“But the demon used that love and tainted it with doubt. I started thinking Nate would hate me because of my power. That he wouldn’t trust me because I could read his every emotion. It convinced me that because Nate was part demon he couldn’t love me, and that was the very worst part of the whole ordeal. It was so dark inside me. I’m not sure I could explain it any better than that. The phase demon used me because I kept my strengthening empathy a secret. I was trying to hide from it, and it used that to control me.”
Unable to hold back, Nate, tugged her toward him and kissed her. “I will always love you, no matter what power you have, and no matter what blood runs through my veins.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered and leaned into him, touching his forehead to hers.
When the moment between them passed, Nate shifted to sit up. Grimacing from the pain, he managed to say, “It came for me first.”
“What came for you?” Jonah asked as he finished bandaging the pilot’s head.
“The phase demon. I felt a biting cold surround me, it kinda went through me, like you guys described on the phone, but it never attained a hold,.”
Jarrett scowled.
James looked at his friend with confusion. “Not that I’m complaining, because the last thing we need is a demon version of Nate—”
“Too late. Already a demon,” Nate teased with a grin.
James grinned and finished, “Demon or not, why didn’t it take control?”
Feeling better by the minute, Nate shrugged. “Good looks?”
Jarrett scoffed, “That’s not it.”
James shifted in his seat gingerly. “Ashley’s experience offers a possibility, emotional weakness. When that phase demon attacked me in Selena’s shop I was wishing I could throw fire like Tracy. It frustrates me sometimes to see what she can do.”
“James, you never said anything,” Tracy said.
He shrugged. “Deep-seeded sibling rivalry I suppose, but I shouldn’t feel that way. Mom and Dad never made me feel less. The point is, I was emotionally weakened with self-doubt. Nate is extremely confidant, and little upsets him. It could be why the demon passed him up as a host. ”
Jonah sat forward, “I’m sorry. As the new guy, I just wanna keep up. Did y’all say he’s a demon?”
“Nate Adams, good to meet you, Detective.”
With a wide smile, Delphene stood, and on her way to the back room to change she patted Jonah’s shoulder. “No worries, Chère, demons are not so tough.”
“Uh-huh,” Jonah mumbled. “I’m starting to think I stepped into Chuck Norris’s version of The Wizard of Oz.”
Nate’s eyes lit up. “Buck up, Dorothy, at least we don’t have singing munchkins, but if you’re missing them, I could pull something out of my hat.”
Jonah chuckled, and the dire mood eased.
Cade stepped forward. “Ash, our pilots need attention. Archdemon claws have poison, and I don’t know how bad Jeremy is. Do you think you’re up to it?”
She nodded and stood. “I’ll give it a try. Mom, could you—”
Cynda offered a tired smile. “I’ll do what I can to help.”
“I’ll take care of Dad,” Tracy offered and grabbed some salves and dressings.
Rederrick winced as she cleaned a cut on his arm. “What I want to know is, what brought this on? Why are they coming at us in a concentrated force all of the sudden?”
“Somebody’s in charge again,” Jarrett said looking at his brother.
Ashley’s fingers fumbled over the unconscious Jeremy’s wounds. Her newfound healing magic failed as she remembered. “Not somebody, but Bellig.”
Cynda dropped a glass jar, spilling the homemade cream on the carpet. Rederrick scowled, Jarrett’s stomach clenched, and Cade closed his eyes as pain lanced through him.
“He’s not dead,” Ashley said softly. She turned and looked at Cade with sympathy. “I felt the truth of it when the demon connected to me. I think my empathy opened me up to the creature's emotions while he was feasting off of yours.”
Jonah had said as much, and before that Cade had even suspected, but hearing the confirmation constricted his heart.
“He can’t be killed?” Cody asked.
“He can die. Everything has a weakness,” Jonah reassured.
“Not that bastard,” Jarrett corrected.
“You may not be far off,” Tracy added.
