Chapter 33
My demon side. Words I never thought I’d hear. I still wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t just imagined Farah in some kind of spelled stupor. Since learning I’d been trapped in that old plantation home for three days, I’d gained respect for the level of magic that held me there.
I also had a little pride in knowing that I’d been able to break through the spell.
“What are you smiling at?” Blaise asked. We’d decided to walk back along the perimeter of the grounds which would give us both privacy and time.
“This whole thing is crazy,” I muttered.
“Crazy?”
I looked up at the man, my neck bending pretty far back since he was so dang tall.
The red eyes were still there and I thought I may have seen a hint of yellow around his pupils.
“A week ago I was just a thief. A human pickpocket working off my debts and looking forward to moving away from this place.”
“You were going to leave New Orleans?”
“Yes. As soon as Murielle released me, Grim and I were going north.” I shrugged as I thought more about it. “Or somewhere cold and not as crowded with supernaturals.”
Blaise huffed, the glasses hanging from his hands clinking together briefly. “But now?”
“Now? Who the fuck knows,” I admitted. “I mean, I couldn’t imagine leaving you all…
” My voice trailed off as we both realized I’d included Blaise in my thoughts.
Well, dammit, he was in my thoughts. We’d shared something this morning, and I had a feeling deep in my bones that this wasn’t the end of our journey together.
“Tell me about your grandmother,” he said quickly, changing the subject.
“Farah.”
“Farah?”
“Yes, that’s what she said people called her. And it was weird. We met in the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, but I never left that creepy house. It was almost like she came to me in a—”
“Dream,” Blaise finished for me, and I glanced at him in surprise.
“Yes.”
“A dream-walker,” he mused.
“Is that a thing with demons?”
“For some.” Instead of elaborating, he got real quiet and his jaw twitched side to side as he thought. For almost a full minute, he didn’t speak again and I couldn’t take it.
“So, Roman said you have experience working with demons?”
That snapped him out of his trance, and he shook his head like he was suddenly remembering I was walking alongside him. He chuckled and looked down at me. “Roman is exaggerating.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve never met a demon. Humans who act like demons, yes, but never a real one. It is rare for a demon to make themselves known if they do come to this realm.”
“How do you know that?”
He paused a moment before answering. “Because I taught a demonology class at Oxford nearly a century ago.”
I stopped walking and grabbed his arm. His taut muscles twitched beneath my fingers, but he didn’t fight me. “You were a professor?”
“Why does that amuse you so much?”
I laughed and tried to imagine Blaise standing in front of a lecture hall. “You just…you seem to hate people.”
He didn’t argue with me. “True, but do you want to know a secret?”
I grinned at his playful tone and nodded.
“I love history. Especially the dark history that no one wants to talk about anymore. The Occult. Magic. Demonology. Religion. Sacrifices.” He’d said that last one with an evil smirk.
“I don’t think people realize how intertwined all the stories are.
Generations of people from all different cultures tell a lot of the same tales. ”
“Huh,” I mused as we started walking again. “I guess you’re right.”
“Of course, I’m right.”
“Okay, no need to get pissy,” I teased him. After a pause, I swallowed my worry and asked, “Is my grandmother really a demon?”
Blaise looked up at the sky in thought and then gestured toward one of the many stone benches that were nestled up against the perimeter wall. Following his lead, I sat down next to him, the bench small enough that our thighs touched, and a spark of energy zinged between us.
He huffed a nervous laugh. “Did you feel that?”
“I did.”
“That is why I think you are way less human than you realize.”
“How so?”
“Katarina,” he sighed, a slight accent peeking through the way he said every syllable of my name. “Have you not noticed how you’ve changed us? If you have succubus genes along with witch DNA, you may very well be the most powerful one in the house.”
Laughing at that absurdity, I nudged him with my shoulder. “Well, that’s just crazy talk.”
“How did you escape that house?” he snapped at me.
“I…I listened to my dream-walking grandmother and broke through the magic.” Suddenly feeling uneasy, I crossed my arms and leaned back so I wasn’t so close to Blaise.
“How?” he growled.
“Stop it.”
At least he had the decency to look ashamed. “Sorry,” he grumbled, lowering his gaze.
With a sigh, I decided to tell him the truth. “I could see the spell.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I saw this pink haze covering the room and I just poked at it until I got a finger through.” I repeated the motion in the air as a demonstration so he understood. “And then when I felt the dread magic, I just kept running until I broke through that spell too.”
