The Devil You Know (44 page)

Stay,
said the most solid of the group as she blocked my ascent.
You are not fully healed. Our powers work best in the water. You must stay.
Her ghostly face was concerned, empathetic, but despite the pain that shot through my bones as I left their healing circle, there was something there that made me move around her and swim faster—fear. She’d avoided answering my questions and I needed to know why. Immediately.

Gasping, I broke the surface and made it to the edge of the black rock with a speed I didn’t know I possessed. Jacq lay in the same spot as before. Several of the spirits surrounded her, their presence against the black floor like a thin fog in the bright light. The spirits had covered her with silver-threaded white robes. Nearly crying with pain, I crawled to her side.

“What did you do?” I laid my hand over her forehead.

Eyes open, glazed white with power, Jacq stared at the ceiling, her face still, the movement of her chest up and down with breath the only indication she lived. The connection between our minds was open, but there was nothing there.

The almost-solid one answered,
She is being prepared for the Trial. After the Great War, a pact was made with the Demons that we would mete out judgment to our people for the crime of stealing another’s mate. Do not worry. She is the last of our kind. We would not harm her body, nor break her. Her punishment will be in her mind only.

I shuddered. If there was one thing I’d learned this past week, it was that mental torture could be far, far worse than physical. “No.” I looked at the spirits, my anger sparking, “Bring her back. Now!”

No,
the leader denied flatly,
it is the law. You will remain here. She will be returned to you within three days.
She gestured to the other spirits.

Jacq’s body began to levitate, the spirits taking her from me. I threw myself across Jacq’s chest, fire bubbling in my veins, muting the pain of my burned skin rubbing against her robes.

“Damn the law!” I yelled through gritted teeth. “It was a simple mistake, a missed signature that will be rectified as soon as we return to my world.”

The white crystals in the wall began to pulse slowly. I prepared for another blast. Spirits collected around us, putting more power into raising Jacq’s body. I rose with her, my toes scraping the floor. Apparently, logic was wasted on this group.

You belong to another. You have no right to claim our daughter,
the spirits chorused. And that was absolutely the
wrong
thing to say.

Within me, my demon-half stirred. My fire rose and I let it, filling my eyes with the hell I would bring forth if they took my love from me. Deep beneath us, within the core of this land, another fire stirred, responding to my unintended call. I smiled grimly.
This volcano was not as extinct as Jacq and her people thought.

I met the leader’s hazy gaze. “I belong to no one but Jacqueline Slone D’Artanian. And she belongs to none but me. Bring her back or there will be
consequences
,” I growled, my voice full of dark promises.

The leader raised a transparent hand, halting her people.
Consequences?
Her white brows rose in disbelief.
What can a girl such as you do to us? We are the life of this land. You cannot harm or destroy us.

I released a small amount of power and tugged, pulling on the earth beneath us. I was an earth witch who could call fire. I had never before been near a volcano, but at this moment, within the belly of one seemed the perfect place for a witch such as me. The ground beneath us rumbled. Beyond the warded wall, birds and animals screamed, sensing the land’s sudden unrest.

“I can do plenty. Bring her back immediately, unharmed and in full retention of her mind and senses. Or…” Fire filled my eyes and the darkness hiding deep within my soul drew near. “I rain down fire and ash on this land until the skies turn dark and the valleys flow with molten rock. When I’m through, there will be no life left in your
paradise
.” I spat the word. This was no paradise. It was a mausoleum for the spirits of a people long gone. And they were about to take from it the one woman who made it any sort of home.

They were fools.

I didn’t know if I had the power to do as I threatened. But I was willing to die trying, and there was a good bet I’d take more than a few of Jacq’s relatives with me when I went. And from the way the leader’s hazy face stilled, her gaze intensifying as she watched me, she knew it.

This law was demanded by the demons,
the chorus said.

As if they all shared one mind
,
the leader continued thoughtfully,
As their blood you may ask that we acquit our daughter of this crime and displace the punishment. Is this your wish?

