Possessed (8 page)

17
Clarisse

Walking down these tunnels is making me have a weird sense of
déjà
vu.  No, I haven’t been down here before... but it's just so similar to a dream I kept having over and over again as a child. The only difference is that this time it’s not a dream- it’s real and I’m actually living it! I know there is danger around the next corner but I just can’t bring myself to tell Rebecca that I know what’s going to happen. I’ve seen this before: Sebastian dies and Rebecca loses herself in grief and doesn’t want to move on. Of course, as a child I didn’t know that we came here looking for Alana.  That's it. I have to tell them. I stop and Sean motions for everyone else to stop as well.

How do I tell them that I’ve seen this? They all know I don’t have the power of premonitions. Will they think I’m crazy? After fighting with myself over and over I decide that I better tell them before we lose someone. “I know this is going to sound crazy but I’ve seen this play out before- several times, actually. I had visions of this as a child. I never knew who Rebecca was before, though, because her face was always blocked by something. The important thing is that once we round that corner... Sebastian dies! And Rebecca stops looking for Alana in order to stay with Sebastian’s dead body!" I go on to explain how I never knew what we were down here for and that I didn’t realize the dream took place down here until I walked through the first set of tunnels. I also explain how Rebecca's face only started to appear in my dream
after
I met her in real life.

“I’ve seen this play out more times than I care to count, but I can’t watch it play out for real. Once we round that corner there will be a guard Demon with one eye and a horn directly above it. He kills Sebastian immediately before we have time to react,” I say flatly. I don’t want to be living this dream... I’m worried and I don’t know how to change it, but since they know now we can probably stop it.

“I’ll levitate… shit, we can’t use our powers!” Rebecca says, sounding defeated. “Oh yeah! I have a potion to duplicate my levitation power. I’ll use it to levitate above the Demon, and then I'll toss a potion at him which should distract him long enough for you to come in, weapons at the ready,” she finishes, sounding happy that she thought about duplicating her powers like Alana had shown her to do.

“I’ll levitate with you,” I tell her. I show her that I brought the same potion. She answers me with a smile of approval and I can’t help but gleam.

“Okay then, we both levitate and distract him while the rest of you attack,” Rebecca says. They nod and we both drink the unappetizing potions... and suddenly we are able to levitate.

I look at her, relieved that we both thought of the same things. If it wasn’t for Alana I don’t know what would have happened. I wave my arms around (like I’m swimming in the air) to go towards the corner and I see Rebecca following my lead. I come to the corner and stop briefly to get my bearings. I’m worried that Sebastian will still die... I can’t handle watching this play out for real. Rebecca looks at me expectantly and I nod my head to indicate I’m ready and I levitate higher. I know how big this Demon is and I want to be well above him, not eye level with him.  Rebecca does the same and I feel a moment of satisfaction at her following me and trusting in me, instead of trying to do things her way. It means more than she could know and it shows me that she truly is the right one to lead us; it takes a lot to let us do things our way once in a while, even though we could screw it up.

I’m distracted by thoughts as we approach the Demon. He smells us and goes on alert, looking for us, before Rebecca drops a potion on his head. It breaks open and freezes the Demon which gives everyone else enough time  to come around the corner and send a dagger through the Demon's heart.

Slowly, I descend back down to the ground. As soon as I reach the ground the Demon suddenly explodes! A siren sounds through the tunnel we're in and panic flares through me. Rebecca has a look of concentration on her face and I assume she is checking in on the other group. She turns her focus back to us as soon as she finds out that they are okay.

“Run, straight!” I yell. But when we get to the end of the hall we come to a dead end. It is a true dead end- there is no door, no tunnel headed down another direction- just a dirt wall.

“Now what?”
Sean and Justin ask as Rebecca pulls up the rear. She wastes no time turning into a Wolf and running straight at the wall. I’m about to yell at her to stop when Justin does the same thing! Naturally, I’m surprised even more that Sebastian runs straight for the wall, too. Somehow, they all knew the wall for what it was: by the time Sebastian joins in the wall caves in to reveal a room. Actually... no, it's not a room- it's a cell. And we just landed right in it.

