It was still early morning on that fourth day, and I was oddly restless, having awakened from a dream where I separated from Harris and exploded. The dream wasn’t surprising, given our situation, but it was still disturbing. I walked to the second room in the house and flopped on the bed. I then settled back and turned on the TV with the remote, not wanting to disturb Harris with my restlessness.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been watching TV, some low angst romance series, before it began watching me. I found myself awakened by a cold, feathery brush down my arm. I shivered, thinking it was the chill from the air conditioning. Harris was hot-blooded and liked the temperature set to arctic. Only the breeze felt too deliberate. It was just on my upper arm, and it would stop and start. And then I felt the pressure. Like the back of fingers.
Fear instantly seized my heart, my body stilling. I tightened my lids shut, too afraid to look at what was touching me. It was definitely not Harris. The fingers, if that was what was touching me, were too cold.
The cold fingers slowly moved up my arm, then over my neck to my cheeks. I fought against an uncomfortable shiver. I wished I could believe I was dreaming, but too much had happened for me to try to wish this away. This had to be the entity. What was it doing? Why wasn’t it attacking me? Did I really care? I needed to get the hell away from it.
I quickly slid in what I hoped was the opposite direction of the creature, but, as I figured, I was too slow, and I felt a cold pull at my shoulder, slamming me flat against the bed. A darkness wrapped all around me, seemingly freezing every muscle until I felt paralyzed.
I finally opened my eyes and was horrified to see something very human-shaped, onyx in color, balanced over me, entrapping my body. Only this time I could clearly see glowing topaz eyes that looked very human and the outline of a also humanoid nose, mouth, and ears. It, or rather he, was very much larger than me. He wasn’t as big as Harris but clearly male with broad shoulders. He was a man, but also very much not a man. And I think he was naked. I couldn’t tell. He was draped in shadows, and I wasn’t willing to look below his waist. All I knew was that hold over my body came from him, swirling like long tentacles.
I tried again in vain to move my arms, but whatever these bindings were, they were too strong. I thought my powers were fully returned, and portals weren’t just opening up around me anymore. If it wasn’t that, then how was this thing still getting through the wards?
“What do you want?” I cried.
It leaned forward as if it were going to kiss me, and I moved my head sideways, thankful to have that bit of movement left. His cool breath brushed over my neck, and I decided that I didn’t want to wait for an answer. It didn’t matter what he wanted. I needed him gone.
I didn’t need to move my body to control my portals; it helped focus the magical energy, but it wasn’t a necessity. I willed my magic through my body and, in no time, a portal opened above us. The large swirling black mass hovered in the air, tugging at the entity above me.
He pulled away from my neck, and I saw something in his eyes that I hadn’t expected. Not fear, not anger, but hurt. It was as if he were pained that I would try to send him away. Or was I reading too much into it?
“Camilla,” he said in a deep, hoarse-sounding voice that chilled me. The sound of my name from this being terrified me. How did he know me? Where did he come from?
“I don’t know what or who you are, but you need to leave me alone. Go. And don’t come back. Please,” I begged as I pushed my power out to repel him away from me and into the portal. I could already feel the paralyzing binds loosen, and the feel of my limbs return.
He looked confused, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. I didn’t believe that because he knew my name, and he knew to tell Harris to die. “I won’t,” he replied with an accent I could hear now but could not place.
Frustration seized me, but it was quickly replaced by panic when I felt the pull of his shadowy limbs. My magic was pulling him to the portal, but he was trying to take me with him. Instantly, I thought of my father and how he’d been missing all those years, only to come back broken. I couldn’t have that. That would never be me.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, struggling against his bonds. If I closed the portal, he’d be here until we found a way to banish him. The last time he dissipated, but he wasn’t connected to me in this way before. My magic couldn’t vanish him so easily if he were entrapping me. I needed help.
Before I could think of my next move, I heard the click of a gun with a silencer and looked to my feet to find Harris, wild-eyed and shooting several times at the creature. His marksmanship was careful to avoid harming me.
The entity’s body jerked back at each hit from the gun, but I felt no blood or saw any wounds. He didn’t seem fully solid, although he did not touch me, which was another curiosity. All that I felt was his ice-cold tentacle bindings.
The creature looked to the door and hissed at Harris, exposing a mouth full of horrifying, sharp teeth. That failed to deter Harris as he moved further into the bedroom, soon joined by his guards.
“Don’t hurt her!” Harris demanded both from his people and from the entity.
A mage guard pushed out his hands, and it felt like my body was suddenly being wrapped in a warm blanket. A body ward. Instantly, the entity’s shadows that connected to me broke away from his body, cut off by the ward. And without the connection, there was no resistance to him being pulled back through my portal. I continued my magic and was relieved to see him finally begin to dissipate into the swirling black mass that I had created.
Harris raised his hands to stop his guards from shooting, and I agreed with that decision. There was no need to further damage the walls or for anyone innocent on the other side of that portal to catch a stray.
In seconds, the entity was sucked into the portal and disappeared. I balled my hand into a fist, closing it tight. I then quickly hopped out of bed. The ick from the creature’s hold on me seeped into my bones, and I shook all over like a wet dog. My throat felt like it was closing up, and I couldn’t gulp in enough air.
Harris looked around at the group. “Search this place for any open portals. Wards aren’t going to work if the portals areopening. Make it part of your regular rotation. This can’t happen again.”
His people responded in the affirmative and exited the room. Harris then turned to me, saying something, but I could no longer hear him beneath the loud beating of my heart in my ears. That thing almost took me, and I was practically defenseless. I rubbed at my wrists, hoping to warm up the coldness left there by the creature, but it didn’t seem to work. Nothing worked. I continued to shake as I replayed the attack again and again in my head.
“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” I cried, hiccupping my words. I hadn’t felt like this since my father disappeared. Like I was losing control.
Harris appeared in front of me, but I could barely see or hear him. He placed a finger under my chin. “Look at me,” he demanded in a stern voice.
His tone grabbed me and focused my eyes on him, but he was blurred by my tears.
“I’m going to count to ten,” he began in a calming voice. “Focus on me as I do, baby.”
I continued to watch him as he counted. His voice was tender, and his eyes soft as we connected with our gaze. It felt almost as intimate as sex, and I found myself enraptured in just that present moment. My heart began to slow down, and my breath returned to normal by the time he got to one.
