The vision faded slowly away, though the humming sound was still in the air.
“You are one deluded witch,” I mumbled, still trying to stay coherent in the thick smell of the incense clouded room.
“Vance, take the athame in front of you and kill Portia,” Mayla commanded him calmly.
I saw him reach down to pick up the knife and he slowly turned toward me. I was truly fearful when I saw his eyes were completely blank, devoid of any emotion or understanding. He slowly moved toward me.
“Vance, please don’t do this,” I begged him, not knowing if he could even hear me. “This isn’t you.” I continued trying to link with him mentally, to no avail. I couldn’t feel him at all. “It’s a trick, a mind game Mayla is playing with you.”
He reached my side and slowly lifted the sharp blade until it was biting into the flesh of my neck. I swallowed hard at the lump in my throat, the tears beginning to spill over from my eyes.
My life with Vance passed before me. My mind quickly flitted over all the warnings my family and friends had given as he slowly deteriorated to the point he was at now. They’d never trusted him, or any demon for that matter, once he completed the change. Over and over they tried to convince me not to trust him as well … that doing so would end in my own demise. I refused to listen, following my heart instead and now here I was at the defining moment they had all been so worried about—the love of my life was the killer at my throat.
I only had enough time to speak to him once more. “I love you, Vance.” I thought I saw something, a crazed movement, a flicker briefly in his eyes, but then it was gone again.
The humming in the room suddenly grew louder, and I felt him shove the edge of the blade harder into my throat. He cut through a couple of layers of flesh, and I cried out at the pain, feeling some of my warm blood trickling down my skin. His hand started shaking violently. I tried to reach out to him, but I still couldn’t make the connection. It was as if we’d never been able to communicate that way, like he wasn’t even the same person.
“Don’t do it, Vance,” I said as harshly as I could, desperately trying to make him hear me. “It’s all a trick!”
“Finish her!” Mayla commanded loudly and Vance flinched, slicing hard into my throat. I screamed loudly at the assault, the blood gushing from me, my gaze drilling into his.
I knew the second he snapped to reality. He turned and threw the athame across the room burying it in Mayla’s chest. She gasped and fell backward a couple of steps.
Vance charged at the table, hitting the end of it and jolting it hard. The glass jars holding the Awakening went crashing up against the wall where they shattered into a million pieces.
“No!” Mayla screamed as she ripped the knife from her chest.
The Awakening shot across the space, diving into mine and Vance’s bodies.
I could feel my body absorbing the white light into its cells once again, fixing the damage, but I was still too drained from my earlier blood loss to fight the magic restraining me. I watched in amazement as Vance was filled with the power. It seemed as if I could actually see it running, rippling through every muscle in him. It was magnificent to behold, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of complete joy that shattered through every pore.
He had done it! He still chose me at his most low and desperate point—drugged, hallucinating and with his demon powers in full control of him.
“Get him!” Mayla shouted to the others and the room erupted into scrambling demons.
A giant shock wave rolled out from him across the room right before his body suddenly ignited in flames. He lifted his arms to shoot out giant pillars of scorching fire at the approaching demons. The enormous fireballs filled the room as they rolled across it, igniting everything. The blast hit the approaching demons running toward him, incinerating some instantaneously and sending others reeling in different directions. I could actually hear Vance laughing in enjoyment.
One of those burning demons turned and ran straight toward me, screaming, his arms outstretched. He was stopped suddenly when Vance grabbed him, snapping his neck from behind. Vance dropped the twitching body at my feet, leaving it shuddering in the throes of death while he moved on to another victim.
I tried to hold my breath as the stench of burning flesh filled the air, but when I turned my head I realized the flames on the demon’s body had caught the carpet beneath me on fire.
The entire room was a burning inferno. I lifted my eyes to search for Vance. I could feel my skin threatening to bubble with the extreme intensity of the heat, but the Awakening was keeping it from truly erupting into blisters. The heat caused my vision to ripple and my eyes watered as I blinked against the overwhelming force of it.
I saw three of the demons from the coven also had power over fire, so they were unaffected by the intensity in the room. They attacked Vance all at once in hand to hand combat when they realized none of their magic was effective against him.
I watched in awe as he took them all on. They jumped on him, pushing him down toward the floor, one of them pulling an athame and stabbing him in the side near his kidney.
I screamed as he flinched, falling forward onto the floor, but as soon as the demon pulled the knife out the wound closed up behind it. The other two followed suit grabbing their knives and stabbing him over and over. They had him beat down in between them while they attacked.
Suddenly, with a great roar Vance stood, flinging his arms out as he came up and throwing two of the demons up against the opposite walls. The third demon was hanging onto him from behind with his arms wrapped around Vance’s neck.
Vance reached up and flipped the demon over his shoulder in front of him, right before he grabbed his head between his hands, snapping the offender’s neck with a hard yank to the right.
The two other demons had gotten back up and now rushed at Vance simultaneously. One of them had his athame extended as he charged. Vance turned to confront this demon. As the demon thrust the knife out Vance stepped to the side, locking his hand around the demon’s wrist and directing the knife straight into the stomach of the other demon who had been charging from behind.
