by Cate Farren
Chapter 29
"Fuck it!"
They'd found an unconscious and badly injured Astrid halfway up Jarvis hill, just outside of town. Karma had taken her immediately back home so she could recuperate. Trent had wanted to confront the Fey princess on his own, but Wynn had refused to allow that. He was wise for a being created in chaos. Trent would’ve gutted the bitch and not given it a second thought.
“Where would she go now?” Wynn asked.
Trent stared at the wreckage of the car and the imprint that Astrid had made on the ground as she’d been thrown from the wreckage. There was blood there, a lot of it. If Astrid had been human she’d be dead now.
“Duck Young,” he said. He looked away from the blood, refusing to think about what might have happened. “But he’s in the city, helping the police and Samantha look for Clover. I doubt she’d go all the way to the city. Besides, he’s human. She probably doesn’t think he knows anything anyway.”
Toren had been through all the available members of the council to no avail. Where would she go next? She wouldn’t give up. The Black Fey would never give up. Failure would only make her stronger, angrier. She was even more dangerous now.
TOREN WIPED DOWN THE blood from her top with a towel. The car crash had been excruciating, though she’d survived. Human vehicles had always been a sore spot with her.
“You used to live here?” Wynn asked.
They’d retired to the home she used to rent in Chapel Green. It was still on the market, so they’d been able to break in easily. She needed to think, access the memories she had when she was staying here. Toren knew the identity of the shapeshifter was in there somewhere.
“It was a long time ago,” she said. “A lot happened.”
She’d fallen in love with Jared in this house. The thought of it made her want to laugh. How could she love a vampire, especially one as immature as Jared? The sex had been great, but it hadn’t been enough.
A thought suddenly occurred to her. She ran into the kitchen, looking for something. It was on the floor by the kitchen sink cabinets.
“What?” Wynn demanded, following her. “What is it?”
She picked up the cat bowl and sniffed it. Once upon a time, only a few days after she arrived in Chapel Green, a little cat would sneak into the house and beg for food. She fed it tuna out of a small Tupperware container for a few days before it left and never came back. At the time she’d been happy to feed it. How could a Fey see a starving creature and not want to help it?
“We’re looking for a cat,” Toren declared.
Wynn seemed confused. “The shapeshifter was a cat?”
“Yes! It licked from this dish. It left its DNA on it, which means I can track it directly.”
Toren grinned, already preparing the spell in her mind. The enemy couldn’t hide from her any longer.
GABRIELLA PUT DOWN a plate of tuna fish for the cat. She smiled as the feline started gobbling it up greedily, making peculiar purring noises as it did so. Celia laughed. She wished she had a pet, but her father didn't get on well with animals. They sensed the demon in him and it made them act crazy. This was something Celia didn't understand. Her father may have been a demon but to her he was loving and protective and about as scary as a carrot.
"I want to keep him," said Celia.
Gabriella smiled. "It's a she."
"Oh. Then I'll call her...Elsa."
"After the princess from Frozen?"
"No. After my friend Elsa, who moved to Bangor last week. I miss her."
Celia picked up Elsa and sat down on the bench. The cat curled up on her knee, purring madly, kneading her with its claws. After a while the feline fell asleep.
"So tell me how you think you're doing with your powers," said Gabriella.
Celia thought for a moment. "I think I'm doing okay. I don't think I'm going to blow the town up now."
"We're getting near the point where I can't teach you anything else."
"I know," Celia admitted.
“But I’m not going anywhere. Chapel Green is my home now. I’ll be here for you, no matter what.”
Celia smiled and hugged Gabriella. She didn’t want to lose her teacher now.
"I just wish my mom could be here to see me," said Celia. “I know she’d be proud.”
She didn't know whether she meant the mom who'd given birth to her or the mother who'd raised her and died. Perhaps she meant both. She missed them equally. She felt like she'd been denied a mother twice over and it wasn't fair.
