Demons & Dragons

by Gina Kincade

  "If you had been nicer to my mom, then maybe you would have found out a long time ago," she teased, matching one raised eyebrow with a smirk so he'd know.

  "I was beyond nice to your mom, but I couldn't risk much time outside of work business with her. Some days it was all I could do after my father died not to beg her to help me get you to listen to me, but I wanted to wait until I was free of all of this. The sick and sadistic irony of it all. If I had talked to her, I'd have been free long ago. I almost can't take it."

  "You guys just need to focus now on what is to come, the end of all of this beast and demon business," Aedan reminded them.

  "We couldn't have done this without you. Thank you again," Allanah gushed.

  "Stop with the thanks already. You've thanked me a thousand times. This is what families are for, and I'm just thrilled to meet more of mine. It helps take away the sting of losing my mother. This house has seemed so big and empty."

  As if on cue, Allanah's mother appeared out of thin air with a bottle of whiskey, an amulet, and a ratty piece of paper clutched in her hands. She rushed to Allanah, threw her arms around her.

  Aedan came to rescue the precious items dangling from her fingertips. "No time for reunions or tears, ladies. And, introductions after. We need to get started before Ciaran loses all control."

  "Oh, Ciaran," Allanah's mother exclaimed. "You always took the brunt of all of your father's sins."

  Ciaran just bowed his head, dropped his face against the earth, his breath coming erratically.

  "Give me the spell," Allanah demanded.

  She followed along, trying to decipher the scribbling of a madman on the paper. Her hands shook as she poured the whiskey into a cup, as instructed, started reciting the spell, some of it in a different language she was unfamiliar with.

  "It's a mix of Gaelic and Ogham, which is sometimes called Primitive Irish, used by the druids and scholars as a secret means of communication. Luckily, I've studied it some. Let me see if I can help."

  Allanah followed along, hoping to get it right as she dipped the amulet in the whiskey. When the metal touched the amber liquid, a fire started to burn within the alcohol. She could feel the power of it moving through her fingers, up her arm, as if making the blood in her veins boil.

  The sounds from the cage gave her no time to pause and worry about herself. She continued on, her voice strained from pain. Her mother and cousin stood behind her, reciting as well. She heard their voices catch like hers, and glanced at them both until she was sure they would continue on. The flames eventually leapt from the glass, to ride along the floor to where Ciaran laid sprawled out and convulsing on the floor, becoming his beast in a slow and obviously excruciating manner.

  ***

  As the flames came closer and closer to his fur, Ciaran believed himself dying along with his demon. Hearing her recite its name, Ariazural, along with all of the demons names within the coven, the sounds hit his ears like the fire now lapping at his fur, yet not burning him. The demon clawed around inside. He believed his internal organs bled as she continued. His beast form, sadly familiar, felt weak, though, as it never had before.

  "Promise me, Allanah, no matter what happens, you won't stop. We are killing this demon today, even if it takes me to hell with it. I'm done. I won't live another second with this monster inside of me," he managed, each word a struggle, each syllable costing him the last of his energy, energy he used just to stay conscious as his demon screamed, an unholy sound making the earth beneath him shake. His fingers showing claws grasped the ground, dug in, if only to hold on.

  When she just shook her head, fell to the ground, he yelled again, the words given rise by a severe pain, "Promise me!"

  Just then, his insides caught fire. His beast screamed again, an inhuman sound like even he'd never heard before.

  Faintly he heard Allanah scream, 'No!' but the sound of her voice washed over his ears like a whisper on the wind, a moment of coolness granted to a burning, dying man.

  "You must," he heard Eilean demand of her daughter. "You must do as he asks if you love him. You haven't watched him suffer as I have. Continue the spell, Allanah. Or I will, without you. I owe the magical world this, to right my wrongs."

