Demon's Triad (23 page)

“You’re going to be fine.” Dorand put his arm around Aleeza’s shoulders and hugged her close. She melted into him, but the anxiety clear on her face didn’t fade a bit.

“I’m sure she doesn’t bite. Even if she does, if she looks anything like her daughter, I’ll take one for the team.” Ferrin laughed at Aleeza’s astonished look.

“You’re gross—that’s my mother.” She moved away from Dorand to punch him on the shoulder.

“I don’t discriminate. Women can be sexy at any age. I’m sure you’re going to be totally smoking at fifty.” He pulled her close before they reached the door and gave her a quick, but thorough kiss that left her grinning.

“Fifty?”

“At least forty.”

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“Thanks. I’m sure you’ll look okay yourself,” she said, her eyes shining up at him.

God, was he just imagining it, or did he see more than a little affection in that look? Last night had been amazing, but none of them had made any grand declarations.

Looking at her right now, however…it was all he could do not to tell her how much he loved her. How he was certain he loved her enough and wanted her badly enough for it not to matter what her mother the reproductive guru had to say.

“We should go inside. I don’t think we’ve been followed, but after yesterday it doesn’t seem smart to stay out in the open too long.” Dorand’s face was unreadable, but Ferrin could see the tension in his body. They had shared Aleeza last night openly, willingly, but this morning things had still been tense between them.

Ferrin couldn’t help thinking that Dorand was a little too eager for this meeting.

He’d been more than understanding last night, even suggesting he and Aleeza talk alone, but Ferrin sensed that a part of his brother would be more than pleased if it turned out their suspicions were correct, that Ferrin and Aleeza could never be together again without him. Their magic had worked well together as a triumvirate last night, and Aleeza and Dorand had nothing to worry about where the mingling of their magic was concerned.

But Aleeza and Ferrin were another matter entirely. He wanted to howl at the unfairness of it, the fury that threatened to overtake him when he thought of it. That he would never be truly allowed into the depths of her body again. He would be forced to make do with her hands and mouth while watching his brother get what he himself so fervently desired. One day, he might even have to watch her belly grow with Dorand’s child and not his, theirs, the dream children…only the strongest will he possessed kept him sane. Kept him from striking out, from letting his blackness take over.

Even now on her mother’s porch, having just stepped over magical wards intended to keep out evil, he could still feel the whisper of that “other” voice the second Aleeza was in his arms. It shivered down the back of his neck, urging him to throw his woman over his shoulder and get the hell away from Mona and whatever magic she might work upon them this day.

Aleeza was his to claim, his to bed, his to—

“Dorand’s right.” Ferrin stepped away from her quickly and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his coat. “We should get inside. Better get this over with.”

“You heard it again, didn’t you?” Aleeza asked.

He nodded, tried to smile and failed.

She lifted her hand as if to touch his face, then thought better of it and crossed her arms over her chest. She suddenly looked so small, standing there in a white fleece sweatshirt and black track pants, more a teenager than a powerful witch determined to find a killer. He wanted to protect her from her mother, from this black magic, even from himself if that’s what had to be done.

“I heard it too, but not as strongly as yesterday. Maybe—”

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“Are you coming inside or are you going to stand out there making out with your boyfriends all day?” The shout from inside cut Aleeza off mid-sentence and brought the anxiety rushing back to her features with a vengeance.

“I’m coming, Mona, keep your panties on,” she yelled back before she squared her shoulders and set her face in what Ferrin was coming to know what her “tough girl”

expression. “Come on, guys. I guess it’s time to meet the folks. Or the folk, I guess. My dad ran off when I was six. Remind me later to ask you if you’ve ever met the bastard.”

She opened the door and motioned for them to follow.

If looks could kill, Ferrin had no doubt he and Dorand both would have fallen down dead as soon as they stepped inside the little house. The air reeked of cleanser and roasting chicken, and the surfaces had the intense shine of things long allowed to be dirty, suddenly scrubbed in the face of guests.

He offered his hand to Aleeza’s mother, gave her his best, most heart-melting smile.

“Mrs. Perkins, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She frowned and ignored his hand. “I’m sure it is.”

Dorand and Ferrin exchanged looks. Maybe Aleeza had been right.

