Authors: Cameo Renae
I decided that before I stepped out, I’d peek under the stalls, just to make sure that whatever it was…was really gone. I took a deep breath and slowly squatted down, bending my head so I could see under the length of the stalls. The left side was clear and so was the right. As I turned my head to check the front…
BAM!!!
Something slammed the stall door hard, knocking me off balance. I fell backward onto the floor and was met with a dark, horrifying face, staring directly at me. Its eyes were sunken in and as black as night. Its skin was a pale, pasty white with hair that was long, black and stringy. It suddenly grabbed a hold of my leg and yanked me from under the stall, dragging me to the middle of the floor.
It straddled me, pressing its hand on my chest, staring through cold, blackened eyes; its lips curled back over sharp teeth, like it was going to bite me.
What the hell is it? A Vampire?
I threw my casted arm up as hard as I could, whacking it in the face. Its head whipped back a few inches, but its body didn’t budge, and then it slowly turned back to face me. Whatever this was… it looked totally pissed.
I screamed as it grabbed my arm and flung me across the room like a rag doll. I crashed into one of the sinks, and heard a loud cracking noise. Instant, sharp, excruciating pain shot through my chest. I gasped for breath, which wasn’t coming easy.
The creature shot at me again, knocking me to my back, wrapping his long, cold fingers around my neck. He bent down, inches from my face, sniffing me. I was helpless and in pain. I shut my eyes tightly and felt his cold breath on my cheek.
“You smell so sweet,” he hissed, and then took in another deep breath. “Much too sweet for a Nephilim. Your scent confuses me. It’s such a shame he wants you dead. But, I promise to make your death easy. Quick and easy,” he whispered in a low, evil tone, sending a jolt of fear through my body.
He was going to kill me?
I gasped for air, desperately fighting to loosen his steeled grip around my neck, but it was locked tight and I was quickly losing consciousness. Everything started to become numb and darkness was quickly encroaching on the edges of my sight. And then, suddenly, his grip loosened, and I sucked precious air into my lungs.
I tried to focus through the flickering lights as two figures, in a blur, were slamming each other across the bathroom. They landed with a crash in between one of the stalls just as another pair of hands grabbed me from behind, lifted me from the ground, out the bathroom, and around the corner to an abandoned ticketing booth.
I fought to free myself.
“Emma, stop! It’s me,” the familiar but intimidating voice said firmly.
I stopped and turned back to my captor. It was Malachi, and for the first time I was happy to see him. His dark glasses were off and beautiful, light-brown eyes were gleaming at me. He didn’t look scary. In fact, he looked kind, and his eyes beamed with concern.
I continued to fight for breath, wincing at the intense pain shooting through my chest.
“What’s wrong?” Malachi asked, carefully laying me on the floor.
“I can’t breathe.” I tried to push out the words without using too much air. Every breath felt like a knife was being thrust into my side.
He placed his hand on my chest and closed his eyes.
“You have a few broken ribs,” he said, shaking his head. “Hold still, Emma. And
please,
try not to scream too loud,” he said, intently gazing at me.
I didn’t know what he was going to do, but if he told me not to scream, it was probably going to hurt like hell. I braced myself for the pain, closing my eyes tightly. I felt the heat of his hand on my injured rib, and soon after, a cracking sound and then…PAIN!!!
He held his hand over my mouth to muffle my sharp scream. It felt like he’d broken another one of my ribs, but after a few seconds, the pain became bearable and I began to breathe a little easier.
“What’d you do?” I questioned, but he shrugged. “Was it magic?”
“Yeah. I’m a damn good magician,” he muttered, with a grin. “We need to leave, now. Can you move?” he asked, raising my head.
“Yeah, I think so.” He carefully lifted me to my feet and wrapped his arm around my waist. We paused while he glanced around the corner and sniffed the air.
“What was that thing in the bathroom?” I asked.
He ignored me.
“It’s clear… we have to move quickly.” He pulled me across the baggage claim area, and out the exit doors, into the cold rain. As soon as we stepped to the curb, a black H3 Hummer came screeching to the front. The front passenger door flew open, and in an instant, Malachi scooped me up, set me on the seat, slammed the door shut, and jumped into the backseat.
