Dancing With Monsters (13 page)

“
She has been bound by a
spell,” a voice cut through my thoughts. “And above all, it was a
love spell. The odds of coming out of it are slim.” They were
talking about me.

“
Let’s hope she does so we
can find out what happened in that house.”

I wanted to cry and scream at the same
time. Who were they, and what about the love spell? Did Ben have
something to do with it, or was it put on me by demons as a joke?
There was a demon, a female one that was at the Ivy Inn. Ben had
protected me and paid the price. His face drained of color…arms
wrapped tightly around me…his eyes focused solely with
mine…light…fire…explosion…

On the edge of remembering everything,
I pushed it away. I didn’t want to remember, at least not
now.

I didn’t want to open my eyes, but
they did like two released springs. I sat up in the amber glow of a
sunset, or was it a sunrise? What was this place?

“
Ben?” My voice croaked.
“Ben!”

I was in a bed in a room with a
dresser, nightstand, and closet doors that were ajar beside me. The
surroundings I didn’t recognize, and wondered who or what had
brought me here. The voices talked about a love spell. Where they
monsters, demons, or angels?

I swung my legs over the side of the
bed, and pushed the dizziness away. Walking quietly towards the
door, I listened for anyone who might be in the house. There was no
noise except for the whooshing sound of cars going by outside and
the occasional gust of wind pressing against the window on the
other side of the room. Pending, eerie silence circled around
me.

As I stood waiting for something to
make the first move, I noticed something glimmering beside me. It
was my dress draped over a wooden rocker—bloodstained. Gingerly, I
picked it up as the light overhead flicked on. Wide-eyed, I gazed
at the boy standing in the doorway. He leaned against the doorjamb
and crossed his arms with a curious expression on his face. He
didn’t come towards me, but stayed put like a watchful, curious cat
evaluating the situation before he should pounce on me or not. I
pressed the gown Ben had given as a present protectively to my
chest, and took a step away from him.

“
I’m not going to hurt
you,” he said, looking at me with his brown-gold eyes. “My name is
Seth.”

Frozen, I didn’t reply.

“
Please don’t be scared,
we want to help you.”

We—there was more than one, but how
many.

“
I’m a monster like you.”
Seth took a step towards me, and I took one away. “You are involved
in dangerous things, and we are trying to protect you from
them.”

He knew I was a monster, and he was
one too. His unblinking eyes focused on me. Seth was gentle looking
with his gold eyes, wavy, pale, brown hair, and rounded face with a
square jawline—the kind of person you’d see on a cover of a
magazine that girls would swoon over.

Summing up his teddy bear qualities, I
noticed he too had a hexmark on the inside of his right forearm.
Thick, black lines didn’t curl gracefully on his skin like mine,
but instead were jagged and sharp.

Seth stepped forward rolling up his
sleeve to reveal more of his mark. “It’s called a tribal hexmark,
and are rare for most monsters to get. The majority of monsters
have clan hexmarks, and are a combination of tribal, and royal,
like yours,” he said, nodding towards my arm. “Yours is called a
royal hexmark, and is far rarer than mine making you
special.”

I held out my arm and looked at the
swirling lines.

“
You see, mine I was born
with, but yours had to be uncovered by a wizard or someone who knew
what and how to work with hexmarks.” Seth’s voice was as gentle as
his appearance.

“
The gypsy woman gave it
to me when I was just a little girl. My mother said it would
protect me.”

Seth stepped closer and brushed his
fingers across my mark. “Protect from who?” His eyes lifted to
mine.

I drew in a deep breath and covered up
my mark with the sleeve of the oversized shirt I was wearing, and
wrapped my arms around my stomach. “Demons,” I replied studying his
response.

He nodded his head and turned from me.
“Yes, they are terrible creatures, and there was one or maybe more
at the Ivy Inn where there was a reported occurrence of their
energies being used.”

