Ascension (16 page)

Had Taig’s father done such a thing? The photograph of his parents had such an aura of love about it that Lealandra felt certain that his father would have fought to protect his mother.

Taig didn’t know how his parents had died. He only felt as though they had. If he had seen his father fight to save his mother, even if he hadn’t been successful, she was sure that Taig would have turned out differently. He wouldn’t hate his demon side. He would believe the things that she had told him and the things she couldn’t voice.

She wanted that so much for him. When they had been together, she had asked the neighbourhood demons about his parents. She had learned from some of the older generation that Taig had moved there alone as a young man. They had never met his parents, but they knew his mark, and knew the demon lineage. They had seemed afraid of telling her much more than that, and the few times she had tried to talk to Taig about it, he had cut her off.

Lealandra waited while her mother inspected each symbol in the ascension mark, her thoughts with Taig. She couldn’t hear her father or him in the other room. Either they weren’t talking to each other or they were talking quietly. She unleashed her power a little, releasing the tight bonds she held it inside with so she could sense Taig. He wasn’t nearby. She stretched her magic out to cover a larger area and found him out the back.

There was a small dusty courtyard there. Potted plants crowded the bright sunny space, throwing up their aromas as the warm light caressed them. She had always enjoyed sitting there amongst the herbs and breathing in the quiet as she studied. She pictured Taig leaning against the red brick wall, talking to her father, probably cracking jokes about her and hearing all the stupid tales of things she had gotten up to as a child. She was never going to live this down.

Her father would give Taig ammunition that would keep him amused for decades. He would store the information about her away for use at extremely inappropriate times. She smiled. That was Taig.

“Thinking about him?” her mother said and Lealandra tried to look innocent. Her mother gave her a sly smile. “I can feel you reaching for him. Can he feel it too?”

Lealandra nodded and then admitted, “He’s reaching back. He likes to know I’m safe.”

The sparkle in her mother’s eyes brought a blush to Lealandra’s cheeks, burning them up. Perhaps she should have asked Taig to wait outside rather than submitting them both to her parents. She hadn’t realised that they would make such a fuss and find her bringing a man home so amusing.

“I don’t recognise this one.” Her mother drew her attention to the mark. The connection between Lealandra and Taig shattered the moment her eyes fell on it.

Her heart missed a beat and she touched the symbol.

“Taig’s mark. It’s on the back of his left shoulder.”

“Well, he’s involved then.”

Lealandra rolled her eyes again. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Her mother peered closer, pressing each mark. “Betrayal, blood, conflict, danger, love and death. That’s quite a cocktail you have there. The order is significant.”

“It is?” Lealandra hadn’t realised that. “Where does it start?”

Her mother pointed to the symbol for death. “You said that someone killed Charlie. Was that the first thing to happen after the mark appeared?”

She nodded. “Charlie died and then someone wrote a message on my apartment wall, saying I was going to die and go to Hell. I left the coven, hid out and then went to Taig for help. When I went back to the coven, I thought that meant I was going to encounter conflict. Gregori tried to stop me from leaving, but nothing happened other than that.”

“Did you take Taig with you? No, don’t answer that. Of course you took Taig with you. You would have been a fool not to. Betrayal.”

“Whose?” Lealandra didn’t like the sound of that. “The coven?”

“It could be, or it could be your betrayal by bringing Taig to the coven and parting ways with them. Some would see a witch choosing a demon over other witches as betrayal.”

Lealandra had feared as much but she was still uncertain about the symbol. Could it mean the coven? The person who had written the mark on her wall knew what they were doing. There had been intent behind it. A demon couldn’t lace such a mark with such power. They could only draw the mark as though it was a picture. It had to have been a witch. She shook her head. She was being paranoid now. There was no reason for her to suspect anyone at the coven. But her blood was powerful right now. The magic in it would feed the magic of another, making it stronger. She shook her head again, trying to rid it of such dark thoughts and focused back on her mother.