"How long do Xaphan demons live for?" Celia asked, her hands idly stroking the cat on her lap. "My dad and my brother are immortal."
"I'm sorry to say this but we aren’t immortal," Gabriella admitted. “We do live a long time, though. We age a lot slower once we reach about twenty. You could live to a thousand years old.”
Celia sighed, somehow knowing the answer before she heard it. A thousand years was a long time, but not long enough. She couldn't imagine her dad and Darin living forever without her. They'd be so lonely.
Maybe Dad will have other children and forget about me.
"Stop being so maudlin," Gabriella chided her. "You have to live for today."
"What about the war?" Celia asked.
Gabriella was about to answer when they saw someone watching them from the side of the garden. They were just standing there, eyes unblinking. It was Princess Toren.
"Princess Toren!" Celia shouted, delighted. "What are you doing here?"
Toren smiled as she came forward. "I came to visit you and see how you're faring."
"Gabriella has been teaching me all about my powers. It's been great. At first I thought I was going to blow up the whole town but..."
"Shut the fuck up."
Celia felt the hairs rise up on the back of her neck. Someone was using magic. She was about to move the cat from her lap when Elsa leapt to the floor and tried to run. Toren grinned and pinned the feline to the ground with a spell.
"Leave her alone!" Celia cried.
"You have no idea what she is," said Toren. "She's a..."
Celia made a grab for the cat. It hissed at her, but she ignored its threats, determined to save her life. Toren screamed at her to stop, but Celia was having none of it. This cat wouldn't die. She refused to let anyone die, let alone a defenseless animal.
"Stop!" Toren commanded.
Celia was flung through the air by a spell. She landed on the grass several feet away as Toren brought her sword down onto the cat's exposed neck. She screamed out loud her fury as a fireball the size of a tire exploded from her mouth and launched itself towards the Fey princess. Toren looked up in shock as she was engulfed in flames and catapulted into the air.
Wow. I did that!
She ran for the cat, which was convulsing on the ground.
"What's wrong with it?" Celia asked.
Gabriella shook her head. "It's not a cat."
The cat transformed in an instant, becoming a seven-foot tall human warrior brandishing a sword. Before anyone had a chance to react the shapeshifter swung their sword, decapitating Gabriella with one swift movement. Celia screamed as her mentor's head landed on the ground, her eyes bulging in shock.
"Gabriella!" Celia screamed.
The shapeshifter turned to her and grinned. It was male, a warrior with iron armor that seemed welded to his skin. He wore a horned helmet that showed his face, which was why she knew he was male. He looked just like her father.
She took a step back. "Are you here to kill me?"
"The child of the Prime Demon must die," the shapeshifter intoned in its familiar voice. "He has to lose everything before he loses his life."
"I may be a child, but I'm not just going to sit here and let you kill me."
The shapeshifter grinned and charged at her. Celia took a deep breath, remembering Gabriella's teachings. Her mentor had taught her all she needed to know. It was up to her now to protect herself, her father, and the rest of the town from this monster.
I'm finally a Xaphan demon!
She sprung into the air, feeling the heat of the flames lift her. She levitated for a while as the shapeshifter tried to catch her before she plunged towards him. They collided in an explosion of flames. Her enemy tried to escape but she clutched onto his body with her limbs, feeding fire into his every pore. He screamed and convulsed and tried to change shape but it was no use. The fire was consuming him from the inside out. Within seconds he was gone, turned to ash.
Celia fell to the ground, the fire inside her dissipating. She was exhausted but ecstatic. She'd become a proper Xaphan demon today. Gabriella would be proud of her.
"My Celia!" a voice cried.
She looked up to find her father, standing near the pile of ashes that was once the shapeshifter. She smiled up at him, but he didn’t smile back. He looked horrified.
“Dad?” she said, her voice quivering.
He ran and pulled her into a hug.
