The Devil's Due (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 2) Page 28

  I nodded, standing up to face her. “Come at me again.”

  Charlene smiled wickedly, “It will be my pleasure.”

  ~ * ~

  I hunched into my leather jacket, skipping down the steps of the testing center after acing my final in Humanities. My hair was braided back into a bun and I had on my favorite pair of sneakers for good luck. The weight of academia was off my shoulders now that classes were over and there was a notable bounce in my step.

  I sniffed back the chilly breeze and smiled, stuffing my hands into my pockets on my way to visit Ryan. The Performing Arts Academic Center was filled with students camped out in study sessions across the terrace in preparation for their finals. By now I was familiar enough with the building to find my way around without asking for directions. Ryan would be in the Marian Gallaway Theater getting ready for the Nutcracker. When I got inside, he was going through a list of props on stage left and checking them off his list.

  “Hey stranger,” I greeted him happily.

  Ryan looked up from his clipboard and smiled when he saw me. “Hey!”

  “I just finished my final next door and thought I’d come say ‘hi’.”

  “Aw, well I’m glad you did,” he insisted though a one-armed hug. “When are you and Caleb headed down to Mobile?”

  “First thing in the morning. How about you?”

  He shook his head and gave a meaningful glance towards the stage. “We still have three more shows, then the tear down. I can’t leave till Monday.”

  “Ouch!”

  He snickered, tucking the clipboard underneath his arm as we walked over to the apron of the stage and took a seat along the rim. “Charley’s really excited. She’s never celebrated the holidays before and my parents kind of love her.”

  I chuckled, and knelt beside him and took notice of his new tattoo on his muscled arm. The brilliant watercolor scene was in perfect complement to his girlfriends and suited him wonderfully. Looking at him now, he seemed so much more mature and grown up than I remembered him to be. He’d come such a long way since the boy next door I’d been paired with as partners for our science projects — he was a man. “Still loving your new ‘ink’?” I asked him playfully. “Cause it’s freaking awesome.”

  He chuckled, glancing down at it himself. “It’s kinda badass though, right?”

  “Yeah, it is!” I agreed completely. “How many people can say they have a magically infused tattoo that psychically bonds them to their partner?”

  Ryan grinned his full radiant smile that I adored before an awkward moment of silence, and I asked, “So what’s going to happen with you two? That’s a bit of a commitment….”

  He nodded, seeming thoughtful and he ran his fingers through his thick blond hair. “It changes nothing. I’m in love with her, she’s the sweetest, most amazing girl I know. I was already planning on marrying her before this happened.”

  I hugged him awkwardly as we sat there. “I want that for you too. She’s a great girl and I should have listened to you in the beginning. Sorry for being such a brat.”

  “That’s okay, I knew you’d come around. How about you and Caleb, do you have any long-term plans?”

  I sighed, leaning back onto my hands and stared out into the empty seats. “That … is a little more complicated.”

  Ryan’s eyebrow furrowed as he pressed me further, “So you’re not in love with him? I thought you were crazy about the bloke.”

  “No, I’m absolutely in love with him,” I insisted. “I just have to figure a few things out first.”

  Ryan scoffed at my assertion and lifted himself off the stage so he was standing once again. “I think you’re being ridiculous. It’s as complicated as you want it to be.”

  Smiling at his support, I glanced around the stage. “Break a leg tonight. I probably won’t see you again before we leave, so have a Merry Christmas. I’ll see you when we get back in January.”

  Ryan knocked me lightly with his shoulder and followed my gaze across the set. “Thanks for stopping by. Tell Caleb I said ‘hey’.”

  I nodded, standing up on the wooden stage and repositioned my bag across one shoulder. “Will do.”

  As I walked back through the backstage area, I gave him a gentle wave and opened the door to the outside. The winter chill whipped past in an icy breeze as I stepped onto the concrete and started back towards Riverside.

