Resurrection 🌶

Tyler

~The pain.~

~Fire shooting through my mind.~

~But I can’t escape. There is no way out.~

I fell to my knees, the cool dirt giving me momentary respite.

“You are trying to resist!” cried Devina, her hand pressed against her tattoo. “Give in to my calls, little one, and you will no longer feel this pain.”

I shook my head, but the fire would not leave. It was as if I had fallen through time and was once again a little girl. Devina had taught me from a young age not to defy her commands, or there would be pain involved. At first, it made me only hate her more.

After giving in to her urges—finally obeying her commands—she treated me like one of her own. Praising me for obedience, lavishing me with delicious food and expensive toys…

But I was no longer a child. I didn’t want her toys and I didn’t want her affection.

I felt the presence of someone else walk into the cavern and looked up to find a striking blonde beauty staring down at me.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“She’s being a spoiled little brat,” Devina hissed in response.

I spat at Devina’s feet, filling her with rage.

The blonde teenager stepped towards me and knelt down, offering me her hand. I was afraid to accept, but her easy smile gave me the smallest sliver of hope.

“It’s okay. My name’s Holly. What’s yours?” she asked.

“Tyler,” I said, uncertain if I should even speak.

Devina stayed back, watching us both with curiosity. None of the witches had shown me kindness, neither here nor back at the penitentiary.

I thought of Bambi and Ekon…

Strangely, werewolves had become the only beings I felt I could really trust.

But when Holly smiled at me, her expression took away every ounce of fear and pain in my body.

As she helped me to my feet, Devina sneered. No doubt the evil witch hoped I would one day obey her again in the same manner.

“Why are you here?” I asked Holly, curious.

“I’m here as your sister of the coven,” she said, holding up her wrist.

The tattoo glowed as brightly as my own. As if pulled together by an invisible magnet, our arms touched and the tattoos pulsed with new life.

“Please, don’t be afraid,” she encouraged me. “We have been chosen. Follow me and see the power that we possess.”

Against my better judgment, I followed the beautiful blonde out of the cavern, walking right past Devina and her wicked look.

***

Hundreds of witches were lying in a circle in the grass. Some were completely naked while others wore thin robes. Dark witches believed that to channel the greatest energy, one must remove all barriers, including the hindrance of clothing.

They were on their backs, heads pointing towards the middle while their feet pointed out.

I’d read about this before but had never seen it with my own eyes. A large coven of witches, syncing their powers together for the ultimate spell, could summon anything in the world…

What was Devina’s plan?

The enormous circle had been outlined with salt, a section created for each witch. This would allow them to keep their powers inside, channeling them to the middle, where Devina would no doubt stand.

Holly and I found ourselves on the opposite side of each other outside the main area of the circle. I didn’t understand what this meant, but somehow I knew our positions in the circle were considered ~special~.

Holly waved at me, wearing a thin robe like mine. It made me shudder to think someone who seemed so pure could be used for such devilish intent. Then again, that was classic Devina… taking harmless girls and turning them into powerful weapons.

Devina floated over the mass of witches and landed in the middle of the circle.

“I have gathered you all here to show the world what we can truly become,” Devina said, licking her lips feverishly. “For far too long, we’ve been marginalized. Told that we needed to hide our true selves. Because we were different! ~Unnatural~! But not anymore!”

A loud cheer rumbled up from the witches, tearing at my ears. Her words were contrary to the conclusions I’d come to in all my years of solitude at the penitentiary.

Magic was supposed to be used for good… it was a means to help those that otherwise couldn’t help themselves. It was when magic was used for personal or selfish reasons that the need for power overtook all the other senses.

Devina had brainwashed me at such a young age to hurt others in the name of freedom… but killing innocent people was a prison in itself from which no one could never escape.

Devina looked over her cult of witches before her eyes stopped at me. Her smile turned to a sneer, and I knew she could feel my hatred for her. But there was no point in resisting. She had complete control of my body, even if she could not take over my mind.

Devina held up a weathered book, and I recognized it as her grimoire. She turned around and pointed to Holly, who beamed with excitement.

“Thanks to our newest member, I’ve been able to reconnect with every spell I’ve ever known.”

