Unbound (23 page)

“That’s pretty impressive, even for an experienced witch.”

“Is it?”

“Conjuring energy is powerful stuff.”

“Oh.” I fell silent and stared into the fire until my vision went blurry. “What’s so special about the dagger?”

“It’s legendary. It can—as we saw—obliterate demons with a single stab.”

“Oh,” I said again, though this time so quietly I doubt Ethan heard me. I looked into the fire again.

“What are you thinking?” Ethan inquired.

“I’m thinking this is all very serious stuff to be talking about in our underwear. Speaking of, why don’t we have clothes on?”

Ethan looked at me like that was something I should know. “That water was freezing, Annie.”

“Yea, so?”

“I thought you could get hypothermic or something. And you know the best way to fight that is with another person’s body heat. So I had to get you out of those wet clothes or you’d really freeze.”

He made quiet the Boy Scout. “Why was the water so cold?”

“Spirits, demons, whatever, pull energy out of the environment.”

“Like cold spots from ghosts.”

“Exactly.”

“You pulled me out of the water?”

“Sort of. Hunter did most of the work.”

Tears pricked the corner of my eyes. Careful to keep the blanket around me, I moved down next to my dog. His tail thumped against the wooden floor and he licked my face. I buried my face into his fur and let the tears roll down. “I love you, boy,” I whispered in his ear. He licked the tears off my cheeks and put his head back down, wanting to go back to sleep. I stroked his muzzle and gave him a kiss on the top of his furry head.

“How do you feel?” Ethan’s voice came from behind me. “Physically, I mean.”

“Uh, my feet are cold, I have to pee and I’m thirsty. But other than that, I’m peachy.” Ethan came over next to me and extended a hand. I grabbed it and he pulled me up. After showing me where the bathroom was and getting me a glass of water, Ethan led me up a flight of stairs and down a hall into his room. A navy blue comforter was lazily spread across the bed, and clothes were scattered untidily around the room. A large TV and a Playstation were set up across from the bed and a laptop sat atop a pile of books and papers on a desk shoved in a corner. Like the rest of the house, boxes were stacked and no décor had been added. Everything seemed temporary, like they were ready to pack up and move at a moment’s notice. From the closet, Ethan tossed me a navy and orange Bears hoodie and a pair of black sweatpants. Both were of course way too big, as were the socks I pulled on. I sunk down on his bed while he put on a pair of jeans, a navy blue tee and a dark brown flannel button up over top. He sat next to me. From downstairs, I heard Hunter get up and pad his way up the stairs and into the room. He wagged his tail at us and curled up on a pile of laundry.

“What’s it like to be a medium?” Ethan’s question caught me off guard.

“It sucks. I work so hard at being normal, but it’s really, really hard. It’s like there’s a war raging constantly in my head between our world and their world. I have to use so much energy just to keep the mental door leading into their world shut. I pick up on spirits’ emotions and they become my own. I remember one time, on a school field trip, we passed this site where a girl got murdered. Of course, no one else knew that, but I was overcome with these powerful emotions of pure sadness. I broke down crying, and everyone thought I was a freak.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You have no idea what it’s like to see someone and not know if it’s a real person or a ghost. You don’t know what it’s like to be sitting in a quiet classroom and hear someone call you name and then you turn around and ask who said your name and you find out no one said it.” I was speaking faster with every word. “Or what it’s like to have that creepy feeling that someone is watching you and have it turn out to be a ghost the whole time, or to have everyone think you are a freak of nature because you accidentally made contact with Jessie Martin’s dead cousin at her thirteenth birthday party. Or what it’s like to grabbed at, poked or touched by ghost hands or wha—” Ethan pressed his lips to mine.

“What happened at Jessie Martin’s party?” He kept his face close and scanned his eyes all over my face, like he was studying me or something. I fidgeted my hands in my lap.

“Someone thought it would be fun to have a séance. We all got in the circle and Jessie said we should summon her cousin, Jason, who recently died in a fire. Well, I got a vision, I guess you would call it, of him sitting in his bedroom. I described everything in perfect detail, from the color of his eyes to the design of the wall paper. I even saw his girlfriend, and she was holding onto her necklace. It had two rings on it. Turns out, after he died, she wore his class rings on a chain around her neck. I knew what kind of music he liked and could tell you his hobbies. Needless to say, Jessie never invited me to another party again.”

“You got all that from a vision?”

“Yes and no. I don’t just see pictures, it’s like I download a file or something because I see an image and at the same time know a lot—and sometimes random— information.”

“But that party was years ago.” Ethan obviously didn’t understand why I still wasn’t over it.

“It’s not just that. Things like that happen to me all the time. I’m forced to lie, to fake a smile. I feel so alone, so isolated. Until right now, I never told anyone. Harrison would rather not believe than admit to the possibility of something existing that is as complicated and scary as spirits are, and Laney gets scared so easily that I just can’t talk to her about it. So I have to deal alone, like a loser, social reject.”

“You’re not a loser, and I really don’t think you are a social reject.”

“Thanks.” I gave him a half smile.

“You’re one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen, you have the body of a Victoria’s Secret model, and you’re funny, caring and different. If anyone rejects you socially, then they have a serious problem.”

Blood rushed into my cheeks. I wasn’t used to that kind of blunt complimenting. I looked out the window. “What about you? How do you know about all this?”

