37. ~Elliot Sabre~

37

~Elliot Sabre~

I was late.

First, I’d been delayed with the state of my son.

He’d been so distraught that the demon had reached into his mind and invoked the sire bond with black magic, using that to take complete control of him, that he hadn’t been able to calm down. He blamed himself for his loves being apprehended, when the blame truly fell very far from him.

It pained me that I couldn’t severe the sire bond between him and Constantine. It was a blood link and it had been built into my son’s makeup since he’d been turned into a vampire. It overrode any magic. But I had been able to provide him some peace of mind by fashioning an alert in the form of a spelled bracelet bearing my magic that would glow if Constantine invoked the bond again, so there would be a warning to others, and to me, enabling me to stop anything like this from happening again.

Then, shortly afterward, a unit of Constantine’s acolytes had hit Electi Academy.

More than three hundred of them.

I hadn’t been able to leave after that.

Not until I thinned the herd so the kids stood a chance against them.

Especially after I had recognized that some of them were the prisoners who’d been released from Valmont, hopped up on a whole lot of aggression and formerly repressed anger at being confined for so many years.

I stood holding a shield against fifty magic-wielders with one palm, while I blasted incoming attacks from vampires and werewolves with the other.

The acolytes had quickly recognized me as the severest threat to their cause, so they’d targeted me with a chunk of their resources.

They’d also clearly noted my weakness—the speed of vampires.

It was what had cost me the night my son had been turned, the one thing I couldn’t effectively counter against.

No matter how fast I blasted each opponent away, they kept coming, faster and faster, getting far too close to me.

My optimal strategy was to magically-nuke the area, but I couldn’t do that with the kids around, it would hurt them all.

Things like this were exactly why I preferred going into battle alone.

Except where Abi was concerned, and also Saryan, the two of them being the only exceptions, those who could withstand a formidable blast of my power like that.

I looked out at the Dark Fae Prince.

Perhaps he could also withstand it. His power was clearly considerable, maybe even rivaling his father’s at this point.

As I took to streaming my power with my free hand, tearing through opponent after opponent, pushing them back, while holding off the magic-wielders with my shield, I watched Orpheus perform a thunderclap against twenty magic-wielders surrounding him that had been forcing him into a defensive position of erecting a spherical shield around himself.

His purple power exploded forth all around him, knocking them all out in one shot.

Barely paying his victory any mind, he rushed over to some of his Light Fae soldiers working alongside some witches who were being overrun by vampires and pounced on by rabid werewolves. My son teleported into the fray, arriving at the same time as him and I smiled as I saw them work in tandem to protect their own, while also beating back the enemy.

The entire courtyard and the quad were engrossed in vicious battle and Orpheus had even sent several magic-wielders up onto the turrets to lay down fire from above to try to push back the onslaught that way.

He had his wolves tearing through the field of battle and ramming into opponents also, ripping them off their feet, wherein some of his vampires would then follow the path and take out those who had been felled before they could recover and resume their attack.

He’d commanded the faculty to form a physical barrier barring entrance into Electi Academy, wherein the other key to Valmont resided. They were the last front, there should the enemy make it past the rest of us.

I jolted as I watched my son take a nasty hit from a magic-wielder that blew him off his feet. A vampire then launched themselves at him and started tearing into the flesh of his throat, as my son struggled to fight him off.

Orpheus was there in the next moment, levitating the offender away with his magic, then smashing him into the enemy magic-wielder, before he then blasted them both right through the gates. He gave my son a hand-up.

And that was all I saw as my distracted state had my shield wavering enough for all fifty magic-wielders to blast through, then start firing at me all at once.

I grimaced as the onslaught drove me to my knees.

Not for long.

My power was too great to allow for that.

But then a staggering power rush assaulted my senses and then screams sounded, the number of magic-wielders firing on me diminishing quickly.

It enabled me time to conjure a spherical shield around myself, and then I sprung to my feet and spun to see silver missiles raining down in a violent lightshow, avoiding the students and targeting only the enemy magic-wielders, each one making contact and stunning their target and effectively knocking them unconscious with one hit.

I peered closer and caught sight of none other than Saryan Hart flying above the field of battle, his hand clasped in Edgar Marlowe’s, who was grimacing with each blast, indicating that Saryan was channeling him.

In moments my opponents were wiped out.

I looked to see that they were miraculously still breathing.

Miraculous, because Saryan had been involved.

He touched down with Edgar at his side and I watched him stumble in his step, Edgar having to stabilize him and wrap his arm around him as they approached me.

“You didn’t kill them,” I spoke, more than a little surprised, given his policy when it came to the rules of engagement during battle.

“I made peace with Abigail. I wanted to honor that.”

I frowned. “Made peace?” And then something more shocking than that occurred to me. “She healed you. How? The two of us were working on a long-shot, but—”

“She siphoned me, El.”

I shifted my weight, the awful implications sending a shudder through me. “Excuse me? You’re certain?”

“I’m free of all black magic. She absolutely siphoned me. Every drop of it. And not just me either. She’s doing the same for Alena as we speak, and every being infected. She’s latched onto the infection itself and she’s drawing it out of every single being, wiping it out of the supernatural world entirely and drawing it all into herself.”

“No, she wouldn’t… it would… she wouldn’t allow that level of corruption….”

I dropped my shield in my upset and he laid his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, El. She intends to extinguish it tonight by sacrificing herself.”

“Father!” Orpheus cried, suddenly teleporting right beside us. He reached out and studied his father in utter astonishment. “You’re well. What happened? She found a cure already? How is this possible?”

Saryan reached out and ruffled his son’s hair. “I am well, my son. Unfortunately, the price is Abigail.”

He put the pieces together impressively quickly. “She siphoned you. Fuck, that was what all that talk about me becoming a member of Exemplar was about, claiming she was no longer what the supernatural world needed to safeguard it.”

“She spoke those words to you?” I asked.

He nodded.

I cursed under my breath. “She’s tired. She’s tired of it all.” I gritted my teeth. “Foolish woman, that doesn’t need to mean her demise.”

“I agree,” Saryan said. “Let her draw the black magic out of Alena and Constantine, then put her in stasis, and you and I will work together to find a way to cure her of it.”

“You would offer DFR resources for this?”

“Yes. No more separation. It’s time old upsets and vendettas were risen above.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking his hand.

He smiled. “Of course. Now go to her.” He gestured around the battlefield, how many opponents we’d already downed. “It seems things are under control here.” He eyed his son. “Impressive.”

I nodded, then took one look back at my son who was holding strong against two magic-wielders in the distance now that he had his magic back.

And then I teleported out to stop this awful strategy of Abigail’s from coming to pass.