by Diana Graves
“Please. I don’t even know why she’s so upset. I’m a demigod, so what?” I said.
Leah turned to me and looked me in the eyes. “So what? Demigods are capable of massive power. With a thought, you could destroy an entire city. At a whim you could create or devastate like any god, but with a human capacity for understanding you won’t know the consequences of your actions. I’ve seen firsthand what demigods are capable of. No, there is no, so what, when your kind are involved.”
I shook my head, “I can’t do anything like that. I can’t even do simple magic. Tell her Nick, I’m not as powerful as all that. All I can do is a bit of mind control and some fireworks, that’s it.”
Leah’s face went long, her eyes lazy. “That’s it?”
“Yeah, she sucks, so can you help us?” Nick said, and I wasn’t even insulted in the least. If being a loser as a witch saved my family then I was happy to be one.
“Maybe,” the angel said with her eyes moving along the ground in thought, and then they darted back up at me. “There is something odd about you, yeah?” She pressed her hands against my chest. “Lie back down please,” she said while she guided me back down onto the grass. I didn’t fight her. She was our only chance, so I let her lay me back down on the ground. She climbed over me and straddled my stomach. Her hands moved from my chest to my head and as her fingers moved just past my hairline a wave of heat ran through my mind. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. My mouth opened but nothing came out. My back arched, my nails dug into the grass, but I could not scream out the pain!
“What are you doing?!” I heard Nick yell, but I didn’t hear Leah reply, if she did.
I heard nothing at all. There was a terrible silence, thick with unspoken words and hot with otherworldly energy. I felt like ice enveloped in fire, a great emptiness surrounded by pure creation. I was dead and she was life itself, but she wasn’t Leah, the angel. She was a goddess. She was the goddess that saved me when I was a baby. My mom found me dead in my crib, sudden infant death syndrome, but the Muse Goddess, Melpomene came and breathed new life into me, leaving behind a piece of her life force in me, making me a demigoddess. I was a cold, lifeless babe in her arms, the arms of a god. Leah was forcing me to remember it all. I couldn’t remember my death, but I remembered the very second Melpomene’s lips touched mine. I remembered her hot breath filling my lungs, an electric jolt starting my dead heart and her healing touch repairing cells throughout my body that had already begun to decay. But what really brought me back was Nick. He was only a toddler, but it was his soul that brought mine back from beyond the veil of death. The love he felt toward his baby sister called me home. I remembered the feeling of my soul reentering my body, like warm water filling an empty glass and I breathed and cried and I was forever changed.
Leah sat up, still straddling me, but I wasn’t as enthralled with her as I once was. My hands went to my face to wipe away the tears. I didn’t think I could cry anymore that night, but there I was. I tried to fight it and it left me trembling. It took me a moment to realize Leah had gone, not just from on top of me, but that she was nowhere to be seen.
Nick bent down and helped me up. My legs were weak and I leaned on him for support. “Where’d she go?” I asked him.
He opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything Leah was standing before us again. “I talked to Trivia,” said the angel. “I showed her what I saw and she agrees. You are not a demigod in the classical sense. You are a demigod not by birth, but by design.”
“Does that mean we’re safe?” asked Nick.
“Yes. What Melpomene did was unconventional, but not strictly forbidden. You have the essence of a god within you, but the capabilities of only a vampire and weak witch. Your daughter should be just as harmless, but the gods will be keeping a close eye on her until they are certain.”
“That was easy,” said Nick.
“Daughter?” I asked and I put my hands on my stomach. Adia was being reborn as a girl then. I had to smile at the thought of holding a little girl in my arms. Thomas would have a baby sister, once I got him back from Raphael.
The angel put her hands up. “It’s been a long time since Trivia had to massacre an entire family and truthfully she was not enthusiastic about it.”
“She’s had her followers performing mass sacrifices all over this place to make it ‘clean enough’ for her, to turn Western Washington into one big temple, holy ground,” said Nick with an edge of anger.
