Unbound (43 page)

It growled and whined and burst into flames. The fire erupted from its stomach a second later the whole thing exploded, covering me in ash and blood.

“Sick,” I said, standing up and flicking a glob of fur off my coat. Twigs snapped a few feet in front of me. Adrenaline was pumping throughout my body now, and I was fully ready for another attack. I braced myself and held the dagger in front of me. But something felt familiar and I lowered the dagger.

“Anora?” a deep voice called.

“Ethan?” I called back. That was completely unexpected.

“Thank God.” He rushed over and put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you ok?”

“Yea, but, h-how did you find me?”

“Julia had a vision of you fighting Pricolici in the woods.” His face looked stressed with worry.

“Oh. And she knew it was the woods by the barn?”

“No, but I would have come here if I were you. I’d want to kill the son of a bitch that ripped apart my friend.” I could just barely see him smile in the darkness. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Are you mad?” I placed one hand on his chest.

“No.” His hands slipped down to my waist. “I’m just glad you’re ok.” Not too far away, a Pricolici howled.
 
“What was that flash of light?”

“I killed a Pricolici and it kinda exploded.”

“Awesome,” Ethan said. The howl got louder. “It’s coming closer.”

My fingers tightened around the dagger. “I’m glad you’re here,” I told him, feeling selfish for wanting him around such danger.

The rain panged down harder and faster. Something jumped down from a low hanging tree and growled. “That is so not the one that just howled,” I said nervously.

“No, it’s not,” Ethan said, gun already drawn. The Pricolici was silver, and would have been beautiful save the fact it was pure evil and wanted nothing other than to rip out my throat. This one was by far the most wolf-looking of any Pricolici I’ve yet to see. It sniffed the air in front of Ethan and moved on, teeth barred, towards me. Ethan put his arm out to block me from harm and fired the gun three times. The thing collapsed. I let out a ragged breath and took Ethan’s extended hand. More eerie howls echoed throughout the silence.

“We’re being surrounded,” I exclaimed in a state of panic. Ethan turned away from me.

“Back to back,” he said, “it allows us to see the most.”

“Ok,” I said weakly.

A huge gray shaped galloped towards me. I held up my hand right as it lunged. It hit the wall of telekinetic energy and crashed to the ground. Angry, it slowly circled us. Lightning flashed again. It was tall, probably as tall as Hunter or maybe even a few inches taller. Its long legs ended in huge talon-like paws. In front of Ethan now, it lunged again. I heard the gun shot but the thing didn’t stop. It landed right on Ethan, sending him backwards onto me. I scrambled frantically to get out from under him. He was struggling with both hands to keep the Pricolici from sinking its razor sharp fangs into his face. Finally free, I spun around and sunk the dagger into its neck. Another explosion left us covered in smoldering demon parts. Ethan sat up just enough to wrap and arm around me. He forcefully pulled me down into his lap and held me to him while his other hand raised and fired the gun. A fat brown Pricolici limped away, apparently shot only in the shoulder.

“Ethan,” I said, standing, “if the Pricolici are like bounty hunters and if there are this many, does that mean…”

“The demon sending them must be close,” Ethan finished for me. “Yes.” He stood and took my hand. “We need to run, Anora.”

“Can’t we fight?”

“We have no idea what we are fighting.”

I was terrified. If it was bad enough for someone as daring and brave as Ethan to tell me to run for it, well, then it must be bad. More howling and a clap of thunder made me jump
.

“Where should we go?” I looked around; I had no idea where we were.

“My house, it’s not too far.”

“Which way?”

“Uh,” Ethan whirled around, “this way.” He started in the direction that he had come from when the fat brown demonic dog jumped from the shadows. I threw out my hand to send it flying, but it only staggered back a bit. I felt a sudden depletion of energy. Hoping Ethan would just shoot the damn thing, the growl from behind us was most unwelcome. He turned to take care of it and I stared down the one in front of me. Its face was more human like than the others and its paws were twisted and grotesque.
 
I positioned the dagger again and waited for it to lunge. The blade slid into its chest like butter. Ethan fired the gun again, but only one bullet shot out before I heard the gun make an empty
chink.
Oh, shit. I know from movies what that sound means. I turned my head to see a black mass barely moving on the ground.

“Running seems like a really good plan.” I took Ethan’s hand. We ran for a good mile without stopping; up hills, down ravines, over fallen logs, through deep puddles. I was panting in a matter of minutes. We kept running for what seemed like eternity. Ethan didn’t show any signs of slowing down. He glanced back at me every once in a while but the distant howling or menacing bark of the Pricolici kept him going. The wind picked up as the storm drew nearer.

Cold rain pelted down against my already freezing skin. I shivered but kept running, struggling to keep up with Ethan. I risked looking behind us to see if we were still being chased. I couldn’t see far in the hazy darkness anyway. In the momentary blindness of what was in front of me, I tripped over some sort of debris and stumbled down, twisting my wrist as I tried to catch myself. Ethan heard and rushed over to help me up. Water dripped down his face and when a flash of lightening temporarily made night as bright as day I could see he had been hurt too. A long scratch tore across his beautiful face. The rain had rinsed away the blood but it was obvious the cut was very fresh.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yea, I shouldn’t have turned around. I thought I heard them behind us.”

“They might be. Come on, we can‘t stop.” He made a move as if he was going to bolt forward again but then stopped. He stepped over closer to me, wrapped his arms around my waist, pulled me in and kissed me. Everything disappeared for that small moment: the wind and the rain, the Pricolici, the fact that I was going to always be in danger all seemed to melt away with the warmth of Ethan’s kiss. One hand slowly slid from my waist down to my butt. He pulled away and gave me a very devious smile, which I obligingly returned, knowing what was on his mind.

