by Patti Larsen
“I should have killed you a long time ago,” he finally said as he regained control. His words vibrated with soft regret in a voice that vibrated like a harp song. “But Mother made me promise to watch out for you and I couldn’t let her down.”
Nicholas snarled in reply. “You’re a soft hearted fool,” he said. “Even now, even this close to perfection.” His jealousy was clear in his face. “You’re wasting it on these humans.”
“And on you?” Sebastian’s glow became brighter. Holy. Swearword. He was magnificent. He seemed to swell and grow, face more kind and open than I’d ever seen it, the hum of his energy now a soft and beckoning call to the core of my heart.
“Syd,” Mom whispered, fingers finding my chin, turning my face from him. “Don’t look, sweetheart.” I fought her, wanted to see, had to watch him. He was a shining silver sun, an angel, a god. I struggled to rise, to go to him. Peace waited for me in his arms.
Pain jabbed through my arm. I cried out softly and looked down. Mom’s sharp fingernails let go of the soft flesh, leaving a mark behind. I met her eyes, full of her tears. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But you can’t look, Syd. You won’t be able to resist him now that you’re powerless.”
I’m not sure if he knew or cared what an effect he was having on us, so focused was he on his brother. Mom pressed my face into her shoulder, hiding my eyes from the sight of him as he said, “Perhaps. But you are my brother and I have always loved you.” He paused as if there was more he wanted to say. Then, out of the corner of my eye because I couldn’t not watch, I saw Sebastian’s shoulders shrug. The intensity of his glow faded enough I was able to turn again and look at him. His sadness was lifted, replaced by an expression of total calm and beauty. “Come then,” he said to his twin, arms wide, “let us end this once and for all.”
I hugged myself as he stood there, an angel of death and blood while his weaker brother crouched, snarling and spitting like an animal.
There was no way Nicholas would win.
He must have come to the same conclusion. I could see his eyes flickering around, as if looking for an exit. Coward.
Hands fell on my arms, fingers as cold as death. Sunny and Uncle Frank crouched over me and my mother. Mom stared at Sunny, desperation on her face. But Sunny simply smiled and took her hands.
I may have been stripped of power, but even I saw the exchange that passed between them. Sunny sighed and sagged as Mom’s face seemed to fill out, her color returning, the bite marks healing in a flash of blue, green, red and white energy.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“The least I could do,” Sunny said.
So clever. Mom hid her power in plain sight, right under Nicholas’s nose. Inside the last person he thought was a threat because he was so sure he knew her.
Nicholas was watching and he howled his fury when Mom climbed to her feet and offered him one of her royal nods.
Sunny helped me up while Uncle Frank went for Dad. My father looked very pale, but okay, so I tried not to worry. Even Quaid groaned and pulled himself upright. I reached out and took his hand. He held mine, eyes widening as he understood.
I was powerless.
I wanted to cry, but refused to. I pulled my hand free of his and looked away. Quaid didn’t try to change my mind.
I think that hurt most of all.
Time to shove aside my own problems. Sebastian stood there, his perfect power pulsing around him in the form of white light while Nicholas faced him, shoulders hunched, his desperation clear. Now that he’d calmed, I was able to resist him. But part of me, the part that missed my demon and was afraid of what that meant, wanted to go to him and let it be over.
“Well?” Nicholas said. “What are you waiting for?”
A flicker of his pain passed over Sebastian’s face. “Farewell, my brother.”
Sebastian was on Nicholas before I saw him move. His beautiful face distorted, fangs jutting from his jaw, his eyes shining white stars in his corpse-white face. Even in full vamp mode, he was stunning to behold. His teeth ripped through Nicholas’s neck, blood flying out in shining red droplets. Nicholas didn’t make a sound, simply fell to his knees, Sebastian crouched over him.
Nicholas’s eyes flickered to Sunny. “Sonja,” he gurgled through the flow of blood. “Help me.”
She stared at him with total contempt on her face. When she did move forward, she instead approached Sebastian who paused, alien face reverting to that of the angel he had become.
It was hard to forget, though, with all the blood running down his chin. Forgive, in a breath. Forget, not so much.
“This is my task,” she said.
Sebastian paused, shuddering from the effort, before nodding at last and stepping away.
She took his place, her stunning face grim and cold. “You asked for my help, Nicholas,” she whispered. “This is all the help I can offer.”
I turned away, but couldn’t block out the sounds she made as she drained him dry.
My eyes sought anything but that and met the next worse thing. Sebastian’s lifted and met mine, five centuries of grief so naked in them, his new power behind the sadness in his heart, I started to cry and, for the life of me, couldn’t bring myself to stop.
“Be well, demon girl,” he said. “It’s not your time yet.”
He nodded to me once, slowly, as though grateful for my grief and acknowledging my personal pain, before flickering into darkness and vanishing from sight.
***
Chapter Thirty Five
I huddled with Mom and Dad while the rest of the vampires and witches took care of Nicholas’s followers. It was horrible and disgusting and I just wanted to hide from it. Dad hugged me close, feeling so normal it made me cry harder.
