Forty, Fabulous and Fae Page 11

  Bile filled my throat, and the fear within me sent me into a nearly catatonic state.

  There was a figure inside my house, dark and hulking, wearing those same dark robes I’d seen in my vision of Muriel’s death. It was standing in our living room, right in front of the mantle, holding a picture frame.

  I bet I knew exactly what picture, too. There was only one on the mantle, a huge one, proudly displayed in a big, silver frame.

  A picture of me, Grams, and Mom at my college graduation. All three of us were teary eyed, and Mom’s and Grams’ faces swelled with pride.

  Then, just like that, the creature threw the frame on the ground. I didn’t have to hear it to know that the glass had just shattered, spewing shards all across my living room floor.

  I glanced back at Hunter, understanding now why he’d pulled me back behind the Mustang.

  He saw the light flash into my eyes, nodded, and slowly let his hand come down. Then, to my surprise, he started to lean forward. For a split second, I actually thought he was going to kiss me, and I hated myself a little for the spark of longing that flared up in my stomach.

  But our lips didn’t meet. Instead, he leaned in until his mouth brushed the outer shell of my ear.

  “I believe you now,” he murmured quietly, making sure the fae wouldn’t be able to hear us.

  When he pulled back, I knew I didn’t have to say a thing. All I did was nod, and let my eyes convey my utter gratitude.

  I don’t know why, but the fact that Hunter believed me suddenly made everything so much better.

  I sucked in a quiet breath and turned back toward the house to track the fae’s movements.

  But the fae was gone. My eyes popped open, and the fear returned.

  “We have to find them,” I told Hunter. “They’re still alive. I know it.”

  I wasn’t completely sure if it was actually knowledge or hope, but I just didn’t feel like they were dead. I was sure I would have known, would have felt some sort of cold stab in my heart, or maybe had a vision to tell me the truth.

  Hunter studied my face for a moment before he nodded.

  “Where would they hide?”

  I thought over his question for a moment. I’d never had to prepare for something like this, never had to wonder where we would go if a mad killer somehow made his way into our house.

  But Mom and Grams were smart. They’d know that the first thing to do would be to try and get out of that house, if they could.

  “The shed in the back,” I told him. I was absolutely certain that’s where they were. Maybe I just knew them really well, or maybe my psychic fae powers were telling me the truth. Either way, I suddenly knew with absolute certainty that they were in the shed in our backyard, the one that housed all of Grams’ gardening tools, and even a few spell books.

  Ones that I used to believe were complete and utter crap. If we made it out of this alive, I swore to myself that I’d ask Grams and Mom to teach me everything they knew about magic.

  Carefully, Hunter and I crawled out from behind the Mustang and crouched down, walking around the edge of the house and through the tiny gate, into the backyard.

  The whole time, I was certain we were going to be attacked at any moment. The fae would leap out at us and slash our throats before we got a chance to move or defend ourselves.

  Thankfully, that didn’t happen. We padded across the moist grass under the dusk of the evening sun and made it to the shed without being attacked by some sort of monstrous, magical creature.

  I didn’t even know what fae were, exactly. For all I knew, the thing inside my house could have looked exactly like a Sith Lord from Star Wars.

  When we got to the thing yellow shed at the very back of our property, I reached out and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

  Of course. Mom and Grams weren’t stupid enough to leave it unlocked, even if it would probably do no good against an evil maniac.

  “Guys, it’s me,” I whispered, as quietly as I possibly could. “It’s Shannon. Open the door.”

  Still, silence.

  “Some fae can change their voices,” Hunter murmured in my ear.

  “Okay, uhhhh…” I whispered, searching for some way to prove to them it was really me. “Remember when I was seven, and I decided to run away from home? I packed up a bag and everything and marched all the way down to Auntie Deedee’s, and told her that she was my new mom? Would the fae know that?”

