by Rhys Lawless
Demon Heart
Blade & Dust, Book 2
Rhys Lawless
Demon Heart, Blade & Dust Book 2
Copyright © 2019 by Rhys Lawless
Cover Design by Ethereal Designs
Editing by Victoria Milne
Proofreading by Alphabitz Editing
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
A Letter from Rhys
About the Author
Index
One
Caleb
The phone buzzed for the hundredth time that day, and once again, I ended the call before it rang.
Graham could wait. I didn’t want to talk to him. Preferably, I’d rather not talk to him ever again. After everything we had discovered about the high council, there was no way I was associating myself with them again. Which was a shame, really. Before all hell broke loose last week, I’d had aspirations of becoming a member myself one day.
But after everything we’d discovered, after everything that had happened and all the terrible indescribable things the high council had done, the likelihood of my becoming a member was low. And that’s how I wanted it to be anyway.
I should have learned my lesson by now. I had gone through enough shit in my life to still believe that everything was as it seemed. The army hadn’t been what I expected. Then the vampire world was different than they made it out to be. Even life as a human was far less fascinating than the movies and books presented it. I’d seen the best and the worst in people time and time again. I should have seen this whole ordeal coming.
And no, I wasn’t being overdramatic. Anyone who discovered their governing body that everyone put so much trust in had consented to murdering innocent people would have had the same reaction.
Not that it made a difference, but they hadn’t just consented to the murdering of innocent people, but the execution of people they’d been sworn to protect. Fellow witches. And to make matters even worse, they’d been giving up the lives of innocent, new, fledgling witches who had no idea what the fuck was going on. It could have happened to anyone. It could have happened to me if I hadn’t been involved in that shit involuntarily.
While I didn’t want to associate myself with them, I couldn’t abandon my post at Java Jinx, the cafe Lorelai and I had been running for some years now. Partly because I would have to find a new career, and at my age, and with my circumstances, that would be hard enough, but also because I needed to find a way to protect the witches that didn’t know the truth, which was the vast majority of them. I didn’t want to create an uprising because that would only lead to more disaster, but there had to be a way to knock the high council off their high horses and replace them with people who actually deserved to be there.
“Will you tell me why you’re not talking to Graham? What did he do to you?” Lorelai asked.
No, I hadn’t had the guts to tell her yet. Lorelai had grown up among witches and was close to many. I didn’t know if I had the balls to tell her what the coven she’d grown up in had done and tear apart her faith in everything. I’d been through that shit, and she didn’t deserve it.
“It’s nothing you need to be concerned with. This is just between him and me.”
It hurt lying to her. Thank goodness her sense of smell couldn’t detect lies because I didn’t feel like I was doing a good job as it was.
“One day I’ll get it out of you, you know that?” she said.
And one day I would tell her. When I had a solid plan of how to bring those monsters down.
“How is little Nora?” she asked. “And please tell me he died in a fire or a car accident since I last spoke to you.”
And by he, she meant Wade. My witch hunter boyfriend. It had been one hell of a week, so a witch hunter being my boyfriend was the sanest statement to come out of the shit show last week. Somehow, we’d managed to avoid the news spreading about our relationship, but I didn’t know how long that would last, not that I cared much about other witches’ opinions.
Graham might be looking for my forgiveness, but he also didn’t like the fact that I was seeing a guy he considered dangerous. It was in Graham’s best interest to keep it secret as long as possible anyway. He owed me for what he’d put me through.
“Lorelai! Behave, please,” I said.
She threw her hands in the air in a surrender only an idiot would believe.
“Fine. I will not speak ill of the dead...ly man in your life. Are you still letting him loose around Nora?”
I raised an eyebrow at her, and she gave me one of those looks that said she had no idea what I was getting upset about.
“I am. And he thinks he has to do more than he does for her. Just because he promised Nora he’d help me take care of her doesn’t mean I need him to be her father. It’s too soon for this kind of shit anyway. This last week, his entire world has changed. He found out he had been manipulated his entire life and he’d been feeding a dhampir instead of doing the angels’ work. The last thing he wants is for me to burden him with a baby. Annabel and I have done it for six years, and we can do it for as long as needed.”
Okay, that was a lie. While I loved Nora, and Annabel was one of my closest friends, the thought that I had to do another six years of looking after Nora, plus the twelve until she became an adult, was making me quite agitated, and I was annoyed with myself for feeling that way. Nora, my immortal phoenix, friend-adopted daughter, had saved mine and Wade’s lives from certain death. She’d sacrificed herself for me twice. The least I could do for her was look after her.
