by Sarra Cannon
“What about men? Are there male witches?”
“No, only women,” she said. “I don’t really know why, but only daughters get magical powers through demons. The strength of a witch’s line begins to diminish the farther the line gets from the original demon union, but any girl who has magical abilities is a descendent of a demon somewhere along the way.”
I ran a hand through my hair, allowing her story to sink in.
“When a witch casts spells here in the human world, she connects to the power within herself to cast. But when a demon from the Shadow World casts magic, they pull energy from the life around them,” she said.
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means that if a demon was standing here and he or she wanted to cast, they would need to pull energy from you or me or the grass outside or a bug sitting on the windowsill. Something living. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah.”
The candle on the coffee table flickered, throwing eerie shadows across the wall.
“The problem early demons had with this, is that every time they cast, they left a mark on this world. Grass or animals around them died when they used their magic. It made them easy to track. They had reasons they needed to keep their presence secret from the rest of the human world, so one of the demons in charge came up with a very creative solution.”
I nodded, my skin tingling. “They drank the blood of witches.”
“Exactly,” she said. “You catch on fast.”
“It makes sense,” I said. “If they can drink the blood of a witch, they can pull from the power inside without anyone ever knowing.”
“Yes,” she said. “Of course, they still left dead bodies of the witches they drained completely, but they could drain a witch of her blood in Chicago and then go to New York and cast in secret without anyone being able to detect their presence,” she said. “That’s where the lore of vampires began and, of course, humans took that to the cinema and glorified it.”
“Fascinating,” I said. “And very creative, when you think about it.”
“The tough part is that when a demon took the oath to become a part of the Brotherhood of Darkness, which is the order of the vampires, they had to undergo a very painful transformation that allowed them to use the blood in the most efficient way possible. Over time, the demons who transformed into vampires became unable to cast without the blood.”
“So they lost their ability to cast in the normal way demons cast?”
“Yes,” she said. “Some of them, like Rend, got tired of all the senseless killing of the Brotherhood. They rebelled, refusing to drink the blood of witches. That’s when Rend came up with the idea of opening Venom. For him, it became a refuge from the evils of this world.”
I leaned against the cushions on the couch and thought about how hard it must have been for Rend to make that decision. To turn away from what he had become and start a new life.
But I had seen him cast an orb. How did he do that without blood?
Or was he still drinking blood in secret?
I reached up and touched the spot on my neck where he had bitten me. With horror, I realized that after the excitement of the explosion, I had forgotten all about re-casting the glamour that hid the wounds.
Lyla grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my neck. “Holy fuck,” she said. “Who did that to you?”
I pulled away from her, wishing I’d never touched the spot. In the dim light of the candle she might not have noticed it without me drawing attention to it.
“Did Rend do that?” she asked. Her hands were shaking.
I swallowed and stood up, avoiding her eyes.
“Franki, I’m serious. Did he hurt you?”
“I think it surprised him as much as it surprised me, to be honest. He barely broke the skin before he stopped himself.”
Lyla brought a trembling hand to her mouth. “I have never seen him lose control like that,” she said. “What happened between the two of you?”
I blushed as butterflies stirred in my stomach. Thankfully, there was no way she could see the flush of my cheeks in the darkness, but every time I thought about how close we had come to making love, my body grew warm.
“Oh,” she said. “OH.”
“Please, don’t tell anyone else,” I said, turning to her. The candlelight flickered across her shocked face.
“I don’t even know what to say,” she said. “I've just never seen him lose control, especially not over a woman. You must really get to him.”
“He gets to me, too,” I said. “I—”
My words caught in my throat as the back door clicked open and footsteps rushed across the tile in the kitchen.
Lyla sucked in a scared breath and grabbed me, pulling me back toward the stairs as a tall black man with thick dreadlocks stepped into the dim light of the candle still burning on the table.
Chapter 3
You Belong To The Devil
“It’s me,” a voice whispered in the darkness. Someone walked around the black man and reached for us. “Lyla?”
“Marco?” Lyla’s grip on me softened and she reached for his hand. “Oh, thank God. Who’s with you?”
“This is Mordecai,” he said, turning to the other man. “You don’t know him, but he’s an old friend of Rend’s.”
“Is Rend okay?” I asked, my heart pumping.
“Franki?” Marco moved into the small ring of light coming from the candle. He had a big smile on his face. “You have no idea how happy Rend is going to be when he finds out you're okay.”
“We got to get moving, man,” Mordecai said, glancing toward the back door. “They’re close.”
Chills ran down my spine. “Who’s close?”
“Fallon and some of his friends,” Marco said. “I don’t know how they found you, but they’ve been tracking the two of you since you left the club. Did you guys use magic? We barely made it here ahead of them.”
I touched the cut on my forehead, wondering if the vampires had been able to track my blood. Before we could answer him, though, the front window shattered. I jumped back as two shadowy forms flew through the gaping hole in the living room.
Instantly, the room filled with a dark energy that shot fear through my veins.
