The Fury's Light Read online

  “Who was that guy too?”

  “He’s a history major,” Lana said. “I guess he followed me but I don’t think he saw anything.”

  Once the car was secured in the garage, Lana and Rae entered the home, Lana checking each door three times to ensure they were locked. She met Rae in the kitchen, putting a kettle of water on the stove for tea.

  “Chamomile will help us sleep,” Lana said, taking two cups from the cabinet above the sink to the left.

  “Can I have a double dose?” Rae joked, running her hands through her hair. “Lana, don’t lie to me.”

  “Where is that coming from?” Lana turned toward Rae, setting the cups on the counter.

  “It’s time you tell me everything, from the beginning,” Rae said. “I need to know what you are, why you’re here, who Kyle is and what we’re up against. You can’t keep me in the dark forever.”

  Lana’s cell phone rang, Rae sliding off her seat, her stilettos clicking the tile as she paced. Caller ID showed Dimitri was calling.

  “Are you alright?” Dimitri asked.

  “I’m fine,” she said, the kettle on the stove whistling. “There’s going to be an attack in a week. I’ll call if there are any others.”

  “Please do,” he said, ending the call.

  Lana grabbed the kettle from the stove and poured two cups of tea before putting it back. She handed one to Rae after the Seer took back her seat.

  She took a deep breath, “It all started here in 1840.”

  Chapter 5

  Lana told Rae about the day she woke in the Jacobs’ manor after having recovered from a severe illness that should have killed her had she been human. There she met Elijah and his brother Micah, as well as Beta Psi’s founding sister, Abigale Jenkins. Lana spent six months on the Jacobs’ property being wooed by Micah. She spent a birthday by his side and Abigale continued to loathe her and the fact she came into their lives when she did. Abigale was cordial in public but they never saw eye to eye when they were alone.

  Micah and Abigale were walking out at the pastures when Lana saw them together, and Abigale put her plan into motion. All Lana saw was the two kissing, and the rest was a blur. She remembered running, running past the gazebo and barn, through the pastures and into the woods, the woods which local authorities had been patrolling constantly trying to capture the ‘animal’ that had been taking the lives of citizens in the Bay. Elijah had chased after her without her knowledge.

  Not long after Lana had made it into the woods was she confronted by the patrol, only it was not a friendly confrontation. His bayonet tore through her abdomen, knocking the air from her lungs. She lay bleeding on the forest floor when Elijah found her, as did Dimitri, but she didn’t wake in the forest.

  Dimitri had taken her from the Bay to a safe place, she said. There, he told her what she was, and what her purpose as the type of Fury she was would be. He also told her she would be starting her training as soon as she recovered.

  “He said that I was the Amethyst Fury, and the others were Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, and Diamond,” Lana said. “But we were only referred to these names in text books, scrolls written by the Elders. I was so confused. I didn’t want to be there, I just wanted to be dead. I begged him to kill me.”

  Dimitri had continued, dismissing her desire to die. He told her each of the other Furies’ names corresponded with what their elemental power was. Ruby controlled the element of Fire, Emerald the element of Earth, Sapphire controlled Water, and Diamond controlled Wind. Together, these four Furies would train her, the Amethyst or Light Fury, to control each of their respective elements and that once she learned to control these elements, she could control Light.

  “My destiny is to destroy the Darkness,” Lana said, staring into her cup of tea.

  “Why is it your destiny? There aren’t any other Light Furies?” Rae asked, leaning forward.

  “There can only be one Fury of each element at a time,” Lana said. “When one Fury dies, another is born.”

  “But that doesn’t answer my other questions,” Rae said, leaning on the counter. “Why can’t you be back here? After all these years, those people aren’t here anymore. And Kyle is just one guy. You sure know how to hold a grudge.”

  “Rae, I’m tired,” Lana scratched her head, tucking her bangs behind her ear. “Can we talk about this more in the morning?”

  “Sure, whatever,” Rae said, chugging the rest of her now cold tea. “It’s not like we’re running out of time or anything.”

  “Where are you going?” Lana called after her.

  Rae turned, placing both hands on the doorframe. “I think I’m going to stay with my parents tonight.”

  Lana watched as Rae picked up her folder from the divan, followed by hearing the front door slam shut.

  Chapter 6

  The streets of Clover Bay were quiet as she walked past The Hideout and the real estate agency, the young woman stopping in front of the spice shop. The grandfather clock in the left-hand corner chimed three times – 3 a.m.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again,” he said, his hands in the pockets of a hooded sweatshirt. “What brings you back here?”

  “You always said this was my home,” she said, turning to face him.

  “It has been for some time.” He looked over his shoulder, rocking back and forth onto his heels. “Lana…”

  “It was me in the photo,” she exhaled. “What do you want from me, Kyle?”

  “The same thing you want from me,” he said. “Answers.”

  The two entered the spice shop, the man locking it behind him. “I guess you want to know who I am and I you. And why you were here in the first place.”

  “I guess I should just gather all the magical beings in the land and sit them down for story time!” Lana clapped her hands together, a nervous laugh on her tongue. “Demon hunter, I already know what you are.”