Ethan shifted so he was facing me. “I belong to a very old Order, The Order of the Mystic Realm. Very simply put we are demon hunters.” He stopped, trying to read my expression, but I kept my face neutral. I patiently waited for him to continue. He spoke slowly, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say. I don’t think he’d ever explained this before.

“My great-great grandfather on my Dad’s side was the first hunter in our family. I guess it kinda runs in families in a way, since not too many people would willingly choose this. I’ve heard the story many times: his wife and children were slain and their corpses stolen on All Hallows Eve, years ago. My great grandfather swore he saw a Chichevache take off with them. Of course, no one believed him. He became obsessed with finding the truth. In his search, he stumbled across the Order. He joined, remarried to a young girl whose parents were also Order members, and had my Dad’s mom-my grandma- and, well, you can figure out the rest.”

I had no idea what a Chich-whatever is. I’d ask later. “So do you have special powers?” I asked. Ethan laughed.

“No. Most of us are just regular people, unlike you.” He said it in a way that it was a compliment. I closed my eyes. This was a lot to take in. I was just getting used to the fact that magic existed. Now demons had been tossed into the mix.
 
He put his arms around me and laid down, pulling me with him. “You know, I’ve never told anyone this before.”

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” I knew it did because it felt so good to be able to talk to some honestly about my own dark past for once. My brain had been buzzing with all this new information that I didn’t even realize how exhausted I felt until I layed down. “Why do I feel so weak?”

“You’re not used to using that kind of power. It drained your energy. And from what I saw, that demon was trying to get into your head. He couldn’t though, and it must be from your resistance. I have to tell you Annie, it takes a powerful witch to block out that kind of dark magic.”

I wanted Ethan to explain the concept of demons and dark magic to me but I was just too tired. I lazily wiggled closer to him and closed my eyes.

Ethan’s strong arms were wrapped around me when I woke. The fading twilight in the window told me it had to be around six o’clock. Shoot, I thought sitting up, I’ve been MIA for hours and my cell had been left in my car at the barn. I explained that to Ethan and he said he’d take me to get it.

“You’re taking this all really well,” he said with an undertone of bewilderment in his voice. He looked away from the road just long enough to meet my eyes.

“I am?”

“Yea. Usually when people find out that demons not only exist but want to kill them, well they tend to panic.”

“Oh.” I looked at the passing road, not quite sure how to explain this. “I guess I’ve always known, somehow. I mean, I’ve always felt like I was a part of something…bigger? I don’t know.” I felt like I was stumbling over my words. “I’ve always felt like I have this really important role to play, but I never knew what I was supposed to do or even who I was supposed to be.”

“I think I get what you mean,” Ethan said as we pulled into the barn parking lot. Truthfully, I was so freaking happy to not be the only one in my world of weirdness right now that the full seriousness of everything was just sitting on the surface.
 
He put the X-terra in park and looked around the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”

I pointed to a brand new, black Chevy Silverado. Ethan looked a little confused. “Uh, did I miss something?”

I nodded. “I bought a truck.”

“Nice. But, uh, why?”

“To pull my new horse trailer with.” I pointed again to a brand new three horse trailer. “I never told you, but when I inherited the house I, uh, inherited a lot of money too.”

Ethan looked at the truck and then back at me. “You really are full of surprises.”

I smiled at him. “Well, at least you know the biggest one.” I got out of the SUV, Hunter following suit.

“I think you should stay with me tonight,” Ethan said before I got into my truck. “For your safety and ‘cuz I want you to.”

“Good idea. I’ll say I’m staying at Laney’s.” I told myself to call her later and make sure the cover would work.

“Hunter too. If he is what I think he is then we want him around.”

I bit my lip, thinking of what I could tell my parents that would sound believable. Amanda pulled up and parked a few car lengths away from us. I waved as she went into the barn. I felt a little bad but an idea popped into my head. I pondered it and decided it would work.

***

“I feel a million times better,” I told Ethan after I got out of the shower. We were in my room. I was rubbing a towel over my head and he was looking through the BOS. “I felt like I was covered in pond scum.”

“Yea, and you smelled like it,” he teased. I threw the wet towel at him and got two bags from my closet. I put what I would need for a night at Ethan’s in one and loaded the other with the most important, according to Ethan, magic books.

While I was drying my hair Ethan helped himself to the other boxes full of Aunt Estelle’s belongings. I came out of the bathroom to find the weapons all neatly laid out on the floor. He was holding the leather corset.

“You have to wear this for me.”

“I do?” I asked with fake innocence. Ethan nodded enthusiastically. He ditched the corset and picked me up. I wrapped my arms around his neck and moved my head towards his. Our lips met for a kiss. I didn’t even realize he carried me to my bed until we bounced down on it.

“You’re so beautiful.” He was over top of me, looking into my eyes.

“I don’t even have makeup on.”

“You don’t need it.”

“I disagree.” I liked wearing makeup. Not that I had bad skin, I just thought I looked much better with a perfectly even tone across my face. I slipped my hands under his shirt and pulled his torso onto mine. Hunter sprung up with a fierce growl. We both looked, but Ethan saw nothing. I gasped.

“What is it?” His eyes darted from mine to the empty spot where I was looking.

“There’s a ghost.”

“What’s he doing?” Ethan moved off of me.

“Just looking at us.” I had seen this boy before. His blonde hair was even more untidy today. He held his hands out oddly at his sides again, but this time blood dripped down from the deep gashes in his wrists. Hunter barked and growled. Ethan made a movement towards the canister of salt that was on my nightstand but I stopped him.