  ~ * ~

  The alarm on my phone buzzed annoyingly on the nightstand and I groaned blearily into the blanket before reaching over to turn it off. Caleb sighed in his sleep and rolled over on the mattress before wrapping his arm around me and kissing me on the shoulder.

  I smiled to myself happily and pulled the blankets up around us, savoring each precious moment before we’d have to solider out into the cold. “Good morning,” I told him hoarsely. My voice was unusually rough and gravely, so I propped myself up on an elbow to try and clear my throat. “Ugh! Sorry, I’ve got some morning breath today.”

  Caleb chuckled without even opening his eyes on the pillow and rubbed his hand on the small of my back. “That’s okay, I’ll breathe it.”

  When he pulled me towards him for a kiss I smiled ruefully, and sighed with pure contentment.

  “Mmm! We’ve got to get up though so we can load the car. Lacey’s expecting us in an hour.”

  He groaned and sat up on the bed beside me to throw off the rest of the covers. “Okay, you win.”

  It didn’t take us very long to shake off the residual throes of sleep and load his suitcase in the truck. I put some coffee on in the kitchen and wiped down the counters. Even though we were just going to Mobile for the break between semesters, I wanted everything to be perfect when he came back. Something about returning to a clean room, or apartment, made getting back into my regular routine that much easier and I wanted to do something nice for him.

  Caleb came back up from the truck and laughed when he saw me cleaning. “Babe, you don’t have to do that!”

  “Yeah, well, I wanted to,” I informed him happily. “Is the truck all loaded up downstairs?”

  “Yup.”

  I smiled, taking one last glance around. “Then I guess we should go pick up Lacey, huh?”

  He nodded, taking a sip from the coffee I had made him before we headed for the door. After locking up, I sent Lacey a quick text, letting her know we were on our way. She met us in the lobby when we got there, with a big smile on her face. “Hey, guys! Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. Can you believe it’s almost Christmas?”

  I took a heavy swig of the coffee in my mug to balance her enthusiasm. “It came up fast,” I agreed.

  “Caleb, Mom makes these amazing cookies every year for the holiday. I can’t wait for you to try them.”

  He chuckled and gave her a one-armed hug, loading her suitcase in the back. “That sounds great, Lace.”

  Turning around in my seat, I asked her, “What’s it like upstairs?”

  She waved me off dismissively and almost laughed, “I couldn’t sleep, so I disinfected everything with Lysol. It should be fine. Oh! I brought something for us to listen to in the car. They rock so hard, it’s like you’ve been slapped in the face by Christmas.”

  Lacey reached into her bag and pulled out a CD and handed it to him across the console. Caleb and I both grinned as we looked at one another curiously. “And how many cups of coffee have you had?”

  “Six,” she responded with a grin. “Mobile, here we come!”

  ~ * ~

  There was a winter chill in the air cold enough to chill my bones, but no snow on the ground as we walked the streets together. We hardly ever got snow in Mobile, but the rare occasion we did was a special treat. All the houses were lit up with Christmas lights and there were hardly any cars on the street; most everyone was at home with their families celebrating the season and eating cookies by the fire.

  Caleb took my hand as we walked down the street towards my house. His fingers brushed against the knitted fabric of my gloves and I smile
d at him nervously.

  “You seem distracted,” he mentioned quietly. “Is something wrong?”

  I clicked my tongue in thought, searching for the words to describe what I was feeling and told him, “It’s too quiet. I can't shake this feeling that something terrible is about to happen, like the calm before a storm.”

  The air between us fell silent for a moment and tiny speck of snow began to fall. I swallowed the lump that was rising in my throat and became acutely aware of the probationary necklace hanging there. Six of the stones had turned, there was only one Demon Lord left to face, the one I’d been fearing most of all — Aidan.

  It had been too long since he’d come to torment me … he was planning something.

  My jaw tensed, as I glanced back the way we came. “I don’t feel right,” I told him firmly. “We need to get home.” Just then a car passed on a nearby street and broke through my thoughts, bringing me back to the present. We should be getting back home.

