Chapter 7

Antonio.

Great. What was he doing here? The last time she saw him, he shouted at her in a mixture of Spanish and English that he couldn’t take the weirdness of being with her. He told her he would return for his things, but that was four months ago.

She reached for the knob and her guides surrounded her.

Don’t open that door.

Her hand froze. Why not?

We don’t like him.

I don’t like him either, but I have his things and it’s only fair that I allow him to get them.

There is something not right about him.

They circled her.

I know. He’s a jerk.

“Chandra, are you going to stand there all night and watch me or are you going to open this damn door?” At his harsh tone, her spine stiffened.

We really don’t like him. We can teach you the best way to punish a faithless man. The guides laughed.

Their offer sounded tempting. She should—no.

“Chandra,” he said, impatience laced his tone. His suave Latin accent vanished, reverting to his Bostonian street accent. “Open the fucking door, so I can get my things.”

Chandra sighed and did as he commanded. “Since you asked so nicely,” she whispered under her breath.

The sooner he got his things, the quicker he would be out of her hair. She didn’t understand why he was even here. He couldn’t run fast enough when he witnessed one of her night terrors. He left without a note or a phone message telling her what happened to him, so she called him. She demanded an explanation for his disappearance during the night.

He told her plain and simple she was a freak, and he couldn’t live with a woman who sounded like the gates of hell when she had her night terrors. She was just too weird for him.

His words had hurt. But what hurt her most was that she really liked him-maybe even loved him.

Her gaze moved over him. Yes, he was handsome—ok he was gorgeous. Not one strand of his black hair stood out of place. His grey suit fitted the contours of his body.

She didn’t understand what she ever saw in him.

He had the body and the face of a GQ model, but the personality of an asshole.

“If you wanted your things so badly, I would have packed and mailed them to you.”

“There was no need. I was in the neighborhood buying some things for Felicia.”

Who the heck is Felicia?

She must have given her thoughts away because he said, “She’s my fiancée.”

Hearing his announcement should have left her with some regrets or hurt feelings. Instead, she felt nothing more than curiosity. Why would an engaged man visit his ex-girlfriend? Rather than ask him the question, she did the next best thing. She adopted a nonchalant attitude.

“Congratulations.” She wanted to say more to him, for example, how unlucky Felicia was and how Chandra had a great escape when he dumped her. She moved toward the closet without repeating any of her thoughts. “I have your things in here.” She reached for the door to find that it wouldn’t open. Antonio’s hand pressed against the frame.

Uncomfortable with his close proximity, she turned her head to stare at him.

“Do you ever wonder about us? About being together?” He stepped closer as he placed his other hand on her hip. “I can’t stop thinking of you—of us—of the night we spent making love all night long. You do remember, don’t you?”

She pushed his chest away from her. “What I remember is you peeling out of here as if I pointed a gun at you.”

“You can’t blame me. I panicked because I was falling in love with you.”

Something about this whole scenario was strange. Antonio wasn’t romantic, nor was he the type to reminisce about what ifs.

“Get away from him Chandra.” She heard a deep command. It came from her right side. She glanced in the direction of the voice.

Danyun stood ten feet away, in the living room. His eyes narrowed to almost slits. His forehead formed furrows.

Her heart pumped quickly. She tried to explain to him why she was in the arms of another man, but the words wouldn’t come to her.

Then, she noticed something unusual. She hadn’t heard her guides for several minutes. It was as if someone switched off the television for a brief moment. All at once, sound returned in a flash.

She heard them shouting at her. They spoke together, each voicing some non-intelligible words. She tried to comprehend them, but they sounded as if something distorted their voices.

“Chandra. Get away from him now,” Danyun repeated in a more determine tone.

“Danyun, relax. This is Antonio. He’s only here to get his things and go.”

But Antonio didn’t do that. What he did made her groan under her breath in despair. He brushed her cheek with his fingertips.

Chandra rolled her eyes. Antonio had to play the macho jerk.

Danyun extended his arm. His sword materialized in his hand.

Before he attacked Antonio, she got between the two men. “Calm down. He just my ex.”

“He is no longer your ex-lover,” he growled.

His reaction to Antonio confused Chandra. It should not have. From the second she met him, Danyun displayed nothing but Big Dick energy. This did not give him the right to act like a prick.

“If you put it that way—no he isn’t,” she snapped.

Danyun’s lips became a thin line, at the same time, a tick appeared on the side of his jaw. “It was not a question.”

Before she had a chance to process what he said, two arms grabbed from behind. She squealed. “Let go of me.”

“No, witch.” She knew that deep, rumbling tone. The anxiety she felt in the pit of her stomach a half an hour ago increased when she glanced at Antonio.

