Suddenly summoned, p.5
Suddenly Summoned, page 5
part #1 of Faustian Curse Series
“Just like that? What about your family's house? Where are you going to live when you get there?” I frowned. I hadn’t been able to plan much in this regard because I honestly had no idea how to prepare. My entire life I had been sheltered inside my coven. We were essentially an Amish like community, fully separate from the rest of the world. I didn’t know where to begin on finding information about moving to the city. If I asked other members of the community they would never answer and would think less of me.
“A city?” Abrax asked.
“It’s a place with lots of buildings and lots of people,” I explained. Abrax grunted noncommittally.
“Will there be food like you have?”
“Okay, why is he so interested in this? What is going on here?” Max’s eyes shifted back and forth between Abrax and me. I winced.
“Well, we are kind of…” I trailed off uncomfortably. I opened my mouth but Abrax beat me to it.
“Bonded for life,” his deep voice purred, a dark smile on his lips.
“What. The. Fuck! Callista!” Max yelled, forgetting to be scared. He stood up and the chair clattered to the floor behind him. Abrax grunted and crossed his arms while eyeing the window. “Bonded for life?!” I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead.
“Yes, okay. I don't really want to think about that right now.”
“Well, when do you want to think about it! I guess there’s plenty of time!” Max was getting hysterical now.
“I get it,” I bit out. “This changes my life forever, okay? Is that what you want to hear me say? That I’m scared shitless that I’ll be living the rest of my life with a demon breathing down my neck, threatening to kill me, and looking at me with those freaky ass black eyes!” Abrax began laughing loudly. His hands held his stomach. Max just shook his head at me, like he didn’t know who I was anymore. I bit my lip. “Come with us, Max.”
“What?”
“You hate this place too. You would love the city. I just know it.” Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Callista…”
“Please. We’re siblings,” I pleaded. “I’ll need help,” I admitted in a small voice. Max sighed.
“Don’t do anything rash.” He sighed again and looked at me. “I’ll get my things in order. I was planning to move anyway, next year. I planned to invite you.” I smiled, the first one in a long time. Max couldn’t help himself but grin back at me while shaking his head. Then I felt a finger poking my cheek.
“What are these holes in your cheek?” Abrax looked startled. Max groaned.
“I can’t believe I’ll have to live with a demon. He better not kill me,” he hissed.
“Um, they’re dimples,” I told Abrax. He bent down in front of me, his eyes scanning my face for any more peculiarities.
“So odd,” he stated more for himself than anyone else. He leaned in front of me but peered over at Max. “He didn’t have dimple holes.” He looked back at me, waiting for an explanation. Gah, he was too close. I could feel my face heating and I knew for a fact I was blushing because Abrax’s eyes widened to saucers. “Your blood is showing again.” I smacked his hands and he actually moved away, even if he didn’t look away.
“This is fucked up. You know that right?” Max asked. I rolled my eyes.
“Look, Max, I can’t wait too long to do this. You may have forgotten that he sent someone to kill me last night, but I certainly haven’t. I’m sure they are aware their assassin didn’t come back.” Max’s eyes darted around frantically like he was trying to think of an excuse. “I’ve already got essentials packed and in the pickup. I’m sorry, I should have told you sooner but I knew you would try to talk me out of the summoning.”
“Ah, the male is smarter than you,” Abrax said. I frowned at him.
“Anyway, this has to happen, like today.” I realized that was the truth while saying it. They had sent someone to kill me and he never came back. There was no longer any time. “As soon as possible. I think Abrax and I will leave the house soon. I’ll make sure to get anything else I want to bring and then lock up.” I looked at Max apologetically.
“Callista…” he sighed. Then he nodded. “I’ll get my stuff together and tell my mom bye.” By telling his mom bye he meant going to her grave. Two years ago she had fallen ill with cancer and never recovered.
