Natural Selection (26 page)

I CAN’T BEGIN to describe the
nightmare of being trapped in your own body. Days after the
unprovoked attack on my home by the demon spawn, I had woken in the
hospital. Much to my surprise, I was unable to move a finger or
even flutter my eyelids. I was forced to lay there staring at the
ceiling and plot revenge. My beloved wife must be dead, or she
would be at my side. I feared for my daughter as well. Despite my
best efforts, I could not control my own body. Alone in a hospital
bed I waited for something to change. Yet the only thing that did
was the room when I was transferred to a Long Term Care facility.
The nurses there were attentive, checking on me frequently. But I
spent much of the time alone with the steady beep of my heart rate
monitor. My body was healthy, I just had no control over it. I
could tell by the slow lengthening of days when summer came,
followed by the shorter days as it went. I watched as a nurse
decorated my room with pumpkins, then turkeys, then
Santas.

I don’t know how I managed to stay
sane through it all. Creating some mental games to play proved an
effective distraction. Mentally crying out to Evelyn, I think I
felt a connection a couple of times. It was enough to convince me
that she lived, which took a weight off my mind. She could hate me
as long as she was safe. With that worry set aside I began to plot
the demise of the Hoffman family. This was their fault. Someday I
would be free of this curse, and they would pay.

Lunchtime became my favorite time of
the day because that was when one of the nurses, Mary Lou, would
slip into the room and read me a few chapters from whatever book
she happened to be reading. Admittedly, the sappy romance stories
she preferred would have generally turned me off, but it gave me
something to focus on. Her voice was soft and musical and brought
the pages to life. All too soon she would get up, turn the
television in my room on to some feel-good TV channel before
leaving.

One morning, during what I
suspected to be early spring, the door opened. The nurse had
already made her morning rounds and it wasn’t time for Mary Lou, so
I had no idea what to expect. Whatever it was, it wasn’t an
overweight girl with green-brown eyes and long stringy hair. She
wore a black top with bell shaped sleeves and an ankle length
skirt. I would have rolled my eyes if I had any control over
them.
Another wannabe witch, come to stare
at the fallen master, eh?
There'd been a
few over the last several months since my reputation in the witchy
world was of rather epic proportions. When she spoke, her words
shocked me.

“Your attempts to contact Evelyn have
not gone unnoticed, Mr. Matthews. I am here because she feels
responsible for your condition. It was her magic your wife used to
do this to you. I will reverse the spell, but you must promise to
leave her with me and my coven.”

There was too much in that for my
brain to process. I couldn’t believe my Monica had done this to me.
Sure she’d been a bit zealous in her pursuit of the demons who
walked among us. And ok she’d become obsessed with the Hoffman
family. But I couldn’t imagine her doing anything against me. I
didn’t have long to dwell on these thoughts, though, because the
girl moved on.

“You must promise you will not harm
any of my coven, including Evelyn.” I tried to nod, shrug, scream,
anything to show my acceptance, but not even a twitch. I would
agree to anything if it would just free me from this hellish
prison.

I don’t know how, but she knew I
agreed. She came forward and laid her hand on my forehead. Her red
aura tinged with purple told me she was calling on the Powers. I
felt like a Mac truck hit me. My entire body hurt. It seemed like
my muscles should be contorting with all the pain, but I laid
motionless beneath her hand. Slowly the pain stopped, and she
stepped back. I tried to move but still couldn’t, tried to follow
the girl with my eyes but couldn’t as she disappeared out of the
room.

The following days were gruelingly
slow. I don’t know if the nurses noticed a change or if it was a
routine check, but the next day the doctor came. The tiny pricks on
my fingers and toes, the swab down my throat, and the bright light
in my eyes had become routine over the last year. But this time
something was definitely different. When the doctor stuck my toe,
it twitched. He stopped midsentence, and I could almost feel the
weight of the nurses’ stares. Then I felt him poke another spot on
my foot and the muscle there twitched in response. All of sudden
they were all talking at once. The giant Q-tip was stuck in my
throat making me gag, which seemed to stir them up again. When the
doctor moved to shine the light in my eyes, I was able to
blink.

I can’t begin to express what a
wonderful sensation the simple act of blinking is. For months my
lids had been locked open. The nurses would close them manually
occasionally, but they would snap open like window shades. They had
whispered about how creepy it was, how they had never seen anything
like it. But I was thankful I could at least see and wasn’t trapped
in complete darkness. But now the tiny sensation I had always taken
for granted felt positively heavenly.

“Mr. Matthews?” the doctor asked
timidly in a deep baritone voice. “Can you hear me?” I tried to
answer but my vocal chords didn’t respond. “Blink if you can hear
me.” The room went silent as everyone waited breathlessly for my
response. I blinked, squeezing my eyes shut then opening them
again. To make sure they realized it was a conscious movement I did
it again. And again.

There was much celebrating and talk of
miracles. Mary Lou came to read to me and was so pleased with my
recovery she came over to the bed and brushed a gentle kiss on my
cheek. It was in that moment I realized the ray of light in my
current state was one of the demons. I don’t know how my ability to
tell the demons worked. I just could tell them when they were
close. I wondered why I hadn’t felt it before, but it must have
been part of the curse. I knew her true purpose in coming each day
had been to revel in my misery, and I knew she would have to
die.