But, he wasn’t Antonio. A haze of red replaced the normal hue of his dark brown eyes. His mouth widened into a sinister smile. From the moment he entered her apartment, he behaved unlike himself, yet she ignored the signs. Now, seeing the dark aura covering him, her heart pounded and terror crawl down her spine.

“I won’t let you go,” the demon said. “Not until I drain every last drop of energy from you.”

“Release her.”

Chandra heard Danyun response. She desperately yearned to rush to him for safety but shock stiffened her body.

The demon laughed. “Or what? You have no leverage over me. I have your precious witch. I can snap her neck before you have a chance to swing your sword.”

“She is not my witch,” Danyun said with such conviction, Chandra’s chest clenched. She glanced at him, hoping to see a glimmer of pretense in his eyes. A blank expression stared at her.

“That is where you are wrong. I can smell your scent all over her.” The demon sniffed at her neck. “From what I can tell you recently fucked her.” The Gauldor chuckled. “And fucked her really well.”

Behind her ear, she felt something wet glide over her flesh. She jerked her head away, but the demon held firmly in its arm.

Danyun took a step forward. “You’ve tested me for the last time.”

“Uh. Uh. Uh. You don’t want me to harm a strand on her head.” The Gauldor stroke her short curls. “What will her family do when they find out that you let a demon like me kill her?”

Danyun’s knuckles whitened as his fingers tightened on the hilt of the sword. “And you? What do you think will happen to you?”

“Since I’m dead either way, I think I will take your girlfriend with me.”

Listen. You have to do it. Tap into your power. You are the only one that can save Danyun and yourself. Somehow, Corna flew to Chandra without the Gauldor noticing the guide’s flight.

Chandra was glad to hear Corna’s voice. It soothed her until she heard the guide’s suggestion. But the demon is too powerful.

You are stronger than it is. You have your family’s will and their powers. You have accumulated energy through the years. That was why you had the night terrors. Some of the things you dreamt about were too awful for your subconscious to accept. Your shouts were the incantations you learned and used to protect yourself.

As hard as she tried, Chandra’s mind drew a blank when she searched for the spell she needed.

Her eyes began to well with tears. I can’t do it. I don’t know the spell.

You don’t have to know it. Your body knows it. Say the words.

From their position near Danyun, the other guides shouted together the last sentence in a sing-along as they too flew to her.

Tears fell on her cheeks. What if she failed?

What if she didn’t?

A surge of energy began to surround Chandra, similar to a gown draped on a woman’s body. Shivers of trepidation formed on her skin, but she repressed the emotion. The force pulled on her flesh, as if it consumed her.

It felt cumbersome, restrictive and… scary.

She came so close to screaming that she couldn’t do it—she couldn’t save them until she glanced at Danyun. She saw something deep in his eyes. It resembled desperation—no dread. He feared for her. For what the demon would do to her. Underneath it all, she sensed something else.

His love.

Startled by the realization that she read all of his emotions in a single glance, she shut her eyes for a moment.

Everything around her moved faster. Her life moved too fast. In less than a day, she found out that she was from another world. Danyun believed she was the kidnapped child of a powerful coven. Her supposed family were witches. The weirdest thing of it all, they got their powers through their dreams.

All of it was too much for her. She didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to sleep and forget, to sleep and never think about it.

“That’s right, sleep. You don’t have to think about anything or worry about anything ever again. I’ll take care of you.” She heard the voice, its deep harmonic tone. She knew something was wrong with it, but she couldn’t stop herself from falling asleep.

Dreams began to lure her. They beckoned her to fall into their mist, yet something about them gave her pause. She yearned to go to the white smoke, but low voices behind her begged her to return. She didn’t know what to do until something pull her back.

“Chandra! Awaken!”

Danyun.

She couldn’t leave him alone to face the demon. She refused to let the Gauldor hurt the man she loved.

Her eyes flew open. Oh my god, I’m in love with Danyun.

“Chandra!” Danyun shouted again, but she couldn’t see him. A bright light covered her vision.

Chandra, you must do it now. You must regain your powers.

The guides spoke to her. From where? She didn’t know. The white glow blocked her vision.

I have to do this, she said to herself. If only she wasn’t so tired. She wished she had the strength to go to Danyun to banish this demon so the world could be safe from its terror.

All of a sudden, her lips parted, and she recited words that were foreign to her. She repeated the chants over and over until the light receded.

“No. This can’t be happening. You can’t defeat me. You’re a novice witch.” The tight grip around her neck weakened. She stumbled as she moved away from Antonio’s possessed body. For a second his eyes turned eerily gold, as if it was covered with a cloudy amber. And just as it appeared, the color reverted back to its natural dark brown color. She knew then she destroyed the demon.

