Demon's Triad (20 page)

“Dorand’s brother isn’t Amiantos,” Walter said, setting down the remote with a sigh and turning his attention fully to his guests. It was a minor miracle that Dorand knew neither Aleeza or Ferrin could fully appreciate.

“We know that. I was taken into the coven when I was a few months old.”

“Ferrin was found in our woods. Someone had tried to use him in a spell as a sacrifice, but his adoptive mother found him before he died of exposure. He was adopted officially into the coven when his power showed signs of being Amiantos,”

Dorand explained.

“He’s no Amiantos,” Walter said with a laugh.

“I know I’m not, but I can work their magic like one of them. Better than most of them even.” Ferrin’s voice was calm and even, just stating the facts. Dorand was glad to hear it. Whatever insecurities had been plaguing him of late, they hadn’t affected his confidence in his magic.

“Of course you can. Daiesthai can mimic the magic of any coven—that’s why they’re so dangerous. They can also assimilate the power of witches.”

“So can Amiantos,” Dorand said.

“No, Amiantos magic meld, give or receive, but at the end of the day there’s only so much they can get from another witch. The rest they have to ground or release. Now Daeisthai can actually increase their power by absorbing the magic of the witches they kill, drink it up as the other soul leaves the body. They were notorious for slaying 102

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hundreds of other supers in their heyday. Killing until they had the strength of tens or even hundreds of individual witches. Take a witch with that kind of power, fast them with a demon, and you’ve got a recipe for serious mayhem.”

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned the Daiesthai. So I’m assuming they’re not extinct either?” Aleeza asked.

“See, now there’s the interesting part. I thought they were until I met your friend here. I couldn’t read his magic when he shook my hand. It was different, but I couldn’t place it. It wasn’t until you set off the alarm that it made sense. The color of your auras together confirms it. You’re a workable, fertile Daeisthai union. We know you’re Gunera, so that means Ferrin had to be either Pandorian or Daeisthai.”

“So why do you say Daeisthai? Couldn’t I be Pandorian? Or even Gunera?” Ferrin asked.

“You’re not Gunera. They can’t mimic others’ power to the extent you do. And no to the Pandorian too. That wouldn’t work unless you were completely demon possessed. That’s the only way you’d be fertile for a Daeisthai union.”

“He has been acting strangely,” Dorand said, wanting to do something to wipe away the shame on Ferrin’s face. His brother had been a pain in the ass lately, but he was still his brother and their fates were bound together whether either of them liked it at the moment or not.

“Demon-influenced and demon-possessed, two totally different things. I’d know if he were possessed and so would you. Besides, I don’t think the influence is pure demon. There’s a witch involved, a female witch I’m betting. It’s the only way to make sense of the runes.”

“You managed to read them? What did you find out?” Aleeza asked, her face changing subtly as she slipped into work mode.

She was doing her damnedest to find Carantha’s killer, but somehow in the process she’d become a part of whatever black magic was behind the killings. It made Dorand’s chest ache. He’d already lost one woman to this evil, and now another was in danger, a woman he knew could mean more to him than even Carantha ever had. He wanted to protect her, to do whatever it took to put her beyond the reach of this darkness, but that wasn’t within his power. She’d been a part of this even before she’d freed herself from the Gunera curse, was as mixed up in all of it as he and Ferrin.

Whether fate or something more sinister had brought them together, they were all bound to each other until they stopped this evil from achieving its goals. After that…well there would be time to think of what they might be to each other in the future if they survived the present.

“The runes are an ancient demonic spell of transformation, probably originally intended to draw forth a demon from the ether into solid form.”

“But they can’t do that, can they? Isn’t that why they have to magic-fast with a witch in the first place, because that’s the only way for them to experience a physical form?” Dorand asked.

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He’d always been fascinated by demonology. That was how he’d met Walter in the first place. Dorand had been curious to find out why the Amiantos were the only coven to survive the ages without any demonic history. Even the non-impish covens, those that couldn’t magic-fast with a demon, had traces of demon, were still “defiled” in the eyes of the Amiantos elders. Dorand had never found the answers he sought, but he had made a powerful friend in Walter, a friend he was more than grateful to have now that people he loved were falling victim to demon magic.

