Mortal Sin (43 page)

It was brilliant and evil.

Two.

Dinner will be ready at six sharp.

“Phineas!” Moira screamed. “I need to talk to you
now!”

Three.

“Nikolas! You have got to listen to me! You’re all in danger.”

Four.

She took out her dagger and held it up to the screen. “You said I’m valuable to you? That you need me? I won’t be good to you dead!”

Five.

She put the knife to her wrist. If Phineas knew her as well as he seemed to think, he’d know she wouldn’t kill herself. She could have done it seven years ago when Peter died. Or ten years ago when she was trapped in her mother’s dungeon. Or thirteen years ago when her mother sacrificed two innocent men in front of her, and the truth of Moira’s fate came clear.

Six.

She pressed the sharp blade into her skin and winced.

The door opened.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Phineas demanded. “Where did you get that knife?” He frowned, as if just now realizing that one of his own people must have brought it to her.

She stepped back from him as she wiped the blood from her wrist onto her shirt. She hadn’t cut deeply; she couldn’t afford to lose any more blood. “Don’t eat anything. Don’t drink, don’t eat the spaghetti.”

He was perplexed. “What’s going on?”

The hair on Moira’s skin rose. “Fiona is nearby.” As she said it, she doubted herself. Maybe it wasn’t Fiona. But the spell felt so familiar, she was certain it had Fiona’s special touch.

“My sentries would have alerted me long before any witch walked my property. You are paranoid. Give me the dagger.”

“Adrienne made the spaghetti sauce. She put in herbs that have nothing to do with taste, and a powder, I don’t know what. As soon as you all eat, she’ll complete the spell and you’ll be wiped out. Dead. Unconscious, I don’t know, but you won’t be able to stop Fiona from taking me.”

“You are a fool, Moira. Paranoid. Delusional.”

But in his eyes, the same shape and color as Rafe’s, she saw his doubt.

Still, he stepped toward her, intent on disarming her.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Phineas.” She backed away. She really didn’t want to hurt him, but she would if that meant saving herself from whatever horrific fate Fiona had planned for her. A spell washed over her skin. It came from everywhere and from nowhere. What was going on outside? What was Fiona doing? Or was this Adrienne? “I feel the spell. Did you eat yet? Tell me!”

“No,” he said, but he looked worried. He ran out of the room and didn’t lock the door behind him. Moira followed.

Half his people were at the table. Everyone had taken a few bites except Adrienne. “Phineas, it’s getting cold,” she began then she saw Moira behind him. The blonde’s face twisted in a scowl. “Well, shit,” Adrienne said.

The surge of magical energy coming from Adrienne nearly overwhelmed Moira, and it wasn’t even directed to her. It was directed toward the four people at the table.

Moira couldn’t even contemplate how Adrienne had contained her magic so well that no one in this house knew she was a witch. Moira knew, but only on a subconscious level, a sense that had nothing to do with feeling magic. And now that Adrienne had been unleashed, she was using her pent-up energy to whammy them.

Except… maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she was only powerful because the house was surrounded, like the triad of witches in Santa Louisa only had power when they were together.

Phineas lunged for Adrienne. Even as he did, three of the four people at the table collapsed, their heads in their plates. Only one didn’t—Nikolas. He turned to Moira. “I’ve never trusted her,” he said. “I didn’t eat anything. Tell me what to do.”

“We need to get out of here. Fiona is here, and she will kill you all. She only wants me. I can buy you time.” She had not idea how to get out of this mess.

“We have sentries on the road and around the house,” Nikolas said.

“Not anymore,” Moira said. “They’re either dead or passed out.”

“Savannah and Jonah are in the security room.”

“Get them, we need everyone together.”

Nikolas ran from the room. Phineas slammed Adrienne’s head into the kitchen counter. “You traitor!”

She laughed, even as her blood ran down her head. “You’re a fool, sweetheart. Turn Moira over now, and we’ll spare your life.”

Phineas had his knife in hand. Moira shouted, “Phineas! Don’t!”

She rushed toward him as his weapon came down toward Adrienne. She jumped and grabbed his wrist, twisting his arm so he didn’t kill the witch. The tip of his dagger cut into Adrienne’s arm, and the blonde spun away, falling hard against the counter.

“She’s a traitor!” he screamed at Moira.

