Hexes and Hellfire: Kyra Bell: Book One

by Brittany Rose

  I ignored the surge of guilt at calling my mother a bitch, she’d always been loving to me, but I wasn’t blind. She had been a hard and violent woman, and she’d felt that same envy as I did, toward the more powerful races. She’d been the true half breed fae-witch, while it was quarter and quarter in me. She’d summoned demons for power, to make deals.

  She even laid with one for favor.

  Serin looked amused, unconcerned with whatever tactic I was trying to employ. He was sure it didn’t and wouldn’t make a difference. The three of us could make him sweat, but as far as he was concerned, we could never make him bleed.

  I continued after a pause, “I was just a teen, but that self-righteous prick chased me to cut me down. I led him on a merry chase across the whole fucking country. Until he caught up to me, cornered me, and I couldn’t run anymore.”

  He smirked, “Are you going to call demons to aid you, little girl? Like your mother.”

  I snorted, “Never have, never will. I was just sixteen, didn’t know how to control my magic very well outside of potions. I was naïve, unpracticed, and I got lucky. He made a mistake, underestimated me, and I killed the bastard.”

  He turned toward me and away from Vic.

  “Last chance, Serin. Go, learn to be an outsider, find humility, or I will kill you. I don’t want to, but you’re putting me in a corner.”

  Sure, it wasn’t precisely true. I could disappear into my mound right that moment, the bag as always was hanging from my left side. I could stay in there until he left, and go on with my life, my secret secure and hidden. But the price for that was too high, Vic, Abby, and John would be dead.

  I was a little shocked to find I’d rather out myself, and blow up my life, but they’d grown on me. Especially Vic. Even if they hated me for it, for what I was, I couldn’t walk away.

  It’d also been an arrogant statement, but an arrogance I didn’t truly feel. My true power would give us even footing, but it was far from a guaranteed win. But I’d take it.

  I’d circled far enough to see Abby, while my focus remained on Serin. She looked frozen, unsure and stood about twenty feet behind Vic’s wolf which was trembling in anger. I got it, if she started to cast Serin would act, violently, and for the moment I had him talking. She also looked confused by my threat, and I could see all the questions in her eyes.

  Serin snorted derisively, “He must’ve been a fool, if you managed to kill him.”

  I laughed, “He was a fool. Sadistic too, like most of your kind. Well, what’s your decision.”

  He said, “I’ll kill you first, because you’re starting to annoy me, bitch.”

  Really? How cliché, he couldn’t be more creative than calling me a bitch? I supposed I was just as guilty, since I’d used that word to describe my own mother.

  He took two steps toward me, but Vic lunged at his side and he spun to meet that imminent threat. His fist struck out at Vic’s head, and slammed Vic into the ground so hard he bounced before he rolled about ten feet. Punching a wolf shifter in the head was a good way to lose a hand, or an arm, but Serin had no fear of Vic’s teeth and jaws, because he was shielded. Until that shield came down, nothing could touch the bastard, magic or physical attacks.

  I cried out in angry denial, as that had not been my plan. I’d wanted him to attack me first, and last. It was stupid not to think Vic wouldn’t intervene on my behalf, even if it was suicide on his part.

  Serin charged forward swinging his sword up, no doubt to finish that swing and take Vic’s head, at the same time Abby started to cast a spell.

  My third nature was always held down, confined. My fae magic could hide the magic of my third race, as well as the physical attributes of that race, but only when it was controlled in the core of my being. It contained it, so the Nephilim couldn’t sense it like I sensed other races, and so witches who’d casted detect magic near me would only feel the fae and witch in me.

  I released it in that split second, and it burbled and rose out of me, tickling me with seductive warmth, the feeling of invincibility, and blood lust. That middle one, the invincibility, was a lie of course.

  All supernatural races were vulnerable to corruption from their magic, including Nephilim, but my third aspect was the most tempting that way. The need to consume, kill, and revel in blood rose up, but I was a witch and fae as well, and I had a strong mind. I was raised to respect magic, and to resist its siren call.