“We’ll pick you up later. I’ll try to get a message to you if something goes wrong,” I added quickly. “Carry your mirror.” Max rolled his eyes. Since we were kids we sent messages to each other through our mirrors. The pair was spelled and given as a gift to us from our mother’s. That way we could always be in touch.
“We are getting cell phones in the city. I’m tired of this country bullshit.”
“It’s not country bullshit!”
“No, not the mirrors. Just us not having cell phones when everyone else in the entire world does.”
“I doubt that’s true.” Max waved his hands.
“You know what I mean. Okay.” He moved towards the door then startled, having forgotten Abrax was standing in his way. “Uh, could you like, get him to move?” I sucked in air as Abrax graced Max with a particularly vicious smile.
“I will suffer your existence for now, boy. But you will understand something.” He took a step closer to Max and Max looked about ready to piss his pants. Abrax pointed back at me. “She is the pet and I am her master.” He pressed a thumb into his chest. “I agreed to her terms, but one day I will have fulfilled my task.” He leaned in close to Max, showing his teeth. “And then I will own her for eternity.” He finished on a growl and I shivered.
Maybe I should have ripped out my hair and cried but what Abrax hadn’t realized was that he had given me hope earlier. When he admitted our pact wouldn’t finish until my death I realized I had time on my hands. Time where I could find a way to save my soul. My mother would call me naive, maybe even stupid, to think I could cheat a demon. But I had nothing left to lose.
Right about then the sound of several cars crunching on gravel came from the front of the house. Doors slammed, people shouted, and my face drained of all the blood.
“Your color is changing again!” Abrax said wide-eyed.
Chapter Six
“I am excited to kill your royals. They are important people in your world, yes?” I chewed my nails. He really did look excited and that would be exceptionally unnerving and even terrifying if I didn’t have other things to worry about.
“I don’t really know. I’ve never left the coven.”
“Cult,” Abrax grumbled.
“It’s not a cult,” I hissed back, forgetting who I was talking to or perhaps not even really caring right this very moment. I could only freak out about one thing at a time apparently. The demon took second place currently.
My fingers snuck between the blinds and I risked a look. Yep, every coven leader was outside. Three elders, their eldest male children, and the clan leader himself. I noticed elder John, his orange hair disheveled atop his head, his eyes red. Beside him stood the father of the kid Abrax killed last night.
“This is bad,” Max said, pacing in the hallway. Blood filled my mouth as I chomped too hard on a nail. I frowned and shoved my hands in my pockets.
“I wasn’t expecting this,” I mumbled.
“Of course not! You haven’t thought anything through.” Max’s judgmental filled eyes bore into me but today I wasn’t up for hearing any complaints--even though he was likely right.
“I thought of a lot of things, but not everything. It’s not like I’ve done any of this before,” I defended myself. Max rolled his eyes and paced faster. His fingers played with his jacket buttons like he wanted to rip them off.
Abrax, in his glorious height and muscled frame, was staring at the door and drooling in excitement. His forked tongue was doing the weird tooth rubbing thing again. My mind warred between remembering the sensation of it sliding up my throat and the shiver in my spine that knew he was a monster.
"Seven," he hissed in pleasure while reaching for the door. I panicked and flung myself at his arm.
"Stop!" I curled around his arm and hung from it like I was a sloth and he was my favorite tree limb. Irritation marred his face. "They're all powerful mages! You can't take them all!" Abrax scoffed and shook his arm. I yelped and was flung at Max. Max screamed as we collided and we fell in a heap to the floor. Before I could scramble back up Abrax had flung the front door wide open and stepped dramatically on the wrap-around front porch.
The men outside remained quiet and I rushed to the front door. Too afraid to go further, I clutched to the frame and hissed at Abrax. His back was wide but pinched thin just above his butt. His body was very impressive and I wondered if all demons had such carved frames.
“You can’t take them! Strength is nothing against their powerful magic.” Abrax turned, his horns looking odder in the morning light. His face held no expression but his eyes held humor as he looked at me.
