Spell Cat by Tara Lain Page 0,66
in which humans are the enemies of witches.”
“Of course they are. The burnings, the tribunals—”
“Mother, I’ve told you. Few, if any, witches were ever killed in those trials. The humans killed one another. And it was hundreds of years ago. Have you never thought that if enough humans and witches intermarry, soon all the world will be witches? Witches will have nothing to fear, because we’ll be the dominant species.”
She stared at him. “No, I haven’t thought of such a thing.” She frowned. “Do you truly believe we could make that much of an impact?”
“You’ve all told us that humans are practically irresistible to us witches. Sounds like a lot of sex to me. And since witch females get pregnant easily by human males, and most human females just get pregnant easily, it seems inevitable.”
Evangeline smiled. He could practically see her imagining the hordes of mixed-blood witches she would control and manipulate. She looked at him with narrowed eyes. “You believe that this mating could be reliable? It would invariably produce stronger offspring?”
Oh yeah. She had world domination in her sights. “I believe the power varies just as it does in all witches, but yes. From what I’ve learned so far, it could be reliable.”
She turned to the others. “Killian has a point. If mating with a human produces more powerful offspring—reliably—then we could populate the world in a few generations.”
Mimi Merced leaned forward at the table. “Evangeline, you know there are only one or two of these examples. A couple of offspring that got stronger”—she flicked her fingers toward Jimmy—“do not prove anything.”
Evangeline looked at the floor and then up at Mimi. “True, one or two examples is not enough.”
Killian stepped closer. “I have many more—”
His mother held up her hand. “I believe I have the most convincing example of all.” She looked at him, then at the other council members. What was she weighing? She took a breath, held it for a second, then spoke in a ringing tone. “Killian is half-human.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Son of a bitch. Literally. Stunned. The council went nuts.
“What do you mean?”
“How can this be?”
Jimmy’s smile split his face.
Killian felt like he’d been shot.
Evangeline walked toward him. “I fell in love with a human when I still lived in England. I believed, as we’d been taught, that I was surrendering my powers to him, but I didn’t care. As I lived with him, however, I discovered he was not all I believed him to be. He was weak, sensitive, vulnerable. Just what we had been taught about humans. He died quite unexpectedly, and shortly after, I discovered I was pregnant. I also realized that my powers were not compromised. Quite the contrary. I was a uniquely powerful witch. So I came to New York and joined the community as a widow.” Her gaze swept the council members, who stared enrapt.
“When Killian was born and I began to see how powerful he was, I thought I had produced a miracle child. I claimed I had selected a Master Witch as Killian’s father in order to produce a superior offspring. It was a lie, but I couldn’t let them discriminate against us.” She turned to Killian. “You were half-human, and they would have hated that. You know the rest.” She sat in a chair and sighed but kept speaking.
“For a while I thought Killian was one of a kind. Then I met one or two others like this part-witch.” She nodded toward Jimmy. “Eventually I was invited to join the council and then learned that what we had all been taught was a myth. Council after council had perpetuated the fiction that humans deplete witches, in an effort to keep us isolated and pure, out of a fear that humans would overrun us. I believed it to be true. I knew humans were bad for us. I had loved my human, and he died. Humans are so fragile compared to us. It didn’t make sense that we should produce children with them. And besides”—she looked up at Killian—“Killian is so odd. Homosexual, human-loving, wanting to work. And he doesn’t even appreciate his power. I decided it was a human thing.”
She rose and walked a few feet toward the door, then turned. “But now I suppose there’s nothing to be done. I know my son, and he will never agree to join us in protecting the race as we have done. After all, he is half-human. So I suppose we should make the best of it.”
Mimi Merced looked