A Demon's Desire (15 page)

Take me to Emma,
he ordered his
shadows. The darkness complied and lit up the route he needed to
follow against the backdrop of his eyelids. He opened his eyes, put
the car into gear, and obeyed the instructions to the highway,
around the Beltway, toward coastal Maryland. The route grew more
familiar as he drove, and with some anger, he realized his twin had
virtually lived in his neighborhood.

His mother would’ve had to have known Jeffrey
was so close. He gripped the steering wheel hard and tried not to
think about her secrets as he drove. His mind was on Emma, who’d
gone quiet. She was alive; he could feel her.

He sped past Annapolis and Wooster, even
angrier when the shadows directed him to a small town less than
twenty highway minutes north of Wooster. He exited where the
shadows indicated and drove through rural farmland before coming to
the small town near the Chesapeake Bay. His fear grew as he neared.
True to his mother’s prediction, he
felt
the evil and
shadows of the fissure to Hell.

Half of him rejoiced at it, strained to be
free. He’d never fully defeated the darkness within him. If he
wanted to save Emma, he’d have to release it-- and trust he could
return. The closer he got, the sweatier his palms became. Soon, he
didn’t need the guidance of the shadows; they all but dragged him
closer.

Tristan slowed to a stop as he drew near the
large Victorian house, struggling with the shadows. If he was to
save Emma, he’d have to become what he was. He closed his eyes and
drew a deep breath. He’d never met anyone who would drive him to
this point, who appeased both sides of him. He loved her family,
from sweet Sissy to the cheerful matriarch. They’d accepted him as
even his own mother hadn’t.

He owed them-- all of them. If rescuing Emma
killed him, his was a sacrifice worth making.

* * *

Olivia didn’t return until the single window
in the basement showed it was morning. Emma jerked out of a light
nap when the door above slammed open. She raised her head.

The black witch wore a wedding dress of
pristine white that only made her sallow skin less natural looking.
Emma rested her head back, bitterness in her thoughts. They’d both
been engaged to Adam. As guilty as she felt for being there when
Adam jumped, she didn’t understand why Olivia would want the
traitorous man back.

She said nothing, afraid of drawing the crazy
woman’s attention. Instead, she watched as Olivia took a wooden
bowl to a small desk. The black witch set it down and pulled a
lighter from a drawer before walking around the basement to light
black and purple candles. She shied away from the fissure in the
wall, and Emma looked at it again. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge
the fiery crack or what it meant to lie in front of it in the
basement of a black witch intent on revenge.

The sound of someone trotting down the hollow
steps to the basement drew Olivia’s gaze, and she looked
irritated.

“I’m not ready yet, Jeffrey,” she barked.

“We can’t take a break between the
preparation incantation and the start of the ritual. You took too
long getting ready.”

“I must be perfect for him. Besides, she’s
not going anywhere,” Olivia said, tossing her hand toward Emma.

Emma met Jeffrey’s gaze as he circled the
altar to stand near Olivia. Her breath caught. His long hair was
tied back and he’d shaven. Aside from his cold, cold eyes, he
looked identical to Tristan.

“You look beautiful, Olivia. There’s nothing
you can do to tempt him more. He’ll want you more than he ever
did.” A slow smile crossed his face. His gaze was on Emma. She
twisted her head to stare at the wood beams lining the ceiling.

“You really think so?” the black witch
asked.

“He won’t be able to leave your side.”

She turned and gave him a hug before hurrying
past him to grab something from a box. Emma wanted to cry again.
Leaning against the altar, Jeffrey crossed her vision.

“You still have a chance,” he said for her
ears only. “To save yourself, Tristan, your family.”

“No.”

“In about an hour, I’ll ask you again.” He
walked around the altar and stood before the fissure. Though his
back was to her, she saw the heavy sigh that took the tension from
his shoulders.

Tristan was nothing like this creature, but
she wondered if he, too, would find some pleasure at the sight of
Hell. Would it call to him as it did Jeffrey?

Sudden, sharp pain made her cry out and her
body jerk. Olivia stood back with the knife that bore Emma’s blood,
eyes glowing in pleasure. Emma’s body convulsed at the pain, and
she tried to see the wound through teary eyes. Olivia had stabbed
her in the chest on the right-hand side. Olivia raised the knife to
plunge it again into her chest.

“Olivia, no!” Emma shouted.

