Chapter 4

Laci watched the others leave her room, the feeling that evil things were once again just beginning making her anxious. The vision, if it truly was one, still echoed in her mind, the screams of both Renny and Rose replaying over and over. Was that the Summerlands she had visited? And if it was, did that mean Renny was dead? Surely, if that was the case, someone would have told her by now. No, Laci would choose to believe that Renny was alive and well, and that there was some other reason she had seen her in the Land of the Dead. Still, there were the screams of the others, the anguish and pain. Tansy said the Summerlands were a place of peace and tranquility, so why did it seem the two women were being attacked, cords of magic whipping around them like loose wires? And the demon? How did such a creature get to dwell in the Summerlands? They were supposed to be bound in the Nether with the rest of the Unseelie. None of this made sense.

Laci settled her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes. However, as soon as she did, she popped them back open, sitting up once more, afraid she’d see that nightmare again. The vision had to be a product of the drugs the doctors gave her, she decided, for she knew Renny was alive. She was the one who found Laci, after all, so she had to be alive.

Stress and drugs, Laci. That’s all it is. Stress and drugs. Yet, it all seemed so real, so vivid. She had felt what was being done to her there, her body still aching from the demon’s grip. Of course, that could be the pain from the attack on her by Aradhon, right? She groaned, wishing she knew for sure what was real and what wasn’t. Her life had been a series of unusual encounters.

She closed her eyes again, lying back on the pillow with a sigh, only this time sleep claimed her before she could worry about the nightmare she had witnessed, and she allowed slumber to swallow her whole. Her last thought before sleep claimed her was if she really wanted to be a part of the Cauldron Coven, regardless of what she told Tansy about wanting to be involved. With everything she had endured since Jerome and Pastor Adrian Michaels, she needed a break before she wound up broken. She feared she was almost there as it was, this new series of visions pushing her close to the edge. Would she ever be able to shed herself of her involvement with the faerie realm, or was she destined to be an active player in their dramas?

Her cell phone rang, jerking her awake once again. Glancing at the screen, she saw Renny’s name and jerked herself up in her bed to answer it, her side screaming at the movement. “Renny, you’re alive!” she shouted into the phone.

Renny gave a soft laugh. “Not for lack of people trying to kill me. How are you doing?”

Laci closed her eyes as she dropped back into her pillow. “It hurts even with the pain meds they keep pumping into me, and the food here sucks.”

“I bet. Still, it’s better than the alternative. You’re alive.” In the background, Laci could hear Rhychard talking to someone, and for a second, she felt a twinge of sadness that he never made it up to see her. “Look,” Renny continued. “You just get some rest and we’ll stop by and see you tomorrow. There’s a lot we need to discuss.”

“Okay,” Laci said, exhaustion already pulling her under. As soon as she set the phone back down, she was out.

A hospital is not a place to receive rest, no matter how sick or injured you are. Every time Laci fell asleep, some nurse, it seemed, needed to come and wake her up to get vitals or make her take a pill or to utter the random statement, “Just checking in and making sure you’re all right.” Or the more asinine, “Just wanted to see if you were sleeping okay.” How could she sleep okay when they kept waking her up? And she was far from all right, which was why she was in the hospital in the first place. What made it worse was that every time they woke her up, Laci’s mind drifted back to what she witnessed in the Summerlands, the screams very much real, setting her teeth on edge. The whole scenario seemed to rush over her, almost overwhelming her and stealing her breath away.

The pain was intense, even with the medications Laci knew were being pumped into her. She gripped the sheets, consciousness brushing her senses, only to drag her away again. She heard screaming, and at first thought it was hers, but she was lucid enough to realize her mistake. Then who?

Light surrounded her, bright and warm, almost fuzzy in the way it appeared, giving everything a shimmering cast to it. The air, which had reeked of antiseptics just a moment ago, now held a fragrant aroma of hibiscus and jasmine wafting around her as she strolled… She panicked. How could she be walking? She tried to open her eyes, but the weight of the drugs kept her eyelids pinned shut. Yet, that didn’t make sense either, because she could see the surrounding fields, the weeping willows drooping in the distance as the sun bathed the grassy field with a warmth that chased away the icicles of the hospital air-conditioning. Where am I?

