Of Water and Madness (23 page)

“Damnit, Liam,” Blythe cursed, battling back the rage and emotion again as she turned away, unable to look at him. She stared dully at the stone wall in the hallway, knowing her next words would utterly destroy him. But he had to know, now that he was free from whatever had been controlling him. He had to know what he had done…

“What happened to me?” Liam ran a restless hand through his hair, panic beginning to set in. He didn’t like the look in Jax’s eyes, nor did he like the anguish in Blythe’s. God, what else had he done?

“I can’t believe you don’t remember any of it…” Blythe managed, leaning against the cool stone of the wall and resting her forehead against it, fighting to breathe. “You went to New Orleans when there was that oil spill, and you were gone for several hours. We were panicking, thinking you had gotten lost or hurt or worse…and so we came looking for you. We found you in some night club in the French Quarter, cozying up with some blonde…”

“No.” Anger sprang into Liam’s eyes then as he rounded on Blythe, not believing her. “You’re making that up.”

Blythe laughed, though the humor didn’t reach her eyes. “Honey, I couldn’t make this up even if I tried.”

“She’s telling the truth, Liam,” Jax added, continuing to lean against the doorframe, carefully removed from the vibrant emotions stirring the air around them. “I was there. We saw you sitting with the girl, your arms wrapped around her. You kissed her. We didn’t want to believe it, either, but the fact is it happened. And when we questioned you about her, you said that you had met her on the beach and that you weren’t happy with Rhiannon.”

Liam’s brows creased painfully as he fought to control the indignation building in his chest. “I don’t understand. I don’t remember any of this.”

“That’s probably because that bitch was controlling you somehow,” Blythe spat, shaking her head bitterly. “I knew you weren’t being yourself this whole time.”

“What else happened?” Liam managed, staring up at Jax when Blythe was silent.

“We brought you home and you broke it off with Rhiannon. Then you brought the girl to Euphora, and you paraded her around. You told all of us that you loved her. Shit, son, even at Capri and Rian’s wedding, you told Blythe you wanted to marry the girl. It’d only been a week since you’d met her.”

“Stella,” Liam said then, the name flashing in his mind once again, his eyes widening as he looked at both of them. “That was her name, wasn’t it?”

They both nodded, and he rubbed his face with his hands, scattered memories and clips of events flashing through his mind in quick succession.

Rohan’s angry face, accusing Liam of hurting his daughter. Dancing with Blythe, telling her about wanting to marry Stella. Watching Rhiannon while Capri and Rian waved goodbye in the meadow, thinking about how he loved her.

But the memories seemed so vague, so cloudy and distant, as if they hadn’t really happened. But they must have…

“I have to talk to Rhia,” he said then, his mind made up. Somehow he was going to have to explain to her that he wasn’t himself, and he could only hope it wasn’t too late…

“We don’t know where she is, she left without telling anyone,” Jax told him, ignoring the violent oath Liam cursed at him. “She doesn’t want to be found right now, but she’ll come back eventually.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing we can do about her right now.” Blythe decided, nodding at Liam. “Look, we need to figure out who the hell this Stella bitch is and how she was controlling you. We have to go to Thea.”

For a moment, Liam was silent, weighing all this new information in his head. Somehow, he’d been under someone else’s control for the last several days, and because of it he’d broken off his relationship with Rhiannon, causing her to leave Euphora for God knows how long. And who knew who else he hurt in one way or another. For all he knew, he could have killed someone and he would have no idea.

“God.” He rubbed his face in his hands, remorse and anger aching painfully in his chest. “I can’t believe this.”

Feeling horrible for him, Blythe reached out to pull him into a hug. “We’ll get everything straightened out, Liam. Don’t worry. Then things will go back to the way they should be.”

“She might not take me back,” he said then, his voice dark and miserable as he pulled away to stare at her.

She glared up at him, needing him to stay positive. “She will, Liam, because she loves you.” She started to pull away, to drag him down to wake up Thea, before turning back with one final thought. “And if she doesn’t take you back, then she’ll have to deal with me. And I promise you, I won’t be nice.”

Within the hour, they were gathered in the garden room, and for the first time in days Lucian had a genuine smile on his face.

“I knew it, boyo, I just knew it,” he managed, hugging his son tightly and shutting his eyes against the tears that had suddenly sprung in them.

“I’m sorry, dad,” Liam said as he pulled away, sincere regret in his eyes. “God, I don’t even remember…”

“Sit down, Liam,” Thea said, pointing to the armchair at his right. “Tell us what you do remember and we’ll start from there.”

He did as he was told, facing the others, feeling singled out. But, then again, there were a lot of unanswered questions and he was at the heart of them.

Jax, Blythe, Lucian, Sebastian and Thea all quietly watched him as he launched into his best account of what happened.

“I remember going down to the Gulf and standing on the shoreline. I tested the water, made some adjustments, and when I was about to leave there was this woman, standing in the sand, watching me. I remember smiling at her and she came up to talk to me. I thought that she was flirting with me so I tried to figure out how to get away so I could head home. But something stopped me, held me there…” He closed his eyes tight and rubbed his face, trying to remember. “I think it was her eyes. I looked her in the eyes and it was like I fell asleep or something.”

“You’re certain she used her eyes?” Thea asked, glancing at Sebastian uncomfortably before looking back at Liam.

“Yeah. God, I still have the image of her eyes in my head, it won’t go away…” He frowned, rubbing his forehead restlessly. “So what does that mean?”

