Strega (Strega Series) (27 page)

As the herd of demons moved closer, gathering around Shaun, I recognized another among them. The man that attacked me on the beach. With his beautifully human voice, he spoke, reporting what he and the others had discovered.

"She is near. She was here, and only recently departed. The pillows, the floor, are warm and still hold her scent. She could not have gone far."

Suddenly a blast of bright blue, fiery light tore through the dark room. The crowd of demons dispersed. Their piercing screams made me tremble. When I opened my eyes, still adjusting to the sudden burst of light, I saw that Shaun had fallen to his knees.

Ruth signaled to the doorway where a tall, brooding figure stood. Vince. His arm was bloody and torn from a fight that I surmised had begun elsewhere before resuming at Celia's. He kept his injured arm close to his body, and with his other hand he drew down more fiery bolts. Deafeningly loud and painfully bright, they thundered down in the small space and struck one demon after the other, killing some and wounding others. Those that escaped departed in a plume of fire.

I'd seen these bolts so many times before. On the beach, just before I was rescued. At Gram's house, just before I escaped Invidia. At Ruth's house, and then at the marina, before I understood why Vince was targeting Shaun. In caccia ombra, I watched his fiery bolt miss Invidia and strike a tree, consuming its foliage just like I'd seen in my vision outside the library. As I walked in another life buried so deep in the past, Vince was there with me. He loved me then, and fought to protect me in that life, just as he did now.

As I watched him fighting for me now, bloodied and worn, my heart ached.

"Vince. Back for more?" Shaun said in a mocking tone as he got to his feet. His voice was callous, and he maintained a sinister grin as he spoke. "Why go to all this trouble? You know how it ends."

Suddenly he sprang at Vince, transforming into a demonic beast mid-air. Claws emerged in place of his fingers, and tore through the air at Vince, who continued to hurl bolts of light. With ferocity, each delivered solid blows to the other, but neither claimed victory. Never had I seen this side of Shaun. He was vicious and frighteningly powerful. When Vince attacked him the night before, Shaun pretended not to know him. He showed only weakness, vulnerability, defenselessness. An act, meant to deceive me. To make me believe he was the victim.

After what seemed like an eternity of violent and near-fatal strikes, Shaun finally knocked Vince to the ground and drove his claws into his injured arm. Vince bellowed in pain as Shaun hovered over his ear.

"She doesn't even know who you are."

With an unexpected surge of power, Vince launched Shaun into the air and sent him across the room. Before Shaun landed, Vince conjured the last of his waning strength and sent one final bolt of bright blue, fiery light at him. Shaun fell to the floor. Then everything went quiet.

Shaun lay motionless on the other side of the room. He appeared to be dead, but I'd already seen him cheat death once before and I was afraid to believe it again. Vince was badly injured, but he got to his feet. He slipped through the curtain and disappeared. Ruth signaled in his direction, suggesting that we make our escape too. But before we could, Shaun let out a weak whimper and Ruth crouched back down. Then we heard another voice. A faint whisper. Suddenly, one of Shaun's subordinates stood up. He'd been struck, but he was still alive. It was Ron.

A moment later, a smudge of black smoke descended upon the room and concentrated just above Shaun. I knew it was her. She materialized into a body concealed by a long black cloak. From beneath it, thin, skeletal fingers protruded. Her frail, hauntingly death-like body slowly filled in with flesh, gaining color and life. The pale, decrepit fingers transformed into elegant hands that slowly pulled down the dark hood, revealing her ivory skin and blood red lips. Her sleek, dark hair framed her flawless face. Her eyes, at first blazing with fire, settled into the same striking eyes as the others. Invidia.

"Your failure is intolerable," she said, her voice threatening and severe. She ignored Ron and spoke directly to Shaun.

"He keeps getting in my way," Shaun's weak, desperate voice pleaded.

"Where is she?" she demanded.

"She was here. She can't be far. The others are out searching for her now," he replied, struggling to speak. His injuries were severe, and he was unable to get up despite all his efforts. Invidia walked away from him to search the room. When she came upon the place where I'd drunk the potion, she stopped.

