Chapter 4
ARIANNA
The four men step closer to us. They’re stunning. Ranging from female fantasy biker in leather to a guy in a suit looking like someone straight out of GQ mag. But it’s their eyes that tell me they are far from normal human men.
I try to look away from the dangerous beauties, but one of them steps closer, making me hold his gaze as he speaks.
“Give her to us, and we will not harm you. She does not belong with you,” he declares.
His voice sounds like a light caress. It makes my heart race—the inner battle between running or staying. But I can’t run now. I lift my chin, trying to pull on what little bravery I have and whisper, “You’re not having her.”
He throws his head back and laughs. It’s a sinister sound that makes me wince, wishing for some help.
The rest of them join in, like this is the funniest thing they’ve ever heard.
Real fear starts to set in, making the female fantasy vanish.
The air seems to grow colder and, if possible, the night gets darker.
Another step forward; this one dressed in leathers that hug his body tight. When he crouches down, I jump back a little and close my eyes, ducking away from him, but his voice still reaches me. It’s not as sexual as his comrade. This man’s voice screams murderer.
“You think a little human like you can stand up to us? I will kill you if I have to. Mark my words, it would be as easy as taking a breath for me.” His tone is deadly.
To make his point, he reaches out with a claw and scrapes the edge of it along my cheek. I can feel the sting of my skin ripping, and as he pulls it back, my blood drips from the tip.
“Ari. Fight this, little one… You know how.”
The voice in my head--my grandfather’s voice—one that I hear so often, offers me no comfort.
But it reminds me of a time before, a time when I was this scared, a time that fear left a mark on me to make sure I would never forget.
My grandfather is the one who always used to tell me to just feel it, to let the power flow through me like air, but I never understood what he was talking about…
until now. Taking a deep breath, I lift my head.
“That’s it, Ari. Let us help you now.” the voice is determined and strong.
I can’t see what this daemon is seeing, but he stands up fast, taking a step back. “What the fuck are you?” he growls out.
That same voice from earlier—the one that is many and not my own—echoes from me as a grin spreads across my lips. “You are not meant to be here. You know this is not your time or place. She is with us now. You cannot and will not take her.”
My hands move as if someone is lifting them, my back arching.
I cry out in shock as electricity runs through my body, igniting me from within.
I see flashes of light, and the wind picks up, my body vibrating.
I open my mouth and scream out into the dark night.
My head snaps back down, and I start to whisper words I don’t understand, but in my heart, I know them.
I have spoken to them many times before. But when?
A sudden feeling of lightness, almost floating, fills my body. My voice is still the voice of many, louder and so much stronger.
“In hoc tempore, et in hac hora’ dico magnam potestatem. Tu nos protege, nos protege, Abice nos ab hoc malo, Pelle penitus, longe pelle. Ita, fiat.”
In this time and in this hour, I call on the great power. Protect us as we protect you, rid us of this evil, banish it deep, banish it far. So, mote it be.
The men stalk forward, trying to catch me off guard.
The one in front makes to grab me, but freezes in place and begins to shake.
His skin tightens, contracting around his muscles and skull, as if he has been vacuum sealed.
His hands clutch at his stomach, but it’s too late for that.
Red lines form like seams on his body and he splits open.
“Fuck… What the fuck is she…?” he says, through gritted teeth.
Before he can say anything more, the lines rip open even more, pulling back from his flesh like the skin of a rotten apple.
He screams, and his body explodes into nothing but dust. The others see this and turn, trying to make a run for it, but the spell reaches them anyway.
They scream as their limbs contort, snapping the bones before ripping completely off.
Blood, limbs, and body parts drop to the ground with a wet thud before their bodies also crumble into dust.
I drop to the floor, panting hard. But I don’t have time to think about what just happened and I really don’t have time to freak out—which is what I really want to do. I look over at the blonde to make sure she’s okay.
“I can take you back to the house now. Just hold on, okay?” My words come out breathless.
Closing my eyes for a second to catch my breath, something brushes my shoulder, making me flinch back and scream. My eyes snap open, but it’s just Mekhi standing there, his expression full of shock. I open my mouth to speak, but he holds his hand up to stop me, shaking his head.
“Hitch? What. The. Fuck. Was. That?”
I just stare at him, not knowing what to say.
If I tell him about the voices in my head and whatever magic just took over my body, he will freak out.
So, for now, I sidestep the question. “I have no idea, but we don't have time to think about that right now. Please… Help me take her to the house,” I beg.
His eyes shift back and forth as he considers, but with a pout, he bends down and picks her up, walking back towards the house. “You had better like shopping and you better not have more damn shoes than me. If you do, we’re fucking sharing,” he mumbles to her.
I follow a few steps behind, letting Mekhi carry on his ramblings. Those men, had they been daemons? They had to be nothing else turned to dust like that. But they shouldn’t have attacked. There are rules against that sort of thing.
And what did they want with her?
