Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (29 page)

The man was no
coward.  He squared his shoulders shouted back.  “We will rid the world of this
evil.”  He lifted his other hand and brandished the shiny silver cross at Ailis
with every conviction that she would be destroyed.  Instead, she laughed at
him.  Being a vampire has nothing to do with religion.

“One of us is
going to hell tonight,” she hissed, “but it’s not me.”  She ripped the cross from
his fingers and stabbed the end of it through his hand, cutting off his scream
as she snapped his neck with a flick of her wrist.  She was moving so fast that
she dropped him, turned, and reached my side before he even hit the ground. 
She glared at the hateful cuffs, hissing and swearing when she saw my raw and
blistered wrists.

Christian
reached us in two strides and I steeled myself in order to keep from cringing. 
He was huge, blood-covered, and angry.  I could see, for one terrifying moment,
the Viking berserker in his past.  His canines had lengthened and his eyes were
glowing, and he was scaring the shit out of me.  He pulled a massive sawed-off
shotgun from the depths of his coat, cocking it and holding it on the rest of
the cult members.  He didn’t really need it, but it was effective.

 His gaze
flicked to me and away.  His face showed no emotion except for a slight
squinting of his eyes, but I could feel his aura lashing out like red-hot
flames, radiating anger.  Even the humans could feel his power.

Handing the
shotgun to Ailis, he reached down and grasped the cuffs on my wrists.  He
winced slightly as the silver burned his skin, but he snapped the metal with a
quick motion.  He repeated this performance on my ankles, then took off his
coat and wrapped it around me.  I froze when I hear his voice in my head,
lashing out in anger.

Are you hurt?
 The demand was
sudden and harsh and I flinched involuntarily.  I thought briefly of my
lacerated arms, my split lip, and the abuse I had taken from the skinny man. 
His voice filled my head again.  It was softer this time, but even more
terrifying. 
I will take care of it.  You are safe now.

His eyes
narrowed and he stood, glaring at the pathetic huddled forms of the cult
members.  Normally I would have begged him to be merciful.  I would have said
it was the right thing to do.  But somehow I couldn’t make myself care.  His
deep, rough bass filled the room with anger and menace, and power.

“You have dared
to desecrate what is mine,” he said quietly.  His towering, dark form was
utterly still as he spoke.  “By rights I should gut you all.  If you trouble
our kind again I will hunt you all down and rip you to pieces,” he paused
briefly for effect, eyes glowing, “and your mothers, and sisters, and
children.”  I told myself it was just for effect.  He was just trying to scare
them into submission- I hoped.

 He continued,
his voice growing softer and even more menacing.  “But I will have vengeance,
for this woman’s life is worth a thousand of your own.”  I shivered.  The
cultists were quaking, their eyes wide in fear and awe.  I could see why
Christian was a leader.  He could mould his listeners by sheer force of
character and presence.  He spoke with the fury and conviction of one who knew
his power.

He stepped forward
suddenly and grabbed the skinny man by the throat.  I broke from my stance and
stepped forward.  I barely registered that the low growl I heard was coming
from my own throat.  “You absolute fucking
prick!”
  I hissed, my voice
vibrating with rage.

 My vision was
starting to go black around the edges and the only thing I could see was his
face.  The rage inside me was bursting free, overflowing my control.  I felt an
unfamiliar pulse of power over my skin as I took a step toward the man.  It
wasn’t Ailis’s power.  It wasn’t Christian’s.  It was mine. 
My power.
 
And it was darker and more intoxicating than any I had ever felt.

“Christian!” 
Ailis hissed behind me. 

I paused to look
down at my hands.  They were hazed in black.  I took a deep breath, steadying
myself as I turned my hand this way and that, molding the raw rage into a ball
of blackness in my hand.  I had utterly lost it.  I didn’t care.  I looked at
the terrified man and felt a slow smile spread over my face.  The power was
crawling restlessly over my skin.  It wanted to go to him.  The need to send it
there was almost painful.

“Do you want me
to tell you about my power?”  I asked softly.  I felt the energy pulsing in my
hand, wanting to be free, and I began to laugh.

