Six

We all stood in the summoning room. Dana and Beth stood with disheveled clothes, and their hands out. Mother stood to the side, darkness filling her eyes and her smile wide. I stood by my cousins, a dagger in my hand.

Hours had spiraled on. The night was nearly over, but the primal lust had us trapped for a time. It took every bit of will power to stop our fornications before I commanded everyone to the summoning room. Dana and Beth complied, a small sadness filling their eyes that we had to stop.

I spoke the magical incantation. I had prepped Dana and Beth to focus on their mother as I spoke the words. My cousins closed their eyes, chanting their mother’s name. A swell of dark power took root. I felt it course through me as I pulled it together. Sorrow, pain, loss, and desire spun into an ethereal web. I brought the web to the dagger in my hand. I bound it to the gold metal until I could see the true aura of ancients.

I took a breath before I slashed the dagger across their palms in one quick move. Beth and Dana opened their eyes and looked down as their blood dripped onto the arcane circle. Small smiles appeared as energy filled the room.

I said the final words of power and energy prickled against skin. A dark flash struck our souls and then it was gone.

My mother moved to my cousins and took each of their wrists into her hands. She bent down and licked across the bloody wounds. They watched as the wounds closed and sealed away like nothing had happened.

“When will she appear?” Dana asked.

I was about to answer when the doorbell rang in the distance.

“Twice the blood, twice the power,” my mother smiled.

We left the summoning room as one group. We made our way down the corridor and reached the stairs. We took them down to the foyer and looked at the front door. Dana and Beth slowed to a stop. My mother put her hands on their shoulders with warm affection.

I reached the door, took hold of the knob, and turned it. I opened the door, smiled, and stepped back.

A seven-foot-tall woman with sandy blonde hair stepped in, cold air drifting in with her. She wore a crimson red dress. She was beautiful, much like all the woman on my mom’s side of the family. She stepped further into the foyer and the door closed on its own behind her. She looked down on me, her eyes vibrating with unnatural power. She blinked and they returned to normal. A smile bloomed and she licked her own teeth.

“Nephew,” Aunt Lily said with a seductive whisper.

“Hi Aunty Lily,” I said with a warm edge.

My aunt looked up to her daughters and to her sister. “How I’ve missed all of you.”

“We missed you too,” Dana and Beth said on the verge of tears.

Aunt Lily focused her gaze on my mother. “I felt empty when you left the dream lands.”

Rose kept her demonic smile. “I’ve been empty without you as well, but we can be whole again. Gerald, Dana, and Beth brought you back.”

Aunt Lily looked down on me. “I always knew you had power.”

I nodded.

“We have a lot to talk about,” I said as tendrils of darkness wrapped around my soul.