The Devil's Soldier

by Rachel McClellan

  "It hasn't happened—ever," Henry said while he removed his long brown jacket and draped it onto the back of the chair.

  "You believe these aren't accidents," Lucien said, staring down at the newspaper.

  A pain stabbed him in the head, hard enough that he cried out and dropped to his knees.

  Henry and Charlie jumped to their feet.

  "What's wrong?" Charlie asked.

  Lucien drilled his palms into his temples, as if he could somehow squish whatever was twisting his brain. His vision changed, flashing blues and oranges. He fell over on the ground, gritting his teeth.

  Henry knelt down beside him, his hands outstretched and hovering over Lucien's body. He was saying something in a language Lucien didn't recognize.

  Slowly, the pressure subsided and his muscles relaxed, but just before the pain disappeared altogether, Lucien heard a single word from a voice he never thought he would hear again.

  "Lucien."

  Lucien's eyes flew open, and he sucked air into his lungs.

  "It's Eve," he gasped. "She's alive!"

  3

  There were a lot of people in the darkened bar, but no was looking in Eve's direction. The woman whom she saved had already scrambled away, the man following after her. Eve and the vampire were virtually alone.

  An ancient magic, unyielding and powerful, rose inside her, igniting her with power she could barely contain. When the vampire's fangs pierced her skin, Eve electrified her body and shocked him away. He stumbled back, mouth open in surprise, but eyes teeming with anger. She couldn't kill him here in front of all these people, but she could lure him out the back door to get the job done there.

  She bolted toward the rear of the building, the vampire following closely behind. Using more magic, she blasted the back door open and ran outside. The alley was empty except for a stray dog nudging through some old garbage. It startled at the sight of her and scurried away.

  "Why'd you fight me in there?" the vampire said as he strode toward her as if to corner her between a brick wall and a large dumpster. "We're on the same side."

  "That's where you're wrong." She scanned the area, searching for something she could kill him with—a stick, junk furniture, even a pencil would work, but there was nothing made of wood anywhere that she could see. Maybe there was something she could use to decapitate him instead.

  "Ah, so you're one of those do-gooder witches?" the vampire said. "You know what happens to those, don't you?"

  Resting on top of the garbage in the dumpster next to her was a small circular metal lid, its edges sharp. It looked like it had once belonged to a can of tomato soup by the smear of red on its center. Eve wasn't sure it would work, but she was willing to try.

  "Time to finish what I started in there." The vampire stepped closer. "I'm going to stick my fangs in you, and you're going to like it. Then I'm going to—"

  Mentally, Eve lifted the can-size lid and whirled it toward him as fast as a bullet. It spun like a Frisbee until it sliced through the center of his neck, severing his spinal cord in half. His whole body convulsed until it burst into ashes all around her. She turned away to keep the ashes from getting into her eyes or mouth.

  After the dust settled and realization of what she'd done hit her, she stumbled into the brick wall behind her. She hated killing, no matter who or what.

  She rested her head against the bricks and took several deep breaths. It wasn't until her heartbeat slowed down that she felt the familiar sensation of being watched. She lifted her eyes to the entrance of the alleyway. A male figure stood still, surveying her carefully. There was an eerie glow to his eyes. He was a Supernatural, but what kind?

  The man shook his head slowly, and Eve had the distinct impression he was smiling even though she couldn't see his expression in the shadows. He turned to walk away.

  "Wait!" she said and hurried after him, but by the time she reached the end of the alley, the man was gone. Only a few people were walking along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. Eve cringed. Not good. What if he had recognized her?

  She returned to the alley hidden well within its shadows. It was time to go. and quick, and there was only one way to accomplish that—using a key piece of her magical abilities that she hadn't used since that night on the Cliffs of Moher.

  She closed her eyes and focused on the area around her. The weight of her body standing on the concrete, the faint breeze barely moving the hairs on her arm, and the way the alley smelled like wet dog and maple syrup. Within a few seconds, she had become connected to everything around her.

