"Antonio you will lead a pack to go back to the house and kill all the wolves. Once they are out of the way you will bring me the prophet and Grayson. I'm sure he hasn't gotten in a good feeding since I left him there, so he should be weak enough for your minions to overtake. I will find a way into that damn room so that I can get the bitch myself. Once I have her, I will take her to Damien and he will be ever grateful to me and my loyal followers." She gave him her snarl, which she thought was sexy.
Well kiss my ass, the vamp bitch was going to double cross Aaron and hand me over to Damien herself. I'll be damned if I was going to let that happen, let alone let her go and kill all the wolves.
I turned to head back into the room but found that the door was gone. Where did my room go? There wasn't a door anymore, only darkness and hell fires scattered here and there. Off to the left there was a murky, nasty river, I can’t say flowing, more like creeping past and there were withered bushes and rocks scattered everywhere.
Finally I clicked inside of my head. My oasis was literally that, an oasis that wasn't real. It was all magic ked and false. Aaron must have had that witch create the space for me inside of this barren waste land.
Since I couldn't get back in through my door, I did the only thing I could think of. I was going to have to put myself back inside my body from out here. Great, first time out and I get stuck doing stuff that I have no clue how to do.
I slowly felt the tug of my body as I stood there concentrating on where it had been lying. I pictured the place where I lay down and how my body felt against the cool earth. I imagined the grass that was touching my arms and how comforting it was for me. The tug became stronger and I felt my ghostly form being sucked right back into my body and then the rush of air as it entered my lungs.
I sat up and took a deep breath, it felt amazing to be back in my body, breathing air. Aaron fell back and just stared at me.
"What the hell did it not work?" he asked out of breath.
I just looked at him before I threw a right punch and decked him in the nose. I heard and felt it break under my knuckles and then I felt the warm blood cover them, and I reared back and did it again.
He just missed the second punch, so I got up to my feet and backed away from him. I instantly began surveying my surrounding. There was the beautiful stream that had been transformed from that nasty muck that was in the Underworld.
"You broke my nose. Did you lose your mind on the other side? Bitch." He muttered. It was more like he mumbled the words because of his broken nose, his words were now muffled and weird sounding. He better be glad that's all I did.
"You sorry ass, son of a bitch, you brought me to the Underworld! How could you?" I yelled at him, unable to keep my temper.
I could feel magic back building inside of me and my fingers were beginning to get warm. He stood there looking at me with shocked eyes. He set his nose before trying to speak to me anymore. It didn't help any, it was swollen and anyone could look at him right now and realize that he had been punched.
"You broke my nose, you crazy bitch!" he managed to get out through gritted teeth.
"You brought me to the Underworld, so I don't call us even yet. I say I'm only leveling the playing field. You give me a surprise move, I retaliate much worse than you would have ever expected." I seethed at him.
"How do you even know? I thought you were only projecting to the bedroom?" he asked as he wiped the blood off his chin.
"I did astral project to the bedroom, but you couldn't see or hear me and I was just about to put myself back in when I heard an argument from outside. Well curiosity got to me and I decided that I would go and see what was going on. When I stepped through the door, what do I discover? I find out that I am in the Underworld in a room that has been created by magic, and all of this is nothing but a big lie!" I finished in a yell.
"Well where else did you think I would take you? I'm a dark creature, I thrive in this place. Since I have moved down here, my powers have gotten stronger than they ever could have living up top. And if I didn't live down here, I wouldn't be able to have this many followers if I didn't stay down here, being down here they look at me as one of their own. Living up top they looked at me like I was weak and pathetic so I would have been a fool to have stayed up there." He was talking in a normal tone, I guess he was trying his best to not yell and get angered.
I scoffed at him, "Followers? You think you have followers; you only have weak fools who think that they have found someone who will help get them free. They would follow anyone if they thought they could do that. I also hate to tell, but your follower Affinia, she and her vampire buddies are planning a double cross on you. I saw them talking outside of here and she is pissed off at you. You promised her Grayson and you didn't deliver, so she is sending back some vampires to kill off all the wolves and capture him and Jace. Then she plans on handing me over to Damien herself for the freedom of vampires." I told him, but this time I kept my voice at a normal tone also, I didn't want to yell anymore.
"Are you serious? How could she do that? She doesn't have the numbers to kill all the wolves and I really doubt Grayson will let her get the drop on him again. As for the prophet, he will be safe as long as he stays inside of the ward you created. Your magic is still there and it will continue to work just fine. As for getting to you, that's just downright impossible. This room was made to only allow you and me to be in here, no other dark creature is granted entry. She will not be able to do any of the things that she is planning." He said as if this was no real news to him and it was just a normal conversation.
