“We have discussed this. Daemon is safest in the castle. As long as you name Phillip your heir, then the rest of the clans won’t have any reason to come after him,” his mother said.
She covered the fruit back up and put it on the bottom step.
“Dae needs his mother,” his father said.
“He won’t be the only boy made motherless by the war,” his mother said.
She went over to the little table set for two and poured herself a cup of tea, drinking it down so fast, it scalded.
Daemon winced as he felt her pain.
“He reads minds. I don’t know how much longer I can hide it.”
His father didn’t look afraid, but he had more fear than his mother.
He wasn’t telling her about the further attempts on his own life. Maeren still had unrest and good witches were disappearing at an alarming rate.
Someone had poisoned the pudding Daemon ate after supper, and he had been sick for a week. If he hadn’t been so full from the apples he had stolen from the kitchen before supper, then it could have been worse.
His mother put down her cup, turning back towards his father. Her hand hit the saucer as she turned, knocking the delicate china to shatter on the floor.
She ignored it.
“Send him to me, then. I’ll tell him how to control his curse,” his mother said. She glared at the broken cup. “He got it from me,” she said.
His father grabbed her hands, pulling her up into an embrace, slipping his boots under her slippered feet to keep her feet safe from the shattered cup.
He didn’t kiss her long, likely not planning to feed, but both of their thoughts settled a little.
Daemon still felt a little queasy thinking of that poisoned pudding. He was never eating pudding again.
“Your power was not a curse,” his father murmured to his mother. “If anything was a curse, it’s this bond tying your life to a vampire too weak to protect his family.”
His mother kissed his father again. It was longer and Daemon had to look away.
“That bond saved me and Daemon,” his mother said, between kisses. “The first earth witch was trying to finish the assassin's job,” she added, then more kissing. “The second witch would have failed as well if she didn’t have my mate’s thread to tie to a little piece of her soul,” she said, and then his father was taking over the kiss, picking his mother up all the way to carry her in his arms.
Daemon started looking for an escape.
Maybe his father was going to feed, after all.
A short, melodious song rang out and broke apart the embrace.
His mother’s magic grabbed the broken pieces of china and dropped them in the garbage with air.
She used her magic differently than Daemon was used to feeling, not sipping the power from her chi but speaking words, yet the air still touched his own, a tingle of awareness that he tried to shut down before his mother noticed.
She looked back at his corner, pushing out of his father’s embrace.
Daemon sweated with the effort to turn her mind from him.
The song rang out again.
His mother sighed and hopped off the table.
She pulled out a chair for his father. “Come, sit.”
His father sat.
“You’ll have to help yourself,” his mother said, wheeling a steaming tray over to him. “I’ll be back soon. It has to be the students I told you about.”
His father nodded and she left, walking right past Daemon’s hiding spot.
His father dined on luscious fare while Daemon snuck a few berries from the covered basket his mother had left near the stairs.
Daemon wanted to taste the honey cakes his father revealed, still steaming from a little woven basket.
His mother had used a clever metal tray on a rack to hold water, and above it, the baskets of food, lighting little candles at the bottom to heat the water for steaming.
As his father lifted the lid off, the scents of stewed meats, paper-thin dumplings and pan-fried turnip with garlic and spicy peppers filled the room.
Voices drifted down from upstairs but Daemon was as content to ignore them as his father.
It had probably only been minutes, but it seemed like hours before his mother returned downstairs.
“Are you training one of her daughters?” his father asked as his mother sat down to eat.
His father had finished but served his mother the delicacies he had saved for her and sipped his tea.
“Yes, the little witch is talented and besides, we do owe Kaila.”
“Training an earth witch in martial arts. Are you sure that’s wise?” his father asked.
“I’ve already told you that Kaila is determined to live here with her daughters. They don’t have any vampires to defend them. Frankly, all of them are decent witches, even if the oldest is a bit strange. I’m glad to have something so easy to give them back.”
Daemon was disappointed that he didn’t get to meet the other witches. He should have followed his mother up instead of sitting on the stairs, eating aeria berries.
Other than Victoria, he wasn’t allowed around witches his age. Their mothers wouldn’t want a demon playing with their precious daughters.
“I don’t like anyone knowing your identity,” his father groused. He poured them both more tea.
“Only the mother knows. The girls are too young,” his mother replied. She wrapped the last honeyed cake in cloth. “Bring this to Daemon. Tell him the cook is sorry about his pudding and it won’t happen again.”
“The cook is already dead,” his father said.
“You killed the cook? How do you know he poisoned the food?” his mother asked.
“It wasn’t me. Whoever poisoned the pudding, killed the cook,” his father explained. “I’ve been eating all of Dae’s food first since then, but so far, there have been no further attempts. I have him feed blood only on my harem, too.”
“Why would anyone want to kill our son?”
