Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2)

by Anderson, Holli

  Seth leaned over to Johnathan. “Did she just offer him what I think she offered him?”

  Johnathan nodded his head, mouth open just slightly.

  “I don’t think Claire would do that,” Seth said loud enough for Mariah to hear.

  Her head snapped around so fast I swear I heard her neck crack. She pierced Seth with an icy stare. “I’ll make her do whatever I want her to do.” In that instant, her voice went from quavering hysterics to scary, possessed-by-a-demon, horror movie steadiness. I expected snakes to come crawling out of her mouth any second.

  I reached for my sight and examined her with opened eyes. She looked normal, except there was something different about the aura that surrounded her. There was darkness where I expected light. Not completely dark, but like when a crisp white shirt gets washed with new dark colors. I sensed something else, barely, but couldn’t place exactly what it was. I switched my sight off.

  Mariah turned her full attention back to the stunned Alec. She pressed her body against his and pulled his head down to hers. The kiss she proceeded to give him was unquestionably inappropriate. I wanted to reach over and cover Halli’s eyes, but I was afraid she’d break my arm. As Mariah pushed her body tighter against his, Alec stepped back. She followed, pressing closer, and he stepped back again. The grip she had on his head and the suction from her lips was such that he couldn’t have pulled away easily if he’d wanted to. His backside bumped into her car. As soon as he couldn’t back away from her anymore, she started grinding her hips against him. That was more than I could take.

  “Alec!” I didn’t think Mariah would hear me or care if she did. “Stop it! This is disgusting. Stop, or I’m going to slime both of you.”

  I heard Seth whisper, “Hmm. Slime might be fun.”

  I shot him the look of death before returning my attention to the lip-locked lovers. If I’d had a hose, I would have sprayed them both down. Alec tried to escape her hold on him. He pushed her shoulders away from him, gently at first and then more firmly as she resisted. He tried a new tactic by reaching up behind his neck and pulling her hands apart. The little space he’d made between their bodies a moment before was instantly closed again. He peeled her hands away from his neck and pulled away from the kiss. He held her hands down at her sides and slid his body sideways, away from her.

  In a breathless voice, he choked out, “Mariah, what was that all about?”

  Breath coming rapidly, face flushed, lips red from the intense pressure of the possessed kiss, she said, “I just wanted to show you that I meant what I said. There’s much more where that came from. You can have me… all of me. Just, please, don’t go tonight.”

  Alec let go of her wrists and stepped closer to us. “Mariah. No. I told you I won’t go any farther than kissing. What in the world is wrong with you?” He’d talked to me about this earlier—he didn’t want to be like his dad. Kissing was one thing, but sex, he’d said, should be special. He didn’t want to use women like that.

  Her pleading intensified. “I just want you to stay with me.” She took a step toward him.

  Joe placed himself between them. “Mariah, why are you insisting Alec stay? What’s happened since last night?” His voice was calm and soothing.

  The tears started to flow again. “I… he can’t go. I did… something. Something stupid. He’s too strong. There are too many.” She looked back at Alec. “I made a deal for you!”

  She slapped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened. She spun and ran to the open door of her car. Before any of us realized what was happening, she’d slammed the door and the tires squealed down the road.

  “This can’t be good,” Halli said.

  hat’s the deal with your girlfriend, Alec?” Seth asked, shaking his head.

  “I have no idea.” Alec watched the red car disappear down the street.

  “Someone, or something, got to her,” Joe said. “Maybe we should change our plans up a little. At least the parts she heard.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, we should.” Alec ran his fingers through his short hair. “Wow. Yeah, we should,” he repeated.

  “Let’s head back to the house then. It looks like this town is ready to close and lock its doors, anyway,” Joe said.

  We stopped at a convenience store and grabbed some snacks and soda, then we walked back to the house.

  There wasn’t a lot that could be changed with our plan. Mariah knew what time we planned on leaving and where we planned on portalling to, so we changed those two things up a bit, deciding to leave earlier in case we ran into trouble.

