The Fires of Tartarus

by Emma V. Leech

  I nodded. I believed him. Corin would have been impossible to resist. If it hadn't been for Corvus ... I closed my eyes and prayed, though the irony of that wasn't lost on me. I prayed that Corin was safe, that Claudette would be happy, that myself and Corvus and the family had a future together, whatever form that may take.

  “Jéhenne, you need to rest,” Inés said, resting a hand on my arm. “You will need all your strength tonight.”

  I looked back at her in astonishment, wiping my eyes. “Sleep? You think I can sleep now?”

  She helped me as I struggled to my feet, her expression stern. “Lucas will help you with that.” She turned to him and he nodded. I tried not to see the soft look in his eyes.

  “Of course. Come on, Jéhenne.”

  I followed him, too numb and exhausted to protest. Somehow I couldn't get the image of a pair of bright, golden eyes to leave me. I remembered the sound of Corin's laughter. He was always so ready to laugh, even at himself. I remembered the joy I had seen in those eyes when I had told him I was to have his child. I thought of the vision of the son we had never had and remembered the depth of his sorrow when he realised it had all been a lie, a ploy by Dis Pater to tear me and Corvus apart. I remembered how desperately he had wanted that child, our son. How badly he needed to be loved.

  I did have a child, though. I had come to terms with that fact now, and I remembered the son that was truly mine, fathered by Dis Pater, that same monster who was hell bent on destroying me. That child from another life was lost somewhere out in the world, though, and as soon as this was over I would move heaven and earth to find him, bizarre as it was to think of myself as a mother.

  There were so many reasons to destroy Dis Pater now. I simply couldn't fail.

  I looked at myself in the mirror. I was paler than usual, my green eyes over bright and febrile in the harsh light of the bathroom. I took a breath to steady myself and tied my hair back out of the way.

  Tonight I could see the echo of Cain looking back at me. The same family traits for sure, but something else too. Something darker. I was even dressed like him with camo trousers and heavy soled boots. Ready for battle with weapons strapped to a bandolier across my chest and the knife he had created for me safely sheathed at my hip. He would carry the knife of Belial, among other things.

  I walked back into the bedroom to find Lucas sitting on the bed, waiting for me. He stood as I walked in, and our eyes met. I tried to smile, but I couldn't get my mouth to make the appropriate shape. It seemed frozen. My chest was rigid, my lungs barely able to draw breath. How many of us would survive the night ahead? How many people would die at the hands of a god? Would he send them all to Tartarus if I was defeated? The thought clawed at my heart and Lucas heard it speed, like it wanted to escape my chest. He didn't hesitate but pulled me to him, holding me tight.

  “Whatever happens tonight, Jéhenne, I don't regret it. Not any of it,” he said, the words spoken softly.

  I looked up at him, wishing there was something I could say, but he just smiled down at me. “Come on,” he said and sat me down on the bed, positioning himself beside me. I watched as he bit into his wrist and offered it to me. I closed my eyes as the scent hit me, savouring the taste as his blood filled my mouth. I shifted closer to him, relishing the contact, needing now more than ever to belong to this family. I felt his breath, hot and fast on the back of my neck and had to fight down the desire that began to rise between us. I released his wrist, licking my lips and looked up to see his eyes dark with need, focused intently on my mouth. I wasn't surprised when he moved closer.

  His lips pressed against mine and were gentle at first, tender, but then the feelings he had obviously been holding back took over, and I could feel the desperation in his touch. I kissed him back, feeling like I owed him this at least, not wanting to regret denying him if either of us didn't make it, but I could control my desire for him in a way that was impossible with Corvus, and he knew there wasn't the same depth of emotion there. He was everything any woman could possibly want but ... he wasn't the man I loved. He let me go and gave me a crooked smile, those dark eyes alight with mischief.

  “Couldn't let the opportunity slip could I?” he said, stroking my cheek with his fingers. “The hours before a great battle, every knight should have a kiss for courage don't you think?”

  I huffed out a laugh of surprise. “I don't think you've ever lacked for courage, Lucas.”