  The words started again, louder. Though, still, he could only hear them faintly. Other words flowed over them, Allanah protesting maybe. He couldn't be sure of anything any longer. Somewhere in the mess of organs burning to cinder, blood boiling to lava, and beast melting away, he smiled.

  I love you, Allanah, he thought, hoping somehow she could hear, she would know. Then his world went dark.

  When he woke back up, surprised to be opening his eyes, he felt Allanah's hand on his, her tight grip, her wondrous magick tingling all over his body.

  When his eyes fluttered open, she said, weeping, "It's over, my love. We watched the demon go screaming, screeching into the ground. You've slept for so long, but I haven't left. I've watched you breathe, sending you every bit of healing energy I have left in me with my mother and cousin's help. We covered you up, tried to make you comfortable, although they wouldn't let me open the cage, not until you woke, and we knew for sure how you'd wake. Although, I don't feel it squirming inside of you anymore, we still didn't know what you would be like now, after all of that. I didn't care, but they set down the laws of reason. I just couldn't stand the separation any longer."

  "It's gone," he said, not ignoring her, but giving sound to the thoughts wondering around his head, dazed and confused like he was. "You did it, Allanah. All of you. I don't know how to ever repay you. I haven't felt this free, this clean, if that makes sense, my own man, since I was a boy. You did this. You gave us a life together."

  "And, what will that life look like?" Eilean broke in.

  "I know exactly what it will look like. I've dreamed of nothing else for years and years. First, right or wrong, I need my revenge, to slay my own personal demons by laying waste to the company that held my life hostage, destroyed me for so long. I have the papers all set to go. A long list of proof of illegal doings of my father, my brothers, my coven, my business. They should all be very pissed right now to be without their demons as well. Their demons are gone as well, right?"

  "I've already called back to the states while you were asleep," Eilean added in. "Another secretary said all of them were huddled in the board room, pissed, shouting, when the anger turned to horrible screams, like they were dying. She'd already been instructed, as all employees have, to not take notice of the sounds in that room. To do nothing or lose their jobs, the insinuation on their life as well. Anyway, she said it had gone quiet for a while, but when they all came out later, they were even more pissed, but looking battered and worn, more so than when they went it."

  "Good," Ciaran growled, a sound that blessed his ears by being all human. "One call, and all that proof goes straight to the proper authorities, local, FBI, everywhere. We will watch on the news their arrests, and then Allanah and I shall go to a house I had built for us on a remote island. Staff already lives there, they care for the place, keep it stocked well. I have money enough to live off of for the rest of our lives, in hidden bank accounts. I can give us a care free life for as long as we live. Say you will live that dream with me, Allanah. Your mother is more than welcome. There is more than enough room. And, if you teleport us there, there will be no trace of us leaving if these men, once in prison, get inspired to have some out in the world seek revenge on us."

  "Give me the key," Allanah demanded.

  Aedan did so.

  When she opened the door, Allanah flew in before he could even think to move a muscle toward getting up. She hugged him so hard that as he wrapped his arms around her, he had to tell himself not to crush her to death. He couldn't get close enough to her. As he did what he could to pull every inch of her against him, the absence of the demon's protests were the most welcome omission ever experienced.

  "I would like it if you would stay here with me, Eilean, for a bit," Aedan interjected,
interrupting Ciaran's thoughts enough that he remembered to breathe. "You can let Allanah and Ciaran settle in to their new life, and I can have some time with my aunt who I never got the chance to know. No one has to know you are here. We can tell the staff you are someone else. Then you can go to the island. Please. I would love to get to know you, hear your stories about my mother when you were both little."

  "Sounds like a plan," Eilean offered, then looked to her daughter, as did Ciaran, waiting for her answer.

  "It all sounds like a hell of a plan. Count me in," Allanah said, letting her tears, happy ones he hoped, finally flow.