  After we’d decided on the changes, we all retired to our rooms to try to get some rest—we’d need all the energy we could get for the night. I lay down on top of the covers of my bed, fully clothed except for shoes, and tried to sleep. My mind had other ideas, though. It wouldn’t stop racing.

  I must have dozed off for a minute, however, because I didn’t hear the door to my room open or close. My back to the door, I was startled awake when the bed sunk with the weight of someone sitting on its edge. I flipped over, ready to fight. My clenched fists relaxed and I smiled up into Johnathan’s face.

  “I couldn’t sleep. I’ve never been much of a napper.” He smiled back at me. “I just want to spend every second with you I can,” he added much quieter.

  He stretched out beside me and pulled me against him, my head resting on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead and rubbed his hand along my back. We lay there like that, my hand resting on his chest, my nose breathing in his scent, until we both fell asleep.

  “Wake up guys. Assemble in the living room. Something’s happening.” Joe left the door to my bedroom open as he went to wake the others.

  I looked at Johnathan. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “No, it doesn’t.” He leaned over and kissed me softly before standing.

  I rubbed my eyes as I stepped out of the hallway and into the living room. The blinds were open. I looked at the clock on the wall—only four o’clock, too early to be this dark. Johnathan stood behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders, staring out the window that looked out over the large backyard. Fog rolled in from the south, reaching halfway across the yard. I could feel it pulsing unnaturally. So thick I couldn’t see the white fence I knew was there, only forty yards away. I’d never seen fog move that fast before. The light of the sun was nonexistent, no hint of where it hung in the sky. The fog was impenetrable.

  “What the…” Seth slid to a stop at the top of the stairs.

  Halli stopped next to me, Surpy close behind her. “Is bad,” he said. “I knew it was coming. I could feel it.”

  “Surpy’s right,” Joe said. “This is bad.”

  “What is it?” Johnathan asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ve only seen something like this once before—and it ended in somewhat of a disaster.”

  “Disaster?” Halli prompted.

  Joe shook his head. “It was explained by the common people as a tornado. It happened in the 1700s, in Worchestershire, England. The path of destruction was unfathomable. I can only imagine the number of lives that would be lost today if such a disaster occurred in a populated area.”

  “So,” Alec said, “What was it really?”

  Joe’s face paled. “Demons. A lot of them.”

  That shut us all up for a minute.

  “So,” I finally broke the silence, “What are we going to do?”

  “I know it’s hours earlier than we planned,” Joe said, “but, I think we need to head out now. We need to be in place at the gathering spot before this fog reaches it.”

  “Everyone, get your gear,” Johnathan ordered. “Be ready to go in five minutes.”

  I ran to my room and changed into the black clothes we’d bought a couple days before and switched out my tennis shoes for some heavy duty hiking boots. I braided my hair in record time, buckled my gear belt on and headed back to the living room.

  Johnathan was already there. “You have your shield bracelet and neckla
ce, right?”

  I lifted my arm to show him the bracelet around my wrist. I touched the chain around my neck to make sure it was there and nodded. We’d decided that, even though we now knew how to speak to each other’s minds, we would keep the necklaces as backup.

  Halli was the last one back to the living room, Surpy hot on her trail.

  “No, Surpy, it’s too dangerous. You need to wait for me here where it’s safe.”

  “But, m’Halli! I can help you! I very sneaky; the Dark Ones won’t even know I am there.”

  Halli put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “No. You’re staying here.”

  Head bowed, Surpy kicked the carpet with a long, hairy toe. “Okay, m’Halli. I’ll stay here.”

  I scanned the others. We looked downright official, all dressed in black, like the FBI or something. Johnathan’s face was set, jaw tight. Halli had a small crease in her forehead and a determined steely gaze in her eyes. Alec, eyebrows raised, mouth in a straight line. And, Seth bounced up and down on his toes, absently chewing on the inside of his bottom lip. No one looked scared, though we should have been.

  “Everyone is clear on the portalling destination?” Johnathan asked.

