by Deanna Chase
Bea nodded. “Yes, I was aware of that.”
Of course she was. “Okay, so tonight she went into a trance while we were talking about Kane’s energy tainting the shadows. She said to look up where he comes from. To search his family ties. And a few days ago, Gwen called with a message telling me to research the history. So clearly there’s a pattern here.”
The three of them nodded.
Then Kane said, “Are they saying someone I’m related to did this to the shadows?”
“Yes. I think so. But I don’t think we’re looking for an immediate relative. More like a distant one who shares your type of energy.”
Bea frowned. “Another incubus? Or a witch?”
The only way Kane could’ve become an incubus was if he’d had a sex witch in his family line. Incubi were born from sex witches when demons enslaved them. So her question was a reasonable one. “Something like that, but I don’t think we’re talking about a witch here.”
“Then what? Another incubus?” Kane asked.
I shook my head. “A demon.”
“You think a demon did this?” Kane got up and moved to lean against the counter. “But how? Ever since I’ve become a demon hunter, the area near and around the club has been monitored for demons. If any enter within a certain area, the alarms go off. It’s only happened once, and we were there to take him down within minutes.”
“Because he hasn’t entered the shadows yet. Although one tried yesterday before we managed to get away.” I grabbed my coffee mug and took a sip. “He’s using his Goddess to do the work for him.”
“Okay,” Lucien said. “Let me see if I’m following this. There’s a demon who may be the patriarch of Kane’s line who poisoned the shadows to suck the life from angels, and he used his Goddess slave to do his dirty work?”
“Yes, that’s my working theory. I saw him yesterday and more than that, I felt him. The energy was horrifically awful, but underneath it all, there was a hint of something that reminds me of Kane. Either way, I feel like if we take this demon down, we solve at least one problem. The Goddess will lose her power. And if he’s the one who tainted the shadows, then that would be solved, too.”
“It would explain a lot,” Bea said, finally joining the conversation. “If he shares blood with Kane and he felt Kane’s presence at some point, he could’ve latched on and basically stolen some of Kane’s incubus energy, in effect connecting them. Only those most intimately familiar with Kane would realize the energy signature in the shadows wasn’t his.”
“So, I’m not crazy?” I asked glancing around. “We may have found an answer?”
“It’s possible,” Bea said.
“Assuming everything Jade just said is true, what would we do then?” Lucien asked.
“Then we’d summon the demon and end him.” Bea’s eyes were hard with determination.
Kane raised his gaze to mine. “I want to run this by the Brotherhood first. See if it’s even plausible.”
I felt my blood pressure rise with frustration. Now that I had a solid hunch, I wanted to see it through. Was ready to call up the demon and end this disaster as soon as possible.
“Jade, please. If we’re going to summon a demon, it makes sense to have the hunters there.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic. “All right. But we’re doing this no matter what Maximus says.”
“I never thought any differently.” Kane pulled out his phone and dialed. A few minutes later, he tossed his phone on the table with too much force and swore.
“What is it?” I asked.
“They’re not taking my calls. They aren’t at the house. It’s like they up and disappeared.”
Man, I hated power-hungry leaders. I vowed to never become that person.
“Call Vaughn,” I suggested. “He said he’d do what he could for you. Maybe he can get a message to them.”
Kane took a deep breath, visibly calming himself. Then he picked the phone back up and walked outside.
“We’re going to do this, right? Summon the demon?” I asked Bea and Lucien.
They shared a look. Then Lucien raised his hands as if to say, What else are we going to do?
“I know I don’t have to tell you how dangerous this is,” Bea said as she clutched one of her spell books.
“But?”
“A demon who makes deals with Goddesses and can suck energy from a world he isn’t even in means he’s more powerful than any demon you can imagine. This is a major battle, and we have to prepare for it.”
Her warning sobered me. “Okay. How do we prepare?”
She stood and waved me over to her kitchen. “Potions. Powerful ones.” Handing me the pestle and mortar, she put me to work grinding fresh herbs.
“What are we making?” I asked.
“Everything.”
***
It was just after dark the next day when Bea, Lucien, Kane, and the rest of my coven members met at the coven circle. Kane had never heard back from the Brotherhood, though he had spoken with Vaughn. The younger demon hunter hadn’t said what they’d been doing, but he’d promised to relay the message.
Bea, Lucien, and I had spent half the night and most of the morning and early afternoon brewing protection spells, healing spells, and a powerful summoning spell.
The air was thick with humidity, and fog covered our sacred circle. Everything was still in the silence. What should’ve been a peaceful evening instead was ominous and as eerie as if we’d been standing in the city of the dead.
I put those thoughts out of my mind and placed candles around the edge of the circle. My coven members stood off to the side as Lucien filled them in on the plan. None of them were happy about the summoning and two flat out refused.
I joined Lucien and the other coven members and said, “I know this is scary. No one wants to summon a demon…ever. And this one is particularly dangerous, as he’s been sucking the life out of people and collecting souls. It seems wrong to summon a demon out of Hell, as that’s where we’d like them to stay, but this evil bastard is hurting people without even being here. If we don’t do something, we’re going to lose more souls. We may already have. An angel and a woman have gone missing. It’s my job to see that it doesn’t happen again.”