“Yes, but she’ll call them off now,” Leah said, as if the great loss of life meant nothing, and I supposed that to an angel, it didn’t mean a damn thing; not when there was a whole planet or universe of beings to watch over. If that was the case, why’d she help me at all?
A DEATH FOR A LIFE
I WISHED THAT we could have left the woods after Leah gave us the good news, but we couldn’t. Raphael had my son. He needed to know that it was safe for Thomas to come home. For the first time since I’d met the demon, I was actually seeking him out. I didn’t know the first thing about summoning a demon because I never planned on doing it, but Nick said it was similar to summoning an angel.
“As I said, they’re essentially the same creature,” he said as we got dressed. We weren’t staying naked for a demon. It’s a sign of respect and he didn’t have our respect. He had my son. “And we already have our circle.” Nick gestured to the circle of protection that I’d made. “It’s just a matter of forcing him in there.”
“If forcing an angel into a circle pisses them off, how angry will a demon be?” I asked. Nick gave me worried eyes. “Yeah, he’s going to be pissed.”
“You better stand behind me. He’ll be in the circle, but circles can only hold back so much of their power. I might need some wiggle room for combat spells.”
“You got it,” I said, and I positioned myself a few paces behind him.
Nick rolled up his sleeves and with both hands held high, wand in his right and contorted fingers on his left, he began chanting in Latin. His chant was five words spoken over and over again, louder and louder. “Te accerso daemon de trans!” I didn’t know much Latin, but I knew that daemon de trans meant ‘demon from beyond.’
I wouldn’t say that I was cowering behind my big brother, but I wasn’t exactly standing with my head held high. I’d seen Raphael mad and it wasn’t pretty. When his wife was in danger he became a hideous beast of a man, beyond huge and smelling of brimstone. He radiated horror! I was not looking forward to that creature manifesting in my circle.
“Te accerso daemon de trans!” Nick roared one last time and there was a great flash of light and a wave of heat that left the air thinner, electric and harder to breathe. Leaves, grass and dirt were flung into the air with the force of the heat wave, and as they fell back to the ground Nick and I peered in on the creature in my circle.
The figure in the circle was turned away from us so that we saw only his back. “Raphael?” I called out meekly.
The figure began to turn around and Nick pointed his wand at him. It was Raphael and he looked the same as before. Just as handsome and blithe, but he had something in his hands. It was an odd shape, wet with blood. I swallowed hard. He dropped the bloody chunk of whatever at his feet and smiled up at me.
“Raina!” he said with delight. He began licking the blood from his fingers.
“I-I want Thomas back,” I said from behind Nick.
Raphael nodded his head happily while he continued to lick the blood from his fingers. When he was done he smiled and pointed at the bloody thing at his feet. “The priest,” he said.
“Who?” Nick asked.
“That’s what’s left of the priest of Apollo?” I asked.
The demon smiled. “Don’t give me such condemning looks, you prudes. He’s the one who tattled on you to the gods. He was hiding under Apollo’s protection, but they expelled him. Gods don’t like being made into fools.”
“So, Gods aren’t all-knowing?” Nick asked.
Raphael
laughed a small chuckle. “They can be, but I hear it’s tedious.” He shrugged, “If they were, I’d have been destroyed a long time ago. Ignorance is bliss, and not just for mortals. No, the Gods hardly pay any attention at all, unless they’re encouraged to.”
“The priest couldn’t have known how I became what I am.” I shook my head. Was I really feeling sorry for the guy that caused all this? Sometimes being capable of so much empathy was annoying, especially when it meant sympathizing with the people I hated. “He was wrong, the Gods had hundreds killed in the name of a lie, they kicked him out and you scooped him up.”
He smiled. “And, I scooped him up, yum.”
“So, that’s how they found out?” asked Nick. “But how did a priest of Apollo find out what you are?” he asked me.
“Admetus had a priest on his payroll,” I began.
“The man who was responsible for our infection of vampirism?” Nick asked.
