Secret Worlds (418 page)

A murky fog clouded my rational mind, and I obeyed. I thought back to the Diablo in the woods as it had approached me with malice on his face. I remembered how Boaz had slammed into him, killing him within seconds. I was glad he was dead. He deserved it.

I inhaled deeply, letting hate for the Diablo fill my being. The smell in the room changed to that of rotten flesh, but I didn’t waiver. I pushed my consciousness to the forest beyond and searched for the rotting creatures. Not far away, I found them moving sporadically in jagged, circular motions. There was no order to their movements, yet their graceless march slowly moved closer to the house. There must’ve been fifty or more.

I let out my breath and opened my eyes. The room was darker than I remembered, and the colors were dull, as if I’d entered a whole new world.

“There are so many of them,” I whispered, grimacing from my new surroundings.

Boaz removed his hand from my collarbone. “I knew you would see them.”

“Why is the room so dark?” I asked.

“It’s the reflection of true power. Get used to it.”

“I don’t like it.”

Boaz spun me around. “Right now I don’t care what you like. I need you to be strong to get out of here. You’re going to have to fight.” He took my hand and pulled me from the room.

Fight? I’d never fought anything before—not physically, anyway. Boaz’s pace was so fast I barely managed to keep my footing. “But aren’t you strong enough?”

“Not like you.” He continued to pull me down the long steps to the foyer. My wrist ached from his tight grip.

“Please stop, Boaz. I don’t want to do this!”

He didn’t slow down. “Look outside, Eve. The sun’s light will weaken me—not much, but enough that I can’t fight them all alone. At least help me to save
your
life.”

I tried to resist his grip, but he was too strong. He jerked me through the front doors and flinched when the light from the morning sun touched his skin. He lowered his head and continued to drag me toward a black car parked in the circular driveway.

Boaz opened the passenger door. “Get in.”

I hesitated a moment before I slid into the passenger seat. I wanted to leave this place more than anything, but I was terrified to fight those creatures. The only way I could do it was if I used magic.

Boaz rounded the car and jumped in the driver’s seat.

“I can’t do this, Boaz.”

“Do what?” he said, bringing the car to life.

“Use magic. I won’t do it.” I didn’t want to smell that horrible smell again or watch the world go dark, even though by now it had mostly returned to normal.

“You’d rather they kill you? Kill
us
?”

I glanced around frantically. “Can’t we go another way, by horse maybe? We could go around them.”

Boaz clenched his teeth. “It doesn’t matter where we go. They will find you. You must fight them now. They must see your power.”

Tears sprung to my eyes. My chest tightened, and my breathing went sharp. “I can’t do it!”

Without warning, Boaz grabbed me behind the neck and pulled me toward him. His lips crushed mine, and his tongue forced open my mouth. An uncontrollable rage swelled inside me until all I could do was force the power outward. The windows of the car shattered into a thousand pieces.

Boaz released me. “There. That’s more like it.”

Then he stepped on the accelerator, propelling the car forward.

I gripped the side of the door, knuckles white, and struggled to breathe. The world had darkened again, and a bitter, rotten smell stung the inside of my nose. A dark magical power, more than I could contain, bled from me as an invisible force, turning the trees black the moment my gaze touched them. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to go back to an emotionless state. Some of the anger left but not much.

Air blew in from the glassless window, whipping the hair around my face. I opened my eyes. Boaz was looking straight ahead with grim determination, yet he was smiling as if he knew something I didn’t.

Boaz careened the next corner, the back wheels of the car skidding out of control. He quickly turned the steering wheel the opposite direction, forcing the car back on the road.

“They’re up ahead,” I said, sensing the presence of many Diablos.

“I will try to get through them, but if they attack us, you must fight to kill.”

My stomach sunk to a place it wasn’t meant to be, and it was all I could do to keep from vomiting. “I can’t kill.”

“This is to save your life! These demons will not take pity on you. Kill or be killed.”

Fear replaced my anger, and I half-considered jumping from the speeding car to run away, all the while knowing I would only make it so far before the Diablos caught up to me.

