Rolling to his knees, he reached for his channeling rod. Alec beat him to the draw and lifted his rod, yelling an unintelligible word as he aimed for the Demon. Blue flames burst from the tip of his rod and blasted into the Demon with the force of a cannon. The creature from another realm tumbled into the wall.
It righted itself with impossible speed, and with an inhuman roar, came at us.
“Paige, circle! Alec, fight!” Johnathan yelled, dodging the several new arms and jagged claws that had erupted from the Demon’s formless body.
I drew a pentacle with shaking hands while the boys fought. I concentrated on getting the star just right.
I raised my head when the pentacle was complete and froze in panic. The Demon had Johnathan in its grasp, pulling his head toward its many-toothed mouth. That unfroze me. I screamed something like “AAAHHHHH!!” as I aimed my channeling rod right at its glasses. I didn’t take the time to form a particular spell in my mind—instinct just took over. A blast of hot air from my rod hit the Demon square in the glasses, pushed it up against the wall, and encircled it like a tornado.
The clawed arm that held Johnathan stuck out of the tornado until the wind finally whipped it around and around, faster and faster. Johnathan tucked and rolled as the Demon lost its grip on him.
The tornado didn’t last long. I used up all my energy on that one spell and I sunk to the ground, exhausted. The Demon wobbled like a drunken sailor. Taking advantage of its temporary state of dizziness, Johnathan pointed his channeling rod at it and said, “Blow.” A strong blast of air pushed the white blob toward the pentacle.
Alec joined, using the same spell. As soon as the Demon was within the boundaries of the circle, Alec aimed and growled, “Bind.”
The Demon dropped to the floor, unable to move. Johnathan pricked his finger with the tip of his pocket knife and let fall a drop of blood onto the circle. I could sense the magic as he willed the circle closed, trapping the Demon inside.
The rage exhibited by the Demon when it realized it had been trapped was incredible.
“Wow,” I exclaimed as I stared in disbelief. Rabies-like foam exploded from its mouth with every furious flip of its head. I could feel my face turning a dark shade of red at the disgusting language it screamed—even when it screamed in several different languages, I could tell the words were foul. It pushed against the pentacle barrier with a fury I’d never seen nor felt before.
“We need to combine power,” Johnathan grunted with the effort of holding the circle together.
Alec stood next to him and concentrated on the circle. I pulled the little white book from Johnathan’s backpack and flipped through the pages in search of a way to send the Demon back to the Netherworld.
“Thou doesn’t need to know a Daemon’s name when sending it back through the portal, that is only necessary when summoning,” I read aloud.
“Just get to the sending part, Paige. Hurry!” I could hear the strain in Alec’s voice.
The Demon realized we were going to send it back and it screamed furiously in protest. “Ye cannot send the magnificent Shalbriri back! Ye are just kids!”
My eyes widened, stunned that it had spoken its name to us. In its throes of fury, I guess it didn’t realize what it was doing.
I shook off my surprise and found the spell below where I’d just read. I joined with the boys and felt the strength of the Demon pressing against the three of us, trying to overcome us. I read the words aloud, hoping the spell would still work even though my voice was high and shaking. “Lacio expello locus exigo!”
The void opened, and the Demon was sucked back into its own world.
Johnathan twisted toward me; his breathing was heavy and drops of sweat trickled down his brow. Dark eyes searching mine, he lifted a hand and pushed a strand of hair away from my face. He rested his hand on my cheek. His touch caused a wave of dizziness and I reached for his arm to steady myself.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his forehead creased with worry.
The muscles of his arm were tense, yet the touch of his hand on my face was so warm and gentle. I smiled a closed lip, shaky smile.
“I’m fine. You’re the one that was nearly turned into Demon chow. Are you okay?”
He smiled, causing my stomach to do somersaults.
“I’m great,” he said in a near whisper.
That night, the three of us decided to take our practicing more seriously. We focused the majority of our efforts on learning defense and fighting skills aimed at Demons and other Netherworld beings. After a little further studying on the matter, we figured that Mr. Ghost Demon was a lesser Demon and worried that others we might have to face would be much stronger and smarter than it was. I’m not exactly sure why, but I wrote the Demon’s name in the White Book.
