Chapter Three
Cassie
Cassie stood at the white wood door, just staring at it. She hadn’t been here since her mother died.
She slowly opened the door and took in the room.
She glanced at the bed, still sitting in the center of the room. Its old white wood looked somehow more worn than it did just two years ago. The stone walls still had the photos of her and her sister hung on them. The frames still held that dark brown color.
Cassie held her breath before she closed the door and stepped back into the hallway.
I can’t do this.
Cassie wondered the hallways for a while, just thinking about why she was even still here. She could just leave, no one would miss her. Except maybe Lark, but that was a bridge she didn’t know if she could ever mend.
She didn’t notice the girl at the end of the hallway until she smacked into her.
“Sorry,” Cassie said before looking at her. The girl was young, maybe fifteen, with dark eyes and long black hair. She was shorter, but she stood tall as Cassie took her in.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m just visiting.”
“I’m Sanora,” she said. Sanora leaned against the wall behind her and stared at Cassie. “You don’t look anything like your sister.”
Cassie snapped her gaze up. “How do you know about my sister?”
She shrugged. “You hear things around here.”
“I’m not staying.” Cassie folded her arms across her chest.
“Why?” Sanora watched her as she spoke.
“I don’t have to tell you my life story.”
“No, but you have one or you wouldn’t be here. Where all the weird people are.”
“Are you a witch?” Cassie was interested now.
“No. Are you?”
Cassie thought about how to answer. A lot of the people here were witches, but there was a stray human or other creature. Mostly, Werewolves.
“I’m a witch.” Cassie glanced past her and almost groaned at the sight of a light-haired guy she’d known from years ago. He hadn’t seen her yet, so she still had a chance to escape if she could just get past Sanora.
“Well, I gotta go.” Cassie hurried backwards down the hall she’d came down, hoping she could make the turn before he saw her.
“Cassie?” The voice made her cringe. This was the last thing she was expecting when she agreed to stay here after all this time.
She took a breath and spun around. “Brandon, how have you been?”
The blonde smiled and settled his gorgeous green eyes on her. She forced a smile. The last time she’d seen him, he was running from a water demon.
“I’m doing well. Are you back?”
“No, I’m not back,” Cassie snapped. She took in the boy she’d known and trained with. He had for sure muscled out in the last two years and, if it was possible, his eyes had gotten greener. His light hair was still a bit messy, but it made him look even better.
“I was hoping you would be back for good. This place isn’t the same without you.”
“How so?” Cassie was interested now. She liked knowing what was going on at the Order, even if she didn’t want to be a part of it.
“Cody has been acting really strange. He’s recruiting at a rate I’ve never seen, but the difference is he’s looking for witches specifically.”
“It makes sense. Witches have more to offer when hunting demons.” She shrugged.
“Maybe, but it’s also thinning out the Witch community. You know how it is. Not many families left to work with.”
“Maybe.” Cassie knew what he’d meant. When the Order started, there were mostly humans that fought. Slowly Witches have seemed to fill up the recruits more and more, especially since Cody had started running it.
“I gotta go,” Cassie said without stopping to give Brandon a chance to sway her. She wasn’t interested in reliving her past, even if it was interested in her.
Cassie wondered around until the place was for the most part empty. There were a few stray people walking the halls that would stare at her and whisper, but she ignored them. A part of her wondered how many people thought she was back.
She stopped at the big training area. It was empty, so she figured she would get a little privacy there to take a look at her haul.
Cassie still had the book that had called to her in her bag. She felt it every time she thought about magick or what it would be like to read it. She still had no idea what it was. She slid it out of her bag and said the enchantment that would allow it to be seen again. The old tattered book shimmered to reality in her hands.
Cassie ran her hand over it and the light hum of magick made her hand vibrate. She slid her fingers over the cover and pulled it open.
The words were in a language she didn’t recognize, but it whispered in her head. She started seeing pictures of war and people dying all around her. She was standing in a field. Gun fire was in the background. She couldn’t tell from where, but it was there. The smell of burning flesh filled her nose. She put her hand up to her face to try to filter it out, but couldn’t. She gagged and coughed until her body was used to the rotting smell.
Cassie took a step and had to step over a body dead on the ground. She couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman, as the entire face was ripped clean from the body. When she looked up, she saw a large wolf looking at her. She stood still, unsure of where she was or why it was watching her. She didn’t even understand why it was here in the first place. This was not a place for wolves.
It showed its teeth and glared. She didn’t take her eyes off of it.
