Authors: Sydney Bristow
The confidence in her voice made it feel like someone had stabbed their fingernails into my shoulders, hitching them upward. Despite that, goosebumps instantly spread across my skin. I glanced around, hoping Celestina would appear. After all, with her in the vicinity, I doubted Zephora would attempt to take my life. But without her nearby…
Zephora sauntered toward me with sturdy strides, as though she’d doubled her power base since I’d last seen her. She no longer shivered or perspired. She appeared self-assured, purposeful, and deadly. “Well, hello, darling. Have you been well?”
While terrified she had tremendous power, I needed to stand up to her. Otherwise, I’d falter and not have the courage to defend myself when she decided to attack.
The smarmy grin that had almost appeared vanished as Zephora halted and her eyes narrowed on me with vicious intent.
I waited, expecting some sort of assault, but as the next few moments ticked by, she didn’t direct magical punishment my way. In case my sister took advantage of my momentary hesitation, I stepped back, giving me full view of both of them. At the same time, if I planned to leave of my own accord without encountering an attack, I had just made it difficult by moving further away from the front door.
“Serena,” Zephora said, regaining her creepy smile as she approached me. “You are an intriguing creature.”
“Really?” asked Alexis. “I’d go with boring. Or annoying. But ‘intriguing?’ You’re giving her way too much credit.”
“And you,” Zephora said in a condescending tone, “don’t give her
enough
credit.” She set her demented gaze on mine. “You dispatched my one true love.”
“He was trying to kill me and my friends,” I said. Although I considered Zephora unstable, especially while her body recuperated from drug withdrawal, she definitely had moments of clarity, so I said, “I defended myself. You would have done the same.”
Zephora’s gaze narrowed on me, as though I’d said the exact opposite of what she expected to hear.
While I considered her psychotic for thinking otherwise, when I looked deeper into her eyes, I realized that she didn’t have any
real
friends, or wouldn’t even know one if she found one, because if she had, she wouldn’t have expected me to acknowledge her statements as obvious, especially after saying we were enemies. Of course, she could have made those remarks to disorient me, but I wouldn’t give her that much credit. In this instance, it seemed she didn’t know when to call a person a friend or foe. That unpredictability made her dangerous.
“True love,” Alexis said, wincing as though tasting something bitter, “doesn’t exist.”
Zephora slanted her head to the side and winced as though feeling sorry for Alexis. “Have you never
truly
loved another? Have you never felt completely and utterly vulnerable with another person?”
Alexis tsked that question with a harsh glare. “So she could break my heart? Fuck that!”
Her response told me more than I could have ever expected to learn. My sister had loved and been spurned by another woman. Far from a man-eater, she had no interest in men or had attempted to convince herself of that fact, unless she was bi-sexual, which based on the way she presented herself to both sexes, I felt fit her better. More than that, however, I suspected that she didn’t look at love and sex as a decision. I got the impression she was attracted to personality more than gender. If so, it explained why she at first seemed interested in Brandon (and Nolan, for that matter), only to douse those feelings with frigidity moments later.
Zephora notched her head high before lowering it in understanding, pity and disgust, as though sensing someone had crushed Alexis’s heart to pieces with such feral pleasure that my sister couldn’t bounce back and attempt to love again. Given those circumstances, Zephora lost a small measure of trust and respect for her.
She now leveled me with a heated gaze. “I waited nearly one hundred years to reunite with my love, and you robbed me of the opportunity.”
Since I’d never had a boyfriend, much less loved a man, I didn’t know how to respond, but since Zephora and Darius were both brutal killers, I didn’t feel the least bit of sympathy for them. “Oops!”
She gritted her teeth, and her muscles tightened, making her body tremble with rage.
Despite my distant, disinterested response, I had a difficult time keeping my legs from quaking because I knew Darius meant everything to Zephora. Her response made me stand erect, unable to move, afraid that she might actually harm me. Since I didn’t see Celestina, I hoped I hadn’t tested the sorceress’s patience.
