by S J Doran
“What did you do to him?” Mara whispered, struggling to break free of Jareth’s grasp.
Alura’s coughing fit ended and she collapsed on the floor. Jareth instantly discarding her to scoop his wife into his arms. Touching, really. She might even care, if she weren’t so focused on getting back to the demon.
“Pin you with my sword through your throat and rip you limb from limb as you watch,” Cass was mumbling, rage plain on his face, his foe invisible to the rest of them.
“The antidote, warlock.” Jareth called out, “and you can both leave freely.”
“Vow it, vampire. Make it a binding oath!”
A burst of power flew out of the demon, knocking them all flat, blue flames surrounding him in the shape of wings, his body surrounded by traceries that floated off him in wisps and disappeared. The power streaming off him so thick in the room it was hard to breathe.
Her eyes widened as a Hell-gate sprung to life, a full visual of the heart of the Nessus inside. It started sucking Cass in, she lunged for him. Her way out...
Then it was gone. He was gone. The roaring noise, that she hadn’t even noticed until it stopped, gone.
He’d left her here. Just like Ghata’n.
With a huff, she collapsed on her back, trying to regain her breath, only to be dragged to her feet by a vampire on the verge of insanity, and tossed into a chair. Her chair. If she were the sentimental type, she might start forming an attachment.
“Antidote. Now. Or I will kill you.” Jareth no longer looked in the mood to negotiate.
“Antidote for the ring.” But you couldn’t blame a girl for trying.
“Ring or your life,” Jareth snarled.
“You won’t be killing her today, Jareth.” Shadows swamped the room, preceding the entry of the Dark King of the Fae. Her lover. Brother to the female she’d just poisoned.
“She’s poisoned Alura.” Jareth snarled, still looking into Mara’s eyes.
“Not to kill her,” Gwynn said, stepping up beside Jareth and removing his hands from her. His gaze took in every injury, while Amara took in every tick of his jaw. The Fae King was angry. “Right, Amara?”
She sighed, finally breathing easier. If anyone could take on the ancient vampire, it was the equally ancient, and just as mad, Huntsman.
“She’ll be sick for a very long time.” She spoke to Gwynn, deciding to ignore the vampire. “I’ve heard inhaling iron can be very painful.”
“Lura?” Gwynn knelt beside Mara, looking toward his sister. “are you in pain?”
Alura wheezed out a near-chuckle, “get her out of my home.”
Gwynn ran his hand down her hair, rubbing it between his fingers, his ice blue eyes swirling with gold. Great. Now she had to deal with a loopy dark King. Back to a fifty-fifty chance at dying tonight, still good, she had faced worse odds.
“And you have the antidote with you, do you not?” Gwynn turned to Amara, his thumb rubbing at a trail of blood which had been dripping down her chin. Bliss. It had been itching like mad.
She notched her chin and clenched her jaw, immediately regretting it when it sent another wave of pain shooting through her temples, the instinctual head jerk turning her world into a not very merry-go-round.
“I left it in place of the ring,” she whispered, not wanting to stir up that ache in her head again.
“See, Blood Lord, a mere misunderstanding.” Gwynn nodded and scooped her into his arms.
“The ring.” Mara hissed out. “Or I come back for it with an army.”
Jareth bellowed so loud the books vibrated on their shelves. “You broke into my house. You poisoned my wife. I did not get what I needed from the Demon Prince.” Jareth was snarling right in her face again, but she was tucked safely into the arms of one of the most powerful beings in the realms. “And you expect me to let you leave with what you broke in here for?”
Amara looked him dead in the eye and muttered the only answer she had for him. “Yes.”
Gwynn’s arms tightened around her, the only indication that she had perhaps crossed a line.
“Just give it to her, Jahi.” Alura’s voice was weak, but loud enough to capture the vampire’s attention. “We’ve no use for it, unlike you I feel no loyalty for its creator.”
