The Monster Within

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

NO. That couldn’t be true. Ethan was confused. He’d just come back to life, and he was confused. When I came back everything seemed different, off. That was all this was, Ethan not being able to make sense of things.

But Nora knew him. How would she know him if she wasn’t the one who’d helped him bring me back?

Ethan sat up on the counter, and I backed up next to him, facing Nora.

“You dyed your hair,” Ethan said. “Was that so I wouldn’t recognize you?”

“Is it true?” My voice cracked. “Did you bring me back?”

“Oh, Sam. It was too easy to trick you. To make you believe Dylan and the rest of the coven were the bad guys, the ones who were trying to kill you.” She stepped closer, and Ethan slid off the counter, so he was blocking me.

“Don’t come near her,” he said, sounding more alert.

“Always trying to save her, aren’t you, Ethan? You were so desperate when I met you. All serious and heartbroken.”

I glanced at Shannon, still imprisoned in the corner. She shook her head at me, and even though she couldn’t talk, I knew what she was thinking. I was an idiot. I’d been played by Nora. For once, I agreed with Shannon.

“Why did you do it?” I asked. “Why did you lie? You could’ve told me you were the one who brought me back.”

“Told you I was the one who used black magic? I was the one the coven threw out? You wouldn’t have trusted me.”

She was right. I would’ve been afraid of her at the very least. “What else did you lie about?”

“See, that’s the beauty of it. I barely had to lie. You already know most of the story. Just substitute my name for Dylan’s—and in a few places Shannon’s—and you’ve got it.” She smiled, obviously proud of herself.

“She poisoned you against us, Sam,” Dylan said. He was on his feet now and looking a little better, but he was still trapped by the salt. “She told you we were trying to kill you, but we never were. We didn’t like that you were alive and killing people. That much was true, but we never tried to kill you. The fact that you came back like this is her fault.”

“How?” I stared at Nora, my supposed friend. I wanted to hear it from her.

“Dying for love—it’s romantic, don’t you think?” Nora smirked as she circled around Ethan and me.

“I didn’t die for love. I died of cancer.”

“You did. Yes.” Nora stepped in front of Ethan. “But he didn’t.”

That’s right. Ethan had exchanged his life for mine.

“Did you know that by helping her bring me back, I was stealing life away from you?” I asked him.

Ethan turned away. He’d known. He’d willingly given his life for mine.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and my body shook with anger. “How could you do that to me? After everything I’ve been through. You were the only good thing in my life. The one thing I clung to while I was fighting to stay alive just one more day! I loved you! How could you bring me back, knowing it would kill you? Knowing you’d leave me here alone?” I pounded his chest with my fists. I’d never been this angry with him, but this was unforgiveable. No wonder he’d refused to tell me the truth. He knew part of me would hate him for this, for making me watch him die.

“Sam.” He choked back tears and wrapped his arms around me. “I would’ve died on the spot to bring you back. You’re everything to me. You didn’t deserve to die so young.”

I pulled away from him, feeling the bile in my stomach rising. “I’m nothing without you, Ethan. You know that.”

“I can’t apologize for what I did. Your life means more to me than my own. I’d do it all over again if I had to.”

Nora clapped, like she was enjoying the show. “Do you want to know my favorite part?” Nora asked with a huge smile.

This was going to be bad in an earth-shattering sort of way. I was sure of it.

“You never would’ve had a taste for human life if I hadn’t given you some of your boyfriend’s.”

Ethan whirled around to face Nora. “That’s why you needed my blood? You said it was to transfer my life force to Sam.”

Nora laughed. “The spell did that on its own. I needed Sam to do a favor for me. In exchange for giving her back her life.”

“A favor?” Of course. “The coven. You wanted revenge on them for kicking you out. So what? You made me into this zombie, witch-killing monster just so you could get back at them for shunning you?”

“They did more than shun me. They took away a power I wasn’t willing to live without. Sure, I’m powerful on my own. But as a coven, we had the ability to do much bigger spells. Ones that would’ve made us invincible.” She walked over to Shannon and grabbed her face, squeezing it in her hand. “But these goody-goodies wouldn’t hear of messing with black magic like that.” She let go of Shannon’s face. “I almost had this one convinced. I even showed her that spell to make every student at that pathetic school bend to her will. But she was mad about some teacher not paying enough attention to her, so she refused to go along with my plan to convince the others.”