It was like seeing Sebastian’s grief finally opened my own floodgates. I sobbed so hard my head hurt.
And yet, we were safe. Mom was fine, Dad was… well. Dad was mortal. But at least he was okay. And I was alive. Barely.
I was at the hiccupping stage when Anastasia’s quiet voice finally caught my attention and held it.
“I’m sorry we were late,” she said. “We encountered a barrier to the site and tried everything to break through it. It fell at last but I fear there is more to be told here than just Nicholas’s meddling.”
Mom quickly filled her in on everything.
“When I knew what they were after, I asked Sunny to be host to my power.” It still amazed me.
“But, she betrayed you,” Anastasia said.
“I knew she wasn’t to blame and that Nicholas was using her.” Mom shrugged. “We came up with the plan on short notice. It was the best I could do.”
“Miriam’s power helped me control how much information he received from me,” Sunny told us. “It was a great gift to be able to help you.” Her dimples were adorable and would have had more impact if there wasn’t a spot of blood at the corner of her mouth. I found myself staring at it in horrified fascination.
Mom told the rest, including the sacrifice my demon made. Anastasia’s sympathy almost drove me over the edge again, but I held on.
“It seems this demon of yours is very clever,” she said. “She managed to stop him from his evil plans.”
“Except now he has her.” I couldn’t help but speak up, the words almost choking me. “I have to get her back.”
Anastasia nodded while Dad’s arm went around me on one side and Mom’s enfolded me on the other.
“I shall make it my priority to find him,” she said. “Not just for you, demon girl,” I winced when she used the familiar term, “but because their kind must be rooted out and destroyed.”
Mom nodded firmly. “The coven agrees. Though I am saddened that the line of sorcerers must come to an end this way.”
“What about Sebastian?” He deserved our help too. “What’s happening to him?”
Mom answered. “We don’t know, Syd. But we’ll help him if we can.”
Anastasia sighed softly. “His path
is his own, now,” she countered Mom. “He has become something none of us understand. Perhaps in time we will learn. But for now, he continues to hide from us.”
Mom squeezed my hand. “When that time comes,” she said, “the coven is here to assist.”
Anastasia bowed her head. I was actually starting to kind of like her after all. “That being said,” she saluted, the other vampires falling in behind, “I take my leave of you. I will be in touch.”
They fluttered to shadow and were gone.
All but Uncle Frank and Sunny. I caught them casting glances at each other and couldn’t stand it. There was so much sadness in this one little patch of grass now I had to do something before I died from bawling my heart out.
I grabbed Uncle Frank and dragged him to Sunny, making him face her.
“You two kiss and make up,” I said in a wavering voice, “or I’ll never forgive you.”
Sunny’s little smile was very sad. “It’s not that simple,” she said.
“It can be.” Uncle Frank took her hand. “We need to talk but… I never stopped loving you, Sunny. Or believing in you.”
Mom pulled me back and away from them as Sunny’s beautiful eyes welled with tears. They left together, not another word to any of us, just the whisper of their transformation as they disappeared.
Mom hugged me. “Well done, Syd,” she said. Before pushing me back and looking down into my eyes, her own wide with horror.
“I know,” I whispered. “It’s all gone.”
She had her own tears to shed, then. The coven gathered around us, but I didn’t want them. Just my real family.
Because now I wasn’t a witch anymore. The protective power of whatever divided my entire life was locked in place around my magic. Forced into a latent state, without access to the magic my mother’s blood should have granted me, I wasn’t a part of the coven any longer.
Erica’s stricken face was too much. “Just back off,” I snapped. She did, quickly, almost stumbling over her own feet in her rush.
“Syd, it’s going to be okay.” I looked at Dad who smiled his own sad smile. “We’ll find Demitrius and bring your demon back.”
“What about you?” I couldn’t bear the thought he was stuck here even though the idea of having my dad with me all the time seemed really appealing. “How are we going to get you home?”
Mom touched his face with her fingertips. “Oh Harry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
She sighed then and looked at me, her deep blue eyes serious.
“I want you to think about this first,” she said. “After all, honey, it’s exactly what you’ve been wanting all along, isn’t it? Your freedom?” She exchanged a look with Dad. “This is your chance to be normal, to have the life you’ve always wanted.”
She was right. Maybe I would grow used to how this felt. Maybe I would end up really happy as an ordinary, every day girl living an ordinary, every day life. At least I wouldn’t be at risk anymore, not like when I was a witch.
I looked at Quaid who stared back at me, face a mask. The memory of our magic entwined, how it felt to be with him, the future I knew we were supposed to have together slapped me across the face.
“No,” I said. “It’s not right. I was wrong.” I hugged myself as I understood at last. Whatever drove me to reject my magic made me latent at best and powerless at worst. “And we can’t leave her in the hands of the Chosen. We can’t. I want her back.”
Instead of offering to help or even showing he cared at all, Quaid turned and walked away.
My heart shattered. It wasn’t fair. I’d finally decided what I really wanted and he abandoned me because I was powerless.
Fine. Jerk. Be like that. Maybe this was for the best after all.
