Tethered 01 - Catalyst (26 page)

I must have fallen asleep, because what felt like moments later, I woke to the sound of my cell phone ringing from in the kitchen. Jumping off the couch, I raced to answer it, unbelieving I had zonked out on the couch so quickly. Kace’s name and number lit up my phone’s screen.

“Hello?” I answered, and then shifted to glance at the clock by the back door—it was almost eight already!

“Hey, sexy. I just wanted to see how you were doing,” he said. “I’ve got about another hour here and then I’m gonna head home to change before I come keep you company all night long, again.”

I smiled at his words. “Sounds good.”

“See you in a bit then.”

“See ya.” I hung up and glanced back at the clock. I couldn’t believe I’d slept for nearly four hours on the couch. My stomach grumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten, and I headed to the fridge.

Opening the freezer, I pulled out my chicken pot pie and began to read the back before placing it in the microwave. After cutting up a salad—which consisted solely of lettuce and a cucumber, because that was all I had—and heating up the chicken pot pie, I went to the living room to put in a movie and eat on the couch. Deciding on a romantic comedy I’d seen a million times, but still loved, I got settled and began my countdown until Kace arrived. I had no idea what we would actually get into tonight, but I knew one thing that was always on the table with him and I shivered from the anticipation of it.

Halfway into the movie, I thought I heard the same scratching, click-clacking of long toenails against hardwood flooring from this morning. I muted the TV and gazed slowly around the room, searching for Binks. He was lying on the sideboard table behind the couch, curled into a little ball, sleeping. I glanced at my phone. It had been almost an hour since Kace called me, which meant he was just getting off work and the noise couldn’t be him messing with me.

It sounded again, this time making me jump as it echoed through the silent house. I sat my food on the coffee table and stood, wondering what I should do. Should I walk around the house trying to pinpoint where the noise was coming from? Or should I hide until Kace came and pray that, if it was the creature, it didn’t find me?

At the sound of another cluster of clip-clapping—as if whatever it was had scurried from one place to another and then paused—I bolted from the living room and toward the foyer, deciding getting out of the house was the best option. Something hit me hard from behind, knocking me to the floor before I even made it two steps into the foyer. All the breath from my lungs left me in a loud whooshing noise, and I struggled to catch another gulp of air as the reality that something heavy was now on my back sunk in.

On instinct, I pushed myself up from the floor and attempted to buck off whatever it was on me. I didn’t have much luck. Instead, I succeeded in flipping myself over, bringing me face-to-face with my attacker.

It was the red creature made of nothing besides muscles—no skin, just red muscles—and it sat firmly on my chest now.

I screamed and began thrashing around in an effort to get the creature off me. Pushing it away with my hands, I grimaced at the way it felt—slimy and sticky at the same time. Its lips twisted into a wicked smile almost as though it enjoyed my torment and palpable fear a little too much. Its solid black, beady eyes bored into me as it wrapped its slick, taloned hands around my neck. My mouth opened and closed as I struggled to catch the tiniest breath of air. My hands punched and clawed at the creature’s arms and its fingers, which had tightly wrapped themselves around my throat.

I couldn’t breathe.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the creature lowered its face to mine. With only mere inches between us, I could feel its hot breath and taste its rancidness on my tongue. Dark spots began to feather the edges of my vision. I was going to die. I was going to be suffocated. All because of some crazy power I didn’t even understand yet. Tears trickled from the corners of my eyes, their hot wetness making tracks down the sides of my face.

“Open your eyes…” the creature hissed in a demonic-sounding voice.

Shocked it could speak, my eyes snapped open. The creature smiled at me, and I thrashed about even more. Its hands released my throat just enough for me to greedily gulp a few breaths of air. My throat felt raw and my lungs shriveled and starved. I could smell the rotten stench of the creature’s breath now full-on. It turned my stomach instantly, making saliva pool in my mouth and nausea bubble within my gut.

The creature lowered its lips closer to mine, and I clamped my mouth shut tightly on instinct. Words in a language I’d never heard before flowed from its lips in a steady rhythm as though it were singing. The air in the room changed, becoming thicker and hotter.

And that was when I felt it.

A tugging and pulling centered in my chest. It felt as though my soul was being ripped from within me.

My mouth opened and smoky red and yellow ribbons flowed from within, straight into the creature’s mouth. I could taste sweetness on my tongue. I wanted to move, to fight to keep whatever it was taking from inside of me, but I was frozen, completely paralyzed, as it sat on my chest with greed swelling in its beady black eyes as it savored my essence. Hopelessness swam through me as I realized that was exactly what it was doing—taking not only my magick, but also my life directly from me.

A loud growling caught my attention—
Binks
. I saw him leap at the creature’s shoulder, sinking his teeth and claws into its wet exterior. With the creature’s attention elsewhere, the ribbons flowed back inside of me, and I was released from the paralysis it had inflicted upon me. I took advantage of the moment. Bucking and thrashing, I knocked over a table against the wall closest to me and heard the vase that had sat on it smash to the ground as I threw the creature that was nearly half my size off me and darted toward the front door, the closest escape available.

