Broken (The Immortal Coven Book 1) (10 page)

Non sunt Tenebrae 

They traveled through the fire and spread out in the area we were all sitting. Hundreds of tiny orbs lit up the sky, revealing the amazed expressions on each and every one of their faces.

“Now how are you going to top that?” 
Dmitri’s voice danced in my head.

Looking back at him, I saw something I hadn’t seen before…Pride. Could it be possible he was proud of me?

Mentally, I couldn’t reply. More so because I couldn’t fathom doing something even more spectacular than making light from dirt.

Lisa grasped my wrist and squealed. “That is the coolest thing Ever!”

In that moment, I did have one thought I hadn’t had before. The question of maturity, I knew the grave truth behind all this, but does Lisa?

“I think that is as much as I’m going to try tonight, Lisa.”

The whole group awed at us, surly wanting us to amaze them some more.

“What? That can’t be it. We just started.” She complained.

“Yes, and I’m not in the mood to test limits all at once, if you know what I mean.”

Immediately, I realized it wasn’t the response she wanted to hear. Her demeanor changed and she mirrored the reaction of how a toddler would behave being told it was time to go home from their favorite amusement park. Minus the temper tantrum, that is.

“No, that’s not how it works. We all try something. You can sit but everyone else is going to try something too. Then we try again.”

“Fine,” I replied, turning to go sit back down next to Carla.

Sitting back down, I noticed Kyle had sat next to Dmitri who was focused on Lisa. His glare outmatched that of Dmitri’s earlier and their similarities raised a flag in an inner most curious manner.

“Is Kyle like you?”  
I asked Dmitri.

He looked over to me, smiled but didn’t answer the question.

“I don’t get it. You want us to communicate but yet you won’t answer my questions.”
I added, annoyed.

“Some things you ask are irrelevant. If Kyle is like me bears no importance to your relationship with me. You wouldn’t need to know it.”

I couldn’t help react to his use of term, relationship.

“We don’t have a relationship, Dmitri.” 
I mentally sassed him
.

“Oh but you see, we do, and we always will. So get use to it!”

“Hey, are you okay?” Carla asked, interrupting my secret conversation with Dmitri.

Looking back out past the fire, I realized Lisa had continued on without me. She had pulled up Cassidy to try a wind spell to put out the fire but it wasn’t working just right. It was only making it flicker like it wanted to go out but the magic wasn’t strong enough to keep the flame out.

“I’m fine.” I replied, paying close attention to Lisa’s demeanor. Something about her seemed familiar as well. The methods she used, her stance, and even the aura she was pulling from as she said the incantation reminded me of my mother.

Could it be that Lisa was part of My immortal coven?

“I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to sit out the rest of the night. No one has ever been able to do anything like the orbs before. This, the flickers, is mostly what happens when we get together.” She explained. “They seem to want to work but never quite do what they are supposed to do.”

“Has everyone read the book she is reading from?” I asked.

“Sure, Lisa let all of us take a jab at it when she found it.”

“Where did she find it?”

“Her grandmother had it hidden in a box at her house. When she died, Lisa came across it by accident. She says her mother has asked her about it about a dozen times but she hasn’t admitted to having it. She tells everyone she found it in a garage sale, but that’s not true.”

“Is her mother into all this kind of stuff too?”

“We don’t really know. Lisa’s mom isn’t around much and we don’t tend to talk about it because it makes her feel bad. Not that she would ever admit to it, but we can see it in how she acts.”

If Lisa’s mother is a part of the Immortal Coven, eventually I will know about it. When the summoning occurs, I will meet all the members. It bothers me, though, to think that Lisa’s mother could be a member and she would treat her daughter in such a manner.

Lisa and Cassidy laughed at the end of their chanting. Their amusement filled the field, seemingly bouncing off the trees. The rest of us, clapped at their attempt.

Just then, the fire flickered, crackled, and popped in a horrifying way, startling everyone.

Dmitri and Kyle, almost in unison, jumped to their feet. Justin, Jason, and Pete all followed their reaction.

My eyes darted to Lisa and hers to mine.

“We need light!” Kyle shouted out. The order clear as to who was going to make that happen.

Lisa and I both bent down to take the dirt.

“Wait…” I barked. “Anabel, do this with us!”

She didn’t ask, she bent down as quickly as we had and took the dirt in her hand.

We looked at each other a brief moment before blowing towards the fire, and made sure it was done together.

The spell took on a life of its own with 3 witches as opposed to 2.

The dirt blew out over the fire as orbs but floated out far out and high, eventually exploding into a thousand tiny still lights making the field just beyond us illuminate a terrifying sight.