“If you kill her like this, she’ll be more powerful. She’s taunting you! She wants you to kill her!”

Adrienne smirked, circled around the table of unconscious people, away from Phineas.

“Good! She’ll stand still while I—”

“Listen to me! Dammit, if you care one iota about Rafe, you need to listen to me!”

Phineas blinked and glanced at her. “What?”

Adrienne pulled herself up using the counter for leverage. Blood poured down her face from where Phineas had slammed her head against the counter, but she didn’t seem to care or notice.

Nikolas came back with Savannah, the blonde who had been in the hotel basement, the only one who had gotten out unscathed with Phineas when they kidnapped her. Savannah’s eyes darted from Adrienne to Phineas, then said, “Jonah went to check on a glitch in the network, but that was fifteen minutes ago.”

“It’s over, Phineas,” Adrienne said. “You’ve already lost.”

Veins throbbed in Phineas’s neck and he lunged again for Adrienne.

Moira grabbed him. “Stop this! We have to save your people.”

“How?”

“Force them to drink holy water. It’ll make them throw up the poison. The spell will stop working once they’ve emptied their stomachs.”

Adrienne ran out of the kitchen while Moira spoke. Phineas started after her, but Moira said, “If you care about your people, you’ll forget about her and help me!”

Nikolas had already started doing as Moira commanded. Savannah hesitated, looking to Phineas for direction. He looked from his people to Moira, then said, “This had better work.”

She hoped so as well. She pulled the head back of one young man—he was as young as Kyle, she realized, and wondered who and how Phineas recruited. She poured holy water over his mouth. Some got in. He would drown or choke if he couldn’t swallow. Suddenly he startled awake and puked all over the table.

It was disgusting, but he was alive. He stumbled to the sink and drank water directly from the faucet, then threw up again.

Minutes later, the three victims were alive and conscious, but they were all weak. None of them could go into battle, not for a while at any rate.

“Nikolas,” Moira said, “take them to the safest room in the house. Stay with them. Secure every door, every vent, every window. Triple check.”

“I can do that.”

“Beware of tricks. Fiona is powerful.” She hesitated, then took off her shirt. She had a tank-top underneath, but her shirt had her blood on it from her earlier threat to slit her wrists. “Tie this around your waist or arm. I don’t know if it’ll help, but it can’t hurt.”

By the time Nikolas led the sick from the kitchen, Phineas had recovered. “I should have killed her.”

“It would have made the coven more powerful,” Moira said. “She sold her soul a long time ago. She would have been able to attack from the astral plane, and battling vengeful spirits is a bitch.”

“I’ve battled my fair share.”

The stench from the vomit was getting to Moira. She led the way back to the living room where she’d been held. It was her, Phineas and Savannah. Three against an unknown number of witches. They had three sick people to protect. “How many sentries did you have?”

“Four. Plus Jonah,” Phineas said. “If those heathens killed them—”

She slapped him. He grabbed her wrist, but she was unfazed. “You need to focus! Dammit, Phineas, they know you! Talk about anger issues. They’re going to use it against you. Serena has control of one of the Seven. Greed. If they brought it here, we’re really screwed. I don’t know if I can battle it without Rafe.” She meant to say
alone
, but when she said Rafe’s name, she knew that only together would they be able to trap the Seven. She didn’t understand why, but it was a truth.

“That’s why they killed John,” she said. “To get me alone.”

“You’re not alone,” Phineas said.

But there were other issues—with Envy and Lust they had a few hours to prepare. First to locate a tabernacle to contain Envy, then with Lust they lured the demon to a church where they were able to trap it in a chalice, then contain it within a baptismal font.

What could she trap Greed with? She had no clue.

“Meaning, separate from Rafe.” She felt sucker punched. There was no getting out of this. Her mother was going to win. She would kill everyone here to punish Moira.

“I’ll turn myself over,” she said, quietly. “It’s me she wants. I’ll go willingly if she spares you and the others.”

“I will not let you sacrifice yourself. We need you in the battle.”

“You should have thought about that before you shot Rico and kidnapped me!” Now she was getting angry. This was all Phineas’s doing. He’d been used and manipulated because of his hatred for witches and, possibly his anger at St. Michael’s for their rigid ways that pushed him into the rogue group. But at least St. Michael’s didn’t murder people in cold blood. They didn’t slaughter covens simply because they were witches. “You have no choice,” she continued. “Your choice is to die or fight to live. I can buy you time to escape.”