  We all nodded.

  Joe moved over to stand beside Alec, so they could portal together. Halli and I had tried to talk Joe out of coming—his abilities to perform spells had diminished to nearly nothing. He could barely conjure up a star-bright anymore. He wouldn’t listen, though. He insisted he still had killer hand-to-hand combat skills and he could help us out in other ways, too. He’d been in hundreds of battles, and could act as the battle commander, surveying the battlefield and giving suggestions and warnings.

  “Okay. On three. One. Two. Three.”

  When Johnathan reached three, I portalled to a point just down the trail from the Elephant rocks. Well, I tried to portal there. I slammed into what felt like a flexible wall and bounced back—all the way back to the living room where we’d started. The bounce back threw me off balance and I landed on my butt with a thud. Joe and Alec were in a tangled mass on the floor next to me. Seth, Johnathan, and Halli were there, too. The only one that remained standing was Halli.

  “What happened?” Groaning, I pushed myself to my feet.

  “A block. Somehow they put up a shield. We’re going to have to portal somewhere farther away.” Joe looked up at Alec, who had just untangled himself from Joe and was in the process of standing. “Alec, try to portal to a quarter of a mile up the trail from where we just tried. If you’re able to land there, we’ll follow. If not, well, I guess we’ll see you back here. Try not to land on one of us.”

  Alec shook his arms and popped his neck. He took a deep breath and disappeared—for a few seconds. He bounced back and landed in what looked like a painful position, on the back of the couch.

  “Ouch,” he whined.

  “Let’s move the furniture back against the walls before he tries again. We really don’t need Alec to break his back right now,” I said.

  With the furniture pushed safely out of the center of the room, and the rest of us standing out of the way, Alec tried again, a little further up the trail. Again, he bounced back. This time he was able to land on his feet, though a little wobbly.

  “I need to sit down for a minute before I try again,” he said, holding his head in his hands. “I’m a little dizzy from all this bouncing back and forth.” He backed up and sat on the couch.

  “Joe, how far out could they have made this shield?” Johnathan asked.

  “It’s already further out than I thought was possible. This is a bad sign. Whoever is doing this is either impossibly powerful, or has the backing of a multitude of other powerful beings.”

  “That just means it’s even more important we get there to stop them,” Johnathan said. “Go again Alec. Try the main trail at the head of the trail we need to go down.”

  Alec stood slowly, saluted Johnathan, and disappeared. We waited in silence to see if he would bounce back again. He didn’t.

  “Okay, then. To the main trail it is,” I said. I closed my eyes to concentrate on where I wanted to land and just hoped it wouldn’t be on top of Alec or a hapless hiker. I landed just to the side of the trail—right next to a small sign that said to stay on the trail.

  I opened my eyes and searched for Alec and the others. I spotted Alec first, ten yards away. He smiled and waved for me to join him. Johnathan and Joe, Seth, and Halli arrived moments later, landing perfectly spaced so as to not crush one another.

  We gathered by Alec, who had landed closest to the trailhead we needed to take.

  “So, now what?” Alec asked, looking from Johnathan to me.

  “Well,” I said. “Someone is obviously here already and probably sensed us bumping into their shield—so we’re kind of screwed as to the element of surprise.”

  Johnathan nodded, frowning. “We need to get into position as soon as possible. I have a feeling the barriers are only going to get worse, the closer we get to the time and the place of the Gathering. There’s not a lot we can do about what they know, other than change it up a little. I’m pretty sure someone already knew much of our plan before this anyway.” He gave Alec a pointed look.

  “Hey, no fair,” Alec said, puffing up his chest. “She knows very little of our plan. And, besides, who would she have told?”

  “It could have been anyone, Alec,” Johnathan raised his voice. “This town is crawling with people willing to deal with the devil—we’ve learned that much with our own encounters. She knew about the bar and the information we were after there. She could have easily found one of Brone’s emissaries to spill her guts to.”

