He smiled, and a short chuckle escaped him. “Your daughter’s here, Sean. Would you like to say hello?” He waved his arm over my father, and he sat up suddenly.
Tears welled in my eyes when I took in his transformed features—his streaked skin, the elongated teeth, and the glowing red eyes that pulsed over me.
“Daddy?” my voice squeaked out as my heart pounded, feeling broken at seeing him this way.
He stood up and walked to the edge of the circle, standing in front of me.
“Portia,” he whispered, and I didn’t miss how his eyes flared.
“Did he hurt you?” I asked.
He didn’t reply though, only staring at me in a peculiar way. “Portia,” he said again. He lifted his hand and reached through the invisible barrier between us, stroking my cheek in a gentle, fatherly manner.
I leaned into the caress, letting the tears fall freely. “I’m so sorry. I wanted to save you from this, but I didn’t know how.”
“It’s okay,” he said, letting his hand trail down my arm.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” He grabbed me and yanked me inside the barrier, sinking his teeth into my neck as he took several steps toward the center of the circle.
“No!” I heard Vance yell as he raced to the edge, only to have it shock him. “What are you thinking?” his voice hammered inside my head.
“I’m thinking I’m inside the circle now,” I spoke back mentally. I tried to push my dad away. “Daddy please, you’re hurting me.” I hoped to appeal to the father inside him, the one who loved me and was concerned for my welfare.
Damien’s hearty laughter reached my ears, and I could tell he was thoroughly enjoying this turn of events.
“Get him off her,” Vance yelled. “She’s been through enough!”
“Now son, there’s no need to be overly dramatic. You know he can’t really hurt her. Let him have a taste.”
“Portia, you have to get him off you. Otherwise you being inside that circle isn’t going to do anyone any good,” Vance’s voice sounded completely helpless in my mind.
I knew he was right. I could feel the heaviness seeping into my limbs. He was drinking heavily without any sign of stopping.
I wrapped my hands around his arms, mustering my magic together, shooting small ice shards into him.
He winced and jerked from me, letting me go, and I crumpled to the floor. My blood was running down his chin as he looked from me to the wounds I’d created. He slowly reached up and began plucking the stakes from his skin one by one, letting them fall and shatter.
“Come now, Sean. Let’s get back to work,” Damien said, motioning for my dad to join him, which he did. He resumed his spot on the floor and stared straight up at the ceiling without moving.
I struggled to maintain my wits—looking over to where Vance was pacing helplessly outside the wall he couldn’t penetrate. I needed to pay attention and try to thwart Damien someway if I could.
Damien walked up the steps to the altar and lifted the three bound torches we had stolen together and placed them on a stand, lighting them. He picked up the key he had taken from Earl’s and walked over to where Bels was lying, pulling out his athame as he leaned over her.
“Don’t Damien,” I tried to speak, but my voice came out very weak.
If he heard me he didn’t even pause, cutting into her wrist. She didn’t move or flinch at all when he lifted her arm, letting her blood run over the key.
He stood and walked over to where my dad was laying and repeated the process. My dad did flinch slightly, but did nothing else, continuing to stare straight at the ceiling.
Damien went to the altar and stood before Hecate’s box, raising the key into the air over his head. “Blood of the pure, blood of the corrupt!” he spoke in a loud voice before slipping the slickened key into the hole designed for it. It turned easily with an obvious click, and he lifted the lid to peer inside.
He stepped backward, walking down the steps as he made his way to the floor, kneeling there and bowing his head. He began speaking in a different language I thought might be Greek, though I didn’t know enough to be sure.
The words flowed from his mouth reverently, almost like a prayer, and then suddenly he changed to English.
“Mighty Hecate, hear my plea,
I come now to commune with thee.
I seek the request I’m allowed to make,
And give my life for you to take.”
I couldn’t believe my ears as Damien offered himself as a human sacrifice to the goddess. I closed my eyes and grimaced, suddenly realizing why he wanted the Awakening so badly. It would bring him back to life.
He continued on. “With the dead, I wish to be,
And them be allowed to commune with me.”
