Bloodlines: The Occultist

Chapter 3

Ebony had a crazy idea, one that she wasn't sure how she had never thought of it before. She could summon her mother, get her help to bring Ebony back in time and save Draven. Even though it felt a little dirty, all of the necessary ingredients were in Porter Ashby's house, including a pentagram burned into the floor. It was now or never, as her sisters were asleep. She got up, quiet as a mouse so as to not wake the girls, threw on her cloak, grabbed the keys and sped off. She knew she had to have been out of her mind, but she would do anything for a chance to change the course of that fateful night. She has to make this as quick as possible and get back before her sisters woke up, or else she'd end up 6 feet under. Not that that would kill her, but being buried is a real pain in the butt and is super annoying. It takes forever to crawl up through the dirt and you end up with dirt in your throat, which isn't comfortable. But, if there's anyone she'd be buried for, it's Draven. She pulled up to the house, and it was actually creepier in the day. Maybe that's just because Ebony and her sisters preferred the night. She looked around to make sure no one else was around. It's times like this that Ebony was grateful that she can see just as clear in at night as she can during the day. She made a mad dash into the house and down to the basement, determined to not waste any time. She looked around the room for the necessary ingredients, trying to ignore the chill going down her spine or the fact that her arm hairs were straight up. She found the femur of a child, she needed to find an animal heart, which was a little more difficult as there were so many organs, human and animal alike, in so many jars, but she still found one pretty quick. She reached into her pocket and grabbed a hex bag, pulled out some of her mom's hair and put it all into the center. She grabbed a knife, sliced her hand and put a small piece of her own flesh into the pile, then set it all on fire, and waited. She looked around at the room, and it made her skin crawl, and not much made her skin crawl anymore. She noticed on the wall to her right that there was something carved into it. She walked over to get a closer look. Daddy was mad at me today. He made me drink the red juice. Ebony couldn't help but think, what the hell? She didn't see any evidence in anything she read about Ashby that he had a kid. "Ebony." Came a female voice behind her. She turned to the voice as slowly as she could, regretting this decision in ways. She came face to face with her mother for the first time since Draven. Ebony and Berlin looked exactly like their mother; except for their hair. Aldiytha has pitch black, flowy hair that went to the middle of her back. Aldiytha gently put her hands together and said "it's been a while, darling." Ebony crossed her arms, feeling more uncomfortable than she had in awhile. "Hi, mom." She said awkwardly. Aldiytha looked at her daughter with sad eyes, as all 5 of them got into a huge fight the last time, and it was a mere hours before Ebony's husband met his untimely demise. "How are you holding up, sweetheart?" She asked gently. Ebony fidgeted around uncomfortably. "Mom, with all due respect, this isn't a social call. I need your help." She couldn't waste any time; she had to go back in time, save Draven, and get back. "You want me to take you back so you can save your dear husband." Aldiytha said, almost condescendingly. Ebony was taken back a little. "How did you-" "You forget that I am your mother. I was with you for 319 years. I know you." "Right. So, can you?" Her mother hesitated for a moment before saying "I can." Ebony could've leapt for joy, she was going to get to live out eternity with Draven by her side. "But, I won't." And her smile quickly faded. "What? Why the hell not?" She said, a little too loudly. "Surely Draven taught you a thing or two about time travel if I did not; it's a very messy, complicated thing and is simply not to be messed with." Ebony could feel anger burning her non existent veins. She should have known her mother wouldn't agree to this. "This has nothing to do with the logistics of time travel. You never liked Draven!" Her mother gave an appalled look. "That is untrue. I was very fond of Draven and I always thought you two were lovely together. You were a little young-" "I was 180! You were only 118 when you married him." As far as Ebony, and all of the Nash daughters were concerned, the man who married their mother was not their father. After Delilah was born he vanished, never to be heard from again. "Yes, and you see what a mistake that was. The only good thing that came from that marriage was you girls." "So you admit you think I made a mistake marrying Draven? I love him, mom! He was the best thing that ever happened to me! After all