Rival Demons Read online

  Rival Demons

  By Sarra Cannon

  Published by Dead River Books

  To Kris

  For all the bedtime stories

  told to your little sister in the dark.

  You taught me how to imagine.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2012 by Sarra Cannon Bittmann

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  Find Sarra Cannon on the web!

  www.sarracannon.com

  www.twitter.com/sarramaria

  http://www.goodreads.com/sarra_cannon

  www.facebook.com/sarracannon

  Cover Design by Robin Ludwig Design, Inc.

  http://www.rldprint.com/

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost, I would like to thank all of the fans of the Peachville High Demons series for your patience and support during all the tough times.

  Thank you to my amazing husband, George, who always loves me no matter what and is my partner in every way.

  I can't ever say thank you enough to my wonderful critique group. Alok, Erica, and Jenn, you are the very best. You make me a better writer. Thank you so much for all you do.

  I also wanted to thank my friends Cynthia and Jenn for all the weekly writing dates. You kept me motivated! Let's keep it going.

  Finally, a special thank you to the Indelibles. We are already making our mark. I am so happy to have found you all.

  Peachville High Demons Series:

  Beautiful Demons

  Inner Demons

  Bitter Demons

  Shadow Demons

  Rival Demons

  Table of Contents

  A Whole New Life

  Some Kind of Nightmare

  A Dark Power

  For Forever

  How Can You Be So Sure?

  Rivals

  Shattered

  The Closest Thing I have Left To A Family

  It Really Is You

  Out of The Shadows

  This Will Be Difficult

  The Secret of The Stones

  Past and Future Pain

  Not In Front of Him

  Never Forget

  Twinge of Pain

  The Bitter Taste of Unsaid Words

  Almost Freedom

  The Cycle Continues

  Change The World

  Survival Tactic

  The Information You Are Seeking

  It's Complicated

  Right Place at The Right Time

  Follow Your Friends

  Close Enough To Feel

  Do You Know This Word?

  The Hidden Door

  Magic I Could Use

  A Tiny Glow

  A Piece of Myself

  I Had To Know

  Not All of Us Have Time

  To Translate Words

  I Have My Reasons

  Never Give Up

  The Green Brought Out His Eyes

  Painful Awakening

  We Can Never Be Together

  Trying to Make Sense of The Scene

  I'd Almost Forgotten

  Divided Far Too Long

  No Matter The Danger

  She Comes

  A Life Stolen

  The Kind of Girl That Rebels Against The System

  This Isn't How I Die

  Another One of Their Lies

  The Woman He Loves

  Life Rarely Is

  Guarded Secrets

  The Ring

  Places of Great Power

  This Is What The Order of Shadows Does

  We Should Go South

  The Glass Forest

  The Scariest Thing Out Here

  I Hope I Never Do

  Enjoy These Moments

  Too Late

  To Know My Fear

  This Unknown Power

  I Am The Thing That Ends You

  Welcome Home

  Only The Beginning

  A Whole New Life

  I lifted my eyes to a foreign sun, inhaling the fresh scent of flowers as warmth seeped into my skin. I wanted to throw my tired arms into the air and twirl around like a little child.

  I'm alive!

  Jackson's warm hand entwined with mine, and I smiled. He had come for me. Standing there in the ritual room, I had believed I was dead. But the moment I saw his face and felt him pulling me through the portal, a whole new life opened up to me.

  He took me into his arms. I leaned against him, my legs weak. I hadn't eaten in days and my wrists and ankles were raw from the Order's iron shackles. Still, my heart swelled with love and gratitude.

  Behind us, Lea shouted for help.

  I turned to get my first real look at the scene. The blue light of the portal radiated out from a wide circle of black roses. Through the blinding light, I could just make out the Peachville ritual room on the other side. A black, inky darkness began to spread along the right side of the light, like an eclipse.

  That's when I noticed Lea standing beside the portal, a silver sword grasped in her hand. She swung the blade toward the black roses, severing them from their stems with furious precision.

  "Come on," she yelled. "I need help. If we don't move fast enough, they'll regrow."

  Mary Anne fell to her knees before the portal, wincing as her injured leg hit the rocky ground. She pulled a tiny dagger from her belt and began cutting the roses one-by-one.

  Jackson sprung into action, grabbing another sword from a large duffel bag on the ground at our feet.

  Disoriented, I watched as they worked to close the portal. With each severed rose, more of the blue light darkened to black. A strange fog began to ooze from the opening in the portal, moving across the area with startling speed. A vicious wind roared around us as the fog grew thicker. The swirling vortex blew me backward like a tornado. I struggled against it, throwing myself onto the ground and crawling toward the circle of black roses.

  Frantic, I began pulling the roses from their stems, not even caring as thorns sliced into my palm. Black petals flew all around us as we worked, but just as Lea reached the last handful of black roses, something broke through from the Peachville side.