  There was some rustling in the trees and my demon sense immediately went on high alert. My body reacted defensively in response to it and I felt myself tense. Caleb heard it too and reacted in a similar fashion. I saw his jawline flex and just like that the warrior was back. A moment of stillness passed and quiet before the rustling started again. Caleb put his back to mine as the whispering started to creep across the road. It was the same hushed voices that spoke in my subconscious — I thought I’d been imagining them. This time, however, it was so clear and forceful I couldn’t deny it any longer.

  “What is this?” Caleb muttered to himself aloud.

  “Come with us!” the voices called to me.

  “It's a pair of demons,” I told him in response to Caleb’s question. “They want me to go with them.”

  Caleb snorted and clenched his hands into fists defensibly. “Bugger that idea.”

  “Seriously!” I scoffed. The force of the wind picked up and whipped around us in an aggressive display. It was like being in the center of a tornado, and we struggled to keep our footing.

  The voices grew more restless and called to me again, “We were promised a mortal soul!” they insisted. “And a mortal soul we shall have. If you don't come, then he'll just take the boy instead.”

  As the last word fell, the wind and voices stopped abruptly, as did the rustling in the trees. The silence grew uncomfortably foreboding and I gasped to catch my breath.

  “What did they mean by ‘the boy’?” I asked Caleb nervously. “You don’t think…”

  “Nate!” he confirmed immediately.

  My blood started pumping harder in my chest as I ran back towards the house. Caleb was right beside me, but I couldn’t wait for him. I blinked as often as my fortitude would allow, teleporting farther and faster than he could run to reach my family. I knew he was just as determined and furious as I was at the imminent threat that had befallen us, but my family had to come first right now. I’d already lost my sister, I couldn’t lose Nathan too.

  My boots clamored down the stony driveway when I finally made it to the house. All the lights were off and there was a faint smell of Sulphur in the air. The lush foliage and undergrowth felt like it was growing beneath me just as the thorny briars had wrapped their way around Sleeping Beauty's castle.

  Something powerful was trying to keep me out.

  The harder I pushed through them, the more determined they seemed to keep me from my destination, reaching out onto the drive and grasping at my clothes.

  It was so close, I could feel it in my blood. My breathing was labored and I wheezed heavily racing up the steps to throw open the front door. “Dad? Nate? Where are you?”

  A haunting breeze came rushing through the house and stopped me in the threshold.

  Caleb caught up to me on the porch, flushed from the exertion of running all the way there. His face dark with worry and foreboding. It was not a face I ever wished to have cast in my direction, but it was nice to know he was as terrified as I was.

  I swallowed hard as he and I stared at one another and the light came on from the living room. Aidan’s voice rang clear out from the distance. “Ah Wynn! How nice of you to finally join us!” His voice dropped its faux affability halfway through, dropping to his more naturally cold-blooded tenor. He was never monotone, of course; there was always something seething beneath the surface of his voice: lust tainted compliments, mocking praise, or homicidal statements of fact.

  He was lounging comfortably in my father’s armchair, or at least making a show of it, with his leg thrown up over the arm rest and a cigarette in his hand. I gritted my teeth at how entitled he felt to making himself at home in my parents’ house. Dad and Nate were one the floor in front him, bound and gagged with a piece of fabric and terrified expressions on their faces.

  Ironically, this was exactly what I'd been trying to avoid, but everything I did only managed to put them in harm’s way.

  Caleb took a step towards them and was immediately thrown back by an invisible forcefield that had been placed around the house. A shockwave rippled from the impact as he was thrown back onto the lawn and landed with a painful groan. “

  Aidan wanted it this way, clean and pure without any complications — just him and me.

  “Caleb,” Aidan mused, taking another drag of his cigarette as Caleb pounded on the barrier. “So young, and still so much yet to learn.”

