Quinn continued his slow journey as the conversation ebbed and flowed around him. Careful to keep his movements unobtrusive, he divided his attention between his task and the discussion, waiting for the right time to jump in.
"I meant, if she were here right now, what would she say about your plan?" Val's tone soothed.
Mortianna frowned as if confused. Her gaze fixed on a spot on the floor as if something were troubling her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Quinn knew exactly what was bothering her. Already the powder was taking effect. He continued his task, moving in a wide circle around his mother, enclosing them in a circle of fine powder.
"Why do you think I'm doing this?" she repeated. She rubbed a spot between her brows. "My daughter, my beautiful daughter," she whispered.
"Don't you think she'd be upset that you're trying to destroy her friends?" Alexandre asked.
"Well, of course she would be. The silly twit believed she was in love with St. James. He bewitched her. What mortal could love a blood-sucking fiend?" She began to pace.
Quinn kept an eye on her as he completed the circle. Unaware of the boundaries, Mortianna paced within it. The enchanted powder was keeping her secured without her knowledge. So far so good.
"Mother," he spoke, drawing her attention. He stood across from her, the casket between them. She looked up and he was struck by her grief, etched in every inch of her face. For all her faults, Mortianna had truly loved her daughter.
But not him. Never him.
He waited for the pain to come, but it didn't. Only a whisper of bittersweet agony resonated as he thought of the severed relationship between his sister and mother. His biological family certainly took the fun out of dysfunctional.
He shook himself back to the present. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"What?" she snapped, clearly irritable.
"Bliss loved Sinjin with all her heart." He looked at the serene face of his sister. "And he loved her to distraction." He met his mother's gaze one more. "Vampire or not, your mortal daughter did love a blood-sucking fiend as you put it."
For a second, he thought she'd erupt in flames. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparked before she forcibly calmed herself. "He tricked her," she said.
"How? How did Sinjin trick her into loving him?"
She waved her hand and resumed her pacing. "I don't know. Vampires have powers that even I don't understand completely. My daughter could have never loved one of them." She indicated Val and Alexandre.
Quinn laid his hand on the casket, the glass chilly beneath his palm. "You keep ignoring the fact that Bliss did love one of them. She wished to spend her life with him, but she couldn't because you forced her to make a choice. She chose to leave him and keep him alive, rather than allow you to kill him." He stroked the glass directly above his sister's face.
"What else was I supposed to do?" Mortianna's pace increased.
"Let them live in peace." He traced the sign of the pentagram over his sister, disbursing the last of the dust that clung to his fingertips. "It didn't bring her back to you, did it?"
"No." The one word came out as an anguished sob.
"You drove your daughter out of Sinjin's life, but you admit she didn't readily accept you back into hers." He turned from the casket. "And now you're going to exact your vengeance on the vampires, many of them innocent of any wrongdoing, because you made a mistake?"
Slowly, she turned her face to him. She appeared to have aged another ten years in the past few minutes. Her eyes burned bright with anger as she beheld her first born.
"My only mistake in life was in having you." She pointed at him. "Your father was weak, and he bred a weak child upon me. Once I discovered this, I cast you both out. I should have drowned you at birth."
Quinn refused to react under her venomous gaze. "I guess you made two mistakes then." He glanced at Val and Alexandre, giving them the prearranged signal to divide and conquer.
"One which I shall soon rectify," she said.
He shifted, careful to keep her attention on him as he moved, so she wouldn't see Val and Alexandre as they dealt with the minions.
"You would kill your own son?" he asked. "The Rede states 'An it harm none, do what thou wilt'. You'd violate this basic tenant of witchcraft?"
Mortianna laughed and it wasn't a pleasant sound. "You fail to see the big picture. There is so much more than your feeble white magic. There are untapped resources of alchemy out there." She waved her arm to indicate outside the boundaries of the house. "There are no limits on power, and it's there for the taking. Anything can be had."
"For a price?"