18
Alana

I hear a big bang and a bunch of Demon guards running to surround my cell. I don’t understand why they think they need to protect me. Clearly, I'm stuck in here until Jeffrey is through with me... and even then I don’t think I’m getting out of here alive.

Admittedly, I do feel much better than I had when I first woke up because I’m able to move around a little more. I’m pacing around this small space when I realize why they are guarding me: Rebecca and the others are here! That has got to be the only thing that would make Jeffrey send in three big Demons to guard my little cell. The thought of them being here fills me with the hope that I’m going to make it out of here alive.

I hear another bang; this time it sounds like an explosion. Well, there goes my theory of them saving me. Damn! If there really was an explosion then that means the Demons won- we have no powers down here.

I stop pacing when I hear muffled voices; and then in comes Jeffrey looking disoriented and pissed off. “You’re going to fucking pay for telling them that you are down here,” he says to me as he walks to my cell door and opens it. He cuffs me but I don’t fight. They’re here! They’re going to save me. I can handle a little beat down from this jerk in the meantime.

But of course I play dumb for now and ask “What do you mean? I haven’t seen or heard from any of them. Plus-
I'm  trapped in a cell! Who is here? You've got me wondering,” I lie. It's a tricky lie, too- I'm trying to get him to tell me exactly who came and what they brought. If they didn't pack the right equipment then this could easily be a suicide mission.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Witch- I know you Wolves can communicate with each other without having to be in the same room. But if you must know, I did see the boy that Arianna kept in her basement.” Wyatt is here! I hope that means that Rebecca and Sebastian are here, too.

“I wasn’t able to communicate with them. I was trying but you knocked me out before I could do anything,” I hiss back, barely able to hold back my Wolf- I'm so close to him- I just  want to take him out- right here, right now!

He laughs. Damn! He knows I'm lying. Well, I don’t want to be honest with him
,  even if it means saving my life. I’d rather die than tell him anything useful.

He starts to pull me along the hall outside the cell and I have no choice except to follow or eat dirt. The latter would only make me
more filthy and more pissed- I can't afford to lose my concentration because of simple rage at this point. If I die now then the others will have come down here for nothing.

He takes me to another room that looks like a cave, but this time it is not a cell. It is just an empty room with a dirt floor and dirt walls. He lets me go and un-cuffs me, letting me wander the empty room free from bars and cuffs. But I don’t feel free. I still feel like I’m locked up and I don’t like it- and neither
does my Wolf.

“Don’t try and get out of here. Just because you don’t see any doors, bars, or traps surrounding this room doesn't mean that they don't
exist., There are only two ways out: I let you out, or you die. You see, since I know your little friends are here I stuck you in here on purpose. This is a very special room. If they do somehow manage to get in here then they will be stuck,  too... and if I have them all trapped in here there will be no way that I won’t get what I want from any and all of you,” he says in such a menacing voice that I actually have to hold back a shiver; it threatens to betray the impact that his words have on me.

“So, when do I do this stupid spell? I want to go home.... or kill you where you stand- but that isn't really an option right now,” I hiss and my eyes glow bright yellow. He notices my eyes and he takes yet one
more slight step back from me- but this time it is not a trick. I hold back the urge to chase him like the bait he will be and turn to walk away.

“Soon,” is all he says; and then he vanishes again.

Man, all I want to do is snuggle with my mate and my precious daughter. I could also use a big cup of coffee. I’m feeling so drained that I wish I could just conjure up the best cup of coffee right now. Thinking of conjuring things makes me think of Rebecca and I envy all the powers she has and her power to conjure. I hope they find me and hope they don’t fall for this trick of me being in an open empty room. I wonder if this feeling of being absolutely depleted is one of the tricks of the room. Does it prevent me from communicating with Rebecca? I try to send her a quick message but before I can see if it works sleep overtakes me.

