Dancing With Monsters (31 page)

I felt I was on a roller coaster ride
that spun, twisted and turned into frightening turns that I wasn’t
sure if I was going to scream or puke all over Eveie who had
wrapped her delicate arm around me.

“
Don’t scream—they’ll
hear,” Eveie said in my ear.

After the initial rush, I felt my hand
begin to burn as if I had placed it on a red-hot burner of a
cooktop. I wanted to pull away, but Malachi depended on me. I
pressed harder as my body felt like it was melting and my vision
began to blur. By now, my hand, arm and part of my shoulder had
gone numb, and just before I felt myself slipping into darkness,
Eveie pulled away.

I let my body slump as Seth caught me
in his arms. I kept my eyes open and focused on Malachi. His color
had returned and he stirred a little. I felt relief and smiled as
my body fell deeper in exhaustion.

“
You did well, my
daughter.” Eveie turned and looked at me over her shoulder, and
then collapsed.

“
Eveie,” I said, pushing
with what remaining strength I had from Seth to her.

Her eyes were closed, and her red hair
had started to turn silver like frost forming on glass.

My sister—give me to her,
April.

It was Ebony’s voice that I heard in
my head.

“
How?” I asked as Seth
tried to pull me away from her and Malachi, now fully awake, looked
at us with confusion.

Give her my
energy.

An overwhelming eagerness filled me as
I felt my arms were not my own and I placed them of Eveie’s
scale-covered cheeks. I gazed into her face realizing how beautiful
she was—like an exotic animal. She was now all silver and white as
her red hair had changed into silver strands. I felt a bubble form
inside of me that desperately wanted to be released. It was like
all of my insides had turned to metal, and Eveie was the magnet
that pulled me closer to her, but I couldn’t give her all the power
that I had.

Stay with me, April! Pull
back now!

My body shook, voices yelled around
me, and I felt my surroundings explode with light, fire, and voices
until a giant curtain of blackness fell on me like an
avalanche.

Seth

I pulled April away from Eveie just as
Uncle Hes, Ayil, and Rusul followed by Yolanda, busted through the
door. Uncle Hes yanked me to my feet as Yolanda and Ayil took April
and Rusul carefully approached Eveie.

Eveie stood with a smirk on her face
as she gazed at Rusul. She showed no fear or resistance as Rusul
stood in front of her. Her eyes scanned the room taking everything
in as Uncle Hes yelled at me, but I didn’t hear a word he said as
my eyes shifted to Malachi.

“
I saved the monster’s
life, my son, I saved his life along with April, my daughter.” Her
blue eyes shifted to April lying on the floor with her head nestled
in Yolanda’s lap.

“
Where’s the stone?” Uncle
Hes hissed at me.

I heard him, but didn’t reply as I
tried to pull away from him towards Malachi.

“
I freed her and she saved
Malachi who had a demon thorn in him—he would have died,” I said,
shifting my eyes back towards Uncle Hes.

“
You freed a demon to save
just one monster!” Uncle Hes’s eyes burned with rage,
disappointment, and an anger I’ve never seen before. “You stupid
boy!” Like lightening, Uncle Hes tightened his fist and hit me on
the side of the head.

I dropped to my knees from the
surprise hit that I never thought he was capable of. My head rang,
vision blurred, and my cheek, numb at first, began to throb. More
in shock that injury, I bounced back up as Eveie’s eyes flared with
blue flames.

“
You hit children, you
make children do your deeds, and you,” Eveie, with an open hand and
eyes fixed on Uncle Hes, pushed Rusul out of the way as she
advanced towards him. Rusul was thrown backwards through the air
shattering the window as he went through it. “You made my daughter
bleed.”

“
Rusul!” Yolanda cried as
she went to the window and was thrown backwards as if someone had
pushed her away.

