33 | Caught in the Fire

Seaside, California October 31, 2012

Celesta

MY aversion to alcohol was not misplaced. Everyone at this party started acting like absolute idiots the later it got. Some of the football players even started to play around a little too roughly.

Then it turned into an all-out fight. I saw Amberly texting someone when it began to unfold. But Zach and Scott jumped in to break it up before any of Laura's patio furniture got broken.

"Do you think we should call it a night? I'm surprised the house is still standing," I chuckled to Amberly as we watched Scott and Zach pull the drunk fighters away from each other.

"I couldn't agree more," Amberly said glumly as she glanced at her phone. "I told Eddie to help come break this shit up, he hasn't responded."

"Eh, Zach and Scott can handle these drunk bitches," I replied and took a sip of my Cream Soda.

"He always responds Celesta," Amberly said worryingly.

"Maybe he got drunk and passed out somewhere, just relax," I insisted.

"He doesn't drink!" Amberly shot out. "Seriously, Celesta I am worried about him!"

"Amberly, I love you but you have drank a lot of whatever tonight and you need to calm down," I repeated, this time annoyed.

I didn't understand why all of my friends insisted on drinking at parties. They always acted like children when they did. Hell, Elle was beyond drunk.

That girl was fucking wasted. She was hollering and dancing with everyone. It was quite comical actually.

"I am only slightly tipsy alright?" Amberly huffed and put her phone away.

I glanced at her as she stared ahead blankly. Then came a deep sob from her.

"Do you think he is out with another chick?!" Amberly bawled and started to cry.

Rolling my eyes, I shot my arm out and pulled her into a side hug. "No Amberly, he is not banging some other chick. As I said, he is probably drunk like everyone else and passed out."

I've seen that idiot passed out drunk in many places over the years. His girlfriend always failed to see that her boyfriend wasn't fucking perfect. She's even seen him drunk. Did her drunk mind delete that aspect?

"Can we get away from all these people?" Amberly cried.

"Sure," I muttered and lead her through to the side of the house.

There was no way we were going through the house, it was crowded in there as well.

When we reached the front the blaring music wasn't as bad. But still bad. A Justin Beiber song was on.

"This is much better!" Amberly cheered and loosened her way out of my grasp.

Though as we kept walking across the front yard, in the dim lighting of the spotlights in the yard, I noticed a figure was slumped down on its stomach, not moving. Amberly noticed too and she quickened her pace over to where the person was.

"Eddie?!" Amberly yelled hysterically and began to shake the person.

"Damn I was right," I snickered to myself. At least I thought before Amberly snapped her head to me completely infuriated.

"He isn't moving Celesta!" she cried as she moved his head to the side. "Oh my God, he is bleeding—"

"What?" I interrupted and plopped beside her, only to scream with Amberly when Eddie shot up, completely freaked out.

"What the hell?" Eddie grumbled as he started to rub his blood-coated head.

My eyes widened in shock. The amount of blood that covered his hair and that was around him was frightening.

"What happened to you?" I asked. Did he happen to be in that brawl and passed out here? It was total chaos moments ago. He could have slipped away and passed out here.

"We need to get you to a hospital right now!" Amberly yelped and started attempting to pull him up off the ground.

"I'm fine!" Eddie protested and shook his girlfriend off of him. "Where is—"

He paused, looking around us in bewilderment.

"Where is who?" I asked.

"Dammit, Eddie! You are going to the damn hospital right now!" Amberly reiterated and this time yanked him up.

"Damn buddy what happened to you?" I heard Zach chuckle behind us. I spun around and glanced at him, worry building up in me.

Eddie didn't appear to be drunk after all.

Ignoring Zach completely, Amberly turned to me. "Can you drive us to the hospital? I am a little buzzed."

More like shitfaced, but I held my tongue.

"I told you I am fine! Feel my damn head, there is nothing there!" Eddie complained.

"You sure?" Zach queried and walked over to him and started looking for where Eddie had bled from.

A questioning look went across Zach's face as he took a step back.

"Do you believe me now?" Eddie retorted. Amberly still clung to him.

"What the hell man, you're completely healed," Zach said in disbelief. "That is his blood but damn, how?"

I'm sure he said that last part to himself.

"You're okay?!" Amberly cried and ran her fingers through Eddie's scalp.

"Are you even human?" Zach questioned.

"What the hell kind of question is that? Of course, I am!" Eddie yelled. "But besides the point, something is not right."

"You bet your ass something isn't right," I put in. "You are clearly not human. Given that all of us are supernatural, I am not surprised."

"Hold up something isn't right," Zach repeated and walked past us and looked down at the grass.

"Finally someone listens," Eddie grumbled and started to rub his head.

I strode over to Zach as he bent down to further inspect the grass. He was roaming his fingers over something and brought it back up to sniff it. He immediately jumped up, eyes blazing blue as he glared at Eddie.

"Who the hell was out here with you?" he snarled.

"Lily was right here with me and then—" Eddie paused. With widening eyes, he sighed. "Isabel. She just came out of nowhere and then I blacked out."

"It wasn't just her, I can smell two of them. And this," Zach hissed, raising up his hand. "Is Lily's blood."

