Nightmares (The Coven, Book 1) Read online

  Stay calm, Avery told herself, but it was almost impossible not to freak out with the horrifying creatures closing in on them. Rosie shook violently against Avery’s side, and her nostrils flared with her every inhalation.

  The bear’s claws scratched the floor as it sauntered to the front of the pack. Those claws could eviscerate her with one swipe. The string of drool hanging from its massive jaws plopped onto the ground in front of a paw the size of her head.

  “How do we get out of here without becoming dinner?” Avery asked.

  “I think we have to get to that door,” Rosie said and thrust out a finger.

  Avery followed Rosie’s hand to a door on the other side of the room. It hadn’t been there when she first entered, but everything was changing around them. A surge of hope swelled in her; the door had to be the answer. But as fast as it came, her hope deflated.

  Between them and the door stood a zoo of animals and creatures that would gladly use their bodies to fill their bellies.

  The small creatures released a rattling, high-pitched screech. Avery longed to clap her hands over her ears to block it out, but the movement might encourage an attack. Leaning forward, the creatures opened their mouths and released another screech that caused the tufts of their hair to shake before all the tiny abominations raced toward them.

  CHAPTER 22

  Avery staggered back, but the wall blocked any escape from the scaly bodies and beady black eyes coming at them. She’d never been much for soccer, but instinctively, she kicked out and connected with a tiny body that was more solid and heavier than she’d expected.

  Adrenaline fueled her, and when she drove her foot into its chest, the thing screeched as it flew across the room and bounced off the back wall. It slid down the wall and landed on its head where it lay for a minute before scampering to its feet.

  She panted for air and kicked a few more away while Rosie did the same. For some reason, the other animals hung back, and Avery suspected it was to block them from getting to the other door. Rosie’s grip became bone crushing as she clung to Avery.

  “Come on!” Avery shouted over the increasing cacophony quaking the walls and floor.

  Unwilling to have her back exposed, Avery kept it to the wall as she pulled Rosie with her. The animals turned with them as they edged toward the door.

  “Why aren’t they attacking?” Rosie whispered.

  “I don’t know.”

  The bear, wolf, and tiger moved to the front of the group. Their powerful muscles quivered with anticipation and hunger as they prepared to launch themselves. The bear released a loud roar as it barreled toward them with a grace Avery hadn’t believed the three-hundred-pound animal could possess.

  Rosie screamed and released Avery as the bear closed the distance between them in three bounds. Avery seized Rosie’s arm and jerked her to the side when it rose up on its hind legs and released a roar that blew the hair back from her face.

  Avery lurched toward the ground, pulling Rosie with her as a paw arched through the air and sliced into the wall where Rosie’s head was only seconds before. Avery’s elbow thwacked off the floor when she hit it, and Rosie fell across her legs. The bear bellowed and spun toward them.

  “Move!” she screamed as she pulled her legs out from under Rosie and scampered to her feet.

  Avery ran forward in a half crouch with Rosie behind her. A dozen clicking feet echoed throughout the room, and Avery realized the little creatures were charging again. When a tiny weight hit the back of her calf, it knocked her off balance and shoved her into the wall.

  She glanced down to see one of the small monsters clinging to her bare leg. When it hissed at her, it revealed all its teeth and small, pink tongue that reminded her of a bird’s. Stumbling onward, Avery shook her leg while she tried to cast it away. It shrieked as it slid down her leg with its claws raking her skin.

  “Avery, stop!” Rosie yelled.

  Avery froze and a second later the tiger crashed into the wall inches in front of her. Paneling cracked and rained down before it slumped to the floor. She’d been so focused on ridding herself of the Hell creature that she hadn’t noticed the tiger preparing to attack.

  “Go!” Rosie shouted.

