The temptation that Death's present represented was too much. I found an ornate wooden musical box beneath the feminine gift wrap. When I opened the lid, music unlike anything I had ever heard spilled forth. If all five elements were to be turned into instruments, combined, and asked to play a song, I felt certain this is what would have been played.
Against the inner back wall of the box was a miniature canvas. Its painting was brilliant and could easily have been created by a master. The figure in the painting was of myself, sitting beneath a willow tree, reading a book. I was partially in shade with a misty river that curled behind the tree, as leaves flew in the wind. I was in complete awe and doubted that Death would have hired someone to paint something with such an uncanny likeness. Though I struggled with the idea of him doing it himself. Script was etched into the surface of the outer walls connected by swirls and vines. I wondered what they meant.
Within the music box was a violet pendant. The top screwed off to reveal a red substance inside. Linking the chain around my neck, the charm laid perfectly in the delicate space between my collarbone and breasts.
As I sat deep in thought, my fingers traced the etchings of the box and I heard a click. I searched for the source of the noise and realized that the inside of the box lifted away to reveal a hidden compartment and a note. It read: May you have few secrets, but should you find that you have anything to hide, allow this to protect it and you. Place your freedom here and know that it will never be taken and that you will always be you, regardless of the place you call home. -D.
Ouch. After reading Death's note, I felt guilty about how I treated him. My feelings were conflicted; on one hand, I wanted to hate him for taking me from my real home, and on another... I sometimes saw a part of Death that made me wonder if there was another side to him entirely. Then again, he might just be trying to insure that his investment wouldn't change her mind. Ugh! I hated thinking of myself in those terms, but in a way, I was his prize. In exchange for Izzy and Ash's life, I had given my own. Now I was bound to him.
CHAPTER 6
Alone in the flames, I am reborn,
A creature of myth that is no more.
I cry from my ashes,
Longing, as spirits rage war.
A life restored,
I eclipse the night with a single breath.
Blazing wings that strike a chord,
I melt away and embrace death.
Departed souls sigh in shame,
I no longer have a name.
My world is gone, I have no fear,
For death is has left only a single tear.
Eternal loneliness awaits me,
With comforting arms,
That arise from the dead sea.
The armies of Hell call out in glee,
Calling for blood, creating misery.
Vengeance lurks around the bend,
Watching, waiting, for those to ascend.
Savannah's Journal
Willow left me with a half mad version of Izzy. I couldn't see more than the slightest trace of my charismatic friend. Maybe it was the hissing, but I had trouble imagining her ever being the same. Still, it didn't matter if she was my Izzy or a new one, I had her back and I would never let go.
You know your life is abnormal when you're facing down a phoenix and it seems like a natural occurrence. Ghosts, shifters, demons ... what was one more deranged creature? Izzy still fit in better than others I had known.
SAVANNAH
It had been hours since I had shaken off the despair Willow's absence had triggered. I couldn't allow myself the freedom to have a meltdown, knowing Izzy depended on me, even if she didn't realize it at the moment.
Liam, Ash, and I had taken turns trying to communicate with Izzy to put her at ease, but it didn't take long for us to realize we were making the situation worse. Death had said she would regain her memories, but I didn't know what to do in the meantime.
I forced the guys to leave me alone in the Divine with Izzy. They argued that it was asinine to take on a dangerous phoenix, but I was stubborn and eventually convinced them to leave. It had taken some intentional cruelty on my part; pointing out that Ash hadn't cared about what I did since the battle with Asmodeus, so why should he now? The anger and disgust on his face had almost made me take back my harsh words, but I needed them gone, and what I had said was the truth. If he couldn't concern himself with me before, then why should he now?
I now found myself seated on the unusually warm ground, staring down my best friend, who looked like a cross between an angel, fire demon, and goddess. Her hissing had quieted once she realized I had no intention of moving from my position, but her eyes still looked lethal.
Out of pure boredom, Kit released himself from the confines of my body to roam. I watched my feline counterpart prowl the area, attacking fireflies and tracking bizarre scents. Kit always found this place interesting because he had never come across anything like it during his life. His senses were constantly tantalized by something unique when we came here, and it was one of the few places he could run freely without worry of someone seeing.
Izzy's gaze left mine to follow the panther’s tracks. Until now, she had been solely focused on me, but Kit had attracted her attention. Her previous behavior told me that she considered me a threat, which made the change strange.
Kit approached to nuzzle against my arm. Smiling, I scratched behind his ears and watched as Izzy's eyes narrowed in suspicion or confusion. I couldn't be sure, but Kit seemed to invoke curiosity when nothing else had. Her lips parted to allow a melodic resonance that reverberated against the surrounding trees to create an echo. The sound that misted through the Divine gave the impression of millions of voices merging to create an iridescent song. Once Izzy sang her score, the trees followed and passed her song on to their brothers and sisters, who continued the effect.
There was an absence of lyrics, but the melody invoked enough emotion that I didn't need them. I felt as though I had been given the ability of an empath and Izzy was feeding my gift. She radiated a sense of longing, confusion, and a pinch of what seemed to be recognition?