I looked at Jacq. She was so empty. I blinked back a tear. “Yes.” My voice was strong but hoarse with emotion. Things had gone so wrong. This was supposed to be our time together, without family or judgments, without the tides of old wars and those yet to come. But here we were, neither able to escape the curse of our blood and the sins committed by others long before our births.

Understand that in doing so,
the leader continued more gently, raising my chin with an ethereal hand, her touch warm against my skin,
you must take the punishment in her place.
She looked into my eyes, her own solidifying briefly as they glowed silver.
It would be painful but brief, perhaps an hour. Your kind is not made to endure such but it must be. Our laws cannot be circumvented so easily. They were created for our protection. To break them would be to say our existence no longer had value.

“I understand,” I whispered. And I did. Without forms, these spirits had nothing to cling to but their past. Destroying their world, destroying Jacq’s world, would be an easier battle than trying to convince them they were wrong, that they should look to a future that would never be theirs. I looked to the leader and said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

She nodded. They lowered Jacq’s body, lowering mine with it. She said,
Some things are better done without—

My mind was consumed by pain. My vision blurred as they lowered me to the ground. The last thing I saw was the leader, hovering inches above me. Their forms dissolved, vanishing like mists melting under the day’s heat, but her voice stayed in my head.

An hour,
she said.
After which, I promise you will think twice before making a threat you cannot carry out.

An hour? She was being generous. It wouldn’t take that long. In fact, I was already thinking twice about threatening—really making any sort of conversation with—people you could literally see through. I even opened my mouth to tell her so…but all that came out was a scream.

My hour had come.

About the Author

Marie Castle lives in a little town in Mississippi once called Gandsi-Zion for the train stop that ran between the Civil War-era Zion Seminary and the Gulf and Ship Island depot. She has been known to sing in the shower when no one is around and does foolish things on a regular basis merely because she can. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted through her Facebook page.

Acknowledgments

They say it takes a village to raise a child. So it is with the introduction of a new writer into the literary world, especially one who is forming a series of novels. It takes a colossal conglomeration of creativity and craftsmanship, as well as a certain flair for flinging one’s self and others off literary bridges without bungee cords. And so I must thank my publisher, Linda Hill, for constructing the village that is Bella Books, providing and maintaining the road to this bridge. Without Linda, I may never have known the pleasure of the fall.

Thanks to Karin Kallmaker, our own village magistrate and wise woman, for walking me down the path and helping me onto the railing, all the while providing invaluable advice and healthy kicks to the posterior when needed.

I thank Katherine V. Forrest, the village shaman, for working her magic and ensuring I looked my best during the plummet. Sure I took a few smacks to the head when Katherine dusted me with her editorial broom, but they were always gentle, eloquently phrased smacks. The sort of smacks that make you straighten your spine and face the future with confidence. The sort many a writer would push me off a very physical bridge to receive.

Lastly, to the readers of my first novel,
Hell’s Belle
… Authors, new ones especially, always hope there will be a net of warm enthusiasm to catch them but can never be certain. Thank you, dear readers, for reaching out to me with acceptance and sincere joy as I hurtled into your midst. It wasn’t a purely painless process, but because of you this second time with
The Devil You Know
I climbed the steps with a little less trepidation. Maybe I’ll even remember to breathe this go round. Now there is nothing left to say except perhaps…“Geronimo!”

The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly
(Dramatis Personae)

Alex Wellsy:
grandchild of Arno Wellsy. Classification: unknown.

Arno Wellsy:
neighbor and friend to the Delacys; history professor; killed and possessed by the dark sorcerer Artus. Classification: warlock.

Artus:
of the House of S’louth; bodiless demonic spirit; brother to Nicodemus and Titus of S’louth; referred to as a full-blooded child of Crius; killed and possessed Arno Wellsy; suspected allegiance to The Betrayer. Classification: demon of unknown rank.

Benito Carmel:
man-of-business for Seth, Vampire King of Louisiana. Classification: human.

Betz Lo:
daughter of the Vegas Lo Clan. Classification: weretiger.

