Page 66 of Crossing Between

The world around us twisted violently. One moment, we were standing in the distorted church, and the next, black soulfire erupted from the walls, engulfing everything. The flames didn't burn, they froze, sending icy tendrils of dread through my body.

"Get back!" I screamed, but my voice was swallowed by the roar of magic.

Reality warped again, the church dissolving like melting wax. The wooden floors beneath our feet softened, becoming something organic?

I stumbled as the ground pulsed beneath me, a wet, sickening sound filling the air with each throb.

"What the fuck?" I gasped, looking down to see what appeared to be muscle tissue, glistening with fluids and blood, expanding and contracting beneath my feet.

We were inside something alive, something so vast and wrong. The walls around us were no longer walls but membranes, pulsing with an unnatural rhythm. Veins of black ichor ran through them, pumping corruption through this massive, living chamber.

"It's like we're inside a heart," Elias's voice was tight with disgust. "A corrupted heart."

The center of the chamber bulged, the tissue parting like lips to reveal a figure rising from within. My breath caught in my throat as I recognized my brother's form, but only partially. This was Ryan, yet not Ryan, a horrifying blend of my brother and something inhuman.

The left side of his face was still my brother's, those familiar eyes, the strong jawline, the dimple in his cheek when he smiled.

But God, the right side was something from a nightmare.

Charred, blackened bone where skin should be, the eye socket empty save for a pulsing orb of malevolent energy.

His mouth stretched too wide on that side, revealing rows of dagger-like teeth that no human mouth should contain.

Where his right arm should be, a massive, draconic limb extended, ending in talons that dripped with the same black ichor that ran through the walls.

"Ryan?" I whispered, my voice breaking.

The creature, the Essencefeaster wearing my brother's face, smiled, and it was the most terrible thing I'd ever seen.

"Hello, sister dear," his voice was a dissonant blend of Ryan's familiar tenor and something ancient and ravenous. "Did you bring friends to dinner?"

"Ryan," I tried again, desperately searching for any sign of my brother in those mismatched eyes. "This isn't you. Fight it!"

The Essencefeaster laughed, the sound resonating painfully in my chest. "Oh, Z, always trying to fix everything.

Always trying to save everyone." He tilted his head, studying me with predatory interest. "Did you think I wouldn't feel it when you bound yourself to them? I felt it, Z. Like being cut in half."

He took a step closer, the floor rippling beneath him like disturbed water. I felt Varon, Elias, and Kenji shift into defensive positions around me.

"You were supposed to be mine," Ryan, no, the Essencefeaster, hissed. "My other half. My power source." His human eye narrowed in accusation. "But you gave yourself to them instead."

"I didn't know," I whispered, my magic stirring beneath my skin, responding to the threat. "I didn't know you needed me."

"Liar!" he roared, and the entire chamber shuddered with his rage. "You always knew we were different! Special! You just chose them instead of your own blood!"

I felt a sudden pressure in my mind, like invisible fingers probing at the edges of my consciousness. The sensation was horrific, intimate and violating at once. I staggered, clutching at my head.

"Get out of my head!" I screamed, panic rising as I felt him trying to seize control.

"I'm already in your head, sister. I always have been." His voice came from inside my mind now, oily and insidious. "We're connected. Two halves of the same soul."

The pressure increased, and I fell to my knees, the pain blinding. Dimly, I was aware of my companions shouting, of movement around me, but I couldn't focus on anything beyond the battle raging in my mind.

Through the haze of pain, I felt the phoenix gloves warm against my skin, their protective magic creating a barrier between my mind and the Essencefeaster's invasion. The pressure receded slightly, but I could still feel him there, waiting, probing for weakness.

"You're fighting a losing battle," he taunted. "I'll have you in the end."

I struggled to my feet, pouring every ounce of my concentration into maintaining the mental shield. It left me little capacity to do anything else, all my magical energy was devoted to keeping him out of my head.

The Essencefeaster must have sensed my vulnerability. With a snarl of rage, he launched himself at me. A sphere of writhing shadows formed in the creature's draconic hand, expanding rapidly before he hurled it directly at me.

"No!" Kenji roared, throwing himself in front of me.

The orb struck him full in the chest, and I watched in horror as he was flung backward, his body convulsing as the shadowy magic sank into his flesh. He hit the ground hard, blue eyes wide with shock and pain.

"KENJI!" I screamed, a sound torn from the depths of my soul.

I tried to run to him, but another wave of psychic assault kept me frozen in place.

