Witch Hunt (The Hayle Coven Novels: Book Two)

by Patti Larsen

  “I will kill this boy if you fight any longer.”

  Like that was any kind of option. I lunged forward, knees almost giving out, caught by Erica and Quaid who held me back and upright at the same time.

  We can’t, Syd. Quaid’s mind was genuinely regretful. I’m sorry.

  We just need a little more time. I knew Mom was close. Okay, I didn’t, but she had to be by now, right?

  Miriam should be here soon. Erica was thinking the same thing as me. We need a distraction.

  We could pretend to give up. It was stupid. And would put us in the creature’s reach. But it would save Brad. Maybe.

  No one had a better plan. We were out of options and had to do something.

  “All right,” I spoke up, sealing the deal. “Let him go and we’ll come quietly.”

  The thing laughed at me. Laughed. I found my anger again at least, through my fear. It was easy to be mad when I had nothing left to lose.

  “Foolish child,” it said. “I have never been that stupid. Come forward and kneel and I will release the boy.”

  Kneel? Not very likely. I wasn’t even sure walking was an option. But I glanced at Quaid and he nodded and offered his hand.

  “We’re coming.”

  I gripped Quaid’s hand again. I felt his power, but I had nothing left to give. Or did I? My demon shuddered and dug deep and I found a small and sacred reserve. My life energy. That was the last of it. Without it, I would die. But we had no other choice.

  I shielded it from Quaid as I send my thought out to him.

  As soon as we’re in touching distance, we throw everything we have at it.

  He didn’t have to answer. Neither of us were willing to go down without a fight.

  “No!” Erica grabbed at us but we shrugged her off. “I forbid it!”

  Damn it. Why did she have to go and do that?

  We’ll be kicked out of the coven. Quaid didn’t sound like it mattered. Just stating a fact.

  I shrugged mentally. If we live that long.

  Together, we stepped forward. I braced myself as Erica groaned. The creature flung Brad from it like a damaged doll and pounced.

  ***

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The wall of energy hit us only for an instant and I knew we were done. The creature was stronger than we were, far stronger. Maybe if my demon was at full power we could have stood against it, but she barely had enough essence left to keep me alive.

  Magic crackled in ropes of electric blue light, driving between us and the creature. I staggered backward, only saved a fall on my ass by Quaid’s firm grip on my hand. I wanted to sob in relief. I knew the touch of that power.

  Mom stood at the cave entrance, glowing like a pale blue star, the family pouring into the cavern around her. I stared at her as she approached, vibrating with power, a vengeful goddess. The blue of her magic rippled with white vampire power and the green song of the Sidhe, polished by the amber of demon fire. She was almost as horrible to look at as the creature, but I didn’t care.

  Mom to the rescue.

  I tore my eyes away from her and noticed the family wasn’t alone. Sebastian and his people were there, too, gliding toward the creature with deadly intent. It fell back away from us, growling and snarling like a rabid animal. Mom reached us and I felt a rush of power fill me up. She didn’t look at me, keeping her focus on the creature, but her love shone crystal clear, a thrill of energy working its way into my heart and staying there.

  Erica staggered to us and I felt the transfer from Mom to her. “Miriam,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “Sorry to keep you waiting.” Mom shook out her black hair, rippling with energy. “Let’s wrap this up, shall we?”

  Damn straight. I reached for my demon and my confidence fell. The muffled feeling was still there.

  It didn’t make me hesitate when Mom reached for me, Quaid and Erica too and joined us to the collective. As one we faced the creature and gathered our might to drive it into the Earth, to destroy it utterly. I felt rather than saw the family and vampire clan fan out in a semi-circle, pinning the creature against one wall, all of our boundless power coming to bear in that one place.

  Together, we struck at it and tore its life away.

  At least, that’s what was supposed to happen. I think. Clearly Mom was in a murdering kind of mood. Instead, our power hit and recoiled, skimming along the edges of the thing’s shields and dissipating in the walls of the cavern. Like a giant battery, the cave absorbed our power and siphoned it to another user.