Another decision we made that night was that we should move our base camp around every couple of days and start using wards to keep unwanted guests out of our sleeping quarters.
That’s how Seth joined our group. We heard something come in contact with one of the protective wards we’d placed around the entrance to our new digs, then a grunt as the ward worked as planned and threw the intruder a short distance away.
Alec disabled the ward, and the three of us went out to see what we’d stopped from entering our rubble strewn shelter. We found a burly blond kid with messy hair falling in his eyes. He scrambled to his feet and put his hands out in front of him, forming a ball of light between them.
“Whoa, dude. Relax the magic, there,” Alec held a hand out and formed a star-bright. “You’re one of us.”
The boy dropped his hands and the light dissipated. His shoulders relaxed a little and one corner of his mouth twitched.
“I’m Johnathan, this is Alec and Paige. What’s your name?”
“Seth.” He looked at us each in turn. “Are you all … can you all, uhh, you know … do stuff?”
“Yeah, we can all do stuff,” Johnathan half-smiled.
Seth’s story was simple. Not long after he discovered his abilities, he realized they created a dangerous environment for his family. So he left.
He joined our practices and shared our living quarters as our supply of canned beans dwindled.
That same week, Johnathan returned from his search for where we would next shelter, with a small, filthy girl following closely behind him. She studied us with big green eyes—one of them peeking from behind a strand of shoulder length brown hair.
“Halli, this is Paige, Alec, and Seth.” Johnathan pointed each of us out to her.
“Hi, guys.” She stepped up and shook each of our hands with a strong grip. She wasn’t as timid as she appeared.
“Halli’s like us,” Johnathan said, smiling down at her.
“Where’d you come from?” Alec asked.
Her face screwed up in concentration before she shook her head and stared down at the ground. “I don’t remember.”
Johnathan put a hand on her shoulder. “I found her curled up in a dark corner, shaking and confused. She only remembers her age and her name. Nothing else before waking up in that corner.”
“Oh,” I said, very near tears for the young girl. “That must have been terrifying. Are you hurt? Hungry?” I stepped up to her and wrapped my arms around her in a hug. The top of her head didn’t even reach my chin.
She leaned into me for a minute before answering. “I’m not hurt, just dirty. And, yes, I’m starving.”
Seth got her a can of beans. We were all a little surprised to find out she was thirteen years old, I would have guessed closer to nine or ten.
The addition of Seth and Halli strengthened our team, but the food situation was becoming dire. We were down to just a week’s worth of beans.
We started to patrol at night. We stuck to the seedier parts of Seattle, the places that seemed to be hotspots for paranormal activity. The cops didn’t patrol in those areas. Any unexplainable incidents were chalked up to druggies or crazy homeless people. We found the dark streets and alleys we
re the perfect places for those of the Netherworld to conduct their business. We decided to use our special abilities to protect the poor and downtrodden people that lived or merely existed there.
We stayed out of human affairs and concentrated our efforts on the un-human. On dark forces like Demons and the evil men who summoned them. Or baby-stealing Faeries, flesh-eating Trolls, annoying Goblins, and other such nefarious creatures. My life as a pastor’s daughter certainly hadn’t prepared me for any of this—these weren’t things he mentioned in his Sunday sermons.
With the protection of our fellow humans in mind, the five of us set out in an area we hadn’t been before. We walked past a small grocery store and heard a terrified scream coming from inside. I was closest to the door, so I rushed in and I saw, with a small measure of excitement, a small group of Goblins. They were terrorizing the grocer and one of his customers. I shrunk back from the ugly little creatures that looked like chubby meth-heads. I didn’t want to get any of the oozing yuck on me that was coming from the open sores that pocked their yellow-gray skin. They were all disgusting, but one in particular made me want to hurl when it stuck a short, fat finger in its bulbous nose and removed a slimy booger the size of a small rodent. It flicked the booger at the grocer. At least it didn’t eat it, I thought with disgust.
