Free The Nephilim: Book One by Bridgette Blackstone

the counter then through a door behind it.
"No!" Mona's shriek bellowed through the small shop.
    Sophie jumped up, and, against the
pain searing through her, hobbled to the back. Sprawled on the floor, a woman's
body lay in a pool of her own blood. Her face was contorted with pain and a
faint stench hung in the air amidst the smell of spices and dried flowers. Mona
was at her side, inspecting the long gash running down the woman’s neck,
"They've been here."
    "Who?" Sophie gripped the
door frame for balance, going weak from the effort as well as the sight.
    "But they must not have
seen," Mona ignored her question as she picked up a small knife lying near
the woman’s hand. She surveyed its elaborate handle and touched her fingertip
to its point then looked up to Sophie, "We have less time than I thought.
I hate to do this to you, but we have to leave now."
    Sophie nodded vigorously, the
corpse urging her more than Mona ever could, but when her cousin stood she did
not go for the door. Instead, she grabbed a pen and scrap of paper from the
back room’s desk and began to draw. She pressed the pen to the paper and
paused, shutting her eyes and screwing up her face. She made a circle and then
a smaller one inside it as well as a few crisscrossing lines. Below that she
created another circle in which she placed a few dots but with much difficulty.
She grunted loudly then scratched out the whole thing, flipping the paper over
and starting again.
    The symbols looked vaguely
familiar, and then Sophie remembered. She dug into her pocket and pulled out
the scrap she had found inside the book at the library and thoughtlessly
squirreled away. "Is this what you’re trying to do?"
    Mona took the paper from her and
her jaw dropped, "Where did you get this?"
    "Found it at the
library," she blurted out.
    Mona looked from it to her and then
back, "It’s not what I’m going for, but it could work. I’ve never heard of
this place, but we can’t really afford to wait." She groaned a little in
the back of her throat, "We can figure it out when we get there, I
guess." Mona stepped around the woman on the floor and came up to Sophie,
"This is going to be strange, okay?"
    “You mean it gets stranger?”
    Mona shrugged and, instead of
leading her out of the shop, Mona stood beside Sophie and planted her feet. She
held the strip of paper at arm’s length in front of them with her left hand,
and in the other she held the knife. With great concentration, she brought the
knife up level with the paper and, in a quick motion, stabbed at the center of
the symbols, releasing the paper and using both hands to control the dagger.
Light burst forth from the tear she had created and she struggled holding onto
the blade as she cut into the suspended scrap, tearing through it entirely and
continuing on into the air itself.
    The gash lengthened, spilling forth
more light from which Sophie had to shield her eyes. It filled up the darkened
little room they stood in, its source an impossible crack in space. Mona pulled
on the dagger until she had almost reached the ground, then jerked it back and
tucked it into her belt. She heaved a sigh and glanced at Sophie who was
wide-eyed and speechless. "That’s about what I expected."
    Sophie forgot about the pain
pulsing through her body in that moment and reached for the break. Her fingers
slipped into the path of the light, scattering it, and she quickly pulled her
hand back, though she felt nothing, "What in the world?"
    "Funny you should say,"
Mona then reached into the crack and grasped its side, pulling away at it and
revealing only brighter illumination, "since it’s not." She ducked
down and stuck her leg through the hole she had made. It was swallowed up in
the light.
    Sophie hurried around to the back
of where the tear had been made, but found nothing there, Mona’s form
completely hidden. The light was even gone. "What the hell?"
    "Not exactly," Mona
snorted then gestured to her, "Come on, it will only