Sacrifice Me: The Complete Season One (39 page)

Without my normal level of power, there was no way
I could defeat the Devil in a direct fight. I had been so anxious to
see Franki and make sure she really was safe that I hadn't brought
any of my potions with me to Peachville. I had been completely
unprepared and now Franki's life was in more danger than ever.

I had to find my way to her.

I shifted to my demon form and flew up the stairs
and out into the village. I crossed the barrier and didn't stop until
I had reached Brighton Manor. I had no idea how much time I had until
the Devil carried out his plans, but I was now sure Franki's mother
had been a part of his game all along.

He never had been on his way to the crow village.
He wouldn't have risked getting tied up with Harper and her friends.
He would want Franki brought to him. If there was going to be a
fight, he would want it fought on his terms. His turf.

I banged on the back door. The moment it opened, I
barreled into the kitchen where Harper, Jackson and a handful of
others were just sitting down to breakfast.

Harper stood, pushing her chair back. “What
is it?”

My jaw tensed. I hated even to admit what I had
let happen, but there was no avoiding it now. I was going to need all
the help I could get, and the group here in Peachville was made up of
some of the strongest witches and demons I knew.

“Franki's been taken,” I said, my mind
filtering out the unnecessary details. “Her mother showed up
this morning claiming the Devil had been holding her captive for
months. She said she'd escaped just in time to warn us that he was on
his way to the village to attack.”

Mary Anne rushed in from the other room, her
bright blue eyes wide with fear. “What? How? There's no way he
could even get into the village.”

My gut twisted. “She showed us marks on her
neck and said he had been feeding on her,” I said. “Her
blood was in his veins and she said he'd be able to get in that way.”

“Oh my God,” Mary Anne said. “We
have to go after her. Where did he take her?”

I ran a hand through my hair. I was so mad I just
wanted to rip it out. “He didn't. Not directly. Franki's mom
betrayed us,” I explained. “She said the only way out of
the village without risking the Devil capturing Franki was through a
special doorway in the library.”

“The one under the altar?” Jackson
asked, standing to join me near the door.

“Yes,” I said. I looked to Mary Anne,
hopeful. “Do you know that door? Do you know where it leads
to?”

Mary Anne's mouth hung open. “It's a
shifting doorway,” she said. “Her mom could have taken
her anywhere from the other side of that door.”

I leaned a hand against the table, trying to
control my anger. If anything happened to Franki, I would never be
able to forgive myself.

“She's taken her to the Devil's castle,”
I said. “I'm sure of it. That had to have been their plan all
along. Dammit. I knew something was wrong, but she was so convincing.
She kept rushing us toward that door, telling us it was our only
chance to escape. I can't believe we trusted her.”

“You can't blame yourself for the betrayal
of others,” Harper said. “All you can do is learn from it
and move forward. What can we do to help?”

I rubbed my hands across my weary face. I needed
to think. If I was going after the Devil, I needed an army. “The
Devil's castle is in Germany,” I said. “It's not too far
from my own house in the mountains. I can use the doorway here to get
us close. We'll have to fly the rest of the way. He'll have it
heavily guarded, I imagine. Possibly a hundred or more, of the lesser
vampires. Worst case, some of the Brotherhood will be there, as well.
I know it's a lot to ask for you to join me in this fight, but
there's something I haven't told you.”

“What?” Jackson said. He and Harper
shared a look.

“Before she took her through the doorway,
Franki's mother told her who her real father is,” I said. “She
lied about a lot of things, but I don't think she was lying about
this.”

Mordecai, who'd been sitting quietly at the table,
listening, stood, his hands pressed against the top of the wooden
table. “I knew her father was the key to this. Who is it?”

I closed my eyes and swallowed. My entire throat
had gone dry. The implications of why the Devil would be after Franki
took on a whole new meaning now.

“Solomon is Franki's father.”

Every demon in the room went quiet.

Mary Anne shook her head. “I don't
understand,” she said. “Who is Solomon?”