  The power in me controlled me four years ago, to horrific results, but now that power was under my iron will and control.

  I would not falter again.

  It took a solid mind, all magic was semi-sentient, and I could only control it if it stayed connected to me. Things had gotten so out of hand in Manhattan, because I’d panicked and shot fire all over the place in an attempt to protect myself, and the magic had gotten out of my control. Of course, connected didn’t mean close to me, either.

  A bright burning green whip of hellfire exploded from my right hand. Really, I had no idea how to fight with a whip, and I imagined if it was a normal whip then I’d be more of a danger to myself than an enemy. It was shaped like a whip, looked like a whip, but it was really more like a fire tentacle, it would go where my mind sent it.

  The stream of hellfire darted forward with a flick of my wrist, and it wrapped and then tightened around Serin’s forearm. I grunted and pulled back as hard as I could, stopping his swing mere inches from my Vic’s throat. With the release of my power, my strength was his equal, and as a fae I was actually a little faster, but not enough to give me a real edge that way. At the same time, hellfire licked my whole body, protecting me in much the same way as Serin’s supposed holy light was protecting him.

  We were the same after all, both children of angels. It’s just, my father happened to be fallen, disgraced, and a demon from hell.

  Lastly, two tiny cute red-black horns appeared on my head, as my power overwhelmed my fae magic’s ability to hide them, even with a human soul feeding the enchantment. They were half an inch-long tops, and barely poked out of my hair, but that was more than noticeable enough. That was really the only difference to my appearance, everything else was the same, and I was still me. Just… a little bloodthirsty at the moment and covered with hellfire.

  Well, they called it hellfire, but it came from me. It was my magic, not hell’s. An important distinction, at least from my point of view. Like I’d said earlier, my soul had yet to be judged by god, and holy water didn’t burn me, like it would my father. Had I inherited my father’s sins?

  I didn’t feel evil, but the way the world saw me was exactly that, as evil.

  Abby’s spell cut off with a shocked gasp, her mind not able to maintain concentration on the spell with the shock of my revelation, and she took four subconscious steps away as she flinched back. Flinched away from me, not Serin. How’s that for justice? Not.

  Yeah, half-demons were sort of the boogie man of the supernatural world, it’s why I hid. Most half demons were screwed, their other parent were usually a human, but as quarter fae I could slip under the radar that way.

  “Did I mention, Serin, that the Nephilim’s name was Kaze?”

  Serin screamed, “Abomination!” as he twisted around, and his sword swung down awkwardly, cutting through my whip and freeing his hand.

  I laughed dismissively, “Can you imagine? The great hero who sacrificed his life to stop the apocalypse, when he was really just a sick fuck that got off on chasing a scared teen girl across America. He didn’t save the world, I merely didn’t want to end it after I gutted him like a pig. It still annoys me that his fame and supposed valor made the humans believe all you bastard Nephilim walk on water, but what’s a girl to do? You all just assumed he’d killed me with his last breath, because the apocalypse didn’t start.”

  It was kind of stupid actually, at least from my perspective. Half demons had the ability to create gates naturally, including to hell when it took a full coven of left-hand witches and a long ceremony
involving human sacrifice to open one for them. Even if I did open one, it’d take time for the demons to find it and invade this world, and I had no interest at all in seeing that.

  Even if all their judgmental asses pissed me off sometimes, the world was a good place, overall. I liked to believe.

  Besides, unlike half demons, demons truly were unadulterated evil.

  That more than anything else was why my kind were hunted and killed on sight, the fact we could open gates between dimensional realms. We couldn’t travel intra-realm with one, not directly anyway, and I had no interest in gating to hell and then back here in another location, that sounded stupidly dangerous. The other supernaturals and humans fooled themselves into thinking we were evil and soulless like our demon fathers or mothers, but the demons knew the truth. I was a mortal, with a mortal soul and a mortal life. They’d show me no favoritism if they caught me in their demesne.

