Dark Heritage Trilogy

by Hoffman, Samantha

  Lisa uttered a word I didn’t catch, and a rope of strong looking chain appeared out of thin air, along with a needle of some bright orange cloudy liquid. Finn stared at the needle. He sighed and hung his head. “The potion won’t be necessary. I’ll come peacefully,” he said, sticking out his hands.

  Lisa handed the chains to Kevin, but Marcel snatched them away. “I will do it, so you don’t accidentally break his wrist.”

  Marcel wrapped the chains around Finn’s wrists, binding them together. I wasn’t sure why they were bothering to do it since Finn could undoubtedly break through them, most likely without even breaking a sweat. I had seen Finn do unimaginable feats of strength before; surely a pair of chains wouldn’t slow him down much.

  He’s being threatened with that orange potion, Tabitha thought. Lisa made it especially for werewolves in case they ever got out of hand. One shot of that and he’d be paralyzed and unable to fight back. No point in him fighting. Especially now that he believes you think he’s guilty—he’s given up.

  Before now, I had mostly been in shock at what was going on around me, but Tabitha’s words filled me with a blinding rage. I could feel my power churning impatiently at my center, waiting for a command. Fueled by my fury, I called it forth. It was more powerful than I had ever felt before, and I knew it had everything to do with my anger. I was calling on the parts of me that I had ignored up until this point for fear I would end up like Andrew and Tabitha—the darkest parts of me that scared me to my very core late at night.

  But I couldn’t let that bother me right now.

  All I could think about was saving Finn from the injustice about to be carried out against him. I would deal with whatever consequences there may be from using this power later, when Finn was safe and back in my arms. He would be able to help talk me through the effects this power might have on me.

  With a sudden rush that left me breathless, dark power filled me from head to toe. My heart began to race in my chest as everything around me slowed down and was brought into crystal clear focus. I could see every single thing that was going on around me—from the expression of glee on Kevin’s face to the slight rise and fall of Tanya’s chest as she slept on the opposite side of the room—but I pushed it all out of my mind.

  Taking a deep breath to anchor myself in the light, I exhaled slowly, letting my dark power explode through my fingertips. My power took the form of a giant, swirling vortex of green energy that was so dark it was nearly black, and it sped toward the energy barrier around my mind. It slammed against the walls Tabitha had put up to keep me imprisoned, and the tiny crack I had made earlier spread like a spider web, latticing across the surface.

  I could feel Tabitha’s shock and confusion. She had been too busy watching Finn being dragged away that she hadn’t thought to keep her guard up. While she scrambled to reinforce the walls, I gathered my power once again, preparing to shatter the rest of the wall. The dark light sped from my fingertips like a bullet, streaking across the empty confines of my own mind.

  It hit the barrier with a sound like an explosion, and I closed my eye against the harsh light that filled my prison. When the light faded, I opened my eyes.

  The barrier was till there.

  How?

  You caught me off guard, but I blocked your power just in time, Tabitha said smugly. You’ve done quite a bit of damage to my prison walls, but at what cost?

  Before I had time to ponder the meaning behind her words, Marcel spoke. “Ronnie? I know your head probably hurts and you must be scared, but I really need you to give Beth another lesson. We can’t properly judge her powers and ambitions until she learns what she’s capable of, and the sooner we can do that the better. Will you do this for me?”

  “Of course,” Tabitha said without hesitation. I know you’d never refuse a request from Marcel. You actually respect him, don’t you? “We’ll head out to the graveyard my mother is buried in and I’ll try to teach Beth how to approach spirits. Who knows, I might even find traces of Tabitha’s spirit while we’re out there.”

  Marcel hesitated for a brief second, but it didn’t escape Tabitha’s notice. Before she could angrily demand to know why he hesitated, he sighed. “Very well, but I want the two of you to be careful while you’re out there. Normally I would ask Finn to accompany you and act as your bodyguard, but he’s not fit for duty at the moment. And I’m not sure who else I would trust to send with you. There’s no telling who else in this place has a problem with you necromancers.”

