A Glow of Stars & Dusk by Eve L. Mitchell

I slept so wellon the stone floor of the cave I wondered if it was the blankets, the rustic setting or the fact I had been exhausted. I then chuckled at myself as I looked around the rustic setting of my cave. I slept in a cave, there was nothing rustic about it. I was alone again, I noticed as I stood and stretched. Yawning, I wandered over to the cave opening and looked out over the North Sea. The sea was choppy today and looked absolutely freezing. The water was that dark grey-blue colour which was mirrored in the sky above. Heavy storm clouds sat thick in the sky, and I doubted the power of the blood moon tonight.

Looking around the cave, I wondered if I would spend another night here, or would I actually get to go home? Why wait? I looked around one more time. There were definitely no demons here. I could travel. Kind of. Almost. Maybe?

Bracing myself, I closed my eyes and…nothing. What was I supposed to do? Think of home? Click my heels? Twitch my nose? I scratched my head. I closed my eyes again and thought home. Opening one eye, I still stood in the cave. Huh.

Sam said to the others that I needed to be angry. I did spend most of my life in a constant state of agitation, could I make myself angry? I pinched myself. Nope. All that did was make me yelp in pain and no doubt bruise me.

Think angry thoughts? The complete opposite of how to fly, I mused. I really needed to stop watching Disney movies.

Angry thoughts, okay, let’s do this. Sam. Mild irritation flared within me. Despite his angry words and his heavy-handed treatment, I understood why he was pissed. If the shoe were on the opposite foot, I would have gutted him if he did this with Abby, after being with me in the toilets, or even the front seat of my van the night before. He had slept beside me, and I hadn’t noticed he wasn’t the man I kissed the next morning. Not man, demon. Male. Whatever, him. So yeah, he may have destroyed my bedroom and tore all my clothes up and flung me through the air, but was his anger unfounded? Not really.

So Sam didn’t make me angry. Huh. I toyed with my jumper. I needed a demon to be mad at. Zel. He popped into my brain unbidden. I ran through several scenarios where Zel pissed me off. He was either protecting Sam or he was just being his naturally dry mean self.

Zel didn’t make me angry either.

I was a complete snowflake. None of the demons made me angry. I reacted to Sam, in the moment, but when I was rational and adult—cue brain snort—about it, I could see both sides of the argument.

Who else pissed me off without even trying? Ruairidh. The fact his name popped into my head unbidden made my eyes open in surprise. He made me mad? He was sleeping with Abby. Did that make me mad, or was I jealous? I thought about it, hard. Nope, that pissed me off big time.

I felt the waters stir and grinned. I then dredged up the Bonnie incident and the time he had come to St Andrews to “talk” but then never did anything about it once I was home and no longer sleeping with anyone. Sam was right, he had kept me warming as a placeholder for when he ran out of options.

Oh my God, I was his backup plan. I paced the cave as my powers churned deep within me, and I thought about my best friend Ruairidh. He was my best friend, he was a good friend, but he was a spineless shit when it came to women…to me. Sam was right. Ruairidh knew I cared for him, liked him as more than a friend, and he didn’t let me down gently, or address it, or acknowledge it. He kept me hanging.

My powers rose higher, and I reached out to them. Home.

I winked, travelled, whatever. I was in my front room, and I was so surprised I managed it I flopped down on my couch in relief. Almost immediately I was on my feet, making sure all of me travelled and I hadn’t left anything significant behind. Was that possible? Freaked out at the idea of only half of me turning up, I ran my hands over myself once more. Definitely whole.

Shower. I needed one so badly. I headed to my bedroom and once again took in the devastation of my room. Fine, I could see why he would be upset, but seriously? This? He was an arsehole. My nose wrinkled at the drying blood on the walls even as I rummaged through my torn clothing to find something I could wear. Finding nothing, I went back to the kitchen and found clean clothes folded on top of my dryer. Grabbing jeans, a T-shirt and a long cardigan, I headed back to the bedroom. I ignored the chaos as I locked the en suite behind me and ran the shower. I was so happy to brush my teeth I did it twice.