“He's the Devil's brother,” I said.
“And one of the original founding members of the Brotherhood of
Darkness.”

“He's one of the most evil bastards ever to
walk this world or the next,” Mordecai said, sitting back down
and resting his head in his hands. “What does this mean? What
do you think the Devil wants with her?”

“I have an idea, but I need to talk to
someone first to be sure,” I said.

“Who?” Harper asked.

I looked at her, hoping she was up for this fight.
After all I'd heard about her powers, I was going to need her.

“I have to find my friend Silas,” I
said. “And tell him he's Franki's brother.”

“Franki has a brother?” Mary Anne
asked.

“A half-brother,” I said. “Solomon's
son. He's a member of the Brotherhood and one of my best friends. He
came into the club the other night. He said he was in Chicago and
thought he'd stop by to say hello, but I never thought to ask him
what he was doing there. Ten to one he was looking into the Devil's
activities. I need to talk to him and find out what he knows.”

“What do you think the Devil is after?”
Harper asked. She moved around the table and came to stand beside
Jackson. “I haven't heard of Solomon before, but he sounds
dangerous. Do you think he's behind all this?”

“Solomon is dead,” Mordecai said.

“Not exactly,” I said. “Twenty-one
years ago the Mother Crow banished Solomon's spirit to a black
stone.”

“A soul stone?” Harper asked.

I nodded. “A very large soul stone,” I
said. “He was too powerful for her to kill, so she trapped him
inside the stone and hid it somewhere no one would ever find it.”

“And you're afraid the Devil has found it,”
Jackson said.

“Yes.”

“What would that mean?” Harper asked.
“Do you think he's trying to set him free?”

“I don't know if that's even possible,”
I said. “After he was locked inside the stone, the Devil led a
group of brothers on a witch hunt. They searched for the stone and
for the Mother Crow, but at the time, she had gone deep into hiding.
No one knew the location of the crow's secret village and after a few
years of searching, Solomon was mourned by the Brotherhood and
considered dead. We all knew that even if the Devil had found the
stone, the magic trapping Solomon inside would be too powerful for us
to break without a significant blood sacrifice.”

“Franki,” Mary Anne whispered.

“If I had to guess, the Devil plans to use
her to try to free Solomon's power,” I said.

“From what I know about soul stones, I don't
think Solomon would ever be able to regain his true form,”
Jackson said.

“Maybe he's planning to use someone as a
vessel,” Mordecai said. “There is a precedent.”

“Alijah,” Lea said from the hallway.

I hadn't seen or heard her come in, but she must
have been listening. “Yes.”

Harper and Mary Anne, the only two in the room who
had not grown up in the Shadow World, looked confused.

Lea stepped inside the room. “Alijah was a
powerful demon on my father's council. She was his friend once. They
had grown up together as shadowlings,” she explained. “But
Alijah had aspirations to overthrow my father's rule and take over
the Northern Kingdom. When he discovered her plan, he captured her.
Out of respect for her family's service to the throne for centuries,
he banished her spirit to a soul stone where her power might be used
for good.”

“That's not exactly how it worked out,
though,” Jackson said. “I remember this story. The stone
was in a case inside the castle where it was used to power parts of
the city for decades.”

“But her brother stole the stone and brought
it here to the human world,” Lea continued. “He traded
her stone to the Order of Shadows in exchange for the freedom of a
demon girl he had fallen in love with who had been taken from his
village.”

“What did the Order do with the stone?”
Harper asked.

“They did what they always do,” Lea
said. “They used it to gain power. They sacrificed an entire
coven of witches to free Alijah's spirit. One of the priestesses
consumed the power, becoming a vessel.”

“Which priestess?” Harper asked.

“I can't remember her name, but I think it
was the priestess who rules over the emerald portals,” Lea
said. “The power nearly drove her mad, it was so great. She
went into hiding for a while, but resurfaced years later, more
powerful than ever.”

“If the Devil intends to release Solomon's
power into a human vessel, we'd better all pray it's not one of the
priestesses,” Harper said. “That's a fight we don't need
right now.”

