Caged in Darkness (12 page)

That confused me. “Wait, I thought you
needed something that represented a specific person in order to
communicate with the dead?”

Willow smiled. “The blood of someone is the
most significant representation of that person. Since he was their
descendent, their blood was also
his
blood.”

That was interesting. The possibilities of
communicating with the first witches from your line would be
amazing, but I had a feeling it would take a lifetime to
communicate with
all
your ancestors.

An hour later, I was examining clothing from
the passageway when Willow jumped to her feet. At first I thought
that a spider must have crawled near her, but then I saw the way
she was looking at the journal.

“Oh my God!” She looked at me and back at
the book. “Did you know how the royal lineages were created?” I
shook my head. “It says here that the first witches were Nephilim.
Apparently, most of the Nephilim were whipped out of existence.
However, the few who managed to refrain from destructive actions
were spared. The Cross family was unique, because not only are they
the descendants of Nephilim, but they also have the blood of demons
running through their veins.”

Willow sat on an unopened box, while I
waited to hear the rest. I was descended from Nephilim? Why would a
Nephilim allow their blood to mix with a demon?

“It says that
they were born to angel and
man, but destined to precede the fallen unto earth. They would feed
from the darkness to be born again in the light.
It then says
something about how the royal lineages took part in a ritual and
fed on the blood of demons.”

Willow snapped the book shut and stared at
me. “You know that doesn’t mean anything bad, right? I mean, even
if you have some demon blood in you, it doesn’t make you evil.”

“I know.” Shaking my head, I went back to
the box I had been searching through. I moved aside a silk shawl to
discover the box we had been searching for. I picked it up and
showed it to Willow.

Willow examined the box and had me repeat my
experience in the passageway. Her brow was crinkled, which happened
when she was deep in thought. She picked through some of the books
we brought with us to the attic and started flipping through them.
I knew this was a sign that I was dead to her until she found what
she was looking for.

Now that I found the bloodstone box, I
didn’t have a target to look for. I pulled the box Willow had been
going through and started sorting through the journals. Some of the
bindings were falling to pieces, but others were perfectly
preserved. I came to find that while they all looked like journals;
some of them were filled with spells, rituals, and research.

I didn’t spend much time looking at any
specific journal, but started organizing them into piles based on
their contents. At the bottom of the box, I found the newest
collection. There was a journal by a man who would have been my
third cousin, a great aunt, my grandmother, and my grandfather. I
placed those journals in a special pile. I never considered what my
other relatives would have been like, but now I was curious.
Descendants of angels and demons; I wondered if any of them
knew.

Lastly, a single journal remained in the
box. It was more modern and in great condition. I opened it to see
that the handwriting was a delicate script, which must have been a
woman’s. I quickly flipped through the pages and saw that the
further I got in the journal, the worse the writing became.
Curious, I went back to the first page and was dumbstruck, when I
saw the name “Irena Cross” in large letters.

I was holding my mother's journal, which was
a strange concept. I remembered my mother when she still had spurts
of kindness and wondered what she had been like before she became a
monster.

“Do you know what bloodstone is used
for?”

Grasping the journal in my hands, I moved
closer to Willow.

“I know a little. It’s used to increase the
power of a spell. Doesn’t it also have something to do with
protection?”

“Yeah, bloodstone is supposed to provide
protection against demons and it also gives the user power over
demons. It is also used to banish evil.”

“Quartz is used for protection and
containment, right?” I had heard the word
demon
too many
times lately. I was starting to feel ill at the implications that
this box had.

“S, I think this box was made to contain a
demon and to protect others from it. It makes sense considering
what you saw in that passage and last night…”

I held my hand up to stop her. I was
beginning to feel caged in. If that box was meant to protect
everyone from a demon and I unleashed it, that meant I was
responsible for anyone it harmed. Oh God, what if it hurt someone I
care about?

“The only thing I can’t figure out is why it
is interested in you. I mean, it makes sense that you would see it
in the passage, but why would it follow you here?” Willow walked to
me and spun me around to face her.

“I don’t know! Okay? If I knew I would tell
you, but I don’t.” My head was beginning to spin and I couldn’t get
enough oxygen. Willow noticed immediately and led me downstairs and
back into my bedroom. I sat on the bed with my mother’s journal
still clenched in my fist.

“Maybe we should ask Maye about this?”
Willow asked shyly.

“No!” I started to panic again. “I don’t
want to worry her. She’ll probably just say it was a hallucination
or whatever. This is something I need to figure out on my own.
Besides, we don’t even know if this demon is going to come
back….”

LIAM

“How did it go?”

I turned to find Kali sitting on the couch
in my living room. She wasn’t dressed to tempt, but only a saint
wouldn’t want to devour her. Her flaming red hair hung to her
shoulders and her bright green eyes held power and wisdom. She had
a knowing look, as if she were mocking me, which she likely
was.

“I’m assuming you’re asking about my
mothers’ scheme? It went fine.”

“Oh, really? What’s with the shiner then?”
She walked to me and gently pushed the puffiness around my eye.

“That is a present from her foster brother.
I think he likes me.” I smiled, and wrapped my arm around her waist
to pull her in closer, but she spun out of reach.

“I don’t think so.” She smiled coyly. “I
just came to see if you need some advice, since the Cross girl is a
different sort of breed than you’re used to.”

“I don’t need advice when it comes to
females.” I crooked my smile at her. “You should know that.”

“Ha! You don’t have issues when it comes to
women with no morals or in my case, women who don’t have time to
search for someone better.” She crossed her arms and looked at me
lazily.