"Really, you're going to act like this is not a big deal. First off, I bet she has many more vampire followers than you really know about. She is a lady of the vampires; she is a creator so I am damn sure she has many children that she has made that will do her bidding. I'm certainly sure that they will obey only her and not think twice about killing or over turning you. Second, Jace cannot stay in that house forever, and besides he doesn't know that he needs to. He doesn't realize he is in any danger from them at this moment, he hasn't been warned. And third, and most important, I AM NOT STAYING HERE! I will not stay in the Underworld, the one place that I never, ever wanted to go to. You have really lost your freaking mind if you think that I am staying here, especially after all that I have just learned." I told him with complete authority.
He just grinned at me like I was a kid and I was telling him a fantasy story.
"Alright, I will go along with the fact that she probably has more followers than I thought of, so yeah she might be able to kill off the werewolves. As for Jace" he said with disgust, "He might not know he's in danger, but you can just send him a message and let him know that he is. But as for you, you will not be leaving here. You won't accept your dark powers so you have no choice but to stay here." He sat down on the bed and smiled his smug smile.
Oh, I was really starting to hate this guy again. How did I ever think he was a way to help me? He is so arrogant and cocky and for Pete’s sake I asked a dark creature to help me. I must have idiot on my forehead. How the hell am I going to get out of here?
"Ok, so I see you are trying to figure out a way to get out of here. I need to go and see what I am going to do about Affinia and her obvious betrayal. But as for you, just stay here and get comfortable, you're going to be here awhile." He hopped off the bed and left the room.
With him gone, that left me standing there fuming mad and nothing to take it out on.
Chapter 18--Accepting the truth
For at least an hour I tried all of the magic spells that I could come up and even made up some of my own, but nothing helped me transport out of here. I'm sure if Hermione was real she would have already gotten us out of here, shame I can't be like her.
"AHH. What the hell was I thinking? It's almost lunch time and I have to find a way out of here so I can get back to my friends." I collapsed on the bed in exasperation.
I closed my eyes, listening to my inner self, trying to connec
t to something that would help me figure out how to get out of here. My mother had told me to only embrace my witch powers, and that's all that I had ever done. I had always blocked the dark side of my powers and only used the witch side of my heritage. Then Grayson had told me that I was denying myself of my true powers by blocking my dark powers. He told me that I would never reach my full potential, even when I gained my full powers unless I accepted that I was not just a witch, but a hybrid demon witch.
"You are more than a witch Katilyn. You are the daughter of a witch and Lucifer is you father. You can overcome anything if you just accept that" Grayson had told me after I had spilled my feelings to him. I didn't really want to accept anything he had to say to me at that point so once again I just really ignored what he had said.
But right now I was starting to wonder that if what he said was really true. Would he bring me out of the darkness once again? I stood up and walked outside, despite the fact that it was all magicked, I still felt a connection to the earth and the power that she generates for me.
I searched myself for the switch that would help me figure out the dark powers inside of me. Nothing seemed to click inside of me, other than the fact that I was well detached from that side of me.
"Argh, how the hell am I supposed to do this? How do I use something that I have never wanted to even think about?" I said out loud to the air.
"Just drop your block and realize you can have darkness alongside the goodness" an old voice said from behind a tree.
I whipped around looking for the sound of the voice. "Who's there?" I asked a little scared that someone was in the room with me when no one was supposed to be able to do that.
"It is me, Greta, the witch that you marked. I want to help you." She stepped out now and I could see how the black had warped her figure.
"Why do you want to help me? You were trying to capture me for Aaron." I kept my hands instinctively up for defense.
"True, but I never really did anything to hurt you and I honestly didn't want to entrap you in here, in the Underworld, where you don't belong. But you must understand I had no choice in the matter. At first master Aaron was different, but the time he has spent down here has warped him, along with Affinia and her influence on him has changed the manner in which he does things now. She is going to betray him and challenge the way in which he is going about the situation with you. But you already know that, don't you?" she smiled her old smile at me.
"Yes, I do actually. When I was trying the ability to astral project I overheard her talking to her minions and she was sending them to kill the wolves and take Gray and Jace hostage. And she wants to steal me and hand me over to Damien herself in return for freedom of the vampires. Why is she working with Aaron then, if she plans on doing all of this?" I asked her confused somewhat.
"He has been looking for you for so long, and Affinia was able to help him in ways others could not" she raised her eyebrows at me, hoping that I would get the message.
"Eww, don't care about his sex life. What else could she give him that would help him out?" I asked her as I shook my whole body getting that visual out of my head.
"It wasn't just sex my dear, she shared her power and along with that some of her own emotions about certain things. While he was able to keep most of his own feelings about it, sometimes hers overwhelmed him and he made the wrong decision. She persuaded him that he should choose to use some darker methods to achieve the goals that he seeks. That is what has changed him and convinced him to force me to use black magic to find you. But we both know that wasn't needed, we know that I could have easily used the earths magic to locate you. She knew that she could warp him if he forced me to do black magic. He does have a soul, whether you think he does or not, and she warped it, which in turn warped his emotions and how he reacts to those emotions. He didn't realize that forcing me to do the black magic would warp my soul and his along with it, and soon we will both have a heavy price to pay." She walked closer to me and sat on the bench. She looked exhausted from all of the black magic, it was using up her life force and for a witch that was a death sentence.
