Author: Raven Steele
Category: Vampires
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/raven-steele/page,20,544734-the_devil_a_paranormal_vampire_romance_novel_devil_series_book_4.html
I bent down and picked up the necklace. It was cool to the touch, the blood inside back to being frozen. Red ice crystals spread across the glassy surface. I concentrated on it. The power was still there, just dormant. It had probably taken a toll on Erebus to do what he had done, which meant he could be weakened.
"We can do this," I said and lifted my head. "We just need a little time."
I pocketed the necklace and walked over to Llona and Liam. "How's she doing?"
"Weak." He didn't look at me as he continued to press a cloth to her head.
"I can help a little. It's the least I can do."
I placed my hand on her forehead and gasped at how hot it was. I met Liam's worried gaze. I couldn't give her light, but I could heal her wound.
I pointed at the cut on her head. "Can I see it?"
Liam lifted the blood-soaked cloth. The wound was wide and deep. I glanced around the room, wondering what she cut it on, but couldn't see anything that might've caused it.
"How did this happen?" I asked Llona, but her eyes were glazed over. She moved her lips like she wanted to answer but nothing came out.
"It just split open," May answered, her voice higher than usual. "I saw the whole thing. One minute light was shooting from her hands, then next blood was pouring from her head."
I shivered and sucked in a quick breath. Liam visibly tensed and balled his hands into tight fists. We were lucky no one was killed.
I placed my hand over the wound and summoned magic. The warm tingling sensation began in my toes and spread throughout my body until it left my fingertips and onto Llona's wound. Slowly, it began to heal.
I glanced back at Henry. "Is it possible that Erebus could harm her like this?"
"We don't know what he's capable of," Henry answered. "He has more power than we were equipped to handle. We must be more careful going forward."
"If there is a next time," May mumbled.
I returned my focus back to Llona, trying hard to keep my hand from shaking. Henry was right. We weren't prepared. Not even close. If Erebus could affect us at this distance, then we needed to be much, much stronger.
It wasn't long before Llona's wound closed together. Liam continued to attend to her, while I came to my feet. Lucien stared up at me, all brow and furrow. I didn't have to look into his mind to know what he was thinking. It was written all over his face. We were in over our heads.
My hand slid to the necklace in my pocket. Alarica had used it to find a way to the First magic. If she could do it, then so could I. It was the best plan I could come up with.
"I need to consult with Dr. Han," Henry said. "And study more. Maybe there's something we missed."
"Hurry," Lucien said. "We can't stay here long."
"Of course." Henry disappeared.
I turned around as Llona sat up. Liam held her hand tightly.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
He laughed, a tired sound. "Thanks to you. I've never felt anything like that before."
She looked at May, then Lucien and I, and gave a small smile. "Well, we survived."
"Um, just barely," May piped in. "You guys get that this is insane, right? We're like ants going up against an anteater. Don't get me wrong. I can't wait to explode some shit, but I'm not stupid. We can't beat this devil!"
"We can," Lucien said, surprising me.
"How?" Liam asked.
"Did you see the necklace? It's frozen again, like we weakened him. If we knew where he was, this would be the perfect time to attack him."
"But we don't." Liam's voice was hard. "The next time we face him, he will have regained his strength."
Lucien stood firm. "Then we weaken him again."
May walked over to Llona and eyed her up and down. "Why Llona?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Out of everyone in this room, he chose to hurt her. Why?"
Liam's eyebrows rose. "That's a good question. Maybe if Llona had more time, she could've destroyed the necklace with Light."
"That's a good theory." I met Llona's eyes. "But if that's true then you could be in more danger than any of us. Maybe it would be best if you stayed at Lucent instead of going with us."
She wrinkled her nose. "No way. I'm pissed now. We're going to find a way to kill this devil and send him back to Hell. If he's afraid of me, there's a reason. We need to exploit that."
"Can I speak to you alone?" Liam said to her, his voice hard.
