The Dark Bloom (The Faery Meadow Book 2) Read online

  "Are you serious? I'm not going anywhere, I just found my parents. Like you care." I scoff.

  "No, you don't understand. Silvia. She's coming for you. She'll be here anytime-" Lorcan begins, but Colt cuts him off.

  "And I wonder who lead her here to us?" Colt grunts.

  "She's been tracking me. I knew she knew I would lead you to her. I can get you away from here though. I couldn't leave you alone knowing she would track you down eventually." Lorcan explains.

  "What do you mean track me down? What does she even want with me? How does she even know who I am?! What were you doing with her all that time anyway?" I say raising my voice.

  "I was getting information." Lorcan says carefully.

  "What aren't you telling me, Lorcan? I think I deserve to know why you basically ditched me for like a week." I retort.

  "Alright, human, I'll tell you how it is. Silvia, although she is a mer, is in a witch coven. There's been a rumor going around that the witches are going to overthrow the fae to take over their kingdom. Everyone knows the fae have the best powers though. The witches are not organized and have been in hiding for hundreds of years. Silvia is interested in your...power." Lorcan rants.

  "What power? I have no powers. What did you tell her?" I ask quickly.

  "Look we can talk later, she's been trailing me the whole way here. Wouldn't surprise me if she has some of her coven friends with her. She can't be less than a mile from here by now. So I suggest we get moving." Lorcan replies.

  "F-fine. Just let me say goodbye to my parents." I mumble, while turning around.

  "No! We don't have time for that." Lorcan says while yanking my arm back.

  "I hate to agree with fairyboy, but if this so called witch is after you, we should leave as soon as possible." Colt says.

  "What do you mean "we". There's no way you're coming with us. You're a demon." Lorcan says with rage.

  "Lorcan, who do you think was the person who helped me when you were gone? All he's done is help me. Colt is coming with us." I reply in a gentle voice.

  I glance back at Colt to see him smirking at Lorcan.

  "I'm going to be blunt. I don't trust him and you shouldn't either. Demons are sly, sneaky creatures." Lorcan says warily, while glaring at Colt.

  "Oh you're one to talk." I laugh.

  "Well, if you insist he travel with us I suppose I will have to accept it for now. Follow me." Lorcan says.

  I can't believe I'm going to be stuck in this dress walking off to who knows where.

  "Well where are we going to go?" I ask tiredly as I stare back at the glowing lights from the party tent.

  I can still faintly hear the hearty laughter and music back at the party.

  "The demon may be of some use to us." Lorcan says with a grim look.

  "His name is Colt." I huff. I turn around facing Colt.

  "He wants me to take us to hell." Colt says with a dark laugh.The soft glow from the moon makes his pale eyes look misty.

  "Should be easy enough for you. Think you can get us there fast enough?" Lorcan says impatiently.

  "Of course Colt can. Hell isn't that bad actually, when we went last time it everything was blurry and no one was really around." I draw out slowly.

  "Well this time we aren't going where we were before. We are going to my home. It's very different from the seer's place." Colt says.

  I'm a little surprised Colt is willing to take us there that easily. I'm nervous to go back there, I suppose it will be hard for the witches to find us there though.

  Suddenly, shadows blanket over the grassy ground creating a sea of darkness. Colt already starts walking over the shadows, this must be the portal.

  "And the witches won't be able to get to us there right?" I say while timidly stepping onto the shadows.

  "Well, we won't be there that long. Think of it as a temporary hide out." Lorcan says.

  I'm curious to see what Colt's home looks like. Will we see his family there, but it's hell and if he is a demon...does he even have a family?

  Abruptly, Colt disappears, he must already be there. That leaves Lorcan and I.

  "I've never been to hell, I just want to warn you." Lorcan says offhandedly.

  "Warn me about what?" I reply with a nervous waver.

  "My stythe might be triggered when we enter hell." He replies with a serious tone.

  You have got to be kidding. It seems every time he goes into stythe he believes everything he does is out of his control. In fact, he blamed mating me on stythe. Calling the entire thing a mistake.

