Dark Cotillion (First in the Brenna Strachan Series)

by Hadena James

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Maybe she was just…” I didn’t say the word that came to mind.

  “How do you know it causes pain if she doesn’t like the person?”

  “Her mate,” I responded. “They have only had sex twice and both times were bad. Dad had to go heal Midas afterwards.”

  “Midas is loyal to your bloodline and Demonnation. He was there today, answering the Call. He helped when Sonnellion went nuts and attacked Gabriel. He was among the Demons who tried to heal Gabriel and among the Demons that healed Ba’al. He nearly died.”

  “So you think, based on this memory that my sister is involved in the plots to kill me?” I frowned at him.

  “She seems to have a thing for Chiron.” He pointed to the floor again.

  “Okay, I’ll give you that.” I started erasing the picture, pulling the color back into the marble.

  “Then Lucifer packing up the entire family and taking them to Europe was a good thing,” Gabriel said.

  “And she would have known we were on our way to Demonnation territory, because I’m sure Lucifer would have told the entire household when explaining why they were all leaving. He probably used that as part of his reason for leaving,” Anubis responded. He was digging out his cell phone.

  “You can put it away now,” Fenrir smiled at me and started tucking my breast back into my shirt.

  “I had forgotten,” I blushed.

  “Don’t blush, it was a pleasure to see both the mark and the breast, but since we have things at hand that require our attention, it’s a distraction,” he gave me a smile that was all wolf.

  “And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, you smile like that.” I told him.

  “Well, at least you were brave enough to show us,” he kissed my forehead. “We’ll have you naked one day yet.”

  “Shut up,” Anubis hissed.

  “See, you got me in trouble,” I whispered to Fenrir.

  “I see it as being the other way around,” Fenrir whispered back.

  “You would,” I was gritting my teeth, trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible.

  “Pendragon, we have a problem. Can you come to Lucifer’s house? We need to detain one of his children when they get off a plane in Europe.” Anubis was speaking into the phone.

  “Oh, that’s bad,” I frowned and sat back down on the floor. The spell was at work again, drawing another picture. This one had all of us in it. It was the scene unfolding in front of me.

  “Sorry, I think I’m losing control of it a bit.” I gave a sheepish look to Ba’al as he looked at me.

  “It’s okay, it will be interesting to see what your mind draws,” he said as Anubis hung up the phone.

  The floor erased, the color seeping back in and another began to form. I watched in wonder as my Bloodline marks were all drawn out on it. They were bold and large, measuring circles that were at least seven feet across.

  “Are you angry?” Anubis asked as he looked at the floor.

  “No, I’m gonna go with incredibly pissed off.” I pursed my lips together. “I’m not fond of Centaurs; Chiron has spoiled me on the breed as a whole. I hate to say I’m a breedist, but there it is. To see my sister have sex with a Centaur is just horrifying. To see her have sex with Chiron is even worse. Now, she is involved with trying to kill me? I know I haven’t always been the greatest sister on the planet, but I think that’s a bit extreme.”

  The marks got bolder, more legible. The men all looked from me to the floor and back to me.

  “Maybe we should work on calming her down,” Fenrir said as the marks started to glow.

  “That might be a good idea,” Anubis came to kneel in front of me. “Bren, I know you are angry and you have every right to be, but this is not good.”

  “No, it isn’t. My own sister? Come on, my parents have dealt with enough shit in their life, now I have to have my sister imprisoned for trying to kill me. How do you think my mother is going to react? How do you think my father is going to react? Do you think he’s just going to let it happen? You saw him earlier. When Pendragon shows up to detain her, he is going to explode. He’s going to kill her. I know it. Then he will feel guilty and awful that he killed his own child, and it’s going to be even worse because if I don’t live, he’ll have killed her for no reason except that she was mean to me. And Elise? Oh wow, she is going to blow a gasket. She might not be able to kill my sister, but she is going to cast some big bad spells and it won’t be good, and my brothers will be forced to stand there and watch or try to intervene. One of them might get hurt. Daniel might get hurt. This is going to be a disaster. At the same time, I can’t just let her keep walking around. Lucifer is going to keep sharing all the info he gets with the family because he believes that family is sacred and you would never do anything to hurt your own bloodline. So if we don’t have her detained, she will continue to pass along all the info that Lucifer passes along, and because that isn’t enough, we can’t stop any of it from happening. We are royally fucked, I mean just royally fucked. If we keep it quiet and refuse to give Lucifer information, he is going to get suspicious and he’ll come back and that will be just as bad as the other.”

