her had arrived just in time—for her to kill me, that is.

  “You asked,” Nathan said with a shrug, leaning back in his chair and admiring the amazing shade of puce Grams was turning.

  “You broke into a… Ember was…” I watched Grams flounder, coming up with about fifty ways to get even with Nathan as she did. “Coffins! My baby was in a coffin!”

  “I am going to kill you!” I hissed at Nathan, thinking I should have run when I had the chance. He blew me a kiss in response.

  Oh, he was so going to get it!

  “Explain yourself!” Grams howled, turning a burning glare in my direction. “Now, Ember Leigh Blaylock!”

  To lie or not to lie? That was the question. I could tell by the evil gleam in Nathan’s eyes that he would shoot down any lie I told, so I decided to save myself some time and just get the ass-chewing I was about to receive over with.

  “Okay, Grams,” I sighed, leaning against the counter next to me. “Yes, we broke into the funeral home. But!” I yelled, holding off the screaming that was about to commence when Grams opened her mouth. “It was for a good cause. I was trying to find out where Jack was, and I thought—”

  “Jack?” Grams repeated, her voice suddenly so calm and frigid that I shivered in response to it. “Jack is gone, Ember. You know that better than anyone. You’re the one who banished him.”

  And he reminds me of that every night, I thought, blinking against t
ears. Every single damn night.

  “He’s back, Shea,” Nathan said quietly, giving me a sympathetic look when I swallowed hard. “He left me a personal message.” He pulled the crumpled newspaper article with my picture superimposed over Casey’s out of his pocket and laid it in front of Grams. Then, turning his eyes back to my quickly paling face, he pulled my cross out of his other pocket. “And this.”

  Grams took one look at the necklace Nathan laid in the center of the table and jumped to her feet like it was about to attack her. My eyes drifted closed when she started backing away from the table altogether, and I resumed the countdown I’d begun in the garage.

  Seven…six…

  “How did he get that?” Grams hissed, sounding like a pissed off cat who’d just been dunked in ice water. Yeah, that didn’t bode well for me.

  “I have no idea,” Nathan told her calmly. “I can guarantee Ember didn’t give it to him as a gift. She never takes that cross off, Shea.”

  I opened my eyes to give him a grateful look for defending me and found myself staring at Grams instead. Her expression caused what little blood was left in my face to drain out in quick order, leaving me feeling lightheaded. Our eyes met and the horror I saw there made me cringe. Without looking away from her, I walked over to the table to retrieve my necklace. Before I could touch it, Grams reached over and smacked my hand.

  “Don’t touch it!” she cried shrilly as I jerked my hand back. “He’s done something to it. I can feel the darkness coming off of it.”

  Five…four….

  Ordering Nathan to get her a bowl, she leaned over the table to examine my necklace. “Bring me something to pick it up with, Nate.”

  When Nathan came back to the table, he had a bowl in one hand and a pair of salad tongs in the other. Without even bothering to look at him, she grabbed the tongs and carefully picked up my pendant. For a long moment, she just stared at it, her lips moving silently. A cloudy black substance started to seep through the gold, turning the beautiful cross ugly and scary. Watching the process, I felt a cold sense of dread start to twist my stomach into a giant knot.

  “Yes, that’s what I thought,” Grams muttered.

  “He didn’t do that on his own, Shea,” Nathan said, peering at the necklace through narrowed eyes.

  “No, I don’t believe he did, either,” Grams said, still concentrating on the blackening pendant dangling before her. “I’m just glad it was found before it could do any harm.”

  Without another word, Grams resumed her silent chant. I watched, torn between fascination and fear, as a stream of radiant golden light slid down the chain between the tongs and wrapped itself around the trinity-heart knot engraved in the center of the cross. It crept out from there, covering every inch of the pendant. Within seconds, a black, tar-like substance began to drip into the bowl Nathan slid smoothly under it. The putrid odor of rotten eggs was suddenly the only smell in the room. It was overpowering enough to make me gag.

  “What the hell is that?” I asked, waving my hand in front of my face like that would help. Unfortunately, it only made it worse.

  “Poison,” Grams barked, not even looking my direction.

  “Poison?” I repeated softly, staring over at Nathan. “What kind of poison?”

  “A very rare, very potent poison,” Grams explained, her voice brittle with anger. “The second you put it on, you would have been infected. Within an hour, you would have slipped into a coma, giving your demon just the chance he needed to take you.”

  “You touched it,” I choked out in a strangled whisper, still staring at Nathan.

  “It won’t work on him,” Grams snapped, never tearing her eyes from the glowing piece of jewelry before her that was still dripping that awful, stinking fluid. “It’s specifically designed for humans, Ember. Amongst the bandraoithe, it’s known as Sleeping Death. Most who are infected by it never wake up.”

  “Like Sleeping Beauty?” I asked with a nervous laugh, nearly giddy with relief that Nathan hadn’t been infected with a poison meant for me. I realized about a second too late that I probably should have kept my mouth shut. The totally pissed look Grams leveled at me was enough to make me want to hide in that hole for real.