  Just like I’d hoped, my anecdote did the trick. Quickly, the door swung open, and two pairs of hands twisted up my shirt and then yanked me inside.

  Hunter followed quickly, slipping in just before Mom slammed the door shut. She pressed her palms flat against it, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. The door glowed a soft green for a moment, and then the light faded away.

  Mom stepped back and stared at me with a soft smile on her face.

  “I told you not to come home,” she said quietly.

  “I was never very good with your rules,” I shrugged. “Besides, I brought back up. Meet Hunter.”

  I gestured toward the man with my arms, and Mom and Grams instantly stared at him.

  “Hmmmm, good choice,” Grams nodded. “Better than Kenneth. This one doesn’t seem so high strung.”

  “Grams!” I gasped.

  How was it possible that even in the middle of a life or death situation, my grandmother still managed to embarrass me like nobody else? There should have been some sort of law against that, as far as I was concerned.

  “You’re witches?” Hunter asked carefully. It was then that I noticed he still had the dagger wrapped tightly in his grip.

  Mom and Grams noticed, too. The two of them sidestepped over to me, Mom putting her hand out to protect me like she had when I was a kid, and glared at him.

  “That’s a fae killer,” Mom said accusingly. “Who are you?”

  Hunter glanced down at the dagger, and then back up at me.

  “He was sent here to kill the fae,” I explained. “He’s a…”

  It was then that I realized I wasn’t exactly sure what Hunter’s official title was.

  “A hunter,” he supplied.

  “A hunter named Hunter?’ I snickered.

  “Yes.” He rolled his eyes, and for a moment, everything seemed normal between us.

  And then, there was a loud, hard bang against the door to the shed. All of us nearly jumped out of our skin.

  The killer knew where we were. And he wanted in.

  18

  All four of us backed up, standing as far from the door as possible. But that was all we could do. There was no recourse, no way out, as we stood in that tiny little shed surrounded by gardening shears and shovels, and waited with bated breath as the fae tried to get in, ready to destroy us all.

  Or, well, destroy Hunter and me. I figured he probably still needed to perform his satanic ritual on Mom and Grams if he wanted to complete his spell. Whatever spell that was.

  I grabbed a pair of garden sheers in desperation as a second bang echoed against the door. I knew they’d do no good against a magical creature, but something was better than nothing.

  “Well, you’re the hunter,” Grams snapped at Hunter. “Fight it off.”

  Hunter nodded, and stepped in front of us with his dagger held high. Even just seeing him out himself in the line of danger twisted my heart.

  I didn’t want him to get hurt.

  BANG!

  Another explosion rattled the door to the shed. This one sent dust and spiders tumbling down over us, falling in clouds through the dark space.

  Then, a long, low humming started up on the other end of the door.

  “It’s a woman!” I gasped at the sound. It was too high pitched and far too feminine to ever be a man.

  I don’t know why that surprised me quite so much. I guess all my time spent as a D.A. in the human world had made me quite averse to the idea of female serial killers.

  Then again, this was no regular serial killer.
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br />   “Avare otundum,” the voice was humming, over and over again.

  “What does that mean?” I asked quietly.

  Mom’s eyes were wide with terror, while Grams stood behind her, a stern expression on her face.

  “Get behind me, Shannon,” Mom ordered.

  But before I could do anything else, the humming stopped, and all of a sudden the door exploded off its hinges in a blast of orange light and wood shards.

  And then we were face to face with the demonic fae.

  Only, she didn’t look evil, on first glance. In fact, she looked almost normal. She was tall, maybe five eleven, and thin, with long brown hair that fell past her waist and piercing brown eyes with hints of evil in them. Her figure was obscured by her giant black robes that swathed her entirely, like a wizard from the Middle Ages. Her skin was perfect, ageless, and nearly translucent. It actually seemed to glow a soft, pearly white, almost like a ghost.

  Slowly, the woman appraised the four of us, a smile on her face.

