Dominic's Nemesis (42 page)

The door just beyond them bulged out, rending
the air with a sharp popping noise.

“What is that?” The professor stumbled away
from the buckling wood, loosing his grip on two of the volumes.

“We
’
re out of time.” Cael
’
s pleading gaze alternated from Dominic to the
professor. “We have to get him out of there.”

“Who
’
s in there?” Greyson asked no one in
particular.

“Stephan. He has manifested the ability to
manipulate fire with his mind.”

“
Pyrokenesis.
” Greyson
’
s face lit up like a child at Christmastime as he
turned to eye the rending shards flaking off the doorjamb.
“Firestarters are extremely rare…and very volatile. Pyrokenesis is
one of several emotion-linked abilities. Emotion-linked abilities
are much less psychologically damaging and less draining. Most
pyrokinetics do not even—”

Dominic brought him up short.
“That
’
s all very
interesting, Professor Greyson, but how do we help him control
it?”

“Right, yes.” He redirected his attentions to
the remaining tome in his hands. “Well, it has been my observation
that the older a person is at manifestation, the more difficult the
ability is to direct. Well-adjusted adepts manifest at or even
before puberty. At what age would you say your bother Stephan
manifest?”

“Two and twenty.”

“Oh dear…I had not thought it so late as
that.” He dropped the volume he held and instead picked up one from
the floor, flipping through it. “Having met only one firestarter in
this lifetime, I must confess my knowledge is limited on the
subject. Let
’
s see,
according to the notes I made, he shouldn’t restrain the impulse.
In this case, it caused a dangerous build-up of pressure…to
explosive proportions. The key element to her control was balance.
She described it as ‘a boomerang cast at just the right angle so
that it returns to it
’
s
bearer with a neat catch’…if that makes any sense to you.”

“No,” Cael stepped nearer the chamber door.
“But, Stephan will probably know what you mean. Stephen! Can you
hear me?! Dom…”

“I
’
ll astral.” He did not wait for the inevitable
protest from Ethan.

The scene mimicked the one in the library the
day before. Both windows were reduced to charred holes with bits of
shattered glass strewn on the sill and beyond. The flames were no
longer confided to the ring imprisoning their mother, but engulfed
the room entirely. He couldn
’
t see what had become of Lillian, couldn
’
t see anything with the intense
heat crawling along his skin, burning his lashes and brows, drying
out his eyes. Only blind luck or perhaps Stephan
’
s quick instincts drew him to a
flame-retardant spot on the warm stone floor. He closed his eyes
against the heat, and breathed the dragon
’
s breath through his mouth to spare his
nasal passage a certain scorching.

“
Stephan,
don’
t fight it! Greyson says the more you restrain your
ability the more it slips beyond your control. Let go and it will
peak and snap back to you.” He swiveled this way and that, not sure
of his brother
’
s exact
location in the room. His voice grew more hoarse with each
syllable.

“
Stephan!
” A deep-throated cough mangled his next
words. He wondered if Stephan could even comprehend him.
“Don
’
t
fight…Can
’
t
yooo…
feel
…growing
wilder? Meant to be thrown…like fishing… reeled back in…”

A blinding flash of heat walloped him like a
boxer
’
s fist, knocking
him backward. His legs buckled as Dante
’
s inferno blazed around him, a teeming mob on the
verge of violence.

“Are you alright?” Cael asked, while the
twins hovered, Gideon shirtless.

Ethan answered for him. “He
’
s fine. The brows and lashes will grow
back.”

Stephan, bare-assed and sheepish, apologized
as he melted back into the darkness. “Sorry, Dom.”

He sat up to find himself covered with a
blanket atop the pianoforte in the music room. The moon beamed down
soft shadowy light, which partially illuminated the room in a broad
central circle, leaving the corners steeped in darkness. Greyson
stood on the opposite end of the pianoforte thumbing through one of
his volumes.

“Good, you
’
re awake.” The professor did not look up as he
spoke. “We
’
ll need the
six of you if this is going to work.”

