Demon's Triad (28 page)

Love
. By the gods, it had snuck up on them so quickly it still took his breath away.

“You realize we just completed each other’s sentences.” She smiled, and he felt the warmth of it wash over his skin.

“Like an old married couple already.” He returned her smile, but a part of him felt a sharp stab of regret. He loved her—there was no doubt in his mind—and he knew she felt the same, but would they ever have a chance at a relationship without Ferrin? No matter what they knew about his heritage, the past two days had taught Dorand that he didn’t want a life without his clan brother. Love him, hate him, envy him, Ferrin was a part of him, a part he never wanted to live without.

“Let’s go get him, Dorand. We can do this. I know we can.” She leapt off the ledge into his arms and kissed him like the world was coming to an end. In that second, he knew she wasn’t just talking about Ferrin’s rescue. She was taking about them, all three of them, and the life they could have together.

“I love you. Thank you,” Dorand said, the words hot and wet against her lips.

“I love you too. Thank you for what?” She pressed closer to him and her breath quickened. Even now, the slightest touch and they ached for each other. Dorand wondered if it would always be this way years from now when their older children were learning the ways of the coven and he, Ferrin, and Aleeza were arguing over who would check their spell work and who give the younger kids a bath.

She smiled and ran a cool hand down the side of his face. “Never mind. I know.”

“Are you a mind reader now?”

“No I—” The smile dropped from her face, replaced by a stricken look.

“What’s wrong? Aleeza, are you all right?” She moaned, one hand flying to her head, and Dorand scooped her into his arms as her knees buckled. “Talk to me, tell me what’s—”

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“He’s back, oh god Dorand, he’s back. Stronger than ever.” She cried out and writhed in his arms, but Dorand held her tighter, closer. “Let me go, you have to let me go. I have to go to him, have to stop—”

“Never. Listen to me, Aleeza. Concentrate on my voice. You can fight this. You’re strong enough to—”

“No, I can’t. I won’t.” She screamed, but Dorand could tell she was speaking to the voice in her head and kept urging her to fight.

“You choose your destiny. You choose what to do with your magic.”

“No, please, Dorand. Let me go!”

“You heard the lady, let her go.” The voice came from the darkness just inside the garage and Dorand swung around in time to see fifteen men dressed in black sweatshirts moving out of the shadows.

Scratch that, not men, witches. Their power wasn’t strong, but it was there, yellow and sick, throbbing nastily through their auras. Dorand let Aleeza’s feet drop back to the ground but held her close to his side with one arm. He would need two hands if he planned to take this to the combat level, but magic he could work better with Aleeza’s aura melding with his own.

“Lend me your power, Aleeza.”

She moaned but didn’t answer yes or no. Dorand decided to take that as a yes, dropping the shield between them as the men began to advance. The second he felt their magic collide, he knew he’d made a big mistake.

He screamed as he felt the demon’s power burn along his skin, seeking entrance to his mind but blocked by Amiantos magic. That didn’t keep it from hurting like a son of a bitch. He dropped to his knees, and Aleeza fell from his grasp, rolling onto the ground. Their attackers chuckled and drew even closer.

Dorand rallied the last of his strength, the last of his magic, and prepared to do battle. So a demon attack had weakened him, so what? Now maybe this might actually be a fair fight.

* * * * *

At first Ferrin didn’t understand what he was feeling, he was so focused on holding back the power that raged and twisted inside him. He sensed the beginnings of some sort of struggle, yes, but was the struggle outside or within himself?

His power bucked and raged and fought to break free. Before him on the bed Kali’s body gleamed gold, her lips curved in a beatific smile as she waited for her stomach to grow. The demon’s words filled the air around them, a rising wind that stirred the curtains and made Ferrin’s hair dance.

Everything he was, everything in his soul, wanted to let his power go, to ride with the demon through the blackness surrounding them. It would be so easy to just release 147

Anna J. Evans & December Quinn

it, to release himself. For the first time in his life he would know what he truly was, how it felt to be what he should have been. What it was his birthright to be.

But he would not, could not. This situation gave new meaning to the word

“wrong”. An abomination rested in his sister’s belly, and a demon called his power.

