Second Skin (Skinned) (8 page)

Unrelenting pressure on my chest crushed the air from my lungs. I sucked in a slip of air. Needed more. I dragged in another ragged breath, but my ribs refused to expand. I began to cough.

My eyes flew open.

Decomposed flesh. Hollow, worm-filled sockets. Snapping teeth.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“You’re not real. You’re not real,” I said to myself and to the demon perched on my ribcage. I arched my back off the mattress, only to have my body slammed down into place. I attempted to twist, punch, push, or shove it off, but my limbs refused to cooperate. My struggles manifested as little more than a restless shift of my shoulders. The demon’s punishing weight paralyzed me.

I opened my mouth to scream, but only a sigh left my lips. I’d never been more desperate to move any part of my body. A finger. A toe. If this was what my wolf felt like, buried deep under my skin, I’d never hold her back again. To do so offered a slow, agonizing suffocation of the soul. Panic carved a hole in my stomach.

And still I couldn’t move.

Bile rose in my throat as the stench of a thousand rotting corpses blasted my cheek. The demon breathed hot on my cheek. A slithering sound, like death licking its lips in anticipation, and then a guttural laugh, malevolent and deadly. Followed by the pat of a cold, dead hand on my cheek before the pressure eased, and disappeared.

I bolted upright and stared across my empty bedroom. My wolven night vision kicked in, and I searched the darkness for the creature that had attacked me. Dark and sinister shapes crouching around the room turned out to be nothing more than shadows cast by dirty clothes piled on the floor. It was gone. I was alone. I sucked in gulps of air, my bruised ribcage protesting even as my lungs demanded more.

I reached under my pillow and withdrew my athame. Shoving my tangled bangs out of my eyes, I scanned my bedroom again, searching for the demon. Nada. Not a thing out of place. My door and the window remained closed, curtains unmoving. The demon had vanished.

But it had been here, demonstrating how easily it could get to me.

Daisies smiled up at me from my bedsheets, their good cheer mocking the horror slowly draining from my veins. I hated them at the best of times. My Aunt Sammi had trouble restricting her kindergarten teacher’s eye for cutesy décor to the classroom. I shoved the sheets aside.

The unfamiliar slide of thread along my wrist drew my attention. I held out my arm, examining Kate’s supposed iron- clad protection charm. A bracelet made from a cord of black embroidery floss strung with juniper beads impaled with slivers from an iron coffin nail. Although the spell may have kept the demon from my dreams, it certainly hadn’t stopped it from paying a house call.

And last night Kate had been so certain she could thwart the demon with a few witchy tourniquets.

We should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

Back at Conundrum I’d been so willing to believe Kate had the answers. I’d even helped prepare for the spell. Before we’d gotten started, I’d clunked into the metal ladder Kate’s boyfriend, Whip, had set up right inside the door. When I stepped back, rubbing my throbbing knee, strong hands settled at my waist. Their heat penetrated my hoodie.

“Steady,” Alec’s voice rumbled in my ear.

Both knees weakened. I straightened and pulled away before my traitorous body could press against Alec’s broad chest.

I ducked under the ladder.

“Seven years bad luck,” he murmured from behind me. “I hope chickening out was worth it.”

I bared my teeth from the opposite side of the ladder while he lingered in the doorway studying me with those dark eyes.

Brit shifted to make room for me against the wall. She slanted a look my way and then at Alec standing stiff in the doorway. “Hey, are you guys fighting?”

“Shhh, Kate’s about to start the spell,” I said.

Kate made her way cautiously up the ladder Whip was holding.

“You sure she’s up for this?” Brit said out the side of her mouth.

“She is if she wants any of us to sleep tonight,” Kate said. She could be wolven, her hearing was so keen. I ducked my head, hiding my grin at the thought of a wolven-witch blend. Not likely. Wolven and witches shared a long history of mutual hatred that dated back centuries, when witches used wolven for all sorts of nasty deeds and bound us to them as their familiars—a pretty way of saying we were their slaves. Such servitude was now forbidden in the paranorm world. A familiar-to-witch partnership was rare and had to be consensual.