Llona hesitated briefly before walking out the door with him, leaving May alone with Lucien and I.
"So we haven't officially met," May said to me. "I know we already know who each other is, but, well, hi."
"I've heard great things about you."
"I could say the same of you." She glanced at Lucien. "As for this guy, he's pretty badass. I would be dead if it wasn't for him."
I glanced at Lucien gratefully. "He is amazing."
He averted his gaze and cleared his throat. "This is where you practice, May?"
"I used to, but now I train a couple of younger Furies that recently joined Lucent. There's not many of us so we take care of our own."
"Would it be too much to ask for a demonstration?" I asked. "I've never seen a Fury in action."
She shrugged. "Why not? We could use a little entertainment." She stepped in front of us. "Step back."
May positioned her feet as if she was getting ready to fight. She sucked in air through puckered lips, her chest expanding. On her exhale she shoved her hands forward. Fire exploded outward in a steady stream that lit up the wall over thirty feet away. Flames spread across it, reaching both sides.
"Remarkable," Lucien whispered.
After a few seconds, May dropped her hands.
"That is so cool!" My face was still warm from the fire.
May turned around, smiling ear to ear. "It's nice to have a fresh audience. Everyone around here is sick of seeing it. So who's hungry? I'm starving."
I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten. "I'll join you."
"We have blood for you, big guy," May said to Lucien.
"I would be most grateful."
"So formal," May said, grinning again. She looped her arm through mine and pulled me along. "Let's go. You might have to be my new best friend now that Llona is officially with Liam."
She continued talking to me the rest of the way out of Risen Auditorium. I glanced over my shoulder helplessly at Lucien, who smiled back. I enjoyed May. In a way, she reminded me of Liane, back when we used to be close. Too bad Liane was a total sociopath now. The others had told me all about what she had done. May had been the most animated, swearing vengeance upon her. Understandable, seeing how Liane had tortured her.
With snacks in hand, we returned to Dr. Han’s office to discuss what to do. We all agreed that Erebus needed to die, but we couldn't agree on how or where to do it. I decided to withdraw myself from the conversation, as there was something more important I had to do.
I leaned over to Lucien, and said quietly, "I'm going to take a quick nap."
He narrowed his eyes. "Are you all right?"
"Tired. Thirty minutes, and I should be as good as new."
I snuck away to the darkest corner of the room and curled up on a plush chair, my back to the group. From within my pocket, I withdrew the necklace and held it close to my chest. My heart pounded, practically beating against my ribcage. I took a breath to try and relax. If I wasn't careful, Lucien might notice, and I didn't think he would approve of what I was about to do, and rightly so.
Deliberately seeking out darkness was never a good idea.
Chapter 6
The blood in the glass orb warmed to my touch but didn't boil like last time. It just sloshed back and forth as if it were its own miniature ocean. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. I needed to find its source of power.
Nothing happened. I groaned and cupped it harder. I could feel its power, but it felt locked to me whenever I tried to access it.
Behind me
, I heard Lucien say to the group, "We need to entice Erebus to come to us."
This got me thinking. The necklace wouldn't let me probe it, but I already knew it liked to control. Maybe I needed to let it in to me. Not full strength, of course. I would never put this cursed thing on me again, but maybe I could trick it.
I concentrated again, but this time, instead of trying to burrow my way into it, I opened my mind. I imagined a tunnel growing between us, a two-way connection. Immediately, I sensed the power in the orb shift, like a curious dog sniffing at a buried bone. I waited patiently, keeping my mind open.
After some time, a jolt of energy rushed through me. It startled me, and I nearly fell off my chair. I quickly righted myself before anyone noticed. Whatever had just happened had left a dark imprint on my mind. It was a horrible feeling, sort of like when a pebble gets stuck in your shoe and every time you step down, you can feel it jabbing your foot. It took a lot of will power not to scrub my mind of it, but I had a distinct feeling that is exactly what the necklace wanted me to do.
