Strega (Strega Series)

by Karen Monahan Fernandes

  Ruth climbed out of the car and reached for my hand, shouting for me to grab on and follow her. My door was blocked by an enormous branch. I climbed over the middle console toward her, but before I could grab her hand, Shaun stepped between us. He couldn't see Ruth. She'd already cloaked herself and was invisible to him. I was seconds away from that same protection, if only I'd grabbed her hand in time, but it was too late. I recoiled away from Shaun, desperate to find another way to escape, but there was no other way out. I was trapped. Shaun climbed in and pulled me from the car.

  His touch was gentle and his eyes were kind, but he couldn't fool me anymore. I resisted him, knowing what he was. His arms locked around me and I struggled to break free, frantic to get away. I was scared. And I was really angry. He held my wrists as he pressed his whole body against mine, pinning me against the car.

  "I'm not going to hurt you, Jay. I only want to help you," he whispered. "You have no idea what you're up against. I'm trying to protect you."

  "I know what you are, Shaun," I whispered in terror, continuing to struggle beneath the weight of his body. "I saw you. You are a monster!"

  "Jay, I'm not what you think I am!" he pleaded. "I know what it looks like, but you have to believe me."

  "No I don't. You're a liar, Shaun. All you've ever done is lie to me. I don't trust a thing you're saying!"

  "I know better than anyone what you're going through. I'm just like you, Jay. We both have supernatural abilities. Gifts. I know it's all new to you. And I didn't want to tell you the truth because I didn't want to scare you. Until you figured it out, I couldn't say anything. I would've freaked you out. All this time, they've been after you, and I've been protecting you from them. Making sure they didn't get to you. Think about it. If I really wanted to hurt you, don't you think I would have by now?"

  He saw me hesitate and he continued.

  "Look around you. You're alone," he said, signaling to the car that Ruth abandoned. "She's gone. Just wants to save herself. She doesn't care about you. Not like I do. You need me, Jay. I'm the only one that can protect you. You have to believe me."

  "Where's the blade?" I asked plainly. I looked into his deceitful eyes and waited for his answer. "I know you have it, Shaun."

  "Yes, I have it, Jay," he said, motioning behind him. It was tucked into the back of his pants again.

  "Give it to me."

  "I can't, Jay. You're in danger as long as you have it. You said it yourself. The blade is what they are after. You're only safe because I have it."

  "I saw you, Shaun! At Celia's, with the rest of them. How dumb do you think I am?" I asked bitingly. "You're no different from them. I heard what she said to you. You're not here to save me. You're here to kill me."

  "I would never hurt you, Jay. I love you." His voice cracked as he fought back tears. "They answer to me, all of them. When they've tried to hurt you, I've stopped them. But I answer to her. I have to make her believe that I am on her side. To earn her trust. It's the only way I can protect you from her," he said firmly. "This is why I wanted to take you away. It's not too late. We can still escape all this."

  In Shaun's eyes, I saw what he saw. That he was my only protector. That I'd been abandoned. Ruth was gone. I was alone in the woods. They were coming for me, but he could keep me safe. He loved me.

  His grip on me loosened as he leaned in to kiss me. He closed his eyes and lingered with his skin against mine. When he stepped back, he reached his hand out to me.

  "Come with me, Jay. I will take you away, to a place where I can truly keep you safe."

  I kept my eyes fixed on him, but in my periphery I saw what only I could see. Ruth stood close to me. She inched closer with her hand outstretched, waiting for me to grab it. In one quick motion, I reached for it. When my hand locked with hers, I disappeared from Shaun's sight. I reached around and pulled the athame from the waist of his pants, and Ruth and I took off. When we were several feet away, she threw a vial at his feet. As it shattered, the explosion was so strong that it knocked Shaun off his feet. It pushed against our backs and gave us a boost as we ran down the path away from him.

  LXV

  When I searched Shaun's eyes a moment earlier, I saw beyond the tiny glimmer of humanity that once drew me to him. For the first time, I saw beneath the surface. The bowels of his being departed from his facade with such ferocity that I wondered how the two could possibly coexist. There in his eyes, for the first time, I saw pure evil. What I'd seen at Celia's was nothing compared to it. I finally saw what made me hesitate with him all along, and it made me shudder.

