"Bane!" I cried, just as my dream world spit me out. I shot up straight in my bed, tumbling into reality. I could feel my heart thumping hard against my chest, adrenaline pumping through my body. I didn't realize that Izzy was at my bedside. And that it was morning.
"It's him," I whispered to myself.
"It's who?" Izzy echoed.
"My Dark Angel, Bane. It's him, the barbarian." I looked at Izzy, confused by why she was there, confused by what I had dreamed about, because I couldn't remember any of it. All I knew was that the barbarian I had met last night was Bane. No, it didn't make any sense yet, but it was true.
Izzy whispered something about going to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, but I wasn't fully in the room with her. I was so caught up in my own surprise and disbelief that I wasn't even fully in the room with myself.
"Bane is real!" My stomach fluttered with intense excitement. "And he is here. In Sleepy Hallow. With me."
I'm not sure how long I sat there on my bed in complete and utter stillness, but I could smell coffee brewing by the time I slowly made my way to the box marked Luna's Bedroom. Mindlessly, I slipped into a clean pair of jeans and a sleeveless flannel.
Izzy came out of my dream world.
Roman came out of my dream world.
Sean pulled gooey, inky darkness out of my dream world.
So why was I having such a hard time believing that Bane could come out of my dream world too?
"Because that would be a dream come true," I answered my thoughts. "And nothing good ever happens to me." I wasn't feeling sorry for myself. I was simply stating the truth.
I hated it that I couldn't remember my dream. Not only was it very unusual, it was very annoying. Whatever I had dreamt about had confirmed in me that the barbarian was truly Bane. But the longer I spent in my waking moments, the more this truth faded back into being an impossibility. By the time I went downstairs and found Izzy sitting in the porch swing with a coffee cup in each of her hands, I was nearly laughing at myself for how ridiculous that idea was.
And it made me very crabby.
Izzy handed me a cup. I sipped from it, noisily. Then I quickly stepped off the porch and went to the picnic table. There was just no way I was going to sit on that freaky porch, in that freaky porch swing and soak up all that freaky essence that lingered there.
Izzy got up and came to sit beside me. "Now will you tell me about your dream?" she asked, looking uncomfortably impatient.
"No," I said irritably. I was having a hard enough time as it was adhering myself to the real world and trying to forget about dreams and Bane and all that other stuff, so I certainly had no intentions of talking to Izzy about it. And besides, I was having to endure Dark Angel Deprivation. Among the many symptoms were irritability, inability to cope in the real world, and, of course, short-tempered-ness.
"Will you at least tell me why you said Bane's name?"
I took a long, loud sip from my cup then shrugged my shoulders. "I met someone last night, across the lake, who reminds me of someone I know named Bane," I said. And that was all I had planned on telling her.
"Oh, no."
Until she said that.
"Oh, no, what? You know him? The barbarian guy?" Excitement ripped away the remaining strings of the dream web, and I felt fully in this world once again. But that desire to feel connected with my Dark Angel would never go away. I had grown to loath this real world where in Bane did not exist. But could have it been possible that my Dark Angel and the barbarian were one and the same? That Bane was a part of the real world now and that he was here in Sleepy Hallow with me?
I just couldn't seem to let this go, to convince myself that this was not only insane, but impossible.
"Yes, and no. I don't know him personally, really, but I know about him. He's bad, really, really bad, Luna. I know beastly guys are your thing, but you seriously need to stay away from him." Izzy's eyes went big. Her freckles seemed to shiver.
I remembered the last time someone had warned me to stay away from someone. Even if I had heeded Dammon's warning to stay away from Sean, it wouldn't have changed a thing. I was having that very same feeling now. Even if I could've heeded Izzy's warning and I stayed away from the barbarian, I had a feeling his and I's lives were on a collision coarse.
"He came to town long ago. All I can say is that he belongs to The Coven of Hallows in some way. And that---" Izzy gulped. Then she lowered her voice to a near-whisper. "Ever since he came here, strange and awful things have been happening."
