Page 3 of Witch's Rebirth
Eventually my struggle ran out of strength and I collapsed, exhausted. Every breath ran jaggedly through my lungs like knives. I didn't want to breathe anymore if it was this painful without Raum.
Through my blurry tears I saw two people pick him up, one under his armpits and the other grabbing his legs. His head rolled to one side and his whole body was limp, lifeless. I watched them go around the corner to the back of the house.
"No... no, where are they taking him?" I tried to fight against the arms that held me but I was too weak.
"Stay with me, beautiful. If anyone can save him, it's those two."
I twisted around to find the source of that familiar voice and found myself looking up into bright green eyes, reddened like they too had been crying.
"You're in shock," he said to me. "I'm so sorry for this, beautiful. We should have known. We should have been better prepared."
"What about them?" I looked out across the cleaing where five more bodies laid out between us and the treeline. I still wasn't sure what I was asking.
"They're dead for good." Sal. It was Sal holding me. He was safe, not hurt. My lungs released with slightly less pain. "Not like Raum. He's not gone yet, beautiful. We both know he's too strong for that." His arms tightened around me. "We both know he loves you too much to let go."
"We need to dispose of the bodies." The words came out of me robotically. In a matter of seconds, I went from feeling shattered to feeling nothing. In trying to cope, my emotions seemed to shut down completely. I couldn't handle the uncertainty of not knowing if Raum would live or die, so my mind simply turned it off.
"We can do that later," Sal told me. "Right now-"
The whoosh of fire from my fingertips cut him off, nearly singeing his arm hair in the process. Five times I set fire to the corpses in my front yard who were once demon hunters. Why did they find us so quickly? Was there something Seth still wasn't telling us? And how in Lucifer's name did they get ahold of angel-kissed weapons, the only substance that could kill a demon for good?
These questions filed through my head like a checklist as the five separate bonfires roared before me. They distracted me from thinking about Raum.
Sal loosened his hold on me when he realized I wasn't going to run anymore. He rubbed my back in a way that was supposed to be comforting, but I felt absolutely nothing.
"Diana's behind this."
White-hot rage filled me as my grandmother's face infiltrated my mind. The only good thing she ever did for me was reveal my witch powers. I used to think I owed her everything for that. But that was before I learned she killed my mother in a blood magic spell that was meant to kill me before I was born.
The psychotic old bitch came to me under the guise of wanting to teach me magic, but she really wanted me under her thumb so she could finish the job. She almost succeeded a second time, but not before I discovered the rest of my magic. Alongside Earth, I found my Fire and Water, and nearly drowned that murderous cunt.
But I couldn't do it. I couldn't just murder someone. That would make me no better than her.
Now I didn't give a fuck about having any moral high ground. I wished I had drowned her with that water spell. If there was anything she knew how to do well, it was hurt me.
When we first escaped San Francisco, she plagued my mind with nightmares of my worst fears-- losing my unborn daughter and being completely alone without the comfort of my men. Not even escaping the city released her hold on me.
Now she hit me where it really mattered, where she knew I could be destroyed. And this time, she would not get away with it.
"We don't know that yet, beautiful."
I realized Sal was trying to be calming but at that moment he only pissed me off.
"Idoknow," I snapped. "Only she would make sure to send out a team with the ability to kill demons. It doesn't matter to her if she gets me first. She knows targeting those I love would get a reaction out of me."
"She's not the only one targeting our kind," he said gently. "Look, none of us have clear heads right now. Try to relax."
How ironic that the demon known for his bloodthirst was telling me to calm down. His hand slid across my belly as he pulled me back to lean against him.
"Think of our daughter," he whispered softly. "When she grows up, she'll never know this."
"We don't know that." I gritted my teeth. "It's the same shit every lifetime. I die young and my kids grow up with targets on their backs because of what they are or who they're born from."
"But you always come back," he whispered in my ear. "You are unstoppable. Not even a span of a thousand years could stop you."
I wished he'd stop. I didn't want a pep talk. None of it was true. I couldn't stop Raum from getting hit. I wanted to scream and cry and kill. I wanted to inflict the same kind of pain inflicted on me and my loved ones. Not just Raum but my mother too. She didn't deserve any of what she got from that evil hag just for carrying me.
"I'm going for a walk." I stood abruptly and headed straight for the woods. "Don't follow me."