  When he kissed me, when his skin touched mine, the forceful hands of time pulled me back, and I saw everything unfold through his eyes. All that time with him, I'd been completely unaware that I was in the arms of death. His kiss was poison on my lips.

  For years, Shaun hunted me. He came to Newburyport on that fancy boat, but not with his uncle as he'd said. Shaun came alone. The boat belonged to a middle-aged gentleman from a southern port. A man that Shaun had thrown into the Atlantic, far from shore, just after departing that charming port together two years earlier. Shaun had paid the man generously for a private charter, but made sure to recoup the money before he tore him apart and threw him overboard. I still had that man's business card somewhere, with Shaun's cell phone number scribbled on the back.

  Shaun visited ports all along the coast searching for me. In each new place, he'd select a savory innocent to seduce and torture, just for sport. He'd lure them far from the eyes of the virtuous, and then tear them limb from limb as he basked in their screams and showered in their blood. When he came to Newburyport, he sniffed me out and then patiently waited for the rest of his plan to unfold.

  The night Gram was killed, Shaun had taken me out on the water for dinner. He ensured that Gram was alone in the house before he sent his underlings for her. After they killed her, Shaun watched me grieve. He waited for my power to reemerge, hoping to confirm what he already suspected. If I was the one he sought, then by killing me, he would win Invidia's favor and rise further up the demonic ranks. If he failed, she'd kill him. He stole Gram's amulet, tried to destroy it, so that I would never discover its power to protect, to warn, against him.

  Soon after Gram died, I started to sense demons coming for me. But in all that time, I never once suspected Shaun's true nature. Cynan were able to cloak themselves from Strega, mask their true nature from us so that we could not sense it. Only when they were overcome by their true desire, their hunger raging and their facades faltering, could we sense them. Despite their powerful evolution, there was one thing that could still reveal them to us. The cimaruta. Shaun was careful around me. He never faltered. But he knew that the cimaruta would be his undoing. Gram wore it the night she died. Her final journal entry haunted me again.

  They are coming. I've heard the forewarning whispers. I'm afraid the henbane potion will not be enough.

  Each time I was attacked, it was Shaun that had sent his demon underlings for me. On the way home from work, in the parking lot at school, on the beach. They had all come for me on Shaun's orders. And the night at the club, when I was arrested by my vision of Invidia and the vicious Cerberus on my tail, I didn't remember how I got home because I was unconscious. Shaun had tried to kill me. It was his claws I felt sink into my flesh and knock me to the ground unconscious. But Vince stopped him. It was Vince that brought me home that night. They were his footprints beside my bed. Vince was the reason I was still alive. From every single attack, from every single demon, Vince had protected me.

  Shaun's failures infuriated Invidia, and so she came for me herself. At Gram's, she came to kill me. But once again, Vince drew down the fiery bolt that allowed my escape. I never saw him standing in the shadows.

  Shaun sent the demons that killed Mr. Whitmore. They stole my blade from him, but they didn't get away. Vince tracked them down and annihilated them. He retrieved my blade and protected it until it fell into the grass at Ruth's, and my ignorance allowe
d Shaun to take it back.

  From the very beginning, when I thought Vince was just a guy that stole my heart and then dropped me, he was there. Protecting me all along from this evil that was by my side, whispering poisonous lies.

  LXVI

  Ruth and I ran down the forest path, desperate to reach shelter. It would have taken minutes by car but took an eternity on foot.

  "We're close," Ruth finally whispered. Aided only by the weak beam of Ruth's keychain flashlight, I searched for any sign of shelter. As far as my eyes could see, there were only trees and shadows. I focused harder, sure I'd find the edge of a tall, fortified structure amidst an abundance of growth that concealed it. But just then, the bright orange flames of a blazing fire illuminated the forest. Ruth stopped abruptly and pulled me off the path. Shaun was following us.

  We were invisible to him, but he could still sense us. Ruth knew we were vulnerable. The dried rue that she'd used earlier only worked temporarily. It first allowed us to hide from Shaun and his underlings, and then to escape to the woods. But with time and distance, it had worn off.

