Dancing With Monsters (12 page)

Ben opened the basket and pulled out a
bottle of wine. “No, I ordered it and told them when to deliver
it.”

He poured the wine and gave me a
glass. “How many different realms do you travel to? To me, it’s
like you’re some celebrity who has connections everywhere that open
their Bed and Breakfast for you at a moment’s notice and arrange a
picnic at your whim.”

Ben raised his eyebrows and cleared
his throat. “Well, to answer your first question, I mainly travel
to three: earth, Iethia, and here in Avalon. I can go to about any
realm, but you have to be cautious as to where you travel—just like
anywhere. And as far as the hospitalities I enjoy,” he smirked. “I
have several connections that I’ve acquired throughout my travels
and as far as being a celebrity, that depends on how you define
it.” Ben pulled out a plate that had cheese and grapes on it. “Ah,
perfect. You must try this, it’s the best Avalon has to
offer.”

I took the slice of marbled cheese
that Ben handed me. Its tangy flavor and the sweetness of the
grapes were a perfect match that I had never tasted
before.

“
That’s really good,” I
said as Ben poured me some more wine.

I took a sip knowing my head was
already starting to spin and I wasn’t sure if I could get up
without tumbling over.

“
I’m glad you like it,
because you deserve it, and so much more.” He gazed at me for a
moment with a distant look in his eyes. “But I didn’t bring you
here to just let you visit another realm and sample the best wine
and cheese it has to offer.” He reached into his pocket and pulled
out a small, blue velvet box.

I held my breath, because was
he…?

“
April Snow, we hardly
know each other, but I know you are right for me, and I’ve searched
many places throughout my travels to find a companion.” He held the
box in front of me, and with grinning eyes he opened it. “I want
you to be my mate for as long as we live.”

Staring back at me was a square stone
that flickered with shades of blue and white.

“
What…you mean like
marry?” I lifted my eyes from the ring as my mouth felt like cotton
balls had been shoved in it.

Ben chuckled. “Yes, April Snow, will
you marry me?” He took the ring out as it sparkled violently,
almost like it was on fire with blue flames. “Be my wife, my
companion, and as monsters call it, my mate for all of our time.”
His voice was sincere as he held the ring for me to
take.

I gazed at it. Marriage—that’s
something you do when you’re older, not seventeen. But I wasn’t a
normal girl, I was a monster, and I belonged to a different
culture, a different race, and there was no place for me in this
world anymore. Ben, I saw it clearly in his eyes, he cared for me
and longed for someone to care for him.

I held out my left hand and smiled.
“Yes, Benjamin Marsh, I will be your mate.”

Seth

“
What sort of disturbance
have you been alerted to?” I asked Ayil as we sped down the
road.

“
One concerning our serum
chef,” Ayil said with her eyes steadily on the road. “The head of
this district was alerted to demon activity in Brumbriar at the
address,” she picked up her phone and quickly scrolled through her
messages. “345 White Street.” She shoved her phone back into her
pocket.

“
Demons,” Ezra said,
sitting between Ayil and me. “They can be powerful.” Even through
the darkness, Ezra’s eyes were filled with worry. I squeezed her
hand.

“
How powerful are the
demons causing the disturbance? And more importantly, will we have
anyone helping us?” Malachi asked leaning forward.

“
No, no one will be
assisting us as I said,” Ayil glanced back at him. “This is a
sleeper area district. Disturbances aren’t supposed to happen, but
they are.” She set her eyes back on the road. “As far as the
strength of the demons, all I can do is guess, and if they are in
Brumbriar and have set off the alarms, I’m going to guess very
strong.”

“
That could mean there is
more than one,” Nessa said, leaning forward beside
Malachi.

“
Or just one big, ugly
demon rather than a whole party of them,” Malachi said. “Then we
don’t have to chase them around like spoiled children.” His tone
was passive, and I knew out of all of us, Malachi had encounters
with demons once before and feared them the most.

“
We took no weapons, so
how are we to fight them?” Malachi asked.

“
There are no weapons we
can use on them from any realm. That is why the angels cursed them
so they would have to stay in the shadows or die. But a few managed
from time to time escape, gain strength, and are now a nuisance.”
Ayil’s lip curled into a grin.

“
Yeah, but how are we
going to kill it, or are we just going to go and play with it?”
Malachi said with a chuckle from Ayil.

She didn’t answer Malachi, but
instead, continued to chuckle and mumble to herself as if he had
told her a joke. I glanced back at him. His nothing-bothers-me
attitude was slowly dissolving.

“
With this,” I said,
holding up the glistening orange-yellow stone. “The light from
Iethia.” I tried to sound confident even though I had no idea how
to use the stone.

Malachi shifted his eyes to me. “What
are you going to do, throw it at them?” His sarcastic tone covered
the fear I could see clearly.

“
Not throw it, use it
against the demon.” Ayil said as we passed a sign welcoming us to
Brumbriar.

I looked at the tiny stone that was no
larger than the size of my palm. “I’ve no experience with this,
Ayil,” I said as we turned down a house lined street. “Please tell
me you can instruct me to some degree on this.”

Ayil glanced blankly over at me as we
stopped in front of a large house. “It’s a part of you, and when
the time comes, you’ll know what to do. I may not know the stone’s
secrets, but I know enough about it that it is yours and it will
guide you when needed.”

“
You mean we have to
depend on Seth’s intuition?” Nessa asked as Ayil got out of the
car.

“
Come on, we can’t let the
demon win.”

The cold and pungent smell of smoke
filled the air. Everything was still in this little, oblivious
town. Humans, most of them, had no idea of the danger that sat
quietly in the darkness and would overtake them if we didn’t stop
it.