I wished I could believe that.
They led me away as Quaid went the other direction. Only then did I remember our friends. There were a pair of witches with him so I knew they were about to be given alternate memories.
As I settled into the back seat of Erica’s car, I knew I had two jobs to do. One, find my demon. And two, uncover what exactly kept me from the life I was supposed to live.
I just had no idea how I was going to do either of those without a lick of power. But I was determined to make it happen.
***
Chapter Thirty Six
Life went back to normal. If you could call normal, well, normal. Which meant everything was horribly wrong.
Okay, not everything. Only my missing power and the fact Quaid avoided me. It still hurt.
Which left me wide open to Brad. He seemed startled the first day I went back to school, and acted a little funny around me, but he still wanted to take me to prom. There was no need it turning him down anymore, so I was all for it.
Take that and stick it somewhere uncomfortable, Quaid Moromond.
As for my friends, they all acted like nothing happened and I wondered how much of the whole thing the coven managed to erase. Mia was back to her normal Pain self and as tight with Blood as ever. They were all waiting for me in the nook at the front door when I returned to school on Thursday after only one day off. All of a sudden it was same old same.
I mentioned Benjamin’s name once and they looked at me blankly like I was nuts.
So I dropped it. Happily.
I had my friends back. That was good. Sort of. It felt weird and kind of wrong and very much like someone rigged it this way. I found myself pulling back from them a bit, only because I felt like such a fraud.
I cried myself to sleep every night, usually with Sassy on one side and Meira on the other, simply unable to cope with the silence and the loneliness that came with missing my demon. At least it saved me my little sister’s wrath. I saw the anger in her eyes when I finally came home and watched it drain from them as she understood what happened. As much as my being a magical cripple dodged her fury bullet, I would have preferred if she was angry. Still, I was really happy to have them there, but also wished they would just leave me alone to wallow.
Mom and Dad were adjusting to living together. In fact if I wasn’t so miserable I would have been happy for them. I caught them giggling and hugging each other a lot.
Ew.
So there I was, powerless, the coven at a loss, even my mother not sure why I wasn’t able to access my human magic. And my demon was out there somewhere, still fighting Demitrius, needing me. Okay, I needed her. Same thing. I prayed every day for Anastasia to appear with news, for one of the coven to arrive and tell me they found the Chosen leader and knew where my demon was.
Every day was a disappointment.
Now the school year was wrapping up and I had yet another dilemma.
I was going to prom and I had nothing to wear.
# # #
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***
Check out this sample of the exciting fourth installment
Book Four of The Hayle Coven Novels
The Wild
***
Chapter One
Two pairs of judging brown eyes rimmed in wrinkles glared at me where I sat. The weight of their stare pinned me to the musty fabric of the stiff and uncomfortable antique wingback. I wanted very much to squirm, to work my way free from the feeling I’d been jabbed through the abdomen like an insect on a corkboard.
Estelle—or was it Esther?—Lawrence lifted her gaze from me long enough to flicker her attention to my mother. At least she hadn’t abandoned me to the untender mercy of the powerful twin witches. Though tiny and bony and almost birdlike, I refused to underestimate them. Known for their ability to strip away the unseen and uncover the deepest secrets, the Lawrence twins were a force to be reckoned with.
Mom sipped her tea from the ancient china cup, the bottom clinking against the delicate saucer with a tiny bell like sound. “As you both are aware,” she said, drawing their attention
, much to my relief, “Sydlynn has lost her magic.”
More than that. Been stripped of it, had it torn from me… okay, so had it leave me. On purpose. My demon half saved us, sure, from Demitrius Strong and his Chosen followers. But she left me. On purpose. And whatever magic drove us apart in the first place, forced that wedge deep and allowed us to split after years of me struggling physically and emotionally with my magic, wrapped me up so tightly when she left I couldn’t even use my regular witch power.
I might as well be normal.
Esther—or was it Estelle?—nodded, her beak-like nose dipping up and down in a pecking motion. “We warned you against such a union.”
I shuddered. They’d spoken in tandem. Magic or no magic, I wanted out. Not only were they quite possibly the creepiest people I knew, I wasn’t in the mood to listen to them give my mother a hard time for marrying Dad. Yeah, he’s a demon. Big deal. That alliance just happened to save their butts a time or two.
Not that they were willing to show much appreciation. One more crappy thing about the coven amid a bunch of crappy things? When it came to gratitude they all had very short memories.
Instead of showing her temper like I would have, Mom smiled instead. “What’s done is done,” she said. “For now, Syd no longer has her demon power.”
Both women fixed me with their beady, horrid eyes again. My right knee started to jiggle from the stress of their attention.
“As it should be.” Again with the echo. Yikes. No wonder they were recluses. There was no way, even in this strangely tolerant town of Wilding Springs, they would ever pass for anything but abnormal.
Mom inclined her head. “We’ve discovered there was a reason for Syd’s hesitancy to use her abilities.” That was a subtle way of describing my need to throw up almost every time I tried to use magic. “Someone or something has attached itself to her and is even now blocking her witch power from emerging.”