Spotting my bag on the floor, she picked it up. With her long, deceivingly elegant fingers she opened it and inspected its contents. Then, she lifted her gaze and stared at the smelling salts scattered across the floor amidst the broken glass.

"This is getting complicated," she said, reaching down and picking up the wooden bowl with remnants of the potion Luci made for me. Her grip on the bowl tightened, and in an instant it was consumed in flames. It incinerated in her hand and fell into a pile of ash. Her cold eyes swept the room and lingered in the corner where we hid in terror.

Until that moment, Ruth was relatively calm. But her sudden distress and failing confidence were obvious, and only solidified my fears.

Shaun collapsed, weakened by his injuries. Invidia turned back and looked upon him with disgust. To my horror, with a wave of her hand she cast fire upon him. Though he appeared unconscious, he awoke suddenly and screamed in agony as the flames consumed him. I was sure that she'd killed him. But when the flames subsided, Shaun stood up. He was completely healed.

From the deepest layers of her dark cloak, Invidia retrieved a blade that had become all too familiar to me. It was my athame. After days of wanting to rid myself of it, for the first time, I wished for it. The reflection I saw in the blade days before was my own. Wounded. Desperate. Afraid. It was my own face that terrified me. My past. Trying to warn me. Shaun had taken my blade, and I let him. He didn't take it to protect me as he'd led me to believe. He took it to give to Invidia.

"This blade confirms that she is the one I seek. Her connection to it grows ever stronger. Use it to find her," she said, handing the blade back to him. "Your next failure will be your last."

Invidia fixed her eyes on Shaun as she said this, but she extended her hand to Ron. He hadn't made a sound, moved an inch, or been acknowledged since she arrived. Ron's face filled with terror as Invidia's open palm slowly began to close. His body contorted unnaturally as his limbs broke one by one. With each crunch, he was further deformed. As his bones cracked, they tore through his clothing. His shrill screams conveyed his excruciating pain. But eventually he was silent. A shapeless pile of broken flesh and bone on the floor. And then he began to smolder. His flesh glowed red like burning embers, and soon it burst into flames. As his body was engulfed in fire, his once beautiful human façade faded and he reverted to the hideous creature he truly was. And in this form, he was just as broken. Just as dead.

Shaun's face was stoic, but I saw terror in his eyes. His voice quivered as he acknowledged Invidia's request. Then she dematerialized into black smoke.

I wanted to vomit. I kept my lips sealed tight between my teeth, guessing that Ruth's power of translucence would not cover that.

I stared at Shaun, still in disbelief that he was alive and without a scratch upon him. Moments before, he was unconscious, on the brink of death. Hours before, I held his body in my arms at the docks. I was sure he was dead. The burning smell on the boat. The strange scorch mark on the carpet. Though inconceivable, it all began to make sense. Invidia had healed him then, just as she healed him now.

Shaun disappeared in a blaze of fire, and Ruth immediately urged me on.

"We need to get out of here," she whispered sharply. I gripped her hand and followed her to the curtains. As we crossed through the scattered salts and shattered glass, I swiped my bag. But as soon as I touched it, grabbing the same strap Invidia had clasped, a vision so powerful hit me and knocked me to the ground.

In a lifeless hovel filled with darkness and despair, Invidia stared out a small window into the night sky, seventeen years ago, on the day of my birth. She knew I had been reborn. Though her father was a demon, Strega blood still ran through her veins. And from her mother Larthia, she received the gift of precognition.

Invidia's hatred for Strega was born in another life, but it was only the beginning of a horrific war. Invidia was immortal. And she never stopped hunting us. For thousands of years, possessed by her all-consuming desire to bring our kind to extinction, she never stopped sending demons to slaughter our kind. Now in this life, with her desire still unfulfilled, she was more determined than ever to wipe us out of existence.

