Wicked (The Drake Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

Just as she was about to grab the knob, the shed door swung shut with a bang, shielding off her departure. She whirled around to Ethan.

“No. We are dealing with this right now, Emma. We are going to march over to our lovely new neighbors and see what we can get from that man. Maybe even Logan can help us, since we obviously used to know them,” Ethan explained.

Emma twisted her fingers anxiously and stared into her brother’s eyes.  Mason had told them not to leave, but she wanted to know what was going on. She needed answers.

“Fine,” Emma snapped as she yanked open the shed door and made her way back inside the house, leaving Ethan alone in the middle of the darkened room.

Things were about to change enormously. He could feel it in his bones.

It was dark outside now and the full moon hung in the sky like an enormous eye, watching their every move. Ethan had suggested that they change, just in case they wouldn’t be coming right back home. And for some reason Ethan had a feeling they wouldn’t.

“Are you ready?” Emma asked, bringing Ethan back down to Earth.

“Yes I am,” Ethan replied and turned away from the back door of their house.

Emma began walking toward the back dirt pathway that was conveniently placed behind the eleven houses that filled their side of the street.

It was a neighborhood walking path that hadn’t been used much for a long time, and was now overgrown with vicious looking weeds and bramble.

Something rustled in the dark woods as they passed. Mason had recently outlined the entrance of the woods with cinnamon and raven’s heart, keeping various creatures from crossing into their yard.

Even though they were outside of Elsmere, magical creatures still found their way into the mortal world. Some portals were broken and often allowed anything through, even mortals, who almost never made it back alive, Mason had once explained.

Shivers ran down Emma’s spine, but she told herself that she was fine; nothing could cross… or could it? When had Mason redone the blocking spell? How
recently
was it?

Emma shook the unnerving thoughts from her head and kept on, just a minute more and they’d be at their neighbor’s back door.

Ethan kept his eyes on the woods, surveying them. Something was moving within the trees, watching. He could almost hear it breathing.

The last time he’d been in the woods, he had gathered ingredients for a simple attraction spell a few months back. He needed rowan and fresh sap from a tree. He’d nearly been slaughtered by a band of blood trees in the process.

He didn’t even know they grew in the mortal world, but indeed they did. Blood trees were vicious and carnivorous.

They feasted on unsuspecting forest wanderers, devouring the blood that flowed through their veins. They’re branches morphed into spiked claws and they could snatch someone by the throat within a second.

A branch snapped behind them and Ethan snatched Emma by her wrist and they tore the rest of the way to Logan’s house. They didn’t need to think, they just needed to remember what Mason had told them,
if you ever hear something ominous, don’t second guess it, just run like hell.

And indeed something was gaining on them, breathing heavily, and growling. Emma didn’t dare turn; she didn’t want to know what was coming after them. She just wanted to get away.

“
Faster!
” Ethan pushed himself and Emma toward the back porch light behind a wooden fence.

The siblings rushed into the fence, climbed over, and collided with the damp ground of Logan’s back lawn.

They thought they were safe for a moment, but as they picked themselves up from the moist grass, a thunderous crash erupted behind them.

They spun around, frightened and breathing hard.

There were eight hellhounds, foaming at their mouths and digging their massive paws into the perfectly manicured lawn. Just then, the back door flew open and out stepped Logan’s father, Bennett Hardwicke, a large machine gun in his hands.

“Get inside. I’ll deal with them,” he commanded and before he could repeat himself, Ethan and Emma bolted through the back door and into the house. They threw themselves to the ground as a mass of gunshots stung the air.

A window shattered and Emma turned to see a hellhound on top of the kitchen table, staring directly at them.

“Crap, run!” Ethan scrambled off of the ground and ran down a photograph garnished hallway, Emma on his heels.

Logan stepped out from the dining room, a large black book cradled in his arms. He was sweating and shaking.

“Hi,” he said nervously as he rapidly turned the pages of the book. “I’m trying to find a banishing spell, but I can’t seem to—”

“Are you crazy?” Ethan spat. Emma turned to him.

“What?” Logan asked, looking puzzled.

“You can’t banish them. You have to physically disable them, it is common magic knowledge,” Logan sneered at Ethan and threw the book on a chair behind them. “Now, do you have something heavy and blunt, preferably a crowbar?”

The kitchen door behind them smashed to the ground and a hellhound growled, the sound raiding their eardrums.