  The figures moved so fast, I could only make out two streaks of orange, moving like flames across the fog. I screamed as one streak collided with Jackson, sending him straight to the ground.

  I scrambled toward him, then froze as my eyes adjusted and the figure on his back came into clear view.

  A tiger. And not just any tiger. One of the shape-shifting twins who had come after me in the field when the Order of Shadows first captured me. One of the tigers who had stood outside my cell at Shadowford for the last week, making sure I would never go free.

  Some Kind of Nightmare

  The orange and black tiger bared its sharp teeth, lowering them toward Jackson's throat.

  Forgetting my exhaustion, I lunged toward them. I wrapped my arms around the tiger's middle and tumbled over the top of it, wrenching it away from Jackson's body. The entire left side of my body hit the rocks at full speed, and I cried out. The tiger, unhurt, straightened itself and hissed at me.

  I felt like I had entered some kind of nightmare. Time moved slowly and the tiger leapt toward me, vicious claws extended. Instinctively, I threw my arms up to shield my face, but before the tiger could reach me, a stream of black energy raced toward it, slamming into her with such force that by the time she hit the ground, she was in human form again.

  I looked over my shoulder at Jackson. He stood tall, his chest heavin
g with each breath. Black smoke flowed from his hand to the auburn-haired girl, holding her to the ground.

  I stood, every muscle in my body protesting. "She has a twin," I said, looking all around us. All I could see was the dark fog that surrounded the entire area around the portal. From where we stood, I couldn't even make out where Lea was. All I could see was the faintest blue of the portal's light somewhere to our left.

  "I know," he said. "I'm sure they came through together, those two are inseparable."

  Panic coursed through me. "What about Mary Anne? We have to find her." I took two steps toward the portal, bracing myself against the fierce wind. "Mary Anne," I screamed.

  No one answered.

  I knew Lea was capable of taking care of herself, but against one of the twins, Mary Anne would be in serious danger. We had to find her.

  When I turned back to Jackson, he had wrapped his black energy tightly around the first twin. She was bound in smoke-like chains, struggling hard against them but getting nowhere.

  "Will those things hold her?"

  Jackson nodded. "For a little while," he said.

  "Then come on," I said, gripping his arm. "We have to find the others."

  We ran toward the portal's light.

  Lea sliced at the black roses with her sword, but before she could clear them all, the ones at the beginning had begun to grow back. Frustration twisted her features. "I can't get the portal to seal," she said. "These damn roses are growing back too fast."

  "Keep working," Jackson said, searching for his lost sword. "We can't let anyone else come through."

  I swayed on my feet, my head spinning. I thought of the days of no food, laying on the hard wooden floor of Shadowford's attic, waiting for death. Please tell me I hadn't escaped that only to end up right back where I started.

  Through the bright light of the portal, I could see another one of Priestess Winter's servants preparing to enter the shadow world. Even in my exhaustion, I understood what it would mean if more of the Order broke through this barrier and dragged me back through. In Peachville, I was a dead girl.

  I couldn't let them win. I wanted to live.

  I had to find a way to keep the witch from coming through. My aching muscles protested as I lifted my arms to cast. I wasn't sure it would work, but I thought of the shield Zara had taught me to use. What if that shield could work like a barrier? It might give us the extra time we needed to put a more permanent seal on the portal.

  I summoned every drop of energy I could find and concentrated on creating the shield. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it long, but I hoped it would give them enough time to destroy the circle of roses.

  Just as my shield went up, I heard a loud roar behind us.

  I couldn't hold my concentration and the shield dropped. I cursed and bit back tears.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw the second tiger twin pounce toward Jackson. This twin's coat was similar to her sister's but was colored with orange and white instead of black.

  "I've got this one," Jackson said, fury and hatred in his eyes. "You help Lea."

  I turned back to the portal just as the tiger dove forward. It took a lot of willpower not to look back to see what was happening. I had to just trust that Jackson knew what he was doing. For now, it seemed to just be these two twins who had broken through to the demon world. If Lea couldn't seal this portal, we would all die. We couldn't fight off an entire coven of witches, especially if Priestess Winter was one of them.

  I had to find a way to connect to my true power. I lowered my weary body to the ground and sat criss-cross against the cold obsidian rock. I steadied my breathing and let all of the noise around me fade away. In my mind, I pictured one of my mother's cherished white roses. Finally connecting to the energy inside of me, I tried again to create a barrier against the witch's attacks.

  And this time, it worked.

  A Dark Power

  Spells blasted into my shield, leaving the taste of dark magic on my tongue.

  On the Peachville side, the witches worked to bring down the barrier I had created. My strength wavered, but I forced myself to hold on. Just a few more seconds. My body screamed as my energy slipped away. I wanted to sob. I wanted to give up.

  I wanted to lay down and sleep for a hundred years.

  But more than any of that, I wanted to survive.

  I exhaled, feeling the last of my power slide through my fingertips. When I thought I couldn't give more, the portal shifted, sealing with a sucking noise. A deafening silence settled on us as the wind stopped.