you put me through, the least you can do is let me go back and save him!" Ebony was now yelling and crying. "Surely, I don't know what you're talking about." Ebony took in a sharp, shaky breath and said, her voice breaking, "like hell, you don't." Aldiytha walked over to her daughter and tried to put her hand on her shoulder, but Ebony jerked it away. "Don't touch me." "Ebony Lenora Nash. I did nothing but try to give you and your sisters the best life that I could." Ebony rolled her eyes. "Right. That's why you went and got yourself killed when Delilah was only 3 months old. You know, she has never stopped blaming herself for that. She doesn't deserve to have that burden on her shoulders." There was a moment of silence as Ebony and Aldiytha stared each other down. "Do you or Pandora or Amoret blame Delilah for my death?" Aldiytha asked seriously. Ebony could feel herself getting angrier and angrier as the conversation went on. And when she gets too mad, things start to fly around. "Are you kidding? Of course we don't!" She was infuriated that her mother could even somewhat suggest that her death was Delilah's fault. She was just a little baby when their mother left, and Ebony, Amoret and Pandora were the ones who had to tell their baby sister, when she started asking, that mom was never coming back. You can't imagine what that does to a person. Aldiytha shrugged her shoulders and said "then she shouldn't blame herself." "Good luck convincing her of that." Ebony responded bitterly. "Bring her to me and I will." Ebony shook her head. If it was up to her, none of them would ever have contact with their mom again. Her sisters may have forgiven her for getting herself killed, but she wasn't sure she ever could. "Mom, you left Berlin and I in charge, took off for a hunt, and never came back 3 months after Delilah was born. What was it? Did you not want her? Were you done being a mom? Were you done with all of us?" Ebony had been dying to get all of this off of her chest. She was so angry at her for putting them all through that and she felt she had every right to speak her mind. "How dare you even suggest that! I love you and your sisters with every fiber of my being. If I were done being a mother, would I have left instructions on how to summon me? Would I have allowed you to summon me?" "What do you mean, allowed?" It was now Aldiytha's turn to roll her eyes. "One cannot be successfully summoned if they do not wish to show themselves to the summoner." Ebony has never even thought about that before. "I always just assumed that if you summoned someone or something, it had to come." "A common misconception." Ebony had a question burning within her, and she felt that if she didn't ask it, she would simply explode. "What happened on that hunt, Mom? You were the most gifted hunter ever. There was nothing you couldn't take on." Her mother looked down at the floor, obviously uncomfortable. Ebony would push and push until she answered, because she owed her daughters that much. They deserve to know how they lost their mother. "When the time is right, I will tell you. Please, leave it at that." Ebony gritted her teeth, but knew that no matter how hard she fought and pushed, her mom would not give her the answer she was looking for. "Okay so, you left us a way to summon you. Is there a way to summon Draven?" She asked, cautiously hopeful. "I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that. You still have all of his stuff, yes?" She nodded. "If he was even half the warlock I thought he was, he left a way somewhere among his belongings." That's what's complicated about summoning warlocks, witches, and vampires versus summoning a demon; there is one way to summon all demons. There is an individual incantation and ingredients for each witch, warlock and vampire that they must come up with. And if they die without ever coming up with that and leaving it where it can be found, then that's the end of them. That's why the girls had to come up with their summoning spells early on in life. Ebony said nothing. "What are you doing in such a small place, anyways? Do your sisters know you're here?" "First off, I'm the oldest so I don't have to tell them anything if I don't want to. Secondly, of course they do. We're on a hunt." Her mom's eyes glistened with what looked like excitement. "Do tell." Ebony looked down at her watch; she had been gone 30 minutes already and she really ought to get back to the motel. But, she figured a couple of more minutes couldn't hurt. "A couple of kids decided it would be fun to play with a Ouija Board inside of this house, it belonged to a pretty vicious serial killer, a year ago and ever since then, anyone who's walked in has never made it out. We think there's also either a demon or-" She took in a deep breath, prepared for her mother to get very mad very quick "Lucifer