Seduced by Power (10 page)

"Derek! Derek stop!"

The voice, that voice. I knew that voice.

But the blood called to me.

"Derek!"

I turned, my eyes focusing on one girl, tattered and beaten. Why did my heart hitch at the sight of her?

"Look at me, Derek. It's me, Rose. I love you. Please stop. This isn't you."

I dropped the heart, moving toward her. Rose. I knew her. I loved her.

The thrumming faded and memory returned. I vomited up my recent meal, disgusted with myself and panicked about what this demon magic had done to me.

I didn't need the key to pull the lock free from Rose's cage.

She grabbed onto me, holding me close, her touch breaking through the last hold the blood lust had on me.

I sobbed into her hair. "Oh my God, Rose, I'm so sorry."

"Shh, it's okay. Let's just get out of here, okay?"

We ran out the front and found Dean and Donna where I had left them. "We need a fire pit to throw this rock into."

I was so glad I still had it, after all this.

Dean hugged Rose and then helped Donna up, who wouldn't talk or look at any of us.

We didn't have time to worry about her.

Finding the first fire pit we could, I threw the rock into it and prayed we weren't about to burn ourselves alive. On the count of three, we all jumped in.

There's daggers in men's smiles.

— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

FIRES BORN IN
the pit of hell burned my bones and flesh, melting my corporeal form and leaving only my soul as it slammed back into my body still lying on the cold winter earth in Derek's rose garden.

Air rushed into my lungs, and I choked and sat up, dizzy and nauseous and burning on the inside while frost nipped at my skin.

"Derek! I need to see Derek."

Blake reached for me, but I pushed him away, limping, then running back to the house as Blake, Father Patrick and Drake chased after me.

"Derek!" I hollered for him as I threw open the door and ran upstairs. "Are you okay? Derek?"

He met me in the hall, body whole and free of gore and demon blood. I banished those gruesome memories from my mind as he picked me up in a tight embrace.

"Rose. Don't ever put yourself in danger like that again." Water welled in his eyes. "But thank you for saving us."

Our kiss tasted of tears, our passion taking over so quickly I forgot how we got in this mess to begin with. My power pushed out, reaching for me, and before I could pull back, fear gripping my heart, the power retreated back into me.

My eyes widened. "How… ? Why didn't that hurt you?"

He shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe the demon dimension made me immune?"

"That would really help our problems, but—"

"Bastard!" Derek roared past my shoulder.

Blake stood behind me by the door, his face frozen in neutral, but sadness clear in his eyes.

Derek's arms tightened around me, leaving marks in my skin. His rage startled me.

"What's wrong? Relax, he's here to help."

Pushing me aside, Derek body-slammed a surprised Blake, landing on him and punching him repeatedly.

I screamed and tried to pull Derek off, but he backhanded me, throwing me against the wall. It took his dad, brother and two cousins to drag him away. He'd started shifting, but couldn't complete the process—a small blessing in that moment, though terrible all the same.

Blake lay bleeding and unconscious on the ground. He'd barely healed from the last beating he'd gotten from the wolves, now this. Jasmine ran to him sobbing, and she and Lauren carried him to a bedroom.

Ocean embraced me. "What the hell was that?"

I winced at the pain in my jaw when I opened my mouth to talk. "I don't know. But things got pretty scary with the demons."

Derek collapsed to the ground, sobbing in his hands. "What? What? I don't understand what you want me to do."

I ran to him, shrugging off my best friend who tried to stop me. "Derek, honey, who are you talking to?"

Eyes glazed over, glowing with a white light, he gripped my shoulders. "Did I kill him? Is he dead? I killed him, didn't I? Rose, what am I becoming?"

Lauren returned, shaking her head.

"No," I assured him. "He'll live."

I helped him up and walked him to the living room. Lauren brought us tea, and Tammy sat with Dean, holding his hands and looking up at him every few seconds as if he would disappear. This hadn't been the reunion we'd all hoped for, but he'd been hugged and cried over by his family in the midst of this fresh drama.

Dean gave me a half-smile and mouthed "thank you." I had no idea what long-term damage he would suffer from being trapped there that long, but physically he looked better now that his soul and body were reunited.

David studied his sons. "Tell me everything that happened while you were there. Leave nothing out."

I told as much of the story as I knew, then sat, slack-jawed as Derek filled in the blanks.

"You took demon magic? Is that why my power doesn't affect you now?" I couldn't judge him. I'd been willing to make deals with the devil to save him, so it made sense he would do the same for me. But what if he had changed in some core way that couldn't be fixed?