Ferrin gritted his teeth and thought of Dorand. Of Aleeza. Where were they? Did they know what had happened to him? Were they coming for him?

Something shot through him, a spark of pure energy that felt like Dorand. Ferrin lifted his head. It was probably only his own power imitating the Amiantos light Ferrin knew so well. Still, he focused on that spark. The reminder of what goodness felt like was heartening, especially with the seductive blackness around him so thick it was hard to breathe.

Then another light joined the white, an electric blue light and a breath of the fresh, sweet air that was Aleeza, and Ferrin knew she was here. They were here, both of them.

A sob of relief escaped his lips before he could think to hold it in.

Kali heard and opened her eyes. Whatever she saw on his face made her smile.

“Yes, brother,” she said. “You see now, how strong we will be. How our child will give us more power than we ever dreamed.”

Ferrin nodded. “I see now.” He looked away, afraid she would see the hope in his eyes. Around him the smell of pine strengthened. Dorand. Aleeza. He could wrap them around him and keep himself safe inside.

They had to be close, maybe even fighting Kali’s followers. He had to stay focused on the ritual, keep Kali and Reglanus focused as well until Dorand and Aleeza could find him. As if called, the green-gold energy he and Aleeza created together swirled through the air, a gleaming banner. Kali frowned.

“What is that?”

Nothing, my love
said the demon. Ferrin glanced over at him, pricklings of misgiving sneaking up his spine. Surely the demon knew something was wrong, sensed the magic of other witches nearby?

The green-gold strengthened, glowed. It wrapped around Ferrin. Aleeza. She was here, she was coming, she was sending her power to him to keep him strong…

But this wasn’t her power. This was something else, something that looked like her and smelled like her but somehow, indefinably, was not her, and Ferrin struggled to get away as the energy wrapped around him and squeezed.

“No, by the gods!” He screamed as the energy shot through him, rotten and twisted, soured by something that was not of this world.

Not of this world
yet
, but I will be…one way or the other.

“Let her go! Damn you,” Ferrin raged at the demon, struggling to lift his hands from Kali’s bare stomach and lash out at the creature who hovered at the opposite side of the bed. Reglanus had to have Aleeza in his power. There was no other way he could be stealing her magic.

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There’s only one way to help your love.

“Reglanus? What’s happening? Is something wrong?” Kali asked. She didn’t seem to hear the words her demon was speaking in Ferrin’s mind.

Send the energy into your sister. Get rid of it and you will be at peace.

“What about Aleeza, what have you done with her?”

She and your brother walked right into my trap. A succubus spell. I’m taking her magic,
just as I’ll take yours if you don’t agree to help me.

“I’ll never help you,” Ferrin screamed.

“You will help him. You will do as he says, you will aid this spell, or you will die!”

Kali screamed, taking his chin in her hand and twisting his face to hers.

Send the magic into your twin. Disable her before she kills you.

“No. No!” Ferrin gritted his teeth and struggled to pull away from his sister. He succeeded in lifting Kali off the bed, but they stayed melded together. There was no way to free his hands, and without his hands, no way to channel this power anywhere else. He hated this woman, despised her for everything she had done to him but he didn’t want her dead.

“What are you doing? Hold still! If you do anything to damage our child or interfere with this magic, I will kill you, brother. Do not doubt that.” Kali hissed the words, her eyes glimmering with menace.

“Why do you want this now? I could have killed her before!” Ferrin ignored Kali as she began to spew more threats. This was between him and the demon now. Something had happened, something to change the distribution of power, though what that had been he couldn’t say.

We’re not going to kill her, dear Ferrin. We’re just going to get her out of the way.

“He wants to get you out of the way.” Ferrin repeated the words to Kali, the truth suddenly becoming clear. “You’re not pregnant. He lied to you to get us here, in this ritual with nowhere to run.”

“You’re a liar! I can feel the baby kick already! The tests were positive, all three of them,” Kali argued, but he could see the faint glimmer of doubt in her eyes.

“I’m not lying. The demon’s tricked you. Help me. We’ve got to get my hands—”

“Never!”

