Burning Blood: Bonds of Blood: Book 2

by Daniel De Lorne

  Wresting himself from the demon’s command, he landed in a Tanzanian savannah. The sky opened above him. The grass waved at the stars. He fought against the pounding of Xadrak’s will and roared, the sound galloping up his chest and out his mouth to trample the night’s stillness. He fell to his knees, his cry continuing until he ran out of air. Xadrak retreated and he detected a hint of pleasure.

  And why shouldn’t the demon be pleased?

  He was its creature.

  And it wouldn’t be long before his shields shattered completely, revealing all he didn’t want Xadrak to know. He lay back and lost himself in the swirl of the Milky Way. Endless stars, an expanding universe.

  All mine, Xadrak snarled, then speared him with his jagged claws. He writhed as thick nails stabbed his nerves.

  He didn’t know how long the torture lasted, only that when it did end, his face was wet with tears, and his lip bloody.

  Xadrak slashed his mind.

  You will come now!

  Waking alone, Hame’s body tingled from the long night before. They’d made love three times until they’d finally fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Reluctantly, he pushed away the memories of Carn’s body pressed against his and got out of bed, showered, dressed, and summoned Aurelia.

  She flew into his arms when he opened the door. He held her as tight as she held him. He breathed her in, that rich aroma of bergamot, the sign of her magic, the essence of her. It filled his nose and warmed him.

  “I can see again.”

  She hugged him harder. “Oh,” she said, her voice a sigh heavy with relief.

  He grudgingly let her go, took her hand in his, and led her to the couch.

  “Is that why you called me? You saw something?”

  He nodded. “I need your help.”

  “Is it Carn?” she said in that way.

  “Yes, but before you say, ‘I told you so’, please listen to what I have to say.”

  “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

  “No, but I need you to hear it all.”

  Her eyes brimmed with all the suspicions and assumptions salivating for Carn’s demise. His grip tightened. He’d hold her down if he had to.

  “Of course,” she said starkly.

  “A part of Xadrak is inside Carn.”

  “What?” She shot to her feet, but he wrestled her back to the couch.

  “Sit down!”

  Her skin grew warm, a warning to let her go. But he couldn’t. She was wild enough to find Carn now and flay him.

  “You promised you’d listen.”

  “The rest can wait until he’s captured and contained. How long have you known this?”

  He didn’t answer. His palm sweat from the fire in her arm. He squeezed, and the pressure forced her to look at what she was doing. She winced and the heat stopped, replaced with a coolness that spread through his body and unwound his muscles.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Are you going to listen?”

  “Will you be honest with me?”

  “I may not have always told you everything, but I’ve always been honest.”

  “Bloody oracle and your tricks,” she muttered. “Very well, I will stay, but it’s my decision what I do with what you tell me. And if Carn has…” She shook her head, not in disbelief, but in…

  Sympathy.

  His teeth clenched to stop him from smiling. “Thank you, Aurelia.”

  He removed his hand from her wrist, but she quickly reached out and took it back.

  “When he was taken by Xadrak, the demon left a part behind in exchange for power.”

  “He’s been infected that long?”

  He nodded.

  She sniffed. “He was always power hungry. No matter what I gave him, it never would have been enough.”

  “But if you’d been kinder to him, valued him, then maybe he would have told us when it happened.”

  She scoffed. “He made his own choices, and he’ll have to die by them.”

  “He’s not going to die.” His arms clenched like a warrior preparing to enter the fray. “You’re going to help me save him.”

  She blinked at him. “You’ve got to be joking.”

  “Your jealousy has blinded you.”

  “Your lust has clouded your visions.”

  “For the first time in centuries, I’m seeing clearly. It’s not lust but love.”

  “Pssh.” She rolled her eyes. “Love makes us all fools.”

  “Then I was a fool to follow you for so long.”

  “That’s different.” She rose from the couch.

