Rafe looked stricken. “You didn’t tell me that. Nell didn’t, either.”
“We’re not sure. There’s every chance I’ll make it to the other time as a ghost, so don’t freak out on me now, bud.” I looked at the others. “But no matter what, I want real hugs from all of you before we jump. While I know I can still hug.”
Veronica smiled at me fondly. “Of course, you do. Come here, dear girl.” She gathered me close. “You were very brave and very strong. We couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you, Joss.”
Each one embraced me in turn, Sionnach nearly breaking my ribs with her tight squeeze and Seamus giving me a brotherly pat on the back. Lucas kissed my cheek, too.
“We’re going to miss you, Joss, if you’re not with us when we land. No matter what, you’re always part of our team.”
“Thanks, dude. Getting to know you and Jackie has been a real pleasure.” I winked. “For a death broker, you’re not half bad.”
Rafe stood to the side, hands crossed over his chest, scowling. I tilted my head and gave him a smile. “Come on, lover. Give us a squeeze for old times’ sake.”
He rolled his eyes. “This is . . . messed up. I don’t want to say good-bye.”
“Then don’t. Just hug me like you always did, when we were joking around and I made you laugh. Or . . .” I cleared my throat. “Hug me like you wish you had that day in Georgia, just before we saw Mallory. This is our chance, Rafe. Let’s make it right.”
He shook his head, muttered an expletive and refused to meet my eyes, but in the end, he reached for me. “Come here, then. Let’s hug it out.”
The moment his arms were around me, time stood still. We were back in that Georgia forest, with the world and the future laid out before us. We were together again, the two of us in a space of our own. And for just a nanosecond, Rafe Brooks belonged to me again. His lips dropped to mine, tantalizing my mouth with a sweet kiss that tasted like all the words we’d never said in life . . . and the goodbye we’d been denied.
Then he stepped back, and everything returned to normal. We were in 1967, about to jump forward into an uncertain future where they all belonged. But it wasn’t my future anymore, and their world was no longer mine. I knew that even if I made it back, I wouldn’t be with them for much longer.
I sucked in a deep, cleansing breath and smiled, holding out my hands. “All right then. Let’s do this.”
Seamus nodded, shooting me a brief, sympathetic wink. We linked our hands, and 1967 disappeared.
I’ve stood in the dark, been
Waiting all this time
While we damn the dead I’m
Trying to survive, I’m not ready to die.
“Not Ready to Die” Lyrics by M. Shadows
2017
Nell
“I’m so happy you’re here, Nell.” My mother’s mouth stretched into a grotesque parody of a smile. “Now you’ll see the truth of which side you should’ve chosen. But don’t worry—your end will be swift and—well, I can’t say painless, because demons seem to enjoy the pain, don’t they? But swift is something.”
I clenched my jaw to keep it from trembling. Of course, my mother was prominent in the Hive leadership circle. I’d had no doubt that she would be. Besides her, there were four other members forming the mystical round.
I’d recognized Mallory Jones right away, because one could never forget a witch like that one. Physically, of course, she looked utterly unremarkable, like a little field mouse, but her power shone so bright that it more than compensated for her plainness. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been trying to stop me from destroying the commune in Georgia and rescuing Rafe. She hadn’t succeeded on either count. She was bad, but I was worse.
The man standing alongside her had to be Ben Ryan. I’d never met him in person, but he fit the description—and I’d felt Tasmyn’s anxiety amp up. She’d faced him all those years ago when he’d forced her to make a choice: choose to embrace the dark side of her gifts and save the life of Emma, the Carruthers agent who’d betrayed them all, or choose the light and watch Emma die. She’d made the right decision that day, but I knew that it hadn’t been easy. The memory still haunted her.
A tall woman with dark hair and eyes that were nearly black was on Ben’s other side. I assumed she was Liesel, the half-Nephilim, half-vampire whom Veronica had described to us. But I had no clue who the second man was, the one who stood between Liesel and my mother. He was also black haired and dark-complexioned, his face classically handsome and timelessly young. His glance flickered over us, as though he were searching for someone. When he spoke, I had a feeling about who he might be.
