by Eve, Jaymin
When I was finished at my house, the ancient book I’d kept locked away firmly in my grasp, I strode out the front door, ready to head to the town hall. That’s when Elizabeth’s power smashed into me. Despite the fact she was using her old trick of mimicking animals nearby, I would be able to pick her out anywhere. She appeared to be alone, or at least she was managing to hide her companions. But she could never hide herself from me. I knew her. I knew every inch of her power. I’d trained her to be the sorceress she was.
Hiding from me was a waste of her time and power. She should be embracing the strength that lay deep inside of her. From a young age, she’d had a very slight fascination with the darker energy that was part of all magic, but I’d convinced her that she was powerful enough without delving into that side of magic. I’d been young and naïve myself.
Maybe it was time to talk her back into it.
Knowing she would follow, I decided to just take a step-through right to the town hall. Truth be told, I barely even needed a step-through now. I could visualize where I wanted to be, and in the next instant I was there.
The moment I appeared on the front steps, supernaturals scattered around me, which was definitely the reception I was hoping for. The reception I expected. Fear kept them under control, made them obey without thought.
Fear controlled them.
I controlled them.
“Inside,” I ordered, my voice low. Power followed each word, as it always did when I spoke, but this time I let that power snap out. It would have physically hurt some of the weaker around us, but that was not my problem.
I strode into the darker room, not at all worried that I would be disobeyed. I could crush all of them with a simple snap of my finger, and they knew it. There was no way they would risk my wrath.
“Louis!” A familiar troll came into view. “What’s going on? The supes are very frightened by your behavior.”
I paused, my eyes dropping to the demi-fey before me. Jerak was the leader of the demi-fey; he sat on the council and held the power of his people. But to my eyes he was nothing more than the final dying embers of a flame. Frail, the fire of his energy flickering with just enough life to produce a mild warmth.
“There are going to be some changes in Stratford,” I told him. “It’s been growing weaker. All supernaturals have been growing weaker. I think it’s time that we showed the world what we’re capable of, and to make that happen, we need to strengthen our powers.”
My people were done with hiding.
Jerak tilted his head to the side, the woodiness of his features extra-defined. “What has happened to you?” He breathed in and out noticeably, his eyes wide and glassy. “You’re not Louis—what have you done with Louis?”
I laughed, and silence descended over the room. I took in all of the frightened faces, and I was pleased. “I’m the same Louis you’ve always known, but now I have the power to bring us into a new era. I have embraced all of my sorcery. I am the strongest mage in the world. And you all better sit the fuck down so I can explain what’s about to happen.”
I dismissed Jerak, walking right past him to take my rightful place on the dais. Every seat was quickly filled, and I was pleased that no one had thought to disobey me. Except, of course, my pack—none of their familiar faces were here. No doubt they were off somewhere trying to figure out how to deal with me. They didn’t stand a chance, but it amused me to let them think they had one. Just for a short time.
Focusing on the crowd, I let my gaze rest heavily on them. With nothing more than a thought, the book of power, which I’d been the keeper of for most of my hundred-plus years, appeared in my hands. I’d had it hidden so that it could be revealed at the right moment. Gasps and screams rang out, and I knew the book’s reputation was solidly intact. No one had forgotten the destruction it had wrought the last time it was in someone’s hands. Someone who was a little dark like me.
Unlike those idiots, I would not waste pure power on something as fucking stupid as making myself rich or famous, or trying to free all the criminals from the prisons to form a gang of murderers and thieves. Both of those attempts failed, and it was at that point I hid the book away, and it had not been seen since.
Until now.
Today I was going to use it to change the supernatural world.
Turning my attention back to the crowd, I projected my voice. “You all cower before me. It pains me to see strong, powerful supernaturals act like prey. We are not prey. We will not tremble in the shadows any longer. I’m going to change our situation so that no longer do we have to deny our true selves.”
No one said anything, the silence almost deafening when I trailed off. Somewhere deep inside, there was a flicker of unease, but I wasn’t ready to examine the reason for that.
“I’m going to propose something,” I continued conversationally, starting to walk back and forth across the stage, letting the book magically trail along beside me. “What if supernaturals stepped out of hiding? We’re superior to humans in so many ways—all ways, really—and yet we are herded into small communities like animals. Forced to hide. Forced to protect our borders so that we don’t face the Neanderthal-like minds of humans who want to kill anything they don’t understand … anything they fear.” I laughed, the low thrum vibrating with power.
“We’re so far superior to humans. They’re basically ants, running around in their controlled environments, working for their few leaders, and living limited, finite lives. We should be controlling them, not the other way around.”
Judging by the expressions facing me, it was clear my proposal was not taking everyone by surprise. Some of the fear had left their faces, and they looked … intrigued.
Elizabeth’s power slapped against me then, and it left a small ache in my chest. She was outside, and I had a feeling she’d been out there longer than I’d thought. Somehow I’d missed her arrival, but she was now moving rapidly toward me. Lucky for her, she was going to catch the end of my show.
