My blood froze in my veins. “Malachi? You allied with Malachi?”
He nodded turning away so his face was in shadow.
“How could you? Did you argue in our favor? Did you tell them this was wrong?”
He lifted his chin. “No.”
The breath whooshed out of my lungs. “You agree with this?” My voice was an incredulous whisper.
“Of course he does.” Mira spat, her face contorted in disgust. “They have something to offer don’t they? Power that the humans cannot.”
“Yes!” Paimon lashed out with the word. “The cosmic gods will give us the edge we need to win our war. The fate of the humans is not our concern. It cannot be our concern. Our people must come first. Our realm must come first. You, more than anyone else should know that. You’re a sentinel. A warrior.”
Mira bristled. “Yes. I was. Until you took that away from me.”
His eyes lit up. “Then let me give it back to you. Come with me. Be my sentinel again. Serve me and your realm.”
“What about Alara?”
“She will understand. Our realm needs skilled warriors.”
Was she wavering? Was that yearning in her gaze—a desire to become the creature of blood and death she’d been raised to be?
“Mira...” He held out his hand. “Come back home. Come back to your family.”
Mira stood taller, her lips curling in a sneer. “Fuck you, Paimon. This is my home now and Carmella is my family.”
He flinched as if she’d slapped him. “Very well. You have made your choice.”
I couldn’t believe he was seriously going to do this. “So, that’s it. Everything you said about humanity, everything you said about...us. It’s over?”
He swallowed hard. “You were right all along, Carmella. There is no future for us.”
Then he was gone.
Mira threw back her head and roared, echoing the rage and confusion in my heart.
◆◆◆
He’d abandoned me when I’d needed him the most—chosen his people over mine. I wanted to hate him for it, but how could I? His saving grace—the one act today that justified my having fallen for him in the first place—was that he had come back for me. He’d gotten me and Mira out of the facility against orders. But that was his last act of kindness toward me or my people. Sometimes, love wasn’t enough. Sometimes, the divide was just too wide to bridge. The woman who’d fallen for a djinn had been bludgeoned to death beneath his words. My heart should hurt, but in its place there was only a smoldering rock of determination. The conviction that we would prevail no matter how stacked the odds were against us.
It was politics. Put your own people first and all that. But what had the djinn offered the cosmic gods in return? Would they be attacking us? Had they asked for pieces of our realm in exchange for staying out of the fight when the cosmic gods purged our realm?
The not knowing was killing me. So, instead it was easier to focus on what we did know. To focus on what was right in front of my face.
Which in this case, was Aaron.
He glared at me from within his glass prison, but there was no recognition in his eyes.
“Aaron? Can you hear me?”
Patrick tapped buttons on his tablet. “His vitals are stable, but his brain activity is off the charts. The delta waves are erratic, almost as if he’s dreaming while awake. And then there are these strange new waves, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”
“Any guess as to what they are?”
“If he is connected to this cosmic god, then these waves could represent that connection. They grow weaker the higher we turn up the muting on the cage. We put the cage up to max but the waves are still there.”
“Can you block it? Can you disconnect him from Malachi?”
“I don’t know. I have a team working on a blocker that we may be able to inject directly into his cortex. If that works, then we can disable the signal Malachi is sending and speak to Aaron. You’ll get the answers you need.”
“I don’t give a damn about answers. I just want my friend back.”
Patrick blinked down at me, and then his face broke into a smile. “Well, in that case we’ll get your friend back, hopefully, with a side dish of useful intel.”
Aaron was watching us, his face expressionless. I pressed a hand to the glass. “I’m going to get you out of there, Aaron. I promise.”
The door to the lab slammed open and a woman strode in, dark hair, kick ass boots and a face I loved. My eyes pricked and grew hot. She held out her arms and I tumbled into them.
“Malina.” I breathed her in.
“Babe.”
She squeezed me so tight for a moment I thought she’d never let me go, and I welcomed it. God, I’d missed her so damned much. But there was something different about her. A softness, a girth that...Oh, God. I pulled back and looked down at her slightly distended abdomen.
“Baby?”
“No, too many donuts.” She smiled wryly, her gaze slipping over my shoulder to focus on the cage. “Can they help him?”
“Patrick is working on it.”
“Varuna filled me in, Carmella. Why didn’t you call me? Tell me what you were going through? What you went through?”
I shrugged. “There just hasn’t been time to stop and take stock. It’s been one thing after another. There’s so much I want to tell you but a social catch up is a luxury we can’t afford.”
“Of course, world in peril and all that.” Her tone was dry.
“Don’t you know it?”
She walked up to the cage and pressed her hand to the glass just as I had a moment before. Aaron expression remained bland and uninterested. “You’re going to see the High Witch?”
“Yes. Varuna got the go ahead while I was on mission. The plan is to force them to tell us everything they know about the cosmic gods and to rally them into fighting the threat. The skein is our best hope against them and only the covens can wield it.”
“I asked if I could go with, but Varuna said she’d asked to see you alone?”
“Yeah. Elora and I... we have history.”
“Elora?”
“Yeah. That’s her name.”
