by Crystal Ash
"Blood magic only has a fifty percent success rate," I said. "Even with the best odds, you can still kill the wrong target with the same blood type. That's what Ash told me."
"I couldn't take the chance of you coming back," Diana snarled. "Not after thousands of our people were publicly executed out of fear of the devil. Not after we worked so hard to keep all association away from you!"
"So you took the chance of murdering your own daughter?" I demanded. "Might I remind you that you're the one painting the room with blood?"
"Deidre was far too kind-hearted to understand," Diana lamented. "She was a dreamer, an idealist. She didn't grow up in the times that I did. If you were not white or not a Christian, your life was in danger every day! I couldn't let society go back to a world like that."
"Don't you realize you're perpetuating that hate?" I demanded. "Demons aren't responsible for the witch hunts, humans are! We're trying to ensure that humanity accepts all of us. Demon, witch, and human alike. That is the world we seek to create. This is what we've been trying to do for over ten thousand years."
"All you've done is stand by and watch idly as innocent witches get burned and hanged," she shot back. "The humans catch the faintest wind of you and they always come and target us. It doesn't matter to you. Why would it? You're all fucking immortal. You'll come back to earth and do nothing but seduce people for your demon orgies." Her fingers dug into the spongy flesh of the heart, causing it to leak more blood over her fingers and onto the floor. "But I won't take it anymore. I won't let another witch die for no reason."
"Your daughter already did," I seethed. "My mother died for no reason! And you had the balls to lie to my face and blame demons for it. Are you even listening to yourself?"
The look in her eyes told me while she heard my words, she was not listening. She was too far gone in her own mad world of hate and grief. And when the coppery smell of blood mixed with the bitter taste of dark magic, I knew our time was limited.
"Guys, we have to go." I took one step out of the apartment and was met with the worst pain imaginable. It felt like my blood was lit under a burner and literally boiling underneath my skin. With a scream, I fell to my knees and felt strong arms wrap around me protectively, but they did nothing to help the pain.
"Don't hurt her, witch," I heard Sal's voice threaten. "Take my blood instead."
"No!" I screamed through the pain.
"Stupid demon. Don't you see that it's her that needs to die?" Diana mocked. "I even borrowed an angel's kiss so her soul won't find another body to live in."
"We won't let you have her!"
I was vaguely aware of my head cradled into Raum's chest. His aura reached out to Ash for backup, but the blood magic was already taking its toll on me.
"I can't touch her!" Sal roared in frustration. "She spelled the whole apartment against shadow magic!"
"Just keep that bitch distracted. Our backup's on its way." Raum tilted my chin up to face him and pressed a kiss to my lips although I barely felt it. My entire body was numb. "Don't give up yet, baby," he pleaded with me. "I love you so much. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you."
I couldn't reply. All I could perceive was pain. I felt like I was slowly being cooked alive.
My sore eyelids cracked open until I could just see Diana standing in my living room, a maniacally gleeful expression on her face as her blood-coated fingers sank into the flesh of the heart.
A surge of hate momentarily distracted me from the pain. How could she do this, to her own daughter and then me? I was her flesh and blood. I couldn't control which body my soul would be reborn into! She found me and set me on the path to my true nature. After teaching me, guiding me, and treating me almost like a mother, how could she betray me?
I focused on that heart in her hands as my mind swam through the roiling sea of emotional and physical pain. Then, like subconsciously turning over a rock, I found something in a shadow of my mind I hadn't explored yet. I barely had time to wonder, what's this? before the heart burst into flames.
"Aaagh!" Diana wailed in agony, flinging her hands around but her flesh was already seared to the heart as the flame grew bigger. Immediately my pain was gone and all three of us took a deep gasping breath as the blood spell lifted.
"How?!" she cried out, her once gleeful eyes now filled with fear. "You're a fucking earth witch!"
"Fire consumes earth," I said in a robotic voice. "It destroys life."
