The Monster Within (28 page)

“What are you doing?”

“I need some of Shannon’s blood. It’s the only way to make sure it’s her life Ethan is stealing.”

I didn’t want to watch. Didn’t want to know what the spell entailed. After all this time of wondering what Ethan had done, I had a front-row seat to the whole thing. It was hard to watch. I didn’t understand a word Nora was saying. She held the knife over Ethan’s body, waving her hands above him. Finally, she walked around him to where Shannon was locked in her invisible prison.

Shannon had been unconscious when Nora brought her here, but as Nora continued her spell, Shannon’s eyelids fluttered open. She looked at Nora and her eyes widened. Then she turned to me and shrieked, “You killed my boyfriend. Isn’t that enough? You have no idea what I went through to make sure the police couldn’t ID Trevor’s body. If people suspected anything supernatural… How many people are you going to kill before you realize you shouldn’t be here?”

Nora waved her hand in front of Shannon’s face, and her mouth slammed shut. She struggled to speak but couldn’t. I’d never seen her look this helpless before. She truly hated me. She wanted me dead, just like Dylan did. I couldn’t believe she’d helped cover up Trevor’s murder. If she hadn’t…

Nora took the knife and dragged it across Shannon’s cheek. I turned away, unable to watch. Shannon’s muffled screams were agonizing. They sent chills down my spine. This was awful. We were torturing her. I knew what I did to people wasn’t any better, and all of this was necessary to bring Ethan back, but it was too much to bear.

I watched as Nora carried the knife very steadily, making sure she didn’t spill a single drop of Shannon’s blood. She brought it to Ethan and held it above his head. With one hand, she parted his lips. Then she tipped the knife forward, spilling Shannon’s blood into his mouth.

My stomach lurched. I’d heard of people calling themselves vampires and drinking blood, but seeing someone drink another person’s blood—especially when it was your dead boyfriend—was terrifying. Nora finished the spell and bowed her head.

“What now?” I choked out.

“We wait. It takes a little while for the dead to wake.”

“Is this the same spell they used on me?”

Shannon let out another muffled scream.

“Can’t you stop her from making that noise?” I covered my ears. “I can’t take it.”

“That’s your conscience getting to you.” Dylan’s weakened voice came from the kitchen. I turned to see him still lying on the floor and looking pretty bad.

“That injury will take a lot of energy to heal,” Nora said.

“Energy?” I asked.

“Yes. We can heal ourselves if we harness the energy in our magic. But that’s one nasty cut on his head, judging by the amount of blood on the floor.”

I cringed, not just at the sight of the blood, but at the thought of Gloria and Jackson coming to work in a few hours to find this place wrecked.

“I’ll manage,” Dylan said.

“Good luck with that.” Nora walked over to me. “I don’t suppose you’re feeling the need to feed, are you?”

I shook my head. Ben’s life force and magic were keeping my body pretty well maintained.

“Oh well. My guess is that Ethan will need to pretty soon after he wakes. With any luck, you’ll be ready by then, too. Then we can end this. One evil witch for each of you.”

Dylan laughed. It was the laugh of a crazy person. “That’s your big plan, Nora? Feed us to your little creations?”

“Don’t call us that!” I snapped. “Besides, Nora wouldn’t have had to bring Ethan back if you guys hadn’t done this to me in the first place.” I didn’t want to think it, but Ethan would’ve been better off if I’d stayed dead.

“You keep telling yourself that, Sam. Whatever you need to do to be able to live with yourself. But why don’t you ask Nora why she shut Shannon up?”

“To keep her from screaming,” Nora said. “That’s obvious. Keep up all this annoying banter, and I’ll shut you up, too.”

Dylan laughed. “You can’t. Not with that salt barrier in the doorway. You can’t touch me, Nora. But you didn’t think about that, did you?”

“Of course I did.” She stepped within five feet of the barrier, not daring to go any closer. “But I won’t be the one touching you. Sam will. Or Ethan. Whichever. I’m flexible.”

“You sure about that?”

Now Nora laughed. “Dylan, this is pathetic. You’ve lost. Admit it. At least then you can go down with a shred of dignity. Right now you’re just acting like a whiny little bitch.”

I walked over to Ethan and touched his hand. It was still ice cold. “Nora, how do you know you did the spell right? He’s still so cold.”