“Let us end a piece of this debt.” My fingers dug into the wooden frame and then he was gone. A blur in the breeze. That’s when the screams started. Terror filled, agonizing, anguished screams of the elders as the monster I’d called from Hell tore them apart with his bare hands.
Birds chirped through the gurgled cries. The sun shone with not one light fluffy cloud in the sky. The perfect morning, with a cool breeze left over from the night.
Necks snapped and wrists were broken as they attempted to hold their hands up. Elder John, with his bright orange hair that was turning a pale white, began to call forth wind. He was an elemental mage.
The breeze turned violent and lashed towards Abrax. He gritted his teeth and dug his bare feet into the grass as the wind blasted him, stopping him from his attack.
“You killed him!” Elder John yelled into the wind, his face contorted into a mixture of pain and anger.
“A dishonorable kill. So weak he screamed and pissed himself,” Abrax growled back into the wind. He had already killed four of them I realized. He attacked so swiftly and with enough surprise that I had a collection of eerily still bodies in my lawn only a minute after the fight had begun. At first, I flinched away from the sight of what I wrought, but then I let myself slowly soak them in.
At some point in my life, these pillars of the community had looked warm and welcoming. Genuine smiles had stretched across their faces creating well-worn lines. They were like family almost. Now the memory of their smiles felt sinister and evil. Psychopaths hiding behind their masks.
They looked much better dead than with those chillingly fake smiles wavering in my memory and it didn’t surprise me to have such a thought. I might be weak, small, and anxious but I was also filled with mind-numbing rage over their sins.
Murderers. All of them. Then they sent their children in the night to kill girls, covering up their crimes. They exacted their selfish ideals upon people willing to have trust and faith. They were the type of men to take everything they could because they felt entitled to it. Their abuse of power was sickening.
My eyes finally left the dead--done with ever giving them a thought again--and found the fight at hand. My strong, confident beast was standing easily against the wind that pelted him from Elder John.
Abrax’s face flashed in delight and then he lept. Elder John bellowed a yell of rage. All the eyes tipped towards the sky. I gasped at the sight of Abrax’s opened wings sprawled in the sky. They were black and large with deep red veins glistening like spilt blood in the webbing. Other than his eyes they were the most alien thing about him. His wings stretched from his back in their dark beauty and I found myself incapable of looking away.
Max scrambled over to me and clutched to my shoulders.
“Oh my God,” he gasped and I couldn’t be sure why he did. Either the demon flying or the carnage spilled on my front yard. Abrax dove and in a moment Elder John’s throat was cut open by a single sharp demon nail. Blood sprayed violently like a burst geyser and then cascaded down his shirt.
My mouth fell open and my legs weakened. Max tugged me backwards, into his chest.
“Don’t look,” he said. I shook my head.
“I have to,” I said while his poignant sandalwood and sage smell enveloped me like his arms. Max didn’t get it, and I’m not sure I could really tell him, but I needed this violence. I needed the broken bones and dripping blood. I needed wide, terrified eyes and gargled screams. It was washing away the wrong that had been done to my mother. It was cleansing the trauma of what happened to her and to me. It felt right.
Abrax flashed to the final elder, killing him effortlessly with a punch that crushed the man’s throat. The man attempted to gasp. His knees hit the ground painfully. Blood from his friend soaked into his trousers. All the while his face turned purple and then he fell over forward, face down in the grass.
The yells, shouts, and screams had all been silenced as my lawn soaked in the massacre. The last man standing, Master North, took in his fallen comrades with muted anger. Rage burned in his eyes but he remained outwardly calm. It was fitting he was last. Although maybe he intended it that way, I thought. A bastard till the end, hiding from the fight until there were no more bodies to hide behind.
I’d always imagined demons would kill with cool clarity. A blank face, dispassionate and calculating. Abrax was nothing like that. He reveled in it. His sharp teeth glistened and a smile stretched manically across his face. Blood had painted his head. It made his black hair shine wickedly and stained his white skin red. His sleeveless leather shirt and pants hugged him closely but allowed him to move freely. His wings stayed tucked closely behind him.