But was I being selfish if I wanted to be just a normal adult for a while? I’d made no choices in my life. Fate had taken them all from me. It was fate that had decided I had to be a vampire and that I had to lose the people I loved over and over again.
It was fate that had decided to bring me to Nora and to have her introduce me to this strange world of Nightcrawlers and witches I never knew existed. It was fate’s decision to bring me to the brink of death and have Nora sacrifice herself to give me my life back.
All my choices had been stolen from me. I’d had to roll with the punches that life was throwing at me, and I was getting sick of it. Because not only was I not living the life I wanted, but I also continued to live with the fear of losing those that I loved.
And it was true that I’d fallen in love with a witch hunter. I wasn’t afraid to admit it to myself. I’d been denied him for years. Now that I had him back, I couldn’t ignore our shared past, whether he remembered it or not. In one way, remembering our first time together gave me the permission I needed to feel something stronger for him.
I felt so many things for him I didn’t even know where to begin. And he, despite the fact he’d chosen to not get his memories back, felt so much for me too. And he was acclimatizing to gay sex rather well. Yet I still had the fear at the back of my mind that I’d lose him. Like I’d lost everyone else before him. Either fate would work its magic again and split us apart, or he’d get himself killed by getting mixed up in my world. Because
that’s what happened to the people I loved. Granted, a guy leaving me was a far better fate than dying, but that was what it always came down to. One of only two options.
“Earth to Caleb.” Lorelai clicked her fingers in front of my face, and I concentrated on her again. “Stop dreaming about gay sex with your new boy toy.”
“He’s not my—”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, my friend. So, your little scum wants to be Nora’s dad too? What will she call him? Insta-daddy?” She laughed, and I retaliated by glaring at her with evil eyes.
“Very funny,” I snapped back at her.
Not that it wasn’t true. And to be honest, it was a bit funny, but I’d worry about it when we crossed that bridge. Given my track record, Wade would be out of my life within the year.
A man walked through the door of the shop, and we both turned to look at Graham who wore his signature jeans and tucked-in T-shirt, his well-groomed beard hiding much of his face.
I got up to leave Lorelai with him, but he addressed me before I could escape.
“I came to see you, Caleb. It’s important.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you. You can talk to Lorelai. I’ve heard enough of your bullshit.”
Lorelai crossed her hands in front of her chest and stared at both of us, decidedly staying out of our conversation but trying to figure out what was going on. It was a wise decision.
“I know you’re still mad at me, but we’ve got bigger fish to fry, Caleb, and I need your help,” he said.
This man was unbelievable. Did he actually think that the small issue of them sacrificing young witches to a dhampir was not an important enough issue? Graham had once been the father I’d never had. He’d been there for me every step of the way, showing me how to be a witch and how to use spells, and lately, even how to make them. Even if it was just theory, he’d been teaching me. It had been a big step, preparing me to be his replacement. But after everything that had just happened, I couldn’t look at him in the eye anymore. Because all I saw in those eyes was death and sacrifice.
“What could be a bigger fish than murder, Graham?” I said, purposefully being vague.
“I understand what we did was wrong, but it’s not like your boyfriend is any better,” Graham said, and he really shouldn’t have done that. He had no right to talk about Wade.
“Wade has been controlled his entire life. He didn’t have a choice in the matter. He was lied to over and over, and when he wasn’t, he was ordered to do things he didn’t want to. The high council made those decisions fully aware of the consequences. Wade might have killed a lot of witches, but you are the ones who put them in his hands.”
Lorelai cocked her head towards me, puzzled by what was just said.
“Wait. What happened? What do you mean the high council put them in his hands?” she asked.
I didn’t want her to find out like this. Not right now. Not when every decision we made was critical to how we brought those assholes down. But I couldn’t hide it from her. She was my best friend after all.
So, I told her what we’d found out. Every uttered word making me feel sick and dirty as if I’d been the one that committed the crimes. My stomach tightened into knots, and I could feel the bile burning my throat.
“What? When were you going to tell me this? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Her last question was addressed to Graham, who looked at her with a red face.
“Lorelai, we had to do something until we could figure out a way to stop Christian. We couldn’t let him go after every single one of us. We’re not proud of it, or at least I am not, but we sacrificed the few to save the many, Nightcrawlers included.”
Lorelai winced. She had obviously not liked what she’d heard. And she made sure to tell him.
“Is that how you justify murder? Killing the few to save the many? That makes it right in your eyes? And you”—she turned to me—“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. This is important. This affects familiars as much as it does witches. Were you going to let me work for a murderer for the rest of my life?”
