Blood Moon (27 page)

Darby was thinking to herself as she walked, holding Devon’s hand.
 
Could it really be this easy? No traps? Was it possible that Sally hadn’t told her sister of their plans to stop the ceremony?
She hoped Devon could hear her; he seemed to, as his eyebrow went up as if saying
I don’t know, seems unlikely.
 

They reached the end of the corridor and what they saw was amazing and appalling at the same time.
 
It was a gigantic room; maybe forty by forty feet.
 
In the center was an altar and laid out in what looked like spokes of a wheel, were thirteen women, heads towards the altar and toes towards the colored candles called for in the spell.
 
Each woman was wearing a white sheath, split up both sides to the hip. On the floor beneath the women was a pentagram that looked like it had been drawn in blood.
 

At the altar in the middle, a breathtakingly luminous Rachel stood reading something. She too was clothed in a sheath, but it was red, not white and it seemed to make the red in her hair even more prominent.
 
Next to the book stand, which Darby figured was holding the spell and maybe the Keaton Book of Shadows, was a large athame.
 
Darby had never seen one so large or ornate.
 
It must have been 14 inches long. The light of the room came mainly from the center where the altar and the women were, but the edges of the room were rather dark – where Darby and the others were.

Darby, still surprised by the lack of traps, thought maybe now was a good time to go to the far right corner, which she had calculated was north, and get all the blades out of the way before Rachel knew what was going on. With the lack of light there, maybe she could get there undetected.
 
She started for the corner when Sally walked in the room carrying a basket of herbs. Sally saw Darby and the rest of them and out of surprise, made a dead stop, alerting Rachel that something was wrong.
 
Rachel looked up and saw Darby inching towards the corner and the rest of them at the doorway.
 
Devon, foreseeing Rachel’s rising hand, crossed the room with such speed; he seemed to Darby to be a blur.
 
Darby pulled the tub of balm out of her pocket, unscrewed it, made the ‘T’, and before she could take her hand away from the wall, Devon had her by the waist, and moved her back with the rest of them. Just then the force field hit the corner in which they had just been.
 

Immediately, metal objects started to move towards the corner and the balm, including the huge athame from the altar.
 
A chain, too, slithered along the floor towards the corner with a wayward, unlit torch, the blade of an old hatchet without its handle, and a broken lock. It made a terrible racket on the cobbled floor and the disturbing, slithering chain resembled a live, metal snake.

Darby untangled herself from Devon and walked towards Rachel; the others followed, spreading out like a fan, but Devon stayed right next to her.

“Rachel,” Darby said, “You don’t want to do this. This power you’re trying to attain is evil and it will corrupt everything you are. It will destroy you and your sister.”

Rachel smiled and Sally joined her at the altar. Sally looked odd – not herself. Both women now with outstretched arms threw flames at their company. Rowan’s emotions got the better of her and she turned to a werewolf, growling and pacing near Blake and Dean. Blake and Devon instantly pulled out the water potion Darby had made in the vials and threw them to the ground in front of the group, extinguishing the flames instantly.
 
Anger raged in Rachel’s face.

“Look, Sally, Darby brought her sister the dog to the party.”
 

Blake stepped forward, and Devon pulled him back. It seemed to Darby that the sisters must be communicating telepathically, because their moves were synchronized. They started mumbling something and in her mind she heard Devon say,
I think that is the cloaking spell.
 

They all reached in their pockets and pulled out the clear vials, unscrewed them, poured the powder into their palms, and blew the dust into the room. Like Darby said would happen, the dust circled around the room and attached itself to Sally and Rachel, revealing their positions right in front of Darby and Rowan. They both held daggers, probably of silver since they had not been pulled to the corner. Blake and Devon disarmed them, knocking them back towards the altar, ending the cloaking spell, and returning them to their normal state.
 

Rachel was fuming mad and she and Sally threw a force field.
 
Darby jumped in front, holding both hands in front of her as if she were holding up a wall and her force field held the other two back.
 
Devon, Blake, and Dean could see that the two different force fields were different colors.
 
Darby’s was that of a bluish violet, and Sally and Rachel’s was grass green. Like electricity zapping and popping, the two sets of force fields fought each other. This went on until Darby, face scrunched in effort, made a shoving motion with her hands.
 
All three force fields loudly popped closed.
 

Darby was pleased with how things were going, being able to stop all the attacks, but she saw a look in Rachel’s face she didn’t like, and Sally turned her head quickly towards her sister as if in fear. Rachel raised her arms and started speaking so low that no one could make out what she was saying.

The ground started to shake and the ceiling seemed to moan and a horrific groan of what seemed to be displeasure came from the walls.
 
Dirt started trickling from the walls and holes started to appear.
 
A fleshless hand wiggled from the earthen wall and grabbed at Rowan’s tail, making her yelp.
 
Blake grabbed the hand and yanked at it, revealing an unattached arm still trying to grab at nothing but air.
 
He threw it across the room as more hands came through the walls, attached to arms and bodies, heads and legs.
 

Darby said, “Oh my God.
 
She’s raised her ancestors to help her!”