  Blood thundered in his veins, spurring him towards the battle. He wouldn’t let her escape from the truth. “How? I love you. I always have, and it goes deeper than what I have with Carn—”

  She scowled at him. “All the more reason to be rid of him.”

  He rode over her scorn. “But you both give me strength. We will never beat Xadrak if the two of you can’t stand firm together. I need both of you. Without one, I cannot survive for the other.”

  “I can’t forgive him for what he’s done.”

  “Then we’re doomed.”

  “I can kill Carn.”

  He shook his head. “Not in your current state. Xadrak is inside him; imagine the power he has. And if you front him now, he’ll best you, and with your death Carn will be lost forever.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it will break him. Xadrak’s triumph will surge through him and destroy his remaining resistance. He’s already weakened.”

  “Then why doesn’t he ask for help?”

  “If he does, he’ll fall. It would signal his failure, that there is nothing left to defend against Xadrak. He can’t even bring himself to tell me.”

  When they had made love the night before, he’d understood how deeply Carn’s despair ran. He’d fucked him at first, a hard, fast pounding, and he took it all, because Carn needed some release. He couldn’t talk about it, couldn’t admit it, because the shame had eaten away at him and Xadrak had filled the gouges. He’d come with a shout like the cry of a wounded beast. They laid together for a while before Hame rekindled the flame and entered him. He’d shown him his love, shown him that there was good worth saving. When Carn took him again, there’d been tenderness and communion.

  For a while, they had been whole and as one.

  He wanted that back with a ferocity that hollowed his chest. His face must have shown his sorrow and his need because Aurelia squeezed his arm.

  “What can I do?”

  XIII

  Carn rechecked his deepest hidden shields, then cloaked himself to mask his presence on the astral. He set his course to Xadrak, drawn by the part of the demon that had spread its contamination throughout his body. The beauty of the savannah faded as he descended to the darkest levels of the astral. He itched to illuminate his way, but Xadrak would see it as a weakness, and he was already out of favor for making the demon wait.

  Slimy things shimmered as he dove into a cave. As the demon’s influence dragged him closer, the light turned murky grey and revealed Xadrak. His red eyes shone like a beacon, his madness leeching out and staining the air crimson. Part of Carn buzzed at being so close to the source. The rest of him turned quiet.

  “Hail, my lord Xadrak.” He bowed.

  The demon grabbed him and hoisted him up to within inches of his lined and leathery face. Carn swallowed hard.

  The demon snarled. “I sense you are unhappy with my plans.”

  “No, my Lord. I live to serve.”

  Xadrak’s lips moved into something that could have been a smile but could also have been in preparation for biting off his head.

  “You forget I see and feel everything within you.”

  “I am honored to be one of your chosen.”

  “You lie; yet you still have your uses. Otherwise you would not be alive now.” Xadrak ditched him like he was nothing more than a doll.

  He skidded across the cave’s floor, his skin scraping and peel
ing. He winced but knew better than to fuss. He hurried to his knees and bowed his head again.

  “I am unworthy, my Lord.”

  “Too right you are.” Franz emerged from the shadows, his singsong voice tickling Carn’s ear.

  The witch was Xadrak’s head acolyte, the only one to escape Aurelia’s slaughter in Salzburg. The grey-haired man’s eyes half-protruded from their sockets, and his mouth bore a rictus. But he had little mirth. Only when he destroyed one of Aurelia’s followers did he show joy. Carn had himself to blame for those deaths, until he’d removed himself from her coven’s operations.

  “You cannot be trusted and should be exterminated.”

  “Do not be so hasty, Franz.” Xadrak’s voice rumbled like a barrel of bones tossed down a hill. “I have learned that speed leads to mistakes, and mistakes often lead to failure.”

  “Of course, my Lord.” Franz’s head cocked to the side. “I only meant he should not be privy to your plans until he has shown his loyalty.”

  “My loyalty is without question,” Carn snapped. “I have brought the Lord followers. I have slain his enemies. I have created for him a vessel through which he may return to Earth in glory.”