She gazed around the field, cattails dancing out by a shimmering lake, the warm breeze tugging branches of magnolias and crepe myrtles. This doesn’t make sense. I’m in the hospital. I remember being rushed into an operating room, remember hearing my mom beside me, crying, remember… Panic seized her. Oh, my god! I’m dead. I know I’m dead. She jerked around to see what was behind her and felt the stabbing pain in her side again as well as a small prick in her arm near her elbow.

“She’s jerking around so much.” Her mother’s voice. “Is this normal? Is she in pain? My baby’s suffered so much already. I just got her back.” Was she locked in a dream, unable to get out or open her eyes? Nothing made sense. Why could she hear her mother but not see her?

“She’ll be fine, Mom,” Jayden said. “The nurse said the meds will work in a few minutes, and her body should settle down.”

Mom! Jayden! Why can’t I see them?

Another scream, the girl in extreme pain as if she was being tortured. Laci spun back around, just as another woman screamed. The sound came from almost the same direction as the first, but more to the side. Turning back to where she heard her family’s voices, she took a deep breath and then moved to follow the screams. This place seemed so peaceful to cause someone as much pain as Laci heard in the women who kept screaming. The cold grass felt ticklish on her bare feet as she walked, the ground soft, as birds chirped in the distance. Everything seemed so tranquil, the only things out of place were the screams.

And her.

As she neared the lake, she saw the dirt path split, going in opposite directions.

“Laci! Laci, I need help. They’re hurting me.”

Turning toward the voice, she saw Rose Tillery standing there, her dark hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, as tears streaked her cheeks. Her body was ramrod straight, her arms straight down and stiff. She screamed again, and Laci witnessed the dark red tendrils of magical power wrap around Rose’s body. She ran to her friend, but then another called out to her.

“Laci! They’re trying to break into our world. They’re…” Another scream.

Spinning, Laci saw Renny standing there, just as Rose was, only obsidian streaks of power coiled around her body, jerking it into spasms that twisted Renny’s body in different directions.

Laci froze, trapped between the two women, unsure of what was happening or who to run to and help, the dilemma yanking at her heart and will.

Again, both women screamed, their faces twisted to the sky as cords of power rippled over them. Laci screamed with them, her hands flying to the sides of her head as indecision gripped her. Rose was dead, so how was she here? She should be in the Summerlands. Unless, of course, this was the Summerlands. Yet, if this was the place of the dead, why was Renny here? Twisting her gaze back and forth between the two women, Laci moved toward Rose, figuring she could help one and then help the other, but as soon as she moved a laugh echoed behind Rose as a giant creature with dark, leathery skin, massive shoulders and a powerful chest, rose up, his thick arms extended out as he shoved at Laci, red flames of power exploding out of his hand toward her. The burst of power hit Laci in the chest, picking her up into the air and flinging her backward. She landed with a rib-crunching thud, the air rushing from her, choking off her scream.

“Her body just shook again,” Jayden screamed at someone. “Look! There’s blood on her gown.”

Laci looked down, and where she had been stabbed, blood seeped from her open wound, the pain slicing through her.

“Nurse!” she heard her mother calling out. “Nurse, she’s bleeding again.”

The monster behind Rose reached out again, his power twisting her into the air. She screamed as she hit the ground once more.

“Why is she jerking so much?” her mother asked. “Is she having a reaction to the medication?”

The monster reached out, gripping Laci in his power, and lifted her off the ground. He held her there as he glared at her. When he spoke, his voice was like an avalanche of rocks, each cracking against the other. “Go away, witch. We’ll be coming for you soon enough, using each of you as the vessel for our escape. You will all fall for trapping us in the Nether. We’ve made it into the Summerlands; we will make it to the Land Above.” Then he flipped his hand backward, and Laci flew through the air, arms flailing as she screamed, the pain in her side threatening to take her consciousness from her.

As she hit the ground again, tears of agony erupting from her eyes, she saw her mother there, holding her hand as nurses worked frantically on her. Turning her gaze to the side, Laci saw Jayden standing there on the other side of her, her face twisted with concern. Laci reached out with a shaking hand and gripped her sister’s wrist. “Rose is in trouble,” she said, her voice a croak of pain and medication. “And Renny, I think. I don’t know. I could swear I saw both of them.” Then she passed out, darkness swallowing her. The last thing she remembered was Renny screaming for her.

Laci bolted upright in the bed, her heart thumping hard in her chest, her breathing a series of ragged gasps as she clutched the bedsheets on each side of her trying to regain some semblance of control. “They’re coming,” she whispered. “Oh god, they’re coming.”