It was testing me.
I waited longer. Soon, more energy approached, this time slower. It touched my mind gingerly as if afraid of being swatted away. That's what I wanted to do to it, desperately. I didn't like the freezing cold it left in its wake. It made it difficult to think.
While the dark tendril of power slithered through my mind, I called upon my own magic, careful not to rush it, but I needed it to balance the darkness slowly invading my mind. Whatever entity this was, it wasn't threatening me yet. It just seemed to want to explore. So that's what I let it do, but while it played, I slipped my consciousness past it and gave a gentle push into the necklace.
At first it was difficult to discern where I was. All around me was a heavy mist, smelling like recently fallen rain. In the distance, a crack of lightning lit up the fog, but I still couldn't see.
There was a feeling in this place, not necessarily dark, but different. I had a hard time placing it until it reminded me of the first time I had seen the ocean. I was standing on coastal cliffs overlooking a massive, never-ending body of water. The dark blue stretched on and on, making me no more significant than a grain of sand. That was the first time I realized how tiny my existence was.
I felt the same way right now. This place was much larger than me, bigger than time itself.
Something shifted in the air, an energy that hadn't been there before. I turned in all directions searching for the source. Lightning cracked again, giving me a small window of what lay beyond the fog. In the distance, a pillar of light shot up from the ground. It could be the First magic, but I was too far away to know for sure.
I headed in that direction, but it grew dark once again. Having Llona's Light would've been helpful to use as a guide, but all I had was the occasional flash of lightning. Wind blew, twisting my hair in all directions. I rubbed at my arms to keep warm.
As I drew closer, it became increasingly difficult to walk. The ground turned mushy but not with mud. It was almost as if the ground was disappearing, and every time I took a step, my foot would sink into the shimmering, weakened earth. I focused harder, concentrating on Genesis. I even said a short spell, which gave me added strength. The ground firmed up again, making it easier to move, but it wasn't long before I started to sink again.
It was a long and laborious process, repeating the same cycle, but I didn't give up. I was getting much closer to the column of light.
As I approached, some of the fog lifted. That's when I saw what looked like a well. Dark stones set in a circular pattern rose up about four feet. Bright light illuminated its center, sending a beam straight into the sky. The power of the well was incredibly strong, like nothing I had ever felt before. But it was familiar. I had tasted a small sliver of it when Llona's Light had connected to it earlier that day.
Back in my own mind, a sharp pain tore through my head, and I flinched, nearly falling over again. I needed to hurry.
I reached the well and circled around it, afraid to draw closer. There was just so much power in such a small area that I was afraid it would overwhelm me. So much of it bled outward. I felt like laughing and crying all at the same time. There were so many layers to it, and I had the distinct impression that I was just scratching the surface.
In a flash that took my breath away, words came to my mind in the ancient language. I translated what I could, but they came too fast: creation, life, death, love, sorrow. I couldn't keep up.
I tried to strengthen my magic, but another pain, like an ice pick scraping against my brain, nearly paralyzed me. I reached forward to touch the light, thinking that if I could, I would feel better. And, as that thought progressed, I realized I would be able to do more than that, a lot more in fact. Being near this light, made me realize that very little could harm me. If I could only touch it …
I reached toward it, pressing through some kind of invisible barrier, but my hand began to sting, then burn. I increased my own power to give me added strength. Just as I did, a roaring sound filled the air as if a train was barreling down on me. Pain exploded inside my head, and I felt myself tumbling through a great and empty space.
I continued to fall, agony crippling my body. The darkness became a tunnel with a small light at the end. A second later, my consciousness tumbled from the glass orb, and I fell from the chair I had been sitting on. My eyes flew open, and I gasped for breath. I clutched my head immediately, the pain so severe I thought I might throw up.
"What happened?" a voice asked, deep and commanding.