  Avery leapt over the tiger and nearly fell as the weight of the thing on her leg threw her off balance. Behind her, Rosie’s heavy breaths were loud as she stayed on Avery’s heels. They were only ten feet away from the door now; it was so close…

  Nine feet…

  Seven…

  Four…

  A ferocious growl came from her right. She caught a brief glimpse of the wolf’s powerful haunches rippling as it sprang forward, intent on killing Rosie.

  “Rosie!” Avery screamed.

  Rosie spun to face the deadly creature flying at her. Then her eyes narrowed into a killing glare. Avery gawked as the wolf, frozen in midleap, hung motionless in the air with its claws extended toward them.

  Its blue eyes rolled in its head, and its mouth hung open as it snarled at them. Then Rosie flicked her fingers and it flew backward to crash into the far wall. It landed with a loud thud before returning to its original, inanimate state.

  “Come on!” Rosie shouted and grabbed Avery’s arm to pull her onward.

  Avery didn’t dare look back as they ran toward the door together. Rosie arrived at it first and twisted the knob. Relief filled Avery when it opened; Rosie plunged heedlessly through it. Avery didn’t pause to consider where the door might lead before she dove after her. Anything was better than the trophy room.

  Her momentum carried her forward until she crashed into a wall. Her battered body screamed in protest, but her mind propelled her to spin and face anything that might follow them through the door.

  Nothing emerged from the trophy room before the door banged shut. Avery slumped against the wall as blissful silence descended. Taking deep breaths, she tried to calm her racing heart and trembling hands.

  When she could breathe normally again, and she was confident her heart wouldn’t explode, she lifted her head to survey the hallway. At first, she assumed it was the same one she’d been in before; then she realized it was a lot darker than the original hall and red candles instead of white illuminated the way. In this hall, there was only one way for them to go, to the left.

  “Maybe you should get rid of that,” Rosie said.

  Avery followed where Rosie pointed and blinked when she spotted the creature cleaving to her sneaker. Its teeth were buried into the toes as it stood ramrod straight out from her foot. When Avery bent and gripped it, its ribs poked through its scaly skin as she ripped it off. Brown tufts of hair pricked her palms when she turned it over to study its grotesque features before tossing the thing aside.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled.

  Avery wiped her palms on her jeans and studied the scratches the creature had left on her leg. Blood trickled down her skin, but the gashes didn’t look too deep, and she’d mostly stopped bleeding. She wiped away some of her blood before rising to survey the hall.

  The candles only illuminated thirty feet of the thick red rug, wood walls, and four closed doors, before a barrier of blackness cut across the hall. It looked as if they would be stepping into a whole different world once they walked into that blackness, and she had no doubt Regan would ensure they entered it. What awaited them in the shadows?

  “I guess we start searching,” Rosie murmured.

  “How did you do that to the wolf?” Avery asked as they started down the hall.

  Shrugging, Rosie stopped at the next door and pushed it open. For someone who’d just faced her worst fear, she looked remarkably composed. Color had returned to her face and she kept her chin thrust forward. But then, this probably seemed easy to her after surviving her worst nightmare.

  “I used the powers we all possess,” Rosie said. “You have to concentrate on what you want to happen, imagine it happening, and let the power build up inside you. When you’re ready, you release the power, and most of the time,
what you pictured happening does. You’ll learn how to do it; it just takes time.”

  Avery peered into the empty room Rosie had revealed. “It would probably help if I could do it now,” she muttered.

  Rosie rested her hand on Avery’s arm and smiled wanly. “We’ll get through this.”

  “What about Lila, Tina, and Karen? They don’t have any powers. Will they be okay?”

  “We’ll protect them, Avery. I promise.”

  Avery chewed her bottom lip and braced herself before they stepped into the blackness enshrouding the hall. Instead of being sucked into a different dimension or pounced on by monsters, they discovered only another section of hall. This one stretched thirty feet before disappearing into blackness again.

  She released a small breath of relief that faded when her thoughts returned to her best friends. What had she gotten them into?

  “What is Regan?” she asked to distract herself before panic for them consumed her.

