by Boon, Elle
“Ah, so good of you to come out of hiding, Noelle.” Merry and her swamp man spun to face her.
She kept her bubble of protection around her, making it small so she didn’t expend too much energy. “Why?”
Merry’s eyes narrowed, anger like a living, breathing thing seemed to vibrate off her. “Why? Are you for fucking real? You get kidnapped, and for the next ten motherfucking years, all our lives are like a mourning for you. I don’t get a day for me. We get up, we check the website created for poor little Noelle. Nobody gave two shits about me. I earned all As in school and what do I get? Good job, Merry, and then they tear up and wonder if you are getting any schooling and then they cry and say how smart you were. You, not me. I become a cheerleader, and they say how you were always tumbling and would’ve been a wonderful cheerleader. You, you little bitch. Always, you. No matter what I did, you were always better. Then I was taken, and I had to be saved by you. Couldn’t you have let me save you for once? Oh no, not the perfect little Noelle, she had to go and save us all. Well, guess what, little sis, I found what makes you special when that sick fuck had me.” Merry held up a necklace.
Noelle shook her head, every word her sister said like a dagger to her heart. She’d thought of all the time she’d lost with Merry and her family, had made up stories in her mind as if they were actually real. Never had she imagined Merry hated her. “I don’t understand.”
“Ah, the great Noelle, she’s confused. You see, I can take all your witchy powers and put them in here. As long as I wear this amulet, I will have what you have.” Merry gave her a smug grin.
Noelle pointed at Carlton, who was sitting on his haunches like a pet. An ugly pet with misshapen body parts, but a pet none-the-less. “What about him? I assume that’s Carlton, your husband.”
A smirk lifted the corner of her sister’s lips. “Yes, this is my beloved. I met him during my captivity. His father was Remdezevier. He had been one of his creations as well, sort of. I guess he was biologically his, but he’d been using your blood to heal him. Instead, it did this to him.”
She stared at the swamp-like creature, stunned to her core to realize all those experiments, the times she’d almost died from blood loss, had been when the crazy man had been giving her blood to that thing. She wondered if there were others like her he’d taken and kept captive, who he’d done the same to. Her stomach lurched thinking she’d been part of the making of things like Carlton.
“You think I can fix him with my blood?” she asked Merry, her eyes never leaving Carlton.
“He’s deteriorating every day. Before you broke us out of the lab, he was able to stay human unless he wanted to shift. He said when he shifted, his form wasn’t this way, but now, his shifts are more sporadic and for longer periods.”
“How do you know he’s telling you the truth? I was there for ten years and never saw another creature. How did you find him while you were there?” Noelle didn’t understand or believe Carlton. Plus, she could feel Ridge and his Crew getting closer. She needed to neutralize the threat of the duo in front of her, so they didn’t hurt the Mayhem Crew.
“Are you calling me and my mate liars?” Merry took a step closer, fury making her voice rise.
The woman in front of her wasn’t the one Noelle has known for the past several years. The stranger staring at her appeared to hate every fiber of her being. “I’m saying I don’t understand how he came to be in that place when I was there for years and never saw or heard another living being other than Remdezevier. How did you see him when I saw you strapped down on that table?”
“Because before you woke up from your little nap, he had me in another room where I was with Carlton. He...mated us there. If you hadn’t gone batshit crazy, Carlton and I would’ve been together. His father would’ve ensured his son was cured, and I’d have your powers. We’d have been unstoppable.”
“You mean he’d have destroyed me?”
Merry tilted her head to the side, stroking the amulet around her neck, not saying a word to dispute her claim. In that moment, she knew her sister not only didn’t love her, she actively hated her. A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Ah, what’s the matter, Noelle? Are you finally figuring it out? Nobody cares about you anymore. Not me, not our parents, and not my friends. No one but those crazy-as-fuck witches, and they can’t help you now.”
