Lost in Demon's Eyes

8 - Ansel's decision

Ansel

“Zia! Zia! Are you all right?!” I kept asking my sister, who was lying on the ground, her head in my arms. She groaned without opening her eyes. Then she screamed out, sitting up and nearly killing me on the spot with her fast reflexes.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” I yelled at her. But she didn’t care, she kept sitting and staring into space, her eyes wide open. She wasn’t blinking and she wasn’t breathing either. Then she took a deep breath, another one.

“What the hell did just happen?!” She turned to me, surprised. She doesn’t remember anything? How is that possible? I puckered my brows. There was no way she would forget anything! Not as long as she was my sister and didn’t get switched out for somebody else that looked just like her. I smelled her. There was nothing wrong with her, just a weird smell of sulfur and ashes, but that could have been expected from the visit we had gotten a while ago.

“We should call somebody to pick us up…” She said, still not quite grasping the situation we were in. Soon after she started walking across the parking lot, leaving me there completely speechless. So first she decides that we don’t need bodyguards, we get kidnapped, as a result of her singing something with that demon, there is a complete bloodbath inside! That’s just insane! I shook my head and slapped my cheeks a few times. I wasn’t overthinking things. This was reality. My shoes were still bloody!

“Ansel! Ansel! Get Zia!” I looked up, searching for the person, who had just called my name. The female voice of hers was very familiar and sounded awfully worried. I finally saw mum running out from a car, the tires screeching in an attempt to stop it quickly.

“ZIA!” I yelled out, running after her. Even though she was a few minutes or seconds older than me, her body was quite tiny and her legs shorter than mine. I got to her within less than ten minutes. Even though my wolf wasn’t present, my body was growing stronger and faster each day. My sense of smell and hearing was getting better as well. I sensed her confusion when I was closing in on her.

“We gotta go.” I grabbed her elbow as she wasn’t responding to my calling. I pulled her back and made her walk with me. She wasn’t in a state of mind to decide for herself. I looked at my mother from under my eyebrows while pulling Zia behind me. This was messed up. Way too messed up. Mum didn’t say nor do anything. She was only checking if both of us weren’t hurt. I helped Zia into the car and stuffed myself in as well. I wasn’t surprised that our father wasn’t there, Theo was driving.

“Where’s dad?” I asked, putting a seatbelt on Zia and then myself.

“At shaman’s place. She called him the moment we wanted to leave.” It wasn’t unusual for the shaman to call my father off. She had basically more power in the whole pack than the Alpha himself. I sighed at the hopelessness of the situation.

Arriving home came faster than I would have imagined. The whole trip I kept being lost in my thoughts. Stepping out of the car and breathing in the humid earthy moss-like forest smell made me finally feel at ease. I was somewhere where I belonged and I knew it. My whole body knew it. Even though I still couldn’t connect with my wolf, deep down I felt relaxed and comfortable. And I was hoping and thinking that if my wolf appeared one day, he would definitely feel the same. Or maybe it was him feeling that way.

I entered the house, where we were residing. The biggest cottage in the whole village was always reserved for Alpha and his family, us. Walking in from the hallway, the living room was quite huge with long couches around a spacious coffee table gathered around a fireplace. The walls were lined with wooden planks and the ceiling was completely wooden. I threw myself on one of the red-pinkish couches, leaning my head back. I closed my eyes but opened them right away. The awful scene when that distasteful demonic monster was carrying Zia through the corpses was etched into my mind and appeared every single time I closed my eyes.

It was quite quiet still, as I was the only one in the living room. Mother and my sister were waiting for father to come back. He was still stuck at the shaman’s house. His visits usually took hours.

“Zia, sit down on that couch!” The calmness disappeared into the back of the house. Frantic footsteps appeared together with my mother’s angry-worried voice ordering Zia to sit. There were more than three people, counting the footsteps, there was one more person. I sniffed the air to take in the scents, which were intertwining together. It was the shaman’s daughter, Rhea. I sighed. This meant things weren’t going to be easy.

“I’m an adult already! You don’t have to tell me what to do!” My few minutes older sister always had her own head, protesting even at this point in time. As a result, she got shoved on the same sofa I was resting on.

“And you take your shoes off!” Mum was raging. I took them off and let them sit next to me.

“Zia, show me your wrists…” Rhea was calmer than our mother. Dad was standing behind Rhea, who was now squatting down to check Zia’s wrists.

“Please don’t tell me what I think it is…” Mum came to check on the symbol on Zia’s hand. Rhea kept looking at it, turning Zia’s hand in different directions, stroking the black sigil on her wrist.

“It is a sigil, Ariadne. She’s marked. It means that-”

“I know what it means, Rhea. You don’t need to explain it to me!” Mother was having a hysterical fit, her voice breaking down from yelling.

“I’ll make you some calming tea, Ariadne. If we want to come up with a solution, it’s best to do it when we are calm.” Rhea’s voice was still calm and clear as a motionless water surface. Rhea went to the kitchen, while mum and dad looked quite worried. I sneaked out to the kitchen, following Rhea. I wanted to know what was going on, or what I could do to help my sister out.

“Rhea, what does that thing on Zia’s inner wrist mean?” I whispered to her, knowing that if we were speaking any louder than that, our father would be able to hear everything. Rhea turned the water in the tap on, letting it into the electric kettle.

“It means she signed a contract with the demon, whose sigil that is, that concerns her soul. I didn’t see the contract and I don’t even know how to draw it out. But I heard it is possible to draw it out somehow. However, our knowledge of demons isn’t good. I know they exist only from the old tales. Never seen one with my eyes…” She stopped the water, putting an end to the conversation we were having. Water in the kettle was soon bubbling, filling the room with noise.

“Now, what you can actually do is stick to Zia’s side. No matter what, Ansel. She needs support more than anyone right now. Look at her! She’s completely out of it, she has no idea what is going on. And once she realizes what happened, let’s hope she won’t do anything rash, knowing her impulsive character.” Rhea sighed, pouring hot water over a few dried herbs in the mug. I shrugged. I never voted for having a sister like her; irresponsible, acting on a whim, not being in her right mind, or standing with her feet on the ground. I grumbled. I wasn’t happy about this at all.

“What can we do then?” I asked Rhea while we were waiting for the herbs to steep in the eta long enough. The living room was awfully quiet.

“Well, I don’t think that as werewolves we can do anything. However, a good witch might be able to come up with a solution…” Rhea drifted off into her thoughts, trying to remember any witch, that could be willing to help us.

“I believe we know one witch clan in Prague. They are occupying most of Central Europe but are a bit friendlier than the ones here in France. I might try to contact the leader. We’ve met a few times in the past and she didn’t seem too crazy. Would be worth a try.” Rhea continued her monologue as if I wasn’t there at all. She was speaking her thoughts out loud with her forefinger tapping her lips every few words when her mouth closed.

I peeked into the living room. My sister was still sitting there, father and mother were looking at her with their worried faces. Well, what wouldn't I do for my little sister? I already gave up some of the things in my life as I knew she was weaker than anyone else here. Going away from the pack won't be any bigger sacrifice since I'm still not taken as a fully accepted member because my wolf keeps being silent! I grunted. Just the thought of not being able to call to my wolf was agonizing enough. I knew I was supposed to shift three years ago when I reached my eighteenth birthday, but up to this day, nothing. Completely nothing. Silence. That was the only thing I was getting from him. The closest person to me was always Zia. And I wasn't planning to change that.

“Well, guess we can’t do anything else. We go to Prague.” I announced to Rhea. She surprisedly turned around, her eyes widening.