The demon screamed, grabbing his abdomen and fell to the floor, while Vance snapped the arm of the initial attacker over his knee. He quickly ended them both with a twist of their heads, relying totally on brute strength to finish his opponents.
Vance slowly straightened, his attention focused on Mayla, and I thought he looked like an avenging angel made of pure fire.
Mayla raised a hand to her singed hair. Her eyes widened in horror. She turned and rushed from the corner she had been cowering in over to the window, grabbing the pane and trying to lift it so she could get out. He stalked toward her. She turned at his approach, shooting several shocks of power out at him. I could almost taste her fear when she realized his body absorbed her power like a sponge.
She turned quickly and blasted out the window pane with a burst of magic. She flung her body toward the opening, trying to wriggle through it.
Air rushed in from the window outside and the room exploded into more rolling flames as it fed the fire new life. I felt the waves of heat as they licked at my body, blowing my hair back away from my face. I screamed at the intensity.
Mayla made it halfway through the window before Vance grabbed her from behind. I heard her cry of agony when his burning hands made contact with her flesh. Her loose flowing dress, already engulfed, began falling in pieces to the floor.
“Was this in your vision, Mayla?” I heard him yell as he stared down into her terror filled eyes.
He pulled her right up next to him, lifting her feet completely up off the floor. It looked like he was going to kiss her, but then he dropped his jaw and began sucking the magic out of her body. She burned, encompassed in his destruction.
The front door suddenly burst open. My dad, grandma, and Hex came running into the entry way. They cowered back at the heavy flames when they flashed over their heads, the column of fire already spreading well through the second floor, the air from the open door feeding the fire even more.
“Get out!” I hollered over the sound of the raging inferno and the flames from the carpet began to lick up my legs painfully.
Hex suddenly appeared at my side, kicking away one of the stones that kept me restrained to my chair. He picked me up and I felt myself evaporating back into the entryway.
Dad and Grandma were on us in an instant, slapping out the flames on our clothing.
“Get her out of here.” Hex handed me to my dad. “I’ll take of Vance.”
“No!” I shouted, reaching out to grab him by the arm. “Vance saved me. Don’t hurt him.” The heat in the house made my throat feel like it was going to melt as I spoke.
The ceiling above us groaned loudly.
“Everybody out, now!” my dad yelled, and he carried me toward the door, followed quickly by Hex and Grandma.
He ran with me far out into the yard, dropping me onto the grass once we were a safe distance away, and he went to his knees, panting beside me.
“How did you know to come?” I swallowed thickly.
“I didn’t,” he replied. “I just couldn’t leave you in danger for a moment longer.”
I turned to look at the house, searching for the window where Vance had been standing with Mayla. A scream filled my throat when I saw the upper floor of the structure suddenly give way, collapsing in on top of them, burying them both beneath it.
“Vance!” I yelled with all of my might. I started crawling toward the house.
My dad and Grandma each grabbed me by an arm, holding me back. I fought them until I saw a figure entirely engulfed in flame appear in what was left of the doorway.
Vance walked out the door, across the porch and down the steps, a fireball from head to toe. When he was halfway to me, the flames suddenly went out and he was completely whole, clothing and everything intact, though completely black and steaming.
I shook out of the arms holding me and stood up, running straight for him as fast as my weak body would carry me.
He caught me easily when I slammed into him, throwing my arms around his neck.
“I love you,” I said sobbing against him. “I love you, I love you.”
“I know, I know. There, there, love,” he crooned like a parent trying to calm a hysterical child. He buried his face in my hair, hugging me back so tightly I couldn’t breathe. “I want to say I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to go through.”
“I don’t care about any of that.” I lifted my head to look at him. “You chose me!” I added, gazing deep into his eyes. “From your darkest place … you chose me.”
“I will always choose you, Portia,” he said staring at me, and his eyes took on a strange glittery glow. “Don’t you understand that? You have no idea what I’ve gone through to have you.”
His mouth descended upon mine and he kissed me roughly, almost painfully, squeezing me as if he was trying to absorb me into his own skin.
“Vance!” I tried to push back from him, but he continued to grip me tightly. “Vance, stop it! You’re hurting me!”
His body started to shake violently, and suddenly a sound of maniacal laughter emanated from his lips. I watched in horror as his features began to shift and change, morphing into something else.
“What’s happening?” I cried out in alarm, paralyzed with fear.
My eyes blinked rapidly, trying to make my brain understand the sight in front of me, but my mind was mush as I looked at the person who was holding me, a person who was not Vance in any way, shape, or form.
“Hello again, Portia,” the smooth cultured voice of Damien Cummings slithered in waves over me, causing my skin to crawl.
I opened my mouth and screamed.
Lacey Weatherford has always had a love of books. She wanted to become a writer after reading her first Nancy Drew novel at the age of eight.
Lacey resides in the White Mountains of Arizona , where she lives with her wonderful husband, six beautiful children, one son-in-law, and their energetic schnauzer, Sophie.
When she’s not out supporting one of her kids at their sporting/music events, she spends her time writing, reading, blogging, and reviewing books.
You can contact Lacey by following her on her social medias:
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Of Witches and Warlocks- Paranormal Book Series
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