Leaving a pile of clothes on the floor, I took a long hot shower. I was rinsing out the conditioner when I felt the cold air whoosh into my bathroom. I carried on rinsing my hair as I worried which one was behind the curtain. Grabbing my body wash, I tried to pretend they weren’t there. Finally, when the silence was too much, I popped my head out from behind the shower curtain.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing?” Sam asked me, even as his jaw clenched tight.

“Taking a shower.” I produced my body puff, full of soap suds. “See? Soapy.”

“I willfucking drown you one of these days,” he swore as he closed his eyes, and his lips moved.

“Are you counting to ten?” I asked, genuinely curious, but swallowed hard when he glared so intensely at me that I felt myself pale.

“Kitchen. Five minutes.” He stormed out.

“Well okay then,” I mimicked his tone. “Bossy bastard.” I finished my shower and got dressed. My hairdryer was under who knew what in my bedroom, so I braided my wet hair, and after rooting around and finding clean socks, I went to the kitchen.

Sam and Ros sat at the kitchen table. Ros grinned at me with a conspirator’s wink before he schooled his features when Sam shifted his stare from me to Ros.

“What did you think you were doing?”

“We went over this,” I said as I filled the kettle. “I had a shower, which honestly, I don’t need to even draw you a picture, you were in there.” I looked at him and then turned away with a hidden smile. “You’re being redundant.”

Ros coughed out a laugh and nodded when I asked if he wanted coffee.

“You took my mugs, but you didn’t bring them back?” I said with a sigh as I looked at the empty cupboard.

“Dishwasher,” Ros supplied helpfully as he pointed to the dishwasher.

“Oh, thanks.” I made three mugs of coffee and then stood and waited for either his eruption or his indifference. The room was so cold it was hard to say which way the demon would react.

“How did you do it?” Ros asked me, obviously as fed up with the tension as I was.

“I made myself angry,” I answered honestly. “I felt the powers rise, and I used them.”

“What pissed you off this time?” Ros asked with a good-natured grin.

“Men,” I told him with an easy smile.

“Yeah, that’ll do it.” Ros stroked his beard as his eyes twinkled with laughter.

“I’m getting better,” I said as I drank my coffee. “But, you know, just in case”—my eyes flicked to Sam before returning to Ros—“can I, um, leave anything, like behind or something, if I do it?”

“Like your coat?” Ros asked with a frown.

“She means can she splice,” Sam said as his eyes finally rested on me.

“Oh.” Ros wasn’t laughing anymore. “Well, yes. But it’s unlikely.”

“How unlikely?” Alarm was mounting within me.

“Seventy, maybe seventy-five percent.”

“Oh my God!” My horror must have shown on my face, because Ros was at my side rubbing my arm in what I think he thought was a soothing manner, but in reality was just rubbing my flesh off the bone.

“You need to be taught.” Sam’s voice was heavy with contempt.

“Well, I don’t have a teacher.”

“Chaz has offered.”

“You’re okay with that?” I asked dubiously.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He leaned back in his seat. “Would you prefer Zel do it?”

No, I would prefer you do it, you sanctimonious shithead.

“Most definitely not,” I said instead. “Zel would encourage my splicing.”

“I’m going to teach you how to fight,” Ros said eagerly. “Der too.”

“Why do I need to know how to fight?” I asked as my alarm rushed back.

“The Scavengers have accepted a higher bid.” Sam’s cold voice brought chills down my spine. “If you were to take note of your surroundings instead of walking around fucking oblivious, you would notice the fog has returned.” He nodded to the garden. “We haven’t much time, get what you need.”

“You ripped all my clothes up,” I muttered sullenly as I pulled on a pair of boots.

“So, travelling light?” Sam asked facetiously. “Excellent.” He grabbed my arm, and we were back in the cave where he instantly dropped my arm.

“She used anger at men to travel,” he told Chaz. His tone dripped with scorn, and I narrowed my eyes on his back. “Her nature is to forgive too easily,” he carried on, despite the fact I was right there. “Anger won’t sustain the energy for long. She needs to be taught and taught fast.”

“Pen will aid me,” Chaz said as he looked at me with a smile. “There’s no one we cannot teach,” he added encouragingly.

“You’ve met her though,” Zel grumbled as he lay back on my blanket pile, his eyes closed.

“A challenge then.” Pen grinned as he stood. “How exciting.”

The three of us travelled to a large deserted field. “Where are we?” I asked as I looked around.