"Good timing, baby," Raum chuckled with a kiss to my forehead. "Now let's get the fuck out of here."
He and Sal lifted me to my feet and prepared to guide me down the stairs, but I wasn't done yet.
I searched through the shadows in the same area where I found my fire magic. As if turning over another metaphysical rock, what I found brought a smile to my face.
My eyes flew open and I focused on Diana once again. With a sizzling psssssssssst, the fire was doused in a cloud of steam. Diana opened her mouth as if to say something, but she choked up a mouthful of water.
"Water puts out fire," my mouth said. "It sustains life."
Diana fell to her knees, struggling to catch a breath but her lungs only filled with more water. She looked up at me, begging with her eyes, but I only looked down at her coldly.
"Did you watch like this when you killed my mother?" I asked. "Did you enjoy watching your pregnant daughter beg for her life as your blood magic slowly poisoned her?"
She shook her head desperately, coughing up blood now along with the water.
"No? So you were too much of a coward to watch the effects of your own spell?" I demanded. "You had to know the fifty percent risk of missing your target."
My grandmother began turning blue as her body and brain became deprived of oxygen. Her eyes, red with broken blood vessels, began rolling back in her head as consciousness slipped away from her. Within a minute she would be dead.
Just as her movements slowed, I halted my magic with a flick of my wrist. When her weak inhale finally took in fresh air, she gulped for it greedily, desperately.
I watched her struggle and cough as life flowed back into her. Both of my demons' auras touched mine, asking the silent question of why I let her live. I gave my answer as I turned to the door and began walking out of the apartment.
"Because this demon whore is better than you."
19
DEJA
I ran straight into Ash when we hit the bottom of the stairwell. He slumped with relief and let out a string of curses as he pulled me tightly against his chest.
"Thank fucking Lucifer," he murmured into my hair before pulling away and stroking a hand across my cheek, his icy eyes wide with concern for me.
"Raum relayed everything to me while you were in there. I'm so sorry about your mother."
His words should have made me feel something, anything. Physically I felt fine, just tired. But emotionally, I felt completely numb. It was like my heart could no longer handle anymore betrayal, it closed itself off to feeling love and kindness too.
"Where were you?" I asked.
"Setting up an anchor at our safe house," he replied, tugging on my hand as we walked hurriedly to their Victorian down the street from my-- no-- Nona's, shop.
"What?"
"Sorry I forgot you don't ah, teleport like we do." He pulled me against him again and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "We can only instantly travel somewhere if we have an anchor at that location, which is a spelled object to pull us there. We have a house way up north near the Oregon border in the middle of nowhere. I went to make sure it's absolutely foolproof. Once we get everything we need, we'll be there instantly and the demon hunt will go nowhere."
"But I can't teleport?"
"You can if you're holding onto one of us." He dropped a quick kiss to my lips. "And we're never letting go of you."
The four of us practically crashed our way through the Victorian house and split off determinedly in different directions. We grabbed clothes, bedding, and towels to use in the new
house and filled suitcases full of them.
I took a large canvas shopping bag into the kitchen and grabbed all the canned and dried food I could find. Who knew how long we'd have to stay holed up in the middle of nowhere before the hunters let up their search?
Two metal tins on the kitchen counter made me pause. I picked up one and examined the label before allowing myself to smile. Ash brought two tins of loose tea for me. It was just this morning but felt so long ago that he asked me to move in, and we happily parted ways before this whole shit show went to Hell in a handbasket.
"How'd I do?" came his voice along with the rough nuzzle of his beard against the back of my neck. "Think those twigs and leaves will do it for you?" he teased.
"Are you kidding?" I turned both tins over in my hands as the first clear emotions finally came through my numbed senses. Love. Appreciation. Support. "This is genuine silver needle tea! I could never get it in the shop because the suppliers were always backordered." I turned to face him, a smile daring to creep across my face. "You must have worked some magic to get this. Thank you, angel."
