Chapter 4

Elijah - Chapter 4

Sterl crossed the street with care. Just a couple of days ago someone had nearly been hit here when the driver was too distracted texting to keep an eye out for people. When he hit the other sidewalk, he kept running. He'd been making good time this morning, and hoped that it would help him sleep better.

He'd been having nightmares for the last several years. Sterl figured that nightmare was a mild term for what he was having, and they were more memories than anything. Memories of the night that several of his friends had been murdered and he'd been marked by a she-devil.

Nearly stumbling when he saw her face again, he had to pace himself a few steps before he felt like he could breathe again. Every time he thought of her, saw her in his mind, he'd remember what she'd done that night.

They'd been out, the five of them. His date had been sick that night, but instead of bowing out like he wished every day now that he had, he went along with them, bar hopping and having a good time. He didn't drink, not that it would have affected him like it did the others, but he had drunk some soda. He'd thought it was bad, so hadn't finished the drink before they left. He was sure now that it had been poisoned somehow. That it had been meant for all of them to be impaired.

The thing—he'd not known until recently what it was—had appeared out of nowhere, causing the driver, Mitch, to swerve to miss her and causing them to go over an embankment. Sterl was still fuzzy on how that had happened. By all rights they should have just gone into a ditch, not careened over the hillside, throwing them all from the vehicle and him into a tree. Then she'd moved from person to person to kill them, even going so far as to make sure that the ones that had not survived were really dead. She'd crushed Beth's—one of the sweetest people he knew—skull with a boulder too.

"Sterl?" He lashed out at the sound of his name. He'd not even realized that he'd run his five miles and was now on his own front porch, and that the man that he'd hit because he'd been deep in his memories was a friend of his. When he put out his hand to help him up, Michael took it but didn't let him pull him from the ground.

"I'm so sorry." Michael nodded but continued to hold his hand as he lay there. "I was thinking, thinking of things that I should leave in my dreams and not hurt people who have done nothing to deserve it."

"If you do not mind me saying so, you look terrible." Sterl nodded and pulled the man up. "I think I have someone that can help you. Well, she'll help, but she can be a bit much. I have called in a favor and she said that—"

"Oh, poo on your favors. I would have come anyway. My name is Myra. I'm an assistant to a very lovely and powerful witch. They're panthers, so if you smell a little feline around, that would be me." The woman was dressed in the most brilliant color of pink he'd ever seen. Not just her clothing, but her hair and the jewelry she had on as well. When she put out her small hand, he stared at it. "You will allow me to touch you, won't you, young man? I can help you in ways that you cannot imagine."

"I don't think so. Not yet, at any rate." She just grinned at him. "I need to go inside and get something to drink. If I invite you into my home, will there be consequences?"

"Well of course there will be." Her laughter made him smile. "There it is, that lovely smile that I knew was hidden somewhere deep within you. She hurt you, didn't she? The she-devil. Ripped into your heart and life as if you belonged to her, for no other reason than she wanted you. If you would allow me to, young wolf, I will help you in ways that you will not realize for years and years."

Sterl felt the effect of her words all the way to his feet. When he staggered back, his body just limp with exhaustion and fear, she grabbed him in her arms and helped Michael to practically carry him into his home. He was handed a glass nearly full to the top of a dark amber liquor. He handed it back to Myra, and she shoved it back at him, telling him to drink it down.

"I don't drink, and even if I did, it won't do anything to me. I'm not human." The woman just laughed and drank it straight down as if it were nothing more than a glass of water. "You do know that was about a hundred fifty proof, right?"

"Yes. Very nice. And I'm not human either, my dear boy. Now, let us get to the point here. You have someone after you that needs to be dealt with. I'm not saying that I can do it on my own, but we can work some of my considerable magic around the place to keep you safe." He nodded, then glanced at Michael, who was wringing his hands. "He thinks I'm sexy. Young Michael has been after me to get with him for decades."

"I most certainly have not. Myra, I swear to you that I sometimes wish I had never saved you." Myra patted him on the cheek and asked him to contact Noah. "He said that he would be here when you have prepared the house for him. And you should also know that he is bringing the book with him. I think it will be most helpful."

"The house has been ready since you told me where we were going." She looked at Sterl. "It would be most helpful if you could call your brother Trent, as well as your father and mother. The rest will be brought here as well, but for now, we need to speak to them."

Sterl reached for his family, all of them. If this woman could help, even in a small way, he wanted them all to be safe as well. When Trent told him he was on his way, he told Myra. She sat across from him and asked Michael for a cup of tea, if he wouldn't mind.

