Dark Ordained - Nancy

Dark Ordained Continued....

*             *             *

I woke up in Nancy's living room just as I had the day before. 

This time I noticed a photograph hanging on the wall above the sofa of Nancy and my mother with her soft brown hair and dark eyes, in their younger years. Also in the photo was my father and a man I didn’t recognise. The other man had dark curly hair that hung past his shoulders and a defiant looking expression on his face.  The man had his arm around Nancy and she was leaning into him. 

My parents looked so happy. They were all laughing. I thought about my parents, then my grandparents and my brother.  

Joey, I’d left him at the house as a zombie! I needed to go back and set him free. I got up gingerly, expecting to hurt all over, but I felt fine. Someone had changed my clothes, I was wearing a large white t-shirt and a pair of pyjama bottoms. My clothes were clean but there were smears of blood still on my skin. There was a tentative knock on the door.

“Come in,” I was trying to see my shoulder by pulling at my t-shirt when Luc stuck his head inside the door.

“I thought I heard you get up. How are you feeling?” he came fully into the room. He was wearing a black t-shirt and dark jeans, but his feet were bare.

“Fine, do you live here?” I hadn’t occurred to me that Luc might be living with Nancy, he wasn’t her son.

“Yeah, I help around here and she puts me up,” Luc ran a hand through his hair.

“Cool. I need to go,” I started for the door. My brain was all over the place but I needed to stay focused. I had to get to Joey.

“Hold on. Are you sure you’re ok? You had a broken collar bone, cracked skull, so many cuts and bruises,” Luc was looking me over.

“Yeah I feel fine, great actually all things considered. How is that possible,” my broken bones felt fine and mended, my arm was a little stiff but I felt really good.

“Nancy had to do some serious magic on you. She put you back together again, she fixed your bones and healed all your cuts. Your shoulder was a little tricky, you had a strong demon poison in it which meant she couldn’t heal it completely. That arm will be weaker and you’ll have the scar,” Luc was giving me a strange look. Looking from my shoulder to my face.

I was trying to slowly inch around him. Politely trying to extricate myself.

“How did you get covered in demon poison?” I thought about it, Arkainus was the one who had grabbed me, sliced me with those knife like nails, how he had broken through my collar bone with ease. Was he a demon? He had to be.

“What happened?” Luc was looking down at me with concern. I was short and he was fairly tall so he towered over me.

“My grandmother sent Joey, my brother, over to collect me. She wanted to speak to me about the necromancy stuff. We got to my grandparent’s house and something was wrong. We went inside but they were already dead, my grandparent’s I mean. Joey went to search the house and while he was away a man appeared. He said his name was Arkainus.”

“Did you say Arkainus?” Nancy came in the doorway. She looked awful, dark bags like bruises were under her eyes and her hair was a mess. She wobbled past looking exhausted and sat down on the sofa, gesturing for me to join her. I was almost to the door but complied, doubling back, and sat beside her. Luc crossed the room and sat on the spare chair.

“Yes, do you know the name?”

“He’s a demon. A powerful one. His sister is the demon that nearly wiped out all the supernaturals all those years ago,” Nancy rubbed at her eyes. I thought about the time I had with Mariette. She’s mentioned a demon needing a body and it made sense from what Arkainus had said about draining out my soul to make room for another.

“They’re all passed over?” Nancy finished her sentence with a yawn. I was impressed with myself for how well I was keeping up.

“Lyle and Mariette are. Joey is trapped in his body.” Nancy sat up straighter, “I accidentally brought him back to his body.”

“You need to release him. No offense but I doubt your raising skills are top notch so his body will be rapidly rotting. The dead flesh is not capable anymore of containing his soul,” Nancy patted my knee, her words reigniting my need to get out of her home.

“I know. I need to get to him soon so he can pass over. I also need to take part in my own initiation ritual. Mariette said you could help me with that?”

“You spoke with your grandmother?” Nancy looked very tired.

“While I was unconscious. It was like a dream and she explained some things to me. She told me I need to complete the initiation ritual and release Joey. Then she would meet me on the other side,” I got to my feet.

“Alright give me a second to get some things together. The woodlands on your grandparent’s property will be a good place to open the barrier,” Nancy stood up as well but wobbled a little.

“Nancy are you sure you’re feeling up to it?” Luc hadn’t said a word while Nancy and I had talked.

“I’ll be fine,” Nancy passed him and began rooting through her jars. I thought about my injuries and what it must have taken Nancy to fix them.

“Nancy, thank you for everything,” I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug.

“You’re welcome. There’s nothing I can do about the scar I’m afraid.  It was everything I could do to save your arm from the poison,” Nancy handed me a hand mirror she had found on her shelves. I took it from her and looked at my collar bone. Where Arkainus had gouged me with his claws I had three, thick, white scars. I felt them with the tips of my fingers, they didn’t hurt but my shoulder was definitely not as strong as it used to be, lifting the mirror made my arm ache. I handed the mirror back.

“The scars are nothing. Thank you, really.”

***

This was another short excerpt but I've got to get the breaks in the right place!

Follow me on Twitter @LaurenAilie0 to know when I post and see all the other weird tweets I put out there.

Let me know if you want more Dark Ordained. :)

L xx