“What’re you doing?” Jeffrey demanded,
lunging to grab Olivia’s wrist. “This isn’t what we planned!”

“She must die for him to live!” Olivia
argued. She struggled to pull free from his grip. Emma watched,
terrified, uncertain if she wanted Olivia to kill her fast and end
this or for Jeffrey to stop her in hopes Tristan found her. The
burning pain in her chest made her clench her teeth.

“There’s a process,” Jeffrey snarled. He
yanked the knife free and punched Olivia hard in the face. The
black witch pitched backward and landed on the ground. Jeffrey set
the knife down, anger in his eyes, and pulled up Emma’s shirt to
see the wound. “Goddamn idiot! If you kill her, you’ll never have
Adam back.”

Olivia rose, dazed. “But I thought-- ”

“Shut up and do what I tell you. Now we have
to hurry. You’re lucky you didn’t hit a lung.”

Olivia moped like a child disappointed at not
receiving a toy. The fire spread through Emma’s body as they
hunched over the desk, preparing whatever spell they planned to use
to kill her and raise Adam from the dead. Coldness crept into her,
and both heat and cool made her sweat and shake.

Jeffrey drew near with the small wooden bowl
Olivia had carried to the basement. He used the knife to channel
the blood from Emma’s shoulder into the bowl. Olivia watched,
crazed excitement on her gaunt features.

“You look like shit,” Emma said at last. They
were going to kill her, or she’d bleed out soon. Either way,
Tristan wasn’t coming, and she didn’t care anymore. “He’s using
you, Olivia. Look in the mirror. He’s destroyed you.”

Jeffrey slapped Emma, and Olivia snickered.
The black witch was too far gone for logic. Emma’s eyes watered.
She watched them circle her, both chanting in words she couldn’t
decipher, and stop at the other side of the altar, closer to Adam.
Jeffrey set down the bowl and pricked Olivia’s arm with his knife.
Emma watched as he collected the blood in the bowl.

“I’ll wed you now, so he can’t ever leave you
again,” he said to her. “Do you wish to spend your eternity with
Adam?”

“Yes,” Olivia said breathlessly.

“Do you swear to him your body, heart, and
soul?”

“Yes, Jeffrey, yes!”

As they spoke, smoke emerged from the bowl.
Shadows withdrew from their corners of the basement and floated
toward them. The air of the basement grew thicker, charged, hotter.
Emma watched them through her fevered gaze, not sure what was real.
Jeffrey asked Olivia more questions. The shadows and smoke mingled,
coalesced, and took on the shape of a man. The man floated through
the air and lowered itself to Adam’s body.

“Do it, Olivia. Use your magic.” Jeffrey
stepped aside. Olivia closed her eyes and faced each direction,
speaking in a powerful voice that filled the basement. Emma
struggled to understand the words, on the verge of passing out.

The decomposing body beside her stirred. Emma
gave a strangled cry of surprise, adrenaline pulling her back into
the world. Olivia stopped and turned.

“Adam!”

“Don’t stop, Olivia!” Jeffrey shouted.

“He’s alive!” Olivia exclaimed. Emma looked
at the form beside her and cringed. It was moving, but it wasn’t
Adam. The body hadn’t returned from its rotting stage, even if it
struggled to sit up. The ground rumbled, and all eyes turned to the
fissure in the wall as it grew by a foot.

“Finish it, Olivia,” Jeffrey said, gazing on
the fissure with the same excitement Olivia’s gaze held for
Adam.

Nothing good could come from a gateway to
Hell. Emma forced herself to focus despite the fever addling her
senses. Adam was sitting now, looking every bit the decomposed
corpse she expected after two years in the ground. Olivia began
chanting again, and more shadows gathered to enter Adam’s body.
Though she didn’t understand the connection between Olivia’s magic
and the fissure, they were somehow linked. She tried to think of
how to distract Olivia.

The corpse beside her began to change. Adam’s
face formed as it had been two years ago. The change spread from
his head to his neck, his chest.

“Adam never loved you, Olivia,” Emma said,
frantic to stop the spell. “He knew you were as big of a whore as
he was!”

The chanting stopped, and the shadows
stilled. Adam had enough awareness to face her. His eyes were as
she remembered them: warm and brown. She expected to feel some of
her previous emotion for him return.

Nothing. If anything, she pitied him as the
look of both pain and confusion crossed his features.

“You little bitch!” Olivia snarled, snatching
the knife once again. “I’m done with you! Adam is mine!”