  “What about Ezra?” Tabitha asked.

  Leave him alone!

  “Ezra is going to speak with the Council and try to get us to spare Finn, and once he’s done, he’ll return here to the infirmary. I doubt he’ll want to leave Tanya’s side.”

  “I thought fairies and half-demons weren’t allowed to be together, yet nobody here seems to care. Why is that?”

  Marcel frowned. “I don’t care who they date as long as they’re not trying to take over the world together. I think you’ll find that many of our older prejudices don’t hold true anymore. There are some who still carry love for the old ways, but you’ll find that number dwindling. As long as they behave, nobody gives a damn. Especially here.”

  Were you expecting to get Ezra in trouble for loving Tanya? I asked as if I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. Marcel is a good man. He doesn’t judge people for anything other than their character. Why do you think he hasn’t ordered my death yet?

  Shut up, Tabitha growled.

  “I hope that answered your question, Ronnie. Good luck with your lesson. If you need anything—anything at all—let me know, and I’ll see what I can do for you.” Marcel exited the infirmary, leaving me and Tabitha alone with Tanya and Holly. For a second, I was terrified that Tabitha would do something to hurt them now that they were alone and more vulnerable than ever before. But she didn’t.

  Instead, she headed out the infirmary door and down to Beth’s room, dragging her feet the entire way. Even though she had readily agreed to the lesson, I knew it was only to pass herself off as me. She didn’t want to give Beth this lesson anymore than Beth would want to take it. When she knocked on the door, Beth opened it. She gasped lightly before rushing forward and throwing her arms around Tabitha. “I heard about what happened to you in the morgue! I was so worried. People are saying your boyfriend attacked you. Is he really locked up?”

  “For now,” Tabitha said tightly, disentangling herself from Beth’s iron-like grip. “I’m not sure what the Council will do to him, but I just can’t think about it right now. So, to get my mind off of things, Marcel asked me to give you another lesson today.”

  Beth did not look happy to hear that. “Oh, really?”

  Tabitha nodded. “Come on. We’re heading out to a graveyard not too far from here. I’m gonna test you on how well you do at approaching spirits. It’s not as easy as you might think. Some of them don’t respect us and will try to ignore us.”

  “That’s kind of rude,” Beth said thoughtfully. “If I was dead and I met somebody who I could actually talk to, I think I’d respect them no matter what.”

  “Well, they’re dead, you’re not. They’re not people like us anymore, so they don’t think like we do. And sometimes, you have to use a little force to get them to do what you want. Don’t worry, I’ll show you how it’s done. When we’re finished with this lesson, you’ll be a true necromancer, Beth.”

  Beth looked even less happy, but she didn’t bother arguing. She just kept her head down and followed Tabitha through the halls and out the front door in quiet misery, never making another sound.

  You’re scaring her.

  Good. Maybe if I can scare her enough, she’ll earn some respect for her powers.

  That makes zero sense, I thought. Tabitha, don’t do this to her. She’s trying to be good. Don’t screw that up for her. If you drag her into this, she’ll end up hanged. Do you really want that for a child?

  I was a child…

&
nbsp; You were never a child, I countered. You didn’t get the chance to be a child, and I’m sorry for that.

  Look at her, Tabitha commanded.

  I knew what she was planning to show me—I had already seen it myself—but I looked anyways. Using my power, I looked at the aura surrounding Beth. It was a light blue color, and normally there was a twinge of soft gray near her center. Today though, I noticed that the gray spot seemed to be growing darker and larger. Thin gray wisps were spreading through the rest of her aura like veins.

  That doesn’t mean anything.

  Doesn’t it?

  No, I said. Beth’s having a bad day—that’s it. She could wake up tomorrow and be nothing but blue.

