The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series)

by Sara C. Roethle

  I turned my gaze back to Allison, who was dressed in a dirty, long sleeve tee that had once been a pale blue, and torn jeans that had soaked up blood from some sort of wound or cut on her leg. It pained me somehow to see Allison this way. She always put so much effort into her clothing.

  I looked at her bloody leg again. “What happened?”

  Allison bit her lip and glanced at her leg. “I just woke up with it. Some kind of puncture wound, but not too deep.”

  I forced my eyes up to focus in on her grime-smeared face to ask another question. “Where are we?”

  “We don’t know. We just woke up here.”

  I was about to ask who “we” was, but then I saw Lela. She was huddled in the far corner with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her head was hanging forward, causing her long dark hair to fall around her like a cape.

  “Lela?” I questioned.

  “Hi Xoe,” Lela whispered back, clearly freaked out.

  I looked back to Allison. “What did they do to her?” I whispered, even though I knew Lela would hear.

  Allison shook her head. “She’s claustrophobic. We think we’re underground.”

  Come to think of it, there did seem to be a slight lack of air. Not enough to harm us, but still uncomfortable. There was a familiar sensation prickling at the back of my mind. The air felt heavy, like something was pressing down on me. Then it hit me where I had felt that feeling before. Lucy’s grandma’s funeral.

  “We’re in the cemetery . . . under the cemetery.”

  Allison’s honey brown eyes widened. “We’re where?”

  I licked my lips nervously. “I um . . . I think we’re in a crypt.”

  “Great, just great,” another voice said sarcastically.

  Wait, I knew that voice. “Brian?” I questioned.

  Brian crawled into my line of vision and sat in front of me. His gray hoodie was torn and his hair was mussed into a frizzy pouf, but other than that, he looked unharmed. “So we’re in a crypt huh?”

  I cringed at his tone, then nodded in affirmation. “What are you doing here?”

  Brian shrugged, an unpleasant, sour look on his face. “First I ran into you on the street, then, as soon as you walked away, some guy pulled me into an alley. The next thing I knew, I was waking up . . . in a crypt.”

  Lela let out a small whimper. My limbs tingled as feeling returned to them. Unfortunately the feeling was returning to my head as well. I reached back and felt the tender lump that had erupted on my scalp.

  Allison and Brian were both staring at me.

  “Have either of you seen anyone since you woke up?” I asked.

  Allison was first to answer. “Yeah, Nick. The little worm told us if we used any magic, they’d know. Apparently nobody bothered to tell him that I’m human, so he just assumed otherwise.” She scowled at the room in general and then added, “They don’t know what you are either, Xoe.”

  “You’d think he would have just asked, back when we might have told him.”

  Allison nodded. “Yeah, not the sharpest tool in the shed that one.”

  “He did ask,” Lela interrupted from her corner. “I told him it was your choice if and when you wanted to tell him.”

  I flashed back on Lela’s googly-eyed look for Nick. That she had kept my secret despite her feelings for him pushed Lela that last inch into my friend category. If we got out of this, I knew I could trust her.

  I gave Lela a smile she didn’t see, then turned back to Allison. “I understand them not knowing my smell, but wouldn’t they know that you smell human?”

  “Witches smell like humans, unless they’ve been doing a lot of magic.” Lela interjected softly.

  Brian was absorbing our conversation with a look of confused wonder on his face. I spared him an apologetic smile, then turned to regard Lela again. “Did you recognize what any of them smelled like?”

  “Nick is definitely a wolf,” Lela said sadly. “The other one I caught a whiff of had a smell I knew. Kind of like the smell right before it rains mixed with blood.”

  “Like ozone maybe?” I asked. “That’s what Max said one of them smelled like.”

  Lela gave a slight nod of her head in answer. “Dan smelled the same way after he summoned demons. He said it was from the magic.”

  “Great, just great,” I replied. “So do we have any idea what they’re planning on doing with us?”

  “Kill us, probably,” Lela mumbled.