“That’s true now, but it wasn’t a few thousand years ago when the demons who carried the weapons in the armory walked the earth. The spell would be useless to a modern-day demon, but a witch could still use it for a transformation spell if she was magic-fasted to a demon.”

“You keep saying ‘she’. Why?” Aleeza asked.

“The rune written on top of the ancient rune is sexual in nature, a yin to yang spell of transformation if I’m guessing correctly. There could be other explanations, but reading the three runes in order of the killings, that seems to be the best bet for what this witch is up to. And it would make sense if she really is a Daiesthai female. She wouldn’t be able to create the next generation as a woman, but she might be able to swing it if she could change herself into a male.”

“You’re kidding. That’s not even possible is it?” Ferrin asked. Not even magic could fuck with biology so seriously, at least none that Dorand had ever heard of either.

“I don’t know. Maybe. At least this witch and her demon thought there was a good enough chance of it working to kill a few witches to work the magic.” Walter said the words with a casual shrug, and Dorand tried to ignore his attitude. One of those witches had been his lover, his friend, his clan mate. But sensitivity had never been Walter’s strong point.

“So why is the demon or witch after Ferrin? If she plans to become a man, wouldn’t she just be after Aleeza, or another Gunera woman who could carry the baby?” Dorand asked.

“She didn’t know about Ferrin.” Aleeza chewed her bottom lip and began to pace the tiny corner where Walter had set up his bar and television lounge area. “He had to have been a surprise the night that I broke the curse. That’s when Ferrin and I started hearing the voice, but I’d been having dreams before that. Shit! The hex portal under my bed, gods, I’m an idiot. It all makes sense now.”

“What makes sense? You’ve lost me.” Walter leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eager to catch up on the missed information, testimony to the fact that really smart people aren’t at all shy about admitting when they don’t have a clue.

“I’d been having graphic sexual dreams for months, but they got worse and worse after each of the Fire Festivals.”

“As our witch got more power from killing the other witches. She
has
to be Daiesthai,” Walter said with a grin, obviously excited by the news for some strange reason.

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“She or her demon was attacking me in my sleep, driving me nuts until I—”

“Got frustrated enough to break the curse, making you able to conceive a Daiesthai child. She’s trying to rebuild the coven.” Ferrin finished her thought and made a move as if he would reach out and take her hand but stopped himself.

Aleeza stopped short. “And I played right into her hands. Oh goddess, this is all my fault.”

She looked so lonely standing there Dorand had to grip the seat of his chair to keep from going to her, holding her. If Ferrin hadn’t been sitting, tense and pale, at the other end of the table, he would have done so instantly. But why rub it in?

Dorand could touch her, make love to her for the rest of their lives in perfect safety.

Whereas Ferrin…could never do so again. Not unless they wanted to attract demonic attention.

“What happens if we catch the demon and the witch? If we stop all of this?” He knew Aleeza and Ferrin both wanted to ask the question but were afraid to. Trouble was, he knew the answer they hoped for and the answer he hoped for were different.

He felt like a jerk, but he couldn’t help it. If Ferrin and Aleeza could never touch, never be together, that left the door wide open for him.

Walter shrugged. “I don’t know. It would put a stop to this spell and hopefully save some lives, but I don’t know what happens if a Gunera and Daeisthai mate without demon fasting. You’d need to ask someone schooled in reproductive magic. I know of one woman, probably the only one who’d be able to help. If there’s something about reproductive magic or Gunera history she doesn’t know, it’s not a fact anyway…hold on…” He crossed the room and started digging around in a giant Rolodex.

“Never mind,” Aleeza said. Her voice was hoarse, and Dorand caught Ferrin staring at her in confusion, a confusion he felt as well. Why wouldn’t Aleeza want to solve this problem?

“No, it will only take a minute,” Walter said.

“No, really. Never mind.”

“Here it is.” Walter beamed as he lifted the little white card. “Mona Perkins. She’s Gunera too, and—what?”

