The Halloween Collection

by

Copyright © 2011 by The Indie Eclective

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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The nine authors in this collection retain and hold
their individual respective rights to their stories.

Cover Art by
Tamra
Westberry

Table of
Contents

Mind- Blower
by Talia Jager

The Village of Those Who Touch the Dead
by M.
Edward McNally

Haunting in OR 13
by Alan Nayes

Haunted House
by Julia Crane

To
Taste of Shimmering Revenge
by Jack Wallen

Ralphie, the ‘Special’ Werewolf
by P.J.
Jones

Sunwalker’s Kiss
by Shéa MacLeod

Magickal Vendetta
by Heather Marie
Adkins

The
Rhyn Trilogy: Origins
by Lizzy Ford

After driving up a steep incline, Daxton
parked, and we got out of the car. He took my hand and led me into
the forest. “Where are we going?” I asked for the millionth time.
Patience wasn’t my strong suit.

“I told you Kassia, it’s a surprise.” He
grinned at me, showing off the dimple on the right side of his
mouth.

“Good thing you’re cute.”

He laughed and we continued walking beneath
the dark canopy of trees overhead. Small animals scurried around.
Coming to a flat area, he stopped walking and said, “Close your
eyes.”

“You’re kidding, right? We’re in the middle
of nowhere and you want me to close my eyes. What if I trip and
fall over a branch?”

He stood in front of me, his brown eyes
shifting to a softer shade of gold. “Do you think I’d let you
fall?”

I knew he wouldn’t. I trusted him
completely. Sighing, I said, “Okay, fine.” Slowly, I closed my
eyes.

His warm hand slid into mine and he very
carefully led me further. A few steps later, he stopped. “You can
open them now.”

I sucked in a deep breath. We were high in
the sky, on top of a mountain. A cliff was before me and all around
the leaves were turning brilliant colors of red, orange, and
yellow. “It’s like one of our dream spots,” I said softly.

Daxton nodded making his sun-kissed hair
fall in his eyes. I reached up and brushed a lock back to the side.
The corners of his mouth pulled up into my favorite lopsided
grin.

“I stumbled upon it and knew you’d love it
here.”

Peeking over the edge, I said, “It’s a long
way down.”

He laughed. “We’re not going down. We’re
staying right here. I have more surprises in store for you.”

He spun me around. A blanket was spread out
on the ground beneath a cooler, some lights, and a couple more
blankets. I smiled. He sure did know how to win a girl over. “What
did I do to deserve all this?”

He put his arms around my waist and pulled
me close to him. “You fell in love with me.”

Blushing, I responded, “Wasn’t hard to
do.”

Slowly, he leaned toward me and whispered in
my ear, “I love you.” His voice sent a tingle through my body,
setting it on fire.

I moaned quietly and closed my eyes. His
lips were upon mine in a second and we moved together in harmony. I
didn’t ever want to let him go. Knowing I’d have to, I gently
pulled away. Our eyes met and I swear I saw into his soul. I could
see how much he loved me.

“You want me to take you anywhere?” he asked
breathless.

“No. I don’t need a dream tonight. This is
perfect.”

Daxton was a dreamer. His gift was that he
was able to take himself and anybody he was touching to another
world or place. We didn’t physically go there. Our minds did. It
was a wonderful, beautiful gift that we loved to use. One much
different than my gift of pain and death. I was a mind-blower,
which meant I could cause pain to anyone in my sight. If pushed far
enough I could even cause death. But tonight, I didn’t want to
think about our gifts. Tonight, I wanted only to be with
Daxton.

As if sensing my thoughts, he pulled me
toward the blanket. “Let’s eat then. We don’t have much daylight
left.”

He brought me over to the blanket and we sat
down. He pulled out sandwiches and fruit, the ultimate picnic meal.
“So, how did you happen to stumble upon this?”

He chewed his food and then answered, “Zane
needed to talk. So, we went for a walk. Somehow, we ended up pretty
far from home and found this place. It reminded me of the cliff in
our dreamland. I knew I had to bring you.”

“What did Zane need to talk about?”

Daxton hesitated. “I shouldn’t.”

I gave him my ‘you-better-tell-me’ look.
“You know you will.”

He sighed. “He’s just…worried. About Mira.
He thinks she’s holding a lot in and he wanted to know what I
thought he should do.”

“Oh.” I looked away. My best friend was
Zane’s girlfriend. She had been attacked not long ago. Dealing with
the ordeal was hard for her. She was so used to being strong and
independent. Truth was, I was worried about her too. But, looking
out into the horizon, I decided that tonight I needed to let that
go and be with Daxton.

I changed the subject. “Did you hear about
the ceremony coming up?”

“Yes. I hear they are honoring you.”