"I'm to understand that you have no help here." He nodded, not sure where she was headed. "I have a few people I should like to place in your home. Just as a precaution. Alta is a wonderful woman that will cook for you. She's also a cook that can help you put your weight back on. How much have you lost?"

"Nearly forty pounds." She nodded as if she knew that. "I don't know what you think you can do. Noah has taken the poison away, and for the first time in years, I can shift and move without any pain. I'm not yet back up to my weight because I've been taking it easy."

"You're having nightmares that plague you even during the day. Your temper isn't what it used to be, and you've been avoiding your friends and family for fear of hurting one of them with your words. And on top of that, you've convinced yourself that you should have an operation that will take away your seed so that you cannot father any children." He felt his temper slide up over the edge of reason and his wolf snarl at him to kill. "You do and I will put you down, young man. I might give you the illusion that I am very laid back, but you fuck with me and I will hurt you in ways that Helenia might not have even thought of."

The tears, always there on the surface, seemed to fill his eyes. He hurt. Not physically right now, but all of him. He missed his family, his friends, and his way of life. He missed his students that he'd taught, the feeling of being around the younger people who were just starting out. Sterl let the odd woman wrap him in her arms as the gates to his emotions seemed to slide open.

Sterl was not one to cry. But he sobbed now, holding onto this stranger as if his very life depended on it. He knew that his thoughts were disjointed, just as his mind seemed to be, but he need to speak to her, needed to let her know what he'd been going through.

"She killed them. All of them, as if they were nothing. Tore them in half, crushed their heads with rocks. Even poor Beth, who was dead…she smashed her head into the ground so that her parents couldn't identify her." Myra asked him what she'd said to him. "Her nails were in my chest, and I wanted to just die then, but she held me there as if she waited for me to ask her to end me. I think...perhaps that is what made her pick me. That I didn't give up. You have no idea how every day I wished that I'd just died as well. Then she told me that I was going to be her biggest prize as yet. That my seed would flood the earth with demons."

"She had marked you before that. I'm sorry to say that she's not right in the head." He stared at Myra, and she grinned at him. "You have to admit that she didn't strike you as all there when she came to you, did she?"

"No." He wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh or not, but she touched her fingers to his cheek and he closed his eyes. "I see her now. Staring back at me with her dead eyes. Every time I think of her, see her there, I see something more about her. Noah said that she wasn't really a vampire."

"No, she's not. A she-devil is not a term that we use lightly. There was no classification for her back when the Board was formed. Vampires are very strong, live a long time, and have for the most part the best ways of keeping track of people. People like Helenia. I have a book for you that I would like for you to read. It will help you understand the vampire ways of life, as well as some of Helenia. She is what we now know as a she-devil. A killer for no other reason than it makes her happy. What you saw that night is her true self." He looked at her when she took her hand from his face. When she nodded to the doorway, he looked too. "This is Alta. She's going to be staying here. You don't have to worry about her having a home to go to…she wants to stay in the little cottage at the back of your property."

"I don't have a cottage back there." She told him that he did now as the older woman served them up some tea. "I don't think...I've been out of work for some time. I get a little pension from teaching, but it's running out. I'm sure that I can't afford to pay anyone right now."

He had money, a great deal of it, but it was his stash…the money that he'd been putting back since he'd gotten his first job. That money had been earmarked for a larger house, one that would have had plenty of bedrooms for his children to live in, his family to use if they came to visit. Sterl realized that he should use it now. The family was never going to happen for him.

"No worries, Mr. Sterling. I've done well for myself, and I've no real need for money." He only nodded at Alta. "I hope you don't mind, but Myra said that I could make the kitchen area my own, so I enlarged it to suit my needs, and the pantry is now filled."

When she left them after pouring the tea and giving him a plate full of cookies and scones, he looked over at Myra. She was munching on several of the treats as she sipped her tea. Her clothing had changed, along with her hair. She was now dressed in plaid. Even her hair was marked with the pattern.

"You'll get used to me." He wasn't sure that was going to be possible, but nodded at her. "Ah, Noah is here, as is your father and mother. Trent is very close with his wife, Joe. Lovely woman, Joe."

The room was filled with his family before he could say anything. He looked at Trent when he sat beside him and asked him if he was all right. Sterl wasn't sure and said as much to his brother.

"I feel like I've been on one of those rides at the fair, where you know that it's all an illusion but you're not sure how it works." Trent nodded and laughed. "Myra said that she can help me. Help all of us with this woman."