Recovery was a long, slow road. It
took about a week before I could lift my arms on my own, and nearly
a month before I could sit up unassisted. Spring was in full bloom
as I stood up from my bed for the first time, almost falling
despite the walker in front of me.

I finally returned to my empty house
at the end of April, not sure where to begin. The Hoffmans had to
be tracked down and made pay for everything that happened to my
family. But first I needed a test—something to see if I was
recovered enough to handle them. My mind immediately went to the
demon, Mary Lou.

I barely finished the chant to
discover the type of demon she was before I knew she was a pixie.
Despite the lore, there are no “harmless” creatures. They are all
demons and a blight on humanity. I drove to her house. The pretty
young woman was only a disguise she wore to hide the evil within,
so I didn’t let her tears or her pleas sway me. I drew the symbol
to protect me from her powers on the floor and forced her into it.
She fell to her knees, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Monica
preferred the messy and gruesome stake to the heart, but I was
never a fan. I preferred to keep my hands clean, so I used a
pistol. The stories got it wrong—a simple bullet to the head will
stop anything.

I walked down the steps and climbed
into my car, happy to put this town in my rearview mirror. First, I
needed to find out what had happened to my wife. Second, I would
make those that did it to her pay. The Hoffmans would suffer by
God. This would not be the end.

Read on for a sample of

Book Two in the Forces of Nature
Series

SECOND NATURE

THE HOT SUN baked my back, and sweat
beaded on my forehead. I wiped the back of my hand across my brow,
cursing the new security cameras. If it weren’t for the eye in the
sky, I’d have all of these flowerbeds weeded and healthier plants
than any other nursery in town. My boss claimed the cameras were to
catch vandals, but I had a suspicion he was more interested in my
methods. However, there was nothing to see except for hard work and
a lot of sweat. I used my abilities here and there to give the
greenhouse a little boost, but the large, flourishing greenery was
due to backbreaking labor and dedication—at least it was so long as
the cameras were here.

I wasn’t certain what I thought of
working. When you age ten years in a single night, getting the
world to believe you’re only fifteen can be tricky. Thanks to some
forged documents, I was now an 18 years old, high school graduate
from Cleveland, Ohio. The guy we’d hired to create our identities
even got me into the alumni society. I didn’t feel like I missed
anything, though I wondered about college.

Sometimes it sucked trying to blend
into the human world. Things hadn’t been coming up roses since I
found out I was a Gaia. Think of me as Mother Nature, or one of
them anyway. The mythical figure was based on a member of my race.
I honestly have no idea how many of us there are, since I’ve only
met one outside of my family.

I glanced at my watch, quitting time.
My back popped as I stood and stretched. Brushing dirt from my
knees, I gathered my things and headed into the office. My boss
wasn’t there, so I grabbed my purse and exited through the garden
shop. I waved goodbye to the checker, Gladys, who was chatting with
some regulars at the register. She smiled at me but didn’t say
anything as I headed out to the parking lot. My brother sat at the
curb in his new Mustang, dark sunglasses covering his unnaturally
blue eyes. He smiled at me as I climbed in; he loved this new life
we were living in North Carolina. I sighed, wishing I could find
the happiness both my siblings had. They were so much stronger than
me.

I climbed in and glanced at my new
cell phone but was disappointed to see I had no new messages. The
cell phone was a bitter reminder that I had no friends anymore. I
think there were only five people who even had the number, and I’d
just left two of them at the garden center. I’d always been kind of
a bookish loaner, but I still had friends. It wasn’t easy to make
all new connection in Greensboro when I had to hide so much of
myself from them. While there were parts of this new life I loved,
like my paychecks, I missed my friends and my home.

Xander drove through the quiet streets
on the outskirts of town to the beautiful house we had built. Our
childhood home brought in more money than we could have dreamed
possible and combined with our parents’ life insurance made
building a dream home reality It had taken the contractor eight
months and 15,000 workers—perhaps a slight exaggeration—but we
finally had a home—an enormous monstrosity of a home. The sight of
the house made me roll my eyes, but I loved the land it sat on. The
front yard looked like a botanical garden, with the limited
expanses of lawn seeming more like paths. There was a small orchard
in the back, with both peach and apple trees, and a vegetable
garden on the side that kept me supplied with organic food. One of
the hardest parts about being a Gaia in the modern world is the
lack of natural products. Even things that say they’re organic
sometimes have preservatives in them that make them taste bitter. I
would give anything to enjoy a sweet, syrupy Coke again.

The security gate opened
automatically, and we parked in the circle driveway. Since I had
given in to their desire for the oversized house—or more likely it
was a mansion—they had given me a free hand with the decorating.
The house had a natural, organic flow, an earthy feel that made it
feel like home despite its size. The double front doors were
floral-patterned, stained glass framed in cherry wood, with
matching length panels to either side. When the doors opened, they
revealed a large, open living room. The mahogany railing along the
sandstone stairs and upstairs balcony reminded me of tree limbs.
Two white suede sofas sat facing each other across a polished wood
coffee table with a set of supple leather chairs on either end. The
floor was made of stone tile with a mosaic in the center featuring
rings of floral designs. At the back of the room was a set of
simple wooden doors that led to a pool surrounded by another
garden.