Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

H oly fuck … Roger had been one of Maelle's descendants?

That certainly explained her fury at Marie snatching him. It wasn't just the fact he was her thrall, but also a grandson a few times removed.

"That is impossible," Jaqueline said. "Augustine never had any siblings. He told us that many times."

"He told you that because he feared what Marie would do if she discovered his sibling existed. She has always had a taste for our bloodline. I was not the first, but I did all in my power to ensure Augustine was the last."

"By making his brother a thrall?" She snorted. "You are no better than Marie."

"Roger wanted revenge. He was a willing participant in the transition."

Jaqueline's fingers twitched, and the darkness boiled around them with greater intensity. "Even if that were true, why seek retribution for the wrong done to Augustine and not to me? Some would say the choice was not mine, either."

"Then some would lie. Magic did play a part in your ceremony, but the decision to turn was always yours. In truth, I wished you had not, but you were always an impetuous, foolish young woman and would not listen?—"

Jaqueline made a low sound in the back of her throat and unleashed the spell spinning around her fingers. It hit the wild magic hard, splashing across its surface like paint, briefly staining the luminous threads. Pain shuddered through me, along with a warning; the sphere could not withstand too many more attacks like that without the stain becoming permanent.

"We will never agree on any of these matters, because our memories and experiences are very different," she growled. "What do you want, Mother?"

"I came to give you a choice. Leave this life of darkness Marie has pulled you into?—"

"And what? Join your coven?" She laughed bitterly. "Why? So that you can use me as you believe Marie uses me?"

"You are of my blood, but will never be as I am. I have no desire for what you hold, because what you hold is less than mine."

Wow, I thought, way to win back your daughter, Maelle.

Jaqueline laughed again. "Oh, I do so love the way the endearments drip from your tongue, Mother. And my other option? Because the first is very unappealing."

Maelle remained silent for several interminably long seconds, but her creature was on the move. It swirled down her body to the floor, and just for a second, seemed to look my way. My breath caught in my throat. Death stared at me through eyes that were little more than pockets of shadows.

Maelle snapped her fingers, and it looked away, leaving me able to breathe again.

Liz? Belle's thought was somewhat fuzzy and seemingly coming from a long distance. What's going on? The biggest rush of terror just hit me .

I'm fine. It's fine . It sounded faint and unconvincing, even to me. Then I frowned. You haven't been following?

Haven't been able to, though I'm not sure if it's their shielding or the wild magic intervening again.

Well, let's just say the shit is about to hit the fan. Maelle has given Jaqueline an ultimatum and she's definitely not appreciating the choices. Make sure no one comes in here and if I yell run, get everyone away from this house.

As long as you run out as well.

Trust me, if she unleashes her snake, I'm out of here.

Snake? What the fuck ? —

The pulsing of the wild magic grew, and Belle's voice faded into static. I returned my attention to Maelle and her creature and saw the latter slithering back and forth along the length of sphere separating us from Jaqueline. The sphere pulsed—convulsed?—whenever the creature brushed across it, and the pain in my head and body increased each and every time.

"Maelle," I warned softly.

"I am aware," she replied, not looking away from her daughter.

"No, I don't think you are."

"You will hold your barrier. I will not be much longer."

"I am not your serv?—"

"No, but you certainly have attachments. Do as I say, or they shall taste my wrath."

I clenched my fingers against the inner wild magic that flared, but it rather scarily held none of its usual power. It might not be connected directly to the sphere, but it was nevertheless being drained by it, just as my physical energy was now being drained, and at a far faster rate than before.

"When you decided to step into this life against my advice and chose Marie to be your maker"—Maelle's voice held just a trace of … regret? Or was I reading too much into that very slight catch?—"I took steps to ensure that, should you ever wish it, you could leave this life."

Jaqueline stared at her mother for a second. "You would really kill your own flesh and blood?"

That was certainly the question running through my mind, though it wasn't accompanied by the same sense of incredulity.

"Flesh and blood has never been an impediment. Remember, dearest, that I did not falter to kill Augustine, or make Roger a thrall in an effort to not only protect him, but to one day, perhaps, give us both revenge. In that, I have now failed, at least where he is concerned. However, that is not what I meant." She paused, and the snake's actions became more agitated. An odd sense of anticipation rose from its smoky form, and a deepening sense of dread rolled through me. "When I agreed that Marie could turn you, I had two conditions. One, that should you ever wish to leave this life, you could."