"Do you believe her?" They both looked at the woman in question, who was currently talking to his dad and mom. Both looked as confused as he felt. "She has a way of making herself known, don't you think? I'm wondering if she makes her own clothing or she has to have a blind person make it for her. I don't think I've ever seen that shade of green before, have you?"

"It looks like pus." They both laughed, and Sterl felt some of his unease fall away. "If she can help us, then I'm all for it. I've been so terrified for so long."

"I know that, Sterl. We're all worried about you." Sterl knew that as well. He'd been worried about himself too. Things were not going well for him, and he needed it to be better. "Elijah and Noelle are on their way over now. I think they were sidetracked again. Having a mate is very exhausting, so you know."

Sterl didn't point out that he'd never find his so long as this threat was over them. Having offspring, even with a mate that had nothing to do with the devil that haunted him, still scared him. He wasn't sure that he'd ever feel comfortable being with a woman again after this.

"All right then, I guess that we're all here." Alta, his new cook, moved around the room as Myra called things to order. Everyone not only had a cup of tea or glass of water, but everyone had a plate of food. He wondered where it all came from, but knew that he'd never ask.

Noah started speaking when everyone settled down. "Helenia, as some of you might know, is not a vampire. She is what we know of as a she-devil. There are no male counterparts to her that we are aware of. Her evilness is what has made her live for as long as she has, and she is old. Helenia also has a great deal of power, but it's nothing compared to a vampire of the same age. Terror is what she uses to control people into doing what she wants, and it has worked well for her. Up until now. She does not drink blood to live. As far as I know, she needs nothing to sustain her. And as such, it has been difficult to make her abide by any rules set before her." Trent asked how much trouble they'd had with her before. "More than you can ever imagine. And it usually centers around her finding someone to father the masses of beasts that she claims to know how to control."

"I don't understand." Sterl started to tell his dad the story of what had happen to him that night…no one knew the truth of it but Trent and Noah. Now he assumed that Myra and Michael knew as they were here, but his family had never been told. "This person, she's coming here? For what reason other than us to kick her butt?"

"She wants Sterling here to father her beasts. Not sexually, though his seed will be involved. Her magic will make them." Trent looked around the room, then at him. "I'm not sure how it comes together completely, just that she needs him."

Everyone turned to Sterl, and he felt his anger get stronger. Trent touched his hand to his arm, and it was all he could do not to shift and kill him. When he told his wolf to back off, Sterl felt the walls of his control crumble. He blacked out, his body screaming at him to defend himself. Suddenly he found his head down between his knees and someone holding him there. It wasn't until he saw the shoes that he realized it was his mom.

"Hold him, Sterling James, or I will beat your bottom." He felt his wolf tear at him, and then his mom kicked him in the shin. "Hold him, or I swear to you that I'll stand you in the corner for the rest of your days. You're scaring me. Please don't do this."

Sterl held him. His wolf was pissed and wanted blood, but he only just managed to hold him back. When he told her he was all right, he sat up and looked around and noticed that he was seeing things in a haze. He looked at his mom and saw that she, too, was outlined in a red bloodied circle. He looked over at Trent and saw that he'd hurt him, badly.

"I'm fine." Trent didn't look fine, and they both knew it. "Just give me a minute, all right? I need a minute."

"I'm so sorry." Sterl had cut his face and arm. Trent was holding his arm too, and he could see that it might have been broken. When Myra stood in front of him, he looked up at the woman and could see her anger too. Sterl wanted to bow to her, give her his throat. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I want to kill everyone, including myself."

"Look at me." She stood there, and when he didn't look at her, she jerked his chin up and made him. When she stared at him for several seconds, he felt his wolf curl up, seemingly as if he were afraid of her as well. "I think we've been wrong about this, Noah. She's not just marked him, but she's controlling him. I can fix this, but it will be painful for the young pup."

"You do what you have to do." No one asked him what he wanted, and he was pretty sure that they wouldn't. Not that he didn't want this gone, whatever it was, but he thought that he should have some say over it. As he was ready to voice his opinion on the matter, he felt the touch of someone in his head.

You'll fight them. Tell them that you belong to no one but me. He looked at Myra when her grip on his chin tightened. Fight them all. Kill them. You belong to me.

"She's there. I can see her now. Sterling, you just hang onto me now and we'll get you safe." He didn't want to be safe, he wanted to kill. His wolf was no longer in the corner but pacing in front of him as if to say, "Let me at her." "Noah, we might lose him if we don't act now."

"Take him."

