by Lia Davis
Dark Divine
The Divinities, book 3
© copyright 2016 Lia Davis
Published by After Glows
Digital ISBN: 978-1-944060-18-3
Print ISBN: 978-1-944060-19-0
Cover by ORIGINAL SYN
Formatting by AG Formatting
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
www.AuthorLiaDavis.com
Dark Divine
His darkest secret is revealed while her greatest fear comes to life.
New mother and Divinity, Lydia Rayners, is no stranger to heartache and loss. Her father, husband, and brother were taken from her by the demons, and now they want her son. Lydia will never let that happen, and she is determined to bring them down one by one—by herself if necessary. Her plans are going well until a certain sexy deputy discovers that she's the rumored demon slayer and is hell-bent on stopping her.
Witch and deputy sheriff, Zach Manus, has run from his past for too long and it’s catching up to him now. He’s determined to keep his dark family secret hidden as he fights for control over his emotions and growing powers. His darker side controlled him once before, and he won’t let it happen again. But the closer he gets to Lydia, the more the darkness threatens to consume him, just as the gorgeous Divinity consumes his thoughts and threatens his resolve.
Zach is powerless to resist her, and while Lydia may understand him like no other, trusting her might unleash a new dark power that could destroy them both and put everyone they love in danger in the process.
Chapter One
Bastards.
The two demons suspiciously lurking around the front of the hospital were up to no good. Lydia was sure of it. That was why she followed them—at a reasonable distance, of course—along the streets on the south bank of the St. Johns River.
Revenge coiled inside her, creating an angry ball of power waiting to be unleashed on the demons. They would not get away with destroying everything she loved. Or hurting any innocents in their paths.
Concern for the humans was the only thing holding her back. Her Divine power may be to heal, but pain from the loss of her family fueled the dark side of her power. The side she hid and had sworn to never use. Well, never use on an innocent. Demons were far from saints.
The hellspawns stopped suddenly. The one on the left, the taller one with shoulder-length blond hair, turned his head to peer behind them as if sensing something. Her. Lydia pressed her back into the cold brick wall and tried to slow her breathing and heart rate.
Warmth grew inside her and spread out to her palms. She kept her hands fisted by her sides, not wanting the demons to see the glow of the fire she’d called just in case the bastards decided to get stupid. She also didn’t want them to see through the shadow spell she’d cast to conceal her presence from them.
After a few moments, one of the demons turned back around, shook his head, and both demons continued walking again. Lydia pulled the fire back a little and waited until the creep brothers rounded the next corner before following again.
There were too many humans around for Lydia to make her move. Even at midnight, downtown Jacksonville was hopping with humans enjoying the cooling fall night air and the array of festivities going on around the Riverwalk.
Pushing off the wall, she moved past a small group of humans and stalked after the demons. As she’d suspected, they headed in the direction of the warehouse their not-so-mighty leader, Demetrius Grayson, used as a cover for his demonic operations.
A few blocks farther, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose as a dark, oil-like residue hung in the air. A low growl from behind her told her it was another demon.
Busted.
She whirled around and thrust her hand out, releasing the fire she’d called earlier. A softball-size fireball hit the demon in the chest. He managed to let out a scream before the flames spread over his body, and he poofed into a pile of ash on the ground.
She turned at the same time one of the other demons crashed into her, sending both of them flying into the brick wall. Pain ripped through her back and head. Reaching out, she placed a palm on the demon’s chest over his heart and called her healer’s gift. The gift she’d been born with and had been able to fully use by the time she was five. Even though her Divine gift was to magically heal, she could also reverse the healing process. In this case, she used it to stop the demon’s heart from beating.
The demon’s eyes widened when he realized what she was doing. He jerked and rolled out of her reach, but the damage was already done. She’d slowed his heart, and the blood flow through his body so much he couldn’t move fast enough. Smiling, she flipped to her back and grabbed his ankle. It was enough contact for her to stop his heart altogether. He fell to the ground with a thud.
The silence of the night caught her off guard. She peered around at the empty alley. “Fuckin’ chickenshit.”
The third demon was nowhere to be seen.
And he’d seen her face.
Damn it!
She’d have to make sure she kept an eye out for that one. Because if her new extended family found out she’d been hunting demons on her own, they’d be livid, and most likely put a tail on her.
“Way to lose the trust of your fellow Divinities, Dia.”
She sank farther back into the shadows so that any human walking by wouldn’t see her dematerialize, and then focused on home.
A moment later, she stood outside the large barn in the backyard of her new home. Once the household of Kalissa and Khloe Bradenton, the large, three-story home was now the central base for the Divinities. They called it the Divinity House.
Up until earlier that year, they hadn’t known there were other Divinities out there. Once Zach—the grandson of the priest and priestess of the Maxville Coven—set up an online community, they’d learned that there were others like Lydia, her mother, Ayden, and the Bradenton twins.