  "Something tells me that demon doesn't like waiting. Let's hurry up." Lorcan says. Lorcan waits for me to start walking. The wounds on his legs are dried up, it will probably scab over, the wounds aren't that deep. Lorcan looked pretty mad when Colt released him from the shadows. I can only hope the anger between the two of them will die down. Something tells me it won't anytime soon.

  I quickly walk over the pool of shadows, following the path I saw Colt go.

  Feeling Lorcan yank my ponytail, I stumble a little backwards.

  "Aren't the shadows burning you?" I ask him.

  "Oddly, when I'm touching you the pain isn't so unbearable." He says with a sinister smile.

  I internally roll my eyes, I'm about to enter hell wearing a dress my mother gave me. I didn't even get to tell them goodbye. A daunting feeling consumes me, making my stomach churn.

  My wings disappear on their own. Lorcan looks at me in concern, he grabs my hand firmly.

  A static-like feeling clouds the air and a hazy feeling forms in my mind. Lorcan looks just as distraught. I glance over at him to see something flicker in his eyes.

  Suddenly, the wind knocks out of me and I'm on my knees facing the rocky ground. The bottom of my dress is now covered in dirt and torn up at the bottom, as if it was burned by fire.

  I look up at my surroundings.

  The air feels unconformable, it reminds me of the feeling when your ears are about to pop when you travel up a mountain. The ground around me is covered in burned grass and rocks. There are no plants, just the skeletons of dead trees. It must be night time. Then again maybe it's always this dark in hell. There is just enough light to see about five yards in front of me.

  "Welcome to hell." Colt says from behind me, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.

  "Thanks." I say while brushing off my dress.

  "Where did fairyboy run off to?" Colt says curiously.

  It's so dark I don't see there being anyway we can find him until it gets lighter out. Maybe he just landed a little further away from where we are.

  "Lorcan?" I call into the darkness surrounding us.

  Suddenly, I see red glowing eyes hiding in the shadows in front of us.

  "Um I think that's him." I tell Colt uneasily, I start to walk over toward the red glowing eyes. However, Colt puts his arm out in front of me blocking my path.

  "There are many things with red eyes out here. Believe me, that is not Lorcan." Colt replies.

  I guess that only makes sense since we are in hell.

  A low growl resounds from the mysterious creature with red eyes.

  Colt sends a shadow in the direction of the creature with red eyes. When the shadow leaves my line of site, we're both quiet. Then the creature makes a terrible shrieking noise, as if it's in pain. A sharp snapping noise follows, then the shadow creeps back into the light towards Colt.

  "W-well...I guess we won't have to worry about being attacked." I say trying to keep calm.

  "I'm glad that wasn't me." A heavy voice breathes in my ear. Lorcan.

  Colt glances at Lorcan in annoyance.

  "Well now that you're back, we can get a move on." Colt grumbles.

  Chapter 4-Trail of Blood

  "So how far are we from wherever it is we're going?" I ask while stepping around a hole in the ground.

  "There are several towns in Hell. We're just going to stay at the first one we pass and you both should glamour yourselves. Demons don't ta
ke kindly to outsiders here." Colt grumbles.

  "Glamour? Lorcan how do we glamour ourselves?" I ask over my shoulder.

  Lorcan scoffs behind me and matches my pace.

  "What do your kind look like? I assume this isn't your true form." Lorcan says bluntly to Colt.

  Suddenly, Colt stops in his tracks, shadows come up off the ground enclosing around him. Their dark inkiness makes him completely invisible as the shadows continue to swirl around his figure.

  "Ah. Now that may be tricky to glamour." Lorcan says in a dry voice.

  "Most demons don't look like me." Colt laughs darkly.

  "So what should we look like?" I ask curiously.

  "Make your skin paler and turn your hair white. Make sure your wings are black. Then you should be fine." Colt informs.

  "Easy enough." Lorcan huffs.

  "Elaine, imagine yourself as he just told us to be." Lorcan says, suddenly he blows glitter onto my face. Some of it gets in my eyes and I blink several times. When I rub the rest off my face I look down at myself. To my amazement, my clothes have changed into black pants and a black shirt. My hair has turned white and my skin seems paler.