"I do not wish," Jaqueline growled. "So, what was the other?"

"That I have the means and the power to return your humanity."

"That is impossible."

A statement that echoed my own, though mine was lodged somewhere in my throat. The pulsing in the sphere was reaching a critical point and the pain in my head was so fierce that I could barely even see. Weakness was a wave I could not fight, and my knees buckled. I hit the floor hard and wrapped my hands around my waist, rocking back and forth and sucking in great gulps of air in an effort to stave off unconsciousness. I could not— dare not—let it take me while Maelle and her shadow creature were here.

Somehow, I croaked, "Maelle?—"

"A minute. No more, no less." Her voice was sharp. Commanding.

Infuriating.

I glanced at my watch. A minute, no more, no less, just as she'd ordered.

"No one has that power," Jaqueline continued, the sneer I couldn't see thanks to the tears in my eyes so very evident in her voice.

"And in that, you would be very wrong." As my watch ticked over to the minute, she added, "Now, Elizabeth."

I immediately released my hold on the sphere, and the luminous threads disconnected and floated away. The pain eased—not much, but enough—and my vision cleared slightly.

Just in time to witness Maelle unleash her shadow creature.

It boiled through the doorway and straight at Jaqueline. Her eyes went wide, and she stepped back, her gaze cutting to the right, toward the spot where darker magic now pulsed, but before she could run, the snake cut her off.

"Mother, you can't?—"

The words died as the snake flowed over her. Flowed into her. She made a garbled sound and dropped to her knees, her expression one of horror and pain. Maelle was spelling, and her power rose, though I had no idea what the spell was other than dark, because she wasn't speaking in any language that I knew. It didn't sound French, more Latin, I thought. As the force of it rose, the darkly lit shadows continued to boil around and through Jaqueline, though I suspected it was the spell rather than the snake that was causing the jerky movements and the shimmering in and out of existence. Her skin was stretching, changing, the bloom of youth fading into something more timeworn. Even her hair lost some of its shine and gained silvery streaks that glittered in the darkness.

The spell was aging her.

Or was this the doing of Maelle's shadowed demon? There were plenty around who fed on the life force of others, many of them leaving their victims as little more than aged husks. I hadn't gotten the impression that that was what Maelle had intended for her daughter, but who really knew? The revelations of the last few days had certainly proven just how little we'd really known about her.

Maelle's spell reached a pinnacle, and Jaqueline's body "solidified" once more. Though I really couldn't see her that well, she'd definitely aged. Just how much remained to be seen.

"Dearest Jaqueline," Maelle murmured, her voice now resonating with a power that crawled across my skin. "You are hereby once again made as you were born. Humanity is yours to use as you wish, one year given for each century you have existed. But you can never return to the life of darkness. What has been taken can never be returned."

And with that, Maelle's power snapped away, and her snake—bloated and luminous—left Jaqueline and returned to its mistress. Maelle reached out with one hand, running her fingers through its diaphanous form before murmuring what sounded like a spell. The snake flowed up her body, seemed to kiss her cheek, and then disappeared, returned to whatever hell it had been summoned from.

Jaqueline remained on the floor, her arms wrapped around her body in much the same manner as mine, though for a very different reason. The magic that had flown through me had never intended to hurt; my flesh was simply incapable of withstanding its force for too long. That was obviously not the case with the magic that had swept Jaqueline, and I was sure it had done far more than merely altering her being to dismiss her vampire-given immortality.

You want us in there ? came Belle's thought.

No. Maelle is— I paused and studied her. Though I could see her face, I didn't really need to, given the myriad emotions flowing around her. While regret and fury were dominant, there was a deeper sense of instability radiating off her. It wouldn't take much to set her off, and I did not want to be anywhere near her when that happened. On edge.

That isn't exactly a new development.

No, but it has definitely gotten worse.

And Jaqueline?

Alive, and possibly human.

What?

Explain later.

I cut our connection as Jaqueline sat back on her heels and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Her once-perfect face was lined and her skin a little paperish, but in truth, she still looked amazing.