TRENT CLOSED THE DOOR carefully, not sure what to think. Celia was fast asleep, tired out from her ordeal. He was proud of his daughter. She'd become a true demon today and fought for her life and won out. She could take care of herself, which eased a little weight off his mind. The problem was the killing. He didn't want his child to be a killer, not at such a young age. What if she liked it? What if the fire took her over?
He found Amelia in his kitchen, making a pot of coffee. She seemed better, though still a little pale.
"How is she?" the witch asked. “You’ve been watching her for almost three hours now.”
"She's powerful," he admitted. "Excessively powerful."
My daughter could burn the planet to ashes.
Amelia smiled with sympathy. "She's a smart young girl, raised by a smart demon. She's not going to go power crazy and start burning people at random."
"It pains me that you can read me so well."
Amelia poured them both a coffee. They sat at the table, drinking, thinking.
"Karma phoned me from the hospital," said Amelia. "Astrid is going to be fine."
Trent nodded. "Werewolves heal quickly."
"But you were worried about her."
"I'm in love with her."
Trent gripped his coffee cup, wondering what had made him open up to Amelia like this. He hadn't meant to blurt out his true feelings.
"You can love again," said Amelia. "Your wife would understand. I was her best friend, remember?"
"I feel such guilt," he admitted. "I've never felt anything like it, not even when I committed genocide on the Le’ans. This guilt is eating me up and I despise it."
Amelia looked uncomfortable for a minute. The people of the town didn't like reminding of his bloody past. Even Duck Young, his best friend, didn't want to hear about most of it. Trent didn't blame them. He'd done some truly evil things, some of which he regretted.
"Well, I'll let you get on with things," said Amelia awkwardly, her compassion for him gone for the moment. She couldn't wait to get away from him. "I'll just see how our prisoner is doing."
He grabbed her wrist. She flinched.
“No,” said Trent. “Let me deal with her.”
He grinned. He was going to made that Fey bitch pay for trying to kill his daughter.
CALEB SIGHED. "I HATE seeing you like this."
"Then free me," Toren demanded.
The Fey princess was tied to a chair by old wires they'd scrounged from dead electrical appliances. Upon that Amelia had placed layer upon layer of wards and shields to stop Toren from escaping. They hoped it was enough. Toren had other ideas. She was already working on unravelling the spells that bound her. It would take a while, but once she was free she would burn all her enemies to dust and raze this insipid town to the ground.
"You're just jealous," Toren said casually, hiding a smirk.
"Jealous of what?" Caleb asked.
"You wanted to be more than my bodyguard. Perhaps I wanted it too. But then I met a real man, and I sort of forgot about you. Wynn is hard to forget."
"Of course you forgot abut me. I was taken by the Fey assassin, Cora. While I was a prisoner of King Lachlan, being tortured night and day, you were off gallivanting about the globe. But now that I’m dead you don't care about me anymore, do you? You have your murder spree and your hunky shapeshifter to occupy your mind.”
Toren shook her head. She’d put aside so much in her quest to find the shapeshifters, including finding her own half-brother. This was about more than family. This was about putting an end to her enemy once and for all.
Caleb’s neck snapped to the right. Toren gasped as his nose started to bleed.
“You left me to die,” he whimpered. “You forgot about me.”
Toren closed her eyes. “Caleb would understand the war has to come first.”
TOREN WOKE, THE FEARS from her dream quickly dissolving. Her subconscious mind was trying to make her feel guilty, but it wouldn't work. She had a job to do and not even her own dreams could dissuade her from that.
"You drool in your sleep," said Gable Trent.
He punched her in the face so hard she felt several teeth rattle down her throat. She grinned and spat out blood.
"You're holding back," said Toren. "You could punch me so much harder if you were in your demon form."
He held his face close to hers. The hairs on his beard tickled her chin as he said, "If I were in my demon form I would've ripped you apart and eaten you hours ago."
"You would never eat me."