19
Rebecca

I hear Alana in my head but the message is jumbled and confusing. All I get is "
room
", "
trick
", and "
be careful
". I try to respond to her but she is currently knocked out. I hate that Jeffrey is keeping her hidden like this.

We manage to get out of the cell that we stumbled into by drinking a potion that makes us invisible, courtesy of Clarisse. She brought quite a few of these potions and she still has several left. Of course, once we manage to find our way out of it we get into more trouble: Demons. They are lurking around the next corner of the tunnel but we are able to blow a few up with some potions from Sebastian and Sean. Considering the amount of Demons in this tunnel I have a feeling that Alana is being kept around here.

We round another corner and we run smack into Wyatt and the others. Before I can even think about who they are I prepare to throw a potion at them, but then I sense Justin, Eva and Jorge. My Wolf picks up on them before I did. Thank God for that because I could not handle harming another member of our Covenant.

Wyatt’s eyes light up at seeing me. I'm really happy to see him, too (even though I knew he is fine; the others didn’t send out any warnings to me). “I guess this goes in a big circle,” he says to me and I can’t hold in a giggle. He always somehow has a way of saying what I'm thinking. I know we are siblings but we didn't grow up around each other, so it still strikes me as odd that we know each other so well.

“How is it that you know exactly what I’m going to say all the time?” I ask him, smiling.

He just shrugs his shoulders and points forward. “I guess we have to go there, huh?” he says, not liking the way the dark tunnel looks. By now the Demons
must
know that we're here, and they are probably going to be ready for us.

I nod and look to everyone else. They look just as freaked out as I feel. I don’t want to show that I’m worried about what lies beyond the dark tunnel but I need to show them that I’m here for them and I will help protect them if they need me. “I know we're all worried about what’s beyond that tunnel, but remember: Alana is down there and we don’t know how much longer she can hold out against giving them what they want; they could always take the easy way out and possess her and they can take everything they want from her that way. We need to be there for her. I have potions for Jeffrey and his goons if we need them. So stop worrying about what’s ahead and focus on Alana,” I finish, producing potions to duplicate my powers. I give one to each and every one of them except Sebastian (since he’s a Vampire).

“This is the potion to duplicate my fire power. I want you all to take one and use it as needed. Clarisse still has a few more potions to make us invisible and the ones we took a few minutes ago are still good enough for me to go in and out of invisibility,” I demonstrate, disappearing before their eyes.

“Okay. I guess I will try to throw fire but what if I miss and hit one of you?” Yashira asks.

“You won’t need to use it, I got you covered,” Wyatt says to her and she smiles at him and continues to ponder the use of fireballs.

“Here are the potions to make you invisible. You can take them now, but you will go immediately invisible if you do. The invisibility will last about five minutes and then you can go in and out as much as you need to for up to an hour. We have about thirty to forty-five more minutes on ours,” Clarisse says, motioning to our little group that needed to use them already. “It’s the same thing for all of them, so this fireball one is only good for an hour, and I know there is trouble lurking beyond our vision in that tunnel.” She looks deep into the tunnel as if she can see what’s down there.

That makes me wonder about the
déjà
vu that she had earlier in the tunnel that saved our lives. I wonder if it’s a different kind of premonition- one that will guide us on more than this mission. But that is to discuss with her, Alana, and I- alone. No one else needs to know about this until we know what we are dealing with.

“Okay, let’s take the invisibility potion now and half of us take the fire one now; the other half will take them a little later. That way we hopefully won't be caught off-guard without any powers.”

They nod and I see Yashira give Wyatt her potion while he takes his own. She must not want to try it because she trusts him enough with her life and safety to give it up to him. Justin, Eva, Jorge, and Sean take theirs; the rest of us save them. But if I see a need for it I’ll take my ice one. I only brought three of those, one for me and one for Sebastian- the third I dropped on a Demon's head earlier.