“Liam, your friends have been doing research to try and figure out what has been happening to you, but unfortunately they weren’t able to turn up much,” Thea began, taking a steadying breath. “But I’ve given this some thought myself and with what you have just told me, I fear that my suspicion may have been the correct one.”

“And what’s that?” Liam asked nervously. “Was she some kind of demon or something?”

“No…that was our first thought, of course. But neither of you were possessed, so we had to rule it out.” Thea shot a quick look to Sebastian, who nodded encouragingly to her, urging her to continue. “I think Stella may be a Muse.”

Liam blinked as he and the others were stunned to silence. Thea let the weight of her words sink in as she sat back against the sofa, knowing that what they discussed next could drastically change everything.

“But…” Liam stammered, shaking his head. “I don’t understand. She’s so young…if she is a Muse, why isn’t she here, on Euphora?”

“That is what we need to determine,” Thea told him, looking around at the others. “I had discussed with Jax just yesterday about how I had felt there was something familiar about Stella, something I couldn’t quite place. And then with you saying that she used her eyes to get inside your mind…it’s one method the Muses sometimes use to influence and inspire others, though they find the touch of their hands equally effective.”

“So if she is a Muse, why did she do all of this to me?” Liam demanded to know, feeling frustrated. “I never did anything to her, I don’t think.”

“I don’t know what her motives were or even who she is. But we cannot rule out the possibility that she’s working with Dante.” Thea’s eyes flashed with righteous anger at the name, even as they focused on Liam and held, regret pushing aside the fury. “I owe you an apology, Liam. I was one of the few who believed, even though it was only with half my heart that your actions were your own. Perhaps I do not know you as well as your friends.” She nodded to Blythe, Jax and Lucian.

“It’s done now, Thea.” Liam let out a huff of breath, still in an odd state of shock. “I really just want to find out who this Stella girl is.”

“Thea, if I may…” Sebastian said suddenly, leaning forward slightly to clasp her hands in his own as he met her eyes. “Don’t you find it odd that this girl, if she is a Muse, was able to fully control Liam’s mind? That is not possible, even for the best and brightest of the Muses. They can influence, but they cannot control. I fear that we might be dealing with a Muse whose abilities have been altered or enhanced.”

Thea nodded, acknowledging his point. “That is surely possible. And…” she paused, a dark shadow passing over her face as her eyes widened with sudden understanding. She looked at Sebastian, not sure if it was even possible. But who else could it be… “Vivica.”

“Good Lord,” Sebastian murmured, the magnitude of the situation suddenly much darker than he could have imagined. “Could it be?”

“Who’s Vivica?” Blythe asked, nervously staring at both Sebastian and Thea. “Was she a Muse?”

“A long time ago,” Thea said evenly, regaining her composure and turning to face the others. At the confusion in their eyes, she elaborated. “A hundred or so years ago, Vivica was one of my three Muses. But as she grew older, she developed terrible habits that she refused to stop. She was inspiring war, fear and hatred amongst the humans, causing widespread devastation all across the globe. She created a World War and inspired good men to turn on each other. I have never before or since seen a Muse do such terrible things and I had hoped that after banishing her it would be done.”

“After all this time, surely she must be dead?” Lucian put in, not sure he understood their apprehension. “No one lives that long, except you two of course.”

“After I banished her, I had the Enforcers keep an eye on her, just to be sure she didn’t use her powers. And it seemed she was living amongst the humans peacefully without incident. Then we discovered that she had been violently killed in Mississippi, near the coastal border of Louisiana. I never did find out what had really happened, but the Enforcers who had been watching her had routinely mentioned her obsession with voodoo, which is an ancient kind of magic with humans in the region. It’s quite possible that she was killed during some kind of ritual, but not before opening herself up to something sinister. Possession is a common occurrence in voodoo ceremonies…it’s possible a demon came through and possessed her, frightening the other participants in the ceremony. They tried to destroy her, and when they did the demon simply took her back with him to the Underworld.”

“But then how did she come back?” Liam asked, dread sweeping over him.

“Someone may have released her, brought her back. But the key is what happened to her while she was down there. There is evil there that may have taken what was left of her and made her into something much more, in the hopes that one day she’d make it back to the surface.”

“Christ,” Jax cursed under his breath, covering his face in his hands. Just when he thought things couldn’t get much worse… “A hundred bucks says it was Dante who released her.”

“Why? So he could use her to use Liam to hurt Rhiannon’s feelings? Or so he could try and spy on all of us?” Blythe huffed, eyebrows raised skeptically.

Jax looked at her darkly. “I’d say that’s exactly what he wanted to do.”

Blythe gave his words more thought. “Okay, so he tells Stella, also known as Vivica, to control Liam so that she can get onto Euphora. Why doesn’t she do something once she’s here? We were suspicious, but we weren’t expecting her to attack us in our sleep. We could have all been dead.”

“Because she wasn’t sent here to kill us.” Jax’s eyes left hers and focused on Liam, who was watching him warily. “She was supposed to tear us apart. Until she showed up, we were all getting along pretty well, weren’t we? And now look at us.”

“He wanted her to use me to hurt Rhiannon,” Liam realized, pain clouding his eyes. “And by me doing so, my actions divided all of you. Dad…you and Rohan fought, didn’t you?”

Lucian self-consciously reached up to touch the bruises on his right eye, but he nodded solemnly. “We were understandably on two different sides. He wanted revenge for what you had done to Rhiannon and I had to protect you.”

“And Thea, you slapped me,” Liam suddenly remembered, his eyes shooting to Mother Earth, who flushed with shame.