“Well as long it’s not the I’ll-get-you-alone-and-try-and-kill-you kind of history.” She paused. “It isn’t that kind of history, is it?”
“No. She knows who my real parents are and might know who bound my powers.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So much has happened.”
“I’m beginning to realize.” She reached for my hand. “I’m sorry I was gone so long.”
Had I felt abandoned when she’d left? Yes. But her departure had forced me to live my own life and truly find my own path. “You’re back now, and that’s all that matters.”
The door opened again and Melody entered. Her eyes widened at the sight of Malina and then she went in for a hug.
“How far along?” Melody asked.
“Four months,” Malina said.
“Garuda and the kids?”
“Good. Although I’m thinking it may be wise to get them all back to Nagalok until this blows over.”
“You should go too.”
“What?” Malina gave her an incredulous look. “Being pregnant does not make me useless. I’m staying. There must be something I can do to help. I’m going to speak to Varuna again. If the witches aren’t able to give us any useful information, we’re going to need a plan B.”
“Okay, I’m going to drive Carmella to the Mayfair mansion. We can liaise back here in a couple of hours.”
With a final glance at Aaron, we made our way out of the exit. We’d saved a bunch of people tonight, but not nearly enough to disable Malachi’s plan. Yule had said that Malachi drew power from his connection to all the humans and, yeah, we may have shaved off some of that power, but I doubted it was enough to give him pause. Plus, he had the beta team to add to his ranks now. He still had his army of Yaksha and an alliance with the djinn, if the witches couldn’t give us
the aid we needed then we were truly fucked. We needed to find out what form this purge would take and what Malachi’s weakness truly was.
And we needed the information yesterday.
23
Melody dropped me off outside the Mayfair Mansion just as my phone buzzed. It was Honey. I hadn’t seen or spoken to her since our attempt at a night out almost a week ago.
“I’ll see you back at Headquarters,” Melody said. The engine revved and she drove off.
I answered the phone on the sixth ring. “Hey, Hon. How are you?”
“I’m good, but I was worried about you.”
“I’m okay. I should have called when I got back actually. Things have been manic.”
“Yeah. I know. Things are weird in the supe community too. I think Yaksha are going missing.”
“I know. We’re on it. Just sit tight.”
Her tone hardened. “If my people are in danger, then I have a right to know. I want to help.”
“Everyone is in danger, and right now the only thing you can do to help is let me do my job.” My words were sharper than I’d intended. “I didn’t mean to snap.”
She sighed. “I know. You’re under pressure. Just please, don’t shut me out. Don’t shut us out. We may not be IEPEU, but we’re here for you.”
“I know, and I promise as soon as we have a plan of action, I’ll rope you in.”
“Do that.”
I hung up and headed into the imposing building almost careening straight into Drake in the foyer.
“Carmella.” His frown melted. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too. How’s Pen?”
The frown was back. “I don’t know. We’re no longer together.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” And I meant it. Break ups were the worst.
“In fact, I’m out. Just told grandmother I was going independent again. If you need any help, you let me know.”
He looked fresher, lighter, as if the old Drake was back. Or maybe that was just my imagination.
“Thanks. I will.”
“See you around, Carmella.”
“Yeah.”
Probably sooner than he thought. Because once the shit that was about to hit the fan became public knowledge, it would be all hands on deck.
“Miss Hunter?” Henry, the high witches lackey, stood at the top of the steps. “This way please.”
◆◆◆
The library again—our usual haunt for tales and revelations. This time the heavy drapes were open to let in the morning sun, reminding me the last time I’d slept was for a catnap in the djinn realm. So much had happened in a day and a night and we were about to go another round. The High Witch stood silhouetted by the sun, her slender frame a shadow.
“Have a seat, Carmella.” The High Witch turned away from the window and joined me by the wing backs.
I slipped into my usual seat. “You know why I’m here, so tell me what you know about the cosmic god, Malachi.”
I expected her to protest, to try and strike a bargain or ask me for something in return. I was more than prepared to shove the fate of the world situation down her throat, but she just sighed, poured herself a drink from a crystal decanter sitting on the table between us, sat back with her tiny crystal glass and began to speak.
“Almost twenty-five years ago there was an incident of people reporting missing time. The covens were called in to investigate by the council. Back then, the IEPEU was just in the beginning stages of setting up. The covens were the go to place for aid in supernatural matters. I was part of a specialized force made up of thirteen witches and a mage. Mages were rare back then, maybe two or three born in every generation, able to harness power, not from the skein, but from the earth itself.”
My friend Loki who’d been recruited into the specialist division of the IEPEU had this ability. But he’d been from a different reality.
“It was a rare ability and highly prized. I was an elder witch, and didn’t realize the reason why the mages were so valued. Didn’t know that the skein had been a gift from a cosmic god, or that magick wasn’t something we were entitled to. In Garnet’s case it ran through his veins.”
“Garnet? As in the vampire who lives in the Underground?”
She smiled. “Yes. But back then he wasn’t a vampire. He was a powerful mage and my lover.”
Well, that explained the weird repertoire between the two of them. “So, you worked a case together?”
