The Darkness Within

PRAISE FOR KELLY HASHWAY’S
THE MONSTER WITHIN…

“Hashway does a great job creating characters that stir your emotions and a mystery you want to unravel.”

–Cherie Colyer, author of
The Embrace
and
Hold Tight

“Witches, lies, black magic, murder…and the ultimate act of selfless love. Kelly Hashway has a spellbinding hit with
The Monster Within
.”

–Michelle Pickett, bestselling author of
PODs

“Resurrection has a dark price.
The Monster Within
is a fast paced and twisted read that will keep you guessing to the end.”

–Heather Reid, author of
Pretty Dark Nothing

THE DARKNESS WITHIN

Kelly Hashway

© 2015 Kelly Hashway

Sale of the paperback edition of this book without its cover is unauthorized.

Spencer Hill Press

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Contact: Spencer Hill Press
27 West 20th Street, Suite 1102
New York, NY 10011

Please visit our website at
www.spencerhillpress.com

First Edition: June 2015.
Kelly Hashway
The Darkness Within/by Kelly Hashway–1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary:
Description: A new witch must figure out how to save her boyfriend from dark magic.

Trademarks: Band-Aid, BMW, Coke,
Dark Shadows
, Gummy Bears,
Harry Potter
, Mack, Mazda 6,
Sleeping Beauty, Star Trek, Star Wars, Transformers

Cover design by Lisa Amowitz
Interior layout by Errick A. Nunnally

978-1-63392-021-7 (paperback)
978-1-63392-022-4 (e-book)

Printed in the United States of America

Also by Kelly Hashway

The Monster Within
(Spencer Hill Press)

Touch of Death
(Spencer Hill Press)

Stalked by Death
(Spencer Hill Press)

Face of Death
(Spencer Hill Press)

The Darkness Within
(Spencer Hill Press, 6/15)

To Ayla with love
.

1

M
Y
eyes closed as the magic filled me. I could feel it swirling in the air around the group, gold energy pumping life throughout my body. After dying of cancer and coming back as a monster, being this full of life was incredible. I wasn’t exactly normal, but I wasn’t a monster anymore either. And the witchy powers were definitely a plus. I had a family now. Dylan and Shannon were like a brother and sister to me. And Ethan… Ah, my Ethan, he was my world. Finally, the crap was out of my life. I’d survived, and I’d come back stronger than ever.

A jolt of something hot and electrifying surged through me. My stomach lurched, and I opened my eyes to see if anyone else felt it. Shannon was choking and grasping a greenish energy wrapped around her neck. I broke free from Ethan and Dylan’s hands and rushed for Shannon. Her eyes widened, panic written all over her face. Dylan fell to the ground, landing at Shannon’s feet. I stepped over him and pried the energy from Shannon’s neck. It snaked around my hands, trapping me in magical handcuffs.

“Ethan!” He was the only one not affected by the strange green energy. The only one still standing with his eyes closed, oblivious to what was happening—to what was trying to kill us. “Ethan!”

Slowly, his eyes opened. He blinked several times before his vision focused on me. “Sam!” He lunged forward, reaching for the magic trapping my hands. The second he came in contact with it, the green
energy vanished. Just disintegrated. Ethan stared at his hands. “What happened?”

“You tell me.” Dylan sat up and rubbed his head. “Something knocked me out.” It was an exaggeration, considering he’d already recovered, but I let it slide.

“And strangled Shannon.” I motioned to Shannon, still rubbing her neck. She’d been affected the most by…whatever that thing was.

Ethan held me by my shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Are you hurt?”

“No. You stopped it before it had a chance to hurt me.”

“Good.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

Dylan stood up and brushed the leaves from his pants. “What the hell happened to you, man? You just stood there while the rest of us were attacked.”

“Yeah.” Shannon’s voice was weak, but her accusatory tone still came through, no problem. “Why weren’t
you
affected by it?”

We all stared at Ethan. He looked as confused as we were. I reached for his hand, lacing my fingers through his. “It’s okay. Whatever happened wasn’t your fault. You’re just lucky it didn’t attack you.”

“Yeah, lucky.” Dylan shook his head, not willing to dismiss the issue that easily.

