The Light of the World (16 page)

His eyes fill with fear as she drags him down.
Her screams make my ears feel like they're bleeding. I dive under.
I see her. I swim but she is faster. He is struggling and fighting
her. He does something with his hands and sends her back. She is
angry and frothing up the sea. She swirls around him, choking him
with the white strands of her dress. He never stops fighting her.
He pulls something from his back pocket and in the struggle he gets
his arms free. His hands come up the way Willow's did with the
knitting needle. He stabs into her eyes where the light shines.

She screams as she dies. I can see the lights
coming. I swim to him and grab his arm. I pull but he fights. He's
trying to take something. I pull him and look back. Panic fills me.
He grabs my face and sucks the air from my lungs. He grins at me.
He's using me as his own oxygen mask. I point. He turns and sees
the line of white lights.

He mouths, 'fuck'

I nod. He swims fast and hard for the shore.
When I look back I can see them. They're everywhere. His feet hit
the rocks before mine. He drags me from the sea.

He runs to the car, "GET IN THE CAR!"

Mona and Michelle are standing on the pier
watching in disbelief as a horde of white-garbed women climbed from
the sea. When the air hits them, they move in the same odd way the
one in my room moved.

Michelle screams and Mona drags her to the car,
the same way Wyatt is dragging me.

"You killed her." I sputter. He pushes me into
the SUV and starts it. Mona and Michelle barely make it into the
car when he pulls away. He speeds through town.

He clenches his jaw, "You're an idiot."

I look at my stunned and sobbing friends, "Yeah
well you're an asshole. You lied to them to get them to talk me
into coming with you? What the hell?"

He pounds the steering wheel, "You ran. You ran
and I didn’t know how to get you back. God dammed. I was trying to
keep you safe."

"Prisoner. You were keeping me prisoner!"

He seethes, spitting on my face when he yells,
"YOU WERE SAFE!"

"You're crazy. She isn’t crazy, you are. You're
a son of a bitch. You had us convinced we were the worst friends,
that we let her get depressed and become a danger to herself."

Michelle leans forward and slaps him on the top
of the head, "You son of a bitch. You god dammed son of a
bitch."

He swats at her, "Stop. Just stop."

Mona looks at me, "I'm sorry."

I shiver from anger and the cold water. "No I'm
sorry. I've dragged you into something and I'm sorry for it."

Michelle wipes her eyes and shakes her head,
"What were those?"

"Nixie."

The three of us mouth the word and look
confused.

"Water Sprites. Water Witches. They have
incredible power in the water. Very hard to kill. Unless you happen
to have a silver dagger. Their essence is a healer for people."

He speaks as if the woman in my room is nothing
but a good source of faerie dust.

"You killed her."

He frowns, "She was trying to kill me."

I raise an eyebrow, "She was trying to save
me."

He rolls his eyes, "Yeah, same thing I
guess."

"So water sprites are real?" Mona looks like she
is about to laugh.

I nod, "You would beg for death if I told you
about the things that are real. That’s how I felt anyway."

Wyatt cranks the heat when he sees how much I'm
shivering.

"So those things looked pretty angry back there.
That was some scary shit. Watching them crawl out of the water like
an army made of chiffon. They seemed like they hated you."

Wyatt nods, "Nothing new there. Everything hates
me." His eyes flicker at me. I envy them their true hate. On some
level I still really like him. It's a dirty level where my inner
whore lives. I don’t like to let her have opinions or sway over
what me and the common sense bitch are doing.

He continues coldly, "They can sense the death
of their sisters from miles. They can smell the death of other
sisters on me."

Through my chattering teeth I grimace, "You’ve
killed them before?"

He gives me a blank stare, "When I've needed
to."

"Were they attacking you?"

"No, I needed the essence."

I knew the answer. I just wanted to hear him say
it. It fuels the fire I need to hate him properly. Even then, when
I don’t think I can.

"They helped me escape you. Why would they do
that? They seem to have my best interest at heart."