“If
what
is going to work?” He
asked.

“The exorcism. We have to expel your mother
as soon as possible. Due to the nature of their ability,
necromantics are extremely vulnerable to possession…
and
unfortunately prone to suicide, but we
’
ll save that for later.”

“Necromantics?” His eyes sought Cael.

“Dominic…Eden is adept. Her gift has to do
with calling forth and communicating with disembodied spirits.”

“Our psychopathic mother
’
s, for instance.” Gideon injected a bit of
the macabre.

Greyson looked up from his journal. “Uh, no,
I don’t actually think it is that simple.” He explained. “The souls
of the departed are confined to either Heaven or Hell. The evil
that we are dealing with has to have a demonic component as well.
What I believe is that-”

“Now, isn’t really the ideal time to flesh
out your theory, is it?” Ethan looked askance, shifting his weight
from one foot to the other.

Gideon pinned Ethan with a wooden stare.
“Perhaps it’s more appropriately discussed next week, at the
celebratory dinner…or rather the funeral services, depending, of
course, on the outcome of tonight’s…
festivities
.”

Ethan winced. Cael exhaled a long-suffering
sigh. Greyson glanced from one brother to the other,
undecidedly.

“Gideon, please, don’t be flippant.” Gabriel
reproached his twin in a quiet beseeching tone. “A woman’s life is
at stake here.”

“Yes, and we could be helping her along to
the netherworld with this profane witchery. Tampering with her soul
is blasphemous.”

“Enough.” Dominic ended the discussion with
blunt authority that no one dared question. “I will decide what is
best. Cael?”

Cael ran his hand through frustration-mangled
hair, “Dom, if we don
’
t
evict Lillian and whatever demon spawn she is in league with…He,
she or
it
could permanently displace Eden
’s essence.”

Greyson concurred, “And you should know, the
process is fatal. Her body will die without its rightful soul.”

“How much time?”

“Exact stipulations are difficult to—”
Greyson began.

Dominic cut him off. “Cael, how long?”

“
We
don’
t know. It could be happening already.”

“Then what are we waiting for, Where is
Eden?”

Ethan pointed downward. “Beneath you on the
floor. Luckily, she fainted when the heat intensified.” He said,
then added guiltily. “I chloroformed her just to make sure; we
could not risk her coming to before we were ready.”

Gideon stood in silence, an unfathomable
expression masking his thoughts.

“The pianoforte will need to be moved.”
Gabriel, ever the practical twin, stated matter-of-factly.

“Allow me.” Dom blinked to the astral,
disintegrating the massive instrument the same way he
’
d dispensed with his
mother
’
s bindings.

“We could have moved it the normal way.”
Ethan chided when Dominic collapsed back on the empty circular
platform beside an unconscious Eden. “You
’
ll do her no good by pushing yourself to
the brink of exhaustion.”

“Don
’
t astral again.” Cael ordered with a hint of
foreboding. “We need you lucid and your ability in tact. Once she
comes to, it will take all of you to keep Lillian
’
s ability at bay long enough to exercise
her.”

A harried Greyson lay sprawled at the fringe
of the platform clutching his journal and eyeing Dom. “You might
have warned me.”

But Dominic
’
s mind was riveted to Eden. Her slim, be-robed
figure lay facedown, the mass of blonde hair skewing his view. Her
dainty arm once a clean and translucent pale reached out, limp and
dirtied with soot. He ached to hold her, comfort her, and confess
to her how much she meant to him. He
’
d never gotten the chance and now, perhaps he never
would.

Just then, his mind seized on her hair.
Blonde. “Her hair…” Maybe the exorcism wouldn
’
t be necessary. He turned pleading eyes on
the professor. “
Doesn
’
t
that mean she is normal again?”

“In my experience, uninvited guests do not
leave voluntarily.”

Dom
’
s face fell. “Tell me what to do to get her
back.”