Anger spiked in her veins. Her parents loved her even if they didn’t understand her. “You’re wrong. You’re hateful and ugly inside.” Power crackled through her veins. Remdezevier had done everything within him to twist her into a being he could use, tried to make her evil. Although he’d never couched his demands in such a way, she’d known that was what he’d been doing. He hadn’t succeeded, but his efforts had been brutal to the point she’d been drained of blood and energy for days. Merry would fail too, if she had anything to say about it.
When she’d destroyed the lab along with the crazy doctor, it had been to save herself and the others. Now, she was fighting for people she wanted to build a life with. Mate. That word popped into her head in a male voice. Ridge, he was getting closer.
“You think you can stop me, baby sister? You can’t, nobody can. Get her,” she demanded.
The thing that was Carlton charged her, lumbering on all fours with a gait that reminded her of a gorilla. His breath came out in huffs and grunts. She opened her mind to him like she did with her two familiars, hoping to reach him in his shifted form. Chaos swirled in his mind with one goal—kill her. She saw the words and false narrative that had been told to him in her sister’s voice, telling him that Noelle was a monster who killed his loving father. The words stunned her since she had killed him, but she hadn’t done so in malice. Her sister had been feeding that to Carlton, and the conviction behind the words sounded so truthful that even Noelle would’ve believed her. Yes, she’d killed the demented man, but she’d done it to save herself and the others. In fact, she’d essentially saved Carlton. Had they come to her, she might have been able to talk Zelda and the others into helping fix the beast.
The bubble she’d created stood strong as Carlton’s beastly body ran smack dab into it. Noelle felt the impact, falling backward, but didn’t let up her protective spell.
Carlton rolled around in the dirt and leaves strewn on the ground, coming back up on all fours. “Grrhmm, kill,” he said in a garbled voice.
“No, Carlton, you don’t want to kill me. I’m not evil. I didn’t kill your father like she said. He tried to kill all of us. I can help you. I can try to fix...you,” she said, praying it was the truth.
“She’s lying. She was always a liar. That was why my parents let her go with your father. She wasn’t kidnapped, Carlton. Our parents gave her away,” Merry growled.
For a moment her world went fuzzy as the day in the park shifted. She and Merry were playing on the jungle gym and then they were playing tag. She’d run off into the woods nearby, trying to evade being tagged, when a strange man appeared in the path. She’d ran into him, falling onto her butt with a gasp. He’d crouched down on his haunches, staring at her. She’d lifted her hand, begging him to not hurt her. Another memory came, of a teen boy. She finally placed the eerie slitted eyes of Carlton. One moment they were the wild beast’s, and the next the human Carlton’s, they were the eyes of the boy who’d come with Remdezevier that day.
“You were in the park that day with him?” she asked, not expecting the beast to answer, already knowing he had been.
“Tear down her wall or whatever it is she has, Carlton. You’re stronger than she is. Tear through it and shred her to pieces. It doesn’t matter how you get her blood,” Merry yelled.
The sweet boy who’d held his hand out to her was him, this beast. He’d been her friend for a year or so, then he’d disappeared, leaving her in the cage alone. How could she have forgotten him? “We were friends, Carlton,” she tried to remind him.
The beast shook his head then, like a wild animal, he rose up on his hind legs, snar
ling. Noelle was going to have to kill him in order to survive. A quick glance up to the sky showed the moon was red. She inhaled deeply, gathering her courage. “Red moon at night, make it right. Return his spin, make it align. Reverse what was done. Retrieve him cerebrum. So mote it be.” She raised her finger, pointing toward Carlton who was standing again, his eyes wide with fear.
A glow from above highlighted the beast, turning his green leafy form a shade of red. He let out an anguished howl as his body shook, his bones popped and reformed, turning back into man, puss oozing from his pores.
“What have you done?” Merry screeched.
Noelle didn’t take her eyes off the macabre sight. Even while writhing in pain, Carlton could still attack her since her shield was down.
“If the Goddess wishes to grant him life, he will survive,” Noelle whispered.
“The Goddess? You’re a freak, Noelle. Why would this mythological being...this Goddess gift you with powers and not me?” Merry cried.