in the house, as well." She finished softly. The smile from her mother's face vanished as fast as it had come. "Then I simply forbid you girls to take on this hunt. Pass it off to someone else and go home." Ebony could already tell that this was going to get very ugly very quickly. "In case you haven't noticed, mom, you're dead. You can't tell us what to do, anymore." "How dare you speak to me that way! I am still your mother, Ebony and you will do as I say!" "What is so wrong with this anyway? What, you're scared the demons will kill us? As if! We've killed millions of them." "If Lucifer is involved you girls simply cannot come face to face with him. When I was alive I saw to that." "What is the big deal if we ever do meet Lucifer? I'm sure we could-" "That is enough! If you girls go on this hunt I will no longer allow you to summon me!" Ebony felt the wind be knocked out of her and she stumbled backwards a little. As mad as she was at her mother, the thought of never seeing her again made it feel as though a sharp-toothed creature was eating her from the inside out, as if a Siberian Tiger was ripping her heart with freshly sharpened claws. "Mama, you can't mean that." She said in a barely audible whisper. "Oh, yes, I do." Ebony straightened herself. As much as her sisters were going to hate her, as much as she would hurt for the rest of her life, she couldn't back down. "I'm sorry, mother. But, people are dying, or worse, and we can't stand by with the knowledge that we can do something
about it. And I know Pandora, Delilah and Amoret will feel the same. Goodbye, Aldiytha." Ebony walked over and put out the fire, her mother vanishing before her. Her body with shaking with both anger and despair. Her mother was her last hope at getting Draven back. She finally had to come to terms with the fact that she was never going to see him again. And on top of that, she was never going to see her mother again. She got to say goodbye, her sisters didn't. She wondered how on earth she could do that to them. They already lost her once, and they weren't prepared to lose her a second time. And it was all Ebony's fault. She made her way up the stairs, to her car and took off. She started crying on her way back to the motel. She started thinking; if her sisters had been with her, would they have chosen the hunt over their mom? Or would they have done as she said and passed it off to another hunter? She feared that after the others found out what happened that she was going to lose what family she had left; her mother and husband both dead, her father who knows where doing who knows what, and her sisters refusing to have any contact with her ever again. Did she just destin herself to an eternity of loneliness? On top of all of this, her mother was her last hope of ever getting to see Draven again. She had to come to terms with the fact that unless he left a summoning spell, she was never going to see him again. The grief, anger and guilt she has felt everyday ever since his death has been crippling. She still had not stopped crying herself to sleep every morning and she still had nightmares every now and then. She didn't want to accept it, but, what other choice did she have? She realized that she couldn't continue living this way, because she was barely living. She could feel so many tears coming out of her cheek it was almost a waterfall of emotions. "Goodbye, Draven. I love you to the end of time and back a thousand times. And I'm sorry." She said through tears. She cried hard for a second longer before she heard, clear as day, "I love you to the end of time and back a thousand and one times." She slammed hard on the breaks, right in the middle of the road and looked around for the source of the voice. She couldn't find anyone around her, and she double checked the backseat even though she knew there was no one back there. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that that voice came from Draven. But, it couldn't be. He was dead, she saw him die. Actually, now that she thought about it, she didn't actually see him die. He threw her out the window and she ran to her sisters for back up. And when she returned to the house, Lucifer and Draven were gone, leaving the place looking as though a hurricane had gone through it. So, maybe he wasn't dead. She shook her head and began to drive. She couldn't give herself false hope like that. Of course he was dead, because he never came back to her. If he had made it out of that fight alive, he would've made his way back to her, she just knew it. She pulled into the parking lot and to her room. She opened the door as quietly as possible so as not to wake her sisters. She shut the door and began walking to the bathroom to splash some water on her face when the lights flipped on and she stopped dead in her tracks. "Where were you, Ebony?" Amoret asked