“Blood.” Her mother looked up at her. “We have always carried powerful magic in this family, old magic that makes demands of us. Your father may have overlooked the marks on that young demon’s wrists, but I didn’t. Tell me, Lea, have you shared blood with him?”

“No, not shared.” Her voice trembled and she couldn’t look her mother in the eye. She sipped her cooling tea and then drummed her nails against the side of the cup. “I have taken his blood. He had a taste of mine by accident the other day and it sent him off the deep end. His blood doesn’t do such things to me. It placates my magic.”

“A more powerful force of nature. Magic as strong as ours would only bow to something it believed was superior. It craves his blood?” Her mother touched her hand and Lealandra nodded. “The blood is Taig then. You will need his power to contain yours. Don’t be frightened of taking what you need. The magic will make demands of you that you must fulfil in order to survive the ascension. Now that your Counter-Balance is gone, you will have no way of controlling your power. Taig’s blood may provide what you need in the absence of the coven. Your father and I are willing to help too.”

Lealandra shook her head against the idea and then nodded when her mother’s look hardened.

“I’ll come to you if I can. If I have time before the final stage begins.” Her insides flipped at the thought of going through the ascension. It would happen soon and she still wasn’t sure how she was going to survive it. She had always been close to her magic, giving it what it wanted. All she could do now was continue to do that and hope that, when the time came, it would go easy on her and work with her rather than against. She would give it whatever it wanted, as much blood as she could stomach if it asked it of her, and was sure that Taig wouldn’t refuse her. He would want her to survive.

“Conflict and danger.” Her mother drank her tea and then refilled her cup, her expression pensive. “There will be a fight in your future. Whoever is after you, they are not going to give up. You will have to defeat them in order to survive and these two marks together means it will be the fight of your life. Whether it happens before or after the ascension is inconsequential. They are linked to your survival and that is why they are in your path. You must be careful, Lea. Don’t leave his side and don’t rush into things. Protect yourself first and foremost.” She touched the final mark and her expression lost its serious edge, melting into a tender smile. “Love.”

Lealandra blushed and her power automatically reached for Taig. When she had seen that mark, she had hoped it meant him.

“I don’t think this one needs deciphering.” Her mother smiled with warmth in her grey eyes. “I think the answer to that one is tall, dark and handsome standing outside humouring your father. He’s a good catch, Lea, regardless of his demon blood. Perhaps the two families could meet up when this is over?”

“Taig said his parents disappeared... died when he was younger.” Lealandra severed the connection between them so he didn’t feel her change in emotions. If he sensed that she was sad or upset, he was bound to come barging in. “I never met them but I’ve seen a picture and they looked happy.”

“And powerful.”

Lealandra frowned. “Powerful?”

“I felt it when he took your hand. Have you never noticed that Taig has more power than most demons, and yet he’s only a half-breed? Which parent was the demon… no, wait… the male… yes, the father, and he was incredibly powerful. If they are dead, it would have taken more than a natural phenomenon or an Earth-dwelling demon to kill them.”

She had never thought about that. Taig had mentioned that his father was powerful but she hadn’t considered that Taig would only have half of his father’s strength because of his mixed blood. When she doubled Taig’s power, she found herself wondering just who his father had been and why he had been on Earth. Demons with that kind of power never left the underworld. Their presence on Earth affected the delicate balance, tilting it and endangering everyone. Her mother was right. It would have taken another demon from the underworld to kill Taig’s father and that kind of fight would have left a deep scar on the planet. Taig had said that they had left him one day and never returned. What if they weren’t dead? What if they had returned to the underworld?

But why would they have left Taig?

Unless they hadn’t had a choice in the matter. God and the Devil existed. Would both parties consider a demon as powerful as Taig’s father living on Earth as an offence? Had Taig’s parents been captured and were being held for that offence? Or had they been taken to the underworld and eliminated just as Taig believed?

The only way of knowing for sure was to go to the underworld. Lealandra reached out to Taig with her power, needing the connection and desiring to comfort him. She vowed that if she survived her ascension, she would risk everything and go down there to find out what had happened to his parents. She would do all in her power to help him discover their fate, and, if they were alive, to reunite them with their son.