“I was just teasing. I don’t think of you in
the same group as all those other women. You know that.” I moved
closer and tipped her chin up to look her in the eyes. “We’re
friends. You know that, right?” Her expression changed to a
fleeting look I had never seen before and then switched back to her
usual self.

“That isn’t the point. I just wanted to make
sure you know to take it slowly with the girl. She has been
surrounded by darkness her entire life, but she still has some
innocence.”

“You’re worried that I might corrupt her?
Why do you even care?” This was a side of Kali I had never seen.
She didn’t normally concern herself with others and was even less
likely to, when she didn’t know the person.

She made an exasperated noise and shoved my
chest hard enough to slam me into the opposing wall. “I do care
about other people you know. Is it that difficult to believe I
might have a heart?” When I stay silent with a dumbfounded
expression, she continued. “Just because I was created instead of
born, does not mean I don’t have feelings! What I do is a job; it
doesn’t mean I enjoy it! Besides, I do know the Cross girl. Her
parents were one of my
assignments.
”

“Her parents were an assignment? You mean
the Hellhounds went on a
wild hunt
to catch them? I thought
the coven killed them.”

Kali shook her head. “In their case, we went
on the hunt to
consume
them. They were powerful witches and
had a spell in place. Their bodies died, but their spirits
continued to avoid death. My sisters and I hunted them down and
consumed their souls. It was one of the few assignments I enjoyed.”
She smiled, and let loose a deafening howl. The furniture began to
seizure as the wall behind Kali, appeared to crack down the center.
The crack spread and the wall began to ripple. A riptide tore
through the wall and swirled in a clockwise pattern. The hypnotic
nature of the vortex picked up momentum, until a black hole emerged
in the center. “Catch you later.” Kali smiled back at me, and
disappeared into the portal. There was a loud pop and the portal
imploded on itself and disappeared.

I watched as her back disappeared into the
portal. She must have been really bothered by our conversation,
because she normally refrained from opening a portal unless it was
at place of divine power. It took more energy to create a portal
anywhere else.

I thought back to the implications of our
conversation. It sounded as if she cared for Savannah, which was
strange for a Hellhound. When one of the sisters was given an
assignment it was serious business, but the sisters only went on a
wild hunt for the worst cases. As one of the few mortals who knew a
hellhound on a personal level, I knew what they went through.

To track down prey, the sister had to know
the scent of their victim. However, a hellhound did not smell the
scent of perfume or skin. They smelled the soul of their prey. To
do that, the hellhound would need to immerse themselves in the
memories of their prey.

When the pack went on a wild hunt, they had
to immerse themselves in the entire being of that person. It is
somewhat like bathing in their soul. The hellhounds would relive
every action their prey took, they would feel the pain the victims
felt, and the scars left behind. Kali would have taken the place of
each sacrifice, she would have been immersed in the soul that
offered those sacrifices, and would have endured every scar the
Cross family inflicted on Savannah. I did not envy her.

8: angels and Demons

SAVANNAH

It was Sunday evening and rather than
finishing my homework, I was intoxicated by my mothers’ journal. It
was interesting to see how her writing changed as she became older.
Before her ascension, she had been a normal witchling. After her
ascension, she became addicted to her power.

It was strange to read about my birth and
the years after. She was a completely different woman from the one
I knew. She almost seemed loving, when she wrote about my birth and
the first time I walked.

It was late and I could barely keep my eyes
open. The words kept blurring together. I was beginning to fall
asleep with the journal propped on my pillow, when my eyes caught
sight of the word
demon.
As I read, I learned that my
parents had researched the journals from our lineage and read about
us being descended from Nephilim. They focused on how our line way
unique after drinking the blood of a demon. It didn’t take long for
them to develop a theory about how Demonic blood mixed with Angel
blood was a key ingredient to gaining power.

Once they discovered the common denominator,
they began researching how to capture and angel and a demon. It
didn’t take long for them to realize that it was a foolish plan and
was likely to get them killed. Instead, they decided to capture a
fallen angel.
Demons and fallen angels were alike and yet
vastly different. Demons were truly evil creatures. However, fallen
angels had once been ordinary angels, who had fallen from heaven
and now possessed demonic power.

I had processed more than enough information
for a single day. I wisely decided to push the journal away and
felt into a comatose-like sleep. I dreamed that I was running
through a forest, while being pursued by the demon. Its eyes were
bright yellow and they floated towards me on the waves of
darkness.

The next morning, Willow and I filled Izzy
in on everything she missed the previous day. She looked worse than
I felt. Her eyes were bruised and puffy and her skin had a grayish
sheen to it. She claimed it was a simple cold, but I became more
concerned when I saw her that afternoon walking through the halls
like the living dead.

After school, the three of us went to my
house and I showed them my journal. Willow scrutinized the sections
I told her about, while Izzy slumped against the pillows on my bed
and nodded absently at everything we said.

“Your parents were even crazier than I
thought! They wanted to summon a fallen angel?” Willow leaned
towards my sitting place at the edge of the bed. “Did they ever try
it?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t read that
far yet and no you are not going to read it before me.” She gave me
the puppy dog look, as if it would implore me to hand over my
mother journal. “I’m guessing that they did. Otherwise, why would
the fallen angel have been in the box? It had to get in there
somehow. My guess is that my parents put it there.” I shrugged.

“Don’t you want to know why the thing is
stalking you?” Izzy’s normally bubbly voice was now a raspy
whisper. “What your parents did or didn’t do doesn’t really matter.
It’s in the past. What matters is why this demon thing showed up in
your bedroom. What does it want from you?”

“Any great ideas on how to find out what it
wants?” Willow and Izzy exchanged awkward looks. “That’s what I
thought. The only clue I have is this stupid journal. Whatever it
wants is most likely related to my parents’ scheme.”