“It is mine.” Jareth roared, and if the woman on the floor hadn’t been wasting in the grips of a painful neurotoxin, Amara might have thought she just rolled her eyes at her husband. Probably a twitch.
With a growl, Jareth slammed the ring back into her broken hand, his face red and fangs deadly sharp.
“Get her the fuck out of my house.” He said running into his vault.
Gwynn leaned down, with her in arms, to brush a kiss across his sister’s forehead. “I’ll come back once you’ve rested, we have things to discuss.” he whispered.
She felt the shift into shadows, no longer dragged down by the weight of gravity, nor hindered by form, and relaxed into the Huntsman’s arms.
“Let’s get you home so I can heal you.” His voice whispered through her mind.
Safe for now. Funny how she had forgotten what that felt like.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
again with the leaving behind?
“No!” He shouted as the portal swallowed him, taking him away from her. “Mara!”
He came through into his throne room, roaring, chest heaving, blue flames arching from his back and over his sides. Jez jumped up from his throne and ran forward, grabbing Cass by the shoulder and steering him down halls and into his bedroom.
He blanked again and blinked open his eyes to Jez standing in front of him, hands on his shoulders.
“Breathe, Cass.” Jez was saying, voice low and even.
The calm touch of the angel was warming his chest. His power was flooding back into his synapses, he sadly noted that the wings were gone. Had they been real or just a manifestation of his imagination? He’d always wanted wings like his father’s...
“You’re bleeding.” Jez licked his thumb and swiped it across his lip. “You need to calm down.”
His heart still hammered. “I have to go back for her.” He couldn’t catch his breath, dark spots floated across his vision, his head ringing.
When he opened his eyes again, he was laying on his sofa, Jez sitting in front angled toward him.
“Do you have it back under control?” Jez asked carefully.
He took a deep breath. Yes, he finally was. He nodded and squeezed his eyes closed.
Jez tapped his cheek until his eyes opened. “You ever. Put me. Through. Shit like that. Again.” Jez snarled at him, eyes lighting up.
His Herald must have picked up the power fluxes and emotional rollercoaster he’d just been on. It worked both ways, Jez’s calm healing energy flooded his body, and he could finally take a deep breath.
“Jez.” Cass swiped his hand down the angel’s wing, making Jez still completely. “Thank you.”
Cass moved to sit on his balcony, staring blankly out at the sea of pit fiends fighting for dominance, Jez standing behind him, hands resting on his shoulders. He could feel the heat radiating off the angel’s chest, warm and soothing to his overly sensitized body.
That last epic burst of power had left his body feeling like a giant exposed nerve. His head was throbbing, at the same time it was screaming for him to go back. He’d left her there. He couldn’t gather his thoughts, they were scrambled and confusing his imaginings of his ghostly wife with that of his very real priestess.
Perhaps the Blood Lord had tipped him over the edge into insanity. Is this how it began?
Jez’s hands squeezed his shoulders.
“You realize I don’t enjoy males like that?” Cass mumbled. The first words he’d spoken in some time.
Jez slapped him upside the back of his head and everything inside of him flinched.
“Don’t be a dick, Cassius.” Jez laughed, then his hands slid from Cass’s shoulders. “Shit. I’m sorry.” Jez came around to stand in front of him, blocking his
view of a particularly gory fight.
The angel went to his knees in front of him, placing his hand on Cass’s now pounding chest. “I shouldn’t have hit you.”
Cass shrugged and lay his head back. Fuck he was wiped out. Tired wasn’t even the word for it. “You call that a hit?” He snorted lightly, smirk fully in place.
“Yeah that’s not even remotely funny.” Jez said, sitting back on his heels. “I saw you after your father was done with you.”
He lifted his head to look at the angel’s stern face. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I thought I was done with that.”
“You need to fight back.” Jez said, scowling.
“I have to go back for her.” Cass clenched his jaw tight and tried to pull himself up.
“You want to go back— to a situation you barely crawled away from?”
“Leave without me… I’m only slowing you down.”
Was it Mara? Was it his ghost? His mind and memories could no longer be trusted.