It was undeniable he was good at this. He was a killing machine that took pleasure in the work and pride in a job well done. An artist not content with mere efficiency, he had a flair for the dramatic, danse macabre.
The broken, grisly scene in front of me filled me with a sick feeling. My mind thrashed, trying to push nauseous regret into me. I had to grimace to keep it down. I wouldn’t allow myself to regret this and I wouldn’t allow myself to consider this traumatic. This was just the final horrible conclusion for killing my mother. A necessary end. And afterwards, I could walk away.
“Callista,” Master North rang out and my head jerked towards him in obedience. Max stilled, his muscles held so perfectly still I thought he might have gone catatonic. It was ingrained in me that I looked when called. From a young age, we were taught to obey and revere the leader.
His frosty eyes burned hatred into my face. It was jarring. I’d never before seen such an expression from him pointed at me. It had always been those polite smiles. His bright blue eyes looked like they might burst out in flames and I realized in my gut that he truly hated me. That wasn’t the type of emotion that could develop in just a single moment though. He had hated me before today.
“Why did you kill her?” I asked him. He sneered, his lip curling in disgust. My breath stuttered. Max’s fingers gripped into my shoulders like he was afraid for me. It was as if Master North had turned into someone else. Someone cruel and mean. His blonde hair fell into his eyes and he did nothing to move it, too concentrated on trying to murder me with a look alone.
Hate did that to people, but why did he hate me? Had he hated my mother too?
Abrax lept towards him and I screamed for him to stop while pushing free from Max. I needed to know the truth. My long white dress scraped the porch steps as I stumbled to the dirt. The demon glared violently at me and it was a frightening sight with the blood sprinkling his face, his all black eyes like pits of death.
My eyes slid from his threatening existence and settled nervously on the coven leader once again.
“Tell me why,” I called out. Max followed me, holding my shaking hand for support.
“Why?” He asked in disdain. “Look around you!” He threw his arms out and dared me to look at the fallen elders and their sons. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I didn’t have time to wallow in regret right now. Now was time to understand why my mother was killed. And then, to finish getting revenge. I took another step toward him.
“I don’t understand why you killed my mother though!” I yelled it as exasperation and anger took hold of me. This was the moment I’d waited for. The moment I’d planned. The moment I’d sold my soul for. I took another step and Max’s hand fell from mine.
“Your blood is tainted! You hid amongst my community. Hiding what you are!” When he yelled, spittle flew from his mouth. “Demon summoners,” he hissed. “None other than the Fausts!” The name echoed into the morning and my heart sped up hearing the name. My tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth in shock to hear that infamous name.
“Your family has hidden here for hundreds of years under false names, lying your way in and look what it has done!” He spread his arms wide for me to take in the death scene. “The Fausts are a curse to everyone around them. To think that I--” he stopped short and his face took on a look of disgust, “helped the Fausts thrive! It was my duty to protect everyone. To right the wrong of your existence.”
Anger and hate marred his features. He seethed, breathing heavily with the force of his opinion. I felt myself retreating under such forceful loathing, tugging my shoulders in and hunching away. I shook my head and tugged my shaking fingers to my chest.
Abrax leapt at him. Master North raged as Abrax’s large hand firmly grasped the leader’s throat. The coven leader’s hands flew up, his fingers already dispelling frost. He was a powerful ice mage that stood for decades as the strongest in our coven. His fingers pressed into Abrax and it was obvious he’d already thought he won. I gasped and wasn’t sure if I should run forward to help my demon or run back in my house to hide from what was going to happen.
Master North planned to freeze Abrax alive. White frost slithered over the demon's skin. My feet were stuck to the ground. Max was still standing near the steps of my house, rooted to the spot himself. He’d stumbled into this situation and I felt bad for that. There was no reason he needed to witness any of this. I’m sure it offered him no pleasure or relief.
