Chapter 29
K yla’s heart wasn’t just in her mouth, it was threatening to leap out of it. The bitter taste of adrenaline swarmed through her, fizzing her veins to the point of trembling. Sweat coated her. The deafening sound of her pulse in her ears soon turned into an annoying thump, one beat indistinguishable from the next.
Nerves, nausea, and shock collided in her stomach in a violent crash. Painful memories seized control of her conscious mind, taking her right back to that fateful moment when everything changed.
The agonising cramps in her belly started, as if Tony were ripping her apart all over again. She could feel each jerky move scraping her womb, tearing delicate tissue and an innocent little egg.
Her arms fell numb from fighting against her restraints, and she could no longer feel her feet from the merciless cable ties either. Each violent stab of pain carved a gully of woeful torment in her mind.
And his face. She could never forget his face.
The empty, blank stare of a ruthless, selfish man guarding his future. His eyes were a hollow window to a soulless creature that deserved not one more breath of oxygen. Kyla’s pleas and screams were nothing more to him than the final squeak of a mouse caught by a snake.
It was when she fell silent, shaking uncontrollably, that his focus seemed to break. The dawning realisation of what he’d done revealed his thoughts as if a pair of bleak curtains had been opened to a summer’s day. Like the coward he was, he dropped everything and ran.
A gentle whimper pushed Kyla back to the present moment. She blinked several times, needing a second to remember where she was. Looking down to see big brown eyes smiling up at her and the whipping of a tail showing nothing but joy, Kyla saw the Dobermann from minutes ago was now at her feet, begging for her attention.
She bent down to fuss him, and as she did, noticed a few spots of blood on the clean tarmac. Frowning, she glanced over his bulky body, wondering if he’d caught himself on a branch or something.
The friendly little guy nudged her leg with his nose and whimpered again. That was when she noticed it—the blood. It was coming from her. Her lower body was completely soaked like she’d just been dipped in a bath of blood.
Horror overtook her. Kyla bolted back to the car and opened the driver’s door, not giving a second thought to her new canine pal leaping onto the driver’s seat before jumping over and settling into the passenger seat. She sat down and slammed the door shut, her heart pounding, pulsing fear laced adrenaline around her body.
The car beeped at her about her seatbelt as she struck up the engine. Tyres squealed for grip as she punched the accelerator for speed. Nails dug into leather as her erratic driving had the dog scrabbling to stay upright.
None of it mattered though.
Kyla had opened Pandora’s box in her mind again, everything tumbling out like intestines in a disembowelment. The thoughts spinning around and around in her mind were sending her insane and she had no idea how to stop them.
Feeling more than lost and desperate, Kyla could only go to one place to seek some sort of grounding and explanation.
By the time she pulled up at her grandparent’s, she had become nothing but a quivering, sweaty wreck. She’d barely brought the car to a stop outside their little cottage before Lily and Malcolm were rushing out of the house. Kyla flung the car door open and hurled herself at her gran, needing a reassuring hug more than anything.
After a brief reassuring embrace of comfort, Kyla stepped back and looked at her grandparents whilst motioning over the lower half of my body.
“What the hell is this?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“It’s the result of a living memory,” Lily replied. “Come inside, dear. We have lots to talk about.”
Malcolm put his hand up in a stop sign and then pointed at Kyla’s feet. “Where did you get that from?”
Her canine pal, who had willingly kidnapped himself into the car, stood next to her wagging his tail. He barked at Malcolm which earned him a deep frown from the old man.
“I kinda found him. Then when this happened—” She motioned her hands over her legs “—he jumped in the car before I even realised it. I’ll take him to the vets later to get him scanned for a chip.”
Lily and Malcolm looked at each other. Their mouths curled upwards in a smile, but their eyes spoke of worry.
What is going on? Kyla thought to herself. Why isn’t anyone telling me any damn thing around here?
Taking Kyla’s arm, Lily walked her inside in silence.
***
A ROUND AN HOUR LATER , after a hot bath, Kyla wandered back into the kitchen, clean, revitalised, and ready to learn just what exactly she’d unknowingly been born into. Trotting along at her side, Kyla’s new found friend stuck firmly to her side. He’d laid on the bathroom floor the entire time she’d been in the bath.
“If he’s not chipped, do you think I can keep him?” Kyla asked, bending down to scratch his ears.
Lily turned around from the worktop, a jug of orange squash in her hand, the ice clinking against the sides as she walked over to the table and set it down. “Let’s have a chat first,” Lily said, motioning for Kyla to sit down.
Malcolm came in from the living room, his brow furrowed together, and his lips tightly pressed together. He took a seat at the table and poured the ice-cold squash into three tumbler glasses.
Lily cleared her throat, took a seat, and then said, “Well, as your grandad said, I’m a witch and he is a former General of Hell.”
Kyla frowned. “Don’t you mean ‘was’?”
Lily smiled. “He is still a demon, my dear, with all the powers that come with it. He just doesn’t live in Hell anymore to retain the title.”
Kyla’s mouth dropped open. “So you’re like Azazel and Balthazar?”
Malcolm nodded. “Only scarier. They’re babies in comparison.”
“I saw them yesterday.” She suddenly remembered Keith’s death and froze. “Oh God, I need to see Azazel actually. He kinda did something for me.”
“The perverted pub owner?” Malcolm asked, smirking.
“How did you—”
“You need to learn to shield your thoughts, Marmalade.”