  Now that she was grounded, she concentrated hard on her friend Dmitri, on where he was parked, on what he was doing—probably reading the same small book he always read. With a push from her mind, magic surged throughout her almost overwhelming her, but she channeled the energy and used it to transport herself to Dmitri in a blink of an eye.

  She found herself on the hood of Dmitri's car. He jumped and let out a high-pitched shriek.

  "Sorry," she said and slid off the hood on the passenger side. She opened the door and closed it behind her.

  "Did you just teleport?" he asked, his mouth open.

  "Looks that way." She glanced around to make sure she hadn’t been seen. "We need to go. Fast. Someone saw me use magic to kill a vampire."

  "Do you think they recognized you?" Dmitri set his book aside and pressed on the gas pedal.

  "I don't know," she said, but the way her stomach was twisting made her nervous.

  A full minute passed before he asked, "How did everything else go? Were you able to remember how your other abilities worked?"

  She nodded. "And my magic was stronger than it's ever been before. I think your training really helped."

  "Good." He eyed her sideways. "I have something else for you, too."

  "What else could you possibly give me?"

  Dmitri rested his palm over the small book resting on the center consol. "This doesn't really belong to me. It belongs to you."

  He picked it up and held it out to her.

  "I don't understand."

  "Just take it."

  Eve took hold of the book. Her fingers tingled and she gasped, but Dmitri didn't notice.

  "It belonged to Ellenore, your mother's sister."

  The sensation in her hand slowly disappeared. "What is it?"

  "Some of her scattered thoughts, but mostly a journal of spells. I learned a lot from it, and I have no doubt it will be a big help to you too."

  Eve turned the leather-bound book over in her hand, shocked that he would give it to her, especially knowing how important it was to him. She'd never seen him without it.

  A sudden thought came to her mind "You loved her, didn't you?"

  He smiled, and his whole countenance relaxed. "Very much so. I miss her terribly."

  "She must've been something special."

  "She was."

  Eve pushed the book toward him. "Please, I can't accept it. You should keep it."

  He gently pushed it back. "Ellenore would want you to have it. She spoke of you a few times, wishing there was a way she could get you away from your parents, but you were too guarded with magic and by Boaz."

  "I had no idea." She ran her fingers across the leathered cover. "How did she die?"

  It was a moment before he answered. Moonlight illuminated his tortured eyes through the glass window. "Doing exactly what you're about to do, fight Boaz, but her fight was different from yours. Her goal was to rescue people from his clutches. She saved many people from him, but it came with a price."

  He glanced down at the book in Eve's hands. "Just promise, Eve, that you will read every page and remember who you are. My training with you is done."

  Her throat tightened, making swallowing difficult. "Then it's time."

  "It is," he agreed.

  She leaned back in the seat and looked up at the full moon. There was nothing left to do. All she had worked for the last couple of months had led up to this mom
ent.

  It was time to hunt down Boaz and kill him.

  4

  "What did you say?" Charlie asked. He was speaking inches from Lucien's face.

  Lucien remained on the floor, too stunned to do anything else. He had heard Eve's voice. She had actually been inside his head.

  Charlie shook him. "Hey! Snap out of it!"

  Lucien blinked and repeated, "She's alive."

  Charlie straightened and rubbed the back of his neck. He walked to the other side of the room, pacing back and forth.

  "How can you be sure?" Henry asked.

  "There was this intense pressure in my head, and then all of a sudden I heard my name. In Eve's voice."

  "It could be the work of another witch," Henry said, but his tone didn't sound convinced.

  "I don't think so. It felt like Eve, but something was wrong."

  Charlie spun around to face him. "Like what?"

  "I think she's in trouble. I got the distinct impression that she was under a lot of duress when she said my name."

  "But how could she have survived?" Charlie asked. "You said there was too much blood on the rocks."