"Like what?"
"One night, Mr. Dawson reported his cows brutally slaughtered in the fields. They were cut open from neck to flank, their guts removed and their hearts missing. All their blood had been drained, with not a single drop spilled on the ground. His neighbor, Sarah Jenkins, reported seeing something in the woods outside her kitchen window that same night. An animal. But nothing like anyone has ever seen before."
"What was it?"
Izzy's face changed, making her look pale and sick. "No one believes what Sarah saw. Everyone believed Sarah was a little looney. She was really old, and lonely. She told a lot of weird stories, like how Lucifer was her lover, and from his seed, a daughter was born. A Zar. And she named her Mercy. Sarah also used to tell me that he was coming and that he would perform the mercy killing. Euthanasia, she called it. I asked her what she meant by this, but she never told me. The most I understood about this he person was that he was beautiful, with hair so black it had purple hues. Well, anyway, of course the police didn't believe her when she told them what she had seen in the woods that night. The following night," Izzy quickly wiped a tear from her cheek, took a deep breath and then continued. "Roman found her, when he went to investigate tracks. Sarah was found lying in her strawberry bushes. Her heart was missing." Izzy squeezed her eyes shut tight, as if she was trying to squeeze the image out of her mind.
I was instantly reminded of the sticky, black shadow. There was something in the woods. It wasn't just my imagination. It was an animal that had ripped a person open, drained her blood and stole her heart. It was the same animal that had been residing within me. Izzy knew exactly what it looked like. And deep down inside, I think I did, too.
"Tell me about the animal," I said.
"Sarah said that it was enormous. Its pelt was so black that it had purple hues and so silky that she wanted to touch it. She couldn't say what kind of animal it was, but said it looked like a black panther, except with longer hair. Its eyes were like faceted diamonds, sparkling in the light of the moon. Even though it rained that day, they didn't find any tracks in Mr. Dawson's pastures. None at all, which really puzzled them. My brother took it upon himself to go look for the tracks. The police were right, there were no tracks. At least, not in Dawson's pasture. But if they had taken Sarah a little more seriously, they would have found them in the woods outside Sarah's kitchen window." Izzy set her coffee cup down on the table top. "Luna, the prints were huge!" She put her thumbs together and made an open circle with her hands, her pointy fingers not touching. "There isn't an animal in the feline kingdom with prints that large! And what makes it even crazier, is that the prints stopped right where she had said they did, and then there was one set of large foot prints. Human footprints. Sarah said the animal had turned into a man and had flown away. Roman convinced Sheriff Austin to go out there with him so that Roman could show him what he'd found, but when he returned to the same spot, they were gone. There was nothing there. There was not even a sign that someone had smudged them away! It was like they didn't even exist to begin with. And Roman is a genius. If someone had covered up the tracks, he would have been able to tell."
"Why would you think any of that had anything to do with the guy I met last night?"
"I just know it does. And without a doubt."
"How is it possible a man just ups n flies like that? Come on, Izzy, that's not even possible!" But something inside of me said that I was wrong and that it was possible, and that I, above all people, should know
that it was.
Izzy picked her coffee cup up off the table top and took a little sip. "I knew Sarah. Very well, actually. I spent a lot of time with her. She was the second most honest person I have ever known. Roman comes in first. If Sarah said she saw a black panther-like feline transform into a man with wings and fly away then that's exactly what happened, whether it makes sense to anyone else or not," Izzy said, confidently.
"The guy I met last night looks identical to the angel I've been dreaming about my entire life. Except, in my dreams, he has big, beautiful, black wings. This is the reason why you heard me call out the angel's name. Whatever I dreamt about confirmed that the two are one and the same." Even as I said this, it wasn't making any sense to me. I had no idea what to think or how to feel about all of this, except that it was all some kind of confusing mistake. There was no way my Dark Angel, the man I'd been craving my entire life, was right here in Sleepy Hallow, right here within my grasp, right here where he could finally hold me and tell me that everything was going to be all right.