Emma tried to hedge away from the plunging
knife. It pierced her right shoulder, and she screamed. By the
frenzied look on Olivia’s face, the black witch intended to chop
her into pieces. Jeffrey snatched her arm and hauled her away,
forcing her to face Adam.

“Finish it!”

Emma saw the look on Olivia’s face change
from fury to worship. She pried herself free from Jeffrey and
stepped to the body of Adam. The half-corpse looked at her,
puzzled.

“Tell Olivia how beautiful she is, Adam,”
Emma urged.

Recognition crossed his features, and he
grimaced, appearing repulsed. Olivia touched her face and stepped
closer.

“Adam, it’s me!” she said. “Jeffrey did this.
Am I not more beautiful than you remember?”

His response was too quiet and ragged for
Emma to hear, but its impact was clear. Confusion and hurt crossed
Olivia’s face.

“Olivia-- ” Jeffrey said, pulling her away
from Adam.

“What do you mean?” she asked of Adam.

He didn’t answer but twisted his
half-repaired neck and looked at Emma. Emma stared back, in too
much pain to care about the look that crossed his face. Olivia,
however, saw it.

“What did you do, Jeffrey?” she demanded and
turned on the half-demon. “He said I was ugly. What did you
do?”

“You did this to yourself,” Jeffrey snapped.
“Get out of my way.” He pushed her aside to get to Adam. Emma
winced as Jeffrey shoved Adam onto his back. Jeffrey met Olivia’s
gaze, and a cold smile spread across his face once again. “You want
him, Olivia? He’s yours.”

“You said you’d bring him back.” Olivia
looked from him to the not-yet-alive Adam.

“And I did. You broke the incantation. Now
you’re stuck with
that.
”

“No. You will bring him back to me, the way
he was!”

“You ugly, stupid bitch!” Jeffrey replied.
“You think anything I did was for you? Adam was right; you’re
hideous. No man in his right mind would choose you over Emma. Even
now, Adam lusts for her, or maybe you missed the look he gave her?
They’ll be fu-- ”

“She’ll never have him!” Olivia roared, her
face black with rage. Her gaze fell to Emma. Emma wriggled in her
bonds, reading Olivia’s intentions in her maddened eyes.

“Why would you want him?” Emma said. “In life
he was a whore and now ... Look at him, Olivia! You’re lucky he
doesn’t want you.” Jeffrey paced to the fissure, and Emma grew
colder. She didn’t understand what Jeffrey was doing, but it
couldn’t be good.

“You don’t want me.” Olivia’s gaze went to
Adam. “It’s
her,
isn’t it? You’re going to cheat on me,
leave me for her again!”

“I loved … her.” Adam’s voice was raspy and
took great effort.

Startled, both Emma and Olivia looked at him.
Olivia snatched the knife off the table and flung herself on top of
the half-corpse, stabbing him and screaming wildly. Emma looked
away, disgusted by the splatter of tissue and blood. Olivia stopped
and panted, sobbing. Emma waited for Olivia’s fury to turn to her.
Instead, she heard a shout of surprise and opened her eyes to see
Olivia’s knife buried in Jeffrey’s back.

Jeffrey growled, an inhuman sound, and
whipped around. He picked up the woman and flung her against the
wall. Emma watched her crumple to the ground and looked again at
Adam. Despite Olivia’s attack, the mostly dead man was battered but
breathing.

Furious, Jeffrey pulled the knife free from
his back and dropped it. His eyes glowed with fire, and he looked
around the basement before turning to the fissure, tossing his head
back, and bellowing a command. Two shadows emerged from the fissure
and took shape in front of him. He nodded toward Emma, and one
obediently floated to her. She closed her eyes, panicking again at
the thought of being dragged to Hell.

She felt the cold touch of the shadow and
cried.

* * *

Tristan snatched the shadow demon hovering
over Emma and flung it away. The other shadow hovered over Olivia.
The fever in his body-- his own shadows trying to escape-- made the
world seem to move slowly and his head spin with thoughts.

I’m so close to home
. His eyes went to
the fissure.

No!
He belonged here, with Emma.

Jeffrey whirled, sensing him. Glee was on his
twin’s face at the prospect of returning to Hell. Tristan looked
around at the basement. Emma was hurt, her life fading. The corpse
beside her was unsettling with its human head and mutilated,
decomposed body that appeared as if part of it had gone through the
blender.