  “I’m not sure. He’s a spirit for sure, but he’s more powerful than any spirit I’ve ever encountered.”

  “You’ve encountered spirits?” Avery squeaked.

  Rosie cast her a sheepish look. “Only a couple, and they were random ghosts I passed on the street after I was awakened. They never acknowledged me, and I didn’t feel any power from them, but….”

  “But Regan radiates it,” Avery said when Rosie’s voice trailed off.

  “Yeah.” Rosie shuddered and rubbed her arms. “He’s something more than a spirit. He might be a demon.”

  Avery stopped in the middle of the hall. “You’re joking?”

  Rosie couldn’t look more serious. “I wish I was. However, everything I’ve read about demons says they’re corporeal, and he’s not, or at least he’s not on our plane, but demons have come to our world before. They like to stir things up and wreak havoc on their victims, but they can’t stay long as our world drains and eventually kills them.”

  “How long is not too long?”

  “A week—sometimes less, rarely more.”

  “Demons are real,” Avery muttered as she pondered this revelation.

  “Yes. Some say the Salem witch trials, Spanish Inquisition, French Revolution, and other such events were started by demons trying to stir things up and turn humans against humans. They thrive on misery and death.”

  “This place is pretty miserable,” Avery said; she refused to acknowledge the death part of Rosie’s words.

  “But as I said, demons are supposed to be corporeal on our plane and Regan’s not, so I’m not entirely sure what he is or what he’s capable of doing.”

  “He’s capable of anything.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  “Why is he doing this?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe he gets his rocks off by doing this, or maybe there’s something else to all of it, but until we know—if we ever do—all we can do is keep moving forward.”

  “Very true,” Avery agreed.

  They continued down the hall, and every time they stepped into the darkness, they discovered more of the hallway unraveling before them. Most of the rooms they opened were empty, but they came across another den, a gym, and four more bedrooms. The hall continued to unravel before them, but when they stepped through another patch of black, Avery finally saw the end of it.

  They explored the remaining rooms before finally reaching the last door.

  “Someone has to be in there,” Rosie said.

  Without taking the time to think about it, Avery shoved open the door.

  CHAPTER 23

  Avery gasped when she saw the room. Cavernous with white, concrete walls and large fluorescent lights hanging from the steel beams running across the ceiling thirty feet over her head, it was completely unexpected. The lights reflected off the floor and sparkled in the clear water of the Olympic-sized swimming pool in the center of the room.

  “Wow,” Rosie breathed as she turned to examine the room. “This is amazing!”

  When Avery released the knob, she jumped when the door slammed shut behind her. The sound of it echoed off the walls and sent ripples across the pristine water. She glanced back, and her shoulders slumped when she discovered a white wall in place of the door.

  “Guess we start looking.” Although she’d whispered, her words reverberated through the room until she heard herself saying them fifty more times.

  Rosie’s awe faded as she gazed around the room with growing dread. “Yeah.”

  A set of blue doors were set into the wall at the shallow end of the pool. Behind those doors was the only place a person could be in the room. Their feet slapped against the concrete floor and rebounded off the ceiling as they walked around the pool toward the doors.

  “Who do you think it is?” Rosie asked.

  “Lila.”

  “Makes sense.”

  Avery threw open the blue doors to reveal pool equipment filling its thirty-by-thirty-foot room. Hoses slithered across the ground, and nets leaned against the walls. Rafts, floats, and beach balls littered the floor. Barrels of chlorine were lined against the back wall and stacked all the way to the ceiling.

  Avery and Rosie exchanged a resigned look before they stepped forward to start going through the mess. They tossed things out the doors as they carved their way through the chaos. They’d almost cleared the room when Avery lifted a deflated orange raft and came face to face with Alex. She blinked at him in surprise and then broke into a smile; he wasn’t the person she’d expected to find, but it was good to see him.

  “It’s Alex,” she breathed.

