Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss (21 page)

“Will he let this one live?” I asked against
Vance’s shirt as I held onto him as if I were drowning.

“It depends on how many cups he has,” Vance
answered honestly. “His chalice is big. It looks to be about the
size of a pint. If he stops after eight, then they probably plan on
changing him. If he drinks more than that, then he will probably
just let him die.”

My dad and Brad continued to watch while
Vance held me tightly in his arms, his chin resting on the top of
my head.

“He stopped at ten,” Dad finally said, after
a long silence. “But he’s letting the others take the rest.”

“This is so sick,” Brad said sourly as he
continued to watch the scene unfold in front of him.

“He’s starting on the final man now,” Dad
added.

“He isn’t going to keep any of them, is he?”
I asked, feeling my heart break painfully for the victims involved
with this monster.

Vance shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he
whispered as he hugged me closer.

“He just passed him off to the others,” Brad
said several minutes later. “I think he’s going for her now.”

“We have to watch,” I said, pushing Vance
away and reaching for the binoculars on the table again. “We have
to learn what it is.”

“Portia, I’ll do it. You don’t have to,” he
said, concerned, placing a hand of restraint against my arm.

“No!” I replied, harshly. “I involved in
this, too! I need to know what we’re going up against.”

He looked at me for a moment before he
released my hand, and I brought the binoculars back up to my face,
finding the target once again, as Vance returned to the spyglass he
had been using prior.

Thankfully the bodies that had been in the
chairs were no longer visible. I didn’t dwell on what that fact
might mean, and I followed as Damien began to stalk his new
prey.

I watched as the woman on the wall began
screaming, tears rolling down her face. I could see she was trying
to throw a magical force field around herself for protection, but
it wasn’t working.

“That’s why he has the I.V.,” Dad said, in
sudden understanding. “He’s drugging them so they don’t have proper
control over their powers. He’s running interference.”

Damien walked up close to the woman, reaching
through her flimsy barrier of protection, and grabbed her jaw so
she faced him head on. He placed his other hand on the back of her
head. I could see her trying to say something as he leaned in
close, and it almost looked like he was going to kiss her. He
stopped though when he was about two inches away from her mouth,
suddenly dropping his jaw open and inhaled as if taking a very deep
breath.

The women’s body went completely stiff and
then she began jerking in spasms. I could actually see the essence
of her powers, in the form of light, very similar to the glow I
witnessed from my own healing powers.

I watched as the light flowed rapidly up
though her veins, into her neck and then out of her mouth, passing
out of her body and into his. It was all over in about thirty
seconds, and when it was finished, she slumped heavily against the
wall.

Damien dropped his hands from her body then.
He began to shake as the new powers ran through his body, lighting
his veins as it moved through him, until it filled his entire
being. He held his hands out away from him, and I could even see
what looked like sparks shooting out from the ends of his fingers.
It almost appeared as if he was in pain as he convulsed with the
power. Finally, after several long moments, I could see that his
body was beginning to assimilate the new powers as the lights
running through him began to slowly fade away.

“That was some trip,” Brad said quietly,
mostly to himself. “I think I’m going to vomit.”

The medical staff then hurried to the wall
and removed the woman from it. She was carried brusquely out the
door, down to the beach and unceremoniously tossed rather roughly
into the waiting motorboat.

We heard the engine sputter to life in the
distance and begin to head back out to sea.

“Portia! Hand me the night vision goggles in
my bag, quick!” my dad called out to me.

I dropped my binoculars onto the table and
hurriedly rummaged through the duffle bag until I found them.

“Here!” I said placing them into his
outstretched hand.

He had them on in a flash and was soon
looking about, scanning the waters for the small motorboat.

“There!” he said pointing across the bow as
he located them.

We moved our line of sight as we followed the
point of his finger but couldn’t see anything out in the dark
night, though we did hear the engine slow slightly.

