Demon Day

  Alec took off across the courtyard toward Maeve.

  Breandan powered toward me until Conall tackled him, wrapping his hands around his ankles so he lurched and fell. Conall smashed his head onto the ground and I felt his consciousness black out.

  I drew on the Source. As if my entire body inhaled, the power was sucked into the pores of my skin and buzzed. The cloud bloated, doubling in size. Taking a deep breath – muttering prayers that I would not burn out – I drew deeper and deeper still until if felt like I was dipped head first in molten lava. My skin was so hot the sweat that trickled down my back sizzled. My mouth went dry and the moisture in my eyes evaporated leaving them itchy.

  With a shriek of rage, I flung my arms open and released my power in a blade of bright light that just missed Alec as he dove for Maeve and knocked her down but split the cloud in two. The broiling mist quivered – the reds and oranges writing in a sycophant harmony – then merged back together, and deepened into a rich ruby that tainted the heavens. The land was bathed in a red glow making it seem we had all been dragged to hell and left there. The air churned and whipped past at ferocious speeds.

  “Rae!”

  I could not have told you who screamed my name. The wind was too loud.

  Standing, I shielded my face with my hands and pushed forward, angling my body so I could cut through the wall of wind. I climbed up the stone barricade, my foot slipping only once as I scaled the dusty rock. I reached the top of the stones, and set my two feet shoulder width apart.

  I ducked when a screaming Cleric’s flailing body flew past, upward, and was sucked into the spiral of wind. Seeing it was Samuel I lurched forward and grabbed his ankle, channeling magic into the stone beneath me to ground us. Yanking him back down, I took his head in my hands, and forced him to open his eyes and look at me.

  “Climb down and run,” I ordered in a calm voice. “Get the others away from here.”

  He nodded repeatedly, his blonde curls whipping in the wind. “Come with me.”

  I frowned; I did not have the time to see him down safely. “I can’t. Trust me if I could go with you I would, but my place is here. Go.”

  He scaled down without another word and I watched him to make sure he reached the bottom.

  The airstream reversed, sucking into itself, and the cloud above twisted around and around until it was the shape of a tapered spike. Lightning cracked the sky and thunder rolled. A freak spray of rain pelted my body. I staggered back, arms flapping in circles until I regained my balance.

  I swiped my hands over my face, dragging the wet and heavy hair that lashed my neck and shoulders out the way so I could see.

  The tunnel of wind swooped over my head and touched down on the ground, blocking everything and everyone from view. It became eerily quiet, the wind a distant roar in the background. I could hear my own panicked gasping as I stood, waiting, anxious.

  I was trying to fight, I knew I should not give up … I just could not see what I was trying to fight.

  There was a pulse of energy overhead. My head snapped up, and I stared into the churning ruckus, searching.

  “You cannot defeat me,” a voice alleged sympathetically behind me.

  I spun on my heel and tried to step back, but the he-witch grabbed my throat in his hand and squeezed. I swung my fist in a punch, but my hand sailed straight through him. He was made of nothing but shadows and smoke.

  “It is my power that holds you not my body.” He cocked his head at me and frowned as if I should have understood this.

  His eye sockets hollowed and his mouth opened to an unnaturally large size. He inhaled me, rather the essence of me, and I whimpered as the world spun and lurched.

  “The High Lord had nothing on you, did he? Ní fhéadfadh sé seasamh in aghaidh mo fhéadfadh. But you … you are powerful, Rae.” He chuckled as he said my name and I could not help my eyes widening. He drew me closer and whispered in my ear. “Yes, I know your name, Priestess.” He spat the word. “Do you know mine?” The hand of shadow at my throat tightened. Black spots danced across my vision. “Do you know who I am? I am the one who is going to destroy everything and everyone you love. Your time has ended; you just don’t realize it yet.” His power rolled over me, trying to scare me into submission. “And the one you’re bonded to … hmm … would you like to know his fate?”