  Brian put his head in his hands, but didn’t say anything.

  I wanted to argue, but Lela was right. All but one of the other abductees were yet to be found, and the one that was found was dead.

  Allison glanced at the door, then back to me. “Can’t you blow it up or something?”

  I raised my hand to pinch the bridge of my nose. I was getting a killer headache. “I don’t know how,” I groaned. “I’ve only blown up appliances, so I think it just has something to do with the electricity. Steel bars aren’t exactly combustable.”

  “What about the space heater?” Lela asked, a little bit of the strength back in her voice.

  I looked at the heater again. It wasn’t electric, but it was flammable. “You might just have something there.”

  I stumbled to my feet and Allison stood to aide me. “How did you get over the tranquilizers so fast? It took over an hour for Lela to be able to move at all. I was on the ground for another two after that. Brian finally just started moving before they threw you in here.”

  “Who threw me in?” I asked.

  Allison shrugged. “Some big guy,” she answered. “I’d never seen him before.”

  Brian lifted his head out of his hands and looked at me standing awkwardly near the door. “What are you going to do?”

  I shook my head and glanced at the heater again. “I don’t know. Can one of you help me move the space heater closer to the bars?”

  Allison left me leaning against the wall as she went to move the heater. It was a lot heavier than it looked, so she had to slowly drag it across the floor rather than lifting it. It made a horrible scraping sound its entire journey to the door.

  At the noise, a tall man with icy blue eyes and hair so blond it was almost white came around the corner into view through the barred door. He was also the largest man I had ever seen. When he spoke, his voice was a deep bass rumble. “What was that noise?” he asked with what sounded like a German accent.

  “What noise?” I asked back.

  “That scraping.”

  “Oh,” I began, trying to think of an excuse. “We, um . . . we wanted to move the heater. We figured if we moved it in front of the door, less heat would escape. Where’s my dad?”

  It took him a moment to adjust to my train of conversation. He was big, and none too bright.

  Before he could answer, I asked, “What about the rest of my friends?”

  “There are only you four,” he responded. He turned to walk away.

  “Hold on,” I urged. “Why are we here?”

  He stopped mid-motion and faced me again. “I’m not supposed to tell you.”

  “What happened to my leg?” Allison quickly added.

  The big man had the grace to look embarrassed. “I dropped you. There was a sharp piece of glass on the ground.”

  Lela began to weep softly.

  The big man pointed at her. “What’s wrong with that one?”

  I couldn’t think of a reason not to tell him, and I wanted to keep him talking, so I answered honestly. “She’s claustrophobic.”

  “Claude!” someone shouted from the outer room.

  Claude winced, gave me a surprisingly sympathetic look, and walked away.

  Back to the space heater idea. I motioned for Allison and Brian to stand back with Lela, then stumbled to sit several feet in front of the space heater. I stared into the glowing red panel, trying to grasp at my elusive powers, and felt . . . nothing.

  I continued to focus, waiting for something to happen.

  “What’s wr
ong?” Allison whispered.

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “I don’t know how to do it.”

  “Don’t you have to, you know, get angry?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I guess so, but I don’t have much anger right now. I’m leaning more toward scared out of my wits.”

  “Think about something that makes you mad,” Allison urged.

  “I’m trying,” I hissed.

  “Try harder!” she shouted.

  I whipped my head around to glare at her.

  She put her hands up in surrender. “Sorry, just trying to make you mad.”

  I pouted, realizing that she almost had me when I ruined it.

  “Xoe?” Brian questioned, letting his fear trickle into his voice. “What are you trying to do?”

  “Nothing,” I snapped without looking back at him.

  “Can you believe Nick?” Allison interrupted. “He had us all fooled.”

  “Yeah, the weasel,” I responded grumpily.

  “He even gloated about it,” she went on. “Said he couldn’t believe how easily we let him in. That we were naïve and stupid to trust him like that.”

  I sighed loudly, depressed. “We were.”

  “So get mad about it,” Allison urged.