Zephora’s face turned red. Her eyes snapped wide as she extracted both arms out to her sides, as though summoning something.
The air crackled around me, energized. The flat screen flicked off. So did the kitchen light. The windows began to rattle.
I glanced around the room, uncertain what would happen next, fearing that objects might start flying around the room, wondering if the silverware drawer would snap open and a knife would fly through the air before heading straight for my forehead.
Behind me, the front door slammed shut. I spun around.
Celestina stood in the doorway, confusion lining her face as she met each of our expressions. With a sideways glance, revealing that she’d interrupted a potential conflict, she settled her gaze on Zephora. “What are you doing?” she asked in an accusatory tone. She gestured to the windows. “You need to stop.”
“Yeah,” Alexis said, encouraged by her daughter’s boldness, but rattled by Zephora’s outburst.
A gust of wind whooshed through the house, sending advertisements and other mail atop the dining room table to slide across the surface and swirl through the air.
Goosebumps stood out on my skin, and intuition told me to leave. In my never-ending quest to prevent others from catching me acting as anything other than in complete control, I found myself whispering, “If you huff and you puff, you might blow the house down.” Even if no one heard my ridiculous comment, speaking loosened my joints, and I felt a little more at ease…at least as much as anyone could hope for considering the circumstances. Only then did I realize that I’d muttered those words to spur myself into action. A volley of potential strategies ping-ponged through my mind, but none promised a way out of this strange situation.
Zephora, gasping with flushed cheeks and perspiration beading her forehead, lowered her arms, but although she breathed easier and appeared wiped out, the maelstrom of wind didn’t abate.
Had Zephora started this vortex, only to have Celestina continue it?
As if asking herself the question in my mind (or maybe she’d swiped it since I hadn’t guarded myself against her mind-reading abilities), Alexis swung her head towards her daughter. “You?” she asked, appalled. She marched up to her, clutched her forearm, and jerked her a foot forward. “Stop this, now!”
“Mom,” she squealed as Alexis shook her body in every direction. “Please stop, you’re hurting me!”
Hearing that pleading tone so full of fright and shame, and seeing her nose scrunched up with fear, I stalked toward my sister as anger suffused my veins and discovered that every bit of alarm had left my body. Despite the sweeping wind that had actually picked up its pace, so much that my hair fluttered about my head, I didn’t care who manipulated the elements inside the house. Only one thing mattered. Alexis was hurting my niece.
I had warned her against harming Celestina, and an unfamiliar rage throttled me toward her. I slammed an open-handed chop two inches above my sister’s wrist, forcing her hand away from Celestina’s arm.
The pressure with which Alexis had shaken my niece in combination with the blow I’d delivered sent Celestina crashing to the ground. Now that I’d ensured her safety, I couldn’t restrain the animosity inside me. It knew no bounds…and I welcomed it. I threw an open palm towards Alexis’s throat, but rather than hoping to damage her trachea, I latched onto her throat and squeezed, overpowered by a sense of justice.
In the back of my mind, I wondered if Zephora might attack me, but I’d also suspected she’d tapped out her magical powers. Any assault she might mount would be of the human kind, and therefore, I paid her no mind.
“Aunt Serena,” shouted Celestina. “Stop!”
How dare she yell at me for attempting to force Alexis to see her wicked ways? Didn’t Celestina want to avoid similar treatment in the future? Didn’t she want her mother to treat her with kindness and respect?
I clenched my fingers tightly around Alexis’s neck, glad to see the blood rushing to her face, enjoying how she squirmed under my grasp. My sister needed to know the wickedness of her ways, not just now, but forever, and I took pleasure in showing her that no one should be mistreated.
“Aunt Serena, I said…stop!”
Without removing my gaze from my sister’s face, yet delighted to see a flash of terror pass through her eyes, I said to Celestina, “She can’t keep hurting you. I won’t let her. Not now. Not ever.” I was proud when a smirk touched my lips.
“Aunt Serena, stop it. Stop It. STOP IT!”
