Scion

by Kelly Oram

  “Russ.”

  I was unmoved by the pain and regret in his voice. He stayed quiet for a long time, and then finally sighed. “I’ll earn your trust back somehow. I promise. And I’ll book us the first flight to France tomorrow morning.”

  “Won’t they think to look there?” I asked. “I mean, you said the place is called Château Devereaux. Are you telling me the council doesn’t know where you grew up?”

  Dad shook his head. “They know I was disowned. They came looking there a couple months back, but Madame Belcourt covered for me and told them that my father had left the place to her. She even had fake documents that I’d made her. They never believed I’d go back there in the first place, so they didn’t stay long and haven’t come sniffing around since.”

  Suddenly, the worry on my dad’s face was replaced with a smug smile. “Besides, if they even tried to come to Château Devereaux uninvited, they’d find themselves in a nasty way. No one gets ashore of that island that isn’t welcome. You think the consulate was protected? That wasn’t reinforced with centuries of Devereaux magic. We’ll be safe there. I promise. In fact, we should have Dani and the Seer come with us. We could keep them safe.”

  My snort of laughter was beyond obnoxious. “Yeah. I don’t think so. I might be able to sit here and not gut you for your past actions, but I doubt Dani has that much restraint. Gabe, either, for that matter. They haven’t exactly forgiven you for nearly beheading Gabe and offering him up as demon chow. Do you have any idea how insanely hung up on Gabe Dani really is? She’ll never forgive you, Dad. Not ever.”

  Now Dad looked plain tortured by guilt and grief. “All right,” he said quietly. His eyes drifted to Clara. “How about you, sweetheart? I heard through a friend that you’re on the outs with your mom. You’d be welcome with us.”

  “I—” Clara’s jaw dropped open, and her face paled. She glanced at me.

  Just as I was about to put my foot down and say absolutely the heck not, I heard a thought in the back of my mind. You need her.

  I didn’t know where the voice came from or whose it was, but I’d seen enough angels in my day to know they guided people sometimes. I didn’t like the thought that I needed Clara, but I knew better than to ignore the angels.

  With my gaze buried in my lap, I lifted one shoulder and mumbled, “Whatever. It’s up to you.”

  I didn’t have to see her face to know that she was shocked by my response. I felt her staring me down, needing answers as to why I’d let her come, but I couldn’t meet her gaze. If I even looked at her for a second, I’d take it back and tell her to get lost.

  “Okay,” she whispered in a shaky voice. “I’ll go. I’d like that very much. Thank you, Mr. Devereaux.”

  “Honey, please, call me ‘Alex.’”

  I guess that covered all the bases. Apparently, I was going to France to live in the family castle to harness my demonic nature and prepare for a supernatural war. And I was going to be living with Clara. It sounded completely crazy, but it was still nice to have a plan.

  My father said there was one thing he wanted to do before we left for France and that he needed a few things to do it, so he went out for a while. He promised to bring back dinner, too. I was fine with that. I may have taken an all-day nap in front of the old Leventis farm, but I still felt wasted. I went straight to my room and barely managed to strip off my shirt and shoes before I crashed. I didn’t even pull back the covers. I was out in seconds.

  “Russ?” The whisper was too faint to pull me all the way from the deep sleep I’d been in.

  A soft hand touched my arm, and the power that came with it made me shiver as it slammed into me. It felt so good, and was so relaxing that I wanted more. With a groan of pleasure, I tugged the hand gripping me and pulled the person it belonged to down onto the bed with me. She gasped in shock when I caged her against me and snuggled in for a nice nap together, but she didn’t fight me. My arm went around her waist and my hand found the skin beneath her shirt immediately. Melting into a puddle of pure contentment, I let out a long, relaxed sigh.

  I’d started to drift off again when Clara whispered, “Why can’t it always be like this?” Her voice was small and vulnerable. “Why do you hate me?”

  She was right. I hated her. But when we touched like this, the connection we shared muddled my brain, making it hard to think. I couldn’t remember why I hated her enough to explain it, so I answered her first question instead. “It could stay like this if I never let go.” I gave her a squeeze, hugging her even tighter against me. “When we touch, it all goes away.”

  I’d been holding her back against my chest, but she rolled over to face me. I kept my arm around her waist, splaying my fingers across her lower back, and she placed her hands lightly on my bare chest. Her delicate but powerful touch felt so amazing that my eyes rolled back in my head. Suddenly, I was using all my willpower to resist the urge to kiss her.

  “What do you mean?” she asked. “What goes away when we touch?”

  “All the bad feelings. The animosity. The hatred. I have this inherent need to get away from you. You literally make me physically ill, but when we touch like this, the pit in my stomach dissolves.”

  “It doesn’t make sense, Russ. Don’t you remember what it was like that first week you came to stay at my house? You didn’t hate me then. You were…” She shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths, getting control of her emotions before she spoke again. “What changed? What went wrong?”

  I tried to think. I remembered that summer. Of course I did. I especially remembered every detail of that first week. But in my eyes, it was a bad thing. It haunted me. I never understood how I could act like that—feel like that—when I’d been so in love with Dani my entire life. I hated myself for that first week I knew Clara, while she made it sound as if that time we spent together was the best of her life. There was true longing in her voice. The pain in her eyes twisted something in my heart.