"Some prices, regardless of their size, should be paid for the gain they offer." She shrugged. "Who can put boundaries on the gift of limitless knowledge? What price would one pay for anything they desire? Everything, Quinn, most would give everything."
He thought of Maeve and her thirst for revenge. He wondered what she'd say to that after spending several hours in Mortianna's company. Was the price too high for the knowledge it afforded?
"I can set boundaries." He spoke quietly. "If I can't look in the mirror every morning and like what I see, the price is too high."
"Fool!" Mortianna gave a bark of laughter. "Exactly as I thought. You're weak just like your father."
He smiled as he saw the first minion melting into a puddle. He switched his gaze to his biological mother. "I'll take that as a compliment."
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. She turned to see Alexandre and Val moving methodically among the minions, injecting them with water-filled syringes. As they worked, the minions dropped into sodden puddles of smelly brown wool.
"Stop that!" she shrieked, stalking toward Val, her anger fading to amazement as she was restrained by the boundary of the circle. "What the-"
"It's over," Quinn spoke. "It's time to put the darkness behind you and put aside your ideas of vengeance."
"You did this." Mortianna accused, swinging around to face him. "You would betray your own flesh and blood?"
"For the love of my sister, yes."
"Your own mother?" she shrieked.
"You were never my mother," he shot back. "You are nothing to me."
"You'll pay f r this." With a mad gleam in her eye, Mortianna raised her hands and pointed in his direction.
Quinn cast a quick protection spell around himself before the first blow fell and white light blinded him.
The room erupted into chaos as Maeve entered.
A few minions were flying about while many lay melted on the floor, the stench of cotton candy and wet copper was overpowering. Val and Alexandre, armed with brightly colored water guns like the ones her nieces and nephews had used on hot summer days squirted the little beasts as they attacked. Minions were dropping to the ground while the wounded ones grew enraged and tried to dive- bomb their tormenters. One came too close to Val and he pulled out a fat syringe and stabbed it in the shoulder, injecting the clear fluid. A shriek came from the hapless creature before it dissolved.
A crack rent the air and she turned in time to see Quinn fly across the room as if shot from a cannon. He stopped abruptly as if he'd hit an invisible wall and slid to the ground. Mortianna stood near her daughter's casket, looking much older than she had the last time Maeve had seen her. Her eyes glowed with madness as she stared at her son, hatred etched throughout her posture.
She was going to kill him.
"Make your choice, Maeve." Val spoke. She turned to see him walking toward her, his water toy almost empty. "Will you help Quinn or sacrifice him so Mortianna will give you the spell and the key to your revenge?"
Quinn rose from the floor to face his mother once again. He said something she couldn't hear over the thudding of her own heart. Mortianna raised her hands as Quinn did the same. Lightning broke from her fingertips and raced at Quinn in the blink of an eye.
A shriek lodged in her throat as the sparks stopped midway between them, curling into a ball of light. As Quinn shifted hi
s hands, the ball changed shape and moved closer to Mortianna.
The witch scowled and leaned forward as if to put more effort into moving the ball of light. It began to swing back toward Quinn.
"Get more water and worry about your own problems, I'll deal with Mortianna." Maeve walked through the sea of flying bodies and melting minions, untouched. When one of the beasts came too close, she kicked it and moved on.
"You can't breach the circle," she heard Alexandre call from behind her.
She paused at the edges of where she thought the circle might be. She couldn't see anything on the floor but the power rolled in the air like waves. She held up her hands to absorb the sensation prickling her skin. Tingling ran through her palms and raced along her arms and shoulders, coalescing in her abdomen.
Her head swam for a split second as images like slides flipped before her eyes. None of it made any sense. She blinked and the images cleared in time to see Quinn falter and the ball of lightning swing toward him.
Without thinking, Maeve stepped into the circle behind her lover.
"I'll be damned," Val muttered.
She had the satisfaction of seeing Mortianna's eyes widen as their gazes met. The ball swooped and raced toward the witch. She came to her senses and sent it whizzing back at Quinn.
