by Lily Luchesi
“Be safe. I love you,” Salem whispered before he hung up.
With a shaking hand, Daphne put the phone in the cradle and took a second to compose herself. She would do as he said and get the family to safety. And then she would return to help defeat the Darkness. She would not run. She would stand tall and show the bravery Clan Fraser was known for. She would persevere in the name of the Light.
Just then, Michael came down the stairs. “Nick’s sound asleep. What’s happening here? Who’s on the phone?”
“Salem Sinclair,” Caleum said, hissing his name like it was poison. He was in Daphne’s view now, holding Harley. His arms tightened around the girl protectively. “Whatever he’s got to say, it can’t be good, mate.”
“You’re right.” Daphne stood in the threshold between the kitchen and living room. She took a deep breath. “The Company is on the move. Here. We have to go, now.”
Michael nodded, face blank with barely concealed fear. “I’ll get Nick.”
“No, wait,” Caelum said. “If you guys leave, you’re open targets like deer in the forests. No, stay. We’ll rally a few others, get them down here to fight everybody off. No one will get close to you or the kids.”
Daphne paused. “Salem said Edelstone was sending people. Including him.”
“They’re too far away and can’t teleport,” Draven said. “Leave this to us. Ward the house again, especially her room.” He gestured to his goddaughter. “I don’t know what they want with her, but you can’t let them near her.” He gestured to Caelum, and he passed Harley to him. Draven kissed the top of her head. “It’s all right, sweetheart. No one is going to hurt you. That’s a promise.”
“I’ll start the warding,” Caelum said. He grabbed Michael in a hug and kissed Daphne’s cheek. “We’ve got you.” He ruffled Harley’s hair. “The Dark can’t have you, kid. Especially not on your birthday.”
He vanished and Daphne could hear him chanting near the front of the house. A chill had settled over the room. Failure was not an option. Not now.
Draven passed her to Daphne, and Harley snuggled into her mother’s arms.
“Wave ’bye to your uncles, sweetie,” Daphne said, trying to keep the panic from her voice.
Harley gave them a wave, but no smile. As if she knew there was something amiss.
Daphne handed her to Michael then. “Put her to bed, will you? I’ll stay down here and help with the extra warding. No one would enter on the second floor first.”
Daphne went to the front door and began to ward it from the inside, despite the growing Darkness making her feel sick. Her head was fuzzy, and she found it difficult to concentrate on the incantation.
“Damn it, Daphne,” Michael called as he ran down the stairs. “The Darkness is coming in a wave. Our neighbours … they’re all human. I don’t think they’re going to survive.”
She shook her head. “You’re right, but there is nothing we can do.” It killed her to have to say that, but she knew she had to be practical. There was no time for her to try and evacuate everyone, and besides, what excuse could she use even if there was? It was every human for themselves, and Michael was right: not many would survive.
Outside, there was a strangled scream and a blast of pure Dark energy. She looked up and met Michael’s wide, unblinking eyes.
“Caelum,” they both said at once. Caelum was an amazing dueller. If he had fallen, Daphne barely stood a chance, and Michael was as good as dead.
There was a loud crash and bang, like a door had been blown in during a thunderstorm. Someone with immense power was trying to get through the wards. And they were very nearly succeeding.
Nick began to wail, startled. Or perhaps he, too, felt the Darkness that was now filling the entire house.
One more bang and the door burst open, falling off the top hinges. Daphne and Michael were left staring in the face of their former friend.
Robert was smiling widely, silver magic gathering in one hand, while he held the other in front of him. “I am so hurt I wasn’t invited to the little brat’s birthday celebration,” he said. He cast a silent spell and it hit Michael, making him grunt.
“Go to Hell,” Daphne spat, casting a quick Charm. It didn’t work and only seemed to make Robert look even more amused.
Michael grunted and said, “Damn it! Get the kids outta here, I’ll hold them off till Draven gets here!”
“Are you sure?” Daphne asked.