Harper and her friends had waged war against the
Order of Shadows—a powerful group of witches who had made a
habit of stealing innocent demons from my world and using them as
batteries for their power. Thanks to Harper, the five priestesses who
ruled the Order had been whittled down to only four after the death
of Priestess Winter. I knew they had plans to go after the other
four, as well as the mysterious High Priestess who ruled them all.

“We need to stop him before it's too late,”
I said. “We may not have much time.”

“Just tell us what we need to do,”
Harper said. She placed a hand on Jackson's shoulder. “This is
our fight now, too.”

I nodded to her. “Thank you,” I said.
“Gather as many as you can. Anyone you trust who is willing to
help. Meet me at my house at midnight tonight. I'll show you the door
and alter the spell to allow anyone with you to enter. We'll fly from
there and hit him at night.”

Harper and Jackson followed me up to the hall of
doorways, and I showed them where to find the door with the cobra
etched into the surface. They wished me luck and said they'd be
there.

I said my goodbyes and went in search of Silas'
door.

His symbol was easy to recognize. It was an animal
closely associated with the devil of human lore. I searched for the
goat, finally finding it about a hundred doors down from my own. I
didn't bother knocking. If Silas was home, he would be down in his
study.

Which is where I found him, his back hunched over
a large book spread open on his desk.

I knocked twice on the door to his study and he
looked up, startled.

“Rend? What are you doing here?”

“I'm sorry to walk in like this, but I have
something urgent I need to talk to you about,” I said.

He closed the book and stood, stretching his arms
above his head. I wondered how long he'd been sitting in that same
position and what he'd been studying this time.

“I wasn't expecting to see you again so
soon,” he said.

“When you were in Chicago, why didn't you
tell me the truth about Solomon's stone?” I asked.

His eyes widened and he looked away. “I
don't know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do,” I said. “He's
found it, hasn't he?”

Silas closed his eyes and took a deep breath
before turning back to me. “How did you know? Has something
happened?”

“Dammit, Silas, you should have told me.”
My muscles tightened in anger. If he had been open with me from the
beginning, I might have been able to put this all together faster. I
might have been able to save Franki from whatever hell she was in
right now.

“I didn't want anyone inside the Brotherhood
to find out before I had a better idea what his intentions were.”
He tapped the top of the book. “He must want to use the stone
somehow, but how? I've been studying these damned old manuscripts for
weeks, trying to make sense of it, but there's no way he can free my
father from that stone. It's impossible.”

“Impossible unless he had the blood of your
father's only daughter,” I said.

Silas' head snapped up. “What?”

“The girl you met at the club the other
night,” I said. “The bartender with the black hair? Her
name is Franki—Mary Francis—and she's the daughter of a
crow witch. The Devil has been trying to get his hands on her, and
until today, I couldn't figure out why he was so intent on her, in
particular.”

“Solomon is her father?” he asked, his
tongue tripping over the words. “This can't be possible.”

“It is,” I said. “And I think
she might be the reason the Mother Crow banished your father to that
stone in the first place. Silas, she just turned twenty-one years
old.”

His mouth fell open and he leaned against his
desk, his head down. “Oh my God,” he said. “We have
to make sure he doesn't get to her. With her blood, he could—”

“He already has her,” I said. My fangs
pressed against the inside of my mouth, begging to be let loose. “I
know he's your father, but you know better than anyone what he's
capable of. We can't let him go free. You should have told me about
the stone.

“You should have told me the Devil was after
this girl,” he said. “Together we might have figured this
out.”

“We still would have been missing the most
important piece of the puzzle,” I said.

“I could have helped you keep her safe,”
he said. He slammed his hands down on the top of the desk. “How
could you have let him get to her?”

My fangs extended fully this time, and I shifted,
reappearing behind him, my arm wrapped around his throat. “You
don't want to mess with me right now, Silas.”

Silas shifted and slid from my grasp. He reformed
on the other side of the desk. “I am not your enemy,” he
said. “Save your anger for the Devil.”