Witch Road to Take (13 page)

“Either you or the other girl is
pregnant.”

I gasped. “Considering I’ve never even
kissed a guy, I’m going to guess that it’s Blondie. So, what does
that thing want?”

“Her baby.” Jonas stood and crossed his arms
over his chest.

Gavin continued to stare at the picture
while I narrowed my eyes at Jonas. “Okay, I’m sorry about this
morning. I was in a bad mood and I said things I didn’t actually
mean.”

“But you said things that were true, right?
Am I going to go to hell and spend eternity in the acid pit when I
leave here?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I
didn’t keep up with Father’s business. If I have any say, Jonas,
you won’t spend anytime downstairs. I promise. Now what about the
Al
?”

Jonas sighed. “The
Al
is a creature
that thrives on and attacks pregnant women. It has teeth of iron,
brass fingernails, tusks of a wild boar and long snake-like
hair.”

“And it’s invisible, right?”

“When it’s ready to attack, it does it when
the victim is least expecting it.”

Gavin stood. “How do we stop it? These
things are most powerful at night. They’re quick and strong. I know
about them. I’ve witnessed their destruction. Although the one I
saw didn’t look this … distorted.”

“Iron or steel. We can cut off its head with
an iron or steel knife or we can thwart their attack by placing
copper under the pillow of its possible victim,” Jonas
explained.

“You’re quite knowledgeable about these
things.” I winked.

“Hardly. Although I may have some of that
right, but I read about them a while back when I was trying to
figure out what I had become. Before I met Gavin.”

I smiled. “There was a ‘before Gavin’ time
for you?”

“Oh, yeah, those were some dark times.”

“Maybe we can sit around the fireplace and
share ghost stories with each other. That is, if you think yours
can match mine.” I grinned.

Jonas picked up his guitar and plucked the
strings with passion. “Try to outdo the daughter of Satan? Uh… no
thanks, but it would be fun to share our stories. I’m down for
that.”

Gavin stood and looked down at me. “Are we
going to reminisce or save the girl? It’s up to you, Red.”

“Why do I have to decide? That office would
be so much nicer without her there.” I laughed when both Jonas and
Gavin gave me a shocked look. “Okay, okay. I do have a conscience.
Let’s go save her.”

Jonas put his guitar down. “It’s almost
dark, we better hurry.”

Gavin grabbed his keys off the counter.
“Yeah and that thing is salivating over her in that picture. Do you
know where she lives?”

“No, but we have a license plate number. Can
we do something with that?”

“Doubt it. Unless I can use a spell to hack
into the Los Angeles police department data base,” Gavin said.

Jonas sat down at the desk in the living
room and fired up his laptop. “No need for spells. I can hack
it.”

I smiled. “I love my nerdy friends.”

Jonas turned around and glanced at me. “If
you love us, then you save my soul, Dhellia. I know you have some
kind of pull with Mr. Almighty of the underworld.”

I nodded. That was going to be the first
thing on my agenda when I finally confronted my father. I would
save my friends’ souls, if they needed saving.

Jonas pounded on the keyboard a few times,
opened a bunch of folders and finally proclaimed, “Got it!” He
jumped up and turned off the computer.

“Wanna write that down, bro?” Gavin
asked.

“Photographic memory.” Jonas winked.

We drove quickly, weaving
in and out of the after-work traffic to get to Cassidy’s house. I
didn’t like the girl much, but I wasn’t going to let her die
because some wicked beast wanted to savor the blood of her
baby.

I wondered if she’d even realized she was
pregnant. When I saw her that morning, she’d had a perfect
hourglass figure. “Jonas, why would that creature attack her when
she’s barely pregnant, if she is?”

“That’s the strange part, but I can only
guess that it has to do with the hormone that’s released when a
woman is pregnant. Usually, the
Al
will wait until he can
savor the blood of the baby.”

“That’s interesting.”

When we pulled up into her driveway, the
house was dark and the porch light was off. “Ya think she’s
home?”

Jonas shrugged and Gavin kept his eyes on
the house. I needed to know if she was home. “I’m gonna knock.”

Gavin reached out and grabbed my arm. “You
need a game plan. From what you told us, she doesn’t like you
much.”