Eden’s limp unconscious form lay upon the
center of the circular platform, with Ethan and Dominic kneeling
beside her. Gideon and Gabriel stood like sentries, each stationed
as points of a human triangle at the outer edge of the
platform…while Cael backed away from the third point. “It’ll have
to be Ethan or Stephan. I am not adept.”

Stephan spoke from a shadowy corner of the
room. “If Lillian breaks loose I have to be able to contain her. My
control is dubious at best; it will require my complete focus.
It
’
s the only way we
have of combating her mental abilities.”

“And we need Dr. Raine poised to attend to
any injuries that might arise.” Greyson explained. “Any one of us
might be in dire need of medical attention if anything…unexpected,
happens. I need hardly add that we’ve no idea what condition the
young lady will be in once we’ve evicted her uninvited guest.”

“Yes, I appreciate all that, but we may not
be able to evict Lillian at all unless she is surrounded by forces
as powerful as she…
adepts
.” Cael warned. “I would be a weak
link in the chain.”

“Not necessarily.” Greyson posed. “I have
done extensive research on heredity, insanity and adeptness. All
five of your siblings are adept which means more likely than not,
you are a strong latent. There is a school of thought that suggests
all
non-adepts are merely latents who have yet to manifest,
but that’s neither here nor there. For
our
purpose a strong
latent is a workable substitution for a manifest adept. It’s a
risk, yes, but a calculated one.”

Dominic forced himself to pull his gaze away
from Eden
’
s lifeless
form. He was half afraid she would fade away from him if he averted
his attention even for a moment. The fear was crippling almost. All
his will and his energies were focused on keeping her alive even as
he looked to his worried brother. “Cael, I suggest we trust him.
Like you said, we are out of our depth.”

“
Dominic?
” Gideon addressed his
brother, with a pointed look.

A charged silence hung between them, before
he answered. “I
know
, Gideon, but I have to try.”

“Hurry, she
’
s coming to.” Ethan rose.

Resigned, Cael ambled into position as the
third point in the triangle. Greyson nodded for the remaining three
to take their positions around the room. Stephan remained out of
sight, obscured in the murky depths of one of the corners, where he
could keep a watchful eye. Ethan stepped just outside the triangle,
off the platform. Greyson, too, stood just outside the circle, but
was a ways from the doctor. Dom positioned himself in the eye of
the triangle and carefully scooped Eden’s wan form into his arms.
The flowing silk of her hair tickling the skin of his chest and
shoulders where her head rested. He glanced down at the gentle moan
from her to see her eyes twitch beneath her lids.

“She’s coming to.”

“Start the verse.” Greyson directed
immediately.

And they did, but instead of the sinister
mumble of foreign syllables he had awoken to earlier, the four of
them, Dom, Cael and the twins, recited a clear and resonant
rendition of the twenty-third Psalms. Dom chose a scripture that
had always brought him peace. He prayed that it would provide a
powerful force of good, born of God’s Holy Spirit that would
protect and strengthen them as they fought to expel the evil spirit
threatening to devour his Eden.

Her lids fluttered open in the middle of the
second recitation. Dom willed himself to stay focused, continuing
to repeat the verse along with his brothers.

“
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death. I will fear no evil…”

For a moment, Dom relaxed as Eden’s warm
hazel eyes blinked back at him. He let his arm under her knee slide
down until her feet touched the floor. He kept both arms around her
to make certain she had the strength to stand on her own.

He broke off the recitation, as she stood by
herself, serene, blinking up at him, both of her pale slender hands
rested lightly on his bare chest. “Eden…”

“NO! Don’t stop. You must keep
repeating–”

Greyson never finished his sentence. In a
split second, the pupils of her eyes pooled outward, a spreading
blackness that engulfed the irises. Her lips curled back to reveal
teeth poised to bite. She unleashed a vampire’s hiss at the same
instant she clawed at his chest with hands that had just moments
before been almost caressing. Dominic stumbled backward at the
suddenness and strength of the attack.