  "I have no more dried rue," Ruth panicked as she searched her bag. Much of its contents had dumped out in the car when we hit the tree. "And I already used my most powerful potion on him. We have no way to get him off our trail now, and we cannot get to where we're going until we do."

  Shaun staggered toward us. He appeared intoxicated and shouted violently as he searched for us. The potion Ruth used on him moments earlier was a combination of the most toxic hallucinogenic herbs, including henbane. The same herb Gram planned to use the day she died. In great concentration, henbane would have caused major cerebral trauma and death to most other demons, Ruth later explained. But not to Shaun. He was very much alive, angry, and more determined than ever to find us. Each time he yelled my name, I shuddered.

  Ruth rifled through her bag, searching for some concoction in her homemade arsenal that would serve as an offensive measure, but she had nothing left that would be effective on him. We were too deep into the forest to run back, and we couldn't outwit him forever. She was desperate, out of ideas, when suddenly the sound of crackling brush made us stop in our tracks.

  At first, we feared Shaun's demonic allies had come to join him. But then a light, one that had become familiar and reassuring, flashed through the dark forest and set it ablaze again. Before Shaun could brace himself, a fiery blue bolt struck him and sent his body into an unyielding tree.

  Vince emerged. Shaun launched himself from the ground with inhuman strength and retaliated. He swung his beastly claws at Vince again, and their fight resumed right in our path. Barred from passage, we were forced to watch them tear each other apart again. We found cover behind a tall oak, shielding ourselves from the gigantic tree limbs and mounds of earth flying through the air as they fought. Vince was weak, his injuries were severe and he was covered in blood. He was at a disadvantage against Shaun, who had been healed. But Vince was determined. He hurled another fiery bolt at Shaun so powerful that it sent him deep into the woods. Shaun landed out of sight, and Vince suddenly turned to us and spoke.

  "Go quickly! Get her to safety now!" he shouted to Ruth. We both stared at him in disbelief. He could see us. Somehow he was immune to Ruth's power and saw right through it. Without blinking, Ruth grabbed my hand and heeded his demand.

  As we ran, Ruth's eyes were fixed on something. When her pace finally slowed, we stopped at a strange tree. Among the rest, it was quite unique. It towered over us, as did all the others. But at its enormously wide base, it split distinctly into three limbs, each as thick as any other tree the forest. I watched her intently, knowing she'd stopped for a reason. She let go of my hand and plucked a small, thin branch of greens from a solitary bush beside the tree. I watched vigilantly for Shaun.

  "A sprig of rue," she whispered. She clenched her own cimaruta tightly and then released it, and dangled her fingers loosely above the sprig. Several drops of blood trickled down onto the small green leaves. A moment later, the strange tree beside us began to shimmer with the most enchanting golden light. Whispers, eerie but gentle, encircled us. Then a wall of light appeared, spinning like a whirlpool before us. Fascinated and terrified, I grabbed onto Ruth.

  "Go!" Ruth shouted, pushing me through it before I could resist. As I fell through, I felt a great magnetic pull draw me to the other side. There, the forest around me appeared unchanged. Through the whirling light, I saw Ruth. She was helping Vince to his feet. Hovering on the edge of consciousness, he staggered alongside Ruth until they reached the wall of light. She pushed him through, and as soon as he was on the other side with me, he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

  LXVII

  "Oh, Jay, you're okay!" Celia cried as she pulled me close.

  As soon as Ruth had crossed over, she shouted Celia's name. And before I could blink, she was there with Luci.

  "Who is this?" Luci asked with concern. Her eyes were fixed on Vince.

  "We have to treat his wounds," Ruth said urgently as she took position at his head. She slipped her hands under his arms. Luci reluctantly grabbed his feet, still waiting for an answer. Celia wrapped her arm around Vince's torso and grabbed my hand, and suddenly we were moving through the brush with unnatural speed. Everything we passed was a blur. And in an instant, we arrived at a clearing where two large tents were set up beside a blazing fire.