Chapter Eight
NOELLE WANTED TO EXPLAIN she had no clue about the whys of the Gods and Goddesses, but Merry tackled her. The air whooshed out of her lungs as her back slammed into the hard, uncompromising packed dirt. Dear Goddess, it was like being tackled by an offensive lineman. Shit, was her sister taking steroids or what?
“Get off me, you crazy bitch,” Noelle yelled, bucking and twisting.
Merry rose, her teeth bared. If she’d been a shifter, Noelle was sure her sister would’ve taken a bite out of her. “You’re not the one calling the shots.”
Her sister didn’t know the extent of her powers. Heck, Noelle didn’t either, and although she’d depleted a huge chunk of her storage of energy healing herself and then Carlton, she’d do what she had to, even take out her sister.
“After I finish you, I’m going to kill your leopard.” Merry grinned down at Noelle. “Oh, did you think I wasn’t aware of him and his little kitty mates? I know everything,” she laughed.
At the mention of Ridge, fear entered her heart. It had been several minutes since she’d heard his leopard call out. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her voice wobbled then, seeing triumph enter Merry’s cold eyes, she shoved the doubts assailing her down. Once she took care of her family issue, she’d find Ridge and the others. Gathering her energy like a battering ram, she pushed upward with both arms, shoving Merry’s chest. Her sister went flying backward, her body soaring over a still Carlton, landing in a heap ten feet away from Noelle. She didn’t think she’d won, though, not yet.
The area was filled with trees that had been there for hundreds of years. She found a large branch that would work for a weapon and picked it up before stalking forward.
Carlton rolled over, grabbing her ankle in a punishing grip. Noelle didn’t think, didn’t hesitate, swinging the branch hard toward his head. The satisfying crack knocked Carlton sideways, blood spraying from him. She reared back, hitting him again as he came at her, but this time she was ready. The thud and crack of her weapon jarred her entire arm. Blood splattered her moments before he fell to the side, unmoving.
She held the remaining half of the branch in her fist, blood staining it. Her sister moaned a few feet away, leaves crackling from her movements. Noelle tried to remind herself the woman was going to kill her, would have if she’d been given the chance. However, when she stood next to Merry, her sister’s sobs broke her heart. “Oh, Merry,” she whispered.
Like a rattlesnake, Merry flipped onto her back, jackknifing onto her feet. She held a knife in her hand like a pro. The blade swiped across Noelle’s stomach; the burn made her eyes water. In the years since she’d escaped, pain had been something she’d avoided at all costs.
The brutality Merry fought with shouldn’t have stunned her, but each blow did just that, making it hard for Noelle to heal herself while battling at the same time.. The next lunge brought that sharp blade too close to her abdomen, only this time she dodged, hitting out with the branch. Without the same momentum she’d had when she fought Carlton, she lacked the same strength, but Merry stumbled and grunted from the impact.
“You’ll pay for that,” Merry promised.
Noelle curled her palm, motioning the other woman forward. “Bring it,” she taunted.
They circled, probably appearing like two crazy women in a fighting ring, minus the ring. The strange smell she’d caught before hit her. It was damn offensive to the nose and wafting off Merry. “You’re rotting from the inside. That’s what happened to Carlton too, isn’t it? Whatever happened to him, is happening to you, now?” Whatever Remdezevier had done to them, her sister must’ve figured out and was doing it to herself, or Carlton had. Either way, she was evil.
“You are the cure. I need your essence, and Carlton needs your blood. We found his father’s notes. Nobody will miss you, but we have friends and lives. You have nothing and nobody. Quit being a selfish little whore and give up.” Merry lunged again, the knife held high.
Noelle’s mind flinched at each word that had been tossed out like a missile. What Merry said made a sick sort of sense. The silver blade glinted in the moon, aiming straight for her heart. She raised her arm to shield herself, aware her life was about to be lost. Ridge, Goddess, she’d miss so much, mostly the time they’d not get.
A roar came from her left, giving her hope. Fur brushed her face, and then a scream filled the air. Noelle braced for pain, closing her eyes at the same time she brought her arms up. Her heart beat frantically, making her think she was going to pass out. She had to force her eyes to open and her lungs to release the air she was holding in. When she did, it startled her to find herself standing, uninjured. What was even more jarring was to see a huge leopard standing over Merry, its teeth locked around her neck.