The other Divinities were well hidden in their covens and were happy to stay there. Too many of them were afraid of what this new uprising of demons would do to their safe havens.
Lydia didn’t blame them. Especially after what had happened to the Oceanway Coven a few months ago. Demons had broken through the coven’s wards, destroyed homes, and kidnapped two Dark Divine—the darker counterparts of the Divinities—children.
She shuddered at the memory. A moment later, Teddy-Bear, the Siamese twin hellhounds Hecate had appointed as the guardians of the Sinew—a marble-sized crystal sphere that held the world’s magic—stuck their large heads out of the barn.
She ignored them at first, not wanting to hear a lecture at the moment. But it would come.
In true form, they stood about ten feet tall from paws to ears. They shared one body, but two independent heads with very different personalities. They were both frightening and adorable in an oversized dog kind of way.
Teddy shook his head as Bear said, “Dia, what have you been up
to?”
She rolled her eyes. They knew what she’d been doing for months, but still pretended they didn’t know. “Someone has to hunt the vile creatures down.”
Teddy extended his head and sniffed. Lydia almost laughed. They’d smelled her from inside the barn with their supernatural senses. Teddy was trying to annoy her. “That is for the Divinities to do together, not for one of them to do alone.”
“You’re a mother, Dia,” Bear said.
“Your son needs his mother alive,” Teddy added.
Lydia fisted her hands and counted to ten. This argument was getting old. “My son is in danger as long as the demons walk the human realm.”
Logan had been born with the dark rose, the symbol marking him as a Dark Divine. That meant her late husband, the man she’d trusted with her heart and soul had lied to her. He’d withheld his demonic nature from her.
Yes, she’d known he was a warlock—a dark witch who had been cast out by his or her coven. Many warlock children weren’t given the choice to redeem themselves. Therefore, they carried the dark label simply because their parents were warlocks.
In Mikal’s case, he wasn’t only half demon, he was also the son of Khan, the ruler of the Underworld and the one responsible for the many coven attacks over the last few centuries.
She’d discovered that latter bit of information while going through Mikal’s personal data files right after Logan was born.
“Logan is why I must do this. Khan will never take my son.” The dark lord must never know Logan is his grandson.
She turned to the house, ending the conversation while noticing Ryn—a Lackey demon who’d helped her mom escape Demetrius’s dungeon—lurking just inside the barn. Something bothered Lydia about the demon, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what.
Whatever. She quietly eased into the back door and crept up the stairs to her son’s nursery. Peeking inside the room, she smiled at her baby boy peacefully sleeping in his crib.
Lydia walked over and bent to place a kiss on his head. “Mommy loves you, handsome.”
Her chest filled with pride and overflowed with love for him. She’d fight a thousand demons and die a hundred deaths to ensure that her son was safe.
And she’d do it with or without the other Divinities’ help.
Zach paced his grandfather’s man cave—the basement hidden under the stairs in the large foyer of the family home. He’d confined himself to the coven twenty-four hours ago because his grandfather, Noah, aka Papa, was out of the herb needed to perform the binding spell.
The spell that bound his dark side and kept it from coming out.
Fucking hell. Why now? He hadn’t needed to go through the ritual in months. Not until Lydia had shown up. He ran a hand through his hair and pulled. His skin felt too tight, and his damn ears were pointed for gods’ sake.
The door opened, making Zach turn toward it. Papa came down the stairs, looked at him, and then shook his head. “The more you fight it, the stronger it becomes.”
Zach snorted. “If I don’t fight it, I may never be able to control it.”
Noah went to the small altar against the center of the back wall of his study and sat a sachet of what Zach assumed was the herb on it.
“That is not true.”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
He’d lost control once. He’d been eight, and the darkness consumed him to the point where he’d killed his own father.
“Dark elves are not typically evil. The few that are, chose that path. The others live normal lives within covens that understand their abilities to weave demon magic.” Noah turned to him, his brows drawn together, and stared at Zach as if he were trying to read him.
“I killed him.”
His grandfather nodded and turned back to the altar. “Something that needed to be done,” Papa spat out. “Your father chose his path and met his fate.”
“The rage, the dark magic still haunts me.” Zach dropped down onto the sofa and put his head in his hands.
He remembered everything from that night twenty-seven years ago as if it had happened yesterday.
He woke to his mother’s cries of pain. She was pleading with someone to stop. “Please, Bobby, Zach is in the other room.” Then the sound of a slap echoed through the house.
Anger stirred the dark magic within him. Zach gritted his teeth as he slipped from his bed and opened his bedroom door. From there, he could see into the dining room of the small cottage they lived in at the back edge of the Maxville Coven. When his father gripped his mother’s throat, lifted her up, and then slammed her back into the wall hard enough to crack the drywall, something snapped inside Zach. Magic warmed him from the inside out, electrifying him. Consuming him.