sternly. Ebony turned back towards her sisters, all of them were on the bed closest to the door, their legs crossed and their arms folded. "I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk." Her sisters tilted their heads and glared. "Then why was the car gone?" Delilah asked. "We're not stupid, Ebony. Where did you go?" Pandora asked. "Okay, fine. I went to Porter Ashby's house and used his basement to summon mom." Her sisters shot up. "What?" Pandora said. "Why?" Amoret asked. "Are you kidding? We agreed-" Delilah began, but was cut off by Ebony. "It had nothing to do with this case! I summoned her so that she could bring me back in time to save Draven." Amoret, Pandora and Delilah all looked at their sister with pity and sadness in their eyes. Ebony was never the same after losing Draven, and she never really moved on. "I'm guessing that she said no." Pandora said timidly, as though afraid of pushing Ebony over the edge. "Of course, she said no. Gave a pathetic excuse about how time travel isn't something to be messed with." The other 3 looked at each other uncomfortably and didn't say a word. When he was alive, Draven always stressed the importance of never time traveling; how changing one seemingly small, insignificant action could change everything. Anytime any of them even suggested it, he went into a long, drawing lecture about it and they all learned leather quickly to not bring it up. That's not to say that one of them didn't slip up every now and then, and when they did, they regretted it instantly. "What?" Ebony asked, sounding irritated. "Well." Delilah began." "You know that's true. Draven always said time travel was nasty business." Pandora finished. Ebony did not want to talk about her late husband, anymore. She had already spoken of him enough, tonight and it was simply too painful to hear. Every time she spoke of him, the guilt was almost too much to handle, and she was reminded of how it was her fault that he died, and it made her angry. "Don't. Do not bring up Draven anymore." She snapped. She couldn't take it anymore; the pain, the hurt, the anger, the guilt. It's been 3 years and she still wakes up every morning hoping he'll be right next to her. Every time her phone rings, her heart skips a beat and she hopes his name will come across her screen. Sometimes, she can almost swear she seems him hiding in the corners, or hear him whisper in her ear, only to turn around and find herself alone. "Knock it off, Ebony." Amoret said. Ebony looked at her twin, absolutely appalled. "Excuse me?" Amoret walked you to Ebony, and Delilah and Pandora hung back, ready to intervene if necessary, but knew better than to get into the middle of the twins fighting unless it was absolutely necessary. "Look, I know you miss Draven. He was your husband, the love of your life. I still to this day have never seen any two people more meant for each other. You lost your husband, but you keep forgetting that the 3 of us lost our brother-in-law. We loved him, too. Hell, Pandora is the one that introduced you two!" Pandora looked around awkwardly, and she wished that Amoret hadn't said that. "I'm going to say to you what no one has had the guts to. Because I love you and I'm tired of seeing you like this; Draven is gone, Ebony. And he's never coming back. You need to stop sulking around and feeling sorry for yourself. What would Draven say if he knew how you've been acting since he died?" Ebony suddenly felt ashamed of herself. Of course her sisters had to have been hurting all this time, too. But she had been so blinded by her own grief, she failed to see theirs. And Amoret was right; if Draven saw the way Ebony had been acting since his death, he would be absolutely livid with her and she knew it. The one thing he couldn't stand was people feeling sorry for themselves. He hated people who stayed down when they were knocked down, and that's exactly what she was doing. He always said one of the many things he loved about his wife was that nothing could keep her down; no matter what she faced, she always managed to pick herself up again. Until 3 years ago, Ebony never felt sorry for herself, she always thought it was pointless and never changed anything. Now, that's all she does. She'll never get over losing him, and she'll never be the same. But, she does need to pull herself together and start living her life again. "You're right, Amoret. I'm sorry. All of you. I just miss him so much." And for the first time since he died, she cried in front of people. Amoret pulled her into a tight hug, and Pandora and Delilah quickly joined. None of them could remember the last time Ebony dared cry in front of them, she wasn't one to show emotion in front of anyone. Except Draven. "We know you miss him. We miss him, too." Delilah said. They pulled apart and said "mom did make a good suggestion. After this, we