Christian
released the man and whirled to face me.  His eyes were snapping with raw
power, an automatic response to me, though I couldn’t feel his aura at all.  My
power was drawing everything else into it like a void, a black hole.  He paced
toward me with his hands up in a placating gesture.  “Mya,” he said softly, his
deep voice like a caress, “don’t do this.”

I tilted my
head, my attention already slipping from him.  “But I want it,” I said softly. 
“He needs to suffer.”  I licked my lips as the power pulsed again inside me.
“It feels so good…” I trailed off in a whisper.

Ailis grabbed
Christian’s coat and tugged, trying to pull him out of the way.  “Get back.” 
Her voice was urgent, but it barely registered in my mind.  All I could see was
the aura of the human in front of me.  It was dirty.  Contaminated. 
Disgusting.  I wanted it gone.  Now.

I moaned as the
ball of blackness left my outstretched hand.  It felt like something had been
torn from me.  The moment the power parted from my body, I screamed, terrified
at what I had just done.  I wanted it back.  If I could have, I would have
recalled it, taken it back inside me.  My regret was far, far too late.

The swirling,
crackling blackness hit the skinny man square in the chest and immediately
enveloped his body.  His face was frozen in a silent
oh
of surprise. 
Time stood still and I swear I felt eternity in the space between one heartbeat
and the next.  Then time sped up again and all hell broke loose.  The skinny
man began to scream, a terrible, tearing sound filled with indescribably
anguish.  I dropped to my knees in horror as my power devoured him.  He began
to disintegrate before my eyes, layers flaking away like ashes in the wind.  I
felt a pull from somewhere deep inside me and I closed my eyes and wrapped my
arms around my middle, fighting the strange and terrifying sensation.  All the
while he screamed, on and on, without end.

The pulling
sensation inside me grew as his screams began to diminish and I gasped and
gritted my teeth, still fighting it.  It felt like an invasion.  I was being
invaded.  Christian gasped something in another language.  I couldn’t hold out
against that terrible sucking sensation anymore.  I grunted with effort, but it
wasn’t enough.  The feeling of being invaded crested, and I knew it would be
better to stop fighting it.  Something was happening within my body that I just
couldn’t control.  Maybe I had used up too much energy.  Maybe I was dying.

 My eyes flew
open and I let go, no longer able to hold back whatever was happening.  I opened
my eyes in time to see the last of his body disappearing.  His aura was still
there, but it had lost it’s dirty cast.  It was pure, clean energy now,
hovering where his body had been.  I took a deep, gasping breath…. and the
energy flowed
into
me.  The pulling sensation stopped and I glanced
around the room.  I could feel the others again.  My aura was no longer
drowning everything out.

The cultists
were huddled in the corner, surrounded by a haze of shock and terror that I
could literally taste.  Some of them were sobbing.  Some were praying.  One had
passed out.  Christian and Ailis were pressed to the opposite wall.  Both of
them had lost any trace of humanity and their auras were glowing with
agitation.

I opened and
closed my mouth wordlessly.  Jesus Christ.  Oh God.  Christian pushed himself
away from the wall and roared at the cult members.  “Get out!”

They didn’t
respond for a moment, still too shocked to move.  Then they all rushed the
door, stumbling over each other in their haste.  I heard muttered cries of
“witch,” and “Satan,” and I covered my ears with my hands.  They were right. 
Something was seriously wrong with me.  Oh  my God.  “Fuck.”  I whispered.  “Oh
fuck!”  I moaned.  “I killed him.  I killed him and I
ate his soul!”

Ailis knelt beside
me and wrapped her arms around me, forcing me to stop rocking.  “Come on Mya,”
she said quietly.  “Let’s get out of here.”  She pulled me to my feet, but all
I could do was stare at her.  Fuck.  Oh no no no....

She bared her
fangs at me.  “Pull yourself together!” she snapped.  I shook my head mutely,
and she slapped me across the face.  “Snap the hell out of it!”

I gasped as the
searing pain reached through my fog.  “Ow! God
damn
it Ailis!”