Jarrett glanced back to her and watched as she began cleaning up the first aid supplies. “I think I know who he is. Or at least who he was. Maybe it can help.”
“What are you talking about?” Cade asked.
“Niall. Actually, Mom found him first. She found mentions of a Viking chieftain by the name of Niall. He lived as a man over one thousand years ago. It took some digging, but I found out he was a descendant of the High Irish King Niall, who fought the Vikings and won. There were many children named Niall after that. However, our Niall was a bastard child of the actual king, born later to a slave woman who was traded to the Pagan warriors during negotiations.
“He grew up of lowly station as a Viking from what I can tell, but somehow proved his worth as a warrior. Over time he became a chief himself and changed his name to Niall. It was originally done as an insult to his father and a warning to other tribes. History says he was a good chief, but was betrayed by his stepbrother and his witch wife.”
“How do you know it’s the right Niall? There has to be hundreds of them,” Jarrett asked.
“Because the witch blinded him with magic. It says she stole the color from his eyes and his ability to see before his stepbrother threw him into a pit to fight for his life.”
Both of the brother’s eyes widened.
Joining them again, Delphene asked, “What happened to him, Cherie?”
“Records say he died that day, but his body wasn’t burnt in true Viking tradition. He was denied that right by his stepbrother, and instead, they buried him in the pit where he perished.”
“Is he a demon then?” inquired Nate.
James sat back, favoring his shoulder. “If he is, he’s like none before him.”
“Why did Collett call him Bellig?” Cade added.
“The phase demon did too. I felt it. Bellig is how the demon knew him, and Bellig is the one who sent them,” Ashley added.
Tracy sighed. “Who knows why, except Collett. I couldn’t find any reference to that name. The closest I came was a book called, A Hundred Years of War. I found mention of a maiden who saved the children of a royal line from execution. The story rang a chord, but nothing much else to go on. I’d keep looking except we won’t have time now.”
“If Niall is the same person Tracy found from a millennium ago, how does it help us?” Cody questioned cynically.
“Knowledge is power. We need to know who he is to have any chance of ending him,” Cade offered.
“Know your enemy, kid,” Jarrett added. “I’ve been in the business of bounty hunting for two centuries, and one of the biggest lessons I learned is to know what you're going against before you confront them.”
“We need to keep looking. If this Bellig was a normal man once, who or what gave him the power he has today, and how can we take it away?” Rederrick added.
James shifted in his seat. “If he’s lived this long, maybe we can’t.”
Cade shook his head. “On the cliffs, Collett said he was like her once, remember? Does that mean they received their power from the same source?”
Rederrick grunted. “I have a hard time equating that monster with Collett.”
“That’s because they're not the same,” Cynda said. “She said he betrayed his purpose. In the book with the symbol, the writings indicate the sword wielder was a protector, and Collett wielded that sword, not Bellig.”
“Their hearts are valiant and pure,” Ashley reminded them of the written text.
Cade’s expression tightened. “Collett’s heart was both.”
“I’m sorry, Cade. I know it still hurts.”
/>
“I’m okay, Ash. You better go tend to Chris.”
Ashley gave him one last look of sympathy and went to the front of the plane to help the other pilot.
“Maybe we need more on Collett to understand,” Rederrick added.
“I don’t see how we can find her, we tried. The lack of memory for both her and the people she encountered made it impossible to track any details,” Cade said, frustrated.
“Isn’t that why we’re going back to Texas?” Jonah asked. “Look, I know I’m the new guy here, but I’m catching on quick. Whatever you’re looking for seems to want to find you pretty bad. So maybe the better question to ask is why?”
“Go on,” Cade urged.
“According to your story, you’ve been a burr under the saddle for this Faction guy a long time. You’ve both been saving followers and potential slaves right under his nose. According to your brother, this Niall, or Bellig, has been building an army of sorts, but to what end? When’s the last time you asked yourselves why he is recruiting them in the first place?”
Nobody offered a reply.