Then I realized how weird Izzy was acting all of a sudden. Her expression, her breathing, every muscle in her body seemed to solidify.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"What is your last name, Luna?"
"Oh, no! Not this again." I sighed heavily.
"What is your last name?" Izzy demanded, looking really freaked out now.
"I'm gonna tell you that my last name is Lanchester and you're gonna get all weird n stuff, right? What's your last name, Izzy?" I tried that last question with as much weirdness as I could muster, just to see how she liked it, but it didn't seem to have the same affect on her as it had on me. As a matter of fact, she didn't seem to be paying any attention to what I was saying. I lost her at Lanchester.
Izzy didn't say anything. She only stared at me like I had said something horrible. I think the horrible stuff must have been building and building, as if her mind was putting something together, one piece at a time, because finally she gasped and her hand clamped over her mouth. I wanted to take her by the shoulders and give her a good shake. It was frustrating not knowing what the heck was going on in her head.
"For crying out loud, what, Izzy? What is it about my last name that's been freaking people out?" I practically yelled.
Izzy dropped her hand, tried to fix her face and quickly shook her head, sending her wiry spirals bouncing above her shoulders. "Never mind," she said.
"Now how in the freak am I supposed to never mind? You totally just flipped out on me about my last name! You can't just tell me never mind."
"Sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I just---" Izzy struggled to regain her composer.
"No, Izzy. You gotta tell me what's going on," I demanded. "What the heck is wrong with my last name?"
"I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say. I know I can tell you some things."
"Tell me some things then."
Izzy let out a long sigh then shifted uncomfortably. "The Daughters of Hallows are not vampires. I mean, they don't need to drink blood to survive or anything," she said.
"Why else would they drink blood? That's, like, freaking disgusting!"
"And 100% sinful! Deuteronomy, Chapter Twelve, verse sixteen, says; only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. The Daughters of Hallows are bloodline witches. Not the traditional aspirants of today's generation. Their practices conform strictly to those of their great ancestors and have not changed in all these years. They are strict about this. Their ancestors taught that the essence of one's being flows through the blood, and that by the ritualistic drinking of it, the witch will gain more wisdom and power."
"Well, that's just plain sick!"
"They drug their willing victims with an hallucinogen and bind them to stakes that are driven into the ground in the center of their circle. The high priestess uses a special knife."
"A bolline. Usually double bladed," I interjected. My hand automatically cupped my neck. Sean didn't use a special knife. He used his teeth, like a real vampire would. Except, he didn't have real vampire teeth.
"Yes, a bolline," Izzy said, looking disturbed by the fact that I was able to provide this information for her. "But The Coven's tradition of bloodletting for the purpose of stealing essence is only an added bonus. Their true reason behind it is far more malevolent and wicked. See, this is where I'm not sure how much I can say. I'm pretty sure I can tell you this, though. Hundreds of years ago, The Coven of Hallows had discovered a way to summon the sons of Lucifer. Only four angelic sons have been summoned. Acquiring ruler ship over them has been the heartbeat of The Coven for generations. Many people died, and quite heinously, in The Coven's desperate search for the right magical formula for this particular type of summoning. The secret was in the blood. It had to be a particular bloodline. Even though The Coven had eventually discovered the magical formula to summon these sons, they could not figure out the secret ingredient that would give them complete authority over these summoned creatures. Until centuries later, that is. The answer, once again, was in the blood. The same blood that has the power to summon the sons is the same blood these witches need in order to gain ruler ship over them. Except, there has to be something special about it. And severing this bloodline is the only way the sons of Lucifer can break their territorial boundaries. So, The Coven keeps this secret safely guarded."
"And you believe all this? Izzy, this is just a little way-out-there, don't you think?"
