A Curse in Darkness by Sherilee Gray

Chapter 15

Willow

I steppedout of the shower and looked at my ribs. A couple of the vines had stretched out, creeping closer together. Tracing one of the thorny tendrils with my finger, I breathed in deep when sharp fear tried to push forward again. Time was running out.

Fear only paralyzed, it got in the way of getting things done.

I didn’t have time for fear. My family wouldn’t come out the other side of this with their powers intact if I gave in to fear. And Roe wouldn’t get any better.

Since my discussion with Clayton four days ago, I’d been either holed up in Else’s library or online while I was at the shop, researching, learning everything I could about malevolent souls, hoping there might be something that could help. So far, I’d found nothing I didn’t already know.

And at night, I searched the city for any sign of them. Nothing. And no sign of Edric since his fight with Warrick, only the bodies he left behind. Torn to shreds without mercy.

I felt the weight of every single casualty. This was my task, it was my job to send those souls back to where they came from, and if I didn’t find a way to stop them real fast, more people would die.

I assumed Warrick was having as much trouble as me.

The hellhounds’ alpha hadn’t called, so I could only assume. It wasn’t like he needed to call to check up on me, though, the male knew where I was at all times, and more than once over the last couple of nights, I’d clocked him shadowing me. Okay, I’d felt him before I’d seen him. God, the weight of his stare was like black velvet across bare skin, lifting goose bumps all over me, causing heat to swirl through my entire body.

He hadn’t approached, though, or announced he was there, so I’d pretended I didn’t see him. It was better for both of us that way…that’s what I kept telling myself, anyway.

He’d made a promise to provide backup and he was keeping it, even if he was doing it from a distance, which only made me feel like more of an asshole, honestly.

I’d seriously angered him the night of the ball with my complete and utter loss of self-control. Yes, the male was obviously used to getting his way, and no, I didn’t owe him anything, but I’d seriously thrown out some mixed signals in those woods. He wasn’t human or witch; he wasn’t just a man, and he didn’t play by those rules.

He was an alpha, a hellhound, created in the fires of Hell by Lucifer himself. I needed to remember that, and I needed to heed the warning he’d given me.

I shook off thoughts of Warrick, because I needed to find Edric, now.

When souls lingered after a person’s death, it usually meant unfinished business. Since brutally murdering a bunch of innocent people seemed to be the only goal, it had become clear that these souls weren’t stuck here, unable to move on, but had been summoned here from Hell, or some other unpleasant place, by a twisted individual.

The pure evil that had emanated from the one inhabiting Edric had sent icy tendrils through me just being near him. If I was right? Souls like that usually picked up where they left off—doing all the evil, twisted things they had done before they died.

Which meant, right now, Edric and the other one still on the loose were probably out there, hurting people.

But there would be no sending them back if I couldn’t find them.

Pulling on a pair of leather pants and a long-sleeved shirt, I went to my room and shoved on my boots, slid my dagger into the sheath at my hip, grabbed my jacket, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. If I could find Edric, I could question the soul and make it spill its secrets—namely, where it was from, and most importantly, who brought it here.

Magnolia was standing by the kitchen table.

“Hey,” I said, taking my phone from my pocket.

She had her black hair down, wavy around her pale face. Her amber eyes were surrounded by black eyeliner and her full lips were deep red. She was wearing black ripped jeans, chunky black boots, and an oversized black T-shirt with the name of some band I’d never heard of printed on the front. She’d always preferred to wear black, even when she was young. She’d leaned into it more the last couple of years though. She and Bram looked like a goth prince and princess when they were together.

Bram, currently in his human form, stood at the counter behind her. Staying close to Mags as usual, even while he made himself a snack.

“Another night out hunting?” Mags asked.

There was something in her voice that had me looking up from my phone. “Yeah.” Her lips flattened. “You okay?”

She gripped the back of one of the chairs. “Let me come with you. I want to help. Iris and I have been talking and we’re worried. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’ve got this, but we hate seeing you go through it all on your own, Wills.”

Bram was suddenly at my sister’s side. I hadn’t even seen him move, but now his dark eyes sliced to me, waiting for my answer.

He didn’t say anything, he rarely did, but he didn’t need to, not in this. It was all there in his stare. Ren and Bram were alike in a lot of ways. Bram didn’t want Mags to put herself in danger, and if she did, anyway, he was going to be right there with her. But then that was most familiars.

“Don’t freak out, B,” Mags said without looking at him, sensing his movement, knowing what he would be thinking and feeling it without him saying a word.

And of course, my sisters were worried about me. I hated this. “I wish you could, but you know that’s not allowed.” A witch could get help, but only outside their family and coven. Things got messy when family got involved, so the mother had forbidden it a very long time ago.

Her jaw tightened. “It’s a fucking stupid rule.”