“They dumped her into the water!” he
exclaimed suddenly.

“Dad!” I shouted in dismay. “We have to go
get her! She’s too weak and she’ll drown!”

“It’ll take too long to get this thing
started!” he replied, shaking his head as he looked over at the
controls. “If we fire it up right now, it’ll alert them also,” he
added as he looked out over the water.

Vance was instantly out the door of the
cabin, and suddenly I heard a splash.

“He’s swimming to her!” I said as I ran out
the door, trying to see him in the dark but to no avail.

“They’re leaving now, in a hurry,” Dad said
as he continued to watch out the window.

“Enrico!” I shouted from the door, trying to
get his attention, just as Brad appeared at my side.

“Tell them to drop the nets!” I begged Brad
as I gestured toward the working men. “It’ll take too long to pull
them in!”

Brad ran forward toward the fishermen
gesturing wildly with his hands as he spoke rapidly in their native
tongue.

Enrico balked and was shaking his head
violently, arguing back in Spanish, clearly not wishing to drop his
load.

“Tell him we’ll buy him all new nets if he’ll
drop them now!” I shouted, before turning back to my dad. “Can you
see them? Is Vance okay?” I hollered at him, feeling my nerves rise
to an all-new extreme.

“He’s moving quickly through the water. I
think she’s face down in it! He isn‘t near enough yet, though!” he
called back to me.

I turned to look at Brad, who was still
arguing with Enrico and the other crewmembers.

“Screw this!” I said under my breath and I
strode out onto the deck.

I centered all my emotions, feeling the
urgency and the energy racing through my veins. I lifted my hands
out, raising them in a slow motion high into the air.

A hard wind suddenly raced through the
atmosphere, whipping my hair free from the claw that held it,
thrashing it wildly around my face.

The nets began lifting up out of the water,
following the motion of my hands, until they were swinging in the
pulleys full of fish. I moved my arms in toward my body and the
large metal robotic arms swung the nets into the boat.

The fisherman were screaming and hovering
into a corner now as they pointed first at the nets and then over
at me, terror written plainly on their faces.

“Get this boat moving!” I yelled to my dad
and I heard the engine fire up at that exact moment.

The boat started forward slowly as Dad turned
it slightly to adjust the course, heading in the direction where we
needed to go.

Brad was frantically trying to calm the
screaming men behind me and keep them from jumping overboard.

I rushed around to the port side and leaned
over the edge, looking out into the darkness as we picked up speed,
looking for any sign of Vance, or the woman, out in the
wave-rippled water.

“Over there!” I yelled to my dad, pointing as
I spotted him, his red eyes glowing in the distant darkness.

He was treading water in the spot where he
had flipped the woman over, and he was holding her head up trying
to keep the waves from washing over her face.

Dad maneuvered the boat up alongside him, and
Brad and I reached down into the water to grab the woman from
him.

We hauled her up onto the boat as the
fishermen looked on in amazement, being silent for the first time
as they watched us.

Their moment of silence lasted until Vance
climbed back into the boat. They got one look at his red eyes and
started screaming again.

This time Enrico did jump overboard.

“Oh, good grief!” Vance said, throwing his
hands into the air, before jumping back into the water after
him.

We went to work quickly on the woman, laying
her flat on her back on the deck, while Dad checked her for a
pulse.

“She has a pulse, but she isn’t breathing!”
he said, and he slightly tilted her head back and began to blow
into her mouth.

Brad and I watched him work quickly with
her.

After a few breaths, the woman started
coughing violently, and water began gurgling out of her mouth.

We rolled her to the side so the liquid could
drain from her without choking her again. She took several gasps of
breath.

“Brad, ask one of the guys if they have any
oxygen onboard,” I said, knowing that she needed extra help.

He relayed the message to the three remaining
fishermen onboard who looked at him with wide eyes like he was
crazy. I didn’t think they could even comprehend a thing that he
was saying to them.

