The Light of the World (13 page)

When we slow down it's misty. I can't see
anything but the mist in the air. Everything turns white like the
froth on the sea. The thick cold air smells like the salt. I'm
pretty sure I can taste salt. In the mist I think I see something
moving. I squint and gasp when I see it. It’s a decrepit old black
house with a frightening haunted gothic look.

This must be where the vampires live.

Something evil lives inside. No house with love
and kindness inside looks like that.

He docks the boat at the end of a long pier. He
shuts the boat down and ties it up. I'm wobbly and woozy and when
he takes my hand I throw up over the edge of the boat again. He
moans and holds my long hair. He rubs my back.

"You throw up a lot."

We climb off the boat, which for him looks
graceful. For me it consists of rolling over the edge and lying on
the wooden pier for a minute. Everything moves like I'm still on
the boat. I lean over the edge of the pier and throw up again. I
don’t have anything in there, so it burns.

He lifts me up and carries me in his arms. He
smiles his boyish grin that I instantly distrust, "Please don’t
throw up on me again."

I wipe my mouth and try to breathe away from
him.

"I'm so sorry. I have never thrown up in my
life, until I met you."

He looks worried, "I hope it's not me
still."

I look back at the boat with contempt, "I'm
pretty sure it was the boat." I don’t add the part about his
driving.

He carries me through the wrought iron gate and
the weedy court yard. The house is enormous. Ridiculously
colossal.

"Is this an Inn?"

He smiles, "This is home."

"Your family is weird."

His grins increases, "Not my home. This is
Willow's home."

I frown, "My home that you burned to the ground
was Willow's home."

He shakes his head, "Earth Witches live here. I
want answers. There is no way she raised you and knows
nothing."

He walks up to the front door and places me
down. He flexes his huge hands and knocks on the huge black
door.

"I kind of imagined Earth Witches would live in
a faerie land, with flowers everywhere and colors. This is like the
Wicked Witch's house."

The door creaks open. A stunning redhead
answers. She smiles bright red lips at us. Her eyes glow green like
Willow's. Her skin is pale white and her long green dress looks
like it came over on the Mayflower.

"We've been expecting you Van Helsing." She has
an accent.

"Were you one of the brides in Dracula?" I
ask.

She wrinkles her nose at me and looks confused.
She opens the door. He leads and she looks at him like he is a
piece of meat. I feel sorry for her. I don’t miss feeling that way
about him. I'm enjoying the odd contempt and disgust I have when I
think about him.

The house is exactly the way I would imagine a
bunch of witches would live. Cats, dust, cobwebs, dimly lit, and an
actual straw broom in the corner by the front door.

The foyer looks like an old fashioned brothel.
There are huge velvety couches everywhere and tall floor lamps.
Women mill about in old-fashioned, floor length dresses with bright
green eyes and beautiful faces. I feel homely. It's like hanging
with Michelle and Mona.

I hug my arms around me.

He looks around at them and grins, "Ladies."

Some smile coyly and others outright lick their
lips. They all seem to feel the way about him that I used to.

The redhead looks at me and points to the huge
red velvet couch to my right. "Have a seat?"

I shake my head and creep up behind him. She
watches me and laughs.

I smell something familiar and look to the
right. Willow stands amongst them. She looks hurt, no pained.
I run to her. I can't fight it. I run to her and wrap my arms
around her. She hugs me and kisses my forehead.

"I'm so sorry Rayne."

I shake my head and burrow into her chest.

She isn’t in jeans and a t-shirt. She's in an
old black velvet dress with her strawberry blonde hair in a bun. I
wince when I see the knitting needle.

She feels me tremble and hugs me harder. "I wish
I could have told you. I wish I'd just made you stay home."

I star to cry, "I killed a man Willow. I killed
a man and I don’t know what's wrong with me."

She pulls my face back, "Nothing is wrong with
you baby girl. You're perfect. It’s the five devils that are coming
for you. It's them that will ruin you and make you evil."

I frown.

"Willow you're getting ahead of yourself." The
redhead smiles at me.