 
Sally looked around in horror as more and more relatives emerged from the stone walls around the room. There must have been twenty or more. The bony bodies lurched and drug themselves towards Darby, Devon, Rowan, Dean, and Blake. The vampires pulled them apart and the werewolves ripped them to pieces and still they came in relentless bits and pieces.
 
And all the while, Sally threw force fields and fire towards them while Rachel started reciting the incantation of the spell.

Overwhelmed, the vampires couldn’t kill the corpses coming at them, because there was nothing to drain, and the werewolves were tiring quickly from the ceaseless onslaught of mummified corpses and parts. Between fighting off Sally and trying to push off the dead bodies, Darby was still able to throw a powerful force field bubble at Rachel, throwing her back away from the altar and stopping the incantation for a few minutes.
 

Rachel was livid.
 
A green glow of raw electricity snapped around her, increasing in brightness. Her eyes were closed as in concentration and the green glow seemed to fill the bubble she was encased in as it floated upwards with her inside.
 
The green now had turned so bright it was almost white and Rachel smiled and opened her eyes, looking at Darby.
 
She brought her outstretched arms together in a deafening clap of thunder and everything in the room was thrown away from her.
 
This included Sally and the corpses and their tattered, disembodied parts – all were thrown to the walls of the tomb.
 

Rowan hit the wall with such force that a rib broke and punctured her lung. Blake dislocated his shoulder and was trying hard to shake it off and knock it back into place.
 
Dean landed on the magnetic pile of metal, ripping a huge gash in his leg where it had come into contact with the large athame.
 
Sally’s head was trickling blood.
 
She had landed very near Dean. Devon had used his body to lessen the impact on Darby’s fragile body, but in doing so, his thigh bone had broken and had painfully protruded through his skin.
 

Sally tried to get up.
 
The look of betrayal on her face was unmistakable. She stumbled as if drunk and addressed her sister.
 

“What the Hell, Rachel?” Every muscle in her body was shaking in fury. “You don’t care who you hurt, do you, Rachel, as long as you get what you want!”

Rachel never turned to look at her sister, disregarding her as if she was an insect. Then Sally laid into her with a red, crackling, electric ball of pure energy, throwing it as hard as she could at her sister. Rachel lifted her hand as if swatting away a fly and the red fireball came back at Sally, sending her towards the north corner of the room where the athame was now pointing towards Sally’s oncoming body.
 
With the last bit of strength Dean could muster, he deflected Sally’s body away from the corner.
 
He couldn’t protect her from the impact of the wall, but he could save her from dying on the blade of the athame and that’s what he did. Sally bounced off the wall and Dean reached out, cradling her head before it hit the floor.
 
Then they both lay motionless.
 

During this time, Blake threw himself into the frame of the door, painfully relocating his shoulder back into its socket.
 
He and Darby were the only ones able to stand, and were up and walking towards Rachel.
 
With her mind shielded, Darby tried speaking to Blake.
 
If I distract her, can you immobilize her long enough for me to cast a spell?

I don’t know, Darby; she’s pretty powerful.
 

She can’t send a force field at you if you have her arms behind her and her body next to yours. Like when Dean had me in Colorado.

Yeah, but you only did that so as not to hurt Dean too.
 
I don’t think this chick cares if she hurts me.

True – then can you read her mind?

No, It’s like a green ooze in there.
 
I can’t seem to wade through any of it.

Then what do we do, Blake?
 
Can we somehow knock her out? Throw her against the back wall or something?

How about I run at her full speed and at the same time you send a force field; one of them is bound to hit her, right?

Okay, we’ll try that on three.

Blake said mentally,
One.. .. Two .. ..

And Darby thought
Three
as loud as she could. She could tell that Rachel was trying to read her thoughts so the shouting telepathically should have been like standing next to a loud speaker with the volume pegged all the way to high. She saw Rachel wince. Darby’s hand went up and Rachel turned towards her and that’s when Blake took off like a bullet towards her.
 
Rachel had summoned her force field while focusing on Darby, but turned just in time to hit Blake who was a closer threat, and that’s when Darby hit her with everything she had.
 
The force lifted Rachel up in the air, throwing her backwards to the wall behind her.
 
Rachel was still three feet off the ground when she hit the wall behind her, but luckily for her, she hit butt first and then head.
 
This probably hurt like heck and knocked her out, but it certainly didn’t kill her.
 

Blake had been deflected to the doorway by Rachel’s force field, which Sally had initially walked through when they’d first set eyes on her.
 
He seemed to be moving, albeit slowly, so Darby sprinted to Rachel, pulling out the binding spell as she ran. She stood there and read the incantation as Rachel lay unconscious.

I bind you here for harm you’ve done

To see the dark course you have run

I bind you here to learn your woes

To make amends to all your foes

I bind you not for harm to come

But to see the truth of what you’ve done.

I bind your magic, black as night

Until you learn what’s just and right

Not til then will this spell break

Or black magic you forsake

But if you harbor your ill will

Your evil you shall surely feel

I bind with love, I bind with care

Your darkened soul I hope to spare.

With that she pulled the pull cord from her hoodie and tied Rachel’s hands up behind her back.
 

Chapter 25