He pushed the door open hard enough for it to slam into the wall. Then he marched out of his room into the dining room. “Dad, stop! You’re hurting her!”
His father glanced at him from over his shoulder, his eyes pitch-black. “Go back to bed, Zachary.”
Zach flicked his gaze to his mother. Tears streamed down her face, and she was fighting to breathe. She tried to speak, but no sound came out. His father was going to kill her.
Zach’s vision grew dark, and he focused back on his father as the rage built. Lifting his hands, Zach thrust them forward. Dark, grey energy flowed around his hands and shot out, hitting his father in the back, making him drop his hold on Zach’s mother. She crumpled to the ground, taking in gasps of air.
The grey, smoke-like energy darkened and wrapped around his father’s neck and chest. Zach lifted his hands higher, making the energy around them react to his motions. He threw his hands toward the wall, sending his father flying across the room and crashing into the drywall.
Unable to control the dark magic that consumed him, Zach moved toward the man he no longer considered his father. The only thought in his mind was that he needed to protect his mother from the monster.
Zach extended a hand toward his dad, closed his fist, and squeezed. Bobby’s eyes grew round and changed back to the blue that matched Zach’s. Still, Zach didn’t let up until his father twitched for the last time and fell limply to the floor.
Zach shuddered and pushed away the memories. Lifting his head, he met his Papa’s stare. “I don’t want to be that out of control ever again.”
Noah sighed. “I understand why, but I still don’t think it’s going to do you any good to perform the binding ritual. Besides, you were a child, and you remember it from a child’s point of view. It appeared darker and scarier when you were eight.”
Zach narrowed his eyes and studied his grandfather. At over three hundred years old, Noah was one of the first Divinities born. Or rather, blessed by the gods. Many witches believed that the Divinities were gifts from the gods and appointed as protectors, keeping humanity safe from the demons that walked in the human realm.
“What are you not telling me?”
Noah’s lips twitched. “When an elf finds his mate, his magic becomes stronger, easier to manage.”
Zach froze. No. He hadn’t found a mate. Had he?
Only, his magic hadn’t sparked to life since the night he’d killed his father. Until the day he met Lydia Rayners…
Fuck.
There was no way he was going to subject her to his dark side. The gods knew she’d been through Hades more times than anyone deserved.
She wasn’t his magical mate.
She couldn’t be.
Chapter Two
“Here, kitty, kitty,” Lydia taunted Khloe as she crouched down, bracing for impact.
Khloe let out a cackle and charged. Lydia jerked to the right a second before her friend made contact. Twirling around, Lydia was ready when Lo jumped toward her, tackling her to the ground. Lydia pressed her feet into Lo’s stomach and flipped her over her head. Khloe landed on her back on the mat.
When Khloe jumped then flipped in the air to land on her feet, Lydia drew back out of reflex. Khloe’s fangs had extended, and her eyes had c
hanged to her inner jaguar’s.
“No shifting, Lo,” Lydia warned but didn’t move out of her defensive stance. She’d use her Divine gift to lay Khloe out if she had to. “Lo. Don’t make me hurt you.”
Shit.
Khloe moved forward, one hand shifting into a claw. Magic rippled over her skin.
Just then, Kristof Preston—Lydia’s uncle, Divinity, and tiger shifter—stormed into the barn to stand between them, facing Khloe. “Stand down.”
He spoke the words with a force that made Lydia want to bow down and submit to him.
Khloe stopped, studied him for a moment. Then she shifted back to her full human form and peered at Lydia. “I’m sorry…” Her bottom lip shook, and thunder rumbled overhead.
Lydia went to her and pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay. You just got caught up in the moment.”
Lydia walked Khloe out of the barn, ignoring Kris’s growl as they went by.
“She needs to learn control,” Kris called out, but Lydia ignored him. He might have taken over as Khloe’s Alpha for her cat’s sake, but he wasn’t Lydia’s Alpha.
She stopped and whirled around to face her uncle. “That’s easy for you to say. You had your whole life to learn control. Lo’s been a shifter for six freaking months. So back off.”
When they reached the back porch of the main house, Jagger stepped out. He had Logan in his arms and a bottle in one hand.
Lydia smiled. “Look, Lo, your man looks good with a baby in his arms.”
Khloe laughed. “Yeah? Well, he’ll have to play with Logan and then my niece or nephew when Kalissa delivers.”
Jagger lifted a brow. “We’re not ready.”
What he meant was that Khloe wasn’t ready with all the changes she’d gone through over the past few months. Lydia didn’t blame her really. She couldn’t imagine what her friend had gone through finding out that her father was a jaguar shifter and having her own beast woken up at the same time.