I cling to Willow and let her comfort me. If she
stabs the knitting needle into me I know it will be with love. I
know it will be her freeing me.

Wyatt struts around like a cock in a hen house,
"We need answers."

Willow sighs, "He's in love with her."

I look back at him and watch his eyes. They
never leave me. He can see the question on my face. His face gives
away nothing but the discomfort of being with Willow.

"I don’t love her. I saved her. That’s all.
Don’t try to read something into it, witch."

He glares at her. He hates her. I don’t blame
him. The stabbing in the neck had to have scared the shit out of
him. It scared me and I wasn’t even the one getting stabbed.

The redhead laughs and crosses her arms, "He
can't love her Willow. That’s like a dog falling in love with its
food dish." The others laugh and watch his face. They lick their
lips and want him. I can see it.

He shakes his head, "I hand-fasted with her to
save her. She was sick and getting worse." I have to admit I didn’t
want him to love me, but his words sting nonetheless. His dark blue
eyes sparkle and he grins at a woman across the room with curly
blonde hair.

"She shouldn’t have been with you. She wasn’t
sick. She was hungry and you know the effect you have on us, if we
aren’t careful." Willow speaks softly and strokes my head. She is
my mother. I don’t care about the rest it.

Willow ignores them and looks at me, "The five
devils will bring you the pain and sin of the world and fill you
up. They can get to you in the last years of your life. Once they
come the change starts. I figured with all the different species at
a college you'd be fine. I put protection charms all over you. Plus
I put the spell on your dorm. No evil or anger or pain would find
you in there. It wouldn’t be able to see you. You slept there every
night right?"

I feel panic. The man in the chair.

"She slept at my place twice."

Her face lifts. Her bright eyes smolder, "You
never left her side did you?"

He shakes his head.

I look at her and then at him, "The man in the
chair. The man with the sweater. I heard the water running. He was
there watching me sleep."

Willow's face is devastated. "I told you no sex.
No sleepovers. No sex. No meat. I told you to do the poses. I did
them for nineteen years Rayne. I was teaching you."

Wyatt takes a step forward, "It's my fault. I
took a shower. I made her sick. She would have gone back to her
room but I made her sick. She took mini sips from me in the
bar."

The witches make a face. I can tell they know
the pain I've been in.

"The sickness is the evil. Is he the only one
you've seen?"

I nod, "Yeah. I haven’t seen any others, but
I've slept at Michelle's, in her dorm."

"I protected her dorm. I figured you would sleep
there. Her father told me she was going and about the surgery and
changes. The only thing I never figured on, was a Van Helsing."

The redhead laughs, "Not one that would fall in
love with the Sin Eater." There were those words again, love and
sin eater.

"I told you I'm not in love with her." He
crosses his arms and looks indifferent. I believe him, but they
don’t seem convinced.

The redhead laughs again and crosses her arms,
"Me thinks the Slayer doth protest too much." She looks like she is
toying with him.

He looks angry but then puts his fake charming
face on, "I've never been much of a one lady sort of man." The
blonde with the curls giggles. I almost throw up, but I know my
guts are empty.

The redhead looks severe for the smallest of
moments, "She can't stay here." Her eyes dart at Wyatt. She fears
him. They all desire and fear him.

I sigh.

Willow squeezes my hand, "I know that Glory but
she needs a moment of explanation. I owe her that. I owe her what I
know." I get marginally excited.

"What am I? What is a Sin Eater? How was I born
dead? How was I born at all?"

Willow's eyes sparkle. She is getting emotional.
She looks at the others and then she takes my hand. She pulls me to
the back of the room and through a hallway. It's long and dark and
black. My eyes do the thing they do and I can see the doorways that
line the hallway. Every door is closed. She pulls me to a huge
black door and when she opens it I am stunned.

She pulls me into a white light. My eyes hurt
it's so bright. I shield my face and let her pull me along.

The bright light turns out to be a garden with
huge lights high and skylights above it. The garden is warm in a
way that gets into my bones and warms my soul. Pretty flowers and
strange plants are growing in huge rows. The green house is the
biggest I've ever seen. Vines climb the walls. Bee's and bugs flit
about doing their work. I can see Willow being happy in a place
like this.