  When we weren’t touching, everything was so clear. It was easy. Clara was vile. I hated her. She was my worst enemy, plain and simple. Right now, nothing made sense. I was so confused. But as much as I hated feeling uncertain and insecure, I didn’t want to let her go yet. “I don’t know.” I sighed. “Nothing about you has ever made sense to me, Clare Bear. Can’t we just enjoy the moment of reprieve and get some rest? You look like you need it as badly as I do.”

  She frowned, but settled in against my chest and closed her eyes. That was all I needed. With her head tucked under my chin, I squeezed her tight and let myself fall into unconsciousness. I’m not sure which one of us fell asleep faster. Some time later, we were both wakened by the sound of a throat clearing and a knock on the door. “Hey, guys, dinner’s here.”

  At first, I thought Dad was going to do the cool thing and pretend he didn’t see Clara and me sleeping together. Even though nothing was going on besides catching up on some seriously needed Z’s, it was still totally embarrassing for him to find us in bed together, me without my shirt on and Clara sleeping against my chest.

  But then he had to go and ruin his Cool Dad persona. “Come on; we can eat while you guys explain this to me.” He waved his hand at us in bed together. “I didn’t realize you were a couple. I’m dying to hear how that happened.”

  Clara blushed a darker red than her hair and mumbled “We aren’t together” as she scrambled off me.

  The moment our physical connection was broken, my good sense came back to me and I was shocked at what I’d done. How could I fall asleep with her? How could I even let her touch me? I felt like I’d been played somehow. Tricked by her into letting my guard down. The stupid enchantress! Furious, I lashed out. “Yeah, Dad,” I said, making my voice as droll as possible. “We’re definitely not together. I was just using her for her power. You know how that goes, don’t you? It’s what you do best, after all. Use people for their power.”

  Ignoring the looks I got from both Dad and Clara for that, I climbed out of bed and stretched before thro
wing my shirt back on.

  “Russ, don’t do this,” Clara said. “Whatever’s making you act like this, it’s not you. How you were before, that’s you. You don’t have to hate me.”

  She held out her hand to me, silently pleading for me to take it. I almost did. I reached out automatically, but caught myself before I got ensnared in her trap again. Because that’s what it had to be. Some kind of sick seduction spell, or something. How else could she scramble my brain and make me act so crazy and impulsive?

  Let me tell you, I do not like being messed with. Rage exploded inside me, and I pulled my knife on her. “Oh, no, you don’t. Stay away from me. Don’t touch me again, you dirty witch. Whatever spell you’ve been trying to put me under, you’d better not do it again, or I’ll bleed the magic out of you.”

  “Russ!” Dad was shocked. He stepped between Clara and my blade with his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Calm down.”

  “I won’t calm down! That stupid succubus has been trying to seduce me or something since we left New York!” I glared at Clara around my father. “Is that how you’ve gotten so many guys to go to bed with you? By spelling them?”

  “You think I’m trying to spell you? You think I’d want to be with someone who treats me the way you do? I was just trying to save your life, asshole! You’re the one starving to death of supernatural essence! You’re the one who came on to me!”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Dad asked.

  Clara ignored him and kept yelling. “You know what? If you don’t want my help, fine! I’m done trying to save you, Russ Devereaux. I don’t care what the angels told me; I’m done trying to keep faith in you. You’re not worth it!”

  “Good! Leave!” I screamed back. “I never asked for your faith. I never asked you to help me. You forced me to bring you with me.” Her comment about the angels had me curious, but it also had me furious as I remembered the prompting I’d received about her just this evening. I didn’t know why the angels were trying to put us together, but they had to be wrong. “Screw the angels! I don’t care what they want, either! I don’t need you!”

  For the third time since I’d been forced to bring her with me, I reduced Clara to tears. She stormed out of the room, and I heard a door slam somewhere in the house. I hoped she would make good on her threat and finally leave, but it sounded like she’d locked herself in the bathroom.

  Guilt that had no right being there settled in my stomach. How could I feel bad about making her cry? She was the one trying to work magic on me. Trying to make me care about her. I shouldn’t feel bad for hurting her. She was evil. She was my enemy!

  My frustration reached a maximum, and I whirled around, punching the first wall I could find. My fist went straight through it. “Hey, Russ, take it easy on the house, will you?”

  “Better the wall than you,” I spat. “Or her.”

  I expected a lecture, or a bunch of questions as to what was going on between Clara and me. As if I had any idea? Instead, all he said was, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I definitely did not want to talk about it. “No.”

  “Come on, Russ, give your old man a chance. I know a thing or two about girl troubles.”

  “I said I don’t want to talk about it!” I gave the first hole in my wall a new friend.

  My dad watched me for a moment, then came in and sat down on my bed. He measured his next words carefully before saying them. “What do you want, then?”

  Being back in my room, in Carmine, with my dad talking to me the way he used to, I just snapped. “I want things to go back to the way they were! I want it to be just us and Dani, like it used to be. I wish none of this had ever happened.”

