The 13th Witch Complete Trilogy (20 page)

“I’ve won. You will no longer be a problem,” He smiled as he spoke. He let go of my arm long enough to pull a dagger from his side. I tried to pull back, but he was too strong. I felt a hand go around my waist and pull me back. When I looked up to see who it was, I saw Connor.

He threw the spell at Eric as he pulled me to him. I closed my eyes and felt as though I was falling forever before hitting the ground. When I opened my eyes we weren’t at Eric’s house anymore, but someplace different.

Thirteen

The light was the first thing I noticed. It was blinding and made everything else seem far away. I reached behind myself to see if Connor was still with me. I felt his arm and breathed a sigh of relief.

“What happened?” I asked, not ready to stand.

“I’m not sure. Where are we?” Connor asked the same thing I was thinking. I heard a laugh to my left and stopped moving. Connor must have heard it too because he stood and held his hand out to me. I took it and stood even though my legs didn’t want to work all that well.

We both looked around at anything we could see. I watched as a woman came into view in front of me. She was familiar. I realized I’d once known her.

“Anna?” Connor stepped passed me to meet the woman in front of us. I smiled, hoping it wasn’t something that shouldn’t be. “Did we die?” The thought made me panic slightly.

“No, not yet,” she said, putting her hand on Connor’s face. “I’ve missed you, brother.” He put his hand on hers and smiled.

“I’ve missed you too.” He pulled her hand into his and just held it for a while. “I tried to get you back. I wanted you to come back more than anything.”

“I know, but my time is over. You still have a life to live,” she pulled away from him and smiled brighter. “You have someone else to look after now.” She glanced my way and turned from him.

“Wait,” he yelled after her.

“No. You have to let me go.” She didn’t turn back to face him and the light started to blind me again. I put my hand to my face to block it, but had to close my eyes eventually.

When I opened my eyes, I could see a light above me. I pulled my hand to my face to try and keep it from blinding me.

“She’s waking up.” I heard whispered not far from me. When I turned my head in that direction, I could see my dad sitting beside where I was laying. He was clearly happy I’d come back. I sat up and realized I was someplace I didn’t know.

“Where am I?” I managed to say. My eyes roamed the room, looking for something that would let me know I was safe and give me a clue as to where I could possibly be.

“We’re home,” my dad said, smiling. “The place you lived all your life and the place I always hoped you would be able to come home to.” He held his hand out and pulled me from the bed.

He was right. This was where I’d grown up. I smiled and glanced back to my dad.

“What about Eric? Did we stop him?” Everything was a blur to me, but I wanted to make sure things had gone the way we wanted. My dad hugged me and whispered to me.

“You stopped him, but we don’t know where he’s at now.” He held me as he spoke. “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“What happened?” I remembered everything until Connor pulled me back from Eric at the end. Then my mind snapped to Connor. “Is Connor okay?”

My dad pulled away and smiled. “He’s fine, but you were right in the path of a bolt of lightening. It’s a miracle you’re still alive.” I looked at my arms and felt my face. My mind drifted to stories I’d seen on television about people who were struck by lightening and had burns that changed them forever.

“You did it, you know,” Eli’s voice caught my attention from the other side of the room. “I’m glad you’re alright.” He smiled as he spoke. He was leaning on the doorway of the main hallway to my old room. I smiled back and watched Oni come up behind him.

“Are you ready to go?” She said to Eli from a couple feet behind him. I glanced from her to him.

“Are you leaving?” I didn’t want them to go. They’d become good friends to me and helped me to really understand who and what I was.

“We have to. The longer we stay here, the harder it is to go home.” Eli smiled and walked to me. “You could always come with me.” He seemed hopeful, but I couldn’t give him what he wanted. When I looked back to my dad, I knew he understood.

“I love him, you know.”

“I know, but I was just hoping you’d change your mind,” Eli said. He let go of my hands and turned from me to leave. “You are always welcome in my world if it becomes too much.”

