A Wicked Power

by Bilinda Sheehan

  “Jesus Christ, Amber,” Nic’s voice penetrated the fog rapidly filling my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

  Opening my eyes, I met his gaze. Tentatively, he touched my face and I winced as the pain lanced through me once more.

  “How is this possible?” he said.

  “We’re linked,” Alastor answered as he climbed to his feet once more. “If you kill me, you kill her. It’s that simple.”

  There was no denying the barely contained rage that swam in Nic’s eyes but it was tempered by his concern as I tried to get up off the floor.

  “Let me help,” he said, sliding an arm under mine.

  “I can manage.” It hurt to talk, it hurt to think.

  Pulling free of Nic’s touch, I tried to ignore the look of betrayal that flitted across his face. I didn’t want to hurt him but I also had my own issues to deal with.

  “I’ll go.” Nic searched my face.

  “I think that’s best.” There was a smugness to Alastor’s voice that I wanted to slap out of him.

  “No, wait. I—”

  Nic shook his head. “I’ve got to leave soon anyway and you’ve got your hands full here.”

  “Nic, we need to talk about this.”

  He smiled at me but it wasn’t the same as it had been earlier in the cemetery. Now when he smiled, it was tinged with a sadness I’d never seen in him before.

  “What is there to talk about, Amber? You tied yourself to a demon. It’s my job to hunt down demons and send them back to Hell and now I can’t even do that.”

  “Nic, I had no choice. You know that.”

  “You had a choice, Amber. There’s always a choice and you chose to let that thing inside.”

  “Hey!” Alastor folded his arms over his broad chest. “I resent being called a thing. Spawn of Hell is much more fitting.”

  “Not helping,” I gritted out through my teeth.

  “Wasn’t trying to.”

  Nic made it to the front door before I could catch up to him. Touching the sleeve of his jacket, I brought him up short.

  “I don’t want you to go,” I said.

  “And I don’t really want to leave, but I don’t have a choice, Amber. If I stay, I’m only going to end up hurting you worse than I already have and I don’t want to risk that. I can’t risk that.”

  “I’ll make him leave,” I said, hating the desperation in my voice. Part of me that knew that if he walked out of the door, we might not find our way back to each other. Not to mention the fact that he was going back to the Vatican. I couldn’t bear the thought of him leaving like this and something happening to him.

  “I’ll see you when I come back,” he said. “Maybe then, things will be a little clearer.” He glanced back into the living room and grimaced.

  “Nic, please don’t go.”

  Whatever he heard in my voice caused him to hesitate.

  “Why should I stay?”

  “Because I’m asking...”

  He glanced back at the demon who stood in the centre of the living room. I didn’t need to turn around to see the look on Alastor’s face, I could feel his glower just fine.

  “Don’t look at him, look at me.” I cupped his cheek and Nic leaned into the palm of my hand, drawing in a deep breath as he pressed his nose to my wrist.

  “I love you,” he said. His voice so soft that for a moment I wasn’t sure I’d even heard him properly.

  “Excuse me?” My breath caught in the back of my throat.

  “I said I love you.” There was a pause as Nic closed his eyes. “But I can’t stay here with you,” he said, letting go of a deep bone shaking sigh. “Not when he’s here. Just standing in the room with him is like having every fibre of my being slowly ripped asunder.”

  “I can make him leave,” I said.

  Nic’s lips quirked upwards into a small smile. “Now that is something I would pay to see.”

  I started to turn but he caught my hand in his and pulled me back against him. His lips found mine, his kiss sealing my words inside my mouth with the intensity of his passion. Butterflies skittered in my stomach as his hands slid around my waist and he cupped me against his solid body.

  It had been too long.

  And then just as suddenly as he had grabbed me he let me go. My knees shook and it took everything I had to stay on my feet.

  Nic pressed his forehead to mine, his breathing ragged as he stood before me. I looked up at him but his eyes were closed.

  “I have to go,” he said, and my heart sank. “Not because I want to. Not even because of that thing in there.” The bitterness was back in his voice. “But because if I don’t leave now I’m not sure I’ll be able to go at all.” He opened his eyes once more and pinned me in place with his gaze.

  “I’m sorry we wasted so much time. I’m sorry I was such an ass and I promise that when I come back, we will sort this mess out.” He sucked in a deep breath. “But I need to do this. I need to make sure you’re safe and I can’t be certain you are without dealing with Graham’s corpse.”

  “I love you too,” I said.

  Nic’s gaze softened as his lips brushed softly against mine. He pushed a bundle of yellowed note papers into my hands and then he was gone.

  The subtle click of the front door as it slid shut after him echoed in my head.

  Turning away from the door with the papers in hand I found myself face to face with Alastor who was once again draped over the couch, only this time he had the remains of a block of cheese in his hands.

  “Honestly, when are you going to get something better to eat in this flea pit? There are dumpsters in Hell with better scraps than what’s in your fridge.”

  Pinching my thumb and index finger over the bridge of my nose I sucked in a deep breath. The day was definitely going from bad to worse.

