Demon Heart

by Rhys Lawless

Why aren’t you letting me use your empathic shield? she asked, and I was immediately lost.

  What empathic shield? What did I have to do with stopping her power?

  You do know how to use your empathic shield, right? she asked. Please tell me you know.

  I felt like shaking my head, but I didn’t have use of my body. The message was still received by Avalis.

  You’re an empath, brother, yet no one has shown you the full spectrum of your power? Why?

  I had no idea what she was talking about, and I made sure to tell her.

  My high priest told me empaths are rare. He’s taught me everything he knows.

  Then your high priest knows nothing. Let me show you what you’re capable of.

  I saw Wade make an attempt to step closer, but Avalis raised her hand to tell him to stop. The battle behind us was still going, but I didn’t know how long our side would last.

  I froze. Everything around us froze. And as soon as the world stopped moving, I started falling. I fell through the bridge, into the water, past the riverbed, and the cosmos, and the stars, and the universe, until I stood on top of the world with a beautiful woman in front of me.

  Her glimmering black skin matched the night sky behind her in beauty, and her hair was made of knots, plaits, and things that couldn’t be hair, or from this world.

  “Avalis,” I said.

  She smiled.

  “Where…where are we?” I asked and looked around me.

  “We’re still on the Tower Bridge. Your body is still there. It’s just us that are not there.”

  I frowned.

  “What do you mean? We need to go back. They’re going to kill everyone if we don’t help them. We’ve got to go back,” I said and stepped forward, but I didn’t seem to move.

  “I can’t help them if you don’t have full access to your powers, brother. You’re an empath, like me. We’re linked. That’s why you were able to invoke me. And because we’re linked, I can’t use my powers if you don’t know how to use yours.”

  I took a deep breath, but yet again, it didn’t seem like any air came in or went out. We really weren’t anywhere real, were we?

  “But, by the time you teach me, it will be too late.”

  Avalis approached me and shook her head.

  “Time doesn’t exist here. We’re in your mind and mine. Time is not a dimension here.”

  Okay. I tried to make sense of that, but I couldn’t get my head around it. How was this possible? How was any of it possible?

  “How do we do this?”

  Avalis took my hands in hers in response.

  “We start by letting me show you what we’re capable of,” she whispered, and within seconds, I was flooded with emotions. Feelings. Images. Thoughts. Not of Avalis. But of people she’d met. Of people that had come and gone before me. Of times that were solidly in the past.

  It all rushed by like a film on fast forward. There was no time to sort through everything that was happening, only to watch, listen, and notice.

  “We’re connected to the universe, brother. We can speak its language. One touch, and everything is within our reach.” I could barely focus on her words when everything around me was a storm of information.

  “We can use that. You can use that. You can turn it, twist it, bend it to your will.”

  She didn’t make sense, but at the same time, I understood everything she was talking about. Her power crawled under my skin and made me feel a different person. A new person. A strong person.

  “We’re the history of the world. We’re the emotional history of everything.”

  Again, everything started falling into place, and I knew what she meant. I knew what we had to do to stop the demons that threatened to destroy that history.

  “Now you know,” she whispered, and when I opened my eyes, I was back at Tower Bridge with Avalis within me, in control, and the demons closing in on me. On us.

  Rhafnet’s eyes glowed with the darkness of the night and fear made my skin shiver. I couldn’t resist looking into them even though Avalis tried to ward her off us.

  Wade stepped between us and Rhafnet, and immediately her deathly touch withered.

  We looked at Wade, and he held his body in front of us, using his dampening shield to stop Rhafnet.

  He wasn’t going to last. He wasn’t strong enough. Not like me. Not like us. Avalis forced herself off the ground and touched Wade’s shoulder with my hand.

  Wade turned his head and looked at me with a strained face. He gritted his teeth as he took the brunt of Rhafnet’s wrath.

  “Rest now, brother,” Avalis told him. “You’ve done your part.”

  Wade shook and refused to step aside.

  Wade, let go. We’ve got this, I whispered in his mind, and only then did he stop.

  He fell backward to the ground, but I didn’t have to worry about him. To check on him. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Avalis was in full mode now.

  Rhafnet smiled and turned into a giant raven who dove into us and tried to claw at our skin.

  “Give up, daughter. This is our kingdom now. And you have lost your place in it,” she said, her voice carrying through the air even in her animal form.

  Avalis didn’t respond. Instead, she reached out her hand and grabbed her mother’s claw.

  I screamed inside my head, but Avalis knew what she was doing. Rhafnet couldn’t hurt us now. She used all her mother’s anger and blasted it back at her. Rhafnet flew out across the bridge.

  “You ungrateful little shit,” Ealistair said, and he sent his flames roaring straight at us.

  But Avalis wasn’t scared, despite me. And even though I knew what we were capable of, the uncertainty in my head still made me cringe at the impact.

  My hand launched, palm outwards, against the fire. When it touched my skin, it didn’t burn. Instead, it felt as if we were holding Ealistair and all his hatred.

  I could feel his fear and frustration. I could detect his admiration for the daughter he and Rhafnet had birthed, but also the anger that she was getting in the way.