Robert twisted his hand and Daphne could hear ribs crack as Michael grunted again. “Hurry!” He cast a hex and Robert had to dodge it. Daphne began to run up the stairs, not looking back as she went to protect the children. Nick’s cries were so loud, they almost drowned out the sound of the curse being cast.
“Imputresco!”
She winced as though she had been hit. No one could dodge or survive that curse. Michael cried out once before he was silenced forever.
Daphne couldn’t say she mourned him. He had given her a love potion, tricked her, and lied to her since she was seventeen. But still, the loss of anyone on the side of the Light was a crushing blow, especially since Michael had fought so valiantly even when he was a boy.
Robert was coming up the stairs now, close on her heels. Daphne only knew one thing: no matter what happened to her, she needed to protect her kids. Especially Harley. If she were to die, then Darkness would reign eternal.
She cast a silent spell on Nick’s open bedroom door, muffling his cries. She then did the same to Harley’s room, her last sight of her daughter being her frightened visage as she watched with wide eyes.
There was one spell she could try to keep him away from her, if she put enough force and purpose behind it. One spell so that, maybe, he could not even see the door behind her.
“Celare!”
It was a Concealment Charm, used to temporarily hide people and objects. It wasn’t typically used to conceal an entire bedroom, but Daphne had to hope, because hope was all she had left.
Robert’s footsteps were closer, and the master bedroom door burst open with magic, as if he thought one of the children was in there.
“No!” Daphne cried. “Stay away from my babies!” She cast a burning hex and it just bit the side of his face, searing the skin.
He hissed and sent a stunning hex back at her, knocking her off kilter. And that moment of distraction was all he needed. Despite the bleeding face, he had the upper hand because he had Dark magic. And he knew it.
“That will teach you and your husband to think you can fight against us. Imputresco!”
“No,” Daphne gasped as the curse hit her. Guilt and regret flowed through her, that she had not been strong enough to withstand the Darkness. She couldn’t protect the people she loved.
Robert began to laugh, and the last thing she heard as death overtook her was that high, mocking, cruel laughter.
It looked like the Darkness was winning.
Chapter 28
Worry filled Draven’s heart as he and Caelum were pushed back from the Smith house by a force of Dark magic. Black clouds shot through with green lightning were coming up from the North.
In the distance, he heard a scream. He and Caelum jumped, and Caelum went to dash back to the house.
“No,” Draven cried, grabbing his arm. “If you go in there now, you’re as good as dead.”
“But that was Daphne!” he protested.
“Don’t you think I know that?” Draven asked, turning Caelum around to face him. His eyes began to tear. “But I can’t possibly lose you, too. Those kids are going to need us. Unless Salem comes for his daughter, we’re all they’ve got now.”
Grief gripped Draven, but he nor Caelum could wallow in it right then. They had to stop this war. They had to avenge their friends, if they really didn’t make it through this. Most of all, he had to protect those two kids.
“We have to—” Caelum’s words were cut off as a bolt of energy broke the two men apart.
“Isn’t this charming?” Robert Ainsley s
aid with a catlike grin. “Embracing before your deaths.”
“Why?” Draven asked, the tears continuing to fall from his eyes. “We thought you were our friend!”
“Oh you silly half-breed. Why not?” Robert replied.
Draven was filled with hurt and betrayal, but Caelum, he could tell, was furious. He snarled like the cat he was inside and leapt closer.
He sent out a bolt of golden energy, which Robert barely deflected. “Face me like a real magician,” Caelum challenged.
Robert grinned and cast, “Alus odoratus.” The spell wasn’t aimed at Caelum: it was aimed at Draven.
The pungent smell of garlic hit Draven’s nose, permeating the air around him.
The half-vampire was on his knees in a second, choking and gasping against the poison he was inhaling. He had maybe fifteen minutes just from smelling the odour before he’d be unconscious, and after that he would seize, and then he’d die. Twenty minutes, tops, before his life was over.