  Right into the creature.

  It laughed. And I understood as my mother did, as the collective learned from us and from Sebastian and Quaid who realized it, too.

  “You cannot destroy me,” it said, voice stronger, clearer than it had ever been. Its face changed, body straightening. There was almost a beauty to it now. The near- restored face of a handsome man looked back at us, his lean body filling out, almost normal, if someone so perfect could be normal. Gone were the sharp fangs, the hooked nose. This creature was stunning in his nearness to perfection. I could tell he was more than human, and reminded me of the stories I’d heard of the Sidhe.

  All that aside, I knew we’d screwed up. Rather than destroying it, we revived it further.

  Time to be afraid again.

  “What are you?” Mom’s voice was as calm and level as usual.

  “I am death and evil and eternity,” he said, and for the first time I thought of him as a person and not a creature. “I am Cesard.”

  Sebastian moved forward in a liquid flash of vampire speed, face composed and curious.

  “You are of vampire blood,” he said. “And yet, I do not know your power.”

  “Yes,” Cesard said. Something flickered around him, a flash of red light. His face twisted and when he spoke, his voice had changed, the yellowed fangs I remembered suddenly appearing as his entire form morphed. He was still himself in a bastardized form, but more. This was the creature who killed the Chosen. “I am the Master of Blood.”

  NO, a mental voice boomed in our heads, making me wince as his body filled out, his skin flushing red. I AM TORSH, DEMON LORD OF ALL PLANES.

  “No,” the man’s voice said, his attractiveness returned, “I am of the Firbolg, first mage of the old land.”

  And when that voice spoke, I understood the truth for the first time. The creature wasn’t a hybrid of four powers but a man, caught between the forces and entities struggling to inhabit his body with him, crushing him under them.

  Sebastian moved closer. “We do not know you, Cesard. Or the Firbolg. From whence come you?” For some reason he fell further into his archaic speech, so much so a hint of an accent cropped up. He sounded sort of British all of a sudden and I wondered how old Sebastian really was.

  “I am of the first folk.” Cesard looked at my mother. “She carries our cousin’s power with her, that of the Sidhe.” He seemed stronger and I wondered if he kept the other two from attacking us.

  It started to click together. History lessons learned as a girl. Old tales of the Sidhe and their rivals. The battles for their Irish homeland.

  He shuddered and the vampire returned. “I will drain you dry.” Gravel over glass again. The personalities were becoming more distinct now that it wasn’t so weak. “I will use your power to spread my taint across the world.”

  I WILL CRUSH YOU, the demon said as Cesard’s face hardened to a red tinted mask, AND EAT YOUR BONES BEFORE I RETURN TO MY PLANE. THERE I WILL GATHER MY FOLLOWERS AND BRING THEM HERE TO RULE YOUR WORLD FOREVER.

  Two God-complexes and a Firbolg witch with serious multiple personality disorder. Great.

  He/They attacked without warning. We were almost unprepared, so absorbed by his/their story our shields were weak. But Mom never let her guard down and Sebastian hadn’t either because they formed the point we fell behind, allowing the surge of force to separate and slide down either side of us like a knife through butter.

  Do no
t attack, Mom sent out. Only defend. We can’t afford to make this thing stronger.

  We have to get it outside. I knew I was right. The cavern was the key.

  Perhaps, Sebastian sent. Allow me?

  Mom let him feel her approval.

  “Standoff.” He smiled at Cesard. Actually smiled. It drew a nervous grin to my lips. He obviously had cast iron… well. You know.

  The demon growled in its bass mental voice while the vampire hissed and spit. Cesard only nodded.

  “You learn quickly,” he said.

  “You leave us no choice.” Sebastian looked about with a casual air. “What is this place, exactly?”

  “A prison,” the ancient magician said while the demon roared and the vampire wailed.

  “For whom?”

  ME. The demon’s rage rose up. BUILT BY THOSE WHO OPPOSED MY GODHOOD. BUT I SHALL NOW HAVE VENGENCE.