“It’s okay. I’m not sure where I am.” Cassie held her hands up to show she wasn’t a threat.
It didn’t move, but she felt cold all of the sudden and felt her body fall to the ground.
Her eyes fluttered open, and the pounding in her head caught her attention.
What the hell was that?
Her eyes slid to Cody standing in the doorway. His eyes went from her to the book in her hands, and he shook his head.
“I knew you still had it,” he said before walking towards her.
She dropped it onto the floor and shook her head. “I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Interesting, it connected to you. Not everyone gets to read it.” Cody scooped it up and put it on the seat beside them.
“I didn’t read it.” Cassie rubbed her throbbing head.
“No?”
“No, it was more like I was someplace else.” Cassie stared at it and shook her
Head. “It was weird. I was standing in this field with dead bodies and a wolf staring dead at me.”
“How is that possible?” Cody looked as confused as Cassie felt. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“There are things that no one knows. Not Lark, not anyone at the Order. No one.” Cody finally met her gaze.
“Okay?” She wrinkled her forehead in confusion.
“That book is safer here and you with it. Now that you’ve opened it, you’re connected.”
“So, I just won’t look at it again,” Cassie joked.
“It doesn’t work that way. You really should have left it alone.”
Cassie had no clue what Cody was talking about, but the look on his face said he was worried and he was never worried.
“I’ll have them clean out your mother’s room. Lark should have never suggested you stay there when it hasn’t been touched in years.”
“It’s okay. I would like to clean it. There might be something still there for my mothers.” Cassie felt the dread of going back there all through her body, but she couldn’t hide from it.
“Lark hasn’t been in there. Maybe you could do it together. Maybe it would be a little easier.”
“Have you met my sister?” Cassie gave him a look. “Nothing is ever easy
with her.”
Cody stood. “Get some rest. We don’t know how this book is going to affect you long term,” he said with a tone of caring. His light brown hair fell into his face and made him look more human than he had in a long time.
Cassie sighed. She knew he was right, and that meant she was back for more than she wanted to be.
Great.
She walked back down the hallway towards her mother’s old room. No, she didn’t want to stay there, and she wasn’t going to. Cassie headed past it and towards her sister’s room. Her room was just down the hall and if she knew her, which she did, she would stay in that room as long as she could. Cassie would just sleep on her floor and listen to her lecture about the book later. She could at least hope Cody hadn’t told her what she’d been doing with it. Not yet.
Cassie stopped at the door marked 32 and knocked. She listened for footsteps, but didn’t hear them right away. Great, she’d woke her up. The door knob turned and a usually well put together Lark was a mess with her hair pulled into a bun on her head. Pieces of her light brown hair were sticking out in all directions, and she barely had her eyes open.
“What are you doing here?”
“I can’t stay in mom’s room,” Cassie said without missing a beat. “Can I just sleep on your floor?”
Lark opened her eyes more and sighed. She didn’t say anything but moved to the side so Cassie could walk in. “You can stay on the couch. “
Cassie edged her way into the room and sat on the couch. She wanted to tell her sister everything, to be close again, but their sisterly bond had been broken when their mom died.
“Thanks.” Cassie rubbed her eyes and hoped this time, when she laid down, sleep would come. The last place she wanted to be was back with that wolf. There was something weird about the whole thing. Cassie laid down and the lights in the room went off.
“We’re going to have to talk about what’s next in the morning.” Lark laid in her bed and pulled the covers over her. She sat up just long enough for Cassie to see her watching her.
“I know,” Cassie said. She turned over and stared at the ceiling for only a few.
moments before sleep took her.
Cassie heard loud talking and opened her eyes. She was still laying on Lark’s couch but the door was open and Lark was fighting with someone. Cassie strained to listen.
“I’m not going back to that room. There are too many memories tied to it.”
“Look, I’m just the messenger. Cody wants it cleared so Cassie has a place to stay,” a male voice said.
“I just… I can’t.”
“Then you’ll have to take it up with him.” A pause. “What about Cassie?”
“What about her? You know how she is. One minute she wants to be here,
next she wants to use magick for herself.”
“You should give her a break. You weren’t the only one that lost a mother that day,” the male voice said as she heard footsteps and the door closing. Cassie closed her eyes and waited a few seconds before fake waking up.
She slowly sat up and stretched. Lark turned to her and threw some clothes in her face.
“You should change. If you’re going to be here, you have to do your job.” Her tone was filled with snark and something else Cassie couldn’t quite pinpoint. Annoyance? Jealousy?
