The Monster Within

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

HE glared at me. “And what exactly do you plan to do with my brother?”

He thought I had Ben. I stepped back, giving Dylan a view of Ethan’s body.

“I told you what happened to Ben. I wasn’t lying. Unlike you, I actually told the truth.” I kept the counter between us, afraid of what he was going to do to me. “Did you follow me here?”

“Locator spell. I’m sure Nora was doing one to find me.”

“Not quite.” We hadn’t had time to worry about locating Dylan; besides, we knew he’d eventually find us.

“Where is she?” He looked around. “Let me guess, waiting in the kitchen to ambush me?” He moved toward the kitchen, and I backed around the counter so he didn’t have to walk right by me. He flung open the door.

I looked around for a weapon. Anything to use against him. I wasn’t about to leave Ethan’s body, so I needed something to defend myself. At least until Nora showed up. I reached for a glass sugar jar. It was heavy, and if it broke, the jagged glass would be a decent weapon. If not, at least I could hit him over the head with it.

Dylan came back into the dining room and eyed the jar in my hand. “So Nora told you about the salt, huh? Let me guess, you were planning to draw a circle of it around yourself so I couldn’t hurt you? Is that what she told you to do?”

Salt? He thought I was holding the salt. My mind flashed back to the time I refilled the salt in front of Nora. She had been adamant that I move away from her. Witches didn’t like salt. I made a mental note.

“You came to kill me, is that it? Stop the monster you created?” I turned my body, reaching for the salt behind my back.

“I didn’t bring you back.”

“Your coven did, and you’re part of it.”

“No, we didn’t. Nora did.”

Before Dylan could say another word, he flew backward into the kitchen door. It swung open, and he disappeared inside. I whirled around to see Nora. She had Shannon with her, wrapped up in a magical swirling mist.

“Lay some salt across the entrance to the kitchen. It will contain him in case he wakes up before we finish this.” Nora moved toward Ethan, but I was frozen in place. “Go! If he wakes up, he’ll ruin everything. Ethan’s life depends on Dylan staying out of the way.”

I carried the saltshaker to the kitchen and lined the floor with it. “How did you figure out what spell to use? You weren’t there when the coven brought me back, so how do you know what they did?” I kept my eyes glued to Dylan, lying motionless on the kitchen floor. His head was leaning against the metal island he’d collided with.

“Spells leave traces. That, and Rebecca likes to run her mouth. She bragged all about that spell. Bet she doesn’t think it was so fantastic now.” Nora went behind the counter and grabbed a knife.

“What are you doing?”

“I need some of Shannon’s blood. It’s the only way to make sure it’s her life Ethan is stealing.”

I didn’t want to watch. Didn’t want to know what the spell entailed. After all this time of wondering what Ethan had done, I had a front-row seat to the whole thing. It was hard to watch. I didn’t understand a word Nora was saying. She held the knife over Ethan’s body, waving her hands above him. Finally, she walked around him to where Shannon was locked in her invisible prison.

Shannon had been unconscious when Nora brought her here, but as Nora continued her spell, Shannon’s eyelids fluttered open. She looked at Nora and her eyes widened. Then she turned to me and shrieked, “You killed my boyfriend. Isn’t that enough? You have no idea what I went through to make sure the police couldn’t ID Trevor’s body. If people suspected anything supernatural… How many people are you going to kill before you realize you shouldn’t be here?”

Nora waved her hand in front of Shannon’s face, and her mouth slammed shut. She struggled to speak but couldn’t. I’d never seen her look this helpless before. She truly hated me. She wanted me dead, just like Dylan did. I couldn’t believe she’d helped cover up Trevor’s murder. If she hadn’t…

Nora took the knife and dragged it across Shannon’s cheek. I turned away, unable to watch. Shannon’s muffled screams were agonizing. They sent chills down my spine. This was awful. We were torturing her. I knew what I did to people wasn’t any better, and all of this was necessary to bring Ethan back, but it was too much to bear.