  “Ha!” Franz surged forward. “You do only that which you cannot avoid. You are an eel, Carn, slippery in the extreme. What of the witch I sent you to recruit? I have not seen him yet.”

  He had forgotten all about Roland. He’d asked for time to think about it, and Carn had agreed.

  “I was going to bring him to you today.”

  “How convenient. You want to prove your devotion? Kill the oracle.”

  Carn’s body cracked like a whip. He scrambled to hide his terror, but it was too late. Xadrak had tasted it.

  “Yes, the oracle must die,” the demon said.

  “But my Lord, he is of use.”

  “Not anymore. When was the last time he gave a prophecy of value? Kill him, and your loyalty will not be questioned again.”

  His heart sprang into his throat. “This is a mistake, my Lord. A decision made in haste.”

  “Do not lecture me!” Xadrak swooped down on Carn, forcing him to cower. “I allowed you to shield his visions from seeing the scope of our plans while he still gave prophecies that would benefit us. But too much time has passed since he gave anything we could use. Your toy is broken, and now the only worth the oracle has is to prove my benevolence has not been misguided. You will kill him today, or you and the oracle will be dead by morning.”

  He didn’t care about himself, but if he were dead, he couldn’t protect Hame. Aurelia wouldn’t save him; to her, he was simply another soldier in the war, an acceptable casualty.

  Xadrak’s gaze bore into him, waiting for a response, and not just a verbal one. The demon had to feel it. He put his racing pulse to use, seeding it with a fanatic’s love until his whole body purred.

  Before he even spoke the words, he knew Xadrak approved.

  “As my Lord commands.”

  XIV

  Aurelia settled herself in her mother’s sanctuary. Heart thudding in her ears, she struggled to find the calm she needed to ascend into the astral. Usually she could do it with as little effort as drawing breath, but now…

  This must be done.

  After many attempts, she finally slipped over and appeared in a replica of the chamber. She stood, gazing around the sanctuary. The stones in the wall appeared too sharp and grey. The obsidian in the altar looked as deep as space. The candles burst with light. The place had been carved into the astral.

  “You haven’t been here much, have you?” Sinara’s disembodied voice preceded her arrival through the stone wall. The white demon, wings resting at her back, tail alert, smiled.

  “No, not much. It reminds me too much of Elaine.”

  “I come here a lot.” She walked over to the altar. Her fingers touched the athame and the wand. “I come precisely because it reminds me of my life back then.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  Sinara looked up. “Of course. Not for who I was, but for what I achieved.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you know what my greatest achievement was?”

  She shrugged. “Managing to contain Xadrak?”

  “You.” Sinara changed into Elaine.

  Aurelia’s spine turned to lead. “I asked you not to appear as her.”

  “I am her.” The demon’s synthesized voice changed to her mother’s familiar huskiness. “I never meant to treat you the way I did.”

  Frost blew through Aurelia’s lungs. She held up her hands. “Please don’t make excuses. What’s done is done.”

  “Do you remember before I left you with Henri?”

  A few memories surfaced, one of her father giving her knucklebones and she begging her mother to play, which she did and let her win every time.

  “Barely. I was too young.”

  “Then you can’t remember how much I adored you. How even Henri loved you.”

  She shuddered. Whatever he had been, he’d tainted the moment he’d raped her.

  “But you left me behind.” She turned away, eyes stinging.

  “I was frightened. At that time Henri was the lesser evil.”

  Aurelia’s stomach squeezed and bile rippled up her throat, making her gag. She shook to dispel the memory.

  “But you could have taken me later.”

  “I know. And for that I’m sorry. But you survived. You’ve lived longer than I ever had a chance to. You have persevered.”

  Hot iron spiked in her, and she spun round like a baited tiger. “I didn’t want to survive. I wanted to live. I wanted love.”

  Elaine attempted to get near her, but she backed away.