Cassie looked at the clothes and rolled her eyes. “I can just go to my place and get some things.”
“You’ll have to get approval from Cody for that.” Lark pulled her long, curly hair into a ponytail and turned away. “I have to go for a briefing with Cody and then figure out what to do about this vampire thing.”
Oh crap, now she would know everything and hate me even more.
“You should ask Brandon to go with you after you get it cleared with Cody. He’s one of our best now.” Lark stopped and looked at Cassie. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Yeah, me too.” Cassie dropped her gaze. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about getting into trouble.”
Lark shrugged. “I know.” She turned to leave and stopped at the doorway.
“Are you planning on staying here?”
“I don’t want to, but Cody wants me here.” Cassie left out the part about the
book and how she could now read the future with it, or something like that. “Well, Cody knows a lot more than we do, so I’d listen to him,” Lark said before walking through the open door. Cassie watched for a moment before grabbing her bag and heading out the door. There was no way she was going to ask permission to go to her place.
Cassie walked through the streets without much effort. It was day time so the potential of vampires wasn’t an issue. Of course, that didn’t mean she was out of the woods. There were other demons that weren’t so limited by the dark.
She turned the corner to her small apartment. It was on the third floor and the only way to get to it were the stairs that felt like they pointed straight up. Cassie didn’t mind it, though. The rent was cheap, and she tried not to stay here much between her heist jobs and her social life. Both had been pretty dead lately.
She climbed to the top of the stairs and stopped at her door. It was weirdly quiet. There was no music from the guy downstairs and he was always playing something so loudly it shook the floor. Cassie hesitated with her keys in her hands before she finally slid it into the lock and turned it. The door opened inward, and she glanced at the living room before she stepped inside.
Everything seemed in order. Her clothing was thrown all over the floor and her bed was situated on the far left side under two skylights that filled half the room. Her couch stood in the center of the room across from a television she’d gotten as a trade from one of her first jobs.
Cassie walked to the pile of clothes and picked up a few things. She smelled them and made a face. She shrugged and shoved them into her bag. She stopped at a photo she had stuck in her mirror. Her mother’s face smiled back at her and she bit her lip. She looked so young. Her light hair was blowing away from her face as she held Cassie in her arms. She was maybe a year old in the photo and Lark was standing behind them with her arms crossed. Cassie couldn’t help but smile.
She snatched the picture off the mirror and slid it into her bag. Cassie has no idea if she was going to be coming back here anytime soon. She almost missed the water dripping in her doorway. It was the smell that got her attention. The sulfur curled around her and filled her nose. Cassie gagged at the initial whiff, but she pulled herself together. She turned around and watched as the water pooled in her doorway, a gray smoke rising from it.
She watched the water puddle build on itself until it formed a weird-looking man with dark green hair and reptile eyes. He was wearing a pair of cargo pants and a dark brown shirt.
“You really were that stupid,” he hissed.
Cassie pulled the bag over her shoulder and shrugged. “I don’t have it.”
“You mean the book?” He shook his head. “Don’t need that now.”
“Then why are you here?” Cassie kept her eyes on him as he eyed the doorway. Demons couldn’t enter a human home without an invitation. That little piece of lore worked for all demons.
“Sweetheart, you are the key to the future now.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Cassie said. She held her ground, but was a little uneasy. If he was there, how many more were out there?
“You do, or you’re really that stupid.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m stupid. Is that the best insult you have?”
He leaned in the doorway and looked at his hands. “You connected with the book. Now it works through you.”
“That weird book you all seem to want? Yeah, it’s not a great trip.”
“Cody didn’t tell you what happened to you, did he?”
Cassie cocked her head slightly. Now she was interested.
The Demon smiled. “That’s the problem with the Order. They only tell you what they want you to hear.”
“So, then tell me,” Cassie said.
“When you connected with the book, you became a part of it. You became something bigger than a witch.”
He still wasn’t telling her anything. She threw her hands up and let them hit her sides.
“No one wants to tell me anything. Why?” She shook her head. “Look, this conversation has been fun and all, but I’ve got places to be.” She raised her hand, and the Demon watched with a smile on his face.
“Relax, I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Then why?”
“I’m for free information and all that.” He shrugged before turning away from her. “Don’t trust anyone, Cassie. It will get you killed.”
“Because I’m going to take advice from you.” Cassie watched as he turned to water and disappeared. This day was getting better and better.
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