Ridge. He came. He saved her. Goddess, he was so gorgeous.
“Call your beast off me,” Merry begged.
Taking a deep breath, she stumble-walked over to the pair. The knife lay a foot or so from Merry’s arm. “In the eyes of the Goddess, you don’t deserve mercy, Merry. Ridge, is Marjo alright?”
The big leopard blinked twice. Noelle took that as a yes. She took solace in that. “Good, then that’s one less thing she has to pay for.” Noelle noticed the blade didn’t appear ordinary, seeing words written on the silver edge. “This is a mage blade, isn’t it?”
Merry turned her face away from Noelle.
She walked around Ridge, kneeling in the dirt, gripping her sister’s hair. The leopard’s hot breath wafted over her, but she felt comforted, not fearful. Ridge would never hurt her. “This blade, it was meant to kill me and Ridge and whatever other shifter you came across, yes? Where did you get it?” She yelled the last question when Merry refused to answer her.
Rustling behind them had Ridge releasing Merry, snarling as he whipped around, meeting Carlton in a clash of fangs and fur against Carlton’s mangled mess.
Merry rolled away and came up on her knees. Noelle blinked, crying out at the dirt her sister tossed toward her face. Her eyes stung from the pain. Without realizing the mistake, she dropped the knife, rubbing her eyes furiously. A maniacal laugh came closer than before. Using her protective instincts, she rolled away, forcing her magic to clear her eyes. Merry shifted her attention to the combating animals.
“Fuck that,” Noelle snarled. Her leopard wasn’t going to be stabbed in the back by her demented sister. Another branch appeared on the ground in front of her. She thanked the Goddess, snatching it up on her way to intercept Merry. This time, when she swung, the impact sent Merry sailing.
Noelle followed Merry, kicking the knife away. Merry pleaded with her to have mercy, but Noelle saw her intent.
Noelle pointed her finger downward, taking a deep breath before she spoke. “Say good night. Shed the light. Out like a night. Shed the night. Show the light. You have acted with no responsibility. Say goodbye to your humanity.” When the last was said, if her sister had any good within her, she’d have a glow surround
ing her, even if it were faint. Nothing lit her.
“There is no goodness inside her, Noelle.”
She was a little apprehensive to see Zelda and Sassy standing there. Both women were in their pajamas, still way more attractive than Noelle would ever be if she’d been pulled from her bed. “I kinda figured that out but had to know for sure.”
“What did you do?” Merry gasped, her entire frame jerked side-to-side.
“I cast a spell that would tell me...all of us if you had any light within your being. If not, then your life would be forfeited. I had hoped there was some, even a sliver that could be fostered and fanned to more with the right mentor.” She swiped at her face, hating the weakness tears showed.
“Goodness?” Merry snarled. “Goodness is for fools. Look at you. You were taken at twelve, and God only knows what you endured. Hell, you were probably Carlton’s daddy’s little plaything. Did you like being his fuck toy? Is that why you want to kill me and him? Are you scared the truth about your time in his little dungeon will come out?”
Noelle flinched, shocked and angered, and humiliated her sister would say something so vile for all to hear. “Not that it’s any of your business, but that’s not true. For all of Remdezevier’s faults, he wasn’t a pedophile. He didn’t think of me as anything other than an experiment.”
Merry laughed, the cackle grating.
Zelda stepped between Noelle and her. The next thing Noelle saw was a puff of smoke. “There, that takes care of that nastiness. Now, about that one.” Zelda pointed at Ridge and Carlton, their snarls and clashes escalating.
“Got it,” Sassy yelled.
Noelle moved in front of the crazy witch, her penchant for blowing things up legendary. “Um, the leopard is mine. No blowing him up, okay?”
Sassy gazed up to the sky. “You accidentally on purpose blow a few dozen things of importance to smithereens and all of a sudden you’re a serial blower upper.”