A loud rushing sound filled the air as a darkness swirled up out of the box and shot through him. He fell back with a gasp, completely lifeless.
“Portia,” Vance’s frantic voice came from outside the circle. “The ritual isn’t complete. He’s counting on the Awakening to bring him back. You’ve got to come pull me into the circle so I can stop him before it’s too late!”
I lifted my head slightly as I tried to fight my lethargic body, slowly pushing myself across the floor.
“Come on, baby. You’re going to need to move faster than that,” he called to me.
“I’m trying,” I said softly. I got to my knees and crawled toward Vance.
Damien gasped, beside me, sucking the air back into his lungs, and I grimaced knowing I was in trouble now.
“Oh, no you don’t,” he yelled, grabbing my ankle and pulling me toward him. He rolled me over. “You’ll not spoil this for me now, Portia.”
I noticed a new dark swirl sweep up from within the box, and it struck Damien again. The shock of the power traveled through him and into where he still touched me, and we both screamed.
Damien fell to the floor beside me, breaking our contact, and the shadow continued to fill him as we both writhed in agony.
“What’s happening?” I cried to Vance, looking to him as I clutched my sides and screamed again. “Help me, please!”
He was panting, looking desperate as he paced beyond reach. “He’s called a dark magic, Portia. The Awakening is a light magic—the two can’t coexist in the same space. The new power is tearing the Awakening from you both.”
His words were drowned out by the roaring in my ears and the sound of my own shrieks. I remembered the horror of having it torn from my cells once before and it seemed even more painful this time.
“I don’t want this magic,” I shouted. “Stop it! Stop it!”
“Portia! You’ve got to get out of the circle!” Vance yelled.
“I can’t,” I sobbed in agony.
“You have to try!”
Struggling to move, I rolled onto my stomach as I tried to slither across the cold floor toward Vance. I could see the white wisps drifting rapidly from my body as I shook with horrible tremors.
“That’s it, baby. Keep coming,” Vance’s frantic voice continued to encourage me.
I could barely hear him over the sounds coming from my own mouth, but I focused on his face as I continued to propel my body across the floor to him. His eyes glanced away from me for a moment, and my gaze followed his line of sight.
Damien was shuddering as he crawled up the steps toward the altar. He collapsed at the base of it and shoved his hand into his pocket, pulling out a round medallion. He stretched up, slamming it into the opened box.
“By the god of Hades, lord of the underworld, keeper of the departed, I demand possession of souls!” he shouted.
There was a loud explosion in the air above the altar. A swirling vortex opened up, and wraith-like creatures began pouring through it. Damien laughed, even though he was still obviously in pain. The creatures crawled over him, screeching, clawing at him as if they wished to attack, but being unable to with their spirit forms. He opened his mouth and dropped his jaw, just like he was performing a demon kiss and began sucking the souls inside of him.
“He’s going to absorb the magic of the dead!” Vance shouted as even more screeching spirits poured into the space. “He will have access to every power available! I have to stop him, Portia! Pull me inside! Pull me in!”
I refocused my energies and moved toward the perimeter again, stretching my arm toward the barrier, trying to ignore the feel of the energies that were brushing over my skin as they zipped past, their howls echoing loudly in my ears.
“A little farther, baby. You’re almost there.” He was on his hands and knees as he watched, and I could hear the panic in his voice.
I pushed harder, falling next to the edge, reaching my hand through to grasp his. I pulled him into the spinning soup next to me.
He bent down and shoved me the rest of the way out of the circle. “I love you, Portia. Don’t ever forget that.” He had tears in his eyes when he turned away from me, running toward his father.
“Wait! What are you doing?” I cried, as I held my trembling body, knowing he was planning on sacrificing himself.
The door to the cave burst open, and my grandma and Hex rushed in, followed by several others from the coven, beaten and bloody.
“Help him!” I screamed as they ran to check me. Hex dropped to my side as Grandma passed.
“What ritual did he do?” she shouted over the din.
“He called the powers of Hecate and then threw a medallion in the box and demanded possession of souls in the name of Hades,” I replied.