“Hold on!” Boaz said.

Up ahead, the Diablos blocked the road. Most of them appeared corpse-like, but a few still looked human. They had hair, patchy as it was, and a touch of bronze to their skin. For the first time, they all stood eerily still with backs hunched over, hands clenched tight.

Boaz pressed on the accelerator, attempting to push through their blockade. The first few we hit bounced off the car with a sickening thud, but then we crashed into one that didn’t budge. The back end of the car reared off the ground, throwing my head forward. Before I could react, Boaz was out the door, fighting the nearest Diablos. I fumbled with the door, my fingers searching for the lock. My only thought was to keep them out, and me safely inside.

To my left, Boaz attempted to lure the monsters into the shade, but they seemed to deliberately keep him in the open, beneath the glare of the sun.

I should help him
. After all, he had helped save me.

Dark magic was still inside me, humming just beneath the surface of my skin, and I was pretty sure it was powerful enough to make a significant dent in the Diablo’s numbers, at least enough for us to get away. But I was afraid if I used my magic, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I’d seen firsthand how addictive it could be, my parents a perfect example.

Metal grinded behind me. I swiveled in my seat in time to see an emaciated Diablo tearing the metal frame off the back of the vehicle. The moment the back end was gone, he climbed inside, the joints of his elbows bending unnaturally.

This time, I desperately tried to unlock the door, but my hands were slippery with perspiration. I was breathing fast and hard—at least I think it was me. Just before the long, jagged-nailed fingers of the Diablo clamped down on the back of my head, I burst free from the car, gasping for air. I barely managed to get upright before I was surrounded by several of the gray demons, their long and thin arms stretched toward me.

“Kill them!” Boaz shouted.

I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes, and backed against the car. This couldn’t be happening!

One of the Diablos lunged for me, and I raised my arm in defense. My fear, laced with anger, was so great that the power inside me broke free and struck the Diablo. It flew back several feet as if shocked with electricity. I stared at my hands, surprised and frightened by my own strength.

Just then, my head was jerked back and smashed into the top of the door. The Diablo who had crawled inside the car had taken hold of my hair through the broken window. Off balance, I fell to the ground.

“Eve,” Boaz yelled. “Get up!”

Before I could, a child-sized Diablo scurried toward me and crawled up my legs. I struggled hard and tried to kick it off, but it was as if the demon had suction cups. Screaming, I swatted at it, but it continued upward until it reached my chest, where it decided to sit and watch me with wide eyes almost as if it didn’t know what to do next.

“Kill it,” Boaz shouted. He was at the front of the car, trying to make his way toward me, but there were too many Diablos blocking his path. He took hold of a tall one’s arm and tossed him into several others, knocking them down.

From behind me, a heavy-set Diablo with scraggly black hair crept toward my head. I tried to dodge him, but the child-monster was still sitting on my chest and was immoveable. I hit at it and screamed until a cold finger belonging to scraggly-head was shoved down my throat, making me gag. It was more than I could take.

Power, dark and cruel, surged to my eyes, and the moment I met the gaze of the Diablo, whose finger I currently held between my teeth, it’s body withered into itself until all that remained was a pile of snake-like skin. I turned my attention to the demon on my chest. With the same venomous look, I shocked it off me.

I scrambled to my feet, greeted by a new, darker world, only to be surrounded again. I glanced at Boaz in time to witness him snapping the necks of two of them. His momentum spurred me on. With a flick of my wrist, I removed the head of the fattest one in the group. It dropped to the ground like a fallen coconut. I quickly did the same to many of the others. Whatever way I imagined their death, my magic made it happen.

The remaining Diablos hesitated before coming near me again. Their bodies twitched and jerked, and they looked to one another as if waiting for a command.

But I didn’t wait.

Anger and fear, mixed with adrenaline, forced me onward until I could no longer control myself. One after another, I crushed their bodies, turning them to ash and smoke and filling the air with smells of ammonia and mold. Or maybe it was my dark magic that was causing the horrid smell.