“Okay, I'm invisible now,” Clarisse says. Everyone else either takes theirs as well or just turns the invisibility on. We start walking down the tunnel and I immediately regret not taking my fireball potion. It is really dark in here... pitch-black dark. Even with my Wolf sight it is hard to see. I would have used the fire to light the way even though I shouldn’t because it would give away our location. We follow along the wall so we know when it turns- nobody needs to smack into a wall at this point.

I think I see a glimpse of a light up ahead but it vanishes before I can confirm it. I am getting worried now; I feel very on edge as we get closer to where I saw the light flicker. I notice that Yashira isn’t invisible anymore and I look over to find that her whole group isn’t holding their invisibility. I stop and feel the others stop, too. When I look around I notice that I, too, am not holding my invisibility. “That light...” I say. I look at the others and they all seemed to understand; they saw the light, too.

“Uh, guys...” Clarisse says, panic coming through her voice. “We have company- and if this is like my dream we have no powers, not even with the potions!” she finishes, backing up into me.

Sebastian, Justin, Eva, Jorge, and I stand in front of all of them. I transform enough so that I won't lose my clothes but enough to show that I’m not just a Witch. The others do the same- except Sebastian. I guess that he doesn't want me to get into fight with no powers to help me.

To my surprise, Alana walks up to us! My first instinct is to run to her and hug her, but Sebastian catches my thoughts and stops me before I can even move a muscle. “It’s an illusion! You see what you
want
to see, not what is really there, until you force yourself to realize the illusion for what it is! Do you understand what I’m saying?” he asks me. I nod but Alana is still there and I can’t shake the feeling that she needs me.

“It’s not her! Let your Wolf take over- She will see this Demon for what it is; it will shake the illusion that is in place.” I notice that the Wolves are stopping the rest of the group from running to her, too, and to my surprise Wyatt is helping as well. He grew up around all of this Demon shit- he can probably recognize it instantly.

I close my eyes and concentrate. I let my Wolf take over. She surfaces to the top- just enough for me to keep control of my human shape. When I open my eyes I see the Demon that I thought was Alana. This is no ordinary Demon, though: it looks like a human with bright green eyes, but luckily the eyes are the only thing that gives away the fact that he is, in fact, a Demon. The green in his eyes coats over the white so there is nothing but green looking at me. It sends a chill down my spine.

He takes a step closer and out of instinct I take a step closer, too. You aren't going to make me back down, freaky-looking human-Demon! I wish that Jacob was with us. He is the only one of us that has even a little Demon blood in him and I know he would have liked to prove himself to us by taking on this guy.

I start to take another step but Clarisse stops me. I can’t stop myself from giving her a death look, and I have to actually work hard to stop myself from attacking her. She backs up a few steps. My eyes must be bright yellow, my power is flowing through me with so much energy... but Clarisse is not the enemy. I must remember that.

I rein in the power enough to get a clear head so I can hear what she has to say. “I’m sorry. What is it?” I say in a calm tone that doesn't sound anything like I feel.

She regains her composure and whispers to me “He is from my dream. He is half-Demon, like Arianna, but he is more lethal than she ever was.” I've never heard her sound more frightened.

“What are his powers?” I ask her, wondering what potion I could take to help defeat him.

“The power of illusion is the only one I’ve ever seen. We all die in my dream before I can see anything else.”

I look at her, shocked that she has seen not
one
scenario but
two
from this journey alone; it helped save us the first time, why won’t it help save us this time? I take my ice potion and feel the power surge through me. I wave my hand- just the slightest motion- and send a small but lethal ball of ice at him... but it misses! Where did he go? Then I felt the answer: he has something sharp in my back in one hand and his other arm is wrapped tightly around my neck. I can’t move without getting my neck broken. I am stuck and my friends are all collapsed on the floor. We’re dead and there is nothing to help us now.