"The particular bloodline that The Coven needs is so scarce that The Coven has no choice but to give up on their attempts to acquire ruler ship over Lucifer's angelic sons. Not that they will, though. They will never give up. But there are only two living members of this particular bloodline left. And the possibility of gaining ruler ship over the sons just doesn't exist in reality."
"Are you trying to tell me that this guy I met last night is one of the Sons of Lucifer The Coven has summoned? And if they don't have control over these sons, why can't the sons just kill them all, or something, and be free?"
"They are safe. A pact was made between The Coven and Lucifer himself. If any of the Sons harm any of the high priests or priestesses they will have to serve The Coven for as long as they live. They will be bound to The Coven for always. The sons want nothing more than to be free. They will not harm the Daughters or Sons!"
"Well, what keeps them from just running, or flying, away?"
"Magic. It's real, you know. Magic is very real. Even in the bible it talks about magic. The Coven's Queen, Aradia, has cast spells around each of The Coven's territories that have summoned sons. It's like an invisible bubble that the sons cannot escape through."
"Ok. This is getting weirder."
Izzy shook her head. "I can't say anymore, Luna. But I will ask for permission to tell you more, all right?"
I wasn't sure I cared to know more, really. It sounded like some urban legend or folklore or something silly like that. But the fact that Izzy was so caught up in this story, a believer in it, was what peaked my curiosity the most, I think. Besides the fact that she totally freaked out about my last name, like Dammon did. Why did it seem like everyone knew something mysterious about me except for me? What the heck was it about my last name that had two people now act so weirded-out? I was going to ask her about this, and while I was at it, I was going to ask her how she and her brother had come out of my dream like they did. But instead, I took a sip of lukewarm coffee and tried to shrug the whole thing off. I had enough going on in my mind already. I didn't want to take on any more than I had to. I would push it aside and not think about it, I decided. And that was final. This move from Burling to Sleepy Hallow was supposed to bring on some peace and through the peace I was supposed to begin some sort of healing process. Life was supposed to get easier, here on Snow Melt. It was supposed to become much more simpler, much more normal.
"Please, Luna, just stay away from him, all right? There is something definitely wrong with him."
br /> "There is something wrong with all of us. Probably even you, Izzy." I said this, but I didn't truly believe that there could be anything wrong with Isabelle Gordon. The light that illuminated her from within seemed to wash her clean of any wrongness. Izzy was chaste, for sure.
"You are right," Izzy said, lowering her chin, looking ashamed of her self. "There is something wrong with me."
"Yeah right, Izzy. There couldn't possibly be anything wrong with you!"
Izzy looked at me with big, sad, puppy-dog eyes. I started to prepare myself to hear her tell me that she had a drinking problem or she was gay or she had both male and female parts.
"My favorite color is pink with purple polka dots," she finally said.
"And? Your body is covered with them?"
"No---"
"They float around inside your head all day?"
"No, I---"
"You imagine that they are your very best friends!"
Izzy was looking more and more disturbed each time I tried to guess what her problem was.
"Pink with purple polka dots is not a color, Luna."
"You're serious? This is what's wrong with you?"
"Yes!" she said, with no sign of humor in her expression.
"Izzy, there is nothing wrong with pink and purple polka dots being your favorite color," I said, trying not to laugh, because, wow, she was serious.
"Yes, there is! Pink is one color and purple is another."
"You've got to be joking."
"No! Joking is a form of lying. Lying is a sin. You can find that all over in the bible. In Exodus, Chapter Twenty-Three, verse seven, Proverbs, Chapter Nineteen, verses five and nine, Matthew, Chapter Twelve, verse thirty-six through thirty-seven, Proverbs, Chapter Twelve verse twenty-two. One of my favorites in Matthew, Chapter Fifteen, verse eleven is: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. And that's just to name a few!"
I wrinkled up my nose, having no idea what Izzy just said. "What does defilething a man have to do with lying being a sin?" I asked.