“I think they’re in shock,” he replied with a
shake of his head. “They aren’t answering me. I’ll go look for some
in the cabin.”

We heard a squeal from the men then and
looked up to see Vance dripping wet, dragging an equally soaked
Enrico back onboard the vessel.

Vance sat Enrico down with the other men and
touched each of them, effectively freezing their bodies with a
spell, to keep them from moving. He sloshed his way back across the
deck and knelt at my side.

“How is she?” he asked, panting slightly.

“She isn’t conscious yet,” I said. “She had a
lot of water in her lungs.”

“Heal her,” he stated, looking at me.

“What?” I asked in shock, his words not
really registering.

“Heal her,” he replied again, wiping his
dripping hair away from his face with his hand. “I don’t want to
try it while I’m having these demonic reactions. I don’t know if
they’d affect my magic at all.”

I nodded my head at him in understanding
before turning back to the woman in front of me. I reached out and
placed my hands gently on both sides of her head, letting my energy
flow from me into her, the soft white light moving quickly
throughout her body as it searched out the areas in need of
attention. When the transfer was finished, I removed my hands from
her and sat back.

A few seconds later she slowly opened her
eyes and looked around, flinching visibly when she saw Vance
leaning over her.

“It’s all right now,” I said, nodding my head
toward him. “He saved you from drowning.”

“What happened?” she asked with a cough, and
I could hear the accent of her native Indian tongue coming through
her speech.

“You were the victim of dark magic tonight,
and you’ve lost all your powers through something called a demon
kiss. Your body was discarded into the ocean afterwards,” I
explained.

“Where am I?” She looked around.

“You’re in Mexico, on a fishing boat in the
Sea of Cortez,” I replied to her as she looked at me.

She glanced back warily at Vance again.

“He isn’t a demon?” she asked, with
trepidation creeping into her voice, her nervousness apparent.

“No,” I said shaking my head. “Someone once
tried to change him, though, and he still suffers from reactions to
the near conversion.” I wanted to help her to be able to relax
around him and not fear him.

She looked him over for a moment as if trying
to decide whether or not to believe what I was saying.

“Thank you then,” she finally replied, her
gaze holding his own. “And I am sorry for your suffering.”

“I’m fine,” he said with a soft smile. “I
just want to make sure you’re all right.”

“Would you object to coming back to shore
with us and telling our coven what has happened to you?” my dad
asked gently. “We’re trying to stop the person who did this to
you.”

“No. Not at all,” she said. We helped her to
her feet and guided her into the cabin out of the night air.

Brad wrapped a blanket he had found around
her, and we helped her to sit down on the bench at the table.

“What are we going to do about this other
mess we’ve made tonight?” Dad said as we looked out at the
magically restrained fishermen.

“I have no idea,” I said, biting at my bottom
lip. “I didn’t really have time to plan correctly before I cooked
up that little show of power I made out there. I’m sorry about
that.”

“Don’t worry about it, Pumpkin,” my dad
replied. “We’ll think of something to tell them.”

“I suggest we try honesty first and see if
that works,” Vance said. “If it doesn’t, then we’ll try Plan
B.”

“It can’t hurt, I guess,” I replied, figuring
since I was the one who had caused the commotion then I should be
the one to explain things to them.

I left my dad with the woman and walked back
out onto the deck to stand in front of the crew.

The four of them just stared up at me with
wide eyes, and I turned to look back at Vance who was leaning
casually in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest,
watching me closely.

“All right,” I said, taking a deep breath.
“First of all, I want to apologize for scaring you all nearly to
death. That was truly never my intention.”

Brad stepped up next to me and began
translating my words into Spanish for them.

“We never meant to expose you to any of
this,” I began again, when he paused, waiting for me to continue.
“I need to tell you some things that will be difficult to believe.
Do you understand me so far?”

Their eyes switched from me back to Brad as
he translated, then back to me when he was done.