  “Which is based on a very true story of a king who crossed a bandraoi. He wanted her daughter for his bride and the girl denied him. In revenge for his smarting pride, he had the girl killed. Her mother waited, nursing her hate until the king had a daughter. On the girl’s fifteenth birthday, she lured her out into the garden and gave her a red rose, the thorns of which were coated with this very poison. The princess was one of those who never woke up.” Giving me a pointed look, she said, “Blood witches can be vicious when crossed. Very vicious.”

  She sounded like she was just telling me some messed up fairy tale, but I knew Grams. That calm was all an act. She was about a second away from nuclear detonation, and I really didn’t want to be there when the countdown reached zero. But, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t run. Bearing the wrath of my grandmother was the least I deserved.

  Once she finished magically siphoning the poison from my cross, the bowl was almost half full of the reeking black liquid. I cringed when she asked Nathan to dispose of it, knowing my reprieve had come to an end. The second the back door closed behind him, she turned her full attention—as well as the full force of her anger—on me.

  Three…two…

  “Now, Ember Leigh,” she said, keeping up that act of calm that was starting to make me extremely nervous. “Would you care to give me an explanation for how your necklace ended up nailed to a tree?”

  Even when Nathan demanded to know how my necklace had ended up somewhere other than my neck, I hadn’t been able to give him an answer. But with Grams looking about one word away from frying me crispy, suddenly my brain was working just fine, and I knew exactly how it had gotten off my neck. How it got into the woods, on the other hand…

  Honestly, the explanation was simple—not that I was crazy enough to think Grams would see it that way. The cross had gotten tangled in my hair when I was showering after gym. I’d had to unclasp it to get it loose and then, because I’m stupid, I’d hung it on the hook with my towel. It must have fallen off when I was getting out, and I hadn’t even noticed it.

  “Oh, shit!” I whispered, without thinking. “Oh, no no no no no!”

  “Oh, yes yes yes,” Grams said angrily. “Tell me, Ember, how a demon ended up with a sacred amulet that wasn’t supposed to leave your person!”

  “I messed up,” I told her miserably, stopping my retreat. “It got tangled in my hair, and I took it off in the shower.”

  “And how did it end up in the woods?” she snapped, narrowing her eyes at me.

  “I don’t know,” I whispered, holding back tears, just as Nathan came back through the door. “Seriously, Grams. I don’t know how he got it.”

  “Shea, that’s enough,” Nathan said, seeing how close to a complete breakdown I was getting. “She made a mistake, that’s all.”

  “She doesn’t have the luxury of making mistakes,” Grams said, her voice as hard as stone. “When will you understand, Ember? You are special!”

  “But I don’t want to be special, damn it!” I yelled, ignoring the tears that overflowed onto my cheeks. “I never wanted any of this!”

  She stared at me for a moment, looking like she was trying to decide if she wanted to respond or not, then turned and looked at Nathan. “You will not leave her side. Do you understand? Another mistake like this could be fatal. I’ll call Amelia and start making arrangements for a guard detail.”

  “And as for you,” Grams said, turning back to glare at me some more. “Your refusal to embrace who and what you are ends right now. I have indulged your little rebellion long enough. You will come directly home from school every day and study with me. You will accept your heritage and learn to control your powers, or you will learn a whole new definition for the word ‘wrath’. I will not lose you to this demon—or to your own self-pit
y. Is that understood, my darling granddaughter?”

  She waited until I nodded my agreement, and then, pausing to give me back my necklace, she speared me with a disappointed look and stalked out of the kitchen without another word. Once she was gone, I stared down at the cross resting on my palm and let the misery have me.

  “You okay, baby?” Nathan asked when the silence in the room was too loud to stand anymore.

  “I’m fine,” I whispered, swallowing hard against the tears threatening to overwhelm me. “I just…I thought it was all over. I thought I could have my life back without all the craziness that goes with being a witch. But I can’t, can I?”

  “I’m so sorry, Em,” he said softly, tugging me against him as he wrapped me up in the calming scent of his skin and the silky tones of his voice just as much as he wrapped me in his arms. “I tried to tell you, baby. You can’t run from who you are.”

  “He’s not going to stop is he?” I whispered against Nathan’s chest as a fresh wave of tears overflowed, soaking into the fabric of his t-shirt. “He’s just going to keep coming after me until I screw up and he kills me.”

  Nathan drew away just enough to frown at me and then gently cupped my face in his hands, brushing the tears from my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. For a long time, he just looked at me. The sadness and fear in his eyes terrified me, because they let me know I was right. He couldn’t save me. Grams couldn’t save me.

  But if Jack thought I was going down without a fight, he had another thing coming.

  I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache that felt like someone was trying to chip my skull apart one tiny piece at a time—with a sledgehammer. Like my recurring nightmare about Jack, I was starting to get used to that pain. I’d woken up with a headache every morning since the nightmares had started. But it wasn’t just the headache that bothered me. It was the feeling that came with it. It was hard to explain, but it was almost like something really had been crawling around in my skull and had made a quick exit without caring how they got out.

  Yeah, scary didn’t even begin to cover that idea.