Enchanted, A Paranormal Romance / Fantasy (Forever Charmed) (29 page)

What had Nana told her about black magic? Nothing really, only that it wasn’t an acceptable way to use your gift and that Mandy must never even so much as dabble in it. Mandy retraced her time with Nana in her head, replaying conversations she had had with her to her best ability, scrutinizing the remembered snippets of words for any hidden meanings that she may have heard but not realized. The only thing Mandy could latch on to was when her grandmother had told her that in order for magic to be successful she must believe in it. Granted, Lucas was the one performing the ritual, but Mandy supposed it couldn’t hurt to vehemently think negative thoughts about his abilities as he performed it. Perhaps if she didn’t believe in what he was trying to do, and Nana refused to believe as well, he would be less successful. Although Mandy had the sinking feeling that as long as the person performing the spell believed it would probably work, and goodness, Lucas had faith in himself.
You have no
magical gifts. You are weak and cowardly. You will not succeed
. Mandy began to think this mantra over and over in her head, hoping against hope that it would have some effect on Lucas’s spell.

“Dark demons, we summon thee to our dark diamond,” Lucas began the incantation. Mandy shuddered but tried her best to block the evil words from her ears, instead repeating her own chant in her head. “We look to you for help during this full moon, that the powers of the weak be transferred to the powers of the strong, in order that thy bidding can be done as it should be. As the candles burn bright, so make thy light in me.” Lucas reached down to the sides of his chair and picked up another mystery object. It was a flame extinguisher, the kind on a long pole you often see in churches to put out the candles perched high upon shelves that can’t be reached easily. Mandy almost had to laugh at the irony of the thought. This was about the furthest thing away from a church she could imagine.

“As I extinguish the four flames, so shall you extinguish the magical flame in this white haired witch. She will be as empty and dark as the room, and upon rekindling the flames on the candles, I will burn bright as they with her magic, so shall it be,” Lucas finished the chant and without getting up from his chair extinguished the first candle with the long handled devise. “Light into darkness,” he said as the candle fizzled out.

Mandy felt a tingling start in the hand she was resting on Nana’s shoulder. “Light into darkness,” Lucas continued, extinguishing the second candle. The tingling grew stronger and shot up the length of Mandy’s arm. Her eyes flew open in panic, astonished and afraid that the spell was actually working.

“Light into darkness,” Lucas said, putting out the third candle. Mandy gasped as the tingling shot through her torso and down the arm connecting herself to Lucas. Her first instinct was to take her hand off of Lucas, but she found she seemed to be frozen in place, whether from terror or the force of the spell she couldn’t tell.

Lucas’s flame extinguisher moved towards the fourth and final candle and Mandy squeezed her eyes shut, unable to look at what unholy nightmares were about to be released. “Light into darkness!” Lucas roared, the magnitude of his voice seeming to fill the entire little house up. As the last flame died the tingling sensation turned from uncomfortable to excruciating, like an electric shock. Mandy simultaneously felt like fire was rushing through her very veins as well as if she was being pricked with a million tiny pins. She felt like her insides were being hollowed out as rush of air was forced out of her lungs. She gasped, trying to pull in a breath but it was as if the wind had been knocked out of her.

Lucas’s loud, dark laughter was crazed sounding and foreboding. His voice sounded much deeper than what she was accustomed to. She heard a strange wheezing almost moaning sound under the laughter and realized all at once that it was coming from her. Suddenly the pain was gone and she was able to a breath again. Her arms hung limply at her sides, and she realized she was able to move again. The room was pitch black. The shadowy figure to her right that was Lucas stood from his chair and at the same time the four candles suddenly erupted into flames once again, burning with a bright fierceness illuminating the frightful scene unfolding around Mandy.

Nana seemed to be slumped in her chair at Mandy’s left, her eyes open in small slits showed a dull, glassiness that Mandy had never seen in them before and scared Mandy almost more than the potential effects of the spell that had just been completed. Mandy’s head jerked back to her right just in time to see Lucas raise his arms above his head, laughing sinisterly, and looking in awe at the dark shadows dancing around the three of them.