Sterl started to tell them to fuck off, to get away from him, when he felt his mind being raped. They were running in his head like they were going to kill him, and he hurt from it. Someone told him to hang on, to keep helping them, but the pain was too much. As he let his hold on everything slip away, he heard someone screaming. Sterl hoped to Christ he wasn't hurting anyone else.

~*~

Elijah had been sitting with his brother for an hour when Sterl just sat up in bed. It had been five days since he'd been put in his room, and someone had been with him round the clock since then. He looked at him for a few seconds before he lay back on the bed.

"I think someone tried to kill me." Elijah laughed at his brother. "No, I'm not kidding. I feel like I've been run over several times, then laid out in the sun to bake. What the fuck happened?"

"Noah and Myra, who I might add is a very strange person, had to go into your head and take the bitch out. Not my words, but I'm pretty sure that it was apt. By the way, you stink too. Should you care." Sterl said he wasn't sure he could stand just yet. "Yeah, that's another thing. Noah had to give you a bit more of his blood. Joe too. They said that if you started to have fangs to let them know and they'll explain that to you."

Sterl sat up, and Elijah laughed. It was a joke, but Sterl didn't seem to find the humor in it. As he lay back down, this time on his side so they could look at each other, Elijah told the others that he was awake.

Is he okay? I mean, does he need anything? Elijah told their mom that he was weak but looked okay. He was building his strength to take a shower. You tell him that we can come there now if he needs us. You take care of him.

"Are they coming over? I'd rather they didn't right now." Elijah told Sterl that they would if he needed them. "Not right now. I just need to think. How long have I been out?"

"Five days. And it's mostly been rest, not recuperating. And so you know, I had to ask what the difference was. You were hurt by what they did, but you healed from that quickly with the blood of Noah and Joe. You've been sleeping—resting, I guess—the bulk of it because your body needed it." Elijah helped him stand and held him while he stood there. "Alta, she's your cook now. She has been fussing around in your kitchen for days now. I think she wants to fatten you up."

"I don't really need a cook." Elijah thought for sure that he did. He had lost a great deal of weight. "Can you help me? I hate to ask you to help me shower, but I really don't think I can stand on my own."

It took them nearly an hour to get Sterl in and out of the shower. Twice Elijah thought he was going to have to call in some help as Sterl would just go weak on him. By the time he was dressed and sitting on the chair, Elijah felt like he'd run a marathon. But Sterl told him that he felt better, and he looked it as well. Getting him to the kitchen was much easier too.

When he ate what Elijah was sure was the first good meal he'd had in a while, Sterl decided after he was full that he wanted a nap. But after making him shift and run with him for a little while, he lay down by the pond that ran behind all of their properties and closed his eyes. Elijah asked him if he was all right.

Yes. I really think I am. I mean, I'm exhausted, but I feel like I could go to sleep now and not dream. I have been terrified of falling to sleep for a few years now. Elijah said nothing. He'd been there when they'd pulled that thing, a memory of her, and he wasn't sure that he'd sleep well for a while after seeing what Sterl had gone through. I'm guessing that I'm in trouble. I remember hurting Trent.

He is fine. I think you frightened us more than you hurt him. Elijah knew that Trent wanted to talk to Sterl right away, but Elijah asked him to wait a little while. You had a part of her in your mind. She was there controlling you. Myra said it was a part of your brain that you use for emotions. She had attached herself to you so that you'd kill for her.

I didn't feel her. Never. She never spoke to me either, so far as I.... She did when Myra held me. It was like her touch made it so I could hear her. Elijah knew that was exactly what had happened. She's gone though, right? I mean, she's gone for good.

Yes. Noah said that he felt badly for not checking your mind for her when he took her poison out of your body. Myra told him that he more than likely wouldn't have found her there, but Noah still feels like he let you down. And Joe has been by at least ten times a day to check on you for him. That bitch was there, in your head, to make you do things that would bring your beast out. Not the wolf in you, but something stronger. Something you don't have.

You mean the alpha. Elijah told him that was it. She thinks I'm the alpha of our pack. That's why she fucked with me. Well, I got news for her, alpha or not, she has messed with the wrong person. I'm going to take care of her once and for all.

We all are. We saw it too, what she did to you, and we're all going to take care of this bitch.

As they made their way back to Sterl's house, Elijah watched him carefully. He'd have to give a full report to everyone, and he was glad that Sterl was feeling better. By the time he left him, Sterl was having a snack, which looked like a one-pound steak and a pound side of grilled shrimp, before he headed back to bed. Noah was right about one thing; his brother was going to be better than ever.