A single tear slid down Izzy's cheek, as her voice quieted and came to a close. She used the tree behind her to help her stand and slowly moved her gaze from Kit to the ground at her feet. Her lips parted, releasing a cry, and another tear joined the first.
The weeping Izzy that stood before me did not physically resemble the Izzy of past, but the connection that developed during her song made me ache in the face of her pain. I remembered Death's warning that Izzy was dangerous this soon after her change, but she no longer emanated the hissing lethal creation that had emerged from the ash.
I rushed toward Izzy without allowing myself to falter, but paused before throwing my arms around my agonized friend. Izzy cringed in my presence, turning into the tree, while her cries increased in volume. Kit's head bumped against my legs, forcing my body closer to Izzy, and giving me the courage to comfort her. The circumference of her wings made it difficult to pull her back onto my arms, but I managed to squeeze my frame into the space between them. She didn't shrink from my arms as I wrapped them around her shoulders and pulled her back into a hug. I was ready for a negative reaction, but what I received was a complete collapse of will.
Izzy leaned into my hug, while her body quivered from the emotion coursing through her. In her rebirth, she had possessed a commanding strength that now drifted off her skin and was absorbed by the earth below. Izzy's new form had brought with it the infancy of absolved deeds through erased memories. Though her true vulnerability was carving a path through the Divine and transforming it into my version of Hell. It was a Hell that I felt powerless against. The inability to truly communicate with the majestic creature that was my Izzy, had become an unbearable torture I could not withstand.
Throwing caution to the wind, I pulled Izzy away from the tree and began the trek towards the threshold. I had no way of knowing if she was ready to take the leap from this
reality to the next, but I felt certain that remaining here any longer would be a grave mistake; for her and myself.
Izzy's tears had dried up as I guided her through the Divine, but her expression was flaxen. It was as though she had worn away the threads that tied her to the living and was now in a waking dream that required no response.
Kit leapt and made a midair connection that fused our souls together, bring a comfort I was grateful for. I hoped that once Izzy was in familiar surroundings, her memories would come back and she would return to her usual bubbly self. Though each moment I spent with her in a catatonic state, the harder it was to imagine her ever being my Izzy again.
My only comfort in Willow's absence had been the knowledge that I would still have Izzy. Given it was true that she would have been a transparent version of herself, but I would still have a friend. Now, I was trapped in an existence, surrounded by the memories of the people I had lost, and left with the uneasy feeling that it would only get worse.
Home was quieter than expected; the doors loomed around me, while the shadows clung to the surrounding walls. I had expected Ash and Liam to be waiting at the house, but all was still. The wooden floor was stagnant beneath my feet and I wondered at the odd feeling. This house has always seemed to have a soul of its own, as if each creak of the floorboards were a sigh of breath. The draft that permeated all that was within had been an odd source of comfort, but now seemed a warning. If the house were truly a living manifestation, I felt certain that it was alienating me, forbidding me from entering further.
Izzy, suddenly alert, halted at the base of the stairs. She was no longer frozen in the badlands of her mind and I wondered if she sensed the same malicious presence that I did. Could I be misinterpreting her body language due to my own paranoia? I wasn't willing to take the chance.
Maneuvering Izzy towards the front door, trying to escape the lurking darkness before it could descend upon us, I silently thanked the house for its warning; even if it was only imagined.
We were three steps away from the door when a low hum burned its way through the house, shredding the curtains and scalding the walls. The floor was no longer silent, but quaked and howled, as the foundation cracked. The basement beneath us cried in anguish as something tore through its belly and squeezed out its last breath.
The wall at our backs shuddered violently, causing a frame to collide with my skull and a stabbing pain spread from the top of my head to my temple. Blood trailed across my forehead and into my eyes, giving my surroundings a crimson tint. I didn't have time to dwell on my injury, because a giant fissure began to open at our feet. I tried to grasp the doorknob, but the opening expanded, making my movements precarious.
Izzy hissed at the chaos, while I unsuccessfully attempted to call on my power. I was lightheaded and dizzy, but coherent enough to know true fear. I had begun to take my magic for granted, but now it was failing me, and I was at a loss.
Black steam arose from the cracks in the floor, emanating a pungent odor, and raising the temperature several degrees. Crying, I gasped for breath and attempted to hold onto the wall to avoid slipping through the hole in front of me. Suddenly, everything stopped; the sound, steam, and shuddering disappeared.
I stood in the eye of the storm, knowing that it was a premonition of more to come, when I looked down into the hole at my feet. A giant eye peered through the hole at Izzy and me. Tendrils of the black steam expelled from both corners of the eye to tangle around my left leg. The black tentacles released spikes that hooked into my flesh. Each time I tried to pull away, the hooks dug deeper, and then the creature drew the tentacles back towards the fissure. I screamed, attempting to grab onto anything in the hopes that I wouldn't be dragged into Hell with this monster.