need to go back home and look through his stuff. Surely he left a summoning spell." Ebony said. "We'll help you look. But, right now, it's dark. We'd better get going." Pandora pointed out. They all looked out the window and, sure enough, it was pitch black. They all grabbed their bags and headed out, still unsure of what exactly they were walking into. If Ebony did come face to face with Lucifer again, would she be able to kill him? Or would she be so overcome with emotion looking into the eyes of her husband's killer that she would break down and cry or have to leave the house? She could only hope that she could maintain her composure. "Did you and Mom talk about anything else?" Pandora asked. Ebony wasn't sure if she should tell the truth or lie. "I'll give you guys every detail after we save this town." She simply said. That gave her some time to figure out how to tell them all that they were never going to speak to their mother again, all because Ebony chose the hunt over her. She wanted to believe she had made the right decision, but she was still so confused as to why she had to make the decision in the first place. Did her mom have some sort of history with Lucifer that she never mentioned? "Hey, guys. Just out of curiosity, Mom never mentioned Lucifer to any of you, right?" She asked. Something about the way her mom freaked out when she mentioned Lucifer, and wanted to try figuring out why. Her mother was fearless; nothing and no one scared her so, what gives? "Other than telling us constantly that we had to stay away from him? No." Delilah said. "Nope." Pandora said. "Not a word." Amoret added. Now Ebony was more confused than ever. Her and her mother were never close so she assumed she would've said something to one of her other daughters about why she was so insistent on them staying away from Lucifer but, apparently not. If they did come face to face with Lucifer, Ebony was determined to figure out what the deal with him was; why their mother was, could it be possible, scared of him? Their mother wasn't afraid of anyone or anything, but Ebony got the feeling that she was afraid of Lucifer. Yes, he's the devil, but surely he can't be worse than everything they've seen combined? The sisters pulled up to the house and made their way down to the basement. "Guys, wait. I wanna show you this." Ebony said, leading the girls over to the corner of the engraved message. "Look at this." She said, pointing to it. "Daddy was mad at me, today. He made me drink the red juice." Delilah read. "But, Ashby didn't have any kids." Pandora commented. "That's what I'msaying. It's weird, right?" Ebony said. The air in the room became so heavy so quick they felt like they could drown in it. What did he do to these kids? Innocent kids who had absolutely nothing to do with what he went through? What kind of human are you if you can kill and torture innocent children? It was pitch black in the room, there weren't even windows down there, and that caused all of their anxieties to skyrocket. Because if they can't see, something could pull a sneak attack on them. And, as has been said before, demons can take them out with little effort. They heard scratching from behind them, and immediately got into their defensive positions. They shined their flashlights and saw a boy, probably 17, who they could only assume was Holland, crawling on the ground. He was covered in fresh blood, he was missing a finger, and a patch of hair had been ripped from his skull. "Please. Don't hurt me, anymore." He begged, then coughed up some blood. The girls looked at each other, weary. Ebony was just in this house not too long ago, and she was there for a while. Why didn't Holland show himself before? Something was definitely off about this, they had to be on their guard. "Holland?" Amoret asked gently. He looked up at them, and the fear in his eyes was evident. There's no telling what he's been through in a year. That fact that he's still alive had them all on edge, because that meant that whatever, or whoever, took him has a bigger plan for him. When he looked up at them, Ebony and Pandora took in a sharp breath. They couldn't believe it; he looked like a young Porter Ashby. "Please. Please help me." He cried. Ebony and Pandora shot their sisters a warning glare. If they help Holland, Pandora feared it would be the end of them. "Of course we'll help you." Delilah said as she carefully approached him. Damn Delilah and her caring, nurturing nature. His body had almost no strength to it, and she was struggling to keep him upright. "I'll help her." Pandora said as her and Delilah both wrapped an arm around him. "Pandora!" Ebony hissed. "I've got this. You and Amoret just see what you can find. We'll get Holland to the hospital." Pandora said. Her and Ebony exchanged nervous glances as Pandora and Delilah helped Holland outside.