These guys have impeccable memories.
“Yeah, well, I don’t like her much either, but I’m here to save her
ass.”

“Right. Do you think she’s going to open the
door for you and invite you in to talk about monsters?”

I sighed. “Okay, let’s come up with a game
plan.”

I heard Jonas lick his lips. He was in the
back seat, leaning forward. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Did I mention that my tank in my room is
empty? I’m a little bloodthirsty.”

Gavin turned around in the driver’s seat.
“Really, dipshit? That’s a little irresponsible, isn’t it? We don’t
need two blood suckers running around here.”

“I know, but I lost a couple of those
buggers when I opened the cage.”

“You lost
rats
in the house?” I
shrieked.

Jonas nodded, his big eyes looking up at me
as if he was a child who I was going to punish.

“Pull it together, fangs.” I looked from
Gavin to Jonas. “Okay, here’s the game plan. Jonas, you go through
that gutter hole and find your dinner. Don’t come back until your
stomach is full.”

Jonas nodded and left the car in a
hurry.

“And Gavin, you ring the doorbell. If she’s
there, distract her and I’ll go inside the house and lay down some
copper under her pillow.”

“That thing might not wait until she’s
asleep, Red. It was at her work during daylight hours.”

“True, but it never attacked.”

“Good point.” Gavin glanced in the rearview
mirror. “Um, Dhell?”

“Yeah?” I picked up the copper wires that I
had yanked from the neighbor’s back yard.

“She’s not home.”

“How do you know?”

“Cause she just pulled into the driveway. I
think she saw us.” Gavin scooted down in his seat.

“Oh, crap.” I slid down in the passenger
seat and gritted my teeth. It was too late. The tap on my window
and Cassidy’s glowering face was a dead giveaway that she knew we
were there. I rolled down the window.

“Stalking me now, Dhellia?”

“Kind of.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t recognize that
awful flaming red hair and this poor excuse for a car?”

Gavin interjected. “Hey, this is like a late
model Mustang that needs a few repairs.”

Cassidy glanced from Gavin with disgust back
at me. “I’m calling the police.” She pulled out her cellular
phone.

“Hang on,” I said, getting out of the
car.

Gavin got out on his side, but stayed on the
other side of the car. He stayed there for moral support, I
guessed.

“I need to ask you a question.”

“What?” Cassidy said with her phone open and
her finger on the 9.

“Are you pregnant?” I made the big-belly
motion with my hands.

She took a step back and sucked in a ton of
air. “How do you know that? I just found out.”

“Just?”

“I was at the clinic an hour ago.”

I started to pace. I had no idea how to drop
the news to this woman that a blood-sucking demon wanted to kill
her and her baby. “Can we talk inside your house?”

She was hesitant.

“We’re not here to hurt you; we’re here to
help you.”

Cassidy huffed. “Fine, you two can come in
but I have my cell phone ready to hit 911, if you plan to do
anything weird.”

Great,
I thought.
Everything we’re
going to say in the next few minutes is going to be weird.

Gavin gave me the same look that I just
thought to myself.

Her home was immaculate. It was a one-story,
three-bedroom home and probably the smallest floor plan on the
block. But Cassidy knew how to decorate.

“Model your home much?” I asked.

“Thanks. Mr. Sable pays well.”

It figured she’d mention
his
name.
Can’t an hour go by that didn’t remind me of the man that made the
butterflies in my stomach become ambitious gymnasts? I did not want
to be in her home long, I just wanted to tell her why we were there
and hope that she’d believe us.

“So, who’s the father?” For a minute, I
wanted to be intrusive—well more intrusive than I was already being
by showing up at her home after work.

She placed her open hand on her flat
stomach. “That’s a tad direct, and it’s private,” she whispered.
“You don’t know him.”

“Does he know you’re pregnant?”

“Dhellia, I hardly know I’m pregnant. I was
just told two hours ago and an hour of those two hours, you’ve been
in my face.”

Gavin laughed. That wizard enjoyed Cassidy’s
sassy attitude toward me. I could read his thoughts and he was
happy to see me get what I dish out. I elbowed him in the side.
“Turn down your thoughts, magic man.”