Bob Rainey:
CPA for The Kin; killed and possessed by the dark-rider Sarkoph. Classification: human.

Bon Ame:
guard for Louisiana’s Vampire King; frequently loaned in service to the King’s sister, Mississippi’s Vampire Queen. Classification: vampire.

Brittan Wessan Valere:
once a human adynamos (see glossary for definition of adynamos); kidnapped by Nicodemus and his brothers for purposes not fully known; magically changed during the battle against Nicodemus. Classification: witchling, guardian in training.

Carlin Wellsy:
grandchild of Arno Wellsy. Classification: unknown.

Cassidy LaFortuna:
18th Century Witch Prime; sister of LaFortuna the Alchemist; mother of Cordelia and Lucine LaFortuna; great-grandmother of Cassie LaFortuna. Classification: witch, guardian.

Cassie LaFortuna:
born of a guardian house but unable to open the hell-gates; great-granddaughter of Cassidy LaFortuna; legal guardian of Alex and Carlin Wellsy. Classification: witch adynamos.

Cate Delacy:
daughter of Evie Delacy. Classification: witch, guardian, demon, other.

Cordelia LaFortuna:
daughter of Cassidy LaFortuna; sister of Lucine LaFortuna; grandmother of Cassie LaFortuna. Classification: witch, (guardian/adynamos status not verified).

Domini Roskov:
Wall Street financier killed and possessed by Nicodemus; father of Gemini Roskov. Classification: vampire.

Erin Delacy:
ancestor of Cate Delacy; recorded ally of Prime Cassidy LaFortuna; original keeper of the cat familiar, Mynx, who switched souls with the sorceress Hexamina. Classification: witch, guardian.

Evie Delacy:
daughter of Gwendolyn Delacy and John Langston; twin sister to Helena Delacy; mother of Cate Delacy; former Council operative. Classification: witch, guardian.

Falcon Aditya:
Prince of Denoir; son of Kathryn Aditya; cousin to Vanguard Aditya. Classification: demon elite.

Gemini Roskov:
daughter of Domini Roskov and an unnamed mother from the Bakh clan. Classification: damphyre.

Grey Gryphon:
owner of The Blue Moon Club in New Orleans; Tiger Alpha of New Orleans and the surrounding areas; leader of all Were packs for the lower halves of Louisiana and Mississippi. Classification: weretiger.

Gwendolyn (Nana) Delacy:
mother to Evie and Helena Delacy; grandmother to Cate Delacy; Wiccan high priestess; renowned healer. Classification: witch, guardian.

Helena Delacy:
daughter of Gwendolyn Delacy and John Langston; twin sister to Evie Delacy; former Council operative; retired-professor; currently occupied as a lecturer on demonology. Classification: witch, guardian.

Hexamina:
former evil sorceress; attempted to steal the powers of Erin Delacy and became trapped in the body of Erin’s cat familiar, Mynx. Classification: bad kitty.

J. James:
also known as JJ or Miss James; paralegal; former assistant to Benito Carmel. Classification: witch.

Jacqueline Slone D’Artanian:
former Council operative; current detective for the New Orleans’ Supernatural Crimes Unit. Classification: unknown.

John Langston:
late husband to Gwendolyn Delacy; father of Evie and Helena Delacy; grandfather of Cate Delacy. Classification: witch adynamos.

Josephine Fera:
Council operative; sheriff over the Supernatural beings in The Burg and surrounding areas; immortal. Classification: Half-Fae, other half unknown.

Jupiter Jones:
trumpeter catering to the tourists who flock to New Orleans, Louisiana; reliable source for both human and Supernatural issues. Classification: presumed human, suspected prognosticator.

Kathryn Aditya:
Queen of Denoir; mother of Falcon Aditya; grandmother of Cate Delacy. Classification: demon elite.

LaFortuna:
also known as the alchemist; first name unrecorded; brother to Cassidy LaFortuna. Classification: sorcerer.

Lucine LaFortuna:
daughter of Cassidy LaFortuna; current Witch Prime. Classification: witch adynamos.