  4

  “Well you know where the door is, don’t let it hit you on the ass on your way out,” I said, striding toward the bedroom. I rifled through the papers as I made it to the door. The symbols seemed somewhat familiar but I couldn’t quite put my finger on where I’d seen them before.

  My vision swam with exhaustion and I folded the papers up once more.

  I was tired. Tired of always having to put my own life on hold. All I wanted to do at that moment was crawl beneath the covers and hide.

  Really, it was just my way of feeling sorry for myself. Not that I would ever admit that to anyone.

  I slammed the bedroom door shut, locking it behind me. With a demon in the apartment you couldn’t be too careful. Knowing what Alastor was like, I’d probably wake up to find him in the bed next to me.

  Dumping the bundle of papers onto the bed, I crawled beneath the covers.

  Closing my eyes, I listened to the thoughts that crowded into the front of my mind. Just what did Jon have planned for me? Where he was concerned it would be nothing good. How was I supposed to deal with him?

  “I know something is bothering you,” Alastor said, his voice carrying through the locked door. Ignoring him, I rolled over in the bed, taking my pillow with me and crushing it down over my head.

  “Really? I’m in your head, Amber. The pillow isn’t going to cut it.”

  Groaning with frustration I flopped onto my back. The mattress dipped and I opened my eyes a crack to find Alastor grinning at me from the bottom of the bed.

  “Locks aren’t really made to keep demons out either,” he said, his smug smile made my palms itch to strike him.

  “What do you want?”

  He pouted, his full lips curling down in a moue of displeasure. “I thought that was obvious?”

  “Well pretend I’m an idiot then and explain it to me?”

  “Neither of us are particularly satisfied by this half-baked bond we’ve got going,” he said.

  “You mean, you’re not happy with it.”

  “It’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not in the mood for these stupid games, Alastor. I want you gone.�
��

  “You know, you asked me to pretend you were an idiot. I didn’t realise you were going to make it so easy for me.”

  Power curled in the pit of my stomach, warming me from the inside out as my anger spiked.

  “I said, I want you out of here.” There was an echo to my voice. It would be so easy just to take my frustrations out on the demon sitting on the end of my bed.

  “You know he’s not going to stop coming for you.” Alastor’s words acted like a bucket of ice water, dousing my rage and leaving me with an emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

  “I know that.” My voice was quiet in the silence of the room.

  Alastor sighed. “We need a plan and—”

  His voice trailed off but I ignored him. “I have more power now. If I have to fight, I can defend myself against—”

  “Where did you get this?” Alastor’s voice was low and unease crawled down my spine.

  “Where did I get what?” As I sat up, I realised he was holding the bundle of papers Nic had shoved into my hand before he left. “Nic gave them to me.”

  “And where did he get them?”

  “I don’t know. He didn’t exactly tell me what it was, I just—” I cut off, noting the stillness in Alastor’s body as he studied the pages held in his grip. “What is it?”

  “These come from a text I’d thought lost.”

  I waited for him to say something else but he didn’t. His gaze was riveted to the page and I reached over and snatched the top leaf from his grip.

  “So what does it mean?”

  “It’s a set of instructions for separating a witch from her demon.”

  Ice slid down my spine. “But that would—”

  Alastor nodded. “Kill them?” He met my gaze and I was discomforted to find his eyes had lost their human appearance and instead what peered out at me was his demonic counterpart. “Once bonded, a demon and his witch cannot be parted. Not even in death.”

  I swallowed hard. Alastor’s words weren’t exactly comforting. Sure it was great to know I was harder to kill now that we shared a bond. But what the hell was Nic doing with this?

  “There has to be something else,” I said. “There’s something we’re missing. Nic doesn’t want to hurt me. He loves me.”

  Alastor let his eyes drop to the papers gripped in his hands. “If he doesn’t wish to harm you then why are you still sporting the evidence of his wrath?”

  I touched my face self-consciously. I hadn’t bothered to look in the mirror after Nic had left. And while I knew my injuries would heal faster than any normal human had a right to heal, I could still taste blood in my mouth.

  “He wasn’t trying to hurt me.” The words sounded pathetic even to my ears and I wasn’t surprised when Alastor lifted his gaze and snorted in derision.

  “Now you’re not even trying to hide your idiocy.”

  “That’s not fair. He didn’t know I would bear the brunt of the injuries.” I narrowed my gaze as Alastor refused to meet my eyes. “Speaking of that, why did I bear the brunt of your fight?”

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “I have no idea. Perhaps it is a side-effect of your refusal to complete the bond we share.”

  Climbing from the bed I paced up and down the small space between the bed and the door. “Bullshit, Alastor. You wanted to teach Nic a lesson and you used me to do it.”

  There was nothing friendly about the smile that hovered around his lips.

  “You cheated because you knew you couldn’t beat him.”

  “I’m a demon, Amber. I don’t have to play fair.” There was an edge of boredom to his voice as he lay back on the bed, stretching his body so that his t-shirt deliberately rode up to expose his hard, muscular stomach. He caught me staring and cocked an eyebrow at me suggestively.

  Tearing my eyes away from him, I scanned the page I’d snatched from his hands. It was mostly written in Latin and another language I didn’t recognise.