“Yes. What we discovered changed all our lives. It led us to an asura named Dhani?
Wait, Vritra has said my father had been called Dhani. “My father was an asura named Dhani.”
“Yes. The answers to the questions you’re burning to ask me are all wrapped up in this tale.” She took a shuddering breath. “Before we could act, however, the High Witch recalled the team and revealed the truth under witch’s oath. The oath is void now since I am the High Witch, so I am able to reveal what was said.”
“And?”
“She told us the truth about our origins, about the deal with the cosmic god for access to the skein, about the thirteen souls we’d sacrificed to obtain the power, and how we had unwittingly allowed the cosmic god a foothold into our world when opening the doorway to his dimension. The cosmic god was taking bodies. Hopping from human to human in his quest to experience life. But in doing so, he was disrupting the lives of the families of the victims and putting the covens’ secret at risk, and now he’d taken the body of a demi-god. If the gods discovered the truth about the witches’ bargain, then there was nothing stopping them from striking a similar bargain with the cosmic god. Maybe even offer something that would strip the covens of power, and give it all to the gods.”
“The coven was worried about losing skein access? They didn’t want to share it with the gods?”
“I know it sounds petty, but the gods’ power was depleted, and the fact that the covens had magick via the skein was the only thing keeping us at a level pegging when it came to power status in the city. If the gods managed to get their claws into it, then they may have forced the covens to work for them, not with them.”
It was always about power and status with these people. Never just about innocent lives. “So, the cosmic god was in my father’s body. Wait, did this happen while Dhani was dating my mum?”
Her expression grew hooded. “He was dating my adopted daughter. Velomina.”
“Your adoptive daughter is my mother?”
“We’ll get to that in a moment.” She picked up her glass and sipped the cherry red liquid inside. “We had to work fast to expel the cosmic god from the asura body and bind him. We couldn’t risk this happening again. It took almost a week to create the chant to do it. All the High Witches and elder witches working together, using the skein against its creator to bind him and shove him in a box for eternity.”
“A box? Like a literal box?”
She shook her head. “More of a box in the fabric of time and space. An anomaly where he would be stuck in the same moment for infinity.”
“Sounds pleasant.”
“Yes, well. We managed to track him down to a small bar on the edge of town, but he sensed us and ran. We gave chase of course, and there was a battle, most of my comrades were either killed or gravely injured. We’d underestimated his power. He’d run simply to draw us to an isolated spot where he could dispatch us easily. His power wasn’t physical. He attacked our minds. My group turned on each other, but Garnet and I resisted the longest. We had him almost bound when he clamped hold of my mind. He made me...he made me strike Garnet down. It was a mortal wound.”
“Oh, God!”
“The horror of what I’d done helped free me, and I finished the binding but Garnet was dying and the cosmic god offered me a deal.”
I could see where this was going. “He offered to save him, didn’t he?”
“Yes. And I took the deal. I agreed to let him go on the condition he never take a host again. He refused. Bargaining, telling me that in t
his host body he had found happiness. Vowing to remain in that body if we just let him be. But I knew I couldn’t do that. Time was running out for Garnet and so I offered another compromise—I would let him go as long as he never took an unwilling host again. I told him to take the deal or go in the box. It was a bluff, of course. My love for Garnet had me teetering, but the cosmic god was bound, he couldn’t see the truth inside my head. He agreed to give Garnet life and he kept his word, just not in the way I’d expected.”
“He turned him into a vampire.”
“Yes, but not the kind of vampire we know. Garnet is not a dead meat suit possessed by a vampire. He is a mage forced to drink blood to survive. It is the only thing that can sustain him now. It was the cosmic gods final fuck you.”
I flinched at the curse words falling from her cultured lips.
“The first thing Garnet did upon waking was to feed. He fed on the remaining witches, those who were hurt and unconscious. He fed until they were dead, and I was too weak to stop him, and then he left me.”
“He blames you for what he’s become.”
“Yes.”
“I lied to the covens. I told them the threat had been eliminated. That the witches had died in battle and so had Garnet. They chose to believe me. I thought it was over, but then I found out that Velomina was pregnant.”
Wait...no. “You think the cosmic god was inside my father’s body when he got my mother pregnant?”
Her eyes grew dark with pity. “Yes.”
“But she fell in love with the asura, right? Before the cosmic god took residence?”
“We’re not sure how much of an overlap there is. But I suspect when Malachi told me he was happy and had found a body he wished to remain in, he was referring to his relationship with Velomina. Velomina had revealed her pregnancy to him. He knew he was soon to be a father.”
Something about that niggled at the back of my mind—procreation and hosts, and oh, my God. “I’m his perfect host!”
“Yes.” She swallowed. “You are. The covens did their research on the cosmic gods when they were first granted access to the skein. They were concerned as to his motives. But all was silent and so they relaxed thinking he may have simply visited and moved on. When people began losing time, the research was picked up again and we learned that the only way he could remain here indefinitely was to sire a child. If the covens discovered Velomina was pregnant with a baby sired by Malachi they would kill it. They couldn’t risk the cosmic god getting a permanent foothold in our world.”
Embracing Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 3) Page 14