A frigid wisp of wind slithered across my body, but the air seemed void of oxygen. I opened my mouth and tried to inhale, but no air entered my throat. Unable to breathe, I released my sister and placed both hands to my throat.
My sister fell aside and crumpled to the floor, wheezing. But she took in air, as evidenced by the audible way she labored for breath.
How was that possible? I stood only two feet away from her, but she managed to capture air into her lungs, whereas each attempt I made at breathing left me unable to do just that. The lack of oxygen to my brain forced stars to flash behind my eyes. Weakened now that my bodily functions strained for oxygen, I felt weak, lifeless. My body hunched over and I fell beside Celestina’s pink Converse sneakers. I reached out and grasped her leg, pulling myself toward her in hopes that she could help me.
Was she also suffering? I managed to lift my head and, for whatever reason, the white stars darkened and sizzled across my field of vision. I watched Celestina breathe easy and meet my gaze with an angry scowl.
“I told you, Aunt Serena!” She shook her head in disappointment. “You shouldn’t hurt Mom.” She paused as puzzlement crossed her features. “I told you, but you didn’t listen.” She winced as though the words she spoke caused her physical pain. “Why didn’t you listen? All you had to do was listen!”
With the lack of oxygen going to my brain, it took me a few moments to piece together the meaning behind those words. When I’d finally comprehended that she had somehow removed the oxygen around my body, I looked at her in horror, shocked that she would deny me what every human since the beginning of time had equal access to.
“Mom said you’re using black magic,” Celestina continued. “Your eyes just turned black. Did you know that? Huh? Did you know that, Aunt Serena?”
How could they have gone black? Only the eyes of demons flashed black. Wait, Celestina said something about black magic, hadn’t she? Had I inadvertently called upon black magic in my attempt to squeeze the life out of Alexis? If so, I’d weakened the fissure between this dimension and the one on the other side.
The force blocking air from entering my throat ended, and I finally inhaled, even though it made me cough as though I’d taken in too much oxygen after having been denied it for too long.
“Why do you have to fight each other?” Celestina shouted. “You’re sisters! Doesn’t that mean you have to love each other? Why can’t you just be happy to be sisters?”
Now that I’d pushed some air into my body, I noticed Alexis’s shoes planted a foot away from me. It meant she now stood and looked down at me.
“Don’t hurt her, Mom.” Celestina paused. “I’m warning you.”
At least her anger went both ways. As much as I hated kneeling on the floor, struggling to snatch air with every breath, I didn’t want to look up to find Alexis and Zephora smiling down at me. But this situation taught me something valuable. Celestina now knew her abilities and powers transcended those of both Alexis’s and mine combined, not to mention Zephora, although since the sorceress had yet to fully recover from the affects of substance abuse, I couldn’t determine whether she could match or exceed the powers Celestina wielded.
Alexis didn’t respond to her daughter, so I assumed she wouldn’t retaliate against me.
“Aunt Serena, why did you come here?”
“To see,” I said, still panting, “if you were okay. To see…if Zephora or your mother hurt you.” Silence stretched for a few seconds, so I pushed off the ground and met my niece’s stare. I didn’t want to acknowledge Alexis or Zephora. Doing so would put me on edge, and Celestina had already proven she wouldn’t think twice about hurting me, so I focused on her instead.
“They won’t hurt me,” Celestina said with certainty. “Will you?” She turned to her mother and Zephora.
Hearing no response, I said, “I don’t trust them.”
“Do you trust me?” Celestina asked me.
“Yes.”
“Then don’t worry about anything.”
Celestina might be more powerful than both of them now, but she was young and inexperienced when it came to battle strategy, something Zephora excelled at or she wouldn’t have returned to Earth so many times. Then again, considering she had clawed back into our realm for the fourth time, her tactical plans had failed three times already, so maybe she wouldn’t be too difficult to defeat. Upon further review, although Zephora had only managed to remain in our dimension during the American Revolution and the American Civil War, she must have had improved her battle skills since her last incarnation had allowed her to remain on Earth from the late 1920s until the mid-1940s.