  We sent the fire back at him. Just like forcing another’s emotions back on them, we forced his power onto him.

  He growled and screamed and wailed as his own servant, his own flames, attacked him.

  Rhafnet didn’t stay down for long. Seeing her husband in danger, she flew back and stepped between us and Ealistair, her eyes emanating the darkness of death that she wanted to inflict on her own child.

  But Avalis was done playing. She was no longer giving them a chance. They’d had it and had destroyed a world with it.

  Just like Ealistair, Rhafnet’s feelings hit us to the core. Her womanhood, her regret, her sorrow. Her motherly instinct turned killer. Her love for her child and her husband. Her hatred for the human race. For what Avalis had done to her other children, the witches. It all felt so clear like it was written as a confession on a piece of paper.

  Avalis wasn’t taking it. She inflicted it all on her mother. Rhafnet was done killing. She could stop feeding on the death of innocent people. The witches might have been her mother’s and her father’s creation, but Avalis had made us the way we were meant to be. To keep the world in balance. Safe.

  Once upon a time, she’d had hoped to release them from hell, once they’d learned their lesson, but it seemed as if millennia were not enough. Nothing would ever be enough.

  There was only one solution. They needed to die. And with it, everything they stood for.

  “Avalis, no!” Ealistair said.

  “Daughter, don’t do this. We’re your parents,” Rhafnet screamed. “Don’t do this to your mother.”

  Avalis didn’t use my mouth to speak. She spoke in their heads. And she didn’t need to say much.

  Thank you for everything you taught me. Goodbye, she told them, and I could feel her using all her force, all her might to strike back at them.

  Don’t hurt my friend. Don’t hurt Hew, I begged her.

  He will not be harmed, s
he said before both Christian’s and Hew’s bodies kneeled to the ground, screeching as two entities came out of them.

  Two dark shadows that struggled for freedom. But the shadows turned to dust and smoke, and before I knew it, they were gone.

  My knees buckled as Avalis weakened.

  I don’t have much time, she told me.

  I know. Thank you for your help. And for everything you showed me.

  Without her, I would never have known where I’d come from. Without her, I’d still believe I was lesser because I was an empath. Now I knew.

  There’s one last thing I need to do, she said and forced me back on my feet.

  Everyone was watching us. The fighting had stopped. The high council witches and the ones Ealistair had ignited—because now I knew I hadn’t caused the ignition of all the witches in London, but it had all been part of Ealistair’s plan—were standing still and watching the demise of their leaders.

  The foxes, the wolves, the ravens, the Blades, and the witches on our side were standing next to them looking at me.

  “Brothers and sisters,” Avalis said through me. “Witches who betrayed your kind and your duty to this world. You don’t deserve your gifts.”

  Avalis raised her hand and formed her fingers into a fist.

  “As punishment for taking my parents’ side, your powers will be no more. I take them away from you, just like my parents blessed you with them.”

  The magic crackled in the air and the witches that had taken the wrong side screamed as Avalis removed their magic from them and destroyed it for good.

  Avalis’s strength was dwindling. She was using more and more of herself to help this world. She’d already given most of her power to take down the demons. Now it was her turn to fall.

  “And to you, Nightcrawlers, witches who took my side, I wish I could give you your lost ones back. But know that your actions will forever change the world. I will take knowledge of your existence from the human world, but the carnage that was caused will still live in their memory.” As her words weakened, my body was released, the energy of her goddess power inside me bursting into tiny fragments.

  And then I was all alone inside my head again.

  Eighteen

  Wade

  Caleb buckled as Avalis released him back to me, and I ran to get him before he completely collapsed. His face looked drained of all blood, and the circles under his eyes were saggy and darker than before, but I didn’t care. He’d just carried a goddess inside him and destroyed two other gods. I was super proud of him.

  “Easy. Easy,” I told him as I put my hands under his arms and steadied him.

  I helped him find his footing and put one of his arms over my neck, then grabbed onto his waist with my free hand.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked him.

  His head barely moved in my direction as he said, “World’s worst hangover.”

  I chuckled. Even at his worst, this man knew how to make me laugh. He never lost his humor. Not even when times were so hard that we didn’t know if we’d make it through to the other end unscathed.

  Ash came over to him and put Caleb’s other hand around him. I swallowed a possessive snarl even though I felt like ripping his head off for touching my man.

  Since when did I want to rip men’s throats for touching Caleb? Was this the mating bond talking or something else? Something completely different? Something I’d been chasing my whole life?

  “Caleb, are you feeling okay?” Ash asked and looked into his eyes.

  After everything that had happened between them, I didn’t know how he had the audacity to do so. And I didn’t know how Caleb must have felt with his bullshit right in his face.

  I looked over, behind Ash, to the sea of witches and familiars. The foxes, wolves, and ravens. They all had turned human. The ones who’d survived anyway. I could see more than a few fox bodies still lying on the ground, unmoving, and enough wolves to feel like I was at the vet’s morgue. Familiars who’d given their lives to stop the high council and the demons who controlled them. I’d done my best to help them. I’d tried to protect them from as many attacks as possible with my newfound powers, but there was only one of me and so many of them, it hadn’t been enough.

