Highland Son (Highland Sorcery: A New Dawn) (13 page)

Sheppard stopped shaking her and the world seemed to slant at an odd angle.
Guh
. He cupped her cheeks between his thick calloused palms, his eyes wide and pleading. “Don’t you see? I have to. There’s an evil inside of you. Magic. It’s dark and loathsome. If I could rip it out and leave you unscathed, don’t you think I’d do it? But it’s magic. It’s part of you, inside so deep it can never be scrubbed clean. Magic created those beasts. Magic did this to our world. It has to be gotten rid of. All of it. After your mother…”

Her eyes widened. Her mother? Did Sheppard have anything to do with her disappearance? He’d brought back her bloodied and torn shirt… Jewel’s pulse picked up in speed. It was worse than she ever thought. Her father was gone, had been for much longer than she knew. His insanity was too entrenched, twisting his mind from the man he once was.

His head shook. He was rambling. She couldn’t be sure he even knew he was talking to her anymore. His eyes were distant and lost. “I thought it was just Lance that carried the taint, but it wasn’t…you also…” His voice choked. “It’s not your fault. I know it’s not your fault…you can’t help it. But I’m going to help you…”

“Then, Dad…” she plead. Maybe she could still reach him. “Don’t do this. Don’t you get it? It was Lance shielding our group from the Sifts. He made them pass us by. And then after…” After he tried to kill him. “Then it was me. Magic. Magic isn’t evil like you think. It’s been magic all along keeping us safe. The only reason we’ve survived as long as we have is due to our magic cloaking us. If you kill me, if you go after Lance again, you won’t make it to the next day. Everyone, the children… Can’t you see that?”

He shook his head. “No. You’re wrong.”

“I’m not. You fight fire with fire. You taught me that. The beasts have magic? You fight them with magic. Not destroy the only defense you have.”

Something flickered in his eyes. He drew back. Her heart crashed heavily against her ribs. Maybe he wasn’t completely gone. She was getting to him.

Behind Sheppard, Richard’s face scrunched in thought, hopefully what she was saying making sense to him.

“No.” Sheppard’s eyes tracked away and he scrubbed a hand down his tired features. “You can’t fight evil with evil. It doesn’t work like that. It never will. How do we know it wasn’t your magic, yours and your brother’s, even your mother’s that first drew the monsters here?”

Her pulse slowed to a dull beat. “Dad, you can’t believe that. We didn’t bring them here. They just are. The monsters are everywhere. You know that. Please, let us go.”

Tears shimmered in his eyes. “I can’t.”

“Please,” she begged again. “Let us go. We’ll leave. You’ll never see us again.”

“Oh sweetheart, I’ve tried to keep you safe you entire life. This is tearing me apart.”

“Then don’t do this. Don’t you still love me?”

“I do love you. More than my life.”

“Then don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Don’t you understand? That’s what sacrifice is. Giving up something you love.”

“No,” Jewel cried. “No. It’s not.”

“I know I can’t make you understand. I couldn’t make
her
understand either. She cried. She cried so very hard…” He pulled back, shaking his head, a sheen of tears swimming in his eyes. “I can’t do this. Not like this.”

Jewel’s throat constricted as he reached up and unbound her wrists. Her arms dropped painfully after being up for so long. Her feet hit the ground and she almost crumpled but Sheppard caught her up and held her against him. She’d gotten through to him. It was going to be okay now. A low shudder rolled through her body. It was going to be okay.

“Sheppard?” Hank’s forehead furrowed.

“I just…can’t do it. Not like this. She’s my daughter.”

“But?”

“Not like this, not left for the beasts. I’ll-I’ll do it myself. I owe her that. I owe her mother at least that.” Sheppard kissed her forehead before spinning her in his grip so that her back was held against his chest.

Jewel stiffened. Fear coursed through her, coated her mouth with a stale coppery taste. He hadn’t heard her at all. He was going to kill her now, her own father. He planted the muzzle of his handgun beneath her chin. She trembled against the cool metal on her heated flesh, terrified. This was it. He was going to pull the trigger.

Her breath hitched on a painful sob.

But instead of firing, he and called out to the field, his voice hard and rough so close to her temple. “Lance, son. I know you’re out there. Show yourself.”

