Chapter Thirteen
Raven, Trey and AJ stepped into the kitchen, glass crunching
beneath their feet.
What happened here?” Trey muttered. “Looks like a war zone.”
Raven glanced at the clock on the wall. It was only twenty-two past five, but the house was completely empty. Raven kicked open the kitchen door and stepped warily into the den.
“What’s that smell?” she murmured, sniffing the air.
Trey wrinkled his nose. “Smells awful!”
AJ looked a little green. “Smells like the stuff they use on you in the hospital when they try to put you to sleep.”
Raven searched the whole house, grass crunching underfoot every step of the way.
“No one’s here,” she said, returning to the den.
“So where could they be?” Trey asked, miffed.
Raven thought. She spotted blood on the shards of glass sticking out of the window frame. She reached out and dipped her fingers into it. She closed one fist over her crystal and stared for a moment.
“What’s she doing?” Trey whispered.
AJ just shrugged, both guys watching her.
“I can’t really tell – the connection is weak,” she said.
She can smell the dankness of a cellar, maybe a basement. It’s dark all
around. Can hardly see. Can feel people on either side, something biting into her wrists and ankles. Can hear low voices all around – all familiar but can’t place a name to them. Feels cold. Wood against the bottom of her shoes. Air smells salty, like the sea us near. Can hear gulls. Voices.
“No one will find us. We’ll get it done and over with. This old place is an accident waiting to happen…”
Raven’s eyes snapped open. “Alex, are there any old condemned buildings near here?” she asked.
“She calls you Alex?” Trey slanted a sidelong glance at his friend in surprise. “I thought only your mom could call you that.”
AJ waved a hand at him for silence. Then his face lit up. “Yeah! There’s the old dock house down the beach near the old light house.”
“Let’s go,” Raven said, turning and heading out the back door.
“How does she know where they are?” Trey asked, mystified, as he and AJ followed her across the sand.
“She’s a witch,” AJ answered simply, then broke into a run to keep up with Raven.
“A witch?” Trey echoed. “She’s a witch? Like the chicks from Hocus Pocus type of witch?”
AJ didn’t answer, and Trey had to trot to catch up.
The dock house was made completely of wood and stretched out along a pier into the sea. Raven tested the door handle. It was unlocked. She went through the deserted dock house. AJ and Trey came behind her warily.
Raven took a step into one of the rooms and froze in her tracks. Her foot came down with a hollow sound.
“Listen!” She stomped her foot. “It’s hollow!”
“Yeah, all the houses have basements at sea-level,” AJ said. Raven dropped to her knees and began to pry the boards loose. When she had enough room, she lowered herself down. AJ and Trey followed. AJ didn’t want to leave her alone and Trey didn’t want to be left alone.
Raven paused and listened, motioning for silence. There were voices. Raven followed the trail of sound until she came to a door. AJ glanced around uneasily. A lot of the woodwork was creaking and he had the sinking feeling that any of the crossbeams could give in to gravity at any moment.
Raven motioned for the others to get behind her. Then she kicked the door down, wincing at how easily it gave.
She stared at the scene before her, a sense of familiarity washing over her. The members of the Circle were bound to chairs and put in a circle. There was no mistaking the scent of the liquid that darkened the floor around them.
“Hello, Raven,” Portia purred in a voce that was disturbingly like Faye’s when she was at her most dangerous.
“Remember this?” Portia asked, and her two brothers laughed.
Raven stood in silence. So it had come to this.
“Well, aren’t you going to try to save your friends?” Logan asked. He made a mock bow, as if inviting her into the room. Raven’s body was tense. She stared at the three Bainbridge siblings, her eyes icily cold. One of the girls standing in the corner shivered involuntarily.
There was a disturbing silence.
“Let them go,” Raven ordered in a voice that made even Nick flinch.
Portia shook her hair out of her face and laughed.
“And why should I do that?”
“Because I’m the one you want,” Raven said.
“No, we did want all of you,” Portia said. “We’ve wanted this coven since the
summer. But you. You’re like an added bonus. You’re a special one.”