“What was that for?” I asked loudly over a crackle of thunder. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, this just didn’t seem like the right time.

“I don’t know,” Ethan shrugged. “You know, you are amazing Annie.” He took my hand and darted forward.

 
We ran for so long that my lungs felt like they were going to burst and my legs felt like noodles. Another sharp bark came from not too far behind us, surging adrenaline through my body, helping me pick up the pace once again.

Finally we reached a clearing. I could see car lights up ahead.
Thank God
, I thought. We slowed down to a jog until we reached the road. Panting, we walked. The wind picked up causing me to shiver again.

“Cold?” Ethan looked into my eyes.

“Do you have to ask?”

“We’re almost home.” He wrapped an arm around me. I could feel him shiver too.

The old brick house never looked as welcoming as it did that night. A yellow glow shone through the front window. Water splashed under our feet as we hurried up the stone stairs. Ethan retrieved the key from his pocket and opened the door.

“Hello?” he called. No answer. I was relieved; I didn’t feel like dealing with Sam right now. I was shivering from head to toe and I really wanted to get out of my wet clothes.

“Can we change?” I asked through chattering teeth.

“That sounds like a brilliant idea,” Ethan said and led me to his room. I ditched my ruined leather jacket and pulled my white sweater over my head. It was heavy with water and dripping all over the hardwood floor. Since no one else was home, I scurried into the bathroom and put my wet clothes in the tub. Ethan appeared behind me and turned the water on in the shower.

“I’m so sorry I got you into this mess,” I said, feeling compelled to say it all night.

“Just shut up Annie.” He picked me up and kissed me. I thought that was his way of saying ‘it’s alright’ or ‘I forgive you’. I liked his way much, much more.

We got into the shower and with Ethan’s help, the warmth quickly came back into my body.

***

I was just about asleep when someone softly knocked at the door. After stumbling in the darkness for some pants and quickly pulling on a pair of light blue boxers, Ethan opened it about a foot, just enough to see who it was. Julia, with her ever patient smile, stood a ways back.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, Ethan, but your dad wants you downstairs,” I heard her say very quietly.

“It’s ok, Jewls. Um, let us get dressed and we’ll be right out.” He shut the door and turned on the light. I slammed my eyes closed in reaction to the sudden change in light. I felt the mattress sink down next to me as Ethan came back into bed. “We should go; if it wasn’t important they wouldn’t have interrupted.” I nodded, seeing the worry in his eyes. I pulled him to me, well, pulled on him and he moved in that direction. There was no way I was strong enough to actually pull him. I ran a finger up and down his chest and he shut his eyes and lay down on his side next to me. He traced the outline of my body from my chest down to my hip and then up again. Obviously he didn’t want to get out of bed anymore than I wanted to.

“I need clothes,” I said quietly.

“Nah.” Ethan started to sit up. “You look much better without them.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think Julia would appreciate it.”

“You’re right. She’d take one look at you and be insanely jealous.”

“I don’t take her to be the jealous type.” I sat up, holding the blanket over my chest, though I guess it didn’t matter; it wasn’t like it was anything Ethan hadn’t seen before. “Now Sam, on the other hand, she would be jealous. Maybe I
should
go downstairs like this,” I said wryly.

Ethan laughed in agreement. “Come on.” He sat up. “Let’s find you some clothes.”

I walked down the hall behind Ethan. I felt like a child playing dress up; Ethan’s clothes were so big on me. The heel of the socks came up past my ankles, I had to role the waist of the black athletic pants several times just so I wouldn’t step on the hems and the blue Cubs T-shirt was long enough to be a dress. Once in the living room I could sense the seriousness of the situation. A swirling gray cloud of confusion hung in the air. Part of it was speckled with resentment. I looked around and, sure enough, Sam was sitting with her arms crossed sulking in the corner. With a deep breath I tried to push everyone’s emotions out of my head. A now steady rain panged against the glass in the windows. Thunder rumbled above us.

 
Along with Sam, Julia, and David, an older man with gray hair and a matching beard sat in the living room. The old man was holding a tarnished silver flask. His clothes were faded and his face looked tired and worn. He had many wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. Scars that looked very much like there were from giant claws ran the length of the left side of his face. A dirty looking brown duffle bag was on the floor next to him. He screwed the lid back on the flask when we walked into the room. His face lit up as soon as he saw Ethan. With a bit of difficulty, he stood.

“Ethan my boy!” He patted Ethan on the back. “It’s been too long. And who is this beauty?” He pushed Ethan aside to get a better look at me. I smiled politely, and the fact that I wasn’t wearing a bra became suddenly very salient to me.

“This is my girlfriend, Anora,” Ethan said as he put his arm around my waist. “Annie, this old man is Isaac. He’s knows more about Pricolici than anyone probably should.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said politely. I hunched my shoulders forward a bit, trying to make the shirt as baggy as possible in the front.

“Ahh.” Isaac reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a pair of ancient looking glasses, which he then put on. “You’re the famous Anora Benson then.” I looked at Ethan nervously.

“Um, I guess, though I wouldn’t call myself famous.”

“You are the only known remaining kin of the Coven. That makes you famous to us.”

Not knowing what to say, I just nodded. Ethan shuffled his feet. “Let’s sit,” he said to both me and the curious Isaac.