I watched as Nora carried the knife very steadily, making sure she didn’t spill a single drop of Shannon’s blood. She brought it to Ethan and held it above his head. With one hand, she parted his lips. Then she tipped the knife forward, spilling Shannon’s blood into his mouth.

My stomach lurched. I’d heard of people calling themselves vampires and drinking blood, but seeing someone drink another person’s blood—especially when it was your dead boyfriend—was terrifying. Nora finished the spell and bowed her head.

“What now?” I choked out.

“We wait. It takes a little while for the dead to wake.”

“Is this the same spell they used on me?”

Shannon let out another muffled scream.

“Can’t you stop her from making that noise?” I covered my ears. “I can’t take it.”

“That’s your conscience getting to you.” Dylan’s weakened voice came from the kitchen. I turned to see him still lying on the floor and looking pretty bad.

“That injury will take a lot of energy to heal,” Nora said.

“Energy?” I asked.

“Yes. We can heal ourselves if we harness the energy in our magic. But that’s one nasty cut on his head, judging by the amount of blood on the floor.”

I cringed, not just at the sight of the blood, but at the thought of Gloria and Jackson coming to work in a few hours to find this place wrecked.

“I’ll manage,” Dylan said.

“Good luck with that.” Nora walked over to me. “I don’t suppose you’re feeling the need to feed, are you?”

I shook my head. Ben’s life force and magic were keeping my body pretty well maintained.

“Oh well. My guess is that Ethan will need to pretty soon after he wakes. With any luck, you’ll be ready by then, too. Then we can end this. One evil witch for each of you.”

Dylan laughed. It was the laugh of a crazy person. “That’s your big plan, Nora? Feed us to your little creations?”

“Don’t call us that!” I snapped. “Besides, Nora wouldn’t have had to bring Ethan back if you guys hadn’t done this to me in the first place.” I didn’t want to think it, but Ethan would’ve been better off if I’d stayed dead.

“You keep telling yourself that, Sam. Whatever you need to do to be able to live with yourself. But why don’t you ask Nora why she shut Shannon up?”

“To keep her from screaming,” Nora said. “That’s obvious. Keep up all this annoying banter, and I’ll shut you up, too.”

Dylan laughed. “You can’t. Not with that salt barrier in the doorway. You can’t touch me, Nora. But you didn’t think about that, did you?”

“Of course I did.” She stepped within five feet of the barrier, not daring to go any closer. “But I won’t be the one touching you. Sam will. Or Ethan. Whichever. I’m flexible.”

“You sure about that?”

Now Nora laughed. “Dylan, this is pathetic. You’ve lost. Admit it. At least then you can go down with a shred of dignity. Right now you’re just acting like a whiny little bitch.”

I walked over to Ethan and touched his hand. It was still ice cold. “Nora, how do you know you did the spell right? He’s still so cold.”

“Oh, she knows,” Dylan said. “Believe me, she knows.”

Nora waved him off. She put her hand on my shoulder. “Relax. Everything went exactly right. Ethan will be with you again soon. I promise.”

“Waiting is killing me. And listening to him,” I motioned toward the kitchen, “isn’t helping.”

“Ignore him. He’ll say and do anything right now to make this harder on you. That’s what evil people do, Sam.”

I nodded. I had to forget about him and focus on Ethan. He’d be waking up soon, and then we’d get out of here. Go somewhere far away and forget all of this. But Nora had said we’d need to kill Dylan and Shannon first. Otherwise they’d keep looking for us. I didn’t even want to think about how I’d explain this to Ethan. He’d have to believe Nora was a witch. He obviously knew witches were real. He’d gone to the coven to bring me back.

Ethan’s fingers twitched, and I rushed to him. “Ethan!” I took his hand in mine, and tears dripped down my face. It was happening. He was waking up. He was alive. He opened his eyes and looked around for a minute before he found me.

“Sam? What happened?” He tried to sit up, but he was woozy and he fell back down. “My head.”

“I think you might have hit it. You fell on the bathroom floor.” I brushed his hair away from his forehead. “What do you remember?”

He swallowed hard. “I was in the bathroom. I was going to take a shower, try to relax after our fight.”

“I’m so sorry I left. I never should’ve run off like that.”

