Synergy (See #3)(14)

My attention moved to Madison. Her hand was flying across her pad, and the images were nothing less than alarming.





Chapter Four


At first I thought it was a Zodiac wheel, but as she drew and sketched out words in another language, the image grew darker. A Scorpion was in the center of a pentagram, and circles were all around it. When she was done with that image, she began to draw herself, but the image was ragged. Her hair was tangled; her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Around her neck was a medallion; it was a sun with a crescent moon within it, and she shadowed in the area around the moon, making it look like black glass.

She turned the page and began to sketch the most elaborate image of an angel I’d ever seen. It wasn’t a good angel, though; it was more like a demon. The face was just as perfect as the men we’d watched die, but there was an anger in its eyes. Its wings expanded across the page with utter detail; she made them look like ash.

My heart began to race as she sketched other images: ours. A light was reaching for Monroe as the rest of us tried to protect her.

She turned the page frantically and sketched another image, an Ankh, and beneath it she wrote the world ‘love.’ Then beneath that she drew a body of a faceless girl. The girl looked dead, and blood was pooling from around her.

“Madison! Madison, stop!” I yelled. “You’re acting like you’re possessed – what’s going on? Where are these images coming from?”

“When she touched me, I saw them,” Madison said as she let her pen fall.

“What do they mean? Who is that faceless girl?!”

She ignored me and turned the page back to the first image she’d drawn with the Scorpion. “This is the devil’s trap. I’ve seen it in those books.”

“So what was she saying to trap him? Is that angel him – Monroe’s dad?!”

“I don’t know,” Madison said as her eyes gazed forward into her memory.

“I told you this wasn’t all about me. Do you know what made you so upset in that image? Why were you crying like that?”

“I don’t know,” she said under her breath. “It didn’t feel like it was me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I felt mad, not sad.”

This was so not good. “Look, that lady was just messing with you. No one besides Austin is coming for us, and if they were, we have Silas. Mother Nature – seriously?”

“I don’t think she was crazy. She was channeling somebody.”

“Channeling?”

“Like what Monroe does. She couldn’t tell me what she knew, so she had to show me...the weather was violent around most of these images...that must be what she meant.”

My phone vibrated on my hip at that moment, causing me to jump. I reached for it with shaky hands to see Kara’s number on the Caller ID. I took in a deep breath and answered as calmly as I could. I didn’t want her to cancel her plans for the weekend; I wanted her to have fun.

“Hey,” I said as I answered.

“Hey. I was about to leave, but I didn’t want to leave Monroe here alone. Do you want me to take her to Nana’s on my way out?” Kara asked.

“No, I’m like ten minutes away.”

“Are you? OK. You sound out of breath,” she said in a concerned tone.

“Just ran longer today.”

“Alright. Well, I’ll leave then. Make sure you tell me or Mom if you guys go anywhere.”

I knew that ‘anywhere’ didn’t mean like to a movie or anything; she meant if I left for good.

“I’ll never be too far to see you, Kara. Promise.”

“Love you, little one.”

“Have fun. Love you,” I said as I hit ‘END’ on the call.

I found Draven’s name and texted: Don’t think I’m crazy, but a witch just stopped me and Madison – and btw six Escorts tried to kill me.

“That text will go over well,” Madison said as I hit ‘SEND.’

“Maybe then he’ll stay at my side. I don’t want him out of my sight, not with the mood Silas is in -- with witches jumping out in front of us.”

“We do sound ridiculous, don’t we?” Madison said as she closed her sketchbook.

“When we get home, you’re showing me what that woman showed you – like in real life. We’re going to see our way there,” I demanded as I pulled out on the main road again.

“I don’t think I can. It wasn’t like a permanent vision.”

“What do you mean?”

“It just wouldn’t sit still. I don’t even know if I had the order right when I sketched it. She just kept showing me those things, but they were moving too fast for me to hold on to them.”

“That’s how it is with Silas.”

“He must like witches. Either that, or he’s not worried about me,” she mumbled.

“Why did you say that?”

“Obviously, the undead boy can appear out of nowhere.”

I looked down at my phone, looking for a response from Draven, but there wasn’t one there.

“Watch the road,” Madison demanded as she tried to call someone. She hung up the phone and dialed another number. “They must be playing,” she mumbled as she dialed another number.