“Where is Veronica?” His subtle accent echoed old Spain. “I thought she’d be front and center today, ready to lead the team she’s assembled into a doomed battle.”
“Diego,” Tasmyn whispered. “The vampire who turned Veronica all those centuries ago.” The detailed history Veronica had given to her great-granddaughter Cathryn had been required reading for all of us joining this fight. I felt a sickening revulsion rise in my throat; this man had forced Veronica’s submission to his bite, holding the lives of her beloved family as collateral against her cooperation and companionship. He was a monster in every sense of the word.
Now he executed a small bow. “I see my reputation precedes me. I don’t feel my daughter nearby, but I cannot imagine that she’s not here. Where is she?”
I spoke up at last. “Veronica is fighting on another front. She’s far away from this place.”
Surprise suffused his face, followed in short order by disappointment. “But I’d so anticipated sharing this pivotal moment with her. What a let-down.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to torture the traitor vampire.” Liesel was staring at us, but I realized that her focus was on Marica. “An eternity, in fact, if that’s what you desire.” She glanced at the horizon. “It’s nearly time for us to begin. Bind the witches, Ben. They mustn’t be allowed to interfere at all.”
I clenched Marica and Tasmyn’s hands, ready to fight off any spell that would render us helpless, but Ben Ryan was too quick for me. With the combination of his Nephilim and demon power, it was a simple matter for him to surround us with a binding spell that rendered us powerless.
“Damn!” Mounting frustration choked me. Any spell or firepower we used now would backfire on us. Combined with that realization was the chilling knowledge that if Ben was still sporting a demon within him, the 1967 group must have failed. The demon had gotten through anyway. Did that mean they were all dead? My heart sank.
“No, Nell.” Tasmyn gripped my hand tighter. “If the time matches up, as we assume it does, the point of no return—the time when the door definitely does not open—could be any time now. Remember that they’re working just as we are. You have to believe it. I’m pretty sure once Ben no longer has the demon mojo, his spell will fail, too. We just have to wait it out.”
Marica had slowed her breathing, making each inhale and exhale deliberate and intentional. She was gathering power, getting ready to attack.
“No,” I hissed to her. “If you try to blast them from within his binding, it’ll ricochet and kill us.”
Marica flicked a glance my way and smiled. “Not if it originates from outside the binding. If, for instance, I pull up an element from behind them, calling to it through the earth and not though the air or space, it should work.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Can you do it?”
“Fairly certain I can, if you both add your strength.”
“Will it do any good?” Tasmyn frowned. “I can’t see water or roots from the plants stopping what they’re about to do.”
“But it’s a distraction,” I pointed out. “We need delaying tactics right now, and that’s what this is.” Closing my eyes, I fed a thin thread of energy from my hand to Marica’s. I felt Tasmyn doing the same on the other side. The power shot down into the ground beneath us, traveling at lightning speed to the enormous tree se
veral yards behind the circle. It was a California sycamore, though how I knew that I couldn’t have explained in that moment. Not that it mattered; what was important was that the tree was responding to our combined will, bowing its branches until they encompassed the five in the circle.
Liesel shrieked in surprise, and Ben cursed. With a flick of his hand, he snapped off the offending branch and swished it away. Breaking the circle, he stalked toward us.
“I was trying to be merciful and allow you to be part of this moment, to observe the day history will remember as the true beginning of time. But since you three obviously can’t sit still like good children, I’ll have to get rough.” He reached through binding spell and grasped my arm. “And because we happen to be in need of a vessel and you stole our preferred candidate, I think we’ll have to make do with the blood of a witch who is among the most powerful in her generation. Congratulations, Nell. You’re up.”
He dragged me away from Tasmyn and Marica, pausing to close the binding again before pushing me into the center of the circle. I fought to find my power, but Ben was effectively keeping me bound, separately from the others.