A rope was wound around the grocer and the elderly customer. The Goblins were taunting them and throwing produce at them. The store was a mess.
“Hey! Perfect timing!” Alec yelled as he stepped to my side. “We just studied about Goblins.”
I smiled.
It took us no time at all to dispatch the nasty creatures. I took aim and exploded my Goblin into a pile of green tar-like ichor.
Halli and Alec ganged up on one and it burst into flames before it was even aware we were there. Seth dropped a shelf full of canned goods on his, smashing it like a pancake. Johnathan cast a spell that made the Goblin’s tongue swell up so big the creature turned purple and choked on it. He won the prize for the most creative kill of the night.
As creatures of the Fae, the Goblins’ remains didn’t stick around for long. They smoldered for a few minutes before evaporating back into the Netherworld where, we’d recently read, they would eventually reform. So killing them didn’t really kill them, it just sent them away for a while.
Alec and Seth untied the grocer and his customer. The elderly woman hobbled away screaming from the store.
The grocer said, “Thank you, kids. My name’s Joe and before you ask any questions, I don’t want to talk about what just happened. I’d rather just pretend it was a bad dream.”
Johnathan introduced us and asked, “Can we help you clean up this mess?”
“Oh, that would be great. Let me put out the ‘closed’ sign.”
During the hour it took us to clean up the store, Joe skillfully turned the conversation in such a way as to coerce us into telling him we lived on our own. He didn’t pry, or try to find out why or where we were staying.
Joe handed a bag full of non-refrigerator dependent groceries to each of the boys before he let us out the locked door. We started to walk away when he called, “Johnathan? Uhh, just so you know. I … uh, throw out the old stuff every Wednesday, you know, to make room for my Thursday morning shipment.”
“Oka-a-y,” Johnathan said.
Joe looked him straight in the eyes. “I always lock this garbage in a metal box out in the side alley … you know, so the dogs won’t get into it.” He slipped a key to the box into Johnathan’s hand.
aige, you’re with me tonight,” Johnathan said. “Alec, you take Seth and Halli and patrol around King Street. Paige and I will go over a block and start there.”
We were starting our nightly patrol. I was thrilled to be assigned as Johnathan’s partner for once. Usually he stuck me with Alec or Seth while he went with the other one and Halli. This was a special occasion, and I hoped we wouldn’t be interrupted by business. But, our quiet time together, when I could just stare at his lovely face—okay, not stare, but glance sideways at it often while we walked—was not to be. Almost before we’d gone a half block, the chains around our necks began to buzz.
We’d all started to wear the chains. Johnathan had placed a charm on them so we could communicate with one another when we were split up. The buzz meant Alec’s group had spotted something. I snuck one last glance at Johnathan’s dark chocolate brown eyes and sighed as we turned and headed back to King Street.
Halli met us at the corner. The camouflage spell she’d cast on herself flickered as she moved toward us. That’s the only way I could tell where she was without tapping into my sight. A normal human, unaware of what to look for, wouldn’t have noticed her at all. Demons and other Fae used similar spells when they wished to remain unnoticed by humans.
“We saw a Faerie trying to enter an apartment window,” Halli whispered. “She’s carrying something. Alec thinks it’s a changeling!”
We weren’t sure why Faeries brought changelings to our realm and exchanged them for healthy human babies, but I had my own ideas about it. The type of Faerie that typically did this was beautiful beyond words, but the changeling was a hideous creature with an ill temper. I think the changelings were really Faerie offspring that came out ugly. Maybe they were the offspring of a Faerie and a Troll or something, but Faeries hated anything that wasn’t of great beauty—including their own children. I think they traded for a beautiful and healthy human baby so they could raise it as their own, and leave the hideous and annoying changeling for the humans to deal with. Like my totally irritating cousin. The one everyone hated to be around. His parents could often be heard saying to one another, “He gets it from your side of the family.” It was quite possible my cousin was a Faerie changeling.