  The witches had the least amount of casualties, not so surprising, but had more answering to do. Most of the high council stood frozen, looking at Caleb in shock. The newer witches who’d sided with Ealistair and Rhafnet had been apprehended by Lloyd and the rest of the surviving BLADE force.

  Winston ran across the bridge over to Hew, breaking the stillness. Graham stepped up to Caleb, and so did Lorelai.

  “What have you done?” Graham cried, and I glared at him.

  How many times did we have to fight the things he and his high council had caused? How many more excuses would he find for what they’d done? He’d taken our side this time, but was he really good?

  “I did what I had to do. Avalis did the rest,” Caleb croaked.

  He still didn’t sound like the Caleb I knew, but he’d get there. All he needed was a good cup of Annabel’s tea, and he’d be back to the Caleb I loved in no time.

  Loved. The word came so easily now when it was only a dream before I met him. I’d been fooled for so many years, denied my first crushes, relationships, everything normal, and even after everything that had gone down with Christian and finding out the truth, I still didn’t know what normal was.

  That moment, with Caleb pinned next to me, weak and powerless, I knew one thing. I might never know if I’d truly loved Sarah and if Christian had manipulated my sexuality and emotions more than I was aware of, but if there was one thing I was certain of, it was that I loved Caleb.

  “What happened here today?” a wolfman asked.

  I hadn’t seen him before, but by the way the others looked at him, I would have said he was their leader.

  “Two demons tried to decimate everyone—“ I started.

  “And with the help of another we killed them off,” Caleb added.

  The wolfman didn’t look too happy with the response.

  “We only came as a favor to Lorelai. And instead, I got half my pack dead or wounded. How are the witches planning on making this up to the wolves?”

  “And the foxes,” Lorelai added.

  Everyone turned to Graham, Ash, and the few of the high council members with any power left.

  Graham struggled to get any words out, and Ash looked around him at the bloodbath, surely looking for an appropriate response.

  “The coven needs some re-organization,” someone said behind me, and when I turned, I saw Mother Red Cap talking, taking small steps towards the wolf. “I’m sure once they’ve figured out the punishment fitting to the traitors, they will lend a helping hand to the Nightcrawlers.”

  “Isn’t losing our powers punishment enough?” Matilda screeched from behind the wolfman.

  Everyone glared at her.

  “Not even close,” Ash said.

  I was glad to see he hadn’t completely lost his confidence.

  “Mother Red,” the wolf said. “I didn’t think you dealt with the witches anymore.”

  All eyes turned to her, and her gaze narrowed. How did he know her? He had called her by her name while the witches weren’t familiar with her or her power. Did she make herself known to those she chose? Or had they found her by chance?

  “I don’t. And I still won’t. I will keep helping my children of the night. Let that not be a concern or fear,” Mother Red Cap replied.

  Children of the night? Was she known to the Nightcrawlers? Was she helping them behind the high council’s back? Surely they would have found out about her if she had a name in the Nightcrawler world.

  “So you are real!” Graham said and stared at her. “All the rumors and the speculations.”

  “Yes, you finally meet me, Graham. After trying so hard for years,” Mother Red Cap answered him then turned to the wolf. “Come, Nolan, let me help those that are still breathing.” She ga
ve the wolfman her hand, and he took it and kissed it before leading her down to the first wolf who was bleeding.

  “So much destruction,” Caleb murmured, and I turned to him.

  “I know,” I said and squeezed his hand. “I tried to stop them, but—“

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “It’s not yours, either.”

  He closed his eyes, and I thought I’d have to drill into his head, but I was surprised with what he said next.

  “I know it’s not. I know now. But whatever happens next is going to be.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  I didn’t know how the aftermath would be his fault when the war itself hadn’t been.

  “I’m the face of this destruction. Did you hear Avalis? Everything is going to change. She tried to show me, but she didn’t make it long enough. Whatever happens next, it’s not going to be easy,” he said, and he opened his eyes to look back at the scene on the bridge.

  “You’re forgetting something, mate,” I said and squeezed his hand again. “You’re not alone in this.”

  I wanted to tell him I loved him, but something stopped me from saying it aloud. I didn’t know if I needed to anyway. I was sure my emotions were so overwhelming that he got the message.

  “I was scared there for a second,” I told him. “I thought I was going to lose you. Again.”

  “No, never again.” He smirked.

  Lorelai came closer and brushed some of Caleb’s hair off his face.

  “Are you all right? Next time I see you, you gotta tell me what happened here,” she said, and I could see more than curiosity in her eyes. “I’ll try and save face as much as possible, but…no guarantees.”

  She looked over to Graham.

  “What’s happening with the high council? Are you going to step up?”

  “No,” Caleb said. “Things need to change.”

  “I don’t know, sweetheart,” Graham said, completely ignoring Caleb. “Ash and the others will have a meeting and discuss how we move on from this.”

  “Keep me in the loop, yeah? I got to go,” Lorelai said, and she retreated with the rest of the foxes to help them clear the bodies of those who’d fallen.