“The door was open, dude. What? Are you gonna try to push me back through it? Think you’re man enough?”
I sucked in a breath and held it when I saw Jeremy put his palm flat against Brady’s chest and push. Instantly, Brady’s eyes flashed bright red and his lips curled back from teeth that now included two vicious fangs in place of his canines. But once again, Jace stepped up to intervene.
With one stiff swipe of his meaty arm, Jace tucked Brady neatly and safely behind his back, insinuating himself between the two guys. It was plain to see that Jace was protective of his quarterback and friend not only on the field, but off as well. His nostrils flared angrily and he was practically vibrating with the anticipation of getting a piece of Jeremy.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the confrontation, but it wasn’t long before my keen interest and concern gave way to a dark feeling. It was coming from the kitchen. More specifically, it was coming from Jace.
Although it wasn’t nearly as strong as the wave of sensation I’d gotten from Lacey and not even in the same ballpark as what I’d gotten from Brady, I could still feel the anger and the determination to protect radiating from Jace. It was as though an intolerable insult had been dealt him and he was out for blood—or something else. I could feel darkness, deeply buried and strangely intoxicating, coming from Jace and it made me extremely uneasy.
And then I saw him change.
Right before my eyes, I saw Jace’s face turn an inky black color, his skin slick and shiny. His features thinned and stretched into a long wicked-looking beak that ended in a sharp, silvery hook. His beady ebony eyes were trained on Jeremy, appearing to drill holes into his very soul. That much was plain to see, even from my distance.
I watched in disbelief as Jeremy began to squirm uncomfortably beneath the pointed stare of Jace. I thought at first it was just intimidation he was responding to, but then I noticed the dozens of winged creatures that were surrounding him. They looked like small, nearly transparent ravens and they seemed to be emerging from Jace, springing from inside him and flocking to Jeremy.
It didn’t appear that Jeremy could see them or feel them, but they were having a very profound effect on him nonetheless. I watched as the myriad razor-sharp beaks dove into Jeremy, into his head and chest, pulling out small pieces of something that looked like glistening gold thread. With each strand they seized, the strange birds would fly back to Jace and disappear inside him. But then, two or three more of the odd birds would emerge, as if to take their place, flying back to attack Jeremy.
As they removed more and more of the material, Jace seemed to swell with…something. Something unidentifiable. I felt it
through
him almost. He felt invigorated and invincible. And satisfied, as if what he was taking in was food for his soul.
The more he expanded with it, the more Jeremy seemed to wither. But not physically, as Brady had. His deterioration seemed to be more internal. It was as if whatever spark of light made him Jeremy, made him human, was being stolen and the resultant space was simple blackness, evil and foreboding.
It was then, as I watched the alarming spectacle, that the whispers began again. They explained that it was Jeremy’s soul the birds were stealing. They were doing what they were born to do, what their dark nature was meant to do. And the reason was because they were a part of Jace, and Jace was a Raven.
As if I’d learned it in school a few days before, the history of the Raven appeared inside my head. I knew instantly that they were guardians of the night and of those that ruled and hunted in the night, and I knew that Ravens were assigned and loyal to one liege. And it appeared that Jace’s liege was Brady.
Urgency began to build inside me. I had no idea what to do, no idea how to stop Jace or even if I could, but I felt like I should do something to keep him from doing some very real and very permanent damage to Jeremy, even though I didn’t like Jeremy any better than the rest of them did.
Once again, however, it seemed that fate had already taken care of the issue. One of Jeremy’s two friends that he’d come with whispered something into his ear and started tugging on his arm, indicating that they should go. Dazedly, Jeremy looked around at his cohort then, docile as a lamb, let his fellow wrestler lead him back the way they’d come and out of the house.
I watched the nearly-translucent birds pick and peck at him all the way to the door, but as soon as Jeremy stepped across the threshold, the birds gave a single, unified squawk of displeasure, released their prey and returned in a blurry swirl to Jace. They disappeared into him as if they’d never existed.
But they had. I knew they had. I’d seen them.
********
Thankfully, things smoothed out for a couple hours after that, although I looked at each person I encountered with a very different, very critical eye. I felt as though a second person, a mutated person crouched inside the familiar shell of all my classmates and friends, lying in wait, ready to spring forth at a moment’s notice.
But no one else morphed into a creature that only I could see. It seemed that the worst of the night was behind me. At least until the eclipse, that is.
When I thought of the cosmic occurrence, I could feel the pressure of it as if it were a tangible force, bearing down on me.
“Yeah, she ended up taking off all her clothes and waiting for him in his bedroom like some kind of skank. I mean, who does that? They weren’t even dating or anything.”
I chuckled. “So that would’ve made it all right—if they’d been dating?”
Lacey rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically.
“No, of course not, but you know what I mean.”
Lacey continued without missing a beat and I just smiled. I loved to tease her. It was part of our dynamic. I usually didn’t stop until I drove her to the point of exasperation. That’s when she
really
got animated.