She grabbed my
face in her hands and stared intently into my eyes.  “We are going now.  I’m
going to carry you.  I need to know you aren’t going to freak out on me and
pull something like that.”  She gestured across the room to where the skinny
man had stood just moments before.

I took a deep
breath and fought off a wave of blackness, then pushed past her.  “I’m fine. 
It’s fine.  Let’s go.”  I walked briskly to the door and up the stairs, forcing
myself into action.  Christian tried to take my arm, but I flinched away.  “I
said I’m fine,” I ground out.

I kept my eyes
open as I climbed the stairs and crossed the main floor to the outer door.  I
wanted to see what they had done to save me.  I took in the blood and the
broken bodies unflinchingly.  It was fine.  It didn’t matter.  I was alive.  I
imagined I could feel the skinny man’s soul inside me and thought I vomit.  But
I didn’t.  All of this had happened because of me.  But that didn’t make it all
my fault.  The cult had abducted and abused me.  There was no reason for me to
be shaking like this.

When I was
outside on the stoop, I paused and drew a deep lungful of fresh air.  Christian
dropped a kiss on top of my head, then picked me up.  I rested my head on his
solid chest, letting his warm red aura wrap around me.  Ailis sighed and turned
to lead the way down the drive, her eyes a chilling vampire silver.

 I kept my eyes
closed the entire way home.  I didn’t want to talk about what had just
happened.  I knew Christian and Ailis would tell me it wasn’t my fault.  They
lived in an eye-for-an-eye world.  But I had seen their fear.  I had scared
them both.

Instead of
taking me directly home, they took me to Christian’s house.  They wanted to
take time to canvass the entire area around my house to ensure it was safe
before I returned there.  No one would get close to Christian’s home, human or
otherwise.  That he’d allowed Ailis to come here just proved how much he was
worried about me.  He deposited me in the shower and turned the tub taps on
full blast before adding half a container of bubble bath.  Once I’d scrubbed my
skin raw in the shower I stepped out and submerged myself in the scalding hot
tub.

Christian leaned
over the side of the tub to kiss me on the forehead, no doubt hesitant to spark
memories of my abuse, but I tilted my head back defiantly, meeting him with my
lips.  He kissed me softly.  Then he leaned back and looked into my eyes.

“When you are
ready, you can talk to me,” he said simply.  I nodded and closed my eyes,
resting my head against the back of the tub.  He ran a hand over my damp hair
in benediction before rising to leave.

I dunked my head
under the water, holding my breath until I felt that my lungs would burst. 
When I came up for air, I almost choked.  Ailis was sitting on the edge of the
sunken tub. She sat down a cup of hot tea and rose to leave.  “Try not to
drown,” she said softly as she left.

I noticed that
she left the door slightly ajar and her words rang softly in my head.  She was
afraid to leave me alone.  Christian seemed to be completely confident that I
would be fine, but Ailis thought I was going to kill myself.  Not my style.  I
was more likely to kill everyone else around me.

I
completed my bath and got dressed.  I was beginning to feel like a real person
again.  All I needed was some food and about twenty four hours of sleep and I
would be good as new.  I stuffed my guilt and anxiety into a locked box in the
dark recesses of my brain, where I wouldn’t have to look at them.  I wandered
into the lush, sunken living room to find Ailis sitting on the couch staring at
the wall with a deep, brooding look on her face.

“Christian’s
house is beautiful,” she said softly.  “I’ve never seen a wolf’s den before,”
she was trying for humor, but it didn’t really register in her voice.

I plunked down
beside her and let out a sigh as she handed me an ice pack for my battered
face.  She turned her gaze to me, concerned.  “Are you okay?” she asked
intently.  Her voice sounded strained, and I looked at her questioningly.  I
shrugged my shoulders.  I really hadn’t thought about the whole incident much,
and I had been planning on continuing in that vein.  Apparently, Ailis had
other plans.

I could hear
Christian rattling pans in the kitchen and my mouth watered at the scents
touching the air.  I don’t know how long it had been since I’d eaten, but I was
starving.  I thought it amazing that I could feel hungry after….  I took a deep
breath and turned to face Ailis.