  “That’s funny, Lana,” Kyle laughed. “Josephine told you when you left, didn’t she?”

  Lana nodded, leaning against the sales counter. “Yet she failed to tell me what you are. What a friend she is.”

  “I’m tired of story time. Do I really have to tell you the nuts and guts?” Lana crossed her arms. “I’m a Fury. I found my way here, fell in love, yadda, yadda.”

  “And then the vampires scared you off,” Kyle stepped closer.

  “More like betrayed me,” Lana said, staring at the clock. “Six months of loyalty to that family and Abigale…”

  “Why did you leave me?” Kyle’s face was inches from her, his eyes staring into hers as if hypnotized. “I would have accepted you, protected you.”

  Lana’s hands met his chest, pushing him away but he failed to move. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I just need to know why you left,” Kyle said. His hands wrapped around her wrists, his nails digging into her skin.

  Tears streamed from her eyes, “Kyle, you’re hurting me!” Lana screamed, a gust of wind sweeping him off his feet. Landing on his back a few feet from her, Lana hopped over him, her nervous hands fumbling the lock on the door.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Lana,” Kyle said, pushing himself off the floor.

  The lock clicked, Lana jerking the door open. She slammed it behind her, sprinting down the street toward the university, Kyle in tow. Her feet pounded the sidewalk, the cobblestone streets. Strands of hair stuck to her cheeks sticky from tears.

  “Lana, why are you running?” Kyle yelled after her. “We can talk about this.”

  She didn’t look back as she stepped up onto the grass leading to the common area of the school, heading toward a group of men near the fountain.

  “Help, somebody help!” Lana yelled, running into a man in a leather jacket and dark jeans. He turned around, his hair slicked back. He caught her as she stumbled. “He’s after me. He’s going to hurt me.”

  She looked back, Kyle nowhere to be found.

  “He was right there,” she pointed weakly, her breathing heavy.
Her hair fell around her face, the man tucking it behind her ear.

  “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” he said. Lana recognized his voice, its soft, almost melodic tone. She looked back at him, her eyes meeting his.

  “Elijah?” she asked before everything went black. She came to sit in a small Sedan, the smell of sweat and pine lingering in the air. Thick trees blurred past as Elijah drove down bumpy backroads.

  April 10, 1840

  “Micah, where are we going?” Lana asked. She gripped the hems of her skirts as they ran through fields of knee-high grass and wildflowers.

  A youthful man with black hair laughed and spun around until he was facing her. His light green eyes locked with hers while he attempted to catch his breath. Being breathless in her presence was a common occurrence when he looked at her.

  “Have I told you how magnificent you look today?” Micah said, taking her hand.

  Her smile was blinding as small rosy spheres dotted her cheeks. She had light gray eyes that grew brighter when she was with him, and brown ringlets fell around her shoulders as they came unpinned. Violet was a color Micah found fit her well, with a hint of white lace and ribbon down her back.

  “We better hurry if we are to make it on time,” he said, pecking her cheek before running off toward the trees.

  “Micah, the forest,” Lana said softly.

  “No one will hurt you, Lana, not while I’m alive.” Micah took hold of her hand and pulled her toward the forest.

  They searched for a path for hours until they made their way to a white-boarded monastery on the edge of town. A pointed roof with a white cross decorated the church while patrons of the evening service opened brown wooden doors.

  “Just in time,” Micah whispered, out of breath from running.

  “Do you always take the long way ’round, Mr. Jacobs?” Lana asked, lacing her fingers in his. Her hand was cool despite running through the trees while he looked her over once more.

  “Well, Miss McDowall, I’ll leave that to your imagination,” he smiled. They walked toward the stairs as the people started to blur.

  ~

  Lana’s name was called, sounding distant, like a whisper in the wind, fading with the memory.

  “Lana,” Elijah said, shaking the woman beside him.

  She lay on a leather couch worn down over the years with cracks in the material and a down pillow beneath her head. She looked around the room, the white walls coming into view. She recognized the room immediately as she sat up and placed her feet on the ground. Elijah had taken off her jacket and laid her down.

  Across from her, a large dark brick fireplace sat against the wall with old photos of men and women she remembered from a time far away in her mind on its mantel. Lana breathed in the musty smell of a home that had been vacant for many years.

  “Why did you bring us here?” she asked, her eyes swelling with tears.

  “I had to make sure he didn’t follow us. After what you experienced, it was the only way I could ensure nothing else happened to you,” his voice was soft as he spoke, something she admired about him. "What were you dreaming about?

  “About your unconventional routes,” Lana joked, looking back around the room once more.

  “About Micah’s,” Elijah said.

  He knew Lana didn’t want to admit having thoughts of his brother, knew she’d rather forget him altogether.

  “You said his name.”

  Lana leaned into the couch, wiping away her tears with the backs of her hands.

  “I know you probably have questions for me,” Elijah said as he took a seat beside her, his hands clasped in front of him. “But first, who was chasing you?”

  She pulled her knees under her and faced him, her arms crossed her chest. “His name is Kyle. A few years ago, I came back to town and he and I were together. But as a historian, he was able to dig up photos of me and Micah.”