“Listen, I know that sometimes you can get so busy plugging the holes on the ship that you forget the engine is dead in the water. Drug dealers have a goal—money and power, but cops worry so much about the minions that work for them, that the dealers skate by. Accomplished thieves have goals, and whether it be their reputation or the relic they want, the goal is still what drives them. The mafia, serial killers, gang members, politicians—all criminals have a bigger plan, even the dumb ones, and those plans usually center on control, greed, and addiction.
“What’s this guy’s plan? If it is him in this book Tracy read, the guy has been around a long time, and in all that time your perp must have made a plan of some kind. His empire is a secret, his fortune rolls back into his recruiting, and despite the megawatt power y’all keep talking about, I don’t see this Bellig taking up any leadership positions. For that matter, he hasn’t started wars to take over the world even though he already has the resources for one.
“So I’ll ask. What does a thousand-year-old man do with his time? He spends it worried about two werewolves when he has an army of demons? Doesn’t fit. Somehow the two of you, or maybe all of you, are messing with his plans and it pisses him off. Somehow, your Collett was pissing him off.”
Jarrett’s expression grew fierce. “I say we find out how then and piss him off a little more.”
Chapter 30
Everyone took some downtime during the flight. The past couple of days had been difficult to process, especially for Jonah, who could still barely believe what he’d seen with his own eyes.
After helping the pilots and her brother, Ashley snuggled in with Nate across the aisle. The three still carried wounds, but somehow Ashley managed to ease the most vicious injuries using her newfound magic. The talent had taken a toll though, and she was sound asleep in her fiancé’s arms. Still recovering himself, Nate dozed with her, and behind him in a separate area, Jonah heard Rederrick’s light snores and Cynda turning the pages of a book now and then.
Because Chris needed a chance to sleep off the last remnants of demon poison, Cade took a turn as the pilot with Jeremy. Near the front of the plane, Delphene and Cody played with a deck of cards at a small table, while a mumbling James scribbled notes and made drawings. Jarrett stared out the small window in the seat opposite them.
Sitting next to Jonah, Tracy also scoured an old book. Even though he knew sleep was a good idea, Jonah couldn’t find any rest. “What are you looking for?” he asked Tracy.
“Anything to help.”
“Did you try to Google it?”
She smirked, and setting the book on her lap glared at him. “I don’t think the magic of Google covers this kind of thing.”
“You totally Googled it, didn’t you?”
She laughed. “You’re something else, Hall.”
“Who knew?”
“Certainly not me, I wanted to throw fireballs at you the first time we met.”
“Good to know,” he quipped, and stretching his legs, laid back.
Smiling, Tracy picked up her book again. They lapsed into silence for a time. After a couple of minutes of his casual glances she sighed and put the book down again. “Just ask.”
“What?”
“I can tell you want to ask.”
Jonah lifted his brows. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You want to learn about the magic. How it works and how it affects me. I can practically feel your questions on the tip of your tongue.”
“I thought that’s what your sister’s magic did.”
Tracy sighed. “Hall.”
“Okay, tell me then. You’re obviously dying to tell someone,” he countered.
Chuckling at his sarcasm, she tried to think of a way to explain. An idea came to her and Tracy lifted her hand and a small flame came to life in her palm. Jonah wasn’t watching the fire though. Instead, focusing on her eyes, he saw the change in them as she coaxed the fire.
“There’s excitement,” she said watching the flame. She played with red-orange fire, letting it grow and pulling it back again until it was more blue than orange. “Desire, power, and invincibility rise inside when you touch magic, but underneath all of that is a weight of responsibility.”
“Responsibility?”
“Harm no innocent. Those who aren’t innocent—it’s not my place to punish them, even if I want too.” Tracy urged the flame to rise. “It sounds easy, but the fire burns and pulls. You want more. The sensation of magic is inside all the time. My emotions are directly connected to my abilities. When I have a problem, especially in my teenage years, the temptation to use magic to solve every frustration is strong.”