Mordecai reacted first. He lifted his two large hands in the air and every piece of furniture in the room rose and flew toward the two intruders.
“Run,” Lyla yelled, grabbing me for the second time that night. She pushed past Marco and Mordecai and made a break for the back door, but before we could find our way out, two more dark smoky forms broke through the door.
“Shit,” she said, turning back toward the others. “We’re trapped.”
Marco moved around behind us, heading off the two new demons. A bright white light shot out from his fingertips, forming a rope that he whipped around the neck of the first demon. He yanked on the magical rope and pulled. The demon screamed. It was a high-pitched, painful sound that nearly brought me to my knees. With another whip of his rope, Marco brought the demon to the ground, but before he could get close to him, the demon turned to smoke and flew backward.
I stood in the middle of the attack, helpless to defend myself. My mind could barely register what was happening, much less how to join the attack.
The candle blew out, leaving us in darkness. Somehow, they must have broken the street light outside. Now, the only light came from the flash of the spells cast back and forth around me.
Lyla stood completely still, her eyes closed and her hand outstretched. One of the first attackers stood equally still just inches from her hand, his eyes wide open in terror. I had no idea what she was doing to him, but whatever it was, it looked like he couldn’t move or control his own body.
Mordecai fought one of the others, a silver dagger flashing in his hand.
Marco battled with the two at the back door, but without me helping, we were outnumbered. I had to do something.
I tried to calm the panic in my he
art and instead, I remembered what the girls had taught me earlier that night in the dressing room.
Connect to your power, Franki. You can do this.
It took a few tries to calm down enough. I felt the pressure of time, knowing that if I didn’t figure this out fast, we might all die right here and now.
Or worse.
They might kill the others and take me to the Devil. I did not want to find out what he wanted to do with me.
I forced a deeper breath, searching for that spark of power deep within myself. I imagined dipping my fingers into that well of power, then opened my eyes and knew I had found it.
I had no idea how to fuel it, but before I could even think about it, I knew I had all the fuel I needed right here. My power had always been closely tied to my darkest emotions. Anger. Rage. Sorrow. My whole life, these emotions had been dangerous for me. Now, they were my best hope at surviving the night.
I embraced the anger inside me, picturing Selena’s eyes as the light drained from them.
I fueled my power with rage, letting it blossom deep inside, radiating from my center until it consumed me. I could feel the buzz of it travel along my nerves until my hands shook with tension.
My hair blew back from my shoulders as a great wave of wind washed through the room.
I focused my gaze on the second demon fighting Marco. He was half-human, half-smoke. I imagined harnessing the power of that wind-force, gathering it into my hands. I pulled it back toward my body, and then pushed outward, sending a strong wind straight at him.
The demon’s eyes flashed with surprise as he flew up and back, his body slamming into the back wall of the house so hard the drywall split into pieces. He fell to the floor, his eyes closed and his head limp against his shoulder.
I turned to the one who had come in the back door with him, but before I could repeat the spell, a coil of black smoke wrapped around my neck and yanked me backward.
I clawed at the smoke, but couldn’t get hold of it. It was as if a ghost held me, there, but completely unformed. I could feel it against my skin, but when I tried to grab it with my hands, it was like it wasn't really there.
How did you fight an enemy like this?
I struggled for breath, but couldn’t draw a single wisp of air into my lungs.
My bare feet dragged along the floor until my back hit the muscled chest of the demon who held me captive.
Mordecai lay unconscious on the floor at my feet.
Lyla’s eyes flew open and she seemed to lose her concentration when she saw me. The demon she’d been holding under her spell broke free and descended on her so fast she didn’t have time to react.
I tried to scream, but had no air left to make a sound. My pulse throbbed in my neck where the demon’s coil of smoke held me.
He leaned close to my ear and in a deep, ominous voice, he whispered, “Forget her. You belong to the Devil now.”
Chapter 4
Ash And Chalk
My vision blurred and my knees weakened.
I couldn’t breathe.
I used every ounce of strength in my body to struggle against him, desperate to break free long enough to draw a breath. If I passed out now, I might never wake up.
I refused to let this be the end of me.
The rage I'd felt before he grabbed me intensified. A strong wind blew through the room.
I pushed my hand forward, then drew my elbow back into the demon’s stomach. It wasn’t enough to make him drop me, but it was enough to make him loosen his grip long enough for me to take one glorious breath of air.
I inhaled, filling my lungs. Inside me, the breath connected with the fear and rage rising inside me. The air descended into the very core of my power.
Darkness consumed me and I felt a shift in my power. Instead of rage, I moved toward hatred. It expanded like a tumor in my heart, black and malignant, poisoning my power.
All I could think about was how much I wanted to hurt this demon who held me. I wanted him dead.
Acting on that instinct, I turned my head to the side and opened my mouth wide, exhaling that dark breath. A black, oily smoke oozed from my mouth. It tasted of ash and chalk. The shadow took on a life of its own, shifting into a thousand tiny mosquitoes. The winged bugs swarmed around the head of the demon holding me. He screamed and dropped the smoky rope coiled around my neck. I pulled away, gasping for breath.
