Chapter 7
Zerachiel
I turn to Kate, expecting to see fear, but instead, I see her angrily throwing on some clothes, mouth set in a hard line.
“Stay here!” I whisper urgently.
“I’m coming with you!” She is fighting to get around me, reaching for the doorknob.
“No, Kate, you must stay here. I’ll handle him.”
“Zera, no, you can’t go, Merna said -”
I cut her off, closing the bathroom door roughly before I rematerialize in the living room, just in time to catch Travis trying to prise open her bedroom door.
“What are you doing, human?” I snarl, my tail whipping back and forth with anticipation, wings completely outstretched behind me. I have taken to stooping slightly for Kate, but now I am at my full height.
Travis turns around and seems to lose his balance when he catches sight of me. His hair is disheveled, shirt partially torn, with dirt on his pants. In his hand is some kind of rough-edged knife. I can tell it's iron; this human did his research.
With eyes wide, he points at me with the knife, “I knew it! I knew what I saw! Nobody will believe me. That sweet, nerdy, works-so-hard she can’t even go on a date Kate was FUCKING A DEMON in the woods!!” He is screaming now, pounding on Kate’s bedroom door.
“You’d rather fuck a demon, Kate!” His neck is red with angry veins. He pounds on the door one more time and begins to advance on me, holding the knife out with a shaky hand.
“Do you even know how to use that, puny human?” I tease.
“I know where the pointy end goes,” he says with a lunge, but I am already rematerializing behind him.
“Boo,” I whisper in his ear, before disappearing.
Travis screams, jumping in the air. “Come out where I can see you, coward! No tricks!” Sweat is staining the underarms of his shirt, the sheen evident on his hairline and brow.
I coalesce in front of him once more, swiping my claws at him to grab the knife.
Travis is too quick, slicing in the air at just the moment when I am drawing away, the iron knife making a long cut along my forearm, drawing black blood splattering onto the floor.
A searing pain cuts into my skin, my body phasing in and out of reality.
I look down to see the wound is glowing orange.
Travis stares at me as I shrink to the floor, eyes wild and wearing a wicked grin.
He raises the knife once more and fails to see the door being wrenched open by Kate.
She takes in the scene, me slowly sinking to the floor, and Travis, poised just above me, tackles him to the ground, knocking the knife out of his hand.
It goes skittering under the credenza by the table.
Kate and Travis roll on the ground, each trying their best to land a punch on the other.
The glowing orange wound is snaking its way up my arm, invading my veins.
My wings droop, my tail limp on the floor, my very lifeforce seemingly draining from me.
I feel transparent, the phasing flickering more violently.
I try to crawl to where Kate and Travis are wrestling, reaching out to snag his pant leg with one of my claws.
I hear a dull thud and look to see that Kate has landed a solid blow to his head, sending him flying onto the coffee table.
There is a power, a confidence in her eyes that I haven’t seen before.
Travis crawls to his feet, stooped over with one hand on the coffee table to push himself upwards.
I see him pull a small gun out of his pocket right as Kate is looking toward me, concern written all over her face.
I open my mouth to try and warn her, but no sound comes out.
“You chose a demon over me!” Travis fires the gun, and time seems to stop.
Kate reflexively throws her hands up in front of her face, and I see a flash of violet light burst from both hands as the bullet is pushed away from her and straight into Travis’s shoulder. I close my eyes just as Travis slumps to the floor in a heap.
???
“ZERA! ZERACHIEL, WAKE UP! Merna, he won’t wake up. Oh my god, what have I done!”
“It’s okay, Kate, I’m here now. We’re gonna figure this out, just breathe, okay, breathe.”
“I’m trying to breathe!”
“You need to calm down. I’m going to need your magic, and the only way to tap into it effectively is to calm your mind.”
Kate is sobbing. “Merna, I’m not a witch, I don’t even understand what is happening right now!”
Dull light is filtering into my eyes, which I have managed to open just a few millimeters.
“My...Kate.” I groan. I try to lift my arms, but they are dead weights beside me, completely numb from this world. Blurring visions of Kate on one side of me and Merna on the other. “I do not feel right,” I mumble.
“Zerachiel, you’ve been cut with an iron knife; the poison is spreading fast. Kate and I are going to have to work a miracle before the police get here. No doubt someone heard that gunshot, and even though we have idiots for police around here, they do respond to gunshots.”
Kate wipes her tears, nodding to Merna. “Okay, I’m ready. We have to save him, Merna. I can’t lose him. What do I have to do?”
Merna looks from me to Kate with an odd expression on her face. “You’re not going to like it. We have to send him back to his realm, that’s the only way for him to heal.”
The color drains from Kate’s face. “What!” Her hands find my face, my neck. “No, he…he just got here. We had a month!” Her voice is rising to a squeaking pitch, tears flowing once more down her face. I see her large brown eyes finding mine.
Merna shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Kate. If he stays here, he dies.”
Kate’s hands caress my face, my lips. She presses her forehead into mine. “Zera, listen to me, I have to do this. You can’t die. I want you to stay, but -” She presses the back of her hand to her mouth, suppressing a sob, looking quickly at Merna.
“You're sure, this is the only way?”
Merna nods miserably. “I’m so sorry, you two. This is the only way.”
Kate gives me one last kiss, pressing her lips ferociously to mine. “I’ll never forget you. You brought me back to life.” She whispers.
Merna is lighting a candle and placing small animal bones next to it. She reaches over to my bloody arm. She glances at me apologetically, “Sorry, son, I need a drop or two of this.” She siphons a few drops into a vial.
“Give me your hands, Kate. We’ll make a circle and chant. When we say ‘blood,’ I’m going to drop these into the candle. We’ll just keep chanting.”
Kate nods, silent tears dripping from her chin. “When will we know it works?” Her voice is strained and hoarse.
“When he disappears.”
Off in the distance, I hear the faint wail of sirens. Kate and Merna clasp arms over me and begin to chant.
“By light and dark, by blood and bone,
Through veil and void, return alone.
Wings unbroken, wounds unmade,
Let time restore, let pain obey.
By love once given, by fate once spun,
Go now, rest, but not undone.
Shadow calls, the stars decree—
Bound in power, return to thee.”
“You saved me too…Kate.” I whisper, eyes trained on hers.
And then, I am gone.