"Maybe just a little." His arms encircled my back protectively and only then did the exhaustion seemed to fully hit me. I slumped against him with a weary sigh, leaning all my weight against his hard torso as his hands moved soothingly across my back.
"I'm really sorry my love, about everything," he murmured into my hair. "I hate to see you hurt. I know you wanted family and kinship with these people."
"Did you know?" I asked, my voice muffled by his shirt.
"No."
"Did Raum?"
He hesitated. "That's something you need to ask him."
I lifted my head and looked at him. "I used fire and water magic to stop her blood spell. I found the knowledge in my shadows. Once I found them it was so easy to cast, like breathing. How is that possible?"
"Because you're you," he answered lightheartedly, seemingly unsurprised. "I'll explain later, love, but we really need to get going. I'd rather not deal with a small army of hunters at our doorstep."
As if right on cue, we heard a crash coming from the foyer and the distinct sound of a mountain lion roaring.
Ash and I exchanged a glance for a split second before we dashed out of the kitchen and into the next room. Sal in his feline form had his ears pressed back against his skull, belly low to the ground, claws out, and fearsome teeth bared in a terrifying snarl. The moment I saw who he was growling at, my own aura flared up in a rage that could only rival Sal's.
A wide-eyed Seth sat on the floor, his hands raised in a surrendered motion as the mountain lion slunk closer to its prey. Raum stood near the door, arms crossed and looking bored.
"Let Sal eat him, I say," he offered.
"Sounds good to me," I agreed.
"I would advise against that," Seth protested, his eyes never leaving Sal's long teeth.
"Give me one good reason why," I challenged. "You're the one bringing the hunters down on us in the first place! Why shouldn't we leave your half-eaten carcass for your people to find?"
Sal punctuated my point by swiping a large paw across Seth's chest. No sooner did the thin ribbons of blood begin to darken his shirt, Seth responded. He raised his palms and the strongest pulse of energy I ever felt knocked me back against Ash, sending us both crashing into the wall. I got the wind knocked out of me and Ash groaned in pain.
It happened so fast, none of us saw it coming. Raum got knocked on his ass and Sal was flung across the room like he was a kitten. He sprang back just as fast, screaming his head off and the bloodthirsty intent to kill blazing in his eyes.
"I don't want to hurt any of you," Seth yelled as he pushed Sal back with another pulse of energy. "I came to warn you." His metallic grey eyes focused on me as he held a savage, bloodthirsty Sal at bay. "Deja, I never told the coven about your demons. That was your grandmother. She saw how strong you were getting and wanted to stop you before you became too powerful."
He winced as Sal continued to tear and bite at the invisible force field blocking him from ripping his throat out. Seth was losing strength and Sal's claws were getting closer with each passing second.
"Can you make him stop?" Seth pleaded. "I swear to Odin I'm trying to help, not hunt you."
"Your swearing means fuck-all to me," Raum muttered from the doorway as he returned to his feet.
Seth whipped his head around to register Raum's words and Sal's feline eyes glanced expectantly at me, followed by a protective snarl.
"Let him go for now, lion," I said with a nod. "Let's hear what he has to say."
Sal backed off, sheathing his claws but still kept his ears pricked forward as he stood protectively in front of me.
"Start talking. And make it quick." I reached down to scratch Sal between the ears.
"I had to call them in but I'm not actually a demon hunter," he began. "I'm posing undercover as one."
"You're so full of shit." It was Raum's turn to snarl. "I've heard of you. I've seen you and the carnage you've caused. Hundreds of incubi and humans laid to waste for no reason besides enjoying each other's pleasure. The incubi will come back but the humans won't. Not even he murders innocents like that," he spat with a jerk of his head to Sal.
"I have to carry out orders to ensure my cover isn't blown," Seth said carefully. "But Deja, I'm telling you honestly that I don't want to eliminate demons. I'm trying to stop the witches that are hunting them."