In horror, I watched as the swarm of bugs flew into his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. The demon clawed at his face. He screamed and fell to the floor, scratching at his chest and arms furiously as his now-human skin bubbled with large black welts.
The mosquitoes were inside him, eating him from the inside. His body began to shrivel and decay right before my eyes, as if the bugs were eating him alive.
My screams joined with his. How could this darkness have come from me?
What had I done?
I watched in terror as his body jerked and shook and turned to bone and ash before me. Dark smoke rose from the decayed form of the dead demon. I backed away, but the energy of whatever was left of him found me, entering me through my mouth, the bugs returning to wherever they'd come from.
His life-power filled me up, fueling me with a dark energy that oozed through my veins, thick and slow. Wind whipped around us, sweeping the remaining ash against the wall near the stairs.
I gasped and fell to my knees, unable to believe what I'd done. Yes, I had wanted him to stop hurting me, but I hadn't meant to kill him. Not like that. I felt sick.
But at the same time, I felt alive. The darkness running through me made me feel invincible and powerful, as if I could kill them all with a flick of my wrist. I struggled against that darkness, but its power fought to seduce me.
“Franki?”
Lyla's voice was thin and shaky.
I looked up, remembering there were still more demons left to fight. But all of the fighting in the room had stopped. The night descended into a silence so complete I could hear nothing but the beating of my own heart and the call of the darkness within.
I turned to the other three vampires in the room. Their eyes filled with awe and complete terror.
Part of me wanted to collapse completely at their feet and beg for forgiveness. I wanted to tell them I hadn't meant it. Killing him was an accident. At the same time, another part of me wanted to rise up stronger than ever and kill them all. They attacked us. They brought this on themselves.
It was fight or die right now, for all of us. And I wasn't ready to die.
I turned to the demon who still had Lyla pinned to the floor. I pointed my index finger at him.
“Let her go,” I said. My voice did not even sound like my own. It was deeper. Richer. And most definitely darker.
The demon obeyed, releasing his hold on Lyla’s arms. She stood and rushed over to Marco’s side, grabbing his arm. When she looked at me, it was impossible to miss the fear in her eyes.
I turned my gaze to the other two demons, but my vision tinted, making them hard to see in the darkness of the night. I shook my head, blinking.
The room spun and I placed a hand on my forehead. I gasped for breath, unable to focus on anything or anyone. I couldn't seem to get my bearings. My stomach lurched and I doubled over, leaning against the toppled couch for support.
Lyla ran to my side. She took my hand in hers and helped me stand up straight. Before I could decide what should be done about the three demons still facing us, she raised her free hand toward them. The three of them froze. Lyla's hand wobbled, every muscle in her body tense as she stared them down.
Marco nodded toward Mordecai and the tall black demon stepped forward. He lifted his silver dagger to the throat of each demon, slicing them from ear-to-ear. Black blood ran down their bodies like obsidian waterfalls.
When their eyes were closed and their bodies drained, Lyla lowered her hand. All three bodies fell to the floor like ragdolls.
I stared at the carnage, my mouth open. A final gust of wind whip
ped my hair across my face.
Lyla leaned against me, resting her hip against the overturned couch. “Franki, sweetheart, it’s okay,” she said. Her voice was strained and she struggled to catch her breath. “You’re safe.”
I swallowed, barely able to hear her over the panic that rang in my ears. Panic and fear.
I had become someone else, completely overcome by a darkness that scared the shit out of me. How could any of them still be standing here by my side after what had come out of me? If I were them, I would have run as far away as I could.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. The deep tone had left my voice, replaced by a trembling terror. “I swear I didn’t mean to do that. I didn't mean to hurt him like that. I just wanted him to leave me alone.”
Mordecai smiled and laughed, a deep rumbling sound that seemed out of place among the bodies of the dead. “Are you kidding me?” he asked. “That was the singularly most bad-ass thing I’ve seen a human witch do in a very long time.”
He seemed happy and impressed, but I felt sick.
It hadn’t felt impressive to me at all. It felt wrong and evil.
An image of the Mother Crow flashed through my mind. She was known to be one of the most evil witches who ever lived, and tonight, I had shown my connection to her in the most raw, horrific way imaginable.
“I hate to bring it up, but we’re still in danger,” Marco said. “Knowing the Devil, this is just the first wave. And we just barely managed to defeat them. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to find out what happens when more of them show up.”
“Or the Devil himself,” Lyla said in a whisper.
“Where will we go?” I asked. All I wanted was to find Rend. I wanted him to explain what had just happened to me.
And how to make sure it never happened again.
“We have a plan, but it’s going to take considerable power to pull it off,” Mordecai said. He looked to me and lifted his chin. “You up for it?”
I swallowed back the bile that coated my throat. Was I? Did I have a choice?
If it was death or my best attempt, I was willing to give it every ounce of whatever power lay inside my body.