“Move it Dom!” he demanded to the driver. The driver hit the gas pedal and screeched out of the parking lot, exiting the airport at speeds close to 100mph.
Holy crap!
I quickly buckled my seatbelt, which was hard to do with shaky fingers.
I turned to the driver and my breath seized. Unbelievable. A handsome, fair skinned, young guy, with ash-brown hair, and bright green eyes turned and smiled at me. Muscles bulged from his tight, white t-shirt.
“Hey Emma. I’m Dominic, but
you
can call me Dom,” he said with a wink and a smile. Oh boy. This guy looked like he was a player, but he definitely had the looks to back any of his action.
“Hey,” I responded, finally snapping my seatbelt in.
“Welcome to Alaska,” he said, taking his hands off the wheel for a second, and spreading them out.
“Yeah right,” I huffed. If my welcome was any indication of what my life was going to be like… I was in BIG trouble.
A sudden wave of terror struck me. I quickly twisted back to Malachi, and pain shot through my ribs.
“Kade! Where’s Kade?” I yelled, almost breathless.
Malachi smiled. “Kade will be fine. Don’t worry. He can take care of himself.”
“What do you mean? We can’t leave him!”
“Oh, don’t worry sweetheart. Kade knows his way home,” Dominic added, reassuringly.
“Was he the one that rescued me in the bathroom?” I questioned. My voice was shaking as much as the rest of me.
“Yes. And I hope he gets his ass kicked for taking his eyes off of you,” Malachi snickered. Dominic laughed as well.
“But he saved my life! You can’t leave him!” I screamed in his defense. "What if he gets killed? Did you see that thing?”
“Like I said, you don’t have to worry about Kade, Emma. He’ll be just fine,” Malachi repeated.
“Oh my God! What the hell is going on?” I shouted, as tears poured down my face. I hated that Malachi was making a joke of Kade fighting with that terrifying creature. It looked evil. Like some sort of demon. What if it hurt him? Or worse… what if it killed him?
“Awe, come on Emma. Don’t be like that,” Malachi said, reaching over, grasping my shoulder.
“What was that thing?” I questioned, looking deep into his eyes. He didn’t respond and looked at the driver, who also kept silent and his eyes on the road. “It was going to kill me, and called me a Neph-a-something. What does that mean?”
“Nephilim?” Dominic corrected.
“Yes! That’s what it called me! What the hell does that mean?”
I saw Dominic shoot a glance into the rearview mirror at Malachi.
“I- I’m sorry, Emma. But Alaine -” Malachi stuttered.
“Yeah, yeah…I know…Alaine will tell me. But why can’t anyone tell me what the hell is going on? I’ve been living in the dark for the past
two
days! Things have been happening to me that I can’t explain! Things are appearing out of nowhere, trying to kill me, and I know you guys have the answers!” I was beyond frustrated, and started to hyperventilate.
“I think you need to calm yourself down a bit, Emma,” Malachi said, holding his hands up.
“Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down? I was almost killed by a freakin’ demon creature, and all I want are some answers!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs.
“I’m sorry to have to do this to you,” he said in a calm voice, placing his hand on my forehead speaking one word. “Sleep.”
I suddenly felt numb and a sense of déjà vu.
“What did you do to me?” I gasped. My world was quickly fading, and I realized that Kade had done the exact same thing to me on the plane.
Now, that was crossing a personal line, and totally NOT cool!
Heaviness crept over my eyes until I couldn’t keep them open any longer.
Chapter 6:
“Emma. Wake up. We’re almost there,” a familiar voice called through the darkness, gently nudging my arm. Tingles and warmth rushed over me like a warm blanket; a familiar feeling I’d grown accustomed to whenever Kade was near. I slowly peeled my lids open and tried to focus in the darkness.
I was still sitting in the front seat of the Hummer, and we were on a bumpy road. Thick growths of spruce trees lined each side, towering up towards the darkened sky. Kade popped forward from the back seat.
“Hey,” he grinned.
“How did you-?” I paused and pointed at him, utterly bewildered by his presence.
He wiggled his eyebrows and quickly slunk back into his seat.
Was I dreaming this whole time, or was there actually a demon thing that tried to kill me in the bathroom at the airport?