  It was capacity equals intent stuff, they all believed we’d start the apocalypse, hell on earth, merely because we could, and gave us no credit from being smart enough not to. I wondered if Nephilim could do it as well, I knew it was between any dimension, not just hell, but I’d never experimented with that part of my magic.

  The only exception to that was heaven, I couldn’t open a gate there. That was protected in some way from what my mother taught me. I couldn’t crash the pearly gates.

  My left arm burned brighter, and it formed into a heavy gauntlet of fire of sorts, something to block his sword, while I cracked my whip at his feet and made him jump back.

  “Well, asshole. Care to take me on now?” I taunted. My heart was racing, and I was a little nervous. We were on even ground, but I could still lose.

  He started to circle me, “Who’s being the arrogant bitch now?”

  I smirked, “I know I can lose. My joy is about seeing that fear in your eyes, and the realization that so can you.”

  He snarled, and rushed me, while I snapped my whip and it raced forward and went around his neck and tightened, even as it grew and started to snake down his torso to wrap him up tight. His own shield kept my whip from burning him, but I was wearing down his power.

  He realized the danger of course, and before I could bind his arm to his side, he swung at my whip again. He swung early, while he was still over two yards away from me, slicing the whip in twain and the part around his neck fizzled out.

  That’s when I darted forward, and I swung for the fences with my left fist while my body pinned his arm against his body before he could get his sword back in position. The hellfire gauntlet slammed into his chin, and the bastard went flying back. The whip regrew and snaked around his legs, pulling them tightly together before he’d even hit the ground.

  He howled in frustration at my tactic, and he bent his waist and knees. His sword swung awkwardly to avoid cutting his own legs, and once again cut my whip before it could snake up his body and bind his arms.

  Of course, I was expending magic as well, the goal was to make his run out first. The force of my punch also drained his magic, without draining mine. I had to do that as much as possible, while avoiding his own sword strikes, if my magic was to outlast his.

  But I was also a fae.

  As he rolled to his feet, I rushed forward and kicked him in his face, then sent out a stream of fire from my gauntlet to blind him for the moment it took me to get out of range of his sword. It would’ve been an extravagant waste of magic, except it wasn’t my much stronger demon magic I was wasting, it was merely an illusion of hellfire, which allowed me to preserve my own. It didn’t harm his shield, but it did blind him.

  Besides, spraying hellfire like that is how part of Manhattan burned down, I kept my hellfire under control, and connected to me, to avoid that kind of thing happening again.

  Abby started casting again, and a part of me wondered if she would cast against Serin, or if she’d cast against me. Join forces with the enemy trying to kill her, to remove the abomination’s life. I supposed I’d find out, in about ten seconds.

  Serin lunged forward and swung for the fences, I bowed and twisted underneath it, and punched him with the gauntlet right in the family jewels. The whip at the same time, wrapped around his legs again and pulled backwards, away from me. Impossible with a whip, my leverage was to pull in the other direction, but like I said earlier it was more of a tentacle of hellfire and it could do whatever I could think of.

  He obviously never faced a threat or style like what I was using, and I’d designed it that way. Nephilim were bullies with great power and a glowing sword. I was fast, fought in the yin style, and so far I was managing to avoid taking a hit.

  His legs were pulled up and out behind him, and he started to do a faceplant with his sword arm across his body. He swung the sword wildly toward my legs, but I kicked his wrist as he fell throwing his arm back under his body. As he hit the ground, I stomped on his head, grinding his face into the dirt and pebbles of the long driveway.

  My whip started to snake up his body, as I knelt and punched the back of his head with my gauntlet, grinding his face into the ground again.

  I’d gotten cocky though, thought it was all but over, because he panicked then, and the light around his body exploded.

  I was thrown up into the air like a ragdoll, protected from his magic by my armoring hellfire, but Abby was struck from twenty feet away and her spell cut off as she was thrown back into the ground hard. The ground beneath him also boomed, and the whip snaking around him was burned out of existence.

  Of course, the fucking hypocrites.

