by Ibanez, Dawn
Jimmy’s lips pressed together for a moment. Knowing Dylan, he was actually surprised she wasn’t down here going through the building brick by brick. He sighed and waited for Casper to dial his sister’s number.
Casper looked around as he waited for someone to answer. He inhaled when Dylan’s voice came over the small device. “Dylan,” he acknowledged. “I have someone here you’ll want to talk to.”
Jimmy frowned as Casper handed him the cell phone. When he put the device to his ear, he heard Dylan saying something to Crispin. “Dyl, you alright?” he questioned.
“Jimmy?” Dylan replied carefully.
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m fine.” He looked at Casper and shrugged. “There was a portal into the Wyldlands in the shop. Athol reached through and saved me before his sister destroyed everything.”
“So you’re okay?” Dylan asked.
He smiled at her concern. “Yes, Dylan, I’m fine.”
“Good,” she said reasonably. It was only a split second before she erupted. “I’m going to kill you the next time I see you! Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”
Jimmy’s face fell as his little sister chewed him out. “I’m sorry Dyl. I’m just getting back and really, it feels like I’ve only been gone for about 10 minutes.”
“That’s because time in the Wyldlands is different than here!” she snapped. Dylan slowly inhaled before she continued. “Sloane just called. He and Eric want us all to meet up with them, Barry and Lily. Casper knows where. Get there as soon as possible. I’ll tell Mom you’re okay.”
Jimmy frowned as Dylan disconnected the call. “Well, she was happy to hear from me,” he mocked.
Casper shrugged. “You can’t really blame her,” he countered. “There’s been too much going on, and not enough of it has been going our way. To say that she’s stressed would be an understatement.”
Athol approached the pair. His eyes raked over Casper and he was barely able to hold back a sneer. “I was asked by my uncle to come aid you. Since the Gate you are talking about is one to Abaddon, it would only be fair I come.”
Both Nico and Casper looked at the Fae Royal with wide eyes. Casper looked at Jimmy and unlocked his car doors. “Get in. We need to have a sit down with everyone else.”
* * * * *
Madison released Troy’s hand once they appeared in the back of Dennis’s home. She looked around and ignored the frown Troy was giving her. After a moment, she turned to her husband with one of her own. “Where are the kids?” she asked coldly. Her mood hadn’t improved from her chat with Pan.
“Madi, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to see them like this,” Troy said quickly. They both fell quiet when the light on the back porch came on.
Her head tilted to the side. “I think now is a perfect time for me to see my children,” she said quietly. She took two steps toward the house when Troy stepped in front of her. A low growl escaped her as she stepped back away from him. “You said we could get them whenever we wanted. Did you lie to me?”
Troy held up his hands in a placating manner. “Madi, listen to me...” Whatever else he was about to say was cut off when Madison’s fist went flying towards his face. He grabbed on to her jacket sleeve and held her arm captive. “You’ll scare them the way you are now,” Troy shouted into her face.
Madison’s features took on a more skeletal appearance. “They’re mine!” a demonic voice roared back. “You have no right to keep them from me!” Without thinking, she swung her hand, cutting Troy across his face. As he stumbled back, Madison looked around wildly. She could hear the wolves closing in around her. A look of disgust crossed her face. “I want my children,” she growled.
Her magic whipped through the area. Troy screamed in pain when the gashes on his face started to widen. He waited until Madison approached him before he tackled her to the ground. His heart tore into pieces as he raised his fist up and slammed it into her face. Tears filled his eyes as he felt her cheekbone crack under a second blow.
Madison disappeared and reappeared behind her husband. Tears fell from her eyes as the trees in the area quickly aged and died. She rubbed her broken cheekbone as it quickly reset itself and healed. “So this is how you really feel, huh?” she asked quietly.
Troy felt his blood go cold. Madison’s voice was completely back to normal, but something in her eyes looked completely broken. “Madison,” he whispered. Her hand flashed out. He fell back and looked down at the dagger in his chest. Troy reached his hand out to his wife. If she realized what she had done, it would kill her once all of this was over.