I turn around, letting my eyes run over the park again. The rain has stopped; I hadn’t even noticed, but it almost looks as if it hasn’t rained at all. Fear knots my stomach, I don’t know what I’m more afraid of—more Daemons coming back, or whatever it was that just happened to me.
I’ve never been able to do anything more than make small objects disappear, or cast minor healing spells—and now I’m ripping bodies apart in midair?
What the fuck was that?
My wrist tingles and I lift it, using my other hand to rub over the two puncture marks that have never quite healed— the skin no longer bleeds or stings, but I still bear the angry pink scar.
A scar that was left on one of the worst nights of my life.
That was when I had learned that things do go bump in the night, that there is always a monster under your bed, and that daemons are real.
My family has always practiced the craft, not the stuff you see on Sabrina or Charmed, but real magic.
But they’d always kept it away from me, like a secret that I was never allowed to know about.
When I look back at it now, I wish they would have told me sooner, my papa started to show me minor spells after my parents were taken from me, I was too young to do anything when they killed my parents, but at the age of ten, if I had been taught spells from birth, I could have tried when they came after my Grandfather.
Instead, I was left in the dark, and this allowed the daemons to take everything I love from my life at a young age.
I pull in a shaky breath, whispering, “Please. I don’t know what’s going on. Leave me, leave us alone.” A feeling like warm hands touches my shoulder, and a sob bursts from my lips.
“In time, Ari, you will know who you really are.” The voice in my head makes me smile sadly through my tears.
“Yo, Hitch! Get your ass in here now,” Mekhi shouts at me, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I call back in a broken voice, “Yeah. Coming.” Sniffling, I wipe the tears from my cheeks. I’m going to put all of this in the back of my mind. If my family thought that I didn’t need my powers, then I would be fine without them.
Shivering with fear as flashes of memories from that night, the daemon that killed my grandfather threaten to choke me, I still remember his red eyes as he sank his fangs into my grandfather’s neck.
The sound of him draining the life from my papa is something I will never forget.
The daemon had been after something. I just never found out what.
Turning, I run after Mekhi and into the house.
“So, you’re just going to stare at her?” I glance sideways at Mekhi.
“No, I’m not just going to stare at her.
I’m waiting for her to wake up.” After a moment when it seems that might not happen right away, we decide to clean her up and get her into my bed.
It takes us a while, and the whole time she stayed in a deep sleep.
I’ve not left the room; I'm afraid she will wake up scared, not knowing where she is.
Mekhi moves to sit next to me and sighs. “What if she stays like that? She might need to go to the hospital.”
I shake my head. “She will wake up. She must. Anyway, we can’t take her to the hospital.
They’ll want to know what happened and I can’t…
I don’t know how to explain.” I turn my head towards him, pleading with my eyes for him to leave it alone.
“We will be fine,” I say, more to myself than to Mekhi.
The worried look on his face tells me that we’re far from done talking about what happened tonight.
“And you’re going to risk us? Hitch. When did you get all ‘for the greater good’ shit? If she freaks out and starts trying to kill us, my ass is gone,” he huffs. I say nothing.
He’s right though. This woman could be anyone or anything. Those men were very interested in getting hold of her. I don’t want to believe that she would hurt us. I’ve been haunted by dreams of looking for something… and I think it’s her.
“She won’t try to kill us,” I say, hoping I’m not wrong.
Mekhi blows out a long breath, then whispers, “You ready to talk about it yet?”
I turn and stare into his deep chocolate eyes. “There is nothing to tell. I have no idea what happened, and I don’t want to know.”
Mekhi stands up and paces around the bed as he all but shouting at me.
“Hitch, you didn’t see you. I freaking well did!
Your eyes went so gold I thought you’d gone blind!
And you were spouting stuff out of your mouth I only hear in horror films, so don’t play with me.
” He places his hands on his hips. “You’re supernatural.
I’ve seen you do some witchy shit before, Hitch, but this… this was something else.”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I stand up. I know how much he hates magic; he avoids all the supernatural parts of our world at all costs.
“I’m not playing Mekhi; I have no fucking idea what I did or how.
Please, just drop it. We have to look after her.
I’m fine.” The word “fine” is a word that I’ve begun to feel safe with.
If you tell people you’re fine, it shuts them up and stops them from asking you questions you know they will not like the answer to.
I turn toward the bed when I hear a soft sigh.
Rushing over, I sit down at the foot of it and watch her as I whisper, “I need her, Mekhi. Something inside of me is telling me to look after her. I need to do this.” The bed dips down and warm arms wrap around me.
I lean against him, thankful that he is with me.
“What are you doing?” I ask, confused that he is hugging me and not running out the door, laces my voice.
He settles on the bed, chuckling softly. “Tonight? I’m sitting with my best girl and staring…” I laugh at his words and then lean further against him.
“I’m not staring, but I’m glad you’re here.”
The blonde makes a light sound again and turns on the bed. Both Mekhi and I move a little closer. I reach out, touching the hand that’s resting on top of the coverlet.
“You’re safe now. When you’re ready to wake, we’ll be here. You won’t be alone.”