  Chapter Ten

  The ruin of his family had all gone as Ciaran planned after the arrests of his brothers and his coven. Since the business still technically belonged to him, and he'd been reported missing, believed dead given what went down, the estate would stay in some sort of legal limbo until his will could be carried out. At that point, his brothers, hopefully still in prison, would get a surprise when it all was liquidated and donated to charities, ones he'd specifically chosen to help right the wrongs of those his father, and his father's father, had screwed over in their lifetimes. He knew it wouldn't personally touch those they'd hurt, as they would have grown old and passed on as well. Still, he liked to think somehow the money would get to their families surviving them, to next generations if they had the same need.

  Allanah and her mother had been reported missing as well. Allanah, last seen with Ciaran, the news reported thanks to those who knew them, didn't hold out much hope for either's return. They'd successfully disappeared without a trace, just as he'd hoped for so long.

  So, they began their new lives.

  She stretched out like a contented cat alongside his sleeping body. Looking down the bed, past her feet, she never tired of the view. The doors of the bedroom left open provided a stunning view the white sand and blue water. This was the only room with an ocean view, the house built in a grove of trees on the island, obscuring it from planes, giving only a lost traveler view to a small portion of the house. It happened rarely, and in such cases, they stayed out of sight, let the staff handle whatever needed to be handled to help the wayward.

  The staff, a nice, aging couple without children or family, took care of the house in exchange for every luxury; a retirement, according to them they never imagined possible. Even here, they were pampered. He'd seen to that. Being together, it proved everything they'd ever wanted, and never let themselves envision beyond a desperate hope.

  The whole place proved unbelievable on a daily basis, no matter how many days passed. Warm sun caressed her skin almost every day, with the exception of a fierce tropical storm which only excited her. Bright and beautiful landscapes spread out before them wherever they turned here, from trees and flowers to sea and sand. The crash of the waves, the sound of his voice, they wrought comfort in a reality she'd never let herself wish for. Beyond that, even though all of it was more than enough, she existed in a real home, like none she'd ever known, with beautiful, rustic walls surrounding her, and comfortable furniture which smelled like him to rest upon.

  He took care of her daily like a princess. Even after months here, he looked at her like she wasn't real, a dream still. She felt cherished, though, like she never thought she would be. He sated her every desire, even some she'd not known she had. Her every need, he met, pampering her with more than any one woman needed. She'd never complain, though. In fact, she made sure to thank him every day until, at times, he'd tease her, chase her, to stop, until they ended up in a tangle of limbs, burning off excess energy.

  He stirred beside her, his hand instinctively tightening on her stomach where it had rested. Her breath caught, as his released, hot and heavy across her skin. The scent of a storm lingered in the humid air, reminding her of how far they'd come. He could no longer affect the weather, only she could. A control thing, or the fact his magick had been demon-spawned, it brought her comfort as each new day began. He'd not lost his bad boy touch, though. He worked out on the island, kept up his endless hills and valleys of cut muscles with hard work and long runs. An edginess remained within him, a constant state of observance, maybe waiting for the other shoe to fall, something bad to ruin all their fortune again, his own demon, per say, to work out after having had to deal with one for so long.

  "Good morning, beautiful," he said in his rough morning voice, making her stomach, tighten ,her core heat, and her ready for him immediately.

  "Good morning to you. Just laying here, still in disbelief as to our luck after all this time, admiring our view."

  "Yes, can't get tired of that, now, can you?" He'd posed the question with a great big grin of an answer grooming his face.

  "No, you can't."

  "We have it all because of you," he said with a sigh.

  "I don't know about that. You were the one determined to change. You could have just stayed, played your family's game. Become richer, I guess. Continued to live that lavish life."

