Magic Rising (34 page)

“You’ve been an interesting study. When the scandal calmed down from Shope dying, I was going to offer you a position. It seems Niam beat me to it.” She touched Deirdre’s ankle, playing with the clasp on her boot. “Now I have a better use for you. Something more fitting.”

“I don’t understand.”

She licked her lips and gazed over Deirdre’s body with a lust so obvious it frightened Deirdre. Women had looked at her before, not as often as men, but this was different. Tamara’s desire was for more than Deirdre’s body.

“I might spare you. Is it hard having him in your head? Do you hear his voice or feel his thoughts? What’s it like?”

Deirdre didn’t know how Tamara had found out, but she wasn’t going to offer any more information than was absolutely necessary. It didn’t take that second set of thoughts to tell her that this situation had turned very bad and thankfully, Niam had chosen to keep quiet.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Deirdre held a serious face, all while hoping her eyes weren’t puffy from crying. “Are you feeling okay? Something seems to be bothering you.” The little girl, Deirdre had forgotten about her. “Is Lora okay?”

Tamara eyed her again, hungry, needy. It was frightening and curious at the same time. Deirdre obviously had something she wanted but it seemed that something was Niam.

“Sweetie. I can remove that annoyance from your head. It will cost you though. It will cost you dearly.” She flipped the clasp on her boot again. “I think it would be worth it though. Wouldn’t it be nice to be alone in your head?”

Tamara rose and went to the wall, pressing a button to an intercom system. She spoke softly and Deirdre was certain the words she heard weren’t in English. The actress had something up her sleeve.

“I’ll make you a deal, Deirdre.” She looked away from the intercom. “Kill Lora for me, offer me your strength, and pledge your loyalty to my order. In return I will remove that burden from you.”

Killing Lora was unthinkable. “I’m not a baby killer.”

Deirdre was thankful that the voice in her remained silent, at least for now. Whatever Niam had done, he hadn’t wanted to break her mind, only torment her. Right now he knew to keep quiet.

“You’ll change your mind.” Tamara clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Soon you’ll beg me.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Show you how bad it can be. Right now you are in control. Impressive but temporary. Let me show you how life will be in a few weeks. Even a mind as strong as yours won’t be able to keep him under wraps for long.”

Again, Deirdre heard the bedroom door open. This time a man and woman entered. Their clothes matched, like some sort of strange uniform only slightly better than McDonalds. They wore khaki pants, white shirts, and silver pendants around their necks.

Tamara nodded to them and the pair came to Deirdre. She didn’t want to know what they were going to do. When the thoughts started to rise, she squelched them, not able to take the internal conflict and thankfully, Niam acquiesced.

The man grabbed her head, one hand in her hair while the other went to her chin, pressing against it until she opened her mouth. While muttering more infernal Latin, the woman poured some grotesque liquid down Deirdre’s throat. She tried to vomit, spit out the mix, but she was forced to swallow or drown. The mixture was ice cold and tasted the way a match smelled. Some mix of sulfur or maybe it was liquid hell.

“When you’re tired of wrestling your demons, let me know. I will end your pain, Deirdre. I’m the only one who knows how to.”

Tamara exited the room, leaving the man holding her head and the other woman still muttering. At least a minute passed before the man released her face. He stood at the side of the bed holding her head still so she couldn’t puke out the foul poison. Once the woman had stopped rubbing her throat, she nodded to the man. They both left the room, turning off the light.

A stream of sunlight covered the bed, shining uncomfortably in her eyes. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed or even what had happened to bring her to this place. All she knew was that Lora had to be alive and a new day had dawned.

One problem at a time, first she had to get free. Deirdre wiggled her ankles, then her wrists, both were tied too tight for her to slip from. She tried scooting, bringing her head to the top of the bed and the head board, but it felt solid.

Tamara raising…dead rising…power in the house…power in the line.

The thoughts grew louder, starting at a whisper then growing in dominance in her mind. The voice overran her thoughts, her attempts at escape. She tried ignoring it but it grew louder, so she tried listening, pretending it were some radio show, but it disturbed her.

She’s poisoned you…given you the elixir…forces you to pay attention…forces my power.

“Shut up.” Deirdre didn’t mean to speak out loud but couldn’t help it. Her thoughts were shrouded, wrapped, and dying under Niam.

When she thought it could get no worse, the power in her grew again. This time it was more than thoughts and voices. Niam’s world was all she could see, smell, or breathe. He surrounded her, absorbed her mind into his and she wondered if there would be anything left of her once he’d finished. Then his memories assaulted her and she wished she could scream.

Back in the basement, everything went back to the basement. She heard herself chanting but it wasn’t her voice, it was Niam’s. Deirdre began to cry and again it wasn’t her but Niam. She hadn’t won the battle after all. Niam had and perhaps he had absorbed her because everything that had been Dragonfly, Deirdre Flye, was dying.

“Why are you doing this?”

Face me…face her…face us.

It was time to calm down. She tried to think of calming things, images to break through the mad mix of Niam and herself. There were many things that comforted her. She thought of Sabrine.

She’s been captured and will die if you don’t figure a way out of this. If you knew anything, you’d sense your warrior and her nerdy friend in this house. Come on, Dragonfly. You’re better than this.

Deirdre turned to another thought and almost by accident it went to Niam’s dead body lying on the basement floor. She’d won. She’d been the victor. This couldn’t happen to the winner. It wasn’t fair. She’d been better, faster, she’d beaten her teacher and watched him die.

Maybe you won more than you bargained for.

At last she came to the one thought that had always brought her comfort. No matter how terrible things grew, she had Scorpion. Even in Stone House they’d shared rare moments of mother and daughter. That thought was the key to the power inside crippling her.