  “I can be mad about my own failure, but it’s not something I’m going to lose my temper over.”

  “What are you trying to do?” Brian shouted.

  I spun around to regard his scared, angry face. “Nothing!” I snapped again.

  “Oh, and he said one more thing,” Allison went on. “He told me that he could take you on with both hands tied behind his back.”

  “Stop it Allison!” Brian yelled. “What are you guys trying to do?”

  “SHUT . . UP!” I shouted.

  That was the spark I needed. I felt a thrill of electricity zing through my body, and suddenly the space heater exploded. It exploded . . . a little too much. A whoosh of roiling fire surrounded me, then in an instant was gone.

  I waited for the pain to hit, and felt . . . nothing. I looked down at my hands, sure that I had to be burned, but they were their normal smooth whiteness.

  “That hurt,” Allison said from behind me.

  Uh oh. I stood up, feeling numb, and rushed to the corner where my friends had taken shelter. I crouched in front of them to survey the damage.

  “I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed when I saw them.

  Allison’s eyes were wide with shock. She held her hands up to her face, but didn’t touch her skin. “Is it bad?”

  “No, um, not too bad,” I answered. “You just look kinda . . . pink”

  “I feel like I’m sunburned,” Brian added.

  I heard shouting from the outer room. “Um guys,” I prompted, “we gotta go.”

  Allison pushed against the wall to slowly get to her feet. I had to grab Lela’s hand and pull her up to get her moving.

  “What do we do?” Lela shouted, only now snapping back to reality.

  The shouting was getting closer.

  Thinking quickly, I answered, “We’ve got to make way for Allison or Brian to get out. If we can’t all escape, they can tell the others where we are.”

  With that I turned and ran to the cell door. The heater hadn’t actually done much damage, but it had broken the lock and latch, and one of the bottom hinges. The corner of the door scraped harshly against the stone floor as I pulled it open. The metal felt warm to the touch, but didn’t burn, either because it had cooled, or because I was a demon. At the moment, I didn’t really care.

  I entered the larger stone room. It was almost as barren as our cell had been. A couch, mini-fridge, and another space heater were the only things in the empty space, plus another make-shift cell next to ours. Oh, and Claude. He had probably come to investigate the shouting and ended up too close to the blast. His large form was curled on the ground in agony, but it seemed like he’d live. I caught a single glimpse of his charred face, then extinguished my pang of guilt to turn my attention to the footsteps coming down a small stone staircase.

  The first of our abductors to enter the room was Nick. I felt a smile spread across my face. We had to make our way out, and if I had to go through a person to do that, I was very glad that it was Nick.

  He stood on the stairs, looking stunned to see all four of us out of our cell. He recovered quickly, and crouched into what looked like a professional fighting stance. I nervously tried to recall how I had blown up the space heater, but before I could do anything, Lela leapt on Nick with a shriek of anger. They tumbled sideways off the stairs to land in a writhing heap on the stone floor.

  Lela ended up on top. I watched in terrified amusement as she cocked back one dainty fist, then started pummeling Nick in a blur of motion. Shakespeare was right. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

  Deciding that Lela could handle Nick, I grabbed Allison and shoved her up the stairs ahead of me, then pulled Brian up behind me. We emerged into a small room that was thankfully above ground. There was no door, just a large frame leading out into the moonless night. We were close to freedom.

  Just then, crew-cut man stepped into the doorway, blocking the entire opening with his broad shoulders. Lela came trotting up the stairs to stand slightly behind me.

  “It’s four to one,” I said to the crew-cut man. “I suggest you move unless you want to end up like your friends.”

  “I don’t think so,” said a voice from behind the crew-cut man. The big man stepped through the doorway to reveal a tiny blonde woman. A tiny blonde woman with a gun.

  She flipped her shoulder-length hair out of her face, then gestured with her gun that we should walk back down the stairs.

  “That one stays up here,” the big man said pointing to Allison.

  The blonde woman gave him an angry glance, then gestured once again that we should go downstairs.