“How did you get off the roof?”
“I jumped.”
“No magic?” he asked with all seriousness.
“No, Blaise. That was all me and my many years of being a thief. I know how to get myself out of situations.”
“Huh.” Blaise ground his jaw together again, seemingly torn over what to say next. “Did Roman tell you what happened to us when the witches kidnapped you?”
“A little. He said they’d attack you all in a different way.”
“Yes.” Letting out a deep breath, Blaise rubbed his face and showed me his red eyes. “I think you did this to me?”
“What?”
“The dragon has never been so close to the surface before. And I think that’s because of your witchy-demon powers.”
That sounded like an accusation. “Hey buddy, you can’t blame me for—”
“I’m not blaming you,” he breathed. “When the coven witches trapped me in their spell…I almost shifted.”
“Wait! What? Does Roman know?”
He shook his head. “No one knows. My body was caught somewhere between sprouting wings and claws, and I think the only reason he stopped was because you weren’t there.”
I didn’t know what to say. Half-breed dragons weren’t supposed to be able to shift. At least that’s what everyone had been telling me. “Did it hurt?”
“Yes,” he said with a shudder, his eyes glowing red and yellow again. “But he, my animal, spoke to me that night. He told me that I needed to help you.” Reaching over and grabbing my hand, he kissed the top of my fingers. “He’s never spoken up for anyone before.”
Smiling at the giant man, I wanted him to know how grateful I was that he trusted me with this confession.
While I still wasn’t sure what this meant for the two of us, I definitely felt like a wall had been broken.
Maybe now we could spend some time together and work through these new truths in a civilized manner.
I was about to say that when my stomach suddenly clenched, and my heart seized with dread. Like evil fingers digging into the muscles, I could barely breathe as a wave of fear swept over me. “Whoa,” I mumbled, trying to figure out what was happening.
Blaise reached for my shoulder but then grabbed his own stomach while twisting in pain. Muttering a curse, he slowly pushed to his feet and looked out toward the abbey. “Something’s wrong,” he breathed. “Something’s wrong with them.”
“Is that what I’m feeling?” I asked as he helped me off the bench.
“Yes. Come on.”
Without giving me a choice, Blaise kicked the crystal glasses out of the way, yanked me up into his arms, and started running.
While he couldn’t teleport like Aiden or trace like Roman, Blaise was still very, very fast. I pressed my head against his chest while he sprinted toward the rest of the men.
His heart pounded beneath my ear, and I swear I heard a low rumbling brewing behind his ribs.
But as we neared the abbey, his heart sped, and we slid to a stop about a hundred feet away from the front doors. “What the fuck?” he growled.
The driveway was filled with police cars, black SUVs, and news vans. The camera crews were setting up as quickly as they could, meaning that whatever was going on, it had just happened.
Blaise set me down on my feet but gently pushed me behind him. He scanned the crowd, towering over most of them yet trying not to draw any attention to us. “I don’t see them,” he said.
A shiver drifted down my neck and I turned around to see what had caused the strange sensation. “Murielle,” I whispered.
The coven leader stood behind us with her arms crossed.
Her black hair had been pulled back in a sleek ponytail, and she was wearing a bright red business jacket and skirt.
Looking more like she belonged in the courtroom than at a witch’s gathering, I really didn’t like the way she grinned at Blaise and me.
“Don’t even think about it, half-breed,” she snapped at Blaise as he took a step toward her. “Not unless you want to be arrested too.”
“Arrested?” I gasped. “What are you talking about?”
She jerked her chin toward the crowd, and I whipped around just in time to see Roman, Aiden, and Dorian being carted away in handcuffs. I could see them searching the crowd, and when Roman found us standing in the yard, the other two quickly snapped their heads in our direction.
Aiden was pissed. His pale cheeks flushed with color and his delicate hair flew freely over his face. Dorian looked broken. He was completely defeated with his shoulders hunched like he couldn’t even hold himself up.
“What the fuck did you do, witch?” Blaise spat at Murielle.
“Playing by the rules was taking too long,” she said. “You all may think you have control over the supernaturals in this city, but you have no power over the humans.”
“What. Did. You. Do?” Blaise roared, and I grabbed his hand to calm him down. There were way too many cameras here right now.