"What is this place?"

She smiles and looks proud, "This is our
garden."

He's quiet and continuously gripping the
steering wheel of the boat. His fingers seem to be apart of
whatever conversation is going on in his head.

I don’t feel sick. I feel glorious. It's
remarkable. Everything is alive and moving in a constant harmonious
pattern. Even his erratic driving is not noticeable.

He looks back at me and rolls his eyes,
"Whatever she gave you is obviously helping."

I scowl, "She never gave me anything."

He grins, "You never ate anything while you were
in the garden?" His tone is patronizing.

I am about to answer but I recall flower petals.
They were rose colored and sweet. She put them in my hand and I ate
them like candy.

"What was it?" His grid widens. "They're Fae,
you shouldn’t eat things they give you. Ever. Alice in Wonderland
didn’t come from nowhere."

I frown and look over the edge of the boat at
the choppy waves. I want to roll my eyes at the Alice in Wonderland
comment, but I have a terrible feeling that he isn’t kidding. He
doesn’t really kid like normal people.

I cross my arms and watch the water. We drive up
to the rocky cavern and he parks the boat where it had been when we
left. The huge cave is awesome. I can imagine how amazing his
childhood was.

I look around and wait for something dark and
creepy to attack. The weird elevator makes a creaky noise and then
drops to the floor.

Instead of vampires, a woman in a cardigan steps
off. She's probably Willow's age but with more city miles. Her
forehead wrinkles when she sees us.

Wyatt's back stiffens.

She crosses her arms and refuses to make eye
contact with me, no matter how much I smile.

"I had to see for myself." Her words are sharp
and pointy and I'm certain Wyatt's ears are bleeding.

"Hello mother. This is Rayne. My very own Sin
Eater, something I've always wanted." His words are dry and
sarcastic.

She meets his gaze and smiles softly, "Your
sister had to defend the house. They came looking for her. We
learned a few things while we've been waiting for you."

He steps off the boat but keeps his body between
hers and mine.

She is wearing tan slacks and a cream colored
cardigan. I'm having a hard time straightening my back and being
uppity around her. She doesn’t scare me.
Not until she meets my gaze.

Then she scares me in ways that make me feel
like I have never felt fear before.

Her face changes the way Wyatt's does. Her eyes
glower at me and sort through my varying sins. I swear she can see
everything. She makes a face and I'm scared she's looking at my
lust for him.

Her mouth sneers and her forehead gets dark. She
is sinister looking. It's almost like a wind comes from behind her
and blows her raven black hair. Okay, it could be that I'm still
high from the pink flowers.

"Rayne." I snap out of it and look at Wyatt. I
am trembling, "She wants to kill me."

He nods, "She ate the flowers at the Earth
Witches place. Did Fitz tell you everything?"

She is giving me a strange look, "Yes. He said
she was raised by an Earth Witch and warned about you by a Fire
Witch. Since when do they work together to protect a Sin
Eater?"

He looks at me and I can't help but feel lost,
as usual. "I don’t know. Using us as the common enemy maybe. Fitz
was the one who said the Earth Witches were the guardians of the
Sin Eater. The Earth and Fire Witches are better at playing nice
than the others."

She shrugs and he offers me a hand off the
boat.

I don’t take it. I don’t trust him. I climb off
and inch closer to the elevator without going to close to her. I
steal a glance at her and notice her face looks normal.

I watch her, waiting for her to turn it back on,
"What are you?" I ask.

She looks at me and raises an eyebrow.

"My mom is one of us."

I think for a second, "But if your last name is
Van Helsing and your mom is a Van Helsing…how deep is the gene
pool?"

His mother's face instantly turns and she growls
at me. I put my hands up, "Sorry I talk when I'm nervous."
He grabs my hand and pulls me behind him. He presses the button and
the wall slides out and we start moving up. She doesn’t stop
clenching her jaw or giving me the death stare.