I gripped the cool metal knob in my hot hand at the exact moment Binks was thrown across the foyer and into the railing of the stairs. I watched as he bounced off and landed on the hardwood floor with a sickening thud.

“Come to me,” the creature shouted at me in its demonic tone, crooking its sharp-nailed finger my way.

I turned the knob and swung the door open as quickly as I could. Barreling down the steps, I paused for a split second to try my Jeep door. It was locked and I knew exactly where the keys were—resting on the kitchen counter. I darted down the driveway and out into the street barefoot, without knowing where I was going, but positive I couldn’t stay where I was. I hit the sidewalk and cut a left, heading toward the brushy woods, remembering the shortcut to Kace’s apartment he’d mentioned and praying I could find it.

Glancing behind me, I spotted the creature a little ways back running after me. It avoided all streetlights and looked like nothing more than a fast-moving shadow, a shade or two darker than it should be, slipping through the night. I continued forward, my vision becoming blurred by tears as the reality of what was happening finally began to sink in.

I was being chased by a freaking monster!

My lungs burned with every inhale, and my throat felt like it was on fire. I nearly wept when I reached the over-walked pathway cut into the brush, because I knew I was now that much closer to Kace and I was positive he would know what to do.

My breath burst in and out from my lungs in rapid succession as I leapt over fallen limbs and roots woven though the ground. The thicket seemed to be much darker than it had been the night before during Kace’s and my walk to the cliff party. My head pounded as I tried to remember where it was we had stopped and Kace had pointed out the way to his apartment complex. Rapid footfalls from behind me made me cry out in alarm. Glancing over my shoulder, I could clearly see the creature gaining on me, its shadowy figure growing closer with every inhale of my breath.

Stubbing my toe on a protruding rock that jutted out from the ground, I cried out as I tumbled to the ground. Weeping, I pulled myself back up and ran as fast as I could. I cut to the right when I thought I should, leaving the beaten path to create my own in the direction I hoped would lead me to Kace. Low limbs stabbed at me from all angles, slowing me down more than I liked as they scratched at my clothes and intertwined with my hair. I could hear the rustle of bushes and tree branches breaking and bending behind me as the creature tried to catch up.

A clearing in the distance fueled me to run faster. Harder. I pushed myself, grinding my feet into the dirt and leaf-covered ground to gain more leverage against gravity and propel myself faster. My heart nearly exploded from my chest when I realized the clearing was not to an apartment complex, but instead the dirt road that led to the cliff.

I paused for a spilt-second, bracing my hands on my knees, while I struggled to catch my breath and figure out what I was going to do now. I’d obviously passed Kace’s apartment, and there was no way I was going to backtrack. The creature came out of the thicket at my right, cutting off any thoughts I had of taking the road and forcing me to go left. I sprinted away from it as fast as I could, but exhaustion was taking its toll. I was slowing down. My heart hammered in my chest harder, my throat ached and burned as well as my lungs, and the tip of my big toe was sore and bleeding.

The possibility of not being able to get away from the creature hit me dead in the stomach the moment I broke out into the clearing of the cliff. This feeling intensified when I realized who was standing there, seemingly waiting for me.

Theo stood behind the makeshift bar, holding something in his left hand. I came to a complete standstill the moment I noticed him. My body shook uncontrollably as I eyed him with my palms out. What the hell was I going to do now? I was trapped.

Worse, I was going to die. He and that
thing
would make sure of it.

Theo’s eyes left me and locked on the creature that had to be gaining on me now. I didn’t know what expression I expected to see when he glanced at it, maybe some sense of horror, but what I saw instead was nothing. No emotion crossed his face at the sight of the horrendous little goblin thing chasing after me. When Theo’s eyes finally returned to mine, the expression he wore seemed conflicted somehow.

“Come to me…” the creature hissed, standing someplace behind me. “Let me taste you.”

I glanced over my shoulder to judge how close the creature was. Not liking the short distance, I did the only thing I could—I bolted for the cliff.

Running as fast as I could, I held my breath and began to prepare myself mentally for the free fall I was about to make, while praying there were no large rocks waiting at the bottom. My eyes locked with Theo’s. I noticed his eyes widen as realization of what I was about to do sunk in. How much I was willing to sacrifice in order to get away from the creature.

I glanced over my shoulder one last time to make sure the creature was still behind me and took note of its murderous gleam reflected in its eyes as it too realized what I was about to do. Maybe I was crazy, maybe it was the exhaustion or shock from the events leading up to this moment, but whatever the reason…I smiled. I was about to win. The creature wouldn’t get me, my soul, or my magick tonight, and neither would Theo or his family, if this was their doing, or whoever had hired them.