  We were the same. I’d never seen or heard of a Nephilim projecting their power, but if I could so could he. I bet like mine, that it was impossible to control if it was freed. I’d been naïve to think they were limited in a way I wasn’t, but it was a fiction they maintained. I’d just fallen for it.

  I twisted my body to land on my feet, though it wasn’t pretty, I’d managed it, and Serin’s face was full of rage and hatred when he regained his feet.

  “Enough, I’m going to end you now.”

  Abby cried out in pain, and I looked and saw white light, white flames licking her shields and burning her body. Son of a bitch, they really were the same. I knew he wasn’t controlling it, the white fire was just hungry, looking for something to consume.

  But while mine searched out life, to consume the light in it, I bet his searched out darkness in life. And every being had both light and darkness in them.

  My whip blazed out and extended to Abby, and destroyed the light, consumed it, but my instinct to save her life had given Serin an opening.

  His sword blazed as it swung at my side, and I just managed to get my gauntlet there in time to receive it. He hit me so hard, that I was lifted from the ground and thrown at least twenty feet before I came down unsteadily on my feet and ultimately fell on my ass.

  I looked up in time to see a column of light shoot from the tip of his sword as a dark laugh left his mouth. I rolled to the side quickly, part of it hit me, but a lot of his magic was wasted as I dodged the column and the rest of it slammed into the ground catching the grass on fire. Even after he stopped, the white fire followed me. I rolled to my feet.

  I sighed, as I let the bag fall off my shoulder and into the dirt, as the last of it was consumed in white fire. Fuck, I’d just lost my enchanted bag, and the only other way into my mound was back on the west coast outside Seattle. Not to mention access to all my potions, and the new clothes I’d bought.

  I felt naked without it, but now wasn’t the time to be focusing on that. Serin had an insane gleam in his eyes, like he felt invincible, and I knew exactly what he was feeling. Bloodlust, even that was the same, if they lost control.

  Bastards.

  “That’s forbidden, isn’t it? That’s why your kind only fight hand to hand? I bet there are even laws against revealing it to the rest of the supernaturals, so people don’t realize your just like half-demons, except corrupt and in charge.”

  He snorte
d, “I’m an outsider now, right?” throwing my own words back at me, “I do what I want.”

  “You can’t control it like that. I burned down a sixth of Manhattan the same way, but at least I had an excuse. I was sixteen, untaught, ignorant, and by the time I realized my error it was too late.”

  Granted, it was also a waste of his magic, and I could use it to my advantage, but even in that moment the loose white flames were growing larger, feeding on the life in the grass and reaching out toward me. It was a waste of my power, but I had no choice, I struck it with the tip of my whip, and destroyed it. As it grew it would’ve eventually reached for Vic and Abby, or the stables just a couple of hundred feet away. The more it grew, the more of my power it would take to stop.

  “Arrogant dick,” I said as arrogantly and insultingly as possible.

  He screamed as his face twisted in rage and hate. He had issues. Wings of white flame exploded from his back, and now he looked exactly like that idiot in New York. Of course, without my bag I wouldn’t be pulling out that silver and iron laced dagger, to gut him.

  I returned the favor, hellfire exploded from my back and formed wings. They weren’t real wings of flesh and blood, just of magic and power. But that didn’t stop me from jumping into the sky and hovering above him at twenty feet up.

  As I’d hoped he pointed the sword at me and blasted his magic in my direction. I pulled in my wings and rolled out of the way. Flying was a simple act of will, directing the hellfire that shielded me to move in a specific direction. I wasn’t faster than light, some of it hit me, but like on the ground a whole lot of the column was wasted magic, without me wasting mine in protection. Even better, he was shooting it up into the sky which had been my purpose in hovering, where there was nothing to consume, so the white stream of fire just burned out harmlessly without me needing to expend power to clean up after him.

  It took some magic to fly, but a lot less than his columns of white self-righteous flames.

  I gave him the finger, just to keep him pissed off. It worked, four more times he wasted a whole shitload of magic in trying to burn me out of the sky, while I spent a whole lot less magic protecting myself and moving around.