Chapter 29 #4
Isabel dropped the heart into a large glass jar and walked up to the dead tree where four sooty orange symbols glowed, melting the snow covering them.
In the gap between the first and last symbol, the ground began to churn upward, spilling over itself to reveal a gaping hole in the ground.
She placed the jar in the hole and watched in satisfaction as the ground folded in on itself, burying the jar and its gruesome contents.
A fifth symbol glowed in its place and suddenly fire erupted, running in lines between each of the symbols and joining them to form a flaming pentagram.
A burning star… just like Theo’s premonition.
Olivia’s head dropped back against the wet snow, saturating her hair as she gazed numbly up at the dark sky. The lunar eclipse moved into place, and the moon burned red, mocking her. Her eyes shifted as her mother’s face filled her field of vision.
“Just tell me why?” she whispered painfully.
“Because I want what is rightfully mine,” Isabel replied. “I want my birthright.”
“Why kill those men?”
Isabel reached out and grasped Olivia’s shoulder, sinking her fingers into the bullet wound. Unable to hold it in, a searing scream of agony tore from Olivia’s lips.
“Because you don’t raise a demon without a leash.” Isabel studied her fingers. They were coated with Olivia’s blood, which ran down her skin and pooled in her palm. She rose to her feet and walked away from Olivia, pulling a knife from her cloak.
Olivia gritted her teeth and rolled to her side, gasping at the white-hot pain of her wound, which was bleeding profusely. She dragged herself along the floor, trying desperately to pull herself upright.
Isabel calmly sliced across her palm and watched as her blood seeped through the wound, mixing with her daughter’s. Pressing her palm to the bark of the tree, she closed her eyes and murmured something too low for Olivia to hear.
“No,” she croaked, trying to reach her mother.
A deep groaning began beneath the ground she lay on. She could feel the tremors, like the aftershock of an earthquake. Suddenly with a tremendous groan and a sharp, loud splintering sound, the tree split down the center and peeled outwards in an explosion of flame and heat.
* * *
Theo rushed back toward the shield at the agonizing sound of Olivia’s pain-filled scream.
He’d watched helplessly as her mother had walked to the tree and touched it.
He watched it split wide open, belching fire and smoke.
He knew what happened next—he’d dreamed it enough times.
If he couldn’t reach her in time, Olivia was going to die.
The rage burst through his veins, surging through him like adrenaline.
He raised his fist to strike the shield as he’d done a hundred times before in his dream, but this time, he’d forgotten he was still holding Olivia’s knife.
He brought the blade down against the barrier, and it sparked and a crack appeared, splintering across the surface.
Driving the knife into the crack, Theo braced his shoulder against the shield and pushed it in further.
The dome was slowly giving way, the crack spreading out like glass slowly splintering under a great weight.
The black hilt heated beneath his touch until it was white-hot, the lettering on the blade bursting into bright blue flame. He could feel the flesh of his hand burning, but he refused to let go, his only thought was to get to Olivia.
The hilt of the knife began to soften, and black tentacles snaked out and wrapped themselves like vines around his hand.
The hilt snaked further up his skin, entwining around his wrist and sliding under his sleeve, up his uninjured forearm to his elbow and further, until he could feel it wrap tightly around his bicep.
It squeezed tighter and tighter until he could feel it strangling his arm and sinking into his skin.
It burned as it went, but he kept on inexorably pressing forward.
The hilt had completely disappeared into his flesh now, and the blue-black blade also began to liquidize and wind up his arm, following the same path.
His whole arm was burning; the knife had completely melted and been absorbed into his flesh.
It was now his own hand he pushed through the shield.
Suddenly he felt it give, and he ripped his way through.
Olivia watched in horror as a naked, reddened form slowly clawed its way out of the exposed carcass of the tree.
He climbed to his feet, unconcerned with his nakedness.
He stepped forward, the snow beneath his bare feet hissing and melting instantly at the heat from his skin.
His gaze locked on Isabel, and something seemed to pass between them.
He turned to Olivia, lying bleeding on the snow, and stalked toward her with agonizing slowness.
“Take one more step toward her, Nathaniel, and I will kill you.”
The demon looked up as Theo stepped in front of him.
“Theodore Beckett.” His black eyes narrowed as a smile tugged at his lips.
“You’ve caused me a great deal of trouble.
I was most put out that I couldn’t carve my frustration out of your skin.
I can’t tell you how delighted I am to have another opportunity. ”
Theo looked at the creature he had known three hundred years ago as Nathaniel Boothe.
He didn’t look exactly like the Nathaniel he knew; the eyes were different, the hair a slightly different color, the shape of his mouth was not the same, but regardless, it was Nathaniel. He knew it deep down in his gut.
Suddenly he understood what Sam had been trying to tell them about not raising a demon in its true form.
That’s why Isabel had killed those men and harvested their organs and tissue.
She had been building the demon a body. But not just any body, it was a prison of flesh.
As long as he was trapped in that human form, he was at the mercy of the person who’d raised him.
Isabel had bound Nathaniel to her, but the question was why?
Nathaniel raised his hand, but all Theo felt was a slight nudge as the demon aimed his power at him; it seemed to be deflected somehow.
Nathaniel growled and tried again, this time more forcefully, but again Theo didn’t move.
Diana’s crescent moon grew hot against his skin underneath his clothes, the amulet somehow protecting him from the demon’s supernatural power.
Smiling slowly, Theo stretched his hand and flexed his fingers.
He felt the black and blue metal seared into his arm suddenly flow back into his palm and coalesce once more into a blade.
The knife was a part of him now, and he could call it forth at will.
Nathaniel snarled and reached for Theo, intent on physically harming him, but Theo brought his arm up and sliced across Nathaniel’s chest under the demon seal scorched into the flesh over his heart.
Nathaniel stumbled back as the wound split open and bled.
“ISABEL!” Charles roared as he followed Theo through the tear in the barrier. His eyes were blazing with fury as he beheld his wife for the first time in twenty years.
“We have to go.” Isabel gripped Nathaniel’s arm and pulled him away from Theo.
“I’m coming back for you, Theodore,” he hissed darkly as he grabbed Isabel.
The circle suddenly exploded outward, knocking everyone to the ground and flattening the trees immediately surrounding the clearing like dominoes, and when they looked up, Isabel and Nathaniel were gone.
Theo crawled over to Olivia and pressed his hand to her wound to stop the bleeding.
He raised his head and found himself looking into the eyes of Olivia’s father.
“She’s lost a lot of blood.” Charles looked down at his daughter gently.
Jake and Mac approached Charles with their weapons drawn.
“Put the guns down, gentlemen.” He looked at them calmly. “Believe me, I could disarm you quite easily.”
Helga and Davis appeared behind Mac and Jake with weapons of their own trained on the two men.
“Looks like we have ourselves a little Mexican standoff. Put your gun down, Jake.” Charles looked at the young man who’d run tame in his house as a child. “Trust me, you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.”
“Jake,” Theo interrupted. “We need to get Olivia back to the house.”
Jake looked down at her and nodded, holstering his weapon.
“Let’s get her to Louisa.” His cool gaze locked on Charles. “And after that, you have a lot of explaining to do, Mr. Connell.”