The force of the storm outside whirled
around the room bringing in rain and cold wind that flipped the
remaining curtains that hung on the shattered window. The door
slammed shut, and began to glow with a white mist that surrounded
it and then the window. Eveie had us locked in with her.

“
Give me your stone, boy!”
Frantically, Uncle Hes started to search my pockets and then
slammed me up against the wall. I held it tightly in my fist.
“Where is it?!” He yelled through clenched teeth and wild
eyes.

Eveie stood in front of Uncle Hes as
Ayil and Yolanda came up behind her. As if Eveie had eyes in the
back of her head, she turned just as they approached her, and with
an outstretched hand, released two quick balls of light that hit
Ayil first, then Yolanda. They were both tossed through the air as
if they had strings attached to them and someone jerked the end of
that string. They hit the wall hard, Yolanda breaking a mirror, and
Ayil smacking into a dresser. The whole display done by Eveie with
a smile on her face and eyes fixed on Uncle Hes.

“
Eveie stop, please,” I
tried to say in a calm voice as Malachi attempted to stand, but
fell to the floor and began to crawl towards April. I held the
stone in front of me and warned Eveie with my eyes. She looked at
it as if I was showing her just any rock, not one that could
contain her. Her eyes slid back to Uncle Hes.

The door began to pound with what
sounded like hundreds of fists and through the outcries on the
other side; I could hear Isaiah’s voice.

“
You are not a good
monster. My daughter says you want her to kill an archangel that I
have no qualms about—at least not yet.” The door flexed and Isaiah
demanded over and over to open it. “I can take them all out,” she
nodded towards the door. “But I won’t, because all I want is my
April.” Eveie gave a scowl, held her right hand up, and from the
center of her palm, a thin, black thorn extended from
it.

She shoved it into Uncle Hes’s throat
and leaped towards April and Malachi in a blast of white
light.

When my eyes focused, the room was
filled with guards and Isaiah barking orders. I gazed down at Uncle
Hes as his eyes locked with mine and gurgling sounds came from his
mouth. He looked as though he was trying to tell me something as he
reached for my hand and squeezed it. Blood gushed from the thorn
protruding from his neck, and pooled on the floor, soaked into my
clothing, and covered my hands. I tried to use my stone to heal his
wound, but the poison and blood loss were quicker than any magic. I
knew it was useless, and kept telling Uncle Hes that everything
would be alright. My stone glowed with power and I felt its energy
in my hand, but it wasn’t strong enough.

He tightened his grip on my hand as I
cradled his head, and then with one final gasp of air, Uncle Hes
died. His eyes still focused on me with words he wanted say would
forever remain unspoken.

“
Demon thorns are nasty
business,” Isaiah said, standing beside me. I didn’t even know he
was there watching.

I didn’t reply as I sat frozen with my
blood-covered stone still in hand and held over the thorn. Uncle
Hes was gone, and there was nothing I could do.

“
Take the body,” Isaiah
said, commanding two guards.

They lifted him up and carried him out
the door, feet dragging on the floor. I looked down at the blood
that pooled on the floor, and stained my skin and
clothes.

“
Take him and clean him
up,” Isaiah said, kneeling in front of me as Edan lifted me
up.

I stood facing Isaiah with Edan beside
me. “Put him in a cell until I can deal with him later.”

“
But Eveie took April and
Malachi. You can’t lock me up.” I looked into Isaiah’s pitiless
eyes.

“
You freed the demon that
killed your uncle, and now she took a powerful monster. She is on
the loose, and all by your doing.” He glared at me as he snatched
the stone from my hand. “I think I have the right to lock you
up.”

13

April

After the light faded like mist
dissolving in sunlight, I could see distant mountains gleaming in
the bright light. There was what seemed like miles of rolling,
green hills that looked like they were bowing at the foot of the
massive mountains.

Malachi stood beside me as he looked
around. Eveie was nowhere in sight.

“
We’ve got to be in the
Shadowlands.” Malachi gazed at the wilderness that surrounded
us.