My insides quivered. “Ben,” I
whispered looking away as tears welled in my eyes.

“
Ben—who’s Ben?” Seth
asked.

“
He’s gone…he
died…protecting me,” I said, sitting on the bed.

The flood of the memories I tried to
repress, broke and crashed through my head and heart as I could no
longer hold my pain in.

Seth

The girl cried as though she was
trying to commit suicide by doing so. I had never seen someone in
so much pain. She finally let me sit next to her on the bed and
wrap my arms around her as she wept on my shoulder. I didn’t talk
to her or try to get any information as to what happened at the Ivy
Inn, where she was from, or anything about her. She was hurt not
only emotionally, but also coming off of a very powerful
spell.

“
I think she fell asleep,”
Ezra said, flipping the light off.

I looked at the girl who had stopped
crying, and was silent. I laid her gently back on the bed and
covered her up.

“
Did you find anything
out?”

“
Very little,” I replied
standing up. “She’s too upset and with the spell—she may not even
have any memory of exactly what happened.”

Ezra stepped closer to the girl and
knelt next to her gently pushing back her hair in a motherly way.
“She’s young and old at the same time. And her hexmark is a special
one.”

“
She said a gypsy woman
gave it to her. Her mother wanted her protected.” I stood behind
Ezra as she continued to stroke the girl’s hair. “She referred to
someone named Ben.”

“
Was that the other
monster at the inn?” Ezra asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not
sure, she didn’t tell me anymore, but I’m going to guess that it
was. The pain was too much for her to continue questioning.” I
empathized with her; I knew what it was like to lose someone you
loved.

“
I can help her,” Ezra
said, looking up at me with her nearly black eyes that I knew were
not that dark, but a deep blue. “I can speak to her right now and
get a lot more information than when she’s awake.”

“
You mean enter her
dreams?” I asked knowing it took a lot of energy to do that, and
Ezra was still weak. “Ezra, you have to think of your
well-being.”

She smiled as she stood up and curled
her delicate fingers through mine. “I’m not made of the thinnest
glass as you think I am. It does take a lot of energy, but it will
help us immensely. I will be talking to her on her own terms and
space. The spell that had been placed on her is stronger in waking
hours, but ceases in her dreams where it’s her own grounds and
nothing can penetrate them.”

I drew in a deep breath and tightened
my hold on Ezra’s hands. “Yes, it would be helpful, but it isn’t
wise and we can talk to her more when she wakes.”

Ezra looked at the girl. “It’s a love
spell, Seth. It will take too long to get anything out of her.
Entering her dreams will be so much more productive.”

I shook my head. “No, Ezra, I won’t
allow it.”

She snickered like a child laughing at
a push-over parent who was raising a defiant child. “You can come
with me and be my protector.”

I looked at the girl knowing we’d find
out a lot more than trying to talk to her while she was awake, then
I looked at Ezra. She was strong, resilient, and could charm the
coldest of hearts. I knew she had a determination and strength that
always amazed me—she was in the Shadowlands longer than she should
have been and survived me bringing her out of them. I held her by
the arms and examined her as she smiled at me. Besides, when she
made up her mind, there was no stopping her.

“
Malachi, Nessa, and Ayil
went shopping to get more supplies—I think Malachi was eating Ayil
out of house and home. Ayil said she is waiting for her consort to
contact her for our next move.” I shifted my weight and glanced
down at the girl. “We have an hour, and that’s it.”

Ezra smiled and tightened her grip on
my hands. “Then let’s be quick.”

April

Blackness was ripped away like giant
claws were tearing it away. I didn’t want to be in the light
anymore. The darkness made me feel nothing, made me numb, and
forget that my heart ached to the point I thought it could quit
beating. I had allowed myself to love, and that love was taken away
from me—fate had made it that way. I was a monster caught in the
human world trying to find my home, but I never would.

