Darkness Avenged (Guardians of Eternity) Page 0,107
to be Gaius murmured. “Still once the spell is cast it’s unbreakable until the last witch is dead.”
Her mouth went dry. He spoke with an unshakable confidence. Right or wrong, he truly believed the book was protected by sorcery.
And that her death was the only thing that could give him what he wanted.
“I didn’t cast the spell,” she managed to croak.
“Of course not.” A hint of impatience twisted the gaunt features. “It was cast at the beginning of time. When witches were in the power of the Oracles.”
“Witches in the power of the Oracles?” She made a sound of shock. She’d always been taught that witches had been created out of a human need to balance the growing power of demons and their Commission. “Are you kidding me?”
Gaius shrugged. “Before the great schism.”
“The great . . .” She abruptly pressed her fingers to her throbbing temples. “Never mind. I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.”
“For the truly powerful witches soul-bindings can be transferred from mother to daughter.” His glowing gaze flicked over her slender body, which felt far too exposed by the skimpy muscle shirt and stretchy pants. “An unbreakable chain.”
She forgot how to breathe as she accepted the only logical conclusion to his explanation.
“So my mother . . .”
“She was one of the heirs.”
A shrill, humorless laugh was wrung from her throat. She’d never been truly satisfied with her mother’s claim that she’d chosen to have a daughter to ensure her power base. After all, there was no guarantee that Sally would be born with enough magical abilities to be more than a drain on her resources. It was far more practical to take on an apprentice who was old enough to display the level of her talent and yet young enough to be molded into a loyal acolyte.
Now she understood.
Her mother needed a blood heir to pass on her duty.
“No wonder she was so anxious to have a daughter,” she muttered, wryly wondering when her mother had intended to tell her the truth.
Perhaps on that memorable sixteenth birthday?
What a grand irony that would be.
“Yes,” Gaius agreed.
“How many heirs are there?”
Gaius turned toward the gaping hole in the wall, his hatred toward the book pulsing through the air. Sally shivered, taking the opportunity to sneak a quick peek at the two silent vampires standing across the room.
The female remained impervious to her surroundings, but the male met her glance with a small nod of his head toward the door.
She frowned. What the hell did that mean?
That she was supposed to make a run for it?
That there were more enemies hidden outside?
That . . .
Her desperate thoughts were interrupted as Gaius abruptly turned back toward her.
“They began with thirteen,” he said as he answered her question. “The numbers varied over the centuries.”
“You kept track of them?”
He smiled with a cruel pleasure. “Most of them were kind enough to remain together in the same coven, so when the Dark Lord began to thin the barriers between dimensions I was able to nudge my children into getting rid of them.”
She knew. The minute he spoke the words she knew that he meant the coven that she’d seen so gruesomely murdered in the photo.
And he spoke of the massacre as if they were mere bugs being squashed.
Blessed goddess.
Her hand shifted to press against her stomach, trying to stifle the churning nausea.
“They were slaughtered,” she said in a raw voice.
The . . . Gaius-creature shook his head. “All but one.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “My mother.”
The strange glow in his eyes flared, but prepared for his anger, Sally was rattled when instead it was her own simmering anger and fear that was stoked higher.
As if Gaius was capable of draining the emotions from her.
“I couldn’t have known she had left the coven,” he complained. “But when the spell remained intact I realized there must be one left.”
She quivered, trying to regain control of her emotions. Now, more than ever, she needed a clear mind.
“Two left,” she absently corrected.
That horrifying smile returned. “No. Only one. Now.”
Profound shock gripped her, crushing any grief she might have felt.
She simply couldn’t accept a world without the woman who had given birth to her.
“You killed my mother?” she rasped.
“Gaius was kind enough to perform the deed on our way to his lair in Louisiana,” the creature murmured, speaking of Gaius as if he were a separate being.