Chapter Eleven

Fury rolled through Alexander, igniting his magical core into an inferno burning through him. If he didn’t contain it within his essence, he’d likely torch the overgrown wooded area down around him.

Jewel and Dez had been brought to the baseball field and strung up against the backstop, the same as had been done to him. He couldn’t tell if they’d also been given a sedative or not. And there was no sign of Ethan, which punched a sharp hole in his tightening stomach.

Beside him, the vampire, Deverell, rested a restraining hand on his arm. His keen senses obviously felt the angry rush of his blood, the rapid beat of his heart. If Sheppard wasn’t holding Jewel in front of his chest, he’d already be out there ripping the man’s intestines out through his throat.

Held against her father, Jewel tried to lift her head at something he said. Heat flared through Alexander’s core at the bruise shadowing her temple. His jaw clenched hard. It took everything that was in him to stay still, keep hidden in the brush…

From the shrill inhale, Lance, on his other side, saw it too. His body vibrated with anger.

Alexander slipped into his essence and drew his magic forth, holding it to him by the thinnest of threads. His gaze tracked to Hank, knowing exactly whose hand had struck her.

He was ready to get down there right this frigging second. The moment Sheppard let go of Jewel…

“Lance, son,” Sheppard called. “I know you’re out there. Show yourself.”

Deverell reached across Lance and clenched down on the kid’s arm. He shook his head, dark hair swaying across his shoulders and whispered to Lance. “He’ll shoot you where you stand.”

“It’s my sister,” Lance hissed.

“Illusion?” Alexander suggested, his tone hard, unrecognizable as his own. He sounded like Dez.

“He has his gun pressed beneath my sister’s chin. My sister. If he suspects any illusion…”

“I’m going.” Alexander was itching to get up close and personal with Sheppard. He owed him for even daring to threaten Jewel at all. What kind of man did that to his children? More animal, than man. Didn’t lions sometimes kill their cubs?

“How will that change anything?” Lance’s whisper came out like a ragged breath.

“They won’t expect me. Nor do they know what I am capable of.”

“That just gives them one more hostage to use against you. They’ll shoot your friend and still use Jewel to make you do what they want. Just like before. As far as they know, that guy means nothing to me. Don’t give them any extra leverage to use against us. It’s stupid.” Lance glared at the field.

The creak of Sheppard’s gun cocking carried upon the hushed air.

Every muscle in Lance’s lean form went tight. “I’m going.”

The time for arguing was past. Alexander gave him a curt nod. “Draw them away from the backstop if you can. Give him a reason to come after you so he’ll have to let go of Jewel.” Alexander backed away, knowing once Lance stepped out of the foliage, their position would be compromised.

Lance nodded, his expression ruthless, when he abruptly looked back at Alexander. “You know, whichever way this goes, it still doesn’t give you the right to mess with my sister.”

Alexander’s eyes narrowed on him, and once again was taken aback by how young Lance was, couldn’t be much more than out of his teens, yet had taken so much responsibility upon himself. “I would never
mess
with Jewel.” What he felt for her, where his thoughts went concerning her held far much more weight and importance than a casual dalliance. “Once we survive this, you and I, are going to have a little chat.”

Lance’s gaze only hardened and Alexander got that. They’d been looking out for each other in an impossible situation. In his place, Alexander wouldn’t lie down and let anyone get near his sibling either.

“
Merde
,” Deverell expelled behind sharp teeth. “Things just got
malpropre
.”

Alexander followed the vampire’s line of sight past the backstop across the rotting, broken bleachers and beyond the overgrown parking lot and woods. He couldn’t see what the vampire’s senses detected.

“Sifts?”

Deverell nodded and edged from view so swiftly and quietly that not so much as a leaf fluttered in his passing. It was not yet full dusk so the vampire would keep to the shadows as much as possible, avoiding direct sunlight and its slow-acting poisonous effects on his kind where possible. He was just glad he was on their side and willing to take the risk of exposure.

Alexander shared a look with Lance. He would so much rather be stepping out in his place.

Lance’s Adam’s apple bounced and he stood, moving out into the open field, palms up, the handgun dull and useless tucked in at the back of the waistband of his pants.

“I’m here.”

All eyes jerked toward him.

“Lance, no,” Jewel cried, wincing as Sheppard pressed the muzzle harder against the soft under part of her chin.