Dorand cleared his throat in the silence. “Mona Perkins? Any relation, Aleeza?”

She nodded and licked her lips. “My mother.”

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“She’s going to want to help you,” Dorand said for the fiftieth time that evening.

They sat in Aleeza’s kitchen at the small, cracked-topped table, the remains of takeout Chinese spread before them.

“Sure. She’ll be thrilled to help when she finds out her only daughter lied to her, robbed a grave and performed seriously gray magic in order to get herself laid. She’ll be even happier to help when she finds out there’s demon shit involved in all of this. But I’m sure her unconditional love for me will shine through, and she’ll be delighted to do what she can.”

“She’s still your mother.”

“She won’t be after this, I bet.” Feeling like her skin was about to crawl off her body, Aleeza stood and started picking up empty cartons with shaking hands. Not only had she lied to Mona to get the Queen Elizabeth root, she’d lied to her this morning—goddess, was that just this morning?—about doing the anti-celibacy spell. Mona would kill her. No, first she would scream and yell and probably set fire to Aleeza’s pictures.

Then she would kill her.

Why this brought tears to her eyes, she didn’t know. But she’d almost rather be possessed by a demon than admit to Mona what she’d done. Not to mention having to drag two men with her and tell Mona she’d already had sex with both of them.

Several times. In a day and a half.

She could feel their eyes on her as she tidied up. Neither of them offered to help—typical men—but then, she didn’t want them to and maybe they sensed that. She didn’t even want to look them in the eyes, much less have to feel their broad, warm bodies bumping against hers in the tiny kitchen as they moved.

Just that thought was enough to make her flush. What she needed most right now was oblivion, the chance to lose herself even for a few minutes in the ballet of their bodies merging.

And it was the one thing she couldn’t have. She and Ferrin shouldn’t even think about making love again until they knew what the potential consequences were. And she didn’t dare bring Dorand into her bed while Ferrin sat alone outside the bedroom.

She couldn’t do that to him. She cared about him—she loved him too much to hurt him like that.

She loved them both. She had to admit that much to herself, no matter how crazy it might seem.

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Aleeza flung the last paper plate into the trash and pressed her face into her hands.

Her head pounded. All she wanted to do was go back, go back to the night before and stop herself, to erase everything—

No she didn’t. Despite wishing she didn’t have these problems, she couldn’t, not even for a second, wish she’d never met Dorand or Ferrin. Couldn’t wish she was still a virgin, couldn’t wish she’d never experienced the bliss they’d given her. Which made her a selfish shit of the highest order. A wave of self-loathing rolled over her, mingling with her desire and causing tears to spill down her face.

“Aleeza.” Dorand’s hands were warm and solid on her arms. His breath stirred her hair. “Don’t worry, Aleeza. It will be okay.”

She sniffled, wiping her eyes as surreptitiously as she could with him standing so close. “Yeah, it’s going to be great. You’re right.”

“We’ll just go over there in the morning and tell her everything. I’m sure she’ll—”

“Okay.” She nodded and turned around, avoiding his eyes. “Of course. Look, I’m a little tired. Long day and everything. So I’m going to go lie down. There are blankets and extra pillows in the hall closet. I’m sorry I only have one couch but you guys can flip for it or something, okay?”

“Stay out here, please—”

“The hex portal is completely neutralized, right?”

Dorand nodded. He’d checked out the entire apartment when they’d arrived and his counter spells were holding strong.

“So I’ll be fine. I think I have some extra toothbrushes in medicine cabinet. Feel free to dig around.”

“Aleeza.” She’d been so caught up in her own misery she hadn’t even noticed how pale Ferrin was, how his eyes sat in haunted shadows. “Please stay out here and talk to us.”

More than anything she wanted to reach for him, to hold him. What he must be experiencing was beyond anything she could imagine. To suddenly discover you were a magic vampire of some kind, to learn you were a member of a cursed race…she wanted to be there for him. She just couldn’t trust herself to touch him. Not now and maybe not ever again.

Something inside her broke, and she turned and ran into her room.

* * * * *