Fangs of Desire (Book II) (Completed)

Chapter XVIII

Emma watched as Jes drew the ritual circle on the ground, it was bigger and a lot more complicated than the ones she had seen so far, which wasn't many too begin with. It took some while for Jes to finish to circle but she did it perfectly from memory like she had done this many times before. She let out a long breath and focused, the white of her eyes disappearing as she started chanting. She unsheathed the bejeweled knife and made a big slit in her palm, black blood pouring out onto the middle of the circle and pooling up. Her chanting continued as she moved around the circle and Emma realized just how much her black blood resembled the tar like hands she summons from underground. She never got the scent of regular blood when Jes got hurt. It was an old, rusty smell. It didn't exactly smell rotten but definitely dead and sour. The hands themselves looked like a sea of the undead reaching up from underground, she wondered if those were actually the hands of the deceased underground.

She heard a deep sigh from Jes and focused on her. The pool of blood was not going a drop out of the circle, it kept pooling up and moving around before a roughly hand shaped blob started reaching up from the middle of the circle. The blob took shape as it rose up from the ground, taking the shape of a person huddled up in on themselves. Black tar started running down and formed into bones and muscle, then skin and hair. Emma realized way too late that of course, Caleb would be summoned without any clothes. She averted her eyes just as the last of the black tar washed down and formed into Caleb's body, his gasp and the sound of someone hitting the ground reaching Emma's ears. He sounded pained and grunted, sitting in his place and speaking towards Jes.

"How did my body get destroyed?"

Jes finally stood up from the circle, breaking the glowing of the lines by smudging the chalk with her feet. She went into the other room to get some clothes and spoke as she came back, throwing the ball of fabric onto Caleb. He took them, starting to dress up.

"Someone set the whole haven on fire. There was an explosion just when I went out, your body burned and got completely destroyed."

Caleb grunted and got up from the floor, dusting off his new clothes. Emma finally looked at him once he dressed up, waving a hand with half a smile.

"Welcome back."

Caleb nodded, throwing himself onto a nearby couch and stretching his new body. He seemed thoughtful and looked around the interior design of White Heather's upper floor. He looked at Jes almost with a silent understanding, they weren't talking but Emma felt like she was missing out on a private conversation. Jes stood up, taking another cigarette and lighting it up. There was too much silence but despite that the room had a palpable tension in it. She didn't say anything, waiting for another half an hour as Jes finished her first pack and Caleb just rested with his eyes closed. There was a thick line of smoke covering the ceiling of the room when she finally stood up.

"Let's head out."

Caleb got up from his place, stretching his back and fixing his clothes as he stood up. The silence was oddly disturbing, like there was something wrong. They both headed down the stairs and Emma followed behind. Downstairs Tristan was pulling up some items from the ground and cleaning the bar, it looked more out of habit than to do any cleaning, not like the place could be helped.

"We're heading out."

He nodded at Jes's words, seeming tranced in his own thoughts. The silence went on until they left White Heather and went into a nearby alleyway. When they were far enough Emma finally spoke up.

"Okay, what's going on?"

Jes slowed down to catch her pace and talked with a rather quiet voice.

"Don't get me wrong my trust in Rhiannon and her choices is solid, but my gut doesn't really trust Tristan anymore." she shrugged, "Call it a precaution. I'd rather not talk about my plans in front of him."