“Go easy,” Sheppard said. “No tricks, son.”

“So what now,
Dad
?” He spoke the word with venom. “Now you kill me? Again. You’re still going to kill Jewel too.” Bitterness crackled along the charged atmosphere.

“It’s not what I wanted.” Sheppard lifted his gun hand and rubbed at his eyes. The gun rose up and down with his movement. “You’re my children.”

Heart pounding, Alexander edged closer. The magic churned inside his essence, building like steam about to push through the valves.

“I’m sorry, son.” Sheppard’s eyes slipped to Hank and Alexander knew. That was the signal. Sheppard wouldn’t outright kill his child. He left that to others.

Which gave Alexander an opening.

Hank turned his rifle upon Lance. Alexander saw the kick of it firing and he lunged out from among the trees, the pent-up magic bursting out of him in frenzied disjointed beats.

Streams of crackling green light pulsed into Hank, lifting him from his feet, flinging him back several yards where he slid across the weeds. Bullets splattered the air on reflex.

Men shouted around him. Gunfire erupted. Alexander didn’t know if Lance had been hit.

His entire focus turned to Sheppard. Slack-jawed, the bastard took in the scene, eyes narrowing when he found Alexander striding toward him, dragging tendrils of sorcerer’s fire snapping from the tips of his fingers.

Sheppard’s entire demeanor hardened, resolved, calculated. If he was going out, he was going to make Alexander pay.
Bring it on
, Alexander brought his hands forward. This was going to feel good.

Keeping his eyes on Alexander, Sheppard dropped Jewel and sited his gun…straight at Dez’s heart.

And Alexander let loose. Scraped a bolt of fire across the ground that took Sheppard’s legs out from under him. He thudded to the weed-choked ground on the other side of Jewel. His gun flew across the dirt, never getting off a round.

Still walking forward, Alexander blasted Sheppard again, rolling him across the field as though he’d kicked him in the ribs.

Jewel pulled her legs in, throwing her arms over her head. But Alexander wouldn’t hit her, wouldn’t even get that close. His anger was much too focused, sharpened like a surgical laser, on the madman who was supposed to be her father, was supposed to protect her. Not tie her up. Not feed her to monsters. Not let scumbag bastards mark her with bruises.

Chaos consumed the world surrounding him. Shouts, screams, the shrill of a Sift, Dez shouting his name… He thought he heard Ethan. In his peripheral sight he saw the vampire streak past and rip the arm off one of the monsters in a blur of speed. He could almost imagine the wavelengths of a sonic blast.

It all filtered through his senses like a sieve, the only thing registering was pushing, shoving Sheppard far, far from Jewel and Dez. 

Sheppard landed on his stomach and curled in on himself, hand up and out for mercy, his mouth working, pleading words Alexander was beyond hearing. Not that he could hear much beyond the dulling residue of cracking gunfire.

Alexander zapped Sheppard again. “You will…never…hurt anyone…again…you ignorant…bigoted…swiving…son of a whore.”

“Stop! Stop!” Hands latched onto him from behind. He barely felt them, deadened to everything but Sheppard. He felt himself spun to the side. His sorcery burned furrows of green fire across the weeds, nearly taking off the guy’s legs. The grass went up in flames around them.

He was shoved then. The world snapped back into focus. Lance faced him, skin awash in a green flickering glow. Unnerved, Alexander quenched his magic joltingly fast as he stared into young man’s face. An aftershock of tremors rolled through him. Someone ran past them, racing for the trees. Richards?

Lance locked onto his arm, shaking him. “Stop. Don’t kill him. He’s mine.” His voice was a distant echo, reverberating from a thousand miles away.

Alexander pitched over, shaking, starring sideways at Sheppard who was crawling awkwardly in the grasses. and nearly vomited, because that’s what he was about to do. Kill Sheppard. He still wanted to. He didn’t like what he was feeling.

Dia.

He’d been lost in his rage.

He didn’t see a man. He saw a monster.

Lance had a knife in a tight trembling grasp.

It wasn’t the way. Not for him.

Straightening, Alexander laid his hand on the boy’s wrist. “You can’t do it either. He’s your father.”

Lance shook his head. “He’s not. My father died a long time ago.”

“Even so.”

“We can’t let him go.” His voice wavered, caught on a swell of raw emotion. “He’ll only continue…”