Mr. Ryan. He’d stopped Shannon from turning into what Nora had become. He’d saved her by not giving in to all her obvious come-ons. He really was a good teacher.

Nora brought her hand back and slapped Shannon across the face. A big red handprint smeared the blood on her cheek. Nora had slapped the gash she’d cut into Shannon’s face earlier.

“Wait!” I yelled. “You dripped Shannon’s blood into Ethan’s mouth during that spell.”

“She did what?” Ethan spit several times as if that would erase the problem.

“You said that would make sure it was Shannon’s life Ethan drained by being here, but that blood is what’s going to make him feed off others, isn’t it?”

“Very good, Sam.” Nora looked at Ethan. “Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention when you asked me to save your girlfriend—I don’t know how I neglected to tell you earlier—is that she’d see glimpses of the lives she stole. Not only is she killing to stay alive, but she’s being tortured by visions of what their lives would’ve been if she hadn’t fed on them.”

“You sadistic witch.” Ethan lunged at her, but she held her hand up and mumbled something. He slammed into an invisible wall and fell to the floor.

“Ethan!” I bent down to him, making sure he was okay. As angry as I was at him, I still loved him.

“And those visions Sam had,” Nora leaned forward so only the magical barrier separated them, “they were of your future, too. She saw you marry another woman. Guess I was wrong about you falling to pieces after she died. Turns out you would’ve moved on just fine.”

Ethan sprang to his feet and lunged again, but the same thing happened.

“He’s not the brightest one, Sam. Are you sure he was worth all this trouble?”

“Shut up,” I said through clenched teeth. I had to figure out how to get Ethan and me out of here. How to temporarily knock Nora out so we could run for it. But I needed time to think, to form a plan. I had to keep her talking.

Nora laughed. “That’s not what you really want, is it?” There was that almost mind-reading thing she did. “You want to hear all about how I deceived you, don’t you? It was easy, even with that one over there trying to protect you from me.”

“Dylan tried to protect me?” My eyes shot to him.

“The witch box with your ring in it, the necklace, the circle of rocks around your house—those were all me. Every single one of them was supposed to protect you from Nora. To stop her spell from working.”

“You said the necklace was from you,” I said to Nora.

She shrugged. “What can I say?”

“I didn’t have any attacks when I was wearing it, and you couldn’t allow that,” I said, piecing the puzzle together. “You needed me to start dying so you could get me to kill your coven. You stole the necklace from my bathroom that night. You used magic to force a human to break the circle of rocks, so it would look like Dylan broke into the cottage tonight.”

“Yes, yes, and yes. It was the perfect plan. All I needed was a simple spell to make you trust me, which was easy enough after I stole your necklace; it was the personal possession I needed, and thanks to Dylan being a total spaz and not knowing how to talk to you like a normal human being, it was easy to pin everything on him.”

“So you did this to me all so you could kill a few witches who wouldn’t go along with your evil plan? What would happen to me after I killed your coven? What then? Were you going to fix me? Make me human again?”

“I wouldn’t have any further use for you.”

My heart pounded. “You were going to kill me.” That’s why all my future visions of Ethan didn’t include me. I wasn’t alive anymore.

“Don’t make it out to be such a big deal. You were already dead. You shouldn’t be here, and if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be.” She stepped closer, lowering the magical barrier she’d created to stop Ethan. “You are nothing more than a pawn in my game. And when I win, I’ll dispose of you. Let you finally rest in peace.”

Ethan made a move for her, but I grabbed his arms to stop him. She was a witch. He couldn’t take her. We were the two weakest people in the diner. Once again I wished I could tap into Ben’s power that was still lingering inside me. I didn’t know how much longer I’d have it. An attack could come on at any time.

Nora laughed and took a seat. “Sam, be a dear and make me some coffee.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Not at all. If I have to sit around waiting for you two to get all peckish and need to feed, I’m going to need some coffee.”

Waiting on her was the last thing I wanted to be doing, but I still hadn’t come up with a plan. I started for the coffee pot, but Ethan grabbed my arm, holding me back.

“You don’t have to listen to her,” he said.

“Oh no?” Nora snapped her fingers. “Sit down, Ethan.” His face contorted in pain as he was forced onto the stool next to him. “Good boy,” Nora said.