“Lorelai, I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how.” I tried to explain, but there was no explanation. I’d been an idiot to keep it from her.
“I need some time on my own,” she said and brushed her red hair up into a ponytail, which meant only one thing. She was going out in her fox form to think.
“I need to…go. I can’t look at either of you right now,” she said and ran out of the door, not even bothering to check if there were any people around before she turned into her animal form: a giant fox who dashed down the street away from us.
I turned to Graham and let my anger take over.
“See what you’ve done now? Why are you still here?”
“To talk to you, Caleb. It’s about that night.”
He didn’t need to elaborate. There was only one night he could be referring to. The night Christian had killed me. The night he’d tried to tap into the ley lines and feed on the magic running wild underneath London. The night that had cost me my daughter.
“What about that night?” I asked him.
“You must’ve felt it too. The next day?”
“And?”
“Things have been happening since that night. Things we can’t explain.”
“I’m not working for the high council again,” I said before he could go on.
“I’m not asking you to. But you need to help us understand what’s happening. You were there that night. Maybe you can understand the mess.”
“Figure it out yourselves,” I said and tried to push him out of the shop. I was fully aware that this was his shop, that it didn’t belong to me, but if they wanted me to run this business, it was mine until it wasn’t.
“You don’t understand, Caleb. People are dying. Something happened the night after. Something that ignited all the witches. Now there are hundreds of them running nuts in London, destroying themselves and others because they can’t understand their powers.”
That made me pause. Did he say hundreds of witches had been ignited? Igniting witches who didn’t know who and what they were? That could only happen with a ritual, under controlled circumstances. Witches didn’t just ignite. Their powers didn’t just start manifesting.
“Why don’t you just feed them to other creatures. I hear elves enjoy the occasional witch blood. I’m sure they’d enjoy the treat,” I spat, still not willing to let this drop.
He looked at me with pleading eyes as if he hadn’t committed murder. And if I wasn’t so angry with him, I’d forgive him and help him out. But as it was, I didn’t wanna be in the same room with him any longer than necessary.
“Please, Caleb. The high council is willing to pay—“ he started, but I squeezed his arm and pushed him towards the door.
“I don’t want the high council’s money ever again. Do you understand me? I’m running this business to help the witches you’ve betrayed. I’m not running this business to please the high council. Not anymore.”
He froze, pleading still, despite everything I’d said. If I hadn’t been wearing my gloves, as an empath, I would have felt everything he was feeling at that moment, but I didn’t want to feel anything about him. I pushed him to the door and noticed the queue of witches outside the shop looking in through the glass.
And that was the moment it hit me. Lorelai had left me to run the store on my own at peak time on Friday. It had been hectic like this for a week now, since the day after Christian had almost killed us all. It was as if all the witches had felt the energy blasts that had woken both Wade and me. And if there was one thing that made money, it was scared witches looking to protect themselves.
“Now pretend you’re giving me a hug and walk out of here. Don’t come back unless you’re delivering something,” I said, and he did as instructed. His fingers touched the back of my neck. I didn’t know if he did it on purpose or if it was an accident, but I forced myself to keep his feelings shut. Regardless, I still felt the pinch
of guilt in my chest.
I didn’t care for it. He had done terrible things. He didn’t deserve my forgiveness.
I unlocked the door, and Graham left without another word, and just as I was about to let the witches in and start trading, Wade appeared in front of the queue and approached me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him and pulled him inside the shop and locked it back up. A wave of disapproval echoed across the street from all the witches that were waiting. I gestured five minutes with my hand before I turned to Wade.
“Why are you here? I told you to stay away. We have a way of knowing witch hunters. And I don’t want the news spreading. Not yet anyway.”
“Are you ashamed of me?” He smirked, and, as usual, my need to wipe that smirk off his face overpowered me.
“What did he want here anyway?” he asked, nodding his head towards the direction Graham had gone. He might not have had the best opinion of Graham, but Graham had told him the truth about his BLADE force.
“He just came to tell me that the high council needed me for a job. Needless to say, I said no.”
Wade stepped closer and put his hands on my arms. I didn’t want anyone finding out about him, especially not the gossiping witches that were hanging outside the store, but I also couldn’t resist his warm embrace.
“What kind of job?” he asked as he took me in his big arms and stroked the bottom of my hair, and I told him.
“I thought you wanted to help the witches of the coven?” he said.
“I do.”
“Then why are you refusing Graham. They don’t know what’s going on or how to control their powers. And if they’re hurting people, don’t you want to help the innocent ones?”