Father Patrick crossed his chest with the sign of the cross. "I'm afraid the boy is being consumed by blood magic. Unless we can reverse what was done to him, it will only get worse, until it destroys him, and in the process, destroys everyone he loves."

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

"YOU WANT TO
do an exorcism on him? Isn't that dangerous?" It wasn't like he was possessed, was it? I trusted Father Patrick, but Derek had already been through so much.

"I'll do it," Derek said.

He put his arm around me, and I leaned into him. "Derek, maybe we should talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about. I can feel something inside of me, and I want it out. I remember what I did there, and what I did here. I'm too dangerous."

An idea occurred to me, one that carried my deepest hope with it. "Father, if this works, could you try it with me? To remove my demon powers?"

The priest shook his head. "I'm sorry, Rose. We thought of that, but it's a part of you, not a possession. I can't change the essence of who you are."

Dashed hopes shattered in my heart like glass. "I understand."

Derek sat on the chair in the center of the room, and Father Patrick strapped him to the chair with rope. "Just as a precaution," he assured us.

Blake had joined us, sitting with Jasmine on the far side of the area, but staring at me whenever I looked his way. The rest of the family and Ocean had taken their seats, waiting and watching.

It seemed in dealings with spirits there was always a sacred book and always a ritual.

Oh, and blood. There was always blood.

This time it was a Latin Bible, and the blood of the priest to symbolize Christ's blood.

Holy water. The crucifix. Latin chanting.

How was this any different from the demons? From witchcraft? From magic? It all relied on faith, on relics imbued with power, on words that shaped reality.

Nothing happened those first few moments as Father Patrick chanted, splashing holy water on Derek and drawing the sign of the cross with blood on his forehead.

I expected something dramatic, like in the movies. Maybe Derek's head would whip around unnaturally, or he'd shriek in demon languages, but he sat there quietly, like a child listening to a Sunday school lesson.

The transformation happened in increments. I noticed because I knew him so well, had memorized every expression, every line of his face.

His eyes changed first. They narrowed and darkened in color, turning cold. His jaw hardened, lips thinning into a line of displeasure, and the Derek I loved disappeared behind this new face.

The priest hadn't noticed. No one had.

I walked to Derek, standing in his view. "Who are you?"

Father Patrick's hand touched my shoulder. "What do you see, Rose?"

"It's not Derek." Saying the words out loud made it real, and I wanted to grab the love of my life and shake him until he came back to me.

The thing possessing Derek smiled an awful smile. "Clever girl. You must take after your father." He winked at me as if we shared a secret. "Your mother was always too self-absorbed to regard anyone but herself."

"Who are you?" I demanded again. "And how do you know my mother?"

"Don't you recognize me, girl? I be the demon you betrayed to the dragon. And I be your father." His voice, once strong and commanding, slipped into a simpering whine that I recognized.

"Bankun? But how?" My mother and him? That slimy demon? How could she even think of…yuck. I couldn't even finish the thought.

"You see what you want to see, so I showed you what you saw. An old demon greedy for food. You and your boy, here, played right into my plans." He moved his arms, and the ropes holding him turned to dust.

Everyone stood and backed up. No one knew how powerful this demon was. We didn't know what attacking him would do to Derek. And, aside from me, no one had any real power left. Mine hadn't worked on demons like Blake, anyways, so we were up shit creek without a paddle, as they say.

Bankun paced the room, his grin growing. "Do you know how your precious Druids came to have their power?"

He spoke to me, so I shook my head. "No."

"Me!" His voiced thundered through the air, and a frame fell from the wall shattering. A family portrait of the O'Conners.

David faced Bankun with the full authority of his rank and title. "Our ancestors turned from your magic a long time ago. The horrible things you made them do, the pain you had them cause…My people would have died had they stayed bound to your prison of blood. You destroy, Bankun. That's what you do. That's who you are. We will never be as you. My ancestors cast you into a prison of their own. We will cast you back."

"I'm not here to destroy you or your precious family. I'm here to destroy the fallen one who stood with the Druids and ensured my demise. I'm here to destroy the one they call Beleth and reclaim my power through the roses. In the final sacrifice on the solstice—with Rose's mother's help—I will forever lay claim to this body and lead the Druids into a new age of power."

This body as in the body that belonged to Derek. "No! I won't let you take him."

Bankun held up his hands, palms out. White light blasted from them, hitting me in the chest and sending me flying across the room.

Vision faded in and out as everything erupted in chaos. Tears leaked out of my eyes, not because of injuries, but from the ripping open of my heart at the thought of losing Derek again, this time forever.