Quietly, we sneaked up the street to where Alec and Seth watched the window. The Faerie couldn’t go completely into the dwelling without permission from someone inside, so unless the baby’s crib was next to the window where she could just lean in and make the exchange, she would have to move on to another baby. She hovered near the open window, trying not to drop the wriggling bundle she held in her arms. Faeries ranged in size from the size of a hummingbird to petite human adult size; this one was about the same size as Halli. As she struggled with trying to open the window wider, Johnathan signaled for Alec and Seth to move next to the building below either side of the window in case the Faerie finished the exchange before he and I could maneuver into place. The boys nodded and took out their channeling rods.
The window was two stories up in a three-story building. Johnathan and I slipped inside the building and stealthily ran up the stairs to the roof. The plan was to throw a binding spell on her before she made the exchange, because the binding spell would cause her to drop to the ground, and we didn’t want to risk hurting the human baby. The changeling, however, we didn’t care so much about risking. We hadn’t left ourselves much time. She was just reaching through the window to lay the changeling in the crib when we peeked over the side of the roof. Johnathan and I pulled out our channeling rods and hit her with a double whammy.
“Bind!” Johnathan yelled.
“Bindicus!” I yelled.
We’d discovered the words we said weren’t as important as visualizing in our minds what we wanted to happen. In fact, the words weren’t even one hundred percent necessary. They just helped us to focus. Johnathan was pretty straightforward in his use of words. I preferred to make up my own words to sound more hocus-pocussy. Usually I did so by adding a Latin-sounding ending to a normal word. Johnathan laughed at my made-up words, but I didn’t care. I thought it made them sound more mysterious and magic-y. Sometimes I even used real Latin words and they seemed to make my spells stronger.
Both spells hit her at the same time. Her face froze—eyes huge and mouth open—when her wings, arms, and legs snapped together as though we’d wrapped her up in an invisible tortilla. Gravity took over and she fell like a brick to the sidewalk below. Halli, bleeding heart that she
was, cushioned her fall with a pillow of air.
“Crap!” grumbled Johnathan, whipping his head to move a strand of dark curly hair from his eyes.
“What? That was awesome! A double blast of binding—she doesn’t know what hit her!” I did a celebratory fist pump in the air.
“Yeah, it was cool.” He smiled at me, his dimples appearing all too briefly. “But, she dropped the changeling inside the window right before we hit her.”
“Oh. I really hate when there’s a ‘but’.”
That too-brief smile tugged at the corners of his mouth again, leaving me aching for more. “We have to go get it. Any ideas how?”
“Hmm. I don’t suppose knocking on the door and asking the mom if we can just go get something we dropped in her baby’s room will work?”
Johnathan rolled his eyes and shook his head.
I sighed. “I guess you’re going to have to lower me down to the window so I can reach in and grab the little imp, then.” I’d never much liked heights. Not that I was necessarily scared of heights, I just preferred to stay closer to the ground whenever possible.
None of us had yet perfected levitation, so Johnathan pulled a thin rope out of his backpack and fashioned it into a makeshift harness. He must have been a Boy Scout in his former life. I stuck my legs through the loops and tested the strength of his knots.
“Don’t you trust me?” His eyes widened, eyebrows raised.
I smacked him on the shoulder. “Of course I trust you, or I wouldn’t be about to put my life in your hands.”
“Don’t be so dramatic. A fall from this height wouldn’t necessarily kill you. Just don’t land on your head.”
“You aren’t exactly helping my jitters.”
Just then, either the baby—or the changeling—let out a wail. Johnathan and I looked at each other, alarmed. He tied the end of the rope off on a pillar, then held tight to it right next to where the knot was tied at my waist. I concentrated on his broad shoulders and muscular arms as he helped me over the ledge. His momentary touch on my arm sent chills racing down it as he lowered me to the baby’s window. I reached in and grabbed the bundle the Faerie had dropped, took a quick peek to make sure it was indeed the changeling, and signaled for Johnathan to pull me back up just as the door to the baby’s room started to open.
Five: Out of the Dark Page 3