“Where and when you are now is irrelevant for this exercise,” Chaz told me as he bound his hair in his sexy manbun. “Where you are going, that’s the lesson.”

“You want me to go back to the cave?” I nodded in understanding.

“Yes.” Chaz beamed at me.

“Okay.” I shrugged and closed my eyes. I thought of Ruairidh again, and the anger from earlier was now more a muted irritation. I recalled in graphic detail Bonnie telling me how she took Ruairidh’s virginity and that she had asked him afterwards if I would mind, and he had allegedly said, “Star? Star who?” I felt a surge of anger, but it didn’t so much as cause a ripple in my pool.

“I think he’s right,” I admitted in defeat.

“Anger gone?” Pen asked casually.

“Yeah, well, anger at Ruairidh is gone.” I closed my eyes again. “Zel pisses me off every moment, I’ll think of him.”

I waited. I thought really hard of all the horrid things Zel had done and still…zip.

“Okay, anger may not work.”

“That’s a good thing,” Chaz said, dropping down to sit on the grass. “It’s a strong emotion, true, but it burns too brightly. It saps your energy.”

“How about fear?” Pen asked, and suddenly a huge great white shark was suspended in front of me. I screamed and winked.

I was still screaming when I opened my eyes and looked at the four amused demons even as I tried to stop my shaking.

Pen and Chaz were beside me, and I punched Pen so hard I think I broke my hand. He didn’t so much as move, and that ignited my anger more. “Arsehole!”

“Fear works,” Chaz said dryly. “Not sure of its practicalities though,” he murmured under his breath as Pen rubbed his jaw.

“Is she hysterical?” Zel asked curiously as he watched me hyperventilate in front of them.

“Star?” Chaz asked as he reached out to touch me, and I stepped back in fear and anger.

“Why is she traumatised?” Sam asked in annoyance.

“I may have underestimated her irrational fear,” Pen admitted.

“Sharks?” Ros laughed. “But she’s dry?”

“I didn’t send her to the sharks.”

“Oh.” Ros started to laugh. “I would have loved to have seen that.”

“Dickhead,” I snapped.

Sam stood and walked over to me and took my arm. “Let’s try this again.”

We were back in the field, and I clung to him as I looked around for the shark. “Where did it go?”

“Hopefully back in the ocean.” Sam smirked as he looked down at me. “It makes no sense for you to be scared of them, you’re hardly going to come across one in the Highlands.”

“Hence why it is called an irrational fear.”

“You’re absurd.”

“You should have seen its teeth,” I whispered as I tried to calm my shaking hands.

“Sorry,” Pen said from behind us. “I didn’t realise it was such a strong fear.”

Sam tensed beside me, and then the others spun too. Scavengers were advancing on us. “Is this a fear test,” I asked warily as I watched them.

“No, this is an attack.”

“Well,” I said, placing my hand on Sam’s arm. “I’m ready, wink me.”

“You really do need to stop calling it that,” Sam said as he looked down at me, his forest green eyes flickering once with amusement. “Only we have a problem.”

“Only one?” I commented snarkily.

“If we run, they can follow us. I don’t fancy being in the cave with them, do you?” He acknowledged my vigorous head shaking. “If we go back to the cottage, same problem.” He took a step away from me, and his twin swords of flame appeared in his hands. “Sometimes,” he said with grim satisfaction, “a message needs to be sent.”

“You’re going to fight?” I whispered in realisation.

“I need to let some pent-up aggression out,” Sam said with a straight face as he watched the Scavengers.

“Why aren’t you calling for the others?” I asked worriedly as I saw Pen and Chaz both arm themselves.

“You go fetch them.”

“What?” I stared at him.

“Hurry along, witch, they’re not content to wait, and the others need the exercise,” Sam told me as he nodded to the advancing Scavengers.

I could feel my power, and I looked between the three of them. “I swear, if this is a test…”

“Today would be nice,” Sam growled.

“Fine.” I travelled. In the cave, I quickly filled the others in. Zel was gone before I even finished, Der and Ros not long after. I stood in the cave and looked around. I reached for my power, and it was sleeping again. Excellent. Now what did I do? I sat down to wait and wondered how pissed they would be I hadn’t returned.