“Alyse, I’m affording you the great honor of spilling the vessel and igniting the ritual. After all, you brought this life into the world. It’s only fitting that you snuff it out.”
I was afraid to look at my mother’s face, for fear that I’d see anticipation there instead of anguish. I didn’t have any delusions about her love for me, but I hoped that there was still a small sense of family loyalty deep within her that might at least give her pause about slaughtering her only offspring.
She stepped toward me, taking the knife that Ben offered. Her fingers gripped my wrist, twisting until I grit my teeth in pain.
“You had the chance, Nell. You had more than one chance. You could have been here in the circle with us instead of the sacrifice that we’ll use to open the door. You could have reigned with me. If you’d chosen me that first time in Pennsylvania, it would be only the two of us today. But you didn’t. You chose a man over your own mother, and today you’ll reap what you sowed.” She made a show of looking all around us. “Where’s your lover today, Nell? He’s not here with you, is he? He didn’t come to watch you die.”
I raised my chin defiantly. “My husband is fighting for us on another battlefield. He knows I’m strong enough to stand on my own, and I know he’s doing everything he can to help me save the world from lunatics like you. So do what you must. Pour out my blood here like an offering to evil. You still won’t win. You’ll be defeated. Good is always going to win. Love is stronger than hate, and the light will always overcome the darkness.”
For the flicker of a second, there was doubt in my mother’s eyes. I wasn’t sure if I imagined it, but I didn’t think I did. In the end, though, years of being part of something so horrible and pervasively evil won, and she lifted the knife.
“A pretty speech. Shame no one who cares will live to share it with the world.” She turned her arm a little so that the first rays of the rising sun glinted off the blade. I closed my eyes, calm and resigned, waiting for the end.
Boom! An explosion shook the ground, and my mother let go of me in an effort to keep to her own feet. I fell, hitting my knee on a sharp rock below me. But even as a small line of blood blossomed on my leg, I felt something else, something infinitely more important. The power in this clearing had shifted. Closing my eyes, I reached to probe the energy, my heart leaping when I realized that the binding around Marica and Tasmyn was no longer there. And while Ben still had something extra, his demon mojo had disappeared.
I threw back my head and laughed. “Fuck me, they did it.”
Leaping up, I sprinted back to the other two witches. “He’s gone. The demon—he’s not here anymore. We need to act now.”
We joined hands again, and this time, I dug deeper than I ever had, pulling up power from the deepest well within me. Tasmyn grinned at me, her eyes lighting up as I’d never seen them. She glimmered with energy, and Marica laughed wildly.
“Look at my girls! Look at us!” She raised our linked hands over our heads. “Ben Ryan, you were mistaken when you said Nell was among the most powerful witches of her generation. She is the most powerful witch, and together, joined with Tasmyn and me. and with others across time and space, you are no match for us. You are defeated.”
A shot of pure, electric power shot out of from us, knocking down Ben and Liesel both. Mallory Jones lifted her eyes to stare at us, threatening and dark. I shoved her to the ground.
“You’ve done enough damage, Mallory. From this day on, you will live powerless and weak, haunted by the memory of what you once could do.”
I focused on the malevolent woman’s head, honing my energy to a precision point the way Zoe had taught me. I isolated the miniscule portion of Mallory’s brain that housed her power, and without any remorse at all, I obliterated it, ignoring her screams of anguish and fury.
Ben had regained his feet and was madly trying to use powers he no longer possessed. Liesel screamed at him to do something, and he reached around to back-hand her, his face ugly with hatred.
Between Tasmyn and me, Marica crowed with laughter, glee rolling off her in merry waves. She shot out electric blasts, obliterating the ground that was to be the ritual circle.
“What do you think of your daughter now, Alyse?” she called. “You should be on your knees, begging her for your very life, you sorry excuse for a mother. You should be—”
Caught up in taunting my mother, Marica dropped her defenses for a split second, and Alyse Brador was never one to miss an opportunity. She inclined her head and aimed a killing blow that struck the Romanian witch directly in her heart.