  My eyes snapped fully open and my nature flared. Furious. Enraged. Whoever this man was he just made a mistake. He almost had me. Almost. But he’d made the ultimate mistake in threatening the one person I would die for. When it came to protecting myself I would always hesitate, always think twice about taking a life. But nobody would be able to threaten Breandan without being annihilated. This witch was about to learn that. What I should and could do became all too clear.

  I called magic to me and drew it through the amulet of power. I took hold of it so forcefully and quickly I thought my head might pop off from the pressure. Then I tapped into the amulet of protection, and felt his hold on me loosen, as I focused my strength on the ever-present hum of energy from the amulet of wisdom. It was incomparable in its wonder, and I felt superior magics to rival the clout of the gods themselves come under my control. The amulet of wisdom gifted me with the ability to think in separate channels. I protected myself, channeled the Source, and became aware that Breandan was close, ready to help if I needed him. I shut that channel of thought down. I was strong enough to manage this task alone, and the longer I focused on our bond the more it sucked me in.

  I reached out this time and grabbed him by the throat. My hand did not pass through him – it was able to take hold. It was like I pulled more of his spirit from wherever it was into this form so I could touch him.

  Then something strange happened. Recognition. It was like I looked at myself in the mirror but saw different features.

  “I know you,” I whispered.

  The shock on his face reflected mine. He grunted then closed his eyes and disappeared.

  He reappeared a few steps back, and held up his hand. A smooth edged beam of azure light grew in his palm. The light darted toward me and I sent a shield of magic to smother it, but before my spell could take effect, the light broke into a dozen forks. I screamed as they struck me in the chest and scorched the stone beneath me.

  I staggered back gasping for breath and trembling. There was no pain. I had expected my skin to sizzle off, but rather than an overwhelming agony it felt like butterflies danced on my chest, wings fluttering across my skin.

  The he-witch started, jerked back. Muttering an incantation, he watched me with rapt attention.

  A bolt of lightning struck the ground beside me. My head flew back as another raced from the black sky to earth and struck me square in the forehead. The lightning glanced off me, hit the ground, and disintegrated. My hand flew to my circlet, now scalding hot and burning my brow. It cooled as I pushed my hair from my eyes with a shaking hand.

  The he-witch pursed his lips. “Interesting,” he murmured and his voice echoed deeply.

  After several beats of my heart kicking my chest in fear, and adrenaline making my entire body quiver, it became clear there would be no aftershock of pain either.

  The Vodoun shield protected me.

  Setting my jaw, I lifted my chin and blazed determination. Pacing forward I raised both my hands, increasing my step into a skip as a rough fireball flared into being. I threw my remaining strength – physical and emotional – into hurling the flaming sphere at him as he swept his hand in a graceful arc and conjured a maelstrom of liquid fire.

  Both orbs of magic collided and it sounded like a clash of boulders. The avalanche of power exploded with an earth shattering bellow that resonated, and expanded in a mushroom of dazzling violet light streaked with swirls of blue and slashes of green.

  I was kicked back, flying head first off the barricade through the eddy of wind and lightning as it collapsed into nothing.

  The shadow figure lost shape and form; his darkness melting into the b
reeze and swirling away. “Feicfidh mé thú go luath, deirfiúr,” his alluring voice boomed in my ears then was gone.

  Weightless, directionless, I sailed backward until I slammed into the dirt. My head smacked down, bounced, then cricked oddly as I tumbled over myself before I lay in a rumbled heap on my side.

  I was motionless, staring up into the sky, watching as the clouds rolled away to reveal the gleaming moon.

  The he-witch was gone. His darkness had left. I felt it.

  My choke reflex kicked in, and I coughed, my whole body shaking from the force of it. My head lolled to the side, and my wings stirred restlessly on my back.

  “Ow,” I muttered.

  Already my nature scratched my skin from the inside out, demanding that I get up and find him. Then there was the overpowering need from the bond pushing me to seek him out. He was close, so close. Lying in such proximity to him was like someone pressing hot coals into my pores.

