Heart of darkness, p.27
Heart of Darkness, page 27
part #8 of Dark Secrets Series
“And… how will she do this—complete her change?”
“Much like with your kind. While the accumulation of blood over time completes your transition, hers will be by the souls she brings over, and those she puts back. Every time she uses her abilities, she will grow stronger until, one day, she will have powers beyond comprehension.”
“One day?” I pulled my coat around my chest, cold now as the heat of concern trickled away with new answers. “How long does it take?”
“Several lifetimes,” she advised with a single nod. “It will take several lifetimes.”
I felt a small pang of relief for that. So she wouldn’t be a dark entity of the Underworld for a while then. “Is she immortal?”
“In a sense. Being neither dead nor alive, she is more like an emulation of human existence and the bonds that come with it. A demon in human form—”
“Demon?”
“Yes, she is a child of a demon parent. When she completes her transformation, her blood will run black through her veins—”
“Will she be evil?”
“No more evil than she is already capable of,” she advised. “Contrary to popular belief, not all demons are evil, and the Underworld is not a place of fiery hell and carnage.”
This was all too much. I sat down on the leafy forest floor, feeling connected to nature here but feeling so torn by it too, because I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that my mother’s light had left this world, and that Aubrey, my sister, my baby sister, was always just an illusion. “What is it then?” I asked. “What is the Underworld?”
“Elysium: a beautiful and glorious place, but with many dark, terrible corners.” Lilith smiled, eyes marking out something in the distance, as though she was looking at it right now. “But, no matter what Aubrey is, Elora, she is in the wrong hands as we speak. Whoever was masterful and knowledgeable enough to summon her must know all she is capable of. And if they know that, then they will be training her, possibly torturing her to trigger her abilities much sooner than naturally possible.”
My skin wanted to crawl off my bones, to slug away and go find her. I felt powerless. “Can she heal? If they hurt her—”
“She can. If she has learned how. A creature like that has the power to self-heal, much like with vampires, but it is a conscious task, requires meditation, thought, reflection.”
“And… if whoever has her triggers her abilities now, will she be a teenager forever, like my mom?”
“No.” She smiled softly. “Aubrey, once her power is triggered, will have the ability to age—to take on any appearance she desires. As I said, she is not human and, therefore, this human form is really just a belief she has at this time, given that she knows no other form.”
“As in… what? She can shapeshift?”
“Not quite. Not to any creature. But she can alter her appearance, alter what you see—an old hag, a youthful angel. But her true form, that which you see when she’s sleeping, will be a reflection of what’s in her heart.”
“As in… if she’s good or evil?”
“Something to that effect, yes.”
“What are they doing to her, Lilith?” I asked, worried now, because Aubrey already had a lot of darkness in her. I’d sensed it all our lives, but it was only as dark as what was in my father—something that made him powerful and untouchable. I never worried about it until now, when it became possible that someone could taint and shape that darkness to make it evil.
“We have no way of knowing, and we never will. Even if your mother were to enter the living realm again, she could not trace Aubrey’s energy signature, because she is already too far gone. By the time Aubrey came here to Loslilian to help rescue Ara, she had begun her transformation, and she no longer carries the energy of the living.”
“So… what does that mean?”
“It means we can do nothing to save her now. This is her path. One day, she will discover her abilities by pure will alone, and it is on that day that no man, bearing a binding stone or a summoning spell, would be powerful enough to hold her.”
“How long? In this lifetime, or…”
“I cannot say. All I can tell you is that we must prepare for war—”
“War?” I rolled up onto my knees.
“Her captors will use her against us as soon as she is ready, and considering her fourth parent—Manannán—was a great pagan warrior, a deity of the sea—that his own parentage was that of a demon—if she possesses even a fifth of his great power, she will one day kill you all or, with hope, perhaps give her captor reason to fear her.”
“Deity of the sea?” My brow pulled in confusion, eyes widening then. “Is that why she always goes to the beach when she’s upset?”
“Yes.” Lilith smiled. “It was her connection calling to her from such a young age. Her demon parent possessed many powers, many gifts, that she may inherit from within the sea, if she is worthy.”
“Like what?”
“The power to cloak oneself in a fog of invisibility; to whisper words on a chalice and charm it for truth; and to summon a warrior horse that runs on water.” Her gentle blue glow changed back to pink then for just a moment as she said, “Morgana tells me that your sister, in battle, summoned Fragarach.”
“What’s that?”
“It was Manannán’s sword, known also as The Answerer, The Retaliator. It has many names, but it’s one most prominent trait is that it answers the swing of any weapon with a strike of its own. Its bearer need have no skill whatsoever with the sword. And if Aubrey can summon Fragarach then, indeed, my assumptions about who her fourth parent is are correct, and she will, if the need arises, be able to summon Fragarach again.”
“Can she escape though? You said she’s bound—”
“She would be able to, yes.”
“But she doesn’t know that yet, right?”
