"True. It's sad that you aren't more bloodthirsty." She heaved a great sigh. "The places we could have ravished, the souls we could have taken, and the power we would have shared."
As if Satan would share anything. Bane wisely kept silent. One thing about Lucy, she liked to talk and loved nothing more than a captive audience.
"I'm sure you are aware that a few...relics have surfaced." The real reason she'd appeared. "I can't tell you how disappointed I was with this morning's revelation. It was all I could do not to release the hounds. The shockwave that went through the coven was enough to call in Dru to combat it. You know as well as I do what will happen if the Druids are allowed a toehold back on the earth."
Bane purposely kept his mind blank.
"I want to know how this happened," Lucy demanded when neither Nick nor Bane spoke. "Someone better start telling me what they know. Now."
Nick was the first to break the stinging silence. "From what my sources tell me, Tierra de Moray unearthed the Druid king's crown and a portion of his staff from the Standing Stones this morning."
"Wands? He fucking made wands from his staff? Why that irritating, clever son of a bitch." Fury turned her eyes to flames, destroying the demure and harmless appearance she'd attempted to cultivate. The devil did love her disguises. "Does Tierra know of her connection to the last King of the Druids?" She gritted this last bit out through her teeth.
Lucifer and Malcolm de Moray had a history. He'd been able to stop Lucy's attempt to bring about the Apocalypse a thousand years ago, and she still held a grudge. It seemed like Malcolm had bested her once again and this time from beyond the grave. He'd been a patient man in life, but to wait a thousand years to play his hand? Impressive.
"By all accounts the witches are clueless," Bane imparted, keeping any inflection out of his voice and his expression nondescript.
"Five Seals are open," Lucy said. "I want the other two. The faster the better. From now on, your number one priority is the witches. Filter the rest of your duties to your minions and concentrate on the de Moray bitches."
"And what would you have us do?" Bane asked.
"If you can’t kill them, convert them. This is the End of Days. I'm through waiting for my rightful place in the sun."
****
Separated by a threshold, Tierra and Moira stood outside on the porch while Claire and Aerin stayed inside the entryway. For a few heartbeats it seemed like no one was willing to cross over the sill.
Tierra broke the silence and offered up a compromise in regard to the house. "How about we gather in the solarium?" The solarium was light and airy with French doors that opened at both ends. The plants would hopefully help clean whatever putrid smell Tierra couldn't get past.
"I could use a drink," Aerin said. "It might be morning but as none of us have been to bed yet, I believe I'll have my coffee with a shot of whiskey."
Claire gave a jerky nod. "Sounds good. It's been a hell of a long night."
"How 'bout we be totally honest here and forget the pretense of coffee and just drink whiskey." Moira pointed to Tierra. "You're stuck with tea, but since the rest of us aren't knocked up, we can partake."
They ventured into the house, and Tierra held her breath. The manor needed a top-to-bottom spring cleaning. With everything going on, she hadn't had seen to it yet this year. She didn't have time now, but she had to find what Killian had warned her about.
Her stomach still rolled, but then she couldn't remember when she'd last eaten anything. At least anything that had stayed down. Through the entry, into the kitchen, and finally the solarium, Tierra looked for anything out of place or something that didn't belong. Nothing jumped out at her.
Once in the solarium, she opened both sets of French doors and fresh air blessedly wafted through. This was better. She could do this, though she felt guilty not helping her sisters in the kitchen as they gathered whiskey, glasses, and brewed tea for her.
Exhausted she yawned, sank into a patio chair, and set down the crown and wand she still had clutched in her hand on the table. She must have zoned, not really slept, but drifted on the fragrance of the flowers nestled into their colorful pots crowding the space.
Moira came in balancing a tray of fruit and scones with one hand, the other clutching a bag of pork rinds. "Here, I thought you'd like something to eat. Need to feed the little tadpole." Moira set the tray in the middle of the table. "Claire will be along shortly with the tea. You feeling okay? Your night out didn't...do anything?"