He stared at her. “You would do that? Even after what I did to Rico?”

“Actually, I’m more pissed that you took a pint or two of my blood and I feel like death warmed over, but yeah, I’m not going to let Rafe’s brother be tortured and killed by my witch of a mother.”

All around her, the air tingled with charged energy.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Moira said. “Do you have a tunnel—no, Adrienne would know. She’ll have set traps.”

“I have an escape plan,” Phineas said, “and no one knows about it but me.”

She was skeptical, but she saw the surprise on Savannah’s face.

“I’m not leaving my people,” he said.

“Get them and get out of here. I’ll distract Fiona.”

“You can’t battle these witches on your own. Come with me.”

“I can’t. I have to be the bait. I have to give you time.”

A loud pounding on the door made her jump.

“Phineas! Help!”

“It’s Jonah,” Savannah said.

“Stop!” Moira shouted as Savannah ran to the front door. “Don’t open it!”

But it was too late. Savannah had crossed the foyer and opened the door before Moira could stop her. She pulled Jonah inside. He was pale and trembling.

A quick flash in his eyes told Moira that he was possessed.

“Get back!” Moira said.

“Help me,” Jonah said, pleading with Savannah as he fell to his knees.

Savannah grabbed Jonah and pulled him up. Jonah clutched a knife in his shaking hand, the tip aimed at Savannah.

“He has a knife,” Moira said.

Phineas’s eyes narrowed as he saw the truth in front of them. He almost rushed them, but Moira grabbed him. “Hold it,” she said.

Moira cut into her arm and smeared her hand with blood. She pushed Phineas aside and grabbed Jonah’s wrist with her bloodied hand.

“
Ex ordine caeli, et eiecti sunt vincti!”

The words that Rafe had spoken to her at the mission, the phrase he told her to remember, flowed from her mouth. She had forgotten what he’d said to her, but they came now, and she knew they were right.

Jonah screamed as the knife fell from his grasp. It wasn’t Jonah screaming—it was the demon inside him, burned by her blood.

Savannah stepped back, startled, when she realized Jonah was possessed and poised to kill her.

“Say it!” Moira ordered Jonah.

His mouth twisted.

“To save your soul, say it!” she told him.

“Ex ordine! Caeli! Et eiecti! Sunt vincti!”

The house shook and Jonah collapsed to his knees. The demon, invisible to the eye but unmistakable in its foul stench, left Jonah’s body and vanished.

“Where is it?” Phineas said, his dagger out.

“Gone,” she said.

“You killed it?”

“Wounded it.” She looked at Jonah, concerned, using her foot to shut the door. “What did you find out?”

Jonah tried to catch his breath. “Nothing.”

“You were possessed. You know what the demon knows.”

She hated asking Jonah to dig into the vile pit the demon left inside him, but they needed information to give them a chance to survive this.

Jonah squeezed his eyes shut. “No.”

“Yes.”

Phineas squatted next to him and helped him up. “Jonah,” he said, “you can do this. You’re strong.”

“So much…  hate. Rage.”

“What’s the plan?” Moira asked.

“I don’t know! I went outside because the security feeds went down, I thought it was the wind, and I was hit over the head. When I came to, the demon was inside. I fought as best I could, but it was already there.”

“No one is blaming you,” Moira said. “What kind of demon?”

“There are different kinds?”

She glanced at Phineas. “Not big on education, are you?”

“Son of
Se-et
,” Jonah said. “What does that mean?”

“
Se-et
?” Phineas asked.

“Set,” Moira said. “An Egyptian demon. It’s familiar, but I don’t know why.”

Rafe would know. Rafe has the answers.

“You’re certain?” she asked Jonah.

“Yes, it called itself Son of Set. It planned on killing someone, making me kill someone, to pave the way.” He frowned. “How did I know that?”

“Because it was inside you.” She thought. Killing someone, a friend, a partner. Damn bitch of a mother! Fiona loved tearing people apart inside. “It’s part of the ritual. A sacrifice.” But Fiona didn’t need complex rituals. She liked them for the gamesmanship, but she didn’t need them.