“Thanks. I’ll remember that.” I bit my lip and looked back to my dad. “Where is he?” I had to see him. I had to know he’d seen Anna like I had and it wasn’t in my head.

“He’s at her grave,” my dad said. I grabbed a travel potion from my stash and thought of Connor as I broke it on the floor. When I opened my eyes, I saw him kneeling at a gravestone. He was just looking at it with a flower in his hand.

“Are you okay?” I said it carefully, knowing what we’d been through and how much we had lost. He glanced to me and sat in front of the stone.

“She was a good person.” He almost couldn’t talk about her. She was a part of him that he missed and wanted to remember, but his memories were also on the verge of killing him a lot of the time. “I miss her.”

“I know, but she wants you to live your life. There’s a lot of good we can do. We can put this world back together.” I made the choice to fix the damage my birth father had done as soon as I did the blood spell. I just hoped he would want to do it with me.

“I know. We have to make it right. For all the people we lost.” He put the flower on her stone and stood. “We’re the only ones that can.” He turned and walked to me and grabbed my hands. “I’m sorry for everything. I never wanted to hurt you. I just wanted to bring her back.”

“I know.” I smiled and he pulled me to him. “We will never be apart again. I promise you that.” He kissed me gently, but as though it had been forever since we’d seen each other. I closed my eyes and let it take me from the pain and hurt we’d been through. Everything was right as long as we were together.

He pulled back from the kiss, but didn’t let me go.

 

“I love you and am glad you didn’t lose faith in me.”

 

“I’ll always have faith in you,” I said and kissed him back.

This was my new beginning. Even with Eric still free and able to be in my head, I felt like nothing could keep me from being happy. I was with the man I’d loved from the first minute I’d seen him. We were connected forever and could face anything.

Even Eric.

 

The End Free Sneak Peek

 

Dead Rising Part One

I watched the old newspaper blowing in the wind. It sailed from the wild green grass to the burnt out Chevy sitting in the middle of the road. The window was busted out and the door remained open. It was someone’s failed escape plan and my only source of cover.
I waited while they passed, covered in their own blood. My heart pounded in my chest because I knew what would happen if this many caught sight of me. I’d be

eaten alive.

It wasn’t always like this, the world moved fast and people faster. They texted on their cell phones and listened to music on their Ipods. No one saw it coming, not even the ones that put it all together.

I glanced at the group of, for lack of a better word, Zombies passing by. One caught me off guard and made me grip the handle of my sixteen inch hunting knife that much tighter. The light blue eyes of a girl. Her blond hair falling in waves around her bloodstained face. Her blue dress fell to her knees and her white socks held her legs tightly. She was missing one shined black dress shoe.

Once they were far enough away, I slid out from behind the door and made my way on down the road. Traveling on your own in this country was not an easy or safe task, but I had to find someplace safe, if there was anyplace that was anymore.
The thing that got to me the most was the quite of the world. There were no cars buzzing by or people talking. It was just silent. That was the world I lived in now, but we didn’t go quietly into the night. We went out with screams and blood.

I threw the army green backpack onto the grass at the side of the road. It was getting dark and I figured it was best to rest. When the sun went down, the freaks were better hunters. Something about the way they could see made it more frightening to be out and about after dark.

I rubbed my hands on the dirty jeans I’d worn for more than a week. There weren’t many options when it came to clothing anymore. It was a good thing the winter had come and passed or I wouldn’t be able to get where I was going.

New York.

I laid down on the overgrown grass and let my head rest on the backpack I'd scavenged. It worked for a pillow even though I doubted I'd get any real sleep. I was too on edge. If you weren't, you didn't live very long.

The last time I'd gotten any real sleep was the night I went to sleep and woke up to my very own Horror movie.
The fire licked the tips of my feet. I had to keep it low so it didn't attract the dead. It was enough to keep me warm on the nights that seemed to be a little colder than I liked. This was the worst time of day. It's when my mind could wander and I had to think about what was happening.

My weakest hour.