  She’s struggling, Ronnie. And so are you. When was the last time you saw your aura? Because I’ve gotta tell you, it’s looking pretty dark. Especially since you used that dark power to try and smash my barrier. We keep the good and bad separated for a reason. Go on, look at yourself. I promise I won’t judge, she said gleefully.

  When was the last time I looked within myself? The few times I had called my power, I hadn’t stopped to look at it. At least, not really look at it. For a second, fear ripped through me. Tabitha wouldn’t be asking me to look at my aura if I was going to like what I saw. If I looked at myself like she wanted me to…what if it left me feeling hopeless and terrified? What would I do if my aura had turned black like Tabitha’s?

  Wouldn’t I know though? If my aura had turned as black as Tabitha’s, there was no way in hell I wouldn’t have noticed a shift of some kind. People didn’t just turn evil and not know it. I still felt like myself—like regular old Ronnie. I was still trying to fight Tabitha and stop her from hurting the people I cared about. If my aura had turned black like Tabitha’s, wouldn’t I be trying to help her instead of impede her progress?

  You’re just messing with me…

  I took a deep breath and turned my gaze within myself. Immediately, I wished I hadn’t.

  The power that resided at my center was a reflection of my aura, and it was not in good shape. Normally it was a dark green that was nearly black—but it had still been green. Now, it was like nothing I had ever seen before, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Since becoming a part of the supernatural world, I had just assumed that it was so dark because of my natural disposition to evil—my dark heritage passed down by my father and his father before him. But now I wasn’t so sure.

  The only green that I could make out was a tightly wound ball at my very center—the core of who I was as a person. It was no larger than a golf ball, but it was still there, hidden away beneath a messy tangle of black. The dark tendrils writhed around the green as if they were alive, trying to smother and suffocate it—to convert it. The green light seemed to be flickering and fading, and that worried me the most. If that green—the good part of me—couldn’t hold out…

  Would I end up like Tabitha?

  Pretty soon, that precious light will be snuffed out. You’ll stop seeing people as actual people, and instead you’ll start to see them in terms of how useful they can be to you. Then the dark thoughts will come next. They scared me at first, but I got used to them eventually. You will, too. I promise.

  I tried to block out her words, but they just wouldn’t go away. All I could think about was the meaning behind my blackened aura. The darkness was coming for me, just as it had come for half of my family, and it had consumed and destroyed them. By the time this was all over, would I succumb to it as they had, or would I be able to fight it and reclaim myself?

  Chapter Eleven

  Tabitha took her place at the center of the graveyard, and the first thing she did was glance over at my mother’s grave. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. I got the point loud and clear. She had obviously chosen her spot to get to me, but it wasn’t going to work. The thing in that grave was my mother’s body, and nothing more. Her soul was gone and finally at peace where Tabitha couldn’t get to her, and I was eternally thankful for that.

  At the thought of my mother, there was a sudden pang in my heart. I hadn’t had much time to mourn her departure, but I had taken solace in the fact that she had been proud of who I had become and what I had overcome. Would she still be proud if she could see me now? If she had seen my aura or knew the dark power I had tried to use, would she still be proud?

  Or would she be scared of me?

  I could imagine the look on her face when she saw my aura, and it was enough to nearly break my heart. Her lips would turn down in a troubled frown, and her eyes would probably be glazed over with tears that she would refuse to shed in an attempt to be strong for me. And I would understand her pain.

  I had seen firsthand what that dark power was capable of doing to a person. It had destroyed Tabitha and Andrew, and it could very well do the same to me. If I wasn’t strong enough to fight against it, it could take me and transform my mind into something evil and power-hungry. After all I had been through and done to fight against it, it would win anyways, and I’d end up like the rest of my family.

  Who would take me out if I turned evil? Would my friends have the strength to get rid of me, or would I end up at the mercy of the Council?

  My previous nightmares came back to me, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. They had taken place in a graveyard much like this one, and Tabitha and I had tortured and killed Tanya before being hung from the neck until dead.

  Would death be my fate?