Before she fell to the floor, two large hands grabbed her arms. “Are you all right?” Danyun whispered in her ear.

She heard his voice tremble. That he worried warmed her. She rubbed her head on his chin. “I’m fine now.”

“I thought I lost you.” He hugged her close to his chest. “Do not invite a demon into your home again,” he growled.

Chandra didn’t mind the reprimand. He was safe. They both were.

Behind her came a moan. “Chandra?”

She looked over her shoulder. Antonio sat on the floor. His eyes clouded in confusion as they panned around the room. “What is going on?” He ran his fingers through his dark hair. “How did I get here?”

Pushing herself away from Danyun, she turned the rest of her body to answer Antonio. She didn’t get far because Danyun’s arms didn’t budge. He held her tight. She stared at him. “I’ll be okay.”

He frowned. “I don’t trust him.”

“Trust me, the demon is no longer here. I sent it away. Do you sense it in the air? The dark energy is gone.”

In slow degrees, Danyun’s frown cleared, something dark and indescribable burned in his eyes.

She wondered about it until he gazed at the man on the floor. He couldn’t possibly be jealous of Antonio. When Danyun narrowed his eyes on the figure, Chandra rethought her position.

He was jealous.

As if sensing her thoughts, he glanced at her and reinforced his position. “I don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I, but that has nothing to with the demon.”

“Will you welcome him back into your life?” The frown deepened.

“No.” The word was final. Antonio was the past, and she hoped Danyun was her future. “I just want to make sure he’s all right so that I can send him on his way.”

She squatted on the floor. As she reached up to touch Antonio’s forehead, she heard a snarl behind her. Immediately, her hand dropped.

Chandra stood with her hands on her hips and gave Danyun, she hoped, an exasperated stare. “How am I supposed to see if he’s all right with you making that sound behind me?”

“I’m not comfortable with you touching him.”

“Well get comfortable. If you want him out of here quickly, then let me do this in peace.”

The muscles on Danyun’s shoulders and biceps contracted. “In my world, we leave those who are unworthy at death’s door.”

“We are not in your world.”

He opened his mouth, probably to argue with her. Instead, he glared at Antonio. “You may touch him, but I will stand here and watch him.”

Chandra rolled her eyes. She’d almost forgotten about his arrogance. Oh well, it was part and parcel of why she loved him so much.

Her fingers brushed over Antonio’s forehead. His skin was hot and damp.

“Is he your new boyfriend?”

He was more than that. “Yes.”

Antonio gazed over her shoulder. She braced herself for one of his obnoxious comments. “You sure know how to pick them.”

Chandra worked in advertising in Manhattan for two years. She knew how to deal with jerks. “I would say he’s a step up from my usual losers.”

“Wait a minute, I--”

“Mind your tone or I’ll rip--” Danyun began to say, but Chandra interrupted him.

“Danyun, it’s okay.”

“He should have more respect for you.”

“Where did you pick this foreign muscle head?” One of Antonio’s problems was that he always needed to be the center of attention.

“Antonio, shut up,” she snapped. She should listen to Danyun and leave Antonio at the mercy of his own fate, but her conscience told her that her parents wouldn’t approve.

She sat on her calves. “If you weren’t such an ass, you would realize we just saved your life. The least you could do is to show us some gratitude.”

“Gratitude for what? For dragging me here to this dump? I ran out of here for a reason. All your…”

Before he finished his words, he slumped into an unconscious sleep.

“What happened to him?” Danyun asked.

She smiled and watched the colorful orbs rotate over the prone body before she glanced at Danyun. “The pixies weren’t too happy with the way he was speaking to me.”

No. We were not. Your mother would have changed him into a frog, and he would remain one for ten years. Your father would have sent him straight to Tartarus. Several days with the demons would have tempered his attitude.

Chandra laughed. She loved the pixies’ wit. “We won’t do any of that, but I’m still glad you put him to sleep because he was getting on my last nerve.”

Danyun’s brows rose.

“It means he annoyed me,” Chandra clarified.

“Then, why do you want to help him?”

“Because I’m human.”

“No, you’re a Freydian.”

“It doesn’t matter. I still feel like I’m human. Humans believe in helping people when they’re injured.”

“That is understandable.” He nodded. “You may help him.”

She needed to work on his bossiness, to reform him.

Her instincts guided her to lay her hands on Antonio’s cheeks. She said a string of unknown incantations.

After the last word fell from her lips, she slumped forward, into the arms of darkness.