Cassidy and Trisha cried out in terror.

Lisa, Anabel, and I turned to each other in stone shock.

The field, now brightly light, revealed a monstrous presence.

“I’ve seen this…” Lisa whispered.

“Me too…” I added.

“What do you mean you only looked at a couple pages?”

“I have my own book, Lisa.” I admitted, walking over to where her book now laid on the ground. Picking it up, I felt her glare become great.

As I flipped the pages, I could hear everyone scattering back to their vehicles.

“I found it.” I said, as I came across the same image of the shadowy beast with glowing amber eyes that I had seen in my own book.

Lisa walked over and read the incantation that was scribbled below the dark likeness. “It’s not going to kill it.” She realized.

“No, but it will force it back into its realm.” I countered.

“Do you know it, the words?” she asked me.

“Yes”  I felt I knew the words before I had read them.

She took my hand and we walked to Kyle and Dmitri who stood, in a protective stance staring at the beast in the distance.

My eyes meet Dmitri’s,   “
Don’t leave me.”

“I will never leave you.”

Hand in hand, Lisa and I walked towards the field, staring at the glowing eyes out in the distance.

The incantation was a series of words, that together meant nothing, but separate would lock the beast in its realm.

“Tenebris….lucem…non hic tibi”

Over and over we recited,
Darkness, in the light, we will not have you here.

As we reached the towering demon, he’d become but a translucent presence.

His features were disturbed. He looked vaguely human, his skin, ebony in color was lined with etchings of something I couldn’t quite make out. His eyes glowed an orange red but seemed terrifyingly familiar, like I’d seen him before, in a dream perhaps.

It seemed too easy to make him disappear. Dmitri and Kyle walked ahead of us and waited protectively for the beast to disappear back to its own realm.

The moment the two in front of us turned to assess our current state, I felt the strength in my knees give way. I fell on my butt and began to tremble.

Lisa had it worse, she fainted. Lucky for her, Kyle was quicker than she was.

Dmitri was at my side, kneeling next to me.

“Are you okay?”

And though my response was, “Yeah, I’m peachy,”  I could feel the small break in my resolve.

I made eye contact with Kyle, “Is she okay?” I asked, worried for my new friend.

“It was too much for her. She isn’t like you. Her mother still holds the brunt of the power.”

“You are like him then, aren’t you?” Annoyed that Dmitri hadn’t just admitted the truth when I asked.

“Yes, but Lisa’s mother is not like you. She hasn’t given in, refuses to accept what is.”

“So you protect Lisa and not her mother?” my confusion took him by surprise.

Dmitri interrupted, “Our main purpose is to protect the coven. While Lisa is still not in her place, she is the future of her heritage.”

“That’s why you chose me.” I asked quietly.

“I chose you because I had to. In that split moment, my whole existence was tested. I cared for your mother, and knew what was most important to her…You. Had I chosen her, she never would have recovered, and the coven would have been lost regardless of her inability to have another child.”

Lisa began to stir just as Justin ran over to us, realizing that Lisa had passed out.

“Nice of you to show up,” Kyle scolded.

“What the Hell man, I just realized the four of you were out here.” He argued back, bringing a now bright eyed Lisa to her feet.

Dmitri evaluated my abilities, “Can you get up by yourself?”

“I think I’m fine.” I assured him.

He stood up and reached out his hand for me to take it.

The orbs had begun to dim, the field becoming dark once more. A cold breeze in the air sent a chill up my spine. The fear I had coming to this place returned. My hand found Dmitri’s and he pulled me up, and our eyes meet each other. The warmth of his body felt like an open invitation.

Seeing my reaction, he pulled me close to him. His arms wrapped around mine and I felt safe. The fear disappeared like a phantom in the night.

“Are we always going to be fighting a shadow?”

“I hope not.”

Dmitri took me home at that point. Seeing as how Lisa was pretty much spent, and the party was over.

The short car ride was silent. Neither of us said a word about the evening’s events. Occasionally, I would glance at him as he switched gears but the shift in the car’s movement jolted my inner nerve.

Pulling into Aunt Olivia’s driveway was the unnerving part. I had been picked up in Lisa’s Jeep and was being returned in Dmitri’s Charger.

I could see her shadow just behind the curtain in the living room as he turned off the ignition.

“I think we should talk.” He began.

“How did Lisa and I know exactly what to do at that precise moment? We were so in sync it was incredible.”

“Your connection to each other makes you prone to make similar choices. It’s in your magical make up.” He sighed, “Tonight was not a random event. The Domskabi, that’s who they are, feed off the energy of the coven. The coven was created to annihilate them many centuries ago.”