  I sat up looking around, searching. Wood chips, stones, and bits of rubble fell from my hair, and clothes, but I did not care. I could not think or focus on anything else anymore. My nature had grown in potency since we had first been separated, and now it demanded I find him, no more waiting.

  Over the clearing smoke, Disciples dragged themselves up, looking around bewildered. Some still crouched on the floor looking up at the sky with horrified expressions on their faces.

  I ignored them.

  There were no more distractions. Nothing else I had to worry about or focus on.

  I had done my part.

  Cleric Tu was dead and his followers were retreating. I had defeated the he-witch and dispelled the black magic from the Temple. The shifter twins were free and no doubt reunited with their Alpha. My eyes drifted closed, there were no more distractions, no other dangers to face or fight.

  I let my instincts guide me, feeling my pulse quicken as my gaze sought him out.

  Close. He was close.

  There.

  My eyes locked with his, as he stood, victorious in his own battle. Conall struggled to pull himself onto all fours in front of him, body swaying.

  I inhaled in a hiss, his unique scent of earth and sunlight, and bared my teeth. Mine.

  I lurched up and lunged forward only to slam into something immovable. Seeing nothing, I tried to run around it but there was no end. I shrieked and whacked my fist against it. The barrier of air gave under the force of my might, but held, not letting me past. Not that I was concerned, Breandan had seen me and was already speeding over. A few more moments and he would be in my arms.

  My entire focus was on my love when a golden spark shot in front of him and caught his shoulder. Planting his feet, Conall barely missed Breandan’s swipe for his head. My fairy-boy snarled – trying to shake his hold – but Conall held firm.

  “Wait, Rae,” a pained voice said from behind me. Ana moved into my line of sight and there was a fierce look of concentration on her face.

  She muttered something under her breath. An incantation. I hissed at her, and reached out with my own magics, knowing that if it came to brute force I could smash any spell she threw at me to pieces. Right now, she was my greatest enemy. She kept me from him.

  Had I not done enough? Had I not been put through enough? Had I not yet earned the right to feel his hands on me?

  I just wanted to hold him.

  I pushed magic at the shield. It trembled, but held. Again, I threw magic at the wall, but still it held. Enraged, I hammed at it with my fists and mind. Cracks, I could feel them, and I hammered harder.

  “Run!” Ana screeched collapsing. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

  Conall spun to me, possibly hoping to try reason. With one look at my face, he let Breandan go, and darted over to where the white witch shivered on the floor. He scooped Ana into his arms and blurred away. Three cougars were hot on his heels, one with a goblin-child clinging to her back.

  Breandan slammed into whatever Ana had erected to hold me.

  The Clerics backed off, alarmed by the immediate demon evacuation, and sprinted away too, grabbing Disciples as they went.

  Now two of us beat as the barrier, and it thinned, rippling under the strain. More cracks, huge cracks. I found the last knot in the spell Ana cast and tore it down.

  Before I could order my own limbs to grab him, his hands were on me, in my hair running down my back.

  The bond steeply increased in urgency, and my heart stalled, knees gave out. Tingles ran across my scalp, the back of my legs, and arms. Magical currents running across my skin sparked against the same electric charge jumping off Breandan. Colliding, the power pinged back and forth between us growing in might until it reached breaking point. We clutched each other riding out the numbing pressure. I shivered uncontrollably then flung my head back and inhaled on a gasp. Breandan grunted as our bodies revolted and an intense light blasted from his body and mine, so bright it seared my eyes. I scrunched them shut, crying out as the ground rumbled, shunting us to the side.

  Ripples of power pulsed from me, slammed into swells of force radiating from Breandan. Both merged into crushing waves of energy strong enough to obliterate anything in its path.

  My head snapped forward and I collapsed into Breandan arms, which trembled. I could not focus on anything but him. Not on what was happening, nor the terrifying magics exploding around us. My fingers dug into him, I was not letting go. Breandan ignored the chaos and tugged me closer. My body jolted, pushed against his hands needing more. I gasped into his mouth as the light continued to flow from us in a devastating burgeon of heat.