"What in God's name have you done, Mother?" Her voice was hoarse and held more than a little trace of fear.

"I swore an oath to protect my line," Maelle said evenly. "Marie intended to use you—use your magic—to boost her own so that she could kill me. I merely thwarted those plans and, in the process, saved your life. She would have drained you unto death to defeat me."

"Making me human does not erase my magic."

"No. The Nakahi did that."

Was that why her shadow creature had looked at me so … heatedly? It had wanted to feed, and I was a far closer meal possibility than Jaqueline? Thank God Maelle had called it away.

Jaqueline stared at Maelle for several seconds, her eyes wide, her expression disbelieving. Then she flung out a hand, as if casting a spell. Nothing happened. No magic rose.

She screamed in fury, pushed to her feet, and launched at her mother, her fingers curled into claws ready to rent and tear. Maelle calmly raised a hand and flicked a thin rope of dark purple magic toward Jaqueline, looping it around her daughter's neck and stopping her in her tracks.

"Do not be so foolish, dearest, as my patience has the thinnest of edges now that Roger has been taken from me. I suggest you step through your portal while it still lingers and then leave this reservation—and Marie—for good."

"Marie will help me." The comment came out even hoarser than before, no doubt thanks to the rope lashed around her neck. She was apparently human now, and humans did need to breathe. "She will find a way around what you have done?—"

Maelle laughed, the sound low and derisive. "Oh, if you believe that, then you truly do not understand our maker. You have lost that which made you useful. You will be cast out, have no doubt of that."

"She would not?—"

"Then go, discover for yourself."

"Maelle, no," I said. "We need her?—"

"No, you do not," she cut in, and flicked her rope to the left, toward that hovering pool of darkness I could feel but not see. A heartbeat later, there was a sharp report, followed by an almost metallic scent, then that darkness was gone.

As was all sense of Jaqueline.

Maelle spun on her heels and stared at me for several seconds. Her eyes were flat and yet luminous and her expression remote, but her emotions nevertheless roiled around me. While anger and regret were definitely present in that turbulent cloud, it was for the most part something far more dangerous.

Hunger.

Even as I watched, the tips of her canines began to protrude over her thin lips.

I froze and somehow managed to keep my inner wild magic restrained. If it so much as flickered into existence right now, she would attack, of that I had doubt.

For several more interminably long seconds, neither of us moved. Then she blinked, and the danger retreated, even if its remains echoed in the turbulence that still surrounded her.

One day, all too soon, she would give into temptation and attack.

"I thank you for your assistance in this matter," she said, her voice soft and polite, showing little evidence of her ongoing battle against her baser instincts. "And I offer a word of advice. Protect those that you love, because Marie will be aware of the part you played in this evening's events, and she will seek revenge."

And with that, her magic rose and a vortex of dark energy appeared in the room behind her. She turned, stepped into it, and disappeared. A heartbeat later, the vortex did the same.

I briefly closed my eyes and rested the side of my head against the nearby wall. All I wanted to do was give in to the call of unconsciousness, but Maelle's words echoed and the urgency to get out of this house hit. Marie could and would visit hell upon this house that had cost her a trusted power source, and probably sooner than any of us wanted.

Coming out , I said to Belle.

Coming in , she replied, and a heartbeat later she appeared around the corner. And she wasn't alone. Monty was with her, and I could hear Ashworth and Eli on the porch. I pushed unsteadily to my feet.

"We need to leave. I think Marie—" I paused as energy prickled across my skin. Saw the consternation flicker across Monty's expression, suggesting I wasn't the only one sensing it.

"Run. Now ," I ordered, as panic surged.

Belle and Monty swooped in, each wrapped an arm around my waist, then lifted me between them and charged for the door. But the dark energy was drawing closer and closer, the wash of it burning across my skin so fiercely it felt as if I was being consumed by its fire.

As we raced out of the house, I looked up. Saw, in the starlit sky, a tumbling mass of purple fire arching toward the house.

"Fuck," Monty said as we leapt off the porch and raced after Ashworth and Eli.

Five steps. That's all we were able to take before that purple mass of fury hit the house and sent us all flying.