“He’s used the medallion of Hades and has upset the balance of magic,” Hex declared, jumping to his feet and moving to the circle. “Vance, you must destroy the ritual artifacts to stop it!”
Vance stepped away from where he was grappling with Damien and threw a fireball at the torches, blowing them into smithereens. He ran up the steps to grab the key, his hand turning that heated molten color I’d seen before, and it began to melt in his grasp.
Immediately, the vortex started sucking things back up inside of it, and the wraiths Damien had absorbed began streaming out of him rapidly, one by one.
“Stop!” Damien screamed, dragging himself to his feet and lunging for Vance. “Don’t ruin it!”
The two fell to the floor, rolling apart from each other. Vance jumped up to face him, running to hit him in his midsection. They slid across the floor together, not stopping until they crashed into Bels body.
“Give it up. It’s over!” Vance shouted.
“Never!” Damien hollered as the wraiths continued to stream from his mouth. He placed his hands against Vance and sent him flying with a burst of magic.
Vance soared across the circle, careening into my dad this time and he jerked, sitting up suddenly as if he were just now aware of what was going on around him.
Damien rushed back to the altar, reaching for Hecate’s box, and Vance scrambled up to race after him, plowing into him from behind. Damien flipped over to face him, reaching out to grab his athame with one hand.
Vance saw the movement and lunged for it as well, getting to it before Damien did. He moved so swiftly I almost didn’t see him slam it into Damien.
Damien groaned, his eyes wide, as he slumped back against the stone.
“A little flaw in your plan, Dad!” Vance shouted. “See that white stuff streaming from your body? That was the only thing keeping me from destroying you!”
“You will not stop me!” Damien bellowed, grabbing Vance by the face and dropping his jaw again, attempting to perform a demon kiss on him.
Both father and son stood locked in a death grip with each other. Vance continued to push Damien down on the altar, trying to hold him while attempting to wrench his face away to break the connection.
“He needs help!” I cried, feeling desperate as the whirlwind of matter swirled ever closer down to them. “What else can he do?”
“Push him into the vortex!” Hex instructed loudly.
“Not that!” I yelled at Hex. “If he pushes him in then he will go too! You need to get out of there, Vance!”
He didn’t reply, continuing to hold his dad down to the altar, the candles around them lifting as they flew into the swirling mass.
I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye as my dad suddenly jumped up and ran straight for Vance, bowling heavily into him, sending him flying across the floor. He hit into Bels again before he slid completely out of the circle.
“No!” Vance shouted bouncing off the barrier when he tried to charge back in and got shocked down. He fell to the ground, noticing Bels hand hanging out of the circle and he grabbed it, dragging her limp body from it.
We all watched in horror as my dad turned and rushed to Damien’s side, pulling the athame from his stomach. Damien slid his hands over his bloody wound and looked up gratefully. His gratitude was short lived, however, when my dad punched him in the face, sending him flying up onto the altar. He was on him again in a second and raising the knife, stabbed it straight into his chest before pulling it out to plunge it into him again. Blood sprayed into the air and was sucked into the hovering vortex.
Damien clawed at my dad, tearing some of the skin on his face. I saw my dad stiffen and realized Damien had frozen him. This posed a problem for Damien however, as he was now pinned under my dad’s rigid grasp.
The portal swirled closer to both of them, and pieces of Damien’s hair and skin began to break away and drift into it. He screamed a horrible sound, releasing my dad from his magic, but my dad continued to hold him there tightly, even as his own skin began to break away to follow Damien’s too.
“Dad! Let go!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Get out of there!” My own pain forgotten, I watched in terror as my father broke apart, sacrificing himself to save both Vance and everyone else I loved—everyone he loved.
All the words I wished I could say were stuck in my throat, unable to muddle through my brain quick enough to be spoken. Every last particle of the two disappeared as even the altar and the very stone floor that held the pentagram were dismantled, sucked away until the only thing that remained in the circle was the open box. The vortex swirled closed and dove inside it, the lid slamming shut after. With a loud explosion it fragmented into nonexistence.