  “Witches,” she intoned, pointing at Mom and Grams. “Good. Two more for my ritual.” Then, her malevolent eyes traveled over to Hunter. She raised a brow and licked her lips in appreciation. “I didn’t know hunters could look like you.”

  Finally, her gaze traveled over to me. Her cold eyes narrowed, and I saw confusion flash in them. She quickly stuffed it away, though, not willing to show any signs of weakness in front of her prey.

  “And you,” she murmured quietly. She pressed her lips into a thin line, trying to figure out just what I was. “You are not a natural being, my dear. What are you?”

  “None of your business,” I snapped.

  A high, cold laugh filled the air, and she raised a brow.

  “Spunky,” she chuckled.

  All of a sudden, I was flying across the floor toward her, just like I had flown toward Hunter in the cabin, completely against my will. I was vaguely aware that Mom screamed, and Hunter cried “No!”

  But mostly, I was focused on this woman. Fae. Person. I didn’t even know what to call her. Honestly, if I’d met her on the street, I might have wanted to be her friend.

  I kept my fear in check as I came face to face with her. We were uncomfortably close, and not just because she was an evil killer.

  Her hand flew up, and there was a crunching sound behind me, followed by Hunter’s pained cry. I whipped my head around and was barely able to see Hunter crumpled on the ground, holding his arm as if it was broken. Mom crouched over him, trying to help.

  But then, a pair of icy cold fingers latched under my chin and forced my head to turn back toward the fae.

  “You are powerful, my child,” she murmured. “What are you doing with these fools? You could be so much more. You are so much more.”

  “Don’t talk about them like that,” I snapped. “You don’t know the first thing about me.”

  I grabbed her hand and shoved it roughly away from me, but that didn’t faze her one bit.

  “Yet,” she responded evenly.

  That single word held so much pride and power in it. But it also held a gross overstatement of how persuasive she thought she was. I didn’t know who this woman was, or why she thought I belonged with her, but I didn’t care.

  Suddenly, there was a firestorm of anger inside of me. It flared up like a sudden earthquake, bringing with it more emotion than I’d ever felt in my life, all at once. The thought of this woman trying to, what, team up with me? Well, whatever it was she thought we were going to do, I was not having it.

  And apparently, neither was my magic.

  All of a sudden, there was a blinding flash of pure white light that surrounded the woman and me. A loud, electric shriek accompanied it, and then, a second later, the two of us were in the middle of the backyard, far away from the shed.

  “Shannon!” Hunter’s cry was strangled by pain, but I couldn’t even spare a glance back at him.

  The woman was on the ground in front of me, but she stood calmly, brushing dirt off her robes, and appraised me with an almost proud expression.

  “How fascinating,” she murmured. “You didn’t even have to say a spell.”

  “Yeah,” I barked. All I was really trying to do, though, was hide the fact that I had no freaking clue how I’d just done… whatever I’d just done. All I knew was that I’d gotten angry, and then the next second we were in the middle of the yard.

  I’d just wanted to get her away from my family.

  “Lumanesca!” The woman yelled, throwing her hand up above her head.

  A bolt of orange light shot out of her hand, webbing out like a spider, and surrounded us in a net of bright, hot light. I could feel the power rolling off of it in waves, and instinctually knew not to get any closer to it. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

  Hunter seemed to know, though. He bolted out from the shed, dagger in hand, and sprinted toward me.

  “Don’t do this to her!” He yelled at the fae.

  But it was no use. He slammed up against the bright orange net and was thrown back, shivering from what I could only guess was electrocution.

  “Don’t hurt him!” I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat in a wail of terror.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not interested in them anymore.” The woman laughed. It was a high, cold sound that shook me to my very core and split my eardrums in two. “No, now I am very much interested in you, darling girl. Who are you? Where did you come from?”

  “I’m not answering any of your questions,” I spat.

