Saving Death

Chapter 15

Sam was laying on the sofa, his eyes completely in the back of his head with only the whites showing. His back arched on the sofa and I could see the beads of sweat covering his entire inked torso. His chest heaved and the muscles in his arms strained as he screamed in pain. I wondered if this is what he'd been going through when I'd come to see him last. My chest ached at the thought.

I turned my eyes away, but I couldn't block his screams from my mind. Crushing my hands to my ears, I lifted my gaze to the window again to see that Seline was dabbing him with a cloth, which she dipped into a bowl of liquid at her side. Each time she dabbed the cloth onto his skin, his body convulsed violently.

My heart hammered frantically in my chest as I stared helplessly as Seline pressed the palm of her hand to his head. He relaxed at her touch, immediately slumping onto the sofa, breathing heavily. It was then that his eyes snapped open again, revealing the same unnerving black pupils I'd seen before. Noticing Seline, he lunged forwards and grasped her shoulders, uttering angrily at her.

She stood up with great effort and stepped out of his grasp, but he caught at her arm before she could turn and leave. It looked hard enough to hurt her, but he instantly recoiled, growling. He cradled his hand as if burnt, like touching her caused him pain. Giving Seline a lingering gaze full of fury, he stormed from the room and I realised he was heading straight for the front door.

My heart leapt into my mouth, and I scrambled to conceal myself around the side of the house, not caring about the noise of my own frantic footsteps crunching and skidding on the gravel. Just as I managed to hide myself, Sam appeared from the house. He was wearing black jeans and an open hoody and his hair was slick with sweat. He climbed into the sleek black car, and as the engine roared to life, I remembered that my car was parked in the way of the road. I stepped forwards, thinking I could make a run for it, but a hand closed over my mouth and around my middle, heaving me backwards with great effort. I turned wide eyed and came face to face with a breathless Seline.

"Stay quiet, girl!" she hissed, and I heard the car tyres spin on gravel and skid away from the house. Her hair was disarrayed and her normally collected disposition was edgy.

"Seline," I mumbled against her hand, which she dropped to her side. "My car—" I began, before her eyes became wide. "It's in the road. He'll know I'm here."

"Run," was all she said. I stared at her, but when she grasped my shoulders and pushed me to the back of the house, I knew she was serious. "Go!" she insisted, "He can't see you here."

But I needed to know. "What's wrong with him?" I urged.

She shook her head, "No. He'll never forgive me, Ava." I saw fear in her eyes. I stared back for a moment, then fumbled up the grass ledge to the back of the garden. Then I heard the dreadful scrape of car tyres reversing on gravel. I didn't look back; Seline's warning was enough. I kept running past the flower beds to the hedgerow right at the back of the plot, but froze there. Sam's voice called out into the darkness with a ferocity I'd never heard before and I never wished to hear again.

"Where is she?" he demanded. I heard Seline stammer something before he shouted again with a deep unbridled anger. "Tell me—Witch!" Witch? I stared into the blackness, able see the dark outline of the farmhouse, but terrified to run any further. If Sam really was dangerous, he'd not think twice about hurting his aunt—if that's who she really was. I couldn't leave her, so I crouched down and squeezed into the braches of a nearby fern, my lungs still burning from the cold.

As I listened hard, I could hear Seline trying to reason with Sam, but it didn't seem to be affecting him. I'd always known there was more to Sam than met the eye, but this was beyond anything I could have imagined. I felt goosebumps prickle on my forearms.

"Ava!" he bellowed out angrily. "I know you're out there—I've seen your car!" My eyes widened in trepidation and I gripped part of the fern as I heard him stomp towards me across the grass. Where was Seline? He stopped and I could hear his rasping breath.

"Ava!" The anger in his voice was raw and ground so deep into my bones that I started to tremble. Who was this? It wasn't the Sam I knew. It wasn't the same Sam that had kissed me—or was it?

I stretched up to glance through the branches of fern that I'd hidden in. His body looked taught with anger and desperation all at once, and his eyes held a hunger as they flicked across the hedgerows. I held my breath. He opened his mouth to say something else, and I felt a gush of wind pull at my clothes. It swept up from the floor, directly to the spot where Sam stood. He cried out in fury, clawing at the air blindly, as if the wind was holding him prisoner. His eyes slid into the back of his head and he cried out again, enraged.

It was then that Seline's voice came through the cold night air. She was muttering words in a strange foreign language. Her voice became louder, and as I peered through the long branches, I saw that she was moving towards him with her palms outstretched. She continued to force the words into his being and he visibly began to weaken, falling to his knees with a thud. His eyes returned to normal, no longer blinded with anger, but dread, as he screamed in agony. Seline was hurting him. His chest heaved in desperation and his eyes flicked about wildly as he fell forwards and dug his nails through the grass into the dirt below. His back arched as he barely stayed poised on all fours, then he gasped.

"Seline—please," he whispered with the last breath he had, before slumping to the ground in a heap, unmoving. Seline lowered her hands, eyes fixed on Sam as if she expected him to wake. But after a moment, she relaxed and looked in my direction. I thought I was well hidden in the huge overgrown fern, but something told me Seline didn't need to be able to see me to know where I was.

"It's fine, Ava."

I rose to my feet and trod cautiously out of my hiding place towards Seline. Her wild, blonde hair was flailing in the breeze as she stared down at Sam's body lying face down on the ground. She glanced at me, a warning in her eyes.

"Help me get him inside," she said, lifting his arms in the air. I obediently moved towards Sam and hesitated as I saw the hourglass mark on his forearm. It was a sleeker black today and unnatural to the point of reminding me of the reflective sheen on his car. It looked dangerous as I stared into its depths, and I noticed that Seline had placed her hand just above it so as not to directly touch it. I briefly wondered if that's why Sam always wore long sleeved t-shirts. Maybe it wasn't just to hide it, but to stop others from touching it as well.

"It's fine. He won't hurt you now," offered Seline. The word now echoed in my mind. Would he have hurt me? I let the question form in my mind, but didn't allow it any life. I nodded without thinking too much and bent to lift Sam's legs. Together, we heaved him down the grassy bank towards the house.

It was dark inside the kitchen, and as soon as we entered, a pungent tar smell filled my nose, making me cough. Seline seemed unaffected as she bent and lowered Sam onto the tiled floor. I followed suit and we stood back and stared at his limp body. His eyes were closed and the black tattoos that covered his arms and chest gleamed black against his pale skin, making him look deadly, but the curls on his forehead made him look more cherub-like.

"What is he?" I whispered, at the risk of sounding stupid. Then again, I had just seen Seline use magic to bring him down. Seline the witch. She gazed at me with an impressed glint in her eye.

"Finally, you're asking the right questions," she said with a smile. "He said you'd asked him..." I stared back at her, awaiting an answer. "Unfortunately, that answer isn't mine to give."

Feeling disappointed and a little relieved, I nodded and gazed again down at Sam's muscular body lying on the floor. I couldn't help but feel a heady mixture of fear and longing. Tonight was the first time I'd truly felt scared of Sam, and my instinct told me to run for my life. Life was about making mistakes, though, and I knew this was one I wanted to make, however dangerous it got. It could end badly, but I'd never felt more alive. Despite not knowing the truth about Sam, I couldn't walk away from him anymore than he could walk away from me.
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