  “I do love you. It might not be the way you wanted, but there was love. I have watched all you have become and kept my distance because I didn’t want to cause you more pain. I know you fight for me, for us, for the world, but still you must know I would change everything if I could.”

  She didn’t want to hear any more. Hame would have to find another way…

  “Do you remember the night I died?”

  Aurelia’s hands trembled. She clenched them but her arms shook. “You died because of me and my foolishness.”

  “No, no, my darling, I died to save you. Because if Xadrak was going to take anyone, he was going to take me. You had to survive. Nothing else was—and is—more important to me.”

  Aurelia wiped at the tears blurring her vision. She refused to give in. If she did, she’d drown. But the closer Elaine came, the less she wanted to run. Warm arms circled her, causing her to stiffen, but it passed, and sobs racked her body. She cut away the hate she’d carried like a boulder around her neck. She slipped into her mother’s comfort. It had always been there, beaten and bruised, yet everlasting. Elaine’s hand brushed her hair, the gesture so familiar, so ancient, that more tears broke free.

  She closed her eyes and drifted in her mother’s embrace. Unfettered, she sailed above the pain that had tied her down. The memories remained—the times she’d lost and found her mother, the scalding pride that stopped her from seeking her out, the substitute Liesel had provided, the wasted years—and they’d shoot her down if she let them.

  No more.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “There’s nothing to apologize for.” Elaine kissed her hair.

  She unpeeled herself from her mother’s embrace.

  “Are you ready?” Elaine asked.

  She opened her mouth to object. She didn’t want Sinara to think she’d only done this to get power, but then she looked at her mother’s face, at the soft, kind smile, and the understanding eyes.

  “Willingly and gladly.”

  Elaine’s fingers rushed up to hide her widening grin. Her eyes glistened before she closed them. Her breath quaked as it rushed out through her fingertips. Then she reached forward with a shaking hand and placed it on Aurelia’s chest.

  Her back tensed. She’d given any number of witches hell when in
creasing their gifts; she expected all seven circles of Hell from this. Her heart thumped faster. She gritted her teeth and screwed her eyes shut.

  It started.

  But it wasn’t anything like she’d expected.

  Warmth spread from Elaine’s hand, through Aurelia’s chest and into her heart. Power suffused her like tea steeping in a pot. More energy flowed and Elaine’s full essence unfurled, and with it came the truth of her mother’s love. Knowing it had been one thing, but now she felt it completely.

  She saw through her mother’s eyes, felt her mother’s heart blaze with fierce love for her children, the pride of watching them grow. She bore the agony of leaving them behind, the horror of Olivier and Thierry’s downfall, and her sucking guilt.

  She gasped at Sinara’s love for Xadrak before he’d fallen.

  She took it all in, opening herself fully and accepting it freely.

  Elaine’s hand pulled back, but the power continued to flow inside her. It twinned with her own and pulsed with her heartbeat. She smiled at the buzz.

  “So much strength,” she whispered.

  Elaine laughed. “You’re going to need it.”

  Then Hame beckoned.

  XV

  Carn shuddered into his body and traveled the moment his eyes opened. Xadrak lurked inside him, waiting for him to slay Hame, deep behind shields in a part of himself even he struggled to pinpoint. He buried his true intentions, but meanwhile he cast a spell over his mind to fool the demon into believing he’d returned home.

  Instead, he landed outside Peter’s house. It was early evening, but at this time of year the light had already gone. Damp air clung to him. Through the window, he watched the family eating dinner at the table.

  Diana made a mess of the spaghetti, using her hands more than the fork she wielded. Jane attempted to get her to eat, but Diana was having none of it and squealed when her mother came near. Peter laughed, and his wife glared before cracking. Diana giggled, thinking it was something she’d done. Peter, taking advantage of his daughter’s good mood, proffered food, and she opened her mouth without fuss and ate properly. She gave him a sauce-covered grin, and he smoothed strands of hair out of her face.