Her mind filled with Stone House and there she stood, except it was really Niam’s eyes she saw the world from, talking with Scorpion. Niam’s hand reached to Scorpion, touching hair lighter than Deirdre’s had been.

“I know what you’re up to Scorpion.”

“I told you, that was my old life. The house means everything to me now.” Scorpion’s voice held strong but Deirdre detected fear under the surface. She was hiding something.

“Prove it.” Niam’s voice was a whisper with a hint of humor. “Dragonfly disobeyed orders. She didn’t kill the mark as she was told. She warned him. That treachery must be dealt with.”

“She’s still a child.” This time the fear came out clear. Scorpion must’ve suspected what was coming.

“The Council will rule for punishment by oil. They’ll make you pull the lever. If you obey, then you’ll be a trusted member of the house again. Fail and you’ll face certain death.”

Scorpion closed her eyes, hiding tears that glistened in long trails flowing down her cheeks. “Not my baby. No.”

“She’s not yours. She belongs to the house. You own nothing, you are nothing. Everything is for the house.”

Then Deirdre’s mind went black, switching slowly to the night she’d failed. The time she couldn’t stomach her fate or the sin her soul would have to bear. She chose a different path, one that had cost her mother dearly.

“I didn’t want to be a murderer.”

Why?

“Because he hadn’t done anything deserving of death.”

So you ignored an order.

“Didn’t you ever question a command? Didn’t you know something was wrong in your heart?”

There was silence in her mind for a moment.

Yes. I suppose I have. I really didn’t want you to die in the oil. I couldn’t stand the thought. It seemed wrong.

In this moment, she knew he wasn’t lying. Whatever strange bond they shared, she knew his truths just as she couldn’t hide anything from him. As the realization flowed through her, the past continued to play.

A taxi had dropped her off at a hotel in Detroit. It was cold there, she remembered that more than anything. There was a doorman who opened the door to the lobby, showing her the fanciest place she’d ever seen. A long green counter with well-dressed men and women waited for people to check in. Deirdre had to walk by them, pretending to know where she was going. She found the elevators and hit the button for the eleventh floor.

She’d been given the room number along with clear instructions on what to do. Government officials couldn’t bother Stone House and she was supposed to teach one particular group a lesson by killing the official. She wasn’t sure what he’d been at the time but senator seemed right.

Deirdre had walked to the door, and knocked. Hidden in her purse was a knife. When the door had opened, she acted confused, pulled the knife, but instead of jamming it into the man’s chest, she chose his leg and ran from the building.

Niam had been especially cruel when he found out. He’d made her hang above those hot coals until her skin burned from the heat. When they went cold, he refilled the bowl and she hung there for a full day before he finally let her come down. One shoulder had been dislocated from the ordeal.

I did that in the hope that the leaders would spare you death. I always cared about you. You didn’t know that. It’s true though.

“You killed my mother. You killed her.”

You thought Scorpion had died on the field. She didn’t Deirdre. I found out the truth. Your mother was a spy for the FBI. They were going to bring it all down. Her backup was Mercury. He helped her escape.

The movie playing in her head switched again, this time to the funeral pyre. Everyone else had gone and she found herself staring at the ashes. Niam held a piece of paper up and Deirdre read it through his eyes. Scorpion was still working for the FBI and had been pulled out through a faked death orchestrated by another member, Mercury.

It wasn’t all her fault that she lied to the house members. Your father was a priest, a witch, some say a madman, others say a demon. His name was Colinster. I don’t even believe he was really human. Your mother fell to his charms though. Don’t be angry with her. He had ways. He knew what he was doing. She didn’t discover how terrible he could be until she had you.

Deirdre hissed unable to stop Niam’s information from flowing through her. Last night he’d tortured her with images of the funeral pyre, with her mother’s death, but today facts strung through her. She had no idea who her father had been or that she was Tamara Haas’ half sister.

Scorpion was a good witch in her own right. Certain abilities she possessed made Stone House an easy assignment. No one knew that Colinster would bed her. Some say you were conceived in rape, others claim Scorpion was a whore. I don’t know which it true, but your mother wasn’t an immoral woman. I know that Colinster didn’t want to let you go after his other daughter, Tamara, contaminated herself by letting a black man touch her. He wanted you. He created a situation where Scorpion had to play along or lose you altogether.

“How did she die?”

The fire. Everyone thought you’d caused the blazes, the bombs so strategically placed around the compound. The moments before everyone died, they cursed you. No one knew that Scorpion had used her skills to tear apart Stone House. I knew it was her though. I knew she’d come back for you. You’d already escaped. She went to your room, I guess figuring you’d return there to escape the smoke. I followed her and finished the job.

“I thought I heard her in the flames, but I thought it was a ghost willing me to burn.” Sobs racked her body. “You killed my mother.”

I’m sorry. I was angry with her.
He seemed to absorb her emotions, feel the loss with her.
I never knew my parents. I didn’t understand. I just saw a traitor. She was a woman willing to kill hundreds of people just to save you.

Niam relived the scene with her. Scorpion entering the room with her sword drawn, searching frantically for her Dragonfly. Niam saw it all from the closet, stabbing her before she saw it coming and then shoving her into the closet to die.

“Mommy.”

The fire ate through all the halls going to exit points. The smoke hung in a curtain too heavy to endure. The spices and chemicals stored on the property had caught making a poisonous gas that flowed through the building. There was only one way out or Niam would suffocate. He charged forward, stepping into the blaze, counting on his magic to keep him safe. It was too hot though. Although a single flame didn’t touch him, the heat on one side of the building cooked him as he passed. The pain was excruciating, and Deirdre felt it, writhing in her ropes like her skin cooked, pealed from the bone. She smelled the burning flesh and it was more awful than the fire. It was her body cooking.