  Lucien shrugged and pulled himself into a chair. "I thought there was. Maybe Boaz transported her into some kind of a prison. Maybe that's why we haven't heard from her. She's being held captive against her will."

  "If Boaz really had her, then we'd know," Henry said. "That cursed necklace would be around her neck, turning Eve into Alarica. The whole world would feel her wrath."

  Charlie stopped moving and dropped into a chair. "You're right. Boaz can't have her, so then what? Maybe she did survive, but how would she have had the strength for that swim? It's almost a mile around the coast before there's a beach."

  Lucien's mind spun. He knew he had heard her voice, but how could she be alive? That's when it came time to him… a small memory.

  "I think Eve can teleport, like you." He turned to Henry.

  Henry was shaking his head. "I highly doubt that. It took me almost two centuries to learn how to do that."

  "But she did it before," Lucien said. "At least, I think she did."

  "When?" Charlie asked.

  "We were at her house. I was trying to talk her out of going to Ireland, begging is more like it, but she wasn't having any of it. I even blocked the door, but she used magic and shoved me away. Then she was just gone." He shook his head. " I couldn't even pick up her scent. At the time, I thought she had simply blocked me with magic so she could slip away without me knowing, but maybe not."

  "There's one problem with your theory," Charlie said. "If Eve really did escape and is alive somewhere, why hasn't she contacted us?"

  The room fell into heavy silence. Lucien had wondered the same thing, and he didn't like the direction of his thoughts. Maybe Eve grew tired of him and all the drama. Maybe she thought her life was better spent away from him.

  "If Eve did escape on her own," Henry said, "then she has her reasons for staying away. Our plans haven't changed. All of our focus needs to be finding and destroying Boaz."

  Lucien stood and stepped back toward the door. "I need to find Eve and make sure she's okay.

  "Wait," Henry said. "If she really is alive and out there, then the only way she will ever be safe is if we kill Boaz. This is one threat she can't face on her own, and something tells me she would do just that to protect the both of you."

  Lucien locked eyes with Charlie.

  "That does sound like Eve," Charlie said.

  Lucien turned to Henry. "How much more training do I need?"

  "First thing first," Henry said and slid the newspaper over to Charlie. "Get your men on this. Check history, autopsy reports, talk to friends and family members of all the deceased. These deaths aren't a coincidence."

  "Got it," Charlie said.

  "As for you, Lucien, we begin right now."

  "Right here?"

  Henry nodded. "I'm going to take your magic from you. Obvious at first, and then more subtly. It's what Boaz does, and you need to protect yourself against it. We can't have him stealing anyone's magic."

  Charlie came to his feet, taking the newspaper with him. "I'm going to get a little sleep, but I'll come back bright and early."

  "I'll walk you out," Henry said and left the room.

  Alone in the conference room, Lucien was still stunned he had heard Eve's voice. It didn't matter what Henry and Charlie thought—it was her. And in that single word Eve had spoken, Lucien, a fire within him had rekindled. It wasn't just about killing Boaz anymore; this was so much more than revenge. This was about having the chance to be with Eve again, but if that was going to happen, he needed to be as powerful as possible to protect her from Boaz until he could be killed.

  When Lucien had failed to find Eve's body in the ocean after she had jumped from the cliffs, Lucien had surrendered himself to the sea. He was trapped down there for days, stuck in a never-ending dream state with an imaginary Eve on an island she had called Eden.

  Eventually, Charlie found him and brought him back to the Deific. After Lucien finally woke, Henry was there to explain the connection between all their families: the Whitmores, Segurs, Archers and Bradys.

  Over a hundred years before Lucien was born, Boaz was on a path leading to world domination. He had planted many powerful Supernaturals within royal families all across Europe to manipulate those in power. In 1618, Boaz officially put his plan into motion by throwing two royal officers from a window, which started what historians called the Thirty Years War. Thousands upon thousands of people died.