  Visible waves burst out from each pounding of his fist and filtered across the entire wall. Looking closer, I could make out the faint, iridescent film that sealed us in together. Aidan smiled when he saw the spell had worked and turned his attention back to me, “By the way, love, you can drop that ridiculous glamour now. I want to see the real you.”

  I flinched at his arrogant smile and turned to my Dad, who was still blissfully ignorant of the creature I'd become. I felt a twinge of guilt when I saw the expression on his face and let out a tired sigh. As the spell released, shimmering electric pulses of energy rippled through my body until I was standing there plain before them. My arms and hands were covered with dragon scales and I spread my wings out wide across the living room.

  Dad’s eyes grew wide and he visibly shuddered when he saw me, screaming repeatedly into the fabric of his gag. He was completely unprepared for this even more dramatic and personal revelation, and was helpless to understand what he was seeing.

  I took a steadying sigh, letting go of yet one more piece of my innocence. It was strange, I had accepted the difficult choices I had to make, and the effects it would have on me, but it was still difficult to destroy the old, unblemished image of me that had still existed in, at least, my father’s eyes until just now. At that moment, any remainder of the old Wynn really did die, and I could see how much that pleased Aidan. “Alright, now let them go. This is between you and me.”

  Behind me Caleb slammed his fist against the barrier, trying to break in. Aidan furrowed his brow and tsked me from his seat. “Oh, but my dear, we're just getting started! I know your pressure points by now. There would be no game if I didn’t keep the pieces in play.”

  I frowned at his insight into my person, knowing full well he’d hit the nail directly on its head. They were pawns to him in our game of chess. He didn’t care about collateral damage, which gave him a distinct advantage.

  They would always come first, no matter what. I’d already lost Elyse, and Mom, which made me that much more protective of the family I had left. I could not lose them too.

  Nathan whimpered from the floor and looked up at me over the rim of his glasses with tears streaming down his cheeks. Everything inside me was freaking out and screaming to get them out of there, but I just turned back to him and asked, “Now what? You're here to threaten my family if I don’t agree to come with you, is that it?”

  To my surprise, he snickered and conjured a drink within his hand. “Oh, using your family was just a bonus. Though I will admit, you did spectacularly. Unfortunately, I’m growing tired of playing games and have decided to take my prize e
arly.”

  Before I could respond there was a crash — Caleb had broken through the defensive barrier.

  “Over my dead body!” he told him, stepping forward.

  The Demon Lord snapped his fingers and almost immediately, Caleb was surrounded by a ring of fire. He pulled back at the sight of it and almost became engulfed in them himself as I screamed out in panic, “Caleb!”

  Heat from the flames caused me to retreat as they grew higher in the space between us. It was too powerful to cross, and though we reached out to each other over the tongues, they flared and licked wider when we approached. It was deceptively unassailable.

  Aidan took a swig of his brandy and stood up to face me, completely unfazed by the heat or smoke that was filling the room. “Have you still not figured out who’s in charge here? I own you. You’ll do whatever I say unless you'd rather have three more caskets to cry over.”

  I spun back around and faced Aidan head on. “No! I’d rather die than work for you.”

  “Well, then it’s a good thing it’s not your life I’m threatening, isn’t it?” he responded with a laugh. “I’ll have your loyalty, and submission, or you can wander this Earth terrified of the impending loss of your loved ones, knowing I will destroy anyone and any thing that brings you joy until the only creature you will find solace in is me.”

  I roared with rage and flew at him, thrashing wildly against him. Claws, teeth, even my flame reached out to tear and consume, but he just smoothly dipped and parried out of the way. It was almost too easy for him, swatting away my attack and countering every move that I could make.

  He knew, because he’d been the one who taught them to me.

  Even now, part of me still ached fighting him because I didn’t know if I could win. We’d spent countless hours sparring with one another, he knew my tells. He knew how to beat me. He was a trained fighter and of all the Demon Lord’s, the one most adept in the field of battle. How was I going to defeat someone who taught me the very skills I was using to fight?