  Alex made a muffled cry against his gag and tried to sit up, but his bound appendages made it difficult for him to move. Rosie arrived at her side as Avery pulled the cloth from his mouth.

  “Thanks,” he croaked. “I feel like I’ve been in here for days.”

  “I think it’s only been hours,” Rosie said. She bent to untie the ropes binding his ankles as Avery worked at the knots on his wrists.

  “Who else have you found?” he asked.

  “Just Rosie.”

  Alex sighed when the ropes around his wrists gave way. He rubbed his freed hands together as Rosie pulled the rope away from his ankles. When he climbed to his feet, he teetered on unsteady legs. Avery clasped his arm to steady him until he regained his balance.

  “Thanks,” he muttered.

  She smiled as she released his arm. “No problem.”

  “Are there any more rules?” he inquired.

  “Avery can’t leave the house, but everyone is supposed to be in here,” Rosie said.

  “Then we will find them,” he said. “Whatever this place is, it’s his world. He can do anything he wants to this house and to us.”

  “That we know,” Rosie said and proceeded to fill him in on what happened in the trophy room.

  When she finished speaking, Alex glanced around the room. “Is there a pool out there?”

  “Yes,” Avery answered.

  “That’s what I thought,” he muttered.

  “It looks pretty harmless,” Rosie assured him.

  Alex laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “It won’t be for long.”

  A knot lodged in Avery’s stomach. “Why not?”

  He ran a hand through his white-blond hair. “Let’s just say that I’ve always had a vivid imagination about the drainage hole.”

  “What about the drainage hole?” Rosie asked.

  Alex looked helplessly at her. “That all kinds of weird and awful things will come out of it.”

  Rosie groaned as she rolled her eyes. “Great.”

  “We’ll stay away from the pool.” Avery tried to sound hopeful, but she failed.

  “I don’t think we’ll be able to avoid it,” Rosie said.

  Avery didn’t think so either, but she kept that to herself as they made their way out of the room and back into the room with the pool. She studied the concrete walls, but everything remained the same as it had before they found Alex
. If something was going to change, it should have happened by now.

  “Where’s the door?” she asked.

  “What does it look like?” Alex asked.

  “Like a door,” Rosie replied impatiently.

  “Well, that looks like a door to me,” Alex said.

  Avery looked where Alex was pointing, and her heart sank when she saw the door wavering beneath the clear water at the deep end… right next to the drainage hole.

  “Wonderful,” Rosie muttered.

  “Come on.” Alex gazed at the pool like it was the enemy he would conquer. “We have to face it.”

  “We? This is your fear, pal.” Rosie grinned as she punched Alex lightly on the arm. “I’ll wait here.”

  “Be my guest. Stay here and get eaten by whatever emerges; I’m sure it will find you delicious.”

  “You would leave me here, wouldn’t you?” Rosie demanded.

  Alex swung his arm around her shoulders, and they started toward the pool together. “Of course I would.”

  Despite her growing apprehension, Avery couldn’t help but smile over their banter.

  “Jerk,” Rosie said.

  “Hag,” Alex retorted.

  The two of them descended the stairs into the pool while they spoke, obviously trying to distract themselves from what they were about to encounter. Following them, Avery’s smile faded when their teasing trailed off and the water rose to her thighs. The water was cool against her skin and so clear she found it impossible to imagine anything terrible happening, but she was sure it would, and soon.

  The chlorine stung the scratches on her calf, but she ignored the discomfort as she continued. She lifted her hands out of the water to have them ready for an attack when it reached her waist and climbed toward her chest. The clothes adhering to her skin made moving more difficult, and her sneakers started to feel like lead weights around her feet.

  Beside her, Rosie and Alex walked with their hands raised while they stared into the water. Avery battled the urge to turn and flee while she still could, but she suspected they’d either be stuck in this room forever or whatever was about to happen would follow them out of the water. Out of the two options, she’d put money on the horror following them onto land.