"I'm fine. Just really tired. Thanks for the concern and the food." Tierra eyed the selection of sliced apples, peaches, cherries, kiwi, and blueberry scones, then watched Moira tear into the bag of pork rinds. Her stomach churned when the smell of fried pig skin hit her, but not in sickness, which was more disturbing.
"Did you find Cheeto?" Tierra asked, knowing Moira was careful about eating any type of pork when he was around.
"We found all the familiars hanging around the shed that Tommy and Sunny's father are rebuilding. Like a bunch of contractors watching over the progress. We tried, but we can't coax them into the house. Weird."
Aerin walked in with a bottle of whiskey and three glasses, and Claire followed behind her, carrying a teapot and a fine bone china cup and saucer.
"I went with the rose petal black tea," Claire said, setting the cup and pouring tea for Tierra as though she was offering up an apology for her earlier outburst. "That okay?"
"This is great. Thanks." Tierra raised the cup to her lips. The tea was one of her favorites. Sweet, floral, with earthy undertones. It was like sipping nectar from the heart of a rose, but today it didn't set well on her palate. Her eyes shifted to the bag of pork rinds, and she watched Moira popped one into her mouth and crunch.
"What?" Moira asked with her mouth full. "Do I have something on my face?" She brushed at her cheeks.
"It's nothing." Tierra picked up a scone and flaked off a corner. It was dry and tasted like dust. She washed it down with another sip of tea and knew she didn't want any more. What she wanted was too disgusting to think about. Her stomach rumbled with disagreement.
Aerin poured shots and passed them around. She threw hers back and winced slightly, letting out a breath. "So what happened, Tierra?"
Tierra looked at each of her sisters individually. "Killian and I, well we, uh..."
"We know you got your rocks off," Claire said, taking the bottle and refilling the glasses. "We can see that."
"How?"
"Your aura," Aerin said. "It's more vibrant and shimmers with satisfaction."
"Gotta give it to Death, he always comes for you. Or maybe it's best said, you always come for him." Claire's comment caused Aerin to giggle. "I have a million of them." She clicked glasses with Aerin.
"Don't listen to them," Moira said. "She's jealous 'cause she ain't getting any. That boy, Tommy, his cheese has done fallen off his cracker."
"No it hasn't. He has...cheese," Claire said. "I think."
"You don't know?" Aerin asked. "You've been hanging with him all this time and you don't know?"
"We're taking it slow. Besides this isn't about me, it's about her." She pointed to Tierra.
"It's about all of us. Killian warned me that something or someone has gotten by the wards. We need to take this seriously. Moira just mentioned that our familiars refuse to come into the house. If you don't want to believe me, believe them."
"Wait a sec," Claire said. "If he was willing to tell you that much, why didn't he tell you what or who?"
"Said he couldn't say."
"Like if he said who, they'd know?" Aerin asked.
"Yes, exactly that. Also he mentioned all this stuff about there being power in a name. You know that feeling you get when you know someone is talking about you? Seems there might be something to it."
"Oh, there is," Aerin said. "I've dominated the cloud for a reason. I know things."
"Dru told me something similar." Claire grimaced as though saying Dru's name didn't s
et well on her tongue. She washed it down with another shot of whiskey.
"Did Death tell you where this thing is?" Moira asked.
"Just that it's in the house and that it would make us sick or possibly act out of character." She watched Aerin and Claire finish off another shot and refill their glasses. They were quickly on their way to getting toasted.
"Okay, we'll sweep through the house when we are done here," Aerin said. "Anything else?"
"I'm not to touch it, and we're not to burn it either."
"Then how do we get rid of it?" Claire asked.
"He said he could dispose of it," she answered weakly.
The three of them shared a look, but it was Aerin who spoke. "And you didn't think that was a ploy to get inside the wards?"
"I did at first, but not after."
"A.D. or B.C.?" Claire asked.
"What?" Tierra's attention was torn between the conversation and the bag of pork rinds Moira continued to devour.
"After death—la petite mort—or before climax?" Claire explained.
Aerin quaked with laughter, causing her to grab her sides. "You have to stop. You're killing me here."