  “And you, Cesard, came to be here how?”

  Was Sebastian serious? I for one didn’t give a crap about this guy’s life story. I just wanted to kill him and get it over with. But that wasn’t so true anymore. The part of me still harboring compassion felt bad for the man inside the creature.

  I wasn’t the only one I guess because no one protested when Cesard spoke. Mind you, we were ready for a surprise attack this time. The demon and the vampire inside him kept flickering around him as he paced back and forth, searching for a way to destroy us.

  “A plague,” Cesard said, “came to us, in glowing Parthalon on the Emerald Island. A great spirit fed the disease, killing everyone it touched, draining their blood and their life.”

  A plague? A vampire plague? Even Sebastian looked perplexed.

  “As we know it,” he said carefully, “our kind were born from a genetic mutation.”

  “Not so,” the vampire spirit snarled. “I am your creator, weak child.”

  “When it came to us it had already planted its seeds on the continent,” Cesard said. “Your ancestors. But within me is the fount of your kind. The creator.”

  The vampire laughed and struck. The air around us shimmered red. But without the combined energy of the magician and the demon, it did little but startle us. Mostly because the color seemed all wrong. Vampire magic was white.

  “Fascinating,” Sebastian said as if nothing happened.

  “I tracked it,” Cesard said, “and trapped it in battle, in order to save my people. I fought it for days and days, far across the Great Water, until we reached this land. The spirit knew it was losing at last, felt its death coming and did the cowardly thing. It entered me, whole and evil, and drove us both to insanity.” His face twisted in grief. “Tell me, sorceress, did they survive? Are the Firbolg as yet the masters of the Green Island? Or was my effort wasted?”

  Mom’s shoulders slumped just enough I caught it. I already knew the answer. Although until now, history didn’t understand why the Firbolg disappeared.

  “Alas, they did not,” she said, going all archaic too. I wondered if it was catching. “Your people vanished from existence and no one knew of their fate. Until now.”

  He wept while the vampire laughed and the demon roared his mirth.

  When Cesard lifted his head, there was more determination there than ever. “Then I must win this fight,” he said. “In their name.”

  A kind of twisting battle went on within and around him for a moment. When it was over, the vampire snarled at us.

  “He is weak,” it said, “and lies. I was not losing. I only saw the benefit of having his body for my use. And when I took him over, I had his magic for my own.”

  The next attack was so obvious I don’t think anyone was surprised. It hammered against us, the remnants recoiling into the walls and feeding the thing that was Cesard and the demon and the vampire all over again.

  When it broke off at last, I was sweating. The energy Mom gave me wore thin. My demon wanted to fight, but even she admitted we were near the end of our usefulness.

  It just wasn’t fair. I so owed Demitrius a kick in the ass.

  The vampire tired itself enough that Cesard took control. “There were people here then. Fresh and youthful in their development. I was evil, you must understand. The spirit had me utterly. We attacked and devoured so many. But the Susquehannock were powerful in magic and trapped me in this cavern, sacrificing many of their tribe in order to lead me here.”

  THEY DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS ALREADY A PRISON. The demon’s laughter shook all of us physically from the mental volume of it. NOR THAT THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT WOULD WAKEN ME FROM MY SLUMBER.

  “They guarded us for centuries. Until your kind came from over the Ocean and brought disease and slavery and death.” Cesard shuddered within his prison of power. “The demon and the spirit of blood made a pact to share my body, in the hope it would be enough to break us free.”

  “It wasn’t.” Mom’s voice was very gentle.

  “No,” Cesard said. “The wards in this place are older than even we and cut off the demon’s power completely from all elements. All it did was weaken us all. Every attempt to break out using our power was absorbed by the cavern and returned to us. Only by rejecting that magic, by weakening ourselves to the point of death, were we able to find a crack in our prison and allow a sliver of us to rise.”

  That had to be what the Moromonds sensed and tried to access. No wonder he was pissed. Centuries of unlimited power and no way out except by almost killing himself. Talk about frustration.