  Alec’s face turned red. “For what purpose? Why would she have done that? I know she acted weird this morning, but I find it hard to believe she’d rat us out. She’s pretty much in love with me.”

  “Boys.” Joe stepped between them. “This is no time to fight amongst ourselves. Alec, I agree with Johnathan, someone got to Mariah somehow. My guess is they used her infatuation with you to get her to make a deal.”

  “What kind of deal?” Alec asked.

  Joe shrugged. “I have a feeling we’ll find out before this night is over.”

  We split up as we’d planned earlier—Johnathan with Joe, Halli with Seth, and me with Alec. We headed toward the dead zone at the end of the trail, each pair taking a different route. Mine and Alec’s route included a bit of rock climbing. Alec took the rear and started up after me. We’d nearly reached the top of the small rock hill we were ascending when I stopped short. Johnathan’s voice came clear to my mind.

  “Visitors, prepare to fight.”

  I looked behind me to see if Alec had received the message. He nodded. I rolled my eyes at the sudden spark in his eyes. Always wanting to be right in the action.

  I pulled myself over the edge and up onto the apex of the rock and was immediately assaulted by two men who grabbed my arms and covered my mouth. My little experience with Grease Ball and friends had taught me to use magic right off, not to let fear or surprise take over, so as Alec was topping the boulder, I used a paralyzing spell on my two assailants. They both dropped to the hard surface of the rock.

  I looked up from their limp bodies to find that there were at least four others, and Alec had already downed two of them with binding spells. I thought perhaps the remaining two would see how effortlessly we’d dispatched of their companions and bolt out of there, but they didn’t. They had a crazed look in their eyes and continued toward us. The men were monster big, muscles bulging so huge it looked like their skin would tear at any second. They came at us from their position about ten feet away. From hours upon hours of practice, I knew Alec would take the one on his side, so I aimed my magic at the other one. Alec pulled out his channeling rod.

  “Bindicus!” I yelled, aiming the spell with my right hand extended in front of me. My mouth dropped open in surprise when the behemoth of a man didn’t even flinch. He continued to step toward me.r />
  “Oh, crap,” Alec said as the guy he’d shot his unsuccessful spell at reached out to grab him. Alec took a step backward, then his foot slipped off the edge of the rock. He swung his arms around like a tightrope walker to try to keep from falling. I reached out a hand to steady him, but before I could get a hold of his arm… he was gone.

  I was confused for a fraction of a second, because I knew he hadn’t fallen. Then I remembered his trick in the library the day I slimed him. He’d portalled. The confusion of his disappearance stopped the forward progress of our attackers. I thought frantically as Alec reappeared a couple yards behind them. A straight-on magic attack didn’t work. Brute force will have to do.

  With what I envisioned as the force of a hurricane, I pushed a huge amount of air at the guy in front of me. He flew into the air and landed on his rump twenty yards away. Alec had the same idea, just without the magic. He crouched down and ran at the man that was easily four times his size. He hit the guy at about the same time my opponent flew through the air. Alec’s full-forced hit landed on the back of the man’s legs, but his attack was pretty much a flop. All Alec succeeded in doing was buckling the guy’s knees so he fell down on top of him. The air whooshed out of Alec’s lungs.

  I backed up a couple of steps and blasted the guy before he could pummel Alec with his ham-sized fists. I used the same blast of air spell as I had on his companion, hitting him a little higher in the chest so the spell was a safe distance away from Alec. He flew head over heels, off the rock face we’d just climbed. I heard him land with a thud and leaned over the edge to see if he was still moving. He’d fallen about fifteen feet—and the crazed giant bounced right back up onto his feet like he’d landed on an air mattress.

  I looked over at Alec as he slowly got up and glanced over the edge. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned in time to see the other guy lumbering toward us at a speed faster than a man his size should have been able to accomplish.

  “Oh, crap.” I hit him with another blast of air, hoping to give Alec and myself some time to strategize, but the big oaf was ready for it and just turned his massive shoulder into it, ducked his head, and stood his ground against the torrent of air.