Mandy almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The shadows were about waist high and were curled in upon themselves in a deformed way. They were emitting a hissing noise and moving grotesquely about the circle emitting a low hissing noise. Mandy knew at once that they were the dark demons Lucas had called upon. They seemed to be multiplying before Mandy’s very eyes until the room seemed to be filled from wall to wall, corner to corner, with the dark creatures, writhing and dancing, frolicking with glee. To Mandy’s horror she realized there was no way out. Nana had been rendered helpless and therefore useless to Mandy and Mandy had no idea how to use her own abilities to combat such darkness. The only thing that seemed to be in Mandy’s favor was the fact that Lucas seemed to be sufficiently distracted between his new found abilities and the creatures who seemed eager to do his bidding. He moved one hand in front of him, shooting an arc of lightening from his fingertips, bouncing from the ceiling back down amid the group of shadow demons. This only added to the chaos.

Mandy was vaguely aware of hearing a shattering sound behind her, but under the cacophony of raucous noise from the demons and Lucas it was muffled and she couldn’t even be sure she heard anything at all. Warily she turned around to find the window on the opposite wall was shattered. Before she could react she saw a hand grasp the windowsill and following that Steve’s face appeared. Mandy gasped as Steve raised a finger to his lips to tell her to keep silent. It was all she could do to keep on her feet, as the shock made her feel as if she would faint.

As happy as she was to see Steve, it was also horrifying. There was no way Steve could know what he was walking into and what or who he was up against. As badly as Mandy wanted to get out from this nightmare unhurt, even more her one hope was that no one else would be hurt because of her. It seemed only too likely that this would be Steve’s fate.

Steve dropped catlike to the ground from the window, silently landing on the balls of his feet. Mandy crouched at Nana’s side, removing her gag and frantically working to untie the binds that held her to the chair. Completing this task, she watched in shock as Steve turned back towards the window, leaning his torso out. Was he leaving, now that he certainly must have glimpsed the awfulness that was going on inside the house? Mandy’s heart sunk but she couldn’t blame him. If he got out now, maybe he could make it.

Mandy thought her eyes would fall out of her head as she watched Steve hoist Ally up in the window and drop her silently to the ground. Mandy shook her head as reality hit her. Her two best friends had come to rescue her and there was no way out. Ally waved a little wave at Mandy, smiling in spite of all the swirling blackness and noise.

“Get out!” Mandy mouthed at Lucas and Ally. “Go!”

“No!” Lucas mouthed back at Mandy, and Ally now held a finger to her mouth silencing her. Mandy couldn’t imagine what the two of them thought they were going to be able to accomplish. They surely didn’t realize that the swirling shadows were demons and that Lucas was now probably capable of unthinkable acts.

Mandy’s hope was suddenly buoyed by the fact that she saw Steve carrying a crowbar tight next to his side. He must have found Lucas’s wherever he had dropped it earlier. Ally followed behind him as they made their way along the wall towards where Lucas was providing the demons with a light display from his fingertips. Mandy could barely stand to watch but she felt as there was nothing else she could do for them. Nana appeared to be in shock and Mandy didn’t want to move away from her side, even if only for a minute.

The shadowy crowd grew more rowdy and the swirling picked up momentum. Although Steve and Ally had been careful to stay on the outskirts of the demons, the demons were not mindful of where they flung their twisted bodies. Without warning a group of them bumped into Ally, pushing her into Steve, who was sent flying into a dusty end table, which consequently made a horribly loud grating sound as it grinded across the wooden floorboards. Steve stifled a groan and righted himself, but the room was silent and he knew at the same time as Mandy that it was too late. Their eyes locked in silent horror for a split second before the rumbling voice of Lucas voided the quiet.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Lucas asked, sarcasm dripping off his words. “Have you come to join us? Mandy didn’t tell me she invited you. Welcome to the dark side, son.”

Mandy’s eyes were wide as she crouched by her grandmother. Wanting more than anything to bury her head in her grandmother’s shoulder she threw Steve a desperate look, imploring him to be careful with her eyes. Steve briefly looked at her almost apologetically, and then turned his focus quickly back to Lucas. Before Mandy’s brain could register what was happening, Lucas was a blur, moving across the room with the crowbar raised above his head, rushing at Lucas with every intention of smashing his skull in.

The shadow demons long disgusting fingers clawed at Steve as he ran past and clung to his clothing, slowing him in his charge. Hideous high pitched laughter flowed from their cruel and gaping mouths as more and more of them clung to his body, gripping his legs, holding fiercely to his neck, dangling from the back of his shirt, clawing at his face. They appeared wispy, smoke-like, but Mandy knew as Steve slowed and finally was stopped by the weight and pull of the demons that they must have sustenance.