I couldn’t watch her make a puppet out of Ethan, so I shot him a pleading look. He shook his head in protest, but he didn’t try to get up or make any comments, so I considered it a win. I went to the coffee maker and brewed a fresh pot.

As I waited for the coffee to finish brewing, I glanced down at the salt line on the kitchen floor. If I could break the line, Dylan could get free. He’d be able to attack Nora. Then Ethan and I could run away. But Nora always seemed to know what I was thinking. If she read my mind before I broke the salt line, I’d be finished. She’d bind me in magic just like she had done to Shannon, then wait for me to have an attack. Shannon and Dylan would end up dead, and Ethan and I would be next.

I needed a distraction. Something to draw Nora’s attention so I could get to the kitchen.

“How did you pull all this off?” I asked. “You were here at the diner every day. If Ethan could recognize you, why would you chance coming here?”

“Easy. I made sure Ethan never saw me.”

“What do you mean? Did you put a spell on him so he couldn’t see you? Like you did that day when you came to talk to me and the place was packed? You made it so no one knew we were there.”

“Something like that. I made sure he couldn’t leave the kitchen. As long as I didn’t go into the kitchen, I was fine. We’d never meet. And thanks to my new hair color, he wouldn’t recognize me from afar or from any description you gave him.”

Beth had been right. “That day I went to get Ethan to introduce you guys, you went to the bathroom and did some sort of spell. Beth heard you.”

“Beth?” She cocked her head to the side.

“That girl you didn’t like. The one who asked all the questions. She saw right through you. She followed you to the bathroom and heard you doing a spell. You made sure Ethan was too busy to come out into the dining room.”

“Ugh, nosy girl. Now I have one more person I have to get rid of.” She sighed. “Well, Sam, the good news is that you’ll get to stick around a little longer. I think I’ll let you have the honor of killing Beth.”

I wished I had Beth around right now. She’d be a good distraction. She’d annoy Nora so I could free Dylan. Of course I wasn’t sure Dylan would even help me. I’d killed his brother. I had to hope his will to live would override that fact right now.

I checked on the coffee, noticing a pad and pen next to it. I casually reached for a cup, dragging the pad and pen toward me in the process. I scribbled a note to Dylan. Will you help me get rid of Nora? I coughed to cover up the sound of tearing the paper from the pad. I poured the coffee and slipped the note through the window to the kitchen.

I brought Nora her coffee, and she motioned to the stools at the counter. “You can have a seat, too. I’ll let you know when I need a refill. If you haven’t fed by then.”

I walked around the counter and sat down next to Ethan. I glanced into the kitchen. Dylan was standing there, scribbling on the paper. He made sure Nora wasn’t watching, and he slipped it back into the window.

“Nora,” I said, “can I get some coffee for myself?”

She shrugged. “Why not? The caffeine might speed up your decaying process and make you need to feed. Pour a cup for Ethan, too.”

I got up and went to the counter. I took a cup and grabbed the note at the same time.

I’ll help, but I haven’t forgotten about Ben.

I scribbled back, Neither have I. I’m sorry.

I put the note in the window and poured Ethan’s coffee. I brought it to him and went back for my own. The note was back in the window.

I blame her more than you.

I wrote one last note. Get ready. I’m going to break the salt line. I stuck it in the window and got my own coffee.

This was it. I had to walk around the counter to get back to my stool. I could reach my foot out and drag it across the salt line. All I had to do was break it. Then Dylan could attack Nora. I met Ethan’s gaze, and he wrinkled his brow. I looked quickly toward the kitchen and then at Nora. Ethan looked confused for a minute, but then he raised his coffee to his lips and mouthed, “Got it.”

I walked around the counter, taking the turn wide. I stuck my foot out and brushed the line. The salt spread, but it was still blocking Dylan’s path. I didn’t know what else to do, so I let go of the cup, tipping the coffee onto the salt. I pretended to slip.

“I’m okay.” I caught the edge of the counter and stood back up.

“Just sit down,” Nora said. “Unless you’re feeling weak.” Her voice perked up. “Could it be nearing feeding time? You tend to get weak and wobbly before an attack comes on.”

“Yeah, I’m not feeling a hundred percent right now,” I played along.

Nora put down her coffee and clapped her hands. “Oh, good. Time to get to the fun part of the evening.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Dylan said, stepping out of the kitchen.