I pulled the six shooter from my boot and opened it to see how full it was. I didn't have anymore bullets than what was already loaded. Three bullets left and two thousand miles to go. My hand slid over the cold metal, my mind thinking about how easy it would be to just give up.
I could just end it right now. No more pain.

I put the gun back into my boot and sighed. I wasn't ready to give up, not yet. I had to find them, at least know if they were dead or not.

My family was out there somewhere and they needed me to try.

My eyes opened when the alarm sounded. It was like a piercing siren in my head. I glanced around my little dorm room, in a little bit of a panic. I slid out of the bed and turned the light on. It flickered, but stayed on. I listened, trying to figure out if anyone was still around in the building. I couldn't hear anything and my heart was pounding loudly in my chest. I didn't know what to do. Should I wait for someone to come find me or should I run? I didn't know which way to go.

I stood there, against the cold brick dorm wall, trying to understand what was happening. My first thought was it was a terrorist attack. It had to be. There was no other reason my world would be together one day and gone the next. I waited and then decided I couldn't stay here. I had to try and get out.

I ran my hand over the doorknob, breathing hard in worry. What was going to be on the other side could be a nightmare or it could be a false alarm.

Then the lights went out.

I woke up from a night of little sleep and pulled myself together. Today was the day I was going to move out of Missouri hopefully and on to Illinois. I knew the road was not an easy one, but I had to know if they were still alive.

The last time I'd heard from them, they were going to visit my older brother at NYU. That was the day before everything changed. My only hope was they got out of there alive and found someplace to hunker down, but that may be asking too much.
My legs hurt more than they ever had before. I had walked for months, hoping I'd run into someone, but so far, there was no one that was alive out there.

I almost passed the exit for St Louis, but stopped to think about it. I still needed some supplies. I only had a few bullets in my gun and a short knife at my side. If a group of the undead came at me, I'd have nothing to protect myself with.

I sighed and pulled myself down the exit ramp and headed towards the city. It was eerie quite and nothing seemed to move. There were cars left with doors open in the middle of the street. When I got closer, I could see the blood still running down those doors. It was dry and stained the grey of the car. Making it look like a reject from a Horror movie.

I could hear shuffling to the left of me and slowly turned to face whatever was making the noise. What I saw was not even close to what I expected.

The barrel of his gun was only about a foot away from my head. He had a wild look in his dark brown eyes. Something an animal would have, not a human. Then again, the world had gone to hell so fast no one would ever be human again.

_“
What are you doing?” He asked, his voice cracking a little in fear. I held my hands up to show I wasn't a threat and stood still.
_“
I'm just looking for supplies. I won't be here long,” I said, taking a little step towards him. He flinched, like I'd slapped him or something. I didn't move any further.

_“
There's nothing here. Everything is gone,” he said, not lowering the weapon.

_“
I'm not one of them. I'm just taking a minute before moving on,” I said, keeping my tone even and cool. I didn't want to throw him and make him more upset than he already was. He finally lowered the weapon, but remained jumpy. His eyes flicked from me to the left and back. He was worried about finding something or something finding him.

_“
Are you infected?” He asked, before taking a step towards me. We were slowly closing the gap and possibly becoming a little closer to friends.

_“
No, I'm just trying to get somewhere.” I lowered my hands and took a breath. “Are you the only one here?”

_“
There was someone else, but they didn't make it.” He glanced around me and pulled the shotgun back to a ready stance. “Their coming. We can't stay out in the open.” I turned slowly to see the top of a head. It looked to be disheveled and bruised. My heart fell when I realized it was on of the dead walking towards me. I could only see the one, but usually there was more following behind.
The other survivor grabbed my arm and pulled at me, leading me towards an alley. He didn't say anything until we got to a pull down ladder.

_“
Go to the top, but be as quite as you can,” he said, pulling the ladder down and then stepping behind me with the gun raised. I did as he said and started up the ladder. I could hear him on my heels and the dead walking down the street. They seemed to be missing the alley and the meals waiting for them. All it would take was a wrong move or a sound and we would never get out of here alive.