"No. Fey give me gas."
He laughed as she shivered. Toren knew he wasn't joking. The demon sheriff had been known to eat his enemies in the past as a way of showing his complete contempt for them.
No. He would never eat me. He's trying to...redeem me? Scare me?
"What is your motive here?" she demanded. "What are trying to achieve with this? While you torture me the shapeshifters are gathering. You're actively helping Loki by keeping me prisoner."
He ignored her and punched her again. She kept her head held high as he punched her again and again and again. The brutal treatment carried on for half an hour before Toren couldn't take any more.
"Stop!" she screamed.
He grinned wickedly and said, "It's about time."
She spat out more blood. She could feel herself rapidly healing already, but the pain was intense. She'd never been beaten like it in her life.
"You took the punches well," Trent commented. "I saw you drift off for a while there. What were you thinking about?"
She looked away. "Nothing."
"I can start punching you again. I can't promise I won't kill you."
"I thought of my mother, okay? I thought about my mother."
Trent kneeled down in front of her. "Your mother was the kindest, gentlest person I've ever known."
"And look at what she gave birth to. I'm a monster. I..." She stopped herself from crying, realizing that Trent almost had her. She wouldn't allow herself to be swayed from this path. "The people I've murdered in my blood magic rituals deserved to die! They were pedophiles, abusers of innocents, and..."
"Amelia is an innocent. Astrid is an innocent. My daughter is an innocent."
"Casualties of war."
"Loki didn't attack them. You did."
"Are you saying I'm helping Loki by assaulting his enemies?"
"No, but you're saying it."
She spat at him and pulled at her restraints. The magical wards holding her were too strong. She'd tried pulling at them but she was too weak. How could a simple town witch be strong enough to stop her?
"Please let me go," she begged. "I'm the only one with the balls to do this. You need me."
"You think you're the only one in the world who wants to stop Loki?" he demanded. "Don't be stupid. Don't
make this all about you."
"I'm the only one capable of doing what needs to be done to..."
He roared and changed into his true demon form. Toren shrank back in her bonds as he gripped her head with his clawed hand. His red eyes bore into her and she felt true terror for the first time in her life.
"You are not the only one capable of evil to fight evil!" he shrieked.
"Then why am I the only one doing anything?" she asked. "Why am I the only one being proactive? You and Dracula and the others are all just waiting for Loki to strike instead of stopping him before a war erupts in the first place! It's like you want a war. It's like you thrive on misery and death and..." She laughed as the truth dawned on her. Suddenly the hideous demon didn't scare her any more. She pitied him. "You want a war. You need a war."
"I am going to rip you limb from limb..."
"You should be scouring the planet looking for Loki, but instead you sit here on your throne in your pathetic little town and you wait for him to make the first move. The same with Dracula. You all want a war to make you feel important, to make you feel..."
The demon changed back into a man. He backed away from her.
She shook her head, shocked. "No...No, I can't be right."
Trent said, "You're...maybe you're right. Maybe we aren't doing enough. Maybe we are waiting for Loki to strike first. But we can't find him."
"What do you think I've been doing for the past year? I gathered shapeshifter allies!"
“Loki killed them all.”
The guilt stricken look on Gable Trent's face brought Toren back down to Earth. She'd never seen him look this human before, and it humbled her.
"I won't regret what I've done to those pedophiles," she admitted. "They deserved it."
Trent nodded. "I couldn't agree more."
"But I'm sorry about what I did to Amelia and Astrid."
"And I'm sorry that we've been so lax in our quest to find Loki. Perhaps you were right. We need a war to feel...to feel needed I suppose." Trent grinned. "Besides, I like a good war. All that blood and death defines me."
Toren sighed, feeling most of the blackness in her soul washing away. She felt relieved, but most of all she knew she'd made a breakthrough. She'd convinced their greatest asset to get off his butt and do something. Maybe the Black Fey had made a difference after all.