I twisted and felt a dull pain in my ribs. The pain was real, so the rest of it had to be. But how did he get here? We left him behind. Maybe they turned around and picked him up while I was asleep.
Wait a minute!
I felt a fire start to burn deep inside when I remembered what Malachi had done.
“Okay, what the hell did you do to me?” I huffed, glancing over to Malachi.
“What do you mean?” he said with a look of innocence on his face.
“You know what I mean, and you did it too!” I said, shooting a skeptical look over to Kade. “When you both touched my head and said the word “
sleep
”… in seconds I was gone…out cold… no dreams, nothing…until you woke me up. What is that? What did you do to me?”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about Emma. That’s pure craziness. You were just overly tired and must have overdosed on your pain pills,” Malachi said incredulously, rolling his eyes. “Actually, I think you were in shock and passed out.”
“Well… what about that thing that almost killed me in the bathroom? What was that? It looked like a vampire. Was it…a vampire?”
All three of them burst into laughter.
“There are no such things as vampires, sweetheart,” Dominic snickered.
“Then what was it?” I pressed angrily.
They all kept silent. I was livid that they wouldn’t respond, so I flipped to face the front, folding my arms over my chest. It was no sense in talking or trying to reason with them. They were all keeping some stupid code-of-silence.
“Kade, your ass is going to be in some deep shit for that bathroom scene,” Malachi muttered.
“Whatever man,” Kade replied.
Dominic laughed, and I shook my head, heated with fury.
The next five minutes of bumpy road and silence were hellish.
“We’re here,” Kade announced with a sigh of relief.
I bet he and Malachi were thrilled that I’d soon be delivered in one piece, and finally out of their hands. I noticed a glowing light above the tree-line ahead. As soon as we rounded a bend, a humongous castle-like mansion towered in the middle of beautifully landscaped property. It looked like it belonged somewhere on the English hillsides, rather than in the middle of Nowheresville, Alaska.
The mansion looked like it had two sections. The main section was huge, towering three stories high. To the right of the house was a tower made of stone that went up four stories high. A large metal gate wrapped around the expanse of the property. Flood lights and little black boxes were atop every post. It looked more like a high-society prison yard. I wondered if the fence had electricity running through it, and I wouldn’t doubt it if it did.
We drove down a cobbled path which came to a round-about. The center was filled with flowers and a large stone fountain. Dominic pulled up to the front of the house where an older, white-haired gentleman in a black suit and bowtie stood, waiting to greet us.
“Good evening, Emma,” he said with a wide smile as he opened my door. Wow. He had an English accent. That was pretty awesome.
“Good evening,” I replied, with a smile. The cold Alaskan air bit my cheeks, and cut straight through my clothes as I exited the door. Holy heck! It was freezing!
“My name is Henry. It’s so nice to finally meet you,” he said, offering me his arm.
Finally meet me?
That was odd. I’d only known I’d been coming here since yesterday.
Henry led me up the steps to the front door which was massive and towering. It looked like it had come straight from a castle, with two angels carved delicately into the wood, adorning each side. The large doors swung open into a grand hallway. On each side of the hall stood golden pedestals with crystal vases nestled on top, filled with dozens of red roses. A beautiful crystal chandelier greeted us with a warm glow from above. The floors were earth-toned slate, and the walls were painted in a golden-brown color. Everything looked luxurious. My mother would have died if she saw this place. It looked like a palace.
We walked through the hallway into a large open room which had floors made of white marble. In the center was a mural made of tiny multicolored tiles of the sky, and an angel with outspread wings, bearing a sword. A white marbled stairway with a golden banister led upstairs to the second and third floors.
Who the heck was Aunt Alaine? Miss Reed, the social worker, said her husband died and left her with an inheritance. But who was he…the sultan? I mean - dang! This was something I wasn’t expecting. At best, I thought an extra-large, three story house, moose head hanging on a wall, bear skins on the floor… you know, typical things you’d think an Alaskan would have in their home.
Kade and Malachi entered the room chattering quietly amongst themselves.
“Wait here Emma, I will alert Miss Gray of your arrival,” Henry said disappearing into a hallway tucked just before the staircase.