  Dad steadied his gaze on me and said, “We could do that.”

  “What?” I was startled. I’d only been ranting in frustration, but my dad was serious.

  “We could make that happen.”

  “How?”

  “I’ve been busy while you were in Washington. I learned of an ancient tool—a very powerful one that can take a supernatural’s essence. Basically, it takes their supernatural energy and makes them human.”

  “That’s not possible.” I didn’t know if I was excited at the possibility, or horrified.

  “It’s absolutely possible,” my dad corrected. “These tools I’m speaking of are so ancient the modern world has forgotten them entirely. They were left over from the war between Beelzebub and Michael. Most have been destroyed by a secret group of humans who swore an oath to the angels to protect the world from demons, but there are a few of these relics left in the world.”

  Holy information overload! I didn’t know what to react to first. That a supernatural could be turned human, that there was some secret group of demon-hunting humans out there that knew the truth about the supernatural and worked with angels, or that my dad was trying to get his hands on ancient demonic relics.

  “With your help, I know how we could get one.”

  I couldn’t help my suspicion. Dad claimed he wasn’t evil, but this was crazy.

  “I’m not going to use my freaky demon whatever-it-is to help you get your hands on the devil’s most powerful weapons unless I know exactly what you plan to do with them. Just what are you trying to accomplish, Dad? What is it that you want?”

  My dad frowned, so I quickly reminded him of his promise to not keep secrets anymore. “Fine,” he said. “I want to find this tool and then use it to take the council out of power. The resistance, too.”

  “Then who would be in charge?”

  Dad shrugged. “The people who are supposed to be. I want the humans to know about us. I want to find a way to live in peace with them. My entire life has been ruled by the council and this wedge they’ve driven between humans and us. As a warlock I can’t love other magic users, and yet the supernatural world scorned me for loving a human. I won’t lie to another human like I did your mother. I won’t make that same mistake again.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Suddenly my dad’s face fell, making him look ten years older. “I want a family again, Russ. I want to love again and have a wife. I want you to have a mother. We should be able to be who we are and live our lives freely, like any human does. We deserve that.”

  Well, that didn’t sound so bad—not nearly as sinister or evil as I’d expected. I don’t know why I was so surprised, because everything he said he wanted fit exactly with who I’d always thought he was. My dad was just an easygoing man who lived for his friends and family. He loved me, and he wanted what was best for me. After everything that happened with him and the council, I supposed I could see why he was willing to go to such extremes to accomplish his goals.

  “How is taking the council out of power going to make things go back to the way they were?” I asked.

  “Russ, if we had that tool, we could make Dani human. She could come home to Carmine. Go back and live with her parents again. You know that memory spell I used on Rachel? I’ve almost got it perfected. I could erase Dani’s memory of everything since her birthday. She’d never know what happened. She’d go back to being herself. She’d be home again with her family and wouldn’t remember any of the pain and suffering she’s been through over the last six months. Plus, without her power, she wouldn’t be bonded to the Seer. She would be yours again.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Having Dani back home in Carmine? The old Dani? My Dani? Without having to worry about her being the Chosen One? And without Gabe? It sounded too good to be true.

  “I couldn’t do that to her,” I said, but even I could hear the hope in my voice.

  My dad gave me a sympathetic smile. “You wouldn’t have to. I would do it for you.”

  “Still. Take away her power?”

  “She wouldn’t know, and it wouldn’t hurt her at all. It would make things better for her. She would finally stop hurting. We’d only be helping her.”

  I was a jerk for even considering this, but I wanted it at the same time. I shook m
y head before I could talk myself into it. “I would still know what we did to her. I’d know she chose Gabriel over me. It wouldn’t be the same as it was before.”

  My dad looked at his lap and quietly said, “It could, if you really wanted it to be.”

  After a moment of silence, Dad slowly pulled his eyes up to meet mine. “I could do the same for you, Russ. I could take your memories. You could forget all of it.”

  I felt like I’d just been punched in the stomach. The weight of his suggestion had knocked the wind out of me. I could forget. Dad could take me all the way back to Dani’s birthday, before I ever even knew she was supernatural. Except that wouldn’t be enough. “Having Dani not remember anything and be human would still mean we couldn’t be together. I’d have to go back to lying to her, unless…” I swallowed. “Unless I were human, too.”

  My dad looked at me for a long minute before carefully asking, “Would you want that?”

  I honestly didn’t know. I love having magic. I love being supernatural. I’d hate to lose that part of myself. But I couldn’t go back to living a life of lies, either. My dad could see my indecision, the confusion I was wrestling with. “Turning you human would go against everything I’ve ever wanted for you,” he said. “It would also end the Devereaux line of magic.” He let out a long sigh. “But if that’s what you really wanted, then I would do it.”

  I’d meant to keep my thoughts from him, but I couldn’t hide my shock. “You’d really do that? You’d give up both my power and Dani’s? You’d give up your family legacy?”

  Dad nodded. “If that’s what it took to make you happy again, I would. I love you so much, Russ, you and Dani both. I messed up with you guys and I hurt you both, but I never meant to. I want to make up for what I’ve put you through. I told you I would do whatever it takes, and I meant it.”