  It was rumored at the time that a new race of people were in control, those who possessed unnatural strengths and magical abilities. Humans were terrified and even a lot of Supernaturals. They didn't want humans to know their secrets, and this was the direction Boaz was taking Europe.

  To put a stop to all of the wars, four of the world's most powerful witches joined together. There was Henry Archer, Mary Whitmore, Fredrick Segur, and William Brady. They knew Boaz was a vampire, but they couldn't figure out how he was able to use magic, unless he had been a witch before he was turned, but such a thing was forbidden at the time.

  To stop Boaz, the four witches used their combined magic to put a powerful binding spell on an ancient necklace. After tricking Boaz into meeting with them under the guise of joining forces, they secured the necklace around his neck and began the process of transferring all of his magical abilities into the glass pendant. It was a long process that lasted years.

  This entire time, Boaz was their prisoner, trapped in a cage in the basement of Henry's estate. After a while, two of the witches, Mary Whitmore and Fredrick Segur, began to visit him. At first it was because they wanted to know how he was able to use magic, but it didn't take long for Boaz to manipulate them by promising them more power than they could ever imagine. He even promised to teach them the ancient magical language that existed before man was on the earth.

  This temptation proved too great and they released Boaz, but by this time, all of his powers had been trapped within the necklace. The only power he still possessed was the ability to take other witch's magic. And so became his quest for creating the world's most powerful witch—one he could drain of powers for his own gain.

  The Whitmores and Segurs tried for centuries to give Boaz what he wanted, but most ended in failure. That is, until Sable Whitmore and Erik Segur married at Boaz's command and birthed Eve.

  As for the other two families, the Bradys and the Archers, they went into hiding as soon as Boaz escaped. For generations, Boaz hunted their offspring, killing whomever he found.

  Henry was the only one Boaz didn't kill before he had met Aiden and Lucien, the descendants of the Brady's. Instead, he had turned Henry into a vampire with the intention of making him suffer for all time locked up in an underground prison just like Henry had done to him. But Henry, in an elaborate scheme, faked his death. Ever since then, Henry had spent his time finding ways to combat Boaz without giving up his identity.
His most important accomplishment was creating the Deific. This one organization had saved thousands of lives, both humans and Supernaturals. One day, however, when the time was right, Henry would reveal himself to Boaz.

  As a vampire, it had taken a long time for Lucien to believe he could actually use magic, but once he did and looked back on his life, he realized that he had been using magic all along—like the times he could sense when evil had grown too powerful, or when he was somehow able to see his opponents attacks before they came. This made him think of his brother, Aiden. Had he been able to use magic too?

  Henry walked into the room and closed the door behind him. "Ready?"

  "Just tell me what to do."

  Henry sat opposite him. "As I've explained before, Boaz is a battery who gets his charge from witches. He takes it so subtly that most of the time witches have no idea what he's doing. That power he takes is stored up within him. The only way we are going to defeat him is if we get him to use those reserves, while also preventing him from taking our magic."

  "And then we can kill him."

  "And then we can kill him," Henry repeated.

  Lucien rubbed his chin, still thinking of his brother. "Did Aiden know he could use magic?"

  "Aiden couldn't use magic. He was just a vampire."

  "But that doesn't make sense. If I can use magic, then he should be able to, as well."

  Henry shifted positions, lifting one knee and crossing it over the other. "Aiden wasn't your mother's child. She was your father's bastard son."

  Lucien lowered his hand, stunned, but not too surprised. "That explains a lot."

  Henry leaned forward on the table. "I want you to get comfortable. What I'm about to do will probably hurt. Do your best not to let me in."

  Lucien leaned back and folded his arms to his chest. He thought he was prepared, thought he could ward off Henry for at least a minute, but then the pain came. It was sudden, sharp, and extremely cold as some invisible entity had stabbed into his chest. He gasped for air. A fraction of a second later, an intense sensation, like spinning really fast, made him almost lose consciousness, no matter how hard he tried to fight against it.