He shakes his head, "I don’t know. The fact
they're helping you is weird. Fire Witches, Earth Witches and now
the Nixie. It's unprecedented."

"So they're the Water Witches?"

He nods.

I want to ask him a million questions, but I
don’t want to traumatize Mona and Michelle.

He glances at me again, "You saved me."

I realize I did.

"Thanks."

"It was an accident. I panicked. They looked
scary swimming like that at us in a wall of lights."

He chuckles, "That they did."

"It's probably going to haunt my dreams
forever."

Mona passes me my phone. I take it and see the
texts and flashing lights.

"Willow has been sending messages non stop. She
phones and texts every half an hour."

I look at the messages and frown.

"She never wrote these."

I glance back at Mona. She frowns, "What do you
mean?"

"Someone must have her phone. She never calls me
Rayne unless she is really upset or really angry. And she never
calls herself mom."

I look up at Wyatt. He bites his lip.

"Did you do this?"

He shakes his head, "No but they might have her
phone."

"Who are they?"

He looks at me and laughs, "Who isn't right now?
Everyone seems either willing to help you or hurt you, for whatever
reason."

I think for a second, "How do I know they don’t
have her?"

He laughs a rich fully belly laugh. "The only
reason we weren’t struck dead upon entering their yard is because
they were expecting us. I came unarmed and you were with me. You
think for a second they couldn’t have killed us, instantly?"

I frown, "You said they couldn’t kill you."

He looks over at me and frowns, "Her, she, one
singular witch. She cannot kill me, they is another story. I can't
fight them all off and you don’t seem to have any ability at
all."

"I can eat evil with my mouth. Very special
talent in fact."

He rolls his eyes, "Yeah well thus far it's
proven pathetic. You ate a guy on the grass."

I gulp. He raises an eyebrow, "Who else?"

I look down, "A man in a garage. I'm
ashamed."

Had a cricket been in the backseat you could
have picked out the notes he played.

I look back to see their ghostly white faces
covered in horrified expressions. My eyes widen instantly, "I never
ate them like chewed and swallowed."

They look at each other and try to smile.
Michelle tucks her hair behind her ear and laughs, "Of course not."
She giggles nervously and looks at Mona.

I'm not certain of the course of action I should
be taking. I close my eyes and try to remember how Willow put it in
the green house.

"I'm something called a Sin Eater. I eat evil.
Right now there is too much evil on the earth. When I've eaten
enough evil and put the earth back in balance, I am to be
sacrificed and I take the evil to hell with my soul. I have been
born three times, the same soul every time. When the balance tips
and the world is smothered in darkness, it's time for me to be born
again. It happened once in the beginning when the earth was young.
Once in the dark ages. Once now. When I'm born I live roughly
twenty-one years. In that time I live like a normal person until
the last two years. In those last two years, I fill with the
sickness of the earth. Black Angels, angels of death, bring me the
evil of the world. They put it in me. It makes me sick. Then I have
to be crucified and burned on the cross and beheaded, I think." I
glance at Wyatt.

He smiles and nods, "Weirdest conversation
ever."

I laugh at him, "Hardly. Your uncle actually
said the words seed, spilling and womb in one sentence."

He rolls his eyes, "Oh my god, he was telling
the story from the bible."

I sneer, "Anyway, then my soul returns to hell
and I take the evil with me."

Their eyes dart between Wyatt and I. Neither
believes what they are being told. I don’t blame them.

"Willow was my guardian. They don’t know exactly
how I'm born but I'm born without life. I'm born dead."

Mona raises an eyebrow, "Like a still born?"

I nod, "Sorta. I guess. I still don’t have a
full explanation on it all. But when I sleep, I am with the dead.
I'm a vessel for death. That’s all I know."

Michelle nods, "I have tried waking you tons of
times. It never works."

"You can't wake me. I'm dead every morning until
I wake. I wake when the dead let me come back. Apparently they take
me somewhere. Like my dreams aren’t dreams, but something
else."

Wyatt puts a hand on mine and squeezes. I like
the feel of him. Regardless of everything else, he seems to one of
the few people I can count on. Even if his evil family has every
intention of hurting me.