“Correct. See, to summon a demon, you must also be clever enough to bind them to a master. But when a demon becomes what we refer to as a High Demon, no summoning spell or binding ritual performed by a man, or a witch, will hold them for long. Until that day,”—she closed her hands together at her front—“we can only wait.”
I rubbed my head, exhaling. “Do you think they’re hurting her?”
“Yes. Pain will be a necessary tool in triggering an early transformation.”
My poor baby sister. All I could see then was her big round eyes when I’d walk into her nursery to get her out of her crib. She trusted me, knew that I could keep her safe, love her, care for her. And yet I’d let her down in the worst possible way. My own instincts to protect, as a mother, flared up within me. “I can’t just sit around and do nothing. Can’t we summon her—”
“Not while she’s trapped by her master, no.”
“What about her ability to kill with one touch?” I asked, pushing on my upper thigh to stand up, dusting the wet dirt and leaves off my jeans. “If she uses that on her master—”
“She can bring him no harm, not as long as she’s bound to him.”
Damn. I exhaled heavily, thinking for a moment. “That touch... what was that? Was it a consequence?”
“No.” Lilith smiled. “She inherited that in her blood, from her great-great-great grandfather, Cain.”
“Really?”
Lilith nodded. “It will, at first, present itself without warning or conscious desire, much like your mother’s Cerulean light in her early years. It will rise to defend her when she’s in danger or feels threatened. But, with practice, it will become a tool she can use at her disposal.”
“So it’s an ability?”
“It is. In mythology, it is spoken of as The Mark of Cain—a gift given to Cain by Lucifer before his imprisonment. But, in fact, it is simply a natural skill that developed with time.”
Then there was hope, at least. I wasn’t sure what Aubrey would become in that hell, or what they were doing to her there, but she would be powerful. And while there was little hope of us ever saving her, ever finding her, there was, at least, a hope that she could save herself.
* * *
I wanted to go to Arthur’s room, find out if his powers had surfaced again so he could save us all. He’d once had the skill to freeze an entire room of men, or make a crowd pick their noses at his command. I couldn’t think of a better ally at this time. But he’d have told us if anything had changed. I didn’t want to risk annoying him and driving him away by asking questions that he’d answer in his own time.
I wanted to run to Mike, tell him everything I knew, but we couldn’t help Aubrey right now, and all it would do is make him lose sleep too. And I was pretty sure he and Jules would be getting it on tonight, if their vibe was anything to go by. I didn’t want to cut into that. Not when it could actually wait until morning.
The truth was, everyone just needed to go home now, to stop hanging around here waiting for everything to be okay. It wasn’t going to be okay. Mom was dead, her soul in Lily, and no one would ever see Dad or Jason again. Lily had Vampirie on her side, helping her, and she was also ancient and cunning. We could waste the next twenty years of our lives trying to track her down, while she was out there, getting on with it.
And then Aubrey…
The goddess Lilith would do anything to fight for family. If she said there was no way to find Aubrey, I believed that. But I still couldn’t let it go.
So, instead of waking Arthur or disturbing Mike, I found myself walking to the room of the one man who I had sensed, when I saw him earlier, would go to the proverbial ends of the earth for my sister.
Elias opened his door and his eyes widened when he saw me. “Mrs. De la Rose, what can I do for you?”
I looked in past his body and saw the dresser mirror shattered, the contents of the entire top spread onto the ground. He looked so harmless in his loose-fitted track pants, shirtless, bare feet, but he had the body of a warrior. And seeing how he’d destroyed that dresser, I actually felt like I’d made the right decision coming to him. “Call me Elora, please.”
“Very well. How may I be of service?”
“You’ve been around a really long time,” I said, getting straight to the point. “Can you think of a being, any breed of supernatural being, that might have reason to summon a necromancer?”
His big blue eyes popped for a moment, until it all sunk in. He clearly thought about that sword he’d mentioned over coffee, its legend, and then the magical vanishing of my sister from the beach that day. When he stepped back and sat down heavily on his bed, a tight fist to his lips, I walked in and closed the door.
“I shouldn’t be feeling this way,” he said angrily. “I barely know the girl, and yet I find myself ready to give up everything for her.”
“I’m sorry, Elias.” I leaned on the large table by the fireplace, feeling out of place in here while he was shirtless, his bedcovers ruffled. “I do actually know how much that sucks.”
He glanced over his shoulder to smile softly, eyes straying to the mess all over the floor beside me. “Please excuse that. I… had a moment of weakness.”
“I get it.” I moved my foot away from a shard of glass. “I wanted to do the same.”
He nodded to himself, turning back to face the door. “A necromancer?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know this for certain? I researched those creatures and could not affirmatively apply their attributes to my Aubrey—”
“I went to Lilith—the goddess.”
He nodded again, breathing into his palms. “I don’t know of anyone who would have need for such a creature and… I know little of them myself.” With an air of determination energizing the room, Elias stood up. “But I will find out. Whoever it is, they must be a member of the supernatural community, and I am beginning to have my suspicions already.”
“Who?”
“A certain powerful family has just resurfaced after centuries of death or, perhaps, living in secret.”