“Yes, he recognized what I was and when we took Admetus out I let Tristan put the priest to sleep instead of killing him. This is all my fault,” I said. I was feeling a little nauseous. Gabriel said no stress. Ha, that was a joke, right?
“No, it isn’t,” said Nick
“Yes, it is,” said Raphael. Nick shot him a dirty look with a crooked brow, but Raphael ignored him. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson. You must be ruthless, Raina. This world isn’t a kind nurturing place. It’s a place of hate and greed. It’s a place where children die of starvation every fucking day, while there are countless factories and warehouses packed with food. Only on this planet can a loving man die of homelessness while a disgusting, uncaring man feeds his already bloated bank account and still not be satisfied. It’s a world where sick minded people do what they like until they’re stopped… You can’t show weakness like that again.”
I took a deep breath. He was right and so was Nick. I had to do whatever it took to protect the people I loved. Tristan had some high and mighty idea of world peace and that’s all well and good, but it’s not realistic. If I had killed one evil man two years ago it would have saved hundreds of lives. I would love to strive for a nonviolent life, but how is that possible in a violent world?
“Yes, I see it now. Mercy is for people who just want to be victimized again, who don’t have the guts to do the deed,” I said. I swallowed hard. I felt dirty even when thinking those bitter words, let alone saying them. I was raised to be appalled at the idea of harming any living thing. “Please, bring Thomas home.”
Raphael just looked at me. “And what do you plan to do about the rebel hit squad that’s hunting you even as we speak? Orestes and his men are coming for you and yours. How can I trust you to keep my grandson safe?”
“What are you talking about? Who’s Orestes?” I asked.
“Leah said Trivia called it all off,” Nick grumbled.
Raphael looked good and devious when he said, “She did, boy. And most of her people will stop at her command, but one among them will never give up the hunt. Orestes is her pet, a man she’s granted her favor. She won’t punish him and his loyal friends for going against her word and killing you, and he knows it.”
“He’ll keep hunting me then?” I asked.
“And those who follow him. Trivia has been infatuated with this human for thousands of years. She will not punish him for his sins, and so he sins without impunity.”
“And there’s nothing we can do about it? He’s the pet of a goddess!” Nick exclaimed.
Raphael looked at me, “You are not completely helpless. Trivia would never harm him herself. There’s no crime he could commit that she could not forgive him for, but she will not protect him or seek retribution if he is killed in performing grievous acts.”
“So, we can kill him?” Nick said.
“You can try,” said Raphael. “But you will fail. He will kill you all. Perhaps if Raina sacrifices herself, he might spare her family.”
I stepped forward. Nick tried to grab me but I evaded his clutches and stepped up to the circle, inches from Raphael. “I can keep my family safe. You know I can. That’s why you chose me to be Thomas’s mother.”
“I chose a demigod to be the mother of my grandson, not some pathetic witch that the gods deem harmless,” he said with his lip curled in a snarl.
“I can take out Orestes. He’s only human.”
“A human who’s spent thousands of years hunting and killing people ten times stronger and smarter than you, true demigods!” he roared.
“Give me my son!” I screamed back at him.
“Show me I can trust you to protect him and I will!”
I cursed and took some calming breaths. First I had to show the gods I was too weak to be a threat and now I had to show a demon that I was strong enough to kill a blood thirsty sociopath and his merry band of men. Fuck.
I closed my eyes and called my flame, a blazing white fire. It was my vampire talent, pyrokinesis. Alistair and I shared this ability and controlling it was one of the first things he taught me. I balled my hands into fists and the flames burst from them, hot. It didn’t burn me. There was a time when calling my flame meant becoming a human torch, but that wasn’t the case any longer. I could direct it; channel it to wherever I wanted. I could change its temperature and shape. I opened my eyes and looked at the demon. I let the flames escape from my eyes and dance in my hair.
Through the flames I saw him cross his arms over his chest. He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Fire bad…Orestes isn’t Frankenstein’s monster. Show me something god-like,” Raphael said.
