Miss Nobody

Chapter 36

CONGRATS

Day 23

"Don't you fucking dare!" Jonny shouted over the turbulent winds threatening to rip me from the doorway. He grabbed a hold of my wrists and fought against the torrent to pull me back through.

If I didn't choose to go back, of my own free will, I would pull him in with me. I grabbed his hand and thought about the time we had sex. Right before the big bang.

I was dropped into a hospital bed and everything around me quieted.

Jonny's hand was warm around mine.

I squeezed it too tight.

"Open those eyes of yours Darlin'," Jonny's voice made my heart beat faster.

"I'm afraid," I whispered. What would my reality be when I opened them? Was he really here, or still in some kind of Magical coma?

"Everything's going to be okay." Jonny put his forehead against mine.

I believed him. His words elicited a net of safety. I reached up to touch him. "I didn't kill you?" I asked quietly.

He laughed and I slowly opened my eyes to see his grin. My favorite thing about him.

He kissed me gently. "You'll have to try harder next time."

"How are you awake?" I asked him.

He looked around. "We'll talk about that later. When you've recovered more."

Keiran's voice in my head was jarring and unfamiliar. "Just fuck her and she'll be fine."

Excuse me. "Excuse me." I looked at Keiran on the hospital bed a few feet from me.

He was strapped to the gurney like a violent mental patient. The straps were tight around his head, shoulders, waist, and wrists ensuring minimal movement.

"Why the fuck can I hear you in my head?" I mentally threw up that steel box around my head again. A screeching sound made me wince and I covered my ears to no avail.

Keiran groaned and writhed under the straps.

Claire shouted, "Don't try to block him completely, just open a crack in the window!"

I envisioned a small window in the steel box and opened it. The brutalizing sound stopped. I glared at Keiran and yelled at him through my imaginary window, "What the fuck?"

"I didn't know this was possible," his words were muffled through the muzzle covering his mouth.

I looked at Jonny. "Is that necessary?"

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. "You're lucky he's still alive."

A disheveled Bishop stood at the foot of Keiran's bed. "Elenora put a spell on you both. It seems to have combined your minds." He was wearing a shirt now but I eyed him like I could see the cuts through his clothes. He noticed my gaze and nodded. "It's been a rough week."

I glared at Keiran. I should have stabbed you across the table at dinner. None of this would have happened. I'd rather be in jail than tied to the man who did horrible things to me my entire life.

"I didn't know something like this was possible," he repeated, ignoring the mental images of me stabbing him.

Skinning him, maybe I'd start with his dick. I plucked out his eyeballs with a spoon, in my fantasy. "I don't think it is but because we weren't willing participants, it backfired."

"What's a non-consent clause?" Keiran asked in my head.

"When people don't consent to the Magic being done to them...the Magic gets wonky. It starts to contort and...it can make it just a little bit weird or it can make it a lot weird. This is a lot weird." I mentally told him.

"Mind sharing with the class?" Jonny's jaw tightened. He wasn't happy about mine and Keiran's new communication style.

I sat up on the bed and swung my legs over to the side Jonny was on.

He stepped between my knees and held my face gently in his hands.

"Magic works...strangely around here."

"That's an understatement," Bishop agreed.

Jonny's jaw tightened again and he gave Diego a look.

They must have had this talk before.

"When Maracella made me do that spell for her, a Greater Demon showed up." Maracella. Fuck. Jonny's fiance. Fuck.

Diego stepped out of the shadowy corner. "You made sure it went back. Didn't you."

I ignored him and looked at Jonny's chest. I wasn't ready to talk about that yet. I didn't want a repeat of being dragged into hell, I'd have to learn how to do a proper banishing. I groaned internally. In order to banish Demons, I would have to summon Demons, or find ones that were loose already.

I opened the top buttons of Jonny's black shirt and stared at his chest. I ran my fingers over the spot I carved out over and over. It was covered in tattoos and a few old scars that weren't from me.

He pulled me close, whispering, "I told you, you can have it. It's yours to do with as you wish."

Pleasant chills ran up and down my back. "Was that really you, in my...dream?"

"Thanks to Claire." He nodded in her direction.

I looked over to her. "Thank you." Thank you never seemed like enough.

"I'm just glad it worked," she said, exhaustion edging her eyes.

Bishop noticed it too. "I'm going to take Claire home. We should continue the Scooby meeting in a few hours. I think it's time we all get on the same page. Especially if Jess is trying to do something with this Portal. We need a plan."

Portal? Jess?

Diego shook Bishop's hand. "Thank you, Brother."

The Sheriff nodded. "I'll be back after a hot shower." He left the makeshift hospital room with Claire trailing behind him.

"Jess?" I looked at Jonny. "Did she come out of the...trance?"

"No thanks to you," Diego answered.

I narrowed my eyes at him and turned away. The last conversation, no, accusations, he hurled at me still fresh in my mind.

"Oh, she's not happy with you," Keiran taunted Diego. He was happy to not be the only one on my list. My murder list, not my to-do list.

I slammed the window shut and immediately regretted it. An excruciating jarring sound left both Keiran and I breathless. I slid the imaginary window open the slightest of cracks. Allowing a slow trickle of information to be exchanged between us. Keeping the larger and more intense emotions and thoughts unable to slide through the thin opening. I inhaled deeply, trying to steady my breathing.

"The first mention of the Sheriff and who do you run to? You go straight to him. Did you fuck him too? Your bad luck rub off all over him? Why he had to shoot his own sister?" Diego was still at it with his accusations.

"Diego," Jonny warned him.

"She's bad news Jonny." He glared at me. "She's got everyone sucked into her curse. I've never seen Magic act like this."

I sighed and remembered why I didn't make friends or have boyfriends. My life had always been too strange and eventually they all just faded away. I jumped down from the bed and slid past Jonny to the door. "I won't be the reason brothers fight or hotels explode." I'll keep my distance. You have to take care of Maracella now, anyway. I turned back to say one last thing, "It's not important but I did leave to Bishop's-"

"You're callin' him by his first name, you must've fucked him."

Jonny grabbed Diego by the shoulder, warning him again.

"-After Diego's first tirade but it was Maracella that kept me away." I couldn't look Jonny in the eye when I said, "I'm really glad you're okay Jonny and congratulations on your engagement." I left the room quickly before they saw the tears fall. This was what I needed anyway. Jonny to keep a safe distance.

(Author's Note: This is draft 14 of my book series. I am always open to constructive criticism and notes on things that can be improved or plot holes and the like. Thank you all for reading!)