  But it answered my question about my magic. “That’s what’s wrong with me.” I only whispered it but Cesard heard. Damned vampire ears.

  “It is, demon child. The original wards were set for your kind. And even though we strengthened him, he is still reduced.”

  I AM A GOD. The demon Torsh pounced on us with his power, but I felt how puny he really was. Like me. My own demon hissed spitefully at him.

  “He would not leave us,” the vampire spirit snarled. “We have been stuck with him for eternity, unable to leave because he would not let us go.”

  “Trapped here, forever.” Cesard was so full of agony we all felt it, shared in it. “Until they came. The seekers, feeling around our prison. They widened the hole, the crack we found in the seal.”

  I was right. The Moromonds.

  “It was enough to allow us to force it wider, a bit at a time. And when the mortal soul came near, so weak and pathetic, it was simplicity itself to take her mind in ours and crush it to our will.”

  Suzanne didn’t stand a chance.

  “Her blood was sweet,” the vampire spirit said with so much hunger I wanted to puke. “But you interrupted us.” It slapped out at me and Quaid, but couldn’t get past the barrier.

  All three of the entities inside the man screamed in frustration. That was the first time I noticed I was getting tired for some reason. Really? At a time like this? I shook off the weariness pushing against my eyelids and paid attention.

  “You knew hiding here would keep you safe.” Sebastian glanced at Mom.

  “Yes,” Cesard said. “While we fed. And recovered our strength. Our weakness had gone so far we were unable to reclaim our original power.” He looked up and his eyes met mine for a moment before turning to my mother. “You will not destroy us, sorceress. As much as you are planning and plotting even as I speak. You think I have granted you time to form a method of my ending, but it is you who have allowed me in.”

  The exhaustion grew rapidly worse. Of course. It wasn’t normal. Or natural. It was a total set up.

  “We are ancient,” Cesard said.

  “We are all powerful,” the vampire snarled.

  WE ARE A GOD. Torsh roared.

  The four-pronged energy formed up into a spinning tornado of power. They wanted us all there. It was a trap, a trick, so they could steal our energy, to replace what they gave up for their freedom.

  When they attacked this time, it wasn’t a blow but a draw so powerful I almost passed out as they siphoned away our magic.

  **
*

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  I was the first to hit my knees but knew some of the weaker witches weren’t far behind me. I watched my mother’s face pale and knew she was in trouble. There was no way to fight the draw, no defense against it.

  “You have no recourse,” Cesard said as Sebastian wavered, his flawless face sinking slowly into wrinkles. “I will take your power and use it to rule this world and when I have taken all it has to give me, I shall move on to the next.”

  Quaid fell beside me, his hand outstretched to mine and I took it, desperate. Maybe he and I could do something, anything.

  But there was nothing. No spark, no connection. It was gone and we were almost used up.

  Mom staggered, but held her ground as I slowly toppled on my side. Her eyes met mine, so much love there I would have cried if I had the energy. As it was I felt like I had been wrung out like a wet rag and tossed aside. When I fell, I landed across Brad’s chest and my hand slid across his leg, coming to rest against something cold.

  I was suddenly okay. Better than okay. Full power, access to an excited demon, all of it. I moved my hand in shock, ready to get up and fight and collapsed again, empty.

  What the hell was that? I looked down and saw something glittering in Brad’s hand. The necklace with the sparkling heart dangling from it. I had to touch it again, to move my fingers, but it was so hard. My muscles didn’t answer me when I told them to. Desperate, I reached for my demon.

  She slammed what energy she had into my arm and together we clasped the pendant.

  There it was again. I was okay! I struggled not to give myself away. I needed to use this to our advantage. But how? And why? It had to be the power connecting me to Brad. But I broke up with him. I gave the thing back.

  But he hadn’t accepted. So his part of the power was still there. And it shielded us both.

  Cesard must have known something was wrong. He spun and focused on me again, one clawed finger pointing at me.

  “Demon child!” He roared. “You will not!”

  I climbed to my feet and held up the necklace, clasped in my fist. “Too late, asshole.”