Mona turned away, heading toward the back of the little house. “You might as well come on. I’ve made some tea for you.”

Ferrin followed, his gaze wandering into the rooms they passed. Aleeza had grown up here. As a child she’d played here, cried here…had she run to this forbidding, sour-faced woman in front of him when she suffered the hurts every child suffered?

He couldn’t imagine it.

They sat at the scratched wood kitchen table while Mona poured them tea in faded china cups. She poured herself a whiskey.

“Sorry I’m not offering it around,” she said. “Medicinal. I figure I’m going to need a drink while you all explain to me how my daughter managed to break a two-thousand-year-old curse—a curse for the benefit of her and everyone else—and why she is now allowing two men who should know better to use her body like a goddamn inflatable doll.”

Automatically, Ferrin and Dorand both reached for Aleeza’s hands. Her skin was cold as death. Her eyes glittered.

Sometimes Ferrin wondered what it would have been like to have known his birth mother. His adopted mother had been a kind woman though old enough to be his grandmother. She’d passed when he was twelve and left a void in his life that sometimes he’d wished could have been filled by a real parent. But other times, like now as he sat at that table and watched the woman he loved being treated so cruelly, he thought maybe he was better off without one. He’d never been big on compassion himself, but he knew damn well he would treat a child of his better than the family dog.

Speaking of dogs, he suddenly wanted to leap across the table and attack.

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Dorand, as always, was the one who knew what to do instead. “It wasn’t her fault, Mrs. Perkins. Aleeza’s been cursed.”

“No, you idiot Amiantos. Aleeza was cursed. Now she’s just—”

“No.” Dorand cut her off before she could say what Ferrin suspected would be another insult. “There’s demon magic going on here, ma’am. Aleeza was under a demon’s influence. That’s why she broke the celibacy spell. She didn’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

“Forget it, guys.” Aleeza’s voice broke. “I figured we’d find her in a pissy mood.”

“Don’t I have a right to be angry?” Mona slammed her empty glass on the countertop. “I’m your mother—don’t I have the right to an opinion? I know you don’t give a shit what I think. I know you didn’t even come to me for help after you broke the Gunera curse despite knowing that aside from being your lousy mother, I’m an expert at reproductive spells and curses. I had to dose you up with herbs myself. Good thing I did or who knows what you might have made while you were out fucking your little boyfriends.”

“That’s why I came here, Mother! To ask you for help. Could you quit screaming for a fucking second?”

“That’s a nice way to ask for help.”

“Fine, please. Will you please help me? Do I have to be on my hands and knees? I’m your daughter for fuck’s—”

“Don’t you dare pull the daughter card. You don’t have any respect for me as your mother—you never have. How was I ever supposed to help you? From the time you were six, you would run and hide the second you got a skinned knee. You shut everyone out, even people who love you. How could I—”

“I’m not shutting you out now, am I?” Aleeza covered her face with her hands but not before Ferrin saw the tears start to roll down her cheeks. Mona did the same a second later, her shoulders shaking quietly. The room was completely silent except for the soft sobs that came from both women.

Ferrin exchanged glances with Dorand. The two men stood up in unison.

“I think we’re going to wait outside for a while,” Dorand said. “May we look at your garden, Mrs. Perkins?”

Mona nodded from behind her fingers.

* * * * *

Aleeza wiped her own tears away and watched her mother cry, barely feeling the kisses both men planted on her forehead before they let themselves out the back door.

She’d made Mona cry again, for the second time in two days. It was a new world’s record and one she didn’t want to repeat again.

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She was tired of hurting, tired of making her mom hurt. No matter who had initially been right or wrong, they were both going to be fucked as long as they kept resenting each other.

“Mona,” she said. “I—”

“No.” Her mother lifted her face from her hands. “No, Aleeza, you listen to me. I tried to tell you yesterday. I wanted to talk to you…but I’ve never been able to talk to you. And…that’s probably my fault.” She poured herself another drink then surprised Aleeza by pouring a second and setting it on the table before she sat down. She nodded.

“Drink up.”

Aleeza took a cautious sip. Mona nodded.

