Witch Road to Take (14 page)

“Back? You slaughtered it.”

“I wish I remembered what happened.” I
glanced back down at Cassidy before I grabbed a knitted blanket
from the back of the couch and draped it over her.

Gavin grinned as he wrapped his hand around
my arm and escorted me outside to the car. “I didn’t realize you
came with a heart.” He laughed.

I slapped Gavin on the arm at his smart-ass
remark. My mind went back to what happened inside. “I really wish I
remembered what I did in there.”

Jonas startled both Gavin and I when we
noticed he had just climbed out of the bushes and held his phone up
in the air. “No worries, I captured it all on video.”

Gavin walked around the car and slapped
Jonas in the head. “You saw us going up against an
Al
and
you didn’t think to come inside and help?”

I slapped Gavin on the head. “Us? If I
recall, I’m the one who went up against it.”

“Let’s not fight over whom, what or how,
kids. I got it all on video.” Jonas laughed and climbed into the
back seat of the car.

I pointed my finger at Gavin as he walked
around to climb into the driver’s seat. “Don’t you dare try to take
claim to fame on this save. Without me, you and Cassidy would have
been that thing’s dinner.”

Gavin started up the car. “There’s the
Dhellia I know and love,” he chuckled. “First, I know you saved our
asses, but if I wasn’t there with my spell, she’d remember it all
and point her finger at you. Second, it won’t matter that you saved
our asses because after my spell I put on her, she won’t remember a
thing and will still despise you in the morning.”

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Being a hero is no fun if you can’t bask in the glory of it
all.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Jonas said, leaning
forward from the back seat. He leaned in and shockingly, kissed me
on the cheek. I had never experienced that form of human emotion
and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t shock me.

***

Gavin grabbed a few things from the kitchen
and threw them toward us. I caught a vitamin water and a Rice
Krispie treat in midair while Jonas set up his iPad with the video
he had shot using his cellular phone.

We huddled around the iPad and watched the
video of Jonas’s view of what had gone down when he had climbed
through the bushes at Cassidy’s house and shot video of everything
behind that bush. Finally, he had pressed the phone’s camera lens
against the window and angled it toward us inside the house.

“Wow, that outfit looks pretty good on me,
doesn’t it?”

Jonas put his arm around my shoulder. “You
look great in it.”

“Are you coming onto me?”

“No!” he removed his arm quickly and pointed
toward the iPad. I glanced down.

The part that I didn’t remember flashed
across the screen. We watched it through the first time and I shook
my head when it was over. “Let’s play that in slow motion. One
minute my hands were empty, the next I had two blades in them.”

“It’s not the blades that are freaking me
out,” Gavin said, concerned.

“Show me what you are concerned with.”

“Well, I’m not concerned,” Jonas exclaimed.
“Did you see how you slit its stomach, it looked at you in horror
and then it dissolved and disappeared?” Jonas hit the play button
again and slowed it down.

I watched closely.

I pointed to my body. “Watch this. My eyes
fluttered, my voice deepened and bam, blades in my hands. It’s like
I thought it, and it happened.”

“Yeah, but watch this part,” Gavin said.
“Your back tore, Dhellia. Right here.” He pointed to the left side
of my back. “And something is poking through your clothes. Do you
see that?”

“I did feel a twinge of pain in my back, but
it went away, so I didn’t think anything of it. I wish my back was
facing the camera, so I could fully see that.”

Jonas took the video off pause and we
continued to watch.

Gavin pointed to the screen. “Watch, you ran
toward the beast, flew through the air, took one blade and slit the
front and with the other blade, you took off its head.”

I was shocked. I looked like a warrior. “How
do you suppose I did that?”

“You were tapping into some kind of power?”
Gavin remarked.

“My mother’s or my father’s?”

“I’ve no idea. I’m going to venture to say
that these are from your father.”

“Why would you venture to say that?” I
asked.

“It’s a hunch.”

“A hunch? The man of statistics and
mathematical common sense is going to go on a hunch? I’ve heard it
all.”

“Dhellia?” Jonas said my name, but I was too
involved in my conversation with Gavin.

Gavin stood and put his hand to his temple.
“Must everything be a battle with you? I get hunches sometimes and
this is one of those times.”

“Dhellia?” Jonas called my name again.

“You can’t tell me to—”

“DHELLIA!”

“WHAT?!” both Gavin and I said in
unison.

“Why is your hand glowing again?”

I glanced down at my right inner palm and
the birthmark key inside my hand was pulsating with a greenish-red
glow. My eyes darted up at Gavin. “Oh, shit. Not again.”

A gust of wind smacked us in the face and
threw us back against the sofa. An oval blue portal opened in our
kitchen and two trotters stepped out of the hole and into our
home.

These two-legged creatures stood about
fifteen feet tall. When they tossed back their massive tentacled
heads to roar, chunks of plaster came crashing down from the
ceiling and showered us with debris.

I brushed the chunks of plaster out of my
hair and off my shoulders, stiffening at the sight and smell of the
trotters. Their vile stench was like being in a knackery, filling
the air with a rank smell that could gag even the strongest
stomach. Their colossal fifteen-foot bodies, encased in
double-sided body armor, which protected the soft sides of the
beasts, were a visual anomaly, making the whole situation seem
surreal.

The trotters’ eerie red slits for eyes
scanned the kitchen and dining room, and then narrowed in on us.
Simultaneously, their tentacles spread the width of our kitchen and
they both dislodged their lower jaws, opening their mouths large
enough to consume each of us with one swallow. Three rows of
razor-sharp, jagged teeth were stained yellow and red with bits of
fat and flesh from their last meals. They roared, releasing their
breath—breath that was as rancid as the bowels of death itself—and
coating our bodies with that defiled smell and stringy drops of
acid saliva.

“Dhellia, those things are here.” Jonas’s
voice shook.

“I can see them, Jonas.”

Jonas stepped back on the couch and
maneuvered over the arm of the sofa. “Gavin, you got a spell? You
got anything?”

Gavin’s body was pushed against me, he
shrieked, “I got nothing—how can I even remember my own name, let
alone come up with a spell when I’m about to be something’s hors
d'oeuvre?”

“They want me. I’m going to let them take
me,” I said.

“Oh no, you’re not! We’re not letting you go
with those things,” Gavin said, grabbing my hand.

The trotters reared their heads, sending
down another shower of shattered plaster and broken slats from the
ceiling. They leaned over and roared again just before they moved
to attack. Independently of my conscious thoughts, I could feel my
body changing. Pure instinct took over, something innate that I
never knew I had.

Suddenly, another portal opened in the
dining room and Damien flew out vertically in a flying sidekick,
nailing the beasts below their armor and thrusting them both back
into their portal.

All the gateways closed.

“We have seconds before those despicable
beasts come back through their entrance. Dhellia, another key is
within a hundred miles of here and you’re both in danger,” Damien
roared.

The trotters’ portal reopened and this time,
they both stepped out angrier—and out for blood.

Damien ran toward the three of us, encircled
us with his arms and pushed us through another portal against our
living room wall. As we tumbled through the hole, all I could think
about was that we were on the run…
again
.

April was born and raised in Southern California. She
is a single mother of two wonderful boys, and enjoys spending time
with her family. Sitting on the beach during a simple sunset is
where she finds her most creative place to write.

Please visit her at the following social media
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