  His face grew serious. “Promise me you'll take care,” he said, stroking my hair. “I couldn't bear it if ...” He stopped and I smiled at him.

  “I'll promise if you will,” I said. He nodded.

  “I promise.”

  “Well then,” I said, trying to sound like the goddess I was supposed to be, like Master of this family, like the young woman Corvus had fallen in love with all those years ago and not the terrified girl who seemed to be screaming in my chest. “Let's go and show this bastard why he should never have messed with the people I love.”

  Chapter 36

  I made my way down to the site of my own temple. The forest floor scrunched and crackled as I trod over the layers of dead leaves and twigs. The quiet was unnerving, the soft voices and muted conversations of the family a quiet buzzing in my mind, but nothing could distract me from the power surging through me now all the vampires were gathered and ready, their tension and desire for revenge fuelling my own until I felt I would combust under the pressure. That power would only increase with the final blood sacrifice Lucas was beginning now, his voice raising through the dark night and lifting the hairs on the back of my neck as his voice invoked my name. My veins were ablaze, too much pent up energy and aggression seething under my skin, which pulled taut, fragile and over-sensitive like tissue paper trying to hold back a blazing inferno. I wanted nothing more than to get this over with now, to take my anger out on the vile creature that had brought me so much pain and make him suffer in kind. I was walking on the edge of what I could take, my mind balanced on a gleaming blade, waiting for his presence to tip me into the boiling rage that was so desperately eager and ready to destroy him.

  I walked to stand beside Rodney who was following Lucas' incantation with rapt attention. It made me feel weird, watching one of my closest friends worshipping my image, but then I couldn't think of a single thing about my life that was normal anymore. I leaned in to him, and he looked around, startled before putting his arm around me and giving me a brief hug. We didn't speak. Thankfully he knew better than to try and be reassuring as it would send me into floods of tears. He knew I couldn't allow that.

  Moving away from Rodney, I paused to hug Dimitri and wishing good luck to him and the other fire demons who stood with us. I was looking for Cain when Decimus arrived with his usual lack of warning, and I had to still the hand that had moved unthinkingly to grasp the knife at my hip. His eyes widened slightly as he realised how close he had been to meeting an unexpected end, and they widened further as he looked into my eyes. I wondered what he saw there.

  “It might be best not to creep up on me right now, Decimus,” I said, striving to keep my voice even and calm. It wouldn't do for the vampires to know their Master was scared out of her wits after all. They had to believe in me. I had to believe in me.

  He nodded, and I did my best to give him a reassuring smile.

  “There is still no sign of Corvus, Master.”

  Any attempt at smiling fell away.

  “Keep looking,” I ordered, my voice harsh, aware of Cain's presence behind me as I spoke.

  Cain shook his head, looking grim. “Jéhenne, we don't have time for that. The wards are failing. He could be upon us at any moment now. We need everyone ready to fight.”

  I turned on him, shaking my head. “We have to find Corvus. He can't defend himself with the cuffs in place, and if Dis Pater sees him ...” I couldn't finish the sentence, but it didn't matter in any case. The ground under our feet began to tremble, and I lurched sideways, only Cain's hand steadying me keeping me on
my feet. My skin began to prickle with awareness as power spilt out from the Château. I looked at Lucas, stood alone on the dais. He had barely paused, his face a mask of determination as he came to the end of the invocation and as one he raised a wrist along with every vampire in my vast family and everyone else who was joined by ties as strong as blood. Each one of them wielded a sword this time - a sword that a witch had cast a powerful spell on - and spilt their blood in my name.

  My body bowed out as the force of it hit me, and this time there was no seductive burst of energy, no pleasurable surge of magic to make me giddy and sweep me off my feet. This time it was raw and harsh and burned me, and I screamed with the force of it. Images glittered behind my eyes, images of the goddess I had been, memories of power and confidence, and I snatched at them, needing to know who I had been, what I was capable of. It wasn't enough and was far too quickly gone. I was vaguely aware of Cain lifting me and moving me back out of sight to recover my senses as the prickling sensation built.

  I gasped as a stinging blow swiped across my face and glared up at my brother.