Maeve placed her hands on Quinn's shoulders and leaned into him. Concentrating on her hands, she envisioned a brilliant white light collecting in her chest to shoot down her arms and into her palms. Exhaling, she shoved the light into him in a blast of energy. Quinn straightened and moved his hands.
The light threw off blue sparks as it raced toward Mortianna.
She gave a shriek as the ball hit her in the midsection, knocking her to her knees where she crouched, gasping for breath. She curled her arm over her abdomen as if in pain.
Maeve stepped away from Quinn, careful to avoid his gaze.
"How did you do that?" He gasped for breath also.
"She did it." Maeve pointed to Mortianna. "She gave me the Knowledge of The Ages."
"She did what?"
Maeve met his incredulous gaze. "She said she gave me the power of the ages before throwing me into the oubliette." She frowned and looked at her hands. "I'm not really sure what it means though."
Quinn laughed, and Maeve stared at him, startled.
"She defeated herself. She gave you her powers and her ability." He waved his hand at the woman who lay on the floor, glaring at both of them. "Mortianna was the keeper of the Knowledge and she gave it to you." He looked at the witch. "You really didn't know, did you? Only one person can hold the sum of the Knowledge at one time and you gave it away."
Stunned, Maeve looked at Mortianna, then back at Quinn. "I'm a witch?" She gulped.
He nodded.
"I'm a witch," she repeated. Her knees sagged and he reached for her.
"Steady now."
"I-"
An enraged shriek tore them apart as Mortianna came up off the floor, a lethal Turkish knife in one hand. She pointed it at her son and charged. Maeve took a flying leap, barreling into the witch's side and diverting her path. Without thinking, she grabbed for her boot knife. Her attention divided, she stumbled over Mortianna's cape, and together they fell with Maeve landing on top.
She grabbed Mortianna's wrist and watched as her expression turned from one of rage to one of surprise. She sprang to her feet, and her stomach turned when she saw both the Turkish knife and her boot knife embedded in the witch's chest.
She staggered back, her feet tangling in the cape once more. She almost fell before strong arms encircled her waist and held her upright.
Quinn.
"I killed her," she whispered.
His arms tightened.
Mortianna struggled to rise to her knees. Crawling, she crept to the casket, trails of blood marking her path. Staring raptly at her daughter's face, she clawed at the glass, but her strength gave out and she fell to the floor. Her body brushed a small plaster column, tipping the vase of flowers to the ground. The vase shattered and spilled the bounty of cream-colored roses across the floor.
"Bliss." Mortianna whispered as blood erupted from her mouth. Her eyes glazed and her lips barely moved as she breathed her last words. "Forgive me."
* * *
Epilogue
Tears spilled down her cheeks as Maeve watched Sinjin place a dozen red roses on the casket. Torchlight flickered across the faces of her friends as they gathered to bid farewell to Bliss.
Conor MacNaughten stood at the head of the casket, his words soft and melodic in the still of the Samhain night. Jennifer Beaumont stood next to him, wiping tears surreptitiously as he spoke the final prayer.
Alexandre stood next to her, his Armani armor in place and his expression stoic, but his eyes glimmered with unshed tears.
Beside him stood Shai, who leaned on Val's arm, both wearing stricken expressions.
Maeve stood at the foot of the casket with Sunni who was dry-eyed and solemn beside her. Next came Fayne. The massive were-cat stood stone-faced, his arm around his weeping mate, Erihn.
Sinjin stood next to her, his head bowed, his gaze fixed on the face of the woman he'd loved for so many years.
Then there was Quinn.
He stood beside Mac, his face expressionless. Only the tightness of his jaw hinted at inner turmoil.
After the death of Mortianna two days before, a whirlwind of activity had commenced. They'd buried the witch in an oak grove behind her house. Surrounded by the remains of her minions, Maeve hoped her tortured soul would find peace at last.