I knew I was lying on a grassy hill
from the texture of it under my hands and by the earthy, mellow
scent. I felt warm sunshine on my back, but refused to look at it.
Why was this dream so vivid? And was it a dream or had I
died?

I pushed myself up and could see
distant mountains wrapped in a purple mist, lush trees dotted the
hilly landscape, and the sound of a trickling stream filled the
warm air. It was beautiful, almost as beautiful as
Avalon.

“
Ben!” I yelled out as I
stood up. “Ben!” I called his name again as I turned around to see
a girl and a guy standing next to each other in front of
me.

The girl with her dark hair and dark
eyes approached me first with a warm smile. “Don’t be afraid, we
are here to help you.”

“
Who are you?” I asked.
“And where is Ben? Have you seen him?”

The girl stopped in front of me. “My
name is Ezra, and this is Seth. What is your name?”

The boy stood in the background with
his eyes fixed on me. He looked familiar, but through my foggy
head, I couldn’t place him. “April,” I finally said. “But Ben…where
is he?”

Ezra smiled. “Is Ben your
companion?”

“
Yes, he proposed to me
and…now I can’t find him.” I felt tears sting my eyes.

Ezra kept her gentle eyes on me and
ran her fingers across my cheeks as she made a shushing sound that
you’d make to calm an upset child.

“
You’re getting weak,
Ezra,” Seth said, walking up to her and protectively placing a hand
on her shoulder.

“
I’m fine, but April here
isn’t. We need to help her.” She smiled. “Tell us where you’re from
and what you were doing at the Ivy Inn so we can help you find
Ben.”

“
He took me to Avalon and
asked me to marry him, and when we got back…” I looked away and
towards the distant landscape that resembled Avalon. “Where are
we?” I asked in a low voice as Ezra turned me around and gazed into
my eyes.

“
What happened when you
got back?” Her body began to tremble as she tried to maintain her
composure. “April, we are trying to help you.” Ezra closed her eyes
tightly as Seth wrapped his arms around her. “Tell us what
happened.”

“
We have to go, Ezra!” His
voice was filled with concern.

Suddenly the blue skies shifted to
black, boiling clouds. Lightning flashed overhead and the wind
shifted as I looked over my shoulder at the approaching storm that
was no storm, but something much darker.

“
The darkness,” I turned
back to face them. “That’s what was waiting for us—the stupid,
stupid darkness!” I twirled back around and faced it. “You can’t
have me!” I yelled as black clouds swooped downward and headed
towards me.

I raised my arm, the one bearing my
hexmark, and with all my might I pushed it away. Tendrils of light
flowed from my open hands and curled through the clouds like
ribbons that pierced it like sharp, unforgiving needles. The clouds
boiled, but were losing strength and beginning to break up from my
relentless light-ribbons that continued to twirl around it until it
was all but gone. Only when I saw patches of blue sky did I lower
my hands.

“
It’s gone…I won,” I
whispered to myself as I turned around to see Ezra lying on the
ground, and Seth cradling her head.

Her skin was drained of color, eyes
closed, and blood trickled down the corner of her mouth.

Seth lifted his eyes to me. “April, we
have to get out of here, and you’re the only one who can do it.
Your hexmark is strong enough to work the portal.”

I shook my head and looked at my mark.
“I don’t know how.”

“
Yes, you do,” Ezra said,
barely opening her eyes. “You have strength…take my hand.” She
lifted her hand like a mother extending her hand to a child before
crossing the road. “You’ll be fine.”

The black clouds I thought I had
killed were gaining strength again as thunder rumbled behind me. I
turned to look at them churning and this time, they formed a face—a
woman’s face that was clearly molded from the grey clouds. She
smiled as the bodiless face charged towards us.

I couldn’t fight her, and grabbed
Ezra’s hand. Light exploded between our hands as the mass of grey
clouds skidded over us. Everything was a blend of golden, piercing
light, and grey-black clouds that slowly dissolved.