“It’s insane to think what you’re thinking.” The deep male voice sent shivers of pleasure down her spine. She turned to face Taig. He was leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded across his broad chest. A trace of red lined his irises, a sign of his anger. “I know what you’re thinking and I’ve even thought it myself from time to time. My parents are dead, Lea. Whether they’re down there, or really gone, they’re dead to me.”

Lealandra reached out to him but he turned his back on her and walked away. The shop door slammed a moment later. She clenched her fists and cursed him. He could be stubborn all he wanted, but he wasn’t going to stop her. When everything was over, she was going down there to see if they were alive. She was going to make him see that his parents had loved him and that he had no reason to hate himself.

Lealandra hastily kissed her mother and father, embracing them in turn, and then went after Taig.

He wasn’t going to stop her.

She was going to help him accept himself whether he liked it or not.

She was going to because she couldn’t stand by and watch the man she loved destroy himself.

She had to save him.

L
ealandra caught up with Taig in the alley opposite her parents’ store. It was darker outside now, heavy black clouds blocking out the afternoon sun and threatening rain. Wind tousled her hair and blew her long black skirt against her legs, making it difficult to walk. Taig’s gaze remained firmly fixed ahead as they walked. He radiated anger in waves so powerful that she wanted to reach out and hold his hand, to comfort him and tell him that there was no reason for him to hate himself because she loved him for who he was.

She took her car keys out of her small black bag instead and toyed with them. The silence was oppressive and only grew worse, making her feel heavy as they headed back towards the car, snaking through the narrow alleys and avoiding the main streets. She knew why they were taking the back route. Taig’s eyes were as red as blood and his fists were tight balls of barely restrained fury. Whatever he was thinking, it was dark. The aura of danger around him prevented her magic from wanting to connect to him. It shrank back within her, fearful. Lealandra went to touch his hand and then thought the better of it. He never had welcomed comfort. It made him feel weak and he was likely to react in a bad way, and she didn’t want to push him over the edge. He would only hate himself more if he hurt her by mistake.

The alley nearest the car was so dark that the dim streetlights on the walls had come on. They did nothing to alleviate the gloom. The low grey clouds overhead and scent of rain urged her to walk faster so she avoided the impending downpour. She tried to send her power outwards to detect whether they were alone, but Taig’s power interfered with it and her magic refused to do as she asked.

She twirled the keys around her finger and then glanced over at Taig.

A loud crack echoed around the street and suddenly she was in Taig’s arms. They closed around her, one hand pushing her head hard against his chest. It took her a moment to realise it wasn’t thunder. She shut her eyes and hunched against him, making herself as small as possible in his embrace. Another crack sharply followed another and Taig jerked in time with each one. Her heart exploded into action, beating faster than it would’ve done if she had been doing a flat out run. After the fifth bang, the world fell eerily silent. The sound of her pounding heart and ragged breathing filled her ears. She trembled all over, unspent adrenaline making her legs so weak her knees threatened to give out.

“You can come out now. They’re gone,” Taig whispered close to her ear, his breath tickling it and making a wave of tingles dance across her skin. “Your friends are certainly persistent.”

Lealandra opened her eyes and they widened the moment she realised that it wasn’t only Taig’s arms around her. Thick black leathery wings enfolded her, forming a shield against her attacker. Taig slumped forwards, his weight pressing down on her slim shoulders, and she pressed her hands to his chest to support him as his grip loosened.

“Taig!” Panicked, she pushed against him, desperate to see his face and see if he was alright. His heart beat against her palms, strong and steady, a reassurance she badly needed. A few bullets couldn’t kill Taig. She repeated it as a mantra as tears rolled down her cheeks.

She pushed again, struggling to hold his weight, and managed to get him off her. He was looking at her when she finally put enough space between them. He smiled and swallowed, no trace of the tremendous pain she could feel in him visible in his dark red eyes.