I glared at him. Maybe he was more used to being a witch than Ethan and I were, but I was still more powerful than he was. Thanks to the evil Nora making me her personal witch hunter, I’d drained the life and magic out of two witches, Rebecca and Ben. I didn’t ever bring it up, especially since Ben had been Dylan’s brother. Dylan said he’d forgiven me, since I’d been as much a victim to Nora as Ben had been, but still…I’d killed him. And now I had the power of two witches swirling around—or whatever magic did—inside me. Dylan called the shots as the coven leader, but we all knew I was the one with the most power.

Dylan backed off with a sigh so loud he could have been trying to blow out the campfire to the left of us.

“I didn’t even know…” Ethan’s voice trailed off.

I gently touched his cheek. “Seriously, don’t worry about it.
Ignore Dylan. He’ll get over it.” I turned to Shannon. “You okay? That thing had you pretty good.”

“It’s going to take a hell of a lot of magic to get these wretched strangle marks off my neck.” She huffed, but then her eyes fell on Ethan’s face. “But whatever, I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll help you get rid of the marks.” I let go of Ethan and extended my hands to Shannon. She took them with a look of gratitude that was rare for her. Sure, she was my family now, part of my coven, but she still thought she was the Queen Bee, even after we’d done away with the popularity spell she’d placed on the entire school.

I focused my thoughts on the reddish lines circling Shannon’s neck. The magic within me welled up, tingling my insides. I let go of one of Shannon’s hands and waved in front of her neck. The red marks slowly faded until Shannon’s neck looked like it had never been touched by that snakelike green mist. I lowered my hand and stepped back. “Better?”

She twisted her head from side to side, testing out her neck. “Good as new.”

A sizzling sound filled the air as Dylan put out the fire. “I think we’re done for the night.”

Shannon put her hands on her hips. “What about my spell? You promised you’d help me fix things at school.”

Dylan stood up and brushed his hands against his jeans. “If you hadn’t tried to mess with people’s memories, there wouldn’t be a problem to fix.”

Ethan shook his head and threw his hands out. “Enough!”

Dylan and Shannon were thrown backward. I stared at Ethan, or more accurately his hands. “You threw them.” Ethan, my sweet Ethan who wouldn’t hurt a fly, had attacked Dylan and Shannon. It didn’t make sense.

Ethan looked down at his hands. “I-I didn’t mean to.”

Something was going on. Something was wrong with Ethan’s magic.

He looked up, his eyes pleading with me. “I don’t know why I got so angry.”

“Damn it, Ethan!” Shannon stood up and twisted her body to see
the big streak of dirt across her backside. “Look at this! Look at my pants!”

Dylan stifled a laugh as he got to his feet. “Looks like you shit yourself.”

“Stop!” We had enough to worry about with Ethan’s magic going all wonky. I didn’t need Dylan and Shannon going at it, too. “Shannon, we have bigger problems right now. And, Dylan, lay off. You’ve been tormenting Shannon enough since she did that spell. Let it go. She knows she was wrong. Everyone makes mistakes.” I turned to Ethan as I said that last part. Why was he making mistakes like this? And had what happened to Shannon in the circle been his fault?

“We’ll fix your spell tomorrow, Shannon.” Dylan walked toward his car without another word. Apparently, our meeting was over.

“Whatever.” Shannon walked away too, smacking the dirt from the back of her jeans. If I hadn’t been so worried about Ethan and what was wrong with him, I would’ve laughed at Shannon smacking her own ass.

Ethan stared at the remains of our campfire. He was lost in his own little world. He hadn’t asked to become a witch. Then again, neither had I. This wasn’t even something that was handed to us. We were forced into it. Kill a witch and absorb the magic, or die. It wasn’t much of a choice. We’d both already died once. Neither of us wanted to do it again. So we’d done what we’d had to, to survive. We’d become witches. I was adjusting to it better than Ethan, though. He usually did pretty well when he was part of a group spell, but his individual spells definitely needed work. So what had gone wrong tonight?

Ethan’s back was to me. I stepped closer to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my chin on his shoulder. “Hey, where are you right now?”

“You shouldn’t get too close. I don’t want to accidentally—”

I slipped around him so we were face-to-face. “I’m not afraid of you, Ethan. I could never be afraid of you.” I cupped his cheek in my hand and gently pressed my lips to his, but he barely responded to my touch.

“Are you sure that spell didn’t hurt you? The one that strangled Shannon?”

“I’m fine. I felt something strange, like electricity running through me, but it didn’t really hurt. It felt weird more than anything else.” I paused, realizing he felt responsible for whatever it was that had happened. “Why? Do you think you’re the one who created that snake thing?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess so, since it didn’t come after me.”