"Why should I believe you?" I demanded. Sal let out a warning growl that echoed my question.
"I understand if you don't trust me," Seth answered. "But you're using an anchor to travel instantly somewhere, which will leave a faint trail of magic. The hunters will follow you and be able to find you within days. I can throw them off the trail and buy you more time."
His statement was met with silence as the demons and I exchanged glances and talked silently through our auras.
Or he could lead them straight to us, came Sal's growl through my mind. I trust your decision, beautiful. But I don't trust this male witch one bit.
Either way, the safe house near the border is our only anchor currently, Ash chimed in. I can set up another once we're there so we can have a quick escape. But in the meantime, there's nowhere else we can go to outrun them.
Raum? I asked. Any insight?
For once, he didn't have anything clever or snide to say. He stood stoically, almost brooding.
We have to go to the house regardless if we trust this man or not. So let's just do that and figure out our next move when we get there.
But if we let him live, we could be totally fucked, Sal said.
And if we kill an innocent man who could be an ally, we're extra fucked. I ran my hand down Sal's furry back. Sorry, lion. We're not killing anyone today.
He growled but didn't argue further.
With a nod, I returned Seth's gaze. His aura, so dark and demonlike in itself, pulsed with a reverberating power that resembled a heartbeat. I only realized then how much he hid his powers before. He made my demons on edge, tense, and defensive, and that said something. If he couldn't be trusted, he was a dangerous enemy to have. He might even have the power to destroy my soul, finishing the job that the angel couldn't.
But if he was telling the truth, he would be an extremely powerful ally.
"It doesn't matter at this moment if you help us or not," I said, throwing my voice with a bravado I hoped he didn't see through. "But if you bring hunters to our doorstep, I promise I won't let you live next time."
Seth’s jaw ticked as his steely eyes narrowed at me. "And when you learn that I really am on your side?"
I bristled internally. He was impossible to read. All signs pointed to him being full of shit, not to mention I still didn't want him anywhere near me for any reason. But I had no solid proof either way and that was what infuriated me the most.
"Then you'll have our gratitude," I said. "And our trust."
I laced my fingers with Ash's and squeezed, eager to be
away from Seth, my grandmother, this city, all of this.
"Ready to go, angel?"
He squeezed his hand back in an affirmative and brushed his lips against my ear.
"Close your eyes, my love."
I did as he instructed and couldn't prepare myself for the sensation that followed. The house and all the space surrounding me seemed to get sucked away by a vacuum.
When I opened my eyes, the four of us stood in an entirely different house. The guys went to flick on light switches which revealed an open floor plan and large windows letting in silvery moonlight. Wood paneling covered the walls and floors. A black wood fire stove sat between the kitchen and the open, sparsely furnished living room. Dense pine trees covered what I could see outside and crickets proudly chirped their song.
Earth magic was so strong here. I felt it coming through the walls and surging up from the ground. After everything that just happened, I felt a small sense of relief from this place. It would strengthen me. It would wrap me up in its energy and nurture me. Even if hunters came after us, as long as I had my lovers with me, we just might be okay.
Epilogue
DEJA
The patio door slid open behind me but I kept my eyes on the stars.
Living in a busy city made me forget how vast and bright the celestial bodies were. Out here in the wilderness, the night sky looked dense and vivid enough for me to reach out and touch.
Were there angels up there, cursing and gnashing their perfect, pearly white teeth at my existence? Was the being who created me wishing he struck me with lightning sooner? It didn't feel right calling him-- or it-- a god anymore. My thousands of years of consciousness told me that gods changed faces and roles just as often as I changed bodies.
Raum came slowly up behind my lawn chair, his footsteps barely making any noise on the wooden deck. I ignored him, continuing to search the sky for a glimpse of a winged being. For once his presence felt awkward. The man with the silky smooth tongue didn't know what to say but he wanted my attention.