I was listening to her talk excitedly about another similar situation when I felt a disturbance sweep through the room. I had no idea what else to call it. Disturbance seemed appropriate, as that’s what it felt like—disturbing. Every hair on my entire body rose to attention and prickled in unease. Every nerve that lay beneath my skin twitched uncomfortably. Some part of my brain came alive with knowledge and awareness and my heart pounded with the stimulation of it all.
I glanced about and saw a shimmery film covering nearly everyone in the room. It was as though they were each coated in glitter and standing beneath a spotlight. But that wasn’t the most unsettling part of it all. It was the rush of feeling that I got.
And I knew exactly what it was.
Age old mutations and curses and abilities were coming to life in my classmates, in my friends, as they had in my brother and the people I loved most on the planet. I could feel it all at war within me, as it was at war within them. It was fighting to take over, to be set free, to consume us—as individuals, as a group, as humans, as…something else. And for one moment, for the space of one short, shaky breath, it almost got me.
I felt overwhelmed with sensation, overwhelmed with the dark beasts that prowled in the souls of everyone at the party. The power of it, the thrill of it, the freedom of it—I just wanted to let go and let it take me. More than anything, for that one instant, I wanted to give into it.
And I nearly did, until one small, soft whisper spoke in a nearly audible way. I heard it in the back of my mind as clearly as if the words had been spoken aloud.
Fight it.
So I did.
Considering all that I’d seen and experienced in the last twenty-four hours, all the truths I’d seen, all the mysteries I’d witnessed, I was genuinely afraid not to do exactly as that voice instructed. So I fought.
Pushing back with every ounce of willpower that I had, I focused on all that made me
me,
on retaining control of my body, of my soul, of my mind and I let the determination flow through me. With all my might, I fought.
Only it didn’t work.
As though I was sinking, I could feel the pleasure and the thrill overcome me, the pain and the power overwhelm me. As if a thousand fragrant rose blossoms of every size and color were opening up right before my eyes, I was completely transfixed. Dazzled. Distracted. Delirious. Consumed. And I wanted to be. Despite the knowledge that I should fight it, some part of me actually wanted to give in to what I was feeling, to take all that power for a spin, so for a moment, I reveled.
I couldn’t make out exactly who was what, but I could feel and sense, almost
hear
dozens of different varieties of beings. There were witches, grendels, other vampires and werewolves, wendigos, succubi, blurs, zombies, incubi, dragons, gorgons, and a slew of abilities like telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, pyro kinesis, healing, invisibility, and many more. If I weren’t so overwhelmed by the emotional shock of it all, I might’ve found it fascinating as each power flowed through me, giving me a small taste of what it might feel like to own such abilities, to wield them.
As I stood motionless, letting the tide flow over me, I realized that the time was at hand. I knew without looking at the clock that midnight was fast approaching, as was the eclipse. I could feel both as if they were palpable beings in the room with me.
In the back of my mind came the knowledge that somehow all hell was going to break loose once my classmates learned of their abilities. And that it was up to me to make sure that didn’t happen. It was up to me to keep us all together to face the real monsters that wanted what was inside the protected walls of our community, walls none of us even knew existed. It was the older generation that posed the real threat. And we had to stick together to survive, to make sure humanity survived.
And it was up to me to make it all happen. To save us all. I just didn’t know how.
There was a sudden surge in the strength of the channel through which I was experiencing a small taste of each individual’s power. It seemed that what had been a babbling brook of a connection suddenly became a roaring river that threatened to pulverize my physical body.
It felt as though I was being pulled in dozens of directions at once, my muscle fibers and the fabric of my mind stretched to the point of breaking, bringing tears to my eyes and making me breathless. A small taste of the darkness I could handle, but I knew the whole of it was too much to tolerate, too much for one person to accommodate. Instinctively, I knew that what I was absorbing would literally pull me apart if I didn’t find a way to stop it. It would shred me, destroy me from the inside and take over all of that which made me Peyton.
And I had no idea how to make it stop. I was in the grips of the people surrounding me and there was nothing I could do about it.
Lacey’s voice was a distant buzz in the back of my mind as the room started to grow fuzzy, swimming before my eyes like a mirage. I knew that if I let unconsciousness take me, I wouldn’t survive the hour. Well, my body would, but my soul wouldn’t. At least while awake, I had a fighting chance.
But how to fight? Where to begin?
Just then, just as the frantic fingers of panic and desperation and hopelessness rose up to choke my heart and lungs, fingers of a different sort, a soothing sort, wrapped gently around my throat.
It was Trace.
Instantly, everyone in the room faded away. And so did their power. It was only Trace and me. He was all that I needed to overcome. To prevail. To survive.
The moment his skin made contact with mine, it was as though he’d hit a cosmic mute button that stilled every other voice, every other presence, every other power in the room. My entire being was focused solely on him, as if I was tied to him and he was tied to reality. My reality. The reality I’d always known and had no fear of. The reality I knew how to operate within. He was like gravity, pulling me back down to earth before the black hole of oblivion sucked me into its depths.
“Tell me where your brother is and I might let you live,” Trace whispered in my ear. He did it just as he’d done the “night before,” only then what I’d felt hadn’t been nearly so intense, nearly so…needful. It was as though he’d saved me—from myself, from the others, from the seduction of it all, from something inside me that I couldn’t control.