  “They have Megan,” he argued.

  “You knew the risks when you took my money,” blondie answered sharply.

  “Kidnapping teenagers wasn’t part of the deal. I’m going to get Megan back, then we’re going to disappear.

  “A trade?” the blondie asked without looking at him.

  The man nodded and started to walk towards Allison.

  “They’ll never go for it,” blondie taunted. “They won’t trade just for one and let us keep the others.”

  “I have to try,” the big man said angrily.

  “Fine, try,” she snapped. “But not yet. Take her somewhere, then go and offer them the trade in the morning. Just make sure they don’t actually get her back until after tomorrow night.” She turned back to Lela, Brian, and me. “You three, back downstairs.”

  What else could we do? Lela might survive a couple gun shots, heck I might too. I didn’t really want to find out, but apparently Lela did. She leapt at the woman, completely ignoring the gun pointed right at her chest. The woman froze too long and didn’t get a chance to shoot. They both tumbled out the doorway.

  Allison took the opportunity to slip the big man’s grasp and run for the door as well. He turned to go after her and I leapt onto his back, trying to buy her a few minutes. He struggled to reach his meaty arms behind his back to grab me, then finally just slammed his back against the wall, crushing the air out of me. I slid off his back to land in a crouch, wincing at what was probably a broken rib.

  As I tried to re-learn how to breathe, Brian came up behind the big man. He hefted a broken two-by-four he had found somewhere and swung it like a baseball bat to hit the man across the back of the head. The man barely flinched, then turned on Brian and swatted him as if he was an annoying insect. Brian went sailing right out the doorway. This guy was so obviously not human.

  From my position on the ground, I lunged and grabbed the man’s ankle. I was plenty mad now, and my powers came flowing easily through me. The smell of burning flesh crept up to my nostrils just as the man screamed and fell away from me. I lost my grip on his ankle as he tucked his feet beneath him to end up in a c
rouch.

  Brian limped back into view. “Run!” I screamed.

  I turned my attention back to crew-cut man. His eyes glazed with rage, he lunged for me again. I managed to evade his grip and made a dash for the door. I could see Lela and Allison running away in the distance, Brian leapt out the door to follow behind them. I couldn’t blame them for leaving me. If at least one of us could get away, they could get help for whoever couldn’t.

  As the cool night air enveloped me, I began to think that maybe all four of us would get away. Then in my peripheral vision I saw the blonde woman, limping and with blood running down her face. With a truly terrifying grin, she lifted the rock that was in her hand. I didn’t have time to react.

  For the second time that night, I was out like a light.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I stumbled into consciousness, fighting the familiar feeling of tranquilizers. I was in what seemed like a hotel room this time. I could feel the scratchy synthetic comforter under my hands. That was about all I had time to notice before the blonde woman’s scraped and bruised face appeared above mine.

  “I don’t think so,” she whispered. I felt another sting in my arm. The last thought I had before my eyelids fluttered shut was that I was going to die.

  When I finally came to the next time, it was night again. Now if only I knew which night it was. My first thought was that I was absolutely freezing. I hung by my arms against what felt like a large tree. My winter coat was missing and the rough bark scraped against my back as I struggled to free myself. I looked down as best I could to see that my feet were about two feet from the ground.

  The smell of smoke was thick in the air, scented with what smelled like cinnamon and anise. I crinkled my nose in distaste as the cloying scent stuck in my sinuses. I hate anise. As more of my conscious thought returned, I began to survey my surroundings. A large, cracked piece of stone was only a few feet away from where I hung. I had to swallow past a lump in my throat when I realized what it was . . . a gravestone.

  Panicking, I began to struggle more against my restraints, which felt like they were made of metal. The graveyard was the last place I wanted to wake up. Well, the last place besides an actual grave. I mentally mapped out the Shelby graveyard, trying to place what area I was in. There were simply too many trees around though. The graveyard had trees, but they were spaced farther apart than the trees I was currently surrounded by.