“Oh, she knows,” Dylan said. “Believe me, she knows.”

Nora waved him off. She put her hand on my shoulder. “Relax. Everything went exactly right. Ethan will be with you again soon. I promise.”

“Waiting is killing me. And listening to
him,”
I motioned toward the kitchen, “isn’t helping.”

“Ignore him. He’ll say and do anything right now to make this harder on you. That’s what evil people do, Sam.”

I nodded. I had to forget about him and focus on Ethan. He’d be waking up soon, and then we’d get out of here. Go somewhere far away and forget all of this. But Nora had said we’d need to kill Dylan and Shannon first. Otherwise they’d keep looking for us. I didn’t even want to think about how I’d explain this to Ethan. He’d have to believe Nora was a witch. He obviously knew witches were real. He’d gone to the coven to bring me back.

Ethan’s fingers twitched, and I rushed to him. “Ethan!” I took his hand in mine, and tears dripped down my face. It was happening. He was waking up. He was alive. He opened his eyes and looked around for a minute before he found me.

“Sam? What happened?” He tried to sit up, but he was woozy and he fell back down. “My head.”

“I think you might have hit it. You fell on the bathroom floor.” I brushed his hair away from his forehead. “What do you remember?”

He swallowed hard. “I was in the bathroom. I was going to take a shower, try to relax after our fight.”

“I’m so sorry I left. I never should’ve run off like that.”

“You’re here now.” He gave me a weak smile. “But what happened to me? I don’t remember anything else.”

“You…” I couldn’t say it. Even though he was back now, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him he’d died.

“Come on, Sam. Man up!” Dylan said.

“Who is that?” Ethan tried to sit up again, but I held him down.

“Easy. You hit your head, remember? You might have a concussion.”

“Sam, what’s going on?”

I sighed. “Okay, we’re in the diner.”

“I can see that.”

“Right. Well, I came home tonight and you were…”

“Dead. The word is dead,” Dylan said.

God, I wanted to smack him.

“Dead?” Ethan squinted at me.

“Yes. Ethan, everything I said to you earlier, it was all true. I’m not crazy. I’m not hallucinating. I came back wrong. I hid it from you because I was afraid of how you’d react. And I didn’t want you to think I was ungrateful for getting a second chance. I know you went through a lot to bring me back.”

“Wait. Are you sure
you
didn’t hit your head?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I need you to listen carefully. Dylan is in the kitchen. He’s been following me around, right?” I paused. A thought slammed into me. Hard. Ethan didn’t know Dylan. He had no clue who Dylan was before Dylan broke into our cottage. If Ethan had gone to the coven to bring me back, Dylan hadn’t been part of it.

I rushed to the kitchen, standing just outside the salt. “Ethan doesn’t know you.”

Dylan nodded, but he grabbed his head and cringed. He was still bleeding. Nora had been right. Healing himself required a lot of energy, and he was too weak to do it right now.

“You’re finally catching on,” he said.

“Ben, Shannon, and Rebecca, it was them, wasn’t it? But you weren’t part of it. I knew there was something about you—”

“Try again, Sam,” Dylan said.

“What do you mean? Not all of you did the spell? Was it just Shannon? Is that why she hates me so much?” I turned to face her, and she shook her head. I didn’t believe her for a second. She knew what I could do to her, and she was scared.

“Ask your boyfriend,” Dylan said. “You don’t seem to want to listen to me, so go to someone you trust.”

That made sense. Ethan had the answers. He’d had them all along. I walked back over to him, still lying on the counter.

“Is that guy seriously in the kitchen? My kitchen? Where I work every day?”

“Forget about him. Ethan, you have to tell me what happened. How did you bring me back? I know you went to the coven. I’ve met all of them. I know it was witchcraft that brought me back. So there’s no reason to try to hide this anymore, to try to protect me from the truth. I can handle it.” I squeezed his hand in mine. “Please, tell me which members of the coven helped you.”

“I didn’t go to a coven, Sam. I went to one person. A witch someone from school knew.”

“Who was it?” My fingers tightened around his.

“This girl. I don’t know her name because she never told me.”

A girl. So it was Rebecca. It had to be. Ethan knew Shannon from school. He would’ve named her if that was who had helped him.