“This is too much fun, Red.”

“Gavin, help me out here, would you?” I said
turning to look at him for some assistance in telling her what was
going on.

Gavin’s big eyes were even larger in his
bottle-cap glasses. “No need to. We’ve got a visitor.”

Cassidy and I both looked in the direction
of Gavin’s stare. Sure enough, behind the sofa, near the fireplace
was a solid gruesome-looking
Al
.

Cassidy screamed. “Oh my Gawd, what is
that?” She backed up quickly and hid behind Gavin.

“Sure, I’ll be its dinner,” Gavin said under
his breath.

I stepped in front of Gavin. Most of these
beasts didn’t scare me. I’d seen them a thousand times in Father’s
home, although I had never seen this particular one, but a standoff
with one was another story. Maybe I could negotiate with it. It was
worth a try.

“You’re not welcome here. You need to
leave.”

Gavin moaned. “Really, Dhellia?
It
doesn’t give a shit if it’s welcome. You better do something more
than that or we’re all dinner for that thing tonight.”

I could hear Cassidy squealing from behind
Gavin. “Make yourself useful and shut her up,” I said in a
whispering roar. “Or you could whip up something magical and make
it go away.”

“Can’t.”

“Great.”

The creature moved closer to us. “You’re not
getting any closer.” My legs were shaking and my heart was
pounding, but I knew I could fight. If I could take on Wolf and
Zombie, Father’s hellhounds, then this thing would be a piece of
cake.

I moved closer to it. “This is going to be a
bad day for you. If you don’t leave now and never come back, then
you’re taking the elevator straight to Hell.” I squatted down,
ready for it.

The deformed beast with long, deadly teeth
and a pitted face of scars lunged toward me, scratched my arm with
its metal fingernails just before I used my left arm, caught it
across the ribcage and sent it flying into the wall.

Gavin took a step back with Cassidy
following his lead. “Damn Red, you can fight.”

An odd sensation gripped my body. The mix of
fear and survival made everything around me black—everything except
my target. My voice changed into a deeper sadistic roar, my body
began to alter. My nails grew long, sharp and hard, my vision
clearer, and my senses sharpened to a wicked keen. A tear in the
skin on my back filled the room, and I could feel my body changing
into something else.

The room suddenly disappeared, everything
around me was fire and the
Al
and I were alone in the
demonic world that temporarily overwhelmed my senses. I was lean,
quick and lethal. I was ready.

With utter speed and strength, I leapt from
the ground, flew toward the beast, and used my left hand to slit
its stomach from one end to the other with a steel knife. The knife
in my right hand took off its head and I landed on one knee in
front of the fireplace. The
Al
dissolved before I knew what
had happened. Almost instantly, the rip in my back healed and my
nails returned to normal. I steadied my breathing and let myself
alter back to my human form.

I glanced at Gavin. Cassidy had her head
buried in his back and didn’t see a thing. Gavin on the other hand,
had seen it all and the look on his pale face was that of utter
shock.

“Wha—what was that?”

I shook my head. “What are you talking
about?” I was in as much shock as him.

“What did you just turn into? Where did you
get that speed and strength? Where did you get the knives?” When he
took a step back, I knew I was completely oblivious to what had
just happened.

“Gavin, I don’t even remember what I just
did.”

Gavin turned and gripped Cassidy’s arms. He
looked back at me and shook his head. “I have to do this.”

I watched.

Gavin closed his eyes and took a deep breath
and then he chanted. A slight wind picked up pace around the room
and started a small whirlwind of sorts.

“Forgive and forget,

It’s time to let go.

Tomorrow is new.

Tomorrow will flow.

All that you saw,

You’ll no longer embrace.

Time to let go,

Release it in space.

It’s my will,

So shall it be.”

Cassidy fell into his arms… unconscious.

“Will that hurt the baby?” I asked.

“No, but we should lay her down on the couch
and get out of here. She’ll wake up in about three minutes and
won’t remember any of this. If she finds us here, she’ll definitely
panic.”

Gavin laid her down and I watched her upper
body to make sure she was breathing normally. “She’s gonna be okay,
right? That thing won’t be back?”