“You know, when you were born…I was so excited. I had my boys. Now I wanted a girl. And your father, he felt the same. The way he used to smile at you.” She shook her head, a ghost of a smile crossing her face. “It doesn’t matter. But he spoiled you, Aleeza, and I admit I was jealous. Not of you, of him. Because you loved him so much. When you fell down, you wanted Daddy. When you woke up in the morning, you wanted Daddy. I just couldn’t compete. And when things fell apart between me and him…”

“He wanted me.” The words felt strange in her mouth, wrong, but she knew she was right.

Mona nodded. “He didn’t want me anymore, he didn’t want your brothers but he wanted you. We fought for the better part of a year. Then your magic decided the issue for us when it turned Gunera. I told him he couldn’t have you. You needed to be with your own people, to learn to use your magic.” She wiped her nose on her hand. “It was true…but it wasn’t right. I used you to get back at him, to punish him for leaving. Most of all I punished him because you loved him best. I didn’t know why I wasn’t good enough…”

Tears poured down her face, down Aleeza’s face too. “Mona…Mom…”

Mona shook her head. “I’m so sorry, baby. I just wanted to know you, to be close to you. But you didn’t want me. You never did. Once he was gone, you just…closed off.

And you never let me help you, and you never talked to me if you didn’t have to, and I couldn’t do anything about it but let you go. Before you started hating me more than you did already.”

“I never hated you,” Aleeza managed.

“I just didn’t know how to talk to you. I never knew how to talk to you. But I always loved you, baby.” Mona started crying in earnest, and before Aleeza knew quite how it happened she was crying too, crying in her mother’s thin arms. She cried for all of the lost years, for all of the nights she’d lain awake thinking of her father and wishing he’d come back, and hadn’t even noticed her mother standing just outside the room wanting to come in.

Minutes passed that felt like hours before they finally released their hold on each other. Mona poured them each another drink and gave her a watery smile. “Okay, honey,” she said. “We’ll talk more later.”

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“Yeah, we will.”

“Meanwhile, let’s get those men back in here and see if we can figure out what’s going on.” She shot Aleeza a look. “I still don’t approve, you know.”

“I’m sorry.” She looked her mother right in the eyes. Knowing what she knew changed things, changed her feelings, but not toward Ferrin and Dorand. “But they—they’re very special men. And we’re powerful together.”

“Amiantos don’t usually work in threes. Neither do Gunera.”

“Ferrin isn’t Amiantos.”

Mona nodded. “He didn’t feel like it. What is he? Onterantu? Bizanna? You need to be careful if he’s not Amiantos, you know. There’s a good reason why we’re not supposed to be with anyone but the undefiled.”

Aleeza took a deep breath. “He’s Daiesthai.”

“What?”

“He’s Daiesthai.”

“That’s not possible.” Mona’s face was paler than Aleeza had ever seen it. “No, he can’t be. They’re all gone. They’re extinct.”

Aleeza shrugged. “He survived.”

“By the gods.” Fresh tears started in Mona’s eyes. “Aleeza, you can’t be with him.

You can’t let him touch you, you can’t—” She swallowed. “You can’t make love with him. Not ever again. Never. Do you understand?”

“I think we should bring the men back in now. You can tell all of us about it. That’s why we’re here, Mon—Mom. To find out why. There’s some serious shit going on, and we need information.”

“I don’t think I can have him in my house. He’s Daiesthai. Don’t you know what that means?”

“No. That’s why we’re here.”

“Aleeza…baby…they’re why the curse was cast to begin with.” Mona’s eyes were so large in her face Aleeza thought her mother might be having a stroke. “The celibacy curse. When Gunera and Daiesthai mate, they make demons. Sometimes actual demons, monsters who rip their way out of their mother’s wombs. Some half-breeds, not quite demon, not quite human. Those children…so many had to be killed. Little babies, killed before they took their first breath, never given a chance to live…demon babies.”

“Goddess.” Aleeza felt a wave of bile rush into her throat. “How do you know this?”

“There were scrolls left behind, but I’ve had visions as well. Midwives from ages past. They’ve come to me in my sleep. The horrors they’ve described…I can’t even repeat. Even the children who look human consort with demons. They’re never fully mortal and have no soul, no empathy, no compassion. They’re all monsters, no matter 123