Spinning around, I parted my hands, laying the palms flat. The book stilled its movement, and the pages flipped open. “I hold here an original book of magic,” I murmured. The audience started to whisper amongst themselves, and I let them have a second before I raised my voice. “With it, I have the power of all original fey magic. When we reveal ourselves to the humans, I can take their very limited energy and I can use it to control them. We can turn them into mindless drones to be used for our bidding. When we control them all, supernaturals will become the apex predators that we should always have been. We will have all the power.”
“No!” The slamming of the doors and Elizabeth’s shout drew everyone’s attention. They swung around to where she stood, her arms shaking as she held them out before her, her chest heaving as she fought for breath. “You can’t do this, Louis.”
My name trembled on her tongue before she released it, like she almost couldn’t bring herself to speak the word. This had the darkness rising, anger sending it spiraling through my body again. Magic users around the room gasped as they felt my power, and I wasn’t surprised to see that actual darkness swirled around my physical body. It was growing stronger, unable to be contained in the vessel.
“You are either with or against me, Elizabeth.” She flinched when I said her name, and I briefly wondered if it was because I never used to call her by her first name. It was “Tee” mostly. It had started as a joke, because for a short time in her teen years she’d hated Elizabeth and wished her name was Teresa, but then it turned into something just between us, something that demonstrated how close we were. Best friends.
No more, though. I had no room in my life for a weakness like friends.
“Louis, you’re talking about enslaving billions of humans.” She took a step down the center aisle. “Turning them into nothing more than slaves. That’s evil. It’s not something you should even consider. We’re not superior to humans, we’re just different. And we’ve learned how to happily coexist with them. I’ve been living in the
human world for years. So have a lot of other supernaturals. We’re just like them, only with a few extra skills.”
I blinked at her, trying to figure out when she’d grown so weak and pathetic. “Time in the human world has changed you,” I bit out, my hands clenching at my sides. “You’re perfect on the outside, but your insides are weak.”
She tilted her flawless face back, the sunlight streaming across hair that was spun from gold and other metals. Elizabeth was without a doubt unsurpassed in beauty, but her weakness made her less … appealing to me.
“I’d rather be weak than dark,” she said simply, no anger in her voice. “You need to pull the darkness back, please.” Her eyes looked shiny. “Please don’t make me kill you.”
Heat in my chest grew, and I chuckled without humor. “You think you can kill me?”
Before she could answer, I slammed the doors behind her shut, I also turned all the lights off in the large room, plunging us into darkness. I was on Elizabeth in a heartbeat, my arms closing around her tiny body as I hauled her up against me. I expected her to fight me; I was ready for the attack. Instead, she wrapped her arms and legs around me, pressing herself even closer.
That gave me a moment’s pause as I tried to figure out what was happening. What sort of attack this was? “It’s not an attack,” she whispered, somehow sensing those thoughts. “I’m hugging you.”
My breathing grew ragged. I tried to think around the heat of her body pressed so intimately against mine. For the first time a sliver of clarity returned to me, the darkness inside parting like a curtain. It started to peel back piece by piece as I ran a hand through the long, silky strands of her hair, my heart pounding against her while my dick went rock hard pressing into her center.
The light that had been absent from my life started to bloom within me. And a lot of it originated from Elizabeth. She was bright, filled with warmth and love and kindness.
No! I growled in my head, sucking the darkness back inside, filling up the weakness with power again. I flung her back, off me. She was taken by surprise, slamming against a nearby wall. I felt a brief pang deep inside, but I was not going to delve into that part of myself. I could not be weak ever again.
Supernaturals would not be weak any longer.
9
Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery II
I used magic to cushion the blow, not that Louis had actually thrown me with the sort of force he could have. If I’d hit the wall, it would have only knocked the air from me, not broken bones. Still ... the fact he could do that at all told me how far he'd let the darkness in.
For a moment there, though, a very brief moment, it almost felt like I was getting through to him. When he’d grabbed me and I wrapped myself around him, holding on as tightly as I could, I’d felt him soften.
But he was a strong asshole, and he managed to fight the light.
There was a banging on the other side of the door. I figured Jacob had rounded up his brothers and they were trying to get in. I'd gone on ahead, hoping to stop whatever mass murder was taking place. The screams before had been enough for me to assume murder, but apparently it had simply been the fact that Louis was flashing around one of the most powerful and dangerous magical tomes known to supes.
Which was understandable, because there was almost no limit to what he could do using those ancient spells.
All the lights in the room flared to life again, and the sudden brightness forced my eyes closed for a moment. Louis was back on the dais now, the book open again, and he appeared to be reading. Sucking in a deep breath, I swung around and reached out for the magically sealed door.
“Come on,” I growled, trying to get it open. I used multiple different magical spells, but Louis had it sealed tight. Finally, deciding subtlety wasn’t working, I just placed both hands against it and blasted the hinges. With a loud crack, it split enough that Braxton could smash his way through.