  “How? The only photos of the two of you are in this house,” Elijah said.

  Lana ran her left hand over her upper right arm. “Kyle was working on a restoration project with the historical society to preserve the house. He invited me out one day and met me at the gazebo. He showed me the photo and I panicked.”

  Elijah kept two feet of distance between them, unsure how an attempt at comfort would go over. “And you left town?”

  Lana nodded, running her index finger under her eyes. “Is it my turn to ask you questions?”

  “Yes…” he said.

  “What are you?”

  “I’m a vampire,” he said calmly. “Abigale turned us after you left.”

  “Us…” she whispered.

  “Micah and I.” He stood and paced the length of the fireplace, his hands in his pockets. “The patrolman who found you in the woods, he and the rest of the patrols gathered Abigale and Leah, along with others whom they had turned over the years in the Bay, and burned them in the cellar under the old church. When we confronted them, they took us down. I found myself crawling out of a shallow grave near the barn…”

  “I knew I needed to feed if I wanted to live,” Elijah continued. “Live…what a wonderful way to live.”

  “At least you had the option,” Lana mumbled.

  “Why did you come back here?”

  “God, Elijah. You too? Why is everyone so obsessed with why I’m here?” Lana asked, rising to meet him at the fireplace. “What about me is so enthralling that everyone just has to know?”

  “Kyle chasing you, the frat party earlier.”

  “You know about that?” Lana took a step back.

  “I was there,” he closed the gap. “The people who care about you are worried.”

  “Oh yeah, all two of them,” she stated.

  “You forgot about me,” Elijah said.

  “Until tonight, I didn’t even know you still existed, yet you seem to know and be comfortable with the fact that I still do too.”

  “Dimitri has remained in contact with me since you left the Bay,” Elijah put his hands on his hips. “I’ve watched over you as best as I could without drawing attention to myself for I feared this would happen.”

  “I don’t hate you…”

  “But you hate what we are.”

  Lana had never thought about it that way. Her bitterness toward what she was resulted in a bitterness in anything supernatural, even toward those she once cared deeply for.

  “You’re probably tired,” Elijah changed the subject, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “You are safe here, Lana. I promise no harm will come to you in this house. Not while I’m here anyway.”

  “Micah said that once,” she said softly.

  She leaned her face into his palm, his thumb running over her soft skin. It had been a long time since he had felt a woman’s skin, or at least the skin of someone he was once infatuated with. Had he never been with Abigale, maybe he would have fought with his brother over her.

  “Lana, why did you come back?” he asked again.

  “I wanted to believe that coming home would give me a chance at being normal,” Lana said. “When you…your family took me in, it was the first time in I can’t remember how long that I felt like everything was going to be okay. I didn’t know what I was, just that I had been alive a long time and I couldn’t die. I tried, but something didn’t want me to.”

  Tears streaked her cheeks. “I’ve done nothing but run since that day, and I thought coming here would somehow change all of that.”

  “We can’t be normal, Lana,” Elijah said, wiping away tears with his thumb.

  He took her hand once more and escorted her up the winding staircase to a room she never thought she would see again. The bed had a sheer canopy over it, as did the windows with sheer curtains, always letting the light in to signify it was time to wake.

  “Will you have a problem sleeping here tonight?” Elijah asked, still in the doorway as she re-examined the room. When she shook her head, he leaned against the doorframe. “I’ll just be down the hall if you need me
, alright?”

  He closed the door behind him, leaving Lana alone to reminisce. The closet, once opened, still had mementos from a time when dresses with petticoats ruled women’s fashion. There were dresses the color of blood, olive satin and lavender, as well as pearls and bonnets.

  Looking out the window, she saw the barn, a brown, decaying building with the doors swung open and a white splintering gazebo where Micah and Elijah would spend their spare time watching her and the other inhabitants of the Jacobs’ mansion enjoy a picnic on the lawn or play croquet, all lit by moonlight.

  Lana removed the rubber band in her hair until her curls fell to her waist. She took her hair in her hands, running her fingers through it until she had three pieces and began to braid it. Once finished, she took her place on the bed, remembering the day she woke to Elijah taking care of her after recovering from an illness. She never understood why she would watch people get sick and sometimes recover quickly, unless the plague swept through a village and wiped the population out, whereas she would get sick and take weeks or months to recover until the man who found her in the woods explained how illnesses hit their kind harder than any other being.

  Staring at the ceiling, she pulled the thin blankets to her chin and rolled over until she faced the window where she spent countless hours watching the horses run in the pasture beyond the Jacobs’ property line.

  Images filled her mind as she closed her eyes, images of the dress Micah bought her for the annual ball in the ballroom downstairs; the soft fabric, the lacy bodice, and ruffled skirts that flowed as he twirled her.

  Lana could almost smell the food, the champagne on the breath of patrons. She could picture the brothers on the staircase, watching the party from above, picture the dresses, their designs, both conservative and risqué.

  The grandfather clock struck twelve as Micah took her by the hand, whispering in her ear. She drifted in and out of consciousness, forgetting Elijah was right down the hall.