“
The house is under a
glamour,” Nessa said, looking up at the two story house. “The Ivy
Inn—it’s a bed and breakfast?”

“
Good perception, now
let’s go and say hello to the little demon,” Ayil said as she crept
up the stairs.

Nessa was behind her and I held Ezra
close to me.

“
Seth,” Malachi whispered
behind me, and grabbed me by the shoulder. “What if it isn’t a
little demon?”

Malachi with his dark hair and strong
stature, truly looked like a warrior—and now, like a frightened
warrior.

“
Little or big, a demon is
a demon. We have Ayil, who seems kind of eager to get to it, and,”
I pulled out the stone that glowed with an amber light in my palm.
“We have this. It feels powerful to me,” I said more to myself.
“Don’t worry, Malachi, I don’t know how to explain it, but this
little gem is very powerful and with Ayil guiding us, we’ll be
fine.”

Malachi looked up at the house and let
out a sigh. “Let’s go before it comes out here.”

To humans, this house was abandoned,
but to anyone in the enchanted community, it was a beautiful bed
and breakfast guarded by spells and a glamor. It was richly
decorated with items from many different realms: Spherical
orillions glowed with soft light overhead, paintings of the beaches
from Atlantis with its blue waters and pink sands hung on the
walls, and in a sitting room off to the side sat an opened bottle
of wine from Shangri-La with two glasses beside it.

I picked up the full bottle and looked
down at the two clean glasses. Someone was here celebrating—could
it have been demons? The alarms had been set off and the house was
dark and empty. The demon could be gone or was hiding in the
shadows waiting for us.

Ayil led the way as we followed
behind. The only sound was the ticking of the clock and the only
light was from the dim orillions overhead. Then suddenly Malachi,
who was ahead of me stopped.

“
Blood, lots of it,” he
whispered covering his mouth. “Monster blood mixed with demon…there
was a fight.” He pointed to the table that had been knocked over
and the wallpaper that looked like claws had ripped through
it.

Ezra ran her fingers over the claw
marks and looked up at me. “Demon, strong too, I can feel its
lingering energy.”

“
Lingering, meaning as in
gone I hope,” Malachi said shifting his eyes to me.

“
In here,” Ayil announced
as a light flicked on through an open doorway.

We went inside the kitchen, or what
was left of it. Nessa and Ayil stood over a body of a man lying
face down. He was dressed in a long, black wool coat and splintered
bits of wood along with other kitchen rubble surrounded
him.

“
What was he doing?
Cooking up a batch a serum when it exploded?” Malachi examined what
was left of the oven.

“
The demon has been gone
for some time—I can sense it,” Ezra said stepping beside Ayil and
gently touching her on the arm.

Ezra looked at her with her dark,
brown eyes. “Are you sure?” Ezra nodded. “I guess your Shadowland
senses are to be trusted. Come on; let’s see who this gent
was.”

Malachi and I flipped the man over.
His skin was bruised with a large gash across his cheek and a deep
one across his chest. Black blood pooled on the floor.

“
He’s a monster, but I can
smell demon blood too.” Malachi stepped away wrinkling his nose
from the smell only he could sense.

“
Wait,” Ayil shoved the
light she held in her hand closer to the man revealing another
person underneath.

“
Is it the demon?” Nessa
asked standing beside her.

“
No,” Ayil replied
removing some of the debris.

Malachi and I stepped closer to see it
was a young girl dressed in a silver dress.

“
It’s a girl,” Ayil’s eyes
shifted to the man. “They look like they were on a date or
something of the sort by the way they are dressed, not making
serum,” she said flipping the man’s coat open and examining the
pockets. “Nothing on him,” she announced as she stood
up.

“
Do you think he’s the one
we are looking for?” Nessa asked.

“
It’s hard to say, could
be, but we never had any description of him. And with no evidence
here other than a demon attack, I can only guess. I think there was
some connection, because why would a demon come to a bed and
breakfast and demolish it for no reason?”
She asked rhetorically.

“
Disliked the service,”
Malachi said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

“
They don’t risk their
wellbeing to just crash a party.” Ayil glanced at all of us
dismissing Malachi’s reply.

“
Yeah, but this one did,”
I said, gazing down at the girl. “They must’ve had some connection
to the serum.”

“
That’s what I think too.
They could have been striking a deal, or drumming up potential
customers, and obviously whatever happened here, didn’t go well.”
Ayil glanced down at the dead couple.

Suddenly, the girl lifted her bloodied
hand smeared with red-black blood. Her eyes opened trying to focus
on her surroundings. “Ben,” she said in a whispered, raspy
voice.

“
She’s still alive,” Ezra
said, stepping towards her.

Ayil knelt beside her and pushed away
more debris. The girl gazed at Ayil. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Ayil’s voice was soft. “Malachi, Seth, help me with
her.”

Malachi and I lifted the girl up by
the shoulders, gently cradling her arms around our necks. Her head
flopped to my shoulder.

“
She has a
hexmark—possibly a royal one.” Malachi held her arm with his free
hand and turned the girl’s arm to reveal a mark. She was one of us,
a monster, and a rare one to have such a mark.

Ayil looked at it and turned off her
light. She glanced at us with her dark eyes and silver-grey hair
that seemed to catch what remaining light there was. “Let’s get out
of here just in case there might be a round two.”

5

April

Flashes of unfamiliar faces surrounded
me. I tried to call for Ben, but couldn’t sense him anymore. What
had happened to me? I couldn’t remember. Pain filled my whole body
as I tried to call out for Ben. Voices I didn’t recognize encircled
me as I clung to my senses that were fading into the blackness that
beckoned.

Ben had just proposed marriage, and I
was going to have a future with him in a safe place where the
darkness and the demons that lurked there would never penetrate.
But that had been shattered by an explosion of light.