The Awakening: A Witch-Vampire Romance: Feel the Heat. (25 page)

“You cannot kill what
is eternal little girl,” the Demon roars.

I c
an feel myself starting to grow weaker as the immense amount of my power continues to flow from my hands to strike at the Demon. Then all of a sudden I hear a ripping sound. A scarlet red gaping hole appears suddenly behind the Demon and sucks him into it. As suddenly as it appeared it is gone, along with the murderer of my best friend, one of the few people on this earth that I have ever let myself love.

Everything in me
falls away. I stumble and land on my knees, crawling over to Devon’s prone, cold body. He is torn and bloody from head to foot. It looks like someone had taken bites out of various parts of his body. My Goddess, the torture he’d endured all because he knew me. I sink my fingers into his shirt and fist them tightly. I throw my head back and scream out the pain and torment that is consuming me from the inside out. I scream and scream as tears flood down my cheeks.

I hear someone step
ping through the trees, the crunch of heavy boots as they walk near to where I am kneeling over my friend. I turn my head and look upon a beautiful stranger with hate-filled eyes.

“I mean you no harm
, Princess.” The stranger holds his hands out in a pleading fashion. “My name is Tristan. I’m here to assist your friend in passing into the light. He will finally find rest from the turmoil of this world.”

“What are you
,” I find myself asking yet another person. I can feel my hands start to tingle with power. I won’t let anyone else take Devon from me. He deserves to be laid to rest somewhere as exquisite as he was. Was…I try to hold in my sobs and fail. I lay my head onto Devon’s still chest and wretch with pain.

“Child
, you need to calm yourself. I’m not here to harm the daughter of my Goddess.” The stranger takes yet another step closer.

I whip around on my knees with my palms already glowing. “Come any closer a
nd you will die where you stand,” I snarl at the stranger.

Faster than my eyes c
an track, the stranger moves forward and gently touches me on the forehead. Everything around me starts to fade to grey around the edges. I get one good shot out of me that I am pretty sure hit its intended target before everything goes black.

Dammit. Not Again.

Chapter 20.

I awake with a crushing feeling in my chest. It takes a moment to recognize the feeling as grief. Then everything comes flooding back to me, like watching a horrid film strip behind my swollen red eyes. I can hear someone weeping in the distance. It sounds like Jessa. I can also hear several men’s voices discussing something that sounds to be pretty serious.

I look
around and find myself once again tucked into my bed in Gavin’s cabin. I close my eyes and try to block out the events that had happened right before I blacked out once again. Or was knocked out. I shake my head to make sure nothing up there hurts. My head feels fine, but the rest of me is faltering under the weight of grief. I lock my eyes on the exposed beams of the ceiling and will myself not to give in and cry. Of course it doesn’t work. Gut wrenching sobs start to pour from me. I turn to my side and hug Jaxx’s pillow. It still smells like him. I feel the bed shift and look behind me to find Jaxx sitting there. He is wearing a somber look on his face.

“I wish I could take your pain. I would gladly bare it. If only it would stop your he
art from breaking.” Jaxx strokes away the hair that is stuck to my cheek.

“It
is not only my heart that was crushed, Jaxx.” I bury my face back into the pillow.

“I know you don’t want to leave the haven you have wrought for yourself
, but everyone is waiting on you.”

“Waiting for what
,” I snap. “Haven’t I been through enough for one day? Don’t I deserve a time out? Just this once I want to be left alone and not have to face the next tragedy that is going to strike.”

“They are waiting on you to say goodbye to your friend. They want to hold Devon’s funeral pyre at moonrise.”

That shakes me from my grief as nothing else could have.
Say goodbye to my best friend. My family. Can I do that? How can someone go on from losing someone that you love as dearly as I love him?
“What time is it now,” I ask Jaxx.

He
lays himself down behind me and spoons me. He pulls me into his chest and wraps his strong arms around me. “An hour until the ritual.”

“Can’t we just stay here like this? Just you and me. Shut the world and its sadness out and just
stay here in this bed? Just us for always?” I feel him gently shaking his head in the negative.

“You know I would love nothing more than to cocoon you and me in our own little world and never leave
, but others need you. Jessa needs you.”

Jessa. God
, how she must be broken. My friends are hurting. My family is broken all because a fucked up creature wanted to hurt me and those I love. I can feel anger replacing the soul sucking grief. I stiffen in Jaxx’s arms. “How do I kill a High Demon? How do I find him again?”

“That
is something that we are going to work out. This I promise you.”

I t
ake a deep breath and pull out of Jaxx’s embrace. I sit up and look down at his beautifully handsome face. “I would be forever lost without you, my love,” I tell him while I stroke his cheek. I lean down and press my lips gently to his.

Jaxx t
akes me into his arms and holds me while I grieve silently. We lay in our cocoon for the next hour, until it is time to say goodbye to a pivotal person in my life. A beloved friend. A part of my heart went with Devon when he drew his last breath, a piece that I will never get back.

I st
and stoic throughout the burning ceremony of my friend. Jaxx stands behind me with his arms wrapped tightly around my waist. No one says a word as Jessa lights the pyre where our friend lay still and cold. No one shares words of wisdom or sings songs of joy. We grieve in silence.

Silently
I am wishing it was someone else burning. Wishing it was someone else that died his horrid death, someone else who deserved to have their life stolen from them far too soon. Devon deserved a full life with laughter and love. What he got was pain and torture in the end.

I
see Jessa across the flames. Up until this point I was too scared to look into her face. Afraid that when I did that I would see blame there. Blame for what happened to our friend, but there is no blame, only angry grief as a scarlet tear runs down her face and I vow to avenge our friend.

“I will find the one who took you from us,” I sp
eak to the flames that engulfed Devon. “I will make it so that you did not die in vain.” I look at the others surrounding the pyre, meeting their eyes one by one. “I vow that I will take those who only live a life for darkness and snuff them out. There is a war coming. A war I plan on winning so that no more innocence is lost.” I hang my head, take a deep, shuddering breath, and pull my mother’s jeweled dagger from the strap on my thigh. I slice my hand open down my life line. The scarlet runs true as I fling the droplets of blood into the flames. “As I vow it, so let it be,” I intone.

“Then we have much work ahead of us, my daughter.”

We all startle and turn to see my mother standing behind us in all of her glowing glory.

The End. For now…

Join Ella as she continues her journey in Twisted Illusions.

Acknowledgements

The cover of this book was made by:
Tasha Gwartney

This book was edited by:

Wendi Starusnak of Starusnak’s Editorial Services

~I would also like to give a shout out to all of my wonderful beta readers. You all gave me such heartwarming support and encouragement. You guys rock my heart!