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. “They are
honoring all of us.” I knew that because I’d insisted. I told them
I wouldn’t accept any award unless we all got one. They were giving
me an award for saving the school and ultimately the world from
demons in last month’s battle. That had been one situation where
being a mind-blower had come in pretty handy.

It was nearing sunset. The sky was exploding
into different shades of pink and orange. “Wow,” I said under my
breath.

“Beautiful huh?”

“Mhmm.”

He held my hand as the sun went down below
the horizon. I rested my head in his lap and he stroked my
hair.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“How lucky I am.”

He scoffed. “Lucky?”

“To have you. You could have had any girl
you wanted and you chose me, even after the way I acted towards you
the first day.”

“I believe in fate.”

“Really?”

“We were meant to be together. I knew it the
second I laid eyes on you.”

“You did?” I remembered back to that day. I
remembered holding his eye for quite a long time. I made him look
away first. There was something about him. Maybe he was right.
Maybe it was fate that brought us together and love that keeps us
that way.

Some awful smell tickled my nose, and I hid
my face in my shirt. “What is that?”

Daxton’s nose was crinkled up too. “Smells
like…” He took a deep breath.

We both recognized it at the same time. The
disgusting smell of sulfur. And outside of the science lab, the
only place I had ever smelled it was when demons were near. “Do you
think…?”

“Here?”

“What else could it be?”

A branch snapped in the distance, and I sat
up. Something was coming. We were on our feet. I couldn’t see
anything now that the sun was down. I grabbed his hand and pulled
him.

“What are you doing?” he exclaimed.

“Running!”

Leaves and twigs crunched under our feet as
we ran through the thick forest. Branches reached out like arms and
yanked off strands of my auburn hair. Tears sprung to my eyes, but
I knew I had to keep quiet if we were to escape.

“What are we running from?” he asked out of
breath.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know.”

“Can’t you just kill it—whatever it is?”

“Not if I can’t see it!” I yelled panicky. I
heard more noises, but I couldn’t see anything. I felt blind and
helpless. “C’mon! We’ve gotta get out of here.”

He ran next to me for a few more minutes. My
heart was racing and my legs felt like they were going to explode.
Daxton was breathing heavily beside me. Something grunted behind
us, accompanied by the sound of pounding feet. It was fast,
whatever it was. The tall trees were blocking the moonlight, and I
couldn’t see a thing. I tripped a couple times.

“Damn.” I stood up and brushed something wet
and sticky off my hands. Must be blood, but it was hard to tell in
the dark. Pushing the pain out of my mind, I looked around trying
to find an escape. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Kill them.”

“How? I can’t see them. I can’t focus. I’m
powerless.”

“What if you try? I’ll help you.”

“How are you going to do that? It took a
warlock and a shaman to train me.”

The sulfur smell made my stomach churn. The
hair on my arms stood straight up. The demons were near. They were
being quiet now. That scared me more than when I could hear them
chasing us. Clenching my hands into fists, I spun around trying to
find them.

Daxton grabbed me and pulled me close. “Let
me help you.”

I let out a deep, shaky breath. “Okay.”

He turned me around and stood in back of me,
his fingers interlocked with mine and our arms crossed in front of
my chest like I was giving myself a hug. “Close your eyes.” I
didn’t like closing them when there was danger around, but I did.
“Now open your mind.”

“Open it to what?”

“Just…open your mind.”

I sighed and thought about the demons, their
horrible smell and their scary eyes. I thought about how much I
hated them and how I wanted to kill them all. “This isn’t working,”
I muttered.

“Because you’re not letting it,” he said,
his voice laced with frustration.

“I’ll try again.” This time I kept my eyes
open, and I pictured the demons. I opened my mind and remembered
how freaky they were. I thought about the purple swirls that came
from my mind when I was focusing, and I tried to draw them out.
Okay, swirls, find
the demons.
Wonderful. Now I was talking to the colors in my
head.

The swirls responded. They seemed to erupt
from my mind and quickly streamed out into the forest. When the
swirls touched a demon, the whole demon lit up a purple color.
“Oh!” I gasped.

“You’re seeing something?”

“You’re not?”

“No.”

“I can see them now.”

The cat-hound hissed at me with its pointy
ears sticking straight up. Its nose crinkled and red eyes glowed
through the purple making me shudder.

“What do you see?” Daxton asked.

“Cat-hounds. Lots of them.”

“You know what to do.”

I did. I focused on them, clenching and
unclenching my hands over and over again. I let my power take over,
starting from the innermost part of me until I couldn’t hold it in
anymore. It poured out of my mind, commanding the demons to die.
They screeched and flopped to the ground. Then they melted into the
earth. I stood absolutely still for a minute, listening for more.
The woods were quiet, and I didn’t hear anything else.

“Do you know where we are?” I asked.

“Um…no.”

Great. I had led us too far, and we were
lost. Daxton took out his phone and tried to get a signal. He shook
his head. I tried mine with the same result. “What are we going to
do?”