Marica sagged between us, and I knew without a doubt that she was gone, even though her lips were still curved into a smile of triumph. Tas and I staggered, the weight of the body pulling us both off-balance until we lowered her carefully to the grass.
“No,” Tasmyn whispered. “God, no. Marica.”
From behind us came an otherworldly growl of pain and fury. Nicoleta surged forward, her face alight with energy. She took hold of my hand and then Tasmyn’s as she began to chant rapidly in Romanian. I felt her sucking power from me, drawing it into herself, and then without any hesitation, she sent it flying straight into my mother.
Alyse’s body rose off the ground with the impact and twitched wildly, even as her neck twisted at an impossible angle. Before she fell again, Nicoleta had turned her vengeful anger on Ben. I felt his heart explode, and he dropped to the forest floor with a dull thud, lying alongside my mother.
“Nicoleta. You must stop.” Tasmyn wrenched free her hand. “We incapacitate and we bind, but we don’t destroy.”
“This is your creed, but it is not mine.” Her eyes blazed. “The witch killed my kinswoman, and that means I am bound to avenge her life. The Nephilim man is evil, and he would continue to kill and destroy. He had to be stopped.”
Daeglan stepped forward, his breath coming in short pants. “It’s done. There’s nothing we can change now. We should gather the remaining ones to be transported back to Carruthers.”
“What remaining ones?” Tasmyn sounded exhausted. “The vampires are gone. They ran while Nicoleta was . . . taking care of Alyse and Ben.”
“Shit.” Daeglan sighed. “All right. I’ll get Mallory, though. Nell, you were successful with her?”
I nodded. “Her power is gone. I can’t promise that she’ll ever be rehabilitated into good, but she can’t do the harm she could before.”
“Good.” He nodded. “Nell, I’m sorry about your mother. I know you had, ah, a difficult relationship with her—”
“But she was still your mother,” Tasmyn finished. “We’ll bring her body with us, Nell. Take her home to King. She should be buried with the Bradors.”
I closed my eyes, a heaviness falling over me. “I don’t know. My aunts will say she disgraced us.”
“Huh.” Tasmyn nudged me, a
nd I opened my eyes to look at her. “Since when does Nell Massler let anyone tell her what to do? You’re the strongest witch the Bradors have ever produced, Nell. You should be the one who has final say over what happens with your mother.” She glanced over my shoulder, and her face lit up. “I think I know at least one person who will agree with me on that subject.”
“I have it from a reliable source that my wife is one of those annoying people who always gets what she wants.” The deep voice was familiar and teasing and oh, so beloved. I spun around to face my husband.
It only took a moment to be sure they were all there. Veronica was bloodstained, and grief was evident on her face. Seamus and Sionnach looked exhausted. Joss flickered as rays of sunlight shone through her transparent body.
I was never a girl to cry out and leap into a man’s arms, and even today of all days, that wasn’t going to change. But when Rafe held out his hands to me, I melted gratefully against his body.
“We did it,” I heard Seamus say. “We all did it. We stopped the apocalypse.”
“Fuck, yeah we did,” his brother agreed. Deaglan was holding Sionnach tightly to his chest, and she didn’t seem to mind a bit. “Now let’s go back to the cabin and make sure all is well there.” The thread of tension in his tone reminded me that we hadn’t yet heard from all the fronts.
Tasmyn’s expression was strained. “It has to be. Saving the world won’t mean much if we lose our reasons for living in it.”
Joy
All of my days, from my earliest memories, I’d had an odd sense that there was a job for me to do, a specific calling just for me. That belief had flown in the face of the reality of my life as an orphan and a foster child, even though Sheila had repeatedly reminded me that I was destined, if not for greatness, at least for goodness.
Since I’d learned that I was the vessel, something had clicked in my brain. Now I knew that my existence had meaning. I had been created to do something. I was important and necessary.
Age of Aquarius Page 31