She peered through the dim light at the group clustered in the doorway.
“Who’s that behind you?”
“It’s me, Alex,” AJ said.
Portia giggled. “Oh, you too! Aren’t we having a merry reunion!”
“I know what you want me for,” Raven said. “I remember everything.”
“You didn’t seem to remember me when we met at school,” Portia pointed out.
“What, you two know each other?” Sean gasped.
“Silence!” Logan roared.
Raven stepped into the room, AJ and Trey close behind. Raven was taking a chance, and she knew it. They were outnumbered at least two to one, but she didn’t care.
“I know I’m the only one you want. Let them go. No one else has to die,” she said softly.
Portia gave another obscene giggle.
“Oh yes, they do,” she told her. “But, while everyone’s here, why don’t you tell your new friends about us?”
“You’re with them?” Doug shouted, staring at Raven with fury sparking in his strange eyes.
“Tell them…how you killed Uncle Billy,” Portia suggested.
Raven didn’t look at anyone in the Circle, but she knew who was looking at her with doubt written in their eyes. She knew who was glaring at her in hatred. But she didn’t care. She was there to keep a promise, and nothing more.
“Why don’t you tell them how Uncle Billy killed my parents?” she challenged.
“He didn’t kill them, he gave them mercy! Let them die before Satan came to claim their souls,” Jordan said.
These people are really nuts, Raven decided. Complete and utter nutters, but just as dangerous. She saw the flash of metal in Jordan’s jacket, as she had seen it before.
“He gave them an easy death,” Logan added. “A merciful death.”
“You think it was merciful?” Raven gasped in disbelief.
“One little bullet never hurt anyone,” Jordan said with a nonchalant shrug.
Raven threw her head back and laughed in a way that scared even her.I think I’m as crazy as they are, she thought.
“You thought your Uncle Billy gave my parents a painless execution?”
“Our Uncle was a god-fearing man,” Logan said coldly.
What have these three been smoking? Raven thought to herself with a bit of dry humor.
“So you think setting people on fire and letting them roast slowly, like bacon in a frying pan, is merciful?”
There were gasps all around.
“You lie,” Jordan hissed venomously.
“Whoever told you what happened is the liar here,” Raven replied. “I was forced to stand there
and watch my parents go up in flames, screaming my name." She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, a single tear escaping. Her voice was so low now that everyone was leaning in to hear, seeming to forget what was going on and why they were there. It was as if a spotlight was shining down on Raven, and they were riveted to every word she spoke. “I watched them burn, saw them die, could smell the gasoline and charred flesh, and I couldn’t move. I had nowhere to go. Your Uncle Billy was holding me in place.”
There was silence, and several of the girls were crying.
Raven’s face was dry except for a single trail of a tear, her head held high.
“As for your Uncle Billy, yes, I killed him. But only because he tried to kill me. He was going to throw me into the fire that killed my parents. So yes, I set him on fire, but I had no way to defend myself.”
“Witch,” Jordan spat.
“There he was, a full-grown man with a knife and a gun, and there I was, a six-year-old girl with nothing but a crystal necklace,” Raven finished. “I know you must have loved your Uncle, but I loved my parents.”
There was silence all around.
Then Portia lunged at her, hands clawed. Raven went down beneath her, but the fight ended when Trey scooped her up around the waist and pulled her free. Raven cut the ropes that bound the nearest person – Deborah – and then turned to face the attackers. She was heavily outnumbered until the Henderson brothers leapt up to join the fray, twin golden flames in the outer darkness.
“Run!” Cassie yelled. “Split up and run!” Adam knocked Logan aside and grabbed Cassie’s hand. Deborah had Jordan down on the ground and was slugging the living
daylights out of him when Nick grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet, and
they ran. The Circle members managed to escape. Chris swung a hard right and
the guy grabbing at Melanie went down, blood spilling between his fingers.
“Let’s go!” Chris shouted. He looped an arm around her waist and dragged her out of the basement. Raven was out of the fray with AJ running at her side. They burst into the cool night air and ran along the beach.