  My heart vibrated in my chest, the sensation rumbling across my ribs and lower back. Frenzied, blood rushed in my veins, and the love pouring from him to me was rapturous. I strained to be closer, exhilarated by the need to fuse to him, wanting to mount him. It was odd, and creepy, but gods, I just wanted to crawl into his skin.

  His hands swept over my back, clasping my waist, and pulling me closer so our hips locked. He made me feel tiny, fragile, and precious. His fingers splayed across my skin tracing patterns. He traced my scars. Shame and self-loathing was a powerful thing. So powerful, it managed to separate me from the thing I wanted most.

  I jerked away and stumbled back, tears stinging my eyes.

  The light dimmed though the ground did not stop trembling.

  Furious at myself, at my ugly scars, I glared at him and narrowed my eyes to slits. Breandan stood and stumbled with me, his hands still running down my sides. How could he still want me when I looked like this? The building at the edge of the courtyard halted my escape, and I covered my face with my hands, pressed my eyes closed to try and block out his light.

  “Don’t touch me,” I mumbled. My voice shook and tears threatened to fall, “Don’t look at me.”

  “Rae-love, you are beautiful.” His voice was raspy as he struggled to focus.

  My hands fell from my face in shock. How was it possible for him to lie without falling down dead?

  His confusion at the look of horror on my face was clear. His glassy eyes dimmed as he fought for control, his dilated pupils contracted. All this evidence of his complete loss of control only served to enrage me more. He was lost in sensation, and I was too self-conscious to stay in that place with him.

  I punched his chest. “No, I’m not.” I punched him again, the contact somehow soothing and irritating at the same time. He grunted. “I was before, I was beautiful before, but now I’m … I’m–”

  I slapped him across the face. Four claw marks from cheek to chin had him hissing sharply. He stood still, not flinching under my blow, but his eyes blazed like shards of glinting crystal as the slashes healed leaving smooth skin. My eyes filled with tears. I was not vain, nor did I care before what I looked like, but I had never been ugly. Now my skin was covered in scars I could not bear knowing he loved what I once and never would be again.

  “How could you let them do this to me?”

  He flinched this time.

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; His head moved slowly back and forth as if he was saying no to a question I had not asked. “You will accept this. Accept us.”

  I stumbled over debris at my feet, lost my balance on the unsteady ground, and smacked the back of my head against something. The urge to hold Breandan was so fierce I had to fight to stay focused on moving my mouth to speak. “Go away.”

  “I belong to you.” Breandan’s jaw clenched as he too fought the urge to touch me. “Where you go I follow. I will always follow you.”

  “Don’t,” I spat. “I want you to le–” I choked on my words.

  “You want me.” Back against the wall, I had nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. His hands slammed into the brick on either side of me. He ducked his head down, expression torn. His fingers dug into the dull red brick and gouged out deep grooves. “Accept us, Rae. Oh, enough of this. Just accept me.”

  “Do you not see me?” I whispered.

  His eyes looked me over carefully. His thumb brushed over a mottled slash that ran from the middle of my cheek right down to my collarbone. He took me in all of me and I felt disgusting. I hung my head and failed to muffle a sob.

  His nature beat upon my own like a drum, loud, bold, and relentless.

  “You truly wish to know what I see,” he paused and I waited for the words that would crush me. “I see nothing … but the one I would die for. The one I would destroy the world for,” he murmured. “I see nothing but my Rae.”

  He wanted me, unconditionally, and without the slightest of hesitations.

  My heart beat against my ribcage in bold and singular blows that made my chest ache. My eyes closed, but it only heightened my perception of him. He was a mere jerk of my body away. He wanted to hold me, and his body screamed for the contact as loud as mine. My hands rubbed my thighs, drifted up to brush past my hips. The feeling grew, rolled around until I fidgeted in my own skin.

  All I had to say was… “Okay.”