  Beside me, Lea leaned over, trying to catch her breath. Black petals and stems were strewn across the ground in every direction. She had finally managed to close the portal, and for the first time since I'd met her, I actually wanted to hug her.

  But we weren't out of danger yet. The twins were still on the shadow world side. I turned to find Jackson and Mary Anne as the fog cleared.

  Jackson had the white tiger pinned to the ground and she quickly shifted back to her human form.

  Her dark green eyes practically glowed as she snarled up at me. "You'll never be able to hide from us," she said. "The Order won't stop until you're dead. All you're going to do is get your friends killed right along with you."

  "That's a chance we're willing to take," Jackson said, wrapping a smoky black ribbon around the girl's mouth.

  "Let her go," someone shouted. A flash of movement off to our right caught my eye as the other twin shifted into her orange tiger form, lunging toward Jackson with such speed I didn't have time to do anything but watch.

  Her claws scraped Jackson's arm, streaks of blood staining his t-shirt. He cried out and let go of his hold on the first twin as she shifted into her white-tiger form. Both tigers now moved with incredible speed, circling me in an instant.

  I tried to run, but they kept me trapped between them.

  Lea laughed, and I jerked my head toward her. Seriously? With Jackson injured, me trapped, and Mary Anne nowhere to be found? How could she be laughing at a time like this?

  Apparently, the twins were wondering the same thing. The orange tiger stopped circling and turned to stare at Lea. "You think it's funny that your precious Prima is going to die?"

  "No, actually, I was just wondering what you think you plan to do with her now that you've got her surrounded," Lea said, smiling and raising an eyebrow. "In case you didn't notice, I sealed the portal. Trust me, there's no way anyone's going in or out of that thing for a while. How exactly are you planning to get Harper back to Peachville?"

  The white twin growled low and bared her pointed teeth at me.

  "We'll kill her here and now," the orange twin said.

  "You won't kill her," Lea said. "If the Order simply wanted her dead, they would have killed her a long time ago. No, the Order has gone to a lot of trouble to keep her alive so they could transfer her essence to a new Prima. Don't ask me why. For some reason, her essence is special to them. You need her alive so they can complete their ritual."

  The white twin shifted into human form and grabbed my arm so hard, I knew it would leave a bruise. I tried to pull away, but the events of the past few weeks had finally caught up with me. I had no strength left. Only anger.

  "You underestimate the power of the witches on the other side of that portal," the twin said. "They will break through soon, and when they do, all of you will die. Including Harper. Only her death will happen in the ritual room while yours will happen instantly."

  "The Order doesn't have the upper hand in this world," Jackson said. I'd never seen such rage in his eyes before. Blood dripped from his shoulder, but he barely seemed to even notice. "Nothing they can do will open that portal for at least another few hours. Do you really think you'll still be alive by then?"

  As they argued, I scanned the area, searching for Mary Anne. She had to be here somewhere. Maybe she had gotten scared and run off to hide? But where? Around us, the black rock seemed to stretch on for miles. Far in the distance, I could se
e some type of forest, but there was no way she would have been able to see that in the fog.

  No, she had to be close.

  Then, I caught sight of a small form collapsed against the rocks about fifty feet away. My stomach twisted. Oh God. It was her. And she wasn't moving.

  Tears burned my eyes. They spilled down my face and soaked into the fabric of my dirty white ritual dress.

  "See?" the orange twin said, amused by my tears. "Even Harper knows there is no hope now. Open the portal and maybe we can convince the Order to let you live."

  "What did you do to her?" I asked, my voice a whisper. I had meant to put more sound behind it, but I was breathless and scared. I tried again. "What did you do to Mary Anne?"

  At first, the twins both stared at me, as if they had no idea what I was talking about. Then, the white twin followed my gaze over to where Mary Anne lay motionless against the rocks. She stifled a laugh.

  "Oh, her?" she said. "The little bird tried to peck my eyes out. I had to put her in her place."

  Rage boiled up within me, searing my skin. Mary Anne had risked everything to save me. More than once. She didn't deserve this, and it was all my fault. She'd come here to keep me safe. How could I have let this happen?

  Deep inside, a dark power burned through me like liquid fire. I acted on instinct, knowing only anger. They needed to pay for what they had done.

  I burned like a fever, my flesh becoming like hot coals. The white twin let go of me and stepped back, staring at her blistering hand in horror and confusion. Slowly, I lifted both of my hands upward. The ground beneath us rumbled and all around, pieces of black rock rose into the air. The force of my hatred consumed me. It seemed to rip me apart, splintering me into a million little pieces. I wasn't myself. I was something dark and furious. Anger rolled through me, consuming me. In my mind, all I could see was Mary Anne's unmoving body. All I wanted was revenge.

  I focused all of my anger on the white twin. Without even thinking, I summoned the crushing weight of all those rocks on her.