Mona watches him and glares, "And him? Where
does he fit into this trip down the rabbit's hole?"

I laugh and the corners of Wyatt's mouth
lift.

He clears his throat, "I'm a Van Helsing. My
family has been battling the things her family made since the
beginning of time."

I grin, "Yes, Van Helsing from Dracula."

Michelle laughs, "This is the shit. You guys
need to write this down and make a novel. Maybe not for kids
though. The white ladies in the water are too scary. The movie
version would have them peeing their pants. Damn near peed
mine."

"So you are here to kill her?"

He shrugs and looks at Mona in the rearview,
"Haven't decided on that yet."

I watch his dark blue eyes and wait for him to
smile but he doesn’t. I guess he isn’t kidding. Great. I pull my
hand away.

"Asshole."

Three of us in a king bed is too many. I'm
cramped and uncomfortable. I hate being in the middle. I climb out
of the bed and walk to the door.

I turn the handle but it's locked. I close my
eyes and calm my mind.

"Are you here?" I ask to no one. No one anyone
else could see or hear. I haven’t properly talked to them in a long
time. I remember being a kid and they could do stuff. Lift things
and play dolls with me.

The air whispers and sparkles with energy.

I smile when I hear their whispers.

"Can you unlock the door please?"

I hear the whispers, like children's giggles
from a distance.

"Please. I won't block you out anymore."

The lock clicks. I turn the handle slowly and
wander out into the night.

They touch me and beg me to wait. They don’t
like the house either.

I slip down the stairs, making no more noise
than a feather would. I almost float across the floor, I am so fast
and quiet. I open the buffet and turn the piece of silver.

The latch clicks. It's the most noise I've made
yet.

I push the wall and creep down the winding
stairs.

The headlamp is the only thing I see when I
reach the bottom.

He is bent over his books and alone in the
dark.

I creep to him. He looks up as I stand next to
him. He jumps and shines his headlamp in my eyes.

"You scared me!" He whispers sharply.

"I need answers Fitz. Willow recently told me
about you and her. The great love of her life."

I sit at the chair next to him and smirk.

He looks sad. He pulls off the headlamp and
places it facing upward on the table, to light up the area we are
in.

The rest of the room is dark until my eyes
adjust.

"Your eyes."

"They can see no matter where I am. I can see in
the dark and in the ocean. When they do this, I can see really far
too. Like nothing can hide from me."

He looks grim, "Except your heart."

"What?"

"You aren’t supposed to love Rayne. You
shouldn’t be able to love him the way you do. It isn’t
natural."

I have guarded the secret so close, I never even
let myself see it. Not fully. "Please don’t tell him."

He frowns, "I would never. I thought at first it
was the way we attract all of the things you are. But I see you
don’t feel that way about the rest of us. Things like you can't
help but want us. All of us. But you are different. Your heart
belongs to him."

My skin shivers, "I try so hard to hate him. He
has been nothing but cruel to me."

He nods toward the wall of swords and wooden
stakes, "He was trained to despise all that you are. He dislikes
all of you, naturally. It goes against his nature to even be kind
to you."

I shake my head, "He's been kind to the others.
I've seen it. There was a witch, he never hurt her."

He smiles and I can see regret everywhere, "He
is biding his time my dear."

"But he promised her…"

"He lied." Panic rises in me. I have to warn
her. I watch his eyes. I might not get a chance to warn her. I wish
someone had warned me.

"You hate me don’t you?"

He nods once as his eyes dart around the room,
"I don’t mean to. I know what you are is not your fault but I don’t
have the ability to be kind to you, not without plotting your
death. You shouldn’t have come back here. The Nixie tried to warn
you."

The air sparkles and my skin twitches, "You will
betray me then? You will make sure they get me? That’s why the
Nixies came. They came to warn me about you and the rest of your
family. Not him. It never was him I was in danger of. But the rest
of you, you'll kill me. You'll betray Willow, even though you once
found yourself in the same predicament as me?"