“I know, but I promise I have help.” I held up my phone. “I was just about to call Warrick.” As much as I didn’t want to, Edric had tracked his alpha to that ball, so it was only logical that it could happen again, and I’d do anything, even spend time with Warrick, if it helped my family and Ren not to worry.

Mags crossed her arms. “Go on then, call him.”

My baby sister didn’t believe me. I held up the phone, showed her the number, and hit call. Yes, I could fight. I’d slayed demons, lots of them, but that didn’t stop me from being scared every time I went out there. Every fight I risked my life. One of these nights, I might not make it home. And I kinda liked living. My family counted on me, they needed me, so safety first, always, and yeah, backup was always welcome…even from a possessive, dominant alpha hellhound who wanted me in his bed.

My sister smirked and moved to the counter, Bram following, and they got back to making their snack, sandwiches by the look. The phone rang several times and kept on ringing. Maybe he saw it was me and wasn’t going to answer—

“Yeah.”

I paused at the harsh note to his voice.

“It’s me.”

“I know.”

Okay.

Usually, he’d answer with a growly, “Dove.” Yep, I was right, he was seriously pissed off with me. Awesome. He was totally going to make me beg for this.

I pushed on. “So, time’s running out for me, and I really need to finish this. I’m heading out tonight, looking for Edric. I thought maybe you’d want to tag along?” Ugh. I sounded like an idiot.

“Not your fucking lap dog, Willow.”

This was worse than I thought. And Willow. He rarely called me that. Was he…had I actually hurt him? Don’t be stupid. He didn’t have a soul, he’d told me that himself. He wasn’t capable of love, didn’t believe in it, or even deep feelings, something else he’d shared with me, so how could my rejection hurt him? His male ego was bruised, that’s all this pouting was about.

“I know that, Warrick, but we had a deal, right?”

“Yeah, we had a deal. Doesn’t mean I’ll just let you lead me around by the dick because you finally decide to call. You sure as fuck haven’t worried about our deal the last few nights.”

“I knew you were there.”

“And yet you pretended that I wasn’t.”

“Okay, just…”

“Not in the fucking mood to chase your ass around all night.”

“Are you serious?”

“Deadly.”

“You think I’m leading you around by…I’m not doing that—”

“Do not leave your fucking house, female.”

I glanced at my sister and Bram, who were both watching me while eating their sandwiches. I smiled and rolled my eyes, giving them a thumbs-up, pretending that Warrick was just being Warrick and all was well, so Mags didn’t worry. Then I swiped my keys off the small table by the door and hustled down the hall and out of the house. “I can’t believe you’re throwing a tantrum over…what happened between us,” I said.

Silence.

“Warrick…”

“A tantrum?” he said, his voice pure grit.

“Yes, a tantrum. I gave you a hand job, alpha, I thought you enjoyed it. But you’re acting like I stole the cookies from your lunch box right before recess.”

More silence.

“Warrick…”

The line went dead.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

I stared at my phone in shock.

He hung up on me. He’d actually hung up on me.

Muttering under my breath, I climbed in the Morris, fired her to life, tore down the driveway, and out onto the road. Unbelievable.

Okay, maybe what I’d done had been uncool. But I had a little bit on my damn mind. God, I thought human males took rejection badly. The hound took sulking to a whole new level. It wasn’t like I needed him. I was capable of looking after myself. I had been for a hell of a long time. I had magic, and my dagger, and that was all I needed.

Just as long as Warrick didn’t tell Ren about our conversation, we’d be fine. Because Ren knew me better than almost anyone, which meant he’d know I wouldn’t just sit around at home because Warrick told me to.

But then Warrick would have already realized it himself by now, the great big freaking stalker.

The question was, would he do anything about it?

* * *

Twenty minutes later, I climbed out of the truck at the edge of Wolf Hill Woods, the last place we’d seen Edric, and pulled on my jacket. Muttering a protection spell, I slung my satchel across my chest. The spell was simple yet effective, and witches in my family had been using it for generations, something we all recited every morning.

The spell wouldn’t make me invisible or untouchable, but it did put luck more firmly on my side. I could seriously use all I could get. Anything stronger would defeat the purpose, which was to get Edric as close as I could, then try to coax the spirit to chat.

I was also wearing an onyx pendant. The stone wasn’t as effective as getting naked and covering myself in the Thornhearts’ special spiked oil, like I had at the hellhound den, but it was fairly effective at protecting against your average, everyday spirit. Smaller layers of protection would work better in this situation, since I still needed to attract those malevolent bastards.

I paused at the tree line when the growl of a motorbike engine echoed in the distance.

Apparently, the furious, furry one had changed his mind.

I wasn’t in the mood to argue or trade scowls, or…whatever. My belly squirmed as visions of what we’d done, what I’d done, last time we were here flashed through my mind.

