I twist my wrists, pulling against the chains, and try to conjure energy balls. But nothing happens. Dammit, she’s bound my powers, and with the sigil keeping angels away, I’m powerless.
Come on, Callie, get it together. I blink several times, focusing my vision, and look around for the sigil. She did something…her hand were covered in blood. And then she…she…shit. I don’t remember.
“Open the door,” Ruth tells someone and gets to her feet. “Bring her to me.”
One of the vampire puppets turns around and grabs a young girl by the wrist. I don’t know her name, but I’ve seen her at coven gatherings before.
“No!” the girl screams and fights against the vampire. “No, please, no!”
Ruth picks up an athame and waits for the vampire to hold the girl still, forcing her arm out in front of her. Blood is required to open the door, and only those who are members of the coven can get in and out of the door.
Unless the protective spells around it are broken, which is what Ruth is trying to do. And if she succeeds, she’ll let the vampires and demons into the coven.
I yank against the chains, trying to muster up the strength inside me to use some sort of magic. The girl screams in pain as Ruth drags the dagger down her arm. She plunges the blade into the earth before the door.
“Say the incantation,” she hisses, but the girl can’t stop crying. “Say it!” she yells again and slaps the girl across the face. “Useless girl.” Ruth shakes her head, turning and picking up the dagger again. The vampire holds out the girl’s other arm. I can see the dirt on the blade as Ruth plunges it into her skin, cutting down to the muscle. She smears the blood all over the blade and holds it up to the door.
“Say it now, before it’s too late.”
The girl is sobbing uncontrollably, too hysterical to get a word out. Ruth throws the dagger down and gives the vampire a curt nod, telling him to bite her.
“No!” I shout right as the vampire’s teeth rip into her skin. She cries out in pain, and several other students who are on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs scream.
Ruth is going to keep killing witches until she finds one that can get the door open long enough to get her demons through.
“Wait,” she tells the vampire, who jerks away from the girl, blood running down his face. Ruth’s eyes lock with mine. “She’s awake.”
“Yeah, and I don’t know what kind of kink you’re going for, but I’m not one for bondage. Untie me now before it gets ugly.”
Ruth laughs. “What are you going to do? Your powers are bound, and I’ve cast the fallen angel from here.”
The fallen angel? What—oh my god. She thinks Julian is a fallen angel, much like Lucifer. She doesn’t know what I am.
“I’m going to make you regret ever laying a finger on anyone in this coven.”
“Yeah? Well, get on that. Because from where I’m standing, your powers are bound, your guard dog has been banished, and your vampire is nowhere to be found. All you’ve done is take a twenty-minute nap.” She picks up a jar full of blood.
My blood.
“Though you did provide me with this.”
Twenty minutes? If I really was out for that long, then Lucas and my friends will be here soon. I have no doubt Lucas drove a hundred miles an hour and can get from his house in Lincoln Park to Thorne Hill in record time and will run through the woods to find me.
And will be right where Ruth wants him.
“What are you trying to do?” I ask, pulling against the chains. I’m sure the metal has been enchanted with dark magic, but if I can figure out where the freaking sigil is, I can muster up enough strength to break free.
“You know what I want,” she snaps and unscrews the lid to the jar of my blood. “Come here,” she tells one of the demons and dips her finger inside the blood and uses it to draw some sort of symbol on the demon’s forehead.
I know what she’s trying to do, and if I can figure out how to use my angelic powers, I can stop her. Because her plan just might work. She’s already gotten herself through the door after the warding was changed to keep her out. It was changed to keep me out as well, but she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care, and she’s tying to use my blood to cheat the spells and sneak the demon through the door.
But my blood isn’t witch blood.
“Hold her up,” Ruth tells the vampire, and I’m forced to only watch in horror, bound to the tree, unable to help, as she sweeps her hands over the girl’s neck, smearing her blood all over her fingers. “Now say the spell,” she tells the girl, who’s going in and out of consciousness. She’s lost too much blood. She’s not going to make it much longer. “Say it!” Ruth demands, and the girl opens her mouth but can’t get the words out.