“He’s a demon. No matter how I repudiate him for Phillip, there will always be those that will hate him just for existing,” his father said. “If only Dae knew how to read their minds properly, we could be able to sort out the culprit sooner.”
“Do you know what you’re asking?” his mother said.
“If you want him to grow up at all, then he’s going to have to do it a little sooner,” his father said. “I can send him to you for training. So far, all he uses his power for is fun and games.”
“He’s eight,” his mother reminded his father, again. “Besides which, even when he’s full grown, he can’t just go reading every mind in the castle all of the time. There are limits, significant for a male that has to rely on harem leftovers for his blood.”
“You know how the other witches feel. Demons are never given a harem. I can only let him feed on mine for another couple years, and then he’ll be forced to take from the palace feeders.” His father shoved away from the table. “It’s not as if lightning witches are growing on trees.”
“There is no such thing as lightning witches,” his mother said, sounding bitter. “It almost would have been better if Kaila had let me die that day. The poison, it did something to me, cursing me with that strange lightning magic for the rest of my pregnancy, and then it was gone, leaving me with just enough air to attend to domestic duties.”
Daemon had stolen power from his mother. Just like he had stolen her soul with his evil demon thirst.
He had heard the castle servants talking, had heard the harem ladies thinking it while he fed on their wrists.
He was a monster, as good as killed his own mother.
Except, she was really alive. It took a weight off his shoulders, let him sit a little straighter as he watched his parents.
His father reached across the table to hold his mother’s hands, squeezing them gently.
“We don’t know if it was the poison or the blood witch healing or even the bond, and it doesn’t matter, for I
would not have agreed to lose you or Dae just to make life easier.” His father laughed. “When have I ever taken the easy road, wife?”
His mother didn’t admonish his father again for the title. “Any male that would honour our bond instead of destroying the potential for weakness is not afraid of challenges,” she said.
“The first time I laid eyes on you, shielding an entire town against my army and daring to smile down at me as you levitated in that damned amplification circle, I knew I would have my work cut out for me,” his father said, tugging his mother out of her chair and across the table. “It was worth it,” his father said, kissing his mother soundly.
Daemon ate more aeria berries, distracting himself while his father finished kissing his mother.
He wanted to eat the honeyed cake his mother had given his father for him now.
Some meat would be wise, but he would feed soon enough to build up his blood.
Just using his magic on his parents to hide in this realm had drained almost all of the lightning he’d stored.
He was lucky there were many good hiding spots in the basement, so he could use his power lightly. He had to save it up for more important things.
Daemon needed to save his parents.
“I must go,” his father was saying, letting his mother sit back in her chair.
“Will you come back soon, with Daemon?” his mother asked hopefully.
She was picturing him, but as a baby.
Fear suddenly suffused her happy image, darkening it.
“Perhaps we should wait until he is older. He can’t tell anyone about me and a boy his age shouldn’t be—”
“I’m not a baby!” Daemon said.
A Son’s Love
Daemon knew his father would be cross but he had just found his mother and he didn’t want her to be taken away.
“Dae?” his father called.
Both of his parents looked around. Daemon had forgotten to make himself visible.
“Daemon!” his father thundered.
“You’re going to frighten him,” his mother said, getting out of her chair to look for him.
Daemon dropped his lightning hold on their minds, popping into sight right in front of his mother, with purple stained fingers and a hesitant smile.
His mother bent down and picked him up, even though he was really quite too big for that now.
She carried him over to the table and sat down with him on her lap.
His father grumbled complaints about his childish games but dug through the baskets in the steaming tray for the tastiest morsels left to feed his son.
Daemon gobbled everything.
“Can you hear me, Daemon?” his mother asked.
She wasn’t using lightning, just thinking surface thoughts really hard at him and waiting for him to pick them up.
He nodded.
His father was lecturing about Daemon entering unknown portals, so he smiled in his thoughts to his mother. He liked this game.
“Yes, mother.”
“We need to do something to help your father.”
Daemon got more serious.
His mother was a female. It was Daemon’s job to protect witches with his greater strength. He supposed his father may need some help as well, since he couldn’t use a demon’s magic.
“I will protect you both, mother.”
“I know you will, my son. You can protect us best by listening carefully to what your father says and obeying him. He loves us very much.”
Daemon’s tummy was so full already, with all of the aeria berries he’d eaten, but he still opened his mouth for more honeyed cake, prolonging the time his mother held him.
He didn’t want to tell her anything bad to make her dislike him, but she already knew he was a demon.
“I try to listen and be good to father, but mother, sometimes I’m evil.”
“What? Who told you that?”
His mother was angry.
Daemon opened his mouth for more cake, his tummy protesting.
“The demon in me does bad things, like sneaking here with father.”
He wiggled on her lap, his tummy cramping.