She opened the book, flipping pages until she stopped somewhere near the middle.

“And with your power channeled together, coupled with this spell, we shall resurrect my great ancestor, Joan Cabot.”

The witches once again burst into joy, more than ready to revive the greatest and most deadly witch the world had ever known. My blood ran cold. The most evil witch to ever walk the earth? And Devina not only wanted to resurrect her but also to absorb her power!

“Because I am of her blood, I will be able to possess the very power that helped her achieve such greatness. And together…” she said, acknowledging us witches, “together with our Rogue werewolf brothers, we will rule this world!”

Devina closed her eyes. I could already feel the power being sucked out of me and the other witches, pooled into the center where Devina stood like a goddess among her followers.

She began to read from the book, chanting words I couldn’t understand.

My wrist began to burn. I looked down, realizing that it was glowing as bright as it had in the cave.

Holly held up her hand from across the circle, and I could see it glowing too, along with the other witches’ hands.

~Burning bodies.~

~Screaming families.~

~Blood raining from the sky as black clouds swallowed the earth whole.~

I tried to resist, but it was no use. Devina had already started the dark ceremony. There would be no way out…

I opened my eyes and looked at Holly, who was still wearing that pure, naïve smile on her face. Our tattoos were glowing brighter than I’d ever seen.

A jolt of electricity shot through my body. I felt it travel through the crowd of witches, all the way up into Devina’s body. She continued to chant as the witches focused their eyes on her, unable to look away.

Another jolt and I could no longer make out Devina’s words… another terrifying sound had taken over. It was a hum, similar to an electric current gaining power.

She was gathering the power… conducting it into the deepest recesses of her body… transmitting it through space and time to resurrect her ancestor…

~BOOM!~

An explosion unlike any other rocked the land, deafening every ear and blinding every eye.

Bambi

Thanks to Max’s superb instincts and navigational skills, we were able to locate the drawing in Holly’s planner, leading us to the aptly named “Glades of Ire.”

It was a small little clearing where a grim ceremony recently took place. It was strangely quiet and seemed barren of animals. Not even birds flew above the glade. Even in the deepest heart of the forest, the place felt cold and unnatural.

I looked in disgusted awe at a pentagram drawn in salt. In the middle lay the lifeless body of a black cat, its neck snapped nearly clean off.

Blood was everywhere, no doubt taken from the poor feline. But there was no sign of Holly or her professor. At least not anymore…

They had taken everything else and moved on, leaving us once again to question what to do next.

“Holly’s scent is strong here,” said Max. “She’s definitely visited this place recently.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of…” I mumbled, staring at the horrific scene before me. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”

Max sniffed the air and followed his nose, which led him outside the glade. After several moments he returned, shaking his head.

“I don’t know why, but her scent just vanishes once we leave this place.”

“Whoever was with her did not want us to follow.”

Max nodded in agreement with me. But that was not how we operated. If there was even the smallest chance that Holly was in the vicinity, we would search for her high and low.

Our best bet was to go back to camp and talk with Ekon and Ela. They had stayed behind to look after Hunter. I only hoped Ekon kept his word and was helping Ela, not trying to shame her for running off from Austria.

She had been through a lot in the span of only a few weeks. I could see the lines forming on her face and heard the weariness in her voice. But she was a special breed of werewolf. It probably helped that she shared the same blood as Gamma Kalindi.

“What’s that?” Max said, turning his eyes to the sky.

I was about to ask what he meant but could suddenly hear it too. A dense humming that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

I looked to the sky and was nearly blinded by the flash.

~BOOM!~

A rush of wind blew through the trees and sent us both flying onto our backs.

Max was yelling, trying to find out where I was, but the explosion caused my ears to ring.

As I picked myself off the ground, my senses slowly began to return. I looked hard at the sky and my mouth fell open.

“Holy shit!” Max yelled.

A massive beam of light, burning nearly as bright as the sun, shot straight up through the sky and into the clouds. I wasn’t sure what it meant, or who had created it.

But I knew one thing… that was where we needed to go.

“What the hell is that?” asked Max, dumbfounded.

“I think it’s our best chance of finding Holly,” I said, already heading for the beam.