  "Three levels of the hierarchy were exposed," Ruth said to Celia and Luci as they laid Vince down on a folding bed in one of the tents. Luci gathered supplies to clean his wounds. "Many underlings answer to one powerful demon among them. Jay's boyfriend—"

  "Ex-boyfriend," I clarified in disgust as I fell beside Vince and gently wiped the blood from his face.

  "And he's doing the bidding of a powerful fiend I've never seen the likes of before," Ruth continued. "She possesses powers I've never witnessed. We need to check the book."

  "I know who she is," I began to explain. "She's the one—"

  "Is he a demon?" Luci interrupted as she continued to stare at Vince. Ruth looked at him as if she wondered herself.

  "No!" I exclaimed as I leaned in and hovered over Vince protectively. There was still so much I didn't know about Vince. Still so many things I didn't understand. My past with him. His incredible powers. Ruth was afraid of what she didn't know. Vince was immune to her power. But he was not a demon. This I knew for certain. I could never love a demon the way I loved Vince.

  Luci ground several ingredients together with a mortar and pestle and applied the paste to each lesion.

  "Jay, you are safe now," Ruth said, seeing my distress. She put her forehead to mine and held my face in her hands. "They cannot get to you here."

  We were still in the forest, but I knew something was different. The strange wall of whirling light somehow separated us from the danger that had threatened us just moments before.

  "Where is 'here'?" I asked timidly.

  Ruth sat me down on a folding bed.

  "When we passed through that light, we crossed a threshold," she said carefully. "A portal to a different plane of existence. One that coexists within our own. The astral plane."

  I rubbed my eyes as she went on.

  "It occupies the same physical space as our own plane, the earthly plane. But we're protected here. We can see those on the earthly plane, but those on the earthly plane cannot see us. If our enemies come upon our camp, they'll see nothing but trees and brush in an empty clearing. We are safe here. Protected. By the Grigori."

  "The Grigori?" I asked, not sure if my mind could absorb another drop.

  "Guardians of the portals that exist between realms. Strega have an ages-old bond with the Grigori. A deep trust cultivated over centuries by countless generations of our kind. With a drop of our blood, we reveal ourselves to them as true Strega, keepers of the Old Ways. Seeing that our purpose is true, they grant us passage to other realms. We seek passage to the astral plane for many purposes, the most important of which is protection.
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  "We are strongest in the forest. The realm of the goddess Diana, our mother. That is why we access this plane from here."

  The forest held great power in this life as much as it did in my past. As I stood among the trees, I knew that my power was already advancing. I'd spent all summer with Shaun, and I never knew his secrets. But that night, when he stood before me in the forest, I'd seen every horrifying one.

  LXVIII

  Ruth reached under the rickety bed and pulled out a book that looked just like Mom's.

  "We need to learn all we can about Shaun and his demon underlings, figure out what their weaknesses are, how to better defend ourselves against them," she said as she flipped through the pages. "Then we can worry about their puppet-master."

  Before I could speak, she pointed to the open page.

  "Here they are." The word CYNAN was written in thick black ink at the top of the page.

  Celia and Luci moved in closer and leaned in over the book.

  "They are therianthropes, this much I can tell you," she said to them.

  "Therianthropes?" I asked.

  "Shapeshifters," Ruth said matter-of-factly. "Demons that have the ability to alter their physical appearance, shapeshift, between human and animal form, as you saw."

  In my mind, I saw again their beautifully human faces morph into bloodthirsty beasts. As Ruth read the text on the page aloud, I stared at the image of their two faces. One beautiful. The other hideous.

  Possesses unwavering strength and fierceness. Serves only the highest-ranking demons. Elusive, inconspicuous, stealthy. Not born of the fires of the underworld, but of the earth, in seductive human form. In true demonic form, the Cynan appears as a fearsome beast, black as night, invisible in the shadows but for its fiery eyes. But its human façade allows the Cynan to integrate into society undetected. Its ability to love and seduce its victims makes the Cynan among the most dangerous demons, for its overwhelming compulsion to consume life inevitably prevails. Many levels of power exist within the Cynan ranks, and some are feared to be immune to Strega power.