Chapter 2: Ember Blood Magic

It was real. This shadowy being with thick limbs and red eyes. I shoved the back door open, but my legs gave out the second I put my weight on them. I turned on my arse, crawling backwards with my fingers digging into the earth. 

My eyes had returned to normal when I checked the driver-side mirror while falling on the ground.

The creature held Hank high and ripped his heart out. My hand covered my mouth, trapping my cry of fear. A tear rolled down my cheeks in memory of Hank. He had worked for me for years. Now he was gone. 

"I will kill you for doing that to him!" I screamed while seeing red. "He was my friend, you monster!" 

The creature stomped its large foot on the ground, and the force lifted me off it and threw me down back again. Alarmed, I started crawling away faster, forgoing my borrowed confidence.

"No! Please stop—" 

I struggled to get on my feet, but it swiped me up from the ground and into its giant palms like I was as tiny as an ant. In comparison, I was like an ant, and I was about to be crushed to death.

It was impossible to free myself from its death-grip. The creature brought me to its mouth, so close. It growled, blowing garlic-smelling breath on me like a mighty wind. 

"Eww, what do you feed on?" 

"Humans."

I blinked, not expecting an actual answer. I studied the creature crushing my bones, and instantly, I knew the reply hadn't come from it. This demon-like thing couldn't speak actual words to save its life. 

"Especially Ember blood witches!" The voice came again, a lot louder this time. 

I struggled and struggled, trying to look over my shoulder to see the source. There was someone here watching me embrace death. I wasn't screaming for help because I had thought there was nothing that could save me from this. A minute ago, there was no use trying, but now someone was right here. I saw the light. 

"Help me!" 

"Ey, aren't you quite arrogant? What's the magic word, Blue?"

Feeling my final breath leave me, I managed. "Please!" 

The next thing I knew, I was falling. Suddenly, the creature released me from its crushing grip. I could breathe again, but I was still alarmed. I was falling to my death. 

"Ahh!" 

A split-second to death and the only thing on my mind was my favourite heels. My babies. 

I screwed my eyes tight in fear.

But the second warm arms caught my fall, my screams trapped in my throat. I fell against someone's muscular body. At the instant, I knew it belonged to the voice. My saviour. I was now in his arms. 

I pulled my face away from his chest, hoping to see his eyes, but I was on the ground just as soon. He dropped me right on my arse with no remorse. 

"Ya!" 

I yelled, wincing from the pain in my butt cheeks. There was still a creature looking for ways to end my life next to us, but for some reason, I felt safe knowing I wasn't alone, even though this man was a stranger. I shoved my pointer finger at my six-feet-four saviour, glowering at his broad back like flames.

He was tall, alright. Taller than even Noah-the-hottie, but that didn't give him the right to drop me like I'm garbage. I was livid. 

"You! Do you know who I am? How dare you drop me?!"

"Shut up." He muttered, and the only reason the words stopped reeling out was shock. 

My hands shook again as they covered my mouth to muffle the sounds of my heavy breathing. I didn't know whether to cry or run, but neither my legs nor voice were working. I watched his hands. He had real-life dark talons as fingernails. I glimpsed the fur around his neck, peeking out from the nape of his jacket. He wasn't human, too. 

What the fuck is happening to my life?

The man brought out a sword still resting in its scabbard. He didn't draw it as he began fighting the creature. He was too fast, like lightning. I couldn't catch up with him. 

When the creature growled in agony, I saw him holding the sheathed sword that had gone right into the shadowy being's chest. He drew it out, and the creature turned to dust. 

I made a sound at the back of my throat, crawling backwards from my place on the floor. That was all I had done tonight. Crawl like a wimp. 

"Get away from me!"

He turned to me, revealing the face of something not human; the face of a beast. Like a flash, his features changed. He was human again. A fine one. He ruffled a hand through his dark brown hair, blatantly ignoring my demands.

"I meant it! Not another step, or I'll sue you for physical and mental damages!" 

My breaths came hard and fast. My knuckles were sore from all the crawling I had done. I wanted to curl up in my bed and sleep this nightmare through, but he wasn't disappearing. Instead, he put up a bold smirk. 

"Sue me? Go ahead, Blue. Run to your lawyers, but that's not why I'm here."

"Why are you here? Are you interested in killing me like that creature wanted? After all, you are a monster, too."

He clasped his hands in front of him, giving me a full view of the sheathed sword that had ended the creatures life. I gulped as my eyes darted to it every second.