“Stop!” Caelum cried, casting another energy spell.
“I’m having far too much fun to stop,” Robert replied, deflecting that one as well.
Caelum cast a shield charm around Draven so he couldn’t breathe any more garlic and rushed forward, knocking Robert to the ground. Draven, weak, dizzy, and gasping for breath, was only able to watch in horror as the brash shifter signed his own death warrant.
The blond man laughed jovially and sent out an energy blast just as Caelum got in one good punch to his nose. Robert pushed him off and laughed.
Caelum fell to the ground as his former friend continued to laugh even as blood leaked from his nose, dripping down his chin.
The energy went through Caelum’s stomach, but yet he still tried to keep fighting.
Draven screamed for Caelum, and the shifter tried to get up but failed as he began to bleed out all over the asphalt. Draven hadn't known it was possible to feel his heart breaking, yet now he knew that he could as he watched his fiancé become prostrate on the asphalt.
Caelum couldn’t move; the blast had hit his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He looked over at Draven, who was still too weak to even stand up. He knew that once Caelum was killed, he would be next. But maybe that was okay. Maybe it was better to be dead than to have to live with the memories of this night.
Robert smirked as he waved his hand and cast the final curse: “Imputresco.”
Draven tried to cry out, but his throat was too swollen to even scream. He could cry, however, and cry he did as he closed his eyes, forcing himself not to look at the rapidly decaying body of the man he loved.
Footsteps sounded and Draven opened his eyes, still struggling to breathe.
Robert smiled placidly down at him. “I bet you think I’m going to kill you now, don’t you? However, I have more important matters at hand. Besides, you’ll die of garlic poisoning soon enough. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a child to kill and a prophecy to fulfill.”
He turned on his heel when he was suddenly hit with a burst of energy.
“I thought I told you to get the Hell out of here,” Salem Sinclair said, green magic glowing in his palm. Edelstone and Donahue flanked him on either side, as though he were the King, not Edelstone.
“Betraying your Clan for the love of a woman, how pitiful,” Robert sneered, holding his bleeding side. “But you will see. I don’t need to finish what I came for. In time, you will learn what being betrayed by blood feels like.”
With that, he vanished, leaving behind a bit of sparkling silver smoke.
Salem spotted Draven and removed the Shield Charm. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a phial of potion.
“Here, drink,” he said. “I had the foresight to brew this, as I knew Robert would want you dead and would use a slow-acting spell to draw it out. Come on.”
Draven took the potion with a shaking hand and downed it. This close, he could see that Salem had been in tears. His eyes were rimmed in red and his lashes were still wet.
“Are they alive?” Draven gasped out.
“No,” he rasped. “No, and now we cannot enter the house yet for burial.”
“Why not?”
“She cast a Concealment Charm. No one can even see it now. We must wait until it wears off… Not that there will be much of anyone left to bury.” He took a trembling breath. “I failed. I failed her.”
No, you didn’t, Draven thought. Because if what Robert said is true, Harley is still alive. It was then he noticed that Donahue was holding baby Nick in her arms. The children had both survived.
He stood up shakily, unable to look at the pile of gore and bones Caelum had been reduced to. For the first time, he felt a kinship with Salem. They had both lost the ones they loved most in the world to the same senseless violence.
“I am sorry,” Salem said slowly. “I despised him, but I know you loved him.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Draven said, wiping his eyes. “She never stopped loving you, you know.”
Salem surveyed the neighbourhood, where bodies of humans were scattered everywhere, as well as those of The Company members who had not escaped. “We lost,” he said emotionlessly. “We lost everything.”
“Not everything,” Draven mumbled, thinking of Harley, and the enigmatic prophecy.
They had lost so much, but there was still hope.
Salem did not have the Fraser ability to sense when Darkness was coming, but when he woke up on Halloween, he knew something was wrong. There was a heaviness in the air that made his chest hurt. He wondered if anyone in Clan Fraser felt it, or if it was only because of the amulet pressed against his skin.