  "Never. I didn't live, exactly, without you. I existed. I managed. But, I didn't live. I fought. For you. For us. On a daily basis, in fact, even if only an internal struggle to find the answers. Still, all those years, and I had the stuff needed for the spell all along. I even had the damn spell. I'd just never looked in the right place. I still can't believe my father filed it with business papers, but then again, I guess I can, because the spell ensured his business. And the fact he had it with all of those ancient contracts. I should have thought of that. I was looking through grimoires, private places, nothing so obvious as to stick it between two bills of sale from the original whiskey distilleries acquired by my family in Ireland. Hell, even if I had thought to look there, I may not have looked that hard, that deep. And, your mother knew, and I didn't bother to talk to her enough..." he left off. "Guess there is no need to rehash it all. It happened as it did, as it was meant to, I guess. All that matters is the now. And, in the now I have you."

  "Yes, you do. So, you are right. You did end up with it. Now we stop wasting time, lamenting time lost, so we can be grateful for what we have."

  "Speaking of gratitude, thank you for doing the spell. Sorry, I just have to say it again."

  "Well, stop. You've thanked me enough. And I almost didn't, if you remember. Without my mom, I may not have completed it. I will never lose that feeling of thinking I'd lost you even before I ever really had you."

  "You always had me. Always. But, now, I'm free. I'm just me. A man, just a man. You can't imagine how that feels."

  "I guess not. Do you wish I didn't have my powers?"

  "Why would you ask such a thing. I mean, especially after yesterday, that little stunt you pulled, stroking me hard while you sat in your swing by the water and I sat in the house attempting to read. Those magickal fingers of yours are amazing, in person, or in energetic form."

  "You and your reading. Never met a man who read so much."

  "Well, it started out as an obsession, research to get rid of that thing inside me. Found I liked the pastime, the way it relieved stress in me."

  "You have stress here?"

  "No, but I have a lot of time to make up for. Now I can just read, whatever Sam can get his hands on through our deliveries."

  "Sam and Sallie are the most amazing keepers of a house ever. So kind. So generous of their time. Speaking of time, remember that my mother will pop in around noon, she said, for her first visit."

  "Pop in, huh? Well then, I better get to it," he said, as he rolled his body over hers.

  The hard muscles, all him, all man, pressed into her soft curves, making her feel like a small woman despite her five feet eight inches. She liked it. Relished all the ways he made her soar. He found her lips, a gentle crush of skin against skin. His kisses came in soft waves over her mouth, her nose, her chin.

  She didn't hold back, her fingers trailing over the peaks and valleys of his back. Seemingly possessed, she stretched her arms to reach his rock hard ass. Already the muscles there tightened, a
gentle flow of movement which rocked him against her.

  Letting her energy flow to her hands, the hot tingle of power igniting at her fingertips, she brushed them along his hips, reaching between them for a better handful. His hips jerked then, making her giggle.

  "You never tire of that, do you?" he accused, though the light sound of laughter hinted at the edges of his tone.

  "Do you?"

  "Never. Like I said, magickal hands. Do what you will to me with them."

  And, she did, planned to, each and every day for the rest of their lives. She gave him pure magick, lifting him to heights he'd never known existed. At the same time, even though all his powers were gone, he repaid her in spades, loving her, caressing her, taking her to places full of passion and love, until her body cried out with contractions and releases, trembles and whispers of magick.

  "You're my everything, Allanah. I love you more than any words any man could come up with."

  "And you, Mr. Byrne, have given me life, a whole world where only we exist."

  To her, he always smelled and tasted of whiskey, a luxury he'd not given up, playing with a small distillery right here on the island. It brought her great comfort, proof he was right there with her, always and forever now. To him, she'd always be witchcraft, a blessing of unworldly gifts that had saved his life.

  Read on for an excerpt from What Lies Within Us by Kiki Howell & Gina Kincade

  Available now on Amazon, and free to read with a Kindle Unlimited Subscription.

  Excerpt: What Lies Within Us

  After receiving a letter from an aunt she never knew existed, Kyna Hughes travels to Ireland only to find out her whole life has been a series of well-orchestrated lies.

  Suddenly, this poor girl from the foothills of the Alleghany Mountains is thrust into a life of not only the wealthy and affluent, but of dark magic and secret societies.