“You’re here now.” He gave me a weak smile. “But what happened to me? I don’t remember anything else.”

“You…” I couldn’t say it. Even though he was back now, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him he’d died.

“Come on, Sam. Man up!” Dylan said.

“Who is that?” Ethan tried to sit up again, but I held him down.

“Easy. You hit your head, remember? You might have a concussion.”

“Sam, what’s going on?”

I sighed. “Okay, we’re in the diner.”

“I can see that.”

“Right. Well, I came home tonight and you were…”

“Dead. The word is dead,” Dylan said.

God, I wanted to smack him.

“Dead?” Ethan squinted at me.

“Yes. Ethan, everything I said to you earlier, it was all true. I’m not crazy. I’m not hallucinating. I came back wrong. I hid it from you because I was afraid of how you’d react. And I didn’t want you to think I was ungrateful for getting a second chance. I know you went through a lot to bring me back.”

“Wait. Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I need you to listen carefully. Dylan is in the kitchen. He’s been following me around, right?” I paused. A thought slammed into me. Hard. Ethan didn’t know Dylan. He had no clue who Dylan was before Dylan broke into our cottage. If Ethan had gone to the coven to bring me back, Dylan hadn’t been part of it.

I rushed to the kitchen, standing just outside the salt. “Ethan doesn’t know you.”

Dylan nodded, but he grabbed his head and cringed. He was still bleeding. Nora had been right. Healing himself required a lot of energy, and he was too weak to do it right now.

“You’re finally catching on,” he said.

“Ben, Shannon, and Rebecca, it was them, wasn’t it? But you weren’t part of it. I knew there was something about you—”

“Try again, Sam,” Dylan said.

“What do you mean? Not all of you did the spell? Was it just Shannon? Is that why she hates me so much?” I turned to face her, and she shook her head. I didn’t believe her for a second. She knew what I could do to her, and she was scared.

“Ask your boyfriend,” Dylan said. “You don’t seem to want to listen to me, so go to someone you trust.”

That made sense. Ethan had the answers. He’d had them all along. I walked back over to him, still lying on the counter.

“Is that guy seriously in the kitchen? My kitchen? Where I work every day?”

“Forget about him. Ethan, you have to tell me what happened. How did you bring me back? I know you went to the coven. I’ve met all of them. I know it was witchcraft that brought me back. So there’s no reason to try to hide this anymore, to try to protect me from the truth. I can handle it.” I squeezed his hand in mine. “Please, tell me which members of the coven helped you.”

“I didn’t go to a coven, Sam. I went to one person. A witch someone from school knew.”

“Who was it?” My fingers tightened around his.

“This girl. I don’t know her name because she never told me.”

A girl. So it was Rebecca. It had to be. Ethan knew Shannon from school. He would’ve named her if that was who had helped him.

“Rebecca,” I said. “Her name is Rebecca. Or at least it was.” “What do you mean was?” He lifted his head slightly to see me better.

“I killed her, Ethan. Just like I told you. My body can’t maintain itself. I get weak, and I need to feed off the life of others. I really did kill that guy from the gas station. And Trevor. They were accidents. I didn’t mean to do it. My body takes over, and I can’t stop it. I’m a prisoner to this thing that takes over when the life is draining out of me.” I started crying. “Please, don’t hate me. It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask to be this way. I don’t want to be this way.” I buried my head in his leg, sobbing huge tears.

He slowly sat up. “Sam, I—”

“Before you say anything, there’s something you need to know.” I looked up at him, afraid to see the expression on his face. Afraid he’d never look at me the same again. “Dylan was right. You died tonight, and I had to get a witch to bring you back. Nora helped me. But now you’re going to be like me. You’ll have to kill people to stay alive. I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t let you stay dead.”

He stared past me, not saying a word.

“Ethan, please say something. Please, don’t hate me.”

“You’re Nora?”

“What?” I turned to see Nora, now standing behind me.

“Hello, Ethan. Nice to see you again.”

“Again?” I looked at Ethan. “You know her?”

“She’s the witch who brought you back.”