I would’ve killed more, but I froze when a chill raced up my spine. I had felt this sensation many times before under the accusing eyes of Erik and Sable. I spun around, searching for them in the woods. Boaz, who had managed to destroy the Diablos around him, stood erect, watching me keenly. I wanted to cast him an angry look but wanted to find Erik and Sable more.

Where are they?

Everything felt wrong about what just happened. Boaz. My parents. But most of all, me. Never in my life had I used such power. If my body wasn’t still humming with magic, I would’ve collapsed to the ground, disgusted by what I had just done.

Unable to locate my parents, I returned to the car without saying a word to Boaz. I needed time to think. The few remaining Diablos slowly moved back into the forest, no longer interested in me.

Boaz slid into the driver’s seat and wrapped his hands around the leather steering wheel. “You did well.”

“Can we just go?” The last thing I wanted was to talk about what had just happened. As it was, I was having a hard enough time calming down. My entire body stung as if a thousand needles pricked my skin, and I was afraid one wrong word would send me out of control again. Boaz seemed to sense my predicament and kept his mouth shut.

We drove for several hours through upper New York’s rural country. At one point, I thought we may have crossed over into Vermont, but I’d seen no signs to confirm my suspicions.

The clouds above had grown thick until a light snowfall burst from their seams. Cold air blew through the broken windows, freezing my skin, but I refused to complain. Boaz must have seen the goose bumps on my arms, because he reached behind his seat and grabbed a jacket. When I wouldn’t accept it, he dropped it into my lap without a word.

By the time we reached our destination, which ended in the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire, I’d managed to rid myself of a lot of the anger. Mostly confusion and doubt remained.

Boaz’s home wasn’t as large as the one I’d come from but was still huge and set far away from any neighbors, a common thing in the supernatural world. The outside was all gray stone with tall wooden beams in the front, matching two massive cedar front doors. Hunwald was perched out front looking more like a statue than a wolf.

I took a step toward it and then stopped.

What am I doing?

This wasn’t my plan. When Boaz’s hand touched the small of my back, I jumped.

“Your new home awaits,” he said.

“This isn’t my home.”

“Would you like me to take you back then?”

“Of course not.”

“Then where will you go?”

I looked past his shoulder. I had no one else to turn to. No money. No friends.

“Stay with me for a few days,” he said. “Give yourself some time to rest and to come up with a plan. Then I’ll take you wherever you want to go. It’s your choice.”

I inhaled a big breath. A few days should be plenty. In fact, it was more time than I should spend with Boaz who seemed to share my parent’s obsessiveness for power.

“Why were my parents in the forest?” I asked suddenly.

His expression went still. “What do you mean?”

“Earlier in the woods, with the Diablos. They were there watching us.”

“That’s impossible, love. They left hours before we did.”

“First of all, stop calling me
love
. Second, they were there. I felt them.”

“
Eve
,” he emphasized. “A lot was happening. I’m sure you confused it with something else.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, but I frowned.

A lot had happened, and fast, too. Maybe something else had been in the forest with us. Another witch, perhaps? All I knew for sure was that I still felt horrible with hate only a thought away. It had left patches of darkness in my mind like the hot embers of an extinguished fire.

“You’ve had a terrible ordeal,” Boaz said, crossing the threshold into his home. “Let’s get you something to eat and a place to rest.”

I hesitated briefly before following. Only a couple of days. It would all be over before I knew it.

Boaz opened the doors into a grand foyer that was as wide as it was tall. I stepped inside, and when a gust of cool air rushed by me, I rubbed my arms with my hands.

“Wait here,” Boaz said before disappearing behind a door to his left. I didn’t have a chance to stop him.

The inside of the home was a sharp contrast from the décor of my parent’s. It was more rustic and…cruel. It was the first word that popped into my head, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. It’s not as though the oil paintings of various night landscapes hanging on the walls screamed ‘I-want-to-hurt-you’; in fact, they were quite beautiful on their own, but combined with the rest of the home’s decorations, including a silver spiked chandelier just above my head, I didn’t feel safe.