I shoved them the hell away and headed into the woods. Nope, I wasn’t hanging around to wait for him. It wasn’t like he’d have trouble tracking me.

Dried leaves crunched under my boots, the shadows closing in as soon as I walked deeper, and my knife was vibrating at my hip before I’d even taken half a dozen steps. And not a gentle nudge either, it shrieked. A full-on red alert.

There was a crash, and a demon ran at me full-speed. Taking my blade in a loose hold, I aimed and let it fly.

The blade embedded in her throat, and she fell to the forest floor, clawing at it. Warrick would be right behind me, so I didn’t expend the time and energy of removing her head when he could do it with his bare hands. It was also too dangerous to stay still for any length of time, so instead, I sliced through the tendons in her legs to slow her down, and carried on.

Another came at me about three minutes later. This one wasn’t a demon, though, it was something else. Some kind of goblin maybe? I honestly didn’t know, but it meant to kill me. So, pressing my palms together, I called to the earth beneath me, then jerked my palms apart. The earth opened in a jagged split beneath the goblin’s feet. He fell in up to his thighs and I brought my hands back together with a loud clap, the split earth closed, trapping it there, growling in fury. By the time I reached the clearing where Edric and Warrick had fought, I’d taken down two more demons and some other creature I couldn’t name, leaving a trail of blood and groaning bodies behind me.

Still, no Warrick.

But then, he was probably doing what he had the last few nights, staying back so he didn’t have to actually talk to me. Whatever, if he wanted to act like a spoiled child who wasn’t allowed to play with his favorite toy, so be it.

I strode to the middle of the field, put my fingers to my lips, and whistled. “Edric! You out there?”

“Jesus Christ,” a male voice growled.

I turned, but it wasn’t Warrick, it was Ren.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Providing backup since you’ve somehow pissed Warrick off enough that he refused.” He strode toward me and a grin curled his lips. I couldn’t help but grin back and pulled him in for a tight hug. He dropped a kiss to the top of my head. “Missed you, Wills.”

“Missed you too, foxy.” Warrick wasn’t coming. I mean, he’d said it, but I hadn’t actually believed him.

A surprised laugh escaped him at the nickname I used to call him. We were ridiculous. We hadn’t even been apart that long. But we didn’t do that. We didn’t purposely stay away from each other. I squeezed him again. “You feel bigger.”

“I am bigger,” he said, that grin still there.

“Gotta love those shifter genes. Lift some weights for a few days and you turn into the Hulk,” I teased. But joke aside, physically, he had seriously transformed.

“It’s been a week actually, and Jagger has me doing some serious reps,” he said as he scanned the edge of the clearing.

“How’s the training going?” There was a bruise on his jaw and another on his cheekbone.

“Really good. I feel…” He shook his head. “It’s a good feeling, you know? I’m still learning, but I don’t go down as easily as I did a week ago.”

I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. “Are they being dicks to you?”

“Nah, they’re hard on me, but they’re fair. And Ronan’s been teaching me a few things as well. The male’s so cold and controlled, I’ve never seen anyone fight like that before.”

“Ronan’s there?” This seriously surprised me.

“Yeah, he has a room at the den. He comes and goes. I don’t know how it happened, but he’s tight with the hounds.”

My friend Luna didn’t know where her brother had been living. I would definitely be giving her a call later.

“So we’re looking for Edric?” Ren said.

“Yeah, though I’m not sure you should be out here, Renny. It’s not safe.”

He snorted. “I think I’ll be okay. I followed your gory trail of mutilation all the way here, remember?”

I smiled. “True. I’m getting better, more in tune with my dagger every day.”

“Nice…”

A howl echoed in the distance, and it definitely wasn’t Warrick. Yes, I knew the difference.

I spun toward the eerie sound. “Stay close to me,” I said and snatched a bag from my satchel. Stabbing the corner, I made a tight, thick circle of salt and cemetery dirt around Ren, then another beside him around me. “Whatever happens, Ren, promise me, you’ll stay in the circle.”

He nodded as he drew a hunting knife from the sheath strapped to his thigh.

“I know I should be pissed that you came out here, but I missed you so much, I’m just happy to see your pretty face.” I stepped out and in front of my circle.

“Hey, I’ll accept handsome, or even hot, but I draw the line at pretty.”

There was a tremor to his voice that he tried to hide. He was nervous. Nerves were good. A little fear was healthy. Cockiness, that’s when you ran into trouble. “So noted.” My blade was vibrating like crazy now, and I spun it slowly between my fingers.

The howl came again, louder this time.

“Move back, Wills, get in your circle,” Ren said.

“Not yet, the spirit won’t be interested if I’m behind the salt. If I can get him close enough to wound him, I might be able to question him.”

Ren made a rough sound. “This isn’t just some demon, it’s an evil-as-fuck spirit inhabiting a hellhound. They’re twenty times stronger and more viscous. Get back into your circle, Willow.”

