Chapter 70: Shared Nightmare
She was waiting for me in the kitchen and I knew instantly by the look on her face this encounter would not end well for either of us.
Rather than let her have the first word guaranteed to send us both spiraling down into a battle, its inevitable end soaked in tears and raw from screaming, I dove in with a well placed and sincere, "I'm sorry, Mom."
Talk about instant deflation. It was like the words themselves had magic in them. Wow. Good to know for later. Because there would always be a later.
Mom's face crumpled and instead of turning me into a toad she rushed forward and hugged me so hard I knew she was only angry because I scared the crap out of her.
She wasn't alone in that department.
When she leaned back, the stern face returned but it didn't reach her eyes so I knew I was safe.
"Tell me," she said.
For the second time that week I dumped on her. It was developing into a terrible habit. Might be nice to go a whole seven days without some kind of disaster. Too much to ask, I guess.
When I finished filling her in about Pain, Mom seemed troubled.
"There are no witches in her family?"
"Not as far as I can tell," I said. "Her mom sure isn't." I rolled my eyes. "She's dying to meet you, by the way."
Mom made a cringing face. "So I understand. It is perplexing. But more importantly, your friend needs protection. We'll get to the bottom of her secret when all of this is over." Over, as in the creature was dead and we were back to abnormal.
We agreed on that much.
She wasn't done yet, though.
"You know how dangerous it was," she said. "What you did."
"Mom, honestly, I never expected anything to come of it. You know these stupid rituals normals do are just that." She taught it to me, didn't she? Didn't think bringing up the fact would win me points, though.
"Beside the point," Mom said. "You knew the girl had her own power, walled off or not. And you and Quaid seem to be a powder keg of disaster waiting to happen."
She had me there.
"Still," she relented a little, "I'm glad in a way you were there. Had she tried it without protection it's possible the creature could have hurt her and her entire family and we would have found out too late."
So why didn't I feel any better about it?
She sent me off to bed with another hug and a promise Pain would be under coven guard. It made sense, a great opportunity to catch the thing if it showed up again.
So why did I spend the next few hours tossing and turning? At least Sassy was still with Meira so I wasn't keeping him awake too. I briefly thought about creeping into bed with them. I wasn't above looking for comfort over being alone considering.
Before I could act, I fell asleep at last.
***
Darkness. Flinching from light unfamiliar and horrible. Pain, always pain. And a battle within that throws me forward.
Hate, hot and explosive. The girl. The blocked one. Fuel for my fire, my need. It hurts so much!
Guardians. Two, tucked in the shadows. Stink of civilization and sloth. They are weak and I am death.
Rushing speed, violence let loose, at last this is the prey to bring me real strength.
A white face turns in the darkness, too late.
Thrashing, screaming, a futile battle of magic heating up.
YES! Her life is mine.
***
I woke up on my feet, punching the air, gasping for breath, the taste of bile in my mouth. My heart leaped and pounded against my chest as I stumbled forward, feet catching in the jumbled covers dumped on the floor.
I was crying her name before I made it to my door and she was there, holding me, Mom's own fear as tangible as mine. Meira wormed her way into our embrace and we stood there, clinging to each other, even as I felt my mother's mind reaching out to the rest of the family.
Someone pounded on something heavy downstairs. I jerked myself into silence and listened. Then, as one, we ran down the wide steps and to my grandmother's door.
Mom had it open in a flicker of magic even before we reached it. Ethpeal emerged, glowing with power, her face set as though she understood what was happening. Without a word she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the cellar door and down the stairs into the gloom. I had to clutch at the railing to keep from falling, pins and needles jabbing through the soles of my feet as we thudded our way to the concrete floor.
She halted at the pentagram's edge and spun on me. Her faded blue eyes were clear and bright and for a heartbeat I thought she was okay. The light in them flickered, however, and I knew she had only moments before the insanity took her again.
For the second time since I knew Gram she forced her way out of her private hell to help us and I wasn't about to waste her effort.
As a family we linked hands. We let her in without question, even my mother giving way to Gram's grab for power. She slammed us together without finesse, so hard I gasped for air and we were away, flying like avenging angels after the creature, Gram's terrible power blasting ahead of us like a battering ram.
We caught up with it, and she didn't hesitate. Our combined magic slammed into it, driving it to its knees. It spun on us, snarling in the darkness, wavering in the vision of our combined presence.
"You cannot defeat me," it said in its gravel voice.
We didn't respond. Gram hit it again.
The creature went down. We were winning! My confidence rose. Maybe Gram was getting better after all.
If only we had more time. And she wasn't crippled by insanity. The thing spun on us and attacked, much stronger than it had been in our last encounter.
Already stronger than we were.
The blow stunned us and I felt Gram slipping away. I clung to her, tried to drag her back, but she had fought as hard as she could and there was nothing any of us could do about it.
When her focus broke in that instant, we carried the hideous, echoing laughter of the creature back with us, to ring in the silence of the basement.
Gram collapsed, giggling and sobbing all at once, her hands crammed in her mouth. Tears ran down my mother's face as she crumpled next to Ethpeal and hugged her, rocking her gently. I fell to my knees, then my butt on her other side, barely able to stand. My stomach heaved, the recoil of the power bringing my nausea back full force. For a moment I was sure I would ralph all over my grandmother. Meira snuggled under my arm, her amber eyes mere glints in the darkness just as the queazies settled.
"Mom," I whispered over Gram's stuttering hum, soaked in a cold sweat. "Is she okay?"
Mom sighed deeply. "It took a lot out of her," she said. "Out of us all. But we learned a great deal." She stroked her mother's hair. "You never cease to amaze me, Mother," she whispered.
"So now what do we do?" Dumb question. There was only one answer to it.
"We find that thing," Mom's voice deepened and darkened and took on an edge of ferocity making me glad I was on her side, "and we rescue the witch who was stolen from us. And then we kill it and bury it so deep no one will find it until the end of days."
Sounded good to me.
***