“The Priestess and I,” Cass glared back, “have an agreement. We are bound, and I’m not leaving her in danger.”
“You need to stabilize yourself. You’re like a void of power- an event horizon sucking everything into a black hole- Cass you’re draining me dry and I couldn’t even tell you where it’s all going.” Jez stood and tugged Cass to his feet. “I don’t know how you fix that, but you need to.”
“Took a couple sacrifices to fill the void last time.” Cass looked down at his hands, still seeing traceries of blue when he moved them too fast. His power was a greedy fiend, searching out sustenance. He needed sacrifices from the warlocks, or a visit to his harem… and that thought made him queasy.
“You… killed people?” Jez stopped walking, his grip on Cass’s hand tightening.
Cass looked back at him, mouth pulled into a tight line. “Well I didn’t use my own hands. They were just sacrificed in my name,” No, he didn’t dirty his hands, Amara had done it for him. He had noticed how the tips of her fingers were stained a permanent red from the lives she took, and he had never given it a second thought. He shrugged and pulled at Jez’s hand. The angel still wasn’t moving.
Cass looked back, taking in Jez’s paleness.
“Good people?” Jez asked.
“They used to be anyway,” Cass said with a shrug. “I am a demon Jez. Souls are sustenance to this realm, the Nessus feeds on them. Corruption and Sin are the best way for me to access that, but the bottom line is the actual souls are an on-going feast. They come to these realms and their belief is solidified, their corruption constant…”
“You keep their souls?” Jez’s jaw dropped as he jerked back, trying to pull his hand from Cass’s.
“Nine Hells, Jez. What did you think being a Demon King entailed?”
Jez bared his teeth at him. “A lot of fucking and whining so far.”
Cass dropped his hand. “You came here at a bad time.”
“Have you ever had a good time?” Jez sneered, his eyes lit up.
Cass stepped closer, snarling in his face. “More good times than you have holy boy.” He looked him up and down, his palm shoving at the angel’s chest.
Jez snarled right back. “Just because I don’t make a sport out of fucking every willing female to walk.”
“I don’t know any other way!” Cass shouted, his breaths coming faster.
Jez’s eyes turned bleak. “Get your head out of your ass and find one.” He shouted back.
“Are we interrupting?” Levistus walked in the room, followed by Leira who was carrying food, both looking between Cass and the angel.
They were chest to chest, both breathing heavily, right in each other’s faces. Yeah it probably looked bad.
Lust erupted from the Erinyes, Cass took it all in, his power still seeking out more- buried deep within, he found Levistus’s wrath; so vast Cass could feast on it and it would still be burning.
Jez was roughly shaking him, he blinked his eyes, finally focusing. Levistus and Leira were both sitting on the settee, slumped over.
“Don’t. You. ever. Feed. On. Me. Again.” Levistus roared.
Cass held up his hands. “I didn’t realize…”
“Take the girl and feed, boy, before this gets out of control.” Levistus stood slowly, testing his balance.
Cass looked at Leira, pale and still, her eyes still blazing.
“I can’t feed from her.” He ran his hand across the back of his neck, stepping closer to Jez. “I’ll kill her. It’s happened…”
Jez put his hand on Cass’s back, and Cass leaned into him. for support. No other reason.
“He needs sacrifices.” Jez spoke for him.
Levistus pressed his fingers to his forehead. “I suppose my warning to stay away from the Priestess will go unheeded.”
“I made a promise.” Cass shook his head then looked up. “She is mine.” He growled, “and I’m going to go claim what’s mine.”
“Cassius there are things you need to know,” Levistus’ words were cut off when Cass lunged at him. “Fine!” He backed up, “go let her lick your wounds. I’m advising you to keep your head about you. And don’t have sex with her.” Something flashed in Levistus’ eyes, slowing Cass’s urgency.
He closed his eyes and veered toward the Erinyes instead, tipping up her chin with his fingertips. “I’ll be back for you. Stay?”