Scanning their faces, I focused on Joel, a young college-aged witch who wasn’t always the most stable. “You don’t have to do this. It isn’t your job, nor is it what you signed up for when you decided to be a part of this coven. So if you want to leave, you can. No one will think less of you.”
Joel straightened his shoulders and frowned. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I smiled at him. “I’m glad to hear it.”
A murmur of agreement filtered through the witches and in the end, they all decided to stay, even though at least half of them were so scared their residual energy was physically making me ill.
“Bea?” I called.
“Yes.”
“Did we bring any calming herbs?”
She checked her list. “Yes.”
“Can you start handing them out to the coven members? I need them to stay on point.”
She nodded. “I’m on it.”
“Ready for this?” I asked Kane.
He shook his head. “No. Are you?”
“No.” Trepidation welled in my chest and all I wanted to do was bury my face in his shoulder. “Why haven’t the demon hunters responded?”
He shrugged. “I can’t say. But you’ve done this before and won. I know you can do it again. You’re stronger now.”
I stared up at him, awe and appreciation overwhelming me. “I hope you’re right.”
He kissed me tenderly and when he pulled away, he said, “I know I am.”
With love filling my heart, I said, “Okay team, let’s kick some demon ass.”
Chapter 22
Magic rippled through the air like static electricity. I stood cloaked in my velvet witch’s robe at the northern most point of our circle, a white pillar candle in my
left hand. Kane stood beside me, a ceremonial knife in his fist.
“Ready, Jade?” Bea called from across the circle.
I glanced around at the nervous faces of my coven. My stomach rolled with nausea. I’d asked them to take their lives in their hands to summon the worst of the worst, and they’d agreed. The sheer level of trust they’d put in me and Bea was awe inspiring, and the weight of responsibility bearing down on me was crushing. If anything happened to any of them, I knew I wouldn’t recover.
“You can do this,” Kane whispered to me.
I gave him a tiny nod. We didn’t have much of a choice. Kane was our connection to the demon. It was the only way we could summon him. And neutralizing the demon meant weakening the Goddess and cleaning up the shadows. I clutched the protection potion and scanned the witches on the circle. “Please raise your candles.”
Everyone clutched a white candle and held it out. The collective magic flared to life. The connection filled me up and strengthened my will. They were all with me one hundred percent. And I’d do anything to keep them safe.
“Before we start, I have a protection spell I’d like to invoke. The way it works is I swallow this potion and then share my power with each of you. It’ll keep us connected and create a stronger bond.”
Bea smiled her encouragement, and the rest of the coven made murmurs of agreement.
I lifted the vial to my lips, gulped down the cinnamon-flavored potion, and said, “From one to three to three to one, I share my power, thy will be done.”
Magic bubbled up from the depths of my being, building pressure in my chest. Then I blew out a breath. Mist expelled from my lips and wound its way through the circle. The moment each of the eight witches was affected, I felt them as if they were a part of me and our magic flowed as one. And then, just as I was ready to start the summoning, Kane’s energy rushed into me, binding us even tighter.
I glanced at him. “The protection spell affected you, too?”
He nodded.
“Interesting.” I hadn’t expected that to happen, since he wasn’t part of the coven. “Okay, cool.” I glanced around the circle. “Remember, our function here is to lend our magic to the blood sacrifice. Once Kane feeds the earth, everyone will use the candles as an offering. Understood?”
Our connection made it possible for me to feel their agreement before they even vocalized it.
“Good. Then we’re ready,” I said.
We’d done a number of summonings in the past, and this one would largely be the same. The only differences were we’d made up a special potion and we were counting on the fact that Kane’s blood could call up a demon. If there was a DNA connection, this would work. If our hunch was wrong, this might all be for nothing.
I wasn’t sure what I hoped for more.
Raising my arms skyward, I held my candle high with both hands. “Magic of the circle, hear my call. The coven of New Orleans holds the key to the power you seek.”
A thread of magic spun like a web from me and moved around the circle, mixing with each of the witches. As the threads wound through them, they lifted their candles in offering.
“We’re bound together, all united in one goal—to call the one who lives for harm,” I called.
The magic intensified around us, churning with anger and disgust. The spell was working. It made my head ache from the evil seeping into our circle.
“From the shadows to Hell and everywhere in between, we summon the evil one.” My voice cracked from the raw, fiery power that rumbled from deep in my core. It heated and boiled and ate away at everything I held dear in my heart. Frustrated rage took over as power consumed me. I vibrated with it, longed to lash out, to take something, anything down. I was lost on the wave of righteous indignation, calling up every last bit of power.
The candle slipped from my raised hands, but it didn’t fall. It hovered in front of me, the unlit wick taunting me. I spun in Kane’s direction, barely seeing him, and yelled, “Now!”
“Take the blood offering!” he shouted as he sliced his palm, dropped the knife then poured the summoning potion over the wound.
The earth rumbled beneath our feet. A few cries of shock reached my ears, but I ignored them.