  “Wow,” Fenrir touched me. “You are talking really fast and these drawings are getting worse.”

  “Brenna, I know you feel angry and responsible, but you need to calm down. You are going to have a meltdown if you don’t and bad things are going to happen,” Anubis told me.

  “Bad things are already happening,” I looked at him. “What would you have me do?”

  “I think we should take her to her room,” Fenrir suggested.

  “Oh, good idea,” Gabriel grabbed one arm and Ba’al grabbed the other.

  “I’m going to call Beezel.” Anubis stood up. Fenrir took hold of my feet. Together they carried me to my room. I didn’t see any point in fighting, they were right. I needed to be contained. I could feel myself out of control, very out of control.

  “Okay, Brenna,” Fenrir said as I was set down on the bed, “you need to focus on something, something else, anything else.”

  “My sister is trying to kill me,” as if it was a trigger, her figure began to appear on the wall. “What would you like me to concentrate on?”

  “Anything,” he answered. “An event that made you happy.”

  For a few seconds, the three of them were silent. My sister’s face was becoming more defined on the wall. I was more than just pissed off; I was working on being absolutely, completely enraged.

  “Sex with Anubis,” Fenrir suddenly shouted, “remember that.”

  “I didn’t have sex with Anubis,” I answered very tartly.

  “You might as well have, he came, I came, Ba’al came, and Gabriel came, just because he didn’t penetrate you, didn’t have his cock inside you, it doesn’t mean you didn’t have sex,” Fenrir told me.

  “Fenrir!” I nearly shouted as my face turned hot. It worked. The energy changed. The picture on the wall started to as well.

  “It’s working,” Ba’al whispered. It snapped the spell. The anger came back. This time fueled by embarrassment. “Fuck.”

  “Look, I’m doing the best…” I started to protest, Fenrir acting on his own accord, grabbed my shirt and bared my breast again. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “Distracting you,” he placed his hand over it. The mark began to burn. For the first time in my life, the mark reacted to something. Magic spilled into the room.

  “Wow,” Gabriel said quietly. He was gasping for air.

  “What is that?” Ba’al breathed, also out of breath.

  “I don’t know, but it’s kind of amazing,” Fenrir was starting to glow a brilliant blue color. His skin peeled back and he shifted into wolf form. No goo this time, just a smooth, easy shift. Gabriel was also starting to glow.

  Fenrir kept what was now a paw firmly against the mark for another second
. He took it off and instantly changed back to his normal form. Again, there was no goo.

  “The mark isn’t just about her, it’s about us,” Fenrir said. He sat motionless for a second, the magic receding.

  “What do you think?” I asked him. The anger was gone. I was left with a light, airy feeling. Complete and utter euphoria was the only way to describe it.

  “I don’t know, but I’m willing to try again,” he placed his face on it this time. Again, the shift was easy, smooth, and not messy. One second he looked like a Lycan, the next he was a wolf. The room began to fill with magic again.

  “What is it?” Ba’al asked.

  “Control,” I said, “control and euphoria.” I closed my eyes and the feeling was luxurious.

  Cell phones started ringing like mad. Everyone’s cell phone was going off. Ba’al looked at the number on his and then on Fenrir’s.

  “I have Alex on Fenrir’s phone and I have a different Lycan mate calling me,” he said to the room. Fenrir didn’t pull back; he pushed harder against the mark.

  “Hello?” I answered Fenrir’s phone.

  “Hello? Who is this?” A woman asked me.

  “Brenna Strachan,” I responded.

  “Oh good, is Fenrir with you? Something odd is happening. Alex just shape shifted and he doesn’t seem to be able to shift back.”

  “Um, Fenrir is in wolf form at the moment and that is why I answered his phone,” I told her.

  “Oh, well did he shift for a few seconds, shift back to Lycan and then become wolf again?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I admitted.

  “That’s what Alex did. You don’t think that there is something wrong with the Lycans do you?” She sounded afraid.