For the nth time, he cursed the day he’d gone to Ainsley Manor and accepted the little green gem. He had sold his soul and for what? False camaraderie and lies? He had been better off alone than with a set of friends who went against everything he believed in.
The feeling within him made him want to hide at home, but he had a job to do. It was Samhain, and he was in charge of maintaining the altar of ancestors. For the Coven, this was an altar for former Kings and Queens, dating all the way back to Queen Mary in the sixteenth century. He and Donahue would be giving a special lecture in the Main Hall to all the students about the importance of Samhain and the spiritual New Year, as well as managing the Feast of the Dead.
It wasn’t until the Feast was over and the bonfire was put out that he felt it: a tell-tale tingling in his chest. At first, he wondered if his mother’s human side hadn’t made him have the beginnings of a heart attack. And then the burning heat began.
The amulet was signalling members of The Company. Robert had chosen that night to act. Which meant that the Coven was in danger, as well as the Smiths.
Tripping over his robes in his haste, Salem ran from the courtyard to Edelstone’s office, bursting in and out of breath.
“Amulet,” was all he could gasp out at first. It was all he needed to say.
Edelstone was on his feet and calling down the hallway for Donahue, who arrived in seconds. “The Darkness is rising. Robert Ainsley just signalled the beginning of the Second Clan War.”
Donahue gasped. “It has been a century since the First! Are you certain, Franklin?”
“This is certain,” Salem revealed, pulling out the amulet and showing it to someone else for the first time since he was with Daphne that night. It was glowing bright green and hot to the touch. “Do you believe us now?”
Donahue’s mouth hung open but a second later it snapped shut and she nodded. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“Rally the other Elders. Tell them to enact whatever measures possible to protect the Coven. You, I, Salem, and a few others will go to Liverpool to protect the Smiths,” Edelstone said. “The Company wants the entire family dead.”
Donahue clutched at the brooch at her throat. “And how long have you been keeping this from me?”
Salem smiled wryly but there was no mirth in it. “No one could know. Now, please, do as he says. We
have to stop Robert before he starts implementing his plans. Or else the Coven as we know it will cease to exist. I must warn Daphne.”
Without asking, he grabbed the old fashioned rotary phone on Edelstone’s desk and dialled the Smith’s number.
“Hello?” Daphne answered, sounding apprehensive.
“You have got to get out. Now,” Salem blurted out.
“Salem?” she asked.
He sucked in a breath and said, “Robert is coming for you tonight. As in, he will be there soon … with reinforcements. You must take your family and leave. Edelstone and I will handle things at your home, along with a few Coven reinforcements on our end.”
Daphne paused before she responded. “Are you sure? And Edelstone—”
“We are both certain. The signal came, the one Robert said he would send The Company members. I need you to go. Save yourselves, and we will end this.”
Daphne swallowed hard, he could hear her through the phone line. Her voice was shaky as she replied, “Yes, of course. Thank you, love. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“Be safe. I love you,” Salem whispered before he hung up. At least I could do this much, he thought. I could at least try to save her.
In less than five minutes, Salem, Edelstone, Donahue, Pat and Martha Quigley, Kimberly Morrison, and a few others from the Coven were on their way to Liverpool.
When they landed, Salem could already see that they were almost too late. Company members were in houses, in the street, tangling with humans. People Robert had promised Salem he would not harm. Controlling them, ruling over them, was one thing. Murder was entirely something else. Salem was ashamed with himself for being hoodwinked under the guise of friendship and belonging. How had he not seen through to the evil just bubbling beneath the surface?
“We will handle things here,” Pat told him. “Go and find Daphne.”
He nodded and dashed toward their house. Down the way, he could see Caelum and Draven making more wards, trying to protect the other people’s homes as well. It was a valiant, brave effort, but it was wasted. This wasn’t a situation that could be salvaged. They would be cleaning up blood and corpses well into the morning, even with magic.