“Head for the house! Gotta call the cops!” she panted, and AJ nodded, Raven glanced over her shoulder and saw that the three Bainbridge kids and a guy were hot in pursuit. AJ’s house was in sight.
“Come on!” Raven urged.
He stumbled and fell. Raven dragged him to his feet and they kept running. Raven glanced up at the sky. The moon was waning…She could see the others
running as well. Doug and Laurel ran hand in hand down the sand, Doug half-dragging poor Laurel. Trey and Diana were loping down near the surf, four guys splashing through the water behind them. Raven saw Sean and Suzan duck into the back door of a nearby house.
The pursuers were getting closer, chasing them towards the parking lot. Raven saw that most of the Circle members were headed in the same direction and realized that they were being herded in one directions. It must have been part of the hunters’ plans. They were running down the sidewalk at full speed, and suddenly the beach was gone. There in the maze of inner city back streets and alleys. In the back of Raven’s mind, she found it vaguely ironic that all the people in the city had their Christmas lights up and were celebrating birth when the kids in the Circle were running from their deaths. Raven and AJ darted through the maze of alleys, completely lost. Raven sprinted across the street and into another dark alley. She was praying that someone would notice them being chased by kids with gins and call the police – but then they were in a gang turf zone and people were used to seeing kids chased with guns. Raven and AJ ducked behind a cluster of dumpsters and saw Cassie and Adam sprint past with four hunters close behind.
“Can you use any of your Power?” AJ asked.
Raven shook her head, gasping. She was too worn out and couldn’t concentrate knowing that five people armed with guns were after her.
“They came in here,” Portia whispered.
Raven silenced her breathing Her whole world heard the soft click of the heels of her pump shoes against the ground. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Suddenly a light blazed in her face.
Hands grabbed her and hauled her to her feet. She was shoved against a wall, still like a deer caught in a headlight, shrinking back from the harsh beam of the flashlight.
“You were lying back at the warehouse,” Portia said, her voice low and dangerous.
"Dock house,” AJ corrected automatically.
“Shut up,” Jordan snapped.
Raven could hear yells and the sounds of fists connecting with flesh. She dimly recognized Deborah’s voice as she cursed and spat insults. But all she could see was the nose of the silenced pistol aimed directly at her.
Jordan, Logan, Sally and the third guy stepped back, letting Portia take the lead.
“You were lying, and liars go to hell,” she hissed. “You murdered my uncle.”
“I told the truth,” Raven said, even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good.
Her body tensed when she heard Portia cock the hammer of her pistol.
“You’re going to die!” Portia hissed, and fired.
The next few moments were in slow motion as if each moment between each second became a minute. Raven saw the bullet speeding towards her, felt her own body jerk backwards and slam into AJ, felt her wrist come down sharply and heard the ring of steel as her knife whistled through the air. She heard Portia scream as the knife buried itself in her chest, blood splattering everywhere. She saw two shadows appear in the background and leap on the remaining four.
Then time jerked back to its normal speed and Raven found herself on the ground, half on top of AJ. Sally was pinned beneath Suzan, who was sitting on her. Nick, Adam and Chris had the guys secured.
Raven lay there dazedly. She sat up.
Are you all right?” she asked AJ in an unsteady voice.
He nodded. “Were you hit?” he asked.
Raven shook herself out of her shock and shook her head. She was fine. She stood up, pulling AJ with her.
“Here, officers!” Melanie’s voice floated into the alleyway, followed by flashing red and blue lights and sirens.
The rest of the Circle members drifted in slowly, looking ragged and beat. Doug had black eye and a bloody nose. Adam was holding his arm like it was broken,
Cassie leaning against him for support. Nick was leaning against a wall, clutching his shoulder as blood gushed between his fingers. Sean was huddled
in a corner, crying. Diana was being supported by Trey, who looked traumatized for life. Melanie was talking to the police officers. Laurel was clutching Doug’s arm tightly. Deborah stood near Nick, scowling if anyone came too close. She was limping slightly.
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