“Rebecca,” I said. “Her name is Rebecca. Or at least it was.” “What do you mean was?” He lifted his head slightly to see me better.

“I killed her, Ethan. Just like I told you. My body can’t maintain itself. I get weak, and I need to feed off the life of others. I really did kill that guy from the gas station. And Trevor. They were accidents. I didn’t mean to do it. My body takes over, and I can’t stop it. I’m a prisoner to this thing that takes over when the life is draining out of me.” I started crying. “Please, don’t hate me. It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask to be this way. I don’t want to be this way.” I buried my head in his leg, sobbing huge tears.

He slowly sat up. “Sam, I—”

“Before you say anything, there’s something you need to know.” I looked up at him, afraid to see the expression on his face. Afraid he’d never look at me the same again. “Dylan was right. You died tonight, and I had to get a witch to bring you back. Nora helped me. But now you’re going to be like me. You’ll have to kill people to stay alive. I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t let you stay dead.”

He stared past me, not saying a word.

“Ethan, please say something. Please, don’t hate me.”

“You’re Nora?”

“What?” I turned to see Nora, now standing behind me.

“Hello, Ethan. Nice to see you again.”

“Again?” I looked at Ethan. “You know her?”

“She’s the witch who brought you back.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

N
O
. That couldn’t be true. Ethan was confused. He’d just come back to life, and he was confused. When I came back everything seemed different, off. That was all this was, Ethan not being able to make sense of things.

But Nora knew him. How would she know him if she wasn’t the one who’d helped him bring me back?

Ethan sat up on the counter, and I backed up next to him, facing Nora.

“You dyed your hair,” Ethan said. “Was that so I wouldn’t recognize you?”

“Is it true?” My voice cracked. “Did you bring me back?”

“Oh, Sam. It was too easy to trick you. To make you believe Dylan and the rest of the coven were the bad guys, the ones who were trying to kill you.” She stepped closer, and Ethan slid off the counter, so he was blocking me.

“Don’t come near her,” he said, sounding more alert.

“Always trying to save her, aren’t you, Ethan? You were so desperate when I met you. All serious and heartbroken.”

I glanced at Shannon, still imprisoned in the corner. She shook her head at me, and even though she couldn’t talk, I knew what she was thinking. I was an idiot. I’d been played by Nora. For once, I agreed with Shannon.

“Why did you do it?” I asked. “Why did you lie? You could’ve told me you were the one who brought me back.”

“Told you
I
was the one who used black magic?
I
was the one the coven threw out? You wouldn’t have trusted me.”

She was right. I would’ve been afraid of her at the very least. “What else did you lie about?”

“See, that’s the beauty of it. I barely had to lie. You already know most of the story. Just substitute my name for Dylan’s—and in a few places Shannon’s—and you’ve got it.” She smiled, obviously proud of herself.

“She poisoned you against us, Sam,” Dylan said. He was on his feet now and looking a little better, but he was still trapped by the salt. “She told you we were trying to kill you, but we never were. We didn’t like that you were alive and killing people. That much was true, but we never tried to kill you. The fact that you came back like this is
her
fault.”

“How?” I stared at Nora, my supposed friend. I wanted to hear it from her.

“Dying for love—it’s romantic, don’t you think?” Nora smirked as she circled around Ethan and me.

“I didn’t die for love. I died of cancer.”

“You
did. Yes.” Nora stepped in front of Ethan. “But
he
didn’t.”

That’s right. Ethan had exchanged his life for mine.

“Did you know that by helping her bring me back, I was stealing life away from you?” I asked him.

Ethan turned away. He’d known. He’d willingly given his life for mine.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and my body shook with anger. “How could you do that to me? After everything I’ve been through. You were the only good thing in my life. The one thing I clung to while I was fighting to stay alive just one more day! I loved you! How could you bring me back, knowing it would kill you? Knowing you’d leave me here alone?” I pounded his chest with my fists. I’d never been this angry with him, but this was unforgiveable. No wonder he’d refused to tell me the truth. He knew part of me would hate him for this, for making me watch him die.

“Sam.” He choked back tears and wrapped his arms around me. “I would’ve died on the spot to bring you back. You’re everything to me. You didn’t deserve to die so young.”

I pulled away from him, feeling the bile in my stomach rising. “I’m nothing without you, Ethan. You know that.”