Invidia was more powerful, more formidable than a hundred demons. When she recruited them, they had no choice but to follow her orders. They were richly rewarded for their successes, and killed for their failures. Cerberus demons were already scattered across the globe, hunting Strega upon her orders, tracking us by the scent of our blood. But upon my birth, she made a special request.

In the ruins of her ancient city, in an underground tunnel overlooked by its modern inhabitants above, Invidia met with her most loyal, most capable Cerberus minion. In her native tongue, she gave him the orders to find me and kill me. I saw this moment in my vision, in the underground tunnel, where Invidia's hunt for me in this life began. Still furious that more than two thousand years ago my mother Sethra had survived her attack on Falerii, Invidia was determined to finish what she started.

Invidia's most loyal Cerberus, together with one of his counterparts, began hunting me. It took them seven long years to get close. I was young to receive my power, but when the threat to my life was imminent, my gift of vision emerged to warn me. And in my dreams, I saw them coming. Invidia counted on this.

With emerging precognition, my blade—the same blade I once possessed in another life—returned to me from Diana's realm. And when it did, it led the already close Cerberus straight to me. They sensed the sudden surge of power the moment my connection with the heavens, with my mother goddess, was sanctified. When they finally tracked down the blade, they called upon their counterparts and an onslaught of Cerberus demons ensued. Only it was not me that guarded my blade. It was Mom. She fought off the incessant Cerberus attacks. They believed she was the mark.

Cerberus were fierce hunters, but their intelligence was limited. They'd hunted me for seven years, since my birth. Animal instinct drove them to find and kill the keeper of the blade. But they paid no mind to the fact that their mark would have been a child. When the Cerberus killed Mom, and Dad for trying to protect her, they took my blade to Invidia, as evidence that they had killed me. But she knew immediately that they had failed. When a Strega dies, her blade returns to the moon realm, to Diana's realm. But mine remained on earth, in her hands. She sent the Cerberus back to kill me, but just as my blade could not find its way back to me, neither could her demon minions. My power was bound. I was protected.

Angered by his failure, Invidia killed her most loyal Cerberus minion. Desperate to find me again and end my life, she recruited a more stealthy, sophisticated breed of demon. A demon that could slip into the lives of humans undetected, to find the one whose power was bound. The Cynan.

Shaun was one of the highest ranked among them. He led a legion of Cynan that spread far and wide to search for me. They knew someone was protecting me. They knew I could be anywhere. Unlike the Cerberus, the Cynan were smart, urbane, and with their beautifully human fa
çade, they blended into every city and sleepy town undetected. And they knew exactly what they were looking for.

Strega blood led them to Newburyport. They could track its scent just as well as the Cerberus could. Several Strega resided in the area, including Gram, Ruth, Celia, and Luci. And one was housing a seventeen year old girl that had lost her parents ten years before.

Invidia knew it took three Strega to bind one's power, and hoped that the death of one would break it. When Shaun's minions killed Gram, Shaun waited for my power to emerge. Knowing that my dreams had returned, he knew my blade would soon follow. When it did, Invidia ordered him to retrieve it first, so she could lay her eyes upon it and confirm that I was the one she sought. Shaun and his minions tried, and after many failures, Shaun finally obtained it. I made it easy, and handed it right to him. Invidia confirmed it was the same blade that had been in her care since the Cerberus first brought it to her ten years ago. The same blade that had recently left her possession, drawn back to its rightful owner. Invidia ordered Shaun to kill me then. He was so close to completing his task. But somehow, I was still alive.

I stared up at Ruth, but there was no time to explain.

"Come on!" she whispered sharply. She helped me to my feet and we ran toward the door. "We need to get out of here. And we need to be careful. I don't know who is watching us."

Luci had said that visions were often provoked by touch. That all things possess residual energy, which could be accessed through physical contact. Invidia had left behind enough residual energy to knock me off my feet.

As we stepped outside, the street seemed strangely normal after all that had happened inside. It was still dark, and the lingering storm left the streets damp. Ruth turned in all directions, frantically searching our surroundings to be sure we were alone before she pulled a small vial from her bag.