“Feed off the blood of your descendant. Take it in. Become one,” I commanded.
Lightning rippled around the circle. And when Kane’s blood hit the spelled earth, my body went rigid, filling up on the spell. The power was intoxicating and instantly pushed back the power that had almost consumed me. I straightened my body, steady and full of pure clean magic. I could do anything. Call anyone. The world was mine to command. “Ignite!” I cried.
The candle in front of me flared to life, the flame scarlet red in the moonlight.
“Ignite!” the rest of the coven echoed.
Magic filled the circle in a thick fog and crackled with intensity.
“Show yourself!” Intense, terrifying magic poured from my fingers. There was a tiny voice inside my head that whispered, Too much. Let this go. The magic is destroying you.
But I was too far gone. I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. My body was a slave to the white-hot magic claiming me.
“Offer your sacrifice,” an ominous voice called, barely reaching me.
It was the demon. He’d heard our call. “You’ve been fed the blood of your descendant. Come rejoin him.”
A loud boom rumbled through the circle followed by another demand, “Offer your sacrifice!”
I longed to throw the rest of my power into the circle, but something deep inside me stopped me. I was intimately connected to the entire coven. If I lost control, I’d weaken them all. Instead, I turned to Kane. “More blood.”
He shook his head. “That isn’t what he wants.”
“Then what?”
Kane dropped the ceremonial knife and with one last glance at me, he stepped into the circle.
Dark clouds gathered over the circle as currents of magic sparked all around Kane. His skin lit up with the same crimson red flame that blazed on my candle.
“Kane!” I took a step forward.
“No!” He held his hand out, stopping me. “Stay where you are. He’s coming.”
The rest of the coven members chanted the words of my spell. “From the shadows to Hell and everywhere in between, we summon the evil one.”
My vision cleared of the overwhelming magic, and I stood there, holding my candle as I watched the red flames dance over Kane’s skin. He didn’t appear to be in any pain, but the effect was more than unnerving. In fact, his energy told me he was strong, ready for battle.
“Jade, focus!” Bea ordered from across the circle.
Her voice shook me out of my Kane-induced trance. I opened my senses, let the coven’s chant mix with the magic flowing from them to me. And then I bent and unleashed the torrent of energy right into the ground.
The earth rumbled with complaint, nearly knocking me on my ass.
“Hold steady,” I heard Lucien call.
I straightened and focused on the disturbance right in the middle of the circle. Magic shot from me, Lucien, Bea, and Rosalee in an arcing stream, and that same red fire jumped from Kane and erupted right where our magic joined.
The blaze grew into an inferno so hot that heat broke out over my entire body. “Whoa.”
Kane took a step toward me, his clothes charred, but thankfully his body was unmarred. Our eyes met and in that moment a torrent of relief, mixed with determination, shot from him to me. An overwhelming urge to join him within the circle seized me. I didn’t want him to do this alone. Didn’t want him in that circle at all. It was too dangerous.
But just as I was about to take a step, the magic that was consuming me vanished, leaving me empty, gutted, and the red fire died to a slow burn right before it winked out. I glanced around, my thoughts jumbled. What had happened?
“Holy crow,” one of the younger members muttered.
The air was perfectly still, the night cloaked in near darkness now
.
“Did it not work?” one of the female witches asked.
No one answered her. A soft whistle blew in on a light breeze, and I shivered with unease. If we hadn’t just been unleashing massive amounts of magic into the atmosphere, I’d think a tornado was coming. The night was thick with humidity as the wind picked up within the circle, swirling around, pushing against us. All of our witch’s robes flared out behind each of us.
“He’s coming,” I said softly.
“No.” Kane raised his hand in a stop motion. “He’s here.”
A loud boom filled the night, followed by a flash of bright red flames once again in the middle of the circle.
We all stared open-mouthed as the flames suddenly quenched, leaving behind a ten-foot demon with red leather skin and unending solid black eyes.
“Oh my God,” one of the younger witches said. Another gasped.
Kane took another step in my direction, but the demon swiveled and pointed a finger right at him.
“You! How dare you summon me from my place beside the king?” He took two steps forward and crooked his finger.
Kane doubled over in pain and his body propelled forward as if the demon had him on a hook.
“No!” I threw both hands out in front of me and unleashed the tiny bit of magic still pulsing beneath my heart. The white stream bounced off the demon, fizzled, and then faded away into the night air. Fear surged through me as I acknowledged for the first time that the demon might be more powerful than we’d anticipated. If we couldn’t take him down with our collective magic, we were in deep trouble.
The demon scowled in my direction and then gave me a dismissive glance. Focusing on Kane, he flexed his fingers once more. Kane stumbled forward, now only about a foot from the demon. “Who are you?”
“No one,” Kane answered on a cough.
“You’re a hunter,” the demon said thoughtfully. Then his chapped lips curved up into a frightening smile. “But your power’s been stripped.” Laughter rumbled from deep within the demon. Shaking with sick humor, he turned his evil eyes on me. “Is he an offering?”
“No,” I said defiantly.
“No?” The demon tilted his too-large head and eyed the rest of the coven. “Shall I take them all instead?”