  “What language is this?” I asked, holding out the sheet to Alastor.

  He sat up with a sigh and ran his gaze down over the yellowed page. “It’s Saga Venatione,” he said. “I can’t read it, personally.”

  “So how can you be sure it’s Saga Venatione?”

  “Because the last time I was sent back to Hell it was a witch hunter who did the deed and I remember the words he used. It’s similar to the ones here.” He jabbed a long finger into the centre of the page.

  “You were banished to Hell before?”

  He nodded. “A long time ago. Long before you were so much as a twinkle in your daddy’s eye.”

  “You mean back when there were still shadow sorcerers around?”

  “They hadn’t become shadow sorcerers then,” he said. “They were still just witches.”

  I flopped down onto the edge of the bed. We were definitely missing something. Nic didn’t want to hurt me, that much I was certain of. But I couldn’t escape the fact that the instructions written on the pages didn’t exactly look good for him.

  “Maybe he thought this was a way to help me,” I said more to myself than Alastor.

  Alastor rolled his eyes.

  “I’m serious, Alastor. If he wanted to kill me--if he planned to separate us and send us both to Hell--then why would he have given me the ritual to do it in the first place? It doesn’t make any sense. If he wanted me dead he wouldn’t have given this to me at all.”

  “Maybe he’s an idiot too?” Alastor supplied helpfully.

  “We need to find someone who can read this.”

  Alastor sat bolt upright on the bed and glowered at me. “No. We are not taking this to another witch hunter.”

  “I didn’t say I’d take it to a witch hunter. Just someone who could read it.”

  “And what, you happen to know someone who can read that?”

  “I can’t be certain but it’s worth a try.”

  “Who is it?”

  “My sister.”

  Alastor’s smile returned. “And why would she know how to read this?”

  “Because she’s like me,” I said with a sigh. “Another shadow sorceress. And she knows a lot more about all of this than I do.”

  “She had a coven to teach her?”

  I nodded. My own mother hadn’t taught me how to manage my powers. She’d thought she could save me from them by binding me but all she’d really done was ensure I was left vulnerable. With no real knowledge of my power, of my heritage I was flying blind. But Lily had at least some of the answers.

  “I’m going to enjoy this,” Alastor said. “Where is she?”

  I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “That’s the hard part. She’s in prison.”

  Alastor’s eyes widened. “You mean they know what she is?”

  The memory of the last time I’d seen her popped into my mind unbidden. She’d killed the nurse who had attempted to sedate her with her powers. I couldn’t exactly blame her for her actions.

  “Yeah. They definitely know what she is.”

  5

  Despite the exhaustion threatening to cripple me, I couldn’t wait to find out what Lily knew about the papers Nic had given to me.

  Grabbing my phone from the bedside locker, I scrolled quickly through the available numbers until I found the one I was looking for.

  I tapped nervously on the scarred wooden top of the dresser as the ringtone echoed in my ears. Jason wouldn’t have been my first choice of someone to spend the evening with. But if I was to stand any chance of getting into the prison where they were keeping Lily then I needed his blessing.

  He picked up after the fifth ring, his gruff voice causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand to attention.

  “What do you want?”

  “Nice to know we’re keeping things friendly between us,” I said, not bothering to hide the caustic edge to my voice. He’d been the one to cross the line, not me. So if he thought he was going to play the injured the party in all of this then he was sorely mistaken.

  “You made
it perfectly clear that friendly was not how you wanted things to go between us.”

  “No. I made it perfectly clear that I don’t want to get into bed with you, Jason. I never said we couldn’t be friends.”

  His laughter was bitter as it slid down the line to me. “I forgot how much you like to twist the truth to suit your own narrative. I suppose I should thank you really for cutting me loose. God knows it would be too easy to get tripped up in your web.”

  “Cut your crap, Jason, I—”

  “I don’t know why you bothered calling me anyway. You made it perfectly clear that you wanted nothing more to do with me. That you wanted me gone.”

  “Are you going to get over your wounded pride or not?” Exasperation made me curt.

  Jason sighed on the other end of the line.

  “What do you want?”

  “I need to see Lily.”

  Silence greeted me on the other end of the line and I could practically see the cogs in his head as they sluggishly began to turn.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  “I shit you not.”

  “Quit flirting.” Alastor’s voice slithered through my mind and I stuck my tongue out at him as he rolled his eyes.

  “The last time I let you in there, she killed a nurse.”

  “That wasn’t my fault,” I said. “That was because of the way they’re treating her in there. She was just defending herself and—”

  “She’s a monster, Amber,” Jason said, his voice utterly devoid of emotion as though he were talking about a chair or a lamp and not another human being.

  “If she is then so are we all.”

  He went quiet once more and only the sound of his breathing told me he was still on the line.

  “Jason’s she’s my sister. I need to see her.”

  “Why?”

  I’d been expecting the question but I still found it difficult to think of the right words. I couldn’t exactly tell him the real reason I wanted to see her. He and Nic didn’t see eye to eye on anything, me included. And I had a feeling if he saw the opportunity to screw his brother over he would take it, no matter how petty it might seem.

  Lying seemed like the only real path to take.