  “I’m sure it’s something that Fenrir is doing.” I pushed him away.

  “Wait, Alex just became Lycan again,” she paused. “What happened to them?”

  “I don’t know because Fenrir is as well. I’ll let you talk to him.” I muted the phone. “Great, you just shifted every Lycan on the planet, Fen.”

  “Really?”

  “Really! I have Angela on the phone, she’s concerned because Alex shifted, went back to Lycan and then shifted again, exactly as you did when you touched me.”

  “The magic shouldn’t have left this room,” Fenrir said.

  “You’re an Overlord!” I shouted at him. “My father’s magic can get through the room and you have the ability to shift your entire pack.”

  “It didn’t hurt,” he smiled at me.

  “What?”

  “The shift, it didn’t hurt. Normally, it is excruciating, but it doesn’t hurt when you do it.”

  “I didn’t do it,” I pointed out. “You were the one that kept touching the mark.”

  “I think that’s what your mark does; it brings out the beast in us,” Ba’al said quietly. “I imagine if Gabriel touches it, it will bring out the light. Anubis, the Vampire, and me, the stone replica. But it does it without pain.”

  “Oh man,” I sighed and handed Fenrir the phone, “you better think up a good lie.”

  “Alex?” Fenrir asked as he unmuted it.

  There was several seconds of silence.

  “No, it was me. I did something stupid and probably caused the entire Lycan Pack to change. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about being in the presence of the Maturing. I was trying to show her how it happened and her healing powers tried to force me to shift back. It wasn’t her fault, it was stupid of me.”

  This was followed by a longer silence.

  “Nah, it won’t happen again. I’ve learned my lesson. No shifting around Maturing Demons. She saw me in pain and her power struggling with my own will and power caused the shift of the entire Pack. I was defending against a healing because it wasn’t something that needed to be healed, and well, it spread.”

  More silence. Ba’al ignored his phone. Gabriel was doing the same.

  “Yep, we’re fine. Sorry, Alex. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t mean to scare Angela or any of the others. Considering I’m supposed to be sequestered, could you pass the word along that it was my fault and it won’t happen again? You don’t have to give all the details. Just let them know I was the one that shifted them. Thanks, talk to you tomorrow.” He hung up and looked at me.

  “Does anyone else feel like the entire world is one big beautiful, wonderful place?” He asked.

  “Yes,” I told him.

  “Uh huh,” Ba’al agreed.

  “Good, so it isn’t just me. I shifted the pack. I haven’t done that since the War.” Fenrir looked at me. “That is an amazing thing. We should learn how to use it. It could make sex wonderful.”

  “I don’t think so.” I responded, realizing that I was still uncovered.

  “You don’t think we should use it or don’t think we should have sex?” He asked.

  “Use the mark for sexual purposes. I don’t think that’s why it is there. It does have dangerous side effects. They all do.”

  “It might, but I have never enjoyed the change as much as I did just now.” He rolled himself up in the blankets. His eyes were partially glazed.

  “Somehow, that was sexual for you, wasn’t it?” I felt myself start to frown, tried to stop it but couldn’t.

  “You have no idea,” his voice was almost giggly. “I have a feeling we are all going to enjoy eternity bound to you.”

  “Good, God,” I hung my head. It had worked, there were now pornographic pictures drawn on the wall instead of the angry, pissed off images my mind had been creating.

  “Brenna,” Ba’al said, “some of this will go away after the Maturing. Right now, you have raw, untamed power in you. It’s becoming, when you are done and have control, it will tone down.”

  “Well, at least there is something to look forward to,” I was watching Fenrir.

  Anubis came in and just stopped. He looked at our face and cocked his head to the side.

  “I feel like I might have missed something,” he finally said.

  “You did,” Fenrir sat up. “But you had a taste of it earlier so it all works out. At least we know the silver shields the house even though it didn’t shield my Pack.”

  “Is that what all those voicemails are going to be about?” Anubis asked.

  “Fen changed his entire pack by putting his face against Brenna’s mark. I imagine the phone call she got was from her mother,” Ba’al answered.

  “We’ll deal with that at another time,” Anubis smiled, “for now, I’ve talked to Beezel, and he is going to go with Pendragon to meet your father. That should help the situation some.”

