She replied softly, “That may be true. I am sorry for being so distant. I don’t have an excuse, Narcissa. I was jealous of my own mother and then of you because you were a necromancer…”
“You are High Queen of the Demonic realm,” I pointed out. I mean, I had to give the woman credit where it was due.
She smirked, a light filtering through her gaze that was far younger and happier than I was used to. “Yes. Now I am, but I spent many years miserable and jealous. I had no idea how to fix what had happened between us. When I heard what Nero and his brother were planning, I decided to offer them a way to trap you. They meant to portal you to their kingdom, but I managed to use the little magic I have from my position here to make sure you ended up where you needed to. I am positive they don’t even realize what occurred yet, which has afforded you some time. It was all I could think of. Your grandma is furious at me, but she understands now.”
Relief filled my chest that despite our rocky relationship, my mother didn’t hate me enough to betray me.
“What the fuck does Nero have to do with this?!” Alexander demanded, snarling.
My mom’s smile grew. “You should tell him, honey. He hates Nero’s family.”
Oh, fuck yes.
Taking a sip of my wine, I offered an authentic smile. “Well, you see, all of this started when Asmodeus decided to be a little bitch…”
6
Zachariah
The scream that echoed through the utility shed had me smiling just slightly. It was a smile of satisfaction, not happiness. No, I couldn’t be happy without my little rose. At that thought, rage ripped through my chest as I examined the damage I’d done so far.
I had tried for so long to deny this side of me. The side of me that had been far more prominent when I’d been younger and violence had been more acceptable. I had tried to hide this from Narcissa, not wanting her to think I was out of control. But that had all snapped the moment I’d felt her get forcibly pulled from this realm.
I just hoped she wouldn’t find my actions barbaric. I didn’t regret them at all. Not only had these fuckers tried to hurt Narcissa, tried to take her away from me, but they were trying to hurt the city I’d called home for over two hundred years.
My gaze fell on Asmodeus, who had passed out hours ago, his human form crumpled in a pile. I could feel his spirit, restless under his skin, and I wished I felt worse about what I’d done to him, but I didn’t. He and his brother had completely destroyed their vessels. Internal bleeding. Psychological damage. The works.
I hadn’t realized it until my magic had begun searching through their system, but upon realizing they had really made their vessels essentially human skin sacks, killing the original spirits, I stopped holding back. I knew they felt pain just as the humans would have, so their torn flesh had me only feeling pleasure instead of concern at the long-term effects.
I knew Narcissa would be pissed. She may have hated the mayor and his son, but to realize they had killed them? Destroyed their souls after taking over? Yeah. She was going to be fucking furious about that. What I didn’t want? Her accidentally blaming herself.
Leaning back in my chair, I let my magic play against the wards I’d put over the fairly sizable backyard shed. I had made sure they couldn’t take a new vessel, or in Nero’s case, shift to his true form. Nero had not only realized that fact but was livid about it, so I felt far more justified in it because it was clear that it had been his exact plan.
Currently, he hung against the wall where he had been chained earlier in the day, blood dripping out of every surface where I had driven needles into his skin.
They had been caught off guard by my direct attack. They had grown comfortable, and I was thrilled for it, because now they were fucking trapped. Trapped and at my mercy as my Voodoo magic grew more anxious the longer Narcissa was gone. Anxious wasn’t good, because it almost directly correlated with a lack of control when it came to her.
I knew she was down in the Demonic realm, I just knew it, and I think one of the reasons I was so pissed was that it happened to be one of the places I couldn’t go very easily. If this went on any longer, though, I was going to end up down there. My biggest question? How long I wanted to keep all of this going on. I knew I was using it as a pure distraction, but it was working, and I was afraid to step away from it.
Afraid I would bring the realm to its knees in order to reach them.
I had gone to the Demonic realm before, when I was far less strong, and it had managed to drain my energy for weeks. That alone wouldn’t have bothered me, but I didn’t want to be useless when we finally returned back here.
Plus, if I left, who would be here to stop these motherfuckers from getting away and wreaking havoc on the kingdom that Narc loved so much? No. I just needed to fucking relax. I would see her soon, and until then I would just have to take my anger out on these fuckers.
Dorian had clearly left the Earth realm, so I had to hope he’d found her. Raphael had presumably gone to Bourbon Street, something that was smart, because we needed to attempt to keep searching while I tried to get an answer out of Nero. I couldn’t kill him or his brother until we found the missing supes. I really wanted them dead, so as you can imagine, I was really fucking motivated.
Taking a sip of my dark drink, I watched Nero come to. My voice was quiet and sounded cold, even to myself, as I asked, “Where are they, Nero?”
Outside, a storm was growing, thunder rumbling against the house as lightning flashed through the large tinted windows. I tried to steel myself, because I didn’t want Narcissa to come back to a total shit show because my power had lashed out. That wouldn’t help at all.
“Where are who?” Nero chuckled through a pained rasp. I sighed, my magic tightening on him as the needles embedded themselves deeper. His scream echoed through the space as tears fell down his face. Yeah, I bet he was wishing he was in his more durable demon form right now. Dumb fucker.
“Nero,” I warned.
“They are in the Demonic realm! You know that!” he snarled as I shook my head, his attempt at distracting me with news of Narcissa fairly frustrating. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was a good tactic because Narc’s name could turn my head literally during any situation, but he knew I didn’t mean that.
“Not Narc. The people you took. Where the fuck are the people you took?”
He growled, “Like I would tell you that. Then you can fucking kill me.”
Bingo.
“I’m going to kill you either way,” I responded indifferently. “I’m not as caught up on finding the missing supes, Nero. I am doing it because I love Narcissa. It’s that simple. Unfortunately for you, I am running out of patience, so you have a very short time frame until I kill you. I won’t be sending you back to the Demonic realm either. No. When I kill you, you won’t be coming back, so I would sincerely consider what you want to do here.”
“If I tell you,” he panted in pain, “will you send me back to the Demonic realm?”
Fuck no.
“Sure,” I smiled thinly.
His eyes darkened as he snarled, “Fucking liar!”
I tightened my magic around him as blood oozed, matching his scream that filled the room. The cracking of thunder shook the house as the rain began to pour down.