"Ha! I see what you did there." Claire and Aerin dissolved into whiskey-aided giggles.
"All right, you two have had enough, and I not nearly." Moira stood, reached over, and took the whiskey bottle from between Aerin and Claire and filled her glass to the top. "Why would Death care about something harmful in the manor?"
"Because Tierra carries his spawn and he wants her alive," Claire said. "It's Aerin he wants dead."
"Not just her," Tierra admitted. "He threatened to kill anyone I slept with."
"Oooh, that's soooo romantic," Claire said, her words slurring.
"It is not!" Tierra said.
"Very Heathcliff," Aerin agreed with a nod of her head that almost had her toppling out of her chair. "Obsessive, wrong, and politically incorrect, but you gotta admit, it must have thrilled you a little bit."
"The hell it did."
"Liar." Aerin snorted. "If Julian had said something like that to me, I would have blown him right there and then."
Tierra tried to steer them back to the original subject of conversation. "We have to consider that it isn't a thing in the house, but a who." She held up her hand when Claire opened her mouth. "Hear me out. Yesterday, Gwen and Lucy were here, Aunt Justine too. And Tommy is always here. They all had access past the wards. We need to divide them up and take a hard look at each one of them."
"It's not a bad idea," Moira agreed. "There are four of them and four of us."
Claire pointed at Tierra. "She doesn't get to investigate Tommy."
Fine with her. She hadn't been able to be in the room with him long before feeling the need to vomit. "I'll take Aunt Justine. I can be objective where she is concerned." She looked at Moira. "Or I can take Gwen." Lucy made her too nervous.
"No, I'll take Gwen," Claire said, her eyes narrowed to slits in thought. "There's something about her."
"I'll take Lucy," Aerin volunteered. "I want to get to know her better anyway."
"This is an information-gathering mission, not a let's-make-friends mission," Tierra said.
"I know," Aerin said. "But you have to admit, she radiates power. I'd like to know what kind. That leaves Moira with Tommy. I think that works as she's dealt with many...interesting characters."
"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Claire asked.
"Just that Tommy doesn't have a pulse. You have to admit that."
"Well, Julian oozes disease."
"Not to me, he doesn't."
"He would if he could and did, once upon a time," Claire said. "You were one sick puppy when we first met you after he infected you with his 'disease.'"
"Wish he would try and infect me again," Aerin muttered and grabbed the whiskey bottle from Moira, and tipped the bottle to her lips. "So I could cut off his balls and feed them to him."
"I think you've had too much to drink," Claire said. "Give me."
"Not even close," Aerin said. "I see Aunt Justine."
"There ain't enough whiskey in the free world to make that okay," Moira said, holding her hand out for the bottle and refilling her glass.
"Are you girls drinking before breakfast?" Aunt Justine asked, censure heavy in her voice. She planted her hands on her hips just like Moira liked to do.
"Just move your shit along and leave us alone, old woman." Moira gestured with her hand as if she could shoo her away like a pesky bug.
"I would, but there is a strange...man in my bedroom."
"Oh, sorry," Claire said. "Tommy was staying in there. He'll be moved out soon."
"You have a...man staying in my bedroom." She said this like a man had never been in her bedroom before. Come to think about it, Tierra had never seen her aunt in the company of men. Only women.
"You gave it up," Moira pointed out. "It's now the new guest room. Understand. Guest, as in you don't stay long."
Aunt Justine ignored Moira. "I must warn you, Gwen and Lucy know you lied to them yesterday. You shouldn't have done that."
"What are you talking about?" Tierra asked.
"I take it none of you caught the news this morning?" Justine held her nose high in the air. "Apparently the world is not only having a rash of the walking dead, but—aliens—have been sighted over Canadian and US airspace. As there is footage of three humanoids on broomsticks who look a lot like you...four." She raised a finger to get her point across, but obviously didn't know which of the witches to blame. "Pockets of panic are breaking out all over the Northwest. When the video goes viral, which you know it will, witch hunters, scientists, and doomsayers will be all over this place. You will be found out."