  "Excellent, now me." Lorcan says. I feel funny blowing my glitter onto his face in front of Colt for some odd reason. If it has to be done so he can glimmer himself, I suppose I must do it anyway. Quickly, I blow my glitter onto his face, soon enough, his hair turns white and his skin pales.

  "Who knew fairies throw up on each other." Colt says while continuing to walk ahead of us.

  Why does Colt not like fairies all of the sudden? Ever since Lorcan came back he's been making annoyed remarks about fairies. It almost makes me feel self conscience.

  After about an hour of walking around dead trees and pits in the ground in the dark, we finally arrive at a town.

  "No talking from either of you until I say so." Colt grunts while passing under the rusting archway.

  Soon enough, we spot demons similar looking to us. I follow behind Colt, watching as we pass a group of demons. Some of them openly gape as they watch Colt walk with us. So much for blending in.

  From out of nowhere, a demon girl who looks around my age, walks up next to Lorcan. Lorcan pretends to ignore her presence by looking forward with a blank face.

  However, the girl locks arms with him and tries to pull him away.

  Colt stops and turns around. I can't even tell if Colt is facing us, but more than likely he probably is.

  "May I take him?" The demon girl asks me with a mischievous look in her eyes.

  Without another word, the girl takes a dagger out of her pant leg and teasingly dangles it in front of Lorcan.

  Colt rushes past me and over to Lorcan or more accurately, the demon girl next to him.

  The demon girl backs away from Lorcan with confusion written all over her face. Just like that, her demeanor totally changes. She hisses at Colt as if to ward him away. Demons aren't very timid, I'll give them that.

  Then Colt does something I've never seen him do before in his shadow form. The shadows part from him and a demonic laughs resounds from him. I've never heard him laugh like that, it sounds like he's a completely different person.

  I watch bewildered, as Colt reveals himself. Instead of his normal look, he is covered in some kind of black sticky goo it looks like. His eyes are still just as pale as they usually are. However, his wings are out.

  I scan the crowd of intrigued faces watching us now. How are we going to get out of this?

  "I-I-I didn't know you were such of high rank." The demon girl gulps while backing away from Colt.

  "And I don't care." Colt chides. Suddenly, he vanishes, only to reappear in front of the demon girl.

  The demon girl begins to cry, pleading for her life. Colt's probably just trying to intimidate her and the rest of the demons.

  Abruptly, Colt grabs her head with one hand and an evil smile grows on his face. His eyes become distant as he grabs the demon girl's head with one hand. He squeezes her head like a lemon, then the girl's head bursts. An awful amount of dark blood squirts over Colt and along the floor. My heart is caught in my throat, as I watch the demon girl's body being eaten by the other demons. Colt turns to look back at me, then he faces the other demons again.

  "Enough!" Colt barks at the starved looking demons. The demons scurry back into the crowd. They all stand quietly. Then looking bored, they continue walking through the town minding their own business. The remains of the demon girl still clutter the ground.

  Colt's form slowly fades back into his normal looking self.

  "Good going. Now, I assume you have a place in mind for us to stay?" Lorcan asks loudly.

  "What did I say about talking?" Colt says sharply.

  The rest of our walk to the "hotel" is quiet.

  When we arrive at the black brick building a demon outside welcomes us in.

  The carpet is blood red and behind the black marble expensive looking counter sits an older woman demon.

  Her hair is in a high ponytail and her skin seems to be...peeling. She sits reading what looks to be a newspaper.

  "Top floor for you lot." She says without even glancing at us. A strong demon must have life easier here than the other demons, having Colt with us we don't even have to pay.

  "Let's go." Colt grunts. I quickly follow after him towards the elevator. I guess demons are just as technologically advanced as humans are.

  "Lorcan come on." I say annoyed. He's staring into a counter filled with odd looking food. It's probably some kind of demon snack stand. Lorcan snaps out of his gaze, then takes his time entering the elevator with us.