"If that which cometh out of the mouth is a lie, then it's defiling you. And since we are commanded not to defile our selves then it makes sense that it would be a sin, right? I mean, I could have that all wrong, but I'm pretty sure that it does make sense."
Suddenly I realized that I admired Izzy. I wanted what she had. A pure contentment with life because of a strong belief in something good. A light within that chased away the darkness and kept it from seeping in. I was wrong about her. Isabelle Gordon was not an underdog. Anyone who didn't have what she had was the underdog.
"So, how bout having two favorite colors, Izzy. Then you'd be perfect, right? Then nothing would be wrong with you," I said with sincere concern. "Or, how bout since the purple part is on the pink part, and the pink part's the bigger part then pink could be your favorite color?"
Izzy smiled, her densely freckled cheeks dimpling at the corners of her lips, like all was right in her world again. "I never thought of that!" she said excitedly. Her happiness was contagious. I smiled at her, feeling the warmth soak deep into my heart.
But my smile faded as all that wasn't so right in my world came creeping back to me. It was only a matter of time before Sean would come for me. I was certain of this.
And when he finds me---
"So, you really believe all that stuff you were talking about?" I asked, despite the fact that I wasn't supposed to be thinking about any of that stuff. But it was kind of hard not to. Especially since there were only two remaining members left in my Lanchester bloodline. Barron and I. Our blood was scarce, as Izzy so eloquently put it. And I had this really bad feeling that this was why my last name freaked her and Dammon out.
"I've been investigating this stuff for years, Luna. I have devoted my life to saving this coven. I spent countless nights delving into their traditions and beliefs. I can tell you their favorite foods, their favorite drinks, and I'm not just talking about the hive here in Sleepy Hallow, or the one in Edinburgh or Trapper's Creak, or the one in Egypt or any of the many, many others around the world. I'm talking about their great, great grandmother's and their mother's and so on."
"Wow. Sounds more like an infatuation than a devotion," I said, wondering if she knew the coven of warlocks in Burling.
"It's both! Yes, I am infatuated, and do you want to know why?" Izzy was getting pumped up. It was like she had just downed one of those big cans of energy drinks. "The Lord has convicted me to save their souls, Luna. Leading them to the Lord is what I have become infatuated with."
"Hugh." I thought about that for a moment or two. "Why would the Lord not just save them Him self? Isn't He supposed to be, like, way more powerful than you are? Cuz, believe me, it'd take a pretty powerful being to be able to break centuries-old traditions and religion. It is probably an impossible feat for little ol' Izzy, don't you think?"
"The Lord does not force Himself into anyone's life. We were given the freedom of choice. The Daughters of Hallows have chosen the wrong path. And the Lord does not give us any more than we can handle. God must believe in little ol' Izzy if He's laid it upon my heart to help them."
I guess that probably makes sense. Except, if your god allows you to make choices and does not force himself into anyone's life, why would He convict you to do something?"
"Many of us who have accepted Jesus into our lives, Luna, have experienced the blessing of being a conduit, a vessel, a soldier for God. It is still a choice, though. We don't have to follow our convictions. But it's these convictions that help us to draw closer to the Lord. And help us to stay in His Perfect Will."
"Sounds, I don't know, confusing, I guess. I would have a hard time believing in a god that I could not see or hear or feel, you know?" I said.
Izzy smiled. The light in her eyes made her look a hundred times more beautiful than she already was. "You believe in the air that you breathe, don't you? You can't see it. You can't hear it. You can't feel it. What about gravity? Why would you be so willing to believe in air or gravity and not the creator of all that exists? Especially when the proof is all around you and even clearer than the existence of air! Besides, when you invite Jesus into your life, you do feel Him. You do see Him and you do hear Him, if you are obedient."
Great. Obedient.
Just the word alone riled the rebellious nature in me. "But I see the air when the wind blows and it moves in the leaves. I feel it playing in my hair when I'm riding my Harley and I hear it whistling in my ears. And guess what? If I jump off the Empire State Building, gravity will make me go splat! I would definitely feel that." As I was saying all this, Izzy was slowly shaking her head. There was an expression on her face, a sad one that said she was sympathetic to my lack of understanding.
