Dominic's Nemesis (40 page)

“Very well, then.”

Dominic watched him take another leisurely
sip of brandy. “You don
’
t seem surprised.”

“You
’
ve shocked me so much of late until I have become
adept at not reacting.” He confessed with a half-smile.

Of late, he
’
d been surprising even himself. “I will need
several hours of rest first. Please awaken me at midnight.”

Tonight was the night she would free him of
his demons. Once the doctor and his red-haired harpy had given up
their bedside vigil, she
’
d been able to sneak down to the kitchens and
collect the last tool. It wasn
’
t a proper ceremonial dagger but it would have to
do. She was also forced to substitute a porridge bowl for a
chalice, mismatched dinner candles as incenses, pilfered ribbons
and cravats for binding cord, and a woolen dressing gown as the
ritual robe.

She crept into the darkened bedchamber draped
in the hooded dressing gown, using stray shafts of moonlight to
navigate. When she reached the bed on which he slumbered, knife
clutched in one hand, she crotched. As silent as a shadow, she
scurried about the floor drawing a pentagram with the bed as its
center. The bed
’
s
circular shape would enhance the ritual
’
s effectiveness. She would have liked to perform
the séance in the music room, with the added power of the full moon
beaming down from the skylight, the ceremonial circle set up where
the pianoforte stood. The space, its architecture, the raised
circle, the direct connection with celestial bodies all exuded
ambient energy.

“Soon, my love.”

When she was done, a flickering candle rested
at each of the five points in the pentagram. Binding him was
pointless, but for compliance with ritualistic tradition. Since she
had already deviated from protocol she decided to adhere to as many
of the sworn ways as possible. She waved a hand over his prone
form. The counterpane and the sheet beneath levitated off the bed
and floated noiselessly away. He squirmed under the chilly night
air, twisting himself up in his nightclothes. An arm reached out as
if seeking something but he did not awaken. She alit the bed,
levitated his right ankle just enough to encircle it with a strip
of cloth…likewise his left wrist, which hung off the edge. The
circular bed was without posts so she connected each ankle with the
opposite wrist by a connecting strip that crisscrossed his
back.

She concocted a potion in the
‘chalice
’
and placed it
in the approximate center of the bed. His nose twitched, followed
by a muffled grunt. The smoke emanating from the candles and the
concoction
’
s sharp aroma
threatened to rouse him. If she delayed any longer she
’
d waste her advantage, and she
meant to keep the upper hand long enough to accomplish her goal.
She flipped the hood of the dressing gown over her head and
arranged herself so that she levitated, seated Indian-style, over
the exact center of the circle within the pentagram.

She began the harmonious vocalization, a
string of mystical prayers and phrases murmured over and over,
specifically to raise and channel psychic and spiritual energies
alike. The power she would need to trap the spirit inside the body
long enough to cast out the demon inside him once and for all. Her
voice deep and throaty and touched with the fervor of madness rose
with the power of the incantation, climbing ominously towards its
zenith. Almost there. The power surged within and with it she shook
off the last remnants of the sniveling one. She had complete
physical and mental control over her conduit…her old abilities were
not just restored but magnified. Doubled, no tripled, and still
growing.

* * *

Dominic awakened to a chill crawling along
his skin. Odd. It had been years since he
’
d had a nightmare. He shook his head to
clear away the dream
’
s
thrall. His recent trip to Italy and the business with Gabriel had
trudged up more than just memories. He could almost hear the
humming in his ear from the…wait, not humming, chanting and this
time it was no dream. Someone was chanting. But who would be in his
room besides…

“Eden?”

Blinking and disoriented, he tried to turn
but found his hands and feet were bound together. When he tugged
with wrist or ankle he was at war with the other and doing so only
served to tighten the cords holding him. The droning above him
continued in a deep accented voice. He recognized the invocation as
one the Witch used on him years ago. There was something in the
air, a heavy scent that reeked of candles …or perhaps incense. He
caught sight of a lit taper on the floor at the point of a triangle
and a second one a yard or so away. A pentagram. Panic arose.

“Who is there?!” His voice trembled.

“Don
’
t worry my darling, it will be over soon.” A
woman
’
s voice,
familiar.

His breathing grew rapid and shallow as the
horrors of his childhood swallowed him.

He longed to wipe his eyes. They were
beginning to water and burned. The chanting started up again. He
had to get a
’
hold of
himself, his fears, push them aside long enough to free himself and
deal with the woman. Logic dictated it must be Eden, probably in
the thrall of another of her visions…or at the mercy of some unseen
force. Panicky, he flashed into the astral, disintegrating the
bonds at his wrists and ankles. Nothing but souls survived a trip
to the astral realm.

Trepidation beat at his brow like the heat of
midday. The essence nearest to his was not Eden
’
s. The second essence he had noticed
before had grown considerably. It eclipsed Eden, reducing her to a
mere appendage…not unlike the anomaly he
’
d observed in the twins. Trepidation
turned to fear. The dominating essence was a monstrous thing,
opaque and foreboding; with a flurry of crazed colors and distorted
spheres that continuously elongated until they tore in two and
converged on other disquieting globules. It was an essence he
hadn
’
t seen in years,
one he
’
d recognize
anywhere, his worse nightmare…
come true.

Dominic returned to the corporal world, face
up on the bed with a woman hovering mid-air over his chest like a
djinni from Scheherazade
’
s thousand and one nights. He just did make out her
features in the eerie flicker of light.

“Mama?”

The chanting ceased. She shrieked and hissed
away from his visage, flying backward in a nimble maneuver to land
in a defensive stance. The hood of the dressing gown slipped from
her head. Her raven-hair and night eyes were much the same as he
remembered. The telltale streak of white-blond at her temple and
the tiny hazel flecks embedded in her irises, the only proof that
the body she inhabited was not her own. Stephan had been right.
Eden was possessed by something evil.