  “Snap out of it, Jéhenne. We don't have time.”

  I held back the urge to slap him in return and he hauled me to my feet. I steadied my breathing as the vampires in each line of the congregation passed the bowl of their blood to head of the line, and they poured each one into a much larger, golden bowl which was moved swiftly into position.

  In that moment something shifted, and I felt it at last. Dis Pater was here.

  He had come for me.

  I could feel the immense power of his presence. The seductive smell of exotic spices and wine drifted ahead of him, and finally he walked towards us.

  I watched him stroll down the path to my temple like he owned the place. Thick black hair that fell halfway down his back glinted blue in the firelight that lit the temple and the gathering. He was dressed for the mortal world in black jeans and a T-shirt, though no human male had ever looked like that. His skin was dark, the rich brown of a Grecian summer, his looks all heat and sex and fiery Mediterranean blood. The arrogant bastard had arrived alone as I'd known he would, and I curled my fingers around the blade at my hip. I was immediately calmer, my heart beat slowing, and I realised that a little of Sariel's presence lingered in the blade. I smiled, hoping I would get the chance to thank him for that.

  Remaining out of sight for the moment, I waited. Everyone knew the drill.

  I watched him from my vantage point and felt my skin crawl as he got closer. His black eyes were cold and amused and he looked around the motionless vampires with a sneer of disdain. They watched him in return, and I could feel their desire to fall on him and tear him to pieces like a fire burning in my blood, but they remained outwardly placid, unmoving except for the dangerous glint in their eyes that followed his progression to the altar.

  “Oh, Jenny,” he called out in a singsong voice that made me nauseous. He chuckled and the sound slid against me like a caress along with his scent, decadent, spicy and utterly sickening. It invaded my lungs and moved over my skin with a touch like fur, and it was all I could do not to vomit as it rose around me. I clutched at the knife harder and held my temper back to a simmering fury, keeping myself in check. I couldn't lose it now. Stick to the plan, Jéhenne.

  “It seems you have discovered your true name, sweet Circe.” He clapped, slow and mocking, the sound echoing through the dark like gunfire. “Well done, little one, what a clever girl. Tell me ... What other tricks do you have?”

  I could see the gleam of his teeth, white and perfect against the the dark of his skin and looked back at Cain who had taken my hand. He looked me in the eyes and squeezed. I took a breath, nodded and stepped out.

  I moved slowly, my steps deliberate, until I was stood in front of my own statue. As one the vampires moved and fell to one knee. It looked like an act of supplication, but in truth they were moving into position. In my peripheral vision I could see Inés, Cain, Heloïse and Aradia take their places.

  “Well,” I said, my voice soft, looking at him from under my eyelashes. “Let's try this one for starters.”

  He watched me, merely curious as fire blazed at my wrists and didn't bother to even glance at the vampires who poured their blood into a shallow rill that was cut into the ground at their feet. I glanced at Cain and saw him grin, and we all moved as one.

  The spell hit the blood with the force of a spark on an ocean of fuel and the magic exploded along the trails, chasing around the pattern we had dug into the soil as the ward burned miles into the sky, illuminating the surroundings and the heavens above with a fierce white light, blazing like magnesium, the heat of it making my eyes sting and my skin flush. The pentacle surrounded the Château and all of our lands, with Dis Pater at the centre. Now we had him trapped in a confined space, like a vicious monster trapped in a cage. The only problem being - we were on the inside of the bars too.

  Fury glinted in his eyes, but he didn't look the slightest bit shaken.

  “You dare ...” he roared, his voice rolling through us like thunder through the skies, rumbling the earth beneath us, and I stumbled as my temple began to tremble, the pillars rocking as the ground split. I ran and jumped, rolling to the ground as great chunks of marble began to fall, smashing to pieces as his rage at our presumption overwhelmed him.

  He flung out his arms, his palms facing down, and the earth began to churn, the soil bubbling up like the ground under our feet was boiling. A great howling scream split the atmosphere as the souls of the dead ripped through the landscape, surging into the skies with a rush of icy wind that cut at our skins like a stinging blade.