Madison slowly approached Troy’s blurred form. Tears rolled down her face as she reached for her blade.
“Get away from him!” twin voices shouted.
Madison looked up in time to see Kayin and Aiden run out of the back door. Her eyes widened as they ran to her and jumped between her and their father. “Boys,” she whispered.
Aiden growled as he looked at his mother. “Stay away from Daddy!” he yelled. When Madison walked over to him, he held his ground. “You killed him! You’re killing everyone! I feel your magic! You want everything to die!”
She slowly shook her head. “No, Puppy,” she said in a whisper. “Not you. Not your brother or sister either.”
Aiden was shaking with anger as he looked at his mother. “Yes you do! You hurt Alex, and now Daddy. You left us! I never want to be like you!” he yelled. Magic tore through the yard as his eyes slowly turned from gold to red. “If being a Necromancer means I have to hurt my family, I don’t wanna be one!”
Madison sucked in a breath when his magic slammed into her. If she had been a normal person, or even a lesser Mage, he would have killed her easily. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked from one son to the other. “Take care of your father,” she whispered before vanishing.
They moved without a second thought. Kayin placed his hands on Troy’s chest as Aiden ripped the blade out of his chest.
A lone figure in the shadows watched as they worked in tandem. Little Aiden did his best to push death away, while Kayin healed Troy. Leigh moved around the perimeter and stopped when a leaf fell on her shoulder. “You should stop this madness,” she said softly.
“I’ve gone too far,” Madison whispered back. She appeared next to Leigh, but kept her eyes trained on her sons. “I have to see this to the end.”
“Why?” Leigh asked. When Madison looked at her, she motioned to where Belle was just coming out of the house. “What could be worth all of this?”
Madison’s eyes glowed. “The still beating heart of a bitch that’s lived far too long,” she answered. Before Leigh could question her again, she vanished into the night.
Chapter 14
Dylan walked into Lily’s penthouse with a determined expression. Her eyes quickly found her mother sitting with Eric. Tina had taken the news of Jimmy’s return better than she originally expected. “What do we know so far?” she asked sitting across from her mother and brother. She frowned when a box on the table caught her attention.
Eric saw the way Dylan’s eyes became fixated on the box holding the dagger, and quickly reached forward to grab it. When she looked at him, he shrugged. “This little trinket has the power to seduce or kill a Horsemen. Lily could have gutted all of us with it, but Barry was able to get it away from her.”
Crispin looked around as he sat next to his wife. “Where are Lily and Barry?”
The door to Lily’s bedroom opened. Barry walked out followed closely by Lily. Dylan looked at the pair. “What do you have for us?” she asked.
Lily pulled the small book out of her back pocket. “Michaela Crow’s journal,” she said simply. She blinked when Barry pulled her into his lap. “This explains what happened when Scott Maxwell died.”
Tina held out her hand. “May I?” she requested.
Lily gave the book over without a second thought. She then glanced at Barry. He still looked tired, but he swore he was well enough to sit in on this meeti
ng. “Long story short, the Gate Madison wants to open is a gate to Abaddon. If history is repeating itself, Pan has a wife that’s trapped there and he’s trying to get to her.”
Crispin frowned deeply. “He orchestrated Scott’s death?” he asked darkly.
“No. He was able to get Scott to open the Gate. He had the other Horsemen there, but the two he really needed were Conquest and Death.”
“Why them?”
“Because Demons will bow to a conqueror, and they are all scared of Death.” Lily’s eyes went round when she thought of something. “Give me a minute,” she said before she jumped up and ran upstairs to the master bedroom.
Sloane carried a tray full of drinks to the table and took the seat between Eric and Barry. “While we were calling all of you, Lily read as much as she could of the journal. The little bit that we heard made us wary enough to call you in.”
“So tell us what you heard,” Dylan said darkly.