“There is no escape this time. I will send
you to hell where you belong!”

She lunged forward. He caught the silver
glint of a blade as she sliced it towards him. Pinned to the bed by
an invisible force, he did the only thing he could…he astraled. But
that was as far as he got. She must have erected a psychic barrier
of some sort. He could not travel beyond a certain distance, the
outer edge of the pentagram
’
s points his suspected.

The one thing she was never able to do in her
lifetime was capture him after the onset of his astraling ability.
She must have grown stronger in death…or perhaps she was using some
unrealized talent of Eden
’
s, which would explain why his mother had chosen to
possess her. Or, perhaps, it had nothing to do with Eden at all,
maybe she just needed someone close to him, who had access to his
person, someone he trusted, someone he loved…

In either case, she
’
d trapped him. He couldn
’
t move about on the astral to warn his
brothers or to escape. Neither could he reappear on the corporal or
she would maim him with the blade. She
’
d dipped it in poison, no doubt. He supposed he
could try to overpower her, a ludicrous idea given her telekinetic
abilities. He abandoned the thought. Perhaps if he shimmered
directly behind her and caught her by surprise… The problem was,
shimmering wasn
’
t that
precise. He had no way to discern which direction she faced from
the featureless canvas of the astral. She could be constantly
shifting her position, anticipating such a move. No, that would
never do.

He was safe for now, but he
’
d have to come up with a viable plan soon.
He couldn’t remain on the astral too long; what would become of
Eden in the meantime? Having her essence displaced by his
mother
’
s did not bode
well for her continued health he suspected. Then, there was Cael to
consider. One of his brothers would come to check on him soon.
Stephan could handle himself if necessary. Ethan, though no match
for Lillian, at least had self-healing capability. But Cael was
defenseless against a psychic threat.

Cael! As if the very thought of him conjured
his essence, Dominic noticed that his most vulnerable brother
approached them. Dom had anticipated having more time to
strategize, although he supposed several hours could have passed in
the waking world. Hell and damnation! He
’
d have to shimmer in to warn him. With any
luck maybe Lillian would be more willing to take a stab at him
rather than Cael.

He waited until he saw a simultaneous shift
in emotion of both Cael and his mother
’
s essence, predicting that to be the exact moment
that his brother entered the room and the one took notice of the
other. He shimmered, landing on his feet beside the bed, behind and
to the right of where Lillian hovered.

“Run, Cael! She will immobilize you with her
mind. It
’
s useless to
combat her.”

The younger man appeared not to hear him. His
amber gaze fixed on the woman above the bed.

“Cael, are you listening to me? I cannot move
beyond the chalk outline even on the astral plane. If you can still
move, leave now before she—”

“Michael, my precious little love.” She
called to him in a sweet voice, cream put out to bait a kitten.
“Don
’
t be frightened.
It
’
s mama. Come to
me.”

“Mama…” Cael took a step forward, horror and
disbelief streaked across his face. He turned to Dominic, confused.
“
Dom, I
don’
t…
understand.
”

For the first time since their childhood,
Cael seemed to desperately need him. A memory hit him square in the
face of a white blond Cael, two years old staring up at him
teary-eyed after scraping his knee, a similar expression on his
face. It was a humbling experience.

“
Michael
…Mama needs your help.”

“Cael! Don
’
t you
dare
!” Dominic spat. “Turn around and
get the hell out of here.”

Dom would have ripped off his nightclothes to
remind him of exactly the sort of monster Lillian was, but she had
frozen him again. Cael, however, appeared in complete control of
his movement. He couldn
’
t understand it. Why didn
’
t she simply seize him with her mind?
Unless…she wasn’t able to. Perhaps by confining him to the inside
of the pentagram, she
’
d
confined herself as well.

“Remember what she did to me, Cael.”

He could only watch and hope as his brother
shook himself and stumbled backward. “Dom, astral out of there.
She
’
s got a knife!”

“I cannot astral beyond the pentagram.” Yes,
that had to be it, he thought. By limiting him she limited herself
as well. “
I don’
t think
her ability extends outside it either, otherwise you
’
d already be at her mercy.

She laughed, a brittle humorless sound. “Very
well then, I
’
ll have to
save him myself.”

Dom felt a ghastly sharp pain in his right
eye before she allowed him to collapse out of her control onto the
floor. The triangular tip of the knife cracked the delicate bones
of his eye-socket. He screamed in agony as his vision died in that
eye, tasting the blood that ran down the side of his face and over
his lips.

“DOM!” Cael started for him.

“Don
’
t. You
cannot
help
me.
”

Cael halted at his words. “Tell me what to do
then.”

The blade dislodged a short distance
preparing to strike again. His mother hadn
’
t moved from her position.

“Find…Grey…son.” He shimmered back to the
astral, narrowing escaping a second jab. The stabbing pain
magnified to nightmarish intensity, skewing his mind into a silent
scream. Eons pasted before his thoughts could coalesce and block
out the agony. When he was able to bear it with some level of
finesse, the first thing he noticed was Cael once again
approaching…with Stephan and Ethan in tow. Bloody Hell, what did
they aim to do? Cael and Stephan didn
’
t realize what they were up against, but dammit
Ethan should know better!

He could not let her hurt them. He shimmered
in but did not uncloak himself. The haze of pain cleared, and his
thoughts sharpened. Invisibility would make him a more difficult
target. She might get in a few good jabs, but if she
couldn
’
t locate him she
wouldn
’
t be able to
immobilize him again. Anything to keep her focus away from his
brothers.