Hilton, Sinjin's butler, was found dead in the wood surrounding Aisling Crioch earlier in the day and he'd been laid to rest in the St. James family cemetery. Maeve would dearly miss the gruff man who'd snapped at her for entering the hall with wet boots yet concocted herbal teas when she was ill last month.
Now, in Sinjin's beloved Highlands, they attended to Bliss. Inwardly, she sighed. So much death had surrounded them in the past year and she could only hope for the sake of her friends that it would end soon.
"Sinjin says this meadow is filled with heather in the warmer months," Sunni whispered. "I'll bet it's lovely."
Maeve jerked back to awareness. Mac had fallen silent. "Yes," her words were scratchy. She cleared her throat. "I think Bliss would be pleased."
The men stepped forward to take the ropes that lay strung beneath the casket. They lifted it and Jennifer and Shai removed the wooden slats that had held the coffin above the grave.
Silently, the men lowered the casket into the hole. Maeve swallowed as Val and Fayne picked up shovels to complete their task. Quinn stopped Fayne.
"Please." He held out his hand for the shovel and the were-cat acquiesced and handed it to him.
Sinjin followed suit, and soon both men shoveled the dark earth into the grave.
Maeve flinched as the first shovelful hit the reinforced glass of the coffin. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched the two men who'd loved Bliss the most put her to rest.
Once their task was complete, they all stood silently for a moment. Nothing moved, not even the night creatures.
Then Mac held his hand out to Jennifer. Silent, she took it. He dropped a chaste kiss on her lips and they turned away. He grabbed a torch as they walked down the hill to the house.
Fayne reached for Erihn, pulling her into his arms. He dropped a kiss on her head before they, too, started down the track.
Alexandre was next. He walked alone, his head high and his shoulders stiff. Maeve caught the look of longing Sunni gave him as he passed, ignoring her presence. Her shoulders slumped.
Val came up behind Sunni and slid an arm around her, steering her toward the path. Shai joined them, and, grabbing a torch, she linked an arm around her lover's waist as they joined the procession.
A lump lodged in her throat as she watched Quinn and Sinjin standing across the grave from one another. They were as different as night and day. Quinn as light as Sinjin was dark. Quinn w
as warmth and sunshine, Sinjin cool and deadly.
It was the warmth that held her heart.
Turning, she walked to the path, tears blurring her vision. More the fool was she to love a man who would never return her feelings. She'd made a huge mistake by walking away from him, then had compounded it by taking the life of his mother. Granted, Mortianna had been trying to kill him at the time, but murder was murder and Maeve had been the one to end Mortianna's life.
She sighed. She wasn't cut out for this.
All her life, all she'd wanted was to be a mother and a chef. Children and food were her two greatest passions and she had neither.
"You forgot something."
She jerked as Quinn's voice intruded. Hastily, she wiped her eyes before facing him. He stood a few feet away, his eyes red and his expression solemn. A torch flickered in his hand.
"Sorry, I did forget, didn't I?" She reached for the torch, surprised when he held it away from her.
"No, I didn't mean the torch, I meant something else."
She glanced at his other hand. Empty. She shook her head, not sure she could speak.
"You forgot me," he whispered.
Her heart leapt into her throat and she stepped back, unsure what to say. Surely he didn't mean what she was thinking. "I could never forget you," she ventured.
He smiled and her toes curled. "That's good because I have no intention of letting you ever forget me." He reached for her hand. "Seeing that you and I will be together for a very long time, that should be impossible."
"Together?" Her voice was faint.
"Like peanut butter and jelly." With a gentle tug, he pulled her toward him. Their hands linked, he guided her arm around her back and pulled her into him. "It's hard to forget someone when you wake up beside them every morning." He leaned closer.
A shiver of delight ran down her spine at the prospect of seeing his face day and night. Could they make it work?
"But I killed your mother," she blurted, seconds before his lips touched hers.
He pulled back. "Yes, and she was trying to kill me. You saved my life."
"I thought she was immortal. How did I kill her?"
Wilder, J. C. - Shadow Dweller 4 Page 12