“Everything is repeating itself,” Eric answered. “Michaela and Scott had twins that were 4 and another baby on the way, Pan setting everything in motion, and a Fae being around to open the gate. There are too many things that were in that journal that are also happening now.”
Lily’s face was pale as she returned to the top of the stairs. “Dylan, when you were given your seal, how did you know it was an actual seal?” she asked.
Dylan frowned as she moved away from the table and started for the stairs. Her eyes widened when she felt the low hum of power coming from the cross hanging from Lily’s fingers. “It felt a lot like that,” she answered as she approached the stairs. “When I first touched it, it was a small shock. Like what happens when you stick your tongue to a 9-volt battery.”
Lily nodded. “That’s how they hid away the demons. The Fae have always been ruled by the strongest, so Conquest was sealed away in an ancient diadem. War was sealed away in the body of a dragon.”
“Because a wise man would never look for War,” Dylan said remembering Jimmy’s words. She then frowned as she gently touched the thick gold and onyx medallion. “Why a cross?” she questioned.
“Human nature. When you’re starving, or homeless, or generally in need of something, don’t you pray?” Lily countered. She gave the necklace over to Dylan and rubbed her hands on her pants. “I’m also thinking that Madison’s seal may have been a coin of some sort.”
Tina frowned as she went to Dylan’s side. “Why a coin?”
“To pay Charon,” Crispin answered. When various pairs of eyes looked at him, he frowned. “He was the boatman that would carry the dead across the Rivers Styx and Acheron into Hades.”
Dylan carried the missing seal over to where her husband sat and kissed his cheek. “You’re cute when you’re being smart,” she said lowly. When he chuckled at her, she placed the cross on the table. “So, now we have two seals and Chinese New Year is tomorrow. We need to find out where Madison is going to be and how to stop her.”
Barry pulled Lily back into his lap. “The Gate in the journal is somewhere on Theodore Roosevelt Island.” He shrugged when everyone looked at him. “What? I pay attention.” When Eric chuckled, Barry sighed. “We all know that this all went down in the 1800’s. Back then, it was owned by the Mason Family. But now it’s a monument to Theodore Roosevelt. It’s the perfect place for the Gate to be.”
Dylan looked from her husband to the various members of her family. “That still leaves the question, how are we going to stop her?”
Before anyone could answer, Crispin’s cellphone started to ring. He frowned when he pulled it out of his pocket and saw his brother’s name. “Where are you, Cas?” he asked as he turned on the speakerphone.
“I just got a call from Belle. She’s frantic and ranting about Troy almost dying,” Casper said lowly. “According to Leigh, Madison and Troy had a fall out over the kids and now he’s hurt bad. I’m heading to Dennis’s house.”
Crispin looked at Dylan and nodded. “We’ll meet you there,” he said quickly. “All of us are going to want to make sure the boys are alright.”
Dylan jumped to her feet as he disconnected the call. “We’ll finish all of this when we get to Dennis’s,” she said as she grabbed her coat.
Tina stood as well. “Dylan,” she called as she removed her diamond earrings and two bracelets. She placed them carefully around the cross and forced herself to stay calm. “Secure this first. Then we can go and deal with whatever’s going on with the boys,” she said.
Dylan looked at her mother for a moment. She knew Tina was right, but that didn’t make the urge to run out of the penthouse to her nephews any easier to turn away from. Dylan walked over to the table and easily snapped her fingers and crafted her magic around the items.
Lily stood silent as everyone watched Dylan. It was rare for Mages to keep their magic after they were Turned. But for whatever reason, Dylan kept her alchemy after she had been changed into a vampire. Lily glanced at Barry as the diamonds and gold of Tina’s jewelry started to form a seamless box around her cross. Her heart was torn as she slowly started to realize that there was no way they could stay together. She would stop aging soon, but he would continue to do so. No matter how much longer they had together, it wouldn’t be enough for her.
Crispin frowned as he looked at Lily. When her jade colored eyes locked with his, he shook his head. “Don’t think about that now. Everything will work out just fine,” he told her mentally.