  I needed to get out of this. I needed her vulnerable so Hunter could use his special dagger to kill her. My brain didn’t know what to do but somehow, my body did.

  Those intense waves of emotion thundered through me, and a bolt of bright white light shot from my hand. I lifted it instinctually, directing the bolt straight toward the fae murderess. It smacked her square in the chest, but she managed to stand her ground.

  The orange net, however, didn’t fare quite as well. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught it flickering, blinking in and out of existence as the fae regained her balance.

  When she started to stand, though, it began to come back into focus.

  A smile spread across my face. I took a breath, and summoned all of that emotion, willing this bright bolt of energy to return to my body.

  It did.

  Bolts shot out of either one of my hands, smacking the woman in the chest in quick succession. And then they kept coming, one after the other, knocking her backward. And with each stumbling step she took, each stilted breath, the orange net of energy flickered around us and started to dissolve.

  Finally, it was gone completely, and the fae woman was nearly flat out on the ground, breathing heavily and glaring up at me with evil eyes.

  But at that point, I was bone tired. Every bit of adrenaline-fueled energy I’d had before flew from me, leaking out along with the white energy.

  Gasping, I hit my knees, hunched over on the ground as I did everything I could to remain conscious.

  “Shannon!” Mom gasped, running up to me. I saw her coming out of the corner of my eyes, but so did the fae.

  “Fiemortem!” She screeched.

  I didn’t need to know spells to translate what that meant. Her body language alone was enough to tell me what spell she was attempting to cast.

  “No!” I hollered.

  A blue orb of energy zipped from the fae’s outstretched hand, headed straight toward mom’s chest. For a moment, it was as if time froze. Mom’s green eyes were wide, and she was mid-stride, trying to duck the killing spell.

  The fae was on the ground, a wicked smirk on her face. But her eyes weren’t focused on my mom. She was looking straight at me.

  I didn’t think. My body just moved on instinct. All I knew was that if I didn’t act, my mom was about to die.

  So, without another thought, I mustered up the last, tiny bit of my energy, leapt to my feet, and dove right in front of that
blue ball, absorbing all of the energy into my own body before it could hit my mom.

  Just like that, time sped up again. I slammed to the ground, hard. The world exploded around me in bright flashes of blue, white, and orange light. Dirt flew, grass sailed, and people screamed.

  I think I may have been one of them.

  An immense pain overtook my entire body, twisting and burning through the whole of my being, seeming to invade even the nuclei of my atoms as it ripped through me, burning hot and bright. I’d never known pain like that before.

  The world became a blur. Explosions, screams, pain.

  There was nothing else.

  I don’t know how long I held on for, how long I clung desperately to life. I couldn’t move, or do anything at all, really. But I knew I couldn’t die. If I did, there would be no one standing between the people I loved and a murderer.

  But eventually, no matter how hard I tried, that blue ball of dead overtook me.

  The last thing I remember seeing was my Mom’s terrified face as she kneeled next to me, sobbing and murmuring countless spells, trying to save my life.

  I don’t think it worked.

  19

  The next thing I knew, I was on a cloud. At least, that’s what it felt like. My eyes were closed, and I just felt comforted, like I didn’t have a worry or care in the world.

  I couldn’t remember where I was, or exactly what had just happened. But I knew whatever I was laying on was soft and cool, and smelled of lavender, just like my Grams. The scent wrapped me in a blanket of comfort. My entire body was warm, and I felt the strongest sense of calm I’d ever felt in my life.

  I wasn’t fighting an evil fae. I wasn’t begging Hunter to spare my life. I wasn’t jumping in front of a blue ball of death.

  I just existed. And it was so peaceful.

  Slowly, my eyes blinked open, seemingly of their own accord. At first, the world was bright and out of focus. All I could see was bright golden sunlight. It came down on me, heaven-like, and surrounded me in a pool of yellow warmth.

  Slowly, the rest of my world started to come back into focus, and I realized I recognized my surroundings.