“I’ve got this,” I said and braced when the giant hound exploded through the tree line and ran at me full speed.

Edric was a massive hound, and the spirit occupying his body was taking full advantage of all that speed and strength. He was coming in fast, but I needed to time it just right, too far back and he could dodge the blade when I threw it, not something that ever happened at a closer range. The adrenaline spike hit, letting me know it was time, and I let my dagger fly. I watched it arrow through the air, glinting off the moonlight.

Edric jerked right, and it glanced his massive, shaggy shoulder, then spun off into the long grass.

Fuck. I backed up and aimed my hands at the ground. It shook, the earth splitting beneath him. He bounded out of the way and kept coming.

I tried to call my blade to me as I backed up to my salt circle, but pain sliced down my leg and I stumbled before I could reach it. What the hell? It was followed by a repeated stabbing sensation that knocked my legs right out from under me. I cried out as my legs lost all strength.

“Willow!” Ren started toward me.

Fuck.

“Get back!” I screamed at him and threw out a hand again. My blade flew toward me, and finally, the hilt hit my palm. I tried to scramble back, but my legs were useless. I quickly drew back my arm to throw the blade again, but Edric was too close. I cried out as he ran over me like a freaking truck. Agony slammed through my body.

The hound spun as Ren ran for me.

“No!”

Edric snarled and smashed into us both, knocking Ren several feet away, then he prowled toward Ren, sniffing the air. I called my blade and threw it again, visualizing where I wanted it to land, and it sunk into Edric’s tree-trunk-sized thigh.

He roared and turned back to me.

“Get in the circle, Ren, now!” I held out my hand for my blade once more. It flew back, but Ren wasn’t moving. Edric turned to me, stalking closer, limping now. He was foaming at the mouth, eyes blazing red, and I held out my blade. “Come closer and I slit the hound’s throat and I won’t stop slicing until I’ve taken his head. You won’t easily find another vessel as strong as this one,” I said to the spirit living inside Edric.

He stopped in his tracks, and I’d never seen a hellhound in its beast’s form smile before, but I was positive that’s what I was looking at now. He had no intention of backing down. He dipped his head, preparing to charge. I jerked my hands up, reaching for the trees, the forest floor, with my magic, and a hail of dead branches, debris, and several rocks flew at him on a flurry of violent wind, smashing into him with force.

Edric jerked back as the wind whipped around us, his body taking hit after hit. He roared, then turned, and with a powerful move, exploded across the clearing and vanished back into the woods.

I released the wind and scrambled to Ren, who still wasn’t moving. “Ren…Renny, talk to me?” He was shaking, his entire body quivering.

A muffled sound reached me.

I frowned. “Ren?”

And then the sound became clearer.

Giggling.

A deranged, twisted sound that had my heart thumping against the back of my ribs. He spun suddenly and grabbed me by the throat. His eyes were black, no trace of the soft gold or his gentle heart that could be seen whenever you looked into them.

Instead, pure evil stared back.

He was possessed.

I gripped his wrist, trying to wrench it away, but he was too strong.

“Get out,” I rasped past the tight grip he had on my throat. “Get out of him. Right the fuck now!”

“Or what?” A voice that wasn’t Ren’s answered, “What will you do?”

This wasn’t the spirit who Edric was housing, this was someone else. How many had been piggybacking in the hellhound? No other creature was strong enough to hold several spirits at once. No wonder they’d been drawn to the clubhouse.

Grabbing the onyx around my throat, I shoved it against Ren’s face and tried to choke out the spell to exorcise the spirit from him. But the words were indecipherable. He squeezed tighter and tears slid down my face as I gripped my blade tighter. I didn’t want to hurt him.

But he grabbed my wrist before I could aim for his arm or leg, somewhere that wouldn’t kill him, like he’d read my intentions. Twisting it behind me and up, his legs wrapping around mine and squeezing impossibly tight. Using all the new impressive fighting skills the hounds had taught Ren, locking me in a hold I couldn’t get out of.

I was going to die here in this field—at the hands of my best friend.

He stared down at me, gaze wild, excited, as he watched his own hand slowly strangling the life out of me.

I’d failed him.

I’d failed my family.

I’d failed the people who had died at the hands of these spirits.

And I’d never get the chance to make it right.

Warrick’s dark eyes, his rugged face, filled my mind, and the regret grew even deeper, the pain in my chest fiercer. I wanted him. I needed him.

Black spots danced across my vision—

A snarl broke through the blackness, then Ren was torn from me. A terrifying roar came next, and my fox was tossed halfway across the clearing.

I fell back, gasping for air, twisting toward Ren, searching for him in the long grass.

He sprang back to his feet suddenly, and without a backward glance, sprinted into the woods.

Then Warrick was there, looming over me.

That rugged, handsome face all I could see, and those dark eyes were filled with fury.