"I just hope Khal was not wrong about you." He stepped closer, and on instinct, I shielded my face with my arm in fear of the worst. He said again, "This sword. I need you to unsheathe it." 

"Why?" I slowly lowered my arm, narrowing my eyes at him. 

"It belongs to a lineage of witches. Only one who weilds Ember Blood magic can unsheathe this sword and own it. For centuries, we've waited, and it seems you, Blue Meyer, are the last surviving Ember Blood Witch."

"The what now..." I mumbled, feeling a throbbing ache in the left side of my head. "Witches? What do you mean by witches? None of that exists. You don't exist."

"Shadow demons are obsessed with the Ember Blood running through your veins. I have reason to believe you are one of them."

I struggled to my feet, dusting my palms on my short black dress. My Jimmy Choo heels were still next to the door of the Maybach. I couldn't go back for them because he was in the way. 

"Look here, I'm not a witch! I'm Blue Meyer. The CEO of the most successful beauty Empire in America. You've got the wrong person!" I gritted my teeth and whirled around in the opposite direction, praying he wasn't coming after me. 

I looked over my shoulder and found him still rooted to a spot. That was when I started to run. I ran so hard my feet hurt, but I could also hear the sound of car engines ahead. The route I took ended on a tree-lined street. I made it out alive.

I kept checking behind me and only got more anxious when I couldn't see signs of anyone following me. A cab eventually stopped. It was the first and only one in sight. The kind, elderly man dropped me off on my street free of charge because he was already off work.

I knew he pitied me because I looked homeless because of my dirty clothes, bare feet, and sore knuckles.

At home, I took a wine bottle off the shelf, uncorked it, and drank directly from the rim. I needed sleep. I needed to end this day. 

It was just a nightmare. Hank is not dead, I told myself as I checked the CCTV in the security room and climbed up the stairs. 

"Yes, Blue. Everything is just fine. Those things didn't happen. That creature doesn't exist. The man with claws doesn't exist. I'm safe." I repeated the words before pushing my bedroom door open. 

I dropped the bottle on the dresser, raking a hand through my straight black hair and leaving it there. A laugh escaped, and I found myself laughing through tears for a beat.

I had lost my phone at the scene. I'm certain Ever must have left me a thousand messages. I would just call her in the morning. Right now, I had to shower. 

Wiping my tears, I discarded the gown and walked into the shower stark naked. My eyes were shut tight as I washed the body wash off my face under the shower head. 

I felt something tickle my ankles. At first, I brushed it off, but then my eyes popped open, and I found a waft of thick shadows seeping into the shower from the hole underneath the door. 

"What the hell?" I mumbled, screaming when hands formed from the shadows and gripped my ankles. "Ahhhh!"

My body broke through the glass shower door, landing against the tile wall across after being flung. Pain dug deep at my core. I groaned, feeling lightheaded with a blurred vision.

I was lifted from the ground immediately. Strong and certain arms took me to my bed and laid me down on it. When I opened my eyes, it was him hovering about me. 

"You." 

"Stay Still," he said, placing a throw blanket over my naked body.

In the next second, he was gone, fighting off the shadow demon in the bathroom. I struggled to sit up. The ache in my back was as persistent as a drill. What if more come? 

I reached inside the bedroom drawer and grabbed a gun with trembling hands. I would shoot the life out of any monster that tries to harm me again. 

"What are you doing?"

My heart skipped a beat, and the gun almost tumbled out of my hold. I had been too busy staring at the door. I didn't notice he had won the battle. 

"Protecting myself." 

He walked to where I was on the other side of the bed. I wanted to keep the gun away, but he grabbed my wrist, stopping me. 

"Don't. You'll need to protect yourself from me as well." 

"But you saved my life."

He looked into my eyes for a beat, not responding to my obvious truth. Then he said in a dangerously low voice, "Draw the sword, Blue."

"What if I can't draw it? I told you I'm not a witch."

"I'll erase your memory of everything that happened tonight."

"How?" I asked in a mocking tone. "Oh, you have magical powers now?" 

He tightened his hold on my wrist until it hurt. His eyes darkened like night. "No, I don't, Blue. I will end your life. That way, it will be permanent."

I looked at the sword. There was nothing to lose except my life, which I would have lost countless times today. He saved me and was now promising to kill me himself. I couldn't escape this, so I shut my eyes and drew it. 

I held the sword's handle and pulled. 

It wouldn't budge.

The sword was stuck inside the scabbard, and I had just bargained with the devil over my life.