I felt my blood begin to boil. I knew one thing and one thing only. I was leaving right this fucking minute.

I didn't even realize I started to walk to my car before Zach clamped his hand on my arm.

"Where are you going? We need to make a plan here, not go in guns blazing," Zach warned.

"I have a plan," I lied. I actually didn't have a plan, but I was killing Isabel tonight with my bare fucking hands.

"Which is?" he asked.

"Amberly and Eddie here can start shutting this party down," I put in. There was the first part of the plan.

"No Cel! I really need to take him to the hospital," Amberly insisted.

"He is healed Amberly, I don't know why or how exactly," Zach mused. "But we can figure that out later."

"Do you have their scent?" I questioned. "If not I can do a locater spell."

"I would do that, while I probably could follow it, I might need to be on foot and God fucking knows how far they are from here," Zach sighed.

"Does anyone have a map?" I inquired. I probably could do without it, but seeing flashes of the location didn't exactly tell me where it was.

"I think Scott has one in his car," Zach suggested.

"Actually he does not," I lamented. "Lily set it on fire."

"Uh, how—"

"Not important," I interrupted.

Zach just frowned at me.

"Well what is important is getting everyone to help us find Lily," Eddie chimed in. "She could be dead right now and the two of you are bickering like children."

"I know okay!" I shouted. "Go shut the party down, I need to go grab something before we leave."

"I'll go get Scott," Zach sighed but before he could leave I stopped him.

"No, if those bitches come back someone needs to be here just in case," I warned. "Besides, he was busy compelling the football team to not kill each other."

"You just want you and me to go?" Zach remarked. "Remember last time we fought vampires? We both almost fucking died."

"That will not happen again," I seethed.

"Maybe, maybe not. But we need him to come with us," Zach kept on. "We don't know what we are walking into."

"Oh, I know what we are walking into," I snapped. "It is that Isabel had no idea what she walked into when she took my cousin."

"Have fun with that, I'm going to go destroy the party now!" Amberly mumbled and dragged Eddie into the house.

"Honey you are not thinking straight, we can't just do this on our own," Zach repeated.

Ignoring him, I started to focus on my cousin and where she was. I didn't need anything of hers to locate her. Any close relation would do. Images of a house that was in a horrible state started to flash in my mind.

A house I had seen once back in middle school. The one time I hung out with Isabel and attempted to be friends with her. Then she acted like a brat and I never went back.

"Damn it Celesta, can you for once not be so stubborn?!" Zach fired out angrily.

"I know where she is," I breathed. Because the minute I said that something else flashed into my mind.

Lily barely clinging to life if we didn't get there.

"I'm going to go grab something real quick, go get the truck," I ordered.

"If you see Scott—"

"Yes if I do I will grab him but we need to leave within the next minute before shit hits the fan," I swore.

Then I was darting into the house with murder on my mind.

ZACH kept eyeing my lap with curiosity as we sped down the road towards the outskirts of town. Isabel's house was honestly not that far from mine.

"You going to show me what you got under there?" Zach asked as he swerved around people.

Seriously, why were there so many people out and about at this time of night?

Grinning, I took the blanket off I had taken from Lily's. I didn't need the partygoers to see I was caring a shotgun through the house.

"Oh I thought it was the katana," Zach sighed. He almost sounded disappointed.

"I have no idea how to use that thing," I grimaced. "But, I do know how to use this."

"Where the fuck did you even get that?" Zach chuckled as he swerved around another slow-ass bitch.

"From the Rezza family weapon stash," I mused.

Her father had an entire closet full of shit in the basement behind a hidden door. Luckily none of the idiots at the party went into the basement to discover it.

At least I hope they didn't.

I felt my nerves burning the closer we got to that deranged bitch's house. I knew this was going to be a deadly fight. I just hope I had it in me to take someone's life. I hated Isabel with a passion and she has done horrible things.

The only good side I saw was that she would be free from Seana. Free from this sick twisted world that she got enveloped in.

I took out some shells from my pocket and began to load them into the barrel though stopped when Zach was looking at me and not the road.

"Why the hell are you loading that now?!" he exclaimed. "Is the safety on?!"

"I've been shooting guns since before I could walk, of course, it is on," I deadpanned. "Now pay attention to the damn road."

And with that, I finished loading it and set it to the side, the barrel pointing away.

"So what do you think Eddie is?" Zach asked as he turned down a street that was dark as hell.

"God only knows," I sighed. Seeing the sign for the road Isabel's house was on, I grabbed the shotgun. "Turn down this next road."

When we pulled up to the house, it looked like a complete hell hole. The grass was almost three feet tall and it appeared some of the windows had been busted in. There were very few houses on this street, so whatever hell that would ensue shouldn't attract too much attention.

Gunshots might though.

I felt a shiver go down my spine. I didn't know why I felt so afraid now. I've been threatening to put an end to these people for weeks now.

Zach reached over and grasped my hand, giving it a light squeeze. I didn't need to hear the words, his reassuring smile was enough to know that we can do this.

We had to. I didn't even know if my cousin was still alive.