Through my watering eyes, I saw Elias race to Kenji's side and drop to his knees beside the fallen oni.

Tentacles erupted from Elias's back, forming a protective dome around them both as he frantically worked to heal Kenji.

Varon had disappeared from my peripheral vision, and panic surged through me. Where was he? Had the Essencefeaster already gotten to him?

The chamber began to pulse more rapidly, the walls contracting as if in pain. I felt a sudden, excruciating tearing sensation deep inside me, not physical but something deeper, more fundamental.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, doubling over as agony lanced through me.

"Cutting out the cancer," the Essencefeaster's voice was distorted with effort. "Severing those pretty little soul bonds you've formed. They don't belong there. They're in the way."

Another wave of pain crashed through me, and I felt as if I were being torn apart from the inside. Each bond, the connections I'd formed with Varon, Elias, and Kenji, was being attacked, spiritual hooks trying to rip them from my soul.

I screamed, a sound of pure anguish and terror, not just for myself but for Kenji, who lay wounded and vulnerable. For Elias, who was using all his power to protect and heal. For Varon, who was missing and possibly already fallen.

"STOP IT!" I shrieked, golden light flaring around me as my magic responded to my distress.

And then, suddenly, something changed in the creature's expression. The human side of Ryan's face contorted, tears welling in his eye. The draconic half seemed to recoil, as if fighting against itself.

"Zoey," Ryan's voice emerged, pure and untainted by the demon's influence. "Zoey, I'm so sorry."

I stared in disbelief as my brother's consciousness surfaced through the corruption.

"Ryan?" I whispered.

"Don't let him use me," Ryan pleaded, fighting to maintain control. "Don't let me become what I was trying to stop."

As he spoke, images flooded my mind, not an invasion this time, but memories freely given.

I saw Ryan, alone and terrified, discovering what I was, or at least what I thought I was, and what that meant for both of us.

I witnessed his desperate research into the supernatural, his frantic attempts to find a way to protect me from those who would use my power.

And then the final, terrible moment: Ryan, having discovered an ancient ritual he believed would give him the strength to be my guardian, willingly opened himself to the Essencefeaster's influence.

"It was supposed to make me strong enough to protect you," Ryan's voice broke. "But it consumed me instead. I thought I could control it, but I was wrong."

My heart shattered at the realization. This wasn't a simple case of possession. My little brother had sacrificed himself in a misguided attempt to keep me safe. A sacrifice that had backfired horribly.

"I'm going to save you," I promised, tears streaming down my face. "Just hold on, Ryan."

The Essencefeaster roared, fighting to regain control. Ryan's consciousness was being subsumed again, his expression twisting as the demon reasserted its dominance.

Then, from the shadows behind the creature, a blur of movement caught my eye. Varon materialized, his movements blindingly fast. Before the Essencefeaster could react, Varon's hand plunged through the creature's back, emerging from where a heart should be.

The Essencefeaster froze, then let out a chilling laugh. "You think that will stop me, vampire? I have no heart for you to stake."

The demon's attention shifted from me to Varon, momentarily releasing the crushing mental pressure. In that instant of clarity, I gathered my power, drawing deeply from the well of magic within me. Golden light erupted from my hands as I unleashed everything I had.

The blast hit both Varon and the Essencefeaster, the force of it sending Varon flying backward to crash against the pulsing wall. The demon dropped to its knees, howling in agony as my light burned through its corrupted form.

"ENOUGH!" the Essencefeaster bellowed, its voice shaking the very air.

I watched in horror as it gathered darkness between its hands, compressing it into a sphere of pure, concentrated malevolence. With a final roar of hatred, it hurled the magic directly at me.

Time seemed to slow. I saw Kenji struggling to his feet despite his wounds, Elias abandoning his healing efforts, both of them lunging toward me, desperate to shield me from the attack.

Varon, though dazed from the impact with the wall, was also moving in my direction, his face contorted with desperation.

In that suspended moment, I reached deep within myself, drawing on reserves of power I didn't know I possessed. I threw my hands up, golden light erupting from my palms to form a dome of protective energy around all of us. Kenji, Elias, Varon, and me.

The Essencefeaster's attack struck my shield with catastrophic force. Light and darkness collided in a blinding flash of power that consumed everything, sound, sensation, reality itself. I watched as the demon was struck with magic.

And then nothing.

Darkness engulfed me, absolute and complete. I was floating, untethered from my body, from time, from space. And standing before me in this infinite void was a familiar figure, one I never expected to see again.

"Shanna?" I whispered into the darkness.