  We reach the top floor and enter our hotel room. The hotel room seems similar to hotels in the human world. There's only two beds, but then I spot the couch. I sigh with relief when I find the couch is a pull out bed.

  The room is fairly simple with black walls, red bedding. Some weird kinds of skulls hang along the walls, but other than that, the room seems normal.

  I settle down on the couch, Lorcan sits next me.

  Colt locks the door and sits on one of the beds. He gives Lorcan a cold stare before speaking up.

  "We'll probably be staying here. No wandering in the halls without me, either of you. We might as well sleep now while he can. It's only a matter of time before the witches get their hands on a portal." Colt says while running his hand through his hair.

  Lorcan nods his head, but I doubt he was even listening.

  "Okay. I'll take the couch." I say while standing up. Lorcan walks over to the other unoccupied bed and watches me with a curious look. Suddenly, his glamour disappears and his now red eyes meet mine.

  "Stay in your demon form, fairyboy." Colt says in a low voice.

  Just like that, Lorcan shifts back into a demon appearance. Wait, he didn't need any glitter to do that. Was he just messing with me when he blew glitter on my face? I didn't need him to blow glitter on me to use glamour after all.

  He probably just did that to irritate Colt.

  I lay back on the bumpy old mattress. My head rests against the back of one of the couch's pillows. Soon enough, I hear the loud snores of Colt and Lorcan.

  My body easily falls asleep the moment I shut my eyes.

  _________________________________________

  I wake up with a start, still hearing the obnoxious snoring I rest my head against the back of the couch. It must be late at night because out the window I spot a red moon. Who knew, Hell has a red moon.

  Feeling half awake, I realize I need to use the bathroom. I didn't even drink anything today, well at the party I did. I slowly get up from bed and walk past Lorcan and Colt. Seeing no bathroom in our room I let out a tired frustrated sigh. There's probably a hallway bathroom or something, my mind assures me.

  As if in a trance, I unlatch the lock on the door and slip out of our hotel room. I quickly make my way down the cold corridor, finding a bathroom at the end of the hall. I nearly squeal with glee when I find a woman's bathroom sign. I
enter the bathroom and quickly shut the door. I'm relieved to see no one else inside. I enter a stall and do my business, then I wash my hands still only half awake.

  I glance up at my reflection in the mirror, my pale hair is surprisingly neat looking. I dry off my hands, then head out the door.

  When I exit the bathroom, I spot red droplets of blood on the black tiled floor. Curiosity gets the better of my barely alert mind. I silently follow the trail of blood, I pass the door to our hotel room and make a right turn still following the blood trail.

  Suddenly, I meet the end up the trail of blood, I look up to find the source. I'm sure if I was wide awake my reaction would have been different seeing a tall demon male standing in front of me.

  Instead of running back to my hotel room, I just stand quietly staring at the demon who's hands are dripping with blood. He isn't even wearing a shirt, I see he has a six pack and my face reddens.

  When I look at the demon's face, he gives me a sly smile, his pale eyes take me in much like a predator eyes its prey.

  Before I can react, the demon man flickers, disappearing. Momentary relief floods into me, but suddenly I'm shoved against the wall pressed up against the demon man's chest.

  "You're no demon." He breathes slyly.

  "Y-yes I am." I stutter.

  "Unfurl your wings, little one." The demon man says with a purr.

  Instead of listening to him, I decide to take things into my own hands. I blow glitter into his face to disorient him. Then I take off running as fast as I can. When I hear him speak up, I stop and turn around.

  "I'll be sure to tell them I've found you. I'll see you again, little one." The demon man says with a dark chuckle.

  Then he vanishes into thin air.

  Chapter 5-Red Moon

  After watching the demon man dissappear, I sneak back into our hotel room. I nearly yelp in surprise when I open the door to find both Colt and Lorcan crossing their arms, blocking my entrance into the room.

  "Where were you?" Lorcan interrogates me.

  "Well I went to the bathroom. When I came back I saw blood on the ground and followed it. Next thing I know-" I begin to explain, but Colt cuts me off.

  "You ran into a demon." Colt states dryly.