  I could only hope. It would be much better than hurting the people I cared about.

  “Alright, Beth. Listen up. I’m in a bit of a bad mood, and I really don’t wanna have to explain this more than once. So pay attention. Got it?”

  Beth nodded miserably and looked up from her feet. “Yes,” she squeaked.

  A quick glance at Beth told me all I needed to know about her. She wasn’t just scared of herself, she was beyond terrified. Tabitha was going to push her too hard too soon, and there was no telling what it could do to Beth. She could snap and end up like her parents, or she could retreat into herself and never learn to properly use her powers.

  Either way she would still be a danger to herself and others.

  “What I want you to do is search inside yourself. You don’t have a lot of training, so a lot of your power is still lying dormant. It’s been unused and untested, but today we’re going to find out how much you can do. I want you to give it everything you have—however little that may be.”

  Beth’s features crumpled, and I knew that she was crushed by the words she thought were mine. I wished I could reach out and comfort her, to teach her the way Annie taught me—with respect, patience, and kindness. That was what Beth needed, not to be bullied into using powers she was scared of.

  “Well, get to it.”

  Beth took a deep breath, but she let it out with a sigh. “I can’t,” she whispered, looking down at her feet. “I can’t. I’m sorry, Ronnie.”

  Tabitha’s hands balled up at her sides. “You’re pathetic,” she hissed through clenched teeth. Beth flinched at her words but didn’t say anything. “You’re weak and you’re a disgrace to necromancy. If you don’t want this world to chew you up and spit you out, you have to be strong. Only the strong survive, and you are not—” Tabitha stopped and looked around, eyes wide.

  “What is it?”

  “We’re not alone,” she said. She turned on the spot, searching every corner of the graveyard with her keen eyes. I had no clue what was out there, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Anyone that would hang around and observe two teen girls without announcing themselves was bound to be bad news. Whatever it was they wanted…I just hoped they didn’t plan to hurt Beth.

  Tabitha, can you sense anything?

  She took another furtive glance around the empty cemetery before answering. It’s a sorcerer.

  You sound scared, I thought. And you should be. You can’t fight a sorcerer, and you can’t outrun him either. If he’s here for you, you’re a goner, Tabitha.
/>   He won’t get me. He’ll have to settle for your friend.

  Without another thought, Tabitha turned and took off like a shot, leaving behind a bewildered Beth looking in circles. I could hear Tabitha’s harsh breathing as she dashed madly across the open cemetery ground. She was trying desperately to make it out before the sorcerer could cast his first spell, but if it was the sorcerer I thought it was, she didn’t stand a chance.

  Before Tabitha reached the edge of the cemetery, her legs locked up and she dropped to the ground like a rock, landing hard on her side. Ronnie! What’s happening?

  I guess you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?

  Tabitha was face down on the ground, so I couldn’t see him as he approached, but the sound of his footsteps alerted me to his presence. The toe of his boot passed into her field of vision, and he rolled her over onto her back. Looking up, I was unsurprised to find the sorcerer that had nearly crushed Finn and I with a streetlamp.

  “Don’t even bother trying to tap into your power. I’ve cast a spell that will suppress it until we’re done with you. You’ll just hurt yourself if you try to escape.” He reached down and wrapped his arms around Tabitha’s waist, lifting her up effortlessly and slinging her over his shoulder. He may not have been as built as Finn—not many people were—but he would have no more problems controlling Tabitha than if she were a doll.

  He carried Tabitha back through the cemetery, easily maneuvering through headstones. He stopped in front of Beth, who was frozen in fear. She stared up at him with wide eyes as she trembled from head to toe. “Please don’t hurt me.”

  “I won’t,” he said in a low, surprisingly gentle voice. “Go back to the compound, and tell Marcel that I’ve taken Ronnie to the Mayor on his orders. I’ll try to keep her in one piece until Finn can get there and save her.” When Beth didn’t move, he narrowed his eyes. “Do you understand?”