His mother wrapped up the rest of the cake and asked his father to pour him a little tea.
“Little boys can be naughty, Daemon, but that is not the same thing as evil. It’s not your fault you are a demon. You were very hurt when you were a baby inside of me, and becoming a demon was the only way to save your life. Do you understand?”
“I’ll be good, mother.”
He sipped the slightly bitter green tea.
“You are my son, not a demon. Now out of both of our minds, until we give you permission again.”
Daemon released his magic, feeling the cramping in his belly improve immediately.
He must have been closer to draining his magic than he had realized.
He sipped more tea and his mother and father discussed a visiting schedule.
His father had already talked to Daemon in his head as well, male to male, on how they would keep his mother safe.
Daemon had known that the castle had dangers. Even at eight he knew poisoning could kill him, and there were many others at court with thoughts of wishing him harm.
He didn’t want anyone from the castle finding his mother’s hiding spot and he promised his father he would keep her secret.
Their secret pact had marked a beginning for Daemon, but an end for his father.
Eventually, his father could no longer accompany Daemon on his visits to his mother.
Daemon told her that his father was busy at first, and later, that he had suffered a bad pneumonia and needed to stay in Maeren to recover.
His mother knew she didn’t need to read Daemon’s mind to tell that there was something more keeping them apart, but she never questioned her son’s lies.
She did what she could to help Daemon train his magic, although her prediction of his limitations was regrettably accurate, and he never turned into the almighty mind reader his father needed.
He was just a son and another demon.
As his father grew sicklier with poisoning attempts, Daemon visited his mother less and less, needing to use his magic to keep the kingdom together.
He disguised his father’s illness as plump middle age and kept up the brutal rule needed to keep the more rebellious and powerful clans in line, delivering punishment himself.
There was no single bad guy as his youthful imagination had pictured himself finding with his power as a child.
He couldn’t protect his parents from the reality of the rebellion he knew was brewing.
He had even failed to keep his promise to his mother, and now, was returning with her life mate moments from death.
It would kill her. The bond that tied their lives together was deeper than just their magic.
His father had barely survived the separation from his mate, half the vampire he was in his youth, and Daemon had little hope his mother would endure long after her husband’s death.
Daemon could only give them their last few moments together.
He collapsed on the basement floor with his father on his back as he exited the last portal and called his mother to him.
“Mother. Please, come quick!” Daemon shouted for her, using telepathy in case she had some of her human students in the house.
His father was still breathing, harsh and shallow. Easing his father down, Daemon grabbed the portal stone closest to him and yanked.
He fed it lightning, fighting the drain of the human realm on his magic to try to overload the stones and incapacitate the portal. This would stop anyone from following him to his mother’s home.
The door to upstairs slammed open as he blew the stone in his hand apart.
“Daemon, now is really not a good time!” his mother shouted, seeing only the destruction of her portal and smoke at first. “You need to get out of here!”
“Daemon?” another female shouted down.
Daemon knew that
voice. He dared hope as he looked up the stairs and grabbed her mind.
“The king has been poisoned. Please, he’s minutes from death.”
He begged Elizabeth’s mother. She was the blood witch who had once saved his mother.
The basement door slammed behind the witches, his mother running down the stairs to his father and Kaila twisting a ring on her hand.
“Will you pay the price for this?” Kaila asked Daemon.
Elizabeth was the price. Daemon knew it and looking at his mother sobbing over his father’s chest, he realized his parents would have done nothing less for him.
“I swear it,” Daemon said.
He finally understood what would drive his parents to live apart when they professed to love each other, their sacrifice for him.
He got down on his knees. “I will relinquish the claim,” he promised, bowing his head to the ground.
“And if I want your head on a pike, instead?”
“No!” his mother said, lifting her head up to stare incredulously at Kaila.
It wasn’t fair to ask her to choose between them. His mother doomed herself to death as well, but her son would live, their son, she thought as she wept.
“Please, the bond will only hold him so long,” Daemon pleaded. “If Elizabeth wishes for my head, then it will be so,” he said.
He kept his head bowed. The kingdom would go on without him. Phillip could be brought up to scratch.
Kaila dropped down beside his father, grabbing his hand to pierce with her ring.
Daemon could immediately feel her power pulling on his father’s life and his mother gasped as she felt it as well.
The power of her healing was incredible, especially in the human realm. In only seconds, she had already pulled his father from the brink.
“A mate bond?” Kaila asked, pulling back to rest. “It explains the secrecy, Kim, but did you really lecture me about keeping Elizabeth’s magic under wraps when you were hiding all of this?”
His mother sat up, leaving her hands on his father’s chest to feel the reassuring movement as he breathed, deep and calm.
“You just threatened to cut off my son’s head,” his mother said, looking very angry.
No Witch Way Out (Maeren Series Book 2) Page 31