"No, Luna. Those are only the affects of the air. The leaves move because of the air, yes, but the leaves are not the air, so you are not actually seeing it. And about that splat? If you jumped off the Empire State Building, I can guarantee you won't see gravity on your way to the ground. But I can guarantee that you will feel its affects."
And, darn-it, Izzy was right.
So, why would you say that the evidence is all around us, cuz, hay, there is scientific evidence of the Big Bang Theory, and evolution, too," I argued. It wasn't my fault she had to say the obedient word.
"Seriously?" Izzy giggled. "I have two things to say about that. No, make that three. One: scientists can prove what ever they want to prove, whether it is true or not. Two: If evolution is how we came about then why aren't monkeys still turning into humans? And three: When God spoke things into existence, yes, I can guarantee that things did go boom! And things did happen."
"Um," I said, sounding very intelligent-like, but this was all I could think to say. So instead of trying to say anything else, I finished the rest of my coffee. I would have gone inside for a fresh, hot cup a while ago, but talking with Izzy was just so absorbing. I never had companionship with a girl be
fore. Normally, girls hated me. I found it odd how friendship with Izzy came so easily, so naturally. Especially since we were two totally different people.
Like black and white.
Or like light and dark.
"Last night, Devine and her gang had a bonfire over there," I said, nodding my head toward the sun-speckled lake.
"That's The Coven's ritual stomping grounds, where all their ceremonies are preformed. The property is about quadruple the size of yours is. It's somewhere close to four hundred acres. It had been in Devine's family even long before the town was founded. Actually, Devine's great, great, great-grandfather was the one who founded Sleepy Hallow. Just off the lake is a cave. That's The Coven's lair. They have a big house about a mile from the other side of the lake. From time to time, other hives come from all around to gather there, and not because of the Sleepy Hallow Hive's Daughters, who were actually dubbed The Coven Misfits by all their sister hives, but because of Sleepy Hallow itself. It's a special place for them, one of their most sacred. And on top of that, Devine is the Queen's daughter. Aine, Isis, and Psyche are daughters of the most powerful, influential witches in The Hallows Coven."
"You said the witches of The Coven of Hallows are bloodline witches. So why would Devine invite me to an Esbat? And she sure seemed desperate about it," I said, before realizing what I was thinking.
If it is the Lanchester blood they've sought after for so long, and it's so rare, and now here it is in their coven-stead, within their grasps then of course Devine would be interested in me. For my blood. And of course she would be desperate to have it.
"You know, never mind," I said, before Izzy could reply. "I really do not want to know and I really don't care."
"Every full moon, Daughters and Sons of The Coven must drink blood. But their Grimoires say that only on a blue moon can a son of Lucifer be summoned. This Friday there is a full moon, the second one of the month." Izzy gulped. "A blue moon."
"Well, how many sons does Lucifer have? And why would they want more when they cant even control the ones they got?"
"Lucifer has only four angelic sons but countless others."
Suddenly I had a need for adrenaline. With all this silly talk freaking me out, I desperately needed to ride. I jumped up off the picnic table and went inside the house and grabbed my ridding boots and leather jacket. I shoved my feet inside the boots and my arms inside the jacket. "Come on," I hollered at Izzy, as I rushed to the garage.
Izzy came after me, glancing around as if expecting to find someone chasing me. She didn't understand my behavior, and it seemed to frighten her. "What? Where are we going?"
"We are going for a ride," I said, and I straddled the Knucklehead.
With one kick, the V-Twin came alive in all her grumbling glory. I couldn't help but smile, as I backed her out into the driveway.
"No! No-no-no-no-no. . .I told you, Luna, I would have to die first before I'd get on one of those things! And just in case you haven't noticed, I'm not dead yet!"
****
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Luna