  Dis Pater glared at me, his expression triumphant, and I laughed in his face. Two could play at that game. The souls under his control seethed, and he flung his hand down, raining them down upon the heads of the vampires waiting below. I raised my hand, my own connection to the key blazing to light, but it was like slamming into a brick wall as I found Dis Pater blocking my hold. I watched in horror as the spirits fell, slashing at my family with their icy limbs that could sever a head or pierce a heart as cleanly as any blade. The vampires fell upon them in return, the glint of their swords slicing through what appeared to be smoke, but the spells upon the blades coiled around each stricken spirit so that it burned and glittered, slamming back into the soil as it was flung back into the Underworld.

  Dis Pater laughed at my failure, and I felt my hatred boil over. I remembered the first agonising lick of flames over my skin as I had died and been taken from Corvus in my first lifetime, the pull of Dis Pater's power as he wrenched me back to him. I remembered the knife that had pierced Corvus' chest the day he had sacrificed himself. I remembered the ruins of the man I loved, crazed and filthy, scrabbling for life in the mire of Tartarus.

  I screamed and lashed out with my magic, and his laughter died as fire consumed him. I knew it wouldn't truly hurt him, he was too powerful for that; but it was a distraction and that was all I needed. For just a moment his concentration wavered, and I thrust his hold on the key aside. It was only for a heartbeat, but his control was no longer absolute, and I sent the souls under my power to fall upon him, slashing and swirling around him. They were little more than an irritation as he swatted them away, but a cloud of mosquitoes can infuriate, and his anger blazed brighter. He swiped his hand towards me, and a vast swathe of the dead turned their cold eyes on me and began to fall. I stumbled, trying to keep up my attack on him and prepare to defend myself, but Dragon pushed forward, his sword swinging in a wide arc as the chill air of the spirits blazed, and his sword swept through them with a glittering slice. There was no time to thank him, but I noted with relief that Cain stood beside him, defending my position as I moved closer to Dis Pater. There was a blaze of light, and a rush of power swept over us as Hekatê appeared at his shoulder.

  “Good evening, my lord,” she said with a pleasant smile before wrapping her hands around his neck. They seared against his skin, the smell of burning flesh making
my stomach churn as I lunged forward, drawing Sariel's knife and striking out at his chest. He bucked and clawed at Hekatê as her magic seared him, and I tried to find an opening as he thrashed madly to try and loosen her grip on his neck. There was a bellow of rage and a blast of intense heat as I was lifted off of my feet and flung away. I hit the floor awkwardly, the breath leaving my lungs in a rush and pain exploding in my right shoulder. Fuck.

  I rolled away and rolled again despite the pain, all instinct now after endless months of pitiless training and knew Cain's instruction had saved me again as the ground where I'd been lying seconds before shattered with an ear-splitting noise. Debris rained down around me, and I covered my head as rocks thudded back to the ground.

  I stumbled to my feet, pushing past the agony in my shoulder and looking through smoke and the opaque fog of magic that hung thickly in the air, draping in heavy swathes like a dirty curtain around me. The noise of the battle around me was all consuming as the screams and shouts of pain and rage, triumph and fear filled the air and echoed around the woodland. Disorientated, I searched through the rancid atmosphere, heavy with magic and blood and the soft grey ash of burning vampires. How many had we lost? I pushed the thought away. If we lost now there would be a worse end than a simple death for any who had been a part of this.

  My eyes fell on a bloodied figure, huddled on the ground. I ran to Hekatê who had clearly taken the brunt of his attack. Badly burned once more, her hair was gone, her face unrecognisable, disfigured by his magic. She lay groaning in pain.

  “Leave me,” she shouted, her voice angry as I approached her. “You have to finish him, child.” She clutched at my shirt with charred fingers, her eyes wide with fear. “If you fail we will be his slaves for all eternity and your man will burn all over again.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “No.”

  “Then go!” she screamed, almost hysterical with terror. “End him. Now!”

  I ran. Tripping over the uneven ground, I pushed on to find Dis Pater surrounded.