She nodded, her breath hesitating.
Cass pressed a quick kiss to her lips, being careful to restrain his hunger, then stalked out of the room and through the closest portal.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
well that was a completely wrong turn
The portal didn’t take him to the Priestess. Of course, his powers were still out of whack, so for an entire stretched-out moment he blamed himself for the wrong turn.
Until he walked into an all-familiar office and saw his father lounging in front of a blazing hearth, contemplating the drink in his hand. His power, that had until this moment been subdued to a low-level hum, roared back to life, the waves of electric blue once more roiling over his skin, fed from whatever source was acting as his father’s life support in this pocket realm.
“Did the son finally come to end the father?” Asmodeus said, circling the ice in his glass before finally looking up, then did a double-take and jumped to his feet.
Cass flinched back from his father’s quick approach, before steeling himself and standing his ground.
“I didn’t come here— you brought me.”
“What have you done?” Asmodeus reached over Cass’s shoulder, Cass hissing sharply at the burning ache.
He looked over his shoulder and saw those same electric looking wings. Not just a hallucination?
“I drank some Fae blood...” Cass stepped back from his father’s touch, the pain akin to someone prodding at a raw nerve.
Asmodeus shook his head. “I have no idea why you would be drinking blood, but that isn’t what caused these.”
Cass dropped his head. “I thought I was hallucinating.”
“My former brother has visited.” Asmodeus stepped back and went to refill his drink, silently offering Cass one as well. He accepted to be polite, merely sipping it.
“You’ve caused quite a stir in the higher realms. Binding yourself to a celestial.” He took in Cass’s pseudo wings again. “Sharing powers with one. And now I understand the concern. You shouldn’t have wings. What powers have you given him when you made him your Herald?”
Cass took a larger mouthful of his drink. His father probably knew more than he did. He’d thought it was just a mind-link thing.
“If there’s an uproar in the celestial courts, enough of one that they deign to visit me, you can be assured every realm in the Hells is plotting your downfall. Making a celestial- one so recently fallen he still has his angelic qualities- your Herald? Making someone as rash and guileless as Levistus your advisor? I’m merely wondering who will be the one to take my throne from you, boy.”
“I�
��m making allies.” Cass stubbornly retorted.
“You need a better handle on your enemies.” Asmodeus looked at him intently.
“Who is my mother?” Cass was feeling just ballsy enough to ask. “Andrus brought her up and I am curious about a few things.”
Asmodeus lifted his lip into a sneer, “and you are meddling in the affairs of lesser gods.”
Cass shrugged. “I am friends with his wife. Again, making allies.” Cass finished his drink and narrowed his eyes on his father. “Who is she?”
“You’d do best to leave that rest. She left you, remember?” Asmodeus turned his back, before Cass could read the emotion on his face.
“So you say.” Cass walked over to the side table and refilled his own drink, feeling completely refreshed.
“Summon Glasya here.” Asmodeus stepped up beside him.
Cass stiffened. He hadn’t seen his sister since their blow-up over Levistus.
“Why would I do that?” He frowned, his hand tightening around his glass.
“Your power needs to be tempered. You’re leaning more to the celestial, and that will not go over well with the other Arch-Deacons. So, you will bind your powers to your sister’s.”
Cass’s jaw and hand clenched hard. “I won’t.”
“You will, or my throne will be lost.” Asmodeus took a menacing step closer. “Summon her, or I siphon back all of the power you just fed off here.”
With his head finally straight, his thoughts no longer spinning, there wasn’t much of a choice. He was trapped in a realm that was completely controlled by his father, at his whim and mercy. His power was satiated for once, his thoughts once more sensible. summon Glasya, then his father would release him, he could leave and continue on to see Amara all the faster.
He drew a small circle, with a wicked chuckle to himself thinking of his sister trapped in it, then sketched out Glasya’s sigil and called her forth. She appeared in a silk robe, looking furious. Then dawning horror as she took in her surroundings, her eyes widening at the sight of Asmodeus.