"And how do I do that? I’m not a witch or a demon.”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “Kyla, you are a witch.”
Kyla snorted. “Sure. Of course I am.”
Two serious faces stared back at her, not a flicker of jest to be seen anywhere in their emotions.
Kyla took a sip of her drink and swallowed it. “You’re not joking.”
Lily shook her head. “Magic abilities run in the blood, dear. It was set in stone the moment you were conceived.”
“Are you telling me that my mother is a witch as well?”
Lily hesitated for a fraction of a second before nodding.
“Does she use her powers?”
Lily shook her head. “She never wanted anything to do with it. Especially after your father.”
A twinge of sadness struck Kyla square in the heart. “What do you know of my father?”
“We don’t know much,” Malcolm said. “All we know is that he wasn’t human either.”
Kyla’s heart lurched, skipping a beat. “What was he?”
Malcolm and Lily shared a brief look before Lily leaned over and placed a hand on Kyla’s forearm. “We believe he is a demon.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, Kyla let that word rattle around her mind. She knew demons existed of course, her own grandad was one, and she’d very nearly had sex with one just yesterday, but to associate that word, that creature , with the blood running through her veins? That was a whole other level she didn’t expect.
“Did Mum know? When she met him?”
Malcolm shook his head. “We believe not. Your mother never really said too much about him which leads me to believe he revealed himself to her after she fell pregnant. It was at that point her attitude towards the supernatural and magick in general really turned to something quite hateful. My guess is he tricked her and when she learned of his true nature, she felt angry and humiliated.”
“But she couldn’t get rid of you, dear,” Lily said, squeezing Kyla’s forearm. “She loved you from the minute she found out about you.”
Kyla rolled her eyes. “From what then happened, Gran, she’d have been better off scraping me out.”
“DON’T talk like that,” Malcolm boomed, narrowing his eyes at his granddaughter. “I don’t want to hear those words ever come out of your mouth again, do you understand me?”
Kyla reached down and touched the dog’s head, needing something comforting. The dog nuzzled its nose against her hand in response. “It’s true though, Grandad. I wouldn’t have felt any pain if she’d aborted me. Look what she’s since done to me. I didn’t deserve that. She’s not a mother. She was a womb donor, nothing more.”
“Let’s finish this conversation,” Lily said, glancing at her husband and then at Kyla. “Before we end up saying things we don’t mean. Now, moving swiftly on, let’s teach you some basics of magick. Are you up for that?”
“Did you need to ask?” Kyla said, smiling.
“Not really. It’s in your lineage. You’ll master it easily.”
“We’ll see.”
“You will,” Malcolm said. “You have some power in your veins, Marmalade. Embrace it.” He cleared his throat and then continued. “Basics one-oh-one for any supernatural creature is to shield their thoughts. Not only does it stop rather private things being sent freely to anyone close by, it also stops other supernatural beings from tracking them which means they know nothing about your true identity either.”
“Is that a bad thing? Surely, it’d be nice to mix with others from your own world?”
Malcolm chuckled. “Remember, Marmalade, there is no smoke without fire. Vampires and werewolves—really not so hot on each other. Demons and witches—pretty much the same. All of the teeny-tinies hate each other—pixies, elves, fairies and so on. Ghosts hate everyone and everything. They’re stuck lingering here to let go of all their rotten resentment before they can crossover for judgement. Problem is, that makes them madder and the vicious circle carries on and on.”
“Oh,” Kyla said, her head whirling to try and keep track of all the information. “Sounds about as fun as normal life then.”
Lily gave her granddaughter a withering smile. “If anything, it’s much more dangerous because of the abilities and power that we can all tap into. Humans tend to battle with words or weapons. Supernaturals are the sort to use a grenade to kill a fly.”
Kyla struggled not to smile. Something within her liked that idea. It made a point, showed whose boss, and made damn sure no-one would fuck with you unless they didn’t care for their life.
“So how do I shield my mind?”
Over the next hour, Lily and Malcolm taught Kyla how to envision her mind as a bank—a bank of information that needed serious, round the clock protection. She cleared a space in her mind, an empty round room so to speak, that would give her a ‘working area’ to deal with and process anything that needed specific attention.
Around the edges of this circular room, cast in the shadows of the single lightbulb lighting her ‘work area’, were the contents of her life—memories, facts, education, subconscious catchments. Kyla arranged everything like a library. Beautiful dark wooden shelves from floor to ceiling encircled her conscious ‘work area’. Kyla split everything down into books, and each book then homed in the correct corresponding section.
A two-inch thick Perspex shield sealed them inside their shelves, keeping them from harm as they faced into the centre of the room. Seeing the contents of herself all around her but safely nestled away gave Kyla a sense of organisation in her jumbled mess of a mind.
Behind her mental library sat a six-inch thick wall of steel, interspersed with diamonds. To anyone attempting to hi-jack her thoughts, they would face a gleaming wall of silver thickness combined with shining gems harder than anything on earth.
Cut through that, motherfuckers.
Both of her grandparents tried their utmost to penetrate her defences, but after several unsuccessful attempts, finally gave in.
“You’ve done a fantastic job, dear,” Lily said. “You’ve caught on very quickly. It will be draining for you, at first, to always be thinking of keeping your shield up, but like anything else, it will become an automatic action soon enough.”
Kyla grinned, a sense of empowerment, of being unstoppable, and a force to be reckoned with filling her from top to toe. She knew in that moment that satiating her cravings for revenge would be so much fun now she had all this power coursing through her veins.