"But why would you even do it then, you knew the consequences of black magic and you did it anyway? If you didn't have an agenda of your own, why would you risk your own soul and life for someone like him?" I dropped some of my defenses and sat down beside her.
"Because the vampire lady has my daughter and if I don't do her bidding then she will turn her. I couldn't let that happen so I have been doing whatever they ask of me. I have altered some of my spells here and there so that they would not turn out just right and I would just blame it on bad information or the personal item wasn't really yours. I also made sure that I did nothing beneficial for mother earth for a while so that she would not want to come and aid me in any way. This way I can no longer depend on her and they cannot ask me to ask favors of her. I discovered that was the best route to take, because I did what you did and I projected myself to overhear some conversations so I would know beforehand what they were planning and I could prevent many things from happening that way. If I couldn't depend on earth to perform certain tasks for me then I wouldn't have to put myself or my daughter’s life in jeopardy sometimes. I tried every avenue that was available to me to keep from actually causing you any real harm. Now I am here to help protect my daughter and you at the same time." Greta smiled and took my hand.
"How are you going to help me? I need to get out of here and go help my friends, but I will not let you help me if it means putting your daughters' life at risk. I will not have the blood of an innocent on my hands." I squeezed her hand and told her firmly.
She smiled back at me, her face wrinkled even more, making her look like she was at least 90 years old, when in reality she was probably only about 45. Black magic ages you, it takes your energy, and it leaves with you nothing in the end. Her hair was already white with age and I doubted that she would actually be able to do many more spells if she kept using the black magic. I needed to help her and her daughter; they were being tortured all because of me. They were using blackmail and black magic to find me and I would not let anyone else forfeit their life because of me.
"Thank you for that, but I will not be putting Dawn's life at stake by helping you. No one will ever be able to tell that I helped you, unless you decide to tell them. I am just going to lead you in the right direction so you will know how to tap into the powers that you need to help yourself. So honestly I really am not helping you, I am only giving possible directions on something that might help you. Besides you are the only hybrid demon witch in existence, you are the daughter of Lucifer, you are bound to figure it out eventually, what does it matter if it is sooner rather than later?" She winked at me and laughed, her laugh hadn't been altered from the black magic. Her laugh was that of a witch who was or had been at one with earth and who had loved it with all her might. It made me smile and I decided that I would help her not only get out of this slavery to Aaron, but I would help her find her connection with the mother earth again. A witch is lost without that connection and I couldn't stand to see her lost especially because of me.
"Ok, so what do I have to do Ms. Greta? How do I tap into my dark powers and keep myself the person that I am?" I asked her, scared of her answer.
"Oh dear you can't do that. Once you tap into your dark powers you will never be the same, but you will be the person that you are meant to be. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, it just means that you must realize that everyone has some sort of bad in them; it’s what they do with it that really matters. You can take the bad part of you and use it to help others and win your fight against evil and that will make all the difference in the world. You just have to remember that you control the powers, they do not control you. It's really simple to tap into the powers; you must admit and accept that you are Lucifer’s daughter and that you do have dark powers inside of you. You can’t use them until you come to terms with that fact." She told me bluntly, but not harshly.
I c
hewed on the inside of my cheek while I thought about this. I have never accepted or really admitted to myself that I was his daughter. Yes I have said it to others, but I have never accepted it or come to terms with it. I can see how that can affect my ability to use those dark powers, it sounds like when my emotions are out of whack so is my magic. Makes sense that not accepting the truth would not allow me to use the powers. I was going to have to figure out how to connect both pieces of myself and still stay whole.
"Once you accept the truth, then and only then will you actually be able to use your powers from him. It will be as easy as using your witch magic, you will simply just use the dark side to perform certain tasks that you otherwise couldn't have done before. Expect it to feel cold, despite being powers from hell, something about the dark side makes it cold and expect yourself to feel different when you use it. There won’t be a problem with it; you just have to remember that you control the power and that it does not control you. You are the daughter of Lucifer and a witch who was very powerful, there is no doubt in mine or anyone else’s mind that you will be tremendously powerful, it’s what you do with that power that matters. Stay connected to the earth just as you always have been and you will be just fine." Greta stood and motioned for me to join her. I stood and took her hand following her over to the tree.
"Greta, I am sorry about your daughter and I will lift the curse that I put on you." I told her and stepped back to do the spell. She grabbed my hand quickly and stopped me.
"No, do not remove it. As long as that curse stays on me I am not able to do any harmful magic to you. They will still keep me around to perform simple spells for them and that is fine as long as it keeps my daughter safe. I beg of you to do me this favor." She was desperate and the crack in her voice told me she was struggling with her emotions.
Hells Royalty The Princess Page 16