I squinted up from the floor toward bright ceiling lights. Lucien was kneeling next to me. The others stood behind him, watching me over his shoulder. I quickly pushed myself up to a sitting position, trying hard not to grimace. The necklace fell from my lap.
Lucien picked it up. The blood inside was back to boiling. "What were you doing?"
"Nothing, I…" I couldn't think. I pushed past him and scrambled across the floor until I reached the garbage bin. Everything I had eaten earlier came up fast and hard. What I wouldn't give to be alone right now.
"Here," Llona said and handed me a cloth.
I used it to wipe my mouth, then sat back, taking a deep breath. The pain in my head slowly subsided.
"Let me see the necklace," Henry said.
Lucien handed it over.
Henry examined it for a few seconds then looked up at me. "You tried to access its power, didn't you?"
My face grew hot. "It's not what you think."
I took hold of the nearby desk and used it to help me stand. Lucien helped me the rest of the way. I glanced at each of them. Llona looked at me curiously, but Liam stood next to her, his eyes practically burning right through me. May sat on the couch with her arms folded. She smirked as if she had just caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. Henry was expressionless, but Dr. Han was smiling. He knew exactly what I had been trying to do.
"We aren’t enough," I said, realizing the truth in that moment. Erebus didn't just have ancient magic; he held magic from another realm.
"What do you mean?" Lucien asked.
"We don't have enough power to beat Erebus. Whatever plan you came up with will fail." My gaze settled on Henry, the one I thought would understand the most. "We need more power, and I think I can get it."
"Through the necklace?" Lucien said, his voice louder than usual. "Fuck that!"
"I won't put it on," I assured, "but I need to find a way to access its power. Alarica found a way to do it. She was going to kill Boaz and Erebus with it."
"Is this true?" Henry asked.
I nodded. "I remember all of her thoughts, the ones she had in our dimension anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean?" May asked.
"There are times in my memory, or really Alarica's, where she was just gone, like she never existed at all. But moments before, she would be concentrating on the necklace. Somehow she had learned to channel its power. I believe she found the First magic."
"First
magic?" Liam asked. His posture had relaxed, but he still looked angry. The emotion must always be on the surface for him. I wondered how difficult it was for him to feel peace.
"Let me explain," Dr. Han said. Everyone looked at him as he told them about the First magic and how if someone could access it, they could defeat Erebus—in any plane of existence.
"If Alarica had this power, then why didn't she use it?" Lucien asked. His whole body was tense, and I could tell he wasn't happy with my idea. I didn't think he would be, but I wouldn’t keep anything from him ever again. I owed him that and so much more.
"Maybe she hadn't figured out how to use it yet," I said.
Henry placed the necklace onto the desk. "It's an interesting idea."
Lucien growled. "It is not an interesting idea. It's a horrible one. There's no telling what will happen if you continue to do this. It's extremely dangerous, and I won't have it."
I lowered my voice and reached for him. "I was close, Lucien."
"Close to what?" He stepped back, his face pained. "This necklace nearly killed you. It made you kill other people, which in turn made you leave me." He snapped his jaw closed and tilted his head a little like he thought he had said too much.
I gaped at him. His hurt went much deeper than I had realized.
"Do you think you can access it again?" Liam asked.
Lucien whirled on him. "This is not an option. We'll find another way." He glanced at Henry. "Right?"
Henry said nothing for several seconds, then, "We will proceed with the plan as is."
I wasn't sure what this plan was as my consciousness hadn't been around when they were discussing the plan.
Lucien exhaled.
"But," Henry continued, "we need Eve to keep practicing in case we fail."
Lucien's jaw flexed, and he puffed air out his nose as he looked at each of us. "This is absurd."
I reached for him again, but he turned on his heel and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
I hesitated for a fraction of a second before I took off after him. If only I could reason with him … I threw open the door. He should've been at the end of the hall, but it was empty. I hurried to the elevator. A breeze ruffled my hair and cooled the back of my neck. I turned back around and followed the small gust of wind. It led me to an open window within a darkened office.