The hellhound’s snout was long and black, while its gray fur looked ravaged and moist. On all fours it stood over five feet in height and smelt of rotten meat, sour and dead. Its eyes were a crimson red, and were narrowed to slits.

“So, you got that crowbar?” Ethan took a step back, shielding Emma.

Logan hurried over to a lone door, ripped it open, and brought a long silver spear out from what looked like a hallway closet.

“Will this work?” he yelled over the sound of his father’s machine gun. Ethan smiled and held his hand out. But Logan ran right past him and went for the hellhound on his own.

Ethan’s smile faded. What was this idiot doing? He thought.

Emma saw Logan’s face, fierce and bold. He was serious; he was really going to attempt killing a hellhound. She held onto the back of Ethan’s sweater with fear and closed one eye, expecting the worst.

“What are you doing? You didn’t even know how to kill one before I told you. You’re going to get yourself killed!” Ethan screamed.

“I can do this,” Logan snapped, but Ethan saw the uncertainty in his eyes.

Logan gripped the spear in his hand. Emma watched him with both eyes open now. He let out a deep breath, and ran, full force into the beast.

The hellhound knocked him to the ground like an annoying fly and Logan’s head met the tiled ground of his house. He was unconscious.

Emma screamed and felt anger rising within her. Logan laid still, the spear lying at the front paws of the hellhound.

The gunshots were still going and Ethan had finally had enough. He tore himself from his sister’s death grip and swiftly glided across the floor on his knees, nabbing the spear in his hand.

It was too difficult to use magic against them; it just angered the beasts more. So it was best to take care of them the old fashioned way.

Ethan rose from the ground, brandishing the spear, ready to plunge it into the hellhound’s heart.

The hellhound snickered loudly and cleared its throat.

“I come not to fight, but to warn.” The beast’s voice was rough and thick, Ethan heard a bit of a Russian accent but it was slightly shadowed by the hellhound’s deep tone.

He had nearly forgotten that higher rank hellhounds could speak. He wanted to smack himself upside the head for forgetting an important fact like that.

Ethan just stared at the snout of the beast, trying desperately to avoid its eyes. He still held the spear, just in case it was tricking them.

Seeing that the hellhound was distracted, Emma ran to Logan’s aid and cradled his head in her arms; luckily there was only a small amount of blood. But at least he was still breathing.

“What do you want?” Emma snapped. The hellhound slightly turned to her, and before she could pull her eyes away, it glared into hers.

Instantly her body went rigid, and it was as if everything had been set in slow motion. A picture erupted before her, bordered with white smoke. It wasn’t herself that she saw… it was Logan.

He was being held by the throat by a craggy, pale hand in what seemed to be a wooded area. The only sound she could hear was his heart beat slowing down.

She watched with pain as his eyes bulged with fear. And not a second later, the grotesque hand grew tighter and the sound of a snapping neck raked at her ears.

She watched the life leave Logan’s eyes and blinked. The vision vanished.

Emma ripped her eyes away from the beast and stared down at Logan, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling. Why had she seen his death? She should have seen hers. It didn’t make sense until she looked down again; she was holding Logan, which must have interfered with the vision somehow.

She was speechless. She had never seen anyone die before. She wanted desperately to curl up into a corner and forget everything she had just seen.

“I am sorry that you had to see that,” the hellhound said. Ethan saw Emma lock eyes with the beast and knew she had seen something. “But I have come to warn you.”

The look on her face nearly broke Ethan’s heart; he couldn’t imagine something happening to her, especially seeing her own death before it happened.

“I wish you’d said something before you made me waste bullets,” Bennett Hardwicke snapped as he entered the hallway, Ethan swore he could still hear the gunshots.

Bennett inhaled sharply when he saw his son and got down on his knees, cursing at him like a disobedient child.

“Ethan and Emma Drake, Craven Bell is after your powers,” the hellhound cautioned. “I cannot disclose the identity of the individual who asked me to warn you, but they are a good friend of mine, so I did this as a favor.”

“You must be careful who you trust and find a way to put Craven to rest before he takes after your father and brings destruction to both Elsmere and the mortal world. That is all I have for you both. Now, I will bid you good bye… and good luck.” The hellhound bowed and turned away from them.

All Emma and Ethan could do was stare at each other. They were both speechless and confused at what the hellhound had just explained. How had this seemingly normal day turned so dark and chaotic? 
And who the hell was Craven Bell?

They both watched in silence as the hellhound proceeded through the back door, its claws clacking on the concrete outside where the rest of the beasts laid bloodied and slain.

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