  “Don’t talk about it,” Gabriel pointed at the walls.

  “Huh,” Anubis looked at them. “At least she isn’t angry anymore.”

  “Let’s not jinx it,” Gabriel responded.

  “Moving on,” I was trying to erase the pictures but found the ability seemed to be gone. “What now?”

  “Well, I think you should go back to sleeping in here,” Anubis told me.

  “I am thinking we should all sleep in here,” Fenrir retorted. “At the same time as her.”

  “Why?” Anubis asked.

  “We’ll be close if something happens and if it doesn’t, I have a feeling it will be a wonderful time for all.”

  “I am not having an orgy,” I told him.

  “Honey, you don’t have to do anything except exist, the rest of us just need to touch you right now to get really happy.”

  “That is just so wrong,” I gently slapped Fenrir.

  “Yep, I liked that, too.” He smiled at me.

  “Are you really basking in afterglow?” Anubis asked.

  “Basking would be an understatement. I’m high as a kite,” Fenrir answered. “Have you ever gotten intoxicated off of someone else’s power before? It’s pretty fucking incredible.”

  “I try very hard not to get intoxicated off the power of others,” Anubis ga
ve him a very pointed look.

  “Oh, yeah, sorry.” Fenrir seemed to sober up a bit. “I think we should experiment a little.”

  “You think that’s safe?” I asked incredulously.

  “In the confines of this room,” Fenrir answered. “We don’t exactly know what you can and cannot do at the moment. We think you are mortal, but we don’t exactly know that either. You could still be mostly immortal. If that’s the case, this could take a little longer than normal. A month is just an average, not an exact science.”

  “And if we end up turning all the Gargoyles to stone or Vamping Out all the Vampires?” I asked.

  “That only happened with the added magic of your Bloodline mark,” Ba’al pointed out. “I’ve been thinking and I don’t think it’s about being able to control anything, I think that spell increased Fen’s powers and since he wasn’t expecting it and didn’t know it was happening, he changed and forced the Pack to change. I know I felt stronger, better, and more powerful when it was activated.”

  “That would make sense,” I looked down at my hands. “If there is a Fate or Divine Plan and it was somehow destined that I bind the four of you to me, then it would make sense that the mark is there to amplify all of our powers, to make us stronger as a unit.”

  “Is that possible?” Anubis asked.

  “Who the hell knows? It’s a Bloodline mark and no one understands them. The Witches that did are as gone as the language that the spell is written in. We could all be wrong and it could be something completely different that just affected Fenrir, because I let him touch it.”

  “None of you really understand them?” Anubis frowned.

  “That is the other reason they are a secret. Each of them wields its own power. If you cut them off, you can harness whatever spell is on them. In old days, when a Witch was stripped of their standing, they would remove the Bloodline mark. There is a book of them in this house that belongs to the Strachans.”

  “Now that is disturbing.”

  “Disturbing yes, but absolutely necessary. The Witch that holds the mark can use the power of it. So when a Witch is stripped, their Bloodline retains the mark so that it cannot be used by someone else.”

  “Look, it’s nearly dark. Let’s have some dinner, sit down to a quiet evening, and deal with everything tomorrow.” Fenrir stood up.

  “Okay with me,” I followed suit, “what’s for dinner?”

  “Can you do something about the wall?” Ba’al asked as he turned.

  “No, I tried.” I shrugged. “Maybe if I’m in the room alone, but right now, those are the pictures my mind, or the room seems to be determined to keep.”

  “Huh, pornographic wallpaper. I like it,” Fen gave a smile of approval.

  “You would,” I told him.

  The living room floor was back to normal. I considered that a step in the right direction. For a few minutes, I had been sure that my marks were going to be permanently burned into the surface of the marble. I flopped onto the couch.

  “The dining room,” Anubis motioned me forward.

  “Is dinner ready?” I asked, getting back to my feet.

  “Considering a couple of the beings staying in the guest house brought it to us, yes, it is served.”

  “Has it been checked for poison?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes,” Gabriel said.

  “Goody, let’s eat.” I followed them in and took a seat at the table. It was my usual seat at my parents table. The others swarmed in around me. The table was still less crowded than normal.