She wanted to scoff. That was easy for him to say. He already had his wife. And as far as she knew, Succubi didn’t mate.
Barry noted the way Lily’s posture changed and frowned. “You alright, Baby?” he asked.
Lily painted a smile on her face and nodded. “I’m fine. Just a little worried for the boys,” she said lowly. “There’s no telling what they saw. And if Troy’s hurt, knowing Kayin, he’s trying to heal him.”
Dylan ran her fingers along the corners of the box she just created. Her mother’s jewels were old enough to be a perfect strongbox. Even with gold entwined in the actual crystal of the diamond there was no way anyone would be able to get into it. She handed the sealed cross over to Lily. “Put it someplace safe. It’s indestructible, but not infallible,” she warned.
Barry frowned at her wording. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Lily shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “When all of this is said and done, I know exactly where this is going.” Lily then moved away from Barry and started for their bedroom. “But for now, this will do,” she said before disappearing inside.
* * * * *
Siobhan walked into the kitchen area and paused when she saw Madison sitting in the dark. Her eyes quickly scanned the area. “Where’s your Troy?” she asked lowly.
“He wouldn’t let me see my children,” Madison answered in a whisper. Her crimson eyes glowed as she looked at the Irish Fae. “Why are you doing this?”
Something dark passed over Siobhan’s eyes. “The same reason you are.” Siobhan walked over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer. “There’s someone on the other side of the Gate I need to kill.”
Madison nodded slowly. “As long as it’s not the Succubi Queen,” she said reasonably. “She’s mine.”
Siobhan laughed as she sat next to her sister in arms. “No. I want the Unseelie King.” She opened her bottle of beer and took a long drink from it. “He and I have some unfinished business.” They sat in silence for a moment before another laugh escaped the Royal Fae. “After what he’s done, I can’t stop until I have his head.”
Madison raised her own bottle of beer. “May we kill everyone we need to, or die trying,” she said softly.
“You amateur,” Siobhan laughed. “Watch a professional.” She settled next to Madison and held her bottle up. “When the sun arises with the first signs of dew, may our vengeance be swift and our blades fly true. Once blood is spilt and debts repaid, we can finally shed these villains we've portrayed. With battles won, on the setting sun,
blessed be the one that finds more rum!”
Madison laughed as they touched bottles and drank. She had to admit at first she thought Siobhan was nothing more than a spoiled brat. But the more she learned about the Fae princess, the more she liked her. Madison was about to say something when the door to Siobhan’s bedroom opened. She watched curious as Dori came out of the room wearing a set of bright pink Hello Kitty pajamas.
Siobhan sat up straighter and placed her beer on a near table. “What’s the matter, Sweetheart?” she asked.
Dori looked at Madison and took a deep breath. “You have to split up. There are two Gates that need to be opened for you to get what you want,” she told them.
Madison joined Siobhan in sitting towards the edge of the sofa. “Two Gates? Where?”
Siobhan saw the indecision in Dori’s eyes and gently pulled her close. “We’ve talked about this. Whatever you see, I won’t let anyone hurt you.” Siobhan’s eyes widened when Dori wrapped her little arms around her neck.
“You have to go to the big park. Death was the last person to open that Gate, now it’s your turn. Aunt Madison has to open the one in Chinatown. It’s never been opened before, and that’s where Morrigan is hiding. She’s waiting for the Gates to open so she can escape.” Dori looked at Madison and carefully reached out a hand to her. “I don’t know if either of you make it. I can’t see it.”
Madison held the girl’s hand and kissed it. “You don’t have to see anything else for me, Dori,” she said easily. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the way Siobhan wiped at a stray tear and painted a smile on her face. “In fact, I’m going to take you someplace safe.”
Dori’s hold tightened on Siobhan’s neck. “I don’t want to leave you,” she said lowly.
Siobhan shook her head as she slightly pulled away. “And I don’t want you to go. But you just said you can’t see our futures. That probably means we’ll be in danger, and I don’t want that for you.”