I let the fire die down but I had to pat it down where my clothes had caught fire. “There are no living humanoid minds for me to control here,” I said.
“Is that all you can do?” he said. “You’re a two trick pony, trot and jump. No wonder the gods aren’t threatened by you.”
“If she proves she can do more, the gods will resume their hunt,” said Nick. “We can take care of Orestes together.”
“A vampire and a pathetic witch against an immortal and his small army, hmmm,” Raphael mocked.
“What do you want from me?” I asked through thin lips and I knew my pain was clear on my face. I couldn’t help it. I was tired and desperate. “You knew what I was capable of when you forced Thomas on me. I’m still me, I haven’t changed but I love him. He’s my son. Please, Raphael.”
The demon leaned forward, toward the edge of the circle and whispered. “Kill, Raina. Kill with your mind.”
“What?”
He stepped back and made a lively gesture with his hands before clapping them twice, and then there was a man in the circle with him. He was a tall man, wearing only his underwear and a tank top. Clearly he was taken from his bed. His hair was still messy from sleeping. He was shivering from the cold of the night.
“What the fuck is going on!” he yelled.
“Raina,” said Raphael. “Did you ever wonder how Ethan seemed to be in two places at once? Did it ever occur to you that he had a partner?”
“Partner?” My eyes went wide with the idea that there were two pedophile warlocks.
“Yes, this man was the warlock’s accomplice. You know what they say, friends that rape together— and all that.”
“What are you fucking talking about?” shouted the man, but Raphael ignored him.
“The things he did to those little boys were horrifying. He keeps little pieces of them in his freezer, you know; hair, fingers, bits of skin…”
“Shut up!” the man yelled in the demon’s face.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you need motivation, so here it is. This man deserves to die, just like his partner deserved to die, and now’s your chance. Do it!”
“Wait, what, what the fuck?” the man stammered.
“How can I know for certain what you’re saying is true?” I asked. Nick looked confused but he didn’t step in, even as the warlock was shouting profanities at everyone, especially me. Yeah, I get it. I’m a stupid bi
tch…I closed my eyes and they burned for sleep.
“You don’t really want me to prove it to you, Raina. But I suppose there’s no way you’ll believe me otherwise,” I heard Raphael say.
I opened my eyes and looked into his handsome face. My eyes were drawn to his eyes. “What are you doing?” I began to ask, but he stopped me with a hand in the air. Ideas began popping into my mind. Memories. I saw scared faces of little boys, just their faces. They were looking up at me with red swollen eyes and quivering little lips. Their voices came next; a chorus of cries, begging for their mommies and daddies. Just the sound of it broke my heart. I took a step back when other images came into my mind. Images that curdled my blood and made it hard to breathe.
“No more,” I said.
“No more what?” Nick asked.
“Do what needs to be done,” Raphael said. “Kill him.”
I hung my head. “I can’t.” I wished I could but as disturbing as the images were, I couldn’t just kill the warlock.
“I understand,” said Raphael. “That wasn’t enough. It didn’t feel real to you. You need to see more.”
I stumbled back, wide eyed and panicked. “Please no.” But it was useless. One moment I was staring at the demon in the circle and the next I was lying on the grass, withering in mental anguish as violent visions ran through my mind like a movie I couldn’t stop. “No more!” I screamed.
I heard Nick yelling at Raphael, threatening him. “She can stop this anytime she wants to!” Raphael yelled at my brother. “All she has to do is the right thing.”
I rolled over onto all fours and puked. The visions were from the rapist’s point of view. I was experiencing the children’s unspeakable pain from the view of the man committing it, and it was all too much. I could hear his voice, his sick taunts. The voice matched. The man in my circle was the man in my head. I was seeing events from his memories. I was seeing what he’d done.
“Mercy is for those who want to be victimized again, Raina. Your words. But I’d say, given his choice in victims, they aren’t in the right place to stop him. But you are. So, what will it be?”