“But it can’t solve every problem,” Jonah guessed.
“No, and it shouldn’t. Sometimes the lesson is lost when magic takes its place. The energy it takes to cast a small flame in your hand is double the energy it would take to light the fire the conventional way. Magic has a price—for every action I take there is a reaction. Either a drain in physical strength as you saw with Ashley, or other mental and physical repercussions.” Tracy closed her hand and put the fire out, then opened her hand again.
Jonah saw the reddened skin of her palm, and reaching out he pulled her hand closer to examine it. “It burned you?”
“Just a little, and since it is a magical burn of my own making it will fade quickly, but any harm I cause will come back on me times three.”
Goosebumps appeared on her arm as he gently ran his fingers over her palm. He watched the burn fade and the color return to normal. “Does it hurt?”
Tracy tipped her head, and her auburn hair fell around her face. “Not really, unless I abuse it and hold the magic for too long or make it too big to control. I cannot indefinitely hold fire in my hand—it needs a place to go, something to feed it. Without wood or fuel it feeds from my energy.
Still holding her hand, Jonah leaned in closer to gaze into her eyes. Her cheeks pinkened under his intense scrutiny. Lowering his voice to a more private level, he whispered, “Did you know that when you use magic your eyes change color?”
His proximity and low tone sent a tingle over her skin. Tracy’s heart picked up pace, and butterflies danced in her stomach. Swallowing, she barely croaked out, “No, I didn’t.”
Jonah grinned. “They do. The green reflects light and your irises look like multi-faceted emeralds.
"Oh," she said nervously.
"I like it.”
“Are you hitting on me, Hall?” Tracy whispered.
“They change when you’re agitated too. Your eyes turn a stormy green. That’s nice too. I wonder what happens when—”
“You’re full of it, Hall,” Tracy interrupted, lightly pushing him back, but he didn't budge.
“No,” he said pinning her with the intensity of his gaze. “I just know what I like, Ms. Williams.”
Cody burst out laughing. “Yo
u really do have mad skills.”
Delphene smiled, and looking across at Jarrett, saw him shake his head.
Nate, in and out of sleep, chuckled too and mumbled, “He’s got moves like Jagger.”
Leaning back again, Jonah laughed good naturedly with them. “Keep watching and the two of you might learn something.”
Tracy smiled with them, but something new was racing through her blood. Jonah Hall had stirred her up in a way no one else had. He wasn’t playing around when he looked at her that way, and she knew it.
Jarrett stood and turning to them said, “You’re lucky the old man’s asleep. He’s still armed.”
With her face hidden behind a book, Cynda hid her laugh.
Jarrett moved past them down the aisle. “Get a room next time, Detective, it’ll be safer.”
Going to the back of the jet, Jarrett found some unoccupied space where he could stretch out a little more and avoid hearing Casanova put the moves on Tracy. He was tired, wounded, and needed a place to decompress. The confirmation that his old master still lived ate at him, and the constant companionship around him was stifling at times. Jarrett needed to think. Generally a loner, he couldn’t do it with them all milling about and making jokes.
He’d grown to like the companionship for the most part, but his life had changed so dramatically, and it happened so fast, there hadn’t been any time to think by himself in a while. Having a brother and friends to keep in touch and consult with was a hard thing to get used to, especially when you spent the better part of two centuries alone.
Determined to get a little rest, and some peace from the chatter before they landed, Jarrett laid back the reclining seat. He propped his feet on the chair sitting opposite of him, and ignoring Delphene’s curious expression, he closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, Jarrett was no longer on the plane. Instead, he was on a beach. He could smell the surf and feel the light breeze pass over his skin. Curious, Jarrett absorbed his surroundings. As dreams go, this one’s not so bad. He turned and was genuinely surprised to see who stood behind him less than ten feet away.
She smiled at him. “You’re tired and wounded, but you’re happier.”
The Truth of Victory: A Powers of Influence Novel Page 27