If I was an anomaly—a human-wolven hybrid—a witch- wolven would be outright blasphemy—on both sides. That Kate and I got along spoke volumes about the wackiness that was Redgrave. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

“We have to protect this place,” Kate said. “It holds the source of my power. If the night mare blasts inside, it’ll steal my power, absorb it, and I’ll be useless to you guys in your battle against it.” She placed a small bundle of dried herbs on the doorjamb, explaining the ingredients as she gathered them. Gray spider flower and St. John’s wort, to relieve terror and provide protection. She fixed the bundle into place with an iron coffin nail and the blunt end of a butter knife. Apparently Kate wasn’t above grave robbing for nails and graveyard dust, but didn’t believe in the usefulness of a hammer. She passed Whip the knife and proceeded to bang on the wall above the doorframe with her fist, causing my heart to jump.

Magic always made me nervous. You never knew the exact outcome. Kate was the first to admit magic was fallible, subject to many influences, no matter how strong the will of the spellcaster. Her simple spell to wipe some of Paige’s more paranormal memories had resulted in odd personality changes. Not that I minded. Paige was far more bearable now. Still, would
this
spell have side effects? We weren’t all as fortunate as Wade, who was immune to certain spells thanks to his witchy inheritance.

Satisfied the charm wouldn’t dislodge when the door opened or closed, Kate held her hands out over the swath of herbs and chanted under her breath. Magic stirred the air. Whorls of energy rose beneath us, drifted up the ladder, and radiated from Kate’s hands in a silver glow.

In seconds the glow embedded itself deep in the bundle of herbs and flared to life. Silver sparks shimmered along the entire outline of the doorframe, and then spread to the crown molding and the baseboards, traveling the walls like a lit fuse on a stick of dynamite. An electrical charge similar to the hum of cicadas echoed through the entire two-story structure as the ward sought each line of the old Victorian house and settled in.

To my sensitive nose, each and every person, brand of magic, or power had its own odor. Once I’d had a whiff, I could identify the source of residual magic or track someone—or something— by scent alone. A nifty trick inherited from my wolven mother. It did have its side effects though. Large masses of people enclosed in tight space wreaked havoc on my senses. Kate’s magic was the ginger and other exotic spices that swirled in the air. Which was why the faint hint of mint cutting so clearly through the chai and nutmeg, strengthening the ward, demanded my attention.

Wade’s magic was laced with ice and mint. I’d recognize it anywhere. He was the source of the irresistible aroma weaving through Kate’s magic. Almost as if she had found a way to access Wade’s talent for creating strong protection wards.

Was that even possible?

The scent of him was driving me mad, clouding my mind. I really shouldn’t be longing for a guy so close to the dark side. He was shadowed.

A tiny thrum of Kate’s power lingered. I tasted the magic in the air. It pulsated on the tip of my tongue. I met Kate’s eyes, uncomfortable with the knowing in her expression. We held the stare for a moment before the pulsation of magic evaporated entirely.

The spell was complete.

Kate broke the hush that had settled over us while she’d been spellcasting. “It’s not just my power I’ve secured. I have other sacred, ancient objects housed within these walls. If the night mare were to get those as well…”

“Let me guess,” Matt said on a flippant grin. “The world as we know it will cease to exist.”

Kate met his gaze, her eyes narrowed. “Pretty much.” Matt’s smile died. He swallowed hard.

But Kate wasn’t finished. “Each of you is a potential target now that the demon has seen you through his minions’ eyes,” she said. “You’ll need some extra protection. I’ve prepared a few charm bracelets.”

Not what I was expecting.

“Why don’t we use dreamcatchers?” Brit asked Matt, voicing my exact thought.