They swarmed him now, like bees attacking an invader to their hive. The shadows covered him until Mandy could no longer see Steve. Mandy tore her gaze away from the grizzly scene to where Ally had been standing behind Steve, and realized she was no longer there but had backed up onto the wall behind and was standing flattened as possible against it, fear and anguish in her eyes.

“Enough!” roared Lucas. As quickly as it had happened, the demons relented, flinging themselves off of Steve but leaving little space between themselves and him. He was circled by the shadowy creatures from hell. His shirt was hanging in shreds on him, there were little trickles of blood on his face and arms. He no longer had the crowbar. Mandy caught sight of three demons in the back of the crowd fighting over who would get the weapon, tugging it back and forth between themselves. Mandy forced her gaze back to Lucas and Steve. Maybe Lucas knew he had gone too far this time, maybe he still had a heart. After all, he had made the demons stop their attack on Steve. Mandy held her breath, waiting for something, anything to happen next. Let him go, let him go, Mandy urged Lucas in her mind.

“You ok, little buddy?” Lucas asked Steve, sounding syrupy sweet.

Clearly Steve was taken aback by Lucas’s switch in demeanor. Silently he nodded at Lucas, unsure of what was expected of him.

“Good,” Lucas said, patting Steve on the back in a brotherly fashion. “I was worried my friends here were going to do you in.” Suddenly Lucas took a few steps back away from Steve in a move that was so fast it blurred and could only be magic. “You see, I wanted that pleasure all to myself!” Lucas howled, laughing excitedly at the thought. He held his hands out in front of him and a brilliant bright light shot out from Lucas’s fingertips, striking Steve full-on in the chest. Steve collapsed face first into the floor. Lucas’s laughter raged as the lightening continued on into Steve’s body, causing Steve to twitch in violent lunges on wooden floor. The shadow demons began dancing even more vigorously than before; the crazed swarm of their dark bodies soon had completely obscured Steve’s body from Mandy’s view.

Noise was pulsating against Mandy’s eardrums. Something shrill and awful rang through the room and she realized her mouth was open and she was screaming. She felt something grab at her arm and assuming it was the shadow demons she lurched her arm up and away, screaming with more force than before. Looking down to see what had tried to grab ahold of her, she saw her Nana looking up at her. Although they were wide open with fear, the light was back in her green eyes, making them look more like emeralds than ever before. “Hush, child!” Nana hissed at Mandy.

Tears were dripping uncontrollably down Mandy’s cheeks and she felt as if she was gasping for breath, but she tried to do as she was told and choke back the remaining screams. “But, Nana…Steve,” Mandy sputtered out.

“I know, but you must focus on the task at hand if you want to help Steve,” Nana whispered. “Grab that glass ball at my feet.”

Mandy did as she was told and held it out towards her grandmother. “Smash it!” Nana instructed. Mandy looked at Nana with questions in her tear glazed eyes. “Now! No time to waste!”

Mandy hesitated a split second and then hauled the globe up in the air and down as forcefully as she could muster. The glass hit the wooden floor and exploded into a million tiny pieces, crashing and tinkling at once, water spilling out and leaving a dark stain on the wood. The startling noise of the breaking glass commanded silence from Lucas and the demons, and the motion of the swarming bodies stopped all at once. Everyone stared at Mandy and Nana.

Mandy looked down at Nana wondering what good smashing the globe would do. As if Nana could read Mandy’s mind, she simply said quietly, “Wait.” Instantly, Mandy felt a soft and warm breeze swirl around her feet where the broken shards of glass lay in the spilt water. The breeze was balmy, and had the same quality as one you might find at a beach on a sunny day. It continued to rise up, Mandy could feel its climb as it wrapped itself around her body, engulfing her in invisible sunshine. Warmer and warmer it grew, until as quickly as it had appeared, it left Mandy’s side and erupted into a blinding light. Mandy shielded her eyes against it. A dark shape appeared in the middle of the light growing bigger and blocking out the light. Mandy watched in shock as the shape took on the shape of a person, looking more womanly by the second. Mandy’s hands flew to her mouth to cover a gasp as the shape finalized and she recognized the woman as Mary Nasson.