Izzy was in motion; she hissed at the creature and then released a sound that was pure poison. The waves of sounds became visible, burning through the tentacles around my leg in an acidic rain. The acid spewed into the eye, evicting a roar of agony. Izzy grabbed my arms and pulled me out of and away from the hole.
A beam from the ceiling fell, but Izzy protected me with her wings, screaming in pain at it knocked into her. We reached the front door just as it opened and were pulled out. I had only moments to feel the strong arms wrap around my body, as I fainted into the relative safety of the yard.
I caught bits of information when I came to, only to succumb to unconsciousness again. Faint voices broke through, but I couldn't concentrate enough to understand who was speaking and what they were saying. The single sound that was consistent and oddly comforting, was the hissing that I now associated with Izzy. Occasionally, I would feel something soft and warm brush against my arm or face, but otherwise I was merely aware of an intense cold that had swept through my body. My veins shriveled in response to the intense temperature, making me feel as if liquid nitrogen had been intravenously dripped into my veins. I succumbed entirely to the frozen sleep that awaited me.
"What the hell are we supposed to do with her? I don't know what you expect, it's either keep her locked up or sedate her." A crisp female voice whispered from close by.
I immediately thought they meant me and I sprung up as if I had never been injured. I was ready to fight my way free. There was no way I would ever willingly be locked up again! However, when my feet landed on slippery tile and I took in my surroundings, I saw that the door to the room was wide open.
Standing on the opposite side of the bed was Ash and a woman wearing a lab coat. She was short with very little curves. Had I seen her on the street, I would have thought she was a teenager, but from the medical chart in her hands, I guessed that she was a doctor. Her smile seemed hesitant, her eyes sincere, and a bit nervous. She had a pixie haircut with deep brown eyes that were worn by the dark circles beneath them.
"S," Ash's voice held concern and urgency. "Do you remember what happened?"
It took only a moment for me to remember the events that landed me in a hospital bed and less than that to become concerned over Izzy. "Izzy?"
Ash started to speak, but the woman interrupted him. "We had to lock her up. She wouldn't let anyone near you. She had already injured some of my staff." She grimaced.
"Um..." My eyes narrowed at Ash, as a wave of dizziness swept through me. Ash rushed around the bed, helped me regain my composure, and forced me to sit down.
Ash kneeled in front of me. Caressing my knee, he spoke in a gentle voice that I had almost forgotten, "They already know what we are and Izzy had to be locked away if anyone was going to be able to help you."
"I don't understand. All I needed was some stitches or healing. I don't need a hospital."
"Savannah, is it?" I nodded. "You didn't need a few stitches; you needed an entire ritual to heal you and to force the poison from your veins. It was attacking your organs. A short while longer and you would have died."
"Poison? I was poisoned?" I looked to Ash for confirmation and knew that it was true. "How did you know?"
"Liam and I felt helpless sitting around the house waiting for you to help Izzy. Neither of us knew much, but we overheard Aria tell you that she would leave a journal in your room. When we found it..." He cleared his throat, as if hesitant to continue. "We brought it to my mother, and you're lucky we did. We needed the strength of both covens to create a protective shield, strong enough to repel that thing."
I turned to see Liam standing in the doorway with a wicked smile on his face.
"I'll let the three of you talk." The doctor signaled that she was going to leave, but paused at the threshold. " If you need anything or have any questions, there is a phone next to the bed. Dial the desk and ask for Dr. Hartman."
I waited for the woman to leave before I turned back to Ash, arched my eyebrow, and waited for him to explain.
"Josephine called while we were with Diamante and said that you were in danger and we better bring backup. Liam and his mother called the entire coven to convene at our home. We got there just in time." He paused. "At first, Izzy was fine.
I think she was concentrating so much on you, that our presence barely registered. But when we got here, she became difficult."
"That's why the staff had to tranquilize her and put her in a locked cell. My mother and a few members of her coven are there now. It's taking the three of them combined to retain her." As he spoke, Liam moved further into the room and sat in a chair near the bed. "Sorry, we didn't know what else to do. You had so much poison in your system and we needed to get it out. We had to put you first."
Ash and Liam stayed for a short while, explaining that they didn't have time to read the journal and left it on the table beside my bed, in case I was up for some light reading. Maye walked in soon after they left, carrying with her a tin of homemade cookies, and a small box.
"How are you feeling?" Maye handed the items to me, groaning as she sank into a chair. "Hopefully better now that we healed you."
"Yeah, I guess. My body kind of aches, but otherwise, I just feel weird being here. What was that thing that attacked me?" My hands trembled, as I remembered the black tendrils loosening from the eye of the beast and wrapping around my calf. I rubbed my leg where the hooks had punctured the skin. Although my wounds had healed, I could feel a ghostly sting, as though they still remained in my flesh.
"I didn't see it, none of us did. We could sense its presence and see the house as it shuddered, but the only piece of the beast that we saw, were the tentacles wrapped around your legs, and the evil that oozed from your injuries."
"If we don't know what it was, how are we supposed to find out why it wanted me?" I spoke more to myself than Maye, but she directed a helpless look my way and glanced awkwardly towards the door.