"Guess, that invisibility spell doesn't work on radar," Aerin murmured. "We'll need to tweak it for modern day technology."
"Gwen will be back and I'm sure Lucy will be, too, both of them wanting to know why you lied and how you flew. Lucy's a powerful witch, the likes of which I've never encountered. You need to be careful with her," Justine warned.
"We don't owe Lucy or Gwen or anyone else any explanations," Aerin said. "It's none of their fucking business."
"Don't be naive. The coven is powerful, and there is a hierarchy in place with Lucy in residence." Justine's eyes narrowed as she noticed the crown and wand on the table in front of Tierra. "Oh my goddess! You have them? Where did you find them? The coven is talking about nothing else except the Druid magic returning to earth. Otherwise I would have been here much earlier this morning."
Tierra wished she'd hidden the items before Justine had arrived.
Justine's jade eyes nearly sparkled with the need to tell someone of her discovery.
"No, you don't." Tierra jerked to her feet, grasped the wand and laid a hand on the crown. "If you are moving back in here, your loyalties must lie with us. You tell no one. No one, about these," she stressed.
"Tierra, this is a good thing and will benefit all the members of the coven."
"The only people I trust right now are my sisters. You asked to come home because you were frightened of the rituals the coven was preforming. I believed you. But if you feel the need to share this information, or anything else regarding us with them, leave right now and don't ever return. Those are the rules. This is not negotiable."
Justine's eyes widened and silence settled around the solarium as they waited to hear her decision. "All right. I'll agree to your terms. I won't tell a soul."
Tierra relaxed a few degrees, even though she badly wanted to gather the wand and crown and run for her room. She didn't trust Justine, and wouldn't until she'd proven herself. Going after Moira had been an act that Tierra couldn't get past, but Justine was family so she would give her the benefit of the doubt or enough rope to hang herself with. Either way, the truth would be known.
"I'll just go and help that...man in my bedroom move along," Justine said, and left the room.
"Well, I reckon, you done told her what for." Moir
a reached her hand into the bag of pork rinds.
Tierra couldn't take it anymore. "Give me those." She snatched the bag away from Moira and helped herself to a piece of fried pork skin. Euphoria exploded in her mouth and she shut her eyes and chewed. She was so hungry and this tasted so good. Even knowing what she ate, she wanted more.
A hush fell over the room. Tierra opened her eyes and found her sisters watching her, their mouths opened in shock.
"I don't want to hear it," Tierra said and stuffed her mouth with another handful.
"Not a peep," Moira said and shared a wide-eyed look with Claire and Aerin.
"I think we should make some coffee," Aerin said. "We need to sober up and sleep will have to wait."
"Yeah, we can sleep when we're dead." They all stared at Claire. "Hey, if we don't figure out what those things are—" she indicated the wand and crown "—why Tierra's craving pork, and what's hidden in the house, we'll probably be dead sooner rather than later."
"Don't forget the Horsemen and zombies," Moira said.
"And our mother," Tierra said. "She showed me where these were hidden. She called them my inheritance."
"Our mother?" Moira asked. "What did she say? Did she ask about the rest of us? Do we get an inheritance, too?"
Tierra quickly filled them in on the brief interaction with their mother that had been comforting yet cryptic. "She warned me, warned us, 'Whatever is to come, you must remain as one.'"
"That's heavy," Moira said.
They all digested that and then Moira asked about the wand and crown, "Who did they belong to before?"
"Malcolm de Moray, the last King of the Druids," Tierra answered. "The Grimoire mentions him."
"We need to find out who Malcolm de Moray was," Aerin said.
"Well, considering the name, and the word inheritance, I think we can safely assume he was a relative," Claire said.
"This is the weird part." Tierra pointed to the crown. "It's ancient, formed in the Iron Age."
"And how do you know that?" Aerin asked, her tone skeptical.
"I know a few things," Tierra retorted. "Especially historical stuff. And besides the metal kind of told me." She was an earth witch after all.
Which Witch is Wicked? (The Witches of Port Townsend Book 2) Page 22