“Help me or I won’t have a choice. I’ll do as he asks. I might even kill you.” A cold sweat covered his skin, and Ferrin trembled with the force of holding the power within him. He didn’t have much time. This was her last chance, a chance he wasn’t at all surprised to see her pass up without a thought.

“You’re a liar! Do what Reglanus says—do it now!”

With a roar of frustration, Ferrin pushed the sick, green-gold magic into his sister.

He didn’t know if he could trust the demon, but the power was too much to fight. He couldn’t contain it or control it. If he didn’t channel it somewhere, he was going to burn himself alive. If he killed Kali, well, it just might be her day to die.

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Kali screamed as the energy powered into her body, her golden glow throbbing with streaks of dark green. She rolled from the bed to the floor, Ferrin’s hands falling from her easily now that the ritual was complete. There, she curled into a ball on her side, gripping her stomach in pain.

“Damn you! You’ve broken our covenant. I’ll send you back to hell so fast your—”

Kali broke off with a sob, her hands flying to cover her eyes. She was suddenly crying, bawling like a small child, wild, abandoned wails that made Ferrin physically ill. The pain that radiated from her petite frame was epic, more pain than even a traitorous demon could possibly cause. Whatever it was that had broken this woman, turned her to the demon-fast in the first place, it was far worse than anything Ferrin had ever known.

For the first time since he laid eyes on his sister, he actually felt sympathy for her.

While he had been growing up in the warm loving light of the Amiantos woods, where had Kali been? Who had loved her? Shown her that life could be more than pain and power? Had there ever been anyone who had helped her learn to listen to the voice of goodness within her, the voice that Ferrin finally realized had always been within him as well, as strong as that black seed that he had always feared?

“Yes. You win, yes. I’ll free you, if you vow to stop this.” Kali’s whispered the words through her tears. The malignant glow that covered her skin faded, leaving her pale and limp on the floor, her large eyes nearly black with despair.

“Are you all right?” Ferrin asked, picking up the knife from the bed and positioning himself between Kali and the demon. Reglanus was fading, no longer as solid as he had been moment before.

“As if you care.” The words were quiet, hopeless, and her eyes didn’t focus on him when he crouched down beside her.

“I won’t lie, I don’t have any love for you, but you’re my sister. I wish we could have met before…before you came to this.” Ferrin felt something hard in his heart shatter. She’d raped him, hurt him, threatened to kill him, but looking into her face right now, all he could see was that little girl she’d once been. A little girl who had obviously been scared, hurt and ashamed by what she was, a little girl who had never had anyone on her side.

As he gently pushed the hair from her face, it was almost as if he could see that life, flashes of Kali alone in some sort of halfway house. Kali beaten by a group of other witches in a locker room, Kali smiling up into the face of a much older man on her wedding day, full of hope for the first time in her life. Hope that had later turned to despair when that man betrayed her.

“You were right. There was no child,” she said, tears in her eyes once more. “I’m sorry, Ferrin. I’m so sorry.”

Ferrin didn’t know what to say. His throat was suddenly tight, tears at the back of his eyes. How could he forgive her, but how could he not? She’d broken him in a way 150

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nothing ever had, but amidst those pieces he’d found his true self, a self that was far better than he had ever known.

“Kali, I—”

“You have to run, try to get out of here. It was a wasting spell. It would have killed me if I didn’t free him from the magic fast. Now he’s at liberty to join with you and Aleeza. That’s what he’s wanted all along,” she whispered, swallowing with obvious effort, fear clear in her eyes as she stared at the misty form of Reglanus now growing solid once more. “I took some of his power by breaking the fast, but it won’t take him long to recover. Get out of here, find Aleeza and free her from his spell if you can.”

“Come with me. I’ll carry you out of—”

“No, there’s no time. Run Ferrin, and no matter what you do, don’t go into the Amiantos woods!” She pulled herself into a seated position and took the knife from his hand. On unsteady feet she stood, making her way toward the demon. “Let’s see if a demon can bleed, Reglanus. I’ve been curious about that for some time now.”