Zach got out first and closed the door as quietly as possible. I just hopped out and slammed mine. Zach grimaced at me as I grinned back.

I wanted them to know we were here.

Something caught my eye on the ground though. A long white line went across the yard and to the back of the house. I bent down and touched it, realizing it was some sort of powder.

How the hell did Isabel get a hold of this? This type of powder was rare. Maybe she stole it from Seana.

"What is it?" Zach whispered.

I stood up, silently cursing myself. "This is a fucking trap."

"Well I mean they did take her for a reason," Zach muttered.

"No, this," I hissed, pointing to the white ring around the house. "Once I step over this I won't be able to use my magic."

"Wait really?" Zach asked, generally surprised. "Salt can stop magic?"

"Yes, though this isn't normal salt. It has shit in it that nullifies magic. Now enough with the babbling," I ordered. "We need to get Lily the hell out of this place."

Rolling my eyes, I stepped over the boundary and right up to the front door, the gun loaded and ready.

With the safety off now.

Though Zach started to attempt to break the line of salt. Which of course wouldn't work. That powder once set would literally burn itself into the ground. It would take several witches and a ritual to get rid of it.

Let's just say no one would be practicing magic in this hell hole. But I didn't need magic to deal with Isabel.

I have a shotgun.

I was about to shoot the door down, but Zach already beat me to it when he kicked it in. The door splintered into pieces. And right in that living room was Maggie, her eyes widening in surprise at us.

"Where is Lily?" I hissed.

"Dead," I heard Isabel drawl from a dark corner of the living room. Taking a step into the shitty lighting of the room, she merely just smirked at me. "Just like you're about to be."

I didn't even respond. I just fired a round right at her. It tore through the wall just as Isabel dodged it.

"You know if you just stayed away I wouldn't—"

I fired again, this time twice. Both went straight into her chest.

I dropped the gun and turned to the destroyed door, a piece was small and sharp enough to put an end to this hell. I couldn't think anymore. It was like something had reached into my chest and tore my heart out.

Isabel was thrashing around on the floor, trying to pull out the shell that was lodged near her heart.

I stalked over to her, my grip tightening on the wooden stick in my hand.

"Why Isabel?" I choked out, my eyes began to water as the thought of Lily being dead even dared to cross my mind.

I hoped it wasn't true. It couldn't be.

"She took the one thing I only wanted," Isabel rasped. "She deserves to die just like he did."

I just stared at her, looking right through her. This person wasn't Isabel anymore. All the times through school Isabel had been a pain in the ass. But never would she try to kill someone. Seana killed that girl and turned her into this monster before me.

My hand began to tremble as I kneeled down in front of Isabel.

Seeing what I was about to do, Isabel just gave a sinister smile.

"You better make it quick, she doesn't have long," Isabel chuckled darkly.

A horrible cry came out of me when I thrust the stake into Isabel's chest. She didn't make a sound as she died. But instead just continued to smile at me, just as her skin started to slowly turn gray and her body stiffened.

My entire body just started to shake as tears slid down my cheeks. Never in my life did I think I would take a life. Even if Isabel was a vampire with no humanity, she was once human. A living breathing person. And now she was dead.

I felt someone grab onto my shoulder, causing me to jump up and push them away violently. I turned, only to see that it was Zach.

Maggie was nowhere to be found. She must've fled.

Zach started to walk toward the hallway, his face looking grim. Following him, one of the rooms had another dim light in it. But once I looked down my heart and mind shattered into pieces.

Lily was sprawled out, covered in her own blood. Her head had a horrible cut, from her eye and across her forehead, that must've been what knocked her out when Isabel took her from the house. But Isabel didn't stop there, her wrists had cuts, deep ones. And right in her gut was what Isabel had mutilated her with.

A kitchen knife.

And the most horrible part, Isabel left her to slowly bleed to death. And she was.

In the hysteria of me screaming and begging someone to save her, I heard Zach tell me she was still alive. He yanked off his jacket and started ripping pieces off to wrap around her bleeding wrists.

"Celesta?" Lily trembled, her voice barely audible.

"I'm here," I cried as I clung to her. "Everything is going to be okay."

"Jesus Christ," Zach swore to himself as he was looking at Lily's injuries. Especially the knife sticking out of her stomach.

"Zach is she—" I stopped, unable to say anything else.

He locked eyes with me and shook his head. All he said to me was, "Don't touch that knife."

He got up and pulled his phone out, pressing the screen frantically. Lily glanced from Zach to me, her eyes wide.

"Am I going to die?" Lily asked softly.

"No you are going to be fine," I assured. But the look she gave me told me she knew I didn't know that answer.

She slowly lifted her hand and clasped it around my arm, giving it a light squeeze. "I need you to do something for me," Lily asked.

Zach was on the phone now, his words muddled as all I could focus on was seeing Lily die slowly in front of me.

"Of course," I cried and held on to her tighter.

"When you see Scott, please tell him that I—" she stopped and smiled sadly. "That I love him. I never got to tell him that."

And whatever strength she had was gone, her grip on me loosened as she lost consciousness.

"Lily?!" I shouted and started to shake her frantically. I don't know how long I was there screaming until Zach was there, pulling me into his arms.