Alec stiffened at my side.

Matt grimaced. “Every First Nations dude should have one over his bed, right?” He teased Brit gently. “Thirty years ago, sure,” he said. “But now they’re gimmicky. More commercial than Valentine’s Day.”

“These bracelets are portable,” Kate said. “The night mare won’t limit its attacks to bedrooms, waiting for victims to fall asleep. It’s strong enough to go wherever it wants, whenever it wants.” She stared at me intently. “We’ve been waiting for the bounty hunters to appear, Eryn. Perhaps this is how it begins. My sources confirmed interest from a variety of mercenaries. Challenging your support system, threatening your friends—they might do this to wear you down.”

Ugh. I’d tried not to think too much about Logan’s little information leak. That he’d discovered the Hunter Council had put a price on my head, warning me that paranorm bounty hunters just might descend on Redgrave.

Alec straightened. “We’ve got Eryn’s back. Anything that comes after her has to go through us first.”

Kate’s eyes softened. “Exactly. And that’s why all of us must be vigilant.” She gave me an encouraging smile. “I know you’ve been in a holding pattern, Eryn, wanting to make sure you protect your parents if they are still alive and in hiding, and yet you’re torn because Logan won’t wait forever.” She reached out, resting her hand softly on my shoulder.

I stiffened slightly at her touch.

“At some point you’re going to have to seek out your father’s work, dig into your past, and I know that’s a scary prospect for you. But I think your hand is about to be forced.” Kate stepped back and glanced to Alec.

I followed her eyes to find his hard stare on me.

“Whatever is holding you back, you’re going to have to face it.”

I bit my lip, tamping down a surge of alarm. The only thing holding me back was a little thing called death. Wade had shown me exactly what would happen if and when I decided to track my parents down. The bloodshed. If I did initiate Wade’s plan to take down his father, people I cared about, people in this room, would die.

Alec had already confirmed my role in his death. Kate didn’t know what she was asking.

Bounty hunters I could deal with. We had little intel to go by, though a nearby coven had reported several run-ins with creatures practicing the dark arts. Paranorm bounty hunters, they’d discovered, sent to track me down.

The Hunter Council wanted me dead.

Whatever the demons-for-hire wanted, you could bet it had to do with a payment of human souls and my head on a spike. Night mares, bounty hunters—they were easier to face than…

I released a shuddering sigh.

My face must have paled, because Alec’s eyes filled with concern. Did it make me a bad person that I wanted to cross the room and kiss him? Even though I knew my lips on his would be his death?

He glowered at Kate as if she’d taken a swipe at me. In a way, she had. She’d burst the
nothing’s come at me so far, maybe they’ve moved on to other prey
bubble that I’d been floating around in since our showdown with Logan.

Kate took my hand in hers and dropped a lightweight object into my palm. She folded my fingers into a fist and wrapped her hand around mine. She murmured a few words, another spell, and heat radiated around the object trapped in our enclosed hands. She released her grip and moved away. I opened my palm to find a bracelet made of black thread and a series of dried rust-colored beads.

“The keys to this protection spell are slivers of iron from the coffin nail that have pierced through the beads,” Kate explained as she fastened an identical bracelet around Brit’s wrist and then repeated the action on Matt and Alec. “Iron never rests. It works on, no matter if you’re awake or dreaming.”

Her spell had held. I’d slept like a baby. For once my personal nightmares hadn’t plagued me. But sleeping didn’t really seem to be the issue.

The night mare had touched me. Threatened me when I was awake.

I ran a finger over the dried beads. Though they’d gotten me through the night, I was doubtful they’d be effective for long. We needed a surefire way to find out if the demon was one of the bounty hunters, and if so, figure out who had put the contract out on my head. We also needed to kill the night mare or banish it from this place for good. That meant we were all on research duty today.

I’d agreed to see if the shelves of Redgrave High’s library held any clues.