I reached for his hand and squeezed it
in mine. He turned and looked at me with surprise. A gust of wind
blew past us as it fluttered his dark hair. We could have been in
Avalon with a picnic waiting for us under a tree. We’d be carefree
with no demons, angels or monsters after us. And for that moment, I
allowed myself to think everything was over.

“
I’m glad you’re not going
to die,” I said finally.

Malachi smiled as he took my other
hand.

“
Me too, and thanks,” he
said as Eveie came up the hill we stood on.

“
Come children, there’s
something I want to show you.” She came only half way up and
motioned with excitement for us to follow her.

Malachi startled, pushed me behind him
as Eveie ran down the hill laughing like a little girl.

I stepped out from behind him. “If she
wanted us dead, she’d done it by now. And besides, she wants
children, and we’re her children. If we want out of this
demon-mother-loving nightmare, we’d better play along until we can
figure a way out.”

I ran down the hill laughing as Eveie
in all her silver and white, waited for us like a guardian
ghost.

“
Come on Malachi!” I
yelled as I joined Eveie’s side.

He hesitated for only a moment, and
then ran down the hill, but not as joyfully as I did. His face was
flushed and then casted over with a green shade. He turned away and
acted as though he was going to puke all over the neon green
grass.

“
You still have poison in
you.” Eveie stood beside Malachi and gazed at him with tender eyes.
“We need to fix that, come on; I’ve got just the thing.” She smiled
at him as she ran her fingers across his cheek.

I almost expected him to flinch or
worse, punch Eveie for touching him, but he did neither. Instead,
he gazed back like a lost puppy that was surprised to have found a
caring soul.

We followed Eveie up and down hills
and finally reached a stream with a cottage-style house nestled
beside it that you’d read about in fairytales. It was made of
rounded stones mortared together with what looked like clay and
wood shingles that covered the roof. It was surrounded with flowers
and a stone pathway that led to an arched, wood door with a silver
knob. Blue shutters framed the large, square windows, and a
matching mailbox sat propped on a crooked tree limb used as a post.
They got mail here?

Before Eveie opened the door, she
opened her mailbox. I looked at Malachi, but he was leaning over
the daisies puking all over them.

“
Just bills,” Eveie
sighed.

“
Wait,” I said, taking a
step back. “You have bills in the Shadowlands?”

Eveie smiled at me as she looked over
her shoulder with the two envelopes in hand. “The Shadowlands,
no—but the Isle of Stars, yes.” She opened the door, and I helped
Malachi inside.

“
I’m sure you are
wondering what the Isle of Stars is, and I can tell you that it is
Fae owned and very exclusive to you and your mother’s kind.” Eveie
turned on the orillions that were on a shelf above the stone
fireplace.

Inside was as charming as the outside
with its puffy chairs and sofa, open to a kitchen with a round
table in front of the fireplace, and a loft with a spiral staircase
leading up to it. I would have never thought a demon would live in
a cottage with flowers in a place that looked like it was peeled
off a calendar and we had entered it.

“
Sit Malachi on the
couch.” Eveie motioned towards the striped couch of white and pale
pink.

I gently sat Malachi down as he moaned
and hugged his stomach. Eveie handed me a glass with a yellowish
liquid in it.

“
Have him drink it,” she
said sitting across from us.

I pressed it up to his mouth without
question and he drank it. Eveie, I knew, wasn’t going to hurt us.
Malachi looked too green to argue with anyone. Eveie wasn’t the
demon I thought she was all those years, and in fact, she wasn’t
anything like I expected her to be.

“
My mother’s kind—what do
you mean by that?” I asked as Malachi leaned over resting his head
on the arm of the chair. Eveie smiled and placed a pillow under his
head. “My mother was a monster from the Crosslands of
Iethia.”

“
No, she was far from
that.” She looked at me. “Who told you that?” She asked with
questioning eyes.