Louis lifted his head, a casual and unconcerned expression on his face. “About time you made it to the party,” he said, waving a hand magnanimously. I had to swallow hard when a smile lit up his face. If it wasn’t for the dark glint in his eyes, and the actual darkness misting around his body, that smile was almost like the old Louis.
My body clenched as I recalled the moment he had pressed his hard length so intimately against me. It had been too long since I had been satisfied by a man, and Louis was absolutely the most attractive specimen of male.
Except for the whole “king of darkness” thing he had going on.
“Louis, what the fuck are you doing, dude?” Jessa said as she tried to storm down the aisle. A dragon shifter kept blocking her way though. “You don’t get to come in here and start controlling the town. That’s a solid fuck no.”
Louis chuckled. “I’ve missed you, Jess. And since I owe you all for freeing me from the land between”—gasps from the crowd again. Thousands of supes were squished in here, and it seemed that most of them were both scared and entertained by what was going on—“I won’t reprimand you for choosing to speak to me with a little less respect than I deserve.”
Jessa laughed, her hands flying to her hips. “I’m giving you the exact amount of respect you deserve. While you’re acting like Larky and Kristoff, evil as fuck darkness dickheads, you’ll be getting exactly zero respect from me.”
Louis’s smile faded, and I knew he was drawing on his power. Braxton stepped in front of Jessa then, or at least tried to while she continued to edge him out of the way. “Don’t do this, Louis,” the dragon shifter said, his voice guttural. “We owe you a lot. I do not want to have to fight you. We should be on the same side, brother.”
The word “brother” had a flicker of something in Louis’s eyes. I could see that it affected him more than he’d probably like to admit. Just like when I thought I was reaching him, there was a moment Braxton almost got him too.
But then that moment ended.
Louis flicked out his wrist, a spell flying from one hand while the book zoomed into the other. Braxton shifted, almost changing completely into a dragon, knocking the chairs over in the immediate vicinity. Whatever Louis had sent toward them, I knew it wasn’t a deadly spell. It bounced harmlessly off the toughened skin of the partially shifted dragon.
It had only been a distraction. Louis needed us to look away long enough for him to find his spell and start reciting it without interruption.
“No!” I screamed, because I recognized the ancient words leaving his lips. I knew right then exactly what Louis was planning on doing, and it could destroy the world we had built. It could destroy the entire supernatural community.
The Compasses and Lebrons swung in my direction, and only Mischa looked terrified, but I could see the worry hidden deep inside the others. Most of them were not magic users, and there was only so much they could do to combat a spell. Especially one coming from a sorcerer of Louis’s level.
“Magic users,” I shouted again, projecting my voice. “On your feet now.” I was going to need their energy if I wanted a hope in hell of stopping Louis. “NOW!”
Chairs scraped as supes pushed their way to standing, moving toward the center of the room. “What’s happening, Lizzie?” Jessa asked. “What’s he doing?”
Louis waved his hand then and tried to halt those moving, but I had expected that and my counterspell hit him in the chest, knocking him back a few feet. Bastard didn’t lose his grip on the book though, and he never faltered as he continued to weave his magic—his eyes locked tightly on me, the purple turning into something molten.
“Lizzie!” Jessa said again with more force.
Pulling my gaze from Louis, I focused on her for a second, because that was all the time I had to spare. “He’s exposing us to the humans. This spell is going to broadcast supernaturals to the world. Our locations. The prisons. Our powers and abilities. He is going to expose us in a way that means we would never be able to hide in the human world again. And if they react badly—”
“Which they a
lways do,” Maximus bit out.
I nodded. “Yes, then we’ll be at war.”
Again. I was so fucking done with war.
“Why is he doing this?” a magic user nearby asked. Her eyes were very green against her dark skin, her face perfect and angular like a model’s.
“Because he wants to control them,” I guessed, having missed a lot of his speech. “He wants to have all the power and all of the control. He probably believes that it makes us weak to hide like we do.”
Which was partly true. One on one, even the weakest supe could take down a human, no worries. But en masse, humans were easily panicked and dangerous.
“He did say something about control,” another magic user said. “About an army of slaves.”
Louis was not in his right mind; the darkness liked power and would constantly strive for more. We had to stop him. “I’m going to need to contain Louis,” I told them all. “Stop him before he finishes the spell.”
A spell as big as he was weaving was going to take a lot of time to complete, but we still had to hurry. I heard the murmurs and agreement from those around me, and I started to weave my own magic. “Connect to the ley line,” I told them all.
Through the line, I could utilize their magic as well as my own. Of course, Louis was probably connected to the line as well, so we had to be careful that we didn’t give him access to our powers. The last thing he needed was more of a boost.
“Guess we’re getting a front-row seat to an important lesson in dark magic,” someone muttered nearby. I didn’t deny it. This was the reason magic users had it hammered so hard into them: do not mess with demons or dark magic, because it didn’t end well for anyone.