“And you think they could be involved?”
“Possibly. But I’d need to tread carefully. If it is the case, accusing them could start a war.”
“War? Why?”
“They’re a power-hungry family. Always have been. They would stop at nothing to control the entire supernatural community, all for the sake of supremacy, and they’d use any excuse to initiate a war that would be to that end.”
“Do they stand a chance though, really?” I scoffed.
“Well, I would not, for a second, underestimate them.”
And a family like that, with a weapon like my sister, or even just the sordid things those kinds of people might do to her… they were something to fear. “Well, let’s just hope they don’t have Aubrey then.”
His eyes darkened. “Hope will not be enough, Elora. For what I know of them, we had better pray.”
“Why?” My arms flooded with a loose, empty feeling, like I just wanted to grab her and make it all okay.
“There is no sense in me horrifying you with tales, when there is little to be done tonight if it is, in fact, the case.” He moved over to his door and opened it. “Get some sleep, Elora. I will leave at once and begin my investigations.”
“You’ll keep me posted, right?” I asked stepping out.
“Of course.” He bowed his head, shutting the door.
I only made it to the end of the corridor before I heard him roar with unbound emotion, as something crashed loudly to the ground.
* * *
My phone screeched through the dark and the quiet. I was certain I’d had it on silent—for all callers except those on my favorites list. But most of those people on that list were either asleep here at the manor, or dead, or missing.
Ric grunted as I reached over him to grab it. “Who the hell is that at this hour, Lors?”
“Probably someone back home not realizing the time difference,” I said, hopping out of bed. But when my eyes casually passed the screen and I saw Lily’s name there, my gut dropped. “Shit.”
Ric popped his head up. “Who is it?”
“Lily,” I whispered.
He threw the covers back and appeared beside me. I put the phone to my ear.
“Elora,” she cried, her voice broken with desperate, sobbing grief. “I need your help.”
“What?” I sunk down onto the arm of the lounge chair, and Ric tried to take the phone, but I held tight.
“If you meet me in the forest, send the guards around Ara’s body away and tell no one about this, I will bring her back. I swear. I have her heart. I will bring her back.”
“Why would I ever trust you?”
“Because I need her help, Elora. I can’t do this without her. I need the fruit—”
“What have you done, Lily?” I asked, my voice cutting through a thousand layers of heartbreak and confusion on the way out.
“I tried to combine their souls. Something went wrong.”
“Whose souls?”
“Jason and David—”
“Is my father okay?”
“Just meet me there. Promise me,” she pleaded.
I looked at Ric, who shook his head to say no. “I promise,” I said anyway, hanging up the phone.
Ric moved in and pressed my face against his hip, his cool, solid form grounding me. His hands firmly rubbed my back and he exhaled a long, hard breath. “He’s dead, you know that, right?”
“Who?”
“David. She wouldn’t be asking for help if Jason had died.”
I nodded, just now realizing that. But I had to put it aside until I was certain. I couldn’t let the possibility destroy me when there was so much at stake.
“You want me to come with you?” he asked.
“She said come alone.” I stood up, looking for my jeans. “I’ll go alone.”
“Will you be able to get the guards off Ara for a bit?”
“Should be fine,” I said, slipping my clothes on. “It’s a sacred place. I’ll just tell them I need some time to talk to the goddess again.”
“Okay.” He leaned in and kissed my head. “I’ll be on the outskirts. Just call me, or text me, and I’ll come.”
“Thanks,” I said, touching his arm as I left the room, my heart a ball of panic in my throat.
Ara
My eyes flicked open and went straight to the rocks in search of Daniel. But it was dark, and the beach was gone, changed now to high trees and a shocking frost. Snow had fallen in dense layers over the ground, hanging from the trees in sharp dagger-like warnings that this was no longer a place of reflection and solace. Dark things lingered here now, and even the stars in the sky had closed themselves in behind heavy clouds.
I set my attention down my physical form—the soft fabric of the dress I was in, with its laced-up front, my wounds closed, my body full, unbroken—and then sat up, sensing two people. Relief and panic hammered in my chest with equal force when I saw Elora on one side and a very humbled, very chastised Lily on the other, her hands bloodied.
“What happened?” I rolled my legs over the bed of flowers, feeling them crunch and fall away under my knees. “Where’s Daniel?”
“He’s safe,” Elora assured me. “But we need your help.”
I followed their eyes then to Jason, sitting against the Tree of Life, sobbing in to his hands. David lay flat on his back beside him, his lips blue, eyes fixed into the eternal stare of death. And every single molecule of air pushed from my body in one sweeping moment of horror.
“No!” I screamed, launching off the altar to his side. As I knelt down beside him in the cold snow, I reached over and touched Jason to make sure he was okay, but he shook his head to say he wasn’t.
“Lily, what have you done?” I shrieked, fear and grief replacing rage.
I couldn’t undo this.
She’d taken his life while I wasn’t there to protect him, and I didn’t have the power to fix it. Not this far along.
